Happy Easter Morning!

Fun little Easter morning!



1. The kids' Easter "baskets". Luke got a movie (The Lorax), a book (Red Pyramid by Rick Riordon), a new hooded zip sweatshirt, some colored bubbles (to do along with his sister), and of course, candy. Elissa got a book (I Love You Honey Bunny), socks and undies, toothbrush and toothpaste (all very exciting for her, I guarantee!), colored bubbles and fruit snacks. They each got a new ball as well.

2, 4 & 5. Elissa ate the fruit snacks out of her eggs and then just moved on :)

3. Luke eating candy.

6. Big smile for the camera! (this is a rarity, by the way).

7. A little iPad gaming after going through the goodies.

8. Elissa's bath whistle, isn't it cute?!

9. Easter egg coloring kit. Why wasn't it used, you ask? Uh, that might have something to do with mom forgetting that the eggs were on the stove and all the water boiling off. Oops.

10. New use for an Easter basket.

11. Australian coffee courtesy of Trevor's sister, Heather. She recently got back from a trip Down Under!

12. Pixel, our cute kitty.

We hope you're having a great Easter with family and friends! Hallelujah, He is Risen!

~STELR

Sharing about Sue & SCI

I know, I know. I have been a slacker with our blog. As I stated in a post or two ago, we have been keeping up with our New 52, I just haven't kept up with the writing. I still plan to catch up! But I just wanted to share today anyway. This doesn't technically qualify as a "New 52" since it's something we've all done before...but a good time nonetheless!

Do you use Groupon? I've used it a handful of times and it's a great way to save some money while doing something you would do anyway or try something new! Today we used a Groupon deal and went to the Science Center of Iowa with my mom and some family friends. (Actually we've known them so long it's more like an extension of our family - do you have someone like that in your life?)

The special exhibit at SCI right now is Sue the T-Rex - very awesome to see! In addition to seeing Sue we ran around, dug for dinosaur bones, played in the water, shot rockets, saw snakes and a snapping turtle (behind glass, of course!) and I got some great shots of the kids. While we were at SCI, Trevor enjoyed a well deserved reprieve at home. :)



~STELR

Bloglovin': My Google Reader replacement

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

I'm sure you've heard by now that Google Reader is going away; if not, you can read about it here. Due to this, I saw several posts on social media this weekend asking for alternatives. Bloglovin' was one that was mentioned several times so I decided to check it out. So far, I really like it. It seems to strike a happy medium between a traditional blog feed service and a more visual service, like Feedly, for example. There is an easy import feature for your Google Reader feeds, it has a clean interface, and a Bloglovin' "frame" that enables you to use 'next' and 'like' features.

So now it's my turn to ask you...what service do you use to aggregate your blog reading?

New 52 | Week 5 | Getting in Front of the Camera

Catch up post #2! (actually written about a month ago)

I saw a Facebook post by a photographer that I follow and admire, Marisa Taylor:
"A message to moms (and dads): I know sometimes that we hate having our pictures taken. Most days we don't have the right outfit, or our hair is not cooperating...which is a daily occurrence for me. Sometimes we feel like if we lose just 10 more pounds, then we can do pictures. Let me tell you what, your kids, the little people that you gave life to, don't care about any of that. To them, you are a super hero. You are beautiful, you are awesome. You are the bringer of food, the chaser of bad nightmares. You are mom, or dad. When they get older, they are going to want to see pictures of you and them...together."

Man, can I RELATE!!! Her post, along with an adorable picture of her and her little girl, was inspiring to me! So, I made Elissa put on some clothes (her choice most days is just a diaper, even when it's 12 degrees out!) and I made Luke put on some nice clothes (his choice is usually lounge pants and a shirt that is too small - he just doesn't seem to notice). We set up a backdrop and I handed Trevor the camera.

I'm just looking through the pics now as I'm deciding what to put on this post and I'm cracking up! At least 12 of the 24 shots are outtakes!! LOL. (Side note, this is exactly why photographers don't give you every shot they take at a session, lol!)




SO glad we did this and yes, we'll be doing this a little more from now on. Now the next trick is to actually PRINT one or two of them!

New 52 | Week 4 | Movie: Father of Lights

I realize I already did an "I'm behind" post (and I'm certain that will happen a few more times throughout the project) but hey, life happens and I'm ok with that. So, this is one of a couple of 'catch-up' posts since the last several weeks have been beyond hectic!

For week 4 of the project, we had a movie afternoon with a friend and her daughter. This had been on the calendar for a while but got bumped and rescheduled a few times for various reasons. And it almost did again due to some icky weather! But Cammie and Eliza braved slick roads to come share this awesome movie with us. It had been an otherwise lazy day for us so I was thrilled to see that they came comfy in their jammies since I was still in mine! :)

We timed it so that Elissa would be napping which worked out just right. The 5 of us settled in with our popcorn, soda, and some chocolate! I wasn't sure exactly what to expect but I knew that Cammie had raved about the movie so I was excited to see what the hype was about.

So, the movie is Father of Lights. It's a documentary style film that follows Director Darren Wilson and his crew to several parts of the world as he shows God working in people's lives. There are some incredible, AMAZING stories told. My favorite was about an American couple who gave up everything, moved to China with no plan, no connections, just faith. They are now making an impact on the lives of mentally and physically handicapped Chinese children who would have otherwise been basically discarded. Luke's favorite story involved a very powerful witch doctor in India whose power was no match for God.

The rest of the stories were equally as awesome; no surprise since we were witnessing God doing His thing! There are a couple of other movies by the same guy, Finger of God and Furious Love, both of which I want to see as well. Thanks to my friend, Cammie for the movie recommendation!

~STELR

New 52 | Week 3 | Newborn Photo Session

Okay, so. Ice skating has been held off again! Still on the list but...the weather was still pretty yucky and some other things were on the calendar. I'm learning that with this project, as with life itself, we gotta just go with the flow sometimes!

Since I really have no idea who ends up reading this (although I know it's more than just my mom by the blog stats!) I'll give a quick background for context. Trevor and I started a photography business last year. We discovered a common interest and ran with it! So in July 2012, we founded tandem51 photography.

In the first several months, we did a lot of sessions, mostly families. We also did a couple of seniors, a 1st birthday party, a large charity event, and lots of pics at home. One genre that had eluded us was the newborn. A beautiful new life with their tiny fingers and toes, cute as a button ears and nose, the sweetest little lips. I wanted to get a baby in front of the camera! But...no dice.

That is, until Henry came along.

We photographed the Wolfgang family back in November. It was a combination family session, 2 year pics, and a few maternity shots mixed in as well since mom (also Sarah) was due in January. So you can imagine my excitement when Sarah let me know that they wanted to use us when their new addition joined the world!

While we waited to hear of the baby's arrival, we prepped our gear and read up on newborn photography safety. And then she emailed me; it's a boy! (They didn't know the gender beforehand.) We headed to their house on a bright Saturday morning. I was full of excitement and nerves!!

I'm bummed we didn't get a behind the scenes pic because it was pretty cool. Backdrop, softbox on a stand, reflector, and a bean bag. All of this was crammed into his adorable nursery that was flooded with beautiful morning light.

And this is the result:



So, so sweet.

This was an awesome new experience!

~STELR

A little behind...

Sooo...with a super crazy last two weeks, I've gotten a little behind on our blog. The good news is that we haven't gotten behind in the actual project itself! Stay tuned and this week we'll bring you a newborn and a movie!

Other new things in our world that deserve honorable mention:
Luke mastered snapping his fingers.
Elissa mastered climbing out of her crib...still working on mastering the bedtime routine in a toddler bed.
Trevor bought some power tools (table saw and jig saw) in preparation for some woodworking projects.
Sarah spoke in front of the School Board in opposition to a proposal to close the middle school Luke is slated to attend next year.

Throw in a baby shower, an extended family photo session, and a extra dose of busy at my day job.

See?! I told you it's been crazy!

~STELR

New52 | Week 2 | Making Soup

BRRR, did it get cold this week or what?! Luke and I had planned to go ice skating for week 2 and while that is a definitely a cold weather activity, the temp/wind chill was just too low today. So, I opted for a new recipe instead.

Have you ever watched The Pioneer Woman on Food Network? Oh my, does she make some fantastic looking food! If you're not familiar, you should definitely check out her website. Last week I made this Chicken Spaghetti Casserole (with some tweaks) which the whole family liked. There was another recipe I'd seen on her site that looked really good called Sausage, Potato, Kale soup. She likened it to one of the soups you find at Olive Garden so that piqued my interest.

Luckily, I went to the store this morning and made sure to get the ingredients for this. (By the way, my trip to the store is when I made the 'ice skating another week' decision because I was completely frozen just getting groceries into the car) Another random thought about my trip to the store - thank goodness for technology!! I was able to look up the recipe real quick to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything.

Ok back to the project.

If you know Luke, you might know that he doesn't like potatoes. So, I knew that making this recipe would be more my project than his. But he did help with some prep...I'll get to that in a minute.

First things first, I wanted to get a shot of the main ingredients before I lost all the light for the day.

I had Luke do the Kale. He needed to pull the leaves from the stem and then tear them into bite size pieces.

At one point he asked if he could try the kale (raw). I said, "Sure!" He gave this face...

I think it's safe to say he won't be asking for a side of kale any time soon.

As Luke was prepping the kale, I was slicing potatoes, chopping an onion, and browning the Italian turkey sausage. Once he finished with the kale, he did another super big helpful thing, and that was to keep his no-nap-havin little sister entertained while mommy was in the kitchen. Daddy and Luke had to work together to keep her busy!

In the end, the soup turned out pretty good. It was hearty, 1/2 healthy (turkey sausage, kale, and potatoes = good; using whole milk AND half & half as the cream base = not so good) and almost a 1 pot meal.

Luke did try the soup even though 1) he doesn't like potatoes and 2) he was hesitant about the kale....but he did NOT care for it. He ended up with PB&J (2/3 healthy with whole grain bread and protein from the PB!) Trevor had the soup and his verdict was that it was "good" but that the kale didn't really "fit". He thought it was a good new recipe to try though. As for me, I liked it. It wasn't my favorite soup but it was still good.

The soundtrack for this week was hearing my kiddos laughing and playing in the next room. :)

A few other new things worth mentioning from this week:

1)Prometheus: Sci-fi movie; Sarah and Trevor rated it "just ok"

2)Toddler bed for E: results yet to be determined. E climbed out of her crib stealth style at nap time today. She was fussing and not going down for her nap. It got quiet and I thought she was settling down. So you can imagine my SHOCK when she appeared in the doorway of our bedroom. We didn't even hear her get out of the crib. So, there was no other choice but to transition to the toddler bed. She never did nap today....we're praying that she sleeps through the night and doesn't notice that she's not in a crib.

So that's a wrap for week 2! I'll be back mid week for an onion chopping tutorial (in case there are any beginner cooks out there) and then we hope to get our ice skating in for week 3, as long as the weather cooperates!

~STELR

New 52 I Week 1 I Sushi

So since we were working with a short week due to the holiday, Luke and I decided that we needed to do something new this week that required little to no prep. I threw out a couple of ideas like a new recipe or restaurant. I asked him if there was any particular kind of food he wanted to try. He excitedly said "Sushi!" Bingo; week 1 was decided.

We happen to have an inside track on a great place for sushi. I've always loved seafood and in landlocked Iowa, the place for that is Waterfront Seafood. It's a locally owned family restaurant and they fly fresh fish in daily. Bonus: my brother/Luke's uncle works there! We decided to go for Saturday lunch.

We headed to Waterfront for a late lunch, arriving at about 1:15. It was packed but we were able to find two seats at the sushi bar! My brother's girlfriend had suggested the Godzilla roll and that's what we went with. It's made with: Shrimp Tempura, Crab, Cream Cheese & Garlic then Deep Fried & topped with Eel Sauce, Sriracha, Scallions & Tempura Flake. We also got a cup of clam chowder each (almost exactly like what I had at the Beantown Pub in 'Bahstan' last year) and I got a salad.

When we got the sushi roll from Leo the Sushi Chef, it was beautiful! Before digging in, we took a couple minutes to take it in with our senses:
It was colorful; Luke said, "the sauce kind of looks like jelly". He also thought the ginger looked like gum :)
"Kinda smells like Chinese food" and "Smells good".
We both felt a little nervous because it was a new thing to try.
Then we tasted it.....
Luke said "It's really good! Next time we come here, I'm getting this!" He also tried the ginger and the wasabi! This mom was super proud! (I tried the ginger too but couldn't bring myself to do the wasabi.) And as it turns out, Luke's favorite part was the seaweed!

Between the salad and the chowder and the sushi, we only ate about half of the Godzilla roll. We took the rest to go and Trevor was able to try it once we got home (he liked it too). We had a great time on week 1 of our New 52 project and are looking forward to next week!

Soundtrack for this week's activity was Toby Mac's Eye On It. Our favorite tracks are Me Without You and Forgiveness. Check it out!

~STELR

Our First Post

Hello there and welcome to our corner of the web! STELR stands for Sarah, Trevor, Elissa, Luke Roeder. Here on our blog we will share about our New 52 Project and other random happenings in our family. New 52 is a project where you do one new thing per week for a whole year. Sarah heard about this while listening to her favorite podcast, The Digi Show. One of the regulars on the show (Peppermint) shared that her and a friend did this project in 2011. If you want to check out what she did, you can find that here. Luke and I have begun to brainstorm a list of new things we want to do, places we'd like to go, movies we'd like to see, and recipes we haven't tried. Check back each week to see what we've been up to. Thanks for stopping by; and Happy New Year! ~STELR