Kid Vid

Sugar Mama's

Is Cruz excited to go to Sugar Mama's??? He sure is!!!


I read about Sugar Mama's on Yelp. They are said to have the best cupcake in Austin. Since we have been to Hey Cupcake a couple of times, I thought it would be fun to go check out Sugar Mama's with the kids. It's in a teeny tiny shop on S. 1st Street. The kids were excited.



Of course they picked Oreo cupcakes. Peter had the Red Velvet, and I had a chocolate cupcake with salted caramel cream cheese frosting.



So did it compare to Hey Cupcake? Was is better? In one answer: YES! These cupcakes were sooooo amazing. And even better that they were a normal size. Hey Cupcake's ones are so massive that if you eat the whole thing you just feel like a bit ole tub o'lard. These were the perfect size and so good. I think I could bathe in a vat of that salted caramel cream cheese frosting.

Sugar Mama's was a winner!

My Morning

Let's just say that my morning involved looking up to find Kai with brown hands and no diaper and lots of bleach.

Family and Sunflowers

While Pops was on the couch yesterday with Cruz, Kupono decided to snuggle with them. I asked Gams to sneak me the camera before Pono moved. Got the shots!!!



I love how Pono has his nose against Cruz's feet. It's so sweet!

Pops with all his Littles



Cruzito was eating applesauce this morning. He looked SO MUCH like Ryenne. This is natural light from the door to the right.



I asked Ryenne today if she would take a picture of me. This is what I got. :) She said she wants to be "A Tographer" when she grows up. I think there's still a little more learning she needs with the camera - tee hee.



Cruz loves tummy time now. It's great!



We went outside to clean the pool and eat popsicles. Ryenne's first sunflower opened the other day. It was amazing to watch it grow from just a seed into a tall, beautiful plant! While I was taking these, I stepped into a Fire Ant hill. Major bites all over my foot!





And finally, my two boys. It's crazy to think that Kai is almost 22 months and Cruz is only 4 months and they are practically the same size. Same size diapers, same size thighs. Only 5 pounds separate them. Kai where's an 18 month onesie and Cruz also fits into an 18 month onesie - slightly baggy on him. It amazes me how sweet they both are.

Sweet Potatoes!

I have been trying to give Cruz rice cereal for the past few days. He puts it in his mouth, spits it out, gags.... it's not a pretty picture. My mom got him some baby food and I tried mixing sweet potatoes in the rice cereal with the same result.

Tonight I gave him sweet potatoes straight up. He was like a little bird! LOVED them. Didn't gag and didn't spit them out. He ate half a jar! I think my little chubbers loves his sweet taters! Just like his Mama!

We had such a nice day today. Me and the kids took a walk this morning and then were nice and lazy. Me and Ry practiced writing "R"s for a little while. We went to HEB and loaded up on groceries and the coupons were so good. $33 in coupons!!!

I had ribs cooking in the crock pot and made my own BBQ sauce. It was really good. Gams and Pops came over - it was great!

For all you rib lovers, here's what I did:

Put oven at 400 degrees and laid ribs out on a pan (salt and pepper each side) and baked on each side for 15 minutes to get off some fat

Put the ribs in the crock pot on low

On the stove I made the bbq sauce:

1/2 C ketchup
1/2 C tomato sauce
1/4 C brown sugar
1/4 C red wine vinegar
2 Tbs molasses
1 Tsp liquid smoke
1 1/2 Tsp butter
1/8 Tsp garlic powder
1/8 Tsp cinnamon
1/4 Tsp salt
1/4 Tsp pepper
** you can add hot sauce if you want, but I didn't**

Heat all of these things until sauce starts to render down just a little bit. Poor 3/4 of the sauce over the ribs in the crock pot and leave on low for 6-8 hours.

Before you're ready to eat, remove the ribs from the crock pot, put back on a pan and baste with leftover bbq sauce. Put back in the oven at 400 degrees for a few minutes.

I think I gave The Salt Lick a run for it's money!!!

YEESSSSS!!!!!!

Oh my goodness... feels like I'm finally catching a break here. After being told "NO" on several occasions, I found a loan officer who could help me buy our house from my dad. I was feeling so discouraged and my dad told me to keep trying - thanks Pop!

So today the loan officer, Deborah Ginac at Capstar if any one is looking, called me and told me that we qualified (with the help of my amazing in-laws - thank you!) at... wait for it.... 4.5%!!!!! 30 year fixed!!!!! If I was light enough to float I would be floating right now!!!!

Not only did she do that, but she finagled it so we would have zero money out of pocket. This is HUGE since I was afraid I'd have to raid the kids' savings account for a down payment.

I think we're really on a path to a better life. The credit card debt is getting smaller, the house will be ours on a 30 year fixed, Peter will re-launch his nursing career in the next two years.... I am practically counting the months until the financial stress is relieved. Thank goodness we moved to a state with such an amazingly low cost of living. We hit up Newflower Market yesterday and spent $30 on 3 large bags of groceries! It would have easily been $80 in Hawaii.

College Man

It'll be official starting in late August. I will be married to a college man.

Peter is registered at Austin CC for microbiology and math to start his prerequisites for the RN program. I am hoping we can squeeze one more class in for the Fall semester but we'll see. It's the beginning of a road to a better life for all of us.

He confided in me that he's nervous about being back in school. I know he will do so well with the challenge and I think he'll completely exceed his expectations.

My Photo Assistant

I took Ry with me on Bella's photoshoot on Friday. She was a good helper holding props!



Here are the two Hapa-Filipino princesses together!

A really great day

Gosh... today was such an awesome day. We started out with going to Gams and Pops and having the most AMAZING pancakes ever, hanging out, feeding the cows. It was awesome.

Came home and waited a little while and my friend Nikki came and picked me up and we went to a girls day out movie - Eclipse!!!! After knowing each other for two years, this was our first time out with NO KIDS and we got to ogle at the male leads in the movie, laugh, have fun. It was so incredibly awesome. Here we are after the movie.



Nikki dropped me off and Peter had just woken up, so we all put on our shoes and drove down to Ry's preschool and Peter and the kids shot basketball hoops and I ran (yes... I RAN) laps and did sprints and was feeling so spry I even did cartwheels (yes... CARTWHEELS)! We all got tons of exercise and it was so awesome. The kids were pooped, ate dinner, and went right to bed.

I'm pretty tired myself!!!!

Scavenger Hunt

This morning I looked at the thermometer and it was 80 degrees outside. I knew that it was only going to get hotter and hotter so I decided to make a scavenger hunt for the kids.



We made a list of things to find. The funniest part was that we found the lizard INSIDE the house instead of outside. His name is Larry.

Kai was happy to go walking instead of riding in the stroller. He's looking for a giant leaf here.


He was happy for Ryenne when she found one.


Then he wanted to check on his Baby in the stroller. (I am so glad I caught this image. I was afraid it hadn't turned out)


We found this area of rocks in someone's yard. They were looking for a "shiny rock"


Ryenne found a great one!


She picked out her own outfit today and I was so proud of her! She picked out things that match!




I love moments like these!


And where was Cruz? He was in his stroller and this is what he thought of the hunt:

He was sleeping through the entire thing.

The entire hunt lasted about half an hour and we found everything on our list aside from a dandelion. We were sweaty when we got back to the house. It was a fun adventure. I think we'll be adding this to our repertoire of fun things to do!

Kai's before bed talk

I carried Kai into his room tonight and said, "Did you have a good day?"
- "Yeah" he said.
"We'll have fun tomorrow. See you tomorrow" I said.
- "And Daddy?"
"Yes, and daddy too"
- "And YyYy?"
"Yes and Ryenne too"
- "And Baby?"
"Yes, your baby too"
- "And Mama?"
"Yes, I'll see you tomorrow, good night baby boy I love you."
- "Ny-Ny Mama"

He's so adorable.

Where to measure from?

My life changing eating habit quest is going so well. I haven't felt this full of energy and empowerment in a long time. I learned something very valuable over the past week - I learned about how my body processes calories, how many it needs, how many it burns, ect. Thank you to my friend Nikki for telling me about calorieking.com - it is tedious - but showed me the things that I was doing wrong. I wasn't eating as many calories as my body needed and I didn't even know it!

I went on the scale this morning to check out progress and was very pleasantly surprised! But I'm not sure where I should measure from.... my pre-pregnancy weight? my weight from the day I gave birth? the weight that I started this new journey when Cruz was 3 weeks old?

I have lost:
26 pounds from pre-pregnancy weight
38 pounds from the day I gave birth
17 pounds from when Cruz was 3 weeks old (when I started this change)

I am feeling good!!!

FLOORS!!!!!

The floors went in yesterday. Literally ALL DAY from 9:30am to almost 10pm. There were some small issues that I noticed but they were taken care of and I LOOOOOOOVE my floors. Still some things to do... paint the drywall and the baseboards are going in on Monday. But right now I'm floating I'm so happy.

Cruz loves the floors too. He's modeling for me so that I can promote the "at home studio" for other babies.





He was all smiley and giggly, but the moment I'd block my face with the camera he'd get a very confused look on his face. "Where'd my mama go?" So I was laying on my tummy and had Ry come sit on my back to make him smile. Worked like a charm. She was my little helper.

Here they are playing while Kai is napping.



On another note, today I did something I always love to do in the summertime. I shaved my legs outside. I don't know what it is about sitting on the back porch with Peter's shaving cream, a razor, and the garden hose (sounds ghetto I know), but it's just so awesome! haha

I even got a little getaway with Gams today. Of course I had Cruz, but it was nice to stroll the aisles of the grocery store in peace and chat and linger where I wanted to linger.

Out with the old

What a wirlwind of a day it's been. Our drywall in the living room was patched up yesterday, Koa and I moved out all the furniture in the living room, and the carpet was yanked out today. It is AMAZING to see the transformation in the living room already.

A thin layer of new concrete was laid on the slab to give it a perfectly smooth surface. The flooring goes in tomorrow. I am so excited. But also nervous about entertaining the kids. Today was quite a challenge since it was rainy and we were stuck in one part of the house for the whole day. In fact, it was so tiring that I fell asleep with all of them at 7:30pm and just woke up at 10:30 for a snack and am about ready to go back to sleep. I know I'll need the energy tomorrow!

We are waiting for Peter's MCC transcripts to arrive. Once they do he can go register for classes at Austin CC. RN nursing program... here he comes! Well hopefully he can get in for the Fall 2011 RN program. He has a few prerequisites he needs to take. But goodness this will be so good for our family. It's the start of new... new floor, new career. YESSSS!!!!

4th

Our 4th of July was really low-key. The morning light was gorgeous...



We headed off to Gams & Pops for breakfast. Oh how I love Country Breakfast! When I tell the kids where we're going to eat they get really excited. They love being outside at their house.



I love this of Meesie and Kai!



Then we came home and played outside and gardened the day away...

Kai loves gardening like his Papa Eugene!


Cruz & Ry were swinging backlit by the setting sun... magic.


My big girl


Cruzito loves his swing! He turned 4 months old on July 4th :)


I adore the way he tucks in his lower lip!

I'm just not used to it

Today is 4th of July and I keep thinking, "Oh... I should have gotten the kids some flags or planned some kind of themed activity" - but I'm just not used to the whole holiday thing. It seems like there is a holiday just about every month, and I come from a background of never having a holiday off. It's just another day as usual. I keep trying to be a good mom and remember to do holiday things, but I think I'll just stick to the big ones for kids - Valentines Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Those I can handle. But all these little ones... eek. I am just not used to it. We don't have a normal schedule of holidays off or money to spend on silly things. I suppose I should be more into it so I can do "themed" images for my photography blog... but again - It just doesn't even cross my mind. Must not be in my DNA.

Chocolate & Zucchini Muffins

Chocolate and Zucchini??? Yes I know. It sounds weird. But these come out really awesome and are a great project for cooking with the kiddos.

We've had a rainy three days and me and Ry whipped out some of these muffins yesterday. I got a standard zucchini bread recipe and I have tweaked it to be a bit healthier.

Preheat oven to 325

3 C Flour (I prefer unbleached)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3 tsp cinnamon
1/2 C vegetable oil
1/2 C apple sauce or apple butter
2 1/4 C sugar
3 tsp vanilla
2 C zucchini (about one large zucchini, grated. leave wet!)
1/2 C semisweet chocolate chips
3 eggs

Sift flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon. Set aside.

Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, apple sauce/butter, and sugar together. Add wet grated zucchini and chocolate chips and mix. Once all combined, slowly add dry mixture and combine completely.

Spoon into standard muffin pan and bake for 35 minutes (you'll need to bake longer for large muffin pan).

Now for the hard part...

I'm on day 3 of Cruz not sleeping at night. It's like he thinks he's a newborn again. But he's not getting up just to be fed... he's getting up to coo and laugh, to be cranky, to have a diaper change, or because he's hungry. And it's literally every 2 hours at night. Since he's sleeping in my bed, I feel like I'm awake all night long. And the naps during the day are horrible - 20 minutes long. When does this kid sleep???

So here's the hard part... I am going to have to put him in his room and let him cry it out a bit. This is so extremely hard for me. I am just really, really TIRED and it doesn't make me a good mom during the day to be this tired. If I can train Cruz to sleep as well as Kai, it will be SO GOOD.

And speaking of Kai, I am taking away his pluggies and giving them to him only at sleep times. I hope this helps his speech develop more and is one step closer to taking it away completely.

10 years

If you had asked me five years ago what I'd be doing on my 10th wedding anniversary, I would have told you that I would spend it in the Tuscan Countryside or the Amalfi Coast preparing for a lavish 10 year Italian vow renewal... but alas... it was not meant to be.

Peter and I said "I do" 10 years ago today. Amazing that a decade has passed by already. Even more wonderful that instead of being a couple we now have a complete family.

Since we're pretty much broke and can't go out, we instead invited over our very dear friends, let the kids run amock, and dined on Stouffer's Lasagna, Strawberry Salad, Garlic Bread, and a home made chocolate pudding pie. It was fabulous.

On another note, Cruz rolled all the way over yesterday! He's only done it once so far, but I'm sure once he gets the hang of it, he'll be doing it all the time!

Ryenne Logic

Last night I finished editing a wedding reception for a friend and then got to bed around 11:30. I quickly fell asleep but it didn't last for long.

At midnight I opened my eyes and Ryenne was standing up in her bed. Kinda freaky. She saw me and came over and said, "Mom, bees can't eat too much honey because it will give them a tummy ache." I agreed with her and told her to go back to bed. But she was awake like it was a brand new day.

I then got more and more bits of Ryenne logic. My favorite one was, "Two + some = more" After a few various viewpoints, Cruz decided to wake up too. He was smily and happy and cooing at his sister.

So there we all were... at 1am. In my bed. They both didn't go bac down until 2am, but I did go to bed with a smile. It was definitely full of sweet moments.