Snow Day!

Yesterday was what I consider an amazing day. My criteria for an amazing day is this...
1. Chores get done 2. I get special one on one time with Lydia 3. I get special one on one time with Grayson 4. All three of us get a good nap 5. I get a nice alone/quiet time 6. I remember to eat 7. There aren't too many screaming fits from Lydia.

I wouldn't think other days aren't great or anything... yesterday just happened to be exceptional!
Plus...WE GOT SNOW!!!!


I've been waiting all winter for this day to come! I didn't want just snow to fall, I needed it to stick... and it did just that. The moment I woke up and saw it everywhere I ran and pulled Lydia out of bed. Everyone was fed, dressed into multiple layers, and then off we went! All the neighbor kids were outside playing in the snow as well. I had a snowball fight with the older kids. (it was pretty one sided since I hid behind Grayson in his stroller and threw all the snowballs I could!) Lydia met a little 3 year old girl, Jasmine, and they showed each other how to eat snow and tried to throw their own snow balls at each other. I'm not going to lie, it was really stinkin' cute!

After about two hours of fun I dragged Lydia inside. She was SO upset and begged me to 'please momma I go outside?! OUTSIDE?!'.  How could I deny her that? Who knows how long the snow would be there. We had a quick snack and then got dressed into new warm clothes and off we went again! I took her around the block and we met some more kids playing outside. Two boys were trying to make the biggest snowball they could. Lydia was quite impressed! By the time we made it back to our side of the block Lydia was ready to go inside. Her cheeks were rosy, her nose was bright pink, and her eyes were starting to look pretty tired. She REALLY didn't want me to take her out of her snow clothes. I'm sure it's because she knew that meant not going back outside, but she changed her mind when I offered for her to watch a movie. I made a huge breakfast of sausage, scrambled eggs, and hash browns. We ate, I fed Grayson, and we all had a long nap! The kids slept almost 3 hours! That gave me time not only to clean up and nap, but also to have some quiet time to myself.

What a blessing of a day. I couldn't believe how beautiful it was and how much fun we had! I even started a new sewing project to share on here :)
I'll be posting a fun tutorial up as soon as I finish it. I don't know how long that will take, but I'm still pretty excited about it!

Here's some of the photos from our day!

       

A chilly day calls for Fajita Soup!

Today was incredibly beautiful outside! In my opinion, the perfect mix of warm and cold. We took advantage of it since it also was Jacob's kind-of-day-off (on call) and headed to the park in Dallas. The sun was out nice and bright, there were those fluffy cotton-candy-like clouds speckled across the blue sky, and it was still chilly and wet enough for Lydia and I to wear our cute new rain boots. I wore my favorite scarf!
I finally brought my Nikon out to take some good photos. I don't know why.. but I've been holding onto these old photos I took on my camera for almost 2 years now so I haven't been able to use it. Every SD card I have is currently full and I couldn't bare deleting them. If I had a computer or external hard drive to load them onto, I wouldn't be so worried, but I don't.
Jacob talked me into deleting some that weren't needed anymore and so I got some pretty cute photos! Ignore the fingerprints on my lens (if you're someone that could tell).... Lydia got to it.

I can't believe how fast she's grown! I feel like she's grown from a toddler to a girl in only a month. She's so fun and full of adventure. She's been talking in sentences lately saying things like 'Mama I love you', 'You sit with me?', 'I do it!', 'I want it please', 'I go with you bye bye?' 'Just a minute brother!'. It's crazy how fast she's learning new things! I keep looking back at photos of her from when she was an infant. I know I treasured my moments with her, but seeing how fast this is all going by is making me never want to put Grayson down for even a second!... as if maybe it'll keep him younger longer?

This is me trying to take a photo of us while on the teeter totter. It's not easy keeping her on while floating in the air and holding an extremely bulky camera in the other hand! I would have taken a picture of my boys on the other side, but that would have been far too tricky to risk!

I love our new boots! Thanks to Nana and Popsky for our 'Valentines day' gifts :)

Lydia informed me that there were fishies in this little puddle. Then she went ahead and stomped in it as fast as she could haha. crazzzy girl.

I love Gray's little face. He's such a handsome little guy! My friend Christina made him this little hat. I love the way it points at the top of his round little head. It's starting to get too small and I may just have to order another one from her soon! Lydia really liked this bridge. Specially when daddy showed her how to drop sticks and things through the cracks to see them splash into the water below :).

The merry go round wasn't much of a hit. She hates feeling out of control... the same reason she'll never push the button on her little battery operated 4wheeler to make it go, haha. She liked the thrill of it for a moment, but got off as fast as she could!

Daddy showed her how to throw rocks in the creek like we do at Nana and Popsky's house. She could've stayed there all day long. 

And here's my two handsome guys. I truly have an amazing husband. I can't believe I can be so blessed with such an amazing little family! Thank you Lord for the abundant blessing in my life. I deserve none of it, yet you bless me still!

After we froze our little tails outside, we headed to H2O. It's a second hand store kind of like goodwill. I gave Lydia a dollar in her purse and she was SO excited. She picked out a baby rattle shaped like a kitten. I bet Grayson will like it too when he's big enough. I found some cute vintage looking swatches of fabric and a cute little milk glass dish. I'm excited to wash them up and sew something fun with the fabric! Summer is coming soon and I have big plans to make some cute summer dresses for Lydia.

We all took naps when we got back, Jacob had to go off to work, and then Lydia and I watched A Bug's Life. Not too exciting, but I enjoyed snuggling both of my babies at the same time. Once Jacob returned, I made Fajita soup. YUM!

Fajita Soup:

Ingredients: 1lb boneless/skinless chicken, packet of fajita seasoning, 1 green bell pepper sliced, 1 red bell pepper sliced, 1 onion sliced, 1 can each of pinto beans, black beans, whole kernel corn, and fire roasted diced tomatoes, a spoon full of minced garlic

Cut up chicken and brown in a little bit of olive oil and the garlic. Add a packet of fajita seasoning, green and red bell pepper, and onions. Cover and cook on low for 10 min stirring whenever you feel like it. Cook until your peppers get a little soft. Add 2 cans of chicken broth (I used chicken bullion and water), 1 can black beans drained, 1 can corn drained, 1 can pinto beans drained, 1 can fire roasted tomatoes undrained, and bring to a boil on high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer for about a half hour.

If you have extra rice or jalapeños... they're also good to cook in the soup. Top with sour cream, cheese (jack would be good!), hot sauce, avocado, or tortilla chips.

This soup would be great to make with fajita leftovers or even just taco leftovers.

Anyway... it's delicious. Make it, eat it, and love it as much as we did :)

A day well spent! :D

The Bug

I feel like we've all been taking turns being sick starting with Lydia... and we're back to the beginning again.
So I've been trying to think of creative ways to take care of my girl and have fun at the same time since we're stuck in the house anyway.
Her fever got to about 103.5 before the motrin kicked in and she wasn't wanting to drink any fluids... So we made pedialyte popsicles together! She LOVED them.

I know you can buy them, but where's the fun in that?

Back in December Joann's had these little bird houses and paints for $1/each. I thought it just might be the best activity for a bored sick girl so I finally brought it out.
She had so much fun that she didn't want to stop painting! The activity lasted about an hour and it was fun to paint with her.

Thank you Lysa for the cute little smock! It kept her pretty clean and she liked it so much that she didn't want me to take it off!

I'm excited for this summer and hope that we can paint together even more! 

Here she is carrying around her little birdhouse... She's so proud of it! She had to show Nana and Popsky on skype over and over again. She won't let me hang it up outside yet! 

Despite the grouchiness, constant fits, and everything else that comes with a sick two year old...

she's still pretty sweet!

Now lets just hope Gray doesn't catch it!

Sunning!

So I've been reading about 'sunning' diapers and other stained items of clothing. I didn't absolutely believe that it worked work very well, so I never tried it before now. Grayson made some pretty bad stains on one of my favorite outfits for him a few days ago. I put it in the wash immediately. Even after oxi clean and detergent, the stain remained. Sad day. So instead of just throwing it out... I got it wet and I 'sunned' it by just laying it outside where the sun would hit it! Check out the results

Start of Day 1

End of Day 1

Start of Day 2 (I put the onesie inside out)

Almost done with Day 2...

I'm already VERY happy with the results! I plan on setting up my own little makeshift clothes line for this summer :)

The First Post...

So I'm terrified of 'The First Post'... as if it's supposed to be monumental? I have been dragging my feet on creating this blog in the first place for over a year so I'm not really sure why it matters. It's not that I'm not excited or happy about starting a blog, it's that I'm nervous about what it entails. How much should I post and how often? Will I be able to put the tutorials in that my friends have asked for? Will I remember to photograph my trials and errors in my every day attempts at new crafts and things so that I can post them? Will I simply forget about this blog completely and never share anything?
Here I am, though. The first post has began and what will this blog be about you ask?
I hope to post tutorials for items that I've discovered how to make so that you can make them as well. I'd like to write about my life as a wife and mother and the joys that come along the way. If there is an awesome recipe I've found or concocted myself, then I'd like to share it. I often learn of some wonderful deal or crazy couponing scheme and hope that I can show you how to go about figuring out how to save a little $$ as well.
So there will pretty much be a huge mishmash of my life plastered on here for all of you to see.
I hope you enjoy 'A Balintsed Life' however random it may be :)