Caribbean recipe's

If you want the recipe's to any of the dishes I mentioned in my last post...you can find them here on my recipe site. My friend Julie started it and I tagged a long. They are all there. :-)

http://juliecooks.wordpress.com/

More San Diego snaps....

Lauren wrote her name in the sand and posed by it. We do this every year on Christmas Eve when we go to the beach. This is the first year that SHE could write her own name. I have 5 years of these pictures.

For some reason I love Speedo suits on little kids. Maybe it is because they are not too grown up (as in...not too sexy). Maybe it is because little kids have such perfect little bodies...who knows. Anyway, she is always happy to pose for a picture. This is right before she went body boarding w/ her Grandpa (who is 63 going on 25...he bikes across countries, he runs marathons...he is unbelievable).
Here is Jacob's "name" picture. Lu wrote this one too. We couldn't get him to look at the camera...but we DID get about 12 shots of him shoveling sand into his mouth...with an actual shovel. It didn't bother him nearly as much in his mouth as it did on his feet.

Another day, another beach, another bucket.

One night we went to dinner w/ Derek's sister and her husband. Grandma and Grandpa babysat the kids for us. Jacob recently learned how to climb out of his crib and we had been having quite a time getting him back into bed. When we got home from dinner we asked if JJ had given them a hard time. They told us no...they put him back in bed once and then didn't hear from him again. This is where we found him asleep. He is fast asleep in this picture..but squinted b/c of the flash. This continued for the rest of the trip. We found him behind doors, in the bathroom, etc. We bought a crib tent the minute we got home. It is the only way that I know he is safe (he can open the sliding glass door in his room and he is on the second floor.....).


Nori slept a lot. This suitcase was her bed on the trip. We used dish towels for her burp clothes. Poor little matchstick baby. :-) Don't worry, she only slept in the suitcase on the trip. At home she doesn't sleep in one. She sleeps in a laundry basket. Seriously.

Norah slept in lots of great places on the trip...in a suitcase, on pool chairs, in strollers at SeaWorld and the Zoo, at many dinners while on my shoulder. Just never at night.



Poor red Lulu. We did use sunscreen, just not enough. Nori already looks so small to me here. She has changed so much.


Now that Lauren is able to write she can take pictures with all kinds of stuff in the sand. This one says "I love Peter Pan".

Busy weekend...........

We have been pretty busy this weekend. Our social worker called twice this week to tell us that she is "in the area" and wants to drop in for a post placement visit (this is to check the house to make sure it is safe and to see how we are all adjusting). I spend the very few free hours that I have making the house spic and span, arranging for everyone to be here (that means Derek and Lulu too...) and each time, about 30 minutes after she was supposed to be here.....she calls to cancel.

WHHHHHHAAAAAAA?????????

Finally she "had some time" today and we just got it done this morning. Sheesh. Two more to go. We are blessing the baby tomorrow in church and are having a small dinner at our house afterwards (50 people...but for me that is small). In honor of Nori's Caribbean heritage we are having all Caribbean food. Not all of it is Bahamian, but it is all from the general area. It all has lime juice in it........ I juiced 40 limes this weekend. Want to come over? Come on. You know you want to. Here is the menu to tempt you...............

--Island Pork (pork loin w/ a spicy rub and basted in a caramelized orange and honey sauce...sweet and spicy)
--Jerk Chicken w/ mango salsa
--Grilled Lemon Thyme Chicken w/ Peanut Satay or Curry Dipping Sauce
--Caribbean Black Beans (Black beans w/ bacon, onion, pepper, carrots and garlic...yummm)
--Black Eye Pea Salad (white beans, peppers, pumpkin, red onion, celery, and lime vinaigrette)
--Roast Bake (a coconut bread made w/ unsweetened coconut..so it isn't too sweet..but coconuty and delicious)
--Rice w/ Green Onion and Cilantro
--Honey and Cinnamon Roasted Sweet Potatoes
--Macaroni and Cheese Pie
--Lime Punch (make a simple syrup and steep 6 cups of banana's in the syrup. Then add water and fresh lime juice............Delicious)

Dessert:
--Blueberry cobbler
--Brownies
--Vanilla cupcakes w/ dried pineapple flowers
--Pumpkin pie

Now don't you want to come over?

In an effort to take lots and lots of pictures for Nori's mom, T, I tried to do a photo session w/ her. Jacob decided that he needed to hold her NOW and not put her down. He is a little bit rough with her sometimes. I figured it could be cute to get pictures of the two of them together so I started snapping.

Sadly, most of the pictures turned out looking like THIS:

It's like she KNOWS what he wants to do to her (poke her eyeballs out, stick the bottle so far down her throat that she chokes.....but all in the name of love, people). She looked equally disturbed in all the other photos, like the love child of Star Jones and Yoda. Then I remembered another photo shoot that I tried to do when Jacob was Nori's age. The pictures turned out like this:

It's ok. Not cute. Neither of them. Lauren was not a very cute baby either. I think I just get little gremlin babies that eventually become cute. Lauren is a cute girl and Cubby is dreamy now (although will I look back on THESE pictures and think "ewww, not cute?" Who knows, I will tell you in 10 years). I guess there is hope.

So, as you all head into your weekend (esp you Fizz-GOOD LUCK on the half Iron Man....) remember that I gave you something to smile about. It is almost comic when you think about it..... my poor little troll babies.