Calvin is excited to see "Hank and Leah" for Thanksgiving, and this is one way I thought of for him to know how much longer until we visit them. We are very excited for Thanksgiving!
First week of Christmas
6 years ago
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Thanksgiving paper chain
Calvin is excited to see "Hank and Leah" for Thanksgiving, and this is one way I thought of for him to know how much longer until we visit them. We are very excited for Thanksgiving!
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
New Blogs
I've started a new blog containing our family's favorite recipes. It's florencerecipes.blogspot.com. I still need to take lots of pictures of the meals, but that will come as I make them again. I also have a lot more to add, so stay tuned for more!
My sisters and I have also started a blog about our different adventures with food/food intolerances and such. It is sistersplantingseeds.blogspot.com.
My sisters and I have also started a blog about our different adventures with food/food intolerances and such. It is sistersplantingseeds.blogspot.com.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Disneyland!
Last week we went down to Southern California to visit Grandma and Grandpa Florence and to go to Disneyland! We have been prepping Calvin for a long time--watching lots of Disney movies so he knows the characters and getting him excited about it. Our preparation paid off :0), Calvin was so excited to see Grandma & Grandpa and their dog Cookie and to go to Disneyland. Now he's still asking to go to Disneyland and Grandma's house!
Sunday night we stayed with Trevor's Aunt Carol and Uncle Jeff who live about 20 minutes from Disneyland. It was so nice not having to leave super early in the morning to drive down there! We got to Disneyland right when it opened at 9 am and left at 7 pm that night. Our kids were asleep before we drove out of the parking lot! We played hard but they were both so good all day. Calvin went on Dumbo three times and the Carousel three times. He also loved the Buzz lightyear ride, Small World, all the boat rides, riding on the train, the Peter Pan ride, and many more. It was nice and overcast the whole day we were there and it only rained for about an hour. Just enough to clear out some of the crowds for a little bit!
One of the highlights was going to meet Mickey Mouse. Calvin got SO excited when he saw him and he said, "Hi Mickey! I'm Calvin!" He also said that when he saw Buzz Lightyear ("Hi Buzz! I'm Calvin!"). Mickey and Buzz are Calvin's favorite characters :0).
As a souvenir, we went to the Disney Outlet store near Trevor's parents home and bought Calvin a Buzz Lightyear action figure. We bought it with loose change Pa had been collecting for years. Thanks Pa! This toy does pretty much everything that the Buzz toy in the movies can do, and Calvin loves it so much. By now, he knows pretty much all the phrases it says :).
Here are some pictures we took. We also put together a little slide show if you are interested in seeing more pictures.
In other news, Levi is cutting his first tooth! No wonder he hasn't been sleeping well lately... He is actually starting to sleep better. We move him out into our living room at night as that seems to help everyone sleep better.
Yesterday we went to Costco and Calvin and Levi were sitting next to each other in the shopping cart. I was feeding Levi some baby food and not really paying attention to what I was doing. I proceeded to feed some of the baby food... to Calvin! He then got a horrified look on his face when he ate it and started to gag and spit out the food. I felt bad, but I couldn't stop laughing at the same time. It was pretty funny.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
We're Back!
We're back! First news of the blog post is that we moved! We decided that we wanted to find a place to rent that had a yard (yes, we are still renting and cannot afford to buy a home in Mountain View unless someone has an extra $500-600k dollars they would like to give us...). We found a place just half a block outside our church ward boundaries :( but we are paying the same amount in rent (or even a little less) and we have a small fenced-in yard, lots of storage, and a huge walk-in kitchen pantry which makes me joyful. We are also finally living on ground level in our almost 5 years of marriage! No more anxiety when Calvin runs around the room fearful of annoying the neighbors below us! I must confess I did a little happy dance (interpret: stomping) when we moved in. :0) We still only have two bedrooms-one bath, but we will take what we can get.
I am enjoying being a mommy to two children, although it is a lot of work and it's hard when you haven't slept well the night previously. I am learning how to pick my battles--which are many when you are with a two-year-old all day. I must say, though, Calvin is the BEST at going to sleep at night. He never ever cries and he just goes right to sleep when we put him in his crib and we don't hear from him until 6:30 or so the next morning. He only cries during the night if he's thirsty (which is rare). It's amazing and I know it's not normal. I doubt we did any special parenting techniques--this is just how Calvin is. Here's hoping Levi follows in his footsteps!
Trevor is enjoying work and though he can't talk about specifically what he is working on, just know that he is enjoying it.
Calvin is getting bigger and more like a toddler every day it seems. He loves to count and can count to twenty. He loves to sing and now tries to sing with us. One day he just chimed in to "I'm a Child of God" and it shocked me that he new most of the words. I guess it shouldn't surprise me because we sing it a lot, but it was so neat to hear him sing it with me. Some of his favorite songs right now are:
ABC's
Happy Birthday Song
Mickey Mouse Club (The old version)
I Am a Child of God
Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam
I Am Like a Star
Five Little Monkeys
Wind the Bobbin Up
And the ever famous "Buzz Lightyear song" (don't know what this is, but he always asks to sing it. He's a little obsessed with Buzz right now. I either make up a song about Buzz or we sing "You Got a Friend in Me")
I tried to teach him the quadratic formula song, but he didn't see the joy in learning that. I guess I'll wait till he's three. ;)
His speech is also getting better. He no longer says "Lie-lie" or "Lee-Lie" for Levi which kind of makes me sad because it was cute to hear. He asks me all the time, "What are you doing?" "Where did daddy go?", and his favorite saying is "To Infinity and BEYOND!!!" He is also starting to enjoy reading books more which makes happy.
Levi is now seven months old today! I can't believe how much faster this time has gone by than when Calvin was this age. He still isn't sleeping through the night which can be rough on me during the day. Yet he is a happy and sweet boy and I shouldn't complain. He loves to eat paper and tries to grab it whenever he can. He also loves it when his older brother pays attention to him.
Calvin going to work just like daddy!
Apparently he couldn't wait till dinner!
I am enjoying being a mommy to two children, although it is a lot of work and it's hard when you haven't slept well the night previously. I am learning how to pick my battles--which are many when you are with a two-year-old all day. I must say, though, Calvin is the BEST at going to sleep at night. He never ever cries and he just goes right to sleep when we put him in his crib and we don't hear from him until 6:30 or so the next morning. He only cries during the night if he's thirsty (which is rare). It's amazing and I know it's not normal. I doubt we did any special parenting techniques--this is just how Calvin is. Here's hoping Levi follows in his footsteps!
Trevor is enjoying work and though he can't talk about specifically what he is working on, just know that he is enjoying it.
Calvin is getting bigger and more like a toddler every day it seems. He loves to count and can count to twenty. He loves to sing and now tries to sing with us. One day he just chimed in to "I'm a Child of God" and it shocked me that he new most of the words. I guess it shouldn't surprise me because we sing it a lot, but it was so neat to hear him sing it with me. Some of his favorite songs right now are:
ABC's
Happy Birthday Song
Mickey Mouse Club (The old version)
I Am a Child of God
Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam
I Am Like a Star
Five Little Monkeys
Wind the Bobbin Up
And the ever famous "Buzz Lightyear song" (don't know what this is, but he always asks to sing it. He's a little obsessed with Buzz right now. I either make up a song about Buzz or we sing "You Got a Friend in Me")
I tried to teach him the quadratic formula song, but he didn't see the joy in learning that. I guess I'll wait till he's three. ;)
His speech is also getting better. He no longer says "Lie-lie" or "Lee-Lie" for Levi which kind of makes me sad because it was cute to hear. He asks me all the time, "What are you doing?" "Where did daddy go?", and his favorite saying is "To Infinity and BEYOND!!!" He is also starting to enjoy reading books more which makes happy.
Levi is now seven months old today! I can't believe how much faster this time has gone by than when Calvin was this age. He still isn't sleeping through the night which can be rough on me during the day. Yet he is a happy and sweet boy and I shouldn't complain. He loves to eat paper and tries to grab it whenever he can. He also loves it when his older brother pays attention to him.
Calvin going to work just like daddy!
Apparently he couldn't wait till dinner!
To appease the grandmas and grandpas...
I have lots to share, but I'll just post some pictures for now.
As you can see, Levi loved his bath time with Calvin. :0) He usually loves baths, I think the water was a little too cold for him right then (we took him out right after putting him in).
As you can see, Levi loved his bath time with Calvin. :0) He usually loves baths, I think the water was a little too cold for him right then (we took him out right after putting him in).
You are what you eat
Over the course of this year, I have tried to cook better for our family. This has been a gradual change for us, but already Trevor and I have both commented that we can tell a difference in how we feel. I don't think we necessarily ate "unhealthy" before, but I am starting to realize that the less processed food I eat the better off I feel. I would choose a full-fat version of something over a fat-free version that has added chemicals, thickeners, or whatever else it is they stick in food to add color, taste, texture. The less ingredients on the label the more likely I am to buy it.
One catalyst in all this was watching "The Food Revolution." This show was so inspiring to Trevor and I as we watched it together. After the season finale we went through our fridge and cupboards and threw out some things that we knew probably weren't good for us. Obviously my sisters have also been inspiring to me. Many have gone "gluten-free" or have changed their diets in other ways to accommodate what their bodies can handle.
I now make more and more food from "scratch." Pizza dough, pizza sauce, enchilada sauce, tortillas, ice cream, baby food, etc.. I admit this takes a lot of time to prepare, but I am glad I have the time to do it.
We have also stopped eating cereal in the morning. This was partly due to cost (we had a bad habit of snacking on the cereal during the day), but also because they add preservatives or other chemicals I don't want to eat. We used to go through two gallons of milk/week and now it's one gallon/week. Cheap cereal also has ingredients I don't want to eat and more expensive/heathier cereal is well... expensive. I make granola a few times a month so we have some cereal and we get our "fix." We buy rolled oats in bulk from the cannery and eat oatmeal w/raisins, brown sugar, and ground flax seed most mornings. Sometimes we do steel-cut oats when I have time to cook it. We also love pancakes--I don't think we can ever give those up! We try to make them healthier by using whole wheat flour and sticking other things like flax seed or oats in them.
We are trying to eat more vegetarian dishes or incorporate more vegetables with the meat. I've noticed most "standard" cookbooks have very few vegetarian dishes--they are almost all centered around meat! I've had to do some searching to find meals that would appeal to a two-year-old and also be healthier for us. We also hardly go out to eat anymore. I have been slowly lowering my salt intake as well (add less and less to your meal prep and then see if you can taste a difference). I ate ketchup the other day and it tasted so salty to me, so I know it's working!
Next on my list is making bread from scratch. I don't know why it's taken me so long to do this, but I just haven't had time yet to focus on it. I want to buy a mill and grind my own flour (wheat, rice, bean, oat, and, cornmeal) but I haven't decided on a model yet. Any suggestions out there? I'm debating between the Wondermill/Whispermill, Nutrimill, and K-Tec Blendtec Mill.
By no means do I think I cook or eat perfectly. Actually, I feel I am far from it and have so much yet to learn, but I am trying to be a little bit better every day. I know that's the only way to make sure it will last the rest of our lives. If I make too many changes too fast I get burned out (from all the extra cooking prep).
One catalyst in all this was watching "The Food Revolution." This show was so inspiring to Trevor and I as we watched it together. After the season finale we went through our fridge and cupboards and threw out some things that we knew probably weren't good for us. Obviously my sisters have also been inspiring to me. Many have gone "gluten-free" or have changed their diets in other ways to accommodate what their bodies can handle.
I now make more and more food from "scratch." Pizza dough, pizza sauce, enchilada sauce, tortillas, ice cream, baby food, etc.. I admit this takes a lot of time to prepare, but I am glad I have the time to do it.
We have also stopped eating cereal in the morning. This was partly due to cost (we had a bad habit of snacking on the cereal during the day), but also because they add preservatives or other chemicals I don't want to eat. We used to go through two gallons of milk/week and now it's one gallon/week. Cheap cereal also has ingredients I don't want to eat and more expensive/heathier cereal is well... expensive. I make granola a few times a month so we have some cereal and we get our "fix." We buy rolled oats in bulk from the cannery and eat oatmeal w/raisins, brown sugar, and ground flax seed most mornings. Sometimes we do steel-cut oats when I have time to cook it. We also love pancakes--I don't think we can ever give those up! We try to make them healthier by using whole wheat flour and sticking other things like flax seed or oats in them.
We are trying to eat more vegetarian dishes or incorporate more vegetables with the meat. I've noticed most "standard" cookbooks have very few vegetarian dishes--they are almost all centered around meat! I've had to do some searching to find meals that would appeal to a two-year-old and also be healthier for us. We also hardly go out to eat anymore. I have been slowly lowering my salt intake as well (add less and less to your meal prep and then see if you can taste a difference). I ate ketchup the other day and it tasted so salty to me, so I know it's working!
Next on my list is making bread from scratch. I don't know why it's taken me so long to do this, but I just haven't had time yet to focus on it. I want to buy a mill and grind my own flour (wheat, rice, bean, oat, and, cornmeal) but I haven't decided on a model yet. Any suggestions out there? I'm debating between the Wondermill/Whispermill, Nutrimill, and K-Tec Blendtec Mill.
By no means do I think I cook or eat perfectly. Actually, I feel I am far from it and have so much yet to learn, but I am trying to be a little bit better every day. I know that's the only way to make sure it will last the rest of our lives. If I make too many changes too fast I get burned out (from all the extra cooking prep).
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