Fam Faves Day 4 - Wet Brush

Macey has gotten infinitely better in the last year about me doing her hair, but for a while there I thought we would eternally fight about brushing hair.

I don't have a sensitive head so that probably doesn't help her.

I had heard about this amazing brush from maskcara

but thought I was happy with our current brush.

Then I tried it out at my sister in law's house

and knew I had to have one.

Really, it's an essential hair brush.

Fam Faves Day 3 - Eating Places

This day is for Sweet Mackayla

who has been asking for a while if we're going anywhere for dinner

and I just recently put together that her Love of going to eat at "eating places" is

Restaurants.

Which for our family is awesome because, well, we go out occasionally.

That's what makes her questions so cute.

Technically that makes us NOT an authority on restaurants in the area, but since we only go with highly recommended restaurants from others...maybe this is a pretty good list after all.

In general, I'd rather try something unique over a chain restaurant, but that's just me,

going out is always nice...no cooking or cleaning!

Stack's - Mission Viejo (close to us, rated #1 restaurant in the area by TripAdvisor, take it for what it's worth, kinda like a Denny's but better! We sat on the small sunny porch on a perfect day.)

Rider's Club Cafe - San Clemente (mom and pop, Best Burgers EVER - fresh, EVERYTHING homemade even the pickles.)

South of Nick's - San Clemente (classy, delicious, and with it being Mexican food it's always a winner) I also hear Nick's is good - it's American:)

BJ's Restaurant - Newport Beach, Rancho Santa Margarita, Laguna Beach (Great pizza! and if you go you have to get a pizookie (...so I hear:))

El Maguey's - San Juan Capistrano (I've never been, but Ben loves it and they go there all the time for work meetings.)

California Pizza Kitchen - it's a chain, but it is a good one.

 Cheesecake Factory, Cinnamon Productions, Jalapenos, El Adobe, Sarducci's, Diho Siam

This isn't a complete list of everywhere we've gone, but almost;)

The kids would say McDonald's but I just can't do it anymore. Only on long drives when their tricky invention of nasty playlands lure us there!

Fam Faves Day 2 - Lego Control

This post is inspired by one of Cody's favorite things:

LEGOS!!

And, they are so fun for him...and even the girls

but they have SWARMED and taken over our LIVES!

Enter this contraption:

There are even pockets for favorite pieces, instruction booklets, or "guys" or "weapons."

This is a small contained amount of legos for picture purposes only-not reality. Which is way, way more chaotic.

But when they're done playing all the chaos can quickly be cinched up with the drawstring and hung in a dark corner. 

This was sewn by my incredibly talented aunt. I'm sure she would make more:)!!

Fam Faves Day 1 - Salsummus

This month, at least part of it, we're doing family favorites. Last year I did some of my favorite things, but I thought I would involve everyone this year.

Our first post is a contribution from Ben, the inventor of one of our favorite snacks.

Salsa + Hummus = salsummus

I just made that word up, in case you didn't know :p

But it has to be SPECIFICALLY

Jack's Salsa and Sabra Hummus

otherwise you won't appreciate what we're talking about.

 + 

  It's particularly in good in a classy straw bowl

with your favorite tortilla chips.
We always find them at Costco:)...the ingredients...not the bowl, but now you want a bowl, don't you.

Enjoy!

New Years Events

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!

Totally unintentionally we stayed up until midnight!

Our annual picture together:

The next morning... It snowed in Orange County!

Maybe my favorite part were the lines of cars parked on the side of the road with people taking pictures of it!

 Even though it was cold-ish, we went to the park on New Years' Eve day. Ben was on call and didn't get called out. Success! Still, we decided on something simple just in case - which in my opinion is the best option anyway!

It's a new park we've never been to and we loved it!!! Despite the pained looks on their faces.

It's the sun ;)

 Cute rainbow chairs! 

 Cheese souffle in muffin tins for lunch with sweet potatoes, strawberry lemonade shake, corn and asparagus. Random and delicious!

 Nothing like a New Years Day swim!!

Ben played volleyball all morning with some great players. He was on call and just got to swim for 20 minutes or so, just enough time to soak his sore muscles, and then headed out. All in all a great day though!

I think this year, this month, we're going to do 'Family Favorite Things'

and a list of goals...although I'm not sure about doing 100...we'll see :)

Christmas

Note to self - Next year for Christmas:

*Open Christmas jammies at Thanksgiving to wear all month!

*Choose just a couple nice thoughtful presents for each kid.

*New outfit for Mackayla. She only got socks clothing-wise this year and it was her favorite gift! (?!)

*Keep an envelope of Christmas receipts. They are still laying all over my house x(

*Our elf's handwriting on his notes may have to change next year as the kids get more observant.
(Sometimes our elf is cool, sometimes he is not:)
I don't even know the actual rules for this elf craze. We have our own rules, including that we can touch our elf and he doesn't come to our house until 12 days before Christmas.)

*Kids can open their stockings before we get up!
I left this note for Cody in his room but he thought it was from the ELF and didn't want to get in trouble so he didn't go down! He said he woke up around 4:30!

I liked that we had a nice dinner on Christmas Eve and then finger foods on Christmas Day while we played with new stuff. Next year we will have to have dinner earlier so we have more time for everything after on Christmas Eve. We also spent some relaxing, fun time at our friends' house Christmas day.

Some things I loved this Christmas:

*Handmade gifts from cousins.

*Seeing the kids excitement.
*Facetiming with grandparents to open presents.
*My brothers gift of movies for us and the kids.

*Cody's reaction to his santa gift of Zoomer Dino. We debated whether or not we cared if he got his santa request and decided to get it. Santa is still real real this year.

*Crosland Family Rock CD. Let's make it annual ;)

*Eating SCONES Christmas morning!
*Going to the beach on Christmas Eve Day.
We timed it just right for low tide again to go through the cave.

Merry Christmas!!