Halloween Party

Our good friends had a Halloween party for all of the little ones last weekend. Here are a few photos from the day! In 2006 about 6 of us girls were all pregnant at the same time! Most of the kids are just a month apart. Ava and her cousin Kendal (in the Snow White costume) are only 4 days apart!

On the left is Paige, Ava, Brayden, Kendal and Reese (who was not happy at the time of the photo).

Up above is Ava and Auntie Colleen, my sister. Colleen is a real life ballerina, so I thought this picture was pretty cute of the both of them.

The next picture is Ava as a little ballerina. She will also be wearing this costume during the day on Friday (Halloween) and trick-or-treating as a Care Bear at night (her and cousin Kendal always dress up in the same costumes every year). Their first Halloween they were little lambs, last year they were ladybugs, and this year they will be going as Care Bears! What are all of your kiddos dressing up as on Halloween?

Have fun and be safe!

7 Random Things About Me

Okay, here are 7 Random things about me. I dare you to list 7 Random things about yourself that most people probably don't know!

I hate talking on the phone. Period. Please don’t hate me for this. It is proven if you look at my husband and I’s cell phone bill (he uses all of our minutes) that I hate to talk on the phone. See previous post. I would much rather text message, email, or chat over facebook. There, I said it. No matter how awful that is.

I love/hate my hair. Usually hate it. It takes forever to blow dry/straighten….and if I don’t, it is really wavey and sometimes frizzy.

I loose my keys ALL of the time. It is a big problem with me. I’ve tried everything, but I loose them about once a week. I am usually running behind because of this. And it doesn't help when your two year old hides them all of the time. Yesterday I found them in the pantry.

I cannot let the little things go, but I hold a lot of stuff in (until it breaks me). This is an awful combination.

I am addicted to Target

When I was like 3 or 4, my parents left me in the car all night on Christmas Eve (at my grandmas house). They didn't realize where I was until it was time to open gifts. Sorry mom, you know I had to post this! Don't get me wrong, they are the best parents in the whole world. I have 32 first cousins, can you blame them?!?

I sing at church, but very quietly. I don't know why. There are a few songs that I can belt out, but I was not blessed with a great voice. I do love to worship, but I usually sing very quietly. I WISH I had been given awesome vocal chords, but the good lord has blessed me in several other ways. Not that he cares what I sound like anyways.

Well, I'm supposed to choose 7 people to tag, but how about this? If you read this, post 7 random facts about yourself and leave me a comment with your URL! And by the way, post the first 7 things that come to mind. Don't think about it and wait two days. Let your inner beauty shine!

5-Spice Turkey Lettuce Wraps

I tried a new dish tonight, and thought I would share it with any of you out there who enjoy the lettuce wraps at PF Changs (No, it's not the official recipe but something similar). A few weeks ago I hired a personal trainer who has been meeting with me once a week (coming to my house!)to show me some new work-outs, and has given me new goals every week regarding my diet. I've been trying really hard to work out/eat well and it's nice having an accountability partner! This week I was trying to eat less sodium and include more veggies. I modified this recipe a bit (I'll try to include the modifications) but it was a big hit with my husband and daughter! I even made extra so that I could freeze a batch for next week sometime. If you need to add carbs to yours, I would suggest using whole wheat tortillas (instead of the lettuce as a wrap) or adding in some brown rice to the mix. Enjoy!

5-Star Spicy Lettuce Wraps

Ingredients

2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 pound lean ground turkey (I used the Jennie-O turkey...Albertsons had it for $2.99/lb!)
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger (I forgot to use this....whoops! It was still good though)
1 large red bell pepper, finely diced (I threw in a few peppers to add more veggies)
1 (8 ounce) can water chestnuts, rinsed and chopped (I added more since we love these)
1/2 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth (I used 1/2 of this and added some water)
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce (if you've never used this, you buy it in the Chinese section. Its yummy...made of soybeans, chiles, garlic and spices!)
1 teaspoon five-spice powder (You buy this in the Chinese section as well)
1/2 teaspoon salt (I did not use this, but you could use the no-sodium salt if you wanted)
2 heads lettuce, leaves separated (Either Boston lettuce or butter leaf lettuce)
1/2 cup chopped fresh herbs (I used chives, cilantro, and basil)
1 large carrot, shredded

Cooking Directions

Heat oil in large nonstick pan over medium-high heat. Add turkey and ginger (which I forgot to add); cook about 7 minutes until the turkey is cooked through. Stir in bell pepper, water chestnuts, broth, hoisin sauce, five-spice powder and salt (which I omitted); cook until heated through, about 2 minutes.

To serve, spoon portions of the turkey mixture into lettuce leaves, top with herbs and carrot and roll into wraps. That's all!

Nutrition Info
Per Serving
Calories: 338 kcal
Carbohydrates: 27 g
Dietary Fiber: 4 g
Fat: 14 g
Protein: 26 g
Sugars: 4 g

Hope you enjoy! Since it was cold out, I boiled some lemon tea to go along with it. Mmmmm...

Home From Afghanistan

Earlier this year my boss (and good friend) Captain Edwards was deployed overseas to Afghanistan. Yesterday he surprised us and showed up to our office! We were all shocked since we did not expect him back until next week. It was a wonderful surprise and we are extremely thankful for everything he did for our country this year. I want to thank everyone who prayed for him during his deployment, and continues to pray for the troops that are still over there. It was so wonderful to see his family back together after such a long separation. Welcome home Tony!

The joy of seeing Tony return home is also accompanied with the pain of remembering a friend to many in the community who lost his life last month. Everyone is doing a wonderful job of keeping his memory alive, and I hope that this comforts his family every day during this difficult time. Please continue to pray for the troops that are still overseas as well. And if you would like the address of where to send a care package, let me know. They really appreciate getting something in the mail, even if it is not much!

Things that annoy me at Costco...

-Everyone thinks that they are in a bigger hurry than you are
-People walk extremely slow and take up a huge amount of space in the middle of the isle (the carts are too big to manever and they really need a fast and slow lane)
-The self check out does not accept cash, and there is no sign telling you this (I had to find out the hard way on Saturday)
-There are no express lines
-The parking lots
-The gas lines
-Forgetting that the employees always need to check your receipt on the way out the door (after Ive placed it in my purse and have my hands full on the way out)
-My daughter wanting to try every (and I mean every) sample they offer (even the ones I know she won’t like)
-People never smile at you
-The one isle I always need to get through is roped off because someone broke something
-You can never spend less than $200 (which is why Ive started to take cash out of my account beforehand)
-I never know where to put the 40 rolls of toilet paper Ive purchased
-Everything has to come in sets of two, at least sets of two, even if you do not need 2 coffins or 2 plasma tv’s

Stuff That Makes My Heart Stop Beating....

There have been a few times in the past 2 1/2 years where my heart has almost stopped beating from being worried. You know that feeling when your stomach clenches up and you feel like time stands still? The first one I had was when I went into labor with Ava. She was almost 4 weeks early, boarder-line preemie, and my labor was an absolute nightmare (maybe if I regain some courage I will post on that sometime!). We had to stay in the hospital for 10 days total after having her because she had to have a bit of extra care after her delivery. I remember having that feeling every day while we were in the hospital. It was not a fun thing to experience with your first child. As if becoming a mother for the first time isn't hard enough!

Well, I had one of those moments yesterday too. It was just a normal Sunday afternoon. Ava had run upstairs to get her 'play' cell phone and purse (because she loves mimicking me) so we could play 'house' (which is where she acts like the mommy and I act like her child). All of the sudden I heard the loudest THUMP in our entryway. My heart stopped beating. Seriously. You see, we have a loft upstairs with all of her toys in it. One of the walls only goes up 1/2 way to the ceiling (so you can look down from it). I thought she had somehow climbed up there and then fallen over. Don't get me wrong, she would have had to of moved a table or one of the love sacks over to the wall, in order to climb over it (which is impossible for someone her size) but my initial reaction was that she had fallen over the ledge. I screamed "AVA!" and ran to the entryway. What I found was my bible laying right there on the floor (was this God's way of telling me something?). It had been sitting on the ledge since we had just returned home from church and she must have pushed it over the edge when she went up there to get her purse. It was the biggest relief I had experienced in a long time. Here is a photo so you can see just how far she would have fallen. I guess now looking back on it, there is no way she could have pushed something over to the wall, but in that moment I couldn't think about anything else!

New Couch

There is nothing better than a nice hand-me-down. I know some people refuse to take hand-me-downs, but I love them! When we bought our first home, we had a few rooms that did not have furniture in them (mainly because we vowed not to go crazy and spend crazy amounts trying to furnish our house), but slowly over the year we've seemed to come accross some great deals searching online and recieving some great hand-me-downs. My aunt and uncle graciously gave us their leather couch for the family room (which was only occupying my piano and some love sacks until now). It really makes the room and our house feel more complete!

Should I Be Worried?

All of these pictures worry me for different reasons. The first one is obvious. My husband and I found a tarantula in our house yesterday. Okay, I'm not sure if it was really a tarantula. It had 8 legs, hair, and was jet black. Does anyone know what kind of spider this is? Anyways, it totally freaked me out. If you know me, you know I'm TERRIFIED of spiders. Thank the Lord that Josh was home when I came upon this little guy (actually quite large guy). Otherwise I would have had to call the exterminator.

The picture of Ava doing her make-up worries me. She is such a girly-girl (which is fun for me) but also frightening at the same time. It seems she is constantly getting into my make-up, high heels, jewelry, and lotions. It can make quite a mess if I don't catch her right away! She is also the sassiest little thing I've ever met. I am in for a wonderful and exciting journey in her teenage/adolescent years. It is sad how fast she is growing up. This picure of her posing in her little mermaid nightie reminded me of how big she's getting. (This was a hand-me-down from my best friend's little girl and as you can see it's been put to good use!)

The last picture worries me because it has been like pulling teeth around our house to get Ava to eat anything these past few weeks (unless it's Pizza). I know that this is very common in toddlers. It's just very frustrating! She makes it seem like torture to finish all of her bites before leaving the dinner table. And now shes lost a bit of weight and her pants don't fit. I wish I had this problem. Any suggestions? I need some!

"Heroes"

If you read this post, (and I know you), please do not talk about the show Heroes in front of me. The new season just started, but my husband and I are still trying to get through the first one on netflix.com. I understand this is alot to ask, but a few major things have been spoiled for me as I listen to you talking about it (you know who you are). I don't want to spoil it anymore than it already is! I guess it's our fault for not getting involved until now though. But the intentional comments have got to stop!

Feeling Anxious

I'm not sure about the rest of you, but I have been feeling a bit anxious with everything going on right now in our economy, with the presidential debates, companies being forced to be bought out, etc... I've listened to experts talk about what is to come. I've tried to take their advise as best as I can. And I'm waiting.....I don't really know what I'm waiting for. It's kinda like the hype that started with the whole Y2K thing (remember that? when it turned midnight on January 1st, 2000 and all of our computers were supposed to crash or something like that!). I don't know what I'm waiting for. I feel like we're prepared, and I have faith that our God will provide. It's hard to feel encouraged right now though. Everyone is so scared. Maybe we have a reason to be, but I do have faith that we will survive. I read a verse today that inspired me. What are all of you doing for encouragement right now?

“[Praise to God for a Living Hope] Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,”- 1 Peter 1:3

Pink Eye

It's going around again. Ava has a bad case of pink eye. Luckily we took her to the doctor in time and it should clear up in a few days (they put her on antibiotics). I absolutely hate seeing my daughter when she doesn't feel good. She has a fever too. Plus, her eye looks like she got into a fight or something. It is swollen, red and itchy. Not fun! I think we will be cuddling alot today and washing our hands every 2 minutes.

On another note, Ava said something last night that was pretty dang cute. She was supposed to be coming with me to my friend Nicole's house so we could watch her 2 kids for a couple of hours. Ava absolutely loves Nicole and her kids. She gets the biggest smile on her face every time I tell her we're going over there. However, after finding out about the pink eye, I had to explain that she would not be able to go over there with me anymore. She got a really pouty look on her face and said, "Okay, maybe next time? I not want my eyeball to touch their eyeball". It was pretty cute. I think she understood that she couldn't go because of how contagious her thing is. Instead of throwing a tantrum, she realized it was in the best interest of everyone. Okay, maybe I'm looking into this way too much. I mean, she's only 2. It was just really cute, so I had to share!