Tatertot casserole

While it may not be the healthiest meal tatertot casserole has became a regular meal in our household. One of few things I've found that everyone likes and very simple to make. The kids almost always asks for seconds of it!

Here's how to make it, you'll need:
1-2 eggs
Bacon
Tatertots
Milk
Shredded cheese
9x13 or similar size pan

-and whatever else youd like to add.

Ahead of time, can be day or two ahead or just a couple hours before making it. Cook up bacon however you normally would. You can cook however much you want, we normally do about 8 pieces and we oven fry it. Once cooled crumble the bacon.

To make the casserole preheat oven to 375.

Layer bacon crumbles, cheese and tatertots in whatever order youd like and can add whatever else too. Some people like to add breakfast sausage or ground beef.

When youre done layering it all mix 1-2 eggs depending on your preference with about half a cup of milk in a cup. We dont like egg much so we only use 1. Once mixed pour over top of tatertot casserole and place in oven at 375 for 25-35 minutes. Ovens vary so legnth to cook may too. Its one when the egg mix is all cooked and cheese is all melted.

Hope your family enjoys it as much as ours does!

-Faith, Hope, Love & Autism

The best birthday gift possible!

Today I turned 23, and received the best birthday gift possible. A diagnoses for Ivan! While some parents would really dread hearing the words "Your son has autism", I pretty much did a silent little happy dance. We've known for the past almost two years that something was 'off' with Ivan. We even had his hearing tested at about 8 months because he wasn't responding to us saying his name or any loud noise, or look at us when we entered the room as well as he was far behind on some of the things he should of been doing at that age.

It wasn't until talking to some friends with kids similar in age to him that we really realized that he was pretty behind on speech and social skills. During the fall of this past year (2014) we had his speech evaluated by the local ISD (school district) and came to find out that although he was 30 months old at the time his speech was only at about 14 months with roughly 20 words and a couple 2 word phrases. Currently at 33 months his speech has increased a bit and he's up to bout 25-30 words and using more 2-3 word phrases as well as is starting to sing along with songs a bit! We recently moved into  new place and the move was a great move for him, I never thought he'd benefit so much from it, but since moving his speech and behavior in general has been a lot better.

From what we learned today at Ivan's appointment is that now with the Autism diagnoses they are submitting paperwork for insurance to approve which they've never had an insurance deny and then Ivan will be evaluated again but this time by a behavior therapist which will help figure out what kind of  therapies he will benefit from and how many hours a week. We were told anywhere from 5-20 hours a week is pretty average and that he will be getting speech and play therapy for sure which will help with obviously speech but also social behaviors.

So yeah, probably the best gift possible for an overly stressed out mom who's sick and tired of fighting with doctors.

-Faith, hope, love & autism.

Time to ditch the formula!

I woke up to Ivan screaming this morning, he hasn't felt good the past few days and this morning was no different. All he wanted to do was sit in the glider, snuggle and rock. He was fine like that for about 10 minutes before he started screaming again, he pooped. For the past few months he's had a nasty diaper rash that won't heal up no matter what we do or try and he screams every time he has a poopy diaper. 

After changing him this morning we decided its time to ditch the formula. Yes my 15 month old is still on formula. Around 8 months he was diagnosed as failure to thrive due to his allergies he wasn't able to absorb the proper nutrition or gain weight. He finally started gaining weight after being out on Elecare. He switched to elecare jr in April, in May things started going down hill and somewhat fast. We were able to find more foods he can tolerate but he is still having liquid acid like bowel movements. 

I looked at his formula can this morning. It's loaded with corn and has soy oil in it. Not sure which he's reacting to but he's reacting to something in it. So today were mixing his sippy cups half formula half coconut milk to see how he does with it. 

Wish us luck!

Two sick babies...

It's one of those days that neither of the babies or I feel well. May be allergies, the weather or we're all just worn out, who knows. 

Ivan's really cranky today, doesn't want to be alone, or even put down for that matter. Usually he'll snuggle up with teddy and his blanky and nap, but not today. He wanted to sit in the living room with mama and watch Danny Phantom, which is where you can see he fell right asleep. I don't dare move him to his bed. He will wake right back up and start a huge screaming fit that'll probably wake up his sleeping sister. Speaking of his sister: 

I woke up this morning to my husband yelling that he needs help, Justine vomited... She's had an upset tummy the past weekend and has been spitting up more than usual. She seems to have one or two days a month like this where she'll get sick a few times and then be fine and happy the next day again. She's currently asleep in her boppy, her favorite spot to sleep, snuggled up with her blanket and baba. She will probably sleep most of the day and hopefully he fine again tomorrow. 

For now it's time to finish lunch and do some cleaning. I'll hopefully get photos and tutorials posted from my weekend projects which included repurposed infant formula cans and a repurposed huge frame made into a fabric covered bulletin board! 

I love days like today!

I love days like today, they're often my favourite. The sun is shinning, it's not too warm or cold in the apartment for once, Justine's sleeping and Ivans happily playing by himself and being a noise maker as usual, I found a good play list I got going on youtube and getting a lot done for once. I've wanted to open a business for the past 2 years, but haven't been able to due to either being pregnant with complications or the kids having issues that we didn't have figured out. Now that we're done having kids for a few years and the kids are all healthy I finally have time to work on a business. I've owned the business name Arcadia Designs for a few years and have had a facebook page and etsy shop that has rarely been updated so decided yesterday it was time to get my ass in gear and start working on stuff to list in the shop! Between yesterday and today so far got 3 sets of car seat strap covers, a pair of ergo drool pads, 2 pads, a draw string bag, and 3 pacifier clips finished plus finished a set of towels earlier this week. Hoping to stock at least 20+ items Monday or so! As long as the day continues going well I'll be making chicken with garlic and soy sauce, whipped potatoes and rice tonight! Recipe will follow later tonight or tomorrow! For now it's back to sewing!

3 ingredient soy, dairy, and wheat free peanut butter cookies!

Ingredients

mixed all up

Rolled and flattened some on cookie sheet

Set out to cool. You can see where I accidentally got the oven mit in one when removing them.

My friend Amanda recently sent me a super easy recipe for peanut butter cookies, which are a huge, huge hit with my 15 month old son Ivan. I baked some earlier today and he didn't walk, but ran across his room to the baby gate for one today which neither my husband or I have ever seen him run yet.

what you need:

1 Cup Peanut butter
1 Egg
1 cup Sugar

Cookie sheet
Hand Mixer
Something to grease the cookie sheet with. (I use coconut oil)

**Note about the peanut butter: For them to turn out best you want a peanut butter that doesn't have extra oils in it. We use Santa Cruise Organic peanut butter - I've also been told Trade Joes peanut butter works great too.

**Read the ingredients on the peanut butter before using it if soy allergic, some peanut butters do contain soy**

How to:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. While it's preheating mix all your ingredients together and grease your cookie sheet. Then roll the dough into small balls, I do them about an inch and flatten them out a little and place on the cookie sheet about an inch or two apart from each other. When the oven is done preheating place the cookie sheet in the oven for about 8 minutes, after pulling them out let cool on the cookie sheet for a couple minutes and then enjoy!

These are so simple to make, easy for teens and dads too, great to have the little ones help with too.

Please don't complain to me about your perfectly health child..

I know I may come across as bitchy for saying this but after the past couple weeks, I honestly don't care anymore. I can't stand hearing or reading about people complaining about their kids, about how hard they are to handle, how they don't listen, how much of a mess they create and whatever else. I'm so sick of people complaining about how they can't have people over or go to someones house because their kids make a mess and are loud, or whatever other various reasons there are. As well as about how their children don't listen to them or talk back. Making a mess and being loud is part of being a child, children don't always listen and yeah they often do talk back to us, but that doesn't make them a bad child. Children act and often misbehave due to the way we parent, I see way too many parents yelling at their children on a regular basis. If you were being yelled at, would you want to listen to whoever was yelling at you? Honestly I know I wouldn't. I highly believe in treating our children how we want to be treated by others. One of my huge pet peeves lately is hearing people complain about how they can't go out or have people over due to their kids misbehaving, or being too hard to handle in public when in reality you can go out, you just don't want to. My husband and I, our daughter was born the end of March, she has severe allergies that are life threatening to her, she has really bad inhalation reactions and will wheeze really easily, it makes going out anywhere for us hell. We avoid taking her out, or having people over as much as possible to limit her reactions. If we're going to be gone more than an hour we have to pack extra stuff, including a nebulizer, epi pens, a certain kind of water, inhaler, special formula for both kids, specific food for our 15 month old son since due to his allergies to he can't eat most foods, plus all the normal stuff such as bottles, cloth diapers, burp cloths, clothes, etc. If we're going more than 20 minutes out of town we have to pack even more. Last time we went to someones house who doesn't have children the wife asked me if when we go out for more than a couple hours if I feel like I'm packing for a weekend, which got me thinking. Yeah when we go out for more than a couple hours we really do pack almost a weekends worth of stuff, and when we pack to go to Grandpas for a weekend, we have to pack about a weeks worth of stuff for our kids. Until they're much older, I never want to go away for a week, unless we have a much larger vehicle. We have a Ford focus wagon, and packing for a weekend in it is seriously a hell of a bad game of Tetris. I love my children, I wouldn't ever trade them for anything but my husband and I will never really know what it's like to be 'normal' again, or what it's like to go out even just to the grocery store and not have to worry about our daughters breathing, or keeping a constant eye on her and making sure that no one touches her or she'll break out in hives. If we have anyone ever come over we always have to tell them first no perfumes, body spray or strong deodorant, if you smoke you can't come in unless you have taken a shower, wearing fresh clothes and haven't smoked since you showered. If you recently put on lotion you can't touch her, also first thing when you come in you must wash you hands in safe hand soap and if you want to hold her, you must hold her in a blanket so her skin doesn't touch your clothing. At only 3 months, she's very sensitive to inhalation and skin contact as well as digestion, she wheezes and breaks out in hives easier and faster than I've ever seen happen to anyone. As I said, I know I may come across bitchy when I say this, but please don't complain to me about your healthy child, your child may be a handful and may not always listen to you, but please be thankful for them, and that they're healthy. I would love a day to be able to go out or have people over and not have to worry about my daughter wheezing or her throat closing, there's many days where I honestly do get jealous of those parents who don't have to worry about it.

Hug your babies tight and make sure they know no matter how they act that you love them none the less.