The Butterfly Chronicles

I'm feeling like a bad mom because I completely forgot that it was Gracie's referral day! I logged onto FB this morning, and saw a couple of my travelmates had posted about it. It feels like Gracie has been a part of our lives forever and I forget that she is adopted (obviously), so I am going to give myself a little slack. I also have a few dates in my mind, because this is the same month that we got Kyle and next month is Gracie's forever family day. Anyway, I showed Gracie her picture and she thought it was so cute. She wanted to know why she didn't have eyelashes and why her hair was brown, lol. I told her she didn't really have hair. For this very reason, it's why I am hesistant to ever have it cut because I remember how it took a few years to grow out. Even though I may have forgotten about today being Gracie's referral day, I will remember every single detail of this day from 5 years ago. Just like a mother giving birth to her child, you could say that I gave birth to a picture. I carried Gracie around with me, until the day that she was actually in my arms. I can't believe how much love I have for her and how blessed we are.


As I type this now, Gracie wants me to read it to her. Happy referral day baby, Daddy and I love you very much!

Our Easter activities started this week with a party in Gracie's class. I love going to Gracie's class parties. Her teacher Ms. B. is so animated and gets the kids really pumped up, regardless of what holiday they are celebrating. This year, the class got a phone call from the Easter bunny who showed up in person. I thought the bunny was really cute, better than the one at the mall (glad I didn't shell out my money for that picture this year) and I was able to get a great picture. The first two pictures were actually taken with my new iPhone, which I finally got, after waiting almost a year. I LOVE my new phone, as I had a Blackberry that was about 4 years old and sucky. It is like going from dial up, to high speed internet. And yes, since we are doing the Dave Ramsey program, I actually saved a little bit of money from each payday for the last few months for my new phone. =)

Last night, we did our tradition of coloring Easter eggs. It's so funny how excited the kiddos get. Jerry did a great job as always and finally figured out how to get those bright vibrant colors on the eggs. This morning, Gracie woke up really early (I heard her little feet padding around) and went to check out her basket. She was so sweet and let mommy and daddy sleep in this morning, since I was up really late making my homemade desserts. When Jerry and I woke up, we found Gracie and Kyle together in Kyle's crib, lol. She had climbed in with him and was playing a game. She had also brought his Easter basket to him. Kyle loved his basket and would not let it go for the whole morning, until Jerry finally took it away from him, after Jerry found Kyle sticking the chocolates in the back of Kyle's bicycle compartment. It's funny because Gracie could take or leave candy but Kyle is the exact opposite. He loves it and would have eaten it all. At one point, I went into the living room and found Kyle surrounded by foil wrappings from his chocolate eggs (see picture below).

In the afternoon, our family came over for dinner. We had tri-tip, veggies, salad, rolls, mashed potatoes and stuffed shells. Yummy!!!  I made all my desserts from scratch and those were pretty darn good too!  It was a very nice day and a beautiful one to rejoice in all the blessings that we have. We did miss our family members who are no longer with us though but I know they were looking down upon us, smiling.

Happy Easter everyone!

My little bunny at her class party

The bunny came to visit Gracie's class. I love this photo and think it turned out better than the pictures at the mall

Love his look upon seeing the first dyed egg

Hunting eggs

Looking for eggs

Kyle's look is priceless

Kyle would not give up his basket and carried it everywhere. Notice all the foil wrapping around him, from eating all his chocolate eggs!

I went with a simple table setting this year

The kids loved putting stickers all over Uncle Peter

I've been looking for some new recipes lately and am trying to find some healthier solutions. In the past, we've always ordered out for our pizza, because it's just easy. I decided that I wanted to try making my own pizza this time around, so after a little research, I found an easy recipe on pinterest. Yes, I needed a recipe for pizza. It was more for the dough, as I wanted to make that homemade too. I didn't know this but I found out that you can buy something called a stone oven, which is supposed to make the pizza cook more evenly. I found one for a great price on Amazon. Love that store!

I bought all my ingredients from the store, which turned out cheaper than ordering out for a pizza and got to work. I have a KitchenAid stand mixer which I haven't used  in forever, so I had to brush the dust off of it. I printed out my dough recipe and got to work. You know what, I LOVE that mixer!! All I had to do was pour the ingredients into the bowl and the mixer did the rest! I am lazy, so have been user the hand mixer but from now on, am using this thing. 

After my dough was mixed and I let it rise for 2 hours, the fun part began. I felt as though I worked in a pizza joint, punching the dough down, pushing and pulling at it. I even tried to do the trick of throwing it in the air. Ummm, yeah, not so much. I definitely need some work in the dough department. Those pizza guys make it look so easy. Finally though, my dough was stretched. It wasn't a perfect circle but it was my circle, lol. Gracie wanted to help, so I let her put on the sauce, cheese and toppings. She had a blast and was a real pro. We finally put the pizza in the oven and after about 10 minutes, it was ready. I have to say, it was really yummy and even more so, because we made it ourselves and with love. We'll definitely be making pizza again for dinner real soon.

Check out those pizza making skills!

It's a little crooked because I couldn't get it to slide off the paper, into the oven but it sure tasted yummy!

Wow, I can't believe it's been almost two months since my last post! Things have been pretty busy and then when they've slowed down, I've just been too tired to blog. I finally have some free time, so figured that I better try to catch up.

I got talked into becoming a Daisy troop leader and that has taken up a lot of my time. That in itself is a big taking on but we also got the brilliant idea of selling cookies. Since we are a new troop, most of the responsibility fell upon me. Let's just say that I am happy that cookie season is over and if I don't see another Girl Scout cookie for a year, that would be just fine. Okay, maybe to eat the one or two that I have stuffed in my freezer.

I am going to start my first post back with a bit of a brag. I try not to brag too much about my children as some parents do. You know, the obnoxious parent that everyone knows, who thinks their child is great in everything but in reality, that parent's child is doing everything that other kids are their age. Anyway, I definitely don't want to be "that" parent but I think that every once in a while, it's okay to toot one of my children's horn(s).

Gracie's teacher pulled me aside a few weeks ago and told me that Gracie was getting the Student of the Month award for the character trait of citzenship. Ms. B. told me that she could have given Gracie the award for integrity or citzenship but chose citizenship. I am so proud of my girl and the fact that someone other than myself recognized what a great kid she is, feels great! Gracie has always been a really nice kid. She is highly aware of other people's feelings and doesn't want to hurt them, almost to a fault. One time when her friend was bossing her around, I told her to tell them to stop. She replied that she didn't want to hurt their feelings. Believe it or not, this is something we are working on, as I don't want Gracie to feel like she has to please everyone. That type of thinking will allow people to walk all over her. Believe me, I know and have grown stronger in this department. =) The best and funny part was, Jerry was talking to a parent beside him and come to find out, it was the dad of the little boy that Gracie has a crush on! So glad to know, that she is liking boys who are getting citizenship awards too.

G. and her teacher

Love this photo!

Yes, I know that we are now a week into the new year but December was a crazy month, with a ton of things that kept us super busy. I have to say, I am happy that 2011 is over, as frankly, it sucked. Yep, that's how I honestly felt about last year. It wasn't all bad but I would sum 2011 up as the year of growth as I was pushed way out of my comfort zone a few times. I feel very grateful though, to have the support of family and friends and that's what helped me through the rough times.

I hope that this year is much better. It's hard to say, as we've only gone a week into it but I am as busy as ever. It was actually a very special New Year, as our good friends the B.s came to visit us from CO for the week after Christmas. We really love and miss them and wish we lived closer.

I can't believe that my calendar is already filled for January. I am not one to make resolutions, as I always seem to break them but I have made 2012, the year of organization. Unfortunately for me, I want to do every room and I want to do it NOW!!! I have two separate projects going on in the kid's rooms but really need to focus on getting one room down, before thinking about another. Pinterest isn't helping either, as there are a ton of cute ideas on there.

Since I didn't have time to blog a lot in December, the below pictures were taken from about the middle of December, through New Year's Day. Sorry for the quality as I didn't photoshop any of them, so they are all in original form.