Palm Springs Day 2

Swimming, Food, Airplanes, Grapefruits, and Cheesecake = a really fun day and tired kids.

  We loved the pool and tried a Gluten Free popcorn microwave that we all loved.  We will be going back to get more to bring home.  After lunch and a shower we all headed to the Palm Springs Airport to view the museum and honor the anniversary of flight. 

Planes always make me think of Grandpa Wayne.  Nicholas loves flight and the planes.  The noise of some of the ones taking off today got to him, he just covered his ears.  He sat in several and Paisley liked them too.  There were numerous planes and very interesting retired military men to visit with.  Nicholas was able to paint on a plane and he thought that was really cool.

we got to see this plane take off!

On the way home we stopped to get dessert at the Cheescake Factory.  Oh boy, Nicholas got to try the new gluten free key lime and Jeff got the gluten free Godiva Chocolate.  Paisley picked the brownie cheesecake and it had 1258 calories, she took two bites and it is in the fridge.  I picked a vanilla bean, looks wonderful, I will try it after I am done blogging. 

now that is a grapefruit, Nicholas hand for size comparrison

Cheese!

While I was cooking shrimp stir fry for dinner, Jeff took the kids on a walk and they came home with a bag of grapefruits and a lime.  They are beautiful and a very sweet.  They are white grapefruit and Nicholas loved juicing a few.  We watched Life on tv as a family and Paisley fell asleep, real asleep.  We are  off the Sea World tomorrow and I am so excited and blessed to be able to go as a family on such a special trip!

Spring Break 2010

This is sunrise in the desert, after trying to sleep for a few hours in the Denali

We are on a vacation to southern California, Palm Dessert. We have a nice time share with three pools and great area, very quiet.  We checked in this AM after driving 12 hours.  We had lots of snow and scary roads in Utah last night.  We took turns driving and pulled off to sleep for 2 hours early this AM.  The kids could not stand another minute in the car seats.  They were both crying and miserable.  We thought it would be better to drive at night but after experiencing it, maybe day would have been easier on Nicholas.  It is always so hard to know.  Today we checked in and went to the pool.
We put on sunscreen and spent the afternoon playing and relaxing.  The kids loved the pool and showing daddy all their new swim moves!  

We had a great time and I even got a nap.   The weather is beautiful and warm! We took the kids to Trader Joes to shop Gluten free and then took the car to a wash.  It was a mess.... We had a great pasta dinner and Nicholas set the table and even put a centerpiece...a beautiful pineapple! I could not find the camera, it was so sweet.  He did really well and fell asleep before we were done with books.  He has still not moved and neither has Rich, he has been pretty attached to him this trip.  We are loving seeing Paisley swim and her growing vocabulary. 

This is a grapefruit tree right off our deck.  They are large and we wish we could reach them!
Jeff and I are watching the Gonzaga girls play in the sweet sixteen.  They are doing well and vacation is such a wonderful thing, The wine is good too and just having time together is special. The flowers are beautiful and the palms are so awesome.  The kids are loving the change of scenery and activity. It was time for spring vacation!

Nicholas has been doing really well with eye contact lately.  The pictures are proof.  He loves vacation and I love to see him free and enjoying the day. He has been confused on the time of day but he will get settled in and then it will be time to head home and the moon will be full!

St Patricks Day 2010

Happy St Patrick's day!

We had a great day all green.  The kids loved the simple things i did and they had fun at their schools too. I took GF sugar cookies to Nicholas and he loved them.  We delivered some to our two neighbors who are GF too. The pics say alot.
Green yogurt, green applesauce, and apple juice and green milk!

The Eggplant was from our new bountiful basket we get each week and the recipe I found was great. I called them Pizzas and the kids gobbled them up. Here is the recipe. Enjoy!

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 cup egg white with 1 tbsp Italian dressing
• 1 cup glutino dry bread crumbs salted and peppered and 1 tsp basil
• 1 eggplant, sliced into 1/2 inch rounds 8-10 slices
• salt to taste
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 tomatoes, sliced or 1 pt stewed tomatoes
• 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese or Asia-go
• 1 cup crumbled feta cheese or goat cheese
• 1 cup of Gruyere grated

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray a 9x13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Place eggs and bread crumbs in 2 separate bowls. Dip eggplant slices in eggs, then in bread crumbs to coat. Fry coated eggplant slices in the skillet until golden brown. Season with salt, and drain on paper towels.
3. In same pan put onion and tomato with juices and cook down till no juice, similar to pizza sauce.
4. In the prepared baking dish, layer eggplant, onion, tomatoes, Parmesan cheese, feta or goat cheese. Top with Gruyere.
5. Bake 20-30 minutes in the preheated oven, until cheese is melted and bubbly.

Nutritional Information

Amount Per Serving  Calories: 307 | Total Fat: 18.5g | Cholesterol: 106mg

Dutch Sugar cookie recipe

The sugar cookie made me giddy, it rolls out beautifully and tastes great, you can cut it good with cookie cutters and the joy it brings to my boys faces when they can have a treat like the rest of us.

SERVES 36 -40 , 36 -40 cookies (change servings and units)

Ingredients

• 1 cup rice flour
• 1/2 cup tapioca flour
• 1 cup cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 1/2 teaspoons xanthan gum
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup Butter Flavor Crisco I used plain and it was fine too
• 1 large egg or 1/4 cup liquid egg substitute
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/4 cup potato starch, for kneading

Directions

1. 
   

   Preheat oven to 350 degrees.Have on hand 2 ungreased cookie sheets.

2. 
   

   In a small bowl, whish together the flour mix, baking powder, xanthan gum, and salt. Set aside.

3. 
   

   In the bowl of your mixer, cream sugar and crisco. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients, mixing enough to combine. The dough will be a soft ball. With your hands, knead in enough of the potato starch to make the dough easy to handle and roll out.

4. 
   

   Using about half at a time, place a piece of plastic wrap over the ball and roll out to about 1/8 inch thickness. This is so easy I didn't even use the plastic wrap.

5. 
   

   Cut into desired shapes and place on pan.

6. 
   

   Decorate with coloured sugars before baking or use frosting to decorate after baking.

7. 
   

   (With this dough, you can use all the scraps.) Just scrape them together and roll out again. They will not get tough.

8. 
   

   Bake for about 10-13 minutes. Cool very slightly before removing from the pan.

i heart faces

This week’s photo challenge theme is: “Bundled Up”

Paisley was so cozy warm while we were out doing a frosty morning photo shoot with Grandma.  This is one of our favorites! Go to the http://iheartfaces.blogspot.com to check out the other great and fun photos!

Thai Peanut Sate' with noodles

This is a family favorite, you can spice it up as hot as you like, it is pretty and is a great dish for company. They have no Idea it is gluten free.  So here goes and enjoy...

• In a skillet heat 2 tsp of canola oil over med heat, coo 3 minced scallions and 2 cloves of garlic until softened.  Stir in 1/2 lb of cubed chicken breast , 2 tsp fresh grated ginger root, 1 tbsp LaChoy soy sauce and hot red pepper flakes to taste.  Cook until chicken is cooked. Mix in 1/2 -1 cup plain nonfat yogurt and 1/4 cup adams peanut butter.  Toss with 12 oz of hot cooked rice noodles and chopped chives or cilantro.

To reheat leftovers I add a little more yogurt and stir over low heat to warmed.  Enjoy!

I can't find the picture of the thai peanut so here is a picture of our family on the only day we went skiing this year! We went to Jackson hole, Wy.

Sunday, Sunny, Spring, Snow is melting and fast!

The kids are still in their jammies, me too!  They are so hungry for sun and good weather.  It is 52 degrees and they had their tents inside, Nicholas could not resist after feeding the birds and hanging his bird houses.  He just had to get out!  I had to take a picture and capture the day.  Daddy is gone and we ususally let the house look like a tornado has hit and eat oatmeal for dinner, and graze all day on whatever they want.  Kinda fun to have a messy day! The neighbors are going to think we are moving outside.

Paisley Lyn......the Girly Pirate who turns four!

Paisley Turns 4 years old

Grandma Kristi made her cake and Paisley designed it!  She loved the finished product and it tasted yummy!

We used coins, rock candy and a candy necklace to decorate the hands and necco wafers are the hat polka dots.  The lips and nose are jelly candy and the yellow is lemon filling.

We chose a purse and filled it with pencils, jewels, paper dolls, headband and a mini note book.  We had one boy guest so he got a treasure map bag filled with a pop gun and spiderman socks. My friend Lana made the paperdolls on a day we scrapped and Paisley got to pick the colors. Each bag had a flag, treasure map and box, hook, clothes, shoes, hat, sash and sword and telescope.  The food Paisley chose was cannonballs(grapes), rubies (strawberries), coins(tater rounds), nuggets (chicken), pirate teeth (corn) and pirate booty...the best puffed corn snack ever!  They sell it a fred meyer and it is addictive.  It is gluten free also.

This is the SS Paisley Lyn PW2010!  She loved it and so did the guests.  Dad and Nicholas designed it and helped decorate it.  She had a blast.  The ladder is part of Nicholas's home therapy and can be changed out to a platter disk and swing.  It is always there and we built the ship around it.  Turned out really cute we thought.  The flags are from the latest Stampin up party set.  They were easy to punch out and string on. My friend Lana was the visiting pirate. She was all decked out and did a great job!  one girl was frightened but she is super sensitive.  She smiled as time went on and I called her mom and there were no nightmares!  Lana..you really made Paisley's party extra special. Thank you!

This game was called walk the plank....the kids loved it and there were treats at the end.  Jeff built this balance beam for Nicholas and it worked great for the pirate theme.  Jeff is so talented and his help was wonderful.  I love you sweetie!  We uses a table cloth I had that had fish on it and told the kids they were killer fish and don't fall in!  There were treasure maps and at the end was a treasure box decorated by Nicholas.  Inside were purses filled with large gold coins. They loved the hunt and the treasure.  My little girl is four and she is really changing.  This is so fun yet sad. I love each stage but she is not as needy of her mom and can do a lot by herself.