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MTM - No Theme

This week for Muffin Tin Monday, there was no theme.  I just threw some stuff together, and used a couple teddy bear things I had to make it look a little more interesting.

1.  Rice Krispie bar strips aka Bootiful Cake (only in the tin because C helped make them yesterday)

2.  Smoked Turkey on teddy bear picks

3. Blueberries

4.  Crackers

5.  Colby Jack cheese bears (C said the bears are playing ring around the rosy)

6.  Blueberry yogurt with sprinkles

I find it pretty cute that most of my pictures of the MTMs have a little finger sneaking in for a taste.  

Boy do these girls look a wreck!  I can tell their Daddy was tired today by the way they look, he didn't really catch much of a nap yesterday afternoon.  

Since E doesn't care for baby food purees anymore, she just eats what we all eat.  I would start putting hers in a muffin tin too, but that thing would be on the floor so fast!  Soon enough, I'm sure!

Both girls ate almost all.  C finished off her crackers later.  C also decided that the teddy bear picks made a better spoon than her actual spoon.  

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Christmas 2010

We had a great Christmas. 

We spent the weekend before Christmas with my side of our family, since it requires a 3 hour drive each way.  It was so great to see the girls playing with their cousins.  The last few times we have been able to spend time together, the kids have gotten very GOOD at playing together. 

 I must say, the most adorable thing I have seen in a long time is two 2.5 year old kids having a conversation.  (C and cousin L were born exactly 2 weeks apart)

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day around home, we went to Andy's Aunt and Uncle's house for dinner on Christmas Eve. 

We spend a lovely morning at home on Christmas day, opening our gifts (and Santa gifts!), had a nice little breakfast, and let E take her nap before we headed to Andy's parents house. 

Here are the girls after opening up all the gifts at home:

 C's favorite gift was her Precious Places Swan Princess Castle and Accessories.

E's favorite gift was the apple out of her stocking and a balloon (go figure!).

It was pretty wild over at my in-law's because there were 19 people there!  We all managed to have a good time, aside from the dining room table not being *quite* big enough any more.  There were also three babies celebrating a first Christmas, which was pretty special.  The above picture shows E with three of her cousins, the twins and older cousin A-trying to do damage control with her gifts :) 

For some reason C was feeling a bit overwhelmed and wanted to sit right next to me during the gift opening.  Here she is under a pile of gifts, ready to open!

Next year I am going to make it a point that we do something special to celebrate the REAL reason for the season.  I want to make sure the girls understand that Christmas isn't all about presents and Santa, and cookies (although those parts are fun!).  

I have a couple ideas:

·     Make a birthday cake for Jesus.

·     Teach about the Advent leading up to Christmas (and make it a priority to attend church services from Thanksgiving-Christmas, including Christmas Eve).

·     Get and set up a nativity scene, and read related scriptures with the girls.

Does anyone have any other good ideas to help me teach the girls about CHRISTmas?

 

Worries

Today the hubs called me at work to let me know that he had given the girls some cottage cheese at lunch, and had just given E a bunch on her placemat.  So she kind of got it all over the place when eating it.  He said that everywhere the cottage cheese touched her skin, she got hives.  She has had cottage cheese a few times before with no noticeable reaction (spoon fed).  

A couple weeks ago while the girls were having lunch, E got a hold of C's glass of milk and spilled it all over herself.  The same thing happened where every place the milk touched she got hives.  These hives last about an hour and then go away.  

I put a call in to our pediatrician to see if we should get her tested for a milk allergy.  

I have heard a lot of kids have the allergies to milk, and grow out of it by the time they get a bit older. Hopefully that is the case if she does have the allergy.  

 

 

MTM-Holiday

This is our last of a great month of Holiday themed muffin tin meals.  

I had very little ambition today for this meal.  I guess I was kind of running low on ideas (and energy). We had been up to my parents house for our Christmas gathering, and E really didn't sleep much, so I think I got about 2 hours of sleep on Saturday.  This is on the heels of E having the flu all last week, so she also didn't sleep much last week.  And then last night, she was up in the middle of the night, crying for over an hour(except when I went in and rocked her).  She has been starting this thing of crying every time I put her down in her bed.  I hope this is a short phase. 

So anyway, I am exhausted today.  We are also in the middle of yet another snowstorm.  That itself isn't so bad, but thanks to some old guy pulling out in front of me on my way home, I was rear-ended.  Luckily, there was no damage to either car, although my neck/back are a bit sore.  

Thus, our muffin tin for today is not all that exciting.  I had an idea to do a theme of C's favorite Christmas carol, Baby it's Cold Outside.  But with all that has been going on, I kind of just threw a few things together.  

C loves watching this clip of Glee with the song:

 

She watches it over and over and then sings it while dancing around the house.  It is pretty cute.

1.  But maybe just half a drink more (half glass of chocolate milk)

2. Your eyes are like starlight now (cheese star)

3.  Christmas trees-pretzels and spritz (winging it/bad day....)

4. Never such a blizzard before (blueberries dipped in sugar)

5. Waves upon the tropical shore (beachy rice pudding with graham cracker crumbled on top)

6. Listen to the fireplace roar (green bean logs for the fire)

She wasn't too into the rice pudding.  She did take a few bites though.  When I was cleaning up, I noticed that I accidently bought sugar free pudding.  Which may have been why she didn't like it, and I am actually glad she didn't eat it because we try not to give artificial sweeteners.  

 Check out more fun Holiday themed Muffin tins over here:

MTM

It is Monday, which means Muffin Tin Monday at our house.  We are continuing on our Holiday themes this week.  

I almost skipped it this week, because after the whole "Snowmageddon" or "Snow my God" or whatever you want to call it, we are all a bit tired around our house.   That is a lot of shoveling!  Yikes.  

But I had talked to Cora about it last night and she was so excited, I figured I had better not skip.

Andy and I had talked about getting How the Grinch Stole Christmas so I picked that it up today and used that for our theme.

1.  Christmas tree - honeydew melon

2.  Grinch's sleigh loaded with presents (graham cracker sled with candy cane runners and cheese cubes)

3.  Max the dog(jelly bread, pretzel antler)

4.  Cindy Lou Who (christmas cookie)

5.  Sled

6.  Grinch (cracker with cream cheese.  I used food coloring to make it green, and made his face with some sprinkles and stuff)

This tin had quite a bit of sweets involved.  I let her eat one of the candy canes and put the other one away for a different time.  

Usually C just gobbles up bread with jelly, but she had jelly toast for breakfast and 2 pieces yesterday, so maybe she is on jelly overload.

Of course she went straight for the candy cane sleigh!

She did great!  

E ate some honeydew, jelly bread, cheese bits and some carrots.  

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MTM

It is Muffin Tin Monday at our house!  The whole month of December, the theme is "Holidays".  

My favorite Christmas story has always been The Night Before Christmas, I remember when my brother and sister and I were kids, our parents used to read the story to us.  We would shut off all the lights, and by the light of the Christmas tree, listen to the story in our jammies, and all seemed so magical.  

I was excited to share this story with the girls, so I decided to do a Night Before Christmas Muffin Tin.

1. Christmas Tree (sugar cookie) with grapes underneath

2. Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

3. Stockings (apples) were hung by the chimney with care

4. That shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly. (Jello with fruit)

5. I knew in a moment, it must be St. Nick. (Jelly sandwich with cheese beard, fruit leather hat, marshmallow, chocolate chip facial features)

6. A bundle of toys he had flung on his back. (mini brownie with fruit by the foot ribbon)

I read them the book while they ate, and C asked for me to read it twice more after the first time. 

E ate some cheese, apple, jello and some apple cinnamon oatmeal for her dinner.  

Success!  She even ate some of the sandwich, and she never eats sandwiches.

We had a lovely evening, enjoying our muffin tin. We had Auntie Wya and Uncle Fred stop over for a visit and I think we had a breakthrough.  C gave Freddy a hug and said he's a nice boy.  She has always been terrified of him.  

I also sold my elliptical machine this evening, I listed it on craigslist a couple weeks ago and it sold!  Yippee, extra cash over the holidays!

MTM-a little late

We have been on vacation this week, the girls and I spent a few days and the weekend at my parents house, and the Hubs took a little time to himself and went hunting at his cabin.  We were at my parents on Monday, and did a lunchtime muffin tin meal.  

There is no official theme this week, but since we were going to be getting a Christmas tree and decorating it when we got home, I decided to make a Christmas Tree muffin tin.

I thought she could decorate the tree with the ornaments.

1.  Watermelon and Cantaloupe "ornaments"

2.  Christmas tree made out of Lefse over the middle column, underneath is cottage cheese

3.  Muenster Cheese "ornaments"

4.  Watermelon and cantaloupe stars (cut freehand so they look a little wacky)

5.  Lefse tree on top, sweet potatoes underneath.

6.  Blueberry "ornaments"

C did a little decorating, and a lot of eating

She ate all the fruit and cheese, a little of the lefse, most of the cottage cheese, but didn't like the sweet potatoes.  In fact she gagged when she tried them.  But at least she tried them.  It must have been a texture thing.  

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