Banana Bread Recipe

Banana Bread Recipe

I LOVE this recipe it's easy, simple and DELICIOUS!!!

Banana Bread Recipe

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour


Ingredients
3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour


Method

No need for a mixer for this recipe. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered 4x8 inch loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

Yield: Makes one loaf.

Noah Haywood at 12 mths

Noah Haywood

24 lbs 32''long

wears size 5 dispoable diapers and occasionally cloth diapers

drinks whole milk from sippy cup

is a crazy fast crawler

cruises along side anything that he can hold onto

waves bye-bye

loves to sing and dance

claps hands especially when he knows he has done something well

NEW- stands alone for a moment or two and tries to walk

eats EVERYTHING in site-only table food

WORDS HE CAN SAY:

momma

dada

ut oh

bup (for cup)

*loves to yell at dogs when they bark*

ba ba

Bo- this one is my favorite ;)

hey

goes to sleep anywhere between 8-9pm

sleeps until 10am and takes afternoon naps from 2-4pm

GAMES WE LOVE TO PLAY:

peek-a-boo

patty cake

where's momma/dada/baby

CURRENTLY- airplane is #1 fav

loves to play with anything that has wheels or is a ball

This has been the fastest year of my life! Bo and I waited close to 4 years to have a baby and never in our wildest dreams did we ever think that we would be blessed the way we have been with Noah. Noah is everything we could have asked for and more. His personailty can brighten the darkest days and his laughter is infectious. He loves adventure and insects and the outdoors and anything and everything that keeps us on our toes. Noah belongs to the Lord and he is ours on loan, our biggest prayer and hope is that one day when we finally meet our Lord and Saviour Bo and I can both say to Him especially about the rearing of our children " I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith" 2 Timothy 4:7

That is our hope. That one day our children will be a light for the Lord Jesus Christ!

I love you Noah! You are my first and so far my most precious! Thank you for helping us keep the faith!

Teething

Noah has recently been crankier than normal. At first I was really concerned and unsure of what was happening to my typical, extremely happy baby. Daddy (Bo) was the first to notice the "whites" behind his top gums. That of course told us that Noah's two top teeth would be coming in very soon. Yesterday while we were in the BX shopping Noah was playing happily in the shopping cart when he threw his head back in laughter and I noticed that his top left tooth had popped through. This now means he has 3 teeth. 1 on top and his two bottom ones.

Now it feels like since we noticed them he has just been such an bear. If his top teeth are anything like he bottom then his next top tooth should come in any day now. Today was his fussiest of all days. Of course it would be considering I have gone off my migraine medicine and had a horrific headache all day! Bo and I gave Noah a bath and decided that maybe we would just go ahead and lay him down and see if the bath and soothe him enough to give him a good nights rest. After putting Noah in his crib he immediately bounced up holding onto the railings of his crib and in the process of trying to basically chew through his crib railing he began to jump up and down and as he did he busted he top gum right where we are waiting for that next tooth to pop through. Praise the Lord that after he did that he only cried for a few moments, which was just as long as the bleeding lasted which wasn't very long, and then all seemed to be better.

I can't believe that next Monday my baby will be 11 months old. I have no idea where the time has gone. All these new adventures that we go through with Noah are overwhelming joyful and sad. We waited so long to have Noah and it's taken no time for him to go from a helpless newborn baby into this very independent almost toddler. I thank God everyday for the wonderful blessing that is my son and pray that God grants us many, many, many more days with our "bean." Since he is on loan to us from our Lord and Savior I know all to well that he can be taken away from us at any moment. My life truly feels complete with Noah in it and I feel so wonderfully blessed that the Lord chose Bo and I to be Noah's parents.

GREAT find =)

So today Tiffany N, Sarah and myself went to the thrift store after ladies bible study. Recently when I have been going in and looking for stuff for Noah they NEVER have anything in his size. Of course I go in there today with barely any money and they had TONS of super cute clothes. As we were walking out of the baby clothes section and into the shoe section, Tiffany noticed these adorable NEVER "used" size 3 Nike tennis shoes. I have been looking EVERYWHERE for shoes for Noah. On base they already ever carry any infant/toddler shoes worth paying the money for and I was beginning to get very frustrated at our lack of selection. (All who live here understand.) From the best of our guesses maybe whoever had them prior to us may have bought them and forgot to use them because they were still in the original box and still had tissue paper stuck inside the shoes. So now Noah has casual everyday shoes which was exactly what I was looking for. Also on the box the price tag reads Suggested Retail Price $32.00. What a blessing they were only $10 for these high $ shoes!

Thankful Day 30

Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full. John 16:24

I am thankful for the NGJ ministry. I emailed them to thank them for sending Bo he's military package and but was sad to have never received mine. I explained that I did not want to seem ungrateful but when your stationed overseas you are very limited to Christian resources of any kind. I got an email from the Assistant General Manager of No Greater Joy Ministries and he said that they would be mailing me mine out on the next shipment! I am so EXCITED!!!! What a blessing to email this company and actually get a response back. It just goes to show that they actually care about their readers.

Thankful Days 24-29

Thankful Day 24: that I have a Godly husband who takes as much free time has he has to spend quality time with his family. Noah loves for either Bo or I to read to him out of his bible. It's so sweet! I love little moments like this!

Thankful Day 25: that I come from a country where the brave fight to retain what our forefathers put in place. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Be thankful today for what you have and complain not about what you do not have.


Thankful Day 26: that we have friends who have grown into family. Spent the day with the Cooke family on an outing to Mantiago so Bo and Brandon could go to the knife store and get amazing quality knives for some of our family members. Leah and I wanted to walk around the local area as the guys "shopped" but it began to snow really hard so we waited in the car with all the babies. After what seemed forever the guys came back with Kabobs ( a greek meat and veggie pita) which made our wait all the while. We are so happy and blessed to have this family in our lives!


Thankful Day 27: another wonderful family that we have been blessed with is the Hickman household. We went and had dinner with them Saturday night and fellowshipped with a new couple that had recently joined our church. Shane and Renee have been like an Aunt and Uncle to Noah. Family is so important to Bo and I and to have the friends that we do that can help fill that gap b/w our family here and the family way across the ocean is such a blessing!


Thankful Day 28: days just to enjoy our family =) love the time when you can curl up on the couch with the hubby as the babies are napping and watch a movie. It was my turn to choose the movie so I chose Gone With the Wind. Bo actually really likes that movie, so much that we like to pretend we are those "old fashioned" actors and Bo will grab me in his arms and say lines from the movie that Rhett Butler said to Scarlett O'Hara. I love our silly sweet romance =)


Thankful Day 29: our local church. We have been attending this church for a year and a half and are so thankful we found it. We spent the first year and a half trying out other local churches and could never really find a place that we could call home. Thank you Calvary Baptist Church for being a place that we can go and fellowship with other believers and most important hear the word of God preached!

The Best French Toast Ever Recipe

Bo LOVES this Recipe and thought I would share :)


The Best French Toast Ever

4 eggs
2/3 cup whole milk
1/3 cup flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
6 slices thick bread (we use Texas Toast or slice a loaf of Italian bread 1" thick)
3 tablespoons butter

Mix together eggs, milk, flour, sugar, vanilla, salt and cinnamon. Heat a large skillet or griddle and melt a tablespoon of the butter in it. Dip bread in batter for 30 seconds on each side. Let the extra drip off and cook each slice for around 2 minutes on each side. Use more butter to cook the rest of the slices. Can serve with fresh berries or butter and syrup.