Mmmmmmm

On one of the vegan blogs I go to, I heard about a new-er product called So Delicious Coconut Milk yogurt.  Now, I'm ALL about coconut, so I knew I had to give this a try.  Another plus is that Lily can use the fat.  Up until now, I've been grudgingly buying her whole milk yogurt to keep up her caloric intake.  So, I discovered our health food store down the road carries the yogurt, and I had to buy some.  It's a bit pricey, and unfortunately, they only come in the smaller containers (I usually buy the large ones because the girls like yogurt with their granola).  I tried the blueberry, and it was soooooooo delicious (really living up to the name here)!  I really didn't think the coconut was overwhelming either.  In fact, there was just a little "sumthin-sumthin" but it was so subtle that I doubt most people would even notice.  And now I have to stop talking about food, or I will head down to the fridge looking for one of the containers of vanilla coconut milk yogurt.......

On that note:  I have a bit of exciting news.  I weighed Lily last week, and she was 26 lbs!  That's huge for us, as I have been struggling for the last 2 years to get her over that 23-24 lbs mark.  She'd make a little headway, but then lose it all when she got sick.  I had her almost to 25 lbs at one point, but over last winter she was back down to 23-something.  You can imagine my excitement to see 26 lbs!  She's still almost 10 lbs behind Leah, but we're getting there.  So, YAY!  Praise God!   

"I'm in love.....

....with my cabbage." Leah announced this morning as we were driving home from a homeschool get-together.  It was my first meeting with most of these ladies, but they all seem really nice.  The lady who's house we met at has a HUGE garden, and she invited the kids to pick whatever they wanted to take home.  MY daughter picked a very beautiful cabbage.  She held it all the way home.  On the way, she wondered what people DO with cabbage.  She wants to help make something.  Then she wants to invite everyone over to partake of said cabbage.  Leah went on and on about it all the way home.  It was really very cute!  I wish I could remember everything she said.  (That's the problem.  The girls say hundreds of cute things every day, and I wish I could remember them all when I sit down to blog.  Alas, my mommy brain doesn't recall things quite as clearly as it did pre-children.)

I have a few other things to blog about when I get a few minutes.  It's been a very busy last week or so, but hopefully I'll have some new pics up for you soon.  And, likely a video of a very special event as well.

Now, I have to decide what to make with the cabbage.  Any ideas besides coleslaw and cabbage soup?  (NO sauerkraut...can't stand the smell of that stuff.)   

Dear Jesus,

Leah's lunchtime prayer today:

Dear Jesus,

Thank you for this day, and thank you for our food.  Please help us be good.  Please help daddy be good at work.  And, no monsters, and no Satan.

Amen.

The Transformation

Elise has had 3 more loose teeth.  Well, the other morning, she showed me that one of her top teeth was extremely loose.  I knew it was only a matter of time before it came out.  Still, all day long, and nothing.  That evening during dinner...OUT it came!  She was so excited to lose her first top tooth!  

As the girls were getting ready for bed, Elise and Leah asked if Leah could sleep in Elise's room that night.  Lily had fallen asleep at the dinner table, so I said it was okay.  They were so excited!  Now apparently, even though they know the tooth fairy is just mommy and daddy, somehow they must think we undergo some sort of transformation in order to put that dollar under the pillow. 

Elise:  "Mommy, I can't wait to see what you're going to wear when you're the tooth fairy!"  

[Um, yeah, kiddo....I think the dream is better than the reality!  LOL]

Lily & Leah-isms

I've been talking to the girls about making good choices lately.  We've talked about how Jesus wants to help us make good decisions.  He loves us and always wants the best for us.  However, Satan wants us to be unhappy and miserable all the time.  He encourages us to make bad choices.  

A few weeks ago, "Peter Pan" was on television.  Tivo picked it up, and we debated about letting the girls watch it.  Since we couldn't really remember the movie very well, we decided we'd let them watch it with us, in case there were any questionable parts in the movie.  As they were watching, the girls discovered that Tinkerbell wasn't being very nice to Wendy.  

I said, "Tinkerbell isn't making very good choices, is she?"

Leah answered, "No, she's listening to Satan!"

Every morning, Leah starts by telling me she had a bad dream (which really isn't a very bad dream in the scheme of things....from what I can tell this is more a ploy for attention).  Within the last week or so, I felt impressed to tell the girls that Jesus doesn't want us to have bad dreams, Satan does.  But, Jesus can chase the bad dreams away.  It's getting better now, and I don't hear quite so much about the bad dreams every morning, and I like that she isn't constantly dwelling on the negative.  

So this morning, Lily was sitting on my lap at the early hour of 5:30 am, and she said, "I had a good dream, Mommy."

"Oh you did?" I replied.

"Yes, mommy.  It was about a good monster."  

Oh good.....still monsters, but at least this time they must've been "Sesame Street" caliber. LOL 

A long way back...

Mark and I returned from our 2nd Annual (if we can swing it) motorcycle trip on Sunday evening.  This year we decided to take the bike to Lincoln to visit many of our friends there.  The trip down wasn't too bad.  We stayed over in Des Moines with Mark's sister.  I should mention that the BMW doesn't have the most comfortable motorcycle seat on it.  It's a custom seat, and my seat has some stitching and such that make sitting for long periods extremely painful.  Thankfully, we managed to find a really nice stadium cushion (memory foam) while we were at the mall, and that made things much more bearable for the rest of the trip.

This pic was taken at Holmes Lake.  Some of you know about Holmes Lake, and some don't, so I'll enlighten those of you who haven't heard of it before.  It's a man-made lake that you can't swim in, and it stinks horribly, yet, it seems to be a popular summer hang-out.  Lakes are somewhat sparse in NE.  

This is a picture of Mark with his best friend, Andrew.  

We all went to the Sunken Gardens on Saturday afternoon.  The Sunken Gardens used to be the local landfill, which has now been turned into a beautiful garden.  Picture is of Cindee (my friend and Andrew's wife) and their son Jon.

I love water lilies and lily pads!

The guys from L to R:  Jon, Mark, Andrew, Steve (a friend of ours), and "little" Mark (Andrew & Cindee's other son, named after my husband...oh, and "little" Mark is 6'2", I hear....and DATING).  

I was trying to get a really good pic of this bumble bee, but it was sort of inside the flower, which made it difficult.  Still, I love the pic!

I won't go into the conversation that was had about the statue in the background.  

Mark and me

Andrew and Cindee

Mark and the statue

I was in love with these gorgeous hibiscus flowers!  

You can run, but you can't hide..... [wink, wink]

More honey makers!

This was actually taken at the new rose gardens that are being put in across the street.  

For you Amy!  A St. Patrick's Day rose!

Saturday night, for a belated birthday celebration, my friends Romana and Cindee took me out for the evening.  We had scrumptious Greek food and took in a movie.  I had so much fun!!

The trip back home was a long one.  We did the whole 7 hours in one day, and I was more than exhausted when we got home, but we made it safely.  The girls had tons of fun with Grandma and Grandpa, and Mark and I were able to have a nice break.  

Thanks to all of our friends for making time to see us!  It was great getting together with you all!  Can't wait to do it again!!  

Little House on the Prairie

For our birthday, my MIL and I got to see the Little House on the Prairie Broadway musical at the Guthrie.  It was an amazing show!  The girls who played Laura and Nellie Oleson were hysterical!  They truly gave phenomenal performances.  Melissa Gilbert played Ma.  Mark's mom and I both enjoyed the show very much, though we both agreed that it would have been even better if Patrick Swayze had played Pa (as he was originally slated to do....I assume his pancreatic cancer dx got in the way).  

Happy Birthday to us...

Last Wednesday, July 30, I turned 33, and my MIL turned 63.  Here is the cake I made for us.  It's a pina colada cake with pineapple cream filling and coconut buttercream icing.  Very yummy!