Another post for today.....

Just checked my E-mail and my mom sent this to me. I had to share it to make a lttle light of this swine flu.

Man it's HOT..

Ashley had the day off of school today (Don't you just love TAKS testing!) We decided to hang out and have a little fun. We all (except Henry) got to sleep in til about 8am. Yeah I love not having to wake up to an alarm. (Since I do 7 days a week right now!) We just lounged around and watched Disney this morning. We met Henry for lunch at 11:30 at Furr's. It is always a picky family favorite. Ashley doesn't like/eat much of anything. and our gluten/dairy free baby is limited to where we can go too. Furr's has food for everyone. It was yummy and HEY, I didn't have to wash the dishes. (I love that!) We came home and attempted to put the little dude down for his nap, which did NOT happen today. YIKES FOR US TONIGHT! Then to top it off we went and hung out outside in the back yard for a little while. Charlie slid down the slide and climb on the stairs. Ashley did some swinging and picked me a flowering weed. We finished off the day with a wagon ride around the block and a bottle of water. I don't know how hot is actually is outside, but it is HOT. It really puts me in the mood for some outside work. Watch out Henry, tomorrow may be a busy day for us!!!

A pretty princess

My camera battery was dead, so I had to use my cell phone. Sorry the pics are not the greatest.
Cody looking at his new daughter. He was definitely a proud Daddy. He and Haley I'm sure are so tired after a long 24 hours of little sleep.

She looks a lot like Cody. She is so beautiful.

She was as content as can be through the MILLIONS of camera flashes. The waiting room was full of Mackinzie followers. She is going to be a spoiled little doll. Can't wait to hold her and give her a big kiss.

I am so proud to announce the birth of my new little Great-Niece! She is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!

Welcome to the world!

Mackinzie (mom and dad have not decided middle name yet!) Drake

7 lbs. 15.8 oz (Big girl)

21 inches long

born at 7:38

April 26,2009

I've been Tagged..

I was tagged by Shannon. I'm seriously not very interesting but here you go!!!

8 Things I look forward to:
-going to Disney World with my Hubby and Kids.
-Summer and getting to FINALLY sleep in.
-The birth of my new GREAT niece. (any day now!!!)
-Planting flowers etc in my front yard.
-Taking a trip with JUST my husband!
-Taking Ashley to see the Jonas Brothers in Arlington in June!
-Buying a new car this summer.
-going to visit my Husband's family this summer.

8 thins I did Yesterday:
-Cleaned house
-went to the gym at 5 am
-Played with Charlie
-Studied spelling words with Ashley
-Loved on my 3 fur babies
-gossiped with my BFF, Kelley!
-Washed, dried,folded and put up 3 loads of laundry. (I told you I was not very interesting!)
-Read some of my book, The Gluten Free Bible.

8 things I wish I could do
-win the lottery!!!
-Travel,Travel,Travel (see above note!!!)
-sew
-sing
-have more patience
-Lose 20 lbs. (I'm working on it!)
-redecorate my living room and bedroom.
-have more time alone with my husband

8 things I watch on TV:
-American Idol
-The Hills (go ahead and laugh if you want!)
-Greys Anatomy
-Private Practice
-Nancy Grace
-The Real Housewives of New York
-Desperate Housewives
-Jon and Kate plus 8 (I know---you can laugh again!)

I tag
Lacy
Ashley
Cambry
and anyone else who would like to play.

A little lovin' from the gluten free oven....

Thank you to all who suggested that I use my bread maker to make Charlie's bread. The store bought stuff is NOTHING like this homemade version. The store bought stuff is soo dense and heavy. This homemade bread is just like any homemade bread that I've ever had. It is soft and light and tastes REALLY good. You wouldn't even know that it is gluten free, if I didn't tell you. I bought a mix and cut it in half to make two 1LB. loaves of bread. So that equals about $5.00 for 2 loaves instead. A better deal too.
BTW...the gluten free chocolate cake was delish. Vanilla icing on top and that too, no one would know that it was gluten/dairy free (along with free of lots of other things too!) We all had a piece for desert the other night after dinner. YUMMMM! This Gluten free thing may not be so bad after all.

What Am I Doing Today?

This little combination has CURED my son. Henry tried this little combination on Saturday while I was at work. I got an exciting call that Charlie's tummy trouble has finally subsided. We have used the GREEN banana trick when he was a baby too. But We haven't had to use a green banana for the past year or so.
A whole GREEN banana (Sam's has the BEST), a half teaspoon of strawberry probiotics, and a little vanilla Silk. Mix it til smooth in our mini-food processor and TA-DA! You have a little sweet piece of miracle drink.

Daddy even fixed up a little special shake cup for Charlie to drink from and he just loves it. We give him at least 2 of these a day. (Don't you just love the Don King hair do? He really needs a hair cut. And he has dribbles banana milkshake on his shirt, so he looks kinda like a orphan child, but I promise he's NOT!LOL)

I also decided to make a trial run of a GLUTEN FREE cake. Since Charlie's Birthday is coming up, he will need some birthday cake to celebrate his special day. I found this mix at our UNITED Market Street. (they have a pretty nice selection of gluten free stuff, but not really any cheaper!)

I cut a little piece out of the corner and HEY, it's not bad. I will say it is a little bland, but good. He can have icing, so I will probably ice it with vanilla icing tonight for dinner. It would be really good with homemade whipped cream and fruit or gluten free chocolate chips.

I found several "snack" things for him to eat. I got a bag of ginger snaps, large bag of pretzels, some fruit snack sticks, a sandwich bread mix (for my bread maker), crackers, soy yogurt and even a small package of chicken nuggets. It was still Very expensive, but being able to have a ready made snack instead of having to cook something is really nice.

Other than my baking an shake making I have been inspired to do some cleaning catch up. I think over the past 2 weeks with Charlie being sick and fussy, it really got me out of the grove. But since I have a happy boy back, my grove is back and it feels so good. I even mowed the front lawn after I got off work last night. I love to mow with our riding mower. I actually fell really relaxed out there. Summer is coming and I'm ready for it. Only about 4 more weeks of school for us, and swimming pool look out, here we come.

Beware!

What happened to this can?

A little of this!


Ashley loves to shoot things. (sound scary doesn't it?) She and Henry used to shoot PaPa's pellet gun in Nanny and PaPa's back yard. She would shoot cans or milk jugs full of water. She is a pretty good shot for being a beginner. We got her a BB gun and she's a shootin' fool! We haven't built or gotten targets yet, but cans beware. She has been causing some major damage to our old coke cans. Now she and her cousins Chesley, Cambry and Cutter can have some target shooting fun together.

Yes It's Me Again

Frustrated.....

That is how I will start out this post. It has been 11 days and another appointment later, and still not sure why my little man is still sick. Yes, 11 days of tummy trouble, little appetite, and fussy as can be. He basically wants to be held all day long or he will scream and cry. We have gone through a Lot of diapers, laundry soap, and clothes. Not to mention giving baths some days several times a day. The instructions from the Doctor today were: Change from rice to almond milk, No sugar, limit apple sauce, try green banana shakes, use probiotics three times daily, take specimen to the lab if things don't improve. Basically I was told this is trial and error at my sons expense. I have faith the I have an AWESOME doctor, but I'm frustrated that my happy boy is lost in the shuffle and I would really like to have him returned to me.

WHAT????????????

OK....

LISTEN UP....

This morning I was making Ashley's bed like I do everyday!! Spoiled kid, I know! She does make her bed on the weekends, while I'm at work. (A little trick I learned from my SIL, Jerilynn :)) When I finished, Ashley said......THANK YOU! What! did I hear that right. I was pretty much in shock lol. I didn't even respond with you're welcome, I simply said "OHHH, Thank you for saying Thank You, that was so nice." My day must be going to be good today. YEAH.

Better late than never....

Since Charlie did not feel well, and ran fever all day, he got to pick up his eggs in "king" fashion. His sister and cousin, Katie, rolled him in the car and helped him find all the empty eggs!!!
My Sister, Karen's kids. Katie (who finally got her braces off last week! Isn't she just beautiful!!), Cody (the oldest and in 3 weeks or sooner will be a daddy!), and Conner (a junior that just keeps growing taller and taller every time I see him!)
Charlie wore his Easter bucket on his head for a little bit! Silly boy!
My family and the Apple's of my eye! Aren't they adorable?!
I just realized that I did not post Easter Pics. Things have been crazy here lately. Charlie has been sick for almost 2 weeks now and Ashley keeps us busy as usual. Here is a little peek at what we did. I had to work, so I had to work lunch in between my patients. It worked out well.

Charlie's first "Milk" shake

Feeling sad for charlie last week, I decided to try and make him a special treat after dinner. Since I have not yet tried to bake gluten and dairy free yet, I thought I'd try to make him an "OREO BLIZZARD". Or at least my version of one. So I mixed a little rice dream vanilla ice cream, 2 gluten/dairy free chocolate sandwich cookies, and a little rice milk together and POOF. A little sweet treat for my sweet boy. He has never really had ice cream etc. and he sure did like it. He sucked it down in just a matter of a few minutes. He even had Chocolate Lips when he was all done. He is such a little doll!

ZOO Day Fun!

Friday we decided to take a little trip to or local zoo. The weather was nice, the sun was shining and most of the animals were sleepy. I'm so glad that Ashley hasn't outgrown going to the zoo yet. This was Charlie's Second trip to the zoo, however, he was so little his first time, he wouldn't remember going. He loved looking at the animals, but his favorite part was playing on the playground with Ashley and Ally. He was all smiles and not at all afraid to climb and slide like the big kids. We had a fun time.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Happy Early Easter...

My Mom sent this e-mail to me yesterday. Maybe this will make you think twice about buying those big chocolate bunnies for your kids baskets this year! Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!!

Just For Ashley

Ashley, we have a little surprise for you honey! Click HERE to see what it is. Hope you LOVE it.

Splish Splash

Look at this happy baby in his ducky bath tub. He was splashin' and splashin'.

I love it when he giggles and laughs, it just melts my heart. This smile is just the sweetest smile and the laughing is just music to my ears. I find it so hard to believe he will be 2 next month.

My favorite "healthy" things

I'm on my 2nd week of working out at the gym, and I'm enjoying it. Along with exercise comes eating healthier too. I feel like when I exercise I feel like I want to eat healthy. (Not always, but more!) These are some of my favorite healthy foods. I love these Yoplait yogurts, they come in soooo many great flavors. Ashley even loves the key lime pie flavor! Fresca is a long time favorite drink of mine. They have different flavors now too. We bought a box of these "Cutie's" and the whole family loves them. They are little easy to peel, seedless Mandarin oranges. YUMMY. Slim fast is a nice alternative for a meal when chasing around a 2 year old. These are just some of the things I've been eating while trying to be healthy.

UH....Gluten and dairy what?

Who needs gluten or dairy when you have a sweet mommy and daddy that make you a breakfast like this!!!! (YES, that is gluten free bread...costs 5.00 for about 10 slices that are much smaller than a normal slice of bread! OUCH!)

We started Charlie on his "DIET" yesterday. We had to really get prepared for this. Had to buy a book, and do some research at the health food store etc. It is so sad how expensive eating this way is! We got bread, rice pasta, cheese slices, cookies, pretzels and ice cream and spent $35.00. It doesn't sound much until you see the portion size in each package. Over $6.00 for a pint of rice dream ice cream! Very sad that eating healthy is soooo expensive. But we are ALL in for his health! Oh by the way, a LOT of candy has gluten and/or milk in it....so as for what will be in our eggs? Who really knows at this point! Still investigating. Jelly beans of all things have flour in them???? Who would have guessed.

I see YELLoW?

Ashley doing some fancy fighting moves.
Gavin has some great technique!

Mr. Garret (owner and instructor) & Mr. Gladman (instructor) showing off a take down move.

Punching and kickboxing.

Friday night was exciting for Ashley. She had her 2nd belt test for jui jitsu. She really enjoys doing this, and wow it is a workout too. She is progressing well, and has been asked to join the "Black Belt Club." They do a little more intense training and can attend more classes and learn more fighting techniques. She is really excited to do this. We also got to see my Gavin (my bff, kelley's, son) get his high yellow belt that night too. The kids had a ball getting to show off all of their skills. Her are some pics. I apologize in advance for the quality, for some reason I still haven't figured out how to get good pics in florescent lights.

Just because it is cute.

My Mom sent this e-mail titled "The proper hugging of a baby." This was the last picture in the e-mail and I think it is just adorable. 2 of my favorite things, A baby and a cute dog. Happy Wednesday everyone!