James Turns the BIG 3-0!

James had a birthday this past week and was spoiled rotten! We spent the day geocaching in and around Solvang and then headed to his Mom's house for a birthday dinner. His family all bought him a bunch of presents, fed him a yummy dinner, and then a bunch of his buddies took him out for the evening. The next day we were able to go to the temple and then his sister gave him a full-body massage- now that's my idea of a birthday!! We are so glad he had a couple of fun days to celebrate his birthday- he sure deserves it! Thanks to everyone who made it so special!!

James showing off his new Swiss Army Knife from his parents!

Brad, Ben, and their cousin Hannah even put on a show for him. Ah, I remember doing that as a kid!

Michelle and Emma

Heath, Nel, and Sofi stopped by for a little bit to wish James a Happy Birthday. Sofi loved Kathleen's fish tank and played with Aubrey and Emma...mostly Aubrey. :)

Sofi and Aubrey

Aubrey and Emma

Hannah and Emma

It was a fun couple of days, but still very tiring. We came hope to soccer tournaments, a birthday party, grocery shopping, and library visits. I can't believe I'm still awake typing this- I need to go to bed!

Benjamin hanging out at the Santa Maria Discovery Museum for his friend Aiden's party.

Brad met this girl Loralee at the museum and became completely enamored with her. They played for over an hour, holding hands as they ran around and he even would put his hand on the small of her back as they walked. He was trying to act all cool and was super embarrassed that I was taking pictures. This is the only decent one I got! However, the honeymoon ended abruptly when someone announced that there was pizza in the party room. I don't even think she had a chance to say goodbye. Oh, well. It was sweet while it lasted!

December 4, 2010

Man, It's Been HOT!

Well, summer time finally hit the central coast and even our perfect climate of Nipomo rose into the triple digits! When you don't have air conditioning, that is BAD news. Our little apartment turned into a sauna! We headed out closer to the beach and hit up the park, swimming lessons, the library, did some geocaching, and ended our "escape the heat adventure" at Doc Burnstein's for some sorbet and story reading (Every Tuesday afternoon at Docs they have a Reading Lab where they read to the kids while they eat their ice cream, and then they do a craft-very cute). Here are Ben and Brad sporting their science goggles that they made that afternoon. :)

Savanna has been working very hard this week to prepare for her Young Women in Excellence program which will be held October 13th. Every year the Young Women have a program where they are acknowledged for all their work that they've completed in the previous year, and they have the opportunity to share their progress with their families and other church members. Savanna has been challenged to finish her "Knowledge" value. She wrote and gave a talk this week, has been learning to conduct music, has been memorizing some scriptures, and has been working on her 10 hour project which is to learn basic sewing skills. She will be displaying some of her headbands along with all the other wonderful activities she has participated in under the "Knowledge" value (learning about architecture, how to make pillows, how to bake french bread, etc.).

Also part of the program is a cupcake contest. We have been experimenting with cupcakes and I think we found a winner- Cinnamon Toast Cupcakes. It's a basic white cake topped with cinnamon cream cheese frosting and sugar and cinnamon. It tastes exactly like a cinnamon roll when you bite into it! We had to do a trial batch (the recipe made 24 so we've been eating a lot of cupcakes!), but I'm pretty sure this will be the one we will bring!

Savanna had a great idea to put the frosting in a sandwich bag and cut a little hole in the corner, so it turned it into a little pastry bag. We were able to do the cinnamon roll swirl very nicely! :)

Sept 27 thru Oct 2, 2010

Family Hike

We have been inside a lot since the baby has been born. I got the OK from my doc to start walking every day, so we headed out this morning for a mild hike off the Mesa here in Nipomo. This place was incredibly beautiful. The boys did some geocaching, while us girls walked and enjoyed the scenery!

Emma in her Moby Wrap- doesn't she look comfy?

After an hour or so of walking, James took over.

I think there is something very sexy about a man

wearing a baby...he doesn't agree, but allowed

me to take a picture any way!

Ben found this rock, which he insisted was a magic crystal.

Limbo!

And, we found the letters H + J carved in one of the trees!

Overall it was a great little outing. We got a quick lunch on the way home, and are now relaxing!

September 7, 2010

Our Weekly Adventures

This was a very productive, but fun week. We learned a lot, bought some new "stuff," and got outside and enjoyed the beautiful Central Coast weather (it did hit about 80 degrees one day, but pretty much stayed in the 70's the rest of the week- we LOVE it here!)

I'll start with our adventures:

We headed out to Avila Beach and walked the Bob Jones Trail with the kids on Wednesday morning (this is a 3 mile trail that leads to the ocean). It is so beautiful on the trail. I made it about half way and back which was pretty impressive for an 8 month pregnant gal! The boys, of course, geocached a bit and then we headed to Avila Barn for a picnic lunch. We've learned with our family of five that if we pack food, it saves a WHOLE lot of money. Avila Barn now serves sandwiches, but we checked out the prices and it is $9.95 per sandwich! They did look pretty good and came with a couple small sides, but our picnic basket full of goodies didn't cost near the $50 we would have shelled out at their deli and we left full and satisfied!

We then headed up to San Luis for my 34 week prenatal check up. Baby sounds great, head is down, all is well- she'll be ready to go in a little over 5 weeks! I spent a good chunk of the next morning making a master list of all the things I want to buy or do before she arrives. My wonderful husband was very open to all my ideas (including making a bunch of food ahead of time and freezing it, birth gifts for Savanna, Brad, and Ben, and steam cleaning the carpets!). We ordered everything we needed for our home birth (there are home birth kits online), and Savanna and I spent several hours on Saturday cooking up some wonderful food that will save nicely in the freezer until after Emma arrives! So far in the freezer we have:

• bean burritos and extra sides of cooked beans (Thank you Ariel for your help- you are terrific!)
• Turkey meatloaf and mini loaves
• Turkey pesto meatballs
• Almond/date/cinnamon cookies
• Almond butter fudge and carob rolls
• Walnut/Pecan "Lara" bars (kind of like nut-based granola bars)
• Veggie Burgers (I have never made veggie burgers from scratch-these turned out SO good!)

**I have seriously been neglecting my food blog, but several of these recipes came from a new site my sister introduced me to called http://www.weelicious.com/- great whole foods recipes. Most of the desserts are from some of my raw vegan books (and some of them I just made up).

We have four or five things planned to make the next two Saturdays, and then I think we'll have 3-4 weeks of grub saved to get us through the first month. All James will have to do is defrost, cook, or toss a salad- and we'll be good to go! :)

Hubby worked some overtime so I got some birth gifts too!

I have been asking for a new food processor for about 6 months. My old one started slowly melting due to over use. This is a 14 cup processor that can chop, slice, grate, and knead dough- seriously cool. I used it about 5 or 6 times just this week with all our food prep!

I have also been asking for some kind of chair or rocker for many months. All we have is a horrible futon that has been wreaking havoc on my back. James found this glider and ottoman for me and it is SO wonderful. I think I'm going live in this chair the next 5 weeks...and I'm sure I'll be using it a LOT after that as well. I love you, Babe! You are so wonderful!!

On the learning front, we had some HUGE milestones this week. Bradley has started to really read (I will post some of his readings next), AND he has learned to tie his shoes! Hey, these are BIG in my book, especially the shoe tying (Don't get me wrong the reading is super cool too, but it's impossible for me to bend down and tie his shoes these days). :) Ben is getting close too. He can do part of his shoes and just needs a little help with the bow.

We had a nice night with Savanna on Thursday (I forgot my camera, so sorry no pictures!) at the Stake Center. They had Girl's Camp Recognition where they showed us slide shows of what the girls did at camp, sang some of their camp songs, and gave out certificates for their achievements. It was fun to see all that she did- I didn't realize Girl's Camp was such a big deal. What a great opportunity for young girls to learn skills and build their testimonies and friendships.

July 13- July 18, 2010

World Cup, Blueberries, Hiking, & Pizza

What do you get when you combine these four things? An awesome family day!

We have been having so much fun watching the World Cup. Amazing soccer! We found out that we can watch all the games on ESPN.com, so even without cable we can catch all the action! All the kids enjoy it too, and are looking forward to starting their next season in August.

After watching soccer in the morning we headed out to Buellton and picked blueberries at Restoration Oaks Ranch, hiked up to Nojoqui Falls again, geocached a bit, and then hit up a pizza parlor on the way home. Great day- but man, was I beat! I'm not up for all that much action these days. It will take me a couple days to recover, but it was really fun! Here are some pictures of the Ranch:

When were hiking up to Nojoqui Falls, we met this really sweet elderly couple. We began chatting and I just felt a really neat vibe from them. As they were leaving, the elderly man noticed James' Nauvoo hat, and asked if we were LDS. Turns out they were ordinance workers in the LA temple and members of a ward down in Huntington Beach. It's always fun to meet other members. It's a small world. :)

June 15, 2010

More Bragging

I'm sure some of you are getting sick of all the bragging about where we live. We just can't get over it. It is AMAZING here! These are more pictures of Nipomo. James has been having "dates' with each of the kids each month. Usually the dates consist of eating some sort of junk food, geocaching, sports, or hiking of some sort. Here are some of his pics from their latest outings.