Our Crazy life!

14 weeks

2012-01-27T19:09:00.001-08:00

I took this on the rug in Alyssa's bedroom. My friend Jaime made this darling bow, a friend of my mother in laws supplied the adorable outfit, and I produced the adorable baby...with a little help from my husband :)

New Years tradition

2012-01-07T07:56:00.000-08:00

My husband actually started this tradition last year but everyone liked it so much that it's going to be a New Year's tradition keeper in our household. Last year at our New Year's Eve party Jamey had everyone write down something they wanted to work on about themselves in the New Year on a piece of paper and then throw it in the fire. I can't remember his rationale behind this but the kids loved it, so we did it again this year with our family. Here are our resolutions. I did Amelia's for her this year.

And there they go....
Maybe it'll help us achieve our goals :) Happy New Year everyone!

Motherhood and other mothers

2012-01-03T05:46:00.000-08:00

This is sort of a rant and it isn't directed at anyone before anyone calls me about it, it's a general frustrated rant. Being a mother is hard work. It's equally rewarding and exhausting. It's hard enough by itself without getting criticism from other mother's about how "wrong" you are doing everything. (People fail to notice what all you do right) I get frustrated at times when I get criticized when my kiddos are having a bad day. Sitting still while you are eating out was hard when I was a kid and I don't think it's gotten any easier over the years. It's boring for a 4 year old and picking up random scraps of goodness knows what off the floor is way more amusing than listening to the grown ups talk. If you put a big pretty glass bird on the shelf it's like asking tiny little hands to take it for a test flight...and said bird might get broken. Just saying....

It's frustrating when people expect my child to be as angelic as their own little angels. My kids aren't angels. I'm not fooling myself a bit there. If you know me at all you know that I am 100% realistic about my strengths and weaknesses as a mother. I want my children to be wonderful, expressive, curious little people and sometimes they like to throw themselves in the floor and kick and scream and pound their adorable little fist. Is this embarassing? Yes it is. You looking at me like I'm a awful mom while it's going on isn't helping anything. People fail to realize that for every 1 time this horrid humiliating tantrum happens there are another 50 times that we managed to go out in public and walk quietly beside mom and be completely well behaved. It's hard, I'm doing the best I can, I love my little monsters and you telling me how you think I'm doing and what you think I ought to do different really isn't changing much. Every child is different and I'm sorry if I don't like the off hand comments about how awful my kids are. I don't expect them to be perfect and I'm extremely realistic that they aren't. They are kids. Kids are kids and some days kids aren't good. Period.

I find myself drawn to mom's who know that their children are imperfect. Children that sometimes climb furniture and color on the walls. Mom's who have found a half empty jar of their expensive lotion and find the other half smeared all over a window, or the kid. Mom's who's kids get into their makeup and make "bad boy" badges up and down their arms. These mom's help me laugh at the little things that drive me nuts and help me realize that I'm not a bad mom and that my kid isn't a bad kid, she just a kid and kids do crazy stuff. Mom's who come home from outings with their kids that feel like they got hit by a truck in the process. Those mom's are so easy to be around because you can call them when your newborn blows her diaper up all over you in the car and you have to improvise because you forgot to restock your diaper bad and laugh hysterically along with you. Who completely understand what you mean when you say that you have had a completely horrible, not so good, very bad mom day.

It's been awesome being a mother with my sister. Our girls are 2 months apart almost to the minute. We didn't plan it that way at all, it just happened. Alli and Alyssa are so much alike. I've had numerous phone calls from my sister that begin with this statement "If someone came to the door and offered to buy my child today I'd totally have sold her." I've made this same observation I don't know how many times, I never meant it (well not totally...). Amanda makes me feel so much better, and that's what parenting our children should be like. Mom's should lift each other up, not tear each other down with hurtful comments about how awful your kid is. So any mom reading this, next time you start to rip down another mom, or look on disdainfully as a child throws a big public fit remember being a mom is hard work for ALL mothers (and if you found motherhood to be so easy please lord let me know what crazy pill you are on so that I can get myself a prescription). Lift each other up. That's what all of us should do as mothers, and if you aren't doing this then maybe you just found something to work on in 2012.

End of my mothering rant. Now off to scrub crayola off the wall.....

Annual New Years Resolution post

2011-12-29T22:11:00.000-08:00

I think that the years go by too quickly now (I'm getting old. I'll insert a rant about teenagers these days later to reinforce this sentiment). Seems like I just did this and well it's been a year!!!

2011 was a wonderful, wonderful year! We welcomed another sweet girl (and our very last baby...or she better be!!!) into our family. Amelia was not in our "plan" for 2011. We never imagined that we'd ever get pregnant and we finally did. Years of practice finally paid off haha. It was truly the best surprise ever. I even have a funny story about taking my pregnancy test. She's 2 1/2 months old now and it's gone by too quickly. She full of smiles and laughs and LOVES her mama so much that she'd probably still be in my womb if she could. She's also spoiled so rotten she stinks, but I love her anyway. She looks a little like me, a little like her daddy and a lot like herself. She's beautiful....tonight she smiled at me while she was nursing and reached up and touched my face. If my heart could melt it would have.

Alyssa's grown bigger, taller, leaner and meaner. Every day is a joy, although some days are a challenge. She's halfway finished with her pre-k year and she loves school. She also loves her teacher. She constantly is having class and pretending to be her. She sounds just like her too it's hysterical. Mrs. Burroughs even agrees. She's just such a good kid. She's a awesome big sister, she's never ever jealous. I thought this would be an issues because she loves her mama as well, but it hasn't been at all. She climbs trees, sings constantly (and verybadly, bless her I don't see being a rockstar in her future...), dances all around the house and draws beautiful pictures. I love this kid. She's so much like me that some days I feel bad for my mother. She's beautiful as well and has such a big heart. We talk a lot about when she was a baby and what she's going to do when she grows up. I hope she's a hair dresser cause lord knows she does like to cut her hair. I think she's out to beat some kind of hair cutting record in her childhood. I need to hide the scissors better....

So now on to my resolutions: drum roll...ok they aren't really all that exciting.

1. I would put my usual resolution to lose weight, but since that's probably been number 1 every year for the past oh 15 years and I'm still fat I'll just skip that this year.

2. I'm going to learn something new this year. Last year I learned to can jam and veggies and all. The year before I learned to sew. Very domestic I know, but hey I'm domestic. This year I want to learn to crochet I think, but I keep it pretty vague cause I learn something new everyday. I learned to dance to the tutti ta song here recently. It was...well something. Thank goodness my only witnesses were a 4 year old and a 2 1/2 month old....If you don't know about tutti ta here's a link. Everyone should know about it...seriously it's a lot of fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF1BrP-vLpI

3. I'm going to work on my relationships. Making them stronger, weeding out the ones that bring me down, nourishing the ones that bring me up. I think we all need to occasionally work on doing this.

4. I'm going to get more organized. I currently have a organizational system that lacks a system. It needs a system.

5. I'm going to think before I speak. I have a hot temper and sometimes I say things that I don't mean. I'm going to work on my filter this year. It's never been good, it slips at the most inappropriate times sometimes.

6. I'm going to complain less. This resolution might be a hard one. I am a complainer. I'm going to work on this. It sorta goes along with 5 and my filter. Gold star to my husband for enduring almost 9 years of marital bliss :)

7. Savings. Jamey's switching to the reserves in about a year and a half and we are moving HOME. I'm very excited most days about this. He'll start his master degree and we'd love to see him graduate with no student loan debt. We managed to accomplish this with our undergraduate degrees working pretty low paying jobs so I want to do this with his masters.

8. Gasp here it comes....I'm going to spend less time on the computer. Yep I said it. I need more time to crochet, sew, can and all....hehe. I'm just on the computer too much. I fuss at my child spending to much time on the leapster and I'm always on the computer.

9. Alyssa and I read every night at bedtime, but I want us to read more together. I'm going to work on us reading more than just at bedtime. She really only likes to read right now because it prolongs the bedtime routine. I want her to enjoy reading more.

10. I'm going to "pass it on." Let's just say that I've been very lucky. I have so many people who love me and who I love and I've been very fortunate. I'm going to pass a little kindness on. Very vague I know, but passing it on should be pretty vague.

Family photos

2011-12-11T11:51:00.001-08:00

I'm probably the worse ever about having our family photos "made." I never ever get them done, I never ever get pictures of Alyssa "made" either. That being said I do take TONS and TONS of pictures of my girls. I just never take them and have them posed at the photo studio and have them done "professionally." Why? I don't like that style picture. I think that it's because I see my little munchkin as this ball full of nonstop energy and her sitting still having her photo made with cute little bows in her hair doesn't add up to the fiesty, uneven haired (she cuts it on a regular basis herself...ok I should probably figure out to stop this problem, but I just figure when she's 15 and wants to know why she has such a stupid looking hair cut from age 2 to 10 that I'll be able to let her know she was her own stylist), smiling, laughing little child that I have the true joy of watching grow everyday. Picture day at her school this year was a disaster. I attempted to send her to school in a really cute dress my mother in law made for her and to fix her hair all up. She completely refused the outfit I picked out, grabbed her rattiest (and favorite) sundress, ankle boots with the scuffed toes and looked at the bow like I asked her to smear poop in her hair, and headed out the door to school. There went my idea of a adorable photo right there.

With all that being said I like my house being filled with photos that I take of my little monsters and their doting, serious, quiet papa. The disadvantage of my desire to document every smile, and fit that happens in our lives...I drive my husband and children absolutely crazy. Currently Alyssa gets irritated anytime she sees me with the camera and I imagine that will get worse. The other disadvantage is that it's been said that I don't have any "real" pictures of the girls either. But does it get any more real than this photo?

If we went to have our pictures made they would never have gotten this picture of my husband. He would have a really stupid look on his face and wouldn't look near this happy. I'm thrilled to be a 'snapshot' photographer and I'm happy to display these snapshots of our lives in our home. Meet my newest snapshot. I'm hanging up as soon as it gets here :)

Thanksgiving goodness

2011-11-26T06:05:00.001-08:00

We celebrated our Thanksgiving on Black Friday this year. My dear husband had to work at the hospital on Thanksgiving. (Appreciate your nurses, doctors, police, fire fighters, military and anyone else who doesn't have holidays off folks!) My wonderful mother in law takes a cooking class once a month in the town we are from and we benefit from her culinary experience because she sends me all the recipes! Every month I get a packet of recipes in the mail from her class. It's usually a soup/salad/appetizer, a main course, sides, and a dessert. All of which are WONDERFUL. I keep trying to take a class with her when I'm home visiting but it just never works out for one reason or another. Anyway this year she sent us the recipe for Beef Wellington knowing that we'd be doing something extra special for Thanksgiving. They were beyond good seriously....anywho here's some recipes and some pictures for your dining pleasure and such!

Grilled Caesar salad

Sounds weird huh? I thought so too, but I saw the Neely's make this on the food network and thought it'd be something different to try. It was pretty darn good and here's the link to the recipe. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/neelys/grilled-caesar-salad-recipe/index.html

Jamey doesn't like turkey or ham so our main course was Beef Wellingtons with mushrooms and gorgonzola cheese and a side of roasted carrots. Wonderful...melt in your mouth goodness! It has a recipe for a sauce and I didn't make it. They didn't need it either they were so good. Jamey already told me that he wants these again for Christmas when his folks come in and Alyssa ate a massive amount herself. Our 4 year old has really expensive taste. One day she'll be a really expensive date for some poor fellow.

8 -1 1/2 inch thick center cut filets mignons (about 5-6 ounces each)
8 large mushrooms (about half pound total)
2 Tbs unsalted butter
2 Tbs finely chopped shallot
2 Tbs minced garlic
1-2 large eggs, beaten(this will be wash)
2 puff pastry sheets (one package frozen puff pastry), thawed (thaw 45 mins. at room temp. on parchment paper folded, but unfold when it is easy to do so during the thawing process.
8 slices Gorgonzola cheese (about 4 oz.), cut butter pats (2 per bundle)

For sauce:
1 Tbs veal or beef demiglace
2 Tbs Madeira
1 can Campbell's Beef Consomme (reserve 1 Tbs to mix with arrowroot or use water)
1 Tbs arrowroot (or other thickening agent)

Pat filet mignons dry and season with salt and pepper, and ,if , desired Montreal Steak seasoning. In a large saute pan(nonstick), brown the meat 2 mins. on both sides and then do the sides for about 1 min. so that the entire surface is seared. Remove to a platter and cool(filets will be baked again after being wrapped in pastry). Chill filets in refrigerator, covered, until cold, about 1 hour at least.
Thinly slice mushrooms and half them again. In a skillet or saute pan, cook in butter with shallot, garlic, and salt and pepper to taste over moderate, stirring, until mushrooms are lightly browned and softened. Transfer mushroom mixture to a bowl to cool completely.. In a small bowl lightly beat egg to make an egg wash. 1 egg may be enough to coat all the pastry, but 2 may be needed.
On a lightly floured surface roll out puff pastry sheet into a 14 inch square. Trim edges to form at least a 13 inch square and cut square into four equal squares. Lay individually on lightly on lightly floured parchment paper. Repeat with the other sheet if making 8. Save trimmings to roll out if you wish to cut out decorative shapes for garnish, or plan to use another sheet for your cutouts.
Remove beef filets from the refrigerator and lightly pat with paper towels. Prepare a non-stick baking pan by lining with parchment paper, or use a pan with a non-stick rack.
Put 1-2 pats pf gorgonzola in the center of 1 square and top with 1/8 mushroom mixture. Top mushroom mixture with a filet mignon, pressing it down gently, and wrap 2 opposite corners of puff pastry over filet, overlapping them and sealing them with some of the egg wash with your finger. Then wrap remaining 2 corners of pastry over filet and seal in same manner. Seal any gaps with egg wash and press pastry around filet to enclose completely. Arrange Beef Wellington bundles, seam side down on a non-stick baking pan lined with parchment paper and place Beef bundles on rack. Make 7 more bundles.Chill 1 hour up to 1 day.
Chill remaining egg wash for brushing on pastry just before baking. Remove bundles from frig to bake. Preheat oven to 425.
Brush top and sides of each bundle with remaining egg wash and bake 20-22 minutes, pastry should be golden. Remove from oven and allow to sit 3-5 minutes, uncovered
Make sauce while bundles are baking. Bring beef consomme(minus 1 Tbs) to gentle boil. Add the demiglace, whisking to blend and dissolve. When it's dissolved, lower heat to low and the Madeira, whisking 1 minute. Then add arrowroot and whisk. Can thicken with more arrowroot. Keep warm.
Serve bundles with sauce.

I guess since this is my Thanksgiving post I'll tell you what I'm thankful for. I'm so thankful for my wonderful, kind husband (even though he wouldn't press my call bell for me when I was in labor). I'm so grateful that he loves me despite all my whining and complaining. That he loves me just how I am, including the 50 lbs I've packed on since he married me in 2003 (more to love folks, more to love!). I'm so happy to be raising two wonderful, sweet little girls with him. I'm thankful for those little girls who make every single day more exciting (including when I'm dragging them through the grocery store whilst they are kicking and screaming and crying for candy). I'm thankful for their sloppy kisses and super tight hugs and beautiful smiles. I'm thankful for my family. Parents who love me and are always there for me and who helped shape me into the wonderfulness that you see before you today :) and siblings who grew up to be my best friends. A sister who I talk to at least twice a day everyday on the phone and who is truly my very best friend. Brother's who always make me laugh. I'm thankful for all my many friends all over the country and my friends who are "home grown" Thankful for the love and the support they always show our family. I'm thankful for my furry critters who drive me crazy with the cat hair and the yapping but who we adore! I'm just so thankful for all the many, many things in my life!

Happiness

2011-10-21T19:44:00.001-07:00

Ever have a moment where you look at your life and think to yourself I'm really truly happy in this moment?

This would be one of those moments.....

Somethings just don't work out like we plan....

2011-10-12T17:46:00.001-07:00

Such as our attempt at a family picture today.....3 of us are in it and it looks pretty good.....
And well....here was our 4 year olds response to participating in the photo...

Yep that pretty much says what she thinks about that....I'm actually so amused by this photo that I might frame it! It's HYSTERICAL!!!

Here at last!

2011-10-11T15:29:00.001-07:00

We are so happy to announce that on October 7th at 8:45 am, Miss Amelia Belle made her debut into the world! She was 7 lbs 7 ounces and 20 inches long. We had a schedule induction for October 13th, but life had other plans for us and we ended up being induced early because I developed severe preeclamsia and my placenta started to abrupt. My husband jokes that all the OB stuff we promptly forgot after nursing school came back during my delivery. We are very, very lucky that the delivery went as smoothly as it did. As much as I have hated my prenatal care, the military hospital did a wonderful job in the delivery/postpartum area. My nurses were incredible. I can't say enough good about them, particularly Kate and LaShonda. Amelia had a hard time with her blood sugars after birth due to my gestational diabetes and there were several mentions of her going to the NICU for a stay to regulate her with IV medication. LaShonda worked so hard to help me get her sugars stable until she started regulating herself and I'm so very grateful for her help, hard work, patience and support as this new mama cried and cried while trying to force feed her hours old new baby.

My husband is a calm, cool and collected fellow and he was awesome during my hospital stay. He was also hysterical. He tried to give me a phone call while I was pushing....Captain Inappropriate?? He says he was joking but I don't know about that...He gave me a good story to tell though for years to come. He has been a super proud papa and he went up to work today and handed out "It's a Girl" cigars. He loves his girls that's for sure.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the last few days. Pictures of me are absent because I look like I got hit by a truck!!! I didn't get that many pictures at the hospital but I wasn't quite up to it for a while!

Grand entrance:
This was Alyssa's first meeting with her baby sister. She was so excited!!!
How sweet is this? This is my new favorite picture.
And how happy is that little face???
It's been fun being home! Alyssa played school with Amelia yesterday and she put her in her class. She fits right in huh?? I think that this is so adorable!!!
And this is a good picture of Amelia. She's just so precious. We can't decide if she looks like me or Jamey but she's beautiful! I feel so super blessed to have her here happy, healthy and whole AND I'm so glad that I'm no longer pregnant!!!

A room fit for a Big Sister and a LIttle Sister!

2011-10-03T11:59:00.000-07:00

It was really important to me to redo Alyssa's room while I was making the bedding for the nursery. I didn't want to make my Big Girl feel left out that mama was busy doing stuff for the baby and not her. It was a lot of work doing both rooms and at times I felt like I was a little nuts for deciding to take both on, but I'm glad I did. I get a lot of pride looking at both girls rooms and knowing that I put all that work into making their little spaces in our home their very own. Here is my sweet Peanut Butter's "Big Sister" room done up in her favorite color PINK! I got her quilt back last week from the long arm quilter and I finished binding it this morning. My friend Benita painted the letters for both Alyssa and Amelia's rooms, and she did such a fantastic job! I still need to finish up the pillow sham for Alyssa's bed, but since Amelia is putting in an appearance any day now I don't think that I am going to get it finished quite yet. It'll just have to be on my project to do list. She has pretty pink curtains and a fluffy new rug and she thinks her room is "really amazing."
This is Amelia's "Little Sister" room. I think it looks pretty good as well. My husband thinks it's funny that we have one room that is so very Pink and the other is so Blue! I like blue and so I figured it's my one and only chance to have a pretty blue nursery. Everyone thought it would look like a boys room, but I don't think that it does. I'm just looking forward to getting my new little girl in her room and us all settling into a family of 4! I makes my heart so happy to be able to do this for my girls! I hope one day I can do it for their girls (or boys! I'd be ok with grandboys as well!)

My girl's quilts

2011-09-29T05:48:00.000-07:00

Almost finished! I just need to finish binding them and they will be ready to grace my lovely little ladies beds! I pieced the tops but both were quilted for me. Amelia's quilt was quilted by one of my mother in laws coworkers. She did such an amazing job! She is going to add Amelia's name and date of birth when she arrives! I'm pretty proud of how both quilts turned out and I hope the girls cherish them for years and years to come!

This is Alyssa's pinwheel quilt. I used a local long arm quilter to quilt hers. She did a great job! I just need to finish attaching my binding. Alyssa LOVES her quilt. She says that it's "super cozy" and she loves that it's super pink!

And this is Miss Amelia's. My mother in laws coworker offered to quilt it for me and she out did herself on it! It came in the mail just yesterday! I need to cut it down/trim it up and attach the binding to it as well. I'm just so happy with how it turned out. She put bunnies in the border and she is going to get it back after Amelia arrives and put her name and date of birth in the top border. I can't wait to get it finished up, but I'm not sure if it will happen before she gets here since I'm being induced on the 13th!

DIY "Udder Cover"

2011-09-22T10:15:00.000-07:00

I actually made this for my incredibly beautiful, wonderfully pregnant life long friend, Clarissa (but now I want to make one for myself as well!). I found a online tutorial and tried it out. This was my first attempt and I am super pleased with the result. Hopefully Clarissa will be as well! Here's the tutorial that I used to make my own homemade "Udder Cover." It's much cheaper to make your own and I actually like this one better because it's a little longer and wider than the name brand version that cost a lot more.

http://blisstree.com/live/free-pattern-to-sew-your-own-nursing-cover/?utm_source=blisstree&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=b5hubs_migration

Dancing in the rain and other household happenings

2011-09-18T05:12:00.000-07:00

The last couple of days it has actually rained here! This is exciting since we have been (and still are) on water restrictions for months now. My child LOVES to play in the rain. I always let her and join her a lot of the time as long as it's not lightening out. I might be slightly nutty and run around in the rain with my 4 year old, but I'm safe and she knows if it's lightening out in the house we go! She was so excited that it was raining Friday afternoon that she immediately darted out and started spinning around in it. I didn't get any awesome pictures like I had dreamed up in my mind but I was trying to keep the camera from getting soaked! One of the many reasons I so love being a mom is moments like these. Those gentle reminders that life's greatest joys are completely uncomplicated and don't cost a thing. I hope one day when she's grown she'll remember playing in the rain with mama and allow her kids the same simple pleasures.

She looks like a drowned rat here!
And in other happenings we had a kitten "find" us. Said kitten was hiding under my car Friday morning when we headed out to school. So far we have been unsuccessful and finding his home or finding him a new permanent home. With our current menagerie of critters we do not want to keep this little guy so we just have to keep working on it. (I say WE, but really it's me. Alyssa and her daddy see no reason why we can't keep him) Alyssa of course is IN LOVE with the kitten. He's her constant little companion. A sweeter natured little cat I have never met. He's happy to let her do just about whatever she wants to him and still comes to her when she calls him. Our animals all have the silliest names (Freya, Guinevere and Desdemona) and with no exception Jamey and Alyssa named kitty "Orr." Pretty stupid name for a cat but oh well Desdemona is pretty stupid name for a dog. Apparently it's a shortened 'cooler' form of Oreo. I told my dear, big hearted, animal loving husband just because he named him doesn't mean he can keep him.
He is ridiculously adorable isn't he???

Making use of nap time...freezer cooking!

2011-09-13T14:33:00.001-07:00

Countdown to baby Amelia's arrival is on! She'll be making her appearance before we know it! I'm nervous, excited, emotional and a whole slew of other emotions about it! This week I think I have burst out crying at least 3 times randomly already....so weird. I still am a little in shock that we are going to be bringing home another sweet baby! It's just not something we ever thought would happen! I've also become slightly absorbed in how our house will run after she arrives! I've been setting up all our bills for automatic draft, organizing the weirdest things, and have become completely obsessed with stocking the freezer with healthy meals for post baby time. Jamey thinks I'm completely insane, but he'll be very glad when he's eating what he typically eats for dinner every night and not eating Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches or McDonalds! We had a baby before but we didn't have the 4 year old at the time, so I've been so worried about how having a infant will affect her schedule and want to make everything as streamlined as possible for her.

All that being said I love this whole freezer cooking concept!!! I follow a couple of blogs that do a lot of freezer cooking (Money Saving Mom and Once a Month Mom) and have for a while but haven't ever really tried out freezer cooking for myself. It seemed like too much work. It's been super easy! I basically double whatever I'm making and freeze 1/2. It's required very little extra work than cooking dinner nightly. I did take advantage of Alyssa's long nap today (Nap time rocks. I've so missed her napping daily!!!) to throw the above together. It took me about an hour from start to finish to get it all chopped, layered, mixed, labeled and wrapped up. I just need to load the dishwasher and wipe off the counters and I'm finished with 4 meals! I have about 2 weeks worth of meals in the freezer now and I'll add 2 of the 4 meals pictured above to the "stock" today (One is actually dinner tonight and the one is dinner on Thursday). I have a couple more meals to add and then I'm stocked up and ready for "Post Baby madness" (Well at least we will eat anyway! I'm sure the madness will happen anyway!). Jamey can't cook but he can reheat like a pro!

Here are the links to the recipes pictured above in the event you want to try it out! Both are from Once A Month Mom's blog. She has TONS of recipes and they all look pretty tasty! She also does Gluten free, vegan, and diet recipes. I found a recipe for Pumpkin Cream Cheese muffins that I would LOVE to make (and eat!!!) as well!

http://onceamonthmom.com/chicken-enchilada-lasagna/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=chicken-enchilada-lasagna

http://onceamonthmom.com/mexican-pork-and-sweet-potato-stew/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mexican-pork-and-sweet-potato-stew

Can it please be a holiday already???

2011-09-09T12:24:00.001-07:00

That's the general feel at our house this week! All week long my cute little blue eyed wonder child has begged to put up the Christmas tree or go trick or treating! PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!!! At least 20 times a day she's asked about the Christmas tree. She has a whole list of reasons that we really SHOULD go ahead and put it up (and just so everyone knows I HATE the Christmas tree. It's a big pain in my butt from the minute it goes up until I happily rip it down the day after Christmas). It's been somewhat amusing and somewhat annoying...We told her that we had to have Halloween prior to Christmas and then we moved into "Let's go trick or treating tonight???" mode. She would LOVE to make a gingerbread house. Gingerbread houses are a tradition in our home dating back to before she was born. Jamey and I have made one every Christmas since we have been married. He loves them (He's as big a kid as she is I believe)! Today I went shopping at Target while she was at school and I picked up what I hope will satisfy her desire for all things holiday, a kit to make "Spooky cupcakes." I told her dad that'd we'd make a "Haunted Gingerbread house" closer to Halloween.

The "Spooky Cupcakes" were a hit, and best yet she has friends coming over tomorrow morning for a playdate so she gets to share her creatures with her friends after lunch. The $6 I spent on the kit was totally worth it. She loved helping mix them up and then decorate them this afternoon. She also ate quite a bit of the icing and the batter and the candy pieces...so now she's pretty bright eyed and sugar infused! Here are a few picture of my little monster with her creations! She's very "Spooky" isn't she (and adorable!!!)???

Link that I found pretty good....

2011-08-29T10:40:00.000-07:00

http://totallytogetherjournal.com/the-daily-7-for-a-highly-successful-household/

Thought I would share. I'm going to try to implement some of these ideas in my own life.

Jamey's new hobby

2011-08-26T17:26:00.000-07:00

I've been encouraging Jamey to get a hobby that he enjoys. I sew, cook and quilt and love my little hobbies and I want him to have the same. He does run, read and play video games but I want him to have something that he really enjoys. So he's decided to take up beer making! I was thinking more like wood working, but hey I'm not complaining! He got a Mr. Beer kit for his birthday and tonight he and his girl mixed up the first batch of homebrew! Mr. Beer is a beginner kit so perfect for where he is now. He's already researching "what's new" though. Here are a few pictures of he and Alyssa mixing their beer up. She enjoyed helping her Daddy and he enjoyed her helping! It's a family hobby since I have to get everything ready and do clean up!!

The official "mixer"
Adding the mix
And the yeast! It'll sit up for a couple of weeks and then he'll bottle it up and it'll sit for a while longer before he can actually try it out.

Work Baby Shower

2011-08-13T06:49:00.001-07:00

My sweet coworkers hosted a baby shower for us pregnant gals at work Thursday. There are 3 of us that are due right about the same time so it was a joint shower. It was such a nice shower and we got lots of adorable things for the baby. Here are a few pictures from the shower.

This is the cake. My coworker Maria's mother in law made this. She did such a beautiful job. Mary and Vanessa are having boys and so the bottom tier had two little boys for their little guys, and the top was for my girl.

Vanessa made these ADORABLE diaper motorcycles!!! So cute!
And here's my pregnant self! Alyssa helped me open all the presents!

Growing up too quickly for mama!

2011-08-01T06:30:00.001-07:00

I can't believe how quickly my 'baby' has grown up. I now understand why my father-in-law still introduces my 36 year old husband as "My baby boy." My little sweetie is growing up too fast for her mama! She'll always be that 5 lb 6 ounce baby that I brought home from the hospital over 4 years ago no matter how big she gets. This week she transitioned from her little purple tricycle to a princess pink big girl bike. We took her to the park so she could practice riding around and she did such a good job. By the end of our trip there she was zooming all over the concrete loudly pronouncing that she was "the fastest kid eva!" Our trip around the neighborhood with the "mountains," as she referred to the few hills, wasn't quite as good. Little bit does like to be pushed and anytime she had to really work at the pedals she just asked if I'd push her up "the mountain." With a little practice she'll be zooming all over the neighborhood with her mama and papa.

Here is her posing with her new bike. She's had the helmet for a while for rides on our bikes but it matched her bike perfectly and that made her extra happy!

And this picture just cause I like it and want to share it. She's gorgeous (ok I'm biased but she is)!! We had a crocodile hunt after her bike practice. The park here is by a creek and so we ran around down there in search of the crocodiles. She kept consulting the birds in the trees about where they were hiding. It was pretty adorable, but her daddy said he thinks she's been watching too many Disney movies!

Happy 36th Birthday Daddy!

2011-07-27T11:09:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Jamey's 36th birthday yesterday! Alyssa was so proud of herself! She helped make his birthday special by helping make and ice his birthday cupcakes. My little sweetie is such a big helper in the kitchen! She did add a little extra vanilla (oops...) but they turned out very tasty regardless! He wanted chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter icing and so that's what she and I made. She put them on the cake stand and put the candles in all by herself! He said it was the best birthday present she could have given him.

I can't believe he's 36! We started dating when he was 25! Here are a couple of pictures from his birthday celebration.

She did such a good job didn't she???

All for the love of grand-gals

2011-07-14T05:36:00.000-07:00

My in-laws are great. I know I've mentioned that before but it's worth repeating. They also ADORE their grandchildren and are the best grandparents that our girls could ask for. They are so enamored of our kiddos that Pop built this play yard in their backyard for when the girls get in for a visit every year. I know they wish we were a lot closer than the 16 hours that seperates us now. It's a pretty awesome play yard. My husband is super jealous! He said he would have loved this as a kid! It has a awesome slide, 2 swings, a trapeze, a zip line and as soon as Pop finishes it it will have a rock climbing wall as well. He's been finishing it up as we have been here this past week and everyday Alyssa monitors his progress!

As you can tell the Zip line was an instant hit with the grand-gal
And this is the best picture ever!

Fun with Marky and Clarissa

2011-07-12T13:15:00.000-07:00

We got to play with Mark and Clarissa today! It was such fun and the kids had a ball swimming in the pool! Clarissa and I got to do our "belly pic." Clarissa is my oldest and dearest friend and we are having our 2nd children days apart. Our oldest are about 8 months apart. I couldn't be happier for she and her family! Here are a couple of pictures from our play date.

I'm about 26 weeks here and Clarissa is about 25. (oh how I wish I was as cute as she is!!!)
And these 2 pictures are from our "attempt" at getting a picture of the 4 of us together! They are pretty cute if not terrible fantastic! But all 4 of us managed to get in them so they will do!
And we look like poo because Clarissa and I have this TERRIBLE tendency to get pictures at the end of an event! Today was the pool so we aren't looking our hottest!

Amelia's Baby shower

2011-07-10T21:19:00.001-07:00

Today we had my baby shower for Miss Amelia! It was such a fun and super laid back shower! I so enjoyed it! My mother in law and my sister planned it, and I am so super thankful! We had it at the pool on Monte Sano. My in-laws are members there and it's beautiful! We tried to "keep it small" since it was my second baby, but it still ended up being a huge crowd. The kids got to swim briefly before it rained us out! I got lots of goodies and got to catch up with all my friends and see all their little ones! Here are a few pictures. I didn't get near enough! I meant to get pictures with several of my friends but it didn't happen!
This is my sister, Manda. She's my very closest friend. I'm so glad that I'm having another girl because she'll have a sister and I adore mine so much that I can't think of a better gift for my girls. I hope they will be as close as Manda and I are one day.
Presents :)
This is my friend Wendy. Wendy and I went to high school together and we both took a while to get pregnant. It has been wonderful being pregnant together! Our cell phones are constantly dinging with pregnancy related questions and complaints and baby belly pic comparisons! It's been so fun and I'm glad we will have Amelia and Keegan so close together! I'm looking forward to them meeting next year when we get in for a visit!
And this BEAUTIFUL pregnant gal is my friend Clarissa. Clarissa is 2 weeks older together and I have literally known and loved her since utero! Our mother's were pregnant together and Clarissa is my oldest and one of my dearest friends. She's having her second child (a little girl) about a week after I'm having mine! I feel blessed that we get to have this experience together! She makes a FAR cuter pregnant girl that I do!

And this is an adorable gaggle of girly goodness! It rained at the shower and couldn't swim so they resorted to running out in the rain and squealing! It was hysterical and adorable!!!

My sweet nephew Rylan

2011-07-10T07:51:00.001-07:00

My younger brother, Michael, and his girlfriend Brittany welcomed their first child on July 5th. We were lucky enough to be in town in time to meet little Rylan. We actually didn't plan it that way it just sort of worked out. Alyssa really enjoyed meeting her newest cousin and got to practice feeding the baby. She really enjoyed that and did such a good job! Here are a few pictures of this handsome little man! Welcome to the family Rylan!

It's hard to believe she's 4!!!

2011-06-27T06:47:00.001-07:00

I might not make it through blogging this without bursting into hysterical tears! My little sunshine girl will be 4 years old on Sunday! I have no idea where the time went because it just seems like yesterday she was a big eyed, 5 lb, 6 ounce tiny baby that we took home from the hospital. Here is her birthday blog and some of the reasons that this kid makes my life a lot more exciting than it ever was before!

1. She has an extensive bedtime routine that involves a story, 3 bedtime songs one of which is Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer (yes every single night...), a long talk about how fantastic her day was, a hug, kiss and a secret (which is ALWAYS your name and must include every single member of the household. Yappy poodle and grouchy cats are not exempt) and a reminder not to turn off the light or shut her door.

2. She has the sweetest personality of any kid that I know. She's so sweet that she doesn't even realize when other kids aren't being nice to her. (I do however and it really upsets me) She waves at EVERYONE (even the grouchy old man that lives across the street, who after about 6 months finally started waving back).

3. She likes to be held and carried. She frequently tells us that her "legs don't work" so that we will give in and carry her wherever she wants to go. Thank goodness she only weighs 30 lbs!

4. Her favorite foods are cheese, yogurt, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes and watermelon. That's pretty much all she eats too. At least it's good for her....

5. She loves animals. Her favorite animal is a horse. She ask every single day if we will take her to visit them. She also thinks her daddy's getting her a pony for her birthday (don't think that's gonna happen for her)

6. She's hysterical. She says the funniest things. I actually started writing down things that she says and does in a book because I don't want to forget them. She'll also tell all your business to everyone at the most inappropriate times....

7. She thinks her Dad is superman and she wants to be just like him. She tells me several times a day while he's at work how much she loves him. I think it's awesome that she's got such a great father figure in her life.

8. She's extremely gifted mechanically. She can take just about anything apart. (Now she can't put it back together but she can take it apart). She recently took a doorknob off the bathroom. As annoyed as I was I have to admit to being somewhat impressed she was able to do this....

9. She loves her baby sister and she hasn't even arrived yet! She's constantly telling secrets to her 'sissy' in my belly. She also giggles and looks at me while she's whispering. I'm so hopeful she'll have the same relationship with her baby sister as I do with my own.

10. Her favorite color is pink.

11. Even though her favorite color is pink she will ONLY wear blue sundresses. It's been sorta a big thing lately. I'm hoping she'll outgrow this weird phase soon because it's pretty exasperating.

12. She likes to help her mama in the kitchen. She's an expert cookie dough taster as a result!

13. She still hauls her blankie around everywhere she goes. Blankie used to be pink and white now it's sorta peach and grey. If you tell her to leave it in the car she'll insist she needs it because she's cold. Considering it's 100-110 degrees everyday right now and I'm about to die I don't know how this is possible.

14. She loves water. She loves to swim and splash in it. She also likes it pour water from one cup to another cup and make huge messes all over the house. (She's probably doing this right now while I write this...)

15. She will only take showers. Who knows why but this also isn't my favorite portion of the mama show. Mama always ends up wet after washing her up.

16. She's a bed ninja. Meaning that between the hours of 2 am and 3 am she appears in our bedroom and soundlessly climbs in our bed and goes back to sleep. My question is does she never sleep thru the night? Apparently not....

17. She hates having her hair brushed or put up. She cuts it as well so it'll stay short. This has been sort of a trying ordeal....

18. She'll start pre-K in the fall and already claims she's not going. Apparently "it's not good for her."

19. She's super artistic and loves to draw, paint, color and cut paper.

20. If I'm ignoring her when she's talking she's call me by my first name in the same exasperated tone her dad uses when I ignore him :)

That's all that I can come up with but there are about a million reasons that I love this little kiddo! Happy 4th Birthday to my little sweetie!!! May this year be just as exciting as all the others!

Announcing Miss Amelia Belle :)

2011-06-04T06:20:00.001-07:00

We are super pleased to announce that our Baby Jelly as we have been calling it is a GIRL! We had a fun little gender party for our friends here in Texas to announce the gender of our wee one! I had a cake made that had either pink or blue icing in the center. (A coworkers mother in law made the cake and it was FANTASTIC!) A bunch of our wonderful friends came out to celebrate with us.

Cut cake :)

And this is Amelia Belle! I think she's adorable even if these 3D ultrasounds are a little creepy. She cute and creepy, look just like her papa :) Alyssa was able to go to the ultrasound with us. I thought she was going to be sooooo excited. She wasn't. She just said "yep that's a baby...." and moved on to touching everything in the room and eating all their candy at the receptionist desk!
And here is her tiny tiny foot.
So now we just begin the process of actually getting ready for her arrival! It's only 4 months from now! It will be here before we know it! We have been so blessed by wonderful friends and family members who have been so incredible generous as we get ready for the baby. At times I'm just overwhelmed by our good fortune!

Tea with mama and me

2011-05-28T06:51:00.000-07:00

I know that I have posted a bunch about our tea parties, but it's such a common event here at our house and she's so darn cute that I just keep posting them! We recently graduated to using my tea cups and tea pot during tea. She loves it. She feels like such a big girl and she loves her tea time.

Finished baby quilt and new projects!

2011-05-14T07:12:00.000-07:00

I am expecting a new nephew in July this year. I made all the bedding for Rylan's crib. I was super pleased with how it turned out. I'm super slow when it comes to sewing, but I am happy with the end result. I enjoy putting the blocks together and seeing how different fabrics come together to make something really beautiful. I think that's why I love quilting so much. You can start with a pile of random scraps and it ends up being something beautiful that keeps you warm for years.

Here is Rylan's quilt. I don't know when I'll get to meet this little guy since he's all the way in Alabama and I'm in Texas, but I'm looking forward to it when the time comes!

Here is the back. Basically I just sewed together strips of leftover fabric from the front to piece the back. I like how it ended up with a reversible look.
And on to the next sewing project:

I'm redoing Alyssa's room and then I'll be making our new baby's bedding! I wanted to do Alyssa's room first so she wouldn't be too jealous that I made the baby's stuff. She long ago requested an all pink room and so I'm hard at work making her room super pink for her! Here is a pile of cut out triangles that will eventually be her pinwheel quilt. I found some really pretty pink polka dot material to use as the sashing and some hot pink to use as the binding. I'm really eager to see how this turns out! She's happy anytime she sees me working on it because she knows "It's for her PINK room!"

Up until now I have hand quilted all my quilts, but due to the limited time that I have until the baby arrives and the huge projects I decided to undertake I made the decision to have her and Baby Jelly's quilts quilted at the long arm quilter. It'll free my time up so that I can get all this done and get everything else I want to get done before we have our new little one here. (Plus it's summer and we'd rather be at the pool than quilting!!)

I bought this fabric at www.fatquartershop.com They have such beautiful selections. This particular bundle had lots of roses and since our girl is "The Rose" it seemed appropriate! I'm planning a tutorial of her quilt when it's all finished so look out for that!
Fabric makes me happy :)

Homemade Wheat Bread

2011-05-13T17:49:00.000-07:00

Pregnancy has apparently made me more domestic. Jamey and I have long been moving our family towards being more organic, and recently my canning adventures and conversations with my very green thumbed big brother and one of my aunts have caused me to really want to move up moving in that direction. We made some big changed last year, but we still have a few more to make. On that note, I'm going to start trying to make as much of our food as I can. I can avoid added coloring and preservatives in our food that way as well. If you look at the ingredients on the back of your bread bag you'd be amazed at all the unnecessary crap in it (or I was anyway). Almost all of the food we as American's consume is full of sodium and High Fructose Corn Syrup and added "coloring" and "flavor." End of mini-rant there an on to bread!

Alyssa and I tried our hands at making Whole Wheat Bread today. It was a success. It is super tasty if I say so myself. She helped with the whole process and what a wonderful helper I have! She also enjoyed helping me in the kitchen and punching down the dough. The texture is more dense than the store bought variety but the flavor is wonderful AND I know exactly what is in it!

I got the recipe from Lion House Lite Recipes cookbook. (It has some awesome recipes in it)

Whole Wheat Bread

1 package active dry yeast

3 cups lukewarm water

1/4 cup molasses

1 Tbsp light butter

1 cup white flour

6 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup oatmeal

6 Tbsp nonfat dry milk

2 tsp salt

With an electric mixer: Soften yeast in 3 cups lukewarm water in large mixing bowl. Stir in molasses and butter. Combine flours, oatmeal, dry milk, salt, add 1/4 at a time, to yeast mixture. Beating until dough forms a ball and leaves sides of bowl. Remove beaters, cover bowl and let dough rise for one hour in warm area away from drafts. Spray 2 9x5 inch loaf pans with nonstick cooking spray. Knead dough down, divide in half and shape into loaves. Place in bread pans and let rise until double in size. Bake at 400 degrees F for 30 minutes (I did mine for 23 and it was just right so it'll depend on your oven). Remove and cool on wire racks. Makes 2 loaves about 12 slices each.

Jam and Pickles with my Big Brother

2011-05-13T16:11:00.000-07:00

We were super happy that my dad and older brother, Billy, came out for a visit last week. We had a lot of fun with them. Billy is a excellent gardener and every year he has a huge garden. He always gets tons of super tasty veggies. He grows anything from corn to watermelon and everything in between. He and I have lately developed an interest in canning and we thought we'd give it a shot while he was here. We didn't grow our fruit and veggies but went to the farmers market to get them. Here are some pictures of our Strawberry Jam and our Bread and Butter Pickles and the recipes in case you want to give it a try yourself! Alyssa was our big 'helper' and she helped make and eat our goodies!

Ignore my super messy counter tops!!! Our strawberry jam turned out great but I had the bright idea to blend the strawberries (I didn't read all the way through the instructions!!) so it didn't jel up as well as it should have, but for our first try all and all we gave it an A!
Here is our little taste tester :) She's adorable isn't she? She loved sampling the Jam! Kid tested, mama approved!
And here is our finished product! Labeled appropriately as well! Both recipes are from the Ball Blue Book guide to preserving. Cost $5.95 and tons of awesome recipes for your canning and freezing pleasure!

Bread and Butter Pickles

Yield 7 pints

4 pounds 4 to 6 inch cucumbers cut into 1/4 inch slices

2 pounds onions, thinly sliced

1/3 cup canning salt

2 cups sugar

2 Tbsp mustard seed

2 tsp turmeric

2 tsp celery salt

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp peppercorns

3 cups vinegar

Combine the cucumber and onion slices in a large bowl, layering with salt. cover with ice cubes. Let stand 1 1/2 hours. Drain, rinse, drain again. Combine remaining ingredients in a large saucepan; bring to a boil. Add drained cucumbers and onions and return to a boil. Pack hot pickles and liquid into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Adjust 2 piece caps. Process 10 minutes in a boiling water canner. Allow 4-6 weeks for fresh packed pickles to develop flavor.

Strawberry Jam

Yield about 8 half pints

2 quarts strawberries

1 package powdered pectin

1/4 cup lemon juice

7 cups sugar

Wash strawberries, drain and remove stems. Crush berries one layer at a time. Combine berries, powered pectin and lemon juice in a large saucepot. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Add sugar, stirring until dissolved. Return to a roling boil. Boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim foam if necessary. Ladle hot jam into hot jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace. Adjust 2 piece caps. Process 10 minutes in a boiling water canner.

Da Bomb Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

2011-05-09T07:14:00.000-07:00

Ok that's not their real name but they are "da bomb" and whenever I find a fantastic recipe I like to pass it along.

Betsy, my mother in law, takes a cooking class every month (it is her secret guilty life pleasure) and they had these cinnamon rolls last month. They are wonderful and easy to make. I recently made these for a playdate and my friend thought I was a gourmet cook (which I'm totally not!). The dough is actually assembled in the food processor and can be made the night before. The best part...they don't even have to rise! They look complicated due to the list of ingredients but they couldn't be easier.

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Use center rack for baking.

Ingredients for the dough:

3/4 cup cottage cheses (4% milkfat or ricotta)

1/3 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup granulated sugar

4 Tbsp unsalted butter melted

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

2 cups unbleached all purpose flour, more for rolling

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking soda

Ingredients for filling

2 Tbsp unsalted butter melted (to brush on the rolled out dough with)

2 additional Tbsp melted butter to brush the tops of the rolled buns once they are in pan

2/3 cup packed dark brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp allspice

1 cup chopped toasted pecans (toasted in the microwave at 1.5 min intervals until fragrant maybe 3-4 times)

Ingredients for glaze:

Scant 2/3 cup confectioners sugar

2 Tbsp cold milk

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Directions:

Grease the sides and bottom of a 9 inch springform pan (I personally don't have one and I used just a regular circular cake pan and it worked just fine...) with baking spray.

To make the dough: In a food processor using a metal blade, combine the cottage cheese, buttermilk, sugar, melted butter and vanilla. Process until smooth about 10 seconds. Scrape down the sides. process one more time for a few seconds. Add the flour, baking power, salt and baking soda and pulse in short burst just until the dough clumps together, don't over process. The dough will be soft and moist. Scrape the dough out on a lightly floured surface and knead with floured hands 5 times until smooth. Shape into a log. With a rolling pin roll out the dough into approx 12x15 inch rectangle.

Make the filling: Brush the dough with the melted butter, leaving a 1/2 inch border unbuttered around the edges. In a medium bowl combine the brown sugar, cinnamon and allspice. Sprinkle the mixture over the buttered area of the dough and pat the surface. Sprinkle the pecans over the sugar mixture and pat again.

Starting at the long edge roll up the dough jelly roll style. Pinch the seams and leave the ends open. Cut off both ends.

With a sharp knife cut the roll into 12 equal pieces and place them in the prepared pan. Brush the tops with 2 Tbsp of melted butter before placing in the oven.

Bake until golden brown and firm to the touch 20-28 minutes. Remove from pan and set on a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes.

Glaze: Mix confectioners sugar, 2 Tsbp milk and vanilla with a whisk to make a smooth glaze. Drizzel over the rolls and let stand 5 minutes

Our little bookworm

2011-05-02T08:36:00.000-07:00

I haven't done an update on my little lady lately so here is one and some funny pictures from our recent trip. I think being a mom to this awesome little person is truly fantastic. I'm crazy about her even when she throws herself in the floor in a dramatic, loud temper tantrum. She's funny and silly and just fun! She's smart and she's sympathetic and she loves everyone she meets. She never has a bad thing to say about anyone. She loves animals and birds, but hates bugs. She likes to climb and jump and wear high heels while she does it. She loves the water and being outdoors. No temperature is too hot or cold. She somehow manages to survive solely on milk, cheese, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, yogurt and fruit. She's not big on eating anything out of those food groups including candy and cookies. She's hides everyday when her daddy comes home from work so that she can jump out and "scare" him. He is a good sport and goes along with her.

She looks up to her dad a lot. He reads pretty much constantly and she's lately started carrying around "daddy's books" and imitating him. She "reads" her books with her daddy. Here are a few cute pictures of her reading while we went on a little weekend getaway to the beach.

Wants vs needs

2011-04-13T05:24:00.000-07:00

Let me start off by saying that our family is fortunate for so many reasons. Jamey and I have always had a lot of good luck, a strong support system and pretty good heads on our shoulders. We also are in professions that luckily haven't been affected to much by the poor economy. Several years ago we made some bad financial decisions. We bought a really pretty, shiny, brand new sports car for one. It also had a lovely, very high car payment attached to the pretty little thing. It sure was fun to drive though! But practical....NO NO NO it wasn't. We also moved and started spending more money than we should on eating out at expensive places and buying stuff we just didn't need. As a result of our bad decisions for the first time in our lives we ended up with balances on our credit cards and very little savings. That was a little over 6 years ago.

Enter common sense and good team work and Jamey and I sold our pretty little sports car, bought something much more practical and made a plan to get rid of our credit card balances and restore our savings. We were lucky we just had a momentary lapse in financial good sense. We cut up all the credit cards, save one that is locked away "for emergencies only." Thus far it has been used very little in the last 6 years. We count ourselves extremely fortunate that this has been the case. We put ourselves on a budget and we have for the most part always stuck to it. I learned to use coupons and started price comparing. We do our research before we make a purchase and shop around for the best deal. We budget to save for retirement, our daughter's college education and a house when Jamey's retires. I am proud to say that today we are completely debt free. Do we drive brand new cars? No we don't. I have a 2001 model and Jamey has a 2006. Do we have super fancy furniture? No we don't, but we are saving to upgrade it a piece at a time. (But with small kids at home, upgrades are somewhat on hold due to the child destruction factor!)

One of the ways we decide what we buy is pretty simple...Do we want it? or Do we need it? That's been a big factor in the last few months. I WANT a new vehicle. I'll admit that I WANT a minivan (yes I want one!!). I just get excited thinking about all that space, built in DVD players and doors that open when I push a button...oh how wonderful would that be? The last couple of weeks with threats of military pay being postponed due to budgeting arguments in Congress we have really started to rethink our wants and needs. Me wanting a new, larger car is a want. My current vehicle, while not huge is perfectly sound mechanically and only has 100,000 miles on it. It will also continue to be in great mechanical shape for another couple of years while we continue to save for my dream minivan. So for now my want is pushed to the back burner and I'll just continue to remind myself as I stare enviously at my friends DVD players and push button doors that I don't have a car payment and that I don't NEED a new car (but I sure do want one!!!).

I can say that I'm pretty proud of us. I'm proud of the fact that Jamey and I work well as a team. We still spend more than we have too I'm sure. But we do seem to be on the same page, and never fight about money. Big purchases are always discussed with one another and we always make plans and save for the things that we want. We learned the hard way that we didn't like being in debt and we hated worrying about what to do when our cars broke down and we didn't have the money to fix them. While we can't plan for every disaster that strikes us financially we feel a lot more prepared for them than we were several years ago, and that makes us rest easier at night.

Meet Baby "Jelly"

2011-04-05T12:46:00.000-07:00

So I have been a bad blogger lately and haven't posted much! It's been a busy time here and I've spent quite a bit of time feeling sorta poorly of late.

Today was our first ultrasound of our sweet new baby! I wish that they would have let Alyssa come but they have a strict no kids policy in ultrasound so she couldn't come. She would have loved seeing the baby move around! It was really neat. I feel sorta sappy because I actually teared up when little "Jelly" started shaking those tiny little fist and waving those little hands. It was so awesome to watch the little critter move around. I love it so much already and it's just a tiny little thing (about 5 1/2 centimeters to be exact!)! It's funny because this made it "real" for all of us. Before it was just a vague idea that made me puke a lot! I'm between 13-14 weeks so that puts baby getting here sometime between Oct 11th and the 18th. So I'll have a summer baby and a fall baby!

Alyssa loves her baby brother or sister and we are so happy that she's come around to the idea! Every night she sings "Jelly" a song and 90% of the time it's Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer. She swears it's the baby's favorite song. Go figure huh? She also hugs our baby and talks to it all the time. Imparting that Big Sister wisdom early! It makes me super happy that my darling girl loves this new addition to our family. She's made me cry several times (or it's just hormones!) with her thoughtfulness. She brings toys that she wants to share with the new baby and talks about all the things she gets to help with when it arrives. Although diaper changing is hit or miss because "She'll get poop on her hands." It's such a awesome time in our home and I'm enjoying it so much (other than the morning sickness that last all day!! That I'll be happy to say goodbye too!)

Remembering Bobo....

2011-03-05T08:08:00.001-08:00

8 years ago this June my uncle Phillip (BoBo) as we all affectionately called him was shot and killed by a 15 year old while he was at work early one morning cleaning the floors at a Dollar General in Huntsville, AL on Triana Blvd. This was a pretty devastating event for our family. Phillip was a huge part of our family, events focused around him and his antics. He loved us all fiercely and we all loved him equally. Every April my family participates in a Candlelight Ceremony that is put on by the Homicide Support group in Huntsville, AL. They helped my cousins and my aunt a lot after Phillip was killed. I've attended as many as I was able to since I haven't lived at home in a number of year. It's always a really sad time for all of us. Phillip left behind two really wonderful, beautiful girls and they have grown to be beautiful young women. Some days it doesn't seem that it is real that Phillip is gone.

Recently my brother started a facebook group about Phillip for our family. It's just a little place for us to post our thoughts and pictures that we have of Phillip. A place for us to remember him and something for our cousins who were very young when we lost him. I have so many memories of Phillip. I went through some of my old pictures to post in the group and I felt really sad looking at all of them, but I also felt really happy thinking about all the fun times we had as kids with him. Some wounds never heal completely and I'm not sure that I'll ever forgive the boy that took Phillip from us, but I love my uncle and I miss him so much. I wish he could have seen my daughter, he I believe would have been very proud of the woman that I grew to be, the people all of us have grown to be, my siblings, cousins, his daughters, all of us. Here are a few pictures of this remarkable guy that taught us all about good gas humor, basketball, and about love. He taught us a lot about that.....

Phillip and Ashley (his youngest daughter)

Basketball at a BBQ. They were pretty regular weekend events at Lisa and Phillip's while we were growing up.
Me and Bobo. I think I was probably a senior in high school here.

Just a girl and her dog

2011-02-25T06:44:00.001-08:00

Alyssa and I have been walking the dog everyday lately. Desi HATES being walked. She's gotten to be about the laziest little doggie ever in the last couple of years. She is about 7 1/2 now so I guess she's slowing down. She used to run 5 miles with Jamey most everyday now she's happy to just perch up on the back of the couch and nap all day long with occasional trips to the food bowl and outside to pee. Jamey's been on night shift lately and that makes a super happy Desi. She lays about in the bed all night with me and then when Jamey gets home she gets to hop back in and snuggle all day with him. Alyssa loves walking Desi. I don't know how much exercise it is for me because a block takes us about an hour with all the stopping the examine rocks, flowers, dog poo and sticks that Alyssa does, but it's enjoyable and we all like the time outdoors. It's been really nice here lately. In the 60's and 70's for the last week or more. We have loved all the time at the park and in the yard. I took the camera along earlier this week and I got a couple of what I think are adorable pictures of her and her doggie.

Tot School--Feelings

2011-02-22T05:34:00.001-08:00

Recently I ran across a fantastic blog http://www.2teachingmommies.com/ that has lots and lots of ideas for home preschooling your tot! I've been working with Alyssa trying to get her ready for school and so this appealed to me a lot! They have units that go over a variety of different subjects. We did our first week in "Tot School" last week. We started with the Feelings unit. We really enjoyed the unit, but Alyssa is a little older at 43 months (I think the children featured in the blog are closer to 36 months) so we did have to modify it a lot. The units focus on pre-writing and Alyssa is already writing, so we substituted the prewriting for ABC writing practice. I just substituted where needed to make it fit our needs but over all I found this website to be a great resource for mom's looking for ideas to educate their little ones at home. They also have some great ideas for family nights and kid friendly recipes and that appeals to us as well! Alyssa learned a little more about sad, happy, mad and afraid and in all really enjoyed it!

Peanut Butter is gonna be a big sister!

2011-02-21T06:16:00.000-08:00

She's cute huh? I know! I'm super excited to announce that we are expecting a Baby! We just found out and are due sometime in October. We are super surprised, super happy and a little nervous all at once! Long ago I nicknamed Alyssa "Peanut Butter." It's sort of a odd nickname for a tot but I call her that all the time. She thinks it's funny, and so she and I started calling baby "Jelly." Seemed totally appropriate. Jamey's excited but very nervous! He's even doing housework. I think he's afraid I'll hurt myself!

Alyssa when I asked her to talk to the baby in mama's belly:

Eye roll.....pulls up my shirt "Uh you can't talk to the baby through your shirt" Huffs and walks off. I almost died laughing.

Last year Alyssa was being pretty difficult at school, which was unusual for her and one of her teachers asked me if we were expecting. I wasn't but she explained that there is a Mexican wives tale that when a older child is acting difficult, having unusually bad behavior or being abnormally clingly that the mother is expecting another baby. All week last week Alyssa was difficult, having accidents and crying and clinging to me anytime that I left the house, so I'd have to say that I believe this wives tale!

It's a happy day at our house! We get news of a move and a baby all in one week! Hopefully we don't get anymore news anytime soon! I am not sure we could stand it!!

Jambalaya and Bread Pudding

2011-02-19T06:11:00.000-08:00

The true mark of my advancing age is that I hate eating out now. It's expensive, the food is usually pretty mediocre and I have to hope that my 3 1/2 year old will behave long enough for us to enjoy our meal (or get a sitter which adds to the cost). Once a month or so Jamey picks out something that he wants and I cook it up. It's usually a nicer meal that requires more work than the typically daily fare and it usually packs a lot of extra calories as well. It's fun for our family. We do a variety of different stuff and Alyssa always gets to help in some capacity and Jamey enjoys the eating and the time in the kitchen with his girls. This week we had Jambalaya and Bread Pudding. It was fantastic! Here are the recipes in case you want to try it yourself! Much better than anything we would have eaten out and we have leftovers. I did half both recipes because they make a ton and we still had leftovers galore!

Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya (from Esquire Feb 2011 edition)

(We have tried several of Esquires recipes and so far have loved them all!)

1 stick plus 2 Tbsp unsalted butter

2 lbs diced and andouille or other smoked ready to eat sausage

3 cups chopped yellow onion

2 cups chopped celery

2 cups chopped green bell pepper

1 Tbsp salt

2 tsp fresh ground black pepper

1 tbsp mined garlic

4 lbs roasted chicken skin and fat discarded

1 qt chicken stock or low sodium broth

1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes

8 sprigs fresh thyme tied together with kitchen twine

2 bay leaves

3 tbsp hot sauce

1 tbsp worcestershire sauce

2 tsp ground coriander

4 cups uncle ben's original rice

1 bunch scallions chopped

Preheat oven to 450 degrees and start chopping

In a large pot (at least 8 quarts with a tight fitting lid) melt butter until foamy over medium high heat add andouille and cook stirring occasionally until lightly browned 5-10 minutes

Add onions, celery, bell peppers, salt and pepper and cook until onions are translucent 5-10 minutes add garlic and cook until fragrant

Add chicken, chicken stock, tomatoes, thyme, bay leaves, hot sauce worcestershire and coriander. Stir to combine. When liquid comes to a simmer add rice, cover and transfer pot to preheated oven. Cook until rice has adsorbed all of the liquid and is tender 30-40 minutes. Do not remove lid before 30 minutes to check quickly for doneness as you will interupt the steaming process. Remove from oven discard thyme bundle and bay leaves. Add scallions and stir to combine. Salt to taste. Serve in bowls with extra hot sauce on the side. Serves 10-12

The Best Bread Pudding (Paula Deen foodnetwork.com)

2 cups sugar

5 large eggs beaten

2 cups milk

2 tsp vanilla

3 cups italian bread cubed (allow to stale in a bowl overnight)

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup butter softened

1 cup chopped pecans

Sauce:

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter melted

1 egg beaten

2 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup brandy

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 13x9 pan. Mix together sugar, eggs, and milk in a bowl. Add vanilla. Pour over cubed bread and allow to sit for 10 minutes. In another mix and crumble brown sugar, butter, and pecans. Pour bread mixture into prepared pan and sprinkle brown sugar mixture over top. Bake 30-45 or until set. Remove from oven.

For the sauce mix sauce ingredients in saucepan and stir until sugar is melted. Pour over warm bread pudding.

Home Haircut

2011-02-18T07:25:00.001-08:00

My sweet precious one cut her hair last night. The only surprising thing about this is that she didn't do it sooner! We kept anticipating that she would at some point cut it and it finally happened! She's so hysterical! She can anticipate that she'll be in trouble and I found a massive hunk of hair and no Alyssa. She smartly hid from me to avoid getting in trouble. We took her over to the hair salon and got her hair straightened up. It's short...really short. I'm not nuts about it but it's the best you can do! Hopefully this will be the end of her career as a beautician...I don't think it's gonna be for her!

I don't know how well you can see it in this pic I took but she basically cut straight back. It goes under past her ear. My husband just laughed hysterically! Sadder still she has been asking if she can grow it out so she'll look like the princess from Tangled....it's gonna take a while...

After the "fix" It's cute cause well she's cute! But I'm not a huge fan. She looks sorta like a boy with a bowl cut...

Chicken thigh and sweet potato stew and a new quilt....

2011-02-17T05:26:00.000-08:00

Chicken and Sweet Potato Stew

6 bone in chicken thighs, trimmed of skin and fat

2 lbs sweet potatoes peeled and cut into spears

1/2 lb button mushrooms, thinly sliced

8 large shallots, peeled and halved

4 cloves garlic, peeled

1 cup dry white wine

2 tsp chopped rosemary (or 1/2 tsp dried)

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 1/2 Tbsp white wine vinegar

Toss it all in the crockpot and cook on low for 5 hours. Doesn't get any easier than that!

Nutritional information: 285 calories, 6 g fat, 35 g carbohydrates, 17 g protein, 5 g fiber, 519 mg sodium

I thought this was pretty tasty. Turned out great for something that required pretty much no work. I got boneless, skinless chicken thighs on sale not long ago so I pulled them out of the freezer and they worked super well. We choose to just ladle out the chicken and vegtables and not eat it like a stew. There is a pretty flavorful broth that could be eaten with it. Very good, very easy and right up our alley!

In other news I'm going to be an aunt (again) in July! My youngest brother and his girlfriend are expecting a baby boy! Ryland Michael will be his name. I have the honor of making the bedding for little man and so I started on the crib quilt last night. Ryland will be my first nephew and I can't wait to meet him.

My not so great, very bad mom day....

2011-02-16T13:53:00.000-08:00

Today has been quite a day...and since it's 4 pm...I'm so sad to say that it's hardly over. Ever have one of those days where you just sigh and wonder what else can go wrong? I'm a Stay at Home mom about most of the time, the the rest of the time I do work in a small hospital a few shifts a month. Occasionally I wonder if working full time would be easier...Today started off by my sweet, precious one arising at 6 am in a deplorably bad, demanding mood. I think we had "cup throwage" and crying about 5 minutes after arising. I was sick yesterday and missed my chance to grocery shop while said precious one was with her dad. So today we had to hit the grocery store, with mom not feeling quite 100% and itty bitty being well sorta less than good. Precious child of my heart was tremendously awful. Yes awful...Running circles around me, slinging stuff off the sleeves, crying, screaming...you name it she did it. Ever read "Llama Llama mad at mama?" Picture that minus the sweet patient mama at the end. 2 trips to have a "talk" in the bathroom and several disdainful looks from elderly people at the commissary later we finally left. I shop 2 weeks at a time thank the good lord above so that's over for a bit.

Precious one has spent 90% of her day today harassing the cat. Poor fat Gwen is actually too sweet and lazy to run from her harasser and just lays there and looks pitifully at us. 2 trips to the corner and another "talk" and my sweet one has finally left the kitty alone (for now...I'm on to her now....). Is it sad that I wish that Gwen would claw her good just once so she'd leave her alone? It's awful, awful of me I know....but its the same story most days with the poor cat. I think poor Gwen liked our home better when it was childless.

I have accomplished very little today. We did manage to have our tot school and a trip to the library (with minimal screaming, running or fit throwing) after grocery shopping. I do however have a mountain of laundry, something growing the in the downstairs commode that I can't identify and a den that looks like the toy box exploded. I do however not care at the moment. So here's to a better day tomorrow!!

Finally Finished--Jamey's Quilt!!

2011-02-14T12:35:00.000-08:00

In October I started my husbands "Ugly Shirt" quilt. Said quilt is exactly that, it's a quilt made out of his old ugly shirts and some old military uniforms as well. Here is the link to the original post that I did about his quilt. http://kephartangiejameylyssie.blogspot.com/2010/10/quilting-storiesjameys-story.html

I hand quilt my quilts so they take me quite a while, but I feel like the effort is worth it when I see the end result and I enjoy knowing that every stitch in the quilting process I put in myself (as irregular and as imperfect as they are). Jamey's quilt ended up being a little extra special because I did a good bit of the quilting on it while I was at the hospital in November caring for my father. It helped keep my mind and hands occupied when he didn't need me, and it gave my dad something to fuss at me about (I can't do it as well as he would you know! My grandmother was also a quilter.) Jamey is so happy that it's finally finished and I'm sort of sad that I am finished working on it! Never fear I have another quilting project about to begin....my daughters! I'm redoing her entire bedroom and I'm doing it all myself. Purchased the material yesterday and can't wait to get started cutting into it! Have I mentioned that I love quilting?

Here are a few pictures of our little princess with what could possibly be....the world's ugliest quilt!! He says within a year he thinks she'll take it over and he'd be ok with that.

I did actually go out in public with him while he wore each and every shirt on this quilt! (Military camo's with Hawaiian shirts and all!) The black and Hawaiian shirt that serves as a border on the top and bottom he actually wore on our first real date in 2000!

Braggin on my young un.....

2011-02-11T20:57:00.000-08:00

Yep it's that time....

Time to brag on my darling gal....that light of my life, that precious, wonderful and all things fantastic child of mine....she's wonderful did I say that???

I emailed this to her grandfolks so they could see just what a genius she is....I'm probably going overboard cause it's just A's but hey I'm proud....bear with me! Give me my moment folks! I introduced this this week so I'm super proud of my gal! (Did I mention she's wonderful and fantastic and smart??? Well she is!)

If you look closely you can see that the farthest lowercase a has a smiley face....now that's creativity folks! A's have also taken up to appearing on the walls in the hallway, her chalk board and on her Barbie car. Baby she's got it!!!

Now off to get a life...it's currently apparent that I need one! :)

Feelings Unit from Tots school

2011-02-09T19:47:00.001-08:00

So I am super, super excited! Next week Alyssa and I will be doing a Feelings unit that I got from this site http://www.2teachingmommies.com/2011/02/my-feelings.html and I have been asked to do a guest blog on my cousin's blog about the unit after we complete it. (She's also preschooling her 2 year old at home and has some pretty good ideas for crafts, counting ect. Her blog is http://633woman.com/2011/02/09/counting-fun-for-toddlers/ and she has a bunch of good ideas for fun/cheap activities with the developing young un. She's also craftier than myself and she's good at reusing materials to make games.

I printed all my stuff out tonight and I'm ready to get it all ready so next Monday morning we can get started. Today we went to Storytime at the library on post and had a wonderful time! We got to read some cute Valentine's books and we also got to make some v-day crafts and play with some friends. I'm planning on making storytime part of our biweekly routine. Tomorrow we are doing http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/pages/231.shtml this little M&M counting chart! Don't you love all my links tonight?

Letters and Shapes

2011-02-08T07:52:00.000-08:00

This week we are working on letters and shapes. Alyssa has been enjoying it a lot so far! I found this little dry erase pad at Target for $6.99 and it's been a hit. It has numbers, letters and shapes so it's pretty versatile. Alyssa is doing very well tracing her letters and she's mastered the letter A! Upper and lowercase. I've been emphasizing the letters in her name lately in an attempt to teach her to write her name. Since A's have appeared on the walls in the house I figure she's got that down...(not thrilled she's writing on the walls, but hey that's what Mr. Clean magic erasers are for!!! I should buy stock!)

Here she is tracing her letters. The intensity!! She can write her Aa's and her Ll's pretty well. She has a little trouble with the concept of connecting the A at the top but she's really improving a lot.
I found this exercise for shapes and thought it was pretty neat. She really enjoyed it and spent quite a while focusing on this activity. I gathered up some cookie cutters and a few of her toys for her to trace. I laid out an assortment of different colored markers for her to use and let her trace each of the objects onto a sheet of paper.

She liked the hearts and the "cookie-man" best.
After she finished tracing the shapes she then matched the different objects to the tracings and told me what shape she had made. We also threw in a little counting and she counted how many hearts, stars, circles, squares and cookie-men that she had traced. A super easy/cost effective activity that was a big hit. I might let her practice her cutting by reintroducing this activity next week and let her cut out the shapes instead of matching.
I also found a super cool blog that I wanted to share. I'm going to start using some of their ideas/units next week. They are definetely more creative than I am and I love some of their ideas and they have free downloads! Awesome huh? I thought so too! Here is the link if you want to check it out!

http://www.2teachingmommies.com/

Now to get ready for work! I'm working 2-10pm this evening!

Valentine Mobile

2011-02-07T10:16:00.000-08:00

I have been home preschooling Alyssa the last few weeks. It's been a lot of fun. I'm surprised at home much I enjoy our morning preschool sessions. Arts and crafts are my strong area....letters and numbers...well I'm getting better! We made this fun Valentine's craft that we got out of her highlights magazine (if you don't subscribe to it, it's well worth the money for your preschooler! Alyssa loves getting it in the mail and then working the pages and reading the stories!) Here's our craft that now hangs proudly in her room! (She even made extra for her friends for Valentine's Day!)

Materials needed:

Colored paper, scissors, glue, crayons, markers, Yarn, hole puncher, and a small person happy to glue, glue, glue!
First we cut our our hearts. She choose what color hearts she wanted. We used the scrap paper from the hearts to cut out different shapes and scraps to glue to our hearts. She decorated each heart differently. They turned out so cute! She was so very proud of her hearts!

After all the gluing is complete, allow hearts to dry. Help itty bitty punch holes in the hearts and then thread yarn thru hearts and hang!!
She is so proud of her heart mobile!

Visit with the Putman family

2011-02-07T09:59:00.000-08:00

I feel very blessed to have an extended family in Alyssa's first family. Last weekend we had the oppurtunity to visit with her first grandma, half sister, uncles, aunt and cousins while they were here in San Antonio. One of Alyssa's uncles graduated basic training from the Air Force and we were invited to meet up with them to spend the day Saturday. Alyssa enjoyed it so much! She loves seeing her sister and Shyanne loves seeing Alyssa! I got to meet her aunt, DeAnna who I have been chatting with on facebook for quite a while for the first time. It was a lot of fun and the girls were so excited to see one another. The joy that Alyssa gets when she sees her sister make me so glad that we are able to have these wonderful people in our lives. Alyssa's firstmom wasn't able to come out, but I'll be sure to send her the pictures! Here's a few pictures from our visit on the Riverwalk!

Alyssa who isn't a huge fan of having her picture taken refused to participate in this family photo! And sweet Shyanne wouldn't keep her eyes open!! Congrats to Nicholas on graduating basic training!

Alyssa talked all night long about how much fun she had with her sister! I know that my sister means the world to me and I'm so glad that Alyssa and her sister are part of one another's lives even while being raised in seperate homes!

Off we go....To Alaska!!!

2011-02-06T17:56:00.000-08:00

We have been restationed! Welcome to the life of a military family! Our family of 3, plus 3 furry critters is moving (again!). No one is ever THAT surprised that we are moving, we move all the time! But we are moving to Fort Wainwright, Alaska!! Shocked?? We were too! We had hoped to move closer to home (home being Alabama), and we are moving farther away! We don't have our official report date yet but it will be sometime this summer.

We are excited, nervous and a whole slew of other emotions all at once. Moving itself isn't fun, but we love meeting new people, exploring new places and having new experiences. It's a little like starting fresh everytime. When we made our first move several years ago I was terrified, and it was only 2 1/2 hours away. Now it's not scary really, it's just well time to move! I look forward to taking pictures of the northern lights and other Alaskan wonders, but I will miss my Texas friends terribly! I have so enjoyed the friendships that we have made over the last 2 1/2 years here in Texas. So off we go on yet another adventure this summer....69 hours away from Sweet Home Alabama!

Tea with a Super Hero!

2011-02-03T07:14:00.000-08:00

So I am behind on my blogging and this is actually an old picture that I was saving to do a little blog on! At 3 1/2 my darling gal is obsessed with tea time! She has tea about twice a day with her babies, bears and even her crocodile! She invites myself and her daddy regularly and is quite the hostess! Occasionally I let her have "tea" being apple juice and she adores that. She'll force you to drink massive quantities as well! My father in law complains that we have turned his little blue jean, boot wearing tom boy into a real girlie girl! He's hysterical, but when in town he too participates in tea time with "The Rose!"

Don't you like the Superman PJ's? She loves them!!!

Cruising!

2011-02-03T05:53:00.000-08:00

Last week we went on a Royal Carribean cruise with your good friends the Renaud's. It was so much fun I don't even know where to start! Completely relaxing, totally enjoyable and definetely worth doing again! Our family doesn't really take such big vacations usually, but this was a exception and well worth the expense! Mike and Ali invited us to accompany them on this trip which was Mike's "welcome back from Afghanistan" trip. He just got back a few days before Christmas. We ported in Roatan, Honduras, Belize City, Belize and Cozumel, Mexico. Mexico was by far our favorite port. We visited Passion Island while we were there and it was so beautiful!!! Overall I very enjoyable vacation! But now we are home and back to reality! No endless food and back to doing dishes!! Can I go back??? haha! Hope you enjoy thie pictues. They are in no particular order just a few of the ones that I liked best!

Taken in Honduras at the resort we visited.
Ali and I with a sleeping Alyssa between us on the beach in Mexico.
In Honduras after too much fun in the sun. She fell asleep sitting up and missed seeing the monkeys because we couldn't wake her up! She slept almost 4 hours when we got back to the ship!!
Passion Island (or Isla Pasion for those of you that habla) Gorgeous huh?
Jamey having a little to much fun at Senor Frog....ok we ALL had to much fun there!
Sunrise in Mexico. Taken from our balcony on the ship....SO pretty! I have some of the sunset that same day but I haven't edited them just yet.
Alyssa in Mexico. She got her hair braided in Honduras! I can't believe she sat still that long!!! But she did! My mom says that she looks like Bo Derek in the movie "10" here!
Again in Mexico! She loved the beach there. The beach in Honduras was very crowded so she didn't have nearly as much freedom to run about!
Honduras in the hammock swing. I love this photo of her. She just looks so darn gorgeous!
Alyssa and Teegan. This is our friends Ali and Mike's daughter. Alyssa ADORES her. She also calls her "Tea-GAAAAN" sounds very southern!!!
And no blog would be complete without a funny face a la Lyssa!!

Caterpillar chatter

2011-01-21T19:57:00.000-08:00

Jamey and I recently had this idea that putting Alyssa in a daycare 3 days a week would simplify our lives. Said idea didn't last long as we were all unhappy with the daycare (too many reasons to list, but we lasted all of a month and half before we decided that wasn't for us). We are fortunate and Alyssa's childcare has always been either mama, daddy and occasionally when she was younger Uncle BJ. We have always worked our work schedules around one another so that this would be possible (both of us being RN's it works most of the time). When she was born Jamey was still a civilian RN and he worked weekends and I worked weekdays. It worked great. Army life has complicated that a bit as he has no set schedule and it's ever changing, ever rotating and constantly chaotic. I thought it would be nice to not be dependent on Jamey's schedule and so we explored and made what we thought was a good decision about childcare. For numerous reasons this was not a good move for our family. So we are back to working around one another. I'm cutting back at work again for the time being and we will have Alyssa home with us until she starts pre-K in the fall to cuddle, chatter with, love and spoil until then.

Daddy does a fantastic job of keeping our girl on the days that I work. He always has ever since I went back to work when she was 3 months old. I truly can't say enough wonderful things about my husband. He sure isn't perfect but he gets a A+ in the Dad department. Tuesday I worked a shift in the recovery room and so Daddy had Alyssa. He took her to the park and they spent 3 hours there. Alyssa found a caterpillar and she and Dad had a huge discussion about caterpillars and butterflies. He went through all the stages with her and she happily chattered for almost an hour about her discoveries and new found knowledge when I came home from work. She did REPEATEDLY tell me that one day she (who is a caterpillar apparently) will turn into a butterfly and fly far, far away from me!! I won't be able to catch her because she's so very FAST! It was truly a hysterical conversation! She didn't totally get all the stages that her daddy went over with her, but she got the flying away part down (that dominated the conversation)! 3 years old and she is already plotting getting away from me! I laughed and told her that I sure hoped that she would occasionally fly back to see me...and maybe bring some of her baby caterpillars along as well. Conversations like this one make me extra thankful that we decided to forgo the daycare and keep her home with us for a while longer. Our caterpillar is growing up and fast on her way to becoming a beautiful butterfly! We have plans to get her a Butterfly Kit so she can raise butterflies this Spring. Jamey is more excited about it than she is I do believe!

Boxes

2011-01-19T16:06:00.000-08:00

It's a well known fact amongst our family and close friends that Jamey and I are infertile. We have tried for most of our 8 year marriage to have a baby, rather unsuccesfully...but it's been fun trying! 3 1/2 years ago we became parents to a tiny, wonderful little girl instantly! Totally unexpected was our entrance into the world of parenthood! We went to bed DINKS (Double income, no kids as some of our friends laughingly referred to us) and woke up parents to a 2 day old baby girl. We were terrified and thrilled all at once. A little different than we had planned for sure, but who is complaining? For the last year and a half or so we have made our last foray into the world of baby making with rounds of hormones and fertility drugs, but recently made the decision to be thankful for the joy that we get from our darling girl and to stop the 'madness.'

I truly believed that I had accepted and come to terms with the fact that I might not be a mama to a bunch of wild children tugging at my pant leg, and then while cleaning out the garage that last box full of baby toys and odds and ends emerged. (We have loaned out, handed off, and given back the loaned baby stuff we had) We never unpacked that little box when we were stationed here 2 years ago. There was no reason to. Jamey hefted up this box full of little rattles, bibs and squeaky chew toys and tried to put in the car, and I had a complete meltdown. I ran and snatched the box out of his hands and started screaming "That's not for the Goodwill!!! You can't get rid of that box!!!!" while sobbing hysterically. My sweet husband was completely stunned. All he could say was "Umm.....so you want to keep that box??? We can keep it....you want me to put it back??" while approaching me like he would a wild animal to hug me. I don't know why but I'm just not ready to let go of that box...yes it's just a box, no I'm not terribly sentimental. I am the gal that once tried to cut up her wedding dress to make tutu's out of the tulle much to the astonishment of my friend Terry. It's just a dress and I realize it's just a box full of junk...but right now that box stays in the garage until some future date when I feel ready to let it go. I'm completely happy being Alyssa's mom, I truly have no great desire to be pregnant. The morning sickness, stories of stretch marks, swollen ankles, uncontrollable gas, bladder urgency ect. (ok ok so I already have a few of those!) truly don't appeal to me at all. I'm super happy to let someone else do all that for me. It's the being a mama that I love, it's the idea that my little girl won't have the relationship that I have with my sister (who is my best friend) and my brothers. The late night talks she'll miss out on while you are suppose to be sleeping, the sneaking downstairs on Christmas with your siblings and gazing at the gifts. The fighting and the bickering that goes along with all that sibling loving! That's what I get sad about from time to time. I suppose that's what that box symbolizes to me. So for now I'm sealing that box back up and leaving it where it is. One day I'll be ready to let it go, but that day is not today.....

Tiny little toes....

2011-01-15T14:50:00.000-08:00

Alyssa and I were having a tea party a couple of days ago and I looked down and noticed her little feet with it's bandaid and thought it was just too cute not to capture....before I know it she'll have manicured toes and heels....she's growing up too fast!

It's official I'm a mom...I spent Saturday afternoon doing this...

2011-01-08T20:44:00.001-08:00

Once upon a time my Saturday's were filled with shopping, partying, long phone conversations, laying by the pool, dates and drama....now I make chore charts with a small person! I'm happy to be doing it. Truly, truly, blissfully glad that I get to spend the day with Alyssa making things that I hope will improve our routines (Daddy helped as well, it's a family activity). I can't believe that she's old enough for a chore chart....where did the time go?

We have been struggling lately with "princess syndrome." The definition of "Princess Syndrome" would be that our "princess" believes she entitled to everything, should get everything, and should never do anything other than lounge in the chair, watch princess movies and order around her subjects (otherwise known as Mommy and Daddy) whilst sipping on chocolate milk and snacking on cherry tomatoes. Said syndrome results in massive trantrums, throwing oneself on the floor, kicking, screaming, occasional spitting, crying, sobbing, slobbering, theatrics, fainting dramatically while you pretend you can't hear your nagging subjects, pleading with the non-nagging parent...ok you get the idea, this could go on a while!!! It's a syndrome that we created, but it has created a monster. A beautiful, happy little monster but a little monster....I kid really I do (other than the fainting...that parts very true). She's not that bad, but it's time that she started helping with a few things around the house. I hope to teach her responsibility. I had it, it's good for her, it can't hurt her, and you are never to young to start learning it. Daddy and I sat down and thought up some things that she likes to help with, i.e feeding our furry critters, helping me load and unload the dishwasher, and some things that she would rather die than do i.e brushing her teeth (yes gross I know...but truly it's a constant struggle), picking up her toys and going to bed minus the drama and turned it into a delightful chart for her to use. Alyssa got to help with the construction. We took her to Hobby Lobby today and she helped pick out all the things that we would use for her chore chart. She got to pick out the colors and she thought that was awesome. She cut out the pieces, glued on the pictures and attached the velco for us. Tomorrow she and I will decorate the jars that hold the pieces for our chart and she's looking forward to that.

She's a cute little monster huh? And she loves her mom, her shirt says so :)
And thus you have it: THE CHART.......insert dramatic music
And should you desire a chore chart for you own happy home here is how ours works. Each day she has 5 chores. She gets to put a blue dot (ok my dots are misshappen little blobs, but I was too lazy to make it looks fantastic!) on the chart for each chore that she completes that day. The green dots are BONUS dots. She can earn those for extra special behavior, doing extra things to help, good behavior at the store (again Princess Syndrome sorta comes out at the store on a regular basis. Our last "flare-up" lead to a Princess laying facedown in the aisle crying dramatically for marshmallows. Old people look at me disdainfully, fellow mother's look at me with pity and understanding...and teenagers snicker). At the end of every day she counts her dots and she gets to put a little purple fluff ball (for blue dots) or a pink fluff ball (for green dots) in a special bowl. (This is a counting exercise for her, she counts her dots and she counts out her fluffs, thus the extra step in my method of madness). At the end of the week she counts all her fluffs and she gets a nickel for each purple fluff and a quarter for each pink fluff. She can potentially earn $3.50/week for her chores. Pretty awesome right??? That is $182/year for a 3 1/2 year old!!!!!! (I think I got a quarter a week) She gets to take a trip to the Dollar Tree and spend her earnings or save up for something nice.

I'm happy to report that at the end of day one Alyssa completed all 5 of her chores (including brushing her teeth...this is huge folks...HUGE!), went to bed with minimal whining (HUGE) and now sleeps happily knowing that 5 purple fluffs are resting in her little bowl. (She instructed me that I am not to remove her fluffs while she's asleep...she'll know and will count 'um when she wakes up!)

I shall now amend my title "It's official I'm a DORKY mom....I spent Saturday afternoon doing this...."

Happy Chores.....we hope!!!!

Girl's Night Out--Painting with a Twist

2011-01-08T08:39:00.000-08:00

Our New Year's Eve party spurred a Girl's Night out! I heard about Painting with a Twist and have been wanting to go there for a little while now. (For my Huntsville, AL friends there is a similar place called My Spirited Art there) It just seemed like such a fun something to do. I am no artist by any means, but it looked like so much fun that I was dying to try it! Maria mentioned it at the party and that's all it took for us to decide that we totally needed to go! And off we went for a fun filled night filled with lots of laughter, a lot of paint and ended up with four gorgeous paintings made by all of us and some hysterical laughter in the car ride home thanks to Jude's hysterical story telling! Here are a few pictures from our little "Painting with a Twist" adventure! We are planning on going again in Feb! It was absolutely the best girls night out!

Here is a closer look at our masterpieces! I think they are all gorgeous! Jude pointed out that somehow our pictures turned out a lot like our personalities and I tend to agree...even though Maria had a little Bok Choy and I had some Pac Man going on in our paintings for a bit! We "Smudgied" (That would be a technical painting term I made up!) 'um a little and fixed them up!
Mine! I like it! Jamey was impressed he thought it actually looked a little bit like Starry Night. He was sort of expecting me to bring home something that resembled a complete disaster.
Me and Terry. She's become a really great friend over the past year. She's my crafty friend who is WAY more creative than me.
Jude and Maria!
And thus concludes a fantastic girls night out! And just in case you want to go yourself here is their website http://www.paintingwithatwist.com/sanantonio/

And the word of the day:

Smudg-y /ˈsmʌdʒi/ Show Spelled

[smuhj-ee] Show IPA

–adjective, smudg·i·er, smudg·i·est.
1. marked with smudges; smeared; smeary.
2. emitting a stifling smoke; smoky.
3. British Dialect . humid; sweltering; sultry.

Smudgied!!!

Thank you Terry :)

Just because she's beautiful.....

2011-01-01T20:53:00.000-08:00

My new favorite photograph of The Rose (I know they are all my favorite). This morning she threw a tutu on over her PJ's and she was just to cute! I'm accused frequently of only having snapshots of her, and it's true....it's true I admit it. Snapshots make the best pictures because this is how I'm always going to remember her, even when she's 15 and has a blue mohawk (and she will, trust me...she will!!!). She was laying on the floor singing and it was to precious not to capture. I love this kid....where did the time go? She's not a baby anymore....Now off I go to sob hysterically.....

And this one just cause well....this is so HER!

New Year Goals and accomplishments and whatever else I rambled on about.....

2011-01-01T07:26:00.000-08:00

I officially feel like time is flying by. I guess that's a clue that you are getting older right? 2010 just started it seems and now it's 2011! We had several friends and their families over and had a wonderful New Years Eve party. We had 14 kids here ranging in ages from 15 to 4 months! It was a lot of fun. We had sparklers and made s'mores (which is the worlds most perfect food in my opinion just so you know...), silly string and noise makers. The kids ran and ran and played and played and Alyssa slept until the late late hour of 9 am (GASP!). That never happens in our house! She's always up right about 7 wanting her milk and to rock in the chair.

I had a really good 2010. I have no complaints at all. I love my little family and the life that we have built together. My husband is wonderful and he adores everything about me. Including the extra dimples that 2010 added to my butt....lol. I accomplished a lot this last year. I made several new friends and aquired new skills. I learned to sew which I'm very proud of and have made some quilts this past year (4 in total!). I have continued to raise a really remarkable young lady who brings me a tremendous amount of joy.

In 2011 I have a few goals. This year at our party my husband had everyone write down something they wanted to change or improve upon on a slip of paper and then cast that paper into the fire. Sort of a symbolic thing and the kids all really liked the idea. Of couse I asked the 3 year olds what they put on their paper and Alyssa put a cloud on hers, Kaci put a tree on hers and Sebastian put a dinosaur on his, cute huh? On my slip I wrote that I wanted to be a better wife and mother. Not that I don't think I'm good at this now, but always you can improve. I have a few other goals as well. I'd like to learn something new this year. Just like sewing last year. I would like to learn something new to add to my list of life accomplishments. Pretty simple goals for 2011. I feel confident that I can achieve them! Hope 2011 brings all of you lots of happiness!

Christmas Cookie Time!

2010-12-18T13:43:00.000-08:00

I think that for me the hardest part of being a military family is being away from home around holidays. I fear that Alyssa will miss out on some of the things that I enjoyed doing with my family (and I had a pretty big family with a lot of enjoyable chaos). I try extra hard to make sure that even though she doesn't have a great big, huge, loud chaotic family surrounding her that she still gets memories of all the fun things that I enjoyed growing up. My grandmother started letting us decorate Christmas cookies with her when I was a teenager and I really enjoyed it. The most memorable cookie was the one my sister and I made the year that I hit a deer with my car (yes I really did....poor baby deer, he died, we buried him and said a pray (for real...) remember I grew up in Alabama so hitting a deer is pretty likely) we made a Rudolph with a broken leg. It was pretty darn cute and a good way to honor poor Rudolph's memory, bless his heart. I want those type memories for Alyssa when she's older. She might not want to play with me anymore when she's a teenager but I hope that she'll look back at a box of cookie cutters when she's my age and has a little one and think of how much fun she had with her mama and want to do that with them (and hopefully with me too!!!)

Last year my Gran gave me her cookie cutters and I'm very proud to say that using her Sugar cookie recipe Alyssa and I made a big batch of Christmas cookies. Today we had my friend Terry and her adorable girls over to help us decorate them. I'm pretty lucky that I've found friends here in Texas that have truly become family to us. Here are some pictures of our decorating adventure today.

Kaci won the award for the cookie with the most sprinkles......and this one had A LOT of sprinkles!!!
Adding more...there weren't enough!!!!
Ashley's green hands (and mouth!!!)
Alyssa and her dirty hands (she probably ate 1/2 the container of sprinkles!)
And Viola! Our creations!! We had so much fun making them!
And because recipes are worth passing along here is Gran's Sugar cookie recipe. Both my Grandmother and my mother made these for us growing up and I'm really happy that now I get to make them for my own little girl and her friends.

Take Five Sugar Cookies

2 c Sugar

4 eggs

1 cup butter softened

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla extract

6 1/2 to 7 cups of flour

Beat sugar and eggs together until light and fluffy. Beat into butter until mixed well. Add soda, vanilla, and half the flour. Mix well. Work in remaining flour to make a stiff dough (and it is VERY stiff). Roll it out and cut to make desired shapes. Place on well greased cookie sheets and bake 400 degrees 8-10 minute till lightly browned.

Icing

1 cup butter

2 tbsp milk

4 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Mix together until smooth.

Happy Christmas Cookie Decorating!

The Pumpkin Roll!!!!

2010-12-13T20:21:00.001-08:00

My most requested dish is The Pumpkin Roll.....why? Cause it's fantastic! My sister got this recipe from my aunt and of course if she can make a pumpkin roll I can make a pumpkin roll as well! I make a lot of these and so does Amanda. I think she told me she had like 8 to make this holiday season. I mainly make them because Jamey's 'work wife' as I affectionately call her puts her request in from time to time and I whip one up and send it to work with him for her (all year round!). One for her to take home and one for everyone else at work. It's such a fantastic AND seasonally appropriate dish that I thought that I'd pass the recipe along. They are tasty, pretty simple to make and always a big hit! Enjoy!

Start with all of this.......

Whip it up into this...(spray your cookie sheet with Pam AND spray your wax paper before pouring in your batter)
Bake it till it looks like so....
Roll it so it looks like this....I made 4 yes I did!

And end up with this!
Yummy right? It is trust me!

And here is the recipe which makes 1 roll of high calorie goodness! (They don't count it's Christmas...)

Pumpkin Roll

Rolls:

2/3 cups canned pumpkin

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 flour

Filling:

8oz cream cheese softened

1 cup powdered sugar sifted

2 tbsp butt softened

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Mix pumpkin, eggs, and sugar for 5 minutes. In separate bowl mix the dry ingredients then add dry mix to pumpkin mix and blend well

Grease cookie sheet with Pam and cover with wax paper (trial and error has taught me to also Pam my wax paper before pouring in my batter, you will be glad you did trust me). Place batter into pan and bake for 15 minutes

Let cool 5-10 minutes then remove from pan Cover with wax paper on inside Roll cake tightly and let sit for a couple of hours

Mix filling ingredients until well blended

Unroll cake and remove wax paper from interior side. Spread filling and roll tightly. remove wax paper from outside of cake and rewrap in wax paper and then wrap in foil. refrigerate until ready to serve

Sleeping Beauty and her white cat.....

2010-12-12T08:28:00.001-08:00

My little love has a long history of napping with our fat cat Guinevere or "Gwenie" for short. Gwenie loves Alyssa...why we have no idea as Alyssa frequently drags her about by her tail, chases her around the house poking her with sticks and generally annoys her every chance she gets. Gwenie is 8 1/2 years old now. She's pretty chubby...ok she's fat...but she adores Jamey and Alyssa and they adore her. It makes the frequently masses of white cat hair all over the house worth the effort knowing that she adores us as much as we adore her.

Alyssa was about 6 months old here....

3 1/2 years later not much as changed....

Cute isn't he??? I know....I love that guy :)

Fondue madness!

2010-12-05T16:41:00.000-08:00

In our home our favorite special occasion meal is cheese fondue with the trimmings! Saturday night we celebrated "Thanksgiving" and this is what Jamey decided that he wanted. Since Alyssa and I were out of town with my dad's surgery he spent Thanksgiving home by himself. It's always fun and we all enjoy fondue night. We do it on holidays, or birthdays and it's a blast! Alyssa is the official side eater/dipper. We occasionally do a chocolate fondue just for fun. I thought I'd share our favorite meal and the recipe as well.
Base is white wine and sherry with shallots (you could replace the alcohol with chicken or beef broth and get the same result)

A huge mound of cheese!
Steak and scallops just cause they are fantastic....
And our "dippers"
Here is the little dipper :)
And the finished product!
It's fantastic!

Wisconsin Trio Cheese Fondue

Ingredients:
1 ½ C shredded Butterkäse cheese (6oz) [can be found at Whole foods, but you can also substitute Gouda if you can't find Butterkäse]
1 ½ C shredded Fontina Cheese (6oz)
3 Tbsp flour
¾ C white wine
¼ C dry sherry
2 tsp chopped shallots
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
¼ C crumbled blue cheese
2 Tbsp chopped scallions

Toss the Butterkäse and Fontina cheese with the flour in a bowl. Place a metal bowl over a saucepan filled with 2 inches of water. You may also use a conventional double boiler. Bring the water to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and pour the wine and sherry into the bowl. Sit in the shallots using a fork. Cook for 30 seconds, stirring constantly.

Add half the cheese blend and cook until the cheese is melted, stirring constantly. Add the remaining cheese blend a small amount at a time, stirring constantly in a circular motion after each addition until the cheese is melted. Fold in the pepper and Blue cheese. Pour into a warm fondue pot and keep warm over low heat. Garnish with the scallions.

NOTE: The cheese is shredded and tossed with flour to aid din thickening and to improve the viscosity of the fondue. The fondue should be the consistency of warm honey when completed. Monitor the cheese carefully as it is being added. Not all of the cheese may be needed, and, in some cases, more cheese may be needed to reach the perfect consistency.

Recommended dipping accompaniments: Variety of breads, green apples, mixed vegetables.

November reflections and realizations

2010-11-25T00:46:00.000-08:00

The month of November this year has been pretty chaotic to say the least. I feel like we have been through a lot, some of it not quite over just yet. We unexpectedly lost a very loved member of our family (Jamey's grandmother) and my dad had triple bypass surgery. The events of the past month caused me to think about so many things in my own life. My blog is usually a happy place filled with photos of my family and friends, crafts, recipes and other nonsense. Today though I am choosing to use it as a area to air my thoughts and feelings over the last month, and some things that I have spent a great deal of time in deep reflection upon here recently.

I think that I always imagine that those that I love will always be there. Should I know better? Of course...I'm a nurse. The loss of Grandma really has affected me, and this major surgery which my father is still recovering from has added more to that. I've realized that my dad's not going to be around forever, common sense says that I know he won't be, but a girl can hope can't she? I had a very scary moment with him post op day 2, when he transferred back to the ICU. I stayed with him at the hospital and he became very confused and very agitated, I called the nurse told her what labs I thought we should run and what I thought she should do (ever the bossy nurse right???). The doctor happened to be making rounds and he transferred dad immediately to the ICU, he thought at the time that dad had had a stroke. Thankfully no, but scary enough to really frighten his tough (or so I thought) skinned daughter. So many times have I cared for very sick individuals during the time that I spent as a ICU nurse, how different it is when your loved one is the sick one. How different is it to hold your dad's hand and try to calm him when he doesn't know your his daughter....never have I been so frightened. I spent the remainder of dad's hospitalization with him. Helping him, walking him, bathing him, encouraging him, at the bedside pestering the nurses (I imagine in report the nurses handed off "daughter is a nurse and she ask a TON of questions and hoovers like an eagle" as well as dad's past medical history...), and all the while thankful that I have him. Dad went home yesterday. He's so very glad....he's got a long road back to being fully recovered but he'll get there I believe. I have to return home Monday and I'll worry and call and pester everyone to death from Texas instead of the bedside. But until then daily I'll be at his house, bossing him around. That is what I do best....

One of my reflections is in regards to service to others. Jamey's grandmother lived her life as a service to others. She often said "We are here to take care of one another, that is our mission." She was the first to take food to sick friends and relatives, she called, cared for and loved her fellow man. At 78 she actually served her first and only medical mission trip (she was a RN herself) to Nicaragua, weeks after having a heart attack. Her life was to care for others. I started really thinking about my own life. How much time do I spend in service to others verses to myself? I like to think that I'm a caring, giving soul, but I'll admit that I spend more time in service to myself than to anyone else. That is something that I wish to change about myself. I felt the genuine love and caring that I received from friends and family during my father's hospitalization. I had some very good friends come and sit with me on more than one occasion at the hospital (Clarissa and Kara, you both are incredible and if I don't tell you often enough I love you both dearly). Family members (4 of my 5 aunts) rush to the hospital when they heard dad transferred back to the ICU so that my siblings and I would be supported. Friends that I haven't seen in a very long took time out of their busy schedules to pop in and check in us at the hospital, calls, emails, cards....lots of love in all of those actions. All of this is a service. Service of self, service to others, and not a service to themselves. So I guess as I ramble on and on and on at 3 am when my restless, sleep deprived mind won't let me sleep, is that I've realized what Grandma meant when she said "We are here to take care of one another, that is our mission" and with this realization comes the desire and the drive to make that statement made by her so many times with such conviction the backbone of my own life. I'm going to spend less time serving myself and more time serving others. I'm also going to ask all my little blog readers to think about this concept yourselves.

My last big reflections/realization is that I am truly blessed. Blessed with a wonderful family and fantastic friends. My siblings and I are so lucky to have one another. I felt truly like we have banded together, all four of us, in our desire to care for our father. I'm blessed with a kind, caring, generous husband. He gives so much so that I can help my father and never complains about it. I'm blessed with in-laws who literally rearranged the last two weeks to help me with my daughter. Friends who love me tirelessly, and have listened to my venting and stressing this month. Who have dropped everything to be there for me. I am so blessed, the extent that I probably don't realize fully or appreciate completely. I just want to say thank you, thank you, thank you!

Thus concludes my blog today. Happy Thanksgiving. I personally have a lot to be thankful for this year.

Granddaughter loving and sparkly shoes.....

2010-11-11T07:45:00.001-08:00

In life we all have our weaknesses and in the life of Jack Kephart that weakness would be his granddaughter, Alyssa Rose. Also called Baby Girl (BG for short), The Rose, and San Antonio Rose. Pop loves this child, talks about her, shows pictures of her to all that will look, and sends presents often enough that anytime we get a package in the mail she loudly exclaims "That is for Alyssa from her PawPaw!" while she rips at said package to see what goodies it holds. He also placed a Rose tattoo on his forearm with her birthday last year in tribute to this darling girl that he adores. Sadly we are 15 hours from said adoring PawPaw, but he and Mimi make that 15 hour drive about every other month to get their Baby Girl fix. It's a trip that they look forward to and that we also look forward to (see Jamey and I get free sitter services while they are here!)

Here are some pictures from last week when Alyssa got to see and abuse her grandpa. Poor man.....he loves every moment of her torment.....

These are her Toms sparkly shoes that he sent her. They are too cute...not suited to tromping around on a farm though.

And here is an example of that grandgal loving that he misses so much! Too funny......I should probably be ashamed that while this was going on I was laughing hysterically and taking pictures....but I'm not!!!

Ok I'm still laughing.....

Grandma Mayton

2010-11-06T18:19:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we had to unexpectedly say goodbye to Jamey's precious Grandmother, Elizabeth "Betty" Mayton. Grandma passed away on October 31, 2010. She was 82 years old. This precious woman was so loved by so many. I have had the great privilege of having Grandma in my life for the past almost 11 years.

Grandma was Christian, mother, wife, friend, aunt, grandma, great grandma, nurse, and so many other things that I can't even describe. She was a tiny little thing, when I hugged her she didn't even reach my underarm, but you usually forgot how little she was because her personality was so BIG! She was very active in her church, and the busiest retired person I ever met. She was constantly feeding people, doing for others, organizing this that and the other thing. She was one of the most selfless people that I ever met.

So many people visited, brought food and shared with us their memories of Grandma. The common theme? FOOD! Grandma feed everyone! Just about every person that came by said "Well Miss Betty just had me over for lunch..." or "Miss Betty brought me some chicken soup last week." Grandma kept a journal for about 6 weeks (she was entirely too busy to do it longer than that!) in 2007. She wrote about her day, her love for her children, grandchildren, friends and well FOOD! She literally feed the masses with her food and comforted our souls with the love that she poured into every dish.

She was so proud of her three children, three grandchildren, and her 1 great grandbaby. Grandma told me everytime that I spoke with her how proud she was of Jamey, myself and how much she loved Alyssa.

I learned a lot from Grandma. I feel so blessed that I have been able to be a part of Jamey's wonderful family. I'm often overwhelmed by the generosity and the love that this clan of people have, and they got it all from Grandma. She loved completely and unselfishly. She never expected anything in return. She just did because, well that's how she was! I have so few pictures of Grandma because she hated having her picture made but here are a couple that I have. I'll miss Grandma so, and everyone that knew her will feel the very same way....

One of the things that Rev. Tate said at her funeral was that "Miss Betty did not just think about doing for others, she acted" How true this was....

Here are a couple of recipes that I associate most with Grandma. They are fabulous and completely worth passing along!

Betty's Homemade Bread (like sourdough without the hassel of a starter!)

Makes 4 loaves

1/2 cup sugar divided

2 Tbs instant potatoes

3/4 cup very warm water

1 pkg yeast

1 1/2 cup very warm water

1/2 cup oil

1 tsp salt

6 cups bread flour

melted butter

Combine 1/4 cup sugar, potatoes and 3/4 cup water. Sprinkle in yeast to soften. In large bowl combine 1 1/2 cup water, oil, salt and 1/4 cup sugar. Add yeast mix and flour and mix well. Turn out and knead 8-10 times until smooth. Shape into a ball place in a greased bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place 2-3 hours until doubled. Divide into 4 parts and place in loaf pans. Cover and let rise 1 hour or until doubled. Bake at 350 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Brush with melted butter.

Creamed Tacos

2 lbs ground beef, browned and drained

2 cans ranch style beans drained

1 small can evaporated milk

1 can chili without beans

1 can tomatoes with green chiles

1 lb velveeta cheese cut into pieces

Combine all ingredients except ground beef in a large skillet and cook over low heat for a few minutes. Add ground beef and simmer uncovered until thickened. Serve with tortilla chips and lettuce, cheese, salsa, sour cream and whatever else strikes your fancy. It's just taco salad but better!

Dad

2010-11-05T09:39:00.000-07:00

I'm going to ask for prayer request. My dad is going to be having a quadruple bypass surgery on Nov. 16th. He's very nervous, as are we. It's been sort of a challenging week for us. I am thankful that I was able to be here for his heart cath and that I will be able to come back in for his surgery. He was discharged home yesterday and he has several follow ups and other visits prior to his surgery.

I'm just also want to express how thankful I am for the wonderful friends and family that I have. Everyone has been so wonderful and supportive. Jamey's parents are truly a gift in my life. Even though Jamey's mother lost her mother last week she's been able to help support me through this with my father this week. I'm just truly grateful for them.

Quilting progress, winged creatures, cutie pies and painted pumpkins oh my!!!

2010-10-28T21:21:00.000-07:00

What a random title right??? Well that's what has been going on in the Kephart home this week! Halloween (my most favorite holiday!!!) is right around the corner and we are preparing for it in all sorts of style. Ok not really but Alyssa did have a Costume parade at her preschool and she looked completely, totally and fantastically adorable as a fairy princess. I admit that I was too lazy to add the green to her tutu prior to the parade and thus she doesn't totally match, but I did finish it up last night! Her she is in her parading glory! Dad was even off and able to go with me to the parade! Sunday we will have 5-6 families here to trick or treat and eat with us. Halloween is my Aunt Lisa's favorite holiday and we always spent it together as a family. I get a little sad and a touch homesick on Halloween so this year Jamey decided that we'd carry on my families Halloween tradition with our "Texas family." I'm super excited and I know that the kids will really enjoy the food, festivities and well CANDY!!!!

Texas is not a good climate for pumpkin carving. We know this how you ask??? Well because 3 days ago we carved a super ugly 'scary' pumpkin and it was completely infested with ants, flies and other things I have no desire to know about! We threw 'scary' pumpkin out and we then tried another route (primarily due to the crying 3 year old who missed her 'scary' pumpkin!) and painted our pumpkin! It's fantastic! Alyssa helped with the 'hair!' It was a fun project and next year we plan to each do one. I think it just might replace pumpkin carving in our household!
And this is just too cute not to share...you know it's just adorable!

I do apologize about all my quilting stories. I love it, I'm addicted to it and I love to talk about it. Alas very few, save a couple of friends and my cousin care to hear about it! Jamey's ugly shirt quilt is looking rather nice if I say so myself! Using old clothes to make this quilt has posed quite a challenge. I'm working with only a limited amount of material so I have had to change my plan from the original pattern to make it work. Here's where I am so far. The olive drab is from actual Vietnam Era Army uniforms. That being said I ran out! Off to the thrift store I go in search of more! I need at least 2 more shirts to complete this quilt top. I'm pretty proud that I made this whole quilt top out of shirts. Makes it sorta special, sorta unique....and well it's tacky! You can think it, cause I know!!! But who else shall have a quilt this one of a kind???

October visit home

2010-10-25T06:16:00.001-07:00

The girls on Granny's horse

Us and our Daddy.
The girls watching the fish
They are too precious aren't they? I framed this one!
Me and my siblings
Us and Mama
Adorable pumpkin pickers
Mama and her grand gals.

The worst thing about living far away is that I miss my family terribly. These people who I talk to just about everyday that make up such a huge part of my life I only get to see once or twice a year now. That's hard for me, but that's just how it is right now. I had a very brief and short visit home in early October and I had the chance to visit with my parents and my siblings. It was a lot of fun, but went by much too quickly.

I also got to spend a good bit of time with my sweet little niece Alli. She loves her Aunt Angie and that love that little kid. She and Alyssa play so well together and I love watching them at play together. Hopefully one day soon we can get a little closer to home!

Quilting stories....Jamey's story

2010-10-24T07:39:00.001-07:00

I discovered quilting earlier this year. I love it. I think about quilting when I'm running, walking or randomly bored. I plan out my future quilts and make sketches that I keep in a 3 ring bright pink binder marked Quilting and decorated in random smiley faces that my 3 year old drew all over it. Am I a huge dork?? Yes...yes I am! I proudly proclaim my dorkiness to all that will listen. I'm totally secure in it. One of the many reasons that I adore quilting so is that each quilt tells a story, you just have to look for it. They mark the arrival of sweet babies to the world and new marriages. They keep you warm, homemade quilts make you feel cozy, happy and at home (or they do me anyway!). They can be made out of just about anything, mistakes make them more uniquely your own (although the chick that taught my quilting class in April would disagree with me here!!! She was pretty precise and thought I ought to be as well! I'm not and I never will be. I just make a mistake and keep plodding along in the hopes that the end product isn't to big a mess!) I have about a million reasons that I love quilting but I 'm rambling on and on....

My fourth quilt is for my husband. He's extremely excited. He's unable to believe that I didn't give my first quilt to him, but it went to my gran-gran and she adores the silly thing! Making this quilt for him has made me think about all the reasons I adore this man who at times has a wardrobe that is as loud as he is not. These shirts that were "retired" (retired meaning that I forbad him to ever wear them again) serve as sort of a reminder of our relationship. I've gotten many a chuckle out of the additions to his wardrobe (most of which he found on ebay). One of the shirts that will serve as a border for his quilt he wore on our first real date. He had on this super tacky hawaiian style shirt and quietly thrust a bundle of flowers whose stems were wrapped in a Winn Dixie bag at me before he even greeting me. He just smiled and said "I didn't want your clothes to get wet..." I thought it was super sweet, his wardrobe was truly awful and I think I loved him that very second.

He's an awesome fellow, who puts up with plenty from me for sure. He loves expensive weird beer and appreciates a good cigar after a big steak. He loves tattoes and has an abundance of them. He has no shame in going all around town in sweat pants with holes in them and super hero t-shirts., regardless of where he's going or what he's doing...apparently they are appropriate to every situation! He hates to shave and refuses to do it when he's not working (and Uncle Sam says that he must shave before work). He doesn't talk much, but when he does it's usually worth listening to. He reads a lot and has his own ideas about most everything. He writes, paints and draws beautifully. He's probably one of the best dad's I know, even if his entrance into the world of fatherhood was unexpected and sort of sudden. He loves me for reasons unknown. Probably because I always fill the silence! He's not afraid to just be himself and that's one of the things that I truly love about him. I mean who else has enough confidence to wear a shirt that I nicknamed "the horsey shirt" (horsey shirt was not allowed to be sacrificed for this project, he loves it to much....)

Here is the first block of his Ugly shirt quilt. And here are some pictures of this fellow who I adore. I've spent 10 years of my life with this wonderful man and I'm looking forward to spending 60 more with him. He's awesome, fantastic and all things incredible...even if his wardrobe is a little unique...the 4 shirts pictured here are nicknamed "The spaceship shirt, Neon Polka dots vomited, The pimp shirt, and It's too ugly to have a nickname...."

Welcome to the world Baby Caroline

2010-10-16T17:38:00.001-07:00

Several years ago I became friends with my friend Kara. Most people reading my blog know that Kara and I met in nursing school and we have been extremely close ever since (the bonds of extreme stress in nursing school bond like none other!). We have been best friends for almost 1o years now. It doesn't seem that long ago...which means that we are getting old! I've been so blessed in my friendship with Kara. She was in my wedding, I was in her wedding. She helped deliver my daughter, and I have been able to be present for the births of both of her girls. Most recently Caroline Ruth, who entered the world on October 11. Lots and lots of long phone conversations, plenty of tears, laughter and occasionally bottles of wine have made Kara and I closer as the years go by, despite the fact that I keep moving farther and farther away from her! Raising our daughters together is truly a gift and I'm so glad that we are able to share this joy (and occasionally this trial!) with one another. Here are some of my favorite pictures from Caroline's birth day. Caroline is blessed with an older sister, Kristina, wonderful parents, fantastic grandparents and a very loud, very blonde (chemically enhanced of course), very country honorary Aunt Angie......

My little monkey and Caroline. She really enjoyed helping dress her and holding her, although she informed me on the way home that we didn't need one at our house because it "smells like poo." Spoken like a 3 year old!
And this is probably my favorite picture ever! Alyssa was comparing her feet with Baby Caroline's. I just think this is to sweet for words!
Welcome to the world Baby Caroline!

My funny funny girl!

2010-09-26T17:17:00.000-07:00

I adore my 3 year old! I express that frequently in this blog! She is hysterical and wonderful and fantastic and I love every moment that I get to be her mother! Including the moment yesterday when she stood up in the shopping cart at Target sobbing hysterically and yelling at the top of her lungs "This is HORRIBLE, it's so HORRIBLE sitting in the buggy!!! HORRIBLE!!!" Not our best moment! I just said...sit down and continued shopping. Poor kid. She'll probably discuss it with her therapist one day. But she is fantastic! She likes to 'design' her own outfits and here is a prime example....It is HORRIBLE! But at least she's creative and making alternate uses for her pull-ups which she doesn't really need any longer....

Sew Frenzy!

2010-09-18T13:17:00.001-07:00

So part of my 2010 New Years resolutions was to learn to sew! Well I am proud to say that I have managed to do just that! I'm not going to say that I have mastered the art of sewing, but I have come a very long way! I've discovered quilting and successfully completed 3! 1 twin size and 2 baby blankets. I started quilting as a result of seeing quilts made by my fantastic cousin Lacey. She has made a whole bunch and it made me start thinking about trying my hand at it. It's sorta of become an addiction and I have a number of quilts planned out in my head that I want to finish for our home. I'd love to have homemade quilts adoring all the beds in our home one day. I have one planned out for Alyssa's room complete with curtains and pillow. She might be 15 and hate it by the time I finish it though! Here are pictures of said quilts just so you can see what I've been up to! The one thing I have discovered about quilting is that your mistakes somehow only make it more your own!

I gave this Log Cabin variation to my grandmother, and was my very first sewing project!
I made this baby blanket for my best friend Kara's little girl. Caroline shall be making an appearance in the world sometime in mid-October and I can't wait to meet her!

And this is for my friend Shante's little Ayanna who will also be making an appearance in mid-October!

And pictured here is a vast array of fabric...that EVENTUALLY will become purses. Eventually because it make take me an eternity!!! Special thanks to my fabulous friend Terry who spent a couple of hours helping me pick out all this fabric!

Now back to sewing :)

The joys of stay at home motherhood and other ramblings....

2010-09-17T16:15:00.001-07:00

Two years ago this month Jamey sprung the surprise that he wanted to go active duty again on me. I was stunned....thoughts like "What you aren't happy with our life like it is??" and "Why on earth are we doing this??" ran thru my mind. After extensive conversation over the matter the decision was made for Jamey to begin the process of applying for a commision in the US Army Nurse Corps. He had a huge list of fabulous reason why he wanted to do again serve his country. But at the top of that list was the adorable little person pictured above, and his desire that I be able to be a stay at home mama to said wonderful heart of our hearts. Jamey despite his non-traditional, heavily tat'd exterior is a traditional family man, with super traditional family man values. The minute that he took that 5 lb 6 ounce little person in his arms and decided to be her father his every thought has been about her. Month two of her life he insisted we start her college savings plan and that's savings plan in not up for negotiation in our budget.

Now I did sorta spoil this stay at home mom idea by returning to work in January and I feel that I have the best of both worlds. I get to work a few days a month and still be the nurse that my degree allows me to be. I still get to care for my patients and socialize with my coworkers. But now I get to be a more active part of Alyssa's life. I no longer feel like I'm struggling to juggle the demands of being a mom and a wife, as well as a person with a full time work schedule. I get to spend more time with my husband and it's made us better parents I'm happy to say. I'm very blessed and I'm happier today than I've probably ever been. On my days off I get to finger paint and bake cookies, make puppets outta Jamey's socks, and look at spiders, lizards, snails and dragonflies that live in our backyard. Unfortunately I also know the lines to all the Disney princess movies as well....lol.

Life as a stay at home mom has it's own challenges. I used to be so envious of those mom's that I knew were stay at home mommy's when I wasn't one myself and now I know their jobs are much more difficult than my job as a full time ICU nurse in a high acuity hospital ever was, and some of those mommy's wished they were going to work everyday! I got to leave the ICU at the hospital but mommyhood is full time 24 hours a day/7 days a week. I happily sport the 'mom' look regularly. I once showed up to a meeting at Alyssa's school sporting a ponytail with rolled up blue jeans, flip flops and a faded heavy metal t-shirt....not exactly CEO material there! And I frequently grocery shop in workout pants, HEY they are indeed comfortable and perfect for crawling around on the floor pretending to be a puppy, and building forts under the dining room table. I never really was the fashion diva anyway!

The best part of being a stay at home mom is I feel like I'm reliving my own childhood. Sometimes I don't get the laundry done or the floors scrubbed because we are to busy playing in the rain or running from crocodiles, and I'm totally good with that. I'm watching my daughters imagination bloom (and what an imagination it is!). Around every corner is something new and exciting. She goes from being a princess to a monster in about 2.2 seconds. She dances in tutu's and tiara's and wears eye patches and yells "grr me matey!" She makes mud pies and sprays me with the waterhose and reintroduced her aging mama to running through the sprinkler. She eats basil and tomatoes off the vines in the backyard and exclaims that they are "Delightfully Delicious!" Life is good and I'm so happy that I get to be this little girls full time mommy, who happens to escape to the hospital for adult time a few shifts a month.

Walk a little slower Daddy.....a poem

2010-05-21T14:21:00.000-07:00

"Walk a little slower, Daddy,"
Said a child so small,
I'm following in your footsteps,
And I do not want to fall.

"Sometimes your steps are very fast,
Sometimes they're hard to see;
So walk a little slower, Daddy,
For you are leading me."

"Someday when I'm all grown up
You're what I want to be;
Then I will have a little child
Who will want to follow me."

"And I would want to lead just right,
And I know that I was true,
So walk a little slower, Daddy,
For I must follow you."

Alyssa's teachers gave this framed poem with one of her footprints on it to Jamey for father's day. It made me cry. I'm so lucky to be married to such a good man and such an exceptional papi!

Tutu'd Princesses

2010-04-15T20:28:00.001-07:00

So for sometime now I've been wanting to photograph Alyssa in a frilly, girly tutu! It's long been my hearts desire. My "baby" isn't a baby anymore and I've been struggling with that. She's a little girl! A sweet little girl, who hates to wear dresses, and doesn't like bows in her hair. Who loves bugs and frogs and thinks poots are hysterical! She's my little tom boy and I love her to pieces! She did however cooperate (kinda...) for these pics. Kaci is in Alyssa's class at school and Ashley is her big sister. I'm good friends with their mom and she and I made the tutu's for this little photographic adventure. Here are a few of the pics and I'm super happy with how they turned out.

My princess........

Making Progress!

2010-03-06T10:12:00.000-08:00

So my quilt is coming along! I don't think that it's actually a log cabin quilt anymore...it's a "Angie Original" now! The definition of a "Angie Original" is that I made enough mistakes that it just ended up being whatever I made!!! I like it though, I think that it's pretty and that is all that matters! Some of my seams aren't really straight and it's a little off in places but it's as imperfect as me and that makes it special! (Or so I am telling myself!!!)

Quilt progress and wardrobe diasters....

2010-02-23T16:38:00.001-08:00

So my first attempt at quilting is coming right along! My pattern is sort of a Log Cabin but it's turning into more of a just whatever I happen to come along with in a 12 inch block! I sat down and did my measurements and I have to make 20 blocks. I'm done with 8 now! Only 6 are pictured but it's 8! I'm having a lot of fun with it!
Bless my husband...wonderful, wonderful man, fabulous taste in women....terrible taste in clothing!!! He has however agreed to allow me to turn some of his least tasteful shirst into a quilt for him! Below are examples....I'm sure you will agree the fellow can't dress!
And lastly just cause she's so ADORABLE! My darling gal!

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2010 resolution....on it's way to completion!

2010-02-13T20:56:00.000-08:00

Ok Ok so it's going to be a REALLY long time before I actually complete it! But I'm teaching myself to sew! As part of my 2010 things I want to do....I want to learn to sew. I have had a sewing machine for greater than 4 years. Thanks to my most marvelous mother in law who purchased it for me when several years ago I expressed interest in learning....I have not used it once until now! And here is the first 12" inch block of what will one day be a log cabin quilt for a very special person who will love this extremely imperfect quilt every bit as much as she loves me......

Jumpy Jumpy Jumpy

2010-01-06T09:14:00.001-08:00

So it's official I'm "that mom." I let Alyssa jump on the bed from time to time. Ok sometimes we even jump on the bed with her! I figure life is too short not to enjoy it and the best part of being a mom is you also get to be a kid again (time appropriate of course!). If I start stomping my feet and throwing myself in the floor you guys talk to me ok?? I took a few pics while we were playing. It was a nice get away from the rainy cold weather this week for sure! I may break down and have to get out to the McDonalds if the weather doesn't improve! My outdoor girl is not happy!

This picture makes me happy!

Christmas Morning!

2009-12-26T08:00:00.000-08:00

This year was our first Christmas as a "military family." That being said we are 16 hours from home and our families. I sure do miss them. I miss the Christmas chaos and my equally loud and wonderful siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins. But it was a good Christmas anyhow. Jamey was actually scheduled to work at the hospital but his wonderful coworker Deborah insisted that she work for him so that he could be home with Alyssa Christmas morning. There is nothing quite like the light in a childs eyes when they see that tree laden with gifts. Alyssa was so excited she didn't know what to open first and kept half opening things and moving on to the next before she finished with the first.

We didn't go overboard. I've been really pleased with myself and Jamey in our endeavors to keep Christmas simple and not give in to the monster in me that wants to fill the livingroom to overflowing with gifts. The most popular gift.....a $10 firetruck. Our sweet little tom boy!

I also realize that I take too many pictures! When I was looking at my pictures from Christmas day I was stunned at how many I had taken! Jamey kids that I want to chronicle every moment of her life...and it's true. Every moment with our babies are special, special moments. Fleeting moments that pass so quickly and photographs are visual memories that our hearts hold. And my heart is so full of love for this child who I'm lucky enough to have, and this Christmas morning I'm so grateful for the most precious gift God bestowed upon me: MOTHERHOOD.

New Recipe blog!

2009-12-25T18:39:00.000-08:00

http://diaryofafatbamagal.blogspot.com/

Just in case you are interested!!!

Father and Son Bonding

2009-12-23T17:03:00.001-08:00

We all know that my husband is a tattoo fanatic. He loves the things and is totally addicted to them. His dad surprised EVERYONE by declaring that he wanted to get a tattoo to visibly remind him of Alyssa Rose (aka BG, Baby Girl, The Rose and San Antonio Rose as Jack calls her) daily. As a result he and Jamey decided to have Roses tattooed on them. Jamey said you never tattoo a woman's name on you unless that woman is your daughter or your granddaughter. Guess he loves "The Rose" more than me!! Here are the pics of their finished ink honoring the life of that aptly named Rose that bloomed in our lives overnight and filled our hearts to overflowing.

Pop choose to add Alyssa's birthday so that people knew it wasn't for just any old Rose!
Jamey's Rose.
They are crazy cool fellows huh? LOL! Hey no one said we are "Normal!" I'm getting my rose on my butt next week...well not really but that sounded GREAT right????

Pre-Christmas dinner with Jamey's folks

2009-12-22T17:11:00.001-08:00

So this was my first holiday season far away from home. My in-laws came out to celebrate pre-Christmas with us and I got to make my first "Christmas" dinner. I don't think that I did too shabby! Here's the pictures of my food! I did a horseradish and rosemary crusted rib roast, cheddar and dill biscuits, creamed spinach and a tres leche cake. The Tres Leche cake and creamed spinach are from the Pioneer Woman cooks website....if you haven't already discovered her check her blog out it's fantastic!!! http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/

Cheddar and dill herbed biscuits

4 ounces shredded cheddar cheese (you can you blue cheese or parm cheese or whatever variety you want)

2 tablespoons minced green onions

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp dried dill

2 cup all purpose flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/3 cup unsalted butter cut into pieces

3/4 cup buttermilk

combine first 4 ingredients in small bowl set aside

combine flour baking soda and powder, salt Cut in cheese mixture and butter with a pasty cutter till crumbly. Add buttermilk and combine until moist. I just pat out little biscuits and then place them on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake 450 for 8-10 minutes

Creamed Spinach

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/04/creamed-spinach-to-die-for/
Horseradish crusted rib roast

4 carrots

2 med onions

24 oz baby potatoes

8 celery ribs

2 tbsp olive oil

4-5 lb standing rib roast

1 tsp kosher salt

3 springs rosemary

3/4 cup horseradish sauce

1 1/2 tsp worchestire sauce

1/4 tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 475 cut carrots and onions into 1 inch pieces cut potatoes and celery into 1 inch pieces. Combine wiht olive oil and place in roasting pan. Season roast with salt and pepper and place over veggies. Reduce heat to 325 and bake for 1 hour. Combine chopped rosemary, horseradish sauce and worchestire and after roast has cooked for 1 hour coat roast with mixture and continue to bake for 1 1/2 to 2 hours additional. Let stand 20 minutes serves 8

Tres Leche cake

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/09/tres-leches-cake/

This was so yummy that I'll make it again and again!! Unbelievable good!!!!!

BAMC Military Ball

2009-12-21T08:41:00.000-08:00

Jamey and I had the oppurtunity to attend the Military Ball this year. It was at the Marriott on the Riverwalk here in San Antonio. It was really a lot of fun and Jamey looked so handsome in his dress blues. We so rarely see him in uniform that it always makes your chest swell up when you see him looking so dashing. Jamey reports to work in his PT clothes and changes into scrubs so it's not even like he dresses like an Army man too often! I had the chance to meet some of his coworkers who were looking glamorous. It was a nice experience!

My Gran-Gran's visit to Texas

2009-12-12T13:39:00.000-08:00

My grandma came to visit us in this past week. We enjoyed it so much. I haven't had the chance to spend that much time with my grandma before and I'm so glad that she decided to come out and spend a week with us. We had the chance to chat a lot while she was here and we got to visit a couple of places as well. Alyssa LOVED all the time that she got to spend with her GG. My grandma is such a special lady and she and I have always been close and it was very nice to have her all to myself for a whole week. I really enjoyed the chance to cook for her, chat and laugh for her.

We took her down to the Riverwalk and that was a lot of fun. The Riverwalk is so pretty this time of the year with all the lights. Alyssa loved it and she kept saying "WOW."

Us at the Riverwalk it was COLD!! Alyssa was wearing my gloves and they were WAY too big!!!
Lyssa and her GG reading "Goodnight Moon" Alyssa really enjoyed reading with grandma. I cherish this picture. Notice Alyssa was dressed up like a princess for the occasion.
This was Grandma's first night here and Alyssa said "Picture mama!" and posed for the camera! She def takes after me! LOL!
Alyssa really enjoyed playing with Grandma. She was forever playing with her face! I don't remember exactly what she was doing here.

Tub Kisses

2009-12-02T07:42:00.000-08:00

So I'm really behind on my blogging! Seems like I just don't have as much time lately even though I don't know why! I just thought I was share these. Alyssa was giving me some loving while she was getting her scrubbing. I normally don't post pics of me when I look like a hag but I did make an exception today because these pictures make me happy....

IF it goes on...it must come off....right???

2009-10-23T15:38:00.001-07:00

Our little Alyssa is a very curious little child....unfortunately sometimes it gets her into trouble...Today while I was cleaning the carpet she apparently decided that her potty seat would be a fun thing to wear like a necklace. I have no idea how she got this over her head but it was much more difficult to get it back off....Dad and I did manage to get it off with some careful hacking and a little crisco. Needless to say we will stick with the potty chair from now on and not have the potty seat...it's a little to dangerous in our house!

Good daddy's truly are blessings!

2009-10-23T10:57:00.000-07:00

I just thought these were cute and I had to share them! Jamey got home from work Saturday night and Alyssa played dress up with her papa! Good daddy that he is he happily donned his wig and sat down to a tea party with his baby girl before dinner. I'm so blessed to have both he and Alyssa in my life. They truly make everyday a happy day!

Love her tutu, sesame street, crazy hair combo? She put this together herself!

Bald Heads, Pretty Princesses and Poor fashion.....

2009-10-08T19:15:00.000-07:00

Jamey has decided to finally give up on the world of hair so we shaved his head. The truly hysterical portion of this is that Alyssa also wanted us to shave her head and cried when we wouldn't do it. Jamey was all for it, but I'm not letting him shave my pretty girls head!
"Kissy You Mama!" Alyssa is just starting to really get into dressing up and loves to play dress up. I forgot we had this adorable little costume and ran across it today while I was cleaning out the attic and the garage. Glad I did though because she had such fun playing in it!

Our little Alyssa inherited her father's fashion sense....poor child. She put this outfit together all on her own....Her nightgown with her blue jeans and then wore it all day long....!

Motorcycle Ride through Texas hill country

2009-09-27T05:36:00.000-07:00

Jamey and I were invited by our friends Shannon and Dustin to go on a bike ride through Texas Hill Country. Despite the fact that my butt was so numb I couldn't stand it when we were done it was a fabulous time! It was really beautiful. I took these pictures from the back of the bike and they don't do Texas Hill country justice at all. It was a beautiful ride! Our destination was Fredricksburg, TX and we had dinner at a little German restaurant there.

I strive to do all things in my life memorable and thus on the way home our motorcycle broke down! Can you believe that??? I told Jamey not to buy American! Nah really it was probably just a fuse but we will find out Monday when we take the bike in to the shop. We do have roadside assistance on the bike and so a tow truck came and got us. Thank goodness that Shannon and Dustin's oldest daughter is our babysitter! All and all a good trip, but I could have done without the mechanical trouble at the end!

My weight loss journey...the never ending saga!

2009-09-25T11:07:00.000-07:00

So I have been working really hard to lose weight and I pulled out old pictures to motivate myself! I've lost 34 lbs so far and I'm pretty happy with the results...I've still got a long way to go but I'm closer than I was!

Visit with Alyssa's first Family

2009-09-17T12:57:00.001-07:00

Jamey and I have been really blessed in that we have been able to keep in contact with Alyssa's firstmom and grandma. The blessings that we received in being able to become Alyssa's parents have been so plentiful! Adoption truly is a gift and it has so enriched our lives. I'm very grateful to say that I can call Alyssa's first mom and grandmother friends, and people who I love so dearly. I hope as Alyssa grows she will know how special she is and how lucky she is to have so many people who love her in her life. She also has a very beautiful half sister, Shyanne who totally adores her! These are actually the first pictures that I have of Alyssa and I with Sue, Shy and Jessi! I am always the one taking them and never actually am in them! Thanks to Sue and Jessi for allowing us to be in your lives! We love you all so much!

10 year class reunion.....sorta

2009-09-17T12:48:00.000-07:00

The class of 1999 from Buckhorn high school postponed our class reunion 3 weeks prior to the event. So I had my own! Here are some pictures! I had a fabulous time and really enjoyed catching up with all those that turned out for it. We had approx 25 people there altogether and for a last minute unofficial reunion I thought that was totally awesome! I will however not be bothering to attend the "real" reunion next May....somehow I have a feeling it probably won't actually happen....

My Baby

2009-09-04T22:02:00.000-07:00

I hope my child looks back on today,
and remembers a Mommy who had time to play.
There will be years for cleaning and cooking,
But children grow up when we are not looking.
Cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow,
Babies grow fast, we learn to our sorrow.
So settle down cobwebs, dust go to sleep,
I’m cuddling my baby, and babies don’t keep.

Just a quick update!

2009-09-04T12:04:00.001-07:00

Just a little update on our little family. I'm settling into the role of a stay at home mom. I enjoy it some days and others I think working might be easier! I talk a lot about going back to work a day or two a week, but for now Jamey's schedule is so hectic that it isn't all that realistic at the moment. The terrible 2's are here and our new favorite thing to do is throw massive temper tantrums! Being 2 years old has to be hard for her as well, she goes from all smiles to massive fits in the floor in about 2.2 seconds! She's a drama queen! I guess she got that from her mama! Jamey says all the time between she and I he's moving out when she's a teenager!

Alyssa's vocabulary is really increasing. It's AMAZING all the new words that she says everyday and the stuff that she comes up with. She's truly one of the funniest people I know, she got that from Uncle BJ! She thinks she is funny too! She runs and runs and runs and tells Jamey "Alyssa RUNS FAST!!!" and she does! Believe me we chase her enough! She will start back to Mother's Day Out 2 days a week next week. All of her teachers are fluent in Spanish and they will be teaching the kids to speak Spanish. Jamey and I are so excited that she'll have this chance. Maybe she can even teach us! They also have music class there once day a week. I am so excited about this new program. They also have a really involved Parents organization and I met some wonderful other stay at home mommies when she and I went to the clean up day at her school a couple of weeks ago.

Alyssa and I will be back in Sweet Home Alabama next Friday and I'm excited about that as well. I miss all my Alabama family and friends and am really really looking forward to seeing everyone while we are in town. Even though we are really going to miss Daddy who has to stay here and work!

We are also really glad that it is finally cooling down out here....it's so hot that some days we can't stand to be outside for very long (well I can't...Alyssa is another story! Thank goodness for the big oak tree in our backyard!!!) Oh well just a little update on the life of the Kephart's out in Texas!

Our Mini Beach Vacation

2009-08-31T10:56:00.001-07:00

Jamey being the wonderful husband and father that he is took Alyssa and I over to Corpus Christi for the weekend. We had such a fun time. We took Alyssa to the Texas Aquarium and she got to pet a Stingray. She loves fish! They had a dolphin show and she got to watch that as well. It was a ton of fun! Then we went over to Padre Island to the beach. Alyssa loves the beach. Just like her daddy! She and Jamey walked all over the place hunting up seashells and hermit crabs. They found several sanddollars as well. We built a very sad little sandcastle but we enjoyed ourselves so much! All in all a fabulous weekend getaway!

Converted to the dark side.....

2009-08-08T19:35:00.000-07:00

Of the world of Tattoos! I had my right hip done when I was young and stupid but always wanted to get it mirrored on the left. I'm all about symmetry! And I also did my foot. Hurt like the devil......haha! My mom is completely horrified and told Manda to tell me that she was glad it hurt! I'm sure I'll regret it when I'm 80 and wrinkly but for now I LOVE IT!!!

Finger Paint Fun!

2009-08-03T16:50:00.000-07:00

Every time I break out the finger paint somehow it ends up like this.......I don't know what her teacher at school is going to think when she starts painting herself instead of her paper!!!

Jamey says that we are just encouraging her to express her creative side! We emailed these pictures of us to him at work today and he said he smiled the rest of the day!!!