Esther's first love and Josh's first graduation

What's the first thing Esther points to or walks to at a park?

I have to peal her hands off when it's time to do something else.

Sad thing about swings.  The pusher tires out faster than the pushee.

Joy School Graduation

A good experience for Josh...and me.  I'm excited that Caleb's doing it next year.  With that said, I'm excited for Josh to start Kindergarten.  Josh is excited for school, too.  He was a little intimidated at the kindergarten screening.  Well, who wouldn't when you walk into a room with five or six ladies sitting in a semi-circle around a table waiting to "play" with you.  Cheese.  I was intimidated.



I am addicted to food

...and the chances of this addiction always being in the background of my life are high.  Unlike a recovering alcoholic or chain smoker, I can't not eat.  I can't not cook.  I can't not stay out of the refrigerator for the rest of my life.

...but I can set rules...guidelines.

...but what rules?  What guidelines?

You hear...don't eat carbs.  In another book, you hear...eat carbs, but the good kinds.  You hear...don't eat fat.  Somebody else says...Eat fat, but not the bad kinds.  You hear you should count calories.  Yet, you hear don't count calories, but follow these 150 don'ts and do's.

So I tried to eat good carbs, good fat, but I still wanted that cookie, bowl of ice cream, brownies, handfuls and handfuls of granola...

Then I read, Eat to Live.

Yeah, I know it's the latest "cool" diet to follow...at least where I'm living, but it's made the most sense.

What did I get out of the book?

Eat more vegetables.

Yeah, yeah, I know that's what our mothers have been telling us and what we're telling our child now, but really...we need to eat more vegetables.  I mean...vegetables need to be our main dishes.

I haven't gone vegetarian or vegan, but since I've started eating mainly fruit for breakfast, huge salads w/beans for lunch, and a huge salad with the main course on the side, I've noticed positive changes.  No, I'm not skinny.  The food addiction is still there, but when I mess up, I feel like it's easier to get back on track.

I'm hoping I learn how to make other vegetable dishes and soups better before I get sick of salads.  Until then, salad it is with iceberg, spinach, romaine, kale, and other lettuces, tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, cucumbers, celery, carrots, broccoli...

I still do dressing, though.  I tend to stick with the fat free kinds, but I really like this one...
I made it for a pizza party.  Below are my changes.

I didn't add chicken.
I didn't add red peppers or cilantro because I didn't have any.  I mixed in some dry parsley.  Silly?  Probably.  I don't have any fresh on hand.
I used spinach and random lettuce from my mom's garden instead of romaine.
I didn't sprinkle black sesame seeds on top.  I had white ones that I was going to use, but I forgot.
I put in fresh pineapple (my favorite fruit in the world).
For the dressing, I used regular white vinegar instead of white wine.
I still put in the same sesame seed oil that I've had for the last seven years.  I'm not dead yet.
I only use 1/2 cup of canola oil.

The salad tasted really good, but you can't take my word for it!

Anyway...

I can't guarantee I'll be fit and healthy for the rest of my life, but by following the "Eat More Vegetables" motto, I feel like I have a fighting chance.

Happy Eating!

A Little Late...

It's a project (string of felt peeps from a fun crafty blog I lost the link to) that I started a week before Easter, and...well...better late than never.  They'll be ready for next Easter.

I didn't know playing "dress-ups" started this early.  Maybe she just wants to be like her brothers.  She sees them wear it.  Whatever it is...we'll be in the basement, and she crawls up to me holding the cap or the "S" bib in her hand making the "uh, uh" or "plsss, plsss" (translation = "Will you do this for me?") sound.  When I put the cap and bib on, she bounces up and down and squeals.

Happy Spring! Happy Spring Break! Happy Easter! Happy Esther's Brithday!!!

Happy Spring!

 My mother-in-law gave me some tulips, and my mother helped me plant them.  Hurray for mothers!  The tulips were fully open and beautiful, but they took a beat down from the heavy rain we had.

 Nate had a week off the week before Easter.  We went to the Air Force science musuem early in the week.  We watched a fighter airplane IMAX.  During the show, Josh told me he didn't want to be a firghter pilot when he grew up.  I was fine with that.

Later in the week, we went bowling.  Fun, fun, fun.  The boys beat me during the first game, but I had an awesome come back in the second game almost beating Nate.  The boys and Esther had fun.

 On the day before Easter, we went on a Easter Bunny Train Ride just southeast of us.  The train drove us to an Easter Egg Hunt.  The boys were at the perfect age for this particular egg hunt.  There were 40 or so children in their age group and about 150 eggs for them to find.  The orchestrator anounced that each child could get 5 Easter eggs.  You do the math.  Josh found 4, and Caleb found none.  Luckily, Caleb and Joshua were more into the experience of it all then the lack of equal opportunity rights.  Also, Joshua shares...most of the time.  He gave one to Caleb, one to Esther, and one to a sad little boy who found no eggs.  All in all it was a FUN (Josh wanted to type a word) trip.  We drove by the Wright brother's bike place and homestead and had a good lunch at a place called Roots. 

Happy Easter!

Aunt Sarah came to visit!  What fun!  She helped us dye Easter Eggs, watched the old school batman with us, went to the Gibby Family Easter Bash on Sunday with us, went to the zoo with us, and hung out with us.  Thank you, Sarah!  We're  glad you could visit.

Happy First Birthday, Esther!!!

She had two eager helpers assist her in unwrapping her presents.  Caleb particularly enjoyed bumping the presents on her head.

She had a Chocolate Mint Cake and liked it, but she liked the vanilla ice cream better.

Esther is a delight.  She smiles, laughs, and says, "Hi."  She loves playing in the sandbox, eating bananas ("Nana"), playing with balls, putting blocks and other items inside containers and taking them out again, laughing with her brothers, climbing up stairs.  She lets all her joys, sorrows, frustrations, and laughs known to one and all.

She's been taking a couple of first steps and even a second step, but not walking yet.  I get to hold onto my baby a little longer. 

The Macaroni and Cheese War

This recipe tastes like quiche. Should I have known from the egg to cheese ratio? The fact that the macaroni and cheese recipe calls for eggs should have been a red flag. It's not that I don't like quiche. I just don't want my Mac and Cheese to taste like it. Josh liked it, but he was in the minority, the minuscule minority.

Sorry the picture turned out small.  I'm testing new technology.  I'm not too happy with it at the moment.

Nate's Birthday

Nate had a good birthday. It's hard not to have a good birthday when stuff like Caleb's standing up in his chair singing "Happy Birthday" on the top of his lungs is going on. I tried getting a video of it, but I kept pressing the wrong button (new camera). The video I ended up getting is their third or forth time singing (poor ice cream cake). They needed a little help.
I tried doing an ice cream cake for Nate. Unfortunately, I put the fudge sauce on while it was too warm which gave the ice cream a slight freezer burn taste. I'd like to try it again for my birthday. I'll do a normal one for Esther's birthday coming up, though (She's turning one! Hurray!)

At winter's end

Cookie dough tester
Dancing in Dad's shoes

High Fever

From Nana

Boys with Camera

Little things I've learned (relearned) over the winter...

I am mortal.

Not all macaroni and cheese boxes are created equal.

I like to eat my rice with Maggi Sweet Chili Sauce on it, so much Maggi Sweet Chili Sauce that you can't even tell your eating rice. That's how I like to eat my rice.

Even little choices, choices between right and right, have consequences.

If I don't want to have a temper the size of Texas and a fuse the size of a mustard seed, I need to get more sleep and eat less sugar.

No matter how cold, mild, long, short, crazy winter is, spring will come.