Happy Holidays from my home to yours

Happy Holidays from the Posts!

Here is a little update:

Kat spent the first few months of the year running as much as possibleto train for her first marathon, and ran an impressive 26.2 miles evenwith a knee injury at mile nine. After this huge accomplishment wegot a little scared because we realized she is even more stubborn than we thought, but we were all very proud of her amazing athletic feat.

Steve became a teacher and a student when he began classes at CalState San Marcos for his administration credential, look out for Principal Post in two years. In the few hours of the day notdedicated to school Steve trained in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and even competed in his first tournament, forging an impressive career recordof 1-1.

Jessica developed her artistic talents this year, drawing and paintingbeautiful works of art almost every day. She also grew athletically in gymnastics, hula dancing, and soccer, but has stayed true to herfirst passion for ballet and will return to ballet classes early next year.

Isabella has cemented herself as the family goofball, and she is a force nobody can ignore now that she talks nearly non-stop. She is an independent and confident girl, on Saint Patrick’s day Izzy let usknow she is not Irish…she is a toddler. She also knows how to have fun, shouting “Booya!” and “Party Time!” whenever the mood hits.

Best wishes for a peaceful holiday season,

Steve, Kat, Jessica, and Isabella

A few favs from Thanksgiving

Loving my girlies

Cuddling & watching rudolph

Cuddling & watching rudolph

Thankful Turkey

Thought this would be a good place to share some of the preschool crafts I do. And now that I discovered pintrest, another place to store them all in spot!

I adore turkey project. They always crack me up! I do the pinecone turkey every year, and I've done a few renditions of Thankful Turkeys.
This one I came up with on a whim (actually it was a bit of a panic because I thought we didn't have the art project prepped. We did, I'm just a spaz)
Its great for all ages- even the one year old toddlers can just paint the bags, while the older kids can practice their writing skills!

What you need:
small brown bags (lunch sack style)
brown paint
googly eyes
red, orange, yellow, green construction paper.
newspaper
Rubberband
Glue
Stapler


Before hand:
Cut out leaves from the constuction paper, about two leaves out of a 8 1/2 x 12 sheet
Cut yellow triangles for beaks
and red "googles" for their gobble gobble. (I have looked up the correct name before, but its just as ridiculous as a gobble gobble so thats what I"m sticking to.....)

Set up the table for painting however you do it (we use a cheap shower curtain cut in half, and then old t-shirts for smocks)
I had the kids use sponges to paint all over the bag- brushes would work just find too
While waiting for the bags to dry, ask the children what they are thankful for.
Once the paint is dry, have the kids stuff the bags with newspaper
Then, close the bag however works best for you. We just twisted it shut and put on a rubber band
The older kids can write what they are thankful for on three leaves, then on the bottom 2 leaves write the child's name, "Thankful Turkey"
Fan the leaves out and staple them together, then glue them to the back of the turkey.
The kids can glue on a turkey face.
For younger kids, just do the assemblying for them.

This is Jessica's Thankful Turkey
And in case you need a little help reading what she wrote:
Family (with a backward capital E instead of F. Love it)
Izzy
Cousins

So sweet!
Happy Thanksgiving!

GF, SF, Vegan Persimmon Muffins

Persimmons. What to do with persimmons?
I had never even tried one before we got them in our CSA box last year. I ate one- and they're pretty good! But honestly, it never sounds good to just eat as a snack. So, I looked up recipes.  Last year I  found a recipe for cookies, and they were delicious! For some reason I was having trouble this year finding anything that suited me, so I made one up :)
 I used my Better Homes & Garden cookbook to help guide me, but it looks nothing like the original plain muffin recipe anymore :)

You will need:
2 cups of all purpose gluten free flour
1 1/2 tsp xantham gum
1/2 cup of honey
3/4 tsp salt
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp flax seed
1 tsp chia seed
1 Tbsp water
2 persimmons (about 1 cup of puree)
Walnuts (optional)
Coconut sugar to sprinkle on top (optional)

First, warm your oven to 350*

Then cut the tops of your persimmons off, and if you have a hard core blender like a Vita Mix, you are done :)  Throw them in and blend them up! 

Once blended, I added the water, chia & flax seed.  I blended them up a little more, then poured it into a measuring cup and let it sit.  The chia seed and water replace any egg needed and act as a binder.  The persimmon puree replaces the oil to make a moist muffin :)

                                                                     (my little helpers!)

Next I sprayed my muffin pans with Coconut Spray Oil.  Found this at Whole Foods. I was stoked :)

Then, mix together all the ingredients.  I did the dry first, then added the persimmon mix.  It solidified a bit, so Izzy had some trouble pouring it in.....

But we managed.  Once all the ingredients are mixed in, put in some crushed up walnuts.  Then divide into muffin tins- I filled up 18.  Then sprinkle coconut sugar on top of each one and stick in the oven for 25 - 30 minutes.

They turned out gooey on the inside and crispy on the outside, just how I like 'em!  Enjoy!

Being a mom.....

Being a mother is something I've always dreamed of- and its been more amazing than I ever could of imagined.  That being said- its HARD being a mama!  I'm not talking about the toddler tantrums, the sleepless nights, the diaper changes/potty training, the drama, the mama guilt, any of that- I'm talking about the whole "letting them go" thing.  Letting them grow into their own person who will one day find a partner and make a family of their own.  Its the one relationship that you put your all into, and they are supposed to pull away.  To grow up.  I love my girls with all my heart and then some, and I love thinking about all the fun things the future holds for them.  But if I really let myself think about it, I kinda freak out a little bit. I want to always be there to protect them, keep them in safe in our little family bubble.  I know this isn't realistic, and I know I'm also not the only parent to go through my thought process.  So for right now I'm trying to just live in the moment and enjoy everything that mommy-hood is bringing to me.

Since I'm on the topic motherhood- check out my guest post on The Short and the Sweet of It (my KRAP friend Alexa's blog )

KRAP Thanksgiving

This past weekend we had our first feast of the season..... its our second annual KRAP + friends Thanksgiving!
The four of us KRAP ladies (me, Rema, Alexa & Paula) got together early in the day to start the cooking and the wine drinking. I was in charge of the turkey and decorating the table- pretty easy deal if you ask me ;)
Here's Alexa & Paula cooking

And because I ALWAYS take pictures of my decorated table, but never do anything with the pictures, decided to share a little collage:

The four of us

Alexa's daughter Mila playing with my girls- so cute! They love each other already :)

Didn't get a group picture of all of us, because people were coming and going at all different times so it just never happened. I also forgot to take pictures of all the delicious food- probably was too distracted eating and drinking ;)
Such a fun tradition, hope to keep it up for years to come 

Anatomy of a Preschooler's Outfit

She seriously kills me with her poses.
I loved the little dress Jessica picked out, and that she asked for her hair to be in "ballerina bun"- her current hairstyle of choice. Such a little girl!

Color blocked dress- hand me down
Black flats- also hand me downs
Ballerina Bun

Halloween

Some Halloween pictures:
Jessica working hard on her jack o lantern design

Helping clean out the pumpkins! This lasted all of 2 seconds.....

My girls are such posers.  Wonder where they get that from?

Notice how to Jessica's had eyelashes......

Izzy's final product. It's a sad one, it even has a tear :(

Before trick-or-treating, the girls were so distracted watching the other kids in costumes. It was near impossible to get a good picture.  Actually it WAS impossible.  But these will do :)  Notice them wearing their first home-made costumes ever (and their mommy's first time making a skirt EVER.  And you can tell....)

As per our tradition, we went trick-or-treating with Jessica's BFF Naima and in their neighborhood.  Much more happening then our dead end street (that also has a HUGE hill we're thinking deters a lot of the crowds)

I was a fairy with them! Jess was a pink fairy, Izzy a blue fairy and I was the purple fairy (in case you couldn't tell)

Daddy was a punk rocker.  But are mustaches really all that punk?

Always with the thumb in her mouth and finger up her nose..... le sigh, at least she's only 2!

Papa arrived for a visit just after we finished making our rounds.  The girls were so excited to show him the loot!

Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

Bates Nut Farm

Aka- The Pumpkin Patch

We did a little petting zoo- thought Daddy did most of the feeding of the pets.....

Then we rode ponies. Correction - JESSICA rode ponies. Izzy was soooo excited to ride, until it was time. Then she refused.

Went on a hayride pulled by 2 big horses and took this family shot:

Posed for pictures in the Pumpkin Patch- then picked out 2 perfect pumpkins (by Jessica, Izzy just chilled in the wheelbarrow)

And headed home. A fun, fun day!

And I wonder where Jessica gets her "posing" from.....

(but ps- aren't my new boots so cute! now just waiting for the right fall weather so I can wear them....)

Izzy doing.... gymnastics?

Apparently she's been out of gymnastics too long
She has forgotten that gymnastics was on soft mats, not hard blocks.
She set up these blocks and was bear walking over them telling me she was doing gymnastics.
In her underwear, of course.....