Boys? Girls? Take a Guess!

We had our 16 week drs visit and ultrasound today! Everything went great, the twins are doing well. I wish I could have seen them move around a bit more, but the ultrasound literally lasted 1 minute to check the heartbeats (both strong) and the ultrasound machine is pretty old and doesn't show very much. Its pretty blurry!

Here are the pictures I got from today, they are not the best, but there is one of each baby, not that I can tell them apart!


Can anyone tell if they are boys or girls?? :):)
We won't actually find out until week 20 in another month, but I'd love to hear all guesses. :)


I also had to do my 16 week glucose test today... YUCK. The drink wasn't so bad, it was just like drinking an orange snow cone without the ice. And it didn't make me feel horrible, so hopefully that's a good sign that I passed. I also have to do another one at 28 weeks I think. For those of you who don't know what a glucose test is, it is a test for gestational diabetes. You drink this disgusting sugary drink, wait an hour, and then they take your blood. Hopefully I pass, because if I fail apparently I have to do a 3-hour test, where you drink the gross drink and then get your blood taken every hour. No thank you!


It was a long day of babysitting and dr visits, but when we got home Matt and I made chicken sausage with summer squash succotash! It was delicious. We also made corn on the cob and Ellen ate almost a whole ear of corn - it was her first time eating corn on the cob and she LOVED it! It probably helped that I smeared butter all over the corn first, but what other way is there to eat it?


And lastly, as Ellen keeps telling everyone - we shaved our cat. Our poor cat Puff is quite fat, and has a lot of hair. This makes for a very hot summer for her, and a very frustrating summer for me vacuuming up all of her stupid hair. So, we decided for the first time to just shave it all off. And while she looks like a ridiculous fat rat, I think she's more comfortable, and I am so much happier to not have her hair everywhere!!! I think we will all be happier this way. For example, before the shaving I would not have let her, and she would not have wanted I don't think, to curl up next to me while I type, but post shave all she wants to do is cuddle! Maybe she is cold.... oh well she'll survive, its summer!

Here's a picture of Puff with her new summer haircut. It's not pretty to look at, sorry! :)

The Secret Gluten-Free Ingredient

I was really craving oatmeal raisin cookies the other night, and so I decided to make them! I was feeling kind of lazy, and just wanted to effortlessly "whip them up", so I used and easy recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook (which I love) and just substituted gluten free all purpose flour for regular all purpose flour. And while I wish that I was someone who could just whip up perfect baked good whenever I felt like it... I'm afraid this is not the case. ;)

The cookies turned out delicious, but a little strange. They did not rise AT ALL, and so turned into flat cookies with all of these holes in them. Matt was helping me bake and when I mentioned that I had added baking soda and powder which is supposed to make cookies rise, he explained that baking soda and powder simply create gas, and that gluten or something like gluten is needed to actually rise. Turns out gluten free flour will not rise without some extra help! This is when Matt mentioned that I hadn't included any xanthan gum. There wasn't any required in the Better Homes and Gardens recipe (obviously since its not GF) so I hadn't added any. We had about 4-5 cookies worth of batter left when we made this realization, and so decided to do an experiment!!

We added about 1/8 tsp of xanthan gum to the remaining batter, made the cookies - and it was AMAZING. The difference in the cookies was extreme. The cookies without xanthan gum were flat and crumbly. The cookies with xanthan gum had actually risen, were a little cake-y (not too cake-y) and even tasted better!! Unfortunately since we made this discovery quite late in the game we ended up with about 24 flat cookies and 4 good cookies. Oh well, next time I make any sort of baked goods without gluten - I'll add xanthan gum!!

Here is a pictorial description of the experiment:

Cookies without xanthan gum:


Cookies with xanthan gum:


Cookies side by side: bottom cookie has no xanthan gum, notice the hole and how flat it is. The top cookie has xanthan gum - notice how its actually risen and looks more like a cookie!


I know you are asking yourself - what does xanthan gum do?!?!? From wikipedia:
"Xanthan gum is also used in gluten-free baking. Since the gluten found in wheat must be omitted, xanthan gum is used to give the dough or batter a "stickiness" that would otherwise be achieved with the gluten."

I'm guessing the stickiness is where the rise from the baking powder and soda happens.

Only slightly disturbing... literally the next paragraph in the wikipedia article says this:
"In the oil industry, xanthan gum is used in large quantities, usually to thicken drilling mud."

Um... what? I thought it was a food product.... also, if its used in large quantities in the oil industry, they probably paid a lot less per pound or ounce than I did for my tiny bag that I bought for $11! Oh well. Clearly it works and that is what matters. Hopefully its made of food.


And here is me at 13 weeks! :) Belly is starting to get bigger! Go twin-ies go! :)


The only recent picture I have of Ellen is of her wearing sunglasses in her diaper. She had just pooped all over all of her clothes (sorry gross) and so she was "neeked" as she likes to say! She WOULD NOT look at the camera or stay still for more than 2 seconds. The only reason she is standing still in this picture is she was obsessed with getting this light / key-chain to turn on and off. What a silly girl! We love her. :)