kevin and jenna [dot] com » Uncategorized

Banana on a stick snack.

Jenna — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 16:10:52 +0000

I found this idea in Parents magazine, although it suggests to freeze the bananas beforehand. We were not quite so patient, and it worked just fine without freezing – just with a little more mess!

[I covered my banana with peanut butter, not chocolate.]

Ingredients:
3 ripe bananas
1/2 c chocolate chips
1 T veg. oil
cheerios (we used regular)
wooden skewers

1. Warm the chocolate chips and vegetable oil in the microwave for 30 seconds. Stir well, then heat for 10 second intervals until chocolate is totally melted.
2. Put the bananas on the skewers. (We had to cut the bananas in half to get them to fit.) Spoon melted chocolate on top. Add cheerios on top.
3. Enjoy!

The kids did most of the assembly of this; all I did was put out the ingredients.

I love easy snacks that everyone enjoys. What are your kids’ favorite snacks?

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National Champs.

Jenna — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 04:07:36 +0000

I realize I’m almost 6 months late on this post but I forgot about these pics [and I think Colby took them because we let the kids stay up late this night to watch the game on tv. So so glad we did!] So proud of the Aggie Women’s Basketball team for bringing home the National Championship. I only wish more of their games were on tv. Since we only have basic cable, we watched as many as we could on espn.com, but only until the final 4 were the games on national tv.

In the midst of all the “Aggies leave Big XII for SEC” talk, I’m excited to think not only “football rivalries” but “Southern charm” and “versatility” and “academic qualifying”. And no, I’m not just trying to get the search engines going.

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Rockin’ Girls

Jenna — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 03:06:35 +0000

Carlee wouldn’t even look at me to take the pic; Kennedy decided to sit down and rock out.

I think I know what we’ll be asking for for birthday or Christmas… [and Carlee is also holding a plushy Ariel doll (Little Mermaid) which she says is her favorite. Redheads gotta stick together.]

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Books read August 2011.

Jenna — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 01:49:35 +0000

23. Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10 by Marcus Luttrell. This book was written by a Texan Navy SEAL. I could stop there – what about that is not to like? This is a look at Luttrell’s unbelievable journey into (and eventual escape from) enemy territory in 2005. Although he only mentions it indirectly, I’m pretty sure he is one of the ones who helped pinpoint Saddam Hussein’s location before the eventual capture of Hussein’s operation. This book is a must-read. 5 stars.

24. Unbroken: a World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, & Redemption by Louis Zamperini. [Alicia asked me if I had heard of this book, because the author recently spoke at her church (Houston's First Baptist). I was insanely jealous, until she told me he was only there to speak at a men's event.] Another must-read. Parts of this book reminded me a lot of the movie “Groundhog Day”. Only, instead of doing the same thing over and over, Zamperini’s situation just kept getting worse and worse, the more days he was in POW camp. I gained a new perspective on WWII and why my grandparents hated the Japanese so much. The last 50 pages or so were completely worth it – the redemption story on the rock, out of the miry pit, so to speak. 5 stars.

25. Ape House by Sara Gruen. [Can't remember if I reviewed Water For Elephants on the blog or not, but I did LOVE it. Haven't seen the movie yet.] This is another “I Followed The Author” book. The whole time, I kept thinking, “I can’t believe I’m reading a story about apes. Really?” But Gruen is a good story-teller and brings in her personal experience with bonobos to tell a cute story. An easy read. 4 stars.

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristoff & Sheryl WuDunn. I’m not including this in my total number of books, because I didn’t read it. I checked it out from the library and decided it was a bit too real for me during this time of my life [pregnancy and having young children]. I am unfortunately aware of the situations that would cause the need for this book to be written. I’d encourage all of you to click the link to read the summary and reviews that follow. And, if you read this book, please let me know your honest take.

[PS - It's not even the end of the year and I've read 25 books! I can already tell I'm slowing down for September though; it's getting harder and harder to stay awake and read once I'm in bed. I won't try and put a number of how many I think I'll read this year, but I will be interested to know that number. Do you set goals for your reading during the year? Or do you "play it by ear" like me?]

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Four for Four [September]

Jenna — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 05:36:41 +0000

A mommy blogger friend (who kind of is my inspiration for blogging and writing and who I hope to meet some day “IRL”, and who still has time to read and comment on our blog sometimes) started posting pictures of her 4 kids on the 4th day of every month. She calls it Four for Four, and I think that’s just brilliant. And, since we’ll be joining the ranks of having 4 kids, we’ll start blogging about it.

For now it’s just the kids and me with my large melon sized unborn baby. We are watching the Aggies btho SMU, hence the Gig ‘em thumbs. And, they are clean, hence pajamas. And they ate good dinners, hence the gummy snacks with lots of sugar.

This month it should be called “Four On Mom”.

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Toe-may-toe, toe-mah-toe…

Jenna — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 03:03:13 +0000

…but what about Tow Mater?

As I was picking tomatoes (thus saving them from bird destruction), Carlee walked outside with this pink bag. I decided I had more than I could carry in my hands… and shirt… and Kennedy’s hands and shirt too. We ended up filling this entire bag full of small and large tomatoes.

Guess I need a good salsa recipe?

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Jenna. Nov 22. We’re going to Disney World!

Jenna — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 17:16:22 +0000

We spent the first day of our Disney trip travelling and eating. The kids did so well enduring Monday morning Houston traffic. [We flew out of Hobby Airport, which is further away from us than Bush Intercontinental, but we scored good deals with Southwest Airlines (plus 2 free checked bags per passenger) and they only fly out of Hobby.]

Here’s a picture Kennedy took of the lights and the air conditioning vents on the plane. She took some other creative ones of my ear and my leg too, but those were blurry.

It was raining when we got to Orlando, but this Nemo bus (part of Disney’s Magical Express) was waiting to take us to our resort.

We stayed in a 2 bedroom villa (sleeps 9) at Disney’s Old Key West Resort, and while I never got to take any iPhone pics of it, it was perfect for our party of 9. It was very spread out because it encompassed a golf course, so while we got to feed birds out our back porch and hear “FORE!” every day, we weren’t able to get to the main lobby very well.

These resort buses (not DME) helped us to get back and forth to the main house of the resort and also to the parks every day. We didn’t have to rent a car, we didn’t have to wait too long for transportation, and it was (mostly) clear how to get from point A to point B. Well done, Disney.

Silly Kennedy. Carlee also loved the buses and would say, “whee!” every time. She thought she was riding a ride! And just about every time we got on one of these buses, one of the kids would fall asleep. Or be *almost* asleep before we’d get to our destination. This would prove to be good and bad.

Also – some of you asked how I fared with just having had surgery 2 weeks prior. Before we left, I rented a scooter, to take care of my foot a little better while at Disney World. The scooter company dropped it off at our hotel and I was able to get around splendidly. All the buses were equipped with lifts or ramps, so the biggest challenge was trying to keep the kids out of my lap while I was riding. [We did rent a double stroller and brought a single stroller from home.] Between 2 strollers and a scooter, we were quite the parade down Main Street that week.

I realize I’m giving you the end before the beginning, but it was such a (GREAT) whirlwind week that I have to start the story somewhere.

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Jenna. Nov 18. [Left] foot + staples….

Jenna — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 04:19:27 +0000

….taken right before I got them out! Yay, I can go through the metal detectors when we go to Disney World.

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Jenna. Oct 14. Morning Beauties.

Jenna — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 03:53:08 +0000

Can you tell which child is the Morning Person? More importantly, can you tell which is NOT?

[PS - Her shirt is off because she got yogurt all over it at breakfast. It's kind of the morning ritual. Did I mention I do a lot of laundry?]

PPS – that chair belonged to my Grandfather. *smile*

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Jenna. Sep 11. F-18s.

Jenna — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 03:30:31 +0000

In honor of the September 11th anniversary, 4 F-18 fighter jets flew over Kyle Field for the Aggie game today. We took the kids to a restaurant parking lot to see the planes fly over, then we jumped in the car and followed them to the airport to watch them land.

Kevin took a great video and posted it on Facebook. These are iPhone pics I took while holding Carlee.

By the way, the kids thought the planes were really cool. So did I.

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