thestahlhouse

Homemade Apple Chicken Sausage

2011-02-26T14:15:00.001-06:00

Ingredients:

1lb ground turkey or chicken sausage
3/4 cup diced dried apples
1 Tbs maple syrup or honey
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp Allspice
2 Tbs dried Sage

Mix all ingredients and cook them!

We've been making these instead of purchasing them, mainly because I know what's in these and they are less expensive. Not quite the same as store bought, but the kids like them...

CONDIMENTS

2011-02-26T14:14:00.000-06:00

Here are three of our favorites lately. So simple.

RANCH DRESSING
2TBS mayo
2TBS sour cream (Daisy is a good brand, no additives)
2TBS buttermilk, or kefir
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper
sprinkle of garlic powder
sprinkle of onion powder
sprinkle of dill weed

LEMON BUTTER
1/4lb softened salted butter (or non salted butter, with salt added)
Juice from one lemon
sprinkle of dill weed

Mix together. Roll butter in a piece of wax paper and chill in the fridge.
Serve with any of your favorite veggies - green beans, brussel sprouts, etc.

HONEY MUSTARD SAUCE
Just mix a little bit of Dijon Mustard with Honey. Mix to your preferred taste...more sweet versus more mustardy.

Amazing on thinly sliced chicken with lettuce on sourdough bread!

Baked Apple Pancake

2010-05-07T10:48:00.002-05:00

This recipe is one of our kids favorites. The four of them polish off the whole 9" x 13" pan by themselves.

Ingredients:
4Tbs butter, melted
2 apples, peeled and sliced thin

1 cup milk
5 large eggs
2/3 cup wheat flour or sprouted wheat flour
2 Tbs honey
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 425F. Place butter in a 9 x 13" pan. Place apple slices in the butter on the bottom of pan, overlapping if desired. Bake the apples for ten minutes until the apples and butter are bubbling.

Meanwhile, place all the other ingredients in a blender and blend for a minute. After the apples have baked for 10 minutes, pour the batter over the apples and bake for another 20 minutes. The pancake will puff up, and then puff down when cooled. I usually have to make two pans at a time to make sure there is plenty, or else serve it with other food, like sausages or toast.

Baked Egg Pancake

2010-05-07T10:46:00.001-05:00

This is momma's pancake because it doesn't have wheat and sugar in it. You can use wheat flour instead of the arrowroot powder if you don't have a problem eating wheat. This picture is of a half recipe in a 8"x8" pan.

Ingredients:
1 cup milk
6 large eggs
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup arrowroot powder, or wheat flour, sprouted wheat flour
4 Tbs butter, melted
Diced veggies of your choice (I like onion, green pepper or jalapenos)
Precooked sausage, bacon or other meat (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 425F. Place butter in a 9 x 13 pan. Put veggies in the butter pan and bake for about 10 minutes until the veggies are solt and butter is bubbling. While it is cooking, put the milk, eggs, salt, and arrowroot powder in a blender and blend for a minute. When the veggies are done, pour the batter in the pan with the veggies and sprinkle with sausage and bacon if desired. Bake for 20 minutes. This pancake will puff up and is very light!

Chocolate Cake with Creamy Chocolate Frosting

2010-03-21T14:50:00.009-05:00

It's Jude's birthday today! The big man is 4 years old. He asked for his favorite, chocolate cake with chocolate frosting!!

This picture is before we decorated it, so you can see how creamy the frosting turns out.

We love this recipe. It is still a special occasion recipe because it has a ton of sugar (rapadura) in it. I personally think that rapadura really adds to the flavor of chocolate cake/frosting because it has a deeper flavor than white sugar.

CAKE ingredients

2 cups whole wheat flour, sprouted wheat flour, bulgur flour or spelt flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp instant coffee
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
12 Tbs (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1 3/4 cup rapadura (unrefined sugar)
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups whole milk, at room temperature

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle postion and heat the oven to 350 deg. Lightly grease two 8" or 9" round cake pans or one 9" by 13" cake pan with oil or butter. Then line the bottoms of the pans with parchement paper.

2. Combine the flour, cocoa, coffee, baking soda and salt together in a large bowl.

3. Beat the butter and sugar together in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 6 minutes. Beat in the eggs and vanilla.

4. Beat in the flour and milk, small amounts at a time, until fully combined.

5. Pour the batter into the pans and bake for 20-25 minutes.

6. Let the cakes cool in the pans for 10 minutes. Take them out of the pans, remove the parchment paper and let them cool completely before frosting.

This cake can be made a day in advance is wrapped well and kept at room temperature. It can be frozen for 1 month is wrapped well in plastic wrap and then foil.

Frosting ingredients
10 oz of chocolate chips/chunks. *
1/2 cup whole milk or cream, boiling
8 Tbs (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces and chilled

*If you are using the homemade recipe listed on this site, the recipe makes slightly over 10oz. If you don't have a scale, then remove 1/4 cup of finished chunks, which should leave you with about 10oz.

Directions

1. Place the chocolate and pinch of salt in a food processor

2. Turn on the processor and add the boiling milk/cream gradually. Process for about 30 sec.

3. With the machine running, add the butter through the feed tube one piece at a time and process until smooth and butter is melted and incorporated.

4. Transfer the frosting to a bowl and let it cool at room temperature for about an hour, stirring occasionally.

Homemade Choc. Chips/Chunks

2010-03-21T14:32:00.004-05:00

This recipe is compliments of The Heavenly Homemakers website. I use these to make a creamy chocolate frosting that I'll be posting next...

I used to be a huge chocolate nut. To be honest these chocolate chips really don't compare to the milk chocolate chips that you buy from the store. But.....they do make some wonderful creamy frosting for a special occasion birthday cake!! It's easy to make, and you know what's in them.....

Ingredients

1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup rapadura
1 cup butter or coconut oil
1 T vanilla

Directions
Place the cocoa, rapadura and butter (or coconut oil) into a quart sized jar.

Fill a small saucepan with two or three inches of water. Place the jar into the saucepan. Turn the heat on med/high to begin melting the butter.

Stir often. It takes 10-15 minutes for the butter to melt fully. I make sure that it's fully stirred and the butter is fully melted.

Take the jar out of the water and add the vanilla.

Pour the mixture into a 9x13 glass pan. If you are trying to get chocolate chunks to use as chocolate chips in a recipe, then use parchment paper on the bottom of the pan. If you are using it for frosting, then you don't need the parchment paper.

Refrigerate until the mixture is cold and set.

If I'm using this for frosting, I just scrape the chocolate out with a spoon and put into a bowl. If I'm actually trying to using it as chunks then I try to cut them out in chunks and pry them off of the paper.

Oriental Chicken Salad

2010-03-11T19:32:00.003-06:00

So, I'm pregnant in the first trimester. Most foods are completely disgusting to me. The only things that I've been eating are two eggs in the morning and sliced ham/turkey, cheese, with green pepper, lettuce and tomato for the rest of the day. I've been eating that for a month straight. Some days I sit dreaming of other foods that might possibly taste good to me enough to try. So, today an Applebees oriental chicken salad came to my mind. Yes, that would taste good. That's what I can try! Well, after coming up with ways of getting myself to Applebees and using their Carside to go, where they would bring the salad to me to at the car, I became practical. The salad is $10 and if it's as good as I'm imagining I may want it every day for the next 3 weeks. Instead I found the recipe for the salad dressing online. Grace and I made a target run this evening and guess what....it's awesome!! Yay! It tastes exactly like the Applebees salad I was imagining, and I can make it everyday for the next three weeks if I want.

So...if anyone else is interested, here it is! (I made mine so fast I forgot to add the honey..and it's still awesome)

Oriental Dressing
3 Tbs honey
1 1/2 Tbs Rice Vinegar or Rice Wine Vinegar
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp dijon mustard
1/8 tsp sesame oil

For the salad, add the lettuce, carrots, either grilled or crispy chicken, mandarin oranges, crispy wontons or anything else that sounds appealing to you!

Josh's Family Drawing

2010-02-14T13:55:00.002-06:00

This is a picture compliments of Josh. Yes, there's a baby in mommy's tummy in the picture!

Homemade Larabar Recipe

2010-01-27T16:17:00.003-06:00

I personally didn't know what a larabar was. A friend was just talking about them, and mentioned a website for making them yourself. This is from the cleaneatingonline website. You can subsitute any dried fruit for the below...bananas, apples, peaches, etc. It's sort of an equivalent to a fruit snack that you buy at the store. Just another good idea for a snack or treat!!

Ingredients

Very Cherry: 1/4 c. dates (roughly chopped, whole), 1/4 c. dried cherries or cranberries, 1/3 c. whole pecans, almonds, or walnuts, 1/8 tsp. cinnamon
Cashew Cookie Dough: 1/3 c. dates, 1/2 c. raw cashews
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough: 1/3 c. dates, 1/2 c. raw cashews, 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract, pinch of cinnamon, 1/2 oz. finely chopped semisweet chocolate
Blueberry Bliss: 1/4 c. dried blueberries, 1/4 c. dates, 1/3 c. almonds, 1/2 tsp. finely grated lemon zest, 1 drop almond extract

Instructions

Lay two pieces of plastic wrap on counter. Place fruit in food processor and pulse until it has a paste-like texture. Transfer to a medium bowl. Add nuts to food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add nuts to bowl with the fruit. Add all other ingredients. Use fingers to knead into a paste.

Divide mixture in half. Place each half on plastic wrap. Wrap plastic around mixture and form into a bar shape. Wrap tightly in plastic and store in the refrigerator. Makes 2 bars.

Protein Bar

2010-01-27T16:07:00.002-06:00

This is variation of a recipe given from the passionate homemaking website. Our family loves these!! It works great as a snack or as a treat to keep the kids going on nights when they have to stay up late.

2 cups almonds

1/4 cup flax seeds

1/4 cup pumpkin or sunflower seeds (ground in a coffee grinder or blender)

1/2 cup dried prunes, dates or raisins (we use raisins)

½ cup shredded coconut (unsweetened)

½ cup unsalted peanut butter

½ teaspoon sea salt

½ cup coconut oil

1 Tbsp raw honey

2-3 teaspoons vanilla extract

Place almonds, flax meal/seeds, dried fruit, shredded coconut, peanut butter and salt in a food processor. Pulse briefly for about 10 seconds. In a small sauce pan, melt coconut oil over very low heat. Remove coconut oil from stove, stir sweeteners and vanilla into oil. Add coconut oil mixture to food processor and pulse until ingredients form a coarse paste. Press mixture into an 8 x 8 glass baking dish. Chill in refrigerator for 1 hour, until mixture hardens. Remove from refrigerator, cut into bars and serve. Store in refrigerator or freezer!

Taco Pizzas

2010-01-27T15:43:00.002-06:00

This has been my favorite quick and inexpensive lunch for the kids and myself, especially when there aren't any leftovers for us to eat. I buy a good quality corn tortilla, that doesn't have any other ingredients except for corn and a trace of lime. I put them in the freezer to have on hand for the emergency lunch or snack.

First step: Prepare your own beans. Soak dry beans (black, kidney or navy) in cool water over night. In the morning, rinse them and cook them on the stove on low heat for a few hours until they are tender. If you cook them longer, they are easier to mash.

Second step: Mash the beans with a potato masher or put them in your blender or food processor to get a smoother consistency.

Third step: Add seasoning to the beans. For black and Kidney beans I add a little bit of chili powder, cumin and salt. For the navy beans I add a little bit of basil, oregano and salt. The beans will keep in your refrigerator through the week to use for snacks or lunches. You can freeze them too to keep on hand.

Fourth step: Spread the beans on the corn torillas, and top with shredded cheese of your choice. Put them on a cookie sheet and bake at 425F for 8-12 minutes, depending if you use frozen tortillas and frozen cheese or not. The tortillas will be nice and crunchy and the cheese will be melted. If you want to add a little more good fat to fill up your little ones, you can spread some coconut oil or butter on the tortilla bottom before baking them.

Cut them with a pizza cutter into four sections and dip in salsa or sour cream if desired!

Chicken Wild Rice Soup

2009-11-11T15:28:00.003-06:00

1 6oz box long-grain and wild rice mix, prepared according to package or
1 to 1 1/2 cups uncooked wild rice/brown rice blend, cooked

2 boneless skinless chicken breast halves, cooked and chopped or an equivalent amount of cooked dark chicken meat from making broth
2 cloves garlic
1 onion

3 ¼ cups chicken broth
5 Tbs butter
5 Tbs all-purpose flour (Can use gluten free flour/thickener)
2 cups milk

½ tsp dried tarragon
¼ tsp dried thyme
Black pepper & salt to taste

Directions:
Cook wild rice. I like cooking 1 cup of wild rice in 2 cups of chicken broth at a very low simmer.

Fry onion and garlic until soft. Add rice and chicken, chicken broth, tarragon, thyme, salt and pepper. Cook over med-high heat.

In a separate pan melt butter over med-low heat. Whisk in flour and cook, stirring constantly for about 1 minute. Stir in milk and continue stirring over med-low heat for about 4-5 minutes or until thick.

Add the cream sauce to the soup mixture. Cook soup until heated through and serve!

Beef Burrito Casserole

2009-11-11T14:48:00.004-06:00

1 onion, minced
2 red bell peppers, chopped (optional)
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp chili powder
salt
2 Tbs coconut oil
2 lbs ground beef
2 cups chicken broth
2 15.5oz cans pinto beans, rinsed
1 14.5oz can diced tomatoes, drained or put through blender for kid friendly
6 Tbs chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
2 Tbs fresh lime juice
18 6” corn tortillas
8 oz cheddar cheese, shredded (2 cups)

Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 450 degrees. Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven or frying pan over medium heat until shimmering. Add the bell peppers and onion and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic, chili powder, and 1 tsp salt and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the ground beef and cook until no longer pink.
Stir in the broth, beans, and tomatoes and simmer until slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Stir in the ¼ cup of the cilantro and the lime juice. Season with the salt and pepper to taste.

Spread one third of the beef mixture in a 9 x 13” baking dish. Layer 6 of the tortillas on top of the filling, overlapping as needed, then sprinkle with ¾ cup of cheese. Repeat to form a second layer. Spread the remaining filling in the baking dish. Cut the remaining 6 tortillas into quarters, then spread over the top. Sprinkle with the remaining ½ cup of cheese.
Bake until the cheese is golden brown and the casserole is bubbling, about 15 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with the remaining 2 Tbs cilantro before serving.

Cream of Potato Soup

2009-11-06T15:19:00.003-06:00

This is a soup that our kids love, and it's an AWESOME way to hide veggies that the kids or finicky adults like myself normally won't eat. It didn't sound too flavorful when I read the recipe originally, but it's surprising. This has no milk in it. It's blended, so the potatoes turn the soup into a creamy texture.

3 medium-large baking potatoes or 6 red potatoes, chopped
2 medium onions, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
4 zucchini
4 Tbs butter
2 quarts chicken broth
A few fresh thyme sprigs, tied together or 1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp pepper
salt

Melt butter in a large pot and add onions and carrots. Cover and cook over low heat for 1/2 hour, or until the veggies are softened. Add broth and potatoes. Bring to a boil and skim off any foam that rises. Reduce heat and add thyme and pepper. Cook until the potatoes are soft. Add zucchini and cook until just tender and 5-10 minutes. Remove the thyme sprigs. Puree soup with a handheld blender or transfer to a blender in batches. Thin with water if needed. Season with salt to taste. If you are using homemade broth make sure to put enough salt into the soup, since homemade broth doesn't have any salt to begin with. Without enough salt this soup tastes bland. Serve with sour cream and homemade croutons.

I've tried adding squash to this recipe and it worked out. I'm thinking of trying other veggies like cauliflower or possibly a little rutabaga or turnips. I tried a rutabega, turnip and parsnip soup the other day, and that didn't go over too well with all of us, including myself. But, maybe if I sneak in smaller quantities in a potato base, it wouldn't be detected. We'll see....

Grace Bean at Two

2009-11-06T14:45:00.006-06:00

Gracie turned two years old a few weeks ago. She thinks she's ten though. If you ask her how old she is, she always says ten. She knew exactly what to do with her two year old photo shoot with dad. I think she's watched a few too many times with her brothers' birthdays.

Homemade Chicken Broth

2009-10-29T16:26:00.004-05:00

Homemade chicken broth is one of the healtiest things you can make. It supplies a lot of minerals and gelatin into your diet. Not only that, but it tastes a lot bettter when making soups and sauces! I can truly taste the difference. This is also an inexpensive way of adding good minerals and vitamins into your diet. This has been a growing experience for me, since I don't necessarily like handling raw chicken. But, it's been such a wonderful part of our meals. It's well worth it!

Ingredients:

1 whole pasture raised chicken
4 quarts of cold water
2 Tbs vinegar
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
3 celery sticks, chopped
1 onion, chopped

I usually double this recipe, so that I only make stock every 2 weeks. I do this job in parts, to make things a little easier.

Part One: Prepare everything the night before. I cut out the chicken breast meat of the chicken and put it into a freezer baggie to save for later. I then cut off the wings and legs. I chop all of the veggies. I put it all in the fridge for the morning.

Part Two: Dump all of the chicken pieces and veggies into a large pot with the COLD water and vinegar. Let it sit for 1 hour. This is a crucial step. The vinegar actually pulls the minerals out of the bones in the cold water.

Part Three: Bring the stock to a boil and skim off any skum that raises to the top. Reduce heat and cook for a few hours.

Part Four: My personal preference is to take the chicken meat off of the bones at this point once the meat is fully cooked, but not overly cooked. I then save this dark meat in freezer bags to put into soups, enchiladas, chicken salad sandwiches, etc.

Part Five: Put all bones and leftover pieces back into the pot and simmer for another 6-20 hours. At this point I strain the broth into another pot, let it cool and put it into the fridge overnight until cold. The fat raises to the top and will easily be spooned off the top. The rest of the stock should look like jello. If you used a single chicken, you should have one gallon's worth of broth. So, depending on how long you cooked down the broth, you may have a half a gallon, or a quarter of a gallon of boiled down broth. Divide the broth into baggies of your preferred quantity. I usually boil mine down to half the original water quantity. So, 2 cups of boiled down broth makes 4 cups of prepared broth. I put 2 cups in each baggie so that I can easily have a quart for my soups. I freeze the individual baggies and thaw in warm water.

Taco Soup

2009-10-26T13:20:00.004-05:00

Our kids love this! It's an easy recipe too, which can be made ahead of time.

TACO SOUP
Makes 6 to 8 servings.

1 pound ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
1 can (15 ounces) kidney beans, undrained or add your own pre-soaked and cooked dry beans
1 can (15 ounces) black beans, undrained or add your own pre-soaked and cooked dry beans
1 can (15 ounces) whole-kernel corn, undrained or one cup frozen corn
1 can (28 ounces) stewed tomatoes, diced tomatoes or your own quart jar of homemade crushed tomatoes. Store bought crushed tomatoes can be a little too thick for this recipe.
2 Tbs chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
½ tsp oregano
¼ tsp cayenne powder
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp salt

Cook hamburger and onion until well browned. In a pot, add the hamburger and onion, the beans, corn and tomatoes. If you are using stewed or diced tomatoes, you can blend them in a blender before adding them which is often more kid friendly. Then add the seasonings and extra water if needed. Cook for 30 minutes. Use extra salt/pepper to your own taste. Serve/eat with corn tortilla chips and sour cream.

I Heard Good News Today

2009-10-11T09:41:00.003-05:00

I really recommend this book for your family! It's called "I Heard Good News Today" by Cornelia Lehn. I bought it used from Amazon for $15. You can see it on this link. We've only read 10 out of the 92 short stories so far, but each of the stories have impacted us! I'd have to say that Ryan and I tear up during the stories. It's a book of early missionary stories, of how the gospel of Christ first reached the different parts of the world. It's a book for children. Some of the stories include pirates which have been exciting for our little boys. Our boys have been sitting quite still with big eyes and hardly breathing. I really like this book because it's helping to implant the heart of a missionary into our children, and how God has a big plan for children.

Breakfast Cake

2009-10-02T10:11:00.004-05:00

This recipe has been amazing for our family. It takes good, but because of all of the good butter it fills everybody up until noon!

1 cup butter, melted and cooled
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup water
2 eggs
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup raisins or other dried fruit

Stir together butter, buttermilk, flour and oats in a glass bowl. Cover and let it sit on your counter overnight or for 8 hours.

Stir in honey, water, eggs, salt, baking soda and vanilla. Add raisins or other dried fruit. Pour into a greased 9 x 9 inch baking pan. Bake at 350 degF for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Falling Down is HARD to do...

2009-09-16T20:56:00.003-05:00

So we (Jakin, Jude, Gracie and I), were out on a walk. I no sooner said be careful about walking on the curb, that Jakin proceeded to fall and scrape both of his knees.

A little while later, I said "I am sorry you fell and scraped your knees, I know that really hurts."

Jakin then said, "Yeah, falling on the road or concrete hurts cuz it is hard. It doesn't cause scrapes, it causes blood".

I thought that was well stated!

Nutritional Background

2009-09-14T09:08:00.024-05:00

In the beginning of 2009 our family started looking into health and nutrition. We have quite a few friends with health issues. Most of these health issues are food related, which made us question the foods we were eating ourselves. We have been blessed with health for the most part, but we were seeing some food related behaviors with our children. Our kids were begging for treats and food every two hours and a few had crying spells that couldn't be controlled off and on. But, we also knew that we had some strongholds with food ourselves, including a dependence on snacking and sugar. I(Laura) had frequent headaches, lack of energy, and a lack of motivation to make dinner because of what I ate during the day. We started going through each of the areas of nutrition one by one, such as fats/oils, grains, proteins, dairy, sweetners, etc. Up until then, I had purchased the cheapest food I could find since food was food and I hadn't read any real evidence otherwise. I honestly didn't think that we ate poorly and it was too big of a chore to figure it out and knew it would take months of spare time that I didn't have. And, health seemed so controversial, with everyone saying something different, so where do you even start? Well, we feel very blessed to find some information out there that has the data and facts that we needed to make some decisions and changes.

The thing that shocked us through our reading, is that back in the early 1900's heart attacks were very rare. There wasn't a lot of diabetes, heart disease and many of the illnesses we have today. What's changed? People didn't eat processed foods then as they do today. People ate whole foods in their natural state. When mass production of foods started, the engineers started trying to make things faster and cheaper. Foods are pushed through equipment at high speeds and high temperatures. The nature of the foods are changed with speed and temperature. The molecules itself are transformed and misconfigured. They combine differently with the other foods you eat, get absorbed differently in your body, and overload many of your organs. Our bodies have to work a whole lot harder to make up for the differences with refined foods and can wear down over time. In short, there are long term health effects with the foods we eat. There are a lot of short term health effects too. The one that we can relate to a lot is dealing with refined white sugar, which can cause sugar addictions, blood sugar issues and behavioral consequences.

Stripped refined white flour and white sugar weren't used until the early 1900's. Cows weren't fed grains in mass production facilities, which causes their stomachs to be acidic and grow ecoli. Cows were designed to eat grass in pastures, their stomachs are therefore not acidic, and don't have ecoli problems. People freely ate the meat, drank the milk and used the butter from the cream of these cows. People ate a lot of saturated fat, and didn't have mass heart disease problems. Today this saturated fat is the one that's blamed for most of our health issues, with no mention of how foods are refined, processed and grown.

Our family has changed what we eat quite a bit. The main things we try to avoid eating are foods containing: high fructose corn syrup, monosodium glutamate (MSG), partially hydrogenated oils and fats, nitrates, white sugar, and white flour. This can be an overwhelming list and also one that says you can't, can't, can't, which can be more frustrating than anything. Most purchased foods have one of the ingredients mentioned, so what do you do? Well, making the foods that you like to eat, eliminates all of those problems, and it tastes better. So, we make most of our foods, using whole foods in the natural state.

We eat whole grains, real butter, coconut oil, olive oil, meats, homemade broths, eggs, natural sweeteners, fruits and as many veggies as we can. I'm picky about foods tasting good. I like modern stlye foods, and foods that taste like they are from a restaurant. I like to use the America's Test Kitchen cookbook, but subsitute ingredients. Those recipes are amazingly good, and are even good when I substitute out the white flour and white sugar. I also make our own baked goods, treats, and snack foods. Our snack foods, are so nutrient dense that it's like eating another meal. I like to keep it simple and make large quantities because we eat a lot and I don't have a lot of extra time. I've learned that I can usually learn to make most things myself, or do without. One of the best things is learning that butter is actually good for us...crucial and good. I've been making a ton of rich, delicious food that is 100% healthy, instead of 100% guilty.

The way that I started converting our food was by doing the big hitters first. I started with the things that we eat the most of...for us that was bread, peanut butter and applesauce. From there I took one thing at a time.

We try to purchase as much of our foods from farmers, mainly because we know first hand how they've grown their products. Even though something is labeled organic in the store, doesn't necessary mean that it is good for you. Companies are still companies trying to make money. Much of the time it's OK , but it's still good to be careful and look into what company is making it and what their practices are.

The natural sweeteners we use are raw honey, real maple syrup and rapadura (unrefined dehydrated sugar cane juice). Our foods are still very sweet, but it doesn't give the sharp increase in blood sugar levels as white sugar does. Unrefined sugars have vitamins and minerals and when combined with real butter and unrefined flour it is a complete food. We feel really full after a homemade biscuit, muffin, banana bread or cookie, instead of constantly craving more. Our kids aren't hungry at 10am and can last until noon before eating lunch. They are happy to eat raw veggies for snacks before dinner. They aren't begging for treats, but are excited to get a piece of fruit after dinner for a treat. We had dessert after every dinner up until now, and we didn't think it was ever possible to transition to fruit being a dessert instead of normal part of our meals. That is a huge transformation for us!!! Food is definitely not my top priority, but it is still an important part of my day, being a mom of four hungry little children.

EXCEPTIONS

The way we described above is the way we eat when we are at home. We aren't a slave to the food we eat though. We try to eat the best we can, but don't worry about the many exceptions. We want to continue to integrate our lives around others. We go out of town a lot and will gladly eat whatever we are served. We love to go to other people's houses for dinner, have potlucks at our home and try other people's foods. We love to go to birthday parties and for the kids to have cake there to celebrate with their friends.

We are a little more particular about how much white sugar intake our children have on a normal weekly basis, so you may see us give them homemade treats when we are out and about. The main reason for this, is that it's not worth having the kids cry for hours, and for me to get a migraine.

GRAIN MILL

I do have a grain mill, which is used to grind grains into flour. Below are the reasons that we've chosen to do this:

1. It's more convienent than buying, and storing large quantities of store-bought flour. (Wheat flour needs to be refrigerated or frozen because it goes rancid quickly). We use A LOT of wheat to make our baked goods. Grains are stored indefintely at room temperature in enclosed containers (5gallon paint buckets for example). I always have what I need to make anything I want. I'm not running out to the store a lot.

2. You can buy extremely high quality grains for less cost than store bought wheat flour

3. You can have more variety in the grains you use. Grain mills will grind millet, spelt, rye, corn, barley, rice, kamut, chick peas, a variety of wheat and more into flour. You can replace white flour in your recipe with all of theses. They all have different nutritional advantages.

4. Wheat flour loses it's nutrients over time. The fresher the better for you.

5. Using an electric grainmill is extremely easy. It takes only 2 minutes to grind 12 cups of flour. It's really not as weird and "out there" as it originally sounds. The first time I heard about a grain mill I said to Ryan, " There's no way that I'm grinding my own grain." So, I've changed just a little bit...

My personal belief in that you don't need a grainmill to eat healthy. If you are able to make most of your foods, you can do that with purchased wheat flour just the same! I've mentioned some of the reasons why we have chosen this route. But, there are disadvantages as well, including the one time cost of purchasing the machine. Financial limitations are very real, as well as time limitations. Some people aren't home a lot and may not have the time to do a lot of baking, which is completely understandable!

CONCLUSION

Finally, both Ryan and I feel very blessed to get rid of many of the food related issues in our home. We are thankful for the food that the Lord has blessed us with. We know that our health is ultimately in the Lord's hands. We love God and people, and love to share our experiences, especially victories that the Lord graces us with!!

RESOURCES

Nourishing Traditions

Weston Price Foundation - White Sugar

Weston Price Foundation - Kitchen Transition

Eatwild.com

Otis Family Farm - Grass fed Beef and Pastured Chickens at the Downtown St. Paul Farmer's Market

Buttermilk Biscuits

2009-09-13T21:23:00.003-05:00

For the last few years, our boys have been begging me for food at 10am when we eat breakfast at 8am. No matter how much they ate in the morning they were constantly begging for food and saying they were hungry. Lately I've been reading about the benefits of good fats and protein for kids health, growth, and blood sugar levels. I decided to give these biscuits a try. After giving the kids one of these biscuits for breakfast along with a little bit of eggs, nobody asked for food until noon. That's a first in our household!! We do put butter and a little bit of honey or jelly on the warm biscuits, and the kids love them.

Buttermilk Biscuits

7 cups wheat flour (can use spelt, soft white wheat, or a combination with millet, kamut, etc)
6 tsp baking powder
2 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups butter softened
2 cups buttermilk or kefir

1. Combine flour, buttermilk and butter and let sit covered on the counter overnight. You can add 1/2 cup water if the consistency isn't moist.

2. Add remaining ingredients and mix until just blended. Pour some white flour on the counter, and pat out dough to 3/4" - 1" thick. Cut out with glass cup that is floured. Put them close together in a greased pan or cookie sheet. Bake at 400 for 18 minutes.

Makes 22 biscuits

Recipes

2009-08-20T21:58:00.018-05:00

Our Family's Nutritional Background

BREAKFAST
Breakfast Cake
Buttermilk Biscuits
Baked Apple Pancake
Baked Egg Pancake
Homemade Apple Chicken Sausage

DINNER/LUNCH
Homemade Chicken Stock/Broth
Beef Burrito Casserole
Cream of Potato Soup
Chicken Wild Rice Soup
Taco Soup
Taco Pizzas
Oriental Chicken Salad
Condiments

SNACKS
Homemade Larabars
Protein Bar

BREAD
Homemade Sandwich Bread

SPECIAL OCCASION
Chocolate Cake with Creamy Chocolate Frosting
Homemade Chocolate Chips/Chunks

Homemade Sandwich Bread

2009-08-19T22:22:00.025-05:00

I've been asked some questions lately about how I make my bread. So, I wanted to write a post about it. I started making bread by using this recipe from Passionate Homemaking.com. I also used Marilyn's Famous Whole Wheat recipe from Urban Homemaker.com. Each of these sites have some nice tips on bread making. I liked things from each of them, so I combined the two to get the below recipe. The below recipe is for a large 5 loaf batch. You do need to have a large mixer to do it. If you have a basic KitchenAid mixer, I would recommend cutting this recipe to make 2 loaves at a time. You may need to watch the mixer to make sure it's not getting overloaded. When I first started making bread I used my KitchenAid mixer, Hard white wheat flour that I purchased from Trader Joes and a trial jar of coconut oil that I purchased from Cub Foods.

The below recipe soaks the flour in buttermilk. You can skip this step if you want to make a quick bread. You can just substitute water for the buttermilk. If you would like to read up on the benefits of soaking click on the link. I really like it because of the health benefits, but also because it's easier for me. I like doing the job in parts. Making my own bread has not been time consuming as I thought. It's fun and doesn't take a lot of time. It becomes second nature and comes together really quick.

Whole Grain Sandwich Bread

LARGE MIXER RECIPE (5 LOAVES)

13.5 cups wheat flour (I use hard white wheat from Azure. Store bought wheat flour works too!)
2 cups rolled oats
1/3 cup millet (optional)
1/3 cup flax seeds (optional)
2/3 cup coconut oil (Read the benefits of coconut oil here. You can also use butter or olive oil)
4.5 cups water
1 cup cultured buttermilk or kefir (make your own , Cultures for Health, WildnernessFamilyNaturals, Cheesemaking.com)

3 tbsp. SAF Instant yeast (Most people say to use SAF yeast. I use yeast from Sam's Club that works the same for me.
1/2 cup warm water
1 tsp honey

2/3 cup honey
1 1/2 to 2 tbsp. sea salt
4 tbsp. dough enhancer
1/2 to 3 cups unbleached white flour as needed (On winter months, you probably won't need any extra flour or very little, on summer hot and humid months, you may need a whole lot.)

STEP ONE

Combine the 4 1/2 cups water, buttermilk, oil, 2/3 cup honey, wheat flour, oats, flax seeds and millet. Cover and let sit out on your counter overnight, up to 24 hours. I like to put it somewhere that is between 68-78degrees. This first step including milling the flour takes 20-30 minutes.

STEP TWO

The next morning (usually before the kids wake up), I mix the yeast with the warm water and 1tsp of honey. I let it sit for a few minutes to puff up. I add that to the flour that has sat overnight. Then I add the salt and dough enhancer. This is where you check the dough consistency. The dough is supposed to pull away from the sides of the bowl and it shouldn't stick too much at the bottom of the bowl. Add unbleached flour flour a little at a time until it's the right consistency. You don't want to add too much flour, but at the same time a dough that is overly sticky won't form into loaves well.

Knead the bread 7-10 minutes or until it is very smooth, and
elastic. When you pull the dough it should stretch and not break easily. In a large mixer, 6-8 minutes of kneading on speed #1 should be sufficient to develop the gluten.

I next take the dough and put it into a buttered or oiled container to rise. I use a square large commercial style rubbermaid container that I purchased at Sam's Club. It's an 8qt size. I like it because the container is marked by quart and it's extremely easy to know when the dough has doubled. The dough starts at the 4qt mark and I wait until it reaches the top of the container at the 8qt mark. I cover the dough with the lid for rising and put it on the open door of our oven set at warm. This step of getting the dough ready to rise usually takes about 20-30 minutes in the morning. The rising of the dough itself is about an hour.

STEP THREE

After the dough has doubled, I take the dough out and form them into loaves. I like to be precise in separating the loaves into 5 parts, but this isn't necessary at all. I have a little scale, and I put approximately 800g of dough into 4 little bowls. The last bowl is usually a little less than 800g. I cover the fifth bowl and put it in the refrigerator until after the four loaves are done cooking to make hamburger buns, rolls, pizza crust or bread sticks out of it. I also can just freeze the dough immediately in a freezer bag to make a pizza crust or calzones later.

Next, I form the four loaves. I put some oil on our countertop and plop dough from one bowl on the counter. I form the dough into a rectangle that's the width of the bread pan and about 4-6 inches long. I just gently push on the center of the dough ball and then out to the sides to form it into the rectangle. If the thickness of the rectangle is even, then the loaf turns out evenly too. It doesn't ruin the loaf if it's not even though. I then roll it up and pinch the seam together and put it into a buttered or oiled bread pan. I use these pans. I purchased the 10" length, but they also sell an 8" and a 12" length. I had purchased them from Urban Homemaker, but I see that Amazon sells them, so you may get a better deal with super saver shipping. This step of getting the loaves to the second rise usually takes 10 minutes or less.

STEP FOUR

Put the bread pans in a warm oven for 30 minutes for it's second rise. I usually have the oven on warm and turn it off before putting the bread in. It's important the the loaves don't have contact with cold air for it to rise well. I put on a timer for 30 minutes. The loaves should about double again.

When the timer goes off, I turn the oven on to 350°F and bake for 25-35 minutes. At 25 minutes I stick a thermometer into the bread. Bread is done when it is 200°F. So, at around 190°F I take the bread out of the oven. The bread does continue to cook after taking it out to get it up to the 200°F. After about 10 minutes I take the bread out of the pans and cool on a cooling rack. If you don't do this the bottoms of the bread get soft and damp. I use a thermometer with a timer on it. It's a Taylor TruTemp Digital Cooking Thermometer with Alarm and Timer that I purchased at Target. I can stick it into the bread and set the timer for 190 degrees. It beeps when the bread is done. If you don't have a timer when the bread is browned on all sides it is usually done. The four loaves don't cook at the same rate in the oven probably because of the air circulation in the oven. So, if one is done don't assume they all are. After the loaves are cool, I store them in large 2 gallon freezer bags. I freeze the ones that I won't use soon. I do reuse the freezer bags.

COST OF MAKING THIS RECIPE PER LOAF

Wheat = $0.46
Honey = $.25
Coconut Oil = $0.25
Dough Enhancer = $0.10
Buttermilk = $0.08
Flax seeds = $0.05
Oats = $0.05
Millet = $0.03
Yeast = $0.03
Salt = $0.01
*Unbleached white flour only as needed (1cup) = $.12

Total = $1.30 - $1.42/loaf

Details (Org Hard White Wheat Grain $30/50lb bag, Raw Honey $30/gallon, Cold Pressed Coconut Oil $30/gallon, Dough Enhancer $9/21oz can when bought in bulk, Buttermilk $6.50/gallon homemade from raw milk and buttermilk culture [$8.39/5packets which makes 8 one half gallons per packet] OR add approx. $.50 to your price of a gallon of milk to make your own, Org Flax seeds $10.40/5lbs, Rolled Org Oats $26.40/25lbs, Org Millet $5.35/5lbs, Yeast $4.16/2lbs, Trader Joes sea salt $1/26.5oz, Org Unbleached White Flour $11.93/10lbs)

When you are in the middle of nowhere...

2008-12-23T00:01:00.001-06:00

IMG_4573 copy
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse

When boys have to go, they have to go. Take a look at a map of northeast Colorado along I-76. There isn't much there. I think this photo really captures the moment....

Family Photo

2008-12-22T23:48:00.001-06:00

FamilyPhoto
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse

We traveled to Colorado for an early Christmas. This was taken on my brother's fireplace. I will post some other funny photos from the trip soon!

time for an intervention....

2008-11-23T23:28:00.001-06:00

Bunnies by the Bay - Buddy Blanket
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse

Our sweet Gracie Bean got this really nice blanky as a gift from our neighbor. Having been through 3 boys who were highly addicted to their LARGE blankies, we thought that Gracie would do well with something smaller. It has worked flawlessly.... until tonight. We never realized how attached Gracie is to the bunny. For some reason, Gracie had an upset stomach after house church. She threw up a little bit in her bed, on her bunny and in her hair. So the bunny had to go in the wash. We located several other bunnies, hoping to appease her. This was to no avail. By this time the bunny was 1/2 hour in to a 1 hour wash cycle. No way to spot wash it now. So after a while Grace was just up with us in the living room. We were able to locate the exact bunny she has. When Grace saw the bunny on the screen, she pointed and said "Bah". I think she recognized the bunny. So while the bunny was drying, we decided to order another bunny. The method to our madness is we don't want to be in a BIG Dilema if something were to happen to the bunny on any one of our upcoming road trips.

So, the dryer is done. The bunny is mostly dry. Gracie takes one look, starts cuddling and basically said (without words), that is what i was looking for. It is 11:00PM now, we haven't heard a peep since she got her bunny back and in 3-6 business days, we will have a little insurance for the road trip.

On another note, we may have to quietly ween her off her bunny. We had to do the same thing with her and snow suits. When she was an infant, she loved the confined, warm space of a snow suit. That is the only way she would sleep. Thankfully we got her off that as well as her brothers off of their blankets. There is a reason we have a blanket tote in our shed.

Grace's First Birthday

2008-10-25T16:18:00.002-05:00

Grace First Few Steps

2008-10-25T16:10:00.000-05:00

RNC

2008-09-05T09:35:00.003-05:00

IMG_0717
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse

I took in some of the sites of the RNC before it started. For curiousity sake, I did want to photograph the protests, but I am thankful I didn't. Some pictures are of my Laura's brother Joe and his wife Leslie. They are Democrats and thought it would be amusing to stand in front of the X, displaying their displeasure. I found it quite amusing for sure.

You can see the rest of the pictures here.

The Stahl Family Reunion

2008-07-06T21:15:00.001-05:00

Photos from The Stahl Family Reunion. Use the arrow keys to scroll through the photos. Go to my flickr page to get the actual photos... here!

Jeremiah Martin at One

2008-06-14T20:41:00.002-05:00

Steve, Coral and Jeremiah stopped by today, so we took some photos!

Photos to download here!

The Great Upset CD Release Party!

2008-06-03T08:06:00.002-05:00

Photos from The Great Upset CD Release Party - The Ritz - April 5th, 2008.

You can use the right/left arrow keys to scroll through the slideshow.

Go here to get the photos you see above!

MonoMalo

2008-05-27T21:33:00.001-05:00

Off to El Salvador....

2008-04-18T16:58:00.002-05:00

Hello everyone - late tonight, or early tomorrow, however you look at it, our team will be heading to El Salvador for 10 days of teaching english and outreaching to the students. Here are some details.

El Salvador Team 2008
April 19th-28th

Seth Rosenzweig
Ben Robison
Christine Grue
Jon Dordal
Beth Biesaida
Jamie Radich
Kim Wells
Lindsey Siegfried
Eli Murphy
Leon Dehnke
Rob Gianotti
Kevin Meyer
Ryan Stahl

Flight Info

Saturday 19th
Leave MSP 5:30 am
Arrive Atlanta 8:58 am
Leave Atlanta 10:05 am
Arrive San Salvador 11:56 am

Monday 28th
Leave San Salvador 12:56 pm
Arrive Atlanta 6:29 pm
Leave Atlanta 9:45 pm
Arrive MSP 11:30 pm

Here's what to pray for!

El Salvador Prayer List

1. Safety of the team (God's hand of protection).
2. Smooth travels (on-time flights)
3. Team Unity
4. Our hearts (open to God's plan and His leading)
5. Prepared hearts of those in El Salvador.
6. Opportunities to witness
7. Effectiveness in teaching English and sharing the Gospel.
8. That we would be a blessing to the local church.
9. Changed lives (ours and theirs).
10.Culture shock (pray for our transition when we come back).

Christine will be updating her blog - so check it out here....

christineone.wordpress.com

Jude's Photo Shoot

2008-04-08T22:17:00.003-05:00

Jude @ Two

2008-04-08T08:06:00.000-05:00

Here is one photo of Jude's 2-year photo shoot. He is such a cheese. He has a great smile and sense of humor. He can really light up a room.

The Great Upset....

2008-04-07T22:03:00.000-05:00

The Great Upset put on a great show Saturday Night. My wife and I had a blast. Maybe it is because we don't get out much. Needless to say, the show was phenomenal. Thanks for the great show guys! I love the new album.

2008-04-05T14:21:00.000-05:00

We took a trip to Alabama to visit Laura's Dad and step Mom. One day we went fishing, we didn't manage to get any bites since I spent the entire time removing tangles, fixing lines etc. I didn't have many expectations, but I had know idea I would spend my entire time hooking them up, pun intended. This photo is of Jakin's fine work on getting his line tangled.

Happy Son!

2008-02-28T18:56:00.001-06:00

JoshDad
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse

Josh says he loves me all the time. Everyday. He loves momma all the time, everyday. This is the look he gives when he is in a great mood. Way to go Josh - Great attitude!

Mom's Away Explanation

2008-02-27T21:51:00.003-06:00

My lovely wife Laura left us all alone one weekend way back in November of 2006. We did survive, barely. She left us with no money, no food and just the clothes on our back. Our boys learned to be tough and to survive on next to nothing. We are all stronger from the experience.

Mom's Away...

2008-02-27T21:49:00.002-06:00

Very Sick Indeed

2008-02-24T15:26:00.001-06:00

IMG_1555
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse

A few weeks ago, I spent the entire saturday being sick on the floor. It is a good thing I have 3 very capable "doctors" looking after me. The tape on my face is a bandage from the shot I received. I got quite a few shots that day, and there were many I got in the face. Not sure why I would get a shot in the face? Did I mention they were "doctors?" In this picture Jakin is checking my teeth. Not sure why, but evidently good dental health is good for overall health. Jude is listening to see how my food is digesting. Not sure on that one either, but who am I to argue with these fine medical/dental professionals?

Grace at 3 months

2008-01-30T19:56:00.001-06:00

Isn't she cute?

Keem

2008-01-30T19:49:00.001-06:00

Here are some funny happenings from The Stahlhouse.

MALL

A few weeks back I took the boys to the Mall of Hysteria. It was a cold night and they needed to get some energy out. I did take a stroller, but my intent was for Josh and Jake to walk the whole time. This worked quite well and they walked and walked and walked. When we were towards the end, Jakin asked if he could go on my shoulders. I said sure and when I did this I noticed that his shoes were on the wrong feet. Very uncomfortable for 2 laps around the mall.

Mushrooms at Fort Smelling

I decided to take another boys adventure, this time to Fort Snelling to roast some marshmallows. They have this really cool shelter with a fireplace. Well Jakin for some reason kept saying mushrooms instead of marshmallows. The boys also have the habit of calling Fort Snelling, Fort Smelling.

Keem

We were all downstairs playing legos and Jude disappears. He proceeds to come back downstairs with the pitcher. He puts it in front of me and says "Daddy, KEEM!" I chuckled, but Jude didn't seem to impressed from my lack of action. He then went back upstairs to get the blender base and say again "Daddy, KEEM!" Needless to say, I got the hint that Jude wanted malts made with Ice Cream (Keem).

Good

Jude has a cute, but sometimes overboard habit of telling you something over and over. When having dinner, Jude with either say Daddy or Mama and when we say "yes JuJu", he says "good". The food is good? we say. He says "good." Jude will repeat this at least 5 times before he tires of it. It is great that he likes the food, but when he yells "DADDY or MAMA" just to tell you the food is good for the fifth time, it can be rough. Am I being selfish? I am thankful that he likes the food, but man can that be tough to hear repeatedly.

Grace says hi!

2007-12-12T22:57:00.001-06:00

Grace
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse

This cute little outfit came to us a gift. Grace is getting really big, fast. Her cheeks are getting nice and puffy. We are so blessed to have such a great family. Thanks for reading!

Christmas Card 2007

2007-12-12T22:53:00.001-06:00

Christmas Card 2007
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse

We wish you a very merry Christmas! Let us not forget the reason for the season.

Luke 2:8-14
8 Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And behold,[b] an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. 10 Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. 11 For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
14 “ Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”[

Birth Announcement Review IV

2007-12-12T22:48:00.001-06:00

Grace
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse

Grace - Our Beaner. She is getting quite plump. She sure does like her food, although not as much as her brothers. This photo was also taken in the garage. Yes, i built a fruit stand, yes those are real vegetables and yes, Grace is really in a pile of beans. Any other questions?

Birth Announcement Review III

2007-12-12T22:46:00.001-06:00

Jude
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse

Jude - Ahh, our little 20 month old. He is turning out to be quite the character. This picture was taken in the living room. Too cold to be in the garage.

Birth Announcement Review II

2007-12-12T22:44:00.001-06:00

Jakin
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse

Jakin - he is 3. I got a little more elaborat with this photo. Similar to Josh, this was taken in the garage. It is cool that he is in the toolbox I got for Christmas when I was 8.

Birth Announcement Review

2007-12-12T22:42:00.001-06:00

Josh
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse

Josh's Birth Announcement - Sometimes I can't believe that this was 4 years ago. Man time does fly for sure!

Jude @ 18months

2007-11-05T12:43:00.001-06:00

IMG_7963
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse

So I am late - he is over 19months now. But here is a shot of his unfinished pictures

Introducing.....

2007-10-22T12:54:00.001-05:00

IMG_8812
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse

We welcomed Grace Bean Stahl into the world at 7:10AM. She weighed 7lbs 5 oz, 20 in long. Mom and baby are doing well. Laura is really good a giving birth, it must be from all the practice. Now to answer the name question, we chose Bean for a middle name not because we are huge fans of produce, but because it is a family name on my side. My Grandma Joyce Stahl's Maiden name was Bean. My grandma came from a family of 4 girls, so no-one carried on the Bean name. This was our way of honoring my grandma and to carry on a family name. Gracie Bean has a nice ring to it, besides who wouldn't want to remember that my Great Grandpa was Mr. Bean?

New Photos to share

2007-09-10T23:10:00.000-05:00

Ok - Josh turned 4 in July. Jakin turned 3 at the end of August. I finally had time to pick through all the photos I took and grab the best ones. I decided to not use my standard black background and went with some on location shots. I think both boys' pictures turned out fantastic! But you be the judge.

First Family Camping Trip!

2007-07-27T23:08:00.001-05:00

IMG_6981
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse

We took our first family camping trip. It was quite the adventure for sure. The boys loved sleeping outside, in a tent. We did some great hiking, swimming, playing and truly enjoyed our time. We stayed at Gooseberry Falls State Park. This picture was taken at Temperence River State Park. I look forward to many more camping trips and starting the traditions....

More pictures to follow.
Photos Here

Congratulations!

2007-07-12T21:43:00.001-05:00

IMG_6793
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse

Jon and Nicole, I don't know you two, but I do pray that you have a wonderful marriage. It was fun being able to capture your special moment. Good timing on your part! Also, if you need anything else, please contact me. ryancstahl (at) comcast.net.

Enjoy!

Photos Here!

Josh, Jude and the Monkey

2007-06-16T07:39:00.001-05:00

IMG_4384
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse

Josh's 3yr pictures were taken with his favorite shirt. The red flowered Hawaiian shirt he is wearing. We only had 2 shirts, but Josh had grown out of his. Well we found another shirt in a 4T size at a thrift store for $1. That allowed me to get this great shot of the kids.

The Boys

2007-05-15T09:12:00.001-05:00

IMG_3303-A
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse.

The boys and I went out a couple of weeks ago to do some hiking. If you ever wonder what is in the heart of little boys, take them to a place where they can hike, climb, get dirty and throw rocks in a river. You will understand really quickly, how much they love adventure. We took this picture at Minnehaha Falls park. We gave it to Laura for Mother's Day.

More Photos Here

Juicy

2007-04-18T13:42:00.001-05:00

IMG_2861
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse.

Jude in the Sink

2007-04-17T22:48:00.001-05:00

IMG_3150
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse.

Josh and Jakin were in the tub and didn't leave any room for Jude. He is pretty funny and gets into everything. I thought this was a great picture of his bath in the sink. It had great light and a great expression on Jude. "you looking at me?"

Jude's First Birthday

2007-04-17T22:14:00.001-05:00

IMG_2528
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse.

Jude celebrated is first birthday on March 21st. It is funny how time does fly. We must be having fun! I have posted many photos from both of Jude's cake eating extravaganzas. By the second time around, he got the hang of it. Click the photos link on the right hand side to see more photos!

Octubre

2007-04-17T22:08:00.001-05:00

Octubre
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse.

I used this photo for emails sent out to our families. It is our way of saying that numero quatro is on the way in October. Boy? Girl? Who knows - we are very excited and look forward to this arrival in a few months.

From the mouth of babes...

2007-01-08T17:29:00.000-06:00

In the past, to encourage Josh to eat his dinner, we would tell him that he needed to eat his dinner or no dessert. Seems fair right? Anyway, as of late, Josh as been doing such a great job at eating his dinner. He eats his food and then proceeds to tell us that he would like some "zert". We don't always have dessert, but we do have after dinner treats often. Laura has this thought that Josh and I are really alike. Josh sometimes thinks of the same thing for dessert that I do, without me mentioning it. Laura said that I probably wanted a malt, but I said I was more interested in the "C-A-K-E", in the freezer. I spelled this out so Josh wouldn't hear or understand.
About a half an hour later, Josh asked momma for some "zert". Laura asked what do you want for dessert? Josh said, "cake". So Laura said, "Josh, go downstairs and ask daddy." So Josh comes downstairs and comes to me on the floor and gets about 2" from my nose and says "daddy, I want some cake!" Now Josh hasn't seen cake in a few weeks, so I thought Laura put him up to it, so I asked him if momma told him to come down, he said "yes". So I sent him back upstairs to tell momma that she is silly. I thought Laura told Josh to ask for cake, but this wasn't the case. So after I went upstairs to straighten it out and for Laura to build her case that Josh and I think alike, I went down to the freezer to get the cake. Josh asked are you going to get some cake? Then he said "Are you going to hook me up?" We all laughed pretty hard from that one. I certainly did hook my boys up with some "zert."

Sad Excuse..

2006-12-22T09:34:00.000-06:00

I am such a sad excuse for a blogger. Can I use the excuse that I have been busy? We had an extremely blessed, but busy December. By the time December is over, we will have taken 2 vacations covering a total of 1700 miles, we will have had out of town guests, we will have served nearly 80 people for 3 different dinner parties within six days in early December. It has been a ton of fun and we really enjoy having people over. On another note, Jude turned 9 mos old yesterday. Yeah Jude! Picture Jude clapping, because that is what he has started doing the last couple of days. Pretty fun!

Look for some more updates really soon! I will take some new pictures of Jude tomorrow and will post them for you to see!+

2006-11-16T22:12:00.000-06:00

This is a long exposure shot of the stahlhouse on Halloween. I think it is cool that you can actually see stars in the photo. Fun stuff for sure. We did have quite the fun on Halloween this year. The boys and I carved pumpkins and hit the neighborhood up for some loot. Josh and Jakin didn't like cleaning out the pumpkin, it was kind of yucky. I have posted some new Halloween photos on flickr for your viewing.

Josh and Jakin were firefighters this year. They had fun. Did I mention that they like candy?

Jude the PeaPod

That is all for now!

GO Here for Pictures!

Updates!

2006-11-02T21:09:00.000-06:00

Sorry, it's been a while since I last gave an update. I will try to recap.

The Rock had a baby dedication on Friday night the 20th. Jude got dedicated to the Lord. This is a ceremony where we all promise as parents to raise our kids on the values of the Bible and for us to do that publicly at church. There were at least 20 kids that night which is quite amazing since the Rock started as a singles church. We now have 40-50 kids coming to The Rock. Pretty cool.

The boys and I have been busy outside doing some home projects. Electrical service upgrades, tree triming, retaining wall rebuilding, fence removing, brush removal, sandbox relocation. It has been fun to say the least. The boys certainly have fun with dad outside. We went outside and worked in the dark tonight, then went on an adventure to Menard's. We picked up some supplies for the retaining wall/fence project. I will post some pictures soon, so check back.

Jude is funny as ever. He has this thing with his tongue - he likes to have it stick out. He is also getting more mobile. He is crawling now and before we know it, he will be flying across the floor to get some juicy prize.

House church - The Rock started house churches which meet twice a month in people's homes. I guess that is where the term house church originates. We still meet weekly on Friday nights for the Rock. In the house church we are trying to immitate the example of the church in the book of Acts. We have 4 house churches led by 2 guys each. Our pastor has been mentoring 8 guys at The Rock going through the GCLI program which is our leadership program and in house seminary training. I am one of those 8 and I am co-leading a house church with my buddy Kevin. Each week time we meet for house church we sing, take communion, preach and then pray. I haven't spoken yet, my first preaching stint is on November 14th. I will be talking on Servant/Kindness Evangelism. I am really excited and pumped to be involved in something so unique.

Halloween - the boys and I carved some pumpkins and did some prep on the 30th. We went out on Halloween and got some loot along with Laura handing out invites to a neighborhood progressive dinner. Josh and Jakin were fireman this year. Jude was a pea-pod. Pretty cool costumes. The boys sure like candy.... just like mom and dad!

That is all I can think about right now...

Oh yeah.. more STAHLHOUSE Dictionary Items.

Sheen - Machine
Biper - Diaper
Gaykin - Jakin

Family Photos

2006-10-22T22:05:00.000-05:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thestahlhouse/sets/72157594324824540/

See this link for the polished versions of the latest "milestone" pictures. Josh at 3, Jakin at 2, Jude at 1/2. Then our family photo too!

The Stahlhouse Dictionary

2006-10-22T21:58:00.000-05:00

Boobins - in the last post Josh had used this term in conjunction with a police car toy. He did use the term again 2 weeks ago. We were on our way home from house church and we had to wait at a stoplight as 2 squad cars went flying through the intersection. Josh said when we got home that he saw two boobins. In talking with Laura, we think this pronunciation comes from Ambulance. As in boolance to the term boobins.

Guk - this is milk. Both Josh and Jakin used this term for milk without learning it from each other. The jury is still out on Jude, he still has some more time.

Sawgage - this is Josh's term for Sausage.

Brocky - Brocolli (Jakin really likes Brocky)

BanBan - Band Aid

PakPak - Back Pack

.... more to follow....

Commonly Heard Phrases in thestahlhouse!

2006-10-05T21:54:00.000-05:00

As we are growing as parents, and as our kids are growing up to be more vocal contributors to our household, we have heard some mighty fine "words" come out of the mouth of our "babes."

"Momma, my nose doesn't work!" ~ This was uttered by Josh one morning when he woke up with a stuffy nose.
__

Momma - "Josh do you have to go poop on the potty?"
Josh - "No, I don't have to go poop on the potty?"
Momma - "Why don't you go and try?"
Josh - "Can you help me?"
Momma - "How can I help you go poop on the potty? Go up there and try to go."
Josh - "grunt, grunt, grunt - No poop coming"
Momma - "keep trying!"
Josh - "no poop coming"
Momma - "keep trying"
Josh - "Poop is coming"
Josh - "I poop a lot"
Momma - "nice job Josh"
____

Jakin - "nak"
Momma - "what's that honey?"
Jakin - "momma, nak"
Momma - "You want a 'snack'?"
Jakin - "No, nak"
Momma - "does you neck hurt?"
Jakin - "No, nak"
Momma - "can you show me what you want"
Jakin then takes momma to the bathroom where he gets his Kleenex. I guess that is what he heard. Klee Naks!
____

Josh - "I want my bloobins"
Daddy - "what, you want your bloobins?"
Josh - "Yes, my bloobins."
Daddy - "Can you show me where your bloobins is?"
Josh then takes me upstairs to the toy bin and points to a police matchbox car. So today that was a bloobins. I have know idea where that came from.
____

Jakin - "Bee-yo"
Momma - "you want to watch a video?"
Jakin - "no, bee-yo"
Momma - "Josh, what is Jakin saying?"
Josh - "bee-yo"
.... to be continued, we still aren't sure what Jakin was saying.
___
Daddy - "Josh it's time for you to rest"
Josh - "It's not time, I don't want to go to sleep"
Daddy - "you don't have to sleep, but you do need to rest in your room"
Daddy - "I have to go out and spend time with God"
Josh - "I don't want you to leave"
Daddy - "I have to leave so that I can pray and seek God for direction in leading you and being a good daddy."
Josh - "I want to go with you"
Daddy - "I need to go and spend time alone with God."
Josh - "I don't want you to leave"
Daddy - "I need to spend time with God so I can be a good daddy, don't you want me to be a good daddy?"
Josh - "no, I don't want you to be a good daddy?"
_____

Other news.. Jakin went poop on the potty tonight. As his reward he got to go get ice cream with Daddy. It was a cookie dough blizzard. Jakin was nice enough to share it with me. Yummy!

Nana's Prized Tomatoes

2006-09-21T21:14:00.000-05:00

MNStateFair002
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse.

Here is a shot of Nana posing with her tomatoes. Nice work Nana!

MNStateFair001
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse.

The Great Minnesota Get Together

2006-09-21T21:12:00.000-05:00

MNStateFair004
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse.

I know I am a little behind in posting updates. I have been busy. Anywho, the boys, Nana and I went to the MN State Fair on a wednesday night. It was quite an adventure. We did pretty well with curbing our eating, but who can resist donut holes and Sweet Martha's Cookies? We had a absolute blast. The kids rode some rides. I even went on the Giant Slide with Jakin. Josh went down all by himself. Nana said "you should have seen the look on Josh and Jakin's face". They loved it. It was also cool to see the Fine Arts building. I always like to look at the photographs. I had wondered about entering some photos in the fair, but hadn't done so yet. Nana asked someone about the process. What she found out is that 660 people submitted art and only 130 were accepted to be displayed a the fair. Odds like that really challenge me, so I just might try and enter something next year.

The really cool thing though is that Nana entered some tomatoes and she took 4th place. Not bad. We are all so proud. This is another reason why I want to enter the fair. Nothing like a good old competition.

Family Photo

2006-09-13T21:51:00.000-05:00

FamilyPhotos013
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse.

Here is a recent shot of our family. We don't all get into the picture very often. We were on our way over to Nana's place all dressed up for Jakin's Birthday. I recently purchased a remote switch for my camera. It has a 9' cord. These pictures were taken with my toe!

It is hard to make the kids smile when there is no one behind the camera. Maybe I need to set up a mirror for us to look at.

All for now!

#2 is now 2

2006-08-27T21:24:00.000-05:00

Jakin turned 2 today. It seems weird. In one sense 2 years doesn't seem like that long, but with kids it is a huge difference. It was just yesterday that he was born, right? Man do I feel old. When you are younger, you look forward to when you are older. When you are older you just want things to slow down. Life gets that way sometimes.

Jakin had a great day. He loved all his presents. It was a beautiful sunny day for a birthday too. That was a bonus.

Photos to follow soon!

Perils of Picking Crabapples

2006-08-26T15:17:00.000-05:00

The other night my wife went out to pickup crabapples. This is a routine activity since our 2 trees have approximately 1.5 million crabapples on them. You might ask, "why bother to pick them up in the first place?" There are several reasons. 1. They smell. 2. They attract bees, yellow jackets, fly's etc. 3. They get squishy in your toes. 4. They stink. 5. They clog up the tires on the lawn mower. 6. They can be very alluring to young children who typically like to put things in there mouth. Photos Here! 7. They will sprout new trees in the spring. 8. And lastly, they don't smell very good.

So my wife, being the awesome servant she is, decided to go tackle the yard after our week of vacation. She has been very sympathetic this time of year when my allergies are in full force. Thanks sweetie!

We here in Minnesota have had a very dry summer. We didn't get much rain in June or July. August has made up for it and so have the mosquito's. So how much fun can it bee (get it) to be outside with all those flying insects picking up mushy crabapples? It can be loads of fun if you dare to try.

WarWounds001
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse.

This is a picture of Laura's foot. She had 15 mosquito bites and they were very itchy. So she applied some cortizon and some bandages. She is even sporting some "Chicken Little" tatoo bandages. Very cool. With kids, I am glad I can get them for $1 a box instead of $3.50 in the store. Anyone with kids out there need some? Let me know!

We are now taking applications for full time assistant crabapple pickers.

A week of vacation!!!

2006-08-21T20:21:00.000-05:00

I took a week of vacation starting on Monday the 14th. We planned on leaving for Aberdeen, South Dakota on Tuesday evening, so I figured I needed the whole weekend to prepare and pack for the trip. Here are the highlights from our week.

Monday the 14th
Started doing the prep work of our trip by cleaning the van. I vacuumed, washed, waxed, and even used armor all. The boys helped and were pretty much in the van the whole day. They were good, with very little mischief. Josh woke up this morning and was all ready to go see Papa John and Grandma Sandi. He must have asked every hour if we were ready to go yet. No other problems except Jakins belly flop onto the concrete garage floor. I am not sure what that sounded like since I was running the vacuum at the time. It must have hurt because he wasn't very happy.

Tuesday the 15th
Josh again woke up ready to go on the trip. He spent most of the day in the van with me as I packed it and ran some cables for separate speakers. I wanted the video sound just in the back so Laura and I could listen to what we wanted on the stereo. This worked really well. The boys were playing with the dashboard and the ashtray since it was full of coins. I told them to keep them the coins in the ashtray so they wouldn't end up all over. So I finished the speaker and power runs for the video stuff, just in time to see Jakin inserting coins into his bank. When I say bank I mean steering column. So when did I catch him? Not before he inserted 13 coins totalling $1.19. At 3:00 we headed on our way to Aberdeen. We arrived at about 9:45PM. Josh and Jakin were put in the sunroom to sleep in their new sleeping bags. They had fun until they wouldn't go to sleep, so Jakin ended up in our room with Jude, Laura and me. 3:30AM. Jakin wakes up screaming. He rolled under our bed and couldn't get out. Laura jumped up, turned on the light and extracted our "rolling" boy from under the bed. We took Jude (not so mobile) out of the portable crib and put Jakin in his place. Jude did just fine on the floor of our room. He didn't get stuck under the bed, whew!

Wednesday the 16th
We got up and had breakfast then headed to Wylie Park. This is a local park with a lot of activities including Storybook Land. It is really fun for the kids and adults alike. The kids enjoyed the time, rode the train, had a picnic and a lot of fun. We went home after this and enjoyed some naps. I went over to Grandma Jeanettes to introduce her to Jude. We had a very nice visit, then I left to take Jude back for his nap. Mike, Mary and I went back over to Gr. Jeannettes to learn how to make strudles. These are German dough logs that you cook and serve with gravy. I think they are quite yummy. After that we all played and had fun. Then we went home and the boys Sam, Josh and Jakin went for a "swim" in mom and dad's whirlpool tub. That night my mom thought it would be cool if all the older grandkids slept in the sunroom with their sleeping bags. Kate didn't want to join in, so Sam, Josh and Jakin tried sleeping together. Jakin was in the portable crib. Sam and Josh were on the floor. Josh is certainly the instigator. Jakin and Sam wanted to sleep, but Josh was keeping everyone up. So we removed Josh to fall asleep on our bed, then we moved him back to Sam and Jakin. All was well until the morning.

Thursday the 17th
The boys got up a little early. Jakin needs his sleep but with Sam and Josh up, it was difficult to get them w/o Jakin. So they all got up about 7:30. Jakin was tired the rest of the day. This day we went to the farm to see Grandpa and Grandma Stahl (Earl and Joyce). We had fun riding the 4 wheelers, playing in the corn and having a great meal from Joyce. The family headed home around 1:30 and I stayed to take some pictures of my grandparents. We had some fun and enjoyed a nice chat about ancestors. We (Gr. Earl, Gr. Joyce and I) took a drive "down home". This is part of the original homestead of my Gr. Grandpa Arthur Bean (Joyce's Dad). This land has never been tilled or planted. It used to have the farm hands house on it and a barn. The house was moved to my Earl and Joyce's current farm and they live in that house today. It was really cool to see this land. It is hilly and beautiful. Maybe I just like the flatness of South Dakota or maybe because it is a piece of history. I don't know what, but I like it. Gr. Joyce and I picked some apples from a tree that her dad had planted in the 1920's. It is amazing the tree is still alive. Gr. Joyce made me an apple pie from those apples. She delivered it to us on Friday and it was delicious. My grandpa Earl gave me a camera that was bought in 1927 by his mother Elsie. This a Kodak Brownie Autographic camera. I want to locate some film for it and shoot some pictures to send back to grandpa Earl. Thursday night we had the Gr. Grandparents over for a group birthday party. Josh's birthday was in July. Sam's is August 22, Jakin's is August 27 and Kate's is September 21st so we celebrated them all when we were home. Is was some really nice chaos. This night we put Jakin in the laundry room and he did just fine. So much so, that he slept in there the next 2 nights too!

Friday the 18th
Today was the day we were going to the Brown County Fair. My parents had bought some unlimited ride wrist bands for the grandkids. They rode the cars, the carousel, the whale, the planes etc. They had tons of fun. I got some good pictures for sure. After that we had naps and then to Uncle Jim's and his pool. It was a beautiful day for a swim. Josh did very well all by himself, and the help of his swim fins. Jude even floated in a float ring we bought for Josh and never got to use for Josh or Jakin. They grew too big too fast. This time Jude fit in just fine.

Saturday the 19th
This was a down day. We didn't do much except try to keep the kids entertained. They played in Grandpa's muddy yard. Lot's of fun for sure. We also took pictures of the grandkids. Later, Jackson came by (he is a few months younger than Jakin) so we could take pictures of all the Great Grandkids of Earl and Joyce. My cousin Corey and his wife are expecting at the end of September so that will make 7 "greats" for my grandparents. In the evening we had some relatives over for some pizza. A little later than that we played some games. Mom bought us a new game called Spite and Malice. I had seen this game before in the store and I didn't know if it sounded like fun or not. Let me tell you, it is quite fun. We also did some preliminary packing.

Sunday the 20th
We did some more packing. Mike and I went to Grandma Jeannette's to look at some family heirlooms. I picked up 2 bowls and a piece of depression ware that Gr. Jeanette says her Gr. Rath had and probably came from her Great Grandma Gutschmidt. She would be my Gr.Gr.Gr. Grandma Gutschmidt. Pretty cool though to have some more of history. Family is very important to me. I love our history. Our trip home wasn't too eventful which is good.

That's all for now! I'll have some pictures posted on flickr soon.

Fruits of my labor, well sort of...

2006-08-11T12:27:00.000-05:00

straw001
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse.

Here is a dandy picture of 2 strawberries picked from our patch last week. These are the only 2 strawberries I got all year. We planted 12 plants on Memorial Day. All those plants died, so Laura took them back to Gertens. They explained to us that we fryed them. Basically we planted them on a day that was too hot. It was only 95 degrees. So we got 12 new replacement plants and waited until it cooled down. These plants were doing quite well and bearing fruit. They had some really nice berries on them. Then one day, Laura asked if I had been picking the berries, well I hadn't. It seems that birds must like strawberries too. Since strawberry plants are June bearing, we didn't anticipate any more berries. The plants are concentrating on spreading out and making a bigger patch. I was suprised to see these two, so I had to pick them and have some berries from the year. I wish I had strawberries as plentiful as my crabapples..... more later on that.

It's A Hot One!

2006-07-31T20:50:00.000-05:00

HighTemp002
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse.

So the Twin Cities set a high today. I don' t think it was a record, but this was the first time since 1995 that the temp has been over 100 degrees. This was the ninth day in a row above 90. Kind of warm don't you think? So how did you stay cool? How do you beat the heat? Well the boys and I had some fun playing with the hose last night. It was amazing that I was soaking myself with cold tap water, but it really didn't feel that cold. The boys were having fun with the water, throwing it around. Their diapers became quite water logged and droopy. I had an idea to move our new play structure to the pool so the boys could slide right into the water. Josh went down several times but Jakin only once. Jakin started out on his trip down and managed to roll to his stomach. He then shot down the slide and landed face down in the pool. He wasn't all that happy about it. He was rather upset. I gave him a hug and as he was still wimpering I said "wasn't that fun?" Jakin responded, "yeah"!

Stay cool!

BeatHeat027
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse.

BeatHeat002
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse.

BeatHeat020
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse.

The Fish Were Biting - But We Weren't Fishing!

2006-07-27T21:36:00.000-05:00

Ft.SnellingSP023
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse.

We made the huge committment of going swimming on Sunday. We thought that with it being so hot that we could get out and cool off. After having the preparations take approximately 45 minutes, we said "hey let's go to the pool instead of the lake". It was already after 6:00PM and the pool was only minutes away. We had checked the info on the pool earlier. I was commenting on how expensive it is to go to the pool. I started saying stuff like, "It wasn't this expensive when I was a kid". I had to stop myself from continuing for fear of feeling even older than I am. So we got to the pool, ready to fork over approx. $17 for our family to go swimming. We unloaded, got the stroller out, headed for the door. Everyone is excited, including me. We walked in the front door and the clerk said, "are you here for the party"? I said "what party?" She then proceeded to tell me that the pool is closed on Sunday nights and is only open for private rentals. This pool was pretty packed and I certainly didn't think it was a private party. So we walked back to the van, in the mean time Josh is balling and stating in a crying, very upset voice "I want to go swimming!" I told him I felt the same way and that I was about to cry too!

So back in the van - on to Ft. Snelling State Park and the beach. We arrived, ready to try out our new swimming trainers for the boys. We had new kickboards too. The lake has a very nice, shallow swimming area. It is pretty cool because you can see lots of little fish swimming around by your feet. I remember having minnows peck at my feet at Lake Miltona during our many summer vacations there. The minnows are quite nice and tickle.

Ft. Snelling has different kind of fish. They are not shy and quite aggressive. They are considerably larger than a minnow. These fish vary in size between 2 - 4". So I am playing with Josh and I no sooner did I fall over in the water on my chest, did one of these "pirahnas" atack me. No it didn't go for the juggular, it attacked my left nipple. I gave out a yelp, which Josh found quite amusing. That little fish struck me hard, it made my nipple bleed. It wasn't alot of blood, but nonetheless, it drew blood. I did have another one take a crack at my little toe later in the day, but no other incidents to report. This is very similar to our trip to the beach last year. One of those fish struck Josh in the back while he was laying in the water. Josh didn' t like that so much. He definitely likes it better when it is someone else getting bit.

We just may rethink this public pool thing after all. I just wish it wasn't so expensive. Our West Saint Paul pool charges $4 for adults and $3 for kids under 42". Those are the rates for the 6:00 to 8:00PM session. Add a buck to those prices for the afternoon session. A family membership would cost our family $185 for 3 months of swimming. Yikes! Now I realize my old stomping ground's prices have gone up too, but WSP seems very high and it doesn't seem like they are open much either.

Just for comparison - Holgate pool - Holy Cow! I just looked up the prices. They are still cheap. Excellent. Family season pass $60. Daily admission for family $5.50. Don't you think $17 is a little steep to use your local pool?

Ok, I am done venting and I still love swimming!

Tummy Time for Jude

2006-07-20T20:35:00.000-05:00

JudeTummyTime005
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse.

Jude is getting quite strong. Laura plopped him on the bed the other night and he held his head up quite high. Despite the fact that he has been ill lately. Too many runny diapers. The doc says he must have caught a summer virus. So we have to change formula (soy based) so his tummy can adjust and heal. Jude seems to like the soy based, but then again he just likes food. I don't think there is much difference with the new formula except the ripe smell. Hopefully in a few days, Jude will be back to normal.

Jude on a Morning Walk

2006-07-20T20:31:00.000-05:00

MorningWalk007
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse.

Jude and I went for a walk at a little before 6:00 this morning. The weather was quite nice and Jude seemed to have a good time. In other words, he stayed awake. I am amazed at how time flies so much faster when you get older. I remember waiting to be older when I was younger, now that I AM older, I wish I was younger. With kids, time certainly speeds up. Jude is 4 months old, Josh is now 3 and Jakin is pushing 2. My, my life is an adventure and Laura and I are sure enjoying it!!

At the Park

2006-07-20T20:28:00.000-05:00

ParkPlay001
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse.

Here is a photo with me and my oldest sons. Jude was sleeping in the stroller. We are trying to make the most of the summer. Summer always seems to fly by. It is almost August. I usually get depressed about mid-June when I know the days are getting shorter. Oh well, ice and hockey are just around the corner.

2006-07-19T22:19:00.000-05:00

"Jude The Squaker"

I took some video of Jude this morning. Now the video is not too great because I didn't want him to get camera fright. I was trying to capture his squaking while playing on the floor. I think the video does that justice.

1 Assumptions 2:5

2006-07-17T20:18:00.000-05:00

“Daddy’s Bible says that I get two M&M’s when I share.”

I am not sure what Bible version Josh says that I am reading. But he said that very matter of factly. I can assure you that my Bible doesn't say that. Maybe Josh was thinking of some foreign Bible that has some extra books. I could also have been a translation error from some obscure Bible. That is highly unlikely. I don’t think M&M’s were around when the Bible was written and besides, Josh can't read. How would he know what the Bible says unless I tell him. And I certainly never told him that. Kids say the silliest things!

Tough Guy!

2006-07-16T16:17:00.000-05:00

JakinMustache001
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse.

Jakin has quite the personality. He is always hamming it up. He has the best laugh of all our boys, so far. We haven't heard much from Jude yet. This smile was after a nice cool frozen drink. Note the very nice mustache he is sporting. We took this picture and it is probably the best smile Jakin has given. Usually his eyes are closed and mouth wide open. His teeth usually don't line up either. Jakin is a tough guy. He is always falling down, bumping his head, legs, body etc. I am concerned that he will either become Tough and Ruthless or Rough and Toothless. Jakin came over to Laura the other day and was saying "mouth, mouth" but she couldn't see any blood or injury. Somehow, someway Jakin managed to chip his tooth. Funny kid and certainly tough guy!

JakinChippedTooth
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse.

Look at the Dude!

2006-07-11T21:39:00.000-05:00

WorkingOutside002
Originally uploaded by thestahlhouse.

Look at this dude! No, not me, Jude. He is getting so big. He is working on his 3rd chin and 2nd crease on his knee. Laura and I have been trying to figure out who he looks like. Our families have been doing the same thing. Jude has blondish red hair and blue eyes. Laura and I don't have those traits. So, somewhere in our family line their are some genes for what this boy has got. One thing for sure, he is a cutie, but then again, I am biased because I am his dad.

Josh's Birthday

2006-07-07T07:05:00.000-05:00

Wow, our oldest son turns 3 today. How exciting! I sure feel old and I often wonder, “Where did the time go?” We have a full day planned for Josh. It includes a trip to the MN Zoo. We have a date to feed the Giraffes. A couple of his buddies and their families will join us at the zoo. It should be a super fun day.

UPDATE

It was certainly a super fun day at the zoo. Josh really liked feeding the giraffes. Did you know that a giraffe has an 18" tongue? It also can reach and grab things, like an elephants trunk. Anyway, Josh enjoyed his birthday and so did his buddies Isaiah, Dylan, Rowan and his brother Jakin. We also enjoyed the time with our friends too!

4th of July

2006-07-04T21:23:00.000-05:00

Happy 4th of July!

We celebrated the 4th by sleeping most of the day. This afternoon everyone was down for a nap except me. Then Jude got up to keep me company. That was very nice. We were all kind of sleepy from last night. Laura and I went on a date and got home at a very late hour, 8:30. We then chatted with our baby sitters (Seth and Ann) for a while. At around nine we got our boys up and got there shoes on and headed out to the High Bridge and the Taste of Mn Fireworks. We got there pretty early, 9:30ish. The show didn't start until close to 10:15. The boys did fine. Jude slept. Josh was working the crowd, getting held by Seth, Mom, Nana or Dad. Jakin was taking plenty of pretzel bribes, but he did just fine. They enjoyed the show and we carted them back home and to bed. This morning the boys slept in, except Jude. We asked them if they enjoyed the fireworks and they said yes. So I guess it was a success!
Thank goodness.

Jakin on the Potty?

2006-07-03T17:36:00.000-05:00

So yesterday Laura had a hunch Jakin needed to go poop. So she scooped him up and put in on the potty in the bathroom. After a few minutes of coaxing by Laura, Jakin went poop on the potty. That is pretty cool, although I think it is a fluke. Jakin is not even 2 yet and I think he is a little young to grasp the concept. Later in the day, Laura put Jakin on the potty again. Another surprise – he went poop again. This is quite remarkable for our 22 month old. Jakin thought it was pretty cool since he got the standard reward of 2 M&M’s for going poop on the potty. So today, Laura tried again with Jakin, this time it was to no avail. Jakin was not co-operating. Afterwards Jakin came downstairs and was pointing at the M&M’s, but without going poop, he doesn’t get any. So, that confirms my theory that Jakin isn’t quite sure of what to do and what actually gets him his reward. Hopefully with big brother Josh showing the way, he will get it soon. That would be nice to have only Jude in diapers. Very nice indeed.

I WAS LOOKING FOR YOU!

2006-06-30T11:49:00.000-05:00

Last evening we put the kids to bed and we went outside for some yard work. Laura was out back and I was in the front yard pulling weeds. You see, the weeds are quite tall and are easy to pick out since my grass is really yellow. So I was taking advantage of the situation and plucking them out.

I heard the front door jostle a little bit. I thought maybe Laura was back in the house, putting something away, and bumped into the door. Anywho, a few minutes later Josh appears out of the garage door. Did I mention that we put him to bed already? Josh then says, "I was looking for you Daddy." By looking at him I could tell why he was looking for me. But he continued on and said, "I went poop on the potty." Now I don't know if I am really good, or have a keen sense when it comes to my kids, but I just knew that is what he wanted to tell me. On the other hand it could have been the fact that Josh was standing outside wearing his birthday suit from the waist down.

I went over to him and said good job. He then took me inside to show me what he did on the potty. I must say it was awfully big and stinky for a little boy.

It is amazing how kids always look to their parents for approval. I told Josh that I am really proud of him. He is doing a fantastic job at going pee-pee and poop on the potty.

I don't know if the desire for parental approval ever goes away. My mom sent me a fathers day card and it was awesome. In summary, my mom is very proud of me and my family. That's so cool!

"Eegh! Eegh! Eegh!", said Jude.

2006-06-30T11:14:00.000-05:00

Eegh! Eegh! Eegh!

Jude has got a new habit.

He wakes up around 4:00 AM for some play time. He grunts and scoots on his tummy until he gets to the end of the crib. At this point it is usually 4:15 AM and he is stuck. My theory is that once he gets to the end of the crib he works hard to go further, but can't. He pulls out all the stops and in doing so his right arm gets stuck outside the crib. Now he has got a problem, his head is in the corner and his arm is outside the crib. So what does a 3 month old do?

Eegh! Eegh! Eegh! Until we come and rescue him.

It was 4:14 AM this morning. I moved him back to the center of his crib. A little crying and Jude was back to sleep after his morning workout/playtime.

So what is Eegh? It is a little grunt he does in bursts. He will give this grunt when he is getting tired. He will give this grunt when he is uncomfortable. It is usually a warning sign. If we don't heed the warning, little Jude will start crying.

Knepfla

2006-06-27T22:17:00.000-05:00

This is what you will need:
4 Cups of flour
1 Cup of water
2 Eggs
1 tsp of Salt

Mix 1 Cup of water, eggs & salt. Then add flour, 1 cup at a time to make a firm dough. Roll out & cut into 1 inch strips on floured surface.

Cook in boiling water. Check at 20 min to see if firm. Drain. Heat 1 stick of margarine. Add saltine crackers crumbled. Brown crackers. Pour over Knepfla and stir. You can fry all together to get it all crispier.

For those of you who don't have German ancestry, Knepfla is a basic homemade egg noodle. Knepfla is certainly good to eat and thoroughly enjoyable to make.

Thanks for the help Josh & Jake! They had fun and so did I!

Ryan

New Morning Ritual

2006-06-27T21:41:00.000-05:00

A while back I had a really good habit of reading my one year Bible, embarking on a prayer walk, then coming home to prepare breakfast before the rest of the family is out of bed. Well something happened 3+ months ago, we had our 3rd child and 3rd boy. What a blessing Jude has been in our lives. He is such a treasure just like his older brothers Joshua and Jakin. But my routine was messed up a bit with Jude's sleep habits. I used to love getting up early and carving out that time, just me and God. It was some really good times for sure.

So now that Jude has been sleeping through the night, we can get on a more normal schedule again. Or so I thought... Jude gets up at 5:15AM, now being the good dad and husband that I am, I retrieve the little tyke and feed him. This had been the New normal routine. I would feed Jude, read and then we would go on a prayer walk. Fast forward to yesterday.

Did I mention that Josh is now potty trained?

With Josh's new found freedom by being able to get out of bed and go pee-pee, he has pushed the limits of his old rules of having to stay in bed until we come and get him. So for the second day in a row now, Josh has joined Jude and I for our morning ritual, minus the prayer walk. On Monday I had to explain to Josh that this was quiet time in the morning and that he needed to be silent and read if he wanted to stay up. I had to give him quite a few reminders, but overall he was really good. Today, he was up with Jude and I at 5:15. Josh came down with all 3 of his blankets and plopped himself in the chair. He was really good. I hardly heard a peep out of him. I finished reading and feeding Jude.

After I put Jude on the floor for some play, Josh came over to cuddle. Daddy was pretty tired this morning, so I was trying to get some more rest. Josh placed my Bible in my open hand, I then told him that I had already read this morning. Josh then told me he wanted to read about cheeses. I took me a second to comprehend what he was saying (might I remind you this was before 6:00AM). Then I realized he wanted to read about Jesus. Seriously, Josh is almost 3, but I would swear he said cheeses, or that is how he pronounced it. So Josh and I read in the New Testament and had a grand time. It was really precious to be able to spend 1:1 time with him. I mourn the loss of my cool morning 1:1 time with God, but to have Josh want to spend time and read about Jesus - how cool is that?

No worries - I have a lunch hour that is perfect for reading and prayer.

Ryan