A Wonderful Weekend

It is now Sunday morning, I'm home sick from church-one of the downers of this weekend, besides it being almost over. It's been a nice 4 day weekend.

To start out, I went to Target on Wed. night and almost finished my Christmas shopping. The store was practically empty and it was nice to shop in peace and quiet.

Thursday we slept in pretty late, I went for a walk and then started cooking. I made the green beans with bacon, sauteed onions and toasted almonds, the mashed potatoes with roasted garlic and a chocolate pie, and the fruit with fruit dip. Mom did the turkey, yams, rolls and pumpkin pie. Brandon did the stuffing. It was all delicious! Tami and Dan and the kids were able to drive out for Thanksgiving and we were so excited to see them! Unfortunately, Corom got sick and couldn't be with us for the Thanksgiving dinner. Lucia, Marco and Noelle played and played-they really love eachother! The adults just visited and adored baby Elijah.

Friday was a busy day-I was able to go to the temple to see some friends go through for the first time. That evening we drove out to Ikea and got some furniture for the new house.

Saturday, Julio was a saint and watched the kids-including Noelle-so I could go out to lunch and shopping with my mom and Tami. We then went back to Mom and Dad's for a yummy turkey tetrazini dinner and games. It was so nice to be able to spend time together and talk. It was the perfect combination of busy, relax, shop, eat, visit, play. Can't wait until they come back for Christmas.

* House update-We still don't know when we'll be in our new house-but we get the keys tomorrow! The contractor said it would be three weeks to do the rehab-including the roof. So, hopefully by the end of Dec. we'll be in there.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The kids and I are watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and so I decided to make our Gratitude lists. Here they are:

What Lucia is thankful for:

turkey, mommy and daddy, sylvie, marco, grandma and grandpa, blankie, puppies, my jammies, our house, and Thanksgiving!

What Marco is thankful for:

mommy, cia, daddy, sylvie, grandma, a gorilla, elephant, the animals in the ocean, bluie, my treats, now I already done.

What Mom is thankful for:

A husband who has a good career and can provide well for our family, three healthy children, parents and siblings who are supportive, the gospel, having all our material needs met, being able to buy a house, staying home with my kids, holidays and good memories.

Here's to the beginning of a wonderful holiday season!

More great finds

(I don't know how to turn this right-side up) Anyway, here are some more great finds from Thrift Town! The Gap skirt and sweater were $2 each. Marco's cute hat was $1.50 and his Old Navy sweater which looked like it has never been worn, was $1. I also got a Banana Republic sweater for $6 and a cute Naartje dress for Sylvie for $3. I love that place!

A little ray of sunshine

So despite all the escrow drama, something positive happenned. When I went to pick up Lucia from school today, her sub said to me, "I could use a few more like her."
Another new thing, I made my favorite food tonight; gnocchi! I tried them for the first time on my mission and when they're good, they're good! I made sweet potato gnocchi tonight and they were delicious!!! Here is the recipe (this is half of the original recipe)
2 sweet potatoes peeled and quartered
1 cup riccota cheese
1 cup flour
1/2 t. nutmeg
1/2 t. salt

Boil potatoes 25-30 minutes in salted water until soft. Drain potatoes completely and return to the stove to mash and evaporate all water.
Put mashed potatoes in a bowl and add all ingredients-leave some flour to knead the dough on a heavily floured surface. Knead the dough until it forms a soft ball. You will need to add more flour so it isn't too sticky. Divide the dough into 4 parts. Form long snake like pieces and then cut them into 1 inch pieces. Form a dimple in the middle with your finger. Place the gnocchi in boiling water for 3-4 min-when they float to the surface. You won't be able to boil them all at once. Place gnocchi's on paper towels to drain and cover to keep warm.
To serve-put melted butter, parmesan cheese and pepper on top. !buen provecho!

Some recent pictures.

Sorry these are sideways. I posted these on Facebook, but I know all you who read this don't check Facebook!

Ladies NightSSS

I am so lucky I have a husband who let me go out not once, but TWICE this week with my girlfriends! On Thursday night, I caught up with my friend Celeste. We were on cheer together all four years of high school and then we worked at a law office together during college for a couple of years. We hadn't really talked in about 10 years-so there was a lot of catching up to do. It's interesting to see how much you change-and yet you are still the same person you were at 15. You also find that life happens-so much. Events and people in your life shape you and take you in so many directions. But, we talked for four hours and could have talked on. I realized you can't let friendships lapse like that. People are important and you have to make an effort to keep up on them. I'm so thankful for my health and my family. They have made me who I am and I love them so.
Last night, I went out again; this time to the church for a ladies' game night. We had a blast! A bunch of Mormon women together eating junk food and drinking diet Pepsi can cause some craze! We played games, laughed and got to know eachother so much better. It was invigorating! After two late nights, Julio let me sleep in too! He got up and fed the kids and now he's folding laundry. I am one lucky gal~

The life of a 5 year-old

Lucia got "Star Student" at school.

With her best school friend.

She got to do a 4 week gymnastics class. I'm going to have to sign her up for regular classes because she really enjoyed it.

At gymnastics class.

Today she got to go get a manicute with her best church friend and go out to lunch and have a play date. Lucky girl! I got to sit with Marco at the doctor all day. Poor kid had a major asthma attack and was coughing so badly he couldn't breathe. After some oxygen monitoring, breathing treatments and an x-ray to determine he didn't have pneumonia, we were sent home with lots of medication to keep him comfortable. We don't know what brought on this attack. He usually gets asthma when he's sick, but he wasn't sick until the middle of the night. It came on very suddenly. We do know to keep him away from cats. Lucia said they were playing with a neighbor cat yesterday in the yard, but I don't know if that could have caused it or not.

Hopefully he'll be better soon. So much for a "holiday".

GOING PRIVATE!!!!!

Ok, I'm going to follow the trend and go private on my blog. I really would just like to know who's reading this-I'm very curious! So, please leave your email address if you'd like continue reading (by Friday). Thanks!!!
Nikki

To homeschool or not to homeschool?

That is the question I have been pondering a lot lately. There are many reasons why I should homeschool Lucia:
1) So as not to put her in a new school mid-year (we are moving out of the area in about a month)
2) The charter school allows the parent to chose the curriculum.
3) The charter school gives you $1500 per year for supplies and books and for extra activities like dance or music lessons.
4) The charter school offers mini classes like art and science where they get to meet with other kids.
5) Lucia would get one on one concentrated instruction.
6) We'd have a more flexible schedule.
7) We'd have more time to do things like visit museums and go to play groups.

The reasons I shouldn't do homeschool:
1) Lucia and I butt heads a lot of the time-she doesn't listen to me very well.
2) Marco and Sylvie might get in the way and/or neglected.

So do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?