Christmas Eve

This afternoon, Cheyenne and I went to Texas Ballet Theater's The Nutcracker at Bass Performance Hall. Now, we are in the Christmas spirit. We had planned on going to Christmas eve church service, but Chey got nauseous in the car and threw up twice.


To help her tummy feel better we made cookies???? Dakota was really getting into it.

Chey will be alright, once we got home from the ballet she was feeling 90% better.
Okay, goodnight! Gotta go to bed, before Santa gets here!
Is that Chey's naughty face?

My Days in Photos

My Days in Photos...AKA Photo Dump
Now that it's spring, I enjoy running around campus.
Earlier this week, my sister Amy and Angelica stopped by for dinner and brownies. I made enchiladas and the girls made the brownies.

Everywhere I go, I watch Frozen. UTA is going to host a Frozen sing-along. Sounds like fun!

My Week in Photos

Occassionally, I buy Amanda and the kiddos donuts. They were pretty excited this morning.

Fill in the blank....
This girl is still not ____________!

I got some purple Cauliflower from Central Market. All I could think of while I was eating my salad was -- Go TCU Frogs!

More food related images. The kids made apple pie this week. Chey brought some home to share with us and ended up eating most of it. I don't blame her, it was delicious!

Sleep Before Food. I'm the opposite. I'll wake-up just to eat.
For several years my ice machine stopped working. A few months ago, Trey wiggled the ice box around and all of a sudden it started working again. STRANGE!
Earlier this week, the water dispenser started gushing out water and it wouldn't stop. Trey had to drag the fridge out and stop the line or something like that -- I don't know, I'm a girl. If I was home alone and that happen -- I would probably just scream.

Quick On-The-Go Snack & Food I Steal From my Baby

I made this Banana Almond Chia bars recipe, yesterday and it was delicious. My mornings are hella busy and I usually eat fruit in my car and later I'll eat breakfast at my desk. My office breakfast usually consists of 3 hard boiled eggs and cold sweet potatoes. Something I can eat fast while answering emails.

If you are looking for a fast snack to eat in the morning this is it! It also pairs nicely with coffee.

Banana Almond Chia bars Ingredients:
I had most of these ingredients in my pantry...
1 cup almond flour
1.5 cups vanilla egg protein powder (I used whey protein powder...got it at Sprout's)
4 tbsp. chia seeds
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut shavings
1/2 tsp baking powder and baking soda
1 large mashed banana (Next time I will use THREE)
1/4 cup nut butter (I used sunflower) 2 whole eggs
1 egg white
2 tbsp wildflower honey (I used regular honey)
1/2 tsp. coconut extract (I used vanilla)
  Here is the full recipe with directions.
 
Speaking of food...Dakota likes whole grain pasta (no sauce).

While she's eating that, I'm busy stealing her baby puree. When I don't have time to make homemade baby food, I give her puree packs, like this...The coconut flavor is my favorite. BTW this was my lunch Saturday. I had two photography events that day and there were around the lunch hour. Don't worry, I made up for the calories later that night with several helpings of brownies.

Alright, that's all I have for today. Bye!

Week in Photos

We no longer cut our yard, we hire a local business to maintain it. They don't bag the grass clippings for our yard, so when I requested a bag for my compost bin (from the company), I was told one would be left on my yard (from the company from another clients house). Keep in mind the request was for one bag... this is what was left on my side yard. 10 bags of grass! I think my compost is going to have plenty of grass.

Look at all the easter baking Cheyenne and Luke have been doing. It makes me want to be 4, again.  

Shout out to Trey for putting air in my tires. I'm 28 years old and I've never put air in my own tires, perhaps it's time I learn.

Some random picture of my food -- fresh produce. Yum!
 The kiddos at the library, earlier this week. 

Christmas Eve (2012). Santa is Coming!

Everyone is sleeping and I'm sitting in the living room with the glow of the Christmas tree lights. This feels just like Christmas should feel. It's relaxing. I'm so excited about Christmas morning, I can't sleep! A few minutes ago, I did some last minute gift wrapping. One of the gifts, was odd shaped (don't you hate that??), so I just threw a blanket over it, with a note to Trey: DON'T LOOK!

Do you believe in Santa? 
There is something magical about seeing a kid light-up about the idea of Santa coming over. It's a big deal. I love Cheyenne's enthusiasm! I don't ever remember believing. How about you?

Candlelight Service 
Tonight, we did what is becoming our Christmas family tradition: We went to the Christmas Eve Candlelight Church Service. We heard scripture readings of the Christmas Story and sang carols. It's just what I needed. I have to admit, this season, I got distracted and my eyes were not set on Christ. For me, it started to become about the season of the holidays (shopping, busy-stuff, work, going from here to there) and not Jesus-Savior. During the service, I was reminded, why I celebrate Christmas, (the real meaning).

As soon as we got home, we were already thinking about cookies. Santa needs fuel and Cheyenne was eager to make him chocolate chip cookies. I should have left him some of my running GU's, afte rall, he'll be running a marathon around the world.

Dakota is ready for some Christmas fun too.

Trey likes to swing her around like this. It makes me nervous, her dangling like a rag-doll, but she gets a kick out of it.

Well, sleep well and Have a Merry Christmas! I might have another cookie and then call it a night.

I Totally Passed Out

What happened last night? I passed out around 9:30 pm. I'm pretty sure, I slept for 20 hours, I feel amazing! I had started this post last night, so here it is, this morning....
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Looks like we're still celebrating Trey's birthday. Chey and I made him a birthday cake. It's a strawberry cake, a recipe his grandmother makes. It's one of his favorites. The last time we made this cake was back in 2008. Trey and Cheyenne loved it. It's a little too sweet for me, but still tasty in small quantities.

Do you guys FaceTime or Skype with relatives who live away?
We do. We FaceTimed with Trey's mom. She was showing us some Care Bears she bought for Cheyenne.

I'm so jealous! Remember my generic childhood Care Bear?

Right now, Chey is really into Care Bears. We found a few CB movies on Netflix and this has made my child unbelievably happy.

Oh, on a side note, Trey called me Friday and said he found out the iPhone is not fireproof. WHAT?! Something about he was working on a ladder, explosion, fire/flames, him leaping off the ladder....ends up his phone caught on fire, while he was working on a unit and now has an imprint and crack on it. It still works, but I'm sure it's annoying seeing a crack on his phone.

This morning (Saturday), I went for a 10 mile run on the trail. Around mile 6, I needed to use the bathroom, but I was a mile away from the porta potty. That mile was the longest mile of my life! Ugh! The PG version thoughts that were going through my head: Don't crap yourself! Don't crap yourself! Don't do it!" I made it safely to the bathroom and no one was harmed.
Long distance runners know what I'm talking about, we all have our storieSSSS (plural).

Oh, last night we had a family date night and I finally tried the protein style burger from In-N-Out. Holy Goodness! It was the best! I got the single patty, but next time I'm probably going to double it. For you health councious readers, I think the double patty is around 500 calories. I didn't take a picture, but I found an online pic. This is what a protein style burger looks like. source. There fries are also tasty. :) Our family date was only $13.15.

Our Family Christmas Video

The last two years, I've set-up the camera to record our family Christmas festivities.

Here is a short highlight of our Christmas Eve --
Making cookies for Santa and opening presents, Christmas morning. Memories!


At the end Chey says, "We don't eat paly-doh. Only the baby eat play-doh." Gold.

Christmas Eve

It's Christmas Eve!

I started my morning with a 10 mile run. Now, I'm only 31 miles away from reaching my distance goal...I'm SOOOOO CLOSE! I'm not sure if I will take the day off from running tomorrow or not. I have some wiggle room for the rest of the week, so I might take advantage of that and just rest. If I do go running, it will probably be later in the afternoon, NOT Christmas morning. You better believe I will be lounging in PJ's as long as possible.

Today, we spent a lot of time at home, where else would we be? Not shopping. I went grocery and last minute gift shopping yesterday at 6:30 am. I went right after the gym. I looked like a mess, but hey, I didn't have to deal with the crowds. So worth it.

While we were at home, we played a few rounds of Jenga.

Look what else we did.

Mid-afternoon, Chey took a nap and that's when Trey and I turned into Santa's Little Helpers. We wrapped all the presents. Trey did most of the work, I supervised. Good Job. Keep it up! After a while, Trey caught on and then made me wrap the remaining gifts. Boo!

2011 Christmas Eve Cookies
Before heading to the Candlelight Christmas Church Service, we made chocolate chip cookies for Santa.

Notice how Chey is wearing PJ's. I like to take her to the church evening service wearing PJ's because afterwards we eat dinner and then go look at Christmas lights. So, by the time we get home, we are ready for bed. It just makes sense, plus she looks super cute.

2010 Christmas Eve 
Right after we made cookies we headed off to church.

Trey's face looks so naked! What a baby face. Hey, that's the same Cowboys hat he's wearing this year.

Remember the Gingerbread House? Well, this is all that remains...

One Last Thing 

The Candlelight Christmas Church Service was wonderful. We worshipped, heard Scripture read by the children of the church. The last song we sang was Silent Night and everyone held a candlelight. It was beautiful and a reminder that He is the reason for the season. Thank you Jesus.

Glow Run with Lululemon

Last night, Lululemon hosted a Glow Run in downtown Fort Worth. We met at Frankie's Sports Bar and Grill and from there we ran through Sundance Square. The main highlight of the run was running through The Chesapeake lights display. The entire block is lit up and it's beautiful. It would make any Scrooge melt.

This run made me fall in love with Fort Worth even more. This was my first time to run downtown and it was cool to see everyone hustling and bustling....shopping, going out, people watching. There were about 50 of us running. We wore glow sticks and jingle bells on our feet. Afterwards, we ate at Frankie's compliments of Lulu.

This is Jayme, the Lululemon Run Ambassador. She joined me on a long run a few months ago, when I was training for Palo Duro. I think she's pretty cool.

I ran with my friend Justin and my new friend Bonnie. She's does triathlons...impressive right?

This run was casual and short. We ran under 3 miles and kept the pace steady.
'
Guess who is with me? Cheyenne! I picked her up a few hours ago. This is a photo she took at Aunt Shelly's house. She made Christmas cookies with her. Mmmmm...

How I Cut Onions and Crockpot Comfort

My morning started with a 10 mile run. I set my expectations low and figured I'd run close to an 11 minute pace per mile. I ended up running closer to a 10 minute pace, so that was a confident booster for this expecting mommy. I know it's early, but I'm telling you at 14 weeks -- I'm already feeling the baby move. During my run, I felt it and again a few hours later.

After my run, I didn't bother taking a shower because I went straight to yoga class at Lululemon. Cheyenne joined me. About 10 minutes into the class, Cheyenne approached me and I noticed her pants were missing. She was walking around the store pant less. She's going through a phase right now, where she wants to take her pants off, it's usually when she's at home. This is the first time she's done it in public. Everyone in class got a kick out of it. I have to admit it was more cute than embarrassing.

I've had this crockpot chili recipe for weeks and I finally made it. It could be paleofied, but I decided to add kidney beans. Here are the ingredients: Beef, garlic, cumin, chili powder, kidney beans, onions, green peppers, tomato sauce, and salt/pepper. I left it in the crockpot for 5 hours.

I can't stand how painful it is, on my eyes, when I chop onions. I started to cut the an onion for the chili and my eyes were burning, I stopped and searched Trey's gym bag and put on his googles. I'm so smart!

A few weeks ago, our neighbor, (the cookie baker) gave Trey a bag full of chocolate chip cookies. I kid you not, the bag was gallon size, the big freezer size -- full of cookies. Trey ate a lot and the next day, I was meeting Krista for coffee and I took her a small bag full. When Trey got home there were only four cookies left and he flipped out. Ever since then, he's been talking about how I gave his cookies away and basically I'm a terrible person. He's been asking me to make it up to him by making him cookies, so today I finally did. I think I saved our marriage. :)

Cheyenne enjoyed the cookies. Notice how she's not wearing a shirt...I'm telling you, she's going through a phase. First it was no pants, now she wants to lose the shirt too. What am I going to do with her?

Roasted Honey Cinnamon Chickpeas

This recipe comes from Weelicious™ and it's quite simple.

Only 4 Ingredients:
1. Garbanzo Beans aka Chickpeas
2. Cinnamon
3. Oil
4. Honey

This was suppose to be a recipe Cheyenne and I were going to make together, but she wanted no part of it. So, I peeled every single chickpea. It seemed like it took f-o-r-e-v-e-r! Actually, that was the most time consuming part, the rest of it was easy-peasy.

Ahh, don't look...Naked Chickpeas! YOU LOOKED!

So is it good? IDK. It was okay. Actually, it tasted better the day after. I might make it again. I like how it's a healthy nutritious snack. You know, when you're not really hungry, you just want to be eating. Food to mouth. Food to mouth. And repeat. You know what I'm talking about. Cheyenne was not a fan. She didn't even want to try it, but I told her, "Mmm, CANDY!" Then she eagerly tried and it and immediately spit it out. "I noo want it."