Sunday Snippets

February 3 - 15, 2014

The Mr. and I went out to a Chinese buffet for lunch to celebrate our Wedding anniversary.  We went on a Monday so we only had two kids with us instead of all four. I really didn't like the Chinese they had to offer, but the salad and wedge fries I had were pretty good.  Even if the food was sub-par the kids were pretty good and it was nice to get out. 

 These pictures was taken on the morning of February the 5th.  I just had to document the first snow I've experienced here in Houston.   Funny thing is the day it actually snowed the kids had to go to school and didn't have a "snow day", oh the irony...

See it on the tramp and roof tops?

My neighbors whom I really really like (but have just recently gotten to know) whom have three (great) kids the same age as mine had my three oldest children over for a movie and pizza night.  I think it was the first time since the Mr. and I moved here that we could sit down in silence and watch a movie of our own.  It was extra nice cause we weren't paying out the nose for a babysitter either.  Usually we are hosting the neighborhood kids or watching someone elses children, so they can go on a date night.  It was exceptionally nice to be on the other end of the deal this time.  It makes me want to cry thinking these wonderful neighbors are moving this month.  I am going to miss them! 

I'm not much for partying or holidays or birthdays, I'm like the scrooge of everything, but I decided that maybe my attitude and choices about those things were rubbing off on my kids.  So I've been trying to exert a little effort into doing something special for my kids when holidays or important events roll around this year.

For Valentines (my least favorite holiday) I gave each person in our family a cheesy valentines that involved something they enjoyed.   

I made our dinner Italian themed.  It included Two-Timing Pasta (a blend of Marinara and Alfredo sauce) Salad, Garlic Bread, a Cherry topped Black Forest Cake from scratch, and homemade Italian Sodas.    

We waited and waited for the Mr. to come home from work, but when it became apparent he was coming home anytime soon, the kids and I lit-up some candles turned off the lights and had a wonderful date night.  

We took turns telling each other why we loved each other.  It actually was a fun night.  The kids ask to do candle lit dinners all the time now.  

Isaac was upset about something and threw a shoe at me from the top of our stairs.  I was busy undressing the baby and didn't see it coming.  The corner of the the sole of his Sunday shoe stuck right in the side of my eye.  I thought I had been shot.  All l know is my world went black and I started screaming and bawling and flailing all over the floor.  Darn that kids aim!  Oh how it hurt, I remember first thinking I was blind, and then when I stopped panicking and started being rational I realized I could still see, but everything was fuzzy and my eye burned with each blink.  Eventually my vision cleared and I just had a blood shot eye.  Thank goodness there was no permanent damage.  

Miss Abrielle is a walking machine, and she won't be contained.  She refuses to let anyone hold her during church.  She wants to be all over discovering everything.  She is covered in bruises though.  She tripped walking around with her daddies cup in her mouth and has a giant ring bruise that goes around her whole face.  My mom sent her these really adorable dresses  for her first birthday.  I tried to grab a picture of her cuteness, but like I said she wanted nothing to do with being still.  

She totally let out a very loud fart during the closing prayer in Sunday School.  The youth in our class appreciate the laughs she brings.  She just stood there grinning at them as they giggled at her.

Both Alivia and Dylan are working hard on memorizing the Articles of Faith, they each have the first three memorized.  It's my hope, we'll have them all memorized before Alivia's baptism.

She's ONE

I've heard it a million times before, you know that saying that goes, "time flies when you're having fun" and while I'm not sure I'd call the last year fun (stressful and chaotic are coming to mind) time has flown!
I'm having a hard time coming to terms with my baby being one.  She is so sweet and snugly and innocent and content, that it makes my heart hurt a little to see her grown up.  It's selfish of me, because she's quite happy to grow up and learn and explore life, It just happened so fast for me that I feel like I didn't get to enjoy her as much as I wanted to.
Abrielle Elizabeth Giovannoni,
I thank God for your precious spirit every single day! I desperately wanted you!  And I love, love, love you!
You are everything sweet.   Your greatest pleasure in life is being snuggled, from day one you weren't happy or content unless someone was holding you close.  I find myself a little put out every now and then when you're whining for me to hold you, but the minute I pick you up, I remember and thank you for demanding the love you so earnestly deserve.  You have a magical ability to calm me.  It's hypnotic to listen to you breath next to me, you just have a way of stilling me from the inside out.
You love to eat, anything and everything.  You make noises while you eat, just like Isaac.  It's quite comical to listen to the two of you moan your way through a meal.
You inherited the Giovannoni - Ward stubborn disposition.  I've decided there is no escaping this genetic mash up.  You will do what ever your heart pleases no matter the consequences.
Thankfully you really only desire to eat and be held so you haven't gotten yourself in to to much trouble yet.
You have two brothers and a sister wrapped around your little finger.  They tease and torment you to no end, but you also have your happiest moments with them.  They make you laugh and they take care of you when I'm not available to.
You are definitely daddy's "baby".
You are the worlds lightest sleeper.  Everything wakes you up. I have never been able to successfully transfer you when you are sleeping. 
You have my eyes.  You look so very much like me, sometimes it cracks me up to see my face and facial expressions staring back up at me.
You have a bunch of teeth.  I should probably count them and put an actual number down but you are asleep on my lap as I write this and I don't want to wake you up.
You love being outside.
You still don't have much hair on the top of your head and a bunch on the back, it's sort of like a mullet I guess.  I am however loving the little wispy curls your back hair has. You REFUSE to wear any sort of headband or bow so everyone thinks you're a handsome little fella! 
I am so happy that you are mine, that you are happy and healthy, that our family was blessed with your presence.  Thanks girl for making me love that much deeper!

January 2014

• The kids started school back up and I found a little of my sanity again. 
• We got a new Sister Missionary in our Ward and she looks a lot like my little sister Cozette!
• Dylan started choir.
• Alivia started going to a before-school art club.
• Isaac graduated Nursery and was moved to Sunbeams in church this year.  It is not going well at all!  We have late church which doesn't help since it runs during his much needed nap time.  
• Abrielle walks everywhere if she is assisted, but staunchly refuses to walk on her own. 
• I built a table for a nook in our wall.  I stained it and white washed it and it came out the most gorgeous grey color, I LOVED it!  Then I quickly realized that even though I loved, loved, loved the grey, it looked very unattractive next to my beige and chocolate walls.  so even though it tore me up inside I just painted the thing white so I could be done with it, but now it's white I'm thinking I should just go all out crazy and paint it a bold color like turquoise or coral or some sort of vibrant green.

• My Sister Cozette asked me months ago to crochet her some headbands, I am glad to finally say I finished them! The original ones she fell in love with and wanted were knitted so I did my best to recreate the look with crochet, they turned out really cute (at least I think so)!

• We actually had a few hard freezes down here in last little while and I lost all my plants (and my temper) seriously, its hot like 9 months a year here I didn't/don't want to spend the three nice months we have freezing!  I am however still enjoying my blood oranges that are currently hanging from a leafless tree in my back yard.  They taste heavenly, even though they aren't totally ripe!

• Abbie's had a rough month, mobility definitely has taken it's toll on her little forehead.  She managed to get three separate goose bumps in one day!

• We finally took Alivia out for her Birthday dinner.  She requested that we go to Clay's Restaurant.  The foods nothing special but it's not terrible either.  The kids however love the outside sandpit and petting zoo.  I laughed and shuddered a little when I first heard of an eating establishment and a petting zoo that were one in the same, but it is a fun family experience none-the-less.  Isaac and Alivia especially loved the pony ride.

We went to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 after dinner and then finished the night off with an ice cream cone (which we actually suspect wasn't ice cream at all, but frozen whipped cream) from Sonic.

• The weather has been bi-polar the last week or so.  Sunny and warm one day and bitter cold freezing the next.  The kids school was cancelled on Friday because we had rain and freezing temps which iced over all the freeways and over passes.  I thought it was totally crazy that they cancelled school, but I guess they were being safe...
• I finally busted out the new bike trailer, (which I had Dylan assemble for me) and the kids and I have loved getting out for bike rides!  
•  After a few years of trying I think I finally made a Tikka Masala that is just as good as anything you'd find at any restaurant. Hooray!
• The Mr. had another "Go live Weekend"  (which means he wasn't home for a 24 hour period) so the kids and I did our best to entertain ourselves Friday evening without his presence.  Little Ceasars Pizza and a few rounds of Wii Party seemed to do the trick.
• The kids had a second "Snow Day", because of cold temps. I know I'll regret saying this, but is it time for warm weather yet?  I have a sneaky suspicion that it's going to be winter one day and Summer the next.  I just wanted a month or two of decent enjoyable weather.
• The Mr. found an incredible deal on a Table Saw and bought me one, other than a Lathe and a few other unnecessary but very cool saws, I think I now own every piece of woodworking equipment I could ever want.  
• I finished building and installing the baby gate for our stairs.  I used the wood from the twin box spring we deconstructed a few weeks back, to build the baby gate.  I didn't want to drill into the banisters to secure the gate so I built a frame and then used heavy duty zip ties to secure the frame to the newel posts. I was going for the picket fence look.  I originally dreamed that I would paint it white and distress the heck out of it so that it would look chippy and weathered, but since it's cold outside I'm putting off painting it.   I used a natural vinegar and black tea stain on the reclaimed wood and it almost perfectly matches the color of the banisters. 
  
  
  
  
  

  • Alivia and Dylan both brought home wonderful report cards.  Dylan made the Honor Roll this semester.  That is huge for him.  I'm so pleased!
    
    
    
    
    
  • Abrielle got tired of hearing me tease her about not walking on her own and decided to give it a shot.  She's rather funny and zombie like about the whole thing.  She is still really unsure of herself and prefers to crawl where ever she needs to, but on rare occasion when she thinks nobody is looking, she'll toddle across a room.  It's just a matter of gaining some self confidence and she'll be running along with her brothers and sister.