#hiloskyeveryday2014 Week 31

Day 206 - a typical day at the Hilosky House!  Changing the Bitty Babies outfits more than we change our own outfits!  

Day 207 - Week 18 Baby Bump! 

Day 208 - Blakely decided it would be a good day to test out the Jumperoo for Baby #3!  It still works! 

Day 209 - Such a sweet moment!  Lacie wanted to give her new baby some kisses.  You can read more about how this happened here! 

Day 210 - Nothing better than a little run with my girls to start the day!  The weather in the mornings has been perfect! 

Day 211 - a little bedtime reading!  No not a story...just perusing the new American Girl catalogue.  

Day 212 - Don't you love being woken up to a nice tackle hug from your big sis?!?

Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes

We have a tradition in the Hilosky House...on Saturday Mornings we eat Chocolate Chip Pancakes!  My girls may be a bit too young to fully grasp the calendar or the concept of time, but they do know that Saturday means Daddy is home when they wake up and they get to eat pancakes for breakfast!!!  Saturdays are a happy morning in the Hilosky House!  We almost always have my very favorite whole wheat chocolate chip pancakes, but every once in awhile I change up the pancake option a bit.  So on this Saturday I decided to make:

Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes! 

They were such a yummy change that was easily made by adding one extra ingredient to the pancake batter...2 mashed but still lumpy bananas!  

Your Shopping List for the Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes:

• 1 1/4 cups of Whole Wheat Flour
• 2 tbsp of Brown Sugar 
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup of milk
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 slightly overripe bananas, mashed with a fork but still lumpy
• 1/2 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips 
• pancake toppings of choice  (we do butter, real maple syrup, and powdered sugar...you could add nuts, fresh fruit, whipped cream, whatever you like!)

Now Let's Make the Banana Chocolate Chip Pancakes:

1. Preheat a pancake griddle* and grease with butter
2. Mash up two bananas with a fork and set aside
3. In a mixing bowl, whisk together your flour, sugar, baking powder and salt
4. In a separate bowl combine milk, egg, and vanilla extract
5. Mix wet mixture into flour mixture - but do not over mix
6. Fold in the mashed bananas and chocolate chips
7. Spoon batter onto the griddle (I like to use a 1/4 cup measuring spoon for a medium size pancake)
8. Allow to cook for a few minutes on the first side (until small bubbles appear)
9. Flip and cook on second side until they are done to your liking (I cook them until they are a medium brownish but I know some people prefer lighter or darker pancakes) 
10. Enjoy with toppings of choice!!! 

*For my many readers who have emailed and asked what type of pancake griddle I use, it's the All-Clad - Nonstick Grande Griddle Pan

I love love love this pan!  I bought it five years ago, as soon as we moved into our townhouse!  It has gotten so much use over the years and it is still in great shape!  It is so easy to clean too (you basically can just wipe the non-stick surface)!

And I had two very happy eaters who wouldn't even stop chewing to smile!

Favorite Things Party!!!

Today I am linking up with two really fun blogs A Little Bit of Everything and Momfessionals for a Favorite Things Party, and I am sharing a few of my favorite things under $10! 

1. Mustela Hydra-Stick with Cold Cream Balm
This little stick is amazing and it's only $9.50 (with Free Shipping!) at Nordstrom!  This amazing little stick is like chapstick for your face.  I use this stuff on my girls' beautiful faces all winter long and it keeps their skin from getting dry.  Of course all the time spent in the pool and sun this summer is making for some dry skin too, so I have this on my list of things I must order this week! It is also perfect for newborns!  I swear that this stuff cleared up baby acne in one day flat and got rid of all that peel-y skin that newborns have!  I would bring this stick to a desert island!
  

2. Taste of Home Halloween and Fall Cookbooks
Now don't get me wrong, I love love love summer!  But we have been having some really cool mornings in New Jersey, and this weather has me thinking about how I cannot wait for Fall baking and holidays...especially Halloween!  And Taste of Home (in my opinion), publishes some of the yummiest seasonal recipes out there! This particular Halloween addition is only $5.00 right now!  But I can always find them for $9.99 or less!
  

3. Market Pantry Butterscotch Chips
This Mama has been having a major butterscotch craving for the last two weeks!  And these chips have gone a long way in satisfying that craving.  You can check out my recipe for Blakely's Butterscotch Crispies and look for a new butterscotch recipe coming later this week!  Oh yeah and these babies can be found for less than $3.00 at your local Target!

4. Kiwi Crate Monthly Subscription
With Lacie's birthday less than a month away, we have been thinking long and hard about gifts for our special girl.  There really isn't much that she needs (if anything) but I saw this subscription for a monthly box that shows up at the door with art projects in it!  I love the idea of being able to have some special Mommy/Lacie time to work on art projects, something that Lacie is beginning to love to do!  They start at age three and go up to age eight!  Each monthly box is $19.95 but this coupon makes it less than $10.00!

Mommy Mondays: Baby Sibling Love

I really had intended on a different post today, but then something wonderful happened this morning and I just had to share it with my readers!

I was getting Blakely dressed on the changing table in the girls' shared bedroom when she began pointing to my ever-growing belly bump!  So I started talking about it with her...
"What's in Mommy's tummy?"
"Baby!"
"That's right a new baby."

When all of the sudden, Lacie runs over from the other side of the room and starts to say...
"Hi Baby Sister" (boy oh boy will she be disappointed if it is a boy)
"Love You Baby"

She was rubbing and hugging and kissing my tummy!  It was just the most amazing moment!  I so wish that someone had been home with me at the time to witness this moment.  Thank goodness my cell phone was within arms reach so I could grab it super quickly and capture this precious moment (of course that is why the pictures are a bit blurry).  Mamas - always have your phones ready to take pictures at all times!

Saying "Hi" to the baby! 

Giving the baby kisses! 

And giving the baby a hug! 

When I asked Blakely (who was still hanging out completely naked at this point) if she wanted to give the baby a kiss too, I got this instead....

lol that's her true personality right there! 

And for my sweet readers who are keeping track of the bump, it's currently Week 18!  We are counting down the days until August 6th when we find out if this is a Baby Girl or Boy!  Of course I am keeping my fingers crossed that the baby cooperates and lets us get a good look!

Me at 18 weeks! 

Our 18 Weeks board! 

For last week's Mommy Mondays Baby Update click here.

And to see how we announced Baby #3 click here.

#hiloskyeveryday2014 Week 30

Day 199 - Happy Birthday to my wonderful Daddy!  

Day 200 - My 17 Weeks baby bump!  I cannot believe how fast this pregnancy is going!  I also cannot believe that I have managed to take a #hiloskyeveryday2014 picture for 200 days in a row! 

Day 201 - even though they were not cooperating for a good "cheese" picture, I couldn't resist snapping this pic of the girls in their adorable aprons.  We were getting ready to make these Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies! 

Day 202 - since Lacie only wants to "do dance class" Daddy is putting all his hopes into Blakely being a soccer star! 

Day 203 - caught this little cutie mid-sentence telling me that she was going to jump to Daddy! 

Day 204 - Sweet B has a tough time making it until nap time somedays!  This particular day she kept putting her head down at the table.  

Day 205 - This morning we headed to the mall for some Starbucks and to listen to Miss Amy sing!  I could not resist getting a picture of my sweet girls hugging!  They are just the most amazing little BFFs! 

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Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

So on top of having two children under the age of three and being pregnant with Baby #3, we are also trying to sell our house!  It is crazy!  Last Sunday we had a house showing in the morning, so I decided to whip up a batch of homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies that would make the house smell scrumptious and also offer a snack to the people looking at our home.  At this point, I am willing to do just about anything to get our house sold as quickly as possible!  I would really like to move before I am 9 months pregnant and there is most likely snow on the ground (ugh)!

When I went about picking a recipe, I specifically wanted soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies since they would make for less crumbs than crispy cookies.  I searched around over on Pinterest and found that many recipes recommend adding corn starch to the dry ingredients in order to get the texture that I wanted.  So I did, and they came out just perfect!

Your Shopping List for Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies:

• 3/4 cup salted butter, room temperature
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
• 2 tsp corn starch
• 1 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Now Let's Make the Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line your cookie sheets with parchment paper
2. In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy
3. Add the egg and vanilla extract and heat until well incorporated
4. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, corn starch, baking soda, and salt
5. Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and beat on low until a soft dough forms
6. Add in the chocolate chips and mix until they are evenly distributed throughout the dough
7. Using a cookie scoop, drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto prepared cookie sheets
8. Bake in your preheated oven for 8 - 10 minutes until just lightly golden
9. Cool on cookie sheets for 3-4 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely 

My sweet little cookie helpers (and eaters)!

*recipe adapted from http://americanheritagecooking.com

Mommy Mondays: Baby Hilosky #3 Update

It has been a long time since I did a Mommy Monday post, so I thought that today would be the perfect Monday to do that and give you an update on Baby #3 at the same time!

Last month, we announced to the world that we would be becoming Hilosky Family Party of Five!  We have known about Baby #3 since Easter, and our immediate families found out on Mother's Day! But we waited until June 13th (which was 12 weeks) to tell everyone else!

Currently, I am 17 weeks and feeling great!  I have had two doctors appointments since my 12th week baby post, and both Mama and Baby are doing great!  I can already feel baby move a ton! Morning sickness is a thing of the past.  I am definitely tired...but not as bad as it was in the first trimester! This pregnancy I have been really good about taking week by week pictures (something I did not do with the girls).  I also made myself a cute little chalkboard thanks to some help from my good friend Pinterest.

Week 13 Baby Bump! 

Week 13 Chalkboard!

Week 14 Baby Bump!  So happy to be saying "hello" to the second trimester and saying "goodbye" to morning sickness!!!

Week 14 Chalkboard!

Week 15 Baby Bump and Happy 4th of July! I didn't have any red, white, and blue maternity clothes so I simply had to go with red and white.

Week 15 Chalkboard! 

Week 16 Baby Bump!  4 months already!  I had already been feeling little flutters for about 3 weeks, but this was the week I really started to feel a lot of movement!

Week 16 chalkboard.  

This is my current Baby Bump!  Week 17!  The heartburn is kicking in big time!  That is not surprise since I lived on Tums with both Lacie and Blakely.  

My current chalkboard!  Baby Hilosky can already hear what is going on out here! 

Stay tuned for Baby Hilosky #3 updates!  Less than three weeks until we find out if this baby will add even more PINK to our lives or if this baby will bring a little spot of BLUE! 

A Little Chalkboard Inspiration: