Our Mini Vacation

This week from Sunday - Tuesday we had the opportunity to go away for as a family. It was wonderful to spend time together and for me not to be distracted with cooking and cleaning. I managed to mostly stick to clean eating, which was my goal. On the way there, we stopped for lunch at a burgers + fries restaurant. I had baked coconut/almond flour bread ahead of time and took it along, so they brought out my burger and fixings in a bowl and then I put it on my bread. That day for supper, we went to a steakhouse. I didn’t actually feel like having steak, so I ordered Napa Chicken which was “tender chicken breasts topped with artichoke hearts, portabella mushrooms, roasted tomatoes and a white wine herb sauce.” SO good. I really liked the decor, too. I thought the kids’ milk bottles were cute. Each table had a little lamp attached. Haley eats very little, so we did order her a meal for the first lunch, but she hardly ate any of it. The rest of the time we just let her share from our food and that worked very well, so it cut down on cost and wasted food. The first night we put Blake on the hide-a-bed that pulled out from the couch in the other room but it was SO uncomfortable that he ended up in bed with Jared + I at 5 a.m. The 2nd night we let Blake sleep with us all night. We didn’t get a good sleep but for one night it was ok. On Sunday afternoon, we stopped by the mall before checking in to our hotel. I had a gift card for Aeropostale, plus I had a 30% off my order coupon, so I ended up paying $6 out of pocket for my first ever pair of skinny jeans and some super comfy sweat pants. Ya, I know I’m probably about 3 years behind on the skinny jeans, but I don’t really care. On Monday afternoon, while Blake + Haley were napping, I did a tiny bit more shopping. I drove around looking for a specific health food store and found it thanks to my Mom’s GPS that she lent me, so I got some super deals on some all-natural products. I also scored this new purse for $16 with a 20% off coupon. I LOVE that it has a separate pocket for a cell phone, so I don’t have to go digging around in my purse to find my phone. We brought along cereal, bowls and spoons to eat breakfast in the hotel to cut down on cost. I baked lemon poppy seed muffins with coconut flour ahead of time for myself to eat for breakfast. On Monday evening, we went to the mall and we decided to look at a kid’s clothing store that I had a 30% off the total order coupon for.  We got these pajamas for Kiera (they were 50% off, plus 30% off, so about $6)

These t-shirts and bathing suit for Kiera (2 of the shirts were 50% off, plus 30% off, so $3.50 each)

The t-shirt and jeans for Blake (and Kiera is wearing her new swimsuit)

The girls’ sunglasses

This shirt for Blake

Flip flops for Kiera and Blake

all for $55. We saved over $50 off of the original prices! I prayed we would find some good deals and God once again provided! We went to the pool area every day, which was the highlight of the trip for the kids! There was a kiddie pool, a regular pool, the small pool where the waterslide ended and a hot tub. Kiera about to go down the slide… …and there she is. She had no fears whatsoever about going down the waterslide by herself over and over. Haley sometimes climbed to the top and waited for one of us to come up there. She did end up going down the waterslide by herself 3 times (once sitting up, once feet first on her tummy and once head first on her back…oops) and Jared was always at the bottom to catch her every time. Me with Blake + Haley on my lap…I love our expressions! Jared going down with Blake + Haley. The kids watched a bit of t.v. while we were packing up to leave. Our last stop before we left was Wal-Mart, where I ran in to buy cheap cereals that we don’t have here. The only meal I majorly cheated on was our last lunch. We went to a pizza buffet. I had been planning to order my own gluten-free pizza, but it was 12:30 when we went for lunch. We had a 3 1/2 hour drive ahead of us, plus a few stops first and we wanted to get to the hardware store back home to pick out tile for our basement bathroom before they closed at 6:00, so I didn’t have time to order a pizza for myself. I thoroughly enjoyed A LOT of pizza, including dessert pizza. The last time I cheated, I majorly paid for it and by God’s grace, I did not feel any ill effects from this most recent cheat. It was great to go away and relax and then it was straight back into work-mode when we got home as our main floor was covered in drywall dust. They got all of the drywall up in 2 days while we were away, so that was wonderful!  The mudding and taping starts tonight. WOOHOO!!

January 2014

I haven’t done a thankful post in a while, so I figured it’s time to do that again! These are some of things from the beginning of the year that I am thankful for/that make me smile: Playing grocery shopping with Kiera while the other 2 kids were napping

Using a waver from when I was a kid to make Haley’s hair wavy

This sunrise

Dr. Haley checking Blake’s heart Not sure what exactly she’s checking here The girls’ room before (Haley’s last time in a crib) The girls’ room after Haley’s bedding that we crossed the border to get, we majorly saved on fuel by filling up in the States, and then we didn’t even get charged any taxes or duty at the border, so it was a free trip! Praise God!

The girls’ Ikea dresser that Jared spent 5 hours assembling…LOVE it!

We played “dresser switcharoo” and Blake got my old dresser (almost all of the drawers on his old one were broken)

I got the girls’ old dresser which I am enjoying I think this is yogurt all over her face Kiera helping me bake bread (no, I don’t normally wear my hair like that…it was the easiest way to make it curly for a wedding) My 2 pregnant sister-in-laws (my nephew, Elliot, has since been born on February 13 and the other baby is due end of April) :D

Jared came home one day and surprised me with a new 4-slice toaster (our old one was a 2-slice toaster)

I put pigtails in her hair and a cute dress on and this picture melts me

Sleeping in her big girl bed

Haley loves to walk around for a bit wrapped up in her towel after her bath

Kiera came home from school with a signed form and a free hockey ticket. We hadn’t seen that form and discovered that she had made up a signature for the parent line (bottom right) and handed it in for her ticket! We were so shocked and couldn’t believe that our 6-year-old had thought to do that! We thought it was pretty funny but explained why that wasn’t a good thing to do. There was also something emotionally painful that happened in January (ironically during our church’s 3-week prayer and fasting time, or maybe not so ironically) but yet again, I have received God’s sustaining grace. The situation didn’t turn out how I had been praying it would for the past 2 1/2 years but God still has abundantly good plans and He is our HOPE! I pray for whoever is reading this, that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13)

November Photos

I recently realized that I didn’t post pictures of Blake’s 4th birthday party and other pictures from November.   That was when I was at an all-time low with my health and energy was scarce.  I figured maybe it’s too late but I would still like to post them anyway.  Blake asked for an Angry Birds cake and by the grace of God, it was the best cake I have made to date.  It actually looked like the picture I found online! 

Blake’s friend from church and Preschool gave him a set of Curious George books.

Lego from his neighbor friend Some people have theme parties…ya, Blake had 3 themes.  Angry Birds cake, Thomas tablecloth and Cars plates. We bought a ladder majorly on sale (before this we only had a 50-year-old small rickety wooden one) so that we (as in Jared) can change the light bulbs that are high up in our house and the pot lights outside

Blake’s Preschool picture made me laugh!  SO thankful my Mom-in-law is a photographer and we can get beautiful pictures of our kids!

I LOVE Blake’s expression…my Mom gave him a Lego fire truck set for his birthday.  He is a little bit (ok a lot) obsessed with Lego and wants to look at pictures of all the different sets online at shop.lego.com every day.  He wants them all on his birthday/Christmas list, so I think there are about 25 sets on his list right now. Since he doesn’t know how to put them together by himself, I spent an hour putting this together.

Happily eating popsicles after supper My baby who is exactly 2 1/2 years old tomorrow!

“Reading” Bibles together…melts my heart. Kiera after her bi-annual haircut

She lost her first top tooth…she already lost her middle 2 bottom teeth

Probably watching Treehouse, the only t.v. channel we get. The wind made the snow look really cool in front of our house. We have had the coldest winter and the most snow since 1949 or something ridiculous like that. I hunt to find the beauty and this particular morning I found it like this. You think with all this cold weather (often below –20) and being cooped inside I would have gotten these pictures posted sooner, but I’ve been busy with other things, particularly making things.  Stain remover, laundry detergent, body butter, diaper cream, face cream, and bread are just some of the things I’ve made in the past few weeks.  Speaking of making things, I gotta go start on supper, so I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the week!