Trunk or Treat FUN!

We went to Trunk or Treat at our church this weekend. Wow, what fun! There were 40+ vehicles decorated, games galore, tons of lovely people, a gazillion darling kids all costumed up! Totally awesome! Everyone who helped put this on did a fabulous job. We had a blast, as you will see from the photos below.

World's Prettiest Pirate........

He looks WAY too grown up! My little old soul.......

Those pirates look angry! Don't worry, it's all an illusion.

PERFECT game for our little IBD dude!! :)

Waiting at Nana's trunk to give candy to the other children. He LOVED this part!

Landon cannot eat a single piece of the candy he collected this evening. He doesn't even care, honestly. He told me he would put all of that candy in a stack and give it to Daddy. :-) I put several special treats in his pumpkin and he was happy. They were also giving out a lot of stuff that wasn't candy, such as toys, stickers, temporary tatoos, whistles, etc. Way cool, that church of ours. I'm thankful he gets to have the experience and is so incredibly awesome about not being able to eat the candy he collected. 

SO, I'm curious. Do you Trunk or Treat? Do you go door to door in your neighborhood? Or both? Also, how do you handle ALL THE CANDY?!?

Grain/Gluten Free Waffles

Grain/Gluten Free Waffles

~ 3 eggs {we prefer free range, cage free}

~ 2 tsp apple cider vinegar {we prefer Braggs}

~ 2 TBSP honey OR 2 TBSP sugar

~ 1 C milk of your choice (we use coconut or almond milk)

~ 1 TBSP butter (melted) {we prefer raw butter from grass fed cows}

~ 1 TBSP coconut oil (melted)

~ 3 C finely ground almond flour {we prefer Honeyville}

~ 2 tsp ground cinnamon

~ 1 tsp baking soda

~ 1 tsp baking powder

~ (optional) 1/4 cup tapioca starch {this will make the waffles a bit crispy}

Place your eggs, vinegar and honey in a blender and blend on high for about 3 minutes. Add milk, butter and coconut oil and blend for another 2 minutes. Add all other ingredients and blend for 3 minutes. You want this to have a bit thicker consistency than wheat flour based waffle batter. Add more flour or milk to reach your desired consistency. Add batter to your heated waffle iron. This recipe makes approximately 8 large waffles. I freeze what we don't eat and pop them in the toaster on the mornings we're in a rush.

Landon likes these plain or drizzled with a bit of honey. They are delicious either way. You can top them with whatever you like.  

Preschool Picture Day!

Today was picture day at school. I didn't want to focus on my baby boy actually having school picture day so I instead focused on having a happy morning with him. 

Landon was crazy excited to get to wear a tie! 

He is my tiny little man. 

My fancy 3 year old. 

When we arrived at school, his teacher asked if he would be taking her out to lunch, because, after all, he looked like a grown up. Duh.

P.S. His tie came from the clearance rack at Von Maur and it is totally amazing! It's a real life tie that has a zipper built in to adjust it from bigger to smaller. Genius!

One must have waffles (recipe to come!) if one is expected to smile for photos.

Getting ready!

Happy.

Quick pic with Mommy before going in to school.

I adore this sweet face.

"I will smile like this for my pictures today!"

Roasted Spaghetti Squash

Would you like a stupid easy dinner idea?

I thought so. 

Here's what you will need:

1 Spaghetti Squash

Salt

Pepper 

Olive Oil

Topping of choice (marinara, alfredo, etc)

Baking Dish

Knife

Oven 
Wine to drink while you wait for the squash to roast

Ok, those last few are a given, but I'm feeling silly this evening. 

Here's what you will do:

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Microwave your spaghetti squash for a few minutes to soften the skin. Slice it in half length wise and place it cut side up in your baking dish. Drizzle it with olive oil then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pop it on the oven and let it roast for about 45 minutes or until it begins to brown. Take it out, scoop out the seeds and shred the insides then eat up! You can top this with marinara sauce, alfredo sauce or enjoy it plain. 

Landon and I chose to eat it all by itself and it was amazing!

We hope you all enjoy this as much as we do. 

Before.

After coming out of the oven.

Seeds and such. 

Ready to eat.

He said, "I will show you my spaghetti squash and you can take a picture." Okay, Little Dude. 

Happy Saturday!

These guys are hard at work this morning!

Happy Saturday! 

Interview with Boy Wonder - #1

I did an adorable interview with Landon this evening. You can check it out HERE. 

This was spontaneous and not at all planned. I love his answers for his favorite color and who his best friend is! Next time, I am going to have a list of more specific questions. I plan to have a few I will ask every time. It will be fun to see how his responses change, or stay the same, throughout the years. 

If you've never interviewed your children, give it a whirl. It's a neat, simple way to make them feel special and significant. A child with a healthy self esteem is truly a wonderful thing. I can imagine these will get more fun and interesting as the years go on.

Stay tuned... 

Grain/Gluten Free Chocolate Delight Brownies

My dear friend Laura posted on Facebook last week about some amazing brownies she made using almond flour and coconut oil. I asked for her recipe and she happily shared it with me. Thank YOU, Laura! I tweaked things a little bit and am now sharing it with you! 

Landon and I have made these twice this week! He loves to help me in the kitchen and I adore having him at my side as I create new recipes. We sing songs about love as we mix every thing together because we believe that's the best way to infuse love in to our goodies. I guarantee they taste better when we do this! He also gives me an abundance of hugs and kisses in between adding ingredients. It's darling and precious. Memories I'm certain he and I will treasure forever. Get your kids in the kitchen with you. It's a wonderful way to be in teaching moments without them even realizing it!

We hope you enjoy these brownies as much as we do!   

Grain Free Chocolate Delight Brownies

~ 2 eggs (I always use cage free, free range)

~ 1/4 C coconut oil (I like organic)

~ 1/4 C butter (I use raw, grass fed)

~ 2 tsp apple cider vinegar (I prefer Bragg's)

~ 2 tsp pure vanilla extract 

~ 3/4 C sugar (I used beet sugar because it's what I had on hand. You can also use coconut sugar or cane sugar. Add more or less depending how sweet you want your brownies.)

~ 1/3 C cocoa powder

~ 1/4 C + 1 Tbsp coconut flour (Bob's Red Mill)

~ 1/4 C almond flour (I like Honeyville)

~ 1/4 tsp baking soda
~ 1/2 tsp baking powder

~ 1/4 tsp salt

~ 1/4 C chocolate chips

Melt the butter and coconut oil. In a blender, combine the eggs, apple cider vinegar, butter and coconut oil. Blend for about 2 minutes. Then add the sugar and vanilla to the egg mixture. Blend for about a minute. Add all other dry ingredients and blend for about 3 minutes or until thoroughly combined. You may need to stop halfway through to scrape the sides of the blender. Stir in the chocolate chips, pour in to a greased 8 x 8 glass pan and bake for approximately 25 minutes. Store in the refrigerator in an air tight container. 

Side Notes: If you have a nut allergy, use 1/2 C coconut flour total and eliminate the almond flour. If you like your brownies cake-like, use 3 eggs. You DO NOT have to use a blender, however, using one makes a smoother finished product. If you don't have a blender, simply mix the wet ingredients followed by all dry ingredients. These will still taste awesome!

Enjoy with a big glass of Coconut Milk!

Chocolately goodness!

See how happy these brownies made Landon!

Landon's First Pre-School Field Trip - Pumpkin Patch

Landon had his first Pre-school field trip yesterday at Applejack Pumpkin Patch. It was soooo fun!

Landon was so excited to go down this giant slide! It was super humid yesterday, which made the slide not so slippery. He got stuck about halfway down and was not amused, as you can see by the photos.

Such a big boy! 

All of the kids hopped on for a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch, or pumpkin garden, as Landon calls it. It was a tad bit muddy out there but they didn't seem to mind. It was tough to get a photo of Landon with his pumpkin because he kept saying the stem was "stickery". 

I was super excited to get out to the corn maze because I just knew it would make for some pretty neat photos. Landon enjoyed it too because he got to run free!

I LOVE THE PUMPKIN PATCH!!!

L4L Softball Tournament

Last Saturday we held the Love 4 Landon Foundation's Second Annual Softball Tournament. Our goal was to have 12 teams enter. We ended up with 14! Totally AWESOME! That softball community is a great bunch, let me tell ya!

The day started off rainy but we were determined to play on. The rain abruptly stopped at 9:30 and our guys got busy getting the fields ready. By 11:00 a.m. the first pitches were being thrown. The championship game finally wrapped up around 1:00 a.m. Sunday. It was a looooong day but so totally worth it! 

Landon loved having the freedom to run around and play. He also enjoyed helping with concessions. As people approached he would smile and ask, "How can I help you today?" Then he would hand them whatever they asked for and before they left he would tell them, "Thank You for supporting the Love 4 Landon Foundation! Come back and see us!" It was absolutely precious and heartwarming. He's come a long way, just in the last year. It was so special for me to have him by my side helping. It was also very neat to see him running and playing. It brought me to tears. Imagine that. You know what else brought me to tears? The love and generosity of our community. I'm getting weepy as I type just thinking about it. We had an amazing team of people come together to make this event a raging success! 

We are incredibly grateful for all of the continued support we are given to help raise awareness about IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease). We had many people come up and ask what IBD is and we got to share our knowledge. We also had people there who are struggling with their own issues related IBD. That, Folks, is why we continue to move forward. We want to help others and give back in a special and unique way.  

Misty (Founding Member) and her daughter.

My independent boy.

Shannon (Founding Member), Willie and ME!

My two favorite guys and a giant chair!

Sweet, handsome boy. (Thank you to Lindsey for this photo!)

Precious moments.

Scott and Fred. As the night wore on, boredom set in. 

Misty and I trying to stay warm while keeping score during the championship game. It was so cold!

Landon watching Daddy umpire.

The Love 4 Landon Foundation 2nd Annual Softball Tournament CHAMPIONS!!!