NO STOPPING HIM NOW....
The last day or so Noah has been pulling himself up on everything. He is still pretty wobbly, but it is so cute to see.

Renee's Kitchen:

Brandon came home the other day talking about needing to have a nutritious, quick to eat, balanced snack food that he could take with him to help get him through the school day. His sister, Jennelea, who is a Physician's Assistant and registered dietitian, suggested that he look for a recipe for "Breakfast Cookies" on Food Network. So, last night I found the recipe there and made up a batch. They were fast, easy and go great with coffee. The idea is basically a small, balanced meal in a cookie. You can put a lot of different things in them, but you need simple sugars, complex carbohydrates, protein, and fat. Some examples of things to put in them are: dried cranberries, white raisins, walnuts or pecans, ground up flex seed, wheat germ or chocolate chips. The next batch I make I'm going to add a 1/4 cup of peanut butter. I am also keeping them in the freezer to keep them fresh. The link to the recipe is above. Let me know if you try them out or have other suggestions:)

A Few more sweet pictures of our new baby.....

Random Pictures.....
From last week. We decided to go and visit Grandma & Grandpa Marting in Iowa last week. The kids had a wonderful time. Unfortunately Brandon had to stay home because of school. We had a nice time and I even got to bring back about 20 packages of frozen corn, which was a huge blessing. Corn is one of those vegetables that always tastes better when frozen yourself.

Gabriel ate plenty of corn and a whole pint of yellow raspberries. These are two things that Anna will not even touch. It's crazy to see the differences in the kinds of food my two older children will eat. I can almost always expect Gabe to like something and for Anna to not even want to touch it and vice versa. Anna loves meat and Gabriel will not even touch it. He will sometimes eat salami or bacon, but that is it.

Grandma Marting also had a wonderful time with smiley Noah, who was such a good little guy on our trip. Also I think Noah is going to be my good little eater. He is already eating foods that the other two did not like at his age. I have asked the Lord that I need to have one child who will eat anything and everything. So far Noah is doing very well:)

Gabe fixing the doll house.....

He got this little drill last year for Christmas and has been having so much fun with it. I think more toy power tools will be on the list for Christmas this year.

New Puppy.....

Here is our new little beagle puppy. She is 4 1/2 weeks old and Brandon came up with the name Charlie, which we all love. The kids love her especially Anna who is old enough to help out with feeding, watering, and taking Charlie out to go potty. We are all looking forward to getting to know this little puppy and training her to be a good little girl. I think the pup will help keep the kids busy and they will have a nice new friend to play with in the back yard as she grows up.

Busy Week.....

Sorry for the lack of post this week. We decided last minute on Tuesday to go and visit Grandma & Grandpa in Iowa. We got back yesterday late afternoon. It was a very nice visit with family & friends. We also brought back a new addition to the family. I'll post some pictures very soon. Hope you all had a wonderful week:)

Renee's Kitchen
Since Fall is just around the corner I wanted to post this awesome pumkin pie recipe. I actually just made this recipe just the other day and Brandon loved it. If you like pumkin pie you will like this new little twist. Enjoy and let me know if you try it out:)

Streusel Pumpkin Pie

1 can (15 ounces) solid pack pumpkin
1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 allspice
1/4 tsp. ground cloves

Blend all together and pour into one big pie dish or it will make two small pumpkin pies. Preheat oven to 425 degrees and bake pies for 15 mins. In the meantime mix up the crumb topping.

Streusel Topping:
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 Tb flour
1 Tb melted butter

Mix up well and sprinkle on the of the pumpkin pies after 15 mins. Then reduce oven to 350 degrees and continue baking 40 to 50 minutes or until filling is set and knife inserted near center comes out clean.

Eat & Enjoy:)

New Clothes Line.....
I decided to put up a clothes line to help cut down on how much I use my drier. Our drier runs on gas and so I am hoping to cut our gas bill in half. I should of thought about doing this earlier in the summer. So what I did was put up some shelving brackets and then Brandon bought some PVC pipe for me to use as my rod. It has been working very well.

Noah Ray......
He is getting to be such a big boy. He is sitting up well and crawling all over the place. He is also eating rice cereal, oatmeal, applesauce and carrots. He also has been trying to pull himself up on things and before we know it he will be walking. He is such a fast learner and so sweet.

Rocks & Water.......
Anna & Gabe were having a good time making smoothies out of rocks and water. It was fun to watch, but it sure did turn into a big mess. I can't complain to much since it kept them busy for well over an hour, which was wonderful.

Brandon's First Day of Clinical......
Here are the scrubs he will be wearing for the next couple of years during clinicals. This will take a bit to get use to, but I am excited for him.

Busy Busy.....
Did a week go by already??? It has been a busy week and we also had several days with our internet not working. Brandon had orientation for school yesterday and we also repainted our living room. Then today Brandon shampooed the inside of the car that we need to get sold and shampooed the carpet on our stairs, which was looking pretty dirty.

I've also been canning tomato fixing for chili, freezing a lot of broccoli for the last month or so and then I purchased some corn today so I can freeze some packages for this winter. I love stocking my freeze with home grown veggies. I also have lots of shredded zucchini, chopped rhubarb, and frozen squash. I have to say not to bad for living in town.

Brandon starts class next Wednesday, so we will be getting use to a new schedule. It sure has been nice having the hubby around in the morning to enjoy coffee with and the kids have been liking it too. Well I will post some pictures this next week of Brandon in his scrubs. Have a wonderful Lord's day.

Teeth.....
I should of said teeth because Brandon notice at church today that both the bottom two teeth are coming in. Ouch! He is still doing pretty well even though it has to hurt. I tried some of that Orajel and he didn't like it at all. I don't think I will try it again. It's suppose to be berry flavor, but he gave me the worst look.

We had a great day today. After church we went to Borders, so I could get my free drink that I had coming to me. The kids also were very good while there. They both got a little cup of whip cream, which they loved. It's bonus for Brandon and I also because then they are not bothering us for sips from our drink. Anna enjoyed looking at several different books and found a really nice Cinderella book that had 600 stickers in it. She just loves stickers:)

Hope you all had a wonderful days!

Last Day......
Today is Brandon's last day driving & delivering soda for Dr. Pepper/7-Up. It has been a very long and hard summer. He is looking forward to starting his first semester of Nursing School at UW of Madison on Sept. 2.

Noah's First Tooth.......
Well it's official that Noah has his first little tooth coming in on the bottom. There will definitively be no more biting on my fingers any more because it's a little painful now. I kind of figured that was the reason he had such a high temperature last week and also has been very fussy for the past week or so. I also took him in yesterday to get his 6 month shots that he had to skip last week because of the temperature. Poor little guy:( He took the shots fairly well, but I sure didn't enjoy watching them. Anna and Gabe were excited because they both got a sticker & sucker for being so good. Lucky kids:)

Finally Fixed....
At the beginning of last summer our neighbors gave us this Radio Flyer tricycle. The only probably with it was when you peddled it there was no movement. It ended up being a very simple fix. We took it to a small home town shop with a welder and now it works great. The kids are very happy as you can see. Anna has been riding it as much as she can and Gabe has been enjoying the ride. I would love to have him be able to ride the bike, but he just can not figured out how to get the peddles moving in the right direction.

Early Garage Sale Find.....
Anna got a super cute Leap Frog show called, "The Letter factory" last year for Christmas. Then earlier this summer I can across the My First Leap Frog Pad and 3 books & cartridges to go with it for $2.50. Then I got the Leap Frog Reader Pad with I suppose 8 or 9 books and cartridges and backpack for $10. Both are super great deals.

Well today I found this Leap Frog Globe. I had no idea that they made them and I almost missed it. Luckily I looked back over all the tables and saw it. I thought to myself this will really come in handy when I start homeschooling. You will never guess the price?????? 25 cents.... I could hardly believe that is all they wanted for it. The kids were also pretty excited about it.

Renee's Kitchen

This is a recipe that I got from Brandon's sister several years back and I love it so much. I have to say French toast is probably one of my favorite items for breakfast with bacon as a close first as well. I also like to use French or Italian bread, which makes the best french toast, but you can use bread if that's what you have on hand. Enjoy and let me know if you try it out:)

French Toast Mix

3 eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnomen
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup flour

Combine all the ingredients as listed and beat well.

Noah at 6 1/2 months old......

He had his 6 month check up today and he now weighs 18 lbs 6 oz. He has been running a fever the last couple of days, so we had to hold off on his shots. I will have to take him in sometime next week. As you can see from the pictures he is getting pretty mobile. He does a good job of sitting up and getting himself across the floor. He is such a sweet little guy:)

Garage Sale Find.....

We have been wanting to get a sandbox for the kids, but in order to get a nice size one you would have to order it on line, so we have just held off. Well I stopped at a garage sale last weekend and was able to pick up this turtle sandbox for $5.00. What a deal:) It's a little bigger and heavier then the ones I saw for sale this year at Shopko. So now the sand can stay dry and the kids can have fun in the sand!

Few Jars of Pickles.....
Today I made a few jars of sliced dill pickles. I don't usually make pickles because Brandon is pretty picky about his pickles, but I thought I could make some sliced dill pickles to put on our burgers. I guess we will know in a couple months how they turned out. Pickles need a few months to flavor through. Does anyone have a dill pickle recipe that they really love?

Awesome Preaching......

We have been attending Madison Baptist Church for almost a year now. It's hard to believe how time flies. The church family there is very nice and the teaching and preaching is awesome. Pastor Weiss gives very challenging, convicting, and encouraging messages. I would encourage anyone who has some time to stop by the Madison Baptist's Sermon Audio Page and listen to some of his message. I know that your heart would be blessed and challenged.

Renee's Kitchen

Does anyone have lots of zucchini laying around like me or bags of it frozen in the freezer? I came across a super yummy brownie recipe that uses 2 cups of shredded zucchini. These are very moist, chocolaty and hard to leave a lone.

Zucchini Brownies

1 1/2 c. of sugar
1 egg
1/2 c. oil
2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 pinch baking powder
1/3 c. cocoa
2 c. zucchini
2 c. flour
1/2 c. chopped nuts (optional)

Mix up ingredients in the order they are listed. Then pour into a greased 9x13 pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30 mins.

Enjoy:)

Getting Across the Floor....

Well Noah can get himself across the floor now. If he sees something that he thinks he really wants he will scoot himself across the floor like a caterpillar. It's super cute! It will not be to long before he will be all over the place and I will not be able to keep up with him. Wow it's hard to believe my little baby is getting so big. I am planning on calling today to get Noah his 6 month appointment, since he has been 6 months now for a couple of weeks. I let you know later what the little guy's measurements are here soon.