Cool Runnings

I truly thought that I would have blogged a couple of times while we were on our trip or at least thrown up a couple of pictures, but I didn't. Bad Blogger. I'm giving myself an OTK spanking right now. I promise to do better in the future.

Here are a few things I loved 
about our trip to Colorado:

• The little town of Breckenridge - seriously, a cuter town does not exist. It is full of adorable little shops, restaurants, bars and food kiosks that smell like funnel cakes every time you walk by.

• Magical Scraps - I went to this little shop in Breckenridge three times and will probably visit her online shop as well. It was by far my favorite shop in the town. The only way I can describe it is that it is like walking into my very own personal Etsy heaven.

• Peek-A-Boo Toys - While David was out shredding some powder, Olivia and I hit up the back room of this toy store to burn off some energy.

• A pink Patagonia fleece - My new friend Maren loaned Olivia the cutest little one piece fleece outfit that was absolutely the most perfect thing for our trip. Olivia stayed nice and warm while playing in the snow.

• Watching David do little incredibly challenging tricks on his snowboard coming down the base of the run.

• Seeing David act like a kid at Christmas everyday when he finished snowboarding and watching his face light up when he recounted his tale of climbing the 13k foot summit. (Go baby, go!)

• Our dinner sleigh ride - Saturday night, we took Olivia on a sleigh ride out to a heated tent in the snow to feast on chicken, steak and apple pie and groove to some country music. It was SO much fun. And we were told that Olivia was the most well-behaved baby they've ever had.

• Cherry Creek Mall - While David and Lauren worked the trade show on Monday, Olivia and I ventured out to the Cherry Creek Mall for a little shopping excursion -- as if we hadn't shopped enough in Breckenridge. So, instead of shopping, we hit up the (freshly cleaned) play area in the center of the mall. I could not have loved this playground more - everything in it was a breakfast food. Olivia and I staked our claim on a waffle (of course we chose the carb) and she had a blast cruising around the edges.

• SNOW - It's been two years since I've seen the snow and since it put a damper on my bridal shower, I wasn't much of a fan of it then. Yesterday's snowstorm in Denver gave us the opportunity to have a relaxing evening in with pizza, a movie and a snoozing baby. It also allowed us to have a view like this on the way to the airport this morning.

• Family Time - More than anything, I just really loved having some time away from the stresses of work and everyday life to be together as a family. I'm so glad that we were able to join David on this trip.

And here are a few things I loved a little 
less about our trip to Colorado:

• Driving the windy roads - The last time I was in Colorado was for my friend Cole's wedding a few years ago. On the way out from the airport, I got a speeding ticket. So, this time I knew better than to go over the speed limit. No worries there, the roads we took this time were so windy that I swear I thought I was going to drive into the side of the mountain at every turn. Next time, I'm letting David drive.

• Entertaining Olivia in cramped quarters - Seriously folks, we have got a MOVER on our hands. That baby of ours does not want to stay still and she is constantly getting into anything and everything she shouldn't. Take a look at a few of the things she got into when I took my eyes off of her for just a few seconds.

                              

                               

• The dry air - Poor Olivia looked like a hot mess most days in Colorado. Her cheeks and chin are so chapped from all the drool she is producing with those new top teeth and the dry Colorado air didn't help matters at all. It also made for some nasty boogies in her nose that she refused to let me dig out. Thankfully a couple of hot, steamy showers allowed her to breathe a little easier.

• Six AM flights - I really hope that we have learned our lesson and never choose a flight so early in the morning. Our thinking was that we would get in earlier and have the afternoon to do some fun stuff in Breckenridge. In actuality, we were EXHAUSTED and ended up sleeping most of the evening.

• Hotel alarms - So our 10am flight this morning wouldn't have been bad if we hadn't been awakened at 5 by a shrieking alarm throughout our hotel telling us to evacuate the building. I was so proud of myself for remaining calm and carrying Olivia, a diaper bag, and my laptop with all of Olivia's pictures down 12 flights of stairs while a woman wearing a headlamp shouted into her cell phone about how she could smell smoke in the building. Turns out, it was a false alarm, but it gave us a little extra time to get packed up and out the door.

Things I'm thankful for upon returning home:

• Space for Olivia to move around and her own crib
• MAGNUM
• Clean clothes
• Flip-flop weather
• Our Chariot Cougar 2 jogger adapter arriving while we were gone
• And most definitely, a spur-of-the-moment visit from Nana

Baby Wants a New Buggy!

Hi All - One of our belly shots has been chosen as a top ten finalist in a photo contest.  Grand prize is a Mountain Buggy stroller.  Please help us out and VOTE (and ask all your friends to vote too)!!

Here's the picture we entered:

You can vote here!  THANKS!

Everything but the Kitchen Sink

I decided it wasn't so easy keeping up with Little Miss ButtonsMcSweet and her daily blogging, so I took a week (and a few days) off. I wish I could say that I've just been relaxing, but I don't think that I have. As usual, we are keeping pretty busy - or at least that's my excuse as to why the bed only gets made about once a week.

Anyway, a couple weekends ago, we had our friends Ken & Katie come down for dinner and game night where we challenged each other to multiple rounds of Buzz Quiz World (Rated T for Teen!). Seriously, it was fun. And believe it or not, with their ABSOLUTE LOVE of the 80's, the two times that it was an option for them to pick it as a category, they didn't. WTW?!* That night, I made stuffed green peppers for everyone and mentioned it ahead of time to make sure they were okay with that. Imagine my shock when I look over at Katie's plate at the end of the meal to see the pepper sitting there all hollowed out and empty on the inside (kind of like my husband's heart - I kid. I kid.) Turns out Katie loves the insides, but can't stand peppers.

Part of my reasoning for making the peppers was to offer the recipe up here because it's another one of those that I can generally make while Olivia is napping and then bake when we are ready for dinner. And, yeah, guess who forgot to take pictures? MOI. So, we had to have them again this week. I'm not complaining. I could eat that and Marie Callender's Santa Fe Chicken frozen dinner on a daily basis and be happy. No, wait, I'd also need the Krusteaz Toffee Bars too. Then, yeah, no complaining.

Without further ado, STUFFED GREEN PEPPERS

Ingredients:

6 bell peppers

2 cups cooked rice

1 medium can & 1 small can of Hunt's tomato sauce

1/2 onion, chopped

1+ pound of ground beef

garlic salt

Mozzarella cheese!

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil. Cut the tops off the peppers and remove the seeds. Cook peppers in boiling water for 5 minutes, drain and set aside. (Do not overcook the peppers!)

2. In a large skillet, saute ground beef and chopped onion and season with garlic salt until beef is fully cooked. Drain excess fat in a strainer and chop beef up into small bits.

3. In a small saucepan, fix rice according to package to make 2 cups of rice.

4. Combine rice with ground beef mixture and add medium can of tomato sauce. Stir thoroughly.

5. Place peppers in baking dish(es) and sprinkle mozzarella cheese in the bottom of the peppers. Fill with beef mixture and cover each with the small can of tomato sauce.

6. Bake at 350, covered for about 35 minutes. Cover peppers with mozzarella cheese and bake an additional ten minutes, uncovered.

Seriously, SO scrumptious.  And, as you can see here, there are SEVEN peppers.  I realized I had a little extra stuffing, so I pulled out an orange pepper that we had and used it without boiling it.  David reheated it for dinner last night and it was super tasty.  Sometimes the green peppers have a little bitterness to them and the orange was really sweet.

I love the fact that I can make these during naptime and then throw them in the oven when we are ready for dinner and all I have to do is make a salad and mealtime is done!  I also love the fact that it makes enough for us to eat devour for lunch (and dinner) the next day.  The only problem with it is that it makes a HUGE mess.

Hopefully you are lucky enough to have a fabulous little helper like I do.  Boy, she really makes clean up easy!

So, yeah, remember earlier when I said that thing about Krusteaz Toffee bars?  Well, let me just pleasure your eyes with this one.  

Question: Do you know what adding two eggs to the following ingredients will get you?

Besides a big butt and thighs that jiggle?  Pretty much the best dessert ever to cross your pretty little lips. And, yeah, that's baby food you see there.  You can thank Lauren and her Laughing Life for that one.

So, the toffee bar recipe is on the back of the Krusteaz chocolate chunk box (and the reason that there are 2 boxes is because I doubled the recipe when I took them to my Mommy & Me group yesterday).  Instead of using the 1/2 cup of butter the recipe calls for, we substituted 1 container (1/2 cup) of baby food prune puree.  When you combine the mix, the prunes, the egg and the toffee, you get this:

And, after it's baked....you get this:

I think it's just heaven in goo form.

Now that you're all hungry.......

*WTW = What the What?!  Much better than throwing around the F word, isn't it Mom?

Can You Keep A Secret?

Sometimes, I really like the nights where David has guys night out.

It's just me,

a sleeping baby and a glass of wine,

Magnum warming up my feet,

and McDreamy on my laptop.

SHHHHH, don't tell. I even had some chocolate.

Birthdays Abound!

Happy Birthday to Hala and Poppy!  Olivia took a couple* special pictures for you both!

CNN Cub Reporter

*Um, yeah, by a couple, I mean SIXTY-THREE.  And, yeah, that's the best we got.  Squirmy McSquirmster!

Weekend Warriors

In January, I started a couple different Mommy & Me classes - one of them being a strolling class. We meet all over the San Luis Obispo area and walk different trails. The class is called Strolling to Fitness and the first meeting involved us walking to a local bakery. That's the kind of fitness class I like - one that rewards us for working our mouths while strolling along with our babies.

Anyway, one of the trails that we've been on is the Bob Jones trail near Avila Beach. David and I walked it Friday and got rained out halfway through. Sunday was a gorgeous day, so we went back for round 2. We are really working on keeping Olivia in the stroller for as much of the time as she will handle. She used to scream about 5 minutes after going into the stroller and I would often times have to carry her and push the stroller at the same time. Then, she got into a habit of falling asleep in the stroller. Other times, she would last a little longer, but would cry when she got tired, so during most of my strolling classes, I have carried her in the Ergo Carrier. But, she is now starting to squirm out of that one. It took a lot of puffs/yogurt melts, a cell phone, some Magnum entertainment and a garage door opener, but this time she managed to stay almost the whole 5 miles.

Olivia being entertained by "walking" Magnum.

And, that's how that rainy day ended. Magnum is a Puss with a capital P! I was embarrassed for him when we passed by other dogs.

Nothing like getting the kids to look in the same direction.

This could quite possibly be one of my favorite pictures ever!