One of our faves

After going to our favorite Mongolian BBQ restaurant, I felt I needed to give a review. You all need to go there! but let me give you the details first.
The Genghis Khan Mongolian BBQ has been around for years- at least 25 years because George has been going there that long- I've only been going for about 12 years. Anyways, it is located in Lake Forest near all of the new construction. They have managed to stay hidden in the back and untouched. I'm not sure I want to know what their future is as I watch the stores around it be torn down and rebuilt. This restaurant is such a throw back to the old 80's, even 70's, dark restaurants in MV and LF. The decor hasn't changed much, but it is always clean, the staff is friendly and the food is awesome! We usually order the all you can eat BBQ which costs $13 and comes with soup, rice, and pocket breads(YUM!!!!). They have 4 meat choices and several vegetables to choose from. Then you get to make your own sauce based on your spice and flavor level. We definitely recommend you go!!! Have fun :)

The address is
23615 El Toro Rd Ste PLake Forest, CA 92630

Last week at Irelyn's soccer game she was so upset. She was crying, didn't want to play and ended up sitting next to me for the whole game. All week we have tried to figure out what was wrong so that she would feel better for today's game. We didn't have much luck so I was sort of dredding today... About 20 minutes before we were supposed to leave for the game, Irelyn started to avoid me. She was playing in her room which most of you know is very out of character for her- she likes to be near the action(me doing chores). Anyways, I was going back and forth about what to do. This is what I thought the options were:

• Make her go even if she was crying
• Stay home and not go
• Take her and have what happened last week happen again

After a little bit of talking, I somehow convinced her to give it another try. She happily got ready and hopped into the car. As soon as we got to warm-up, the crying started. She ended up sitting next to me for the first quarter, but when her coach asked her to go on at the start of the second quarter she said "Yes." She started running around, kicked the ball a few times, and of course gave me a bunch of waves. And then all of a sudden, she ended up in front of the goal, the ball came to her and SHE SCORED! a hard shot too just like we knew she could kick. It was ridiculous and to see her do a complete 180 attitude change was crazy! That is just the type of kid she is and although I am used to it, it still is hard to handle sometimes.

*Moral of the story* Only YOU know your child best. Always do what you feel is the best choice for them, not what anyone else thinks.

Christmas already?

With Santa arriving at the malls this weekend, I feel like I am late in decorating. It is driving me crazy, but I have held out. My boxes are staying the garage for now--as is my tree.
Anyways, I have my eye on a few Lisa Leonard pieces for Christmas. I would love to buy them now :) but that would ruin the surprise of opening them(with a card from George of course) on Christmas morning.
Check out her designs here- http://lisaleonardonline.com/

Thursday

I have had ONE OF THOSE DAYS. Super busy, just got home and it's 7:30pm, blah blah blah.

So I'm posting pics only today. Plus I wanted to dig up some old photos :)

The day after Irelyn was born

Irelyn 1 year old

Always laughing- 2 years old

Go dig up some of your pictures. It will definitely put a smile on your face :)

Recipe Wednesday

I'm sure everyone has this recipe, but if you don't this is a must have. Super simple and great for lots of occasions.

Pork Chops and Rice
Brown 4 pork chops in a hot pan.
Place in 9X13 pan. Pour 1/2 c. regular rice over top.
Add 1 can chicken noodle soup + 1 can of water
Cover with foil for 45 minutes at 350 degrees.
Uncover and bake approx. 30 more minutes.
(the bake time somewhat depends on the thickness of your chops)

Serve with a salad or veggies.

Tackle it Tuesday

I decided to tackle Irelyn's room today. Her closet needed to be cleaned out, rearranged etc. This is a pic after we had already started.

11:30 and Irelyn still in her jammies- 2 bags for the used store, 1 bag of stuff to sell on ebay, 1 bag of hangers, and 1 bag to donate...

And after all that cleaning-the fort! (pic taken through the secret princess castle opening)

And this is how each day ends. Irelyn putting her dolls to bed :)

This is ridiculous

Have you ever tried to cook something and it came out completely wrong or didn't work at all? I usually don't have too many problems, but this pea soup was so frustrating! I have made it several times before and as I look back, I think it gives me problems every time. I soaked the split peas overnight, and the put them in the crock pot at 7:45am with the onions, carrots, and celery. I put it on low because we were going to be out for a while and I wanted to make sure it had enough water. It should have been on high probably, but I figured by the time I got home it should be mostly done and then I could turn it up to high. I got home at 2:30pm and they weren't even soft!!! Not even a little, so I turned it up to high. Around 4:30pm I checked it again and there was no way it was going to be done for dinner. George ended up not being able to come home for dinner so I thought I could just save it for the next day. I left it cooking while Irelyn and I went to Baja Fresh for dinner. Long story short(haha too late for that)...at 10pm I finally pureed it with my hand blender and put it in the fridge. Are you kidding me?!!! Well, atleast dinner is already done for tonight.
I will spare you the recipe :)

Pixie Hollow

You all know I am a sucker for Disney so this will come as no surprise....the new Tinker Bell movie and the new Pixie Hollow at Disneyland are so cute!!!! The movie is really good, Irelyn loved it and has already watched it twice. We went to Pixie Hollow today and Irelyn met

Tinker Bell and Silvermist. She was wearing her Silvermist dress so she was super happy Silvermist was there. We all had a great time! And I definitely recommend the movie :)

Nov 1

Apparently, November is National Blog posting month. So.....I'm a day late but this post should have been done yesterday. I'm really going to try to blog each day--- come back to read 29 more posts!

Halloween was so much fun this year. Irelyn's final costume choice was a leopard kitty. She looked super cute and so did all her friends. They lasted for about an hour and a half trick or treating. There were several houses that Irelyn refused to get candy from because she said they were too scary. LOL I hope you all had a great Halloween. Here are some pictures