It's Snow Time!

We had a white Christmas here. How wonderful is that? It was especially wonderful because I have two kids who think snow is the greatest thing since the discovery of sand. But in essence, it is better than sand. Why you ask? Because like sand, you can dig, throw, scoop, shape, roll in and make a mess with it. But unlike sand, you apparently can eat it without the discomfort of pooping it out later. Okay, okay. Too much information, right? But, no. I do not necessarily approve of snow eating (for the most part). Fresh snow: okay. Three day old snow that every squirrel in the neighborhood has peed on: not okay. But, nevertheless, snow time was a blast for the kiddos. They had so much fun playing outside even though it was in limited bursts of time. The second time we went out, the snow was actually the perfect consistency for a snowman. I really haven't made an actual snowman in quite a while. But I decided that seeing as how Josh has been gone and couldn't be outside to join us in the snowy goodness, I'd build a Snow Josh. AKA, Snow Dad. At his job, he is required to wear a hard hat (thank goodness) so lucky for me, I just happened to have a handy dandy toy hard hat to make our Snow Dad complete. I just figured that if I couldn't have a man around the house then I might as well make one. Unfortunately, within minutes of creating my perfect snowman, the kids promptly saw to it to destroy him. Sorry Josh. Kids. What are ya gonna do? But after many snow angels, snowballs, snow in the face, snow eating and snowman building...it was time to go in for a nice cup of hot (soy) cocoa. I will say that I never really thought much of snow the last decade or so. Now with kids, I really do think it's pretty awesome stuff.

Monkeys

Just thought I'd share a fun video with you all. But I suppose I should address a couple of things about the video before you watch it. You will understand my points when you watch it.

1. Yes. I let my kids jump on the couch. They get bored and the house is small. I'm okay with it. Besides, it's become impossible to stop them.

2. No. I no longer own shirts that are not stretched out on the bottom. I can thank Abby for that.

3. Yes. I encourage the monkey-like behavior that they tend to portray. Of course...I truly believe that it's sort of an unstoppable trait they both have.

4. Abby is usually joining in the insanity when she's not hanging off my shirt or sucking her thumb.

5. Yes. My couches always look like that.

Christmas

Another Christmas has already come and gone. And I say it every year, but I can't believe another year is almost over. This Christmas was wonderful. I will say that having children during the holidays makes things infinitely better. This year, Alex is old enough to mildly understand the concept of Santa Claus. He woke up on Christmas morning and saw the glorious gifts staring back at him under the twinkling of the lights and said, "Mom, Santa came!" It was wonderful. The smile on the kiddo's faces was my best Christmas gift ever. I know now why my parents sacrificed so much during the holidays just to give us a nice Christmas. But of course, it's not all about the gifts. As per tradition, we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus before tearing into the presents. It was so much fun and I know that it just gets better every year. It really is my favorite holiday. I love getting presents for the kids in the family and making all sorts of tasty treats to give away to family and friends. But I must admit that I am ready for a break. It's time to return to normalcy. And with that note, you should know that the Christmas tree was gone mere hours after waking up on the 26th. I'd had one full month of tearing Alex and Abby off of the tree and pulling ornaments out of Abby's mouth. Actually we had quite a few ornament casualties this year and some of them were due to partial digestion (Abby). Yuck. Anyhow, I know that I am late in getting up my Christmas photos, but I was busy enjoying the rare moments of having a husband around for a day.

We exchanged gifts with Mandy and her wee ones a couple of days before Christmas and they had a blast with the first gifts of the season. And yes, that is a cat butt in the picture. Christmas is the cats' favorite holiday too. They love the trash part of it. Boxes, paper and string, oh my!

This is Alex and Abby going bananas when I told them it was time to open presents.

Alex loved going through his stocking. He pulled one thing out at a time with joy.

Abby mostly just dumped the whole stocking on the floor without even thinking about the element of surprise. But as you can see by the look on her face, she was pretty excited about everything in it. Those are stickers. Santa knows what the kids like.

Josh's parents gave him a Patriots calendar. That would be his favorite football team.

Alex got a Woody doll to match his Buzz Lightyear that I found at a garage sale. He was very happy.

Abby's favorite was her tea set. She can't get enough of this toy. She plays with it nearly every day, serving me tea and cake whenever she can.

This is my favorite picture by far. I giggle every time I see it. Abby got a pink bunny with a pink baby backpack carrier and a pink purse. Guess who uses it now? Yup...that's my little man! And yes, that is a Wiggles shirt he is wearing.

And just for fun, I threw in a picture of the kiddos Christmas ornaments for this year. I couldn't really afford the arm and leg it costs to buy fun ornaments that the kids might actually have a connection to so I Suzy Homemaker-ed a couple of them up. Seeing as how they are avid Wiggles fans, I wanted to make them Wiggles ornaments. $1.00 later, and lots of random arts and crafts from around the house, I have these. They say: Alexander's Wiggly Christmas and Abigail's Wiggly Christmas.

So it was wonderful and I look forward to it again next year. For now I'm just glad that the kids have new things to do to keep them busy during the long winter ahead. And where am I in the photos you might ask? Yes...I have zero photos that involve me. Mama Monkey is the photographer. Oh well...maybe next time. I hope you all had as wonderful of a Christmas as we did!

Funday Sunday - Pumpkin Pie, Dairy Free!

Could it be? Is it really possible that there is a way to make pumpkin pie without milk in it? Why yes. Yes it is. I figure, in spirit of the holiday, I will post a holiday recipe. Okay, so you can get a pumpkin pie recipe just about anywhere on the internet, right? Well, it's true. I mean, all you have to do is google it and bingo! There's a pumpkin pie recipe lookin' back at ya!. Shoot, you can even get it off the side of a can of pumpkin. But if you have a milk allergy, nearly every recipe you find will include one key ingredient: evaporated milk. It's sorta necessary for the pie to work. There's no such thing as canned evaporated soy milk. So after some research, I found that you can, in fact make evaporated soy milk. Without further ado, I give you Pumpkin Pie, Dairy Free!

Pumpkin Pie, Dairy Free!

2 Eggs: beaten
1 1/2 c. Pumpkin
3/4 c. Sugar
1/2 t. Salt
1 t. Cinnamon
1/2 t. Ginger
1/4 t. Cloves
4 1/3 c. Plain soy milk*
1 Uncooked pie crust

The first thing you will want to do is evaporate your soy milk. This is a very long process because you have to evaporate the soy milk down by 50%. A normal pumpkin pie takes 1 & 2/3 cups of regular evaporated milk (1 can) and in order to get soy milk (which is extremely low fat) to work in an evaporated form, you have to start with twice the amount you need. The purpose of evaporated milk is to have the fatty part of the milk which is why soy milk doesn't work well in puddings and pies. Pour your milk into a saucepan and simmer it down over a medium-low heat. I will warn you that it takes at least an hour to evaporate it to 50%. Stir continuously so that you prevent scorching or boiling over. I use a wooden spoon to stir.** Once you have your evaporated milk, let it cool in the fridge so that it is at least warm and not boiling hot. Mix the eggs, pumpkin, sugar and salt together in a large bowl. Add the cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Finally, add the evaporated soy milk and mix it all well. Pour it in the uncooked pie shell and bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour (the soy milk can increase the cook time from what I've experienced so that is why I say up to an hour.) The pie is done, when you can insert a knife into the middle and it comes out clean. The pie will look slightly darker than your traditional pumpkin pie but tastes identical!

*I've never used vanilla soy milk on this because I think it might not cook down the same as plain. Sugars can do weird things when they get heated. **Tip: You can use the handle of the wooden spoon to keep track of your evaporated milk process. Before turning on the heat, dip the handle into the milk to measure depth and mark that spot with your fingernail/knife on the spoon. Make a mark at the halfway point on the spoon and every so often, just dip the handle into the milk and see how close you are to the 50% point.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope that everyone has a wonderful Christmas. We got the joy of a white Christmas this year. Actually, I'll be digging my way out of our three foot snow drifts that have graced us by accumulating right behind my van. Go figure. We get to go eat a delicious turkey dinner at my mom and dad's house in a few hours. The kids are happily playing...or rather fighting over...their Christmas loot. But let's not forget the reason for the season. Happy birthday Jesus! I hope you all have a blessed Christmas this year.

~ Love from the Little Monkeys

Ink a Bink, a Face Full of Ink

Today was a new experience for me. Seeing as how Josh is gone...always gone...my days are longer. But at a certain point in the evening, I can't seem to find enough time to finish the many things that must be done around here. It all starts with dinner and ends with me suffering from back pain as I run amok through the house while I finish the last chores of the day. (Where's a good chiropractor when you need one? Eh, Ben?) Anyhow, in order to progress in the slightest bit towards the end of the evening, I have come to rely on ulterior forms of entertainment. The Wiggles only go so far, so lately I've been giving Alex and Abby different items to entertain themselves while I vacuum. Tonight, I gave them paper and pens. Now, now. Don't judge me for giving them pens at such a young age. They were early Christmas presents that I gave them. They are little pads of paper on a Santa clipboard that comes with a tiny ink pen. Cute and made for kiddos. Okay, so maybe not made for a 20 month old, but she doesn't seem to understand that she isn't as old as Alex. So...she got one too. To say the least, it worked. Oh, they were entertained alright. Only, not exactly as how I planned. They decided that the paper wasn't interesting enough and decided to have a pen battle. This is new for me. Usually, when they get bored, they simply draw on themselves instead of each other. But could they just stick to the routine? No. Of course not. I looked over to see them whacking each other across the face (whilst laughing, mind you) with the pens. And I don't mean just mere drawing on one another. They actually caused red welts to develop over their entire faces. One mark was actually a few centimeters from an eyeball! What I don't understand is how there were no tears shed in this little battle of ink. I mean, the welts were huge! And everywhere! *sigh* Needless to say, they no longer possess those pens and I officially won the "Idiot mom move of the year' award.

Who Dunnit?

I present to you the classic 'who dunnit' scenario. Two suspects and only one guilty party. Judging purely from the photographs, it is very difficult to say which of the two suspected characters could be responsible for the damage done. Here I have Exhibit A:


Clearly you can see that damage has been done. I, being the detective in this situation, decided to clean up the mess so as not to give the suspect reason to return and finish the damage. As you can clearly see, the toilet paper has been unraveled and shredded beyond use and recognition. In a house of two kids and five cats, the possibilities are endless. The first to return to the scene is seen in Exhibit B:

Due to lack of declawing, it is apparent that suspect "Penny" was possibly returning to the scene to further the damage to the poor unsuspecting roll of toilet paper. But upon investigating, a second suspect returned to the scene of the crime. See Exhibit C:

Due to the age and pure nature of the above suspect, it was even more clear to me that there was indeed a very good chance that suspect "Abby" was also fully capable of rendering a perfectly good roll of toilet paper unusable. After interrogating the suspects, the crime was solved. Let us see who was responsible for the toilet paper's ultimate demise...

Case solved.