Exercise is more fun if you have a partner!

A Dance....by Livi

Tahoe with friends

We got to go play in the snow in Tahoe a couple weeks ago, and we had such a fabulous time with our friends. Carson played out in the deep snow outside the cabin for a good part of each day, he was in heaven! The guys built a great snow fort, and created small sledding hills, it was such fun! This was the second year our families have gone up to the snow, and we are all committed to making it a winter tradition for as long as we can....and next year we hope to add one more night as the time just passed too quickly.

Livi was so happy to have a baby in the house!

I love this picture of Leif catching snowflakes!

The snow fort!

Byranie, me, Kelli

Muffin or Cupcake....you decide!

Here's a super easy, super yummy treat that we like to make at our house:

Mix one box of cake mix (we like chocolate!) and one 15 oz. can of pumpkin together, bake as directed for cupcakes, about 20 minutes. Just those 2 things, don't add the eggs or oil or water, just the powdered cake mix and pumpkin, how easy is that?!

Then you can decide if you want to eat them for dessert or just as a "healthy" snack (with all that pumpkin in there, we justify them being a snack).

Enjoy!

Please pray for our friends Jenni, Jaron, Avery, & Riley...they are in need of God's healing hand and mercies upon their daughter Riley, 17 months. To follow their story, you can read their blog. Riley has had a lot of trouble with Reflux and just recently went in the hospital to have a feeding tube placed to try to get her to gain some weight. An MRI revealed a tumor on her brain, and they are currently awaiting the pathology report after having the tumor removed last week.

Catch up

I've been in a blogging rut! Life's just sort of been chugging along, and I've wanted to capture some thoughts but they seem to be too fleeting for me to remember and blog about. Sometimes it's easier for me to think about my life in terms of "status updates" like on Facebook and I've considered just writing a post with those, but like I said, they've too quickly left my brain before I could record them. :-) I'm an out of sight - out of mind kind of girl, like if I don't write it down, I probably won't remember it too well, if at all. So maybe that means I should be even more careful to blog or journal on paper or something!

To recap a little bit of the past while, here's a pic of the bagels we made. It was so fun and really easy (it took about 4 hours from start to finish, but it was worth it and lots of that time was waiting for the dough to rise). They were delicious, and I told my friend, Kristi, that I'd save her some, but somehow they all got gobbled up, so I guess I'll have to make them again and share them this time! We did Asiago cheese and Cinnamon and Plain. Here's the recipe.

We were having really nice warm winter weather until a couple of weeks ago when the rain set it, so we took advantage of it by being outside a lot.



We went down the the aquarium with Robyn and Ocean and had fun seeing all the wonderful creatures! Livi had fun playing in the Splash Zone and spraying water.


Valentine's Day at our house always involves chocolate fondue....so delicious and fun, I think we all ate till we had bellyaches!




Livi made a "feeding machine" for her baby, and she wanted to take a picture of me feeding her.


Livi is officially completely out of diapers!!! She'd been wearing them at night for a long while, but once we realized she was drinking too much water at night and stopped that, she was able to stay dry all night. After earning stickers for staying dry 10 nights in a row, we decided to try undies for good. Only one accident during the night has occured and that was several weeks ago, and it was my fault for forgetting to have her go right before bed.....so yay! It's so great to be diaper free! She got to go to Toys 'R Us and pick something out as a prize. She wanted this swim baby....but got scared by it in the tub, so now she just plays with it without batteries. :-)


Our days have been filled with goodness & mercy, I'm so thankful for the life God's blessed me with. Maybe some deeper thoughts will be posted in the coming days. :-)

Food

Here are a few recipes I've used recently and really enjoyed....so maybe you would like to add them to your menu this week. :-)

The first I got off of a blog I stumbled upon called Confessions of a Bake-A-Holic.....she's got some great recipes on her site. So here's the link to a really delicious black bean soup - super easy and healthy. Add some cornbread and maybe a salad and you're set! Easy shmeasy.

We've also tried her Raspberry Coffee Cake, and that was delicious.

And I can't WAIT to try these bagels....they look so yummy.

Actually I've tried several of other recipes on her blog that have all been wonderful....so take some time to browse thru and maybe you'll find some things to add to your weekly eats.

Also, after my friend Amber mentioned she was making Truck Stop pancakes, I googled it and found the best pancake recipe I've come across....they are really good. A new family favorite, so thanks, Am, for the inspiration! :-)

Tidepooling in January

Projects

Here are a few things we've done in the past month or so that we've had fun with, and since they are more "wintery" things instead of "Christmasy" things, you could still do them and have some fun, too!

Felted Pomander by betz white
Granola by Everybody Likes Sandwiches
Merengue Mint Melties by Everybody Likes Sandwiches, oh yeah, and that UBC cake is really yummy, too, as is the Snack Mix, both of which she mentions in this post....I like her stuff! Doesn't she make her food look so pretty and delicious?! Today we made her Migas for a different kind of breakfast & Jason even liked it!
Apron by CraftStylish
Quilled Snowflake Ornament by reese dixon.....very easy and turned out really cool!! I unfortunately tried to increase it's coolness by adding glitter, but the kind I used was too big and it ruined it so much I had to throw it away....bummer. It looks so intricate and hard, but was simple to make and so pretty!
Glittery Window Clings by Family Fun magazine

Christmas in Review

Carson had a Christmas program at his preschool and it was SO cute! He sang all the songs with enthusiasm and looked so happy up there. We've never seen him do anything like that before, and it was so precious.

Carson the Paleontologist

Livi lovin' on her new baby with her cradle.

Carson was thrilled to get mountain bike gloves. Jason took him out for a 4.2 mile ride thru the redwoods last week and they had so much fun. I love that they can do that together.

Livi's been really into dancing lately and now has the outfit to do her moves in.

Tree & Eggnog

One little Hughes family tradition is to wait to have our first eggnog of the season when we put up our tree. Yum.

O Christmas Tree!

We went to Johnson's Farm again this year, we just love that place. Nestled amongst the redwoods, it just has a really wonderful feel there. It was a gorgeous day to be there, and we took the tractor hayride up to the top of the hill where we got to roll small pumpkins down the hill and try to get them through a big tractor wheel, so fun. We found a perfect little tree, and he's made a nice addition to our living room. I always love to browse thru the little shop they have in their old barn. Teri (the owner of the farm and who is in my Bible study) has great taste for the things she has in the store, cool ornaments and home decorations, toys, etc. It was a fun day.

Carson was lovin' the goats!

If only the kids didn't look so blah and disinterested, we could have had a good Christmas card picture! I think they were nervous about the man taking the photo. :-)