Disney 2

(Can you believe Amelia went and sat in his lap?)

Tuesday, we went to the Animal Kingdom. I both liked it because it was like a zoo and disliked it because it was like a zoo. We're zoo people and with being "Friends of the Zoo" members we have gone to lots of zoo for free. I think I was expecting it to be the best zoo ever, but we have been to the San Diego zoo, so I guess that is one of the best zoos ever. The animal part of it was pretty much just a regular zoo (unless you don't go to zoos much and then it would be exceptional :) Don't get me wrong, I still liked the park and Isabella especially loves animals, so she loved it. Trust me, she'd go to our local zoo a couple times a week and still not get bored. Kenny did get to ride the Expedition Everest ride and said that was good, I didn't get to ride it (sniff, sniff), but I'm not into riding rides by myself -- Isabella wanted to ride it, but was too little. She probably would have liked it too, she loves roller coasters. I won't post pictures of the safari ride, but it was alot of fun. I'm surprised I actually got some pictures of the animals because you are really bouncing around in the jeep. The first time we rode it the guy was great, really fitting the part of the safari driver, the next time (which was on Thurs with my parents) the guy was monotone and boring, which actually made it entertaining in its own right. We were watching some video last night from that Thursday and laughing at how the guy sounds on video. We, of course, saw more characters, my girls really were into seeing the characters. If you don't want to see them, don't point them out. My girls wanted to see Eeyore, which also meant seeing Tigger and Pooh again. Of course, this time we only waited a few minutes to see them. :) Eeyore had horrible penmanship and when we saw him later in the week Isabella said "Oh no, Mommy, Eeyore can't write very good."

We saw Minnie again, her line wasn't long so I agreed the girls could go see her again. We also saw Pocahontas, a very white Pocahontas, which much have confused everyone because we had no one in front of us to see her. :) The parade was great, as are all of Disney parades. Isabella loved trying to get the characters to give her five. We got to talk to a nice older couple that I could tell were enjoying watching the girls have fun. I thought it was kind of cute that an older couple would be there by themselves. I can see that being Kenny and I -- in another 40 years. :) Even if you are not into animals, or you don't feel like going on a safari ride, go to the Animal Kingdom for at least the shows. Oh my, were they spectacular. The Lion King show was full of all kinds of fun things, I'll only post a few pics. Isabella loved the acrobatics. Amelia liked it, but was a little unsure of some of it because we were up front and the show isn't done on a stage its done right in the middle of the floor with bleachers sitting around it.

I asked my girls what their favorite part of Animal Kingdom was and Amelia said "Newo show" and Isabella also said "The Finding Nemo Show." I would have to agree, that was my favorite part as well. Isabella said the Lion King show was next - so if kids are telling you the shows are better than the animals, you know they're good. We all just absolutely loved "Finding Nemo: The Musical" -- the other stuff was good, but this was great. It was like a Broadway show (nothing at all like the shows they put on at Hollywood Studios) and just really amazing. These pictures aren't great, but we were in the second section up -- so using a zoom lens and not being allowed to use a flash gives a little bit of blurry results, but I still wanted to post some.

Honestly, I personally would pick the shows over anything else at that park. So make sure if you're going, don't miss them. Well, unless you just really hate shows in general, then just disregard my recommendation. :) We actually didn't do everything at Animal Kingdom that day, on the off season it closes at 5, so its a short day already. Then we decided to take some time to go eat at Rainforest Cafe, which the girls loved (after they got used to the noises.) I also had promised to take them swimming that night so we saved a couple things to do for when Papa and Noni were going to be with us. Lots of fun though --- now Isabella is walking around singing "big, blue world...."

DISNEY!!!

Many of you have already seen some of our pics on Facebook, but I haven't had a chance to update my blog. Really, how in the world am I supposed to post a couple hundred pictures??? And since I really can't, how am I supposed to choose my favorites? Right now, my girls are eating lunch and since I have parts of the stomach bug lingering, I've eaten my daily piece of toast (the only thing that seems to stay in) so I decided I should take some time to at least start on our trip to Disney.

We had a WONDERFUL time. I wish we were still there. :) Isabella said she wanted to stay 20 days and today they were pretending that they were doing just that. Everything was just perfect. I know you may think I'm crazy when I say this, but we really had a blessed time while we were there. Before we left and I was in the midst of the craziness of planning, organizing, sewing, packing... a little bit of stress, I had prayed that while we were there we would have a great time as a family and that we would have a Christ filled week. I just knew that Disney is a busy place, that there are also shops at every corner for the girls to get the "I want" syndrome, and for Kenny and I to get the "Its their only time at Disney...." syndrome in return. And we really didn't need to go down there just to go crazy spending money on stuff. I also know that it is DISNEY and it was our FIRST time there so I am the kind of person that wants everything to be perfect, I don't want to miss anything, which could mean not taking time to just enjoy ourselves, to take time to miss things just to have fun as a family. I don't even know if I can explain it, I just wanted our focus to still be right even at Disney.

And let me tell you, God answered my prayers in so many ways. First off, we decided to leave Saturday so we could have the whole day on Sunday at the park, rather than having to get up early, stressing everyone out by driving 8 hours and then going to the park. We were staying at a Disney resort starting on Sunday, but Saturday we decided to make reservations at a cheap hotel. I was pretty excited, I booked a room for $49 at Comfort Inn and it included a breakfast -- yay, an answer to prayer that we would be able to do this and inexpensively. Well, when we got to our hotel, rather late, Kenny went and checked in and came out and told me "The guy said they don't have a room for us here, they overbooked........ BUT he told me that they did have a room for us over at a nicer hotel, and they would pay for it." Woo hoo! Free is even better than inexpensive. :) Kenny said that the hotel clerk told him that the person before us cussed up a storm at him that this had happened. I felt bad for the hotel clerk, he had probably been stewing the last few hours worried about having to get screamed and cussed at again. Obviously, Kenny was nice to him and told us "Are you kidding, we're all about free, this is a blessing." Great way to start off our vacation.

We got to our resort Sunday morning, checked in and then went to the Magic Kingdom. Honestly, it really is magical -- we walk in and see lines to see some of the characters, we start walking down Main Street and a show off the trolly car started, then of course you get the first glimpse of the castle- which is fun for the girls. Amelia said the first thing she wanted to do was "see 'Cin-ce lala's' castle" and Isabella's was to ride the tea cup ride, so naturally we pass through the castle and head back to the tea cups. After the tea cups, the girls were ready to start filling out their autograph books so they wanted to wait in line for Pooh and Tigger. We saw lots, LOTS of characters during the week, for some reason this was the only line that took a while, at least 30 minutes, but the girls were bound and determined to get that first autograph. :) We then were able to see the afternoon show at the castle, which was great. Amelia loved seeing her favorite princess, Snow White. There were alot of characters in the show, but I won't upload all the pictures. :)

After spending time there until dinner time, we decided to go back to our resort, ate dinner and then gave the girls a late nap. We found out that Sunday night from 9-midnight was open only for resort guests so we thought maybe we could get in a couple late hours if we put the girls down late for a nap. Worked like a charm. The girls did great, they're much more of night owls than morning people anyway, but we went back, rode almost every ride, and stayed out til midnight. If you ever go, take advantage of the extra morning or night hours, it was perfect. The only bad thing about that day, I left our video camera on the bus in the midst of getting our stuff off. So, not the best thing to do to start off the vacation, .... thankfully, there are honest people left in the world and it was returned and we got it from lost and found on Tuesday night. (I say WE, but actually Kenny had to hassle with trying to contact and find lost and found while I took the girls swimming Tuesday night :) Praise the Lord for that, not the fanciest video camera, but it still would cost us to replace it and it did have my girls screaming like crazy about being at Disney World. :)

Monday, we got a later start (obviously after being out until midnight) and we spent a few hours over at the Magic Kingdom again going to the one area we missed, seeing some more characters. The next thing on Isabella's list of things she HAD to do was go to Pixie Hollow and shrink down like a fairy. So we headed back to Toon Town, we first saw the princesses (line was shorter, so I went with the girls and daddy waited in line for the fairies - such a good daddy.) Isabella bought the whole shrinking down like a fairy just perfectly. They had given me a really tiny photo pass card and when we got into Pixie Hollow I showed it to her and she couldn't believe my card shrunk so much. Then when we got out, I showed her the original one - she loved that. She didn't understand why Tinkerbell was taller than her though, we tried to explain that Tinkerbell was older than her.... I think that worked for now.

That afternoon we headed over to Epcot and found out that we like that park, although so many people said there wasn't much there for toddlers -- they were wrong, our girls liked it and so did we. A few weeks before we left, I had made reservations for us to have dinner with the Princesses. When I called there were only a couple different times left that we could do this. For the one we chose they said Alice in Wonderland, Sleeping Beauty, Belle, Pocahontas & Jasmine were going to be there. Sleeping Beauty and Belle my girls like, Pocahontas they had never seen, Jasmine wasn't a favorite... but Alice, that is Isabella's favorite. I was so excited about that. The lady did tell me that the "princesses could change without any notice..." I was disappointed that they didn't mention Snow White. Although Amelia had only seen Snow White once, she constantly talked about seeing her. When I told them we would be eating with the princesses she immediately said "We see Snow White?!" I had actually prayed about it, no not fasting type of prayers, but just "it would be so nice if Snow White could be there too for Amelia to be excited." I know, go ahead and call me corny or tell me that it is ridiculus to pray about a Disney character. I realize that, but God already knows my heart, so He knew what I was thinking, so why not tell Him and just in the every day talking to Him, it came up. :) When we saw the couple princesses earlier in the day the lady was talking about the girls dresses and I mentioned that I let them pick out what princess they wanted mommy to sew on their dress and that Isabella was supposedly going to be eating with Alice tonight. The lady said "I don't know, I don't think Alice is supposed to be there, she's ...." I don't remember where she said, but I thought "Oh no, Isabella is sure she's meeting Alice tonight, stupid, stupid mommy for mentioning that. Oh I hope she's still going to be there." Then I realized how silly I was being and just thought that my girls would have fun no matter who showed up, it was dinner with Disney princesses for goodness sake. :) And they did they had a great time. The first princess they saw was Belle, which I laughed at how well they "stay in character" - she was obviously not the Belle from earlier in the day, but Isabella didn't realize that. She went up to her and hugged her and said "I remember you, I saw you today." and Belle said "I remember you too!" Then they saw Sleeping Beauty, and then:
YAY! Alice was there! Isabella was beyond excited, she couldn't wait for her to get to our table. I LOVE this picture! Isabella was just talking today about how Alice kissed her cheek and told her to look out for the rabbit. The girls barely nibbled on their food watching the princesses come in, Amelia then said "Snow White" and I thought she was asking if she was going to see her and then she said "Snow White!" and there she was.... can I just tell you how foolish I felt as my eyes welled up with tears. I mean, come on people, its a fictional character. :) But I still got all choked up, to think that God is concerned about even the silly things in life. To realize that He likes us to Joy in Him even through the Joy of our children. I really can't explain it because it still seems so simple and silly. Would we have had a good time if Snow White wasn't there? Yes. Would Amelia have been disappointed? Probably, but we probably could have found Snow White later. Was it made obvious to me that God loves even simple joys of my children? Yes! We were even told by "Sleeping Beauty" -- "Oh I see you girls love Alice and Snow White, you're lucky girls they are both here tonight, they're never here together." :) I'll have to add more pictures later and talk about some of our other days, but I have to tell you the biggest blessing and Christ filled event of the week. Thursday we had spent the day at Animal Kingdom and then Hollywood Studios with my parents. We decided to come back to the resort to eat, then maybe go over to Epcot or somewhere later. We never made it to another park. We ate at the resort, walked around some and then went to the resort store. While we were there, Kenny got a call on his phone. I thought maybe it was his family or something, but then I got bits and pieces of what he was saying. One of our teen boys, (he's probably been in our teen group for less than a year, he's the boyfriend of one of our teen girls) had called him because he had questions about getting saved. I don't know what exactly Jake said maybe like he said he could talk to him later, but Kenny said "Man, I'm in Florida, but I sure don't want to wait until I get home..." So right there in the store, Kenny was able to share Bible verses and lead Jake to the Lord. What a HUGE blessing!!! Obviously, this is nothing of ourselves, this is all of God. It was just a blessing to us that God would even use Kenny to talk to Jake. I told Kenny that God knew even where we needed to be, what if we had been in a loud part of the park and Kenny didn't hear the phone or couldn't answer it, what if we were getting on a ride and he thought he could call him later.... God had him exactly where He wanted him to be. Praise the Lord! It was such a shot in the arm for me. Our church is going through some crazy stuff and I don't know what God is going to do, but my husband has just been faithful to serve the Lord and work with the teens and its been worth it for this. I'm so thankful that God would use my husband and that my husband is always willing to be used. What a great thing to happen on vacation, right? See, I told you Christ filled! Oh, but Satan tried to have his minuscule hand in it, on the last day we were there we had our $14 (because mommy forgot it and we had to buy some at Disney) bottle of sunscreen stolen. But we were too happy to let that bother us, laugh that someone would actually steal that but have our video camera returned, yes, but get us down... no way.

I'll post more pictures with less stories tomorrow. Its taken me longer to get this actually accomplished between lunch, clean up, nap times....... but I wanted to make sure I got something put up.

We're Off!

I really thought I would get around to updating my blog before we left, but no such luck. Two twirly skorts, 2 tanks, 2 capris, 2 bandana pants, 2 extensively appliqued dresses, 4 embroidered shirts, an ariel clippie, a belle clippie, 4 ribbon headbands, 2 mickey and 2 minnie hair clippies, painted shoes (hadn't done that one before, but LOVE them) a skirt and headband for me (that's a new one I NEVER make myself anything) and lots of packing and now I'm ready to go. I still have to clean my house up so that I don't come home and right away have to scrub the toilets and vacuum the floors. We're so excited! I think we're all bouncing off the walls ready to go on vacation. Isabella has kept us laughing with some of the things she has said. I think she truly believes she is going to be marching in some parade singing with the group from High School Musical. And she really is believing that we are shrinking to the size of Tinkerbell while we're in Pixie Hollow. We've also been told that the first thing she wants to do is ride the tea cup ride.

One of the things that really cracked me up with Isabella: I don't like Hannah Montana. I just don't and can't be convinced otherwise, sorry. I realize this might in some way seem hypocritical as I do love High School Musical and I took Isabella on a mommy date to see the last one, but that has more to do with my own personal obsession with musicals. :) Anyway, Isabella had gotten a candy bracelet that was Hannah Montana from someone and she was looking at the package and said "Oh, no, oh no, Hannah Montana lives at Disney World, mommy." I told her that no she doesn't live there and I doubt we would see her and she said "Phew, that was a close one." She's a nut.

Amelia mainly keeps talking about seeing Snow White, "Cin-ce-lala" and Mi Mi Mouse. She says "I see Mi Mi Mouse and I go "Hi Mi Mi Mouse." I wish you could hear her cute little voice say it. :) I think the fact that I'm going to let her wear a princess fru fru dress out in public one night will be the best thing ever for her.

Also, my parents have decided to come down for a couple days. Actually, they left today go to my uncle and aunt's house in Naples and then they are going to come up for Wednesday and Thursday. My girls don't know this yet. We're either going to tell them the night before or wait and let them be surprised when they see them on Wednesday.

So, as Disney says (everytime I've called) have a "Magical" week while I'm gone and I'm sure to have lots of fun to tell you about when we get home.

The kings heart...

... is in the hand of the Lord. (Proverbs 21:1) Since the inauguration of our new President, I've thought about this verse alot. Then someone on facebook posted this sermon/article John Piper. THIS SERMON (sorry, I had typed out the link and it caused problems for the set up of the page) And I so appreciated what he had to say. I am not, nor do I pretend to be, politically wise. I honestly would get lost in alot of the talks that go around. Its not JUST that doesn't interest me, (honestly though some of it doesn't) and yes I do vote and feel the responsibility for that, I'm just not all that knowledgable about some of it. I doubt it is a surprise to those of you who know me well, but I didn't vote for Obama. If for no other reason, I couldn't because of his stance on abortion. And that really is reason enough. I did watch part of the inauguration and ceremonies on Tuesday (honestly, I couldn't keep my TV on ALL day) and I had Isabella watching some of it with me. I was telling her how we were getting a new president and how we needed to pray for him to lead our country well and to seek God. Just in case anyone is wondering, we have never once said in front of our girls that we aren't supportive of our new president. Daniel 2:21 says that God sets up and removes kings and I believe that this is God's doing. He is never surprised. I think my girls need to realize that and need to respect and pray for the leadership we have.

I told my husband several times on Tuesday how I wish I could be TOTALLY excited about this. The fact that we have our first African-American president, that is awesome. To think that my girls can look and not see racial boundaries like so many have seen or had to deal with themselves. I often wondered if we would ever have an African American president. And with those 2 adorable daughters, maybe now Barbie will start letting the dark skinned Barbie have some major roles in her movies. :) Ok, so that's silly, but after you've watched enough Barbie movies with Barbie and her white friends, and then they put the an African American version of the star doll in the store and your daughter says "She wasn't in the movie." You get kind of tired of it. (And when you try to complain they don't have anyone to complain too) :) Anyway..... I watched people on television who were there celebrating because of the history that was being made, some who had themselves suffered racial injustices. I don't know what that's like, but I could feel for them. And I can think of how great it must be to be a kid and be able to feel like now you aren't limited by the color of your skin. And then I felt bad for black friends that didn't vote for him because they know his policies aren't closest to God's. I felt bad that they couldn't be celebrating as much. And I just still wished that I could be totally excited. That Obama's views were that of God's. But again, I know that God is in control. And we are praying for our new president and our country. Isabella woke up a couple mornings ago and in her groggy, half asleep state she said "You know what Mommy, we forgot something" I said "What?" and she said "We were supposed to pray for "A Rock Obama" :) (That's exactly how she pronounces it) and I said "You're right, we do need to pray for our new president." She then opened one eye and looked at me.... I said "Oh, right now?" and she said "Yes." And so we did, and so we will continue to do. And I hope all of you are doing the same.

A Whole Hand!

My little girl is now 5 years old!! Yes, she is now a WHOLE HAND! I can't even believe it. You know the idea, "it seems like just yesterday...." This year her birthday was on a Sunday, and 5 years ago, she was born on a Sunday. Last night would have been exactly 5 years ago, day and date, that we got the call that a little girl had been born the day before and that her birthmother had picked us. Last night, 5 years ago, was the night my parents came home from visiting friends and we had them come up so we could tell them we were adopting, oh and that they already had a granddaughter. :) We had just had our homestudy visit exactly 2 weeks prior to that phone call. This past Saturday, we had Isabella's birthday party, 5 years ago on that Saturday we were painting the nursery and setting up a couple things thinking we would just be telling my parents we were adopting -- not even knowing that we would have a baby girl so quickly. I thought we were getting a good head start on painting the nursery and painting a small armoire. I had no idea that I actually would end up being SO far behind. As I sit here typing this, Isabella and Amelia are playing tea party and I've been thinking of all the "5 years ago" things. Its hard to believe that 5 years ago today I was frantically trying to get things organized while my baby girl was in the NICU all the way across the country. We had pictures of our beautiful girl, but hadn't held her yet. Its amazing to think about the blessing God has given us in this beautiful girl. I praise Him for the wonderful, perfect job He did in planning this child for us. Her little personality and spirit amaze me on a daily basis -- to be fair her little attitude can frustrate me on a daily basis as well. :) She keeps me on my knees, both praising God for the gift He gave us in her and praying for her to have a heart longing to serve Him and to be like Him. Which is exactly how we named her with her first name meaning "Devoted to God" and her middle name meaning "Gift from God". Thank you Lord!

Now that Isabella is 5, she is old enough to realize what a birthday is and she expects that we should spend lots of time celebrating her. :) She asked us "So, since its my birthday weekend, I can do whatever I want, right?" Kenny told her "Sure, as long as you ask mommy or daddy and we say yes." :) I don't think that's the answer she was hoping for. I think she was pretty well spoiled this weekend. We started with Friday taking her to get her haircut. She's never gotten her hair cut - other than mommy trimming it. I didn't actually plan on it being RIGHT before her birthday party, but with her being sick, it just ended up that way. To her, it was a special treatment to start off the birthday celebrations. Mommy and Noni also got special treatments that day because a chiropractor's office was set up doing free massages that day as well. Sorry, no pictures of that. :)

Friday night, we gave Isabella and Amelia their big birthday present. We told them that in 3 weeks we are going to.............

...Disney World!!! Can you tell that Amelia is excited about seeing Cinderella, Snow White, and Mickey Mouse? We're all pretty excited. I don't think it really sunk in for Isabella at first because she kind of looked at us like we were crazy or like we were teasing her. So in just a few weeks we will be down at Disney World! I'm looking forward to it, we've been talking about it, thinking about it, saving up for it, and now we're finally going to go. We decided to go before Amelia turns 3 because she's free until then, so it makes it a little bit cheaper. I can't wait to see my girls faces when they see things like the castle or some of the princesses.

Then Saturday, we had her birthday party. The day after Christmas we had taken her ice skating, so she decided she wanted an ice skating party. Which I thought was good for mommy, because I didn't have to do anything. They provide the food, the cake, the ice cream and obviously the entertainment. It was fun, but it was our only ice skating party we will do because it was chaotic there and the room was very loud. You live and learn and Isabella had fun, so I guess that's what matters. I think my mom and Meredith got better pictures than I did. In the midst of trying to get things done and not be so chaotic, I was glad they were taking pictures. Plus, I couldn't seem to get in the door way and take pictures of the kids ice skating so alot of mine are through plexi glass. Here are a few anyway:

The birthday girl, concentrating hard on her ice skating -- tongue out and all. She had fun going around without the "walker" with her daddy too. Her favorite part was trying to get and eat "snow"

Other pictures here are my mom helping my niece, Olivia skate. Olivia, showing you just how cold it was. :) Isabella and my nephew Garrett. Papa and Amelia -- Amelia actually skated for a little while, but only long enough for mommy to put some stuff in the room, watch her go around, go get the camera and come back to get no pictures. My dad was sick, but he toughed it out, he didn't skate so he watched Amelia for me. Isabella's friend Makenna with her cousin, one of our teens in our youth group, Lindsay. My friend Shelli with her middle son, Noah. Shelli's oldest son Chase, with the same concentrated, tongue out pose as Isabella. Could barely get a picture of him because he was just flying around the rink. Isabella and one of her little friends from next door, Alaina. Then we have the birthday girl with her cake and blowing out the candles. The adults probably noticed the crazy crowds and the chaos, but the kids seemed to just have fun and Isabella was happy to be the center of attention. :)

To end the weekend, on Isabella's ACTUAL birthday, we woke up to Snow. Now how many little girls actually get a present from God on their birthday. She thought that was pretty cool. Hope she knows just how special (and rare) this birthday weekend celebration was!

Sick Girly

So much for getting some Christmas pictures on here and posting my menu plan, my Isabella has been sick. She's had the typical, 75 degree one day 40 degree the next, cold and cough off and on for a week. Then Sunday, we went to Sunday School and I was copying off some stuff and came back into the room and Isabella was sitting on Kenny's lap crying. She didn't want to stay with the Sunday School teacher. This is SO not like her, we knew then she must not be feeling good. Then she would be fine, then start acting lethargic, fine again with the teens, clingy the next. She also complained of her ear "popping" a couple times. She started running a fever that night and felt SO hot when she crawled in bed with me. I called the drs office on Monday and they told me I could bring her in or wait and see if the fever goes away or if she stops complaining about her ear, and if not bring her in the next day. I opted for waiting. Monday was a day of sitting on the couch with her alot just cuddling - can't complain, I love cuddling with her and its sweet that when she's sick she wants me to be near her, but of course I got nothing done that day. Tuesday she woke up, no fever, acting fine, she sat and cut and glued scraps together as I was sewing. I thought well, maybe she's over it. Nope, she started running a fever again that night, acted all emotional going to bed, then came into our room several times in the night. Her fevers had been pretty high too, so I decided to take her in yesterday. I try to avoid doctors as much as I can. Not that I don't appreciate what they do, I just think sometimes people take their kids in for ever sniff, every fever, every ache and I don't do that. I'm actually very thankful for the pediatrician we have, he doesn't encourage you to come in at every symptom. They obviously say you can, but they don't push it. I like that. I also like that he seems to be on the same page as me with alot of things. I mentioned that she gets the typical colds, but that she really doesn't get sick much and I try to avoid using over the counter medicines. He agreed and said "They will claim to work, but the really don't anyway. They might help for comforts sake, but its better not to use them if you can anyway." He said "You could probably use some peppermint tea with honey and that might help." Silly, but at that moment I was once again so thankful for him because we had been giving Isabella some Herbal Children's Cold Tea that I had gotten at Whole Foods, yet I hadn't personally met alot of drs who recommend anything other than drugs. There probably are more out there, but of the ones I've personally been to and worked for, they laughed off the idea that things like that could help. I mean, why should we try herbal tea when we could fill our kids with sugar and red food coloring from over the counter medicine. :)

I will say this, although I prefer natural alternatives as much as possible, I'm not totally against doctors and medicines when needed. That being said she is on antibiotics for a few days. It bothers me to think about it because she hasn't been on antibiotics since she got out of the NICU, and I'm already hoping her acidophilus will help her some with some of the effects of antibiotics. Has anyone read any of these books at this website: http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/antibiotics.htm It has books talking about not using antibiotics, effects of them, etc. I wonder if any of them are worth reading? I don't feel like I'm in an "Antibiotic Crisis", as I said this is her first time on them in almost 5 years. I'm just wondering how to better prepare for the possibility of more sicknesses once she starts school next year. She already takes some stuff for immunity, but if anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them.

A praise about the antibiotics was that they were free. Since we haven't ever gotten antibiotics for our girls I was wondering how much it would cost, but the nurse told me that if I took it to Publix they would fill it for free. Maybe not good for the idea of pushing antibiotics, but it was a praise for me because I didn't want to have to spend a fortune on medicine.

And along with trying to help her immunity, is anyone else like me and starts feeling like some kind of bad mom when your kids get sick? Ok, maybe its just me. I know its kind of crazy, kids are going to get sick, but somehow as a mom, I don't think anything of it if I get sick, but when my kids get sick I feel as if I've missed something, thought I was keeping them healthy, but must have missed something. Its silly really. I know God is in control of their health not me, its just one of those protective mama things, I guess.

Anyway, thanks for being patient with me. If Isabella continues to feel well today, I will post some pics. I actually started this post yesterday and didn't get to finish it until today. She seems to be feeling better this morning, but she slept until 10! And I let her, I figured she needed to catch up on some sleep and if she could actually sleep through her own snoring (oh my was it loud last night) then I should let her. I just pray she is feeling good by Saturday, her 5th birthday party is that afternoon and its going to be an ice skating party!! Can't believe she's going to be 5!

Yet another infamous thought from Isabella

We were out a little bit this evening. It was one of those kind of cloudy nights, a little smoky looking - kind of spooky. Obviously you can't really see the clouds well against the black sky -- except for right at the moon. As you would look up you could see the light clouds passing by the moon. Isabella looked up and said "What's that smoke? Is God cooking something?" Chuckling, I said "No, those are clouds moving by" .... to a child who was obviously not interested in my answer because she took in a big whiff and said "Oh yeah."

Menu Plan Monday

I feel terrible that my first post after posting so very little over the holidays is going to be my menu plan. This is really for my sake mostly. If I do this then I will keep myself accountable to organize and plan out my week's menu. When I don't plan things just don't run smoothly at all. We have thankfully started the New Year off eating healthy. We had friends come in to see us and she and I enjoyed making nice nutritious meals for our families as well as talking about ways to continue to better health, continuing our goals of being more frugile with the everyday things, etc. I'm going to lump meals together rather than do each day seperately. More or less the I'm doing it per day so if you REALLY just have to know what we are eating on Wednesday, it will be the third item on each list. :)

Breakfasts:
*Brown Rice Farina with Blueberries
*Blueberry Muffins and smoothies (Make them Monday night for Tuesday and Thursday and freeze some)
*Griddle Cakes
*Blueberry Muffins and fresh juiced juice
*Crepes with bananas and blueberries. (I'm using THIS recipe. It looks yummy to me and since my girls love cottage cheese, I think they will love these. I've never made them, but I've made other recipes from her site and they're always delicious, so I'm not worried)
*Homemade "sausage" patties, eggs, & some kind of potato hash brown type of thing (THIS recipe for the sausage. I've never tried it before, but another site that I've enjoyed her recipes) I've never been a big pork fan anyway, but it definitely isn't a healthy choice for meat (in my opinion), but my hubby loves big breakfasts so I thought this would be great to try on Saturday.

Lunch: Lunches are mostly for my girls. I don't normally eat what they eat and I will probably be eating salads or something instead. My girls will eat some salad, but not enough to fill them up so its never a whole meal for them.
*AB & J sandwiches, Pirates Booty, & 1/2 banana for girls. Salad for me.
*Chicken Hot Dogs (to look like octopus) with mac & cheese & peas -- saw the octopus on a front of a book and thought I needed to try it for my girls.
*Leftovers - salad for me
*Ab & J sandwiches.
*English Muffin Pizza (on homemade whole grain English muffins, first time trying this too, but I’m hoping I can make them and freeze some for further easy lunch ideas)
*not sure about Saturday's lunch, probably just some type of sandwich or quesadillas, and Sunday will depend on my grocery shopping since I haven't been out this week.

Dinner:
*Whole grain pasta with sundried tomatoes & mushrooms in light cream sauce. Steamed brocoli
*Leftover chili and cornbread
*Quesadillas with leftover mexican rice & beans
*Chicken, sweet potatoes green beans
*Black bean cakes & salad (Don't have a recipe for the black bean cakes, I'm going to wing it after enjoying the one at Whole Foods so much. If it turns out good, I'll share the recipe, if not, I'll just hang my head in shame.)
*Homemade pizza
*Sunday night after church will be leftovers

Hope everyone has a good week and I hope that its not a week until I post again. :-)