Chocolate Pudding

Tonight I made a yummy chocolate pudding. It is GF and dairy free for those with allergies or who just like to try different things :-) or like me can't have dairy because it upsets my nursling's system. Even Erich liked this one... I will say that even though this recipe is super easy, it did take quite a bit of arm power because I whisked it from start to finish. Not sure I needed to whisk it so much... but I did.

Dairy Free Chocolate Pudding

4 egg yolks
1 TBS corn starch
1 (14 oz) can of coconut milk
1/2 C chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate, because I prefer them over the dark chocolate)
1 tsp vanilla

In a bowl, whisk the yolks and corn starch together until smooth and set aside.

In a small sauce pan, heat the milk and chocolate until the chocolate is completely disolved and bring mixture to a boil. Once boiling, remove from the heat and allow to cool briefly. Remove about a 1/2 cup of the hot milk and whisk into the egg mixture slowly to temper the eggs. Once eggs are tempered, whisk the egg mixture slowly back into the milk in the pan. Return the saucepan to the heat and simmer for 5 minutes, do not boil. I whisked the entire 5 minutes, although I doubt that is needed... I was paranoid about burning. Remove from the heat and cool... Be sure to whisk the pudding regularly to avoid forming a skin on the top. Once the pudding is slightly warm, stir in the vanilla extract, transfer to a bowl and chill.

Honey Custard

The desert of the week is a yummy honey custard. I really liked it... not to sweet, great creamy texture, and tasty. Erich liked it but wished it was a bit sweeter. What do you think?

HONEY CUSTARD
4 eggs
2.5C coconut or dairy milk (I used raw dairy milk)
1/3C honey
1-2 tsp vanilla extract (I used 2 tsp of my home made extract)
1/2 tsp salt
A nice dash of cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees with your rack in the center of the oven.

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and beat until smooth and well blended. Use a whisk or hand mixer as needed. Pour into 6 individual ramekin cups.

Place the ramekins into a 9X13 pan and pour water all around the ramekins. Place the pan carefully into the oven. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle of the custard comes out clean.

I enjoyed it slightly warm and very cool. Yummy!

Calzones and Pizza, yummy real food

I decided to try making calzones for dinner this evening using a new recipe for the dough. The boys did not care for my choices of fillings, so we had calzones AND pizza. I have never made calzones, and was expecting it to be difficult. Much to my surprise, it was easy!!!

Pizza Dough
1.333C Flat Beer (I used Yuengling)
17.8 oz by weight of Organic All Purpose Flour
3 TBS sugar
1.5 tsp salt
1.5 TBS butter
1.5 tsp active dry yeast (OR use 2 tsp instant yeast)

I did not have flat beer, so I made it by pouring a half glass out into a large mug and then pouring the beer from glass to glass until the bubbles stopped. I poured the beer out into a measuring cup and trashed any foam that remained. I did not have quite 1.33C of beer from my 1 bottle of beer after this process so I used a little water to make up the rest of the liquid.

I used a bread machines dough cycle to knead the dough. When the dough is done mixing and rising, pour out the dough and cut it into 4 equal pieces (each piece should weigh about 8oz) and form into a ball. Store the unused portions in a plastic bag to prevent the dough from developing a yucky skin.

This make four 10-12" pizza dough balls or dough for four calzones.

Calzone
1 dough ball
olive oil for brushing the top
.25 - .5C ricotta
.25-.5C mozzarella
Shredded Parmesan cheese to taste
toppings

1. Flatten out a ball of dough into an oval, or 10-12" circle, or whatever... shape is not very important. It's more important that the dough be stretched to an even thickness than uniform shape, since you are going to fold it over and crimp the edges to seal it.

2. Place ricotta (~.25-.5C) on half of the dough, be sure to leave enough room from the edge of the dough to allow it to seal properly

3. Add any toppings... I used cooked brocolli, a handful of mozzarella, some shredded Parmesan, and a sprinkling of basil. Don't over stuff...

4. Fold over the dough and pinch the edges together.

5. Cut 2 lines in the top of the calzone for venting. Brush the top with olive oil and sprinkle the top of the calzone with Parmesan cheese.

6. Bake the calzone on a pizza stone at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes. If you don't have a pizza stone, bake it on the bottom rack of your oven.


Pizza
1 dough ball
Tomato sauce
up to 8oz of Mozarella Cheese

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees and allow your pizza stone to preheat sufficiently.

Roll out the dough to a 10-12" circle.

If you want, brush the dough with olive oil. Ladle out your desired amount of sauce and spread evenly. Sprinkle the mozzarella cheese evenly over the pizza. Place the pizza on the stone and let it cook 5-10 minutes until the crust is done and the cheese is nice and bubbly. Remove, slice, and enjoy!

Yummy whole wheat bread

My parents got me a Zojiroshi bread machine for Christmas and I have been using it quite a bit to make delicious whole wheat breads out of the Hard Spring White Wheat I grind fresh using a grain mill (Nutrimill). The fresh flour makes bread that tastes soooo much better than older flour. Today I made my staple 1.5# loaf and it got such great oven spring I had to take a picture (It is almost as tall as my honey bear!) , plus I wanted to pass on the recipe.

The Urban Homemaker website has a great recipe for bread and the version I use for the Zo is below. I weigh all my ingredients so what I list below is the weights I use




Marilyn's Famous Whole Wheat Bread Recipe (1.5# loaf for a bread machine)
(from http://articles.urbanhomemaker.com/index.php?article=450)

11.45 oz by weight water
0.95 oz by weight vinegar
16 oz by weight Fresh whole wheat flour
1.85 oz by weight Local Honey
1.5 oz by weight vital wheat gluten
2 TBS of butter
1.5tsp salt
1.5 tsp yeast

1. Let the machine mix the 1st 3 ingredients for 3 minutes then cover and let the flour soak for up to 24 hours
2. Melt the butter with the honey and pour over the pre-mixed flour
3. Add the gluten on top, place the yeast on the gluten to keep it from getting wet and add the salt off to the side.
4. Run the machine


I use the programmable function of the Zo as follows
Preheat: 30 minutes
Knead: 24 minutes
Rise 1: 45 minutes
Rise 2: 1 hour 25 minutes
Rise 3: Off
Bake: 1 hour 10 minutes
Keep warm: 1 hour

The result absolutely yummy bread!

Chocolate Pudding with a secret ingredient

I was not planning on posting again today, however I just made a healthy, tasty chocolate pudding and had to share. Last week at I picked up 2 local Florida avocados and today I noticed they were finally ripe. So I made pudding. Yup. Chocolate Pudding with 'hidden' avocados. This recipe is dairy and gluten free. Quick to make and requires no cooking. Plus it is yummy with its rich dark chocolate flavor!


Chocolate Pudding

1/2C dates pitted and chopped (this turned out to be 10 dates for me)
1/2C+2TBS boiling water
1/3C Real Maple Syrup
2 large Florida Avocados
3/4C cocoa powder
2TBS Coconut oil, melted
1 TBS (+ a little) local honey

Combine the dates and boiling water in a small bowl and allow to soak a minimum of 4 hours (overnight works). After they are done soaking, place the dates with the soaking water and the maple syrup in the food processor and blend until smooth. Add the avocados, cocoa powder and coconut oil to the food processor and process until smooth. Taste and if you want it a little sweeter add the honey to the mix while the processor is running. If you want to adjust the consistency, add water as needed. Pour the pudding into serving dishes and chill until set. Serves 4-6. (You could probably sub local honey for the maple syrup if you wanted to... the ingredients and quantities listed in the recipe are what I used).

The Origins of Craftiness

I have always loved crafts of all sorts. Grossmama, my grandma from my mom's side shown in the picture, taught me to crochet and knit the 'proper' way when I was very little and I have created things ever since. For the longest time, I was forever buying lovely yarns and creating various knit and crocheted items... you name it I probably either made one or have a pattern for one. LOL!

My Grandma, dad's side, taught me some sewing during my summer visits in Alabama, enough to be dangerous. Hehe. So as an adult I finally decided that I wanted to sew some things to give away for Christmas. So off to JoAnn's I went and ended up buying a basic Huskaverna Viking machine. It was perfect and I made a bunch of rice bags and gave them to everyone at church. I started sewing enough that I wanted a better machine.

This began my trade-in journey. Machine 1 = basic sewing machine. Machine 2 = Best sewing machine. Machine 3 = Basic Embroidery machine. Machine 4 = Top of the line Embroidery machine. Fun stuff! I am convinced that Viking has the trade-in program solely for the purpose of keeping you spending money in small enough increments that you don't realize you have spent a LOT over time. They let you trade in for another machine and will credit you the full price you paid for the first machine... as long as you do it within their time frame. And this can be repeated each time you upgrade.

So now I had the top of the line machine, the trade in scheme could stop. Right? Kinda... no more trading in machines for me. Even when they came out with the NEW top of the line fancy machine I was perfectly happy with mine since it was still AWESOME. Another 6 months went by and they had a sale. One of those stimulate the economy sales... LOW prices for a great machine. Next thing I know I bought the fancy machine (Machine #5) and am now the proud owner of 2 embroidery machines. :-) I love them and have enjoyed sewing and learning new skills.

For instance, I have been quilting, making bag holders, aprons, and many other things. I think I may even put a few things on ETSY.com and see how they do on that site. While my machines can be seen as crazy excess, I use them a lot and enjoy creating.

I am thankful that Grossmama taught me to knit and crochet, it instilled a love of crafts and creating that is very much part of who I am today! I hope I will be able to pass on the skills I have to the boys one day. Knitting, crocheting, sewing, and cooking are not just skills for girls! I hope they enjoy it as much as I do...

I sure can ramble... more later

... and baby makes 4

It's been nearly well over a year since I have posted anything to the blog. It is time to start again. :) The year has been good to us... Ethan turned 3 this past Wednesday and Aiden is 10 weeks old now. Yup we are now a family of 4.

Since I have not been blogging, I need to back up a little bit. Last year Erich and I found out we were expecting another little bundle of joy and on November 12, 2009 at 11:18am Aiden was born. He was 8# 5oz and 20 inches long and had an apgar of 9/9. This birth was much easier and laid back than the first one. My doctor was AWESOME and I am pleased to tell everyone that VBACs are completely possible - even un-medicated (Yes I am 'one of those' women who believe in natural childbirth including the unmedicated part. :-P) Aiden was due November 15th so while he was close enough to be considered on time, I was not quite prepared for him to arrive. I had a very big meeting on the 12th that I needed to present for and consequently missed. I also had not quite wrapped up all my work stuff... I was going to do that after my big meeting. Oops. Oh well.

The VBAC started how I wanted, me walking resting and basically doing what ever I wanted. I did this for quite some time until I got tired of not having any regular pattern and decided to sleep instead. Once they finally got around to checking me I was only 3cm dialated. The result? Pitocin. Yuck. Like Ethan, I ended up with pitocin to move labor along, however - unlike Ethan - my contractions started on their own and I was progressing on my own. SLOWLY, but I was progressing. Once I had 'pit' everything sped up and I went from 3cm to 6cm in 3 hours and from 6cm to 10cm in about an hour. Woo hoo! 9 pushes and the little guy was here!

I was able to hold him for a bit before they cleaned him up and even able to nurse a little. He is quite the nursling! Sooooo much different this time around. :-) And, while most will think this is gross, I was able to see the placenta this time. I wanted to see it when I had Ethan, however the doctor said no and threw it away :-( as part of the surgery. I was not in a position to argue with her since I was sick from the anastesia and was in the middle of major abdominal surgery (C-Section). So having this time to see it was much better. It was strange looking. Amazing - that strange thing grew the little one for 40 weeks from a few cells to the beautiful little boy I have.

So this year I plan to get back to blogging. 140 characters on facebook can be limiting. I plan on blogging on some of everything. Of course you will get to hear about my 2 blessings, maybe some of my hubbies antics, my cooking and crafting and generally what ever is on my mind. Erich may be posting his thoughts from time to time as well. :-) Anyway, sorry for the long break and this marks the first post of the new year!

Summer time!!

Ethan loved eating fresh watermelon. Yipee for summer. :)

15 months and getting big!

Today we did a photoshoot at the beach for Ethan's 15 month old celebration... well not really, it just happens that the day we picked to do pictures fell on 4/20/08. :)

So we have a TON of pictures for your viewing pleasure... but just in case you don't have time to flip thru all the pics linked -- here are just a few from the collection:

He smiled
did flips
'What do you want?!?!'
Dug holes
and chased the water. He even ate lots of Sand! Yuck!
















Now here is one that makes a momma's heart just melt! Erich and Katie (the photographer) were slowly walking back to the car... I had run ahead to get stuff to clean up the little man. At the top of the stairs I turned to look at my boys and Ethan looked up saw me on the stairs and started grinning and pointing at his momma. Look at that smile! AWWWWWWWWW! :)

What a weekend

What a weekend. It is crazy that while most people will be well rested
this morning for work-- I feel like I need a vacation or a weekend for
sure.

- Samantha
Sent from my iPhone

Ethan's EEG

>> Hey everyone. Today was the day for Ethan to go get his EEG. This
>> really is just a precaution since the doctor is pretty sure this is
>> just your average breathholding case. But better safe than sorry.
>>
>> So per doctor orders I kept ethan up late last night (read not fun)
>> and got him up early to go to the doctors office-- with no nap. We
>> got there and were escorted to a room with a table, an exam bench
>> and a computer. The nice lady showed everything to ethan by puting
>> it on his hand first so he could check it all out and not be
>> frightened.
>>
>> She took a marker and drew dots all over his head then scrubbed
>> down each spot. Then the fun began. 20+ electrodes all gooed down
>> onto the scrubbed spots. He left them alone for a bit but
>> eventually I had to hold his hands while she finished dressing out
>> the wires and bandageing his head. Look how silly he looked;
>>

Erich's Trip to Seattle!

One serious workout!

Yeah baby!
What a way to spend an afternoon :)

What are you up to today? ;)

Pretty arm decorations

See the pretty henna a friend did for me?

More Birthday pictures

New pics added to the birthday album... check them out!

Ethan's 1st Birthday

So I am good! All before his birth time, I made the album, uploaded it and got this posted. Enjoy the pictures!

1 year down :)

Ethan turned 1 today and we had a ball of a party! 12 Feet of Party subs, vegies, fruit, a few cakes, lemonade, live music by the Tucker Brothers (Opa and Uncle Joel) and Ray Tucker (Great-Grandpa), and lots of friends and family made for one heck of a party!

I am working on getting all the pics loaded... but that may take a few days as clothing needs washing, food cooking, and so forth. In the mean time, everyone please send me any pics you took at the party :) PLEASE :) I really need to have them all :)

Thanks for comming and having fun with us all on this 1 year anniversary!

A poll... :)

Who does this little guy look more like... Samantha or Erich? Vote in the poll box below. :)

PollPub.com Vote

Who does Ethan look more like?

Mom Samantha

Dad Erich




View Results

Poll powered by PollPub.com Free Polls

What a cutie!

Check out all the cool pictures of the little man in my life! These are just a few of the high points. :)

Some people suck

that is all I have to say about that!

Tommy's 1st Birthday

A Picture says a thousand words! :)




Yep! That is sign language for "More" ... he wanted more cake :)





I think he had enough what say you?










So Tommy turned 1 today and he is such an adorable little ham! :) Check out all the fun pictures from the day:

http://mirabal.org/albums/tommy%20alexander%27s%201st%20birthday/

Tommy's 1st Birthday - The movie

Ethan's First Christmas!

It is amazing how big Ethan is getting so darn fast! And he is so adorable (says the unbiased mom ;) )!!! It will be neat to see how he reacts to boxes and how he is already enjoying christmas trees!


Of course everyone thought they were twins! :) It was funny!








Here are all the rest of the pictures: http://mirabal.org/albums/tommy%20alexander%27s%201st%20birthday/

A day at the park (11/15/07)

Last Thursday Marjie took us out to lunch at the park and snapped a few pictures. We had a great time and enjoyed the great food and company!

This is my heart

enough said... sob

Where does the time go?

It was just yesterday that the little one was 19.25", 8lbs, and basically a sleep machine. Now he is a movin' 20 lb machine. I look back at the pictures of him from the beginning and find my self thinking "WOW... he was so small" some of the time and other times thinking "OMG... he s so huge! when did that happen?"

It is really amazing how much he has changed in these last few months. Happy 9 months to us! Now we are just waiting for daddy to come home from his worldly travlels so we can all hug, play, and have fun. :)

Agile Thunder

So I am now in the UK for the first day. The flight was nice since I flew in first class.

This first night sucks, though, as there is no internet in the hotel room and so I am downstairs in the nasty lobby of this gloomy brit hotel posting these notes and images.

I have gotten to see one cool thing, which was Stonehenge. And that was about it. That will also probably be about it for the rest of the trip since I will be stuck in a hole of a place. I posted more pictures on MySpace.

More another day.

3, 2, 1 -- Lift off!

In case you are wondering what I have been doing at work lately... here is a clue:

At 8:22pm the first of these satellites lifted off out at the Cape. I am on the team dealing with our part for the next 3 of them. We build the little antenna's hanging off of the side of the satellite. Neat!

Here is some basic background info on the program: http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/americas-wideband-gapfiller-satellite-program-02733/

And here is a thread that tells all about the launch: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=9971&start=1

Proof of Life

OK, so Brennan *is* still alive people! If you know him, then you know that the best way to capture his existence is to say 'SSDD' and that's all I have to say about that. I am glad I got to hang out with him for a good while. We went to lunch to a very good Greek restaurant where the lamb was delicious.

Seattle has been cloudy and rainy most of the time, but the temperature has been a nice change from the brutal Florida heat.

More later.

LSUcks, but Ethan is still cute

I don't want to think about the LSU loss too much since it just makes me angry. So in that respect, I am trying to block our pathetic game where we snatched defeat out of the jaws of victory.

Here is an alternate memory for that night. Fred and Susan came over and Ethan really enjoyed it. I am really taking the fear out of Ethan and making him into a daredevil... which I will eventually regret, I'm sure.

Orange!!!!!!!!!!

Being Gators, of course we dress little Ethan in proud colors every weekend. More times than not, he is sporting this cute one (Thanks Lisa and Kevin!)

Playing at Lisa's

When I am at work, Ethan is off playing with his buddy's at Lisa's house. Right on schedule, Ethan is starting to develop separation anxiety and is sad when we drop him off and gets sad in the afternoon waiting for us to come get him. I hope this does not last too long, because it makes me miss him a lot! anyway, check out these pictures Lisa took one day while they were playing...

here he is being a ham :)
more fun
Looking for mommy out the window...
hanging with his buddy :)
Lisa, Bella, and Ethan -- he is starting to look angry :)
looking like a little devil .. yikes!

Pictures from August

So I have decided I am a horrible blogger since I do not get on here and blog often. I Grabbed some fun shots from August and made an album for you all to check out - Click Here below are a few of the highlights from the album.

Ethan is sure to be a dare devil! He worked intently on getting ON the box and then really worked to balance on the edge!

such a cute little duck we have!

The boys just hanging!

and of course... "Helping" mom with the dishes -- LOL!

Epcot on 9/3/07!

So We went to Epcot for the first time with Ethan and met some friends there - Mary, Brad, Fred, Susan, Elaine, and Fred (I need to call Elaine and Fred to see if I can get the picture from them that has us all since i only have a few pics and none of everyone...) I must admit, I was quite nervous taking Ethan for the day, it was hot and it is at least a 50% out door activity.

Well we packed his diapers, grabbed a sling and a mei tai baby carrier and took off -- and no stroller - and yes no stroller is much eaiser! Anyway, It was a lot of fun. Ethan was great! He slept in the carrier, laughed, yanked on my hair and overall I think he had fun, no real crying episodes except when we left him with one of our friends to go on a ride. He was tired and hungry so not the best combo to leave with someone and no bottle to solve part of it...

Disney has a nice little baby care section that we visited a few times to get him to eat and to cool off for a bit. It has a private nursing room, changing room, a store with baby essentials, and a little play room -- nice little setup. My only complaint would be its location. I kind of wish Disney had 2 centers, one near the front of the park and one near the back. It sure is a long walk if you are on the other side of Epcot's world.

Here is Ethan and I in his Kozy




Here We are in our solarveil sling about to sleep heading home for the day

Milestone Listing...

Here are Ethan's Major milestones to date...

0 days -- Ethan was born 9:36pm, 8lbs 3oz at birth, 7 lbs 7 oz at discharge
6 weeks -- Ethan is starting to smile
8 Weeks -- Consistantly smiling
10 - 12 Weeks -- Flipping from front to back and back to front
14 Weeks -- Laughing boy
4.5 months -- Rocking Baby
5 Months -- Crawling Baby, practicing getting things (spoons) into his mouth
5.25 Months -- First unassisted pull up to standing position. Standing while holding on to furniture by self. Will walk while holding onto fingers
5.5 Months -- Sitting up by self, 16 lbs 4oz
6 Months -- 16lbs 15 oz, 1st food = avacado, crusing furniture
6.5 Months -- will balance on own for 2 seconds (ok- this is not a real MS, but we were excited about it)
7.5 months - first bottom tooth pokes thru just barely

A gator Haiku!

Troy the Trojans try
Victory they seek in vain
Gators will bring it!

Teeth a comming....

YIKES! Teeth are a comming -- yesterday evening i felt his little gums and sure enough there was the faintest little razor. You could not see it but you could feel it. Tonight i felt around some more and now you can feel 2 little bumps sticking up from the same tooth. Still not much to see... but soon... too soon! I really hope he does not bite! Nursing could be interesting for a while.

6.5 Month Photos

This past weekend we went to Cocoa Village and had some pictures taken. Ethan was such a doll and let us get in a bunch of good photos before he had enough! Check them out!

Then and Now...

How time flys! Check out a quick photo study I did of Ethan Face shots. Looking back at the pics from the first week, he was a bit weird looking :) That is OK -- He is pretty now!!!
The pics below show him at 1 week old and 6.5months old!

Seriously cool!!!

Check out this video! I love the song and the video is just amazing!

Ethan's First Food...

Well today Ethan turned 6 months at our 6 month check up we weighed 16lbs 15oz and measured 27"long. What a way to grow... to date, Ethan has been a mama's milk only baby and today we decided to try our first taste of food to see how Ethan took it. Organic ripe avacado is what we decided to attempt. It really was not eating.. i mean, he did lick his hands a bit, but for the most part, he was just smashing it around. What a mess! It was funny to see his weird reaction to having his hands taste like something new. Too Cute!

Click here to see the rest of the pictures.

New world...

Picture this... Ethan is sitting on the edge of the carpet where the vinal starts and he leans over and pats the carpet and rubbs it, than he reaches over and pats/rubbs on the vinal. For about 15 minutes this continued. You could almost see the gears in his head turning trying to figure out why they felt different. It was so cute!

Anyhow, he weighed 16lbs 6.8oz today and this week he has figured out sitting up pretty well. AND next week he will be 6 months old. WHERE DID THE TIME GO!!!!!!

Ethan's Last week with JJ before she moves

Tomorow is Ethan's Last day with JJ before she moves to Georgia with her family. For the past 3 months she has been watching him on days we work! Thank you for keeping our little guy safe! Have fun in GA, we will miss you!

ARGG!!!!!

So let's see... On the 5th We experienced our first nursing strike. I really think it is due to the fact that he is teething (or at least feeling teeth movement). Now he is nursing, but not sleeping. It is 9:45pm and he usually is asleep by 8pm and guess what, he is still awake and wants to play. I am exhausted and want to sleep... Oh -- He is also spitting up like a mad man. We have been treating him for reflux, and his spitting had gone down, but for some reason this evening he is spitting king. OK... time to go try to put him to bed again. BYE!

Stare Down!

While down visiting Oma, Opa, Stef , Jeff and Tommy... Ethan and Stefanie were locked in a stare down... Ethan sat that way for nearly 5 minutes. I only caught a bit on film, but it was so funny!

New Photo Albums!

I have not been diligent about posting the million and one photos we take of Ethan so I figured I would start trying to catch up. Here are two albums. One was the weekend before the 4th, It was my dad's Birthday and Ethan and I were down visiting. The second is from the last time we visited Erich's family.

Opa's Birthday Photos

Photos from visiting with Abuela Y Abuelo

More to come...

Ethan is getting so big and strong! Today he weighed in at 16 lbs 4 oz. that is 11 oz in the past 2 weeks. Mommas milk does a body good! LOL

Anyway, I think I want to post about his milestones to make sure they are all captured, but for now just a few videos for your viewing pleasure... I will post more later after I put E down for his nap

Ethan starring as Gene Simmons (KISS)

Ethan and I went for a ride today to go visit the grandparents and family in North Palm. On the way here is what I got :)

Crawling man

We have been watching Ethan schooch all over the place and rock on all fours and flail trying to crawl. Well guess what, 2 days ago he finally figured out how to coordinate hands and feet and he is slowly crawling now. So today we caught him on camera. Check him out!



Here he is chasing a phone

Outdoors with the family :)

Jeff, Stef and Tommy have been here in Palm Bay and I think we have been having some fun! Today we all went to the Turkey Creek Sanctuary and walked the boardwalk. I really like it out there... so peaceful and nature everywhere. I must admit, I do not like it when nature gets on me :) (ie. ants) but other than that the trees, squirrels, turtles, barracudas, etc are all neat to see. I think the heat and walking may have been more than our guests planned for, but I thought it was fun... I hope they come up again sometime to hang out more. It is cool having the boys together.

Here are some pics for your viewing pleasure