Going to church the Sunday before Valentine's Day

Before going to bed I did my routine check on the girls.  Em has insisted on sleeping on this tiny mattress on the floor instead of her big queen size bed.  This is how I found her:

After removing the blanket

Here are a couple random pics from a few weeks ago on a family outing that I never got around to posting.

Em and C are in their fitting places. j/k of course, I really do love my children!

Whitney

Whitney Houston was the first musical artist I adored. I remember my older sister had records in her desk drawer, and most of the music she played I didn't care for. But she had a Whitney Houston record, and I fell in love with the song, "The Greatest Love of All." I had to be only six or seven, but I have distinct memories of sitting on our bed holding the album cover in hand, staring at her beautiful face (but weird haircut I thought) and listening to that song over and over again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYzlVDlE72w&feature=branded

She was such a beautiful and talented woman, and has a special place in my heart as the artist of the first eighties song I ever loved.

I've always loved the name Whitney and if we ever have another girl would consider naming her that, but I'd have to convince the Major and that might be tough. But, perhaps the reason I've always loved that name is because it is reminiscent of beauty.

Pro Am

Today was the Pro Am Golf Tournament at Pebble Beach. I'm not much of a golf fan, but Ben bought some tickets for cheap that a classmate won in a raffle, and Pebble Beach is right close, so we made it a family outing. Ben tells me it's a once in a lifetime opportunity, so we had to go.

Tip: Golf tournaments should be on your top ten list of places NOT to take your kids. We had to walk A TON and it just so happened to be the day that C wanted to be held constantly, and of course Em, wanting to be treated equally as C, also had to be held constantly... so we had to lug them around everywhere! And you know how it's supposed to be super quiet when the golfers are putting? Well, C was shouting the whole time at the Metlife blimp in the sky... "blimp... Blimp! BLIMP!!!" totally disturbing the peace. So they were a handful to say the least. But I did get some SWEET pics.

(BTW, it was totally prohibited to take pics, so I had to be super sly with the cell phone.)

This is the first celebrity we saw... George Lopez. He's wearing the fedora hat on the very left.

Next we saw this guy... the coach of the 49ers, Jim Harbaugh (guy on the right for those of you who don't follow football).

This was a very funny thing that happened. One of the golfers (can't remember who) hit the ball directly at us standing behind the rope. Everyone covered their head in fear of getting hit. It landed just a few feet from us. Can you see it? It dropped right in front of this unsuspecting lady who was walking along the path. It totally surprised her and as a natural reaction she bent down to pick it up. Everyone screamed, "Noooo!!!" and stopped her just in time. It was hilarious. You can see the official trying to clear everyone away from the ball.

And of course you have to recognize this guy, Bill Murray. He was sooo funny... totally played to the crowd.

Check out his getup.

And the last celebrity we saw was Clyde the glide Drexler from back in the day.

Here's Clyde playing on the 18th hole.

Me carrying C... she would cling like a koala bear if I tried to put her down.

Daddy and his girls just seconds before he dropped Em on her head. True story. The worst part was we were standing at the base of the bleachers, so everyone saw it.

And I had to throw this one in for good measure. I took the girls to the beach with my neighbor friend last week and we spotted this character there. I probably shouldn't post pics of complete strangers, but this guy was genuinely PROUD of his beachwear. Californians really do march to the beat of their own drum. I love it!

Whale Watching

Friday we went to Point Lobos, a nearby state park to look for whales. You see, it's their migrating season, and the ranger in the booth told us there have been sightings almost everyday. So we were pretty pumped.

C on the trail. Stairs are the true love of her life.

We walked to the outlook and lo and behold we sighted a whale! Seriously. Well, first we sighted a huge school of dolphins. Can you see them? Look really REALLY hard.

You might have to bring out your binoculars like C here.

This is the picture of the whale. I promise she's there (I'm assuming it's a SHE since the brochure said the whales head south to give birth). Well, in case you can't see it, I'll tell you what we saw... first we spotted water spraying out of the ocean. When we looked through our binoculars we could see a gray whale splashing around. It would spray, then come up out of the water, do some sort of roll, go back under the water head first and then it's tail would flip up and come splashing down in the water. It was sweet!! It was the first time in my life that I ever saw a whale. (Remember I'm from Price...while it's true we did have a wave pool, we unfortunately didn't have any real sea life.)

Em did her darndest to spot it, but didn't have much luck.

And of course I had to get a pic of the two together. We took about a dozen and this is seriously the best one that turned out. True. Em's doing sit-ups, C is pointing out a plane (her favorite thing after stairs)

C being left on the trail

Here in Central California there aren't many palm trees, but rather these beautiful cypress trees. They are cool looking.

Lemon Tree

Check out this lemon tree we bought at Home Depot... that's right... HOME DEPOT! Never seen a lemon tree at Home Depot, but I suppose it makes sense here. I didn't go there to buy a lemon tree per se, but when I saw it I decided why not? I mean, where else am I ever going to have a lemon tree in my backyard? Chances are not in Poland. Plus, check out all those lemons that came with the tree!

Ben digging the hole

My little gardening assistant

And the lemon bars were gone before I got a chance to take a picture. If anyone has any great ideas for the use of lemons, send them my way!

I don't sew

I don't knit

I don't scrapbook

I don't quilt

I don't make jewelry

I don't make bows (the few I have made have quickly fallen apart)

I don't blog (er, I take that back) I don't make artistic, creative blogs...

BUT I can now proudly say that...

I DO BAKE BREAD!!

As in homemade bread starting from the wheat grain to a beautiful warm scrumptious loaf. Seriously, it's the proudest day for me in my short domestic life.

This certainly is not the first time I've made bread, but it's the first time that it has turned out looking and tasting like bread. Every time I've made it something has been wrong. Most recently my loaves turned out to be the exact shape of a brick... and just about the same consistency. But, thanks to an enrichment class I attended last week by a pastry chef, I learned a few things. It turns out I wasn't doing any one thing wrong, I was doing several things wrong! Start with kneading the dough. Like who doesn't know you're supposed to knead the dough? Try ME. And I wasn't adding enough flour, letting it rise long enough, or letting it rise twice. Minor details, right?

So in this day of low carb/high protein nutrition fads, why would I be so pumped about making homemade wheat bread? This is why:

Because my little peanut eats it like it's going out of style (as long as it has an inch thick spread of jam on top). Here she's literally lickin' her fingers clean. (Yeah, I know she's not looking on top of her game, but who is after a four hour nap?)

Most of you know, Caroline is somewhat ambivalent about food (gross understatement). She only eats once in awhile and when she does her diet consists of cheerios, oatmeal if you're lucky, scrambled eggs if you're really REALLY lucky, and pancakes. No fruits, no veggies, no meat, no bread, you know, all those life sustaining foods. But she does eat MY bread so I am happy to make it all the day long even if she only eats four bites (which is about her average). So take that all you domestic goddesses!! I finally mastered something besides vacuuming! And watching my family eat it makes every second worth while.