Thank You For The Memories

Today is our 3 1/2 year anniversary.  Special, I know.  My sweet husband, however, was nice enough to get me a gift (he did say it was for Valentine's too.)  Extra RAM memory for my computer with installation by Brad.

Getting extra RAM memory as gift made us both think of this.



Neither of us could resist a good laugh when Brad told me, "Thanks for the memories."  As unromantic as this may sound, I am actually loving it.  Brad is not in the doghouse for this one.  My computer had been slow for awhile.  Livable, but annoying.  I'm impressed with how fast my computer is now.  But Brad better be warned if he gets me a dual-bag vacuum cleaner for our anniversary he's going to the doghouse.

Valentines

For Him

For Her

Baby Blanket

This blanket is so soft and cuddly.  I made it with some super soft baby yarn and wish it was larger for me to use.  I can't wait until baby is here and I can cuddle him inside the blanket.

Cinnamon Streusel Muffins

Have I told you about the grocery stores out here?  They are a little funny.  They don't carry all of your typical (or at least what I would consider typical) store items.  Like cook and serve tortillas.  Our store used to carry them and has since stopped.  Boo.  Or during canning season they didn't have dry pectin.  One week they weren't selling red peppers.  I discovered a new grocery store woe this week.  They don't carry my favorite kind of blueberry muffin mix.  They carry the same brand in the cinnamon streusel and lemon poppyseed, but no blueberry.  Come on.  Blueberry has got to be more popular than both of those flavors.  However, that didn't stop me from debating buying a box of cinnamon streusel.  Since I'm joining my sister-in-law on a spending fast, I decided to pass them by.

Since then I haven't been able to get them out of my head.  I've had seriously bad cravings for cinnamon streusel. I haven't had a cinnamon streusel muffin in years!  Probably since childhood.  I blame The Scoot (Scooter, Scootie, or baby (no relation to baby's real name, but just his nickname for now.))

I broke down this morning and found a few recipes for cinnamon streusel muffins.  I wasn't completely happy with either recipe (found here and here), so I combined the two.  This is what I ended up with.

Cinnamon Streusel Muffins

Batter:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teas. baking powder
1/2 teas. cinnamon
1/2 teas. salt
1 cup milk
2 eggs
6 tablespoons melted butter

Filling:
1 1/2 tablespoons softened butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

Topping:
1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup rolled oats

1/3 cup flour

2 tablespoons softened butter

1. Preheat oven to 375.  Spray muffin tin with cooking spray.
2. For batter, mix all dry ingredients together in a bowl.  In another bowl combine the wet ingredients.  Combine wet and dry together.  Set aside.
3. For filling, mix until combined into a paste.  Set aside.
4. For topping, combine dry ingredients.  Add butter and cut into dry ingredients.  Mix until crumbly.
5. Starting with batter, put in half a scoop of batter into each muffin cup.  Add a teaspoon of filling to each.  Top with another half a scoop of batter.  Using a tooth pick, swirl the filling into the batter (but not too much.)  Sprinkle streusel topping and press lightly into muffin.
6. Bake for 16-18 minutes or until golden brown.

This recipe made 15 muffins for me.  Next time I make these I am going to try adding more milk to the batter since it seemed a little thick.  Also, it seems like there is a lot of butter in these so I will try adjusting the amount of butter in them.  However, they were really, really good just the way they are.

Life Right Now

Life keeps moving on.  Brad is BUSY with school.  He has had at least one test a week right now.  And this was the "easiest" month.  Brad has 7 exams in the next 5 weeks, 5 of which are finals.  The exciting part is that he is also starting his dental restoration class which will be a lot more hands on dentistry.

I'm keeping busy.  By this point I thought I might be going a little crazy, but honestly I've had enough going on and a big new project.  Perhaps sometime soon we will have more news about that.  But I've thrown in a few fun projects here and there.  I recently finished this scarf and hat.  I had a pattern for the hat, but I made up the pattern for the scarf to match.  I love how it turned out!

As for the last member of our family, I'm starting to really feel the baby more and baby boy has given me a few good jabs and kicks.  For example, I had to give a talk in church last week.  I don't mind writing talks, but hate giving them.  Anyways, my heart was racing and the baby didn't like me being so nervous.  It gave me a few good kicks telling me to stop.  Funny boy.

One thing we are excited for right now is our Spring Break in March.  We're going to Utah!  I'm so excited to go see our friends and family there.  We keep coming up with things we want to do while we are visiting.  With our expanding list I hope we have time for it all!  But all we are really wanting is to make it through this month so we can enjoy our break with our family.

It's a . . .

It's a BOY!  Our sweet little baby boy was asleep when we started the ultrasound (not in a useful position), but he woke up at the end and helped us out.  We were able to see everything we needed to today.  He is healthy and growing well, which we are both grateful for.

While we were watching our baby's heartbeat, I asked Brad if he could tell what was what on our baby's heart.  He said he could (the ultrasound was so detailed you could actually see all four chambers of the heart, so cool!)  Our tech asked if Brad was in the medical field, and Brad explained that he was in dental school.  After that our tech started pointing out more of what we were seeing.  So while I didn't really know what they were seeing, Brad was very excited to know all the structures.

Also, while we were looking at the baby's head, I asked if the baby had teeth at this point.  The tech said she wasn't sure.  Brad said the teeth buds are there from early on, but they are so small and not calcified you can't see them.  Go Brad for knowing the answer when the tech didn't.

Today we got to see baby's calcified bones, baby's tongue while he was swallowing, stomach, all ten fingers, baby's feet, head and profile, and yes, found out it's a boy.  There was a lot more than that, but that's what I remember most.  It was amazing to see how much our baby has grown.  I think we got so used to seeing such a little peanut floating in there on our early ultrasounds (our last one was at 12 weeks) that it was surprising to see how big he is getting.

When he woke up it was so cute, he kept bringing up his hands to his face and rubbing his eyes (that's what he's doing in the picture.)  At least that's what I think he was doing.

And for my dear sister who keeps threatening me, here's what I look like this week.

Now all the fun projects and shopping start since we know it's a boy!

Home for the Holidays

We have been dying to go home to Minnesota for Christmas.  We had lots things we wanted to do while we were there.  You know, opening presents, eating out, french pancakes, playing games, shopping, puzzles, cooking, hanging out with family.  All the good stuff about being home for the holidays.  It did not disappoint.

Doug really saved Christmas this year.  And surprisingly without singing dancing animals.  I think they got replaced with these.  A cow pen and duck pen that would light up and make noise.

But our favorite was this little gem.  Air swimmers.  As Doug put it, they're the new helicopters.

Christmas was simply great because it was spent with our family relaxing.  It was exactly what we wanted.  There were lots of puzzles, games, and good food.  We're a little sad to be back "home" in Philadelphia and wish the break would have been longer!