Baby Boy

I traded my pregnant belly and consolidated sleep for this little 8 pound, 14 oz miracle:

Don't you just want to kiss him?

Tortoise Sighting

It's not everyday that you see someone walking a giant tortoise at the park, so I just had to stop and take some pictures with my girls.

This lovely fellow is enjoying a snack at the park near our house, just around the corner actually. His owner lives nearby and was more than happy to let me snap some pictures and ask some questions, like - What's the difference between a tortoise and a turtle? Do you know?

Apparently, turtles live in water, and tortoises live on land. This handsome guy can live 300 years, so if you want one for a pet, you better make him part of your will!

Lemon Zucchini Bread w/ Glaze

I finally found a zucchini bread recipe that I LOVE! I devoured half the loaf when I cooked this on Sunday. And because I'm such a generous person, I thought I'd pass it on to the few of you who read this! Ha! This is the original recipe. I doubled it and made a few changes to it, which I think made it just amazing. And here it is:





Lemon Zucchini Bread w/ Glaze.

2-1/2 c finely shredded zucchini (no need to peel the zucchini)


1-3/4 c sugar


2 eggs


1 c vegetable oil (I used Canola)


3-1/4 c flour (I used one cup of whole wheat flour, the rest all-purpose)


1 tsp salt


1 tsp baking soda


1/2 tsp baking powder (I use Rumford's - it's the best baking powder)


2 tsp ground cinnamon


4 tsp. lemon zest


2 tsp vanilla


4 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice





Yummy, Yummy Glaze! (which I found here, another recipe that sounds great and is really similar to this one).


1/4 c. freshly squeezed lemon juice


1/3 c. granulated sugar


1 c. powdered sugar





Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease two 8x4 inch loaf pans.





In a bowl, stir together the zucchini, sugar, egg, oil, vanilla, and lemon juice. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Stir in the cinnamon and lemon zest. Stir the dry ingredients into the zucchini mixture just until blended. Pour the batter into the prepared pans.





Bake 45-50 minutes until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. (I baked mine for 47 minutes.) Remove from heat and cool about 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely. You can brush on the glaze while it's in the pan or after you take it out, while the bread it still warm. If you put the glaze on while the bread is still in the pans (like I did), it's a little tricky taking the bread out of the pans without making the glaze look messy. I think next time I'll brush the glaze on after I remove the bread from the pans.





If you try this, let me know what you think! The original recipe didn't call for a glaze, but I think the glaze is what really makes this bread so yummy.

San Xavier Mission

Eight miles from our house in Sahuarita, AZ is the beautiful San Xavier Mission. It was originally built in the 1700s when Southern Arizona was part of New Spain. Our family had a lot of fun visiting the mission on Saturday. The girls call it "the castle". We can see it from the freeway, and they always call out when they see it. It truly was beautiful! Just another reason for you to visit us here in Arizona!

Freecycle Magic

A while back, while I was still living in Idaho, I heard of an organization called freecycle. The concept of giving away your stuff for free so it can be recycled and stay out of landfills sounded amazing, not because I'm that environmentally conscious, but because I'm inherently cheap. I signed up right away, dreaming of getting awesome stuff, like dressers, toys, books, and clothes all for free. What I ended up getting instead, was about 20 emails every hour, notifying me of something being given away or being asked for. People in Idaho Falls have a lot of "needs" and even though you weren't supposed to ask for charity, people still did, along with a sob story to explain why the person is asking for a handout. When there was something being offered for free that did sound like something I could use, I would email back right away, only to find out that I was too late - someone else had already contacted the offerer. This happened 99% of the time. All those "needy" people signed up for freecycle must have had a blackberry attached to their hip with the fastest fingers in the West.

For all the months I was signed up for the local freecycle group in Idaho, the only things I acquired that weren't junk was a child's desk, a dozen paperback learn-to-read Spongebob Squarepants books, and fresh artichokes. The constant emails were annoying, and always being too late on getting the good stuff was frustrating. So when our family moved to the Tucson area, I very gladly cut my ties to the Idaho Falls freecycle group and, with a bit of hesitancy, signed up for the local Greenvalley freecycle group. At first I thought something was wrong. They must not have added me to the list, because my email inbox did not receive any emails from freecycle for weeks! Oh well, I thought. I'm not going to worry about whether they added me to the group or not. It's probably just as well that I don't get a ton of annoying emails. But then, a strange thing happened. One week, there was a freecycle posting. And then the next week, another posting. I couldn't believe the difference from Idaho Falls to Green Valley. Instead of 20 emails an hour, I was receiving one to three emails a week! It was great!

And then on Monday, I responded to a freecycle posting saying I wanted some of the things that were bring offered. I noticed the email was a couple of hours old, so I didn't hold out any hope of actually getting these items, because in Idaho Falls, to be successful you had to respond within minutes. Much to my surprise, I was contacted by the offerer and we arranged a time and place for me to pick up the items. I couldn't believe my luck! So what did I get from this fortuitous exchange?

Essentially some vintage (aka "junky") jewelry boxes and some Christmas tins (not pictured because they are stored in the garage with the future purpose of holding sweets that I can then give away). But as you can see from the photos above, what I really received was hours and hours of children using their imagination and self-entertaining, which for a mom, is priceless.

Here's to many more happy months on the GreenValley freecycle group!

Piano Recital

I'm probably way too behind to catch up properly on the last couple months, but these photos were too cute not to post. So in a catching-up effort, here they are.

Back in May, Kate had her piano recital. Sort of. I got the date wrong, and we went to the Piano Gallery one date after her scheduled recital. So we were the only ones there, but the two people working at the store allowed us to hold a solo recital, and here are a few pictures from that night. Kate did great. She has been able to pick up on her lessons very well, and we are delighted with her progress. Now I just have to find a teacher in Arizona so she can continue her lessons.

Some Catching Up To Do

A lot has happened since my last post. Beside moving 1000 miles, we celebrated two birthdays and other milestones.

Avery turned four - here is the cake I made, using one of those giant cupcake pans. I didn't like how one side cooked faster than the other.
Here is he family enjoying one of Avery's new toys, the bubble machine!

Lilly turned two!

Not related to Lilly's birthday in anyway, but this dress Ave is wearing is something I made in sewing class!

The happy birthday girl, looking a little beat up with a cold sore and a cut on the cheek.

Lilly loves cats, so I made her a cat cake.

Our other milestones include me learning how to sew (yay!), Kate's piano recital (photos to come), Kate & Avery's dance recital (photos to come), Mac starting grad school, and registering Kate for Kindergarten (yikes!)