New Favorite Blogs

We all know I LOVE the deals and am slowly becoming a CVSer. :o)

www.moneysavingmom.com

This Mommy inspires me . . .

www.payitforward1.blogspot.com

Go Lil' Horns!!

They won Game 2 yesterday!! It was their first win, how exciting! Adrianna did GREAT! She hit a double and daddy was quite proud. I was the dugout mom and what an experience that was. :o) Once I get it down, I'll love it! Everyone knows I love to be in charge, LOL...

We had pictures today, here is her team...

Baby Showers, Birthdays, Relay, Oh My! :o)

I am sitting here preparing not just my weekly meal calendar but my April Monthly Calendar and OH MY! :o) That's really all I can say.

The top FUN day will be an "Irish Baby Shower" for my sweet friend Sabrina! This isn't something they do in Ireland due to superstition (they're just like the Italians in that way!) So this is going to be loads of fun! I'm working alongside two of my "buds" to pull this off, so I know this is going to be GOOD! I LOVE BABY SHOWERS!!!Then, the funnest thing in the world, according to my 5yr old....BIRTHDAY PARTIES! We have about 5 or so scheduled as of today for the month of April! And the best part? I've already purchased almost ALL of the gifts!!! I've really mastered the art of birthday gift buying on a budget!!Of course, let's not forget HUTTO'S 2ND ANNUAL RELAY FOR LIFE!!!! This is something that just fills me up! I am so proud to be participating and being part of the committee this year! I can't wait to see how it grows in the upcoming years as we keep the same committee members. This is GREAT!
And ooooohhhh the "gardening", ahhhh bringing things to life and watching them grow! YAY! I already mentioned the tasks ahead so I won't bring them up again in this post!


BLUEBONNETS! I've seen them all over Texas for the almost 6 years I've lived here and have YET to take a picture! I guess now I am feeling more like this is "our home" so this year I am TOTALLY taking pics of the kids as soon as I find the good spots to go! My friend Heather is a photographer, and you KNOW I'm seeking her for this one! :o)

We are back to Bible Study, starting our Mom Time, Kid Time, and lots more thanks to the amazing group that is growing with some really wonderful families. I am so thrilled to be developing more friendships as the weeks go on. Chris and I are hosting our first Community Meal on the 13th and I am so excited to know that we will be maxed out on the number of families (usually we will have about 3-5 families at the dinner)! We do have limited space, but it's fine, we are grillin some fajitas, so everyone's OUTSIDE! Works for me.

Time for me to finish up my stuff! Gotta run...have a GREAT week!

Spring is in the Air . . .

I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE SPRINGTIME!!!! It's my FAVORITE FAVORITE FAVORITE time of the year! Everything feels new and CLEAN!! I've been busy at work hanging new curtains, removing curtains from my bedroom for allergy reasons, intalling laminate flooring with my hubby (we're finishing it up on Saturday), just planting a bunch of wildflower seeds in Adrianna's garden, planted some Carolina Jessamine (Texas Yellow Bells, gorgeous climbing vines that are evergreen and on $5 at Walmart!!), busy fertilizing, weed killing and so on and my Cannas are coming in!!! I'm so excited!

Beni and I also went out and bought some tomato plants, pepper plants, basil, Italian parsely, strawberry plants and a WATERMELON PLANT! LOL, let's see if this works! :o) We are going to plant a little garden in the backyard, I can't wait! I LOVE to garden, I love to watch things grow and flourish. Springtime also means birthday parties galore, allergies from hell, but the best part about Spring??? My little man's birthday!!! My baby boy is turning two!! I can't believe it. We are throwing him a big bash at Fritz Park and despite what I want, we are doing an Elmo Party. It's what he loves, so why not, right? I can come up with SUCH better themes, party planning is what I LOVE to do, but will settle on Elmo. :o) I've ordered his "birthday banner" from birthdayexpress.com, bought the birthday supplies, am still researching a concession of some sort, cotton candy or snow cone machine, have to ORDER his cake (it's just easier), have to go buy a few dozen goldfish and little mini fishbowls to give as favors at the party. (sorry moms, it's just easier for me, so guess what? You get to take home a goldfish!LOL) And well, the list can really go on and on. What would I do with free time? Oh yeah, I had some this week and I spent it cleaning closets and playing with the kids, no wonder I'm in such a good mood!

I'm having a new friend over for a playdate so gotta run....

HAPPY SPRINGTIME!!!!

More Pics...

So these are some taken outside today...(FINALLY got some for Christpher's 2nd Birthday invitations for his Elmo Party at the Park!)

Some of our trip to "Opening Day" at our New Library!! YAY! We were the first ones in!

Then there are some of Adrianna going to her FIRST GAME Tuesday Night!

Oh Yes, and our fun with fingerpainting yesterday! Gotta Love It!

Preview Party & Easter Pics

Don't have much time, but everyone keeps asking me for pics...here is round 1:

Easter Weekend!

I swear, we LOVE to celebrate! If we can turn one day into a weekend, we ALWAYS do! Especially for birthdays, we love not just the "birthday" but the "birthday weekend"!!! LOL We had a GREAT weekend! The Preview Party went even better than expected. I met some really sweet ladies, one that actually lives around the corner from me! It's crazy really since she is a friend of a friend from another church and wow, I could go on and on but I'll wait. :o)

Everyone got pretty badly sunburned except for me, gotta love the olive skin, the kids had a blast, I got to listen to my husband give his testimony in front of over 70 people, we had the support of his brother Jay and his family and I had some of my friends there too which was just SO AMAZING! I love this life I have right now. It's late or I would get into a really great sermon Chris and I watched last night given by TD Jakes, one of our favorites that we dvr. He said some pretty heavy stuff about being "anointed", all new language to me, but tonight after Chris and I took the kids to the park at 7:00pm to visit our TBall coach (Coach Stacie) and pick up Adrianna's uniform for her first game tomorrow night, he asked if I felt like I have been "anointed" by God. It was a pretty neat conversation and we had quite a big moment, all I could think about was the story of Peter that Kyle spoke of on Sunday along with a very similar story TD Jakes told too and my mind is too all over the place to explain it right now. But let's just say I do understand how once you make a decision to live a certain way, experience life in a different way, you can't go back. If you continuously go back to that "empty" boat, you will get nothing but frustrated. Usually the only thing that makes you go back to "your boat" is fear, it's almost sort of a "safety net", a "safe place". But staying there is what keeps you from experiencing all that life has in store for you, all that God has in store for you.

Pretty impactful weekend to say the least, and believe it or not, we weren't in a church of over 100, listening to a band play a bunch of Christian music, all dressed to the nine, or anything like that...we were with our "family", celebrating Jesus in the way I think He intended it to be for us. We then had Jay and Ruth, Kyle and Erika and all the kids over for an Easter Ham! Everyone stayed over for a long time and we had the best, most unstressed Easter yet!

I know this post is all over the place, but most of you know me and understand that's how I work. :o) I am just so excited, the weeks are full, ESPECIALLY April, so I don't know how much blogging I'll get in so I just wanted to share the excitement and my thoughts while they were still fresh.
Here are a couple pics...

Don't you know that is the only picture I got of him?! Eating his chocolate bunny from his basket Easter Morning! I couldn't get a single pic!! He is ALWAYS on the move!

Sweet Little Maeve!

My gorgeous litte girl Preview Party Morning!
Baby Kat! I just love this little cutie!! She's always smiling at me!

Happy Easter!

I came across this passage and wanted to share it because it has SO much meaning for me and the past year of my life. All I want to do is share all the wonderful things that God has done for me and my family through the people he has brought into my life. He is so good!

Romans 1:4-5
And Jesus Christ our Lord was shown to be the Son of God when God powerfully raised him from the dead by means of the Holy Spirit. Through Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name.

It's early, I have to get ready for our little service at Kyle and Erika's house but will share how AWESOME our Preview Party was yesterday!!!! May you ALL have a wonderful day with family and friends!

Today's Easter Egg Hunt

We had a playdate with our mom's group today at the Purple Dinosaur Park and the kids had a blast! Tonight will be spent setting up for tomorrow's Preview Party which will be LOADS of fun! I can't believe how many people are coming!!!! Well, actually I can, because we've ALL invested so much in our community and those around us that it has all built up to this! HOW EXCITING!!!!

Here are some pics one of the moms took.... How adorable!!!

American Idol

This is the first season that I have missed more than one of the American Idol episodes! We have just been so busy that TV has totally taken a backseat in my life. It never was a big deal for me, I'm just not a "sitcom" type person. I love the reruns of Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, Fresh Prince, obviously the shows that are on LATE at night when I decide to go to bed and flick on the tv since everyone else is snoring away!

I will say though, my top 3 favs are:Erika knew from Day 1 that Michael was going to be my fav...he's so cute! Oh and David Archuleta is ADORABLE! Carly, well she's the best of the females in my opinion. Not feeling the girls this season.

Chris's prediction is David as the next AI...we'll see..

Sick and all, She's STILL a performer! :o)

Needless to say, we've watched "Enchanted" about 5 times in the past two days. Adrianna went on her "Daddy-Daughter" night out to see the movie at the Dollar Theater two weeks ago and it's ALL she's been talking about. We dvr'd it during the Grammys and this was her singing it in her "normal" day to day getup... a little princess! She was sick and all, but got dressed in about 2 minutes to "perform" for the camera! My little doll! I have to record her again, she has the words pretty much down now after these past two days and she practically copies EVERY MOVE Princess Giselle does in the movie!
I LOVE MY LITTLE GIRL!!!!

I Have NO VOICE!

Yes, I'm still here! We had a sick household all week! And I officially lost my voice last night!! I felt it going in and out and getting hoarse, but of course I couldn't stop talking! LOL We hung out at Jay and Ruth's last night so FOR SURE I was talking ALL NIGHT! By 10:00 it was gone so I was ready to go home. ;o)

I haven't been blogging basically because I have a ton of stuff to share and really can't get my thoughts together clearly enough to put it down in writing! Chris and I went to "Basic Training" for Church Planters last weekend with some of our team and it was SO insightful and encouraging for me. It's the second time I've been and WOW how much we, as a team, have grown. The last time we went, the feelings and ideas were all over the place, in my opinion, but THIS time, it was crystal clear what our mission is and to see the progress since last time was great! Our team is made up of different people with different religious backgrounds, but ALL with shared values and the biggest of them all are "serving" , "family" , and "love". And for the first time since we joined in Resonate's mission, I feel like EVERYONE on our team shares those values. There is so much to talk about in the upcoming months from our Preview Party next Saturday, to monthly services next month, involvement in working with the Round Rock Serving Center, being part of our Adopt-a-Cop program, Relay for Life, and lots of other things too! We are going to be having a monthly Mom Time, Family Day, rotating Guys Night and Girls Night, some of the other moms in the group are developing a children's program which is going to be AWESOME, and I can truly go on and on. I am so excited and WAY motivated in the place we are today and the direction we are heading in!

Each member of our team is involved in weekly "Coaching" with Kyle and Erika and last weeks "session" (I swear it reminds me of the therapy I went through as a teen/young adult except more God centered) and that has done more for me than ANYTHING else! I've been camping out all week on Psalms 139 and that is where I've been focused. I started a private blog to journal my thoughts and feelings while reading, sort of a "prayer journal" I guess and THAT is where I feel that God has wanted me to focus this week and it's been ever so fruitful! ;o)

This week has been wonderful, even with a house of sick kids and sick mommy! I had a friend bring over dinner (she's always SO good at doing stuff like this, LOVE her heart!) which we had for 2 days and I've played a ton of Zingo and Great States Junior, Adrianna's new favorites! I also spent alot of time playing with puzzles and Little People with Christopher and "playing" is what I LOVE TO DO! I think God wanted me to focus on my family this week, show me how lucky I am to have them and have a husband who rushes home to be with his family, works SO hard to give us everything he can and who chose a job taking a financial cut just so he can be with US, that is our #1 value and I am so greatful for that!

So, today I am starting off with no voice, we are about to begin our laminate flooring (our first real remodeling job, God help us!) and then we begin the countdown to PREVIEW PARTY!

WOW I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!
Have a great week!

Wordless Wednesday: "Finger Lickin' Good!"

555 Deal

I saw this on one of my new blogging buds Betty and was excited to see a way to connect daily with God with the type of schedule that I carry! :) I think this is very manageable and can be a great tool for ANYONE, Christian or not, whether you are new to religion or have had it as part of your life your entire life, or if you just need a little 15 minutes of quiet time to recenter which is what this does for me. I don't use the spiritual talk that many people do, I just know that when I spend a little time each day it just makes me feel GOOD. It makes me want to be nice, do nice things and I just feel stronger. I can't explain it any other way. :o)

So here is what the 555 Deal is....

5 minutes listening to GOD (Reading the Bible),
5 minutes talking to GOD (Praying), and
5 minutes reading some type of devotional material ( have to ask my Pastor Kyle about that, not sure what exactly "devotional material" is...so I'll get back to you on that or if you have suggestions please let me know.)

And that's it, very easy, very simple. Trust me, it makes everything else just seam a little bit easier as the day develops.

Tuesday Tuna!

I have a Relay for Life meeting tonight followed by our weekly Leadership Meeting for church so dinner is going to be simple! Here is a yummy Tuna Casserole, carblicious recipe.... (Thanks Ruth, you know we love this and I'm SO cheating with this one!)


1 Box Velveeta Mac & Cheese
2 Cans Chunk Light Tuna in Water not oil
1 Can Cream of Mushroom Soup
Salt & Pepper
1 Can French's Crispy Fried Onions (the ones you use on Green Bean Casserole)

Cook the mac & cheese as usual, toss it in a big mixing bowl with the tuna and soup, mix it all up and stick it in a Pyrex or any baking dish (I like these because I just stick the glass top on it and put the leftovers right in the fridge once cooled).

Top with the Crispy Fried Onions and bake at 350 until heated through and onions are toasty.

I've done this with many variations, adding peas into it, topping it with breadcrumbs or broken up tortilla chips/corn chips if I didn't have the onions, but those onions totally make it!

UH-OH!

Well, looks like we are about to enter a new stage in Christopher's life.... God help me! How am I going to get him to nap and sleep now???? We moved his crib in our room since Beni moved in and all was well until Friday night. It was OH SO EASY to stick him in the crib! We did the family bed (and pretty much still do) with Adrianna and it's only a QUEEN!! Maybe we just get a King size bed, LOL

Marisposa, Popcorn, Tea Party, and an Evening Stroll

Last night was so much fun! We babysat Adrianna's "Best Friend" (those are her words completely) Kylie and it was so great. I've had a stressful week this week and it was a nice break and mindshift hanging out with two of my favorite little girls.

Our Evening Included....

We had Crescent Roll Chicken (one of my favorite recipes made by Erika at one of our first dinners at their house).

Cleaned up our plates and played outside for a bit.

Then inevitably came "dress up time"! They are just so adorable! They brought some life size Disney Princesses to the dinner table and had a little Tea Party. Adrianna sang the "Working Song" from the movie "Enchanted" and set it all up for her princesses which included Kylie who sat just so perfectly still waiting for her tea to be served! :)
The 2 Princesses and I took Scooter out for a walk, or as we called it "A Royal Stroll". They were so excited because it was dark out, and Adrianna kept saying we were out because they are BIG girls, and it was so "Lovely" (Kylie's words)! We talked about the endless sky and all the numerous stars, even made a wish on a star....

Then we came in, changed into some princess nightgowns and slippers, had ice cream and set up a big sleeping bag and pillows on Adrianna's floor. I made some popcorn for them for their "Movie Time". Choice of the evening? Barbie as Mariposa, of course! LOL

Here they are and I was amazed that they laid there the entire time and watched the movie! That's a first!

I love Pretend Play! It was so relaxing for me last night, especially since they were both so well behaved and actually did NOT fight like sisters, which usually happens if you give them long enough together. :) That was a great way for me to end the week and start our weekend. Chris has had a long work week and he is working today. :( We will be heading to T-Ball practice this morning and running right to a birthday party straight from practice, so our day will be full! I can't wait to see our friends today, it's been a long week without them! We've had alot of "home stuff" to do this week so we haven't had any playdates since Monday and Mommy hasn't had a "Playdate" since Tuesday night . . . busy week of house chores, FUN! NOT! :)

Have a great weekend!