A birthday, trip to the zoo, and my funny kids :)

I celebrated my 27th birthday about 2-1/2 weeks ago.  This year hit me differently than past years.  I think it's because the kids are all more independent, and I'm not preparing for another little one.  Mine and Jamie's entire time together has always included a new baby.  It's kind of an adjustment for me still to get used to the fact that we are finished.  I was emotional leading up to my birthday knowing that I'm going to continue to watch the kids get older, and not need me as much, and there's nothing I can do about it. 

But there's good things that come with them getting older.  More chances for Jamie and I to have some time to ourselves (which is nice).  My brother, James, called me on my birthday and offered to keep the kids so Jamie and I could have a dinner to ourselves.  We'd planned on all of us going out, but it was a treat for just Jamie and I to go...that doesn't happen too often.  We went to eat, and the kids stayed with their uncle.  They had a blast and still ask me all the time when they get to go back to their uncle's house. 

I love to go to the zoo, and decided to make a trip to the Fort Worth Zoo a few days after my birthday.  It's always so much fun, and the weather couldn't have been more perfect that day.  My sister Ashley came along with us (it's always nice to have an extra set of eyes to watch the kids). 

Rosalie and Jasmine

Levi checking out the elephants.

The kids and I near the kangaroo exhibit.

Another fun pic of the kids and I.

The girls near the alligator tank.

Jasmine hung onto the map the entire day.  She was our little guide.

Typical Iris pose...

Another great pic of my girls :)

We had so much fun.  I'm sure we'll be going back soon since we're in the metroplex every week. 

One more little story...tomorrow is Mother's Day (the kids informed me of this first thing this morning).  I said to the girls, "You know what would be the best Mother's Day gift?  If you'd clean your room."  One of them hollered from their room, "But today isn't Mother's Day!"  Iris was in the kitchen with me at this time.  I turned to her, "Iris, wouldn't it be a good gift if you girls would clean your room?"  Her response, while laughing hysterical, "No, Mom!"  But they will clean their room today...I have other ways to make them do it...they're gonna wish they'd taken advantage of my nice suggestion that I offered this morning ;)

Happy Birthday to my Precious Lily

Just like with Rosalie, we started Lily's birthday with a shopping trip and a dinner out.  She chose to eat at Mi Familia's.  She loves mexican food.  Her all-time favorite dish is enchiladas with beans and rice.  You should see her eat...she literally, and I do mean literally, licks the plate clean.  There's not a drop of sauce or a grain of rice that gets left behind.  She's always been a good eater.

Her and I went to the store together as well.  She puts more thought into what she chooses.  She kept it pretty simple too.  I thought she'd want more, but when she was done, that was it.  She even said after she'd picked her last item, "I think I'll get this, and that's enough presents."  We made our way to the clothes after that.  She always needs new clothes.  But she wasn't interested in picking anything out for herself, so I picked out a few outfits, and we were on our way home.  She was very excited about what she'd chose.  I think she showed her dad a handful of times what she'd got.  She also is more careful with her personal things...she keeps them up on her bed away from her siblings.  The next morning they all came to me at different times in attempts to get Lily's birthday presents:  "Mom!  Lily won't share her things with me!..."

On the day of her birthday (the 25th), I worked on the house to get it ready for that evening.  I had a special dinner planned.  I made her Chicken Parmesan with garlic bread.  I'll have to post the recipe as it turned out really good.  I love to cook! 

After dinner, I sent out the first cake to be set on the table.  It wasn't anything special, but Lily was still really excited.  Ashley passed out some sunglasses that I'd picked up for the girls.  They put them on and were acting so silly.  During that, I was in the kitchen getting the other cake ready. 

The cake that I was getting ready just seemed like it was for Lily.  It was a smaller cake...green with Tinker Bell sitting on top.  I put the candles around Tink and got them lit, then walked out of the kitchen and starting singing Happy Birthday to my girl.  (You'll have to ignore the blur.  I gave Jamie the camera to snap these pics and he changed the setting on the camera.)

She's so funny.  As we all sang to her, she was pointing at each candle, counting to make sure I'd put enough.  If I remember next year, maybe I'll leave off one or two to see if she catches it.  She blew one of them out by accident as she counted them and then gave me a "whoops!" look.  All the girls helped remove the candles, and started licking the frosting off the ends.  Rosalie only got one candle...so that's why the long face in this next pic:

Then it was time for Lily to open the box that Aunt Jessica and Uncle Pablo sent.  It had arrived at the house before Rosalie's birthday.  I had the girls wait until their birthday's to open their gifts.  Lily bugged me constantly about getting open it early, and about the contents.  She kept making attempts to guess what could have been in the box.  The day of her birthday she kind of got upset with me when she'd asked if she could open the box.  I told her to wait until that evening, and she huffed and stomped down the hallway to her room.  But when she was finally able to get into the box, she was so excited about what had been sent.

She got two dinosaurs...

...an outfit and a book all about T-Rex...

And a Spongebob card that sings Happy Birthday.  She starting moving and shaking along with the song.  Her sisters were all jumping along with the music.  Even Levi was singing along.

But here, the fun stopped for a moment as Lily caught Iris trying to get into her birthday gifts on the floor.

Ashley and Josh had got her something too. It wasn't wrapped, so it was funny when Lily asked, "What is it?"  Ashley started telling her about the book they'd got for her, and the bear.  Lily said, "Oh, I love stuffed animals!  I'm gonna name him Furry!"  She's not very original with the names she comes up with.  She has a Fuzzy, Lovey, Bluey, Fluffy, Foxy, Beary...you get the point.  So, here she is with her newest addition:

She had a lot of fun on her birthday.  She kept telling me how perfect her day had been.  Early that morning she was bouncing on her bed, saying, "I'm 8! I'm 8! I'm 8!"  She made out with a lot of stuff too.  Her Grandma Lupe had sent her a few outfits that Lily just loved.  She's getting so big.  That little girl has brought so much happiness into my life.

And to close this post...I have another goofy personality showing up in my little ones.  That's all that needs to be said...

Another update...

My sister, Ashley, got engaged last month.  She asked me to be her maid of honor.  I'm getting to help out wherever possible with her big day.  She's getting married the first weekend in June, and that seems just around the corner.  I offered to do the flowers for her wedding.  I made her bouquet already.  I'm proud of it.  It fell together so easy.  She's already seen it, so I think it's safe to post it on here.  The picture doesn't do it justice, though.  It so beautiful in person...

I'm really excited for Ashley and her fiance Josh.  Their wedding is going to be beautiful.  Josh is a good man and already fits into the family so well (as long as you don't play card games with him {inside joke}).  I'm more excited that, because of the wedding, it's looking like all of my siblings will be in town.  All seven of us haven't been together at the same time in well over a decade.  I can't wait to see everyone!!!

On a different note, I snapped a few pictures of me and the kiddos tonight.  I just wanted to get some for my blog.  They grow so fast :(  Since I'm finished having babies, I feel like they are getting too big too fast.  But that's what they do, isn't it?  I've got a looooong way to go, but I'll probably be one of those people who nag their kids to hurry up and have some grand-babies for me.  But that's no where in the near future :)

Jaz, Rose (still in her fairy outfit) and I

Miss Iris and I

Jaz, Levi and I

I love them kiddos!!!

PS...Lily had already run off to bed.  When she gets tired, she's gone.

My Sweet Rosalie turned 5!

This year I didn't know what I was going to do for the kids birthday's.  We used to do parties, but the stress and cost just aren't worth it.  A few years ago, instead of a party, I took them to Build a Bear Workshop.  They loved that, but you can't do that every year.  Last year I decided to let them have their own shopping trip where they could pick out their presents.  That was a double plus because they got what they wanted and I didn't have to try and figure out the perfect gift.  This year I hadn't come up with a new idea.  With Spring coming, Lily knew her birthday was on the way and started talking about, "When I get to go to the store and pick out my gifts, I'm gonna get..."  Well, I guess they liked their birthday's so much last year, this year would be the same thing.  I still wanted to add something extra though.  So, to go with their trip, Jamie and I decided they'd also get taken out to dinner. 

Rosalie turned 5 yesterday, the 17th.  We'd already planned to take her out to dinner last weekend.  Jamie got off work early that day, and we were also able to make a trip to Glen Rose to a Dinosaur park.  It's a walk-thru park with life size dinosaurs.  If you haven't been, don't waste your time...it's way over priced and not worth it.  But that's not what mattered.  The kids had a lot of fun.  Here's some pictures from our afternoon at the park:

Iris was being so goofy that day.  I have a bunch of silly pictures of her at the park (but those will be posted on my Facebook).

The girls couldn't wait to find the T-Rex.

Levi wasn't too sure about this.

That's Rosalie in there :)

When we got back home after the park, Rosalie and I made her trip to the store.  She wanted everything, but I limited her to a few items.  She was so excited.  She was bouncing around and talking non-stop.  The checker got a kick out of her as she bounced and told her everything in the basket was for her and her birthday, and that she's gonna be 5!  After we got back home from the store, we all loaded up in the suburban, and took Rosalie out for dinner.  She wanted to go to Pasta Fina (which was fine with me...I love it there).  But of all the things she could have eaten, she chose cheese pizza. 

Fast forward a few days to her actual birthday.  We went to the store that morning to get a cake.  I just wasn't up to baking one (I know...I'm lazy).  Even though I didn't bake the cake, I still wanted to put my touch on it.  We swung by the toy isle and I picked up some Tinker Bell figurines.  Rosalie loves Tink.  Here's her cake.  I did everything on top...

I made her enchiladas and rice.  She ate it up fast, too, so she could get her presents.

Her Aunt Jessica & Uncle Pablo sent her a box for her birthday.  Here she's listening to the musical card they sent.  Big hit.  She wanted to show her siblings and ended up dancing over to them instead of walking.

Here she is with all of her gifts from Jessica & Pablo.  She loved the make-up set.

My sister, Ashley, and her finance Josh, got Rosalie a dress up set.  She put it on immediately, and this morning when she got up, she put it on again.

And here she is blowing out her candles.  Jasmine seems to be encouraging her.

I almost forgot to mention something...I'd made this big fruit salad (strawberries, pinapple, raspberries, and black berries).  I decided to make that instead of getting ice cream to go with the cake.  After we sang Happy Birthday, and got cake passed out to the kids, Josh dished out the fruit to each one of them.  They loved the fruit, but wouldn't eat the cake.  It felt funny telling my kids, "Eat your cake.  No, you cannot have more fruit until you eat some of that cake..." I should have just stuck the candles in the fruit salad and skipped on the cake.  Of course, I didn't know it would be a problem.  What kid passes on birthday cake???    

Rosalie had a great birthday!  We'll be doing all this again starting this Saturday as Lily's big day approaches.  I love seeing their excitement and enjoyment as they get to have their own special day.  Just one of the many joys of being their mom...

Snow!!!

We got a beautiful snowfall this week.  I love the snow.  It reminds me of when my family lived in New Mexico when I was younger.  We lived in a few different places in NM, but I have distinct memories of all those places during the wintery snow days.  Texas doesn't recieve as much snow, so every time it does come, it's something you have to take advantage of.  We were in Burleson when the snow came.  We ended up getting a generous 8 inches.  The kids couldn't wait to get outside and get in the snow.  It was still snowing big fluffy flakes as they ran around making tracks.  It's a joy to me to watch them play and have so much fun.

Iris threw the first snow ball...at Lily.  Lily was game for a fight.  Rosalie and Jasmine had fun throwing, just not getting hit.  Every time a snow ball tagged them, they came crying to me.  I just brushed the snow off and sent them back to the fight.  It didn't last long to say the least.  Lily and Iris probably could have tossed snow at each other all day, but the other two and their tears put an end to that.

Of course you can't play in the snow without building a snowman.  He ended up faceless though.  The kids didn't mind.  They were just proud of their snowman that Daddy helped them build.  Even after we went inside, the kids kept checking on him to make sure he was still out there.  After a number of peeks though the blinds, I finally convinced the kids that he wasn't going to walk away.  He did, however, grow a bit taller due to the falling snow.

Not knowing when I'd get another chance to do this, I snapped a picture of Jamie and I together for a change.  We take a lot of pictures, we just rarely get to be in the pictures at the same time.  So, here's my other half :) 

Sorry I've been gone for so long...

I haven't updated my blog in so long, let's see if I can remember what to do...

I don't know where to begin, and would probably leave out a bunch of stuff if I tried to recap.  So, detailed stories will have to be saved for another time.  I have some pictures I want to post though. 

These first three pictures are some of the kiddos that Jamie took.  They were playing at the park when we were staying in Mansfield, Louisiana.

Here is one of the kids on Christmas morning.

These next two are so cute.  We'd gone to Bass Pro.  Iris had fallen asleep on the drive back.  I carried her inside and told her to go to bed.  She didn't make it that far.  She climbed up into the seat at the table, curled up and fell back asleep.  All the kids were allowed to pick a hat from our trip to the store.  As you can see, Iris still had hers on.

And this last set of pictures are when we took advantage of the warmer weather this week, and played at the park in Burleson.  It's sweet to watch all the kids run around and play together. 

Oh, all my babies are so precious!