Shayla Sings Her ABCs

Shayla has loved singing her ABC's every chance she gets - well, sort of singing them...

My new "job" - shameless plug alert!

Hey there - some of you may have gotten an email from me already, but I wanted to publicly share the newest venture I am embarking on.

So this week I started consulting for 805moms.com as one of their moms on the site. It is a neat site run by all moms - there is a "head mom" and some other moms that run it. I am the newest mom to the team and I help with posting ideas, running forums, finding events in the 805, attending events, etc.

So, I wanted to spread the word and let you know about this great site – check it out, sign up for an account and the weekly newsletter on the front page to get the latest info AND be my friend (my mom name is “larissa” original huh?). And if you comment on my posts that helps too! Even if you are not in the 805 there are some great forums and ideas and contests!

Also, if you have any events that you know of and want me to post, let me know and I will get them on the calendar.

Check it out today – http://805moms.com

Also, there is a contest for label daddy going on right now you can check out at

http://805moms.com/blogs/4372 - you can add as many comments as you like and each comment = entry!

Photo Booth Fun!

What do you get when you combine a classic photo booth, your almost 2 year old daughter, a pair of sunglasses and a feather boa!

One cute photo opportunity!

Shayla turns 22 months old tomorrow too!

She is 27 pounds and about 33.5 inches tall!
A few months left until her 2nd birthday! It is going to go by so fast and yet it is even hard now for me to think she is only 1 years old!

If you want to find a photo booth near you to take some pics of your adorable kids too - check out this website at -
http://www.photobooth.net/locations/index.php?locationID=305

IRISH and proud of it!

Happy St Patty day to all you Irish and non-Irish alike!
Here's a few pics of how we celebrated our St Pattys day and our Irish heritage
(I am 1/4 Irish so Shayla is 1/8 Irish)


At the St Pattys Day parade in Ventura on Saturday!

Shayla wearing all the shamrock necklaces!

Shayla and I at our St Pattys Day party today!

Also, I wanted to share a "Green" recipe so check out this Spinach ball recipe - we made them for our party today and everyone (but not Shayla) loved them!


Green Irish Balls (also called Spinach Balls)
Makes 50 balls

Ingredients
2 10 oz boxes of frozen chopped spinach
10 Tablespoons melted butter (1 stick + 2 Tablespoons more)
4 eggs, beated well
1 small onion finely chopped
½ C Grated Parmesan Cheese
2 C Pepperidge Farm Herbed Stuffing (or any herb stuffing) crushed
½ T thyme
½ T Garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt
¼ tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook spinach and squeeze out all water from spinach (I microwave for 5 minutes). Mix all ingredients together and refrigerate for an hour until firm (I did mine overnight and it was fine but you could probably get away without putting them in the fridge too). Roll into 1 inch balls and place onto baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes. Sprinkle with more parmesan cheese or salt if you like, to taste. Serve warm.

My cutie pie...

Shay's clothing tastes...

or lack of...

...so I have complained to a few of you that Shayla is really picky about what she wears! It has started so young! The only time she ever has tantrums is when she does not get to wear what she wants. If she could she would wear her bunny pajamas or black pants and white shirt ever day and maybe her polka dot pants a few time too (she loves "poh dots"). Anyway, I either have to hold her down and dress her or give in - depending on the day and hwo much time we have to get ready (:

Here she is just wanting to wear her boots - nothing else.

Hmmm...it was cold outside so I at least convinced her to wear her white long sleeve shirt but she insisted on the extra top too!

Here was a Sunday cute one! Sundays are the hardest! She always wants to wear her jeans on Sunday for some reason. She found this hat and was sold on it so I got her to get this dress on which she was okay with as long as she got to wear this hat - luckily it matched enough (:

Are you prepared?

So I recently finished reading The Road which is basically about a man and his son navigating the end of the world. Their main focus for survival is food of course. This made me want to re-evaluate my preparedness level. One thing I have always believed in is being prepared for an emergency or disaster - this could be anything from an earthquake to pandemic to the loss of job forcing you to live without income for awhile. Anyway, the best way to prepare for this is to have long-term food storage and emergency preparedness kits. I think I have about 3-6 months of food storage on hand as well as a 72-hour kit in my closet and in my car for immediate emergencies (stuck while traveling, fire in your home, etc). For those of you who are members of my faith (LDS), you are really familiar with what this means. For those of you who are not, I encourage you to make a goal to be sure you have everything in order in case of emergency. Also, I was certified in CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) which I highly recommend EVERYONE do if they are able to!

It can be overwhelming for sure - but I would say at the VERY VERY least prepare an emergency binder, a 72 hour kit for home and car and 1 month of food storage (as simple as buying extra cans of food at Costco next time you go!) You never know if or when you need it!

Here are a few essential links/websites that will help guide you to be prepared. There are soo many good sites out there for this stuff you just have to google it (:

• Creating an Emergency Binder - especially important I think if you have kids! http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net/2009/01/03/emergency-binder/

• Basic Emergency 72 hour kit and more (the government's site) - http://www.ready.gov/america/getakit/index.html

• My Moms Preparedness Blog - has awesome posts such as 30 dinners, 30 lunches and 30 breakfasts from food storage! http://readyandfearless.blogspot.com

• Community Emergency Response Team Training Info http://www.citizencorps.gov/cert/

• A great overall easy-to-use site - http://everydayfoodstorage.net/

Happy Birthday Bro!

Happy Birthday to my little brother Tommy!
He turns 28 today - wow that sounds "old" for my younger brother!
WE LOVE YOU - here's to a grear year ahead!!!


A fav shot of Tommy in his "earlier" years!


Tommy and Shayla a few months ago!

Picture Tag...

Okay, so I have been tagged. Here are the rules. The rules of the tag are to post the 4th picture in your 4th photo album on your computer. It will be fun to see what we come up with...... It should be simple, but it was not. I have a main photo folder on my computer that has no photos in it as all my photos are on a separate hard drive. So I went to that and then the question was are the folders arranged alphabetically or chronologically, anyway mine were alphabetical and the 4th photo was a scan of Jon's drivers license so I don't think I should post that (security reasons!). So I switched it to chronological and here is what you get - a photo of the view from my backyard from April 2006 on a misty day. It is pretty though isn't it? I love those mountains/hills. I think it will look like this tomorrow too as it is supposed to rain tomorrow...

Then I guess you tag 4 people, so I tag Amy, Megan, Traci G-Funk and Stephanie J. Try it if you have an easy to find 4th photo in your 4th file!

Supertaster or waste of money?

"Does your child turn up their nose and refuse to eat broccoli, spinach or Brussels sprouts? It may be genetically programmed and beyond your control. If your child is a supertaster, their taste buds may be extra sensitive to the bitter compounds found in vegetables and certain fruits. In one study, non-taster children consumed more vegetables, particularly bitter tasting vegetables, than did the taster children during a free-choice intake test." http://supertastertest.com

Okay, so in my quest to find out why kids are such picky eaters and why Shayla diet subsists of very limited items I have found out a few interesting things:

First, it seems no one has a real solution to the "picky eater" problem as there are many articles on this topic but no real answers!

Second, kids tend to prefer things because their tastebuds are super-sensitive because in the "caveman days" they had to be able to know when something was bitter so they would not eat anything posionous (i.e. poison berries leave - today = many vegetables)

Third, most interestingly, the concept of supertasters! Supposedly "Supertasters experience taste with far greater intensity the average person. About 25 percent of Americans are supertasters, a group with an unusually high number of taste buds. If you love food more than most, you may have inherited supertaster genes."

Why some people hate veggies? "Evidence suggests that supertasters are more sensitive to bitter tastes and fattiness in food, and often show lower acceptance of foods that are high in these taste qualities. Tasters tend to dislike strong, bitter foods like raw broccoli, grapefruit juice, coffee and dark chocolate.

So, I am now curious if I or anyone in my family is a supertaster - I bet Jon is since he does not eat many veggies! The question is should I shell out $5 to see if we are or not or do you think it is a waste of money/gimmick? Yale says it is true http://research.yale.edu/ysm/article.jsp?articleID=77

$5 is not much to have proof as to why your child or husband is a picky eater (: I will let you know!