My Valentine's Surprise

Wow what a valentine's surprise I had! I had no idea nor did I see it coming..Dh woke up early Saturday morning. I figured he went to work as usual..BUT he comes home with gifts for us all! Yippee! He bought me 2 dozen red roses, a box of chocolates, and the most beautfiul diamond circle of life necklace. I love it! I'm wearing it now. After seeing how big the bouquet was he asked if it was ok to give my mom one dozen of the roses since she has had a tough year. Of course I said yes! We delivered her flowers later in the day and she was in tears. So sweet indeed.

The kids each got a box of chocolates and *artist* got a monogrammed necklace as well. Hubbie felt like she is getting to the age that she needs to learn what being treated right is all about. What a wonderful example he is to her. Alejandro got a star wars toy along with his chocolate. The little ones got a pooh and tigger plush toy with theirs. It was all truly so sweet. He had everything on the kitchen table set up for us so that when we woke up it was all there.

We had a nice family day. We all hung out, went to the library for a book sale (they had books for sale on the way cheap), went to get some groceries and later went to *artist's* soccer game. We got out of the game late since it started at 6 so we picked up a pizza and watched Charlie Brown's Valentine show on tv. It was such a loving, special, family day for us all. I feel so blessed and lucky to have each of them in my lives and to have such a wonderful husband who spoils me and my kids! I love you honey. xo

Chicken Stir-Fry

This was dinner tonight. So easy. So good. So cheap.

Ingredients: 4-5 chicken breasts
1-2 bags frozen stir fry vegetables (I use 2 bags)
1 bottle La Choy Garlic Ginger sauce
bowl of instant white rice



Directions: Boil chicken breasts in a pot of water. Take out and shred the meat up. Add a bit of oil to skillet and add chicken. Then add the frozen veggies and the whole bottle of sauce. Add a bit of water to the bottle and shake it up and add that to the stir fry to make it more moist. Cover and cook until veggies are done. Serve over rice and if you are really going all out you can bake up some frozen spring rolls to go with it. I usually will eat mine with nama shoyu (soy sauce) on top with some jalapenos. I love the heat the jalapenos give.

We eat this once a week. Its cheap and my whole family loves it.

7th Heaven

Not sure I should be watching this show anymore. Reruns air daily on the hallmark channel and may I say each time I watch my ovaries get a tingle. (Don't even let me tell you how watching one of my fav. movies: Yours, Mine, Ours makes me feel. I love that movie!!) I swear I was done having kids till I rediscovered this show again. I already have 4 awesome, healthy, well adjusted kids. Isn't my desire to have more just being greedy at that point?

I think my desire to have a large family stems from my upbringing. I have 3 siblings but they are all much older than me. My brother is 10 years older, my sister is 11 years older, and my other sister is 12 years older. So basically I was raised an only child and spent A LOT of time alone. I was so lonely...I think that is why having a lot of kids does not bother me much because I love the constant comings and goings and noise even if it does drive me crazy. It just feels like life to me and I love it! Now that my oldest is 14 already I realize just how fast time goes and how sad an empty nest would feel.

I really thought I was done. I went in recently for my annual exam only to discover that I suffer from endometriosis and adenomyosis. Both problems would make it difficult for me to get pregnant and maintain a pregnancy. I decided at that time I was done making babies and was going to enjoy the 4 I have now to the fullest. Well now that Paloma is 3 I see babyhood leaving fast. I can't see her as a baby anymore. A part of me aches feeling that. Even hubbie is sad at the thought of no more babies. But given my health status I just don't think it would be fair to any one of us to take on another pregnancy and baby.
However this is where my faith comes into play. I know from my own personal testimony that God plays a role and if He so wants us to bring another life into this world His work will be done. I have comfort knowing that ultimately its not my choice to be had. It is His. I just pray that whatever His will is that I will have comfort in my heart knowing what is truly best for my family.

Yumm-O..dinner tonight

Due to our finances we have chosen to limit our eating out at restaurants. For us that is so hard given the fact we LOVE our Mexican food. I came across this awesome recipe for beef enchiladas on Kelly's Korner blog. It is so good and so easy to make. As you can see it doesn't take a lot of ingredients to make and when you have a major craving for some good mexican food this is your ticket with some beans on the side.

Kelly's Mexican Beef Enchiladas
Ingredients: 1 pound ground beef
8oz shredded cheddar cheese
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can chopped black olives
1 pack of flour tortillas (can use corn, lightly cook in oil first)
1 small onion chopped (can use frozen chopped onion)
1 can of enchilada sauce
Directions: Brown meat and saute the onions with it. Once that is done add in the olives and let it heat through. Then add 3/4 of the shredded cheese and let it melt into meat mixture. Mix it all together. Fill tortillas with meat mixture and roll up. Combine the mushroom soup and enchilada sauce and pour on top. Top with remaining cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes. Serve with a side of beans and rice if desired.

Sorry for the bad "after" pic. I am def. no Pioneer Woman Cooks! And if you look real close you will see that one is missing! ha! I was too excited and too hungry and dug in. yummy.

A first for Me and Her

Paloma got her first haircut today and I was the one to do it! Would you believe after 4 kids she is the first one I have ever cut hair on? Let me tell you poor economics makes a person get creative real quick! ha.
I was so proud of myself. I was scared to do it but by golly she was looking like quite the ragamuffin poor thing. I really wanted to take her in to the salon for her first trim like I did the others but hey I have decided to get back to basics and thought what would my Grandma Helen do?? Of course she would have cut her hair in the kitchen just like I did this morning.
She looks good. Her hair is shiny and there is no rat's nests at all from the dead ends. I ended up trimming off a good 2 inches but she still has a ton of hair to spare. I felt so confident by these results that I ended up giving Mariposa's hair a trim as well. I trimmed off about 2inches on hers too. It looks good as well.
Here is a pic of me finishing up Paloma's first hair cut. Why i didn't take a before pic is beyond me...

And here is the remnants of her first haircut

Raising kids is bad for the environment

I just gave Paloma another sheet of perfectly unused, crisp, clean piece of computer paper. That makes 10 sheets thus far and we aren't done yet. Why? So she can water color 2 lines on it and then ask for another. I plea with her to make more pictures on the paper so we can "fill" it up but no the Picasso in her says 2 lines per sheet is plenty. What about painting on a coloring page or junk mail? No. clean and crisp is the way she rolls.

This has me thinking..toddlers are just not eco friendly. I mean we are in the midst of potty training right now (so help me!!!) and are going through diapers, wipes and pull ups like nothing. I wish I could be that cloth diapering eco mama but with 4 kids that is not happening here. I mean I can barely keep up with the laundry as it is hence my 10 loads over the weekend laundry marathon I just completed. I wince at the thought of how many diapers I have contributed to our landfill raising my 4 young'ens.

I'd like to think I am eco friendly, forward thinking, lets save our Mother Earth mama but when you have a budding Picasso on your hands that thinking gets thrown out along with the water.

Happy Groundhog Day..I mean Happy B-day...

To our Magilla! Yes that is our pet name we have given to the baby in our family who is now 3 today!!! Remember Magilla Gorilla? If you were born in the 70s I know you do. Hubbie gave her that pet name..she is so darn cute and precious yet rough and tumble all at the same time hence her Magilla name. Its so cute, even other members of the family will call and they don't even call her by her name Paloma but rather "how is Magilla?" lol

I feel like we have been celebrating her b-day for 3 days now. On saturday we took her to chuck e. cheese to celebrate her b-day with her aunt and cousin. All the kids had a blast playing for hours and gobbled up their pizza. Need I say I drank my coke and ran to subway afterwards for a sammie! Then yesterday was Superbowl Sunday dinner at my sisters' so we celebrated her b-day during half-time with Springsteen belting out his tunes while we did her cake all dolled up with sprinkles and candles. We all devoured the cake. So today I put up our happy b-day banner on the kitchen window which I do for ALL the b-days in the house and have had a relaxing morning with Magilla. Took all the kids to school, then me and her hung out, read books, colored, did what she wanted to do and now both her and her older sister are snoozing for a nap. Aaahh...nap time and silence..just what this mama needed...until 3 when pick up begins for the older 2 and off we go to an afternoon of haircuts, michaels, barnes and nobles and a quick stop to the store to pick up a rotisserie chicken for supper. I have leftover buns from last night so we are having chicken, rolls, and green beans for dinner. Magilla will love it! For dessert I'm making a cookie cake so we can sing happy b-day to her AGAIN but this time its the real deal!

So, Happy B-day Paloma! I love you and am so happy you are a part of this family. You bless each of us in your own way and you make each of us so very happy. Its such a blessing to have a little "magilla" running around the house. I love you honey!