Peanut Butter Granola Bars

My friend Jenny let me borrow her collection of recipes and I found this little gem! I hope it's ok that I am sharing this here Jenny :)

These are so easy and yummy to have on hand for a quick sweet snack and you can add whatever you want. Perfect.

In my batches I substituted half of the peanut butter for some yummy chocolate almond butter from TJ's. It never hurts to add a little chocolate right?!

Peanut Butter Granola Bars


1/2 cup raw honey
2/3 cup all natural peanut butter ( or nut butter of your choice)
1 cup oats
2 cups rice cereal

any add ins: nuts, raisins, ground flax etc.

In a large pot melt the honey and peanut butter, stirring until smooth. Mix in the remaining ingredients and dump onto parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Coat hands with cooking spray and form into a rectangle. Place the cookie sheet in the fridge for 5 min to firm up the bar a bit. Cut the rectangle into individual bars and place back in fridge until hard. Store at room temperature in an air tight container.

Sweet Visitors

The end of summer brought some sweet visitors. Papa and Joy came down for a weekend just the two of them. We had such a fun time. Joy is growing into such a sweet and mature little girl and her name fits her perfectly! While they were here we caught the end of the Camarillo air show and will definitely be back next year.

Then my sister and her little guy Ryder came along with our parents.

It was so nice to have the boy cousins together and I only wish we could do this more often!

Weston took this shot of my dad, love it

Ryder enjoyed a friend's birthday party :)

Gabe and Ryder loved rides with Omie in the wagon- I think Ryder would live in a wagon if he was allowed to!

miss this sweet face

One Pot Polenta

This recipe is replacing my other polenta recipe post, This one is much easier and tastier!

Sorry for the bad color on the pictures, I took them at night. To make this dish you only need one large skillet...and there is a secret ingredient- goat cheese! The goat cheese gives the dish a yummy richness and you only need a little to go a long way. 

I didn't use any exact measurements, so you can use as much or little of any ingredient as you want.

One Pot Polenta

organic ground beef

onion chopped

minced garlic

bell peppers diced

jar marinara sauce

zucchini diced

goat cheese

prepared polenta, sliced

arugula for garnish

In a large skillet brown the meat with the onion, garlic, and peppers. Add zucchini and sauce and bring to a simmer. Stir in goat cheese until melted. Carefully add polenta slices to the pan, cover and cook 10-15 minutes.

Belated Birthday Blog Wishes

You know those people you meet one time and you know that they are special, different somehow, and you are intrigued and instantly want to know them better? That's how I felt when I first met Andrew, when I was 18 years old. There was no romantic interest or girly crush going on here, but Andrew made an impression on me in the few months I knew him before I graduated high school. He came into my school as a substitute teacher at that time. He was kind, mature and made friends with the guys. He was also godly and handsome (still is!) and someone you just liked being around. The students respected him even though he was young. I left for college in San Diego for 4 years and would think of him from time to time wondering if he was married, what he was doing and just thought he would make an excellent husband and father....little did I know that I would get to experience that first hand!

The Lord richly blessed me by bringing Andrew into my life and I have no greater joy than raising our children with him. For this birthday we were in La Jolla and we had fun celebrating there! During the day we went to the beach and tried to body board- hilarious! Andrew and Weston had a breakfast date, left overs for lunch and then out to eat for dinner.  Andrew LOVES crab and usually picks that for his birthday dinner, since we never have it any other time of year :)

After dinner we came back to the condo for "cake". Andrew also loves banana cream pie so we had that. I really wanted to make him one myself, but it was just too hot to turn on the oven!

Weston loved helping put in the candles and I didn't have the heart to move them evenly over the pie, he was so proud of his work.

Happy Birthday Babe! We love you so much!

Soaking up the last bit of summer

 A couple weeks ago we were so blessed to be able to spend a week together as a family in beautiful La Jolla right on the water! Spoiled I know :) It was such a wonderful time and just what we needed before a new season of life and to celebrate the close of this fun summer.

The boys had a blast and so did we. Even though 2 days into the trip both boys came down with fevers and the sniffles, they still had so much fun. Gabriel especially fell in love with the ocean..."O-nee" as he called it, and he still asks for it! 

We spent most of our days at the beach, but decided to take a day to hang in Balboa park, such a beautiful spot. We even went to the Air and Space museum for our little pilot

Our unit had an awesome view of the water, lots of room to play, a full kitchen and the nicest neighbors. Can't wait to go back~

We also celebrated Andrew's birthday there, but that deserves its own post!

Summer Fav's

 In no particular order here were our favorite things this summer!

Above:  1. Friends playing in the yard

2. Frozen Yogurt

3. Summer weddings

4. Wagon rides

5. Fresh salsa

6. Kiddie pools

7. Summer fruit

8. Exploring new places

9. Warm evening dinner dates outside

10. Car washes

11.  Beaches

12. Bubs and his airplanes

What were your favorite things this summer?

Looking forward to a fabulous fall!