slackers to the max!

Oh my goodness...when did we become such bad bad bloggers! Haha! There has literally been SOOO much going on, and the girls have been so funny and so cute, and I'm missing out on blogging it!
Well, the girls are in Hawaii with Cris, but I have certainly been keeping myself busy. I flew directly from the Hawaiian Tropics to the Colorado Snow-Peaked Mountains last week. I landed in Denver, and then headed up to the ever-so-lovely Breckenridge.  I didn't end up skiing myself (long story), but i did get to hang out with some of my good friends from deployment, which was super awesome.  I spent 3 days in Breck, and then headed back home to finally get settled back in to work. 

Back in Hawaii, Cris and the girls have been enduring some endless rain.  It's bad timing, since Laura's family (like at least 7 or 8 of them! i lost count :) came to hawaii to visit. I am sure they are still having a fantastic time, but I do hate it for the vacationers when it dumps rain all week. 

Last year we decided that we would put the girls both in preschool this fall. Juneau is kind of on the border for starting Kindergarten (late Sep birthday), and since she had never been in any type of formal learning envirnoment, i thought  it may be better for her to start with preschool instead of kindergarten.  Cris took the girls to the little Catholic School by our house for their "in classroom observation" (haha! i can barely describe the fear this invoked! Nova kept saying she didn't want to go to school, and Juneau, welll, let's just say Juneau can be a real wildcard!)  Anyway, the observation actually went quite well. both girls liked school, and got a good report. The school called later, however, to say they recommended Juneau start kindergarten.  She loves loves loves to learn, and she has been doing very well with her reading, spelling, and math, so i think it is probably a good decision to let her start into kindergarten (mama choking back tears here, haha!).  Anyway, long story short, Nova will be starting preschool, and Juneau will be starting (oh wait, tears again!) kindergarten in the fall. 

Since I don't have any pictures i wil break up the update with a little dialogue from the car the day before I left Hawaii:
Juneau: I spy something light brown
Nova:(after guessing a while) hmmm....give me a hint, i don't know what it is
Juneau: it's on Mommy
Nova: i know!!! WRINKLES!!!

yup. true story. for some reason they are obsessed with my wrinkles. I scrunch my forehead a lot (always have....couple that habit with some serious teenage sun-worshipping, and I officially have forehead wrinkles).  so, my wrinkles have been the topic of many conversations over the last 2 weeks.

And finally, since I am living life kiddo-free, i have had some time to try out some new recipes. This, my friends, very well may change your lives.

This is the super super super hero, breakfast of champions.  It is super fast, super easy, and is made the night before and just pulled out of the fridge in the morning. Do not be turned off by the idea of cold oatmeal...this is more like a delicious smoothy, or the Jamba Juice Acai cup. Ok, I have never actually had an Acai Cup, but if i did have one, i think it might taste sorta-kinda like this:

The basic recipe:

Overnight Oats
Makes 1 LARGEserving.

• ½ cup rolled oats (not quick cooking)
• ½ cup plain Greek yogurt (yes! use greek yogurt! It is sooo thick and creamy and absolutely packed full of protein)
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon chia seeds*

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl or jar, cover with a lid or plastic wrap, and allow the mixture to sit in the refrigerator overnight. In the morning, stir in the mix-ins of your choosing.

*ok, I didn't know what chia seeds were, but i found them at Whole Foods, and they cost $11.00, so i opted out of the Chia seeds :)

add ins:
I have been using a delicious frozen berry mix from costco and adding it in the morning.

here are a couple of other ideas:
Variation #1 – Pumpkin Peanut Butter

• ½ cup pumpkin puree
• 2 tablespoons natural peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
• ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Variation #2 – Strawberry Banana

• 2 to 2 ½ tablespoons strawberry jam
• 1 small banana, mashed

So, there you guy, an update, a funny wrinkle story, and ra recipe.  This blogger mama is back, baby! :)