Christmas vacation

Here are some more pictures of all the fun...

I always wanted a phone!

"And then Mommy said..."

A watch for each wrist (he gave one to his cousin)

Celebrating 11 Pipers at Peter Piper's Pizza

New bike!

Family bike ride

Kayaking at the lake

baby at the beach

Learning about fish from a pro

This nice guy at the lake came over to show the kids his fish. They got to hold a striped bass and look at the gills. The boy in camo is the fisherman's son.

Hope you enjoyed your Christmas break!

Christmas morning

before...

after...

Mom, where did you get these delicious things?

Enjoying a gift from brother, sewed with Mom's help

Clock maker at work

Legos!

Boys with toys. Notice the baby snitching in the background.

Horses and princesses play together

Merry Christmas!
Here are photos from this morning. Hope you see all the smiles.
I also really enjoyed this nativity movie. Watch it while you're relaxing today.

Homemade brown rice cereal for baby

I've been feeding my baby this rice cereal. It is so much fresher and tastier than the Gerber powdered rice cereal. And inexpensive. A great way to feed whole grains to an infant.

Ingredients:
Organic brown rice   (I buy a bag at Costco)
water
salt
sugar (brown or white)
milk (optional)

Directions
Grind 2 cups of brown rice into rice flour   (I use a Nutrimill)
Boil 2 cups water with a dash of salt. For older babies, I like to use 1 cup water and 1 cup whole milk.
Gradually add 1/4 cup rice flour, whisking to prevent lumps.
Cook and stir until thickened, about 2 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in 1 tablespoon sugar or to taste.
Allow to cool.
Feed baby.

Porridge can be thinned with formula.
I also like to mix it with pureed veggies.

Leftover porridge can be stored in the refrigerator or frozen in serving size portions.

Hiking with kids

This time we went hiking with kids!

We enjoyed a leisurely pace out toward Vulture Peak. We didn't make it to our destination, but at least we turned back in time to avoid carrying the three-year-olds. These two would have kept going.

After a nice picnic lunch and a game of hide-and-seek, we headed home. Hopefully these tykes will keep hiking until they can do the bigger stuff someday.

It might not be as scenic, but I can't think of anything more lovely than a baby in a hiking backpack.

Mt Humphreys Peak Hike

Tuesday we hiked Mt Humphreys, Arizona's highest peak.

We started around 9:30 AM, and it took seven hours to finish.

The trail up climbs constantly, but the grade is nice. Most of the trail is on the eastern slope of the mountain, and the snow that fell a couple of weeks ago hasn't melted. In fact, long sections of the trail have packed snow and ice that makes hiking slippery. We both fell multiple times. If I had known, I would have worn different shoes: my hiking boots have hard vibram soles that don't do well on ice. I would have tried snow boots or yak trax over hiking boots.

View of Mt Humphreys ridge looking towards the saddle.

The temperatures were perfect: cool enough to stay comfortable. After the saddle, the wind blowing up the mountain side was cold, around 30 degrees. We used all of our layers to stay comfortable. I loved the views. The San Francisco Peaks stand alone above the plateau. There are views west towards the Grand Canyon and east toward Sedona. The aspens on the foothills have changed color. We kept moving to stay warm until we reached the peak.

Mt Humphreys summit

 The descent took longer than I anticipated because of recrossing the icy sections of trail. It definitely felt longer than five miles. But I haven't done any big hikes lately, so maybe I'm just not in hiking shape. I snapped a couple photos of the large bristlecone pines along the trail. We finished around 4:30, glad to be done before temps dropped or the light was gone.

Bristlecone Pine

 I loved our adventure and would definitely recommend hiking Mt Humphreys to friends.

At the top

Bliggity bloggity blog

This blog hasn't attracted much attention lately because I started a specialized blog about landscaping with desert plants. Yes, I admit it: I have been blogging about plants. I love plants, so when some friends with new homes were asking questions about what to plant, I decided to try to write down everything I have learned about Arizona landscaping since moving here. The plants here are so completely different from anything I have seen before.

http://desertxeriscape.wordpress.com/

I have also created a blog for Karl's business. That one doesn't fascinate me quite as much, but I would like it to look professional.

Any of you bloggers out there with tips, I'd love your feedback.

http://coresurg.wordpress.com/

Ostrich omelet and Pinkini bread

the egg

our garden

Omelet

snake wrestling

 Rock climbing

This week has been fun, so I wanted to write about it.

K has always wanted an ostrich egg shell, so when he stopped at an ostrich ranch on the way home from Tucson and they had eggs for sale, he bought one. When he made it for our breakfast, it was comparable to about 18 regular eggs. It tasted a little bit gamey, but ketchup fixed that.

All the boys went to the father/sons campout this weekend. They got to catch crawdads and go rock climbing. Us girls made a trip to the outlet mall, where I found an easter dress (with sleeves!) on clearance at gymboree for $11.

Baby is six months old tomorrow. I made her homemade rice cereal (inspired by my sister). She doesn't know how to eat off a spoon yet, but she likes the cereal and it is funny to watch her slurping it up. She also ate an animal cracker. I held onto one end and she sucked on the other until it dissolved.

I walked out to check the garden today and the zucchinis had gone from 3 inches long to 8 inches long in three days. Ack! We had zucchini for dinner AND dessert. M asked what I was making and thought I said "pinkini bread". I bet she would like that kind. She has been coloring strawberry shortcake coloring pages all day and her pink colored pencil is half the size of the rest of her pencils.

Have a wonderful Mother's day.

A family adventure

Cole is 7-- I attached a photo of his birthday. He asked to eat out at Subway at the gas station convenience store nearest our home, so that was what we did for his birthday dinner.

 

  Eve tasted cereal for the first time ever--here's her photo.

Last weekend we went camping. Karl planned our adventure. We drove on back roads from Cherry, AZ over Wood Chute mountain where we camped in the pine trees. The next morning we drove to Jerome. There we stopped at the ghost town which features a junk yard where everything is at least 50 years old. They had cabins, old Studebakers, rusty tools, and a working saw mill driven by a single piston gasoline engine. Karl and Cole loved it. The rest of us liked it too.

Then we looked at the rest of Jerome, which is touristy. We saw a glass blowing demonstration at an art studio. From there we drove north, played in the water at the Verde River, and camped in the junipers.

The next day we drove past White Horse Lake, went on a short hike, saw a beautiful overlook into Sycamore canyon, and took dirt roads to Sedona. After one more off-road trail, we headed home. It was a fun trip.

When we arrived home, the heat had increased another notch toward summer: now it is too hot to open our windows when we go to bed. We can still cool off the house in the morning. We are thankful for air conditioning.

Food storage shopping

A friend of mine told me she's been shopping a lot for food storage in the past 6 months and she send me some info about where she found good deals on different items. I thought you might find it useful, so I'm passing it along.

Happy shopping!

"I ordered butter, ghee and bacon from:  http://www.pleasanthillgrain.com/  Ghee is clarified butter.

     I ordered meat from Costco.  Check out: http://www.costco.com/CatalogSearch?storeId=10301&catalogId=10701&langId=-1&keyword=emergency  (for all Costco emergency items)

and Shelf Reliance http://www.costco.com/280-Total-Servings-Of-Premium-Freeze-Dried-Variety-Meat-Pack-By-Shelf-Reliance%c2%ae-THRIVE%e2%84%a2.product.11497782.html  The price at Costco is considerably less than that at the Shelf Reliance web site. 

I also ordered the 6 pack of eggs (now $70 off) which I have not tried: http://www.costco.com/576-Total-Servings-of-Gourmet-Egg-Crystals-Emergency-Food-Kit-by-Chef's-Banquet%c2%ae-.product.100021397.html

and the sprouting kit: http://www.costco.com/Food-For-Health%e2%84%a2-USDA-Certified-Organic-Food-Storage-Sprouting-Kit.product.11599950.html

     I believe the food storage from Lindon Farms that you will find on other web sites is the same as the Chef's Banquet items on the Costco site at considerably lower prices.

     As you know, water is the most important preparation since humans cannot live without it very long. I ordered a Water Bob from Hurricane Prepper:  http://www.hurricaneprepper.com/waterbob.html which is now on sale.  It is just a "bladder" you put in your bathtub to fill before your water source is contaminated. We purchased our large storage tanks from: http://www.surewatertanks.com/  See more information on water at: http://www.grandpappy.info/wwater.htm

     I have also used the following web sites for various items and sign up for the email alerts for sale items.

http://grandmascountryfoods.com/

http://beprepared.com/food-storage.html

http://www.disasterstuff.com/

http://www.shelfreliance.com/

http://store.honeyvillegrain.com/

     For baking items you can check out:

http://www.hodgsonmillstore.com/

http://www.pleasanthillgrain.com/

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/

     Prices are not the best, but for tips and plans you might want to look at this site:

http://store.foodstoragemadeeasy.net/default.asp

I ordered the food mill:
http://store.foodstoragemadeeasy.net/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=WONDER-JUNIOR-DELUXE

from Amazon.  I'm using Trader Joe's whole wheat flour instead of grinding my own as I learn to make bread.

     By the way, at the Costco store cans of roast beef and chick can be purchased for shorter term storage.  Trader Joe's is also a good source for canned chicken at a reasonable price. "

Grandma also wants to see the baby

Birthday Boy -- this post is for Grandma