weekend with cam and last weekend with the sis

Cameron and I had a really fun time together this past weekend. I enjoyed having it be just the two of us. Saturday the four of us started out at my parents' for a birthday party for my sister's three girls (since they'll be in Germany for them). We had a fun time, especially with the pinata. Our kids had never done one before and loved it.



Chris and Kendall took off from there and Cam and I stayed a while longer before heading home. On Sunday my mom, sister, and I went out to lunch while the kids stayed with my brother-in-law and my dad. After coming home and giving Cam a nap, we played board games, trains, and just had a nice time together. I loved being able to focus just on him and it was very relaxing to just have one kiddo to worry about.



Monday we all went for a hike in Oak Glen, which was beautiful. We came back for a BBQ, then the kids all watched a movie. We later said our goodbyes...for the next 3 years. :( I teared up a little with the thought of how normal it has become for me to see my sister. We email all the time and never feel out of touch with one another's lives...but getting to actually see her over the past several months has been so wonderful. :(

numbers

*35-- minutes Kendall slept on the car ride up north with Chris yesterday. But despite the little sleep, she was an angel for the long ride, which made me so happy to hear.

*2-- hours extra Cam stayed up last night in bed. We bought a clock that projects the time on the ceiling. He ADORES it (since he is so into numbers right now) and was so hyper, he wouldn't go to sleep. I threatened turning it off, turned it off, then finally gave in (like any good mother would...ha!) after he got soooo upset and just let him wear himself out and drift off.

*5--spoonfuls of dough I consumed (at least ) yesterday when Cam and I baked these cookies.

*90210--what I have on my Tivo right now for when Cam goes to bed at night. Love how it brings me back to my college days of all huddling in our dorm rooms each Wednesday night.

*30--the number of minutes I just told Cam he had to rest in his room. I knew he was tired and would fall asleep before the time was up. Sure enough he did. :)

*1--cute shirt I got with some store credit I had at Khol's.



*5-- the number of cupcakes that sound amazing at the Retro Bakery in Vegas. I stumbled across their site and emailed my friend. We are heading to Vegas in a couple weeks with our husbands and we both agreed this will need to be a destination while there. Wow! So far, "Chocolate Fountain" is in first place.

*75-- the temp it's supposed to be tomorrow. Hopefully this will be true so Susan, my mom and I can take the kids on a hike in Oak Glen on our last day together... :(

family pics

Here are a couple family pictures we took a few weeks back. I'm so thankful to have these as my whole family is only together once every few years. My friend, Jessica, took them and I think they came out great!! She is very reasonable and we were very happy with them!! Check out her site...

*Went to Disneyland yesterday with my parents. We had a great time, however I think the summer crowds have arrived so it will be a while until we return.


My dad and Cam:


The nice thing about both Disneyland and CA Adventure is that they have a few places you can go that don't involve lines. Both kids adore Tom Sawyer's Island as well as this play area in CA. We were very proud of Cam making his way across the wall. :)



*My sister and her family leave next Tuesday. I always thought 6 months would be nice because it was sooo long. But it went too fast. :( We are having a birthday party for all three of her girls on Saturday. I'm making the cake and both kids are VERY excited for some baking this afternoon!

*Chris is taking Kendall up to his parents' from Saturday-Tuesday. I'm very excited to have some Cam and me time and am trying to think up fun things to do. I think Kung Fu Panda might be on our list. :)

*Poor Kendall pooped off and on for over half an hour this morning. She wouldn't let anyone near her and had VERY little to show for it when she was done. She hasn't screamed in a long time, but it is still such a strain for her.

super yummy and super tasty!!!!

We had an awesome meal tonight!!! We both gave it a 9. I'm not a huge BBQ fan, but I love the mix of BBQ and ranch. I saw this on a blog and knew we had to try it because it looked good and easy. Cooking my chicken in the crockpot made it that much more easy! Please try!!!

My changes:

*I doubled the onion
*I doubled the Ranch seasoning
*I threw frozen chicken breasts in the crockpot and dumped BBQ sauce on top to cook the chicken. Once they were cooked, I shredded them and threw them back in with the sauce so they could soak up more.

*Friday I made some very yummy pizza. I liked that I didn't have to go to the store and just used what we had. I made pizza dough with my bread maker, then topped it with chicken, sundried tomatoes, turkey bacon, green onions, toasted almonds, and a low fat fettuccine sauce as the base. Yum!



*I love how much Cam is into board games. They are such a great activity for us to play together. His two favorites are kids Yahtzee and kids Uno. Here he is with Chris during Yahtzee. It has become an after dinner activity each night.



*Today we went to Palm Springs for the afternoon. While at the mall, Chris took the kids to the play area and I went to JC Penny's to use some of my birthday money I still had. I got this cute pair of shorts. I wanted some that were in between knee length and "I'm too old to wear that short". :)



*We went to Barnes and Noble and I bought this Bible for Cam. He's graduated from the board book Bibles that only have a sentence on each page. He was very excited and I enjoyed reading him his first story tonight and talking to him about it.

*My LEAST favorite time of every day is doing Kendall's hair. Wow, the drama. I simply tell her we need to comb her hair and she starts with, "Mama! Hug! Hug! Waaaaaaaa!!!". I swear she acts like I'm ripping her hair out! :)

*Bachelorette tomorrow night. Woohoo!

*Cameron is very into freeways and directions. The other day he randomly asked me if I knew the freeways to the beach house we stayed in a couple weeks back. He proceeded to say, "I know! You take the 10 to the 215 to the 91 to the 241 to the 133 to the 5 to the 1!" Ahhhh, our boy and numbers. :)

t-ball

Today was Cam's last T-ball game. He hit probably one of his best hits of the season, which was fun to see. We had a party afterward at one of the player's homes. Chris enjoyed coaching and we both will be sad to not have a game each Saturday. It was always something nice to do as a family. Hopefully Cam will want to play again next year. Some of our good friends have a son who will always be in the same bracket, so it's nice to know we will always have them on our team, especially since they know, understand, and love Cam. :)

Cam was well loved and cheered for each game. Here he is with my sister's girls after a recent game.


Kendall always did great at the games, but could get a little squirmy. Luckily, my dad came to most games and would often take Kendall-duty and go off to explore while I watched the game.

in the kitchen

When I cook or bake I...

*Never follow the baking instructions, as far as putting in the ingredients in a specific order. I dump everything in at once and mix.

*Add a couple spoonfuls of sugar to my spaghetti sauce. We like a sweeter sauce.

*Never measure baking soda or baking powder. I sprinkle it in to the measurement I think it is.

*Use margarine a lot for baking, rather than butter...mainly because it's cheaper and I don't think you can tell THAT much of a difference in taste. If I want butter on my bread, it needs to be butter.

*Never time my pasta cooking. I just keep checking it to see when it's done.

*Don't dry lettuce when making a salad. After I wash it, I just rip it up into the bowl. Since it's more wet, the dressing goes further and you don't have to use as much.

*Always under bake cookies and brownies.

project pie

This is my second post of the day, but it doesn't feel like it since my first one was written before 6 am. Why can't I even sleep in when I'm sick??? :( Anyway, I would LOVE some input on my latest project. Project Pie. For some reason, Kendall calls her pacifier a pie. Well, I told myself that when she turned two, I would do something about this thing that occupies her mouth WAY too much.

So here is my issue. I would like to get rid of it except for sleeping and the car. The sleeping part is obvious, because sleeps better with it. The car part I really like because it saves me a lot when she is getting fussy, making Cam upset. Is it best to just get rid of it all together? Will allowing it only at certain times be confusing? Strategies? :)

the past week

So I've been waiting until I got all the pictures from my family from our trip this past week (because I was horrible and didn't take any), but I'll go ahead and blog.

*Monday-Thursday we spent in Dana Point at a beautiful house right on the beach. We enjoyed seeing all the pretty beach houses, some of them SOO unique. It was nice getting to hang out after the kids went down, however I cut that shorter than I would have liked. Our kids were both somewhat sick and slept pretty badly, which made it that much harder for me to even stay up a little later than normal. The weather couldn't have been more perfect, though, and we had a fun few days away from the normal routine. :)



*The morning we were to leave, I had come down with the worst sore throat I have ever had. I thought it was just a regular sickness, however after a trip to Urgent Care on Friday, I was told it was strep throat. Never had it and NEVER want it again. Luckily the meds kicked in very quickly with the sore throat part. I'm still not up to my normal energy, but I can tell it's getting better.

*My brother and sister-in-law sent this pic of Kendall at her party a couple weeks back. My parents gave her this shopping cart and she adores it. She has taken it twice with me to Stater Bros. and looks too cute pushing it all around.



*Cameron appears to be back to his happy-go-lucky self. He was diagnosed with Bronchitis the night before my Urgent Care visit, which accounted for his somewhat "offness" on vacation.

*Rented "The Way Back" last night. We didn't finish it, but so far it is very good. It's about a group of men who escaped a concentration camp and traveled 4000 miles to freedom.

*Cam's IEP was postponed a couple weeks back and is scheduled for Tuesday. Anxious.

*After church today we are headed to my parents for a visit with my mom's brother and his wife. I haven't seen them in several years and Chris has actually never met them!

birthday

Saturday was my little girl's 2nd birthday. I can honestly say I look forward to each morning I get to go in and wake her up. She is the smiliest, most talkative, squeezable chunk I could ever ask for!

The day started with Cam's T-ball game. Chris's family and my family were in attendance and Cam was soaking up the attention and cheers. Poor guy wasn't feeling good, and still isn't, but played like a champ for his audience.

After the game, we came back for the party. We had rented a bounce house, which was a hit with all the kids. It took Kendall quite a while to venture inside, and was quite content to just bounce on the entrance ramp. :)

We had tacos for lunch and cupcakes/ice cream for dessert. I made Kendall's special cake with pictures of three of her favorite things: strollers, trash trucks, and dogs. It's not the fanciest cake, but it was personal and I think she enjoyed it.



Today we are going to Dana Point with my family for a few days. We did this the last time my sister's family was out and had a really nice time. 3 out of the 5 kids are sick this time, but hopefully they can rally and still squeeze some fun out of it. :) I've mapped out all the parks in the area and the house is literally a stones throw from the ocean, so I think there should be plenty to do. :)

list of "to makes"

Normally I blog about recipes I've tried. Here are a few that I would like to try sometime soon...

Brownie Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies: Wow! How could you get a better combo???



The Motherload Layered Cookie Bars: Seems like a lot of work...but it also seems like it would be VERY worth it.



Roasted Butternut Squash Lasagna: This is slightly risky to make for Chris since it's basically a veggie lasagna, however he sampled a butternut squash ravioli at Costco once and really liked it. I think this looks so flavorful.



Cheesy Mac N' Rib: This one has got to be one of the worst things you can eat, but it looks sooo tasty! It's a grilled cheese with macaroni and cheese melted in the center of the cheeses. Good grief!!! :)

*Costco list today:

Wheat Thins
Feta
Frozen Veggies
Meat for tacos (having family over on Saturday for Kendall's birthday)
Cheerios
Bread
Rotissere Chicken (to make chicken salad for our lunch tomorrow...going to Disneyland with my parents and my sister's family!)
Almonds

*Got to go out to dinner last night with our friends from back in OC, Peyt and Liesl. Between free babysitting (thanks, Susan!) and a gift card, it was a free night, except for gas...grrr...

*Yesterday I was able to observe (through a two way mirror) Cam at speech. We had brought his cousin, Savannah, to interact with him and the grad students. It was interesting for me to view him playing from the outside.

*My Tmoms table is planning a wine tasting afternoon. Despite not being a fan of wine, I'll probably go just to hang out with the girls. It got me thinking, though, and I wondered why there is no such thing as "Dessert Tasting"? How amazing would that be to walk around and have a tiny bite of all sorts of desserts??? :)

*Good news: Finally got approved for our health insurance!!! Bad News: GOOD GOSH IS IT EXPENSIVE

*Made these Oreo Truffles for Cam's teachers (it's staff appreciation week). I made them with Mint Oreos, which I'm not a fan of, but most people are. :)