Botanic Gardens

Random Abram picts

(this is how he feels about grass)

p.s. if you want to drool over some adorable sweets check out http://www.bakerella.com/ Her work is AMAZING. I personally am grossed out by many of the ingredients (trans fat-laden melting chocolates and cake mix, tons and tons of food dye, etc. ) but if she dropped some off on my door step you can be sure Id try them!!! I actually really do want to try my hand and making them. I LOVE the easter egg ones!!!! Too cute! My mom and I looked at her site over the phone once and had a ton of fun - get back to thanksgiving and see her turkey pops, those are my fav!

pictures from the FW Botannical Gardens coming soon!

coupons and groceries

I know Alli's done the "Grocery Game" before - anyone else?

Basically they match up all the avaiable coupons to the sales at stores in your area for you, so all you have to do is go save money! Now most of the food we dont/cant eat (captain crunch, such-and-such bars, fruit snacks, etc.) but there ARE still deals to be had and its great for when I make meals for people who dont have food allergies, for when we have people over, etc.

Walgreens especially has some awesome deals (like generic claritan is free this week!). Its $1 to try it for 4 weeks and you can see all the lists for all the stores. Walmart will price-match so they give you a list of the lowest items that you can take with you to WM to shop with coupons as well. Pretty neat. I have a friend who is a coupon expert and has been doing it for years and she's coming Fri to edamucate me ;)

www.GroceryGame.com (I use my chewymama"at"gmail.com if you want to refer me)

Also at www.pgeverydaysolutions.com you can choose your stores and they will upload the coupons available right to your card! I chose Kroger since they are the closest to us. Pretty cool! (and free)

Also check out
www.AttentionTargetShoppers.blogspot.com
and
www.MomsByHeart.net


We need to find a way to cut back and food is the only thing left. So Im going to do my best to research this and drastically cut back our food budget while still eating healthy! Id also like to get a pile going to give away to people in need in our city - drop off a box of shampoo, food, etc. at random houses. Its an affordable way to help the poor when you are struggling yourself!

Let me know if you get into it....

Rachel

Picture Time!

The morning we started! Isnt Calebs outfit stylin'?! Jaynas hair was special too. They are eating organic cheerios, the breakfast of champions (and of the Loth kids on mornings like this!) Goodbye forever nasty, peeling, dirty floor!

Construction Supervisor

This is what was done after the first day (and part of the hallway). Isnt it perrrrty?!

(after we grouted the first section)

The finished product (this part is under the stove now!)

I will have final Before and After pictures once we get the tile all cleaned up! We got one last small box of grout today and once we do the pantry and the hallway closet we are DONE! :) i L-O-V-E it!!!!! its so much cleaner, and lighter and prettier!

Crazy Clouds

The other day these rather unusal clouds rolled over us. We were expecting storms so to look out and see these was really disturbing. Ive never seen clouds like this! They passed over with no rain or thunder or anything ....it was very weird! Of course I had to grab my camera..

Tile. Tile. Tile

Its 1am and we just finished grouting....... except we ran out,...... with just a tiny bit left to do (aaaaah!) Its just my tiny pantry in the kitchen, and the hall closet. All the main living area is D-O-N-E. woohoo! :)

brrrrr

my poor son is wearing a pink sock.

dont tell anyone.

:)

the weather changed on us and its suddenly VERY cold and VERY windy. We didnt have the heater on and we woke up and it was 64 inside! the kids were freezing!!! (we have a standing heater in our room so I didnt know). I had to bundle up everyone and I couldnt find socks for Abram so I had to use some of Jaynas old ones.........he's man enough though.

:)

Still sick. talked to our friend whose a Dr and he doesnt think we need antibiotics so we are skipping church/cell AGAIN (3rd wk in a row) :( hopefully in a few days we are better! my cough is less frequent but deep and painful, and our throats still hurt.

But I finished laying the tile!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! woohoo!!!!!!!!!!!! We need to clean and prep and then tomorrow we grout. A little more clean up Mon and we are done! cant wait to move this computer back to the kitchen so I can share pictures.

My sweet friend Andas bringing us her famous, and delicious, chicken tortilla soup for dinner. I feel so loved :) Im so thankful for friends and the community of the church!

The Tile Saga continues

I finally got all the side pieces cut! phew!!! Im so happy to be done with that! The wet saw is REALLY wet - thankfully there are no pictures of me out there with my shower cap (finally figured that one out today, tile paste is nasty in the hair!), hooded poncho, jeans rolled up and sunglasses on to try and stay dry. I still got wet.

Tonight Ill finish mortering down the rest of the hallway and then all we have to do is grout!!! We'll do that Sun afternoon/evening. If you have nothing to do, feel free to stop by and help :) Mon afternoon we can clean it all up and hopefully move things back in! cant wait!!!!

other updates:

Jayna is now talking in sentences. She will continue doing speech therapy until she's three (hey, its free!) but she is doing GREAT!

Abrams pulling up on everything he can. He is all boy too - just kind of reaches to the side for the floor until he falls and rolls. Jayna would have never done that, boys just dont have the same built-in self-preservation that girls do (some of them anyways!)

He babbles "mamamamama". I need to weight him...I know he's grown.

I am madly in love with my Roomba. It was definitely worth every penny my mom spent LOL. Seriously though, I turn it on while Im showering or after they go to bed and voila! the floor is clean! Its nifty. When JJs therapist got here yesterday she made sure to show her the "robot" :)

Got our taxes done! We got a nice refund but they kept the $1200 still pending from our 06 audit. boo. They are still reviewing our appeal, so we hope we get most of that back! We plan to get new side fencing/gates (where it faces the street) since ours is very low and rotting away and new garage doors then put the rest towards bills.

Cant put up photos unti we get the printer hooked up (it takes my SD card). But Im taking lots!

adios amigos! (sorry, delirious from the slave labor going on over here and coughing my lungs up all night long)

:)

Im alive!!!!

we are still working hard on the tile! we just connected our computer for the first time since thursday. I was having withdrawls and starting to shake and froth at the mouth so Steve had mercy and set it up in the living room :)

The tile in the kitchen is 98% laid down and 50% grouted. I have some more cuts to work on tomorrow around the pantry. The hallway is about 75% laid down. i still have some cuts to do there too, the complicated ones, around the doors.

Our friends were here 10hrs Friday and then he came back again Sunday to help. Steve and I have put in hours and hours each day, whenever we can. Today another friend stopped to help cut which was a blessing.

And today we finally got to put the stove and fridge back in! woohoo!!! Im so sick of sandwhiches :) Im ready to cook some real dinner!!! I did go to a neighbors and make some whole wheat pasta one night and that was dinner for two nights (spaghetti for the kids and pasta salad with tomatoes, green onions, chicken and feta for us!) Also moving them out of this front room means much more space - it was getting smaller and smaller by the hour with all of us hanging out in one corner where there isnt furniture!

Picts coming eventually.......it looks SO much better, so much bigger and lighter!

Abram Crawling II

(on our HIDEOUS floor that will very soon be covered in nice, pretty, clean tile! woohoo!)

Set II

(Set I is below)

I took my time and did a real edit on the first set - these I just quickly edited in Picasa. But Im trying to be on the computer less so here ya go....

Photo shoot with JJ today

Ive seen the "funky tutu" look from several photographers and was inspired. I showed Jayna the clothes (accessorized by Nana) and she actually ASKED me to take her picture (that never happens!!!). So we had fun outside doing a mini-session. Im really happy with how these came out! Typically you dont want to shoot when the light is so bright but in some of the pictures I like the effect it gave.

On the move....

Abram is crawling everywhere now!!! He's getting faster and more confident each day. I still cant believe he's so mobile, so young! he can crawl, sit up, then go back to crawling. The other kids didnt do that until at least 2 months from now (I keep a journal with all their milestones together). So exciting!

The best part?

Now when Im on the computer I dont have to type with him in my arms....he's sitting on the floor next to me, playing happily! Hooray!

My poor sick boy :(

Noah has an ear infection and pink eye. The poor kid was a complete mess yesterday. It makes me laugh only because he is so dramatic! He was holding his eyes screaming "my eyes! my eyes!" (if you know Noah that will make you laugh too!)



He is doing a little better today - thank you Jesus! His eyes still look back and they hurt but he has a little more energy. He got really , really sick of his room because he was in there all day yesterday. i went in to encourage him today and took some pictures of his pathetic-ness.

He is out now, making snowflakes (it is 30-something degrees outside!)







....oh sweet boy, he just coughed and said his head and his throat hurt really bad. i could tell that they do :( poor thing!

Agave and Honey Oatmeal Cookies

The original recipe is HERE. But here is how I made them. They were GOOD. Much better than no-sugar, whole wheat cookies Ive made before. Made 21 cookies for me

1 cup whole wheat white flour (*)

1/4 tsp EACH baking soda and baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon (or more!)

1 lightly beaten egg (next time Ill use two)

8 TB agave/honey. I used 7 agave and 1 honey.

4 TB oil. I used coconut oil.

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 cup oats

1/2 cup chopped cashews (optional)

handful craisins (optional)

Preheat to 375 degrees.

Mix dry ingredients. Add egg, oil, honey and agave. Stir until blended. Stir in oats and nuts.

Use TB measure to measure out 12 cookies per cookie sheet. Top with 3-4 craisins.

Bake 10-11 mins. Allow to cool completely.

Enjoy! (horrible picture, sorry!)

*Whole Wheat White is a whole wheat its just made from a hard WHITE berry instead of a hard RED berry. the Hard white berries are milder in taste. King Arthur brand is what i use,. you can find it at most stores

A Rainy Week

I love the rain, but I dont like being stuck in the house all week with 4 restless children (including one whose teeth still hurt!!!). Looks like the photoshoot for Friday will have to be rescheduled too, we've gone from highs in the 80s and humid to highs in the 30s and 40s and raining!!! brrrrr!

Here are some more. I cant help it :)

Thats probably all Ill share. I need to get off this computer and do some dishes and take a shower! :) Plus I have a lot of editing to do still.........

A few more.....

These pictures were so fun to take! I go back Friday morning to photograph her son and the 3 of them together. Then Dad and Grandma are coming March 20th to install the new tile in the kitchen!!! Is that a fantabulous trade or what?!?! Made Steves day :) He was dreading figuring it out all one his own, so he's excited to have someone who knows what they are doing help him learn :)

Sneak Peek

I had a wonderful photo shoot this morning with Baby Q and his sister E. They were awesome and happy and the weather was overcast - perfect for an outside session.

Here are three of my favorites .... I have a lot that passed my first inspection, so I have a lot of work ahead of me! Its going to be fun! :)

Blogger books

HERE is the link to the site that allows you to make a professionally printed book from your blog. I got it to do one for just 2008 and get this......it was 404 pages!!! LOL LOL LOL! Um.....yeah right! The limit is 350 anyways.

and it was $150.

so i obviously need to cut out some things. im excited at the idea of having a whole year of blogs in one place though! im so horrible at writing down things they do/say, that it will be a treasure of mine!

speaking of "treasure"....is Jesus your treasure? REALLY is He? Not just "are you are Christian" - but is he your *treasure*??? Living here in the bible-belt, most people will say they are a "christian". They may go to church every Sunday, sing hymns/songs, etc. But they dont really have JESUS in their lives. They arent living everyday for Him, living by the Spirit, walking closely with Him. What you end up with is a lot of people living "good" lives on the outside who are empty inside, who dont have true joy and true hope. Walking with the Lord is so exciting!!!! Its hard a lot of the time, its challenging, but its also passionate and loving ... and thrilling!

I want Jesus to be my treasure. He's certainly the most precious thing in my life. But I dont just want Him in my life, I want Him to BE my life. This isnt something we can acheive. Grace is a gift from God - our job is to have faith and keep turning towards Him with EVERY part of our lives. Faith not just in what we can see and plan and kind of chat with God about. But faith in what we CANT see, faith to follow where He leads even if it makes no sense to us at all!

getting long-winded. sorry. there is just so much on my heart right now....... Im searching for more of Him and less of myself. And that is GOOD!

on this topic. One of my fav songs right now: You are Everything
Take a few mins and pray this song right now !!!! May He be your Treasure! Amen!

Love you Nana

My mom bought JJ this adorable 3T outfit that came with this little hat (does this style have a name?). She wanted nothing to do with it when she first got it. But we found it in her room the other day - since Caleb pulled everything out of her closet (grrrr!!!!!) - and she fell in love with it! She wears it ALL the time now.


Cool story about the shirt - My mom was at a craft fair in northern California where she lives. The lady that makes these shirts has you pick out the design you want and then you add your own text. Then you leave for about an hour while she custom makes it for you. When my mom ordered she noticed the lady after her because she had a hat on and big, dark glasses. She wondered why this lady was all dressed up at a craft fair. When she came to pick up the shirt the vendor told her that the lady after her had ordered the same exact design, saying "I want the same one that lady just ordered" ......and it was Kristi Yamaguchi! (you know, famous ice skater) She lives in the next city over from where I grew up :) My mom thought was she was pretty cool after that!

Saturday 3/7/09

This is my 308th post. wow! There is one program that will make a book out of your blog and Ive always wanted to do that. But ive had it so long that theres so much content it wont even load up on their site LOL. I need to just sit down and break it into pieces, it would be an awesome thing to keep!

Tonight is "Winter Blast". its a big bonfire worship night for the gradeschool-age kids at church. its at Noahs friends house and he is SO excited. they will have dinner and make smores. a special treat for him! Im taking Abram so Steve can take a nap while J and C watch a movie (because he works a second job Sat nights)

Just messing around with some fun new things for pictures. heres one i just did of Abram.

BEFORE

AFTER

Pretty crazy huh?! (edited to add: just noticed how weird his eyes look! oh well)

Jayna talking!!!!!!

For Auntie Sarah :)

Abram crawling - hands/knees then army style

(arent the birds chirping outside awesome?!)

Abram crawling 2 -

Abram's Big Week

Abram had a big week this week! He met several milestones....

(couldnt you just pinch those cheeks!!!)

Tooth #3 cut through (and now he is back to taking a long nap each day! yahoo!)

ooooooh did it hurt!

It was awful!

He's reaching for me now! Nothing melts your heart like your baby reaching for mama :)






He can go from hands/knees to sitting up! He's been doing this inconsistnely a week or more but has it down now. He looks so big when he does it!






HE'S CRAWLING!!!!!!! He has been going 1-2 "steps" all week and then tonight he crawled 6-7 steps to me, several times! Im SO happy!!! The other kids didnt crawl on their hands/knees until 9 months. Many of you know that I studied brain and child development when we through all those issues with Caleb and that crawling on the hands/knees is VERY important. So we are excited :)

Oh and he figured out he has ears LOL

He's starting to eat food! We are skipping purees this time. The idea is that they arent developmentally able to pick something up *themselves* and get a big enough bite to choke on, then get it back to the back of their throat and actually choke on it. If they do get something back there they will gag it back to the front of their mouth. While this completely freaks me out, it makes sense to me. Plus purees dont tast like real food! Grabbing and holding and exploring the food is all part of learning. Its messy but it seems so much more natural to me.

He's had cauliflower, bananas (sucks on it), tiny pieces of grape and today he tried brocoli! The brocoli was by far his favorite!

_________________________________________________________________

For my mom especially : here is the new tile. Look how nasty the concrete floor is and all the paint's that missing! Bye-bye nasty floor!!!! hello pretty tile :)

Speaking of my FABULOUS MOM. Look what she sent me as a surprise........

A Roomba!!!!! It ROCKS too! i love it!!!!