Cupcake Dustybum

Did you remember…. the 1st night of December (insert Earth Wind and Fire tune) lucky for us, our elf did remember to pay us a visit. Santa sent his elf Cupcake Dustybum to ours on the first night of December. He left a wrapped present for the girls.

But first, they had to read the official North Pole letter that our elf brought.

In the letter, Cupcake pretty much threatened them to be good, or ELSE!

The present was the Elf on the Shelf book that Santa sends them each year. They each took a turn reading it.

Along with the book, Santa sent them each an animal ornament, so nice, that guy!

Then the girls ran all over the house looking for Cupcake, every noise, anything out of the ordinary, it HAD to be him. But alas, he didn’t show his face until the next morning.

He got himself all tangled up trying to write a joke.

What kind of pictures do elves take?

Give up?

Elf-ies. Haha ha ha ha

Speaking of pictures, I took one of him and this is what I got.

Spooky eh? I didn’t even show the girls, they would have been in distress.

Apparently there was a cold going around Averi’s classroom and I guess Cupcake must of caught it. We woke up the next morning to this….

I think we should take Cupcake to get his Covid vaccine, just to be safe. If this is who he is kicking it with at night, we can’t be too careful.

We went and picked up a tree while the girls were at school that day.

They were so excited to decorate.

They asked Alexa to play the Justin Bieber Christmas song, repeatedly.

Later that afternoon, we had a belated traditional Thanksgiving with Shawna’s mom. I had a game plan, the potatoes were prepped and ready to cook, stuffing was a no brainer, rolls just needed to be heated, but, there’s always a but, the turkey was still partially frozen, or so I thought. I over compensated for the cooking time and I’m pretty sure the (13 lb. ) turkey was done in an hour and a half. I had the oven safe digital thermometer inside of the bird while it cooked, and it read done hours before I was expecting, wtf? Anyhow, I second guessed myself and cooked it a tad longer, and we ended with dry turkey meat. The SOLE reason I’m not a fan on the traditional Thanksgiving menu is becuase there is nothing worse than, dry meat. (Get your head out of the gutter) Boring, not enough dark TURKEY meat, too much white meat AND it was over cooked. Ugh, it still makes me frustrated. Anyhow, I am going to try and make a cranberry pecan turkey salad with the leftovers, wish me luck.

The next morning we woke to this.

Where are his manners?

This morning he was hiding pretty well.

I needed a hint to find him.

So, that is how the first few days of December has gone over here. I can’t wait to see what else Cupcake has up his elf sleeve.

I leave you with this.

Holiday Holiday

Somehow it’s already mid December, I have so much to catch you up on. Currently our Elf, Peppermint Sugarcookie is playing Twister with a few scantily clad and very limber Barbies.

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Every morning the girls give a full report on what trouble he got into the night before.

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Our neighborhood puts on a Holiday party each year. It’s the perfect time to meet the neighbors we never see and probably won’t see again until the next party. It’s also a great time for the girls to see Santa. Averi loves to get fancy for all occasions, she also loves to have her photo taken.

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Our Elementary school put on a Frozen movie night and of course the girls had.to.go. We saw Frozen 2 the day after it came out and that is all Averi can talk about. Frozen Fever. But the movie theater is different than the school auditorium. Drinks were spilled, bathroom needs were constant and the Avester decided she was “too tired” and stayed put even after the lights came on. Yep that’s my kid.

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The next day we spent swimming at uncle Casey’s new place. They decided to slum it for a bit and move to Coronado Island, sigh. The view is awful. And yes it looks cold, but the pool water was just fine….for the kids…and Casey.

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Since all three girls weren’t able to attend the holiday party, we went back to the mall for another visit with Santa and some quick shopping.

As luck would have it, when we went to walk the neighborhood Christmas lights, we ran into Santa again. What a tiring job he has. Luckily he will have cookies waiting for him as a reward, or treat? So many kids and cats, I can’t keep it straight.

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Averi’s teacher held a rehearsal for the Kinder Christmas show early so I could record it. The girls are heading up to WA with their dad this holiday and she’s missing the show. It was both super cute and painful at the same time. The first picture is when they just sat down in the auditorium, the video is 30 minutes later. Wrangling cats, that is another word for teaching Kindergarten.

 

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A Week (or 2) in Photos

A few weeks ago we were still having amazing weather. It was so nice that we braved the crowds and hit up SeaPort Village…Too many people!  The line for Surf Santa had to have been 2 + hours long. I would need a gang of people who wanted to take turns holding my place in line while we hopped on the carousel and guzzled adult beverages to ever brave that line.

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We took the girls to see the mall Santa. Kali was more excited about the candy cane then she was him, and when asked what she wanted for Christmas she replied “one pink present.”

I paid money for this picture …Shane took a better one with his phone so I need you all to see what money can buy. Awkward smiles and  one unimpressed baby.

{I wonder what shade of hair color Santa uses?}

IMG_5926We spent a good amount of time laying on beds. They had legos that kept Kaili busy for about an hour, best nap of my life.

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Averi agreed.

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We took the whole clan to La Jolla for our Christmas card shoot. It was messy and the kids were soaked by the end but you’ll be happy with the final outcome. Totally worth 20 minutes of chaos.

IMG_5877 IMG_5871Kali went to her little friends birthday Tea Party. This place was a trip and totally divine. The girls were in their princess dresses, drank tea out of china, ate tea sandwiches and petit fours, fanciest party I have ever been to. Kali was in heaven.

IMG_5919 IMG_5917Kaili is going to be so pissed King Felix got into her candy. ha ha ha.

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New Name

You may or may not have realized that my blog URL and name is now different. I thought since I am no longer trying for a baby it was time I update it. Simply Four, straight forward enough…no?
If you are following me on Feedly, you may have to re-add the blog, not quite sure how that works.

On another note, I made a very delicious soup, right down to the chicken stock. I don’t have an exact recipe for you but I can give you a quick rundown.

Coconut curry thai chicken soup
Coconut curry thai chicken soup

Thai Coconut Curry soup with Chicken

*I made chicken stock from a Rotisserie chicken. I pulled off all the meat and set aside. Cover chicken carcuss with water, throw in some veg, onions/carrots/garlic whatever you have and simmer for an hour. Strain and then set stock aside.

What you will need:

minced garlic 1Tb
grated ginger 1Tb
1 jalapeno minced
juice of 1 lime
1 heaping Tb green curry paste
1 can coconut milk (lite or reg)
1 Tbs. Sugar
1 Tbs. Fish sauce
4 cups chicken broth/stock
cilantro
Cooked rice or rice noodles
cooked chicken, diced or shredded

In large sauce pan heat a little olive oil and saute first 3 ingredients and then add curry paste. Stir in coconut milk, sugar, fish sauce and lime juice, bring to a simmer. Add chicken broth and bring back to simmer for 10-20 minutes. Add chicken, rice, reheat. Serve with lime wedge and cilantro.

*I had about a cup of sticky coconut rice I made a few days earlier, that is what I used and it was delish, added a touch more sweetness.

While the soup was cooking, Kaili was busy working on her Christmas list to Santa. We put it in the mail this morning and now I get to hold this over her head for another month. }Listen up kiddo, Santa is watching you!”
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Not So Merry

This whole “Santa’s watching” threat is turning out to be a genius idea. Hopefully Elf on the Shelf is still a thing next year because I will be all over that sh*t.

Yesterday was the first day that I have felt like crud the entire day. If I could have stayed under layers of blankets and slept sun up to sun down I would have. I mustered up enough energy to take K to see Santa. We had talked about it, we have been reading books about Christmas and she knows he is watching her…kind of spooky actually. She was pretty excited about it until he started walking toward us waiting at his “cottage.” She stiffened up, grabbed ahold of me and jumped into her stroller. Scary Santa was on his way and she wasn’t digging it. It’s a lot harder to not pick her up than one might imagine. Our time came for pictures and she walked up to him holding my hand but when it was picture time she about lost it. She was trying hard not to cry, which came close to breaking my heart but once her feet were safely planted on the ground she was fine and breaking into his stash of candy canes.

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This one is my favorite.

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After that exhausting morning we went home for a much needed nap. Hours later I peeled myself off the bed to grab a few things at Target. Wandering around dizzy and nauseous I realized somewhere along the way K had taken off her shoes and apparently chucked one to Never Never Land because it’s gone. I walked all over that damn store and checked with customer service and no one had seen one lonely shoe laying in an aisle. Who knows, she probably put it on the shelf next to the Chips Ahoy when she was dropping boxes of cookies into the cart.

Hi Santa

It has been almost two months since Kaili got her last bad cold and she still can’t shake the stupid cough and runny nose. Then last Friday she randomly woke up from nap with a 101 degree fever. Luckily it didn’t really seem to affect her attitude or appetite and then poof, it was gone. We hung low during the weekend hoping to keep at bay whatever bug was trying to get her and that has seemed to help. Although our weekend was low-key, Sunday night TV was not. Are you watching Homeland? Isn’t  it   ridiculous how good it is? Well written, well acted and plain “edge of your seat” tense all the way through. Amazing. Anyway, back to K, this week she seems to be just fine and I have been able to drag her to the gym with me, you know, just in time for her to catch something right before our trip.

She has been SUPER clingy with me lately, especially in the late afternoon-early evenings. Since she seems to deteriorate around 3:00 pm.so we get to the gym as soon as it opens so she is in the best mood possible. Today when I picked her up I could tell she hadn’t been crying and she was entertaining  herself with toys. A lot of times she wants to be held by one of the care-givers, so it was nice to see. When she saw me, she started running my way but then she stopped and looked at the toy in her hand, she ran back to put it on the shelf and then made her way to me. The fact that she did that without anyone asking her made my heart smile.

We had to postpone taking our X-mas card pics last Friday due to Kaili’s fever and now the weather has been threatening rain. Who knows how the pictures will end up now.

Since it hasn’t actually rained we have still been able to  hit the park every day.


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We also got out to the mall to see Santa. I wasn’t sure how it was going to go since she has been attached to my hip lately but she did fine. There weren’t any tears but there weren’t any smiles either.

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We have been talking about Santa, reading Christmas stories and listening to Christmas videos to prep her for the visit. She seemed really excited when I told her who we were going to see but the elation diminished once we walked into his little house. She walked up to him and waved but once she was on his lap and I backed away she was a little nervous. I must say the entire thing was underwhelming. I mean a child should either be super excited to see Santa, or completely terrified. Where is all the fun?