Glass Beach, Bowling Ball Beach

Glass beach

We eat sand around here

and dirt..

Yummy

Chloe looking for colored glass among the pebbles.

She would pick out the big pieces and throw them into the water.

C loved the water. She wanted to play in it all day

wet boots, and pants.. so we ended up going without.
She enjoyed throwing shells and rocks in

Over and over.

Second time in manual mode.. doing a little better.

Chloe loved the glass sand. Uncle Seth helped her pick out

the prettiest ones!

Hanging with the boys

Going to see the tallest tree in the world!

Chloe loved bowling ball beach. She kept grabbing handfulls of sand and taste testing.

Daddy and Chloe on the "bowling ball" rocks

Oh yes, and no trip would be complete without little Miss Ginger photo bombing our pics.

Great day in Mendocino County

lofthouse

I didn't have sprinkles so I used these flowers instead.

I love lofthouse cookies and my sister in law found a great copy recipe to make them.. they are so good! Here is the recipe

For the Cookies:

• 6 cups flour, divided
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup butter, at room temperature
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups light sour cream ( I used regular)

For the Frosting:

• 1 cup butter, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 6 tablespoons heavy cream
• Several drops food coloring
• Sprinkles

Directions:

1. In a medium bowl, whisk 5 cups of flour, baking soda, and baking powder; set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the flat beater attached, cream the butter and granulated sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Add the eggs, one at a time beating until each is incorporated. Add the vanilla and sour cream and beat at low speed until combined.
3. Add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed until just combined, about 30 seconds, scraping down the bowl as needed. Dough needs to obtain the right consistency for rolling, so add additional flour, 1/4 cup at a time, until this is achieved (up to 1 cup more flour). Divide dough into two sections. Flatten into rectangles about 1 1/2 inches thick, then wrap with plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator overnight.
4. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or spray them with nonstick cooking spray, set aside.
5. Generously flour a work area and rolling pin. With a rolling pin, roll the dough out to 1/4-inch thickness. Using a 2 1/2-inch round cookie cutter, cut out circles and transfer to a baking sheet. Bake for 7-8 minutes, until pale golden. Immediately transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool.
6. To make the frosting, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and vanilla. Slowly beat in the powdered sugar. Once smooth and creamy, add in heavy cream, 1 tablespoon at a time until the desired spreading consistency is achieved. If desired, add food coloring and beat until combined.
7. Once cookies have cooled completely, frost and add sprinkles. Allow frosting to set, then store in an air-tight container. Let cookies sit for several hours before serving to allow the flavors to develop.
8. Btw mine needed more flour because they were too sticky, so I added 3/4 c more.

Yields: 4 1/2 dozen cookies

They are so yummy. Thanks Kali!

Easter Weekend

We had a great Easter this year. Seth, Adam's brother came to visit and Chloe enjoyed playing with her Uncle Seth.

The girl loved all of the goodies in her Easter basket. She loved hunting for Easter eggs when she found out that some of them had candy in them!

The girl loves her flowers. Every time we walk by flowers she stops to smell them.

And again the flowers ..too cute!

This one is a "don't mess with me" look. She was throwing rocks into the pond, and I called her name to look at the camera. She was not about to stop throwing her rocks!

Chloe's grandma Baird sent her this ADORABLE yellow dress that she wore for Church. Thank you grandma Baird! She loved the ruffles and kept twirling in it to see the dress float out.

We had a wonderful Easter weekend, and enjoyed spending time with Seth and the Dinelli family. Thanks for inviting us over for a wonderful Easter dinner!

3.18.12

The nail Polish incident

At least it's light pink nail polish

Anyone know how to get nail polish out of clothes.. or blankets?

4.6.12

I have been practicing taking pictures in manual mode.. as you can see my first attempt is not so good. I over exposed these, but for some reason I still like them. I figured out I need to watch mu meter oops!

Coco and Ginger had a great time at Heather Farms.

The girl loves to stop and smell the flowers

Maybe I'll get better at Manual mode. I will just have to practice.. and maybe read a little more about my meter :) Oh and if any of you friends have advice on figuring this out I'm open to help.

3.27.12

Dining room table and chairs

I have been working on this piece for weeks now and finally it's done. Due to the rain I have had to postpone my working on it, but now it's finished and I am in love.

I bought this Table for 40 dollars from a lady who said she bought it for 4,000. It's a beautiful piece, but it was barely hanging on. It seriously needed some TLC. I sanded it all down and stripped it. The materials to re-finish it cost more that the table it's self.

It came with two leaves and five chairs. Odd number I know but the sixth one was so damaged it wasn't fixable. The lady that sold it to me has a lot of money and got another dining table and used this one outside on her half covered porch. It was in bad condition, but I saw potential.

The table is much more beautiful with it's leaves in. I plan to find a bench to go on one side of the table. We are in the process of finding a larger home. When we do I plan to keep it extended out.

3.22.12

Larabars and an end table

Last Friday my sister in law sent me a link of to a documentary called fat sick and nearly dead.  http://www.hulu.com/watch/289122/fat-sick-and-nearly-dead Adam and I watched it and it gave me some motivation to step it up a notch. I don't have a juicer, and even if I did I wouldn't go this far.. but I have been seeing these blogs about unprocessed diets ( http://www.100daysofrealfood.com/ ) and have been interested. So since last Saturday I have been trying it out.. It's been hard for me! I know I have been eating poorly lately (large amounts of sugar from recipes off pinterest) So i decided to make a switch for a couple of weeks at least to broaden my recipes and possibly retrain my brain so I don't crave the crap so much. We will see..

 Today I grabbed some PB&J Larabars from the store. While driving home from running errands, Chloe and I shared one. They are pretty good and have only three ingredients in them dates, nuts, and unsweetened cherries. So I decided to make my own Laura bars.. SO easy!

•  I made the PB&J
•  the peanut butter chocolate
•  and my own creation with apricots, cherries, dates, and pecans. 

 Here is the link to lots of other "larabar" recipes." http://www.wellsphere.com/healthy-cooking-article/homemade-lara-type-bars-energy-bars-part-3/191669

Also my artistic and creative husband refinished some pretty cool things recently.  I thought I would show you the before and after.
Before

 After

 And check out the detail he added to the drawer! Pretty cool huh?

He painted, glazed, and distressed a mirror (we got for free from a friend) to match it.

I think he's pretty talented!

2.25.12

Baby girl you are growing up so fast. You are so funny. You make daddy and I laugh every day. You are a fiery little thing and secretly I like that ( so does daddy)

 You are determined, and a little stubborn. You are learning new words everyday (at least parts of words) You can say the following

• Dog
• Daddy, dada
• Don't (Pronounced without the T. You say this in a low devil voice)
• Bye bye
• ball
• bubbles (pronounced Bobos)
• Please (pronounced Pee)
• Water (pronounced Awah)
• Walk (anytime I try to hold you and you want down)
• No
• Mama
• Show (movie)
• Cracker (Pronounced Kaka)
• Caca
• More (Pronounced Mo)
• Teeth
• Tooth paste (pronounced Tutu)

 Your favorite person is Dad. You like to hold his finger when you walk together.You know all of your farm animal noises and more.

You are great at sign language. You know all of your animals and most typical baby signs.

 We found some wild daffodils. Teaching my daughter to smell the flowers was pretty funny.. First I smelled them and showed her how, then I asked her to smell them. She did well at first..

 We haven't mastered the difference between smell and taste.. Coco likes to take a sample of everything with her tongue.

Daddy likes to sing you made up songs. Some have cute lyrics.. This morning it went a little like this " Thats my daughter and I'm her father I love her so much lets have another" I think we should too. I enjoy being your mother, and teaching you new things my sweet little daughter.

2.14.2012

Adam is always so great at coming up with surprises for special occasions. He always has the best gifts and ideas for me. This year I decided I should do something for him. So I planned our Valentines day outing. We went up to Lafayette Reservoir and rented a row boat. Muscles here rowed us around and found us a quiet place to stop and have lunch.

 Pretty fancy eh?

We made a friend whom I called "Gilbert" he enjoyed the crust off of my sandwich.

"Gilbert"

 Adam got me a bouquet of "spider flowers" and I made us a special dinner of Oolong sea bass ( a copycat recipe from Pf Chang's) It was soooooo good.

After dinner I gave Adam a facial, and we watched a movie together. It was a good Valentines day!

Personality

Need I say more?