Time With Daddy

Its starting to get a little rough for the girls having Justin gone for most of the week while he is on temporary assignment in Palmdale, CA. The one nice thing that has come from this is the girls treasure every moment he is home now. Friday night they had a "sleep over" with him in the loft and I woke up Saturday morning to giggles and pillows everywhere.

Doing her own Hair

Alexis is growing up so fast. On Friday she got up on her own and was taking a really long time in the bathroom. I went to check and see what was taking so long and found her doing her own hair in half up half down piggie tails. She has watched me put pony tails in but I have never taught her how. It took twenty minutes but she did it all herself and picked out and added hair bows with it. I still am a little shocked. Its made me really think about how big and independent she is becoming. (I made her take these pictures during a very rushed breakfast because we were running behind on getting to school because of this hair style. Her cheeks are full of cereal.)

Happy Birthday #29

Friday, January 21, 2011 I turned 29

I had such an awesome birthday this year! It was just perfect! I got to go out to lunch at Cafe Rio with some of my friends to chat and enjoy yummy food. When I thought about it this is all I really wanted to do for my birthday. I so rarely have time to be out with my friends and have my own "girl time." Justin was amazingly sweet and to help this happened watched not only Ariana but a few other children as well so we could all enjoy our time out. (Isn't that the nicest present ever!?) We then as a family went to a matinee showing of Tangled and once we got back home I went over to my neighbor and friends house Kim for her Scentsy party. Sweet Kim even made me a chocolate cupcake and Angela let me have the prize "because I needed a present," she said : ) It was such a stress free perfect celebration day. Saturday my birthday date night Justin and I picked out new recipes to try. It was fun cooking together. We made homemade toquitos (that are actually quite healthy and involve now frying or oil) and a tress leches cake (the funny looking cake next to the candle cake). Thinking back on my birthday weekend makes me wish it was my birthday again. It was wonderful! Here's hoping that 29 will continue to be a great year for me.(my hair is getting so long that I caught a little piece of it on fire when I blew out the candles on the yummy triple chocolate cake Catrina made for me!)

Creative Pretzels

Alexis LOVES play dates. Last Saturday Mijia came over to play and the end of the play date turned into silly snack time.

Allowance

Almost a year ago we started allowance with the girls and while we are not always consistent with it, it has finally turned into a great teaching tool. Just before Christmas we were finally able to get Alexis to understand that if you save your money you can get some pretty neat stuff and not just junk from the school store. Alexis first big purchase was her own set of roller blades on Black Friday. She had been saving for these for a little over a month at that point and thought she had another month to go when I got to teach her the lesson of waiting for the right sale. Black Friday was the day. The roller blades where half the original price! Her next big purchase was just a couple weeks ago when she bought a cake decorating set on clearance at Wal-mart. Ariana also saved up so she could buy a new my little pony set. The cashier was very impressed with them and expressed that she wished her 19 year old son would learn what they have already at 4 and 6. It is so nice being able to tell the girls when they want things that they can have it if they decide its worth saving up for.

Alexis reading the directions

Mixing the cake

Rolling, cutting and covering the little cake in fondant

Cutting chocolate fondant to decorate the cake

The finished product!

Happy little baker!

She Sat on Me?

Alexis: "DADDY, Ariana SAT ON ME!" (very upset voice)
Daddy: "ok"
Mommy: laughing uncontrollably

Ariana's Joke

Ariana likes to try and tell jokes. They never make sense. Then on Friday without even knowing she was doing it told a really funny one:

Driving home from school we couldn't turn down one of the roads in our neighborhood because a large truck with a trailer was completely blocking the road. On a bike ride a few hours later with Justin Ariana was trying to explain the situation to him about how a big truck was blocking the road so we couldn't use it.
Justin: "Was it a moving truck?"
Ariana: "No it wasn't moving! That's the PROBLEM!"

A Good Day

Today was a good day. Today I feel like I was a good mom and I was able to take care of myself too. We all ate breakfast together and than we all went to my dance class together. After dance we went to the park for lunch and playtime. Once we got back home from the park it was time for home made popsicles and a movie. It was such a nice day I decided we couldn't stay inside for too long so off on a mini bike/roller blade ride around the neighborhood a couple times before I had to teach piano lessons. Even with 2 hours of piano lessons today for me, Alexis and Ariana decided to take out games to play and I got to listen to their laughs of delight while I taught and they played go fish, jenga and little pet shop the board game upstairs. I loved hearing them take the time to play nicely together and for soo long without a TV being involved. I thought for sure they were playing with some of my piano students but realised quickly that it was only them upstairs playing everyone else was in the backyard. After piano we finished the movie we had started earlier and than had spaghetti dinner. Dinner did end up being finished in the car while we drove to the gym but the girls thought that was silly. After the gym we all had fun bath time. Alexis did melt down by the end but overall I feel like today I had a good balance in my life. It also makes me wish that tomorrow was another holiday.

What 4 year olds do when you say goodnight and close the door

Last night I did a movie night with George (my brother) and Catrina (his wife). I got the girls to bed on time, for once, and the grown ups had a fun eating buffalo wild wings and watching Inception. Well Ariana was having her own little party upstairs. Instead of sleeping she was building herself a fort. Very fun but I hope she got enough sleep last night. : )

Sorry the picture is tiny, its from my new phone that I LOVE but am still figuring out how to work.

Cupcake Party

For dessert on Family dinner night Alexis made lots of mini cupcakes. We had a lot left over so I told her she could have a little cupcake snack time after school and invite some friends over in the neighborhood. I'm not always such a nice Mom but it was fun to be considered so for a day. A lot of neighbor friends couldn't come but Taylor and Mathew could.

We all had a blast and I got to chase them all around and put frosting on everyone's nose. : )

My Favorite Things from 2010

For the second year in a row I've gone to a My Favorite Things Party. I love them, at the beginning of each year we get together have dinner and share our favorite things from the past year. Its basically a grown up show and tell. Here is what made my list for 2010:

Favorite Products

Product: Garnier Fructis- Instant Melting Conditioner

Why I love it: This has been like magic for my girls tangles and mine! Once I put this in our hair I’m able to brush and comb hair out so easily with no tears. It also goes on sale a lot and is only around $3.00 all the time.

Product: Gamma Seal Lids
Why I love it: These lids are awesome! The lid will fit any 12 inch bucket. Once on to open all you do is spin the top. No other tools are needed to open your bucket. They make it so much easier to access food storage items that are kept in large buckets.

Product: Wood Burning Tool
Why I love it: I really got into making bows and hair things out of ribbon this year. The wood burning tool lets me cut and seal the ribbon edges so they don’t fray in one step. You only need a very basic set and can find them at any craft store.

Product: Finish Jet Dry
Why I love it: It really works. When my dishes are done they look sparkling clean without water marks. I can tell when the dish washer is starting to run out because my dishes start having streaks.

Product: Salon Care 100ct box of hair clips
Why I love it: When you make lots of hair things you need LOTS of clips. Sally’s Beauty supply sells these boxes of clips for around $5.

Product: Famous and Fun Piano Books
Why I love it: I am always on the lookout for piano books that are easy with fun well known melodies (this is harder than you’d think it is to find!) The Famous and Fun series are just what their title calls them, famous and fun, and they come in levels 1-5.

Product: Netflix
Why I love it: Its cheap, lots of choices, we were able to cancel cable and monitor what us and our girls are watching on the TV.

Product: Barnes and Noble’s Nook
Why I love it: I love to read but don’t like to buy books at full price. With the nook I can get books for free or cheap and I can even borrow them from the library for free! There is no back light so it doesn’t hurt my eyes and I don’t have to find a home for all my new books.

Favorite Finds

Toys R Us Clearance: I found that Toys R Us has the BEST infant and toddler clothes and shoes clearance prices. I’ve been able to buy tons of REALLY cute outfits AND shoes for $1.00-$2.50

Hobby Lobby: Love the new Hobby Lobby store off Sunset and Stephanie. Its fun just to walk around in to window shop and be inspired. They also have great sale prices.

Kohls $10 off $20 Coupon: These coupons come sporadically during the year on the paper. I love them because you can use them on ANYTHING in the store including clearance items (Kohls has great clearance prices!). You can also combine them with other percentage off coupons as well making for some amazing deals!

Hulu: We don’t have a DVR and Hulu lets me watch shows whenever I like with very few commercials (love that!) Netflix combined with hulu makes me feel like I can watch whatever I’d like on my own schedule.

Buffalo Wild Wings: I can’t believe I didn’t try this place sooner! So yummy! Wednesday kids meals are $.99 and Tuesday/Thursday are wing deal nights.

Cafe Rio: Again I can’t believe I didn’t eat here sooner. I love their pork. Its sweet and tastes good in any of their products. I also really enjoy the tres leches dessert is marvelous (I like to add some extra fruit on top if we bring it home) Get a card at the register and have it stamped each time you go to earn a free meal.

Favorite Books

The Help by Kathryn Stockett: A MUST read! Its beautifully written and has the feel of a book that will one day be a classic that has to be read in school. LOVE this book.

The Book Theif by Markus Zusak: Very different approach to a fictional story about a little girl in Germany during WWII.

Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley: Very enlightening. This is a non-fiction account of the men from the famous flag raising photo on Iowa Jima during WWII. I learned things in this book I never learned in my history classes during high school and college.

The Goose Girl and Enna Burning by Shannon Hale: Fun easy reads especially if you like princess stories and fantasy with a twist.

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling: I re-read all the Harry Potters this year. I love them.

The Cobra by Frederick Forsyth: A book I’m surprised I enjoyed so much. Its a well thought out and researched look into the cocaine cartel and a fictional campaign to try and overthrow it.

Percy Jackson and The Heros Of Olympus by Rick Riordan: I really enjoyed escaping into Rick Riordans world he has developed in these series of books. Yes they are children's books but I liked them.