Picture Catch-up

I just loaded a bunch of pictures onto our computer and realized that there were a few things that I haven't yet documented on my blog. Here goes nothing...

At the beginning of January, we went to the California Science Museum again. Tara, Mikey, and Riley tagged along and we had a great time. I was a little disappointed to find out that a couple of the really awesome displays that were at the museum the previous time that we had visited were not there anymore. A museum employee informed us that some displays are merely seasonal displays. So, the pickings were unfortunately slim, but the kids enjoyed it all the same!

Lizzie "playing" on one of the computers in the kids room:

Lizzie and Mikey playing with the car mat in the kids room:

Lizzie riding the car:

Lizzie pushing Mikey in the car:

Lizzie and Mikey have so much fun together and I am so grateful that she has cousins close by! She has another BOY cousin on the way too. Darlene (Jon's sister) is due at the end of June. We are so excited to get another cousin!

Jon is obsessed (to put it mildly) about washing our cars. He cleans them as often as he can. And it usually rains the next day. :) One of the first things that I noticed about Californians after I moved here was how clean their cars were. In Utah, it seemed that all of the cars were dirty and that no one really cared if they were dirty. I know I didn't. My little green Dodge Neon that I had in college and when I first moved here hardly got washed at all before it died on me. Poor little thing. :)

Anyway, here are some pictures of Lizzie helping Daddy was the car. She was such a great little helper that day!

We told her she was "brushing the cars teeth".

Jon's Tia Miriam came to visit from Miami. It was really nice having her around for the few weeks that she was here and we already miss her!

There ARE perks of being a teacher. Although some may think otherwise. All of the teachers in Southern California got a FREE ticket to Universal Studios AND the rest of their family members got to go in at HALF PRICE. So, we took advantage of this "perk" and paid Universal Studios a visit last Saturday.

Our family at the entrance:

We took an awesome tour that took us through various movie-making sets. Here is the set for "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". Lizzie especially liked this one (being the Dr. Suess fan that she is).

This was on the set for "The War of the Worlds":

Here is the set (and shark) of "Jaws":

We saw so many more things, but I didn't take too many pictures. It was an awesome tour though!

Here is a classic Lizzie "Zombie" face. We call her a "Zom" when she looks like this. You know, staring into space at absolutely nothing for an extended period of time...

We learned that Lizzie is TERRIFIED of people dressed up as cartoon characters. Here is just a small glimpse of her absolute terror when we tried to get her to pose for a picture with Curious George:

I'm not sure why, but she was scared to watch the Shrek 4D movie. She clung to Jon like plastic wrap the whole time we waited in line.

She was more happy, however, as soon as she got to put on these snazzy green glasses to watch the show with:

I honestly can't get enough of this happy little chunk. He was a perfect little angel for the entire day. His face is often bursting with joy and I just love him so much that I can't stand it. :)

I was doing the dishes after dinner tonight and I looked over to where Lizzie was playing and saw this:

I couldn't help but laugh. Lizzie cracks me up!

Okay, I think that wraps it up for the picture catch-up post. :)

Wheat, Cookies, and the Kiddos

We really want to work on our food storage this year. Our small family could maybe last for a month on our current amount of food in our pantry...maybe. I honestly am at a loss as to what/how much food that we need to buy and am a little concerned at the practicality of some specific food items that people generally have amongst their year supply.

Take wheat for example.

My mother-in-law bought us a 50 pound bucket of wheat for Christmas. I was REALLY excited because I really love wheat!

Here is the very large, and HEAVY, bucket of wheat:

I borrowed a hand wheat-grinder from my sister-in-law with high hopes of grinding the entire 50-pound bucket of wheat in one evening. HA-HA!!! Boy was I wrong. :)

You put the wheat in the top of the grinder:

And then you proceed to turn the handle over and over and over again. As the handle is turning, minuscule (almost microscopic) particles of wheat come out and fall into the bowl placed under the grinder.

Lo and behold...I ground that wheat for nearly an hour and I barely got TWO QUARTS!!!

Afterward, my hand was pretty sore. I'm definitely wearing gloves next time! :)

I barely made a dent in my bucket of wheat. I can realistically look forward to an entire week of grinding non-stop if I am ever going to get through that bucket! It would be nice to have an electric wheat-grinder. Maybe we'll have to invest in one soon...I just hope that a big natural disaster doesn't come before we get one. Because what good would an entire bucket of unusable wheat do for us?

We also have a HUGE bag of oatmeal, which I can picture us using pretty easily. And HUGE bags of dehydrated re-fried beans, dehydrated carrots (who knows what I'm going to use them for...they stink really badly), dehydrated apples (could be promising), and dehydrated potatoes. We have been trying to buy extra water every time we go shopping, but it still isn't enough.

If anyone is reading this blog and has ANY ADVICE whatsoever on how to start a decent food storage, please send your advice this way!! It would be very much appreciated!! :)

As a side note, I have used the wheat flour that I slaved over and it is actually really delicious. I have made a couple of batches of whole-wheat rolls with it, as well as home-made graham crackers (which were unfortunately pretty addicting and surprisingly tasted almost like the real thing!).


Speaking of baking, I love to bake. Too much for my own good. After Lizzie was born, I swear that the baby weight just came off without me even thinking about it. But with Bryce, it's a completely different story. A few weeks after giving birth to him, I had only lost 10 pounds of what I gained during the pregnancy. I didn't really care because I thought that the rest would come off pretty easily since I was exclusively breast-feeding. Um...I don't think so! Unfortunately, I seemed to have hit a very stubborn plateau! I'm kind of stuck because I honestly feel like I eat pretty healthy for the most part and I make it a point to exercise regularly too. It wouldn't be that bad if I didn't have an entire closet full of clothes that don't fit me! :) I finally gave in and bought a pair of jeans that are 2 sizes bigger than the rest of the pants in my closet that I can't seem to pull over my hips. I don't want to get obsessed over my weight, because I don't want to go insane. But losing this baby weight has been really difficult! Someone told me once that losing weight is more difficult than quitting smoking. Because although cigarettes contain nicotine (one of the most addictive drugs), if you simply avoid cigarettes, you can go without them. Food on the other hand is a basic necessity of life and is, therefore, unavoidable. Hmmmm...very true. I am definitely a food addict! :)

And so is my husband. The other night, he was craving oatmeal cookies. And I love him so much that I told him that I would make him some. Even though I knew that eating those cookies would take me further and further away from my quest to lose weight.

Fortunately for me, when I took the pan of cookies out of the oven, I accidentally burned my hand and I dropped the cookies all over the floor! Hooray for me! :)

Jon was devastated. He salvaged what he could until I made him throw the rest away because I didn't really want to kiss him after he had eaten stuff off of the germ-infested floor. :)

This post is so random.

Here is a picture of Lizzie playing with play dough. Yeah...random.

Little Bryce-a-roni LOVES listening to Jon play the piano. He can listen to him for at least 30 minutes non-stop. I think that we have a future concert pianist in our hands...

Just for fun, I wanted to put pigtails in Bryce's hair to see if he resembled Lizzie at all. He is definitely all boy. Lizzie was much more girlish in my recollection.

Bryce's new funny thing to do is to stick his tongue out. I remember Lizzie doing the same thing and I think that it's so cute!

Anyway, enough of my complete randomness. I write more on my blog than I do in my real journal lately...I should just make this my journal like lot's of other people do.

Crib bumper, my current addictions, and cave-woman

This post is totally random, but that's okay. If you don't want to read it, you don't have to! :)

We finally made the transition of moving Bryce into his own room. He has been sleeping right next to me in the pack-n-play for the past four months, but I felt like it was time for him to make the big move down the hall. It was really difficult for me. I don't know how in the world I'm going to let this kid go to kindergarten, let alone serve a mission in 19 years! Overall, he's been doing okay in his room, aside from a few nights ago when he thought that he would humor me by waking up EVERY single hour. I really need to do some sleep-training with him, but I have to make sure that I'm fully mentally prepared. It's really torturous for me to hear my kids crying, even when I know that it's for the better. When I was letting Lizzie learn to put herself to sleep, she would literally cry FOREVER, sometimes for up to 3 hours at a time. My husband can simply sleep through all of the crying, but it's impossible for me. I have to be awake and listen to every single decibel. I remember pacing around my bedroom in the middle of the night debating with myself whether or not to just go into Lizzie's room and help her go to sleep. But Jon would usually wake up for a few seconds just to tell me "Andy, DON'T LET HER WIN!", and then he would start snoring again. Lucky guy. I wish that I could be as detached. :)

ANYWAY, I made Bryce a crib bumper this week. I want to decorate his room with a Dr. Seuss theme, but the Dr. Seuss bedding is SUPER expensive. So, I thought that I would just make him a really colorful bumper instead. I looked online to see how other people made crib bumpers, and I tried to copy what they did. But I made a lot of mistakes. Overall, however, I think that it turned out okay. It serves its purpose anyhow. Making the crib bumper was a zillion times easier than making Lizzie's quiet book, so I really have no complaints! :)

Here's the little Chunka-roo, enjoying his new space. Just LOOK at those LEGS!!! I can't believe how hefty this little guy is getting. At his four-month appointment, he was almost 17 pounds and 26 inches long. Surprisingly, he's only on the 75th percentile for his weight, I thought for sure that he would be off the charts.

This is a picture of one of my current addictions:

It is sooooo super yummy. If you like nuts and seeds. We bought it at Costco. It's all natural, and contains dried cranberries, almonts, cashews, sunflower seeds, oats, flax seed, pumpkin seeds, and even more. I LOVE IT. I could eat it every day, every second of the day. It's that good. :)

My other current addiction is SALAD. I really love salad and we usually eat it almost every night with our dinner. And I have it often for lunch too. We buy lettuce like crazy in our house. And I never get sick of it. I love trying new dressings and adding different toppings to my lettuce to make it taste delicious. Well, I came up with the PERFECT salad. One that I could eat every single day and never get sick of it. I refer to it as "Andy's Perfect Salad".

Here are the ingredients:

Lettuce - preferably the dark green leafy kind. I'm a fan of simple Romaine mixed with a handful of Aragula.

Corn - canned, or straight off the cob.

Black beans - fresh, or canned. Recently, I have enjoyed Trader Joe's "Cuban Style Black Beans". They definately give the salad a little extra kick.

Red Bell Pepper - chopped up really tiny.

Shredded Cheese - just a tad.

Chicken - The salad tastes excelent without the chicken, if you prefer vegetarian style, but the chicken tastes great too. I like grilled chicken breasts. With this salad, I prefer to use a Blackened Seasoning Blend on the chicken. It tastes soooooooooooo yummy.

Bacon Bits - The fresh, chewy kind. Not the hard, salty, crunchy kind. And just a little bit...mostly for flavor.

Avocado - You don't need the entire avocado, just a portion. Although, it won't hurt to add the whole thing --- YUMMY!

Salt and Pepper - I like the seasoned pepper blend from Costco.

Dressing - I know that Ranch isn't the healthiest choice, but my oh my, it tastes SO good on this salad. You don't need a lot, just enough to provide a little moisture. The lettuce will already be a bit moistened from the beans and the corn, so you really don't need much dressing.

There you have it. My perfect salad that I absolutely adore. I honestly can't get enough of it!!

And here is our little "Cave-woman". We call her that because she looks like one at night when I take her braids out. Her hair looks crazy, and when she starts acting crazy too, she reminds me of a cave-woman. I'm not sure why. I haven't actually met a cave-woman in my life. In fact, I don't think that real documentation exists of what cave-woman were like. There are only speculations. But I honestly think that Lizzie would make a terrific cave-woman. :)

Pictures

Our family went to good old Walmart today and got our annual family pictures taken. They turned out okay. Lizzie actually SMILED, an absolute miracle. And Bryce smiled too, but I wasn't expecting anything less from him. He's such a happy little chunk.

Here are some samples:

Bryce is wearing the outfit that we blessed him in on Sunday. Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures of him on that day. :( However, he looks pretty much the EXACT same today as he did on Sunday! :) Jon gave a beautiful blessing to Bryce and I'm so happy that we FINALLY were able to bless him! :)

Hooray!!! She is actually smiling for the camera!!

Classic Lizzie look...

Fun times!!

New Year, New Beginnings

Happy New Year!!! We didn't really do anything too special to celebrate the New Year. On New Years Eve, we went out to eat at Numero Uno (using a $25 gift card that my sister gave us), and then we went to visit Tara's family for literally only a few minutes before Bryce started screaming informing us that he wanted to go to bed. Jon and I didn't even stay up past 10:00 -- we were major party poopers this year!

I love New Years. I love setting goals. Even if I sometimes (well, MOST of the time) don't accomplish them as quickly as I would like to. I just love fresh starts.

We put away our Christmas decorations a few days ago and our house looked REALLY empty. So we decided to finally make holes in our walls and hang up some picture frames. I can't believe that we waited almost SIX MONTHS to hang up pictures! It took us WAY TOO LONG to get over the hole-in-new-wall phobia that we both seemed to posess. I have really enjoyed looking at our pictures again, after having not seen them for almost an entire year.

Anyway, here a few pictures...

Lizzie decided that she prefers pushing Bryce in her new car rather than driving it herself. Bryce (the little chunky man) doesn't seem to mind at all.

Bryce has really been liking to stand up on our laps lately. So we thought that we would see if he would stand up next to Lizzie's learning table. He did it! And he hung on for dear life too. It seems like Bryce is hitting his milestones a lot sooner than Lizzie did. Lizzie was so content simply sitting on a blanket doing absolutely nothing for the longest time. I wasn't sure if she would ever learn to crawl or walk! Bryce, on the other hand, is the exact opposite.

I thought that I would try feeding Bryce some rice cereal, since he turned 4 months old. He wasn't that interested, however, so I'll probably wait another few weeks or so before I try again. I tried giving him some formula yesterday for the first time. He didn't like it at all. I'm a little sad that I waited for so long to introduce him to the bottle, because I don't think that he's going to go for it. He hates binki's (has for about 2 months) and I don't think that he will be fond of sucking on a bottle either. Drats. It kind of makes life a tad bit difficult when I can't go ANYWHERE for more than an hour or so before this little guy wants to eat again. I have a dentist appointment in a few weeks and I really need to go. I was hoping to have him accostumed to the bottle by then...I guess I'll have to keep trying. :)

Christmas and More

Here's a quick (well, actually kind of LONG) run-down of the last few weeks:

December 18th: This was Jon's LAST day of school! He gets an entire THREE WEEKS off of work for Christmas break and it has been AWESOME!!! That night was also our ward Christmas party. It was "A Night in Bethlehem". Everyone dressed up in old Bethlehem attire, we ate Bethlehem food, and had a really neat Christmas Program. Jon and I got to be Joseph and Mary and Bryce got to be Baby Jesus. It was really neat to have that opportunity!!

December 21st: I didn't take any pictures, but this was an AWESOME day. We went to the L.A. Zoo, then to Griffith Park for a picnic. After our picnic, I took Lizzie on a long bike ride. I wish that we lived closer to Griffith Park -- it is SO beautiful and peaceful. And the perfect place for biking.

December 22nd: Lizzie got sick. :(

December 24th: Christmas Eve. We invited Jon's parents, Darlene and Justin, and Justin's parents over for our Christmas Eve dinner. We made Argentine Chicken (Jon marinades the chicken in garlic, lemon, salt, pepper, vinegar, parsley, and onion and then grills it ---- it is THE BEST CHICKEN IN THE WORLD), broccoli salad, and bean salad. I also made foccocia bread and whole-wheat rolls that I thought were pretty good. I made honey-butter to go with the bread. Jon's Mom made her famous "yellow" rice too...also really good. Oh yeah, and I made pumpkin pie, and coconut macaroons, these cherry jello chocolate bars (kind of gross), and some mint fudge (that was also really gross and I ended up not even serving it). :) And Justin's parents brought drinks and some yummy dessert too. We had a feast and it was DELICIOUS!!

After we ate dinner, Jon played the piano and we all sang Christmas carols. It was really fun!!

Oh yeah...and I caught Lizzie's sickness that evening too. :(

December 25th: Christmas Day. Besides the fact that Lizzie and I were sick, it was an awesome day! We woke up and Lizzie got to see her new red car that we gave her for Christmas. Then we went to Jon's parents house for Breakfast (noodle-egg pancakes, hashbrowns, smoothies, etc.) and to open up our presents. We all recieved so many things and we feel truly blessed.

Here are just a few pictures of the day:

This is Lizzie, at our house, playing with her new tea-set that we bought her:

This is Lizzie in her new car. She really loves it, she was just concentrating on it so much that we couldn't get her to look up and smile for a picture!

Lizzie opening up some cute new shoes that Grandma got for her:

Opening a little cash register toy from Darlene and Justin:

Opening an Olivia Doll that we bought her. She LOVES the OLIVIA books...and she really likes her new doll too.

We bought her this red van on EBAY to go with her "family".

We got her 3 new Dr. Suess books --- she is OBSESSED with Dr. Suess books!

We bought her a "Very Hungry Catipillar" shirt. She really loves that book. The shirt? Not so much...

Bryce and Daddy...

We finally bought Lizzie another "baby" for her "family". She lost the baby last February and we just barely got around to finding another one on EBAY.

This is a blanket that Lizzie's great-aunt made for her.

Fast Forward to December 29th: After Christmas Day, we just relaxed at home while we all tried to recover from our colds. But yesterday, we ventured out into the world again and we had a really fun time!

We went to Santa Monica Beach first -- no swimming, of course, but the weather was PERFECT for hanging out on the beach. After the beach, we went out to eat at Souplantation. I love salad...and that place offers the biggest salad-bar ever! Afterwards, we went the the Getty Museum (an art museum). We had a good time, but next time, Jon and I want to go WITHOUT the kids so that we can fully appreciate the art rather than be so rushed.

Here are a few pictures of our day...

Lizzie, sporting her new pink sunglsses at the beach...

By the pier...

Uner the pier with her seashells that she found...

I took Lizzie on a bikeride along the coastline. It was AWESOME!! The biking path goes on for miles!!

While Lizzie and I were biking, Jon hung out with Bryce and took pictures of him. :) I can hardly wait for Bryce to get a little bit bigger so that he can sit in the bike trailer with Lizzie (as long as she leaves him alone...)

Here is Lizzie on the tram traveling up to the Getty Museum...

Daddy on the tram...

Bryce on the tram...

The kids and I after getting off of the tram...

An attempted family picture...no Bryce.

Another attempted picture...only half of Daddy. Oh well!

Anyway, that was a REALLY long post. I think that I will stop now!!!

I am SOOOOO relieved...

...that I finished making this book before Christmas. Actually, I'm elated that I even finished it at all, seeming that I almost gave up completely on numerous occasions! I have been wanting to make a quiet book for Lizzie for a really long time. I actually started working on this back in June, but then I stopped because I was just getting frustrated and fed up with the whole thing. It took HOURS on end (mostly at night when the kids were asleep) for me to finally finish it and I am SO glad that I am done! I'm going to take a LOOOOOONG brake from crafting for a while.

I used patterns for the pages...kind of. I had to improvise a lot. I learned that I should have improvised a lot more than I did! It ended up being way more complicated than I had anticipated. Some of the people's faces look extremely distorted and actually quite hilarious, but hopefully Lizzie won't notice!! :)

Anyway, here is the book from beginning to end...

Front cover:

"A Time to Learn" -- Lizzie can learn to tell time and move the clock hands around.

"Joseph's Coat of Many Colors" -- practice matching colors, using snaps.
"Tower of Babel" -- practice weaving.

"Noah's Ark" -- practice opening a zipper, matching animals together.
"David Tends the Sheep" -- the sheep are attached with velcro.

"Ruth" -- practice tying a bow.
"Ruth Gathers Wheat" -- practice counting.

"Daniel in the Lion's Den" -- finger puppets.
"Baby Jesus" -- she can pull Jesus out of the blanket.

"Jesus Loves Little Children" -- This is just a picture, I tried to add little dolls to it but it looked really weird.
"Peter Fishing" -- Lizzie can put the fish inside of the net, or attach them to buttons in the water.

"Christ is Born" -- the Angel and the sheep are attached to the page with velcro.
"Parting of the Red Sea" -- Open up the water to see a picture.

"Jonah and the Whale" -- open up the zipper to find Jonah.
"Three Wise Men" -- I need to still put gifts inside of the felt pouches...

"Moses in the Bulrushes" -- Lizzie can practice tying and lacing, Moses is inside of the basket.
"'The Liahona" -- for now, it's just a picture. When I find a little toy compass, I'll attach it to the center of the liahona.

"An Ancient Temple" -- a puzzle attached to the page with velcro.
"Moroni Hides the Gold Plates" -- the golden plates are inside of the rock.

"Lehi's Voyage" -- she can practice buttoning while moving the ship across the water from Jerusalem to America.
"CTR Pocket" -- this page was SUPPOSED to be the last page...but I messed up. The pockets hold little paper notepads and pens.

"Tithing" -- I love this page. Lizzie can practice her counting, while learning about tithing. The gold coins are attached to the page with snaps. She can take the coins off and put them in the money bag.

Underneath the coins are pictures of 9 things that we can spend our money on, and the 10th spot should be reserved for church, hence the picture of a church.

"Help Lizzie say her Prayers" -- Lizzie can maneuver this little girl into the proper praying position.

Back cover:

Well, I just hope that Lizzie doesn't completey destroy it right when she gets it. Oh well. Even if she does, at least I can cross "Make a Quietbook" off of my lifetime to-do-list! :)