Tuesday, December 29, 2009

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.

Monday, December 28, 2009

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

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

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?

Friday, December 11, 2009

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.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

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.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Inspiring Christmas Story

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

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

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!