Snippets

We've been busy with the end of the school year (mostly for mom at work), swimming lessons for Helena and lots of other fun summer things (pool trips, birthday parties, playdates, etc.)  Some snippets from the kids:

- We joined the rec center by our house finally so that we can go swimming for cheap(er) this summer.  I messed up and didn't get them the documentation they needed to prove our residency was 'in bounds' before I tried to take the kids swimming today.  Needless to say, I was pretty peeved when they wouldn't let us in because of it.  It was super fun to tell two kids that we weren't going swimming because of a clerical issue.  Anyway, on the way home the kids could tell I was peeved and Harper asked, "Why was that lady blocking the door to the pool?" (She wasn't really physically blocking the door, he just thought she was...) "Well, the lady needed some papers from me that I didn't have."  Harper: "What is that lady's name? Is it Lady Gaga?"  Leave it to him to bring humor to any situation!

- At work today there was a kid in Harper's class that was having trouble with drop off.  I came in the classroom and successfully helped her calm down and start eating her breakfast.  Harper's teacher told me that when I left that he said, "Miss Tami, my mom is really great with whiny kids." Hmmm.....wonder why?!?

- Helena graduates from preschool tomorrow afternoon and starts in a Spanish immersion kindergarten / 1st grade class on Monday. (I have to work this summer so the kids are going to school still).  Where oh where did the time go?  Pics and video to follow.  I'll be the one with puffy eyes and mascara running down my face.  Helena is wearing an actual cap & gown....I can't handle it!

- We've been doing some intensive swimming lessons with Helena after the first round didn't go so hot. She has really improved this week once we started doing them closer together so we're glad to be on a better, less traumatic path. :)

-Emily :)

On the Record

As has been the case for awhile, Harper talks way too well / much for his age.  Some things overheard the past few weeks:

-- After his teacher asked him to pick something up, "Miss Maegan, I did not bring my listening ears today."

-- In the car, randomly -- "Mom, I can't wait for my penis to grow big." I could do an entire blog about what Harper says about his penis, but I will refrain.

-- Also in the car, randomly -- "Did you know that a circle does not have any sides."  We cover lots of different topics in the car.

-- Harper's old teacher just had a baby and she brought the baby by school to say hi to the kids.  Harper asked her how the baby got out of her tummy and commented that she had her baby out now but when was she going to put it back in?

This kid.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with him.

-Emily :)

Desolation Trail (Not a metaphor for Mother's Day)

Decided to do breakfast and a little hike today for Mother's Day.  The kids woke up early (of course!) and we were out the door by 7:15 am.  We had some yummy sustenance then headed for Millcreek Canyon to hike Desolation Trail.

Millcreek Canyon is one of the most accessible from the city, but we haven't explored it a lot for some reason.  It's a nice place to go early in the season since the snow hasn't completely melted up in the other canyons quite yet.  We are royalty in terms of getting ourselves into snow we shouldn't be in during the spring  / summertime.

I forgot our Kelty backpack kid carrier, so Harper was mostly on his own for the 4 mile round trip hike.  He did really well-- probably hiked two-thirds of it by himself and the other third was spent on my back or shoulders.  He may have taken a little cat nap at one point.  Definitely took a good nap when we got home. :)  Both kids said their legs were sore.  Ha!  Definitely glad we got an early start on our adventure since it took longer than we had planned.

Our destination:  Overlook to Salt Lake City.  The area to the right of the mountains is the Great Salt Lake.

We made it!

Ugh, finally...they let me have a snack.  Second wind was right around the corner.

We decided on the hike we are going to reinstate our Sunday morning family adventures.  We will probably do a hike most of the time and keep track of our trails here.

Summary of today's hike:

Miles hiked: 4
Time: 3+ hours
Weather: Sunny, 65-70
Nature encounters: wildflowers, fuzzy caterpillar, swallowtail butterfly (yellow & black), orange mushrooms, chipmunk, termites, giant ants, pieces of a porcupine (the 'fur').
Comments: Pretty long for the kids, gradual switchbacks, pretty busy.  Would be a little hot in summer.

Happy Mother's Day to everyone!  I am so blessed to have a great mom, step-mom, grandmothers and wonderful mom friends all around me. :)

-Emily

Paprazzi?

We have had a lot of storms this week, which has been nice.  One thing I really miss about Kansas is the thunderstorms.  Suffice to say, I probably hear thunder in Utah about five times a year.

The other night Helena was standing upstairs looking out our bedroom window watching the rain.  I was in the bathroom negotiating with Harper about getting out of the bathtub and Helena screams, "Mom! I think someone is taking my picture!"

"What? Someone is taking your picture?" I yell back.  What in the world is she talking about?  Then I hear the thunder.  Oh.  Funny.

"Helena, that's the flash of lightning from the storm.  Nobody is taking your picture, silly!"

-Emily :)

California Spring Break 2013

OK, I know.  I'm behind again.  We have had a few trips and visitors so I am hoping to get caught up to now very soon.  And, I got a new laptop for my birthday and Ash's condition on giving it to me was that I had to blog more.  :)  Yay for first blog from the laptop!  The first laptop I have ever owned.  I'm so behind!!

On to more exciting things....

We road tripped to northern California for spring break at the end of March.  We were able to visit my old Lawrence friends, Leigh Ann and Nate and their daughter Emerson in Sacramento.  Had a lot of fun with them catching up and letting the kids play.  Sacramento also has an awesome railroad museum.  I think Ash and I thought it was cooler than the kids did!

Emmie's little trampoline was quite the hit!  Yes, they are in their pajamas outside first thing in the morning.

Ash geeking out at the California Railroad Museum.

The kids were bored by the time Ash saw everything he wanted to at the museum.  Ha!

From Sacramento we went to St. Helena to stay with Ash's aunt Deb, uncle Bob and cousin Anthony.  The kids LOVED running around their property.  Harper learned within the first hour we were there that you can't walk on lily pads on a koi pond.  Helena learned that it is always spring in California, leading her to proclaim that we need to move there.  Deb was kind enough to watch the kids for us one day so Ash and I could spend the day wine tasting.  Ash's cousin Lisa set us up on the most amazing tours / tastings.  So fun to have a day to ourselves.

Harper restraining himself from throwing the giant rocks in the pond.

Me at the vineyard that I will forever remember for having the most generous pours ever.  :)

Easter Eggs with Aunt Deb.

 From St. Helena we did a little day trip to Point Reyes National Seashore.  Such a beautiful place.  It was foggy when we were there, but still very lush, beautiful and fun.  We stopped and did a couple of hikes and hung out on the beach.  We even saw an elephant seal beach with over 300 elephant seals on it!  Definitely worth a stop if you're in the area.

Harper showing us which way to go on our hike.

From there we crashed at our college friend's place in San Francisco.  Phil, Dana and little Layla were excellent hosts.  We grilled, watched basketball, went to the zoo, rode the bus and the train all around the city (the kids' favorite part of the trip) and spent a day at Fisherman's Wharf.  Harper discovered a love of eating crab, Helena discovered she didn't really like accidentally picking up a crab on the beach.

The view from Phil and Dana's house.  Fun to see the bay and the fog roll in at different times.

Checking out the wares...

Ash ate an obscene amount of crab...

Helena ate an obscene amount of sourdough...

Family picture!!

Helena & Layla - Matching Target sweaters!! :)

The kids loved the 'gold man' street performer.

Harper fell asleep on the train...pretty funny. We did three transfers and he never woke up.

Thanks again to our wonderful friends and family for hosting us and making our spring break totally awesome.  Love, love, love me some California.  We'll be back.

-Emily :)

Easter 2013

Happy Easter everyone!  Just got back from a California spring break trip on Saturday night so Easter was a little subdued around here (think meals from the freezer / car and pajamas for the adults all day!)  Thankfully the Easter bunny remembered to organize the baskets before the trip!

I did make the kids dress up and hunt eggs in the backyard. :)  Enjoy the pics!

-Emily :)

Such a good little picture taker. :)

Itching to hunt eggs...

OK, that's enough...can we go yet?

Cheese!

Show us your baskets!

No, show us your face....then defiance about showing the face.

OK fine...one last decent one.

So exciting!

Displaying the one egg his sister let him find. :( Poor kid, it'll be better next year.

Mini Break - Zion National Park

A few weeks ago I gave Ash an ultimatum that included me getting some warm sun on my skin.  This winter has been a doozy and to say me & the kids are ready for spring is an understatement.  Ash had a work meeting in Southern Utah so we rode down with him and got in a little weekend break as well at Zion National Park.

We haven't stayed in a hotel since Harper was very little and let me tell you, this time around was challenging to say the least.  I was pretty sure at one point that the lodge was going to kick us out (there were people staying on both sides of our room and above us....) after the second time Harper was throwing a tantrum at 5am or after Helena scream puking at 6:30 am (she wasn't sick, just...yeah...throwing up.) :)  Anyway, we perservered and Saturday night had some margaritas with dinner and all was well with the world.  Ha! 

Zion is such a great place.  We explored some new hiking trails and threw many rocks in rivers.  And experienced 70 degree temperatures for the first time in many months.  Yay!

Helena & red rocks & river.

Attempt at a family photo...H2 REFUSED to sit with us.  Which was par for the course.

View from Observation Point Trail.  Such a great sunny day.

View out of Riverside Walk by entrance to Zion Narrows at dusk.

Zion Canyon - Observation Trail.

Ash peering over into Zion Canyon at the peak of the trail.

A highlight of the trip:  Brownie in the middle creme brulee at Bit & Spur Restaurant in Springdale, UT.  Our entire dinner was amazing.  Highly recommend this place.

Riverside Walk near Zion Narrows.

Harper in a more decent moment....picking up rocks & drawing in the sand.  Really I just threw this in so ya'll don't think I left him on the trip.

We can throw rocks for days!!!

- Emily :)

Cake and Songs

I think with both of my kids my favorite thing is when they start to sing.  This is Harper singing "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree" from school.  This song is a standard for Utah kids.  Helena and Harper both know it, although Harper has the words a little off.  I enjoy his improvising. :)

(Real Lyrics):
I looked out the window, and what did I see?
Popcorn popping on the apricot tree!
Spring had brought me such a nice surprise,
Blossoms popping right before my eyes.
I could take an armful and make a treat,
A popcorn ball that would smell so sweet.
It wasn’t really so, but it seemed to be
Popcorn popping on the apricot tree.

On Eating...

I believe I have neglected to mention here that we've had another little allergy hiccup with Harper.  We started seeing a new doctor (a naturopath) who suggested we try to take him off of dairy and wheat as well to see if that would alleviate some of his remaining allergy symptoms (mainly eczema but also a constantly runny nose). 

So, I took him off dairy about a month ago and his eczema got a little better (although not completely gone), his nose shut off, and weirdly his crazy earwax that he's had all his life (seriously, it's always been like a gooey brown science experiment in there) is all of the sudden COMPLETELY GONE.  Like, I keep trying to get earwax out of his ears and there's just nothing! Weirdly, I miss it.  Kind of how one might miss popping their teenage sibling's pimples.

(I have since read in a couple of places that this is oftentimes a sign of a dairy intolerance / allergy). 

I have yet to get the gumption to also take him off of wheat as the doctor recommended because I honestly don't have the energy or meal planning ambition.  We go back for a check up tomorrow and this may be the next step.  The doctor is hopeful that his gut can heal eventually and he will be able to eat at least eggs & dairy again when he's older.

So, if you're keeping count we're 'off' of eggs, nuts, dairy and gluten (for Ash only, really...).  Good times. 

That said, here are some recipes I'm digging lately....with modifications, in most cases.

Whole Wheat Pop Tarts - Great snack/quick breakfast for the kids!  I made with vegan Earth Balance butter today and I couldn't tell the difference from the last time I made them with real butter.

Kale Lemon Pesto - I made this just for Ash & I, and I was the only one who liked it.  I'm sticking by it, though.  If you like kale & lemons (Ash is a little iffy on lemony stuff sometimes), it's a good one.

Asparagus Brie Soup - I made this also for just Ash & I after we scored about 2 pounds of leftover roasted asparagus at a wedding we went to a couple of weeks ago (hmmm, that sounds weird now that I type it out.  oh well!).  Anyway, unlike the pesto, Ash says he'd eat this every day.  I substituted a GF all purpose flour in place of the regular flour.

Homemade Granola Bars - I also made these this weekend and they were a hit with everyone.  It's very hard to find nut free granola bars at the store.  Ours had oats, soy nut butter, dairy/GF chocolate chips and coconut.  Yum - O!

Allergen Free Chocolate Cake - I made this awhile back and just got the 2nd round out of the freezer to eat.  Hands down the best allergen free cake I have tried.  Moist, doesn't feel like you're missing something.  I used a GF all purpose flour blend and Ener-G egg subsitute.  I didn't make the frosting (because I'm lazy).  :)

I'll keep ya'll updated on our 'progress' - in the meantime if you have any recipes you want to share, I'm all ears!!

-Emily :)

Helena -- 4 & 3/4

Thought I'd post a little update on what Helena's up to.

I'm currently listening to her making Harper play school -- with fake nap time included! -- and that's one of the coolest things about having two kids.  Mine generally play so well together.  Helena is nice to Harper (yesterday, she even shared her pretzels with him) and they kind of freak out a little bit if we ever take them places separately.  It's cute.  She's a great big sister.  She even helped Harper pee on the potty for the first time yesterday!

Tolerating Harper in the reading tunnel at the library.

She is also very into drawing lately.  She definitely draws better than I did at this age (or possibly now, I totally suck at drawing).  Here is this weekend's rendition of the opening ceremonies of the Olympics:

No rendition of a parachuting queen, but good otherwise. :)

She also loves riding her bike with training wheels.  Her and Ash go on 'adventure rides' in the evenings sometimes.  One evening last week they went three miles!!

Helena just switched classrooms / teachers at school in the beginning of June and is doing really well in her new class.  We had debated starting Kindergarten early with her, but decided against it for a lot of reasons.  She still loves school and is very focused for the most part on her 'works'.  One day this week she built a tower out of some beaded cubes and her teacher said she sat there for like 10 minutes just looking at it.  Her teacher said to her "Looks like you're waiting on something, Helena.", and she said , "Yeah, I'm waiting for my mom to come so I can show her what I did." (Her teacher then called me down to look at her 'masterpiece'.)  So funny.  She is sounding out short words now and is very good at writing her letters -- probably from all of the incessant drawing!  And she just went on her first official field trip last week -- to Discovery Gateway in downtown Salt Lake.  Mom went along as a volunteer! :)

Building at Discovery Gateway in SLC.

Helena is also in swimming lessons right now.  It's going a lot better than last summer.  We have a few sessions left so hopefully I can get a video at some point.

Helena and Ash at the lake in June.

She has also recently found out about Disneyland (more specifically Cars Land) and is insisting we go ASAP.  We have told her that Disneyland is a lot of money, which has come in handy when she wants something i.e. "Well, that's coming out of the Disneyland fund....oh, never mind." ;)

At one of her friends' princess parties with "Rapunzel."

 Speaking of princesses, Helena as become a little more girly the past few months.  We went weeks only wearing dresses.  She insists her headband matches her outfit exactly. And the more glittery the better.  We own a pair of gold glitter dress shoes that she has worn a hole into.  But I still make her wear her adventure sandals with her dresses just to irritate her aunt Jess. :)

I can't believe in the fall we'll have a 5 year old.  Holy. Cow.

-Emily :)

Harper's 2nd Birthday

Harper turned two this past Sunday.  He ended up having two parties -- one when we were in Kansas and then one on the day of.   In Kansas, we had just family (& Tracee!) over to a park building for cake and hot dogs.  Then this past weekend we celebrated with a trip to the pool on Saturday and some fun backyard times and cupcakes on Sunday. 

Harper requested a 'fishy cake' from grandma Teresa.  So cute!

Cute & egg-less. ;)

Harper & Papa Larry

He wasn't so sure about all of the attention.

Opening presents with lots of 'help'.

Cool tractor from Ellie & Kane.

Tracee (one of my college roomates) and her sons Theo (here) & Anderson made the trek from Lawrence to stop by!

Birthday party kids: Helena, Kane, Theo, Anderson, Harper & Ellie

Somehow this birthday turned into Christmas up in here present-wise. Harper made out with a new workshop toy, car racer and a train table & train set that mom & dad scored for super cheap (used). ;)

Train table & track that Ash is more stoked about than the kids. :)

 I asked him what he wanted on his cupcakes and he said "sprinkles!" And then I asked him what he wanted for birthday breakfast and he said "sprinkles!" (We had bacon & pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes.)

He waited patiently for the cupcakes until about 4:00 when I caught him sneaking some fingers of frosting.... (Oh, and is sporting a new buzz cut).

Attempting to lick off the remnants.

Happy Birthday little buddy!  We love you!

- Emily :)

P.S. - Here's a fun look at Helena's 2nd birthday party.  She's so little!!!

P.P.S - I found a cake mix that is egg/nut/gluten free (you didn't even have to mix in any eggs or egg substitute) to use for the birthday cupcakes and it tasted great!  Yay, Cherrybrook Kitchen products!