... when Ryan's working from home:

Two laptops in front of him, the cell phone to his ear... fun times.

Tonight was Acadia's school's Art From the Heart display.  Here are some pics:

We have recently been spending a lot of time with my family in Camas.  We sure do love them and have so much fun!  It's great because Acadia and Sami like hanging out and have been enjoying occasional sleepovers together.  Last weekend, we had a birthday dinner for Chad, Mary Jane, and Ryan.  My cousin, Sarah is in town with her baby Trey.  We had a lot of fun and I took some pics:

In case you were wondering, our family rocks...

Two and a half years ago, for Acadia's 8th birthday and baptism, our neighbor gave her a beautiful handmade pen.  Cadi loved it and still has it.  Last year, when we started working on our Christmas projects, Acadia decided to ask our neighbor to help her make a pen for my brother, which he did and it turned out great!  Closer to Christmas, I was over at their place when our neighbor was experimenting with new pens, he was gluing different pieces of wood together before shaping it and the results were beautiful!  I told him I wanted one, so he gave me the one I was admiring so much.  And last week, for Ryan's birthday, Stan gave him a gorgeous pen he made for him. 

If I were you, I would be thinking, that's nice... *yawn*...  But these pens really are beautiful and it always amazes people when we tell them that they are homemade.

I took a picture of our three pens:

(Top to bottom: Acadia's, Mine, Ryan's)

I never posted about Acadia making the pen for my brother because... well, it was a Christmas gift and we really didn't want to spoil it!  But here is a short demonstrational montage we made to show my brother how she did it.  She is narrating so if you don't have your sound on, turn it on now. :)

This has been a long time in the making, but the short story is:  At Ryan's request, our family has gone vegetarian. 

*I will pause as you pick your jaw up off the floor.*

I don't know what is more shocking, the fact that we're actually doing it, or the fact that Ryan is the one who wants us to do it! lol

Now, to be fair, we're not going totally and completely 100% vegetarian, but we now eat meat/poultry about once a week, as opposed to everyday.

So, here's the story:

Ryan's considered this for a long time; really he's thought about it for the last couple of years.  He'd occasionally mention it, but he hadn't really made up his mind, was still reading about it, contemplating it, etc.  I figured it was some crazy idea that would eventually blow over.  But instead, this past Thanksgiving, he brought it up again, more seriously.  He wanted to know if I would support him in his decision.  We'll, I'll tell you - I didn't! lol 

I LOVE to cook!  I love trying new recipes!  I have wonderful meals that I LOVE that have meat or chicken in them!  And I have countless recipes that I want to try with meat or chicken in them!  And I sure as heck wasn't about to make two dinners every night, just to accomodate his new diet.

But, I thought about it for awhile and decided, to appease him, I would begin reducing our meat and increasing our vegetables.  I even tried converting some of our favorite dishes into vegetarian dishes... and found that we all liked it!  By the end of the year, I was convinced that we could do this - at least most of the time.  I wanted to reserve the right to cook meat/poultry somewhat regularly, even if limited.  So I told Ryan that I believed our family could be vegetarian 75% of the week, if I could just cook meals once or twice a week that have meat/poultry in them.  He felt that was totally reasonable.

However, there is still one more part of the story.  In addition to wanting to go vegetarian, Ryan was even considering going vegan.  Now, I'll state right now, I'm not on board with this idea.  I do not believe that a vegan diet would be a good choice for the girls and I don't think it would be good for me.  Plus, I know there is no way we could do it.  Hello, Rori is practically made of cheese!  She eats the stuff all the live long day! lol  But when Ryan came home with a "1,000 Vegan Recipes" book, I agreed to try some.  In looking through the cookbook, I realize that while we would not want to eat vegan as our regular meal plan, we definitely would enjoy a vegan meal sometimes, perhaps even once or twice a week.

Right around the New Year, we began enforcing our new meal plan.  And I have to say, we are all enjoying it!  We are eating far less meat and so many more vegetables!  I still get to try lots of new recipes because I'm making a real effort to find vegetarian and vegan meals that we will enjoy, plus I'm converting some of our favorite meals into vegetarian dishes and finding them just as, if not more, enjoyable!  And even though I reserve the right to cook meat once in awhile, I've found it's been a couple of weeks since I've made anything with meat or poultry.  Even when we went out to eat with family, I ate a delicious Whole Wheat Black Bean Quesadilla with a large side salad and a cup of potato chowder.  It's been a month now, and I do believe that this is something we will be sticking with!

That said, I'd like to quickly point out that we are definitely not strict in this.  When eating with friends and family, we are happy to enjoy whatever meal they prepare and when hosting, we will be happy to use our meat meal that night.  I have chosen not to cut out things like chicken broth or cream of chicken soup, though I am substituting vegetable broth and cream of mushroom soup when I think the recipe would accomodate it.  We'll still barbeque and have traditional holiday dinners.  None of us are interested in eating tofu or vegan cheese or anything like that.  We're simply limiting our meat/poultry intake drastically and replacing it with fresh and frozen vegetables, fruits, nuts, and beans.

If you're interested in some of the recipes we've tried and liked so far, here are some links where I've posted them on my recipe blog:

Black Bean and Corn Burritos
Potato and Kale Soup
Potato Enchiladas

So far, these two are our favorites:
Refried Bean and Salsa Quesadillas
Mexican Fideo Soup with Pinto Beans

Some of the recipes that we've adapted are: Spaghetti Diablo, Hearty Spaghetti Sauce (formerly known as Meaty Spaghetti Sauce), Hearty Burritos, Creamy Cheesy Vegetable Soup (formerly known as Cheeseburger Soup), Busy Night Special, Quick and Easy Spaghetti Dinner, Lasagna Roll Ups (formerly known as Chicken Lasagna Roll Ups).

You can find those original recipes on my recipe blog and try adapting them per your family's taste, if interested.  Or let me know if you'd like to know exactly what we did to change them.  I've still got a lot more to experiment with and as I try completely new recipes, I'll post them on my blog if they turn out to be ones we like.  I've begun labeling vegetarian and vegan meals on that blog, to make them easier to find.

So, anyhow... this is really working for us, so I thought it was about time to share it with you. :)

One of the gifts that the girls received for Christmas was a gift card to Build-a-Bear from my mom and my brothers who still live at home.  Acadia had a half day of school today and we decided that it would be a good day for us to go visit the mall and redeem their gift card.

We got there and had fun looking at all of the different choices.  Aurora almost got a monkey that looks just like Curious George, but in the end she decided on a super cute and fuzzy teddy bear.  Acadia likes to sleep with all of her stuffed animals and prefers them sans clothes, so she was able to make two animals instead of just one with an outfit.  Both girls were very happy with their new friends!

(Click on the collage to make it bigger.)

When we got home, they made this video to say thank you:

About a year ago, I started a blanket.  I wanted a nice, warm, large blanket to match our family room that we could sit under and watch movies with.  It was coming along beautifully.  And then my Bishop's cancer returned.  I wanted to do something to help and decided that giving him my blanket was one of the best gifts I could give him right then.  He could use it to take naps after his chemo treatments or sit under with his wife to watch their favorite TV shows or movies.  I gave it to him and started another blanket.  It was coming along beautifully.  And then we learned that my father-in-law has leukemia.  It was just before Christmas and I decided that the blanket would be the best gift I could give him this year.  So, I gave it to him and started another blanket.

By this time, I had friends and family begging me NOT to make the blanket.  We didn't want anyone else getting sick!  Even I, myself, who is not superstitious, wondered if this really was a good idea. lol  But I decided to start it because I really did want this blanket for our family!  It was coming along beautifully!  And then, I was done!  And no one got sick!  Here is our new family room blanket:

(It looks even better in person!)  We've already tested it out and it's perfect! :)

A couple of weeks ago, I posted this about how hard it is for me to be consistent in working out.  I thought it would be good to report that since that post, I have only missed one day (and that was because I was at the temple)!  I posted that post and that night, a friend of mine who doesn't read my blog, randomly suggested that we work out together sometime.  We already use the same gym, she had a baby a couple of months ago and is clear to exercise now, and even better - she used to be a personal trainer (so she knows what to do and can help me with my workouts - score!).

I still don't always feel like going, but knowing that Alia will be there gets me moving.  She will know if I bailed.  lol

My only problem is that working out takes most of my morning.  And then I'm usually tired and ready for a nap in the afternoon.  lol  I'm finding it hard to keep up with the other things I'm responsible for throughout the day.  I'm hoping this is just an adjustment period and soon it will all fall into place.  For now though, I am trying to stick to my routine of going to the gym as soon as Cadi's on the bus.  :)

As reported earlier, this weekend we celebrated Ryan's birthday!  He has confessed to me that this is one of his best birthdays; I'm glad he had such a great weekend! :)

I didn't take very many pics while we had everyone over for the party Saturday night, but I do have these:

Yeah, he blew the candles out in slow motion because he knew Cadi was taking pics and he wanted to make sure she got a good shot. lol