What a day, What a day

I don't understand why everything seems to happen all at once. Its like when you actually decide to make plans in advance on a certain weekend and then all of the sudden there are a ton of conflicts on that one weekend you decided to make plans on but the last 4 weekends in a row you were sitting at home on your butt watching re-runs because you had nothing better to do. This always seems to happen to me. So as a rule of thumb I usually try not to make plans but then I'm somehow disappointed when it was the 3rd weekend in a row I absolutely had to go rent a red box to keep from going mad. So now with that glorious introduction let me tell you about the day I've had today.

I don't know how I did it but I've gone about 7 years without having to speak in church. The last time I did I was 18. Steven has never heard me give a talk that's how long its been. So I guess after 7 years it was finally time and it was this Sunday we were supposed to speak. So Friday I start to feel sick. I am achy all over and have fevers on and off. I try to just shrug it off and I can't rest that much anyway since I'm a mom. Well I guess Nellie caught the bug from me and is super cranky with fevers too. Oh and did I mention that Steven and I are the new sunbeam teachers and we have no less than 10 sunbeams in our class. Its also that time of the month which just makes everything worse. Seriously Its bad enough having to give a talk but me and Nellie were both sick. I just wish things could be simple. I guess I will take giving one really difficult talk on a super scheduled day if I only have to do it once every 7 years. But I think my luck with that has run out. They are on to me now

A day of Fun!

I took the kids to the Phoenix Children's Museum today. Well actually my neighbor Kate took us. I guess she had a membership and some guest passes that were about to expire so she wanted us to use them. So it was me Jace and Nellie, Kate and her 2 kids Edgren and Gwen and My friend and Neighbor Callie and her baby Eden. Its funny since we've lived here I've made lots of Neighbor friends something I haven't really done before. But all of our baby girls are only about a month apart from each other.

I've never been there before so it was nice to get to explore new things and we will definitely be going back. They had a little play area for the kids 3 and under and we all had a lot of fun there. And of course we had to get a picture of the 3 girls all the same age. They are so adorable together

Gwen Nellie and Eden

Jace had a ball too with all the fun activities there were for kids to do he loved planting flowers for his mommy He was master chef in the kitchen area. At one point he had oven mitts on both his hands. He wanted to keep them on too. He ran to the next exhibit without taking them off it was super cute.

and of course the little boy loved playing in the race car

And after a long day of playing hard and having fun Jace found a nice place to take a nap with his baby. He loves his babies

A day of Firsts

Today was a big day of firsts for both my kids.

Today was Jace's first time going Potty in the acual potty chair. We have been trying unsucessfully for a few weeks now where he will sit on the potty for 2 seconds then get up and pee on the floor (or yesterday it was my bed). Or sometimes he would make a real effort only to go pee once he was in the bathtub. Today was the day I could feel it in my bones. I sat him down and took some warm water from the bath and poured it on his weiner and it WORKED! He peed. It scared him at first so he stopped really quickly but then with a little more warm water he peed again. It was so awesome after so long of trying to finally make some progress. He got a sucker for a reward and we called daddy to tell him all about it. I know it's only the first step but I'm so happy we finally made it.

Nellie's big first today was that she rolled over all by herself. I've been practicing with her for the last few days. I lay her down on her back and then pull her leg over just far enough so she still has to work to roll over and then let her go. After doing that a few times she was on her tummy and just rolled over onto her back. Just like that.. Like it was no problem at all. What a little pro.

And my first today was getting both kids down at exactly the same time so I had 2 1/2 whole hours to myself. It was amazing I got so much done. I was feeling ambitious and did the laundry and painted a wall in our bedroom. Now if only I could get them to do that every day....

Spicy Black Bean Soup

So ever since Steven discovered Black Bean soup at the Cheesecake Factory he's been totaly in love with it. He has always liked beans and I'm finally learning to make them for him. So here is what I made for dinner tonight and I've got to say I'm pretty proud of myself. Personally I think it is even better that the restaurant soup. It's especially good with a little cheese and sour cream on top and tortilla chips on the side. Enjoy!

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 medium chopped onion
2 minced garlic cloves
1 teaspoons minced crumbled dried thyme
2 1/2 cups cooked black beans, with one cup of cooking liquid reserved (or use canned beans)
2 cups chicken broth
1 cups diced tomatoes (I use canned)
1 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoons Red Pepper
2 teaspoons Black Pepper
Direc tions
1Melt butter and oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until the onion is soft and translucent.
2Add the garlic and thyme and cook for an additional three minutes.
3Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low, cover, and simmer for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4Remove three cups of the soup from the pot and process until smooth, adding the puree back to the soup after it is pureed. (Do this in batches to avoid having hot black bean soup all over your ceiling!)
5Reheat until the soup is thoroughly warmed again.

Worst Blogger award Goes to ME!!!!

Ok I've decided that i'm the worst blogger in the world and if they had an award to give out for bad bloging it would go to me. So it is one of my new years resolutions to be better at it. Well the actual resolution is to be better at preserving memories of my children. Like I'm going to get at least both of their first years in a scrapbook. I love writing in my journal and now I've started one for each of my kids so I can write down the silly adorable things they do so when they are my age they can read about how cute they were.

So speaking of keeping memories I'm super sad that my camera's memory card magically got reformatted and erased all my christmas pictures. I don't know how it happened it just did so now I'll have to rely on everyone else that took pictures that day for photos.

I did have a few from after christmas. Nellie is at least in her christmas PJs having tummy time with a super sparkly super fun christmas ornament from our tree. And Jace of course is showing her how to properly play with said ornament. What a good brother.

This is the most adorable picture of Jace. He got this ball pit for Christmas and this is all he has been doing in it. He loves to just lay in the balls and stare at the tree while drinking his juice. I forget that he is in there some times. He even likes to watch TV from his ball pit. I'm afraid sometimes that I won't be able to get him out of there. But at least he likes his christmas present. This week we went to the Zoo with Marilyn and Hannah. Hannah decided to come stay with us for a few days while she was here on break. I've loved having her around and so I thought she could tag along to the Zoo too. It was so nice of Marilyn to take us and we had so much fun. Although I seriously underestimaed the weather that day. I didn't have on a very warm Jacket and Hannah didn't have one at all. Fortunately her blood has warmed up a little since she's been living in Flagstaff. But at least the kids were warm

Jace loved the elephants he got so excited looking at them. They have this new observation area that makes them way closer and way cooler to look at. And of course Jace knew exactly what noise an Elephant makes. What a smart kidThis is my favorite picture of all time. Jace's favorite part of the Zoo is Harmony Farm where they have the goats you can pet. He just loves going from goat to goat touching them all and in this goats case giving it a hug on the butt. Thank you Hannah for a picture well captured

Me and Nellie waited outside the petting area. She's not into goats yet. I'm sure she'll love it someday. Just like her brother

Oh and we can't leave out the fact that I can put Nellie's hair in Pigtails now. I love it and she looks so cute with them in. She doesn't really care for the putting in of the pigtails part but what girl does. Beauty is pain Nellie. Beauty is pain.

New Years

We had a blast at Steven's aunt Nancy's house for new years. Jace is totaly in love with fire works and did just about as many fire works as he could get his little hands on.

Well there is the update for now lets hope that my resolution to keep up on my bloging will stand the test of time.