Easter and broken bones!

It was a pretty eventful Easter weekend! Friday Dillon fell off the monkey bars at the park and injured his arm. We iced it, gave him Tylenol and said, "We'll wait and see how it is in the morning." It was much better in the morning- swelling down, less pain etc. We had 3 birthday parties to go to that day and decided he'd be fine for one more day.

Sunday came and he was still swollen and favoring his arm, but even less. It was a lovely Easter Sunday. The kids looked scrumptious in their Easter duds and we got some great shots of them "hunting" the eggs the Easter Bunny left in our backyard. We had our traditional Easter Sunday German food and watched Enchanted together. It was quiet and low-key, but really nice. Dillon was still wincing anytime anyone came near his arm/wrist, so James and I concurred- "first thing in the morning."

We got home from the hospital about 4 hours ago. See for yourself-

You don't have to endure this cheesy video of their little Easter egg hunt unless you are close family. If you are close family (Grandmas and Grandpas, aunts and uncles) then I expect you to watch and enjoy every second :) Caution: You might get a slight kink in your neck! SOMEBODY recorded the whole thing sideways! IDIOT!!... oh ... it was me.

Milestones

We’ve crossed some major milestones lately! Annabelle had her first solid food Monday. I gave her rice cereal and she seemed to enjoy it! Yesterday, she did even better and today I might even mix in some mushed bananas today.






She also sat up for 30 seconds by herself yesterday! James tried to catch it on camera, but as soon as he told her to smile, she fell right over! Lol She’s rolling a bit, but only from back to front and has slept through the night twice this week! Mama LOVES that!

Coordinating Easter outfits for the three kids has proven to be a chore! As much fun as dressing a baby girl is, it is also a lot of work! I couldn’t justify buying her a new dress, as she already has 7 dresses in her size, so I picked one and tried to match it to some new things for the boys. I have had the hardest time finding a cute bow for her head that matches a baby blue dress! I got lucky at The Children’s Place for the boys’ things, only to find out in the mother’s lounge on Sunday, that all 3 of the other moms in there had purchased their boys’ Easter outfits there as well. It should be cute – not only will my three children match, but probably the whole primary! hahaha Pictures next week for sure!!

Ah, the joys of being a stay-at-home mommy. I get all wrapped up in stuff like matching Easter outfits and it seems so... well unimportant- "Fluff." Each daily chore a little less exciting than the last and sometimes I get a little down when I look at my week – Monday: Grocery shopping, Tuesday: Housecleaning, Wednesday: laundry, and so on…, but then I’ll have an “aha moment.” For example, Annabelle will have a goofy grin and her first meal of rice cereal all over her face and I’ll realize that I LOVE my life. I wouldn’t trade it for money or fame or even a brand new $5,000 wardrobe (I’ve been obsessed with “What Not to Wear” lately)!! Some days I think my job is the most thankless job in the world. But, I LIVE for those little baby girl squeaks and grins, Charlie’s funny raspy voice and humor, and Dillon’s new reading, math and social accomplishments!

James and I celebrated our 9th anniversary last week. That is another milestone, I think! I’m so lucky to have a great guy. It was one of the best anniversaries ever, even though we didn’t do anything really special- just dinner and we even had the baby with us for that. It was just fun to be together.



Happy Easter everyone!

March Madness

Saturday we went to a birthday party for some friends' little girls. We love hanging out with these guys and their adorable kids! The boys had a blast wacking the pinata and playing at the park and Annabelle... again just giggley and cute!

James had just returned from C4 - Combat Casualty Care Course - in San Antonio. He'd been gone 10 days and we were THRILLED to have him home!

So that was the first of about 8 birthday parties we have this month. We went to one today, we're going to one Thursday, Saturday, two the next Saturday AND the next Saturday after that!! It's March Madness of a different sort.

Other than that, it's been the same ol'. Potty training is going well. Still no #2, however. He waits until its an emergency before he tells me he has to go and sometimes can't get to me in time- like the other day at the park. He just had to go and was too far away to come tell me or head to the toilet, so he just dropped his drawers. I was a bit late with the camera. You can just see him pulling up his undies, but at least I had the camera with me for once! Actually, I wish that I had taken a picture of this lady's face near me... she looked absolutely HORRIFIED!! Maybe she never had boys?!?!



For Christmas I got a new crockpot. I've never been much of a crockpotter, so I emailed all my Martha Stewart-y friends and asked them to email me their favorite crockpot recipes. It's been awesome. I crockpot at least once a week! Easy and delicious. We're eating some great roasts, soups, and last night it was chalupas.

I am telling you- GO out, BUY the ingredients and MAKE this for your family TOMORROW! It is to die for- melt in your mouth- next door neighbors' mouths are watering- DELICIOUSNESS! I got the recipe from one of my long time buddies Kellie. I had no idea she was a culinary genius (but I probably could have guessed ;))! Here's the recipe:

*Chalupas

1-16 oz can of pinto beans
3 cloves minced garlic
1 tsp oregano
1/2 -1 Tbsp salt
1 Tbsp Cuman
1 Tbsp Garlic salt
1-28 oz can diced tomatoes
1-4 oz can chopped green chiles

Put in crock pot and cover with water, cook on Hi for 2 hours
Add 3 lb boneless pork loin roast and cook on Hi for 6 more hours.
Then remove pork and shred meat, return to mixture and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes.
Serve on tortillas with your choice of condiments.*

The only thing I did differently was cook the meat the day before (8 hours on low seasoned with mild taco seasoning). After adding the meat to the mix, I only cooked it for another 2 hours. We actually made the tortillas ourselves from scratch and they were warm, soft and amazing. I'll never be satisfied with another restaurant taco/ burrito thing ever again!




Thank you KELLIE! A new family favorite for sure :)

Beachin' it in FEBRUARY!

You know you live in paradise when you can spend a lovely day at the beach in the middle of February! (I haven't posted these pictures until now because my camera was at my moms)



We spent a gorgeous afternoon at the beach a couple of weeks ago with my Mom and Doug up in San Clemente. The water was cold - so cold that even MY BOYS wouldn't get wet! Nevertheless, it was a great day for throwing rocks, digging, sandcastles and later we had Mexican food and roasted marshmallows! It was great. Grandma and Dillon made a sandcastle.



Charlie made the train whistle everytime it went by.



Both of the boys enjoyed "spelunking" in this sand cave.



And climbing trees.




Annabelle was just adorable and giggley.



Grandma is just always good for a laugh-




Potty training update:
Wish it was good news people. I am quite sure he'll eventually get potty trained, however, it may not be in this lifetime. He is still cracking us up, though. The other day when we were driving he - out of nowhere- started busting out singing Beyonce! "You must not know 'bout me, You must not know 'bout me!" Then yesterday, he asked to turn it to his favorite song,
ME: "What song is that Charlie?"
CHARLIE: "She's a beautiful girl, she's a beautiful girl"

He's got good taste. He's also very perceptive. He knows how much I love Josh Groban and as soon as one of JG's songs come on he gets all worried and says-
"Momma, you gonna cry?" "Don't cry Momma!"
Yeah, I usually do. The Man just sings to my heart everytime.




BTW- I've added a section to my side bar for all the "tags" I've been trying to catch up on... in case you tagged me and thought I missed it ;)