backtrack to valentine's day

Valentine's Day here looked like this:

 And I loved it. Rays of sun shooting through pretty clouds, what could be better? So of course I stood like a nerd in my driveway trying to capture the clouds the best I could, with about 100 different settings and these were my favorites, and they're not even that great, they just look the most realistic to what it felt like. I always think when I stand outside and shoot pictures of the sky my neighbors and going to get together and decide I'm crazy.

I found this cute little poster on Pinterest which linked me to HERE and loved it, for my directionally challenged husband, so I had to print it off for him instead of a card.

What would I do without Pinterest to look up cute art and fonts and graphics for little holidays? I guess I'd just have to make up stuff myself, but it wouldn't be so cool.

What coulda been better for Bobby than some protein bars and that sign?

For dinner Valentine's night we did a little surf and turf. It was only going to be turf, until the last second I realized I had the ingredients I needed for this shrimp and broccoli roasted dish I saw my friends had pinned and already made from pinterest. As my friend Michelle says "this party/dinner brought to you by pinterest!"

We had flank steak (marinated in my father in law's famous flank steak recipe - you coat the steak in adolph's meat tenderizer and garlic powder, then you marinate it for about 4+ hours in a mixture of one part honey, two parts soy sauce, three parts white wine. OMGoodness. Then your husband will grill it and you will love it.) We also had frozen/boxed garlic bread texas toast, because the kids LOVE it better than when I make it 'homemade.' Oh well.

Shrimp and Broccoli - found HERE and it's SOOOO good - easiest and quickest recipe for shrimp EVER, in my book.

 After the shrimp was finished in the oven, I forgot to turn the oven off as usual so I quickly decided to take some of the apple pie filling I made months ago and slap it into a Pillsbury crust and get it going while we ate. It was so ugly, so I didn't even want to take a picture of the whole thing, but I kept thinking of Ree, the Pioneer Woman, and how I saw her bake her hubby a little fold over apple pie and it made me feel better. I didn't care how it looked anymore, just wanted it to taste good. And that it did. Here is The Pioneer Woman's apple pie I saw her make on her show the other day: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/flat-apple-pie-with-perfect-pie-crust-recipe/index.html and she said on her show as she made it (on food network) that the more rustic the better. Here's a little video of her making it on some utah morning show: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=204&sid=8555804

from the mouth of one of the ones I love

In the car today, Jack said a few funny things. I already reached my quota of status changes today on Facebook (2) so I don't want to be that annoying and put a third. So I'll write it down here, instead!
In the car on the way to school we saw a police man waiting on the side of the road. I happenedt to have been talking on my cell, so I immediately put it down and said "oh no, I just passed a police man. I think I'll get a ticket because I'm not supposed to talk on my phone!" I hung up with the person, and continued to drive. A DIFFERENT police car pulled in behind me, and I figured was in for a ticket. I kept driving, and Jack kept turning around saying "mom, that cop is STILL chasing you. Still chasing. Still chasing." Then we turned down a street and the officer did NOT follow me, but sped off a different way and Jack said "Phew, that cop is NOT chasing you anymore mom. You don't need to be scared." Thanks Jack.
Then after school we were in the car again and I had the rearview mirror set so that I could see his face, but he could also see his face, so he made faces and we laughed. Funny face. Sad face. Then he said "do you want to see my super mad face?" I said yes, and he made a super mad face. Then I said "Jack do you wanna see mine?" He said "no thanks, I have seen it." Oh man, as funny as that was, he didn't see my funny face, or my super mad face - but my sad face appeared. :(
Note to moms - show the super mad face less often.

what i'm up to

I've hit myself in the face with my phone a lot lately. If you see an injury on my face that I can't hide with makeup, it's probably from dropping my phone on my face as I'm reading in bed and falling asleep. I want so desperately to finish a book, because I don't read as much as I'd like, I keep myself up trying to get to certain percentage (My Kindle App on my Android shows me how far I am through a book by a percentage instead of pages - because I bump up the size of my letters), so when I was at 89% and trying so desperately to finish last night, having my phone fall on my face over and over was very annoying. I should have just put it down, but I couldn't. The worst is when it would fall and wake up Bobby - embarassing. "Yes, I just tried to knock myself out with my phone again." Plus, he doesn't read and doesn't "get" reading. AND he doesn't want me to explain any of the story to him, not becuase he wants to see the movie, but simply because HE DOESN'T CARE! It's okay, but when I'm in a good book I want to tell him, and I can't! Frustrating. But still, not as frustrating as dropping my phone on my face. A book falling on my face might feel a lot sweeter. I would just leave it there, and hide under it. Or hope for osmosis. But I can't leave my phone there, I'd get brain cancer, right?

(Bytheway: What am I reading right now? Today I started book 3 of the Hunger Games Trilogy, Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins - yes, intended for young adults, no I don't agree that young adults should read - until they're older young adults, like 16ish would be my guess - but they are very well written, I like them much better than Twilight and I'm more motivated to finish trilogy than I am to finish Harry Potter, and I do not fall asleep reading them because they're boring, but because I'm sleepy. I am lovin' these books. That's probably because I'm a young adult - at least at heart.)

captured

Just looking through and archiving some photos - stumbled across a lot of favorites, some of them so favorite I could get teary! I do love my camera. I'd be so bored without it, and my external hard drive would be so  empty.

wandering

I lived in Colorado only for a short few years, but one thing I loved about it was that I could pull my car over anywhere I wanted, it seemed, and walk around and explore, and that was just fine. I feel like that's one thing about California that I find hard - I feel like there are fences everywhere - at least everywhere I want to explore!
That's why I love where we live - I feel like it's halfway between California and Colorado - there are SO many places to explore so close to home, and when I pull my car off the road and start following some dirt road, I'm surprised and happy to find few fences and lots of open areas. Earlier in January we took the kids out on a very cold day to look for a few geocaches close by. They happened to be in such a cool place, overlooking a part of our little city, and we had so much fun! Who knew we had to drive just minutes and the girls found a "grand canyon" and all sorts of animal tracks, bush caves and other fun stuff. If my kids ran away, I'd look here first!

I'm so happy to live here. Of all the places we could have chosen, I'm so glad we ended up where we are.

New Year's Eve

Here we are celebrating New Year's Eve at Jon and Michelle's house - JP, Andrea, Jon, Michelle, me, Bobby, Anne, Julian. Played Headbandz and just did a lot of general sitting around and eating. I LOVED every second.

 My girls and me

 Jon and JP

 Jon and Michelle

 Andrea and JP

Us

Julian and Anne

okay, and these little guys - these are what I made and brought over for one of the desserts - they are rice krispie treats, some formed in mini muffin pans and then drizzled with pink and brown sugar, and some were dipped in Candy Quik vanilla flavor to look like truffles, then drizzled with chocolate - they were SOOOOOOO good! They're so light and fluffy, and covered in chocolate. I don't think I can eat rice krispie treats any other way now!!!! Thank you Pinterest, for giving me yet another good idea!

pushups

Forgot to post about New Year's Eve at Jon and Michelle's. So cute when after the stroke of midnight, Michelle said to the boys "Okay, 20 pushups, then 12 pushups!" So they got down and did it.

Bobby, JP and Michelle

out on the trails

Twice this weekend we hiked at the Wildlands Conservancy in Oak Glen. My kids are all so happy out on the trails, on a hike, on a walk, just sifting through nature. They're all in their element, and seem to soak it all up. We saw hawks, ducks, little birds, and lots of signs about "dangerous" animals that could be out in the woods. Sidney loved that part. There were signs that told the names of some of the native bushes or trees, and Jack loved pointing those out for someone to read to him. We were all together, and happy, which is what Alyssa loves. And of course Bobby and I enjoy every second of happy kids getting good exercise! I brought the big camera, and here are a few of my favorite shots:

Oh, I love living my life with these people all around me.

So grateful to God,