My Family in a Nutshell :)

Had fun the other night celebrating my Mom's birthday and good ol family time! For those of you that haven't met my family, they are loud, fun and well........loud! But I LOVE them! I'm the youngest of 4 which we are now 8 since from the very beginning my parents made it clear that our spouses were also their children :) I appreciate that! I love that when we get together there is always amazing food, really good conversation and lots of time spent sitting around the table talking. I love that the conversation varies from what God is doing in our lives to food to travel to how to more actively spread the gospel in our city. This absolutely does not mean my family is perfect and free of issues. Of course not. BUT over the past few years I've really been challenged to work on and grow those family relationships because I've seen how friends can come and go, but your family is always there (good OR bad!) So it really is one of those places where you'd like to have deep, meaningful relationships. 

My family often breaks out into song and dance.....a fact that for years really embarrassed me (especially when friends were over) and..............lets be honest.........still does embarrass me! However I would never trade the laughter and fun we all have! Now that we are all married with kids it's only that much better! For some reason the other night we got onto the conversation of squatting......ya know as in squatting for using the restroom in other countries...so of course we all had to try out our squat! Mmmmkay! 

Mom and Kim (good job mom didn't even drop your wine hahah!)

Laura and.....Dad that isn't quite it!

There ya go! Even with  your bad knees!

Scott........and Jon observing from the swing!

Way to go babe! 

MMMMMmmmmm gotta have yummy Caprese while squatting lol ;) 

Anyways, I hope I encouraged you to invest in your family today!!! 

R.E.A.L. Life

Today I don't have any awesome recipe, cute craft design or inspiring words for you! Today is a real life day :) Ya know, grocery shopping, cleaning, scrubbing the sink, etc.......????? BUT I did get to start the day off with a super fun breakfast for my mom's birthday! Here's my granny, mom, and sisters! 

Love my fam: ) 

We left the seven kids with babysitters so it was really a fun treat to just talk and relax without our babies flinging toys into the air and grabbing our food off our plates :) :) :) 

I am continuing to pack today!! Painting is getting done at the new place and we will be out of our apartment by the end of the week!! Definitely bitter sweet :) Excited for more room (and especially to not have Juliana sleeping a foot from my face anymore!!!) but also sad to leave this place that has so many memories from the past 2 years! We've never lived anywhere that long lol!

Juliana decided to fit herself into Daddy's lunch sack : ) She's pretty cute! Trying to smile? Or complaining? Who knows :) 

Sooooo back to my real life day!!! But that's ok ! Real life is where I really believe our character is seen and our faith lived out. On in the background while I write is Best Food Ever on TLC (netflix.....we don't have cable.) UMMMMMM YUM?!?!!? I'll take that triple sized doughnut you're eating instead of my pb an j thank you! 

And just like yesterday and the day before, off I go to read Goodnight Gorilla for the millionth time today :) 

Happy Monday!!!!

Up up and away!

This is why I have no creative post for today! 

Buried in boxes and organization today.....We are priming at the new house today, painting in the next few days, then carpet! Cutting it close to be in by the 1st but I think we'll make it!

I can't believe the time has finally come for us to start packing!!!! Praise God! 

On the plus side, Jules thinks all these boxes are great toys! Now lets get her to not unpack everything I just packed! 

Happy Friday!!! :) 

Testing Testing......1 2 3

This week I decided to test out some of the Pins I've seen on Pinterest :) 

The first was cleaning my make-up brushes. I have always just used hand soap so I thought I'd give this a try. 

(p.s............isn't it kind of funny that they used a stemless wine glass for this?!? made me laugh :)

Here's mine! Poured about a teaspoon of wash in with warm water and I barely had to move my brush around before I saw the water start growing murky! I only had baby shampoo, but it really worked great! It left my brushes really soft :) 

Ewwwwwwe look at the water after :( 

Always make sure to lay your brushes on their side so the glue holding them together doesn't dissolve. 

The next pin I was dying to try was the pop corn in a brown bag "trick". I assumed it had to be a trick because literally all it is is about 1/4 cup of pop corn kernels in a brown bag. You fold the brown bag over twice and pop it in the microwave till you hear the popping stop. 

You seriously have to try this!!!! I will never buy pop corn with all those gross oils and salts again! What is so fun about this is (not only is it significantly cheaper!!!) but you can add salt, butter, chocolate chips (of course I would say that.......... !) or anything!

Baby asleep and yummo pop corn.....we are happy!!!

Sooooo this one I am going to try again. I didn't even both getting a picture because it was a big mess. It ran all over the pan and my oven so maybe my dough needed more flour to be used this way :) I will try again because they look fun!

Among the many cleaning ideas I want to try from Pinterest, I had to try this one cause water spots really bug me! But this one disappointed :( It left streaks and residue even though washed and rinsed.

Here's mine! I guess I'll just stick with my cleaner and baby oil :) It keeps it shiny!!

Pins to Try Soon!

I guess someone could talk me into making this......

And with all my paint samples :) This is a must! Just pick a strip you like and ask for a sample of each color on the strip!

I've been meaning to do this one for so long!!! Excited to make my pans look new :)

Does Pinterest make you want to do sit ups one second then make cinnamon rolls the next???? 

Happy Pinning!

Till I was a mommy....

Aside from all the serious aspects of motherhood, I have been thinking lately about the things that just never crossed my mind until I was a mom, such as:

• What to do when you have to go to the bathroom. Seriously the first couple days when I was home alone and our baby was mobile.....I was like, "What do I do with her?" I can't leave her alone cause she'll get into something. She doesn't like to sit on my lap cause she just wants to grab/shred the toilet paper which I won't let her do and then we're in a struggle over the TP while trying to go to the bathroom..........mmmkay. So thankfully girly likes to just stand at the bathtub and peer inside (and through toys inside). Solution!
• Unloading Groceries. Most people probably have a different situation cause they live in actual houses with driveways. : ) But we live in an apartment with a busy parking lot a few flights down. Again, when she just sat in her carseat it was noooooo problem. But once she was crawling/walking I didn't want to leave her in the car in the busy lot.......but I don't have a bouncer or walker to toss her in while I frantically run up and down. So it comes down to the crib. Which I hate cause I feel like it messes with sleep training, since this one time she gets to come out when she cries cause it's not actually nap time. I wish she would just play in there while I unload so I didn't have to sprint up and down the flights of stairs with arms full of bags while listening to her scream, but oh well!
• When you don't get to shower before your husband leaves. This is sometimes the hardest for me! I am busy making his lunch and helping him get out the door while trying to feed her, etc. and before I know it he's gone and she's up and at it and I have not showered :( Do you wait till nap time? Again, this is where the crib comes in. And again I hate it cause it messes with sleep training. I have tried just letting her stand in the bathroom but she kept pulling the curtain aside and drenching herself......kind of entertaining :) haha
• I know this is a given.........but seriously!!!!!! How easy it was to just "run out the door". Before Juliana's birth, when my friends/family would call and see if I wanted to grab coffee or lunch I could legitimately run out the door. Now when I say, "ok I'm running out" it means, I need to pack her bag, prepare her some food (haha, it was easier when she was JUST breastfed, food with you everywhere....tmi!) throw make-up on, ponytail done, choke-able item fished out of her mouth as we then walk out the door :) 
• How little I could "accomplish" in a day and still feel like I was running around like crazy. Not to tute my own horn cause I'm sure this is true for many of you.....but seriously before I had Jules I could get so much done in a day. I could run a million errands, work a shift, clean the house, make a nice dinner and end it with watching a movie with my hubs. There are many days lately that the end of the day is nearing and (apart from taking care of my child.........ahem) and I realize I have only finished one basket of laundry.
• BUT........Wow what I can do during nap time! It didn't take me long into motherhood to realize, Oh, I'm not going to get much done while she is awake. Nap time is key!!!!! Are you ever in awe of how much you just got down while they were taking their precious 2-3 hour nap!!!?? (unless of course I spend it blogging..........then nothing gets done!)
• I honestly didn't understand what Stay at Home mom's did all day. For any of you that have been asked, even with the best intentions, "so......what do you do all day?" I used to think, "I've babysat......I know what it's like!" I thought stay at home mom's daily agenda consisted of play dates at the park (oh my how stressful), playing with their kids, and being a housewife plus a little more. What I didn't understand was the enormous responsibility of raising your child. Of pouring into them and teaching them all day long. Of how many times you could play the same game, read the same book and play peek a boo :) 
• Of how much love could fill my heart. I have to be honest, I used to get a little upset when people would tell me, "You don't know how much you can really love someone till you have a child". I loved my husband, my family and my friends and didn't appreciate people telling me that I didn't really know what love was since I wasn't a mom. But I think what they were trying to say, is I didn't know the feeling of my heart swelling with love so intense for something so small and that it was up to me to watch, care and love this tiny one. She is a part of me, and apart from all these silly things I never thought of, I could never trade the privilege of being her mommy. I am in love with motherhood :) 

Friday Letters

Dear God, 

Thank you for being our source of hope. Thank you for what your word is teaching me this week. Thank you for not leaving us abandoned and alone....but giving us your words of life that are so easily accessible to us. So many people have so many questions about you yet we don't take the time or invest the effort to simply read your word! I am guilty of asking hard and difficult questions of you and not seeking out the answers in your word. Thank you for your patience with me and your spirit that guides me. 

Dear Husband, 

I am secretly very happy that you had to take a couple days off of working morning to night on our house and your two jobs to prepare a sermon for church. I have loved seeing you so much the past few days and the I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!!! You are working so hard to get us moved in and I am so grateful. You're message on Sunday will ROCK! You've worked hard and I love seeing what God is teaching you every day. 

Dear Daughter,

I always say, "You're adorable" "You're precious" and "I love you" so I will just repeat those along with.........please stop shaking your head NO at me! As adorable as it is I sometimes am so surprised to see so much spirit in such a small person!!! I love your new game of bringing me things from the around the house. I smile when I open up the shower curtain and see a million toys dropped in the tub, although I don't always love cleaning them up. One request sweet girl...........please say Mama. Dada is a sweet word I love hearing you say, but it's time. Mama is waiting!!!! 

Dear Costco, 

Why do you have to sell so many amazing things? I feel like a fatty excitedly running from sample to sample but I can't help it. Your cakes and muffins always taunt me and I'm happy to say I passed them by today....though I may have left a drop of drool behind. Gross. Ok.

How cute is Jules pushing the cart at Costco with Nonni??? She wanted to walk! Not be pushed.....my goodness. 

Dear Ergo, 

Thank you for transitioning to a backpack now that my child is far too big to be needing to be held but has decided lately to attach herself to me. You made cleaning the tracks of our windows easy. 

Dear Mommies out there, 

My daughter has all the sudden changed the past week or so to basically clinging herself to me. Is this a stage?!?! I thought we passed that stage already. She's almost a year and I can't say it doesn't frustrate me sometimes when she starts crying when my mom or husband takes her. Heaven forbid I have to go to the bathroom!!! I love holding her but just curious why she is doing this??

Dear Body,

I am really tired of you not really feeling good most of the time and my skin looking like I have leprosy on my hands. I am trying no sugar....including fruit which is so hard for me....as I have read lots about this possibly being a yeast imbalance in the system....sorry tmi! I will be sharing more about my days of no sugar in a later post :( Right now the separation from my chocolate chips is too sensitive to write about. hahaha

Dear Wallpaper that refuses to come off, 

I will win. 

Actually no I won't :( You were stuck on so tight that even after hours of scrapping and pealing there were still remnants left. So we had to sand your remains down to flat and have the drywall guy fix you up. Maybe you were just so attached to this house you didn't want to leave!!

Dear Phone, 

Thank you for not breaking even though I drop you several times a day and all your pieces go scattering across the cement. I am glad you are not a smart phone otherwise you would be dead. You text and call which is all I need! Good job!

Dear Paint Samples, 

Good bye. I am done with you. 

Not really but I can dream right? We are so close to painting and I need to make decisions!!!! 

Thank you for reading!!! Happy Friday!!!

Dinner Tonight

Tonight was the kind of night where I was running around all day and got home around 6:30.  So this was thrown together fast but it was still delicious! 

I love rice noodles!!! The fastest way to use them is to boil some water and soak them :) Ready if 5-10 minutes!

        Soaking!

Some of the yummy ingredients for dinner! The curry is simply curry paste and coconut milk. I added soy sauce, chili paste, brown sugar, vinegar and garlic. It was a little too bland so that helped :)


P.S. I actually used Virgin/Unrefined coconut oil. It smells and tastes like coconut so it worked for this recipe. 

Our delicious veggies for tonight! haha don't mind the sippy cup that made it into the picture :) 

Added in my cooked chicken that I had cooked in ginger and garlic

Add rice noodles first

The veggies next...

Then curry! 

And of course, as most our dinners include, finish off with cilantro!

Yuuuuummmm!

 I guess we liked it....

              :S