Week in Insta-pics

Here are some random pictures from the last week. Averie eating pasta outside, Grammy and Jamie (my cousin) let her go wild. My purse was stolen at the begining of this year so I have a crappy wallet, and would like to replace it with this coach wallet. My Tea maker was put into full swing this week, a sign that summer is officially here. I needed a cup of joe this morning, so I took a stroll on over to Il Fornaio before work. I tried a new sandwich this week. The Macy's Cafe had this super yummy Tomato, Basil pesto, and Mozzarella sandwich and they just recently discontiued it. But....I found a replacement at Starbucks. Brian driving through Yosemite. It was so sunny that he had to rock my sunglasses through the park. We made a Buffalo Chicken Pizza using Jim Lahey pizza dough that I make every week, and the last photo is of this delish granola I found at Fresh and Easy. It is Blueberry Flax. A definite re-buy. Have a good weekend & Father's Day everybody.

                      

Today is the DAY!

A lot of things are happening today. Hopefully they all turn out well.

Brian and Anessa are leaving for Lancaster in the morning. I am staying home with Averie. {heavy sigh of relief}. We just could not do another 6 hour car ride. I wish them luck though *smiles*

I just got an email saying that my BIRCHBOX shipped! Yay. This will be my first one and I am so excited. I have heard only good things and cannot wait to see what I get. For $10 a month, how can you pass this up.

ABDC is over and the Electrolytes won. They so deserved it. For those of you that do not know what ABDC is, it is America's Best Dance Crew. It is this great show that Randy Jackson from American Idol created for MTV. My Husband and I are thoroughly entertained by it every season, and this season was no different. Other show news..... SYTYCD {So You Think You Can Dance} is one of my husband and my favorite shows. This season just started and auditions are in full swing. I cannot wait until the actual competition starts. The last couple of seasons have been really competitive, and exciting to watch. What else is on that I am totally guilty for watching. I love Bethenny Ever After, and Guiliana and Bill. Both of their seasons are over, but both shows always leave me anticipating for the next season. I just started watching GIRLS on HBO. It's a very unusual show, and a tad bit addicting. It is a late night, once all the kids go to bed type show, definitely not appropriate for kids/teenagers. Then there are the Hubby's shows that I can't seem to avoid. Every time that Swamp People, or Auction Hunters comes on I get sucked in. Pawn Stars, Oddities, and Mantracker are a few others. Man it really seems like we watch a lot of Television. Disclaimer: all of these shows are recorded, so the 30 minute, or hour shows are actually only 15 minutes, or a half an hour. We try and maximize our time in front of the TV. I can honestly say that we probably only watch about 2 hours of TV a night. That is if the Braves are not playing. If there is a ball game, it turns into 4 hours. We Tivo that too.

Father's Day is Sunday, and there is a possibility that Brian will still be in Lancaster. If he is, we will celebrate on Monday. No biggee. The likelihood of him being home on Sunday is high though, so I need some ideas. I have a couple, but I do not think they are enough. I want to spoil him. Pinterest is a great place to pull ideas from. I found this printable, and it is just too cute.

Wordless Wednesday {Instant Smile WK5}

My week has been tough to say the least. There does not seem to be a break in challenges fo this girl or her family. I really feel like I have aged 29 more years. But there is one thing that makes me smile no matter what. Everytime, it never fails. When the day has gone nothing but wrong, this is what makes me forget it all.

Linking up with, The Paper Mama, Parenting by Dummies, and Jenni from the Blog.

Las Vegas to Elk Grove or BUST!

We are back from Las Vegas. The trip itself was a lot of fun. We got there Friday, checked into our hotel (which was awesome, not baby friendly of course.), got things ready for the next day, and then headed to the Las Vegas STRIP.



This is the Hotel Lobby

It was a little bit of a challenge walking the Strip with a toddler, teenager, and my anti-social husband. None of us are huge fans of crowds. So walking the strip is right up our alley. NOT!! It was a total fail. But we did manage to see a couple of cool things. The water show at the Bellagio, The Paris Hotel, Cesar's Palace, and the Venetian. They were all pretty neat. Averie loved the lights on the Paris Hotel, and the water show at the Bellagio. She stayed up until 12am. Huge mistake looking back, she has been on a funky schedule ever since, and now I have to try and get her back on her routine. That was the only trip to the strip we made all weekend. It is just not our thing. Maybe it would be better for us to go during the day. I am not sure that would make a difference either, and I have no plans to return anytime soon, or at all. We will have the memories and that should be good enough.

Here is all of us, in front of the Bellagio

Next, Softball....

The team over all did pretty well. Anessa had an okay day on Saturday, and a great day on Sunday. She defensively played alright, nothing to write home to the grandparents about, but her offense was fantastic. She hit a bomb to center field for a triple. It would have been a home run if the field had fences.  I mean she had to have hit it 298 feet. The heat was intense on Saturday, we kept hydrated with lots of water, and kept cool with ice cold wash cloths. I am not exaggerating the HEAT was intense, and I think we all got through Saturday with no sunburn as well. Sunday was easier because the games were early. No drastic measures to stay cool were needed. After both games we packed up and headed to..... get Anessa's belly button pierced. For a girl that hates needles, I was shocked that she wanted it done. Surprisingly she did pretty well. I think I might have been more nervous than she was. Now there is a hole in my 16 year old's navel. The plan was for me to get my nose pierced at the same time, but something told me that I should wait to do it in Sacramento. What if it gets irritated. How was driving 9 hours going to make me feel? I think I made the right decision.

The Drive home was upon us, 9 hours of desert, and being cooped up in a car with the Kaylor's, oh my! We decided to grab something to eat at Wendy's before hitting the road. There was not much at Wendy's for a toddler to eat. I managed to pull some chicken out of my sandwich and she had a couple of french fries. After lunch we were were bound for the highway. Brian found an alternate route on his phone, and we decided to try that for the trip home. It claimed to take us through Yosemite. Brian, Anessa, and Averie had never been through Yosemite, we thought it might be kind of neat to drive through and see the sites via car window. The new route did not disappoint Twenty dollars later (that was the entrance fee to get into Yosemite.) we were driving through Yosemite. The sights were breath taking, but since we were just passing through, bitterness quickly settled in about the 20 bucks it cost to get in. Did we really need a 7 day pass just to drive through. Part of me wanted to break out the blankets and camp, just to make it worth while. Of course we didn't, we kept driving through. Hours passed of sleeping, not sleeping, eating, feeding, changing diapers, playing games, sleeping some more, singing way too loud, and flipping through the radio stations to find the one with the least amout of static, we finally made it home at about 10pm. Everyone was ready to get out of the cramped rental car, and go to bed. Including Miss Averie. I think she went to sleep at around 9pm. Slowly getting her back to her normal bedtime. It was a long, tumultuous trip, but it was spent with my crazy family so it was worth it to me. We were no worse for wear.

                     

Yosemite

Our view for most of the driving.





Las Vegas Baby!!

The drive to Vegas was long, and well long. So long that my family starts acting goofy. More details to come on the long, HOT, exhausting weekend.

Breaking Through not Breaking Down

A new dress, and a smile......

Brian {my hubby} suprised me with a new birthday dress, and said get ready we are going out to dinner. It instantly put a smile on my face. I was hoping that there was something planned, but I am changing my ways and did not depend on it. I was going to be happy with whatever I got or was planned.

But....

My whole family suprised me and took me out to dinner for my Birthday. We went to Strings, one of my favorite Italian resturants in town and had a great dinner. Lucky for them, my birthday fell on a Wednesday, All you can EAT!! The food was terrific, and the company the best. All in all it was a Fabulous 29th Birthday. See you later 28, and 29 I have my eye on you. 2012 may be a tough year so far, but 29 is going to be my breakthrough year. No more breaking down, just breaking through.

In other news, I am off early today to do Averie's IFSP, and then I am off all of tomorrow to go to Las Vegas for a Softball Tournament for the oldest child. It is going to be a long weekend, with a lot of pictures. I am going to flex my creative muscles on this trip, so be scared. The evening looks to have a lot of packing, prepping, and organizing. I am off, going to make some lists to keep me on track today.

I welcome any suggestions on packing for a trip with a toddler. I am still trying to iron out what the necessities are and have not been able to get it right yet. There are a lot of travels this summer, so the sooner I figure this out the better. I was on PINTEREST yesterday and found one tip. Put the babies clothes in plastic baggies for each day. That way you dont have to go riffling through your bag trying to find matching clothes. I may do this for the adults too. *laughs*

Wordless Wednesday's {My BIRTHDAY! WK4}

It is my BIRTHDAY! I am 29 years old today. This will be the last year that I am officially in my twenties. Where has the time gone? What have I done so far? What is the plan for the future? I have a tendency to create lists for myself on my birthdays. Things I want to accomplish and usually never get to, then feel guilty about not doing. *chuckles*

This year is going to be different. I am going to live in the moment. I woke up this morning to a package from my Best Friend Amber. She is the BEST, and by the best, I mean in the world. I am so lucky to have her in my life. This is what was in the package. Of course she had to sneak something in there for Little Miss Averie.

In addition to this wonderful package this morning. I woke up and decided that I wanted to feel good too, so I curled my hair, put some makeup on, and picked something out to wear that I knew would make me feel pretty. I have been living my life just to get to the next moment, and I want to live in the moment from here on out. I am so worried about where I am, and what I need to do to be better off tomorrow. That I often forget to just enjoy where I am. I think we are all guilty of this at some point, and it is a hard habit to break. 29 is the year that I am going to break it. I could be gone tomorrow, would I be able to say that the day that I left this planet was a good one. Did I take advantage of every moment, every milestone, every smile and laugh. I would not be so sure that I could. All that has to change today. I have a little girl that loves me unconditionally, a husband that is always there for me, and a Mother and Father that would give their life to see me happy and successful. What more could a girl ask for? I truly am living a wonderful kind of life. I guess it is time to stop and smell the flowers.

Carpe Diem!!!!

BTW..... I voted yesterday. I was so nervous. Maybe there is something to this voting thing. Maybe I am making a difference. If you are not registered to vote, make sure you do. One person may not make a difference, but together we all can.

Opps this turned into a Wordy Wednesday!

Linking up for Wordless Wednesday with, The Paper Mama, Jenni from the Blog, 5 Minutes for Mom, Parenting by Dummies, and the Naptime Momtog.

            

Election Day June 5, 2012

I am rested and ready to go, go to the polling booth that is. Except that there is one problem, I have no idea where I am going! I admittedly have not voted in the past two elections, and the guilt has settled in, starting now. I honestly am not all that interested in voting. I am not a very political person. However, I would say in the past month, I have slowly started to change my ways. I think that it is important for me to vote, have my opinion heard or documented at the least. Deep down I feel like it may not make a difference, but I am part of a bigger picture, you know. Maybe if a bunch of non-voters decide that maybe the difference is in the numbers it will actually stem change. I know that this is not the reason for the way the world is right now, but I do feel like maybe not voting has created some of the negative energy in the world. Silly, but maybe. Needless to say, I am going to do some serious reading today and seek out my polling place. I guess in the long run I would rather be a part of the solution and not the problem. So here is my attempt at making a difference.

Last night was a long night in addition to thinking {worrying} about voting. I was trying to get some quality learning time in with Averie, make dinner, and talk to my husband and step-daughter about their day. There is always a little, okay, I am lying a lot of cleaning to do. Especially when my husband and daughters are cooped up in the house all day. They make the house look like a tornado hit it. I have got in a routine of taking a walk through the house right as I get home, and picking up all the dishes, trash, and clothes that are left everywhere. That way it looks half way decent and I do not feel like screaming at the top of my lungs. Once I regain my sanity, I start dinner. We tried something new last night. I made two pork tenderloins in the crock pot a couple of days ago and used one for pulled pork with BBQ sauce, and the other for carnitas. Not authentic carnitas, Brian and I experimented. He thought that throwing in Salsa Verde would make the pork taste delicious. I am not a big meat eater, so I did not even taste it. Anessa and Brian thought it was to die for, so this is definitely going to make it into the dinner rotation. All I did was......

Put two frozen pork tenderloins in the crock pot with some onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper, and a onion quartered. Turn the crock pot on low for 8 hours. I usually do this in the morning before I go to work, that way when I get home it is all ready to go. I shred all the pork in the crock pot, and split it into two portions. I put one portion in the fridge {for a dinner another night} and mix the other with the Salsa Verde. We use Fresh and Easy Salsa Verde. I cut up toppings, like cilantro, onion, tomatoes, and lettuce and Tada!!!! Our spin on carnitas, Salsa Verde style. The trick to making then seem authentic is using corn tortillas and frying them just a little. I had a long day and so I needed to throw in a nice glass of white wine. I had a glass of Starborough Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. It was really tasty with the tacos and much needed. Thanks Amber, I think you were the one that mentioned this wine.


Family Memories

This weekend overall was a lot of fun, minus the burn that the whole family received on Saturday from too much softball. Averie and I spent some much needed time with the Keyser Family on Sunday. My Cousin, her husband, and daughter flew in from Oklahoma for a couple of weeks. So Averie and I tagged along with my Folks to go visit them in Paradise. It was so nice to see everyone. Rebecca and Averie got along pretty well. They more or less played next to eachother and not so much with eachother. I guess that is how babies play. I do wish that Tracy and her family lived closer. That way Rebecca and Averie could play together all the time. We will take what we can get in the mean time. I am so grateful that they made the trip to California. Her husband is a great guy, they are both so great with Rebecca. What a blessing.

We had some great food and spent some wonderful time with family. We had so much fun that we did not leave until 6pm. It is so hard to leave when you feel like you just got there, you just reconnected. I am already looking forward to the next visit. It sounds like they try and make the trip to California every summer. So I have something to always look forward to in the summertime.

This trip made me realize how much I miss girltime. I miss hanging out and talking about everything under the sun. I wish I had friends in my area. I know how pathetic that sounds, but it is true. I am in a routine rut, I wake up, work, come home, clean, make dinner, eat, give Averie a bath, bedtime, and then I get a couple of hours to myself and then I go to bed. The weekends don't vary much, except that the cleaning gets replaced with softball. I guess when it really starts to bother me I will do something about it. Until then I will coutinue to love my family and blog.

Averie and Rebecca

Tracy & Rebecca, Me & Averie



Averie is giving Rebecca Kisses



The Sacramento Zoo

My Mother, Averie, and I went to "Dreamnight" at the Sacramento Zoo on Friday. It was a lot of fun. We met some new friends, an had a few firsts. Averie got to see all the animals{most of which were tired from the heat}. A few came out to play, and Averie enjoyed watching them. She was more attentive to the animals that spoke and made sounds. She is only 16 months after all. They also had food and activities for all the kids. Oh.... And one of the best parts. As you walked into the Zoo they had a table full of stuffed animals for all the kids to choose from. Averie selected a cheetah. He is very cute, they all were.

Saturday was dedicated to softball. We spent 9 hours outside in the hot sun. Averie and I stayed pretty shaded the whole time and still came home with a burn. I guess sunscreen does not work in my family. We have to had put on 2 or 3 coats. It might be time to find another brand.

Now...

We are on our way to great aunt Sue and Dennis's house for a family picnic. My Cousin that lives in Oklahoma is down with her husband and little girl. I have not met either of them yet, so this is quite a treat for Averie and I. I really enjoy getting away and spending time with my family. I love softball, and watching Anessa play. It just gets to be to much sometimes. It takes a lot out of a person having to plan for 4 people to be out in the sun for 8-10 hours. I like those days that I can stay home get some much needed cleaning done and spend time with my little girl. It helps to spend the weekend outside when u are not burnt already and properly lathered with SPF 2000. That sun is a killer. Well I have been typing for too long in the car so I will leave u with some zoo pics.

Week in Insta-pics

Here is the week in Instagram Photo's!! The pictures are pretty deceiving. My week was much busier than this.

There is a lot in store for this weekend, including a little baking, and making hummus for the first time. I will let you all know how it turns out. Until then, I am bound for the Sacramento Zoo, "Dreamnight" here we come.

Another First

My plan for today's post was to talk about Averie having corn on the cob for the first time this past weekend. I know for some that is exciting {like me}, but for others, I am sure your are thinking, "why is she dedicating an entire post to her baby eating corn on the cob." Wow... when I write it down it does seem kind of lame. I am a sap and love talking about her. What can I say, everything that she does is exciting to me.

Instead, I am going to talk about all of the new things going on, and a few old. My family has been through a lot in the past two years, from the loss of loved ones, to financial struggles, and physical and mental breakdowns. We have definitely overcome our share of hurdles, and I think it is time for the sun to come out and shine down on us just a little bit. Not a lot, just a little. This year started off really well, Anessa verballed to San Jose State University with a Softball scholarship, We seemed to be getting back on track money wise, and eventhough there were a few health scares, everything turned out to be okay. I was starting to feel like this year was going to be less challenging than last year. Admittedly this year is less of a challenge, but it still came with a few big obstacles.

A very dear friend of my Family passed in April, and her passing came as a big shock to everyone. She appeared to be in good health and she was still so very young. She left behind a lot of friends, and her husband and daughter. When someone passes that you are very close with you tend to re-evaluate your own life. You create a new set of priorities for yourself and your family. Unfortunately it takes something like this to occur for some of us to see, that our focus needs to be adjusted. I want to remember her, by being a better person. It is as simple as that. She was an inspiration to many and I want to honor that. I am sure that in time I will figure out different ways, but for now.....

I want to be more active in my community, while at the same time still being present in my family. So, this year I have volunteered to be the Treasurer on the Board for my oldest daughters High School Softball team. I am also reaching out to other families that have children with Special Needs and making connections. I am trying to change my perspective on life, the idea is that maybe if I am able to make a negative year into a positive one, things will start to re-adjust. This is just a theory, worst case scenario I become involved in my life instead of feeling sorry for it. I understand that this a rambling mess. I just really feel out of place with myself lately.

In better news, Grammy and Averie have been swimming everyday at Wackford Community Center. It is a nice, new facility in Elk Grove with an amazing pool. I am honestly kind of jealous. We are also going to go to the "Dream Night" at the Sacramento Zoo this Friday. Averie has never been to the Zoo so that will be fun. I am excited to see how she reacts to all the animals. The only animal she is ever around is her sister. *laughs* Averie has also discovered that she loves music. Itsy Bitsy Spider is her favorite. She will watch the Sprouts channel only if in the show they are singing. I cannot wait until she is able to sit still long enough to watch plays and go to kids concerts. I have noticed something in my writing lately. For every bad thing that happens, there seems to be a good something right behind it.

Confession time....I have fallen off of the goals ban wagon. I still don't feel organized, I think I need a day in my house to get back on track. Then I need to figure out how to maintain. That is the tricky part. On the food front, I have been eating pretty healthy. Just not as healthy as I could be. You know how that goes. It does not help that I spend the majority of my weekends at a softball field that has a snack bar full of great unhealthy things to eat. Nachos YUM! I have always had a weakness for cheap cheese. The Farmer's Market is today at the Capitol, so I will be grabbing a few fresh fruits and veggies for the remainder of the week.

Thanks for listening everyone, and if you have any advice on how to juggle home life, work life, and social life it is much appreciated. I think that I am just blessed to be busy. I will find my groove eventually. Now something to smile about.