Elliot's Photo Session

I just had to share these precious photos of Elliot's one year old photo session at Sears. I took him there last week and he behaved sooo well. His photos came out just as good. Enjoy!

Look at him sitting in a chair like a big boy.


They got him to actually stand...something he does not do often.


I want to eat up those chunky thighs! What is wrong with us mothers...why do we always want to nibble on our babies?!


I love this precious photo!


OK...another nibbly photo. Look at that chunky fat.

Elliot is ONE year old!!

My baby is ONE year old already! He turned one on May 1, 2009.

This first year always flies by, especially with baby #6! It seems to have gone super fast with him. I can remember so clearly everything about his pregnancy, labor and birth! My "little" 10 1/2 lb newborn was the most precious thing...and he still is. Elliot just loves his Mama. He loves me maybe a little too much. If I am in the room, he needs to be with me, in my arms, playing with me on the floor, snuggling or nursing, and will scream and fight anyone who prevents him from getting to me. Mama does not get much of a break from him, as he is quite attached, and really does not prefer ever going to anyone else (unless I am not at home...then he'll go to Dad quite fine).


Some words that he says are: "Mama", "Baa" (Ball), "Dada", "Gggg" (Jeremy), "Dddd" (dog) and "Kssss" (kiss). He loves to play with balls, go on swings at the park, hang out in my Snuggly, go on walks with Mom and the beagles and play/rough-house with his brothers. His sisters love to sing to him and sometimes they will sit and play the piano with him, which is very cute. He also loves all the dogs and hangs on them, kisses them and snuggles with Fatsy, the best beagle-nurse ever!! She still hangs out with him all the time, protecting him from harm, although Elliot is so big and strong, sometimes I worry that he will hurt Fatsy with the way he hangs on her, and grabs her. But, Fatsy does not seem to mind and lets him grab her, without running away (like many of the other dogs do!). Elliot is not walking yet, but he will hold on to the furniture and cruise around very fast. He can crawl super quick and get all around the house in a matter of seconds. We've had to block the stairs, as he can scale the stairs very quickly too. One thing that drives me nuts is that he will try and get into the dog's big water bowl (many times a day!), so as soon as I hear him scooting towards the kitchen, I have to pick up the water bowl right away, or else he is soaking wet and loving it. Sometimes we forget to put the bowl back down for hours. The poor dogs have had a few months of being extra thirsty at times I think.

People keep asking me how much he weighs. I do not have the exact measurements in ounces, but we've weighed him on our scale at home and he weighs approximately 27 lbs, give or take a few ounces. I still need to get his height as well. Yep, he continues to be a big boy.

We had a birthday party for Elliot last Saturday with the extended family...about 35 people in all. Actually the party was a triple celebration. Kateri turned 6 yrs old on April 30, Elliot turned one yr old on May 1st and Oliver had his First Communion on May 2nd. So, how's that for a lot going on at once! It's always busy at the Traben household.


We had a little party for Kateri's 6th bday on April 28th at Rescue Village, which is an animal shelter (for dogs, cats and some farm animals) near our home. It was very nice and the kids got to tour the place, play with some pooches and learn about animal rescue! Kateri invited 10 of her friends from our homeschool co-op. All the girls are very close in age (their bdays range from November- May...all turning 6!), all except for Luanna and Augustine who are both 4 1/2 (the 2 little ones in the front left and right). And, of course, Kateri is the small little fairy-creature in the center.


Kateri has been asking me for an American Girl doll for about a year now. She had decided on Julie, the 1974 hippie girl, which I thought was pretty cool, since that is the era I was born in!


Here is Kateri with the triple celebration bday/Communion cake on May 2nd.

I'm Back!

Wow...where have I been for the past 2 months, you may ask?!
I've been just busy with every day life, kids, creating tons of raw food recipes (which take time!) and taking care of the dogs too. Our raw food diet went very well. Ken and I stuck with it, pretty much 100% for the 6 weeks (except for maybe adding some maple syrup, a dab of peanut butter and some cocoa to some of the raw ice cream recipes). Other than that...we were pure raw foodists for 40+ days.

Honestly, we felt great! I lost about 13 lbs. Ken lost 18 lbs! He did not need to lose anything, since he is super skinny anyways, so I don't know how he did that. Now, I would like to lose even more. So, I am going to try and stay about 80% raw...not only for the weight reasons, but because I just felt so great on this diet. I do believe this is the best way to eat. However, I did miss some cooked foods, such as rice, soup and pasta, so I would not like to do it 100% all the time, but I think I can handle 80% overall. I think it will be even easier to go more raw in the summer with all the salads, fruits and summer harvests. It did feel good to eat some cooked vegan foods at Easter though. I've gotten into the habit of eating salads at least twice a day, so that is a good habit I'd like to continue.

Here are some photos of the raw food recipes we came up with during Lent. Maybe they will inspire you to make some of these recipes and get healthy too!!


Date Balls- very easy to make. Just blend raw nuts (walnuts, almonds, pecans, cashews) with dates and raisins. It will ball up into a stiff dough. Roll into balls and dip into shredded coconut. Deeeelicious!!


Apple/Strawberry Pie- The crust is made out of dates and nuts...and press into pie pan. The filling is basically raw applesauce, mixed with a few dates, and topped with strawberries.


Sweet Potato Cookies- You need a dehydrator for this one. Mix sweet potatoes (I used frozen ones, which are softer) with raisins, cinnamon and honey. Drop spoonfuls on to the dehydrator at 105 degrees (which does not constitute cooking if less than 107 degrees) and let it go for about 12-15 hours. They have the consistency of thick, chewy cookies. Ken loved these.


Cabbage Rolls- One of my favorites! Very simple...just make a chunky salad (peppers, squash, zucchini, onions, corn, cabbage, spinach....), pour olive oil and Braggs Liquid Aminos (combined) over the salad. Let it soak for an hour or so. Then, put the salad into the cabbage leaves. If the cabbage leaves are just way too hard, let them soak in some warm water for an hour. I added some more salad on the side with avocados...mmmm!


One of our many salads, topped with some of the dried Carrot Burgers I made with the dehydrator. They are just dried carrots, onions, celery- dried to look like a veggie burger. We topped our salads with them...kind of like croutons.


Oliver loves to help out in the kitchen. Here we are drying some delicious fruit with the dehydrator. Honestly, I think I love the fruit better fresh, but if you are going to go on a trip or just want dried fruit...this is how you do it.


Yes, we made RAW ice cream!! One of my best inventions with this diet. Here we have banana/maple syrup ice cream. It is sooooo good! You need an ice cream maker for this. I used raw cashews, combined with water to make cashew milk. Then I added the bananas and a little maple syrup. Then, put it all in the ice cream maker and wait about 20 minutes for this creamy dessert!


Here is another of our delicious salads. I'd make these about twice a day...lunch and dinner. I tried to mix things up with different veggies and different raw dressings to make sure I did not get tired of salads. There are many ways to make salads, so there are enough choices out there. Just seeing these salads now, makes my mouth water.

2 days!! Countdown to Raw Food Diet.....

For Lent this year, Ken and I have decided we are trying a Raw Food Diet. This is something we have been wanting to try for years! We've done our research and have seen many speakers on this, as well as having a Juicer, Food processor and a few good Raw Food Books to go by. Lent officially starts on Wednesday, Feb 25th and will go to Easter, April 12th...so 6 weeks of RAW! I am not doing this because I am super religous or anything like that. On a more selfish level, I know this is the healthiest thing I can do for myself, and plus I have been wanting to shed this extra, baby fat weight for some time now. Here's hoping this diet does the trick!!

For those who are not familiar with a raw food diet, what we are doing is basically eating all raw vegan food, which means vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts and seeds. We will be doing a lot of juicing, which is super healthy. Our goal is to be 100% raw for the 6 weeks, so we are also going to be making all our own dressings, almond milks, juices, salads, puddings and even making home-made, raw crackers and granolas. I will probably go out and purchase a Dehydrator. I am borrowing a friend's dehydrator this week and have been practicing making crackers, cookies, veggie burgers, and dried fruit...all raw. They are coming out pretty good, so I will probably buy one. I saw an inexpensive one at Bed, Bath and Beyond for only $60. Dehydrators can run into the $300's, so I am starting with a cheap one, but it should be fine.

Ken and I will be doing this diet, but the kids will be eating their regular Vegan diet, with both cooked and raw foods. We figured it may be too difficult for them to try right now, esp since Ken and I are still novices at this whole thing. But, I'm sure the kids will get their fill of many, new, raw dishes, and I am excited at introducing them to more raw vegan options.

I will probably be posting photos and recipes of the foods we will be eating, so as to maybe inspire some of you to try some of these recipes. They really are delicious!! Going raw does not have to be boring! There are a lot of creative, delicious recipes out there and I hope to share many of them with you all.

Here are some links to check out:
http://www.rawfoodlife.com/
http://www.rawfoodinfo.com/recipes/main_courses.html

January Fun!

Just to update some of you...we did end up adopting Albert our foster dog. We've had him for over 6 months now with no prospects of adoption coming forward for him. Besides falling in love with the little guy, he had already adopted us as his family. And, with all the abuse he had already gone through, I could not imagine sending him away to anyone else at this point. No need to suffer through new introductions again for him. On Xmas Day, Santa brought Albert a new tag in his stocking, which stated he had a forever home with us. Needless to say, Albert (and the kids) were all thrilled! For those of you counting...that makes 6 dogs for us. I probably will not be doing any more fostering for awhile now, as we have a full house.


Elliot still has just his one little tooth. The 2nd one has not popped through yet. So, Mr. Snaggletooth, as we call him, is sometimes a bit fussy because the teething process is so painful. But, he remains a huge joy to all of us and he is sooooo spoiled by all his brothers and sisters. Everyone runs to him the minute they hear him utter a cry. He's very loved!


The Daisy Scouts are doing well and we started off the new year selling Girl Scout cookies and getting some Daisy petals for Caring/Consideration and knowing the Girl Scout Promise. The Caring petal was earned from a few things- 1) Making Xmas ornaments for Nursing Home residents, 2) Visiting the Nursing home and singing Carols to them, while passing out the ornaments and 3) Making Greeting Cards for family and friends to show them we care about them. The girls are all so cute and we are having a fun time with them as a Daisy troop.


Kateri and Luanna were invited to a Princess Tea Party last weekend. The girls all dressed up nicely, brought their favorite dolls and had a great tea party. They also made some beaded bracelets and took lots of photos. I never saw so much pink in a room!



We are really getting a lot of SNOW here in Cleveland! Ken is outside right now with the snowblower making a path in the driveway for us to get out on Monday. Otherwise, we are all snowed in, which is kind of nice for a Sunday afternoon.

New Dog-Blog!!

Unbeknownst to us, Mr. Morgan, our black lab mix, started his own Traben Dog-Blog, for all our dog adventures! Obviously, I will still post all our family stuff on this blog, but Morgan and the other 5 dogs (Fatsy, Mia, Lola, Penny and Albert) will be posting more dog-related items on the dog blog at:

www.trabendogs.blogspot.com
Go visit their blog sometime!!

Happy Holidays!!

Happy post-Christmas and Happy pre-New Years!

We've had a crazy couple weeks here, with family parties, lots of gifts, outings and have been super busy with the kids. I was hoping to get some time to post here before the new year. So, I guess this will be my last post of 2008.
I could write for hours about all the fun we had this past week with Christmas, but sadly, I do not have the time right now. Elliot will be waking up from his nap anytime now, so right now I just want to download some photos....enjoy!








Guess who got a tooth for Christmas?! Mr. Elliot did! So that is what all that drooling and complaining was about. We are looking forward to Tooth #2, which should be popping in soon.