crafts and kelly

Whenever I've been asked what hobbies I'm into, I'm always at a loss. The only things I really love to do are cooking and baking. I know many people are into crafts, but I just can't jump on board. In general, I'm not a huge fan simply because I lack motivation to work on things that I can't use. Since I'm not into displaying crafty things in my home, I rarely participate in making them. I usually skip the craft time at my Mom's group because I see them more as things that will clutter up my house, which I'm a huge proponent of VERY LITTLE clutter in my house (in fact, I think one time my sister accused me of being to sparse of a decorator!).

Scrap booking seems to be huge right now. Here are my thoughts on that:
A) It is an expensive hobby (but again if I was INTO it, it wouldn't be a waste of money because it would be something I would just budget for...so I don't think it is a waste)
B) If I can be truly honest, unless someone specifically tells me, "Take a look at the pages I made", I always tend to look just at the pictures themselves. I would venture to guess this is the case with most people, unless they themselves are into scrap booking.
C) Knowing my track record with crafts, I can see myself buying all the cute stuff, then getting tired of it and quitting half way through, leaving 1/2 a book that would never be completed.

There is one craft that I really enjoy doing, which is cross stitch. I rarely do them because again, I would never hang them in my home because they just aren't my style. And I wouldn't give them as gifts, so I just never get them. However this year I decided to start the tradition my mom has with my sister and I, which is to give us a new ornament each year. I thought it would be a perfect excuse to do a cross stitch because it would make a great ornament and I found a super cute one of Pirates of the Caribbean (which is one of Cam's favorites at Disneyland). However we are now two weeks into January, and here is where I'm at...



yep...I lost motivation and yet another craft sits undone...oh well. Maybe someday I'll find some sort of hobby. :)

restaurant review

First off, welcome Sierra Grace!! My sister had her third daughter yesterday. We are so thankful she was able to get to the hospital on time as her second daughter came VERY fast! The only bad thing is that I won't be able to meet her for a couple years since they live across they world. :(

Ok, so onto my restaurant review. We had heard good things about The Gourmet Pizza Shoppe (in Redlands and Calimesa) so we decided to give it a try. The menu is almost overwhelming to look at based on the number of pizzas to choose from. We decided on The Brando, which included cream cheese, pesto, pepperoni, sausage, cashews, green onions, angel hair pasta, and mozzarella.

Chris gave it an 8, I gave it a 7. It was good pizza, but considering all of those tasty toppings, I was expecting a flavor explosion in my mouth. I couldn't really taste much else besides the meat, cheese, and occasional cashew (which actually were good!). It also has thin crust, which doesn't appeal to us "thicker the crust the better" people. Considering that a large pizza is about $25, I don't think we'll make this a regular stop.

Sorry this is so fuzzy. We were using my little pocket camera and it wasn't behaving.


So there you go. If you are interested in trying a pizza with really unique toppings, this is your place. If you want to fall on the ground because the pizza is so good...hmmm...I can't quite recommend it.

belated Christmas

This is a little late, but I wanted to post a few pictures from our Christmas with Chris's side of the family. We celebrated Jan. 4 at our house. Chris' parents, along with his aunt and Deb came out early so they could golf on Friday. Saturday we began with yet another round of Land of Nod. Am I obsessed with this breakfast? You bet. But I probably won't make them again until we have another special occasion, which I'm sure our arteries will thank us for!

Sorry this one is a little dark...


Cameron and Lauren playing with the new fridge toy he got from his aunt and uncle...


Cam and his cousins were spoiled with presents from their relatives and Cam got a few in particular which have proven to be among his favorites! After presents, we enjoyed a non-traditional meal of carne asada. Since Cameron, I have become quite an advocate of simplifying holiday meals, especially when I'm hosting!!

Here are a couple of pictures from when we were in Vegas and Cam stayed with grandma and grandpa. He did so well and it was neat to let him have a couple of days to bond with them, without me there. :)

With grandpa up in Oak Glen...


Grandma introduced him to a new computer game where he would try and name the animal sounds. The horse sound always got a particularly good reaction!

scratch your dirty neck

When we were kids and one of us would prove the other wrong, my sister and I would say, "So scratch YOUR dirty neck!". I know we didn't just make this up, but I'm not sure where it came from. Over the years I've introduced the phrase to my friends and it has become somewhat of a joke. Another similar phrase that was my sister and I's creation was, "Mided!!". It stems from "moded", which I think many of you probably used as kids. Don't ask me why we changed it. :)

I'd like to go ahead and use the phrase on my sister right now. She claimed that by me keeping all of my old emails in my inbox (they actually go back to 2006), I am slowing down my computer. I disagreed. So I asked my computer savvy husband, and turns out I'm right. You see, Susan, with free email (like yahoo), all of your emails are stored on their server, which they hold and control. I am simply reading my emails off of their server...not storing them on my computer. So scratch your dirty neck!

One other thing I have been able to say this about regards rice. Back in college, my roommate and I disagreed on the proper cooking method of rice. She claimed that you had to follow the instructions, which stated you couldn't lift the lid before the rice was done, otherwise it wouldn't turn out. I don't know a time that I have NOT lifted the lid. I do every time just to see how it is coming along. And my rice is perfect every time!! So you are mided Cheryl!! :)

Lastly, the jury is still out on this and maybe some of you can help out. This again involves my sister and I. She maintains that it isn't good for a microwave to open it mid-heat. I maintain that it is fine and that is why the clock keeps the time remaining for you so you can pop it back in if need be! If it wasn't, wouldn't it put you back to 0, so you would have to start over???

back to real life

Chris and I had an awesome time in Vegas. It was the perfect length of time as we have both learned over the years that we are not long vacation people. We tend to be done after about night three or four. Plus, anything above 2 nights in Vegas is a little much for us. Anyway, here are our highlights:

We both loved being able to wake up and just stay in bed for however long we wanted. We still woke up rather early, but to not have to get up and tend to Cam was a nice break. The first morning Chris went and got me breakfast so I could watch Good Morning America and eat my breakfast without ever leaving our bed!



I've said before that we love to eat out, but don't do it terribly often. Vacation is the perfect excuse to do it every meal! My family has always been notorious for spending much of our vacation analyzing where we are going to eat. I think this has rubbed off on Chris as we also enjoy planning out what restaurants we'll eat at ("What about Italian? Hmmm..we had it last night. Well, if we eat here, then we could go here for dessert. Hmmm..what about here?...") Here we are the second night after deciding on Maggiano's.



We love to walk around and people watch. Here we are at the newest hotel, Encore. Very pretty.



Chris enjoys Blackjack, and that's about it. Typically he only plays at the $3 and $5 tables so he can play longer for less money. I think gambling is boring, however Chris couldn't resist sending me to the War table to play a hand. Yes, War, just like when we were kids. The dealer and I flip over a card. The highest one wins. Pretty easy. Luckily after two deals I was up $10. That was it for me! I think the dealer was a little surprised as typically when you are up you want to keep going to continue your "lucky streak". But I like to walk away right then with the knowledge that I just made about three frappuchinos!!



One of the best parts of the trip was the excitement of coming home to Cam. Throughout our time we would both say, "I wonder what Cameron is doing?". So it was quite exciting to get some big squeezes and kisses as soon as we walked through the door. :) Thank you Debbie and Wayne for making it so we could truly relax and never worried about Cameron at all!



p.s. Yes, I cut my hair also. I have been annoyed with it lately as all I ever do is stick it in a pony tale. Yesterday Chris wanted to go to a few golf places to shop around. I saw a Fantastic Sam's across the street and decided to cut it. It isn't anything special, but at least now I have to somewhat do it each day.

Yipppeeeee!!!

Bags packed, Cam in GREAT hands with Chris's parents...and we are off until Tuesday!! Viva Las Vegas!!!

wild new years

Yesterday we had a great New Years, including yummy appetizers and time with wonderful friends. The only difference between our New Years and probably most other people's was that all of this was over by 6:00. :) We drove out to Jeremy and Ana's for the afternoon and just hung out until about 6:00, when we headed home and put Cam to bed. We had SUCH a fun time with them and equally as fun was that Cam did amazing at their place. We had thought we would need to get him out to a park, but we literally stayed inside their home for 3 hours and he did awesome! So exciting for me, considering I am always a little hesitant about how he'll be at someone else's home.



Once we got back to our house and put Cam to bed, we enjoyed a lovely fancy New Years dinner of Bakers (for you non-Inland Empire folk, it is basically a McDonald's, but way better). As anyone with little-wake-at-the-crack-of-dawn-ones know, staying up late isn't as easy since you don't get to sleep in. So Chris and I retired well before midnight. I won't embarrass us by telling you how early, but let's just say it wasn't too long after New York celebrated! But let's be honest, I never stayed up until midnight even before Cam!