FIRST GRADE!

Yes, my BABY started 1st Grade this morning. She has been so excited to start school. She was excited to take her new backpack, stand in line and especially to see the inside of the classroom. I think she is going to have a WONDERFUL year! Gosh, how I LOVE this girl. And how sweet is that picture of her giving Brother a good bye hug. :)

Last Hurrah!

Friday morning after meeting Bella's teacher, we left for Palm Desert for our last Summer hurrah. We stayed at Rancho Las Palmas and it is beautiful! They had a very fun lazy river that we spent most of our time floating around in and a water park right in the middle of that lazy river. Really we just relaxed, ate and enjoyed the heat (it was HOT!). We had to come back early on Sunday for girl scouts, but the short trip and family time was definitely worth it...

Where to Begin?!

I want to start by letting everyone know that soccer is going really well now. Isabella actually enjoys going, is getting better, wants to practice and even (dare I say) run! She comes off that practice field sweaty and exhausted. Last week after practice her coach sat down with her and told her that she was the hardest working girl out there that day and that he was so proud of her for sacrificing her body, falling down and getting right back up to play. I was proud of her too!

Miss Kendal dropped off a birthday present on our doorstep for Isabella last week. She was jumping u and down and so excited to find a "paint your dream horse". She begged and begged and had that horse done so fast. She did a paint with kind of a marble black/brown, and white spots. It is adorable and she shows everyone! I guess I should have taken a picture of the finished product.

This weekend we went off to Palm Desert (pictures in next post) and had a blast. Before we left on Friday, Isabella got to meet her Teacher, Mrs. Reynolds (purple shirt on right corner). Mrs.Reynolds was wearing pink, so what more could a girl want! Lol.  We also made some of Bella's friends these cute little "Back To School Survival Kits" and had fun dropping them on doorsteps. We had our Back 2 School Feast of Spaghetti last night. The Back 2 School Fairy came, but my little girl was too smart and knew it was me. "Is it YOU, Mom?!" I thought that was cute! Vincent got a Leap Frog learning video since he doesn't like to be left out! And before bed we read, "The Night Before First Grade"!

 And Finally, yesterday afternoon, we started Girl Scouts! Daisy Troop # 9004 :) Isabella met some great new friends and we look forward to the months ahead, earning petals and patches!

SUPER FUN STUFF !!

Isabella's last week of Summer and Daddy is on Vacation! We pulled out the fun jar and Bella picked out her top things that she would want to do! Surprisingly we completed most of them even though we didn't know it: Take Grandma to lunch, Go to Chick-fil-a, go swimming at Gram and Popi's, etc.

Sunday night we had a 'DANCE PARTY' in the living room with the 4 of us. Bet you wish you could see pictures of that (LOL!) but I didn't take any! We rocked out to Isabella's CD player! On Monday morning both Chris and I woke up to Toast on our nightstands from Miss Isabella. She is such a big girl waking up on her own and making us breakfast! We then surprised the kids and took them to see Smurfs. We went over to the Calagnas' for dinner afterwards!

Tuesday we stayed home because Isabella had soccer practice, but she made muffins all by herself (which was something she wanted to do). And despite Daddy and I feeling sick, he took her to practice because she was so excited to have him take her rather than Mommy.
Today we had reservations at American Girl Cafe for lunch. Even Daddy and Vin joined us...it was so special to have them there. Isn't it adorable that we brought Bella's boy doll for Vincent! Isabella got her doll's ears pierced and now they really are twins. She also got a doll size travel suitcase (you know, for the doll's trip around the World!)
As we were leaving the American Girl store, the most exciting thing happened. Isabella said, "MOM! That looks like the character CiCi!" Of course I knew who that was from Shake It Up! and it definitely was her. So I held the door open for her and she stopped and said Hi to Isabella and then took her picture with her!! She was so sweet and adorable. Come to find out, she is also Bella in real life! And she probably thought I was actually calling her name but hey...It made my Daughter's summer and mine too!

How exciting this week has been. Now if Daddy and I could just get well!

Project Central!

Good Morning! I guess I have been feeling rather crafty lately and with that, created two new projects. If you aren't on Pinterest, you should be! It is a perfect place to get craft ideas and organize all of those ideas into neat little sections so you can go back and quickly check on an idea. The first thing I wanted to do was create a weight loss/diet journal. I was getting too down on myself and I needed something to keep track and motivate myself. Since I actually love to write things down and visualize them, when I saw this example I knew it was perfect:

So I set off making my own. With a 40 cent Composition notebook and magazines I already had, this is what I came up with. My favorite: "When I get sad, I stop being sad and be AWESOME instead!" Love it. I have a graph inside to track my progress and each week I will add a new tab to the top (like she did above).


Second, I found this REALLY cute greeting card organizer. It is made out of 6x9 envelopes and scrapbook paper. You can see the rest HERE.

Here is my version. Mine is a little simpler because I did not do the inking around all the edges or use as much ribbon. But, I think it turned out cute and I loved using scrapbook paper relating to that month! I can now go shopping at the beginning of the year and buy cards for months (maybe even the year) out and keep them nicely organized! I plan on not just using this for Birthdays, but Anniversaries/Special Occasions too.

And Finally...this is the next project I am working on. How ME is this?! A Christmas organizer. LOVE IT!!

Home Binder

I don't think I have shared this before. Months ago I created a Home Binder (there are so many blogs out there encouraging to do so). It has helped so much. I keep our calendar hanging on the side of the fridge, but this also has a calendar (schedule) section, cooking (plan my weekly and monthly meal schedule - and yes I am flexible enough for it to change!!), cleaning checklists, school and contacts (special emergency numbers and babysitter information). I have recently added a section for documents (where I keep our birth and marriage certificates), health (immunization records), activities (such as Moms club calendar, soccer and MyGym), diet and church. Behind that binder is my coupon binder. I have high hopes of doing really well saving money with coupons, but I haven't got into the swing just yet.

I would also like to do a sheet on both Isabella and Vincent (Holly and I have talked about this before)where you keep anything that would be helpful should they (God forbid) get kidnapped.

So I hope this helps some of you get started on a family binder. You can do it :)

Organizing & Purging- Shocker!

This weekend I cleaned and organized. No matter how organized I keep things, there are always several bags going to the Salvation Army. It feels so good to start a new school year organized ... We went through Isabella's room and closet and all her school work from last year, through the downstairs closet (which has a few items waiting to give to Aunt Amy), the garage and through my closet and drawers. I even made labels for my boxes in the garage (something I have been meaning to do for a long time). The downstairs closet is going to be my sewing space. I am going to get a table on wheels so when I have a project I can just wheel the table out. I have a couple more spaces to contend with (the pile of cords and then my picture/document cabinets). But I am on a roll... Unfortunately I broke the TV in our room (long story). Put that on the list!

Just Love This Post!

I just loved this post I came across on a blog called


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It reminds me of my Mom whom I always remember brushing her hair and putting on lipstick before my Dad would get home. And I certainly love the prayer at the bottom. I am going to print it and keep it handy!....


This is a post I wrote well over a year ago, right after my youngest was born. With having a new baby and still recovering from a complicated c-section and the additional problems I had, it was very difficult to get back into my old routine. That means that on some days I wouldn’t even realize how fast time went by. That is why I wrote this post late one night while up with the little one. I thought maybe other moms had gone through this and need a quick solution.

I know that one too many times my husband would come home to find me in complete disarray. A newborn will do that to you. I’d have my hair bobby pinned to my head to keep it out of my eyes, no make-up – well unless you count the juice mustache, and an ensemble of clothes that don’t match because I don’t clean the house and paint furniture in “good” clothes for fear that I will mess them up. So, after a stark realization that I could fix this problem with just 10 minutes a day, I took action. Here is what I started to do on days like that:

1. Have the hubby call when he is about to leave the office/job. This gives me about 20-30 minutes to call a “ten minute tidy” for the kids to clean up the house and I have time to wrap up whatever I am doing so I can get to my 10 minute makeover! )

2. Change clothes. A nice t-shirt and a pair of jeans are better than a paint stained t-shirt and jogging pants any day.

3. Put on a dab of perfume. Wake up your senses and his!

4. Brush your teeth. You will be surprised at how much better you will feel. And no, I don’t go all day without brushing my teeth. I mean brush them again.

5. Put your face on. My day to day make-up routine consists of a tinted moisturizer, eyeliner, eyelash curler, blush to go on the cheeks and eyelids, and lip gloss. That’s it. Less than a minute and I’m done. If you aren’t a make-up kind of gal then just put on some chap stick and rub your cheeks a bit to make them rosey. Something that simple makes a huge difference.

6. Fix your hair. Just brush it, flip it over and shake to add body, and spray where needed. If your hair tends to get oily throughout the day (I know pregnancy tends to do that to me) then try adding a bit if baby powder to your brush prior to brushing (focusing on the roots) and that will remove some of the oil. If you have darker hair then spray the roots with hairspray and then wipe with a dry towel. The alcohol in the spray will absorb the oils.

7. Say a quick prayer. Here is an example of the prayer I began to pray before my husband gets home:

Father, I thank you for this wonderful day, the man of God that you have given me, and for the joyous evening we are about to have. I ask for the safe return of my husband and I ask that you would help him to leave at the front door any thoughts or moods that are not of you and that are not beneficial to our family and our home. I pray that when he opens the door to our home and sees me standing their that he will rejoice in the wife of his youth and that he will show me the same kind of love that Christ showed the church. I pray that I will be the crown of my husband and love and respect him as I should. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

There you have it. My 10 minute, 7 step routine to being the beauty that he already knows you are inside. What are some of your tips? I’d love to hear them!

"Worst Ever"

On the drive home Isabella said, "That felt like the worst first practice ever!". Bless her heart...I cried. Then I got myself together and told her I was so proud of her for trying a new sport she has never played a single time. I encouraged her by talking about how fast and much she ran!

She was only one of two that hadn't played soccer before. While she gets the general concept, she doesn't have a skill set yet. And they didn't take too much time working on those skills. They ran SO MUCH up hills and down, back and forth that she was 'breathing crazy' (her words). She fell down A LOT (enough where she told me her knees hurt - I didn't even think to buy shin guards), and she cried because the girls were 'getting on her' about using her hands. She wouldn't even talk to Grammy and Pop about it when they called to ask. BUT ... I know my little girl will be okay. She is brave and she will get her booty out there and practice on Thursday. She will make friends and she will have a good time...Eventually!

Mommy loves you Miss Isabella Rose....I know this will make you a stronger individual!

SEW AWESOME!

I absolutely MUST HAVE this space! Now that I have my own sewing machine (Thanks Grammy Alice), I really need this space. It is just in a small area...I must have somewhere in this house I can do this!!! To read the article click here.

A little bit CRAFTY!

I saw these really cute clipboards on Pinterest that hold chore charts (thanks Brenna!). I thought what a perfect idea for the sides of the art string on the kids table. Then I started searching on Etsy to buy my 2 kids one. They were anywhere from $16-30 a piece and I thought...why don't I just make them? I found some cute paper in my closet, already had the Mod Podge and bought a 2 pack of clipboards from Staples and some ribbon from Michaels. I am not 100% happy with the way they turned out and I spent a little more than I thought (probably about $16...the cost of one), but I think they are cute! Isabella's holds her chore chart and an envelope on the back for an allowance. Vincent's will probably hold his potty chart as soon as I make it and he also has an envelope on the back. I am so looking forward to getting some new school work to put up on the clips in a few weeks. And I love this little subway art print I copied from my friend Brenna too!

10 Things to Smile about - July

Where in the world did July go??? Only one more month of summer before Isabella heads back to school. So here are 10 things that made us happy in July...

1. Vacation Bible School
2. Isabella turning SIX
3. Catching up on all my digital photo books!
4. Chris' birthday and dinner at Flemmings! YUM!
5. Texas and the 4th of July
6. Medicine - and getting better from strep throat
7. No exercise for the whole month. Okay, so this shouldn't make me happy and actually I feel rather depressed about it.
8. Reading "The Day I died" and "I will carry you"
9. Jaxson's beach part
10. OC Fair

We are looking forward to making the best of this month before school starts! Lots of "Fun Jar"activities left.

Cookin' Mama!

First things first: My poor Husband was sick all weekend with a fever, the flu and possibly strep although he says he is feeling a little better.He took yesterday off work. Now, Vin has a fever and says his throat hurts and Belle has been saying her throat hurts. OH MAN!

On a lighter note: I have never felt more domestic than last night. Went to the grocery store yesterday and picked up boneless skinless chicken breast for $1.99/lb. That is considered a loss leader, so I bought quite a bit! I got ingredients to make several recipes out of the cookbook above. It is really something you can do with any recipe or cook with friends and split the cost to make it less expensive. I love how they give you tips on how to freeze things. So I put on my cute apron and got to work. What a mess it was and I still have to mop the kitchen floor today, but I must say I had fun!!

This is what I ended up with:

24 muffins (poppy seed and blueberry) for breakfasts
Homemade spaghetti sauce (own recipe) - x enough for 3 dinners
Oriental Chicken Strips - x 2
Shredded Salsa Beef - x 2
Chicken cilantro enchiladas - last nights dinner x 2 in the freezer
Cheesy chicken bundles - x 3
4 more plain frozen chicken breasts (huge)

Sounds pretty good, huh? The oriental chicken strips I was thinking on skewers over rice one night and in stir fry veggies the other. The salsa beef in burritos or on top of mexican rice. The cheesy chicken bundles will be good with potatoes and veggies or salad. Lots of options really! I am looking forward to trying more recipes from this book and maybe even getting the second book....

Now I am off to clean my house...We were planning on going to the library today but with Vin sick, we are now going to "play" library and check out books for Bella's room, scan them and read, etc.

Love to all! Have a great week :)