monday phone dump

i’m late, i’m late. . .busy morning for us this morning so i am posting late. i started the collage last night but then the rain made me super tired and we tucked in earlier than normal. i hope you all had a great weekend! our saturday was busy, busy but yesterday was chill and we took a family nap for 3+ hours. can’t complain there! here’s my weekend recap via photos.

i am linking up with what makes savanah smile

starting from top right to left.

* everyone always thinks i am crafty but my sister is way craftier. i took a pic of her dining room table but what i should’ve taken a pic of was her front door wreath. ten yards of burlap made for a gorgeous easter wreath paired with some cute pier 1 carrots. i asked her to make me one. maybe she will give us a tutorial…linds? will ya?!

* after saying i wasn’t running the hot chocolate 5k for the past week i decided saturday evening at 10 pm that i would run with my girlfriends. jim pretty much encouraged me. remember my knees hurting like hell? well, they held up, i felt great and beat my last time by almost eight minutes. more on the 5k later this week.

* on saturday jim ran his first 5k to support his friend and co-worker, JB. his daughter, ava, has pretty much beat autism, her story is amazing. team ava was represented on our local news channel. i got a text from jim saying they were going to be on the news so i ran to get the remote with frosting covered fingers just in time to hit record. payton loved seeing her dada on tv.

* birthday twinsies, niece makayla and payton playing at my youngest niece, maddie’s fifth birthday party. payton truly admires makayla. i think you can see that from this picture. i cannot believe my maddie-mo is going to be five on the 31st, the past five years have flown by.

* after last week and my post on zero pairs of jeans fitting we all went to the mall and i bought a pair that finally fit. a size down, getting me to size 8 at gap, normally i am a size 6 there so i am getting there! after trying on a blouse at nordies i did not purchase it because we were heading to the rack. after no such luck there i was just about to pass the exit for the mall and jim said to go back and buy the blouse & cardi since i deserved a new outfit. i love the colors. hard to tell in the pic. i remembered when we got home from the party to snap a pic.

* maddie is a lover of scooby doo. so for her birthday she requested a scooby cake. this was my first attempt at a bigger cake in a while. my new frosting technique has really helped me. i will share that one soon too!

how was your weekend? i cannot believe this is the last week of march. insane! did you enter my giveaway? winner is being announced today!

monday phone dump

what a weekend! southern california got slammed with a winter storm that started on friday and we shouldn’t see it depart until tonight. i love it though, we baked all day saturday and sunday we started our spring cleaning. how was your weekend? here’s our recap with photos:

i am linking up with what makes savanah smile

from left to right.

* after we spent all morning cleaning we decided to reward ourselves with a lamb and falafel döner from the kebab shop. if you’re in the san diego area it’s a must try.

* i was cleaning out all the kids clothes so i decided to see how my progress was coming along with all my old jeans. i can fit into three pair but with major love handles. it just boggles my mind how at gap a size 30 falls off, meaning i need a 28. all my old jeans are 28’s and a few 29’s and with some my ass stops them from going up. gah. oh well. by my birthday i should be there, if not sooner. three months and counting.

* going through the garage looking for our house improvement folder i found an envelope with pictures from these photo shoots here and here. i cried when i saw my grandma and i. i miss her so much.

* saturday our oven was cranking out the goods: green velvet cupcakes for an 18th birthday, irish soda bread (deets on that tomorrow when i link up with tuesdays with dorie) and some banana choco-chip muffins.

* part of the spring cleaning involved moving both couches and cleaning under our area rug, baseboards, etc. we had a sweet dance party going on and payton played with her shadow.

* payton’s kid plate at the kebab shop. insane. we ended up buying additional flatbread on our way out to make jim’s lunch for today.

* before the storm hit the kids and i got to the park fairly early. i wanted to make sure payton had a good amount of time to exert engery before being indoors all weekend.

* oh, and that sweet little boy turned five months yesterday. hopefully it won’t take me two weeks to take his picture and get his post up like it has the past four months. bad mommy.

monday phone dump

i cannot even begin to tell y’all how exhausted i am today. i’m not blamming our time change or the ten hours of uninterrupted sleep we all got last night. we had a busy weekend. actually since thursday i just feel like i have gone and gone and gone. so today, i plan on doing absolutely nothing. yep, sorry hubby. this mama is tirrrrred. i will have dinner ready and i plan on getting out of my juicy sweats by the time you come home this afternoon. egh. who am i kidding?

i am linking up with what makes savanah smile

starting from top left.

* thursday was amanda’s 28th birthday. i made five dozen cupcakes for her party at oggis. amanda is fighting liver cancer, her support network is one great group of people. we thoroughly enjoyed our time with all of them.

* brayden finally had his appointment with his plastic surgeon. said he looks amazing, not to mention both had matching faux hawks that day. super cute.

* i had a 2nd birthday cupcake/cake order (see pic below) in orange county. i decided while i was in the area i would surprise my aunt with a visit in irvine and then i stopped by my very first home in laguna hills. the mom and her daughters were out front playing, i stopped to say hello, introduced myself and said my parents were the original owners. i was totally shaking. her daughters were the ages my sister and i were when we moved. i cried when i left, i don’t really know why. maybe because that’s where my life started and now i have kids of my own. thinking about our current house and the fact that this year it will be rented out to future tenants makes me emotional since it’s my babies first home (not to mention our first home as a couple). i am one big mess. we have an offer in on a house, can we say stress-case?! praying for the next month that the first buyer drops out and we get our dream home.

* my brakes went out on my car after returning home from a quick mall trip with my girlfriends. jim changed the pads in an hour, his first time doing them. so proud of him. look at the metal…eeek! my dad is shaking his head in disappointment i just know it. they told me last june they needed to be replaced. i got my 56k miles out of those suckers!

* during the mall trip i did something trendy, which i never do. i picked up a pair of green skinny jeans and a navy sweater from gap. way out of my comfort zone and super self-conscience. are you a lover or hater of colored denim? my hubby said i looked like a crazy emo hippy 80’s kid or something to that effect. what do you think?

* lastly, the 2nd birthday hello kitty / leopard themed party i had yesterday. i love the way everything came out. i think it’s the purrrtiest cake/cupakes i have done yet! payton says she wants a princess tangled themed party. oy vey. done the frog princess but tangled? better keep working on my skills.

how was your weekend? how are you handling the time change? kids gone crazy?

go link up with savanah smiles

monday phone dump & greek pitas {recipe}

i’m starting something new, a monday phone dump. by the time monday rolls around i have taken so many cell phone pictures that very rarely get shared, sometimes they make it to facebook but most of the time they stay in my phone. it usually just paints a picture of how our weekend was. so here we go…

i got my hair done, hmm. well my blonde locks were supposed to have some caramel low lights, i think my stylist ran out of that color and prayed the top color would match but it turned out chocolate. i kinda like it, kinda don’t. i never really care, it’s hair & it grows…
i had two cupcake orders. a baby shower and a thank you gift to an ivf doctor.
we made it to happy hour friday night after picking daddy up from the airport, a special treat because we rarely go out as a family. had a 90% blowout. fun.
brayden is finally getting chubby legs. i cannot.stand.it. i lurve me some chubbs.
i got my nails done, went back to shellac vs. acrylic.
ran my first 5k. more on that one later

greek pita’s

what you’ll need:

(i am not giving measurements, i am giving suggestions as to what i used. everyone likes theirs a different way)

whole wheat pitas (i use ezekiel – less calories and they come frozen so you don’t waste them)

baby spinach

thinly sliced onion

thinly sliced tomato

olive tapenade (trader joes – found by the hummus not the jarred variety)

hummus (i used original from tj’s, roasted pepper or garlic would be amazing)

dry salami

feta cheese

*reduced sodium turkey (not pictured, but the next day i added this)

here’s how:

if you buy frozen pita’s remove from the freezer and defrost on a paper towel (don’t get lazy and pop them in the microwave, they’ll get soggy. not sayin’ i’m lazy or anything)
cut your pita in half. carefully open the pocket up.
on one side of the pita spread the tapenade, on the other the hummus.
next lay the meat, veggies and then cheese.
serve with a light salad, some chips, a cup of tomato bisque or by itself.
enjoy!

i am not even kidding you when i say this is tasty. the tapenade is the perfect addition and takes this sandwich over the top. you won’t regret adding this to your lunch rotation.

i am linking up with. . .