Author Archives: Amanda

Our White Christmas

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Yup! We had a White Christmas. Being that every single Christmas of ours together has been in Sacramento, we have yet to have a White Christmas. And Jayden has yet to have a one EVER! He did have a White Thanksgiving when he was 2 – he actually went skiing. I’ll have to find the pics of that and scan them – it was cute!

Okay ~ this year our Christmas was WONDERFUL!!!! It was peaceful and I just loved every second of it…except for the fact that I have this horrible cold. Christmas Eve we started a new tradition that we’re going to do every year with our children. We went and bought all the stuff to make Ice Cream Sundays!! They were delicious. So, we had the kids open 1 present, which were of course their Christmas PJ’s ~ here’s pics of that

So, Gino of course fell asleep early and Jayden was too excited to sleep. So, I had to stay awake until Jayden finally fell asleep so I could play Santa. Jayden finally falls asleep around midnight. And this required me to actually go and lay down w/him to get him to sleep. It also required me to try my hardest NOT to fall asleep with him. Could you imagine him waking up in the morning and running down the stairs to find that Santa did not eat his cookies or stuff his stocking or LEAVE HIM PRESENTS?!?!?! His world would have crashed at that moment. So, finally, Jayden falls asleep and I go pull out the toys. I actually had to snap Ella’s toy together and put screws in as I’m cursing profanities at my husband who is snoring on the couch. Then I got in a fight w/Jayden’s dinosaur. They screwed him to a post in the box. WTF!?!? I couldn’t find a screwdriver that would work. After about 30 minutes of me fighting w/the box I finally got the dinosaur free. Stuffed the stockings, threw the cookies away and tossed the milk (I was not in the mood for cookies at that point) and went to bed. My child didn’t wake up until 8:30am to see what Santa brought ~ Thank you, Lord. And I actually woke him up – I was anxious!! After we did our Christmas thing we got ready and headed up to my Grandparent’s house to spend Christmas with my family. Here are the pictures of our day ~ there’s not many, well, not as many as I would have liked, but I was so sick that pictures were the least of my worries……

Best Appetizer

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Are you planning on having everyone over for Christmas? The best appetizer out there that I always make when having company over or if going to someone’s house is my famous chili cheese dip.

Mix 1 can of chili – I use this one

W/1 brick of cream cheease ~ I use this one

And you put the chili in a bowl and the brick of cream cheese on top of it. Put it in the microwave for 2 minutes take it out and stir then dip w/Fritos ~ most delicious thing you’ll ever eat. If you try it make sure you come and leave me a comment letting me know how you liked it…. I’m gonna have to go and make it right now, because it sounds so good and totally works for me hehe!

For other ideas that work for others visit ROCKS IN MY DRIER

My Grandparents

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My Grandparents met and 1 week later they got married. They’ve been married for 49 years. I went up and spent some time with them today and they are some real kick in the ass people. It was my Grandma’s birthday and I was sitting in her rocking chair rocking Ella and there was this little card (the size and texture of a playing card) and it had a poem on it. I don’t know the entire poem, but here are a few lines in it that really stick out:

You are my lover, you are my friend, I can talk to you for hours, you make me laugh every day. Carry this card with you always and you carry my heart.

UM, Can we say Holy Romantic??? My Grandpa put that in my Grandma’s b/day card. They inspire me. 49 years of pure love. They tell me it’s hard, but you just gotta stick with it!

If I was to give anybody marriage advice I think it would: You’re going to fall in and out of love. But when you are at a point that you don’t feel like you’re in love anymore, hang in there, because when you fall in love all over again it’s going to be the best feeling ever! My Grandparents stuck through it all and I hope that I have a marriage like they do in 45 more years.

Please comment and tell me your best marriage advice if you have some. I love to hear what works for other couples.

Where does he come up with this stuff?

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This morning I was laying in bed wishing really hard that it wasn’t morning. And then I thought hmm… maybe, just maybe, Gino will take Jayden to school today. Well, while I’m laying in bed I hear Gino walk into Jayden’s room and here’s the conversation they had…

Gino: Where’s your juice boxes?

Jayden:I don’t know, Dad

Gino: Jayden you drank all of your juice boxes, what am I supposed to put in your lunch? Why didn’t you leave one?

Jayden:Dad, I don’t know, I’m just out of control

This child says the most shocking things sometimes!

Ella’s First Foods

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Technically she’s not 4 months until Friday, but I figured a few days wouldn’t hurt…she needs the practice and it’s really helping w/the acid reflux she has. And that’s awesome! Here’s some cute pictures ~ the first ones were her last night. I gave her a couple licks of Cookies and Cream ice cream – I know, I know, I’m a bad mom LOL.

EASY Schedule

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The EASY Schedule for your baby ~

I have done this with Jayden and Ella. I got the idea from Tracy Hogg’s book The Baby Whisperer My Grandma bought me this book when I was pregnant with Jayden and tried her tactics and THEY WORKED!! Here’s how the EASY Schedule works:

E stands for Eat
A stands for Activity Time
S stands for Sleep
Y stands for You Time

So, here’s why this schedule works WONDERS with me. Your baby wakes up from a nap and you instantly feed him/her. You do not let them fall asleep while eating. After they finish their bottle you give them activity time. For a newborn this can be a bath, staring into the wondrous world before them. Just time for them to be awake and not be sleeping. Then when they get fussy, guess what! They’re not hungry!!! You instantly know what the deal is. They’re tired. So you wrap them up, rock them and put them to sleep….then you get YOU TIME (time where you can sit and hear the peace, that is if you don’t have other children or the other children are in school!!) You can even schedule out what you’re going to do for each You Time!!! Ella’s at the age that during activity time she likes to get in her jumparoo and jump jump jump and that’s my internet time. My You Time is USUALLY spent working or doing my housework.

This schedule has not failed me through 2 kids now and I love it. I always know what’s next and so does Ella (she’s my current baby) I’m a WAHM and it’s nice to know that things are not out of control. It’s easy for us and I know that I can tell someone when I will be calling them back, because according to Ella’s schedule I know when she’s going to be tired.

OH! And w/this schedule, Jayden never relied on a bottle to fall asleep. Therefore, when he turned 1 – I threw all of his bottles away on her b/day and we had NO ISSUES!!! Straight to the sippy cup like a big boy!

And the exciting thing today – she’s sleeping right now, and when she wakes up she gets to eat baby food for the first time!!! Stay tuned for pictures!!!!

Hope this works for you like it’s worked for me!! I highly suggest reading her book 🙂

For other ideas, visit ROCKS IN MY DRIER

Praise Baby

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I’ve heard great things about this and if I post their logo on my blog they’re going to send me a free bib and $5.00 off one of their DVDs 🙂 If you’re interested in this as well CLICK HERE But hurry, because it’s only for the first 300 Bloggers!!!

It’s Love

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There’s something about laying on my husband’s chest and breathing in his breath taking scent. It is of course a Sean John smell ~ Unforgivable I believe it’s called…. but that on him grabs my soul and twists it all up. I really love my husband. Even though we have our days, where everything that comes out of his mouth is like nails scraping dreadfully down the chalk board….yes, I can hate him as much as I love him and that’s marriage. But at the end of a horrible day where we’re not on the same page in any way – he’ll look at me and smile and then before he walks out the door to go to work he leans down and kisses me. I breathe in his delicious scent and it all melts away. Nobody can make me as mad or happy in the way he can, and that’s how I know I love him. We were made for each other – and we make beautiful babies, so that proves even more we were made for each other.

I Have a Crafty Side

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I’m crafty. I love to make things. I love to cross-stitch. I have a cross-stitch that I actually started when I was 15 years old and wanted to make it for my mom. It’s called Through a Mother’s Eyes. It’s of a bride in her wedding dress with her mom standing behind her. There’s a mirror in front of them and the reflection of the bride is of a little girl. I never finished it and once a year pick it back up to work on it. My mom has always been waiting for me to finish it, but I never do. She doesn’t know this yet, but something inside of me says it’s not for her. Something inside of me is saying that the reason why I started this cross-stitch is so that I can work on it for 20+ years and have it perfect and be able to give it to my daughter on her wedding day. But, like I said, my mom does not know that’s how I feel yet.

I’m going to try something new. My grandmother makes amazing quilts. I love them. She’s going to teach me how to make quilts. I’ve never sewed before, so this is all going to be new and fun!! I think I’m going to pick one afternoon a week where after I pick up Jayden I will go up to my grandma’s house and learn.

Once I learn how to make these quilts I think I want to make some cross-stitches and put them into a quilt…how special would that be?