Thoughts and ramblings of a SAHM

I've moved!

2011-01-05T20:44:00.001-05:00

If anyone ever checks in still I've moved! Here's the new address: keeping up with karlise

Random

2010-01-14T21:33:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year! Okay, so I'm just 2 weeks late. Better late than never, right?

Right?

We didn't do ~~much~~ anything on New Year's Eve but play LEGOS, eat some popcorn and watch the ball drop. Well not even that since it was on Dick Clark or the crowd the entire time. The boys actually made it to midnight too. I was doubly surprised when Ian made it to midnight. I expected him to fall asleep before 9:30pm. Bella was long asleep by then.

Dh with his cup of coffee to keep him awake

Goofy boy #1 pretending to be tired

Goofy boy #2 with his silly face

We're only 2 weeks into January and we've been recently hit with a cold spell. Cold may not be the right word though...how about F-F-Freezing! Seriously! Temps of 25* and lower in Central FL are redonkulous. We barely made it to the 40s in the afternoons. To everyone up North that may seem warm but we are ill prepared for that kind of weather. We don't have winter jackets here. Spring clothes are in stores right now. Winter was clearanced back in fall. These kind of temps freeze the crops that are a big part of the income of many people in Florida. We even got SNOW. The last time FL got snow was back in 1977. Craziness! We didn't get to see snow at our house but the frost and ice was enough to excite the boys. Their sand/water table was full of water due to the recent storm and it completely iced over. Our car windshields were thickly iced as well. Taking them to school has been an adventure for sure. Thank goodness for remote start! I'm so ready for a warm up (hooray for 50* in the a.m.) because I'm so tired of wrestling with Bella everyday. She hates her jacket and the hoodie on it. She hates her sweaters. She hates socks and shoes. She won't wear a hat. What do you do? I end up forcing her into said jacket/sweater/shoes/socks and listen to her scream in her car seat. Fun times.

Frost on the grass...this isn't that bad. We woke the other morning and it was so white it appeared to be snow.

I love how it froze.

I set the cars on top so you could see how frozen it was. I wasn't sure at the time how the pics would come out.

What else is new...oh I know...pigtails! My Boo (Monster's Inc reference fyi) let me put pigtails on her! She's tired of it being in her face and actually sat still long enough for me to do it. I have to be quick and she has to be distracted. How adorable is it though?

That's been our 2010 so far...more to come!

Christmas is here...and gone again. (long and pic heavy)

2009-12-26T20:49:00.007-05:00

It's over. All that build up with finding the perfect gifts, searching for that elusive toy, decorating the house, cooking the yummy dinner(s), stressing over cleaning the house and it's all over in a flash. Then it's time to take everything down again and re-clean the house since it now looks like a paper and toy factory exploded in it. Christmas should last more than one day. Jesus deserves a longer birthday anyway. :)

As is tradition in our family, we do Christmas Eve with the in-laws. This year was at my younger BIL's house so it wasn't a long drive at least. We voted earlier this year to draw names for the adults and just buy for the kids. And did they ever! My truck was STUFFED with toys. I think everyone went overboard since they only had to buy for one adult.

Bella's Christmas dress #1. Got it from Goodwill for $2. :) It's from TCP.

I found my twin!

Kiss the baby

*sleeping* in her new Tinkerbell sofa-bed

Could this child give me a genuine smile instead of a posed one?

We got home late on C. Eve so we put the kids right into their jammies (Bella was already in hers before we left) and into bed. The boys have worn these same pj's for 3 Christmases now. Now that's a bargain! They ended up being so big when I bought them that they've just lasted a while. Sadly I don't think they'll make it to a 4th Christmas so I'll just let them wear them the rest of the year. If they still fit next December then all the better!

Christmas morning we slept in. Yep- slept in! We told the boys they were not to leave their room unless they had to use the bathroom and to wait for us to go get them. And they listened! It was after 8 am and I had to wake poor Bella up so she could get in on the fun. Thanks to the awesome Amazon sales and all my bargain hunting mamas online, the kids had plenty to open without me breaking the bank.

Christmas Morning. It was bright as we had just opened the blinds.

I didn't blog about my Sears fiasco earlier this month but I fell in love with a My First Kenmore kitchen set for Bella. I was able to buy them online only to get an email the same night that the fridge was out of stock. I called cust. svc and they said there wasn't a single fridge left in the entire US. WTH?! Long story short I got on my bargain board forum and the awesome ladies there told me they'd spotted it at Kmart stores. I called my store just 5 min down the road and they had one left. Since it was already closing time for them I had to wait until the next morning and it took them 20 minutes and 2 people to load it up but I finally got that sucker in my truck and home and for $35 LESS than what I was going to buy it at Sears for. It took us 1.5 hrs to put together the stove and at least 2 hrs for the fridge but they are adorable and so worth the effort.

You can't see it that well but there's a pretend ice maker/water in the freezer door. All the knobs click on the stove and the timer really works.

Felt pizza.

You can see some of the felt foods I've made. Egg, bacon, cheese, lettuce (under cheese) and orange slices. Above are the pancakes (one plain, one with butter & syrup), oversized poptart (my 1st food I tried), chicken leg and in the baggie is some pasta- bowtie, noodles, and ravioli. I've already taken the bowtie and noodles away until she's a bit older.

The fridge and stove set I got was a hit! I made a bunch of felt foods to go with it and we found some pink metal pots/pans at Sears and a child size apron and oven mitts at Target's $1 Spot. Along with the wood food she got from her uncle and grandpa she has plenty to play with as do the boys! Santa brought her a Maclaren stroller for her babies. She loves all her new dolls and the stroller. She's already tried to sit in it (her cousin did as well) and thankfully it's held up!

The boys got more Legos, books, movies, games and Glo Doodles. Those things are COOL! Santa got a really good deal on them too. ;) I love playing with it as does Bella. DH bought me my first set of pearls, some Godiva dark chocolates and some Yankee Candles. He knows what I like! He got some new BluRay movies and a computer processor he had asked for.

My dad came over for breakfast and to see the kids. We don't see him that often so it was really nice to have him here. After he left it was time to cook yet again and clean some more. Due to an illness in the family it was a last day decision to hold my family's dinner at my house. It was so last day in fact that we decided to do an appetizer dinner instead of our normal feast. It was okay but it just wasn't the same. We missed having the big dinner with my grandparents and some other family there.

Okay so on to the rest of the photos. Ready?

In the stroller is another fave gift- My Pal Violet by Leapfrog. You can plug it into the PC and customize the songs, child's fave animal and food and add their name! So cute!

Christmas dress #2- also from Goodwill for $2. Too bad the shoes had to cost $40. Ouch!

And finally...me. In all my don't-take-my-picture-I wasn't-ready glory. You can at least see my pearls. :) There's a small star in the middle and a larger pearl hangs off of it.

That's it. The end. On to the next year. 2010 here we come!

Things that make you go Hmmm

2009-12-26T20:44:00.002-05:00

Why do Legos have such a huge age range? For instance, one set my boys got was for ages 7-14. That's a big difference. Does that mean it's for really smart 7yr olds or the not so much 14yr olds and everyone in between? You're talking a difference between a 1st grader and possible 9th grader.

And why put an age range on the box at all? Why not just put ages 7+ on the box? My dear hubby (dh) is 35 and still loves to build with Legos.

Just a little something for you to ponder later on.

Hi again- December recap

2009-12-22T23:38:00.005-05:00

It's little ole me...back from wherever I've been lately. My operating system crashed and it's been so long since I've blogged that when my dear hubby put Windows 7 (which rocks btw) on my PC I forgot to even bring my blog back up as one of my pages. *gasp* I also update everything on Facebook and forget to come here too. Sorry.

Can you believe it's almost Christmas? We put up our tree earlier this month. That was interesting. The boys wanted to help decorate so we handed them the least fragile ones and it seemed they all ended up on 2 sides of the tree, maybe even on just a few branches. I tried not to pay attention to the fact my tree was so bare everywhere else but I couldn't do it. I ended up redoing the whole thing myself after they were done. Thankfully they didn't seem to mind.

This is what happens with the wrong camera settings, lack of light and any movement. I kind of like the lights effect though.

My princess....look at how big she's gotten!

Ian had his Christmas party last Friday and dh was on vacation so when I was asked if I could volunteer in the classroom ALL day I jumped at the chance! I left the Bella-boo with dh and spent all morning making reindeer food (oatmeal, glitter, colored sugar) with Ian and his classmates. They also made *gingerbread* houses out of paper bags, decorated cookies, made candy cane beaded ornaments, read Christmas stories, did a book exchange and played some Christmas Bingo. Afterwards we sent them all out of the room (it was raining so we couldn't send them outside) so we could clean up and set up for their Christmas party which all the parents were invited to. The kids have been working on a gift for us all year long which was a fingerprint calendar. Very cute! Logan made one of these for me when he went to Pre-K there. They also gave us some handmade ornaments. Those are the best! The kids sang 3 songs for us they've learned and then sang their blessing song (Johnny Appleseed - 1st verse only and then Amen) before we all ate some lunch. Dh and Bella brought the chicken nuggets I was assigned too (hehe) and I was glad he could be there.

We also made a trip to the mall to see Santa and Mrs. Claus. Never again 2 weeks before Christmas. I'd rather go the day after Thanksgiving. We waited at least 1hr 20min. The boys were bored and antsy. Bella was tired of sitting in her stroller and when I finally did let her out she was into everything. She pulled *snow* off the displays, tried pulling power cords that weren't hidden, tried pulling ornaments off the trees...We finally make it to the front of the line and I just know this isn't going to go well. She's had no time to warm up to this perfect stranger couple and as I walk over to them with her in my arms she's already grabbing me tighter. I let the boys get settled with Santa and hand Bella to Mrs. Claus and she's now screaming and trying to get away. Yes, I'm a horrible mother and bought that picture. She was tired and hungry to boot. I bought my very much overpriced picture and we took them to Cici's Pizza for dinner. She refused to sit in a highchair so dh held her the entire dinner. She was just out of it I guess since she missed her afternoon nap for this event.

And that's all that's really happened here so far. My Christmas shopping is done I think. I may need to run out and get one more gift card. Almost everything is wrapped. I'll be back with more in just a few days.

Merry Christmas!

WIN a Touch Screen PC!!

2009-12-09T15:40:00.000-05:00

Check out MckMama's awesome giveaway!

http://mckgiveaways.blogspot.com/2009/12/hp-touchsmart-giveaway.html?dsq=25324112#comment-25324112

Spoiled

2009-12-01T21:35:00.002-05:00

I think she has quite the set up going, don't you? She's rearfacing in her car seat still so she remains as safe as possible and can still see the DVD player without craning her neck. :)

Pilgrims & Indians

2009-12-01T21:25:00.004-05:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm late on this. I know we're in December now but stick with me.

Just before our week long Thanksgiving vacation Ian's school had their T-Day program. Our class were indians and the other class were pilgrims. They all got up on stage and sang their little hearts out. Very cute. A few were also chosen to say what they were thankful for this year. My little copycat got up there and repeated what the child before him said- he was thankful for a cornucopia (very big word they learned that week). I think they just liked to say the word. :)

I know you'd love to hear my little man sing but that video is too big to post right now. I'll have to get dh to work on that. For now though here's the link to one of the songs that they sang that night for your listening pleasure and some pictures! ETA: The video is now up on my Facebook page if you're a friend!

IF I WERE A CHIPMUNK

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T21:33:00.002-05:00

I. Am. Stuffed.

We had a ridiculous amount of food today for the number of people we were serving. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, pea salad (yuck), bread, green bean casserole, squash casserole, sweet potato casserole, fresh cranberries, pumpkin pie, apple pie, cranberry pudding (steamed cake), peach cobbler....

Did I mention that I. Am. Stuffed.?

It was not an exciting day per se but a semi relaxing one which is always nice. I did most of my cooking the day before so we had some minimal cleaning up to do and then we could take it easy until dinner time.

The kids had a blast with their cousins, well the boys did at least. Bella and her toddler aged cousin played in the same room but that's about it. We got to visit with some school friends who live around the corner for a bit too. Now everyone has gone home, dishes are done, kitchen is cleaned, laundry is going (never ending) and the kids are all asleep. Peace and quiet at last.

I am thankful today for my family, my friends, our health, the food on our table and the roof over our heads. What more could I ask for?

Math Night Video

2009-11-15T22:01:00.001-05:00

This is my 5th attempt. Blogger's video isn't working right for me tonight.

Math Night

2009-11-15T17:38:00.009-05:00

Logan's elementary school has a Math Night every other month or so. The kids do little crafts to help them learn about math concepts. This was our first time going and Logan loved it. I have to say it was pretty cute. The Kindergarten and 1st graders performed a song for us (and later the 3rd, 4th graders- no 5th graders showed) all about shapes.

♪"Shapes, shapes, geometric shapes..." ♫

Logan's completely at ease on stage and had a huge smile both going up there and coming back off stage.

Afterwards we made our way to the cafeteria for some crafts. They made a string abacus, some bean baggie addition/subtraction thingy and made pictures using shapes they traced. I played with his abacus while he did the rest of the crafts. It's kind of soothing moving the beads one by one.

Kayla, Logan and Rebecca about to start their abacuses.

Logan, Rebecca and Austin

Oh Baby!

2009-11-15T14:15:00.004-05:00

It was a day of babies at the zoo yesterday. They were everywhere and so darn cute! My family including dh for once, little BIL/SIL, MIL and niece all met up yesterday afternoon for some family zoo time. The boys had a blast with their uncle and Abuela. Bella was running all over enjoying her freedom as dh got some exercise trying to keep up with her and I got some photos of the animals- the only little ones who would sit still long enough!

Here's Jaya again. She's too cute and I love the photos of her. I have to shoot down from a platform to take pics of the rhinos.

It's hard to see here but she has a baby on her too. She was sitting way up at the top of her platform.

A few other animals...

Oh and a couple of MY babies (Ian never stood still)

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-01T10:37:00.007-05:00

Halloween started out as any other normal day. Colored my hair (okay so I don't do that every day), went to Target and even dared to step foot in Party City (Don't do it- the place was mobbed). Put 2 kids down for naps since I knew we'd be out late and dh took one as well. Got everyone dressed, put all costumes, extra clothes, drinks, pumpkin buckets, etc in the car and we were on our way to our friends home for pizza, TOT'ing and ice cream sundaes.

After dinner we got everyone in their costumes and all 14 kids (not including baby Tybee) went TOT'ing. It was a mob of kids. By the time we were done with one house the rest were already onto the next. Bella got a Tootsie Pop from someone and proceeded to try to eat it wrapper and all. It was inevitable that she was going to get to it though so I took it off and she had at it. That was a sticky mess but one she enjoyed thoroughly.

It was so flipping HOT outside. Can we not get a nice, cool Halloween for once? The kids were sweating, the parents were sweating. Yuck. Next year I'm bringing water for my three. Spiderman (aka Logan) took off his mask he was so hot. Ian wouldn't let us take off his fireman jacket though. I asked several times. It wore them down pretty fast. They got tons of candy though and lots of chocolate (yay for me! LOL). We went back to the house to cool off and get some drinks and they stayed behind while some of the others went off again. They were just fine with changing out of their costumes and staying in the A/C.

We let the kids play some more and make some ice cream sundaes before heading for home. Bella was on a sugar high. It's really no wonder- lollipop, ice cream, cookies... she surprised me when she didn't fall asleep on the car ride home. Got them to bed and dh and I went thru the candy. Had to make sure there ~~was enough chocolate for us~~ weren't any needles and all that in the candy. There was one surprising give away in each bucket though- a little envelope of used stamps from all over the world. Hong Kong, USA(several styles), England, etc. Interesting. Maybe they thought it would get the kids into stamp collecting?

I took a ton of photos of our night so here you go!

This was our mob.

My little fireman.

She's ready to go!

Take a good look because you don't get to see me in pics very often!

That Spiderman is Logan.

My beautiful family.

Excuse the Cheeto.

Still all sweaty from TOT'ing.

Alex, Trey and Logan

The Case of the Phantom Fevers

2009-10-26T21:48:00.003-04:00

I'm not sure where these fevers are coming from or why they keep hitting my boys randomly but they need to go away already. Ian went to his Abuela's (MIL) house with dh Sunday afternoon and apparently started running a fever somewhere along the way. He was whiny and miserable when he got home. I took his temp and it was 101.5. Great. Dh gave him some Motrin and he laid on the couch for a while. I could tell the minute that medicine kicked in though. He practically jumped off the couch and started playing.

Sometime in the middle of the night he crawled into bed with us though running a fever once again. I noticed he was hot laying next to me. He complained he was thirsty so dh got up with him to get him some oj and some more meds. Poor baby didn't want to even wake up this morning and I don't blame him. I didn't want to get up either. Having a sick, hot child all curled up next to me in bed with his head in my back and feet all over dh made me wish I could turn off the alarm and roll back over. He finally made it out of bed though and ate breakfast. Good sign.

But he missed yet another day of school today since he's supposed to be fever free for 24 hours. I think this is day 3 or 4 this month he's been out.

Ugh.

I can't keep track anymore.

He was fine all day today. You wouldn't even know he had been sick. No other symptoms. I just don't get it. I'm glad his immune system is fighting this off though and Logan's too. Bella seems to be staying away from it too thankfully. I guess all that liquid gold I produced for them has done a pretty good job so far. :) I Lysol'ed the house today, or most of it, hoping that it will keep the germies at bay for a while. Crossing my fingers!

High Flying Video

2009-10-18T13:37:00.002-04:00

High Flying Fun

2009-10-18T12:57:00.002-04:00

Ahh. The cooler fall weather is upon us- at least for a couple of days. I knew Logan needed some pants for school so I decided to have a *date* with just him yesterday. He and I went to Mimi's Cafe for lunch first. He surprised me and ordered a burger instead of his normal mac & cheese or pancakes. We did all the puzzles on the kid's menu together and talked.

From there we went over to the mall. After being a very good sport and trying on at least 10 pairs of pants we decided on a couple of pair and bought them. We walked the mall for the rest of the afternoon stopping in the Disney Store and even a women's clothing store so I could get some jeans and use a gift card I had. At the other end of the mall there is a trampoline/trapeze contraption you can get on. It costs $5 for 2 minutes and he begged me to go on it. What the heck. It's a fun Mom and Me day so I said yes. He had a blast. I always knew he belonged in the circus. He even did a couple of flips- albeit slow ones. It's a good thing the teenage boy running it knew what he was doing. It's not easy to see but Logan had THE biggest smile on his face while up there.

FOUND

2009-10-14T15:13:00.004-04:00

Remember THIS post??

The missing bow that Bella supposedly swallowed has been FOUND! I started selling a bunch of my big baby gear and had to pull the Pack 'n Play out to set it up so I could take a lot of pictures. I went to put it all back away again and OMG there was that freaking bow that caused us so much worry.

I tore that PNP apart looking for that bow back in February. It wasn't there. It wasn't there when I put it away either or so I thought. Dh even looked for it. Guess I should be glad it was found and she never swallowed it.

On another happy note I did sell my PNP to a nice set of grandparents who just had their 1st grandson. I got my asking price and made money on it since I bought it on clearance at like 75% off a few years ago. It was well worth the money though and has many good years left on it so all in all a very good deal for both parties.

Life in general

2009-10-14T14:48:00.003-04:00

It's just been the same old, same old around here for the most part. I don't even have anything to blog about anymore it seems. Here's a recap of us:

Logan's doing well in 1st grade. He's made all 105-107% on his spelling tests with included extra credit sentence. Math is easy for him so far and seems to be a strong suit. He's very popular with his classmates and I'm told he's a peacemaker.

Ian's also doing well. His teachers have nothing but praise for his behavior in school (why can't he be like that at home?). He loves school and can't wait to get there in the A.M. He's having fun and making friends. We did have a broken bone scare a week or so ago. He climbed up on Logan's new bike and fell upon getting off of it. He was complaining about his arm so I kept him home from school the next morning and took him to the ped's office. They sent him to a diagnostic's center for xrays and after spending a while there it came back that everything was fine. Phew.

Bella is 18mo now and growing so fast. She's gone from my little peanut into a chunky monkey who loves to climb on the couch and chair and is always into something. She's very curious and can be quite outgoing when she wants to- at least to women. She gets very shy around guys. Good girl! :) She loves to play peekaboo and to run and *hide* from you. She's a Daddy's girl and thinks that running to him when I say bedtime may actually save her. Too cute. She's talking quite a bit and even signing thanks to a video she loves. I love watching her grow and learn. She's very smart and amazes me some days.

Dh is still plugging away at work and hoping to win the lotto one day. That would solve so many problems. I think we're responsible enough that we'd be okay and wouldn't be bankrupt in a year. Ahh dreams. His side computer work has slowed down so much so if you know anyone looking for a PC to be custom built or needs repairs, let me know!

I'm doing the mom thang shuttling the boys back and forth to their schools at different hours of the day. Fun times. I'll be so glad when the weather cools off and I can actually turn the car off while waiting so I can save some money on gas! I've got a fun weekend planned this week. Me and my besties are taking off for a night on the beach. We've got a suite courtesy of one of their dh's all reserved and waiting for us. I plan on eating some yummy seafood, maybe having a drink and just hanging out and having fun. The weather is supposed to be beautiful thanks to a cold front moving through and I'm sooo looking forward to it. I'll take lots of pics hopefully to share next week!

Who thinks of this stuff?!

2009-10-09T20:00:00.003-04:00

So I'm at the grocery store last night and about to check out when I spot these on the shelf. My first thought was WTF?! Who thinks of this stuff and what Suit said "Brilliant! The Kiddies will love these!"?

Seriously?!

I took them home and apparently I was holding them in a way that made dh go Wha?! Now to see what DH saw, put your finger over part of the *P* like I did. LOL

Here's the newest Willy (hehe) Wonka creation.

Tell me these aren't the most phallic candies ever (that were meant to be innocent).

Oh and while they are good they are not sour in any way, at least not to me.

False Alarm

2009-10-01T14:57:00.002-04:00

I went to pick up Logan after school today and when I turned off the car I heard the fire alarm going off and saw the lights flashing through the lunchroom windows. I don't get out of my car until 5 minutes before they are dismissed so I thought it was a bit weird that they'd be having a fire drill so close to school letting out. We walked up to the school and I asked a couple of parents but they weren't sure what was happening and the one dad looked pretty bored and nonchalant about the whole thing.

The kids were all filing out to the front of the school (usually they go towards the back P.E. field but they'd been directed to the front via the intercom). Then we were asked to move towards the street too. Oh my, guess it's not a drill! Another mom and I were looking for our kids (not to interfere, just to spot them) and Logan's class wasn't out there. I remembered afterwards that he has PE very late on Thursdays so I knew he must have been stuck out back. Within 5 minutes or so we got the all clear though and everyone was released. Thank goodness. Nothing like a little fire scare to liven up a Thursday afternoon.

Mermaids

2009-09-27T18:06:00.003-04:00

Part of the Weeki Wachee mermaid performance.

A Day with the Fishies

2009-09-27T17:47:00.003-04:00

Saturday, the kids and I were on our own again while dh helped his mom out so we took advantage of Swaptember again and headed to the FL Aquarium. I didn't know until Friday that the Weeki Wachee Mermaids would be there doing shows. It's a good thing we got there early.

The boys had fun going from place to place checking out the sealife while Bella hung out in her stroller. It was just too crowded to let her loose. Around 10:30 we started making our way towards their huge aquarium (filled with more than 2300 fish!) to watch the Mermaids perform. We were stuck in the back but Ian and I were able to see the show pretty well. Logan had no interest and stubbornly kept his head facing the other way nearly the entire time. It was fun to watch. The best part wasn't the performers though. It was the sea turtle (aka Crush in my mind) that kept wanting to interact with the girls. It was like he/she was in there dancing too.

Unfortunately I wasn't prepared for them to play outside at the water play area. I was under the impression it would be closed all month long. So instead we headed to McD's for lunch and then home. Maybe we'll try to get in there after school one day this week instead. Our Swaptember month is almost over!

Birthday Weekend (Pic heavy)

2009-09-19T19:50:00.004-04:00

Today we headed over to Downtown Disney. The boys love the T-Rex Cafe but since it costs so much we don't do it often- only for special occasions. We decided before we left that we'd do drinks, one app (because I was hungry!) and dessert. We let the boys get *special* icy/slurpee type drinks in huge dinosaur bone cups. They were so tall that both had to put it on their chairs to even reach the top of the straw.

Our appetizer was delish! We got the Brachiosaurus Bruschetta which I need to learn how to make it at home. Yum! Grilled eggplant, tomato bruschetta, toasty bread, herbed goat cheese and balsamic vinegar. Just typing it is making me want some more!

The waiters sung to Logan when they brought out our dessert, the Chocolate Extinction. Four huge slices of 2 layer brownie/cake with caramel in the middle, vanilla ice cream topped with whipped cream and all of it topped with Butterfinger crumbs. Sooo good. It comes out with a martini looking shaker in the middle that they fill with water and dry ice. He even gave us the shaker to bring home. The website says it feeds 2 or more people and the five of us couldn't finish it all! We brought an entire slice of cake home.

We stopped by the T-Rex store and the Build-A-Dino store. Bella found a mini mammoth she just loved so Daddy ended up buying it for her. :) No matter what dino we showed her she just wanted that mammoth.

(It was bright outside)

The Lego store was next of course. The boys make some Lego mini-figs (people) and filled their cups up again. Daddy spoils them. He's been putting aside some extra money just for this occasion though. Bella and I played Peekaboo while the boys were shopping.

After that we just wandered around. We had never been to the Pleasure Island side of DTD so we walked over there and then down by the waterfront. It was a hot day but there was a nice breeze down by the water. We let the boys ride the little train ride they have there. Logan was bored after about 3 laps around the little track. :) Not sure what he was expecting. Thunder Mt RR it's not! Walked about some more before decided it was time to go.

Bella was an unhappy camper so we stopped by Taco Bell for dinner before heading home. Nothing like feeding a family of 5 for under $18. :) Her attitude turned around pretty quickly once she got some food in her and she was my happy baby once more. The boys have been playing with their new Legos since we got home and Bella enjoyed the freedom of running loose for a while before bedtime. She was pretty cooped up all day be it in a stroller or highchair.

Tomorrow is another adventure! We're going to find a new bike for Logan. Wish us luck!

7 years ago today...

2009-09-18T17:53:00.004-04:00

I was 6 days past my due date, uncomfortable, having back pain and just done. I ended up going to the hospital, getting an epidural, being induced and then having a beautiful baby boy. He's no longer an itty bitty (9lb) baby but has grown into a happy, sweet, smart little boy whom everyone loves. Happy 7th birthday Logan!

Strike!

2009-09-15T11:48:00.002-04:00

The boys were invited to a bowling party this weekend and had a blast! This was only Logan's second time bowling and Ian's first but I think we'll be going again soon (if I can figure out how to handle Bella). It was Cosmic Bowling too which they just thought was neat. Ian actually did very well after his initial try in which he just dropped the ball on the foul line and waited. Haha. He even got a strike in his last frame! Logan did good too but he's too funny when he bowls. He lets it go and throws both arms back. He looks rather bird like. LOL I took a lot of photos but I really didn't like how any of them came out. It was just too dark. I wanted to capture the lighting in there and the *cosmic* feeling but it just didn't translate over. Oh well...I either need to learn my camera better or use the flash more!

MOSI Monday

2009-09-08T21:57:00.003-04:00

Labor Day weekend found us with nothing to do so I was determined to get out of this house on Monday. DH had to work so it was just the kids and I. Where to go? Our local museum, zoo and aquarium have a Swaptember where you can get in to all three for free all month long if you have a membership to one of them. We have zoo passes so we decided to go to our Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI). They have a lot of hands on stuff for the kids to do. The boys loved it and Ian didn't want to leave. Guess we'll be headed there again one weekend soon! Here are a few pics from our day.

Space exhibit- learning how to use a robotic arm

Just call them Atlas

There's a Publix grocery *store* with tons of playfood, a deli, bakery, etc. Bella loved the plastic bread. She loved getting out of the stroller and running around even more. Trying to keep an eye on her and the boys was impossible.

Concave mirror

Dem Bones

On a bed of nails!

Butterfly garden's waterfall

School Daze

2009-08-30T21:05:00.004-04:00

Ohh this getting up at 6:30am is for the birds! I liked my sleep-until-8am-or-until-Bella-woke-up gig I had going over the summer. This just bites. I've been trying really hard to be in bed with the TV off by 10:30pm so that early morning alarm doesn't bother me quite as much but you need to give me a few minutes before you ask me anything. I don't do coffee unless it's a Starbucks Frap (Grande caramel non fat, no whip, extra caramel or java chip non fat, no whip just for future reference. You know in case you feel like bringing me one, one day heehee).

So the boys have finished their first week of school. Logan seems to be adjusting fine to 1st grade. His teacher seems like she might be tough. I'm getting a totally different vibe from her vs. our Kindergarten teacher whom I loved. We'll see how the year progresses though. He has his 1st ever test this coming Wednesday. It's a spelling test and I know he'll be fine. The words are very basic right now. The part where he'll have issues is the sentence they have to write with correct punctuation and capitalization. He's forever capitalizing letters in the middle of a word or forgetting a period. He just sees it as writing the letter though and not that it's a capital letter per se.

Ian is loving his Pre-K classroom and teachers. I've had no bad reports from the teachers although he did come home one day and said 2 boys called him a name. Ugh. So far he seems to making a few friends though. He gets out of the car fine in the morning and comes home sweaty but happy. He's made me a few things already and even wrote his name. Progress already! I love it!

Bella is adjusting well to the fact her brothers aren't around as much anymore. She plays by herself and comes to me when she wants to. She's been happily playing with a cup and spoon all weekend. She stirs it and pretends to eat. Too cute! She has caught a cold though. It probably came from one of the schools. She's not exactly a happy camper. It's just a clear runny/stuffy nose but it makes it difficult for her to suck on her fingers for comfort. She woke up at least 4x on Friday night/Saturday early, early A.M. That is so completely unlike her so I know she was having issues. Her appetite hasn't been quite as robust either. She seems to be coming around though and knock on wood, noone else is showing symptoms. Lots of hand washing and hand sanitizer!

As for me, I'm loving the peace and quiet. No fighting, no screaming. The only part I'm not a huge fan of is the in and out of the car all day. Bella isn't so keen on that either and I have a feeling she may hate her car seat by the end of the year! LOL I'm not getting the WiFi signal I was getting last year so my netbook has done me no good in car line. I do have a DS to play though (and a new game!) and will hopefully start hitting up the library for some new books. Yes my dear friends, I said library. You can pick yourselves up off the floor now and close your mouths. I'm actually going to set foot in one for the first time in oh....15 years or so. Mama needs some new books and has no moolah, money, coinage, etc to go buy some. Plus I just don't know what to get everytime I set foot in a bookstore.

That's our first week update. I hope everyone else's week turned out as great as ours and for those just starting- good luck to you!

Pudding baby!

2009-08-29T20:29:00.003-04:00

Mmm chocolate pudding. I made up some No Pudge brownies tonight and a batch of Jello chocolate pudding. Layer pudding with some crumbled brownie on top and add some gummi worms and you have Worms 'N Dirt. The boys love this stuff when we go to Mimi's Cafe. (Yes, I know the *dirt* is usually chocolate cookie/Oreo crumbs but I didn't have any and who doesn't love brownies?)

I gave Bella a taste of pudding earlier and she loved it so when I gave her some in a bowl tonight I knew she'd go to town. First thing she said which surprised me was "Mmm"! Who knew?! She's a smart little thing! I knew this would make a great photo op. She went straight into the bathtub afterward!

This was partly my fault. I was trying to get her to grip the spoon lower and ended up getting it on her lip instead of in her mouth.

Is it all gone?

♫ ♪ It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year! ♫ ♪

2009-08-25T12:23:00.003-04:00

School is in! My big boy went off to 1st grade this morning and my little man went off to VPK (Voluntary Pre-K). Getting up early this morning wasn't as hard as I thought but maybe that's because I was tossing and turning all night. You'd think I was the one going to school this morning and getting all anxious.

Ian was ready to go at 7:30am. He told Logan I was dropping him off first which would be impossible since his school starts an hour later so I had to disappoint him in that. We did head out around that time though to take Logan to school. I really hate back to school traffic. It backs up due to the new light they installed at the end of the last school year. Then you add in allll the parents walking their kids in for the first day that won't usually walk them and it's a madhouse. Thankfully it will calm down in the next few days. We ended up parking at the recreation center across the street and walked over. Logan walked right into his class, found a seat at a table of all boys (the other table was all girls!) and was right at home.

A little while later it was time to take Ian to school. He walked in and started playing. He was a bit shy at first with his teachers but he did what they asked. He had no issues with me leaving him there either. :( My little boy is growing up! At pick up time he got a good report and I was able to squeeze a few tidbits about his day out of him.

We picked up Logan after that (told you I'd be spending a lot of time in/out of the car!) and he had a good day as well. He attempted to tell me about some of his day but Bella wouldn't let him get a word in. She was singing in the back seat. LOL

So our first day is done. We're going to go out to eat tonight to celebrate and have some family time and we'll be back to the grind first thing in the morning.

Open House- Take 2

2009-08-25T12:18:00.003-04:00

Logan's Open House was last night. It was short and sweet. We met his new teacher who seems very nice and talked to her a bit. Logan knows four of the kids from kindergarten so he already has some friends to begin the new year. After picking up MY homework (all the paperwork and forms) from the teacher we stopped by his Kindergarten teacher's new room to say Hi and see how her summer went. She was happy with who he got for 1st grade and said it would be who she would pick for her own children so I'm happy about that.

I can't believe he's off to 1st grade!

He and his buddy Jaden.

The Last Hurrah- A Day at the Zoo

2009-08-25T12:08:00.004-04:00

Since Monday was our very last day of summer vacay we decided to head to the zoo. For a FL August morning it was beautiful out! Low humidity and not too hot. There was even a slight breeze. It didn't last too long though so by noon we were getting pretty darn hot and we busted out the Squeeze Breeze fans and bought some yummy Hawaiian Shaved Ice to cool us off. All three kids had a blast playing in the water play area too. Here are a few pics!

Can you spot the rhino?

Oh there she is! She blends right in. I think she's waiting for her baby who was not on exhibit today.

Meet the llama. Such soft, thick fur. They actually save it when they shave her down to make wool!

Peekaboo! This is not an exhibit snake- just a little Florida Black Racer who came out to greet us along the pathway.

I'm coming to get you wet Mama!

VPK Open House

2009-08-21T12:52:00.004-04:00

I forgot my camera, please forgive me. I won't forget it come Tuesday morning when school starts!! (excuse me while I do a little WOOHOO dance)

Ian had Open House today at his Pre-K. He's going to the same school Logan went to (and Bella will go to) and has the same teacher Logan had as well. It's a small Christian school. The staff are wonderful there. It really feels like family. Dh came home to stay with L&B so just Ian and I could go over. We walked in and saw his teacher waving at us down the hall (and I dropped my keys and broke my car remote while waving back- ugh) and got a hug when we walked in. I saw my neighbor/friend Debbie and Logan's ex-preK teacher Mandy whose dd is also in Ian's class and met a couple of the other parents. From there we left the kids in the classroom and walked over to the Chapel for Orientation. Ian was fine when I left him. He was happily playing. We had talked about what would happen though so I'm sure that helped.

After orientation we walked back over and Ian was still happily playing by himself. He's kind of a loner without his brother around so hopefully school will bring him out a bit more- just not the wild side he has at home I pray! He says he's excited to go back and I know he'll be fine. I think he's ready for this next step. And it will be nice for Bella to get some just Mommy time too.

Girl's Night Out

2009-08-19T23:10:00.005-04:00

It's been a long semi-lonely summer without my besties (that's best-ies, not beasties just in case you read it wrong). One had a baby, two others have been in and out of town, another has been working all summer and the last one has just kept her kids busy, busy, busy this summer. So when I got an email asking about a girl's night out I jumped at the chance!

A little background- We're a bunch of friends that have been together for several years now. I think I've known Jen and Julie the longest (almost 6 years) followed by Holly, Scarlett and Amy. When we get together we have a few serious discussions but mainly we laugh. We laugh until we cry. Name a topic and I'm sure we've talked about it at some point.

But we aren't decision makers. The only thing decided beforehand for GNO was that we were going to see the movie Julie & Julia and we're going to go eat afterwards. Where are we going to eat? What movie time? What do we want to eat? Apps? Dessert? Dinner? These are all questions that go in circles during our emails back and forth and even after the movie as we were standing outside the theatre. I knew it was going to happen. What can you do though? That's just us.

So only four of us went to the 6:45 showing of J&J. The other two couldn't make it tonight. Decent movie- had some funny parts, but was very long. It feels even longer when you have to pee. And I always have to pee by the mid-end of a movie. It's just inevitable. Not a movie I'll be buying on DVD by the way.

After the movie and a quick bathroom stop we went outside to mull over all the restaurant choices we had and finally decided on Mimi's Cafe. Jen rode over with me and I don't know how but Julie and Amy beat us there. I think Julie must drive really fast because I know I don't drive really slow. We basically closed the place down. I'm stuffed like one of Julia Child's ducks at the moment. The food was good but I think Julie and I were missing the aioli on our croissant sandwiches. What would Julia Child say about that?!

And of course we talked. We had our serious discussion and we had our comedic moments. Jen was crying at one point and Amy was snorting (or was it Julie snorting?). I always have a great time when I go out with my girls and I don't know what I'd do without them. Love you ladies!!

Amy & Julie

Jennifer and Me

Veggie Pot Pie

2009-08-18T18:56:00.003-04:00

I decided to share this with you not only because it was good but because I have absolutely nothing else to write about right now. Hehe. This is one of those "wingin' it" recipes by the way. I kind of make it up as I go along. We ate part of one pie last night and dh had the leftovers for lunch today and the other whole pie made up tonight's dinner with leftovers for lunch tomorrow. My kids ate it all too with glowing reviews!

Veggie Pot Pie
Makes 2 -9in pies

2 boxes Pillsbury refrigerated pie crusts
2 cans 99% FF Cream of Mushroom
1 can Vegetable Broth
1 small bag (10oz?) mixed veggies (corn, peas, green beans)
16oz fresh (or frozen) sliced mushrooms
1/2 head fresh cauliflower (or frozen if you can find it), cut into small pieces
4-5 red potatoes, diced small
1/2 bag Morningstar Veggie Crumbles (optional)
butter/olive oil (or whatever oil you have on hand)
flour
salt/pepper
Rubbed dry sage (spice aisle)
cumin
garlic powder or fresh garlic, minced- whatever you have on hand

In a large saute/fry pan, saute your mushrooms in butter or olive oil on med high heat. If you use fresh garlic, add it now and saute with the mushrooms. Salt to taste (tasting always a must especially when using butter- mmm). Set aside.

Take the pie crusts out of the boxes so they can come to room temp.

In microwave, steam your frozen/fresh veggies until just tender. Potatoes should be just done and a fork should go in easily. Season to taste. If there's one thing I've learned from cooking shows it's that every layer needs to be seasoned.

Heat oven to 425.

Back in your saute pan heat some butter or olive oil (2 tbsp or so) and add your flour (prob. 2 tbsp or so- remember I don't measure) over med heat. Stir until combined and cook for about a minute. Add your vegetable broth and whisk together until you have no more lumps. Add both cans of soup and stir. Add a pinch of salt and pepper and also add a small pinch of your sage and about 3-4 shakes of cumin. (Add your powdered garlic if needed) Stir and taste. Add all of your (drained!!)veggies in. Add the meat substitute if desired and let it all heat together for a few minutes while you prepare the pie crust. (Mmm it's tasting good. Must keep spoon out of pan!)

Cut plastic and unroll pie crust. Place one pie crust in each pie pan, stretch a bit if needed so it comes up the sides. Spoon half of mixture into each crust. Spread it all out and taste again if needed (of course it's needed, must make sure it hasn't gone bad in the last 2 minutes). ;) Unroll the last 2 (one at a time of course) pie crusts and place on top. Pinch top crusts with bottom. Cut 3 slits on top to let out steam. Place on top of a cookie sheet in the oven just in case of spills. Cook for approx. 45min or until bottom crust appears done (I use glass pans so I can see it). If the crust edges get too dark you can use a pie shield thingy or use foil. Let them sit for about 15min or so before serving.

Okay, I think that's everything I did and hopefully I didn't miss any steps. Happy eating!

2009-08-17T18:30:00.004-04:00

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

I did not eat 2 servings of my homemade pot pie tonight because it was simply that good. I would never do that since I'm trying to lose weight. I did not restart a My Baby Can Talk- Baby Signs movie either so it would give me some extra quiet time nor did I put on a Baby Einsteins movie after because Ian wanted to watch it.

I did not drag my children to clothing stores at the outlet mall this weekend when all we were shopping for was shoes. And I did not buy anything but shoes while we were there (okay, this part is actually TRUE!!).

I did not buy myself some WW ice cream bars and hide them from my children. I also did not sneak some Reddi Whip from the can either when I gave the boys some (sour) blueberries with whipped cream. Who does that?

What we did on our summer vacation

2009-08-09T17:24:00.003-04:00

Since summer vacation is slowly but surely coming to an end I thought I'd post a few pics of what we've been up to. Hopefully once school is back in I'll have more to write about.

And now I present some our summer staycation photos...dum da da da! :)

Cuddling with my oldest brother is always nice.

Playing outside in the sprinkler. She quickly learned she doesn't like it so much and got out.

I think we need a bigger pool. ;~)

Playing video games is a fave in this house. Ian has now joined in on the fun too and plays with his brother on the Lego games.

Let's play dress-up! I'm batgirl!

And Ian as a hybrid wild cat! (Vickie, recognize the costume?)

Drawing on our Magna Doodles. Getting 3 kids to look at the camera at the same time and smile is impossible! (forgive the bib, she's getting her molars and drooling like crazy and all my bibs are *boy* bibs)

Her first scraped knee.

Drawing with chalk

Only 2 weeks of summer vacation left! Then it's car lines 4x a day, naps and hopefully some fun times since it will be just Bella and I inbetween. I'm looking forward to cooler weather eventually and park playdates and just getting back together with all my friends I've been missing over the summer. But for now I'm hoping to get in a few more fun times and take more photos of our summer days.

Yummy New Dinner

2009-08-01T17:52:00.003-04:00

For lack of better blogging right now I thought I'd pass on a recipe I tried out tonight. It was really good! It's veg'n (vegetarian) and even the kids gobbled it up.

Penne with Tomatoes, Capers and Olives

Photography: Becky Luigart-Stayner; Styling: Lydia DeGaris-Pursel

The only changes I made were the pasta (just used a 14.5z box of Smart Taste pasta instead of measuring it out) and the basil (had no fresh so I used the Gourmet Garden *fresh* in the tube kind that I keep in my fridge). It was really, really simple to make. In fact the longest part of the process was bringing the water to boil and cooking the pasta!

And here's a little hint for you when mincing garlic- to get the papery skin off really easily, take the flat side of your knife and use it to push down on the clove. I found a photo on the interwebz so you can see what I'm talking about. I think I learned it on Rachel Ray many moons ago. And when you're done and your hands smell all garlicky, rub them on the sink or on the kitchen faucet. The stainless steel will take the smell right off!

New Product Alert!

2009-07-31T11:11:00.004-04:00

Do you love onion rings? Don't like the hassle of making them? I found these Alexia snacks at the grocery store (and Costco) and they are so good! They are ACTUAL onion rings, okay well strips of onion instead of rings but they taste exactly the same without having the onion fall out of the breading when you bite it. They are crunchy like a chip though. Mmmm. They would be even more awesome with a dip like a blooming onion has. So if you love onion rings you should grab a bag of these next time you're out shopping.
(Nutritional info: 150Cal/8Fat/1Fiber)

Also check out their Waffle Fries. I tried the Bold and Spicy BBQ ones the other night when I found them on BOGO and they definitely lived up to their name. They were extra crunchy and had just enough spice. My only issue with these- there's not enough in a bag to go around! The label claims 5 servings but I was lucky to get 3.

In the Wild

2009-07-30T20:25:00.004-04:00

I decided to take the kids to the zoo this morning. OMG it was hot. Thankfully I had brought my Squeeze Breeze fan with me. I got some looks while using it but I think they were just jealous they didn't think of bringing one! ;) Bella sure appreciated it. Poor baby was sweating and so hot. The boys had little hand held light up fans I bought at Target this week for 90% off. I think they came to maybe 0.28 each. :)

We started our day trying to find some animals out and actually moving around. It was too hot even for them. We walked by an empty rhino exhibit at one point and I had totally forgotten there was a new baby just born to the Indian Rhino 3 weeks ago. So when we looped back around and saw they were out we stopped by again. I did notice some newspeople around filming so I wasn't sure we could get up there but all was okay. There was a guy standing next to us as we were oohing and aahhing over the new baby (sooooo freaking adorable!!) and it ended up that he was with the St Pete Times newspaper. He took some video of the boys and asked me their names and ages and told me to look at the website later today. As it turns out the video is up but we ended up on the cutting room floor. Oh well.
(This pic is actually over by the tigers)

Back to the baby. She is Adorable- with a capital A. She reminded me of a toddler just following after her mama- even in the way she walked. The handler you see in the video was giving them half of a cantaloupe (we were there to see it) and Mama gobbled it right up. When offered to the baby she pretty much turned her nose up at it and Mama nosed her out of the way to get to it. Mmm treat! The baby is still nursing, she knows what's best! By the way if you go to the LPZ website there's a contest to name the baby!

After the rhinos we went down another path and right in the middle of the boardwalk under the flume ride where the water sprinkles down was a beautiful black and yellow butterfly. It was drinking? the water off of the boards. I didn't have my SLR with me but I was able to get a decent photo.

From there we ended up in the Manatee/amphibian/reptile/aquatic exhibits. Ahhh air conditioning! Logan sat on the floor and Bella came over to sit in his lap. Aww. Awkward pic but cute nonetheless.

I had told the boys we'd play in the water area but by the time we got over there the storm clouds were starting to build. We did go see Bundaleer, our new koala bear. I didn't get a good photo though as he was turned away from us sleeping. Turns out they sleep 20 hours each day. I like my sleep but I don't think I could sleep that much! As we made our way over to Africa it started to sprinkle. It felt so nice so we kept going. Got just about to the elephants (near the end) and the thunder started. Most people in FL seem to ignore thunder but I know better and told the kids it was time to go. By the time we got closer to the entrance of the zoo it was raining harder and we ended up pretty darn wet by the time we made it to the car. I had handed one of our beach towels to the boys and when we got to the car, it was gone. Argh. So here I am trying to load 3 kids into carseats in the now pouring rain, load my soaked stroller in the back and trying to keep from getting soaked completely through myself. I did drive around the front of the zoo and my towel was hanging up on some railing. Just as I jumped out of the truck to get it an old man grabbed it to dry himself off! I guess he's the one who found it too and left it hanging. It's a *good* towel so I was happy to get it back.

What a day! I ended up stopping at Little Caesars on the way home for $5 Hot & Ready pizza and Crazy Bread (mmm). I must have looked like a total mess but we were all hungry and I had promised them pizza for lunch today. Hey $8.03 isn't bad for a pizza and 2 bags of CB! The kids were happy. I was happy when naptime came just a half hour later!

More to the story

2009-07-30T17:51:00.002-04:00

So my Dad called this morning and he was actually thinking of taking a trip to PA himself this fall/winter. He wants to go the week after Thanksgiving because my Gran's 90th birthday is that week. (Wow. 90 years.) He said we could stay at his cousin's house(she has a donkey farm) and that she has plenty of room for 2 nights and then we'd head to Philly for another night in a hotel. So that would be 3 nights total for hotel instead of 5. It would only knock maybe $200 off the cost though and maybe some food. That would bring the next issue up though- fitting 6 people into my truck. It has a 3rd row but it's too small for an adult. I could maybe put one of the kid's carseats back there though but with the 3rd row up there isn't as much room for luggage and the pack and play I'd have to bring. And once again we'd have to deal with the COLD weather aspect. Yuck. More to think about....

Weighing the Pros and Cons

2009-07-29T23:42:00.004-04:00

Dh and I have been ~~obsessing over~~ discussing a trip to Pennsylvania this fall. I'd love to see my family and mostly my Grandma. None of them have met Bella yet. It's been 4 years since we last saw anyone. The trip would cost quite a bit of dough though. Money we really shouldn't spend and would mean us dipping into our small savings account which is scary in this economy (and yes we did decide to wait on Disney passes). The costs of driving up there, food on the way, and hotels would probably be close to $2ooo from what I figured. Maybe more since we'll need to find stuff to do during the day while everyone else is working or maybe slightly less but still costly.

Our plan was to go the week of Thanksgiving but it's so freaking cold then! Average temp is like 46*. Brrr. I'm a Floridian, 70 is chilly! :) So I'd have to add in the cost of cold weather clothing as well. The last time we were up there we brought normal cold weather stuff (jeans, heavy jackets, etc) and the wind seemed to blow right thru it. I'm not so keen on that again! If there isn't snow, then what's the point? So then I started thinking maybe we could go in Sept/Oct. when fall is coming and maybe, just maybe the leaves will be starting to turn colors.

But it all comes back down to the green stuff, moolah, bread, bucks, whatever you want to call it. Oh and Logan and Ian would have to take time off from school. A no-no in my Aunt's eyes! I thought we were getting the entire week off at T-Day but I'm still not seeing it changed on our school board's website so that's 2 days and more if we went earlier this year.

Sigh...I know this trip should be important too. I'm sure my family would be thrilled to see us but I'm not close to them at all. I've seen them maybe 4 times in the past...25+ years? But I feel like I should go see them even though I'd feel awkward. Ugh! Too much stress. It's be cheaper to just do a Disney vacation! LOL Dh had the brilliant idea of just bringing Gran to FL for a week and we'd take her to Disney. haha I actually think it would be a great idea to do a Grand Gathering and have the entire family and all the cousins/cousins kids come down for just that. How much fun would a family reunion at WDW be?!

So even after writing this entire post I still have no clue what to do and now it's after midnight and I need to go to bed. I guess I'll obsess over this some more tomorrow.

Date Day

2009-07-25T18:15:00.003-04:00

I actually had a date this morning! Dh and I have been wanting to go see the new Harry Potter movie as we both loved the books and the other movies so I called my mom yesterday to see if she'd come over to babysit. She said she would so this morning dh and I took off for a few hours all by ourselves. It was so nice! After the movie we went over to Moe's ("Welcome to Moe's!") for some lunch. Yum! Every parent needs a bit of adult time with their spouse once in a while IMO.

As for the movie. We were a bit disappointed in it. They left out sooo much and added/changed scenes that really didn't need to be there. Usually a good movie leaves you wondering where the time went. This time I felt like I'd been sitting there for 2.5 hours. :( I just wish they'd stayed truer to the books. Since they did leave stuff out I'm wondering how they are going to make the next 2 movies (1 thick book left so they are splitting it). I'm glad we got to see it though.

July 4th Photo edits

2009-07-22T13:35:00.004-04:00

Befores and afters

Beach Photos

2009-07-21T10:03:00.002-04:00

Some of these didn't come out like I wanted but being it was so bright outside I couldn't see the viewing screen and had no idea until I came home.

Practicing her surf moves

P.S. I'm still working on editing and using different preset filters.

Beach Baby

2009-07-19T21:59:00.003-04:00

I finally have one. Neither of the boys liked the beach when they were little. They hated the sand. Bella loves it.... and the water! Before I get ahead of myself though...

Dh had some cousins come into town that he hasn't seem in probably 13 or more years (and they don't live that far). They wanted to go to the beach so I bought a new beach umbrella/tent (since I'm still burned), went grocery shopping and packed as much as possible on Saturday. This morning we took off with my BIL/SIL (future) following us and headed to Coquina Beach down in Bradenton. It's a really nice family beach. Our families always took us there as kids. This was Bella's first trip to an actual beach on the Gulf. Dh's cousin, his cousin's teenage nephews (1st cousins once removed?), our niece Christina and MIL all met us there too.

We got there and started setting up and Bella took to the sand and toys like she'd been doing it forever. Dh took her out to the water while I sat in my wonderfully shady tent and when he came back he said she loved it- all except for the waves that crashed into her face- can't say I blame her there. She giggled when he jumped the waves. Logan got right in too and would go further and further past my comfort level at times. He's not a strong swimmer so I kept calling him back or making sure someone else was with him. There was a yellow warning out which is moderate surf and currents. I didn't have to worry about Ian so much. He stayed at the shoreline building sand castles or helping the other boys out. He's not a water boy...yet.

The rest of the day was spent jumping waves, digging holes and filling them, burying Uncle Franky, and chasing waves. Bella was right in the thick of it. She's Little Miss Independent all right. Ian eventually got into the water somewhat. He laid down and let the little waves wash over him. A couple of times someone would try to take him out further and he'd cling to them like white on rice. Silly boy.

Around 3:30ish or so it started to thunder so I told dh it was time to pack it up. I live in FL and I know what thunder means. If you can hear it, there's lightning close by as well. It was amazing to me that so many people stayed and more were arriving. By the time we packed everything up and left it was getting very dark. It rained off and on while driving home but things got really bad as we got closer to our area of town. It was so bad that I could barely see the road and I ended up in an exit only lane for an exit I didn't want to get off of! To top it off it was a toll road but we were able to bypass it. The storm was B.A.D. It was like white out conditions (or what I imagine them to be) for a while. At one point I started freaking out inside because the water had puddled up next to the median and I didn't realize until I went thru it and although I slowed down and my windshield wipers were on high the water was sheeting over my windshield so much that I could not see anything!! I didn't know if I was going to drift into the next lane and hit someone or hit the median on the other side of me. OMG. Thankfully we made it home in one piece. What a day!

I'm still not a huge fan of the beach. I hate the sand getting all over me, I hate when people get sand all over my blanket and my skin hates the sun. I'm still burned and maybe burned on top of burned and I'm peeling on top of that! LOL It was nice to watch the kids but also hard to watch them. They went in three different directions! I don't think it will be something I venture out to do by myself anytime soon. There's just no way I could relax or even sit in the shade trying to keep up with those three! Pics to come tomorrow!

Ouch

2009-07-17T17:15:00.002-04:00

OMG my shoulders hurt. Just the thought of putting a bra on is painful. Bella keeps wanting up and puts her hands on my shoulders or pulls on my shirt. Yowie! Burn, burn go away!

Yowie! I'm a lobster!

2009-07-15T22:28:00.005-04:00

I'm feeling a bit crispy at the moment and I'm sure it won't feel much better in the morning. Our friend Karen invited the playgroup to her community pool to swim this morning. We were the only ones to go but we all had a lot of fun. Logan rediscovered he could swim this past Saturday in a jacuzzi and he was swimming and diving a ton today in the pool. Ian barely got in the water (need to get that boy into lessons asap!). He played on the steps mostly. And Bella stayed with me on my lap as I sat on the steps. I dunked her a few times and had her hold onto me while I kicked her feet behind her just like Mr. Thom, our now-moved-away swim instructor used to do to the boys and she didn't mind too much which surprised me because she hates getting her face wet. Most of the time she just sat happily with me though.

Sitting on the steps wasn't a great idea. I totally forgot sunscreen on my legs and they are quite red from mid-thigh to my knees. My shoulders are also red and I DID put sunscreen on. I put on some spray this morning and it seemed kind of oily like it was bad or something so I wiped it off and put some SPF50 lotion on. I thought I'd be okay but I was wrong! Ugh. I don't know what happened. I only put SPF15 on my face and it's fine. So all night now I'm been lotioning, diaper creme'ing and vinegaring my lobster red body. I'll try it all at this point.

The kids were SPF'd up too and Logan only got a little pink. Thankfully they all got daddy's Puerto Rican skin and they tan nicely. The biggest issue today for Logan was his eyes. I guess the chlorine in the pool really got to him and his eyes were burning terribly when we got home. I tried saline but getting him to hold his eyes open is impossible. He did say the funniest thing tonight though. When DH got home Logan was telling him about swimming. And he came out with, "... but it hurt my eyes, there are invisible tentacles in the water!" LMAO. So cute! Next time, he'll wear goggles. We wouldn't want any more tentacles getting in his eyes!

Burned or not, I'm just glad we got out of the house and the kids all had fun. I don't think I'll be headed out in the sun for a few days though. Sunburn + more sun= more pain! No thank you!

Testing

2009-07-13T13:22:00.007-04:00

Feel free to ignore... I've been playing with my new photo program Adobe Lightroom 2 and wanted to put some before and after pics on the web for a friend to critique.

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Vintage Ads

2009-07-09T08:53:00.002-04:00

These aren't your ordinary vintage ads. These have been named the 15 creepiest vintage ads. Check 'em out!
http://www.retrocomedy.com/2009/07/15-creepiest-vintage-ads-of-all-time.html

Seriously...check out #6 and click on it to make it bigger. Lysol?! Really?!!

#2 is pretty darn creepy too. I remember Baby Soft but I don't remember this ad.

I'm thinking these rank right up there with that Burger King ad.

Rest in Peace MJ

2009-07-07T23:02:00.005-04:00

Despite all the controversy over your life you were a musical genius, an awesome entertainer and a pop icon. You really did help heal the world and make it a better place. You brought all races, religions and classes together with your music. You were known the world over for your charitable works and you will be sorely missed. You were truly gone too soon. We will miss you Michael Jackson and I hope that you are at peace now in Heaven. Regrettably I never got to see you perform in person but maybe one day I'll have that opportunity. Rest in peace.

Another Disney Dilemna

2009-07-06T09:28:00.003-04:00

If we buy our passes by July 31st, we save 10% on passes. What to do...what to do? 10% is about $135 off a FL res pass. That's a good chunk of change.

If we wait until next year or after no doubt the price will have gone up as they always do. Ugh.

Happy 4th of July!

2009-07-04T20:56:00.004-04:00

Our morning started out hot and humid. For the 4th year in a row, we headed over to our town's Independance Day parade. It's always hot, sweltering hot and humid but we always have a good time and bring home a ton of necklaces (over 60 this year), flags (11) and candy, candy, candy. Today was no exception. Every once in a while there was a slight breeze and I had plenty of cold water on hand and misty fans to keep cool.

This year we were lucky in that we met up with a couple of friends and hung out with them (thank you Karen for sharing your shade tent!). Before the parade we were able to walk down the block and get a free bicycle helmet for Ian thru the local All Children's Hospital as well. Very nice because he needed one. I also learned how to properly use it.

Here are a few pics of our morning:
Our group

Yes, that's a real helicopter!

Shriner clowns

Hot and sweaty baby

R2D2

All the kiddos minus Bella
L-R:Trey,Shawn, Logan, Evan, Ian, Zane, Joshua

After we came home and showered we headed off to MIL's house for some food. She has no A/C and I dread going over there- especially on a hot July day. Ugh. To top it off she smokes in her home when there is noone over and it reeks. It's disgusting. I love her to death but I hate going over there. We stayed for about 2 hours and I'd had enough. Bella was tired and I was HOT. Came home, took another shower and bathed all the kids AGAIN, put Bella to bed and got the boys in their pj's. About 8:40pm I sent dh and the boys off to the mall area to watch the fireworks while I sat here and blogged and then watched the Macy's fireworks in HD on the big screen. Ahh fireworks in the air conditioning. LOL They just walked back in the door and poor Ian missed the whole thing. He fell asleep in the car. He's exhausted. In fact, while sitting here watching the fireworks with them on tv, I just looked over and he's asleep again. Off to bed he goes!

I want to go back

2009-07-03T22:59:00.003-04:00

To Disney that is. I've been listening to Live365.com's Disney stations and dh was playing some of our home videos for the kids tonight. I still read the DISboards. Bella is getting to be at the right age to be fascinated by the rides and the fireworks and of course soon it will be the Princesses and other characters. She was watching some YouTube video with me and loved Mickey and Minnie Mouse and she always loves seeing the castle at the beginning of every Disney movie. It has only been a few months since we've been and yes, we've been 50x before if not more but unless you are a Disney nut like me you won't get this post. You won't understand the pull of Disney. We find something new each and every time we go. There are still rides the kid's haven't done and shows they haven't seen.

Anywho, dh came up with a good idea tonight. He said we should take our tax money next year and get passes again. Woohoo! I knew there was a reason I married him. ;) We would bring lunch though and do a lot of refilling water bottles or getting c/s free water. For this to come from him was a huge surprise as he's been the one so gung-ho on spending less. I know he loves Disney just as much as I do and I think he misses it too.

Then he said, well maybe we should get them in September and just pay ourselves back with the tax money. Hmm on one hand, I really, really, really want to go but then the practical side of me says just wait. It's so hard being a responsible adult sometimes. Either way I'm sure we'll be talking about it more before we make a decision. In the meantime I'll keep listening to the sounds and music of the park thru the Live365.com stations and remembering all that I love about Disney.

4 more!

2009-07-02T23:20:00.003-04:00

Poor Bella just got at least 4 more teeth- all her canines and all at the same time. I guess the teething necklace I bought her did some good because while there were a few times she was crankier than usual, they were usually the times I forgot to put the necklace on her. Of course she did have other cranky times but for getting 4 teeth all at once she's been remarkably happy. Getting a picture of those teeth is impossible with all her wiggling though. You'll just have to wait for that one. :)

Bittersweet

2009-07-02T22:57:00.004-04:00

My baby girl has weaned herself. Little Miss Independent (15 months) has decided she no longer wants her Mama milk and has been quite adamant about it. I tried and I tried to persuade her but she'll have nothing to do with it now. sigh... She's so different than the boys were. Neither of them weaned until age 2+ and that was only because I was pregnant at the time. I feel partly like I failed somehow but I know she's just a different child and more independent.

So now instead of nursing in the morning and before bed, we cuddle. Our glider chair (although quite beaten up and in desperate need of new cushion covers- anyone want to sew some for me?) is finally getting the use it was meant for. The boys love to cuddle too but they were never *rockers*. We used the chair to read books and that was about it. Now I hold her and she lays her head on me and I sing and say a prayer to her as we rock at night. I rock her a bit before naptime too. I'm treasuring these moments because I know she's going to grow up so fast and it's quite possible (and almost for sure) that she'll be my last baby. :'( I'm going to have to hope that 14 months of nursing was enough and that she got the very best from it.

Simplicity

2009-06-28T22:04:00.004-04:00

We have a million and one toys and this is what the boys have been playing with all weekend. It's been a hiding spot during Hide & Seek (in which Ian had Logan completely stumped as to where he was), it's been a spot to sit and watch tv, a train and it's been a concession stand. Logan decided to sell $6.99 hotdogs. No drink, no side item, just the hotdog for $6.99. What a ripoff! LOL Ian wanted it to be a pizza shop. His pizzas- $20! Ouch!

The imagination is a wonderful thing.

Artist in the Making

2009-06-24T20:20:00.003-04:00

Best. Toy. Ever.

Bella loves her brothers' Magna Doodles and will carry one of them aroud screeching at one of us so we'll hold it for her. This morning she found it on the floor and sat right down to start scribbling.

Forgive the hair in her eyes. Her bangs are getting sooo long but the rest of her hair isn't. I'm always pushing it to the side.

Burger King's new ad

2009-06-24T19:36:00.005-04:00

Who's up for some Burger King and a BJ?!

What do you think? Hilarious or Inappropriate? Do we really need these innuendos? Does it make you want to run out to BK right now and get this new sandwich? And wth is up with the blow up doll look?!

Diaper Cake

2009-06-19T13:41:00.003-04:00

My good friend Scarlett is due in just 3 weeks with baby boy #3 and we all got together last night for a diaper shower for her. I love baby showers and making these cute diaper cakes so here's the one I made for her. I fell in love with the dino when I saw it! And the bib just matched perfectly!

Ingredients include:
Adorable dinosaur teether/rattle
JJ Cole Bib
travel size bottles of lotion/sunscreen
large bottle of J&J lavendar shampoo
3 cloth diaper/burp cloths
size 2 diapers

Marine Creature

2009-06-19T13:32:00.002-04:00

Is it a shark? Is it a whale? Ian claimed it was a shark at first but then he said whale. Maybe it's a new hybrid species? I'd say it was a whale shark but they don't appear to have teeth IRL. Hmm. Either way I'd say he did a pretty good job!

On a side note, I'd have to say that this is one our most used toys. Everyone, including Bella, loves the Magna Doodle!

4yr pics

2009-06-19T13:27:00.002-04:00

So I'm just a bit late in getting these off of my camera but these are a just a couple of pics I took of Ian on his birthday. These are so perfectly fitting of his personality.

Dr's Appts Update

2009-06-11T15:05:00.003-04:00

I finally got Bella in for her 12mo well visit even though technically she's 14mo. She's jumped up on the charts and is 31.75in (90%) and 22lbs 1.44oz (43%).

Ian also went for his 4 year well visit and he's 41.75in (80%) and 39lbs (75%). How he's only 10in taller than Bella is beyond me. It doesn't seem right but maybe I've never paid attention to that. I'll have to look at the two of them together later. Otherwise both are healthy which is what matters. He is officially ready for VPK now!

I didn't blog about this the other day but Bella woke up with really red cheeks the other morning. They look sunburned or windburned if you can imagine. Only 2 options came to mind which are teething or 5th disease which is just a virus. The redness went away yesterday but came back mid morning today. The Dr. wasn't concerned though and said it could be either option but if it spread more than likely it's 5th disease. Nothing can be done for either so I'm not worrying about it.

Ye Ole Swimming Hole

2009-06-09T14:23:00.003-04:00

This morning I decided we'd been home enough the past few days so I suggested we head to the zoo. Logan didn't like that idea and I almost forced the issue (since I know he'd be fine once he got there) until he asked if we could go to Lithia Springs. Umm sure! We were going to go yesterday and plans changed. Thankfully I already had most of our gear together from last week when we had planned to go and the weather got in our way. So we packed up and off we went.

The Springs are a local swimming hole about 20min or so from our house. The water is 72 year round and crystal clear. My parents took my sister and me when we were kids. Things have changed since then though. This was Bella's second trip I believe and she seemed to really like it. The water is really cold when you first get in but you warm up pretty quickly. The boys always have a blast!

The only downside to today is that our shaded area got busy pretty quickly and we got a nice family of chain smokers. We were down at the water and they were probably 15-20ft away but the smoke drifted right down to us. Yuck!! I have issues with smoke, if I get even a whiff of it, it seems to stay in my nose all day long like someone is just blowing it in my face. It's gross and I hate it!

Crystal clear water and some of the fish the kids love to *try* to catch

At the far, far end is where the river is

The actual Spring is on the far side of that rope. It gets much deeper there. People used to dive into it but they've closed it off. And check out the sky today. Gorgeous!

This was Bella's 1st trip. Look how little she was! (and bald! LOL)

School's Out!

2009-06-05T22:06:00.002-04:00

Kindergarten is officially over for Logan. It's bittersweet but my big guy is off to 1st grade in the fall. He had a blast in Mrs. Coleman's class and learned a lot. He came home every week with something new or some *big* word that I'd forgotten all about (like onomatopoeia). He got straight Honor Roll report cards this year and 4 Citizenship ribbons this year as well.

I went to his class the last day of school to take some photos of him and his friends together one last time. Unfortunately it seemed like half the class was absent.

Kindergarteners are so funny! It was all about the *rabbit ears* when taking a photo!

Ian's 4th birthday

2009-06-05T21:44:00.002-04:00

So we didn't end up having a party for him but he did get treated to some fun. Last Saturday we took him to Downtown Disney to eat at the T-Rex Cafe. We love that place! Bella was only an infant last time we were there and this time she was so curious. So many sights and sounds!

Afterwards we went over to the Lego store so he (and Logan) could make some new mini-figs and check everything out. If they could go shopping anywhere, it would be the Lego store!

King Ian

Making their mini figures

Some of the Lego creations

I think he had a pretty good birthday. His Abuela came by with some gifts for him earlier this week so between us he got some good stuff!

I Hate You

2009-06-01T17:47:00.004-04:00

Well, it's finally happened. Logan told me *I hate you* today. I didn't think I'd see this day come. I asked him to get off the video game and get his sister for me. He chose to keep playing so I told him he lost the game for the rest of the night. He walked away from me and said it as he was walking. Wow. I had to call him back and have a talk about it. Hopefully I won't be hearing it again anytime soon.

Happy Birthday Ian!!

2009-05-28T10:20:00.004-04:00

Happy 4th birthday to my little guy!

We took him to TRU last night where he picked out a small Lego set. I'm making him his dinner of choice tonight (nuggets, mac & chs, fries- really healthy! LOL) and Saturday we're taking him to Downtown Disney to eat at the T-Rex cafe. We'll also hit the Lego store there and let him make 3 mini-figures. I'm making his cake of choice today which was blueberry (??) with cream cheese frosting. Sounds good to me!

He didn't want to stand still to take a picture today so here's one from a few weeks ago.

Gator Chomp?

2009-05-26T19:47:00.002-04:00

Nahh, just Bella playing Patty Cake. :)

Peekaboo!

2009-05-26T19:43:00.002-04:00

10 Years

2009-05-22T16:58:00.003-04:00

Dh and I got married 10 years ago today. Where has 10 years gone? He doesn't read my blog so I won't get all mushy on you but I will say I love that man dearly. He's a wonderful husband, father and friend. Here are some pics from soooo long ago. (forgive the quality, they were scanned in)

Before becoming Disney fans we were Universal fans. We went all the time! It was our first date.

May 22, 1999

We are pretty low key people so we went out to dinner tonight at California Pizza Kitchen with the kids. At dessert time I told the waiter it was our anniversary and that I didn't know how dh and I stayed married for so long since he picked apple crisp and key lime pie for dessert when there's options like Sticky Toffee Pudding and Red Velvet cake. LOL When he came back with the desserts and the check he told me he had told his manager it was our anniversary and they gave us 50% off our dinner! Woohoo!! Oh and he picked the Apple Crisp and I got the Sticky Toffee Pudding. LOL It was goooood!

As for gifts, I got him the laptop cooler he wanted. He ended up getting me a Netbook that I've been talking about. I was really surprised! We are going over to the mall tomorrow to pick out a small piece of jewelry to represent 10 years too.

Happy Anniversary to us and here's to 50+ years more!

It's Raining...

2009-05-19T21:59:00.003-04:00

It's pouring...

Don't get me wrong. I'm grateful for the rain. We're in a 3 year drought here in Florida but we don't get this much rain during a hurricane! At least during a hurricane we get sun in between the rain bands. The past 2 days have been cloudy and rainy all. day. long. Makes walking Logan to class very difficult (dropped him in car line this morning) since I have all 3 kids to keep dry. Picking him up is just as much fun. Yesterday I left the truck on (remote start) with the younger two all buckled up and went to get Logan by myself. Before anyone jumps on me, I'm within eyeshot the entire time and the doors are locked. The kindergarten walkers are all brought out to the front of the school. Hopefully with the rain now and all this week and of course our normal summer showers our local swimming hole will fill up quickly so we can go have some fun in the sun and water!

Here are some pics I took of the rain coming down and the flooding of my backyard. It's all soaked in now thankfully.

New Puppy

2009-05-16T17:21:00.003-04:00

I got to babysit this cute wittle puppy today. She's just 7 weeks old. Isn't she sweet? I've been telling dh I want another dog but after today I'm not ready for a new puppy. Maybe an older dog but not a little puppy. I don't have the energy for 2 babies!

She was quite rambunctious. She loved to chase her shadow. She ran after Ian when I took her outside and he screamed like the boogie man was coming. Aye yiyi. Logan played with her a little. Bella thought it was hilarious when the pup was trying to attack my hand. I had to keep getting in between the puppy and Bella though so Bella wouldn't become the chew toy! Towards the end of the afternoon though when Bella was at her crankiest just the sound of the puppy's cries put Bella into hysterics. She sounded scared. Poor thing. They were in totally opposite rooms too. Puppy is all gone now though- thank goodness. Three kids and one dog are enough for now!

She's a mix of rat terrier and pomeranian. She's all white except for her head and that little bit on her tail.

Look at the face! :)

The Cast is Off

2009-05-16T17:12:00.003-04:00

Logan was finally able to get his cast off on Wednesday. He was ready! It wasn't dirty as in dirt, but it was dirty as in old skin cells. Eww. Looked like he had a weird tan where the cast was. It was a little sore at first but he was back to fooling around the next day. He still has to take easy for another week (no tumbling classes) but he's good to go otherwise.

The saw tickles.

Forgive the fake smile- he was too busy looking at the movie playing on the dvd player.

Cancer

2009-05-16T12:13:00.002-04:00

That is a scary word. I made an appointment 2 weeks ago to go to a free skin cancer screening today. The dermatologist looked me over and looked at all the spots/moles I was most worried about and pronounced that I was fine. Nothing to worry about but I should just keep my eyes open for changes. Phew. I was soooo nervous going in there today but I'm really glad I did. It put me at ease and really opened my eyes to the facts. Did you know skin cancer is the 2nd most diagnosed cancer in women next to breast cancer? I was that stupid teen who put baby oil on instead of sunscreen knowing I would burn and never tan. To this day I still forget to put sunscreen on and it should be a daily activity. I'm going to try to get better at it.

If you haven't done so, please make an appt with a dermatologist to get checked. It's so important and treatable if caught early.

Where Have I Been?

2009-05-11T22:38:00.002-04:00

Want to know? I've been playing a game. A video game! I was invited through Facebook to play this new game called Farm Town. It's a Sim type game where you grow crops and earn money to make your own farm. You can earn (more) money by harvesting other people's crops and having them harvest yours. You can send gifts, buy new trees, plants, animals, etc. Once you get to certain levels you can buy buildings or more land to expand your farm. Did I make that seem completely boring? It's really not.

When I first started this game I was bored. I admit it. I didn't get it. Within hours though I was completely addicted to it. I'm always checking to see if my crops are ready and trying to find someone to hire me to harvest their crops. They make more money on their crops if someone else harvests plus I get paid. Win-win! You have a specific time limit to harvest your crops though before they die.

You can also chat with your friends/neighbors or random strangers. I haven't spoken to anyone on the phone in a while but I have talked online! So if you want to be my Farm Town neighbor, find me on FaceBook and I'll send you an invite! Come join the fun!

Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-10T13:59:00.005-04:00

To all of my mommy friends and family. I hope everyone has a wonderful day and gets pampered and catered to today.

Mine didn't start out the way I wanted (sleeping in) when Ian woke me up at 6:30am by turning on the lights in our room saying he had something in his nose. Turns out his nose had bled a bit. Bella got up at 7:30am. After I fed and changed her I came out and Ian had my gift in his arms. Last night dh took Ian with him to go shopping. Dh had one gift in mind and then Ian saw this one and they got it instead. I got the Disney Dance Dance Revolution for the Wii. It looks like fun! It came with 2 dance pads too so I'm sure I'll be bringing it to a Mom's Night soon. ;)

My mom came over for breakfast which dh cooked and then tonight we went to my MILs for a breakfast/dinner. Dh made loads of french toast and bacon (I helped with the bacon for obvious reasons), BIL made quiches, and other BIL brought fruit salad. I ate WAY too much. It was yummy! I don't usually care for quiche but this was good. My little princess even ate some and she's decided recently she doesn't like eggs so I was happy to see her eat them. We played some Scattergories which was a fun game. MIL gave me a nice card and GC to Target. On the way home I found out she had passed some $$ on to dh too to give to me. :) Shopping! LOL

Got home, put the boys in the tub (Bella was too exhausted), jumped in the shower myself, put the boys to bed and played some Farmtown on the PC. It was a really nice day! Hope everyone else had a great day as well.

I won!

2009-05-10T13:38:00.002-04:00

Remeber this post? Well, I got an email today that I won! Woohoo!! I love my Crocs flip flops so I'm so excited to get another pair for free! Make sure you check out her site everyday for more deals!

Bargain Decor

2009-05-08T12:59:00.003-04:00

I got this at the Dollar Tree last week. Isn't it cute? Can't beat one dollar unless it's free!

I may still move it around a bit but it's up!

Green or Gross?

2009-05-07T22:06:00.003-04:00

Most of my loyal readers know that I live in the central FL area. We are under strict watering restrictions right now. No decorative fountains, lawn watering is limited to once per week and only during certain hours and there is no car washing allowed (with the exception of professional carwashes). Dh came up with idea to save the kids' bath water after they are done and use that to clean his (and sometimes my) car. He hates a dirty car and I hate the idea of spending $5-10 at a carwash every week. Green or Gross? Is he brilliant?

I had to get my BHB ladies' opinions and so far the consensus is that he's green. Yay! They even gave me the idea of a bucket in the shower to water the plants. Too bad I have a black thumb! I have no plants to worry about anyway- just for that reason!

Baltic Amber

2009-05-07T10:01:00.003-04:00

I ordered a Baltic Amber necklace for Bella from InspiredByFinn. Baltic Amber has succinic acid in it which when warmed up by the skin releases healthy oils and is absorbed into the bloodstream. It provides a natural pain relief/anti-imflammatory for teething, headaches, muscle aches, etc. It's used mainly in Europe and can be found in pharmacies over there.

So after reading about them and hearing other mom's reviews I bought one and finally got it yesterday. It looks absolutely adorable on her and I'm really hoping when she starts cutting more teeth that it will help with the pain. She didn't do so well with the teeth this last round. I took some pics of her today with it on. How cute is she?!

Teacher Appreciation Gifts

2009-05-06T20:57:00.003-04:00

According to everyone I know I went a bit overboard but this is what I ended up with. Almost everything came from the Dollar Tree (everything's a $1).

Monday- nothing- forgot it at home. Oops!
Tuesday- gardening tote bag with seeds, spade and gloves
Wed- Movie night with popcorn bucket, popcorn, candy and a $5GC to Target
Thursday- Altered clipboards (x3 for 3 teachers) I made, magnetic picture frame with pic of Logan (x2)
Friday- letter from Logan plus framed artwork in a wood frame Logan colored

It doesn't sound so bad does it? Here are the altered clipboards. I think they came out adorable! Mod Podging (decoupage) is a royal PITA though. My thinner paper kept bubbling so I'd have to peel it off and reset it. It takes a while to dry so it's no longer tacky too. The back is the flowered pattern.

Weird and Crazy Products

2009-05-04T20:21:00.002-04:00

Do you ever run across a product that just makes you think *umm what were they thinking?!*? I came across both of these products today on one of my message boards.

First we have Squeezable Bacon. Yeah you read that right. It's 100% bacon and while I love my ~~swine~~ pork, thinking about squeezing it or spreading it makes me cringe. Bacon should be crisp and not look like cat food. The fact that it has a 12 year shelf life is a whole other issue!

And then we have crocheted tampons. Who is their right mind would stick one of these up their VJJ? Enough said.

Rude People

2009-05-02T19:48:00.002-04:00

Rude, oblivious people suck. I was at Costco earlier waiting to check out and the ~~lady~~ woman in front of me was jabbering away on her cell phone. She had a cart full of stuff and was grabbing stuff out of the cart one. piece. at. a. time walking 4 feet in between to put it on the belt. Seriously?! Get off the damn phone! You are not the only person in the universe. There are other people waiting (not so) patiently for you to move your a$$. I'm sure my eyes were shooting daggers at this woman. At one point I thought she was going to open a bag of apples right there on the belt and take one out to eat or give one to her son (who was more than old enough to help her with the groceries). Thankfully she changed her mind. I'm not sure I could have contained myself had she done it.

And speaking of Costco, have you ever been during sample hours? You know, where they have all the food sampling booths. People like free food. I thought it was quite funny today. The same groups of people would descend upon these booths like ants at a picnic. By the time you were able to get around them they had devoured every. single. bite. on the trays. I like free samples too but today's group was rather comical to watch.

Water Fun Friday

2009-05-02T09:16:00.003-04:00

There was no school yesterday so we decided to go to some spray fountains in a nearby (Nice-Wish-I-Could-Afford-to-Live-There) neighborhood with some playgroup friends. The boys loved running thru the water. Despite getting very lost trying to find it (totally forgot I had GPS in the car LOL) it was a nice morning.

Bella Video

2009-04-30T23:12:00.005-04:00

We were at the park this morning with some friends and I took this short video of Bella walking. I was trying to get her to show off for the camera but I only got one kiss and an Uh-oh out of her.

She's talking!

2009-04-29T17:48:00.004-04:00

Bella has mastered clapping and is on to speaking now. We have 3 words consistently. Mama (or mamama), Uh-oh and All Done. Would someone tell her to stop? Seriously, when did she go from baby to toddler? Oh and she's walking almost exclusively. Crawling is still faster in some cases. She walked across the family room the other day. It won't be long now before she's chasing after her brothers!

The end is near

2009-04-27T13:08:00.003-04:00

I just moved Logan's harness straps to the top hole. It still gives him plenty of room to grow and his seat is good until next August so I have another year plus some but it's sad that he old enough and tall enough that I'll have no choice but to move him to a booster seat. He already sits in one in Daddy's car and he sits there well but I know it's just not as safe. Think I can have the truck/car retrofitted with 5pt harnesses for everyone? LOL

Want to Win?

2009-04-27T08:32:00.003-04:00

One of my favorite bargain hunting blogs, DealSeekingMom, has just launched forums where you can find tips and deals. She's giving away a bunch of stuff this week and right now you can enter to win a gift certificate for one pair of CROCS up to $50. So go check out her post HERE and sign up to win! And don't forget to check out her deals this week while you're there!

Snap!

2009-04-24T22:58:00.004-04:00

Just like that Bella has (almost) mastered four things today!

First was clapping. For some reason she never has really clapped. A couple of times she did something that resembled it but today she discovered what it really is. We were listening to the Clapping Song (Barney) in the car and I guess Ian was clapping in the back. When I went to get out of the car with her she started clapping. I kept encouraging her and she kept it up. She gets a huge proud smile on her face too.

She's decided to get much braver with walking. Dh said she walked across the room to him tonight. I noticed if she falls she gets right back up again instead of just crawling the rest of the way. She blew kisses tonight which I've been trying to teach her and she started waving bye-bye. That was yet another *milestone* if that's what you want to call it than she hadn't started doing. I was shocked! All of them happened today. It's like a lightbulb went off in her head and everything just clicked. Yay Bella!!

Wordless Wednesday

2009-04-22T22:22:00.001-04:00

Kmart Double Days

2009-04-21T09:16:00.002-04:00

I went over to Kmart last night to see what kind of deals I could get. Yesterday morning I started out by clipping all my coupons that I'll use (I don't bother with stuff we don't buy) and I then sorted and wrote down all the coupons and prices off so I could scan my list while I walked the store. I had planned to go straight there afterwards but then decided I'd wait until dh got home so I could go by myself. Very good decision as it took me awhile! I don't think I could have done it with whiny, complaining children.

I ended up with $105 worth of stuff for $64 (including tax). Not too shabby. That included 5 packs of diapers too! Our Kmart really sucks when it comes to product stock as well as price and I have no idea how they stay in business. In the end I bought 5 jumbo packs of diapers, toothpaste, Scope, Boston contact solution, Smart Rinse, floss, dental picks, Ziplocs, natural bathroom cleaner, Pringles, Kelloggs cereal, rootbeer(no coupon), sour cream, mustard and shaving foam. I tried not to buy anything that I wouldn't already buy/use.

I just found another $1.50/Pampers coupon (doubles to $3 off) so I may go back one more time this week plus they were really low on stock on wipes so hopefully they'll get some more in and I can use those coupons. I'm already pretty well stocked on wipes but it's not like they won't get used!

If you have a Kmart near check to see if they are doing double (or triple) coupon days this week! You may find some deals!

Walking

2009-04-21T08:16:00.001-04:00

I forgot to write about it but Bella has been taking steps for a few weeks now. The max she's gotten before falling is about 5 steps but she's trying! Crawling is still faster in her opinion!

Unthink

2009-04-16T11:40:00.004-04:00

Ian wanted some KFC for lunch today so since we were already out and about we stopped in. They now have Grilled Chicken so I decided to try it. Since it was just 11am (opening) it was hot and fresh and really very good. I came home and checked out the stats on it compared to my favorite crispy chicken and here's what I got.

Crispy_____ vs______ Grilled (had to add underscores or it wouldn't work right)
Cal- 490 (*11pt)______ 180(*4pt)
Fat- 31_______________ 4

*WW points

And if you like Original chicken here are the stats for that- Cal 370, Fat 21

That's a huge difference! I know it's not quite the same as the crispy, crunchy, yummy breadiness that Extra Crispy chicken has but it's much better for me (and you!). Next time I'll skip that pesky biscuit though. It's so yummy but so bad for me too. So next time you stop in at KFC give it a try. And if you want to try it for FREE head over there on April 27th. Everyone gets a free piece to try (manager's choice on which piece you get).

New Cast Day!

2009-04-15T18:03:00.004-04:00

Logan had an appointment this morning to get his new short cast. I just kept him home from school on advice from his teacher. He would have only been there a short while and he wasn't missing anything. I realized as we were leaving that I had just barely enough gas and no time to stop. Of course. Robert told me to keep it under 60mph (not easy on the interstate!) and we made it there just fine thankfully. Logan was fine today. He went with the nurse easily to get x-rayed. The Dr came in and told him all they had left was hot pink casts and Logan wasn't having that! LOL

I forgot my camera today (I think I forgot my brain too) so all of these are from my phone.

Waiting to go get x-rayed again. Bella wasn't happy.

The sun was really bright! Here he's getting the old cast sawed off. He got to keep it.

Re-wrapping his arm in Gore Tex.

He picked a dark blue color for this cast. His arm is a bit bruised at the top now and the skin is peely but should be good in a week. He'll have this cast on for another 4 weeks.

After the Ortho visit we decided to head over to the zoo. What a gorgeous day! Everyone was starving so we stopped for lunch first at the Garden Grille just inside the zoo. Robert hated his veggie burger. I don't remember him complaining the last time he went so maybe they changed it. Everything else was okay. I wish I had remembered to bring my 20% off coupon though (one more thing I forgot)!

The Cloudy Leopard was actually out!

*Tamani* (the baby) was feeling rather mischevious today. She kept messing with (?) Mama. So cute though!!!

Here's my own baby. She liked sitting in the water.

She didn't like when someone ran past her and splashed her though.

Goofy boy

Happy to get all warmed up.

Brrrr. It wasn't cold at all outside but the water was really cool.

That was the end of our day. It was close to dinner time so we packed up and left after the water fun. Back to school tomorrow!

KMart Double Coupon Days!

2009-04-14T20:20:00.004-04:00

I emailed Kmart customer service to verify and Florida stores will do double coupons April 18th- April 25th, 2009. I'm waiting to find out which stores are participating.

I took advantage of this a few months ago buying Pampers. I got $4 off each package! At that time it was double coupons up to $4 off ($2 coupons).

New 'Do

2009-04-14T19:27:00.003-04:00

I couldn't get the colors to come out right in my photo program(took them in the bathroom mirror- no flash) so I changed them to B&W. I did get my hair colored though.

Lookie!!

2009-04-14T19:20:00.002-04:00

It's cooommming!! I was driving past last week (on my way home from the cake supply store) and snapped these. Our new store opens May 6th!

XBox 360 cake

2009-04-11T20:35:00.003-04:00

I don't think I did a great job. It looked differently in my head than how it came out and I definately will do things differently next time BUT the birthday guy loved it and so did all his friends and family. I got a lot of compliments on it and was told how much it really looked like an xbox plus everyone loved the taste so that's what counts, right?

The controller is made from rice krispie treats (see the pan in the back?). It's covered in buttercream (real) and fondant (which tasted pretty good btw). The knobs are rolos I cut in half and covered. The A, B, Y, X buttons are M&Ms upside down. I wrote the letters on them with edible food markers. The cake was yellow boxed cake (x 2), a box of pound cake and 1 package instant pudding powder (pound cake and pudding help make it more dense for carving) with buttercream frosting, pineapple preserves and fondant. I used silver luster dust to make the silver metallic details and edible markers for the writing. All the air holes were made from poking a food thermometer into the fondant. I won't go into my mistakes but I'm sure you can see them. LOL This is only my 2nd time working with fondant though so I won't beat myself up too much.

Spring Break Is No Fun

2009-04-09T21:49:00.005-04:00

It's Spring Break here. I haven't blogged much so you must be wondering what we've been up to. Let me tell you. Nothing, nada, zip. I've had at least 2 kids sick all week long. Bella's been super cranky and has had no appetite until today (teething perhaps?). Ian got sick Tuesday night so I had to keep him home Wednesday of course. We missed our annual Easter Egg hunt/party with our playgroup as well. Partly because Logan wouldn't be able to play with his friends on the playground due to his cast but mostly because Ian was sick.

I finally got everyone out of the house today. No, not a fun trip. I volunteered to make my BIL's birthday cake for his party on Saturday so I had to go on a fondant run. The closest place that doesn't carry the yucky Wilton brand is a cake shop/supply store about 40min from me. Yes I could have made it but I was scared to. I read a lot of mixed reviews on the recipes. Bella was so cranky when we left that I came straight home afterwards and attempted to put her down for a nap. Yeah right. Ian took one though despite the fact he told me he wasn't tired. When he woke up I packed everyone up to go to Micheal's for more supplies. Once again Bella was Ms Crankypants. I gave up the idea of hitting Publix and came home yet again. Thankfully I was able to get out and go to Publix by myself once dh got home from work. And then I had to make a second run when I forgot key ingredients. Ugh.

Want to know what I'm making that I'm driving all over town for? An Xbox 360 cake with controller. Ambitious I know! I think I can pull it off though- or at least I hope so! I baked the cakes tonight and they are chilling. I made the rice krispy treats and shaped my controller and it's chilling in the fridge. Tomorrow I'll make some buttercream, trim and fill my cakes with buttercream and pineapple preserves and freeze the cake for a bit before carving it. Then I just need to roll out my fondant, cover the cake and controller and decorate it. Send me some good cake decorating ~~vibes~~. I need them! This cake has to be ready to go by 2:30pm Saturday afternoon! Now I know why cakes cost so much thru a small bakery. It isn't cheap to make one and it's time consuming! I know my BIL will appreciate the effort though and hopefully everyone will enjoy it. I'll take pics and post them once I'm done.

As for Spring Break, it's basically over and there's nothing much I can do about it. We'll do something on Sunday I'm sure and then next week while dh is on vacation we'll do something too. Maybe we'll hit the zoo after Logan gets out of school one day. Or go over to Downtown Disney. Or maybe we'll just veg and wait for summer break. ;)

Birthday Party Time!

2009-04-05T19:02:00.003-04:00

Finally. Today was the day. I was running around like a crazy person this morning. I had to decorate the cake and smash cake, run to the store to have the balloons blown up, go to Publix and get the drinks and ice and stop in Walgreens to pick up the photos for the favors since our printer didn't have the right ink last night. I got home and people were just getting here so I got started a wee bit late. I'm so glad I got all the baking done and the frosting made yesterday.

Everything went well though. Bella looked cute as a button in her birthday dress. We had a simple spread- make your own sandwiches and chips and dip. That's it. I bought 2 loaves of whole wheat bread and dh didn't think people would like it. I went ahead and grabbed a loaf of white at the store this morning. Guess what went first? Yep, the wheat. Now I have to run to Costco again to get more for our family! I made fresh onion and ranch dips too. Yum! I barely got any they went so fast. Note to self- buy more food for the next birthday party!

I got a ton of compliments on my desserts. I made a vanilla Giant Cupcake with fresh strawberry frosting for the general party goers and a mini one for Bella's smash cake. I also made Bakerella's cupcake pops in chocolate. Time consuming they were but so worth it! They came out so cute!

Giant cupcake- REAL strawberry frosting. The cupcake liner is actually some vellum paper.

See all the bits of strawberry in there? Yum!

Bella's appetite has been off the last two days. She barely ate anything yesterday and only had a banana today and a few tiny bites of other stuff. Needless to say she didn't do a lot of smashing or eating her smash cake. Oh well. We had pics from her actual birthday of her enjoying a cupcake. I made her cupcake smash cake from scratch. It's this recipe from Martha Stewart. The frosting is from that recipe as well. It was good! For her high chair decor I bought a simple chocolate brown towel to cover the usual navy blue cover and made her a pink tutu. She looks so tiny still in her chair.

This give you a better idea of just how big the *mini* giant cupcake is.

My niece enjoying a cupcake pop.

I love this photo of her. I think it will go up on our wall.

One of MY favorite gifts of the day. My dear sweet friend Julie knitted Bella some cupcakes!! How sweet are they?!

Bella seemed very taken with her Tinkerbell card. That's my girl! ;) I love Tink!

Pulling Minnie Mouse (not a gift) out of her new stroller/walker.

Of course you know babies, they'd much rather play with the wrapping paper and packaging than the actual toy!

Her balloons. Did you know Party City will blow them up for you for a nominal fee? It was cheaper than buying a helium tank myself!

The party favors. The pictures and holders were for each family to take home and the goodie bags for each kid. There were 3 *flavors* of photo holder although only 2 are pictured (chocolate is missing). Goodie bags had Hershey Kisses (pink from Valentines), a cupcake bookmark, cupcake birthday stickers and a Krazy Straw.

Her party was a huge success. Everyone seemed to have a good time. Bella missed her afternoon nap so she was exhausted tonight. I still can't believe it's been a year since she was born. Time seems to go by so quickly. Thank you to all my friends and family who came today. Love you all!!