Ummm....fell off the blog wagon!

Oh my goodness, I said I was going to do better at blogging and I did...for a month and then off the wagon I fell. I just looked and realized the last time I posted was Spring Break! Really?!? Darn it, missed summer completely. (It was busy and great) and now we are back into the school year.

Sara started 1st grade and is still loving school. Kate also started playschool last week. She absolutely loves going. She's at that age where she thrives being around other kids her age and getting to play with her new "friends." When I tell her it's school time she bolts to the door and is trying to get into the car before I'm even near it.

Sara started gymnastics this year and loves it so far. Kate is ready to go in and do her "rolls" too...she'll be able to start in January since she'll turn 2 at Thanksgiving.

We are busy and doing life as it comes....and I'll try my best to update sooner than every six months.

Spring Break 2011 Recap

So...Sara created us a list last weekend of all we needed to do on Spring break. The list went as so...

-go the zoo (check)

-eat LOTS of Ice Cream (check-3 days)

-go to a park with slides and swings (check)
-go downtown to see the buildings (check)

-go the park and feed the ducks (check)

-eat yummy chesse pizza (check)

-play outside all day (check-many times)
-go swimming (check)

And that sums up our Spring Break. Lots of sun, fun, and mommy, Sara, Kate time. So, as I remembered the "list" she'd created us...we made sure by yesterday all of those were done. It was a busy Spring break. But Oh So Fun! Makes me excited for summer to get here so I have both my girls to play with every day. I know Kate LOVED having Sara around this week. It'll be strange next week when she's back to school.

Spring Break...YAY!!!

Well....I don't have a ton to say, but I'll bullet point the last few weeks:

-I was sick as can be the past two weeks. No energy at all...just recently starting to feel like "me" again, and only some days
-we've lived in our new house almost a year and I finally hung curtains....I LOVE them
-Sara will be 6 years old this month (OMG), birthday party planning has begun
-Kate is the most opinionated and strong willed 15 month old I've ever seen in my life. I bought "Parenting the Difficult Child" and will be pouring over that soon, very soon!
-Kate started calling my best friend, Lory, "Mimi" it is too cute :)
-Sara has spring break this week....we have no plans and I'm LOVING it :)
-My girls are the light of my life-couldn't ask for more.
-I am loving keeping a gratitude journal (more on that later) inspired by Ann Voskamp's "One Thousand Gifts"

Okay, so there's no rhyme or reason to my randomness, but that's my life. I love it.

Sickness abounds

this was Sara on Rodeo day at school....love my cowgirl

It is such a season of sickness, all around. I went to the doctor last week to see about my rash that I thought was poison ivy, well turns out it is not poison ivy....I have Shingles. And if that wasn't enough I also have a strand of mono that has literally wiped me out. I can hardly move, much less chase my little ball of energy around the house. It has been trying, and it isn't coming to an end any time soon by the looks of things.

Then yesterday Sara woke up in the middle of the night crying that her ear hurt. About 4am Kate wakes up and I go in her room to discover that she had thrown up in the middle of the night and apparently just slept in it-gag! I proceeded to clean her up, clean her bed, her room, her blankies,and everything else up. Awesome. Sara went the the doctor in the afternoon and has a bulging ear drum, so we started her on antibiotics yesterday.

So.... I'm sick, I'm exhausted, and I'm taking care of two kiddos who are wanting my undivided attention. This is so motherhood!

Under the weather and a weekend recap

this is my nephew, Caiden, feeding Kate cake at a bday party last weeknd

I feel sick. This seems to be a theme I am seeing in my friends' lives, my blogger friends, my twitter friends, it just seems the bugs are getting the best of some many of us right now. I don't know what I have... I'm EXHAUSTED beyond belief, like can barely make it to Kate's nap time before I crash. I have a weird red rash all over my arms and has spread to most of my body, it itches. Alot. Suspected poison ivy, but now considering other symptoms, I'm thinking it's more of a viral systemic thing-awesome! So, I'll go to the doctor tomorrow and see what they think may be the problem (and please dont' tell me it's "stress" again. There's no pill for that!)

Okay, so on a happier and lighter note...I had a great and SUPER busy weekend. Friday night my girls spent the night with my parents and I went out to Chuy's for a friend's birthday dinner. Yummy. It was fun and a nice visit with alot of folks. I had driven with my best friend Lory and we went back to her house and hung out for a while with her girls and started watching "The Book of Eli" about 11pm and didn't finish until 1am. Yeah, I was tired....so I crashed on her couch. When we woke up Lory, Michelle (her middle daughter) and I had a fun morning playing Mexican Trains (a domino game) and drinking coffee....does life get better? :)

That night we had reservations for Lory's birthday dinner at a great seafood restaurant in Houston. Lory, Michelle, Mandy (her youngest, who'd come in from College Station) and I headed out for a great evening. It was yummy and we had great conversations. I love spending time with those girls, never a dull moment, and always so much love. Only thing that could have completed the evening was if Whitney (her oldest, who lives MANY miles away) was with us, but Maui is a ways off.

*side note- Whit, Michelle and Mandy are my best friend's daughters- they are my sisters in EVERY sense of the word, as Whit has always said, blood couldn't make us any closer- love those girls and they are an integral part of mine and my girls lives. Adore EACH of them :)

Sunday was church, then lunch at Gringo's (another YUMMY meal), home for an hour and a half for Kate to grab a quick nap (and me) :) and then headed back to Lory's for Bible study.  Wow. What a weekend. I'm tired remembering it. Then I started feeling bad and yeah- that's where I am now. Praying it passes. Hoping all out there that are sickly now start turning a corner soon...I'm there in that corner with you for now. UGH!

Valentines Day 2011 Recap

So I'm not a mushy Valentines Day girl, but I will NEVER miss an opportunity to send out cards...it's definitely my love language. So I'd long ago gone to Target and hand picked cards for my loves. I'd sent off several packages the week before to those far-off loves (like in Hawaii and College Station-LOL!) So come the real V-day, I was just up to giving to those around here.

I started the morning loving on my girls and making Sara special V-day chocolate milk (okay, well I called it that but it was the same chocolate milk she drinks every morning, but she went along with the fact that I said it was special and made a big deal over it, maybe just to appease me, or maybe not- either way, it was more exciting.) I got her off to school and got me and little one dressed for the day. Made a trip to Starbucks to pick up some coffee for me and my best friend, grabbed her a bouquet of roses and headed off to her work to drop off some love for the day. After that Kate took a quick nap in the car and we were off to Sara's school Valentine party (with a half-napped toddler-ouch) I always love seeing Sara in her element at school. To see all the Kinders interacting, to see faces to go with all the names. It was great, but only half enjoyed as I chased Miss Kate out the door every .0345 seconds. Then we leave, exhausted.
Head home for nap, doesn't happen round 2- mommas spent. Kate decides to throw the worlds biggest fit for 20 minutes- really. All because she saw a bottle of Benadryl sitting out and wanted to drink it (this kid loves medicine)

So, I'm fried...I'd actually walked in the bathroom and closed the door during said fit because I need quiet for a fraction of a second. She calms down, we proceed out the door to my niece’s gymnastics class that was having bring a friend day, and she’d invited Sara.

We do gymnastics, leave after fighting/chasing Kate for an hour, and head home...grab food on the way home, eat, change into PJ's and all collapse.

I sit down and my whole body aches. LONG DAY. Wow- what a Valentines Day. (This is pretty indicative of a normal day around here....I'm hoping it one day slows down) But it's my crazy life and I love it. :)

Crock pot Chicken Tacos

Okay, so another go to, easy crock pot recipe that I make every few weeks is my crock pot chicken tacos. These have AMAZING flavor. They are so good, and once again-all I do is throw on some Spanish rice and grab the fixings and dinner is ready. No stress, very little time for prep, it's a dream dinner. :)

Ingredients:
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can rotel
1 packet low sodium taco seasoning (or I use chicken taco seasoning if I can find it)
about 2 lbs chicken (thawed or frozen)

For Tacos (fixings):
Tortillas/ taco shells
Grated Cheese
Sour Cream
Guacamole
Picante or Pico de Gallo

-Put chicken in crock pot; mix other ingredients and pour over chicken

-cook on High for 2 hrs or cook on Low for 3-4 hours

-Shred chicken in crock pot and serve. So good!

ingredients

rotel, cream of chicken soup, & taco seasoning mixed

all the "fixins"

all in the crock pot ready to cook