Roast Radishes

Roasted Radishes...who knew?  

The other day I got some radishes on sale because Jeyson loves them.  I think they are WAY too strong!  But I put some in Jeyson's salads but there were still so many left.  I did a google search of ways to use up radishes and I found the idea of roasting them.

I sliced mine into coins and mixed with olive oil, s/p, and some Italian spices and popped them in the oven at 450 until they looked brown and roasty.  

Verdict?  Delish!  They totally lose their bite, yet are still a very unique flavored root veggie.  Perfect for fall or winter nights or when you have left over radishes.  

What would we do without Google? 

Family Pictures

I'm a little behind blogging, but about a month and a half ago, a friend of a missionary came in town who is a college student studying photography.  She offered to take some pictures of us and Elijah and I was so excited because we've never had anyone even semiprofessional take pictures of us or him.  She took tons of pictures and they came out great!  Here are a few of my favorites:

Weekending

We've made a pact to get serious about our weekeneding.  Instead of just letting it slip by, we've decided to try to plan things out more and enjoy more.  So here's what we did this weekend:

Friday after work:  Boys worked on the bicycle

 Followed by bringing a picnic of homemade Venezuelan "arepas" to the local park.  We ate them at a picnic table and walked around to check out ducks.  

Saturday morning we made bagel sandwiches...yum!

At breakfast, we had to take a picture of Elijah with the gallon of milk.  Brazilians barely drink milk (1 quart could last a week for a family...they only drink it in their coffee pretty much) so we wanted to be able to show our friends how much Americans love our milk in large quantities!

 Then we headed over to a larger town called Zanesville for some shopping!  JC Penny, Hobby Lobby, Payless Shoes, and more.  We had delicious Greek Gyros for lunch from a mom and pop shop.

In the evening we rented The Help and enjoyed it with after some homemade Thai stir fry

This morning we went to church and then went straight to a town 1 1/2 hours away to meet up with some Brazilian family friends of Jeyson's family.  Zelia and Philip are super nice and generously took us out to a fabulous lunch at Longhorn Steakhouse!  We all, including Elijah, stuffed ourselves silly.  Elijah ate pieces of steak by the fistful as well as sweet potatoes, cheese, and bread.  He ate so much that when I  went to change his diaper he didn't even move or fight at all.  He was in a food coma.  It was all delicious!!

After lunch we made a quick stop at a nursing home where Philip plays music each week when helps lead a service.

At the nursing home with Zelia

 It seriously was the nicest nursing home I had ever seen.  It looked like a mall!

It was a nice time and then we went back to Zelia and Philip's house and spent a few hours with them in the afternoon.  I'll have to post more on it sometime, but they live out in Amish country in the middle of nowhere.  They have tons of maple trees and let some Amish men tap the sap out of the maple trees on their land in exchange for syrup and some profit.  It was fun to see their set up and we brought some syrup home with us.

Then, in the evening we had to make pancakes to try it out on!  Fun weekend...check!

Wonderful Work

 So true...I love this boy but BOY sometimes he WEARS me out!  

I'm so thankful the weekend is here so I have Jeyson around to help!

Elijah is 9 Months

Happy 9 months to our sweet Elijah!  

I can't believe how fast the time is going and quickly he is developing from baby to now pre-todler.  

As a side note, when Elijah wears this romper, people always comment that he looks like Nemo (from Finding Nemo :)

New: The biggest development this month has been moving to a real crawl.  He was fast when he was swiffering, but now he is really fast!  He is all over the place!  Elijah easily pulls on up on things, but it's not his favorite thing to do yet because he hasn't figured out to move left to right once he has pulled up, so being up on his feet actually makes him more paralyzed in a way.  So he mostly hangs out on all fours or pulls up just on his knees.  Other developments have been Elijah learning to drink out a straw, doing GREAT at feeding himself (I basically don't spoon feed him anything anymore!), and giving high five.  I was convinced some new teeth were breaking through this month based on Elijah's drooling and a big bump I felt (and still feel) in his mouth...but nothing so far!  Still at 8.

Here are some shots I took the other night right after Elijah's bath and as I was trying to get him into his cloth diaper that I was going to take a picture of.  He's so on the move he was hard to wrestle down to get in the diaper!  

Personality:  Elijah is pretty easy going and always does great in the nursery and situations where other people (and even kids) want to hold him.  Literally everywhere we go people comment on what a big smile he has! 

 Struggles: Elijah struggles a bit with being independent for play time (he really likes to be around other people) so we've been working on that the past few days.  It has meant a few (lot) of tears the first few days, but now he can play about 15 minutes in a room by himself!  It's such a great skill for so many areas of life.  

Elijah also is getting to the temper tantrum stage!  Not big ones very often yet, but he gets very whiny and resistant at times (especially diaper changes!) so he already has been earning some swats on the bum to stop twisting as I change him...seriously we can't have poop going everywhere!  Other than that, he is usually really compliant and responds well to correction and rules (sometimes with a little help :)

 Routine: I thought I'd give a little more of a detailed routine this month for my own record:

Wakes up between 7:30-8:30,

Nurses, eats breakfast, plays and/or errands

Naps about 10-12

Nurses, eats lunch, plays (some independent play) and/or errands

Naps 2-4

Nurses, snack, plays

Dinner around 6

Hangs out with Dad, bath, nurses, and bed at 8

Elijah is ALMOST always consistent with 2 hour naps now (almost never 45 minute ones anymore...if he does try to pull one he is SUPER tired still so I usually let him try to fall back to sleep on his own instead of getting him up)

 Loves: Elijah especially loves things that are not toys: cell phones, remotes, etc.  He likes talking on Skype too, and in general LOVES to make noise.  He is almost always making talking or singing noises...seriously!  When Jeyson takes him somewhere and I have the house all to myself, I can't BELIVE how quiet it is!  Elijah loves baths, food, and being around  people.  He will eat absolutely anything we give him...even a radish, fresh peppers, and horseradish flavored cheese!  The only thing he doesn't seem to love (very all of a sudden too!) is bananas!  I can't believe it since he's basically been eating them every day since he started on solids!  He'll still eat a piece that I feed to him directly into his mouth before it get squishy on the tray or a mashed banana mixed with something.  I think maybe he doesn't like it once it gets slimy from being touched on his tray.  Weird!  Oh and as you can see from the pictures, he loves being nude!  Maybe it's the hot weather, but he likes being diaper and clothes free.

 Our new BumGenius diapers have been going great!  I got a very generous grant for being a missionary from Cotton Babies and I am loving how easy cloth diapers are!  I wash every other day and it's really no big deal.  And they look so stinking cute on too!

These next two pictures are the way I see Elijah usually...either pulling up on the side of my chair...

 Or underfoot on the move!

I love being a mom to this boy!

Weekend Fun - Ohio Style

We had a super fun weekend...packed, but super fun!  

Friday: pizza and a movie at home 

Saturday:  Jeyson biked with friends in the morning while E and I hung out and went grocery shopping.  After lunch we headed out on our big adventure (for a small town area that is!)

First stop was a cheese factory/shop.  There are several of them around the area and they specialize in Swiss and Colby cheeses.  

Pearl is one of the more famous shops in this area.  There wasn't a lot to actually see (you can see them making cheese M-F) but at this counter you can try as many kinds of cheese as you want for free and then you can buy them for pretty good prices.  They have tons of different flavors and blends - smoked cheddar, cheese with bacon bits in it, cheese with caraway seeds, dill, horseradish, etc.  It was tons of fun and sampled lots.  Elijah liked them all including the horseradish swiss!  

We bought a bunch of cheese - though this (real) swiss cheese block was just for the picture

 Then we headed to an Amish petting zoo

Giant horse

Elijah didn't seem to like sitting on the hay...maybe it was itchy?

But he loved petting the animals!

And this little baby goat with only gums loved nibbling on Eli's fingers

And he thought it was lots of fun

Apparently goatees are in style!

 But what made the weekend really memorable was the Amish auction that we went to.  It was actually an auction mainly for Amish people themselves and there were very few non-Amish there.  Seriously...the parking lot (park of it below) had about 50 buggies and 5 cars!  We seemed welcome there and enjoyed homemade Amish ice cream as we watched people bid on baskets and wood projects.  

We also stopped by a Walmart on the way back to our town and this Walmart which is more out in Amish-town even has a special area for horses and buggies to get hitched!

 When we arrived back in our town there happened to be a parade down the main street. We stopped and watched the end of it.  It felt like such a typical American summer moment.  Elijah loved it all, even the marching band and fire trucks.

A plumer who advertising his services with a float of an outhouse and they were throwing toilet paper rolls at people

And a float that was absolutely hilarious. This Presbyterian church had a float complete with a marriage ceremony, a pew of people, baptismal basin and everything!

Sunday we took long naps after church and then headed to the local park for a light hike.  

Lots of family fun.  It was the kind of weekend where we really lived it up yet felt relaxed at the same time.