Look who's ONE!

My dear Gracelyn turned ONE this week!

Word cannot express how very happy I am that she is in my life. I am so lucky to have her as my daughter. I love you Gracelyn!

Happy Mother's Day!

"Mothers are all slightly insane."

"There is no way to be a perfect mother, and a million ways to be a good one."

"Men are what their mothers made them."

" If evolution really works, how come mothers only have two hands?"

"Mother's can look through a child's eyes and see tomorrow"



"Mothers are instinctive philosophers."


Happy Mother's Day to all the Mom's out there!

Easter thoughts...

This year Easter has been a big eye opener for me...I have always grown up as Easter being the day that Jesus rose from the dead. We would celebrate by going to mass and have a family celebration with lots of food. We would have an Easter egg hunt set up by the parents....maybe dye some eggs once in a while for fun.

Well, I just realized this year ( I know this is nuts that I just figured this out) that other families celebrate Easter differently...as in...the celebration of the arrival of the Easter bunny..... the celebration of spring....The Easter bunny would bring Easter baskets full of toys and chocolates and lay eggs everywhere. I had no clue that parents gave presents and Easter baskets to children that was FROM THE EASTER BUNNY. I always thought that that the gifts were from parents. I was shocked....and I felt like my kids have been missing out on the whole Easter bunny thing. It's like missing out on the tooth fairy or Santa Clause! My parents never laid out Easter baskets for us or hid eggs that the Easter bunny laid so I had no idea that the Easter bunny was supposed to do that!

I am in favor of celebrating Easter in both ways. I don't have any judgements for those that celebrate the coming of the Easter bunny solely. I think that it is definitely important for my children to know the real and true meaning of Easter......but I think they definitely should not miss out the fun stuff too.

So , this year, at the last minute, I hid Easter eggs and had 1 basket full of candy that the "Easter bunny" brought over. I woke up Jacob and Allie and said that the Easter bunny came. They looked at me with puzzled faces and came down the stairs. They started searching for eggs....and Allie said....with her hip out, pointing around, with raised eye brows..."I don't think the Easter bunny did this...I think you did!" It was pretty obvious that they are too old and that they have missed out on this thing for all their lives! HA! I tried.....but maybe it is not too late for the younger ones......

Jacob's First Communion

It was a happy day! I am so proud of my son. He has been preparing for this all year and it was a wonderful celebration. It brought tears to my eyes seeing him so big and taking the body of Christ. He decided that he didn't want to take the wine, and that was okay. This day brought me so much joy and it brought back memories of my own First Communion. I remember wearing a white dress and veil with bright red lipstick! I have no idea why my mom let me wear that , but she did. I wish I had a picture. Let's just say I won't be letting Allie carry on that tradition! Her first communion will be next year.

Jacob is wearing a "barong" which is a formal wear of the Philippines. It is worn on very special celebrations, such as this or a wedding. I think he looks very handsome!

Gracie turns 11 months

Gracie is already 11 months old...turning 1 in a few short days... She is growing so fast. She is so close to walking...She can take a few steps by herself but then gets scared and sits down. She climbs the stairs any chance she gets. She can say mama and dada....and repeat sounds.

Main highlights of this month include her first Easter, her first really bad injury, and her first tumble down the stairs.....yeah the bad injury is not the tumble down the stairs! Her right index finger was crushed and split open. Big sister accidentally slammed the door on her finger and it was horrible. Blood everywhere! I debated on whether I should take her to urgent care and decided at the time that it was ok....but looking back now.....I think I should have taken her. It looks like it could have needed stitches. I have worried about it for over 2 weeks and I think if I had taken her to the doctor that day....I would have saved myself from all that worrying.....instead I saved 100 dollars from not going to the urgent care.....now that I look back...I would gladly pay! Her finger does look better but is still black and blue and swollen. Her nail looks like it could fall off. Yeah I know! Horrible!

While I was busy dying Easter eggs with the older kids, Gracie crawled to the stairs, climbed the stairs, and then fell down the stairs. I heard a boom, boom pow.....AAAHHHH! boom boom..AAAAH! I ran to her rescue...she was scared mostly....thank God she was not hurt! I swear, this child will be lucky to survive her first year! During her first year she has also fallen off the changing table and the bed! Poor thing...I hope she can add and subtract when she gets older! Thank goodness all areas were carpeted.

loving her bottle....

looking outside watching Jacob and Allie play...

playing with her friend Michael

Easter dress

climbing stairs...

week one on medifast...

So Medifast was a lot harder than I thought it would be....as I am here typing and eating 3 pieces of toast! The food is not that bad.....I just missed eating real food. I was only on it for a week and really could not stay true to the plan. I was mostly on plan and lost 4 pounds this week. . At one point I was down 7. I am just going to admit this again. I LOVE FOOD. Food makes me happy in many ways.

That being said, I still have 3 weeks of Medifast food left! I will def use them...but I think I do need a break from time to time. I didn't feel that hungry on plan either....I just felt deprived. I couldn't even eat carrots! or any fruit! I didn't realize how much I wanted to eat that stuff. I think Weight Watchers is definitely the way to go. With weight watchers you can eat whatever you want!

So for today, I am taking a break from dieting and food and will restart tomorrow...midnight to be exact because I will be at work. Here's to another week.

updates, updates, and more updates!!!

First off: Allie's birthday. Unfortunately, Allie's birthday was the weekend of my Cancun trip, so I was not able to spend her actual birthday with her. : ( I felt really bad....guilty even about the whole thing. So to make it up, we celebrated her birthday before I left. We spent some girl time together, just me and her. It was lovely. I love spending time with my girl.

we spent some girl time getting pedicures

getting matching henna tattoo's and eating out with my girlfriends at the Melting Pot

We went shopping!

Here, Allie is making her own birthday cake! Hey....she wanted to!

Celebrating at Chuck E Cheese. It was so weird....Allie invited her friend Evie to come, but her Grandma said she was unable to make it because they were going to be out of town. Allie actually told them the wrong day. We went to Chuck E Cheese anyway and we saw Evie there! We had no clue that she was going to be there! They just decided to go that same day. AND, Evie even had a present for Allie! A BFF necklace that they got earlier in the day! It was so bizarre. There was even an empty table right next to them!

I cannot believe my girl is 7!

Allie is such a good girl. She is so agreeable and easy to get along with. She is so helpful around the house and is just an overall wonderful person. She is so polite and always says her thank yous and pleases. She is so beautiful inside and out. I am so very proud to be her mom.

We also celebrated my baby daddy's birthday. I surprised him with takeout from his favorite restaurant Thai 9. We used our special China for the first time in 10 years. I can't believe that we never used it! They were wedding gifts. It was fun to use the pretty plates.

Cheesecake, his favorite.

I also want to update on how big my 9 year old is getting! Look at this! Already taller than my aunt.....okay so she is really short....

Jacob and Auntie Venia

Here is a pic of how tall Jacob is compared to me! He really is getting up there!

I also wanted to update on my beautiful girl Maddie. She is going to be 2 1/2 soon. Hard to believe. I started this blog when she was just a baby. This little non talker has finally started to do some talking. She still has a long way to go. I think part of her problem is how shy she is. She is just sooooo shy! She loves her Disney princesses! She can count to 10 all by herself! I am so proud of her. She sporadically uses the potty....and has to have pull ups on.... and they have to be princess pull ups. She even favors the one that has all of the princesses on them. Maddie is also so very sweet. She always says thank you. She is so very appreciative of everything you do for her. I bought her a bracelet while we were in Gatlingburg and she said "thank you, Mommy" over and over again...all the way home! She won't sleep anywhere but with her mommy and daddy. YES, she is still in our bed!

Here she is with her princess.....