Naps

Abby's naps have been pretty nonexistent this summer.  She will only actually fall asleep about 2 times a week.  She'll go in her room and stay in her bed, but she won't sleep.  She just stays in her bed and plays with her babies, blankets, and books.  I think she's too little to not take a nap, but if she won't sleep.....well, I can't make her.  I'm just happy that she's content to stay in her room and "rest" even if she doesn't sleep.

The other day she must have had a ton to drink before bed because she didn't have a dry diaper or bed when she got up in the morning.  I took her sheets off and washed and dried them, but then I left and Brad gave the kids lunch and put Abby down for a nap.  He didn't make her bed before nap time and made her a pallet on the floor with her pillows and blankets and she went right to sleep!  Now everyday for more than a week, as soon as lunch is over she says, "Nap time.  I no sleep in bed.  I sleep on floor."  Well, OK then!  So everyday at nap time we make her a little pallet on the floor and she sleeps!  Magic!  What ever works is my motto!  Doesn't she just look precious and beautiful!

Disney on Ice

Brad and I have loved going to the Disney on Ice shows since before we were married.  It was one of our favorite things to do!  We haven't been for a couple of years because of schedules and new babies and such, but we got a postcard in the mail for this year's show and aren't going to miss it! The last time we went, I was pregnant with Abby and Alex was almost 3.  Now I'm pregnant with the new baby and Abby will be almost 3.  Funny how things happen at the same time.

This year's show is Rockin' Ever After and features Merida from Brave, Ariel from The Little Mermaid, Belle from Beauty and the Beast and Rapunzel from Tangled.  It is going to be so amazing!  The kids have watched the promo on the site no less than probably 50 times.  They are so excited!  We ordered our tickets on Thursday and they got here on Saturday.  We got really great seats, too!  First row in our section!

Fun Date Night

Brad and I got engaged on June 24, 2005 and every year we celebrate this "anniversary".  This year we celebrated a couple days late because of Brad's schedule, but had the BEST time!  We went to dinner at  the Waterfront Grill.  We had the most delicious dinner.  We ate wayyyyy too much, but it was so nice to have a quiet meal that we were able to eat slowly and have good conversation.  We started out with the crab, avocado, and mango stack.  Wow!  What flavor! Next we had a couple of sushi rolls.  Yes, they were cooked for those that are saying pregnant women shouldn't eat sushi! :)  We also split a filet and had tempura asparagus as a side.  It was such a nice way to start the evening!

After dinner, we headed downtown to the PAC to see The Lion King.  As we were sitting down, I heard someone say my name.  I looked back and saw my best friend's sister!  She and her daughter were sitting right behind us!  She took this picture for us!

The show was fantastic!  The music, the costumes, the set, everything was just outstanding!!! The next show we would love to go to is Beauty and the Beast.  We will take the kids to this with us.  They will love it!  They could have gone to The Lion King, and would have done really well, but these parents needed a nice night out!  I really hope we can get tickets to Beauty and the Beast.  It's only here for 3  days.  I'm going to be checking frequently for the tickets to go on sale!

DIY Disney Christmas Tree

I love Christmas time!  I love the decorations, the lights, the music, the cookies, the food, the family and  friends.  I love it all!  Every time we visit somewhere new, we buy an ornament for our Christmas tree.  I love the flood of memories that return while unwrapping each special ornament.

While we were at Disney World last year, I had so much fun trying to find ornaments for the tree.  Then again when we went on our Disney Cruise, it was fun to pick out ornaments.  I've kept the key cards from each vacation that have our name on them and am going to string them together with a ribbon to hang on the tree, too.

I have a skinny tree that I put in my entryway and it is just decorated with lights and cheap colored balls.  While it looks okay, I've decided to make that my Disney tree.  I'm so excited!!!  I'm going to hang all of our key cards and ornaments we bought while on both Disney trips last year.  But that is not nearly enough to make a Disney tree!  While browsing Pinterest, I came across a girl that made her own Disney ornaments.  Genius!  She bought the play sets at the Disney store like these.

I knew exactly what she was talking about since my kids have some that they play with.  They run about $10 a piece.  She added little eye hooks and threaded the ornament hook through, and voila!  instant tree ornaments with Disney favorites!  Each little set comes with about 6-10 figurines in them and for $10 it's a steal!  I can't wait to make my Disney tree!  Now to wait on on the FedEx guy to deliver my goodies so I can start my next project!

Bunco

My friend Amy and I started a bunco group almost 3 years ago.  We both invited some friends and we have had a wonderful time making new friendships and having a fun girls night!  We play once a month and each month a different girl hosts.  I really look forward to bunco every month!

This was my month to host.  Usually I host in October, but that's not going to work out this year because my due date is a week after we are supposed to play and with my other kids coming early, I didn't want to have to worry about hosting with a 1-2 week old baby should this baby come early, too!  One of the other girls was sweet and traded months with me so I didn't have to stress!

I wanted to serve cool food since it's June and hot!  I decided to go super simple and just do sandwiches.  I got some rolls and had turkey and ham, lettuce, tomato, cheese, and pickles.  I made a pasta salad straight from the box, Suddenly Salad by Betty Crocker.  I also made a fruit salad with strawberries, blueberries, cantaloupe, and honeydew.   I made the snickers apple salad I made for a BBQ a few weeks ago, and some very easy fudge that Brad saw a recipe for.  Seriously, easy!

1.5 bags of chocolate chips
1 can sweetened condensed milk
optional nuts (I used about 2/3 C of pecans)

Throw it all in a bowl and microwave for 30 seconds, stir, repeat until smooth.  Pour in a foil lined 8x8 pan and chill until ready to serve.  I used a pizza cutter to cut into small squares.  Easy and too good!

Probably my favorite thing  I served was the punch. Click here for the recipe.  I put a bottle of vodka next to it and those that added it said it was super tasty!

Our bunco group is the best!  I'm so happy to be a part of it and get to hang out with such an amazing group of women each month!

Headbands and Bows

When Abby was little, I always tried to keep a headband or a bow on her so she would get used to having it on her head.  However, when she was about 9 months old, she started pulling them off her head.  She'd keep them on long enough for a picture, but then she was done.  Luckily, it didn't last more than a few months and she really likes wearing them.

I've had stuff to make her storage for headbands and bows for about a year now.  Not really sure why I didn't do it before now.  Today I remembered that I had the supplies and while she was napping I made her a place to keep them.

The headband holder is just an oatmeal container covered in fabric with a ribbon added at the top and bottom.  The ribbon doesn't look like it's very flat, but that's OK!

The second thing I made her was a bow holder.  I just took an old wooden picture frame, spray painted it, hot glued and stapled ribbon to the back, and added the bows.  I actually think I need to make her another one because not every bow was able to fit and there are a few you can't see because they are so overlapped.  I think it makes a cute decoration for her wall, too!

Father's Day

We had a nice Father's Day.  Brad had to go to work in the afternoon, so we tried to get as much done before he went as we could.  Brad and the kids look just precious here.  I love this picture!

We went to church and then out to his dad's house.  We ate breakfast with Jimmy and visited for a while.  I got good picture of the guys.

We left Jimmy's and went to my dad's.  We only got to talk for a few minutes before Alex was dying to get in the pool.  We need to work on the life skill of patience with him!  The kids had a ball swimming in the pool and the hot tub.  It was a beautiful day for a while.  Later in the afternoon, it started storming, but the kids didn't care!  They swam in the rain and monsoon-like winds.

Alex took a picture of my dad and me, and then here is a better one from the gender reveal party just a couple days earlier.

Alex and Abby's cousins came over to swim, too.  After dinner they were loving some creamsicles!  My kids also love their youngest cousin, baby Sam.  They talk about him all the time and are very interested in him.  It makes me excited to see them love him so much.  Makes me think they are going to be great with the new baby!

Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful dads out there!  The dads in my family are especially wonderful!  They are such rocks for the family and set such good examples of how to work hard, love unconditionally with all their heart, and give the family what is needed most.  Thanks for making memories with us!

It's a.......GIRL!!!!

Surprise!!!!  It's a girl!!!  I am SHOCKED!  I was so certain it was a boy!  I just had strong "boy" feelings, feel like I am carrying like I carried with Alex, I've had two boy dreams (one dream on the same night my mom had a boy dream), and just really had no "girl" feelings.  Truthfully, I was hoping for a girl.  The baby is due 3 weeks before Abby's birthday, so having another girl born in the same season helps out clothing wise.  I also thought it would be neat to have the two younger siblings be the same gender.

We had our gender reveal with our family and decided to go with a Mexican theme.  We served Mexican food and beer and had a pinata for the reveal.  Two of my sweet friends, Regan and Emily,  took the pinata and my envelope from the doctor and filled it with candy.  They were so good about keeping a poker face when they returned the pinata!  I didn't do a ton of decorating, but had a few things out that were pink and blue and a few foods that were pink and blue.  It was just enough and turned out well.

After everyone was done eating, we headed out to the backyard to break the pinata open!

We decided to let the cousins swing at it, starting with the youngest.  The pinata was pretty sturdy and didn't break quickly, so each kiddo got 2 different turns to try to break it open.

It was Alex who finally broke it open!  I think Anna had some pretty strong swings that loosened it just enough for Alex.  He swung about 5 times and then it burst open!  Pink candy flew all over the patio!!!

I was so shocked and so excited!  I started jumping up and down and squealing!  Another sweet friend of mine, Melina, took some great pictures for me!  She got some great reaction shots! Obviously, I was excited and so was my mom!

Brad was happy, and he was right!  He thought girl all along!

Summer is excited and happy!  But Abby and John?  Uh oh!  Abby was crushed that Alex broke the pinata.  She didn't understand that we were supposed to break it.  I think it broke her heart that the pinata was broken!  John was so upset that Alex broke it and the candy fell before he got another turn.  Their faces, while sad, are really kinda funny!

It was a great evening and we are so looking forward to another baby!  I'm 21.5 weeks, so I've passed the half way mark and am on the downhill slide!  Now to come up with a name..... :)

To see pictures from the whole evening, click here.

Boy or Girl?

We are having our gender reveal party with family on Friday night!  I couldn't be more excited!  At first we decided to wait and find out the gender when the baby was born, then in the waiting room of the 18.5 week ultrasound, we decided to ask the tech to put the results in an envelope so we could have another gender reveal party, at Brad's suggestion! :)

The envelope has been sealed for a couple of weeks now, and today I had two of my friends open the envelope and go shopping for me.  They either bought pink or blue and we all get to find out together on Friday night!  My guess......BLUE!!!!  Brad guesses pink.  Of course Alex wants a brother, because he says he already has a sister, and Abby wants a girl.  Stay tuned.....

Branson

The kids and I were invited to go to Branson.  A man I used to teach with, John, and his wife Sandy have a time share in Branson and invited us to go.  My mom was also invited.  We had never been and were so excited!  John and Sandy are the nicest couple and were so generous to share their cabin with us!

We left Sunday morning and on the way we stopped at Lambert's Cafe.  It was such a fun place!  Your drinks come in giant cups and they walk around with giant homemade rolls and throw them at you!  They also walk around with huge bowls of "pass arounds".  You use your roll of paper towels as a plate until your meal gets to you.  Their pass arounds included fried okra, macaroni and tomatoes, fried potatoes and onions, and black eyed peas.  Once you get your food, which is enough for about 3 people, they tell you that if you want seconds on anything to just ask, it's free!  I ordered fried chicken, which I NEVER eat, and it was delicious!  For my sides I ordered mashed potatoes and a cucumber salad.  I didn't finish anything!  I don't know how people can eat seconds!  It was so good and I can't wait to be able to go back with Brad!

After Lambert's, we headed the rest of the way to Branson.  We checked into the cutest cabin and decided to go to Silver Dollar City.  Because we got there late, they told us our tickets were good for the next day too!  Score!  I've never seen Alex pose like this, but thought it was hilarious!

We spent about two hours at SDC and it was really fun!  The next day we went back and spent ALL day there!  Kids had some yummy corn dogs, we saw a funny saloon show, and we rode several rides.  Alex even rode a roller coaster by himself!  He's getting so big...

A funny little thing about the saloon show...Abby kept calling the saloon girls "princesses".  Cracked me up!  No, honey, that's not Cinderella and Ariel's friend! Ha!

The next day we didn't have much time left before we had to leave to come home.  We went out to breakfast and then to the outlet mall.  There were so many shops I didn't get to go in because we had to hurry, but I did manage to get the kids some clothes and saved my husband money by not buying anything at the Coach store.  Saw some things I loved, but they were too similar to what I already have, so I passed.  My mom did get a super cute wristlet, though!

We weren't ready to leave, but needed to get back for Alex's basketball and my doctor's appointment.  We are so thankful that John and Sandy graciously shared part of their vacation with us and we can't wait to go back!

Italian Turkey Burgers

Need a healthier alternative to cheeseburgers?  I've been using this recipe for a couple of years and it is delicious!  I found it in a cookbook I have and it is a family favorite.  Everyone eats all of it each time it's made!  I didn't get a picture of it, but trust me, it's wonderful!  (kid and husband friendly)

Italian Turkey Burgers

1 pound ground turkey
1 box frozen spinach
1 can Italian diced tomatoes
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
Provolone cheese
Buns

Squeeze all the water from the frozen spinach and add to a large mixing bowl.
Drain as much liquid as possible from diced tomatoes.  (I usually use a small strainer and a spoon to press out the liquid.) Add to the bowl.
Add the ground turkey and the seasonings to the bowl.
Mix well...your hands work great!
Form into patties.  I usually make 3 large and 3 small patties for my family.
Add a small amount of olive oil to a grill pan or skillet and cook the patties.  I've not tried it on the outside grill because I'm afraid they wouldn't stay together.  In the grill pan they do well.  Cook on each side until done.  I usually cook for about 7 minutes on each side just to make sure.
Put it on a bun and top with a slice of provolone.

These burgers are so moist and you don't need any condiments to make them taste better.  I served the burgers with corn on the cob this time, but any side will work!