Lightning McQueen

Aliyah's passions seem to change monthly. This month it's Cars--specifically Lightning McQueen. Cars is the first, full-length movie we let her watch and she loved it. Her favorite part is making me skip through to each racing scene and exclaiming, "Lipening go fast!" or "Go Lipening go!"



A few weeks back, we were in Target and she spotted some pool toys of the Cars characters. I knew she was only attracted to the fact that Lightning McQueen was in the package so in order to divert her attention to a cheaper option, I took her to the toy aisle and found the cheapest toy car of Lightning McQueen I could find. It was a huge hit with Aliyah, especially since it had a button on the top that, when pressed, Lightning's tongue would pop out. Unfortunately, somewhere in the midst of taking it everywhere for the next couple of weeks, I misplaced it. When I went back to Target a few nights ago, the same toy was nowhere to be found so I settled on the next cheapest option, which had Lightning McQueen (no tongue popping feature though) and another new character from the Cars 2 movie.



Who is this second character? I didn't know at the time, but when she asked I told her it was the Italian Car. She stumbled on saying that for a couple of days, but now that I researched what that character's name actually is (Francesco for anyone who is wondering), she corrects me by saying, "No, Mommy, that's the Italian Car."



Aliyah's shoes have been giving her a blister on her right, big toe for some reason, but lucky for her they make Cars band-aids.



Daddy helped put together a little race course for the two cars this evening and she got a big kick out of it.



We figured that we should watch the second movie just so she could see this Italian Car in action. The movie is terrible. Half-way though Sebastian and I looked at one another and asked sheepishly, "How do you like the movie so far?" No response from either of us. By this time, Aliyah had also become bored and was trying to balance herself between the couch and the ottoman, and we decided to throw in the towel with this Pixar flick. Sort of disappointing. I didn't think Pixar had it in them to make that bad of a movie. Apologies to Pixar, I still love you and will drool every time I see a sequence of storyboards or hear about your newest movie. In fact, I'm already looking forward to Monster's University and The Good Dinosaur set to come out in the next few years.



For now, I'm more than happy to sit back and watch the first Cars movie (over and over and over), which is a classic in my mind. To enjoy the sentimental value I know it will hold for me years from now when I look inside a box of Aliyah's old toys and find these cars is something I'll gladly take.

Montezuma Peak

This past weekend we met up with a good friend of Sebastian's who has been in the Tuscon area for a couple of weeks training for the National Reserves. I may be wrong on that exact title...but I know it's something close. Jon was in the Army for about 4 years and is currently working in the D.C. area. He and Sebastian have been friends since high school and was also one of our groomsmen in our wedding.

When Jon invited us to come down and visit, we didn't hesitate. We all arrived on Saturday late afternoon and stayed the night in Tuscon. Then got up early on Sunday and made our way to the quaint, historic town of Bisbee, Arizona. With a toddler and two men in tow, I couldn't really do much shopping, but  I caught glimpses of so many neat shops that I would love to make the trip down there again just to look around some more.

We had breakfast at a great little place called The Breakfast Club. The service was up to par with Minnesota nice and the food was pretty tasty too.

From there Jon then took us to Montezuma Peak. It was absolutely breathtaking.





This time we took along the hiking backpack for Aliyah, which turned out to be a good idea. When Jon told us about the hike up to the top of peak I wasn't expecting the it to be so steep. I'm sure that making it to the top would have been much more time-consuming had we not Aliyah strapped to Sebastian's back. And even though Aliyah did whine a bit while in there, the view at the top was well, well worth it. 





Miles and miles of beautiful land. Some of it the U.S. and some of it Mexico. Simply stunning.



This image below fascinates me because in the middle of the photo, the straight black line is actually the immigration wall on the border of the U.S. and Mexico. It seemed a bit surreal that we were so close to such a controversial piece of land and to realize and even wonder with dismay how something so beautiful could be such a cause of turmoil for so many people. 

If there is one thing I have learned from living in Arizona a short while, it's that this state does not disappoint when it comes to nature.

Our Kitchen

This is my kitchen on its best behavior. In other words, I cleaned it in anticipation of this post.

We love this kitchen. We designed and picked everything out ourselves and this room is a true labor of love on Sebastian's part. While we brought in contractors for some items like electrical and some installation of a few of the appliances, for the most part, this kitchen was put together by Sebastian. 

There are still many little things I want to do like adding some shelves and artwork to the bare walls, bringing in some sort of moulding, adding a backsplash and painting and re-staining the movable kitchen island in the center. The rest will come gradually, I know, and I love that we can take our time. For now, it's pretty much complete and we are enjoying the fact that this is the nicest kitchen that Sebastian and I have lived in since being together. 

The farmhouse sink above is probably one of my favorite things in the kitchen. The knobs and pulls come a close second. I was able to find them online for a steal and the wheat motif on the knobs reminds me of my childhood days on the farm. 

I'm also enjoying adding in the little details like showcasing my late Grandma Kramer's drying towels, among other things.

Details like this that let me know that we are building a home-base that Aliyah and any future sibling(s) will enjoy and create memories for years to come

Little Helper

Aliyah is at the prime age right now where helping out Mommy and Daddy seems like a fantastic thing, and I am going to milk this phase for all it's worth. This is great for two big reasons. One, it keeps her occupied and prevents mischief, and two, it's awesome having a little helper for chores! Just this past Saturday we went outside on our front stone area and cleaned away all the leaves. I swept and she held the dust pan and dumped them in a bucket. I wasn't sure she would be much help, but it was the perfect job for her and I actually found myself thinking it made the job a little bit easier and a lot more fun to have her by my side.

Today, after she spent about twenty minutes jumping from the ottoman to the couch, I decided to put her to work again by helping Daddy install our built-in cabinet handles. She was really interested in what Sebastian was doing and wanted to know the whole process. She was also very intent on giving him the right tools for the job.

This weekend I finally got around to painting the living room a gray-toned blue. Up until I finished painting this room, I was feeling a little overwhelmed at all I still wanted to do with the new place, especially after a whirlwind few months of big renovations and then moving. (Have I mentioned I really, really, really, really, really dislike moving?)  But seeing the transformation of a new coat of paint is good motivation and I'm ready to keep going. My next goal is to paint the dining area a very, very light color. Right now I have two deeper hues in the kitchen and the living room, so I think I need to tone it down a bit and bring in a more subtle color.

I just realized that the below photo as our cat post right front and center. Looks like it might be time for a new one. This view of the living room shows just a hint of the built-in bookshelves/entertainment center/fireplace that we had designed in place of the old brick fireplace.

Other than giving Aliyah mini-chores, stickers are my other go-to activity for her. Stickers have helped make many plane rides bearable for this girl, and are also a good way to get her to actually calm down for a bit when needed. I usually find big 700 count packs of stickers at the dollar store, which are perfect because I'm able to let her loose and not have to worry about wasting any. She was excited to see some farm stickers since she immediately associated them with Grandpa Peters.

This girl continues to make us laugh often. She was a dancing machine today in church, and in the past few days she has figured out that if she can't get our attention by calling out Daddy or Mommy, saying Bastian and "Marna" will no doubt turn heads. She keeps us on our toes, that is for sure!

Health Kick & Green Goodness

I'm on another one of my health kicks. The ones where I work out feverishly and try to eat extremely well for about two weeks and then I just sort of fizzle out. Some days I'm all for excersising and then other days I think about having to make an effort every week of my life to maintain a certain physique and I wonder if it's really worth it. Also, I love dessert. And sweets. Especially cake. Oh, and my Mom's baking. I'm pretty sure her baking is the reason for the sweet tooth of her children and grandchildren.

But, like I said, for now, I'm on a health kick. And this time I have more at stake because I'm in on a bet with the CEO of my company, my manager and one of their friends. We each have a certain weight goal to get to before our all-company trip to Cabo San Lucas at the end of August, and whomever doesn't make their goal weight has to be the butler to the other three for the day. If there's one thing I know about myself, it's that I'm competitive. I may not always come in first, but when there's a competition on the line I excel more than if I were to just do it myself.

Lately I've been using the juicer that we received as a wedding gift as a way to get an abundance of fruits and veggies so that I'm filled up on nutritious food rather than bad. What I love is that it is so easy to use. Just wash and throw the items in. The juicer does the rest. For me, the best part about juicing is that I can pretty much use any selection of veggies that I have on hand, add some sweet fruits like grapes or an apple and it will taste absolutely delicious. Sebastian goes a little more hard-core and will sometimes make an all-veggie juice and those are harder for me to drink then the sweeter ones I make.

I've also noticed that when I juice about an hour or half hour before I run during my lunch hour, my runs are much easier. The burst of wholesome produce must be good for my endurance and energy.

Here's what I threw into the juicer today. Incredibly delicious, sweet and simply healthy.

When I first started juicing, the colors of the drinks would throw me off. I thought that something this hue would surely not taste good at all, but I was wrong. I've learned to never judge a juice by its color.