It's been a week....

It has been a week over here at Team Jordan. Not so much busy but, Madeleine has been teething like crazy!!! Her little gums are so swollen and we've been battling a slight diaper rash. Also, she has been putting everything in her mouth. She even tried to bite Chili's ears several times, today. Chili looked at me with such hate! LOL, poor Chili. I broke down this week and gave her some teething gel during nap and bed time!!! And speaking of naps... those have been pretty frustrating! She either fights it, because she's in so much pain or, she just skips it and wants to be held. And anyone that knows my child, knows that for her to want to be cuddled, she is feeling pretty crappy (she's always on the move!). There was one day this week, where I took spark 3 times!! I was drowning people!!! But, I felt great the whole day!!

Here is Madeleine's attempt at Chili's ears. She was softening her up with a big hug first....

Earlier this week, we went to our first play group. It was nice to talk to some other moms in the area and for Madeleine to meet some other kids. I will admit that I am an introverted-extrovert. My explanation of this is, I am shy once you first meet me and then once you get to know me, I am just a bag of fun (hahaha). Madeleine had a blast and that's all that matters. So much so, that was one of those days she didn't nap!


Also, my aunt and uncle sent us a package with gifts for Madeleine and chips and salsa for me and Morgan. And lets be honest those are really for me! I will shamefully admit that I have eaten one bag of chips and an entire jar of salsa. Please, when you judge me, be kind!!! And if you're not, just remember I am stuck out here with horrible excuses for salsa!! LOL

In other news, we finally settled on some patio furniture!! We had been going back and forth on what we wanted and finally I just let Morgan pick. We went with a retro style.......

I wasn't sold at first but they grew on me. And it's patio furniture, it should be fun! We got 4 different colored chairs and a white table. Now, I just need to find an outdoor rug. I'm sure Target can help me with that.

The bad part, is it's been raining all day and will continue to rain all weekend!! And I mean rain where there is actual flooding. It's been a while since we've seen rain. Where is the California sunshine?!?!? So much for putting the furniture together.

We are attempting to try that MyGYm class tomorrow. Hopefully the commute isn't too bad.  And if it is, I promise I am going to keep my cool ;) Other than that we are staying inside, with all this rain. I'm sure by tomorrow I will be stir crazy!!

Well, this was post was all over the place. Have a good weekend!

Recipes.....

Today was the last session  for our story time at our local library. It started off pretty good but then we had to leave early because Madeleine was not having it! She tried to pull every book off the shelf and then started to roll around on the ground. Apparently she was not into the story about the circus. But who can blame her, I didn't want to hear the story about the clown, either! I HATE CLOWNS! The funny thing was we weren't the only ones that left. Apparently, the kids weren't feeling story time.

Well, I wanted to tell you guys about a few recipes that I have made over the past few days. They are super easy and super yummy! Over the weekend I made Asian Chicken Lettuce Wraps. I actually used ground turkey because I didn't have any ground chicken. Still very tasty! It's a slow cooker recipe but it's only in the crock pot for about 1.5 hours. It's so simple and pretty healthy! We usually drench ours' in sriracha sauce.

I also recently made a pork tenderloin in the crock pot. This one isn't as healthy because there's this brown sugar glaze that goes on it for the last hour. But, it made for a great dinner and I'm pretty sure Morgan wanted to just eat the glaze out of the sauce pan!

Today, I made some brown sugar blondies for a playgroup we are going to tomorrow. Well, they were supposed to be for the playgroup but when I came back to the kitchen after putting Madeleine down for bed, half the pan was finished! Morgan has the biggest sweet tooth!! They were really good but I'll probably need to double the batch for, old sweet tooth Jordan! Here's the recipe.

What are some of your favorite recipes? Share, please!!! Well, I should probably get some sleep so I'm not dragging butt tomorrow during playgroup.

Sportsmanship....

Hello! How has the weekend been for you guys?!?! Our weekend has been pretty good. On Friday, Morgan got some good news about a great career opportunity. He has asked that I don't share a lot of his work stuff on here so I respect him on that. I love how he gets all "Liam Neeson." HAHAHA!!! So, in lieu of cooking dinner, I decided to order pizza & salad and made us a fruit salad. Madeleine was very excited for pizza night! We put down blankets on our sofa and let her eat in the living room, picnic style, while watching Lilo & Stitch. She's kind of obsessed with that movie right now. It's cute but, I'm sure I'll be sick of it soon enough.

Saturday morning we were all set to take Madeleine to My Gym for her first, "gym/waddler" class. I used to take her to the open play time, at one of the Austin locations, and she loved it! Just from the description of the class made me think she would enjoy it. Apparently they sing, dance, do balance beams and all that jazz. The closest location to us is 25 minutes away so we left an hour early thinking we would be good and would probably even be early. WELL......California traffic SUCKS!!!!! It was 9:15 on a Saturday morning and we were in bumper to bumper traffic. I was fuming!! Needless to say, we did not make the class. We had to re-schedule for another time.

Now, during this whole experience, I was a complete MONSTER!! I threw my phone, huffed and puffed, cursed and threw a fit. You would have thought that I was the one that was going to miss class. I'll admit that none of that was necessary but I was in a mood. After I cooled off, it got me to thinking that I have got to get it together. My temper got the best of me and I sure don't want to show Madeleine that side. 

Then, it got to me to thinking of my fierce, and more often than not, my competitive side. And when I say competitive I mean I will kill you over a board game!! I'm not playing folks, my husband and I cannot play board games unless we are on the same team. We learned this our first year of marriage when we played a board game with some of our neighbors and I ended up screaming at Morgan because I thought he was cheating. I'm bad people!! I even catch myself competing with people while I'm running. If someone passes me while I'm running I usually sprint past them and make sure I stay at that pace so they can't pass me again. They have no idea what sick game I'm playing in my head. And, I won't go into too many details about how bad of a sore loser I am! I've been known to be feisty!

I partially blame my mother. She was that mom that was always involved with her kids' sports activities. She was at every practice, volunteered to coach, or volunteered my dad. Whatever sport I was doing she made sure that I was doing 100%. She was also that crazy mom that would scream at me from the side lines and sometimes run up and down the side lines. She may or may not have yelled at the refs, as well. I remember when I was doing competitive dance, my dad would videotape my competitions, and he would sit away from her so she wasn't screaming "GOOOOO NIKI!!!!" the entire dance routine. But, you could always hear her! At the same token, I am very grateful that I still have the memories of my parents, especially my mom, always being there. There were a few kids that weren't as lucky.

And Morgan, he is just as competitive as me. He and his twin brother will get into an argument about the color of the sky!! One will say its blue and the other will say it's aqua blue. Then, they will debate until one of them is out of breath, which usually can last 4-6 hours. And please don't get them started about who was the faster runner, in high school, on the cross-country team! Or who was stronger. I feel like they came out of the womb competing with each other.

The reason I am telling you guys all this is because I'm hoping to break the cycle a little with Madeleine. I am hoping that when Madeleine starts sports or gymnastics or whatever she wants to try,
that I will learn to chill. I want to teach her that it's not always about winning. I will make every effort to be at every practice, recital, and game but I am going to make a conscious effort to not scream my head off from the side lines. Don't get me wrong, I will cheer but, I'm going to try not to be so Crazy! ;) And along the way, I hope she will have a little of our competitiveness with a whole lot more sportsmanship, than her mama ;)

Well, my rant is over! Hope you guys had a good weekend and see you tomorrow!

Four Attempts....

Well, today hasn't been the most exciting day. Madeleine is on her 4th attempt at a nap!! Yeah you read that right....4...Four...Cuatro!!! And as I sit here typing, I can hear her talking to herself in her room. I will say, for not having a nap today, she has been pretty awesome! But, I'm pretty sure she got into the sugar container in the pantry because homegirl is wired!! She woke up this morning around 5:45am. I contemplated letting her stay up but my own tiredness and selfishness wanted more sleep so I put her back down! She didn't wake up until close to 10am.

We did our usual things and I for sure thought she'd take a nap, at least a late nap. But, no here we are, close to 5pm and chick hasn't even attempted to sleep!! At one point, during her failed attempts, I looked at the monitor and saw her sprinting from one side of the crib to the other then, she would throw herself down and jump right up!

Needless to say I got nothing accomplished today! I was planning on cleaning and reorganizing the bathroom but that will have to wait til tomorrow. And since she has had no nap and has been running around like a sugar-induced polar bear I had to make 2 Sparks today!!! The only saving grace is that she is not being a total monster and the weather here is great so we have been outside all day!!

This is what she decided to do instead of napping the first time.... Make her shirt into a crop top. Every time I pulled it down she pulled it up!! We're in trouble!!!

On another note, my mom will be here in about 31 days for two weeks!!! Woohoo!!! I miss that crazy lady!!

Well, I better go check on this chick and see if she actually fell asleep or if we are just skipping a nap today :) Thankfully we are eating leftover chicken tacos so I don't have to try to cook something!

See you guys tomorrow!

Wine Day

I forgot to mention it yesterday but, I made this recipe for, Honey Mustard Pretzel Chicken. And I'm here to tell you it's delicious!! The only difference I made was using pretzel chips and mine didn't turn out as brown as the picture they posted. Either way it was delicious!! The yummy honey mustard sauce was awesome! I even dipped my brussel sprouts in the sauce. Of course, Madeleine didn't eat one bite :( She just had hummus and grapes. I'm surprised that girl is alive for as little as she eats!
But, Morgan and I loved it. It's a pretty simple recipe but it took me a little longer because Madeleine insisted on holding onto my legs and asking to be held. This happens sooooo much!!!

I don't know if you guys know it but it's National Drink Wine Day!!! Well, normally I don't need an excuse to drink wine, but let me tell you......TODAY WAS THE PERFECT DAY FOR IT!!!

Lately we have been battling teething and random meltdowns. And meltdowns for the most random acts. For instance, we had a meltdown because:

1. I wouldn't let her open the back door to let the dog inside
2. I was brushing my teeth
3. I wasn't serving the grapes fast enough
4. I wouldn't let her play with a poop diaper
5. I wouldn't let her climb the fire place
6. She couldn't reach her puzzle...2 feet away
7-18. ALL RIDICULOUSNESS REASONS

Chick, get it together!!! And for some reason the meltdowns usually happen in the evenings. She's perfectly fine in the mornings and then around the time I'm prepping dinner, it's total chaos. As soon as Morgan walked in the door I poured myself a glass of wine. He kind of gave me a look and then poured himself a glass. Soul mates!

Believe it or not with all the complaining I just did I got a lot of stuff done today. We went for our 3 mile run with interval training in between and played on the beach. It's hard not to take full advantage of the gorgeous weather and scenery.

While she was napping, I started cleaning out my closet, which lead me to start cleaning my jewelry vanity, which lead me to start researching new nightstand tables. This happens to me a lot. I get a little ADD when I start cleaning..."Oh, I'll dust, wait I should clean the windows, wait I'll clean the bathroom!" It all gets done but I get there in a round-about way. So, by the time Madeleine woke up from her nap my closet was a mess! Thank goodness for cartoons, purses and hats! She was entertained long enough for me to finish. And this adorable picture was captured.

I know it may seem like I complain a lot but this little girl knows how to melt my heart! And, I always have my WINE!!! Cheers!

Kid Genius

So, yesterday I went grocery shopping but by the time I got home I was in no mood to cook! I know I'm not the only one that does this....Am I? We ended up going to Board & Brew. This is not a bad sandwich shop that's reasonably priced and they have decent craft brews. I just stuck with a turkey club but Morgan got a spicy roast beef sandwich which actually looked good. They had me at spicy!!!

After dinner we had to run by Lowes to grab a few things. I was tempted to let Madeleine down so she could run around but I figured a hardware store was the wrong place to let a toddler roam around ;) I'm such a good mommy....... I did this instead!!!

I hope she doesn't expect this all the time!

When I was at Costco the other day, I picked up this book and it's GREAT!! While we were reading today I would ask her to say or point to a picture and she knew about 12-15 of the pictures. Now, I may be biased, but I'm pretty sure she is a kid genius!!! I'm pretty sure she'll be writing her first novel in another 2 months! Besides the major meltdowns and occasional tantrums this is a pretty cool age.
I love hearing her little voice and all the new words she is picking up!

During nap time I was able to squeeze in a little trip to Trader Joe's and of course, Target!! No, I didn't just leave Madeleine with the dog. Daddy had the day off so he was left in charge. But, if something happened to him while I was gone, Chili would be the next in line :)

I of course scored a few Valentine's decor for super cheap!!! I also scooped up some Easter/Spring decor. I still have my Love day decor up but once March gets here I'll be ready!!! I love to decorate for the holidays! I would say it's for the princess but it's really for me. I'm a sucker for the holidays. I can't wait to put these cute banners up, plus all my other things :)

While I was at Target, I got the cutest text from my friend, Sam. She sent me a picture of her adorable daughter, Posey, and this in the text: "My kid loves Target as much as you! She's in awe, and her cartwheel is full!"

I am with you baby P!! I am in awe every time I go into Target too. I'm pretty sure she is my soul sister!! And again, I don't mean to be bias because she's my friend but, I'm pretty sure she's going to be a kid genius as well!

Weekend Wrap Up......

How was the weekend for you guys? Did you guys have big Valentine's Day plans? We don't really celebrate "Love Day," we just celebrate our anniversary which was 2 days before. We usually give each other a silly card and call it a day. But, this year we focused more on our little princess and showed her a little extra love :) She's lucky she's cute because after the way she acted on our anniversary she's lucky she got gifts! Hahaha. (She was actually good this whole weekend!)

Morgan actually had the day off on Friday so we started our day with heart-shaped pancakes, eggs and fruit. YUM! Morgan is a big breakfast person, like HUGE! So, on the weekends he normally goes all out. During the week I just grab some fruit and yogurt and call it a breakfast! After breakfast, we let the little lady open her V-Day goodies. She got 2 bags from mommy and daddy and my mom sent her a little basket. I actually still remember getting V-Day baskets from my mom until after high school. I'm sure I'll be the same with Madeleine. I just love doing the holidays with a child!!

Later that day we took her to Courtney's SandCastle and to the San Clemente Aquatics Center. They have a really cool water park. The water is maybe about a foot deep so it's perfect for Madeleine. She was in heaven. We even were able to use her float for a little bit until the supervisor told us we couldn't use it in there :(  But, she didn't care she had a blast! She even went down the slide a few times. The only bad part was there were a few pockets of cold water so we tried to stay away from those areas. As you can see it didn't bother her too much!

After an hour of swimming we went to grab lunch at La Siesta. Mexican food...YUM!! Then, on our way home homegirl passed out and we were able to transfer her from car to crib perfectly!!! First time EVER!! Look at those lips!!! Melt my heart!!!

AND she slept for 4.5 hours!!!! Woohoo!!!!!!

Saturday was another long day for Madeleine. Morgan got me a really awesome anniversary gift but it's one of those gifts that I had to pick out. And to me, those are some of the best gifts ;) But, it made for a really long day because it took a while for me to pick it out and then it had to get made and picked up that afternoon. Which meant that we were in the car for a longer than we'd like to be. While we were waiting for my gift we stumbled onto a massive shopping center! And what did we finshd..... Chick-fil-A!!! OMG people, I haven't had Chick-fil-A in about 7 or 8 moths!!! And I don't care that it's not the best for you or what the bread is made out of... it was delicious!!!! We were in heaven for a good 30 minutes.

After we stuffed ourselves we stumbled over to REI. And homegirl loved it!! She kept going to the stroller section and playing with them. Then, she'd run over to the wall of sleeping bags and touch them all. This kept her entertained for 45 mins!! We didn't just take her in there to burn laps we were actually in there looking for something specific. We were looking for a kid carrier we could use for hiking. Any one have one? Do you like it? Do the kids like it? This is the one we were interested in but they were completely sold out of every carrier.

I'll let you guys know if we decide to purchase and if she likes it.


By the time my gift was ready homegirl was DONE! She only had a 30 minute nap, while in the car, so I was surprised she did so good for as long as she did. She cried the whole way home!! All 30 minutes!! By the time we got home, she was ready for dinner, bath and bed!



What was mommy ready for? Wine and "House of Cards" season two!!! If you don't know about this people, I demand you watch it!!!! I pretty much had a heart attack and almost pooped myself, at the same time, during the first episode. Not really, but you know what I mean!!! SOOOOOO GOOOOOOD!!!!

Today was my day for grocery shopping. Which means Costco and Target are a must!!! You know you go to Costco too much when your child points to the back where the fruit and vegetable section is located. She knows what's up! She also whines a little because she sees all the fruit in the basket and must have it all! I had to bust open the bag of bananas today. Plus, she had samples and a little pizza! Chick was hungry!

Well, we've got nothing planned for the rest of the day. Just taking it easy!! Enjoy your day!!