enJOYing the little things . . .

Monkey Party

Last Sunday we celebrated Clark's first birthday with family and a few friends at our local Giordano's.  It was hard deciding what theme we'd do for his first birthday party.  Clark's not really into anything like Cadence was when she was one.  She was a big Elmo lovin' freak so we had an Elmo themed party for her first party.  Clark does like to play and sleep with a really cute stuffed TY Pluffies monkey, so monkey theme it was.  Curious George cake and decorations, frosted monkey cookies from our favorite local bakery, a super cute monkey outfit from Gymboree and we were set to go!  Clark's actual birthday is this Friday and I'm thinking that we'll head over to Cold Stone for his first taste of ice cream.  :o)

 

CKU-A is here in Chicagoland this weekend!  So excited that Ali is letting me help out in her album track.  And I can't wait to see my scrapbooker friends and meet new ones too.

Feeling quite sentimental right now

over this layout that I made of Clarkie a few months ago.  My baby boy so tiny in the pictures on the left.  Just nine days old.  And on the right, six months old.  Took those pics right after he had woken up from his very last nap in his baby bassinet.  Seems so unreal that I gave birth to my sweet, sweet boy almost one year ago.

Where are you spring?

Even though we're halfway through March, you never know what you're going to get in the Chicagoland area as far as the weather is concerned.  I'm sharing these pictures I took of the kids two weeks ago in  hopes of coaxing warmer spring weather to finally show itself here in our neck of the woods.  Fun bunny ears that the kids enjoy playing with.  Cadence always trying to keep them on her head (they keep falling off), and Clarkie always trying to take them off.  And the ears, just a dollar each.  I love you, dollar section at Target!  I swear the execs at Target knew exactly what they were doing when they decided to put their dollar section right at the entrance of the store.  C'mon, admit it.  You know you also get sucked into that darn dollar section too.  ;o)  Happy week!

Upset

This picture of Clark pretty much sums up how I'm feeling right now about the fact that my baby boy is turning one in a little over two weeks.  Upset that time did its number on me again, making my kids grow up way too fast before my eyes.  *sigh*  Does time ever slow down for us mommies?  Seriously.  I wanna know.

Mango for me, please!

My dear husband stopped by our local Unimart (a Filipino grocery store) to pick up dinner on his way home from work.  I jokingly asked him to buy me some mango mochi ice cream balls, knowing that there are two boxes of ice cream sandwiches sitting in the freezer waiting for me (and Cadence too, of course) to finish eating them.  Well, Ronald came home with a box just for me.  Yay!  I've already eaten two, and I'm thinking about polishing off the rest of the box before I go to bed.  So bad!  To my poor expanding waistline - please, please forgive me.

Sleeping Soundly

I couldn't be a happier mama.  Cadence has made the transition from crib to toddler bed perfectly.  I took this picture during her first night in her big girl bed.  I really thought she was going to fall off the bed especially when I had checked in on her and found her in this position.  But she didn't.  And she hasn't.  Yet.  *knock on wood*

Cadence really is becoming quite the big girl, and quite the conversationalist despite the fact that she had a slow start with speech.  Take this coversation we had the day after we purchased her bed.

Cadence:  Mama, Dada buy mine bed.
Me:  Yes, Cadence.  Mama and Daddy bought your bed.  Do you like your bed?
Cadence:  Yeah!  I yike Baby's bed.  Tank you, Mama.

And then she gave me a big hug and kiss.  I just love my not-so-baby girl.

Oh, and before I go I wanted to share the crock-pot recipes that several of you have asked me about.  There's only two in my repertoire, but I will make sure to share the ones I like as I expand my crock-potting skills.

Zesty Chicken BBQ - I used frozen chicken breasts for this one and Ray's BBQ sauce which is sweet.  But I like sweet and so does Ronald.  We ate this with white rice, but then we eat rice with everything, lol!
No Time To Cook Chicken -  Again, used frozen chicken breasts (added 1/2 cup water) and cooked this on high for four hours.  However, I added frozen peas after three hours of cooking and a little bit of pepper too.  Cadence loved this recipe.  She ate the chicken with ketchup (why - I don't know) and then I put the pea & gravy/soup mix on top of rice.  She called it pea soup and asked for seconds.

I should be asleep

but I've been up trying to finish a few projects.  I'm on my way to bed.  I should be IN bed.  It's four in the morning!  But here I am blogging.  What is wrong with me???  LOL.

Okay, real fast.  Random stuff.

• Garden bloomed yesterday.  Got bunches of layouts done since I felt guilty for not contributing much last month.  Monochromatic green.  I actually loved this theme.  Maybe that's why I got so many layouts done this time.  Ha.
• Bought Cadence's flower girl dress this week.  Silly girl paraded around the bridal store admiring herself in all the mirrors, refusing to take the dress off.  When I handed the dress to the sales lady she proceeded to yell, "Mine dress!  Mine dress!!!"  Drama, I tell you.  The girl is all drama.  Wonder if she'll be as sassy walking down the aisle in front of all the guests at the wedding.  We shall see . . . we shall see.
• Ronald and I bought Cadence this toddler bed on Monday.  She has transitioned into what she calls her "mine bed" perfectly.  I am so relieved.  I was worried she might have issues like crying or waking up or falling out of the bed, but she hasn't so far.  (Knock on wood.)  Now that the crib is free, we are going to work on transitioning Clarkie out of our bed (yes we co-sleep, *gasp*, thank-you-very-much) into the crib.  I'm 100% certain that it will not be pretty.
• Move over Paris Bennett.  My new favorite Idol is Chris Daughtry.  The type of music he sings isn't what I listen to, but who cares.  The guy rocks!
• It's March.  I'm so sad.  Sad because my baby boy is turning one this month.  Why do they have to grow up so fast?  WHY???