Chocolate Pudding!

I admit, I am writing this while licking out the bowl!

So, Jon & I have been trying to avoid refined sugar as of late. Lately, we've been greatly missing dessert! This morning, I got desperate and altered a chocolate pudding recipe to my liking. Here it is...

2/3 cup Honey (or if you're trying to be really good...1/2 tsp Stevia extract powder)

3 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/8 tsp salt

2 3/4 cup milk

2 tbsp butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp hazelnut extract

1. Mix honey, cocoa, cornstarch, salt, and milk in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to boil and cook til the mixture will coat the back of a metal spoon. 

2. Mix in butter, vanilla & hazelnut extracts.

3. Serve warm or chill.

 

Yum!!

Oh, also! I recently met a woman who is on a gluten free, dairy free, sugar free diet. (poor woman!!) When I was dealing with Evie's allergy issues, I was on a similar diet. She took pity on me and shared her fudge recipe with me. Surprisingly, it was quite good. So here's that one too...

"Sugar-free Fudge"

1 Cup coconut oil

3/4 Cup cocoa powder

1/4 Cup honey

1/4 Cup almond butter

1. Melt 30-60 seconds in the microwave. 

2. Pour into bread pan. (It's best when the fudge is about 1/4 inch thick.)

3. Chill, serve cold. (The coconut oil will melt at room temperature.)

6 months old!

This little girl is growing up! Here she is on her six month birthday! (yesterday) I can't believe six months have flown by since she joined us! I can't imagine life without her now. 

Spare Video

I just had to add one more video from our picnic. It wouldn't seem to load in the other post. Blogger seems to have some weird quirks when it comes to pics and videos. Anyway, I love this one, cause Evie just LOVES riding on Dad's shoulders! Puts a smile on her face no matter her mood!

Columbia River Picnic

There's been a lot going on lately in the Suomi household. We've got (to use my husband's saying...) all sorts of irons in the fire. Thus, the Sunday afternoon that we had a family picnic by the river was very much appreciated! It was a gorgeous day to enjoy God's creation & each other. Here's some proof that we got out of the house for some fun!

Growing Pains

Not Evelyn's.

Mine. 

I have been having a really hard time with her crying lately. The other night, I put her down in her crib for bed. She'd been fed, changed, burped; she was just tired. And yet, when I came downstairs and heard her screaming on the monitor, I could barely stand it. Now, it had been a pretty emotional day already, but her crying brought me to tears! She sounded scared. I hated the thought that she might wonder why I wasn't coming to her rescue. 

But the other part of my brain doesn't want to teach her that all she has to do is cry to get her way. I don't know if she can even think that way yet... She's going to be six months next week. I want her to learn that bedtime is bedtime. When she goes down, she's down for the night. But the way she cries is nearly unbearable! Am I just too faint hearted? Advice anyone? 

I want to "grow up" to be a good mom! I want to raise a daughter who knows her boundaries and is a joy to have around. It's just more complicated than I anticipated, and she's not even one year old!

A Veggie Lover Already?

So, we had asparagus tonight. All 3 of us! 

Well...sort of...

I let Evie gum on the end of the asparagus spear...because she was looking at me with such a mouth watering stare! And to my surprise, she LOVED it! She did it over and over! She would suck on the end til all the juice & innards came out. So cute! She didn't like rice cereal, but she likes asparagus??? I'm puzzled. 

Now, am I a bad momma for letting her try something like that so soon? I don't know when you're supposed to introduce things like that. She didn't swallow any chunks or anything; she just extracted the asparagus "essence." 

But needless to say, I'm excited that she seems to like her veggies!

Trying New Things

While we did try new things this last week, it wasn't starfish. We found this 18 legged creature on the beach at my sister's house. Amongst a sea of rocks and sea weed, this stuck out!

This one is just for perspective...he was huge!

Here's my sister's neighborhood, Salmon Beach.

And her house. It still looks a little rough around the edges, but the inside is now beautiful, thanks to Jon! :)

So the new thing was rice cereal! I'm not sure Evie likes trying new things yet. I don't know...what do you think?

I think what she's trying to communicate is that she would rather eat her bib than the cereal. We decided to let her try some, because she is absolutely fascinated by eating. She watches the spoon rise to my mouth, then she watches me chew, all with a wide open mouth stare. It's quite funny. But considering she actually swallowed maybe 10% of what we fed her, and she seemed to say, "EWWWW What on earth are you feeding me?!?!" with her face, I think we might wait a few more weeks before we try some more. :)