The Glamorous Life

What we eat in a week

2012-02-06T10:42:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite bloggers House of Grace is hosting a party! Not just any party but a what we eat in a week party! I love this idea because i think most of us are looking for ideas on what to cook that our families may eat and enjoy. With a busy family of 7 i get stuck in the same ol rut of cooking the same things. There is lots of photos in this post but several are from my phone so ignore the quality =)

First i will talk a little about meal planning.i meal plan but very loosely. Before i head to the grocery store i look through the freezer and fridge and kind of see what i need to fill in. We keep a lot of the same things on hand and add in a few different things every time depending on what i cook. i used to cook more time consuming meal but now with kids in different activities and my husband and i also having things to do on occasion i try to go the simpler route.

I I try to keep lots of fresh produce on hand but it goes quick all my kids are good eaters so we shop usually every week that works for pour family. I go to Sams club or Costco every other week on payday (or shortly after) and stock up on bread, eggs, milk, veggies that last, meat (i only buy meat from costco) etc then i go to the regular grocery store about once a week for more fruits and veggies, more milk, and items needed to fill in.

I usually have a lot of stuff in the pantry which is why i am doing a February challenge for our family. I always have cereal, oats, tortilla chips, canned foods, peanut butter etc. We don't do many boxed/frozen foods so i keep staples like tomatoes, whole beans, pastas and so on

OK so here are things we tend to eat often:

Breakfast

My boys eat at school Monday through Friday because it costs a quarter a day and they have lots of varieties of breakfast items including fresh fruit and cereal and milk every day so for us it works great

the little kids eat cereal, or oatmeal every day on occasion i make eggs and toast but not very often. Oh Lilly love waffles she eats those a LOT too.

i usually drink a shake for breakfast I use Isagenix products and when i have a chocolate shake in the morning it sets me up for a successful day

On the weekends we will make pancakes, eggs, breakfast burritos etc but not every weekend. Honestly i don't like breakfast so i don't focus on it much there is food to eat i just don't make it a big deal

John eats oatmeal EVERY day

Lunches:

John eats out every day

boys eat at school $0.40 a day again totally worth it i cant make a sack lunch for that price.

that leave Liz, Lilly, Jake and I. We usually eat leftovers, I do tacos on these 40 calorie corn tortillas topped with chicken, and fresh veggies this particular lunch keeps me at about 200 calories for the meal, i have a big glass of water with it. I like to make a big pot of veggie soup and i will have that with salsa and lemon squeezed on top. the kids eat sandwiches, leftovers or soup almost every day.

Snacks:

fruit

homemade popcorn

cheese and crackers

are usually the go to sometimes the kids have tortilla chips and salsa because i always have fresh salsa on hand

Dinners:

We eat a lot of Mexican food I make a pot of beans and store it in the fridge and use it several times a week, we have burritos of some sort or taco salads at least once a week.

Stir fry is quick and easy and uses up ingredients that need to be used asap

breakfast for dinner is a big hit around here

we live in California so we grill a LOT of chicken and use it all week in chicken salads, fajitas, quesidillas, add it to soup etc.

i make soup quite often just a veggie soup with whatever looks good at the store, chicken broth, tomatoes and cabbage round it out filling and yummy.

i usally cook about 3 nights a week and on those days i am home all day i make 2-3 meals then we have them on the nights i dont cook a meal just reheat it and it works well. John and I are dieting too which usually means i make some thing for the kids and he and i may eat something different then the kids but we still all eat together, a little unconventional but it works for us

John eats out a lot so i don't need to be too creative at home since he usually eats his big meal at work

(i made some shredded buffalo chicken in the crock-pot the kids loved it in quesidillas, and i made a quick bean and avocado salad to go with it)

there is always a helper around to help =)

kids favorite spaghetti which i don't make often enough since we try to watch carbs =)

I end the day with some cleanse for life i love how i feel with it in my body

i try to drink water unless we go out then i like to have iced tea or soda.

February challenge

2012-02-02T08:23:00.000-08:00

Johnnie and I are wanting to do some home improvements this year, usually for me i enjoy decorating our home but we have never really done anything to the outside of our home and after 4 years it needs it! Our goals are to redo our front yard, rip out the driveway, new grass flower beds, walkways, porch etc. Also we want to resurface our pool and fix the pool light so the kids can swim in the evenings come summer. So i am thinking those projects are going to take some extra cash because our tax return always runs out before our ideas ;)

My goal is to spend $75 a week on groceries! that may seem like a lot to some but i have got in that habit of spending much more than that and we have a big stock pile. i told Johnnie and he kind of snickered and said let me know how that goes... lol. Well that encouraged me to see if i can do it. We go through about 6 gallons a milk a week so that is about $20 of my $75 right there so the rest will go for produce, bread, eggs etc. Luckily i have quiet a bit of stuff and if i am creative i may not have to buy any meat we also have beans, rice, pastas, oatmeal, starting off with 4 18 packs of eggs so a good start!

Last night for my day 1 i made chicken stir fry and rice.

I have seen this done on lots of blogs and i love the idea, not so much for saving money (which is awesome) but for using up what we have. I will take pictures along the way especially at the end of the month when it gets lean lol

have you ever done a grocery challenge for your family? how did it go?

These pictures are from last month a trip to sams i took

Catching up

2012-02-01T01:24:00.001-08:00

I can not believe it has been over a month since i have updated the blog, we have been busy with life. 5 kids, church, bible studies, small groups, etc etc. i finally sat down and loaded a bunch of pics for posts so i will start posting those. hope you all have been well.

When she wants to

2011-12-21T00:00:00.000-08:00

she will...
Lilly is a stubborn girl sometimes
remember i wrote this post
about Ms.Lilly and potty training

well she had no interest in it, then the day after Thanksgiving she decided it was time

and she literally took off her diaper and potty trained herself
yup i know crazy

but she is so proud and is doing a great job at it

The tree

2011-12-20T00:00:00.000-08:00

This is our formal living room aka moms room
this year i bought a ton of the this tulle i love it and have used it every where!

I love it at night, looks like one of the kids were messing with the tree skirt though lol

up close, all my silver and red. although next year i want to add gold in the house so we will see how this ends up then =)

Trimming the tree

2011-12-19T01:30:00.000-08:00

Lilly loves our blow up Santa John bought at lowes this year

the kids are loving all the decorations. in the family room i stuck to more of my kid friendly stuff

we let the kids decorate the tree and i have not moved one ornament

Jake is a little obsessed with Christmas this year so much fun!

Even my 9 going on 16 year old David is enjoying the holiday traditions

Lilly looking out the window at Santa (a nightly ritual)

and of course she helped decorate the tree too

Dont just pin it {day 7}

2011-12-10T00:10:00.000-08:00

oh my goodness the week is over already?! We are getting so close to christmas! I want to thank the girl creative for having me in this super fun series, i loved it and i especailly loved that i posted every day i am hoping that gets me back in the groove of posting regularly.

here is another quick project i did at the same time to display Christmas cards i love this so much it did not photograph well but it is so cute. i just got a extra piece of burlap and hung it over my curtain (with staples HA! no one can see that right =)) and tied all my cards on with twine, i love this because you can see the whole card becasue you can turn it around my friends put a lot of work in to those cards i want everyone to see them =)

i received a few more cards today i am going to hang them up now that i see this picture HA!

I had liz string some red buttons on some and hung those too
confession: i have not sent out my cards yet!

i am not adding anything else to these rooms =)

but i love it!

here is this morning, i really need to learn to take better pictures of whole rooms, any tips?

NOW it's YOUR turn!

As we wrap up Creating Christmas week I hope that you have all been inspired to stop pinning and start creating! I’m excited to see what everyone has been working on. This Christmas Linky Party is no ordinary party. This is a blog hop. And what that means is that there are 18 FABULOUS bloggers that are hosting this party at their very own blog. Whether you add your project link here or at any of the other 17 co-hosts blogs, it will show up on one huge party list! Awesome!If you haven’t already, please take the time out to visit the other co-hosts and go through their Creating Christmas posts. There is some really neat projects!The Girl Creative, Que Linda Crafts, The Cottage Market, Love Lindsey, Domestic Mischief, Chicken Scratch, Love Sweet Love, Randee’s Organized Chaos, Musings of a Glamour Puss, Anastacia Knits, Southern Scraps, Modern Yet Old Fashioned, Broken Treasures, Alyssabeth’s, Domestic Deadline, Life on Walnut Street, 52 Mantels, The Glamorous Life

The Rules are SiMpLe:

Add a link to a project that YOU have created!
Visit the 2 links ahead of you and check out what they’ve got going on. Leave some comment love. Tis the season for giving after all. {wink wink}
HAVE FUN AND BE INSPIRED!!

My sweet big girl

2011-12-10T00:01:00.000-08:00

If i could keep her like this forever i swear i would. I love this age....

Don't just pin it {day 6}

2011-12-09T16:16:00.000-08:00

**apparently my auto post was scheduled for 6pm tonight not this morning ooops =)

Here are some shelves in my kitchen/dining room that i put up last year to add some color and display my favoirite cookbooks but sometimes it just ends up cluttered.

so last night i took everything off and tried to simplify it for Christmas

first i put a few things i knew i wanted on there then started thinking

i took some 12x12 frames and just added a pice of christmas scrapbook paper to put against the wall for a break in color

then i took some more mason jars (hey i had a ton) and added epson salt and some pieces from a long piece of garland i had that broke and sprinkled that on top

thats it super easy and much better right?

that campbells soup recipe organzier is special to me my mom gave it to me when i was first married and it has a bbunch of recipes she wrote out for me

I really stink at indoor pictues and lighting any tips on that?

see you all tomorrow one more day to go, this has been so fun!

tomorrow is our linky party so come back here (or any of the particapating blogs) and link up!

Don't just pin it {day 5}

2011-12-08T00:35:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! Welcome back for day 5 of our week of creating Christmas!

today i wanted to talk about my favorite item to decorate for Christmas, Christmas bulbs/ornaments! every year after Christmas i buy some new ornaments last year i got 2 big packs at Walmart for a dime a box, i repeat a DIME! crazy huh?! but they stock so many of those and they have to get rid of them right?

anyway bulbs are always good because you can pile them in bowls, baskets, lantern, bird cages, really anything would work.

I love the bowl in the picture below, my favorite are the clear glass ones. We made those as a mops craft a couple of years ago you just take strips of Christmas scrapbook paper and accordion fold it and stick it in there and put the cap back on, you could do any colors and it would look fabulous, you could even shred the paper, or whole punch it anything really.

Here are some cute ornaments in a apothecary jar i love these i would love to have a whole collection but they are not very inexpensive and i am cheap HA!i just take my favorite glass mitten ornament and put them around the handle and i love this look! oh and i love to display books as decor

here is a ornament i made for a ornament exchange i just cut my initial out (i used cardstock) and laminated it, punched a whole on top and put some ribbon threw the top i used a 1/2 inch zebra ribbon and some black hemp , then i used three little diamond embellishments super simple super cute =)

i have a lot of reds and silvers, this year i am going to be looking for gold because i really want to use gold next year. you can pile all kinds of colors together i kind of like to break color rules i think if you like the colors own it and try it you may be surprised or at least use my favorite decorate saying "fake it till you make it" haha!

oh and for my recipe i had something planned BUT i tried something new tonight that was SO good and i will be making it over and over so i want to share it with you, its great for the holidays, this is my favorite blog so its appropriate that i link this blog =)

Dont just pin it {day 4}

2011-12-07T03:00:00.000-08:00

here we are day 4 already?! I am loving this series of posts we get to share some fun projects. I am going to add a recipe that is tried and true here in our home each day along with the project, a big part of the Holidays is food and i love to get recipes that people have made and love.

this entry way decor is super simple and you probably have most of the items.

all i did was take some of that mesh ribbon i keep mentioning and wrapped it around some chritmas garland with white lights and weaved it around my entry shelf and added some red bulbs to the silver ones i already had in that metal bowl (i bought that bowl a few years ago at goodwill for like $2 it is super heavy and was orignally off white so i just sparyed it black easy peasy)

Holiday Monkey Bread
(really it is not only for the holidays but we only make it then HA)
ingredients:
*4 pack of biscuits (i use Pillsbury ones that come in a pack of 4 and are always the cheapest ones, no grands needed)
*1 cup of sugar
* couple table spoons of cinamon (totally guessing on that haha)
*stick of butter
*cup of brown sugar

preheat oven to 350 degrees

place brown sugar and cinnamon into a big bowl and mix it up
cut all 4 packs of biscuits up, each biscuit cut into quarters
throw all of those in the bowl and mix it up with the sugar mixture
while that is sitting there melt your butter then add the brown sugar and mix it up
in a bundt pan spray first with Pam then toss in your pecans (chopped or not up to you)
then the brown sugar/butter mixture
then add in the biscuits (i use a slotted soon so the excess sugar can come off)
then put in a preheated oven (350) for about 45 or until biscuits are golden brown
let sit for a few minutes then invert on a plate or cake stand then pull apart to eat

i make this every year on Thanksgiving and my 9 year old says it is one of his favorite things about the holidays

oh you can omit the nuts but why would you :)

see ya all tomorrow

Dont just pin it {day 3)

2011-12-06T03:00:00.000-08:00

Hi again welcome to day 3.
Every year I spend a little cash freshening up some of my Christmas decor, it may be buying some new ornaments, candles, ribbon etc etc. Well this year i wanted it to be my kitchen table. I bought this world market table on craigslist about 3.5 years ago i love it, it fits us all well but i never know how to decorate it for the holidays because we do have 5 kids and this table gets used daily.

Yesterday after church i went to Michaels and the dollar tree for a few things. while at the store i changed my mind a million times on the direction i wanted to go in but decided to keep it simple

I went into the school room and collected some things i thought may come in handy

I started messing with the things i had and purchased.

I decided to take some mason jars i already had and tie some burlap around them. i added some Epson salt and a tealight and voila super easy and cute

In the larger jars i added some scented pine cones and berries and tied with burlap also

Just layered them together on a piece of the burlap (this came in a roll at Michaels and was $4.99 and it was plenty for all my ideas )

I took some old food jars (these were like olives or something) and hot glued cinamon sticks to them and tied with... you guessed it more burlap =)

I love this look

I think i am going to add some more jars on that window seal oh sorry thinking out loud..

I added that little tree ($6.99 at Michaels and 50% off!) i think it is a perfect height for everything else

here it is lit up at night. i think my daughters pacifier and hand in the corner add to the picture don't

you < sigh >

well I am feeling good I am caught up on my days, are you crafting this holiday season? I think tomorrow I will post some recipes, because who doesn't want to cook up something yummy

life

2011-12-06T00:00:00.000-08:00

been trying to make more time for laughing

encouraging creativity

encouraging friendship

and sharing

and we have been making messes in the process but it is fun!
yes i have 3 other kids, they were not home this particular morning =)

Dont just pin it (day 2)

2011-12-05T22:23:00.000-08:00

Well for Day 2 I would like to show you my mantle.

It was very simple but i am loving it.

I saw this idea on pinterest a while back and i knew i wanted to this for the holiday.

I have had this black wire lantern for years (i actually have 2 but i keep it outside) and you are supposed to put a candle in it but it never looked right to me it seemed to small in the large lantern.

I have become obsessed with this mesh ribbon this year, i wrapped almost all my tree with it (i have 6 trees this year) and added some to my mantle too, i just kind of weave it around until i like it

these Santa bulbs are from Walmart a few years ago i {heart} Santa!

The vases are from pier1 they are used all the time but i love them during the holidays especially

Now this banner is also homemade but not by me =) , my very talented friend Tina made me this last year and i LOVE it!
So with the exception of the mesh ribbon(which is $7 for a huge spool at Sams club) the rest of the items i already had

Don't just pin create

2011-12-04T21:26:00.000-08:00

Hi guys I am a little late to the party (what else is knew) but i hope you like some on my projects i plan on showing you over the next few days! I love the idea of just don't pin create my pinterest boards are so full but i rarely do the projects. For those of you who are new to my blog welcome, just a little about me i am a SAHM mom of 5 kids 2 girls 3 boys. I like to do all sorts of home projects from organizing and cleaning to decorating.
*I like home and decorating project to be:
*useful/practical
*pretty (to me)
*inexpensive if not free -i love to use what i already have or buy very few things to make something i love
*and if it involves spray paint it is considered a bonus in my eyes ;)

Yesterday i was thinking that my $40 hutch looked kind of blah so i gathered up all my clear vases and set to work.

I got my 13 year old Liz to help me and all she had to do was take those vases and wrap them with rubberbands

see super easy put as many or as few as you want

no rhyme or reason whatever strikes your fancy

take them outside and spray paint them white. I used valspar white in satin if you have read this blog for anytime I love spray paint, my favorite brand is valspar from lowes but i am not loving the new nozzle. Anyways spray them all down and let them dry for a few hours (or like1 if you are me and the paint smears just a little)

once dry removed the rubber bands and I set them back on the shelf with a tealight candle i love them! Just enough of the clear showing through to let the candles shine through.

This project was almost free i had to buy rubberbands (i have 3 boys they don't last in this house) and i used about half the bag so $0.50 total

hope you enjoyed this project tune in tomorrow for another

make sure to be working on your projects to link up on Friday!

This and That

2011-11-16T01:00:00.000-08:00

Jake is obsessed with electronics of all kinds, he will be our computer nerd i am sure.
Lilly is obsessed with Jake =)

coloring is big around here recently, at least 2-3 times a day we are coloring something (walls, tv, tables are not excluded)

I love this Rubbermaid mop thing, its like a swiffer except better. you can add your own cleaners and the pad is washable BRILLIANT rubbermaid, brilliant!

Lilly does pretty well when it comes to helping me clean, unlike the rest of the kids whom i must force or bribe half the time =)

Creating Christmas

2011-11-16T00:23:00.001-08:00

If you know me in real life or have been reading for any length of time you know that i LOVE Christmas! I love everything abut it, I cant wait to decorate and bake and shop and throw parties i love all things Christmas {well except maybe for wrapping} the year The Girl Creative is having a party ad i cant wait to join in! i love the idea of not just pinning it, but creating it! I have been pinning so many ideas on pinterest i hope to do several of them for Christmas! I hope to join in every day with a new creation so stay tuned peeps =)

Big girl room

2011-11-11T00:08:00.000-08:00

Recently Lilly moved from her crib to a big girl bed

She kept getting out of her crib so it was time!

We have had this bed for years still in the box, we bought it for Jake to match the boys bunks we also bought Liz one well she wanted to stick to her full size bed so we saved this one

I didn't have to spend much money at all
I painted the mirror yellow (it was red) and bought that pink blanket on the bed for $19 on clearance at home goods

I love that baby high chair i bought it at a yard sale a year or so ago for $1 and i sprayed it pink
We love bows!

I love Lilly's room my good friend Tara made all her bedding for her crib, her curtains, her closet curtain etc. i love it, so special

I took some scrap fabrics Tara gave me and put them in embroidery hoops and i had those letters i love how that looks =)

Lilly's room makes me happy

Best Friends

2011-11-09T00:00:00.000-08:00

Picnics

2011-11-07T12:00:00.000-08:00

Just some ordinary days I am thankful for...

Lilly's birthday

2011-11-06T23:59:00.000-08:00

This post is super late (its been in my drafts)
but i wanted to make sure i got it on here.

On Lilly's actual birthday we stayed home and celebrated her with just us and the kids.

it was so fun

she loved the attention

I love when kids realize how fun opening presents is

We love our princess

Held

2011-10-23T16:07:00.000-07:00

I love this song! I really love it because it reminds us that even though we are Christians we are not exempt from pain and hard times but to know that those times are when we are being held by God he is the only one who can comfort us and we have hope that someday we will see Matthew again!

My son is gone. I am forever changed, but my God remains the same: GOOD

I read this a year or two back and i still love it!

I miss Matthew, today is 8 years since he passed away i still wonder what he would have been like as a little boy but i guess we will always do that even when it has been 20 years!

Here are the lyrics to the song it is so beautiful

Two months is too little
They let him go
They had no sudden healing
To think that providence
Would take a child from his mother
While she prays, is appalling
Who told us we'd be rescued
What has changed and
Why should we be saved from nightmares
We're asking why this happens to us
Who have died to live, it's unfair
This is what it means to be held
How it feels, when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive
This is what it is to be loved and to know
That the promise was that when everything fell
We'd be held
This hand is bitterness
We want to taste it and
Let the hatred numb our sorrows
The wise hand opens slowly
To lilies of the valley and tomorrow
This is what it means to be held
How it feels, when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive
This is what it is to be loved and to know
That the promise was that when everything fell
We'd be held
If hope if born of suffering
If this is only the beginning
Can we not wait, for one hour
Watching for our Savior
This is what it means to be held
How it feels, when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive
This is what it is to be loved and to know
That the promise was that when everything fell
We'd be held

volleyball

2011-10-22T00:04:00.000-07:00

So we all love sports and cheering each other on!
So here are the boys at Liz's volleyball game.

this year one of the private schools on our town opened up there sports programs to homeschoolers.....

it has been a huge blessing because it literally is about 2 minutes from our house which is always a plus when you have a busy family

Liz has improved quite a bit in just a few short weeks and she even tried out for a club team. she made it, so it looks as though our winter and spring we will be watching lots of volleyball.

it's a traveling team so that should be fun!

as you can tell we are all excited haha!!!!

Like oh my gosh were back in the 80's

2011-10-21T00:34:00.000-07:00

So one of my good friend's Jennifer recently turned 40 and we of course had to take her back to her youth and have a 80's party

We told her we were having a game night but everyone needed to dress 80's

i was born in 1979 so i was not a teen in the 80's but it was so fun to dress up!

here we all are with our crazy hair and way too much make up on!

it was fun and so perfect for Jen, we even listed to some fun music like Madonna, Michael Jackson, and so much more including Jen's favorite Bon Jovi HA!!!!

our friend Tiffany came but she was too cool to dress up =p

happy birthday Jen! Hope this year is the best one yet, you are such a fun and loyal friend!
xoxoxo

Love......

2011-10-21T00:00:00.000-07:00

the weather recently looks like it will finally be cooling down for good soon

love good friends who stick by you through out the years...

Love Jake he is such a good big brother.....

and the relationship these two have, Lilly adores Jake and i think he thinks she is pretty awesome....

well she is pretty awesome!

She is so funny

2011-10-20T00:00:00.000-07:00

She loves to laugh!

She makes this weird sound then cracks up , it makes us all laugh out loud.

oh yay she is a ham who loves to dance too

why not have center stage right Lilly?!

ha-ha i love her, she has a amazing personality!

Bows

2011-10-19T00:00:00.000-07:00

Isn't this the cutest?!!!! My friend Lindsey makes the best bows!!! you can see them here they are so cute and affordable which is always good right?

She makes the bow holders too, she made one for me for my baby shower that says lilly so she made one this time with our last name. Lilly has quite the collection of bows

the ones on the canvas print i just stapled some ribbon to the back of a picture i found at Marshalls

and here is the last of the bows

Linds even made me a cute flower to wear in my hair!

I love withces

Life

2011-10-18T00:00:00.000-07:00

Life is and has been busy, this is pretty much what our entry way looks like most days. Life is so full but we wouldn't change it. We are blessed and our kids love doing different activities.

I am thankful for all the good times we have and even in the chaos some days we make a pretty good team around here. So if i am not posting often that is why, tonight i am trying to schedule some posts for the week since i am so behind, and I have so many drafts in my folder! I am loving the new blogger set up much easier to navigate

Minnie Mouse

2011-10-17T09:00:00.000-07:00

for Lilly's bday i wanted a minnie mouse cake! My friend Krystal offered to make the cake for me. So the day before the party i went and picked it up and was driving down the road when a lady cut me off while talking on her phone, the cake slid i screamed but luckily the cake stayed mostly in tact =)

the ears got the worst of the fall but i think i got them back to normal for the most part

I love love loved this cake!
it was not only cute, but delicious!

The fondant even tasted delicious and i am not a fan of fondant normally

Thank you Krystal the cake was wonderful and i appreciate all the work you put into it!

Cupcake tip

2011-10-17T00:00:00.000-07:00

So here is a little tip that is cute and easy!

for Lilly's bday I took the cupcakes and placed them in the short clear plastic cups, you kind of have to pound them down to get them to the bottom

Once they are in the cups put them in cello bags, tied with a ribbon and put some ribbon around them!

Aren't they cute?!!!

just thought i would share

Lilly's 2nd birthday

2011-10-16T23:35:00.000-07:00

Two weekends ago we had a little birthday party for Lilly! she loves Minnie mouse so we went with that theme =)

Here is the party girl ready for the day!

So we had this party a little different since we and so many of our friends are so busy we decided to have a pancake/waffle party!

I used this mini muffin pan and put some out that guests could put in there waffles or pancakes

i made sausage and bacon ahead of time before everyone got there and put them in the crock-pots to keep warm

We made the party open house and people came and went throughout the morning it was so nice that way!

little waffle bar they were bomb!

the cake and cupcakes. I packaged the cupcakes to go so that everyone could take them to go with a yoohoo =)

here is my birthday girl! oh man i love this kid beyond words

she is obsessed with this baby she carries it all the time and sleeps with her at night, she cries and says mama. Our friends the Jones' got it for her

She loved her bday party and we loved celebrating Lilly! thank you all who came!

Potty training

2011-10-06T22:06:00.000-07:00

Well we got out the undies a few weeks ago

I bought a potty seat (not sure why it sounded like a good idea even though none of my kids used them) and i got a jar of candy ready

Lilly was reluctant

but we gave it a go for one day

lots of drinks that day which she loved and several accidents later i decided that we would put off potty training for a bit =) Lilly just turned 2 last week and one thing i have learned after 5 kids is they will get potty trained i don't mind diapers really so we will try again when she is a little bigger

2011-10-06T11:07:00.000-07:00

Just some random

2011-10-06T09:44:00.000-07:00

I made some of these mini pineapple upside down cakes for my neighbors. Mr. Jones was so nice and he fixed our AC when it broke a few weeks ago (it was still 100 degrees!!) So thankful for good neighbors and a AC unit still under warranty ;)

I got a new haircut and color, i love it

My friend makes these amazing headbands i LOVE it i want to buy several more here is her FB page if you want to check them out

Jake cuddles with me almost every single morning when he wakes up, I love that boy

Lilly never sits still, she has to always be busy (or she makes messes)

Jake, Lilly and I colored the other day i haven't done that in a while it was kind of fun =)

Jake was proud of his artwork

and promptly asked me to post it on our "art wall"

i have this huge empty wall in our hall way and so it is now our art wall. it actually is perfect because it is on the kids side of the house.

How do you display your kids art?

Real Life

2011-10-06T09:26:00.000-07:00

This was my kitchen and dining room last week after dinner, i took a few pictures to post on the blog to show you a glimpse of our daily life. sometimes it is a little messy and things are out of place. Everything seems to collect on that kitchen counter. i think that night we had dinner then John rushed off to cub scouts and football with the boys.

Our kids (big ones) are each involved in activities and our nights are quickly booked up. It is a busy season and it doesn't look to really be slowing down, i have to be OK with that its the fun of having a big family right =)))

Our calendar gets full quickly and things start to overlap.

But before you know it everything is cleaned up and back to normal

and the calendar looks a little clearer. the key for me is to be prepared to keep everything on the calendar and the house in order when things in my house are messy and disarray it makes me anxious and tense (and mean) so if we even set the timer and clean for like 15 minutes a lot can get done around here

Bits of fall

2011-09-29T23:45:00.000-07:00

It's kind of hard to get into fall when it is still pushing 100 around these parts of California, but a couple of weeks ago it was a gloomy day so i cranked down the AC and pretended it was cool outside and added some fall to my decor.

I am not a huge decorator for fall because i am just dying inside wanting to decorate for Christmas! I REALLY want to get my trees out before Thanksgiving this year but i don't think that will fly with Johnnie so i will hold out until the next day =)

One thing fall does do for me is make me want to clean and organize and rearrange furniture!

I moved my hutch that i got for $40 on craigslist from the dining room back to the formal living room and i am loving it here again! I just moved a few things around, added some pics back in and put my fall votive holders on there.

I love just adding a few pumpkins to make the look of normal things change to fall. and that little welcome sign i got at like rite aid for $2 is just enough. i love those tall lamps jut not sure i love them here but i need light in this room because i have no over head lighting in here. I found those lamps on craigslist also!

this is my entry way now. I think i will keep it this way and maybe just add in some Christmas bulbs next month =)

I have been adding in orange here in there in my house i love it right now and so i just added some pumpkins and a ribbon to that apothecary jar

and last but not least some fallish stuff to this big bowl.

do you decorate for fall?

Back to school night

2011-09-29T22:55:00.000-07:00

Well my boys are in 3rd and 4Th grade this year and so far are really loving it!

A couple of weeks ago we had back to school night and it was nice to go see what the boys have been up to at school.

David's teacher had the kids have there room all decorated and lots of work to look through

I took Lilly with me because John dropped off at football and went to cub scouts with Jake and Johnathan. Lilly loved it

This is Johnathan's desk and yes there is a dirty sock in there

My boys go to a gorgeous school! It's the oldest elementary school in our town that is still in use. It has been modernized in the inside obviously but the outside still has cool brick every where. I went to this same school from 4Th-6Th grade

here is the kindergarten classes and playground, Jake will attend here next year he is going to love it!

Football!

2011-09-29T21:54:00.000-07:00

Well something new for us this year is football!

David had said he wanted to play last year and I looked into a few different options and we decided on a league that had tackle football and was not as hard core as some of the other local leagues that require practices every day starting in June and that allow all the kids some playing time.

Well we ended up on a team that did require quite a bit of practice BUT it has been so rewarding because David has really improved. Our coaches are dedicated and spend a lot of time helping these boys become good football players.

The only down side is our practices are ALL the way across town so John goes to take him to practice and ends up staying for the whole practice since by the time he would drive half an hour to get there, drive back home and be here maybe 30 minutes before heading back seems silly, so it 2 nights of our week with John and David gone and then one night they have a game.

David is pretty quick and aggressive he is really enjoying it.

Johnathan had no desire to play when i mentioned it he wants to do karate or chess =)

when he went with me to a game he said "oh this is tackle football" i said yes he says "i am SOOO glad i didn't play!!" ha!

I may be partial but dang that is one good looking 9 year old boy!

he hates when i tell him he is good looking ;)

he is also pretty stinky after a game YUCK!

Well maybe this will help

2011-09-27T20:39:00.001-07:00

I added a app to my phone that let's me write my posts from here hopefully that will make me update a little more :) I have about 10 drafts I just need to edit them, but I figured I would see if this worked first.

Here is a cute picture of Lilly on her bday (making sure I can upload pics too)

Where has the time gone!

2011-09-22T00:30:00.000-07:00

I can not believe Lilly is TWO today!

she was such a sweet cuddly baby and now she is still a sweet cuddly little girl.

Seriously I miss these days so much of just watching her sleep and holding her close. Now she is like a tornado on most days lol

Here are some facts about Lilly Bean

she wears a 4or 5 T in clothes and a 8 shoes! yes she is a tall solid girl
she loves to go places, and if i leave she freaks out if she is staying home
she no longer sleeps in a crib she learned how to get out
she loves waffles, cheese, cereal, and bread of all kinds
we took a day earlier this week to start potty training it didn't go great we will try again soon
she loves church, mops, bible study, but she loves when i pick her up at the end
she gives great hugs she pats your back it is the sweetest thing EVER
her favorite show is blues clues and bubble guppies she will watch them for a few minutes without interruption but she is not big on sitting
she LOVES to color, especially with markers
Lilly loves Liz, she calls her mommy too lol, usually when i get on to her about something
she is finally starting to use more words her best ones mommy, daddy, David, Nana, color, blocks, bow
she loves dressing up already and she asks for a bow in her hair now YAY

so many other things to talk about but i could go on until she is 3. Lilly Grace is a joy in our lives i could not imagine a day without her. We love you Lilly happy birthday

Back to school

2011-09-06T23:49:00.000-07:00

I know many kids started school today, not us we have been at it for 3 weeks now.
I am just getting around to posting about that though
We have been SO busy. I know i keep saying that but its TRUE i keep thinking next week will ease up then we add something else or replace something i should say =)
so here is a post to let you know we are still alive and breathing, happy healthy and productive but still busy and i know i still have lots to talk about... soon!

OK this is craziness! when did Jake get old enough to go to school?!!!
truth is he is 4 now (did i ever post about his bday? or any of the boys for that matter? )
oh well moving on
Jake is 4 and started preschool.
i was very anxious about this, you see Jake is my buddy. I mean i love all these kids but he and I are tight. John i think was a little worried too, for me. Jake on the other hand could not WAIT to start preschool he kept talking about it alllllll summer. so he is loving it, and honestly i am loving it too. He has become such a big kid in just a few weeks he is having like real conversations with me and everything it is really cool (in a sad way)

so this is first official school picture.

Johnathan started 3rd grade and he loves school! His teacher has been great to him and he seems to be challenged a bit, which for Johnathan is always good since he gets bored quickly.
Johnathan's activities this year will include cub scouts, i am hoping to either get him into some sort of music lessons if that doesn't work maybe chess or karate. later this year he will play basketball again. Johnathan is really bright and a little rambunctious, he is so funny and a picky eater...

David started 4Th grade {?!!!}
he loves it
David is a funny kid a bit bashful but cool at the same time. People are generally attracted to him and he has a lot of friends. He is going through a bit of a bossy stage especially towards his sister and brother. David is very conscious of clothing and how in style he can be (lord help me!) David is playing his first year of tackle football but is loving it, he is also doing cub scouts. Later this year he will play basketball also. David has had a major growth spurt since he turned 9 and has a hollow leg i am thinking because he eats like a full grown man, he is not picky at all except he does not like boxed food at all.

Jake turned 4 earlier this summer and started preschool. He is SOOO funny, he is constantly cracking us all up with his funny voices and sayings. He loves to pray over dinner and is generally interested in God today he told me he loved me and i asked why and he said because you taught me about God then he licked his sisters face roflolol... Jake is a little head strong and he likes things his way, he loves to cuddle still which i love. Jake does no activities other than school. I am generally not a fan of preschool activities for the most part because I think kids need time to play and have fun and why stress myself out taking him to any kids of lesson when they could really care less. If i found something i new he would love i may consider it but as of now 3 kids in various activities is enough. Jake loves food, he eats a lot right now and is not too picky but has his moments. He likes anything computer related especially the DS.

My boys are a fun bunch and a lot of work but we love being there parents we truly are blessed to have 3 healthy active boys....
I will update Liz in a few days because we just started her homeschooling today =)

Overwhelmed

2011-08-25T00:05:00.001-07:00

sorry for the long absence. I don’t really know where to start right now. I have a lot of things to do and not sure what to tackle first. This was back to school week for my boys (Liz is starting next week, maybe after labor day a lot of my homeschooling friends are starting after labor day that sounds good right now!) tons of mops stuff to do, house stuff of course, laundry, Lilly learned to crawl out of her crib which makes me want to re do her whole room now and not to mention I got sick this week JOY. More than anything I need to get some alone time with God that has to be first! I bought a new devotional I want to start I will share more later.

please bare with me I will get back to posting I have lots to share. some ideas in my head I need to discuss a.s.a.p.: back to school and pre- k for Jakey! Dieting or my lack there of, balance, MOPS, home schooling, raising a teen daughter, new things at church, friendships, seasons, decorating and cleaning see lots to talk about I will get to it I promise.

Fun Summer

2011-08-03T00:10:00.000-07:00

I cant remember being this busy in a summer in... forever. It has been so fun! In addition to our 10 day vacation without any kids we have also celebrated all 3 boys birthdays, went to six flags, camping, 4Th of July, family fun, MOPS stuff and church happenings and VBS going on this summer.

We are just trying to enjoy every last minute, I am sure we have read to little with the kids and put off some chores but we are having fun! Our kids are not getting any younger and the time goes so quickly next summer at this time Liz will be getting ready to start high school people!

here are a few pics of what has been going on

David turned 9 on the 20Th of July.

David is such a cool kid, he is kind of in the stage of wanting to be a big kid but not quite there yet if that makes any sense. He loves sports, being outside and having fun. He doesn't love chores but he does them without complaining and he tells me he needs to start wearing deodorant now HA!

a new thing for us is tackle football, David has been practicing for about 3 weeks now and is a little obsessed, they practice 4 nights a week so it is a big commitment but he is loving it.

This year we told our kids we could celebrate all there birthdays with a party (BTW the last time i am telling them all that in the same year i think we will rotate) David wanted to go bowling so us and about 17 other kids went bowling (about 10 were family lol) he exclaimed it as his best birthday ever. We usually combine his and Johnathan's parties since they are only a week apart but this week we decided to not do that and i am so glad because he loved it being about just him (although 2 times the $$ ha!)

last week i drove for Liz's youth group to six flags it was such a fun day. I love roller coasters but i think i am officially getting old because i had to take a Tylenol after a few rides because a head ache came on. Liz loves roller coasters too and we had a good time without any little kids. The scariest ride was called deja vu i could have cried (some of the girls did HA)

the week after David's birthday was Johnathan's

Johnathan is a hilarious kid. he loves to pretend and makes up all these games and scenarios. He loves to learn and catches on really quickly, he loves animals of all kinds specifically dinosaurs and sharks. i often look at him and David and wonder what Matthew would have been like because these 2 are so different... We haven't celebrated Johnathan's birthday just yet we have a monster mini golf party coming up for him.

Last weekend we went camping with some friends from our small group and it was fun, the kids had a GREAT time! amazing what a bunch of dirt and outdoors excite kids, i had fun but would have been smart of me to bring a air mattress oops!

are you tired yet?

We are!

Tomorrow i leave for Nashville for 4 days for a MOPS convention (I know!!!) I cant wait it should be fun, I love MOPS and how it ministers to mommies in this season of motherhood god is good and i get a amazing privilege of being a part of TWO mops teams its going to be a fun year!

We still have to get ready for back to school (less than 3 weeks YIKES), we got all of Liz's curriculum for school today and i ordered what our school didn't provide that i wanted still. Have to buy the boys clothes and shoes (why do boy ruin shoes SO quickly?!) a few mops events, prep for MOPS, small group fun, new church service times (that John, Liz and I will be helping at) and we also are going to take a day trip to visit some friends down south before school starts.

i started writing out our fall calendar and oh man it doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon but i would trade it, it has been FUN

The Best thing i ever ate

2011-08-02T01:12:00.000-07:00

Has anyone watched this show on food network? well we were watching it tonight and that got me thinking of my vacation John and I recently went on. We left on Friday night and flew in early Saturday morning to Ft.Lauderdale we stayed at the Harbor Beach Marriott which not only had one of the most comfortable beds with about 8 pillows had some of the best food!Despite the humidity being about 800% i loved this beach town, the water was warm which is so differnet from here on the west coast!

We arrived early and couldn't check in yet so we went to there Sea Level restaurant which overlooked the beautiful beach and i seriously had the BEST breakfast i have ever had in my life, now granted i am not a huge breakfast lover but this french toast was AMAZING not even going to lie! John had there special which was a seafood omelet (sounds odd tastes BOMB!) but i am so glad i had the french toast it was made with brioche bread and was seriously to die for, can you tell i liked it HA!

that evening we took the water taxi and went to Los Olas Blvd where they had tons of restaurants and shops, we were going to have a small meal since we slept through lunch but wanted to have dinner later but once we got to SoLita we knew that this was going to be dinner, we ordered a antipasti platter and a small margarita pizza to share and it was all so good. I am pretty sure i have shared my love of cheese here on the blog but just in case i have not i LOVE cheese!

The pizza was so good the crust was perfectly cooked and you could tell the cheese was fresh mozzarella! The restaurant was so pretty and the waiters were attentive and the owner stood at the line kind of like a calmer version of Gordon Ramsey HA! The bartenders were all female and they were dressed as though they should have been serving in a Las Vegas casino not a nice Italian restaurant but maybe i was just insecure because of the amounts of cheese and bread i had consumed ;)

The next morning we went back to the Sealevel restaurant before we headed down to the beach and we decided to share a bowl of fruit and oatmeal and that was so good too! the fruit was so pretty you almost didnt want to eat it, it came with Greek yogurt which i still cant acquire a taste for but the fruit was great.

i know i said a while back, that to me a vacation is not a place you are on a major diet. Its your chance to try fun foods, and things you haven't had and places you have never been. If you happen to be in Ft.Lauderdale consider staying at the Marriott Harbor beach you will not be disappointed the service and facilities are great!

Fill in the Blank Friday

2011-07-29T02:06:00.001-07:00

I have been crazy busy this summer, just trying to enjoy the last weeks of it at least. School is getting ready to start up in less than a month and I will have plenty of time to catch up then =) tomorrow we are going camping I cant wait!!!

1. My favorite color is red, unless it is for clothes then the answer is black =). I also am to blues and orange right now .

2. My travel destination of choice is I am not too picky I love to travel, our trip to the Caribbean was pretty amazing the ocean was so warm and calm. I love the beach so I guess I would say the beach

3. My favorite food is cheese! I LOVE cheeses of all kinds I can even begin to to tell you how much or why I just do!

4. My happy place is my bed I love cuddling up and watching TV or taking a nap .

5. My favorite saying is uhhhhh I have no idea off the top of my head

6. My dirty little secret is that I love to daydream about when I win the lottery or when I am famous some day ;)

7. Something friends might say about me is that I am a really good friend, loyal and caring and obviously loud

I am back

2011-07-18T14:30:00.000-07:00

Johnnie and I packed up

Rode on a plane

then hopped on a ship

for the most amazing vacation EVER...
more details after i take a nap

fill in the blank Friday

2011-07-08T00:55:00.001-07:00

1. My plans this summer include going on a Caribbean cruise (tomorrow yay!), going to Nashville in August for MOPS convention, hopefully going to the beach a few times, floating in the pool, planning for the school year, relaxing.

2. The best summer I ever had was probably any summer where I had a new baby, I love the newborn stage =)

3. Summer is HOT!!, 4th of July, swimming pools, smell of sunscreen, otter pops, staying up late, sleeping in, laid back days.

4. My favorite summer food is fresh fruit especially cantaloupes and strawberries, ribs, burgers, and anything off the grill. Caprese salad or Bruschetta YUM!!!!

5. The best way to quench a summer thirst is with cold ice tea

6. My summer uniform consists of recently skirts and dresses, love shorts though.

7. The best thing about summer is sleeping in!!!!

Busy Summer

2011-07-04T00:47:00.000-07:00

But such a fun time. I helped with VBS at our church this year, if you know me you know that is a act of Jesus because although i do love my kids and my friends and family's kids i am generally not going to volunteer to help with a VBS program, BUT i really felt led to do it and i am so glad i did. more details later.

We have been snuggling on the couch watching TV and playing and swimming

staying cool, you know we are in the 100's here now with no looking back at our pretty spring which rarely happens on these parts of Cali.

enjoying family and friends. so much fun going on right now. I have a ton of blog posts in my mind but i need to sit and compile my thoughts but i am just having fun living life, you understand right?

Jake is 4

2011-06-30T22:07:00.000-07:00

OK a little late, but better than never right?

Jake turned 4 on June 4th.

he is as sweet as can be. I love this boy so much he melts my heart

Jake you are such a sweet boy. At age 4

you love your mommy, but daddy is sure cool lately
you love to be outside
you sweat a lot
you love your sisters, both of them you will play anything Lilly wants to play and snuggle with Liz constantly
your brothers are pretty awesome and i can see you wanting to mimic all the things they do lately
you are a little bashful, but once out of your shell you are a ham
you love cereal, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches more than any other food.
you are a good sleeper usually from about 8-8 every day. no more regularly scheduled naps though
you can not wait to go to preschool in August, you tell me all about it on a regular basis
you have some cool friends and i love watching you interact with them
you love church
you absorb everything right now and you ask a lot of questions
you love to dance and sing

We love you

My girls

2011-06-30T01:06:00.000-07:00

Things i hope for my girls:

that you have self confidence

that you are kind

and loving to others

that you don't follow the crowd

that you don't think beauty is everything, and are confident

that when you mess up you will come to me and your dad and not your friends

that you love to read

that you have a good relationship with your siblings even when you are out of the house

that you are tall =)

that you marry men who love Jesus

that you stay home with your babies (if you have babies)

that you are not afraid to try things even if you fail

that you are fun, life is to short to be uptight about everything

that you are modest in the way you dress

that you use kind words and encourage others

that you are hospitable and loving, sharing everything God has blessed you with

but most importantly

i pray that you love Jesus with every ounce of your being and that you do what he wants for your life. everything else is just a bonus

Psalm 139:14

New International Version (NIV)

¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well

My helpers

2011-06-29T01:04:00.000-07:00

One day after church Johnnie took the big kids to the movies so the littles and i stayed home and took advantage of some great weather and planted a bunch of flowers. Jake loves being a helper especially if it involves being outside.

Park Days

2011-06-28T01:01:00.000-07:00

We found this great park in our town thanks to my friend Tara and we met up there a few weeks ago for a play date it was great weather and tons of fun because hardly anyone was there other than us.

i love this picture of Lilly looking back at me. i was on the teeter totter with them and they thought it was great, i have been really trying to DO things with the kids not just observe them doing things they seem to love it... I have been more willing to since losing weight i never realized how much i didn't do when i was so overweight(i am still overweight but not like i was) things like playing with the kids i was totally missing out on hmmm glad that has changed

What we have been up to

2011-06-27T00:35:00.001-07:00

ok. so the other night I stayed up late to update the blog, really for myself since I probably have like 2 readers now since I have not kept up HA! and I want to remember what happened in our lives at some point, well it was late and I was typing away and the power literally went out it was so freaky it was out for about half an hour and it was quiet around here good thing for smart phones and words with friends ;) anyways just to get caught up a bit I am going to list a bunch of random to let you all know what we have been doing this summer thus far:

Jake turned 4! holy smokes that was quick! he is such a good kid, he melts my heart daily. he got a bike and proclaims he is a big boy (I beg to differ ;))
the morning of his bday our mops group had a yard sale that I helped out and I got some really cool stuff including my husband a 4 cycle weed eater, we had been looking for one at a good price YAY
later in the day a few hours before Jakes family party I got the flu… oh.my. goodness. horrible!!!!
We went to a Mexico meeting at our church, our whole church is going to Mexico in November and we are so excited to go too.
We spent that week following getting the kids ready for camp, and I fought the flu. I tried to go to my boot camp I had signed up for and felt so sick and clammy it just didn’t work, I had to take the whole week off
the kids left for camp that following Sunday 6/12 and we cleared there rooms out so that I could redecorate we them while they were gone
We took the little kids to LA to do a little shopping and went to universal city walk for a fun day!
the next day, the first week day of the kids gone I had to report for my one day of jury duty, of course I got picked for a jury and spent the next 5 days there! which meant no newly decorated rooms. and I didn’t get to go to boot camp then either
I did get to play Bunco 2 times that week that was fun!
the kids came home that Saturday to new rooms that were painted and had bed but that was it no décor still.
fathers day was nice, we got to spend it loving on John and giving him presents and having dinner with his parents and sister and family
last week summer hit! we had went from low 80’s to 109 in a week!
I helped with a baby shower for my dear friend Lynette who is pregnant with her 4th girl YAY!!!! The shower was here so that fun getting everything ready.
the rest of the week we tried to stay in the house or in the pool but not going many places, I got in the pool twice which is a record for me I usually go like twice the whole summer. The little ones LOVE the water too!
I went back to boot camp last week and almost died after missing 2 weeks
I also got to attend a baby shower this weekend, went to a VBS meeting at church and had 2 quick dates with Johnnie (WalMart and Costco count as dates right?!)
tonight some great friends came over for dinner and to hang out and catch up that was fun, we need to do that more often!
this week consists of boot camp, VBS (and i f you know me you know that is HUGE because I don’t generally love other peoples kids as bad as that sounds HA. But I really want to serve in my church and what better way, I am helping with 5th grade so it shouldn’t be too difficult right?!) small group, and getting ready for the 4th!

I can NOT believe this is the last week of June!!!! only 12 days until John and I leave for our vacation, wow that came quick!

What have you been doing this summer so far?

Fill in the Blank Friday

2011-06-17T08:01:00.001-07:00

I had great intentions of blogging this week, I also had some great projects I was going to do since my 3 big kids were all away at camp BUT I got called in for jury duty and picked grrrr I am hoping that today is the last day

1. The last movie I saw was I am thinking tangled but maybe I watched something else recently I can not remember. or in court terms I do not recall ;)

2. I want to go shopping and decorate my kids rooms

3. Surprises are horrible I hate them! I get anxious of the thought of pother people being surprised, my husband knows if he were to surprise me ever I would be so upset. now by surprise I mean in front of a bunch of people like a party, not like surprising me with diamonds or anything haha .

4. The best accessory is a great purse.

5. My favorite warm drink is hot tea, although I only like hot drinks in winter.

6. My favorite cold drink is pepsi max or sweet tea.

7. Currently loving accessories, makeup, my new curling iron, carbs HA, shades of blue, my husband

Fill in the blank friday

2011-06-09T22:55:00.000-07:00

man we have been crazy busy, i need to be consistent on here, so i dont forget about all the fun we are having this summer. To read more go here

1. This weekend I'm packing my kids up and sending them off to camp, and spending some time with John and the littel ones! .

2. My last vacation was my trip with Liz for her birthday in april! .

3. My next vacation will be our cruise to the Carribean only 28 days to go!!!! .

4. My favorite way to relax is to take a nap ;)

5. When vacationing one should always eat well! Try new places and research what there is to do a little.

6. When vacationing one should never be on a diet, that is for before and after!

7. The best part about a vacation is spending time with the people with you (and shopping ;)) .

Awanas

2011-05-18T13:22:00.001-07:00

This year was our first year in participating in Awanas and my boys loved it! Last week was there fnal night where they got awards and had ice cream it was a fun night to see what everyone accomplished, those awanas are no joke it is some hard work!

This is Jakes teacher Mrs.Jenny =) Jake loved her, he started the year very unsure but he warmed up to her quickly and they became buds! I am so excited that next year he can be in cubbies again and I hope she is his teacher!

The boys enjoying there ice cream afterwards. Jake hated wearing his vest it was a battle I chose not to fight he loved going so if he didn’t wear the vest I didn’t worry about it, Lilly on the other hand LOVES the vest haha

My friend Emily and her mom, continue to pray for Emily and Alif and family miracles upon miracles are happening. to read the whole story go here

http://www.liftupyourhearts.com/

Cubscout Campout

2011-05-18T13:12:00.001-07:00

John took ALL 3 boys to a campout a few weeks ago and they had so much fun! John said Jake was very well behaved especially for his first campout and he didn’t cry for me once <g> John took a ton of pictures and even a few of that nasty frog GROSS frogs creep me out for some reason. Both of my boys love cubscouts and I love that John jumps in to help out with things our kids love, what a great example he is (me on the other hand tend I tend to shy away from committing to help with things)

Mothers Day 2011

2011-05-18T12:50:00.001-07:00

Mothers /day this year was very laid back. We had my mom and family over the night before and we had dinner and the kids swam. We live in California it is generally hot in May (and as I type it is pouring rain and cold HA!) My sister brought over these pretty flowers for me!

Mothers Day morning my kids woke me up and showered me with fun stuff. Johnnie ordered me this super cute Kelley Moore bag and I am so excited to have a bag that protects my camera but I can also carry my stuff in YAY Johnnie thank you! I am pretty spoiled all year so I was not expecting this at all. I got to sleep in and we went to third service that day instead of our normal 1st service PTL!!!

My kids gave me all kinds of cool stuff they made at school loved it all!!!

I am not big on Mothers day honestly but I love that my family put effort in to making my day extra special they are great

Wee Bit Wednesday

2011-05-18T12:38:00.001-07:00

{one} do you watch the history channel? if so, what’s your favorite program?

Yes, but not often but John watches it ALL the time! I like American Pickers and Pawn Stars.

{two} what is your favorite thing to do on a rainy day?

It is really rainy here right now which is odd because it is May in California we never get rain this late! I love to wear big sweatshirts and curl up on the couch and watch TV or nap, but I like to do that in a 110 degree weather with the AC on

{three} what does your dream house look like?

I love this house we are in SO much but I would redo the entire front and backyard. BUT if money were no object I would build a house like the parents house on Father of the Bride

{four} what state were you born in?

Cali born and raised in the same town I have never left here.

{five} do you have a change jar? if so, what do you use it for when it gets full?

Not really I have a little basket in my bathroom but I spend it when I need money HA!

{six} what’s the first website you look at when you get on the computer?

Usually email, the my igoogle page!

{seven} what is your favorite breakfast?

Hmmmmm I don’t love breakfast but I do love French toast with sausage on occasion or when I am dieting I crave pancakes.

{eight} what’s the most memorable trip you’ve ever taken?

My first mission trip to Mexico when I was 14, I met Johnnie there !

{nine} do you prefer your coffee black or with cream/milk/sugar?

I prefer pepsi maxx HAHA! But if I am going to drink coffee it has to have flavored creamer like french vanilla an lots of sweetener.

{ten} have you ever done a professional photo shoot?

No. .

What we have been up to

2011-05-13T13:58:00.001-07:00

May is always such a busy month for us I cant believe I have not updated this blog in like 2 weeks, craziness! We have been wrapping things up, getting ready for summer and just doing normal life. The next few posts are just what we have been doing so feel free to go to the next blog unless you are my husband or family HA!

John recently barbequed for our jr.high group end of the year BBQ and bike ride. It was a great turnout and as usual Johnnies bbq was so good! We love being able to serving our church, sometimes with a family of 7 it can be a little difficult but we try to help out where we can. I only stayed for a few minutes of this because Lilly was on meltdown mode since it was nap time

We also had our MOPS final play date and Jake had so much fun he was crying when we had to leave! Our church's mops group has put on so many great activities this year and this was a great way to end the year.

Lilly had a fun time playing bubbles that day and my kids are just loving being outdoors right now.

My hall has stripes I am trying to decide what color to paint it and I am still unsure. I started by thinking green but now I am thinking gold, any opinions out there? so for now they are just sitting there for now lovely right? Liz’s room and the bathroom look similar….

These 2 are seriously so sweet!

Jake loves Lilly soooo much and she is loving her big brother just as much she constantly goes around hugging and kissing him.

I am trying to cherish these moments because man this year is flying by before you know it summer will be over!

Is your may crazy too?

Wee Bit Wednesday

2011-04-22T15:24:00.000-07:00

OK so i am really late but i loved the questions so i am doing it anyway =)

{one} how often do you do laundry?
Once a week… I only have two work shirts, so they have to be washed.

{two} what is your favorite type of cookie?
oatmeal chocolate chip (preferably milk chocolate) with pecans

{three} what would you do with an extra $2000 per month?
hire a weekly housekeeper, work on the list of house things i want to do,

{four} what was/is your favorite subject in school?
History and English but i don't love school lol.

{five} have you ever ridden in a hot air balloon?
No

{six} what was your high school mascot?
Blade, Eagle, Lion i went to several

{seven} if you had the chance to go into space, would you?
no not at all

{eight} how often do you go dancing?
Never. I don't dance EVER

{nine} would you rather drive or fly?
FLY, i hate sitting in a car

{ten} have you ever been caught re-gifting?
No…not that i know of

Worry

2011-04-20T06:07:00.000-07:00

***disclaimer, this is a rambling post as usual it is kind of all over the place

I don't know about you but i am a worrier, I so admire people who can just say it is what it is Lord and i trust you always and never say what if... are there those type of people?? I used to be a little more chill on the situations in life but ever since Matthew died I tend to worry... a LOT. I know this is not from God i know he wants me to trust in him always but HOW. If you don't know me in real life you probably don't know that i am extremely type A i am a doer, a ever criticized "Martha" i don't like just to sit and wait for things to happen i want to do.something.

But there are times you cant do anything right? the loss of a loved one, a unexplained illness, a person who walks away from the Lord

I am sure there are many more but those come to mind. In addition to my worry i worry about death. a lot. maybe it is normal, i watched them try to bring my son back to life in a hospital room to no avail the doctors did everything they could CPR, oxygen, IVs etc. it was out of there hands they couldn't do it, I begged the Lord right there in front of alll those people to people allow his will to happen i was continually thinking as i was praying "Raquel do not pray for the Lord to heal him you do not want them to think that your God can not do that, what if that affects their faith" i knew God had other plans for us at in those moments i knew they probably did not include Matthew living so i just prayed for God to come down and touch us and to trust that he knows what he is doing and for his will to happen and to comfort us. Seriously there was at least 20 people standing there watching the doctors and nurses from EMT, to police, even the janitor i noticed them all as i stood there all alone crying out to the Lord. And he could have "fixed" it the way i wanted to i know he could have but that wasn't his will in that situation, and we had to trust that he had a bigger plan.

I am sure my fear is annoying to my husband, with my last 2 C-sections i swore i was going to die, i was going to be the woman you hear about that dies during birth. i would cry.for.weeks. leading up to it. i couldn't even go there in my mind or it would overwhelm me. I recently have been having some stomach issues and had to have a colonoscopy and i swore that the doctor was going to find some bizarre disease (he didn't) WHY do i do this? why???

Lastly another thing i that i constantly play out in my mind is what if something happens to John. That is my biggest nightmare, what if something happens to John and i am left alone with all these kids, what would i do, how would i survive, how would i handle such a situation. SO when my sweet friend Emily posted on FB her husband was in ICU my heart began breaking for her, she is a momma to 4 beautiful kids whom she homeschools, her husband Alif is a man who knows the Lord and is a great daddy to those kids, why them Lord? why? I don't get it! i cried out to God and said come on Lord you are in the business of making miracles happen go in and fix this please there is no reason that a family should lose there husband and daddy. And the way God has moved always leaves me in awe, in a situation where it looked very grave God was in the midst all along the incredible strength that Emily has is beautiful and only what God can provide because in that situation i think we would all fall apart but those who hope in the Lord KNOW that he is faithful even when we don't understand we just know to trust in him. I wont go in to any details it is Emily's story to tell but God is good, please pray for this sweet family if you can, pray for the Lord to give them strength through this recovery period, pray for the wisdom of all the doctors, pray for the complete recovery of this man please just pray.

I recently read this post it was so perfect for me in this time in my life here is a little excerpt:

Do you ever fear the unknown? Perhaps it’s your health or the uncertainty of your future. Maybe it’s the decisions your children will make about following God or following their peers. Fearing the unknown can cause us to spend precious energy anticipating the worst-case scenario. There are two problems with this type of fear:

• The future is not here.
• The future is not ours.

While the future may be out of our hands, it is not out of the hands of our faithful trustworthy God

When i see others go through tough situations it is so different when you know the Lord. Its like we know this situation is temporary, God is bigger than this and we will serve him no matter what. I don't know how families face things without God i don't, when Matthew died i would say constantly how do people let love ones go without the hope in the Lord, the hope that we will see them again. What a victory in Jesus right! I love this verse:

Isaiah 43:2-3 (New International Version, ©2011)

2 When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
3 For I am the LORD your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;

Fill in the blank Friday

2011-04-07T23:11:00.000-07:00

1. Something that makes me a great friend is i give time to my friends. i love to hang out with my friends and i try to make it a priority i call, text, and try to meet up with friends in person. I think so many women put there friends on the back burner when we have kids but i think it is a crucial time for us to continue to build our friendships.

2. I am talkative, outgoing, competitive, a good napper , honest (especially when it comes to things i like and don't like), a slow typer, afraid of canals, a lover of cheese =).

3. I am not quiet, patient, fond of animals or capris, good at math, a fan of mom competition or confrontation .

4. If I had to describe myself in 3 words, they would be outgoing, determined, honest .

5. Something I'm really cheap about is buying things for myself. i don't mind spending money on things for the kids or the house but when it comes to buying for myself i wait until i have to buy something have a gift card or a coupon before i buy things for me. and i return a lot.....

6. Something I'm willing to splurge on is well recently gas haha seriously though it is almost $200 to fill my gas tank so that is the only splurge happening. Actually probably shoes i have a size 11 foot so if i find shoes i like i buy them generally because they don't come along often

7. I would trade sugar/soda/ carbs for a 50 pound weight loss. to read more go here

Wee Bit Wednesday

2011-04-06T13:39:00.000-07:00

{one} what is one food that, as an adult you love, but as a child you said you’d never touch? hmmm i liked a lot of odd things as a child, probably onions though i didn't like them on anything and now i like them cooked

{two} did you go to college? if yes, what was your major? For a second, i really don't like school. I think i would like school if it was something that interested me like cooking, or photography or something like that

{three} what’s the most wild animal you’ve seen in real life (not counting the zoo)? a bear, or a raccoon lol. i don't like animals so those are wild for me

{four} have you ever been to a fortune teller? no.

{five} can you juggle? No i can barely walk and chew gum

{six} hardwood floors or carpet? Tile lol i like the idea of wood but now that we have it it is a pain to keep clean and carpet YUCK

{seven} is it called “soda” or “pop”? SODA pop annoys me

{eight} what was your first car? A 1989 Toyoda corolla in 1997 HA!.

{nine} what is the most decadent dessert you’ve ever eaten? I love deserts, but i am pretty basic give me a great cookie and i am happy

{ten} how often do you rearrange your furniture? Not often anymore… i used to change it all the time but our house has weird walls only so many ways you can move things

Weekend Recap

2011-04-05T22:50:00.001-07:00

well this is later in the week but I did not want to not post it because we had a fabulous weekend! Friday Liz and I headed down south to celebrate her bday. We have never been on a trip just her and I and it was definitely a great trip, it was Liz’s bday weekend and she was turning 13 (!!!!) On our drive we listened to passport to purity cd’s and I would definitely recommend them to all you moms out there to do this with your daughter it was such good conversations most people do it a little younger and I think that is good especially if you have girls going to junior high because they will hear a lot from friends and you want those communication lines open early, I already told John to start planning his getaways with our boys when they turn like 11 HA!

Friday we went and saw Wicked and it was SOOOOOOOOOOOO good! I have been wanting to see it for a quite a while and it did not disappoint, well the guy who sat next to me and smelled like alcohol was somewhat disappointing but the show itself was fabulous!

Before the show that day we went and did our favorite thing shopped! it was fun and orange county/LA is so much more fun to shop in so much more selection and variety.

Saturday we went to the OC swap meet, a mall an Ikea yup pretty much perfect day ;)

We stayed at a double tree and it was seriously the most comfortable bed who knew! Liz loved stayuing in a hotel (being a family of 7 we don’t vacation in hotels often lol)

We ate quite a bit and that I always fun, especially when you only have to pay for 2 people that makes it much easier to order what you want

Sunday we continued the celebration and we went to pizza with the rest of the family and Liz was so excited because she FINALLY got a cell phone she is officially a teen =)

We are so thankful for such a great daughter! Liz is not your typical 13 year old she is kind, quiet and responsible. She is a great big sister and takes a active part in our family without complaining (most of the time =)) but most importantly she loves the Lord and she strives to do what is right and pleasing to him God sure did bless us with a amazing young lady

We love you Liz!

Wednesday

2011-03-30T20:27:00.001-07:00

{one} if you won a trip to Disneyland/world, who would you take with you? Johnnie and the kids. But we don't really love Disneyland so it wouldn't be my dream vacation.

{two} when was the last time you listened to a CD?

Well in my car my CD player is broke so we just listen to the radio. but i did make John a CD of songs i bought on itunes since the poor guy does not own a ipod =(

{three} what spice/seasoning is your favorite? Cumin i love the smokiness!!!

{four} if you were in a band, what kind of music would you play?

ummm... i am not musically inclined at all so i cant even imagine

{five} if you could have personally witnessed one historical event, which one would it be? Oh man i have no idea probably witness some of the miracles Jesus performed!

{six} if you could go back to school, what would you study? At this point in my life i would have no desire to go to traditional college BUT if i could go to culinary school that would be amazing!

{seven} if you could go to one sporting event, all expenses paid, which one would you see? The Summer Olympics!!!

{eight} do you drive an automatic or a manual? Automatic… I LOVE it!

you would not want to see me drive a manual

{nine} are you comfortable speaking in front of people? Love it! Someday i would love to share some of my experiences with women on a regular basis

{ten} have you ever experienced an earthquake? I live in California lol, so yes but nothing major thank God

Weekend wrap up

2011-03-28T22:39:00.000-07:00

I miss doing these weekend wrap ups so i decided i would start them up again since that is when we tend to spend lots of time together. I took a few pictures this weekend and i can not find my camera cord anywhere, which is so odd because i don't tend to move it from my camera bag ever, so this one will be minus pics.

***speaking of pictures i have a question fr those of you who scrapbook. I have been wanting to get back into scrap booking and not sure how to tackle it (i have 1 book for my 12 year old up to about age 4 HA!) so do you scrapbook chronologically, by theme, each kid separately, family books what??? i am thinking of maybe scrap booking by the year (start current and working back) but then also have a book for each kid with bigger things for that kid and special memories. what do you think??

Friday i decided to take Liz and the little kids to lunch at a new burger spot in town (juicy burger) i love a good burger so i was exited to try this place. i was excited because we went in and it smelled so good and there was a lot of people there but i was a bit disappointed. i think the meat is mixed with sausage because it had a really strong flavor to me i wanted to dip my burger in syrup hmm that may not be bad actually... the fries were crispy and a little salty i am a fan of a soggy fry so i didn't like these i LOVE fries i think i could live on fries and cold ketchup and a Pepsi (but i am sure that how i got overweight so i try to refrain). I have been trying to think of things we can do to get out of the house more since Liz told me she enjoys homeschooling but doesn't like being home all.the.time. later that day i went and got my nails done (so cute!)

lastly that evening i went to a women's "retreat" at my church and it was so good, we had a yummy dinner they had a few tables set up where you could shop for a cause (i bought a cute bag from here) the speaker for the evening was so good! she spoke on your identity in Christ and how we see ourselves, one thing that really stood out to me that she said was that why do you keep worrying about yesterday's problems God has already forgiven and forgotten about it and why worry about tomorrow because he is already got it under control, but we continue to hang on to those things instead of focusing on what is happening now....

Saturday we got up early and watched Liz in her first volleyball tournament, it was so fun! She was a little nervous but she did great! that afternoon John and i went on a spur of the moment date we had lunch at olive garden then went to the mall (i KNOW!) and bought John surround sound he has been wanting that was fun! that evening we had dinner and watched how to train your dragon with the kids it was a perfect day. oh we even danced and sang in the living room, Lilly was getting her dance on to Chris Tomlin so cute!

Sunday we did nothing or i mean i did, i had to have a clear liquid diet and drink some nasty stuff for some testing i had done today and that was not fun so i tried to sleep the day away i was fairly successful at that i did get some cleaning done and the fam went to church and watched several movies. sorry if i bored you to death, i want to remember what we did on a normal weekend....

Fill in the blank Friday

2011-03-24T23:45:00.000-07:00

1. My most prized possession is a heart clay thing that the lady at the funeral home gave me after Matthew's funeral, she had done his footprints for me and i love it if my house were burning down that is the one thing i would grab (other than my children).

2. If I could be one age for the rest of my life, I would want to be 30, it was a good year i learned the most about being healthy and how to take care of my body. i was not as insecure as my 20's and my marriage gets better and better each year so yay a pretty awesome year hopefully the rest of my 30's will be the same.

3. The best way to spend a weekend is taking lots of naps, not having to cook, watching the kids play sports.

4. My outlook on life is that life is : it is what it is we must chose joy and give as much as we expect to receive.

5. If you want to annoy me, just complain about everything seriously people there is always someone going through something horrible and you are complaining because the store manager wouldn't give you a refund etc. also stop making your facebook status spelling like you are sending ur bff a txt lol grrrrrrr

6. I am completely defenseless when it comes to carbs. French bread, donuts, cookies....I love them all. Hi, my name is Raquel and I'm a carboholic . (Lauren put that one but it seriously was how i would put it!)

7. When dressing for the day one should put on whatever they want if i see you in public and take your picture just know that you look goofy ;)

to read more fill in the blanks go here

Phone Pictures

2011-03-20T00:46:00.000-07:00

The other day i realized i take tons of pictures on my phone. Some.. OK most are of my kids but others are just random observations i see when out or things i need to remember etc. I thought i would post a few on here (hey i have been on a blogging slump so i am trying to get my consistency better)

my new hair cut and color. I love it i hope to be a red head someday

OK do you all have these people around your towns? this lady cracked me up! My kids were so amused too but at times i told them to turn there heads because she was a little to raunchy.

She caught me taking pictures and gave lots of smiles and waves. She was a nice clown/statue of liberty/ wanna be dancer...

a tender moment with daddy i love that she is holding her baby.

I want a big hat like this for my Cruise haha! i am not even joking, this one the brim was bent or i would have bought it. this picture also reminds me that we do not have a full mirror in our house so if i want to see my outfit i have Liz take a picture of me and i look at my clothes, is that not crazy haha obviously we are not vain... or well dressed HA!

I love these leather cuffs don't you? definitely a trend i love BUT these are between $10-12 EACH and i like about 10 of them so that is not going to happen boo. i went to forever 21 to see if they had any but they did not boo.

fun at the park. my girl has grown so much!

i couldn't help but laugh it really was hilarious

OK this was the most funny thing EVER i was in the sauna at the gym and there were several people in the small room and i look up and the guy next to me stands up and starts using a shake it weight. i literally almost peed my pants. he did about 5 different moves and i was dying the entire time, i texted some friends i don't think they believed me and asked me to take pictures so i did.

Fill in the blank Friday

2011-03-17T22:58:00.000-07:00

1. The best deal I've ever gotten is oh man i am a bargain shopper so i have got a ton of great deals. Most recently my new washer and dryer we got a GOOD deal on those. and on myself probably my black and charcoal boots i got for $9.98 at target 75% off that never happens since i wear a size 11 shoe that's is a feat to find shoes in my size much less on clearance. I love Craig's too as you all know

2. If I were hosting a dinner party and could invite people from my fantasy guest list it would include Elisabeth from the View (i told you all i am a big fan!), Oprah and Gayle =), Kelley Rippa, Rachael Ray, Bobby Flay, Ina Garten, shall i continue? OK i will... Bob Harper, Heidi Klum, and a bunch of friends from real life.

3. Something that inspires me is my friends, i have some really great friends who are nice, gentle, funny, great moms etc. i would love to be more like them

4. If I could only choose to eat one flavor of food for the rest of eternity (sweet, salty, spicy, bitter....) although i love sweet i would have to pick salty or spicy but i salt everything even fruit sometimes so that would be my final answer

5. I dream about so many things, i am a dreamer for sure. I dream about winning the lottery (seriously i know lameO), about what my kids will be like as they get older, about what our lives will be like 10 years from now, what Heaven will be like, etc etc....

6. My weekend will be fun! the possibilities are endless but will for sure include the gym, church, hopefully a couple of walks, spending time with the kids and Johnnie and friends.

7. If I could only watch one movie or TV show for the rest of my life, father of the bride part 2.

have a great weekend to read more go here

Spring Cleaning

2011-03-11T13:02:00.000-08:00

well i have been in a cleaning funk lately oh sure i do the basics and if you stopped by you would think my house was clean BUT if you opened a cabinet or closet door you would think other wise. i was wondering when the spring cleaning bug would hit and well TODAY!

We had some yard work done which made me long for outdoor parties/ picnics so i am hoping to get the rest of the yards finished up this weekend so we can take a load of junk to the dump. Which makes me want to rid my house all unnecessary trash and junk.

This afternoon i have done the boys rooms, and i did the hall closets earlier this week but there is lots to do. One of my favorite blogs Clover Lane

is getting rid of 40 bags in the 40 days of lent so i think i am wanting to do something similar. We have toooooo much junk. I will deep clean each room at the same time So this is my checklist if anyone cares other than me

big boys room
Jake's room
Liz room/bathroom
hall closets (3)
front bathroom
Lilly's room
entry way
entry closet
formal living room
kitchen
dining room
family room
laundry room
my room
my closet
my bathroom
school room
school room closet
shed
yards

I will try to take pics along the way but once i get going on these projects i rarely come up for air until they are done. With the weather changing i have so many projects i want to do around here so cleaning and purging is the first logical step right? So are you spring cleaning?

Fill in the blank Friday

2011-03-10T23:34:00.000-08:00

1. My biggest accomplishment in life thus far is (other than my marriage and my children) probably losing weight and maintaining it thus far (HA i know i still have more to lose but this is about accomplishments =))))

2. My favorite place to sit in my house is my big green chair in my family room, but i really like to lay in my bed sitting is for birds haha

3. My fashion philosophy is well i love fashion and styles but i am just not getting a little brave in my choices. i like things that look well put togetehr, basics like jeans and t's but i love a funky twist to it. I love to see people in clothes that fit well.

4. Something every girl should have is a purse she loves. and a good pair of sunglasses

5. If you looked in my purse right now you'd find.... ALOT of junk: wallet, keys, phone, a makeup bag with like 8-10 lipsticks, perfume, sharpies, post it notes, pens, pacifier (for the kids =)), hair bands, ipod, lots of other stuff my purse is big

6. My favorite music right now is oh some old rap music like Gold Digger, no joke roflol .

7. My favorite part of my body is my ears lol, they are small close to my head and i like them also my lips they are full. other than that not much else i could give you a long list of things i hate hahaha

To read more go here

Fill in the blank Friday

2011-03-04T09:07:00.000-08:00

1. The phrase or punctuation I overuse most is ..... uhhh probably exclamation points and i am sure there are phrases but i cant think today

2. Today I am thankful for health. I have been in pain for the last month or so and i really don't see how people deal with chronic pain on a daily basis it is miserable.

3. My best friend is Johnnie, he is the only person who knows everything and still loves me

4. A quirky thing about me is that I am scared of canals they totally freak me out and make me panic

5. This weekend I am going to attend the last 2 basketball games of my boys season, also the boys have there blue and gold dinner for cubscouts, church and i guess that's it .

6. Something that worries me is something happening to John or I .

7. On my night stand you would find my phone, the house phone, keys, icy hot for my back tissue for my nose.

to read more Fill in the Blank Fridays go here

Wee Bit Wednesday

2011-03-02T22:15:00.000-08:00

{one} do you wear holey jeans? if so, do you buy them that way?
NO i don't mind the look i just have never seen any that i liked in my size =)

{two} do you get a full 8 hours of sleep per night?
uhhh hardly. i do not require much sleep at all. usually about 6 hours if i am lucky

{three} what’s your favorite way to eat an Oreo?
i love Oreos i just eat them, but i can not eat one so i don't by them often .

{four} do you wear shoes in your house?
no not at all, i almost always wear socks though.

{five} who would you call first if you won the lottery?
John and that's it no one else would need to know because then i would suddenly have to share with every person i ever met

{six} have you ever been in a food fight?
nope…

{seven} do you snore?
no…

{eight} do you know how fast you type?
no i don't know but pretty fast figuring i only use 4 fingers to type.

{nine} can you do a headstand (without using a wall)?
no.i have never been able to.

{ten} how do you like your popcorn?
at the movie theater with butter and salt. i also love kettle corn!

Fill in the blank Friday

2011-02-25T00:46:00.000-08:00

1. I am currently obsessed with listening to sermons on my walks, oh and walks ;) and probably my nice comfy bed

2. Today I am annoyed because, I am not it has been a great day actually

3. The age I am is 31 and the age I feel is well right now i am tired so probably about 31 lol, but most days i still feel in my 20's. unless of course my back hurts then i feel 180

4. My favorite place is my house because it is ours and everyone i love the most lives here

5. Something I have been procrastinating my diet, i know what to do i just need to get my butt in gear! .

6. The last thing I purchased was a arm band for my ipod so it doesn't fall off during workouts

7. The thing I love most about my home is who I share it with... My husband and my kids are the best and i am so thankful we all get to call this place home. I also love that we have done so much work ourselves.

To read more fill in the blanks Friday posts go here

Wee Bit Wednesday

2011-02-23T21:36:00.001-08:00

{one} do you always wear your seatbelt in the car?

most of the time… sometimes I still forget and realize as I drive

{two} do you crack your knuckles?

No not really I used to allllll the time though.

{three} what is your favorite flavor of gum?

depends on the brand but usually the green gum (spearmint I think?)

{four} what is your favorite piece of jewelry that you own?

I am not a jewelry person as far as real stuff so probably my wedding band since that is the only thing I wear every day.

{five} who is your best friend?

My friend Lindsey, she is one of the those people that no matter what or how long its been since we have talked or hung out we can pick up where we left off we met in 7th grade, I was the really talkative girl behind her in math class HA!. I have several realllllly great girlfriends that I love soooo much and that I can say I could count on for anything including my friends Liz, Tara, Lynette, oh I cant start this list it would be long but they know who they are.

{six} what is your favorite smell?

Pinesol, candles, a nice clean baby, and perfume (currently Guilty by Gucci)

{seven} what is your favorite lunch meat?

if I make a sandwich here at home Ham, if I am out turkey

{eight} do you still have your tonsils?

yes.

{nine} do you untie your shoes before you take them off?

nope.!

{ten} what color is your car?

red…...

Look Look

2011-02-18T22:45:00.000-08:00

I was featured on Remodelaholic today!

I love this blog and filed away so many home ideas from it go check it out here!!!

Johnnie did a pretty great job on that entertainment unit i would say =)

Fill in the Blank Friday

2011-02-18T13:01:00.001-08:00

yay it is finally Friday! for more fun reads go here

1. I am a people person but occasionally need time alone. I am a follower of the Lord, a wife to John, and mommy to my kids. I am a texter and emailer and blog lover. Also a lover of carbs <grin>

2. The bravest thing I've ever done was rode up a big dirt hill with my husband on the back of a quad it was horrible and I will never get on a quad again and I pretty much hate them. also stood through a week of planning a funeral for my own baby that was horrible. And stood my ground on a very important issue that I still feel I was wronged in and took the punishment that followed it sucked but I did it and with respect to people who never even cared enough to ask or listen to me.

3. I feel prettiest when just had a really great work out or when Johnnie tells me that he loves me .

4. Something that keeps me awake at night is projects, TV, computer, soda almost anything I am a night owl

5. My favorite meal in the entire world is depends on the diet, right now probably PB cupcakes or chocolate chip pecan cookies from Sweet Surrender bakery, pizza (you have to eat it there!) or any of the cool restaurants we have been to in Vegas.

6. The way to my heart give me a gift or do something nice . My love language is most definitely gifts and service cant apologize the Lord made me that way

7. I would like to lose 70 pounds in the next 5 months lol, go to NY and travel the world oh and someday go to culinary school! .

Random Wednesday Ramblings

2011-02-17T00:24:00.001-08:00

2011 has been a odd year thus far. I started the year with all the expectations of losing weight, organizing and planning more homeschool geared activities, playing with the kids more, healthy meals more often, budgeting better etc. etc. etc.….. Well so far most of those things have not happened, I have been in a funk so to speak.

January came and went with a vengeance and my weight loss wasn’t happening the way I wanted (when does it) so Feb I was determined to get my booty in gear and make things happen then I hurt my back ugh! it started with a pain in my hip that kept getting worse and worse to the point I could barely walk, then my back started in. Last week I literally could barely walk it was horrible several times during the week I broke down in tears (I am not a crier!) I would try to go to the gym and could barley even get out of my car. I have seen the chiropractor more in the last 2 weeks then in last 2 years! One day last week I walked in and he said are you alright and I broke down in tears, luckily he is a good friend we have known him and his wife forever, he prayed for me right there in the office the weekend was rough but I am finally starting to feel better. I went back for my first workout in a week tonight that was a praise. A bunch of times the last few week I thanked the Lord this was just a temporary thing and how fortunate I am that I don’t have a long term illness/pain like so many people do.

The diet is really tough for me this year, not sure why last year when I started the diet I was so motivated this year I feel motivated but my mouth doesn’t I took like the last 3 months of 2010 off of dieting and put on some weight and it is a lot harder to get off this time. Last year I loss 100 pounds, and this year I can seem to get off 10 and keep it off. I will but I have been feeling a little discouraged….

Valentines was our 13th anniversary. CRAZY! it feels as though we just got married and now it is 13 years later! Time flies when you are having fun and living life…. I love you Johnnie more than you could know or imagine.

School feels as though it is getting better. Putting the boys back in school was definitely a good decision they are loving it and are making friends and having fun. Liz seems to be enjoying be the only one schooled at home right now too. Lilly and Jake are enjoying more mommy time I think, and Jake is begging to go to junior high I think we may need to put him in next year a few days a week so that he (or me) can have some adjustment before he goes to kindergarten <gulp> When he goes to kinder Liz will go to high school the same year <YIKES> lets move on before I have a breakdown.

Things are looking up (not that they were miserable but you know what I mean) we filed taxes and god is good we don’t owe money HOLLA. My husband told me last week we are going on a cruise this summer (just he and i ) HOLLA I can NOT wait we are going in July to the eastern Caribbean and we are going on a AMAZING ship seriously it is unreal, but I have a 141 days to get in shape hahaha so I better get to work.

how is your year going thus far?

Wee bit Wednesday

2011-02-16T23:58:00.001-08:00

I enjoy reading these each week so I thought I would participate this week for more go here

{one} what is your favorite breakfast food?

I am not a huge fan of breakfast BUT if I am going to eat a good one it is either going to be French toast with powdered sugar or pancakes both with cold syrup on top

{two} how many pairs of shoes do you currently own?

ummm not many when you wear a 11 you cant find that many shoes in your size that are affordable. I did recently get 2 pairs of boots on clearance at target for 75% off nice! ok so uggs, 2 boots, 2 workout tennis shoes, a pair of flip flop, sandals and maybe 2-3 others.

{three} city or country?

CITY! I love the night life I like to boogie… just kidding. but I do like the hustle and bustle of a big city

{four} what is your favorite part of your job?

being a wife I love my husband! my kids are pretty awesome too.

{five} what is your favorite junk food to snack on?

oh good time to ask I am on a diet haha. probably Pepsi max wit ruffles and green onion dip or cupcakes or cookies,,,,

{six} have you ever been mentioned in the newspaper?

maybe in HS when I played sports but just stats. I think that’s it. oh and birth announcements

{seven} do you use post-it notes?

Who doesn’t??? I use them all.the.time.

{eight} do you have freckles?

yes on my shoulders and a few on my face

{nine} is it okay for men to wear pink?

yes! and purple, I love them both on men.

{ten} when was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper?

I wrote my daughter a letter when she went to summer camp. I have given friends cards does that count?

Fill in the Blank Friday

2011-02-11T13:35:00.000-08:00

The Fill in the blank Fridays are back, to read more go here

1. The TV show/website that I watch/read that I would be embarrassed to tell anyone about is well i am not really embarrassed to tell i am a reality TV junkie, i love Chelsea Lately she can be kind of {OK very} out there oh and i love desperate housewives

2. An item of clothing that is worn and torn but that I love far to much to throw away is non-existent! i love t-shirt pj's like the kind with cartoon characters, my husband hates them so i finally got rid of them ;) i don't keep many old clothes really.

3. My grocery store impulse buy is candy generally a snickers bar, or magazines.

4. Something I do at work to pass time that I wouldn't want my co-workers to know about is well since i don't go to work per say i would say the thing i love to do that most of my mom friends do not do is NAP i love it. i love sleep

5. One thing in my life that I could give up, but never will is hmmmm never say never i have no idea. There are things i should give up but cant seem to do it =)

6. A little indulgence that I have is pretend shopping on line i like to look at clothes and dream of buying things but i don't

7. The junk drawer/area in my house is in the kitchen i also have several junk places like my school desk, several baskets and closets.

Our Family Room

2011-02-06T23:43:00.000-08:00

Well i didn't mean to take a bloggy break but we have been a little busy around here. I have been trying to upload these pics for this post for like a week and i think i just overloaded my computer or something because they would not work. finally after several separate uploads and moving the pics around i think i got it, beware there is lots of pics i had to show the whole process........

so lets start at the beginning

this was our living room when we first saw our house! yikes huh? the previous owners tried to build something on the wall it was a mess. the door on the left is our laundry room and on the right was a game room but is now our master bedroom (we had to remove a bar and a indoor BBQ grill in that room wait until you see that project!)

any way back to the family room....

so we took out the horrible pinkish carpet (that reeked of cat pee SICK!) and found like red stick on tile flooring. John ripped out all the stuff on the wall and it already began to look better {somewhat}

so there is the wall somewhat done it now looks SO much better right?

so here is the finished wall with our furniture and stuff in it. i love the TV on this wall but the TV looked so little on this huge wall and i never could decide to what to hang over the couch on this huge wall.

so in came some brain storming i wanted a entertainment center the size of the wall. John drew up a plan based on what i told him i wanted and begun this {fun} project =)

now this is a really large room and it has 8 large windows so lots of light. it also has french doors so where to place things can be difficult and the room can feel big (because it it) so i wanted the space to feel a little smaller and cozy since we do spend so much time in here.

John started by making this huge frame that weighed a million pounds, it was so hard to move because we have 3 ceiling fans in here (yes i know not very fashionable but it gets HOT in this room in the summer lots of light and 100 degree temps require ceiling fans) we had a hard time moving this thing.

in the mean time while building this (about 3 weeks since it was mostly done on the weekends) this is what our living room looked like

more pics of before

so here is the basic frame of the thing. it is very large and at this point i knew i would love it. doesn't it look better already?!

a up close of the thing, i love the bead board in the back it looks amazing!
and of course dad had lots of helpers in this project.....

ALMOST done! i mean a couple coats of paint and i could not wait to accessorize this thing.

and finally with the doors on! isn't she beautiful!!!

my husband made this and i love it!

the doors turned out so great too. i didn't want handles on them yet i may add them later but so far i like it this way.

here is one side. i ordered 2 prints from vol25
i am so loving these prints the quality is great and i love that i wont walk into someone elses house i know and see it on there wall. i like to mix personal items, cute decorative and various other things for decor.

Johnnie gave me a great gift card to pier one so i got a few things there including the candle holder with the hanging lantern looking things. My friend Tara gave me that clocks and my bf made me that crossstiched footprints print in the frame, i love that i see these things and think of friends.

the opposite shelf has this great big vase i got at pier 1 i am loving this color! Another print (oh and i put these in frames i got for $12 at wal-mart and on a frame holder from Kohl's that i got buy one get one free holla!)

A cute picture of Liz and a metal holder with decorative balls in it.

i also love to decorate with books and Nate Berkus suggested on a Oprah show a long time ago to always turns some books on there backs and some right side up for a neat look and i always do that now.

I put several different vases on there too the one on the top used to have a ivy plant in it and we got it when our son Matthew passed away from my friend Marissa's family (yes i remember random things like this) the purple vase was from my bf for my bday one year etc.

the spaces that are behind the doors are so large, i actually got some big canvas baskets from target last week and put a bunch of the kids toys in there which is nice because they aren't hiding under there beds anymore and they can play in here all together

i put the couch in the middle of the room to make it more cozy and a little closed in. and i also put my green chair on that wall to the left it is nice because we ALL can sit together and watch a movie or hangout. That coffee table is nice there because the kids can play or dance {haha} on top of it.

in the back corner of the room under the collage picture wall i brought in my zebra chairs from the formal living room (i will show that room soon i love it in there too) and threw some solid purple pillow on them. I used our old TV stand between them and put a couple of lamps on it makes a nice little corner to read at....
i put a all kind of pillows on the couch and i am really loving that. i us ally shy away from them because hello 5 kids and 11 pillows can cause a bunch of pillow fights and pillows that become napkins but i threw caution to the wind and brought every throw pillow i could find ;)
and something i decided IT IS MY HOUSE and i can mix whatever colors i want there doesn't have to be design rules for mixing things i love right?
the big pillow on the green chair is from pier 1 it is a floor pillow and was on clearance for $12 and change regularly prices at almost $50!

here is a view from the other direction. i still need to work on the desk on the right side but that is another day.

hope you enjoyed my LONG post sorry about that.

i am linking up to:

Making the World Cuter

Thrifty Decor Chick

Fill in the blank Friday

2011-01-27T23:56:00.000-08:00

Friday already? wow this week flew by! To read lots more FITBF go here

1. If my house was on fire and I could only grab 3 things I would grab without a doubt my box of Matthew stuff, when our son Matthew died at 10 weeks old we got tons of cards and letters from people i have them in a box with the clothes he had on that day, a binky and a few other things i also have a heart that has his footprints on them that the lady who ran the mortuary made me. I would also grab my camera and laptop bag since they hold EVERY picture i have ever taken. i don't know what the 3rd thing would be i guess my purse and cell phone lol that is probably it (this is all assuming my family is all out and safe obviously they would be my first priority)

2. A smell I really like is perfume, clean laundry, candles burning (specifically ones that smell like things baking lol), banana bread, Cinnamon rolls, can you all tell i am a diet haha.

3. Something you might not know about me is that I love rap music =) really i do. i recently revealed this at a bible study i go to??!! why i don't know i am really honest i guess haha.

4. Some of my favorite websites to putter about on are oh man so many... Amazon, Etsy, Old Navy, tons of blogs, facebook =)

5. This weekend I will partying it up =) We have my nieces 5Th birthday party and our bf's daughter's 4Th bday to go to i love birthdays (and cake;)) We will also go to basketball games, church, and hopefully take a nap at some point.

6. Nothing makes me happier than spending time with John and the kids. Watching my kids play and have fun together. Napping especially with Jakey. Hanging out with friends. Playing games. Decorating my house. i guess lots of things make me happy

7. A bad habit I have is talking more than i listen i always have lots to say and sometimes i should just stop and listen. Also talking loudly and staying up wayyyyy to late

Being a mom is tough

2011-01-27T22:12:00.000-08:00

I have said this several times lately.

I am sure i will continue saying it until my kids are grown HA, probably will be saying it then too.

This week we made a big decision in our family.

After only homeschooling our boys since August we decided to put them in school.....

Sometimes as mom we have a plan. As all moms know rarely do our plans turn out exactly how they are in our minds......

I plan my days the night before and i have 50 things on the list to do and am luckily if i get 10 done. it doesn't mean i gave up it just means life happened and those things had to shift and that's OK.

So when we decided last year to pull our kids out of private school to home school never did i think after 5 months would being putting them in public school ;) but you see once we got every one home and started homeschooling i realized this was not going to be as smooth as i envisioned. did we make a mistake at pulling them out? i don't think so. once we began homeschooling i realized our 7Th grader was really struggling in a few areas and i even spoke with my resource teacher who did some testing and confirmed what i was worried about, our daughter was actually pretty far behind in math, and needed a lot of extra practice in writing/ English subjects at that point i tried moving things around to help her out more but as time went on i knew i wasn't able to spend the time we really needed to spend with her.

So plans had to change. Liz is going to high school in a year and a half (yikes!) and she has to be caught up at that point, that is not a option. she is about 2 years behind in math so that is a little of a challenge, but not impossible. Liz HAS to be the priority in our school days. Now that does not mean we care about Liz's education more, it just means my boys are at grade level (or ahead) and they are 7 and 8 so school days with them are ummm long haha they require me to literally be sitting there with them making sure they do every single thing if i don't they start goofing off and thus Liz gets further behind. Let me just say Liz is a AMAZING kid, she is a blessing to have as a child so helpful she always gives 100% etc she is a great student she does all tasks and does them with all she has the problem is she must have missed some basics some where along the way and it was never noticed (probably because she is such a great student and never causes any kind of problem).

So we had to regroup and the conclusion we came to is that the boys would go back to school. I would home school Liz still. And we would hire a tutor to help Liz get caught up in math.... You see i have heard from so many people that one of the things you have to do when you are homeschooling is you have to constant reevaluate where you are and what is best for EACH child, I know not all homeschooling moms would agree with me on that one but i don't think there is anything wrong with some kids going to school and some staying home. I have always said i wanted to home school for junior high, i think that is the toughest age and i wanted to really know (and experiencing) what my kids are going through at this crazy age i want to develop our relationship even more and i want John and I to have more of a direct approach on who and what my kids are doing at that time, so we have been talking about homeschooling since before Liz began school and barely felt the OK from the Lord this last year and Gods timing is impeccable.always!

So here is a little about the road to school.

David is probably my most sensitive kid, his has a big exterior and such a soft heart. David is a good student but take a little while to catch on to new concepts and change. So i was really worried about him going to school. I tried EVERYTHING i could think of without having to lie to get the boys a transfer to another school in our district, you see the school closet to my house is a fairly low performing school. well apparently it is VERY tough to get a transfer. So my husband said just take them to check out the school you never know. Well one of my very best friends taught at this particular school and told me what teachers i would want and told me that there are some amazing teachers at the school.

So we went to check it out that Friday, the principal was amazing and turns out she goes to our church YAY God, and her daughter is in youth group with Liz! she took us on a tour of the school introduced us to teachers and told me before we left that our boys would be well taken care of and that she promised they would get great teachers and we would be happy with there experience. And i learned something about myself, i was a school snob and i felt so bad, because i pray all the time for my kids i want them to have the best experiences (like all moms) but i want them to be on my terms like i was saying "OK God the kids are going to school BUT it has to be the place i chose" like hello Raquel who are you to tell the Lord what is best like he doesn't know where they would go and where the paths there lives were going before they were born! But God is so cool and so gentle in how he shows us things.

David was nervous and not sure of it and i told him well we could try it and then if it is not the right place for us we will go back to homeschooling, his nerves seemed settled....

Johnathan is a REALLY smart kid, he can learn something today and masters it quickly, but he gets very easily distracted he needs a teacher who is firm and attentive. He was a little nervous but he tends to not mind new situations and tends to move to the beat of his own drum so school was just another fun thing to do.

So they started on Monday and they got the EXACT teachers i wanted (and my friend had told me i wanted) and Johnathan even had a kid in his class he know from church God is so amazing i tell you. The boys love it, Liz seems to be enjoying it much better, and the little ones who i thought weren't affected either way seem to be having so much more fun (probably because i have had time to sit and play and hold them a little more) So for our family, at this time it has been a fabulous decision and we are so at peace about it

Fill in the blank Friday

2011-01-20T23:14:00.000-08:00

1. My favorite quote is I have no idea who originally said this but i love this in regards to mothering... "The days are long but the years are short" soooo true
2. A bad habit I have is, just one??? Lets see probably i open a soda and don't finish it but once it is not really cold i wont drink it so i get another, oh and i stay up way to late
3. The first time I felt like a "grown up" was probably when we paid our first mortgage payment i was 18! that seems like a lifetime ago....
4. Weekends are family time, project time, church, date nights, shopping etc. oh and the naps are the best!
5. When I was a child I wished my name was Summer, not sure why because i hate the summer but the same sounds like a really pretty tall girl who has tons of friends and plays volleyball on the beach. yes i am a freak ;)
6. I wish I could lose 50 pounds and still eat cookies and cake jk... i wish i was more confident in myself and that i can lose 50 pounds and stop telling myself i cant
7. A secret I have is that i love rap music i like to listen to it when i am stressed out or exercising it calms my mind and motivates me and i can not stand country music.AT.all!

For more fill in the blank Friday's go here

THE wall.. sneak peak

2011-01-19T23:56:00.000-08:00

When we first looked at this house this is what we saw when we entered the family room... i know i cant believe we bought this house some times. The wall had a horrible set of "built in" shelves, horrible lights, horrible carpet (with even more horrible RED linoleum flooring underneath) and not to forget a HUGE hole in the middle of it that looked in to the game room/ lets BBQ in the house room (yes a BBQ grill built inside of the room next to a fireplace??) BTW this is now are room and no longer has BBQ grill i need to show you that room makeover sometime if i ever finish in there =)

So this room was most definitely a priority to do when we bought the house because we were going to be spending a lot of time. How much better does this look with just the shelves ripped out, the wall up and new carpet and lights (ignore the horrible Capri length curtains it was stressful time i just grabbed some at Target and threw them up)

WELL it looked better BUT the big wall has always been a eye sore to me. How do you decorate with that huge of a wall of empty space. We love our TV on this wall it works the best but the wall was so large in comparison to out TV of course.

So my lovely and always willing to do a cool project hubby got to work one Saturday a few weeks ago. I told him my idea for a new wall entertainment center, he drew it out, measured, took several trips to Lowes and sure did use a bunch of tools. With only a few snags in the road he got it done in about 2.5 weeks only doing it on the weekends and a few nights after work.

I can not wait to show you it is AMAZING!

I am waiting on a couple of prints i ordered then i will show you the final project!!!

Park Days

2011-01-19T23:36:00.000-08:00

If you have known me for anything length of time you know i am not much of a park mom. i mean i like my kids to run off lots of energy at the park but sometimes they run off and i tend to chase them around into the street or the fact that sometimes there is just strange people at the park. But part of my 101 goals in 1001 days was to take the kids to the park once a week for 6 weeks. so far we have done 3! which is amazing for me, actually 1 of the times was chuck e cheese but i am counting it because they run off from me there too haha!

Jake loves the park he likes to roam and check out people.
Lilly had a rough day first she fell and hit her forehead on a concrete bench because she missed it with her little hand when she went to grab on. then in this picture i had taken a nasty spoon away that she found on the ground and put in her mouth ewwww
my friend commented that you know a mom of several kids when her child throws a fit and the mom busts out the camera, true lol....

This was so fun because we met some friends at the park and my boys had a great time running around with all the older kids.

These are my 2 good friends Lynette and Emily

My Camera

2011-01-11T14:54:00.000-08:00

Johnnie got me the most amazing camera for Christmas i am in love with it!

Is is a Canon T2i and the pictures are so nice!

I have only used it on auto so far lol. Well actually i have messed with different settings but have no idea what any of them are.

So i signed up to take a photography class at a local place next week it is only 3 classes and i am sure it will teach me how to get out of Auto

I love how the colors just pop.

I have always wanted to learn how to take good pictures so i think this will be my year for that =)

This is on a different setting and i cant figure out why when i am not in Auto it only takes pictures in black and white although i do love the black and white!

Lilly doesn't understand either i guess =)

I cant wait to learn and post a lot more pictures!

thanks Johnnie!

anyone have any photography tips for me?

Fill in the blank Friday

2011-01-07T23:15:00.000-08:00

1. Winter is my favorite season, but is a lot colder then i remember since i have less weight on my body (my husband is always cold since he has loss weight too)

2. Summer is HOT. like don't go outside because the air quality is so bad the kids cant even get in the pool because it feels like a warm bath yuck! oh and so much more expensive because it is so much $$$ to run the AC 24/7

3. If it were summer instead of winter right now i would be complaining because we have to keeps all the lights off and curtains closed to keep out the heat/afford the electricity bill.

4. My favorite thing to do in winter is get under a million blankets in my bed and sleep. or read by a fire and have hot tea

5. My favorite thing to do in summer is have friends over for pool parties (when it is not 115) and BBQ's.

6. The ideal outfit for a sunny summer day is shorts and flip flops with a thin cotton t-shirt

7. The ideal outfit for a frigid winter day is pajamas and uggs, or if i have to go out jeans, uggs and a hooodie sweatshirt.

For lots more FITBF go to the little things we do blog

Home Goals

2011-01-06T14:07:00.000-08:00

Well funny i just listed my goals for the new year and then i saw this post on Nester's blog with a linky party for our home goals. i had written out my home goals today! so it must be meant to be to participate =))) GO here to see lots more posts.

Our house was built in the 50's we have done a lot of projects from a complete kitchen overhaul to small projects like my daughters bathroom. i think when you live in a old home there is ALWAYS a project to do and especially when you have 5 kids and live in a old house. So i want to do several projects this year and here is a list of the things i want to focus on (i am sure my husband is reading this and shaking his head =)) So stay tuned for lots of activities going on here

13 things i want to do around the house this year (house goals)

redo family room (finish entertainment center, add color, have carpets cleaned, just redo the whole thing) no major purchases required maybe just paint, accessories (and i have a nice pier 1 gift card for that)
redo Liz's room- paint walls, paint bed?, curtains. she got new bedding for Christmas so going for a more "teen style" boohoo
finish my room- baseboards, trim, find a dresser (been looking for a year!), something creative for headboard, ***wish list new TV
front bathroom- new vanity, paint?, wish list- new flooring/tile
kitchen- display some cookbooks get rid of what i don't need, find a nook (been looking!), purge what i don't use
boys rooms- something on walls, curtains
laundry room- get front loaders (stack them) have more organization in there
hallway- repaint and hang pictures
Lilly room- hang up shelves for display
front yard- plant some nice flowers, keep cleaned especially by school room where the kids shove there skateboards/pogo sticks
back- shall i begin.. clean side yard, clean shed, clean patio neat get rid of all junk we don't use, plant some flowers, water grass by pool so it grows, find some lounge chairs for pool area, trim trees ***wish list- new cement
clean all closets out get rid of what we don't love
my bathroom- i hate it i want to redo the whole thing... doubt that will happen =)

My 2011 Goals

2011-01-06T13:56:00.000-08:00

I thought i posted these, i KNOW i wrote a post i am wondering if i shut the computer down without saving it because it is know where to be found hmmmm..... Well anyhow here are my goals i am sure i can accomplish these or at least try =)

Walk with God/Ministry/ Serving Others-

complete at least 2 bible studies
spend more time praying for others needs (work on that prayer journal)
get together with my family more
find a ministry to serve in
get actively involved in our small group (just starting up)

Marriage-

encourage John in his interests
continue with date nights as a priority
go away for at least one night
pray for ministry opportunities and ways for him to serve in church

Kids-

work on manners and attitude
have fun do some active things as a family (incorporate family nights again, more consistently)
find ways for the kids to serve others
celebrate milestones especially birthdays!!!

Relationships-

get involved with women at my church try to meet and get to know women there
take time to actually connect with friends in person!!
do something fun and out of the ordinary with my friends

Health-

get to 175 by June!
cut back on junk to only once a week
workout 4 times a week
unspoken

financial-

start a Christmas club account
check our credit and pay anything on it off
refinance to a 15 year loan -hoping and praying!!!

home keeping-

add some color to the house, redo family room to how i envision it in my mind (comfortable, fun, warm, relaxing)
go through every drawer, closet, room, nook etc and purge what we don't use
keep house welcoming and tidy
go through the home goals list

personal-

wear clothes that fit well
do hair and make up if i go out especially if on a date with Johnnie
read more books

Creative-

learn to use my camera (take a class)
do some home projects (entertainment center, yard pretty, etc)
try some new recipes/foods

homeschooling-

plan my weeks earlier
read more
research curriculum
plan for the next year much better (and earlier)

Before i bust out this years list

2011-01-02T23:47:00.000-08:00

I thought i would update a little on how the past year went. I am so proud that i accomplished a lot of my goals for 2010, i have to write something out and see it visually in order to do it. That is why i was so specific. completed/notes are in red......

oh but first i will share a few highlights from 2010 that are memorable and important to me

my 13 highlights of 2010
1. going on a diet/ losing weight/ joining the gym and John doing it too!!!!. and getting to know Kelley and Danielle so well in the process my number 1 thing of the year by far
2. all of us going to Disneyland and spending less then $20 haha
3. mine and Johns trip to Vegas, the best time ever!!!!! and just our time together this year God has really blessed me with a amazing husband who is a amazing provider and the most selfless person i know i am blessed
4. homeschooling- finally doing it , liking it most days haha.. and putting my school room together and most importantly in this is the support and network of friends who are in there with me!
5. OUR NEW CHURCH praise God for he is so good and answered big prayers , and my new MOPS group a great group of people...
6. (this one is not necessarily a highlight but a huge part of this last year) not leading MOPS anymore/ relationships with friends changing- this was my lowest point in my life other than Matthew dying it was sad and painful and totally miserable at times but i KNOW God used this to teach me a lot. Mainly sometimes we have to let go of something good to receive something great....
7. fun times with friends (taking the trip to see Belinda, those lake visits with Tara's family, day trip to the beach,breakfast at Tiff's house, Murray farms etc etc)
8. my day in LA for my bday, and John and I going back for the day a few weeks ago i love big cities!
9. playing games with the kids, and fun family times in general this was a year really about our family coming together on our own if that makes sense
10. Liz getting involved actively in the youth group/ small groups and John and i joining a small group AMAZING, boys in Awanas and cub scouts etc!
11. having fun things at our house (Alexis' baby shower, Thanksgiving, Christmas, parties etc) LOVE this
12. mommy bible study Tara started
13. Christmas at our house, the holidays in general they have been a sweet time. and i love that my brother was reunited with his girls after a LONG time

Now onto those 2010 goals

Spiritual
read the word more ( i have got so lazy about this) - did better but this area is going to be at the top of the list this year
make a prayer journal- keep it updated - i did make it, maybe i will use it this year lol
memorize a minimum of 6 verses- YES!!! and memorized several more! homeschooling helped lol

Marriage:
(4 here) i put our marriage pretty much front and center and John seems to have too so this has been great and easy to accomplish these this year. it has seriously helped Liz can baby-sit for a few hours now

support Johnnie's interest and encourage him to pursue them
support each other in weight loss we need to do this for our family!!!
date night every other month (have tried every month doesn't work for us having 5 kids we don't have that sort of babysitting or extra cash)
go out of town together at least once

Kids:

start chore charts and allowance -chore charts have been awesome! really helpful! allowance i haven't been good at
read with kids, less TV!!!
have kid nights again (we used to do this we would play games, let them pick dinner watch movies etc and we have got out of the habit!)- so so on this one we have done a lot more family stuff but not specifically kids nights again

Family:

more fun (stop saying it and start scheduling it!!)
get healthy (with food and activities!)
less yelling (i am so a yeller i need to work on this)- i think at times i have gotten so much better with this.other times i suck at it BUT i do notice it more

Relationships:
i have done well at this i want to be a better friend this upcoming year but sometimes it is a lot of effort to have strong friendships and not always reciprocated (sp?) kwim

make time for more fun with friends
attend MNO's and meet new moms
don't feel guilty about making time for my friends!!!

Creative:

learn to bake bread (i think this is my 3rd year this is on this list!) well i wont turn this to red BUT in our defense we pretty much gave up bread hahaha
learn to take better pictures and actually start developing and organizing them in progress!!
learn to sew (Liz may have to teach me lol)- didn't even try =(

Health:
I AM SO PROUD I DID THIS AND THEM SOME YAY

lose 60 pounds i mean really 5 pounds a month i can totally do that i hope!
drink water
start walking

Financial:
i suck at this section

sit down and write out a budget with all bills and figure out a grocery budget that works - well we did this but it didn't always work so well lol
start a Christmas club account =(((
start saving something!!! =(((((

Home keeping:

purge purge purge what we don't need!
go through household list monthly and update- i accomplished as much as i could on my long list i think i did ok, the stuff i couldn't do came down to $$$ or time or both
deep clean house once a week

Personal:

schedule hair cut at least 4 times, color hair regularly- did it 3 times that was great for me i am counting it lol
keeps hands and feet nice and manicured-
do hair and make up and actually get dressed when going out somewhere (school doesn't count! HA!)

A little project

2011-01-02T23:02:00.000-08:00

OK this is a quick little project i did

i bought these 2 buffet amps off a lady on Craigslist who i bought my kitchen table from. i purchased several items from her for next to nothing. i Love these lamps. i just hated them on my mantle. i wasn't sure where to put them though since there are little hands reaching for everything here and i didn't want them broken.

Well John left for a trip to Oklahoma early the day after Christmas so i begun tearing the house apart and putting everything away.

one thing about me as much as i Love Christmas, once it is over i am pretty much over it and pack up everything for next November

Well amongst moving things around i decided to try the lamps in my entry way since the light over the the area is not working(as in when i hit the switch you smell burning and see sparks yikes!)

and guess what i love them there! such a quick and easy fix and no money spent

sometimes the best decorating tip is to just move things around and try them in other places.

oh and now my mantle needs help it has nothing on it but a lamp that doesn't belong...

Family Time

2011-01-02T23:00:00.000-08:00

Usually on Christmas we spend the day relaxing at home and then in the evening my family comes over for dinner. Johnnie usually cooks a bomb prime rib and we make a bunch of other great stuff including tamales my mom makes which are soo good (i had way to many tamales this year!)

Liz took this picture

Lilly in her Christmas dress that our friend passed down from her daughter, obviously Lilly loved that dress too. i love pictures of her walking

Some of the girls in the family. My sister Becky and brother in law Curt and her two kids and all of there families live in Idaho so they were not here for the Holidays =(

Just some of the fun going on

My niece Alexis and her family (she had her baby a few days after Christmas so it was cool to get a few pictures of there family of 4 before baby)

The most incredible thing happened on Christmas and we all got to be part of it. My brother reunited with his 2 adult daughters (age 22, and 21 i think that is right i am not good at math ha ha) anyhow they hadn't seen one another for years. and none of us had seen them in a very long time. I was like 8 i think when Carissa the oldest was born and when my brother divorced i was still fairly young (maybe 12? maybe) anyways i was young so i never have known these girls other than through facebook as a adult and man i missed out on a lot, they are so gorgeous and smart and our entire family really missed out.

I hate divorce. i hate what it is does to families. i hate what it does to kids involved. i hate how it divides people. i hate that parents don't generally get along. i hate it. period. i don't care what anyone says it sucks. being a person who's parents divorced i have every right to say that.
sorry off my soapbox....

here is my brother with his 2 daughters and his 2 sons i Love this picture i love that there was a beginning of a mending of relationships. it has to start somewhere and i am so glad it started on Christmas this year, what a gift!

Christmas Morning

2011-01-02T22:59:00.000-08:00

Yes i realize Christmas was over a week ago but i want to update this for my memories still =)

The kids woke up around 7 or so well Jake and Liz did and we had to wake the others. but once they realized Santa had showed up it was excitement all the way around.

I am so glad Santa thought to combine the read older kids gift and bring them a computer because our school space really needed one. Santa is so cool like that! The kids were a little excited
Stocking time was fun. All three of my boys requested there own big package of donuts for Christmas so i obliged and it turned out to be a GREAT idea because they ate while they opened and then we didn't have to cook that much food when it was time for a "real" meal. Have i ever mentioned how much i hate the smell of breakfast food stinking up the house and my wonderful husband knows this so he cooks it outside on the burner of his grill, i love him for that (and so much more obviously)

my kids all asked for snuggies. David even mentioned on the way home for the grandparents the night before " i got a pogo stick and a tony hawk skateboard all that is left is my snuggie and this will be the BEST Christmas EVER" hilarious i tell ya. but they are big hit all the kids are enjoying them

Santa brought Jake a leapster and he is a little obsessed with it so far, he got Dora and a toy story 3 game and he is really enjoying them...

Lilly decided to join us at about 8:30 and i was so glad she slept in because she would have been a crank otherwise. instead she was so fun and cuddly and loved all her presents. She loved the baby alive we got her and it bounces like she does in her crib.

I always like to have a picture of all the real life going on Christmas morning so here it is. That's me playing with my new baby Johnnie got me my camear oh my i LOVE it!

We were truly blessed with so much this year (good health, family, clothes, and some really fun things too) God is good!!!

Fill in the Blank Friday

2010-12-31T23:09:00.000-08:00

Well back to fill in the blank Fridays and i am excited about this one regarding the new year to read more go here

1. New Years is (awesome/lame/other) - Awesome i love a "fresh start" and the kick off to a new year, but the actual celebrations ehhhhh
2.Last New Years Eve- We had our friends Josh and Liz and there kids over and we had dinner and played games i specifically remember we made smore in the microwave with this little smore maker Liz got for Christmas i LOVE smores!
3. My new years resolution is- i have so many it needs to be its own post but a few off the top of my head are to get to my goal weight (since i lost 100 pounds last year i am sooo much closer then ever this will be my year to do it!), do some fun active stuff with the kids, have family over more, get involved in ministry.
4.The Best way to spend New years is- with my husband everything is better with him.
5.My prediction for a up and coming trend is- uh anything other that parachute pants, mullets, and tuxedo jackets with tails please
6.This New Years Eve i will- go to dinner with our friends Josh and Liz and sit and visit for a few hours, then go to sleep early
7.A fresh start is fabulous! i love the start of a new week, a new month, so what could be better than a new year!!!

Christmas Eve part 2

2010-12-30T00:31:00.000-08:00

After we left grandmas and papas house we headed home. It was later than usual since we had the Christmas program so Lilly crashed on the way home so she went to sleep instead of opening our traditional Christmas Jammies and picture taking =(

But the kids had no problem posing and whooping it up a little longer HA! John and i don't normally participate every year some years i get him him some but not always and sometimes he does the same. this year John got me some and i love them nice and warm long sleeved jammies (because ever since losing weight we both freeze to death lol)

Here are the kids posing after running around the living room

Jake had been planning on giving his binky to Santa to take to other babies who need them.

i realize Jake is 3 but this was so hard for ME.

it was the sweetest thing, he put it right buy the fireplace buy our nativity set and i said say good bye to your fufu (what he calls it) and he said "bye fufu" then he bent down and gave it kisses. i lost it i started bawling. He is so proud to be a big boy and was more excited for the presents Santa would be bringing lol.

I am not sure why it was so emotional for me but Jake and i have this special bond and i want him to stay my little boy (i know not possible but whatever)

Once the kids went to sleep the elves got to work ;) (and yes i know a strand of lights went out but the tree was decorated already so it will wait until next year)
The kids got 4 presents {kind of}

Something you want (something from there wish list)
something you need (clothes, they all needed clothes for winter badly so they got several clothing items and i wrapped them separately then put them in a big box and wrapped the box)
something to create (could be anything to be creative)
something to read

they also got snuggies because they all requested that and it was kind of funny.

once you add the stockings, and the pj's times 5 it is a lot of gifts good thing we love Christmas around here HA! i like to set them up in little piles for each kids that they can sit by. I even put a pile for John on the coffee table.

Santa left this extra special gift with a special note from Santa for leaving his binky