The After Dinner Show

The kids and Max have gotten in the habit of a nightly rough and tumble after dinner.  On Valentine's Day it was exceptionally rowdy with Siri jumping in for some fun too.

Such a goofy bunch.

Candy Does Rot Your Teeth Out...

Hailey was down to her final two molars to lose.  I packed a See's Candy from Nana's Valentine package in her lunch yesterday and she came home with a tooth necklace!

Now she only has one tooth left to lose.  My baby is growing up SO fast!!!

Hailey said she was chewing on the candy when all the sudden she felt it "pop" and then she pulled out the candy and found her tooth in it!  She had to dig her tooth out of the candy.  I had to laugh when I told her, "See, candy will rot your teeth out of your head!"

A Happy Valentine Centennial!

We had one big celebration yesterday!  Not only was it Valentine's Day, but it was Arizona's Centennial too!  I love celebrating life and especially on holidays, so it was a really lovely day for me. :) I wanted to do 14 special treats for my little Valentines.  My number one Valentine and I will be going to Wicked for our romantic treat.

1.   They awoke to new swimsuits, candy and pencils.

2. Hot chocolate with heart shaped marshmallows.

 3. Heart shaped pancakes and pancakes with hearts of chocolate and marshmallows in the center.

 4. Heart shaped sandwiches for lunch.

 5. Very special Peep treat in their lunch box.

 6. Special Valentine's shirts.

7.  An ironic Darth Maul Valentine of suckers made Hank's day.

 8.  A festive table for dinner.

 9.  When in Rome...  I found some Arizona made wine, olive oil and salad dressing.  I also found some Prickly Pear Candy to help us celebrate Arizona's 100th birthday.  Pretty tasty native foods.  LOL

 10.  Some heart shaped pasta.

 11.  We made Prickly Pear Popsicles with hearts made of pears in them.  They were a hit! (Can you tell I am digging the whole cactus fruit thing??)

 12.  We had our first formal dinner with just our family in the dinning room.  Complete with candle light, cloth napkins and good manners.  Although, Hank is definitely a work in progress.  We celebrated with crab, lobster, pasta, asparagus, and spinach salad.  What a treat indeed!

 13.  Since they didn't get enough sugar at the parties at school, we had to have chocolate cake and chocolate dipped strawberries for dessert!

14.  Our final treat of the day was Valentine PJs for the girls, even some for mommy!  It was such a great day with all my loves.

Love

This is the door to our garage.  We probably go in and out of it at least a half dozen times a day.  As we walk out the door each morning we are reminded what love looks like.  The love is patient part has been a keen reminder on those mornings when we are running late and someone forgot their lunch or their homework.  I remind myself that love is not easily angered many times a day. :)

If there is only one thing my kids remember from their childhood, I hope it is love.  I hope they know how dearly they are loved.  I hope they love each other dearly.  I hope they will be little lights of love in the often dark world.  But mostly, I hope Jesus' love lives in their heart.

Welcome Alanah Raye!

 On Thursday I got a call from my Mom that my sister would be having her baby that night!  The doctors had tried to turn the baby on Tuesday and on Thursday discovered that there was a leak in the bag around the baby.  I was able to hop on a plane and thanks to some other women needing to have cesareans before my sister could, I made it in time!!

 The anesthesiologist was kind enough to let both my Mom and me back in the OR with Kerrie.  I am so happy I could be there to help her and her hold her hand.  It is always special to be apart of the miracle of life.

 Grammy with grand baby number 10!!!

 Look how tiny!  That is my hand she his holding.  My hand is bigger than her head!  She was 6 lbs 1oz and 19.5 inches long!  Her breech little legs kept bouncing up just like Hailey's did. :)

Little lady has a gorgeous head of hair.

Big brother RJ was just beaming as he held her.  She is blessed to have such a loving big brother to watch over her.

 Both mom and baby are doing excellent.  Little Alanah has the sweetest temperament.  She barely made a peep the entire 48 hours I was there.  She is a fantastic nurser and just pure butter to hold.  I want one!!!!  Congratulations Kerrie!  We are all thrilled with latest little lady that has joined our family.  Love you so much.

Prickly Pear Cactus Margarita

I was in the produce section at our grocery store and saw Prickly Pear Cactus Fruit.  I had to get it.  Who has cactus fruit in their grocery store!?

 After learning how to handle it and get the juice out of it, I decided it would be excellent in a Margarita.

 To prepare, you cut off the ends and then slice it down the middle.  You then peel the thick skin off the fruit.  It is the most beautiful magenta color.  Very rich and thick juice.

 I then put the fruit in the blender and liquefied it.  To remove seeds and pulp, I strained it. One Prickly Pear yields about 1/4 cup of juice.

 I then added lime juice, tequila, and triple sec.  I cooled it in the freezer for a few hours.

 They were delicious!  Dangerously delicious.  You couldn't taste any alcohol.  Such a perfect drink as the sunset before our Mexican dinner.

 Totally Arizona Prickly Pear Cactus Margaritas.  

1/4 cup prickly pear juice

3/4 cup fresh squeezed lime juice

1 cup tequila

1 cup triple sec

salt for rim of glass

handful of ice

Serves 4

A Boy And His Dog

Hank has never know what it is like to live with a healthy and active dog.  Daisy was more like a fish to him, something he would walk by and glance at appreciatively.  He didn't snuggle with her and she couldn't play with him.  I think he was well on the track to being a cat person.  Thankfully, Siri changed all that.  As she has become more playful, they have become best buddies.  They play tag and he tackles her and she thinks it's the best thing and she tackles him right back.  Hank still has the upper hand on weight, but not for long.  They will often lounge together, usually in one of Siri's beds.  Today Siri wanted to take a nap with Hank in his bed.  She continued to nuzzle him as they drifted off to sleep.

Unfortunately, it appears Hank is allergic to Siri's saliva.  He tested negative for dogs when they ran the allergy tests, but they test for dander and not saliva.  Since he never got kisses from Daisy, we didn't know.  Each time Siri licks him, he breaks out in hives. :(  If we wash it off as soon as possible, he does ok.  But not even hives will deter him from loving, tackling and sleeping with his girl Siri.

Read To Me

In typical Katie fashion, I waited until the last day of the month and almost the last hour to reach my goal of finding one way a month to love thy neighbor.  On Tuesday night I volunteered at the largest family homeless shelter in Arizona.  UMOM is an incredible organization that works very hard to end the cycle of homelessness.  One of the many volunteer opportunities is to read to children at the shelter.  Many of the kids are not so privilege as to get a bedtime story every night.  With my love for babies and kids, I thought working with kids would be a good place to start.  I had no idea what to expect.  To say the least, I was overwhelmed with sadness.  There were not just a handful of kids, there were 75!!!  Before the kids arrive, you set up the room with blankets to sit on and pass out 100's of books.  All of the books are color coded for their age appropriate level.  We then packed up snacks for the kids to take after they left.

I was matched up with a very sweet, 8 year old little boy.  He shuffled through the books and we ended up reading one about whales first.  I thought he would be somewhere near Karlie's reading level.  He was closer to Kaitlin's but he tried his hardest.  Then we moved on to a book for me to read to him.   The children also get to choose 3 books to take home with them.  So for a break, he went and scouted out the treasures he would take home.  Each time he found one, he brought it back to me to guard.  We continued to read and chat.  He has 2 siblings at the shelter with him and 2 older ones that he doesn't know where they are.

As it was time for him to line up, he came running back to me with a Sesame Street baby board book and told me he really wanted to take it to his baby sister because she loves Elmo.  The agony in his eyes about which treasured book to exchange it for was killing me.  He asked if he could just put the little book in his pocket.  I told him that if he told the director what he wanted to do, that I thought she would let him take all of them home.  I didn't see the result, but can't imagine them saying no.

The needs were so great in the room that it made me want to take all of them home with me.  All of these kids are in very tough situations by no fault of their own and with hardly the chance at the American dream that most kids have.  In this experience, I realized that I have trouble with boundaries when kids are concerned.  I can't love them all better.  I can go and read with them.  I can donate to the shelter.  I can work at the soup kitchen.  I can work at the daycare center.  But I can't make it all better.  I can't rescue them with love.

I am still wondering how my little guy is doing and if everything is going to be okay for him.  With this first attempt to love my neighbor, I have learned it is much easier to love from afar.  I don't know yet if serving kids is where I am suppose to be or if I could be less heartbroken with adults.  Maybe I am suppose to be heartbroken?  The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment great than these." ~ Mark 12:31

3 Months Old

Today our baby girl is 3 months old!  If I thought human babies grew fast, fur babies grow even faster.  She has changed so much since we got her.  She no longer fits in the baby

snuggly :( 

 On our first jog Siri got tired and had to share a ride back with Hank.  She is now up to running 2 miles.  I guess you could say she is off and running!

Last week I she transitioned from co-sleeping to sleeping on her beanbag.

The potty training is getting better each week.  We now have a day or two a week with no accidents.  Max was joking what an expensive dog she is.  Not only did we have to buy her and take a trip to Las Vegas to get her.  We now need to replace the carpet throughout the house!  She is worth every penny.  Siri fits in so well with our family.  She is very loving, active and eager to snuggle.  We are all so happy she joined our pack.

Karlie and Katie's Colorado Weekend

This weekend Karlie and I took off to Colorado for my sister Kerrie's baby shower.  I thought it would be fun if I took each of the girls on a trip home so we could have a special mommy and me trip!

I didn't tell anyone that Karlie was coming, so when my Mom picked us up she was beyond shocked.  I have never seen someone so genuinely surprised.  It was fantastic!  We got to surprise Grampy an hour later when he arrived.  The surprises continued as RJ woke up to find Karlie sleeping in the top bunk of his bed and then Kerrie was shocked to see Karlie too.  Karlie was delighted with her surprise!  When Grampy woke up, he took the kids to the grocery store and let them get whatever they wanted.  Karlie came back with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, peanuts, and peanut butter.  Ah, the life of living with a peanut allergy leaves the girls with some serious peanut cravings. :)

 It was such a short trip but we packed in as much as possible.  We went to RJ's basketball game in the morning, then got ready for the shower.  We had a fun shower with all of our closest friends and family.  I am so sad that I will not be able to attend this birth.  I have helped Kerrie through all of her labors and it makes me very sad to miss this one.  I had to drown my sorrow by shopping for baby girl clothes.  There really is nothing quite as fun as newborn baby girl clothes.  It just doesn't get any cuter!

 After the shower I took Karlie to her best friend's house for yet another surprise.  Karlie rang the door and little did Marley know that Karlie was coming to spend the night!  Her reaction rivaled my Mom's.  She was literally speechless and exasperated giggles escaped her.  It was nearly 10 minutes before she could do anything but giggle and hug Karlie.  These two have that special friendship.  They are soul sisters for sure.  It brings me so much joy to see them together.

 Then it was time to have a quick bite to eat at my most favorite Mexican restaurant in the world before we headed downtown to Canvas and Cocktails with my sisters Chrysti and Mel.  The drinks were good, the music great and the art might get hung up. :)  Nothing makes me happier than having a ball with my loved ones.  I miss you all so much.

The next morning it was more eating before we headed to the airport!  While our trip was fast and furious, it felt so nice to be home again.

I expected to return to a disaster of a house, empty fridge, and Max having a better idea about the busy days of taking care of kids and how impossible it is to get anything accomplished.  Instead, I live with a superhero of a father and husband.  While I was gone he installed knobs and handles on 60 cupboards.  He repainted our wicker lounger.  He bought and planted a palm tree.  He installed landscape lighting.  He had dinner in the crock pot.  He had frozen Margaritas waiting and the house was spotless.  Seriously?!?!

What a wonderful weekend.  What a wonderful husband.