TIME TO BAG ME A TURKEY! Just as I was sending the last post off a flock of Turkeys came waltzing through the front yard. Talk about timing!

Thanks Giving is in the air

          

It's almost Turkey Time! We have a lot to be grateful for this year. Here is a picture of our sweet paper Turkey that Anadel and mommy made. It is being stuffed daily with all of out Thankful Thoughts. 

The start of a wonderful family tradition.

We attended Anadel's preschool Thanks Giving Performance and Feast last night. She sang 3 songs with her classmates in front of a packed room full of parents, siblings and teachers. Sorry for the poor photos of our little Anadel taken from WAY across the other side of the room (she is wearing a striped pink/grey Hello kitty shirt with a grey skirt/ black leggings 5th kid from the left).  We had a wonderful time and Anadel loves to sing and preform for a crowd.

Mommy is busy with a new recipie for our own families' Thanks Giving Feast next week since we were put in charge of dessert and drinks.  Here is what we might bring. Cupcakes and bars made with : Carob powder, spelt flour, honey, coconut sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, water and of course the usual baking powder, soda and salt. Topped with a Coconut Cream pumpkin spice frosting that tastes like pumpkin pie fluff. Yummmm! All dairy free, chocolate free, egg free, refined sugar free and made with whole grain spelt. Can't wait till my little chef gets home to try these and take a few to Grandma and Grandpa tonight as payment for our date night  babysitting. :)

We hope everyone has a wonderful Thanks Giving next week. We love you all and are blessed to have you in our lives. We are so sad that our Good friends the Proctor Family is move down to So. Cal. in a weeks time. :(.  We have been so bless to have them as friends and wish them the best of luck and guaranteed a visit from us when they get established. :) We looking forward to our feast with family and visit with grandma Anadel soon. HAPPY THANKS GIVING EVERYONE!

Anadel my tiny chef, dancer, preschooler and costume designer

My little chef and I have been whipping up some yummy fall baked goods. Peanut butter, carob chips and candy eyeball toast. Spelt cinnamon and pecan muffins, pumpkin pecan bars, pumpkin/carob glazed and carob mini doughnuts. All made with whole spelt flour and without eggs, dairy, chocolate, refined sugars ( we use honey and coconut sugar). Yummy! As you can see Anadel is stuffing her cute little face eating as many as she can before daddy comes home and finishes off the rest. :)

 Anadel attended a combo dance class program this last summer. Basic ballet, tap and jazz. She picked out her own leotard too. So pretty!

 Anadel is enjoying preschool (pre-k classes) at Kids Planet. Here she is with her nap time blanket and hello kitty pillow for school. She goes from 8-4 three days a week and learns everything from Russian, Spanish, letters, reading, basic math and science. She gets breakfast, lunch and a nap time too. Anadel loves her teachers and  new friends. Mom is enjoying a break and much needed free time to get the house clean, shop and much more.

 My sweet little costume designer and her monkey Alice. She told us the other day that she married bear in the temple and moved to Africa. LOL she is so darling.

Halloween

Hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween.
Here are a few of the spooktacular events that happened at the Cassani home this year.

We spent one family home evening night, making Halloween decorations from simple things we gathered at Target. Construction paper we made into some amazing wall and window siloettes, pipe cleaners and eyeballs for spiders, cotton spider webs and glow in the dark ghost and pumpkin pillows for our front porch.

Anadel picked out a beautiful Cinderella costume at TJ MAXX for $30 (compared at $70-$100 at the Disney Store). We thought it just included the beautiful velvet dress, crown and wand.  We were surprised when the cashier said it included a beautiful fur cape as well. Wow what a deal !!! Anadel was hugging, kissing and telling us how excited she was about her costume for weeks. The dress has a hoop built into the bottom  so it swishes and holds its shape just like a royal princess gown.

 Here are some of our cute spiders we made from pipe cleaners and eye balls. They look so realistic on our fireplace, bathroom mirror and round chandelier.

 

 Mommy and Anadel had a great time cutting out construction paper pumpkins, bats, ghosts, owl,  a cat howling at a slivered moon and a cat playing with a crow and mouse on  pumpkins.

Valentines Day and Our Chickens

 Happy Valentines Week everyone!!! Here is a lovely pic. of our Anadel in her new beautiful church dress and coat. So sweet!

We have Great News! Two of our 5 chickens are laying eggs now. It is hard to see the exact color in the photo below but one is a tiny pink egg and the other a bigger green/blue egg. One of our small silky black bantams has turned out to be a rooster. He is learning to crow and it is darling. So happy our neighbors have chickens and roosters too so we won't feel bad when he really begins crowing loud. Here is a picture of the larger coop run that Ben built next to the playhouse.

 Left to Right- Piper (Japanese Bantam), Dixie and Ava, (Aracanas) Bella and Roma Rooster (Black Silky Bantams)

Anadel made a little secret garden play ground for a little ladybug yesterday. She played with it for an hour adding petals and leaves and bowls and sparkly stuff.... Oh the simple joys in life :)!

We are all doing great. Ben is pushing along through his Masters Program, Anadel is shooting up like a string bean and I am hoping to get her into dance or preschool very soon. My life is a bit less stressful and my head is clearer. I was released form my Relief Society Presidency calling at church :) and asked to help out with the activity nights for Relief Society instead which very fun. I have also changed my diet. I threw out all the processed foods along with Sugar, Flour, Gluten and Dairy in our home that were making me so sick. All of us have a lactose intolerance anyway so it was a good move. We are all healthier and have more energy. My thyroid is back to normal. No longer have pains all over my body. Skin is looking amazing just by eating a whole foods diet/raw food diet primarily and juicing each day with an occasional addition of some healthy fish and grass fred meat and ancient good grains like quinoa with my nut flours. Learning to un-bake using natural and fruit sweeteners Dates, seeds, coconut oils and nut oils and milks.  Making cheese and desserts out of nuts and puddings and mouses with healthy omega 3's AVACADOs of all things. Ice Cream out of a simple Banana. Spagetti by using zuccini and my new spiral vegetable slicer.  Now I just need to get a  dehydrator and a vitamix and we will  be in business! lol :)

 It is so amazing what you can make it whole and super foods. So happy to finally find something that works and love exploring a new way of un-cooking and eating.  Love to all of you and hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day! xoxoxo

Catching UP With Anadel

 Anadel fell asleep one evening, (which is very rare) before bedtime reading the Oriental Trading magazine we received in the mail. Must have been dreaming of all those party toys she wants Santa to bring her made in China. LOL!  Below are all her Halloween and Daily dress up pictures I have compiled on my iphone and need to share. There is rarely a day that goes by when she doesn't run into her room and close the door and come out all dolled up telling me to take a picture of her. Some of the outfits are amazingly coordinated too. We nick named her the Rich Old Lady since she always has a hand bag of some kind with change in it and hat to go with it.

While at a Relief Society Presidency meeting I had the other day, she snuck into my purse and pulled out my credit cards and put them into another ladies' purse. We went to the store after to buy groceries and I was shocked when I opened my walled and all my cards were missing. Thankfully they bagged the groceries up and put them in the back of the store till Ben could pick them up later and pay for them. Spent the rest of the day tracking my cards down and thankfully the other sister found them while reaching in her bag and called me immediately. You have to keep an eye on this sneaky todler. Can't wait till she gets to attend Pre-school and has lots to do to keep her active mind and sneaky fingers busy :)! We love her so much and she has just grown so much lately in height and personality!!!!!!!

 Grandma and Grandpa invited Anadel and I out to lunch at the California Pizza Kitchen one afternoon. (The picture Grandma took with my phone to remember how beautiful she was with her hair all done up.)

Anadel Turned 4 at Thanks Giving and we bought her some real pink cowgirl boots.

 While on the way to Golden Hills Park, Anadel almost chopped off her little fingers in the car door.  She decided to make a bandage out of sticker labels Grandma Ro Ro gave her that were sitting in the back seat. Genius!!! :)

 We find so much wildlife in our garden since we live close to a natural wetlands and several farms. 15 Wild turkeys, hawks, frogs, herring, and this turkey vulture are just to name a few. Our chickens are growing quick too and will be laying eggs soon. I will post pictures of them and the new large coop Ben built for them. We are eventually going to make chicken tunnels for them around the yard and put them to work fertilizing and preparing our raised garden beds for next years crop.

 We took Anadel to see an amazing pre-school academy, that we were hoping to get her into next year. It has been a struggle with potty training her. She didn't want to leave the school campus and I told her that she could go there if she was potty trained. First thing she did when we come home was hop on her potty and has continued to go since. Hallelujah!!!! Every kid has their braking point, I guess. :)

 Anadel strapped a bear in a head band one day to her forehead. We forgot to take it off at bed time and she woke up with is still on. Made me laugh so hard when she walked out of her room in the morning. I should name her Dances with Bears or something.