Shannon Hinderberger

Benjamin, what a year it was for you. You accomplished some pretty cool milestones and your little personality continues to blossom. Year 3 started out with a bang ... you threw your binky in the toilet and flushed it. The bad part? You asked for it within hours and cried yourself to sleep for a week. You started a new pre-school which was a good move for your development. You began to get

EmmyLu, chillin' First things first, this is my first post in a while and a lot has changed. Emmy Lucille (aka EmmyLu) was born 3 weeks early, late in the evening of March 26 via c-section. The last trimester of my pregnancy was rocky and I was put on bed rest, hence the silence in my blogging. EmmyLu is a good baby with bouts of fussiness due to gas but most of the time, she wants to be held

I love Pinterest. It's a great place to find activities, recipes and ideas so when Nanette challenged her readers to get pinteractive, I so happened to be working on three projects this weekend I could post!  First up, Strawberries and Cream Pie! I didn't double the recipe like the pin suggested because I didn't have a deep dish pan.  I am serving this up tonight! Next up, I made

Make that a soy latte I've been hearing the buzz about the documentary Forks Over Knives for a while saying it will convert you into being a vegan. Being a vegan was a challenge I was going to take for a month last year until I found out I was pregnant. I could totally be a vegetarian but cutting out dairy seemed super extreme that I could never do. Never say never is what my mom used to say.

Snow came really late this year. And that's pretty bad for a town whose economy counts on it for tourism. Last week, it snowed over 5 feet at our local resort, shutting it down for a day. We headed up to go sledding. Let's just say, pregnancy and watching your family sled, don't mix.

my son will kill me someday for posting this photo After 3.5 years of diapers, we're finally diaper free in our house. I will admit, I should have done this sooner but nothing seemed to motive my son -- that was until he saw Cars 2 and he wanted new cars to play with. Everyone had advice for me ... put him and pull-ups and then try to switch back to diapers, he'll throw a fit! Have him aim on

I love getting inspiration from fellow bloggers and people I follow on Twitter. Imitation is the best form of flattery, right? Nanette, who is super cool in real life, made this recipe on Christmas Day for her brother-in-law who is a vegetarian.  Super intrigued, I asked her for the recipe. The recipe was a hit in my house. All we really needed to add in the end was a tad bit more salt. If you

A few months ago, that sticker to the left appeared in my goodie bag at a local marketing conference I attended. I decided to slap it on the back of my Jeep because I felt I was doing just that -- living local, buying local. Boy did that sticker give me a smack of reality. The first instance of reality came while I was in the drive thru line for Starbucks. The month of October and November

I had a frozen loaf of homemade brioche that I needed to use up so I pulled out this recipe to try. It was so so tasty! Now I want to make another loaf of brioche to make it again!

I receive many requests to review products but most of the time they don't fit the scope of my blog ... going green gradually. But when Sommer Poquette emails you asking to try to a product, you take notice. Sommer is the mastermind behind Green and Clean Mom and site Mommy is a Blogger which explains to children and the world what moms online might be doing with their blogs and also offers tips

I love soup in the winter but I'm not a fan of tomato soup. For months, my husband has been begging me to make a tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for Meatless Monday. I came across this recipe in my Fresh Flavor Fast cookbook by Martha Stewart and Everyday Food and decided to give it a whirl. The technique -- roast a number of vegetables, then place in veggies stock and bring to a

A little look at our Christmas. Our kid got spoiled at Christmas from the grandparents and was so exhausted from playing, he went to bed early.

Making polenta is pretty easy. You can get a bag of Bob's for $3 and it usually makes 4 servings of polenta. With that, I usually will use it as a side, mold it to a pan and grill or make polenta lasagna. BUT there are sometimes, I like buying that $2 tube at Trader Joe's to slice and grill. The recipe is simple. Slice the polenta to desired shape, brush with oil on each side along with

I had grand plans for 2011. I had a long green list which in the back of my mind, I knew would take two years to accomplish You can view what progress we made by looking at what's checked off on that list.Here is the remaining list of green goals I'm looking to accomplish in 2012 Earn the natural baby badge on Practically Green Switch to compostable trash bags and liners   Recycle my old computer

As I mentioned, I have very fond memories of helping my mom bake cookies so this year I sought out holiday cookies Lil B would love to participate in making. One of the best I have found is one that involves square pretzels and Hershey's Hugs. It's the perfect combo of sweet and salty and my co-worker proclaimed them "crack." It's easy for my three year old to follow the directions on but I

Setting up our tree was a magical experience for our three year old this year. I was quite disappointed last year when he wasn't too interested in any of it but this year, but I could see it in his eyes this year. He enjoyed filling the tree with ornaments. He's enjoyed making cookies. He's obsessed with Rudolph and Frosty and wants to watch the Polar Express every night. He can't wait to find "

One of my favorite activities to do with my mom as a child was bake Christmas Cookies. One of my favorites were her pecan sandies (aka snowballs, Mexican Wedding Cookies). I still have and treasure her hand written recipe without the directions on how to put it together. I make these every year and get requests on handing down the recipe so I thought I would share it with my readers (with

I realized last week, I have talked about this before but never posted the recipe. My go to mac n cheese is a Martha Stewart classic: stovetop mac n cheese. Mac and cheese, from viewing my Meatless Monday archives, is a winter staple in our house and one that is guaranteed to be lunch and leftovers throughout the week. Sometimes I will mix in frozen peas at the end to make it pretty and to get

Brian and I have been having fun with coming up with inappropriate things for Ben's "Chippy" to do. Most of this scheming takes place during nap or bedtime so Ben is unaware that Chippy is tainting Santa's cookies and hot cocoa with laxatives! Ha! It's all part of Baby Rabies Inappropriate Elf Contest. When it's time to vote, I'll let you know. I hope I win that iPad! Chippy spikes Santa's

Thank goodness it's Friday. This morning I was told "I hate you" for the first time by my son. He was mad because he wanted to wear his Oregon Ducks jersey for the third day in a row to school. My husband had to work early and the shirts were dirty and I had to make him wear something else. Halfway to school, he threw his shoes at me. This baby is really starting to move a lot. She is really

Want that fresh faced glow without spending a lot of dough? Take three parts baking soda, one part water and mix into a paste. Apply in a circular motion and then rinse. Thanks Pinterest!

I was lucky enough to grow up surrounded by a large family at the holiday season. It's something I often feel guilty about with my son so I try to make the holidays (and well, the rest of the year) special for him. This Thanksgiving, we spent it potty training my son (more to come on that someday). It meant staying indoors and keeping him occupied with activities. First up, we made one ornament