Another Happy Ending

One of my good friends from when I worked at Manor Homes just called me with some awesome news.
They finally got the call to go meet their new son!LaQuill and her new husband wanted to have a baby together, but LaQuill couldn't have anymore babies. She was working with me the day I got the call that Josie was on her way to our house and it lite a spark in her to adopt a child from foster care.
Her road was a bit longer then ours, but I'm sure that is all a distant memory now that little Jonah is safe at home with them.

Welcome home little Jonah!

Olivia Kate's Room

After 48 hours of painting Amber is totally done painting Olivia Kate's room!

Head over to Amber's Blog to check it out!

I'll post more once all the accesories are in!

Potty Training Update

Josie is doing great at potty training.
We spent a day last week with just undies and she had 3 accidents, but went in the potty about 5 times. A few of those were even her telling me she had to go.
I decided to just have her go bottomless yesterday and she did awesome! Not one accident. I guess there's something about the undies that reminds her of a diaper.
We hav a busy week this week and then we have a bunch of family from Minnesota coming into town the next week so I'm not sure how much training we will do.
I do think that if I could get a free week she would have it down in no time.

5 A Day

Andrew and I are firm believers in Healing.
I can count on one hand the times we have gotten any kind of sickness in the past five years. We don't push this belief on anyone, we just simply do not allow sickness into our lives.
While I attribute the majority of our health to the fact that we broke that stronghold off awhile back, I also give credit to the foods we eat.

We are far from perfect in eating healthy.
We've been known to eat more then our share of desserts and Andrew working at Waffle House has increased our cholesterol by a few points.
This just makes me more determined to make good choices when I can.

I've learned that the best way to stay feeling great is to eat foods as close to their natural state as possible. We try to eat a fruit and a veggie with every meal, including breakfast.
I add spinach to pancakes, carrots to our eggs. I can hardly tell the difference in the taste and Josie is so used to it she doesn't blink at the green specks.
But the easiest way I've found to get a good dose of whole veggies in first thing in the morning is a good smoothie.
Josie gets so excited when I pull out the blender. It's her job to push the button.
I used to just use fruit in our smoothies but then I read on The Dirty Work that adding spinach gives a big nutritional boost without affecting the flavor.
Once I tried it and verified that it did taste exactly the same, I decided to get more adventurous and try other veggies.
I've used everything from spinach to green beans to cherry tomatoes, but this has been our staple for the past year:1 Banana
1 Handful of Blueberries
1 Handful of Raspberries
1 Handful Frozen Strawberries
2 Handfuls of Spinach (more or less to taste)
1 Large Carrot
1 Cup Yogurt
2 Tbsp Flax Seed Oil
1 Cup OJEven my biggest nutritional critic, Amy, can't taste the veggies!

Having these in the morning makes me feel so great and then I don't feel so bad about having some good ole' hashbrowns up at the Waffle!

Baffles! Reveiw

When we were at Whole Foods last week a clerk gave Josie a bag of Baffle's to test out.
Since they were free I thought I would do a review of them for you all (as if you care what my opinion is!).

As you can see, Josie was quite excited about trying out her new treat!
We got the cinnamon and she loved them! I thought they were a little spicy, kind of like those Red Hot candies.

They are a high grain baked snack. They look like small popcorn balls and have the texture of rice crispies!

I tried to get a picture of the ingredients, but couldn't get a clear focus.

One thing love about Whole Foods is that they don't sell any products that aren't "All Natural" so I don't have to spend my entire trip reading labels, so I wasn't really worried about what the list was.

I will for sure buy these again although I won't buy the cinnamon. I think we're going to pick up the chocolate ones next!

Date Nights Rock My World.

I have known that we have great friends for awhile now, but after last night I'm convinced that they are the most fun people in the World too.
After all of us had stressful weeks full of trying to beat sales, rental houses being foreclosed on, and crabby toddlers, Andrew decided it was time for a night on the town.
I even convinced Amy to leave Matalie with a babysitter (she hasn't even left her 4 year old with one yet!).


After a forgotten camera, a couple vehicle changes, a few wrong turns explained as "scenic routes", and a romantic encounter with a fireman (which happened to Andrew!) we arrived at our top secret favorite restaurant, The Treehouse.Andrew and I found this place a couple years ago completely by accident and fell in love.
It's tucked away in the back of a high end neighborhood in Buckhead. It's an old house that they turned into a restaurant. The inside is pretty much just a bar, but the porch is huge and it's perfect for a relaxing dinner!Our waitress was a little, how should I say, unconcerned, with us but the amazing food and huge Cosmos more then made up for it.

As if dinner wasn't enough food, we all decided to head over to the Cheesecake Factory for dessert. We blamed it on Amber since she's pregnant, but I'm pretty sure Scott and I weren't going home unless Andrew stopped! I just noticed how Scott made himself a place mat for his dessert! What a dork!I haven't laughed as much as I did last night in a long time!
I love having friends like these guys. Where is just fits.

And as for the babies, they didn't miss us a bit!

Extreme Home Makeover - Olivia Kate Edition!

Yesterday we all got up and headed over to Amber's to paint the nursery for little Olivia Kate who is due to arrive on September 21st.

I would show you a before picture, but Amber pretty much had the room done by the time we got there at 10 AM!

The nursery colors are pink, green, and brown. She did the top pink, the bottom green, and is going to do a big fat stripe of brown around the middle.

She is really crafty and has already painted up a bunch of accents for the room. They weren't all ready yet so we didn't actually get to put the whole room together. I will post some pictures when she does!

I just love seeing a nursery all ready for a new baby!
Sheena is expecting baby Cruz at the end of November. We're having her nursery painting party next week!Since Amber had already done most of the work inside, we went ahead and started working on redoing the dresser and shelf.Josie and I sanded it down and then we all painted it an antique white. They needed a second coat, but were looking gorgeous when we left.Since we did it during the week, we all had our kids with us.

I know Amber's excited about having Olivia, but after spending the day with three arguing toddlers and and a new baby, she may decide to stop at just the one!

For the most part they were all really well behaved. Especially since we didn't leave until about two hours past nap time.Luke, Josie, and JP all crashed on the way back to our house and slept for about 3 hours!

Next weekend I'll have all the pictures of Julian's new Train Room and Baby Cruz's new nursery!