Brown Sugar & Cinnamon Oatmeal

A friend of mine has to watch her sodium for medical reasons and she was telling me how sad she was that she had to give up flavored oatmeal because it had so much sodium in it. Well this morning as I was making my own oatmeal for the kids and myself I had a thought! I can make her flavored oatmeal from scratch! I checked the sodium levels on the plain oatmeal I had, cinnamon and brown sugar. All three had no sodium! So I just mixed up a batch of my own homemade brown sugar cinnamon oatmeal. I had to play with the amounts of each for a while before I came up with a batch that I thought tasted pretty similar to a store bought one. Roughly it is this:
5 cups plain quick oats
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
Mix thoroughly

 The only ingredients!

 You can see little clumps of brown sugar floating around in there.

It really tasted so much like store bought!

The great thing is that you can add more sugar if you like it a little sweater or less cinnamon if that is too much. You could also add about a tablespoon of  powdered milk to make it a little more creamy. Best of all I finally found a use for the formula containers I have been hoarding on the back porch.

Also, this is much much MUCH cheaper than buying flavored from the store. Especially when you use the oatmeal you can purchase from LDS canneries, you can get a #10 can (pictured in first picture) which is about 2.6lbs for $2.50.  Cheap and yummy AND healthy???? Can you beat it? I don't think so.

A Tent-Tastic Tuesday

It has been so cold here that we have been living like hermits in the house. In an attempt to keep my children's brains from melting from television I have been trying to come up with more ways to keep us busy while we are still stuck indoors. Yesterday the kids and I built this fort and it literally kept them busy for the entire day! We read books in it, played games in it, slept in it, etc. It was awesome. Then poor Ike came home and he had to climb over the couch to get to the kitchen. The price you pay for a good time.

The Carr's New Car!

We finally moved into a new phase of life and purchased our first family vehicle!!! Say hello to Ruby, our new 2006 Chrysler Town and Country.

So pretty right!!!!
Now we have the next 10 years to run it into the ground with yearly summer road trips and 90 mile round trips to the grocery store!

"Jackson do it!"

Jackson's new thing is to do everything himself. I am all for independence but sometimes it can get a little tiring. Today though he wanted to pick out his own clothes and I was surprised at how normal he looked. I guess everything matches jeans so once he picked those the battle was won!

Taffeta for dinner anyone?

Note to self, the next house we move into needs to have a sewing room. These prom dresses are taking over my dining room.

Be My Valentine?

Our Valentine's day hit a little hickup because Ike was home sick with some serious abdominal pain. So instead of a romantic Valentine's dinner out, we had a family Valentine's day inn.

 We started the day with some pink heart pancakes. You can be the judge of how much they actually looked like that but they tasted great!

In the words of Daniel Tiger, "YUMMY GOOD!!!"

I had planned to hid clues in Ike's school things and bring clues to the school for him to find that would help him figure out what his Valentine's gift from me was but then he was sick so I just hid the clues around the house.

Some were hard to miss.

 Some were hard to catch.

 Some were delicious!

 But the best thing of all was the fact that I thought I wouldn't get anything from Ike because he had been feeling so sick all week. But around 11am we had a knock on the door!!! He had ordered a dozen roses and an amazingly good smelling candle for me delivered from the flower shop in town!!! Talk about surprise! And to make it even better, he had actually ordered them on Monday while I was doing a prom dress fitting. So yea, I should definitely give him more credit because I assumed that because he was sick the day before Valentine's I wouldn't get anything.

Then for dinner we had Chicken Cordon Bleu (I don't know if I spelled that right.) and it was amazing! Overall I don't think I would have changed anything. I got to spend a great day with the loves of my life (even if one of them was really sick) and I can't think of a better way to spend Valentine's!

Just Can't Get Enough!

We love oatmeal yes we do! We love oatmeal how 'bout you!? 

Brady's favorite favorite favorite food right now is oatmeal with apple sauce. But, to be perfectly honest, he will eat just about anything. He can down an adult sized portion of oatmeal and ten minutes later start grabbing at your sandwich. Jackson on the other hand eats about as much as your average child living in a third world country. He takes two bites of anything and says he is full. Brady usually goes for his left overs.

*Jackson woke up crying in the middle of the night a few weeks ago saying that Brady ate his breakfast. It was obviously a dream but unfortunately for Jackson, as soon as Brady can walk and reach the table on his own, I am pretty sure this is a possible reality.*

Count Your Blessings.

When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed,

When you are discouraged thinking all is lost,

Count your many blessings, name them one by one.

And it will surprise you what
The Lord has done.