September 29 - Pumpkin Spice Everything

There are those who don't understand the joy of pumpkin spice. Dare I say, some people will go so far to say they hate anything pumpkin spice related? Well my friends, if you are one of those people, you aren't my people. I love autumn and I LOVE pumpkin spice. In fact, I have been known to burn to pumpkin candles year round because I love the smell. This year, Teresa, Tammy and I have made a pledge to bake/cook a new recipe everything weekend throughout fall (well, we started in early September during 'summer' and will wrap it up after Thanksgiving). Between the 3 of us (Tammy joined late) we've made:

*pumpkin chili

*pumpkin cornbread (Luke ate 6 slices)

*pumpkin bread

*pumpkin/banana bread (both a vegan and non-vegan recipe, I'm sure you can guess which one was better)

*pumpkin stuffed shells

*Macaroni and cheese with pumpkin

*Pumpkin mashed potatoes

*Pumpkin flan

*Pumpkin cookies with icing

*Chocolate chip pumpkin cookies

*Pumpkin cinnamon buns

*Pumpkin parfaits

*Pumpkin cake

"Do you think you are overdoing the whole pumpkin thing?" - JD

"Never." - me

Happy fall everyone! 

September 28 - Park Fun

 

Last weekend we had a special treat. We picked up Jimmy John's sandwiches and went to a local park for a picnic. When I say picnic..I mean we drove around until we found a picnic table with no one around and sat down and ate. The kids ran around in a grassy field for a little while and we were lucky with gorgeous weather. It was sunny with a breeze and not too humid. Luke found a squirrel that he was convinced has been "tamed by humans" and was begging me to take it home. Clearly, I said NO! haha

Outside Fun

Why I don't have a lot of pictures of him..

The "tamed" squirrel 

September 22 - Welcome to the Zoo

Pet update! The day in the life of the Yamo Zoo....

Peter Parker the Hamster

Peter has been moved from Luke's room to the family room. A hamster and kitten proved to be just too much for Luke's bedroom. Did I ever think I'd had the pleasure of seeing a hamster all day while I'm working (I work at the kitchen table) No, I can honestly say I never thought that. But he's pretty quiet during the day and the dogs leave him alone. 

Lucky the Kitten

Lucky continues to sleep in Luke's room every night. Her litter box is in there and Luke's feeds her in there. During the day, she has the ability to free roam around the house. There is a gate at the top of the stairs so the dogs cannot get up there. She spends most of the day in Julia's room, she loves to sunbathe on her bed. She has ventured down the stairs recently but a quick bark from Apollo sends her quickly back upstairs. Jillian LOVES Lucky and carries her around everywhere. JD said she is a little skittish but has a good personality. 

Apollo & Bella

I walk the dogs every morning around 6am. Apollo spends the rest of the day sleeping and occasionally ventures outside to sunbathe for a few minutes. Bella comes with me every morning for preschool drop-off and then she prefers to spend her day outside, chewing every plant, bush and/or flower she can find. She also chases squirrels. JD or I take the dogs on a walk at night (a short walk with JD,  a long walk with me) and then the dogs jockey for position in the bed to see who can get closest to me. They are both big snugglers and get onto their dog beds once JD comes up. 

 I brush the dogs daily and sweep one to two times per day. I won't lie-the dog hair is intense and never ending, but oh how I Love these animals (well, the dogs but I"m sure the hamster and kitten will grow on me!). 

Peter & the Dogs

Preschool Drop-off

Lucky

Love them

September 20 - Curly Luke

 Luke has amazing hair like my brother Bryan. Thick curls and volume pretty much every girl wishes they had. After JD buzzed it a few months ago, it finally grew out and was..let's just say a tad wild.

Time for a haircut at Christine's Hair Salon. He is thrilled with the final product!! He is so handsome, love this guy!

September 14 - Happy Birthday Jillian!

And just like that, Jillian is 4!! Julia decorated her door with streamers and our little wild child, with her crazy bed head, walked out to celebrate her day. She celebrated with her friends at school with vanilla cupcakes (vanilla is her favorite) and then Luke and Julia surprised her with balloons as we came inside the front door (they released them from the 2nd story). She was SUPER EXCITED about her Ariel cake and presents. She opened her gifts (several coloring and activity books, a couple board games, toddler make-up, Sophia the First figurines and a pink unicorn themed scooter. We ate a dinner of her choice (mac and cheese and nuggets) and then it was cake time! She was so excited about the cake she tried to take Ariel out of the cake while we were singing happy birthday. She is too funny! It was a great day. Happy Birthday Jillian!

Lucky liked the streamers too

Birthday Cake

Presents

Happy girl

She loves her unicorn princess dress from Uncle Greg, Aunt Jill, Victoria & Andrew

September 1 - Hurricane Laura

To stay or to go. That is the question we ask ourselves when a hurricane is coming. When we woke up a week ago (last Tuesday), Hurricane Laura was on a path to Houston. Galveston (south of us) was under mandatory evacuation and we were in a voluntary evacuation zone. We were told to get out by noon if possible. School was cancelled. JD and I talked about it. "What should we do?" "The hurricane could turn away." "It might stay on course." "Remember Harvey? We didn't think that was going to be a big deal and look what happened." "If we wait too long, we won't be able to get out." So, we booked a hotel room in the arboretum area of Austin and prepared to travel with the dogs and kitten. As we were wrapping up work, another weather report came out saying the storm was turning towards Louisiana. Once again...what to do? I decided to drive to Austin with the kids while JD would stay home with the pets. If the storm turned again, he would evacuate and join us. 

The kids and I left around 3.30pm and Google told me it was a 3h drive. As we were on 610 to the west side of Houston, I kept getting notifications about "delays ahead." The GPS routed me off the highway and I ended up driving on back country roads for 1.5 hours until we picked up 1-10 in Columbus, very close to the I-71 Austin turnoff.  We checked into the hotel and were one of 10 cars in the parking lot. We dropped off our bags and headed to the Arbortem, an outdoor mall next to our hotel within walking distance. We got take-out from Five Guys and ate outside. This is the first time Luke has been in public since March and he kept shouting "We are going to get corona!" and I repeatedly explained that everyone was wearing masks, there were hand sanitizer stations everywhere and people were social distancing. We were okay! After our delicious (but oddly extremely expensive fast food) dinner, I picked up a couple slices of cheesecake for dessert and we headed back to the hotel room. 

Day 1 in the hotel. We picked up Starbucks for breakfast (probably the highlight of the trip for the kids because we haven't been since Disney) and I drove them around and showed them my old apartment and the area I used to walk in. They were, of course, not impressed in the least, ha! We headed back to the hotel where I worked the rest of the day. We drove to a cool hiking trail a few miles from the hotel and right when we were about to start hiking..a little blonde announced she had to poop. So...no hiking for us. That's okay though, we headed to the pool for a few hours and had fun swimming.

Next up, we got Cheesecake Factory to go (oddly, less expensive than Five Guys Burgers) and ice cream for dessert. Our night was going well until 1am when Luke woke up and puked all over the rug. He never got sick again but it was..fragrant to say the least. 

We checked in with JD in the morning and he confirmed the storm passed Houston. We checked out of the hotel and I was in shock. The parking lot was not completely full and there were giant signs directing Hurricane Laura Evacuee's to check-in via the conference center in the hotel. It was PACKED. 

So, we are back home and all is well. No damage here (it didn't even rain) but our friends in Louisiana were not so lucky. 

Sorry mom, this is what happens when you try to work

Too much fun

Love them!