i've been busy figuring out youtubbe and loading some videos of the little guy there. check them out if you have time. but here are some still photos of the family:

high heels really aren't a good look with plaid shorts.
cowboy boots are a little better.but red chuck taylors and camo, now that's a look i can go for.
cassie is figuring her way around the exersaucer.
wyatt refuses to sit in his highchair anymore, so he's moved to the big table in the booster seat. he's also very good about using a coaster for his drink.

cassidy is the happiest victim of a stick-up.

wyatt talks seriously about the fundamentals of soccer: balls.

my parents will celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary this year, and in light of this fact, our four year anniversary doesn't seem so monumental. but to us, it's pretty fun. we've been through a lot in that amount of time, most of it really wonderful, some of it sort of hard. i think you'll find that we still have those big smiles on our faces most of the time. i may roll my eyes a little more than i used to and tom probably steals more kisses than he'd like, but we're excited about where God is taking us. we both have different hairstyles now and i can't quite fit into that dress anymore, but i still like to hold his hand and i love the old timer/cowboy that sits at my supper table every night. i thought i was marrying a teacher, started out with an insurance salesman, spent some time with a painter and now i have a combination of painter/mentor/ministryman/teacher/comedian/ insuranceguide/handyman/papa/sweetheart. he's a rennaisance man of sorts, but i like to call him boo.

(give the bangs some time, honey, you might like them)

i know i'm a little delayed, but it seems that he was too...after 15 days of thinking he was coming and then six days of real contractions and then 27-- TWENTY SEVEN -- hours of labor, noah caleb blake debuted. may 31st (just three days beyond sharing it with his own auntie across the street, so close) was quite a day for lauren and paul and harrison. he's a cutie and quite skinny, but that shouldn't come as much of a surprise, he's a blake. his story is great: from lauren's endurance with gestational diabetes, to noah being breach and then turning, to her constant yet inconsistent contractions, then the possibility of noah having really large shoulders and lauren maybe having a c-section, wow! thanks to many MANY prayers lauren's diabetes didn't cause her to have any serious complications(noah doesn't have diabetes and lauren's went away once she gave birth, hence the "gestational" part), noah turned on his, his shoulders weren't too big and lauren gave birth (almost) exactly how she wanted. i got to see her a little before she started pushing (about 24 hours into the labor part) and she looked wonderful. after the epidural and a very short nap her countenance was lifted and she seemed ready to tackle the world. which she kind of did. all this to say: believe that the creator of the universe has you in his hands if you just let him pick you up. lauren never doubted the Lord's will for her and noah and knew that things would be fine and she stood on that. and here he is. he's remarkably cute for so little, especially considering this one picture was taken while they were still in the hospital. so praise the Lord, he does great things.
also, do you see this woman? she has 4 kids (3 of them boys!) and 7 grandchildren. she is amazing and beautiful. she's wyatt and cassidy's mima and she's fabulous. hubba hubba.

gnocchidding

i made gnocchi tonight according the "gnocchi I" recipe from allrecipes.com and then combined it in a gnocchi bake, a la susan simon. (she might have gotten this recipe from allrecipes.com as well). round out the meal with some garlic and parmesan biscuits and YUM! it was so good. i encourage anyone who hasn't already, try gnocchi. and make it. it was so easy. i added a little garlic salt to my batter and it was just enough to make it fantastic. i have to say i have never had real italian gnocchi so i'm not sure what it's supposed to taste like but tom loved it when susan made it (he said it reminded him of the gnocchi he had in italy) and he loved it tonight. not much leftover for wyatt but i'm sure tom will fight him for it.

sidenote: allrecipes.com is wonderful. check it out if you haven't. the reviews make all the difference.

is it really strange that as i lie here in bed (lie? lay?) i'm looking forward to using my new stand mixer, courtesy of cuisinart? i used it yesterday to make foccacia and it was thrilling. i just threw things in and it spun around. powerfully i might add. i didn't go for the retro-style kitchenaid mixer. i opted for the more powerful, slightly larger bowl, sewing machine-looking cuisinart. i'm pleased, to say the least. what do i plan on making with my mixer? challah bread, for sure.

my sister-in-law introduced me to challah (pronounced with so much phlegm you'll need a hanky) a little while ago when she dropped off a slice on a friday afternoon. she informed me that every friday we're supposed to have challah, because it's shabbat. and this is where things in my head begin to spin.

last summer i was reading through the first few books of the old testament. when i came upon the ten commandments i was so confused. there in exodus 20 he tells us "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy."

okay, so i assume that he's talking about me keeping the sabbath holy for him. and i follow all the other commandments as best i can (with a lot of grace) but what does keeping the sabbath holy even mean? did i miss this sunday school lesson when i pretended i was sick and lamented the fact that i wouldn't get to eat arby's for lunch OR play with my friends? i don't think that's the case (although i wish it were).

here are the problems: when is the sabbath? is it on sunday or saturday? does it start in the morning or the evening? what qualifies as work? and how do i keep it holy? is it possible for me to not work one day each week when i'm a wife and mother? i'm trying to wrap my life around this concept, to remember this will make the rest of my week feel different. and i'm trying to not be legalistic about the whole thing, because while some may say cooking is work, it's usually a joy to me. especially if i'm using my stand mixer. and i can't let a dirty diaper go unchanged for 24 hours, so maybe that won't count as "work" but easing my children's burdens.

all in all, though, i like this commandment. i want to obey it. my whole life the term "sabbath" didn't mean anything except sunday morning service, but it's supposed to remind me of the beginning of life. it's hard work, i imagine, making something out of nothing. but i wonder if he really did take a break, what with adam and eve running around down there...

'65 mustang

i am a free woman. officially. last night i drove out to the middle of nowhere, narrow-laned country and then home again. in the dark. during a massive rainstorm. on skinny roads, on highway, on shawnee mission parkway with the stop and go of traffic lights every ten seconds. in the 4-runner. and i never killed it. and cassidy slept the whole way home. hallelujah. now i really feel like i can go anywhere. i thought i was victorious after going to sam's and whole foods the other day, but this proves i can drive a stick. it seems silly to all of you manual drivers. laugh if you will. i've been learning to drive stick since i turned sixteen. that's twelve years, people.

first it was my dad trying to teach me in his 5-speed bmw in the high school parking lot. i couldn't do it because i was "hormonal." we still laugh about that one.

then brad lewis tried to teach me because we were travelling to seattle in his subaru and i didn't know how to drive it. i made it around the block but when we got on the real road i defaulted to him and stephanie and the other brad for driving. i slept and sang a lot. and really, i'm surprised i never wanted stephanie to teach me to drive. she was a pro. she had the boys beat on "power shifting." that girl can do anything. except grow her hair longer than mine -- never!

and tom tried to teach me after we sold the corolla and before he went to guatamala so i wouldn't be homebound. so eight months later, with a little help from my pops (full circle i guess) i'm on the road again. and if you hear a loud rumble it might be me, shifting from fifth to second. come to find out that's not recommended but it's all a little blurry in the rain.

more like wyatt looks like a kewpie doll, even without the photoshopping.

our friend cassie thinks tom might look a little bit like a kewpie doll. what do you think? (who else remembers kewpie dolls?)

what have i been doing? reading other people's blogs. it's so fun to have links to other interesting and artisitic stuff.
oh, and playing with wyatt. we pulled out the lincoln logs the other day. they're real wood. i want to put the whole set together, but he's not really into building. more breaking. so i had to hold my breath and count to ten when he destroyed the awesome tower i built over the train tracks, or when he tried to put the cowboy inside the bank and wrecked that too. maybe i'll build it while he's sleeping...

if you're looking for a really good blog, present company excluded, visit this one. this is my former co-worker, still good friend, and if she doesn't make you laugh out loud you don't have a funny bone. also, if you need a little touch up work done, she's the master. she taught me everything i know. (and i'm not talking about liposuction or breast aumentation)

$o.o1

the price of stamps went up again. i think the last time this happened was when tom and i got married. we sent out all these thank-yous but had to have the extra one cent stamp to add to the already purchased stamps. so now they're offering the forever stamp. you buy it for 41 cents and it will always be good, even when the postal service raises the prices again (and they will.) i listened to 'wad'ya know' on npr saturday and michael feldman said if it really is a "forever" stamp then you should be able to reuse it too. so if someone sends you a letter you should cut it out and either give it back to them or use it the next time you send a letter. i like this idea, except for the fact that we hardly ever get any mail with real stamps and right now i'm sending out baby announcements (yes she is already three months old, but in the grand scheme that's not that old). so it's off to the post office to get some one cent stamps, and maybe some forever stamps. check a mailbox near you. i dare you to reuse it.

sidenote: do you call him the postman or the mailman? (and no jokes about calling him "dad")

so i changed the background (again) because i forgot i left it on that white and ick, that's not very appealing, is it? but check out this header. is that a grape? olive? some type of leaf that has food attached to it? surely they're associated with food...maybe i should change the name of the blog to foodfoodfoodilovefoodilovetoeat.blogspot.com

you're wondering where i've been. did you look for me in the kitchen? it's been a rough two weeks and there's one more to go. and i will be honest, dear reader, i've fallen off the wagon. a week ago i realized i had become a maniac and decided to save my husband and children and start eating what america eats. cheese. and bread. and sometimes fruit with my meat. and it tastes good. it was gradual, this easing out of the cleanse, like i had my back to the door and while graciously bowing, i scooted out.

tom meanwhile still endures the cleanse, eating strictly according to the schedule and menu. that menu is created by me and is one of the reasons why i was crazy. grilling lunch, grilling dinner. chopping peppers for lunch. chopping onions for dinner. peeling and slicing carrots for a snack. going to the grocery store every three days. closing my eyes as the long-haired cashier at whole foods tells me the total. thanking the lord that sam's club offers organic salad in bulk. and in a container made of corn.

was cooking really what drove me to madness? no, not just the time in the kitchen, or the heat of the grill on muggy days. it was the money. and the lack of variety. and the fact that if we were in a time crunch, we really couldn't go out to eat, and certainly not fast food. how does a family function if mom is a wreck?

i'm not too proud to tell you that a lack of will and discipline was involved. i can omit sugar for a time. i can omit cheese for a time. i can omit carbs (nevermind they're sugar too) for a time. i can even omit sauces. but all these things at the same time? and then limiting my protein portions (don't worry, i upped it for the baby's sake). being allowed to eat as many veggies as i want doesn't really make up for all the other stuff.

surely i learned something from my week of "cleansing".

things i learned while not eating whatever i want whenever i want, by leah blake
1) i like food
a) i like to cook food
b) i like to eat food
c) i like to give food as a gift

2) i am not a scheduled person
a) breakfast, lunch and dinner always come first for wyatt
b)breakfast, second breakfast, lunch, second lunch, dinner and second dinner for cassidy always take priority over my stomach
c) tom gets to eat when i eat, unless it involves granola or eggs

3) beets are not scary
a) i know where the term "beet red" comes from
b) you can grill beets or bake beets and they're good
c) they're kind of like potatoes
d) if i were into textiles i'd use them a lot to dye things

4) i do not like lamb, sam i amb

a) not ground

b) not leg

5) larabars are amazing
a) fruit and nuts, what's not to love?
b) soy free, gluten free, dairy free, no gmo, no added sugar, unprocessed, raw, and kosher
c) you can buy them at sam's for less than $1.oo

6) eggs are better with cheese and butter
a) tom likes them with a side of potatoes
b) i like them with a side of toast
c) we both like them with a side of bacon

7) the grill is my friend
a) not much clean up
b) fast cooking
c) you can put anything on it

in short (don't you love it when people say that at the end of a long monologue?) i'm not on the cleanse any more and i'm really excited for tom and the other 7 people who are on it to be finished so we can eat cinnamon rolls and drink coffee. yum.

this is so sad but i just saw a really well-taken photograph of someone wearing a jean jacket with a hoodie underneath and jeans and i thought, i wish it were cool outside. didn't we just leave winter?

day three

all part of a complete breakfast. it's really hard when you wake up saturday morning and all you want to do is scramble some eggs, fry some bacon and drown your pancakes in sweet, sweet syrup and then you remember, i get to drink a shake this morning. 18 days left and i'm hungry. really the shakes aren't too bad. you add a supplement powder and a fiber powder and some oil to water and frozen fruit and you've got yourself some kind of smoothie. it's nothing to complain about. it's quite filling and once you add pineapple to anything it tastes nice. it's the lack of real food in the morning. no spoon, no fork. oh i forgot to mention but definitel no coffee. i repeat: NO COFFEE. we've got some broadway coffee sitting on the shelf, as well as some allegro coffee from whole foods, both birthday presents for tom. the timing was off a little bit on his 30th, that's for sure. now when i open the cupboard for a glass to pour my shake into i get a waft of luna in whole bean form. what am i learning from all of this? i miss cooking. i miss that complete meal with the right beverage and side and dessert. oh dessert. not that we aren't eating. just not very much. more on that later. (they say your energy increases on this thing but i have yet to enjoy that benefit.) with heavy eyes i'll dream of cinnamon rolls and black coffee...i shouldn't even joke like that.

day one

7 pills + 3 times a day = 21 stinky pills
they'll clean you out one way or the other

for unka jo

we serve up cute little burritos and tons of tortilla chips, so come on over... take that christiano ronaldo...this is what cute looks like with its shirt off...
so then the fish said to the seahorse...

the day i forgot

i'm in the midst of it, so i'm not going to forget it. yet. while wyatt is on the accelorated track for cuteness, his words are slow in understanding. he'll talk for hours but only he knows what he's saying. today he reached into the suitcase of toys and said "BALL" and lo-and-behold he pulled out the soccer ball! huzzah!

he says "atchoo" when i sneeze; in a semi-reckognizable way he says "what's this"; and is starting to say "sis" i guess. i think he might be saying "Jesus" a lot, so maybe he's already learning how to talk with the messiah. nice. but today was remarkable because he said it on his own and then produced the ball.

woodpecker
we have a beak-challenged woodpecker banging on our sun porch. it's not wood. at all. there are no termites living inside. it makes a very loud noise when he bangs on it and i think he'll eventually suffer a bent beak if he doesn't stop.

joe
he sent me pictures of his czech girlfriend, iva, and she's a looker. those darn skinny europeans.

food
the cleanse starts tomorrow. that means we're eating uber-healthy. no carbs, no fun. i won't be baking for 21 days. we'll see what that does with my free time.

stay tuned for some bathtub photos. if i can figure out video on this blog there may be some of that, too.

i promise

we're alive here, and kicking for that matter. just a little under the weather and recovering from the pre-birthday, birthday and post-birthday gatherings. yup, he's thirty. 30. three-zero.

oh, and the wizards won their first game, on the road at rfk. kc-4, dc-2. our new pick-up michael harrington showed us he's a starter and good ol' sasha showed us he's still got it.

my competition

happy 60th birthday emmylou (i know there are prettier pictures of emmylou, but this one is with a dog and who doesn't love dogs as much as their favorite country singer?)