400 boxes in 45 days

Chances for Children is trying to gather 400 boxes of food for Haiti in 45 days.  I am sure you are aware that Haiti needs some love and hope right now and maybe you were wondering what you could do.  The box drive is something that is easy and tangible!  Even toddlers can join in and help out.

The boys were very helpful and I just had to rearrange a little to get everything to fit. 😉

The last day to ship is December 15, 2010 so you have plenty of time!

First Hike

We took the boys on their first hike today, okay really a walk through the desert. They had a lot of fun and really enjoyed all the sand. Ezra saw his first jack rabbit, then chased after it. Don’t worry the rabbit was much faster than him. We packed a picnic lunch and the boys scarfed it down! For the most we were able to keep them on the trail, and they walked almost the whole way. We had to carry them for a bit when we were almost back to the car. Here are some pictures of our little adventure, just click on a picture to see it bigger.

Coloring Time

Crash and Danger have started to really like coloring. They usually only do it for 5 minutes or so, sometimes a little bit longer. Danger discovered the joy of breaking crayons in half, so their Nana bought them some of these Crayola Twistables . The boys love them. I have a love/hate relationship with them. They are great because they are easy to color with and they can’t snap them in half. The problem, they are nice and soft which makes for a nice smooth application. It looks great on paper, but on the boys, eh not so much. I really don’t mind, I expect them to get messy, and it is sort of cute.

Crash showing off his red tongue.

Demonstrating how he got red.

Danger showing off his green tongue. (Don’t mind the interesting paint on the wall.)

Photo Friday – 11.19.2010

Scored a hockey stick at a garage sale, Noah loves it.

Nana bought them a singing Christmas tree, to say they love it would be an understatement.

Cool Noah

Carter found a new hiding place.

Coloring.

The reason they had stuff on their face in my blog about the COC. Matt thought I need to clarify.

Really yummy stuff.

Pumpkins make good step stools.

One of those days.

We taught Abby how to color on herself.

Then we combed her hair.

and then Nama's hair.

Salmon Cakes

I first read about these salmon cakes over at Musings of a Housewife last month and finally gave them a try last week a (and again last night). Matt and I love them! Noah and Ezra are the true test of any recipe though. Their opinions? On their plates absolutely would not try, but off of mommy’s plate some of the best food they have ever eaten. Ezra even ate the leftovers with me for lunch today.

If you are like me and often just read the ingredients’ list to make sure you have everything and the instructions while you are prepping dinner, I’ll give you a heads up. You have to chill the cakes for 20 minutes before you cook them.

Salmon Cakes

Ingredients:
1 (14.75-oz) can salmon
1/4 red pepper, small diced
1/4 onion, minced
1 egg
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup shredded cheese (cheddar or other)
2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley (or 1 tsp dried)
2 Tbsp flour
1/4 cup butter
3 Tbsp olive oil

Instructions:
1. Saute onion and red pepper in olive oil/butter.  Let it cool.
2. Combine salmon, egg, bread crumbs, sauce, cheese, parsley, salt and pepper. Add onion and red pepper and mix well.
3. Form into four patties.  Dust lightly with flour.  Chill for 20 minutes. (The chilling is important. Otherwise they fall apart.)
4. Heat butter and olive oil in skillet on med-high heat and cook patties until browned on both sides, about 10 minutes.  Drain on paper towels and serve with veggie. (I’ve never drained them and haven’t found them to be overly oily when I cook them. I don’t think I used a 1/4 of butter and 3 tablespoons of olive oil though.)

Shutterfly Cards

Matt and I have never done a photo card to mail out. We usually just do an email (yes we are cheap and procrastinate so email is easy for us), but we know people love receiving pictures of the two little cuties that live in our house (Noah and Ezra if you are confused, sorry Matt it’s not you). When I heard about Shutterfly’s Holiday Card promotion I got excited! 50 free cards! I am so excited to print some this year, choosing a photo will be so hard. We have a lot of great photos of them. Of course, there are lots of ways to utilize all those photos. Photo books are our gift of choice for grandparents, but I also think the desk calendars would make a good gift.

We also love receiving pictures of all the little cuties in our life, so go here to receive your 50 free cards.

Certificate of Citizenship

Thanks to the government for a deadline! Without it I would have put off applying for the COC forever. For those of you not in the know the filing fee for the COC is going up next week by $120 and since we had to file two that would have been an extra $240. I am so happy that our agency sent out an email notifying us because I would have had no clue. By all the discussions of FB this week I was happy to know that we were not the only procrastinating parents out there! I am pretty sure USCIS will be getting a flood of applications. 🙂

I spent the better part of nap-time Monday filling out the applications and looking for the supportive documents, calling USCIS because they have Noah’s birthdate wrong on his green card (hooray another form to fill out!), and chatting with other mommies on FB doing the same. (I love our little community and that we all got to do this together.) The most fun those was taking the boys to get passport photos done for the certificate. I am fairly certain the lady taking them thought toddler boys should just stand still and get into the perfect position and that she didn’t have to do anything but push the button (very slowly I might add). It was a lot of fun, really.

I tried to get a few cute photos of the boys with their applications to properly document this part of the process, they were not super cooperative. Apparently it isn’t a big deal to them.

Ezra and his application.

Noah and his application.

2nd Birthday Party

Running around in circles while dancing and screaming

We had the boys’ birthday party yesterday and it was a beautiful day. We had a lot of fun and the boys were WILD. I think they were super excited to have so many of their favorite people all together.

My wild but happy Noah

Ez was super wild the whole party

Abby all tangled with the balloons

Ez reading a card, he really loves cards.

The boys received trikes from Nama and Papa (my parents) and it is one of those moments I wished we had the video camera rolling. They were beyond excited when they saw them.

Ez on Noah's trike

Noah on Ez's trike

Ez driving Noah around

Abby driving Noah around, yea I am noticing a theme here.

Ez blew out all the candles this year, Noah just stared and occasionally tried to touch them.

Mr. Potato Head Cakes

Ez blowing out his candles

Noah checking out the candles

Ez came over and blew them out for Noah

Silly String Time

Noah shooting Ez

Abby apparently thought we gave her spray deodorant

Abby and Jason

We were all exhausted by time nap-time! You can see more photos here.

Photo Friday – 11.12.2010

When you don't want to get your hammer just grab the kids'.

Showing off their synchronistic abilities.

and again...

Climbing the cubes.

Helping dad.

awww diaper booties.

My two crazy boys.

Legos!

Coloring.

Playing in the garlic powder mess Ezra made.

It was a lot of fun.

Rubbing some on his face.

They need to improve their mischief skills, they left evidence behind.