Birch Aquarium and New Bird

Saturday we went to the Birch Aquarium at Scripps. Although it was small (think about 1/2 the size of Aquarium of the Pacific) Hannah had fun and really enjoyed the fisheees. After coming home I realized on my new wild finch feeder that I had a couple new birds. The pretty yellow one is called a Lesser Gold Finch. I had to take a pic.

Babies Babies and more Babies!

Friday I had three of my "mom" friends over (you know, people that you would be friends with even if they weren't moms, but they are so that's cool too!). We hung out and played at the house for a little bit and then went down to the pool that has a kiddie playground too. We wore those little guys out! My friend Rebekah's son was the only boy there and he kept going "Mommy, pool!" I said, "Listen little guy, you are with six women, you just have to learn to be patient". I actually felt bad for the little guy as he has a world of time ahead of him waiting on women to be ready : ) . He was soo cute though. He had a little fisherman's hat on and I said he looked like a "Grumpy Old Toddler". At one point I had all the babies around me like little dogs begging for what I like to call "Baby Crack" which is actually Gerber Cheese Puffs for Toddlers. I do not know what they put in these, the ingredients don't have sugar listed, but I swear if a can is opened it will be emptied before the lid is put back on. We had a lot of fun and I hope we can do it again soon before it gets too hot out here. They all looked so stinkin' cute in their little swimsuits!

Video of Hannah saying Minna Mouse/Circle and Ear

Disneyland

We went to Disneyland with Hannah for the first time this last Friday. Thanks to my uncle for getting us in. She loved meeting the princesses the most and Cinderella was walking by and said "Hi sweetie, I like your hair ". I thought she will probably get a real kick out of knowing Cinderella liked her hair - when I tell her when she's older and can understand. We had a blast - stayed for about 4 hours and that was about all that even we could take. Thought it was an absolute necessity to get Hannah one of the Mickey Mouse ear hats with her name on the back as that is the staple for your first Disneyland visit. Although we would like to take her to California Adventure too we will wait until she is a bit older since she probably would have had just as much fun at the park or My Gym. The pic above with her and Ry together walking down from the princess throne reminds me of a father walking his daughter down the aisle. It's hard to believe that one day that is just what he might be doing.

Mom's Night Out

I seriously don't know what I would do without my moms night's out. We had so much fun last night. We went to the new Pottery Barn Outlet and I got 2 shadowbox frames for $20! Then we went to an Italian restaurant in downtown Elsinore that I heard about called Ravioli's. It was delicious! I wish I had a pic from last night but I forgot my camera at home : ( Next month we are going to a pottery place that has wine and cheese night. If anyone around here wants to go too let me know. I can't wait! I don't know what I would do if I didn't have my mom friends to talk to and spend time with. Thanks ladies! P.S. - so glad we don't sit around and complain about our husbands like I heard some women do! We are all so lucky to have our men!

Hannah and her new Retro Kitchen

After going to several friends houses who had older children and seeing Hannah staying so busy in their little kitchens I decided to buy her one for herself. I looked at a lot of different ones and decided that this one was the cutest and not too big of an "eyesore" in the living room. The only thing was it took me about 3 hours to assemble though!

Video of Hannah saying Sheep

The funniest part is at the end when I say "baa" and so does the sheep.

Las Vegas Here We Come!

I am soo excited. We have just made airline and hotel reservations and we will be going to LV for our anniversary in June. First I have to say I can't believe that we have actually been married five years already. Five years has passed and you will not even believe the first thought that goes through my head....I have never cleaned my wedding dress. Nope, it still has the wedding cake I stepped in on the bottom and it is a filthy mess. It's one of those things where you say "oh I'll clean it next month when I have the money". Truthfully, I have had the money several times over I just never wanted to spend it on that. You know what? A friend told me about the best idea for a party. Since nobody ever gets to wear their wedding dress again or their bridesmaid dresses, you have a party and girls can wear either/or as a costume. I seriously think this would be a riot! I may be forming a party like this soon. Will you be in attendance? The last time we went on a vacation together was our babymoon - thought I would post the pic just for good times, I look like a Weeble. So weird to think that was my little girl in there.

Somewhat Healthy Banana Bread

Since i am always looking for recipes that use up old bananas here is a bread recipe I whipped up this evening by combining 3 other recipes. I thought it turned out pretty tasty.

2 1/4 Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup Splenda brown sugar
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
2/3 cup skim milk
1/4 cup low fat sour cream or you could use plain yogurt
2 tbsp canola oil
4 egg whites
4 large ripe bananas
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg

Heat oven to 350. Spray bundt pan with non stick spray. You could also use 2 loaf pans. Mix all ingredients in a large mixing bowl and blend 2 minutes on low speed. Beat 3 more minutes on high and pour into bundt pan. Bake approx 40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. if you use 2 loaf pans bake for about 50 minutes.

I really wanted to find a recipe which uses no sugar but a lot of them are replaced with applesauce or all Splenda. I do not like regular Splenda but the brown sugar is great for baking because it is a mix of real brown sugar and Splenda together so you only use half but it doesn't taste so artificial. Also, all the Banana Bread recipes I have tasted that use applesauce only taste really bland. If anyone has a good one please let me know.

Bird Nerd

These pics are not that great but I have been getting a lot more birds at my feeder lately (i know I am a dork!) because my aunt said to add some black oiled sunflower seeds to the bird mix. It helped a lot and now I am sort of becoming a bird nerd, researching feeds and the like. Anyhow I know the big bird above is called a Mourning Dove and the small is called a Purple Finch(even though it's red). I sort of enjoy opening my windows and hearing them chirp.

Thanks for the comments

Now for the biggest question of the day, who's the sneaky devil that would rather lose an arm?

Thankful Thursday is retired and it is now called...

Tasty Thursday!
Since so many people have been requesting different recipes lately I thought I would make it the new Thursday "blogmitment" and include a recipe in the weekly post. Here is the first. It is a combination of about 3 recipes I obtained. I baked it for my family this past Wednesday night (Thanks Aunt Sue for the Goulash!) and everyone loved it! It's got a ton of sugar so that's probably why.

Apple Torte with Crumb Topping

Crumb Topping
1/4 c flour
1/4 c packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp chilled butter, cut into small pieces

Crust
1/2 c sugar
1/4 c butter or margarine, softened
4 tsp water
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup flour

Filling
1/4 c sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 8 oz block fat free crm cheese
1 large egg
4 c diced peeled gala apples (1 1/2 lbs)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice

Preheat oven to 450

To prepare the crust beat the first 4 ingredients with a mixer at med speed until mixed. Add the flour to the sugar mixture and beat at med-low speed until well blended. Press the crust into the bottom and up the sides of a 9 inch springform pan that is well coated with cooking spray.

To prepare filling, beat 1/4 c sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla, cream cheese, and egg at low speed until smooth. Pour cream cheese mix into crust. Combine apple, 1/2 c sugar, ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and lemon in a bowl. Spread apple mixture evenly over cream cheese.

To prepare crumb topping, combine flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon in a bowl. Cut in 2 tablespoons butter with 2 knives until it resembles coarse meal. Cover apples with crumb topping.

Bake 450 for 10 minutes. Reduce oven temp to 400. Do not remove torte from oven. Bake an additional 25 minutes or until lightly browned and just set.

***I will still include thank you's from time to time.

My daughter speaks Vietnamese!

Video of Hannah saying Shoe

Okay, so Hannah has been saying alot of new words lately and shoe is one of her favorite, & mine too. She sounds like she is saying Schooo. I have her repeat it like 10 times just for giggles. Sorry the orientation is sideways.

Pool Day

I had a really great time this week even though my poor teething baby has been cranky. I can actually see her 2 year molars popping through in the back! She so ahead of her time. This week we were very busy just getting everything straightened out post-Easter holiday and gearing up for our LONG, HOT, summer. We had beautiful weather today in the 70's and decided to take Hannah and her friend Lexi to the pool. Hannah is what you would call "slow to warm up". She definitely gets that from her Dad, which I am happy about since I sort of just jump in head first without thinking things through sometimes. When we first got to the pool she would lift her legs up when I dipped them in. After about 20 minutes she wanted to climb in and out herself - she didn't want any help. Well, I was in my pants and was totally terrified she would drown in the 1 1/2 ft deep water. Luckily, in June, Hannah will be starting her swim school and hopefully I can go from completely paranoid to just plain cautious when she is around water. I have always loved swimming and the beach and so does Ry so I hope she takes to it like we both did since it will make for some nice summer days. Here are some pics of the girls playing around.