Got Milk!

I thought the photo was too funny to resists. Ben and I have been watching Project Runway for the last 4 seasons. This was the last year for it to be on the Bravo Channel. So too perfect. I Myself have been reminded to drink milk everyday. I had to see a Chiropractor the other month when my back went out. I was picking up one of Liam's sippy cups and OMG this pain up my back. I was even bending my knees when I was doing that! Well the doc told me I have arthritis in my lower back. I need to drink more milk and take calcium pills and do back exercises more. Do not get me wrong I drank milk but I guess not enough. When they say 3 servings, they mean 3 servings! So drink your milk ladies! It's not just for your kids. I also found a good recipe for the kids on the milk site for Halloween. Kinda reminds me of Champorado from the Philippines. Just a tad more stuff....lol.

Gobblin-Good Rice Pudding

Lots of healthful goodies are buried inside this rice pudding: chocolate milk, yogurt and, if you choose, even cranberries

Serves 6 (1/2 cup per serving)
Ingredients

3 3/4 cups - 1% lowfat chocolate milk

1/2 teaspoon - salt

2/3 cup - uncooked Jasmine rice or other long-grain rice

1 tablespoon - granulated sugar

1 tablespoon - unsweetened cocoa powder

1/3 cup - dried tart cranberries or golden raisins, coarsely chopped (optional)

1 teaspoon - vanilla extract

1/4 cup -vanilla-flavored nonfat light yogurt

1 tablespoon -dried tart cranberries or golden raisins, coarsely chopped (optional)

Directions Heat 3 cups chocolate milk and the salt over medium-high heat in heavy medium saucepan just until bubbles begin to form around edge of saucepan. Set aside remaining 3/4 cup of chocolate milk. Stir in rice, sugar and cocoa powder. Cover and gently simmer over medium-low or low heat for 30 to 40 minutes or just until rice is tender and most of the chocolate milk is absorbed. Remove from heat. Stir in 1/3 cup cranberries, if desired, and the vanilla. Cover and let stand for 5 minutes. Stir in yogurt and spoon pudding into small dessert dishes. Pour 2 tablespoons remaining chocolate milk over each serving. If desired, garnish each with 1/2 teaspoon chopped cranberries.

Marq's Birthday Party

Happy Birthday to my baby boy! OK, well not my baby anymore. He had a few friends over the bowling ally. And the top score was from the birthday boy too. 76 points. Of course the were being goofy most of the time. He had a couple of strikes too.

Family Day @ Conway

We went to family day for Conway Truckload. Ben's work had it at The Bridge. As you can see the kids had all the fun. Marq was inside playing on the Mac computers online with a friend. There was hover bowling and Wii systems set up inside as well.

No Red What?

So Ben went to the Doc again for a follow up. He was told to eliminate as much red meat as possible from his diet. No problem! We actually have started doing that 2 weeks ago. We replaced ground beef with ground turkey. Spaghetti to Swedish meatballs... they are all turkey meat. We need to eat more fish and lower his rice intake. He can eat brown rice at least. So we have been mixing that up. He made it into the 1st half of the Police Dept program. (They told him he was part of the 41 out of the 90 that passed the written test. They have to prioritize the kids in the academy 1st but as long as there is still a spot Ben should get in. - Cross Fingers) This is one of the reasons we have changed the diet at home. So the doc asking was not a big deal. Ben needs more B12 so that will mean more liver too and fish. So I need to come up with more fish recipes that what I already have. Grilled fish or sauteing it in olive oil with garlic will get old fast.

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Live!

Well, we have settled that we are going to head to Tulsa in February for the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Live! We have been talking about it for a few months and saw that the tour is heading to Tulsa. A 2 hour drive trip but I think it will be a lot of fun. Marq is even excited about going. We are getting the tickets this week... Some of the sections are sold out already. Crazy! It will be a mad house with all those little kids but Liam is such a trip to watch him playing and dancing to all those shows it will be worth the trip. I just hope the weather holds up. Liam will even tell Mickey when he is all done with Toodles. Too Funny! It is a great show for kids to interact with. Liam will sit there and try to answer the questions. It is the cutest thing to watch.

Our wicked window

We set up our Halloween window over the weekend. We will set up the yard the week before Halloween. Most of the items were purchased from Michael's over the last 2 years. The ghouls are from Target. We have a strobe light but you can't see it in the photos. We have webs all over the porch columns and I can't wait till the actual day. We put the fog machine out too. We are definitely a Halloween family. Wait till Christmas! We have trees for every window....

Song Box

This is a cute site I found the other day browsing around when I was out sick. Regretfully I got strep and gave it to the kids. That is what I get for letting Liam drink out of my "big boy" cup when I was not feeling well. In any case, this is a great idea and a cute website. Liam picks more than one song at a time but it still a lot of fun. He gets a really big kick out of the game. It is a great way to kill time while we are making dinner. I used one our many plastic baby wipe boxes for the container. Decoupaged the outside with left over scrapbook paper. And there you go. Marq helped me of course.

http://www.executivehomemaker.com/content.asp?pid=25&id=260

1st Solo at home.

I was so excited Marq got to take his saxophone home for practice for the 1st time since he started this school year. He did very well. This is a little bit of his practice at home. I was sooo proud of him. Ben played tuba in HS and said Marq had a lot of potential from what he has just learned in a couple of weeks. I'm just glad my little man has take a lot of interest in it. He seems to like it a lot as well. He looks so cute playing!