Photo A Day Challenge February 19, 2012

Something I Hate To Do

Clean my cast iron grill... love the grill- hate the mess!

Photo A Day Challenge February 18, 2012

Drink

My drink consumption pretty much only consists of the h2o these days.

Photo A Day Challenge February 17, 2012

Time

The time I saw The Vow for GNO

Photo A Day Challenge February 16, 2012

Something New

Not exactly new, but new to us- our weekly gettings from the library.

Photo A Day Challenge February 15, 2012

Phone

Apparently my Kub needed to check the weather forecast.

Photo A Day Challenge February 14, 2012

Heart

Thanks to the Cerniglia fam part of our Valentine's day dining included a heart shaped pizza:)

Photo A Day Challenge February 13, 2012

Blue

Mondays are Goodwill day and I just so happened to get some organizing tools that were blue too.

Our house February 6th- 12th... 100th Day, Suns Game, Valentine's, A Reading Kub, Momma Red & Other New Stuff

We had quite the eventful week here at the Casa de Dominguez.

 This is just some pics of an ordinary dinner of our family dinner but I thought I'd share our routine.  We eat dinner (this night it was a yummy Santa Fe chicken dinner dish I created) while talking about the day (no tv allowed!).  Then we read family scriptures which at the time is the suggested weekly reading of The Book of Mormon taken from The Friend magazine (Joaquin's coloring the color chart that goes along with it in the picture).  After that we get out our family journal and we each take turns talking about 3 things- what we did for somebody that day, one thing we are grateful for that day, and what the best part of that day is.  After that the table is cleared and then we have family prayer.  And the kids cannot have family prayer unless they are given their gummy vitamins first.  On Monday nights FHE is between the family journal and the family prayer.  It's simple and it works for us and I LOVE it!!

On Tuesday night Robert and Andre and our friend Jeyson got to go to a Bucks vs Suns (they were going to see the Suns, not the Bucks) game.  The tickets were ridiculously cheap.  They had a good time:)

Wednesday was Baily's 100th Day of School.  She was told to bring 100 of something that would fit in a small brown paper bag and then she had to give 3 clues about what was inside.  She took 100 little pink hearts and her clues were: 1. an important part of the body, 2. love, and 3. pinkalicous.

She also wanted to bring a snack for their 100th Day of School party.  After much deliberation it was decided that we would put together 100 snacks snack bags.  They consisted of 20 M&M's, 20 pretzels, 20 Goldfish, 20 Kix, and 20 Cheerios.  We got an assembly line together and made 18 bags of 100 snacks snack bags.  She said they were a big hit at school.

I decided to be ambitious this week (while neglecting my messy house I might add), and get the kids' Valentine's made.  Thanks to Pinterest we found the perfect ones to make.  Baily decided on Butterfly Valentine's because she is, after all, Baily Bug.  I wanted her to be a lot more involved in making them this year instead of me doing most of them so I broke it down into 3 steps that we did over 3 days.  It helped in that she wasn't overwhelmed by all that needed to be done in one day.  Step 1 was to address each Valentine and then sign her name.  This was the most tedious step.  Step 2 was to cut out the butterflies and then add the foam heart stickers.  Step 3 was to make the hole punches, put the sucker in and then add the google eyes.  She loved the way they turned out and I think they're adorable!

I don't even know if Joaquin will be passing out Valentine's in his Headstart class this year but he really wanted to make his own Valentine's this year so I gladly obliged.  He decided on Super Hero Valentine's which were perfect for him because superheroes are his life right now.  I did most of the work on these but he helped by putting the stickers on the capes.  Daddy helped too.  He was so proud of them and I think these turned out dang cute too.  He's going to take them to his friends at Headstart and give some to his Travelling Preschool friends.

This is a common thing around here.  Kenai LOVES books and he loves to read to himself.  He doesn't necessarily want me to read to him but he still loves books.  And I love that he loves books (minus the having to pick up books at least 3 times a day!)!!

I got a Kindle Fire this week.  Two words... LOVE. IT.

We finally got new bedding.  I can't even tell you how bad we needed this.  Our old bedding had holes all over it with batting coming out everywhere and none of it matched.  I got a nice down comforter on clearance at Target for $24.99 and the quilt and shams for $19.99 at K-Mart.  Score!  Robert thinks it looks like an old lady's bed but I think it looks cute and comfy:)

I've been hearing so much about Zumba lately (my mom is now an instructor!!) and after seeing how much I love Just Dance on wii I decided to get Zumba for my wii.  Two words... LOVE. IT!!!  This totally kicks my butt workout wise and it's so dang fun.  Plus I'm pretty dang good at it which is pretty awesome.

 Most exciting thing this week was- I got a new (new to me) van!  Ol' Blue (our old van) was good to us but she needed to be replaced big time.  Her brakes were going, her battery died all the time and the side door didn't work.  So, without further ado, meet the newest member of our family... Momma Red!  Isn't she purrty?  She has working brakes, 2 working side doors (no more climbing through the front or back!), great breaks, working batter, was a great deal and she's my favorite color- red!  SO excited:)

Robert and I were very lucky to get to go on TWO date nights this weekend.  We swap with another couple every month and it just happened that their weekend to watch kids was Friday.  And because we weren't able to go to the temple last weekend we got to go yesterday instead.  It was great!  So on Friday Robert and I went and saw the movie Chronicle.  There was quite a bit of language which I hate but it was a pretty crazy and good movie.

 We almost didn't make it to the temple again this week because we were so late with the whole buy the new van shenanigans.  But I'm so glad we did.  It was beautiful and amazing and just what we needed.  Talk about a perfect Valentine's day weekend!

After we got home and the kids were nestled in bed I made Robert and Andre watch my new movie- Breaking Dawn.  I was so excited to get this movie.  It's a really cool edition.  It came with "authentic prop flowers from the wedding scene beautifully encased in an acrylic keepsake" which included "an individually numbered certificate of authenticity."  How cool is that?! I actually couldn't make it the whole way through but I can watch it whenever I want to now:)

Today Baily is sick so I'm at home with her.  I have not been to church in 3 weeks because Joaquin was sick, then my car wouldn't start and now Baily's sick.  I miss church.  I feel like an inactive.  But I have to say... reading to my girl for hours and snuggling with her and enjoying the quiet is not too bad either:)

So that's our week in a nutshell.  I'm hoping my girl gets better, none of the rest of us get sick and we have a great week.  And I hope you do too:)

Photo A Day Challenge February 12, 2012

Inside My Closet

Small closet, big mess!

Photo A Day Challenge February 11, 2012

Makes Me Happy

Going to the temple with my love... even if we were late and it was freezing.  The warmth inside was beyond description!  It's been way over a year since we went last, which was way too long.  I can't wait to go back:):):)

Photo A Day Challenge February 10, 2012

Self Portrait

Photo A Day Challenge February 9, 2012

Front Door

I LOVE my front door.  It is a canvas to display my children's art.  It's even spilled over to the wall.  Whenever I see it, I see happiness:)

Photo A Day Challenge February 8, 2012

Sun

This was taken as a straight shot to the sun right off my front porch.  I love how it turned out.

Photo A Day Challenge February 7, 2012

Button

button to push play on Netflix... how did parents ever manage without Netflix Just For Kids?

Family Scriptures

For our family scripture study in the past we usually read from the scripture stories books(Book of Mormon Stories, New Testament Stories, etc) since they seemed to hold the kid's attention span better than just reading straight from the scriptures (which we did occasionally).  It was a great way to get the kid's started with scripture reading and introduce them to the wonderful stories from the scriptures.  But as I've been doing my own reading in the Book of Mormon lately I had felt like we were missing out a bit on reading straight from the scriptures for family scripture study.  

So when I opened up the January Friend magazine and saw the activity "Book of Mormon Feast" I was so excited (link below).  It's a year long reading program for families and has a reading assignment from the Book of Mormon for each week.  It's a condensed version reading plan and it's perfect.  It highlights a lot of the major events.  I knew that would be perfect for us this year.  We are able to read directly from the scriptures but it's not too lengthy or too deep to not hold the kid's interest.

  Plus my kids are so excited to color the week's reading in the coloring chart (you color all the 1's for finishing week 1's assignment, 2's for 2nd week and so forth).  You have to explain what happens in between the gaps but I like that because it makes me have to know the stories pretty well so I can know what does happen in between the gaps:)  

We also use the gospel art picture book as we read and that helps give them visuals while still reading straight from the scriptures.  Each day's readings are still pretty short but let me tell you- that Book of Mormon is one powerful book.  I can truly testify that  this has happened since we started more diligently studying the Book of Mormon in our home:

 “there will come into your lives and into your homes an added measure of the Spirit of the Lord, a strengthened resolution to walk in obedience to His commandments, and a stronger testimony of the living reality of the Son of God.”    1. 

Gordon B. Hinckley, “A Testimony Vibrant and True,” Liahona andEnsign, Aug. 2005, 6.

And I can testify to the truthfulness of this Apostle's bold declaration- one of my all time favorite quotes about the Book of Mormon:

“I feel certain that if, in our homes, parents will read from the Book of Mormon prayerfully and regularly, both by themselves and with their children, the spirit of that great book will come to permeate our homes and all who dwell therein. The spirit of reverence will increase; mutual respect and consideration for each other will grow. The spirit of contention will depart. Parents will counsel their children in greater love and wisdom. Children will be more responsive and submissive to the counsel of their parents. Righteousness will increase. Faith, hope, and charity—the pure love of Christ—will abound in our homes and lives, bringing in their wake peace, joy, and happiness.” Marion G. Romney, “The Book of Mormon,” Ensign, May 1980, 67

I love the Book of Mormon!  And I love that my family is gaining a strong love for it as well.  I'm so thankful for the Friend magazine and all it's helpful, inspired resources that help our family draw closer to our Savior.  (They are also printing fun scripture figures that you can make into puppets in 10 of their issues this year- link below).  

Book of Mormon Feast reading chart here:
http://www.lds.org/friend/2012/01/book-of-mormon-feast?lang=eng
Book of Mormon Scriture Figures here:
http://www.lds.org/friend/2012/02/book-of-mormon-scripture-figures?lang=eng

Our House January 30th-February 5th... Giant FHE, Special Treats, Animal Encounters, and Grandma's Birthday!

We had a pretty good week this past week.  I decided to I can keep up on my blog and not get overwhelmed with trying to post every day I'm going to try out posting weekly updates.  We'll see how it goes.  

On Monday it was the fifth Monday so we had an open night to do something fun and unstructured for FHE (Family Home Evening).  When I was at the store with Joaquin we found these ginormous coloring books that looked like so much fun.  So I got a Super Heroes one and a Disney Princesses one.  So for FHE we colored and just chatted.  It wasn't as wonderful as I had planned since Kenai's idea of fun was "scribble scrabbling," as Baily calls it, all over her pictures and Baily freaked out about it and also because he wanted to play 109 crayon pick-up... without the picking up.  But it's the thought that counts... right?!

We were grateful to get part of our income tax return and after paying a few bills we each got a special treat.  I got a lot of household items that I've been wanting to get for a while like a grill pan and stuff like that.  I also registered for 4 races this year and I am so excited about that.  Robert also got us a dishwasher.  I would say this is mostly for me because now that we have the dishwasher Robert does the dishes every day and that's a huge load off my back.  Who needs roses when you have a man who will get you a dishwasher and do the dishes for you every night?  Oh baby, oh baby:)

Joaquin got his Thor toy that he's been eyeing for weeks.  Have I mentioned how into Super Heroes he is these days?

Baily got a new game for her 3DS- Barbie Glamour pups.  As you can clearly see, she's a big fan.

The big treat for sure was Robert's new iPad2.  He's been wanting this forever and he works so hard in supporting our family he totally deserved it.  Besides, it's a fan favorite for the whole family- not just Robert.  The kids love playing Angry Birds and doing puzzles.  I have no doubt that the iPad2 will benefit us all to a great degree:)

On Saturday it was free zoo day.  We weren't planning on going since Robert had basketball in the morning and Baily had swimming and then we were planning on going to the temple in the afternoon.  We weren't able to go to the temple because of some personal health issues of mine [TOM:( ] so we decided to go to the zoo even though we would only have about 2 hours to spend there before it closed (which is all the time I could be away from home anyway).  So we went and I'm so glad we did.  It was a beautiful day (50 degrees and sunny in February in Wisconsin... really??) and we saw so many great animals up close and active.  Also because it was the end of the day we got to see a lot of the animals get fed which was cool.  The grossest/coolest part the mandrill.  We saw him poop in his hands, play with his poop and then eat his poop.  It was disgusting but entertaining nonetheless.  Some other highlights included watching the giraffes eat, seeing the tiger super close up, watching the huge orangutan try to hitch a ride out of the zoo, watching the elephants and hippo eat and seeing the huge lion up close.  I loved using my new camera and capturing some good shots now that I'm finally figuring out more of my camera's settings.  I LOVE the zoo so much- it always reminds of how awesome our Creator is.  I can't help but get emotional because the animals are just so beautiful and awesome!

On Sunday we went to my Dad's house to celebrate Patty's birthday.  I guess it was for the Superbowl too even though I hated both teams and could care less about the game (I'm still bitter that the Packers weren't in it if you couldn't tell.)  The kids and I made an awesome raspberry, strawberry chocolate cake.  For some reason I got a total kick out of the heart shaped raspberries:)

Patty made some dee-licious party food and we just had fun eating, chatting and watching the Superbowl commercials.  The kids each picked out a potted flower/plant to give to Grandma for her birthday and Robert and I gave her the DVD The Prestige.  I hate that we live so much farther away from them but it does make our visits so much sweeter.  Oh how I love my family!

And that was our week in a nutshell.  We are so blessed:)

Photo A Day Challenge February 6, 2012

Dinner

Mmm- I love dinner.  I created this concoction on my own- Santa Fe chicken.  And even more than dinner I love sit down dinners with my family!

Photo A Day Challenge February 5, 2012

10 AM

Getting ready for church- even though I didn't even make it to church.  I had to stay behind to make a birthday cake and was going to meet up with the fam after.  But my van wouldn't start so I didn't even make it.  I was bummed:/

Photo A Day Challenge February 4, 2012

A Stranger

We saw this guy at the zoo today and he was just stunning and beautiful- just awesome.  Baily said he was Aslan.  God's creations are just amazing to me!

Photo A Day Challenge February 3, 2012

Hands

Or how 'bout just one chubby hand?  I had to try on my new nail polish (reward for having a completely clean eating and all workouts week- yay!).  I love it.

Fit 'N Fab Momma

I've decided to get back to blogging on my fitness blog since I'm back into fitness!  The link is below.  I've made it private for now so if you're interested in seeing what I'm up to in the losing weight area of my life leave me your email address and I'll invite you!  And the link will also be posted on my sidebar as well.

http://smilingsarahbearfitnfab.blogspot.com/

Photo A Day Challenge February 2, 2012

Words

I send my mom a funny card every week along with a bunch of hand-written quotes.  Here's the one I sent today:)  I am not so great at writing her every week (she's in prison), so this helps me feel like a better daughter when I can't get letters out as much as I'd like to.