Remembering 2011 - Most visited posts

The year 2011 is almost over, so I thought I would wrap it up with one final blog post. I am going to share the top 5 visited posts from 2011. It's interesting to see which ones get the most hits. I think most of these are due to random Google searches that bring people to our blog.

Number 5
Richard Turns 35 and Hat Cake

Number 4
Trash Truck Cake

Number 3
Gabriel Kisses Mirror

Number 2
Bridal Shower and Leopard Print Cake

And the most visited blog post from 2011, which Richard is very proud of...
Number 1
Homemade HDTV Antenna

Until next year, love you all!

Books we read in 2011

There is a blog I follow where the family keeps track of all the books they read. I thought that sounded like so much fun. So, before the end of the year, which is tomorrow, here is our list from 2011 (as much as I can remember).
* Shows books we've finished

Bringing Up Boys* - Richard and Sarah
Live A Praying Life* - Sarah
The New Testament* - Richard and Sarah
On Becoming Baby Wise* - Richard and Sarah
On Becoming Baby Wise 2* - Richard and Sarah
The Nursing Mother's Companion* - Sarah
Super Baby Food* - Sarah
The Power of a Praying Wife* - Sarah
When You Rise Up* - Richard and Sarah
Family Driven Faith* - Richard and Sarah
Daniel: Lives of Integrity, Words of Prophesy* - Sarah
The Phantom of the Opera* - Sarah
People of the Book* - Sarah
James* - Richard
9 Dragons* - Richard
Encountering John* - Richard and Sarah
The Read-Aloud Handbook* - Sarah
The Help* - Sarah
The New Dare to Discipline - Richard and Sarah
The Pilgrim's Progress - Sarah
Putting Food By* -  Sarah
Your Personal Penguin* - Richard and Sarah to Gabriel
Hey Wake Up* - Richard and Sarah to Gabriel
Belly Button Book* - Richard and Sarah to Gabriel
Kiss Goodnight* - Richard and Sarah to Gabriel
The Foot Book* - Richard and Sarah to Gabriel
Mr. Brown and Moo! Can You?* - Richard and Sarah to Gabriel
Green Eggs and Ham* - Richard and Sarah to Gabriel
Dr. Seuss's ABC's* - Richard and Sarah to Gabriel
The Napping House* - Richard and Sarah to Gabriel
Guess How Much I Love You* - Richard and Sarah to Gabriel
Baby's First Book of Prayers* - Richard and Sarah to Gabriel
The Neighborhood Mother Goose - Richard and Sarah to Gabriel
Please, Baby, Please* - Richard and Sarah to Gabriel
Oh, the Places You'll Go - Richard and Sarah to Gabriel
The Jesus Storybook Bible -  Richard and Sarah to Gabriel
Peek-A-Boo, I Love You!* -  Richard and Sarah to Gabriel
Geena Giraffe Gets Tucked In* - Richard and Sarah to Gabriel
Are You My Mother?* - Richard and Sarah to Gabriel
I Love You, Grandpa - Richard and Sarah to Gabriel
Splish Splash, Baby Bundt* -  Richard and Sarah to Gabriel
A Family Advent* - The Family

Christmas 2011

This year there were two very special new additions to our Christmas gift exchange. It was Gabriel's first Christmas, and my soon to be sister-in-law also joined us! That's right, my big brother is getting married to a wonderful, beautiful woman names Allison. Part of our tradition is stocking stuffers. So here are Gabriel and Allison with their new stockings. Well, actually, Gabriel just crawled over everyone's stalkings, but his is the one with the "G" on it.

Papa helped Gabriel open his stalking stuffers.

But Gabriel new exactly what to do when it came to tissue paper.

Great Grandma made him a quilt with cars and plains and his birth information in the middle. If you can't tell, there is an eyeball on the side of the car.  That's in remembrance of my mom's first car. Apparently it had a giant eyeball on the side of it, and everyone still talks about "the eyeball car" to this day.

It was a great Christmas, because we spent it with family.

Merry Christmas From The Four Of Us

We shared some great news with our family when we sent this picture on Christmas day.

"Merry Christmas From The Four Of Us!"

My first Dr appointment is this week. So there will be more updates to come.

Yearly Christmas Ornaments

Richard and I have started a tradition where we add a new ornament to our tree each year which represents something that happened within that year. It's so much fun to see the collection begin to grow. Each ornament has stories attached to it.

Our first year, we got the Hawaiian ornament from our honeymoon in Hawaii. We went to Kauaii and the big island.

 The second year, we traveled to Europe. We visited Paris and London. In London, we collected this crown ornament which represents the royal family.

This year, I made an ornament to represent Gabriel's birth. It's a block with his picture and his birth information. I plan to do this ornament for each of our children in the year they are born.

Carrots From The Garden

I finally got around to pulling carrots from the garden. They've been in there for a looooong time. We have a ton of them, and they turned out great! Some are huge, and some are tiny. All of them are yummy. With the cold weather, I've been making lots of stews, and crock pot recipes that call for carrots. We also go through a lot of carrots with hummus. It's so much fun to eat what we've grown in our own backyard!

Fruit Salad

Here's a fruit salad recipe that I can't get enough of. Janice (aka Grandma) made this for us over Thanksgiving, and I am making it all the time at home.

2 apples, cut into chunks
1 banana, sliced
1 cutie, sliced
handful of grapes, halved
peaches, cut up
yogurt (my favorite is the peach flavored kind)

Mix it all together and enjoy! I also add some sliced almonds and raisins sometimes.

Trash Truck Cake

My neighbor, Michael, just turned 5 years old. I was so excited when he asked me to make his birthday cake. It was quite the challenge, because he wanted a trash truck cake! Michael LOVES trash trucks. He likes to watch them pick up the trash cans or dumpsters and turn them over into their big trash piles. He knows the different kinds of trucks. There are side loaders, which pick up the residential bins (his favorite). Then there are the big trucks which pick up dumpsters. There are also three kinds of bins. He calls them recycle, green and stinky trash. Michael even knows all the names of the garbage men. I wouldn't be surprised if he has their autographs!

Well, here is the cake I made for Michael's birthday.

Happy Birthday Michael!

Easy Peasy DIY Christmas Wreaths

Here are two DIY wreaths for Christmas time.

(1) Front door wreath.

Buy a mostly decorated wreath on sale at the craft store, along with some shiny stuff to add to it.

Add those shiny pieces in, twisting them to make sure they're secure.

Hang on your front door. Tada!

 

(2) Christmas card wreath

You'll need a coat hanger, red pony beads, clothes pins, spray paint and ribbon.

Bend the coat hanger into a circle.

Spray paint clothes pins.

Put beads and clothes pins on the hanger.

 When you come to the end, use a hot glue gun to hold it together.

Tie a ribbon around it and hang on the wall.

 When you get all those pretty Christmas cards, display then on your wreath for everyone to see!

Thanksgiving 2011

Our Thanksgiving was spent in Illinois with Grandpa and Grandma Sanders. We had a great time!
 

 

Gabriel ate Turkey, yams, and winter squash for his Thanksgiving meal.

Grandpa gave Gabriel a silver cup that used to be his when he was a kid. This turned into Gabriel's favorite toy, and is now called "the Grandpa cup".

We got in our reading time, of course!

 And went for some walks. Yes, those are socks on Gabriel's arms. Hey, we're from Southern California! We don't have warm clothes!

We had a great time. However, I am very sad that we forgot to take a picture of the whole family.

Thanks Grandpa and Grandma!

Gabriel kisses mirror

This is a funny video I caught of Gabriel kissing the mirror.  All I had to do was kiss the mirror as well, and it's "monkey see, monkey do".

Gabriel takes his train for a walk

Just thought I'd share a quick video of Gabriel's progress as he learns to walk.  He enjoys pushing his train across the living room.

Jaws Attacks Gabriel

Thought I would reenact the movie from 1975 with Gabriel.  I'm the big fish.  He seems to think it's funny and not so scary.

Gabriel's trip to the Apple store

Some of you may not know (because she hasn't blogged about it) that Sarah upgraded her Droid to an iPhone two weeks ago.  Most of you do know however that the iPhone has had some 'software' issues since its release.  Well, all was not fixed on Sarah's iPhone with the iOS 5.0.1 update so off the family went to the Apple store at the Manhattan Beach mall.

Upon arriving at the Apple store, Gabriel was surprised to see a very long line leading into the store.  He knew his nap was in an hour and this was his first cause for concern.

"Could so many iPhones be broken?", he thought.  If the iPhone is having issues, what about my phone?

Outrage immediately set in when Gabriel pulled out his phone and discovered the rattle only made noise when shaken!  This is much bigger issue than mom's Siri problems.

Outrage turned to sadness, and Gabriel wondered if there was a software fix for his phone.  Facetime wouldn't be bad either, as long as there was a WiFi connection available.

 

Just as Apple was able to fix Sarah's iPhone (with a wipe and reload of the iOS), Daddy was able to shake Gabriel's phone enough to make him laugh.  Neither Android nor Apple can bring joy to a father like his son's smile.

Yogurt Covered Apples

I have no idea why, but for some reason I have been craving yogurt lately. We have whole fat yogurt on hand for Gabriel, and I started eating it too. Between Gabriel and I, we go through at least one 32oz yogurt container each week.

Here's my go-to yogurt recipe. I made it up myself :)

Start with an apple.

Cut apple into chunks.

Pile a bunch of yogurt of the apple.

Drizzle with honey.

 

Pile on a bunch of granola.

Enjoy your delicious treat!

Caught on Baby Cam

Gabriel is up to his old tricks... ok, it's only been a week or so since he's been standing, but "up to his new tricks" doesn't have the same punch.  I took a couple pictures and a video via the baby monitor to show what he does when we're not in the room.  Now if he could just learn to lay back down.  Enjoy.

In the Pack 'N Play

In his crib

Quick Learner

A few days ago we lowered Gabriel's crib to the middle setting because he was grabbing the mobile. Well, it didn't take him long to figure out how to pull himself up on the side of the crib and grab it. This time he broke it. We caught him red-handed.

On top of that, I put him in his playpen today, and when I came back to get him, he was standing up! He's a quick learner. And what a ham!

  

 

DIY Jewelry Frame

Supplies needed:
1 frame
1 roll "floral wrap" (mesh of some sort)
spray paint
floral wire
staple gun

Richard was throwing away some old work shirts, and I originally thought I would use one as a backdrop for the frame. I may still do this later on, but for now I'm liking it without any backdrop.

Step 1. Bend floral wire into "hooks"
Step 2. Spray paint mesh and floral wire and leave to dry
Step 3. Remove backing from frame
Step 4. Staple mesh to back of frame (not the very back, but the inside where the picture goes)
Step 5. Bend floral wire to fit snug against the frame and staple in the back of the frame. Cut any excess wire before stapling.
Step 6. Hang frame and put jewelry on frame.

Step 7. Put more jewelry on frame.
So pretty!