Christmas Cruise

We had a wonderful Christmas week. We took a cruise vacation and visited Belize, Isle of Roatan and Cozumel. We went to a couple of zoos and got some sun at the beach which was a real treat this time of year.


The sailing was great except for the last day. The seas were 8-13 ft. and the boat was rocking and rolling. I was very nauseated and stayed in the cabin most of the day. The boys did fine...that is youth for you, I guess!


I have included some of my favorite photos below, but you can see the whole bunch here.

Todd with a colorful macaw.

Chad and me on the beach in Belize.

Evan with Freddy, the Carnival Cruise mascot.

Chad with a howler monkey on his shoulder.

Evan holding a boa constrictor.

Evan's Christmas Performance

Prior to getting out of school for the Christmas holidays, Evan had a performance at his school. He and his class practiced songs for many days and he was excited about his special part, i.e, being a candle lighter. Todd's mom and Chad were both able to make the performance and cheer Evan on. Great job Evan and all the children at SMES!

Chad and Mee Maw waiting for the performance to begin.

Evan singing along with his class.

Evan taking his candle lighting very seriously.

A big smile for mommy!

"Okay, now I am getting a little bored."

Chad and Evan with Mee Maw

Crazy Helicopter

Evan and Todd went to Todd's company Christmas party this past weekend. It was a big affair at the Civic Center. They had tons of food, bouncers for the children and, of course, Santa made a visit.


Evan received a remote control helicopter from Santa and couldn't wait for Todd to charge it up. After a charge, it will fly for five to seven minutes before needing another recharge, so the fun comes in bits and pieces. Here is a video of Evan learning how to fly his new toy. How long before it breaks?

Adventures in Juicing

After overindulging during the Thanksgiving holidays, I felt like I needed to focus on doing something healthy for myself, especially with Christmas around the corner. Like most people, I probably don't eat enough fruits and vegetables on a daily basis. I had a juicer in the past and remembered how it was a great way to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into my diet, so I decided that I would look into getting one again.

I did a lot of searching and price comparisons and finally decided on the Breville Juice Fountain Compact. The Breville juicers had a lot of positive reviews on Amazon. There were more expensive models, but not knowing how much I would use it, I really didn't want something "top of the line." In addition to having a lower price than some of the other Breville's it also has a compact design and doesn't take up as much space.

Not wanting to turn myself off from the beginning with some yukky vegetable juice, I decided that the safest route to incorporating juice into my diet was to start out with mostly fruits.

The Breville has a powerful motor and does a good job of getting the juice out, as the pulp that is leftover is relatively dry. The juicer has a wide mouth, so it is easy to put large pieces of fruit in it. I did find that when I would drop the fruit in, I had to cover the top really quickly or bits of fruit would "spit out" the top.

The juicer comes with a pitcher that captures the juice. I find it to be of adequate size and didn't feel like I had to keep emptying it because it was getting too full. It has a nice lid that has a little lip to catch the foam off the top of the juice when you pour it. I like just a little foam and think this is a great feature. I did find that I had to hold the lid on when pouring the juice. I didn't do this the first time and ended up spilling the juice all over the counter.

Cleanup was pretty easy. I had filled my sink with hot sudsy water before I started juicing so that I could clean everything right away. All of the parts are dishwasher safe, so that is an option for people who aren't going to want to use the juicer again the same day.

I can say that juicing does take some time. It took about 30 minutes from start to finish which included washing and cutting up the fruit through cleanup. The juice was great and I am planning on moving into more varieties of fruit and adding more vegetables as well.

I saved some of the pulp for Leon and Riku. They gobbled it up, so that is an added bonus.

Overall, I would recommend this juicer to anyone who is interested in starting juicing. For the person who is already into juicing multiple times a day, you may want something a little larger and heavy duty.

Worms

Evan has been enjoying the mealworm and super worm that he got at school last Friday. They were in a plastic bag but as soon as he got home he looked for a Laughing Cow Cheese cardboard box to put them in. His teacher told the class that those boxes make great containers for worm.


The superworm has been on its back for the past couple of days. I think that the worm is dead but Evan keeps insisting that it is just hibernating. Time will tell, I guess.


Evan is trying very hard to prove that he is responsible because he really, really, really wants to get a bearded dragon lizard. Last night before going to bed, I checked the Laughing cow box to find that the mealworm was missing. Evan had been asleep for about an hour by that time, so it took several minutes to rouse him enough to find out where the worm was. I was able to make out that he was playing with it in the playroom and forgot to put it back in its box. FYI: it is difficult to find a brown worm on brown carpet, but my detective skills kicked in and I spotted by some shelves where he normally plays. It looked dead to me as I shoved a piece of paper under it in order to transfer it to the box. I questioned Evan about that today...he said that one is hibernating, too.


Let's just say that the missing worm event did not help Evan get closer to his goal of getting a bearded dragon.  

Evan's mealworm and superworm.

Cute brothers posing with the worms.

Inspiring Christmas Story

I love inspiring stories, especially ones that involve children. So, if you have a minute, check out this one.

More Houston Photos

In walking distance from Brian's house is a nice walking/biking trail and water reservoir. We had a nice walk there during our visit. It was neat seeing all the bikers, joggers and walkers using the trail. My boys love water, so the reservoir was just an added bonus.


You can see all of our Thanksgiving trip photos here.

Neat reservoir!

Todd and Chad

Evan taking in the sights.

Handsome Chad!

Baby Clark

We went to Houston this weekend to visit Brian, Amy and their new baby, Clark. The boys are so excited about having a new cousin. They couldn't get enough of him. It was fun holding (and smelling) a baby again.

Me and a yawning Clark. "I remember how to do this!"

Clark, me and Evan.

Chad doing a great job holding Clark.

Evan posing with his new cousin.

Cutie Clark (probably going blind from all the camera flashing)!

No School!

Chad and Evan have been having a great time this week. The weather has been nice and mild, so they have gotten to play outside every day. Evan's friends have come over from next door and the trampoline has gotten a lot of use.


Evan started basketball practice on Tuesday. I warned Todd that he might fall asleep on the ride home because he had jumped on the trampoline for six hours straight during the day. He was fine and full of energy. Oh, to be a kid again!


The boys got some new chairs for their playroom and have had fun playing video games this week as well. They both love school, but time off is great, too!

Chad in his new chair.

Evan likes to sit all the way back.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I love this quote and am grateful for all of the "flame-starters" who enrich my life:


At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person.
Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.


ALBERT SCHWEITZER

Crafty Boys

Since the boys are out of school for Thanksgiving vacation, we made a trip to the local craft store to get some supplies and projects. Evan picked out clay and some wooden craft kits that make 3-d puzzles. Chad got a super ball making kit and the supplies to decorate a lifebuoy that he wants to hang in his room.


Evan got right to work on the easiest wooden puzzle...a scorpion. I think Todd gave him a little help and it turned out great. He took the next puzzle apart, but I haven't seen too much progress on that one, so it may be a little more difficult than the first one.


The clay has not been a great success. The first day Evan took it and made patterns in it by pressing it into the carpet. Needless to say, Todd was not happy when he walked in the room and found yellow, pink, blue and green clay marks all over the carpet.


Evan and I spent part of the morning yesterday trying different concoctions to get the clay out. The problem was that Evan got a new type of clay that won't dry out or get hard. Thus, it took us quite a bit of scrubbing to lighten all of the marks.


Chad has made some of the super balls, which he enjoyed. Next to the painting project!

Evan can't wait to work on his wood projects!

Chad with the craft supplies and Evan working hard in the background.

Chad acting silly with Evan's scorpion.

My, How They Have Grown

It has been about three months since Riku and Leon joined our family and my how they have grown. Riku is the larger of the two and he now has the nickname "Fat Albert" because he loves to eat and has the hips to show it. Both guinea pigs have matured and calmed down quite a bit. Evan used to be a little afraid to hold them because they were all over the place. Now they will sit on his lap, calm as can be.

Riku and Leon on Evan's Lap

Chad holding Leon.

Evan holding Riku.

Evan with both pigs.

Evan helping clean the pigs cage.

Evan the Artist

Evan loves drawing and all kinds of crafts. I have a drawing app on my phone that he likes to play with. Here is one of his masterpieces:



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Harder Than It Looks

This weekend Todd took his turn on the Bobcat in an effort to get all of the sidewalks out of our backyard. The sidewalks lift up in sections about 8 feet long and once they are up, the question is how to break them up and get them to our driveway which is where the pieces are being temporarily stored. 


Below is a short video of  Todd doing his thing. At one point I thought he was going to flip over, so I had to go inside. He is figuring it out...it is just going to take a while. Thank God I have a husband who is willing to try pretty much anything!

Evan's Activities

Evan is very active and always on the move. This weekend he did a little crafting. He had a wooden alligator that needed painting. He love to paint so he was very excited about that project.


His friend from next door is moving, so they played together as much as possible this weekend. Lots of football, trampoline jumping, lizard finding and treasure digging were all on the agenda.

"Painting takes a lot of concentration."

"This is so fun!"

"Throw the ball to me!"

Ice Cream Treat

Chad and I had some time to kill before picking Evan up from school yesterday. I decided to treat he and Evan (we got his to go) to some ice cream. It was a nice mid-week pick me up!


Chad posed for me with his glasses and then without his glasses. I think they both look great.

With Glasses

Without Glasses

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More Flag Football Fun

Last Saturday Evan played his last two flag football games of the season. He was a little moody because he attended a sleepover birthday party the night before and said that he went to sleep at 2 a.m. and woke up at 5 a.m.


Todd was a trooper and helped coach the team. He loves football and is great with kids, so it was a good fit and I think he enjoyed doing it.

Todd and Evan (who is pouting a bit).

Offensive Coordinator at work!

Todd giving out the next play to the offense.

Sidewalk Removal Progress

When we moved in our current house about three years ago, we realized that we had a lot of projects to do. One involves removing the sidewalks in our backyard. 


The story is that the previous owner had a love of roses and planted the whole backyard with rose bushes. She had concrete paths laid throughout the back yard and the roses planted in between. I can imagine it was beautiful.


Now, the concrete paths have affected our drainage and that is not a good situation when we get a lot of rain or experience a hurricane. Thus, we really need to remove them. 


A few months ago, Todd rented a jackhammer and spent two long days cracking the sidewalk up. Now, we have finally gotten use of a bobcat to lift up and remove the sidewalk. Our friend who is letting us use the bobcat did a trial run a few days ago to see if he and Todd's plan would work. He tried to lift the sidewalk up in several different places, to no avail. I started to get concerned that the bobcat would not be able to A) get underneath the sidewalk and B) actually be powerful enough to lift the pieces.


Finally, we found a place where Todd had broken up the sidewalk a bit already and the bobcat was able to lift and remove a large piece. Yes, now the work begins!

Chad's New Table

Chad has been wanting a table for his bedside forever. Todd finally broke down and bought him one. Chad put it together himself and was very proud of his project. Way to go Chad!

Chad and his table.

Chad putting his stuff on his table..."This thing is pretty sturdy!"

Cutie Clark

My brother and sister-in-law sent me some new photos of my nephew, Clark. What a cutie! He looks just like my brother...it's scary!!!