Giggles and Girls...

On March 9, 2015, our sweet girl Morgan turned 8 years old! How is that possible? It seems like she was just a baby in our arms and we were figuring out how to do "the parenting thing"... and now she's almost finished with 2nd grade, reading and writing both in English and Arabic and has made so many new friends since moving to Jordan.

This year, I told her that we were not going to have a "big" party, which means inviting your whole class to some play place and paying for them to be entertained for 2 hours, while feeding them food and sweets... Instead, I told Morgan she could invite some of her closest friends and we would go see the new movie "Cinderella" and eat pizza. Yay! She agreed!

So... while I took 6 excited, little girls to the movies, Randall took Micah and a friend to go see the movie "Home". Lucky him, he only had 2 hyper little ones... me, on the other hand had 6 crazy, sugar-filled, giggly little girls. Whether is was passing popcorn, gummy bears, taking girls up and down the stairs to the bathroom (sometimes twice)... we made it through the movie "Cinderella" and it is definitely a "must buy" when it comes out on iTunes!

We then trucked through a VERY busy and crowded mall (Thursday nights are usually crazy and everyone is at the mall, which is why we normal stay at home on Thursday nights) :) We met Randall and the 2 little boys in the food court, where they were waiting with 3 tables pushed together (how they managed to get 3 free tables, I'll never know!) with pizza, drinks, the cake and the goody bags.

 Here's my homemade Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake... 

"Pre- Mall & Party" in the car... opening up some of her presents...

I'm so happy Morgan has become so well-rounded and made friends with girls from all over... America, Jordan and Romania!

Morgan and Anood

Morgan and Mia

Morgan and Elena

Morgan and Kaylee

Morgan and Selma

And of course, they had to take "Crazy" pictures!!!

Funny and very True Story that happened: When we were all singing Happy Birthday to Morgan, this group of teenagers stopped at the table and started singing with us! It was very sweet as they all went around meeting the girls and telling Morgan Happy Birthday! Then about 10 minutes later, they came back with balloons to give to Morgan and wanted to take pictures with our little 7-8 year olds! It was really sweet of them!!

It was such a fun night and Morgan enjoyed celebrating her birthday (belated) with her friends. Randall and I are so thankful that both Morgan and Micah have made friends here, thriving in school and loving their new place, we call home.

Happy 8th Birthday Morgan! Daddy and Mommy are so proud of you and all of the hard work you put into your school. You light up the room and have such a kind heart towards other people. We love you so much!

And just as a bonus picture... our little farmer... 

Micah had a Farmer's Market Day at school since they have been studying fruits and vegetables that grow on farms.... He's the cutest little farmer I've ever seen!!! 

Petra

We did it! We explored and survived Petra! 2 weekends ago, some friends were in town visiting and we all spent a day at Petra together. Man Alive! You would think that 7 hours is enough time to visit one place.... except that its not! And I heard somewhere that to explore every area, high and low that it takes up to 3 days to really see Petra. So imagine only 7 hours!

Anyways, it was Amazing and I'm so proud of Morgan and Micah. They were such troopers during the entire day... climbing, exploring and even smiling when I was taking their pictures! Enjoy the pics.. I took so many, it was hard to choose...but here are some favorites!

The Treasury was a pretty amazing site! Especially after we had just walked through what used to be "the old city" with rock walls to both sides of us.

And of course there were camels just sitting in front of The Treasury... 

During the summer of 2003, Randall rode his first camel at Petra... and he wanted Morgan to have the same opportunity.... She was hesitant at first when she found out she couldn't share a camel with Randall... but it didn't take her long to smile and enjoy the Awesome Experience!

While Randall and Morgan rode their camels 3km down the way, Micah and I did some exploring on our own... on foot.

I thought this opening looked like the State of Texas... so naturally we took a picture!

Micah and our friends climbed these stairs... I "conserved" my energy for the even bigger "hike" coming up!

900+ stairs later and about 25-30 minutes later... we made it to the top of The Monastery. What a site! And such a reward for all of that walking!

We then went further up to the "High Place" except, we stopped to take in this breath-taking view!

 Couldn't pass up a "horse-lovers" dream... Morgan was in heaven!

Micah wasn't as sure.. but he smiled anyway!

Even though these last few pics are out of order, since they rode horses before heading to the car, I couldn't resist this last pic as a "summary" of our day... 

We had our first family camel ride!

It was the scariest thing I'd ever done... especially as the camel stood up! I was certain that I was going to fly forward! It was a really cool experience and such a great day!

Come visit us and we'll take you to Petra and you can have your first camel ride too!

Have your Cake and Eat it Too!!!

I stand corrected... I wrote a post sometime last year about having a healthy, balanced life and diet. I was tired of seeing South Beach, Paleo, Gluten Free recipes and tips all over the internet, pinterest and FB. In my opinion, I thought a balance of whole grains, protein, veggies and fruits was enough. And it was... until I realized that eliminating gluten from our diet really made us feel good! 

I stopped having to sip on sprite after dinner due to an upset stomach or grab for tums from the medicine drawer... It took us a while to get used to eliminating dairy and gluten from our diet.. but now nearly 5 months later, we feel great, have a lot of energy and have even lost a few inches! Now, I'll be honest, we don't stick to paleo 100% of the time as we have a swarma every once a while or a latte to treat ourselves.. but we really have stuck pretty closely to this new lifestyle of eating.

Now on to the reason for this post... Paleo Cakeballs!!! What???

Yep, I think I finally came up with a "Paleo approved" dessert that is also "Randall approved". You see, my husband has really thrived eating Paleo and I have too, except for one thing... I have a sweet tooth!!! And when you eliminate white flour, sugar, and most dairy from your diet, its kindof hard to be Betty Crocker in the kitchen! 

So yesterday, I decided to try out this new Coconut Flour Brownie recipe. I liked the result, but Randall... not so much. Then today, I decided instead of me eating an entire pan of brownies to myself (even though they are paleo), I would turn them into a family favorite... Cake Balls!

I took the coconut flour brownies and crumbled them up in a bowl. Meanwhile, I mixed up 4 tablespoons of Coconut Milk and 2-3 Tablespoons of honey together. (this would normally be where you add icing to the crumbled cake mix). I then mixed the "icing" with the brownie crumbles and rolled them into balls.

I put the pan into the fridge to firm up the "soon to be" cake balls. 

Next, I took my Lindt 85% Cocoa and chopped it into pieces with about a 1.5 teaspoon of coconut oil in the microwave for about 45 seconds.

I then took my pan out of the fridge and poured the melted chocolate/coconut oil mix over the cake balls. After that, I put the pan in the freezer and within 5 minutes, the chocolate had hardened. The nice thing about adding coconut oil to chocolate is that it will harden and not melt again or soften if set out in room temperature.

 And there you have it... Paleo Cake Balls... 

I can have my Cake and Eat it too... and not feel guilty about it! :)

Even Kid Approved... and that's a Big Deal with these Two!!

Just as a side note... we do eat lots of other colored things in our house besides chocolate! :)

Please leave me a note and tell me what you think... and esp if you try it... let me know how they turned out!! :)