tell your sister you're sorry...

Photoshoot time!

2012-01-28T09:01:00.000-06:00

Since Katie got bangs for her birthday.... she wanted a photoshoot done. It had been almost a year since her last shoot (I take my girls out to practice on them, and they are more than happy to pose for me!), so I figured it was time!

Here is a collage of her pictures, and then some bigger pictures that we (she) loves!

The birthday girls day ....

2012-01-25T14:32:00.000-06:00

Katie had a GREAT birthday yesterday!! On Monday night, I took her to Ulta for a haircut... for her birthday she wanted bangs. So, we went with a picture of Hillary Duff & her amazing hair style, and had some beautiful long layers added, and BANGS!! She is still getting used to her bangs, but so far everyone at school LOVED her bangs... and now some of them want the same style. She was on cloud nine. She said everyone at school wished her happy birthday.

We had steak, mashed potatoes & green beans for dinner (her request). I added Martinelli sparkling cider to the table, her dad added in Coca-Cola to the table.... so we had both.

We had several visitors that night, and that completely put her over the top in happiness. Her former Young Woman's leader dropped by with a little gift ... and her current YW leaders & best friend Madison dropped by w/ a balloon & a little gift. They stayed and had cake & ice cream with us.

Then right before bed, another dear friend dropped by with her mom's (and hers!) famous cupcake that all ladies in our church get on their birthday. These cakes are to DIE for. You can see the bigger version of the cake that I get on my birthday at the bottom. I seriously love the cupcake though!

She got money from both sets of grandparents (money is what she loves!), a movie from her aunt & uncle (which we've watched several times now.. it's "She's Out of Control" w/ Tony Danza), and she has a gift coming in the mail from another aunt & uncle. So, she's pretty happy.

From 4 to 14...

2012-01-24T15:08:00.000-06:00

Our little girl is not so little anymore. :(

Happy Birthday to our little Blondie!

Here she is at aged 4 ... and although that picture was taken when she was 13... she is now 14!

I have just one thing to say:

QUIT GROWING UP!!!

Love,

Mama

Mom's Rules... getting kids to make their bed

2012-01-21T01:20:00.000-06:00

Last week I went on a mission in my girls' room.

I went in with trashbags (for trash), several more trashbags (to giveaway clothes), broom, dustpan, and anything else I needed to get me through this trying time.
It took me two days overall... day one was spent almost crying in the corner (wait.. there wasn't a corner to be found ... too much stuff everywhere) ... anyways, I spent day one walking around mindlessly, picking up some trash, and I left. I was fuming mad.

Day two I pulled everything out of their closet. I proceeded to clean it. I hung up clothes that had fallen, reorganized their closet according to pants, shirts, hoodies, dresses, skirts, etc. OK, that was just on Katie's side. I still have Maddie's side to do. I arranged their shoes. I tossed about 3 bags full of trash full of broken hangers, paper that had their "pretend school", duct tape roses ... so much junk!
What I didn't put away, I left it out in the open of their room for them to put away.

After it was all said and done and the girls went through their clothes (we don't need size 6 panties for Maddie anymore... toss!) it was .. mostly... clean!
The next day.. it was messy again. I.give.up!

Then I posted a sign above their bed. I got smart.

Let's say that we're working on this in baby steps. So far the bed has been made daily, so yay!! What you don't see at the bottom of this next picture is that all their clothes & another blanket is at the bottom of the bed. ::thud::

Next week... their room will have to be clean before they leave the house. That means... picking it up before bed. Let's hope it works!

7 layer bars ... heavenly!!

2012-01-20T01:06:00.001-06:00

I have heard of these 7 layer bars (or seven layer bars) ... and thought I'd try it out last week.

They were gone in a day and a half. My family LOVED this recipe! Not to mention super easy to make.

Actually, for me, it's a 6 layer bar. I didn't add nuts to it. I'm not fond of nuts in my food. Separate? Yes. In my food? No.

Here is the recipe (from Eagle Brand)

1 1/2 c graham cracker crumbs

1/2 c butter/margarine

1 can sweeten condensed milk

1 c chocolate chips

1 c butterscotch chips

1 1/3 c coconut

Preheat oven to 350. Melt the margarine/butter and then mix it with the crumbs. Spray a 9x13 pan with Pam, and then add the crumb mixture, pressing down. Pour half of the sweetened condensed milk over the crumbs. Add the chocolate chips, butterscotch chips and coconut (nuts too... if you wish). Finally, pour the rest of the milk over the top, and then back for 25 minutes or until light brown on top.

Let it sit for 10 minutes, and then take a knife and lightly make indentions on where you want the bars to be cut. Let sit for another 10 minutes, then place in the fridge. Cutting it will be much easier when it is cold and hardened.
I also took pictures!! (surprise surprise!)

Yummm.... look at it up close!

Spreading the rest of the milk on top.

What it looks like when it comes out of the oven!

Wait about 10 minutes after pulling from the oven. Then, lightly cut into squares (I managed to get 35 bars). Let it sit for a bit longer, then place in the fridge for a few hours. You'll be able to cut into bars MUCH easier when it's cold since it has already been cut.

Katie + Vintage clothes = so cool!!

2012-01-19T13:06:00.000-06:00

Last Thanksgiving my mom brought Katie a dress that was sitting in a closet. Whose closet? We're not sure... no one remembers this dress, but for some reason I remember seeing it in a picture of someone in my family!

Katie has a church activity coming up in which she needs to have a floor length dress to wear. These type of dresses are HARD to find, and I remembered we had this dress stashed in her closet. So, I made her get it out and try it on. Since it is sleeveless, she added a little cardigan to the dress. It fits! I don't think she was THAT crazy about it, but it's money I don't have to spend on a floor length dress that she will most likely never wear again... so she's wearing it. I think we'll do her hair in the '60's style that night. :)

Momma went a little overboard w/ the pictures....

It's really not THAT bad! :) Except for the bottom of the dress.... wish I had some mad skills on the sewing machine so I could .. uh.. fix that ruffly thing.

skulls ... or pandas?

2012-01-16T02:11:00.001-06:00

So the other day Mike came home for lunch and we had this conversation:
Mike: "did you see Maddie's earrings this morning? She had on skull earrings. Where did she get those? I don't like them."

Me: "skull earrings? I didn't know she had skull earrings!"

Mike: "well, don't say anything to her about it, just ask her where she got her skull earrings."
So she got home from school, and I looked at her "skull earrings."

Yeah... pretty scary!

Her big sister bought her those "skull earrings". Pandas are very scary indeed!
(yes, I know the picture is bad -- I have a crappy phone that takes horrible pictures, but when I realized what it was, I burst out laughing and had to text Mike a picture of the "skull earrings")

The evolution of tattling

2012-01-15T18:00:00.000-06:00

This morning on the way to church my youngest daughter tattled on my oldest daughter. At first I rolled my eyes.
Then I realized ... "wait... she's tattling!" She's 10 years old! Her sister will be 14 in less than two weeks!
When is tattling EVER going to stop?

Answer: probably never.....
Here is the evolution of tattling starting from the time Maddie was born and Katie was two months shy of four years old.
Katie (3 years 10 months): "Mommy... Maddie won't stop crying!"

Katie (4 years 1 month): "Mommy! Maddie pooped!"

Katie (4 years 7 months): "Mommy! Maddie is crawling to me and making me mess up my picture!"
"Mommy!! She is eating my banana bread!" (Katie finally shared her banana bread...)

Katie (5 years old): "MOMMMMM! Maddie woke up from a nap and has lotion ALL over her and her bed and dresser!"

Katie (5 years): "Mommy!!! Maddie just jumped in the bath with me! She still has HER CLOTHES ON!!! GET HER OUT!"

Katie (5 years 4 months): "Mommy!!!!! Maddie just tore my book!" "Mommy!! Maddie tore my homework! What am I going to tell the teacher?"

Maddie (1 year 4 months): "Mama.... blavle blaklerj oisd alafds" (pointing at Katie == she was talking in complete gibberish but I could tell she was tattling)... this went on until she was three.

Maddie (3 years old): "Mama! Mama! Mama! Katie hair!" (Katie cut the hair off on ALL of her My Little Pony horses ... and ALL of her Strawberry Shortcake dolls)
Maddie (Kindergarten): "Momma!! Tell Katie to stop following me at school!"
You get the idea...

One time a three year old Maddie woke up early, found her chocolate covered birthday cake that was leftover from the night before, took it DOWN from the kitchen counter, and proceeded to dig her hands in to the cake. She was in heaven (actually, I would be too ...) Katie comes and wakes us up and tattles. "MADDIE GOT IN THE CAKE!!!" It was still 6:00 a.m.

Here are some more of the tattles I've heard over the 10 years of sisterhood:
"Mom.... (so and so) didn't flush the toilet!"
"Mom!! It's MY turn to sit in the front not HERS!"
"Mom! She cut her dolls hair!" -- I have heard this from BOTH of my girls
"Mom! She took her markers and wrote all over her sheets!"
"Mom! She's wearing MY clothes!"
"Mom!!! She's purposely ignoring me!" (that was said this morning...)

::sigh::
We went from tattling about baby dolls, and tearing up books, knocking down blocks .... to tattling about clothes ... tattling about so and so and how she didn't do what I told her to do ... tattling about how yesterday the girl who sat in the front was wrong b/c it wasn't her day to sit in the front. Finally, I am hearing tattling about clothes. "So and so is wearing my shirt! My boots!.." Yes, we have now hit the stage where the girls can actually share some clothes. It's amazing, really. If you think about the evolution of tattling between siblings -- we've come a long way.

But one thing I know for sure... I do think deep down inside, they do love each other. :)

I can do hard things....

2012-01-13T08:33:00.001-06:00

This week has been an exciting, but nervous week for Katie in basketball. On Monday her coach came up to her and asked her to come to Tuesday's practice. She normally only practices two days a week while the A/B team practices 4 days a week (she is on the C team). So on Tuesday she shows up for practice, only to be told that for Wednesday nights game, she will be playing on the A team!

"What?"

"Seriously?"

"Why? Why not just pull a B team player up to the A team for the game?"

Those were the words I said when I picked her up from practice on Tuesday night. She was baffled as well, and incredibly nervous. She spent the practice on Tuesday learning their plays. Come Wednesday as she left for school, I said "nervous?" She nodded her head "yup." Poor girl. To be on the C team, pushed onto the A team for one game .... and this is her VERY FIRST SEASON EVER TO PLAY BASKETBALL?!! Amazing.

I was afraid. I knew how good basketball players play. They play rough. They can be mean. They shove, and hit you in the stomach. They trip you. Then they help you up when you fall down. So, I was very nervous for Katie. She does have a big dance performance coming up in two weeks.... I was anticipating something horrendous happening to her.

Mike made it to this game, since the A team plays at a later time. Katie said "they have to play me for 2 minutes.... they have to let everyone have a chance." So I was thinking "she'll just be in for a few minutes." WRONG! She was in the game for a good portion of it!

Sure, she looked like she was confused and lost. But, I was in awe of all the girls on the team helping her out, telling her where to go, what to do, who to guard. When she was REALLY confused, the coach pulled her out, and her own coach (of the C team) sat her down and explained what some of the terminology was (Rover?), and give her pointers. So after that, she was ready to go back in. Finally, some of the fire I was used to seeing in Katie was slowly coming out.

She went back in, and managed to steal a few balls. Three in fact. I think she surprised herself.
When it was all said and done, I thought about how sometimes we're thrown into situations where literally, it is out of our comfort zone. Being on a team full of girls who have been playing for years, some on club ball ..... and here comes a girl who has only been playing for a few weeks? I was proud of Katie. She had a "I can do hard things" moment.

I can do hard things.

Yes, we can do hard things. When we do hard things, it enables us to grow and we learn. We learn about ourselves, the limits we can go and perhaps push, the boundaries we can touch. God already knows what we can do -- He knows more about us than we know about ourselves. Can you imagine what our Heavenly Father thinks of us, especially when we're forced into the spotlight, out of our comfort zone? I imagine He's thinking "I knew you could do it!" Sure, Katie could have told the coach "thanks... but no thanks!" That's her choice. But, I think deep down inside, it never occured to her she could turn it down. She took the challenge, and she learned a lot more about herself than she knew before.

The next day at school, they announced over the intercom "a great big thank you to Katie _______ for helping out the A team at the basketball game last night! She did a GREAT job!" She said she was embarrassed, mortified, but yet proud at the same time.

But this momma? This momma was super proud of her daughter, for her daughter taught her a great lesson.

gone fishin'....

2012-01-11T12:15:00.000-06:00

While over New Years at the cabin, we drove to Lake Fork and did some fishing.... It was a cold, breezy day.

Mike had to teach the girls how to fish. Here is how the story goes in the pictures:

Katie looks like she's going to bat at a baseball instead of fishing

"OK Maddie... this is how you swing it"

"Like this Daddy?"

in S-L-O-W m o t i o n

Me under my breath "just don't throw in the fishing rod... just don't throw in the fishing rod..."

Notice the bleach stained jeggings, camo sweatshirt and cowboy boots? Totally rocking that look...

"Let me help you again Maddie..."

My two nephews already were pros at this fishing thing.

They go fishing a LOT more than my girls have gone... (which is, never).

I love this picture of Adam fishing...

These were a few of the million shells found along the lake shore...

Next time we need a boat.

Building a cabin ... part 8

2012-01-08T06:05:00.001-06:00

After Christmas, we headed up to the cabin in East Texas. Mike's sister Tiffany and her family were joining us the next day for a few days (they stayed in our popup outside).
We all had a great time!! We went four wheeling, the guys took the kids hunting (the two youngest stayed behind in the cabin), we went fishing at the lake ... ate out a few times. Watched movies, and played outside. Got lots of fresh air and just relaxed. The weather ended up being PERFECT!

After Tiffany & her family left, Mike and I took the girls hunting that night. It was seriously the first time I had ever hunted. Katie & I took a deer stand up at the top of the hill, and Mike and Maddie took the stand at the bottom of the property (Mike's friend's property). We were loaded down with blankets, binoculars, water... and my book. :) However, since it was New Year's Eve, some people decided to do target shooting right at sundown. Then the fireworks started going off. Pretty soon I get a text from Mike telling me they were ready when we were.... so Katie & I got into the four wheelers and picked them up. Went hunting for about two hours, maybe less? I'd surprisingly do it again!

The final full day we were there, Mike started work on the soffit. First he had to finish the front of the house, getting the outer siding on. We didn't put the cedar on the front of the house because eventually we're going to build on in that area. We're adding a front room (living room) and then to the side we'll add a master bedroom and another bathroom. So, no need to add the real siding if that siding is going to come off.

Mike is working on the soffit here .... he is framing it up.

So, he finished that up while I got to paint a primer on all the wood on the bottom of the cabin. It took some time, as I had to recaulk, dust off the sand, dig sand out from the wood, and then paint two coats of primer all around the house. I was glad when it was done! I was also honored that Mike would ask me to do painting as the last time I tried to paint, he took the paintbrush out of my hands and said "you're fired... you're a crappy painter." I guess 12 years was long enough of time to pass before I could get a paintbrush back in my hands? I had strict rules: I couldn't get it on the cedar or the yellow boards. Yikes. I did good though!

Here is looking at the front of the cabin (from the road). The bottom part of the siding has been weathered for a month, so soon the top will look a little more weathered. After it's been weathered a little longer, Mike will apply a stain to all sides to make it more of a cabin look.

Since we're finally down to the bathroom detail, Mike placed the mirror/cabinet in the bathroom. We decided to keep the faucet & fixture matching with the mirror, so even though you can't tell in the mirror what the color is (it looks black), it's actually an oil rubbed bronze. It looks really good.

(this is what it looks like as far as the oil rubbed bronze)

Mike is heading back down to the cabin this weekend. He hopes to finish the soffit, get the outside lights on & electricity line ran (has to do this first before he can put up the siding for the back of the cabin), and at night, he will work on tiling the bathtub and put the flooring in!! I'm sure he'll get so much accomplished when the girls and I aren't there!

UPDATE:

Mike is at the cabin now, and sent me this picture last night of how it looks so far.... he's doing a great job!

Christmas Memories 2011

2012-01-07T06:00:00.000-06:00

This year for Christmas we were by ourselves. This is only our second year we have been by ourselves as a family. For Christmas Eve we had our traditional Mexican food grub. I had gone out to Tamahli's to buy tamales for dinner. They are the best to buy from around here in San Antonio. I bought bean and cheese tamales, Cowboy tamales (beef), pork tamales... and poblano tamales. Spent a small fortune on them, but now I know what to buy next year and what to get! Add in our chipotle rice I make, and guac & chips .... cheese dip for Katie ... and other yummy foods and we were set!

We had our traditional Nut in the Pudding game for dessert (whoever finds the nut in their pudding wins a prize). My girls are getting good at guessing what the prize is. I always buy a game or a movie. Next year I think I need to change up the plan! Anyways, the prize this year was $10 plus Just Dance Summer Edition. The girls played that all night long.

They opened their Christmas Eve gift (pajamas...surprise surprise!) ... and we chased them to bed at 10:30. I had made cinnamon rolls that didn't rise (I blame the yeast...). BOO! Next year I need to use the right kind of yeast.

Surprisingly, they didn't wake up until 8:00 in the morning -- so we did get to sleep in a little!

They all received gifts they loved and specifically asked for. Katie asked for a Wand (curling iron w/ no clip), a blow dryer, Vera Bradley lunch box & wristlet (and a Mini Hipster... but she didn't get it), a bathrobe, a Justin Bieber toothbrush .... she was always changing her list up until the day before Christmas. Finally I had to say ENOUGH! Maddie was harder to buy for ... she didn't ask for much! She did ask for a Vera Bradley lunch box (she also wanted a backpack, but she didn't get it.... after many reviews showing nothing fits in the bag that she needs to take to school, why buy it?!), boots, Just Dance 3, and other little things. My mom found her the Edward Barbie doll to match her Jacob doll... so she was happy about that. Since I *cough* threw away her other Barbie dolls months ago, she wanted another Barbie doll. Now Barbie has Jacob & Edward to play with. What more could a Barbie doll ask for???

Neither of the girls asked for electronics! They each got a good loot of things they wanted... and were genuinely happy with all that was given to them.

I was able to surprise Mike for the first time in my life... I bought him a super nice GPS -- to help him find his way around town when he has to go to jobs.

Grandma & Papa Nelson gave them clothes for church and each got a makeup kit. Here they are modeling the clothes:

After church that day, we headed to our friend's home for a Christmas dinner ... we had a great time with several close families that day. I wore my new cowboy boots that Mike had given to me for Christmas! Yee haw!

I was .... kissed by a whale!

2012-01-06T06:00:00.002-06:00

Our Sea World days are coming to an end... so the girls & I took one last trip to Sea World for the Christmas shows. We had a great time ... perfect weather, minimal crowds .... and we took a final trip back behind the scene at my friend's work to see the beluga whales & dolphins. Sadly, she had to go out of town but her coworker did a great job of showing us and teaching us all different kinds of facts!

Here are a few pictures that I snapped:

You are supposed to have your head turned to the right (to look at the camera), and the whale comes right up to your cheek and smooches you. :)

However ... for Katie it was a different story. She was doing everything she was supposed to, but this little man went for THREE kisses from her! The first time she wasn't prepared -- the second time he kept going and the third time he did it perfectly. The handler had to stop the whale (I wish I can remember the name of this guy!) b/c he loved smooching on her. :)

You can even push the top part of his head down ... it is a fatty tissue lump.... Doesn't hurt them either!

Isn't he just the cutest? Love that smile....

Here he is waving goodbye to us!!!

I love to watch Maddie when we go to Sea World. She wants to be a marine biologist someday, and to watch her while she watches the dolphins swim and other animals just makes my heart happy. She truly is in love with these underwater animals!

making mistletoe cookies!

2012-01-05T08:32:00.000-06:00

A few years ago a dear neighbor brought me these green cookies shaped as a wreath with red hots as the ornaments. I loved them. Over a year ago, another friend brought these same cookies to a church activity, and I remembered that I loved them.

So this year, the girls and I decided to make them on Christmas Eve. Only .... the wreath part didn't happen (the circle part). It just was too messy to make them into circles. So we just plopped them down on the wax paper ... and I called them Christmas Blobs.

When we took the cookies to a dinner on Christmas at a friend's house, one of the husbands said "hey, these look like mistletoes!" so we renamed them Mistletoe Cookies!

We love them! Here is the recipe (I got it from allrecipes)

1/2 cup butter
4 cups miniature marshmallows
1 tsp green food coloring
1/2 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups cornflake cereal
1 package cinnamon red hot candies

Microwave marshmallows and butter on High for 2 minutes. Stir, then microwave on High for 2 minutes more. Stir.
Add and mix quickly the coloring, extracts, then cornflakes. Drop by spoonfuls in clumps on greased wax paper and decorate with 3 red hots each.
Once cool, transfer to lightly greased serving/storage tray with lightly greased fingers.

FIRE ANTS!!!

2012-01-04T16:48:00.001-06:00

Normally when we head to the cabin, we have to lay down poison for fire ants. Especially if my little niece & nephews or other little friends are going to be playing around the sand. Last year Maddie picked up wood to throw in the fire, and she was bit by a TON of fire ants. So, naturally this last time we went to the cabin, we had to throw more poison down.

Katie & I were looking for more colonies around the house. I was staring at the sand, and realized that the grass was moving. Upon looking even closer, I saw they were fire ants carrying grass and pine tree needles. I walked around the cabin, and found two areas that the fire ants were heading to... it was such a fascinating thing to watch.

Here is the video that I took of it. At the end of the video, is pretty much what it looked like with all the grass moving. Pretty cool!

January Menu

2012-01-03T21:09:00.001-06:00

I know I'm running a *little* behind on all fun things to blog about (will get to that this week!)... but I wanted to get my January menu plan out! Two nights are open for dinner out (Katie's birthday is this month as well as the Robert Burns dinner in which the girls are dancing at == we tend to go out for dinner after they get done dancing!).

Hope this helps someone .... but at least, I hope that this helps ME with planning our meals and of course, I know planning menus help me out big time when it comes to having a budget for groceries! I tend to make dinners that fall under 30 minutes. -- I refuse to be a slave in the kitchen over food. If anyone who is reading wants any of the recipes, I have attached the link from my recipe blog so it's easy access for you!! You can find more recipes in my recipe blog. Yes.. I know... who eats cottage cheese with their chicken enchiladas? We do... we're strange. :)

I tried to have one Chinese (we LOVE stirfry here!) menu item a week, one Mexican, one Italian, etc.... plus the problem of not having chicken two to three (or four) times in a row which tends to make Mike roll his eyes b/c even though I LOVE chicken, he likes a little variety. Not to mention, the nights I know he's not eating dinner with us, I go easy for the girls & I (or make things he doesn't like...)

On Mondays & Wednesdays for the next few months, it is CHAOTIC in my house, so I rarely have time to actually make dinner (unless we want to eat at 7:00 p.m. -- however, you haven't met Katie when she's hungry. She's a monster .. so dinner is ready by 5:30 usually..) -- those nights are usually a Crockpot Meal, or something I can throw in the oven (or stove) super fast, or even something the girls can pull together if I'm not around to make it.

Since I am striving to be a better eater for myself, I will exhort portion control (OK... attempt to should be a better word!) -- and load up on veggies and a small portion for the main meal.

january 2012 dinner menu

SUNDAY	MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY	SATURDAY
1	2	3 Sesame Chicken Rice Egg Rolls	4 Spaghetti Salad Bread	5 Chipotle Burrito Bowl	6 Grilled Cheese & Soup	7 Baked Potato Bar
8 Break the Fast dinner	9 Crockpot Meal: Beans Fritos/Tortilla	10 Chicken Stir fry Rice Egg Rolls Fruit Salad	11 Tortellini Salad/Veggie Bread	12 Saucy Parmesan Chicken Broccoli/Cheese Rice Veggie	13 Homemade Pizza	14 Hamburgers Chips Baked Beans
15 Lasagna Salad Bread	16 Crockpot Meal: Chicken & Potatoes Cottage Cheese Salad	17 Fettuccini Alfredo Salad or Veggies Bread	18 Chicken Patty Sandwiches Tater Tots Veggies & fruit	19 Baked Ziti Salad Bread	20 Chicken Enchilada Cornbread Cottage Cheese	21 BBQ Chicken Chopped Salad
22 Crockpot Meal: Roast Beef Potatoes & Carrots Cottage Cheese Rolls	23 Crockpot Meal: Shredded Salsa Chicken over Salad or tortilla	24 Katie’s Bday	25 Sloppy Joes Fries Veggies & fruit	26 Cheddar Chowder Salad Rolls	27 Grilled Chicken Baked Potato Veggies	28 Burns Dinner
29 Mexican: Fajitas or Tostados Guac & chips	30 BBQ Chicken in oven Baked Potatoes Veggies	31 Chicken Stirfry Rice Egg Rolls Fruit	Ideas in a pinch: Burritos Canned Soup Sandwiches Tortellini Homemade Pizza	Chicken nuggets Hot Dogs

Bed (and bad habits) rituals...

2011-12-20T12:30:00.000-06:00

When I asked my girls this morning to make their bed ... this is what I find after they leave:

One side is made ... the other isn't. My children sometimes are nice & thoughtful to each other -- like one MAY make the ENTIRE bed for the other, but usually not.

Take this next picture... instead of putting her clothes away, Maddie dresses her rabbit in the shirt she should've folded and put away. Daisy DOES have clothes ... Maddie just usually resorts to putting all her clean clothes back in the dirty clothes hamper to be washed... AGAIN. (I have told them multiple times that I will throw said clean clothes away if I find them in the dirty hamper -- I will start following up on that soon). If Maddie does clean the room, I can always count on her putting clean clothes in the dirty hamper. Every.single.time.

Now for the person who sleeps on this side of the bed.... this has always been a mystery to me. Katie goes to bed with socks on. She wakes up always with one sock on, one sock off. Always the same foot. The other sock is always at the end of the bed. ALWAYS!! Here in this picture there are five pairs of socks. Usually when I do laundry and I find the girls are missing socks, I will change the sheets and there are a good number of socks to be found at the end of the bed.

Can you just scream with me here??? ::AUGHHHHHHHH::

What I've been doing.....

2011-12-19T08:26:00.000-06:00

Last week was a busy week for me!! Mike went out of town to go visit his parents in Missouri. So I was a single parent for 5 days ... and managed to get a lot done!

On Saturday I made about 80 of these babies .....

Saturday I played the role of "awesome mom" == Katie & Maddie had friends over that afternoon, while I scrambled around making a Texas sheet cake for our church's Christmas party that afternoon (completely forgot to make something until about 1 1/2 hours before we were supposed to leave). Katie was part of "Santa's Workshop" in which all the children in our church "shopped" and had their gifts wrapped for their parents & siblings. All of the gifts were made possible by donations from people in our ward. (used items, some new, etc). So, Katie helped little ones shop & wrap presents! Unfortunately, I get the big horrible "Mom wasn't thinking" award that night. I didn't get her a plate of food -- and by the time she was done serving, only turkey was left for her to eat. I felt so bad. :(

Then one day last week my friend Mandi popped into town for a quick visit -- and I was able to love & smooch on this baby girl for a few hours!! I love this Roxie girl!

Isn't she just the cutest thing ever?

Saving cookie dough one bite at a time!

2011-12-16T07:00:00.000-06:00

I made a recipe the other day that makes a TON of cookies (like 8 dozen!). I didn't want to bake all of them, and wanted to freeze the rest. When I tried to roll it in a log shape one year, this particular cookie dough just crumbled everywhere when I tried to defrost it.

This year I decided to scoop individual balls of cookie dough, and place them in a mini muffin pan to keep them separate so they wouldn't freeze together.

It works!! Now I have individual balls of frozen cookie dough that I can just pull out whenever I want to bake a few cookies and not eat 3 dozen in a day!

just playing around with my camera....

2011-12-16T06:55:00.000-06:00

I wanted to play around w/ my camera one morning to see if I could get that same blurry look of lights, etc....

My friend Liza gave the family these beautifully wrapped gifts here.

If you look closely, she put letters cut out from Cricut spelling out our names! Brilliant!

I increased my aperature here == and look! I have hexagon shapes for my lights!

and this is back at a low numbered aperature...

Making a village....

2011-12-15T06:00:00.000-06:00

Every first Sunday of the month, a group of families get together and have dinner after church. The first Sunday in December all the families were treated to make this amazing village. My dear friend Katie (who adopted my girls for the past year when I worked) worked hard to pull all this together, and let me tell you -- all the kids & moms enjoyed it!

I'm so grateful for friends who take the time to do this for my kids. The last time I bought a gingerbread house kit, my kids were LITTLE. (We were in the first house we bought, and we moved when Maddie was 2 -- that's how little!). I gave up after 30 minutes, and Mike came in and saved the day (and the house). So, you can tell I'm grateful for friends who love this kind of stuff and who invite us to join them. :)

Here is our creation afterwards. (I will blog about the actual event when I get the pictures off of my other camera..)

Maddie 'n the Nutcracker

2011-12-14T06:00:00.000-06:00

At Maddie's school, the 4th and 5th graders reenacted the Nutcracker -- complete with songs they sang, dances they made up, and everyone was in charge of their own costumes.

It was quite a neat thing to see and watch! She was a Chinese Dancer. She came home w/ a picture of what the ideal Chinese dancer was to look like, and I laughed. Yeah... no.

After viewing all my pictures, I had to laugh at all the red & twinkling eyes! Now we know what it means when they say "she had a twinkle in her eye!"

We have a basketball player!!

2011-12-13T09:52:00.000-06:00

At Katie's school, she is in Athletics -- which means she has to play two after school sports a year as well as taking gym classes and working on those sports during school. She did volleyball.... and last year she found out that even though she is fast at running, she isn't as fast as some of these road runners at school -- so this year she opted for basketball as her second sport.

She's never played basketball in her life.
Her coach picked her to be point guard. :) However, she found out that she loves the left wing. Why are these basketball terms changing? It used to be guard, forward, center!
Here are some very fuzzy pictures of her playing basketball. I have a crappy zoom lens apparently that doesn't do squat for me. Time to possibly save up for a $650 lens? I dunno....

This girl was on her like peanut butter on white bread! In fact, this said girl pushed quite a few point guards -- some in the face! I didn't think that was allowed... but since they changed the names in BBall, maybe they changed the rules as well?!

Altogether, I thought Katie did EXTREMELY well for having played her first game! She needs to get a little more aggressive and actually attempt to steal the ball. She was quite the gracious lady on the court when she played her quarter. (there are four quarters... 19 girls .... 5 girls play at a time, so they all only get one quarter to play).

Building a cabin... part 7

2011-12-12T14:53:00.000-06:00

While we were on vacation over Thanksgiving week, Mike managed to finish a few things on the cabin.

The bathroom is about 80% completed! Sheetrock went up, texture was added, and he painted! Add a sink, and we have water to wash our hands in rather than in the bathtub!!

Mike and my dad also put up siding on the outside of the cabin. I can't remember if we did cedar or pine .... but whatever we used, there is a rough side to the wood, and Mike placed that on the outside, so it gave the cabin more of a "cabiny" feel.

Few months ago, Mike dug up two pine trees and planted them on our property. One died... and the other seems to be alive. Wahoo!

It's ALIIIIIIVVVVEEEE!!! (Frankenstein voice, of course)

This is Walter... he hung out with us all week on this box.

This is Walterina... we realized we had two walking sticks at the same time, but she hung out on the outside wall of our cabin.

The Thanksgiving Finale post

2011-12-12T14:44:00.000-06:00

Better finish up w/ Thanksgiving vacation...

We made an entire Thanksgiving dinner in our cabin!! Cheated a bit, we did ... but we did it! I bought a boneless turkey breast from Sam's Club, my mom make mashed potatoes & a cranberry salad ahead of time -- and at the cabin we made green bean casserole, cranberry (relish? jelly?), and burnt rolls.... pecan pie & pumpkin pie were dessert....

Earlier that day on T-day, my parents drove the girls & I out to where they went to college (and met). The college is literally right down the road from our cabin, maybe about 15 minutes away? I had been there several times, and many of my close friends went to college here as well.

My parents stayed in these type of housing while on campus ... they called it "Booth City", and they are TINY!!

On Friday, it was the anniversary of my grandpa's death, so we placed an order at the wonderful hamburger restaurant for a peanut butter pie. My grandpa made a mean peanut butter pie! It was delicious, and even my dad commented on how similar it was! So, our first bite we toasted to Grandpa.

Yummm....

Mike had a huge stack of wood to burn, but we had a fire ban in place. It was removed the day before (but it rained like crazy for a few days...), so he wasted maybe 10 gallons of gas trying to get a fire started. (OK, maybe not that much, but it was a lot). Finally, my mom managed to keep one of the fires going, and we had FIRE!! we decided to keep her in the tribe after all -- she was a great fire girl.

Hartstrings... where the cool kids are dressed

2011-12-11T21:02:00.003-06:00

I was given the opportunity to take some money courtesy of Hartstrings and MomSelect and go shopping at Hartstrings at my nearby outlet mall!!!

As a photographer, let me tell you when I read other photographers blogs, I am in awe of the children's clothes. Literally ... they all look like they're dressed by a designer. I'm talking layers of different types of colors, prints ... and they all color coordinate so well! After I took one step in the San Marcos Hartstrings store, I realized .. "ahh... this is where those mothers shop."

Why didn't anyone tell me about this store when my girls were little? I love the clothes there! The clothes have fabric that is SO strong & sturdy ... very durable for little boys & girls who need room to romp and play -- but yet look so adorable.
The girls to choose from were amazing. There were reds, navy blues, pinks, turquoise -- all colors that I have a hard time finding in clothes! They have the most adorable clothes for babies -- and toddlers.

The staff at the San Marcos store was the sweetest, most helpful staff ever. They pointed me and showed me the direction to find the things I needed to complete outfits for Maddie.

I just regret just ONE thing. I regret just now finding this amazing store -- when Maddie is nearing the size 16, which is at the end of the road for her at this store. At the age of modesty, where we are trying to keep modest clothes on our children, I was grateful to find several dresses for Maddie that came to her knees. That covered her shoulders. There were a few skirts that were mini skirts --- I stayed away from those because we need to keep our children covered!!

Check out Hartstrings at your nearby mall (or outlet mall.. I was able to snag some of these outfits at 60% off PLUS another 20% off that! SCORE!) -- or "like" Hartstrings on Facebook ... or even become a follower of Hartstrings on Twitter!
Here are the outfits I chose for Maddie. Gratefully, she loved all the outfits I purchased!

I adored this skirt so much ... it was the first thing I picked out!

I received the free products as part of a promotional program with Hartstrings and MomSelect.

All comments and opinions are my own.

Thanksgiving week ... Papa Rod & Grandma Debbie come!

2011-12-09T06:00:00.000-06:00

On Wednesday late morning my parents rolled through our gate! We were all so excited to see Papa Rod & Grandma Debbie! We last saw them in August, so it's been awhile.

The first thing we did after walking around our property a bit and showing Papa Rod the deer stands & hunting area was to go to town to eat hamburgers and peanut butter pie. However, they were out of peanut butter pie! BOO!

That afternoon my dad & Katie prepared to go to the deer stand for the first Papa Rod & Katie hunting experience!

Mike bought the girls matching camo sweatshirts....

Maddie takes a picture of my mom

here they're checking out their pictures...

Maddie & Grandma ride around on the ATV

Mike & the girls take Papa Rod to look around the property on the ATV's

Thanksgiving week ... Day 3 - 5

2011-12-08T11:27:00.000-06:00

All of our company left on Sunday -- so we were alone for a few days before my parents made a long drive from Missouri to see us on Wednesday.

On those days, it rained. Rained and poured. Poured buckets of rain. It was raining cats & dogs... literally! So, on those days, this is what we did...

Play Farkle...

this is such a fun game. It is a dice game in which you have to try to get as many 1's & 5's as you can. The first person who reaches 10,000 points wins.

Work on the bathroom -- shoot the walls

Well, Mike mostly did this -- he finished putting the walls up and the door went up as well. He textured and shot the walls and then painted it!

Find a window & write all over it

Hook up the electricity for the stove

... and hang the microwave!

Take approximately 134 pictures of the walking stick family

aka Walter and Walterina

We were pretty excited to be able to use our stove for the first time the night before my parents arrived! We made burritos for dinner, and enjoyed some mexican hot chocolate for dessert. It was quite chilly that night!!

Thanksgiving week ... Day 2

2011-12-06T15:05:00.000-06:00

Mike's sister and her family live in Dallas .... and drove in to visit with us and spent the night in their brand new two room tent. It was such a good thing we spread the fire ant killer stuff on the sand the day before.

The kids all played together -- had major tickling spells --

and a few karate moves as well....

and some cute modeling sessions were included...

Miss Emily loved on Uncle Mike

later that afternoon we all took turns shooting at targets

it was wayyyyyy down there!

and just to conclude this day of our 10 day Thanksgiving vacation.. here is a picture of some pinecones!

Our Thanksgiving Vacation to the Cabin ... part 1

2011-12-05T22:37:00.001-06:00

Figured it was probably time to get back to blogging.....

The girls have a whole week off for Thanksgiving -- so we took advantage of it and drove to our cabin in East Texas. Boy did we have a great time in our little 700 square feet cabin!

We arrived mid morning on Friday -- one day before Maddie's birthday. Poor girl is always celebrating her birthday on the road.

We also had visitors! Mike's boss Sarah & her family came and stayed with us for a few days. They stayed in our pop up suite (I called it a suite). Sarah & her husband Justin have a little boy Kael who is just the cutest kid ever. He has Katie & Maddie wrapped around his little finger!

The girls and Kael played a game -- can't remember it -- but it's like a cross between kickball and tag, I think. The rules change frequently.

First rule is you kick the ball.

Then you run to the truck and if you can make it to the truck without being tagged with the ball, you're safe and you won that time.

Kael loved to play .... he was such a ham to watch.

and this picture? I love this picture b/c I managed to capture Kael hitting the ball at him mom at the EXACT moment. Priceless!

Then... the game was over when Maddie found a caterpillar.

what a beautiful caterpillar!

Stay tuned for the next few blog posts about the walking stick named Walter, the "oh! the walking stick named Walter has a family!", the toilet (we can now pee in peace because we have a DOOR!!!), more family comes to visit..... and our first Thanksgiving roughing it with no kitchen. Trust me, you don't want to miss these stories!

One year later

2011-11-25T06:00:00.002-06:00

One year ago my grandpa passed away suddenly from this earth.

On Thanksgiving.

His favorite holiday of the year.

It's been a year.

One. Year.

I really miss him.

When I call my grandma's house, and I get her answering machine, my heart stops as I hear my grandpa's voice telling me to leave a message. "Grandpa ... I miss you. I love you." I want to say, hoping that he can hear me.

Several weeks ago I had a pretty hard day. We opened up a jar of apple butter that my grandparents made. That afternoon, while cleaning, the Blue Angels were practicing formations outside -- my grandpa loved air shows and took me to my first and only air show when I was a little girl. I remember his smile that day. He was a pilot, and he loved his airplanes. He took my brother & I up in his airplane one day, showing us tricks that airplane pilots love to do. We did rolls and dips. I was frantic, my brother became alive.

I know that God has a plan for each and every one of us. It brings me great comfort knowing that someday I will see my grandpa again. That I will one day see all my loved ones that will eventually pass from this world. I have had several dreams about my grandpa. In one of my dreams, I ask him how he's doing, and he said "I'm happy! I'm doing great! I feel great!"

I'm glad my grandpa is no longer in pain, no longer suffering from his injuries or health conditions.

I saw this poem, and I immediately loved it:

Do not stand at my grave and weep,

I am not there. I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.

I am the diamond glints on snow.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain.

I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awake in the morning's hush

I am the swift upflinging rush

Of quiet birds in circling flight

I am the soft star-shine at night

Do not stand at my grave and weep.

I am not there. I did not die.

It's a double digit birthday!

2011-11-19T06:00:00.001-06:00

My Miss Maddie Rose turns a double digit age today!!

10!!!!

That little spark she has in her eyes and her smile

Here she is at four.....

and six years later she is 10.

Here are my top 10 reasons why my Maddie Rose is special:

1) She has a very contagious laughter -- everyone laughs when she laughs.
2) She takes care of others -- helping all the time and putting others before her needs.
3) She always strives to do what is right.
4) She loves to bake! I love people who bake!
5) She's a snuggle bunny and loves to lay with me on the couch.
6) She is an awesome dancer on Just Dance 2.
7) She is stubborn as a mule. That just means that she firmly stands for what she believes in.
8) She has the funniest sense of humor! Many times a laugh erupts from something this little girl says!
9) She has the sweetest spirit.
10) Maddie always jumps in and helps out at any time -- when asked. :)

Happy Birthday sweetie!

Mommy loves you!

(yes, she reads my blog....)

Leatherneck BBQ rocks...

2011-11-17T06:00:00.002-06:00

A few weeks ago my friend Shelly send me a package in the mail. It was a nice sized bottle of Leatherneck BBQ -- a BBQ sauce developed by Shelly's husband, Ryan.

Now -- I come from Kansas City -- the land of all things BBQ. We have major competitions in Kansas City on who holds the heavyweight championship of the best BBQ. We have the best BBQ restaurants (don't even attempt to challenge me in this category with your city -- KC is the best. Period!) In Kansas City, the BBQ sauce is generally a sweeter sauce. However, I love all things BBQ'd, so I couldn't wait to try this out!

I marinated my chicken with the sauce for a bit. I used my George Foreman grill (bought it at a garage sale for $5 bucks!) to cook the chicken -- our grill was out of propane and my husband was nowhere to be found to change it out for me.

I served it to the family. Katie immediately fell in love with the BBQ sauce. "ooh! Yummm!" Maddie loved it as well. Me? It truly brought me back to the land of Kansas City -- a sweeter BBQ sauce that I fell in love with. Even Mike gave a nod at it and said "not bad!!" That's pretty high marks coming from him ... he never says he loves anything. Except me. He loves me. Most of the time.

I can't wait for my friends to get this BBQ sauce bottled. If you are interested in finding out more information, you can find them here on Facebook. Like them while you're checking them out! I hope more good things come from this place!

Mexican Foods I can't live without

2011-11-16T06:00:00.001-06:00

I have two Mexican foods I can't live without.

Specifically, I'm not talking about things I can get in a Mexican restaurant. (sidenote.... would you believe it's taken me almost 3 years to find a mexican restaurant that I love to eat at here in San Antonio? Yep .... pathetic!)

First ... is Mexican vanilla. I love this stuff. So much. I use it in everything I bake with. My mom had some when I was growing up. Then, she & I went on a cruise with my grandma, and we bought a huge bottle each in Cancun. That was 4 years ago! This summer my parents came to visit, and we took a trip to the Mexican Market here in San Antonio -- and my dad bought me another huge bottle of Mexican vanilla, just in time because I used my last drop of my first bottle last week!

My parents one morning in the winter of my younger days made a hot chocolate that just dazzled my taste buds! "Make some more!" -- and I was led to believe it was a very time consuming process to make. LIARS!!! Fast forward to last year, when I find a bar of Abuelita -- and I melt it with milk. Yummm! Brought back that morning of my dazzled tastebuds! I wanted to buy the big box of Abuelita, but I can't read Spanish. Nothing is written in English on this box. But knowing Katie is in her second year of Spanish I figured I couldn't go wrong in asking her to help me translate if Mike wasn't around (who does speak Spanish fluently). I unwrapped a beautiful chocolate disc ... and there in English was the directions! "Melt in four cups of skim milk one tablet" ... wait. How many is one tablet? One big disc of this thing? Break it in 1/6? Is that a tablet? WHAT IS A TABLET ABUELITA COMPANY?!!! cried my poor paranoid self. I have to have the EXACT directions!!! Finally, I just threw the entire disc of chocolate into my milk and watched it melt.

Absolute deliciousness. Pure heaven. Cinnamon in chocolate heaven. Yummmm...

So there you have my two favorite things Mexican ... Mexican vanilla and Mexican hot chocolate. Give it a shot if you find it in the grocery store. :)

It's a Rock Star Party!

2011-11-15T08:32:00.000-06:00

Maddie's party was last Friday night -- and she rocked out to a Rock Star Party. It.Was.SO.much.FUN!

My friend Liza made her invitations .... she does amazing work itself, and hopefully will start a business up creating fun stuff/invitations for people!

The girls & I worked hard on the goody bags, the decorations .... everything!!

We placed duct tape around water bottles, complete with a monogrammed sticker on the top of the water bottle so everyone knew which one was theirs.

We found guitars and microphones to complete the look at a nearby store that sells Oriental Trading toys.

For dinner, we had pizza, these veggies in a cup, grapes, and they had puppy chow to munch on later in the evening.

The girls were all such a blast of fun! They really partied hard!

I found girl tattoos and they all placed them on their face, hands and arms.

I had two special helpers that night... Katie and her friend Madison came to help.

We had 9 girls show up for the party... the more, the merrier!

Maddie's gift from us was Wii Sing It -- so they played that game for a bit. Everyone had a blow up microphone to sing with. That lasted about 10 minutes... because everyone was DYING to play Just Dance 2!!

Let me tell you ... these girls can ROCK and DANCE!!

To make it fair so everyone had a chance to dance, I drew two names at a time, and those two girls danced. Everyone danced behind them ....

After the dancing game was over, we opened presents. Maddie gave each of her friends a hug after opening their gift.

There's always this ONE present... that brings about the screams from all the girls.

This year it was Jacob. From Twilight. What a scene it was! All the screams!

I made my traditional two layer cake my girls ask for each birthday. Katie delivers the cake to Maddie so I can snap pictures.

Make a wish baby!!

The goody bags had a bracelet that had "GIRLS ROCK" on it, lip gloss, Pop Rocks candy, girly tattoos, Airheads...

I think from now on, Just Dance has to be a part of our birthday parties. Made my life so much easier and it took care of all the entertaining for me!

the nerd and the vampire

2011-11-01T10:56:00.001-05:00

Halloween brought us a nerd and a Volturi vampire this year.

Katie was a nerd. Complete with the snorts in her laugh, the lipstick stain on her teeth, her mismatched socks, pants that were yanked up as high as they could go, and a button down shirt that was not buttoned right. Also completed the outfit were nerdy facts "did you know..... ::giggle:: snort"

Maddie was Jane.. the Volturi vampire in the Twilight movie. Complete with an elegant bun in her hair, with a hooded dress (she rarely wore the hood up), and a choker for her neck .... she was a beautiful vampire.

Momma this year choked on the pictures. Nothing turned out, but this is what you get..... However, in my defense I would like to say when you have two kids who are uncooperating to get their pictures taken, nothing turns out...

Here is a picture of Maddie's friends who came to our neighborhood to go trick or treating with us....

funny picture about siblings...

2011-10-27T09:16:00.001-05:00

Katie found this picture she on Pinterest awhile back. Under the picture she wrote "Relax! I was just kidding!" .... if me & Maddie were twins, this would be exactly what would happen!"

Truth is ... she would be correct.

Maddie's is 99.9% the one in tears over something Katie was teasing her about.

Another reason why my blog is named "Tell Your Sister You're Sorry!"

Mama 'n Me Journals

2011-10-25T10:55:00.000-05:00

I found this amazing idea on Pinterest a few weeks ago, and suddenly KNEW I had to do this idea! It's a journal/notebook in which you & your child write letters back & forth to each other. You place it on their pillow each time you write. I found it on this site.

Yesterday I went ahead and made my girls' journal. It was a trial and error for me -- since I was trying to "cutesify" their journal as much as possible. Oh well -- next time I'll just stick w/ a plain notebook. :)

I think they turned out cute -- and I placed them on my girls pillow under the covers. When I peeked on Maddie when she was in bed, she was already writing her note back to me. Katie came in later and said "check your dresser before you go to bed!" -- I had letters waiting for me to read.

What makes my heart happy is to see my 13 year old finally say "this is a cool idea!" I never knew how much I'd have to work at making a teenager accept something that I thought would be a "cool" idea.

I heart Bobby Sherman ....

2011-10-23T12:13:00.002-05:00

When I was a very young girl... back in the late '70's, I used to listen to my mom & dad's records. They had a record by Bobby Sherman.

Oh Bobby Sherman. How I stared at you for lengths at time. Your dreamy blue eyes and dark brown hair. You were very ::swoon::worthy. My mom would tell me I would play the record over and over and over again.

Fast forward about 13 years, and a friend and I were going through her dad's record collection. I found Bobby Sherman's record -- and I was immediately taken back to my little Amy days -- singing "Little Woman" and "Easy Come, Easy Go" .. and "Julie, Do Ya Love Me?" Ahhhh...

This morning I was trying to figure out iTunes (again ... this piece of software is the hardest thing for me to figure out!) -- and so I started looking up songs, and Bobby Sherman popped in my head. Which led me to YouTube .. and I found some of his old videos.

Helllooooo Bobby Sherman! We meet at last again! In my eyes, as a mid 30-something year old Mom, you still captured my heart and eyes when I watched your video. Rewind my days back to when I would sit with the big headphones on my ears playing the record over .. and over ... and over again.

I know I kid my girls over their girly crushes like Justin Bieber ... and Taylor Lautner (Maddie still insists she's marrying him) -- but this crush happened when I was younger than they were!

Enjoy a few of my favorites from Bobby Sherman!

After watching these videos a few times..... I notice some similarities. Doesn't he look a little like Zac Efron?

And the hair styles... aren't the boys wearing hair styles from the '70's now?! Or late '60's?!!!

Building a Cabin .. part 6

2011-10-22T12:23:00.000-05:00

As you can see .. I changed from "building a mother in laws quarters" to "cabin" -- frankly, I have no clue if we'll ever get to a "big cabin" -- as this will be perfect for our needs anyways. But, this is solely my opinion -- Mike always has a different opinion than I do.

I am a little behind on cabin posts -- and have had emails from friends asking me for an update. I haven't been to the cabin since July -- and pictures from Mike when he goes up is scarce. The girls went with Mike the first weekend in October, and Maddie had full reign of the camera. Beware when the camera goes with Maddie. You never know what you're going to get. :)

I tried to explain as much as possible on the picture itself...

No shower yet ... funny side story: Mike & the girls went out to eat with our friend Shaun. Mike said the girls were dirty from 4 wheeling, so sent Katie to take a bath. He didn't think she was very dirty, but apparently she was. Maddie got in the bath after Katie did -- and didn't drain the water when she was done. He asked her "did you drain the water?" she said very innocently "well, aren't you going to take a bath too?" He said it was so funny the way she said it so innocently and sweetly...

and since Maddie had control of the camera -- found this weird picture on there. She should know by now that Mama has a blog and posts things of her children doing weird & odd things....

Mike's ... uh ... Katie's pinewood derby car

2011-10-20T14:08:00.001-05:00

Katie's youth group held a pinewood derby race last night at church. She procrastinated until two days before the race to even START on her car.

Anyways, Mike & Katie (when I say both the names, it's really Mike who did the work... Katie cheered and kept her dad company) started on her car on Monday night.

Mike & Katie (remember... Mike only) labored on Katie's car for a few hours. Just for the record... there were NO rules for this race! That means, it can be HEAVY! and have axles that does ... something. :)

Tuesday night they (he) labored on it even more -- painting the car, buffing the tires, polishing the tires -- and all sorts of stuff I have no clue what they did or even why they did it.

Here is Mike sanding down the wheels. I could go into a commentary of why he does this, but I don't understand why he's sanding down the wheels, so it just makes sense that I don't even attempt this!

If you can see it, the car has an "airflow" which is blah blah blah (again, I tuned out at this scientific explaination of why the car has to be this way.) Just notice how it's cut. I never said I did well in science.

A blow dryer is always good to have to speed up the drying process...

More polishing ....

Look at those pearly shiny tires!

Mike decorates Katie's car ... she is at a loss of how to decorate it, so it is all left up to Mike to make a girly looking car. It is not a girly looking car, let me just say that. I think polka dots would have made it girlier -- but that is my opinion. He did a FINE job (said in the voice of Forrest Gump) of decorating it though.

More drying. I will note that there are no pictures of me holding the dryer --

so technically I helped too!

"Katie .... this car needs a name"

"uh ... how about exterminator"
"that's too long...."

me: "how about Blondie..."

"sounds good"

and that, my friends.. is how this car came to be called Blondie.

Since I was not able to be here at this race (I was at another church activity for Maddie in a different location) -- Mike took the little point and shoot and snapped a few pictures of the race. The rest of the pictures are his and only his.

and there she goes!!!

In conclusion .... Katie's car was very fast. VERY fast. Apparently it was THE car to beat. However, another car bumped her car and an accident occured ... wheel fell off and Katie shrieked "My dad did it! DAD! FIX IT!" at the top of her lungs. She's a bit competitive her dad realized last night. VERY competitive. Wonder where she got that from? Definitely not me.

Her dad is already planning her next car.

cooking with teenagers

2011-10-08T15:35:00.000-05:00

I remember when my mom used to tell my brother & I that we needed to learn how to cook. She gave each of us one night a week to cook dinner. I think it lasted two weeks. Maybe three weeks at the most. We were picking hot dogs on a weekly basis. I'm pretty sure mom got fed up with hot dogs.... dealing a blow to her dream of getting out of cooking one night a week. Sorry Mom.

Fast forward 20 years. I'm now encouraging my 13 year old to cook more in the kitchen. Actually -- what really happens is that I run out of time, and I tell Katie "fix dinner! Recipe is on that blog!"

Last Wednesday night I kind of lost it. I was running out of time to cook dinner, had to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies for an activity at church that night, and I was losing time fast. Katie came to the rescue! She made baked chicken parmesan tenders by scratch (on my recipe blog) while I was on cookie duty. The chicken turned out fabulous.

I had her make one of those easy Lipton rice packets to go with the chicken. A monkey could make this .... literally. I tell my children ALL the time "read ALL the directions! Follow ALL the directions!" -- the directions was to bring the water & rice ingredients to a boil, then to turn down to simmer for 7 minutes. She left it on medium high for 7 minutes. Catastrophe!! Black, smelly burnt rice was all over the bottom of the pan. I lost my cool. "What happened to reading the directions???" She was cooking and managing Facebook at the same time. Qualities that show she can one day be a mother and hold down two to three things at one time.

So .... the mean mom in me reared her ugly head -- and made her clean up the burnt rice on the bottom of the pan. I figured "this way, she'll learn never to let rice burn like that." Cleaning up burnt rice on the bottom of a pan is HARD!! I think she learned her little life lesson. Actions bring consequences -- whether good or bad.

But my lesson? Ouch -- it was a hard one. Don't lose the cool over burnt rice. The damage is greater on my child's feelings than what my pan is worth.

So ... big FAIL on my mothering experience with cooking this week. Next week will most definitely be better. :) Hopefully she'll cook again. That really was the best chicken we had with that recipe!

The Green Monster Smoothie attacks!!

2011-10-04T21:28:00.001-05:00

So .... I'm totally into Pinterest. I've tried several recipes I've seen floating around Pinterest. Some were definitely keepers, and some ... not so much! I've tried a few craft ideas.... one my mom made fun of, and one my mom "oohed" over.

Just for the record Mom.... frugal is in! Yes, I'm cheap! Yes, I did take some paint chip samples and make bookmarks! Yes, they are TOTALLY awesome..... and YES! I did modge podge our initial "N" onto our pumpkin and tied a ribbon on the stem! I.Am.Freaking.AWESOME! I can craft again!
However... I saw a pin for "Green Monster Smoothies". It had... spinach... in it. Spinach? In a smoothie? Now, we are a total smoothie loving family. But this one.. I had to try! Last week I added spinach to our regular smoothies, and gave it to the family. No one even noticed!! They were SHOCKED when I told them spinach was added to it!

Luckily I had a pineapple on hand ... and a pear ... and spinach... and bananas. Yesterday I made it. It was delicious! I'm sure chockful of sugar as well b/c of the orange juice... but man was it awesome! Only one person in the family didn't touch it. Mike. Maybe the color turned him off? I dunno, but the girls and I are in LUV!

Here is the recipe from Annie-Eats (who got it from Une-Deux Senses):

Yield: 2-3 servings

Ingredients:

1 banana (frozen or not), cut into chunks

1 cup chopped frozen pineapple

1 pear, coarsely chopped

1½ cups orange juice

2½ cups baby spinach leaves, rinsed and dried

1-2 tbsp. honey

3 tbsp. ground flaxseed (optional)

Directions: Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor and puree until completely smooth. Taste and adjust sweetness with additional honey, if desired. Serve immediately.

Watch Katie as she drinks her yummy concoction...

Here is the Green Monster Smoothie....

Watch as she drinks....

gulp

See Mike as he glances at us and wonders

"what in the heck is my wife doing taking pictures of Katie at 7 a.m. drinking a smoothie?

Hmmm.... she's thinking about it....

thinking...

thinking....

By golly... SHE LIKES IT!

You can't see it, but she's giving a thumbs up!

If anyone needs an invite to Pinterest... let me know. :)

Katie ... volleyball....

2011-09-27T14:03:00.000-05:00

Katie loves volleyball. She practices it ALL the time. She played two seasons of it after her 7th grade volleyball season was over. She was READY for 8th grade volleyball! Sadly, she didn't make the A/B team after all her hard work & camp she went to. Her serve just wasn't as killer of a serve as all the girls on the A/B team -- and she has made SO much improvement in that area -- even if she is a killer setter and digger!

Last week, these pictures were shot at her game.

We are super proud of you Katie! Keep up the good work!

talk like a pirate night

2011-09-21T13:48:00.000-05:00

Monday was a National "Talk Like A Pirate" day .... did anyone talk like a pirate? I have to say "aye Matey" and "blow me down!" came out of my mouth a few times, much to my kids embarrassment! "Shiver me timbers" I also uttered... but I have no clue what it means.

Let's back up a day... Sunday I get an email that I have placed an award in a photography contest. The award night was on Monday night at an English restaurant -- which was featuring bag pipers, Scottish Dancers and all kinds of fun. My girls are Highland Dancers ..... so I emailed their teacher to see if she needed them to dance, and she did.

Monday night after volleyball practice and shoving down homemade pizza in our bellies in 5 minutes, we were out the door to this English pub. The girls did their dances .... and we saw "Nessie".

Maddie dances the Lilt

Katie is dancing around the swords

Nessie ... the Loch Ness Monster!

Katie dances the Seann Trius

Katie's leap at the end ...

The girls together dance the Highland Fling... I love the second picture of their hair flipping! Reminds me of that song "I Whip My hair back and forth ....." dumbest song ever.

and the results of the Photography Contest that was held from the Highland Games this year!

My picture of Katie captured second prize... the first prize was the picture to the left of my picture. It was a great picture!

Just in case you can't see it.... there it is. :)

My first photography contest win!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!!!

2011-09-20T10:09:00.000-05:00

So thrilled I had a huge turnout for this Betty Crocker giveaway!

The winner (by random.org) was #78!!

Julie said...

like BC on fb Julie Scott Laws

Congratulations Julie!! I will be in touch with you via email!

If Julie does not respond in 48 hours, I will draw another winner!

Stay tuned for more daily living in my house!

Giveaway! Betty Crocker Molasses Cookie Giveaway

2011-09-12T15:05:00.000-05:00

I love cookies.

I love cookies of all kinds. Especially anything that has chocolate in it!

I also love molasses cookies! If you haven't tried molasses cookies, you are MISSING out!

This giveaway is a super yummy one! Betty Crocker, through MyBlogSpark, is giving away a prize pack that includes a nonstick baking pan (can also be used as a jellyroll pan!), an apron, a package of Molasses cookie pouch, and a mixing spoon!

I got my package last week, and just now am I eating the rewards of the cookie pouch. Let me tell you .. I will for SURE buy this again! Super easy to make (just add 1 stick of margarine/butter, 1 tbsp of water and one egg!), and it's super delicious. I used a cookie measuring gadget, and was able to get 28 cookies out of this pouch!

If you are wanting to try out a pouch, click this link here for a $.75 off coupon from Betty Crocker good for a pouch of Molasses Cookie mix!

Want a chance to win this gift package?

1) Leave me a comment and tell me what occasion you would most use this spice cookie for!

2) Follow me on my blog! Already a follower? No problem! You can still get an entry!

3) "Like" Betty Crocker on Facebook! Just come on back here and tell me you "liked" them!

4) For each of the following you get one entry: blog about this giveaway, leave a Facebook status directing others to this giveaway, and finally ... Tweet about this giveaway!

Giveaway will end on Monday, September 19th at 9:00 p.m. CST. Winner will be drawn by Random Generator. Winner will be contacted via email (leave me your email!) -- and will have 48 hours to get back in touch with me. If not in touch with me by 48 hours, I will draw another name.

Twitter info for Betty Crocker: @BettyCrocker and hashtag #MyBlogSpark

The product, information and prize pack has been provided by Betty Crocker through MyBlogSpark.

sharks, dorkfish, and a killer whale

2011-09-09T22:17:00.000-05:00

Over Labor Day weekend, the girls and I decided to head to Sea World on Saturday to enjoy one last play in the water -- since it was the last weekend to play before they shut down to make way for the NEW Aquatica to come next year. That was one long sentence! Whew!

We packed a lunch, enjoyed the shows, one very wet water ride, and one very scary (for Katie) but fun (for me) roller coaster ride .... and played in the water for an hour while I crashed on the lounge chair and played with my iTouch (Solitaire). Whew... that was another long sentence! My English teachers' would kill me for writing this long of sentences!
First off, we went to see the dolphins. For some unknown reason, they closed off the dolphins until 1:00, so we could only "see" the dolphins. :(

Maddie has turned into a walking encyclopedia of all things shark. She LIVED for Shark Week.
These next group of pictures I'm proud to say I shot w/ my camera on MANUAL!! NO FLASH! That will explain some of the shake that you will see around my girls, but at least it means I'm learning manual!! Wahoo!

Oooh ... stinkrays! (Stingrays.. I know!)

Ooh... pretty!!

This guy was literally giving me the stink eye. Made me pretty uncomfortable at first. It reminded me of Bruce, from Finding Nemo. Look at his mean scowl.

Duh duh..... duh duh ... duh duh ...
(picture in your head the Jaws theme song)

Maddie was in shark heaven.

I worry that she will grow up to be a marine biologist.

Course, I would be thrilled for her if she does that -- but let's hope she would study dolphins. Not sharks!

My... that's an odd looking shark.
Look at his..... Gasp!
LOOK AT HIS TEETH!

If you have NO idea what a dorkfish is, you HAVE to read my blog post HERE and watch the Bill Engvall comedy guy about his fishing trip ....

We hadn't had a chance to see the new Shamu show .... so we got there early, two rows above the Splash Zone! I really miss the chance to see the trainers get in the water with the whales. Course, I understand WHY .... (all of the trainers wear their hair in a bun now) ... but seeing the trainer come out of the water on the nose of a killer whatle to heart stirring music just made my heart stop and my eyes swell with tears.

But ..... we got to see a baby!!

Isn't it cute?!!

and finally here is a clip of my friend and fellow photographer pal Valerie -- she is a trainer also!! You can see what she sees when she's in the water with a beluga whale!

What happens when I try to imitate crafty people?

2011-09-05T20:26:00.000-05:00

What happens when I try to imitate crafty people?

I.FAIL!!!

Big time.... thankfully this was a cheap failure, so I'm not missing any money -- but there's nothing like perusing Pinterest and finding all these amazing ideas for crafts, recipes, ideas ... and think "oh, I SO can do this!" Hello Martha Stewart wanna be! You ain't Martha Stewart or any of those million creative housewives who have beautiful homes and can sew an apron in their sleep, build a beautiful garland for their front door, and redo a piece of furniture front the thrift store so it crackles perfectly ... ALL IN ONE DAY!

This is what I tried to do .... print a picture on tissue paper and then mod podge on canvas.
Yeah ... sounds SO easy, right?

And yes, you CAN print on tissue paper! Didja know that?! I didn't until this morning!
I have pictures I am mounting on canvas of the girls ... I've been doing it for awhile now, trying to build up a collage I can put on the wall. I figured this would've been a cool idea. I got the idea from this site .... this gal did an amazing job in describing everything. Her pictures were beautiful. Everything was perfect.

Here is my story in pictures:

If you're still hung up on the fact that we can print on tissue paper, let me give you a hint if you should try this activity .... you HAVE to tape down your tissue paper (dull side up) on cardstock. If you use regular paper, it won't go through. But, tissue paper tears. A lot. Going back to my regular pictures now. Idea was cool though!

I will go back to perusing Pinterest and other blogs and just sigh in envy of all these cool crafts these gals come up with.

New Favorites to share!!!

2011-09-02T15:42:00.001-05:00

I've tried some new favorites lately, and since I think it's pretty selfish for me to not share the newest stuff out on the market -- I'm going to share!

1) Fage Greek Yogurt with Mango Guanabana. I have NO clue what Mango Guanabana is. Is it mango with a guana and a banana? If so, what is a guana? Either way, I'm on a greek yogurt kick, and I bought this from my grocery store for only .75 cents ... marked down. Hopefully they're not on the way out w/ this flavor b/c I.LOVE. this stuff! For sure, this is going on my grocery list!

2) Lypsyl Honey Rose chapstick -- I took a BzzCampaign years ago for Lypsyl, and I've been hooked on this stuff ever since. However, a few weeks ago I was looking around in Big Lots, and found some of the Honey Rose flavor for only $1.25!! SCORE!

3) Pacific Gold Teriyaki Turkey Jerkey -- I bought this at Costco and wow oh wow ... did my family fall in love with this jerkey!!

4) Archer Farm's drink mix Blackberry Blueberry -- these caught my eye when I was browsing the individual packets of Crystal Light ... there were four flavors at my Target, and I noticed they were all the flavors of the Sobe drink mix .. Apple Pear, Blackberry Blueberry, Strawberry Dragonfruit, and Acai Punch. Eight packets in a box for about $2.49 ... a lot cheaper than buy a Sobe drink!!

5) Pinterest!! Finally on board with pinterest, and now I have a bunch of boards that I'm busy pinning and repinning .... awesome ideas. Wish I was the one to have thought of this idea! (You can follow me on Pinterest by using that little button on the side of my blog!) If you need an invite, leave me a comment with your email address!!

6) Sioux City Orange Cream Soda. Mike and I went to a dinner party a few weeks ago, and the gal had a bunch of drinks spread in tin containers all over the house. It was so awesome... but since alcohol beverages were mixed with non-alcoholic beverages (I don't drink alcohol) I was leery about what I was picking out. I picked this out, and my eyes literally popped out of my head after I took my first sip. I gave Mike a drink and his expression was "WOW!" We quickly ran around the house searching for more bottles... hee hee I asked the hostess where she got it ... Home Goods (she bought it b/c it went with the colors of the party! So fun!)! So naturally, we drove straight to Home Goods after the party, and bought the last remaining four pack they had. $3.00 ..... they had a Sassafrass flavor as well (we bought that too). So, look up your Ross, Marshalls, Home Goods and see if you can find this. I believe I will be shopping there more often just so I can stock up. :)

Anyways -- those are my latest favorites! What are your latest favorites?

Studying stinks....

2011-08-30T08:26:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I picked Katie up from volleyball and she was in a bad mood. First of all her phone kept crapping out on her, so she was having a hard time getting in touch with her friend to schedule a study time that night. This girl's mom was only letting the girls meet at the park ... and at 5:40 it was 108 degrees. No thank you ma'am!! I told Katie "listen, she can come to our house, or you can go to her house." Well, this mom "apparently" said no to either one of those choices -- so I said no to the fact that Katie could go to the park to study when it's over 100 degrees.

So, .... that meant I was Katie's study partner last night. We had to study Central America and South America countries and their capitals. I took Spanish in high school. My Spanish teacher had a cool jingle/song to work w/ all these capitals and countries. For the life of me, I could only remember "Costa Rico, San Jose" .... not much help! Tried to remember the acronyms as well for these countries, and again, a big flop there as well.

Finally working with flashcards that Katie made, we were able to work for an hour -- "What is the capital of Peru?" "Lima!" On and on and on we went. She kept getting mixed up on Puerto Rico & Costa Rica. Nicaragua and Mangua. Before I knew it, I was finding ways to help her remember the capitals: NicaraGUA and ManGUA both have the same last three letters. She finally remembered. I had to resort to using .. uh... some letters that COULD mean a bad word. B.S. for Bolivia and its capital. Sad... I know, but she remembered it!

However, our enemy was Costa Rico (San Jose) and Puerto Rico (San Juan). Agh... those two countries and their capitals. Over and over again she was getting it mixed up. Even me singing the song I learned in Spanish 20 years ago didn't help (didn't help that I only knew one sentence either....) Finally, I said "COJO!" COsta Rico's capital is San JOse (CoJo) -- and Puerto Rico's capital was San Juan. So, once she was able to get Costa Rica's capital -- we were OK w/ the other. Whew!

Then it was coming up w/ an acronym for memorizing where the countries were on the map. GROAN!! Finally resorting to the internet for help. We came up with (for the Central America) Go Eat Hot dogs Near the Coast of Panama. The South America part was a little harder ... but we found one! "Very Cold Elephants Put Pretty Brown Underwear Around Children". Sounds ridiculous, I know .... and we had to change some of the letters around (it was very cold elephants put pretty underwear around children's bottoms" -- but Katie wanted the B (for Bolivia, I think) in the order it was going around the map.

She went off to school today happy as a clam because she could remember these little tricks and tips! Oddly enough, I kind of had fun helping her study!

Coconut Lime Banana Zucchini Bread

2011-08-29T15:09:00.000-05:00

Last week I saw a recipe that I HAD to try out! Thanks to Facebook ... I was able to ask a friend of a friend (thanks Jen & Cynthia!) for a recipe they were talking about -- and was able to try it out today!

It is literally a flavor explosion in your mouth! If you like lime, coconut (I probably lost about half of you right there....), banana and zucchini, then this recipe is for YOU!!

Just go to my recipe blog here ... and read it and try it out!

Swimming and summertime fun

2011-08-26T06:00:00.000-05:00

My girls made a few new friends this summer -- both girls are sisters, and we love them to death! I'm so happy that my girls have good friends that have good values and are just as sweet as can be.
Here are a few pictures taken of them at our ward's pool party that was last week! (sorry... don't know how to make it so they're not so blue!!)

The winner is.......

2011-08-25T11:25:00.000-05:00

Gah, I can't believe I completely spaced drawing for the winner of the Totino's giveaway!

Here it is!!

#21! Meghan!!

Meghan said...

I'd like to organize a carnival for the kids & families as a fund raiser.

Congratulations Meghan! I will be in touch with you!! If Meghan doesn't respond within 48 hours, I will draw another name! Thanks for entering!

San Antonio's Market Square

2011-08-25T06:00:00.003-05:00

My parents came to visit us for a week! It was so stinking hot outside -- so we limited how much we were outside. One day we drove downtown San Antonio to the Market Square. It's a very cool place in which the atmosphere is recreated to resemble a Mexican Market. I was nearly out of my Mexican vanilla anyways, so it was time to make a trip to Mexico! (while still being in the USA).

You can find all this "Nacho Libre" wrestling masks being sold here....

Lots of color everywhere! On the weekends, there are bands playing outside, and lots more vendors from Mexico are here.

Inside of this big warehouse, you can find individual shops full of tortilla warmers, marble chess games, silly children's games, pottery, martini glasses, sombreros, blankets, Mexican vanilla (my favorite of all!), and many more!

There can be so many odd things on display here.....

In a way, once you've seen one store, you've seen them all. Signs posted are "you break! You buy!" (I'm still traumatized from the experience of going to Mexico when I was in grade school and somehow .... SOMEHOW I broke this elephant -- they chased us around the market. I thought for sure they were going to throw a 9 year old in jail.). Why they put all the breakables RIGHT at the edge, I'll never know.

Another sign is "NO PICTURES!! $1 for pictures!" and there's a weird creepy paper mache person in which you can pay to have your picture taken with... Ooookkkaaayyy.

Another sign is "No pictures with hats!" I guess trying on those sombreros is a popular idea. Why buy one when you can snap a picture w/ one on your head and call it a day? That way, you don't have to bring the sombrero home!!!

Here's a picture of my dad & the girls -- this is picture #30, I believe. My mom took FOREVER to take some pictures (I kept saying "aren't you done yet Mom???? Mom? Now Mom??"), so most of my pictures involve them looking at my mom, or one of the three are blinking.

And here's one of my momma....

This little piggy ...

2011-08-24T06:00:00.001-05:00

This little piggy went to the market

This little piggy stayed home

This little piggy had roast beef

This little piggy had none...

and THIS little piggy got shot by Katie... and died.

OK, that was probably a gruesome way to ruin a perfectly cute nursery rhyme involving children's toes .... but last weekend Katie & her dad went hunting for a hog. Hogs are BAD here in Texas. They are all over the place! While at our property last weekend, they did go hunting, and Katie managed to shoot one! Although, her scope was off a big (it was adjusted for her to see far away, and the hog was right in front of her, so all she saw was a big blur of a pig), she did still managed to shoot it behind the ribs, but it didn't kill it right away. Mike had to shoot the final shot otherwise it would've ran off and died.

This is 170 pounds of pure pig...
She said it was pretty gross while her dad & his friend were skinning it, etc. Mike said it looked like she would've passed out. ::giggling::

She said she's ready for a deer now. :)

Sock Bun curls with Maddie!

2011-08-23T06:00:00.000-05:00

A few months ago I saw a tutorial on sock bun curls .... it looked easy, and I'm all for not using heat to get curls for your hair! So, I tried it out on Maddie's hair on Saturday night, and the end result is very cute!

It was actually even cute with the sock bun IN her hair! It WAS hard getting her hair wrapped around the sock == but after I placed a few bobby pins in her hair to hold it, it wasn't too bad.

The next morning, before church, she wanted me to take some pictures of her beautiful hair. :) It turned into a modeling session with a bee bzzing around us!

and here she is looking down at the bee that is about to land on her....

the back view of her hair... lots of body & waves!

and finally a full length view so you can see her cute outfit!

Happy First Day of School!!

2011-08-22T14:26:00.000-05:00

I now have an 8th grader and a 4th grader!

How did this happen?

Both my girls were SO excited to go back to school. I will have to say I was very sad that school started. Since I stopped working in June, I've cherished my time with my girls this summer. Working for the past two summers (and then 3 years before we moved here) has really made me sad that I wasn't home with them. Cherish your time with your kids if you stay home!!

While they were so excited about going back to school -- I was just a little sad b/c I must be such a bore that they were excited to go back to school! Who wants to go to school?

As I said goodbye to them, I repeated what I've said to them every single time they leave the house since they started school:

Do your best!

Make good choices!

and always remember I love you!

For awhile, I used to say "Remember who you are" -- and Katie would always joke around "I'm a lion ... rooaarr!" (y'know.. from Lion King?).

Here is our traditional "1st day of school" pictures!!

Katie's in her last year of wearing uniforms to school. Let me say that I.LOVE.UNIFORMS!! Will be sad next year when she starts wearing regular clothes! :(

Miss Maddie has been dying to get a miniskirt for months now. We finally found some at JcPenney's that actually was at a modest length! Plus, it was on clearance. SCORE! She wore it 4x last week... I think this is her favorite piece of clothing? No?

Cheesecloth! How to dye cheesecloth

2011-08-20T12:52:00.000-05:00

I'm getting ready to do a newborn baby shoot in a few weeks, and I want to be ready! I've been researching all the cute newborn shoots of photographers. Everyone has the same idea: beanbags, up close, capture those tiny fingers & toes, use fluffy blankets, scarfs, egg baskets, baskets of all shapes & sizes.... and the list goes on and on and on.

I've been dying to try out the cheesecloth look for newborns. Since I don't have a picture of my own yet to share, I can't share other people's images.

I searched high and low for tutorials for cheesecloth -- but couldn't find anything. Just some stuff on forums, so if there is anyone else out there like me who is searching for things about cheesecloth... here you go! This is what I learned!

I bought several packages of cheesecloth at Bed Bath & Beyond for $3.99. I had a $5 coupon off if I spent $15, so I bought 4 packages. I knew I wanted to dye at least two packages. One in hot pink, and another in denim blue. (you can also use four 20% off BB&B coupons for each package if you don't have a $5 off coupon!)

So, this morning I set out to dye with the hot pink. I've never dyed before, so this is ALL new to me! I only had one piece of cheesecloth to dye, which is approximately 36" x 36". I washed all four cheesecloths in the washer on my delicate cycle on cold water. This is where I made my first mistake. If you can, wash them individually. Or, put each piece in a lingerie/nylon bag. Three of my cheesecloths were intertwined with each other!!! What a headache!

Like I said ... A HEADACHE!!!

After I got them all separated (had to cut some of them on the edges b/c I couldn't unravel them), I added 2 cups of boiling hot water to a sand bucket along with the dye, 1 cup of salt, and 1 tbsp of laundry detergent. Stir. Make SURE you are wearing gloves!! I wore the disposable gloves... Then, I did mistake #2. I added my wet cheesecloth (you want to make sure it's wet first before you add it). Now, this wasn't the mistake... I just didn't read my directions further on down the box (thought the entire box was written in a different language) -- but I was supposed to add a gallon of hot water for each pound of fabric. Oops. By the time I caught my mistake, my cheesecloth had been sitting in the dye for 20 minutes or so. So I added more hot water, and let it sit for about 5 - 10 more minutes.

After I let it sit a little longer, I took it out and ran warm water through it until it the dye came out, and gradually added cold water.

Next, the directions instructed me to wash the fabric with mild detergent. Wash it in the washing machine? Wash it by hand? I had no clue. I'm one of those people who need step by step directions telling me EXACTLY where to go and what to do. I did remember seeing some ebay listings of people selling dyed cheesecloths telling people to wash by hand and line dry. So, I decided to wash by hand in my kitchen sink. Added some warm water, some dish detergent and washed it by hand for about 5 minutes. Then rinse with warm water -- then with cold.

Wring it out ... and I was amazed at the color! LOVE IT! I am letting it air dry -- but I already love the hot pink color, and can't wait to use it on the baby girls I'm shooting this year!

Hope this helps SOMEBODY! :)

She's having a .... baby!

2011-08-15T11:00:00.000-05:00

No, not me! My only girl cousin ... Miss Kasey is having a baby!
Yep, she was the one who had that beautiful wedding in May --

She posted an odd Facebook status back in June -- and said she was going home for lunch to take a nap. I immediately texted her and said "OK girl... you're pregnant!" We went back and forth via text messages for an hour. She was kind of in denial about it, telling me that per the internet, this wasn't one of the bigger symptoms that she should have. I told her that before I knew I was pregnant w/ Katie ... I was sleeping ALL the time. Came home from work, and before I knew it, Mike was carrying me off to bed because I fell asleep in the oddest places. Must run in the family!

Anyways, sure enough, a baby is coming! I took these two pictures when we went home to Kansas City in July ... but had to wait until they came out with the news.

Love this picture of Kasey & Katie .... Kasey would come over to my house when Katie was literally days old and just sit in front of the TV and hold Katie ALL DAY LONG! She's going to be a wonderful mama! She got some practice when she was 12 years old! (that's how old she was when Katie was born).

So come March 10th (or around that date) ... my grandma will be welcoming her fifth great grandchild, my aunt her first grandchild ... and my first ... uh? Second cousin? Great cousin?

Congratulations Kasey & Nate!

Totino's Giveaway!

2011-08-11T08:52:00.002-05:00

If you're not aware of the Box Tops for Education system for schools -- then you are living under a rock! Most schools participate in the Box Top program, where us parents will cut out those little squares found on boxes of foods we buy (cereal, breakfast foods, etc) -- and turn them into the school. In turn, the school gets $$ for those box tops!

Totino's is giving away ONE MILLION Bonus Box Tops (equivalent to $100,000!) to school! Four participating BTFE (Box Top for Education) schools this year will win 250,000 Bonus Box Tops to help fund a fun project for their school!

For this back to school season, Totino's will feature on select varieties -- DOUBLE box tops -- of their Pizza Rolls and Party Pizzas.

To enter your school, or for more information, please go to the Box Top for Education Sweepstakes website.

To bring awareness to this awesome sweepstakes, Totina's, through MyBlogSpark, is giving away an awesome package!! You will get a drawstring backpack, a BrainQuest Smart game, three coupons for free Pizza Rolls, Pizza Stuffers, or Party Pizza!, AND a Micro Rubik Cube keychain!! (any guesses at to which item my girls are fighting over?)

To enter, do the following (up to FIVE entries!):

1) Leave me a comment telling me what fun project would you most like to do for your child's school?

2) Go to Facebook and "like" Totino's (leave me a comment that you liked it... here on my blog!)

3) Become a follower to my blog! (if you've been a follower ... you still get an entry!)

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Giveaway will end on August 22nd .. the day I am free ... er, the day my girls go back to school! :)

The winner will have 48 hours to get back to me after I reach them (don't forget to leave me an email address!!) -- if they don't get in touch with me, I will draw another name. Name will be drawn using the Random Generator!

"Disclosure: The information and prize pack has been provided by Totino´s through MyBlogSpark."

The finale of our trip!

2011-08-08T06:00:00.002-05:00

Well, all good things must come to an end.

We loved our trip to Missouri. We stayed for two weeks. We ate at our favorite restaurants (Lucia's! El Maguey!). Didn't get to eat BBQ this time -- but I was watching the calories, so that's probably for the better. By the way, Kansas City does boast the best BBQ ever! But, by the last night in Missouri, Maddie was crying for Daddy. We had been gone long enough.

Here are a few final pictures of our final days:

I completely forgot my camera at this time, so this picture is from my phone. Does NOT do it justice at all! But this amazing taco comes from Lucia's, located on 24 highway. You HAVE to try this place out. Lucia (the owner) has been an amazing friend to our family for years. Marcie & I headed over, and I was hoping she'd be there (and she was!) -- we were able to catch up a little before lunch rush started. My favorite? Chicken tacos. But her guacamole is also hands down the best also.

Since we do not have a piano (yet!), Maddie has been playing on the piano nonstop. Here Grandma Nelson is helping Maddie by playing another part.

On our final night, Papa Nelson & Grandma Nelson took everyone out to eat at a restaurant (it's in the basement) on the Square (which, amazingly I've never been there -- but it was SO delicious!!). Afterwards, we headed to the Cinema across the street and watched Captain America. (hubba hubba!)

Truly, a wonderful ending to a fabulous vacation in which we were able to spend quality time with all our loved ones!!

What is Independence like?

2011-08-07T06:00:00.000-05:00

Many of my San Antonio friends have always asked me "What is Independence like?" Independence is where Joseph Smith laid down cornerstones to build a temple one day. We also refer to it as the center place of Zion. Members of the church settled in Independence, known at the time as the Gateway to the West because it was the start of the Santa Fe Trail. By 1833, many members were chased out of Independence by mobs. You can read more about the history of the Saints in Missouri here... very fascinating read!

Anyways, I went out to dinner with my oldest best friend Jennifer one night. We decided to walk around Independence Square after dinner. Here are some pictures of Independence -- right in the hotspot of where everything happened almost 200 years ago.

This is looking at our cinema. It's actually restored, and much cheaper to go here than to the regular movie theater! So grateful for people who restored a lot of the buildings on the Square -- it really is a beautiful area!

This is looking down the the other side of the street from the cinema. My in laws own a store on this side of the street (next to the Square Pizza shop).

This is the courthouse (well, the 2nd courthouse) -- the first courthouse, sadly is falling down in ruins a block away from this site. There is a 3rd courthouse a few blocks away that is more modern and where all the action is held!

This was an eyesore before this restuarant was built! The Square has several very nice places to eat, and Cafe Verona is one of them. Jen and I ate here for dinner. Yummm!

Another fact is that Harry Truman hails from Independence! In fact, his home is only a few blocks away from the Square. This statue is in front of the Courthouse.

This is a sign from the ice cream parlor where Harry Truman worked his first job.

People who are of the LDS faith will recognize the name Sidney Gilbert and Newel Whitney -- they had a store while they lived in Independence, and this is the original site of the store. Now it is a very fancy kitchen store with specialties inside. The owner of this building is a member of the Community of Christ church, and restored much of the Square -- trying to keep the spots that existed back in the 1800's in the same original location.

A block away off the Square lies all the beautiful Victorian homes that were built in the 1800's. We used to live a few blocks away from the Square -- and I truly do miss living in this area! It was such a place of beauty to be surrounded by beautiful homes with a beautiful Square rich in history beyond it.

Pioneer Day & other fun things

2011-08-06T06:00:00.000-05:00

Pioneer Day falls on July 24th -- so usually in our church (outside of Utah), we all celebrate on Saturday. This year, since we were with my in laws, we had a breakfast... to our surprise, a wagon came to give us all rides! This wagon (and a few others) give rides around Independence Square, and share the rich history of Independence -- known as the Gateway to the West. You can see in the background of the wagon, the Community of Christ temple (formerly called RLDS). Reminds me of an ice cream cone...

Katie and Taylor ....

Taylor's momma Alicia (my SIL), and Layla

Marcie (my other SIL), Katie and Presley

On our last day with Marcie and her girls, we took a trip to Lake Jacomo. There is an awesome little settlement called Missouri Town. Lots of old homes that are laid out just like one would find it back in the 1800's. (all the homes were moved there from around Kansas City). Outside of Missouri town are buffalos and elk that you can feed and watch.

This particular elk had the biggest set of antlers I have ever seen. I could understand him having a headache all the time if elk were able to speak!

Now, this picture I can't get over. Maddie refuses to feed the goats, hold a dog (that isn't sedated), hold a hamster -- but she'll feed elk? Yep -- proof she fed the elk.

This was just too cute -- a momma elk and a baby elk.

We left KC when Katie just finished 4th grade. These two gals below were her best friends in 3rd and 4th grade. So glad they were all able to get together and spend an afternoon together!

Family Fun at the water park

2011-08-05T06:00:00.000-05:00

We went to the water park twice when we were in Missouri -- Independence finally has a very super cool water park that opened up a year before we moved. Has a lazy river, very nice kids area, three slides, and a lap pool. I could stay in the lazy river all day.

The first time we went with my dad and my nephew plus our highland dance friends & also the girls' cousins (the same ones who came down to our property in July) -- SO MUCH FUN!!

The second time we went, we went at 5:00 p.m., when it wasn't as busy, and again, had SO MUCH FUN!

I only pulled out my camera after the sun went down -- towards when we decided it was time to leave. It was hard to get a picture of all the kids together.

My brother in law Wesley with his little boy, Taylor.

Taylor is SO photogenic, amazingly ... I think I captured like 30 different pictures of him in a different expression each time.

Rocker dude!

Miss Presley playing with Taylor ....

Miss Maddie with Miss Layla -- of course.

"The Castle" + Presley + Layla

2011-08-04T06:00:00.000-05:00

After the week with my parents were up, we headed to my in laws for a week! The first day with my in laws, we took a trip to St Joseph, to pick up my sister in law and her two beauties. She drove us around the old St Joe -- which was fascinating in itself!!

She first took us to Krug Park -- which is a fascinating park in itself! It has a beautiful "castle", rose gardens, amphitheatre, and all kinds of things. You'll need to read up on it here b/c it was such a neat place to go to.

It was funny seeing how Marcie's two girls teamed up w/ my girls. The oldest, Presley -- loved to be with Katie (my oldest). The youngest, Layla, was a big Maddie fan. Course, both girls loved both of my girls -- but when it came time to holding someone's hand, they reached for those respective girls.

(above) Katie and Presley -- Presley reminds us all of Katie when she was this age. A few minor differences of course -- but I think out of all the cousins in the family, these two are the most similar!
(below) Maddie and Layla

here is proof that I did come on this vacation!

after driving through Krug Park, Marcie showed us "Lover's Lane" ::giggling::

Then took us to see Jesse Jame's home.

and then right around the corner was a HUGE Mason Temple... very big!

All in all, the old part of St Joseph was really fascinating to see! Loved to see all the old homes around the area (those are my favorite!).

Deanna Rose Farmstead

2011-08-03T06:00:00.002-05:00

Also on our last day of being in KC, we headed to the Deanna Rose Farmstead in Overland Park. Right before we moved to Texas, we lived about 2 miles from this place, and went there often.

My nephew Joshua spent the day on Monday with us, and we all went to the water park -- and had a blast. He spent the night w/ the girls (his first sleepover ever!), and in the morning Papa Rod had his special breakfast for the grandkids... DONUTS!!

It was such a hot day that day....

Joshua is feeding the big goats -- he waited for some money from Papa Rod for the dispensor machine, but I found a whole bunch of food on the ground (which was dropped from other kids) so I told him to pick it off the ground. He did -- and he had food!

Katie's turn to feed!

In this pen were the smaller goats. The baby goats you fed bottles to (which we didn't do) -- but this pen is also where three years ago Maddie was bit by a goat because she refused to feed a goat. She folded her hand up in a ball and held on tightly to her food (the WRONG thing to do). I believe this incident is where it all began... Maddie's aversion to animals.

Papa Rod put all the kids on a wagon hayride.

Totally loving this handwashing station!

Papa Rod and Katie are just chilling...

In the schoolhouse -- of course Maddie picks to be right next to the window, which means my pictures won't be great. Dang light!!

She & Joshua start writing on their little boards.

Moseying around with Papa Rod....

2011-08-02T06:00:00.000-05:00

Like I said earlier in my past posts, we ran my dad down pretty tired. We were with them for a week! I think he was ready for a break from us when we left! Ha ha!

One day we went to Bass Pro in Independence -- been there a lot, but it's always fun to go again and see everything.

Of course the girls have to hit up the laser shooting range! Loved it when it was only a quarter to shoot -- cringe that it's now 50 cents each time!

So much natural light in this place -- but a cute picture of the girls.

Over killed on the exposure here, so I had to resort to B&W for this picture, but I LOVE it!

Coneflowers (echinacea) are really in bloom now in Missouri -- here are some right outside of the shop.

On our final day w/ Papa Rod, we went to the new American Girl store in Kansas City. Maddie's never been, and she's got two American Girl dolls -- she was in heaven looking at all the clothes. Why are the clothes so much more expensive there than regular kids' clothes?!!

Maddie and Christina .. her doll.

Afterwards, we all took a trip to the new Trader Joe's that just recently opened up in Kansas City. My thoughts? Ehh... not sure what the big fuss was. I like their bags. That's about it... But then again, there were like a thousand people inside a small store trying to get through, so my opinion might not be a good one b/c I hate crowds in a store.

Park time!

2011-08-01T11:14:00.002-05:00

In Blue Springs where one of the high schools are, lies an amazing park. Sand volleyball, tennis courts, basketball courts, playgrounds, frisbee golf, and a pond. We took the girls & nephews to the park to run off some steam.
Here are Maddie & Joshua hamming it up...

My brother and Liam

My mom & Maddie

Love this picture!! Maddie's expression is so stinking cute!

Miss Katie .... proof she was there at the park!

Liam always went to Maddie for anything he needed ... this time his shoe came off. She didn't know what to do, so picked him up and took him to his mom. :)

Joshua getting a drink the "non-normal" way.

My sister in law Rachel with Liam. Getting a smile out of this boy is SUPER hard!

This used to be my favorite past time when I was a kid, but I always paid for it dearly later -- chiggers! This hill is a very steep hill, so all three kids went to rolling down the hill.

Later Maddie paid for it dearly when she couldn't stop itching -- even after a bath. Benadryl finally hit the spot -- not sure if she'll ever roll down a hill again!

Park time with family

2011-07-31T10:02:00.000-05:00

While we were in Kansas City (specifically, Blue Springs) == we played hard. Every day we were either going shopping, visiting family, playing at the park, playing with friends, swimming .... you get the idea!

The first day we are in Missouri, we meet up with my brother and his family. I have two nephews from my brother: Joshua & Liam. Joshua is almost 4, and can be a serious little boy and is INCREDIBLY smart. My brother & his wife, Rachel, play sand volleyball with their friends, and so we went to watch and let the kids play in the sand.

Dark clouds started to roll in before we arrived, and I was SO excited to get a feel for a good Midwestern storm! There's nothing like it, I have to say -- a huge lightning show, thunder crashing, the smell of rain....we managed to get home just in time before the rain started.

Madison & Liam played really well together!!

My brother Mike blocking the ball...

and now serving the ball!

A few days later, we all enjoyed teriyaki chicken on the grill at my grandma's house. She needed her back deck power washed, so my brother and dad went over to do that fun job!

Here are the girls with my grandma. If you read this post I wrote back in January of 2010, you'll see how far Katie has come as far as height!! All the grandkids (and now great grandkids) know they're growing up when they grow past Grandma!

This is Coco. My grandpa and grandma got Coco two weeks before my grandpa passed away. Coco is a bit.... wild. Maddie was afraid of him, really. He would jump all over people -- and she doesn't do well with animals period. Ever since the goat bit her hand.... and the rabbit bit her hand... and well, you see a trend? Bites == Maddie refusing to do anything with animals! Anyways, my grandma had the brilliant idea of putting Coco on a leash, and gave the leash to Maddie. That way she could control Coco. Maddie loved that idea! Coco was very obedient on a leash. After a few days, Coco was fixed -- and he went straight to Maddie to be held after he got home. This picture below is of Maddie holding Coco, while he was a just a bit "out of it".

Here are two great grandkids (Katie & Joshua) helping Grandma with her yard work.

My brother working the power washer....

and my dad ... doing something. Wrapping a cord? It was SO hot while we were in KC the entire two weeks. 100% humidity plus high heat == a very hot, sweaty day.

Leaving on a Jet Plane.....

2011-07-30T20:16:00.000-05:00

When we went to Kansas City a few weeks ago, my girls, I think, were most excited about going on a plane. The last time Katie was on a plane was when she was 4 1/2 -- Maddie was only 18 months old. Maddie sat on my lap, sleeping away while Katie was listening & singing very loudly to Shania Twain on her portable CD player -- I told her to quiet it down a bit since everyone could hear her, but she just said "I can't hear myself sing!" I'm so thankful for all those people who didn't complain.
Fast forward 8 years.....
We leave on a Tuesday morning for Kansas City. We traveled on Frontier -- but I didn't pay for the higher end tickets, so to put a suitcase under the plane was $20 (turns out, if you pay for it the day before, it's only $15!) -- so I had the girls lug their stuff in duffel bags and backpacks. I had a duffel bag and a big suitcase that we put the heavier stuff in. We came loaded..... well, we stayed for two weeks!

While we were going through the lines, Katie was stopped. Of course.... why? Look at her arm! All those metal bracelets. It took FOREVER to get them all off! On the way home, she only had one bracelet on... lesson learned! (side note, Frontier had the most comfortable seats ever! And since my butt is a bit wider than most ... it fit comfortably in the sit... just saying! oh, and their snack is a chocolate chip cookie! Perfect!)

I was able to pick which seat we were going to sit in, so on this ride, Maddie sat next to the window first. On the way home, Katie sat next to the window -- but a seat opened up next to me, and she moved over to the window seat by me. Which.... started a "MOM!! That's SO not fair!!" from Katie. Attitude does exist when you are flying high in altitude.

I loved seeing their excitement!!

stay tuned for more vacation stories and pictures!

the iron king.... the iron daughter... the iron queen.... TEAM ASH!!!

2011-07-18T21:53:00.000-05:00

Since I am in Kansas City for two weeks.... I have had ample reading time on the plane, and at night.

My sister in law Tiffany texted me a few weeks ago telling me about a few new series of books that are Young Adult -- and were SOOOOO good! So, I went about my business requesting them from the library, and just last night I finished the series so far of the Iron King. I'm not normally into reading fantasy books. In fact, I believe this might be my first fantasy book I've ever read. I don't consider Twilight fantasy, but maybe it should be???

Written by Julie Kagawa ... it's a fantasy/faery type of book. Meaghan Chase is about to turn 16 years old, and all of a sudden she's starting to "see" weird things ... creatures! Turns out, her biological father is a King of the Summer Faery -- so she's part faery and part human.

I realize I'm butchering this little book report up BIG time (I never said I was good writing book reports .... I just like to read them and tell you to read them yourself if I think it's good). So, do me a favor. Go to the library or book store and find The Iron King by Julie Kagawa ..... read it. If you like it, read The Iron Daughter. AND if you like that one, read The Iron Queen.

Yes, there is a love interest with the main character. I have to say I'm 100% Team Ash. You'll know what I mean by the time you read book 3. Can't wait for book 4 to come out!!

Here is a brief summary I have taken from Julie Kagawa's site:

MEGHAN CHASE HAS A SECRET DESTINY— ONE SHE COULD NEVER HAVE IMAGINED…

Something has always felt slightly off in Meghan’s life, ever since her father disappeared before her eyes when she was six. She has never quite fit in at school…or at home.

When a dark stranger begins watching her from afar, and her prankster best friend becomes strangely protective of her, Meghan senses that everything she’s known is about to change.

But she could never have guessed the truth—that she is the daughter of a mythical faery king and is a pawn in a deadly war. Now Meghan will learn just how far she’ll go to save someone she cares about, to stop a mysterious evil no faery creature dare face…and to find love with a young prince who might rather see her dead than let her touch his icy heart.

Girls Camp 2011

2011-07-13T06:00:00.006-05:00

Right after we got back from the property (like literally.... 6 hours after we got home), we sent Katie off to our church's Girls Camp! This is a 5 day long camp for girls ages 12-18 ... and it is THE event that all girls look forward to all year long. Last year Katie went for the first time -- and I have to admit I was in tears sending her off AND picking her up. This year -- no tears were shed by Momma. I knew she'd have a blast. They did kayaking (she fell in twice), swimming, crafts, archery, ate really yummy food, had devotionals, sang their hearts out (and Katie's voice went "bye-bye" on that Friday!). They were supposed to go on a 5 mile hike, but down here in San Antonio -- it's boiling hot out, so they went for a 2 mile hike instead. They all have a mailbox -- a place where people can place cards/letters, candy, little trinkets for each other. Such a fun time for them!!

I took a few pictures before the girls left, and I sent w/ her a disposable camera so she could take pictures. We got them developed after she came home on Saturday. I'm so thankful for digital cameras now!!

You can see Katie in her element ..... as crazy as she gets w/ all these girls! {{note all the girls rocking side ponytails ... FIVE of them!}}

This gal down here is Madison ... Madison and her family just moved into our ward about a month ago -- she & Katie became fast friends, but still very shy -- however, you can see how they got wild & crazy. Totally no shyness exists here anymore!

A picture of Katie in action... archery!

The cute redheaded girl on the left is Cassie!! We love Cassie! Followed by Madison & Katie...

Alex is on the left here -- she's a sweetheart as well.

More Katie 'n Madison....

I don't remember this gal's name ... Emily? Maybe? Not sure -- but Katie's hamming it up again for the camera. The processing CVS did to the film made her eyes really pop out blue!

and here is what she looked like as soon as she got home:

I'm sure when Katie gets her voice back, I'll learn more about what went on...

4th of July Bash part 4 -- THE END!

2011-07-12T06:00:00.002-05:00

OK! Final post ... I think!

This is our last day there ... by now, the kids are TIRED of posing (except Zach.. always a smile on his face -- oh, and Seth)

I desperately tried to get them to laugh... I'm wondering if someone farted? That'll make them laugh!

After we ate at the Italian Restaurant for the 3rd time (it's really good!) -- a storm came in and man was it windy!

Here is Katie & Seth ... he's such a cutie... He tagged along w/ her when his thumb was too worn out to keep pushing the gas on his 4 wheeler!

Katie 'n Jersey .. she loved that dog!

Now this is Landon ... he's going to be adopted soon into the family. Landon is such a sweet boy who has mental handicaps. I love his smiles. :) The family told us when we saw them, that his favorite friend in the whole wide world ... is Bob. Bob... is the reflection of Landon in the mirror! So, when we pass by a mirror, Landon runs up to the mirror and shouts "HI BOB!!" It's a hilarious time, and he laughs along with us. Here he is ... all of a sudden posing like a weight champion. He talks to Bob every single time he sees himself in the mirror.. they have a conversation and all!! So, next time you see yourself in the mirror, say "HI BOB!"

Finally... Gerri snapped this picture of Maddie riding her 4 wheeler... I love it!

4th of July Bash part 3

2011-07-11T06:00:00.002-05:00

... continuing on from our lake pictures....

here is our beautiful Miss Hannah sunbathing... she's most definitely a teenager now when sunbathing is more important than playing in the water! ;) She's got her Coke .. her ipod .. her flip flops .. and you can't see it in this picture, but her tanning oil. Ahhh.. to be a kid again!

Gerri and I have always lined up the kids in order of birth (they all looked like it was slanting just perfectly!) -- and it worked until Katie shot up past Price and it just didn't look right after that. So, this time we just told them to stand anywhere -- and we were going to shoot a picture or two of them all jumping in the water at the same time.

I yelled "When I count to THREE, JUMP!"

Some took it as "OK, jump!" while others took it as "OK, when do I jump again?" -- so jump shoot == FAIL!!!

Here is Gerri -- the other photographer in the family -- pointing her camera at me....

One of my favorite "crazy jump shots" of Katie's ....

This next shot was hilarious. Zach and Katie weren't even posing, but somehow they both went into a weird stance ... and I missed the next second of it all -- hope Gerri got it. HILARIOUS!

Here is Hannah & Katie giving me... the STINKEYE??! What?

4th of July Bash part 2

2011-07-10T06:00:00.003-05:00

While at the lake ... we asked a family if we could swim by their dock. They gave their consent, and away we went! The kids had tons of fun jumping off the dock.

Price was constantly after Katie trying to push her in -- You can see here he is pushing her

She's going "no way!"

and she goes after him ... he then goes into the lake!

Katie & Zach were the lead winners on creative jumps (a few today, and more on the next blog post)

Here we have the classic Price going after Katie .... AGAIN!

and she's going "you can't catch me!" ... and falls into the lake!

Where's Katie's other leg??

I didn't capture what happened here .. but again, Price going after Katie, and this time Katie's getting revenge!

4th of July Bash part 1

2011-07-09T16:34:00.000-05:00

I have so many pictures I want to share, but obviously, will need to split it up over a few days....

We got to the property early Friday morning -- and spent all day Friday & Saturday working on the cabin. One Saturday, Mike's uncle & his family came down to the property to stay with us & play a bit! Since we don't have a shower yet, the girls took a motel room (for the shower & pool) while the guys hunkered down in the cabin (at least there was A/C!).

Our girls were pretty much raised w/ these kids. Brian & Gerri have 5 kids, with one more they're adopting. Katie & their second kid, Price, are 4 months apart ... they also looked so much alike when they were little. Between the two of them, one was always taller than the other, so every time we see them, the first thing they do is measure their height. Katie's been in the lead for a few years, but I'm sure Price is going to beat her in the height department in a few years. Also, they were the best of friends -- inseparable! Maddie & their 4th kid, Leah, are also close in age. They are 3 months apart. Altogether, they get along great --

The other Nelson clan brought their 4 wheelers, since there's tons of land around for them to go 4 wheeling. A lake is right down the road, and we took the kids twice to go swimming and to watch the fireworks. Not to mention the girls all staying up late and reminiscing about favorite memories of growing up together. Made for some pretty hysterical nights! It's the "If I laugh more -- I'm gonna pee my pants" kind of laughs!

Here is Maddie & Leah -- their version of a mud bath at the lake:

They brought their puppy Jersey down with them as well -- Maddie woke up to the puppy sleeping on her pillow. Needless to say, she wasn't very excited about that. Takes after her dad....

One day after eating at this fantastic Italian restaurant by the lake, the kids were watching the water. We decided to hang around the water instead of going back to the cabin to wait for the fireworks.

Tried to capture the beautiful rays ... can never do it justice on camera!

Here is Katie & Price ...

They decided to get into the water and play after eating ...

Finally the time came for the fireworks!!

Here is Hannah & Jersey .. so cute!

This was the only shot worth showing ... that I attempted to take of the fireworks. Was on manual -- but tons of trees in the way!

Part 2 coming soon!

Facts about Amy ... you may not have known

2011-07-08T08:58:00.000-05:00

I hear all the time from my friends "wow! I never knew that about you!" ... so, why not turn it into a blog post?

1) I love cherries as a fruit ... but I hate... HATE anything flavored cherries. i.e. cherry slush (gag), cherry fruit snacks (gag, gag), cherry Twizzlers ... you get the point?

2) I've been using the same set of dishes since I've been married -- which is going on 14 1/2 years so far!! LOVE this pattern == Filigree by Pfaltzgraff.

(image taken from Pfaltzgraff)

3) I have been privileged to have traveled to wonderful places outside of the USA. I've been to China, Hong Kong, Nova Scotia (in Canada), Bahamas, Puerto Vallarta, Turkey, Greece, Santorini, Crete, Instanbul (and a few other islands around that area... we took a Mediterranean cruise) -- all before my 18th birthday. However, a few years later after taking this cruise in the Mediterranean Sea, the cruise ship sank off the coast of Africa. But, I haven't been to Hawaii yet. :(

4) I can't stand snakes -- but I will watch all the documentaries on snakes. Mike constantly scares me as soon as the snake jumps for the camera. Rotten guy....

5) Because of my fear of snakes, when I walk anywhere that we're really in the outdoors, I refuse to look hard in the wilderness for fear I might see a snake. Yesterday on our walk, Maddie pointed out a lot of things simply because she looks. I fear looking....

6) I take all these wonderful pictures of my family over the years, and never print any of them out. Ever. Sad....

7) I can't stand tomatoes. But, I love salsa & spaghetti sauce!

8) Speaking of food -- I don't really like to cook, but I'm told I'm really good at it! It's not my favorite thing to do, but if my family has to eat, then I guess I have to cook == so might as well be good at it!

9) This next one is a no brainer... I love Target. Just walking in the doors of this store makes me happy.

10) I've been stopped multiple times for speeding in my life == but I have never gotten a speeding ticket -- just warnings. BUT!!... I did get a ticket for getting in an accident! However, in my defense, I will say that rain and an oil patch was involved as well.....

11) I love all those Storage shows on cable. Storage Wars, Storage Hunters.... makes me want to go bid on someone's storage unit to see what I can find! Pawn shop shows are addictive to me as well!

12) I could eat pineapple all day long. Even if it gave me sores in my mouth from eating them all day -- they are the best fruit on earth, I think.

13) Lemonberry slush at Sonic's is one of my favorite slushes of all time. Yummmm! Hello Happy Hour!

14) My favorite ice cream of all time is chocolate ice cream w/ peanut butter in it. Anything with those two ingredients is my favorite: Reese's PB Cups (swoon!)....

15) I had meningitis when I was 3 years old. I have a 70% hearing loss in my left ear, and used to have a 90% loss in my right ear == but now it's probably down to nothing in that ear. Because of my hearing impairment, I have an accent. I get asked all the time "Are you from Boston? New York? England?" ... just last year, I had someone asked if I was from Australia. Ha ha ha! Sometimes... I go along w/ the fun and just reply "yes!!" Why not? Makes life more interesting!!

Building a mother in laws quarters part 5

2011-07-07T13:19:00.001-05:00

Mike went up a few times in June and got some more work done. I have yet to blog about it -- but on one of the trips up there, he dug a big hole and placed a 1000 gallon septic tank in the ground.

During that same weekend, Mike rolled his ankle pretty badly -- so was limited in what he could do (putting on the roof was out of the question). So, he found a local roofer who did it very reasonably, and we now have a roof! (probably cheaper to have someone else do it than pay the cost of medical expenses if he falls off the roof -- which his luck hasn't been all that great the last few times going up there.. falling down the stairs, rolling his ankle... ugh!).

We also were waiting very ~~not~~ patiently for the water to be hooked up to our lot. We had to pay big mucho $$ for it to be bored (is that the right word?) under the road and hooked up to our lot. But, we have water now!!!

This last 4th of July weekend we went back up on Thursday night and left Monday night, so he was able to get some work in (hobbling some on a sore and still swollen ankle). We (and yes, I did help this time!!) applied Tyvek to the outside of the house. Tyvek keeps the moisture off of the wood, and is a barrier between the siding that we will eventually place on the cabin and the sheathing (plywood). Once we got the Tyvek on, Mike placed the two windows and doors in the house. (for the record, I had to have Mike spell out Tyvek... what an odd word)

Now, I can't remember for the life of me the next process that needs to be done, but I know it starts with an S .... but we still have to close off the area between the roof and the wall. SO, to keep the cool air inside, Mike added insulation in those areas so the cool air will stay inside for the time being.

Since it was in the 100+ degree weather, he placed a temporary window unit to start cooling the cabin down, at least until we can get the bigger unit in (which we did that next night..).

Mike's aunt & uncle & their 6 kids came to play during that time -- and his uncle helped him with putting the toilet in as well as the hotel type of air conditioner in the wall -- two sets of hands are faster than one set of hands!.

Excuse the really bad unfocused pictures.... Mike had to wrap Tyvek around the bathroom so we can do our business in private... and I didn't have much room to take a picture. PLUS, I was on manual -- which tells you I'm still not 100% there yet!

But! We have a TOILET!!! ::cue Hallelujah chorus::

Stay tuned for more pictures of our adventures w/ the other Nelson clan that weekend...

We are alive!... just relaxing....

2011-07-06T16:56:00.000-05:00

We have been gone to the property (pictures to come soon!) ... Katie is gone to YW Girls Camp for the week.. and Maddie & I are just chilling and relaxing, like Smokey is in the picture. :) Will be back to blogging in the next day or so! Stay tuned!........

The 7th anniversary of my 29th birthday!

2011-06-25T20:57:00.000-05:00

Ahhh... it was a great birthday!

I went to work, and a coworker brought me a HUGE cinnamon roll from the bakery across the street (I'm talking the size of a dinner plate). I promptly shared it w/ another friend! Another friend brought me a huge chocolate gourmet cupcake plus a bag full of chocolate candies that are a few of my favorites! Another friend made brownies (my favorite!) to share w/ the entire group at work!

My dear friend Liza bought me a huge balloon bouquet -- my first ever! Who would've thought that I'd get giddy over balloons?! I did!!

Liza & I are slowly discovering Vera Bradley -- and she bought me the newest lunchbox! LOVE it!! Can't wait to take my lunch next week!

My dear friend Leisa has been making these delicious four layer cakes for years -- and I absolutely LOVE her cakes. This is the 3rd year she's made me a cake for my birthday! Love this woman!

Maddie wrote me a very cute letter -- can you read it? Isn't it cute?

Katie ... this is funny.... Katie found me a gift on Amazon. She said "I'm going to buy it". I thought "whatever... she's not going to get far". Well, she texts me at work and says "I found your gift on Amazon, and I'm going to order it." I didn't respond. Then, a few minutes later she texts again "Wait! How am I supposed to order this? I don't have a credit card!!" So, I asked her what it was (to make sure it was worth spending money on in the first place for shipping) -- and when she forwarded me the link, I totally agreed with her choice. I love Willow Tree!! I have the nativity set and 3 other figurines. I've given my girls Willow Tree figurines as well. We love them! However, I told her that we needed to check out the local stores first, b/c they would be the same price without shipping. That night, we found the one she wanted to give me, and I LOVE IT!!

When Vera Bradley was having a sale a few weeks ago on bags for $17.99 -- I snatched one (or two) up. I guess this is my birthday gift to myself? I dunno... but my mom wanted to see what it looks like. So, here ya go Mom! Katie is using the other one, and she's babysitting right now and has it with her...

Since Mike was out of town, I celebrated my birthday by going to the movies w/ Liza and our girls -- then a quick trip to Longhorn Cafe for some yummy burgers and a final trip of the night to my happy place! Target! It was overall a wonderful day! I'm so blessed with so many wonderful friends!

Sidenote:

These two pictures of a quilt... I found at a garage sale today for $5.00 ... I was thinking of using them for photo shoots for families sitting on a blanket. It is unbelievably soft -- good deal? Is it cute enough for a photo shoot?

The funny moments in my life

2011-06-25T19:53:00.000-05:00

Lately we've had a string of funny moments that occur.. and I HAVE to document them! Unfortunately, I run this in my head when I'm driving of things I need to blog about, and since I added another year to my age yesterday, I'm blanking on all of them but one...

My girls have an adopted Mom whose name is Katie. Katie is awesome. Katie is an amazing baker ... sewing gal ... and has swooped by to get my girls when they are on break and I have to work. She has baking days for them, and this summer she's been picking them up weekly for a trip to Sea World to go swimming.

Well, Katie has two little girls. They have a special kind of "robe" that is terry and is basically a swimming suit cover up. From what I gather from Madison, it looks like a bathrobe. One day when my Katie was at volleyball camp, Maddie went to Sea World with Katie. When I arrived after work to pick her up, she had her heavy flannel bathrobe on. I go "what the crap? Why do you have your bathrobe?" Well, putting two and two together, she thought Katie's girls robe were bathrobes, so she takes her heavy bathrobe to Sea World instead of her towel. Katie thought "man, she must be hot in that thing!"

Maddie admitted that she was dying of heat .. and sweating like a pig! Thankfully, a friend had an extra terry "robe" that is a swimsuit cover up, so we're ready for the next Sea World excursion!!!

While we're on the subject of Madison, last week I had a conversation with her in the car.

I asked her the names of the roads we were on -- the names & phone numbers, addresses, etc of her family. Then, I went into "what is your grandma's name?" My mom's name is Debbie. I asked her "what is her maiden name?" She said "Deb" -- I said "no, a maiden name is the name a woman has before she is married." She said "oh, uh... Debbie." So, I gave her the answer. By the time we got to MY grandma's name (which is Polly) -- she worked hard to figure out what Grandma Polly's maiden name was.

Her answer? "uh....Polly Wanna Cracker?" oh, I love my Maddie!

More funnies to come when I remember them... (trying not to show my age!)

introducing ....Photos by Amy Nelson

2011-06-23T17:34:00.000-05:00

I'm so ecstatic...

I have a photography website!!

EEKS!! I'm officially stepping out?! Maybe? So nervous!!

My dear friend Becky (who I grew up with as a teenager ... and have to admit that I thought for sure was going to marry my brother one day) designs websites. Well, she designed mine! She said "tell me what you want!" I had no clue. So, I passed a few photography websites to her, and said "just give me anything! I'll be happy with anything!" I gave her the colors I wanted (let me tell you, I probably drove her batty b/c I said "I like yellow.... maybe yellow and red? No..yellow and blue? Yellow and grey? Nah.... let me get back to you, but I want yellow."

Then I realized I have a book and I ADORE the colors used on the book cover. It just meshed so wonderfully!

(taken from Amazon)

So, I forwarded the picture of the book to Becky, and away she went.

Then came the hard part of finding a domain name that wasn't taken. I thought of something like cutesy like "Chocolate Daisy" -- but I really wanted to stamp my name on the photos I took. All my first picks were taken ... Prudential owned my own NAME -- WHY?!! What do they need it for?! But, I decided to keep it simple -- it's not "portraits" b/c frankly, I'm still learning and to me, portraits is a word that describes the really really expensive photography that I just am not into yet. I prefer casual ... and fun.

So ...after buying the domain, and after a few minor tweaks .... she showed me my website, and I was in LOVE!!

Becky is heading out on the road to web designing ... she's been doing this since 2004, but has recently decided to start offering her services!! If you're interested in having a website created, or anything else, check out her website Little Sis Web Design -- it's FULL of options -- want to create just a family website for your family? She can do it! Need something from scratch but don't know what to do? Becky can do it! (Heck, I didn't really know what I wanted -- but since she knew me and remembered how I am, she totally designed it in a way that truly resembles ME!!!).

Check out our websites!! What do you think?!

tell your sister you're sorry...

Photoshoot time!

The birthday girls day ....

From 4 to 14...

Mom's Rules... getting kids to make their bed

7 layer bars ... heavenly!!

Katie + Vintage clothes = so cool!!

skulls ... or pandas?

The evolution of tattling

I can do hard things....

gone fishin'....

Building a cabin ... part 8

Christmas Memories 2011

I was .... kissed by a whale!

making mistletoe cookies!

FIRE ANTS!!!

January Menu

SUNDAY

MONDAY

Bed (and bad habits) rituals...

What I've been doing.....

Saving cookie dough one bite at a time!

just playing around with my camera....

Making a village....

Maddie 'n the Nutcracker

We have a basketball player!!

Building a cabin... part 7

The Thanksgiving Finale post

Hartstrings... where the cool kids are dressed

Thanksgiving week ... Papa Rod & Grandma Debbie come!

Thanksgiving week ... Day 3 - 5

Thanksgiving week ... Day 2

Our Thanksgiving Vacation to the Cabin ... part 1

One year later

It's a double digit birthday!

Leatherneck BBQ rocks...

Mexican Foods I can't live without

It's a Rock Star Party!

the nerd and the vampire

funny picture about siblings...

Mama 'n Me Journals

I heart Bobby Sherman ....

Building a Cabin .. part 6

Mike's ... uh ... Katie's pinewood derby car

cooking with teenagers

The Green Monster Smoothie attacks!!

Katie ... volleyball....

talk like a pirate night

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!!!

Giveaway! Betty Crocker Molasses Cookie Giveaway

sharks, dorkfish, and a killer whale

What happens when I try to imitate crafty people?

New Favorites to share!!!

Studying stinks....

Coconut Lime Banana Zucchini Bread

Swimming and summertime fun

The winner is.......

San Antonio's Market Square

This little piggy ...

Sock Bun curls with Maddie!

Happy First Day of School!!

Cheesecloth! How to dye cheesecloth

She's having a .... baby!

Totino's Giveaway!

The finale of our trip!

What is Independence like?

Pioneer Day & other fun things

Family Fun at the water park

"The Castle" + Presley + Layla

Deanna Rose Farmstead

Moseying around with Papa Rod....

Park time!

Park time with family

Leaving on a Jet Plane.....

the iron king.... the iron daughter... the iron queen.... TEAM ASH!!!

Girls Camp 2011

4th of July Bash part 4 -- THE END!

4th of July Bash part 3

4th of July Bash part 2

4th of July Bash part 1