Evie- 10 Month Update

With her tenth month under her belt, this little girl feels less and less like a baby every day. She gets into everything, asserts herself, and is learning to communicate in new ways all the time. AJ and I are always talking about how much fun she is at this age. While the cuddly-tiny-newborn phase is amazing, I think this stage is even better. Our little girl, who used to be smaller than my forearm and actually took naps, is growing up so quickly, and it has been the most amazing thing to watch.

One highlight of the month was our mommy-baby trip to Omaha. AJ's cousin Jessica, who was like a sister to him growing up, got married and unfortunately, AJ couldn't get the weekend off, but E and I went to represent the North Platte Youngs' side. We had such a great time. The wedding was perfect, we spent lots of fun time with the family and I got to do lots of shopping that I wouldn't have wanted to force the husband to endure ;) I didn't take nearly enough pictures, but here are a few of shots of Evie from the wedding:

E with Aunt Patti- the mother of the Bride

Another one of our little outings this month was a picnic we brought AJ at his second job working for a family friend's farm. He absolutely loves being outside and getting to do "man things" all day, but we miss him at home, so one day we decided to bring him lunch and eat outside together. The weather was SO gorgeous and Roxy loved getting to roam free on their massive property.

And now onto the 10 month old of the hour....

Likes:
- Exploring: she is quite curious these days. Now that she learned how to open cabinets and drawers, her favorite game is pulling everything out and throwing it on the floor. I've gotten away with minimal baby proofing until now, but I think the inevitable has come.
- Pointing: when entering a new room, the very, very first thing she does is find the light and point at it. She as an obsession with lights and she makes sure we know where they all are. Its pretty informative, really.
- Kissing her reflection in the mirror: I don't think she realizes that the reflection is her (my freshman psychology class at least taught me that much...) but whoever she thinks it is, she sure loves them.
-Taking a bath in Roxy's water dish: this pretty much explains itself.
- Eyes: her obsession with eyes is a close second to lights. If you ask her where your eyes are she will point to them and feel your eyelashes. And by point, I mean poke and grab. But if you tell her "no, no" then you'll get a kiss, so theres at least a reward for your pain.

These pictures are of our park date with our new friends Alyssa and Brody earlier this week:) 

Dislikes:
- Bonking her head: she does this a lot nowadays
- Having a stuffy nose: We've all been sick at the Youngs' house lately, and she's had a nasty stuffy nose. So hard for this mama to watch :( She has been a trooper though.

Firsts:
- Blowing bubbles in the bathtub: new last night!
- Standing without assistance (until she realizes what she's doing and gets scared)
- Two more teeth...she has six total now.

Foodie Files-- Gluten-Free Banana Oat Cookies (that also maybe have a little nutella in them too...)

I love eating healthy. I really do. But I also have this problem that seems to rear its head every time I eat anything healthy. Its called I love sugar. I also have the I love dessert and pastries and ice cream problem. Just not frosting, but that's beside the point. The point is that I crave super unhealthy things about 75% of the time, which makes my clean eating goals a little bit tricky.

I have a feeling I'm not alone in this.

So in light of this problem, I'm always on the lookout for creative ways to trick myself into thinking that I'm eating dessert when I'm actually not. Enter my newest concoction: banana oat cookies. The trick is having super ripe bananas. You wont even notice the lack of sugar. Tricky, tricky- right? I've also made a version of this recipe as muffins (or one giant single serve muffin...) but I'll save that for another day.

This little helper makes baking a lot more fun too ^^^


So the next time you need to lie to yourself about dessert, or if you have nothing else to do with the next 20 minutes- make these cookies.

Ingredients: 

• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats (make sure they're gluten free, if you're into that...)
• 2 very ripe bananas
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp raw honey (optional)
• 1 tbsp chocolate chips (I was out of chocolate chips so I substituted nutella, and I'm not mad about it.) 

- Preheat oven to 350 

- Blend oats in your blender/food processor till it has a flour-like consistency. I like mine a little bit more coarse, so I blended it less. 

- In a small bowl (or just throw them in the blender too), mash up the banana with a fork.

- Mix in the honey and cinnamon and fold in the chocolate chips/weakness of choice. 

- Drop in spoonfuls onto a baking tray and bake for about 15 minutes or until firm. 

There you have it! The dessert to end all desserts. I've made this recipe two or three times now and I LOVE them. They're quick and a heck of a lot healthier than a bowl of ice cream.

 Give them a try and let me know what you think!

Ramblings on Turning Twenty-One

A few weeks ago I entered into a new world where I can legally consume alcohol, gamble, or adopt a child. I can even apply for a license to drive a semi, or supervise my 16 year old brother who just got his permit. Seriously, this adulthood thing is pretty neat. While, in all honesty, I'll probably only ever do two of those five things in my entire life (I'll keep you guessing about which two though....), its *kind of* cool that I at least have the option to spend all my money on russian roulette.

So, this is what 21 feels like.

If I didn't know better, I would think that adulthood meant having responsibilities and owning them. I would think that it was more than a legal age or whether your driver's license is vertical or horizontal. I would think that it was about having character, maturity, and life goals. But, maybe turning 21 is just about legally being able to do all the things you've already been doing since high school. I don't know.

Whatever it really means, you have to celebrate turning 21, right?

All rants aside, for MY 21st, the only thing I really wanted was to go to Colorado. So that's what we did. In the spirit of adulthood, AJ and I left our responsibilities (child, dog and jobs) with Mimi and Papa for three days and roadtripped to Fort Collins, one of my most favorite places.

Aj's a beer guy, so the first thing we had to do was head to Odell's Brewery where I had a pilot tray 

This was the first time I had been away from Evie for longer than a night, so I was a little nervous to leave her. At the same time though, I was SO excited to have alone time with the husband and be back in my college town with all of my friends.

It just so happens that my wonderful friend Liz turned 21 the day before I did, so we kept our three year strong tradition of sharing birthday parties and celebrated together.

The Moscow Mule in the copper mugs was one of my favorite drinks ;)

These beauties came all the way from Denver to celebrate with me <3

The best part about turning 21 is that literally EVERYTHING is free. I don't think I bought myself a single drink or meal. I think I'll say its my birthday more often....Though we definitely did more than just go to bars and restaurants, that seems to be the only time it crossed my mind to take photos. We had SUCH a great time visiting friends and experiencing a little bit of the Fort Collins "night life" like I hadn't been able to do before. So far, I give adulthood 4 stars out of 5.

Of course, I was more than ready to be home after three days away- I wouldn't trade my real "adult" job of being a mommy for anything...not even free brownies covered in ice cream or Moscow Mules in awesome copper mugs.