We’re back!  We had a blast but I’m so happy to be back in our own home, with our own routine, and…INTERNET.  Wow-am I ever addicted.  Five days with little or no internet was REALLY hard.  Being with my family was GREAT though.

I have about 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 pictures to show you 🙂

Our first morning started off with the two cousins having breakfast together.  Lucy is 5 months older than Tessa but they are about the same size.

They were only that close for the pictures because they started stealing each other’s food.

After breakfast, we drove 2 hours to a lake town called McCall.  The drive was beautiful!  I was driving so there’s no pictures :(  We met the rest of my family at the small airport in McCall-they had flown straight there.  My two brothers, my sister-in-law, my soon to be sister-in-law, my 3 nephews, and my Dad were all there waiting for us.  After we unloaded at the house my 2 brothers and I went grocery shopping for the week.  Check out how much we spent!

That’s what 2 carts filled to the brim and beer will do to you!

That night, my sister made shrimp scampi, beef loin, and salad (YUM!) and we all hung out.  My brother, sister-in-law, and 3 nephews hadn’t seen Lucy in a year so that was fun to catch up!

The next day everybody except my sister and me went skiing and the two girls hung out.

We also went on a hike in the snow, where we had to really bundle the girls up.

(Yes they can barely move-it was 8 degrees out!)

That night I made pizza bombs for 15 people!  I didn’t get any pictures since I was working my ass off in the kitchen.  They were a HUGE hit.  I even got over my fear of yeast and made my own dough-it was delicious.

The next day, it was more skiing for everybody while the girls hung out again.  That night, my soon to be sister-in-law Amy made us all a Filipino feast!  We had chicken adobo, pancit, and long beans with ground beef-it was DELISH!  All the cousins played again.  Here’s 8 year old Luke with Lucy’s magna-doodle.  He drew a picture of Lucy and Luke together.

Here are all the cousins (Lucy wasn’t so into the picture):

Our last full day in McCall we went to breakfast and then all took naps.  Later in the day we went on a hike in the snow and went sledding.  It was a blast!!!

My sister Lissa and Tessa:

Shaun and Lu:

My Aunt Kelly and Uncle Roger, who came to visit for 2 days, and their dogs, Bear and Bailey:

Lu in all her gear:

And then we went sledding!

 

Even I did it-it was SO FUN!

Even when I crashed…

Shaun dug it too:

Then my brother and sister-in-law went together:

OVER A JUMP!

And Lu got in on the action!

She was a trooper but a little cold by the end of it.

We woke up this morning to a few inches of new snow and it was continuing to come down.  We were a little worried about being able to fly out but it went smoothly.  My brother, very generously, offered to fly us home in his chartered jet.

It was QUITE the luxury! Not one that I think I’ll get ever again!  It was really nice to not have to deal with security at the airport or the 2 hour drive to get there.  Plus it meant I got to spend more time with my family. 

Flying into the Bay Area, we got some fantastic views:

Aunt Sheri and Lu took some time for a self portrait:

And now we’re home!  It was fun but I am SO glad to be back!!! 

Lu is napping, I’ve got internet, and I’ve got power-I can blog!  I have so much to share but photos upload so slowly over an Aircard 🙁

I can show you Christmas though!

First we knew we were a go with flying with Lucy on Christmas Eve.  The antibiotics had already kicked in and she was feeling MUCH better!

I got all my wrapping done!  The bookshelf was a life saver this year with grabby hands Lucy!

On Christmas Eve we set out cookies for Santa and celery and carrots for the reindeer!

In the morning, Santa had definitely come!

Check out MY stocking! (sideways-I can’t figure out how to turn my photos in wordpress-I miss my Live Writer)

I wonder what Santa brought me?

YOM (Kale, Carrot, Meyer Lemon, and Apple):

But the best part of Christmas? Was Lucy!

She LOVES her table and chair!

She’s such a big girl now *sob*!

Christmas was AWESOME!  We finished the day in Idaho where Lucy got to play with her cousin Tessa-who is 5 months younger and very enthralled with her older cousin Lucy:

Lucy doesn’t know what to think-but she is having fun!

Okay, this post took me an hour to put together.  So I think I’ll stop there!  Many more pictures to come!!!

I hope you all had a fabulous holiday!!!

My Dad (the guy who just got an email address 6 months ago) brouight his netbook that has a Verizon Aircard. Go Dad! Only problem? I’ve only got 6% battery right now and a car charger for this thing. I’m going to charge it and then post later.

The REALLY good news? Lucy is feeling almost 100%! She took her last dose of antibiotic today and she is only occasionally coughing and no rasping! YAY!

Okay, I’ll hopefully be back later with PICTURES!!!

I’m in the mountains with NO internet 🙁 maybe tomorrow.I’vegot so much to tell you!

…was way off. Lu has pneumonia 🙁 Luckily we caught it really early and it’s not that bad.  I though that there was no way she was that sick because she was laughing and giggling and not very lethargic.  When she had croup 6 weeks ago she seemed much more sick than this.

She got a fever after her nap yesterday and I noticed a rasp in her chest.  The doctor sent us in for chest x-rays.  Can I say that getting chest x-rays for a 15 month old sucks? It does.  They put her in the contraption that was like an acrylic straight jacket and I had hold her arms above her head.  She wailed.  I’m glad we got it done though.

She’s on antibiotics, Motrin, and Benadryl (at night).  Good thing she thinks taking medicine is a treat!

After she went to bed last night, I did attempt tamales.  Key word-attempt.  They were a huge fail.  Good thing I can walk a block and buy authentic, yummy tamales.  That’s on the to do list for today.

I’ll leave you with this:

Happy Holidays everyone!

We just got back from Lu’s 15 month appointment.  The good news? No shots.  The bad news? She couldn’t get the shots because she’s sick.  She’s had a dry cough now for about 2 weeks but only when she’s laying down and it hasn’t been very bad.  Last night was a different story.  She coughed all night and woke up at 2:30 and didn’t go back to sleep until 5.  The awful cough continued this morning but still wasn’t too bad.  Once we got to the doctor it got much worse.  Her doctor listened to her chest for a long time and thinks  that she is fine but if she gets a fever he wants her in ASAP to get a chest x-ray especially since the cough is getting worse.  Poor thing.

Laying on Mommy’s lap:

Her stats from the appointment:

Height: 28.75 inches (15th percentile-down from the 50th!)
Weight: 19.4 pounds (8th percentile-holding steady)

He said that she’s pretty advanced with her verbal skills and with her fine motor skills.  She has around 10-20 words right now and has started putting phrases together: “I read” while flipping through a book, “I do it” when she doesn’t want help (I hear this one alot) and she also signs together “More” and then “Please” that usually only happens for cookies though :)  The fact that she’s feeding herself with a spoon and spearing things with her spork (she only gets food on her spork about 20% of the time right now) is really great as well.  He also commented that she was very calm 15 month old.  He said that his 15 month old appointments are usually full of protests and wriggling.  She just sat in Mommy’s lap-I think part of it had to do with her not feeling well but she is also a very calm little one.

On the growth he said that he’s not worried about her height percentile falling off so much.  He said that once they hit a year old they really find what growth pattern they’ll hold to and that she’ll probably be a shortie like her Mommy and Daddy.

See why I didn’t think she was too terribly sick?:

(thank goodness for childproof covers!)

I was supposed to do this today:

-Lu’s check-up
-Drop Lu off at daycare
-PO to pick up packages
-Dentist Appointment
-Make Tamales
-Wrap Presents
-Laundry
-Pack
-Clean Up

Now I think it’ll be more like this:

-Lu’s check-up (done)
-Dentist Appointment (Shaun’s going to come home and stay with her for that)
-Take care of sick child
-Make Tamales (hopefully!)
-Laundry

I hope she starts feeling better soon!  There’s not much worse than seeing your kiddo sick 🙁

*I took all these pictures before her appointment when she wasn’t feeling as bad as she is now.  I wouldn’t knowingly torture my sick child with pictures and self portraits 😉

I got the itch to make something holiday-ish and I wanted to do some canning.  I walked into Whole Foods on Sunday and they had stacks and stacks of beautiful organic cranberries and my decision was made-Cranberry Jam!

Ingredients:

1 12 oz bag of cranberries, rinsed and picked through
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup apple juice
The juice and zest of 1 orange
1/2 cup + 2 TBSP of amber agave nectar
1/2 tsp vanilla
A sliver of margarine/vegan spread

Instructions:

Rinse jars and lids.

Place in a big pot of boiling water and boil for 10 minutes. When the 10 minutes is up, let the jars and lid sit in the warm water until your jam is ready.

While you’re sterilizing the jars, rinse the cranberries well and pick through them and discard any soft or shriveled berries.

Combine water, juices, and agave and bring to a boil.  Add cleaned cranberries.

As your cranberries start to pop and break down get your zest and vanilla ready.  When most of the cranberries are popped, add the zest and vanilla.

Stir well.

Let the cranberries continue to cook down on medium high heat.

When it starts to thicken, it’s close to being ready.  Notice the foam.

Add a sliver of margarine (I use Earth Balance) to get rid of the foam (I was dubious but this REALLY works).

Look! No foam!

It’s ready when it starts to coat your spoon.

Using your handy dandy jar lifter, lift jars out of the pan.

Fill jar, leaving 1/8th of an inch at the top. Clean jar with a moist paper towel. Place seal and lids and tighten and then invert.

Cover with a towel and let them cool completely. Make sure the jar is sealed (an unsealed jar with have give in the middle of the lid when you press down).

Store in a dark cool place for up to a year.  After opening, refrigerate and use within a month.

I met up with one of my oldest (if not the oldest) friend today.  We’ve known each other since we were about 5 (?) but haven’t seen each other since high school-ten plus years ago, or in other words, way too long!  She recently just moved up here to work for Condoleezza Rice as a researcher.  She’s the first to tell you that it has nothing to do with politics. Leisel’s working for her at Stanford.  I love that a girl from Bakersfield is now working for the former Secretary of State.  She’s one badass girl!

Here we are 20+ years later:

 

She says she has 20 year old pictures of us from back in the day and I cannot wait for her to scan them in and send them to me.

It was a seriously wonderful lunch.  The food was pretty good too:

My favorite Leisel story is when we were in 1st grade, it was raining out and we had to stay in at lunch recess. We decided that it would be a GREAT idea for her to pull one of my teeth.  She wanted to pull one and I wanted money so we thought this was a fantastic idea.  Oh, did I mention that my tooth wasn’t loose?  Yeah, it wasn’t.  She pulled it out and I spewed blood EVERYWHERE.  It was great.  Thank god we chose a baby tooth and not a permanent one! Sadly, I didn’t get my money

🙁

It was so great to catch up and I cannot wait to see each other more! Lucy has to meet Aunt Leisel!

2.5 years later, I got my Ironman pictures scanned in!

Here I am on the bike:

Crossing the finish line:

My bad side:

And the good (LOVE this picture!):

And right after-look at how happy I was!  Shaun was standing right there and I wanted him in the picture and he said “YOU did this honey, this is YOUR time.”  I get a little teary thinking about that.  I have a pretty great husband and he was the best Ironfan EVER!

See?  Proof. 😉 Just kidding-I know no one was questioning me :)  Sometimes it’s good for me to see though because it gives me that kick in the butt.  I went from this:

To this:

I can do it again.

I will do it again (maybe not do an Ironman-I would love to but I would love to see my daughter grow up and hang out with my hubby even more).  But, I WILL get in good shape again.  I will be proud of my body.  I WILL feel comfortable in my body again. I AM a strong woman and I CAN DO THIS.

By the way, I scanned all these in to add to my story.  Check it out 🙂

Thank you ALL for the support.  It means so much to me and got me out of bed this morning at 5:30 to go to the gym.  It was a good class!

Check it out.

I’ll be scanning the pictures of the Ironman tomorrow-stay tuned!