My late bloomer is blossoming!

Well I wanted to post a video of Asher saying "uhoh"  but it wouldn't work.  So I'll have to be satisfied with this equally adorable pic of Asher riding Jackson's bike on our camping trip to Snow Canyon last weekend.  Asher is changing so much lately, just blooming before our eyes!  No, no walking yet, but I really don't expect it anytime soon.  Both brothers walked at about 16 months, but Asher is definitely on his own time and I'm not feeling pressure to hurry him, he'll do it when he is ready (funny how I've learned that philosophy with him but I still feel the need to pressure Porter, poor guy!)  Here's what Asher has been up to:

Says "Uhoh" and "Mama"

Claps his hands all the time!

Waves bye-bye

Shakes his head no

Climbing on everything including the Stove!

(well not totally on top but he trys and is sure proud of his efforts!)

Continues to shower our lives with tremendous joy and happiness!

"Mom, we need to have a hello party"

Last week as we were leaving for our trip to AZ, Jackson decided we needed to have a "hello party" since we were going to be gone a long time (4 days) and our friends would miss us.  Isn't he so thoughtful??!!  Well I thought he'd forget about it.  But as soon as we got home, he grilled me all day about the party!  So there was no getting out of it for me.  So we had the neighborhood kids (8 of them) over for some snacks, and play.  I was pleasantly suprised how well they got along.  We ate apples and cheese with cookies and water (mostly we ate cookies and a apple or two on the side).  And played played played!  This last picture is of the kids making a bus (so clever!).  

Last night we attended Swiss Days, here in Santa Clara.  A carnival of sorts to honor the Swiss heritage of the pioneers that settled this area.  I love that these people cherish their heritage so dearly, and preserve it well to share with us.  This morning was another double header soccer game.  Porter and Jackson, are both playing this year.  Its been quite interesting, to say the least.  None of us are natural born athletes, yet we encourage the boys to try hard, participate and support the team they've committed to.  It's intense effort for us as parents too  give up 2 nights a week for practices, not to mention EVERY SINGLE  SATURDAY MORNING!  No sleeping in for us on Saturdays until mid November (shoot that hurts).  Its these experiences that give me tremendous gratitude for the sacrifices my parents made  so that my sister and I could play softball.  My father does not get much sleep with his occupation ( I mean is job, not the role of being the father of 2 girls!).  But every summer, he sacrificed his sleep to coach our softball teams for at least 10 years.  He was no average coach, Dad worked hard at molding us and 14 other girls into  dedicated, positive players.  He was passionate about it and he was good too! Not to mention the all the games mom cheered us on at, the early dinners the crazy late nights. Those are some of my fondest childhood memories, playing softball for Dad's team and making him proud.  I love you so much Dad, thanks for all you gave for us!

New View

                           

I'm so tired of "catching up".  I'm tired of feeling like I'm delinquent on a high school assignment.  So I'm going to complete it once and for all with a nice slideshow and a short breakdown of the last 2-ish months!

• Got to St. George unscathed and happy to be in familiar territory.  Found a house to rent in a fantastic neighborhood right across from the elementary school ( I still can't get over how convenient that is!!).
• We're not here even 3 days and all ready Jackson and Porter were asked to ride the float for Jackson's preschool in the county fair parade.
• Porter's started 1st grade!  First time going all day.  It was shaky at first, he takes a little longer to warm up to new routines, but is doing EXCELLENT now!  Yeah Porter!!
• A brief 3 hour reunion with Char in Cedar City! Totally worth it!
• I turned 29!!!! Holy cow that seems really old!  What a great b-day I had though; my very dear friend Lindsay and her family came to stay the weekend with us.  We had a wonderful visit and filled our tummy with yummy foods from favorite haunches around town.  I love that they are barely 2 hrs away in Vegas!!!!  My sweet friend Kristine also brought me a whole coconut creme pie!  So thoughtful of her!  Adam gave me money to spend on whatever I wanted, believe me, its burning a hole in my pocket!
• Jackson started preschool.  He's learn so much and having a blast.  He has already charmed the teachers to bits.
• Porter lost his first tooth.  The tooth fairy came and made a big mess with her "pixie dust" but the $2 she left made up for it!
• We had a short but sweet visit with my parents and Devin when they came up for Labor Day.  We had a family picnic and hike in Snow Canyon. 
• Asher is progressing so much!  Forming a fiery personality, and causing lots of mischief (climbing on the table, getting into the garbage, unrolling all the toliet paper... the usual)
• Adam is thoroughly enjoy his second rotation with Dr. Croft, learning so much about Opt. business management, not to mention weekly lake trips!
• Just got back from a whirlwind trip to Mesa.  Sorry if we missed you, it was really really short.  There was so much we just couldn't do.  We did get to enjoy our families at the lake and a very brief BBQ with our very dear friend the Fullers.  And some fabric shopping with my mom.  ( I'm trying my hand at recovering $8 upholstered chairs).

Well, that should cover most of it.  Now maybe I can move on...we shall see!

Beloved/Despised Puerto Rican Beans

I enjoy cooking very much, especially trying new things and especially something as culturally beloved as the traditional Puerto Rican rice and beans.  Rice and beans are a staple in daily Puerto Rican cuisine.  So I ask my sweet neighbor, Tata to teach me how the Puerto Ricans do it.  Since then we enjoyed rice and beans at least 3 times a week.  I made it for all our guest, and felt very pleased that I had learned something so important to Puerto Rican culture.  Now I use the term "enjoyed" loosely.  Adam LOVES rice and beans!  No he LOVES LOVES LOVES rice and beans.  This recipe is very nostalgic for him as it is very similar to what he ate on his mission in Bogata Columbia.  Everytime I made them, he had a look of ecstasy glaze over his face!  Ironically the big boys had a look of pure torture glaze over their faces when they sat down to eat and saw the token 5 BEANS on their plate that we would insist they eat!  In fact Jackson said the other day, " I never want to go back to Puerto Rico so that I don't have to eat the beans."  So very funny to me.  Asher loved them, and was always willing to enjoy a cup full!  Well we are back in the states now, and as I suspected I'm having trouble finding the authentic ingredients to recreate this Puerto Rican specialty.  The pepper used to make a sofrito is very specific, as well as the pink beans, which are nothing like red, pinto or kidney.  I've tried Mexican ( I know its not Mexican but I thought it was a good try) grocers, and simply looking in my local Lin's grocer but no luck.  Until last Wednesday, I may have found what I'm looking for!  I found a pepper in Albertsons called a Hungarian Wax Pepper, which looks extremely similar and smells right too!  So I thought I check out the beans at Albertson's too, and sure enough in the dried bean section I found pink beans.  I've never made it from dried beans though.  I thought this was funny about the Puerto Ricans, they made there sofrito from scratch (its very easy; simply saute onions, peppers and garlic in olive oil) but they always used canned beans.  I guess when you make it daily, you don't want to mess with soaking/cooking beans.  Anyways I'll be experimenting this week, in hopes to recreate some Puerto Rican atmosphere, here in St. George.  

By golly it works!

WOW!  Maybe my faith in the world wide web and my brand new internet connection here in beautiful St. George UT. is renewed!  This is the same slide show that I tried to create at least 10 times in Puerto Rico, but it always froze up about half way through.  I uploaded these pics in 10 minutes flat.  No more hours of uploading.  So here you go, I  guess I'll start updating TWO MONTHS worth of events in the LA VIDA LOCA DE LOFGRAN'S!

Dear Internet Connection,

  I have been very patient with you.  I'm even grateful for you since you are better than no internet connection.  But you are far too slow.  All I want to do is create a slideshow of pictures, but you are making that impossible.  I have tried 5 times to create my latest slideshow but it always freezes up.  I'm losing my patience!  I know we're in Puerto Rico, and everything is laid back here but this is taking it too far.  If you don't shape up soon, I will pack you up and ship you to St George, Utah (actually you can count on that!).  Please, please, please, just shape up and  let me make a slideshow to share our Puerto Rican adventures with our family and friends.  

Sincerely,

Me 

Grammy and Boppa come to Puerto Rico!

Several weeks ago my parents came to visit here in Puerto Rico.  They came in on Father's Day, what a special treat that was to share my dad's special day with him.  We spent there first day relaxing with a swim and a walk down the beach, and the kids showed them around there favorite pool, ending with a traditional Puerto Rican meal of rice and beans and chicken and birthday cake with Asher.  It was such a great start to a great visit!  The boys just fell right in step with my dad, who was so energetic and engaging the entire visit!  He's such a happy boy when he's on vacation, and it was a special treat to share this time with him.  Jackson was so funny that day!  Our neighbors, Carlos and Tata were also having a get together with there families for the holiday.  Jackson walked right into their open door and sat down on their couch playing his leapster. He just made him self at home there!  We were all cracking up over it. He said he likes over there better because their house is bigger and ours in puny and old (they're the exact same floor plan), what a character! Later on, he mooch not one but two pieces of cake from them!  This is actually a common occurrence for our little Jack, people just love him and always want to give him things, he is just so irresistible!

Monday we took them to El Junque Rainforest, and a quick stop at Luquillo Beach (gorgeous) for lunch ( I don't think my mom digs all the fried stuff!).  Tuesday was an adventure into San Juan to see the smaller of the 2 forts San Cristobol, which was so cool with its tunnels and turrets. We took a trolley around old San Juan then onto Santurce to the beautiful Plaza del Mercado were we searched high and low for an exotic fruit my dad heard of called zapote.  We found it and $5 later (the gringo price I'm sure!)  we headed off to our 2 hour outdoor lunch at a very nice restaurant across from the mercado (that's just the way Puerto Ricans roll, SLOW! and lade back!)  The kids were amazing and very tolerant through it all.  Asher knocked a plate of fries to the ground and attracted about a hundred pigeons.  One got caught under my feet and spooked me, so of course I screamed, then Asher did, and well... it was a very interesting lunch!  I have to say that Dad as driver and I as navigator made a fantastic team, not once did we get lost or frustrated in this crazy city!  

Wednesday, Adam was able to get the day off to join us on the ferry to the island of Culebre where Flamenco beach (consistently rated one of the 3 most beautiful beaches in the world).  We had another fantastic day playing in the water and sand, and getting in some good snorkeling, on a beach that was truly breathtaking, we felt so privileged to experience this with my parents.

Thursday, our last day together was spent around aquatika enjoying the beach, kayaking, and each other!  We planned to experience the bioluminesence that evening, long story short ( if I get into it, I'll just get upset all over again!) it didn't work out, so instead we drowned our sorrows in Carvel ice cream, which was a special trip down memory lane for dad, as a childhood favorite and tradition to have a Carvel cake every year on his birthday.

  Everyday Grammy read to the boys from the book "George's Marvelous Medicine" by Roald Dahl.  Its a very funny book that the boys loved, especially Grammy's voice characters.  Actually my mom has inspired me to read to the books regularly by her example.  Its such a great way for me to bond with them, and I enjoy it too.  Thanks mom!

Friday morning we said our goodbyes.  It was emotional for all to bring such a fantastic visit too an end.  My lamp was full again, after having such quality time with my family!