On Toddler Hairstyles

My little girl, as I've stated many times before, is a bundle full of energy. She is so active!
Another little-known fact about her is that she inherited my not-so-great genes of really fine hair, so since... well... forever, we've kept it short. Her hair has always been above her shoulders. Believe me, I would love Princess to have long hair, but its just not in the cards right now. The problem with short hair for active, energetic girls though is that it is always in her face! Ugh! It drives me bonkers! My older sister has a daughter that is the same age, but her hair always looks so perfect. I swear, my sis is like the toddler hair whisperer! All she has to do is touch her daughter's hair and its put perfectly in place and stays there all day. So since I'm not a hair genius like her, I've come up with a few staple hair-do's for Princess that are wonderful for her... And the nice thing is that all short hair styles also work for long hair... fancy that!

The Classic clip-back look

Side pony variation(she calls this her Rapunzel hair) We make this one a messy bun sometimes instead of a braid.

The 'French Twist'

Twist-under pony

Graduated Pony

That's about it! We pretty much stick to those 5 hairdo's. I can almost stick her hair in a pony or pigtails, but it comes out so easily, its just much easier to have most her hair down.

What about you? Do you have any staple hairdo's for your kiddos?

On Vegan Eating

I've gotten a lot of questions since my resolution post about my goal of eating 5 vegan meals a week. I am by no means a vegan... not even a vegetarian! Eating 5 vegan meals a week is just a way for me to help myself eat more fruits and vegetables; something I am REALLY bad at. I watched this documentary once that I can't remember the name of that really drove home the point to me that its incredibly important to eat raw, organic, whole, natural foods. Since then, and a lot of research later, I've really tried to incorporate more of that into mine and my family's diet.
SO, here are some of my staple vegan meals:
Green smoothies or just regular fruit smoothies- made with juice instead of my regular yogurt
Salads with vinaigrette and nuts instead of creamy dressings
Veggie wraps- one of my favorites! I sautee sweet onion, red or green peppers, beans and mushrooms in sesame seed oil... delish!
Soups- the possibilities are endless!
If you think about it, there are LOTS of foods that can be made vegan, so I've tried to do that; nut butter toast, apples with nut butter, veggies on rice, veggies on noodles, fruit bowls, etc.

In our family we try to have a meatless dinner every Monday, which has helped us find yummy alternitaves to our usual meaty dishes. Its been a fun adventure!
Just to be clear, my reasoning behind eating a more plant-based diet is not founded by my belief system or any 'save-the-animals' motives. I simply want to eat healthier and save money doing it!

What about you? Have you ever eaten Vegan? What are your thoughts or reservations?

One More Sauce to Die For- Sandwich Sauce

Around here we love sandwiches. Like, LOVE them.
With homemade bread, there's almost nothing better. So when I found this recipe for a tasty sandwich sauce I couldn't resist. After all, I am a sucker for scrumptious sauces! ;)

Honey Mustard Sandwich Sauce

Here's what you'll need:

1 cup mayonaise

1/3 cup yellow mustard

1/4 cup honey

2 tsp balsamic vinegar

1 Tbsp sugar

Mix all ingredients together, funnel into a squeeze bottle. Enjoy!

 

(sometimes I add other fun flavors to this base: pepper, dill, beau monde, etc.) MMM MMM MMM! So tasty!

To-Die-For Chocolate Sauce

I am only able to make this chocolate sauce a couple times a year because I just eat it too fast and its just too good...

To-Die-For Chocolate Sauce

1 1/2 Cups chocolate chips (I use milk or dark, but great with semi-sweet also)
1/2 Cup butter (the real stuff)
1 1/3 Cups sugar
10 oz. evaporated milk

In a small heavy saucepan, melt the butter and chocolate over medium heat. Add the sugar and gradually pour in evaporated milk. Bring mixture to a boil; reduce heat. Boil gently over low heat for about 8 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Serve warm over ice cream.
You can cover a chill any leftovers for up to a week.

Ta dah! Just don't blame me if you get addicted. :)

On Resolutions

Well, its already half-way through January... have you been keeping your New Year's Resolutions?
I really enjoy making new resolutions each year, but rarely completely fulfill all of them. They are usually filled with good intentions, but I guess its just hard for me to find the motivation. I tried to make really attainable goals this year, so blog followers, YOU can hold me accountable!
Here are my goals for the wonderfully lucky year of 2013...

1. Be better organized. -this includes my kids' room, kitchen, and all our paperwork... my three organizational challenges.
2. Get our food storage up-to-date. -72-hour kits, 3-month supply, and longer term storage included.
3. Budgeting. -we are generally good at CREATING a budget, just not STICKING to one.
4. Intentional teaching. -be more active in intentionally teaching my children.
5. Be more unified. -as a couple, as a family, and as a member of my church.
6. Get fit. -I don't plan on becoming pregnant for a couple more years, so I want to really focus on getting my body healthy again. This includes exercising 3 times a week (even if its just walking my kiddos to the park... that totally counts in my book!), eating 5 vegan meals a week (I normally do eat 3 or 4 vegan meals), and eating more healthy in general.  
7. Attend the temple 12 times this year.

Not too difficult, right? I sure hope not!

What about you? What are your goals for the new year?

On Potty Training

After some nudging from a good friend of mine who recently potty trained her not-quite-two-year-old little boy, I've decided to write a post about how I trained my daughter. I told her she should be doing the post and not me, but that didn't work, so here goes nuthin'.:)

Now, when I was preparing to potty train Princess, I read a ton of material. Blog posts about how mom's have a 100% success rate with their method, books, articles endorsed by pediatricians, etc. I thought I would have her trained in a hour flat and never have to change another one of her diapers again! Yeah, it just didn't happen that way for us!
I was able to potty train Princess when she was just about two-and-a-half. Despite the many, many things I read about not starting and stopping potty training, that just didn't work for us. When I first tried with Princess, she contracted a very bad case of RSV shortly into our training, so I immediately stopped. Strike one. Then about six weeks later, I tried again, but realized she just wasn't ready to be potty trained. She would stay dry for the most part, but refused to do her -ahem- 'dirty business' in the toilet. I decided after the fifth or sixth 'number two' accident that we would try later on in the summer, after things calmed down in our lives a little bit. Strike two.We were gearing up for a long family road trip, and I just didn't want to deal with that on our vacation.
SOOO, finally in June I decided this was the time it was going to stick, and I buckled down. I ended up sort of combining a few tips & tricks I'd read about and made a hybrid method that seemed to work great!
Right when Princess woke up that glorious morning, I took her out of her diaper and put her in big girl underwear (she calls them 'nunders') and a t-shirt. I told her that we were going to have a really fun day together, and that if she could keep her 'nunders' dry all day, I'd give her a surprise. I had decided earlier that we were just going to spend the majority of our day in our kitchen, where there is a bathroom close and its easy to clean up any accidents. No TV or movies for the day; just her and I and lots of coloring, puzzles, and books.

We headed down to the kitchen and started our day with a big sippy full of apple juice. I set our kitchen timer for 15 minutes, and each time it went off we headed to the big girl potty. I'd set her up there on her toilet seat and wait. If she did end up going- even just a drop or two- I'd do a little jig and sing the song my mom sang to me when I was little. It goes like this...

I'm proud of you

So proud of you

And I hope that you are proud as I am 

Proud of you 

I'm proud of you....

And I hope that you are proud of you too!

She then got 2 (because she was two) M&M's each time she was successful on the potty.  She even got to choose which colors she wanted! 

After about two hours of this, I pulled out her baby doll. I told her that her baby doll is learning how to wear big girl nunders too and I let Princess play with her for a few minutes. Then I took the baby doll and in my stealth mommy-mode, slipped a syringe full of water behind her and made the baby 'have an accident' on our kitchen floor. I then gasped at the baby and said 'Baby doll! We don't go potty on the floor. We go potty in the toilet.' Then I took the baby to the toilet and she went potty in the toilet, all with Miss Princess watching. She thought it was pretty funny, but honestly, I think that's what solidified the idea in her head. 

After the incident with her baby doll, she started telling me when she needed to go to the bathroom. I think that's when I knew she got it. When she started asking me. She did have two little accidents that day, but that was it! The next day she was dry all day, and I told her that for lunch the next day I would take her to go get chicken and fries. That was her surprise because my little Princess thinks that getting 'chicken and fries' is the coolest thing to do in the whole world. Isn't that funny? We even threw in a little ice cream cone to celebrate.

After she was fully potty trained by day, I still put her to bed in a diaper. However she would always wake up with a dry diaper so I just decided to give it a try and put her to bed with underwear on. She hasn't worn a diaper since! She is day and night trained, and I couldn't be happier!

A couple of notes:

• before beginning potty training, I had let my daughter watch me go to the bathroom. I believe this can help in the process of training, but of course, isn't for everyone.
•  I didn't expect to night-train her for a while, but it ended up working out for us; I don't have any words of advice on that, sorry!

 Hope this helps those mom's out there think about potty training!

What about you? What successes have you had in potty training?

Peppermint Bark

Yep, another Christmas recipe. I don't think I could ever get sick of 'em! This one comes courtesy of my wonderful, awesome, amazing sister. Don't let the measly two ingredients fool you. Once you pop one piece of this deliciousness into your mouth, you'll want to devour the whole batch!

Peppermint Bark

  

1 bag white chocolate chips

6-10 candy canes (to taste)

Place desired amount of candy canes (or you could use just peppermints) into a Ziplock bag and crush well. Melt chocolate chips (and 1 Tbsp oil, if desired... sometimes this helps white chocolate not seize up) in microwave for 1 minute. Stir, and keep melting in 15-second increments until smooth. Place a sieve over melted chocolate and add candy canes. Shake the sieve. This allows only the powder to fall into the chocolate. Add as much or as little as you want, mix well. Pour peppermint chocolate onto foil-lined cookie sheet and spread relatively thin. Sprinkle top with larger candy pieces. Let set and cool.

Voila! Tasty, festive goodness. Merry Christmas!