food

Lots of meat lately for us!

I cannot do dairy right now so I feel meat dishes and veggies tend to be my go to's...

bbq root beer pulled pork sandwich

I got the inspiration from the above recipe though I did not use the prepared pack of soup seasoning and instead did my own rub the night before of a tablespoon of the following

chili powder

garlic powder

onion powder

cumin

turned out so good! I pulled half the meat out and am making tacos with it tonight!

(inspired by my dear friend summer)

chili rubbed chicken with a mango salsa

I served with steamed broccoli and a rice pilaf/orzo pasta mix

a close up of the beautiful mango salsa! I am putting it on the pulled pork tacos tonight

(leftover meat from our sandwiches!)

French Dip Sandwich with roasted vegetables

no recipe needed- just get a good cut of roast beef and heat it up and place

on toasted sandwich rolls- my au juice dip is bought- maybe I'll try and make it next time!

oh and horseradish is a must!

Later this week is Peanut noodles suggested by Becca!

the past three years...

alomae

I could not be more proud of the little lady you are becoming!

you are so very beautiful and so very fun!

baby girl- your future is looking so bright! ;)

Happy Birthday Alomae

alomae is 3!

how is this possible???

I went out last night at 10pm and got balloons to fill the house

she was so excited to awake to this!

a birthday donut and message from daddy perfected the morning

So far it's been a fun day of playing with balloons & baking a cake and

cupcakes to take and share with her friends at church tonight!

I let her pick it all out.

She wanted chocolate, pink & sprinkles!

so that is what she got

pink is for the girls and brown for the boys- naturally :)

and then we stuck on some leftover toppers from last year...

still cannot believe my baby is three

new house

We got the keys to our new home 2 weeks early so this week has been spent packing up small things around the house into tubs and transporting them and unpacking at the new place! We move all the big stuff on friday and from then on out will be living in our new home!

We are going to miss NW portland a lot. The neighborhood, the culture, the shops, the food...

but we are still excited to enter into this new season of settling in and really creating a good space for our two sweet girls.

Our new house is a simple modest 3 bedroom ranch house. I think it's going to be perfect for this season we are in.

here is a little sneak peak of our empty house...

these photos are boring but will serve a fun purpose when I can compare before and afters!

backyard with a dusting of snow

we are taking down the light thats hanging and putting the table by the window in the photo below

table is going by the window

across from the table where a couch will be

living room (only carpeted room in the house- trying to get used to the shade!)

kitchen with an abundance of space!

new refrigerator- excited about that!

alomae & poppy's room

office/craft room

mine and andy's room

there is a garage and a bathroom too but thats not very fun to show :)

I cannot wait to decorate and make this place home!

3 months

I cannot believe 3 months have already gone by

you can click on the photos to read...

love you my Poppy Grey

this season I am in: some honesty

My two girls are keeping me busy these days. Not busy in the running around sense but busy as in the "both are at very challenging stages and mama never gets a break" sense :) I am not complaining about this season of life I am in, it's just where I am at and I am daily (with the help of the Lord- without Him I would be lost...) choosing (at least trying) JOY.

Poppy will be three months old this week, and the poor little things favorite thing to do after her first nap of the day is through is...cry! Not a very fun hobby I know- but it is the one she chooses. We have been battling this whole possible food allergy thing for some time now (I have not been having any dairy for a month and a half now) and truthfully, I do not know if it's helping. Her skin has cleared up some but there are still signs that something may be irritating her. The poor sweet little thing is a mess. She also has thrush, which is yeast in her mouth and she ever-so-kindly has been passing it on to me via nursing (and i think it hurts me more then it hurts her...) Regardless of all these little issues though, I am madly in love with Poppy and am so thankful that she is here. She may be 100% more challenging then her sister was as a baby, but I know it is teaching me a lot about myself and allowing me to have empathy for so many women out there who have less-then-easy babes.

Alomae on the other hand is going to be three this month! She is so much fun and says the sweetest and funniest things! I adore that little girl more then anything. With such a big personality though comes a big desire to get her own way... and her way is not always the way this mama wants her to go. I am finding myself having to take a total 180 in the way I approach her and discipline her because quite frankly my girl is way too smart and knows how to get away with things all too easy. I want her so badly to grow into a sweet, kind, Godly woman so I know now has to be a time of really biting the bullet with her so that she can flourish into who God has created her to be.

Raising these two girls is a big job and a big responsibility. Someday I know I will look back on these days and miss them desperately. I am in a new season, a sometimes difficult one, and sometimes exhausting one. I know though that I have been made for this season and that I wont just "get through it" but that if I choose to I can find the beauty in it and actually enjoy these days with my spirited girls!

a little bit of Poppy tears

little beauty

drawing

little shopper...

with a big personality!

perspective: oh this little girl

2012 started out as an exciting one

At about 7pm on New Years Day alomae came up to me with an open bottle

of extra strength excedrin and said "mama I ate medicine"

just fabulous I thought

I asked her how many she ate and she said two. I had her open her mouth and sure enough there was white powder in her mouth from chewing...

I did not want to over react so I called my sister for a little advice.

(she has two kids and runs two childcare centers in Seattle- so she knows a lot!)

She recommended that I have alomae drink lots of water and milk to absorb and flush her system- so I did! She was acting totally fine so at around 8pm I went ahead and put her to bed knowing that I would be checking on her frequently. Twice in the next hour she woke up screaming that her tummy hurt. Oh great! So there I was on the phone with poison control giving them all the info I had to figure out if a trip to the ER was the thing to do. Because of the active ingredients in this particular "extra strength" bottle they said I had to take her because of her age and weight if she ate more then she said it could really be no good!

Andy walked in the door as I was on the phone with poison control and had no clue what was going on. He heard me talking and giving them alomae's info and I could tell he began to panic a bit. I was so happy he was home and that I would not have to make the trip alone (Poppy would have made that a challenge!)

We arrived at the children's ER at Emanuel Hospital around 9pm and they were so so great. If you know me, I dislike the hospital setting very much (hence my 2 home births) so I was very pleased to have such a positive time with all their wonderful kid friendly ER staff!

They took her vitals and put in an IV so that they could draw blood and give her some anti nausea medication to help her little tummy. The IV was by far the worst part. I had tears in my eyes as they held my baby down and she screamed "this is not fair" and "owe! mommy help" the look on her face is one I will never forget. Andy was amazing at this part and stayed right by her head reassuring her. (you see, I had poppy who was screaming so loud you would have thought we were in the ER for her!) so Andy was doing much of the Alomae consoling.

The next step was to get her to drink 16oz of liquid charcoal. This stuff was thick and nasty! her exact words, which made us all laugh so hard was "This tastes like Poop!" Alomae, please tell me you do not know what poop tastes like...

The Dr told us we should get the first set of results back at about 11pm which was just in time to send the second set in (and then we would have to wait another 2 hours for those results!) we were preparing ourselves for a very long night (all with a screaming Poppy!)

but God was covering our little girl

The results came back with zero traces of any of the medication in her system!

Even with just one pill ingested, traces would show up and would have effected her. I know she ate at least one (and probably two since she is quite smart and usually is quite accurate in what she tells me) So how could this be? God is good! Had the labs showed any in her system they were going to have to run more tests and most likely admit her and keep her over night (at the least.) but nope, she had zero traces and at 11pm (the same time round two of lab work was to begin) we were getting our check out paperwork and were sent on our way!

I played it over and over in my head and thought "well maybe I didn't see what I thought I saw" "maybe she didn't actually eat them and she just said she did??" But I was quickly calmed by the Spirit and was given a word for this new year

perspective

I really feel the Lord protected her and wanted us to start this year off with a reminder of what is truly important in this life. To have something to compare all the tedious things we face that bend us the wrong way.

before the IV was put in

after IV: Andy feeding her the charcoal

holding onto some princess stickers as distraction

"this tastes like poop!"

She kept laying down trying to avoid the "drink" smart kid :)

me rocking Poppy trying to keep her from screaming

the go-to blown up glove balloon! works every time

Thank you Jesus for showing me where to keep my focus

Thank you for allowing it to be a quick and easy lesson and that Alomae is 100% ok

Thank you for the chance to start the year off with the right perspective.

A New Year!

2012 is officially here!

A new Year filled with new blessings (and new trials I am sure)

There is something refreshing about entering into a new year for me.

this year my focus is 1 Peter 4:9

"show hospitality to one another without grumbling"

The Lord has been speaking this to me so much lately (not that I grumble too much) but to open my home and live truly in community.

It's been hard to fully open up my home since we live in such a tiny downtown space.

We actually got approved for a home loan a few months ago and have been looking for a home to buy... but neither of us felt great peace about buying

So I prayed!

I simply let God know (as if He didn't already) what I wanted in a home

and asked that whether by renting or buying He would supply our needs.

It was a modest list of things...

and they have been granted!

We are moving back to the suburban west side of town (this part out of obedience)

and will be renting a 3 bedroom ranch that we will call home for the next few years.

We both feel the need to work hard, save, and wait for the perfect home in the perfect location to come about and feel if we settle for what we can "afford" right now it would not be where we want/need to be.

I am beyond excited to live close to so many of our great friends!

The past two years have been spent living in an amazing location but with that came some isolation as well. I am ready to have room for my girls to play and run and to truly be able to open my home in a comfortable way and invite the people who the Lord has blessed us with in!

moving day is in 3 weeks!

a fun way to start the new year

Our Christmas

It's now a full week after Christmas and i am just now getting to even

thinking about recapping this years holiday!

Our entire house has been sick with a nasty cold this past week (and still is)

so it's made for a whole lot of resting...

Christmas came in 3 parts this year. Starting with Andy's family on the 17th, my family on the 19th and then our sweet little family on Christmas day followed by our annual tradition of spending Christmas evening having dinner with the Petersons (Kaitlynn, Ryan, Truman, and their NEW baby on they way) and whoever else may show up!

Christmas eve was spent celebrating the birth of Jesus!

Our Church really knows how to celebrate in a magical way

While worshiping there were many times I had tears in my eyes just being in awe of how humbly Jesus came to us. I stood in the back holding my sweet tiny baby singing the words

"hope that you don't mind our manger
How I wish we would have known
But long-awaited Holy Stranger
Make Yourself at home
Please make Yourself at home
Bring Your peace into our violence
Bid our hungry souls be filled
Word now breaking Heaven's silence

welcome to our world

welcome to our world"

Such a powerful song

that has become a favorite for me this year...

When the girls and I got home we set some cookie out for "santa" for fun

and then headed to bed!

alomae trying to steal a cookie!

the stocking that awaited alomae in the morning...

and Poppy's!

I did not take photos of our morning much, too busy enjoying the moment!

it was wonderfully fun though.

Thank You Jesus for Coming to our World