A day in my life: Part 1-Morning Madness

So a little while ago a read an awesome post by my cool friend Tara that inspired me to capture a day in the life of my family, just as we are. Tara's post made me think that a lot of times we post about big events or wait till everyone looks cute to take a picture but that isn't an accurate portrait of our daily life. So I decided since I always have my phone with me, I'd just use it to snap pictures for a whole day to capture what it really looks like.

I will warn you that the picture quality isn't that great since they are phone pics after all, and also major nerd alert on all the pics I took of myself cuz you know, it's hard to take yourself seriously when you're doing a self portrait. Also pardon my scrappy hair and no make up but lets be honest, that IS how I look most of the time.

So here it is! This is part one (from about 7:30am to Noon.)

Wake up to hear giggles from the girls room. Surprise! Brinley is in Teya's bed. They think they're so funny.

Number one priority: stick the potty trainee on the pot.

Cam's awake!

"Cam! cutie tootie Cam! I love you my baby brudder! I love you cute little baby!"

"Can I hold my baby brudder? You cutie cutie cutie!"

Time to fix the girls' hair. Where should we put Cam? This spot looks good.

Pigtails while we brush our teeth. Man I look hot in the morning!

Big girl Teya getting dressed all by herself

She sees Cam! "Tootie!! cutie tootie tootie! Oh my little tootie, my cutie little tootie" (That is a direct quote)

"Brinley! Come down for breakfast! Brinley?! where are you?"

"Here I am! I find my fishy hat! See?"

"white squares" (aka frosted mini wheats") for the girls. Brinley showing off a square with tons of frosting.

Oatmeal with honey roasted almonds and vanilla almond milk for mom. Lately I'm an almond junkie.

Load all the nuggets in the car to take Teya to preschool

Waiting in the drop off line at Teya's school

Did I mention Teya's preschool is on a farm? Drive slowly, chickens crossing : )

Rush back to send Brinley off to preschool in her teacher's carpool. The girls are now gone.

Nap time for the little Tooter.

Treadmill time for mommy

2.5 hard sweaty miles.

Still no shower or make up but clearly I need it!

post work out snack. I swear these oranges taste like candy.

Now for resistance bands and light yoga

Tomorrow is my weight watchers weigh in so I'm pretending I'm on the Biggest Loser and it's my last chance workout! Bob and Jillian would be proud.

Finally take a shower after my workout.

Tootie boy wakes up! Happy little dude.

Feed Cam, play with Cam, cuddle Cam. yeah for one on one time with just me and Cam!

Cam helps me document my workout on my running calendar/inspiration wall

Here's a closer look. Taber's half marathon training plan on the left, my work out calendar in the middle, my 5K training plan on the right, and pictures and goals to inspire us.

Change little stink. please pardon the pile of diapers on the changing table. I'm too lazy to walk 5 feet and put them in the trash until they pile up so high that I have to. Don't judge. : )

Mom and Cam are dressed and ready to go get the girls. (and yes, I showered and got back into loungy/workout-ish clothes. I like to be comfy at my "workplace" : )

Mommy's snack for the car. I did not in fact eat that whole bag of carrots, but I like to be prepared just in case.

Gotta go to the bathroom. Play with your farm toy till I get back.

Load Cam man in the car, off to get the girls.

Waiting in the pick up line at Teya's preschool. it's 11:30 and I'm already busting out the "mommy juice."

There she is, aww, I missed her : )

We get home with Teya and Brinley arrives from her preschool at the same time! Aw, I missed her too!

Next up: Load the kids in the car and head to Wal-mart in the rain, to pick up mother's day cards....To be continued....

I Pity the Drool

I used to wonder why little baby outfits came with bibs.

Babies don't eat food, why do they need bibs?

Well now I know.

Introducing Cam, the king of drool.

He has at least 20 bibs and goes through several a day.

So much for cute outfits, I should've invested more in cute bibs since his clothes are always covered by them.

Luckily my friend Kendall had the foresight to make him this super adorable (and yet so manly) drool bib. Who needs a cute outfit, the bib speaks for itself.

And slobbery drool or not, he still melts me with that smile.

Here's a little video of King Drool in action.

Pretty impressive spit bubbles from this guy.

April Sunshine

Even though April started with a snowstorm, it ended with some beautiful sunny days. The girls have been happy to spend nearly every waking moment outside.

Our neighbors have come out of hibernation as well and the girls have a new friend, Zenoh, who moved in a few months ago but who we just met now that it's sunny. He will be in Teya's kindergarten class in the fall and for the last week they've spent many hours playing back and forth between our two houses.

The girls #1 favorite activity to do outside besides jump on the trampoline is sidewalk chalk. The Easter bunny brought them some 3-D chalk and it was all the rage last week. The girls wear their 3-D chalk glasses everywhere. They're starting a new fashion trend : )

And of course sidewalk chalk means hopscotch

Teya's an old pro

And Brinley is really getting it now too.

I remember her jumping on the hopscotch last year with her little bob hair cut and squishy toddler belly. She's changed so much in a year!

Today I snapped a few pics after church because the weather was so nice. Here are my two handsome men.

And my lovely little ladies

I got these dresses as an option for Easter but we went with something different. (you'll see in the Easter post coming soon) Still love the bright springy colors though.

And here's my attempt to get all 3 smiling and looking at the camera. Guess that's the best we could do ; )

Kidnapping Daddy

Taber has a 45 minute commute to work. We don't make the trek out there very often but last Friday I had all three kids in the car for a Dr. appointment and when it was over the thought popped into my mind, "the kids are already dressed and in the car, maybe we should drive down and visit Taber at work!"

We called to make sure he could pencil us in, and when he said, "YES, definitely!" We were on our way. All of Taber's employees and coworkers loved the kids and were especially smitten with Cam who put on a good show of cooing and smiling for them.

After meeting everyone in the office we kidnapped Taber and headed over to Chili's. Eating at a restaurant with 3 kids is a whole new crazy adventure.

Cam wasn't interested in the food, he just passed out on the bench. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to fall asleep anywhere?

We're still working on our restaurant manners, as in, small bites, not the entire corn dog.

That's a little better.

The girls were so happy to get some extra time with their Dad and it was a nice way to break up the day for all of us. I think we'll have to make Daddy kidnapping a more regular occurrence : )

Cafe Rio Recipes

Since several of you asked, here are the recipes for the Cafe Rio stuff I made for Taber's birthday. I served it with romaine lettuce, tortilla chips, black beans, fresh salsa, limes, cilantro, corn salsa, sour cream, cheese and guacamole. Best salad ever.

I also included the recipe for the cake since a couple of you asked for that as well. Happy cooking!

Zesty Chicken

5lbs boneless, skinless chicken breast,

1 medium bottle of zesty Italian dressing

1 Tbsp Chili powder

1 Tbsp Cumin

3 cloves minced garlic

Put chicken in crock pot.(I used frozen chicken and just stuck it in there still frozen) Mix together dressing and other ingredients, pour on top of chicken. Cook on high 5-7 hours. Remove Chicken and shred with fork. Return shredded chicken to juice in the crock pot. Keep warm.

Cilantro Lime Rice

in a saucepan saute:

2 tbsp butter

1 yellow onion chopped

4 garlic cloves minced

in a large pot bring to boil the following:

6 2/3 cups water

8 tsp chicken bullion

1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped

2 tsp cumin

1 small can diced green chilies

1 tbsp lime juice

1/2 tsp salt

add onion and garlic to boiling water. Add 3 cups long grain white rice. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

Tomatillo Dressing:

1 pkg hidden valley ranch dressing mix (regular or buttermillk)

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup mayo

1 to 2 tomatillos

1/2 to 1 clove garlic minced

1/2 to 1/3 bunch cilantro chopped

1/2 tsp lime juice

1/2 to 1 small jalapeno ( I didn't add the jalapeno because I have kids, and thought it would be too spicy. The dressing still tasted amazing without it)

Blend ingredients together in a blender. Add additional mayo if dressing is too thin. Keep refrigerated.

Strawberry whip cream Cake

The cake is just a white cake mix. Cook it in two 8 inch round cake pans according to the box instructions. Cool completely on wire racks.
While cooling, bring 2 cups of water to a boil. Once boiling, add 2 boxes of strawberry jello, stirring until dissolved. Chill for 30 minutes (no longer)
Once cake is completely cooled, return it to the cake pans and poke it (with a fork, wooden spoon, knife..whatever) Spoon jello over it, and return it to the fridge for 2-3 hours.
Dip bottom of cake pans in warm water for 10 seconds. Invert 1st cake onto a serving plater. Top with sliced strawberries, and cool whip. Place second layer of cake on top and cover with cool whip. Decorate with extra strawberries however you think it looks the best. Taber loves this cake because it tastes so light and fluffy and doesn't give you sugar shock like some other cakes can. : ) Enjoy!

Cooking, Cake, and Keeping secrets: Taber's b-day 2011

I do not love to cook. I will do it, but I don't love it. Most of the time I stick with 30 minute meals because investing more time than that to make something that will be gone in 15 minutes and leave me another hour's worth of mess to clean just isn't my thing.

And that is why Taber knew that I really really loved him when he came home from work last Friday to see that I had spent over 4 hours cooking his birthday dinner. (it probably would've taken a normal person a lot less time than that but I'm a little "challenged" when it comes to cooking) The things I'll do for love : )

My friend gave me the recipe for the Cafe Rio zesty chicken, cilantro lime rice, and tomatillo dressing. Since we don't have Cafe Rio out here, I brought Cafe Rio to my man. He was thoroughly impressed. We had a few friends over and the food was a huge hit. Guess that kind of made it worth it.

I also made him his favorite strawberry cake which he said he will be requesting again for every birthday here on after.

Since we had friends over we were actually able to get a picture with our whole family in it. First thought when I saw this picture, "Holy cow I have 3 kids!" It's still sinking in. I like Cam's face, he looks a little confused and suspicious of that cake.

We sang happy birthday and the kids helped him blow out the candles. After dinner Taber and the boys hooked the X-box up to the projector and played a giant game of halo on the wall till after midnight. I guess boys are never too old for their video games.

And for Taber's big surprise, He finally got his iPad. He's been drooling over them ever since they came out, so when they announced the iPad2 right before his b-day I decided it was time. Even though they were back ordered 5 weeks, I had the good fortune of going to the store one day before it opened and there was a huge line of people waiting outside for a fresh shipment of them. I got in line and snagged the the 3rd to last one. (this was about 4 weeks before his birthday)

I brought it home and tucked it safely away in the back of our closet. Knowing it was in the house was torture. The secret was eating me alive and I didn't know how long I could hold it in. Turns out it was only one day. Yep, apparently I can only keep a secret from Taber for 24 hours before the excitement becomes unbearable and I spill my guts. I think the conversation went something like this:

Me: Hey did you know the iPad 2 is back-ordered 5 weeks?

Taber: 5 weeks! That's lame.

Me: Yeah, it would've been cool to get one for your birthday but guess that's not gonna happen. (hehe)

Taber: What?! You were going to get me one for my birthday!? Oh man! Now that's really lame that they're back ordered! Dang.

Me: (in my mind: try to hold it in, don't tell the secret, don't tell him, ah I can't take it anymore!!) out loud: What if I told you there's an iPad in the house RIGHT NOW!

Taber: (total look of shook and confusion) Wait, what? are you serious? What?!!

Then I proceeded to tell him the story of how I got one at a hundred miles per hour and asked him if he was mad that I spilled the beans before his birthday and he said, "heck no!" and that he wanted to see it right then. So that is the story of how Taber got his birthday present a month early. Shame on me, the bad secret keeper, but seriously, cool present a month early? I don't think he minded at all. : )

Boston Marathon 2011

The Boston Marathon, with it's elusive qualifying times, is probably out of my reach to ever be able to run in. The closest I'll ever come is watching it, and that's exactly what we did last Monday.

Taber took the day off work, we got sitters for the girls, and headed down to West Newton to catch the runners around mile 18.

It was such a festive atmosphere. A popular radio station had one of their vans set up blasting music and giving updates on the runners. There were venders selling colorful toys and a giant hot pretzels. There was a concession table set up in front of the fire station grilling hotdogs. Everyone was just happy and excited.

We got there around 10 and expected the elite runners to be coming through around 11:15 or so. I was super excited and nervous and just pumped to see the elites, especially Kara Goucher who is my running idol and who just had a baby less than 7 months ago!!

Finally the police motorcycles and and the lead timing truck came through meaning the runners were right behind them.

When the runners came into view everyone started screaming and going nuts. The elite women were first and they were HAULING BOOTY! I mean, here they are at mile 18 still clocking around a 5:30 minute per mile pace! It was awe inspiring watching these superhuman runners go by. That's Kara Goucher in the back, she is just as buff and fit in person as she is the the running magazines. She ended up taking 5th for the women, amazing!

The men came by next, they had started about half an hour after the women but they were closing the gap pretty quickly. They were running at a blistering 4:40 mile pace!

Not far behind the elites we saw Taber's friend from Alaska, Jerry Ross, who finished 39th out of 27,000 in 2:24:32, a 5:31 pace! Taber and Jerry ran cross country together in high school so it was really cool to see him killing it at Boston.

Soon the street turned into a river of bodies as the runners started coming through in droves. Everyone looked so strong and amazing. I saw a woman with "mother of 4" written on her back. It made me tear up a little to see her doing such an incredible thing after having 4 children!

After a couple hours of watching the runners we decided to try to get downtown to see the finish line and meet up with Taber's friend Jerry. On our way to the T station we passed a water stop, kind of crazy to see all those cups.

Getting into town was a little more intense then we expected. Between patriots day, the marathon, first day of spring break in Mass, and the Red Sox game, the public transportation was jam packed. The T was very slow moving and it took us an hour to go 8 miles. During that hour Cam conveniently decided to have a massive blow out on the train and was screaming his little head off demanding to be changed. Couldn't exactly change him in that crowd so he just provided some jarring background noise for all the lucky passengers. When it was our turn to get off people were seriously shouting, "LET THEM OFF! BABY COMING THROUGH, LET THEM OFF!" I think they were trying to be nice, but also happy to get the crying baby off the train : )

It was worth our brave foray into town though to meet up with Jerry and catch up with him and chat about his amazing race.

He is a huge Celtics fan and Taber had tickets to the game the next day so Jerry actually changed his plane ticket and stayed an extra night to go to the game. True fan right there!

Cam was a champ during our marathon day of marathon watching. Besides his little blow out on the train he just hung out in the back pack and took little naps here and there. I'm glad we had a chance to go down there and be part of the electric atmosphere on marathon day. Living near Boston rocks! :)

Happy Birthday To My Alaska Boy

Sometimes thoughtful words are the best gift you can give, so if you know Taber please take a minute to leave a birthday comment with a favorite memory or something you admire about him. I'll start!

Favorite Memory: There are way too many to pick just one, so here are 5.

1) When you busted out your guitar and sang LaBamba in front of our entire Spanish conversation class in Mexico. I knew there was no resisting you after that : )

2) Laying on the sand, reading Harry Potter and Into Thin Air on Waikiki beach on Christmas day on our honeymoon.

3)When we directed the Road Show together in Moorpark. It was awesome watching you shine as a great leader to the youth.

3) When we got to go back and visit your mission together in San Diego and you got SO excited about eating at the BBQ pit. That was when I first started to understand your passion/obsession for BBQ : )

4) When you were chosen for the Haws scholar at the end of business school. I was beaming and so proud of you.

5) Finding out we were pregnant with each of our kids. And the moment each of them was born. Best memories ever : )

Something I admire about you:

Well I've done several posts before about the things I admire about you, but I will add that lately I admire the way you make such an effort to put spending time with the family at the top of your priority list. I know it's hard with everything else you have going on but I know that the kids and I appreciate how you put off other things to put us first. I love you babe and hope you have the best birthday ever!!