His father's son

No need to say (much) more.

Except...

Just me and Spence

Naptime is practically torture in our house at times. I feel like I spend two hours losing every ounce of sanity patiently asking my son to keep his voice down. Some days its just not worth the effort to be down to one kid if you know what I mean.

Alfonso had some school work to get finished, so realizing I'd on my own during naptime, I thought it just might be easier for all parties if both Spencer and I left the house. It was a beautiful day, a nice break between rain storms, so we went to Contra Loma and walked around and explored. I wasn't planning to be there very long, but Spencer was really having fun, so we stayed a long while. I had my camera along and though the bright sun may have killed my chance at taking the shot I was hoping for, I wouldn't trade our fun in the sun for anything.

Nope, not even chocolate :)

Mexican Rice

A while back I found myself craving Mexican rice of the not-out-of-a-box variety. In my search I found this blog along with the recipe I used that night and a few times since then. It's yummy!

Mexican Rice

1 T oil (I used olive oil)
1 onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped (I used bell pepper)
1 jalapeno pepper, chopped (I skipped for fear I'd hear the spicy "pie-see" word from Mia)
1 cup rice (I used brown rice)
1 1/2 c. chicken stock
2 cups diced tomatoes with liquid
1 t chili powder
1 t cumin
1/2 t salt

Heat oil
Add onions, garlic, peppers and saute for 5-7 minutes
Add rice, chicken stock, tomatoes, chili powder, cumin and salt. Bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer until rice is done (time depends on type of rice you use)

Our train adventure

Mia's become slightly obsessed with trains so we thought it would be fun to take the Amtrak train to Sacramento for the day and go to the train museum while we were there. We made our plans the week before prior to the weather turning nasty. We knew we weren't about to get ourselves out of this trip (Mia asked about the "Choo-choo" everyday), so we headed out prepared as we could be (rain jackets, umbrella).

We hit a few patches of rain here and there, but nothing that couldn't be managed with the gear on hand. As we waited for our departure train to arrive it began to hail...A LOT! We found ourselves thankful for the shelter provided by the train station and our intuition to leave the museum when we did. The kids absolutely loved watching the icy rain fall and we found it pretty neat too considering its rarity.

Tell me what you love?

I'm going on day number two without hubby/daddy, and we miss him.  Badly.

Yesterday could be placed in the category of "awful" and it wasn't something I wanted repeated again today.  Not.fun.for.sure.

I made a (cheap) Valentine's Day craft with the kids this afternoon.  We (I) cut out paper hearts with some craft paper we had laying around and I asked the kids to tell me what/who they loved.  I figured I'd get a few interesting, but they were all precious.  The "love list" included:  Daddy, Mommy, Jesus, Daddy and Mommy, "ho-ho-ho" (that's Mia's way of referring to Santa Claus), Christmas, "tookie" (Mia loves cookies), Scooby-Doo, Mimi (Mia loves herself...never would have guessed a two-year-old would be so self-absorbed :)  ), Scout and Cooper (our doggies).

Afterwards, the kids decorated their hearts with glitter paint and plenty of it.  I'm not sure if our hearts will ever dry.

It's hard to find this look intimidating....

When I know the real boy behind the look...Winning isn't everything, but it never hurts to try all the tricks :)

Mia's a busy gal!

While Spencer and Daddy practiced, Mia kept herself busy with some very important, highly sensitive, top secret duties.She was transporting some very important material in that Tonka dump truck alright.Now she asks, "Do you think orange is a good color for me?"I know I'm biased, but I think any color is good in Mia...as long as it doesn't stain that is.

Blue Hair = Luck

Haven't you heard, blue hair brings luck?I shouldn't give the new 'do so much credit.  Spencer's baseball performance has far more to do with a very, very (did I mention very?) patient father.  In the past few weeks tears have been shed by ALL members of our household when it came time to practice.  Spencer insisted he wanted to play t-ball this year and fearing we may have a repeat performance of soccer practice of 2007, we made the kid swear he would follow through.  He insisted he would.

That was his story anyway until the check cleared, then all of a sudden he wanted to give up and call it good.  Because we love him so much (snicker, snicker) and our bank account was now minus $100, we said, "Absolutely not".  See, I said "Absolutely not", but Alfonso did all the hardwork; he practiced with that kid every single day until the tears stopped and the smiles came.  I think we've just experienced our first miracle :)

Now Spencer can catch a ground ball

He can hit like a mini-proAnd he's got quite the armWay to go Daddy!