UP down ALL around

This is our direction in life these days. I was convinced to blog since all of our best friends have left hawaii or are in the process of leaving. So i guess we have the time now since we don't have any play dates. Boo. We are counting down till we get to visit California in June. Roxi finally gets to meet her Pimentel grandparents and bay area aunties and uncles! In the mean time we will quiz her on flash cards of who is who so she will "know" them and skip the whole getting to know you stage.

Roxi who is 9 1/2 months now Has 6 teeth, more than functional wind pipes and a mean bite! Her newest "thing" is sticking her fingers down her throat until she gags. I was trying to prevent her from vomiting, but decided to let her do it already so she'd learn why i was stopping her. She threw up, swallowed it and still won't stop =\ I've almost peed my pants watching her though. I bet that doesn't deter her at all. On a brighter note Roxi is standing solo and it's only a matter of time before she'll be walking. There's no stopping her! She no longer tolerates holding still long enough for a wardrobe nor diaper change. No i didn't shave her head to give her a mohawk. She chooses mom's skin and bones to snuggle up with over dad's muscles any day. Although she puts him to work and loves riding bikes with dad. I even get to hop on the skateboard and ride along.

How do you baby proof those?!

Des is still in school and working as a trainer at the gym. He's looking into internships to meet his graduation requirement and has some good leads! Des's schedule included a women's studies class that has opened his eyes to many new issues and actually likes a lot. I think he just likes to argue (because that's what a lot of the discussion turns into in that class).

I've been keeping busy with Roxi's and a few extra other little girls I'd been watching on and off. Roxi loves the comrodderie, or maybe all the snacks her older friends share with her... Either way it's been an experience watching multiples! At times it was a great birth control, but not at the same time, of that makes sense. In my rare moments to myself I've been busy with the glue gun making cell phone cases, head bands and home decor. One of these days I'll sell some stuff.

That's us for today anyway... We'll see next week

cell phone case

headband flowers

Real Talk

Des ate meat and cake yesterday. Not just a bite or two. He ate 4 slabs of smoked meat and a 8 in round cake. He didn't fall off the wagon, he jumped off, rolled under and was run over by it too! Not even 24 hours into it and the juice fast has been broken! So lets be real here. We love the juicer, but don't need to drink ONLY juice to justify our purchase and feel healthy and full of life. We need to keep it real and make sure we don't waste all the fruits and veggies we bought at costco! After re evaluation we have decided to make it simple and use our common sense. Read labels. Know what we are putting into our body. Conscious balanced eating. Word.

Juicy

Today we are beginning a new JUICY life. Not not couture, but CONSCIOUS. 

Watching this: 

On netflix, either inspired us...or scared us. Either way we decided our next purchase would be a juicer! This documentary follows a guy who was well fat, sick and nearly dead on his path to better health through juice.  I recommend watching it. that and FOOD MATTERS (another food doc on netflix). After some research we decided to go with the BREVILLE BJE200XL JUICE FOUNTAIN COMPACT.

We got it from Best Buy! Then off to Costco we went to purchase a cartload of fruits and veggies! Des has decided he wants to take the juice challenge and drink straight JUICE for 10 days. Since I am still breastfeeding and don't want to risk losing my milk or upsetting the little one I'm keeping my solids but have decided to cut out meat and see how things go.  In general we want to lead fresher, healthier, long lives together because we're so in love right. (OK it's February so I felt the need to be mushy for a sentence haha). SO whole wheat, fresh food, less sugars and less processed food, more fruits and veggies. (sorry SPAM!) 

We in no way want strip the pleasure from eating. It is such a big part of our lives here in Hawaii. So here's my challenge. make meals/snacks that my family will beg me to make and remain healthy and full of energy! If you have any suggestions, PLEASE get at me. 

The first juicing experience was...interesting. The juicer is awesome. A tad quieter than a blender (important when there are sleeping babies in the apartment), easy to clean, powerful and a great size for our limited space. Oh and it was $99... best buy offers a 2 year protection plan for only 15$, so we added that on as well. As for the juice... well we'll need to get down our food combos because carrot, cucumber, apple and orange was a little off, haha but Des drank it all!  

Cheers to JUICY DAY 1! 

Spinach is good.

One of my New Years goals was to eat fresh and not waste. I'm proud to say I used a whole costco size bag of spinach without wasting ANY! Where did it all go? Now you will know! 

Easy pasta dinner! 

Pasta 

Bell peppers 

Fresh Spinach 

Chicken ( cubed, shredded, chopped, doesn't matter) 

Basil 

Mozzarella 

 (optional: crushed red pepper)

 Cook pasta 

Saute precooked chicken cubes in olive oil and basil 

Add chopped bell peppers and then Add spinach last 

**(if chicken isn't cooked already, just cut up and pan fry first before adding veggies, i just had some boiled chicken left over) 

~add dash of crushed red pepper if u want for a lil kick maybe a dash of salt to your own taste 

 Put on top of pasta and then add shredded mozzarella cheese on top!  

Taaada! Super tasty and easy dinner. Honestly i thought i was eating at an Italian restaurant for a second.  

Other add ins that might be good  -avocado -mushrooms - eggplant - zucchini? 

 Another variation of it that was amazing was this: 

Pork cubed/sliced into small pieces and seasoned with Montreal steak seasoning  

Can of Cream of mushroom

bell peppers

spinach 

(no basil or mozzarella cheese)

BUT MY ULTIMATE FAVORITE is...

frozen banana

Spinach

milk

natural peanut butter

(tastes like a milk shake) 

I've also put spinach in any other smoothie type drink, made salmon cakes with spinach, mashed potatoes, eggs...it can pretty much go in ANYTHING.

one more I remembered I made:

Spinach Tortellini Salad

Tortellini (cheese)

Portuguese sausage

spinach

olives

shredded cheese

Spinach just makes me feel better about anything I make with it pretty much. 

capturing memories in sand- or just salt dough ornaments

Just to solidify some more memories for Roxi, my good friend Kiley and her baby Ellie came over to make salt dough ornaments! We did hand prints, foot prints and then some other little designs. Getting the girls to open their hands was trickier than we expected and we snuck the footprints while they napped! We really liked the final product because they look like prints in SAND! and they smelled like cinnamon rolls! Heres the recipe we used:

1 cup salt
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup luke warm water 

Cinnamon 

we mixed it all up, rolled some out, made our prints and baked at 200 degrees until they were hard. Easy right? 

To decorate, I tried spray painting, some nail polish, and even just permanent markers. 

Perfect gifts for the grandparents, (made us look like legit moms) and the perfect personal touch to the driftwood christmas tree! not to mention easy on the pocket book.

I did notice that with the humidity here and the rain storms we experienced they softened up and were kind of fragile. But they dried out again before I stored them away. 

Christmas Cheer!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

This was my second Christmas in Hawaii and our first holiday season as THREE! Last year I lacked the motivation to exercise my holiday spirit. Having a baby kicked me into gear! I'm responsible for facilitating her first memories (or at least first pictures that she can look back at)...EEK. For me that was enough to make me try and establish some of our own traditions (which is hard sometimes!) well technically they are not traditions yet because we've only done them one year, but I hope they stick. 

My first item of decor was a christmas tree made of drift wood from the beach.  

Our apartment is quite small, so a tree in the house was out of the question. So this 3 foot door hanging tree was perfect.  In Germany (where my parents are currently serving a mission, and we spent Christmas 2 years ago) the tradition is to decorate the tree on Christmas Eve. So, Des, Roxi and I walked down to Hukilau beach Christmas Eve morning and while Des was off roading with Roxi with the stroller in the sand, I collected our wood! 

At home I drilled holes down the center of each piece and threaded some rope through. Then decorated it with homemade salt dough ornaments! (Will post on that soon). I topped it off with a star fish a friend snagged for me in the freebie bin!

The final product was beyond satisfying, and I couldn't stop looking at it! I like the idea of decorating for christmas, but I want it to be my style. not red and green puke all over my house. I was sad to take it down, but set the wood free at it's proper home just the other day. =) I can't wait to make another one next year! Perfect Christmas Cheer!

As for the BIG morning, Roxi had plenty gifts to open and stayed awake for the entire gift giving extravaganza and Des' parents house. (After 8 am church of course)  

New Stroller

Fancy Christmas dress, Thanks Grandma Nona!

built in teether bow =)

Another Christmas Dress, Thanks Grandma Colleen!

New Year

2012 looks promising. Our theme for the year is FRESH and LESS!! 

FRESH: more fresh foods (less processed), more fruits, veggies and more water. better health! 

LESS: less waste, less junk, edit, SIMPLIFY, eliminate excess, and budget!

here's one of the inspirations for the LESS goal. watch this video

http://www.ted.com/talks/graham_hill_less_stuff_more_happiness.html

Roxi rang in the new year with some new choppers

and can now sit up alone

Now 5 1/2 months, where did the time go? You will soon know as I continue to post!