Gender Reveal

So, apparently I am "advanced maternal age" which is kinda cool because I get all this extra prenatal care.  One of these extras was a special old lady sonogram at 13 weeks in which we found out our Downs chances are 1 in 623,000 (or something that sounded really unlikely, thank you Lord) PLUS the gender of our little pea! 

There has been lots of talk around here about boys vs. girls.

Boys are the best because:

• They can wear the same pair of jeans for 13 days in a row and nobody would notice or care, including the boy himself.  In fact, boys don't much care about what they wear, or don't wear.  Reed comes in the door each day and immediately strips off his shirt and his underwear (yes, his underwear; don't even ask about this child of mine).
• The more boys we have, the less weddings we pay for.
•  Less drama.  I don't know about your daughters, but my mine came out with an attitude and a tiara. 

Girls are the best because:

• Less pee on the bathroom floor.  Seriously, someone (not me but maybe you) should invent a training course on how to aim the pee IN THE BOWL. You know, like puppy training.  Now I'd pay for that.
• ACCESSORIES.  I just love playing dress up with my precious little doll daughter.  The boys will have no part in styling their hair, sporting a cool trendy bracelet or skinny jeans.  On second thought, I think I'm OK with this.
• They can just be still.  This seems to be an impossible feat for my boys, but Adalae is the best snuggler in the whole wide world. 

Turn up your sound and enjoy the littles reaction to the big news.  God has been so good to us. We feel so incredibly blessed and are beyond excited (well most of us anyway).

Summer is over

I've been thinking lately about how MUCH I miss summer.  It was a complete free for all around here for 3 months.  Reed and Adalae could no longer read or compute simple math problems after our 3 months of NO.LEARNING.AT.ALL but this is besides the point.  This was my first summer since I was 15 years old that I didn't have a full-time job.  So I took a 3 month vacation from work (and obviously from responsibly preparing my kids for the next grade level), just whatever.  We are playing catch up now, which means the kids read to us every day, which means I'm facebooking reading in that bedroom FOR.EVER.  I might actually die in that bedroom.   Seriously, it's great and all the first couple of pages but when will you remember that we learned the word "said" 2 sentences ago and 67 times total this week?

Speaking of school, Adalae loves kindergarten.  She brings her weekly homework home on Mondays and promptly completes Mon-Thurs homework..... on MONDAY.  She actually cried last Friday when she didn't have any homework in her folder. 

And speaking of Friday, Reed had an eventful day.  He colored on his teacher's computer monitor with an orange sharpie, peeled the googly eyes off the Kindergarteners work in the hallway, and damaged another kids binder.   I really just have to laugh, because the alternative is not very attractive.  Ain't nobody got time for ugly crying.  Plus, Reed's energy level, inquisitiveness and his, *ahem, creativity generally produces some pretty cute stuff too.  Like when he tells me he was "accidentally" wild.  Or when he phonetically tried to sound out "FWC" at the dinner table (you go ahead put those sounds together and you'll see what I'm talking about). Or when we read a Magic School Bus book about the human heart and he asked where Jesus was. Or when he asked if we are going to live in our house until it burns. Or when he kisses both of my cheeks-even at school in front of his friends. Or when he tells me he loves me to Pluto and back times infinity.

And then there is Thade.  What can I say about Thade except that my heart might explode with just how proud I am of the young man he is.  About the man he is becoming.  That boy has a heart of gold and loves Jesus.  What more could a mom ask for? 

I thank God everyday for these 3 blessings.  He has been good to me.

Celebrate Adalae

We sure had a great time celebrating Adalae over the last couple of weeks.

5 years old!

 

Having cake on her birthday, April 22nd

 

Her PINK birthday party last weekend, colored with beets and raspberries!

 

 

We decorated pringle cans to make music shakers and played a game with them.

 

 

 

Sweet Aunt Barbara helping her make a necklace.

 

 

I love her attack look.  Teeth gritted and all.

 

 

Then chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese raspberry frosting!

 

 

 And the added bonus of PJ and Grandpa in from Arizona.

 

 

Plus some of my family made it in from Abilene which they are so sweet to do almost every year for my kids birthdays.  Although sweet Adalae has brought a lot of typical little girl drama to us, she has brought us MUCH MORE joy.  Love you precious!

 

 

 

 



Sweet 16

To my firstborn,

How is it possible you are 16 years old today?  It seems like yesterday that I, as a baby myself, brought your tiny little body home.  It's hard to believe my 6'4" boy was this small one day not long ago. 

 

 

 

I had no idea how we would make it at times, but my love for you pushed me to do my best; to BE my best.  All I've always known is I wanted you to know how much you are loved. Today we celebrate your 16th birthday.  I couldn't be more proud of the man you are becoming.  You love Jesus and I see that overflow in the way you love people.  You are loyal to long time friends.  You love on your little brother and sister; even when they annoy you.  You give up hours of your time to coach Reed's basketball team, with nothing in return.  You give me great hugs, and even sometimes in front of your friends. You tell me thank you after EVERY meal.  You are mature beyond your years, and your good decisions show that.  So we celebrate you today, Thade.  And this mama knows the way to your heart.... food that is.  And lots of it.

 

 Bacon, eggs, banana bread, cheesecake and strawberries for breakfast.

 



 

Panda and cheesecake for lunch

 

 

Chili's Chicken Crispers for Dinner

 

 

From scratch chocolate cake and chocolate icing for dessert

 

 

And the after presents love

 

 

 

I can't help but think how different my life might be if God didn't let me borrow you those 16 years ago.  I thank Him everyday I get to be your Mom.

 

I love you,

 

Mom

WINNING!

Winning....  Adalae that is.  Today she made her soccer debut.  Adalae scored THREE of her team's four goals.  I have to admit, I was in shock.  Don't get me wrong, Adalae has her talents.  She can twirl her hair better than me and she could negotiate peace in the Middle East with one doe eyed look.  But, compared to her brothers, she is so docile.  I mean this girl is frail!  She eats like a bird (literally bread only) and can't even close the car door by herself.  Adalae is good to walk about 16 feet before she needs someone to carry her.  She is the first kid at the party to rest because she is "so tired".  She sleeps past 6am!

 

You rock baby girl!

Lego Party

Birthday parties.....birthday parties.  I really love taking my kids to birthday parties.  And I really love the personal touch of having my own kids' birthday parties at home.  However, I really need to find a birthday çhef-fairy that will actually "throw" my kid's birthday for me.  Planning an activity? no problem.  Decorating?  No problem.  Finding people to show up?  No problem.  Food?  Problem.  If you remember this post, we try our best to avoid artificial color, flavor and sweetener.  This tends to present a problem when your birthday boy wants RED cupcakes and  YELLOW cake pops. 

Sometimes, I hate being that mom. That mom who thinks her kid deserves only the best, most natural food.  Well, I don't really hate being that mom.  But the fear of a reaction the artificials will cause can make me a bit irrational at times and I may politely say "no thank you" to the lab produced snack you try to hand my child after a basketball game, but inside I'm screaming, "DON'T FEED THAT TO MY CHILD".  So yeah, I do really hate being that mom.

So, I try not to go too crazy and I admit I've been a bit of a slacker as of late, but I know my kids get real food most of the time at home.  So we make allowances for birthday parties or other events if I haven't had time to make an alternative.

With a little research and A LOT of time in the kitchen, we pulled a natural foods birthday party off.  Thanks to everyone that came and made my boy's day special.  I'll also post photos of the food along with resources for ingredients.

Birthday boy

 I had mason jar of legos and the kids guessed how many for a prize.

What's a birthday party without a meltdown from the birthday boy because his friend Charlie won the prize?



The kids picked out heads, bodies and accessories to build their own lego mini-figure.  Cutie pie Matthew cheesed for every picture.

We had a contest to see who could build the tallest lego tower in 1 minute.

And the token sleeping uncle......

Ok FOOD. 

Lego cupcakes from Cupcake Bliss because I knew they made them from scratch.  They were very expensive and not as good as the mini cupcakes I made on the right.  (Lesson learned).  Central Market just started carrying natural food coloring.  I made the mini cupcakes from scratch and the icing is an organic vanilla brand from Central Market tinted with natural coloring.  You have to be careful to not use too much because it's tinted with vegetable juice (and tastes like it!) which is why my "red" icing is closer to pink.  The colors are all a bit pastel in comparison with food dye made in a lab.

Organic crackers and god ole cream cheese held on the circles of cheese I cut with one of my frosting tips.

Lego pops:  Homemade marshmallows from Central Market with HEB brand melting candy (no artificials listed on the label).  I melted the candy and tinted with the natual yellow dye.  Now, the faces are the ONLY not natural addition as I couldn't find a natural food pen anywhere.  But it's such a small amount, I was OK with it.  And of course the M&Ms but they were for decoration only.

On a side note, we thought we might try to complicate our eating habits even more this week.  Yesterday, Thade thought he'd try the Paleo diet to get "buff".  Without a bit of research, I said I'd try it with him.  We both made it 45 minutes before we eagerly consumed a cupcake.  Thade made it another hour before devouring 4 breadsticks.