The dragon fleece

Mattias has lately been enjoying the swing (while Timo runs around the yard with his soccer ball and Mommy does lunges and a 5 minute workout on the front porch), looking up at the wind chimes and listening to all the airplanes and geese and cars. Three months old and definitely the biggest of the siblings at this age, but fortunately he still can squeeze into the Dragon Fleece.

Gemma at four months old, swinging on the back deck at Grandpa and Jaja's house. Look at that big smile!

Timo at almost-4 months old, when we were living in the basement apartment in Durham. (Funny, because Mattias wears this same hat sometimes and his ears always stick out, too!)

Saturday morning at the park

Piñon Valley Park, that is. We have had such mild weather for several weeks, and it was a lovely morning to meet up for a picnic lunch with Scott and Fiona Custer and their three girls. This is ridiculous to admit, but it was the first time we have seen and talked with Scott since we moved here! (Amazing considering how often Fiona and I see each other.) Scott is in his fourth year completing a Master's in Divinity and working part-time at a nearby church. A lot has changed since the last time we'd seen each other - Scott and Fiona were high school students at BFA, and Jim & I were in our early 20s, teaching and coaching there.

Mattias was content for quite a while in Scott's lap (father of 3 girls, no less!).

Funny face by 2 year old Megan, who was in the middle of eating a Valentine's Day cookie.

Olivia (4 years old) had fun carrying Timo around a bit.

These babies were born only 3 weeks apart!

Of course we had to get a group shot (yes, we were all wearing grey, apparently) with Pike's Peak behind us! That's one thing we love about this town - no matter where you are, if you get to a clear space (like a park!) and look up, you have amazing views of the Front Range.

On sinuses and pinecones and biscotti

Following on the last post, I did have a good birthday weekend, though in fact the last 3 weeks haven't been the most pleasant. The boys and I have been doing the rounds with head colds, and I got hit particularly hard with sinus pain and headaches that are continuing to bother me.

Timo was the first to get a cold, and now he's onto round 2 with another cold. He likes to wipe his runny nose on his hand or sleeve, or he gets a tissue (and thus smears snot all over his cheeks) and then stuffs the tissue back in the box. That's our organized little boy for you. 

Mattias likes to wipe his runny nose on my shoulder or chest. I never know what I'll find when I look down at my shirt. Poor guy. It is never nice to have a little baby with a big stuffy nose. Thankfully he has been sleeping fine. 

As for me, I used a tissue of course, though it made my nose so raw that for a while I was rubbing coconut oil on my face throughout the day to counter the soreness. I also discovered the Neti Pot and saline solution, which helped a lot but did NOT feel pleasant to do. It felt like when you are jumping in the waves at the beach and get smashed by a big one, thrown under and dragged by the undertow. Salt water up your nose and making you dizzy.

When Timo's hair embodies how we all feel first thing in the morning (this was pre-haircut)

Still mighty sweet and snuggable

In the midst of all this, we have had some lovely, sunny days of late, so despite the colds we have been able to do walks around the neighborhood. I really like living in this part of town, where there are old trees and wide sidewalks and come around a corner and oh, there's Pike's Peak! 

One day last week we started out on a walk, and Timo reached down and picked up a pinecone, which he proceeded to then carry the rest of the walk. We headed down our favorite alley ("favorite" because it has three basketball hoops in one block), and as we passed each hoop, Timo stopped and threw the pinecone up at the baskets. 

"Pinecone! Hoop! [throws it upwards] ...Ohhh, miss." 

He carried it all the way home, too, and around to the backyard where he then practiced shooting into his little 4 foot hoop. With the pinecone. And later with the frisbee and football.

What about biscotti in your post title, you may ask? Ah, well now. You faithful readers (Hi, Mom) know how much I love to cook and how much Jim loves to bake. In his excellent repertoire: rusks; banana bread; granola; pumpkin bread; chocolate bread; and several kinds of biscotti. I don't even attempt those items since Jim makes them so, so well. 

Of late, however, we have not photographed and posted any food photos. There are several reasons for this:

1. Laziness and lack of interest (who wants to stop in the middle of cutting into fresh scones to quick, take a photo! Doing so also strikes me as "so American". We have such plenty and variety, and we can spend all kinds of time talking about food and good grief taking photos of it. ...But that's a conversation for another time.)
2. Craziness in a house with young kids where mealtime often lasts 15 minutes or less.
3. "Photographability". While we really enjoy cooking tasty (I believe) dishes, oftentimes the food is difficult to capture on camera in a way that is appealing and truly representative of its deliciousness. Unless you are a food stylist and take time to put it on a nice plate and top with fresh herbs for garnish. It's hard to take photos of stews or casseroles or curries that really make it look good. For example I recently made a yummy vegetable curry with a peanut-coconut sauce. It was a dark green/brownish color. Not at all something that recommend itself in a photo. I didn't have time or desire to stand at the kitchen counter topping a bowl of rice and curry with shredded coconut and raisins and sliced green onions, and then take a photo of it.
4. In fact, most of the day, what is sitting on my stovetop is this:

"Pease porridge cold"... Six hours later and still need to put the leftover porridge in the fridge.

Back to the biscotti...and Reason 5. High Altitude Baking Is Tricky.

We are still learning how to adjust recipes - the high altitude (we are a MILE high, after all!) means that the sugar, flour, leavening and liquid may need to be changed, along with oven temperature and baking time. Needless to say, in the last year and a half we have had numerous flops. Numerous underbaked loaves and overbaked loaves. Even Jim, who recently made apricot-gingerbread biscotti (my favorite of his) THREE times. And burned all of them. Argh. 

Perhaps I should do a post soon with photos of some of our flops and our brown dinners. Just so you can see what life is really like. But then again, that would require me to get out the camera...

Birthday weekend

Saturday and Sunday means family time!!! And this past weekend we had incredibly warm, sunny weather. Probably the nicest weather I've ever had for my birthday (except when we lived in Cape Town). 

Saturday morning we took the chance to get out and go for a walk at Red Rocks Canyon. The boys were in the double stroller so we had to stick to the main trail. One of these days we'll get out the backpacks instead and explore a bit more, but it is still beautiful and relaxing to be out of the house and enjoying the mountain scenes (only 15 minutes from our house). In fact Timo was quite eager to be running on the trail, "Hike! Hike!" The photos don't show it but the place was packed, the busiest we'd seen it.

On our way to the trail, we stopped by Wimberger's Old World Bakery and Deli - an authentic German store - and got some picnic lunch supplies. The rolls are amazing. And we even got some cheese for a treat...

 The highlight for Timo was seeing this big digger in the parking lot. 

That evening Jim made pumpkin-black bean soup (very tasty) and Boston brown bread for my birthday supper. And, on Sunday afternoon he made carrot cake! [*Yes, they were all new recipes, as tradition dictates. The cake was different because it was vegan and low-fat, but surprisingly moist and tasty. We'll be making it again.] 

We even found some candles, which Timo  blew out for me (and then wanted to do again, so we re-lit and did it again and again and again). Best of all, I got to talk to Dad to say Happy Birthday to him too. Okay - let's be honest. The best part was reading the hilarious limericks that my family wrote for me. Here are two...i'm not exactly sure what I think of them...

Little Miss Julianna
She sat on a banana
The ham and beef were outs
So ate her kale and sprouts
And lived 'til an old Nana. 


Words can't explain
A sister not-so-plain.
She smiles with ease, 
Usually eager to please
And not a soul would find her vain.

If she has time, she cooks
vegetables and sauces from books.
No meat of course,
Lest she turn into a horse...
Wary to keep her good looks.

Oh my, she makes us laugh.
Creating sillies is her craft,
I'm rolling on the floor already,
Her two sons will keep her steady,
reading books to not become daft.

Look at my little handsome guy!

Timo employed a very effective cake eating method, and polished off the whole piece quite easily.

Haircut

Yes, it is time for the two year-old in our house to get a haircut! His 3rd that I have done, I might add. His hair has started growing so fast and of course it is hard for a mother to cut her little boy's curls (even in the dry Colorado weather, it was still curling up) ...but we approached desperate times, and finally it needed to be done. For starters, here is what Timo had been looking like with his long locks.

while proudly drinking chocolate milk from his Timo James cup

On Sunday afternoon, first we sat Jim down for a haircut while Timo was watching. We kept smiling and exclaiming happily, until Timo began chiming in, "Timo turn! Timo turn!" His cute happy voice sounded like an exact echo of Gemma's, and we recalled how she would say, "Gemma turn!" at this age, too, whenever she wanted to go down the slide or throw the ball or stir the batter.

We couldn't get him in the chair fast enough. During the haircut, Jim sat in front of Timo and read a book with him. That kept Timo very happy and still.
 

Finished! Hurray for Timo!

And let me just mention - if we weren't just renting this house we would definitely re-do the kitchen, starting with the cabinets!!!!