Author Archives: Lindsay

Pretty little bows

Here are the ones I have done so far. I was on a role, but haven’t had a chance to do anymore in a week or two. We are busy over here! If you would like to purchase any of these bows please contact me at LSM05@hotmail.com. Or if you have a specific color or idea please email me and I will be happy to do a bow to match something or fulfill a request! Thanks for looking 🙂 All of the bows are attached with alligator clips that can also go on a baby headband.

$5.00
Spotted Red Bow

$5.00
Spotted Green Apple Bow

$5.00
Green Apple Bow

$3.00 for a set of two
Garnet Clippie Set

$5.00
Watermelon and White Stripe Bow

Girly summer craft

So today I asked Hayden if she wanted to go swimming…she said, “No mom, I’m already in my clothes. Let’s make a craft!” So, this is what we did.

Purple is her most favorite color!

Bears don’t talk…Duh!!

Yesterday during Hayden’s “preschool at home” she was painting several masterpieces and I’m just talking to her and suddenly she asks….”Mom, where is Suzy?”

Now, Hayden has several favorite stuffed animals and baby dolls that she has named, but none of them are Suzy. So I asked her, “Who is Suzy?” and she replies, “My bear”. Well, let me just tell you about Bear. First of all, up until last year, Hayden had never had any one particular thing that she favored. She didn’t do pacifiers, didn’t have a favorite blanket or doll and didn’t ever suck her thumb or anything. So I figured we were good to go on that one and wouldn’t be the people that had just arrived on vacation, and suddenly realized that we had left the “favorite” at home.

So, then I leave to go to the hospital. Da da da dum
On one of Hayden and BJ’s visits they walk in with Hayden holding this new cute little puppy stuffed animal. She has named him Spot Puppy. (his gender has changed a few times, but I am pretty sure the majority of the time he has been a he) Aunt Lexi had given him to her. So “Spot Puppy” became the favorite. I say that he filled a void that was missing in her life (ME) and came at just the right time. We couldn’t go anywhere without him and she couldn’t sleep unless she had him. Then at Christmas, Aunt Lexi and Uncle Sean gave her a bear. I figured that with all the stuffed animals she had accumulated that really she wouldn’t pay any attention to him, and of course with Spot Puppy, there was no replacement. But Hayden opened up her big heart and accepted him as favorite #2. So now, it was always, “where’s my Spot Puppy and Bear??” Even worse, now we have TWO things to constantly take with us and keep up with. (THANKS LEX) 🙂 Well for whatever reason, (probably because he is so worn and been washed about 100 times) Spot Puppy has dwindled to just stuffed animal status and bear has taken over top favorite.

ANYWAY, back to the original story, Bear has always been called Bear and has always been a boy. I’ve asked Hayden several times and its always been a boy. So yesterday I was a little surprised when she said Bear was a she named Suzy. So I asked her, “how do you know that bear is girl?? I thought he was a boy?” and Hayden looks at me, ROLLS HER EYES, and says in an exasperated voice, “Mom, Bear can’t open his mouth and tell me things.” Since when do two year olds roll their eyes??????

On to the rest of our life….Preslyn, Ella and Hayden are all cutting teeth. Joy of all joys!!! Hayden is getting her last two year molar, (Sing Hallelujah!) and Preslyn cut her top left front tooth on Monday and Ella just cut hers today. Also, Ella pulled up on her crib yesterday so I had to lower her mattress down last night. Ella has been relatively normal with teething, just sleeping more during the day, but Preslyn has been having a rough time. She rarely takes a nap and she has been taking 5 hour naps during the day. Which is nice, but I can tell it is taking a toll on her. They are both pulling up on everything but are so wobbly when they get up and always fall and bump something.

Hayden has not had an accident since Monday and has started waking up and going straight to the potty by herself before coming and waking me up. Today she was calling to me that she had gone poop. Not the funnest thing to wake up to but hey, I’m excited that she is officially out of diapers!!!! That is going to be a wonderful savings of money 🙂 She has gotten down how to write “H’s” and is now working on “A” …she knows they come in sequence and is doing really well. She is growing up so much lately and really amazes me daily. She is so excited about her upcoming months. She is going on an airplane two times. We don’t really fly too often and usually when we do, Hayden isn’t with us. So this is her first flight that she remembers. Then we are taking her to Veggie Tales Live, which she is thrilled about and then its her birthday. She also is going to be in two weddings, one in August and one September. So we have lots of fun things going on.

Lastly…Misti our nanny is no longer working with us, but the girls and I have enjoyed her company these last five months. We couldn’t have done it without you!! Ella is in her lap in this picture. I always forget to label and then have people ask me which is which. So sorry 🙂 Anyway, we love you Misti and wish you a wonderful marriage!

Dinner time antics

The other night while eating some little chicken sticks Hayden says to me:

H:”What are these?”

Me:”Chicken”

H:”No, mom, they’re little horndogs….”

BJ and I were laughing so hard! Oh you just never know what is about to come out of her little mind/mouth!

July Already???

Ok, where has this year gone?? I can’t believe its already July! There is so much going on this year it seems. The time is just flying by. I’m already thinking towards my three girls birthdays. Being that they are exactly one month apart, I feel is going to make for some interesting party planning in the years to come. And for those who have wondered if we will just combine them. Nope. Pres and El already have to share, so I’m not going to throw Hayden in there too. Plus, its each of their own special days. So until otherwise, we will have separate birthdays 🙂

Anywho…..so what’s been going on with us….well, we had our fun 4th of July partay. Did some fireworks…Hayden got some gravel in her eye and came in screaming her guts out. Very eventful. Even better, literally 30 minutes before that, Preslyn grabbed a glass candle and accidentally broke it and sliced two fingers open. It took a little while for the bleeding to stop and I was so freaked out. She on the other hand, NEVER MADE A PEEP! It was kind of freakish! My poor babes, had so many IV’s that nothing phases them now. 😦 Anyway, it was fun overall. I was just convinced we would end up in the ER by nights end, but we didn’t. Wahoo!

Other things….oh yes, I had a yard sale…cleaned out my house and am now transforming my office into a playroom. Super fun. Since the economy is in the gutter momentarily (we hope) we are going to hold off on the ole builder-oo until the cost of everything isn’t double what it normally is. We don’t need a new house THAT bad. I mean we DO, but well, you know what I mean. I haven’t reached celebrity pay status yet, so we’ll have to hold off just a little while longer. We did meet with our builder though and LOVED him. He is going to be a perfect fit for our lifestyle and what we want. PLUS he’s a Christian and has wonderful values for his business. How could you ask for anything better!?? So we are really excited, just waiting for the timing still.

Lots of fun things happening with our pals these days. My friend Holly had a sweet baby boy Ethan, my BIL got engaged, my grandparents moved WAAAAYYY closer to all of us, my pals Jamie and Billy are preggers as are my pals Lindsey and Brian, and my pals Aaron and Rachel got engaged! Wow!! Good thing for all those wonderful things, since one BIG TIME bummer is that my pal Jordan moved away. 😦 😦 Big time stink. We can’t wait for her to come back.

My brother is getting married in 2 months so BJ and I have been working out like crazy and eating really healthy. No fries please 🙂 We are doing this workout called PX90 by Beachbody.com…its insane. We are literally dead on the ground after every single workout. But we are getting results and that is always wonderful and makes you keep going! Did I mention that MY BROTHER IS GETTING MARRIED IN TWO MONTHS!!! That is so crazy. My little bro bro…I’m so going to cry, I can just tell ya that right now. Hayden is beyond thrilled to get to fly on an airplane for the first time that she remembers. (she’s been to Acapulco but was only 9 or 10 mo. for that one. ) So she talks about it all the time as does she talk about her birthday. Poor thing. I have to tell her literally at least once a week, no its not your birthday yet. She will tell you all the details like it is tomorrow. She is just waiting for the day that she wakes up and we say “Ok, today is your birthday!”

I’ll update you on the girlies :

The Hayden-cane is on the move…wow that girl keeps me on my toes. She is starting to learn how to be really funny. And she loves when she genuinely makes you laugh. Then she will repeat whatever it was that made you laugh about 10 more times. 🙂 She has suddenly turned to allllllll girly girl. She puts on a dress every morning before she comes out of her room and she wears her little plastic high heals every day ALL day! She watched Hairspray recently and ever since then it has been all dresses every day. And usually she will go through about two or three dresses per day. The other day I came in her room after her naptime and she had 4 dresses layered on her and 1 skirt underneath, then she had a bucket fishing-type hat on and flip flops WHILE SHE WAS ASLEEP, she had all this on! It cracked me up!!! She is growing like CRAZY and getting so stinking tall and Sassy. She has started rolling her eyes now. (not a good thing) We are working on learning how to spell her name right now. Since she is out of school for the summer, I’m trying to keep her learning new things all the time. She is counting to ten in spanish now and still doing well with potty training. She is a big time helper, when she wants to be and is starting to pray some “not so standard” prayers here and there. I love to hear her little heart talk to God. Its so precious! Sometimes she gets really carried away with telling stories and they are like “oh the other day my mom, was walking and then she opened the door… and she will just be cracking up like it is the funniest thing ever.” and she will always follow it up with, “oh that was hiyarious.” ( I know I’m not really THAT funny 😉

(Ella is laying down)

Ella has started saying Dada and Bubububu…Its adorable. She is crawling much better and has started taking more of an interest in Preslyn. She is still the best sleeper of the bunch. Goes down when she wants to, usually she fusses if you don’t take her to her bed fast enough. She is eating her foods and HATES sweet peas. Tonight she literally SPIT them out at me. I was covered in peas. She is in the 18lb range and still only has her two bottom front teeth. She has started holding her bottle if she has to. She loves her butterfly lovie that my cousin Allie gave her. She will crawl to it immediately when she gets in her bed and cuddles it. She still is a two-middle-finger sucker, but our pediatrician says that is ok for now. She had a really rough start in life so it can be attributed to that. Overall, she is a very pleasant child!

Preslyn is also in the 18lb. range. She is getting up on her knees to crawl, but still isn’t too coordinated at it. She covers her ground though. She on the other hand is ms. pull-up queen. She started grabbing onto things and trying to pull up but wasn’t going anywhere really…until today. This is what I found ……
…..two times! So down went her mattress to the bottom. She is also clapping! She will do it on command sometimes, but gets bored of it. While she claps she tries to say the ca sound. It is adorable. Still two bottom teeth for her, but today she started getting a runny nose so I’m thinking a new tooth is on the way. She has started holding her bottle as well and is getting easier to put to sleep. I have put her in bed a few times lately when she is sleepy but awake and she will jabber a bit and then fall asleep. She has turned into a side sleeper. She is totally not interested in food at all. I have to force her to eat, in which every time I get a “mom this is gross” face. So we are trying to get her to eat more, but its not working too well.

(Ella is on the left)

I can’t believe that they are 8 months old. That just blows my mind. Recently I was put in contact with a woman pregnant with twin boys, staying in the same hospital that I was in, same drs…very same situations. Was expected to deliver at 32 weeks, just like us. It was very weird to relive some of those emotions and thoughts that I have tried to put behind me forever. But I was thankful to get to be a help to her. She had lots of questions about the NICU and what to expect and it was so hard to tell her the reality of what to expect. No one can understand the agony that a mother goes through when she has to leave her sick baby at a hospital and go home. It is something that no words of encouragement can make better. You just totally have to lean on the Lord for comfort. Anyway, her babies were born and are doing well. I am so thankful for her though because I prayed all along during my pregnancy that God would send someone someday that I could help somehow through a similar situation, and here she was. She reminded me so much of myself, my nurses said that we even look alike, which is so strange! Anyway, just another testimony of God’s faithfulness!

So that’s about it…oh and I started making some hair bows 🙂 I was really proud of them! I have 4 now. So I’ll be eventually selling them once I get a few more made, so all you ladies with girly girls at home….stay tuned!!!

Well I just wanted to update and remember some things going on lately. After all this is my journal that you are all just peeking into from time to time 🙂

Happy 4th of July!!!

Hope you all have a safe and happy 4th! I’ll try to get a picture of my girls in their red, white and blue duds at some point.

We are having a yard sale today from 8-12 🙂 So exciting, I know…I just wanted to finally clean out everything from top to bottom and that is what we have been doing.

Have a lovely day!

Here are the conversion charts that I promised you for all the new colors:

Lipsticks
IF you loved….. Then try……

Copper Mine/Sunset, Red
Gold dust/Golden
Magenta/Hibiscus
Pink Coral/Pink Melon
Red Salsa/Red
Redwood/Red, Amber Suede
Strike-a-pose rose/Berry Kiss, Whipped berries
Pink Daisy/Pink Melon, Hibiscus

EYE COLORS

OLD COLOR/NEW REPLACEMENT

Bamboo / Silky Caramel
Blue Moon /Blue Metal or Denim Frost
Cinnabar /Available in new formula
Copper Beach /Honey Spice
Cotton Candy /Precious Pink and Blue
Cranberry Ice / Raisin
Crystalline / Available in new formula
Currant Craze / Sweet Plum
Double Espresso / Espresso and Raisin
Fig /Dusty Lilac and Iris
Gold Leaf / Amber Blaze
Goldenrod / Amber Blaze
Hazelnut / Available in new formula
Jade / No replacement
Java / Hazelnut and Granite
Jungle / Lemongrass and Golden Olive
Lagoon / Blue Metal and Navy Blue
Lucky Penny / Chocolate Kiss or Amber Blaze
Moonstone /Available in new formula
Onyx / Steel and Coal
Periwinkle / Iris
Rainforest/ Ivy Garden
Rose Mist / Precious Pink
Safari Sunset / Honey Spice and Amber Blaze
Sheer Pink / Sweet Pink
Spun Silk / Available in new formula
Storm /Coal
Sugarplum / Dusty Lilac
Tooti Fruiti / Precious Pink and Honey Spice
Tropical Sun / Silky Caramel
Vintage Gold /Available in new formula
Virtual Violet / Sweet Plum
Whipped Cocoa / NEW Hazelnut
White Sand /Sweet Cream
Woodland / Sienna

CHEEK COLORS:

OLD COLOR /New Substitute
Apricot Breeze /Shy Blush
Brick /Cinnamon Stick
Bronze Sands/ Sparkling Cider or Sandstone Bronzing Powder
Desert Bloom /Cherry Blossom
Gold Canyon/ Berry Brown and Golden Copper
Island Spice /Shy Blush
Mocha Blush/ Cherry Blossom
Orchid /Cherry Blossom
Pink Flamingo /Pink Petals
Pink Meringue/ NEW Sunny Spice
Pink Sapphire/ Strawberry Cream
Plum Dazzle/ Bold Berry
Santa Fe Sun /Golden Copper and Sparking Cider
Sunny Spice /Available in new formula

Get Cookin’

Here is a scrumptious meal for you to make…I made it last night and my family LOVED it! Its from my new Cooking Light cookbook and so it is healthy AND yummy! Can’t beat that!

Chicken Fracais

Prep:20 min. Cook:23 min.

3/4 cup egg substitue
1/4 cup (1 oz.) grated fresh Parmesan Cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
3 garlic cloves, minced
8 (6oz.) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves (i used the tenderloins)
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tablespoon olive oil
Cooking spray
2 tablespoons butter (I use smart balance)
1/4 cup dry white wine
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1. Combine first 8 ingredients in a dish
2. Place each chicken breats half in a zip lock bag and pound to 1/4 inch thickness. Discard bag. Dredge chicken in flour, and dip in egg substitute mixture.
3.Heat 1 1/2 tablespoons oil in a large nonstick skilllet coated in cooking spray over medium heat. Add 4 chicken breast halves; cook 4 minutes on each side or until done. Remove from pan, and keep warm. Wipe drippings from pan with paper towel. Repeat with 1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil and remaining chicken halves.
4. Melt butter in pan; add 1/4 cup wine and 3 tablespoons lemon juice. Bring to boil; cook 10 seconds. Serve immediately over chicken.

Yield: 8 servings

DELICIOUS 🙂

Serve with these~~

Oven roasted green beans
Prep:12 min. Cook 10 min.

1lb. green beans, trimmed
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon coarsley ground black peppter
cooking spray
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1. preheat oven to 475 degrees
2.combine beans and next 3 ingredients in a large bowl, tossing well to coat. Arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Bake at 475 for 10 min. or until tender, turning once.
3. Remove from oven, add lemon juice to beans, and toss.

Yield: 4 servings

Creamy Parmesan Orzo

Prep:6 min. Cook 23min.

1 tablespoon butter
1 cup uncooked orzo (rice-shaped pasta)
1 1/4 cups fat-free, less sodium chicken broth
1 1/4 cups water
1/4 cup (1oz) grated frsh paremsan cheese
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 teaspoons pine nuts, toasted

1. Heat butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add orzo, and cook 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Stir in broth and water; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer until liquid is absorbed and orzo is done (about 15 min.)
2. Remove orzo from heat; stir in cheese, basil, salt and pepper. Sprinkle with pine nuts. Serve immediately.

Yield: 4 servings