Find Your Happiness

As of late, we have been cutting down our meat intake, specifically red meat. We are not going vegetarians by any stretch of the imagination, but we feel that we really need to increase our vegetable and seafood intake for a more well-balanced diet and healthy lifestyle. I have been on a hunt for vegetarian recipes that I have created a specific board just for this on my Pinterest account, which is where I have been saving all the recipes I find online. This recipe contains some of our favorite vegetables: carrots, mushroom and snap peas. You can pretty much substitute and/or add your favorite veggie. It is versatile, quick, easy and deliciously healthy. The hardest part is cutting the veggies. Seriously. Adapted from Martha Stewart Serves 4 Ingredients: 1 pound extra firm tofu 2 tablespoons soy sauce 1 tablespoons rice vinegar 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil 1 tablespoon canola oil 2 small onions, cut into wedges 9 ounces button mushrooms, quartered 2 cups shredde...

Week 34: August 20th to August 26th 232 Eating mini M&Ms from my frozen yogurt topping. I have also been really enjoying taking pictures with the warm, sunshiny light "effect" in the background. It feels so summery :) 233 Enjoying a expensive cake pop at Starbucks 234  My first homemade cake pops; Vanilla cake pop with white and milk chocolate coating. 235  Dutch Puff with a few ingredients added: cinnamon, vanilla, sugar. Recipe found here . 236  Speedlite 430EX II ; my 26th birthday present from Hubby and my Mom. 237  Nathaniel reading his Bible. 238  Looking at our pre-baby scrapbooks; Nathaniel kept pointing at his Daddy's picture while saying, 'Dada!' but he wouldn't do the same with me. Linking up to: Inspire Me Photography: Be Inspired Project NapTimeMomTog: Project 365 The Mom Creative: Project Life Communal Global: Tuesdays Around the World

We went to Schlotzsky's for lunch yesterday and Nathaniel kept getting complimented at how good looking of a baby he is. And of course, as parents, we couldn't be any more proud. We gave him a pickle and his facial expressions and reaction were hilarious. But he kept going back to it, even though he clearly does not like the taste! Silly boy.

A couple months ago, I started a Twitter account to document the little things that Nathaniel does. It is such a great way to record the "baby stuff" especially at this stage of his life since there is always something new every day. And when I finally get my act together and start his baby book, this will definitely come in handy. I hope to post them once or twice a month to update our family and friends that don't have a Facebook account. So for now, this will be really, really long. Also, I got the idea from Gabby at Just Another Day in Paradise .

My 26th birthday was last Tuesday and my much anticipated gift finally arrived yesterday! I combined the money from my Mom and Hubby and bought a Speedlite 430EX II . For a couple weeks now, I have been trying to learn how to use this new toy and it's like reading a foreign language. Definitely something I will just have to do/learn by trial and error and plenty of practice. But for once, I am finally looking forward to taking pictures indoors! And just in time for the holidays :) Thanks, Dean and Mom!

Week 33: August 13th to August 19th 225  "My turn to take your picture, Mama!" 226  Beautiful rainbow after a well accepted-rainy weekend 227  Pointing at a "burrd" (bird) in his "uuk" ( book ) 228  Flowers from Hubby for my 26th birthday 229  Dobos Torte (10 layers); my 26th birthday cake. The picture is not the best but this cake is soooo decadent. Recipe found here . 230  Grilled Pork Chops with Spice Paste ; so delicious! 231  Nathaniel wanted to nap with his teddy bear and pillow-pet cow. Linking up to: Inspire Me Photography: Be Inspired Project NapTimeMomTog: Project 365 The Mom Creative: Project Life

This is such an easy meal to prepare. And it's very tasty, too! I love the color and taste that paprika gives and it has just enough heat from the cayenne pepper. I scaled the salt amount waaaaay down because I knew it would be too salty (probably almost inedible!) just by looking at the recipe. With a pretty decent stocked pantry, I can almost guarantee you can make this for dinner tonight. Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart Serves 4 Ingredients: 4 garlic cloves, minced 3 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus more for grates 2 tablespoons light-brown sugar 1 teaspoon coarse salt 2 teaspoon paprika 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper 1/2 teaspoon cayenne (more if you want it really spicy) 4 bone-in pork loin chops (about 3 pounds total) Directions: Combine all the ingredients except for pork in a small bowl until a paste forms. Coat pork chops with paste mixture; cover and marinade in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Set the grill to medium-high heat; cl...

Nathaniel is big lover of books recently. Most days, his first word/request when I pick him up from his crib in the morning is "uuk" (book) as he points to his bookshelf. We read two to three books less than an hour of waking up and then I lose count for the rest of the day. He sits quietly on your lap, listens and looks at the pictures. He especially enjoys reading with Daddy since my husband gets in character and gets really animated. Nathaniel also enjoys looking at books by himself. Today, he was "helping" me do laundry when he suddenly walked away after a few minutes. I figured I'd finish loading the washer and then I'd go looking for him. I went to our bedroom and then checked the kitchen. I called out his name but no response. That's when I knew to look for him in his room. Sure enough, I found him sitting on the chair with a book on his lap. Pointing at a "burrd" (bird)

Week 32: August 6th to August 12th 218  With these two in my life, I am complete. 219  A sign that I cook/bake too much: Nathaniel hears the timer go off and he runs to the kitchen, with a mitten ready. 220  Homemade Whole Wheat (Alphabet) Crackers---think goldfish except with real cheese! Recipe found here . 221  Sitting backwards on the big boy chair. 222  Fruitloops; I like to keep one unhealthy cereal in the pantry :P 223  Milk 'stache . 224  Nathaniel refused to take off his Spiderman socks for two days and two nights. Linking up to: Inspire Me Photography: Be Inspired Project NapTimeMomTog: Project 365 The Mom Creative: Project Life

Nathaniel is definitely NOT a picker eater---and for that we're very grateful! Ever since he started eating solids at six months old, he started eating adult "table food." He hated the taste/texture of baby food and so I had to cut our food to the littlest pieces just so he can eat them safely. I am also enjoying this independent stage. I love that he is now able to feed himself. I used to stuff myself eat super quickly because I have to feed a hungry infant, too. Or eat after everyone is finished, which means I'm super duper hungry and I eat alone. But now, I just put a pretty big size of food on his plate and off he goes. He even knows how to drink the milk in his cereal bowl! I bet you can pretty much guess who he learned it from. *cough* Hubby *cough* Now that's a pretty awesome milk 'stache. And although I already gave him half of what I normally eat, he asks for more. He was starting to get pretty irritated with me i...

I'm slowly but oh so surely losing steam with my Project 365 . I am currently on Week 32 , which really I am more than halfway over to being finished. I know I should just push through (just 21 more weeks, right?) and that I will really regret it if I didn't finish this. This project has become more of a photo diary, too instead of challenging myself everyday to improve my photography skills and be more creative. This doesn't bother me as much since I enjoy looking back at my collages and seeing what we did that week.   But I feel like I'm taking pictures of the same thing over and over again. I am just running out of ideas. And I'm very uninspired :( Out of ideas + uninspired = bad combo. I also feel like I'm being limited with my 50mm f/1.4. I love this lens very much but I am really missing the zooming capabilities. I still only own a 70-300mm (nearly impossible to take pictures indoors) and the kit lens but I may put...

Week 31: July 30th to August 5th 211  Playing with the water hose at our backyard 212  Nathaniel gave his friend Nachman a man-hug during another little friend's first birthday/pool party 213  Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread; Sooo delicious and not much more work compared to cinnamon rolls! Recipe and step-by-step instructions found here . 214  Lemon-Pepper Chicken Wings; I recently purchased a book called Wings: 50 High-Flying Recipes for America's Favorite Snack and we're pretty much cooking our way through it :) Hubby loves this a lot but I find the pepper just have a little too much kick! 215  Hanging out inside a photo booth at the mall. 216  Swimming lessons with Daddy; we signed Nathaniel up for a twice a week 30-minute class for the month of August. 217  Not much of an interesting cloud but I was thankful for it. It shielded the supper hot Texas sun while Nathaniel was playing in his pool. Linking up to: Inspire Me Photograp...

We signed Nathaniel up for a 30-minute twice a week swimming class at the local Y for the month of August. So far, he is doing great and has been enjoying himself at the same time. But he still gets scared and cries---and then he clings to you like an octopus. Mostly because he doesn't like being dunked under water. But then, who does, right? I know it seems cruel but it's a way to get him get used to being under water. Then he learns how to blow bubbles in the water... ...and how to get off the pool---a very important skill to know especially at this young age! "Yay, buddy!" "That's right, Daddy! Did you see that? Did you see me do it ALL by myself?!" :) And of course, they teach him how to kick and paddle.   We understand Nathaniel is too young to fully grasp the concept and learn how to swim but we want to expose him now to get him more comfortable with water. I never took swimming lessons as a child and I can barely float...