Saturday Night At Our House

Here is another video of Emily walking around. The background noise (loud humming) is the ice cream maker. We were having a family pizza, ice cream and movie night. And yes, the ice cream was chocolate and fabulous! Here is the recipe:

Chocolate Ice Cream

1 can sweet and condensed Milk

1/2 Cup cocoa powder

2 Cup Heavy Cream

1 Cup 1/2 and 1/2

1 tbsp vanilla

Directions:
In a medium saucepan over low heat, cook and stir condensed milk and cocoa until smooth and slightly thickened, 5 minutes. Remove from heat , and allow to cool slightly. Stir in heavy cream, 1/2 & 1/2, and vanilla. Refrigerate until cold.
Pour mixture into the canister of an ice cream maker, and freeze according to manufacturer's directions. If you want you can add nuts and marshmallows halfway through the freezing process. I would also double the recipe because there wasn't any left over.

Emily's New Favorite Thing

Emily's finally walking.....most of the time. She loves it! She tries to walk everywhere but occasionally she's still falling down. Ethan and Adam are always trying to get in front of her (as you can see in the video). The boy's call her PJ's "pretty pretty princess pajamas."

My New Favorite Thing

When I was in California last week, I came across my new favorite thing. The only downside.....they are only located in California or New York! UGH!!! I have been craving this stuff for days and its driving me crazy! I hope and pray that someone opens a franchise in Texas. If you get the chance, you definitely have to try it.

LIFE

I had a great 4 day weekend in California with an amazing girlfriend of mine. We had so much fun (I will post pictures and details later)! Dan was amazing as usual, he took 2 days off work to keep the kids and play Mr. Mom! The kids loved having him home, and it did wonders for his stress levels (work has really been stressing him out). The kids were healthy and happy while I was away, "Perfect Angels" was the words he used.

Then Monday I had to rejoin the real world..... sort of. Then Tuesday, Ethan's school called asking me to come pick him up because he was running a fever and had a terrible headache. So, after waiting a few days to see if the fever lasted I took him to the doctor. Strep throat, I couldn't believe it! This is the 3rd time in the last 2 months. And before that he has had multiple sinus infections and tonsillitis. So, he is back on antibiotics and we have an appointment with the ENT. Prediction, his tonsils have to come out!

It seems like everyone is having some sort of surgery. My dad just had his kidney removed (long story), I'm having surgery on May 22nd for my pulmonary vein disease, you've got to love genetics :o( Wesley is probably having surgery within the next few months, Marcie is having pregnancy complications and who knows what will come with that, and now Ethan will have his tonsils out. This, along with the swine flu out breaks is starting to stress me out !!

Oh well, I guess I should be grateful that we have been blessed so much!

11 Months Old

My adorable little one is now 11 months old. I can't believe how fast this last year has flown by! Everyday she seems bigger and older. Emily is a super fast crawler and a Frankenstein walker. She loves to hold our finger and walk around the house. Now, only if I had that kind of extra time! This last week she has walked without any ones help several times, it's turning into a daily occurrence. She gets so excited when she's walking. I actually found her standing in the middle of the room the other day. She was looking out the window (one of her favorite things to do) watching the birds and squirrels eat our grass.

Emily is such an amazing baby! She is always happy and trying to find someone to love on. However, she is extremely head strong. I hope this doesn't come back to haunt us in her teen years (LOL). Her new favorite thing is clapping, she claps for everything.

I feel so blessed to have her in our family. When I think back to the grueling 9 months of pregnancy (all the hospital stays, kidney's failing, bleeding ulcer, etc...) I've come to realize what a short time I really had to struggle for such a precious gift. A gift that will last for eternity. We love you Emily!

My Un-Surprise Birthday Party

My darling husband tried to pull a fast one and host a surprise party for my birthday. I would have been completely surprised if he hadn't used my Evite account. Every time someone sent a reply, they came to me. I didn't want to spoil it for him, so I waited a few days after I knew to mention it. He tried to play dumb of course, acting like I was making everything up. But, in the end he threw an amazing party. He even had a theme!

His theme was a Mexican Fiesta! He asked one of my adorable friends to help of course. She made tons of amazing salsa, guacamole and pico. He purchased taquitos, jalapeno poppers, cream puffs, cake, ice cream and tons of great drinks. He even had a strawberry margarita bar going!

When I entered my living room, there were at least 400 pictures (of me, and you all know how I love this...not). Mom sent tons of pictures ranging from a toddler to college, even the 80's phase with big hair (just shoot me now!) Everyone had a great time looking at these, as you can imagine! He had a huge pink and silver pinata hanging from my living room light fixture, and tons of balloons and other adorable decorations throughout the rest of the house. He even had adorable party favors for all of the guest. Everyone went home with their own sombrero and a bottle of chalula hot sauce. The hot sauce was personalized with my picture, and it read, "I'm so Hot", in Spanish! I thought this was a very classy touch :o)

Everyone had a great time! Thanks babe for spending so much time planning and making my birthday amazing!

33 and Counting!

Yes, today is my 33 Birthday! YEAH!! There are several things that I am starting to notice (changes): fine lines and wrinkles around my forehead... all over for that matter. The ability to sleep till noon has some how stopped (this could be the kids) I can't seem to sleep past 7:30. Chocolate and nachos are no longer my friend, I've become BFF with weight watchers and south beach. I think I'm loosing my hearing because everyone has to repeat themselves, this could be my bodies way of automatically tuning out my children when they are fighting, whining or yelling (sorry to all of those I ignore who aren't my children, it's not intentional).

This morning started off a little rocky at our house. I have had kids up at night crying off and on all week. I assumed it was allergies, the moon or it could just be Texas, but last night was the best. I think Dan and I got zero sleep, but whose counting. After you have babies your body learns to run on zombie mode. Well, after a quick visit to the doctors office my poor babies are actually really sick. Ethan has a sinus infection and strep throat. Emily has a sinus infection and double ear infections. We dropped off 6 prescriptions at the local CVS, stopped by Sonic for a super sized Diet Dr. Pepper and came home to find that my adorable friends had brought me Chipotle's steak soft taco's and a diet coke! I am so lucky to have the best group of friends a girl could ask for, I'm sorry to say that several of them are moving away! Thanks girls, you are amazing!

My adorable sister posted a hilarious birthday blog, to read go to: http://cloudfambams.blogspot.com/2009/04/happy-b-day-to-my-sister.html . I thought it was fitting that I leave my responses to her top 8 favorite memories of me, so here they are:

1.I was scared to death of that stupid fire baton but the teacher was pretty insistent upon it, I was to young to say NO :o)

2.I loved playing barbies with you until Wesley butched all of their hair.

3.I don't remember letting you go anywhere, are you sure I was in charge:o)

4.I loved becoming best friends, my favorite part was how we shared nachos and Slurpee's and we wouldn't share with any of the tag along guys.

5.I do remember the curling iron, I think mom still has it. I think high school was the last time I actually had bangs. It's a good thing styles changes!

6.I forgot about this, I was only doing it because all of my friends in 7th grade knew the words and I didn't. I had to beg... Michael to record the song for me, since he was a DJ. (peer pressure)

7.I still remember how my 8th grade English teacher (can't remember her name) commented, "I would love to see you perform this at 18, and see the boys reactions". (Thanks for the mental picture, I was barely 12).

8.Oh Duncan... enough said :o)

Thanks for the fantastic food, amazing gifts and the green stuff$$!! I love you all dearly!