Christmas morning...

Merry Christmas everyone!

A funny moment...

I told Curran he needed to grow up a bit before he did something on the computer...so he looks at me, sits up tall and says, "I grow up!"
*smile*

Happy success...

So here is my first ever attempt at making 'sushi rolls'. I made them with canned tuna so that first-timers to sushi would feel a little braver. I made it spicy with chili sauce, but still didn't have quite the right flavor balance in my opinion. But they looked pretty! (And stayed rolled which was my big worry.) Curran actually helped me...by eating the seaweed wrappers and using wet (clean) fingers to flatten the rice.
I made these for a short public presentation I did on international holidays. In my little speech I touched upon Guy Fawkes day, Shichigosan, Baba Marta, Loi Krathong, Teej, Semana Santa and Eid al-fitr. I think about 12 or more sat through my presentation and participated awesomely, offering up their own stories of local and international holidays and traditions. The event was even written up in the local paper beforehand afterwards here as well. I had so much fun putting this presentation together, and I learned a lot which felt great.

Getting ready...

We're having fun getting ready for Christmas here. My mom and I tried an apple fruitcake this year. (You can see we were serious about cutting it well! hehe) It was too tasty! We got our tree put up a week or so ago. If it's not too dark you might see the boys peering at our finished tree. What fun! I'm really enjoying getting ready for Christmas... Baking and eating waaay too much I'm sure =)

Halloween 2009

Avery was King Arthur and Curran was Sir Lancelot. They both had sooo much fun, I was glad that all the costume-making effort was appreciated by my boys!














These are our pumpkins. Mine's at the top, and had a motion-activated spooky noise light inside that managed to scare several neighborhood kids, mwuh-ha-ha! Avery's is on the third step down. Dad carved it for him, but he collaborated with the design.

Kindergarten portrait

Here's our handsome little man :)

Just a couple days ago he randomly asked, "Mom, why don't soda and beef jerky mold if you leave them out of the fridge?" *chuckle* Boy he takes after his mother (or so I like to think.)

Bunch of giggles...

Had fun with the boys this evening. Though these pictures were taken during the summer, it portrays the crazy fun we had. We did what must be the wildest dances ever to Paul Simon's Graceland! I'll have to get up a video soon, 'cause I swear Curran has turned into a kangaroo!

A tradition continues...

We just got a new rocking recliner today! I have fond memories from as early as I can remember of a big, fuzzy, Lay-z-boy rocking chair in our home. Especially when the kids have been sick, I've really missed having that super-comfortable place to rock them all night. After saving up for a long time, I also really look forward to a cozy reading chair!

1st day of Kindergarten

Here's Avery ready to go to class! He was groggy at 6:45 this morning, but woke up quickly when he remembered what day it was :)

Day number one was a lot of fun he said. I guess they practiced numbers and visited the computer lab. He was very impressed by the huge cafeteria. (His kingergarten is public and has about 500 students.)

He was on an excitment high all day. I'm very happy for him!

Sketchy...

This is a picture I sketched really quick taking a pose from one of my manga books...while Curran was bouncing on my back... So I'm pretty happy with it. If you click on the picture to enlarge it you can probably actually see it.

St. Louis #1

We took a trip and spent about five days in St. Louis. It was great fun and I would definitly go back. There is way too much to put into one post though, so we start with the zoo, which was Avery's birthday activity post-poned. Aric put up lots of St. Louis pictures on Flickr, click here.

Because of my personal preferences, we started the zoo with a lot of time in the reptile house which was awesome! Their bug building (including butterfly biodome) was really great too. One of the most awesome things they had in the kid's area was a clear tube slide that went through the river otter exhibit! Had a hard time pulling Avery away from that one... They got to pet guinea pigs and also play veterinarian again (like at the children's museum). We went to the zoo two days, since entry is free, and the kids loved it all.

On a side note, we visited an uncle's house yesterday near a lake and had a blast! Avery went out on his first paddle boat ride and went swimming -with inner tube- with all of his cousins. Curran got to go on a big trampoline for the first time; he had fun, but it took some getting used to the big bounces. I got to go diving and swimming for nearly an hour after Curran got too cold to swim with me, and it was soo peaceful! *happy sigh*

Avery lovin' 5!

So here is Avery with his crazy birthday
cake, and I do mean crazy! The center was a flower candle that opened up and was much more of a firecracker in the middle then any of us expected... Curran was just a wee bit scared, poor guy.


















Avery enjoyed playing with his new foldable soccer goal and opening many gifts. We will be going to the zoo for his birthday activity, but couldn't do it on the day.

Curran is 2 Years Old!

Curran had to put on a birthday hat first thing in the morning! Then we all ate and piled into the van for a trip to the Children's Museum of Denver. He spent at least half the time at the fire truck; oh he'd visit the other exhibits for a few minutes, but we always had to go back to the fire truck!

The boys did really spend a good bit of time in the vet center too. They had real x-rays to look at on a lit wall, and all the instruments and stuffed animals you could ask for.

Curran also got his first trike so that he could ride bikes along with his brother. I personally love the handle at the back to help push him =)

We be pirates!

Here's the boys in their pirate hats. Curran's trying his best to make a scary pirate face after trying to say the pirate alphabet: A, E, I, aRRRg! He normally says "A, aRRg, aRRg". It's very cute =)

Of course then the pirates plundered some pudding and got just a *bit* messy, hehe.

Excitment

Things got a bit interesting for us this evening: around 6:30 pm the town tornado siren started going off. We all stood looking at each other for a sec, "Is that for real?" Then turning on the radio heard about a funnel cloud sighting about 16 miles west of our town. We had about 15 minutes of 'tornado warning' status. (And no this picture is not local.)

So we got to pile the boys downstairs. I grabbed cell phone and the file that holds our birth certificates and passports and went downstairs too. Avery was pretty agitated at first until it was explained that the siren doesn't mean that our house will be hit, just that there is a chance of it - so we have to be prepared. Of course as all good little kids will think of, Avery asked, "What if we have to go potty during the tornado warning?" *chuckle* But a valid point; we have no toilet downstairs. We told him if another warning came that we would take him potty before going into the basement. He seemed ok with that =)

As I write this sentence the storm has just passed us and no more storms in sight, so hopefully it will be a quiet night from here on out! What an exciting evening :P

Happy garden...

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This is my tomato plant with marigolds ringing the bottom. If you look closely you may be able to see the green cherry tomatoes already, hurray!

Of course Curran thought "you want a picture of ME, not those silly tomatoes!!" What a camera hog!

Another kind of graduation...

Curran took a couple of big steps today. We put away his high chair for good, so he can sit in a booster seat at the table with us. And then we took down the railing of his crib so it looks more like big brother's bed. If you can't tell by the picture he was pretty thrilled!

California times...

<-- This is currently my favorite photo in the whole world. It was an extremely windy and cold day at the beach, but Avery still wanted to play in the water. The photo here is my sister helping him clean up after getting knocked over by an icy wave. And yes, we really did need hats and scarves!






We also went to Fairytale Town. Curran took the cheese at that awesome park! Or did the cheese take him?

My current battle...

I've always really enjoyed food, and certainly I've enjoyed it too much =)

Since we moved nine months ago I gained over fifteen new pounds I didn't need. My back started being in pain every day and none of my clothes fit anymore. So two weeks ago I started learning about how many calories I actually consume normally (and what I should be eating) and exercising every day. It has made me grouchy a few days - eating less that is - but it's starting to pay off already.

My wedding ring fits back on my finger now (I had to move it to my pinky especially with the warm weather), my back doesn't hurt every day and I've lost three or so pounds. And I haven't been starving myself at all, just eating reasonably and being active. So wish me luck to keep up my willpower. I don't want weight-induced diabetes and I want to wear my clothes again...

Adios preschool!

Here's Avery holding his 'graduation' certificate for finishing preschool. The kids did a presentation thing of singing ten or so songs before they presented the kindergarteners-to-be with their certificates.

Belated Easter..

So I realized that I'm waaay late in posting easter pictures, sorry. Avery obviously enjoys making faces at the camera. This goofball did however manage to test into Kindergarten with flying colors (early cutoff date in our state). He starts taking gymnastics this coming Monday, and he's very very excited. It's been over a year since he last took gymnastics, but he has really happy memories of it. Our city pool opens soon too, so we'll see how he takes to that :)





Here's Curran munching on jelly beans. They were one of his favorite candies at Eastertime (takes after his mother he does *grin*).

He's beginning to speak in 3-syllable words; well he tries his best to say them... And apparently some words like "more" he always says english/spanish/sign together just to be sure he's understood. Like "more-mas" jelly beans!!!

Catching up...

This is a much-belated picture from the very happy day in January that I became a deacon. ------>

Below is just a cute picture of Curran playing with great-grandma's pitcher collection...as apparently every visiting child does :)

A trip with wild animals (not just the kids)

We recently went to a wild animal sanctuary with the kids and some dear friends of ours. Here you can see Curran's favorite part of the park. He kept running back to the entry point so that he could see the animal that he could touch, and the dog loved it too :)









They had tigers, ocelots, lions, bears, wolves, and cougars to name most of them. Nearly all were rescue animals. Here are a couple of the many many beautiful tigers they had. There was lots and lots of roaming space for the animals, and even a pool area that they got to rotate in and out of.








Here's Avery trying hard to look just like them! He enjoyed watching the tigers play with giant exercise balls and play in the pool.











Here is Curran all dressed up for Mardi Gras a couple weeks back. He went around with his brother begging beaded necklaces off of everyone. (They were just laying on all the tables during our potluck.) He thinks he's pretty hot stuff in sunglasses, let me tell you!