Tuesday, February 16, 2010

A little bit about me

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For our "Project Scrapbook" challenge this week, we had to create a layout about us. Here are some facts mingled with my favorite quotes.

Thunderstorms scare me.
I want to travel and see the World~ well, most of it anyway.
I want to go back to get my degree in History.
I believe your reach must exceed your grasp.
"To touch is to heal, to hurt is to steal, if you want to touch the sky you'd better learn how to kneel"
I love being a mom and I only hope that I can teach my kids everything they need to know.
You catch more flies with honey than you do vinegar.
I believe everything worth having is worth fighting for. Protect what is most important to you.
Do what you believe is right, and stand up for what you believe in.
Integrity is standing up for what you believe in, even when your knees are shaking.
I'm afraid of being forgotten. Look for the good in all that's around you, especially when you don't want to.
Pink is my favorite color. I love to learn.
I believe you should never judge someone by how they look.
I have the biggest sweet tooth!
I love anything crafty. I love home decor!
I hate pine trees.
I hope to be able to write a novel.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Feijoada


{Bless you...} Valentine's Day was pretty good. We went to church, came home, Mikayla and I made pink heart shaped rice crispy treats and then we took them to her little friends {she made the little tags}. I decided to make Joel a special dinner for his present: Feijoada. It's a Brazilian black bean dish. I think it turned out pretty well! Looks can be deceiving...

Feijoada (crock pot style):
2 bags black beans (16 oz)
1 can chicken broth
1 can Beef broth
onion
garlic
3 bay leaves
bacon
Pork tenderloin
Kielbasa sausage

Soak 2 bags black beans over night
Put broth, beans, onion, bay leaves and garlic into crock pot.
Cook bacon, cut up, put in crock pot.
Sear pork loin in same pan (I put a little bit of Spike seasoning on it), put in crock pot.
Let it cook on high for about 7 hours.
Cut kielbasa and add.
Voila! Put over rice and enjoy.
I was surprised that even the kiddos liked it!

Monday, February 1, 2010

Twilight...what have you done with my wife?


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Hahaha! I love this song! You have to listen to all of the lyrics to fully appreciate it. Here's my favorite part:
"Twilight, what have you done with my wife?
Refuses to sleep, reads her books all night.
Twilight, what have you done to my wife?
Now all she wants is the vampire life.
Twilight what have you done with my wife?
She's got the hots for teenage boys and thinks it's alright!"

After my friend's watched New Moon (I haven't seen it, and don't know if I will) they were all talking about how hot Jacob was...all I could say was "Ewwwww!! I just watched Lava girl and Shark Boy with Mikayla. He's sooo little! How could you possibly think he's hot?!"
He might be a cutie, but seriously ladies...we're almost TWICE his age!!

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Calling all Crafters

I just read my friend's blog where she had made a post about how she and a few of her friends get together for a craft day once a week. This is something I would love to do! Anybody else game?

Monday, January 18, 2010

Date Night Idea


The stars are all aligning and I think that Joel and I will be able to start having date nights! We've been able to go on sporadic dates every other month or so, but I really want to try and go at least twice a month.

Something that Joel and I really like to do together is travel. When we reach our destination, one of the things we love to do is try out fun places to eat (sometimes we look up places that have been featured on the Food or Travel channel). We think it would be silly to go to Taco Bell when there's (clean!! That's my requirement) local Mexican food around the corner- some place we don't have here in AZ. However, with the kids, traveling turns out to be more of a headache than it used to be and sucks all of the energy (and fun) out of me. Well, I was watching a morning show and they were featuring local restaurants, and it clicked:
I think it would be fun to try our own unique and yummy places to eat for date nights!
So, here's my list so far:
Fibber Magees
The Cornish Pasty Co.
Liberty Market

Does anyone else have any good places to eat?

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Retirement?

Motherhood. You can't quit. You can't move up. You can't retire. And let me tell you...I'm so glad. Your mom is there to tuck you in at night, to kiss away your owies, and to scare the boogie man away. She's there threatening boys who might break your heart, and she's there when those same boys eventually do. She's also there when you're desperately tired, and on the verge of insanity.
My mom came down from Las Vegas to rescue me this past week. She came on New Year's Eve, told Joel and I to spend the night at my sister's (she is going to rent a house down the street from me, but hasn't moved in yet) and spent 3 nights getting Hunter and Mikayla to sleep through the night. This means I had 3, count 'em THREE blissful nights of uninterupted sleep! And the best part? It worked! Hunter now sleeps through the night. I don't know if she knows how much it meant to me for her to come down and help me out. I was so beyond tired that I was in survival mode. The instant she told me she was coming down it was like my body switched gears and I could have slept for days. Thank you mom. I love you.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Sleep

"Change requires effort, and effort requires energy. In an exhausted state, we may find it easier just to keep things as they are rather than try something different. In other words, when baby wakes for the fifth time time that night, and I'm desperate for sleep, it's so much easier just to resort to the easiest way to get him to fall back to sleep than it is to try something different.
Only a parent who is truly sleep deprived can understand what I'm saying here. Others may be able to calmly advise, "Well if things aren't working for you, just change what you're doing."
-The No-Cry Sleep Solution

All I have to say to that is "Can I get an AMEN?!"
Hunter hasn't slept through the night yet (except for maybe one or two times), I'm working on changing that (hence the book). I don't really feel it so much any more, I've gotten so used to not getting enough sleep, I'm not sure what I would do with myself if I got more than 5 hours of uninterrupted z's. I thought it would be fun to look back on this time of my life and remember what my night time routine looks like:

6- eat dinner
7- give the kids a bath
7:30- put their jammies on (this usually takes awhile since it is impossible for Hunter to lie down to get his diaper on and is usually halfway across the room before I have a chance to get the diaper under him. He then thinks this is a fun game of chase and the process is repeated a few times)
8- try to get Mikayla to brush her teeth. Then try again. And again. Then finally give up and pin her down.
8:10- try to get her to go to the bathroom. And then ask again. Then tickle her until she has to go.
8:15- Put Hunter down.
8:30- Go read to Mikayla/lay down with her/ sit in my chair and read a book.
10:00- finally she falls asleep and I'm free (yes, it takes an hour and a half for her to fall asleep, I wish I were exaggerating) . Then I usually take an hour to myself. I should go straight to bed...but it's the only time of the day where there isn't somebody right there. I've tried explaining that to Joel, I don't think he really gets it though. How can he?
11-go to bed
12:00- Hunter wakes up
1- Mikayla comes into our bed
3:30- Hunter wakes up
6- Hunter wakes up
8:30- Mikayla and Hunter wake up for the day


So why am I still up?...good question. Goodnight.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

It's Snowing


There is a quote that pretty much sums up my life: "Cleaning house while the kids are still growing is like shoveling snow while it's still snowing".

Everyday I vacuum, attempt to do the dishes {I say attempt because it's rather difficult to empty the dishwasher while your son is climbing into it, and harder still while holding him. Have you ever tried to wash dishes one handed? Vacuuming I can do...dishes? Not so much}.
Then there's the sickness that just keeps swirling around my house. Runny noses, coughs, mastitis...oh, wait, that last one just concerns me, but when mama's sick the World as my family knows it stops. So far I've gotten it 3 times and this last bout was awful. I couldn't get up, couldn't sleep because of a headache {I was convinced that a drill would've been less painful} and the next morning {Joel's birthday, of all days} my husband informed me that I was burning up...I don't know what my temperature was, I wasn't going to get up for anything. Luckily, a few hours later, I woke up drenched in sweat, my fever had broken.
So why am I telling all of you this? Well, a couple of reasons.
1. To justify why I haven't been updating my blog as much as I want/ need to.
2. To justify to myself why my house isn't as neat as I would like it.
3. While my husband has many, many good attributes, he is somewhat lacking in the sympathy department...it's not his fault he is the model of health and gets sick maybe once a year, while I get sick if someone sneezes two blocks away.

So here is the update on the kids:

Mikayla loves her tricycle and we go on walks a lot (I've decided that I prefer it if Joel comes with us, that way I don't tense up every time a white windowless van drives slowly by). She knows all of her colors as well as the alphabet. She will stand up (sometimes on an upturned laundry basket) with her pretend guitar and belt out songs (with accompanying actions) that she makes up. She loves to laugh and is constantly making me laugh in turn. The poor thing has recently become scared of monsters and other such things that go bump in the night and therefore can't go to sleep unless one of us is with her. Then sometime during the night she wanders into our room to sleep between Joel and I. We often wake up to a foot in the ribs or a hand being flung in our face.

Hunter will dance to anything. He could be right in the middle of wailing at the top of his lungs and if a song plays in a commercial he'll start bopping away. It only lasts a few seconds, but it's almost as if his little body can't help but dance along. He LOVES dogs and starts squealing with delight when one comes within sight. He is no longer wearing his helmet. He has 4 new molars (which all came within a week), poor Hunter, poor mommy. He has been cruising for awhile now, but has recently started taking steps. He loves to push his sister in her tricycle around the island in our kitchen. He's still not sleeping through the night. All in all he's a pretty happy little guy- when he's not teething and as long as mom is right there.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Gift


Hey everybody!
I'm giving away a personalized ornament to everyone on my other blog:
Designing my bliss

Go check it out!!

Friday, November 20, 2009

October



For my birthday this year, I decided to have a little party at my house with a few friends. My friend, Lexi, made me the best Jack cake!

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Then for Halloween Mikayla went as none other than Goldilocks herself with Hunter being Baby bear. We went to Disneyland's Spooktacular Event where we met up with Joel's brother and his family. It was way too crowded, so I doubt we'll do it again.

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On Halloween night we went trick-or-treating with out friend's the Buhl's and their little boy Josh. I had to run to the store and then pick us up something to eat {silly Joel-he doesn't consider candy to be a good dinner}. When I got back, Mikayla was covered in chocolate while daddy was snoring on the couch. Priceless.