Tuesday, March 29, 2011

charm


I have been tossing all my catalogs lately, but today I stopped to look through Pottery Barn Kids and I saw these Decorative Pendants in it. I love them! In the catalog they are hanging near a crib and they add such sweet charm. I would love to use these somewhere in my house, in fact I hope to sometime in the near future.

Monday, March 28, 2011

i'm making this

(Found on Pinterest, for original post and directions go here)

I am in love and will be making this for my own house!!!!

cute and sweet


Today I had some of these mini bundtlets from Nothing Bundt Cakes and they were so good and cute! I had never heard of this popular chain but now I am a fan, which is great because they are opening one pretty close to my house! I can't wait to use them for parties and such!

Friday, March 25, 2011

today is 3



Happy 3rd Birthday to my sweet little girl! Look how much she has grown! Wishing her lots of sugar and spice (and she has both of those down to a science) on her special day.

I love you!

(For all you mommies just a reminder about Birthday letters. Every year I write a letter for my kids on their birthday and then seal it away with their name and the birthday # on it. I also keep a secret folder on my computer! I love how many I have now. I just update them on their year, what they are like right now and how much I love them).

Thursday, March 24, 2011

prayers for jessica

Today's post is asking for prayers; hourly prayers, daily prayers or any prayers you can give. These prayers are not for me; they are for this sweet girl below.



This beautiful girl is Jessica Joy Rees and she is in the 6th grade. I heard about Jessica's story this week from my mom. Jessica's father Erik Rees was my mother's boss and is a pastor at Saddleback Church. On March 3rd an MRI found an inoperable tumor in her brain and she is currently receiving radiation and chemo at CHOC. Jessica and her family need our prayers now. Yesterday her dad said, "PLEASE keep asking your family and friends to pray for my daughter Jessie. We need God to show up BIG TIME! Please pass it on." So I am passing it on. I have enough faith to believe in a miracle.

So what can you do besides praying for Jessica?

* You can go to her website to get more information!

* You can become a fan on her Facebook page; she has a goal for 10,000 fans so that she can help spread joy and NEGU (never ever give up).

*You can also sign up to get more information on her JoyJars, which are jars that will be filled with goodies and the proceeds will go to CHOC and cancer research. She is hoping they will be ready by May 1st, so we can all support her by buying them.

*If you would like more information or to send deliveries you can contact:

Rick Brotherton
rick@brotherton.com
C/O Jessie Rees
9 Franklin Way
Ladera Ranch, CA 92694
949-218-5566

* You can provide a blessing by sending a gift of Restaurants on the Run to her family. Gift certificates can be purchased and sent immediately by email to help@jessicajoyrees.com. Or you can send a Shell Gas Gift Card to the address above. Daily trips back and forth to CHOC has to be expensive. Jessie also loves Chick-fil-a, Jamba Juice, In-N-Out, Simon Gift Cards, Subway, Starbucks, California Pizza Kitchen and PF Changs.

* You can also organize an event to raise money for Jessie or incorporate NEGU or JoyJars. Just contact Rick Brotherton at the info above.

This blog is all about faith and I know that is what Jessica and her family are living off of now. Let's be a part of their story. Jessica's bible verses are:

"I can do all things through him who strengthens me." – Philippians 4:13

"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” – Joshua 1:9

Lots of love to Jessica and her family and I am dedicated to praying for them and helping in any way that they might need me.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

today


We eat the standard Honey Nut Cheerios, Kix, Oh's, and Kashi for breakfast. No sugary cereals in our house. But since the kids are always freaking out on the cereal aisle I decided to let them pick whatever cereal they want for their birthday week. Piper is turning 3 this week so she picked Trix as her choice. Apparently she wanted the cereal where the bunny is on the commercial and he takes the cereal from the kids but they take it back. I guess commercials do work! Anyhow, this morning both kids got a bowl of it....and they both sent it back in the kitchen. Maybe too sugary for them? I don't know but it made me secretly happy. We will see if it lasts all week. I'm not going to lie, I wanted her to pick Lucky Charms or Captain Crunch! I guess Momma will get to pick her birthday week too.

easter already

I broke out the Easter movie too soon, Brody asks to see this every day! That's 33 more days of Veggie Tales 'Twas the Night Before Easter. Since it's Veggie Tales I don't mind, I love the message and I love that he wants to watch it every day. Hooray for faith-based cartoons. And, I just went to the Veggie Tales website and there is a lot for kids to do if you have never checked it out before.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

LemonAID stand for Japan

My sweet friend passed this on to me. If you have time before Sunday, Team Kids needs children (or their schools) to host their own LemonAid stand (or bake or garage sale) to benefit those affected by the tragedy in Japan. Great lesson for kids because they can collect money and if they are in OC they can take the money themselves to give to the Team Kids LemonAid store on Sunday the 27th. More info here!

Thursday, March 17, 2011

next year


Happy St. Patrick's Day...... I have nothing to show! Next year I'm going to do something magical, I promise. But this year I am just going to have to admire everyone else's treats and decorations in the blogging world. I've already seen rainbow jello, leprechaun dust and lots of gold coins.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

st. patrick's day



Look what my sister did this morning for a bake sale..... man, I didn't do anything this morning! And, I don't have anything planned for St Patrick's Day for my kids. Whitney, you make me look bad!

Monday, March 14, 2011

we love

It hasn't changed....our favorite brand to buy my 5 (almost 6) year old is still Volcom. We love the fit and everything lasts forever.







sweetness

a good party can really wipe you out

Sunday, March 13, 2011

in case you don't know


If you need a little hope or faith in your life, you can follow me here too.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

a little project

It's not the best picture but here is the wreath I made out of tissue paper. You can see the tutorial here.

things i forgot to show you


I had originally planned on throwing my sweet boy a huge first birthday party, but it didn't work out as planned. But here was the original invite before plans changed! Cute right! And below are the cupcakes I ended up doing for our family-sized fiesta themed party. You can make any size party cute!




Tuesday, March 8, 2011

good for baby



When I first started seeing baby food pouches at Target or the grocery store, I thought it was too late for my baby. I thought they were for beginning eaters and he is almost 15 months old. But I am always really worried about the amount of vegetables he is getting, so I still have been feeding him baby food once a day. Last week he gave up on the baby food, he wants to eat like a big boy with all of his food. So I was pleasantly surprised while having dinner at a friends house, that Madden took one of their pouches and devoured it. He thinks it's a drink and he really likes it. So now I am stocking up and giving him one a day to make sure he is getting his vegetable intake along with all the other food he is eating.

We bought some of these Happy Baby pouches at Target and my friend just gave me some from Trader Joes (thanks Brooke)!

(p.s. I was always worried about his Iron intake too, so I bough a Yo Baby yogurt that has iron in it. Problems solved).




Sunday, March 6, 2011

not juicy


I have kind of avoided this post because to each their own, but I have to write about it because it keeps coming up over and over again. When my daughter started drinking out of a sippy cup, our pediatrician clearly told us that juice is not something that we should be offering our kids. It has no real health benefits and we should be offering water and milk only. We did follow his advice and I never buy juice for our house. The only time my kids get juice is if we are eating out and it comes with a meal or if we go to someone else's house or to a party. To them it's a treat and I am okay with that. Not everyone agrees with me, I was told I was mean mom a few months ago. But here's the thing, I am hearing it everywhere now. It's coming out of very prestigious doctors mouthes, I am reading it in books, in articles online and on television. For some reason there is a real push right now to stop giving our kids juice so I am sharing it too!

Friday, March 4, 2011

deals deals deals

It is not cheap for our family to eat out, even at In-N-Out (yummy). We have four eaters and a mini-eater. I cannot cook 7 days a week, so right now I am kind of into Groupon.com and ScreaminDailyDeals.com. I have used Groupon a lot more, but did find a good deal on Screamin and 10% goes back to a school or charity of your choice. I know that you can easily get roped into these site with all kinds of good looking deals, but I strictly keep mine to food places for the whole family and I count it into our grocery budget. So far I have gotten $20 worth of food at 3 different places for $10 each. $10 for my family to eat is cheaper than a lot of recipes. I do try and eat dinners and lunches at home during the week and eat out only on weekends, so I make sure the coupon is for a place we could easily get to on a Saturday or Sunday. And I always read the restrictions and check expiration dates. I love a good discount!


Wednesday, March 2, 2011

so good (and healthy)


Tonight I made a Healthier Slow-Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup that I found on allrecipes.com. It was REALLY good! You should definitely check it out here and I know I will be making it again. Yum!

I love reading the reader comments online and making similar changes. The changes I made to this recipe were as follows:
- I used a larger can of diced tomatoes instead of the 15oz can of whole peeled tomatoes
- I added a small can of green chilis
- I used one mild to medium pepper instead of the 2 cubanelle peppers
- I added a can of black beans (drained)
- I did not have a bay leaf
- I used a Mexican Seasoning instead of the cumin & chili powder. It just had some extras in it.
- I used crushed up low fat chips instead of making my own
- I sprinkled a little low fat Mexican cheese on top

Super easy and so yummy!

oopsie

When my kids get a scrape or any kind of boo boo, I usually hug and love on them and then tell them, "you're fine." I clean up the scrape or cut and tell them to go rest. Sometimes they will tell me it stings and it hurts after a little time goes by and I kind of just say, "sorry baby" and assume they just need a little more attention but that it can't hurt anymore.

Fast-forward to yesterday. I slipped while trying to put the baby in the car and scraped my elbow. It was bleeding a little. I went home and cleaned it up (it totally stung a lot) and even today it hurts. I am a pretty tough cookie when it comes to pain so all I can think about now are all the bumps, scrapes and bruises that my little ones got that I just said, "you're okay." I think now I'll give them a little more TLC. Funny how we do those kind of things as moms!

Lesson learned.


Tuesday, March 1, 2011

my little man looks cute in.....


We usually buy Brody one pair of designer jeans per growth spurt. We save them for parties, photo shoots or anything special. This time around I bought him a pair of Skinny Jeans from Gap Kids and they seriously rock. I finished hemming them last night and they look so dang cute on him. I love them just as much as Sevens or Joe's. They look especially cute with a button up shirt and some black converse. Now that I think about it, my favorite pair of jeans that my almost-three-year-old wears are her little Mini Skinny Jeans from BabyGap. I guess I am just a fan!