Spring Cleaning!!!

Today I started spring cleaning! Yes I know it's still January and technically winter but we woke up to a beautiful spring like day that got all of my family in the mood for change! It's a beautiful day...around probably high 60's low 70's. Love days like this! The perfect temperature to open the windows and let some fresh air in! I have been mainly working on the kitchen area...cleaning the stove top, fridge, dishwasher, cabinets, floors and I even cleaned the washer and dryer in the laundry room (it's attached to the kitchen so it's like one big area). So far lookin good!

The thing I am most excited about it what Cam has been working on for the past 2 weekends. First let me say I love my house! I fell in love with it before I ever even stepped foot into it. It has beautiful hardwood and tile floors, lots of windows, beautiful real wood cabinets and doors (not the fake stuff they put in houses now a days), 4 bedrooms, 2 living spaces, 3 full bathrooms and 2 dining areas! Love it! Especially the layout...we have a loft area upstairs with a bedroom, living space and full bathroom. It's perfect when we have guest stay with us. There are only 2 things I have always wanted to change...bigger kitchen and tear down the sunroom in the back of the house. We have this hideous cedar sunroom that someone who previously owned this house added on. First of all who wants a sunroom in central Texas that has no air conditioning and is completely closed in. In the summer it's probably over 100 degrees in that room...so not functional. I have wanted to tear it down from the second I saw it but Cam liked it because it added square footage. Well he has finally, 6 years later, seen the light and is in the process of tearing it down!!!! Woo hoo!!! In it's place he is going to build a huge deck that spans across the back of the house! I can't explain how truly excited I am! I have always wanted a big deck for patio furniture and to put all the boys outdoor toys on. I am hoping that it is all done by Asher's birthday (May 5) but due to some financial issues we might not actually get to start building the deck until this summer. However once we tear down the room there is a huge cement slab that I think we might clean and paint for now and just use that as our porch. Very exciting! Bye bye sunroom!!!

Just call me Earth Momma!

I've gone to the other side...the healthy side of living! Since I bought my new cookbook and we have decided to change our lifestyle I am now buying organic and I changed all my cleaning products to non toxic. I also bought all reusable bags to use instead of plastic. Which I have to say I love reusable bags! They hold so much stuff and you can carry them over your shoulder which makes it much easier to make it out to the car with 2 toddlers in tow. I thought buying organic was going to be more expensive but so far the last 2 weeks I have spent $50 less at the grocery store then I use to. Mostly due to the fact that I no longer cruise down the snack isles and pick up cookies and crackers filled with hydrogenated corn syrup. Since eating better these last 2 weeks Cameron and I can already see a difference in how we feel...not so tired and cranky. The boys are also acting much better...with the exception of Asher's once a day outburst! LOL!
On to cleaning products...
I am, what you could say, a little crazy when it comes to cleaning. I clean pretty much everyday. Not all day cleaning but I do enjoy doing a little everyday and having a super clean house. For Christmas I got a Shark steam mop which is the best mop EVER! It uses no cleaning products...just cleans your floors with steam. I have to say my floors have never been cleaner. My mop also came with mirco fiber cloths to dust with. Once again requiring no cleaning products. Love them! So my favorite bathroom cleaner I bought at Babies R Us and is called Babyganics. They make an amazing tub and tile cleaner that has the freshest lavender smell ever! The best part was when I bought them they were buy one get one free. So I spent $5 for 2 cleaners that could possible last me all year! Woo hoo go me!
I am hoping that we can stick to this lifestyle and I am going to try my hardest not to stray!

Awful day turned fun!!!

We were having an AWFUL day this morning. Both boys are totally crazy today. Asher is teething and having a really hard with it. He was up until 8:30 last night and woke Aiden up in the process. So neither boy got a good nights sleep like usually and they woke up super early around 6:30. Plus on top of that it's freezing cold so I won't be able to take the boys outside today. Then Emily called around 10:00 and said that her and Alexi wanted to come over! Life saver!!!!! We ended up having a great morning! We baked cupcakes and decorated them and then made giant soft pretzels. I seriously have no idea how we would have made it through the morning without them!

I thought this would be fun so here are some pictures from a year ago. Hard to believe how much kids change in a year!

Deceptively Delicious!

I recommend this cookbook to any momma out there that cannot get their kids to eat a veggie filled diet. It's really amazing how easy and yummy the recipes are. I bought the book last week at Target because it was on sale for only $9! I thought what the heck...my kids eat no veggies and have already been sick twice this year. I give them vitamins but I know that getting your vitamins through veggies is much better and your body absorbs it easier. So since buying the book my kids have had their recommended 3 servings of veggies a day! Plus I didn't know this but they are only suppose to have 2 servings of fruit. My boys were probably eating around 5 servings a day. So we cut that back also and their diet is so much more colorful and I think it's more filling for them.
The whole idea of hiding veggies is by pureeing them and then mixing them into your everday meals. Last Friday I bought all the veggies I was going to puree...sweet potatoes, butternut squash, yellow squash, broccoli, spinach, cauliflower and carrots. During the boys naps I made all my purees...it only took about and hour and that will probably last me about 2 weeks! Crazy huh?! So far most of the recipes have been a hit. This morning we had french toast with butternut squash, for lunch we are going to have "buttered" noodles with squash instead of butter and for dinner we are having (I made this one up myself) breaded pork cutlets with sweet potato and mashed potatoes with cauliflower! Yummy!!!

Getting back to normal

So things around my house are finally starting to get back to normal since the passing of Lola. Having 2 kids and another dog to take care of has really helped keep my mind off things. Life with only 1 dog is probably going to stick for right now. For some reason right after we decided to put Lola down I started thinking about getting another dog. It was like I needed things to go back to how they were...I was afraid of dealing with how they will be. But after a few days I think this is what's best. Caring for only 1 dog will be alot easier considering we are a growing family (not anytime soon but you know what I mean). Maybe one day we will consider another furry friend.

Random

Q. five names you go by: Mommy, Jenny, Baby, Rummy (dad made that up when I was real young)

Q. three things you are wearing right now: One of Cam's tshirts, boxers and house slippers (I have been cleaning all morning and am fixing to jump in the shower to get dressed for church)

Q. two things you want very badly at the moment: A starbucks sweet ice tea and a maid!

Q. two things you did last night: Made dinner and watched Definetly, Maybe with Cameron (great movie btw).

Q. two things you ate today: French toast and strawberries

Q. two people you last talked to on the phone: Mom and Emily

Q. two things you are going to do tomorrow: Laundry and relax...well hopefully.

Q. two longest car rides: From Texas to Montana when I was 6 and from Texas to Minnesota when I was 17.

Q. two of your favorite beverages: Tea...sweet, unsweet or flavored, doesn't matter and water with lemon in it.

Q. the people you’d like tag for their very own: Amy, Rhi and Laura

Gone to doggy heaven

Lola Liggity Lipnicky Longshanks Kirchoff (I seriously have no idea how she got all those names) passed away today around lunch time.
This is how it all happened:
I called the vet this morning to see how she was doing. The nurse who has been taking care got on the phone and said how things took a turn for the worse last night. Lola had thrown up all the food they gave her yesterday and was no longer sitting up. She was just lying in her cage not even lifting her head. She said the ver would check her out and call me back. So after waiting over an hour for the phone call Cameron decided just to go up there and see how Lola was for himself. He asked me if I would be okay with putting her to sleep if that was neccesary and I said that was fine. The last thing I wanted was for Lola to be miserable. So about an hour later he called me and said that he made the decision to put her down. He said that when he walked in to see her she really didn't even recognize him. He took her outside and sat with her for a little while...she really loved being outside. Then he talked to the vet and nurse and they said at this point she was not going to get better. They had done everything they could and her body was just not reacting and was ready to go. They said since she loved being outside so much that they were going to put her to sleep while she was outside. I thought that was really sweet...I know that's how she would have wanted it.
I am actually at peace with this decision. I know it was the right thing to do and I know Lola is no longer in pain. She is in a better place and our family now has a little guardian angel watching over us. I thought I would be more upset but we finally have closer and we can move on. I will miss Lola everyday and will always remember how she use to love when the boys would hug her and how she would run around the house like crazy when she got excited. The pictures and memories I will always have and cherish. Luckily we still have Bucky and he is making this whole process a little easier. He has no idea what it has meant to me when he comes up to me for some loving cuddles.
Thank you to those who left really sweet comments before...you have no idea how much that means to me!

Very Scary Week

This has seriously been one of the hardest weeks I have even had to go through!
For anyone who doesn't know we have 2 basset hounds...Bucky and Lola. Bucky will be 9 this year and Lola will be 5.
So here we go...
Last week Lola kind of stopped eating her dog food. At first we thought she was just being stubborn about it so I bought her some new dog food. She started to eat a little of that everyday so I thought things were going to be fine. I had noticed that she was losing weight but still didn't seem to worried. Well Saturday she wouldn't eat at all and same thing on Sunday. By Monday morning she was so weak she couldn't even walk or lift her head up. Cameron rushed her to the vet. By this point I was a mess! She looked awful and I had a horrible feeling that she wa dying. Cameron was still optimistic at this point. So I get a call not long after they were at the vet from Cam saying that Lola has liver failure and is dying (just typing this is making me sick to my stomach). I started bawling uncontrollably. Cam said that the best thing for her was to put her to sleep...that she was slowly dying and the vet said she was not in a comfortable state. So I accepted that and hung up the phone. I spent the next 30 minutes crying, calling my mom and sister...just so upset. Then Cam walks through the front door and said "I couldn't do it." The vet said that because Lola was so young she wasn't sure if we should put her down without running some test. So Cam told her to run the test and 30 min later we got the call from the vet. The test came back that she had an infection in her pancreas which in turn caused her liver to start shutting down. So she said that we could try treating it with anitbiotics and see where that goes. We love Lola and if there was a chance she could live we were taking it. So as of today...she had been at the vets since Monday hooked up to an IV for fluids and nutrition and anitbiotics and pain medicine. She is sitting up in her cage and eating when they put food in her mouth. This might sound bad but this is actually an amazing improvement! Her test still don't look good but it hasn't been 48 on meds yet so it's still hard to tell. But her physical apperance is improving so I am praying that it's a good sign. We are going to keep her there until Friday and see if the improvements get better.
Thanks for making it this far. I made myself sit down and write this today so I could just get it out. I am still so torn inside. I have a feeling in my heart that she will be okay and pull through but with no definte answer it's hard. I can't imagine having to put down out little baby girl (that's what we have always called her).

It's that time of year again...

to start planning and preparing for Aiden's birthday!!!! It's kind of hard to get ready for a birthday so fast after Christmas but it does keep me on my toes! I took Aiden to get his 3 year picture done this morning because I wanted to use the wallets for the invitations. I decided last year at Asher's birthday that I was going to make all the invitations and put a picture of the boys for people to keep. They turn out pretty cute if I do say so myself! LOL!
Back to the party...
So far this is what I know about the party...it's a pirate theme and we will have a pirate cake. I am still not 100% sure on the place or date. His birthday is Feb 1 which falls on a Sunday this year...Super Bowl Sunday to be exact (yeah I know he gonna be loving that when he gets older). But I can't decide if we should do his party on that Sat or Sun. Ugh decisions decisions.
So I have all this to decide before Wednesday because that is my deadline for the invites! Wish me luck!

Happy New Year!!!!

Happy New Year fellow bloggers!
We spent the new year at home hanging out just the 4 of us! The boys graced us with some crazy dancing before they hit the sack at 7pm. Cam and I relaxed, played games on his new Itouch and watched Shrek 2 on TV. We were asleep by 10:30pm. Today we are going to spend the day at my parent's house watching football and eating...pretty much what my family does best!
So every year I make a few resolutions and usually don't end up following through with any of them. But I still think it's fun!

Here are a few of mine for this year:
1. Start working out regularly.
2. Pray the rosary every Monday night (Cam works late on Mondays)
3. Potty train Asher
4. Teach Aiden to write his name
5. Start a moms group at my church
6. Make some much needed changes at my house...painting my bedroom and hallways, new blinds in all rooms, new kitchen table...those are just a few.

Happy New Year!