Conversations with Kaylin

Tonight in the car, Kaylin and I had a conversation that I knew I had to write down somewhere. I completely soaked every bit of this up, because I know this is short lived, and she’ll only believe this stuff for the next year, or maybe 2, if I’m lucky.

I’ll start with the back story and why this conversation started…she lost her other front tooth yesterday at school. She brought it home in a cute little treasure chest called a “tooth saver.” She placed the tooth under her pillow, for The Tooth Fairy….and then The Tooth Fairy didn’t come last night. Yeah. Parenting FAIL. I felt bad, she was upset, and crying, so I told her we’d go out for a treat after Daddy got home from work, just us girls. She picked Yogurt Story.

So, on the way home from Yogurt Story we’re talking about the Tooth Fairy…
Kaylin: She probably lives in a tooth shaped house

Me: Wouldn’t that give her identity away though? I mean, her neighbors would obviously know someone living in a tooth shaped house is the tooth fairy. So, where does the Easter Bunny live then?

Kaylin: In a meadow and yeah the bugs, birds, and rodents know he’s the Easter Bunny. And Santa lives in The North Pole…

Me: And the penguins and polar bears know he’s Santa?

Kaylin: The penguins, yeah, but polar bears live in a different arctic. They would eat the penguins if they lived together.
 
So, she knows that polar bears eat penguins, but apparently, when it comes to where Santa lives. Everyone lives happily every after and Santa makes special food chain related living arrangements. Which, shouldn’t surprise me. I mean, he IS Santa!

My chili recipe

My friend Kristi asked me for my chili recipe, and I decided I'll just share it here. These are all approximate, because I never really measure the spices and such when I'm making it. If you like a chili that packs heat, this is not the chili for you. Of course, you could always add more chili powder, red pepper flakes, etc. to your liking to up the heat factor.

15 oz canned dark kidney beans
15 oz canned light kidney beans
15 oz canned black beans
8 oz canned tomato sauce
2 - 14 oz cans diced tomatoes
¼ teaspoon lime juice
1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 ½ teaspoons cocoa powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
pinch sugar
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon paprika
½ tablespoon ground cumin
1 cube beef bouillon
½ cup onions, diced, cooked
1 bell pepper of any color, diced
zucchini, diced (Jeremy doesn't like when I add this, so this isn't *always* in there)
2 garlic cloves, minced
¼ teaspoon garlic salt
1 pound extra lean ground beef

Brown ground beef, add to slow cooker.

Sauté onions, peppers, and garlic and then add to slow cooker. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Cook on low as long as possible.

Menu Plan Monday

I’m sorry if you don’t enjoy reading our menu plan for the week. I do this for me, because it’s better than wasting paper every week, and if I don’t write it down somewhere I’ll never remember what I planned!
Leftovers
Greek Couscous (plan is to throw some plain grilled chicken in there, sub cucumbers for the tomatoes and make this a one-dish meal)
Cinco de Mayo Feast - Southwest Chicken Wraps, salad w/ranch-salsa dressing, queso, chips, maybe even some margaritas!!
Chef’s Salad
Barbecue Chicken, baked beans, salad

Menu Plan Monday

• Whole Wheat pancakes, eggs, fruit
• Leftovers & Girl’s Night Out
• Baked Potatoes & salad
• Build your own taco bar
• Beef tips in mushroom sauce(crockpot) & broccoli
• Pasta salad
• Sandwiches

I’ve found myself not wanting to be at the stove or cook things in the oven since it’s warming up. My usual solution is meals on the grill, however, we’re out of propane, and on the off chance that we don’t get around to refilling it I figured I’d go ahead and make other plans. I always try to plan breakfast for dinner at least 1 night a week. The kids absolutely love it, and it’s a nice change of pace for us. We’re big “brinner” fans at this house!

Beef Tips in Mushroom Sauce Crock Pot Recipe

Ingredients:
2 pounds lean chuck – cut in 1 – 3/4 inch pieces
1 can 98% fat free cream of mushroom soup
1 pkg. onion soup mix
1 can Diet Sprite or 7up

*Feel free to bulk this up with any zero point vegetables that you choose!

Directions:
Put meat in crock pot. Pour soup & onion soup mix over meat. Add Diet Sprite/7up. Cook in crock pot all day on low (or high for at least 4 hours). Turn off and let sit for 30 minutes before serving. Serve over rice or noodles. (extra points)

Makes 8 servings.
Each serving = 6 Weight Watchers Points

Nothing better than fresh baked bread

Last summer (maybe the one before that, even) my mom brought home a loaf of fresh baked bread, baked by Great Harvest Flower Mound, who participates in their neighborhood’s farmer’s market. I don’t even remember what kind of bread it was, but I do remember how tasty it was! I immediately stuck 2 pieces in the toaster and buttered one and added peanut butter to the other. Oh, my! This was soooo tasty, I threw another in the toaster. Faster forward to earlier this year, when I started reading Kath’s blog. She is always enjoying Great Harvest breads since her husband, Matt, works there and they are in the process of opening their own. I had to have Great Harvest, again!
While we live about 30 minutes from Flower Mound, it’s not too far from Jonathan’s Mother’s Day Out. I decided I needed to pick up a loaf when I was out that way. Since all of their breads are made the day of, they offer different specialty breads each day. I picked up a Whole Grain Goodness loaf and holy moly! best. bread. I. have. ever. had! I have been craving it since then. Only problem? They switched the day they have Whole Grain Goodness to Mondays. Jonathan does not go to MDO on Mondays, and as much as I love this bread, and need more, I am not willing to drive 1 hour, round trip, for a loaf of bread. I’d rather wait until I plan on being out that way, for one reason or another, on a Monday. Of course, I could always just try a new one, one that they do bake on a day that Jonathan goes to MDO. But today, today, I just couldn’t take it any longer. I started searching for something I could bake myself. I have a bread machine, which makes it easy on me by doing all the kneading and waits for it to rise, then beeps to let me know I can take it out, place it in the loaf pan, and bake it in the oven. Or, I have the option of baking it in the machine, but then the loaf has a hole in the bottom, where the bread machine paddle is since it mixes and “kneads” it in the machine as well.
I decided on this Oat N Honey recipe, that I altered – I used half honey/half molasses, 2 cups whole wheat and only 1 cup all purpose flour and the addition of 1 tablespoon of flax seeds. I also used regular oats and not quick cooking oats, because that’s what I have, and I did the buttermilk trick where you add milk to 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar because I don’t just keep buttermilk on hand. I also sprinkled some oatmeal and flax seeds on the top. I baked it at 350 for 30 minutes, rather than in my machine. It’s not as dense, and it doesn’t have the crunch that whole grain goodness has, but it is still super tasty, and still healthy.

Kids say the darndest things!

Last night, we were watching Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, and Kaylin said something or asked me a question…when I answered her she said, “How come you know so much that I don’t?? I’ve been living for 7 1/2 years!!!!” Apparently, that’s a LONG time!

This morning the following conversation took place with Jonathan while going potty:

Jonathan: I have a penis!

Me: Yes, yes you do.

Jonathan: Daddy have a penis too! Sissy don’t have a penis. Sissy only have a butt. (obviously we haven’t explained what the girl body parts are called) *pause* A BUTTHEAD!

Spring Break

Kaylin is on Spring Break right now and we’ve had quiet the vacation!
It started last Saturday, leaving the house at 5:30am for Tennessee. We spent 2 nights at Grandma & Grandpa’s house (Jeremy’s mom & step-dad) and the kids had a blast playing with their cousins. Jacob is 4 and Nicholas is 2. The boys are all 9-10 months apart from each other, so I have a feeling they will only have more fun the older they get! We actually didn’t get any pictures from this leg of the trip. I will try to remember on our way back home on Sunday.
Next stop, Mama Lorraine’s house in Winchester, Virginia. Again, we stopped for 2 nights. Mama Lorraine is 83 years old, we HAD to get the kids out of the house to release some energy. We found a park near the Shenandoah University campus, complete with a creek, a groundhog, and some ducks.




After Mama Lorraine’s house, we headed out for Washington DC. Jeremy, and obviously, the kids, had never been. Jeremy and Kaylin were really looking forward to this part of our vacation. One of Kaylin’s favorite movies is Night at the Museum Battle of the Smithsonian.
Washington Monument
The Capitol
The back of The White House


View of The Capitol and Washington Monument and the Reflecting Pool in front of Lincoln Memorial
Me & the kids in front of Lincoln Memorial

A pretty sunset and the Washington Monument as we made the trek back to the metro station to ride back to our hotel.
There are a LOT more pictures in our Picasa album, hopefully also on  Facebook once we get home. I’ve had issues trying to upload them to Facebook through these hotel internet connections.

Trip to Arizona recap

This weekend we flew to Phoenix for my friend Allison’s wedding. The kids stayed with Mimi & Papa. We had a great time with Allison, Pat & Allison’s family.

Our first stop was In-N-Out Burger. Man, how I miss this place!

The In-N-Out we stopped at wasn’t far from the airport and when exiting, Jeremy realized the street name was the same as his Corporate office. So, I plugged the corporate office address into our GPS and saw that it was 19 miles up the road. He decided being that close to corporate, he couldn’t pass up the chance to see it. Yes, he loves his job! It turned out to be an absolutely wonderful visit. We got a 2 hour tour and Jeremy got face time with some big names within the company. We even got to see the owner’s office. Wow, everything in this building was gorgeous! Jeremy even landed a personal invitation to dinner from the CEO of the company. Unfortunately, we had previous dinner plans that night, so Jeremy declined.  Though I told him later I was sure Allison would have understood when we told her why we had to miss dinner. Man, we kicked ourselves in the rear over that all weekend long!

This warrior (is it a warrior?) was in the lobby. It looked really cool in person. There was a plaque on it that said it was a gift to Discount Tire from Yokohama Tires for 20 years of business. 

Later that night, it was off to dinner at Cibo in Downtown Phoenix. There were 14 of us that rode in an Expedition Limo to the restaurant.

Allison before the ceremony.

These were the favors. Homebrewed beer. I’m thinking a Blue Moon clone, though we haven’t tried it yet. The labels described it as a wheat beer made with Arizona honey, orange peel & coriander.

Pat had promised not to smash cake in Allison’s face. Once she realized he was, she got him back, and she got him back good! He had cake from between his eyes all the way down to his chin. Allison only had icing right below her nose & mouth. Then, of course, they had to kiss and make up.

We had an absolute blast with them this weekend and cannot wait to see them again. Hopefully they can come visit us soon, or we can meet somewhere and vacation together.

Snow pictures, finally!

We had a record breaking snowfall here in Texas on February 11th. The snow started falling around 4am and continued until after midnight on the 12th.  We got almost 14 inches at our house. DFW Airport recorded, I think, 12.5 inches as their final count. So crazy for Texas!

This is Jonathan with our snowman on Friday. He started leaning, then the kids went out and started kicking him, which obviously didn’t help his situation.

This was Friday and it had already started warming up slightly and melting, but if you look at Jonathan’s left leg and how deep it is in the snow, you can get a good idea! Oh, and those boots? They come up to his knees.

 

Menu Plan Monday and more

Once a week, I sit down and plan out our menu for the week, sometimes 2 weeks at a time, depending on how busy our schedule looks. That way, I’ll only need a quick run to the store for produce, bread & milk.

This week, I will be trying to clean out our pantry, freezer & fridge. We are headed to Phoenix for my friend Allison’s wedding. Allison and I grew up together in California and we were best friends. I am so grateful that our friendship remains, 21 years later? I’m unsure if that’s the correct number, at any rate, it’s close enough, give or take a year or two. Love that I am able to share the memories of my childhood with someone besides family, since I did not grow up with my siblings.

Anyway, so on to cleaning out the pantry, fridge & freezer. Here is what I’m thinking I can pull off…

Sunday we had Taco Salad

BBQ Ranch Chicken Salad 
Cook chicken, cut into strips & mix in BBQ sauce in a large skillet and cook on med. until heated. Toss lettuce, black beans, red onions, corn, and chicken in a large bowl. Sprinkle with cheese. Top each w/2 T light ranch dressing.

Spaghetti w/meat sauce & salads

Breakfast for dinner (scrambled eggs & either crepes or pancakes)

Pulled BBQ chicken sandwiches, salad & chips

Why all the salad? Well, I just recently bought a big container of Spring Mix (which I LOVE) from Costco. Even with all those salads, I’ll also need to make salads for myself for lunches to finish it off before we leave.

Other reasons to be excited: it’s a trip without the kids, I am in need of a break in a big way right now! We will get to hit up Trader Joe’s and IN-N-Out Burger! We are also staying at a hotel that is not far from a place Guy Fieri visited on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives that I might try and talk Jeremy into visiting. It’s a Mexican place and their carnitas taco looked super yummy! The only thing holding me back is that it’s a Mexican food place…and we’re from Texas. Will it really blow me away?

Yes, I know, I need to update with our snow storm pictures! Can you believe they are predicting snow again for Tuesday. What a crazy winter it has been!!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

It's snowing here today - ALL day. And we have lots of it - by Texas standards. It's 4:55p.m. and we have around 8 inches currently. It has been snowing since roughly 4a.m. and is supposed to keep up until midnight. Hello, do I still live in Texas??

This picture was taken this morning after I took Kaylin to school. They still had school, there was only about 2 inches at that point. Around 11:30 they decided school would let out an hour early, and then by 4p.m. they went ahead and canceled school for tomorrow, as it's only supposed to get worse. Jonathan had school today, but I was up at Kaylin's school working on some PTA stuff and it was getting worse by the time we got back home, so I decided to keep him home with me. It was a good thing I did, as they called 2 hours later asking everyone to come and pick up their kids by 11:30 a.m.



I did take some other pictures after this, but my camera battery died on me, so it's charging right now. Yes, I could get up and take some pics with my phone, but to be honest, I'm nice and toasty in front of this fire after taking pics outside while the kids played in the snow :) Maybe I will remember to upload those later. If nothing else, they'll be on picasa or facebook.

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: At the in-laws for the Vikings game

Tuesday: Meatloaf, corn, mashed potatoes

Wednesday: Build your own taco bar

Thursday: NYE party (I’ll be making grape jelly meatballs, chips, queso & guacamole, fruit & dip, plus friends will be bringing other things over)

Friday: Taco Soup w/ toppings

Saturday: Pork Tenderloin, mashed sweet potatoes, southern green beans

Sunday: Chicken Fajitas & refried beans

Lonestar Christmas

In addition to hosting the ICE! exhibit, the Gaylord Texas goes all out on the Christmas decorations. Once we were done with ICE! we walked around looking at all the decorations.

Right after we let out of ICE! we were in the gift shop, where they had a train full of stuffed animals. Jonathan LOVES him some trains, so he moved all these stuffed animals into the next car and climbed on in. Last year, it was actually something that they let the kids play in, so I didn’t stop him. I would have if he’d just climbed on top of the stuffed animals, but I didn’t think he was hurting anything by doing this, and one of the associates was right there next to us. We put all the animals back and he was not happy to leave the big Jonathan size train.

And then, we found this in the lobby of ICE!… he was in heaven! I’m not sure how we had missed it earlier! He didn’t want to leave. Not even when Mimi offered to buy him a cookie or ice cream.

We wrestled him out of the train and went to get ice cream and watch the glass elevators go up and down. Don’t you wish you were entertained just as easily?

Then we walked around to check out all the trains and other beautiful decorations.

 

This was the giant gingerbread house. And giant gingerbread man, woman & dog.

Trains….   this picture sums up how Jonathan felt about the trains. 

One of several of the large Christmas trees they have on display in the atrium.