Homemade Baby Puffs

So Eli tried puffs a couple months ago and he LOVED them. He would often prefer them over purees sometimes, especially fruit ones. I wasn't a huge fan of the added sugar in them so I wondered if I could make a homemade version. Then started the Pinterest research. There were less recipes out there than I thought and most of them were super complicated with a bunch of ingredients and requiring things like separating egg whites or two different baking temperatures. Ain't no mom got time for that!! I found one pin that was just a picture, not a link, that had a simple 4 ingredient recipe. With some tweaking, I think I perfected it! Best of all, it uses up baby cereal and baby purees (because I'm sure like me you guys have some extras of those laying around). These don't melt like the store bought kind but they kind of fall apart in there mouth and Eli (and his friends at church) have enjoyed them. So here is a cheaper and healthier version of those baby puffs!

1/2 cup baby cereal

1 tsp baking powder

4 oz baby purée (I used apple)

2-3 tsp coconut oil (I preferred somewhere in the middle)

Mix and put in a ziplock bag. Snip the tip and pipe little puffs on some parchment paper. Make sure to give them height while piping so they turn out puff shaped. Bake at 350 for 15-18 minutes :)

July Update

So here is what happened this month!

Adam: He started off the month with his 27th birthday (which you can read about below)! He also finished his prospectus!!! For those who may not know what that means, it is a 35 page researched project proposal for his Master's thesis project. His next step is to defend it in front of his project committee and hopefully they will accept it. If they don't, he has to find something else to do which would be very tough since he's already had to do a lot for the project. With the nature of how his prospectus turned out, it looks like he may not graduate until April. The reason for this is that the online class he designed for the project will have its first semester this coming fall so he may just need time to actually assess how it did. However, graduating in April won't necessarily mean that we will be sticking around until then. He will finish his last course this fall and will only need to take thesis credit during winter semester. So we are planning for him to look for a full-time job no matter what starting the end of December. If the job happens to be out of state, he will just fly back for a few days to defend his thesis. Sooo...the end is in sight!!

Ashley: I am still at home taking care of Eli and finding ways to fill my time. I have decided to read through all the fiction books we own alphabetically (by author). We have 100+ books so it will take me awhile to get through them haha. I also finished my skills assessment to become a babywearing educator. I had to record videos of me teaching how to use all the different style of carriers (wraps, slings, mei tai, buckle soft-structured carriers, etc). I think I did well so all that is left is to wait to see if I passed. Some people may wonder why I would want to become an educator. Well, I want to be able to share my love of babywearing to others and teach them how they can do it safely and comfortably. I am involved at my local chapter of Babywearing International and once I get certified as a Volunteer Babywearing Educator, I can be more involved with leadership-type roles :)

Eli: is now 11 months old!! It is crazy that he is nearly one year old. He is still not walking but he is getting better and better at walking while holding one of our hands. He mostly just gets super excited about it which makes him lose his balance. He got his third haircut earlier this month and one of his top teeth has just barely broken through! He's been working on that for over a month which has not been fun for baby or parents. He loves to play with other babies/toddlers at church, he knows how to play peek-a-boo, and his favorite thing to say is "yah". Adam and I entertain ourselves by asking him crazy yes or no questions which he always answers with a confident "Yah!" hahaha. We are starting to introduce to him more table food and he is getting better at learning how to chew. He also learned how to use a straw! Its fun to see how he learns these simple skills that we take for granted :)

Adam's Birthday/Fourth of July Weekend
We were lucky to have some of Adam's family here! First, Seth and his wife came through for a short visit on their way up to see Sabrina's family. This was exciting because he was the last sibling to meet Eli! Then Adam's parents came to visit. They very much enjoyed their time with Eli and we were able to play lots of games (key part of any Lloyd gathering). We also were able to go through the Provo City Center temple with them (thanks to my sister for babysitting)! It was very busy being a holiday weekend and a Saturday but a very cool experience. It was especially special for them because they knew it so well as a tabernacle. We had a low key birthday for Adam with cheesecake and dinner with some of Adam's family and mine. I got him a new soccer ball and the two latest Star Trek movies. We didn't end up going to see any fireworks due to a crabby teething baby but hopefully next year we will :)

June Update

Here is what our June looked like!

Adam: He is SOOOO close to finishing his prospectus. He only has to add a couple more things and then it is done! The next step after that is for him to defend it. Hopefully, they will approve this project he has already been working on for the last year. If they don't approve it, he has to find something else quickly. But if they do, he will finish the project and do his last defense in December and then graduate!!

Ashley: The biggest thing I've been working on this month was the Climb Out of the Darkness event which you can read about below. Other than that my days have consisted mostly of taking care of the house and Eli, which is a handful haha. I have also been experimenting with making homemade puffs which has been fun but unsuccessful so far. I also finished my application to become a Volunteer Babywearing Educator for Babywearing International. Hopefully, I'll be able to do my practical skills assessment some time in July.

Eli: He is 10 months old!! This last month he got his second tooth in and we're pretty sure he started working on his next one (and still is working on it xP). He is still very social but occasionally gets a little shy around new people. The shyness usually consists of shyly smiling and cuddling mommy. He has enjoyed lots of summer water activities such as friends' swimming pools, the local rec center, and the local splash pad. He is very adventurous with water and always wants to just dive in head first haha. He is still not a huge fan of solids but he does enjoy puffs and cheerios. His favorite activities are climbing on anything (especially mommy and daddy), holding onto our hands and walking around the house, and playing with things he shouldn't.

(from left to right) playing with toys at the library, biting a sling ring (used in babywearing), baby selfie!, and playing with cousin Anders

Climb Out of the Darkness is an annual event put on by the non-profit organization Postpartum Progress some time around the summer solstice. The purpose is to raise awareness for maternal mental health and to symbolize the journey those who suffer take. They hold individual climbs all around the world and I ended up leading the one in Provo this year! So I worked on spreading the word about the event and (attempting to) raise money. Then on June 18th, moms and their families and friends met at a park up Provo Canyon for a short hike to Bridal Veil Falls. I was really happy with the turn out! I was really nervous it wouldn't seem put together enough but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves :) I don't know if I will lead again next year if we are still in Provo, but it was a fun experience :)

Meet the Convertible Onbuhimo!

So those who know me know my latest obsession is babywearing. It really helped me with my postpartum depression and it is super convenient. I currently own a baby k'tan, a mesh water ring sling (Beachfront Baby), a woven wrap (Ethos Cascade Mint size 6), and a mei tai (Infantino Sash). I have yet to own a soft-structured carrier (SSC) being poor students so I thought it would be fun to put myself into a drawing to be a tester for a brand new carrier from my favorite babywearing company Ethos! This is a local Utah company and for every wrap they make, they donate part of the proceeds to different causes :) Another reason why I love them is that they are super interactive on facebook and they even put together fb groups for wrap design ideas that customers come up with! So cool :)

Anyways, I am hosting this patent-pending brand new carrier by Ethos for a week. Meet the Convertible Onbuhimo! It is a two-in-one soft-structured carrier and onbuhimo (waistless carrier)!

Top is SSC mode and bottom is onbuhimo mode. The buckles midway down the panel tuck in, the strap buckles clip into the waistband buckles and the waistband just tucks in between you and baby for the seat.

At first I had a difficult time adjusting it to fit me but I think it is because it's a traveling carrier and it is my first time doing more than just briefly trying on a SSC. Once I got it all adjusted I found it to be very comfy. I could hardly feel him on my back in waistband mode.

I was excited to try it in onbuhimo mode as well! It was a bit difficult getting Eli on my back without Adam's help but I'm sure it would be easier with an older baby. Being 10 months old, he is fully safe in an onbuhimo because he can sit unassisted and has full upper body control but his legs are still pretty short. Once I got him up there, I was surprised that I didn't miss the waistband like I thought I would. I felt more free to move and Eli LOVED it (he was more free to move too). It just felt like wearing a backpack :)

After wearing it a few more times, the only issues I had was that I didn't have much room to tighten, especially in onbuhimo mode. I'm not super petite (about 5'6 and 175 lbs) so I was surprised by this. It would definitely be comfortable for more plus-size parents.

*Later edit: After the testing, Ethos fixed this ^ issue.

After testing is completed, Ethos will have the Convertibu available for purchase at Ethos Babywearing either using their wraps or your own to convert. I can't wait to see how this takes off!

*I am not paid for any of the affiliated links. This is just my honest opinion :)

May Update

Here's how the last month has been!

Adam: is grateful to be done with classes and finally have time to work on his prospectus. He is also trying to get as many hours as he can with BYU Online and preparing to teach DigHT 215 again. The biggest thing he's been doing is playing on every intramural team our ward is participating in. That means games for coed ultimate, coed softball, men's softball, coed kickball, coed soccer, or men's soccer every week night. We've begun the tournaments for all of these and so far coed softball, and coed kickball are done. It has been fun for him to hang out with the ward and be active.

Ashley: has also been doing intramurals. I was on the ultimate team but then I got roped into doing softball as well because of lack of girls. It's been fun! I'm getting better at ultimate and playing softball brings me back to the days of playing baseball with my dad in our yard. The rest of my time has been consumed with keeping up with Eli which is getting harder and harder to do :) 

Eli: is 9 months old and constantly on the move! He is crawling fast and getting into EVERYTHING. We've worked on baby proofing everything which has helped but then he learned how to pull himself up and cruise. Now he constantly wants to climb all over us or any uneven surfaces. He also has decided he does not want his diaper changed because it means sitting still for more than a second. So changes usually involve crying and us pinning him down with our legs haha. He is growing so fast and we can see him walking any day now. He has one little tooth and we think he's getting another one soon. He's a crazy little guy but we love him :)

Fun things we did this month!

Adam and I went on a date on the anniversary of our first date! We went to Provo Beach Resort and played croquet and arcade games just like we did 5 years ago. We had also collected enough tickets from the past few times of going that we were able to get one of the nicer prizes. Adam was extremely excited about our new wireless headphones :)

We also went to Scandinavian Days in Ephraim, UT with Stephanie and Anders. Luckily it only rained for the first bit after we got there. It was fun eating Swedish meatballs and seeing all of the fun booths. Utah is all about their festivals. It seems every town has their own "Days"! Steph and I want to try to go to more this summer if we can :)

April Update

This is how our April went!

Adam: finished the semester!!! Even with getting sick right before/during finals week and having a fever of 102 degrees, he managed to pull out a good finish. He ended with an A and an A- (and a W for the class he withdrew from awhile back). He is very excited to finally have more time to work on his Master's project and just his jobs. He will be working full-time during the summer for BYU Online and he is going to be teaching Digital Humanities 215 again in the fall! After going further in his program (especially taking a class on assessments), he is looking forward to applying his newfound knowledge to this class. He is also looking forward to the spring Ultimate season and has joined every intramural team our ward is participating in.

Ashley: I have been kept busy this month planning our two trips, recovering from the trips, taking care of things when Adam was sick, and being sick myself. All of these things made this month fly by and its hard to believe its already May! One of the biggest goals I have right now is getting healthier and losing weight. I didn't gain too much weight from being pregnant with Eli but dealing with postpartum depression did add some pounds. Also one of the medications I was taking made me hungry ALL the time which didn't help anything. So I'm tapering down that med, trying to exercise more, and eat a bit healthier. I feel like I'm surrounded by people telling me how the only way to lose weight and get healthy is [insert expensive weight loss program]. Being poor college students, I'm going to stick with good old basic exercise and eating healthier. This is actually fine by me because I wanted to get a routine that would be easy for me to maintain without requiring me to keep spending money in order to keep the weight off. So we'll see how this works out ;)

Eli: is 8 months old! I feel like this month he has developed in leaps and bounds. One of the biggest changes is he crawls! This means that we've been working on baby proofing which is an ongoing process. Mostly we see that he can now grab at certain things and we have to figure out how to change the access to said thing. There have also been times where it almost sounds like he says mama and dada. I don't know if he fully understands what they mean but he knows we like hearing them haha. He usually says dada when he's happy and mama when he's sad (although it usually sounds like mum mum or mem mem). Its hard not to melt when he crawls onto my lap with a sad face going "mem mem mem". He is also enjoying standing up and can balance pretty well while holding something like the couch or coffee table. He's been working on learning how to pull himself up but he hasn't quite gotten the hang of it. We gave him his first haircut which turned out better than we expected haha. He is loving solids a lot more and will now happily eat peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, and bread. While we were in Texas, he also liked mexican rice haha. He definitely is keeping us on our toes now that he is a lot more mobile but every change is fun to watch :)

Special events this month!
We began the month in Seattle!

We went to Texas! Read about that here!

Trip to Texas

Last week we went to Texas! Both of Adam's sisters and all of his nieces and nephews are there so we've been meaning to go for awhile. Thanks to a nice tax return and finding super cheap plane tickets we decided to finally go!

Day 1: Monday started off a little crazy because we were supposed to leave in the morning but our flight got cancelled and rebooked. We were originally going to have a layover in Houston but with the crazy weather there, we instead had a layover in Denver and left in the afternoon. This turned out to be a silver lining because the now 5 hour layover allowed us to visit Adam's parents. So when we got to Denver, we headed over to their house in Broomfield.

It was nice to have that time with them and Eli enjoyed playing with their toys. Adam's aunt Joanne who lives with them and hadn't met Eli as well. It was instant love :) We ate an early dinner with them from a place called Infinitus Pie, a really yummy pizza place. We hung out for awhile before they drove us back to the airport. Eli enjoyed high-pitched squealing on this flight which was not fun but we made it and finished off the evening heading to Adam's sister Ruth's house in Fort Worth.

Day 2: We had a low-key morning with Ruth and her two youngest kids (ages 2 and 3). We surprised her middle son (3rd grade) at lunch and decided to take him out of school to spend time with us. We met up with Adam's other sister Sharon and her youngest boy who is only 6 months older than Eli and we all went to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Fort Worth is one of only two places in the country that print paper money. It was cool to see all that went into the process. There were some areas that the windows were covered because they were printing new money, which we later figured out that it was probably the new Harriet Tubman $20 bill. After this we went to a local Thai restaurant for lunch. I was pleasantly surprised at finding good Asian food in Texas haha. That evening we had a big hamburger and hot dog dinner with both families and had Family Home Evening together. It was so fun to be around all the kids and Eli loved all his cousins. It brought back memories of getting together with all of my cousins when I was little (except multiply the number of kids about 3 times haha). We gave the lesson and a couple of our nieces made yummy treats. A thoroughly enjoyable evening.

Day 3: Adam was still finishing up his last project for the semester in the morning. After that, we went into downtown Fort Worth to see the Water Gardens. The Water Gardens are different kinds of elaborate fountains and waterfalls in this big city square. I really liked the one you could walk down into so you were surrounded by waterfalls.

For lunch, we went to a yummy Mexican restaurant that had a beautiful outdoor sitting area. We went back to the house so the littles could nap and I ended up napping too while Adam finished his project. Once they all woke up, they played together until dinner. After a tasty family dinner, Sharon picked us up to take us over to her house, where we were staying for the rest of our trip. Eli went to bed as soon as we got there and the adults stayed up late talking which was nice :)

Day 4: On Thursday we went into Dallas for the first time. I always enjoy seeing new downtown areas with their new places and people. We went up the Reunion Tower which has an observation deck with a great view of the city.
After this we wanted to go explore Dallas more but then I started to not feel good. So we headed back to Justin where Sharon lives. On the way, we stopped at this cute French cafe called La Madeleine which had french language audio instruction playing in the bathroom. The food and pastries were delicious. Later, we went to our niece's gymnastics place to see a bit of her practice. She was so good! It was fun to see our nieces and nephews enjoy all their various passions. We took her out of practice a little early and went home to eat dinner and chill for the rest of the evening.

Day 5: Friday, we had plans to go to Mckinney to see a friend but I woke up feeling awful, so we mostly just hung out at the house. In the afternoon, we went to a park with the kids and in the evening, we all went out for dinner with Ruth and her family. We went to a BBQ place which was very Texan haha. It was fun to have all of the family together again and the kids loved playing with Eli.

Day 6: I was still feeling crummy so we called off our meet-up with a cousin of mine and I spent most of the morning resting and packing. Adam and Eli were able to go to our nephew's basketball game which was fun. Eli loved seeing his Auntie Ruth again and watching the boys play. Before we left for the airport, I did Sharon's girls' nails which turned out way cute.
It made me feel good how excited they were about it especially since I hadn't spent too much time with them since getting sick. We then went to the airport and took our first leg to Houston. Eli has done pretty good on the flights we've taken this far but this one he high-pitch squealed the whole time. Luckily it was a short flight but it did make me worried about our 3 hour flight to SLC which would end just before midnight. We were blessed however because he fell asleep during take-off and woke up when we landed with no complaints!

Overall, I loved this trip but it did leave me wanting more. There were so many things that I we didn't get to do because I was sick but we will definitely keep our eye out for cheap flights to Dallas/Fort Worth in the future ;)