Where did the time go?

To say I have been crazy busy lately would be a vast understatement. I am currently enjoying spring break with my ladies and cannot wait for summer to be here. The daily routines that define us during the week are on break as we are and I love. Summer here we come. I cannot fathom that a whole school year is almost over since I started homeschooling, since I had Charlee. Craziness. I have been blessed fo sho'.
My husband is being honored as the Latino Officer of the Year. BAHAHAHAHAH! Although he wishes he were Latino, he is not. Truly, he served the Latino community a great deal during his time in dics. So, this is a huge honor to him and just continues to show me that my husband is a rock star.
What else is new.....oh, i lost 13 pounds since I started my post baby endeavor. Still working on the last couple but am really pleased with the progress so far. I have never maximized on the caloric burn during the nursing stage but I was determined to this final time. I actually get to eat almost anything I want. Loving, I may never stop nursing. Well, I may stop nursing so we can go to Vegas later this year....um yah!
Charlee was sleeping through the night. It was recently brought to my attention that she might be a bit spoiled....ahem AMY..... so we have cut her third nap of the day out and things are working a little more smoothly. She is getting about 11 hours a night for the last 3 nights and I hope that keeps up.
C and I had the uncommon pleasure of going out to dinner with his brother and sister and in -laws Monday night, it was super fun. We went to Twigs, dare say I am addicted? The conversation was fun and we arrived driving the new truck we brought!
It is kind of funny to say "new" b/c it was actually used. Even funnier, I had recently told my bestie that we dont buy used b/c we arent handy and cannot fix car stuff.....enter us buying a used truck a couple months later. The difference for us was that it was C's dad's truck so we knew the only owner and it had really low mileage. C had been dying to get a man card back after trading his last truck for a mini-van. He deserved and loves!

Food!

This is what has been on my brain lately. The deep dish salted cookie pie. Wowza. It looks amazing. First on the agenda, I need a cast iron skillet. Secondly, all the ingredients. Ah, who am I kidding? Im not going to make this I just want to continue drooling over it. My bestie makes these rice krispie treats on steriods....they are amazing. She adds peanut butter to them, melts chocolate chips on top of them. Oh my. I think I just gained weight thinking about it. Enough about food.

We had several snow days this week which made for cabin fever. Poor Dani, being homeschooled does not get snow days like the other kids. It seemed agonizing for her but she pressed on. We got tons of work done and plenty of play time as well. I was telling C that his "weekends" dont really feel like time off lately because we are so busy getting things accomplished. With all the snow this week, it actually felt like a weekend. We are getting lots of time. Love

My girls are at each other. Anyone else having a similar problem? Cabin Fever! They have gone outside and all, but until last night really hadnt been out. We have made cookies, messed, laundry, meals and watched movies. I am beat just thinking about it. Snow go away so my kids can go back to school again.

Twigs

C and I have tried for weeks to get into this swanky new restaurant in town and have been unsuccessful. However, I called a couple days in advance for a reservation and viola( I sound like Fancy Nancy, good grief), we went last night. Mom kept the bigs for an over nighter so we only had Charlee on the date with us. The atmosphere was fun. It is labeled a bistro and martini bar. Food was delish, decor was beautiful. We got a dessert called the "sticky cookie". Oh my, that was something to write home about. It was a delectable three scoops of ice cream with a half baked cookie over the top. Wowza! We shared an entree and it was plenty for us.

My only criticism was that it was not very child friendly. From what I understand you can take a baby anywhere as long as they are on the tit, love that movie! By not very child friendly I mean:

1. Th tables did not allow much room for nursing. I could not push it away from me to have enough room to nurse. So I had to sit in a chair without arms and risk my side being exposed to all who waited for a table at the joint.

2. There was no changing table in the bathroom. So the only alternative to changing my baby on the floor was to change her on the bathroom counter. Not the most ideal situation as there was water all over the counter.

So, all this to say, I know that kids were allowed. They had high chairs for goodness sake. I did not trust the uptrned high chair to support her carseat so her seat sat on the floor and we held her. All in all we did have a great experience and will definitely be going back again. I would give the restaurant an A. C and I are going to be food bloggers for a while. Fun excuse to go out and eat.

Good Crop

So the title of this blog comes about because my new SIL told my brother that one of the reasons she chose him was because he looked like he would "produce good crop". Hilarious! Cant say I disagree I mean we do come from an incredible yet undefined gene pool. Anyhow the reason for the post is I wanted to brag on my "good crop." Ya know how you always hope for your kids to make wise and selfless choices, but grit your teeth when they are faced with a decision (that might not be easy for them) that could go either way?

Just to give a little background on the subject we give our girls 3 gifts each Christmas (not including the little things we put in their stocking). We give them a want, a need and a surprise. Now one gift might include a couple things. Last year we got Dani a braclet maker and the string that she would need to make the bracelets. So there is an example of "one gift".

The other night we started talking with the kids about ways in which we could share with people that dont have as much as we do. Some of the items we decided on were; donating canned foods to a food bank, donating some of our things to Goodwill and last but not least "shopping" the Compassion catalog. If you are not familiar to Compassion, it is an organization where you can sponsor a child but this year they sent out a catalog and had different items you could donate to people in need (in Africa). This spoke to our heart because a little boy we have been sponsoring for the last 9 years lives in Tanzania, Africa. As a family we went through and decided on some things we would purchase and then we challenged the kids. C and I usually spend about $100 on each other and this year we decided it would be $70ish and we would put the remaining money towards something else in the Compassion catalog. We asked the kids if they wanted to give up one of their three gifts and give something to someone who has less than they do. I thought for sure Leilani would be the hold out, but I was wrong. She and Dani jumped right on board. Alli on the other hand said, " Can I think about this for a while." Of course. We really wanted this to be their decision. So we were fully prepared for her to answer "no" but I really hoped they would choose to give.

After much consideration Alli chose to give up one of her gifts. I cant tell you how proud I was of all of them. I wanted them to feel a certain amount of discord so that this was truly a sacrifice to them. Dani chose to give money towards a playground. Leilani chose a blanket and a tarp. Allison chose formula for a baby for a month. I am so humbled by their hearts. Oh, this makes mommas heart proud and is proof I am raising "good crop".

Ineffable

I know this doesnt sound like a real word, but it is. I even sound borderline bad. Do you know what this means? Impossible to describe. I was homeschooling Dani this morning and this was a vocabulary word that we were touching on during the reading/composition section of our workbook. Loved. Im bad!

I have had my head in the clouds lately. Dreaming of taking the kids to Hawaii. I think it would be so magical to see their little faces as they frollicked on the white sand and waded in the crystal blue water. warm water even. The sun would bleach out their hair, tan their skin and bring out the fraction of Hawaiian that they are. I thought about taking them to Kauai, renting boogie boards and lounging out there as long as possible. My only fear is that we would never want to come home. But oy vey, it was spendy last time. A gallon of milk was $7. C would need a huge pay increase and all our family is here. Oh to dream, as I sit here in 20 degree weather freezing my hiney off.

Baby girl is rolling over in the crib and usually not happy about it. Very funny. And as I type I hear her stirring, so more later.

Jaimie

Smile Bug

I will have to find my pic of Lou. She was a pink cowgirl. My daughters looked so adorable. Alli was a super model, Dani a blushing bride, Charlee a butterfly. C took 2/4 of the girls around the neighborhood while Dani, mom, Charlee and I answered the door to 349 kids. It was fun and the count was great. I absolutely loved answering the door and chatting with mom. Love these memories. I also love the after halloween pillaging that I do at Walmart to prepare for the following year. The girls really wanted some "spider webs" on our shurbs out front and I got some for next year. Love!

Rollin, Rollin, Rollin on her belly!

Reason #214 of why being a Stay At Home Mother rocks.......I get to witness all my baby's firsts. No one else is telling me what she did today, what I missed, I get to see it all. Praise God for teaching C and I early on to live on one income. So incredibly thankful. Two days ago Charlee rolled herself over and then didnt like it. It was precious. I went to her last night and she had turned over on her belly and again was not happy about it. This morning when I took her out of her crib she was on her belly completely turned a different way then I put her in the crib. She is so happy in the morning to be rescued, changed and fed. I absolutely love going to get her smiling face. Love, love, love.