Balboa

We were thrilled to hear that my cousin Stephanie and her husband James were going to be in town last weekend. Stephanie grew up in a town near my hometown so we have always been close. It was fun to get to know James before we moved away. They came down to visit her family and have a vacation. We were tickled that they wanted to see us. I actually think James just wanted to see the boys and see if they'd talk about body parts or bodily functions.

We met them at Balboa Beach. It was a ton of fun!

James played Frisbee and badminton with the boys for a while. Well, you cannot actually play the game with them - rather you just hit the ball, they scream with delight, and then you have to go pick the ball back up and hit it again. James was a good sport:


Steph's Mom (my Aunt Cindy) and sister Stacey were there when we first got there. It was fun to get caught up on the whole family:



We couldn't wait to start the campfire though. It was fun to sit around, chat, watch the boys' delight in such simplicity (hot dogs and fire), and enjoy a little bit of nature.

The boys treated us to an original song:


Thanks Steph and James! We had a glorious time!

Mornings

Mornings are an absolutely magical time. At this moment, aside from the typing of my fingers, I can hear the soft noises of awakening coming from the boys room, the gleeful chirps of birds outside, and a train horn in the distance. Each of these makes me grateful that I rolled out of bed early to herald in the day my own way. A chat with a friend, passing words with my Mom, a chapter read in my book, and time to type out some thoughts.

I have missed blogging as much as you have missed reading our blog. Or maybe it's a little more for me.

I am glad though for the perspective I have been given by not being on the computer each morning. Last week, for example, I sat on the couch deeply consumed by a book. At one point I looked up and found myself staring at Will, who had crawled out of bed to find me reading. I asked if he wanted to snuggle with me and he did. First though he ran and grabbed his own book. We sat on the couch, the two of us immersed in our reading, until his belly reminded him of other things.

That same week I found myself at the table, sipping my chocolate Instant Breakfast, and flipping through a catalog for classes at the church Eric and I have been going through. With typical Walker pizazz, the bedroom door slammed open and he appeared. Still groggy, with tousled blond hair he waddled into the hall. And then, a miracle. Saying nothing to me, in fact barely acknowledging my presence, he shuffled down the hall and into the bathroom. He closed the door and proceeded to do his thing. All by himself. No urging or direction from me. As he walked down the hall back towards me, ready for his morning cuddles, I could not have been more proud. It also made me keenly aware that his is growing up. So while I held him, nestled up close to me as if he were two weeks old, my heart rejoiced that I still have moments like this. It will not be long before cuddling with me will be old news.

So my blogger friends, it is with this post that I say we are back! Our weeks, like yours, have been full and exciting. I cannot wait to post pictures of our Balboa trip, bike rides, the Zoo trip, Spring celebrations, gluten-free healthy Easter food, and all of the other random pictures I took knowing that I wanted to blog about them. Those will have to wait just a little bit longer...I can hear the boys out of their beds and the best part of my morning is about to begin.

Blogattical

We haven't forgotten about our blog! We've just been having lots of adventures that we cannot wait to share. Plus Daddy is away on business so Mommy has less time to blog! So if you are anxiously awaiting a new post...take some anxiety meds and chill out. Or if you are one of the people (you know who you are) still waiting for me to respond to an email - I will :)

Watch for a new post over the weekend - maybe even more than one!

Thanks for reading! We sure love you.

Chinese New Year's Party!

We had our annual Chinese New Year's party this past Saturday! We had so much fun. It was great to have some of our friends and family with us to eat good food, talk a lot, and encourage Eric's inner-Chinese man. Plus, as I mentioned to the party-goers, I am hoping that the God of Fortune will smile down on us and send us some place international...soon!

The goods...

Our offering to Buddha

Curry Vegetables
(my personal favorite anytime!)

Sweet & Sour Pork

Lemon Chicken

The boys attempting chopsticks...

The piece de resistance - gluten-free homemade fortune cookies!
Eric and I had a blast making them.

The party begins!

Sweet things...

For my boys:

Chinese New Year Parade

We had such a good time at the Chinese New Year Parade! I had no idea what to expect and it was better than I could imagine! The boys were so excited all week that the kept asking when we were going to Chinatown.

One of the best parts was watching Walker ride the train. He is in a phase where trains are his sun, moon and stars. My Dad took some great shots of him on the train, as well as the parade, so I'll have to post those when I can get a hold of them!!

Here are some of ours:

Walker & Eric watching the parade start...

Will and his Chinese hand fan

Walker's not sure about the dancing dragons:

Will was most enthused by
the confetti and spent the majority of his time
watching it get thrown and then picking it off the ground
to throw it again:

One of the best parts of the parade, as is always the case, was the people watching. This cute man was standing near us with his wife. He was thrilled to greet anyone and everyone on the floats as they came by...but it was a special delight when any of the Chinese New Year royalty came by on their floats. You'll have to turn your head sideways to watch it, but this is what he'd do:

The parade website said that the parade would go from 2:00pm - 5:oopm. I thought there was no way it would go that long, or that they were marking time from the start at one place and the finish...boy was I wrong! At about 4:00pm we decided to walk around Chinatown. It was fun to see ALL of the people out for a good time.

We decided to forgo trying to get Chinese food IN Chinatown given the crowds. In the end we trekked back to the train station and rode back towards G-town.

In what seemed to be a strange move we decided to celebrate the Chinese New Year at a Mexican restaurant! (Chinese food is hard to find gluten-free!)

The boys were famished and exhausted....a great day was had by all! I'm still hoping that next year we can celebrate the real deal :)

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

The Gregorian New Year may have come and gone but that doesn't mean that our house is done celebrating the New Year!

Ever since having lived in Hong Kong Daddy Eric believes he is a little bit Chinese. In fact in Chinese culture they call him an 'egg'. White on the outside but yellow on the inside.

So each year since we've been married (that's almost eight for anyone counting!!) we've celebrated the lunar New Year in the tradition of the Chinese. Some years we had parties and other years we celebrated by going to (now closed, sniff, sniff) Kuong Jou Cafe in Salt Lake.

This year we are keeping our tradition by going to the Chinese New Year's parade on Saturday in Chinatown and having a Chinese New Year's party!

(I made the invitations so I am pretty excited! Here is a web friendly version without our contact info. A gold Chinese coin is going in the upper right hand part with all of the leaves!)


We even went to Chinatown last Sunday to get some of the goodies we need. Plus Eric really wanted to get some Gai Mei Bao.

We also got the boys these cute outfits for both the parade and our party:


Finally, on the official start of the Year of the Rat, lunar year 4706, we gave the boys their lai shi. We taught them how to say 'Gung Hay Fat Choy' and to also ask for their lai shi. This is a Chinese tradition where the married people give red envelopes with an even amount of money inside. When you are hardcore you usually give hundreds of dollars - for the boys it was a dollar. Here they are with their lai shi:

Aunt Noonie!

Now this is living! Many of you know and love my sister Lyndsy (aka Noonie, Petunia, Lyndz, Inka). But none of you know and love Noonie as much as my two boys!

When I announced bright and early this morning that we were headed to see her, I got grins larger than heads! Of course I had to spend some talk arguing about how she no longer lives in Santa Barbara - though Will was determined to prove me wrong.

So we drove up to visit Noonie at her new apartment. We had a great drive up - singing songs as we listened to Anne Murray, Raffi, and Wiggleworms! The boys were so excited about the trip that the drive didn't really bother them.

We had a wonderful time with Lyndsy - though the boys by that time were quite done with being in the car and quite hyper! I think they about scared the crap out of her cats...on purpose....many times!

The best part of the visit (from the kids' perspective) was that Noonie had brought toys out for them - the CAT toys! And the boys loved them. Walker played, almost the whole time, with a toy that looked something like a cross between a pom-pom and a fishing pole.

And both boys liked the scratching post! Hilarious!

Noonie and I got a little big of bonding time, over Taco Bell and The Office (sweet!), while the boys took naps.





Noonie's apartment is quite cute. She & Jon have two bedrooms, a nice kitchen, a fantastic bathroom, and a balcony!







Will capped off the trip by taking photos of the apartment. Most of them are really white and you aren't quite sure if it's a cat, the carpet, or his hand. He did get a couple of good ones - including this classic Noonie one:



It will be fun when we can head back up there - with a little less time on the road and maybe Eric too so we can tag-team the twosome :)

Thanks for the adventure, as usual, Noonie!

And we're off!

It's official! Starting today our family is gluten-free (GF)! We, we sort of started yesterday night with our taco night but since the boys had soup for lunch and treats at their church class it kind of blew any effort made at night.

As I type the boys are enjoying their second serving of the GF cinnamon raisin muffins that I made. I am thrilled that these turned out so well, but I think that it helped having a good mix rather than trying to make them from scratch. I used the Whole Foods brand, 365 Everyday Value.
Having products like this, that are 'value' priced is helpful since GF shopping can be quite expensive. To give you an idea, just this muffin mix, which has no flavor, requiring you to add your own, was $3.49. For a similar product (15.5 ounces, yields 12-16 muffins) it would be about $2.99 (or if you are frugal, $.55 for Jiffy).

Eric and I spent Saturday and Sunday with help from Papa Paul & KK, getting our kitchen GF ready. Every book we've read (and we've read lots) has suggested having separate cookware for GF foods vs. gluten-full foods. Since Papa and KK are letting us live with them, we wanted to make it convenient for us without stepping all over their toes.

On Saturday we went through ALL of the cupboards and labeled things with stickers that said 'no' on them if they have gluten in them. We also bought a new mixer, new bowls, new tupperware, and a few other cooking tools all in red to use for only GF cooking.

After we went through everything then we went grocery shopping. Whole Foods is in Pasadena and offers the most GF selection of the stuff we want. Traders Joe's, Vitamin City, and Sprouts are all closer but they offer a smaller selection. They'll be good for quick stops to get more pasta, rice flour, and xanthan gum.

Then I spent all afternoon, while Eric tried wrangling the kids, cooking! I made 64 GF chicken nuggets with flax seed, 15 GF muffins, four one-quart bags of GF noodle & veggie soup, and GF taco meat. I know that this change is going to be hard on me with regards to lunch, since we are used to sandwiches of all sorts. Given that one loaf of sandwich bread is $7.99 that's not going to be an option any more.

Here are the fruits of our labor:



Honestly - I had a blast! I'm an organization freak so by the time I was all done organizing I was hyped up and ready for a club.

And the best part, the GF muffins were actually good and the boys devoured them this morning!