Baby album - 2

I recently finished my second baby album gift. This one was for Matt's cousins Sean and Roseanne. My mother-in-law helped make a few pages while we were visiting them. You can see the entire album here.

Lauren's healthy eating blog

Lauren has a new blog about healthy eating. She already has some great posts, the latest about butter. (yumm...butter). I usually use the real thing in most of my cooking and baking.

More fun in the snow

Snow Day...lost count

Yes, it is still snowing on top of the 2 ft we already have on the ground. I decided to help Matt out and do some of the shoveling...ughh.

We thought it was time to move Namir's beds away from the heaters since all he has done is sleep there for the past 4 days. It is cute and all until he finally wakes up last night at midnight and decided to cry and cry and cry. By 4 am, I stopped feeling sorry for him and put him in the basement, which is not heated. He was fine. So when he was standing at the back door watching me shovel, looking like he really wanted to go outside, this is what he got..................

Snow Day 2

We are under a blanket of snow again. Lavi is happy as a pig in sh*t when we take her out to play. Namir is happy in his bed next to the heating vent. All I want to do is cook. I have big plans for a red velvet cake...mmmmm.





Stay warm.

SNOW DAY

Upon our return from Visalia yesterday (Visalia post yet to come), we arrived home to ice covered streets in our neighborhood following a winter snow storm we missed while away. At first we were bummed to miss Lavi and Namir's first snow storm to see how they really felt about the snow. Well, we did not have to wait too long. By 10 am this morning, more snow was falling soon to be followed by freezing rain.

I thought it would be fun to let Namir see what this white stuff is all about (since he is a true So Cal kitty). At first he enjoyed being outside and walking around, but he came back to the door pretty quickly to get back in.



Now we can find him sitting in his bed right in front of the heating vent.


Lavi on the other hand, had great fun at Susan and Doug's house over the weekend playing in their backyard (and warming herself in their bed). For a dog that dislikes water so much, we are suprised to see how much she loves the snow. We guess it is similiar enough to the sand at the beach.


Here is some videos of Lavi's enjoying herself.

Minibook for Nathaniel

I made a minibook for my friend Liza as a gift for Nathaniel's 1st birthday. Unfortunately we missed his party and all of the fun he had with his first cake and ICING!

I had a lot of fun making this book with all of the different shapes.

Pom-interesting

I did ask for more comments, didn't I? Well, as a newbie Alexander I must listen and take heed to those before me...and when my mother-in-law tells me the picture of the pom jello salad looks like something sick kids would make...poof its gone. Since I don't yet know what sick kids do, I will take her word for it.

Alexander Pomegranate Jello Salad

This salad is a holiday mainstay in our household. It originally came from Matt's grandma Nadine, who supposedly got it from the back of a box somewhere (if anyone knows where, please share). It is sooo good and definately worth the patience.

Pomegranate jello salad

6 oz pkg raspberry jello
3 c frozen strawberry (or other berries) - mashed
1 c pomegranate seeds
1 can crushed pineapple - drained
1 can whole cranberry sauce - mashed
1 c sour cream
1 c miniature marshmallows

1. Dissolve jello with 2 cups of hot water.

2. Add frozen berries, pomegranate seeds, pineapple and cranberry sauce to jello mix.


3. Put in fridge to set up (about 2 hours).

4. Swirl sour cream and marshmallows in mixture.


5. Let set overnight.


6. Enjoy the sweet blend of flavors, crunch of the pomegranate seeds, and the way the marshmallows melt in your mouth. Yummmm.

Baby album - 1

I can finally post the baby album I made for Julie's baby shower yesterday. This is the first of two blank baby albums I made.

This was the card I sent with the album.



Here are few of my favorite pages. You can see the whole album here.

Blog 1 year Anniversary!

Time has flown by... I actually missed the 1 year anniversary of my blog on November 8. So much has happened over this past year and it has been a lot of fun sharing it. Thanks for all of you wonderful comments...I'd love to see some more this year. I never thought of myself as a "blogger" but with over 2300 views, someone is looking at it besides me. Hopefully I will get a job soon but don't worry I will continue to post the laughs, crafts and animal costumes.

I have a bunch of posts "on hold" as I don't want to ruin anyone's surprise.

Phone For Fish - txt to 30644

I just read about the greatest thing I have seen in a long time in Sunday's Parade. An easy way to make an eco-friendly decision about which fish to eat. There is a pocket guide you can carry but has anyone actually used it in a restaurant?

BUT now there is an even easier way to make a good decision about what fish to eat. All you have to do is text the word "fish" followed by "the name of the fish you are considering".

For example: Fish halibut. (Text to 30644)
(This is the response I got back within 10 sec- Pacific Halibut (Green) few enviornmental concerns, MSC certified sustainable; Atlanitc Halibut (RED) significant environmental concerns.) Now I can ask my waiter (if it isn't already clear) where the halibut came from. If Pacific Ocean - we're good, if Atlantic - i'll find something else.

This service is provided by the Blue Ocean Insitute. Unfortunately I could not find anything about this service on their website but it does provide really good information about the fish (both normal seafood and sushi grade).

To this note, a local sushi restaurant, Bamboo Sushi, has gone 100% sustainable. They only serve sustainable fish so this service would be moot when visiting their restaurant. Here is a recent article about the restaurant from The Oregonian

Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge

After days of rain, the sun has made an apperance and it couldn't be more perfect. Lavi and I took advantage of this gorgeous day and went for a hike at Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge...literally 8 minutes from our house. I bought a book yesterday - The Best Easy Day Hikes - Portland, OR. Again, perfect timing.





Hopefully we can try another hike before the rain comes again sometime next week.

Persimmons

It is now officially persimmon season in the Alexander household. After buying a 5 lb bag of fuyu persimmons, I needed to put them to good use. I learned a useful tip that you can put them in freezer overnight and then when you defrost them they become soft...much quicker than waiting for them to soften naturally...I don't have that kind of patience.

I decided to start of with an easy cookie recipe. It called for nuts and raisins but I omitted them since I didn't have them in the house and I don't really like them in cookies all the time.

2 ripe persimmons
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup unrefined sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup raisins (optional)
1 cup chopped walnut (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
2. Peel and core persimmons. Blend until purreed and pour in small bowl.
2. Dissolve baking soda in persimmon pulp and set aside.
3. Sift flour, pumpkin pie spice and salt together, set aside.
4. Cream together butter or margarine and sugar until fluffy, beat in egg and persimmon pulp. Stir in dry ingredients. (Optional - stir in nuts and raisins).
5. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto silpat and cookie sheet. Bake for 14-15 minutes.

They are wonderful. Not too sweet, you can add more sugar if you really need the extra calories.

Halloween 08

Out little french maid is busy dusting around the house...





While Shrek is happy the way it is...






Have spook-tacular day!

Agility class video

Lavi finished her first session of Level 1 agility class last night. She is doing great but now we have to wait until the new year for class to start up again.

Matt, Doug and Susan came to class to watch. Lavi was very excited to have them there...kind of like the kindergarten recitals with the kids waving to their families the whole time and picking their noses. She did get into her groove after a while.

Here is a video of one of her runs.

Guest book

As a thank you to Susan and Doug for letting us stay in their beach house, I made them a guest book to keep there.


Materials used: Daisy Bucket Designs Wonderous World patterned paper (100% recycled), Bazzill Basics brown chipboard letters, misc mat board, Cloud 9 clear rain dots, misc flowers, Ranger Ink Glossy Accents, misc ribbon, Bind it all.

Weekend getaway

Matt, Lavi and I took a short trip to the coast last weekend. It was perfect timing to see the leaves changing colors in Tillamook forest.

Matt and Lavi in front of the Tillamook Forest Center.


And since this was Matt's first time to Tillamook, we had to stop at the cheese factory for some ice cream...yummm...pumpkin.


We stayed at Susan and Doug's house in Netarts. Lavi got to visit Happy Camp again and run like a crazy dog.


She practically ran herself into the ground. She loves the beach and the sand between her toes.


We woke up to a beautiful sunny and windless day. First we walked down to the edge of Netarts Bay to look for some birds.


Then to Cape Meares. Here is the view of Three Arches from the other side.


Here's Matt and Lavi on the Bayocean spit (a stretch of land between the ocean and Tillamook Bay).


And on the way home, we stopped in Tillamook forest again because it was so darn pretty.


Not a bad weekend getaway (for the three of us at least...poor Namir had to spend it in the basement since we can't trust him in the whole house anymore while we are gone.)