dance, dance

A few days ago marked another 6 week session of dance for Camille.

We were a little hesitant on signing her up again, but all her friends are in and surprisingly she did pretty well.

Unlike the first session that started in January, there was a manageable amount of little girls in this class.

I think we'll stick it out.

Don't you just love her outfit?

A leotard and skirt with VANS!

Today is Leap Day so, Happy Leap Day!

goofing around

This is my silly little girl making faces for the iPhone!

lunch for breakfast

Pictured above is my infamous chicken pasta salad that is always made at every family function.

I offered to make it for Mateja's birthday party, and ended up with some leftover ingredients that I whipped up and brought to eat for lunch today.

Well guess what?

I had it for breakfast!

It kept looking at me on my commute to work. So as soon as I got to my desk, I told myself that I would "sample" it and make sure it was good to go for lunch.

One bite turned into two, two bites turned into three, etc etc, you get the picture.

Nothing like a nice carbo-filled breakfast, I guess I'm good to go! :)

perfect 10

Mateja, Camille's friend from dance class, celebrated her birthday today at the La Jolla YMCA.

The kids had the gymnasium to themselves, and it was a fun Monster's (Inc.) themed party.

Camille was still a bit hesitant (aka scared) to use a lot of the equipment. Yet understandably so. 

The balance beam for instance is actually very high and not really suitable for a toddler to prance across it by themselves. I'd be scarred too, although I've become a chicken in my old age.

But with our assistance Camille was able to s l o w l y walk across it.

She also tried her hand at the rings, which she hung on and we just swung her a few times.

That requires some serious upper body strength.

The kids got to run around the gym popping bubbles and also chasing each other around.

Fun party!

 Check out the cake Barbara made from scratch!

updates

Even with that extra day this month, it's moving way too fast.

The workouts have been coming along okay.
We decided to put Camille in dance class again, so that will be consuming our Saturday mornings.
Work for both of us is still bleh, but we managed to get through the weeks.

We need to go on a vacation, but we are trying to hold off until summer.

March is quickly approaching and we have a full schedule ahead.
For now, we are enjoying life.

crush: Jason Bateman

Ahhh, Jason Bateman.

"Beady-eyed, little man-boy looking at me."

More recently for his role in the movies Horrible Bosses, The Switch and The Change Up and probably more notably for his role on the TV series Arrested Development (which I've never seen, but maybe now I will look for it on Netflix to add to my television list), he's become a household name.

I love watching movies that he stars in.

To me, it seems his acting comes so naturally and it isn't annoying or over the top.

And even though he's been around for a long time, his looks have never gotten old either.

excited

I've been pretty good about not spending too much money on myself.

These days, a lot of my spending has been on groceries, diapers or gas.

Today I had an urge to buy just a little something for myself.

I think that buying that little something at a department store made me feel 100% better.

As if that even matters.

Well I splurged on Bobbi Brown's lip gloss, fittingly named Popsicle.

The color appears to be bright in the bottle, but it goes on very light and subtle.

I didn't actually buy this today, but as mentioned in a previous post, H was able to score a highly coveted black lace clutch from the Jason Wu for Target line.

It was in the mail and I was super excited!

It's so pretty, but when am I even going to use it?

40 days

Do you remember this movie?

40 Days & 40 Nights

An oldie, but goodie!

I'm a little ashamed to admit that we haven't been going to mass regularly, but for valid reasons. Although, our excuses for not going could barely be counted as excuses.

Bad Catholic.

Camille and I went to mass tonight to kick off the Lenten season.

To somewhat validate our reasons for not going to church regularly, tonight was a good example.

Not staying still; but I can't blame her, she is only 2 years old.

Pointing at everyone with her finger; she is at the "who's that?" stage. Maybe it's not a "stage" that toddlers go through, maybe she is just nosey?!

Singing Little Mermaid in between readings and songs: ahhhhhh ahhhhhh ahhhhhhh! Funny, but omg!

Wanting to blow out the "birthday candles" on the altar: umm, my dear Camille, those are not birthday candles. We've been attending too many birthday parties. Again, funny...

My challenge is to start going to mass regularly despite the above mentioned antics.

I can only hope that it will get better, but I have a feeling I'll be adding more to the list.

Happy Lenten Season, fellow Catholics!

chilli

What a pretty colorful picture!

I was prepping to make my first pot of chili.

After seeing how simple it was for Kelley to whip this up in Mammoth, I wanted to give it a shot and try it for myself.

It was really easy, delicious and healthy.

Lots of veggies and lots of beans!

And to my surprise, Glen really liked it, too! He prefers ground beef over ground turkey.

Of course I didn't use the whole peppers, that would be overkill.

A quarter of each pepper was just enough.

Here it is simmering and ready to eat!

president's day

It was such a treat to have the day off from work to observe President's Day.

We did absolutely nothing and it was the best!

Thanks George, Linc, Nix, Jack, O...etc.

am walk

What have I gotten myself into?

The race is coming up fast!

Although I've been pretty good about Insanity, I have not trained by actually running.

I'm in big trouble.

Irene and I set out to walk around Lake Miramar this morning in preparation for our Hot Chocolate race in a few weeks. We ran the last mile, but set a nice brisk pace the first four miles.

She is running the 5k, I'm running the 15k and I am skurred!

By the way, everyone is a runner these days.

Really, when did all this happen?

Every other person that passed us at the lake, was showing off their race shirts.

Interesting.

Run or walk, I am set out to F I N I S H this race.

And that is all that matters to me.

No more talk about the race until my post about the race results.

That is, if I want to share the race results.

bday shout outs

Astonishing. Intelligent. Active. Talented. Affectionate.

That describes my nephew & Godson Hayden Eli.

Since he was born, he has always been the nephew/grandchild/cousin with the strongest personality. Yet he is very level headed and he is very respectable.

And he is only 12 years old.

He is the third in a line of 11 cousins, which bodes well for all the others younger than him.

Whenever I see Hayden, I'm always greeted with a nice, warm hug and it always makes my day.

Happy 12th Birthday Hayden!

And let's not forget a Happy Birthday to MJ!

My sis and Hayden's mom.

You share the qualities of your son and he is who he is because of how you've raised him.

Love you both!

crush: james franco

As you know from a previous post, I'm a big fan of James Franco.

I. Love. Him.

I think my husband understands. He should, look at him.

I hope you understand too.

Be ready for pictures of him below, to remind us of how HOT he is!

I love the the black and white photos of him, but he looks really good in color too!

v day gift?

After this post, a Valentine's gift actually surfaced!

I really, really wanted to watch Breaking Dawn.

And I really wasn't trying to get a new Blu-Ray DVD by purchasing a Blu-Ray DVD.

But owning a player has definitely been on our short list of "needs".

So Glen headed out to Costco and made the purchase.

I suppose this could be classified as a Valentine's gift...for the both of us.

See, practical. It worked out.

But now, wouldn't a new TV be nice?

Wow.

V Day

Husband and I have never been too big on Valentine's Day.

We are not anti-Valentine's Day people, we just don't get caught up in all the hoopla.

We don't go out to an extravagant dinner.

I don't get flowers sent to the office from him.

No cutesy stuffed animals or expensive jewelry.

We will exchange cards and/or a something very small and/or practical.

And I'm completely fine with that.

Now with a toddler under the roof and her awareness of the fun holidays that occur, I feel like participation is needed.

So I made some yummy strawberry cupcakes and filled them in festive liners.

I topped them with mini tooth-picked heart and butterfly decorations.

I also sprinkled some pink decorative sugar over them.

How's that for Valentine's Day?

Fancy.

Hope you all had a lovely one!

fanfest

Last year at Fanfest 2011

Fanfest 2012

"Mommy, carry me!"

What a difference a year makes...

The little girl was scared of the Friar and didn't get to enjoy the 2012 Padres Fanfest that we attended over the weekend. I guess if I were 2 years old, I would be freaked out by a weird, oversized human-like, balding man in a robe also. Even though he was in one little area the entire time, and we had the entire ballpark to discover, she still wouldn't budge.

We took our photos throughout the park, reveled the time we had on the gorgeous playing field, toured the players clubhouse and saw a few pitchers up close and personal, warming up (for what, I don't know).

The highlight of the the Padres Fanfest?

Denorfia's underwear hanging in his locker!

Ewwwh!

breaking dawn

Did I tell you about my 2nd crazy Target adventure with Hazel?

Probably not, because I am a little embarrassed.

Well this is 2 in 1 week.

Target was having a Breaking Dawn DVD release event on Friday, with a chance to sneak peek a preview of Breaking Dawn Part II.

The catch was...they weren't going to release DVD until midnight, which was the actual date of release. (on a Saturday, I don't know why?!) A BD slumber party, if you will.

Well we weren't going to stick around until midnight to get our hands on that movie.

However, it was a sight to see the people lined up waiting to get "tickets" to buy the movie and see the preview. I guess the line was not that crazy, but the demographic of the people in line was NOT what I had expected.

Hello there early to mid 30 year olds!

Did you kick out all the teenagers that should've been in this line? Or did you scare them off?

Gosh, I'm horrible, but I'm also guilty.

Had that release not been at midnight, I think I may have been in that damn line.

And I would have been reading something similar to this post on someone else's blog.

Well needless to say, I got my copy of Breaking Dawn Part I...on Sunday.

I also got the DVD in Blu Ray. And guess what? We don't own a Blu Ray player. :-\

That will be another post.

Have you watched the movie yet?

Of course the wedding scene was one of my favorite parts. I can watch it over and over!

And this scene in Rio, was pretty intense too! Ay yay yay!

challenge me

My sister in law talked me into joining a Beach Body Challenge that consists of the following:

committing to a Beach Body workout program of choice

drinking Shakeology to replace one meal, daily

posting on Facebook daily about the workout

taking a "before" picture and an "after" picture at the end

So I caved and decided to take on this challenge.

I have the INSANITY workout DVD's so that will be my program of choice.

Purchasing Shakeology is probably my biggest gripe. I'm cheap and $100+/month is hard for me to swallow. But I know it's good stuff and I hope it will help with my nutrition.

I'm no stranger to Facebook, and I know how to post. But I don't need the world to know what my workout regimen is on a daily basis. However Kelley assured me that the Facebook challenge group that I am in is strictly private, and the 8 others in this group are the only ones who can see my posts. Okay, I'm down with that.

Ugh, the before picture. Gross!

This is a 60 day challenge and I am up for it!

featured blog

People I Want to Punch in the Throat

You can already tell what the tone is for this blog mentioned above.

And you may or may not be into it, but I find so much humor in it.

L O V E when she posts, she just cracks me up.

play dates needed

Camille is at the age where she needs to interact with other kids and do "kid things."

The poor girl spends the first part of the day with Grandma & Grandpa and the other part of the day with Daddy & yours truly.

Sure she has Cloie to boss around and lay on, but that fun doesn't last too long.

And I'm beginning to feel guilty for not taking her out where other (SAH)Mom's go to take their kids ... to play and interact.

Today I had M drop off little Jayla to come over while big sis Haley had soccer practice and it brought nothing but joy for the two little girls to play together.

Even though they are 3 years apart, they had so much fun being together.

Riding bikes, coloring, watching Tangled, log rolls, eating blueberries, jumping on the couch, etc.

It was all so much fun, until it had to come to an end.

Bedtime was easy.

a defining moment

First, a little back story.

The other day the girls and I were stopped at a light on the boulevard going to Gma's.

I wasn't paying much attention, but at the last minute I look over to my right and see a guy on his motorcycle looking our way.

Nothing creepy, just had his head turned towards us and was looking.

And that was that.

Almost to Gma's, I look in the rear view mirror and Camille's head is fully cocked to the left and looking in that direction. I ask her a question and she tells me:

"Don't bother me Mommy!"

(while her head is still looking to the left, at nothing)

Okay, so the sun is in her eyes and she doesn't want to be bothered, I thought.

Although it was the first time she ever told me not to bother her. Weird.

While loading them up in the car to head home she says to me:

"Mommy, I don't want to see the motorcycle man."

And then it dawned on me.

Her head was turned earlier because she didn't want to see the "motorcycle man".

She must have exchanged glances with him when we were stopped at the light.

A strange man with a helmet on, how frightening that must have been for her.

Poor girl.

For the past few nights, she's been resisting going upstairs and going to bed, and I think that her experience with the first real life scary person has somewhat traumatized her.

While putting her down for the night I told her:

"Camille, listen to me. If you are scared of something or someone, Mommy & Daddy are here for you. We are here to keep the bad things away from you. We will do the best we can to always protect you. I promise."

Wow that was surreal.

I give advice and offer my opinion to my sisters and friends, and know that whether they agree or not, they take it to heart.

But advice to my daughter?

Sure I felt the bond when she was an infant and I wanted to protect her and keep her healthy.

And of course, making sure she doesn't fall too hard or hit her head while learning to crawl and walk, through 1 and 2 years old.

But this type of protection and sharing the feeling of fear with her was so different.

It brought on a whole new meaning of being a mom.

This us merely the beginning.

I can only imagine what other fears and reservations she will face as she grows up.

I hope that I/we can provide that protection and she will know to come to me/us for hope and optimism. The first of many encounters...

hubba hubba

My Mammoth recap post was longer than normal, so I'm giving myself a pass.

However, I will post this pretty cool picture that Camille created (with Mommy's help) on my iPhone, via a new app I just downloaded. Check it out, I think it is pretty fun.

Hubba Hubba

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day! :)

mammoth recap

Our much anticipated Mammoth trip was a lot of fun.

There was not as much snow as we all would have liked, but at least there was snow from a decent storm a week earlier. Snow trips can be a little tricky to plan when it comes to weather expectations. This trip was planned 2+ months ago, and condos were booking up fast. It's definitely a gamble when deciding whether to be in on the trip, especially when planning with 6 other families. Awaiting on how much snow the mountain has received or will receive is important, but one can't predict the weather 2 months out.

A pain in the ass, but what can you do?

We had rented a mini van and drove up with The M's. And despite traveling with a 1 and 2 year old, we did pretty well. I may have pulled a Britney Spears a few times, but it was for a short period of time and it helped with the adult's sanity.

We came to the conclusion that we all traveled very well together.

The guys being pilot and co-pilot to each other and Nova & I caring for the kiddos and catching up (on gossip), worked out well for all of us.

Both condos were across the way from each other with the same exact layout- garage, kitchen, living room and 3 bedrooms, all with it's own bathroom.

Everyone set out to ski, snowboard, snow mobile the following day.

I stayed in with Camille and Cruz most of the day. We played in the snow out front, walked to The Village nearby and watched Shrek II.

Everyone came home and we had a nice dinner altogether at the other condo.

The next day was a little hectic coordinating a plan to have the kids play in the snow.

We found a random spot by the lodge with enough space and snow for all the kids to play in.

Remember, we are dealing with 9 young kids. Space and snow were important.

The Dads, aka Big Boys, really got into it and possibly enjoyed it more than the kids.

That night, we all congregated at our condo and tuned in to the Lake Show.

Pretty mellow, but it is our last night in Mammoth.

On the way home, we all met in Bishop at Erick Schat's Bakery, had lunch and bought baked goods and yummy chili bread. For dinner, we stop in Rancho Cucamonga and spent a little time at Bass Pro Shop...Rolan's ultimate favorite.

We finally made it home to San Diego after being in and out of the car for 9 hours.

It felt good to be home, and it was back to the grind.

I can't wait for our next vacation already.

I took a ton of pictures, too many to post.

But here is a link to take a peek when you have a chance.

Mammoth Pictures