Hola, soy Kinsey

In early November one of Alex's friends married a lovely girl named Maria who is from Puerto Vallarta. They graciously had their wedding there so we could have a child free vacation. I don't think our parents (who switched off James and Zach) felt it was so gracious of them.

We stayed at one of the nicest places I have ever stayed, Garza Blanca. You can see from the photos the pools and views were wonderful. It was the off season so no one was there and I spent days laying in the shade reading and drinking. We went down the weekend before and then moved into a house with Dave and Tami, Chris and Scott on Thursday.

Oh wait, I misspoke. I went down on Sunday and Alex joined me on Tuesday. Yes, that is right, I flew to Mexico (where I was pretty sure I was going to be kidnapped and held for ransom) alone. Luckily, you know I have an inordinate amount of confidence in myself and, what you might not know, in my Spanish speaking abilities.

How did this happen? Well, as I tried to check us in on Saturday I realized Alex's passport had expired in February of 2012. This is what happens when you have two children, you don't get to leave the country. Since our flight was on Sunday there was nothing we could do until the passport office opened on Monday. Not one to think he can't talk his way onto a plane, we both went to the airport on Sunday to try to get on. But, since the people who work at United are not idiots, they caught Alex's passport expiration immediately. Only 2 flights a day go down to PV and they were booked until the next Saturday. So the only option was for me to go and him to take the first flight on Tuesday. Also luckily for us Houston has a passport office where you can get a passport the same day. So he hustled on down Monday and had one in hand by that afternoon.

Really it was fine. I am a big girl. I travelled in Europe by myself when I was 22. But I was used to having someone with me, so it just took a bit to remember that I am fully capable. Which I was, of course. So I had two and a half glorious days of Kinsey quality time. And I am delightful. Though people at the resort kept asking if I was alone. I naturally lied and said no, my husband was arriving tonight. Then I thought I might get killed in my bed. But I was so relaxed by the evening I just didn't care.

Once everyone joined us on Thursday we moved over to a house up in the hills. Alex and I had brought with us sun hats given the extreme whiteness of our complexions. We took to calling them "Wayne hats" after the hats my father wears well, anytime he is outside. His are similar to the ones we had, but his brims are much, much larger. You would hear calls of "where is a Wayne hat?" around the pool during the day.

Dave and Alex enjoyed pretending they were teenagers again. See Dave now has a Wayne hat on.

That is where Tami spent most of her time. Can't see her? Look closely at the hammock.

 
Scott and Alex with the groom.

Chicken of another name

When I spotted this chicken on Pinterest I knew that I had to make it.

But I needed a reason to make a pound of bacon and turn the grill on. Enter Sunday afternoon when our friend Chris came to watch some NFL game with Alex. Turns out the recipe is not as bad for you as it looks. It is basically just chicken marinated in a mustard and honey mixture, grilled and topped with bacon and cheese. OK it is not a Weight Watchers recipe, but could be worse.

Turns out the original recipe IS worse. It is from the Pioneer Woman and calls for the chicken to not be grilled but cooked in the bacon grease. See? Totally worse.

And it is a recipe that the whole family could eat. For the boys they got the chicken and with bacon on the side (even James with his 8 teeth, all in the front, figures out how to eat bacon). I served it with some quick oven roasted broccoli and we all enjoyed it.

Ranch Chicken (worst name ever- there is nothing ranch about it)

Ingredients

§  1/2 cup Dijon Mustard

§  1/2 cup Honey

§  1/2 whole (juice Of) Lemon

§  1/2 teaspoon Salt

§  Crushed Red Pepper and 1/2 teaspoon Paprika or ½ tsp smoked paprika

§  6 whole Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts

§  1 pound Thick Cut Bacon

§  Sharp Cheddar Cheese

Preparation Instructions

1.   To begin, make the marinade. In a zip top bag, mix together ½ cup Dijon or country/grainy mustard with ½ cup honey, juice of ½ lemon, ½ teaspoon paprika, and ½ teaspoon salt and whisk until smooth. Set aside.

2.   Next, rinse the chicken breasts, place between two sheets of waxed paper and pound to around ½ to ¾ inch thick with a mallet.

3.   Next, add the chicken to the bag with the marinade and place in the refrigerator for 1 to 3 hours.

4.   While the chicken marinates, fry up some bacon.

5.   Heat the grill to med-high heat.

6.   Take chicken out of marinade and discard excess. Cook 3 min on first side. Flip and top with bacon and cheese for the remaining 3 minutes of cook time.

Oven Roasted Broccoli
1 head of broccoli cut into florets
pinch of salt
pinch of crushed red pepper
olive oil

Heat convection oven to 375 or regular oven to 400
Line cookie sheet with foil and drizzle olive oil on florets
Sprinkle with salt to taste and crushed red pepper
Toss to coat broccoli with oil and seasonings
Roast for 10 minutes or so

You have not been drinking

The blog is different. I was playing around with it over the weekend and saw this new layout. I thought it was easier to read and catchy - but I would love to hear what you think!

Since I am actually asking I hope you will respond. You know I usually just think I know everything. Like how 18 month olds are assholes and first time mothers make me want to jump out a window.

But I digress.

Seriously, let me know if you hate it and I can switch it back. Or let me know if it doesn't work too!

I don't want to let the six of you down.

PS Don't let this baby catch you looking at or trying to eat his veggie straws. He will scream bloody murder then cut you.

At least I look thin

For my 35th birthday Zach stuck with his hat trend (Alex, Liv and Vince all got different styles of hats) and got me this lovely visor. It is huge. If you think it wraps all the way around my head you would be wrong. It is one of those visor on a headband things.

Terrible.

You can see James agrees.

Alex claims it was this one or one that was burnt orange and he thought that would clash with my hair. Says the man who wears two different shades of gray in one outfit.

I want to be one of those moms that doesn't care but seriously, I am never going to wear this visor. I think I am going to tell Zach it does not fit and take him with me to pick out another one. If he really pitches a fit I will cave (obviously). But I will not be seen outside of Drummond street in this visor.

I am 35 not 55. And I don't power walk in the morning. I mean I need to, but I don't.

Christmas under 4

Under 4 minutes, under 4 years old, which ever under 4 works for you. Because Christmas at our house was all those things.

Zach insisted we leave three cookies for Santa and and three carrot sticks for the reindeer. Unfortunately his mother only had an apple for the reindeer. The baby will choke himself on carrot sticks and Zach refuses to eat them so why would I purchase them? Anyway, he seemed happy enough with the apple. He also placed Jack in James' chair so he could make a quick get away (and I was glad to see him go).

We hosted Christmas Eve at our house after a marathon mass at the Co-Cathedral downtown. A retired priest gave the sermon and (it was obvious he did not have children) he talked FOREVER even reading directly from a letter from the Pope to the New York Times. Both boys held out as long as they could but finally we just had to bail. I don't think my father in law appreciated my critique of the priest's sermon - but I speak the truth.

The best family photo in a while. Better than this at least. 

Wall to wall free for all...

Christmas morning was great, it really is exciting with two little ones! Zach got a play table/kitchen, a dream light and some miscellaneous Spider-Man stuff. James got stuff pulled out of the closet, a musical play set and Spider-Man slippers that match Zach's. It is hilarious to watch him stumble around in them - I sort of wasn't thinking that a not-secure walker would struggle with a padded shoe. He doesn't care a bit, he has the same thing as Zach which makes him super happy.

Here is Zach "helping" James with his gifts.

The play table and general Christmas morning destruction.

This is my favorite photo from the day.

Alex got James the leaf blower from Home Depot but Zach immediately decided it was his.

Super hero lawn boy, right here.

Breakfast from the freezer

Does anyone else dread breakfast? I mean not at much as dinner, obviously, but I feel the pressure of feeding my kids something that is nutritious and will hold them until snack (at least my little ones get snacks) but also something they can eat without my help. Zach can do cereal...but it almost always spills right when I am in the shower or straightening my hair. AKA I can't stop what I am doing.

So I started batch cooking breakfast items and freezing them. And I love it. As my sister would say, technically you can buy all the items I make and freeze. And honestly, now that I am back full time I do usually buy them. But I still really like to make the stuff too, when I have a little time.

This weekend I bought some "Renaissance bread" at Randall's only because I wanted to make french toast for the boys and wanted it to be with a hearty wheat bread. Oh it is hearty all right, the first two ingredients are wheat flour and barely. My children might come to hate me in the future I know.

But look how pretty they turned out!

I decided I did not have the time to stand at the stove (that and the fact that James is always "helping" me with everything which is somewhat of a fire hazard) so I searched around for a way to bake it in the oven. After wading through entirely too many french toast casserole recipes I found a non-casserole that I re-worked a tad for me.

It was so much faster than just doing 4 at a time. I squished 10 slides on the cookie sheet and they all turned out perfectly. In case you would like to make them as well, I put the recipe below. I included some pineapple puree which is from a Deceptive Delicious recipe and makes the french toast a tad sweeter without anyone being the wiser, but you could obviously leave that out.

Baked French Toast

4 large eggs

6-8 slices of bread

2 TBSP pineapple puree (optional)

½ tsp cinnamon

Splash of milk

1 -2 TBSP butter

Heat oven to 400 degrees

Blend eggs, milk, puree and cinnamon in a bowl

Put butter on cookie sheet in oven just long enough to melt the butter. Roll the pan around to coat well.

Dip bread in egg mixture turning once and then put on cookie sheet.Bake for 10-15* minutes, turning once to get the bread golden brown.

* In all honesty- I am just estimating the cooking time. I left mine in the oven while I was doing 15 other things and once I smelled it I came running. I start with 10 minutes and go from there. 

Zach was very excited when I told him we were having french toast for breakfast.

Quick Gift

Whenever it was grandparent’s day, we happened to be seeing Liv and Vince. I had seen these on where else, Pinterest, so I set about convincing Zach to jump up and down for a photo. It did not work especially well but I was determined to use my laminator. Determined. 

I finally got one that would work, where he is basically just holding his arms up. Poor James, he had to settle for hanging from his arm. Unfortunately I am not the best with scaling photos so it sort of looks like James is going to eat Zachary. Whoops. But Liv and Vince love them which is what was important.

Thank heavens my dad is a periodicals only reader like Alex and my mom has a Kindle so I don't think they mind not having hanging chads of the boys. But if I hear any different I will get that laminator out immediately.