Easy Breezy!

Today was nice and easy breezy. Unfortunately Robert had to work today which sucked but other than that I have no complaints. On Friday night as I was trying to put Baily to sleep we were watching Paula Deen's show on Food Network and she made this awesome cake and passed out the cupcake version to her audience. Ever since then she's been begging me for cupcakes. I promised her last night before she fell asleep that I would give her a cupcake in the morning. The first thing she said when she woke up today was "momma I want my cupcake please." I think she was still half asleep but she remembered I promised her a cupcake. My little girl is sooo persistant when she wants something which is nice for when she grows up but it's hard on me. Well as I was getting ready to make the cupcakes I realized I didn't have any cupcake liners and there was no way I could make them without the liners since the pan is so rusty. I couldn't stand the thought of breaking my promise to her so I was bad and I went to the store to get the liners. By the time I got there I realized I wasn't going to have enough time to make them so I just bought her some cupcakes already made from the bakery. She was satisfied though and loved the pretty sprinkles and frosting on the store bought cupcakes. At least we have something to look forward to this week though- making those cupcakes I originally promised!

The rest of the time I had before Church I made deviled eggs for my niece's birthday party and got ready. I also watched the sad end to the Cardinals game. Only the Cardinals an lose in the last couple of seconds- it's the Cardinals curse. Thanks Cardinals for giving my hubby a reason to be in a bad mood! I think he's used to it by now though. After Baily and I were all prettied up Emely (my niece who had the birthday party I mentioned) dropped us off at church. We were too late for Sacrament which I hate but the rest of church was great. Baily was well behaved thank goodness since I didn't have Robert there to help me. A new couple in our ward spoke during Sacrament meeting and they were pretty funny. I want to get to know the girl better- she seems really cool and fun to hang out with. She's real cute. A funny thing that happened is Baily was reading her book with animals in it and making the accompanying noises. When she came to the piggies she started snorting really loud. Every one around us was cracking up.

Robert picked us up a little early from Church- he picked us up as soon as he got off of work. We went to Emely's birthday party at Loren's house. We were late but there was still good food and fun to be had. Baily had a blast as she always does with her cousins. I love that she has cousins to play with because plaing with cousins are some of my most treasured childhood memories. After we ate and had ice cream cake and she opened her presents we all ended up outside. It was so nice and cool. Hopefully, hopefully the weather's cooling off and that horrible heat is gone! It was fun and just relaxing. And I'm pretty sure Emely had a good time which is great because she's a sweetheart and deserved to have a happy birthday. I love you Emely! Baily went another day without a nap but that makes for an early bedtime which is always nice. After we got home and ate she threw a major screaming tantrum- she was way over-tired. But after about 10 minutes she was passed out. She's even sleeping in her own bed! Hopefully she'll stay there all night. My goal is to really work on the potty training this next week and also getting her to sleep in her own bed. This week started out pretty rough but this weekend has been a great ending. We've got another super busy week planned so I better get prepared and get some sleep. Have a great week everyone!

Family Fun and Learning

Yesterday was busy and fun-filled. Gerald and Rachelle were in town for the Def Leppard concert they went to on Thursday night so we had planned on spending the day with them. The day started off with lunch at our traditional restaurant Mimi's Cafe. I tried something new this time- the French Quarter Burger. It was super yummy. Gerald copied me and got the same thing (hee hee... I actually copied him). Baily was fine until about 3/4 of the way. She had to be taken out with Grandpa Gerald where she had a blast running circles around him. She adores her Grandpa Gerald!



After lunch we went to the Heard Museum in Phoenix. It took us a while to get there thanks to my husband who thinks he knows everything but doesn't- he got us a little lost. But we found it eventually (411 is such a wonderful thing) and it was really awesome. It's a museum that specializes in Native American culture as well as many other Native cultures around the world. I was a little worried about how Baily would do in a museum but they had a ton of interactive activities for her to participate in and she had a blast. I love learning activities like that for her. I've always loved museums and artsy kind of stuff so I was in heaven. I was having a lot of Braxton Hicks(sp?) contractions which made it hard to be very comfortable but I loved the art and exhibits so much. They had a lot of Tlingit stuff which is my tribe from Alaska so that was awesome. Baily was pretty tired by the end but it was a great trip and great idea. Thanks Gerald and Rachelle! Here's some pictures of our trip.

After we got home Robert needed to rest since he's still recovering from his sickness. We had planned on going to see a movie at IMAX but seeing as we didn't have a baby-sitter for Baily and she hadn't napped all day we didn't want to risk taking her there. So instead the boys stayed home with Baily and Rachelle and I did a little shopping. I've been in dire need for maternity shirts since I'm getting huger (yes that's a word in my vocabulary!) I had like 2 shirts that were long enough. A friend told me that Old Navy was having a good sale so we went there. I found 3 cute shirts for less than $25! I should have gotten more since everything was cheap. I'm kicking myself for it. Maybe I'll go back tomorrow and get some more. But then again if I would've gotten more I would probably be kicking myself for spending too much. I'm so not a good shopper! After Rachelle shopped in 2 more stores we stopped and got El Pollo

Loco for dinner and brought it home. We talked about going to the park but by then it was too late. So we just enjoyed dinner at home and visited for a while. We watched part of some movie on tv then Gerald and Rachelle left. We had fun with them and it was a good day. After they left we all fell asleep pretty quickly. I love Saturdays like that- busy and fun and family filled!

T. Goodness I. F.!!

Today has been much better emotionally wise. Whew! I don't know if I could have handled another hard day. It was very busy though and even though it's 3 in the morning and I'm exhausted I'm still so wired that I can't sleep. I'm going to one tired momma tomorrow- once again! Maybe I'm just getting myself accustomed (sp?) to being awake in case I get the 911 Operator job and work graveyards (which by the way I still haven't heard anything back yet).

So the morning consisted of tending to 3 little ones and doing the normal Friday tasks I have when it's payday- budgeting, paying bills, making a menu along with grocery list and so on and so forth. There were some strange and exciting things worth taking note of though. First, we had an unusual visitor in our kitchen today. It was a little desert lizard. I don't know if you can see him that well in the picture but he was just a cute little guy. It freaked me out at first but then I was kind of excited for Baily to experience some actual "wild" life. I always feel bad that she doesn't get to experience that sort of stuff like I did as a kid since we now live in a city. Baily thought he was pretty cool. And since she was being so helpful with the other babies and just plain sweet today I decided to spoil her (and me... let's be honest!) a little bit. She's been asking for pizza for a while and since I didn't have any transportation I ordered delivery pizza from Pizza Hut. It was so cute when the pizza guy came. As soon as she heard the doorbell she ran to the door and started doing her pizza dance (it's just like her ice cream dance but she says pizza instead of ice cream). After she ate and had her daily conversation with her Uncle Beau (she has to talk to him at least once a day you know) she was ready for her nap. So as soon as I put Mya down it was a cinch getting Baily to sleep. With a quiet moment for the first time of the day I indulged myself a little more. Last night at the store when Baily saw these caramel apples she picked one up and said "daddy!" So of course I had to get one for her to give to him and of course one for me as well. After I had mine today it was so dang good that I ate Robert's as well! I justified it by telling myself he's sick anyway and can't taste anything. I'm so bad I know. Don't worry... I'll get him another one tomorrow. But seriously- it was soooo good! I've come to the conclusion that the reason Fall is my favorite season must be because of the caramel apples with nuts. Yum! I even got me some of the suckers at the store tonight because that taste has stuck with me and I've just been craving it like crazy.

I had a pretty good afternoon. My sweet Aunt Marilyn let my mom call at her house so she could talk to me. We don't have a land line right now so she's not able to call and we haven't talked in a couple of months which has been so hard. So thanks to my Aunt Marilyn's generosity I was able to have a nice long conversation with my mom. I needed it so bad. It was so good just to hear her voice and laugh with her. It gave me such a big boost of happiness that I really needed. On the way home I indulged again. People reading this must thing I'm such a pig but I really don't splurge like this with food and treats that much- basically just on pay day. Anyway I went to Jack In The Box and got Baily, my nephew Bryan and myself shakes. They have the best shakes there! I hadn't had one in a long time so I really enjoyed it.

After that we came home and I got some other things done and hung out with Baily. Robert went to work today and still didn't feel that well so he rested for a while. After hanging out and trying to wait for Baily to go to sleep I decided to go grocery shopping even though it was so late so I wouldn't have to worry about it tomorrow. I didn't want to leave with Baily still awake because I didn't want Robert to have to deal with her since he needed to rest but it was getting too late. Thankfully she fell asleep about 15 minutes after I left and didn't cry at all. I had a long midnight shopping trip at my 2nd home- Wal-Mart. I thought it would be faster but it took forever. It was hard to get around and get things because the stockers were out and had stuff everywhere. Then they only had one cashier open so that took forever. But at least I didn't feel rushed or have to worry about Baily so that was nice. It was just super tiring. And pat on the back for me for sticking to my budget once again. I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of it! I stopped at Whataburger to get Robert some food on my way home, came home, unloaded groceries and tried to go to sleep. Since I was tossing and turning I got on the computer- surprise, surprise! Now I'm going to attempt to sleep again. I have another busy day planned tomorrow so hopefully the few hours I have available will be filled with some good, sound sleep! Have a good weekend everyone!

Bi-Weekly Menu

We did pretty good sticking to last weeks' menus but I'm going to try harder to be more diligent this time around. I got my inspiration from the free magazine I got called "Kraft food & family." I love this magazine and am so excited to try out some of these recipes! If you haven't already, you should definitely go to their website and sign up for this magazine. It's free... what more could you ask for!?! These next couple of weeks are a little weird because we have family visiting this weekend and we'll be out of town next weekend. But here's the lineup!

F- Pizza Hut

Sa- Out to eat with Gerald and Rachelle

Su- Niece's B-day party- in charge of bringing deviled eggs

M- Roast beef with potatos, carrots & gravy, rolls and caramel pecan cheesecake bars

Tu- Lemon chicken with rice

W- Italian Stew

Th- Bbq beef sandwiches, chips, fresh veggies with ranch

F- Out of town

Sa- Out of town

Su- Belgian waffles, hashbrowns, bacon & eggs

M- Chicken parmesan bundles, buttered macaroni and chocolate, strawberry & cookie parfaits

Tu- Frozen pizza (Enrichment Craft Night)

W- Tomato baked chicken, salad, french bread

Th- Philly cheesesteak subs, french fries

Pres. Hinckley Quote

"Every woman has a certain right to approach the throne of deity in prayer as does any man. I am convinced that our Father in Heaven loves His daughters as much as He loves His sons and that He is as ready to hear their pleas and grant their petitions."