More From Les!

The Toothless Wonder (Just like Junie B. Jones)

Well, Beans lost her first tooth on Sunday night....and her second tooth on Monday morning. Apparently the front two teeth were holding each other in her mouth and when the first one went the other wasn't too far behind. Too bad they didn't happen on the same night because the poor Tooth Fairy had to come two nights and a row to leave the special treat. And with $5 for the first tooth and $2 for the second I'd say the tooth fairy is pretty broke about now. Talk about inflation!!

 

Beans got a special Tooth Fairy kit from the Easter Bunny (who I think is in cahoots with the fairy herself) and has been carrying it around in her backpack ever since just in case she loses her tooth at school. Can't be too careful. Luckily it happened at home on sunday night, right as the Laker game went into overtime. I was helping her brush her teeth and brushed that tiny tooth right out of her mouth. It was so tiny, I was glad she didn't swallow it.

 

 

And the winner is...the girl with two missing teeth. She even got a note from the Tooth Fairy and got to keep her first tooth (T.F. took the second one when she left the $2.)

Little brother wasn't the least bit impressed by all this attention she was getting as you can probably tell, but she was nice enough to give him one of her dollars the first morning.

 

Of course that didn't stop Beans from showing off her beautiful new grin for the camera.

 

And here she is the next morning after losing her second tooth and getting more money from the Tooth Fairy. What a racket!!

 

39 things! In honor of only having 4 months left of being 39!

1. What color is your toothbrush?..... electric one is purple, regular one is pink

2. Name one person who made you smile today .... Beans, who I saw ride her two wheeler (without training wheels) for the first time today and Bubba who kicked butt in not only swim class, but his last day of soccer.

3. What were you doing at 8 am this morning? ....

Brushing kids' hair and teeth before hubby took them to school. Then I was off to the gym fora much needed workout.

4. What were you doing 45 minutes ago?... Playing on the computer and watching Jon and Kate plus 8. 

5. What is your favorite candy bar? ... Peanut Butter Twix and Butterfingers.

6. Have you ever met a famous person? ... yes

7. What is the last thing you said aloud? ... "Get back in your room" to Beans when she came in my room after bedtime.

8. What is your favorite ice cream flavor? ... mint chip

9. What was the last thing you had to drink? ... good old water

10. What was the last thing you ate?..... A bowl of bran flakes

11. Have you bought any new clothing items this week?... no

12. The last sporting event you watched? ... Bubba's last soccer game of this season

13. What is your favorite flavor of popcorn? ...kettle korn or butter light

14. Who is the last person you sent a text message too?... My hubby, in a reply to a picture of the kids at the park he sent me saturday. 

15. Ever go camping?.... Not much growing up, a little as an adult. Can't wait to take the kids!

16. Do you go to church every Sunday?... No

17. Do you have a tan?... Sadly, no! I do need a little color though.

18. Do you prefer Chinese food over pizza? ... Oh, no. Pizza is way better, but I like chinese food too.

19. Do you drink your soda with a straw? ... If it's from a restaurant or fast food. But since I have given up soda now...the point is mute right?

20. What are you doing tomorrow? ... Going to gym, taking Beans to school, skate party in the evening.

21. What color is your watch?.... I haven't had or worn a watch since before I was pregnant with Beans.

22. What do you think of when you hear Australia? ... How much I miss New Zealand.

23. Do you go in at a fast food place or just hit the drive thru?.... Drive thru usually. But sadly I've given that up too.

24. What is your favorite number? ... Number 4.

25. Who's the last person you talked to on the phone? ... My mother-in-law to make sure she was coming to watch Bubba's soccer game.

26. Biggest annoyance right now? ... The fact that I am hungry and it's 10pm so I can't eat anything.

27. Last song listened to?.... Tim McGraw (Fly Away)

28. Do you have a maid service clean your house?... LOL. Nope. I am the maid.

29. Favorite pair of shoes you wear all the time? .... Over the toe flip flops in warm weather and nike tennis shoes year round.

30. Are you jealous of anyone? ... No.

31. Is anyone jealous of you? ... I don't think so. I hope not.

32. Do you love anyone?..... Too many to count!

33. Do you hate anyone that you know right now? ... No.

34. Do you use the word 'hello' daily? ... I mostly say Hi!

35. What color is your car? ... White

36. Do you like cats? ... Not at all.

37. Have you ever been to Six Flags? ... yes, lots of times.

38. How did you get your worst scar(s)? ... When I was in a car accident with my friend Jody senior year of high school. She rear ended another car going through an intersection. My tooth went through my lip and I needed lots of stitches.

 

39. What item has to be in your kitchen at all times? My pizza roller that cuts everything from pizza to sandwiches to quesadillas.

Stacked Burrito Pie

Ok, so I always see yummy recipes in my many magazines and think, "Maybe I'll make that!" But then I look at the ingredients and say, "Too much I don't already have so I'll make it another time." Well, I found this yummy recipe in Family Fun magazine (May 2009) and I actually had the ingredients in my kitchen (except the sour cream) so I decided to give it a try. It turned out really good and in my amazement my kids actually tried it (and they are mucho picky)

So if you are in the mood for Mexican food (and I always am), try this one. I think you can substitute chicken or ground turkey for the hamburger meat.

Stacked Burrito Pie

2 TB vegetable oil

1 med. onion (finely chopped)

2 cloves garlic, minced

3/4 pound ground beef

2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup water

1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 1/2 cups frozen corn kernels

4 (10 in.) flour tortillas

1/2 cup sour cream

1 cup salsa

8 oz. Cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese, grated

1. In large skillet over med. low heat, warm the oil. Add the onion and saute for 5 mins, stirring often. Add the garlic and saute another minute.

2. Increase the heat to medium, then add the ground beef, chili powder, and cumin. Cook the mixture until the beef is browned and no longer pink, stirring often, about 3 mins. Add the salt, water, black beans, and corn, and bring mixture to a boil. Allow it to continue boilin, stirring occasionally, until the liquid evaporates, about 20 mins. Remove the mixture from the heat and let it cool for 10 mins.

3. Heat oven to 350. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9 in. round cake pan. Place a small flour tortilla on the bottom of the pan (trim if tortilla is too large). Spread 2 TB of the sour cream on the tortilla and 1/4 cup of the salsa. Spoon and spread a quarter of the mixture over the salsa, then sprinkle with a quarter of the grated cheese evenly over the top.

4. Place another tortilla on top of the cheese, then repeat the layering of the sour cream, salsa, beef and cheese. Continue and you should end up with four layers, topped with the final sprinkling of cheese.

5. Bake the pie until heated through about 30 mins. Allow it to cool for 10 mins before serving.Slice the pie into wedges using a sharp knife. Serves 10.

Enjoy!

BTW, this isn't the one I made. Mine went to fast to get a picture of it before it was gobbled up. This pic is from the magazine.

March already??

Seriously, could it be March already? Where did February go? and how did I not get time to post on this blog? I guess I just need one or two more hours in the day and the capacity to function without sleep. Then I could do everything I have to and want to do. But isnt' that every mom's wish?

Okay, so if you've seen my Facebook page you know that I have given up fast food and started to eat better. And I can honestly say that it sucks. And I'm hungry. All the time. It was so easy to just stop and grab something instead of waiting to eat at home. I'm sure I'll thank myself later for giving it up but for now I really want some french fries.

Latest pics of the kids. Here's what they've been up to.

 

Beans (in the blue) and her Dancing Daisies at one of their meetings.

 

Beans and Bubba and their choo-choo train. Elmo got the honor of driving the train.

 

 

My little french girl who suddenly has a fascination with all things french. She asked me for a trip to Paris the other day. Hmmm! Wouldn't that be nice!

 

 

I don't remember having sleepovers when I was five, but Beans is becoming quite the professional at them. It's a "girl thing".

 

Apparently Bubba wanted a sleepover with dad. Don't you love my new pillow? I found it at the Bubba Gump Shrimp restaurant.

 

Beans begged us to take off her training wheels a couple weeks ago and she's been practicing really hard. Good job big girl!

 

Hi, it's me!

 

Doing the skate party thing!

 

And we all know what this kid is doing! Take it away Garth!

I haven't forgotten...

my wonderful little blog. Of course, I have been wrapped up in Facebook lately, completely fascinated by all the friends I have on it and old friends I have found from my past. It is great to see how we have all "turned out", since most of us haven't seen each other since elementary or junior high school (and I don't even have to tell you how long that's been!)

But I don't want to neglect my blog so I'll write a bit about what we've been up to and post some new pics of the kids.

So, let's see. I just finished our weekly Daisy Scout meeting with my seven beautiful girl scouts. They had a good time tonight because it was one of the girls birthdays and she brought cupcakes for everyone (who doesn't love cupcakes). Then Beans went for a sleepover at her BFF's house, I got Bubba to bed right away and now I am ready to hit the sack as well. I'm fighting off a cold/sinus infection so the more rest the better (haha...easier said than done!)

Here are a few pics of what Bubba's been up to lately:

He got his first skateboard last month when he turned 4 and he mostly likes to pose with it (rather than ride it), but I'm sure he'll want to learn soon. (And he didn't fall in this pic, he's actually posing.LOL)

 

Doesn't he look like a pro?

 

Riding his new bike that Santa brought him. He just needs to learn how to brake... we're working on it!

 

Having fun at Montessori.

 

Singing with his hero, Garth Brooks!

   

Beans has been busy too. She loves her swimming class and is starting to learn new techniques.

 

 

Everybody loves a Girl Scout. Here are some of the girls working on a craft.

 

Beans is a little bit obsessed right now with all things French. She wants to go to Paris and see the Eifel Tower, but for now she'll settle for wearing the beret.

 

Hooray! Training wheels off the bike. Thanks Dad!

   

Beans and her BFF getting ready to roll at the skate rink. Oh, how I remember those days!

 

Look at those rollerbabes go!

 

That's it for now, I'm off to bed. Busy weekend, talk to you soon!

Aquarium of the Pacific

Took the kids to the Aquarium today. We had a great time checking out the fish and touching the sharks and rays. Although I was the only one brave enough to do it. Beans even got to feed the lorakeets and Bubba loved touching the sea anenomes and sea stars.

 

This kind of love is priceless.

 

I don't think they thought they would ever ride a shark.

 

Beans is working on her photography skills and she took this picture of me and my boys. Pretty good, no heads cut off or anything.

 

I thought for sure she would freak out when the bird landed on her, but she did great...

 

...even when he was trying to eat her dress.

 

Hubby and I in a rare "just us" picture. He's pretty hot, isn't he?

 

Bubba was so excited to touch the sea anenomes and starfish. As long as it wasn't moving he would touch it.

 

Check out the octopus... pretty cool!

 

The family outside of the Aquarium after a great visit!

Blast from the past!

So I'm finally on this Facebook thing and I had been warned that it could be quite addicting. I was on for only a couple hours the other night and found a ton of friends from not only high school, but elementary and junior high as well. So cool! These are all people I considered my "best buddies" back then and to hear from them now and see pics is a blessing. And the fact that they all remembered me after so long is pretty cool too. So if you are not on Facebook, but you are curious of what happened to the wonderful people in your past, you should join. My house will never be clean again, but I will definitely be reliving some precious memories.

Here's a couple pages from my old scrapbooks that I posted on Facebook. Oh, the early 80s, those were the days.

 

Back to School!

Well, it's that time again. My short vacation is over and school starts again tomorrow morning at 9am. I'm a little nervous about the science class which is the capstone (last one I have to take for my bachelors), but it couldn't be any worse than last semester's Physics class right? We shall see. I also have a linguistics class which I'm looking forward to. We will be studying language development in children, speech disorders, etc... very interesting I think. I also have a kinesiology class (Physical Education for teachers) and I'm pretty sure I'll have to actually do some physical activity in this class. Ugh!

Well, I better get to bed since I have to leave pretty early to get a parking spot. See you when I see you.... have a great week.

Happy 4th Birthday Bubba!

Last Saturday my baby turned 4 years old. I can hardly believe it...seems like yesterday he was crawling around and just learned to say his first word...MAMA! And now his favorite word is NO!!! Ugh! The joy of the preschooler.

Anyway, we had a really fun party for him last week. It was a Country-Western Hoedown with authentic straw bales to sit on, country music, fun games and of course hot dogs and chili (like the real cowboys eat). Here are some pics from the day.

The birthday boy...Big Bad Bubba waiting for his band to arrive so they could jam!

 

Is this Garth Brooks in the making or what?

 

Pretty little Pocahontas sitting on a straw bale. John Smith are you out there?

 

Look at these two beautiful cowgirls...YeeHaw!!

 

Wrestling with dad and cousin. Notice he doesn't even lose his cowboy hat!

 

Playing with the cowboys and cowgirls....

 

Cowboy Bubba and his BFF ready to rope some doggies!

 

This is my dad (otherwise known as Grandpa). This is actually his happy face believe it or not! LOL

 

Bubba breaking the cowboy boot pinata (or trying to)

 

Sister Beans giving it a shot...

 

Happy Birthday to you...happy birthday to you...

 

My homemade cake... not terribly attractive, but yummy all the same. And after last years blue icing fiasco (it stained my hands for two days) I am no longer a fan of store bought cakes.

 

Mommy loves her birthday boy! Can't believe he's four!

 

He's even excited about getting clothes!

 

And he kissed all his presents after opening them.

 

Cowgirl mom and Indian girl Beans. I was going for the farmer's daughter look with the pigtails. Silly I know, but hey, I did it for Bubba.

 

Oh, great. Now he can run around the house and yell, "BUSTED!!!" at everyone! LOL

Back to School!!

Well, it's been a fun, crazy, busy and long two weeks, but the munchkins start back at school tomorrow morning. Beans is very excited because she misses her friends and teachers (my little social butterfly) and although Bubba hasn't said much about it I think he's excited too. As for me...with exactly 20 days of freedom until spring semester starts for me and tons of projects I want to get done...time is ticking away.

But tomorrow I will have 3 beautiful, quiet hours between dropping the kids off and picking Bubba up at lunchtime. WOOHOO! What to do....what to do!!