thanksgiving break and 4:50

Cam is on break this week. I had made a BIG deal about Monday being our decorating day. We'll be out of town for Thanksgiving so I thought it would be fun to come home to Christmas. The kids were beyond excited and it served to be such a fun morning.

Even with taking a scooter run break to the donut store, we were still done by 10:00, so we needed something else to do. :) I decided the weather was just too beautiful to not go on a hike. Oak Glen was perfect and was made more fun by all the other hikers who were on the trail. :)

Cameron has a tendency to wake up REALLY early when he is excited about something. Last night we told him not to look at the clock (he wouldn't let us take it out of his room) and that we would come in and get him. So wasn't it so great of him to come in and stand right by my face at 4:50 a.m. just to tell me that yes, he was in fact awake, but that he was trying to go back to sleep? :)

We'l be back on Sunday so I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!!! :)

saturday

This morning Chris took Cameron to a lofthouse build (small homes our church pre-ensembles then takes down to Mexico to put together). He really enjoyed the hammering and drilling he was able to help with. :) Eventually we'll take him down to Mexico to see the follow through of the build and to see the families that are helped.

While they were gone, Kendall and I attended a family day at the library. Crafts, stories, and games made for a happy girl.

After receiving a Red Robin gift card a couple months ago, we've been meaning to go and finally made it tonight. Cam took this picture, which I thought turned out pretty well! :)

success!

Lately my new recipe experiments haven't yielded many positive reviews. Tonight I changed that with Roasted Red Pepper Pasta from Pioneer Woman. It was easy, though I think it took a little longer than her "16 minute recipes" show I saw it on. :)

Chris: 9, "This would be great for company!"
Kelly: 8
Cam: 9, "This is my second favorite pasta dish!" (first would be mac n' cheese)
Kendall: Who knows? She finished her allotted amount simply to get to dessert :)

dry pot pie and heavy duty push up

*Made my first individual pot pies the other night. I'm not overly excited to try again. The inside was dry and the corn bread topping was dry. Overall we would give it a 4 :(

It looked like it would be good, right?

*I ADORE Cam's teacher. She just always looks out for him in such a neat way. Yesterday he had a hard time during lunch. The kids were inside due to weather and it was very loud. It upset him, making him very anxious and emotional. She was so great with him in helping him create an "escape plan" for times like that. I've never heard him talk so fondly of a teacher. :)

*Chris has two bootcamp buddies, Christina and Matt. Christina invited me to do a Groupon Jazzercise for 10 sessions. I enjoy being done with my solo workouts by the time the kids wake up, but I've also wanted to be around people too. Anyway, we'll do once a week for 10 weeks starting after Thanksgiving. I think it will be fun even though it's short term.

*As we progress with Breaking Bad, it is becoming one of my all time favorite series. It will join Felicity, Friday Night Lights, and West Wing.

*Chris always tells me about the crazy exercises he does at bootcamp. The other night he decided to let the kids in on the action of a basic push up. :) Check it out...

*We will head up north for Thanksgiving so are celebrating early this weekend with my family. We aren't sticklers for HAVING to have the traditional meal. So on the menu is a tostada/burrito bar and apple pie/ice cream for dessert. And no, apple pie will not go on Kelly's plate...just ice cream. :)

pictures of stuff

*The past couple years of trick or treating we've done "candy breaks". We stop a couple times during our walk and each get to pick a piece of candy for a snack. It's a highlight for all four of us. :)

*When Chris took the kids to his parents a couple weeks back (while I was in Chicago), Kendall requested In & Out on the way up. Here's my thing with In & Out: It's a burger. It's good...but's it's a burger. What on earth is the obsession??? :)

*One of the highlights of our visits to my in-laws are the bonfires we have in the evenings. The kids LOVE them and always ask to have them. 

*A couple nights ago Chris took the kids to the Veggie Tales movie night at our church. They loved this and it's become a fun daddy/kid date night.

*I really want bangs like this. The problem is that once they start to grow too long, I don't know how to trim them and I don't want to pay to go to the salon simply for a bang trim.

dribble it, pass it, we want a basket

*Somehow in the middle of last night Cam banged his toe on something as he was getting up to go to the restroom. It was still quite painful this morning. After a call to the nurse hotline, it was recommended that he elevate it, wrap it, and stay off it to monitor if it had broken. Now the day is over, we think he is fine. :) I couldn't help snapping this sweet pic of him reading to Kendall this morning during his propped up position.

*He was actually kind of excited that today was the day it was my turn to host our preschool playgroup. Since we started it several months ago, he has always asked if he could attend :)

*Chris has never thought cheerleading was a sport. In fact, he doesn't think too highly of them in general. Well get on board, dad, because this wife would be super excited if Kendall followed in her mom's footsteps!! :)

*I go to the restroom on average 3-4 times a night. It's totally mental as every time I wake I go because I won't go back to sleep otherwise (even if I don't feel like I have to). It's kind of annoying.

*I love cool whip. I don't want to know how it's made.

yum, yum, then some more yum

Okay, I'll get to that picture in a second. Today we had hoped to go hiking with some friends, however I didn't feel right about putting Kendall around other children quite yet (still got the gunk). But that didn't stop us from taking a BEAUTIFUL hike at Wildwood State Park. There were lots of other hikers, bikers, and horse back riders which made it even more enjoyable. :)

There is an old abandoned house at our halfway point where we always stop for a snack break.

Afterward we ate our picnic lunch before leaving.

Okay, so now to the title of my post and the picture. A FB friend of Chris' had posted about these new Cinnabon Delights at Taco Bell. I thought it would be fun to give them a shot. HOLY COW. These little things are beyond delightful, they are scrumptiously wonderful!!! Imagine a slightly crunchy donut hole stuffed with cream cheese frosting. Wow. In case you aren't convinced, here is a 50 second food review from a couple of great kiddo critics. :)

goop

*Friday night Kendall came down with a yucky eye infection. Luckily in the morning it was much better and she felt/acted great. We wanted to do something fun since it didn't affect her mood, so we headed out to the desert as planned. We brought scooters rather than bikes and they loved riding all around our favorite park.

*Last night Cam's eyes started up, so I figured the other parents at church wouldn't appreciate me bringing two goopy kids. :) We had two free movie tickets, so Chris took the kids to see Planes this afternoon.

*I'm staying back to watch a Christmas movie I recorded and work on a few things, like our meal plan for the week:

Tonight: Hamburgers
Monday: Cheesy rice stuffed bell peppers
Tuesday: Beerocks (amazing little dough bundles filled with meat that Chris' mom makes)
Wednesday: Black bean quesadillas
Thursday: Homemade mac and cheese
Friday: Little Caesar's to bring to our church's Veggie Tales movie night (for Chris/kids) while I go hang out with friends

Now we'll see if this actually happens. Meal planning has never been a high priority because it just never seems to pan out like I think it will... :)

*Chris just texted that Kendall has TONS of goop in her eye. Now we play the, "should we take her to the doc?" dance. Ugh. So hard to know what will go away and what needs attention....hmmmm.... :(

*Stater Brothers has started carrying Ambrosia apples again. These are by far my favorite apples. They are the crunchiest (even more than Fuji's) and sweetest things! Woowoo!

samoa cake

*The kids are in "upstairs time" right now and I may or may not be watching a TV Christmas movie downstairs. Ahhh...it's never too early. :)

*I've soured on my iced coffee recipe from Pioneer Woman. I just cannot seem to get the exact mixture ratio (milk to water to coffee to sweetener). :(

*Kendall LOVES Beyonce's "Single Ladies" and requests it often for an "in the car dance party". :)

*I ordered our Christmas cards from Costco. I'm impressed that A) we are doing them and B) I have them ordered so early :)

*We received a gift recently of a Red Robin gift card. We are making a Palm Springs trip tomorrow and will go there for dinner. I can almost taste those perfect fries right now. So excited!!

*Almost done with the second Hunger Games book. Excited to see the movie!

*I am having SUCH a hard time getting up to work out in the mornings. It's never been this bad. When I'm snuggled in my warm bed it takes all I have to drag myself out. And I know that if I don't do it before the kids get up, it's highly unlikely it will happen at all. The not happening thing has been happening far too much lately!

*I think blog posts can be a tad boring without any pictures. So for the sake of not being boring, here is the dessert I would like to make for Thanksgiving, Samoa Bundt Cake:

pics from the last week

*While I was in Chicago, Chris took the kids up to my in-laws' for the weekend. His mom took both kids to Disney on Ice. I think I was almost as excited about this as I was for my own trip. I've wanted to take them to this show for a long time so I was ELATED that they got to go. They loved it!!!

*While they were visiting up north, Chris had planned ahead of time to do one of our big chicken bakes. His dad has a smoker, which makes a much more juicy piece of chicken than our BBQ. I cannot believe how much they did! 

*This isn't the best picture, but you can see our Ninja and flapper girl before we headed out for trick-or-treating last week. They had a BLAST! :)

*I brought the kids a little something from Chicago. This flower might seem an odd choice for Cameron, but it was perfect for him! It's a solar powered dancing flower (his teacher has one and he always talks about it). He LOVES it and is always interested in checking out how fast it is dancing based on the sun outside. :)

*This morning I came upstairs after Kendall yelled down that she wanted to play Monopoly. Apparently her rules are a little different than the regular rules. Hmmm....

*Later she wanted to get down one of my memory boxes. I let her put on two Superman tattoos. These were found among my collection of Lois and Clark, New Adventures of Superman stuff. I LOVED this show back in the day (BIG crush on Dean Cain). And that box you see on the right is actually full of Lois and Clark playing cards (little embarrassed about this) :)

home...safe and sound

Jen and I got back yesterday from Chicago and while we were both incredibly anxious to get back to our families, we agreed that our weekend was one of the most fun trips we have had. :) I don't remember the last time the two of us got to spend so much time together without kids. We talked, talked, then talked some more. In between we had a great time with our friend, Chalet, in celebrating her wedding.

I have to say that being in a state that actually has a real "fall" was pretty cool. Walking around with the beautiful brick buildings and fall colors was really fun. It was cold but not, "I can't be outside for more than 2 minutes" cold. :)

The actual wedding was sooo fun! I made Jen proud by getting out on the dance floor quite a bit.The food was awesome and I had the BEST most tasty cupcake (let's be honest, cupcake should be plural!) I've ever had. It was a browned butter cupcake with browned butter frosting. Holy cow. Wow. 

A highlight for both of us was just relaxing in our room, reading, watching TV, and NOT HAVING TO GET OUT OF BED RIGHT AWAY in the mornings!!! :)

The day after the wedding was awesome! We walked a couple miles to downtown Chicago. We shopped around and then ate at a super cool foodie restaurant called The Purple Pig. It was here that we had the best dish I've had in a long time, Eggplant Coponata with Goat Cheese. Know what it is? Yes, we didn't either, but after the waiter said it was the best thing on the menu, we took a risk and were very glad we did. :)

While we had a blast, both of us were soooo excited to get back home to our kiddos. We actually both cried a little a midst the clapping of the entire plane when we landed. In summary, passing over LAX upon our supposed arrival time + an announcement from the captain that the flaps on the wings weren't working + informing us that emergency vehicles would be accompanying our runway landing + observing the stewardesses talking to those seated on the emergency aisles + a dead silent airplane due to people on edge = a honestly frightening landing. Jen and I were holding hands (quite tightly I might add) as we landed and were incredibly thankful to be home. Very, very thankful. I'm good on flying for a while.