KerryAndGabe.com

After seeing this recipe on Feeding Four, I knew right away that I was going to have to try it. I love muffins. I love banana bread. I love chocolate chips. This sounds like the perfect match.

I made these during Mother’s Day weekend. I’ve added the recipe to my collection on the site. I will definitely be making them again.

Be sure to visit Feeding Four for the original recipe and much better photos (well, that post is lacking in photos of cute kiddos, but some of her other posts fit that bill as well).

I gathered my ingredients. I didn’t want to get halfway through the recipe and realize that I was missing an egg! I am missing the butter in this photo as it was melted in a bowl in the microwave. So much for completeness.

I made a well, as she suggested, and I thought it looked pretty like a flower.

Maddie loves helping me in the kitchen. She especially loves stirring, dumping in ingredients, and putting paper cups in the muffin tin.

Ready to go into the oven!

Mmmm….time to eat!

Cullen approved!

Maddie approved!

We all loved them! My family loved them so much that they ate all but one of the leftovers on Mother’s Day morning while I was sleeping in. I was all ready to eat chocolate chip banana muffins, but little did I know that the rest of the household had the same idea! I am looking forward to making them again!

Not long after I first posted my goals, I entered Gabe’s goals into the database. I didn’t get around to adding a link to his goals since he hadn’t finalized them and I hadn’t entered his sub-lists. Now, Gabe’s goals have finally been officially added to the About Us section. We’ll be keeping track of his progress (and will probably keep you posted in my Sunday Somethings).

Gabe’s list

I’ve been doing some updates around the website. Every so often, I realize that pieces here and there need maintenance. Gabe wanted to keep track of his books, so I put them up in the books section. He was able to put together his list, starting with June 2010.

His list will now be updated as he finishes books:
Gabe’s List

Mine is usually up to date as well:
Kerry’s List

I also changed around the home page of the website to include Gabe’s books. I got rid of the photo thumbnails as I’m not sure that I’m going to be putting “albums” onto the site as I used to do. I think I’m going to have to post photos only through the blog (except in cases where I have a bunch that I need to post at once, maybe). I added three more sections (letters for the kids, photo posts, and video posts). I’m hoping to make some updates to other portions of the website soon.

Hey, I’ve made it into May now… We had a nice, quiet Mother’s Day (if there is such a thing with an infant and a toddler!). We went out to breakfast at the new Brig’s that opened near our house. Yummy! Afterward, we went to the park where Gabe fulfilled my only Mother’s Day request: to get some photos of my babies and me. Click on the photo to see the best from Mother’s Day.

I’m slowly digging out of this virtual mountain of photos. Whew. Ten years ago, I took a ton of photos. That was before I transitioned to digital. Once I moved to digital, my photo taking increased even more. That was back before I had an SLR plus a small camera. Two cameras didn’t mean twice as many photos, but my picture taking increased again. Since I had the SLR for the really important photos, I could afford to get a teeny tiny camera where the priority was on size. A teeny tiny camera meant that I could have it with me any time, any where. And then, I started having kids. Wow. Now we have an insane amount of photos. It’s quite a job to sort through thousands of photos. We typically have hundreds from a single weekend. The photos you see here are just the very tip of the iceberg.

Anyway…here are some photos from April. Click on the photo to see the entire album.

Some days I feel like I’ll never catch up on photos and trip reports and such, and other days I feel like I might be able to do it. So, I’m a little behind.

For those of you who do not want to read my long winded trip report, here’s some links to photos from our trip (if you don’t want to read my long winded posts and don’t care for the photos, then what are you doing here at all?):
Georgia
Disney
The rest of Florida

Before they knew that we were pregnant with Cullen, Gabe’s parents had booked a condo in Orlando and invited us to join them. We hadn’t told them about the new grandchild and tentatively said we would go. Since we knew the baby would still be very young by the time of the trip, we were really not sure whether we would want to go! We knew it would be somewhat of a last minute decision. I was pretty optimistic, but Gabe was not.

We knew that it was going to be a long drive, but we thought it would be easier to drive than fly this time. I’m glad we drove just based on the large amount of stuff that we had to bring with us! While I’m sure we could have been fine with much less, it sure is nice to be able to pack little conveniences like boppies, extra pillows, and pack-n-plays.

The first leg was easy. Maddie was happy, and Cullen slept the majority of the time. It takes around 3 hours to get to my parents’ house, which was our first destination. We decided to have lunch and spend a little time with my parents on our way down to Atlanta. We spent a little more time at their house than we had intended, but it was really nice to visit with them. The rest of the day did not go so smoothly! In fact, that was the only time in the car that was pleasant. We had lots of crying from both kids and very little quiet time on our rides.

Our next stop was Atlanta for a few days, including Easter Sunday. We visited with my grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins. This was the first time we had stayed in a hotel since Cullen was born, and we opted for Embassy Suites so that we could have a little extra living space. We weren’t sure how the two kids would sleep in the same room, so Maddie slept in the living room and the rest of us were in the bedroom. We blockaded the door with a chair since we were a little nervous about having Maddie in the front room. We left our door cracked open, too, and we were happy to have the video monitor. The room worked out really well for us, though the free breakfast was a bit lacking at this particular Embassy Suites.

We had a very nice visit with my grandparents, and everyone was so happy to see our kids. This was the first time that Cullen met any Atlanta family. Maddie was excited about the Easter Bunny. She and I had shared some Peeps recently, so she was thrilled to hear that the Easter Bunny would bring her a basket of goodies, including Peeps. When my grandma asked Maddie who the Easter Bunny was, she replied, “The Easter Bunny is a bunny who brings Peeps!” The Easter Bunny did indeed bring her Peeps as well as some other goodies. He brought a feeding kit for her doll, some coloring books, crayons, stickers, eggs with Play-Doh and bunny snacks. She loved all of it. We then had an Easter Egg hunt in my grandparents’ back yard. This was the first year that she really understood what was going on with the Easter Bunny, egg dying and egg hunts. I loved it!

We left Atlanta to drive about halfway to Orlando. Once again, we had a rough ride both to the hotel and then to the condo the next day. Whew! Of course, we knew that this was a possibility since Cullen had not proven himself to be a good car rider in his life so far! It didn’t help that we were off schedule, we discovered Maddie doesn’t nap comfortable in the car anymore, Maddie was constipated, and the kids alternated in some kind of secret pact who would be the loudest at any given moment. Good times.

We did have a nice time while in Florida. We went to the pool, played ping pong and horseshoes, lost a little money at Bingo, and took it easy around the condo. We decided as we were driving into Orlando that we couldn’t be this close to Disney and NOT go.

So, we went to the Magic Kingdom for a day. It was a wonderful day, and I’m so happy that we decided to go!!! I thought that Maddie would be too young. I wasn’t sure how she would react to the rides or the costumed characters. She loved everything! Every time we rode a ride, she wanted to go on it again (with the exception of the carousel…she did not like it!). She loved Dumbo’s Flying Elephants, Aladdin’s Flying Carpets, and the Winnie the Pooh ride. She enjoyed going through Minnie’s House (which I thought was crowded and not terribly interesting, so I was surprised she wanted to do it again!). The highlight of the day was when she met her hero, Winnie the Pooh. She posed nicely for the photos, shook Pooh and Tigger’s hands, and hugged Pooh for a really long time. It was awesome. It was a little hot and at the height of Spring Break, but we still had such a great time. Next time, we will likely plan ahead a bit more (and pick a time of the year that is not so popular). Maddie did great with the lines and learned a thing or two about “taking turns.” She has been talking about how she met Winnie the Pooh and Tigger since then and how she gave Pooh a big hug. It’s about the sweetest thing ever!

The ride back was not smooth by any stretch of the imagination. The plan was to leave as early as we could and drive about halfway home. What actually happened was a flat tire on the van. We discovered it just as we were about to pull out of the parking lot of the condo. Fortunately, Gabe’s parents were staying one extra day. This was a very good thing since we had a place to be with the kiddos while we sorted out the tire issues. We called AAA and were excited to use the auto services for the first time (we mostly get AAA for the discounts on hotels). Unfortunately, AAA was worthless to us. They would only come out and change the flat tire, but they couldn’t even call us back for over an hour. The only thing that they could do is change the tire to our spare and could not do any diagnostics on the tire nor were they able to direct us to a service station that could help. Gabe and his parents decided to change the tire themselves while waiting for a call back from AAA. Gabe was already on his way to a service station by the time that AAA got back to us. Worthless!

By the time we had the tire inspected and back on the van, we had lost 3-4 hours. We now had a very wound up toddler who desperately needed a nap and was acting out in ways that I had never before witnessed. It was a very stressful morning and afternoon.

We finally got on the road over 5 hours after our scheduled departure, and ran into a massive traffic jam before we were even out of the Orlando area. That traffic jam took us two hours during which time both kids were extremely cranky. We canceled our hotel reservations midway as we weren’t sure how far we would be able to make it. Turns out that we should have kept our reservations in Savannah. We ran into another traffic jam after dinner. I’m not even sure we were out of Florida at this point. That traffic jam took us another 2 hours to clear. Now we have two cranky children and two cranky adults. By the time we cleared the traffic jam, it was around 10 or 11pm, and we could not find a hotel for over 100 miles. We called many hotels before finding a Hampton Inn in Santee, SC (about 2 hours from where we were at the time). We got the last room. Fortunately, they were true to their word and held the room for us. They had to turn away several weary travelers.

We brought in one pack-n-play, but we could have just left it in the car. We ended up each taking a bed and a child and got some sleep. The complimentary breakfast was the best that we had out of all the hotels on this trip. All of the staff that we ran into were extremely friendly. I can highly recommend the Santee, SC Hampton Inn! I had stayed in a few sub par Hampton Inns a while back, and this particular hotel has changed my opinion of the chain for the better.

The rest of the ride home was long, and we were extremely happy to be home again.

We can’t wait to take the kids to Disney within the next couple of years, though we will NOT be driving!! This trip was quite an adventure, though it will be a while before we try to tackle driving of that magnitude again. Whew! It was great to see family and positively magical to visit Magic Kingdom. We were glad that we went on the trip!

I have been meaning to get these photos ready for posting on the website for a little while. We had another great session with Catherine Keene Photography. Let me know if you’re interested in doing a session with her in the fall. She’ll be coming back to do some more photos for Cullen. Click the photo to see the rest of the album. We are thinking about getting a large print of this one framed.

I haven’t been posting very much lately, aside from my Sunday Somethings posts. I’m working on that. I started this trip report shortly after we returned, but it has taken me a bit longer to finish it up. The photo album has been posted. Click on the photo to see the rest of the album.

We spent the extended weekend in the mountains at “The Leslie Lodge” with Maddie’s best friend and her parents. We didn’t start the weekend out in the best way as Gabe had to work late. We weren’t able to leave as early as we liked, but we wanted to get there Friday night to optimize our vacation time. We knew it was a tad risky and that we would arrive after Maddie’s bedtime. We learned that Cullen still hates being in the car. He screamed the majority of the time, and it didn’t seem to matter whether someone was in the back with him or how often we stopped to feed him and take him out of the seat. Little dude hates the car.

Fortunately, once we arrived things were much better! Maddie was very tired, and she went to bed without much issue. This is a big improvement over a year ago when we knew better than to arrive somewhere after her bedtime! Cullen is young enough that it doesn’t seem to make a difference to him (and he was worn out by the crying).

Saturday, we went to a local park and did some (light) hiking. We thought at first that the entire trail might be paved, but it turned out that only the first part was. We returned the double stroller to the car. Cullen enjoyed his first hike from the Ergo, and Maddie walked and was carried. It was an enjoyable (though slow) hike. We stayed a little later than anticipated at the park, so we were a little late getting back for lunch and nap. This meant that two little girls boycotted their nap time, which wasn’t entirely fun for the parents (especially the daddies, since the mommies went to the store to get groceries). The girls did some finger painting in the afternoon. We tried to get the girls to bed a tad early since they both skipped nap. They had a bath together in the huge tub (which Maddie insists is a swimming pool) and went to bed. Cullen didn’t cooperate so much, but I didn’t mind holding him while we watched a few episodes of Glee. I made some Oreo truffles (clearly before I was banned from eating dairy).

On Sunday, we vowed we would stick to the lunch/nap schedule and headed to a playground in the morning. The girls had a great time climbing on play structures, sliding, and playing by the creek. We successfully made it back in time for lunch and nap, though we were worried we were about to have a repeat of the previous day. Fortunately, both girls napped eventually. We spent some quality time on the deck. Did I mention that they have a view worthy of an overlook? It’s true! Their view is the same as an overlook off of the parkway. It’s an awfully nice place to spend a weekend.

After nap, the girls played with Play Doh, resulting in the usual mess resulting from tiny colored crumbs. We also did a craft project on the porch with chalk and a huge piece of brown paper. The girls had a great time. The highlight was dancing and jumping around the porch to Coldplay’s Viva la Vida on infinite repeat. So much fun!

After the kids went to bed, we spent some time on the porch. The mountains are a nice place to be during the heat of summer. We got a little chilly on the porch and had to go back inside after a while. This is not a problem that we would have at home! Very nice. We finished up the remaining episode of Glee on the DVD and successfully got the Leslies hooked on the series.

Monday morning meant another craft project for the kiddos, this time with foam letter stickers. I think that Maddie was entertained for at least 30 or 45 minutes with the little stickers. It’s pretty amazing to find anything that can entertain a toddler for that long! Maddie is not known for her lengthy attention span. Neither am I, for that matter. What was I saying?

We left after lunch, hoping that Maddie would nap in the car. Traveling at nap time used to work like a charm, but we discovered that this no longer works for Maddie. She refused to sleep until we were about 30 minutes from home. Cullen, on the other hand, actually fell asleep after very little crying. This was refreshing (would have been more refreshing if both kids had done that). Of course, he started screaming very shortly after Maddie fell asleep. Not good. The last 30 minutes were a bit rough, but overall the trip wasn’t too terrible.

As always, we were happy to be home. Great trip! We’re looking forward to another trip to the mountains in July.

We couldn’t resist buying some of Maddie’s first school pictures. I was especially excited to get a class photo, especially since it included everyone who was in her two-year old class when she started (good timing for us!). Two of the kids have already moved to preschool, and we have one new kid so far. I thought that her photos turned out great! The class photo is very typical of two year olds, but I love it.

As usual, I’m a little behind…but here are our general family photos from March. I have actually had these on the site for a while, ready to go, but forgot that they were never posted. Click on the photo to see the rest of the album.