the non-helper

Beck helped me pack for Hilton Head by being my entertainment.  Every time I turned around he was climbing in the suitcase and all over the clothes and thought it quite hilarious ... kind of hard to get upset about wrinkled clothes when he was being so stinkery and cute.

first haircut

I've been contemplating cutting Beck's hair for a bit now (which started after he got called a 'she' at least 3 times in the last couple months :)), and last night was the night I decided there would be no more putting it off.

While dad held him and veggie tales entertained, I tried to quickly snip the back and around his ears.  And he really didn't move too much or care, as he was much too engrossed in his film!

before:

ah!  looks pretty gross!  it didn't look quite that bad in person as there was a little curl to it :)

after:

much better!  why did I wait so long to do that??!

when the weather's nice...

.. you get to eat outside!

 

new food blog!

due to my need to have things organized and compartmentalized, I could never figure out how to incorporate food posts into this blog... it just wasn't working out for me.  BUT, I love to be in the kitchen and talk about food and want to blog about it, so, my fix is to create another blog, solely devoted to food!  the website is delitebite.blogspot.com, or you can click the "my food blog" link above.  come and visit!

side note:  credit for naming the food blog goes to chad!  my creative juices don't flow very well when it comes to creative play on word games.  one of my suggestions:  "fun in the kitchen"... I think we're all glad for chad's creativity. :)

have a bite dad!

how nice of beck to share his cone with dad, huh?  you'll see his "sharing" gets a little more aggressive in each pic.  :)

children's museum

krya and I took the kiddos to the children's museum for an afternoon of fun the other friday.  although they are a little young to enjoy the entire museum, there is a special kids play zone for young guys that they throughly enjoyed (for the most part!).  beck did get called a "she" by a little boy and his mom (or female adult chaperone), which never happens.  does he look a little girly in these pics?!

please get me off the horse... I'm not having fun anymore! 

fun lights and buttons to push.  I think that right after this pic they both were going for the same button and someone pushed someone... someone cried.  silly boys.

oohhh... more fun lights!

hi emerson!

ah, beck found the train table (or I took him to it b/c I knew he would love it!).  of course his tongue is out a little and he is making his typical truck noises while driving his train.  :) 

clear excitement about the trains.  once he found the trains he didn't want to do anything else and crawled around on the floor driving them.  this is the only part where we didn't have fun for a little bit... when I decided it was time to play in the water and leave the trains beck didn't like that so much.

but the trains were soon forgotten and the water fun began!

beck is splashing vigorously in this pic.  those little water guard things they have for the kids are nice, but they don't really stop too much water from soaking a shirt (and a face) when the splashing gets going.  needless to say we went home with just a coat on and no shirt!

going for the same thing again :)

recipe of the week

I decided that I'm going to start posting a recipe of the week.  something I made that was new or extra delicious.  (ok, this post has 2 recipes, but they were both so tasty neither can be left out!)     

the setting:  chad is out of town for work this week, so last night jaimie came over and we made dinner and did DIY projects.  

the menu:  quinoa flatbread topped with hummus, shredded chicken, tomatoes & cucumbers, and feta. and asian cucumber.mango.avacago salad.  mediterranean and asian go nicely together. :)   

input on the quinoa flatbread, which was a new one - J found the recipe.  they were pretty bland if made according to the recipe, so I added some extra seasonings which helped - paprika, garlic salt, coriander.  I also didn't have rice flour to meet J's gf needs, so I used chickpea flour.  another modification was that it needed an extra 1/2 - 1 cup of water.  not sure if it was the chickpea flour that absorbed extra liquid, but it was way too thick without some extra water.  

you could also go the sweet route with the flatbreads, topping them with berry sauce, lemon juice, yogurt...  I would probably add a couple T sugar or honey, vanilla, and cinnamon to the batter if I made them sweet...

recipe for the asian cucumber salad:

3 tsp fish sauce or 2 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp lime zest

2 T lime juice

1 T canola oil

2 tsp honey or a drizzle of agave nectar

1 tsp rice or cider vinegar

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

 - combine in a bowl and mix.  chop/cube the following and add to the dressing:

1 medium english cucumber

1 avacado

1 mango

1/4 cup cilantro

* sprinkle with chopped peanuts if desired - I think it adds a nice crunch and flavor contrast