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1 year, 10 weeks

Hope you all had a nice Father's Day!  It was wonderful to finally get a Sunday to spend with the family and participate in everything I missed out on when I worked the weekends.  It was a full day of activity, but then, what else is new?

Sabbath we went to church and caught up with some friends.  Summer has finally arrived and it has literally been hellishly hot over the past week, almost breaking some record high temperatures.  Anyway, we stayed mostly inside, as the temp gauge in the van read 101 degrees at one point while driving.  Crazy.  Florida.  After the twins went down Saturday night Brae and I settled for a movie at home while Mommy worked on her speech for Monday.

Sunday mornng we lounged around the house for breakfast before hitting the pool.  This was our last day for the next 4 weeks for Tangie and myself to eat whatever we wanted.  We have started a 4 week balanced meal/nutrition/diet/excercise plan that in the end will hopefully turn me looking like this...



to this....

Yeah, keep dreaming.  Anyway, we're taking nutritional supplements and doing workouts as well so you never know.  We've kinda let ourselves go after 8 years of marriage and 3 kids.  We are trying to get back to a healthy lifestyle and smaller sizes in clothing!

Me still in my pajamas on Father's Day morning.



The pool and fountains were welcomed on such a hot day.

Maddy was trying to figure out the water sprays.

Kohl was just content to watch his sisters play in the fountain, until Daddy took him in.

There is a vineyard and winery in Clermont, about 20 minutes away, that was holding a harvest festival over the weekend.  This is the time of the year when the muscadine grapes (indigenous) are harvested for fermentation.  So they hold a huge 3 day festival and have food, live music, and craft vendors for everyone in Central Florida to enjoy.  Anyway, we made our way over there and it was neat to see people do some actual grape stomping.  Luckily they didn't use that juice to make wine! 

On the drive there, being entertained by the DVD player

Stomping buckets

Lot's of people vying for shade

The boys hang out

Sharing a very quickly melting ice cream cone.  First Maddy...

...then Braelyn...

...finally, Kohl!

Braelyn had a turn in taking some video of us at the festival.  Maddy was very curious about my Sprite and wanted a taste, but could't get over the carbonation.  You can tell it was a warm one; her cheeks were flush pink!



So in our transition to a more healthy lifestyle, I am including some pictures of just some of the dinners I have been cooking using our meal plan guide.  We are limited to 1500 calories and between 8-12 cups of water each day.  All the meals are fresh and home cooked, but the food is actually pretty tasty and filling, when prepared properly and presented right:

Monday:  Curry chicken with brown rice

Tuesday:  Mixed salad with homemade chili

Wednesday:  Chicken and wheat pasta with steamed zuchinni and squash.

The children are growing quickly and beautfully each day.  Braelyn transitioned to her new class, Pre-K, for the summer, so she can wear fun clothes vs. a uniform until September.  I met with the teacher the first day and she said that the kids will play and have fun during summer break, but then it will be hardcore learning throughout the year.  She said that Braelyn will be reading by this time next year.  Amazing.

The twins are also developing themselves and their characteristics.  They are always following each other and playing together, which is nice to hear from Starchild.  They are gaining confidence in their mobility and are even attempting to climb the stairs!  Maddy's favorite words:  "uh-oh", "bye", and "more" which sounds more like "Moe".  Kohl says "da da" which he splurts when its appropriate to say thank you rather than da da for Daddy.  At least he'll be polite :)

The best toy ever, which I painted green this week to transform into a mini sofa, was this box from Costco.

"Look Ma, no hands!"

Our little chipmunk, Kohl likes to stuff his mouth with food before he even begins to start chewing.

Maddy has formed a habit of throwing food on the floor when she doesn't want to eat it.  Luckily Zoe is underneath to clean up the mess but we're trying to teach her not to do that.  She thinks its a game; Braelyn did that for a while when she was that age.

This is a very short 4 second video of the rough 'n tumble play that Braelyn is so ready for.  Unfortunately the twins are still a bit too small and uncoordinated that they get frustrated and end up crying in the end.  Soon enough they'll be able to play!

That's it for now.  Until next week!



June week 3

1 year, 9 weeks.

I couldn't come up with a title for this post, so I went with the time and date of this past week, how completely unoriginal of me.  I guess that's what happens this late in the evening after a long day of work and getting the little ones settled and down for bed; Your creativity evaporates, your mind slips, and your brain farts. 

But it was a good week, with lots of fun and exciting events and activities. 

Last Wednesday our good friends the Grodacks had their 3rd child, a boy, named Brady Breton.  Actually, Corey had the baby and Duncan just chilled out next to her, awaiting the doctor's handoff.  He's a cute little thing, reminiscent of his older sisters at birth.  Tangie and I had the opportunity to visit them at the hospital the following day.  I know it's only been a little over a year since the twins were born but you always seem to forget how incredibly tiny they are when they first come out.  He is a welcomed addition as baby boys in our circle of friend come few and far between, although this year seems to be a promising crop with at least 3 more on the way, 2 being from a set of triplets and 1 being the firstborn of Kent and Kelli Johnson.  It will be nice for Kohl to have some guys to hang out with.

Makes you almost want to have another one.  Almost.

He's going to be just like his goofy father.

Sabbath evening we had the Johnsons and Zbarschuks over for dinner to catch up on their vacation to Belize and just enjoy good food and company.   We had fun eating outside and watching the dads try to spin the children to get them dizzy.

The evenings have been quite enjoyable as of late;  Pretty soon it will get muggy and unbearable.  Ahh, Florida summers!

Mike was still in town so we had taken advantage of him that afternoon and did a small photo shoot in the historic part of downtown Winter Garden.  His flight back to California and his wife (she is such the trooper) was dark and early the following morning, and guess who had the honor of taking him to the airport?  Needless to say, I was still in my pajamas when we arrived curbside and I shamelessly got out of the car to hug him goodbye.  Men's cotton pajama bottoms from Old Navy.  Gotta love them.

 

Bathtime!

You'll never guess who they're laughing at...

One of my favorites of Maddy.  It looks like she just got the punchline of a joke!

You're getting vvveerrryyy ssslllleeeeeepppyyy.....

Dazed and pacified.

Isidro 5 in downtown Winter Garden.

How fast is she becoming such the lady?

Action shot:  strolling down the sidewalk

Brae enjoyed the water fountain park

Brae and Kohl got some trimming on Sunday

Here they enjoy the pool at the clubhouse.  Kohl looks like a stud, like he's saying "yo, what you got?"

This week was the last week of official school for the kids, so each day had a fun theme, like crazy socks day, pajama day where you can wear your pajamas to school, and crazy hair day.  The teachers at Starchild had fun, especially with Kohlden, as they whipped and shaped Kohlden's hair into a mohawk.  I had to admit, it looked very rugged and modern, and I kinda liked it!  We might have to keep working on that one!

I got this box from Costco to hold the purchases.  The kids LOVE it.  I plan to convert it to a little sofa for their house.

Perhaps we have two little athletes?  Kohl with a putter and Maddy with the bat.



Dish of the week:  Maple grilled river trout with apple salsa on a bed of brown rice and marsala wine black beans.  Add some peppered sour cream = delicious!



Crazy Hair Day!

Kohl looks like he's about to give a beat down on someone.  "Yo, don't mess with me!"

 

I am looking forward to this weekend to celebrate Father's day with the children and spend time with the family.  Hope yours is a good one!

Vacations Aplenty!

1 year, 8 weeks

Hello again.  So it's been a good three weeks since my last post.  I know what you're thinking...hey, this guy is slacking!  But I will fall back on my last post's reasonings, and once again use my disclaimer of using pictures to catch you all up on all of our adventures over the past 21 days.  I promise to keep it short and sweet...

Uncle Mike came into town for a week.  The graduating class at Forest Lake Academy was his Freshman Bible class 4 years ago when he worked there, and so they invited him to be the Friday night's commencement speaker.  He did a fantastic job.

In Sabbath school Braelyn learned about Daniel and the lions' den, and so we had to make a reproduction of the "den" when we got home.  Note the friendly and smiling "lion" underneath!

I have recently gone back to cooking more gourmet meals.  For those of you who know my enjoyment with fine dining, I try to replicate recipes at home for Tangie and my family to try out.  It's a little bit of a hobby for me, but definately an outlet for some creativity, and I quite relish in it, especially when it comes to eating the end result!

Smoked maple grilled beef tenderloin with a Pinot Noir reduction, steamed asparagus topped with watercress salad, rice and roasted red peppers.

Pan fried white fish with tomatoes, peanuts, and green peppers.  Topped with watercress, drizzled with olive oil.

Homemade fresh garlic hummus, green peppers with parmesan cheese, roasted red peppers and turkey pepperoni.  Very Middle Eastern dish!

Brae enjoyed hanging out, rather, hanging on, to Uncle Mike during his stay.

She enjoyed a double date with Daddy and Uncle Mike, here on our way to see the animated movie, Rio.

Our shag dog Zoe, in much need of a summer shearing.  Now you see it...

...now you don't!

So at Braelyn's Sabbath school there is a corner partition that someone constructed a house for the kids to go and play in.  I started taking a look at the design and started thinking of how I could make something similar for the kids and make it fit into our house.  After coming up with some ideas I went ahead to Home Depot, bought a sheet of plywood and some other supplies, and with the help of my small assistant and several days of cutting/assembling/painting we went from this...

This was so cute, as she had on her safety glasses, holding Marge and the drill, which got too heavy as soon as I took the picture.



She started getting excited when we cut the window out.

She did a pretty good job painting the window frame, no spills or messes!



 ...to this, the finished product!  The kids love it, and Braelyn even told me it needed a TV inside.  Keep wishing kid!



Here Lolo has a hand in trying to entertain all three kids!



The following Sabbath afternoon, Tangie, Brae, and I went to the Wekiva River for a nice canoe ride.  It was a very sunny day and we wanted to take advantage of the weather.  The twins were not feeling too well, as they were still finishing up their bout with the ear infections and antiobiotics from the previous week, so Lolo and Lala stayed behind with them.  We saw many river inhabitants, turtles and water birds, and 3 alligators, one of which was at least 6 foot long, but luckily was on shore just minding it's own business.  Brae enjoyed helping to paddle, somewhat.


 

The dark thing on the log was a baby alligator about 2 feet long.

 



We swung by our other house in Apopka to find that the current tenants had relandscaped our front garden area and planted some new flowers and tree.  It looked nice; no complaints here!

 I had still quite a bit of pto to burn before the year end deadline when we lose it, so we took a couple side trips, and I mean literally side trips, as in the Florida East side and later West side, to relax and enjoy the surrounding areas of our state.  We took two days and went to Cocoa Beach and stayed in a villa right there on the beach.  It would have been nice except there was a jellyfish bloom that weekend and unfortunately they were everywhere in the water and littering the beach.  Tangie, Brae, and I each got stung once, and so we opted to spend most of the time there at the resort's pool that had a decent childrens water playground complete with pirate ship, water slides and cannons.  Brae enjoyed it immensely.

On the way there, Kohl wanted to interact with the movie playing in the van.

We visited Ron Jon's Surf shop and she wanted to buy one for herself, so...

I made her stand on one and told her one day Uncle Mike will get her one for her birthday!

Cool flip shades!  Glasses make her look so much older.

She missed out on her nap that day and was pretty much wiped out just before dinnertime.

Maddy enjoyed the live music at the outdoor beachside restaurant where we had dinner.

Kohl was jammin' it up as well!

And of course afterwards we were all...

tuckered...

out!

You can't see it very well but the pink area between the thumb and forefinger is where Brae got stung.  She was very brave though, no tears.

It was a pretty big undertaking having to lug all our supplies to the beach and set up with 3 kids in tow, two of which kept trying to eat the sand.

Because of the jellyfish we had to resort to playing in the sand and making a sandcastle, which only lasted for several minutes until the twins were fussy.  All that work and we stayed on the beach less than an hour.

Should have been renamed Jellyfish beach instead.

They were everywhere!

Mommy and the twins at the pool.

Brae enjoys the waterslides.

We took a side trip to visit the Cocoa Beach Pier.

Along the way we happened upon a tour bus apparently owned and operated by the Campbell family!

We spent some time at the park.  Nothing beats a swing!  This was just moments before Brae let go of her swing in mid flight and she crashed to ground, pretty shaken but okay.  When asked why she let go, she said because she was "too high".  Um, that's when we hang on even tighter!  She learned her lesson.

Brother and sister watch tv while Maddy napped in the other room.

The next weekend my parents along with my cousins (let me give a shout out to Patrick and Lyca!) were gracious enough to take care of all 3 kids while Tangie and I stole away to the West coast for a few days of quiet just the 2 of us.  We went to St. Petersburg/Clearwater Beach and enjoyed exploring the area and beaches.  We ate at some fantastic restaurants, visited and learned at a couple of local wineries, and most importantly, slept.  And slept.  Ate some more, then slept again.  The highlight was on the first evening, on our drive there, Tangie got inspired and (usually not her) spur of the moment we booked a reservation on a dinner cruise.  I hit the gas to make sure we had time to check in at the hotel and beat traffic, making it to the Clearwater marina with time to spare.  It was very enjoyable and the sunset was amazing.  It felt like the time Tangie and I were starting to date, oh, say, about 13 years ago.

All aboard the Starlite Majesty.  Alas, this might be our only cruise this year!

Sunny and fantastic weather, the gulf breeze makes for an enjoyable evening out.

Waiting for our main course.

Tangie at the bow of the ship.

Atop the roof deck of the Hurricane Restaurant at Pass-a-Grille Beach, St. Petersburg.  Amazing view of the Gulf.

So fashionably chic with her Burberry bag and Prada shades!

Could you just live here?

Guess what?  No jellyfish in sight!

This guy in red was filleting fish that other people caught for them.  He was pretty amazing, but what was fun to see was he would throw the scraps down in the water below...

that was teeming with pelicans waiting and fighting for the handouts!  My dad would've disapproved at all that wasted fish parts!

So it's back to the grind, at least for the time being.  I wonder what new adventures lie waiting around the corner. 

Thanks for catching up with us!  Have a great weekend!