I have been taken victim to pinterest

I really didn't want it to happen, but it did. I fell in love.... with pinterest... and I don't regret it... not one little bit. And I don't think Mike cares at all. In fact, it's been a good thing for us. It has added variety to our lives - especially in the food dept.

I have tried 3 recipes this week that I've "pinned" and all three have been AMAZING!

I made the yummiest lasagna tonight and earlier this week I made sweet and sour chicken that is now permanently in the rotation.

The only problem with pinterest is that it has all kinds of yummy treat recipes. And everybody knows I'm a sucker for treats.

Toffee is one of those treats, but I have never attempted to make it because I was scared of it. I thought I needed to use a thermometer and that alone has kept me away from trying to make it... Until I found this simple recipe on pinterest and saw just how easy it is to make... It was so yummy and sooo easy. I had toffee in just a few minutes and here's a picture of what I made.

Now doesn't that look yummy?

Let me zoom in so you can really appreciate its deliciousness.

In case you are like me and thought it was tricky to make toffee, here's the recipe. Try it... you won't be disappointed.

English Toffee Recipe from Pinterest:

1 cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons water
1 cup toasted pecans broken in pieces--Toast in 350 degree oven for about 10 minutes.
Milk chocolate chips - (I use semi-sweet!)

Place toasted pecans in the bottom of 8 x8 pyrex pan. Put butter, sugar, and water in medium heavy sauce pan and cook at high temperature. I always break up my butter in small pieces in the sauce pan. Stir with wooden spoon throughout the cooking time. The mix should always appear fluffy at all times. Cook until mixture turns an amber color, starts to leave the sides of the pan, and is slightly smoking, take off heat and turn immediately over onto prepared nuts. The cooking time is relatively short, depending on your stove, approximately 7 to 8 minutes with a gas stove and 10-11 minutes with an electrice stove. These are just approximate times. Let toffee cool for 8 to 10 minutes. Then sprinkle with milk chocolate chips. When chips are melted, swirl around with knife. Let chocolate dry -- this takes several hours (you can put it in the fridge to speed up cool time). When chocolate is dry, turn over toffee on wax paper and break into pieces.

Candy Making Notes: (I DIDN'T DO THIS)
While stirring, use a wet pastry brush or clean, wet dishcloth to wash down the sides of the pan to dissolve any undissolved sugar crysals. If you skip this step, the candy might sugar. Also when you pour the toffee mixture on the pecans, do NOT scrape the pan. If you do scrape the pan, this could also cause the mixture to sugar. If you are making more than one batch, make sure that your pan and spoon are clean of sugar crstals. If it DOES sugar, it tastes wonderful broken up and served on a good quality vanilla ice cream. Also, make sure that your toffee is truly an amber color before you take it off the stove.

Do the pee pee in the potty dance with us!!

That's right I said pee pee in the potty dance. We've been doing that dance all weekend around here. Will (2 1/2) decided he wanted to go potty on the toilet and was done with diapers. On Saturday he walked up to Mike and said I need to go pee pee so Mike ran him to the potty and he's gone pee in the potty ever since. He's the MAN!

He loves to wear underwear and so does his dino! He gets a gumball for every time he pees in the potty...
Poop in the potty hasn't been as easy. It is really scary for him so he holds it in until he can't take it any longer. (It's kind of funny to watch him walk around with his little bum cheeks clinched as tight as he can - finally when he can't keep it in any longer he cries and I run him to the potty and hug him while he cries and goes. I don't know what's so scary about it, but it terrifies him. At least he's going in the potty even though it scares him. He gets ice cream for that!! And it's getting less scary each time he goes.

All three of my kids have been easy peasy to potty train. It's could be luck, or it could be our method that works so well... Here's our method because I know you're dying to know. We talk about the potty as early as 15 months and expose the child to the potty as much as possible. Around 2 we let them pick out underwear and have them around for whenever they want to start using them. Once the child shows interest, I clear my calender for 3 days and don't leave the house at all (except to pick up carpool after school - this is the biggest key in my opinion to potty training - give it full attention and don't leave the house). I keep the potty training child completely naked and watch them like a hawk. After they go potty the entire family does the pee pee in the potty dance and they get a treat (Will picked gumballs). With all 3 of them, from day 3 on they are trained without any accidents. It's amazing. But seriously the naked thing works - I've seen it work 3 times! No pull-ups except at night since they are too much like diapers. Naked until they have it down for a few days and then go straight to underwear. Works for us anyway...

I know it's blurry, but I had to get one potty shot. He's the cutest!

I love his little toddler fanny in underwear. Too cute!

And here's one shot of what he was looking at in the crib... Another cute sight!

Yay for less diapers! Way to go Will!!

My little nappers

Will is hit and miss with naps lately... But when he does nap, he likes to be right next to Meg. Usually he lies right next to her and rubs her head until he falls asleep. It's too cute (although I'm afraid he's going to rub a bald spot on her soft little head). Anyway, I don't think this looks comfortable, but they had a great little nap together. (Don't worry, I watched them nap the entire time just in case Will rolled over on her - I'm not that reckless!)

Meg woke up happy!!

Meg rolls!

On Saturday Meg rolled over - back to tummy! Twice! I thought we had a while until she started to do that, and I thought she'd roll tummy to back first (isn't that the norm?). I never think to give her tummy time so maybe this is her way of getting it :) She hasn't done it since, so it may have been a fluke, but she did do it! Twice!




I'm so not ready for a mobile baby... Ready or not...

Our weekend

Meg did something big this weekend - but she gets her own post for that... That's coming up next...
Until then, check out what we did this weekend.
Worked hard at improving our Mario skills.

Sucked on our favorite binkys. Meg loves the soothie.

We had our friends over for take-out night. Ever since we moved into our house, at least twice a month (usually weekly) we get together with the Dukes and pick up dinner from somewhere. Us moms love that we don't have to cook and the kids love playing together... I will do better at documenting take-out night because it is a huge highlight for us.

The kids spent Saturday morning getting their Valentine boxes ready and signing Valentines for their classes. They both decided they wanted to give out a little bag of conversation hearts to their classmates. Easy enough.

They did a good job. I just wish I was a more creative, artistic mom. Oh well, I have other, not so fun, talents (like organizing and cleaning toilets).

Side by side. All my babies at 3 months...

There are times I look at Meg and think she looks just like Morgan. Then a minute later I see Will, then Miles. So I decided to pull up pictures of each of them at her age and see who she looks most like. To me her face looks most like Morgan, but she's more slender like Miles.
I didn't know until I put all their pictures together just how fair Meg is. She is by far our most pasty-faced baby (probaby because she was my only winter baby and has never been out in the sun except for going to and from the car).

Meg (left) / Will (right)

Morgan (left) / Miles (right)

Meg (left) / Morgan (right)

Will (left) / Miles (right)

Meg (left) / Will (right)

Morgan (left) / Miles (right)

Meg (left) / Morgan (right) - same bald head!

Will (left) / Miles (right). For some reason in most of my pictures of Miles at this age, he's asleep. I remember him being a sleepy-head.

They all look so different - and I love them all!

When Beth came to visit she brought us a couple cans of this stuff... So for dinner we cooked up some noodles and went to town. There is a lot of food we miss from Ohio... Graeters, Piada, Cap City, Skyline, City Barbecue, El Valquero, Penn Station.... I could go on and on. I think I like food a little too much. Anyway, this was a tasty surprise!

We pulled out the bumbo today since Meg's holding her head up so well... She lasted about 10 seconds. Not quite there yet, but very soon!

So Will decided to use it instead.

I am especially loving life lately. Will has calmed down immensely over the past couple weeks. He is starting to talk better and is using more words in his sentences. He is back to his happy self and I can take him places again. He was going through a very loud, stubborn phase that included lots of tantrums and running away at the store. (I can't even count how many times we've lost him at Target & Costco over the past few months. And that's with Mike and I both going together to keep an eye on him! Dead serious!) I don't know what happened, but all of a sudden he's calmed down and returned to the sweet boy I remember. We still can't get him to stop sucking his thumb, but I'm not too worried about it... yet...

Mike turned a big fat 34!

Yup. He's getting old.

Love the quality of phone pictures... But I just had to capture Meg and daddy watching sports over dinner at Iggy's. Hey it is his birthday. I tried to keep the conversation to a minimum so he could just eat and watch sports. It was the least I could do.

Yummy lemon birthday bundt cake for dessert.

Happy Birthday Babe! You have a family that loves and adores you!!

Just because she's so dang cute...

She's almost 3 months and still a dream...