Henry's 4 month Appointment

We took Henry to the pediatrician today for his 4 month appointment. His doctor says he's doing great! He has a little eczema on his legs, but I already knew this, Peyton has it too. But other than that he is a big strong healthy boy!

His Stats:

Weight: 17 pounds 11 ounces (90th percentile!)

Height: 28" (Over 100th percentile!)

Head Circumference: 43 1/2 centimeters (90th percentile!)

So since he was born he has GAINED 9 lbs 9 oz, GROWN 8 whole inches and his noggin has INCREASED 3.75 inches! Huge!

Developmentally he is doing great as well! He only wakes up once a night to nurse. He has a tooth almost all of the way in, and it's a canine tooth on his bottom left, weird huh? I always thought the bottom two teeth came in first! He smiles at everything (but mostly at Peyton), and he is SO CLOSE to rolling over, any day now!

Here is his 4 month bear picture and then all of the months of pictures for comparison purposes :)

4 Months

                                  

  1 Month                2 Months

                              3 Months

Pumpkin Bars

Another delicious festive recipe coming your way! These bars would be a great addition to your Thanksgiving dessert menu. I found a similar recipe in my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, but of course I had to change it up, so this is my modified version :)

Pumpkin Bars

*2 cups flour ( I used Trader Joe's white whole wheat flour, but you could do half all-purpose flour and half whole wheat, or just all-purpose if you don't have this particular flour)
*2 tsps. baking powder
*2 tsps. ground cinnamon
*1 tsp. baking soda
*1/4 tsp. ground ginger
*1 tsp. salt
*4 eggs
*1 16-ounce can pumpkin
* 1 1/2 cups sugar
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil
* 1/2 cup applesauce
* handful of semi sweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9 x 13 glass baking dish and set aside. Combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, ginger and salt in one bowl. In another bowl, combine the eggs, pumpkin, sugar, oil and applesauce. Mix your dry and wet ingredients together. Add the chocolate chips. Pour the batter into the lightly greased baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 mins. You can tell its done when you give the dish a little shake and the center doesn't jiggle much. These will be soft though. Let them cool completely and then cut into bars. You could also frost the bars with a cream cheese frosting if you're so inclined :) Enjoy!

I made a purse!

My sister gave me a top for my birthday a couple months ago. I loved the fabric of the shirt but it just didn't look right on me so I stuck it in my fabric drawer and forgot about it. Yesterday I decided I needed a new purse and I thought "Hey I should try and MAKE one!". So I scavenged through my fabric stash to find a cute print. I rediscovered the shirt and knew it was perfect! I really wish I had taken a picture of the shirt before I cut it up but it had these cute buttons down the middle that I thought would make for a unique purse front. It actually came out pretty good! A few people might even be getting purses this Christmas :)
Let me know what you think!

The front

The back

See the little blue buttons? That was the middle front of the shirt originally.

A cream colored lining

The print up close

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

Fall is by far my favorite season of the year. I love the crisp jacket weather and the pretty colors that the leaves become. But my favorite part about Fall is the DE-licious holiday food, pumpkin in particular. I also love the fact that pumpkin is totally healthy for you (it's loaded with vitamin A and alpha and beta-carotenes!), so you really don't have to feel guilty at all about indulging in that 2nd (or 3rd or 4th) piece of pumpkin pie :) 

I came up with these cookies because Peyton has been on a cheese diet lately, that is, he won't eat anything but string cheese. So I thought I might sneak in a vegetable and some wheat germ and oatmeal into a cookie for him. He loved it and so did we! The pumpkin makes these cookies extra moist and the handful of chocolate chips that I added give them a little extra decadence.

  

Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies

8 tblsp. butter
1/2 c. white sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
2 eggs
1 c. pumpkin puree
1 tblsp. honey
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 c. white flour
3/4 c. whole wheat flour
2 c. old fashioned oats
2 tblsp. wheat germ
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsps. baking powder
handful of chocolate chips (Optional)

Cream the butter and sugars together. Add the eggs one at a time. Mix in the pumpkin puree, honey and vanilla. In a separate bowl combine the flours, oats, wheat germ, cinnamon, salt and baking powder. Pour 1/3 of the dry mixture into the wet mixture and stir. Slowly add the rest of the dry mixture in and stir just until combined. Add the chocolate chips. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Stick the whole bowl in the fridge while the oven is preheating so that it firms up. Drop the mixture by spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet or your pampered chef stone. Bake for 13-15 minutes or until they're slightly browned. Let sit on the cookie sheet for one minute after taking them out of the oven then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Happy Fall! :)