Halloween

A week of pictures culminating in Halloween 2013.  [For Jared]

Aren't they adorable?    

Isabella carved her pumpkin by herself
she did a great job

Aiden liked his pumpkin so much he ask if he could keep it in his room.

                        Roasted pumpkin seeds

Our trees on a very foggy morning

Aiden wanted to make homemade peanut butter. It was a great idea! I already bought 2 more containers of dry-roasted unsalted peanut to make more. It was so easy, all I added to the peanuts was honey.

                              Reading...

 and thinking,..

and more reading

They always have to try a few spots until they find "the right one"

The leaves are already in beautiful shades of yellow, orange, red and brown...and as you can see the ground is already covered with fallen leaves.

 The kids making bread

This is a crusty walnut and dried cranberry bread

We decided to try needle felting (wool). We ended up with really cute hedgyhogs (hedgehogs)...

and echidnas.

Halloween on our doorstep

and here we all are, right after trick-or-treating

We have more candy than we could possibly eat. Now I have to find a place to donate some.

...and that is all for the week of Oct 27 to Nov 2. More to come next week

My Pooch, Inverted

Yesterday, while doing a shoulder-stand I came face to (face?) with my body nemesis: my lower belly pooch. My nemesis usually doesn't look that bad. Standing, gravity is not too cruel, it just looks like a somewhat happy-faced belly pouch...but inverted! Oh my goodness!!! I was faced with a lose-skin/stretch marked/eater of belly-button monster. Maybe the problem is that I came too close to It so I could clearly see all of the imperfections that I normally ignore and sometimes jokingly shake and pat to show "It" my appreciation (it gave up its good looks to support my growing children.) While I don't think I will be able to look at my pouch and think it looks great anytime soon, it comforts me to know that I would do it all over again, if I have to/or if I could. I wouldn't change the reason[s] why I have "It" for the world...although it would have been nice if It had gone back to "normal" after the birth of my children...but I am trying my hardest to improve Its appearance.
I am planning to face my belly pooch again on Friday, and I hope then to look at it with loving instead of critical eyes, or maybe I should do what I have done countless of time previously, I will tuck my shirt into my shorts to avoid being shocked by the way It looks inverted.

A Week of Food in Colors

I decided that along with my exercise I should post my meals. that way (maybe) I will feel the urge to have more color and healthy food added to our diet.
Monday, we had fish (tilapia), avocado, squash, tomatoes, cantaloupe, and peaches. I tried to have different colors in our meals, but I realized we have been missing red.

Aiden had a tomato shish kabob

Isabella enjoyed her squash so much she had a 2nd serving of them

Wednesday we had potatoes, corn and bean salad with avocado sauce, cantaloupe melon and peaches (yellow, orange, green and red)

 On Tuesday we had creamy tomato soup (orangy-RED), corn bread (yellow), and hot cocoa with sweet cream (brown and white).  I made the soup with fresh tomatoes and it doesn't have any cream or milk, healthy and delicious.

 

On Thursday we had honey mustard chicken, potatoes with sour cream and salsa, corn, bean and avocado salad with cherry tomatoes (yellow, red, green, and white). I know it all looks messy and not so appetizing, I had already began to eat so it was a little mixed in, especially the potatoes; they are smothered with sour cream and salsa, it tastes great (in my opinion) but its looks yucky. The chicken was very good, I added regular yellow mustard some honey and salt and pepper and cooked it just until no longer pink. It was so moist and tender the children ate them and Bella asked for more.

Exercise accomplishments and failures

Since I am feeling like I email Liz, Melodie and Shannon too often about my daily exercise accomplishments and failures, I have decided to post it here instead.
Jared and I began our exercise program about a month ago and we have been doing good (enough). There has been a few breaks in out routine like during our vacation trip to Utah, on which I am happy to say that we manage to exercise every other day on the first week, and then on Saturdays when we feel to lazy to get out of bed early, or today when, again, I was to lazy and too sleepy, but I plan to go for a walk with tiny and Bella or maybe a slow jog (I always hope for an afternoon jog but come the afternoon I am too full or too hungry or not in the house) anyways, while we have not been following our exercise plan to the letter, we have been exercising 4 or 5 days a week with the exception of the aforementioned vacation break.
We plan to continue our program for the next 2 month, it takes 90 days to complete. I need to mix in more cardio/jogging into my routine since I hardly do any. I do like running (a little) but I can't do it regularly since the kids can't be left home alone and I don't like to run on the treadmill. But maybe now that school has begun it may be easier to do.

Since I always like to add pictures to my posts, here I am today

Easter Weekend

Saturday morning we went to the Cheekwood Botanical Gardens in Nashville. I didn't take my camera so there are only 2 pictures, and they are not the best. Actually the trip was a flop. The Easter Egg Hunts were mostly for 5 year olds and younger, so we didn't get any eggs there, they had lots of vendors (face painting, balloon animals, etc) who would only take cash, which we didn't want to buy anyways since we had just spent $45 to get in, and it was full of people, so it was not fun like I thought should be...and maybe that's why they don't look too happy. (Isabella is going for the Bohemian look with the jacket half draped over her shoulder)

 So as soon as we got home I got the food "paint" ready and the water boiling. I needed to redeem myself from the earlier fiasco so I boiled eggs and we began painting eggs, fingers, hands, etc. It was really fun. (Find the hidden chick in the picture)

Triumphant!

Early this morning Aiden and Bella had their Easter Egg Hunt in our living room. It was raining outside...and we were too lazy to put the eggs outside... It was just not a good idea since the eggs were all boiled (I didn't buy any plastic eggs). The bunny did leave a nice small bucket with good chocolate eggs and bunnies plus a few toys. 

Egg hunt

Dressed up for church

Friday, March 30th Aiden lost his first tooth. Right after we saw the movie "The Rise of the Guardians" very appropriate since the movie is about tooth fairies, etc... and by "lost" I meant I pulled it out as soon as I realized his permanent tooth started to come in behind the baby one. He got 3 dollars for it. The tooth fairy ignored a note left by Isabella which read something like Aiden wants $10 for it and she did also.

Aiden placing his baby tooth under the pillow