What's Happening? Or maybe, What Happened?

I apologize for the 2 month lapse in posting. I'm not sure what happened. Oh wait, I know. I took another grueling architecture test (and passed!). Those things suck up all my free time. So I'm happy to get this post in before I start studying for my last test.

Let's back up all the way to March. Hannah finished her ballet class, which she loved. Next we are going to try gymnastics, the kid loves doing summersaults.

We need to work on our plie form a little

So proud of her certificate, it's now hanging on her bedroom wall.

At the end of March, Chris finished recording the worship CD that our church just put out (you can check it out here). So we celebrated by taking a family trip to one of our favorite places, Cayucos. Spring is such a beautiful time on the Central Coast, the hills were bright green.

We spend lots of time at the swings on the beach

My mom-in-law met us there and Chris and I got a date night. After dinner we went to Montana de Oro, a spot we went to frequently while in college to watch the sunset. I have a picture similar to this from 2004 when we were dating.

Pancakes

I was inspired by my friend Kacy to go on the search for a healthier pancake recipe. I wanted to try her recipe, but I didn't have almond meal so I started poking around (Kacy, I will try your recipe sometime, if I can remember to pick up almond meal next time I'm at TJ's). I found this recipe below in my Taste of Home Cookbook. I doesn't sound too healthy when you read through it, but with a few modifications it gets better. They turned out really great, especially with blueberries added.

1/2 C. plus 2 T. quick cooking oats (I had rolled oats, and ground them up in my mini food processor first)

1/2 C. whole wheat flour (I used white whole wheat from TJ's)

1/2 C. all-purpose flour

1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

1/3 C. packed brown sugar (I used 1/4 C.)

1 egg

2 T vegetable oil (I used unsweetened applesauce instead)

1 C. buttermilk (I've used non-fat plain yogurt, or 1 T lemon juice plus milk to make 1 C; let sit for 10 min before adding)

Combine the oats, flours, baking soda, salt and sugar; set aside. In a small bowl, beat the egg, oil and buttermilk. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.

*At this point, I had to add some milk to get the right consistency, maybe 1/2 C? I didn't measure it.

Pour batter by 1/3 cupful onto a greased hot griddle. Turn when bubbles form on top; cook until second side is golden brown.

Let me know if you try this, if you like it, and any modifications you made. Enjoy!

Snow Day!

We took advantage of the President's holiday and finally made it up to the snow. It was sort of a spontaneous trip...weeks before we had been talking about going to the snow that weekend, but didn't actually make plans until that Monday morning. I am not the most spontaneous person, so as a result of not making a packing list or preparing ahead of time, I forgot my ski jacket, beanie, and a nighttime diaper for Hannah (yes, she still wears 1 at night, don't judge me! One battle at a time...)

Anyway, we didn't want to drive up and back in one day, so we did some research and stumbled upon the Pine Mountain Inn, our new favorite getaway! It's about 15 miles past Fraizer Park, off Hwy 5. We drove up Monday afternoon and got there in time to check in and have dinner. We even got to bring the dog! It was a fun night of just hanging as a family watching movies. The next morning we got all bundled up and headed down the road about 5 miles to a snow play area. Hannah LOVED sledding, and Tucker loved all the freedom to run. Maybe next winter we can get her on skis. :)

Movie time!

Getting ready for the snow

First run of the day

Love these two

This is what Tucker did for most of the time, just run

Yum!

To Be Honest...

I recently heard a pastor on the radio speaking about having a right perspective versus having a right picture. A right perspective is fixing our eyes on eternity, seeing things as God sees them and not getting hung up on the temporary. A right picture is like a photograph, a snapshot. It may look great, but it doesn't tell the whole story. Just because we can put on a smile and take a beautiful picture, doesn't mean we have the perfect life. None of us have that. I've been confronted with this lately as I look at so many wonderful pictures friends have posted on blogs or fb. Of course we want to put our best foot forward and share the happy moments of our lives, I'm no different. You'd probably rather see a picture of my smiling, happy daughter instead of how she looks when she's super cranky and it's way past bed time. Or (gasp!) me when I first wake up. So in light of all this, here are my pictures for this post.

The first ones are of our living room before we moved in.

And here is a picture of what it looks like now, the snapshot. (I had to wait until naptime so I could straighten up before taking the picture.)

However this is the reality. Frumpy pillows, a coffee table covered with preschooler accessories and things strewn on the couch. Although it's not as picture perfect as above, I still feel so blessed to call this my home.

"O Lord, you are the portion of my inheritance and my cup; you maintain my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; yes I have a good inheritance."
Psalm 16:5,6

Bonding

Chris had to go in to work last night so Hannah and I got some girl time. So what did we do? Paint her toes for the first time. She had seen her friend Hope's painted toes and had been asking to paint hers for a while. So we snuggled up on the couch, put on Lady and the Tramp, and painted toes.

It's fun to get to do these girly things with Hannah, and to watch her personality come out. She's not one to always ask to wear dresses, and hasn't shown any interest in playing with makeup (probably because I don't wear that much). But every now and then she gets those urges and I'm happy to indulge.

December 2010

I think this is my last post to be caught up on our family happenings. December, as usual, was a busy month. It was a really fun time though. Hannah was very excited about Christmas, and watching her excitement over every little thing (like Christmas lights in a store window) made me smile. We made an effort to impress upon her the significance of Christmas as a time to celebrate Jesus' birthday. She got the idea (I think), and along with it the idea of Santa as well. We didn't give her any gifts from Santa, or even teach her about him at home, but through school, store displays and TV she got her fill of info on him. So I'm not sure how to approach the issue for next Christmas. I'm sure Chris and I will discuss it again come December.

After Thanksgiving, Chris went duck hunting with his dad and grandpa. He brought home several ducks and tested out some recipes. Tucker was very anxious to try some.

Here is Hannah with a duck dinner. My picky eater wouldn't try any of it.

With all the rain in December we had to move our Saturday coffee date from Starbucks to our house. It's always fun to watch these girls play together and dress up.

The finished Christmas Tree. Both Hannah and Tucker wanted the ornaments this year.

Showing off her face painting.

This is Hannah in her preschool Christmas Program. The kids sang a bunch of songs, most of which we couldn't understand the lyrics, but it was still cute!

In all the December rain Hannah got to try out her new umbrella and raincoat that she got for her birthday.

On one of those rainy weekends we made a gingerbread house together.

Showing off one of her Christmas presents.

After Christmas, we had a lot of family come to visit. It was lots of fun, especially meeting Hannah's cousin Emily for the first time. Hannah followed my sister-in-law everywhere so she could keep tabs on the baby.

Hannah also got some quality time with Aunt Megan, playing the Wii dance game.

As I was going through all these pictures, I realized I didn't take any of our family together. Something I'll have to make a point of doing next Christmas.

Thanksgiving 2010

Yes, I know I'm rather late with this one, but better late than never, right? We traveled to Soledad for Thanksgiving with the Vanoli family. As usual, the food was amazing and the time with family was too short. On the way up, these two were our backseat drivers.This was the Tucker's first trip with us and he did great. He was great in the car, and loved running around the property at my in-laws house, chasing birds and barking at the cows.

Hannah loves to see her cousins. It's a sweet time to watch them play, especially since our visits are few and far between. While we were up there, we gave the kids their Christmas presents, which were matching pj's (except for Preston, he got his own set). This is as good of a picture you can get of 5 kids under 4 years old.

The day after Thanksgiving the moms and Nona took the kids to the Dennis the Menace park in Monterey. I had never been there and they all had a lot of fun. Of course, Hannah had to copy the big kids and go down the giant slide head first.

At the park is a full size steam engine car to climb on. Hannah and Stellan climbed up to look for Nona. This is how they looked when they finally spotted her. Priceless.