Fancy Gluten-Free Pancakes: Banana + Eggs = Yum

Ahhh the Saturday mornings that I get to spend with my family making a scrumptious meal...sometimes the sky is full of sunshine taunting me to come outside and play. Other times it's cold and rainy and all I want to do is curl up under a blanket and snuggle my babies. But no matter the weather, when we have those rare Saturdays that we're not rushing out the door for a family event, birthday party, or other commitments, my day starts our right! And then my mouth and tummy call me towards pancakes, scrambled eggs with cheese, fruit salad, fresh squeezed orange juice, homemade hash browns (recipe to come soon)... !

Speaking of pancakes, we all know there are like 3 billion recipes and variations out there to use! Now the question for me has always been... which recipe is the best one to add to my staple meals? Can I find one that's gluten-free that doesn't taste like cardboard? Will my kids eat it? We have been blessed that none of us has developed any food allergies or intolerances, but the more I read about gluten, the more I think it's best to avoid it if possible. One day I opened my Facebook page and noticed my Dad had posted a link. Little did he know it would become one of my kids' favorite meals! I have since tried to go back and find the link, but it's somehow disappeared. However, I did write down the recipe and it's easy enough to memorize on the spot. Here it goes!....

One mashed banana and two eggs! Whisk them together and that's it. First melt a little coconut oil on the pan and then pour in the batter. The smaller the pancakes the easier they are to flip. They are a little thin and delicate to begin with but quite filling once you keep shoveling them in your mouth! I have made them enough that I now have a few extra ingredients that I add just for fun. Totally optional! I will include them in the recipe below. You can find things to add that you love. Double or Triple the recipe if the whole family is eating or use just one batch if you are feeding 1-3 kids. These are an absolute favorite in our house!

Fancy Gluten-Free Banana Pancakes

1 ripe organic banana, mashed

2 organic eggs, beaten

pinch of sea salt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. pure almond extract

Whisk all ingredients together. Melt coconut oil on bottom of the pan. Pour the batter into small circles in pan, flip when ready. Serve with pure maple syrup, and your favorite fresh berries on top. Makes 6 pancakes. Enjoy!

Eliana Eden

She's here! On May 7th, 2013 we welcomed a perfectly healthy and gorgeous 7 lb - 13 oz, 20.5 inch baby girl, Eliana Eden! She is now 3 months old (14 weeks today). And what a blessing she is! I'm so thankful to have been blessed with a daughter. One that I never thought I would have. For some reason, I always felt like I would have only boys. She makes our family more complete and I now have my own little sidekick when I want to get out and do girly things. This will come in handy more so as she gets older! 

A very good sleeper, she began sleeping through the night (4-5 hours stretches during the night) at one week old. Napping in her swing, she is so content that sometimes I have to wake her up or she will sleep 4-5 hours during the day! We bonded instantly to where I feel like I know exactly what she is telling me with any rare cry that comes out of her sweet little body. The only time she utters a fierce cry is when she is very tired. This makes life very easy for this busy Momma! Predictability! She recently began sleeping in her own crib (Aug. 9th was the first night)and has done so well! She hasn't put herself to sleep while laying in there yet. I lay her down after a feeding. The stage where she still falls asleep in my arms while feeding is priceless! She is so cuddly!

At about 6-7 weeks old she began smiling :) Anyone who looks her in those bright beautiful eyes and smiles at her or talks to her will get a big, excited smile from this happy girl! She's a very good eater, burps herself most of the time, and does not spit up! The Lord has truly blessed me with 3 very content and happy children. (The Lord does not give you more than you can handle. I'm a person who needs more rest than most people and my children are the same way. It would be very hard for me to deal with a child who doesn't sleep well). They nap well and sleep in later than most kids their age. Ahhh blessings! 

She found her hands at 10 weeks old. We were at the zoo and she had been in her car seat in the stroller the whole time just looking around and taking in the sights. I remember looking down at her and she had her fist waving in the air and was just staring at it in amazement. So cute! The next day I noticed she was grabbing onto her toys that hang down from her bouncy chair. By 12 weeks old she found her feet. Now when she's lying on her back, she loves pulling them up and moving them around. This was a fun milestone as she is more content for longer when I set her in her bouncy chair. Before that she would prefer to be held or carried around in the Bjorn. 

Well I could go on and on about these three fabulous kiddos of mine, but I just wanted to share this very special life event of ours. Here are a few of Eliana's newborn pictures! Courtesy of KME Photography .

This Kid Named Landon

Lately I have been writing down a few things here and there that I wanted to blog about so I will be getting to them in the next few posts. But tonight as I sit here, all I want to write about is my son, Landon. He turned 3 this past November and every day he does and says things that just amaze me, melt my heart, and make me laugh! He is growing up so fast and I just want to make sure I am documenting these precious memories. Ok, so I came across a few questionnaires on Pinterest (you will see that I blog a LOT about things I find on Pinterest). Questionnaires that you ask your kids to see their responses. I thought it would be cute to ask him these questions every year to keep his responses documented and to see how they change.
I called Landon over to the kitchen table and said I wanted to talk to him and wanted to ask him some questions. His face glowed with the biggest smile. He definitely has quality time as his main love language. So he plopped down on my lap and we began chatting. I found THIS Mommy & Me questionnaire on Pinterest pinnned from THIS blog. I thought it was pretty cute that I would ask him a question and he would mostly answer me with a full sentence. For example, I would say, "What is your favorite color?" Instead of just saying, "Green." He would say, "My favorite color is green!" It was a very fun activity to do together, you could tell he was loving the time and attention he was getting to tell me all these things about himself. Well, that was until I got the idea that we should do another questionnaire. This time about Daddy. I thought it would be fun to put the answers to THIS questionnaire into his Father's Day card this year. Well, as you will see below, some of the last few questions went unanswered as he got tired of me asking so many questions. His response to me at the end was, "Mommy, please stop talking to me, I'm tired, it's making me angry you talking to me still." I couldn't help it, this was hilarious! So below is a fun list of questions and answers between me and Landon for me to keepsake! 

MOMMY & ME

Recite Name: MY NAME IS LANDON KARJA.
How old are you?: I'M 3. 
What is your favorite color?: MY FAVORITE COLOR IS GREEN.
Who is your Best Friend?: MY BEST FRIEND IS GAVIN. 
Favorite animal: UMMMM, A  BUNNY.
What do you want to be when you grow up?: I WANT TO BE A HOCKEY PLAYER. 
What is your favorite movie?: BOB THE BUILDER
What is your favorite book?: THOMAS
What makes you happy?: MOMMY....AND TURTLES AND FROGS AND SPIDERS BUT I DON'T LIKE WHEN THEY CRAWL IN MY MOUTH OR MY NOSE. 
What makes you sad?: GOING TO SLEEP. 
What is your favorite food to eat?: GRAPIES. 
What is your favorite song?: The ABC's
What game(s) do you like to play?: I LIKE THE FISHING GAME. 

FATHER'S DAY

My Dad is 30 years old. (with my help)
His hair is BLACK. His eyes are BROWN. 
My Dad likes to wear UNDERWEAR.
He loves to eat PEANUT BUTTER. 
He is smart because he knows MOMMY. 
My Dad works hard at MONEY.
Daddy always tells me A STORY ABOUT THE FOX AND THE SQUIRREL. 
If he could go on a trip, he would go PROVIDE FOR THE FAMILY and he would take HIS COMPUTER.
If I could give anything to my Dad it would be A KISS AND A HIGH 5. 

LOVE THIS KID!

Making Cookies

3D Movie with Daddy

Off to ECFE 

First time riding his bike outside! He learned in our basement over the long winter. 

Found Mommy's mascara........

  

Summer Synopsis 2011

I've managed to do it again. This time it's been a whole year since my last blog post! This year has gone by so quickly and I've just been enjoying every minute of it. But the more I think about it, I get a little sad that I haven't taken the time to document some of our life's most recent highlights. Growing up I always kept diaries. When one would fill up, I would buy a new one. I remember my first one was a little hardcover pink book with a lock and key so no one would see! But with blogging being a popular thing these days, it's fun to document words and pictures for our family to remember for years to come while sharing it with our friends and family. What a concept! It's so important for me to document the stories behind some of our family pictures. I managed to capture a great deal of my oldest son's first 21 months of life in pictures, but I feel bad that there are no words to go with some of them yet! My youngest son, who we just recently named Gavin, will be arriving in late October (or early November if he is like his brother), and I want to make sure to have things on a good pace to keep up with our new life with him. So, here I am sitting at my computer in my pajamas, excited to start my writing again! I am calling this blog post "Summer Synopsis" in an attempt to summarize our Summer of 2011. This may get lengthy! The following posts will be a more appropriate length, promise!

The beginning of June is always busy with our anniversary and Father's Day so close together. This year we decided to celebrate the two together, so for this 3rd wedding anniversary of ours, I surprised Jeremy with dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in downtown Minneapolis. I can honestly say, this is a place well worth it's money! It still comes in second to our absolute favorite place, the place that captures our heart - Fogo de Chao...BUT it did compete quite well as it has superb steak and an atmosphere and style all it's own. Our visit to Manny's on my birthday two years ago was not as impressive. Don't get me wrong, Manny's is top-notch, however these other two restaurants impressed me more. As you can see, we love to try out all the top steak joints in the city! Here is a pic of us that the cute little couple sitting next to us took for us. They were celebrating their anniversary as well :)

Next up for summer was Landon's first swimming lessons. Now keep in mind, Landon absolutely loves bath time. When we say "bath" and "bubbles" he gets so excited, he runs up the stairs and wants to climb in before I can get his clothes off. Then he wants to pour the bubble bath into the soap cup to make bubbles. He splashes around like a little fish and throws his toys around! Well, that's of course, because the bath water is nice and warm. You bring him to a kids splash pad, a cold pool, or a lake and he doesn't want to go near it. So we decided to put him in swimming lessons to try to get him to enjoy the water and learn that it's okay even when it's cold. You get used to it! The first lesson was misery for Landon, he was so mad that the pool was so cold! But by the second or third lesson, he was enjoying himself. We did eight lessons and he now looks forward to swimming any chance he gets. Now.... we are still working on the spash pads and lakes! Maybe next summer because we know Daddy and Grandpa Brad will want him to get out of the boat enjoy the lake with them! :)

Our good friends the Schmitz's have three kiddies, one being around Landon's age. Little Juliana turned 2 this summer and for her party, Matt and Chelsey planned an outdoor party at Bunker Stables where the kiddies rode ponies and had fun eating pizza and cake! This was Landon's first time riding a pony. He had a blast!

The 4th of July was a fun time! The Saturday prior to the 4th, we enjoyed an day at Rush Lake. Our friends the Schmitz's also have a cabin on the lake that they invite their friends to every year. We took them up on the offer to spend our 4th consecutive year of fun in the sun there over the holiday. We got some good pics of the whole group and all the kiddos who are all growing up so fast. We ate a potluck, took a few boat rides, swam in the lake, soaked up the sun, and ate some more!

On the actual 4th, we made plans with our friends, the Bakers. We invited them over for a barbeque, only to find out that our grill was not working! After a good laugh, the guys went out and bought a small one to hold us over until we could either fix ours or take the time to decide on a nice new one. Finally, we grilled and ate salad and dessert and then headed out for some fireworks. Jeremy had purchased some small "kid-friendly" sparklers and those snap pop things that the kids enjoyed while watching a few of our neighbors light off all of theirs. At dusk, we drove down to watch the Elk River fireworks display on a very mosquito-y night. We always have a blast with the Bakers and their 3 darling kiddies!

The end of July proved to be one of the best weeks of the summer. We got to meet our new nephew Elijah Lucas Gohman! He was born on July 25th, was 7 lbs - 14 oz and 19 inches. A perfectly healthy, and beautiful little boy. I was blessed have been able to be there in the room during his birth, how amazing! My sister, Sarah, was such a good example to me during her whole labor. She was calm, confident, positive, and determined! Things went perfectly and we got to enjoy Elijah's first moments of life in the real world! The next day, I brought Jeremy and Landon to meet Elijah and we were able to capture a few sweet pictures. A funny story.... when we first got to the room, Sarah placed Elijah on the bed to swaddle him and then told me I could hold him. So with Jeremy standing next to me holding Landon, I leaned over and picked up little Eli and held him in my arms. Landon saw me holding this new baby and started crying! I mean real tears and yelled "Mommy!!". I had no idea he would be jealous of me holding another baby! Sarah suggested I sit down with Eli and have Landon sit with us on the chair so Landon could see him and he calmed down and started hugging and kissing him. They are going to be great cousins!

A few days later, my oldest brother, Pat (who I unfortunately had not seen since our wedding day in 2008 because we live so far away from each other) came to town for a weekend visit! We got to meet his girlfriend Michell, who was a doll! She's very sweet and I'm glad they have found each other. Friday night we had a dinner at my sister Sarah's house. I can't remember the last time all of us kids and my parents were all under one roof! Probably at my wedding, 3 years ago. Crazy! Pat is a B-1 Bomber Pilot with the Air Force and is stationed in Abilene, Texas. He has been deployed to Afghanistan and other locations several times and spent a few years stationed on the east coast, so we were so blessed to finally coordinate a small family reunion despite the distance between us! Saturday night we invited them over to our place for a barbeque. It was short but sweet! A great time to catch up with each other :)

I wanted to share some updated pics of our house. And it has to be documented that I kept a hanging basket of flowers alive all summer! Haha! So here's my proof! Also, if anyone can tell me what kind of flowers I have in my hanging basket, I would be so grateful! The big ones in the center. Not the viney ones with the teeny flowers that I planted around the edges. I don't know if they are annuals or perennials. I am pretty sure they are annuals, so I would love to know what kind they are so I can buy more next spring! They are the perfect flower for my darling little hanging basket. They bloomed all summer long and I just adore the many colors!

Summer is nearing the end. Technically we are still enjoying Summer until the 21st, although it seems like Fall because school has started and the days are growing a little shorter, the nights are getting a bit cooler, and it's time for apple orchards! But I have one more quick thing to write about in this "Summer Synopsis". I am now 32 weeks along with little Gavin and I wanted to be able to capture some pictures of me pregnant before I begin looking like I stuffed an over-sized watermelon in my shirt. It's been almost 2 years (since Landon's birth) since we had professional family pictures taken, so we called up our friend and neighbor across the street, Kirsten to take some photos (She recently started her own photography business and I strongly recommend her. She owns KME Photography. Visit her website and/or "Like" her page on Facebook!) of our growing family! I had some fun picking out our outfits so we somewhat coordinate with each other and Kirsten suggested a beautiful location for the session. On the last evening of August, we drove up the road from our house to Woodland Trails, where Kirsten snapped some amazing pics of us that turned out extremely well considering it was super buggy! But oh so worth it! Below is a sneak peek at some of the pictures we have seen so far, and I'm already in love with them! So excited to see the rest of them. I will try to post a link to more pics when I get them :)

As I mentioned above, I am 32 weeks along in my pregnancy. Tomorrow I will have completed my 33rd week. Yay! Time is going by fast. I feel like the busier we are, the faster it goes. I'm getting to the stage where I am actually feeling the weight of the baby and sleeping at night is getting harder. I have had insomnia now and then throughout this pregnancy, which I did not have with Landon. It's so bizarre for me to lay in bed tossing and turning for hours, and so frustrating! And now it's just uncomfortable to roll over with my huge belly so I wake up a lot. I am praying for an early or on-time, natural birth this time around. I tried this with my first pregnancy and because Landon was 13 days late, pretty big, and positioned wrong, I was forced into a C-Section after laboring for 36 hours. I was not happy with the midwife group I had chosen for my care, so this time around I opted for a professional. An actual OB who has a strong education and over 25 years of experience. I haven't heard a "maybe", "I'm not sure", "I think" or any other annoying answers come out of her mouth when I ask her questions. This woman knows her stuff, she's confident, takes her time, and does what needs to be done. Needless to say, I am very impressed. I did not have this confidence with the midwives. I feel like it's fine to have a midwife take care of you like a nurse during labor, but it's risky to have a midwife monitor your pregnancy when most don't have the education or experience to give you a definite answer and picture of how your pregnancy is progressing. Contrary to the beliefs of some women, not all OB's are complete opposites of midwives in the labor and birthing. I am blessed to have found my OB who is like-minded and is not just an advocate for the "easiest route" but rather wants the best for mother AND baby. I knew she was the one when she was positive about me trying for a VBAC with this second pregnancy. A C-section is always a possibility with any pregnancy, but looking through my records, there were no physical signs that I would not be able to deliver naturally, so I am praying I will go into labor on my own (because they will not induce labor for mothers trying VBACs) and that it's a normal, smooth progression. My due date is October 28th and all I can say is if he comes late, it better not be on Halloween! :) Please pray for us and our little Gavin. I have attached some 3D pics of him at our 20 week ultrasound!