I Am Thankful

For this girl!

She is sensitive, funny, smart and beautiful.

She is a deep thinker and she keeps me on my toes.

I am lucky to be her mom!

And I thank God for her every day!

I Am Thankful

For this man

He makes me a better person.  He is my best friend.

He makes me laugh.

He is my rock!

He is a great father!

And loves his girls!

I Am Thankful

To be a mother!

It took us a while to get there, not as long as others, but we are so lucky!

Fishy faces

Our weekend

I wake up Saturday to some sweet notes all over the house.  What a great girl Caitlin is!!

Alaina loves to play in my makeup drawer.  Usually she finds the lip gloss only. 

Today she found the real stuff.

She's been playing with the iphone camera alot lately.  Here are her self portraits.

How did she do this?

Friday, I was at work and I get a call from Rusty.  We Facetime and talk and he said Alaina was messing with his laptop and rearranged the screen.  He didn't know how to fix it back.  So he showed me his screen.
Look at what she did!  Every icon was rotated counter clockwise.

So I hang up and google.  I guess it is a common occurence in Dell laptops because the solution was found easily.  CTRL + ALT + Right Arrow.  I guess she had randomly hit CTRL + ALT + Left Arrow to change it.

Goose Egg

Yesterday after church, we had just gotten home.  Rusty and I were talking, about to start dinner.  Alaina was running around.  I saw that she was over by her high chair.  She likes to climb up in it and usually does a great job.  Today, not so much.  We weren't watching and just heard a crash and immediate crying.  I went and got her and took her to see Rusty.  She was laying her head on my shoulder.  I look back at Rusty and saw his face.  I immediately knew something was wrong with her.  It scared me to death!!  I pull her away from me so I can see what it is.  She had an immediate swelling on her head.  Like you would see in a boxing/MMA match - a hematoma.

She wouldn't let us put an ice pack on it.  (I don't blame her!)  We immediately call the pediatrician and left a message for the doctor on call.  We googled head injuries in toddlers and there weren't any warning signs that she was exhibiting.  I talked to the nurse line with my insurance and while I was doing that, the doctor called and Rusty talked to her.  While we were doing all of that, Alaina stopped crying, and started playing with the ipad, running around the house, giggling - back to her normal self.  After all of that, we felt like she was okay.  YAY no ER trip!!

She does have a good goose egg, though!!

Another book review

Just finished this one this week and LOVED it too.



Chicken Chili

I've been trying to eat healthier.  I downloaded myfitnesspal to track my calories and activity.  So last week, I made this easy chili.  It says four servings, but I ate at least 3 times, Rusty ate once and the girls ate some and there is still enough left over for one more meal.

366 calories per servings - and that would be for 4 very large servings.  Enjoy!

Cooking spray

2 tsp minced garlic
1 large sweet onion, chopped
2 cans chicken meat, undrained
16 oz can chili beans, undrained
14.5 oz can no-salt-added diced tomatoes, drained
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 cup frozen corn

Coat a 4 quart saucepan with cooking spray. Place pan over medium high heat until hot; add garlic and onion. Cook 3 minutes, stirring often. In pan, add all ingredients and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes.

And this is what Alaina did while I made the chili.

Silly girl!!!

Newest crafts

Saturday was craft day at my house.  Heather came over and we painted and crafted.  I have the goal of finishing three crafts for myself, three for gifts and the playhouse for the girls.  I was starting to panic that I would run out of time.

But I got these two done - my Christmas countdown blocks and the HOME blocks (on my mantle below).

I also got all the painting done for 3 more of the other crafts/gifts and one of the gifts completely finished.

Now I'm not as panicked!

Elmo

Alaina LOVES Elmo.  She has just started to watch little clippets of TV.  She definitely does not have the interest in watching a whole movie or even a 30 minute show.  But she loves Elmo so yesterday, I found some little clips of Elmo on YouTube and she couldn't get enough!  This one was Adam Sandler singing a rhyming song with Elmo.

90 Minutes in Heaven

I love to read!  Have since I was a kid.  I love the kindle app on my ipad and am never without a book.  I recently discovered that I can check books out through the READs program online and open them with my Kindle app.  Saves me a TON of money!!  Usually, I read fiction, murder mysteries, thrillers.  But I saw a book title that intrigued me and I checked it out. 

Synopsis:
"As he is driving home from a minister's conference, Baptist minister Don Piper collides with a semi-truck that crosses into his lane. He is pronounced dead at the scene. For the next 90 minutes, Piper experiences heaven where he is greeted by those who had influenced him spiritually. He hears beautiful music and feels true peace.

Back on earth, a passing minister who had also been at the conference is led to pray for Don even though he knows the man is dead. Piper miraculously comes back to life and the bliss of heaven is replaced by a long and painful recovery.

For years Piper kept his heavenly experience to himself. Finally, however, friends and family convinced him to share his remarkable story."

I'll admit, I really just wanted to read what he said about heaven.  That was only one chapter, but it is one of the most uplifting stories I have read.  It is a story of love, hope, God, service and modern day miracles - I am better for having read it.  So if you are looking for a book to read - I give it 5 stars!!

Love this girl!

Last night, we had a family dinner for the "Bens" birthdays (Ben Love and Ben Smith).  Alaina was restless waiting for dinner, so I let her play with my phone.  She found the camera app and wanted to take a picture.  That has NEVER happened.  She actually WANTED a picture and cooperated!

I wish they weren't such bad quality.  With Chili's lighting and the front facing camera quality, there wasn't much hope of a good picture, but I still love them.

Lately, Alaina will randomly hug us.  It is so cute how affectionate she is becoming.

Conversation with a 7 year old

This was our conversation while getting ready this morning.

C:  Is damn a bad word?

Me:  Yes. We don't say that.

C:  But you say it.

Me:  Uh, no I don't.

C:  Oh that's right, you say darn.  Is it bad when I say "Is damn a bad word?"

Me:  No since you were just asking if it was a bad word.

C:  A girl in my class thinks I'm saying a cuss word if I ask what jackass means?

Me:  Caitlin that's a cuss word that we don't say.

C:  But what does it mean?

Me:  It means a donkey.

She laughs.

C:  Yeah, and ass is just a bad word for your bootie.  People at school ask if I know the B word, or the F word.  I don't know what those are.  It's all so confusing. 

Me:  Yes those are all cuss words and we don't say them.

WOW, I had no idea she knew any cuss words.  At least she knows they are bad and we don't say them.  I guess you can't keep them in a bubble.  You can only teach them how to be good and strong with bad around them.

Horses

Adjusting her stirrups because she seemed to grow several inches in the last two weeks!

Trotting in the arena.

Patty said that Caitlin is the only student this young that has never complained about trotting and wants to keep going.  She wasn't sore at all last time and Patty told her she would be.  She said that Caitlin has a natural "seat".  She explained that when you trot, usually there is a lot of bouncing up and down in the seat, which causes the soreness.  Caitlin naturally doesn't bounce that much and that normally needs to be taught.

I just love watching her ride.  She loves it so much.  Normally with things we've tried in the past (gymnastics, softball, dance), she's excited about it but doesn't listen very well and after a few weeks, doesn't really care anymore.  Not with horseriding!  She can't wait for each lesson.  And each time, asks to learn something new and try something harder.  Tonight she was asking about barrell racing for money prizes.  Patty said she would be running in no time!

I took several videos of Caitlin since I had the better camera with me.

This one is her practicing her steering Blaze within the obstacles.

Once she got that, she was able to take him into the arena.

Steering Blaze around barrells in the arena.

Steering over obstacles.

A few more from Halloween

From my other camera . . .

This "costume" was a glimpse into what she's going to be like as a teenager.  (Not the vampire part, but the makeup.)  Does anyone else think she's going to be a knockout?  I admit, I'm biased.

Why is it that once I put all this makeup on her,

she instantly began acting like a teenager with the attitude??



Halloween

We had a scary vampire.

With LOTS of makeup on.  I refused to do the gory bloody vampire but I would do some fun makeup and eyelashes.  We also "died" her hair.  We sprayed it black with some purple highlights but you can't tell very much in the pictures.

And I got her some vampire teeth but they hurt her mouth

and she didn't want to wear them. 

Oh well, pretty easy for a $10 costume.

And then we have our bunny.

She LOVED her costume and wore it all night. 

Alaina lasted the entire street, both sides. 

Once she realized people were giving her candy,

she went up to each door and handed them her bag. 

She even tried to say trick or treat. 

It ended up sounding more like treat. 

She has her priorities!

When we got back to the house, she didn't want to take off her costume.

And only did take it off when we had a fall from Caitlin's bed and a bloody nose.

Trick or Treat!!

We went around our neighborhood with the Sutherlands.  Here's some pictures Giselle took.