SUPERtoddler!

Lana got a Halloween costume AND a new set of wheels today!

Another Day in Paradise

Good morning! It has been a LONG time since the last post. Little Boy Ahlsten is on the way in December and Little Girl Ahlsten (Lana) is tumblign her way into new words every single day. Daddy is doing very well at work at Google and mommy is doing better every single day at her job taking care of daddy, the kids, herself, and the house.

Our days have become downright predictable, a lot of playing, giggling, running around outside, kicks inside my growing belly and dinners around the kitchen table.

It's good. Have a blessed day!

^1-2I, Paul, am under God's plan as an apostle, a special agent of Christ Jesus, writing to you faithful believers in Ephesus. I greet you with the grace and peace poured into our lives by God our Father and our Master, Jesus Christ. ^3-6How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He's the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.

^7-10Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we're a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.

^11-12It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.

^13-14It's in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free—signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. This signet from God is the first installment on what's coming, a reminder that we'll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life.

^15-19That's why, when I heard of the solid trust you have in the Master Jesus and your outpouring of love to all the followers of Jesus, I couldn't stop thanking God for you—every time I prayed, I'd think of you and give thanks. But I do more than thank. I ask—ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him—endless energy, boundless strength!

^20-23All this energy issues from Christ: God raised him from death and set him on a throne in deep heaven, in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from his rule. And not just for the time being, but forever. He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything. At the center of all this, Christ rules the church. The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ's body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence. (Ephesians 1, The Message)

Emigrant Wilderness - Lana's first backpacking adventure!

Neil, Lana, and our friend-couple Doron and Jaclyn went to the Emigrant Wilderness June 12-14 for an EASY 2.5 mile hike in to a great camping spot - redundantly named Camp Lake. Lana had a wild time picking up pinecones and small flowers. Although she had a little bit of trouble sleeping at night and therefore so did Neil and I - she was always very happy and mysteriously well-rested in the morning!

We did a little day hike (of about a mile) over to Bear Lake and Doron did his usual jump into freezing cold lake water. We heard him hooting and hollering from a safe distance away so we would not get wet or see anything we didn't want to see!

Here's Neil and Lana in Lana's backpack. She's quite happy in it as it has some great suspension!

Fun Friday

The Gangs all here!

My fam (Nadia's mom and brothers) came to visit from Feb 28 to Mar 4. We had a BLAST even though it was raining about 98% of the time they were here!  I think a favorite time for me was when the guys and I took a walk in the woods near where my in-laws live.  It was really pretty outside after 2 days of rain!

Lana and TK became fast homies as you can see in the photo below. Lana is putting on her 'tough' face.

The guys even snuck out with Neil one night and snuck into a Sharks game!  I think my mom was just tickled to be able to cuddle with Lana whenever she wanted...

Freaky Friday

From SFO to swim lesson to Yosemite!

Neil got back from Australia on Thursday morning!!! He called the day before to see if Lana and I would be up to do some adventuring over the weekend before he goes back to work.  I though HE might need a little rest after a 13 hour flight but apparently NOT.  So we made plans to go to Yosemite the next day.  Thursday afternoons Lana has her swim lessons at Waterbabies so we invited Daddy to come along and be our photographer.  Aren't we cute in our swimsuits?? Lana's winking at the camera :)Neil thought it would be fun to go to a bed and breakfast in Yosemite.  We got a great deal at the Groveland Hotel since it is the off-season in Yosemite (The Groveland Hotel Restaurant serves AWESOME dinners too!).  Unfortunately for Neil we were put in the PINK Teddy Bear Room which Lana was pretty fired up about. Poor Neil, it was such a girly room!
We went into the park for some short snow shoe hikes.  The snow made the sounds of the rushing rivers reverberate through the valley, but otherwise it was quiet, except for the snowmen that were hiking along the paths with us!

Here we are in front Yosemite Falls!

And we made it all the way to the Vernal Fall Bridge!  In the snow!  We were glad we had snowshoes.  But there was a seventy five year old couple who walked all the way up in sneakers, and one of them leaning on a cane, so we didn't feel quite as cool. But it was still specatacular.  An Lana was great the whole way - googley eyed in wonder at the crashing sounds of cascades and beautiful contrasts of snow, trees and granite. 

Lana's adventures with Grandma and Grandpa

Lana and I spent 6 days with Grandma and Grandpa Ahlsten while Neil was still away on business.  It rained probably 5 of the 6 days.  But we had fun anyways!  Grandma had just got a new granite countertop and was excited to use her kitchen again. Lana got to spend some special time with each of them.  As you can see everyone had a lot of fun!

While the cat's away!

This week Neil left to go to India and Australia on business. So, Lana and I decided to leave too!  We didn't quite get as far as Neil but we may be having more fun! I have a friend from college and we decided to visit her and her two cute wonderful girls.  Lana had a BLAST.  She really enjoyed following around Ree Ree (the younger of the two girls) who is 9 months older than Lana. I think Ree Ree enjoyed it too, because she's always shadowing Princess (her older sister).  Now finally it became apparent to her that SHE was doing things that were interesting too! Interesting enough to warrant a shadow (Lana).   BTW, I changed their names because I'm not inclined to give out the names of other people's children on my blog.

Here the three of them are smiling prettily for the camera except Lana of course.  Lana is still eating the pinwheel she got as a treat at a playgroup. :)

Success!! MY Yogurt is BETTER than Brown Cow!!!

I never thought it would be possible. For ME to make yogurt better than the most amazing phenomenal most wonderful yogurt on the planet and yet... I did. I'm still shaking my head in disbelief.

OK. I know I'm a little dramatic but I REALLY love Brown Cow Chocolate Yogurt and I eat a hideous amount of the stuff.

So how does one make imitation Brown Cow chocolate yogurt. I'm going to follow the keep it simple approach.

1. Buy 1 quart of Chocolate Milk (I used Clover Organic Full Fat Milk) - you can do this with any kind of milk nonfat or low fat (if you do use non-fat or low fat put more dry milk in the mix during step 4).

2. Using a double boiler - or a pan inside another pan that is full of water, bring your milk to 180 degrees Fahrenheit (helps to have a little thermometer to check the temp). This kills all the 'bad' bacteria that can grow in the milk. Oh, be sure to use a clean clean pan for the milk and use clean clean utensil when stirring the milk (try to sterilize them first if possible).

3. Once you get your milk to 180 degrees F get it to cool to 110 degrees F. I used the same pan I had filled with water to 'make' a double boiler and filled it with cold water and ice. This can go fast if you use an ice bath so be ready for step 4.

4. Once you get your milk to 110 degrees and BEFORE it gets to 90 degrees F add your 'starter'. I used 5 oz of yogurt starter that I bought but you can also use a plain yogurt from the store that has 'active cultures' (check the label). You will need to put in 2 Tablespoons of this yogurt. Also add 1/4-1/2 cup of non-fat dry milk, this helps your yogurt to be get thicker and it increases its nutritional content. I used 1/4 cup since I used whole milk. Stir Well, and then immediately transfer your receptacle to it's incubation location. This provides the right conditions for the 'good bacteria' (your yogurt cultures) to spread throughout the milk to make yogurt.

Now all the previous steps can go fast and don't really require that much 'hands on' time but the key part is next!!!

5. Incubation is the KEY!!! Figure out how to keep your yogurt as close to 100 degrees as possible for seven hours. --I KNOW-- but it is possible. I found that our toaster oven has a 100 degree option so that's what I did and it worked perfectly. Other ideas include, figuring out if your crock pot can do that...a heating pad...a burner on low.

Then once you've got your 7 hour mark. put a syran wrap on the top of your container and store in fridge to stop the cultures from working on your milk further. It will get more sour the longer you let them operate.

After the yogurt gets cold you have some SERIOUSLY GOOD yogurt to eat.

Only problem is I ate most of it already :(

Money Saving Ideas

Neil and I want very badly in the next 4-5 years to be able to have enough to put a down payment on our first home. So with this newfound motivation I've been doing some deep thinking on how to reduce costs at the homestead. We've been blessed to be house sitting instead of renting so beyond the typical house utilities our expenses are pretty much just utilities and food. Also, Neil works at Google so a lot of his daily food costs (lunch and dinner if he's working late) are paid for by the company which has an awesome cafeteria for its employees. But I'm at home with Lanalou and that means I have to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at home. Generally what happens since I'm always always running in 5 directions at once is that I eat a yogurt, a quick sandwich, or whatever is leftover from the dinner the previous day. We make our own bread and that has been really really great, but the yeast costs a lot for a 4 oz container, 8.50 or more at Safeway. I found out that Costco sells a 2lb package of yeast for $3.90 so I had my neighbor pick one up for me. The cost of yeast was the majority of the cost of breadmaking so that was a GREAT find.

The new idea I have is to make my own yogurt. I spend a LOT of money on yogurt. I LOVE Brown Cow Yogurt, the chocolate kind. It's full fat not low fat or non-fat and it is by far the yummiest stuff I've ever had as far as yogurt is concerned. So. If I could find a way to make my own substitute I'd save a lot of money. I've gone online to find some instructions on how to do it. I'd like to go get a candy thermometer in order to be precise on the temperatures for the milk and then I'm going to give it a go this weekend.

Well for all of you that come online to check on Lana status. I don't want to turn you away disappointed here's our Lana pic for the week. This is how Lana helps me to sort our Junk Mail for the Recycling Bin.

Lillian's visit Jan 17-Jan 22

My great friend Lillian came to visit this past week. She was taking a pit stop visiting with me on her way to Hawaii. I know, poor girl! Lana had a great time with Lil too. This is Lillian and Lana at the beach in Santa Cruz. They were having a great time chasing the waves.

Lana also has really mastered crawling now... this was recorded while President Obama made his inaugural address!!

Lana explains what's for lunch

ATTACK of the BABY

Disclaimer: This is a wild baby, do not approach her too capriciously. I made that mistake the other day...
Innocent she appears... (best if read in a Yoda voice).
Suddenly, I was pounced upon!!! (Yes, I have fuzzy pink PJs)
The baby moved in...
And then the horrible end!!!

Valiant attempts of a Mom to have time to herself!

This morning Lana and I went to the YMCA (where I have a gym membership). I wanted to do a cycling class from 9-10am. So I came early per the instructions on the schedule, which said that you need to check-in half an hour early to the class in order to get a number which serves as a pass to get you into the class. The staff told me that they do this with classes that are high demand. I should have just kept Lana out of the day care until the class started but silly me I thought, Hey, I'll just stick her in early and then go get her after the class (that would have been a total of 90 minutes). She's done that before so it's not completely ridiculous of me to think that this was possible. Unfortunately I didn't take into account other children. Lana is very keen on watching other kids. The only other kid in the care center when I dropped her off was a little girl who was screaming her head off because she didn't want her mom to leave. I stayed for about 10 minutes to see how Lana would react to this kid's tantrum; she seemed fine with it. Frankly she seemed more than fine with it she seemed oblivious to it as she was fully consumed with playing on an Exersaucer. So off I went. About 10 minutes into my cycling class in came the care worker. Poor thing, I thought my kid's giving her problems. Now she has two screaming children. So I hopped off my exercise bike and went back into the care center, quieted Lana down and then left again to go see if I could get any more time in my class.

As an aside I didn't want to just call it quits at this point because I figured it was a bad association for Lana. She cries her head off and mom comes and she gets to leave. I want this care center thing to work because it gives me some GOOD time away from Lana. I get to exercise and clear my head... This will work I tell you because I will MAKE it work, so help me God!

Anyways, I did get another 15 minutes in the class which was nice. Then in came the care worker again. Ok, I figured I'd have to leave this time. I was right. Oh well, better luck next time.

I just hope she's not learning to scream for mom at this gym. That is not a lesson I want her to learn.

Pillow pets, bubbles and peas! Oh my!

Lana and I went to Goodwill today and scored on two great pillowpets (a bunny rabbit and an elephant). They washed up in the washing machine and dryer and came out smelling like a million bucks. Obviously Lana likes them, I think they remind her of Norma (the cat) who she mistreats horribly. Norma just takes it too! [I'm SORRY Norma!!] I figure these can be stand-in Normas and I won't be guilty of cat-abuse.
This is Lana (ohmygosh, she looks like a maniac!) in the bathtub. You have NOT seen this child happy until you've seen her in the bathtub.
Here's Lana modeling the latest in baby facial products: mixed veggies.

New Year and Resolution

Hi Everybody!

While I know that people DO read and view our blog it is a hard thing to keep up the blog on a regular basis because I don't SEE when people read and view our blog... I know, I know I should just be able to DO it and not do it in order to get recognition for doing it, but there it is. But regardless, there it is. However, I am going to TRY to post something once a week from here on out. I will post on the same day every week, Friday. Starting TODAY!

This last week we spent with Grandma and Grandpa Ahlsten. It was a BIG week for Lana. She started off the week doing horizontal pull ups (as her means of locomotion) and ended the week crawling PERFECTLY. PHENOMENAL child that she is :). Also, she started off this week --shrieking-- that was the favored means of expression. NOW she's realized she can turn her face PURPLE if she clenches her tummy, her hands, her mouth... this is all for FUN mind you and not because she's constipated which was what all of us originally thought was happening... But, monitoring the southern region proved that constipation was NOT the case, nor was there any good reason for straining to be needed to produce what we found in diapers daily :). I know TOO MUCH INFORMATION.

Anyways, she's been the star of the week and the month and the year. I'm sure she'll continue to be next year...but I'll also try and blog about other observations, thoughts and reflections throughout the year.

Here's hoping that I'll see 53 posts by the close of 2009!