Grandparent Update

This is a quick growth update for all the inquiring grandparents :)

Sarah Genevieve- In this last month since Sarah turned 2 she has grown a full inch! And all of it in her legs. She still has her long back like her daddy but her legs are catching up quick. She now wears a 3T top, 2T bottoms and size 7 shoes. (Grammy-guess who wore the Easter dress...NOT Sarah, but it fit Cecily like a glove!)

Cecily- Also hit a major growth spurt, and I mean MAJOR! One week she was still in 6-9 month clothes and the next 18 months!!! She wore size 12 month for all of about a day :) Nana helped Ceci into summer clothes because last summer Sarah was in a smaller size. She wears size 4 shoes but prefers to be bare foot if she has the choice. Still no more hair, poor bald baby :)

These girls are growing up too fast!

Technical Difficulties

Dang it! I just discovered AFTER taking a ton of videos of the girls that I have to either wipe my ipod completely and restore the settings so it will work with Windows on my mom's laptop, or I keep the settings for Mac in hopes that one day I'll get another MacBook. AHH!!! Sophie's Choice or what?

For now I think I'll keep the videos stored on my ipod the way is and pray that it doesn't give up the ghost before I can get another computer...

BUT...Cecily is crawling!!! (finally) and it's so dang cute but I can't post the video :( She went from army crawling for a month to real crawling now, not just a few feet but all over the house...and she's starting to get up on her feet, amazing! She went from nothing to almost walking (she can, behind her push toy thing). She just decided she was ready :) She's 9 1/2 months so we'll see if she is an early walker like her mom!

That's right folks, your eyes do not deceive!

We are SWIMMING in Henderson!!!

A beautiful 79 degrees today :)

9 months today!

Our sweet Cecily is 9 months old today! I can't believe how fast time flies! I call her my angel baby because she's just that, a little angel. Owen and I truly know Heavenly Father knows us far better than we can ever understand because with the crazy year we've had, only Cecily could have kept up from becoming totally insane. I tend to think that sometimes she gets a bit over looked just because she is so content and so mellow, and Sarah certainly keeps us on our toes. But now that life is stabilizing a bit more, Cecily is blossoming into a curious and opinionated little girl. She knows funny. Just like Sarah. I don't know where these girls get it from but Cecily is funny and knows how to get us to laugh and keep us laughing. She is SO ticklish (like her mom) and she has the most infectious laugh.

Cecily....

has the most beautiful red hair, but no more of it than she had the day she was born!!

says her r's, s's, m's and d's (dada, mama! more dada's than mama though)

has 6 teeth!

is a great sleeper, which we are totally thankful for

loves big people food

is 28 inches long (70%)

weighs 22.6 pounds (93%) although still wears 6-9 month clothes...she's solid, not rolly polly

can get around like a champ! but not really crawling yet. she rolls, pivots and scoots everywhere! (3/5 update-now she is crawling!)

loves, loves, loves her sister and wants to play with her desperately, Sarah still isn't sure how to play with a baby and not end up annoying her...

We love you baby girl and are so thankful you are a part of our family!

Best Banana Bread Recipe Ever

I have written what I think is the best recipe for banana bread. We LOVE banana bread but if you haven't looked up the nutritional info lately...its full of bad carbs and fat! So, I have come up with a super healthy yet amazingly yummy recipe and I wanted to share it. It takes a bit more effort to make (a few more steps/odd ingredients) but its worth the work! The texture is lighter than traditional banana bread, so it also doesn't sink to the bottom of your stomach like a rock :)

Stacey's Banana Bread

1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup ground quinoa (quinoa is a small grain, high in protein, grind it up in your blender)
1 cup oat flour (I grind dry uncooked oatmeal in the blender)
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup agave (to replace traditional sugar, agave is a nectar and twice as sweet as sugar so you can use less, we use agave on/in everything, great on pancakes, you can even get it now organic at Costco, also it's lower on the gylcemic index so it doesn't spike your blood sugar levels)
2 finely chopped dates (optional, adds sweetness and chewy texture)
3 eggs
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup applesauce or pear puree (canned pears work great if you don't have applesauce on hand)
1 tsp vanilla
4 very ripe bananas mushed with a fork

mix the wet and dry separate, then mix together just until it comes together, then pour in 2 loaf pans (spray with Pam)

350 degrees for 45 minutes