Stop 2 Salisbury

We arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's house in the afternoon on the 23rd.  We enjoyed hanging out and playing outside with frisbees.  Justin's brother Jeff and his family came Christmas eve and everyone spent the night!  The 4 big cousins all shared a room!  They really enjoyed that and were easy to get to sleep as you can imagine!

Eric was a big fan of the 2 cats at the house!  Here he is giving George a kiss.  This cat doesn't mind kids thank goodness.  George once let Caroline try to braid his whiskers!

Enjoying some of Grandma's wonderful goodies!

Her new coat we got her!

Caroline's gift to her brother...a dinosaur folder!

Wearing the pearls that Caroline picked out for me!

Wrestle time with the cousins and Justin.

Me and Lacey

The whole family

We had a wonderful Christmas morning and I hope all of you did as well.

Stop 1 - Chesapeake

Early Tuesday morning we left MI and headed towards VA.  We were on the road for 10 hours!  The kids did fabulous.  We stopped for the night in Lewisburg, WV around 430pm.  That gave us time to swim in the pool before dinner.  There was a Ruby Tuesday's across the parking lot and while the kids were getting baths and getting dressed, Justin went and got carry out and brought it back to the hotel.  We ate in the breakfast area in the hotel.  It was perfect since we were the only ones there and Eric could crawl/walk around as much as he wanted.  Then early to bed for all of us since we had been up since 530 and driven through snow and rain.

The next morning we got up when we wanted (or the kids wanted) and had breakfast, packed, and got on the road to Susan and Grahams!  We made it to their house about 245 that afternoon.  

It was great to see Susan and Graham and meet baby Ryan!

He was hungry but Caroline really wanted to hold him!

Will explaining that Ryan must know him because "I named you"

Eric wasn't so sure and really didn't like it when I held Ryan.

Happy cousins!

Making salt dough ornaments with Aunt Susan while the dads played golf.

Giving baby Ryan a bath.  Susan had many helpers when it cam to anything to do with the baby!

Sweet snuggles with Dad!

We had a blast with Susan and Graham and then left yesterday after breakfast to go to Salisbury.  Thanks for having us Morris family!!  We love you guys.

Pass the syrup please!

Wednesday at dinner Will said he felt like he was going to throw up.  He didn't make it out of his chair at the table.  He did a little on the table then we told him to get it in his plate since more was coming and he didn't want to get up.  Justin grabbed the eggs and waffles off his plate just in time!  He filled a full size dinner plate.  I wiped his mouth and took the plate to the sink.  When I got back to the table to finish my dinner Caroline asked if we could please pass her the syrup!  It didn't phase any of us that Will had just tossed his cookies at the table at the beginning of the meal.  So glad it didn't trigger any more puking at the table!  We are pretty used to Will throwing up even though its been awhile since he last did.

Will didn't feel well the next morning and ended up napping with Justin until about 9am Thursday morning.  Then he was fine and ate and played the rest of the day.  No one else got sick.  NOt sure if it was something he ate that he was allergic too or just something bad that ran through his body really quick.  I'm just glad nobody else got it.

The kids are done with school for the year and we leave to start our grand tour tomorrow.  I am not packed but have several lists of things that need to get done.

Eric got his Christmas present in the mail the other day.  Now he has a chair just like Caroline and Will!!  

He LOVES it!!!

Creative baking

So with the holidays and lots of goodies to bake upon us I have had to get creative with my cooking.  This is the first year that I have had to omit milk (casein and whey) from anything that I bake.  I am pretty good at taking a recipe and modifying it so Will can eat it without it making his tummy hurt.  I make all our usual dinners without any issue, including poppyseed chicken that has cream of chicken soup and sour cream in it!  Thanks to google and the Vegans of the world there are alternatives to sour cream, cream cheese, cheese, and butter.  I now make my own cream of chicken soup and just freeze it for use in recipes.  But what about desserts, especially chocolate ones?  I can do those too!!

Double chocolate marshmallows brownies

Those brownies above and all the desserts(except the turtles) below are all milk free!  Several recipes call for evaporated milk, so again I make my own!  It's really easy.  Just take 2 1/4 cups of any milk you drink and slowly cook it down until it measures 1 cup.  Voila!  And the powdered cocoa doesn't have milk or cocoa butter in it so I can make things chocolatey using that.

Dessert spread for the 'dessert and coffee' I hosted for some neighbors.

I highly recommend you trying the brownie recipe.  You won't be disappointed!

Double chocolate marshmallow brownies

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

½ cup butter

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 cups miniature marshmallows (or big ones cut into 4ths)

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1.     Preheat oven to 350*.  Lightly grease a 9X13 in pan.

2.     Melt 1 cup chocolate chips and butter in a large bowl in the microwave.  Stir the mixture well and let it cool to lukewarm.

3.     While the liquid is cooling, mix flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, vanilla, and eggs.  Stir into melted chocolate. 

4.     Fold in marshmallows and the rest of the chocolate chips.

5.     Spread batter into the pan.  It will be thick.

6.     Bake 25 minutes.  Do not overcook.

Trouble with a capitol T

Eric loves playing with the Nativity scene just like Caroline and Will do.  The big kids haven't played with it much this year so far.  All the animals have either a leg or ear missing and some of the people are missing hands!  I have a pile of legs, ears and hands in a bowl on my microwave waiting to be glued back on before being packed up.  So all the animals are now laying down.  Most of the time I find them all on the floor after a big play session and I pick them back up only to find them down again later in the day.

It does capture his attention for quite some time so for that I am thankful!

After the flash went off he turned and grinned!

Mary and baby Jesus are unscathed in all the carnage of my Nativity!

One for me, One for you!

Miles once again proved that he is a great dog tonight.  Caroline fed him after dinner and Eric heard the food going in the bowl and went to check it out.  I heard the dog bowl clanging on the floor and looked around the island to see Eric sitting there and Miles trying to eat his dinner.  Eric was taking pieces out, putting them on the floor then back in the bowl.  MIles just happily ate the pieces he could get too.

In the bowl at the same time!

Eric is getting ready to dump the food out of the bowl and Miles in cleaning up the floor.

Eric cleaning up and Miles looking for more food.

I don't think Eric ate any this time!