smoothie and yogurt pops

My boys love "go-gurts". I'm sure you are familiar, but if not, they are those super-convenient tubes of yogurts perfect for lunches and on-the-go snacking. I loved to freeze them and put them in school lunches because they would act as a cold pack to keep their lunch cool, but would also be thawed just in time for lunch at 11:30.

Well, once we started this "real food" journey, I read the ingredients on a tube of our beloved go-gurts and learned that, yes, they have yogurt, but they also have tons and tons of sugar and other preservatives in them. I took the suggestion of the 100 Days of Real Food blog and ordered these reusable ice pop molds from amazon. 

I can make my own "go-gurts" for the boys using plain Greek yogurt, which has one ingredient: cultured Grade A milk. We mix in some honey for a little sweetness.

I also fill these molds with smoothies. Liam, in particular, is loving these in his lunches. He is even doing a great job of bringing the molds home each day.

 

I love smoothies for so many reasons, but mostly because I can sneak in all kinds of good-for-them things and they have no idea. Nothing but fruits and vegetables in there....

I'm still working on them drinking carrot juice straight from the juicer. So far, Mikey has been ok with carrots and oranges and I'm happy with that - baby steps!

The official Adams Boys seal of approval..

{our} real food pledge

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the mister and i have been consciously trying eat healthier - we juice daily and drink about 48-64 oz of fresh juice each morning. we've cut back on carbs and refined grain and avoid frying our foods. in general, we are trying to eat as much "real" food as possible. we feel great and the mister is down 15 pounds. our biggest, immediate goal is for him to lose weight to ease recovery from a surgery planned for may/june this year. starting a 100 day pledge to eat only real food now will bring us pretty close to that time and should have him in better health for surgery.

i'm not down a single pound, BUT i do feel better, have more energy and my pants fit better. that's really all that matters to me. where i'm at seems to be my body's happy weight {it won't budge no matter how much i diet and exercise, or how many kids i give birth to!} and my BMI is in the center of the healthy range for my height, so i'm cool with it. from this pledge, my personal goal is to feel more energized, sleep better at night, and have less need for naps in the middle of the day. not that i ever actually get to nap, but geez, i feel like i NEED one by 2pm every day!

we are pretty happy with everything we have been doing but it still feels like it's not enough. we aren't as completely committed as we should be when it comes to our health, and also to our boys' health. our biggest fault right now is that we are not including our boys in our commitment to eat healthy. they are still eating convenience foods daily and we still resort to fast food pretty often, especially on the weekends. the mister and i decided that this needs to stop and the boys need to be part of this lifestyle change.

we are going to do a complete overhaul of our pantry and replace the convenience foods with real food. we are going to change the boys' eating habits for the better and i know they won't appreciate the process. the mister saw his nutritionist this morning and he stressed the importance of instilling healthy eating habits in our kids. he said to let them kick and scream when served healthy foods and, eventually, they will get hungry and eat whatever we feed them. so that, we shall do.

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i am basing our pledge on the 100 Days of Real Food Pledge, with a few exceptions and changes. i don't want to make such drastic changes that everyone gets burnt out from it and hates it. we have to remember that this is not a short-term diet plan, it's a lifestyle change. we are committing to making a permanent lifestyle change and i need to be sure it sticks. and they way i see it, any change we make right now is better than what have already been doing!

so here are our rules.

what we CAN eat:

1. whole foods that are more a product of nature than a product of industry

2. lots of fruits and vegetables

3. dairy products like milk, unsweetened yogurt, eggs, and cheese

4. 100% whole-wheat and whole-grains

5. seafood

6. chicken

7. pork and beef in moderation

8. snacks like dried fruit, seeds, nuts and popcorn

9. all natural sweeteners including honey and 100% maple syrup

what we CANNOT eat:

1. no refined grains such as white flour or white rice (items containing wheat must say WHOLE wheat)

2. no corn syrup or cane juice

3. nothing out of a box, can, bag, bottle or package that has more than 5 ingredients listed on the label (or an ingredient i cannot pronounce)

4. no deep fried foods

5. no "fast foods"

i did not adapt beverage limitations for our pledge. the boys already drink mostly milk, water and 100% juices. really, the lack of beverage limitations is for me.  i'm sorry, but i cannot give up my diet coke at this time! but i will start sweetening my coffee with honey instead of splenda. it's all about compromise! ;)

we will surely have to loosen up on the kids about what they can eat when they go to birthday parties and other places where they will be served food. in those situations, we have no control over what is served and i'm not comfortable packing food for them to bring to those events, as i've read some families on the real food pledge do. and if we are out and about and need to grab a bite, we will, but we will try to find the most "real" food we can. if grabbing a sandwich means consuming some processed lunch meat, so be it. this journey won't be perfect or easy (i'd say that's impossible with four young children), but we will keep going.

i'm preparing our pantry and kitchen with all of the necessary items and tools this weekend and we will begin our 100 days on monday! join us on our journey to good health and visit often as i post about our progress and recipes that the kids love, as well as those they didn't. that's just as important!

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still outnumbered

a friend of ours recently posted on facebook about a pup looking for a home. apparently, his previous owners didn't care enough for him to bring him with them when they moved, so they left him in the backyard. so sad. and being that i'm a sucker for sob stories, long story made short, the pup ended up at our house. 

rumor was that his name was "baby". well, that just wasn't going to fly with me, so i let the boys choose a new name. let me introduce you to "sensei wu". now, if you know anything about my boys and their obsession with ninjago, this would make complete sense.

sensei and our dog, cooper, hit it off right away.  

i think cooper is more than happy to have a four-legged friend in the house. 

so as you can see, i am still outnumbered. even the dogs are all boys. sigh. 

i told liam (far right) that it was ok because i would always be the princess.

and he said, "no, mommy. you're the queen!"

i love that boy.

sensei is constantly at my heels. everywhere i go, he follows. 

we found ourselves buying him a new harness, leash, puppy food, and are shopping for a tag. but we still can't say for certain that we will keep him. it just feels like A LOT of work. and oh, the noise. as if four boys running around wasn't noisy enough, add the two dogs into the mix, and it sounds like there's a stampede running back and forth upstairs. 

but when i catch moments like this one, it feels like he belongs with us.

embrace the camera ~ july 19

i've fallen off the embrace wagon. it's been a looong time since i last had an embrace post and i've been feeling a little guilty about it.  and i've also been feeling guilty about not doing a better job of blogging, documenting, picture-taking, memory-keeping...

the boys do and say really funny, random things all day long. just the other day, i told the mister i was going to start a twitter account for the boys and just tweet the random, funny stuff that comes out of their mouths all day long. it's like verbal diarrhea. but funnier. and not so gross, i think.

anyway, like i said, i want to do better at keeping my family's memories. i want to stop letting the big, messy things in life get in the way of seeing the little, awesome things. so with this post, i pledge to be a better memory-keeper. and i'm committing to posting once a day - even it's a single photo with no words uploaded from the blogger app on my phone. though, i hope to be able to do better than that.

so here i am, embracing with my sweet wyatt last weekend. he looks like he sure loves his mommy, no?

we bought a house!

we signed the purchase contract for our very first home purchase last saturday! yippee skippee! we are really excited for more space for the boys and the boys are just excited to have stairs. that was their sole request for our new home - too funny.

as excited as we are, this will be a true test of patience because the house is still being built. it's not scheduled to be complete until september 25. so for now, all i can do is drive by and gawk at it every few days until it's done. that is, until the construction workers call the cops on me for stalking them.

this picture was taken when we found out that the house was reserved for us. june 30, 2012.

this one was taken the day we signed the papers. july 7, 2012. 

i also took some pictures of the model home, so i could share what the house will look like when completed! {{{{{squeal}}}}}

the exterior of the house. 

it will be the same color scheme and the same elevation, which is basically just what the house will look like from the outside. ours will have the stone at the bottom of the pillars and the shutters on the windows. our particular house is also a corner lot, so it will have a wrap-around porch.

view of the formal living room and dining room from the top of the stairs. i've already told the boys that they aren't allowed in this area. hahaha

the stairs feed into the kitchen.

and here is the kitchen, the most important part of the house, in my opinion. :) 

i spend a ton of time in the kitchen - prepping, cooking, baking for bake sales, making lunches, blah blah blah. i'm SUPER excited for all the space and the kitchen island. and that door on the left? a WALK-IN pantry. lord knows we need it, for all the food these four boys consume.

my favorite part of the house, and also what drew me to this floor plan, is how open the kitchen is to the family room.

it is, literally, one big great room. the kitchen and family room are the two rooms where our lives are lived, so lots of space in those areas is really important to me. i can't wait to fill it with big comfy couches for the boys to lounge around in.

now, i'm trying to wrap my head around paint colors for the bedrooms. it feels like choosing a color is harder  than choosing the house i wanted! insane...

what if..

today, i sent a message to our pediatrician and asked for a behavioral evaluation of wyatt. my heart has been heavy lately and i've been struggling with the thought that i could have another child with autism. i won't go into detail right now about the things i'm noticing in wyatt's behavior that are significant traits of autism. just know that they are there.

the mister and i keep telling ourselves that he's still so young. or he does ____. but doesn't _____. our conversations always start with those two words that can drive a person crazy (or a marriage into turmoil)...what if. i just can't keep thinking what if anymore. i just want some answers. i want to know. or maybe i just want to know what someone else thinks about it all.

in all reality, wyatt really is still very young. but at the same time, liam was only two months older than wyatt is now when our pediatrician noticed his behavior. 18-months-old. and it turns out, liam wasn't too young and the early intervention was so crucial to getting him to the developmental point he is at now. so i guess, the earlier we figure it out the better it will be for wyatt.

please pray for us, friends. please pray that we have the strength and courage to face what may come. and that we can get through it all with grace.

paris by mouth

on our way to paris, my mother-in-law suggested we take a tour called "paris by mouth" so that we could experience the array of delicious food available there. good thing we didn't pay for that tour...turns out we were completely capable of experiencing paris by mouth on our own. 

diet coke. i mean, coke light, as it was called in france. (and probably most of europe?)

banana nutella crepes. that's a must, right?

french onion soup. yum.

coq au vin, which is a stew made with game and wine.

 macarons from laduree.

drinks at bar hemingway inside the ritz carlton paris. really expensive drinks, might i add. they were E30 each, which is about $40 a drink! but it was certainly a beautiful hotel and bar - a wonderful experience.

i was amused by the water always served in a glass bottle. i'm easily amused, i know.

i failed and forgot to put something to show scale in this pic. these were humongous jugs of nutella for sale at galeries lafayette, i think about a gallon each!

pistachio and ecuadorian chocolate gelato. 

mango and raspberry sorbet.

my brithday dinner! steak and fries from le relais de l'Entrecote.

my birthday drinks at the la vue bar, on the 33rd floor of the hotel concorde la fayette. what a treat!!!

this was breakfast every single morning. i think the quiet breakfasts, chatting with my sister-in-law and mother-in-law, is the part of the trip i miss the most.

melting butter kept atop the grill at la petit josselin, a yummy creperie near the hotel we stayed at. my SIL and i observed that a one pound slab of butter only made about four crepes. it should be illegal.

savory crepes made with said butter.

dessert crepe made with more of said butter and served with ice cream and cafe au lait.

diet? psshh. what diet?

 and finally, martinis at hotel costes.

 that's all that i have of us taking on paris by mouth. but i'm sure my mil has many many more pics of our other foodie adventures. she's realllllly good about taking pics of food. hahahhaha

8 is great!

last friday, this chubby-chub-chub little baby turned EIGHT years old. 

 

every year, isaiah's birthday stirs up bittersweet feelings. he's my first born. the one who changed my life. the one who made me a mother. and there will just always be something to say about that. 

he and his brother woke up on his birthday morning to balloons in their bedroom. i think mikey was more excited about this than isaiah. 

i was thrilled to be able to spend a little time in isaiah's classroom for a celebration with his classmates. 

we brought some birthday treats and he was excited to give "balloons" to his friends.

(they were just balloon cutouts taped to squiggly straws.) 

we even had a chance to spend some time with our favorite abris trio.

we took him out for dinner, then picked up a movie and cake.

he's got his "excited" face down, don't you think?

the three stooges that i have the pleasure of living with.

lucky me.

this kid is such a goofball. he never lets me get a good picture.

the next day was spent with his grandma, aunt and uncle. we enjoyed some arcade games and mini golf. the birthday boy and his brothers thoroughly enjoyed putting around on the green. 

until they were over it. which is when they started to just pick the balls up, drop them in the holes, then scream "YAYYYY!"

that works, too, i guess. 

and they ended the day with some brotherly quality time. 

 it was a fun few days for all. 

'til next year, birthday boy!