Matching Girls and Walking

Look at my super cute matching girls! I couldn't get them to smile, though! And, here's a video of Rachel walking with the walker. She has taken 2-3 steps all by herself between mommy and daddy! She'll be walking in no time!

CSA week 3

It's week 3 of the CSA with East Farms! This week, we got baby carrots, beets, zucchini, rainbow chard, red and green leaf lettuces, and spinach. Yum! We've enjoyed eating all these healthy, fresh, organic, and extremely delicious vegetables! Here's a picture of Lizzy with "beet face" and the dinner I made tonight - grilled New York steak on penne pasta with wilted spinach and balsamic vinaigrette, and sauteed rainbow chard with onions and garlic.

Lost Kitty; Standing Up

So, right before our vacation to California, Lizzy's favorite stuffed toy kitty, "Gray" got lost. We searched everywhere for that thing, but to no avail. We were really worried because she sleeps with Gray at night! But, she did OK on the vacation with a different kitty toy instead. We didn't mention Gray to her, and she seemed OK. But, just to be on the safe side, we went to Toys R Us to see if we could find another kitty like that one. They didn't have it. As it happened, Lizzy had a second kitty, which she named "Chicken" that was exactly the same as Gray except Chicken is a tabby and Gray is gray (obviously). Lizzy does not like Chicken - she gave it to Rachel (!) but, since Chicken was the same as Gray, I suggested to Jason that we could look at Chicken's tag and search on the internet to try and find Gray. And we did find him on e-bay. So Jason ordered a new Gray and it arrived in the mail today! Ah, the joy on Lizzy's face! She was so excited to see Gray. She hugged him tight and has been holding him ever since. On the plus side, the old kitty Gray was very old indeed - and incredibly ratty and dirty - and Jason had already had to sew holes closed in him. He used to be my sister, Katrina's, when she was a little girl, and she gave him to Lizzy one time when we were at my mom's house. So, the new Gray is in much better condition! He's very soft and fluffy, and has no holes! You can see the picture of the joy on Lizzy's face that she has Gray back. She did notice a few days ago that Gray was missing, and I told her he had gone on a trip in the mail and would be here soon. She's been checking the mail with me every day since, waiting for Gray to come back from his trip! Also, Rachel has figured out how to stand up on her own, and I managed to capture a picture of it! She doesn't stay up for long, so it was difficult to get the shot! Rachel is almost 11 months old (on the 25th), and so she has managed this feat 3 months earlier than Lizzy did. Wow!

CSA!!

Last week was the first shipment week for the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm that I signed up for. The CSA is East Farms, which is a local 100% organic farm that does its business completely with people like me, who pay the farmer ahead of time (you sign up between January and March) for a share in his crop. Then, every week throughout the growing season (beginning of June until the end of October) you get a shipment of fresh-picked-that-day vegetables! Since we were in California last week, they didn't do a shipment for me, and instead I received a double share today! Holy cow - I don't know what I'm going to do with all of these vegetables! They look so good, and taste so good too, from what I've sampled so far. I got 2 Smith's bag-fulls of each: green English peas (the kind you have to shell), swiss chard, arugula, green leaf lettuce, red leaf lettuce, and baby beets. My fingers are pruny from washing all the lettuces and putting them in gallon zip-top bags! I served green and red leaf mixed salad and fresh peas with our dinner tonight, and they were SO good! I'm never going to be able to eat grocery store produce ever again! Here are the pictures of my shipment, and of my dinner. (It's Cod with Fennel and Oranges, Ciabatta bread, peas, and salad). Click the link to get the recipe for the fish, if you so desire. Also included in this post are some pictures from my phone that I downloaded. Cute.

California!

We are home now from our trip to California, and we have had a lot of fun! Here are some pictures of what we did:


The resort built a new pool area this year - it's very nice!


Lizzy is lounging in the cabana.


Rachel and Lizzy floating in the pool. (Don't worry, Jason is just out of view to the right!)

We also met our friends Alan and Chandie and their 3 boys at Sea World (see post below). Jason's parents came with us on this trip, and it was so much fun for us and the girls to spend so much time with them! The weather was beautiful - in the 90's every day, which is just right for spending the day in the swimming pool!

California!

Jason & Lizzy on the teacups-like ride at Sea World


Mommy & Lizzy on the rocking boat ride at Sea World


Daddy & Lizzy at the Shamu show


Grandma and Rachel on Grandma's bed at the resort.


Jason found Star Trek cereal for me at the store!

California!

We have arrived here in Palm Desert, California, for our annual vacation. We spent yesterday traveling here. Jason dropped me and the girls off at my mom's house around 7:30 am, and then he continued driving. The girls and I got on an airplane to Las Vegas at 1:30 in the afternoon, and Jason picked us up at the Las Vegas airport. We then all drove together the last 3 1/2 hours to palm desert. This was much better than making the girls drive all 10 1/2 hours - Rachel is not very good in the car. The girls were great on the airplane, although Lizzy didn't like security - she was really upset when she had to take off her shoes and put her stuffed kitty in the bin to send through the x-ray machine! Once we were on the airplane, though, she really enjoyed the ride. Whenever there was turbulence, she'd say "Up and down! Up and down!" She also loved her little cup of root beer and pack of peanuts. Rachel spent most of the flight sitting facing me on the pull-down tray. We played peek-a-boo, patty cake, this little piggy... she was giggling and laughing most of the flight, and everyone around thought the girls were so cute! We were sitting next to a young teenage boy (the rest of his family were in the row behind us) and Lizzy kept trying to get him to play "Kitties" with her. (It's her favorite game to play with Jason.) I made sure that neither girl napped at all during the day, so that when we met up with Jason, they were both tired, and both slept for a while on the drive to Palm Desert. Once Rachel woke up, we still had about an hour and a half to go, and I had to go sit on the teeny middle seat between the girls to entertain her. Today, Jasons parents will be driving here and they'll be staying with us the rest of the week. We hope they have fun with us here! Our vacation objective - do nothing! We love to just hang out and completely relax. We'll post pictures soon!

Updates

Jason went out of town for work for a few days, and took the laptop (with all my most recent pictures) with him, so I couldn't update the blog! Anyway, Lizzy is so funny - she LOVES hiking. We'd gone hiking last Saturday with friends, and so on Sunday morning, the hiking backpacks were still sitting in the hallway. Lizzy climbed into one and sat there, drinking her milk. It was funny!


Also, we had Lizzy's Family Music Night for her music class. It was a lot of fun. Grandma Susan, Cousin Barbara, and Grandma and Grandpa Gale all came to see Lizzy sing and dance!

And here is a picture of Rachel, ready for church with mohawk hair! Her hair is so much shorter than Lizzy's was at the same age. I can't wait for Rachel's hair to be long and pretty like Lizzy's, so I can do cute matching hairdos!