hair crisis!!!

I'm in the middle of a hair crisis... It's actually not that bad...

I've been trying to grow my hair out since last Fall. The last time my hair was longer than my shoulders I was 11 years old. So I thought maybe now is the time to grow it out. I've been really into using the curling iron on my hair and trying new styles.. but every time I see someone with short hair I'm tempted to cut mine all off again!

My hair is super thick and it also has a perm in it... that's now grown out about 4 inches. So when it gets longer it's a lot more work to take care of and it's super heavy. With baby #3 due in 3 months, I'm wondering if I'm still going to want to try to have long hair??

One of my favorite shows is Dancing With The Stars. This season Mark Ballas' partner is Chelsea Kane and she has the CUTEST hair cut!!!! Every Monday night I'm tempted to go chop my hair off to look exactly like hers!! (which isn't too different from how I typically have my hair when it's short.)

With Summer just around the corner, as well as a new baby, I'm thinking I might as well just cut it all off!

Side note, I sort of feel like the chubbier my face gets (because when I'm pregnant that always happens to me) if my hair is longer it makes my face look fatter, and if it's shorter and cut more in an a-line it looks thiner.

It's official I give up trying to have long hair...!

Curious George Birthday Party

I've officially decided that Jayden's 3rd birthday is going to be a Curious George party. Since the newest Wertzy is going to be born one month prior to his birthday, I doubt I'll really be up for planning a party during that month, so I'm starting now. :)

I am not a party planner at all. I've always wanted my kids' birthday parties to have a full out theme, but I'm not good at planning ahead. So this should be good for everyone.

I follow a blog called See Kate Sew, and a while back she posted this blog that has a tutorial on how to make a yellow hat, like the "man with the yellow hat" wears on Curious George. So I think I'm going to try to make the hat for the party.

While searching online for Curious George birthday decor I read that PBS.com has free stuff on their site, so I went on over and couldn't believe how much stuff you can print off for free for a birthday party!

I'm also going to be on the look out for CHEAP Curious George books (a. for the party b. because Jayden loves the show and I know he'd love the books)... so if you happen to know where I could find some, let me know. I'm going to be checking the local thrift stores first.

I'm getting really excited about this party and it's still 4 months away! Hopefully I can finish all the planning before I go into labor! :)

Banana Pudding

Today is my sweet husband's 24th birthday! He was born in Quito, Equador while his parents were missionaries to Central America. After living for 12 years in Guatemala City, Guatemala, God brought Jordan right to Broomfield, Colorado and placed us in the same school. It wasn't until we were 14 that we met and fell in love. (true story).

Anyways, I've been trying to decide all week what kind of cake I was going to make to celebrate his birthday. Jordan doesn't really have a super favorite cake, so I've been stumped. I still hadn't made Jordan a cake when he came home from work, so I had planned to take the kids to the store and get stuff to make chocolate cupcakes while Jordan was at band practice for our church. Then right before we left, it occurred to me... Jordan's favorite dessert that I make is a recipe we found online for Golden Corral's Banana Pudding. It's quite disgusting how much of it he can actually eat in one sitting, but he loves it.

I say all that to share the recipe with you. :)

Golden Corral’s Banana Pudding

1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk

1 1/2 cup cold water (or milk)

1 (4 oz) size package instant vanilla pudding

2 cups Cool Whip

A box vanilla wafers

3 bananas, sliced

Mix sweetened condensed milk with water or milk. Add pudding mix and beat well. Chill in refrigerator for 5 minutes. Fold in thawed Cool Whip. Spoon 1 cup of pudding in bottom of serving dish. Top with 1/3 of each of the bananas, wafers and pudding. Repeat layering twice, ending with pudding. Top with vanilla wafers. Chill thoroughly and keep refrigerated.

Happy Birthday, Jordan!!

Jordan and I after we graduated Broomfield High School

(it was 40 degrees and pouring rain and our ceremony was outside.. which is why we are soaking wet)

June 4, 2005

My Kitchenaid

So for a long time now I've been wanting a kitchenaid mixer... (really who doesn't want one?!)

Well this year with our tax refund Jordan said he really wanted to get me one. He was searching on Craigslist constantly trying to find the best kitchenaid mixer for me. The thing I love about my husband is that when he buys something he does his research about that item. He wants to make sure he's getting the best for his money. I really appreciate that about him. Anyways, he found one at a pawn shop and surprised me by taking me to the pawn shop to look at it. I ended up saying I didn't want that one because it was the professional grade mixer and I honestly didn't think I needed something that heavy duty. So it was back to Craigslist for another month or so. One Sunday afternoon while the kids and I were napping Jordan was secretly downstairs calling around and found me a mixer.

Not only is it a kitchenaid mixer, but it came with 2 attachment pieces: a food grinder and a shredder and slicer. The woman who owned it before me was very organized and had the receipt stapled to the owner's manual with the receipts of the attachments, which are in the original boxes.

Since becoming a stay at home mom I've really started learning how to bake and I've fallen in love! If I ever went back to work I would want to work at a bakery... not decorating, just baking. So I've really enjoyed using my stand mixer to bake. I've also found several other uses for my mixer such as: making pizza dough, shredding cheese, mashing potatoes and shredding carrots.

Side story: for my 23rd birthday I made a carrot cake from scratch and grated an entire bag of baby carrots by hand. It took me about an hour to do and my hand was very sore by the end of the hour. I made that carrot cake again probably about 3 or 4 times last year and each time had to grate the baby carrots by hand. Right after getting this mixer I made the same carrot cake but used my slicer/shredder and it took me a matter of minutes and it was completely painless. I'm telling you, this thing is Ah-mazing!

While we were still looking for mixers on craigslist I was beginning to wonder if I would really use a stand mixer THAT much... because they're not cheap and I didn't want to be wasting our money on something that sounds like a good idea. So I've been pleasantly surprised how often I really do find uses for it!

My Favorite Season

Hands down, my favorite season is Spring. I really really love it! Colorado is so dry and brown in the winter, that when Spring rolls around and everything starts turning green again, it just makes me feel happy.

Our house is surrounded by farms and it's so fun to see the farmers out getting their fields ready to plant. I think it would be really great to live on a farm one day... please note the "I think" part of that sentence. :)

Last year for my birthday my aunt gave me daffodils and so I planted them about a year ago and I've waited this entire time to see if the bulbs would actually produce flowers this Spring. I'm pleased to announce they sprouted a couple of weeks ago. They still don't have flowers on them and they're kind of little still, but I'm still hoping they will fully bloom!

Then last fall I bought a bag of Iris bulbs and planted them in our backyard. Since our backyard is pretty much a blank canvas I had a really hard time trying to decide where I was going to plant them. I picked a corner of the yard and just pushed a bunch of rocks to the side and dug a hole big enough to plant all 20 bulbs. I was really skeptical about these because the soil isn't very good and it just looks ghetto because it's not a pretty flowerbed. So now you can only imagine my excitement when I went to check a few weeks ago and I saw the first couple sprouts! I counted two days ago and 18 of the 20 bulbs have sprouted!!!!! I'm thrilled! My goal is at the end of Summer to removed the majority of the rocks from that back corner and rototill the soil so I can replant the bulbs and hopefully get my flowerbed looking pretty.

My next favorite thing about Spring is that it means it's almost time for me to plant the seeds in my vegetable garden!!!!!!! Last year I experimented with my Square Foot Garden and this year I have a better idea of what I want to plant and what we'll actually eat. I also want to expand my garden a little bit. Since all squash is SO easy to grow, but so big, I'd really like for the squash to have their own garden.

Here's an interesting fact you may not know. If you take a branch from a willow tree and plant it, that branch will grow into a tree. Thanks to our wonderful neighbors who have willow trees, we planted 4 trees last fall. (They actually just look like sticks in the ground, which is why we now only have 3 trees... little boys don't understand the difference between a stick in the ground and tree...) Willows are also very fast growing trees, so I'm hoping that before we move out of our house, they will actually look like real trees (not that we're planning on moving anytime soon).

I can't wait for all my flowers to start looking like flowers!!! I'll post a blog in the future when they bloom so hopefully there will be more color than the pictures posted above!

Family Activity

For some reason the other day I got to thinking about one of my favorite classes I took at CFNI, Godly Parenting, and an activity we did in that class.

Towards the end of the semester our class was divided up into groups of 5-7ish and we were called "a family".

We came into class one day with a very special activity planned to teach us what it means to serve our family.

Each "Family" had a table assigned to them that was filled with an entire breakfast meal and empty plates at each setting.

We took our seats and waited for the instructions.

We were to not serve ourselves AT ALL for the entire meal. But instead we were to serve our "family". You were not allowed to take anything off the table until it was offered to you. And you couldn't ask someone to serve you. (Example: If you wanted eggs you had to wait until someone specifically asked you, "Would you like some eggs?") Sure it doesn't sound that hard, but I dare you to try this with your family.. it's not as easy as it sounds.

The entire goal of this activity is to force you to become more aware of the needs of your family and not to be so focused on yourself and your needs.

Now as a mother I tend to do this quite a bit since my kids aren't to the age that they can actually serve themselves. However, there is a very important person I tend to overlook, my husband. I realized the other day while we were all eating, that I don't pay very close attention to his needs. I tend to have the mentality, "you're able to serve yourself, and I'm trying to get the kids' dinner ready, can't you get it yourself?".... not my best wifely feature.

While doing the dishes last night I was thinking in my head, "What is the underlying thing that makes marriages successful?" and I really believe the answer is: they serve each other. Pride will tell you that shouldn't have to serve, but pride isn't what will make a marriage last. I want to strive for humility and what greater way to do that than to become a servant?

During our premarital counseling with our pastor and his wife they told us about this "game" they have. They will try to out serve each other all day long. They will constantly be paying attention to each other's needs and find ways to meet those needs. They also have one of the most amazing relationships I've ever seen.

Another invaluable thing I learned from "Godly Parenting" is that on the day you entered into a covenant with your spouse (on your wedding day) you became a family. Regardless if you have 19 kids or 0 kids you are a family. It's important to remember that because when those children are all grown up and have left the nest, you still have that special person by your side that you must serve.

I would one day like for this "activity" to become a daily occurrence in my home. I want to raise children who want to serve and can see a person's need without that person having to mention it.

This was my "family" during our meal together.

My First Born

I was 21 when I gave birth to my first child. I was totally clueless and completely in love.

Now as we are preparing for the birth of our third baby I wonder how it will be different.

It's a well known fact that parents are always hardest on their first born. My dad says that you always push your first born the hardest and expect the most out of them. He also says that with the baby of the family you will put bricks on their head to keep them from growing up too fast. Although we only have our two children right now, I can already attest to this. We are constantly pushing Jayden and expecting the world of him. The problem with this system is that it never stops. Your first born is the child that taught you what it means to be a parent in the first place and you NEVER stop learning from them (not even when they're 60 years old!).

I wondered how being a big brother at 13 months would effect Jayden and how it would change his life. I worried that I wouldn't be able to share the same love with Gabriella that I felt for Jayden. It's so cliche but it's true. Now I wonder how both of my children will effected by the birth of their new sibling and how it will change their already established relationship.

Being that I'm a middle child and Jordan is the baby, we don't always see the mistakes we are making raising a first born. Will Jayden grow up to be a perfectionist? Will he be a strong leader? Will he have a dominate personality? Who knows!

I do think it's funny how much we can change in our ideas of what it looks like to be a parent. Both my children are so different and we have to parent them differently because of that. Jayden is much more strong willed than Gabri and when we discipline him it looks different than when we discipline miss sensitive. I also wonder if he is strong willed because he's a first born and if she's sensitive because she's a middle child, or if it's because he's a boy and she's a girl...

I hope that the older I get the more understanding and wisdom I will gain of being a mother.