Sunday, January 25, 2009

Ava's Prayer

Tonight at dinner Ava decided to say the prayer. Usually the girls when they pray just say "Thank you God for this day and for this food. Please bless it to nourish our bodies. Amen". Tonight Ava said: "Thank you God...I want my family....oh, wait, first let me pray for the food. Thank you God for the food. I want a family of Daddy, Mommy, Isabella, Daisy and Molly. Amen".

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Steve's Birthday and some Misc pics

Here is a note Isabella wrote for Steve for his birthday. It says Happy Happy Birthday Daddy. Love You I (heart) u. P.S. By by. What ever p.s. means. (I have no idea what P.S. is). Then she has a picture of her on the top left with a ? mark on top of her head and a sad face. This is sooo typical Isabella. She has a journal she keeps at home and Oh.My.Gosh, the things she writes in this journal are rolling on the floor funny!! (ROFL - rolling on the floor laughing). If you click on the picture you can see everything up close. It's worth clicking on I think. :)

Here is our little set up we left for him when we went to bed on the 22nd. He had to close so when he got home it was actually early morning of Jan. 23rd his birthday. Dave Ramsey did not allow for us to purchase a gift this year. But, the girls always "regive" gifts they already have. So, they gave him a teddy bear with a place for their picture and a couple animals from The Backyardigans and each a letter they wrote to him. The cards are from my aunt and my mom. Oh, and Isabella wrote Happy Birthday Dad on a place card for him and then cut out two hearts and taped them together and wrote I love you on it. She's such a sweetie pie!
Here is the birthday boy and his two girls with the wonderful cake I made. LOL

This day Ava had pushed the ottomons together, put one of the couch pillows on it and a small blanket, had her chap stick and was watching TV and playing with her baby dolls in front of the fire.

The girls playing out in the snow last week. Ava refused to look at me - big surpise there!


Isabella making a snow angel.






Thursday, January 22, 2009

Finally Semi-Productive

I tell you what - this cold weather has caused me to have ZERO motivation around the house. It's no secret I'm not a fan of cooking since having 2 kids - I actually use to be a pretty decent cook when it was just me, Steve and Isabella - but throwing Ava into the mix has sent me over the edge. I despise cooking, despise going to the grocery store - just anything involved with the whole process and I'm not a fan! LOL Thank goodness I'm married to a chef right? We'd probably starve otherwise.

So, today I made a chocolate cake (ok, it was Betty Crocker) but I made buttercream icing from scratch - a first for me. Hopefully Steve likes his birthday cake - he's turning 38 years old tomorrow!!! Oh my goodness! My mom and my aunt sent him birthday cards that arrived today so I have them sitting in front of the cake stand. We will be eating cake for breakfast tomorrow because he has to work in the evening.

I also made black bean soup and I must say - it was quite tasty. No opening the cans for me. I did the whole thing from scratch - didn't even follow a recipe. LOL AND - I made the kids bbq drum sticks. They love these things. me - not so much because I don't like dark meat (chicken that is - LOL) but the girls will eat a couple at dinner.

Also, I'm doing great with my new years resolution - skin care 2009. I bought this Alpha Beta Daily Facial Peel when I got my last facial and it seems to be doing wonders. My face is looking pretty darn good skincare wise. And, I'm also using my $120 bottle of Vitamin C serum I bought over the summer and I guess the combination of the two expensive products are helping the anti-aging process. Or - I'm crazy. LOL

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

History!

Yesterday I spent the entire day after I got back from the gym on the couch watching the inauguration of President Obama. I had chills and goosebumps the entire time. I kept getting tears in my eyes seeing all the former Presidents walk out. I will be praying for President Obama to help get our country back on track. I think it was a good day yesterday. Plus, Isabella was super excited she got to watch it all at school yesterday - although it was during recess so she was a bit bummed about that. heehee

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Keeping warm and a brag!

Well, trying to keep warm! It has gotten bitterly cold here - today I think the high got to 4. Both girls had a 2 hour school delay because of the cold weather and when I driving Isabella to school it was -2 below zero. They have already planned for a 2 hour delay tomorrow because it's suppose to get -10 below zero tonight. It will warm up to the 20's in a couple of days. Which hopefully will thaw out the pipes so I can do laundry and use my bathtub.

They sent someone out at the end of last week and they took the siding off and insulated the pipes (I think that's what they did). The building contractor saw Steve this afternoon and they talked about them still being frozen so they are going to have to figure something else out. Luckily the shower pipes aren't frozen or the girls tub and shower but I usually take a bubble bath every night and I'm missing that!!!

Ok, another brag...Isabella was asked to be on the Math Pentatholon team!! The team will start meeting every Monday an hour before school starts to practice. We are proud of our smart little girl. She definetly gets her smarts from her Daddy! Well, I'm pretty smart but school was a total social experiment for me vs learning. heehee

Here are a couple pictures of Ava from the other morning. She said her head hurt so she went and put a bandaid on her forehead. She was mad that I wanted to take a picture of her and was pouting, crying and refusing to look at me at first. She had just finished eating some toast and drank some chocolate milk so she has some food on her face an a choc milk mustache!


That's the latest happenings this week! I'm finally over my virus I got - I lost 3 pounds so feeling like crap was worth it. LOL

Monday, January 12, 2009

Extended Family

I know I post often how wonderful our neighbors are so back away if you don't want to hear it again.

Saturday, Ellen calls and asks to speak with Isabella. She invited her to go see a movie and then go out to eat afterwards. So, Steve walked Isabella next door yesterday at 1:00 and they told a little fib to Ava about where she was going. heehee I, on the otherhand was suffering from a 24 hour virus - ugh - but, I'm down 2 pounds. :)

Isabella comes home around 7:00 last night and she has the biggest smile on her face. Steve had given her some money and told her that if she wanted something at the movies to pay for it herself - Ellen apparently didn't let her spend her money because she was flashing the money along with her smile. She was so excited she got skittles, hi C and popcorn. Then, she flashes her hands out and they went and got their nails done too. And, to top it off - they went to On The Border and had dinner. She talked about how "fabulous" dinner was and how she had to save room for dessert because they got a brownie sundae. Jenny (JD & Ellens daughter went with them).

I had tears come to my eyes several times yesterday just thinking about how sweet, kinda and blessed we are with our neighbors. They are way more than neighbors to us - they really are extended family members.

Thanks Ellen and Jenny - Isabella had a ball!!!

Friday, January 9, 2009

Blue Friday

Well, our first Friday to wear Colts gear was a week too late. Oh, well - the girls still love their Colts attire and will wear it proudly.

And - Isabella lost her front top tooth this morning playing before school. She and Ava and Steve were messing around and Isabellla hit her mouth on the couch and it knocked the tooth out (this shows you how loose it was to begin with - Isabella isn't the bravest child when it comes to stuff like this).



Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Warning - Major Bragging in this post :)

If you don't want to hear me brag about Isabella - step away from this post. heehee

Report cards came home today and Isabella once again received all A's. As soon as she got off the bus she came running to the car (it was snowing/sleeting today so I drove down to the end of the street at the bus stop) all excited. She just kept saying "they said my name on Cub News, I was on Cub News". Finally, I read what she had in her hand - she received a Life Skill Award for Responsibility. She was nominated by her teacher and only 3 other students in the entire school were awarded Life Skill Awards. She received 2 gift certificates to a steak place for free dinners but truthfully, all she cared about was her name was announced on Cub News (the student led announcement show at the end of the day). And, if the first two things weren't enough bragging, I was going through her backpack and asked her what this 20 oz soda was doing in it. She received it for reading over 200 books so far this year. She has read 201 so far and is hoping to reach the goal of 400. When she reached the 100 book mark she got a homework pass to use whenever she wanted to get out of homework for a night, 200 you get a soft drink, 300 you get a movie pass and 400 you get a Webkinz.

She is such a sweet little girl and we are very proud of her! Yeah Isabella!!

Monday, January 5, 2009

~~~~ Happy New Year ~~~~

Happy New Year from the Garza Family!!! I feel 2009 is going to be a spectacular year for our family.

The girls and I welcomed the New Year in Knoxville, Tennessee with my aunts and uncles while Steve fed lots of hungry folks at Maggiano's. The girls and I had a blast in Knoxville. My moms brothers and their wives celebrate Christmas over New Years and we've been heading down since I was pregnant with Ava. Lots of eating and card playing takes place. I have gotten to know my aunts and uncles on a different level by spending New Years with them the past 4 years. I cherish New years and Memorial Day weekend with them. I love them all so much - and to see Isabella and Ava hugging and loving on them warms my heart. Mom and I had a mini-adventure while in Knoxville - I gave her the wrong exit and we spent about 30 minutes checking out the scenery all around the city! I told her I felt like Michelle did on our trip to Memphis in October. It ended up working out being lost because it allowed the girls an extra 30 minutes of sleep time. LOL

The day before we left to go to Tennesse I spent the day with my SIL and my niece. My SIL and I watched hours upon hours of marathon Millionaire Listings on Bravo, cooked, talked and packed. During this time I came to the realization that I am not cut out for the medical field. I changed her packing from her surgery a couple of weeks ago - lets just say I dry heaved the entire time I was doing it, broke out into cold sweats because I thought I was going to pass out but then also laughed so hard I almost peed on myself because she was laughing at how I was reacting to it all. The 2nd time I changed it I had a stronger stomach and didn't dry heave once! Yeah me!! heehee

Sunday we all went to the Childrens Museum in Indy and I met an awesome friend I've known online for about a year. They live in Illinois but had to drop her mom off at the Indy airport so we spent the day with Brandy and her family at the Museum. I love my on-line friends and little by little I'm meeting more of them. It's not like it was when the internet first came around - you can develop fabulous, geniune friendships online - and not worry about them stalking you and killing you. LOL Now, there are some nutter out there - don't get me wrong, I stay clear of the crazys!

Today Steve and I hit the gym doing some hard core cardio (1 hour on the elliptical machine for me. Steve did 30 minutes on the elliptical and 30 on the stairs). Tomorrow we will be back in there for some more cardio and weight training. I usually try and talk myself out of going to the gym but once I'm in there - it's like a drug. I just want more, more, more. I really love working out (once I get my butt in the gym that is LOL).

Once we got home from the gym we worked on organizing Christmas toys, putting old toys up and away to make room for the new. We only have a couple more bags to go through and we are good to go!!!

Steve's mom got Isabella this Pet Shop game - it is so much fun!! We play it over and over and over again. Thank you Grandma and Papi. The next couple of days will be spent sending out thank you cards for all the holiday goodies we received.

My New years resolutions are usually the same - focus on a healthy lifestyle by eating well, exercising and staying active. This year I added using up all of the anti-aging creams, serums and stuff I have to make me look younger and age more gracefully. LOL It better work darn it!

So, that's my update 5 days into 2009. Isabella went back to school today and Ava goes back tomorrow.