Sunday, July 27, 2008
Clara's Verbalizations
Clara learned to scream recently. She had some good time to practice on her own while everyone was gone.
Before and After
John, Grace and Emma took another trip to the mountains with our friends the Tuckers. I had to stay home with Clara because we were both sick. I was so glad I did as they couldn't find a camp site Thurs. night and drove around the mountains so much that Tucker's kids and Emma all got sick in the trucks. They ended up getting a motel that night and camped the next night and came home Sat. night. They had a good time, John caught some trout and Emma collected bug bites. They were all exhausted. Emma enjoyed the "motor tillers"- (four wheelers) that Tucker's brought.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Spinach and Strawberries
So, I am having an addiction to spinach salad. I found this recipe on the internet and made it for the family. They weren't as thrilled as I was so I've been eating it myself and just mixing up little batches of the dressing. I've tried it with the strawberries, avacado's -mmm, and nectarines (ok), oh and kiwi. All pretty tasty. I especially like roasted almonds on top!
1/2 cup white sugar (I use less or honey)
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
1 1/2 teaspoons dried minced onion
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I use olive oil)
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar (I use white or red wine vinegar)
2 bunches fresh spinach - chopped, washed and dried
1 pint strawberries, halved
DIRECTIONS
Whisk together the sugar, sesame seeds, sesame oil, poppy seeds, dried onion, paprika, oil and vinegar. Refrigerate until chilled.
In a salad bowl, combine the spinach and strawberries. Drizzle with dressing, toss lightly and serve.
Whisk together the sugar, sesame seeds, sesame oil, poppy seeds, dried onion, paprika, oil and vinegar. Refrigerate until chilled.
In a salad bowl, combine the spinach and strawberries. Drizzle with dressing, toss lightly and serve.
Creative Popcycling
Just in case you were wondering, cornflake popsicles are not tasty. Grace insisted on making a cereal popsicle even though I was trying to explain how unsavory it would be. Because I was on the phone with Annie discussing important life matters, Grace managed to make one and put it in the freezer before I could stop her. She tried to get Emma to eat it the next day. Emma was willing but found it a little too unique for her and left it on the table to melt, where I found it and decided it needed it's photograph taken before disposal. After all, I think this will be the only one ever concocted. Does it look attractive to you? :)
Monday, July 21, 2008
Visiting Hours
We had a fun visit from Brittani. She came and spent Tuesday with us, spent the night and left Wed. Morning. It was quite eventful with much trampolining, spider swinging, candy land gaming, intense talking involving all person's present, eating, bathing, and a big walk to the school involving Grace, Emma, and Brittani. Luckily the sprinklers were on at the school so they ran through them. It was such a hot day I couldn't imagine walking anywhere but they had fun and the little girls wanted Brittani to go back outside as soon as they came in. She was a little overheated though and had to take a break and read few blogs with me.
It's fun to watch Brittani come zipping in and play with everyone, teaching them new tricks on the trampoline, testing them on their colors, names, etc. The girls always are very excited to see her and can't wait to have some attention from her and show her all their new tricks. It's so fun to have Brittani come and be such a "happy girl" . I think I need to be a little more happy and spunky like her sometimes!
Clara participated with some trepidation and fussiness.
It was very quiet after Brittani left.Dad also paid us a visit. Clara decided to attach herself to him. She looked very content to have him hold her, strangely calm and happy. It seems like I remember Grace and Emma having a moment at about this age where they suddenly decided they liked Grandpa Rod and were happy for him to hold them. Poor Grandpa Rod is usually tired and busy both at these moments but never passes up a moment to hold someone that wants to be held by him!
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Camping and Relaxing
It's been a fun week for us. John, Grace and Emma went camping Friday about noon. They headed up to Horse Thief reservoir. I stayed home with Clara thinking a tent was not the place to wake up a few times in the night to feed a baby. The girls went out in a boat with John and they both caught there first fish, a rainbow trout each. I think they cooked them but didn't eat much. John came home saying he didn't know how they survive because they don't eat enough to stay alive. He did admit they had an completly emptied bag of cookies, however. I think they slept alright though they were a bit cold. John somehow ended up with a short sleeping bag and Emma was found to be under her sleeping bag instead of in it in the morning. She then tried to climb in with John to get warm which was a little difficult because these are "mummy" bags and not very large. They went hiking at Sage Hen on Sat. and came home around 6:30 p.m. Now you may understand why John was recharging in his Fortress of Solitude this morning.
I, meanwhile, was home absolutely relishing every quiet moment. I watched they end of two or three movies during which I had previously fallen asleep, watched one that John would have perished from boardom if forced to watch, swept, mopped, vaccumed, decluttered the house a bit, cleaned out the girls closet and spent lots of time talking to Clara and the neighbors dog (we were dog sitting).
Clara learned to turn over back and front on Friday morning. She's very spunky and wiggly. She was a bit bored with Grace and Emma gone. She loves to "play" with them.
This usually just means they either play around her while she watches and comments or they abuse her with tons of kisses to the face, raspberries on the tummy, and loud strange noises that Grace and Emma make for Clara thinking she enjoys this. I guess she does. I'm always lecturing about being soft and quieter and then Clara will laugh or smile and prove that I worry too much and that she loves it all! 
She's also been kicking herself almost right out of her bouncer seat and occasionally making really loud screeching sounds especially when she's feeling big or excited that she just rolled over or something. It's been alot of fun.
I, meanwhile, was home absolutely relishing every quiet moment. I watched they end of two or three movies during which I had previously fallen asleep, watched one that John would have perished from boardom if forced to watch, swept, mopped, vaccumed, decluttered the house a bit, cleaned out the girls closet and spent lots of time talking to Clara and the neighbors dog (we were dog sitting).
Clara learned to turn over back and front on Friday morning. She's very spunky and wiggly. She was a bit bored with Grace and Emma gone. She loves to "play" with them.
This usually just means they either play around her while she watches and comments or they abuse her with tons of kisses to the face, raspberries on the tummy, and loud strange noises that Grace and Emma make for Clara thinking she enjoys this. I guess she does. I'm always lecturing about being soft and quieter and then Clara will laugh or smile and prove that I worry too much and that she loves it all! 
She's also been kicking herself almost right out of her bouncer seat and occasionally making really loud screeching sounds especially when she's feeling big or excited that she just rolled over or something. It's been alot of fun. Sunday, July 6, 2008
Name? We have to name this thing?
Well, our first night of blogging has been interesting. John informed me that I was to do the blogging. I did think that he could use some of his addicting games.com time to blog but I think I might have been presumptuous in that assumption.. Oh well, I am glad John has quiet ways of unwinding!
I did finally weasel my way onto the computer. I watched carefully and was lucky to notice that John had taken a break from addicting games to rummage around in the garage to find his paint ball gun. He was probably going to shoot an unsuspecting dog or cat or something. I did think I heard him shoot a wall in the garage. Thankfully the girls were in bed, eh?
Well, by the time I had this blog thing started John came in , claiming to have taken Koko (the Chihuahua) for a walk and a play on the trampoline. (I can really only imagine how much fun this was for Koko. Maybe I was just unaware of how enjoyable trampolining is for Chihuahua's. What's with that name anyway! I feel like I could just type along for quite awhile and it would sound the same.... chiahuauahauhuahuah..) ANYway, John came in and plopped down in his chair and out came Gracie having had "scary thoughts" about robbers or something. (Do you think it had anything to do with John in the garage with a paint ball gun?) I told John, "Alright, we have to name the blog." I was on the first page of set up trying to find a suitable name and Internet address. John is always very creative with words, often spouting off clever rhymes so I was very surprised at his first suggestion. How about "The Fat and the Crabby" he said. After some contemplation and a few giggles I decided that was not very complementary. Grace had a few suggestions like cat, and car, and finally "How about socks" she said. "Socks?", I asked, "that doesn't really describe this family." (now that I think about it, it actually does - "....socks..... - that sums it up. We're a pretty basic family. Socks here, socks there. Hmmmm.) Then as she heard me considering John's suggestion, she came up with another great one. "How about, "The Fat and the Mad" she said. I think she was fairly serious too. "Perfect" I thought while I had a good laugh, "but actually, not very positive." John really had no more ideas after that, well other than "Crabby Carters". He sort of closed his eyes to little slits, a blank look. I knew I'd lost him. He's snoring now. Helps my concentration.... not very much..
So there we have it.
"The Fat and the Crabby"
"Socks"
"The Fat and the Mad"
"The Crabby Carters"
Maybe someone could help us out. Do they have tutors for this kind of thing? I know they had free tutors in college for things like math and english. I think we need one. Just a good family tutor.
I did finally weasel my way onto the computer. I watched carefully and was lucky to notice that John had taken a break from addicting games to rummage around in the garage to find his paint ball gun. He was probably going to shoot an unsuspecting dog or cat or something. I did think I heard him shoot a wall in the garage. Thankfully the girls were in bed, eh?
Well, by the time I had this blog thing started John came in , claiming to have taken Koko (the Chihuahua) for a walk and a play on the trampoline. (I can really only imagine how much fun this was for Koko. Maybe I was just unaware of how enjoyable trampolining is for Chihuahua's. What's with that name anyway! I feel like I could just type along for quite awhile and it would sound the same.... chiahuauahauhuahuah..) ANYway, John came in and plopped down in his chair and out came Gracie having had "scary thoughts" about robbers or something. (Do you think it had anything to do with John in the garage with a paint ball gun?) I told John, "Alright, we have to name the blog." I was on the first page of set up trying to find a suitable name and Internet address. John is always very creative with words, often spouting off clever rhymes so I was very surprised at his first suggestion. How about "The Fat and the Crabby" he said. After some contemplation and a few giggles I decided that was not very complementary. Grace had a few suggestions like cat, and car, and finally "How about socks" she said. "Socks?", I asked, "that doesn't really describe this family." (now that I think about it, it actually does - "....socks..... - that sums it up. We're a pretty basic family. Socks here, socks there. Hmmmm.) Then as she heard me considering John's suggestion, she came up with another great one. "How about, "The Fat and the Mad" she said. I think she was fairly serious too. "Perfect" I thought while I had a good laugh, "but actually, not very positive." John really had no more ideas after that, well other than "Crabby Carters". He sort of closed his eyes to little slits, a blank look. I knew I'd lost him. He's snoring now. Helps my concentration.... not very much..
So there we have it.
"The Fat and the Crabby"
"Socks"
"The Fat and the Mad"
"The Crabby Carters"
Maybe someone could help us out. Do they have tutors for this kind of thing? I know they had free tutors in college for things like math and english. I think we need one. Just a good family tutor.
Bloggified
Being made aware of our duty to share we are attempting to become bloggified. We have known for a good year or two that it is really very negligent to leave a gaping hole in cyberspace. We've come to know that a truly responsible family would be carefully posting daily, meaningful moments using descriptions, pictures and even videos . We regret our careless inattentiveness to the matter. Please be assured, we are penitent and will hear after make every attempt to connect with you, our family, friends, and curious strangers. May you laugh at/with us, cry with us, and feel the love we really do have for each of you as we share our life's moments, be they ever so humble.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)