Where did this toddler come from??

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

The Church Search Conclusion

Monday, September 27, 2010

We have decided to attend Grace Bible Church. After visiting other area churches it was very evident that Grace was the church we were supposed to be at. Gods Word is clearly preached and a right attitude about God's holiness is upheld there. We started our first membership class this past Sunday and we are excited to jump right in! Brian is already singing in the choir and really enjoying it!

We know that there will never be a perfect church and Grace is no exception but it is definitely the right fit for us. We have really been enjoying the sermons that Pastor Zimmer has been going through in Matthew about the crucifixion. I have already learned so much more depth about what really happened on that ever important date.

Craft time

Healthy Banana Bread

Saturday, September 25, 2010

I had three overripe bananas sitting on my counter top and I had the great dilemma of whether I should freeze them and turn them into ice cream or if I should make banana bread. Since the weather has been cooler lately I decided to go with the warmer method. I didn't have a few of the ingredients for my usual banana bread recipe so I started browsing Tasty Kitchen, I could get lost on that site thinking of all the yummy foods to make!

Healthier Banana Bread
Recipe via Tasty Kitchen

Ingredients:
3 whole Ripe Bananas
2 cups All-purpose Flour
1 cup Sugar
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
½ cups Natural Apple Sauce
2 whole Eggs Beaten
1 teaspoon Vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 350°. Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray.

2. Mash bananas with a potato masher or a fork, set aside

3. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda in a medium bowl.

4. Add applesauce, eggs, vanilla and bananas to flour mixture and mix with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon until well combined. Do not over-mix.

5. Pour batter into a greased loaf pan and bake on the center oven rack for 50 to 60 minutes (until inserted toothpick comes out clean).

6.Let cool in pan for 5 minutes and then cool bread on a cooling rack.

Note: I couldn't find my loaf pan so I used a bundt pan and decreased cooking time to 45 minutes.

Dropping off Kimbe

Friday, September 24, 2010

Yesterday we drove down to SPU to help Kimbe move into her dorm. Kimberly has two roommates and the room is pretty small but I think that they will make it look cute! It was crazy trying to get everything unpacked and into drawers. I wasn't a very good helper near the end, I just started cramming clothes into her drawers so she likely spent most of today undoing everything I did. Sorry Kimbe :)!

Here is Kimbe with her roomies

Kenley lounging on Auntie Kimbe's bed.
I don't think I mentioned it on the blog, but I dropped my phone in the toilet on Wednesday. I am referring to it as a casualty of pregnancy. :)

I didn't realize how much I depended on my phone to help me function! I am so used to using the GPS to get me where I need to go that I got super lost for like an hour in downtown Seattle trying to get from SPU back to Marysville.

Despite taking the phone apart and letting it hang out in a bag of rice for days it looks like it will not be making a recovery. :( So if you have tried to get a hold of me and you think I am a big jerk for not returning your call I am sorry! Call Brian if you really need me!

The Obsession Pt. 1

Thursday, September 23, 2010

You may or may not know that I LOVE Polo Ralph Lauren. What you don't know is how kooky about it I have become!

Way back when I was a senior in High School I got a job at Polo Ralph Lauren Factory Store. I loved that job, I moved up quickly, and had some amazingly fun friends to work with there! I still love my MD team!


My love for the Pony started all the way back then and has increased quite a bit since having Kenley. I love love love Polo dresses on Kenley. Lately, I have done 3 crafts involving my beloved Polo pony. The one I am going to show you today is totally over the top but I am completely smitten with it!

Kenley is now the proud owner of a Polo Pony Covered Wipes Case!

I saw a pair of mens boxers at Marshall's and knew that I had to turn them into a wipes case! According to Kelly has a great tutorial for how to cover a wipes case.

Stay tuned to see my other 2 Polo Pony projects!

Doctors Appt 9-21-2010

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

{16 pounds 3 ounces}

Kenley had her first doctors appointment yesterday with her new pediatrician. I love this pediatrician! She went over all of Kenley's previous weights and she thinks that Kenley's failure to gain weight is caused by the stomach flu that we had had back in January. She said that it takes a really long time for babies tummies to recover and that that could easily explain why Kenley hasn't been gaining weight. Yay! Finally a doctor that thinks my kid is normal!!! Another exciting thing that she said was that she doesn't think that Kenley needs to do a 3 month gluten free trial!! She also said that often times when children her age get the stomach flu it elevates their blood platelet count. So the stomach flu pretty much explains everything!

4 years

Sunday, September 19, 2010

I cant believe that it has already been 4 years since we got married! Some days it feels like we have been married 50 years other days it feels like our wedding was yesterday. I am still madly in love with my handsome marine and I actually love to spend time with him! Sad to say that isn't quite normal in this day and age.

Since we now live so close to family we could go on a romantic baby free getaway this year! Kenley had fun staying with Grammy Hiegel and then also getting to spend some time with Gramma Ronk. We stayed at Grandview on the Lake at Lake Chelan, the lake and scenery were all gorgeous despite cloudy overcast weather for our entire stay.

We spent most of our time eating and lying around which was exactly what I wanted to do! This pregnancy has me sooo tired! If you go to Lake Chelan you need to go buy blueberries at Blueberry Hills! We bought a 5 pound bag of frozen ones and they are so big! Some of them are bigger than quarters! Hopefully next time we go we will be during picking season so we can pick our own! You also need to eat at Campbell's outside on their veranda, their fries with spicy ketchup were amazing! I will definitely be recreating that ketchup recipe soon!

Here is my Claire baby belly at 22 weeks! Just for fun here is a picture of Kenley that I found on my camera while we were in Chelan. Kimbe must have taken it the day before we left. Doesn't she look like such a toddler? I cant believe how much older she looked to us after we were away from her for only 3 days.

She is also weaned now. It kind of just happened due to our trip, she was down to once a day before the trip and then she didn't even miss it while we were gone. Although I was ready for her to be done, it is still kind of sad that she is done with that stage because she really isn't a baby anymore :(
Oh and the tooth count is up to 9!! 4 on the top and 3 on the bottom front plus 2 molars on the bottom! I am surprised each time how much her smile changes and how much older she looks with each new tooth!

More Crafts for Kimbe!

Friday, September 17, 2010

Kimberly really likes to wear headbands. Buying lots of headbands can get expensive really quickly, so she went to the fabric store and bought some sequined elastic trim so that she could make them herself (with her lovely sister's help of course!).



We just took her favorite headband and measured it and then cut the trim to size sewed the ends of the trim together. In less than 5 minutes Kimbe had 3 brand new headbands to take with her to college!

Happy 4 year anniversary to us!!

Thursday, September 16, 2010

College Crafting

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

The other night I helped my sister and some of her friends do a craft for their dorm rooms. Kimberly saw this message board idea on Design*Sponge and knew that she wanted something like that for her dorm.
We decided to use the Design*Sponge idea as a jumping off point and make the project our own. Rather than cutting cardboard and applying wallpaper and a clip we thought that it would be so much simpler to attach fun scrapbook paper to clipboards.
To make the message boards we glued the scrapbook paper to plain clipboards. Then we covered the scrapbook paper with clear contact paper so that the girls could use Expo markers to write messages on the boards. At the top under the clip part we glued some ribbon on to add some fun contrast. It was a super simple project and I am looking for an excuse to make myself one! Its the perfect little message board because friends can either clip notes to the board or write them on!

Here are the girls with their new Message Clipboards!
The Final Product!

Yum!

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Craving satisfied! Yep, I ate the whole platter!

Long Overdue Road Trip Post Part 3

Saturday, September 11, 2010

From Tennessee we drove through Arkansas, Missouri (stopped for the night), Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado (on accident), Utah, Idaho (stopped for the night), Oregon, and then through Washington into Marysville!

In Idaho we decided to make it an early night and stop at a hotel with a pool so that we could take Kenley swimming. She was so much fun in the pool!

At first she was a little apprehensive watching the other kiddos jump from the sides of the pool in making big splashes.
But once she was in she loved it! She was all about kicking those little legs and then clapping for herself when she did it!

Long Overdue Road Trip Post Part 2

The Dinosaur Trivia Answer:

Dinosaurs were on the Ark and lived after the flood!

Ken Ham, founder of The Creation Museum and Answers in Genesis can explain it much better than I can! Here is part of an article regarding what happened to the dinosaurs.

"At the time of the Flood, many of the sea creatures died, but some survived. In addition, all of the land creatures outside the Ark died, but the representatives of all the kinds that survived on the Ark lived in the new world after the Flood. Those land animals (including dinosaurs) found the new world to be much different than the one before the Flood. Due to (1) competition for food that was no longer in abundance, (2) other catastrophes, (3) man killing for food (and perhaps for fun), and (4) the destruction of habitats, etc., many species of animals eventually died out. The group of animals we now call dinosaurs just happened to die out too. In fact, quite a number of animals become extinct each year. Extinction seems to be the rule in Earth history (not the formation of new types of animals as you would expect from evolution)."

read the rest of the article here

Leaving the Creation Museum in Kentucky we drove down to Memphis, Tennessee to stay 2 nights with my Great Aunt Ann. She is one of the sweetest little southern ladies you will ever meet!

Aunt Ann is very involved with the Memphis Botanical Gardens so we went for a visit. It was very hot that day so we were all dripping with sweat but it was still fun! On the grounds they have quite a large area called The Big Backyard devoted to children. It was such a fun place! Kenley would have loved it if she was older!


Aunt Ann (& Late Uncle Bob) donated for a chapel to be built at the gardens. It was intended to be a wedding chapel but the city wouldn't allow it to be called a chapel so it became a pavillion. It really would be a gorgeous place to have a wedding!
After visiting the gardens we went to see a nativity scene that Aunt Ann had donated to her church. On the wall they have all the pictures of past pastors (I cant remember what they call them in episcopal churches). I had to take a picture of the man who married Aunt Ann and Uncle Bob! It was so fun staying with her and just soaking up all of the Blecken history that is in all of the pictures and knicknacks at her house.

I so want some typeset letters that say Brian and Keri Ronk! How cute is that!
Here is a picture of my Great Grandfather Oliver Blecken when he was serving in France during the war. He was quite a handsome man!
Aunt Ann and Uncle Bob on their wedding day. Uncle Bob passed two years ago and you can still tell just by the way Aunt Ann refers to him that they had such a great love filled marriage. Kenley loved getting to spend time with Gran Gran!

Long Overdue Road Trip Post Part 1

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Our "new" "house" is still looking like a crazy mess, but since I have a minute while B is at the store and K is sleeping I thought this would be a good time for a post about our cross country adventure!

We went from North Carolina to Virginia to West Virginia to Ohio to Kentucky where we stopped to visit The Creation Museum. We loved every bit of it! If they had rides there it would be better than Disney Land!

Kenley HATED sitting on this dinosaur, she wanted nothing to do with it! When you enter the Garden of Eden there are lots of animals and it shows Adam when he named all of them.
Before the fall Dinosaurs were herbivores that lived in the Garden of Eden along with Adam, Eve, and the rest of the animals.If you look closely in this picture you can see the serpent in the tree. He actually looked much creepier than I have ever pictured him in my mind! If you look closely in this picture you can see that Adam does not have a belly button :)
I really loved seeing all of the dinosaurs and learning more about them! It was interesting to read about where they have been found! Quite a few have been found in the US! Interestingly enough it seemed that most found in the US were herbivores though T-Rex's have also been found here. T-Rex's though were actually more scavengers than predators. Everywhere that you looked there was tons of Biblical information just waiting to be soaked in. I cant wait to take our kids back when they are older! One thing that was really helpful was the evolution vs. creation section.
Outside they have a nature garden, petting zoo, and camel rides. We passed on the camel rides but we had some fun in the petting zoo! Here we are petting a Zorse which I believe is a Zebra mixed with a Horse! It was such a sweet animal! Though I guess they have to all be in petting zoos :). I got such a kick out of all these signs that were by the exhibits so I had to take a picture! Gotta love the King James English! We really loved the Creation Museum and we cant wait to go back! We didn't really have time to go to the Planetarium but next time we go I definitely want to see that too!

Okay so trivia time!
What happened to the dinosaurs? Were they on the Ark?

I will tell you the answer in Part 2 of the Road Trip Posts!

Crazy!

Monday, September 6, 2010

We are at the Goodwill Outlet right now and let me tell you, this
place is crazy! We have found some awesome stuff including a Polo
luggage bag! If you know me you know I am obsessed with Polo, so I am
pretty excited about that! I also found a Medela breast pump!
Hopefully it works but for .49 cents a pound it's worth a shot! (don't
worry I will sanitize it!)

Reading to her friend in the mirror

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

 
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