Our Life Livin' on a Lake!

Moving to Wordpress

2011-07-27T20:02:00.001-05:00

Well, I've decided to move the blog to Wordpress. This move might be scary to some of you (don't be scared grandparents - you can do this!!!) but I assure you, it will be okay. All the old posts have been moved. You can still find things on the new site. The pictures and text will no longer be jumbled (it was driving me NUTS!!!!!). And the comments are awesome here. I can actually respond BACK to you! NO WAY, right!? Blogger can kiss my bunnies! I'm outta here! Here's the new link:

http://lifeonalake.wordpress.com/

All you have to do is go there and bookmark it. Also, you can sign up to get email updates whenever a new post is created. Please do so. And by all means - COMMENT!!!!! This is the main reason why I'm moving! So we can have comments and discussion of comments!!!! If there is something that is not working right - let me know. Its gonna be a work in progress for sure!

Thanks everyone! SO LONG BLOGGER!!!!

Warrior Dash 2011

2011-07-27T09:16:00.001-05:00

My friend Liz, my sister in law Renae and I competed in the Warrior Dash this past weekend in Minneapolis. I only have 3 pictures, so savor them!

Here we are running up a ginormous hill. The course was at Afton Alps, so imagine walking UP a ski hill. Now imagine running UP a ski hill. TOUGH.

This is the fire jump at the end of the course. Dylan was worried about this part for me. He was watching the news with my mom while I was gone and saw that it was raining in Minneapolis. This made him happy because he thought the fire would be out then and I wouldn't get burned. Thanks for the concern, D!

And finally, here is Renae and I at the finish line. We're comparing mud coverage. You HAD to swim thru the mud because there was barbed wire over the top of the mud pit. Take note of how our tanks are hanging down to our knees because of the weight of the mud. You could either stay a "mud person" or go and get hosed off by the snow making machines spraying water. We chose to get hosed off and it was pretty brutal. Brutally cold. Brutally powerful. And to be honest, kinda ineffective. But better than being covered completely in mud for the ride home.

All in all, this was really fun. And we're definitely signing up again next year. We're hoping to recruit a few more peeps too, so start training for hills everyone! We gotta beat our lame time of 57 minutes. Seriously - the hills! Oh the hills!

Christmas in July

2011-07-26T10:21:00.001-05:00

We're getting back to business as usual around here. Which means nightly boat rides and swims. Its definitely the hottest weather we've had all summer so we're trying to make the most of it. Winter is unfortunately just around the corner for Minnesota. Booooooo.

She didn't want to get in right away for some reason.

Changed her mind once I was getting in.

Not water boy - we had to really talk him out of the water this time.

He loves being towed slowly by the boat. Me, not so much. Hurts my back after awhile.

He's always so delighted though, so its hard to say no.

Yesterday was July 25th, so we had a few Christmas in July activities. I put together a scavenger hunt for them. Dylan "read" the directions and Avery carried the bag to carry their treasures.

We had to break to put on hats b/c the horse flies are STILL SOOOOO bad here. Hats help a little but not much.

He's wearing my Warrior Dash hat and a new shiner he got yesterday from horsing around on his bouncy hopper thingy and ramming into a chair. Totally goes with the hat. I told him he was definitely a Warrior.

They had such a good time with this.

Finding the final treasure.

Sweet! A box of cake mix!

And here is the Christmas in July cake! I made the espresso chocolate frosting that I made back in February for Eric's birthday. Seriously good stuff. Give it a try if you are in the market for a cake soon.

I realize there are 3 pictures of her in a row here, but her smile was so bright because she was so excited about her "budday tate" part 2 (she was CONVINCED it was all hers and that it was her birthday again) that I just had to post all 3 of her. Seriously cute.

She's not naked, she has shorts on! Tried to take the mess to a minimum on her shirt. So I figured this would work well.

Merry Christmas in July!

Cass Lake 2011

2011-07-26T09:32:00.001-05:00

Sorry for the delay on this post! We got back from Cass and had a wedding to go to and then I went to Minneapolis to do the Warrior Dash (I'll post pics when they put them online - or at least post a link to pics). So we're finally getting back to a normal schedule again now. So - I give you - CASS LAKE 2011!

Boozers.

Another boozer. We had to though. The weather was skitzo!

We totally planned this coordination. ; )

Need your baby to nap? Throw em in a bike cart and voila - NAP!

Seriously - the weather was wacky. It was the hottest week of the year in Minnesota and don't get me wrong - it was hot at Cass too, but there were strangely cool moments too.

The babies were braver than the bigger kids when it came to tubing. Perhaps they are too young to know better. The older kids are just smarter. Easton is included in that group. He refused to tube! Thatta boy! Way to use your smarts!

Not this one tho - she loves to tube! And FAST too.

We celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary on the 18th. Had our usual morning mimosas - our tradition so far.

And here we are standing in the spot we got married (roughly). Its now covered in water as you can see.

Dylan tried water skiing for the first time this year.

Got up on his first try!

Super Dylan! I couldn't believe it. Actually, yes I could. He really is able to do a lot for a 4 year old I think.

He only went down cuz he started to get nervous about going any further with the boat motor and the fast speed, etc. I think by next year he'll be over that part of it and he'll be a skiing machine. Much to my dismay as the nervous nelly mother.

A gorgeous sunset that got me a few extra mosquito bites. We all got more than a few this trip. They were BAD this year. The infamous SWIMMERS ITCH also made an appearance this year. Previously, Eric had referred to it as a "myth" but it is a "myth" no more. Cuz he got it, Dylan got it, Avery got it and a few others too. There, it has now been documented here. He'll still try to deny it I bet as I did not take a picture of their legs. Tho, Avery's bumps are still visible so there is still time to provide proof!

Cousin picture time! Reed ducked down so he's not pictured.

The first annual "Chase the Blues Away Margarita Party." Everyone was kinda crabby that it kept raining and raining and raining that day. It was 120 degrees with the heat index in Minneapolis this day, but we were wearing sweatshirts and pants. It was seriously bizarre. Especially since we too, were under the high heat index warning. Never happened! We're thinking this will be an annual party as the drinks were awesome!

So awesome that some people double fisted.

Messin' around at Cedar Island. I was worried about my beverage!

And finally, our yearly family photo at Cass Lake. Another good one!

That was well worth the wait, wasn't it?!

Big Blob Hat

2011-07-11T09:18:00.001-05:00

Our weekend started out with a visitor. Eric's friend Chuck came up for the night on his way to Alexandria. The kids were immediately his best buddies.

Eric was pleased to have a stand in Daddy!

The lake was SUPER warm this weekend.

What?! Trying to drown the stand in Daddy?! Is that any way to treat a guest, Dylan?

On Saturday, I purchased a new slip and slide after my Zumba class. Dylan suffered a low blow earlier in the week when he learned that his old slip and slide had been thrown away at the end of last year. So we upgraded to this one - double lanes even!

Avery does more of an "army crawl" rather than a "slide."

And since it was SO hot this weekend - we spent a lot of time in the blob. Dylan came up with the idea of converting his floatie into a kayak and using the paddles for his water ball thingy as kayak paddles. It was pretty much awesome. So I had to give it a try.

And this is the famous, "big blob hat." I think he's referring to the big splash that the ball makes in the water?

Anyway, he kept yelling at us to watch the "big blob hat!!!"

I also made margaritas in the Vitamix yesterday. FANTASTIC. It makes PERFECT frozen margaritas.

All in all, a good weekend at home! We go camping at Cass Lake starting on Thursday. Hoping for good weather and good times!

Summer is in full swing!

2011-07-08T08:44:00.001-05:00

Ahhhh, only the 9th day of summer (for us anyway - that first month didn't count as it was like April all over again here) and we've had such a good time. The kids and I went to the strawberry patch near our house the other day. We went to one last summer and Dylan really enjoyed it so he was pretty excited to go again. Wasn't sure how Avery was going to do, but there was only one way to find out!

It was a slow start. Dylan had to sample the product before he could get serious about picking. Avery had to take it all in.

Like her brother, she did more sampling than picking.

Finally, I had picked enough to fill two cartons (they didn't do as much picking as I had hoped they would!) and asked them to pose for a picture.

Avery was mid taste and took her strawberry out of her mouth to showcase it. Perfect!

Back at home in the BLOB. We sure are loving the BLOB. It gets pretty hot up on our patio (aka, our second living room) so its nice to sit in our adirondaks and get super hot and then jump in the pool. We've really been enjoying it.

Here they are taunting their daddy who is upstairs working. HA HA DADDY!!!! We're in the pool and you're working!!!

They both do pretty well in the pool. Dylan is working on floating and he loves to swim underwater. Avery is doing pretty well at walking around and when she goes under, she pops right back up. She still needs constant supervision of course.

Here they are playing in our second living room. Dylan was playing cars and Avos was taking pictures of me.

And I was taking pictures of her!

She was in a real "picture-y" mood so I took advantage.

D had to come over and get his picture taken too.

Here I bribed them with ice cream to get them to pose with me. SUCKERS!

Last night we went on a boat ride as it was hot, sunny and there was just a light breeze on the lake. PERFECT conditions for a cruise on Pontunia.

And perfect conditions for a dip too! The water was nice and warm!

Our neighbors Lingy and the Winercheskies cruised by and we hooked up together and dropped the anchor.

More swimming occurred.

Eric has been wearing Dylan's hat lately to keep the horseflies from landing on his head. We all especially love it when he pairs the hat with his skin tight camouflage waders. Its a goooooood look.

It was a lovely evening until we learned the hard way that we shouldn't bring our cell phones on the boat anymore. The kids were tossing ice cubes into the lake one by one out of our soft sided cooler. Dylan got sick of tossing them in one by one and decided to dump all the ice cubes out at once by holding the cooler upside down. Guess what was in the side pocket of the cooler!?!?! Eric's blackberry. UH OH! 500 dollar mistake and lesson learned! He had a new one coming from Ebay, but its still no fun! : ( So if you need to reach him, please email!

Another fabulous day is on tap! : )

4th of July Weekend

2011-07-05T20:49:00.001-05:00

Well I'm back from the long weekend and armed with a gazillion pictures, as usual. Had to really pick and choose to tone it down a bit and ease the uploading process.

We went up to Loon Lodge (my parents cabin on White Earth Lake) first. It was my 32nd birthday on the 1st, so clearly I was queen for the day. The kids and Eric washed my car for me. So thoughtful!

We really lucked out on weather b/c there really was only ONE moment of crappiness. And this wasn't it. Here's Avos and Gpa Tom on the kayak.

And then Dylan and Gpa on the kayak.

As usual, I made them pose with me for pictures. Special birthday edition this time.

Avery was too busy for pictures with me.

See - too busy!

We had dock lunch which is just like old times. We did this a lot when I was a kid over at my grandparents cabin (5 houses down from my parents cabin).

And then it was time for Fun Island!

29! Woohoo! ; )

Yearly photo of Eric tossing Dylan in the air. We wondered how long Eric can keep this momentum going.

And then we did a birthday pontoon cruise complete with fun accessories. Here is my niece Natalie looking very stylish.

Avery's accessory was yogurt. No surprise there.

Present time! Complete with typical Eric wrapping (beach towel and Fleet Farm bag).

A lifejacket!?! Get outta town!

Looks sharp!

Can't wait to put that baby on diaper style and float in the lake (the sole purpose of me having a lifejacket - for real). The moment of weather crappiness occurred after this photo was taken and cut the boat ride short.

Back in the cabin having a little sword fight.

Sword fight buzzkill! Taco Jon put the K-bosh on the noise the swords made. Booooooooo

Off to the Lodge for Mexican Night!

And then we moved onto Gma and Gpa Wikoff's at Maple Lake! Avery was learning how to tan from Auntie Kelli. So far so good!

Reed and Dylan were having fun pretending to ski. Really skiing - NO WAY!

My bathing beauty!

Two bathing beauties having a chat! (with cousin Adelyn)

As usual, Dylan got so tired that he fell asleep on the pontoon. We figure he loses about 4 hours of sleep per night when at Gma and Gpa Wikoff's. The aftermath ROCKS.

Check out the size of that Coors Light!

Our pretty baby swimming!

Water boy swimming!

Father/Daughter swim time.

And finally, the cousins in the Pow Pow Power Wheels cars. Always a good time!

I didn't take any firework pictures this year. They never turn out, so I figured that it wasn't worth lugging the camera along for. I could have taken a picture of the ginormous mosquitos or the sleeping Dylan (yep, he fell asleep AGAIN on the boat), but oh well. It was a good weekend though! Good food and good times with the families - what more can you ask for! We'll be doing it again in 8 days as we head up to Cass Lake for the annual family camping trip. So look for a special Cass Lake Edition on the blog!

"Summer" time fun

2011-06-26T07:21:00.001-05:00

We were finally able to spend a day outside yesterday. Looks like we'll be back inside today though. : ( At least we'll have the memory of yesterday!

The umbrella for the picnic table finally showed up (thanks for all your help Little Tikes - NOT!)

They are constantly fighting over this decrepit old swing. The only solution is to share time in it. It doesn't always look very comfy to me!

Daily Green Monster. DELISH!

I had promised the slip and slide but was unable to find it in the garage so the next best thing was using the hose sprayer as a sprinkler.

This was awesome - he's telling her what they are going to do next - run thru the water stream together.

She's like, "Oh yes, I can do that, Dylan."

Off they go!

Wooohoo!!!!!

This is AWESOME!!!!

Running back to do it again.

She came over to tell me she was all wet. Yes, I see that Avos.

Water boy - always getting wet.

Dylan told her to go relax on the chair and warm up. So she did. Pete Repeat!

He stood there and watched the water for quite awhile with a puzzled, inquisitive look on his face. He never seems to stop thinking and processing EVERYTHING. "Mom, how does the water spread out like that?"

And while he did that, she did this. Always lookin' cute.

Moving on to the next task.

And then it was his turn to warm up and relax.

He was pretty jazzed that I let him have a piece of gum and he wanted to show it off.

Well, today we'll be locked back in the house as more rain moves in. Yippy. Skippy. Can't believe next weekend is the 4th! Summer is gonna be over before it ever arrives in MN!

Cars 2

2011-06-25T07:35:00.001-05:00

Well I braved it and took the kids to Cars 2 yesterday by myself. Dylan was VERY excited and asked about a million times if it was time to go to the movie. Avery just kept yelling, "Mooooovie!!! Moooooovie!" And was very confused when we left the house and didn't sit down on the ouch like she expected.

We were trying to get her to smile. She's so stubborn!

So Dylan offered up a trick to get her to smile - a tummy tickle. She ran away instead.

And here they are waiting for the movie to start. The seats folded up on them when they sat solo, so that was pretty funny. Dylan was able to keep his down for the most part on his own, but Avery had to sit with me or with Dylan or she folded up like an accordion.

Well, its safe to sat that this was Avery's first and last movie for awhile. She sat for a little while, but for most of the movie, she walked around, went up and down the stairs, climbed in and out of the chairs (getting stuck and losing her shoes in the chair at one point) walking down the aisles saying "hi" to people, throwing her sippy cup, and stuffing her face with enough popcorn and Reeses Pieces to last her a week! Dylan really enjoyed it though. He's already started asking when its coming out on DVD. This is kinda like when we are going somewhere and he asks when we are going to be there every 5 minutes. Its gonna be a lonnnnnng wait for Cars 2 on DVD. ; )

Photo fun

2011-06-23T13:58:00.001-05:00

Have I mentioned its been raining here for like 3 weeks? Something like that anyway. We're slowly going crazy! Yesterday Dylan and I spent a good 20 minutes taking pictures with the Photobooth application on my computer. He's always begging to take pictures with it and I finally gave in. It really gets him giggling, so I don't know why we don't do it more often. ; P

Eric walked through and joined in.

This one makes me laugh.

This one too.

Before this one, he told me to watch as he makes his face into taco shape. After the picture was taken, he says, "See! I'm a taco!" Cracks me up.

Finally I decided the computer memory banks needed no more pictures and told him it was time for the last picture. He decided on MAD FACE as the final look.

That's all!

Well, call me crazy, but I'm going to attempt to take the kids to Cars 2 by myself this weekend. I had promised Dylan that we were going to when it came out - him and I. Well, didn't know that Eric would have a fishing trip bachelor party to go to. Scheduling conflict! So now the three of us are going. Wish me luck - not sure Avos is ready to sit for 2 straight hours. Well, not unless she eats popcorn for 2 hours straight. ; )

Don't blink

2011-06-22T08:51:00.001-05:00

or you might miss that the sun was out for about 2 seconds this week! I took pictures. I had to document the strange phenomenon of the bright thing in the sky. That and these kids are just too darn cute!

That's it for today. I must go into seclusion in the west wing. I will not be returning until the bright blob reappears. So that might be never. I bid you farewell.

Your Weekly Update

2011-06-20T07:18:00.001-05:00

It's been awhile I know. It was a somewhat busy week I guess. Lingy's grandkids were here visiting all week, so my photo subjects were busy playing with Blake and Maya all week long. I did take a few pictures of them all having a frisbee throwing contest.

It entertained them for quite awhile until they got sick of it and decided to have a "lets see who can get their frisbee stuck in the tree" contest. From an audience standpoint, the original contest was much more entertaining. Just sayin'.

Avery was in total agreement. She thought both contests were lame!

When I was looking thru these photos deciding what to include in this post, I came across something I have not seen in awhile and could barely even remember this happening! THE SUN WAS OUT?!?!?!? WHAT?! HERE? SERIOUS? Then I thought back and remembered that it was out for a couple hours one day this week. That was it. Couple hours. Summer may never arrive this year. Starting to wonder if packing away our boots and winter coats was necessary. We'll need them shortly I'm sure.

Anywho, it appears we made the most of it.

The neighbors had peeps over this week so there was a lot of yard traffic. They ruined my picture! Oh well. No one would look at me anyway.

Eric was lookin' HAWT in his waders. He was doing a little weed maintenance. Its a losing battle he's fighting.

My friend Liz came up this weekend from Minneapolis to visit. Kind of a crappy weekend for a visit, but oh well. I'm annoyed with Eric here for not taking a proper picture. Heads or feet usually get cut off with him behind the camera.

Off centered! Holmes - I hate to point this out - but you really do need to find the No-Ad in 30 SPF. 60 is too much. ; )

Awww! Such a purdy face!

And the kids gave Eric some lovely Father's Day presents.

He got a dragonfly decorator item.

And a loon clock. He tried to take down MY clock and replace it with this one. Didn't fly.

Pontunia has been feeling sad lately because she thinks no one loves her anymore. So we went for a chilly boat ride today - our THIRD trip of the year. LAME, "summer", LAME.

Here is that plant that I asked about awhile back that Dylan had brought home from school. We were trying to figure out what the heck it was since Dylan couldn't remember. Lingy says its a bean plant AND a pea plant. ???? We shall see!

Yellow blossoms! Tomatoes are coming!

Here's the boat ride - pre-jacket.

It almost looks sunny here. It was a farce.

Wanted to get a nice Father's Day picture, but no luck! Theres always gotta be at least one joker!

Well, hope you all have sun where you are! JERKS! From the sounds of it, we won't see it again anytime soon. Awesome!

Later!!!

Weekend at Maple Lake

2011-06-13T08:17:00.001-05:00

We were up at Grandma and Grandpa Wikoff's this past weekend so Eric could play in an old man hockey tournament. The kids came for the Power Wheels, however.

There was an unfortunate incident this weekend when once of the gears went out in the pickup. It no longer goes in reverse and it often gets stuck with its wheels spinning requiring an adult to get up off their butt and get them un-stuck. That's no fun!

Dylan also got a new bike this weekend. His McQueen bike was getting a little on the small side for him, so it was time for an upgrade. It took a few minutes to him to get used to the bigger size, but he adapted quickly.

He was pretty excited to show it off to everyone.

Saturday was our only nice day. Even Grandpa Danny jumped in! (I, for the record, did NOT. It must be HOT for me to go in. It was only pleasantly warm at best.)

He's gonna be excited to make the blog. And a diving picture, no less!

He let out a girly scream. See, too cold for Trishy.

The kids didn't think it was too cold though. I changed their clothes several times and eventually wised up and put their swimsuits on.

They had a good time playing with cousin Easton. He kept calling Dylan his "buddy." And Avery kept calling Easton, "Addi." Apparently she was missing her "buddy."

That's it for pictures! I dropped the ball on photo taking this weekend! Grandma Kim got some funny pics of Avery eating her ice cream cone at the Dairy Queen, but I forgot to steal them off her memory card. Just picture a very independent 2 year old covered in ice cream refusing any sort of help. She ate the WHOLE THING by herself. And then I had to hose her off in the DQ bathroom. Good times! No pictures of the old man playing hockey either. Bummmmmmer. Maybe next year! ; )

Avery's 2nd Birthday Weekend

2011-06-06T08:33:00.001-05:00

We had a pretty busy (but good) weekend! Avery turned 2 on Friday, so we had her party on Saturday and all her peeps came. And by peeps, I mean grandmas, grandpas, cousins, aunties, uncles - you get the idea. On her actual birthday, we filled up what I will refer to from here on out as "THE BLOB." Its our new pool that we bought for Avery for her birthday.

The water in the THE BLOB was FREEEEEEZING! We had hoped the sun would have warmed it up more, but the sun was absent as usual so it had not warmed up much from the the time we filled it.

They were both shaking and shivering like crazy but yet I could NOT talk them into getting out.

Finally, I had to bribe them with cookies to get them out. Worked like a charm.

Avery got a cute new dress from Jcrew from her Auntie Susan, so I made her put on a little fashion photo shoot.

Not very ladylike Avos!

Grandma and Grandpa H arrived with mini adirondak chairs for them.

Avery giving Mux the business. She decided she needed to come OUT. Milly had other plans and just kept running back in once she was set down. Whenever anyone comes to our house that used to know "Minneapolis Milly," they are always offended by Mux (who Milly changed into when the countryside hardened her) and her inability to show them the affection they were once shown. They are always amazed to hear that she puts up with these kind of shenanigans judging by her attitude when guests are here. Hey - what can I say - she only likes US. The rest of you are enemies! Trust no one!

Okay, back on topic. I wanted to get some pretty pictures of her holding a daisy, but she had other plans for that daisy.

Noooooo!!!!! You're ruining it!!!!

I missed the next picture by a split second. It was her looking up at me with her mouth in a little "o" shape like, "ooooops."

I also spent much of Friday in the kitchen making her birthday cake, cookies and some food for the party on Saturday. As usual, she wrapped herself around my legs. Only now that its FINALLY warm out, I had a dress on over my swimsuit that she found to be verrrrry fun.

Sorry about the butt cheek shot, but she looks so cute here!

And look at her little dress! So cute!

Grandma and Grandpa H brought a ginormous present that Dylan scoped out in the backseat of their car. He got Avery all riled up and together they insisted that it be opened.

Sweet! More kid crap for our patio!

Trying out the new table with some birthday cookies and ice cream!

And here is Saturday morning - party day!

Renae, Kelli and I went to hot yoga in Brainerd so we missed all this. Eric took a ton of pictures of the kids playing on the beach.

Grandma Tone Loc helped supervise.

And finally it was warm enough for THE BLOB and the hot tub - which they hopped back and forth between.

Birthday lunch on the new picnic table. Totally came in handy.

Party people!

THE BLOB.

More party people!

Eric worked on raising up the dock. His dad brought some tool that he thought might work. It did!

More party goers!

Heres the birthday girl having a snack!

Some more party goers!

And then it was present time. Never a shortage of help.

Avery getting all blinged up for her birthday courtesy of Auntie Lulu (who was unable to attend).

Here she is putting lipstick on her new teeny tiny baby.

She looked so pretty!

Her birthday cake that I slaved away on. I think this is the last one I'm making. Not only is the frosting a huge pain in the you know what, but there's too many people between our two families. I think each person got a tiny piece and then it was gone. No way I'm making TWO of these PITA cakes. If you don't know what PITA means...figure it out.

Didn't realize it until I looked at the pics, but her suit matches her cake! Butterfly!

Everyone else had finished their cake (or eaten as much as they wanted and left some - these kids are chronic food wasters! Even cake! Can you believe that!?!) and Avery was still at the table finishing hers. Here she is eyeballing the plate of one of her chronic food wasting cousins.

She said she was done and handed me her plate.

And then demanded that I hand her the next plate. I figured it was her birthday, so she got her wish.

Everyone was cracking up at her stuffing her face.

Then it was time for a pontoon ride on Pontunia and Avery had decided to hang back and skip the boat ride in favor of some solo time in the jump house.

She was having an awesome time.

Next thing I know, she jumps out of the jump house and tears towards the lake yelling, "Boat! Boat! Boat!" She had to get dressed first though, so I had to chase her down and take her back to the house to get her dressed. The boat captain said he'd loop back around to pick her up. She saw them leaving and started yelling, "Leavin'! Leavin'! Leeeeeeeavvvvvvin!" I think she had a pretty fun birthday though. She was in fabulous mood all weekend thanks to a few long naps (which is a rarity lately for her).

Then on Sunday it was another gorgeous day (we totally lucked out).

Avery was pretty tired tho and kept laying down in the boat.

She also gave me a little bit of attitude. Wouldn't be very Avery-ish if she didn't though!

So anyway, good times had by all this weekend! Thanks everyone for coming!! Such a fun weekend with perfect weather, good company, fabulous food and lots of laughs! : )

Memorial Day Part 2

2011-05-30T09:22:00.001-05:00

Well, upon looking back, it seems I only took this one food pic. The light was no bueno all weekend long, so food pics didn't look as appetizing. Thats my story, anyway.

Here we are setting out for the inaugural first boat ride of the season. It was much like our final ride of the season - COLD. Windy. Somewhat wet.

Avery ditched her coat and lifejacket and refused to put them back on despite how cold it was. Stubborn.

This guy popped up right next to the boat, saw us and went right back under.

For some reason, Avery and Dylan are fascinated by someone blowing bubbles with their gum.

Rock-o made himself right at home with Jon. They sat and talked about their shared love of bacon.

You know its cold when Dillybar wraps up in a blanket.

Natalie's hat nearly flew off due to her shenanigans. Daniel's blanket was almost a goner as well.

Campfire time! Daniel decided that he wasn't going to look at me once he saw the camera.

I can't remember what Jon was "OHHHHHH"ing about.

Daniel had to wait awhile for his s'more. Being the 2nd child blows!

Here is Dylan enjoying his 3 year old marshmallow. Mmmmm

Avery and one of her 6 cookies. I had to put the kibosh on her having MORE. She can be very persuasive with grandparents.

Daniel spoke to his mom for about 30 seconds. He had no time to talk!

Natalie posing with her s'more.

And finally - Natalie learned how to ride a bike!

Dylan was nice enough to let her practice over and over again with his bike.

She pretty much has it down! Just needs a little practice on starting up on her own and turning around, but she's well on her way!

Well thats it from us for Memorial Day weekend. What a washout. Its rainy and cold here again this morning so I think we're loading up and going HOME! Apparently summer hasn't gotten the memo that its okay to come now. I give up!

Memorial Day Part I

2011-05-29T08:07:00.001-05:00

It's Memorial Day weekend again! We're up at Loon Lodge (my parents cabin on White Earth Lake) with Jon, Natalie and Daniel. Renae stayed home to work on her garden. But I busted her on Facebook yesterday - she went kayaking on Lake Calhoun yesterday instead! Totally just outed ya on my blog Renae! Ha ha! THe people must know the truth! Her loss though - the times here are fun even tho the weather is crappy. The food has also been awesome - as usual!

Here the kids are taking turns being Grandma's sous chefs.

Avery used her turns as opportunities to shove food in her mouth.

The boys were so proud of themselves for helping themselves to the bread with cheese spread.

They got sick of helping and moved on to the back bedroom for some cousin shenanigans. I peeked my head in at one point to see what they were doing and make sure that no one was doing anything too dangerous and overheard Natalie say, "Take what you want! Just don't hurt me!" in quite the dramatic fashion. We have no idea where she got that from, but we all thought it was pretty funny.

The weather has been cold and rainy. Ya know, the usual. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

We were only able to go outside for a small window of time because of random showers passing thru.

And people ate all the original treats we had on hand, so I decided we had to do something about that! So Natalie and I set out to make some Chocolate Chip cookies - recipe courtesy of the Lodge Lady Linda.

Bummer - the picture is blurry. Amateur photographer was at the wheel. Its a shame - cuz Natalie is sporting one of my Mom's old prom dresses. She wore it ALL AFTERNOON. I'm not sure why cuz they are ITCHY! Anyway, cookies WERE good. But unfortunately they are nearly gone. PIGS!

Well, I will most likely have more food pics later. Hopefully I get some outdoor shots today but right now its not looking good. Summer, its okay now. You can come! Its time! Don't be scared! Come on, little summer, just come.....you know you want to!

Be jelly

2011-05-19T20:12:00.001-05:00

Don't be jelly - but its been a glorious week of weather at the lake! We had to break out the lemonade to toast our good fortune!

Our neighbor Larry provided the entertainment when he put his dock in. Very exciting stuff.

Definitely quality entertainment.

You must take a moment and admire my pretty flowers. I'm a sucker for Gerbera Daisies. I get them every year.

I'm also a fan of these ones cuz I like purple. What they are called, I have no idea!

And once my tomato plants getting rolling, I'm going to be having a lot of caprese salad with this delish basil. Dylan keeps sticking his nose in it and breathing in deeply. I taught him that. ; )

What I really need to be planting is spinach considering I can clean out a giant tub of it in a week or less. My Vitamix rules so hard! This Green Monster was especially good - Tera's Whey Dark Chocolate Protein Powder, 2 giant handfuls of spinach, 1 TB natural crunchy peanut butter, 1 frozen banana and almond milk. It was like a chocolate peanut butter shake. And I'm not joking. Dylan was like, "MOM! You need to make it like this EVERY time."

Why he is screaming at me after that delicious smoothie, I have no idea! He was mad though that I caught a picture of him screaming and then laughed to myself.

Playing on their swingset. They've really been enjoying it a lot lately.

Avery is such a little lady though. Everything must be clean and not "messy!" She insists on getting her hands and feet wiped when they get dirty. But yet, she refuses her shoes a lot??? And picks up wet sand??? I don't get it.

This makes me laugh because Milly looks like she's posing for the picture. Ok, now tilt your head a little bit this way, Mux. Perfect!

Well I'm off to watch what I think is the season finale of The Office. What will we do without all our shows?! Kidding. Later!

Catch Up

2011-05-17T10:13:00.001-05:00

Miss us? I don't know whaaa happened but somehow a week has gone by since my last post! Whoops! And sorry to tell you this, but I'm sure this will be the norm now that the weather is FINALLY getting better. Allow me to catch you up on the cute things the kiddies have been doing in the last week via pictures. I know, its just SHOCKING that I took pictures.

Check it out - our first lunch outside this year! Woohoo! They were pretty excited about it too.

Followed by the first "lets get soaked by the hose" session. I hate it when my clothes are wet, so I just don't get this. But they love it.

Miss Pete Repeat (a derivative of Sneaky Pete, one of her other nicknames). She saw Dylan do this, so of course she had to do it too.

And here she's copying me. I often wear one of these to protect my hair from the sun. She wears hers to be cute. : )

Hose is still running. : \

Love this picture of her wavy hair and tan skin. I think its safe to say that we all have a pretty good base tan already. ; )

Washing the mud off his bike. All the rain we've had really made a mess of it so he was pretty excited to give it a bath.

Avery's "milt" belly.

Here they are checking out minnows and getting sucked on by leeches.

Yep, leeches. GROSSSSSSS!!!!!! Does this stop them from continuing to go into the water there or walk on the dock (the suspected area of leech domain)? NOPE. Will I go in the water or on the dock? NOPE. I don't know what we're gonna do about the dock. Its too old and crappy to raise up but the water does not seem to be going down.

Dylan and his cat. He's getting so much better at drawing! Preschool this year really helped I think.

Here's the first and last pic of this hummingbird feeder. I got it all ready to hang, went in the house to turn on the oven and returned to find it shattered on the cement. That will teach me to leave the string hanging down! Avery grabbed the string and down it came. Luckily it didn't land ON her.

I got a green chair to go with my pink one from last year! I figure I'll get a new one each year until I have several colors. They are so comfy and pretty to look at! Just wish I could find the matching foot stools. I KNOW they exist. Or they used to anyway.

Back on the beach for more fun in the sand. Note that Avery is willingly sporting pigtails!

Doesn't it look relaxing?!

Attempt at a brother/sister photo.

One of these times I'll get one. These pics make me SO glad summer is nearly here. Summer pics always look so much better.

And here I'm taking pics of Avery's hair. I'm just so excited that she's finally somewhat willing to let me do her hair! She even has little bangs now!

Well, thats it for now. I'm in the midst of potty training and an unsupervised pantless child is dangerous for carpets, chairs, couches and siblings. She just had on her first pair of underwear and peed in them 2 minutes later. Its a learning experience, right?! Later!

Vitamix in the house!

2011-05-11T08:39:00.001-05:00

I am having trouble believing there is actually a Vitamix on my counter!! Its not an optical illusion - I really did get one! FINALLY!

And my Green Monster has never been more smooth! Yesterday's GM included ground flaxseed, vanilla protein powder, almond milk, frozen mangos and pineapple, 2 heaping handfuls of spinach and a frozen banana. Seriously amazing. I can't get over how smooth it was. LOVING my Vitamix!

Loving this guy too. Not sure why we were taking his picture with his shades on in the house, but oh well.

These next pics are for Grandma Tone Loc. This was my swimsuit when I was little. And here is Avos modeling it so nicely.

It fits her like a glove right now, so I don't think she'll be wearing it for long. Better late than never!

And here they are for their morning cartoon with all (?) of Avery's babies. Creepy Baby is the one in the middle. Avery just scored a ton of baby clothes from my old babies, so she's been in heaven dressing them up. Side note - check out how tan these children are already! We've hardly had any sun! They are clearly our children as Eric and I turn into island natives each summer. Soon we'll be a family Sullivan Lake natives!

Have a lovely day! I'm hoping the sun makes a rare appearance here today! : )

Steel Trap Memory

2011-05-04T10:23:00.001-05:00

This morning I was doing a little toenail maintenance and Avery came over and started yelling, "AVERY'S!!!!!" Meaning, "do mine too!" So I painted hers while Dylan looked on. Eventually he said that he wanted his done too and picked out 2 colors. The green color to match mine and Avery's and orange for his fingers. So I did his toes, and while I was doing them, he says, "you're gonna have to take this off right away before Dad comes down." "Why????" I asked while gritting my teeth! "Because I don't want him to say what he said to me at Avery's birthday party last year." ????? I have no recollection of this, but I guess his Aunties painted his nails and his dad got mad. He never forgets a thing it seems! Eric was just telling me a story about how he remembered some random detail the other day about something Eric had long forgotten. Its funny how much he remembers. I might have to write stuff down so he continues to remember. I know I don't remember much from being a kid! Guess thats what this blog is for - to document their happenings! Anywhere - here are the toes. The polish was removed immediately following this photo shoot, so don't worry Daddy.

More photo shoots

2011-05-03T21:34:00.001-05:00

Mmmmmm muffins. I'm working my way thru the cookbook Super Natural Every Day. These are the Bran Muffins and they ROCK I can't give out recipes, but I can tell you to buy this book. Everything in it looks awesome and everything I've made so far has been great.

I'm trying to get new pictures for our header on this blog. I'm also thinking of moving to Word Press so I can comment back. Stay tuned.

The photo shoots so far have been mediocre at best. But I'll keep trying.

I was calling her Cyndi Lauper when she put this on. She did this all on her own.

The grass is finally greening up but we still have to wear our hats and jackets. You know whats going to happen right - we'll go straight from winter to summer with no spring temps in between. No joke - it was snowing on Monday - MAY 2nd.

And the trees are finally starting to get little buds on them. See anything else?

She blends in so well this time of year - brown grass, brown trees. I love watching her climb down trees. She goes up them so often, but when its time to come down its like she has a momentary brain fart - "how do I get down again?"

Here they were wanting to look at the pictures on our calendar for May. Avery doesn't recognize her baby self and keeps asking why the baby is crying in the pictures? UM, YOU TELL ME! I'd love to know why you were crying Avery!

He's still working on pumping. He told me today that EVERYONE needs at least one or two pushes to get started. Even adults.

And then he was messing around and literally got stuck like this. And apparently this is not the first time either. Ummmm???

Again, back at my photo shoots for the new header.

Its a "Y"

This one is probably as good as we're gonna get for now.

Pretty cute together! I had Dylan's conferences today and his teacher said he talks about his sister a lot. Not surprising!

Thats all for tonight!

Hot Tub Time Machine take me to SUMMER!

2011-04-28T19:43:00.001-05:00

Sorry - couldn't resist, Avery! One day she will be maaaad about pics like this, but she's the one who doesn't care if her hair gets done or not. She went to sleep the night before with a wet braid in her hair and this was the result. Would she let me fix it and make it pretty? NO!

Puuuuuuuurdy.

Its hard to see, but if you look closely, you can see snowflakes here. We filled the hot tub earlier this week and we weren't going to let a few snowflakes stop us from our nightly soak.

The kids thought it was pretty fun getting snowy heads while in the hot tub. Eric tried to enforce a stocking cap rule, but it didn't go over.

And then today, it was back to business as usual with Spring. Okay, Minnesota! Figure it out! Snowing and 35 yesterday. 60 and sunny today. Whatever.

All the rain/snow has been helping the lawn though!

Seriously can't wait till its summer though. I'll take the 60 degrees - just please - no more snow!

Alright, now I must go clean up some cat puke. Be jelly.

Easter Weekend

2011-04-25T19:35:00.001-05:00

We spent the Easter weekend up at Eric's parents house. His entire family was there plus a new puppy so there was never a dull moment. Kelli and I planned out a "Zumba-thon" for Saturday morning. She and Lisa were super excited (they both get licensed for Zumba this coming weekend in Minneapolis)!

Jamie and Kacie, were not. They were first timers and were worried about their images. Ha! They tried to hide in the back of the class with no luck!

They probably won't be too happy about these pictures, but oh well! My blog, I'll do what I want!

Grandpa Danny was secretly wishing he could scoooch on in and dance with us. He definitely was back row material, if you know what I mean. ; ) Check out my air tho! Wooohoo! Thanks to Gma Kim for taking the pictures. Its fun to see us in action!

And one more - I like this one. Check out the future Zumba princess watching from the high chair.

This is what the kids did ALL weekend. Gma and Gpa treated them to not ONE but TWO Power Wheels vehicles.

To say that they liked them is an understatement. And its a good thing there were two or there would have been some serious fights.

Even the littlest cousins could drive them (with supervision of course)!

Here's Hobey (or Homer, as Eric likes to call him) chasing Kelli. This is Lisa and Chandler's new puppy. The kids have a love/hate relationship with him. Since he's a puppy, he likes to bite when he is playing. They all were NOT fans of that. Avery kept shaking her fist at him and yelling, "NO! NO!" The older kids went the "I'm going to run super fast to get away from you" route, which only egged poor Homer on. Make him want to bite them even more!

Avery, Easton and Addi drive with pillows behind their backs so they can reach the pedals. Once we figured out that they could drive them, it became evident that Gma and Gpa need THREE Power Wheels. Its not our fault they had so many kids! Side note: They admitted that they got them as a bribe to get everyone to come home more. Guess we're gonna need that third Power Wheels vehicle then! ; )

Gma Kim loves her picture times! Clearly the rest of us do too!

The 7 grandkids. If you look closely, Kacie is also in this picture.

And here's Easter morning. Bunny had just come.

And our holiday attempt at a family picture. Brown grass, bright sun, forced smiles = mediocre picture. OH well. Summer, shades and real smiles are coming soon!

Hope you all had a good Easter!

Easter Egg!

2011-04-21T06:34:00.001-05:00

Good morning! This is gonna be a quick one! Dylan should be up any minute and I still need to shower and get ready for heading to town this morning.

So aren't these the cutest kids ever?! Say yes. They were watching me dance the other day and Dylan decided they would get cozy while they watched. So he set this all up. Sorry Daddy - they want the pillows you put in the garage sale pile! Ha!

I love how she watches to see what he's going to do next so she can copy him.

Chin in your hands! GO!

She doesn't realize that he's moved on the from the chin in the hands thing. It was just too comfy!

We also dyed eggs this week. Good times.

I bought a Tie Dye kit for them which turned out to be kind of a pain in the you know what.

It was fun for about 2 eggs and then we moved on to the traditional way.

Duh! I'm the one overseeing this super fun project! Of course I rule!

Dad's not here, so he doesn't get a "rules" on his.

HEY! Who is casting a shadow upon my eggs!

Dang it Mux! Get outta here! This is a super important egg photo shoot!

Well I'm sad to say that I did NOT win the "ice out" contest. Its now the 21st of April and there is still a small sliver of ice on the lake. It should be gone today. I WOULD have won had we not had winter return AGAIN. Grrrrr! But check out this lovely loon who taunted me by not getting close enough for a decent pic!

Let me remind you that our house is for sale! Spread the word!

That devilish grin has me worried. Looks like she was gonna run me down or something!

Nah, she'd never do that!

Well, I'm off like a prom dress! Gotta get ready to head to town and teach some Zumba, baby!

2011-04-17T19:26:00.001-05:00

I made these muffins the other day on a whim and boy am I glad we gave them a whirl. GOOD! They are Millet Muffins courtesy of 101 Cookbooks - a fabulous blog. She has a new cookbook that just came out and this recipe is in the book. I hope the rest of the recipes are just as good!

The kids ADORED them! Even with no butter on top!

We were seriously fighting over every last one of them.

I snuck the last 2 for myself! Don't worry - I plan on making more this week sometime so I'm not THAT mean of a mom. ; )

The weather has been lame the past few days and from what I hear - the trend is going to continue. So the kids spent some time outside today even though it was NOT warm. Looks can be deceiving!

Ok, THIS has to be the last of it! I know I said this last week (and most likely I jinxed it) but this time it has to be true! It just has to!

For those keeping score, Eric's prediction of ice out TODAY was wrong. I might have a shot with my guess of tomorrow (April 18th). It is looking really, really thin this evening. I will be gloat-y gloater-son if I win! Woohoo!

I love how intense he looks!

He wasn't liking the sun in his eyes. Apparently the sunglasses didn't help though cuz he wanted to stop playing right after this.

And this brings us to tonight's dinner. I had bought a ham from Cub this past week for a pretty sweet deal - 89 cents a pound! So it fed us for 4 days now - and there's still some left! Score! So tonight I decided to veer away from the ever popular sandwich route. This was pretty good! Its a Broccoli, Ham and Pasta Salad from Eating Well.

I didn't use all the things the recipe called for, but only cuz I didn't have it all on hand. I used brown rice fusilli from Trader Joes instead of whole wheat pasta. I also didn't use any plain yogurt, but only because we didn't have any and it was just fine without it. This is definitely a keeper! It will be a great summer time salad for sure! I was the only one who ate it with spinach - its definitely not a necessity, but I like spinach - so there!

Well, Dylan's movie night feature film (Toy Story) is nearly over, so must go wrangle him into bed. Tomorrow is picture day at school, so he's gotta get his beauty sleep! : )

Later!

Gettin' Springy...

2011-04-14T19:21:00.001-05:00

Ahhh, spring. It sure is lovely isn't it? This lone flower always pops up first amongst the tulips. Every year, it is the first riser.

I LOVE when our furniture and grill come out. Makes summer feel all that closer. The kids are always happy to see the toys they had forgotten they owned.

Avery is still working on her sharing skills. In her defense, the car was stolen out from under her, so she had a right to be mad.

As you can see, Dylan really cares.

Ha! This totally isn't a posed picture. It just looks that way. They both happened to look at me at the same time for once.

These are her "play" sunglasses, so they don't really do anything to protect her eyes. You'll recall that her other shades are no more, so these were the next best thing or risk a tantrum.

If/ when we move, I sure hope our next yard is just as big as this.

What?! Do you think I was gonna let her go more than a day without proper sunglasses? She IS a girl, you know. We had to wear them INDOORS today as winter has returned again for a few days. Its COLD out. Booooooooo.

And like a true girl, she jumped at the chance to model them for me.

Little big, but she'll grow into them.

This calls for a dance!

Wait - what's on TV?

Nothing good! Back to dancing!

And while we were picking out sunglasses for her, she made sure that her brother got a pair too.

He'll do anything to try and get that one perfect picture. We did this over and over and over again.

Then it was tent time. Could be our last tent till Fall!

And finally, I had to pretend it was warm out while drinking my smoothie. I was wishing I was in that pink chair with the sun warming me.

This is just frozen peaches and mangos with almond milk. Sams Club has a frozen bag of Tropical Fruit right now and its fabulous. It has peaches, mangos, pineapple and strawberries. Delish!

My only wish is that I would have had a Vitamix to make it in. This took FOREVER! It was worth it tho cuz it was sooooo good.

Well, time to RELAX! Better go dig out my slippers. GRRR.

Spring Fun

2011-04-13T12:30:00.001-05:00

Well, there were more outside shenanigans yesterday. Falls from high places, mud, loons - to name a few. Yeah, Avery fell from the top rung of the ladder side (where Dylan is), hitting her head on the bar as she fell through. Awesome. : (

But she recovered quickly. There was too much to enjoy about the day. Check out one of our new mugs! Sweeeeeet.

More time was spent on the slide. The bane of my existence.

Alright, its not the slide I hate, its the stupid (or stinky, if you are watching your language) mud patch you see at the bottom of the slide. Most times she doesn't fall, but it takes just one time for a clean butt to turn into a muddy one. Mental note - must pick up laundry spray.

Then when we went for a walk, Avery noted it was "too BRIGHT!" and demanded my sunglasses become hers.

"GIVE THEM TO MEEEEEE!"

She always wins.

Millicent was out enjoying her favorite time of the year - which is anytime when there isn't snow to get on her dainty feet.

Then when I wanted my shades back, she was still demanding sunglasses of her own, so I was forced to go in and dig around to find hers. She got lucky that I found them. Sadly, there was an incident this morning and the glasses are no more.

Thankfully, Dylan knew right where his were. I love how they push his ears out.

He only wears them when he's riding on the road. He told me that sunglasses are only for when you are driving. Mmmmkay.

The loons are back! We've seen several! They most likely won't stick around. We'll get a pair that will stay, but the rest are just passing through on their way to their prospective lakes. Here's the zoomed in pic...

And the zoomed out pic...

As you can see, the ice is rapidly depleting. YAY!

Annnnnd my work here was done once Eric was done working. Mom turns into chopped liver at that point.

They decided to unload all the deck furniture, toys and bikes from Pontunia. Its becoming more real now - WINTER IS OVER!!!!!

More spring fun pics to come later and maybe a video. My niece Natalie made up an awesome song about Bath Toys that I am obsessed with, so I've been encouraging some creativity around here. So far, no dice, but I'm not giving up. These kids are going to perform and they are gonna LIKE IT!

Mushiness

2011-04-11T19:53:00.001-05:00

Well, we're taking guesses on what day the ice will go out. My guess is one week from today - April 18th. Eric's guess is April 16th. It made major progress today. Our bay is nearly all melted.

And this little pile here is what was left of our final (knock on wood) snowstorm. It melted today. Good riddance!

The kids spent a lot of time wrestling each other today. This isn't exactly what I meant when I said, "go play." Oh well.

Ohhhh to have the complexion of a toddler! It's not fair!!!

For some reason, this mask has been getting a lot of face time. Pun intended. They both think it's hilarious!

My ZIN (Zumba Instructor Network) 32 DVD arrived today, so we worked on our dancing skills. Clearly, the mask was needed. Gives the dancing a little more flair.

There is just something about latin music that makes them want to move. They always stop what they are doing when they hear Zumba music come on.

I love Avery in this one. She favors the Raggaeton rhythm and when she hears a song she really likes or knows, she gets pretty crazy.

After dancing, we went out to check on nature. Since the ice is going out, the wildlife are providing us with more entertainment than usual. You'll be happy to hear that we have seen a loon - so it looks like they didn't get oiled up in the gulf like we had feared.

The stuff you see in the water is ice chunks breaking off of the main mass of ice. Its NOT weeds. Yet.

Iceberg! Dead ahead! If you look closely, you can see 2 fools on the ice fishing. See them? They are the 2 specks directly above the right side of the iceberg.

Avery is loving the slide this year. I'm just hoping that the grass dries up pretty soon cuz they both got pretty muddy from their boots getting mud all over the slide and then their butts sliding into the mud from their boots. I'm soooooo not a fan of spring mushiness.

Finally, I was able to distract them away from the mushiness to go for a wagon ride.

It didn't last long and they made me turn around to go home. I've been waiting for Avery to be able to sit on the well cap! 2 years ago I took a picture of Dylan sitting on it while Avery was baking' away in my belly. Now here she sits.

Well, that is all for now! Chuck is all new tonight, so I've got a date with the couch and my husband! Later!

Picture Perfect Day

2011-04-06T20:19:00.001-05:00

Dylan and I took advantage of the warm weather and an unusually long nap from Avery and headed outside this afternoon. I think it was the warmest it's been all year today. Our snow is finally almost gone and the ice is looking heavier and heavier each day. Summer is coming people! Look alive!

What is crazy is there was a pickup out on the ice this morning. I mean, this ice looks really not safe. I just don't understand the logic (or lack there of) behind that.

As usual, we had to make use of the camera timer - our favorite! We did a few yoga poses together here too, but I was able to capture some better ones later on (see below).

Yeah, so he's wearing shorts already. He was wanting to try on his new summer clothes today and then he refused to take them off when I told him we were going outside. I tried!

He has NOT outgrown the "I don't want to smile nicely for you" phase yet. Boo.

Still pretty cute though.

And here was yoga time. I thought the bright sun would create a nice contrast with the ice and I was right! Fabulous!

He ditched me! Waah!

Then Avery got up and the sun went behind the clouds. Lame! (the clouds, not Avery)

As usual, Avery was not into the "stand by your brother and smile" directions. She never likes my ideas!

This idea was fun for ohhhh about 1 minute. And then it made her mad.

This idea made her mad too.

See, MAD!

Much better!

The swingset is surrounded by water, so I did NOT like THIS idea. MUD. Grrrrrrr.

BUT - guess who learned how to pump!?! Finally!

Our neighbor Ingrid is going to be so proud when she returns from Mexico. She tried to convince him to learn how to swing on his own last summer but he was having no part of it.

That's all for today! No food for you! I've been making things, but nothing worth noting. I did make some pretty awesome chimichangas, but didn't take a picture. Perhaps next time! We are off to the cities tomorrow so Eric can go to the Frozen Four. So, see ya later!

Spring has sprung!

2011-03-30T20:13:00.001-05:00

WHAT IS THIS!?! Almost can't even believe my eyes! And he had FRIENDS too! Light at the end of the tunnel, I tell you.

Yes, I decided it was time I get outdoors. Winter is about over (I think) so I can come out of hibernation now.

We took a "nice" one first, but of course - the "nice" one didn't turn out. Was blurry. So here is the "silly" one.

No one tells the Avos she can't walk in puddles.

Or Dylan, I guess.

Tonight we had blackened fish tacos. These were really good! The recipe is here and its from Cooking Light's March 2011 edition. I used catfish instead of tilapia (I didn't mean to, but thats what I ended up with!) and it turned out awesome. The sauce that the onions are supposed to chill in for a bit was on the mild side, so next time I think I'd try adding some chipotle pepper to it instead of the jalapeno pepper. Other than that, this was pretty good. For the kids, they just had fish with cheese on their tortillas and they seemed to like it. I think this would be good with some salsa, rice and black beans too! Can't wait to make them again and experiment a little!

And then after we were done eating, they kids took their pony out for a ride. Always a good time. For the camera person and the riders, anyway. ; )

Well, that's all from me!

Provencal Salmon Burgers

2011-03-29T19:58:00.001-05:00

I spent a fair amount of time in potty training land today. Its a wonderful place that doesn't require pants! It does, however, require crazy accessories!

Her "looks" today were serious cracking me up. But, any outfit sans pants is probably gonna be pretty funny. Wish I could show the full ensemble but clearly I cannot. Trust me tho - the pics are definitely gonna get some face time in oh...lets say 15 years when I'm needing some sort of payback. Longer if her Dad has something to say about it. ; )

This evening's meal was fab-u-lous! This is the Provencal Salmon Burger from March 2011 Clean Eating Magazine. Seriously good eats and I didn't even make the sauce that was supposed to go on it! (which looks fab too, but I didn't have a cucumber)

Here is the recipe:

Provencal Salmon Burgers

- 3 cups cauliflower and broccoli, each

- 1 tsp lemon zest

- 1 lb salmon fillets, cut into chunks

- 1 egg white

- 3/4 tsp herbes de Provence

- 5 kalamata olives, chopped

- 1 tsp capers

- 1 tbsp chopped red onion

- 2 tsp Dijon mustard

- olive oil cooking spray

-4 whole wheat buns

- Green leaf lettuce

Cucumber Yogurt Sauce

- 1/2 cucumber, peeled and seeded

- 1 cup nonfat plain Greek-Style yogurt

- 1 crushed clove garlic

- 1 tsp fresh lemon juice

Directions: In a medium saucepot, bring 4 cups water to a boil. Add cauliflower and broccoli. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes, until tender but firm. Remove veggies from pot and toss with lemon zest; set aside.

In a food processor, combine salmon, egg white, herbes de Provence, olives, capers, onion and Dijon. Pulse 3 or 4 times until mixed but still chunky. Form into 4 patties and set aside.

Prepare cucumber yogurt sauce: grate cucumber over a cheesecloth or clean towel. Wrap up cheese cloth or towel and squeeze tightly until all liquid is removed from cucumber. In a medium bowl, combine cucumber, yogurt, garlic and lemon juice; mix well.

Heat a saucepan on medium-high and mist with cooking spray. Place salmon patties in pan, mist tops with cooking spray and cook for 4 to 5 minutes per side.

To assemble burgers, place each salmon patty in 1 bun and top with 1/4 cup cucumber yogurt sauce. Add lettuce to burger, if desired. Serve with 1 cup broccoli-cauliflower mixture.

Serves: 4, Serving size: 1 salmon burger and 1 cup veggie mixture, calories: 372

In other news...OUR.SEPTIC.IS.WORKING. We got ripped off!!!!! Eric went out today to check on it (and I prepared for the worst with a big glass of wine and a few deep breaths) and came in and announced that it IS, in fact, working. So we tested it out with a load of laundry and he could tell it wasn't frozen. And he thinks it never actually was! So, now comes the part where I call out Lon's Septic Service in Hillman, MN. DON'T USE THEM!!! They ripped off our neighbor too I guess! LIARS! They came here twice and were probably laughing' it up each time they left. We'll spread the word tho, Lon! So look out!

Thats all for now! G'night!

Fitness Friday - Zumba Love!

2011-03-25T08:52:00.001-05:00

So I start teaching Zumba tomorrow morning! I was finally able to get into the studio and use the mic yesterday so now I actually feel like I'm ready to do this. It seems silly to be so nervous about teaching a fitness class! But when you have to dance, cue, try not to fall off the platform, smile and look around the room at your participants - it CAN be kind of nerve wracking. And I haven't even done the last 2 things yet (it feels weird to smile at no one! LOL)! But it all seemed to really come together yesterday, so I'm feeling confident that tomorrow will go well. I am co-teaching tomorrow with the Zumba instructor who already teaches at the YMCA (where I will also be teaching). She is going to do a few songs and then I will do 4-5 songs plus the cool down. It should be fun! She usually gets a crowd of 30-40 people, so I would be lying if I said I wasn't a tad nervous. But excited too! And then I will be teaching class on Thursday mornings for now. Hopefully I'll have more classes soon! Anyway, I thought I'd upload a video and embarrass myself a little. Hey - if I can't share it with the world, then how can I actually do it in front of people?! Right?! So here ya go! Click on the link again, cuz like last time - can't figure out how to embed a video here.

http://www.youtube.com/user/trishthedish79?feature=mhum#p/a/u/0/YFwJ9M57huM

SnotRod Soup

2011-03-25T06:37:00.001-05:00

Good morning! The house is quiet and its "mama time" so I thought I'd let you peek at some of yesterday's happenings. The kids and I went for a walk to the bridge because the ducks are all starting to return. There is open water there so thats where they all hang out. So we went to take a gander.

The big white ones standing on the ice are the Trumpeter Swans. If I had a savvy well marked blog, I'd link you back to the pictures I took of the Trumpeters two years ago. Actually, I think Eric may have taken the one that turned out great. ??? I can't remember. Anyway, they needed to come closer. Could barely see them. : (

Avos was mad about that too. She wanted to GET THOSE BIRDS!

Can you tell they are posing for me? LOL! I said, stand together and look at the ducks. They did just that. And it only lasted a few seconds and then Dylan turned around and said, "done?" Uggg. I guess. ; )

Avery took his hat and then he pushed her down trying to get it back. That was the end of out time outside. She was angry!

Today's soup de jour - SnotRod Soup. Yeah, so I made up that name to please Dylan. I've made this soup quite a few times and its always a hit with the kids. Avery laps it up pretty quickly! Well, not so much yesterday. She was being "difficult" yesterday. Finally I just gave up and took her out of her highchair. Then Eric came down from his office and wouldn't ya know it - the little turd ate it just fine for him! She requested seconds even. Lame, Avos, LAME! Especially since this really is one of her favorites. And for good reason. Its pretty fabulous.

SnotRod Soup

Adapted from Williams Sonoma catalog! (LOL)

1TB olive oil

1 yellow onion, chopped

4 cups butternut squash puree (I used 2 15 ounce cans, but if you cant find that - you'll have to roast your own and puree it yourself)

1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and thinly sliced

2 cups chicken stock (or vegetable if you want this to be a veg meal)

2 small bay leaves

3 tsp salt, plus more to taste

1/4 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp grated fresh ginger (tip: I keep my ginger in the freezer so I always have some on hand)

In saute pan over medium heat, add olive oil and onion. Cook until soft. Transfer onion to slow cooker. Add butternut squash puree, apple, stock, bay leaves, 3 tsp salt, coriander and ginger to slow cooker. Stir to combine. Cover and cook for 2 hours. I did mine on high for 1 hour and then low for the rest of the time. You can leave it all in there for longer than 2 hours if you want. Just don't have the temp on too high or it might burn.

Discard bay leaves. Using a stick blender (or if you have to, a blender or food processor) puree the soup until smooth. I like to serve this with crusty bread or sandwiches. Enjoy!

The white stuff you see there is a dollop of greek yogurt. It didn't add anything, so next time I'd omit it. We've put sour cream in it before and that was good though! : )

Well, since it's Fitness Friday - I will have another post for you shortly. Now....if only I could figure out how to imbed a video here....hmmm. Stay tuned!

Snow.

2011-03-24T05:04:00.001-05:00

We didn't have much snow last night when we went to bed. Well, we do now! Dylan keeps reminding me that it won't be here for long because its spring now. Wise boy.

And you just know he had to try and climb it!

Avery was angry because the deep snow slowed her down too much. I had to go out and rescue her in a snowbank because she was laying there like a slug. She never revived after that. Instead, she just sat there whining away.

So my attempt at a cute brother/sister snowbank pic was a no go.

This is a sammy from yesterday evening. It was just so-so. Its ground chicken with marinara sauce and it was just too messy. The recipe was in Cooking Light from this month. You can find it here. I dunno - maybe you like messes?

And today I had to make more of the dip I'm obsessed with. Ahhhhh! Its so good! Its good with pita chips, veggies, on sammies or if you are wanting a faster method to get it into your mouth - use a spoon! Works great!

And in an effort to avoid making more dough balls, I decided to make banana soft serve instead. If you haven't made it yet and you own a food processor then shame on you! Does this or does this not look like ice cream?! All it is is frozen bananas that have been processed for a few minutes! The brown blob is dark chocolate peanut butter.

Finished product. This seriously cures any hankering you might have for ice cream. Its sooooo good. Even without the dark chocolate peanut butter, I swear!

Well thats all for now. My TV and couch are calling my name! Have a good night!

Farewell 'Berdeen

2011-03-20T06:51:00.001-05:00

Well, we are heading home today after our weeklong stay at Grandma and Grandpa H's house. Back to reality. No more running water, flushing toilets or taking long showers and giant bubble baths for us! Yep, still waiting on the septic to un-freeze. Can't wait to get home! ; )

Here are some of the happenings from the last couple of days here. See anything funny in this picture?

Oh Rock-o! So funny! He stood there motionless for quite awhile. He didn't want in or anything. He was just hangin' out.

Grandma's lack of Kodiak Cakes was shocking. So I had to make pancakes from scratch. These were pretty good I must say!

Grandma's daily nap. It was nice and cozy with D and the dogs.

Making pizza with my assistants.

This pizza got the thumbs down from D. He said there wasn't enough toppings. He may have been right. Oh well. But apparently he's never heard of the "even if its bad, its still pretty good" rule of pizza. Words to live by.

Avery worked away at her computer. She kept playing her favorite tunes and then she'd get up to dance to them. Hmmm.....perhaps she's copying me? Zumba practice is rubbing off on her! Tho, my routines aren't to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. But she makes it work.

Seriously gorgeous child. And its a good thing too. She's been extra naughty the past few days. Will she EVER stop trying to eat EVERY random thing she finds?!?!?!? SERIOUSLY!

Painting time with Grandma. Her idea! She didn't factor in the Avos factor though. So we had to be on the lookout for...

SNEAKY PETE! She pops up often.

"FINE!" says Sneaky Pete. "I'll play with Creepy Baby."

And finally, enjoying some popcorn from our future popcorn machine. It will be ours. Oh yes, it will be ours. MUAHAHAHAHAHA!

Well, catch ya later from Hillman! Where the water doesn't run freely and the internet is slooooooooow. Fun times!

St Patty's Day shenanigans

2011-03-18T06:55:00.001-05:00

Nothing says St Patty's Day like Vegan Samoa Cookies??? Its a stretch. But the cookies WERE a nice touch for yesterday. Avos clearly agreed.

How could she NOT? These were delicious!

You can find the recipe here. Loved these!

Dylan was a fan as well. Not that I didn't think he would be.

In the afternoon, my friend Cindy and her two kids came over for some St Patty's Day shenanigans. The kids enjoyed dancing to a Zumba instructor dvd. It got turned off at one point and there was a protest of sorts. The people love their BOOMBA!

Then we tried to take a group photo and wouldn't ya know it - Avos got mad! What?!

She seriously cracks me up. She was mad for no reason at all! I like how Dylan is amused by all of this. For a moment or two, I thought he was thinking of cheating on Melissa with Cindy! Wuh-oh! No worries tho Melissa - he made you a new picture yesterday. You're still his number one gal!

Thanks for hangin' out with us for the afternoon, C-dawg! It was fun!

Well, thats all for now. No real plans have been made for today other than an afternoon Zumba class. I've hit up 3 different instructor's classes here so far and will hit up another gal's class today. Its been fun but also confusing as I hear a lot of the same songs but with different choreography. I must look like a crazy person trying to adapt! Oh well! Its fun seeing the different styles of instructors.

Later!

BERdeen.

2011-03-16T21:25:00.001-05:00

Dylan, Avery and I are at my parents house for the week. I think I said that in my last post? Its been awhile. Sorry about that! I get distracted when out of my normal habitat. I'll work on it. I know a certain someone who was probably fighting the urge to call me and ask what the problem was. His name starts with a D, ends with a Y and has ANN in the middle. He's very loyal, but also a slave driver. I ought to make him do a guest post so he can see what this takes. Ha!

Anyway, when we were here at Christmas, Dylan had brought along a gingerbread train to construct with Grandma. Well, once again, we were distracted by other activities and it was forgotten. Have no fear! The St Paddy's Day Gingerbread train is here! Woo woo!

Avery's first braid! I distracted her with candy to get the job done. Very sneaky.

And she lobbied for MORE, MORE, MORE!

I've been working on my Zumba routine this week and my Mom's been giving me shit for my "hair cutting face" that I apparently have when I'm dancing (aka, thinking). HERE is HER "hair cutting face." HA! Take that, Mom!

Dylan loves coming here because he gets to watch lots of TV with Grandpa. Yesterday I came home from Zumba class to find him watching Modern Family. Ummmmm. ??????

Finished product - prior to the gradual deterioration we've been watching the past few days. (sneaky fingers. For the record, this is all NEW candy - not the crap that came with the train)

When we got here, we were amazed by the snow! We don't have this much. So I took pics of it. Its melted a lot though since we've been here.

You can't even see the mailbox!

I made him go out and stand by the snow bank for perspective purposes. He didn't want to.

He's wearing my shoes.

This guy flew in from Texas. He'll be flying to White Earth Lake in May or so.

Up to no good? Always.

Today's lunch = delish. This is Rachael Ray's French Style Tuna Melt. It was so good that I ate TWO of what you see here. TWO. Plus chips.

And finally, Dylan wanted a picture of his ice cream from tonight. Fancy!

Tomorrow I'm planning to make some vegan Samoa cookies. Can't bring myself to buy processed girl scout cookies, so these better live up to my high expectations!

Later!

Mr Slapshot

2011-03-13T10:37:00.001-05:00

I cannot figure out how to post a video, so please follow the link. Surely there is a way, but my patience is lacking right now. The kids and I are off to Aberdeen for a week while Eric works long hours this week in preparation to go play with his friends at the Final Five hockey tournaments in Minneapolis this coming weekend. Trishy no likey long amounts of time alone! So, off we go to Grandmas. Here is a video for your viewing pleasure by Eric.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyJK0CxX8LU

Later!

OH and please excuse Avery's morning time hair. I purposely included her in the video clip b/c of its funny-ness!

Young Love Part 2

2011-03-11T19:34:00.001-06:00

As noted in yesterday's post, Dylan has fallen in love with my cousin Melissa. Today she requested he draw a picture of her wearing a big hat with a kitty cat resting on her shoulder. Challenge was accepted. Truth time - I drew the cat. The awesome glasses were his idea though.

Then in the afternoon, it was mail time. Every day he asks me if he got anything in the mail and almost always my answer is, "no." Today, the answer was YES! He had been expecting a letter from his girlfriend complete with hand drawn pictures. And you just KNOW that I HAD to take a sequence of photos documenting him opening his first "love" letter. HA! He was so excited...

I love how he starts to get shy here, like she's looking at him looking at the pictures or something.

This one especially - he's so cute!

This is why he was making that face. She drew a picture of the place where their love first blossomed - the condo at South Padre Island. They spent a lot of time discussing this building. How many floors it had, how the other buildings around were just not quite as big, etc, etc. It was "their building."

There were TWO pictures in the envelope!

It made him laugh. It was some sort of creature.

Hopefully Melissa got her letter from him today too. She deserves a little love as well for making his day! The saga will continue I'm sure...stay tuned!

Young Love

2011-03-10T20:00:00.001-06:00

While we were on vacation at South Padre Island, Dylan fell in love for the first time. With my cousin Melissa. Ever since then, he talks about her nonstop. He asks what she's doing, what she is eating, what she is doing at work, who does she talk to at work, can I call her on the phone (that was our battle tonight - I convinced him she was busy), can I go to her house, will she come to my house - it just goes on and on and on. Yesterday he drew a nice picture of her and we texted it to her. It was well received, so he felt he need to make more today. He has never shown much skill in drawing people until now. Apparently all he needed to get crafty was a crush!

She has a mustache in this one! He was quite amused by that.

Then he wanted to write her name with this one. When he runs out of room or the picture gets in the way - he puts the letters wherever there is room. The "3" was his first attempt at an "S."

This one is my personal fav!

And his last one for the day - she has a dress on here. And the line coming out of her head is her ponytail.

I'm not sure if Sissa can compete with Dylan's little sister though.

He was trying to teach her how to do an elephant stand and a somersault.

Here he is carrying her. She didn't seem to mind at all. I guess his sister will have to do until he can get together with Sissa again.

Sadly, this is all I have to say today. And I have more bad news too. Apparently this blog software was just a free trial, so I'll be going on hiatus again until I can come up with the moola to fund it. I've got 2 more days on the trial so we still have a little time together!

Trickery

2011-03-08T19:43:00.001-06:00

Would you believe that this cute little girl turned into a little tiny monster when I tried to help her get her dress on the right way? OH yes. She did. Right when we had to get going out the door too. I just love the "I can do it myself" stage! ; )

Dylan was quite pleased to get back to school this week after being gone on vacation. He came home OBSESSED with leprechauns and St Patrick's Day. I suggested we make a trap to catch a leprechaun and he was all over that idea. Its still a work in progress. We finished the top (not pictured) but we're still working on a ladder. I'm SURE we will catch one.

I got back into the kitchen today. I'm still having vacation withdrawals, but I think I'm slowing getting better. Avery is having withdrawals too. No more treats 24/7 and as much milk as a girl can drink when you're at home. Today I had to take drastic measure to make sure she consumed more than just milk, a waffle and a banana for the entire day. Behold - Dairy Free Carob Pudding.

TOTALLY tricked her. It has sweet potato, avocado, carob powder and dates in it. Muahahahahaha. It worked just as I hoped it would. But better.

She ate her bowl AND her brother's (unfortunately, the trick didn't work on him. Boooo. He still eats all his food for the most part though, so he's off the hook.). It tasted okay. I definitely need to let the processor run for long b/c the dates didn't get smooth enough. I'd totally make it again though, so I guess its a winner.

And here was my obsession of the day. This is Raw Vegan Cheddar Dip. Seriously good stuff. Totally tastes cheesy but there is no cheese in it. I started out with veggies but moved on to my arch nemesis, Stacy's Pita Chips. I'm addicted. Can't help it.

That is all for today. I've been so busy learning and practicing my Zumba routines that I barely have time for anything else it seems. My first class will probably be sometime in the next month and I'm hoping I'll get some time back then. I hope!

South Padre Island - Final installment

2011-03-05T19:56:00.001-06:00

Sigh. We are back home in MN now. And they are forecasting more snow for this week. Siiiiiigh again. I miss you Texas! And in honor of you, Texas, here is a montage of photos documenting our last day in the sun.

Eric and Dylan went on a Pirate Adventure cruise in the afternoon. Since I wasn't there, I can't comment too much on these photos. I just watched the video from the excursion though and it looked like Dylan really enjoyed it. Here are the pics that they picked out to show you all:

Dolphins AND pirates?! Two for one baby!

He actually volunteered to be a part of the sword fighting!

And finally, his tattoo. I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture of Eric's pirate mustache he had when we picked them up. It was stylin'!

Well, that is all from Texas. Back to reality I guess. And our reality kinda stinks (literally) because of MORE septic issues. SPRING?! Where are YOU!?!?!?!?

I promise...recipes will be back later this week. Right now we have an empty fridge (we are even out of milk and bananas - gasp! These are the only 2 things Avery willingly eats lately!) so I have to make a run asap to the store. We're starving!

K, later!

South Padre Island Part 4

2011-03-03T20:14:00.001-06:00

Good news! Sissa didn't stand Dylan up again! Woohoo!

Guess what we did yesterday?! We sat by the pool for several hours! I know, crazy.

And then we went to visit the turtles at Turtle Rescue Inc. Its a turtle rescue hospital that takes in wounded sea turtles. They either get better there or end up living there (if they are too injured to return to the ocean). The kids loved it last year and loved it again this year. These three turtles were being released back into the ocean in a few hours. We wished them well!

Mandatory pic with their fun sign!

Avery chatted up the "teeto teeto teetos!" This one actually looked like he was talking to her cuz he kept opening his mouth and looking at her. She was pleased.

And then we hit the beach. Eric said that Avery had been running down the sand dunes the other day and wanted her to do it again for pictures.

He made me do it too.

When I got down, he said I didn't do it with enough heart.

Avery had to do it again too.

And then I got my second chance.

This is the best picture of my stride that he could get?! Please. I could do much better.

He blamed me though. Said I didn't exaggerate it enough.

Then the kids played in the sand. Don't worry, we (unlike some other morons we know) picked up our can before we left.

Avery decided to tackle her brother. He had to grin and bear it because he was the one who taught her that.

I like how she's still smiling even though she has a mouthful of sand.

Then their new friend Tag stopped by to join in the fun.

Could Dylan be any sweeter?!?!?!

Avery has been quite enamored with the college girls. Likewise though. Obviously.

And then we just HAD to get all wet.

Some got more wet than others.

Despite the look on her face, she WAS enjoying herself.

And finally, here is our ice cream loot. They are all almost empty! Blue Bell gets 4 enthusiastic thumbs up from us!

Well, today is our last full day here so we gotta make the most of it! Back to MN we go tomorrow. Siiiiiiiiiigh.

South Padre Island Part 3

2011-03-02T07:44:00.001-06:00

Another couple of days in the sun for us! Minnesota is NOT going to feel good on Friday. Spring better arrive soon because we are really gonna miss this weather!

The spring breakers have officially taken over our area, so we've spent a lot less time in the pool. Maintenance had to take out a lot of the water and put in fresh with a ton of chlorine to un-do some of the damage they did (use your imagination). We're finding that before noon is "our time" in the pool. After noon, we go do other things. Yesterday we did sit by the pool in the afternoon to watch the spectacle. There was a head wound, boobies, beer bongs, profanity - the whole nine yards! Great for small ears and eyes to see! These kids have no respect for their elders or impressionable young minds! They're all paying for it right about now though. HA! Enjoy your hangovers, kiddies!

Anyway, onto the pictures...

The kids got more books about sea life. Dylan is loving them - Avery, not so much. She's a simple girl.

My new shoes - be jelly.

They are NOT shoes - they are sandals.

The next few pictures are for Uncle Jon. Dylan is ready for his official lesson from you!

Dylan's teammate - his new girlfriend, Melissa. So what if they are sorta related! Dylan is OBSESSED with Sissa. They started seeing each other a couple days ago and have broken up once so far. She stood him up for a tennis date (see below) but he quickly forgave his first love.

Any sport where Dylan is required to whack a ball - he excels at it. He has some work to do, but for the most part he was doing pretty well!

Here is yesterday morning on the beach. A hat is required for small ear protection. She gets this from me. I thought I was gonna lose an ear during my run yesterday morning. My ears! My ears!

Eric saw someone feeding the seagulls and decided he wanted to charm them too. First he tricked them with a shell, but switched to actual bread when the seagulls wised up.

Staged photos - I instruct him what to do for maximum cuteness and he does it.

Dylan's turn to feed the seagulls.

And Avery's turn.

Family pic!

And more tennis. This time with Avos and minus Melissa. This is when she stood Dylan up.

He didn't want to play with me, so his game suffered.

I tried showing him all my tricks (I have very few) and it didn't work.

Here we are discussing his heartache. I am trying to console him and remind him that no matter what, his mom will always be there for him.

He wasn't buying it. He wanted his Sissa.

Then Eric convinced him to work on his swing a little bit in case Melissa showed. Sadly, she never did. Instead, we hear she opted for a nap. Apparently she hadn't heard that naps are illegal in Texas (according to Dylan).

She rescheduled their date for this morning. Stay tuned to see if she shows. If she doesn't, she'll read this blog when she returns home to MN later today and feel pretty bad! HA HA Sissa! Being shamed on the internet! FOR SHAME!

South Padre Island Part 2

2011-02-27T21:15:00.001-06:00

Greetings from South Padre Island! There is a lull in the Oscar's so I thought I'd write a new post. It wasn't as foggy this morning as it was the day before, so we brought the camera on our morning beach walk. It's a shame I didn't have it the day before though, because Dylan acted as though his clothes were a wet suit. Today he was a little more tame. Sorry you missed it!

Avery was NOT a fan of the wind today.

He said I was at tall as the building. He lied!

I thought that the humidity and/or haze wasn't going to affect the camera/pictures, but I guess maybe I was wrong cuz this looks a little hazy.

Then I had to go up and get Avery's stocking hat and I came back to the beach to find several large holes.

And about 2 minutes after I got the hat, she tugged on my arm and said, "condo!" So back up I went.

Lots of other things happened today, but none of it was photographed. Lots of swimming, chip eating, treat indulging and gawking at the spring breakers. We'll rinse and repeat tomorrow! Later!

South Padre Island Part 1

2011-02-26T16:46:00.001-06:00

Did you miss me? I nearly died (cold from hell + a hives outbreak) and then we left for vacay! And now we're on vacay and our internet connection is poor. So who knows when this will get posted! Could be old news by the time it gets done. Anyway, here's a recap of our first day at South Padre!

More tomorrow!

Still here, but barely breathing

2011-02-21T06:15:00.001-06:00

Yes, you read that right - I am STILL sick. Its been 8 days. 8 days of not being able to breathe. 8 days with a sinus headache. And many days without workouts (I need my fix!). To make matters worse - I had an allergic reason to something and am now covered in hives! As if the worst. cold. ever. wasn't enough! I'm guessing it was Afrin nose spray that I'm allergic too. For a brief period of time I thought arugula was the culprit. Doesn't mean I'm going to "test" my theory. Just say no to arugula and Afrin! Gah! I can't even gather my thoughts to write this! The snot is seeping into my brain!

Anyway, just wanted to let you know that I'm still alive and I will be back whenever this illness and unnecessary hive break out are through.

Here's a fun picture to get you through this tough time. Photo Booth is just waaaaay too fun!

Excused Absence

2011-02-19T19:32:00.001-06:00

Once again, I have been taken down by sickness. Hence, my absence. I'm sure it went noticed too. I even got a phone call regarding this matter. I was (and still am) dying people! Okay, not DYING. But I can't breathe - so, close enough. Lucky for you, I still have people to feed and pictures to take even while sick. So here's your recap.

Day after Valentine's day - everyone enjoyed their treats from the day before except for me. I just laid around gasping for air.

Day after that, Avery entertained the weak and sick by tormenting the cat. I never miss turn down an opportunity to sit and watch Mux get bugged for once. Normally SHE is the one doing the bugging.

She secretly loves this attention though. If she didn't, she would have left.

"Hug, Milly????"

"I don't have time to look at you, woman. I've got a cat to love on."

"Milly, look at my toes. Look at how cute they are."

"Cute enough to EAT!" thinks Mux.

She just pulled her foot away and gave me a "look." Don't mess with me cat. I'm bigger than you now.

Dylan requested pizza last night and in my weakened condition, I said yes. Pizza is my crack. And my crack will make me feel better, right? So we made pizza. This is the dough recipe I used this time. Good stuff! This pizza is the one Dylan made.

And here is my pizza. My very own spinach, chicken and ricotta pizza.

And in an effort to cram more veggies into my system (in the hopes that they would cure me), I made this salad today. Its Wheatberry Arugula Salad from America's Test Kitchen Best of 2011 book. And while I'm mentioning it - why the heck do they call it best of 2011? Shouldn't it be best of 2010? 2011 hasn't happened yet! Anyway, it was good. Made a TON of salad.

There was no way I could eat all of it! It was very good though.

Well, that's all for tonight. I would say that I was going to go lay down. But that would be silly. My nose would plug up even more if I did that. If anyone knows how to cure me, PLEASE let me know.

Yes, I love technology

2011-02-15T11:51:00.001-06:00

The title of this post makes me laugh. Recently, Dylan was using my phone to play games and he loves the DVR so I was singing the song from Napoleon Dynamite to him. He didn't like my rendition. Not that he knows how Napoleon sings it, but oh well. Anyway, I'm testing this again. I emailed Mars Edit (the platform I'm using now) to see what I could do about the text spaces and they said I needed to edit my HTML code. Oh good, a chance to deal with technology. So thats what I did. And now we shall see if it worked.

Yes, I love technology! Not as much you, you'll see. But I still love technology.

Always and forever. Always and forever.

WORK!

Testing

2011-02-15T06:52:00.001-06:00

The blog is being a bad, bad blog and I must try to fix it. Bear with me.

Will you work, will you work????

Was it the pictures being too big? I just don't KNOW!

Anyone getting hungry?

No alignment this time.

Humor me here, blog. WORK!

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T20:55:00.001-06:00

I woke up to a wonderful gift this morning! And it's the kind of gift that just keeps on giving. A runny nose. And now I'm the brand new owner of a red, chapped nose too. A big thank you to my Valentine's - Dylan and Avery for that thoughtful gift. I'm pretty sure I know when it happened too - Avery coughed INTO my mouth. Think thats what did it. So now I have an insane head cold. I think I'll get over it faster than they did tho. Cuz see, I actually DO eat my VEGGIES (seriously, the green monster can cure anything!). And I have access to copious amounts of Emergen-C (which is fabulous stuff, I must say).

So what did we do today, you ask? Well, after school was over we came home and made these pretty babies:

I give you - Vegan Cupcakes with Vegan Buttercream Frosting. I'm looking out for my digestive system here, people. It needs gentle nurturing. And I knew there was not going to be much nurturing going on at dinner time. So it was the least I could do. Not that these are HEALTHY by any means. Just because they are vegan, doesn't mean they are healthy. I know - I made them. Sugar, sugar, sugar.

And there definitely wasn't a sugar shortage in this guy's system today. "Mom - can I have a treat for being nice to my sister?" "Mom! I was reallllllly good just now, can I have a treat?" "Mom! Its been 5 minutes since my last treat! Can I have a treat now?!" It's like Halloween and Christmas all over again. Treat detox is in the near future. He has an insane amount of treats from his school party and now I've added to the madness with cupcakes. What?! I need treats too! And I would prefer they are NOT in the form of sweet tarts and pixie sticks.

Avery enjoyed her cupcake. Thoroughly. She made sure that every last crumb made its way to her belly.

What did NOT make its way to her belly was this fabulous dinner I made. Homemade Enchiladas from America's Test Kitchen's Best of 2011 book (you can get it at Walmart, I just noticed). These were awesome! Why in the heck she didn't want to eat them - I don't know. Eric tried bribing her with "treats" and it didn't work. Perhaps b/c the treats were peanuts and croutons. I just love listening to her beg for croutons though. Wish I had a video clip of it because she is just way too cute! Anyway - I made the meat in the crockpot (not what the recipe said to do, but whatever - it worked just fine) and so it simmered all day long and made the house smell yummy. Can't wait for leftovers tomorrow at lunch!

Treat boy and his balloon that his sister so lovingly picked out for him at the store. Okay, I'm lying. I suggested she pick one for Dylan, but I know she was just thinking "MINE! MINE! MINE!" Sharing is not her forte.

I have bad news for the persons who made this valentine for Avery (and the ones for us too). She took all the letters and all the misc decor and ate them. Okay, she didn't EAT them. But she TRIED to eat them. So they had to be tossed. And I know you all worked so hard!

See - this is what she gets for not sharing and eating valentines! Take that Avos!

Well, I must take my nose to bed. I suppose it will be pleasant sleeping. Ha. Later!

Wonky

2011-02-12T20:37:00.001-06:00

There was an incident today. And no, nothing froze on my watch for once. It was semi-warm-ish outside, so we decided we better suit up and get some fresh air. Dylan assumed the position. He knows the drill.

"Put Avery next to me!" Okay.

"Avery! Avery! Smile for mom! Smile, Avery!"

Give her a hug, that will work!

Avery trying to ignore his pleas (and mine).

Come on Avery! Humor us!

How about a kiss? Will that cheer you up?

NO!

BUahahahaha! Totally caught a fun brother/sister fight on camera! Loved it!

Then, since Avery couldn't ride on the snowmobile, we hit the road in the bike cart. Didn't get too far tho b/c the front wheel is all wonky. So we had to modify and tip it back to get it to go.

We tried to walk to the bridge to see if the otters were out sunning themselves, but with the wonky bike cart and the dang snowmobilers - the side road was a better choice. We call this, "Carol's Road." A lady named Carol lives on that road. Carol rocks the short shorts while mowing. Did I just say that? Too much information? I have more dirt on Carol, but I'll save that for telling you about - oh - never! Anyway, back on topic. Dylan is making "dinosaur tracks" here and asking if I think the snowmobilers will be scared when they see said tracks. YES.

Then he asked to take pictures of us. I agreed. (I bet you see where this is going)

"Okay Mom! Run!"

"I got it! Another one!"

"Whoops!"

And that was the incident. The point and shoot took a nasty fall. Normally, he recovers so well, but this time was different. He's not moving.

See how that lens is a little wonky?

I'm hoping Mr Fix It can fix it when he gets back from his old man hockey tournament. I read online that if we take a little eyeglass screwdriver and gently stick it in there and give it a little lift that it will spring back into place. I hope so anyway!

Well, I must now unwind with my tea. I sure do miss my other half when he's gone! It was a LONG day.

New Mac!

2011-02-11T21:29:00.001-06:00

It's here! It's here! It's finally here! My new Mac! Who wants a crack at naming this beauty?

Noticed how fun it was that my reflection was so crisp on her purdy screen. Felt compelled to take another pic.

So we're just getting to know each other. Kids are LOVING the Photo Booth application.

And I'm busy trying to figure out a new blog platform. My SIL Renae is trying to convince me to stick with Blogger's platform as she says it has improved since I last used it. Right now I'm trying out Mars Edit. I'm liking this, but we'll see.

Anyway, loving it so far! SO excited to have it! : ) (My emoticons are gone! waaaah!)

Sitting, waiting, wishing

2011-02-11T09:04:00.001-06:00

I’m busy stalking our UPS man today. My new Macbook Pro arrives this afternoon. Its going to be a lonnnnnnggggg day waiting for it to show up. My luck, it will arrive damaged or something and Trishy will LOSE IT! LOL. It better not. I know this computer is going to lift MY winter spirits….but what about these kids??? They’ve been sick for the last week or so. Both seem to have a cough and cold. Crusty noses. Avery had pink eye. It was good times around here.

I made soup to try and fix them. I bet you can guess that no one ate it but me!

This was good though. It’s from Skinny Bitch: Ultimate Everyday Cookbook by Kim Barnouin. She is vegan, so clearly this is a vegan soup. I like that because I seem to be having “issues” with dairy lately and have noticed I do A LOT better when I don’t eat any dairy products. Anyway, this is the Black Bean and Tomato Soup. But to be honest, it was more like a red pepper soup to me. It tasted VERY red peppery. Which I like. I tried convincing Dylan that if he ate the soup, he would have SUPER EYES but it didn’t work like it has in the past. I blame it on sickness. He hasn’t even been eating his eggos and that’s just NOT like him. Here

‘s the recipe, if you are interested:

Black Bean and Tomato Soup

Skinny Bitch Ultimate Everyday Cookbook

Kim Barnouin

Makes 6 servings

2 tablespoons grapeseed oil (I used safflower oil, but you could use olive oil too I’m sure)

1 small onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 large red bell pepper, chopped

1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin

2 15 ounce cans black beans, rinsed
1 28 ounce can stewed tomatoes
1/2 cup corn, fresh or frozen
3 cups vegetable broth (I omitted this entirely – I think this is a type-o in the book because had I included it – this soup would have been WAAAAAAAAY too watery)
1 cup water
1 tsp dried oregano

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tsps worcestershire sauce
Juice of half a lime
1/2 tsp salt
1 TB chopped green onions
1 TB chopped fresh cilantro

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and saute 3 to 4 minutes. Add the garlic and red bell pepper, and saute about 30 seconds. Add the chili powder and cumin, and stir until well combined. Add the black berans, tomatoes, corn, water, oregano, red pepper flakes and worcestershire sauce. Stir and simmer about 15 minutes. Transfer half of the soup to a blender or food processor. Let sit about 10 minutes to cool and then blend until creamy before returning to pan. Add the lime juice and salt. Stir and simmer 5 minutes. Garnish with the green onions and cilantro.

I didn’t do the whole blender/food processor step and just used my stick blender to blend it all up in the pan. It takes a little while to get it all blended up evenly, but it sure beats washing more dishes! What would REALLY be awesome is if I had a Vitamix and I could just do it all in that. Did you know that you can bring soups to a boil in a Vitamix???? A Vitamix is DEFINITELY on my wish list. Seriously – go look at their website and the recipe section and try to tell me that YOU don’t want one too. They can pretty much do anything! Guess I’ll have to look around the house for more things to sell so I can get one cuz they are $$$. But really, I think its something I would use on a daily basis so I think it will be worth it for me. Now, what to sell….anyone want a small blonde boy with a matching baby sister? Just kidding! But really, it’s going to have to be high ticket items that will get me this blender (read: things I don’t REALLY want to get rid of, but will have to part with in order to get this blender). Okay, enough about the blender.

Back to my sick children. I just wrestled Avery to the ground in an effort to wipe her nose. She is one tough baby. Her only defense is to drop to the floor and scream at me. Sadly for her, mommy is super strong! Ha! Dylan is better about it but used to be the same way. I

know what will make them all better though – sunshine.

We go to South Padre Island 2 weeks from today and I think that will be what finally cures us.

Plus, it will be nice that we can flush the toilet and do laundry down there! Yeah, I think when I wrote my last post, I was in the midst of dealing with getting the septic tank pumped. Since then, we’ve been told its partially frozen and we can only put 1200 gallons of water into it before its full again. So this means, flushing the toilet for poo only (yay), doing laundry at a laundry mat (yay again) and taking super short showers. And many other unpleasant things until it thaws out sometime in April. Shoot me now, people. Shoot me now.

Well, I have to go sit by the front window and wait for my computer. Catch ya later on my MAC!

Zumba Instructor Training

2011-02-08T06:45:00.001-06:00

What? I was gone again? So sorry about that! Life got in the way the last few days. I was gone to Minneapolis for Zumba instructor training (!) and then when I got back, Eric left for a business trip and we’ve been busy busy busy ever since. And things just got even more awesome last night because our “shitter is full!” Yep, the septic tank needs to be pumped. Why, oh WHY, do these things always seem to happen when Eric is not here?! Like when the pipes froze 2 winters ago?! Fun times for Trishy! So anyway, its gonna get kinda stinky around here today (and possibly tomorrow since it can’t be pumped in sub zero weather). NOT looking forward to it.

Well, how about something a little more pleasant. Zumba! The instructor training was, in a word - AWESOME. The instructor who taught us all day was just a breath of fresh air with a fun personality and was an amazing dancer. We started out by taking her master class and dancing for an hour led by her. The music was so loud and moved through you in such a way that you just wanted to keep going and going. When that hour was up, it was kind of a let down, but at the same time – exciting because it really gave us all something to strive for – giving a class JUST like that. I mean, I had goose bumps the whole time because it was just such a fun experience. I can only hope I am able to be HALF the instructor she is someday because if I am – that will be enough for me. She really did make the class and I often hear from my fitness friends who take Zumba that its the instructor that makes or breaks the class. So, I have a lot to live up to! The rest of the day was spent breaking down the 4 main rhythms of Zumba dance and dancing several songs in each rhythm. So, basically, we danced ALL DAY. Which was actually quite fun! Definitely draining, but the songs she picked were always so great that once you heard the music, you forgot how tired you were and just went with it. We also got a lot of written information and some DVDs and CDs of choreography and music to work on in preparation for our first classes. I need to learn 10-12 songs for my 1st class. I already have 1 song down (from before the class) and I just started on 3 more this morning. Problem with this plan though, is that I can’t hear the music very well at 5am because I have to have the volume down so as not to wake my peeps up. So I might have to re-evaluate my plan of action. And I’m also supposed to listen to my music CONSTANTLY. This is the first time Eric is hearing this, so get ready honey! LOL! You’re gonna love turning Latin! The kids have already converted and can speak fluent Spanish! They really ARE enjoying the music though. I turn it on and they immediately start smiling and dancing. There’s just something about it! I don’t know what it is about this music – but it really does make you want to shake it! Avery even gets a little mad when I turn it off. She starts yelling, “BOOMBA! BOOMBA! BOOMBAAAAAA!!!!!” I can’t wait til she’s old enough to come to class and be my mini me dancing in my class!

So anyway, it was lots of fun and I’m nervous and excited about teaching my first class. I KNOW without a doubt, that I CAN do this. But its going to be A LOT of preparation to get ready to teach my 1st class. I think after I get over that hurdle, that it will become a lot easier. People all over the world are doing this every day and are doing awesome at it. So why can’t I? Ya know!? So, I will be busy busy busy with learning my combinations. So forgive me if there are less blogs and less pics of recipes, etc. At least for a little while. Though, the instructor did say that I can expect to lose 5-10 pounds while learning my 12 songs for my 1st class. And if I DON’T want to lose weight (which I don’t) then I have to start eating more. So perhaps there will be food pics! LOL! But you better believe that there is going to be some Latin FLAVA in each meal – even if it means that I am dancing while cooking. That’s somethin!

So, get ready for Zumba with Trishy because it’s coming people! Wish me luck!

Oh and here’s a couple of things I need to mention – 1. My new Macbook Pro will be arriving sometime this week! So this means I will be blogging from a new TBD platform. If anyone has any recommendations, please GIVE THEM TO ME. I am gonna seriously miss Windows Live Writer I think. BUT – I will have a new Mac, so there’s that! Yay!

2. I kinda dropped the ball on Shuttercal. There, I got it off my chest. Shuttercal is dead. Let’s all just get over it and move on. Though, I’m sure that no one really kept up on it this time judging by the lack of comments (jerks!).

Okay, well, I think I will try to take some kiddy pics today of my little latin dancers. So that gives you something to look forward to! Hopefully our stinky-ness doesn’t translate into our photos too much!

Later!

Happy Birthday Eric!

2011-02-04T06:27:00.001-06:00

Happy 34th Birthday to my wonderful husband! Today is Eric’s birthday, but we had to celebrate last night since I leave for Minneapolis this afternoon for Zumba training tomorrow morning. I spent all afternoon working on this masterpiece:

This frosting was like BUTTAH. Well, thats probably b/c it WAS mainly, all, BUTTER. Oh well! It was worth it! The

dinner request by the birthday boy was steak and salad – and what goes better with steak and salad than popovers!? So that was my input. The popovers. They popped this time, but got a little too toasted on the top. I dunno.

Then it was time for presents. The kids happily helped.

Dylan was a little upset that there were NO presents for him. He had suggested we get Daddy a little tractor for them to “play with together” as his present to Eric. But I didn’t follow through on that one.

Instead, I followed through on my own ideas! Cuz, clearly, my ideas are the best.

I hope to fill up some more of these spaces with photos from our upcoming vacation!

And then it was cake time. Don’t you just LOVE recycled candles?! For the record, they went in the garbage after the cake was done. I think that “3” has been chewed up one too many times.

OH and here is the card that Avery picked out. It has singing cats in it. They meow “Happy Birthday” and its awesome. At least, Avery and I think its awesome.

My baking assistant, proud of his work. And the little sister who spent the afternoon wrapped around my legs screaming.

I don’t know HOW he managed to blow all those out!? He’s SO old! Dylan offered up his expertise. If you’ll recall, he showed off his skills at his own party and everyone got a little taste of his saliva on their cake!

Mmmmm…cake.

Beauty shot of a slice. The recipe can be found here. This was some seriously good frosting. Especially if you are a coffee lover. I think I’m really only interested in eating the frosting later today and that’s so not like me! Normally, I scrape the frosting off my cake! So, that must tell you how good the frosting is, am I right?

Well, that’s all I have for you on the birthday excitement. Happy Birthday again to my hubby! You are truly the best gift I have ever been given and I hope you feel the same way about us! Especially since your gifts were nothing to write home about!

That’s all from me for today! I’ll be back on Monday with a full report on the Zumba training!

2011-02-01T19:56:00.001-06:00

Back from my monthly leave of absence! Everyone is gearing up for mom’s big Zumba-a-thon (aka instructor training class) this weekend including Avos – who never turns down an opportunity to dance. Whether its to her brother’s police car that blares the song, “Bad boys! Bad boys! Whatchya gonna do?!” or my dance dvds – Avos is always ready to break it down. And yesterday was no exception. Notice her cute little tracksuit – well, half of it. She, like her brother, refuses to wear sweatshirts in the house. I wonder who they get it from??? Anyway, its really cute.

As is Avery herself. “Tute.”

She plays so nicely on her own. Dylan never did and still struggles with it. Must be first child syndrome!

She will sit and play quietly on her own for long amounts of time. Dylan could learn a thing or two! He’s always needing someone to play with him or be near him. Apparently I spoiled him when he was little????

So yes, this picture is a bit weird. Pictures of meat are weird. And believe it or not – this is “Eat Clean Diet for Family and Kids” Sloppy Joes. Why is it on a bed of spinach, you ask? Well, cuz I wanted to! It was good, but very crumbly and lived up to its name when in a bun. Sloppppppy.

It does look interesting too you though, right? LOL

Reason for the crumbliness is my new favorite kitchen gadget courtesy of my mother-in-law Kim. Thanks Kimmy, I’m loving it! Here’s a picture of it – its the Mix and Chop tool from Pampered Chef.

Daily photo of daily greens!

And tonight’s fare which was just okay. This is the Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chili from Eating Well. I just feel like I’ve had a lot better black bean based soups (and this really was more like a soup to me).

I of course had to puree it up for my people to eat.

It definitely wasn’t BAD and I’ll for sure be eating the leftovers, but it just lacked something. Oh well! You don’t find the good ones by not making and trying new things!

Well, that’s it for now! Couch is beckoning me! OH and before I forget, I’m still keeping up on Shuttercal, so be sure to check it out.

Orange Chipotle Chicken

2011-01-28T20:07:00.001-06:00

Oh, we SEE you’re back for more????? Yes! We’re so excited!

Wait – you’re not just here to see us? You want food too? Boooooo. Well, food there will be today. Get ready to become hungry. I’ve blogged about these cookies before (maybe even twice before, I think??) but they are just so dang good that I can’t stop thinking about them. In fact, right now as I’m writing this – I am doing everything in my power NOT to go grab one. I’ve had 3 today and that’s probably enough! These are the Carrot Oatmeal Cookies from 101 cookbooks, you’ll recall.

OH man – I could just EAT this picture. Hey – and can you tell that I am trying to make the best of the daylight for pictures lately! Yay! Can’t wait for summer food pics though. I’ve had enough winter darkness.

Speaking of winter – kids went for a ride on the snowmobile today with Eric. Its not my most favorite activity for them (its stinky and somewhat dangerous) but it definitely helps to have them out of my hair when I’m working on pulling off an awesome meal for them when they come in.

Today’s special: Orange Chipotle Chicken from Clean Eating’s February 2011 issue.

INGREDIENTS:
-1 tsp chile powder
-1/2 tsp ground cumin
-1/2 tsp sea salt, divided
-1 tsp safflower oil (you could probably use olive oil if you wanted to)
-4 boneless skinless chicken breast, about 1 lb. rinsed, patted dry, pounded to 1/2-inch thick
-Juice 1 medium navel orange (1/3 cup orange juice)
-2 tbsp pure maple syrup
-1 tbsp chopped chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
-1 tsp orange zest
-2 cups cooked brown rice
-1/4 packed cup chopped cilantro leaves (I omitted this b/c Eric is NOT a cilantro fan. I know, weird.)

INSTRUCTIONS:
One: In a small bowl, combine chile powder, cumin, and 1/4 tsp salt. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet on medium-high. Tilt skillet to coat bottom lightly. Season both sides of chicken with chile-cumin mixture and cook for 3 minutes per side or until no longer pink in center. Remove from skillet and set aside.
Two: Add orange juice and maple syrup to juice and bits left in skillet and cook for 1 minute to thicken slightly (until it measures 1/4 cup liquid) stirring constantly. Remove from heat, stir in chipotle chiles in adobo sauce and orange zest. Add chicken back to skillet, return to heat and cook for 1 minutes on medium high turning constantly.
Three: In a medium bowl, combine rice, cilantro and remaining 1/4 tsp salt. Serve chicken over rice and spoon any excess glaze over top of chicken pieces.
Calories: 283, Fat: 4g, Carbs: 32g, Fiber 2g

The arsenal of ingredients…

Chipotle chili pepper and orange zest hanging out with the freshly squeezed OJ!

Chicken!

I chopped up the chicken and tossed it in the sauce that way. The recipe calls for you to leave the breasts as they are and toss them that way. I think chopping them up helped each piece to soak up the delicious juice.

Finished product! This was really, really good. I urge you to make it. Now. As you can see, I added broccoli. Children need vegetables, you know.

We decided to top it off with a delicious, healthy dessert. If you have never made Banana Soft Serve, well, I urge you to make this as well. Again, this is something I have blogged about before, but again – it deserves another mention. All you do is take 2 frozen bananas and put them in your food processor. Let it run for 5 minutes or so (scrape down the edges every so often) and voila – you will have ice cream. That’s it. So here are the frozen nanners. I recently bought 3 pounds of ripe bananas for 99 cents (SCORE!) so I have a bunch of bananas in the freezer just WAITNG to be used for this. I chopped them up straight from the freezer and it wasn’t a problem.

My assistant.

This is after a few minutes. The brown blob you see there is Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter. It gives the soft serve a little somethin’ extra. Taaaaasty.

Finished product. Seriously delicious. And good for you! All it is is bananas! (Well, and dark chocolate PB too – but it tastes just as yummy without, I swear!)

See – he agrees! Good stuff!

Well, that’s it for now. There is hockey to watch!

Fitness Friday ~ Zumba Fitness

2011-01-28T09:11:00.001-06:00

It seems like Zumba has just exploded in terms of popularity in the last few months! Or it could be just that it wasn’t on MY radar until a few months ago. It seems like once you get into something, that you start to hear about it or see it mentioned A LOT. I took my first live Zumba class a few months ago and I was immediately hooked. I danced from a very young age all the way up until I graduated high school and found that this was RIGHT up my alley. I walked out of that first class and told Eric something like, “that instructor better watch out - cuz I’m gonna take her job!” Now, fast forward a few months and I’ve decided to give that a go! I’m taking the Zumba Instructor training course next weekend in Minneapolis and I’m so excited to do this! I have never taught ANYTHING before, so I’m a bit nervous about actually teaching a class. I KNOW I can dance, but dance AND teach at the same time? I dunno. I’m hoping that after I take the class, I’ll feel more confident about my teaching abilities. I contacted our local YMCA to see about teaching there and it sounds like they are ready for more Zumba instructors due to how popular the class there has become. Right now, there is just the one instructor and only 3 classes offered per week. And all are at lame times, I must say. So I hope that by hiring me on – more people can get a chance to try out Zumba. It really is SO fun. You completely forget that you are “working out” because of how fun it. I know that a lot of people are a little shy about dancing in front of others b/c you are worried about how you might “look” or the ever popular excuse, “I’m extremely uncoordinated." I assure you – no one is watching you. No one cares about what you are doing. Everyone is so concerned with their own goofy selves that no one pays any attention to anyone else in the room. The workout always FLIES by and is always a lot of fun. So if you haven’t tried it yet – you really should! A friend of mine lost 4 pounds in the last few weeks from adding Zumba into her routine on a regular basis. So I think this is definitely a fun AND effective workout. And I’ll for sure keep you all posted on how the training course goes! I’m so excited!

Goat Cheese & Kalamata Panini

2011-01-26T20:04:00.001-06:00

Behold! My tasty lunch:

This is the Goat Cheese & Kalamata Panini from the February 2011 issue of Clean Eating. It was pretty much awesome. So awesome, that I’ve had it 2 days in a row for lunch. Well, that and I have a crusty loaf of bread to use up. Can’t let it go to waste!

I couldn’t find the recipe anywhere online, so I guess I’ll go ahead and type it out for you. You’re welcome!

Goat Cheese & Kalamata Paninis

Clean Eating Magazine, February 2011

Serves 4. Hands on time: 7 minutes Total Time: 11 minutes

Ingredients:

14 pitted Kalamata olives, chopped

1/4 cup finely chopped red onion

4 cloves garlic
2 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 12 ounce whole grain italian loaf bread, halved lenthwise
2 cups baby spinach leaves
2 1/2 oz goat cheese, crumbled
1 large tomato, sliced into 8 rounds
Olive oil cooking spray

Instructions:

One: In a medium bowl, combine olives, onion, garlic, basil, pepper flakes and vinegar. Place bread halves on a cutting board, cut side up and spoon olive mixture onto bottom half of bread. Top with spinach, cheese and tomato. Top with other half of bread and press down lightly to adhere. Using a serrated knife, cut bread into 4 equal pieces.

Two: Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Coat skillet with cooking spray, then add sandwiches. Add weight to sandwiches by covering them with a sheet of aluminum foil, then topping them with a dinner plate and a few bread plates. Cook for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes or until lightly golden on bottom. Remove plates and foil and flip sandwiches over. Again, place foil and plates on and cook 2 more minutes until browned on bottom. OR Do what I did! Use a panini press and safe yourself the headache!

So yesterday Dylan was messing with the magnets on the fridge and next thing I knew – he was doing this:

He figured out that magnets work on the garbage can, too! Not sure why he chose his cousin’s pictures, but um, okay?!

Avos watched from her perch and enjoyed her Green Monster. More shenanigans ensued today.

They wanted to dress up with scarves and hats. The mummy look was a big hit!

And tonight’s dinner – Carne Asada Chicken “Chipotle” Style Burritos. Basically, I was wishing we could have Chipotle and this is what happened. I marinated the chicken in Carne Asada sauce all day, broiled it up (broiler high, 5-6 minutes per side) and diced it up. Then added the usual fixings: brown rice, sour cream, cheese, pinto beans, salsa (and just now I’m remembering I had avocado too, but forgot! Dang it!!!!) in a whole grain wrap. Good stuff!

Well, that’s all for tonight. I’ve got some guilty pleasure television shows to catch up on!