7 Quick Takes: Fun Fun Fun!

Yay for Jen finally being able to host again this week!

1. I know I am always talking about the weather and I really have no right to complain considering our imminent move to the tropics, but it really really affects me and this whole waiting around for spring thing is getting annoying! I guess I should be happy there hasn't been snow in awhile, but the temperatures are just not very warm so far! I'm hearing it should be warmish on the weekend so you better bet we will take advantage and spend the entirety of it outside! It's going to be FUN!

2.

I love the different places I find Maria reading to Felicity. So fun.

3.

Giving big sister a hug

Loving this little guy as usual! He is at such a sweet stage where he is a great sleeper, loves playing with trucks, cars, blocks, balls, or anything that can be used as a phone. He loves making people laugh. Whenever he sees a pillow on the ground he dives onto it and gets all cosy. All day long he gives hugs and kisses. When Daddy comes in the door he crawls over saying "dadadada!!!" and then cuddles with him for like 10 minutes. Could he be any more fun?!

 4.

The girls are obsessed with playing Old Maid and Memory. We play them at least 5 times a day. Fun times! 

5. 

This is what my house looks like now getting ready to move to another country. Piles of stuff to give away/sell/store, and piles to keep. You better believe I am having fun.

6. We are having so much fun with our new Vitamix! I'll admit it was a huge splurge for us, but we justified that it was a good buy for us since it will replace a couple of our appliances (so saving space) and it will last us 25 years. The smoothies are amazing and apparently we are getting more of the nutrients because it grinds up all the seeds and breaks down cell walls or something like that? I have already used it today to make cranberry orange bread, delicious smoothies packed with fruits and vegetables, and I will be making a soup in it for supper. It was definitely a must buy for us. haha. I have spent years trying to convince Shane to buy me one and now he is more gung ho about it than I am. 

7. Grace recommended this workout dvd and as she is my role model in all things exercise, (she has three kids under three and has looked amazing throughout and after all three pregnancies. No small feat!) I knew she wouldn't disappoint. I got it, and I love it! I love that I can do it standing up so the baby isn't tempted to crawl all over me, and also for those days where I don't feel like jumping around and getting all sweaty, but still want a good muscle workout. Of course I have fun while doing it. I know, I'm funny! 

Have a great weekend!

Seven years ago........

 Seven years ago, I visited Cayman for the first time. Little did I suspect then that I would ever agree to move there. Yes, it is beautiful, yes, I love the sun, and yes, Shane's family lives there. But it is just so far away, and I honestly could not imagine actually living there. And yet, here we are, getting ready to sell most of our belongings, pack up a few, and make the biggest move of our lives. It is crazy, stressful and crazy crazy crazy. And yet it is an amazing opportunity, the kids will love it I am sure, I will be tan (ha!) year round, and we will be close to Shane's family. I know that if I heard that someone was moving to the Caribbean, I'd be all "they are so lucky, I'd love to move to a land of sun and no winter!", so I know I really should be excited! But it is so so so stressful and so so so so far away from my family. Not to mention that it means I have to get rid of most of our stuff.
    So now we must prepare for our fourth move in six years...help!

Hutch painting and yogurt making

 We are in the midst of exciting and major life decisions here which have kept me from posting for a while. I will talk about it soon...but not just yet. Instead for today I have a couple of mediocre DIYS for your viewing pleasure.

    First up we have our antique hutch which we updated with a few coats of white paint to produce a slightly cleaner? whiter? less ancient? result. We still aren't completely thrilled with it but it did brighten up the space a bit.

And next we have something which I am actually quite thrilled about: homemade yogurt. If you don't make your own yogurt I don't know what you are waiting for! I use this method , and it is easy, healthy,  economical, and delicious. I admit to being pretty obsessed with yogurt and a complete snob when it comes to buying it. There are only a couple of kinds I will buy, and they aren't cheap. So making it is the absolute best thing I have ever done. It costs me about $2.50 for 8 cups of whole milk, and from it I get this:

One jar of plain yogurt for the kids, one jar of delicious strawberry greek yogurt (all I do is strain the plain yogurt and add strawberries and a bit of honey) for me, and one jar of whey (that I use for smoothies). I repeat, if you are not making this and you are a fan of yogurt, start making it now! 
  Speaking of which, I better go start my yogurt!

One years old!

Guess who turned one last week?

My baby isn't quite a baby anymore! Although he shows absolutely no interest in walking or talking so he may stay my baby for awhile..haha. But he is still the sweetest little guy around, and loves giving hugs and cuddles. On his birthday he ate what everyone else was having (grilled cheese for lunch, a smoothie, and homemade pizza for supper) and was BEYOND thrilled with it all.

Although he is still loving most food, he is super annoying because he needs to feed himself everything. With his hands. Even if I get something in his mouth he takes it back out to play with first. Such a messy eater! But other than that he is still an amazing child. haha.
   He is a little more wild than his sisters were, but he is thankfully still pretty cautious. Love that about my kids!
 I can't wait to see what this next year has in store for our little man.
 We love you stinky Will Will!

Easter!

Happy Easter! 

 Although it was a little short, with all the church going and the fact that we had to come back Sunday night, we still  had a great time at my parents' house with my sister and her kiddos. We were nuts and decided to go to the Easter vigil which ended up being three hours long, complete with all 7 Old Testament readings, and a visit from the fire department. William stayed home (thank goodness!), Felicity whined through half and slept the rest, and Maria payed attention until she couldn't keep her eyes open any longer. 

  This is the best pic I got of my outfit, which is not very Eastery but I tried to brighten my black and white dress up with a purple sweater and green earrings...

The details of my outfit are:

I don't know because they are all pretty old and so I can't remember!

Felicity wore a bright floral dress bought from The Children's place a couple years ago.

William was handsome as always in a white button up with a vest from The Children's Place (thrifted). 

And Maria wore a dress made by her mama. 

The weather was pretty warm (we were out without coats and didn't freeze!) But there were still mounds of snow: 

 Check out all the lovely outfits over at the Easter Outfit OTI Linkup co-hosted by Grace!

7 Quick Takes

Pretty much the only blogging I do these days is on Fridays. I keep thinking of things to write, then never get a chance to sit at the computer in peace to type them out. I keep putting it off every day until its Thursday and then I think I may as well wait till Friday and just write a quick take on it. Lamest blogger ever? That's me! But I'll keep at it till one day I can improve...I know if I stop I'll never start again!
 So here we go! Linking up with Jen yet again!

1.

How can the first take not be about our new Pope?! What exciting times! He seems like an amazing and humble man. I keep hearing more and more things about him that give me so much hope! For example, this one I read today: “Perhaps for that reason they might bring us to the courts. Perhaps, for that reason, for caring for life, they might kill us,” he said. “We should think about the Christian martyrs. They killed them for preaching this Gospel of life, this Gospel that Jesus brought. But Jesus gives us the strength.” 

2. Shane was blown away because apparently a few days before he had a premonition that the new pope would be named Francis.

3. On Wednesday I had just happened to tune into the live stream of the smokestack and the girls were absolutely glued to it. They were afraid to leave the room because they didn't want to miss the smoke! They watched it for an hour before I finally said I don't know if it's coming and sent Felicity to her "quiet time". Ten minutes later we saw the smoke and called Felicity down and we all hugged and cried. Or something like that. The girls were so excited to find out who it was.

The next hour was a little long but we had a cheerio party to kill the time.

I tried to get a picture to show what we were watching...

It was such an exciting day and a treat to get to experience with my girls who were so into it! 

4.

If you can't tell, it says "have a new pope speshill (special) supper"

 Maria likes to write me notes about things so she came to me with this one after we saw the new pope. So we had a little Pope party! Shane brought home some Argentinian wine, and we made dessert. I made lasagna, though which apparently didn't qualify as a "speshill supper". Sorry Maria. Hopefully it was still fun?

5. What else can I talk about that is not nearly as exciting or important? The fact that just when all the snow was gone and I thought spring was on its way, I woke up this morning to falling snow? Or the fact that spring coming means that we need to make plans about where we will be moving? Both are too depressing to talk about.

6.

The girls pushed Willy around in this car for the first time the other day. He was in heaven. He is not so into pushing it around though. The girls both used it to walk around for awhile before they started walking, but he is just not interested. Guess he won't be walking anytime soon, which is fine by me! Please stay my baby for a little while longer:)

7. I cannot write any more of these without going crazy! In between Felicity asking me to "come see!" the letters she is writing every two seconds (in which time I have typed two letters), and Maria reading every word as I type, I just cannot think anymore! haha I tried to type that fast enough so Maria wouldn't read it, but I just saw her laugh to herself, so I guess I failed!

That's all for now! 

7 Quick Takes: Snapshots of our Week

 1. We've had company all week and they just left today. It was so nice to spend time with my sis, and the kids had a blast with their cousins.

 2.

Yesterday was Felicity's feast day so we celebrated with ice cream sundaes. Yum:)

3.

 Proof that there was another cousin around. He just doesn't like to be photographed.  

4. 

 In one of their many costume changes of the week.

5.

Having fun at the Discovery Center

6.

 All bundled up to play outside!

7.

Helping me make pizza!

Now the house is way too quiet we really really wish we lived closer to at least some of the kids' cousins.

Have a great weekend everyone! Check out more fun at Conversion Diary!