A Very Christmas-y Saturday!

Last Saturday was a very full day but it was good full, not stressful full!

We started the morning off with breakfast (of course) and then went our separate ways. The boys stayed home to do man things and I went to my mom's house to do Christmas baking where my Auntie, sister-in-law and cousin were all coming to bake too!

So I use the term "Christmas Baking" lightly as I don't really think we made Christmas cookies but we did make cookies that our family all loves and only gets once a year ... thus making them a part of the Christmas season for us! They are called Bratzli, but we just call them Swiss Cookies and they make us all really, really happy! :)

Meanwhile, back at home, the boys were hanging Christmas lights!

Apparently, Bennett had told Adam that Pooh and Buzz needed to come out and help hang the lights too and my super smart husband talked Bennett into setting them by the window so they could watch! I love it!

They did a great job!

After a nap and some new clothes, we took off for Escondido to have a "Thanks-mas" dinner with our group of Outdoors friends, aka "Cadre" friends.
{You know since we are such "outdoors" kind of people these days! ha ha!}

We had a fabulous meal and such a great time with some of our oldest friends!
{Old as in long time - none of us would admit to being old!}

Don't miss the lovely "woodland creature" in the back! I am SOOO glad we didn't win that! 

There's nothing like laughing until it hurts while catching up with friends!  Such a great night!

'Twas the Night Before ....

... Thanksgiving and all thru the house every creature was hungry, longing for Yard House!

Yep... it's the truth ... and so off we went to our local Yard House to fulfill our newly established and super tasty, tradition!

You see, last year, after spending the day together, Adam, Mary Beth, Bennett and I all went to The Yard House for a dinner made up entirely of the half price happy hour menu ... it was fabulous!

So, not wanting to break "tradition" we did the same thing again.
And again, we so enjoyed ourselves.

Bennett got a water AND a milk. He was a happy man despite his face in the below picture.

Traditions make my heart smile!

Fresh from the Garden

Bennett has a thing for cucumbers! He will eat them any time, any where! He loves them! But until recently I didn't realize that he would even take them off the counter and just start chowing down before I could cut it up!

I wonder how long it will be before he makes the connection between what he's eating and this guy: 

Peanut Queen!

So I mentioned in my last post that my friend Jen had come and helped me with a few projects around the house this summer. Well that mention reminded me that I had a few pictures to post from her visit!

Jen has always been my "allergic to nuts" friend and I've always made sure to be extra careful not to kill her! However, in the last month (after lots of allergy tests) Jen came to find out that she is allergic to tree nuts but not PEANUTS!!!! So after all the projects were done and we were talking about getting dinner and decided Jen's first Pad Thai was what we needed to do that night!

We went to our favorite Thai restaurant in Temecula, Aiyara, and had a peanut-rific dinner!

Here's Jen's first bight of dinner (Pad Thai)

and here's Bennett with his favorite Jen (whom he calls "Jay")  at dinner!

Thanks for coming out to help Jen and we are so glad we got to eat peanuts with you!

4 Year Celebration

Thanks to Adam's mom, Adam's aunt and my mom we had child care and money to go out to dinner for our anniversary!

I picked the place, Stone Brewery World Bistro and Gradens in Escondido. We sort of missed it on our first pass, but after a quick U-turn and a walk down an enchanted pathway, we were there!

We had been wanting to try the place for a long time and it was so worth the wait!

We discovered the wonders of Kombucha (Adam order the ginger flavor, it was Amazing!) and I ordered a french press of tea along with the hummus of the day (cilantro and serrano - YUM!!)

For dinner Adam ordered the Buffalo steak (which was wonderful, but the real winner on the plate were the white cheddar mashed sweet potatoes, seriously, those things were unbelievable!)

And I ordered the Salmon over a butternut squash risotto cake - again, amazing, I seriously wanted to lick my citrus beurre blanc sause off my place!

And then for dessert we branched out a bit and were not disappointed! We ordered the Blueberry Blue Cheese Jalapeno Cheese Cake and our taste buds got the ride of their life! The cheese and the heat and the berry compote ... never had anything like it ever!

Thank for making this awesome night possible for us Mom, Mom and Aunt Kathy!

Frozen Yogurt!

Bennett has been going out for frozen yogurt since he was about a week old...

You can see him in his car seat in the reflection in the window between Adam and I

But he is now allowed to get his own cup!

He was SOOOOO happy! 

He also really loved that he could spin the tables! 

For the Love of the Fries

Sometimes even sleep can't stop you from finishing your In-n-Out meal!

A whole lotta somethin' going on!

So our "nothing" summer defiantly turned into something! 

It feels like 6 months have gone by when in reality it's only been like 6 weeks!

We had some firsts...

Disneyland

this deserves it's own blog.... more to come on this I'm sure

Beach

Yes, we live in southern california... don't judge, I have issues with sand

Hot Dogs

didn't go over so well, I am not complaining about that!

Shopping Cart

Changed the way we do shopping!

We had some doughnuts!

We had some weddings...

Megan and AJ

clearly we sat at table "Awesome"

Stan and Lindsay

And last but not least, Brian and Crystal-Lee!

but we didn't have just a wedding...

We had a bridal shower

We had a Bachelorette night

We had a Bridesmaid's Luncheon

We had a Rehearsal (and dinner)

and THEN we had a wedding!

this also deserves it's own blog... it was just way to wonderful to pass up blogging about!

We saw our family...

Went to a "Swiss family Reunion"

Bennett figured out that hugging his Grandma would get him closer to her purse!

Tio Pepe was in town for a week!

Elizabeth showed us all that she could fly

and baby Jake ... well, he's just the cutest!

We also saw our friends!

Including the one's who are moving away to Hawaii!

We played ... a lot! 

We went places!

Adam had to go to a conference for teaching (bummer!)  but his school bought him a hotel room for the week at said conference and lucky for us it was in San Diego (YAY!)  So.... Bennett and I tagged along for a couple days!
We went to an organ concert in Balboa Park...

explored the beautiful campus of USD...

hung out at the hotel, and did hotel type things...

and went to the night time zoo

The Wild Animal Park one sunday after church and had a great time (as always) with the Shelton family!

The Santa Rosa Plateau ... hikes are so lovely... so are rest areas!

See! Doing nothing did turn in to doing something ... and we loved every second of it!