Falling In Love

Yes, I love jazz and pretty much anything with piano and many other instruments. I learned at a very young age to appreciate and play music. All thanks to my wonderful father who himself was an amazing piano player. But there is something about this music by Melody Gardot that makes my heart sink and think that everything in the world is a beautiful rose. She puts so much soul in the music, and I have never heard another singer come close to her talent. Well the closest I can think of is Sade but still I have to say she is on the top of my list. She is an amazing woman, I think, amidst all she has overcome to get where she is. She wears sunglasses all the time because she has a sensitivity to light; an aftermath of her accident that led her to music as a therapeutic way to deal with her physical pain. Pain brought on after being hit from a driver whom ran a red light and struck her while she was on her bicycle. I hope you enjoy this song "Our Love is Easy"...it's a YouTube video so click here.

Another Great Chocolate Recipe!

Yep I am all about chocolate and I thank God that I manage to keep my weight manageable with my love for fine desserts! My step brother and his wife, who are also dessert connoiseurs, passed along one of their favorite...Chocolate Angel Food Cake from Levy Beranbaum's Cake Bible. I was a little intimidated at first by the 16 egg whites requirement, but it was worth it as you will see. Thanks Kelly and Nova for sharing!

Of course the kids get in on the fun...after whipping the egg whites for awhile the formed firm peaks and when I was done the kids had fun with the whisker.

Getting ready to fold in the flour mix to the egg white mix. If you want the recipe let me know, I could not find it online.

Messy! I was cool with it though, love to see the kids having fun with me in the kitchen. Hey your only a kid once right:-)

I think he likes it...not sure if egg whites are good to eat but owell too late now!

I forgot to take a pic after we made it, this is the next morning...Brian justified eating it for breakfast because it was made with egg whites! Pure protein right:-) Either way, we all loved it. I had two slices before going to workout, one plain and one with peanut butter!!!! Mmmmm good.

We Are Getting There....

Yep getting there slowly but surely. Well I wouldn't say slowly but all considering we, or mostly Brian I should say, has been at this task very diligently. I wanted to show you some updated pics. Brian and I worked on laying the laminate flooring that we got for an amazing price at HD (Home Depot), I mean it was silly how cheap it was. We worked from 8pm - 12:30am!!!!! Now I didn't do the hard part, but I was helping Brian so that his job wasn't so hard. I laid the wood down for him, helped lay the pad and wherever else I could make this job go by quicker. His parents came by today to check it out and asked why we worked so late doing it. I told them, the only time Brian gets my help down there is at night time when the kids are in bed. This way he had my help and it went by a lot quicker and easier. So I gladly gave up my beauty rest to help out and amazingly we got up this morning and made it to church on time for the 9am service!!!

We are really excited to get the basement done so we can exercise and have room for the kids to play in without worrying about breaking things. I am very proud of the work Brian has done, he sure has a talent for detailed work in everything he does. Good job Brian!

Ta Da! Here is the floor we laid all night....this is the gym the first room you walk into when you come through the basement.

Standing in the gym looking at what will be the rec room, or the kid's play area. We decided to keep it open, with no doors so we can workout and watch the kids while they play and keeps it a little more open. We are waiting for the carpet from HD and should have it installed in a couple of weeks!

The guest room...

The bathroom...I bought that paint at HD for $4! Yep everytime I am there I check out the oops table and try to get our paint there. At $5/gallon can't beat that! This paint we got for $4 because the paint guy at HD had used a tiny bit and gave us a dollar off! I am trying to get a lot of our paint that way, but you have to be very patient and diligent. I would love to go out and just buy what I want but I know we can save tons of money on paint by trying to get the paint from the oops table.

This is the tile we bought at HD...Brian did all the tile work. Great job wouldn't you say:-) This bathroom is nicer than our master bath, and the tile was not expensive at all either.

The shower...more of Brian's work:-)

The movie theater....we painted the ceiling black and the walls a dark blue. We even painted the baseboard black and will be painting the doors on the inside black, so there is no glare in the room. Could probably be used as a photo dark room it's so dark in there.

Here are the wall scone lights we got for the theater...aren't they gorgeous! They remind me of ocean waters. They go so nice with the dark blue paint. Brian placed a dimmer on the switch in the theater so we can have it dim or well lit.

And some pics of the kids....we were rocking out to MTV the other night so thought you would like to see them dancing their booties off:-)

Kaden showing me a dance, Daddy put Aria's booties on over his pajamas it was the cutest thing.

Again but with a pumpkin on his head:-)

Leap Year

Leap Year

Well thanks to my wonderful mother in law, and father in law....I actually got out to see a movie, but not an action packed movie like the one's I succumb to when I go with Brian a few times a year, an actual chick flick. Yes I love romantic stories that make you want to fall in love with your spouse all over again just so you can feel the butterflies in the tummy again; I remember those days:-) But this movie was more than just a romance it was comical too and a great one! I loved Amy Adams in Julie & Julia but she was great in this one. So grab some girlfriends, sneak in some dark chocolate and go see the movie Leap Year. Oh and I have never heard of John Goode but he was a good actor too, not to mention a handome fella.

Chocolate Lovers I Found The One!

I love chocolate, well dark chocolate only and these cookies were so outrageously good I think whoever picked the name did a great job! I found these Martha Stewart cookies and they are now one of my favorite chocolate cookies. Easy to make but if you make them you have to make sure you let them cool for 10-15 minutes. They are very chewy inside and if you touch them before that all the chocolate in the middle will pull the cookie apart.

Here is the recipe for the Outrageous Chocolate Cookies!

Aria helping me scoop the cookies on the sheet. Oh and she is wearing one of her new Christmas outfits! Isn't she adorable:-)

I let Kaden in on the fun too except he didn't help bake, he helped clean by licking the blender wisk attachment.

Gotta love that face!

Ta Da! These are awesome and after they are cooled very divine with a cup of coffee:-)

A Thankful Christmas!

We hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas, and that the birth of Jesus was close to your heart. I know it's hard to stray from the true meaning of Christmas and we try to remind our children at this time of the year that it's not about the presents, but the eternal gift that is the true present at Christmas time! This year yes we all got some really nice gifts and even had Brian's older sister Tonia and her husband Greg in town from New Mexico so that was a treat!
But now the dazzle is over and we are back to work....Brian tiling the bathroom in the basement and me cleaning up after the two bambinos and their toys:-)

Thank you everyone for all your wonderful cards and letters! And we hope you all have a safe, healthy, and blessed new year in 2010!

Catching Aria as she opens her eyes to see her gift from Grandma and Grandpa. Now if that was me at her age...oh my gosh my mouth would be dropped and I would have been running. I would have LOVED to have something like this when I was a little girl. She loved it don't get me wrong I guess she is a little more reserved than I was:-).

Grandpa made this by hand in his workshop! Her own play stable....and Grandma helped paint it and put it together. What a great gift! I can't wait to play with it! It's still at their house till our basement is done. As you will see Kaden liked it too so we have to make sure we can place it high enough so he can't get into it.

Oh and did you notice the top of the barn; how it comes off! So cool; your the best Grandpa and Grandma!

Up close...

Aria showing Aunt Tonia her new toy...

Kaden getting in on our horse action....

They even found a muck and tack trunk that we placed in the barn. Now Aria wants to get some horse manure....I told her we could get some granola. I don't know maybe they do make play manure????

Kaden got drums...just what the boy needs so he can stop banging things on my kitchen cabinets:-)

And Daddy got an awesome electric guitar and amp set!

Daddy with his new guitar....

Yep you didn't see me in any of these; I got some really nice gifts though; thank you everyone! Another year without a horse:-) That will be the year you see me with my mouth dropped. But I have a feeling that dream will have to wait for a long time. That's ok, I have enough with three kids to keep me busy for awhile.

It's A BOY!!!

Christmas Eve was a very long day....I didn't sleep well the night before; a mother of excited anticipation to find out whether I would be expecting what I thought to be a boy or a girl. I knew that if it was a boy I would also have a task on hand of convincing Aria that having two brothers is cool and making her extra special. She really wanted a girl, or so she thinks. I knew I was having a boy but of course I was praying for God's will not mine and that either way our children would love each other and be very close. Aria was ok when she heard the news, and I think she is warming up to the idea. It was a family affair, we all trekked into the Radiology office at 830am; Brian, Aria, Kaden, Aunt Shari (Brian's younger sister), and I. It was nice to have everyone there.

We are still working on a name so stay tuned for that as we get closer to the due date of May 26. For now, here are some pics of the little guy we already love and adore!