My garden girl!

Okay - we just got out photos back from our last photo shoot! It was shot in our friends parents backyard - isn't it a great location! Here are a few of our favorites of just Shayla! I will share our first pro family shots soon too!

Chocolate lovers - try this!

So, I was on-line looking for a recipe last week and found a link to a recipe contest using Green & Black's Chocolate using 5-ingredients only and incorporating organic into the recipe. I happened to have a chocolate and orange bar on hand which was good because the deadline was the SAME DAY...there are not many things you can do using 5 ingredients, but I have always loved making chocolate sorbet and here's my twist on it for the recipe contest (chocolate/orange combo is one of my favorite flavor combinations). I had to take a photo of my creation, so here it is- give it a try if you want and have an ice cream maker. If you do not have an ice cream maker, you can make it more of a granita and put it in the freezer in a pan for several hours taking it out every 2 hours and raking with a fork to get a granita like consistency until it is a good texture!

Beware, it is VERY chocolatey and rich, but good!

Maya Gold Chocolate Orange Sorbet

Ingredients
1 cup water
2 cups organic orange juice
1 cup organic sugar
1/ 2 cup Green & Black’s Fair Trade Cocoa Powder
7 ounces (2 bars) Green & Black’s Maya Gold Bar, finely chopped and divided in half

Directions

Put the water, orange juice, sugar and cocoa in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Cook, whisking constantly, until sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and add half of the Green & Black’s Maya Gold Bar chopped chocolate (3.5 ounces or 1 bar). Whisk in the chopped chocolate until it is completely melted and is incorporated into mix.
Let cool until room temperature and then refrigerate until cool (4 hours or overnight). Place in ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturers directions. Add the other half of the chopped chocolate to the last 5 minutes of churning when sorbet has thickened. Enjoy sorbet immediately. Cover and freeze until ready to serve again - if there are any leftovers!

11 months old!

Shayla is 11 months old today - one month to go until she's ONE! Wow!

She is such a joy and gets funner (and cuter!) every day!
She is standing on her own now and babbling a lot and loves to sing along with any loud noises!
Here are some fun photos from the past week!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday Mom!

It is my wonderful mother's birthday today!
I hope she has a great day!

We were able to help her celebrate on Saturday with my dad, sister and grandma! We had a delicious Armenia meal followed by strawberry shortcake! I am glad I got to see her to help her celebrate a bit as she deserves the best birthday ever!

Here's to a fabulous 2008 and beyond! I love you mom!

Shayla stands up!

Shayla has been practicing standing up a lot now - here she is trying her new skill.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Firetruck!

Shayla could not get enough of playing in her cousin Tony's firetruck this past weekend!
She is getting so big too!

Happy 2nd Birthday Tony!

Our nephew Tony turned 2 last week! Here we are celebrating with him and his past few years! He has grown up so fast - and is only 2! Whew! We love you Tony!


Here he was a few weeks old!


Here he is at his 1st year birthday party!


Here he is at his 2nd birthday party playing choo- choo with Shayla!


Tony (a pic his mom took of him) at 2 years old!

My little nymph!

I am so excited as we had our first real family photo shoot with Jon, me and Shayla in it today by the same lady who did Shayla's fabulous Easter and Christmas pictures! I can't wait to get them and share them on this blog! In the meantime, after the shoot, I put Shayla's tutu on and put her in this swing in my friend's gorgeous backyard and got some shots of my own! Too precious!

Hungry Girl

So, I just thought I would share one of my favorite healthy eating tip websites -

http://www.hungry-girl.com/

I love this website because it gives you healthy makeovers of unhealthy foods - so you still feel like you are indulging but you are saving calories - yay!

Check out their recipes and, if you like it, sign up for their regular emails for healthy food updates and more recipes!

Here are the tips for this week (I agree with all of them except the Splenda substitute - although it does have fewer calories, it is a modified molecule of sugar that has not been around long enough to determine its long term side effects on your health and many studies say it is bad - remember they used to praise Nutrasweet/Equal/Etc but that has now been linked to cancer - so beware of Splenda!)

HUNGRY GIRL'S TOP ATE Calorie-Saving Cooking Swaps!
1. Nonstick cooking spray instead of oil (for stovetop cooking)
2. Canned pumpkin instead of eggs & oil (for baking)
3. Light vanilla soymilk instead of milk or cream
4. Fat-free liquid egg substitute instead of eggs
5. No-sugar-added applesauce instead of butter
6. Ground-beef-style soy crumbles instead of ground beef
7. Splenda No Calorie Sweetener (granular) instead of sugar
8. Butternut squash instead of potatoes

Meeting the great grandparents!

Shayla met her 3rd set of great grandparents this past Sunday!
Yay! Only one set to go (my mom's parents in Wisconsin).
Anyway, here are Granny and Papa Swartwood (Jon's moms parents) who were up visiting this weekend!
It was fun to get to see them and have them meet Shayla for the first time!



Shayla with Papa S.


Shayla with Granny S

Shayla chillin' with cousin Tony


Shayla with her newest squishy nose smile!