Baby Food!

I've started a new adventure. I'm making baby food for my six-month-old. I didn't do this with my first son, but kind of wish I would have. It's easy, it's healthy, and it saves money. It also allows me to buy my own organic produce to puree.


I found my inspiration from a network news anchor, Norah O'Donnell. She's the cheif Washington correspondent for MSNBC, her husband's a chef. She has a fairly new book out called Baby Love with healthy baby food recipes. You can watch her demonstration by clicking here. Here are a couple shots of me whipping up some organic peas. (Thanks Mom for the new blender!) Did you know there's a certain way to prepare them so they maintain their bright green color and all their nutrients?




So far I've made peas and apples. My baby loves both of them. It's so much fun! I'm going to try and enjoy it as much as I can because before I know it, he'll be eating 'big boy' food.


Any of you have any baby food recipes you'd like to share? Send them my way, akrenz@myabc5.com.



Thanks for reading!


Amanda

Christmas Get Together

(The babies with their dads: Mercer and Brian and Lydia and Matthew)

(Mercer, happy baby!)

(Lydia)

Since Amanda has this week off and I have next week off, we decided to have a little Christmas breakfast this morning at my house with our families. I made my famous southwest eggs and we had some cinnamon rolls and fruit too. Then we exchanged presents and just enjoyed watching the kiddos play.

Getting a picture of the three of them was a little tough.

There we go! We got it...kind of.

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

Rachel Pierce

rpierce@myabc5.com

A Christmas Weekend

We started out our weekend with a visit to see Santa at Yost Chiropractic. Lydia didn't give Santa the warmest hello, maybe she'll have better manners next year.

On Sunday it was ABC 5's annual Christmas Party at Spash Seafood in downtown Des Moines. We had great food and coversations, it was a fabulous party! Below are pictures of our ABC 5 staff and significant others.

Valley Junction Holiday Open House

Valley Junction in West Des Moines had three holiday open house nights this year. The last one was last night and I decided to make a last-minute trip over my dinner break. I had my three-year-old with me. I wanted him to see Santa and take him on a horse carriage ride. Both were huge successes. We topped the hour off with treats from Nan's Nummies, love that place.

Valley Junction is such a neat collection of unique, locally owned shops. I plan on going this weekend to do some Christmas shopping. It's such a nice break from the malls and big box stores. Each year I find myself less and less interested in heading out into the holiday frenzy and Valley Junction is a great way to avoid the chaos but still enjoy the holiday shopping season.

Oh, have you seen the our new Holiday promos airing? Every time I turn around somebody comments how cute Maddox was with his "Happy Holiday" fist pump in the air. He adds a little spice to our family promo.

Hope our holiday preps are going well... and thanks for reading.

Amanda

akrenz@myabc5.com

Southern Thanksgiving

This year we spent our Thanksgiving in Mississippi at my in-laws. They sure know how to put on a feast, the picture above doesn't even include the dozen desserts in the other room.

We had so much fun catching up, laughing and of course eating way too much. Lydia didn't get in on any of the great food, she had to stick with her organic sweet potatoes...at least she doesn't know what she's missing.

We did venture out on black Friday and snagged some great deals. Although we weren't die hard shoppers, we didn't get to the stores until ten.

Like always, it was hard to leave family, but Christmas is just around the corner.

Rachel Pierce
rpierce@myabc5.com

(Lydia getting fed by her Nana, Paula Pierce)

(Its too bad Lydia never gets any attention;))

(Lydia with her Pops, Thomas Pierce)

(All tuckered out on Daddy after a long day.)

ABC5 Thanksgiving

When you can't be with family on Thanksgiving, it's nice to have great co-workers. For the second year in a row we enjoyed a meal together complete with all the fixins'.

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving with lots of food, family, and fun!

Amanda

akrenz@myabc5.com

Living History Farms

This weekend I ran Living History Farm's seven mile cross country race. I went with my two running pals Heather Yost and Sarah Danik. As you can see we went as flappers. We went all out and ran through the creeks and scaled muddy hills. Some parts were ridiculous but fun! The best part is all the creative and funny costumes. We saw Ken and Barbie (even in boxes), folks dressed up as bananas, Santa and his reindeer, hunters and deer, power rangers and so many others!
This is what I learned about the race after running it two years:

1. Plan on getting very dirty and wet (you run through about 6 creeks and some are deep).

2. Knowing how to claw your way up a hill is very helpful if not essential for the race.

3. Don't plan on running it fast, there's way to many people and a lot of time you feel like cattle being herded.

4. Don't be shocked if you see folks in inappropriate but funny costumes.

5. Expect to be cold.

6. Its always a blast no matter what the conditions are!

Below are the after pictures.

Rachel Pierce

rpierce@myabc5.com

My Nephew's Story

I've debated on how to write this blog entry because it’s a topic so personal to me.

Saturday night, just before midnight, my sweet little eight week old nephew Barron Christian Battles passed away. He died peacefully in my sister Magdalena's arms and next to his dear dad Justin.

Barron was born a beautiful healthy baby boy with blond hair and bright blue eyes. He was the sweetest, so content and you could tell he just absorbed everything around him. It wasn't until he was four weeks old that his health started deteriorating and he was transferred to a Marshfield hospital where they started testing him for everything. It was discovered he had a genetic disorder called Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type One. SMA is actually not that uncommon, but, there are varying degrees and Barron had the worst kind. Some studies say one in sixty people are carriers of the SMA gene. Usually for a child to get it both the mother and father have to be carriers. There is no cure for SMA and the earlier the onset the shorter the life expectancy. Some people show symptoms as adults and live normal lives, others like Barron only live weeks. Here's more information about it: http://www.smafoundation.org/

My sister and her husband are experiencing the unimaginable, having to bury their first child. To go from thinking you have a perfectly healthy baby then weeks later holding your baby while he takes his last breaths…it makes me cry thinking about it. I could go into all the stories of heartbreak through all of this like when Magdalena, Justin and Barron were at a hotel in Minneapolis and Barron went into full cardiac arrest. Justin had to perform CPR on his six-week old baby until paramedics arrived. He saved his life. There has been so much joy though too. Justin and Magdalena would play, sing and read to Barron all day and get huge smiles from him. You could tell he just adored his mother and father.

Through this whole process we are so thankful for the amazing medical teams at Marshfield Hospital, Minneapolis Children's Hospital, the services Caring Bridge and the Ronald McDonald House and all the support of friends and family.

Rachel Pierce
rpierce@myabc5.com

Have you seen these holiday cards?

They are designed by Iowa children with cancer. The Children's Cancer Connection sells them during the holidays to raise money for their organization which helps children and families affected by cancer by providing programs for education, recreation, and support. It's a fantastic group!

ABC5 is proud to help them promote this effort.

What a wonderful, unique idea for your Holiday cards this year!

Click on the links in this blog to learn more about how to purchase the cards and where your money will go.

Amanda

Ready for Halloween!

As you can see my little girl Lydia is going to Halloween as a monkey. My husband wants me to add pink bows on the ears so people know she's a girl. I think she looks so darn cute, of course very biased. We plan on taking her to a few houses in the neighborhood, just really to say hi to the neighbors. And then my 6 month old will help us pass out candy at the door.

My dogs have costumes too but my one dog Mason literally won't move when you put him in it. He just stands there like a statue, I figure it's animal cruelty for him so this year we will just skip it.

From Amanda: I have a little Buzz Lightyear and a baby giraffe this Halloween. We dressed the boys up a couple weeks ago for a fun Halloween day at the Salisbury House in Des Moines. It was a great opportunity for Maddox to wear his costume. He was Woody last year and has wanted to be Buzz for about six months now. I found his costume on Ebay. Mercer's a giraffe because that's what Maddox was about three years ago. Poor Mercer, he got stuck with the hand-me-down. He doesn't seem to mind :)

Sprucing Up the Set

(Above: Before the "spruce up". Below: After)

(Above: After the changes)
(Below: During renovations)

You may have noticed ABC5 went High Definition a few weeks ago. It was a long process and took a lot of work for staff here plus it involved so much new equipment. The process continued today with revamping our set. Look for the changes tonight and we all hope you are enjoying our better picture!

Rachel Pierce

rpierce@myabc5.com

A "Sucker" for Sophie

So, I've been hearing all about this teething toy named "Sophie" the Giraffe. Rachel told me about her originally (she blogged about her too). Then I just started seeing, hearing, and reading about her everywhere (it's all the rage with celebrity babies). For some reason I never heard of her when my oldest son was a baby. I was baffled why anyone would pay $20 for this rubber giraffe. Well guess who bought one today...

I couldn't resist the temptation, I had to know what all the hype was about. Also, Mercer seems to be the prime age for kids who like this toy. Before I took the leap, I did some research. Sophie is made in France with 100% natural rubber derived from the sap of the Hevea Tree (whatever that is). But get this, she's been around since 1961! She's exactly the same today as she was when she was first 'born.' Obviously there's something about this cute little piece of rubber if she's this popular almost 50 years later. If you want to read more about this wonder toy click here. So far, Mercer seems to enjoy her company :)

Sidenote: You can't find Sophie just anywhere, more specialty shops. I found her at KangarooBoo in Valley Junction, what a cool store! I'll definitely be stopping in again.

Let me know of other cool 'must have' toys for kids.

akrenz@myabc5.com

Des Moines Marathon!

(Rachel Pierce and Amanda Krenz)

What a perfect and fun day Sunday was for the Des Moines Marathon! Amanda Krenz and I helped with the announcing at the event, it was such a great event to be part of! If you were out there you probably saw or heard us at the start and finish line platforms. We got to interview so many amazing people who were running for many moving causes. It was motivating! With 7,777 runners, plus all the spectators and over 1,500 volunteers, it made for one huge crowd and electrifying atmosphere.

I had been training for the half marathon for months. Yesterday I couldn't have asked for better weather for the race, it was cool, not too breezy and just perfect. In fact I ran my best race yet! I ran it in one hour fifty minutes which is a 8:25 average mile! I wasn't the only one who had a PR, five men broke the marathon course record and four men broke the half marathon course record! And the overall men's marathon winner it was his first marathon!!!

It was such a blast I can't wait for next year!

Rachel Pierce
rpierce@myabc5.com

IMT Des Moines Marathon

This weekend the Des Moines Marathon will celebrate its ninth year. It's come a long way since it started in 2001. ABC5 is a proud sponsor of the marathon and both Rachel and I enjoy taking part. I ran the full marathon (26.2 miles) in 2005 and the half marathon in 2008. I was trained to run the half last fall, but just learned about my pregnancy so I only ran a few miles just for fun. The photo below is from the 2005 Des Moines Marathon, I'm on the left.

It's such a wonderful, electric, healthy atmosphere. If you've never participated in a large road race I highly encourage you to just go downtown on race day and soak up the energy. Here's a photo of Rachel and her sister finishing last year's half marathon.

This year Rachel will run the half marathon again. She's been training hard most of the summer, many of her miles have been behind a jogging stroller... not easy! I started running again after my pregnancy, but haven't had time to train for a long distance race. Still, I get to participate in different way this year. I'll be doing some emceeing from the finish line for a Mediacom broadcast. After Rachel's finished running, she'll head out into the crowd as a 'roving reporter.' We're both really excited about this.

You should come downtown and say hi.

Thanks for reading.

Amanda
akrenz@myabc5.com