Date Night.. turned feeding frenzy

a great date night... some friends and sushi, turned into consuming way too much RaNdOm food!

round 1, started with sushi, it was DELISH!

Sushi just isn't that filling, so on to Five Guys (best burgers EVER) we headed across the street for round 2.

Here's our friends attempt at a quad burger... he couldn't pass up a dare. 

And round 3 we polished off some Strickland's frozen custard cones. Then stopped at the local mexican watering hole for a beverage before heading home. 
My stomach wasn't sure what I had done to it.. with the jolt of mercury, topped with greasy cow and sugar buzz (all mixed with wine)...  & I still had a great time!!

I have to say that I slept like a baby. One of those really good nights of sleep... and you wake up with imprints all over your face and one eye still sleeps for a little bit longer. It was a nice 20 hours of kid free time :) John and I were almost over due. Although the house was WAY too quiet and I was a little lost when I woke up in the morning... not knowing what to do with myself?!? So, I had free time to pre-blog all this excitement.

Braided Hair

Love, love braided hair! It's cute and I think it looks good on everyone. I did this a couple summers ago a lot, then I forgot about it for a while, but now that my hair is down to my knees.. braiding sections of it takes a lot of the bulk out and tames it. 

First... here are my inspirations:

(pics from google images)

I took a section on each side and braided and wrapped the end with a tiny black rubber band.

i teased the crown of my hair first... Ooophed it up - I'm a major flathead if I don't tease!

Pulled back with a clip OR you can lift up some hair and clip them under it.. so the hair hides the clips (of course you'd have to use a little smaller clip for that)

Eat or Nap?

This is what happens when we skip naps... (usually if they miss a nap.. by 4ish... it's meltdown.. little monsters, chaotic.. BAD BOY city) 

BUT... they will usually go to bed early, at least I can reep that benefit ;) & a woot woot for that!


Not one of our boys has ever fallen asleep at dinner like this!

How annoying are we??? I think I would have slapped us! 

Preston's probably thinking... "shut up people"!

Youtube.. So Sweet!

Originally.. I saw these super cute pictures of these babies in these poses, looking all adorable. 
Here on the team boo blog - which btw this chick is a really funny! 

anyway.. teamboo re-created (above)... her cute baby "Sonny" just like the original baby Mila's pictures.
 And then I came across a youtube of Mila. (where these pics all started)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoQVa86EvPA

This is the sweetest thing I have seen in a long time! The music is perfect.. the pictures of this sleeping baby and her daydreams are so pretty and just... serene. Check it out and Enjoy!

The short video made me very calm...  & HAPPY! 

(perfect timing....as I start to enter winter depression, in this super cold, gross, slushy snow. not sure I will make it another 2 months?!!!)

Big Cousin Adrian

I was going through a bunch of blog posts I had made.. but for some reason never published on here. So here's a cute one from around Christmas time. 

He really is very sweet with babies, very nurturing, gentle and kind!!

Adrian and Cousin Viv and then Uncle Justin

I'm a total amateur photographer, but I think this one turned out nice (even with the old camera)

R & R

Now this is what I'm talkin about.... 

must try to pencil this is somewhere next week ;)

it's been a long.. sorta stressful, last couple weeks.

Ingredients for an oil bath (4 super soft skin):

• 1/2 cup almond oil
• 1/2 cup castor oil
• 1/4 cup of vitamin E oil
• 1 cup sunflower oil
• fragrance oil
• and lots of shaking up - this is enough to last a long time!

Toy Story 3

took the two older boys to see Toy Story 3 on Ice. So glad we didn't take Kellen... as I watched other parents walking up and down the rows with 1 year olds, screaming, trying to entertain them... bet they were first timers.. first time parents that is... not to be making that mistake again ;)

It exceeded my expectations. very good and would do it again! Kids loved it too.

Adrian enjoying & concentrating on the performances and clapping at every thing possible.. it was great!

My fav! The barbie and ken duets.. they played dream weaver, play that funky music... break free and rescue me. We jammed!

Dinner Made Simple

 I've said before.. work smart, not harder 
(motto for 2011 :) 
Another way I've gained more time with my kids and husband...

My Busy Day Gourmet 

You call and order the entrees of your choice and quantities... and they prepare fresh entrees, freeze them  and allllll you have to do is thaw and cook.  It's cheaper than a frozen dinner and equals out to the same price as most foods that I cook in bulk, like lasagna, stuffed shells... etc.

It's the convenience of frozen meals, minus the Billion grams of sodium and who knows what ingredients... and it's all homemade. It's just like you doing it at home yourself, MINUS....

• the extra groceries you have to buy 
• looking up recipes 
• the effort of thinking
• a lot of prep time  
• "what should we eat tonight"???

ALL KIDDING aside.. I have probably saved 8 hrs a week using these entrees 4 or 5 nights a week (when I add it all up.. less shopping, less recipe hunting, less prep time)
All I have to think about is the side dishes, it's been FANTASTIC! no really! 
I wish I had done this a long time ago!

So far we've tried, chicken marsala, veggie lasagna (little bit on the sweet side), spaghetti bake, cranberry sweet & sour meatballs and stuffed broc/cheese tilapia (Normally, John would rather eat cardboard instead of fish... and he ate a whole tilapia fillet!) - they were all very delish! It's not that I hate cooking, but from 4-6 it's chaotic in our house and the last thing I want to do is stand in the kitchen for an hour or more prepping and cooking. So for now.. this is making our life so much easier! 
I'm sure they have these type of places all over.. in every city.

It couldn't get much easier.. each entree comes with directions on how to prepare it and everything needed is all included, even the oil, butter, toppings etc. The meatball meal was the most work I've had to do - rolling the meatballs, but the meat was already mixed, seasoned and had onion added. 

(if there are ingredients you don't like, you just tell them to nix em)

Getting ready to toss some Veggie Lasagna in the oven (it would normally take me about 60-90 minutes to make mine) this took me 2 minutes to heat up the oven and toss it in ;) 

Allayluyah...

Crazy Snow....

It's a blizzard out there, it was snowing snow balls this morning. It's very pretty but... I miss you Florida ;) 

In my opinion, it should stop snowing the day after Christmas and Spring should come immediately....enough said.

Time Management & Organizing

I'm going to start thinking more about the time I DO HAVE rather than the time I DON'T HAVE and wish I had more of 

(like an extra 5 hours in the day ;) 

In 2011, I AM working on, Time Management, Oraganizing.. yada. yada etc. Doing more with my time. 

It's kind of funny to me when people realize I manage a house hold of 5 which includes 3 small children.  I can see the surprise on their face (if they knew me between age 10 and 25) their probably shocked and thinking wow... Christa from back in the day was not the most organized (at all!) and had no time management skills, I was more of a "wing it" type of girl. Example: I bought a time management book back in college and never made time to finish reading it. I was late to everything (that's still true) and I was a cluttered, unorganized mess 90% of the time. I always felt I had to put in 2x the effort than others did... to be timely and organized. My management degree didn't even come close to preparing me for what my future would hold. But I don't think anything could have. I try hard.. and sometimes really extra hard.. and some days I think I'm not doing so hot, but then there are days where I prevail.... and think "I'm doin pretty darn good" and those are great days! I have more of those days then not, so I should be happy about that. I also realize my house will never be as clean as I would like it and it's not going to be as perfect as I'd like it, those are just facts (until we get our cleaning lady that is ;) always a pipe dream! And when I stop blogging about a cleaning lady... that means we got one!

Here's my first organizing of the year. 
(I hired a babysitter for 3 hours so I could clean/oraganize the basement) Think smart.. work smart, not harder. I could have done it in 8 hours while chasing 3 kids in the basement and trying to keep them out of trouble... but I didn't have the time, so a babysitter was the perfect solution - $ well spent!

The basement is getting there, it's a work in progress.

boxes... I have like 100, this pile is just as wide on all sides. 
Never know when a move is around the corner, so I save boxes. I refuse to beg for boxes again at the grocery store ever again!

My laundry room has come a long way! Kids crafts, art stuff, activities, etc... I've redone this a couple times. I need more drawers to jam pack tho, they are sooo full. These cheap plastic drawers are my friend!

This is what I had to deal with in our guest room (this is what happens when I let things go too much - a total mess!). Which around the holidays this room turned into a toy, junk, christmas present room. The random room!! It's now clean.

Arnold Palmer Tea.. Yum

We were all getting sick of the same old.. same old. So now I've been making this Arnold Palmer tea/lemonade. 

It's just 1/2 lemonade and 1/2 iced tea.

(and I use as little sugar as possible in the tea so the kids aren't too spastic - that's the pro to making homemade stuff, controlling it's contents - thinking about the munchkins)

And so cool and refreshing on these 10 degree days we are having!

Kids Artwork Display

I just love decorating the kids play areas with their own artwork - it's so personalized and cute!

more on kids frames

Talk to us K-Dizzle

"Poker Face"  -Kellen

I know he should be learning something with a little more substance.. but we'll get to that :)

With two older brothers, he is trying sooo hard to be a big boy!! 

The boys try to sing the pokerface song.. they love it, the stuttering My, my, my poker face, my, my poker face.. that part. 

Lately he doesn't really walk anywhere, it's this straight legged run of his. I would love to freeze him right now at 18 months old, it might be my favorite age?!?!  at least this week...

Welcome 2011!

Happy New Year!!

Looking forward to 2011 and all that it brings! 

(hopefully a cleaning lady and of course... world peace!)

Most of us who apply to everything on this, can still find things to complain about. We're so lucky and sometimes we don't realize it... so just think about how fortunate you are, be thankful for the loved ones in your life, and smile :)


We are thankful for another year! xoxo