In January

-Evyn Kate had a visit to the Pediatrician for her 9 month check up. She weighs 15 pounds even and is under weight. This is my shocked face....

-Addysen pulled my point and shoot camera out of my purse and dropped it. It's broken and will cost $100 to be fixed. Sigh. Just another reason to keep anything you want to keep nice out of reach of 3 year olds.

-We went to the library every Wednesday.

-Chris and I started watching "How I met your mother" on Netflix and love it!

- The girls wanted to go bike riding every single afternoon.

-I pulled all my Valentine decorations out on January 9th.

-I helped organize a teacher's luncheon at Elodie's school. One of those things I didn't know about when I signed up to be the home room mom.

-Elodie had 3 days off from school for the County Fair. It's a big deal here.

-Elodie got 3 Book It coupons from Pizza Hut.

-Elodie and Addysen insisted we make a cake to celebrate Evyn's first tooth. We sang Happy First Tooth to Evyn too. It was another big deal.

-The Bachelor started. Woot! Woot! Mondays are so great!

-We watched LSU and the Saints get beat. Bummer.

-Our family caught the puzzle bug and put together 3 puzzles. Two 500 piece and one 750 piece. It was a lot of fun to do it as a family! A little crowded at times but fun!

-I made 9 skirts.

-I cancelled our Costco Membership. Sad day. I just have to keep reminding myself that it's not permanent. That helps.

-We started reading the Book of Mormon as a family. We have read the children's version about 3 times and since Elodie will be baptized this year we feel it's time. We told the girls when we finished it we would take a trip to Sea World. Addysen immediately asked "THIS WEEKEND!?!?" It's going to be a long haul!

-Christopher listened to The Hunger Games. He finished it in a couple of days. I got sucked back into the series and enjoyed listening to it with him before bed.

-Evyn Kate finally figured out how to hold her sippy cup.

1/2 Marathon

Christopher competed in his first half marathon yesterday. He isn't much of a "pay to run" kind of guy but this half marathon was on the beach and was a cool opportunity to add to our "exploring Texas".

He calculated that it would take him less than 2 hours to run the course so we tried to schedule our arrival time with when he would cross the finish line. I didn't like this idea. The whole trip to the beach (45 minutes) I was picturing Chris waiting for us in the parking lot. I was also picturing a ton of people, no place to park, and hauling 3 kids by myself 1 mile from our parking spot to the finish line.

Of course, everything turned out just fine. We ended up finding a parking spot close to the finish line, 3 cars down from Chris' car, and despite the bitter wind, the girls were great! It wasn't super cold, just very, very, VERY, windy!And since the wind was cold...I forget the beach can be like that.

We ended up waiting about 20 minutes for Chris to cross the finish line. Christopher didn't factor in the awful wind and when he turned around to run against the wind he got slowed down quite a bit. When he crossed the finish line he kept saying "I was not prepared for the wind!" It was pretty brutal. Addysen had a hard time standing up straight!

I made signs for the girls to hold. This was tricky because of the wind but none of them blew away and that was an accomplishment! The "Time for Pizza" sign is funny because the whole week prior to his run, Chris told me after his run he was going to order a pizza for lunch! We have found a little hole in the wall family pizza place that serves New York style pizza. It's good but by no means a replacement for our family favorite, Barro's. It's better than chain pizza (gag) so we are happy to have found it.

The sign made a bunch of people laugh and Chris was happy to eat his pizza for lunch! He definitely deserved it!

Here he comes...

Still smiling...

POTD 2012 Week 4

-Chris hard at work.
-Elodie had a project due. Her class had read a story about a Snowman. The project was to make your own snowman with things around your house. We took styrofoam balls and covered them in white felt. Elodie wanted her snowman to have a tutu.
-Christopher competed in a 1/2 marathon. Details HERE.
-Evyn Kate turned 10 months on the 22nd.
-I made Valentine skirts for my cousin's twin girls.
-Me at the sewing machine. I have really developed a love for sewing.
- Addysen's new found obsession is washing the utensils. If I go into the kitchen to clean it up she is at my feet. Occasionally I have to go behind her but she really does a good job.

Another Milestone

I'm not a huge fan of milestones. Sure, I blog about each and every one of them but to me milestones only mean one thing. My girls are getting older. Every birthday, new school year, and holiday it's like a flashing light in my face: HELLO! Your girls are getting older! Doesn't it feel like we were just doing this last year!?!? But instead of thinking a whole year has gone by, it feels like yesterday.

Sigh.

There are, however, a few milestones I get really excited about.

1. Sleeping through the night.

2. Weaning (which we are approaching full steam ahead!)

3. Fully potty trained!

4. And for Evyn Kate, the sippy cup!

She has been drinking from a sippy cup for a while now. If you count the fact that she wouldn't hold her cup. I don't. Because during dinner I'm the one stuck holding her sippy cup for her and watching my own food get cold.

But alas. She has finally figured out what those honking handles on the sides are for! It's a beautiful sight. When she is thirsty-She.Can.Hold.Her.Own.Cup.

Happy Day indeed! And couldn't be passed without documentation and a little photo shoot.

Wordless Wednesday {Sisters}

Tooth's the word.

I think we have talked more about teeth in the last month than we have in our entire marriage! Elodie lost her first top tooth, 5th overall, over the weekend. We were all standing in the kitchen Saturday morning and I asked Elodie if I could just wiggle her tooth to see how close it was. When I wiggled it, I felt it pull away (cringe) from her gums and *BAM* it was out!! She was so excited!

The crazy thing to me is how different she looks. When she was losing her bottom teeth it wasn't very obvious and didn't really change the shape of her mouth. Now that she has lost one of her front teeth she looks so different! And it's so fun to see her talk! She has a little lisp now and it is so cute!

She was so excited to show off her new smile and even more excited to go to school this morning. I think back at my little 1st grader. Ms. Matthew had a teeth chart in her classroom and Elodie didn't have a single tooth next to her name. She came home a lot sad that another one of her friends had lost a tooth and we kept trying to reassure her that her time would come. And boy has it!!! Her 2nd top tooth is already loose! She is making up for lost times!

Evyn Kate 10 months

-Still isn't crawling. Has no interest in it actually. She spends any time she is awake and we are home on her stomach and she hates it!

-Is a champion eater.

-Loves her sleep. If I would let her she could easily sleep in until 8:30am or 9am.

-Mimics lots of things we do. Clicking our tongues, sticking our tongues out, waving bye, saying Mama and Dada.

-Is so very content. Happy to be where ever you put her.

POTD 2012 Week 3

Picture of the Week:
We took the girls to the county fair today. It was perfect because it wasn't busy and there weren't very many rides. We chose to ride the carousel as a family and while Addysen was all for it on the ground, she quickly changed her mind once we got on! I'm pretty sure the carousel at Disneyland has scarred my children for life.


A few others from today. All via the iphone:

Wordless Wednesday {First Tooth}

Valentine FHE

I just noticed this is post #1201. I wonder what our little family will be doing at post #1301. Or #1401. Only time will tell because we all know I'm gonna blog about it!

Last night for FHE (Family Home Evening) we pulled out our hearts. Technically I should probably wait until February to do a Valentine activity but I didn't really want to wait. After all, I did pull out all of my decorations on the 10th of January. And this is something we are going to do a few times throughout January and February. So better to start early and drag it out.

We did this same activity last year but just taped them to a magnet board. And they are still on that same board. We pretty much took the board off the wall, stuck it in a moving truck, moved it to Texas, unpacked it from the moving truck, propped it up against a wall, and it's been there ever since.

See?

As if the "still in the wrapping" stack of frames wasn't your first clue, we are so far from settled.


Definitely not in this house. We still have no clue what we are doing...

Moving on...

I saw the "showered with love" idea on this blog. She didn't explain what they did, just showed a picture. But you can figure it out for yourself. I bought the poster board from Hobby Lobby. As you can see, I didn't spend a lot of time on this activity. In between dinner, baths, and taking a PTA phone call actually. But it came together nicely. The great thing about having kids is they don't critique your work. You immediately become the cool mom when you plaster a huge blue cloud on your wall and want to leave it there for 2 months.

10 minute FHE included:

-Prayer, Song, Family Business

-Chris read a scripture about love

-We each wrote what we loved on a heart and then shared it.

My favorite part of the evening was when I asked Addysen what she loved. She thought for a minute, looked up at our Christmas cards still on the wall, and said "all of them"

Enough said.

Tooth Fairy Pillow

Elodie lost another tooth over the weekend. It was so loose that it came out while she was eating oatmeal for breakfast on Saturday morning! Thankfully the whole "losing teeth stage" hasn't been too traumatic on any of us! *Cringe*

I had been wanting to make a cute pillow for Elodie to put her lost tooth in for the tooth fairy for a while now. Up until now we had just been putting it in a ziploc bag. And thanks to my best friend Pinterest, I came across some really great ideas!

I liked this tutorial/idea best and besides the white felt, I had everything I needed to make it happen. From start to finish it took me about a hour.

The tooth fairy can finally come to our house tonight! Right after she stops by the ATM for some cash!

I feel like we should name her...she is so cute!


The envelope on the back.



*************************************************************************************************

I wasn't planning to give one away but my friend Cindi suggested it! Nice move Cindi! And well, they are so easy to make.... Leave a comment and I'll pick a winner on Friday! And bonus! Whoever wins can pick if they want a boy tooth or a girl tooth!

POTD 2012 Week 2

And the picture of the week:

Car Pool Line. Where you will find me every day. Twice a day.


And the Winner of the Valentine's Banner is Erin W.!!!

Go To Meal...

Food is always on my mind. So naturally, I should blog about it.

If I'm not making a meal for someone I'm thinking about the next meal, adding to my grocery list, staying within a decent budget, not buying more than we need, what's for Sunday treat, after school snacks, meals for Evyn, food storage....it's never ending!

And even with all the meal planning it can get a little overwhelming! Which is why a good "go to meal" is essential! We all have our favorites and it changes month to month but always having the ingredients for that one meal you know everyone will eat and enjoy is a life savor! Especially when it involves my crockpot!

Our go to meal as of late is Cafe Rio Salad. Cafe Rio reminds me of Arizona. Reminds me of Book Club...visious circle! There are many versions on the internet but I got mine here a while ago and I love it. Once I made it I never searched for a new way to make it.

My girls aren't crazy about the dressing so when I make their plates I just do a cheese crisp and serve the rice, beans, and chicken on the side.

And this is one the few meals that we actually eat the leftovers! Everything just goes in individual containers and we are good to go!

Café Rio Chicken
5 lbs chicken breast, boneless, skinless
1 sm bottle zesty italian dressing
1 T chili powder
1 T cumin
3 cloves garlic, minced

Mix all ingredients together in a large crock pot. Cook on high for 5-7 hours. Remove chicken and shred. Reserve a small amount of juice and pour over shredded chicken. Keep warm.

Café Rio Lime Cilantro Rice
(Double this for large crowd)

2 Tb. Butter
pepper to taste
1 ¼ rice
juice and zest 1 large or 2 small limes
2 ¼ cups chicken broth
2 Tb. chopped cilantro
¾ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. cumin

In a skillet melt butter with rice, add liquid, and other ingredients. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and cook for 20 minutes.

Tomatillo Dressing
1 pkg Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing mix
1 C buttermilk
1 C Mayo
1 to 2 tomatillos
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
1/2 t lime juice
1/2 to 1 small jalapeno, seeds removed.

Blend all together in a blender or food processor and store in the refrigerator to let the flavors meld.

For salads serve in the following order:
tortillas (I warm mine in foil pans like cafe rio in the oven with cheese)
cheese
black or pinto beans
lime rice
shredded chicken or pork
red and green leaf lettuce, shredded
sprinkle crunch corn strips on top
grated Parmesan cheese


{Don't forget about my Valentine Banner Giveaway 2 post below! It ends tonight and I will announce the winner tomorrow!}

Embrace The Camera

"She gots a tooth Mom!"--Addysen

I noticed a speck of white on Evyn Kate's gums last night. And sure enough there is indeed a tooth poking through! I'm not sure I could get a great picture of it so these will have to do instead! Bummer.