Brady doing somersaults

Brady LOVED doing somersaults at the birthday party.  We may have to enroll him in some gymnastics classes during the winter, because he sure does love to tumble around.

Aubrey & Brady on the swing

First up is video of Miss Aubrey on the swing contraption at Colten's birthday.  That girl has got a fantastic smile!

And then Brady on the swing.  Though he never did break out a big smile, he enjoyed the ride.  However, he was NOT a fan of having to wait in line for it.  I know you'll find this utterly shocking, but Brady does not have a lot of patience!

Colten's birthday - part 2

Miss Aubrey jumping onto a mat.

 Colten jumping around.

 Sarah and Addison jumping on the trampoline.  Cute!!

 Colten going for a ride.  I've got a video of Brady and Aubrey doing this--the kids loved it.

 Colten on the rope swing. 

 All the kids making their funny faces. 

We had a very fun time at the birthday party.  I can't believe Colten is already 5.  Seems like yesterday he was just a little baby and the only baby we had at baseball games.  Now we have a giant gaggle of babies, toddlers and kids at the baseball games.

Happy Birthday Colten!

Colten's birthday

Brady's good buddy Colten turned 5 earlier this month and had a great birthday party at Gymnastics Plus in Manhattan.  The gymnastics place is always a big hit with Brady.  He was a big shy during the instruction phase, but he warmed after a bit and had quite the fun time. 

Playing in the foam pit with Addison.

 Jumping on the trampoline.

 Climbing over these rolly-polly tube thingys.

 Jumping into the foam pit.

 Playing with the hula hoops with Addison.

 Drinking some juice and getting ready for cupcakes!

And after it was all done, taking a nap in the car on the way home.  All that fun wears a kid out!

Christmas present

I broke out a Christmas outfit for church yesterday morning.  Complete with a coordinating hair bow. 

She looks just like a little present with a bow on top, doesn't she?

 Such a cute girl.  The bow lasted about halfway through church before she managed to push it off her sweet, little head.

More video

Trying to crawl some more.

Cool dude

We had hat day at daycare awhile back.  We broke out a ball cap for Brady, and he, of course, insisted on wearing it backwards.  I don't really understand where he gets that from since Dad doesn't wear ball caps backwards, but whatever.  He thinks it great to wear backwards, so we'll let him.

Rocking

These are a bit old, but a little video of Brenna trying to crawl.

And entertaining herself on the floor. 

 She's starting to get more fascinated by the camera, so she stares at it instead of smiling.  Mom doesn't like that one bit!

Pepperoni Pizza Puffs

One word.  Two syllables.  Yumm-o!  That's what the Pepperoni Pizza Puffs were that I made last week.  Another lovely recipe that I found/borrowed/used on Pinterest.  I love that website (and I could totally dedicate a blog post about that, but I'll spare you the details). 

Look at the yummy goodness. 

 And the muffins even passed Brady's test, which is the pickiest test to date in our family.

So here's the recipe.  I borrowed it from a blog, who adapted it from a Rachael Ray recipe.  I doubled the recipe below and used a regular muffin pan so the puffs were more "dinner" style instead of "appetizer" style.  With the doubling, it made about 15 pizza muffins. 

Pepperoni Pizza Puffs

•3/4 cup flour
•3/4 teaspoon baking powder
•1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
•1/8 tsp. salt
•pinch of red pepper flakes (my addition, optional)
•3/4 cup whole milk ( I used 2%, because that's what we had)
•1 egg, lightly beaten
•1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
•1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
•1 cup cubed pepperoni (I used the mini pepperonis because I had no desire to cut up regular slices)
•1/2 cup store-bought pizza sauce

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 24-cup mini-muffin pan. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, Italian seasoning, salt and red pepper flakes (if using) ; whisk in the milk and egg. Stir in the mozzarella, Parmesan and pepperoni; let stand for 10 minutes.
2. Stir the batter and divide among the mini-muffin cups. Bake until puffed and golden, 20 to 25 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, microwave the pizza sauce until warmed through. Serve the puffs with the pizza sauce for dipping.

Christmas Card

'Tis the season!  I'm a bit late in ordering our Christmas cards, but the order has been placed and the cards below will soon start showing up in mailboxes.  And they should even arrive before Christmas.  Woohoo!!

Merry Montage Christmas

Turn your favorite pictures into personalized Christmas cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Cooking posts return!

I haven't posted anything about cooking in a long, long, loooooonnnng time.  But, that ends today.  I've decided to share a little Cheeseburger Pasta recipe with you because it's warm, easy, comfort food that I love this time of the year.  And it's approved by all members of the Smoller household (well, except for Brenna, but she doesn't get a food vote yet). 

This first picture really doesn't make it look all that appetizing, but trust me on this one.  It's good.

 A formal view of Brady's dinner.  Adults got the same thing, just on bigger plates! Cheeseburger Pasta, cottage cheese and beer bread.

Cheeseburger Pasta (adapted from Campbell's):
1 pound ground beef
1 can fiesta nacho cheese soup
1 can tomato soup
1 3/4 cup water
2 cups uncooked pasta (elbow or shells)

Cook the beef in a large skillet until well-browned.  Pour off any fat.  Add the soups, water and pasta in the skillet and heat to a boil.  Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring very often.  Cook for 10-12 minutes until the pasta is done to your likeness.

5 ingredients.  And one of them is water.  How easy is that!

K-State baby

I don't have much to say for this post, other than reiterating that we have cute, cute kids. 

The last home football game for K-State was this past Saturday and the weather was awful.  Cold and rainy.  We did not go to the game, but I loaded up the kids and we ate breakfast at Early Edition with our tailgating girls Susan, Kylie & Heather.  The kids did pretty good.  And I even got some smiles out of them once we got home.

Brenna is talking and crawling!

We had a big, big night at our house last night.  Little Miss Brenna started crawling.  She's still not an expert, but she's doing great at moving her legs and the arms are starting to go, too.  She moved and scooched all around the living room last night.

In addition to crawling, she marked another milestone by saying her first word.  And what would you guess that word is? 

Dada!  Of course, but only because it's easier to say than Mama.  We carry them for 9 months, we nurse them and we don't even get to be the first word said.  So unfair for us mommas.  I'm sure we'll survive nonetheless. 

So, we've got a crawler and a talker now.  Let the fun begin!

Party pics - grown-up style

Grown-ups are also big fans of parties at the gymnastic place.  Well, perhaps I should clarify.  Some grown-ups are fans of it.  But most of the adults I know fall into the category of having fun.  I didn't get pictures of all the adults joining in, but rest assured that most of the adults at the party took at least one leap into the foam pit or jumped on the trampoline or balanced on the balance beam or ran around on the floor exercise area. 

These pictures are primarily of my buddy Shelby and I.  We LOVED the trampoline.  We played crack the egg and just bounced around and had a generally good time.  Makes me want a trampoline in the back yard.

 Look how high I can go!  Oh wait, I only get that high with bouncy help.

 Shelby on the uneven bars.  She was practicing a little toes to bar move from CrossFit.

 Crack the Egg.  I was the definite champion of this game. But Shelby was far better at Popcorn.

Party pics

The foam pit.  An endless source of fun for children, just in case you didn't know.

 Natalie, in the pink outfit, has my vote for next Olympic gymnast. 

 Brady really loved the foam pit.

 And no party is complete without a dog pile.  That's me on the bottom, with kiddos piled on top.  We all bounced around on the trampoline and then somebody thought it would be fun for everybody to climb on me.  Whose idea was that? 

Brenna at 7-months

Brenna turned 7-months old while we were gone on vacay, but Grandma was more than willing to take our Pooh picture to keep up with tradition.

 Isn't she adorable!

At 7 months of age Brenna is finally sleeping through the night on a pretty consistent basis (now watch that she'll wake up tonight just to spite me for saying this!).  She goes to bed around 8:00 and wakes up around 7:00.  She typically takes a nap in the mornings and then another one late afternoon to evening-ish time.  She has quite the appetite.  She's eating all kinds of Stage 2 foods, including mixed vegetables.  She even gobbles up the peas.  She usually eats a least one 3.5-4 oz. container of food at each meal and sometimes will eat more.  She follows that with a bottle after each meal and then a bottle for mid-morning, mid-afternoon and before bed snacks.  She's also able to somewhat feed herself small pieces of cereal, though we just give her the Gerber Puffs since that chewing motion isn't mastered yet.
She is so, so close to crawling.  She can roll around all over the place and is very mobile just in doing that.  She loves to play with Brady's toys and that's starting to cause problems already.  Big brother doesn't always like to share. 
She babbles a lot and boy, does she stick out her tongue quite a bit.  She's starting to hit a very, very fun stage where she is more interactive and I love that.  She remains fascinated by Brady and watches him all the time.  She also likes to sing and bounce around and she loves it when I throw her up in the air (just a small distance, of course).