Nostalgic day

Well, I've made promises in the past to the few followers I have to blog more often and, of course, every time I have not followed through. I get so caught up in the day to day life and forget to take the time to do it until today when I finally realized how much I want to post every mundane little detail of my life, more importantly, of my girls lives. Before I know it, a year will pass and I won't remember the funny thing Mia said this morning, or the crazy thing Lilly ate(and later threw up) yesterday.

Here I am with these 2 little girls, forgetting to savor every minute I have with them and then complain that time is passing to fast. I mean, wasn't Lilly born yesterday?! How is she so big and talking so much? When did she get so grown up? How will I ever remember to tell her the crazy stories of leaving the room for 2 seconds only to come back to find her dancing on top of the kitchen table, eating rocks dirt leaves plastic anything she can get her hands on, getting a drink all by her big girl self(from the toilet after her sister forgot to close the bathroom door), dunking her shoes in the toilet, giving her baby doll a bath all by her self(again, in the toilet). How will I remember her walking around with anything that remotely looks like a phone and saying hi and carrying on a conversation or following around her big sister just to wait for her to stop so she can push her around til she screams. Or the adorable loud noises of 'mmm yumm' and sucking she makes eating anything that tastes good. How will I remember all the times she figured out if she only unplugs the modem she'll get all the attention she wants from her Daddy who she absolutely adores.

And Mia! Oh my sweet tiny baby girl... who will be 4 years old in only 4 short months. She has already reached the age of preferring to spend every second of every day with her friends instead of with me. She is starting to figure out that there are other people in the world more fun and amazing and wonderful then her own mom and dad. She has learned to repeat everything that she has heard said and asks me all the time 'why is that driver a stupid idiot mom?' or yelling at me to get in the corner when she gets mad. She has learned to no longer just trust everything we tell her and questions everything we tell her to do. How did my little tiny 5 lbs baby turn in to such a grown up little girl? Since when does she not want to have me with her every second of every day? The last 4 years has been such a speedy blur, I don't know how that girl has gotten so grown up and so smart, I still can't believe it's been so long since the first time I saw her beautiful little face.

So, the time has come that I finally give in and take the time to write these things down before I get any older and can't remember them all on my own. I already couldn't tell you half the crazy things that Mia has said and done to make Jason and I just crack up all the time and I don't want to forget anymore. Life changes and passes to fast, I don't want to forget another minute.

4 months in a nutshell

Well after my last failed promise of being sure to keep up withe the blog from here on out, I will no longer make promises and just do what I can. Life is crazy, I know I'll forget it all and really should be better at keeping memories somewhere, now just to find the time. Here it goes, one crazy summary of what has happened in the last... 4?months or so since I last posted...

Lilly... where to begin. She turned 1 with a ladybug themed family party and loved tearing in to her cake, when she finds something she loves that girl can eat! Turning one also brought a new trampoline, sandbox, toys, movies and her new sassy little attitude. Quickly went from a few steps to running everywhere, climbing everything, and eating anything from sand to paper to rocks, anything. A few times of getting enough rocks in to make her throw up later, she isn't allowed to spend much time outside without constant close adult supervision. Soon this was all followed by a trip to AZ to see Nonna and spend some time with cute cousin Madi. She loved the pool, didn't care much about Madi, loved the sun and hated the drive home. That consisted of 3 puking kids, Grammy letting her jump out of the car, a gash on her head, a crying worried mom, angry phone calls from Dad, 9 hours later a stop at the doctor and 3 stitches, we finally got to take the poor baby home along with Mia who threw up way to many times to count in between. She is amazing at her temper tantrums and shows them off often, throwing herself on the ground screaming and crying and lately turns to biting, but only Mom when she can't get her way. She is now nearly 1 1/2, I have no idea how we got here from the day she was born, I miss my tiny girl, but I will say as much trouble as she is, she is the sweetest most cuddly little baby there is and she sure does love her Mom. A welcome change from little miss Mia who at that age was a Daddy's girl through and through.

Mia in 4 months, not a whole lot has changed. She loved going to see her Nonna, didn't understand why we couldn't just bring baby Madi home with us, and hated coming back home from the trip to Arizona. She asks me weekly if it is her birthday next and insists that she have a pirate party with a Jack Sparrow cake. I was sure this pirate obsession would pass by now, boy was I wrong. She is still in love with Jack Sparrow and Davy Jones, chooses to watch the pirate movies or Megamind over any princess or girly movie, now has a huge obsession with toys from the Cars movie, and I have completely given up on her ever being a big girly girl, at least any time soon. She has 2 new good friends that moved in next door and I'm pretty sure she would live with them if she could. She is finally potty trained, fingers crossed it sticks this time. She is growing way to fast, She is way to smart and independent. She hates being told that someone is mad at her, and hates being in trouble. Phrase of choice lately has become 'don't talk mad at me, I don't like you to talk mad at me'. She genuinely wants people to like her and be happy with her and she does try hard to be good most of the time. I always thought before she would be my troublemaker and Lilly would be my sweet nice girl, but it is turning out to be quite the opposite. She still loves letters and is a pro at writting her name and getting very good at figuring out how to spell words by listening to the sounds. She is to smart for her own good and amazes me constantly with the things she says and does.

Jason and I are still around and the same as always. Not much to report. Trying desperately to keep up with these 2 busy bodies, my house is always a mess no matter how often I clean it and I find having 2 way overly energetic girls is the best work out routine out there. They never ever stop. Jason is hard at his business still but always makes time for his girls and we love him for it. he does understand how I can be so tired all the time and I love to threaten him with being alone with these 2 for a couple of days and seeing how he handles it. Someday... Just trying one day at a time to survive the crazy life of motherhood, who knew it could be so fun and so difficult at the same time.

Catching up

I've noticed lately that the world of blogs is dieing a little bit and I don't like it. I love reading and catching up on my friends lives and seeing pictures to feel like I'm a part of whats going on when I can't be there. I love having my blog to have a little 'journal' of my life with my amazing husband and my girls. I'm really going to try to keep up now, even if no one reads this, oh well. Thats not what it's really there for(if you're reading this I'm sorry and I'm happy you are!) but really, it's for me. A way to get out my thoughts and a place to keep my memories.

Alright, enough with my rant, not for a little catch up. It's been FAR to long. So much has changed. We were able to go to Arizona for Christmas and it was su

ch a good trip. Mia loves to spend time down there and see all of Jason's family. We love them all and miss them , it was so nice to spend that time. Also, there is nothing like a 70 degree Christmas. I am sorry, but all those songs about dreaming of a white Christmas are so so far off! It's all about being able to go out and play with your toys outside all day without layers and layers of clothes. Being able to walk to your friends house to see their load and walking back with them to see yours. Upholding family traditions of mini golf outdoors on Christmas day. I LOVE it and will never be ok with a freezing cold white Christmas.

Mia also turned 3 while we were there. I can't believe how big she is and how amazing she is. She is so full of spunk and love and giggles and oh so fun. She is so so smart and I just love seeing her soak up every bit of knowledge she can, especially when it comes

to letters. That girl loves her alphabet, loves to sing it, loves to write it and lately, even loves sounding out letters and figuring out what they say. She loves to wear her princess dresses, but even more, she LOVES to put on her pirate clothes and watch her very favorite, Captain Jack Sparrow. She started gymnastics in January, she has always been great at those kind of things and she is loving it. It is so fun and so so cute to watch her.

Then there's my sweet sweet baby. Oh she is my little heartbreaker... ok, maybe just because she's my baby and she's turning 1 next month! I can't believe it and I am so so not ready for her to grow up. She finally started crawling the right way in January and gets everywhere fast. She's up the stairs now too and takes a couple of steps here and there with a little tricking from her Dad. She has got such a fun little personality and it amazes me how different her and her sweet big sister are. They just love eachother and are great little play mates. I hate hate with a passion that she is growing up and getting bigger and love more then anything watching her learn and grow up. She is my sweet Momma's girl and I love it and will milk every second for all it's worth.

Overall, life is good. I still am so so very in love with my husband and feel so lucky to have him in my life every day. Jason is enjoying working and seeing where the company he co-founded will end up. Life is an adventure to say the least. We were able to go back to AZ in the end of January. Not for the best reason, but it was still so fun spending some time again with Jason's family and some of my very best friends. Can't wait for the weather to warm up and be able to get outside again. I am loving being a stay at home mom with my sweet girls and even if I get crazy burnt out from time to time, I feel so so thankful and blessed that I'm able to be with them through every milestone and watch them grow up first hand.

Oh my head....

Well, Lilly's 6 month appointment brought some exciting news... she is going to be SMART! Or at least I really hope so. After doing her measurements, the nurse left her room to enter it all in the computer for the typical 'percentage comparison' information. After just a minute out of the room, she came back to remeasure Lilly's head, sure she had measured it WAY bigger then it really was. Well, she didn't. That girl has got a lot of brains! Weighing in at only about 35% for her weight, her head reached a whopping 97%! 1/2 of her 35% is in that sucker.

Alright, so I guess I started this post and never finished it. Lilly's now 7 months old and gets to be more of a little stinker every day. She is so happy and playful and she loves her mom (which I love most of the time and hate on occasion). She plays so well and I can always get her to laugh. She is rolling all over the place and scooting backwards, pretty dang close to crawling, but can't blame her for taking some time to learn it, her head is a lot to hold up. Oh poor girl. She is a joy at times and a pain in the butt some times. She is so unhappy if someone isn't right by her, she won't sleep all night, she grunts and grunts all the time and wants to be held as long as it's me holding her. She has even recently started whinning when I hand her off to Jason and walked away. I love her to pieces but compared to Mia, she is a hard baby. Such a different personality. She does love her mom, but when it comes time to play, Mia is the one she plays with best. They adore each other and it makes me so happy I had 2 girls in a row.

Crazy summer adventures...

Well, considering I haven't really posted anything since Lilly was born, there is a lot to catch up on. Might break it up in to a few posts just to avoid rambling and blabbing on all in one sitting. Things have been... interesting since Lilly's birth to say the least. We've made some huge life changing decisions, on top of adjusting to being a family of four.

I guess it all started about a year ago when my wonderful husband started working on his... I don't know like 100th idea. I knew before I married him that he was an entrepreneur at heart destined to work for himself with the life motto of 'retire at 26', but never could have imaged how true to life that motto would become. He spent all the free time he could on the new idea and enlisted the help of a good friend of his from school. Together, they were doing all they could to get this idea off the ground, going to various conferences and talking to anyone that would listen to make sure they were headed in the right direction.

They finally caught their first break when they were asked to present their business idea at a conference done locally in the area to promote new businesses called Launchup. This really got the ball rolling with various companies interested in using their product. Long story short, they applied and were accepted in to a seed funding program called BoomStartup. They were given a sum of money to spend the summer working full time on this project and seeing what they could do with it. Of course, all of the application deadlines and interviews and what not were right about the time Lilly was due. I spent the application process telling Jason I was going to pretend none of it existed until it was all really happening.

Low and behold, they were accepted and Jason put in his 2 week notice at work and the crazy started. We planned and planned all we could without really knowing what was coming. Without truly knowing what was coming, we got things as prepared as we could. I found us health insurance, we budgeted, and I tried to stay as calm and stress free as possible, a much easier task in the start without knowing the full truth of what was coming.

I learned quickly as this whole thing began how different our lives would be and just didn't know if they'd ever be back to the way they were before. Jason is such a hard worker and so dedicated, I like to joke that I became a single parent during the week. He leaves for work around 7 in the morning and gets home between 630 and 7 at night, just in time to eat dinner and get the girls ready for bed. He has met some amazing people and has an amazing mentor working with them at Boomstartup.

Here we are now, technically on the last day of the program with just a few weeks to prepare for the day they bring in investors from all over to hear presentations from all the companies that were accepted in to boomstartup. It has been such an adventure. Crazy, exciting, fun, rewarding, scary, stressful, and probably one of the biggest adventures we've faced yet. We've had our fair share of ups and downs for sure, but I know in the end it'll all be worth it. It has been such an amazing experience and Jason has made some wonderful business connections.

Who knows what this will bring in our future and if Jason will be back at a normal 9-5 job in a year, but either way, I am SO proud of him. He is pretty dang amazing and has had this dream for himself for so long. I knew he'd get it at some point, but never could have imagined that he'd actually be able to achieve it in the crazy short time frame he set for himself. Just goes to show how wonderfully amazing he really is. In the start, I was worried that stress would make our relationship hard, but in truth, we've worked through it all together and supporting each other through it has made things even better than ever. Can't wait to see what excitement comes next from all of this.

New Recipe!

Alright, I didn't get a chance to take a picture of these, mainly because they are delicious and get eaten to quickly around our house. I have made these a couple of times since I found the recipe ( about a week ago) on my favorite recipe blog ever! (http://www.melskitchencafe.com/) She has amazing recipes and I must say, this one is so addicting, i am in love! They are so buttery, and chocolately, and crunchy and just absolutely to die for! They have topped the list as one of my new favorite cookies by far! They are easy to make, but a very impressive looking and tasting treat. If you are in the mood for something sweet, give these a try. I promise they will not disappoint!

Chocolate Toffee Shortbread Bars

*Makes 36-50 bars, depending on how big they are cut

The Crust:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 sticks (1 cup) butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 ounces bittersweet, semisweet or milk chocolate, finely chopped (if you don’t have a scale, use about 1/2 cup)

The Topping:
6 ounces bittersweet, semisweet, or milk chocolate, finely chopped (again, if you don’t have a scale, use about 1 cup)
1 1/2 cups toffee bits (or about 4-6 Heath bars, chopped)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. To make the crust, combine the all-purpose flour, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Whisk together and set aside.

Place the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer. Alternatively, place the butter in a large bowl and use a hand mixer. Beat for 3 minutes, or until the butter is smooth. Add the brown and granulated sugars and beat for an additional 3 minutes. Add the vanilla and mix briefly.

Add the flour mixture to the butter/sugar mixture. Beat in gradually (you can cover the bowl and your mixer with a towel to avoid flour flying all over the place or just mix in very slowly). Mix until the flour is almost incorporated. Add the 3 ounces of chocolate to the mixer and mix until the rest of the dry ingredients are incorporated. Do not overmix!

Line a 9 X 13-inch pan with foil, leaving long foil ends on the side. Lightly grease the foil.

Scrape the dough into the prepared pan and press down the mixture with a spatula and/or your fingertips. Bake the crust for 18-20 minutes, or until the crust is bubbling. Remove the crust from the oven and place the hot pan on a cooling rack.

Sprinkle the 6 ounces of chocolate over the hot bars and cover the pan with foil to let the chocolate melt. Let the pan sit for 5 minutes. Using an offset spatula or the back of a spoon, spread the softened chocolate over the crust. Sprinkle the toffee pieces (or cut up Heath bars) over the chocolate and press down gently with your fingers.

Let the bars cool to room temperature. If the chocolate is not set by the time the bars are cool, just pop the pan in the freezer for about 10 minutes. Using the long edges of foil as handles, lift the bars out of the pan and cut into bars.

Recipe Source: adapted from Dorie Greenspan: Baking From My Home to Yours

Chocolate Amaretto Zucchini Bread

Alright, we have a TON of zucchini lately and I was running out of ways to make it til I remembered my favorite zucchini recipe today that my sister gave to me. It is full of zucchini, and so yummy and moist and delicious, it tastes more like a dessert than a slice of bread. Thanks to my sister for passing this one on to me, it is heavenly.

*If you don't want to have to go to a liquor store just to buy Amaretto(can't get it in the supermarkets, at least not around here) then you can substitute Almond Extract. I used between 1-1 1/2 tsps and it turned out great!

Chocolate Amaretto Zucchini Bread

Ingredients

• 1 Cup oil
• 2 Cups Sugar
• 3 Eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 4 squares melted semi sweet or unsweetened chocolate
• 1/2 cup Amaretto (or 1 tsp. almond extract)
• 3 Cups packed peeled grated zucchini
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
• 1 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2 bread pans. Mix first 6 ingredients all incorporated. Add zucchini and stir. Add dry ingredients and stir til all mixed. Add chocolate chips and walnuts. Divide equally between 2 pans. Bake for 1 hour or until firm.