HAPPY (day-late) BIRTHDAY JUDAH

Yesterday was my littlest guy's 1st birthday! I can't believe Judah is already one...time flies! Since his birthday is so close to Christmas we did one party before Christmas and we're going to do another after. Here's a pic of Judah enjoying his cake at his first party (more messy faces to come at the next party I'm sure!!)

It boggles my mind how fast this year went! I feel like I was just in the hospital with this little guy. Last Christmas is a blur to me; Christmas Eve I went in for my normal 9 month midwife visit and left with the news that our baby would be born soon! ahhhh! (For those that don't know, they discovered I had a rare liver disease called Cholestasis and that paired with my gestational diabetes equaled needing to induce me 4 weeks early) - hospital visit on Christmas Eve, hospital visit Christmas day and then admitted the 26th, and Judah born the 27th! Then poor mr. Judah had pneumonia so we (me and Judah) got to stay in lovely NICU for 8 days. whew. What a way to start! But now, a year later, he is a happy-healthy-hyper one year old!! Praise God!

Here's some pictures of our sweet little guy in NICU:

I LOVE YOU JUDAH!

Menu Mania

Over the past 2 years (since Ethan was born and I became a stay-at-home-mama) I have taken in interest in cooking. I love to try new recipes and unique ingredients; but I also like to be frugal. One thing I have benefited from is menu planning - I plan out a handful of meals and then write my grocery list specifically for that. When I go grocery shopping from my list I see a great savings! I have all my ingredients for my meals and don't end up with random, mismatched items that sit in my cupboard for months! Yeah for saving money!

My new adventure is to (try) to blog what I am planning for the week (or so) of meals; I got this idea from a friend of mine, Heidi, who shares her menu every Monday. I have gotten many recipe ideas from her blog and hope to share some here with you!

Our next 5 meals:
Thai Turkey Meatballs/rice/pineapple
Italian Mini Meatloaves/bread
Sesame Noodles/veggies
Parmesan-Crusted Chicken/mashed potatoes
Baked Italian Mac-n-Cheese

I LOVE Rachael Ray and received more of her cookbooks and a subscription for her magazine this Christmas....I suspect a lot of my meals will be inspired by her! YUMO!

Hope you have a....

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

We've been enjoying lots of family time with each other
and our extended families; lots of great food; good laughs
and most importantly thanking God for sending His Son to earth to save us!
Thank you Jesus!

My Little Rock Star

My big boy jamming out on daddy's mandolin! Ethan loves music; he loves to listen to it, dance to it, play it, and sing to it! We have frequent 'jam' session in our bedroom with Ethan on the mandolin and daddy on the guitar.

What a rock star!

Winter Fun!

Winter is here! I wish I could be excited about the cold (I'm not) but I am excited to see my big boy Ethan play in the snow more this year. With Judah being born last December Ethan didn't get much of a chance to explore the wonderful, white, wintery bliss we call snow! After our first big snowfall I took Ethan out in the front yard..we lasted about 5 minutes...too cold. During those 5 minutes though we saw the plow clear our driveway, saw our breath and sat in a big pile of snow!
We then came in and enjoyed a warm cup of hot chocolate (which I later discovered make mr. Ethan VERY HYPER!)

Earlier this winter we made cookies with Grandma Mancuso and Ethan had so much fun! He really got into rolling out the dough and cutting out the cookie shapes.
He had so much fun we decided to make some more at home for our neighbors...by this batch of cookies he was a complete pro! Too much fun!
I love my little helper! He's getting to the age where he really can help:) And who doesn't mind tons of frosted sugar cookies around the house? yummy....
Those aprons really came in handy for all our flying flour! Oh how I love being a mommy:)

SUPERHEROES!

Here are my 2 favorite mini superheroes!

Ethan is our resident junior superman and Judah our resident mini batman;
together they keep this house safe from all toddler terrors!

And to top off our superhero home Daddy has a Batman shirt, Superman shirt and a Batman/Superman combo shirt - so he can double as either or both.
Whew. I'm glad we have so many heroes in this house! I feel so safe:)

Potty Train *choo choo

Hooray! Ethan is potty trained! He's been successfully in underwear day and night for a few weeks now - way to go man! We started about a month ago and my little super-man figured it out really fast; I like to say he trained himself. I just gave him the opportunity to go - every time I went (which if you know me - that's a lot!) I brought him with me and he would go. Pretty soon he was asking to go and now -BAM- my little man is potty trained! We had a few accidents (#2, BM's ...ewwww) but have conquered that hurdle now too! Woot woot! It's funny..Ethan refers to it (being potty trained) and a potty 'train' (choo choo)..I don't think he quite understands the different meanings to the same word.

Here's some pics of my crazy man showing off his underwear (and some of my jewelry and a sweet hat)Silly man...

It's really nice having Ethan potty trained. I love changing less diapers, I love not buying them all the time, I LOVE flushing the poopies down the toilet instead of cleaning them, and it makes Ethan look so cute (he looks so grown up without the diaper butt!) Plus, He LOVES IT! Added bonus for sure! I hoping mr. Ethan will pass on his enthusiasm for the potty to his little bro in a few years:)

What do you do...

...when you're in the middle of baking and realize you're out of an ingredient you need?? I tend to laugh then turn to my handy internet and see what I can use instead! Classic example happened just last night...

...Ethan and I were making Pumpkin Bread from a new recipe. We were both oh-so-excited and we got started. We got the dry ingredients all mixed together and then to mix the sugars and eggs...uh oh. We needed 3 cups of white sugar and we only had 2.5 C - no fear we shall use brown sugar to get to our 3 Cups! Pass me the eggs Ethan...what? we only have 1? ugh. we need two. Hello mr. google - you say I can use applesauce and baking powder instead of an egg? sure! Moving right along...time for the oil - *please let there be 1 C left please* nope. ok....let's use olive oil to make up the difference! Mix everything together - thankfully I actually had a can of pumpkin! Into the oven you go! Now the suspense....

(about 50 minutes later) hmmm sure smells good!

Taste test results: THE BEST PUMPKIN BREAD EVER! SUCCESS!

Here's the original recipe and then in color what I had to substitute:

Mrs. Claus's Old-Fashioned Pumpkin Bread
*found on duncanhines.com/recipes/muffins-loaves

3 Cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
3 Cups granulated sugar (2.5 C sugar + 1/2 C brown sugar)
1 Cup oil (1/2 C veg. oil + 1/2 C olive oil)
2 eggs (1 egg + 1/2 C unsweetened applesauce + 1/2 tsp baking powder)
1 (15-16 oz) can solid-pack pumpkin

Baking Instructions:
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 8 x 4 loaf pans (I did one loaf and 12 muffins)
In a bowl, sift flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg. Set aside.
In a large bowl, combine sugar and oil. Stir in eggs, mixing well.
Stir in pumpkin. Add flour mixture, stirring just until all is evenly moistened.
Pour batter evenly into pans and bake 45-60 minutes (or 18 min for muffins) until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Loosen loaves from sides of pan with a knife. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then remove and cool completely on racks. (I lined mine with parchment paper so it came out easily)

In conclusion: After all my substitutions I was a little skeptical if this bread would work out....but it did! And far past my expectations..it was delicious!

Family Pic

This year I was alerted to a magnificent deal (ie: FREE with minimal shipping) on Christmas photo cards and jumped on it! I heard about it not to long ago through another blog I follow...and thankfully got a decent family picture taken; designed the card; and got it in on time! I wish I would've posted the link for the deal...but time got away from me and it ended yesterday :(

Anywho - here's the family shot we ended up using for our first ever Christmas card!
Obviously, this isn't the card - because that would ruin all the fun for family that will be getting it in the mail! Maybe after Christmas I'll post the actual card... it was fun to design! It was through Fuji Film. It was nice to design it online - use your own photos - you could save it and return to it later (which is great with kids running around the house!) - and you can customize it to fit you family and personality! I give it a great review:) Now to find all the addresses, find time to write them, buy stamps, and get it out there before Christmas! Updates to come on that...

Pumpkin to the rescue!

Do you ever want to make a cake but don't have all the ingredients? Or you don't want to take the time to measure all those ingredients? Or you have a cake mix but no eggs? or no oil? Or you just want to watch you calories around the holiday time? If you say yes to any of those (even if you didn't) read on!



I discovered a super easy - super healthy - super quick way to make cake! (or any cake like stuff - cupcakes count in my book!)

Take your cake mix...

Take a can of pumpkin (pure pumpkin not pumpkin pie)...

mix the two...

**Bake according to the directions on the box (I'm a cupcake fan!)...

you're done.

Voila. How cool is that? I heard about it from Hungry Girl when she appeared on Rachael Ray a while ago. She was promoting it as an alternative way to make desserts and watch you figure. I'm promoting it as an easy (and yummy) alternative to make desserts! I've done it with a Spice Cake mix (tastes like pumpkin bread then) and I've done it with a German Chocolate cake mix (you can barely taste the pumpkin - it makes it sooo moist) I personally added a little bit of water to make it easier to mix together but according to Hungry Girl it's not necessary.

Enjoy my dessert tip and let me know if you have any 'short cut' tips of your own!

Frugalista

This Christmas we are doing all homemade gifts; to be frugal and to be creative (win-win right?)

I went out to good-ole Joo-Ann Etc this morning to use a coupon I had (that was going to expire on Monday) - oh yeah...and it's the Friday after Thanksgiving!

Ethan and I went out this morning - coupon and list in tow - and got shopping. Since it is Black Friday in the retail world we hit the JACKPOT! All the things I needed for my gifts were on sale plus coupon went on top of that...score!

After waiting in our checkout line for over 40 minutes it was our turn to see the damage...

$30 bucks...ok we can do that...the bottom of the receipt made the morning trip well worth it....

SAVINGS: $66.71

For real? Oh yeah.

Sincerely,
your local Frugalista

Thanksgiving Cranberry Goodness...

Happy Thanksgiving!

We went to my grandparents for dinner and we each brought something to share - my contribution: orange-cranberry relish. yummmmmm. It was absolutely delish atop the turkey - now I want 3rds! (1st for lunch, then 2nd for dinner) I got the idea to jazz up your normal cranberry sauce from Rachael Ray - thanks Rach!

Here's how I did it:
12 oz bag of fresh whole cranberries
1 C water
1 C sugar
zest of 1 orange

boil sugar and water in a pot
add fresh cranberries and bring back to boil
reduce heat and boil lightly for about 10 minutes (or until cranberries pop)
move to a glass dish and cool to room temperature
(after cooled) stir in the zest of one orange
EAT EAT AND EAT SOME MORE!

I put my relish on my turkey, mashed potatoes, and anything else on my fork. It was the perfect combo of cranberry and orange....oh.so.good.

This was my first time working with fresh cranberries; a little intimidated -yes...but it was worth it! Yummy yummy in my tummy:)

Can you tell we're related?

Now that Judah's getting older (he'll be 1 next month!) I can really see the resemblance between my boys. Similar face shape, those big blue eyes, cute little noses, and on and on. Also, now that Judah's getting older and more mobile and interactive you can only imagine what my days look like; Ethan and Judah love to play together and make each other laugh. The other day they created their own version of hide-n-seek. One would go in the kitchen and the other in the bathroom...then they would call for each other (ie: ahhhhhhheeeee) and both run into the hallway; squeal in delight and turn around back to their 'hiding' places! way to cute and way to fun. AND awesome that they were entertaining each other! I can only imagine what it will be like in a few short months....lovely crazy! I LOVE IT.

Long Time No Blog....

Wow how time flies! I just looked and my last post is from July...and now Thanksgiving is in 2 days! You think I was a little busy?? I hope to make more time to blog now that we have a desktop computer. And I know there are like 3 people that read this - but I find it helpful to document little things and to record fun memories of our crazy life!

New things in the Mancuso house:
-desktop computer!
-potty trained Ethan!
-tooth-y Judah!
-Cooking crazed mommy!
-Goofy than ever daddy!
(not that we *me and Joe* were not cooking crazed or goofy before...I just wanted the list to be bigger than 3!)

Soooo, what I hope to do is sit down every few days; type out something new/exciting in our life; and repeat. I actually have a list of things I want to write about: ranging from new recipes to potty training to funny interactions from my boys...now to find time right? I'll check back in 4 months and see how I'm doing! (ha ha my last post was 4 months ago...witty eh?)

I wish I were an Octopus...

This morning, while changing a poopy diaper, I found myself laughing at my lack of hands but resourcefulness of the few I have....let me paint a picture for you:

Ethan declared that he had a 'poopy diaper' and wanted it changed; so we get the changing pad out, get the wipes and plop him down to get moving. Diaper's off - (Oh and it was major mess...) - I have his legs up with one hand (no problem right?) - then Judah sees us....here comes trouble. Have I mentioned that Judah's on the move now? and he's fast. So, for some reason, Judah thought this poopy diaper was very interesting and wanted to get it.....Judah rushes over to the production - thank goodness for my left leg! I ward him away from the poopy mess with my leg (while holding Ethan's legs up away from the poopy mess and cleaning his bottom with one hand) whew. THEN - Judah thought maybe he could get to the poopy if he started to TICKLE me by sucking on my ankle! All that did was make me squirm and giggle...which Ethan found hilarious so he started to squirm and giggle - with his legs held in the air with one arm and poopy's still on his bottom. Are you getting this funny picture? Judah sucking my ankle; I'm trying to keep Judah away from the messy diaper; giggly like mad; holding a squirmy/giggle 2 year old's legs up out of his diaper and trying to clean his bottom with my remaining hand. HA. I laugh just reliving it. I wish I were an octopus.... or I can just laugh at the craziness that happens because I'm NOT:)

Buddies!

Ethan and Judah are starting to interact more and more each day - it's so much fun to see! Ethan loves to play with his little brother...

Here's Ethan giving Judah a 'hug' - both boys were giggling and giggling! Since this, Ethan has been into giving Judah hugs on the floor - Judah gets this huge SMILE when he gets attention from his big brother:)
The other day, Judah decided he wanted to sit up. He's not super stable with his sitting but he sure does enjoy it! My two boys sat across from each other and played with the 'tool bench' for a good long time. I think Ethan was excited to have Judah sitting and playing 'with' him.

Ethan and Judah; my two little cuties; who are turning into two little buddies!

Lemonade Cheesecake Pie

For the 4th of July I tried out a new recipe I found in my Food&Family magazine....and it was soooo good. Joe and I consumed the entire pie within 24 hours (Ethan did get a little slice)

Lemonade Cheesecake Pie
1 pkg. (8 oz) Cream Cheese, softened
1/2 Cup thawed frozen lemonade concentrate
1 tub (8 oz) Cool Whip Whipped Topping, thawed, divided
1 Graham Cracker Pie Crust
1 1/2 Cups sliced fresh strawberries
2 Tbsp. sugar

Beat cream cheese in large bowl with mixer until creamy. Gradually add concentrate, beating well after each addition. Whisk in 2 cups of Cool Whip; spoon into crust.
Refrigerate 4 hours or until firm. Meanwhile, toss berries with sugar. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Pipe or spoon remaining Cool Whip around edge of pie just before spooning. Top with berry mixture.

My baby is growing up...

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU EE-EE" is Ethan's new favorite phrase....yes and his birthday was like 2 weeks ago! He's still really into his birthday - he loves to sing about it, talk about it, pretend about it, and on and on.... He had 3 wonderful birthday celebrations for his turning 2 - one with my side, one with Joe's side and one with just us (mommy, daddy and Judah) LOTS OF FUN!

Here's some snipits of Ethan's birthday festivities:

Ethan had a combined birthday party with his cousin Kayla (2 days older than him) that was Elmo themed...let's just say there were A LOT of Elmo-ness going on there! We had 4 tickle me Elmo's (all going at once of course) and lots of Elmo cupcakes for desserts! Tell me what kind of 2 year old doesn't like a chocolate cake? MINE. Ah well, he sure does love his fruit!
Then on Ethan's actual DAY of birth (June 9th) we spent the day as a family.
We packed a picnic lunch of Ethan's favorite foods and went to the park for some playtime. Ethan loves to play outside and would probably stay out there for hours if we let him! For his picnic lunch we had wraps sandwiches (Ethan's fave) and pretzels (another fave) and STRAWBERRIES (another major fave!) Yummo. We gave Ethan his gift from us at the park and then he proceeded to play with them for a loonngg time there.


We gave him new sand toys - bucket, shovel, molder-things, rake, etc... and he LOVES them! It doesn't matter if it's the beach or a sandbox or the park - anywhere that there is sand Ethan is one happy camper. He now likes to fill the bucket up with water in our driveway and mix it up with a shovel making "noodles" - love the creativity!



Ethan had another birthday party on Joe's side -because Ethan didn't want to eat any of his Chocolate Elmo cake I thought I was so smart for making a cake with Strawberries on it and in it...well at least he ate the strawberries off! Silly boy. I was pretty impressed by my cake; yummy double decker with strawberry filling and delicious frosting! I'm drooling remembering it....

The theme for Ethan's party was 'cars' - he came home with tons of matchbox cars (which he LOVES) and plays with constantly! I made him a mini cake with strawberries and a little red car on top!
Ethan came home from all his parties with lots of wonderful gifts! It's always fun to get new toys to play with:)
Oh my little baby is growing up so fast! I feel like I was just prego with him and now he's 2! Next thing you know he'll be driving - awhh:) I've loved every minute with my little man and can't wait to see what the next 2 years will bring! Happy Birthday to you Ethan!

Laundry

A little note about laundry....

It seems as though with each kid you add to the mix it TRIPLES your laundry needs...why? I haven't quite figured that one out yet - all I know is that I'm doing a load a day and if I take a day "off" then I pay for it later! I just threw a load in the washer and see that I have a load of towels staring at me from the bedroom...hmmm didn't I just do a load yesterday?

I'll chalk it up to having a messy toddler and a spitter-upper baby! It is nice to see the pile of laundry temporarily disappear from the floor- and smell the scent dryer sheets and fresh blankets.

At times like these (when I feel like all I do is start/switch/fold/put away laundry/repeat) I am reminded of how blessed I am to have all that I have! I have a washer and dryer at my instant use; I have laundry detergent and dryer sheets in excess, and that I have clothes and blankets to wash! I am truly blessed and have more than I deserve!

LET'S GO DO SOME MORE LAUNDRY! WOO-HOO!

Face to Face

Bumbo chair + Judah + Ethan + markers = fun! Judah tried out his Bumbo chair the other day and both Judah and Ethan LOVED it! Judah enjoys being able to see what's going on more and Ethan enjoys to see Judah sitting up like a big-boy! Win-win for everyone:)
I love this picture of my two boys - I like to think they're having some deep, heart to heart discussion...

I have a feeling this wonderful Bumbo chair will be used more and more as Judah's neck gets stronger (he has a BIG head - I don't blame him for holding it all the time!)

Mother's Day

Happy (day late) Mother's Day! I had a wonderful Mother's Day yesterday - my amazing husband created these "dollars" for me to use (effective date Today --> no expiration!). The one with Ethan's cute face on it is a "Day Dollar" that I can use for time away without either boy to do whatever! And the dollar with Judah's precious face on it is a "Diaper Dollar" that I can pull out when there's the occasional blow-out that I don't want to change! What a great gift:) I can't wait to use either of them (and I have like 15 of each!!!)

I woke up to the normal crying/hungry Judah but after feeding him I got to SLEEP IN! wow! and then at 7:30 (which IS sleeping in now) my 2 big boys (Joe and Ethan) came in carrying a tray of delicious breakfast food...Ethan on one end and Joe on the other (brave move Joe!) -- I was treated to a yummy breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast and Juice:) My big boy Ethan ate with me in our room...in his highchair though - we didn't really want scrambled eggs in bed!

Also, on the tray there was a diaper that said "DO NOT TOUCH ME!" - I momentarily thought Joe had given me a dirty diaper..then realized I was about to have a DIAPER FREE DAY! woot woot! What a nice break for a stay-at-home-mom with 2 kids in diapers!
The bucket with flowers is from my dear Ethan - he did a little art project on Mother's day afternoon with his other cousins...too cute! It melted me heart to see him walk up to me holding the flowers with a big proud grin on his face! awwhh.

So, I had breakfast in bed+no diaper day+cute flowers from Ethan+coupons for kid-free-time+coupons for dirty-diaper-help+so much LOVE from my family! WONDERFUL MOTHER'S DAY! Oh and I even got a little mommy's stash of delectable chocolates to boot!

Leap Laugh Love Learn (and repeat)

This afternoon was quite the afternoon. whew. As soon as a looked away for a second mr. Ethan got into some sort of mischief... here's a selection of mischief he achieved for your enjoyment:

I was gifted some chocolate today as an early Mother's Day gift (yumo!) and Ethan discovered it...

He then brought me to the table and showed me how he climbed up on the chair and reached into the ever tempting box of chocolates - he was able to open the individually wrapped pieces too!
He wasn't too pleased with me after I took away his chocolate fun... don't worry he found more mischief to get into within a few minutes!

I was sitting on the couch cuddling (a very crabby) Judah when I looked down and saw Ethan's hands:
uh oh mom. Ethan had discovered my stamping kit and somehow managed to open it and get into the contents...how fun. This is the mess he made:
After cleaning up his hands and the mess on the floor I smelled an odor...a disgusting odor...."Ethan did you poop?" "NO NO NO" --- I don't know WHY anyone would want to stay in a diaper like that...ick. So, I changed his diaper and found this stray stamp mark:
You just have to laugh right? ha ha ha:)

This afternoon I go to LEAP from my chair (to prevent further chocolate consumption or ink destruction), LAUGH at the mess that was made, LOVE the little mr. that was responsible, and LEARN that my almost 2 year old is getting more curious (and to not leave sweets or ink accessible!)

New View

Last night my little Judah discovered rolling (back to front) - he loves this new position and the new view it gives him. He'll just lay there on his tummy with his head up and look around - taking everything in! He's been working on his back -> front roll for a while now and last night when he FINALLY did it the look on his face was PRICELESS! He rolled over - picked up his head - looked right at me and SMILED so big I thought his face would brake! I could see in his happy eyes him saying, "look at me mom! I did it! I did it!". Now, there's no stopping him - you put him on his back (like most people do with babies) and within 30 seconds he flips his cute little self over.

Today he realized he can connect his rolls and go back -> front then front -> back...uh oh. Watch out - here comes another mover!! Bye bye to the simplicity of putting Judah down and knowing he will be there when I come back...Hello to keeping the floor clean(er) and rolling around! Whew - time flies. I feel like I just gave birth to this little man yesterday!

All Wrapped Up

Ethan has been asking for me to "wrap up" his Monkey and to "wrap up" himself lately - it's way too fun! I had to find a big enough blanket to wrap my big boy:
He thought this was hilarious and has been continually asking me to 'wrap Ee-ee up' (he refers to himself as "Ee-Ee" can't say 'th' yet...) Ethan's been role playing a lot lately - his newest 'baby' is his stuffed monkey. He liked me to swaddle his monkey and then he plays with him like a baby: holding him, giving him a paci, putting him to bed, etc...

and putting Baby Monkey in the baby swing:

I think it's funny to see Ethan mimic what he watches all day (ME!) - today he decided he needed to 'feed' Baby Monkey....you see where this is going...he pulled up his shirt and and held Monkey just like Mommy holds Judah....too funny! Don't worry though - I'm going to explain that Daddy's don't feed babies that way and direct him to a bottle....I was laughing too hard to do that today! Ethan loves to be an activities director of sorts; today he asked me to swaddle Judah - then swaddle Baby Monkey - then swaddle Ethan! I did and this is the cuteness that transpired:

Then Ethan decided it was time to get out:

So, all that was left were these 2 cuties: Mr. Judah and Mr. Monkey:

When Judah's not all wrapped up he loves to be a little squirmer; he can successfully roll front to back and is SOOO close for turning back to front. He gets stuck on his arm; I think as soon as he realizes to lift that huge noggin and roll over the arm there's no stopping him!

Never a dull moment in the Mancuso household!