Blog Hop

What an exciting post this week. Favorite kid pictures. I could have a post a mile long. I have so many photos that I simply love of my children. I have chosen a couple more recent photos although if I dug far enough back through the baby book I'd find a dozen or so more that I'd be dying to share. So here is a sampling of my favorite photos....



This is my sweet little Paloma right around the time of her birthday. She was born New Years Ever 2006. In this photo she had just turned 2. Totally reflects her personality. Serious and sassy. I love it.



This picture was taken last summer at the beach. I love it. Captured at the most perfect moment. Daddy had completely sent Mattea air borne causing mommy to almost wet her pants.



And who can resist this photo. Simply stunning. Taken on our trip to Disney at the beginning of May, Mattea and Paloma couldn't wait to see their favorite princesses. We love Cinderella here at our house and I absolutley love this photo. This photo is the one that brings back all of our Disney memories. I hope it works just as well with the kids as they get older.

Weekly Wrap

I need to start this post by simply saying this...

I love these two little girls more than words can possibly express.
I may have my moments where I sincerely believe parenting is not all that it is cracked up to be (some weeks produce more moments than others) but that does not negate the fact that I love these little girls and there is nothing that I won't do for them.

We had a somewhat stressful week at our house and that is why I feel like I've been a bit out of touch. Despite having Dave gone at the beginning of last week, I worked way more hours than I normally do. In fact, when I told Mattea that our babysitter Julie would be coming over for a couple of hours on Thursday to help us out until Dave got home from work, her reply was "were having a lot of Julie time and not a lot of mommy and daddy time." That one hit pretty hard. But I guess kids don't lie - and she's true. We didn't have a lot of family time.

Dave arrived safely home on Tuesday night from the second week in a row of traveling. Then we were off as a family early Wednesday morning to have a CT scan done on Mattea to rule out a brain tumor/aneurysm. After having a couple bizarre headache/eye pain episodes Mattea was taken to a pediatrician who consulted with our pediatric neurologist and believed it would be in our best interest to rule out "all the bad stuff." Not really having a whole lot of time to really comprehend, I was in complete denial up until Tuesday night when it finally dawned on me that our lives could be changed in less than 24 hours.

We are very happy to report that Mattea is neurologically intact. CT scan was normal and we will be continuing to monitor her headaches. With that very scary test behind us, Dave and I took the rest of the week to fully enjoy and appreciate every single minute with our children. They are such a blessing and I guess this little incident simply reminds us that our earthly time is limited and only our Maker knows when our time here is through. We have been so blessed and can't thank God enough for all He has done for us.

Finishing out last week with work was absolutely no fun. It has been crazy on the floor. Some very sick, sad, and complicated kids have been among us. I am finding that as my kids get older I am having a harder time with work. I am sure I will learn to suppress my feelings from work when I arrive home but it is hard not to look into the eyes of a dying toddler or a sick baby and not think of your own children.

With that, I'll end this rambly post with simply a thank you for prayers lifted up on Mattea's behalf. We are grateful for the wonderful news and hopeful these headaches will pass. We appreciate your concern. Have a fantastic week - I know I will be. Nothing but fun and relaxation on the agenda AND a camping trip next weekend. Y'all know I'm not quite the camping kind of girl but Dave emailed me the reservation. I will be sure to keep you posted.

Blessings

A Day Of Fun

Today after church, the girls and I packed up and headed over to the beach to meet daddy for his work picnic. It was a perfect day - 90's with a nice breeze. The girls have been looking forward to "da beach" for quite some time now. I couldn't wait to take them out.

Despite missing their nap, my babies were great. They played, splashed, ate, mingled, and made sand castles until they were literally on their last leg. We all got a whopping dose of Vitamin D and enjoyed a fantastic BBQ. Needless to say, bedtime took only about 5 minutes tonight. They are sleeping soundly.

Wordless Wednesday

Too Cute Tuesday

Blog Hop

What a fun theme this week - submitting your favorite recipe.
Well, as many of you may know - or not know - I can't cook. I don't like to cook, I don't take the time to cook, nor am I patient enough for cooking. But, I do have a recipe that I'd love to share and it is one that I have successfully prepared over and over again. It is healthy, 0 points (for all you weight watchers fans), and downright good. AND, I can run out to the garden at any time and pick all of the ingredients needed. Sounds good huh?
So without further ado.....



Marinated Cucumbers

2 medium cucumbers
1 small red onion
1/2 red bell pepper
2/3 cup distilled white vinegar
6 packets sucralose non-caloric sweetener
dash of cayenne pepper

1) Cut cucumbers into thin slices. Add onion and bell pepper








2) Combine vinegar, sweetener and cayenne pepper in a pot. Bring just to a boil. Remove from heat and let cool.

3) Pour vinegar mixture over cucumber mixture. Refrigerate, covered, until chilled. Serve with a slotted spoon!

*Quick note. My red peppers have not turned red yet - so in a pinch we have used our green peppers. The dish is not as pretty but still tastes yummy.

Wedding Weekend

This weekend was so much fun. To begin, I had my husband home for 48 hours and I was not working. A huge blessing all around. Saturday morning we packed up the kids and headed down for a 6.5 mile run along the greenbelt. After our workout and hanging out with our children, Dave and I picked up our babysitter and headed out to help a friend celebrate her new marriage. Yeah!
I love weddings. They are magnificent. With the divorce rate sky rocketing in this country, I am a huge believer that every wedding I witness is one closer to being that relationship that God wants us to encounter. God had a specific role and design tation.plan in mind when it came to marriage - the one sacred relationship. I love being married and I now wish that for my friend Tracy.
So I thought I would share a few photos from the momentous day. Most of the pictures are of Dave and I getting crazy with the camera - but I really did end up taking some of Tracy and Jeff as well. I just was so crazy happy and love on Saturday night, I wanted to document it. Plus, it has seemed like forever that we had a babysitter and actually went out for more than 2 hours - so that in and of itself deserved documentation.

Swimming Lessons - Daddy Style

Before leaving for the week, Dave took Mon. morning off and headed into swimming lessons with the girls. This was a huge blessing to me as I was then able to concentrate on watching both girls rather than being consumed with Paloma and her lesson (since she is still in parent/toddler class). Plus, I think Paloma secretly liked having her daddy there instead of mommy.











Paloma is doing fabulous and even gets to be bumped up to the "Pike" class next session. I'm a bit worried as the minimum age requirement is 3 and she is only a mere 2.5. But, I really want her to start learning some skills and she is just not doing that in the parent/toddler class.
Mattea is also doing really well. She has had to repeat her "Super Pike" class several times because she just can't float well on her own. But she has made some amazing strides this session and so we are hoping she gets to graduate. We'll keep you posted....

Mattea Moments

Tonight as I was laying in bed tucking Mattea in, our conversation went something like this...

Mattea: Mommy, why don't you sleep with daddy?

Me: Because daddy is out of town.

Mattea: Oh, do you usually sleep with daddy, and he brings you coffee?

Me: Oh yes, daddy brings me coffee huh?

Mattea: Yeah - and that's why you love him?

Me: You got it sister!

Wordless Wednesday

Blog Hop

This week, on TUESDAY, 7/14/09, the theme is THREE THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT ME.
I sure hope some of my blogging friends will join me on our weekly Blog Hop.
So to begin....



1) This is my husband Dave. We have been married 7 years in September. I feel blessed beyond words to be married to such an extraordinary man. Anyone who knows me already is aware that I gush about how completely lucky I am to have in my life. But what you may not know is that I took up running for this man, I make cooking attempts for this man, I try not to cry in front of this man (although it has happened), and I am deathly terrified of appearing weak in front of this man. Granted, he has seen me at some pretty vulnerable time - ie childbirth. But in all reality, my desire is for my husband to see me at my finest and not remember my weaknesses. I fear being seen as a weak individual - by those around me - but especially my husband. Crazy huh?



2) Dave & I have talked on many occasions about being open to the possibility of adoption. In fact, on our 2nd date, we discussed adoption and shared our dreams of internationally adopting a child. After we had Paloma, I think we were both terrified to even contemplate adding any more children to our family for fear that we would literally be driven to the brink of insanity. As our children are maturing, life is getting easier. As our girls grow and become more independent, I can definitely sense my self revisiting the idea. I think both Dave and I share the idea that God has blessed us with two amazingly beautiful, healthy little girls whom we absolutely adore with all of our hearts. We can't think of a better way to thank God than to provide a home to a very deserving child. (And secretly, I realllllly want to adopt from India. Some may know that, some may not.)



3) This one dates way back to college - and of course I'm not too proud to admit this to all who know me out there but here goes....
I had to retake my nursing math test 6 times in order to pass - and the only way that I ended up passing was to cheat. I hate math, don't understand algebra, and use a calculator all the time. Was that going to make me a bad nurse - NO! So in my head, that is how I justified cheating. I remember thinking to myself -all those years ago-that this math seemed hard and it was going to be a shame if I couldn't pass and all my hard work that went into studying to become a nurse would be wasted. Mind you, this was like 6th grade math and in hindsight, this test carried absolutely no weight. But at the time, it seemed like a huge obstacle. Well, needless to say, I did pass, I went on to get good grades in college, passed my NCLEX on my first attempt, and have yet to make any major math errors in my years as a nurse. So.....


Wow -that was harder than I thought. Hope you've enjoyed reading. Won't you play along? Have a blessed week!

Garden Glory

Introducing Pretty P

I have been downright frustrated with Paloma's hair lately. She is in that crazy toddler phase where her hair parts funny, combs funny, looks funny, and smells funny. It is frizzy yet curly, fine yet thick. And it seems to be growing but at super slow speed. So, I did what any good mother would do -I cut it all off. Yep, I was sick of it. I wanted her to look cute with hair that was low maintenance and healthy. So this weekend, our entire family headed out for 3 haircuts and an eyebrow wax. (In case anyone was wondering - I did not miss out on the action, that eyebrow wax was for me!) For the record - my haircut actually comes tomorrow when I am heading into the salon for an afternoon of cut/color/style. Even getting a babysitter people!
So without further ado......
Here is pretty Paloma!!!!!

Not Me Monday

It has been awhile since I've played - but excited to be rejoining "Not Me Monday." If you'd like to play along, hop on over to MckMama's blog and catch up on all the latest rules and regulations or to simply check out what all the other MckMama fans have 'Not Been Up To.' Either way, here's to another week....



1) I certainly did not entertain the idea of packing up my two sweet little girls and my husband to head off to the local baseball park to take in Dollar/Family Night. Ummm, hate sports way too much to think that we'd actually have a good time. But I most certainly did not go into it with a bad attitude.... While we were there, my children did not load up on sugary, rotten, bad for you stadium food. I of course would never forget the wipes or go anywhere without napkins while my children are trying to down their 'not very good for you stadium food'. In a panic after Paloma spilled her slushy all over, I did not dig through the diaper bag and begin using Cinderella panties to clean up the mess. I am never unprepared and way too civilized to be using toddler panties in public. Not me.

2) I absolutely did not look up the other night to find Paloma intently looking and then digging in her toes. I then did not witness her stick her finger in her mouth. After questioning her behavior my daughter absolutely did not tell me she was eating the dirt from her toes. I raise my kids better than that. UGh! NOt me.

3) After completely believing Dave and I were going to get up and run a 10K race on Saturday morning, I did not carb load on a bag of Cheetos and then completely justify it by examining the carb content in a serving size of extra crispy Cheetos. And then.... Dave and I absolutely did not skip the race (for many reasons) and completely blow off running altogether that day to lay around and do nothing while our children played in the next room. Not us.

There's a brief glimpse of how my week did not pan out. I'm sure if I examined it more closely, I would not be able to add another ten things to the list. As I'm running around in scrubs and flip flops, this rendition of Not Me is as good as it gets.

Have a blessed week!

Family Night

Wednesday night was family night at the local stadium here in town. Being only that tickets were $1.00, our family decided to try it out. With neither Dave nor myself taking any sort of interest in baseball whatsoever, we decided that $1.00 treats were our motivator.



Paloma jumped right up and began checking out the field.



Wasn't long before the discounted treats started rolling in. With several rounds on board, the girls actually sat in their seats and watched a couple of innings.



Of course, my girls wanted to run onto the field after the 7th inning and sing with the big "Chicken Bird." Not knowing the words to 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame,' they kind of just stood out there and watched.



And when mom and dad had had enough, we bought one more bowl of ice cream for the road and headed back home. Spending less than $15.00 the entire evening made it worth the drive down there but really - who sits and watches baseball anyway.



Is this picture not simply adorable?

Sweet Dreams

Wordless Wednesday

Blog Hop

"Run Forest Run"

What a fun little game we have going on. I happened to stumble upon it by accident - but here I am participating in the "Blog Hop." Anyone want to join along.....