Happy Birthday My Son

Seeing you sleeping on Grandpa's lap last weekend, it was hard to believe you've grown so quickly. I love you so much and wish you a wonderful fourth year. Love, mom

Another Zoo Day

Well, we visited again, and to spare you the slideshow of all of the cute pictures we got of the kids and animals (since I think we've done several in the past), I'll just show you this one pic of them with Grammy and Grandpa that we got on the turtle statue. It was a perfect day for the zoo and we had a wonderful time visiting with our family from up North.

...And Then There Were Two.

We have a pretty great group of friends from college and through the (gasp) TWELVE years since we graduated, they have gradually moved away and gotten married. Last weekend was the next in a series of friends to tie the knot. It was a beautiful service and all but one of the "fellas" was there. It really makes me feel old to compare this wedding to the first one and see how much we have changed, grown and aged. It won't be long before we're the ones footing the bill.

Best of Luck Jarrod & Ileen.

8 Years & counting

Well, if you think about the fact that we started dating back in 1995, really it's been FIFTEEN years that we've "been together" (as of fall of this year). I love you more every day sweetheart. I am thankful every day for you.

PSU 2010

Congratulations to my litte, I mean, OLDER sister who graduated from Portland State University with a degree in Geology last weekend. There were SOOOO many people there, literally thousands of graduates. She's been working toward this for a long time and it is quite an accomplishment to have kept up with studying when she lives over an hour from the school and has three tweens to take care of.Despite a miserably socialist, liberal and well, for lack of better word, poisonous keynote speaker, it was a nice ceremony. Plus we got to go to CPK afterward and spend time with family so I suppose it wasn't all in all a bad afternoon. Here's a pic of two of my beautiful nieces while we were waiting for the ceremony to begin:

What to Make

Here's a TOTALLY easy meat rub that I got from some magazine a few months back. This works on beef, pork & chicken:

1/4 cup Brown sugar
1/2 T Chile powder
2 t onion powder
2 t garlic powder
1 T paprika
1 t cumin
1 T salt
1 t oregano

Put it all in a Ziploc bag, drop in your meat and seal the bag. Press the rub into the meat by squishing the bag around in your hands for a little bit. Let sit for an hour or so then grill. Delish!

Congratulations

My eldest niece up in Oregon finished her confirmation in the Lutheran Church last weekend. I couldn't be more proud of my goddaughter.Isn't she beautiful? Congratulations Sweetheart~

What to Make

This recipe is SO easy that there's really only four steps. Just be sure you do them right.

It's mini meringues. They're fat free, only 11 calories a piece, require just three ingredients, and taste like the outside of a toasted marshmallow. Here's what you do:

Ratios: 1 egg white to 1/16 teaspoon tartar to 1/3cup sugar (increase as needed)

Easy Instructions
1 - Beat egg whites on high until frothy.
2 - Beat in cream of tartar and continue to mix until soft peaks form.
3 - Slowly beat in sugar and continue to mix until glossy and stiff peaks form.
4 - Bake on parchment lined cookie sheets for an hour at 225 degrees.

Detailed Instructions
Do this on a cool, dry day. Too much heat or humidity wreck havoc on the results. Take some fresh, room temperature egg whites. By that I mean no yolk, AT ALL and let them sit on the counter for half an hour before using, and don't use the ones in the carton - ask me how I know this. Put the egg whites into a large, clean, dry metal mixing bowl. Remember I said not to do this when it's humid? Meringues do not like water. Water = bad results.

Mix the egg whites on high until they just start to look frothy, maybe a minute or so on high. Then add in the cream of tartar as it continues to mix. Cream of tartar is an acid. It will make your meringues hold their shape and stay stiff in the end, which is a good thing.

Continue mixing on high (by that I mean do not ever ever ever stop the beaters from going through this whole process). Test the mixture when it approximately triples in size, that's right, I said TRIPLES, by dipping a teaspoon into the meringue. When you pull out the spoon, the meringue should make a peak on the spoon that folds over but does not run off of the spoon. At this point, begin SLOWLY adding sugar. If you add it to quickly your meringues will be gritty, which is no bueno. Once you have (did I mention gradually?) added all of the sugar, continue mixing until the meringue on a teaspoon makes a stiff peak that doesn't fold over. The meringue will appear glossy.

At this point you have two options, either cook as is, or GENTLY fold in any extract for flavor. Keep in mind that these meringues are mostly air (due to all of that high-speed mixing) so the rougher you are with the meringue, the more it is going to fall flat and ruin your results. I made mine recently with cocoa powder and banana extract and they tasted like chocolate covered bananas. If you don't like things that are delicious, then don't try this.

Put the meringue into a ziplock bag and seal it then cut off a tip and pipe the meringue onto cookie sheets lined with parchment paper. Cook them for about an hour at 225 degrees. When they're done, either eat them all and sit around in a sugar induced coma or store them in a cool, dry place inside a air-sealed container. Really, at 11 calories a piece, you can eat several of these and still not feel too guilty about it.

More Fun At the Zoo

Recently, my darling children and I took their Nana on a morning trip to the zoo. Having annual passes is awesome for short day trips and lower stress levels. We heard that the polar bear exhibit had been updated and wanted to check it out for ourselves. The place was packed but we got to see zookeepers feed fist-sized meatballs to the tigers and watch the hippos party in the waterfalls and be more active than we'd ever seen them. Who knew Hippos went nuts like that for a little water massage? It was pretty cool. Note to self though: the zoo is pretty busy on weekends, it's best to go during the week when there are much smaller crowds.

Real Life Tonka Trucks

While we were visiting Bellingham, Washington, to drop Daddy off at his boat for his Alaska trip we spent some time at the harbor. My little man happened upon this green monster. He couldn't help but go climb up and get a closer look. Isn't this every boy's dream?

Within Reach

Hubby just returned from Alaska and I was delighted to see him and hear of his adventure with his friends. They took a fishing boat from Bellingham, Washington to Sitka, Alaska over a week long drive that ended in a couple days of fun ATV riding through the wilderness looking at all the neat wildlife. I have to say though, this might be my favorite picture. That's my hubby leaning off of the front of the boat, about an arm's length from one of the many porpoises that were swimming near the boat on their trip. What a neat thing for him to get to experience.

The Trench in My Driveway

Don't blame me.

Okay, DO blame me but it's not my fault.

Okay, it IS my fault, but my husband made me do it.

Well, to be honest, he didn't MAKE me do it - per say - but he wouldn't do it himself and he had the diamond blade power saw...at the least he's an enabler.

Our 20+ new cedar trees will thank me though and in 10 years there will be a wall of trees giving the house privacy from the road so all's well that ends well, right?

That's what happens when you tell your wife you aren't going to do it, presuming that it won't get done. He should have known I'd take matters into my own hands. He had it coming.

Our Local "Beach"

Sure, it's not the ocean, but it's a lake. Really, how much water do kids need? They're happy to play in our dog's water bowl. So it was a big treat to go down to the local beach club with some friends yesterday and spend some time in the sun.

A Beautiful View

What a darling snapshot, huh? Last weekend while my darling princess was off having lunch with the Disney ladies, hubby and I took our little man out into the forest one evening for some ATV riding. My son was exstatic to have us all to himself and relishes the ride between us through the national forest. Plus our pup got some much needed exercise. Here they are at one of our pit stops along the drive.

A Day Fit for a Princess

Recently, my little darling girl turned four years old. For her birthday, her Nana & Grandpa invited her to join them at California Adventure for a lunch with the Disney princesses and day of fun. She had a great time and on her way out of the park that afternoon, made a wish in the fountain to get to do it all again some day. She is so very sweet.

Kids are Great

I know that many of our guy friends (Brendan) are intimidated by our kids but really, kids are great. They offer many awesome opportunities and enrich your life more than most people know. Why, just last weekend at Stagecoach, they proved it to all of the guys who went with us.

This is for all of you who didn't want to go to Stagecoach because you thought it was just a bunch of boring 'ol country music....

Stagecoach 2010

Last weekend we went out to Indio and enjoyed the Stagecoach country music festival. We got to see Jason Aldean (my daughter's favorite), Billy Currington, Phil Vassar, Toby Keith, Brooks & Dunn, Sugarland (Hubby's favorite) and Keith Urban. We had a fab time and can't wait to go again next year.

Not Quite "High" Enough

This year is the first year that my little darling is participating in the youth track & field program. She is LOVING it. I have to say, I was a little choked up to see her run with the other kids and be able to keep up and even beat some of them (who are all at least a year older). It turned into a bit of comedy of errors though to see her barrel though the hurdles, without even attempting to jump over then and then, well, let's just say she's not quite big enough for high jump...

Breakfast on the Boat

Yesterday we had a great morning. We headed out first thing on the boat and there was no one else on the water but us. It was so warm that we slathered on sunscreen to keep from burning even! Since it was so early, we hadn't even had breakfast yet. Thus, we made a quick stop at Mc-D's and ate on the boat. By 10 AM it started to get a little windy but we had already been on the lake for a couple hours so were ready to move on to other things and we took off for other adventures. What a great way to start our day.

What's So Great About the Ponies?

We are often asked that very question from people who hear that we spent the day at Santa Anita Park with the kids. They no doubt picture a bunch of over-age male spectators, smoking, drinking and cussing at their losing fillies. Well, in our experience, a day at the races is quite far from that image. Although there is a playground on the infield, we have never taken the kids there. Why would we? They already have a spectacular time. The things that they like the best are going to watch the horses line up before their races, cheering on "their" horses (chosen, no doubt, based on the number or color of the jersey), eating snacks, enjoying the sunshine, and getting a full day of undivided attention from Mommy and Daddy. By far, their favorite part is playing on the grass with us around the fountain outside the stadium between races. Here's some shots from our last trip...

Mayday

Uh oh.

The summer squash didn't like being put back outside. Neither did the basil. I guess it's a bit cold out there at night still. Do you think my little man will notice if I get new seeds and replant them? Rats.

On a brighter note, today we have about 10 bean sprouts and at least 10 pea sprouts popping up. I may need to get a bigger pot.

What to Make

YES. I made this.

Yes, the queen of setting the smoke alarm off to let me know that dinner is ready MADE THIS!
Okay, to be fair, I still set off the smoke alarm but that's because the ooey gooey goodness overflowed the pan and dripped on the bottom of the oven (silly me for not putting in a cookie sheet to catch drippings). It was totally - TOTALLY worth the 2 minute clean up.

This recipe was pretty easy (if you have a bread machine) and SO SO SO delicious. I'm talkin' "I made my hubby take over half of it to work just so I wouldn't eat it all" delicious. It's not exactly her recipe but I got the idea from the Pioneer Woman, she's amazing. Here's what to do:

Mix water, milk, egg, flour, sugar, salt, butter, cinnamon & yeast in your bread machine on the dough setting. "That sounds like a recipe for doughnuts" you say? Yep, it was. I did this part last night and just covered it and kept it in the fridge to make this morning.

Then this morning I woke up and rolled the dough out, spread out some butter on it then sprinkled it with a mix of cinnamon sugar. Then I rolled the dough and cut it to make cinnamon rolls. Next I melted a stick of butter (I never said it was GOOD for you), 1.5c brown sugar, 1T corn syrup and 2T of cream then poured it into a cake pan. I sprinkled some diced green apple on the syrup and topped it off with the rolls of cinnamon dough. After about 20 minutes in the oven I took it out, inverted it onto a plate and voila!

Here's hoping that today your ooey gooey goodness runs over like mine has~

Garden Update

We currently have 10 peas sprouts, five bean sprouts and three summer squash sprouts. All of those pots are starting to show green! Now if I could just coerce up the carrots and flowers....

A Princess Party

Last Saturday we had approximately 50 people over to our castle to help us celebrate our little princess turning FOUR! It was a very fun day and the kids had a great time. Thank you everyone for coming~

A Quiet Easter Morning at Home

Yesterday morning we woke up with no where to go. No one to call. Nothing pressing that HAD to be done. What a nice start to a quiet family Easter at home. The kiddos came in and crawled all over us in bed and we snuggled and cuddled a bit before Daddy headed down the stairs to make us all some waffles. After breakfast we all headed outside where it appears a rabbit had come to hide some eggs for the kids (and daddy) to find. There were 25 blue ones for a little boy, 35 pink ones for a little girl, and 45 green ones for the 30-something peter pan in our house. Much to her delight, and daddy's chagrin, my sweet daughter won the hunt by finding all of her eggs first. Her brother somehow lost two eggs (I'm guessing they were eaten) so we're not sure when he finally had all of his, but Daddy brought up the rear by finding his last egg after everyone else. What a very fun morning full of warm and cozy memories. I am so very thankful for our many blessings and the ability to spend days like this with such wonderful people.

Family Easter

We had a nice time yesterday visiting with our family down in Desert Hot Springs. Although the wind picked up later in the afternoon, the weather in the mid-morning and for our egg hunt was perfect. For those of you reading this from up north, feel free to come visit our beautiful sunshine any time.

Thank you Grandma Tanyon for having us all over to spend a day together. We had a great time.

What to Make

This is an Easter-style recipe: HOT CROSS BUNS!

I got the idea from The Pioneer Woman's Website. I modified the recipe for my bread maker and they turned out nicely. It was rather easy to do. Here's what you do:

1) Make cinnamon roll dough (sweet bread) in the bread machine, which requires some water, salt, sugar, flour, and egg.
2) Roll out the dough as you would for cinnamon rolls and sprinkle some cinnamon sugar and raisins over the dough then fold it in. Repeat this step twice.
3) Pull off bits of dough and roll them into balls then let them rise for 30 minutes.
4) Brush the risen dough with a wash of milk & egg white.
5) Bake the rolls for 16 minutes or so until golden brown.
6) Pipe frosting on top of them in the shape of a cross.

I made these the night before our family Easter party. I think if I were to do these again I would make a glaze to go over the whole roll and then pipe on thicker frosting or a colored frosting for the cross. The rolls were kind of plain without some kind of glaze. The flavor and texture were both good though and if eaten right out of the oven they would have been much better I am sure.

The Familliar Smell

There are few things in this world that are more recognizable of a smell than fresh cut grass or chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven. One of those things is the smell of dying eggs for Easter, more specifically, the vinegar used to help dye the eggs. All year long when I cook and a recipe calls for vinegar, I get comments from my hubby about the smell and how he thinks of Easter with just one whiff. Well, we're instilling that memory in our kiddos too. They had a great time making Easter eggs with Daddy tonight.

We Have Sprouts!

The peas have sprouted - The peas have SPROUTED!
Okay, there's only one, but it's sticking up out of the dirt and promises that it's friends will be here soon. If you look VERY close at the bottom of the picture in the center of the rectangular pot, there's a little green sprout. Look very VERY close....

Happy 4th Birthday Sweetheart

I know it's totally cliche to say, but I just can't believe it...where did the time go?

Can't We All Just Get Along?

Uncle seems to have finally found a common interest with my little man. They could even be heard laughing back and forth with each other. After a week of him avoiding the big burly guy, my son realized that he and his uncle both share an affinity for food. They sat down and broke bread together and all was right with the world if only for a moment. Now if they would just sit down to watch Dog the Bounty Hunter together then they might become inseparable.

Go Play Outside!

Yesterday we went down to the river to look for neat bugs and sticks and rocks with the kiddos. It was a beautiful day for a hike and we got to see lots of neat sights along the way. Of course, the kids' favorite part was stopping for snacks on our hike but my favorite part was seeing the kids get out and enjoy the day without interruption from phones or computers or televisions. Just good 'ol fashioned playing outside. Priceless.

Hanging on the Boat

Since Aunti and family are all visiting for the week, we took the boat out for a little cruise on the lake. It was a bit windy, but a nice day in general. My nieces had some fun getting to drive around since there were virtually no other boats on the water. We even got some fishing in and my little princess caught her first trout on her new fishing pole. She later reasoned with me that must have been a girl fish because it liked the princess fishing pole! I knew I put those stickers and that bling on there for a reason...

A Night With Daddy

So, at some point last month, I was unable to get to the gym in the morning so when my hubby got home I asked him if I could go after dinner while he watched the kiddos. He agreed and I got a good workout that night. The best part of the night however, was coming home to a quiet (albeit rather messy) house and finding this on my bed:

Looking for Sunshine

In hopes of harnessing any rays of sunshine that might be falling our way, the kids and I have planted a small "garden" of vegetables. Okay, so we can't plant it in the ground, you saw what happened LAST summer with those pesky ground squirrels, but we planted them in several pots and put them up on the deck. Right now they're just a bunch of pots of dirt, so no pictures yet, but there hopefully will be some coming soon. On a related note, since I moved the roses off of the threshold to the deck and further up away from the dirt they have quadrupled in size, which is saying something since the stupid ground squirrels ate every darn leaf off of them last fall. We might even see flowers this year if I can keep them away long enough.

Has it Only Been 2 Days?

We all miss you so much already Daddy. We hope you're having a fun time in Mexico but can't wait to see you soon.

Happy Birthday Nana

We hope you're enjoying Mexico and getting spoiled on your big day.Love, 'stinky-britches' and 'miss sassy-pants'

Horsing Around

We took a short day trip to Santa Anita last weekend to watch the ponies run. Some friends joined us with their kids and we spent the afternoon enjoying ourselves while we were making bad choices on horses. Here's a few tips about betting the ponies in Santa Anita:
1) Don't take our advice on picks
2) Don't trust "Bob" either. His 'expertise' sheet is worthless.
3) If your husbands offer to take the kids to "see the horses", make sure to clarify (see below), just in case security decides to escort them out of the park (ours, luckily, avoided notice).
4) Bring a lawn chair, some snacks and prepare to have a good time whether you win or not.

Happy Birthday Old Man

Happy "more than 1/3 of a century old" birthday! Luckily, you get to ACT as old as you want. We all love you so much. You keep reminding us (especially Mommy) that it's not about what you get accomplished, but how much FUN you have doing it. We love you very much~

Snapshots in My Brain

I'm not sure what it was, either a movie or some television show I saw recently, but there was the best dialog about how these two people (a man and wife) took 'snapshots in their brains' of things that they saw and wanted to remember forever. It really captured that feeling I've been having for the last, oh, 8 years or so. I will see something and want to take a picture of it so that I can carry it with me forever but either I don't have my camera or didn't get it quite how I wanted to remember it. Luckily, sometimes it turns out that I DO get the picture on film (or jpg) so that my now-failing brain can look back in my scrapbook (assuming I get them updated) and fill in those blanks that may be missing from my brain and I can share the shots with our friends. I got one of those good ones on jpg recently. We went down to the beach in Santa Monica while on a business trip in LA. We had stopped to get the kids their very first ever corn dogs and walk in the sand. While down there, the sun was perfect, the ocean was glistening, there were seagulls gliding along the crests of the waves, there were even a few select sailboats far out in the water to add atmosphere. We had a wonderful afternoon together and there's a couple of the snapshots from my brain that I can now share with all of you.

Happy Kiss-Your-Honey Day!

I got a great gift from my valentines this morning. I got time all to myself to go to the gym - no kids in tow, no time schedule to be home. Then I went to church and got all heart-happy only to have it increased exponentially when I got home.

I walked onto the deck when I arrived home and could smell the yummy ribs my honey was cooking for us for lunch and my 3-year-old gave me a little suspicious grin that turned into shock when her brother came running from the house with a GIGANTIC heart that they had decorated for me. His sister quickly burst out "NO! That was supposed to be a SURPRISE!" and daddy added in "Buddy, you were supposed to leave it hidden and we were going to play 'hotter/colder' with Mommy until she found it". My little guy promptly returned to the house with it and re-hid it.

It was not to last however because as I wandered into the house with the other two, he ran and took it from it's hiding place (thus, revealing it to me) and ran to me to give it to me again. He was just so proud and excited for it that keeping it hidden simply wasn't an option. I thanked him (and his sister) profusely and closely inspected all of their beautiful artwork. My toddlers are awesome valentines (and so is their Daddy).

My Three Kids

"Wait one gosh darn moment!" I hear you thinking..."you only have TWO kids"...well, you wouldn't have known it by the show they put on at Chuck E Cheese's recently. Of course, the place is designed to draw kids into their party & game atmosphere, but apparently it works on Dads too. Every spare moment that we waited for our pizza, my sweet husband spent playing games with the kids. Then he found a few that he insisted that he be able to play alone (in order to brush up on his Mickey Thompson off-road prowess, apparently). As usual, skeeball was a big hit, even though the two REAL kids have yet to make a single point and I believe that their goal is to just get them up the ramp into the gutter. Daddy was a bit frustrated at this fact and couldn't help himself from throwing a few balls to prove that he could get one in the 100 point pocket. By the time the pizza came, they had burnt through 1/2 of the coins and quickly devoured what they could in an effort to get back to the games. It didn't take long to finish off the remainder of the tokens. Ultimately, the grand prize for all of their work was a plastic 2" lizard, a pink sparkle flower ring, and two mini-tootsie roll pops. Job well done kids - all three of you.

My Super Kids

We recently went to a friend's house for his 4th birthday party with a superhero theme. It was a fun afternoon for all of us. It is so great to see my little ones grow into mini-people who are learning the ins and outs of the finer things in life - like birthday cake and pinatas. One of their prizes for their games at the party was a superhero cape for each of them. As it turns out, my kids are pretty super already. The did a super job of sharing their toys with the birthday boy's grandpa. They did a super job of whacking the pinata, and of course, they both at their birthday cake with superhuman speed! It certainly was a SUPER day~

What to Make

Parsnips.

Have you tried them?

I hadn't until a couple of days ago and don't know why I ever waited so long. I can thank Alton Brown for opening my eyes to this delicious vegi. I did two things: I made parsnip muffins and made parsnip chips. The chips are ridiculously easy and addicting and - get this - moderately GOOD for you. A cup of parsnips has almost 5 grams of fiber and are good sources of folic acid, calcium, and potassium. They kind of taste like carrots. Kinda sweet but not too much so.

Here's what you do: Slice the outside of the parsnip in thin strips (with the single blade side of the cheese grater). Don't slice the inside core because it's woody and not as good. Heat up some oil (I used canola) and toss in the parsnip slices. Let them brown and then transfer them to a paper towel-covered plate to drain. If you want you can sprinkle them with salt and pepper but they're good plain too. That's it. EASY.

Here's a link to AB's recipe for the muffins. They're awesome too.