April Showers Bring May Flowers.... And The Thirties

Cheers to being thirty! Cheers to a night out on the town with my hubby while the girls snuggle away with Papa and Mimi. Cheers to lunch out with mom and Erin, and a perfect sunset bike ride to sushi (complete with balloons) and a homemade cake. I'm blessed with an amazing husband and incredible friends and family. What a gift! My cup runneth over.

Caterpillar Friday

I was at a class at church all day on Saturday. While I was gone, Ron put up the hammock that he bought me for my birthday. In my mind, I'll be relaxing the hammock all summer with a book and a drink while the girls play nicely in the sandbox nearby. In reality, the hammock will be a sinking ship pitching in the waves of a terrible storm...... there will probably be no books or lemonade involved, but instead lots of high pitched screaming and talk of the hungry sharks underneath our hammock/ship :)

The first sprouts of the garden have appeared! My mom is taking me to a worm/compost class as a gift for my birthday, I'm hoping to learn more about taking good care of my little plot!

Saturday evening was spent at one of our favorite spots: LaRocco's Pizza and Velvet Yogurt. Our weekend was jam packed, so it was nice to have Saturday evening to eat and then hang out in the backyard together.

Sky Mountain Charter Family Picnic

(I didn't get very many pictures... )

Our last 2 weeks of pictures

My Tiny Strangers

The Tiny Strangers and me.

I got an email from my dad last night. I copied and pasted it below: I am reading Ortberg's The Me I Want to Be and found this paragraph fun and relevant to where you all are. One day God says to the angels, "I have an idea. I am going to create the family." An angel asks, "What is it?" "I am very excited about this idea," God says. "Of course I am excited about all my ideas. One of the great things about being God is you just never have a bad idea---but this one is special." Family is going to be the way I connect people in love. It will work like this. Adult people will sign up to take care of a tiny little stranger." "Are they going to get paid?" the angel asks. "No, that little stranger is actually going to cost them a lot of money. Not only that, but the little stranger won't even be able to talk at first. It will just cry and scream, and you will have to guess why. It will make you lose sleep. It will make messes all the time that you have to clean up. It will be utterly vulnerable. You have to watch that kid twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Then when it's two, that little stranger will be able to say words like 'no' and 'mine,' and it will throw tantrums. And then I am thinking about inventing puberty. I am not too sure about that one yet, but if I do, they will get these strange things called hormones that will go crazy. Odd things will happen to their bodies. They will get pimples, their voices will crack, and their limbic systems will melt down. Then they will grow up, and just when they are mature and beautiful and interesting and able to contribute, they will move away. That's the idea, what do you think? The angels shuffle around and look at their feet. Who's going to tell him? they think. Lord, who would sign up for that? Why would they do it? Here is where God really gets excited. "They won't even know why. They will just look at that little body, those little hands and feet, and they will think that this tiny little stranger is beautiful, even though he looks like every other baby and all babies look like Winston Churchill. Then one day that little stranger will smile at them, and they will think they have won the lottery. That little stranger will say 'Dada' and 'Mama,' but it will say 'Dada' first because daddies are just so self-sacrificial and noble and . . . how I love them. But moms are good too. So it will say 'Dada" and 'Mama' and then those little arms and hands will reach out and wrap around that neck, and it is going to feel to that grown up that for the first time now they understand why arms and hands were created. "What it's really all about is just grace." "Children, the new generation, will learn that they are prized and belong before they have ever done a single thing to earn it. The old generation will learn that when they give, they will receive. When they give the most, they receive the most." "And then one day I will tell them, Human race, I am your Father, You are my daughter; you are my son." "They will get it and they will be undone." Cool huh? Keep caring for those tiny little strangers! I love you! Bildad

Ole'

I wanted to share this great recipe with you. My book club girls got me thinking about Cinco de Mayo recipes... and I improvised a little yesterday and it turned out great.

Throw 3 chicken breasts in the Crockpot

(I like to sear mine first... so you don't get that weird foamy sludge in your Crockpot... kinda like the weird sludge in hot tubs. Yuck.)

1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed

1 bag of frozen corn (I like the roasted corn from Trader's)

1 jar of salsa verde (again, I like Trader's)

1/4 c of water

I also threw a little salt and pepper and some Chalula in there

Leave it all in there for about 6 hours on high. Make sure the chicken is cooked through.

I served it with corn tortillas, sour cream, lettuce, salsa, guacamole and tomato.

I also had the leftovers atop lettuce today for lunch... even better!

PS I'm going to be THIRTY tomorrow!

Grown ups are thirty!

My wonderful husband is taking me some place... I love him.

Nana Welch

I'm in Oregon today saying goodbye to my Nana Welch. She was the matriarch of our family. She was 91 years old and lived a full life. She was married to my Papa Welch for 68 years. She was an incredible cook and hostess. She could make fresh apple pies and peach cobbler like it was nobody's business. I have so many wonderful memories of my Nana including many Easter vacations spent with her at their ranch, Easter egg hunts, Kings in the Corner and the importance of knocking on the table when your turn was over, scrambled eggs with cheese, swimming for hours in their pool in Newport Beach, school shopping, All My Children, and the importance of a good, long nap in the afternoon. She was an amazing gardener. She turned choosing fruit and produce from the grocery store into an art. She'd sit in her wing back chair in the evening before bed and carefully slice a piece of fruit with a paring knife and offer slices to each of us. She taught me the importance of mixing meatloaf with your hands. Our last hours together were spent thanking her, singing to her, and reflecting. What an amazing woman she was. She loved Jesus and her family so very much. We will miss you, Nana.

Cheater, Cheater Pumpkin Eater

I'm cheating. I'm so behind on our blog. I compiled all of our events from the last month into one little slideshow. Take a look at our fun month.

It's Good to be Queen

This afternoon I walked in to the living room to find Sadie sporting this lovely crown. I don't have too look very far to see who crowned her :)

PS.. both of my girls have done this hilarious fist thing at about 3 months where they get fixated with their fists raised in front of their faces. It looks like Sadie is ready for a fight.

Thumbs Up!

Last weekend we took a trip to Flagstaff to see family. Our sister in law, Gayle, was just diagnosed with breast cancer. We made the trek out to be together with family before her surgery that took place yesterday. She had a double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery, all of which went well. The greatest gift is that her lymph nodes came back clear which is a good indicator that they "got" it all. She's amazing... she's such a rock. I want to be like her when I grow up :) While we were there we got to introduce little Sadie to the family, play together, celebrate our sister-in-law, Ruth's birthday, see a piano recital, and just hang out. It was perfect.

before we hit the snow of Flag, we spent a night in Palm Springs

"Nice to meet you, Baby Sadie William!"

We had fun playing in the snow

Our snow friends, Jean and Pierre

The world's most patient cat, Sneakers

Happy Birthday, Ruth

"When you're a little older you can have cake, too."

On Friday night Gayle had a surprise visit from her nursing staff at Flagstaff Medical Center. Gayle is a labor and delivery nurse... and it's clear she's made a huge impact on the ladies that she works with. Another cool thing about our family is that both of our sister in laws are nurses and get to work together at the hospital... how fun to work together with your sister... kinda like someone else I know :)

Counter Time

Sweet Nieces