Gigi's 4th birthday

Even though Gigi's birthday has come and gone I need to blog about it! I adore my little Gigi girl. She is so much fun and has such a fun personality. She loves people! She has such a sure testimony of Jesus and teaches me how to be more like him almost everyday. She has an incredible imagination. Give her a rope and a scarf and she'll be busy for hours in her own little world (the options are endless from a cowgirl roping her cattle to a princess locked in a tower).


Gigi turned 4 on May 3rd. It was a fun day to celebrate her birthday as a family. She opened a few presents that morning, had pink german pancakes with pink milk.

Gigi with her loot :) She asked for a dorothy doll from the wizard of oz (which was extremely hard to find), a sleeping beauty movie and some pet shop stuff.

That night a girl that I teach violin to had an orchestra concert so we had a little mommy daughter night out and went to that and had some ice cream with the girls family. Gigi loved it! She felt just like one of the big kids. Gigi didn't get to bed until around 11pm.

On her actual birthday David was in the midst of finals so we postponed her birthday party for a few days. Gigi really wanted a Wizard of Oz party so that is what we had. It was really fun!

We had it at a park nearby and of course I hardly got any pictures. Oh well :)
There was a follow the yellow brick road obstacle coarse with me as the wizard hiding in a tent at the end (pay no attention to the woman behind the curtain!).


There was a rainbow pinata that David eventually had to smash to pieces! (Seriously has anyone been to a party where the kids can actually smash a pinata themselves?)

I found a really cool craft to go along with the party called shrinky dinks so the kids colored the wizard of oz shrinky dinks and took the rest home to finish their charm bracelet. It was a lot of fun even for me :) I guess they had these when I was a kid, but I don't remember them.



I made a rainbow cake made from cupcakes, which is totally the way to go. It was really simple and fun, Gigi even helped. I don't think I will ever make a cake that you have to cut for a kids party again!

We had a great turnout and all of the kids seemed to have fun, although none of the kids had seen the Wizard of Oz, too funny. Gigi as always got tons of generous gifts that she enjoys a lot. Thank you, thank you!

Thoughts late at night.

David and I with his grandma Louise Leithead just after we were married (6 1/2 years ago! Man time flies!!)

I leave tomorrow for Utah. It's 11pm and I just finished packing up, cleaning my house, etc and now I can't seem to go to sleep. Even though I realize that I need to wake up at 4am my body is a little jittery from trying to get everything done on time. Does anyone else hate getting ready for trips? I feel like these last 2 months have been non stop movement. It's a bit ironic because David and I are really sick of moving our stuff so we decided to live apart for 8 weeks and instead I feel like we keep moving a little bit of our stuff over and over :)
David just left this morning at around 4am. He came for the weekend- a quick 48 hour trip, but it was pure heaven. It is so wonderful to have David around. He is amazing with the girls and jumps right in to help. I got a much needed break from the girls and David and I were able to spend some time talking in person, which is SOOO much nicer than over the phone.
David had a pretty hectic week this last week. His grandma died (at age 93!) and so he went out to Texas for her funeral. She was a great lady. An incredible example of hard work and integrity. It was really sudden and David had a hard time with it, but he said that the funeral was beautiful. All of the grand kids except for 3 were able to make it. I think that speaks for itself of what an incredible woman she was. At the funeral a woman who gave her eulogy and apparently had known her for over 40 years said that she couldn't think of a single time that Louise had ever said anything bad about anyone. What a great thing to be remembered for. It is a good example to strive for. It was such a blessing that we were able to spend some time with her this last month before she passed away. Anyway so David flew from Chicago to Dallas on Wednesday for the funeral and then flew back to Chicago on Thursday and then to Philadelphia Friday night and back to Chicago this morning. Thank you David for continuing to sacrifice for your family!
I guess that's about it for now :) Maybe I'll get some of my delayed posts blogged :)

green smoothie recipe

A few friends requested the recipe for green smoothies. Honestly you can add whatever you want, but here is what I usually do:

2-3 cups spinach, washed
1/2-1 cup apple juice
1-2 bananas
about 1 cup frozen berries (I usually use frozen whole strawberries, but I also like mixed berries).

Add the spinach and apple juice to a blender. Push the spinach down a bit so the blades will grab it. Pulse it a few times to get it going and then turn it on high. After the spinach leaves turn into a nice smooth consistency I take the middle part off of the lid and add in the bananas whole, followed by the frozen berries. The frozen berries are my substitute for ice. It really doesn't need any cream or yogurt, but I'm sure you could add it. The whole process takes less than 5 minutes. It's awesome! Also, for all of the skeptics out there you really can't taste the spinach, which is what makes it so ideal for kids or even adults who don't really like veggies :)

My mother in law served it to us with straws and I tried it once without them and it just wasn't the same so I would recommend investing in some straws :) Gigi and Madeline both drink this up! If they don't finish it in the morning I keep it in the fridge and by nighttime it is almost always gone.

Green Smoothies

While we were staying with David's parents Sonia made us green smoothies every morning. Since then I have been addicted! I have had one every morning since and crave them like crazy. They give me energy and make me feel really good inside. The girls seem a bit healthier since then too.

Green smoothies are smoothies with fruits and veggies in them. I usually add spinach, apple juice, bananas and frozen fruit.

I get the girls to drink them too. That way we have our fruits and veggies in the morning and I don't have to feel guilty if we don't eat too many the rest of the day. They are seriously delicious!! Madeline especially loves them.
Hopefully I'll get a few more people out there addicted :) Thanks Sonia! Your so awesome!!

Trip overview

The girls and I are finally home! I want to blog about everything that we did on our trip, but first I thought I should give some kind of overview about the whole trip.

We banked over 65 hours in the car and put over 3600 miles on our little car. It's still going strong though luckily :) Time included does not include stops. Also, I only counted the long spurts, not little day trips.

May 7th-12th- we drove from Philadelphia,PA to Champaign, IL: (about 13 hours and 771 miles). We were there for my brother Ephraim's graduation from med school.

May 12-26th- We drove from Champaign, IL to North Richland Hills, TX (about 14 hours and 821 miles). We spent time with David's parents, siblings and his grandma.

May 26th- We drove from North Richland Hills, TX back to Champaign (again about 14 hours and 821 miles). We spent the night at my brother Alex's home.

May 27th- We drove from Champaign, IL to Chicago, IL (about 3 hours (including traffic) and 145 miles). We went up to Chicago so David could run a race with his firm (more about that later! We had dinner and adventure with some friends there.

May 27th-June 5th- We then drove from Chicago, IL to Galena, IL (about 3 hours and 163 miles). After the race and dinner we drove to Galena where we have a timeshare.

June 5th-7th- We drove from Galena, IL to Chicago, IL (again about 3 hours and 163 miles). We set up David's apartment with the essentials and got David a little settled into his life in Chicago.

June 7th-8th- We drove from Chicago, IL to Philadelphia, PA (about 13 hours and 771 miles). We dropped David off at work for his first day and then the girls and I drove home. We stopped for the night in Youngstown, OH.

The girls and I were planning on spending a week in St. Louis after dropping David off, but we were all exhausted, especially Madeline who near the end would not sleep and would just whimper and cry through the night. We were sad to not see them, but it was SOOO fantastic to get home. My super nice friend and neighbor had dinner waiting for us in our oven when we got home. The girls got into the bath and went right to sleep. They have been doing great ever since. I am even surviving thanks to my new commitment to sleep and green smoothies (more about that later (thanks Sonia!!))
I will get pictures posted as soon as I can. David has most of them with him on a jump drive and also has our camera battery charger on accident so I have to wait for a while to post them.

Great Birthday Present

We have been away from home since May 7th. It has been really great to see family, etc... but we are definitely getting ready to come home. I will blog about the trip when we get home, but I wanted to post this story so that I don't forget about it.

A few weeks ago while we were in Texas I lost my phone (big surprise I know!)
I lost it while we were packing to leave David parents home for the weekend to spend a bit of time at David sister Elle's home. I figured I had just left my phone at his parent's house and that we would easily find it when we got back there on Monday. Well Monday came and went and still no phone. I literally looked everywhere I could think of, including through our entire car. To make matters worse my phone battery had died so I couldn't even call it to find it that way.

Miracle #1 So while I was looking through the car, it was late and apparently I left the light on in the car. Some nice person knocked on the door at 3am to let us know. David's poor dad had to wake up and turn off the light for us. People seriously are nicer in Texas. Thanks Don for helping me out :)

Miracle #2 Tuesday morning came and still no phone. It was my birthday and so I was especially bummed because I knew a few family members would try to call. I was pretty stressed and just assumed I would have to buy another phone. The worst part about purchasing a new phone is not having my address book. The phone services really should find a way to fix that problem. Maybe having a duplicate sim card or something, but anyway I digress.
So I was stressed and complaining to David when Gigi piped up, "It's okay Mommy, we can just pray and find your phone." Honestly I thought okay kid we'll pray, but I know we won't find my phone because I have looked everywhere.
Well we prayed and immediately after Gigi said, "Mommy I know where your phone is. I remember I saw you put it into my suitcase when we were packing up from aunt Elle's house." I promptly responded by saying that I didn't have my phone when we were at Aunt Elle's house, but I'm okay looking. Again I was thinking, yeah right kid. I already searched through your entire suitcase and it's not there. I thought we should look just to make Gigi feel acknowledged. So I dumped everything out of Gigi's suitcase and proudly showed her that it wasn't there and that I knew better than her. Then I saw David's suitcase and remembered that I had searched through all of the pockets of his luggage, but not in the main compartment. I was sure it wasn't there because I didn't pack his suitcase up, but we decided to look. I was halfway through pulling stuff out when I found the phone on the bottom of his suitcase. I was seriously humbled. My little girl had been humble enough and had sufficient faith to receive inspiration for her hardened mom. I am so grateful to have such a faithful daughter. I learned a great lesson that day. God answers prayers as long as we have sufficient faith. Thank you Gigi for continuing to teach me and thank you Heavenly Father for giving me a truly awesome birthday present!