The Harvest

This is the first "harvest" from our garden. I claim to be a black thumb and kill everything I try to grow and that remains to be true. The only credit I can take is reminding the kids and Tata that it is time to go and water. All of the other work was done lovingly by my amazing husband and very capable children. I will tell you that it was so good to eat something that grew in your own backyard.

Before and After

We finally caved into all that peer pressure and cut our boys hair. I personally loved their luscious curls. Maybe it is because I will never have any of my own. But at any rate the summer heat was too much for them. So after seeing them sweat from playing outside for just few minutes, we had compassion and decided it was time. For the baby this was his first ever hair cut and the other two were growing out some impressive fros! I was seriously sad to see the hair go.

Before: They have no idea what's coming! Because of his ringlet curls that hang down right at his ears, we nicknamed him "Shalom in the Home." Sadly that name is no more

After: Who took my babies and turned them into men?

We still do it Island Style

Our house has been in a bustle of activity lately but I've noticed that as busy as we are we still resort to our island ways. It just goes to show you.... You can take the boy out of the island but you can't take the island out of the boy. (Or his offspring for that matter.)

No need for a weed whacker, as long as I have my trusty machete!

His first experience with fresh coconut.

Child Labor laws... no need here just a little exercise in scraping the coconut.

How to Eat An Orange

Our recently turned 4 year old comes up with some of the funniest stuff. He has been named the clown of the family Recently he instructed us that this is the only proper way to eat an orange!

Another reason to love TJ's

I just had a sweet experience shopping at one of my favorite stores, Trader Joe's ( or as I like to call them TJ's). One of my favorite products to buy there is their Organic Brown Rice. It comes in three packets, you microwave it for 3 minutes and one packet will feed my family. It tastes delish... in fact I prefer it to regular white rice. Tonight as I was shopping they only had two boxes of this amazing rice left. Both happened to be opened but upon a more detailed inspection I realized that the boxes were just opened and not the individual rice bags. So I put them in my cart.

When I arrived at the check out the clerk thanked me for buying the open boxes of rice. I explained that there wasn't any thing wrong. I figured they got open during shipping or something like that. The clerk went on to explain how so many other people asked for the rice and then refused to buy them because the boxes were open. He then said I should give them to you for free... in fact I will give them to you for free! I was so excited. Free boxes of Organic Brown Rice... Now way!

Many of you know that my amazing husband has been unemployed going on 4 months now. We are doing well but have to be tight with our finances. Even though it was not a major savings I was so happy he gave us the rice for free because you know as they say "every little bit helps."

I told the cashier that he was acting as one of Gods Angels and proceeded to briefly explain our situation. He said that by me simply buying some opened rice boxes I restored his faith in humanity.

This was a difficult week for me and I really struggled with our situation. I was a little depressed and hopeless. However, as I walked out of the store I felt that God was saying.. I haven't forgotten about you. It was a perfect example of the tender mercies of the Lord.

Pretty impressed with myself

It's probably no secret that I love food. I especially love to cook and bake new things. Usually when I cook the food tastes great but the presentation is lacking. I have several friends and family members who are amazing in the kitchen. My brother is in culinary school and his wife... well lets just say she could teach culinary school. My friend Azúcar makes wedding cakes to die for.

In fact cake is probably my most favorite dessert. I love to watch the cake challenges on the Food Network, Ace of Cakes, or any cake show for that matter. However, I seriously lack any sort of skill when it comes to decorating a cake. My biggest accomplishment to date is the old diet soda and cake mix cake that someone told me about in my Weight Watchers meeting. That being said you can imagine my anxiety when I was asked to make a pedestal cake that would be a center piece for our Relief Society Birthday dinner! I didn't even know how to frost a cake let alone decorate one for a centerpiece. I was determined that I would do something presentable. I found a cute idea here and thought I could try that. I found good old Betty Crocker's silver white cake recipe and was determined I would make this cake from scratch and it would be great.
I got the layers pretty good but I had to enlist the help of my dear friend to teach me how to frost. That was the scary part for me. I knew I could bake this cake but how would I frost it to look good enough at the dinner. Well after my lesson the cake was frosted all nice and smooth. I knew it looked a little boring just being all white on the outside but I did that on purpose so the ladies would get a shock when they cut into it. Here are pictures of my work. I must say I'm pretty impressed with my self! It is completely from scratch! What say you Azúcar?

A Good Laugh

O.K. let me just start off by saying I'm Switzerland when it comes to my opinion of her. But this picture made me laugh. I guess I am really out of it when if comes to high fashion. I suppose I need to watch Project Runway or something. Honestly it looks like she is wearing a Sunggie backwards!