Re-cap: June 2010

To make up for my long hiatus I will do a quick photo recap of each month I missed out on.

JUNE

Flew out to California to spend time with David's family and just have some California fun!


Had a blast at Legoland with Grandma Francine, Papa Juan, and Cousin Jacob.


Definitely loved the beaches!

David treated me to my first horseback ride as a birthday gift.


Spent my "real" birthday having fun with the family at Knott's Berry Farm

Re-Cap: May 2010

To make up for my long hiatus I will do a quick photo recap of each month I missed out on.

MAY

A visit from David's brother's family as they were moving from California to Missouri. This is our sweet nephew Brock with our big dog, Huey.


Mother's Day: not sure why but we ended up drawing on each other with eyeliner.


Sold our boat in prep for the move. David was either deployed or away at different schools for so many summers in a row, it hadn't been used since Cali was a baby.


The kids loving up on Daddy at the Austin Botanical Garden.

Our annual trip to Sea World (Military gets in free once per year!)


We spent the night in San Antonio and spent the 2nd day at the San An Zoo.


Enjoying one of our favorite hiking/cool-off spots in Texas.


Chillin' at the City water park.

Thirty (30)

David turned 30 this week! As usual, the Army had him away from home on the big day but we were able to celebrate 4 days early, and with the Army sometimes "close" is good enough.

I treated him to a few of his favorite meals over the weekend (homemade enchiladas and grilled steak) then everyone's favorite chicken tacos on Tuesday night followed by the birthday cake. He chose yellow cake with chocolate frosting (homemade of course!) and I surprised him with 3 layers of frosting inside.

His gift from me: A 1966 Charles Hubbell Lithograph "Whirlybird Delivery. Boeing Vertol CH-47A Helicopter." He now flies the CH-47F model and yes he loved it. I have since gotten it framed but I had to special order the acid free matting and it wasn't ready in time for this day.

Happy Birthday honey, we love you!!

What Happened to my Blog??

My friend and fellow blogger Beth pointed out on Facebook today that it seemed many of her friends had gotten slack in their blogging and some (myself included) had quit completely. Here are the top 3 reasons I stopped blogging:

1. My husband returned from his 2nd year-long deployment to Iraq and we've been enjoying and appreciating the time we have together before he has to go again.

2. When he returned he decided he wanted an iPhone, he said if I liked it he'd get me one too. Within the first day I said "Yes, I want one!" With the convenience of Facebook and email on my iPhone I rarely use the home desktop computer anymore and haven't found a convenient way to blog from my phone yet.

3. We moved across the country in July and that was quite stressful/busy/time-consuming.

That being said, I'm sure I could manage to find a few minutes of "free" time and return to the blogging world. Especially now that I know I've been missed (and not just by Beth).

Make Wonton Chips

You Will Need:

wonton wrappers (found in produce section)
various cooking oils
spices/seasoning mixes
cookie cutters
pastry brushes

We used the following combos of flavors:

• olive oil and garlic bread seasoning
• meyer lemon oil and parsley
• canola oil and Ranch dressing powder
• canola oil and cinnamon with a pinch of sugar

1. Cut individual wontons with cookies cutters, to your heart's desire. You may want to cut scraps into simple shapes also.
2. Combine small amounts of cooking oil and seasoning in a shallow bowl and use pastry brush to coat one side of each "chip".


3. Arrange "chips" on a baking sheet and bake at 400*F for 4 minutes or until lightly browned.
4. Remove from oven and let cool. Enjoy!



We had a lot of fun with the process, but the chips themselves were just "ok".... the kids wanted to eat them when they were fresh out of the oven but the novelty wore off by the time I had the kicthen all cleaned up. I would recommend this as a great sit-down activity and not for the quality of the end product.

Surgery Day

This past Friday, both kids had surgery to repair umbilical hernias. It wasn't anything that bothered them now, but the surgery will prevent worse complications in the future. Since it wasn't an urgent matter, we were able to schedule it for after David got home from Iraq. Here was our day in pictures:

Approx 7 am

bag full of activities, but the wait wasn't too long at all
D gets to go first
All done, time to wake upNot a fan of the IV in his arm

Cali waiting her turn
Playing piano on Mommy's new iPhone
See you later
She didn't mind the IV at all
Let's roll!
They have had 8 days to recover now, and all the bandages are off. Still a little swelling, but they are feeling fine... too fine really as we are constantly reminding them to slow down and be careful! They have internal stitches that need to stay in place long enough for scar tissue to form and keep the holes closed for good. Will post pics of their brand-new innie belly buttons soon.

I'm Alive...

Didn't fall off the edge of the Earth or anything dramatic like that. Just enjoying my husband being home, getting some house/yardwork done, kids both had surgery for umbilical hernias (and are recovering well), Dave just got promoted from CW2 to CW3, we had company (Dave's brother, his wife, their son, dog & cat!)... Also I just got an iPhone and it has been a bit addicting... to say the least. I need to look into posting on Blogger from my iPhone and maybe will start posting more consistently again in the near future.