Today

I know this is grainy... but it's ISO 1600 and from the back pew of the church. Ry and Jackson held hands walking up for their performance. It was so adorable.



And Cruz loves to take a nap on his sisters bed. Adorable!

Ryenne & Jackson's Church Performance

This morning the whole family headed off to Manchaca United Methodist Church to watch Ryenne and Jackson perform - they had been practicing each day of the VBS Space Camp. We dropped of Kai and Hogan in the toddler room so they could have fun.

They gave us the green shirts on Friday and Ry was so excited about her shirt she wore it all day - of course I couldn't get it laundered by Sunday morning! Oh well.. she looked cute in her flower shirt and it helped her stand out in the performance.

I am really sorry for the shaky video. We were laughing SO HARD I could barely hold still. You'll see in the video that Ry and Jackson bump into each other and Jackson goes down. Then Ry starts doing the pee pee dance. She also had a problem with her shoe. I had to stop the video because I ran up to grab her and take her to the bathroom - we made it!

This was her first big performance and the church was PACKED. I am completely proud of her that she wasn't afraid to go up there and do her stuff. Such a big girl!

My morning with the kids yesterday

This is a big part of what we do... we're just goofballs. And we like to dance. The wood floors are awesome for "zooming" across the floor. The unfinished painted wall will get painted this week!

First Product Review - Toms of Maine Beautiful Earth Deodorant

Remember how I mentioned that I will be doing an overhaul in my household? When things run out I will be replacing them with their natural counterpart.

Well my first review is for Toms of Maine Deodorant in "Beautiful Earth" scent. I was really excited to try this because I think that Toms stands for very good things and I thought to myself, "Why am I trying to block my sweat anyway? What if it needs to come out? What if it's better for me to sweat?"

I almost snorted in the aisle of Newflower Market when I picked up "Beautiful Earth" because it evokes such an image of pot smoking, dreadlocked, Paia hippies - so not me - but the smell was really nice!

It did last for a while and I do sweat a bit cause I'm always lifting the kids or dancing or doing something where I'm in motion. The sweat didn't bother me and it did mostly mask any BO. But I do exercise about 5 - 6 days a week and after I did my Zumba I really did smell like a Paia hippie. I mean... it was BAD. You know it's bad when you can smell yourself!

So will I wear this when I go out on photo shoots? Definitely not. But it was just fine for normal household stuff... and I do shower after I exercise anyway. I think I will continue to keep the Dove around for when I get together with all you friends and family out there.

I'm testing out a couple of other things that I've had on hand for a few days now. I'll review them soon when I'm confident in my like/dislike of them.

ComPeter Cam

It's so cute how Ryenne says Computer. She calls it the ComPeter. So she asked to take a picture with me on the ComPeter Camera :)

Cruz is 5 Months!!!

FIVE MONTHS???? WHAAAA? Time is flying. I literally cannot even grasp what day of the week it is most days.

Well little Cruzito is 5 months old. The boy is HUGE. By far my biggest baby. He and Kai both wear 18 months clothes and size 4 diapers.

Anyway, I didn't put a whole lot of thought into Cruz's session cause it was literally about 5 minutes of shooting while Kai was napping... but I love how they came out with the new wood floors and the soft window light.



Okay above... seriously note his hand position. He is such a BOY! hahahahahaha

This is his newest thing... he loves to stick his tongue out! He has the cutest little bubble-gum tongue.



I looooove how he does this with his feet.




Happy 5 months beautiful boy. I love you so much!

Kai's Special Day

I mentioned yesterday how I felt bad that Kai doesn't get to do as many fun things as Ryenne. Once again he was sad to see her off to Vacation Bible School today.

After we left, we drove straight over to Gams and Pops house. Once we turned onto their street he started getting excited and yelling "Moooooo!"

He was getting to spend time with his Gams and Mommy and cows without his big sister around. I think he felt quite grown up and proud of himself. He got to explore a bit, feed the cows some carrots and "cake", and run around outside. I loved just watching him.





Feeding the cows with Gams and Cruz




Me and my two little boys... thanks Gams for taking this picture!!


After time with the cows (and lots of water!), we headed off to Costco. We parked next to the COOLEST CAR!!!



Then we came back home and dropped off some groceries and went and got Ryenne. I loved how he kept his little adventure all to himself.

We had a really wonderful night tonight. Katie, Hogan, and Jackson came over and joined us for dinner and play. I think all the littles are sleeping quite well as I type this.

Park Last Week

Last week we met up with Nikki and the girls at Southpark Meadows. We had a picnic and played. Ditsy me forgot to take the pictures off the camera!!

I love this picture of Nikki and Makena. I wish I would have taken out the cup though!


Three beautiful (sweaty) Princesses... Ryenne, Makena, and Kaeli! They were so adorable playing together. Love these cuties!!


The rest are of Kai Boy. He was having so much fun exploring. He was finally old enough to be able to climb on things on his own without me being crazed with worry!

More Changes

I am just so fed up with the state of things. I had some Oil of Olay face cleanser and on a whim I turn it around and look at the ingredients list. Fourth ingredient: Butane. Into the trash it went. I have decided I am done with all the big box stuff. So long Procter & Gamble, Kimberly Clark and all the other mega brands. Did you know P&G bought out Burts Bees? It just makes me MAD. So many chemicals going into so many things that I touch and my babies touch. Makeup and skincare... don't even get me started!

Anyway, I am phasing these companies out of my life. There are enough small companies making great things that I can support with my dollars. I will be posting reviews of things that I try.

Space Camp

Last night it was hard to get Ry to go to sleep. She was like a little girl on Christmas Eve and excitedly told me before she finally went down, "SPACE CAMP STARTS TOMORROW!"

She woke up incredibly excited this morning. Vacation Bible School has a Space theme and takes place all this week. I wasn't quite sure what to expect. Never done anything like this before. We went to her church school and checked her in and there were so many kids there. They had space shuttles hanging from the ceiling, pictures of outer space and stars all over the walls. They were singing and I left Ry with a huge smile on her face. Unfortunately Kai was a bit bummed that he couldn't stay (they have to be potty trained).

Me and Katie took Hogan, Kai, and Cruz to jump in the water fountain at SouthPark Meadows, but it was broken. The boys happily played in a puddle.

Ry had such a wonderful day. I think she was pretty worn out though. The second half of the day she was very tired and grumpy. She went to bed tonight with no arguments. Perhaps tomorrow a nap is in order after she's done with VBS and lunch.

Since Kai has to go through the ordeal of dropping off his sister and having to leave this place he associates with so much fun, I am going to take him out for ice cream after we drop her off. Poor Kai so rarely gets something that is just for him, but he doesn't know it.

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!