Let it Snow!!

Now I know for some of you, this is no big deal, but we rarely get snow around here. If you watched Monday Night Football tonight, (Hawks won, woohoo!), you saw what is was like here. You might have thought it was Green Bay, but alas, no, it was our fair city of Seattle. It is now 11:20pm and traffic is still jammed. What a mess. All the freeways are ice rinks. Abandoned cars everywhere as people give up and walk to motels. I am SO glad the hubby works 4 miles from home. It still took him almost an hour to get home! Did I mention the hight was 37? That's cold for us!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

There is nothing sweeter than watching your baby learn to walk! Joel started taking steps on his own about 2 weeks ago. Yesterday and today he is getting bolder, taking 6-7 steps at a time. I just LOVE watching those first wobbly steps!

Happy 14 month birthday!

Yummy, Easy, Chocolate Cake from scratch

*** I almost forgot, make sure you combine the dry ingredients before you add the vinegar. The reaction between the vinegar and the baking soda is what causes it to rise. If the baking soda and vinegar touch before baking it won't rise!! I've done this before!

Here is a recipe for a chocolate cake that is super duper easy and you probably have everything in your pantry to make it with. It has no eggs and no milk, so its good for allergies. I think the origins of this recipe date back to WWI and II when they had rations on things like eggs and milk. It is very moist and tasty! It is not very "fluffy", but more dense. But for me and chocolate, that is not a bad thing!!

Wacky Chocolate Cake:
1 1/2 cups flour (or rice flour if you are avoiding gluten)
1 cup sugar
1/2 t salt
3 T unsweetened cocoa powder ( or more!)
1 t baking soda
1 t vanilla extract
1 T vinegar
5 T oil
1 cup cold water

Preheat oven to 350. Combine dry ingredients into mixing bowl. **very important! Add vanilla, vinegar, oil and water. Blend well; pour into ungreased 9 inch square pan. (or round pan) Bake for 25-30 min. When cool, frost or sprinkle powdered sugar on top.

I frequently double the recipe to make 1 large sheet cake (13x9) or two round cakes.

Source: The Food Allergy News Cookbook and my Mother-in- Law =)

What is wrong with this picture?

Did you figure out what is missing from the ingredients list??

Here's a hint: Micah can eat this MILK chocolate frosting!

Halloween (at last!)

Finally have downloaded my pictures! We went to Microsoft for their annual trick-or-treating (aka showing off your kids all dressed up) Then we came home and trick or treated around the neighborhood. Joel didn't go...he's not walking...he can't eat candy... and it was very cold that night! We had a cold snap that week. The funniest story: When we came home from Microsoft, the doorbell rang and we explained to Micah that it was trick or treaters. So he opened the door and the kids dutifully said "trick-or-treat" while holding open their bags. Micah said "Oh, thank you, " and proceeded to take candy out of their bag! What do you think, Reader's Digest worthy?


Joel was a puppy dog. More like a stuffed animal puppy. He was might cute!

This is what made the costume super cute---crawling around in it! Yup, he's still not walking (at 14 months). See the blurryness? That's because he is so darn fast at crawling!! Who would want to walk if you can crawl much much faster?
The Friday before Halloween we had a party with play group, complete with apple dunking. Micah really got into it!

Public Service Announcement

Update:
I was able to get 10 boxes for free! They were $1 a box and if you bought 10, the manufacturer gives you $10 off automatically: no coupon required! Unfortunately I can't use them, (Micah's allergy) but hey, they were free! I'm sure the food bank will appreciate it.

Okay, I'm embarrassed at the lack of posts.

I want to post picts from Halloween, but my computer is sooo slow downloading picts that I haven't done it yet. Maybe tomorrow.

On to the PSA:

Run, don't walk to Safeway/Vons on Wednesday. Buy 10 Betty Crocker Supreme Moist Cake mixes. They will pay you to take them. Go here to see it. The prices vary... one friend paid $.30 for 10 mixes, one GOT paid $.60 to take them. Mail them to Tweedygirl, because she likes boxed cake mixes and she cannot get them. With the money you save on the cost of the mixes you can spend it on postage.

That is all. Back to the regularly scheduled blogging.

You Know You're From California If.....

So as not to be outdone by all the redneck, hillbilly, and Texan jokes, you know you're from California if:

1. Your coworker has 8 body piercings and none are visible.

2. You make over $400,000 and still can't afford a house.

3. You take a bus and are shocked at two people carrying on a conversation in English.

4. Your child's 3rd-grade teacher has purple hair, a nose ring, and is named Flower.

5. You can't remember . . is pot illegal?

6. You've been to a baby shower that has two mothers and a sperm donor.

7. You have a very strong opinion about where your coffee beans are grown,and you can taste the difference between Sumatran and Ethiopian. (And that's abnormal, because....?)

8. You can't remember . . . is pot illegal?

9. A really great parking space can totally move you to tears.

10. Gas costs $1.00 per gallon more than anywhere else in the U.S.

11. Unlike back home, the guy at 8:30 am at Starbucks wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses who looks like George Clooney really IS George Clooney.

12. Your car insurance costs as much as your house payment.

13. You can't remember . . is pot illegal?

14. It's barely sprinkling rain and there's a report on every news station:"STORM WATCH."

14b. AND they do a story about (gasp!) someone who forgot their umbrella!!

15. You pass an elementary school playground and the children are all busy with their cells or pagers.

16. It's barely sprinkling rain outside, so you leave for work an hour early to avoid all the weather-related accidents.

17. HEY!!!! Is pot illegal????

18. Both you AND your dog have therapists.

19. The Terminator is your governor.

20. If you drive illegally, they take your driver's license. If you're here illegally, they want to give you one.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my Mother-in-Law and my Dad! What a coinky-dink, that they have the same birthday!

My Dad turned the big 6-0 this year and Aaron's mom is celebrating big number 33! (We told her she had to be at least one year older than us now.)

Leaking hot air

Wow! I didn't realize it had been so long since my last post. The busy days are just flying by, I guess.

Today we had a company come out and do an energy audit of our house. Our house is always too cold and if we turn up the thermostat, then our bill is sky high! They taped off the front door with a plastic sheet with a fan. It sucked air out of the house so we could tell where the leaks are in the house. I could feel the air blowing out of the light switches and along the baseboard. They also took around the infared gun and could tell where the hot and cold spots were. Turns out our house is a leaky disaster. He said the equivalent of all the leaks is like having a 3 foot square window open all the time. Usually they like to see a -1 rating and ours was a -14. Now this would be okay if we lived somewhere like Hawaii, but not here, where we need to heat the house!! Turns out the duct work isn't even screwed together properly so hot air is just blowing into the crawl space. The return register wasn't installed correctly. Lovely. I'm glad to know I'm paying to heat the crawl space. All the little bugs must be toasty warm.

The good side is that they are fixing the leaks and hopefully we will be much warmer this winter.

Pray for some friends...

Just wanted to ask for prayer for our friends Eric and Heidi. Their daughter, Maggie, is having a blood test to determine is she has a chromosomal abnormality which may result in her not speaking. You fellow Biolans may remember Eric.

Please pray for them as they await results. I am sure the weight of this diagnosis is very heavy.

Heidi, our thoughts, prayers and love is with you!!!

My Answer of the Day

You probably have guessed which of my children is more cautious. Like everyone else, my firstborn, Micah, is the cautious one. I wonder why first borns tend to be more cautious. I seen this played out in several families. Some have said that as moms we are more protective with the first, and when the second rolls around we relax. I really don't think I was that protective. If anything I have forced Micah to do certain things; and when he does it he has fun. I don't have to force Joel to do anything, he just plunges right in.

For example: around 8 months, Micah started screaming every time I vacuumed because he was scared to death of it. Joel could care less. At the Blue Angels this year, Micah buried his head and didn't want to watch it because it was too loud. Joel pointed and cooed at the planes. I never had to close doors to rooms I didn't want Micah in because if the lights were off then he would never go in. Joel: yah, right! Anywhere is free game!

Its been harder with Joel at this stage because with Micah we just didn't have to babyproof that much. Joel is just everywhere at once.

I wonder what the 3rd will be like.

My Question of the Day

In following Tweedygirl's lead I have my own question I've been pondering. I want to phrase it in such a way as to not sway you in your answer.

To those of you with two or more kiddos: Which one is your more cautious kid; i.e. which one is more afraid of the dark, afraid of the Halloween decorations, more afraid to try new things, etc. I don't mean to compare them right now, but how they acted at the same stage.

Those with one kiddo; how do you perceive your child?

Most of you can probably guess my answer but I will give my answer after you have a chance to answer.

Baby to Toddler

Wow, now that I've probably lost all my readers due to lack of posts.... here I am!

I didn't go anywhere, its just been the beginning of the fall with Bible Study, MOPS, etc. I went from summer where I had relatively little scheduled to fall with having just about every day scheduled. Throw in a trip to California and a 1 year old birthday party and you have no blogging time.

Speaking of the 1 year old. Somewhere between Sunday and today Joel turned into a toddler. He isn't walking yet, but his personality just has blossommed. We went to story time today at the library. Joel wanted nothing to do with sitting on my lap. With chairs, AC vents and curtains to investigate, who would? He also has this high pitched screech that he does when he wants something. He started this the day he was born and we haven't been able to break him of it yet. All good things for story time at the library. Then today at naptime we heard a thumping noise on the wall coming from his room. Turns out he is reaching up to the picture above the crib and swinging it back and forth against the wall. Loverly. Then when he was in the high chair (we have one that attaches to a normal chair) he was rocking it back and forth on the chair because the strap undereneath was unbuckled. He cried alligator tears when I put a stop to those fun times.

Lately his favorite place to play is on top of the toy box or on top of the Little Tykes picnic bench. He fell off of that one and placed a nice scrape on top of his head.

You've all heard stories from a friend or a friend of a friend about how they found their toddler on top of the fridge? I'm afraid I'm soon to become that friend. I'll be sure to take picts and email it around to everyone. Along with the stern warning that if you don't forward this to 10 of your friends then this will happen to you too. While you're at it you can record your name because a 2nd grader in Poughkeepsie, NY is doing an experiment.

All Done

I get all these ideas for blog posts when I am doing the dishes or folding laundry. When I actually have the time to sit down and write do I remember any of them? Of course not.

I have one cute story. Joel has learned to say "All Done" at the table-- complete with hands waving and sing-song voice, "awwwww don, awwww don". The other morning I heard him wake up around 6:30 and he starting fussing. Pretty soon I heard him saying in his crib, "Awww don, awwwww don." It brought a smile to my morning!

His vocabulary is growing very quickly. I'm trying to teach him baby signs, but I really think he'll just say please before he acquiesces and does the sign. I think he has close to 30 words all ready. He mimics just about everything we ask him to, and he correctly uses the words later. (except for "please" and "more", of course...)

Happy Birthday!

Yesterday was Joel's Birthday. Every mom says this, but I can't believe it was 1 year ago that I was in the hospital getting to know this little guy. Wow! This picture was taken at 3 months.


Here he is with his first bite of cake!

Speaking of cake, here is his cake! No one ever told me that when your kid gets diagnosed with a food allergy, that not only will you be making HIS birthday cake from scratch, but his sibling's cake along with every other family member!!! We had a Baby Einstein theme, so this is the cat (or maybe it is a tiger?) from the Baby Einstein pictures. I was worried that it didn't look like a cat, but more of a bear, but I think the whiskers make it very cat-like. I used a pan that is a panda bear, but depending on the way you decorate you could make it a giraffe, pig, dog or cat.

I don't particularly like to bake. Decorating cakes makes me a frazzled stress case. But every year I give in to the mommy urge and make a cute birthday cake. I was out of control for Micah's 2nd birthday and made TWO cakes, a dinosaur and an elmo cake. Last year I made one cake; a giraffe. I did make another, but it was a sheet cake and I threw on some Dora cake toppers.

I'm getting tired of presents!

Part of the peanut gallery!

We also prayed over Joel and asked for guidance in raising him. I have also reflected on the meaning of Joel's name "Yahweh is God". What a powerful statement. Not any other man or thing, but the LORD. My prayer is that he will know Him and testify of his namesake.

Will they, won't they?

So the moment I've been waiting for all summer is finally here.

The season premier of "The Office".

(I'll duck now while you throw pillows at me)

Does Pam get married? Does Jim go to New Zealand? Is Dwight still crazy? What new insanities does Michael pull next?

So much anticipation!

Disclaimer

Just a disclaimer about Disneyland. Did you know that $63 only allows Disney to just about break even on operating costs per guest?? They only make money on merchandise and food. For years they lost money on the admission price. A used to be in finance at the parks.

That's the price to operate the Happiest Place on Earth!

Doing the Shamu Slam

We're back from California! We had a wonderful time visiting friends, The Mouse and The Whale. Micah can now successfully do the "Shamu Slam" as well as sing "Its a Small World". Fun times!! We even met Mickey at his house, so now that question is answered, "Where does Mickey live?"

We had so many friends to visit, from my Biola friends, his Biola friends, our Biola friends, Disney friends, Calvary friends, and UCI friends. Throw in 2 days at Disney and 1 day at Seaworld. YIKES! A week was not long enough! It was so great to reconnect, talk and catch up. It was also so fun to see how big all the kiddos have become. Micah had a blast between all the playmates and theme parks. Micah is at just the right age for Disneyland. Everything was real to him. The Tiki Room was on his list, so we went there first thing. As the birds were singing he leaned over and asked "Where were the flowers that croon?" HA! Another must-see was Mickey mouse. He wouldn't stop talking about it so we headed to Toon Town shortly after tiki room. The cutest thing was him wearing his golden mickey ears all day long. He normally will not wear any hats.

Micah is also tall enough for every single ride at Disneyland except for Indiana Jones! This includes Splash, Thunder and Space Mountain! I couldn't believe it, not that we took him on those, we would have one very scared 3 year old! I did take him on one of my favorites, the rapids ride at DCA (that's Disney California Adventure) aka "the circle boats". He loved it! We even braved Pirates with him so we could see the new overhaul they did to include Jack Sparrow.

The fireworks were outstanding. Those of you near S. Cal; its worth the $ to see the fireworks while you can during the 50th. Awesome. Okay, well I don't know if its worth the $63 ticket price; FOR ONE PERSON; but you could probably watch them for free from downtown disney. Talk about sticker shock. After not paying for a one day pass for umm, maybe 15 years, wow have the prices gone up. Fortunately we were able to call some disney friends for day 2 admittance.

I just realized that I haven't mentioned Seaworld at all! After going to Disney for 2 days I guess that just overshadows it! Micah LOVED it and there were alot of unusual fish there. Like we saw one fish that has no eyes. It lives in some caves in New Mexico so its pitch black in there anyway. We also got to touch batrays and sting rays.

As much fun as we had, we are glad we moved to Seattle. Its much prettier here, although we loved being able to drive fast on real freeways with 7-8 lanes on each side. We are also glad to be back. We were so exhausted that on Sunday afternoon we all slept for 3 hours! Micah slept for almost 4 !!

3-Day post is up

Scroll down and you will see my 3-day post .

So... the big news was revealed and I feel like I could just about hear a pin drop. Aren't you all excited that my husband was ALMOST ON NATIONAL TV??
=)

The Big Secret Revealed

So I'm a little worried about all the hype bursting the balloon out of the secret. Karen, unbeknowst to me started a little rumor on her site that I supposedly had some great news to share. I did not. Then a week later I ended up having some cool news to share but I couldn't. Until today.

Are you ready? Drum roll please....

Aaron was in Hollywood yesterday as an extra for the TV show, The Office! Sadly, he didn't end up on camera, but he did get a picture with John Krasinski (Jim), met Rainn Wilson (Dwight) and Steve Carrell (Michael). The plot of the show was they were holding a paper convention where Michael and Dwight go and try to get as much swag as they can. (Susan: swag is free stuff) The producers invited real companies to come and man the booths.

It was really hard for me to keep my mouth shut, as that is my favorite TV show. Somehow I did it!

FYI--I'm still working on my 3-Day Walk post. I started it and probably 2/3 of the way done.