Blueberry muffins

This is my recipe for Blueberry muffins, it is modified slightly from The Betty Crocker Cookbook. A small aside about the blueberries. For pancakes we like to use fresh, but find that frozen work better in muffins. Something about the baking time that is involved in muffins causes the blueberries to get mushy if you use fresh. With frozen we have never had this problem and it allows the blueberries to stay whole enough that you get that pop of fruit that makes blueberries so delicious!

These muffins are great muffins, they are slightly crisp on the outside and soft and fluffy inside. The muffin itself is not too sweet and the blueberries give it just a bit of sweetness. So enough talk, here is the recipe!

3/4 cup of milk

1/4 cup canola oil

1 large egg

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 to 1 teaspoon of cinnamon

1 1/2 cups frozen blueberries

Heat oven to 400 and grease a 12 cup muffin tin (I like off brand Pam myself). Beat milk, oil, and egg. I do this with a wire whisk until extra fluffy. Sift dry ingredients together in a separate bowl. Dump all but about two tablespoons of the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and mix until just combined (batter will be lumpy). Take the extra two tablespoons of flour mixture and toss the frozen blueberries. This will coat the blueberries and help them stay suspended in the batter (so all of your blueberries aren't at the bottom of your muffin). Fold into the batter. Evenly place into your muffin tin. I find that a cookie scoop makes this easier (usually two scoops or so per tin). Bake 20 to 25 minutes (until it's done and golden brown). Top with butter and enjoy!

I love the slightly blue color they get

Look at that distribution of perfectly, "burstable" blueberries!

Enjoy with venison sausage or on their own on your way to work! I have contemplated making them with half whole wheat flour, I think they would be pretty good!

Another great article

I thought this article on yahoo was a great little reminder of some of the things we should keep our eyes peeled for used instead of buying new. It will help our pocketbooks and I am sure Matt's sister McKay and my Hippie sister Dena would like the fact that it helps keep unnecessary waste out of our landfills!

Photo Shoots!

I love taking pictures of my little girl. She loves to ham it up for the camera too! I think she was listening when I would watch America's Next Top Model. If you get out a camera, she will look your way and smile which is wonderful! So here are a few pictures we have gotten of her recently.

8 months already!

MacKenzie,

I cannot believe you are already 8 months old (well...tomorrow)! You have grown up so much in the last month, I am sure I will say it again, but this has been my favorite month so far. You are so interactive and simply fun to be around.

We have been slacking on feeding you solids. You are simply quite content to nurse your way through your first year so it is hard to be motivated to give you purees and baby foods that you aren't that thrilled about gumming (that's right...no teeth yet). We have been giving you some finger foods to try out, but you would rather play. We discovered last night that you are quite fond of tomatoes with a bit of basil on them so maybe we are underestimating your foodie taste buds. We have stopped trying oatmeal at all because you might have a slight allergy to it. We will try again when you are older. You do like to gnaw on bread, tortillas, or crackers which will keep you occupied for a bit if we go out to eat. You do great at restaurants and like to sit in a high chair if you are not too tired.

We tried seeing what you would do if allowed to

feed yourself...thank goodness it was bath night!

You are sitting up on your own to play and hate being forced to lay down. You definitely know how to get your knees under you, but you aren't sure what to do with your arms which makes crawling an almost impossibility. You have mastered the circle though because your bottom half is mobile and your top half is stationary which gets you a teeny tiny bit of movement. I learned quite by surprise that you were ready to pull yourself up when you were sitting on the couch with me, pulled yourself up on my leg, and almost toppled over head first onto the floor. You are getting to be a pro at pulling up and we definitely need to lower your crib(s) in order to make sure you are safe. Thank goodness you haven't figured out how to get yourself from laying down to pulling up!

You talk almost incessantly! Most of it is ba-ba-ba-ba-ba (repeat), but every once in a while you will start with a blah-blah-blah. Usually this is funny, but not so much in the middle of our Sunday sermon which means mommy takes you outside. You are discovering your vocal range and we often turn around to look at you, thinking something is wrong, only to realize that you were just trying out your volume levels or pitch! You are laughing more and more and smile all the time. The girls at the gym nursery call you the "happy baby". The other day you cracked up when a character on a show sneezed, this has led to us making all of your animals sneeze too.

We have had a ton of adventures this past month...here are some pictures!

You went swimming for the first time,

look at your Aggie swimsuit!

At first you didn't like swimming, but when you learned you could splash...just like the bath tub then you were sold on swimming and the pool. This is at the Medlin's house for our small group's Memorial Day weekend celebration!

We went to go see Nana, in fact we have seen her twice this summer!

The next few pictures are from a weekend away with Daddy's side of the family. We went to Chalk Mountain for a weekend get away. You liked to watch the foxes in the morning and to spend time with your family.

You and your Grandma Dee at the Dr. Pepper place in Dublin, TX

In the hiking backpack we borrowed from the Allison's

you weren't a huge fan at first, but we walked around

Dinosaur Valley State Park

Doc, Dee, Daddy, Mommy, You, Aunt McKay, and Uncle Rob

(Uncle Martin had to work...that is restaurant business for you)

We also went to Blue Bell. Mommy and Daddy had not been for years and wanted to utilize days off to enjoy Texas and Houston things to do!

You would rather eat your hat than wear it!

Lastly, we went to eat and then went bowling with Grammy Kiki and Papi! You love them so much and enjoy your time with them!

It has been a busy month! I hope you enjoyed it because I loved every minute! Hope this next month is as adventure filled!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy!

Haircut 2010

As previously mentioned, I recently cut all of my hair off again. I really like having long hair, but when you have super long, straight, fine hair that is difficult to do much with down...you have a tendency to put it up a lot. This tendency becomes a lot stronger when you have little 7 month old hands grabbing and pulling as hard as they can. I felt guilty having all this hair that I love when I don't do anything with it...so it was time for another cut and not a moment too late seeing as we have over 100 degrees here in Texas on a regular basis for the foreseeable future. Lucky for me, my stepfathers mother is now in town and she was willing to cut my hair for me!!!

So here is me pre-cut...long cascading hair...

I was most nervous about this cut, but I am not sure why. As per Locks of Love instructions my hair was dry, we put it in a rubber band and started to decide where to cut. When she said 10 inches was at my shoulder blades I had to think whether I still wanted longish hair or not...I decided I wanted a full cut and told her to go shoulder length. She was hesitant but I had done this before, I knew what a big change it would be. She pulled the rubber band up higher and got the scissors and began making the big cut. I cannot describe how strange it is to be hearing the scissors rip through your hair like that. It is a little grating when it is so close to your ears! As she cut through the massive pony tail, the already cut parts started to fall forward- there was no turning back now!

This is me during my cut. I automatically felt a weight lifted off

(not my shoulders), but my head!

Post cut MacKenzie was hungry so we didn't get a big fashion shoot!

Here is a close up of what I call my sassy pants hair!

Yes, it is not styled or even blow dryed...I am a busy mommy what can I say!

Matt likes the new hair cut because it reminds him of me when we first started dating and got together...

I like the hair because it is a lot lighter and easier to manage. When I took my first post-cut shower I had to remind myself not to use too much shampoo. I got in the shower and victoriously got a perfect amount of shampoo for my new hair, then realized I hadn't gotten my hair wet yet...

So below is the hair ready to be measured...I was shocked when it measured to be 16 inches! That is the most I have been able to donate at once so far! I am really excited that they have a good amount to work with!

This cut will be sent in honor of my dear friend (even if she does work at that other school down in Austin), Dr. Joan Shiring who is in remission, I asked where she wanted it sent and she wanted Locks of Love to continue having the hair for their organization.

A brief side note...

I rather love salad. I could eat a dinner sized salad many nights of the week. I enjoy preparing salads and eat a good portion of every salad I make. I think salads are wonderful because they are so versatile. I found this slide show while perusing the Internet today. Maybe you will get some enjoyment from one of these recipes.

Useful little article...

Just thought I would share a link to this article about different uses for baking soda. And I am sure many, including my sister-in-law McKay would appreciate this article about the wonderful world of vinegar.