Liam's New Hat

It happened!!! It actually happened!  Liam has a new hat.  His beloved straw hat that he got when he was ONE really started wearing down so I've been on the look out for a new hat for him for some time.  Sadly, nothing that I found seemed to "fit" him.  He's tried on so many hats...not by my force but because any store we go in to he tends to gravitate towards the hats.  He loves hats.  And he's been asking me for a new straw hat.  So last week when we were in Carters, he found a little straw hat and loved it.  It was perfect.  He has worn it every day since we bought it and hasn't put on his old hat since.  I'm sure he will pull out his old hat from his "special box" sometime soon though and put it on just because he loved that hat so much.  He's already been stopped several times the past week by people who just want to tell him how much they love his hat.  :)  I felt a little sad about getting him a new hat but after seeing him in this one for the past week, I'm not feeling as sad about it any more.  He looks pretty adorable in this new one. 

18 weeks

I'm a week behind on my 18 week update post because well I was busy packing for vacation and then have been on vacation and totally forgot.  But I'm sitting here on the deck at my beach house, looking at Ruy, my husband, and their cousins, all playing in the pool while I drink some coffee so I thought now would be a good time to catch up on this post.  Liam and Alanna are sleeping since it's 8PM so I'm up at the house with them.  But the pool is close enough to our house for me to see everything that is going on and to hear the beautiful sound of the waves crashing.  It's peaceful and relaxing...listening to two of the most beautiful sounds in the world...my son and my husband laughing, and the ocean. 

May  20, 2015

Weeks pregnant: 18
Weight gained: 18 pounds.  I started at 112 and I'm currently 130.
Gender:  Still don't know
Maternity clothes:  Yes, but still mainly regular clothes.
Sleep:  Sleeping pretty good.
Best moment in the past two weeks:  Getting to spend time with the kids outside especially playing in the water.  It's so fun to watch them have so much fun.
Worst moment in the past two weeks:  Nothing really upsetting has happened lately.  It's been a pretty good two weeks.
Miss anything:  Not really.
Movement:  No movement yet I have to admit that it's really starting to bother me that I haven't felt the baby move.  I felt Alanna at 13 weeks so I just really want to feel some movement.
Cravings:  Nothing that I believe to be pregnancy related...just me wanting to eat too much :) 
 Queasy or sick:  No.  I think that is all long gone.
Looking forward to: Vacation!!! ***Update: (I wrote this before going on vacation but am just getting around to posting it!)

Our Week

This week has been a little bit busy since I've been trying to make sure I have everything ready for vacation.  We leave tomorrow morning for the beach and to say I'm excited is an understatement.  I need this vacation SO bad.  Liam and Ruy have been counting down the days until we leave and I have to admit I have been too. 

Monday I woke up and decided that I didn't want to spend all day cooking and cleaning like I normally do.  I just really wanted to spend some time with the kids.  So we went to the Children's Museum for a few hours and then went to Chick-fil-a for lunch.  While we were at Chick-fil-a I asked Liam what he had learned about in church Sunday.  This is how our conversation went...

Me: Liam what did you learn about at church yesterday?

Liam:  Jesus

Me:  What about Jesus?

Liam:  The Passover.

Me:  Oh what happened at the Passover?

Liam:  Well Jesus was bleeding on his leg so he put a band-aid on it!

After lunch we went home and put Alanna down for nap.  It was SUPER hot outside so while Alanna was sleeping, I got the boys' stuffed animal bucket out and filled it with water and let Liam play in it to cool off.  He played for an hour, then came in and watched a cartoon.  When Alanna got up, we went back outside and the kids played for another two hours in the water.  Alanna was so happy and just loved every minute of it...minus the times that Liam thought it would be fun to pour water on her. She looks so cute in her bathing suit I can hardly stand it.   I gave them some watermelon for a snack and they ate so much of it.  Alanna loves watermelon like crazy.  It was really fun just to spend the day relaxing with the kids and enjoying my time with them. 

Please excuse the picture overload from this day.  I took so many but couldn't decide on just one or two...

Tuesday I had so many errands to run.  I needed to get Alanna some new pajamas, make a return at Old Navy, go to Kid-to-Kid, and then I took the kids to the park.  We had a picnic lunch at the park sitting next to the water.  It was another really hot day so we sat under the picnic shelter in the shade.  After lunch, the kids played in the huge sand area the park has instead of playing on the playground.  The sand area is completely shaded and it was really enjoyable sitting there watching them play with the other kids.  We also saw a big snake eating a toad, which Liam thought was just about the coolest thing ever! Ruy and I read books after Liam and Alanna went to bed and then while we were sitting on the couch just snuggling and talking for a bit, he told me he never wants to sell our house.  He said he never wants to grow up, or move out, or get married.  He said he wants to stay little forever and just be with us forever.  My feelings exactly little man!!!  Love him so much!

Wednesday I went grocery shopping for the beach.  I decided I didn't want to wait until we got to the beach to do our grocery shopping this year since the past two years that has been really stressful for me.  We bought a big cooler and we're taking everything we need with us.  We didn't get out of the house until around 10:30AM and I had to make an exchange at both Target and Carters before heading to Wal-mart and Sam's Club.  We stopped and had lunch at Wendy's after I made my exchanges and I got us all Frosty's.  That was the highlight of the kids' day.  Grocery shopping with a tired 1 year old is not always the best idea but it really needed to be done.  We got home at 2PM and Alanna went straight down for nap.  The rest of the day we spent doing some chores, playing outside in the water, and then Ruy had his last night of Awanas.  It was water night so he got to go and play in an awesome blow up water slide.  He did so well in Awanas this year, Nathan and I are so proud of him.  He got through his first two books and started his third book.  He worked really hard on memorizing all his verses and really enjoyed his first year.  He's sad it's over and is already talking about next year.

Friday was a cold (high of 57)  wet, rainy day.  It has been in the upper 80's the rest of the week so it was so strange to wake up to it being so cold.  The boys put on their jackets and played with bubbles on the front porch for a while in the morning.  Then we went to the Children's museum for about 1.5 hours just so they weren't inside all day.  I made a huge batch of pancakes to take to the beach so I wouldn't have to make them there, and I also made up another batch of homemade greek yogurt.  The kids spent most of the day playing legos, blocks, dress up, reading, doing puzzles, and things like that.  When it stopped raining finally around 5PM, the boys went outside in their boots and played for a little bit.  We ate delicious Chicken Noodle Soup for dinner (recipe coming soon) and then Liam drew up a "treasure map" and walked around following me around telling me all about his treasure and where it was buried.  It was really cute.  He wants me to bury a treasure for him to find.  If it's not raining this weekend, that might be something I'll have to do.  After I got Liam and Alanna to bed, Ruy and I snuggled up and ate yummy buttery popcorn while watching National Treasure.  It was fun!

Today was packing day!!!  I spent most of the day packing.  We went to Kroger this morning to get a few last minute things that I forgot to get.  Then I realized when I got home that I had forgotten to get dog food again.  So after Alanna's nap we went to Wal-mart.  I had a list of about four things and somehow still managed to forget the dog food again!!!  There's something wrong with me apparently.  My hubby is out right now at 9:30PM buying the dog food.  We have mostly everything packed and waiting by the front door except for our bathroom bag and the food that needs to go in the cooler, and a few other things that we had to use tonight, like our fans.  I made a breakfast casserole (I'll share the recipe soon) and have it waiting in the frig so that all I have to do in the morning it stick it in the oven.  Nathan wants to be on the road by 9AM so that's what we're shooting for.  So, I'm going to finish up this post then try to get to bed by 10PM because Alanna woke me up at 5:30 this morning and tomorrow is going to be a super busy day! 

Ah!  I'm so excited.  I can't believe vacation is finally here!!! 

So good night and I hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!!!

Nathan's Birthday

This past Saturday (May 16)  was my husband's birthday.  Ruy had a baseball game that afternoon which was totally fantastic for Nathan because he's an assistant coach and baseball is just about one of his favorite things so he was happy to spend some of his birthday on the field.  Ruy played a great game and they won against a very good team so both Nathan and Ruy were very happy.  Nathan said that was one of the greatest birthday presents ever.  Can you believe I didn't remember to take any pictures at the game???  I must be pregnant and busy chasing two little kids around or something. 

After the game we headed home and let the boys watch a movie and cool off because it was SO hot outside and Ruy had been out in the heat for over three hours straight.  Alanna took a nap and I caught up on some blogging.  After we all cooled off and rested up, we took a few birthday pictures and then we headed out to dinner. 

A few things about these pictures...

1. It's pretty much impossible to get everyone looking at the camera at the same time, so it's a good thing that I like real moments, real emotion better than posed smiles. 

2.  Alanna was not sure what she thought about these party hats....

 ... as you can tell by this picture :)

3.  Liam was completely happy to wear his party hat all night even through dinner.  But that's no surprise since he has a slight obsession with hat.

4.  Ruy is getting way too big and totally needs to stop growing up so fast!

And 5.  I'm so lucky to be married to such an awesome man!!!

 We had planned on going to Nathan's favorite restaurant, a Mongolian BBQ place, but when we got there it had been closed down.  We were all very sad.  Nathan decided that we would go to Capital Ale house instead, which ended up being really great.  There was no wait, which was super surprising since it was 6:30 on a Saturday night.  We asked to sit outside since it felt great in the shade and also so the kids could be a little louder without disrupting anyone's dinner.  The kids love Capital Ale's twisty ties that they have for the kids and that kept them entertained for a long time.  Alanna had more fun stabbing a lemon with a pen...whatever works right! :)  But no kids cried, no kids screamed, no kids spilled any drinks.  No kids tried to jump out of their seats, no kids threw their plates on the floor, and they all loved their food.  It was great!  Well Alanna and Liam mainly just ate their french fries and their ice cream sandwiches (free ice cream with kids meals) but sometimes french fries for dinner just have to be ok.  It was one of the most un-stressful, most relaxing, and enjoyable dinners we've had as a family at a restaurant.  My younger sister works there so she spent some time chatting with us at our table and helping get us anything we needed.  The kids loved seeing their "Auntie".  

We went home and had cheesecake and sang Happy Birthday to Nathan.  Then we got all the kids tucked into bed and watched a little of a movie.  I couldn't make it past 10:30PM though so we only got through about half the movie.  

It was a really fun day.  I'm so thankful that I got to celebrate another birthday with the love of my life. 

Alanna 18 Months Old

May 14, 2015
18 Months

Alanna turned 18 months old on May 14.  This past six months have been SO fun.  Alanna's personality has just continued to be as beautiful as ever.  She is so happy and playful all the time.  She's so sweet and listens and obeys better than any of my kids have at her age.  She still doesn't like to hold still on my lap for longer than a few seconds but she will sit next to me while I read books and pay attention way better than she used to, especially if there are animals in the book.  She loves to laugh and when she feels like being silly she still wrinkles up her nose when she's laughing.   She is an outside girl for sure.  She loves sand, dirt, water, bugs, and animals.  She gets so excited when she sees birds and squirrels in our yard.  She points to them and tries to say something...usually she calls them "Doo" which means Duke.  I guess she thinks all animals are called Duke like our dog.  She is learning animals sounds.  Her favorite is "neigh-neigh" and she usually makes that sound for every animal.   She can say "quack quack" though, and sometimes says "moo".  She has a lot of teeth.  I think she has ten.  Alanna loves food.  And she loves feeding herself!  She gets very upset if I try to help her but she's doing really well with feeding herself. She's not a very picky eater.  She pretty much eats whatever I give her except for eggs and lunch-meat.  Her favorites are pizza, pancakes, muffins, cheese, oatmeal, black beans, applesauce, yogurt, bananas, and watermelon.  She just discovered dipping sauces like ranch and ketchup and thinks that it is awesome!  She doesn't nurse much any more.  Just 2-3 times a day for a few minutes at nap time and night time.  I think she will be completely weened before the baby gets here though because she's started to fight nursing at nap time.  She still loves loves loves her blankie.  She rubs it on her face while she is going to sleep and if she gets upset during the day, she will find her blankie and bring it to me and then lay it on my shoulder and rest her head on it.  She is such a great sleeper still.  She sleeps from about 7:30PM-7:30AM every night unless she's got a cold or cutting teeth.  She just went from two naps to one.  She sleeps from about 1PM-3 or 4PM now.  It's always an adjustment for me when they cut out a nap but she's doing great with not being fussy in the mornings and is not fighting her afternoon nap any more so it's actually been an easier transition that I had expected.  She is absolutely in love with her Daddy.  She asks for him all the time and loves talking to him on the phone when he's at the fire station.  She loves to sit on his lap when he's eating and steal some of his food :)  She gives him the biggest kisses but also loves to wrestle with him and the boys.  Speaking of the boys...she also loves her brothers.  She gets so excited when they play with her.  Liam tends to be a little too rough with her but Ruy is so gentle with her.  She loves it when Ruy crawls around on the floor and chases her.  Her and Liam have fun together as long as Liam is not sitting on her or trying to tell her what to do/not to do :)  Her hair is now long enough to put into a little side pony tail or two little pony tails.  But she hates having her hair done.  It's so hard to get her to hold still unless I let her hold a comb while I fix her hair.  But her hair is so soft and has the sweetest little curls in it.  She says so many words now it's been kind of hard to keep up with them.  She says a new word almost daily.  Here is a list of the words I could think of but I'm sure she is saying more than this.   

Bye bye
Hi
Ruy
Mommy
Daddy
Duke - "Doo"
Neigh-Neigh
Moo
More
Outside
Seat
Please - "Peese"
Banana - "Nanny"
Nana - "Nanny" 
Yes
Yeah
No
Blankie - "Baby"
Baby
Eyes
Belly
Shoes
Alanna - "Lana"
Cheese

She is our little sweet pea forever and always.  

We are all so in love with her.  It's kind of hard not to be!

Homemade Greek Yogurt

Last year, I started on the Trim Healthy Mama diet.  I hate to say diet because people automatically tend to think that it's just a "short term" change but Trim Healthy Mama is a lifestyle.  It's been amazing for me and this past September my husband joined me on the THM journey.  He's lost about 30 pounds since then and has had no problem keeping the weight off.  Sadly, making healthier changes to your eating can also mean spending more money.  I wish healthy food wasn't more expensive than the prepackaged, processed, unhealthy foods but in most cases it is. 

One of the foods I started eating after I started Trim Healthy mama was Greek Yogurt.  It is high in protein and low in carbs and works with any meal type in the THM plan.  It's so filling so you can eat less of it but still get full.  The only problem is that I had to spend $4.98 per each 38 oz container at Sam's Club.  Believe it or not, that is actually a lot cheaper than you can buy it at some other stores.  Anyways, Nathan and I can go through 38 oz of yogurt or more in one week.  It was getting really expensive.  So I decided to ask my friends on the Trim Healthy Mama Facebook Fan Page (they are amazing by the way!!!)  if anyone made their own Greek Yogurt, if it was easy, and if it really saved money???  

I had such a big response to my question.  Seriously, the fan page is awesome.  It's so great to have a place to go to ask about any questions you may have and the sisters' who wrote the book even answer questions sometimes.  It's just such a huge support system and I love it!  Ok back to my question... a lot of people answered back saying how much they loved making their own yogurt and that it only costs whatever you have to spend on a gallon of skim milk basically.  For some women who have an Aldis near them, that was $1.39.  For other women it was around $2.50.  And they said they got way more than 38 oz of yogurt for that price.  Awesome!!!

A few women posted a few different links to blogs with instructions on how to make it.  I read them all but ended up going with the one that I thought had the simplest instructions.  I'm all about keeping it simple and easy. With three kids, being pregnant, and homeschooling I need simple!  

Brianna Thomas' blog was one of the blogs I was directed to for instructions on making Greek yogurt and that is the one I went with.  You can find the link here.  She has a video of her making her yogurt as well as written instructions.  I loved that she had both.  I do so much better when I can see things done visually and read them.  The video is about ten minutes long but I recommend watching it.  I followed her directions exactly as she said to and my yogurt turned out perfectly!  I was SOOOO happy that it turned out the first time I made it.  That's doesn't always happen so I was very thankful it did with this.  

I thought I would post some pictures of my yogurt making process just so you can see how mine looked. 

 The first step was take take a whole gallon of skim milk and bring it to a slow boil.  My took exactly one hour to come to a boil. 

  Then once it comes to a boil you remove it from the heat, and let it cool for an hour. 

  After it cooled I added 1/3 cup of Greek Yogurt and whisked it in. 

* I had to use Greek Yogurt that was store bought because this was my first time making it homemade.  Now that I have a homemade batch, I'll just use 1/3 cup of that yogurt for the next batch I make.

  Then I covered the milk and put it in my oven with the light on all night. 

* It was in the oven from 8PM-about 9:30AM.  It took me a while to get the kids fed and the kitchen cleaned that morning so it sat in the oven a little longer than I had wanted it to but it worked fine. 

*Oh and please excuse my VERY dirty oven.  I love to keep my kitchen clean but somehow cleaning the inside of the oven always gets overlooked.  

This is what it looked like when I took it out of the oven.  It had come together in one big curd and a bunch of whey was sitting on top. 

  I needed to strain the yogurt over a strainer in the sink using a cloth to catch the yogurt and strain out the whey.  I wasn't sure what kind of cloth to buy so again I asked the ladies on the fan page what they used and I got a lot of responses.  Most of the women said they used flour sacks to strain it.  I found some flour sacks at Walmart and I've been so happy with them.  They were $4.98 for a 5 pack.  They were in the kitchen isle with the cloth napkins and hot pads. 

  Then I had to put a wooden spoon across the cloth and tie up the corners of the cloth up over the spoon to form a bag and place it over a tall container to catch the whey.

*I didn't have a container that was tall enough to catch the whey without the bag touching the bottom of the pan, so my husband put the strainer in the pan (same pan I cooked it in) and then we placed the "bag" in the strainer, which kept the bag several inches from the bottom of the pan.  I love my husband.  I would not have thought of this and was actually rushing off to Walmart to find a new container when he did this for me.  :) 

I let it hang in the container in the frig for about 2.5 hours to strain.  This is what mine looked like when I opened up the cloth. 

 Then I took the yogurt and scooped it into my old yogurt containers.  I filled an entire 38 oz container and about half of a 32 oz container.  I figured it was about 50-55 oz of Greek yogurt.  And it only cost me $2.19!  

Don't be intimidated by all the steps.  It really was very simple and I'm so happy I finally decided to give it a try. 

I'm going to be giving this yogurt to my kids as well as Nathan and myself now.  It's cheaper to make this yogurt than to buy and it's very healthy so I think the kids should be eating it as well.  

Please head over to Brianna Thomas' blog for the detailed instructions and to watch the video.  It really is great!  She also has a ton of other amazing recipes on her blog. 

I like to add Truvia to my Greek yogurt to sweeten it and then mix in either thawed frozen fruit, fresh fruit, or all natural peanut butter.  

Mother's Day 2015

Mother's Day was really nice this year.  It was very busy but still very nice.  I was really sad my husband had to work again on Mother's Day, but I've kind of gotten used to him being gone on holidays since he's been in the fire department these past five years.  

We spent the morning at church, and then went to Qdoba for lunch.  After lunch we came home and let Alanna nap for an hour and then headed to Williamsburg to meet up with my in-laws.  It rained off and on while we were on our way down to meet them but ended up being a really nice afternoon.  We went to a state park in Williamsburg that was right along the York River.

The kids played on the playgrounds, we ate Subway under a shelter while it rained, and then when the rain stopped we took a walk down the path to the water.

Alanna loved the sand and the water but she didn't like the way it felt to have sand in-between her toes.

Liam and Ruy tried to climb up the side of the hill and Ruy's feet got stuck in some really really think mud.  He looked like a mud monster when he pulled his feet out.  He had mud all over his legs up to his knees.

Liam was most definitely not in the mood for any family pictures.  :)  

Liam found some snails stuck to a log and then ended up waste deep in the water.  I told him just to get his feet wet but...I should have known that that would never happen.  There he stood waste deep in water saying "Mommy is this far enough?"  :)  It was kind of hard to get upset with him.

Our water fun was cut short though because the gnats decided to come out and the wouldn't stop biting us.  They were biting Alanna worse than anyone and she started to cry so we headed back to the van to get cleaned up and head home.

We all ate some sugar cookies once we were cleaned up, said our good-byes and then started the trip home.  It was only supposed to be an hour drive home but there was really bad traffic so it ended up taking us an extra 40 minutes to get home.  It was after 8PM when we got home and I wanted to just put all the kids straight to bed, but they were all covered in sand and/or mud so I gave them all a quick bath and then got them all tucked into bed.  I spent the rest of the evening relaxing on the couch and working on some blog posts.  

I'm so thankful that God allowed me to be the mother of my three sweet children & our sweet baby on the way!!!  Being a mother has been the greatest joy of my life.  I love everything about it...even the sometimes crazy chaotic days. 

I hope all of you mothers reading this had a fabulous Mother's Day as well!!!

Menu Plan May 15-May 22

Here is my menu plan for the coming week.  Are you wondering what all the FP, S, and E's mean??? You can head over to this website here to learn all about the Trim Healthy Mama lifestyle!!!  It's amazing!

Menu Friday May 15 - Friday May 22

Friday- Baseball Game @6PM , Make homemade bread

B- Ham & Cheese Omelets, strawberries (S) Everyone

S- Me: Caramel Frappe (FP or S...depending on if I use half & half or whip cream) *I just made this for the first time on Thursday (5-14) and it's amazing.  I'll be posting the recipe soon!!!  Kids: Peanuts & Raisons

L- Me: Chef Salad (S) Kids: Snack-y-Lunch (pretzels, string cheese, smoothie)

S- Me: Apples with tsp of PB (E) Kids: Apples with lots of PB :)

D- Gwen's Nest Pizza & Salad (E) Everyone

D- Cottage Berry Whip from the book pg.  (FP)

Saturday- Nathan's Birthday & Baseball Game @ 1:30PM, Made red & black beans

B- Baked Oatmeal (E) Everyone

S- No Snack (having an early lunch)

L- Turkey, cheese & tomato paninis, fruit (E) Everyone

S- Peanuts, string cheese (S) Everyone

D- Out to dinner for Nathan's Birthday

D- Birthday Cake (Cheesecake recipe from the book) (S)

Sunday- Nursery @10AM

B-  Pumpkin Muffins (E) Everyone

S- Me: Caramel Frappe (S) (take to church) Kids:  Have snacks in their class

L- Chicken Tortilla Soup (E or S...depending on toppings) Everyone

S- Popcorn (E) Everyone

D- Leftovers (E or S) Everyone

D- Leftover Birthday Cake (S)

Monday-

B- Banana or Pumpkin Muffins (E) Everyone

S- Cinnamon Rolls with Gwen's Nest Bread (E) (I've never made this before but I've been wanting to find a way to make cinnamon rolls that are "on-plan".  I'll let you know how they turn out.

L- Me:  "Fotato Soup" from the book pg.   (E) Kids:  Mac & Cheese, broccoli & ranch

S- Peanut Butter in Greek yogurt with sugar free chocolate chips (S) Everyone (Kids can have regular chocolate chips)

D-  Grilled Shrimp & Chicken, salad (E or S...depending on salad dressing) Everyone

D- Tummy Tucking Ice Cream from the book pg.  (FP)

Tuesday-

B- Eggs, fruit (S) Everyone

S- Low Carb Cookie DoughDip with strawberries (S) Everyone

L- Grilled ham & cheese quesadillas dipped in sour cream or ranch,  FSP for me, smoothies for kids (S) Everyone

D- Dirt-E-Rice (E) Everyone

D- Raspberry Tea (FP)

Wednesday-  Awanas @ 6:30PM

B- Pancakes with greek yogurt & fruit(E) Everyone

S- Hard boiled eggs (S) Everyone

L- Gwen's Nest Pizza & salad (E) Everyone (Sometimes we have this pizza 2x in a week because it's just so easy to make and we all love it.)

S- Pistachios & Lemon GGMS (S) Everyone

D- Chicken Noodle Soup (E) Everyone

D- Leftover Cookie Dough Dip & Strawberries (S)

Thursday -

B- Overnight Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal (I made this recipe for the first time on 5-14, I'll be posting the recipe soon.)

S- Peanuts & string cheese (S) Everyone

L- Leftover Chicken Noodle Soup (E) Everyone

S- Greek Yogurt with fruit (FP) (Everyone)

D- Turkey Tacos (E or S...depending on toppings) Everyone

D- Cottage Berry Whip from the book pg.  (FP)

Friday- Pack for Vacation!!!! YAY :)

B- Eggs, fruit (S) Everyone

S- Shake (Not sure what kind I'll be making yet) Everyone

L-Me: Chef Salad (S) Kids: PB & Jelly on Sprouted Whole Wheat Bread, fruit

S- Me: Chocolate Muffin In A Mug from the book pg.  (S) Kids:  Chocolate Chip & Raison Granola Bars.

D- Gwen's Nest Pizza & salad (E) Everyone

D- Raspberry Tea (FP) (I'm trying to get out of my routine of having a dessert every single night...but it's kind of hard!)

*Sometimes my snacks and desserts may switch up a bit depending on how our day goes.  If we end up going to the zoo or the park, or if we have to run an errand, I may have to change our snack to something different.  Also, my desire for a certain dessert may change so I sometimes change up what I had planned for dessert that night.  I try really hard to stay on track with breakfast, lunch, and dinner though.   Oh and the desserts I have listed are only for me.  I eat my dessert around 9PM after I have all the kids to bed, my house picked up, and I'm relaxing on the couch.  :) 

Colonial Williamsburg Trip

 This past Tuesday after breakfast I decided we needed to do something fun so we packed up and headed to Colonial Williamsburg.  We got there around 12PM and stayed until 3:30PM.  We saw the horses, toured the palace (which the kids loved), saw how they made chocolate back then, how they made wheels, and we walked a lot! 

Alanna putting rocks on Ruy's head.

 There is definitely a lot of walking involved with Colonial Williamsburg but the kids love it.  Liam finally started saying "My legs hurt!"  And Alanna fell asleep in the stroller so I knew it was time to head home.  

When we got close to our van, a lady was walking near us.  This is the conversation we had. 

Lady:  "Oh wow you have your hands full!  I feel for you!"

Me:   "Yes, my hands are full of blessings! and we have one on the way!"  

Lady: "Oh wow well I guess you don't get bored." 

Me:  No, I don't get bored.  Life is really boring without my kids around."  

Lady:  Well my kids are grown and I have one grandson.  Good luck." (in a not so excited voice)

It really makes me sad when people say things like this to me about my children.  I don't understand why people think they have the right to say such negative things about my kids.  Children are always a blessing...whether you have 3 kids or 19 kids.  

Anyways...rant over.  It was a really really fun day.  We still have so much to see there.  I'm so thankful we were able to get season passes for such a great deal this year.  Home-school teachers get half off season tickets and they also messed up on the price they quoted me for Ruy's season pass so I got $5 off his pass.   If you've never been to Colonial Williamsburg but live near it, I highly recommend taking your kids.  It's a blast :) 

(It's way too complicated getting three kids to look at you at the same time.  It's much easier to just get natural candid shots!)