Kandid Kiwi

New England Trip

2012-01-18T14:34:00.000-08:00

Back in October, we went to New England for Grant's brother's wedding. But, in true Spear fashion, we couldn't just go up there for a wedding and come back. We had to make a real vacation out of it! Especially since I had never been to New England before.

We flew into Hartford, Connecticut on Monday, October 3, a week before the wedding. We arrived at night, so all we did was rent a car and go to a hotel to sleep. The next morning, we started our journey. I'm going to sound like a broken record here, but once again, we had the chance to see alot of things from 1,000 Places to See Before You Die. Believe it or not, the tiny little town of Essex, CT was in the book! So we stopped there to see some of the things that the book pointed out. The first place was The Griswold Inn, which is one of the oldest inns in the country. I love hearing the creaking of the wood floors, that were a couple hundred years old, and thinking about the history of this place. It was very charming.

There was also a restaurant at the Inn, which was just as charming. Since it wasn't really a mealtime when we were there, we were able to just walk around and look at everything.

After the Inn, we walked around the main part of town and just took in New England. This was our first stop, and I was already in love!

After leaving Essex, we headed toward Mystic, another place listed in 1,000 Places. However, I had actually heard about Mystic before, thanks to Jen and Cheri. After seeing their pictures from Mystic a couple of years ago, I said to myself that if I ever visited New England, I would definitely stop in Mystic. About a month or so before this trip, Grant and I rented Mystic Pizza, because we figured you can't visit Mystic without seeing a movie named after it! The movie was horrible, by the way. Mystic itself, was once again, a charming, quintessential New England town. I was starting to see a trend with falling in love with every place we visited! And yes, we did eat at Mystic Pizza. The pizza was better than the movie, thankfully.

Once we left Mystic, we started making our way towards Newport, Rhode Island, which was going to be where we stayed that night. On the way there, I remembered that the movie, Dan in Real Life was filmed in Rhode Island, near the coast. So I got the idea to look up the address to the house that most of the movie took place in (yes, I am a nerd like that). Sure enough, I found it, and it was only about 5 minutes out of our way. Grant and I both love that movie, and we loved that house, so there was not even a discussion about whether or not to do it - we both wanted to! Aren't smart phones amazing?

But yeah, we got lost on the way to the house, so it ended up taking way longer than 5 minutes to go there, but it was still worth it. The house is a rental property, and happened to be vacant, so we just pulled up in the driveway, and took a few pictures. Although, Grant was more brave than I was. I noticed the same car driving by a couple of times, and I started to get nervous, but Grant took his time looking through the windows.

The house was in Jamestown, RI, and Newport was just down the road. But before we got to our hotel, we decided to - say it with me, now - visit yet another place from "The Book." This time, it was the Cliff Walk, which is a, um, walk on the cliffs, right on the coast. The view is beautiful, but you're also walking among beautiful mansions built by families like the Rockefeller's and the Vanderbilt's. The weather wasn't the greatest, but we really enjoyed the walk.

After a long day of driving, it was finally time to head to our hotel. We were awakened the next morning by Kendall crying. I realized through my sleepiness that I've heard "that" cry before, and that it meant she was sick. Like, puking sick. Sure enough, right after she cried, she threw up. This is not what we needed on our trip! The episode was actually kind of scary. At one point, she had gone totally limp, and we thought she might have passed out. Being on vacation, we didn't really know what to do as far as going to a hospital. So we called our insurance to see what our best option was. That actually turned into a series of very long, very confusing phone calls. While Grant was on the phone, I was giving Kendall water, and encouraging her to respond to us, even if she didn't feel like it. Her color started coming back a little, which was a relief. Our plan for the day was to drive to Boston, but we really weren't sure what to do. There was a Walmart near our hotel, so we got packed up and went there so I could get some Children's Tylenol and Pedialyte. I ended up getting a call from a nurse while I was in Walmart, and I asked her what we should do. She said that as long as Kendall was drinking fluids and seemed to be getting better, not worse, she would advise us to not go to the hospital. So, that's what we did. I gave Kendall her first dose of Tylenol and her first drink of Pedialyte, and we headed off towards Boston. She pretty much slept the whole way, and by the time we got there, she was feeling and acting much better, which made us feel better!

This picture was taken at our first stop in Boston, at Bunker Hill, and you can't even tell that just a few hours before she was laying limp in Grant's arms!

So, Bunker Hill...that's a pretty tall tower, right? Yeah...there's almost 300 steps inside that monument. I was 5 months pregnant, and we had two small children, yet we still decided to go to the top. It was not easy! But once we got up there, the views were incredible!

At the top, there was this grate in the floor that you could look through and see all the way to the bottom of the monument. Cami liked to ~~jump~~ stand on it. Mom and Dad didn't like that so much.

We went back down to the bottom, and were getting ready to leave, but I really wanted my picture in front of this house. I just loved it, and I loved the neighborhood that the monument was in. I hadn't been in Boston but for a couple hours, and already, I was falling in love!

It was getting pretty close to lunchtime, and we weren't able to check into our hotel yet, so we decided to go...you know the drill by now. Legal Sea Foods was listed in the book, so we went there. We got a table with a great view, and the food was great. The only thing that wasn't great was Kendall was not feeling so hot again. And at one point, while the waitress was taking our order, I thought Kendall was about to throw up, which our waitress was thrilled about. Thankfully, she didn't, but she just wanted to be held through the whole lunch.

After lunch, we finally decided it was time to check in to our hotel. Now let me back up and say that as I was looking for hotel reservations, I came to the realization that Boston is not a cheap city. Hotels there were expensive! There were a couple of "cheaper" options that would have been great, but by the time I got around to making the reservations, they were booked up. So we finally realized that we would just have to bite the bullet and pay more than we usually would. That being said, I absolutely loved the hotel we stayed at, which was the Beacon Hill Hotel. The location was great - Beacon Hill is a beautiful, historic Boston neighborhood. It was close to Boston Common, which is where we had to park. And breakfast at the Bistro attached to the hotel was included in the price. And it wasn't just a normal hotel breakfast, it was an off-the-menu breakfast! And you know how in most hotels, you wouldn't dream of taking anything from the mini bar in the room? Well here, that was all included. Fancy bottled water whenever we wanted it was just given to us. Yes, it was pricey, but there were lots of nice little perks for staying there. The room was tiny, but they gave us a roll away bed for Kendall, and Cami just slept on the floor. Kendall loved her little bed! This first picture was the view from our room.

Okay, enough about the hotel. But seriously, if you're in Boston, I recommend it.

Our first night in Boston, we went to Mike's Pastry. Honestly, at this point I can't keep track of what was in the stupid book, but we had at least heard good things about this place. The only problem is, we walked to it from our hotel. And it wasn't a close walk. And it was cold. But the pastries were worth it! And Kendall, who was hardly able to eat all day, somehow managed to eat a chocolate covered pretzel. Go figure!

Grant, by far, got the best thing, though. It was the Florentine Cannoli, and it was soooooo goooooood!

The next day, we decided to do the Freedom Trail, which is a must-do when you go to Boston! These are pictures from the sites we saw on the Trail...

That night for dinner, we drove to Essex - not Connecticut this time, though. Essex, Massachusetts. Yadda, yadda, yadda....1,000 Places...Woodman's. They're known for their fried clams, but honestly, I wasn't impressed. Grant really liked it, but for me, it was just okay. Something we didn't know about Woodman's until we got there was that part of the movie Grownups was filmed there. We found that out quickly, because they were playing the movie on several TVs throughout the restaurant.

The next day, we were finally heading back to Connecticut, where John and Sarah's wedding was going to be. On our way, we stopped to see Walden Pond and Concord (Concord is where several authors had houses - Emerson, Alcott, Hawthorne, etc.).

Also in Concord is the famous battlefield wherein the Revolutionary War was started. You would never know it by looking at it, though. It was so beautiful! This ended up being one of my favorite stops on our whole trip.

We made one more non-wedding stop on our way to the festivities...Litchfield Hills, CT. Any guesses why we stopped there? I think driving through this area was my favorite drive - all of New England (at least the parts we drove through) were beautiful, but there's a reason this area made it into "The Book." It truly was breathtaking. Amazingly, I don't have too many pictures of this area, but I did get one of Grant and the girls with some fall colors.

And now, if you're still reading, I'm sure you're glad to know that this ridiculously long post has come to an end. The next post will be all about the wedding! Hopefully I can write about that before this baby comes!

California to Florida Move

2012-01-16T09:53:00.000-08:00

Grant is gone this week for work. Since it's so close to my due date, we decided it might be best if me and the girls stay with my parents in Pensacola while Grant's gone. So, I'm hoping to crank out some blog posts, while the kids are entertained, in hopes of catching up before the baby comes!

So let's back up a bit to July. We left California on Thursday, the 21, and made our way to The Boulders Resort and Spa in Scottsdale, AZ. This was a place that we had read about in the book 1,000 Places to See Before You Die, and Grant had been wanting to stay there for a while. Since it was July in Arizona, we were able to get a decent rate there, because that's the off -season. (Let's face it, no one in their right minds wants to vacation in Arizona in July!) As we were driving through Southern California and Southern Arizona, I was shocked at the temperatures! We stopped at In-N-Out Burger in Palm Springs, and the temp was something like 115. Crazy! By the time we got to the resort, it was late afternoon, but the temperature was still around 110. We were definitely not in San Pedro anymore!

When we got to the resort, we could already tell how great it was, and why it was in that book. It was really beautiful, and it got it's name from these huge boulders that the resort was seemingly built in to. We got checked in and went to our room. The nice thing about this resort was that everything was included in the price - even valet parking, tips, and transportation via golf cart to anywhere on the resort grounds. That was so nice because we're usually too cheap to pay for any of those things, so we definitely took advantage of it!

Once we got settled into our beautiful room, we made our way to the golf course, because we heard this particular hole had great views, and we wanted to see the sunset from a good vantage point. While we were there taking pictures, there was another family that came to do the same thing, so we swapped taking pictures of each other.

The next morning, we enjoyed breakfast outside at one of the resorts restaurants. Unfortunately for me, my morning sickness was in full swing, so I didn't really feel like eating anything. And that's a big deal for me! I love food, and the menu had all these fantastic options, but I went with yogurt and granola. It was all I could even think about eating.

After breakfast, we went to the pool, and enjoyed being almost the only people there. Since I'm not on my home computer, I don't have all my pictures from the trip, so this is the only picture I have of the pool. But there were huge boulders built up all around the pool, and a nice little waterfall. It was perfect.

After we got cleaned up from the pool, we got ready to head out. Our next stop was our old stomping grounds, Albuquerque! We stayed at Edie's house, and after only being there about five minutes, Edie asked me if I had a secret. We hadn't really told anyone about the pregnancy yet, but I was definitely showing, so she figured it out pretty quickly.

We had a great time in Albuquerque. It's always so much fun to visit there and see old friends. While we were there, our good friends the Newnam's had a party, which really was a reunion of sorts. We weren't the only former Querquians to be visiting that same weekend - there were two other families there! So we had a great time seeing everyone at the Newnam's house. It was fun to see how much bigger our group had gotten, with the addition of all the kids.

On Sunday, we went to church and worshipped with our former church family at Providence Presbyterian. Then that afternoon, Edie had people over to her house for more fellowship! We ordered Dion's Pizza, which is a must when you're in Albuquerque, and everyone had such a great time.

Haley's little girl, Kate, saw the dress that Kendall was wearing at church that morning, and happened to have one very similar, so before the party at Edie's she asked if she could wear hers. Don't they look like sisters?

Monday morning, we packed up and started heading out for Oklahoma City. It was hard to say goodbye to Edie and the kids - even Kendall and Cami had a hard time saying goodbye!

So off we went. This leg of the trip ended up being the hardest for me. I had to pull over at one point and throw up, and felt horrible the rest of the drive. It also happened to be our longest drive. Needless to say, when we got to OKC that night, I was happy. I planned it so that we would be staying two nights there, so it was nice to not have to get up the next day and drive.

One of the main reasons for stopping in OKC was to visit with our friends, Ben and Carrie. Grant and I went to junior high and high school with Carrie, so again, it was like a little reunion! We met up with her and met her husband Ben in NYC back when I was pregnant with Kendall, but they had just recently moved to OKC, so I thought it would be a great chance to catch up with them. And it was!

On Tuesday we met Carrie and her girls, Kenzie and Kali, and the OKC Zoo. The heat was apparently following us on our trip, because once again, it was H-O-T! I think while we were at the zoo that day, it got up to 110, which is unusually hot for Oklahoma. Glad we could experience their unusual weather. We still enjoyed ourselves though. Oh, and the Zoo offered this great service, where they would keep your dog in a kennel for you for I think something like $7. That was great, since there was no way we were going to leave Watley in the car with that kind of heat, and we couldn't leave him in the hotel room. We also rented a wagon, which was perfect for the kids.

After the zoo, we went back to our hotel to take naps and showers. Then we met up with Carrie and her family again at Cattlemen's Steakhouse. Again, we saw this in 1,000 Places, but we had also seen it on TV. So we really wanted to visit it. One of the things Cattlemen's is known for is their Lamb Fries. Any guesses as to what they are?

Carrie told us about a canal ride that goes through downtown OKC, so after dinner, we decided to go check that out. It was a lot of fun! And walking around the downtown was so nice. Carrie's girls are so sweet, and just really loved Kendall and Cami. They all had a great time together.

After the canal ride, we made a much needed stop to get some frozen yogurt. I don't think anything ever tasted so good! After that, we headed to the Oklahoma City National Memorial. By the time we got there, the museum was closed, so we just walked around the outside part of the memorial, and I thought it was really well done.

The next day we headed to Memphis, again to see some old friends. This time it was David, Stephanie, and their 4 kids. And once again, Grant and I had gone to school with David since 7th grade. David and Stephanie used to live in the Pensacola area, so we've seen them quite a bit over the years, but they had just moved to the Memphis area, so we made sure to stop there on our trip.

Since we'd never spent any time in Memphis, we had to go to Graceland, which also happened to be in 1,000 Places. Um, Graceland is overrated. I mean, I guess if you're a huge Elvis fan, you'd really like it, but we're not, so it was just okay. Here we are outside of it.

Another thing we had to do in Memphis, which was well worth it, was to eat some BBQ! So after we left Graceland, we went to the downtown area. One of the most striking things about Downtown Memphis, was the smell - but in a good way! Even with our car windows up, we could smell BBQ, and it.smelled.good! With all the great restaurants there, it was hard to pick which one to go to, but we had seen Rendezvous on a few different TV shows, so we thought that would be a good one. It was a little difficult to find, because the entrance was in a back alley. But we finally found it, and it did not disappoint. I was glad I wasn't feeling sick on this day, because I thoroughly enjoyed the food!

We had heard about a hotel in Memphis where you could see ducks in the lobby. It's The Peabody, and it happened to be across the street from Rendezvous (actually, down the alley, and across the street), so we stopped in to see the ducks. The girls loved it!

Back at David and Stephanie's house, the kids got a treat by staying up late to watch a movie. They had so much fun!

The next day was going to be our last travel day! I was so ready to just get to Florida by this time. On our way from Memphis to Pensacola, we stopped in Tupelo, Mississippi, to round out our Elvis experience. We stopped at his childhood home.

After a few more hours of driving, and meeting up with our friends David, Joy, and their 3 kids for lunch in Birmingham, we finally made it to Florida! I swear, that last hour of driving was the longest. But it was so nice to be at my parents house and be done with driving.

That was also when we announced to everyone that I was pregnant, so it was fun to see everyone's reactions in person, instead of doing it over the phone or via Skype.

All in all, our move was great. The girls did so well for having been in their car seats for so long. They made friends along the way, and saw lots of fun things. We were sad to leave California behind, but excited to start this new chapter being closer to family.

Beautiful Day for a Party

2012-01-08T14:03:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, we went to a birthday party for one of Grant's co-workers kids. They live on the water in Mary Esther. Just because this is Florida doesn't mean that you can count on nice weather in January. It gets cold here. Last week, it was in the teens for a day. But yesterday? Yesterday was GORGEOUS! Perfect for an outdoor birthday party.

Going to this person's house for the second time did not help Grant's house-envy. Don't get me wrong - we love our house. But we're nowhere near the water, and it's a dream of ours to live by the water some day. Yesterday was just beautiful enough to get those feelings of, "maybe we should have..."

Anyways, enjoy the pictures...

In other news, I am painfully aware that I am painfully behind in blogging. Some of the things that are kind of old now, I still want to blog about, but they're big things - like our cross-country move, and John and Sarah's wedding/our New England trip - and those kinds of posts take a lot of time to write. And it's hard for me to set aside big chunks of time to write these big posts. But I will...someday...

Merry Christmas/Happy Birthday!

2011-12-27T13:15:00.000-08:00

Wow - what a whirlwind this past week has been! First, my sister and her family came in from Charleston. They stayed with us Wednesday night before heading over to my mom's house on Thursday. On Friday, we drove over to Pensacola to hang out with family, and attend the annual "The Night Before The Night Before" Christmas party, hosted by someone from the church Grant grew up in. Saturday, we did Christmas with my side of the family, before coming back to our house the night of Christmas Eve.

That night, I wrapped presents, filled the stockings, and Grant put together bikes for the girls. I'm not gonna lie, I was so wiped out that I would wrap a few presents then try to take little cat naps. Grant ended up wrapping the last few presents after assembling the bikes.

Sunday morning, we couldn't wait to hear the girls reactions when they got up and saw all the presents and the stockings. They did not disappoint! They were so excited, but since Christmas fell on Sunday this year, we decided to just have them open their stockings first, and then we'd get ready for church. And yes, I am that mom that puts new toothbrushes in stockings. At their age, they get excited about anything!

Oh, we did let them open their birthday gifts from Uncle John and Aunt Sarah.

Surprisingly, they handled not opening the rest of their presents really well. They played with their new easel, which was already set up and not wrapped, and the swings that Grant had just put up, and they were perfectly content.

We eventually got ready for church. Aren't they pretty?

When we got back from church, we still weren't going to open presents, because Grant's parents were coming over later. So I got some lunch ready and Grant was eager to get the girls on their new bikes. This picture was taken moments before Cami fell. Don't worry, her face broke her fall, as you'll see in later pictures.

We ate, they took naps, Grant's parents came over, so it was finally time to open all those presents!

The day after Christmas was Kendall's party day. She had been a little confused about when exactly she turned 4. Periodically on Christmas Day we'd mention it, and she'd say, "I'm not 4, I'm still 3!" So we explained that her birthday was on Christmas, but her party was the day after. She still struggled a bit with that concept. Regardless, when she got up on Monday, she knew she was 4. She was pretty eager to help me with her cake, so she did. And like all good helpers, she got the reward of licking the spoon!

It was finally time for the party. It was pretty similar to Cami's - just family, plus one other family, who have been friends of the Spear's for years. Grant's been working on a tree house in the backyard for a while, and while it's still not totally finished, he got it to the point that the kids could play in it. That was definitely a highlight for the kids, I'd say...

This time, my mom helped me with the pizzas. She was in charge of the dough, and I did the toppings. As you can see, she was feeling her inner pizza-maker. And she also had a little help from Cami.

Once everyone had their fill of pizza, it was time to open presents (third day in a row of presents - Oy!)...

Then it was time for that cake Kendall helped me make earlier that day! Kendall had asked for chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and sprinkles, so that's what she got. I used this recipe, by the way, and it was pretty amazing.

Oh, and in case you couldn't tell, she had a Hello Kitty themed party. We forgot to get a picture of the decorations, so we got one after the party, when she was wearing her beloved Hello Kitty nightgown (thanks, Michelle!).

We've had a great last few days, but I'm kinda glad it's all over - I'm pretty worn out! Now I should be able to focus on getting everything ready for the baby.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-12-06T18:26:00.000-08:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah...Thanksgiving has been over for a while. Better late than never, right?

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our families (in-town family, that is). It was so nice to just be able to drive less than an hour and be at our destination, instead of driving to an airport, and spending all day on planes. Actually, we got to my parents house the day before Thanksgiving, so Thanksgiving Day, we could just relax and enjoy already being there.

My mom has always hosted Thanksgiving Dinner at her house. From that first Thanksgiving that Grant and I were dating, waaaay back in 1998, it's been a tradition. Even after Grant and I moved away in 2003, his family would still go over to my parent's house for the day. I think last year was the only year since 1998 that they didn't go to my parent's house, and that was because Grant's parents visited friends in Alabama. So, even though not all of our family was present (we missed John and Sarah, and my sister Trina and her family), we still had a great time. My parents also invited a couple from their church to join us.

As usual, the food was AMAZING! And PS, I got my brother that "Mullet Do" shirt years ago, and it's still one of his favorite shirts. We had a fried turkey, ham, homemade bread, quinoa casserole, sweet potato casserole, fried corn, mashed potatoes, and plenty of other stuff that I'm forgetting. It was all delicious!

Starting with the trifle bowl, my mom made the trifle, Grant made the pumpkin pies (from a real pumpkin - not canned!), Janet, my mom's friend made the cake, I made the pumpkin cookies, and my sister-in-law, Meredeth made mincemeat pie and blueberry pie. We love our desserts!

And everyone chowed down!

It was a great day, and we were all very thankful to be able to spend it together.

About A Boy

2011-11-14T07:13:00.000-08:00

This poor 3rd child. I haven't really posted about my pregnancy at all. But trust me, I'm very pregnant at the moment!

So let me fill in some of the gaps.

We found out Memorial Day Weekend that I was pregnant. We took our Pacific Northwest trip a couple weeks later, and moved across the country about a month after the trip. So my first trimester was mainly made up of long car rides. The worst of it hit when we were leaving Albuquerque on our move, on our way to Oklahoma City, and I had to pull over a couple of times to throw up. As far as sickness in general, I've noticed that I've gotten progressively more sick with each pregnancy. All 3 pregnancies, morning sickness has stuck around for about 17 weeks, but the intensity of the sickness has gotten worse with each.

When we finally got to Florida, the timing was great, because I was still in the sicky part, but we were living with my parents, who were more than happy to help watching the girls while I was not feeling so hot.

We kept our little secret for a while, knowing that we were coming to Florida, and actually had the chance to tell our families in person, which we've never really been able to do before. So when we pulled up in my parents driveway, the girls were wearing shirts - Kendall's said, "I'm going to be a big sister again," and Cami's said, "I'm going to be a big sister."

My mom noticed the shirts after about 5 minutes. Then Grant's parents came over, and I think Grant had a feeling his parents might not notice the shirts, so he drew their attention to them. Then my brother and his wife came over the next day, and it took them seriously like 3 hours to notice the shirts. And then when my sister and her family came for a visit, my sister noticed pretty quickly. It was fun to see everyone's reactions and be there in person for the big reveal!

Time went by and before we knew it, we found out that we were having a boy! I actually had two ultrasounds. The first one was around 16 weeks, and our ultrasound tech was pretty sure that it was a boy. I needed to go back in a couple of weeks, though, because they couldn't get all the measurements they needed. So when we went back, it was even more obvious that it was a boy. That second ultrasound was amazing. I felt like we got to see so much of his personality - he even waved to us!

And it should be noted that he was doing squats in the womb - at least that's what it looked like. His Uncle John should be proud! A future CrossFitter in the making!

Then we bought a house, moved in, went to New England for John's wedding...this pregnancy has been a whirlwind to say the least!

The girls are so excited to have a baby brother. We talk about what his name should be (Grant's been telling the girls it will be either Kiefer Sutherland Spear or Herbert), but we haven't made any decisions yet. Kendall's pretty obsessed with my belly, and the other day she asked me if she was going to have a belly like mine when she grows up, and then told me how much she wants to be a Mama. Cami loves to poke my belly and give it kisses.

As far as preparing for the birth, we've decided to go with a home birth this time around. We're all pretty excited about it, and actually, the people we bought the house from had a home birth here, using the same midwife we're using. I was at the midwife's office for an appointment and was looking through a photo album of some of the births she's assisted in, and I came across pictures from our house! That was kind of weird.

I'm due in early February, but given my track record of going a little late, I'm counting on it being close to Valentine's Day. That's what I keep telling Kendall to give her some sort of time frame, because she wants this baby out now! So it helps when I put it in that perspective.

So that's about it! We haven't really taken any belly pictures this time around. Although Grant did take one of me the other morning at breakfast. But it's not very flattering, so I won't be posting that one on the blog. I'll try to get a decent one soon.

Cami Turns Two!

2011-10-24T06:58:00.000-07:00

Cami is such a sweet, funny, happy girl, and I have been so blessed to have her in my life! I can't believe it's been two years since I gave birth to her - the time is really flying by! We've had a great birthday weekend for her here in Florida. Her pumpkin-themed party was on Saturday, and it was a big success!

Our new house has a brick oven in the backyard for making pizzas, so pizzas were definitely on the menu for the party! My brother is somewhat fascinated with our brick oven, so he was very eager to help out with the pizza making. I think we had 5 different pizzas altogether, one of them was in keeping with the pumpkin theme, and had pumpkin dough (I'll link up to all the recipes I used at the end of this post). The pizzas were a hit, and were gone as soon as they came out of the oven!

Then of course, there were presents. Cami was so funny with her reactions. When she opened this one present that was a Hello Kitty outfit, she literally freaked out. Yeah, my kids are obsessed with Hello Kitty. She got some really great presents and loved opening all of them.

And then the cake. I didn't do a traditional birthday cake this time - instead I made mini pumpkin cheesecakes.

And here's some video of everyone singing Happy Birthday. I love her reaction at the end, and then I love what Kendall says about the candles.

Untitled from Kelly Spear on Vimeo.

And then today, Cami's actual birthday, I wanted to do something special, so I made cake batter pancakes. I think these will become our birthday tradition breakfast for everyone's birthday! The sprinkles make them so much fun!

Grant had to go to work, of course, but before he did, Cami got changed into her new Hello Kitty outfit that she was so excited to open on Saturday.

We had a great weekend!

As far as the pumpkin theme for her party, I guess you can blame that on Pinterest. I had been seeing all these great pumpkin ideas, and I needed an excuse to make everything I was seeing! So here's the links for everything I used...

By far, the best response I got as far as recipes goes was for this Pumpkin Fluff Dip, served in a hollowed-out pumpkin.

The mini pumpkin cheesecakes. I didn't use a mini cheesecake pan like the recipe called for, so they weren't exactly bite-sized.

The pumpkin dough.

The pumpkin cooler to hold drinks.

Pumpkin Candle Holders.

And then the cake batter pancakes I made this morning.

Trip to Japan...NOT! (Part 5: Crater Lake and Willamette Valley)

2011-10-16T09:06:00.000-07:00

After a longer drive than we anticipated, we finally made it to Crater Lake, Oregon.

We got there right around dinner time, and we were only planning on staying one night. I made the decision to just eat dinner and then go to bed instead of going to see the lake right then. The lake was, I think, about 7 miles away from our lodging, and I didn't think the girls would be very happy to get back in the car again after that day's drive. Oh, and I have I mentioned on the blog yet that I'm pregnant? I don't think so...most of you know, but for those of you who don't, I found out Memorial Day Weekend about Baby #3, which was interesting timing for this trip (we took the trip in mid-June). Meaning, I felt like crap the entire time! So my decision to have a low-key night was partly selfish. I needed rest!

It turned out to not be the best decision, because when we got up the next morning, we had breakfast, then drove up to the lake. At least we think we did. You couldn't even see the lake! Fog had completely settled inside of it, and except for seeing signs for Crater Lake everywhere, you wouldn't even know a lake was in the area!

Bummer.

We asked a few of the park rangers what they thought the chances were of the fog lifting. Some of them were hopeful, others weren't. So we decided to wait it out in the main lodge, which had a lakeview. We figured if/when it cleared up, this would be the best place to see it.

One thing I've neglected to mention so far about this area, was the amount of snow leftover from the winter. This was mid-June, and the snow was piled so high! The girls loved seeing that.

They also had fun waiting in the lodge. Grant and I did, too - we love National Park lodges and their rustic beauty!

Hours went by, and we started to realize that if we were ever going to actually see Crater Lake, we would need to stay another night. So we checked on availability at this lodge, and they did have a room for us. {That was the good thing about this whole trip - it was totally unplanned, so we didn't really have a tight schedule. We booked tickets back to California while we were at Paul's house in Portland, so the only thing we had to do was be back in Seattle for our flight.} They worked quickly to get it ready for us in time for the girl's naps (I feel like my whole life revolves around getting these girls to sleep!), and we all took very long, much-needed naps. When we got up, Grant went down to the lobby area to see if the lake was visible yet, and it just barely was!

Crater Lake is known for being very blue, but it was evening, and the sun was setting, so we couldn't really tell the blueness of it. But this gave us so much hope that tomorrow would be even better - and it was!

Because of how much snow was still piled up everywhere, we weren't able to drive around the lake, or go down closer to it. So, we took some pictures, then started making our way back up north.

Next on our make-it-up-as-we-go agenda was Willamette Valley in Oregon. It's a small, but well-known wine country, and even though I was pregnant, we were going to some wineries in the area. Don't worry, I spit out the wine I tasted.

The area was so beautiful!

It was my birthday that day, so I think this was Grant's attempt at getting a picture with me and the girls, but as you can see, Kendall wasn't having it.

We spent one night there in Willamette Valley, and then we headed back up to Seattle for one last night before flying back home.

All in all, it was a great trip. I do wish we could've made it to Japan, but at the same time, with me being in the early stages of pregnancy, part of me was relieved that we never made it. I was still able to tour around a part of the country that I've never seen before, and I think we all had a great time.

Trip to Japan...NOT! (Part 4: Portland)

2011-10-14T13:29:00.000-07:00

First let me say, I'm so sorry for the blog-neglect! For what it's worth, we only moved into our house 3 1/2 weeks ago, but we were gone for 1 1/2 of those weeks. I had to wait until we moved in to finish this series, because all the pictures from the trip were on our regular computer, which was packed up in storage.

Okay...

Once we arrived in Portland, we made our way to Paul's house. Paul was one of John's (Grant's older brother) roommates at Florida State, so we've known him for a while. After we got to his house, we talked a little, then walked down the road to get some food (burritos and cupcakes) then piled in the car to head to Multnomah Falls (I'm sure I've said it somewhere on this blog before, but I have a thing for waterfalls). I've heard so much about these falls, this was probably the main thing I wanted to do in the Portland area. It did not disappoint!

And as an added bonus, it wasn't just the view of the falls that was so great, the whole area around there was just beautiful! Here's a few pictures of a lookout over the Columbia River Gorge.

The next day for breakfast, we walked to this place that Paul had been telling us about - Pine State Biscuits. He told us about this item on the menu...the Reggie Deluxe...a biscuit, with fried chicken, cheese, gravy, bacon, and a fried egg. It sounded so wrong, but so right. It was awesome, and I kinda want one right now.

I have to be honest, as we were talking to Paul about things to do in Portland, he kept mentioning food and eating out. We thought he was a little obsessed. Until we realized that Portland is a food-lovers paradise! From now on, when I think of Portland, I think of food. Wonderful, delicious FOOD!

Which brings us to our next stop...

I've seen this place several times on TV shows. Apparently, if you go to Portland, Voodoo Donuts needs to be on your agenda. So we went there. Except it was closed for remodeling.

That wasn't a problem, though, because they had a second location across town. So we went there and got some really delicious treats.

Lest you think all we did was eat on our visit to Portland, our next stop was to the Japanese Gardens. Beautiful, quiet, serene.

That night was our last night in Portland and, okay, we did do some more eating. But I was able to do a very cool thing after dinner! Let me back up. As we were driving to Portland, I was thinking about the Portland Modern Quilt Guild. So I looked up on my phone to see when their next meeting was. It happened to be my last night in Portland. So I thought it would be really cool to check it out! Although, I have to say, being the kind of shy person that I am, I definitely was about to chicken out. So at dinner, I nervously kept watching the clock, but I was being quiet about it. I didn't want to tell Grant that I had changed my mind, and I wasn't going to go. The meeting started at 7 pm, and right around 6:50, Grant looked at his watch, and literally pushed me out of the restaurant so I could go. So I went, and I'm so glad I did! As soon as I walked in the room, I felt at home - a quilty home. I also got to meet one of my favorite quilt bloggers, which was really cool.

Anyways, the next morning we would be heading down to Crater Lake. But before we left, we had to do some more good eatin'. Paul had been raving about Tasty 'n Sons, so we chose to go there. Oh man...this place was so good! It's family-style, so we were able to order a lot of different things, and eat a little of all of it. First of all, their biscuits were TO DIE FOR. The best. Trust me - this is coming from a true Southerner, who knows a good biscuit when I taste one. Grant and I said that we would've been happy just eating the biscuits with the equally amazing honey butter. Of course, we didn't stop with the biscuits. But everything was very, very good. I was so caught up with how good everything was, that I only got one of the entire meal - this was kind of a Middle Eastern dish. Can't remember what it was called, but it was good.

Crater Lake will be it's own post, but before I get to that, I'll mention what we did on the way down there. We stopped at the cemetery where Grant's grandma and grandpa are buried (his mom's parents). I didn't think it would have such a deep impact on Kendall, but she actually got really sad about being there.

All in all, we had a great, but fattening time in Portland. If I ever go back, I'll make a point to hit up the food trucks, which are really popular there, but we couldn't quite fit it in this trip. Literally.

Kendall Speak: The Story-Telling Edition

2011-08-16T14:24:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the interruption in the Japan posts, but we are not in our own house yet in Florida, and the pictures of our trip are on our computer, which is packed away in storage. In the meantime, we're living at my parents house, but we're hoping to be in our own house soon.

I was in the backyard with Kendall and Cami, and Kendall asked if I wanted to hear a story. Sure, I said! So she told me to sit down in the grass and she would tell me. Here's the first one:

"One sunny day, there were two children walking down the street. And then they got eaten by the big bad wolf. The end!"

I told her that I didn't think it was a very good story.

Later, she wanted to tell me another story, and I told her I hoped it was better than the first one. Here's that one:

"One sunny day, there were two children named Kendall and Cami. They had a bad teacher...I probably shouldn't tell that story."

The funny thing is, while she was telling these stories, she had the sweetest smile on her face, and was talking in the sweetest little voice you've ever heard. She may be a little morbid.

Trip to Japan...NOT! (Part 3: Astoria and Cannon Beach)

2011-07-15T07:04:00.000-07:00

(Bear with me...we move to Florida in less than a week, so I don't know when I'll be able to finish this little series)

So Tuesday morning at the airport, Grant was fairly certain we'd get on the flight to Tokyo. But again, long story short, we didn't. I felt bad for some people that I overheard talking. They had been trying for over a week to get on any flight to Japan with no luck. We didn't want to keep trying after that, so we decided to just have a nice little Pacific Northwest vacation. I was sad (although a little relieved) to not make it to Japan, but at the same time, I'd never visited this part of the country before, and it was something I really wanted to do before we left the West Coast. So it was all good.

We had to rent another rental car, so once we got that squared away, we made our way down to Oregon, starting in Astoria. If you're not familiar with Astoria, Oregon, then you're not familiar with the movie The Goonies. It's such a classic, must-see movie, and Grant and I both grew up watching it. Astoria is such a cool little town, with all its Victorian-style houses built on hill after hill. We found the house from the movie, and got a few pictures. I thought the little donation box was funny. We were not about to give any kind of donation to people that lived in such a beautiful house, with a Porsche parked in the driveway.

After we ate lunch in town, we started making our way to Cannon Beach, which was also a big part of The Goonies. This was one of the places where we were literally going door to door to different hotels, finding out rates, and checking on availability. We actually found a great deal at a cute little hotel a block away from the beach, which worked out perfectly.

Cannon Beach was beautiful, breathtaking, and I've never seen anything like it. These first pictures were taken in the evening, when the tide was in...

But we heard that in the morning, the tide was out, and you could walk right up to the rock, so that's what we did!

After we left Cannon Beach we started heading towards Portland, which deserves it's own post, so you'll just have to wait!

Trip to Japan...NOT! (Part 2: Mt. Rainier & Olympic Peninsula)

2011-07-05T09:31:00.000-07:00

Once we rented the car, we decided to head down to Mt. Rainier. But before that, we called Grant's mom to find out the address of her childhood home. When we found the house, I couldn't believe how cute it was! The whole neighborhood was just really picturesque. It was cool to see a little bit of family history there, and have Cami see her grandma's house. Kendall was asleep in the car. Oh, and something cool happened right before we were about to leave. A few houses down, there was a guy sitting outside reading the Sunday paper. We looked a little suspicious, so he asked what we were doing. When I told him that my mother-in-law grew up in the house a few houses down he said, "Was that the Berg family?" Apparently, he moved into his house about a year before Grant's grandma died back in the mid-90s. It was cool that he actually knew her!

After that little visit, we made our way to Mt. Rainier.

As you can see, there was quite a bit of snow leftover from the winter. We took a break from the cold and hung out in the lodge for a bit. The Paradise Lodge is absolutely beautiful - but really, what National Park lodge isn't?

Unfortunately, we didn't get great views of the mountain while we were there. And after being there for a while, we decided to start making our way back towards the Seattle area. Since we didn't have a plan for this, we were really following our noses. So we decided to stop in at the Air Force base that's around Tacoma to see if they had any availability at the lodge. After getting lost trying to find the base, when we finally found it, the lodge was full. So, we had to just kind of figure out spur-of-the-moment what to do.

We knew we were going to spend the next day on the Olympic Peninsula, so we started heading that way. As we were driving, I was pulling up hotels on my phone (by the way - thank God for smartphones!) to see if I could find any reasonable rates. I found this one hotel that looked great, right on the water, for a good price, so we ended up going there. It was the Silverdale Beach Hotel, and we had a room that looked out over the water. It was awesome!

The next day, we made the trek through the Olympic Peninsula. Being a Twilight fan, I figured since we were so close to Forks, we had to go there. But close isn't exactly the right word to describe it. It's on the oooooother side of the peninsula, so it took us a while to get there. I would say that one of the highlights of our trip was driving along Crescent Lake - one of the most beautiful lakes we've ever seen before!

When we finally made it to Forks, we actually drove through it, because the girls were sleeping, and we wanted to go to this rainforest, which was about 12 miles past Forks. Well, right when we got through the town, Cami woke up - and not too happy. She cried until we got to the turn off for the rainforest, but as soon as we turned, there was a sign saying it was another 14 miles to the entrance! We decided it wasn't worth all those extra miles, so we turned around and went back to Forks to get some lunch.

Forks. My goodness. The only thing this place has going for it, is that it's where Twilight was set (and, by the way, none of the movie was filmed there). And the whole town was seriously Twilighted out!

After eating and taking some pictures, we decided to start the several-hour drive back to Seattle. We had to get back that night, so we'd be able to try for Japan again early the next morning. To save time, we ended up catching one of the ferries from Bainbridge Island to Seattle, which was a lot of fun, and a little windy!

We finally made it back to Seattle, went back to the hotel we went to on our very first night, and got prepared for the early morning.

More later...

Trip to Japan...NOT! (Part 1: Seattle)

2011-06-30T08:52:00.000-07:00

Most of my readers know that we were supposed to take a trip to Japan earlier this month - the main reason was to visit Grant's brother, John. We were going to fly from Seattle to Misawa Air Base in Northern Japan on Sunday, June 12, on what's called a Space Available flight, which is a military thing. We've flown Space A before, way back when Kendall was just a few weeks old. That time we flew from Ohio to Germany. Space A is just what it says - if there is space available on the flight, you can get on. Which means you don't have guaranteed seats. Which can be a problem. We ran into a few of those problems back in 2008, when we were trying to fly back to the States from Germany. It worked out, just not when we thought it would.

However, with this particular flight to Japan, Grant did a lot of research on it, and from what he could tell, the flight was hardly ever full, which meant there was a good chance we'd get on.

We bought one-way tickets from Long Beach to Seattle, leaving the day before the flight to Japan. Since the weather in Japan was supposed to be warm and humid, and even tropical where John lives, we packed for such weather.

So Saturday morning, we headed up to Seattle. I've never been to the Pacific Northwest before, so I was excited to see a new part of the country. Grant had been up there before, because his mom is from Seattle. But the last time he was there was probably over 20 years ago.

Once we got in, we took a shuttle to our hotel. It wasn't even noon yet, so our room wasn't ready. We walked down, probably half a mile or so to Subway to get some lunch. Then we walked back to the hotel, and our room was ready. So we checked in, and amazingly, we all took about a 3 hour nap. We had already had a long day, so we were definitely tired.

After we woke up, we got a car to take us to the Market. I'd seen it on TV so many times, it was cool to finally see it in person! And I was surprised to see that it was so much more than just a fish market. It had pretty much everything you could want there. There was even a pasta booth that had dozens of homemade pastas. Since I'm a pasta lover, I was intrigued. We also visited the first-ever Starbucks, which is right there by the Market.

Once we got our fill of the market, we started making our way to the Space Needle. I'm not gonna lie, we wandered around for a while trying to figure out how to get to the monorail, but we finally found it, and that was a great way to get to the Needle.

We thought when we got to the top that it would be windy and cold, but it actually wasn't! And it was a nice, sunny, clear day, so the view was great.

Once we finished with the Space Needle, it was getting kind of late (well, late for kids anyway), so we started making our way back to our hotel. Instead of spending the money getting another car or taxi, we decided to use the public transportation. Which was great!

We got back to the hotel, went to bed, and got up early the next morning for our flight.

When we got to the airport, we were surprised at how many people were there! I started getting a bad feeling about the flight, and loooooong story short, we didn't get on. Not to worry, though. There was a flight to Tokyo the following Tuesday. So we decided to rent a car, go see some of Washington State, and come back and try again.

To be continued...

Kendall can read!

2011-06-10T17:40:00.000-07:00

Okay, not really. But she has a great memory!

Kendall reads Charlie and Lola from Kelly Spear on Vimeo.

Girl's Weekend!

2011-06-08T09:09:00.000-07:00

A while back, Michelle and I started talking about having a girl's weekend before I moved. After lots of planning (on Michelle's part), it finally happened!

We went to Santa Barbara, but I'll start from the beginning. Megan came up from San Diego Friday night to a house full of pukies. Kendall had been sick a couple days before, and Cami got sick on Friday. But Megan's contact with the girls was minimal, since she got there after they went to bed, and we were leaving pretty early the next morning. So of course, Friday night, Megan, Grant, and I stayed up way too late chatting, and then Saturday morning, the plan was to be out the door at 7:30. Then around 6:30, Kendall threw up again. So that threw us off a bit.

By the way, if any of this is sounding familiar to you, it's because pretty much the same thing happened to our family back in April, right before I was supposed to go on the OPC Women's Retreat. And once again, Grant became husband of the year, for encouraging me to go, even though I didn't really want to at this point. I was nervous that I was going to get sick while I was gone, or that Grant would get sick while watching the girls by himself. None of that happened, so that was good.

Anyways, we finally did leave the house, only a few minutes late. We picked up my friend Ting, and then picked up Michelle, and we were on our way!

First, we stopped at Stan's Donuts in Westwood. Friday night, I randomly saw some show that was talking about Stan's Donuts, and their famous Reese's donut, and I posted something on Facebook about it. Michelle said that it could be our first stop on our way to Santa Barbara, and I didn't argue with her! It was worth the stop, even though I didn't get a picture. Basically, it's a chocolate covered donut, sprinkled with chocolate chips, and filled with peanut butter. Delicious!

After that quick stop, we made our way to the Camarillo Outlets, where we all did a good bit of shopping.

It was almost lunch time, so we left the outlets, and finally headed to Santa Barbara, where we went straight to the Arts & Letters Cafe, where the food was delicious.

After lunch, we walked up and down State Street, which is always fun. The weather that weekend wasn't exactly nice - it was cold and drizzly, if not raining, the whole time. But that was okay. If we got cold, we'd just hop in a store every now and then. Here's Megan and Michelle taking a break in Anthropologie.

We finally made our way to check in at the hotel. We stayed at the Hotel Oceana, and it was the cutest place ever! I fell in love with our room.

After relaxing for a bit in the hotel room, we went out for dinner at the Wine Cask/Intermezzo Bar & Cafe. After we left, I realized that we didn't get a picture there, which was a bummer, because it was so cozy inside. But the food was great. Since we had a kind of late lunch, we just ordered drinks and a few appetizers. Hands down, everyone's favorite was the Gruyere-Dungeness Crab-Artichoke Dip served with Focaccia bread. I can't even describe how good that was!!

We had to leave quickly, because we wanted to make the 7:15 showing of Bridesmaids, which was at a theatre close to us. So we walked there, and it started to rain, which was awesome. But we quickly forgot about the weather, because the movie was hilarious!

When we got back to the hotel, we decided to get our picture in the lobby.

Then we all had a cozy night's sleep in our super cute hotel room, got up the next morning and started getting ready for church. But first, we went to the hotel's breakfast, which was kind of a trainwreck. The breakfast was in the smallest room ever, and it was filled to over capacity! People were bumping into each other, there were no plates, and forget about tables! Finally, Megan and I saw a teeny tiny table open up, and we grabbed it before anyone else could. Which meant that we were actually the ones who cleaned off the table. So the four of us crammed into this tiny little two-person table, and as we were eating, the room really started to clear out. By the time we were done, there was hardly anyone left, so apparently, we just hit it at rush time.

We finished up, checked out, and made our way to church. We went to the local OPC - El Camino Presbyterian in Goleta. When we got there and when we left, it was raining the hardest it had all weekend. So that's what this picture is all about.

The plan was to eat lunch in Santa Barbara, but since it was so dreary, Michelle suggested that maybe we should just drive south until it got sunny. We knew it was sunny down here in the South Bay, so we were hoping we wouldn't have to drive too far. Ting told us about Paradise Cove in Malibu that her and her husband had been to, so we made our way there. It was a perfect suggestion! It was right on the beach, and the food was awesome, although we did have to keep our eyes on those seagulls. They were pretty aggressive.

And that was it! It was a short, but super sweet weekend, and I'm glad we were all able to go. I love my friends, and will miss them when I leave, so it was nice to spend this extra time with them.

Kendall Speak - Part 10

2011-06-03T10:57:00.000-07:00

Grant was putting Kendall to bed, and he always goes over the catechism questions with her. I guess she was really engaged in the questions, so she started having a pretty deep theological conversation with him. They were talking about original sin and death and how that's related, and Kendall said, "Well, I not gonna die. I don't do bad nings (things)...Cami does bad nings."

If you know anything about LA, you know that there's a ridiculous amount of interstates. Kendall always wants to know which interstate we're going on, and she usually thinks everything is the 405. A while back, we had to take two interstates to get to where we were going - the 710 and the 91. Not the 405.
Her: "Mama, are we on the interstate? Are we on the 405?"
Me: "No, we're on the 710."
Her: "Oh, I know all about the 710, you don't need to tell me about that."

She's doing this new thing, where she sits at her little table, "reading". She'll sit there for the longest time, looking at the pictures of whatever book she's reading, turning the pages, etc. I was getting dinner ready and I said, "Kendall, are you reading?" She said, "Yeah. It's called relaxin'."

The other morning, I got up early to sew, and Kendall decided to get up early, too. I usually don't let her up before her clock turns green, but this was Memorial Day, and she was standing outside her door saying, "Mama, it's a howiday! It's a howiday!" So I let her get up. So, she was watching me sew, and she said that when she grows up, she wants a sewing machine just like mine. Except pink. No, white. Maybe purple. Then she said she wanted her own kitchen and I said that someday, she'll get her own house. She got very upset by that thought, then said that she would get a house right next to ours, and Cami would also get a house next to us.

Connections

2011-05-16T10:23:00.000-07:00

This picture may not seem like much to you

But for the Spear family, it means alot!

You see, maybe 50 years ago (actually, probably more than that), Grant's dad was living in Cleveland. His family became a host family to students at the local university who came from India. These students would come over to their house to have dinner, and just be part of a family since they were so far away from their own. Grant's grandmother was actually a very valuable person to the wives of these students, teaching them basically how to live an American life (cooking, cleaning, etc), since Indian culture is so different than American culture.

Grant's dad has done a wonderful job of keeping in touch with many of these families, as they moved all over the country. Amazingly enough, one of these families lives only about 15 minutes away from us! We've gotten together with them a couple of times, but not nearly as much as we should have, although we've run into them at Terranea quite a few times.

A few weeks ago was one of those times. We went to Terranea one Saturday morning, and we saw Sarita, who is the wife of one of those students so many years ago. So we stopped and chatted with her for a few minutes, and she found out that we're leaving this summer. She said we should get together before we go, and then it hit me! Grant's brother John and his girlfriend were going to be visiting, so we should get together during that time - and that's what we did!

Krishan and Sarita, along with their daughter and her family, graciously welcomed us into their home for breakfast this past Saturday. We had a wonderful time eating and talking, and the kids had so much fun playing together! I particularly love this picture...

These kinds of connections are special to me, since we make friends all over the country. Fifty years from now, I hope that Grant and I, or our kids, or our grandkids, will still have connections with those friends we've made over the years.

8

2011-05-09T11:12:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, Grant and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary! And let me just say, I don't know if any other anniversary celebrations will top this one. It was amazing!

First, I have to give a HUGE shout out to Grant's mom. Last year, for our anniversary, she got us a very generous gift card to the spa at Terranea Resort, which is only a few miles from our house. For people like Cheri, who have been to this area, but don't live here, Terranea is between the lighthouse and Trump Golf Course. It opened only about 2 years ago, so it's still very new. We go to Terranea alot, whether just to walk around, go to the beach, or eat at some of their restaurants. It's one of our favorite places to go! Back in 2009, Grant's family came here for Christmas, and we (along with Grant's brother, John) got Grant's mom a gift card to get a massage at the spa there. She loved it so much, and had such a great experience, that she wanted us to experience it, as well. So that's where she got the idea to get us a gift card.

Last year, we tried to make a reservation there for our anniversary, but our anniversary falls on Mother's Day Weekend, so by the time we got the gift card and called for reservations, they were totally full. So we slacked off until maybe October, and we made reservations then. Well, our babysitter cancelled because of sickness, so we ended up not going. Slacked off again until a couple of weeks ago, when we finally made reservations, and got a sitter.

As we were walking to the spa, I saw this little tiny Asian girl with two tiny Asian kids, and it looked like my friend Ting and her kids, but they were facing away from us, so I couldn't see their faces. As we got closer, I called out her name, and sure enough, it was her! Right before we saw her, I was just mentioning to Grant how we need to have a date night with Ting and her husband before we move, and then about a minute later, we saw her. So random! But this isn't the first time we've run into people we know there. Everyone loves Terranea!

Folks, let me tell you, I have never experienced luxury like this! I don't even know if I have words that can describe it, so you'll just have to trust me on this, and enjoy the pictures...

First of all, when you have massage reservations, you have free-reign of the spa all day, which is really nice. Unfortunately, we didn't get there too early to use the facilities, but that's still a nice feature. We did swim in the pool for a few minutes before our massages, though. When it was time for the massages, we were shown to our room, and we were shocked at the view! I knew this room existed, but we thought you had to pay more for it. But this is the only room that has this view overlooking the ocean. It wasn't a beautiful day, so the pictures don't do it justice, but the ocean was right there.

Right as we were laying down on the tables, we noticed all these dolphins, maybe only 100 yards out from the coast. Then all of a sudden, two whales came up! We see whales alot around here, but never this close!

After the massages (which were awesome, by the way), we went to the pool again. By this time, the temperature had gone down a bit, so we didn't swim, but it was so nice to just lay outside, listen to calm music, and just relax.

After that, it was time for us to get ready for dinner. We didn't have reservations, but we planned on going to Mar'sel, which is the fanciest restaurant at Terranea. We've never eaten there before, because it is very expensive, and it's just not a place that you randomly go to. It was perfect for an anniversary dinner, though, especially after the treatment we just received!

While I was getting ready, someone came into the women's lounge (do not call it a locker room!) to tell me that we had a reservation at Mar'sel at 5:30. I didn't really understand how that happened, but I knew I had to hurry. It's a good thing I'm not a high-maintenance girl, otherwise we would've missed our reservations!

As we were walking to the restaurant, Grant kept mentioning the strings he pulled to get the reservations, but he wouldn't tell me what exactly he did, but he was proud of himself. He took our bags to the car, and I went to check us into the restaurant. The hostess asked if we wanted indoor or outdoor seating, and I knew we definitely wanted outdoor. She took me to a table that wasn't right at the edge of the patio, so I asked if we could have one right on the edge, and she said yes. Check it out!

Looking this way, you can see our little town of San Pedro (the furthest out point)...

And this way is facing back towards the resort...

Edited: I forgot to mention how Grant got us the reservations! After the massages and the pool, we went our separate ways, and Grant was hanging out in the hot tub on the men's side of the spa. There was another guy in the hot tub, and as they were talking (okay, this is starting to sound weird, but they didn't have co-ed hot tubs there), Grant told the guy that we were going to Mar'sel. He asked when our reservations were, and Grant explained that we didn't have any, we were just going to show up. He told Grant that he could get us reservations, because he was the chief engineer at Terranea! So if it wasn't for Grant talking to random strangers in hot tubs, we would've been sitting inside at the bar. Which would've been nice, but not as nice as this.

Our dinner was great! I felt like I was a judge on Top Chef. I have never had food that fancy before! We were given an amuse-bouche, compliments of the chef, even! Oh, and while we were eating, we saw yet another whale! Again, it was really close to the shore. That made it so, so special!

So that was it! Seriously, the best anniversary celebration we've had so far. I don't really know how it gets much better than that.

And if you're still reading, you can enjoy pictures of these two babies who got married almost a decade ago.

I love my husband so much! We've known each other since we were 12, started dating in high school, got married after college, so we've got alot of history together. I'm looking forward to growing old with my best friend.

Easter

2011-04-27T18:32:00.000-07:00

We had a fantastic Easter weekend! On Saturday, we went to the Easter Eggstravaganza at Ft. Mac, which is our little mini-base here in San Pedro. They put on such a great event every year! And I couldn't believe it when Kendall not only wanted to see the Easter Bunny, but she reached for him, so he could put her in his lap. I even got the picture to prove it! (Oh, about the pictures from Saturday, I totally forgot the memory card to my camera, so I took these with my phone.)

They also have bouncy castles, a petting zoo, karaoke, face painting, balloon animals, food, and lots of freebies! After we left the Easter Bunny, we made our way to the easter egg hunt. It's kind of random, they just throw a bunch of eggs and candy in a field, and section the field off for different ages, and have the kids just go for it when they say go. It's not really a hunt, but they still have fun.

The girls had these cute matching shirts that they got from their Grandma Betty, and they had their names on them. I don't think I got a good picture of the whole shirt, but they were super cute.

After that, we just came home, and took it easy the rest of the day.

Sunday, the girls wore dresses and barrettes that I made them (for more on that, you can check out my sewing blog here), and we headed off to church. For some reason, they were not doing very well that morning. They were grumpy and tired and whiney and moody. Not fun. I was so happy that the plans we made were for dinner, not lunch, so they could come back and take a good nap. And they did.

Around 4, we headed over to my friend Michelle's parents house. We went there for Thanksgiving, too. When you don't have your own family to celebrate with, it's so nice to still celebrate with people you love! Michelle has two boys the same ages as the girls, and for the most part, they love each other. We started out with an egg hunt for the kids.

It's hard getting four kids to look at the camera at the same time! Two out of four ain't bad, I guess.

Here's one of just the sisters...

Then it was time to eat!

We had a fantastic menu that we all contributed to, thanks to Michelle's suggestions. Seriously, everything was so delicious. I should've gotten pictures of the food.

It was such a great weekend!

Oscars Extravaganza...What? It's Only Two Months Late!

2011-04-21T09:17:00.000-07:00

Back in February, my friend Michelle and I had a fantastic Oscars Extravaganza! You might remember last year, that I did some Oscars stuff with some other friends. Well, this year, Michelle and I blew that out of the water!

First, we started out our day at the early service at church. Yes, before we went to celebrate Hollywood in all it's glory, we went to church. Ironic, maybe, but whatever.

After the early service, we made our way to The Ivy, which is a very trendy restaurant in the heart of it all. If you pick up an Us Weekly or any other tabloid, you might see pictures of celebrities eating here. I went there last year with my friends, and it was a lot of fun. So we went, and had a great time! The problem with this restaurant is the PRICE! It's way more than I'm used to spending when I eat out, but I kept telling myself that this was an extravaganza, after all, so I should just make the best of it. So I went all out, kind of. I started out with a fancy drink. I can't remember now what it was, but it was something like champagne with crushed raspberries? I don't know...it was good, though. Then I splurged, and got the lobster club. LOBSTER. CLUB. I had to. I had no choice! Look!

Michelle got a delicious salad

We had a great time, and the day was perfect for sitting outside!

After lunch, we decided to try to check in to our hotel. Oh yeah, you heard me right! Michelle thought it would be a good idea to stay in Hollywood overnight. Which hotel, you ask? None other than the Roosevelt Hotel, which is right in the middle of everything - pretty much across the street from the Kodak Theatre! Michelle wins the award for best idea ever!

Pulling up to the hotel was a little intimidating, I'm not gonna lie. First of all, the streets going up to Hollywood Blvd were blocked off. So we kind of felt like superstars when we drove past the barricades and told the guards that we were checking into the Roosevelt. So we went down this back alley, and into the back parking lot of the hotel, which was valet parking. I don't really do valet parking, so I really didn't know what I was doing. But we figured it out and went to the front desk.

It was so cool inside, because there was all this hustle and bustle going on! As soon as we walked in, there was a check in desk for E! personnel. Apparently, the E! channel was filming a pre-Oscars thing inside the hotel!

So we check in...oh wait. I have to talk about the little joke that I made at the front desk. Everything is just going on all around us, and it's kind of crazy in the lobby, so I asked the front desk people what was going on that was making it so busy that day? One of them stopped what she was doing and just stared at me like I was the biggest idiot she's ever seen, and the other realized I was joking and laughed. I was pretty proud of myself for that one! Oh, and the drunk guy next to us thought it was pretty funny, too. Yes, it was only about noon, but he was already drunk. Or still drunk from the night before? I'm not sure...

We got to our room on the seventh floor, and realized that we weren't quite cool enough to actually stay there! The room was very trendy. This is a picture I took before we checked out...

But the view was pretty cool! Our window wasn't over Hollywood Blvd, but we could see the boulevard from our room, and the side of the Kodak.

And this is the outside of the hotel

After we dropped everything off in the room, we decided to head out to the boulevard to see what we could see. Last year, I was out there the day before the Oscars, and I was able to stand directly across from the red carpet. I guess since this was the day of, they weren't letting that happen, so they had it all gated off. Not only did they have it gated off, but they had these huge fences, with black tarp covering them, so you literally couldn't see anything. See? This was what it looked like. You can just barely see Oscar.

There was this kind of bridge set up, where E! and some other TV stations were going to be set up, and at first I thought we would see some famous people going up the stairs to the bridge, but the only one I saw was Kelly Osbourne.

As you can see, we weren't really in a prime spot.

So I stayed here, while Michelle walked to the other side of the barricade, meaning she had to go down the street, walk down Sunset, then walk back up another street to get to the Hollywood and Highland area. She texted me saying that she could see the red carpet from where she was, and they were about to let everyone get closer, so I should start heading that way.

Once I got there, I just knew this was going to be the place to be! There were so many more people here than where we first started out at! Long story short, after I got harrassed by a cop, and miraculously finding Michelle in a sea of hundreds of people, we had to go through a security check point to get close to the fences, where we would be able to see people getting dropped off at the red carpet.

Yeah, not so much.

This was about the best view I had.

After that, and we actually got to the place we ended up standing, this is what I saw...

I cannot even express in words how annoying this particular time was. And we spent way too long here. We just kept holding out hope that people would leave, and we'd get right up on the fence, but that never happened. And the screaming! Screaming for no reason! The people in front of us weren't American, so the only words I could ever make out that they said were celebrities names. And then screaming. Michelle and I were.not.screaming. We couldn't see anything, so what was there to scream about? The girl next to me I think was the worst, because she could kind of see better than I could, and at one point, she started jumping up and down and screaming. I asked her who it was, and she said, "I don't know!" I was in shock.

Here's another little video showing what I'm talking about...

After all that excitement, we wanted to get back to the hotel in time to actually watch the show! And rest our feet after all that standing. So that's what we did! Michelle has a yearly Oscars-watching food tradition that she kindly shared with me - wine, prosciutto, cheese, crackers, and grapes. It was wonderful!

At some point while we were watching the show, it hit me that all of this was happening right across the street! It was a pretty surreal moment.

About 3/4 of the way through, we headed out for the next leg of our adventure. Let me back up and explain how I found out about this little secret. Two years ago, my friend was going around Hollywood, acting as a tourguide for her friend who was visiting from Michigan. It just happened to be Oscars night, and they just happened to wind up across the street from the Vanity Fair party, where celebrities were showing up left and right. So last year, when I did my Oscars thing, I went to the same place with my friends. And this year, Michelle and I went. Basically, you go to the Saddle Ranch, and hang out outside. There's hardly anyone there, so it's really great! The people at the Saddle Ranch are always s nice, too. They don't make you buy anything, you can use their bathrooms, whatever. They also have heaters set up and TVs, so you can watch the rest of the Oscars while waiting to see celebrities.

At first, while the show was still going on, the celebrities weren't coming that often, but once the show was over, it really started to pick up. Some pictures I took turned out great, others, not so much. Here's a rundown some celebrities we saw...Sandra Bullock, Justin Bieber, Gwyneth Paltrow, Robert Downey, Jr, Jude Law, Larry David, Madonna, Taylor Swift, Russell Simmons, Jane Fonda, Tom Hanks, Jane Lynch, Jake Gyllenhaal, Zoe Saldana, Reese Witherspoon, Michelle Williams, Hugh Jackman, Shaun White, Keven Spacey, and Charlize Theron. And here's some of the pictures. Like I said, some turned out better than others...

There's one person that I left out, because it's just funny! So, I'm a big watcher of shows on Bravo - Top Chef, most of the Real Housewives, etc. Andy Cohen pretty much runs Bravo, and I'm a pretty big fan of his. I love watching Watch What Happens Live, because he's just so funny, and I love the way he handles alot of the Housewives. Well, he got out of one of the limos, and I was like, "Is that Andy Cohen? That's Andy Cohen!" Let's be honest, here. If you don't watch Bravo, you have no idea who he is. So when people heard me say his name, there was this collective, "Who's that?" So I start screaming "ANDY!!!!!!!! ANDY!!!!!!!!!!" I was the only one yelling his name, so he heard me, and waved! I didn't get a picture, so I just kept yelling his name. I was pretty excited, and I like to think I made his night! Okay, maybe the fact that he was at the Oscars, and went to the Vanity Fair party made his night, but I'm just going to keep telling myself that I did. I never got a great picture of him, so this is the best I got...

And lucky for you, Michelle (who was manning the video camera) got the whole ordeal on video. Andy Cohen and Larry David are both in this clip, and they were probably the two I was most excited about. Enjoy my embarrassment...

There was a bit of an annoying factor here, too. The people we were standing next to had no clue who anyone was, or basically any knowledge of pop culture. So I just had to wonder why they were there? For instance, when Gwyneth Paltrow got out of the limo, they were like, "Who's that?" Which was fine, because it was hard to see. But when I told them who it was, they said, "Who? Never heard of her." Okay. Then when the director of The Social Network got out, the girl said to the guy, "I think that's that movie about Facebook?" She got it right, but she was definitley unsure. And it went on like that the whole time they were standing there. Again I ask, Why were they there?! If you're not a follower of pop culture, that's totally fine, but why would you stand outside in the cold (it was actually very cold that night) for hours, waiting to see people you don't even know about? Strange.

That's pretty much it. We went back to our hotel room, went to sleep, then got up early the next morning to go back to reality. We had a lot of fun, and it's definitely a weekend that I won't soon forget.

Oh my gosh, I almost forgot! As we were getting in the elevator on our way to check out of the hotel Monday morning, there were these two women in the elevator. Apparently, they were pretty important. Or at least they thought they were, because they treated us like we were the scum of the earth! They were in a big hurry, and were annoyed that the elevator had the audacity to stop for us. And we weren't quick enough when we got on the elevator (even though it probably took about 7 seconds...not quick enough for them). And then Michelle pushed the wrong button, which was acutally kind of hilarious. The one lady was so annoyed that she did that! We finally got down to the floor we were supposed to get off at, and they pretty much pushed us over getting out of the elevator. I'm not kidding. From the time the elevator doors opened on our floor to the time we got down to the first floor was probably about 45 seconds, even with the wrong floor pushed. But from the way they were acting, you would think it took an hour, and it totally threw off their busy schedule. It was actually pretty funny, and it was a perfect end to our whole Hollywood experience!

Movie Musings

2011-04-18T10:03:00.000-07:00

We don't watch a lot of movies, but in the last week, we've seen 3 new ones (not theatre-new, but released on DVD-new), and I enjoyed them all, so I thought I'd share some thoughts...

Tangled - I was a little apprehensive about this one, because the last few Disney movies I've seen (save Toy Story), I haven't been thrilled with. But I really enjoyed this one. Rapunzel is one of the most likeable of all the Disney princesses, in my opinion - even if her likeability is a little unrealistic (I find it hard to believe that someone who's locked in a tower for 18 years is as fun, outgoing, and well-rounded as Rapunzel is). The animation was beautiful, too. Sometimes I forgot the scenes were drawn, and not real. Kendall thoroughly enjoyed it, too. Although, as with all Disney movies, there is a pretty scary scene at the end.

127 Hours - we've all heard about Aron Ralston, who had to cut his own arm off after being trapped for 5 days in a canyon.  And when I was telling my brother about it, he wondered how they could make a full-length movie out of that story.  But while watching the movie, I never once thought it dragged, or it could've ended sooner. This is such a great story of determination and the will to live, and at times you almost forget that this actually happened to someone! And that he lives at the end! There were several times I thought to myself, "There's no way he's getting out of there...oh, wait. He did!" I really recommend this one.

Red - You wouldn't think that an action movie about a group of retired assassins, involving lots of killing could be cute, but it was! You kind of have to check your logic at the door, because Grant and I found lots of holes in the storyline, but it was a very enjoyable movie to watch, and the acting is great. Helen Mirren's character is great (she's a mix of Martha Stewart and Jason Bourne), and John Malkovitch's character is hilarious.

As an aside, I love watching movies that are set in places I used to live. In Red, they go to Pensacola (although it's not really Pensacola - I think it was filmed in Louisiana). And then they go to Mobile, Alabama, which I never lived in, but it's only 45 minutes away from Pensacola.  And before we had kids, I used to fly in and out of Mobile all the time when I would go home to Pensacola, because it was cheaper. The part of "Mobile" that they showed was the airport, and since I had all those airport experiences, I was very quick to point out that what they showed was, in fact, definitely NOT the Mobile airport. The Mobile airport is one of the smallest I've ever been to, and is pretty far outside the city. What they showed wasn't a very big airport, but it was surrounded by tall buildings, and the real one is not. Oh, and they showed mountains in the background, and there are NO mountains anywhere near Mobile. Also, Mary-Louise Parker's character mispronounces the city's name. She pronounces it the way you would say mobile phone, but it's supposed to be pronounced "moh-beel."

Okay, that's the end of my nerdy geography-in-movies moment.

Like I said, we don't watch a ton of movies.  So when we do, I tend to be a little picky in what I want to see. I really did enjoy all of these movies! Up next is a toss up - Grant really wants to see Tron, and I really don't. I really want to see The Fighter, and he really doesn't. So we'll see!

Just Cami - Part 2

2011-04-14T19:28:00.000-07:00

Here's the 2nd of 5 videos of Cami just being herself. If you missed the first one, go here.

Just Cami - Part 2 from Kelly Spear on Vimeo.

Women's Retreat Recap!

2011-04-12T08:00:00.000-07:00

As I said in the previous post, despite the very dramatic events that happened last week, I still made it to the Southern California Women's Retreat for the OPC (Orthodox Presbyterian Church). I left Friday afternoon around 4 pm, and in true LA fashion, hit tons and tons of traffic on my way to Idyllwild, which is where the retreat was. What should have taken about 2 1/2 hours, took more like 3 1/2. But that's okay. I called people, I listened to music, and really, I don't mind being in the car by myself.

As I got closer to the camp, I started seeing signs of snow. Which kind of surprised me, because I hadn't checked the weather, and I was not prepared for snow! I just kept hoping and praying that where I was going was not where that snow was coming from. But then as I was driving up this mountain, and snow-covered cars were coming down, I started losing hope.

Sure enough, I pull into the town of Idyllwild, and it's like a winter wonderland. I missed the turn for the camp, and keep climbing up this mountain, and it starts snowing harder and harder, and all I can think is that I did not have warm clothes! I did bring a sweatshirt and tennis shoes, and at the last minute, I packed gloves, but that was it! Once I got out of Idyllwild, I realized I missed my turn, so I turned around, and figured out where to go.

I arrived after the check in time, which meant that pretty much everyone who was coming was already there. So, I pull into this dark, quiet camp, not knowing where I was supposed to go. I figured that was a good time to change out of my flip flops and put on my tennis shoes. As I was doing that, a car pulled up, and I heard, "Hey, lady!" It was my friend Michelle! Michelle and the group she was with left a couple hours before me. While we were all driving, Michelle called to check on me, and I found out that they were quite a ways ahead of me. Until they pulled up right then, I had assumed they were already there. But they stopped somewhere to get dinner, it took longer than they anticipated, so they happened to get there the same time I did. I was so relieved, because I really didn't know where to go!

We all figured it out together, and walked into the main room where our sessions would be. I found Megan, who doesn't go to my church, but she does go to Harvest OPC in San Marcos. And then we found another group from our church. All in all, I think there were 11 churches represented (?), and about 86 women. It was a great turnout!

We mingled for a while, and then we had our first session. Our speaker was Donna McIlhenney, who is (along with her husband) a chaplain in some Los Angeles area hospitals. She was a great choice for a speaker, and I enjoyed her talks throughout the whole weekend. It was encouraging, emotional, uplifting - everything you would want to hear at a retreat!

After that, we went to our rooms (I was sharing a room with Megan, Michelle, Michelle's mom Brigitte, and Lissett), and after chatting for a while (this is a women's retreat, after all - there was LOTS of chatting!), we finally went to sleep.

The next morning when we woke up, we were finally able to check out the beautiful scenery, and the crazy snow (this is April, right? Did I mention I wasn't expecting snow?).

We made our way to breakfast, and we soon found out that the food was delicious! After breakfast we had our second session, a break, and then the third session. After that was lunch. Here's a picture to show the dining hall and all the women (and there's Lissett, Megan, and Michelle in deep theological conversation. Really!).

After lunch, we had the whole afternoon off. Being the young moms we are, we decided to go back to our room to "nap," although I think Megan was the only one who did. Me, Lissett, and Michelle did more chatting, and I was able to get some embroidery done. After our "naptime," we decided to go into town and stroll around. Megan's friend Melissa from her church came with us.

Oh, the stories I could tell about our time in town! But I won't. I'll just leave you all in suspense. Needless to say, we had a super fun time on our quest to find a place to get drinks. Here's the first place we stopped, and it wasn't quite what we were looking for...

So we went to Gastrognome, which was exactly what we were looking for! Look how cute and cozy it was! The fireplace, the decor, the drinks - it was perfect! We stayed here for a while, chatting it up, until it was time to go back to the camp for dinner.

Megan's church got a group picture, so I thought it would be good to get a picture of everyone that came from our church, Branch of Hope. So here we are!

After dinner, we had our 4th and final session, then a talent show, which was fantastic. There are some funny and creative women in the OPC!

We went back to our rooms - actually, we went to someone else's room to do more chatting, then made our way back to our room for some sleep.

The next morning, there was going to be breakfast and a church service followed by lunch, and after that it was time to leave. However, everyone in my room left before all of that. I needed to get back to our own church, because Grant teaches Sunday School. So I promised him when we decided that I would be going to this retreat that I'd be back for church, so he didn't have to juggle everything he needed to do with the two girls by himself. Michelle and Megan needed to get back for similar reasons, so we all left around 7:15. It had lightly hailed and snowed the previous day, along with freezing some of the melt the night before, so we were a little nervous heading down the mountain, but everyone survived!

I made it to church before Grant did (despite accidentally veering onto the 55 in Orange County, and going a little out of my way) and our little family had a reunion in the parking lot before church started. Oh, and I was worried all weekend that the stomach bug the girls and I had would hit Grant while I was gone, but it never did - thank God!

It was a fantastic weekend - one that will not be forgotten soon! That was my first retreat, and while it might be my last with the So Cal OPC, I hope it won't be my last one ever.

Last Week

2011-04-11T08:58:00.000-07:00

Last week was going to be one of the busiest we've had in a while - we had something going on everyday of the week. Then it all changed, but was still busy, just in a different way. So bear with me while I relive it all for you!

MONDAY - I went for a walk along Paseo del Mar, stopped at the playground halfway through the walk, and had a random meeting with some friends I hadn't seen in a while at the playground. Then we went to storytime at the library. During the girls naptime, I got dinner ready, showered, and did some other things around the house, because I had my monthly Los Angeles Modern Quilt Guild meeting that evening, which was awesome, as usual.

TUESDAY - Picked my sewing machine up from the repair place, and took the girls to the duck pond. While we were there, I got a call from Barb, who is in charge of our small group. We were supposed to meet that night, but she said two other families cancelled, so she was leaving it up to us to still have it or not. I made the decision to not go, since we had such a crazy busy week ahead of us, and normally we wouldn't cancel, but since other people were, we'd just go ahead and follow suit. That ended up being a really good decision, unbeknownst to me, because...

Tuesday night around 11, Grant and I were woken up to the sounds of Kendall crying. Which is unusual.

Let me give some background here...Over the last few months, friends of ours who have small kids have gotten the stomach flu. We've never had that - Kendall's never thrown up before, and I started realizing that for a 3 1/2 year old, that was pretty good. But I was not so naive to think that it wouldn't ever happen. So after hearing about my friends who've gotten the flu, I've been mentally preparing myself for it. In fact, a few weeks ago, Kendall cried, and I woke up saying, "She's throwing up!" She wasn't, but that just shows that I had it in the back of my head that it might happen soon.

So that night, I kind of did the same thing, except that night it was true. She really was throwing up. At first, and in our sleepy fog, we weren't sure what was really going on, but when she kept throwing up I realized that this wasn't a one-time thing, and that she was really sick. So I told Grant to go back to bed, and I'd stay with Kendall in her room.

Every 15-20 minutes, she was throwing up. But she handled it like a pro (if there were such a thing as a pro puker). We would lay in her bed, and when she was feeling sick, she'd just say, "Mama, I need to throw up." So I'd get the trash can for her, and she'd do her business, then get back in bed, and actually sleep until the next episode.

That went on until about 3:30 am. Which brings us to...

WEDNESDAY - Kendall woke up happy, and feeling totally better! I, on the other hand, was exhausted. Because, while she slept in between pukings, I did not. And I didn't really sleep after it was all over, so I was going on about 2 hours of sleep. Except for being tired, I was fine - not pukey, or anything.

But we had tickets to be in the audience of American Idol that afternoon! It was going to be me, Grant, and my two girlfriends (Michelle and Deb), and I already had a babysitter scheduled and everything. Needless to say, I really didn't want to go. But the tickets were in my name. So I called the ticket place to see if I could transfer the tickets to either Michelle or Deb's name, because I didn't want them to miss out on going. Of course, they said I couldn't. I had to cancel the sitter, because I didn't want her to get sick. So I was stuck. My sweet, loving husband decided to come home early from work to stay with the girls, sacrificing his chance to go to American Idol.

So that's what happened. Michelle, Deb, and I made our way up to the show! We waited, and waited, and waited, and were told that we might not get in (the tickets are not guaranteed). While we waited, we were starving, and started talking about our favorite foods, which was not a good idea, because that just made us more hungry. As we kept waiting, they told us that if we didn't get in, we'd get guaranteed tickets for another show. At that point, with our hunger in full-force, I was secretly hoping that we wouldn't get in, so we could go EAT! Which is what ended up happening.

So we made our way over to The Grove, which is right behind the studios they film the show at, and went to the Cheesecake Factory, and had a great time. For being such a good sport, I got Grant two slices of cheesecake, and my delicious leftovers. Actually, one of the slices was supposed to be mine, BUT...

THURSDAY - I woke up not feeling too hot. I kind of felt nauseated all morning, but not to the point I felt like throwing up. Those cheesecakes were staring me in the face, and I didn't want them. I knew something was wrong. I did eat breakfast, but that's all I had all day. I gave the girls their lunch, put them down for their naps, and I laid down to rest, because I just didn't feel good.

Shortly after I laid them down, Cami started crying. That's not totally unusual, and I usually let her cry it out. But something was different about her cry. I started thinking to myself, If I'm feeling sick, I wonder if she is, too? So I went to check on her. And as I opened her door, I smelled it. She had thrown up all over her crib, and was standing there, looking so sad and confused. I cleaned her up and brought her downstairs with me, bracing for what I knew was coming.

It was the same as Kendall - every 15-20 minutes for a few hours. Seeing your babies throw up is horrible. I know there are worse things they could be going through, but this was definitely a low point for me. Kendall kind of grasped what was going on, but poor Cami. She's only 18 months old! She had no idea what was going on, and it was just so sad.

Around 2, it hit me. I like to call what Cami and I were doing, "tag team puking." It was interesting, to say the least.

I was supposed to babysit my friend's kids that night, so obviously, I had to cancel. And on top of that, I did the unthinkable - I asked Grant to come home early, yet again. With his job, it's very hard for him to get off early, but he did. He's awesome.

Cami finished throwing up around 5? 6? I don't know. To be honest, most of that day is a blur. I had my last episode after I had gone to bed that night. Which brings us to...

FRIDAY - I was still feeling a little nauseated, but mostly just tired and weak. Cami was back to her normal self, which was great. And Kendall's sickness was a distant memory. The only problem was, I was supposed to go to the Annual Southern California Regional Women's Retreat for the OPC (Orthodox Presbyterian Church). I needed to leave around 3 or 4 pm, so I had a sitter set up to watch the girls until Grant could come home. Could I even go to something like that feeling the way I did, and having just gone through what I went through?

Grant was encouraging me to go, and I tossed around the idea of going up Saturday morning. I mulled it over, prayed about it, talked about it with my friend Michelle, and since I started feeling better as the day progressed, decided I would go Friday afternoon, like I had intended. But what about the sitter? I couldn't bring someone into this pukey house! So, for the third day in a row, Grant got off work early, so I could go on my retreat. Husband of the year, anyone?

The retreat will get a post by itself, but for now I just wanted to recap what the last week was like in the Spear household. Not a fun one, but definitely one to remember.

Modern Relief - Japan (Week 1)

2011-04-04T06:56:00.000-07:00

Okay, guys, I really try to keep my quilting stuff to my quilting blog, but over the next few weeks, I'll be mentioning a little about it here. But trust me, it's for a good cause!

Head on over to Modern Relief to see how you can buy raffle tickets (as low as $10!) to possibly win a beautiful handmade quilt! Best of all, the proceeds will go to Mercy Corps, which is an organization helping out in the relief efforts for Japan.

Each Monday until May 16, Modern Relief will be unveiling a new set of quilts up for grabs (you can see the quilts revealed this week here). It just started today, so head on over there and see some of the beautiful things people have made...who knows, maybe one of them could be yours! (Mine will be revealed on Modern Relief's site next week, but you can see it on my other blog here)

Showing Off

2011-04-03T08:05:00.000-07:00

I'm just looking through some pictures, and I got inspired to show off my cute little family!!!

Okay, so as a background for this first set of pictures...I've mentioned it before, but we're moving from California in a few months.

The good news is that we're moving closer to family. Alot closer. And that's huge! During my husband's 8 year career in the Air Force, we've been anything but close to our families, and we've missed being near them.

The bad news is, we really don't want to leave California. If only there was someway we could merge everything California has to offer and still being close to our families in Florida! But there's not.

Anyways, it hit me the other day that I have precious few moments left, and I need to take advantage of it. I live in a beautiful suburb of LA called San Pedro. We had some gorgeous weather last week, so I went for a walk with my girls along Paseo del Mar in San Pedro. Paseo del Mar is this short, but incredibly scenic street on top of the cliffs over the ocean, with beautiful views of Catalina Island. I walked from one end to the other and back again, which is maybe a mile and a half round trip? That's alot for this out of shape Mama! So once I made it to one end, we took a break so my girls could play on the playground there. That's where these pictures come from.

I love Cami's face in this one, and Kendall's in the next one...

Happy Cami!

These next two are...not so cute. The first one is totally random, and is from last September, when my friend was about to move to Chicago. But I just saw it for the first time right now, because I was uploading pictures from a camera we hardly ever use. All I can say for the face I'm making is that I'm pretty sure I was trying to get my husband to not take a picture of me. Guess that didn't work. But see how beautiful the location is? This is below Paseo del Mar where I took that walk, and is about 1/2 mile from my house. This, folks, is why we don't want to move!!

Now for the next not-so-cute picture, was taken on the last day of Mustache March - which, by the way, my husband ended up winning the title of "Mr. Mustache March," for the best overall mustache grown for his office. I cannot tell you how I happy I am that he shaved it the next day.

Okay, back to some real cuteness. One nice perk about being in the military in a town like LA is that Grant gets free tickets to stuff quite a bit, like NHL Hockey tickets. Being from Florida, we're not huge hockey fans, but it's a free pro sporting event, so we'll take it! This particular game happened to be right during nap time for the girls, so I suggested he just take Kendall, and I'd stay home with Cami, since she's not quite at the age where she's okay if she skips a nap. Kendall handled it like a pro, though.

And this was a super sweet thing Grant did that I didn't know about until they came home, but he took Kendall to Little Tokyo after the game to get ice cream, and he saw this Hello Kitty store, so they stopped in and he got her a little notepad, and they got their picture with the Cat herself! So, so glad that mustache is gone!

So that's all. This was a totally unplanned post, but I just had to share the cuteness!

Just Cami - Part 1

2011-04-02T17:49:00.000-07:00

Today I took a looooooong video of Cami when I got her up from her nap. She was so into performing for me, and I had a hard time cutting any of it out. So I decided to just break down the almost-10 minute video into shorter increments, and I'll post them one at a time here on the blog.

I realize that I don't write alot about Cami. I think that's because Kendall right now is so vocal, and does such funny things, it's easy to write about. Cami is really starting to come into her own personality, though, and this video really showcases that.

Enjoy! (Oh, and sorry it was a little dark)

Just Cami - Part 1 from Kelly Spear on Vimeo.

What They Were Up To

2011-03-29T22:17:00.000-07:00

While I was getting dinner ready, I noticed Kendall was very busy doing something...I just didn't know what that something was. All I knew is my girls were playing nicely together for a long period of time, and that made me happy. When I got a chance to check on them, this is what I found.

What They Were Up To from Kelly Spear on Vimeo.

Griffith Park with Friends

2011-03-28T09:35:00.000-07:00

**You really need to read Megan's post about their visit. She was way more descriptive than I was.**

This past weekend, our great friends (Andy, Megan, and their kids Joey and Hannah) came up from San Diego. We had a great time with them, even though the weather wasn't all that great. They got here Friday night, then on Saturday we went up to Griffith Park to check out the trains, and then we went to the Observatory after that, followed by a very necessary stop at Diddy Riese (amazing ice cream sandwiches for $1.50). We all went to church on Sunday, and then they went back home after the kids got a good nap that afternoon. Other than that, we enjoyed some March Madness, lots of food, conversation, screaming (the happy kind - by the kids), and more conversation. So enjoy these pictures, and please excuse my husband's mustache - only a few days left in Mustache March, thank goodness!

Kendall Speak - Part 9

2011-03-20T13:38:00.000-07:00

-Last night, Cami was getting into something, I can't remember what, but I scolded her which made her cry. Kendall said, "Mama, I have to tell you something. Don't make my sister cry." Which of course, broke my little heart.

-Our pastor's oldest son is named Paul Jr., but he goes by just "Junior." We saw him today at church, and when I asked Kendall what his name was she said, "Disney Junior."

FYI, she used to call Junior's little brother Gino, "Tuna." I wrote about that on the second edition of "Kendall Speak," which can be found here.

-Today in Sunday School, Kendall's teacher was talking about enemies. Kendall told the teacher that "bad people live in San Pedro." Another mom who was in the Sunday School when she said that told me about it. When I went to pick Kendall up, I said something about it to her teacher who said that she was very serious when she said it.

On the way home from church, I asked Kendall what she learned in Sunday School. She said, "Mom, you know about M&M's? There are people in this world who don't love us."

I was so confused so I told her that was true, but what did that have to do with M&M's? And then I realized, M&M's = enemies, at least the way she pronounced it. So after I got done laughing, I told her that yes, there are people who don't love us. She followed up by telling me that even though they don't love us, we still need to love them.

So love your M&M's, people!

Who I Am

2011-03-19T17:54:00.000-07:00

I'm a flip flop girl. Always have been, probably always will be. I try to break away, and wear boots every now and then, or some nice high heels, but I truly find comfort in my flip flops.

My absolute favorite pair of all time were these Clark's that I got back in Ohio. I wore those suckers out for about 2 years straight until they finally needed to be retired.

My mom got me this pair of Roxy flip flops, probably about 2 years ago. They were fine, but they weren't quite the quality of those nice, leather Clark's. I think it's safe to say that I wore these suckers out, too.

Even Grant, who's very "frugal," looked at them the other day and said, "I think it's time you get some new flip flops."

I had been looking, but I haven't been to a real shoe store in a long time, since most of my shopping is done at Target. But I happened to be at Marshall's today, so I thought I'd see what they had.

My feet were so happy when I found this pair of Born Concept flip flops! They are SOOOO comfy! I looked for a pair of Clark's but the only ones they had weren't my style. So, I went with these!

Then across the aisle, I saw this other pair that were a little fancier. I have a pair of "nice" Clark's, but they're white, so they don't exactly go with everything. This pair is a nice champagne color, so it goes with a lot more. Again, they're Born Concept, and again, SOOOO comfy.

I was pretty proud of my finds, so I just thought I'd share them with you!

Two Weeks Later (Yosemite Trip)

2011-03-04T19:54:00.000-08:00

Our first trip to Yosemite was back in July (I blogged about it here), and we fell in love. We mentioned how cool it would be to see it in other seasons, mainly winter.

Well, since this is our last winter here in So Cal, we decided it's now or never. We originally wanted to go back in January during MLK weekend, but that kind of fell through. So we said we'd go over President's Day weekend, but never really made any plans. About a week before President's Day, someone asked if I could watch their dog that weekend, which made me realize, Hey, are we going, or not? So Grant got on the ball, and made us some reservations at a hotel outside of the park. More on that later...

The key part of visiting Yosemite in winter would be, of course, to see it blanketed in snow. The park hadn't been getting a lot of snow this winter, but in that week before President's Day, a huge snowstorm went through. Which meant lots of fresh snow for us to enjoy! I like snow when you don't have to live in it! So we got some last-minute winter clothes for the girls (thank God for consignment stores and friends with kids the same sizes!) and packed up our newly purchased tire chains and headed out.

We saw snow not too far outside of LA, so we knew we would be in for a treat once we got up in elevation. And I was right! Just outside of the main entrance to the park, it turned into just a total winter wonderland. I had not seen this much snow since our snowboarding trip to Wolf Creek several years ago. And this was definitely surpassing that.

Kendall was so excited to see snow. I mean, she's seen it before, but since she was a very, very newborn, I don't think she has too many memories of it. So, when we pulled off at this store for a second, I rolled down her window and let her catch some snow in her hands. She loved it!

Before we got to the park, they had a chain checkpoint, where they were making you put chains on your tires. We have a 4WD, so they weren't as strict with us, but told us we'd probably still need them. So once we got inside the park, Grant put them on. While he was putting the chains on, I bundled the girls up (which was work, let me tell you!), and let them go play in the snow. The dressing part, they didn't like so much. But the snow play part, they LOVED!

Once Grant was done putting the chains on, he brought out one of the sleds we rented from the base before we left. We knew we had a long drive down to the Valley ahead of us, so it was fun to have this little adventure before that. Oh, and FYI, this was the first time sledding for ALL of us, which was really fun.

So after our nice little stop, we started heading towards the Valley, which is where all the good stuff is in Yosemite. Don't get me wrong, the whole park is incredible, but it's mainly just trees (huge trees). The waterfalls and everything that you go to Yosemite to see is in the Valley.

All I can say about that drive is that Grant was so annoyed that he had even taken the time to put the chains on. There were a few patches that we hit that the chains probably benefitted us, but overall, we really didn't need them. So he took them off about halfway through the drive.

Then we finally got to one of the most spectacular views, EVER! The tunnel view. You go through this tunnel, then all the sudden - BAM! God's creation just smacks you in the face. This was the spot that gave me goosebumps back in July. I got them again, because with the fog and the snow and the cliffs and the waterfall - it was just so surreal!

So after we took in the tunnel view, we kept on going. When we got to the Valley floor, I just couldn't believe how much snow was on the ground! And I love waterfalls, so they're just kind of breathtaking, you know? So Grant had me get out of the car so he could get some pictures of me with the waterfall in the background. All of that deep, powdery snow was just calling to me, so I decided to play in it for a few minutes, until I almost froze, so I came back.

We drove around a little more, then decided we should probably start making our way to the hotel, which was just outside the El Portal entrance to the park. We followed the Merced River all the way to the hotel, and it was just so beautiful!

The next morning, we got an early start to our day. The drive in, again, was beautiful (let's see how many times I use beautiful in this post), as you can see...

We decided to go back to the Tunnel View to get a clear look at everything, since it had been so foggy when we saw it the day before. Um, beautiful?! As far as the family pic goes, one of the great things about visiting Yosemite right after a snow storm, was the amount of photographers there. So we felt very confident about asking random people to take our picture, knowing they'd know how to work the camera, and not cut off our heads.

Here's just some random pictures that we took while driving on the Valley floor.

We finally made our way to Yosemite Falls for a little winter hiking. The Falls were absolutely {beautiful} as usual, and the girls loved getting out and playing in the snow.

Couple of things from this part, first...I realized that there was something not quite right about how Cami was dressed, then I realized what it was. I'm not saying who's responsible for this, all I'm saying is that I got Kendall dressed.

Next, Kendall really wanted to eat snow, so we gave her a little lesson in, "Don't ever eat yellow snow." Thankfully, this snow was perfectly white.

Next up was sledding. Like, for real sledding. So we went to this place that was just packed full of people, but we still had a blast. Kendall really wanted to do it by herself, so Grant let her do that a couple of times...not from the top of the hill, though.

Then we drove back to the Tunnel View a third time (although, I think we went this time because the girls were sleeping, so we were just trying to kill time while they napped), but I'll spare you more pictures. It's an amazing place, though. I had to talk Grant out of going back there a fourth time. That view just never gets old.

After they woke up, we did something that was another first for us, and probably the most adventurous thing we've done with kids - snowshoeing. Again, Grant rented these from the base before we left, and he really, really wanted to try it. I was more hesitant, but I went along with it. It ended up being alot of fun, and we were able to kind of get away from the crowds a bit, and just enjoy the snow by ourselves. And we finally made a snowman which was Kendall's #1 priority, I think, this whole trip. She also made a snow angel. We also went sledding again.

After that experience, it was time to go back to the hotel, and our trip was pretty much over! But I did want to give a little shout out to the hotel we stayed at. It's called the Yosemite View Lodge. We got a ridiculously cheap rate ($100/night) for a 2-story room with a kitchen. And it's only 2 miles from the El Portal entrance to the park, which is only about 10 more minutes to the Valley. The Yosemite Lodge charges about twice the price we paid, and I'm sure the rooms weren't anywhere near as big as the one we stayed in, and I doubt they have kitchens. Now, the Yosemite View Lodge is not totally up-to-date (notice the pink staircase), but the bed was comfy, and our girls slept great, and that's all I can hope for in a hotel room these days. I highly, highly recommend this place if you're going to Yosemite. There are some mixed reviews for this place out there, so I just wanted to add in my 2 cents.

"Super Bowl" Party

2011-02-08T09:10:00.000-08:00

The reason I have it in quotes, is because I don't know that we really watched the Super Bowl at all. So it was just a party. We had our good friends (The G Family) over. The boys, Peter and Matthew, are Kendall and Cami's buds. And Mike and Michelle are ours. So a good time was had by all.

I meant to take a picture of the food and the cake before it got torn into, but I forgot. Oh well...Michelle made the cake, isn't it so cute? Or, I mean, manly. Isn't it so manly? (Football cakes can't be cute, right?)

Disneyland!

2011-02-06T08:05:00.000-08:00

Our time here in California will be coming to a close later this year, so we're kind of hit in the face with things that we need to do before we move! Disneyland is definitely one of those things. I mean, we went back when Kendall was about 18 months old, and I was pregnant with Cami, but Kendall didn't start watching Mickey Mouse until after we went, so seeing the characters didn't mean anything to her. Plus, she's older now, so that also makes a big difference - she's at an age where she can better appreciate something like that. So we got a 3 day park hopper pass (which you can spread out however you want to, which is nice), Grant took off work this past Friday, and off we went!

It was a great time! Both girls really enjoyed themselves. And even though Cami is a couple months younger than Kendall was the last time we went, she does watch Mickey Mouse, so she knew who the characters were.

Speaking of the characters...remember back in December, I talked about Kendall's adverse reaction to Santa? Well, I kind of thought maybe she would be that way with the characters at Disneyland. Thankfully, she wasn't at all! We had kind of talked them up to her, so she would get excited. She definitely was excited! The day before we went, she was going through the list of everyone she wanted to meet and hug. When we got there, as soon as we walked into the park, we saw Minnie. She was hesitant at first, but we got in the long line to meet her, and during the time we waited, she got more and more excited. Although, she made sure to let me know that she did not want Minnie to hold her. Cami loved it, too. She's in this kissing phase right now, where she wants to kiss everything and everyone (except, of course, her mama), so she leaned over and kissed Minnie, so then Kendall wanted to kiss her, too. It was very sweet.

Next up, we tried to meet Mickey, but they closed the line down right before we got there, so we met Pluto instead.

Earlier in the week, while we were at the library storytime, I checked out some classic Disney movies that Kendall hadn't seen yet. One of them was Pinocchio, which I think is becoming one of her favorites. So we went on the Pinocchio ride (which was actually kind of scary), and then we went on the Storybook Land boat ride. The first thing you go through on that ride is the mouth of the whale from Pinocchio. Before we went to Disneyland, I showed Kendall a video of the park on their website, and she saw this boat ride and the whale, and she was very adamant that she did not want the whale to eat her. I explained that it was just pretend, he wasn't real, and he couldn't eat us, so she handled it well when we were on the ride.

One of the main things I wanted to do early on in our visit was to get Cami some mouse ears, since Kendall has hers from her last visit. I wanted to get them early, so there would be pictures of her wearing them throughout our time there. So we got them, and I think this was the only time she had them on that I could get a picture of.

We finally made our way to Toon Town, and we went straight to Mickey's house, since you're guaranteed to meet him there. For some reason, they keep Mickey's house really cold, so when we got to the part where you meet him, he was dressed in his Fantasia robe. Kendall said that was because he was cold. Cami absolutely loved Mickey, and he gave her some special attention. And I'm sorry for her horribly messy hair. I do actually comb it, but the mix of her cowlick, pulling out her barrett, and pulling off her hat multiple times, she ended up looking like a ragamuffin.

After Mickey's house we ate some lunch, then made our way to Minnie's house, to meet her again. As a side note, the good thing about going with just us is that we could do what Kendall wanted to do. If she wanted to meet Minnie twice, we could meet Minnie twice. That was really nice. So we got in line to meet Minnie, which was kind of a long line. Cami, of course, didn't want to wear her mouse ears, so she was letting her Daddy get a chance to wear them.

After Minnie's house, we went to Goofy's house, which is great because it has a playground.

Cami started really fading at this point (it was probably about 2:00), so we put her in the stroller, and Grant walked around with her to try to get her to sleep. Kendall and I went on the Go Coaster, which is a mini roller coaster. The line was really long for this, but every time the coaster would go by us (which, by the way, the coaster got really close to the line), Kendall would scream out of excitement. She's a little on the daredevil side when it comes to stuff like this. When it was our turn, they put us in the front car, which I thought she would be scared of, but she wasn't. Then she raised her arms for most of the ride. The only part of the ride she didn't like was the end. She was not quite ready for it to be over - and for what it's worth, it's an extremely short ride...30 seconds, maybe?

Cami ended up not sleeping during that whole time, but she was kind of in zombie mode, until we got to another part of Toon Town. Then she just wanted to get out and play.

Kendall was really dying to see the princesses, so that's where we went next, but the line was (again) long. So we took another chance at trying to get Cami to go to sleep. This time, we were successful!

We finally got up to meet the princesses, and the first one up was Belle. Right before it was our turn, Kendall saw Belle and got really excited, but as we walked up closer to her, she got a little nervous, and wanted me to hold her. She was very shy around them, and wouldn't look at them, but she did look at the camera for a picture, so that was good. I think because the princesses are more "real" than the other characters, that made her more shy. So we met Belle, Ariel, and Tiana.

After that, we made our way to Pixie Hollow, so Kendall could meet Tinkerbell. I thought she would be more excited about her, because she's seen more Tinkerbell stuff than princess stuff, but she was super shy again.

Then we made our way to Frontierland, and at one point, I looked down at Kendall in the stroller, and even though she had her eyes open, she was basically asleep. I think she was trying to stay awake. It was pretty pitiful! I told her to lay her head back and go to sleep, and she did immediately! So we just walked around the New Orleans area, which is mine and Grant's favorite part of the park, and then all over Frontierland. We made our way to Critter Country, because I wanted Cami to ride the Winnie the Pooh ride, but the whole area was closed down! So then we started making our way back to the front of the park to start heading out, but we wanted to get some ice cream first. While we were walking that way, we saw Mary Poppins, Bert, and the penguins, so we stopped to get a picture.

We got ice cream, and poor Kendall was sleeping through it all - even though it was a super noisy place! We did wake her up so she could get a couple of bites, but I don't think she remembers it at all.

So that was it! It was a long day, but the girls really did great. We're looking forward to going two more times before we move away!

Spanish Rice (I'm No Pioneer Woman)

2011-01-31T16:23:00.000-08:00

My dad is known for his spanish rice. He makes it ALL the time, and I've grown up eating it for as long as I can remember. I can't believe I used to actually hate his spanish rice, but that's a thing of the past. In fact, I would eat so much of it whenever I'd go home to visit, that I finally decided I needed to learn his "recipe."

Thing is, there's not a written recipe.

So about this time last year, when I was visiting my parents, I had him show me how to make it. I didn't write it down, so this is probably not exactly the way he does it, so this is my version of my dad's spanish rice.

And as the title of this thread says, I'm no Pioneer Woman, but I figured her style of explaining a recipe through photography would work well for this. So here goes...

Here's what you need. We'll talk about amounts as we go...

1 bunch of green onions
1 green bell pepper
28 oz can of diced tomatoes
white rice
brown rice
soy sauce (optional)
chicken broth
vegetable oil
olive oil
salt
cayenne pepper (optional)

Before you even turn on your burner, go ahead and prepare everything, so it's ready to throw in the skillet. The rice can burn really easily, so this way, you don't have to worry about not being able to watch it as you chop something, or measure something.

So chop your green onion and bell pepper, but keep them separated, because you'll add them at different times...

Okay, turn on the burner. I usually keep mine on about 6 or 7 (gas stove), but of course, do whatever works with your stove. You want it a little higher than medium heat.

Pour enough vegetable oil to cover the bottom of your pan...

After the oil gets hot, add the white rice. I use about 1 cup.

Try to coat it evenly around the surface of the pan.

You want the white rice to get browned. Get it? It should look something like this...

After it's been browned, add the brown rice...I use about 3/4 cup.

Stir the brown rice to incorporate it with the browned white rice and the oil.

At different points throughout, you may need to add a little bit more oil, just to prevent burning. I usually add olive oil when I do this. This would be one of those times....

Add the green onions...

Stir, and then let the onions cook for just a little bit...maybe a minute..

During that minute, you might want to add some more olive oil. Basically, if the pan starts looking too dry, I add just a little oil...

Add the green peppers...

Stir...

My dad likes to add a little soy sauce. I'm out of soy sauce, so this is where I add in some salt (a little more salt than usual, since I'm not doing the soy sauce)...

To your own taste, and only if you want to, sprinkle a little cayenne pepper.

Do you have your can of tomatoes open yet? If not, hurry up! Then you can add them...

Stir...

This is what it should look like so far...

Now it's time to add the chicken broth/water. How much you add really depends on how much rice you have. I use about 3 cups. If you don't have chicken broth, water is fine. The chicken broth just gives it a bit more flavor...

You want to add enough so that your rice mixture is completely covered, and then some...Kind of like this.

Cover, and turn the heat down a little...

And let it cook for...a while. I don't know...30 minutes? I never time my rice. You want all the liquid to cook out of it, without it burning. If you're unsure, you can always do the fork check.

When it's done, it should look like this...

And then fluff it with a fork so it looks like this!

And please, try to wait a little before tasting it, because that stuff is HOT!

I hope I haven't totally changed the way my dad cooks his rice. But for what it's worth, he has tasted it, and given it his seal of approval. It's not exactly like his, but it's pretty darn good.

Enjoy!

Her First Report Card

2011-01-31T06:37:00.000-08:00

A couple of Sundays ago in church, our pastor was talking about having role models, and imitating little children - about 2-3 year olds. So he started picking out kids from the congregation, asking how old they were. He asked how old Cami was, and I said 1 (you can listen to it here, and the part I'm referring to is at about 3:45). He went on to a few other kids, but Kendall noticed that he didn't ask about her. So she tapped me on the arm and said, "Mama, tell Pastor Paul I'm 3!" I said Okay, but then she poked me again and said, "Tell him NOW!" I told her I would wait until church was over to say anything about it.

As soon as Paul gave the benediction to dismiss us, she said, "You need to tell him now that I'm 3!" So we made our way over to him and told him. When we did that, of course, she was super shy and acted like she didn't know why we were telling him she was 3.

On Thursday, she got a card in the mail from Pastor Paul. I think this picture says the rest...

Tearjerker

2011-01-27T13:51:00.000-08:00

Do you watch American Idol? No? Well, so far you haven't missed much. Simon's not on this season, and I almost decided not to watch because of that. So far, the judges have been WAY too nice to some of these people trying out, and Grant and I truly miss Simon's comments.

I will say, though, that I'm glad I did decide to watch this season, because if I wasn't watching it, I wouldn't have seen what I saw last night. If you didn't see this, didn't hear about, whatever, here's the clip. I was literally sobbing as I watched this.

Everything about that scene is touching - the story, the love, the dedication, the music, the voice, the way Steven Tyler talks to Julie, the tear falling from Randy's cheek. I hope this guy makes it far.

Sisterly Love

2011-01-18T07:58:00.000-08:00

After breakfast this morning, I got Cami out of her high chair and I cleaned up the kitchen. Kendall was sitting in the recliner, and then I heard her say, "I gonna read to you Cami, come sit in my wap (lap)." Somehow Cami got in the recliner - not sure if she climbed or if Kendall pulled her, but whatever.

Kendall then started reading her the "Demon Bears" (that's apparently how she says Berenstain).

Life

2011-01-16T09:30:00.000-08:00

Story Time with Kendall from Kelly Spear on Vimeo.

Sorry...

2011-01-15T14:18:00.000-08:00

If you're reading this, chances are you're somewhere cold (even my friends and family in Florida are!), so I really hate to rub it in, but we just got back from the beach. And it wasn't one of those too-cool-to-wear-bathing-suits days (like so many days are here), either.

And before the beach, we went to a resort close by to have brunch. Outside. Looking out across the ocean.

I'm really sorry.

So as long as you promise not to hate me, enjoy some pictures...

Kendall Speak - Part 8

2011-01-05T09:40:00.000-08:00

I overheard Kendall "reading" to her babies: Once uponce a time, there was a baby named Jesus. And Jesus name was God. Does that make you happy, baby? Aww, baby still cryin'. You stop cryin' baby, and wisten to the story.

*****

We're at my mom's house, and I heard Cami crying in the play room, so I went in to see what was going on. Grant and Kendall were putting together a puzzle, and Grant said that Cami was trying to steal the pieces. He gave her one piece, and I was holding her, then she started pointing to the puzzle. I said, "Awww, Cami just wants to do the puzzle like her big sis." Kendall said, "You can do the puzzle, Cami. Just don't steal!"

*****

I was dropping Grant off at his mom's house, and he was dancing in the driveway as we pulled away. Kendall started laughing at him and said, "Daddy's a funny guy. I wuv Daddy."

****

We were getting ready to go out to eat with my parents, and my mom put on this really pretty blouse. Kendall came up to me and said, "Did you see Grandma's clothes? Is she going dancin'?"

****

Now that we're home, Kendall's revisiting all of her gifts she got here for Christmas and her birthday, one of them being a guitar from her BFF "Mookie." We currently don't have batteries for the guitar. She just said, "Mama, you been thinkin' 'bout goin' to Target? I think we need to get battwies, cause I need them for my 'tar, cause I need to pway muzic. So we need to get battwies fwom Target."

Merry Christmas/Happy Birthday

2010-12-25T04:47:00.000-08:00

Three years ago today, I officially became a mom - could there be a better Christmas gift?

Here's a picture of my big girl taken this morning.

If you're a somewhat new reader and want to read about Kendall's birth story, you can find it here, and for the first post I did after her birth, you can read this.

Merry Christmas!

40 Minutes in a Stranger's House

2010-12-22T18:46:00.000-08:00

Wanna hear a story? It's a good one! Well, I think it's a good one...it could be one of those things where you think you had to be there.

Okay, so we're here in Florida for the holidays, right? It's Wednesday night, and we decided to go check out some Christmas lights. Growing up here in Pensacola, one of the local catholic churches always had this HUGE display of Christmas lights. At some point they stopped doing it, but I heard they recently brought it back. So we headed out with the girls and Grant's parents to go check it out.

We get there, and the parking lot is E-M-P-T-Y. Okay, there maybe was one other car. But that's it. Not quite the crowds we were expecting. Grant's mom gets on the phone and asks her friend if she knew anything about it, and she said that they are doing lights, but only on the weekends.

So there went that idea.

We already had the girls in the stroller, so we decided to walk around the grounds a bit. Not only did this church used to do a Christmas lights display, but they also used to have the annual "Saint Anne's Round-Up," which was just a fun thing to go to. So walking around really brought back alot of memories that I hadn't thought of in about (I hate to even say this) 20 years (that can't be right!).

While we were walking around, we noticed there were people in the chapel, so we peeked in and saw a choir director leading a practice. This might seems like a trivial detail, but keep this in mind for later.

We made our way back to the car, but Grant's mom got another idea for something to do from her friend. She had a flier for this house out in Beulah (out in the country) that supposedly had 3,000 lights and all sorts of decorations, and this was the last night to see it, so we should probably go there.

Beulah wasn't too far from Saint Anne's, so we said Why not?

So off we went to some random house out in Beulah. We finally get to the street that this house was on, and we were expecting to see a long line of cars, or traffic, or SOMETHING. But there was nothing. Just a nice little quiet neighborhood.

Grant's mom told us the house number, and when we saw it, it had a few modest decorations out front, and some decorations visible through some of the windows, but nothing that stood out. Well right after she said the house number, she mentioned, "And we're supposed to go in," kind of nonchalantly.

Grant said, "WHAT? We're going IN there?" To which I replied, "Uh, NO we're NOT!!!"

Everyone in the car just starts cracking up, because really, there was nothing special about this place. Grant drove past the house to the end of the street, turned around and drove back past. His mom said she wanted to go knock on the door, and as she was getting out, I kindly suggested that maybe he should just ditch her, but of course he didn't.

Betty actually got out of the car, walked herself right up to that door and knocked. What she and the lady talked about, I don't really know. What I do know, is about 30 seconds later, I heard, "We're going in!"

So we parked in the driveway, and Grant made a comment about not wanting to get killed. When he turned off the car Kendall said, "Daddy, don't let me get killed." And that, folks, is why we will not be winning Parents of the Year.

Okay, so we go inside, and apparently, this lady was trying to promote her house as something to come see, but it hadn't really caught on. She wouldn't tell us how many people had come, she would just say, "Not many." Which we took to mean "You're pretty much it."

I'm not kidding when I say that Betty and I hid in a corner and laughed (we tried to be quiet about it, at least) for probably the first five minutes of our being there. Then I thought this lady might really think we're the crazy ones if we don't stop laughing, so we eventually stopped and started walking around. I snapped this picture of Betty and the lady of the house, and at first I thought it was a bad one of Betty, but now I really like this one because it was taken in the middle of our laughing fit. I think I was giggling when I took it...

She had 22 Christmas trees throughout the house. Twenty. Two. TWENTY TWO!!!!!! It sounds like a lot, but she actually had a really big house, and it was very tastefully done. Here's just a sampling of what some of it looked like...

Each tree had a theme (patriotic, under the sea, nutcracker, gingerbread, etc), and usually coordinated with something in whatever room it was in. I took particular interest in her craft room and how she decorated that tree...

When I told her I was a fellow quilter, she pulled out this beauty that she's been working on. Her mom actually started it 2 years before she died, which was 3 years ago!

We found out that the reason she was opening up her house was for a fundraiser for Navy Relief. Her husband is in the Navy, and they have lived all over the world, and have collected ornaments from everywhere they've been.

Anyways, after about 40 minutes of tramping throughout her house, taking way too many pictures, asking too many questions...we decided it was time to go, where we all laughed - alot.

While we were driving home, someone (I think it was Grant) asked where her husband was. Betty said, "Oh, he's the choir director at Saint Anne's, and they had choir practice tonight."

Remember what I said earlier? When we were at Saint Anne's, we looked in the chapel and saw the choir director leading practice!!!

Pensacola's not huge, but it's not small, by any means. So that was just totally random, that we happened to see this stranger's husband in a completely different part of town.

So that's my story! If you didn't think it was funny, I'm sorry. It was definitely a highlight for us, and we keep saying that nothing from the rest of our time here will top it.

DPP - Day 19

2010-12-19T19:26:00.001-08:00

Before the hustle-and-bustle of Christmas with extended family, we wanted to do an opening-gifts-time just for the 4 of us, so that's what we did this morning.

DPP - Day 18

2010-12-18T15:57:00.001-08:00

Well, it may seem I have been slacking for the December Photo Project, but not in other areas! I'm frantically doing stuff around the house, getting ready for our trip, and getting ready for Kendall's birthday party, which was this morning. It was a western-themed party, but I wanted to incorporate Christmas colors.

I made chocolate cupcakes with homemade peppermint cream cheese frosting. They were yummy!

The Christmas Spirit

2010-12-17T18:06:00.000-08:00

Bear with me as I write this. I usually don't get this deep, so hang on...

During this time of year, there's countless TV shows and movies dedicated to "The Christmas Spirit" - yet none of them mention the birth of Christ, which is what Christmas is about, is it not? I mean, His name is right there in the word itself!

It's really kind of started to bother me, this generic "Christmas Spirit," so it got me thinking, which led to me writing this.

So I ask, what is the Christmas Spirit? And why do you have it? What makes this holiday and this time of year so different than all the others? If you take Christ out of the equation, what do you have? Isn't it just any other day?

I admit that I get into the Santa and reindeer thing, too. That's a really fun part of Christmas, it encourages the imagination, etc - I get it. But the holiday is not called Santamas. When it comes right down to it, we're not celebrating Santa, we're celebrating Christ.

One of our favorite Christmas carols is not a popular one, but it's one of the oldest. It's called "Of the Father's Love Begotten," and it was written in the 5th Century. (That right there is pretty cool, I think - the fact that we can still sing a song written so long ago, and the meaning of it hasn't changed. Amazing.) One of the verses says this:

O that birth forever blessèd, when the virgin, full of grace,
By the Holy Ghost conceiving, bare the Savior of our race;
And the Babe, the world’s Redeemer,
First revealed His sacred face, evermore and evermore!

That, my friends, should be "The Christmas Spirit" - rejoicing in the birth of our Christ! Without Him, our lives are empty and meaningless.

I know this, and I've known it for a long time (since I was raised in a Christian home), but sometimes when you're taught something at a very young age, you tend to just kind of say these rehearsed phrases, and not really think about them. Now that I'm older and raising my own kids, I've found myself really thinking deeper about it all, because I really have to break down this huge concept into smaller bits and pieces to someone who's learning it all for the first time.

In closing, as I was searching for some sort of references I could use for this post, I came across this old sermon by John MacArthur. I really liked his closing prayer:

Father, we thank You for this marvelous reminder of the focus of life which is worship. May it come from deep within us, directed toward You, our saving God, for what You have done for us, what You have done for generation after generation of saved sinners and the way in which You have kept every promise to Your people. We rejoice. And our rejoice finds its focus in this great historic moment when You came into the world as a baby. Thank You, we praise You, we offer You our heart worship in Your Son's name. Amen.

Mixed Feelings

2010-12-16T06:50:00.000-08:00

You tell me if any of this makes sense...

Yesterday, we were at Grant's Christmas party for work. Santa made an appearance, like he does every year. Every year, Kendall has freaked out. This year, was not only no different, but worse than the previous freak-outs. Now, I realize that a lot of kids don't like seeing a big, hairy guy with a red suit and hat, and it's not unusual to see some crying.

This is not that.

We're talking blood-curtling screams, crying, shaking, yelling "NO!!!!" It sounded like something out of a horror movie, and it lasted for several minutes.

Keep in mind, all of this was a reaction to just seeing Santa. We weren't trying to make her sit in his lap or wave at him - He simply walked into the room, and that's what she did.

So, she finally calmed down (a little) and I was trying to get her mind on other things, so I took her to the dessert table, with all sorts of cakes, cookies, and pies. I asked her what she wanted, and she said, "A cupcape!" So, I'm looking around at all the dozens of cupcakes, and I asked which one she wanted. Buried under a couple of stacks of cupcake boxes, she noticed a cupcake with a little plastic Santa stuck in it, and she excitedly said, "I want the Santa cupcape!"

Really?

Then there was another Santa-sighting freak out (while she was holding her beloved Santa cupcake), so we went upstairs to where they were raffling off gift baskets. So we're looking at all the gift baskets, and inside one of them was a Santa stocking. I didn't see it, but Kendall did, so she said, "I want that Santa stocking!"

When we asked her why she reacted that way to seeing Santa, she never really gave us an answer except for "Because," or "I was 'cared."

But as I type this out, she's happily watching a Christmas movie featuring Santa and she loves it!

I just don't get it...

DPP - Day 14

2010-12-14T18:41:00.000-08:00

Grant went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch with his office today, and he brought home a fried chicken foot. Awesome.

DPP - Day 13

2010-12-13T09:16:00.000-08:00

So, I missed a day. And this picture was from a couple of days ago. But whatever. This was our sunrise the other day, and it was absolutely beautiful. For a few minutes, everything looked purple!

DPP - Day 11

2010-12-11T11:45:00.001-08:00

This picture deserves another post from my phone.

Yes, it's December. And yes, we're at the beach.

Don't hate!

It's nice and sunny and warm with a wonderfully cool breeze.

Don't do it...don't hate us!

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DPP - Day 10

2010-12-10T08:47:00.000-08:00

Is this what you would choose to wear on a cold, rainy, foggy day? By the way, she's fake sneezing.

DPP - Day 9

2010-12-09T18:44:00.000-08:00

It happens every day, but the girls always get so excited to have their Daddy home.

DPP - Day 8

2010-12-08T17:13:00.000-08:00

As long as we live here, I don't think I'll ever get sick of seeing these sunsets. Would you?