Erin, Author at The Sunny Side Up Blog

Feeling Creative

10.12.09

Halloween Fun

I thought it might be fun to post some of the Halloween things we’ve been up to lately. Last weekend was a special occasion in our house. The new “Barbie and the Three Musketeers” was released. Yes… that WAS the special occasion. We had a family movie night to watch it for the first time. Kenny and I are as into the Barbie movies as the girls (seriously) so a good time was had by all. :)

I made the girls this treat for the show. I threw in all of their favorite snacks…popcorn, pretzels, m&m’s and fishy crackers. Then added some candy corns in my jack-o-lantern dish to make it a “Halloween Treat.”

Too good to share.

We also made some Spooky Spiders out of suckers and pipe cleaners. I found the idea here. Next time I need to buy thicker pipe cleaners (our legs look a little spindly). The girls had fun gluing the eyes and bending the legs and of course, eating the suckers.

xoxo, Erin

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Addison

10.12.09

Princesses on Ice

Fun weekend. We enjoyed dinner with friends Sat. night and Sat. morning took the girls to see Disney Princesses on Ice. They loved it. Until intermission when Addison decided she’d had enough and needed a nap. She was sleepy all weekend from getting her flu shot on Friday. She did, however, wake up during the second half just in time to hear Cinderella say “but you see…I have the other slipper…”

The Crew (Mitchell decided Addison shouldn’t be the only one to catch some zzz’s)

and my little Sleeping Beauty… who took another nap when we got home from the show.

xoxo, Erin

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home decor 2

10.08.09

Paintings

Kenny’s birthday was at the end of August and my niece, Claire, turned two at the end of September. I wanted to get them both something special this year so I contacted one of my blog buddies, the ultra talented Jana, and ordered some paintings from her. I’ve always been in love with her paintings and was so excited to have my own done! The cool thing is that we started out e-mailing about painting costs and color choices and before long we were e-mailing each other our life stories including past relationships with guys. We quickly became good friends. :) She is also a great photographer and ended up coming to San Diego to do photo sessions for me and some of my friends. Thanks to Jana I’m actually on the ball for Christmas cards this year. We had such a great time! Thanks again for everything Jana!

As far as the paintings go, I sent her this picture of my niece Claire…

And she did this painting for me…

Then I sent her this picture of Kenny and the girls…

and she did this painting for me…

I wanted Kenny to have something fun to hang in his office aside from boring law diplomas and I think this did the trick. I was about to have her paint one more of my girls for me to keep here at my house, but now I’m thinking I’ll wait until #3 joins the family and include the little dude or dudette in the picture too. :) Jana – thank you thank you thank you! I love them both so much and so did Kenny and Carly. You can check out more of Jana’s paintings here on her blog and you can see the painting she posted of Claire here.

xoxo, Erin

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Food and Cooking...or lack thereof

10.07.09

Third time’s the charm

K – the roll issue was really bugging me. I had to try making them again. I guess third time’s the charm!

Maybe it was because I made them while I was wearing my favorite boots from Italy.

Or maybe it was because I had my lucky rubber band holding up my skinny jeans (I don’t remember pulling out the lucky rubber band as early as 13 weeks with my past two pregnancies)

Or maybe it was because I actually followed the instructions this time. Nah – I think it was the boots. Or the lucky rubber band.

Anyway – I felt so GOOD today! For the first time in six weeks I felt like I had my energy back and oh how I’ve missed it! I wasn’t sick at all. I didn’t feel the need to lay down every hour. And I didn’t feel like I wanted to hurt anyone! Bonus. I got so much accomplished. House clean. Fridge and pantry organized. 30 minutes on the treadmill. Pics developed and a scrapbook page started. The normal stuff with the girls’ schedules. Had 8 girls over for Activity Days (a church thing). Prepared tons of food! Well – tons compared to my norm. I made the rolls and then made BBQ Pulled Pork to go in them for dinner. I followed this recipe from The Picky Palate. For lunch I made grilled cheese sandwiches for the girls (yes, I totally count this as cooking since I have to use the stove) and I made a salad and salad dressing for me for the week. Since my favorite turkey still isn’t tasting good to me (sniff) I’ve been floundering every day at lunch and have been eating a lot of random junk. In an effort to eat a little better I made one of my standby healthy meals. I can’t make it for dinner anymore because one time we ate it for like three weeks straight (I tend to find something I like and eat it over and over again) and Kenny got so sick of it. He told me we aren’t rabbits and he was done with the rabbit food. So I’ll eat it for lunch. It’s really good and filling and healthy. And much better than rabbit food.

The salad is just random veggies and whatever I have on hand (cucumber, celery, carrots, apples, sliced almonds, etc.) and the salad dressing I made is a recipe from my ultra healthy friend Koni. Supposedly it’s the “good kind of fat.” Bonus. All I know is that it makes the vegetables taste really good.

Salad Dressing:

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

1 cup extra virgin olive oil (I hear this combo and start thinking of Macaroni Grill and their bread and my mouth starts watering!)

1/4 tsp basil

1/2 tsp oregano

2 minced garlic bulbs

Shake well and keep in cupboard (don’t refrigerate!)

Good dressing. Good salad. Finally – good rolls. It was a good day. :)

xoxo, Erin

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Food and Cooking...or lack thereof

10.05.09

You know you’re cool when

You know you’re cool when Kami from No Biggie and Sarah from Clover Lane comment on your blog. If you haven’t read either of these blogs before you should go there and check them out immediately! They are two of my favorites and are full of so many fun things. I actually feel like I’ve become friends with these two through blogging (isn’t blogging so great that way?) even though I am still a little star struck by them both.

You know you’re cool when you come up with the perfect solution for an ongoing problem. My girls have been destroying my kitchen table with their painting and coloring projects. Dents, paint, and marker marks are all over it! I finally went to Home Goods and spent $1 on a plastic Halloween table cloth to throw on when they are ready to create. It is decorated with cats and witches and ghosts and is completely hideous. My girls love it. And so do I. No more scrubbing the table! And for that price I can buy a new one for every holiday/season.

You know you’re cool when you volunteer in your daughter’s Kindergarten class and when you walk in the room her face completely lights up and she introduces you by saying “this is my mom” with an overwhelming sense of happiness and pride. I couldn’t have felt cooler if I was Julia Roberts walking down the red carpet. It was one of those mom moments I wish I could bottle up and pull out later for when I’m feeling not so Julia Robertsish.

You know you’re cool when you are pregnant and feeling an array of emotions that go from giddy happiness to raging mad to lightheaded and anxious to sad and emotional and you are able to completely control them and act calm and collected at all times. Yeah….that’s not really happening around here. I’m not that cool.

You know you’re cool when you make your mom’s banana bread and FINALLY get it right. I usually don’t cook it long enough and have a doughy middle or I cook it too long and burn the top. I avoided both of these outcomes this time by using my cupcake/muffin tins and wa-la! Banana bread muffins that turned out great! Plus I got to use my cute Halloween cupcake holders and plus I didn’t have to deal with the messy crumbs from the banana bread loaf all over my counter and plus the muffins didn’t have a doughy middle or a burned top. A lot of pluses were discovered and a photo was taken.

You know you’re NOT cool when you attempt to make rolls and completely screw things up. Twice. First I cooked Pillsbury Crescent rolls which didn’t raise and looked like rolls better suited for mice.

Puzzled, I read the back and realized that I had frozen them and they were supposed to just stay in the fridge prior to baking. Kenny made some nice comments about how reading the package always helps. I said some choice words back since I was feeling hormonal and not in the mood for his sarcasm. I then pulled out some other Rhodes rolls I’d had for a while and laid them out to raise and cooked them a few hours later. Attempt #2:

Not looking much better. I couldn’t understand why they didn’t look as big and fluffy as the last time I made them so I read the package and realized that the last time I made them was about a year ago and they have been expired since May. Once again – Kenny added some more comments about reading the package and once again I offered up some comments of my own.

A few lessons were learned:

1) Quit while you’re ahead. Given my track record in the kitchen it was completely amazing that I produced edible banana bread muffins and I should have just stopped there.

2) Although I hate to admit it – reading the package (or in my case packages) might help. A little. But not having to deal with hormones and a smug, annoyingly right husband would help even more.

3) There is no shame in store bought rolls. Which we will be enjoying next Sunday. And the Sunday after that.

4) Coolness comes and goes. Bask in it while you can.

xoxo, Erin

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home decor 2

10.01.09

Getting ready for Fall

xoxo, Erin

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Ellie and Addison

09.30.09

September Wrap-Up

Has September really come and gone!? Here are a few happenings to wrap up our month.

This month…

My girls got creative with their jewelry once again. (add picture to this post)

Addison decided she DOES like the double jogger after all. Only took three years.

we celebrated birthdays

and my roses started blooming

a few laughs were heard

and help was given when needed

Addison improved her car washing skills (cost per wash: small bag of fishy crackers)

Kenny and I celebrated our 12 year wedding anniversary

we’ve known each other way too long and are completely opposite from one another…which is why we work

Here we are at age 15 and 17. I think we took this picture of ourselves at a park, under a blanket. We will never let our girls go to parks. And hang out with guys under blankets. (not that my parents knew that was where we were) But for us, here’s to many more years of making out under blankets together. Minus the braces. Love you babe.

we said good-bye to care free days at the beach and took on a more scheduled routine

but still managed to spend a few more warm days playing in the water

and at the swimming pool

now we’re finally ready to say good-bye to Summer

and hello to Fall!

xoxo, Erin

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Family

09.29.09

Grandparents and Disney

Kenny’s parents came to visit over the weekend so we headed to Disneyland for a couple of days. I know – again? I seriously can’t get enough of the place. We actually had this overnighter planned for quite awhile. I didn’t even need a Charger win to pull if off. :)

We love the princesses…

and the parades…

and the family bonding…

and we especially love the frozen lemonade.

Another great trip!

Thanks for coming to visit grandma and grandpa! Love you guys.

xoxo, Erin

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Ellie and Addison

09.25.09

Pregnant

It’s the new look for Fall.

At least at our house.

xoxo, Erin

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Ellie

09.23.09

A good reminder

Last Saturday we were driving home from a pool party and Kenny and I started a conversation that often comes up about our “someday” house and our “someday” yard. We were going on and on about how great it will be to someday have a bigger yard, a swimming pool, a huge area for entertaining, oh…and wouldn’t one of those Costco swing sets for the kids be fun? Wouldn’t it be fabulous if our house included a theatre room for Kenny, an exercise and scrapbook room for me, plenty of room for all of our kids, and how about a HUGE playroom? If only …someday. Ellie stopped us mid-conversation and asked what we were talking about. Kenny answered, “wouldn’t you love to live in a big house someday with a swimming pool?”

“NO, I don’t EVER want to leave our house!”

“Not even for a swimming pool?”

“But dad, we already have a swimming pool!”

You’re right Ellie. We do already have a swimming pool. We get a new pool each summer. A great pool. Thanks for reminding your parents that life is all about being content with what you have. And thanks to you, my wise five year old, what we have is more than enough.

xoxo, Erin

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Ramblings

09.21.09

Dear Chargers,

Hi team. My name is Erin and I am a fan. My husband’s name is Kenny and he is a MAJOR fan. You may remember us from the Christmas card we sent you all a couple of years ago…dedicated to you. Did I mention we were Charger fans? Well, we are.

Just wanted to send you a quick note to let you know that you need to step it up a bit this year. I know you won the first game you played, but just BARELY and it was against the Raiders. The Raiders? Way too close for comfort. And today. A loss against the Ravens? What happened?

You see, when you win and are doing well, my husband (who is a MAJOR Charger fan) gets giddy like a kid on Christmas. He lives for this all year long. Nothing can compare to the happiness that emanates from him when football is going and the Chargers are winning. In fact, he gets in such a good mood that I tend to benefit immensely. It’s during these winning streaks that I choose to discuss extremely important issues with my husband, like how I MAY have spent a little more than planned on the girls’ Halloween costumes, how the dishwasher MAY need to be fixed, or how I MAY have run another red light with a camera earlier that day. I might choose a winning game day to casually show him the new dress I bought, to mention that the girls and I would love another weekend at Disneyland, or to even discuss our Christmas budget for the upcoming holidays. Now normally these topics might not make his day, in fact, in the off season, they might even cause a fight. BUT… if football is on, and the Chargers are winning…everything is wonderful! “Overspent on Halloween? What’s new! Dishwasher? Call someone tomorrow! Red light? My babe and her crazy driving! (said with a smile and a ruffle to the hair) New dress? You look great! Disneyland? Name the day! Christmas budget? What budget??!!”

So Chargers, as you can see, I’m in desperate need of a few wins this season. I’ve got a “honey do” list a mile long and several items of business that need discussing. Think you can pull it off? After all, I am a Charger fan. And my husband, Kenny, is a MAJOR Charger fan. Did I mention the Christmas card? Made in your honor?

Yours truly,
Erin