weighed down

It's been a long time since I blogged....again. I guess the blogging world has lost some of it's excitement for me. I'm trying decide if it's something I should put my mind to fixing or just let it be.
Here are some random pieces of our life:

We went to Oklahoma to visit GG's brother for Easter. We had enjoyable time with family. Our niece got baptized-which was a very lovely event. We went swimming with the family at the hotel pool. Boo was very leery of the swimming pool and didn't even want to change into her swimsuit. So she and I sat and watched them until finally she decided it was time. I'll have to wait for some pictures from Nonna (gg's mom). She was super cute on her little boat thing. She picked up on how to move all over the pool in it in no time. I also got my first foot zone from his sister in law. It was an intriguing experience to learn how your feet tell what is going on in the rest of your body. I'd recommend it.

Here's a picture of her finding her basket that the Easter Bunny and helpers filled so generously.  She loves it!

I feel like I've had a bad month, or two or three, where my filter has not been working well and I spurt out things that come off sounding offensive or just wrong.  Does anyone else feel that way? Or is it just me. I really have been struggling lately and its driving me crazy. Maybe I don't get out enough.

I've decided that I need an adjustment with my attitude with money. I'm not sure how to go about that but I've got to stop feeling so offended and robbed everytime I get a bill. I'm just tired of giving people my money when I didn't plan on giving it to them. Pretty much our tax return went to a crown for me...I wish it was the tiarra kind but no, tubes for boo's ears, brakes for our van, and other medical expenses. I'm praying for a much more relaxed year but then again, we are almost at our max out of pocket for the year and its only April-so we could get some free work. :) jk. I'd really rather not.  I need to just stop being bitter and realize the blessings that we have.

The other thing that has been in my mind lately-which incidently is probably one of those things that have come out wrong-has been when friends are talking about children. I am impressed by their ability to handle more than one child yet the very idea of having two children in my care around the clock stresses me out.  I want another child, I really do, but it terrifies me. Some of you know that in January we had our second miscarriage. Like probably almost all women who have miscarriages we don't know why but I'm trusting the Lord that this is not the right timing for us. And that it just might be more than I can handle right now. But I realize I need to stop saying out loud how difficult it seems and start being more positive and figure out how I can learn to manage 2 children all day, everyday. I really do love being a mom. I love Boo and I can't wait to love another little baby.

SOoooo this was a LOT longer than anticipated...just spilled my brains here. It appears I have been a stressed out, weighed down bummer lately. goodness. Hopefully by putting all this out there, clearing the brain waves it will open up the window to more blogging. ...maybe. No promises. 

Here are a few pictures of Boo. She likes to wear our shoes- in this one she's wearing one of my (grandma-looking work shoes) and GG's shoes.

Have a good one friends.

Cat Hat

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss! Boo loves Cat in the Hat, or Cat Hat as she says it.

We went to the library to see Cat in the Hat this week but Boo was too afraid to say hi. In fact, when we got there she ran behind a small book shelf and looked over it to see him. She apparently need to have some kind of barrier.  She liked watching him but she did NOT want to meet him.

We had a small play date with a few friends today to celebrate it. They were all so cute in their hats.

 

Today is gone. Today was fun.

Tomorrow is another one.

Every day, from here to there,

funny things everywhere.

night time creeper

Boo has been doing pretty good about sleeping in here toddler bed. But when she wakes up in the middle of the night (usually closer to when GG wakes up) she thinks she can sleep in our bed (we have let her because it's hard to explain to her to go to back to her bed when her dad is awake, so I hope by letting her lay in bed with me she'll sleep longer..because 5:00 is much too early for her or myself to be awake.).

Anyway, so when she wakes up in the middle of the night I coax her back into her bed and while I leave her in her room to hopefully fall asleep, I lay awake in my bed afraid that a little child will creep up on me and scare me half to death. It's seriously freaks me out-I noticed my heart pounding last night in anticipation of being crept up upon. It's feels like when you hear a sound in the middle of the night, and you hold your breath to see if you can hear footsteps approaching you. ahhhh. I know my child shouldn't freak me out like that but it does. And the thing I'm more scared of is scaring her by my reaction to her sudden appearance staring at me.  I have no idea how my mom made it through. I know I stood by her bedside more than I can count whispering, "mom", "Mom", MOm", "MOM".  Now, times that by 12 kids doing to that to her over the years. No wonder she never could get a restful night. 

Is anyone else like this? Or am I totally pathetic for curling up to my sleeping husband for protection from my daughter?

We're alive-no worries!

So I guess it's been awhile. And for those of you wondering we are all still alive. :) January was not one of our favorite months and we are glad that is behind us and that we only have a few months left before it's spring. Just thinking about spring makes my heart smile a bit. 

Part of the reason I haven't blogged in awhile was that I just wasn't sure that we had anything blog worthy. Boo got tubes in her ears-I don't think I really notice a difference but maybe that is because she is getting her two year old molars in (just noticed them tonight-that could explain some of the crankiness.)

Boo has been a bit of a handful lately. She is becoming very independent and everything is "boo's turn" and she says this as she takes both of her hands and points to herself-over and over again. It's a bit exhausting. She was in a bit of a biting phase but she hasn't done it since Christmas. Bedtime and naptime is a gamble whether she is going to fight or just go with  it. And when she fights, she fights. She climbs out of crib screaming and crying and then bangs on the door (I'm sure our neighbors love us). 

Since the crib is not "containing" her anymore and I'm worried that she'll hurt herself diving into the crib and/or tumbling out, we're transitioning to the toddler bed tonight.....I'm crossing my fingers for a smooth transition.

GG is busy, busy, busy. It's been busy at school, church and he's doing a practicum for his masters. After this practicum he has one more class and he's done!

Valentine's was wonderful. Last weekend, GG (love) and I went out (love) with my family (love) for dinner at Olive Garden (love) and then went to our church dance (love). The next morning we had a family "I Love You" party (a family tradtion that I love).  If you couldn't tell, I LOVED it! It was perfect. 

(This is not an actual picture from the valentine's date but just us from one of our other dates since I didn't think to take a picture of us looking good for the dance). ;)
On Valentine's day Boo woke up early -usually this means that it would be a rough day- but she came and laid in the bed with me. I stroked her cheek and every once in awhile she would lean over and give me a kiss (unsolicited) and stroke my cheek back. So wonderful. I LOVE this girl so much.

We had a really nice week weather-wise in the middle of January. Here she is soaking up the sun on the deck like an old person on a rocking chair watching the cars go

This is my crazy beautiful girl! This is the outfit she insisted on- TWO skirts, a dress, a sweater and SKATES! :) 

Sorry this was long-but I'll try and not be a stranger again.

2012

Doesn't this cake look fabulous for celebrating the New Year? 

 Ok, well, maybe not "look" fabulous but it tasted fabulous. (I'm still working on the "pretty" part of cake making). This is an Andes Mint Cake  from Bird on A Cake. I found the link from Pinterest.

With the New Year we have 1:00 church. By 4:30 Boo zonked out on the couch. She has never fallen asleep like that. Poor thing. I had to wake her up by 6:00 so she would be able to go to bed at a decent hour.

 Here are a a couple other pictures:

Before Christmas, I watched a girl from church- I decided to make sugar cookies with them.  They did remarkably well. There was potential for flour everywhere but they kept it to the table and chairs. They even decorated them...well Boo didn't do much decorating-just eating. :)

Aren't they cuties? She's the sweetest little girl. She's always trying to make Boo smile or help her out.


Boo lined up her cars in a row. I wasn't paying attention, and then she came up to me and said "choo Choo". Grandpa would be proud. :)

Happy New Year Friends!

Our Christmas Celebration

We made it through Christmas! I don't know what it was this year but I just wanted to get through it. My body was telling me I was overly anxious and stressed. I wasn't sure why but apparently it was Christmas because by dinner time on Christmas all the tension in my body finally went away.  It didn't help that on Christmas eve Boo thought she should be awake from 1ish to 4 ish in the morning. That made me super stressed about making it through Christmas day...when I knew a nap wasn't going to really fit in the picture that day. Anyway, it turned out to be a lovely day. 

Here's how we celebrated:

Christmas Eve we had fondue for dinner. And then afterwards we did a Christmas Minute to Win It game.

Jingle Box..they had to shake all the jingle bells out of the box.

 Holiday Kiss- Had to hang the ornament on a string

 Reindeer Nose Dive- had to get the red pom pom to stick to your nose with vaseline.

 Nutstacker..Boo trying to do it after GG and I did it. I won. :)

For Christmas my sister got a crazy idea to do a 12 days of Christmas dinner. That means 12 items that some how correlated with the 12 days. That is A LOT of FOOD. Thankfully, we started around 2:00 with 12 chicken wings drumsticks (?) (12 drummers drumming) and worked our way through the day and ended with a Pear Tart (partridge in a pear tree) around 8:00.  It turned out more lovely than I anticipated. Somethings really didn't relate...some how we ended up with Shirley Temples for 10 Lords a Leaping (????).   But it was a lovely 5 course dinner with some yummy foods- Butternut squash soup, who knew it would be so good? In love.

We are looking forward to another week and a half of just relaxing...and hopefully getting some exercising in after all that eating we've been doing! We hope you all had a lovely Christmas. Ours was wonderful but I'm thankful it's over too.  ahh sigh.

Passing time

I feel like its been awhile since I've posted.  Just haven't been sure if I've had anything worth blogging about. Thanksgiving was wonderful. It is one of my favorite holidays. I think Christmas will become one of my favorites now that Boo is barely learning that there is such a thing as Christmas. I think next year she'll understand it and maybe remember what's coming and get excited about it.

We have a wooden advent calender we bought from Target a few years back. It has little doors for the 25 days and on top is a wooden nativity scene. We have it up on top of our entertainment center. We get it down so that she can find the candy. After I put it back up one day she said, "Baby Jesus! Baby Jesus!!" I love that she was asking for Baby Jesus for something she wanted...granted it was candy.

I think I should share some recipes that I've made recently.

Taco Salad-My mother in law introduced it to me when we visited this last summer. One of my friends shared  her recipe for Taco salad but it called for Thousand Island dressings and it reminded me of the salad my mother in law made with Catalina dressing. Its soo good and easy. Well, really its just throwing stuff together, I really don't remember what the actual recipe said.

Lettuce
Ground meat browned and seasoned with Taco Seasoning (I did a little less than a packet for a approximately 1 pound of hamburger)
Can of Kidney Beans
Tomatoes, cut.
Fritos
almost 1/2 a bottle of catalina dressing
probably could throw in some cheese too, maybe even top it with sour cream. maybe.

Mix it all together in a bowl.


Another Recipe I received from a friend from our recipe group was for Chicken Milan. We made this Sunday night and we really enjoyed it. The chicken was fantastic. I was a little weary since there wasn't a sauce for the noodles but they had spices. I was delighted with the results. If you like Olive Garden like foods, I think you'll like this one.

Chicken Milan

Prep/total time: 20 mins

8 ounces uncooked linguine

1 tablespoon minced garlic

3 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1/2 teaspoon dried parsley flakes

1/2 teaspoon pepper, divided

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

1-1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips

Cook linguine according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, sauté garlic in 1 tablespoon oil for 1 minute or until tender; stir in parsley and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Remove to a small bowl and set aside.

In a shallow bowl, combine the flour, basil, salt and remaining pepper. In another shallow bowl, whisk the eggs. Dredge chicken strips in flour mixture, then dip in eggs.

In the same skillet, cook chicken in remaining oil over medium-high heat for 8-10 minutes or until no longer pink. Drain linguine and place on a serving platter. Pour reserved garlic mixture over linguine and toss to coat; top with chicken. Yield: 6 servings.

Enjoy friends.