golf dinner

*I saw this on the internet last week. I'm probably a 4...trying to get to a 3. I don't think I'll ever get to a 1.

*Today was nice and relaxing. I was able to bake, watch TV (wow, did I cry hard at last week's This is Us), and just have down time. Chris even got to golf as he found a location where the wind wasn't blowing a zillion miles per hour, like it has been here the past several days. :(

Kendall spent a good chunk of time building a fort with the quads:

 *Tonight we had dinner at the golf course.

*It's official, after finishing my Oreo cheesecake last night, it has surpassed Pumpkin Crunch Cake as my favorite dessert of all time.

*We recently added vacuuming to the kids' chores. Cameron does the upstairs and Kendall the down. It's pretty awesome to not have that on my to-do list.

*I've been extra thankful for a few of the people I work with lately. Last week I texted one of my coworkers that I needed to get back to her on something as I was on the verge of tears due to some extra work I had not anticipated. She wrote back asking what specifically she could do to take stuff off my plate. While I didn't take her up on her offer (she is just as overwhelmed as I am!), it meant a great deal to me and reminded me again how fortunate I am to truly love the people I work with.

oreo dream

*On Thursday Cam had his Taekwando belt testing. He did great and we were so proud of him. He had toyed with the idea of quitting about a month ago. After lots of talks, we figured out it was because he felt behind the rest of his classmates. We came up with a "training plan" for him to get back on track. He worked really hard and I think he's back on board now. :)

 
*After his testing, I drove out to meet Jen for dinner. We had such a nice night. It's sad that we so rarely get together. It was great to catch up without kids interrupting. :)

*This morning my dad drove out to take Cam on a long bike ride. Despite the super annoying wind, they had a great ride.

*During the bike ride, the quad girls came over for "movie morning". They all wore their P.J.'s and we first drove up to get a movie (from Redbox) and donuts. Kendall was beyond excited.

*Chris and I are looking forward to finishing our cheesecake tonight from last week's visit to The Cheesecake Factory. We stuck our leftovers in the freezer and I've been looking forward to mine all week! I got my favorite, Oreo Dream Extreme, and Chris got a German Chocolate piece. :)

Best flavor ever!!!

cheesecake

*Last night we went to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner. We had some coupons for free cheesecake so we let the kids each pick out their own piece. They were super excited!

*Today after church Chris took the kids home while I went to Starbucks to work. I was able to get a lot done and feel better about heading into the week. They were in the middle of a wild game of Monopoly when I got home. Chris and Kendall were on the same team and cleaned house. :)

*This afternoon the kids asked if we could drive around to see the flooded streets. While we were driving, Cameron asked if he could stand on the side of the street and have us drive by and splash him. This is SO not like Cameron so we immediately said, yes!!

*One of the reasons I loved Parenthood was because it was one of the few shows where the men/husbands weren't portrayed as dumb idiots. I LOVE This is Us for the exact same reason. I could do without a few plot lines, but the marriage between the two main characters makes the show worth watching. They are actually a team...not a smart wife married to a stupid husband, like every other show on TV (can you tell I have some pretty strong opinions??)

 p.s. I also cry almost every episode...just like Parenthood. :)

pants

*Kendall is well into the process of preparing her mouth for braces. Right now she has her palate expander in, which Chris tightens each night.

*One of our friends from church recommended a book for the kids. Chris started reading them a few chapters each night and they both love it.

*If I'm not at work, I'm in these pants. I think now that I'm dressed up for so much of the week, I don't waste a second when I get home. I head a straight upstairs and change into these. And to be honest, I wear them all weekend long, no matter where we go (well, except church). :)

 

*My coffee burned thumb is still not healed. I won't go into detail, but skin goes through some pretty gross stages as it heals from a burn. I'm soooo thankful it was only my thumb.

*I've been using my Starbucks giftcard but am always envious of people when they waltz in and out, grabbing their mobile orders and bypassing the line... while I wait (sometimes a long time) for my drink. I need to just sit down and figure out my account. Mobile ordering is brilliant.

 

some randoms as of late

*Our guinea pig, Peanut, had to leave our family. We just didn't feel right keeping him around knowing the kind of damage he was capable of when he chose to bite (which was becoming more and more frequent). We aren't in a rush to replace him, but I'm sure we will eventually as we do love our piggies. :)

*A few days after Peanut bit my right hand, I spilled scalding coffee on my left hand. I basically heated it so hot that it bubbled over onto my hand when I took it out of the microwave. It turned out to be a 2nd degree burn. I didn't realize it at the time and therefore didn't care for it like I should have. I'm thinking a scar is in my future. I totally learned my lesson and am not heating my coffee that hot anymore...ummm...sure...that's it... ;)

*Here are some pics from our day off from work/school today. It was such a nice, low key day.

Drinking hot chocolate in their new favorite reading area.

I treated them to a treat at Target. 

Kendall was a great little kitchen helper. Here we are doing some meal prep (Taco Soup).

Cameron is constantly asking us to, "expand my bike route". Today I allowed him to go further than he's ever gone. Kendall and I surprised him by driving up and providing a snack/energy for his trip. I might have had some ulterior motives. I kind of wanted to check and make sure the route I approved was really okay. ;)

This is my face when I was trying to help Kendall with math. Want to know what I was stuck on? 

24 - 5 = ___

Yep...I can't believe how complicated these simple problems are with common core. I feel sooo dumb trying to figure out how she is supposed to solve them! :(

germany

I finally got hold of all the pictures my dad took during our Christmas in Germany. We have sooo many amazing memories. I narrowed the pictures down to highlight some of the fun things we did...

We took several BEAUTIFUL walks. These were some of my favorite times.

We spent one full day at Europa Park (their version of Disneyland). It was sooo fun! My mom has been having a lot of trouble with her foot for the past year. She had to opt out of a few of our outings, but we were able to get her a wheelchair for this day, which made all the difference!

It was one of the colder days we had. There is nothing better than a pizza dinner in a warm restaurant at the end of a long day!!

We went to the most beautiful, authentic little Christmas market in France. It was amazing and so gorgeous!!

Here we are the night before Christmas wrapping presents.  I was able to pack the kids' stocking toys and a couple presents so they could have things to open.

Here we are Christmas morning. We loved to have the fireplace (on Netflix) "lit"/on whenever possible. It always gave such a cozy feel. :)

We watched a couple episodes of Little House on the Prairie (Christmas episodes). It brought back such great memories of when I would watch this show every single day as a kid. :)

On the day before we left, we took the kids to an awesome indoor playground. The adults sat and talked while the kids ran everywhere. :)

Chris and I participated a little as well ;)

It was such a great way to spend Christmas and we couldn't have asked for a better present. Thanks, mom and dad, for treating us to an amazing Christmas trip! And thanks, Susan and Chris, for being such wonderful hosts!

i'm weird

*Yesterday we went out to the desert. We started at Barnes and Noble. Cameron is currently obsessed with Calvin and Hobbes and Peanuts books.

We followed that by a monster Costco list:
*Peanut Butter
*Melatonin
*Veggie Straws
*Dishwasher soap
*Angus Cheeseburgers
*Yogurt
*English Muffins
*Eggs
*Bananas
*Fettucini Alfredo
*Toilet Paper

*On the way to the desert, I explained to Chris a realization I  recently had. The reason I keep our house so cold is that I don't like artificial heat. It's quite weird, but when the heat is cranked in the house or car, I feel stuffy and yucky. If there is a fire place, I love to sit in front of it. But for some reason, I don't like when a house is super warm... warmed by a heater. Weird. That got me thinking about other weird things about myself:

-It bothers me when people have their windshield wipers on higher than they need to be (like if it is only a light sprinkling). It's hard for me to not focus on the fact that the wipers are needlessly going too fast.

-I hate crumbs on our counters (specifically on our island). I'm constantly leaning down to eye level so as to see how many crumbs are scattered about.

-I'd rather not have coffee/hot chocolate at all unless it's scalding. When we were in Germany at an indoor playplace, I was freezing and they were offering all adults a free hot beverage. I was bummed to not even partake because they don't serve their drinks very hot in Germany.

-Every night I triple/quadruple check our oven controls to make sure they are completely turned off.

-I only open my soda cans a tiny bit. I don't ever open them all the way. This drives Chris crazy when he asks for a drink.

-I usually make 2-3 drafts of grocery lists. My final draft is done according to the layout of the store. With that said, when we are at Costco, I will often lose said list as we walk around (typically I accidentally throw it away with a sample wrapper). This also drives Chris crazy. :)

-I've never been a huge pudding fan. However when I do eat it, I have to take tiny bites. Big bites of pudding gross me out.

-I feel like I keep a pretty tidy house as far as stuff/clutter is concerned. My closet, however, always looks like a tornado hit it.

I'm sure there are dozens of other weird things about me, but that is all I can think of for now. :)

*We've made some changes to Peanut's cage that will hopefully make biting less frequent. We went back and forth on options to deal with him, but we finally decided to give him another shot. I hope I don't regret it... :(

big bite

*A couple things on my desk that make me happy...

My desktop background

*This is a "hooray" for Chris after calling in and finding out he didn't have to report for jury duty this year. I know that we should be happy to do something as small as serve on a jury seeing as we live in such a great country. But let's be honest, it is kind of nice when we get excused... :)

*Ahh...doesn't our Peanut look so innocent?? Wrong. Last night I reached in to get him from his cage and he bit me so hard and deep that I cried. I currently cannot write nor bend my finger due to the pain and swelling. I can't tell you how mad I was. His biting has gotten worse to the point that we are pretty sure he needs to find another place to live. The problem is that I would never feel comfortable giving him to a family with kids...so what does one do? Ugh.

*Kendall got her spacers put in this week. Braces here we come!

elf

Yesterday we celebrated Christmas with Chris' side of the family. We drove out in the morning and met everyone for brunch. Shortly after we were treated to a live performance of, "Elf" as our present from Craig's family. The show did a great job of following along with the movie and had some cute extra scenes as well.

After the show we headed back to Craig and Rebekah's house for dinner and Christmas presents. Since it would be a tight fit for all of us to sleep at their house, Chris' parents treated the four of us to a night in a hotel. In the morning Chris headed to a golf store and I loooved being able to relax with coffee and Food Network (man, I miss having that channel)!

We headed back mid-morning to pick up the kids and then came home. I have one more day off tomorrow and then it's back to real life...work. Sigh...

 Cam and Lauren making a fun Lego creation from a book Cam got for Christmas.