Anatomy of a Smile

Nothing makes me happier than seeing my beautiful girls smiling!  Leighton has a smile on her face most of the time these days and we just love it!  

 Her first smile caught on camera!!! 

 Her sweet and innocent smile...

 Her smile that proves she is indeed my daughter:)....

 Her I may be a newscaster when I grow up smile...

 Her "I know I am soooo loved by sooo many smile!

Unexpected Ministry

This season of my life is very busy! I do make time to help those in need that are close to me but its more of a challenge to notice strangers who are in need that I (we) could help.  We spent several hours at the hospital today visiting Tyler's grandfather.  He was flown to a local hospital yesterday morning after suffering a stroke.  He is doing very good and hopefully moving out of ICU to a normal room today.  Papa is such an incredible man and I haven't ever heard of him having a sniffle since I met him years ago!  

As Paige, Leighton and I were leaving the hospital, I was carrying the infant carrier on one arm, my bag on another, holding a milk, holding Paige's hand, holding my keys...you get the point...A man probably in his early 60's was behind me. There was some construction going on and he was giving me some pointers on how to get around when I came back. I thanked him but honestly didn't pay much more attention--because of the above referenced zoo i was traveling with and trying to be sure my toddler stayed right with me in the street.  He continued to make conversation about the beautiful weather and saying he hoped whoever we were visiting would be well soon.  We both were leaving the ICU.  

Finally it hit me--this man is very lonely and afraid.  So I said "who are you visiting, sir? I hope they are leaving soon too!" He said his wife.  She was originally brought to the hospital for heart failure. She recovered, went home, then a few days later returned and had her gallbladder removed.  Went home.  Back in the hospital in ICU now and no idea what is wrong.  I feel like that must be more difficult than knowing sometimes, even if you know and its scary you still know.  I looked him in the eyes and said sir, don't be afraid, she is in the Lord's hands.  "Will you tell me your wife's name?" He looked shocked that I cared.  Leighton and Paige were "starving" and were ready to go home.  But he needed us.  He said "Karen xx".  I said alright sir, we will be praying for her.  We will pray for Karen xx.  Paige looked him in the eyes and said "We will be praying for Miss Karen, sir!!  I promise we will!"  I love that kid.  This man seemed more at ease, not because we promised to pray but because we stopped what we were doing, we listened, he could tell us how scared he was and he is probably the one holding the rest of their family together.  Maybe they have kids, brothers, sisters, parents...I don't know but it was obvious this was the first moment he felt it was OK to say how scared he was.  

We've all been in a place where we are scared but we have to be strong but the moment when you can turn something over or get it off your chest how much better it feels.  As Christians we can turn our burdens over to God.  Is this man a Christian?  I don't know.  I do know that my children and I were able to show him God's love whether he has that relationship or not and I'm certain he felt it. I'm not a martyr. He practically had to force me to talk to him and it took awhile for me to see the pain this man was in and it was my duty to give him 10 minutes of my day.  We didn't change his life but I am certain we changed his day.  He had a sense of relief when he walked away.  

We all go through hard times and it feels so much better to turn it over to God.  But also to share our struggles with our family and friends--or a lady on the street if necessary, not carrying the load on our own.  I also feel like on the other hand, as Christians it is our duty to reach out and look for those in need.  This is so much more than writing checks or doing your hour of community service.  I'm definitely not downplaying those things!  But if you see an opportunity to bless someone by simply listening to them and showing them God's grace and love, what a difference we could make.  Reminding myself when I am juggling 2 babies, carrying a couple bags, snacks, drinks, keys, etc., to take time to see someone in need if only its just a smile or a quick hello.  You just never know what the lady behind you at the coffee shop might be dealing with.  

For Karen, for her precious husband, for me and for whoever reads this that needs to hear it...Thank you God for pushing me to share your love today.  I pray that you are with Karen and her husband--I know you are.  Let them feel your unending love.  Let them have peace in knowing you can get them through this no matter the outcome.  Wrap your hands around her and heal her body, whatever may be ailing her, Lord.  You were there and got her through heart failure, through gallbladder surgery.  I know you are still there.  Let her husband find peace in knowing you are in control and only you.  This burden is not his alone.  Guide those wonderful doctors on her care, let them finding the missing piece to this puzzle. What a precious man you gave Karen who has obviously been taking such wonderful care of her and loves her with all his heart.  We will continue lifting Karen up to you Lord.  Amen.

You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule. "You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you. "You're blessed when you're content with just who you are-no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought. "You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God. He's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat. "You're blessed when you care. At the moment of being 'carefull,' you find yourselves cared for. "You're blessed when you get your inside world-your mind and heart-put right. Then you can see God in the outside world. "You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight. That's when you discover who you really are, and your place in God's family. "You're blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God's kingdom. "Not only that-count yourselves blessed every time people put you down or throw you out or speak lies about you to discredit me. What it means is that the truth is too close for comfort and they are uncomfortable. You can be glad when that happens-give a cheer, even!-for though they don't like it, I do! And all heaven applauds. And know that you are in good company. My prophets and witnesses have always gotten into this kind of trouble. (Matthew 5:3-12 MSG)

Come Fly Away...

Our renovations are well under way but much slower than we would have liked!  I don't think I have ever heard anyone say "man, my home reno project was completed so much faster than anticipated!!" HA!  At any rate, we are pleased with how the bathrooms are turning out.  Although our larger bathroom, known as "the Pink Bathroom", was "completed" first, I am going to post about the progress of the Powder Bath today.  

Here is the before...

Oh how I really loved these butterflies!  This bathroom was pretty yucky though.  It always had a musky smell and there was rust all around the toilet from a long water leak.  We hated all of the tile and really wanted a nice clean bathroom.  Tyler usually lets me take the reigns with design but has a few requirements.  Mainly budget, but for this bathroom he wanted to be sure we keep with the time period.  We both hate the look of typical new home construction and didn't want to just replace it to look like we have a new home bathroom in a 1950's ranch home.  So I went to designing...

When the contractor tore out the old bathroom, he found that the existing sub floor was completely rotted out and almost non-existent.  Also, there was a beam supporting the house that was rotted from previous water damage before we lived here.  All of that was replaced and we updated the plumbing while the walls were out like we did in the kitchen and other bathroom!  

Since this bathroom is very small, it has been pretty inexpensive to replace.  This bathroom is off our kitchen and laundry room which are bricked so when we did the kitchen we bought enough brick to replace this flooring when we re-did it.  In fact, we originally planned to finish both bathrooms three years ago when we bought the house but if you've ever done a reno project, costs can escalate quickly and we decided to finish out the kitchen and do the bathrooms later.  This worked out so much better because I liked being able to focus all my attention on the kitchen and I wouldn't change one thing about how it turned out.  *Will definitely blog on that project sometime!!  

I went back and forth on putting in wallpaper, painting stripes on the walls, then back to wallpaper.  I originally x'ed the wallpaper because I thought Tyler preferred the paint but once he realized I was going to paint stripes on the walls he quickly said he liked wallpaper!  HA!  The vanity hasn't been built yet but we are trying to use the old window as the door to the custom vanity!  I really hope that works out!  

My sister  & bro in law lives in our neighborhood but have much more modern, clean decorating style so when they bought their house they updated the lighting and took down some chandeliers throughout their house that were original.  I have always dreamed of those chandeliers since they are right up my alley!  I went back and forth on if it were appropriate to ask her if I could buy one or both.  Somehow she had two that literally were the perfect lights for my bathrooms!!  I finally emailed her asking if I could buy, trade, barter, anything for the lights!  Trying to give her the opportunity to say no if she had any use for them.  She is such a sweet person and I didn't want her to feel obligated to hand them over.Well, she gladly turned them over and you would not believe how great they look!!  Even more incredible in the powder bath now that the wallpaper is in and you can see the style coming together!

Here you can see the new walls, new window, crown moulding-stained to match our kitchen and the gorgeous 1950's chandelier!  It is much prettier in person so come on by:).  

 Now this is something!!!  By far the biggest splurge in the bathroom was the wallpaper.  The light was free, the floor was free (since we paid for it 4 years ago), I found a mirror at an antique store and negotiated them down, a toilet and a small vanity.  It really is so perfect to me!  I bought hand towels from Anthropologie in a goldfish yellow color to match the birds in the paper perfectly!  I can't wait for it all to be completed!  For the record, we do not have high ceilings and the black paper does not dwarf the room. Well, its already a dwarf room but it did not get any smaller.  The trick is proper lighting and natural light.  I am beyond thrilled with the look.  

Stay tuned for the final wrap up of this project and cross your fingers the vanity comes out as cool as I have envisioned in my head!  

Sisters...

I compared these two photos today and want to remember...people keep asking me if my girls look alike, what do you think??  Paige at almost 4 months, Leighton at almost 2 months...

The Perfect Day

Yesterday was one of those days where everything was picture perfect!!  From the very beginning to the very end.  After doing our morning chores, my precious mother in law came over to play with the girls for a bit so I could go exercise go to Whole Foods for the first time!!  She comes on Thursdays to help me out and give me a little sanity time whether it be exercise or errands and it is so appreciated and needed!

After soaking in the sights and smells of such an incredible store, I came home, put up the goods, had lunch and we all went to the park!  Its so nice having this incredible weather this winter!  We have been out so much!  This time last year, Paige and I were running out of creative hibernation activities!  

I have been dreaming up the perfect stuffed bell pepper recipe for several weeks and finally came up with exactly how I wanted to do it after combining several recipes and making my personal changes to them all.  So while at Whole Foods I purchased the most beautiful peppers...

  

After a month or so of a lot of unsuccessful recipes, it was so nice to have a new one that was out of this world for all of us!!  Healthy enough for Tyler, tasty enough for me and approved by the little critic!  This definitely could be in the weekly rotation!  

I realized yesterday that I don't own two important kitchen necessities 1) a rolling pin 2) a steam basket.  Most of the recipes called for steaming the peppers a couple times but I remember my friend Divina mentioning roasting hers in the oven first.  So I decided to combine both!  Here is what I did:

Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees

Wash and cut off tops of 6 red bell peppers

I placed a glass pan with 2 inches of hot water on the bottom rack of my oven then placed the clean, empty peppers on a cookie sheet and sprayed them lightly with olive oil Pam.  

*I baked them like this for 10 minutes but 5-7 would be plenty.  After this process is complete, reduce your oven to 375 degrees so it will be ready for baking the stuffed peppers to perfection!

Filling

1 lb ground beef, browned (if you like onion, that would be tasty but since my hubs doesn't approve and I'm nursing, we left out!)

1/2-3/4 packet taco seasoning-low sodium

1 cup cooked rice (brown or white)

1 can black beans

1 can mexi Rotel diced tomatoes

Mexican blend cheese

After your meat is browned add in your taco seasoning, rice, black beans and tomatoes. Stir gently to combine.  Then stuff your peppers full!

After your peppers are full, put a good handful of mexi cheese over each one...one recipe I read said to use block cheese and cut a chunk and put down into the center of your stuffing. I will probably try that too but for prettiness I used grated cheese.  

Bake these beauties for 25 minutes at 375 degrees, COVERED.  I sprayed my foil lightly with the olive oil Pam and also "tented" the foil to avoid losing any delicious cheese!  

This was oh so good and oh so filling!  Easy and quick to make too I promise!  There are a couple of different steps but you can easily do them all at once.  I could have been full with just one but I had to have two!  A big salad and one pepper would be a perfect dinner and maybe a few tortilla chips and salsa!  I had a side of sour cream with mine and added extra cheese!  The peppers were so tender and delicious!  Tyler growled a little when he saw the meal and was in hog heaven after he tried it!!  

You should make this soon!!!!  Oh, if you have little ones, I had just enough filling leftover with this recipe for 2 portions of toddler mix.  Paige loves meat, beans, rice and cheese so she loved it and has enough for lunch today.  

Happy eating!!  I can't wait until lunch to have these again!!!  

Oh Cherry

I have a love/hate relationship with Pinterest.  I love all the pretty pictures and ideas but have been pretty disappointed with the recipes.  If you don't know it already about me you probably shouldn't be reading this blog I take food very serious as well as my time as well as my my husband's money so I want the food I cook to be good.  Anyway, I have much more reliable sources for food besides Pinterest.  But, a friend of mine posted this lovely little smoothie recipe that Dr. Oz says is great at night time.  Helps you sleep, has tons of antioxidants and boosts metabolism.  Yes please!
When I am nursing babies my body craves milk.  Which is good and means me and my baby need milk.  The only problem is, I only drink milk with treats.  When I saw this recipe, I thought it was worth the shot to help me break my treat habit!  I bought the ingredients today and tried it tonight!  I love smoothies so I was pretty sure I would like it and I did.  It tasted kind of like a cherry coke float, minus the coke:)!  Here is the link to this lovely, healthy concoction.  I did a little more research on tart cherry juice and found it has been found to reduce symptoms of arthritis and help prevent heart disease as well!

http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/sleep-doctor-sleep-slim-smoothie

Let me introduce...

Hello World!  

I have been on my typical "I have a new baby" hiatus but have been anxious to get back to the blog to share the heavenly new baby before she goes to high school, proclaim I have turned 30 (within the past few days) and have joined the cult of the i-world...times two...

Most importantly, The lovely and perfect in every way, Leighton Kennedy has been such an incredible blessing to our family!  She is the most precious baby (tied with Paige) I have ever laid my eyes on.  She weighed 7 pounds, 13 ounces at birth and now at 9 weeks weighs north of 13.1 pounds and is in the 95% of weight and height...just like Paige was!!  She makes my heart melt just thinking about her!  The saying is so true...before you have a baby, you just have no idea how big and how deep the love for your child is then when you are preparing for your second child you worry how could I ever love this one as much as I love my first?!?!  Its true...your love doesn't re-distribute but grows so much bigger! 

 I have much more to say on the topic of precious baby, motherhood to two, our progress of the home remodel, Pinterest recipes gone bad and my new love for the i-stuff but not enough time for all that today...must prepare for my birthday party!!  But here are a few highlights...

My Blackberry has been on the fritz for close to a year and I have been rigging it to work so I could continue talking myself out of the i-phone. After much resistance I went for it and love it very much!  Now, I feel like its the same thing that happens after you get a tattoo (I don't have any for the record)...you just want more!!  I have wanted a small laptop or an i-pad for some time now so that I could easily take the device wherever I go so I can blog during spare time.  Since I don't have a plethora of spare time in my day-to-day life, when riding in the car or on trips I wanted to be able to blog and work on organizing our family memories in the best way.  I realized the i-pad could not do the job and with my new love of the iPhone, started researching the MacBooks.   Thanks to my sweet family, I now am the proud owner of this tiny yet powerful MacBook Air!  It is so light and small, I can easily use it, take it, blog with it...and much more that I do not understand-yet.  I had to ask the tech lady at the i-store to please use words I could understand as I am not fluent in the i-language. For instance, i-cal did not register in my brain to "calendar".  Please ma'am, just whisper the normal words for me so it doesn't take all afternoon for me to "get it"?! Thanks!!  So, with all that said, hopefully I can get back to the posting!!  

Here are some photos of my precious baby girl and her proud big sis & dad!

Here are a few other highlights from the past couple months...

*We no longer have a pink bathroom!!  It has taken far longer than expected and there are still some finishing touches but it is beautiful, clean and almost done!!!
*We sold my FJ--don't think that happened before my last post??
*We finally purchased a second car, that lovely new car was a 2011 Tahoe which was stolen and wrecked on Christmas day, that Tahoe was repaired and back in our possession yesterday...it has had an interesting life so far for this Tahoe....
*My beautiful, sweet 2 year old broke her collarbone the day after we brought Leighton home from the hospital...fell out of her big girl bed:(.  She has since healed perfectly and is in fact still perfect in every way...
*My family came for Christmas and it was wonderful-minus said Tahoe incident
*Our powder bath is gone and is currently being put back together again...rotted sub floor and mold-check.
*Successfully mastered grocery shopping with more than one child, bathing multiple children, putting multiple children to bed...
*Last but not least, Leighton has an amazing hidden talent--she started sleeping through the night at 6.5 weeks old!  She is an incredible creature!  With sleep, all things are possible!

Until next time...