F.L.A. Baby!

Florida was warm and sunny! Ian was like a little kid when we got there and let everyone around us know how excited he was to be in "F.L.A, Baby!" We loved our holiday! It was so fun to make many memories with my family. We were pretty busy trying to take in lots of Disney, but did relax a little. Some of my favorite times were the quieter times, away from the crowds...at the beach and and playing in the pool at our house.

Kellen did well, even with the all night trip down there and the busy days. It was amazing to watch him take in all the new things.
He was intrigued by the disney characters. He liked the ocean, mostly. Being in the waves seemed to be a little overwhelming.
Here's a family picture at Animal Kingdom, which was a pretty cool place. Ian took tons of pictures of all the animals. I learned about a few animals I never knew existed.

We also did Epcot, Magic Kingdom, and MGM. My favorite was definately Epcot. I was amazed by the vegetables they grow there. I didn't know they do a lot of research there. I saw a tomato tree that they have harvested 38,000 tomatoes from!!! I also loved the 3-D show, Honey I Shrunk the Audience. I wasn't expecting much from it, but it had me jumping and screaming (and Ian too!). Everything was all so good, I can't even share all my favorites from it. Okay, I'll share one more moment. Ian and Tim got their picture taken with the dad from the Incredibles. Afterwards he was motioning to Ian to do an arm wrestle. We laughed and started walking away, but he followed us and pulled Ian back to a table and arm wrestled him! I guess you'll have to ask Ian who won... Sarina took pictures of that event, so maybe I'll share those later.

I think it will go down as one of my favorite family vacations ever. What's your favorite family vacation?

Not Much To Say...

It's been a week since I was here. I guess I haven't felt inspired to say much. But since I had these great pictures I thought I'd share. And, maybe I do have a few things I could say...

I should have posted on Tuesday to wish my sister, Kathy a Happy Birthday!! Pretty fun to turn a 1/4 of a century-old. She is an amazing woman in all she does!

The highlight of the week was getting our passports since we are leaving for Florida on Monday, and I was beginning to get nervous that we wouldn't be able to get on the plane. The whole Bell family is going to Disney World!! So for those of you who have been, what are the must "see and do's?"

Everytime I log onto blogger it asks me if I want the new version. Not being very trusting of technology (well, really by abilities with technology) I always say no. Any advice? Have you changed? Is it better? Is it necessary?

I have to congratulate my wonderful friend Julia and Denny on the arrival of their little boy, Jedd. I'm in awe of Julia since she had a home birth with no pain relief!! What a woman!

Kellen's new thing that amazed me this week: he initiated peek-a-boo. He surprised me when he started pulling the shirt up over his face, waiting, pulling it down, and flashing me a big grin. He loved it when I would say "where's Kellen?...peek-a-boo!" Ahh, the little things that seem like such big things to me.

It is now officially less than a month till I'm back at work. How strange is that. I think I've been in denial. I have asked for my position to be .75 instead of full time. Hopefully, I'll get a positive response from that soon. I have a daycare that I think will be okay and maybe I will get my first choice of daycares in April. I've passed the crying phase now and think I have reached acceptance. I think Kellen may actually enjoy being around other kids more. I'm getting excited about my job again. I'm just hoping he adjusts quickly and easily.

That's it, that's all. I'll quit my tidbits there.
Thanks Auntie Sheena for the visit last night! Kellen had fun!

Recipe #?: Gingerbread Date Cookies

I forgot about my plan to post good recipes. But, I remembered when I found this great one. I used it for a healthy Xmas bake exchange and loved it. It was interesting to see what people decide was "healthy". Items were one of the following: low calorie, high protein, organic ingredients, low sugar, or low fat. Very interesting to me that each choice was different. I chose a low fat recipe (and would have made it high fiber if I had time to experiment). What do you look for when you are trying to pick healthy food?


Gingerbread Date Cookies
1 cup pitted dates, chopped
1/4 cup boiling water
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
2 Tbsp molasses
2 Tbsp margarine, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Soak chopped dates in the boiling water for 15 minutes.
3. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder and soda, ginger cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt.
4. Add egg, brown sugar, molasses, and margarine to date and water mixture. Mix well.
5. Pour date mixture into bowl of dry ingredients. Stir until combined.
6. Cover dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour.
7. Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Place on greased cookie sheets.
8. Bake 8 minutes.

The New Year Report

We brought in the New Year at the Muirhead farm. Again there was lots of good times with family and too much eating. Kellen & I took advantage of the good weather and played outside most days.
Grandpa Bill got to know Kellen much better. I am thankful that Kellen has wonderful grandparents.
The dogs were so interested in Kellen and he had no fear of them. One got a lick of his face and Kellen was delighted by the event. There was also much delight in watching the horses. I think I had the most fun watching Kellen. It's so amazing to see him take in new experiences. He keeps me guessing what will be delightful and what will be scary. I thought he might be scared of the horses but he kept wanting to touch them and smiled the whole time. I thought he would love swimming, but when we took him he was freaked out and had a horrible look of fear the whole time!
Here's us trying out the new sled. He loved it so I think it will get lots of use.

The Christmas Report

We had Christmas at the Bell farm. There was eating, skating, eating, games, eating, presents, eating...typical Christmas. This Christmas was extra special since it was Kellen's first.
We think he was showing interest in hockey, which will make Uncle Tim happy. He seemed to know what to do when he grabbed the stick and tried to hit a nearby ball with it.
Being yet a baby, he wasn't too interested in his presents. The best reaction was from the Kleenex packages in his stocking. Who knew Kleenex was so exciting??
The farm set from Grandpa and Grandma will educate him on farming...
Kellen really does seem to love his cousins, but he just wasn't in the mood to get a picture of the new matching shirts. I think he was mostly mad because we took away Kayla's tamagotchi toy.

There's a very brief look at a Christmas that was very full of fun and good stories. I have to add that I loved the movie Cars very much, but not nearly as much as Nolan. When he opened it up, his eyes lit up, he hugged the DVD, and exclaimed "I lub my mubie!"

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas!