My Birthday

I had a birthday last Friday. My sweet hubby had the day off work because it was Good Friday, so I took the day off so we could spend it together as a family. Dave has been putting in a ton of time at work trying to finish a project, so it was a welcome change to be together.

We have the tradition of having a birthday date, and so I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do on our night out. Dave had already made arrangements with my mom to keep Conni.

Mid morning, Dave gave me my present to open. It was the movie "Letters to Juliet" - which I absolutely love! Then I opened a card to find that he had made arrangements for us to go to the Castle Creek Inn B&B and stay in the Romeo and Juliet room!

I was so excited I started crying! A night together was just what we needed. I felt guilty about not having Conni with us, but I needed a night with my man!

We had fun during the day just playing together as a family and relaxing. Dave had everything packed for us and for Conni, so after she took her nap we packed her up and took her to my parents house. Conni was so excited to play with her cousins and Grandma and Grandpa she hardly noticed that we left.

Then we went to Castle Creek to check in. We have stayed there now three times and I highly recommend it! The staff are always so friendly and helpful. And our room was gorgeous!

After we checked in, we went to dinner at Mimi's Cafe. We had the cutest waitress who kept calling us "hon" but in the cute way, not the creepy way. We had the best service and we got free pie since it was my birthday.

Then, in another somewhat information tradition, Dave took me shoe shopping! We don't plan it to be a tradition, but it always seems on my birthday date we end up in a shoe store. :) Again here we had the best service. The cashier at one of the stores told us if we got on our smartphones and could bring up a barcode she would give us 15% off our purchase. Well, we couldn't get coverage, and so the cashier just "happened" to find another coupon lying on the counter that she let us use. How sweet is that! Discounted birthday shoes! I was a very happy camper. :)

We headed back to the Castle and had a very relaxing night together. In the morning, we headed down for breakfast. They had only listed eggs Benedict for breakfast, and I am NOT a fan of eggs. I asked if it would be possible to get something else, and they said "no problem!" After we had our breakfasts, one of the staff actually came out and told me "thank you for telling us you wanted something else for breakfast so we could fix you what you wanted!" Seriously - how cool is that!

After breakfast we packed up and headed home to get our little bug. When we walked in the door we were met with the sweetest reception of "Yeah! Mommy and Daddy are home to me!!!" She had such a fun night at Grandma and Grandpa's house - she got to choose where she slept, stay up late, and do almost whatever she wanted. (She's not spoiled, right?) She almost didn't want to come home with us.

Once we did get home, reality and life hit as we realized all the errands we needed to run, and the other things we needed to do for the day. But it was so nice to have that time with my sweetheart and just relax!

Cafe Rio Salads

These recipes are gathered from various sites/people to make the Cafe Rio Salads the way my family enjoys them.

Cafe Rio Chicken:
5 lbs chicken
1 cup Zesty Italian dressing
3 garlic cloves, pressed
2 tablespoons chili powder
1/2 cup chopped cilantro leaves
1 teaspoon lime juice

Add chicken, dressing, garlic, and chili powder to crock pot. Cook low 8 hours. Shred chicken. Return chicken to crock pot. Add cilantro and lime. Keep warm until serving.

Dressing:
1 packet Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing mix (NOT buttermilk)
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup buttermilk
2 tomatillas
1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
1 garlic clove
1 teaspoon lime juice
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Add all ingredients to blender. Mix till creamy. Refrigerate to thicken until serving.

Rice:
4 tablespoons butter
2 1/2 cups white rice
4 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
pepper to taste
Juice and zest of 2 large or 4 small limes
4 tablespoons chopped cilantro
1/2 teaspoon cumin

In a skillet, melt butter with rice. Add liquid and other ingredients. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

Serve everything on tortillas warmed in a skillet. Top with chopped romaine lettuce, shredded cheese, salsa, guacamole, etc.

A Pioneer to take With Us

As I mentioned earlier, we have been asked in preparation for our Pioneer Trek this summer to research a pioneer ancestor to "take with us" on the trek. I recently discovered about my 4-great Grandma James who was in the Willie Handcart company. (If you missed that cool story you can read it here.)

Tonight for our activity, we are making bookmarks with some facts about our pioneer to help us remember them and "take them with us" in a literal sense too. I was playing with my cricut and created this:

(Please forgive the terrible handwriting!)

One of my counselors thought it was a little juvenile - maybe it is - but I sure had fun making it! I am looking forward to taking Jane with me both literally and figuratively!

Counting

My little bug is sometimes a little silly, but I'm so proud of her counting skills!

Pop On Pals

Monday night after dinner, I asked Conni what she wanted to play. She asked to play with her Pop On Pals Dolls:

These are great for toddlers - Conni got them for Christmas. You simply put the doll over the ring, then press it down until you hear the "pop". Then its on! Conni struggles sometimes taking them off, but we are working on it.

But anyway. We were playing last night, and she has lately found her imagination. It was fun to hear some of the phrases that came out while we were playing:

Suprise! (having the doll jump out from behind something)

Silly Me/Silly Dolly (after doing surprise or something silly)

Singing Ring Around the Rosies (and spinning the doll)

Are you cold? (one doll asking another)

Will you help me? (again, one doll asking another)

Are you ok?

I recently picked up the pets and a few more sets of the Pop On Pals at Toys R Us. I can't wait to give them to Conni!

Smelling the Flowers

Conni and I went for a walk around the neighborhood on Friday when the weather was so nice. She was so happy to see flowers growing in the various gardens, and kept wanting to pull them. I convinced her that they weren't our flowers so we had to just look and smell how pretty they were.

We got back to our yard and she ran straight for our yellow daffodils. Before I could stop her she had picked one and told me "I did that mom!" She kept smelling it, and having me smelling it, and telling me how pretty it was. She carried it around the house for the next hour until it was time for her bath. She was so happy to see the signs of spring - and so was I :)

Shoe Shopping

We have noticed that Conni tends to have many of my personality traits. Well, one of them happens to be her love of shoes. Conni is due for the next size of shoes, so we've been shopping. Conni loves shoe shopping! Saturday night we went shopping with Grandma Bonnie. We went to Target, but there wasn't much selection for what we needed. So we headed to Payless. Conni was more excited to look at shoes at Payless than she was in the toy section at Target!

Conni walked in and went straight for a pair of glittery pink shoes. Some of you know how much she loves her read sparkly shoes that she got last fall. She got them down and put them on all by herself and walked a bit in them. Then she saw another pair she liked so she changed to those. Then another. And another. Mom and I were laughing so hard!

We settled on a little pair of crocs that Conni had refused to take off. They also happened to be just like a pair that Dave bought for Conni before she was born. The cashier was sweet and said he could ring us up just using the box. Conni was so excited she was jumping around the store and dancing around Grandma. She has worn the shoes all weekend long!

Singing Songs

Conni has started singing! I will hear her in her room singing to her dolls as she plays, or just sing while she walks thru the house. Her favorites are Row, Row, Row Your Boat; Ring Around the Rosies; Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes; If You're Happy and You Know It; and the ABC song. She sings the ABC song: "a, b, c (jabber jabber) w, x, y, z. I know. Sing with me." So cute!

In Tune

Friday night Dave had to work late. I was having anxiety issues, and trying so hard not to let them seep into my time with Conni. I guess I wasn't doing the best. I got Conni ready for bed, and it was time for scriptures. We were going to read a story from the Book of Mormon, but Conni insisted on the "Boat Story".

(Let me pause to explain our scripture book that we use. A while ago I spent some time downloading as many pictures from the gospel art kit on www.lds.org as I could, then writing a summary of the scripture story, or using the summary provided on the picture if there was one. I made a little book for us to use to teach Conni the basic stories. She refers to the stories by the pictures.)

So Conni insisted on the "Boat Story." I was frustrated and anxious about how late Dave was, and I just was trying to get thru bed time. So I flipped thru the book, thinking it was when Nephi builds the boat, but the picture has the boat in its construction phase so that wasn't it. Conni started helping me turn pages, knowing what she wanted, and it turned out she wanted the story of Christ Stilling the Storm.

Well, talk about a spiritual smack to the back of the head! It was exactly what I needed to hear to be able to calm down and settle my anxiety. Conni patiently listened to the story, then asked to rock and cuddle.

As she settled in I said a silent prayer of gratitude for this sweet little girl teaching her mommy to have faith and turn to our Savior to still our daily storms and troubles. I am so happy she is part of our family!