You can’t really tell from the pictures but it rained all day, was gray and cold. But that didn’t damper or darken my little guy’s day.  He has a light of his own that he shines brightly every day. Always happy, chatty, funny, and ready to go anywhere and do anything without complaint.

He woke up early ready for the much expected abundance of love from mommy, daddy and brother.  He is very much loved every day, but today was extra special of course because of the presents, specially requested food and all the cards in the mail from loved ones.

He didn’t ask for much, just a penguin made by me. So, every little gift was a big surprise.  He said, “Everyone must love me A LOT!”  They sure do, little buddy!

We went up the mountain yesterday as part of our Valentine’s day fun.    The kids love the snow, but don’t tolerate the cold for very long.  Nor do we have the right gear for this sort of thing.  We had to scrounge around for hats, mittens and warm clothes, trying to make do with what we have.

We had been thinking we needed some sort of sled, but always forget to get one before heading  up the snowy mountain top. We saw the sun visor for our car and thought it might work as a sled. It totally worked and the kids had such a blast swishing down the mountain.

We’ve been having a wonderful Valentine’s day. First we started out with heart pancakes.

Then gift exchanging — vegan chocolates for me from Sweet Fritsy and a stitched up Valentine for my hubby (and his bike riding butt).

A trip up the mountain for a picnic lunch and play in the snow with the kids. We feasted on heart shaped pasta salad and chocolate, cream cheese brownies.

For dinner, some take out Chinese to celebrate the Chinese New Year.  We are making a Dragon now, and I made these adorable little felt fortune cookies to handout to my friends at work last Friday.

Tonight, some love potion…  Herbal infused brandy mixed with chocolate syrup, rose water and vanilla. The recipe is from Rosemary Gladstar’s Family Herbal.  It took weeks to brew (or infuse). It’s really tasty and will be served with organic strawberries.  Yum.

Hope you had a beautiful and love filled Valentine’s day.

Just enjoying my day, being surrounded by my loves.

Homemade birthday cards are the best (by Super-E)

Small art too (by I-guy)

Great books from the hubby.

Some great smellin’ stuff from my sis.

Watching my hubby make my cake. The top layer kept wanting to slide off the bottom layer so we had to stick a skewer in the middle to keep it together. It was a funny and messy situation. My hubby says that the messier it looks, the better it will taste.

Both Super-E and I-guy spent private sessions alone with me in my craft room making little stuffed gifts for each other. I-guy, the little one, wanted to make an owl for his brother, since there has been a big interest in Guardians of Ga’hoole.  I-guy spent the whole time with me, very interested in the process, helping with all the embroidery stitching, felt and button choices. He did ALL the stitching on the eyes, beak, and chest and was so, so proud!

Then, Super-E wanted to make his brother Picachu, which happens to be I-guy’s favorite color– yellow. So, that is what we made.  Super-E couldn’t wait to escape the craft room. He did the directing and choosing of things and dashed away as fast as he could.  It’s alright though.  I couldn’t torture the poor kid and his heart was still very much in the right place.

When they gave eachother their gifts, there was so much excitement and love shared.  They both adore their gifts and keep them close at bedtime.

These two, I can honestly say, are best of friends. They definitely have their moments, of course, but Super-E is extremely patient and nurturing and the little guy can’t WAIT for his big brother to get home from school everyday.  What more could a mom ask for.

Decide to take a break from making art today.  I started making my ornaments for Amy’s swap, but lost energy by noon.  Hopefully I’ll have my ornaments ready to show on Monday.

Instead, I-guy and I ate some yummy strawberry soup (which is really called bright pink fruit dip) for lunch. The recipe is from this awesome cookbook, which always seems to be laying open somewhere.  The kids love to play pretend cooking with it because it has all the ingredients and instructions all nicely drawn out.

He had his soup set up exactly like the book said to and I had some in a bowl topped with nuts, bananas, chopped pears and apples.

It was pretty yummy.  Since both I-guy and I have dairy intolerance issues, we used soy yogurt and tofutti cream cheese instead.  We decide next time to add some blueberries and make purple soup!

I just could NOT share these. Just look at that face!

This here is my littlest guy. He has a little nervous tick where he twirls the same piece of hair over and over again leaving a funny little curl that pokes straight up.  He’s been doing this since he was a small babe. Usually the hair twirling is accompanied by a little humming moan, especially when he is trying to sleep at night. It’s really cute, but he’s also giving himself a little bald spot from the tugging and twirling.  I am tempted to cut his hair shorter which means less hair twirling, but big brother is going through a no hair-cut phase right now, so that of course means that little brother wants to be exactly like big brother.  I may have to do a hair cut day this weekend regardless.

**update** In the last hour since I wrote this, Big brother decided to solve the problem by just trimming the little curl off. I was on the phone, of course, when this all happened.  Now there is just a stubby chunk of hair where a little curl once was. I guess a hair cut will have to happen sooner than later.

One day a month, I spend the morning making piles of pancakes for my little pancake eating piggies. They love them and so I have to oblige. For one, I can make them exactly the way we like (half whole wheat and vegan), we save money and packaging. In a pinch we have bought store bought kinds, but they are never as good, always a bit on the chewy or spongy side. It’s also hard to find inexpensive vegan pancakes .

I make mine from a modified recipe from VWAV that is quadrupled. I lay them all out on plate to allow them to cool and then put them on plates in the freezer for 15-30 minutes. I pluck them all off the plate into freezer bags. I have been doing this for almost a year now.

Lately I have been saving a cups worth of pancake batter and adding in stuff for me. I add a handful of oats, a sprinkling of unsalted sunflower seeds, dried cranberries (or cherries)and chopped walnuts.  I pop them in the toaster eat them plain for snacks. So yummy.

That was an unexpected little blog break.  We spent a good part of last week getting sick and then miraculously getting better before Daddy’s birthday weekend.  He had a mountain bike race up in the White Mountains of Arizona.  My little I-guy was barely on the mend, but the change in scenery seemed to perk him up quite nicely.  I forget how exciting it is to travel and stay in a hotel as a child.  Our room was mediocre at best, but my little guys delighted in the accommodations, teeny refrigerator and all.  The change in scenery and weather was exactly what we needed.

My hubby had a nice birthday weekend. It was his first mountain bike race in many, many years and he did quite well.  I have a feeling we will be doing a lot more of these races.

The White Mountains are amazing.  We got a nice little taste of Autumn, which is something we don’t get to see in the desert. We stayed in Pinetop, Az. There is the cutest little scrap book store there called Embellish Boutique. It’s a very inspiring little place that any scrapbookers OR multimedia artist would LOVE.  The owners were so nice. I had to buy a few rub-ons for my art journaling and a few pieces of paper to make daddy a birthday card while we waited.  If you are ever in the area, you have to stop by this shop.  I wish I had taken some pictures.

These last two pictures were taken at the same time on our way home. The sun was going down and the moon was coming up. Such a beautiful way to end out little adventure.  Now, I should be back to regular scheduled posting, barring no more illnesses.

We went to a school picnic today.  Such a nice day for a picnic.  Still a little too warm, but tolerable.  Since Super-E’s school is vegetarian, the picnic was vegetarian.  So nice to not have to worry about that.  We had a very nice time.