It's that time again...

Time for a cleaning at the dentist. The kids feeling cool in their shades that the dentist provided.

Kids did great with their cleanings. 

Submerged in Apps

Wikipanion App

"Application software, also known as an application or an "app", is computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks. "

Okay now that I have an iPad I am just diving into the world of apps. I've used apps before on Stephen's Droid phone. Love how useful they are. On his phone I always use the Navigation, Facebook and JogTracker apps. So I've gotten suggestions from 2 iPad owner friends on their favorite apps. I'm telling you these task helpers are awesome!!! Right away of course I installed the apps for Facebook, Netflix, Pandora, Blogger, SiriusXM, and GMail. But I want to share my new found favorite apps...

Zite App

Zite is a free personalized magazine for your iPad that automatically learns what you like and gets smarter every time you use it. Zite delivers all the great news, articles, blogs, and videos you want – and helps you discover new stuff that you'll love. It's awesome, in a way it's like your own personalized newspaper/magazine. Separates the topics you like into sections...needless to say we have a Minnesota Vikings section that brings us all the news from all of the web into a newspaper/magazine article format. Love it!

Flipboard App

My friend Heather told me about this one. Flipboard creates a single place to enjoy, browse, comment on and share all the news, photos and updates that matter to you. So I can view all the newsfeed from my Facebook as well as all the new blog posts from my family and friends all in one neat space.

Pinterest and All Recipes Apps

These 2 sites are usually where I get my recipes from, so I love the apps available for them. So easy to find what I am looking for right away.

StationsOfTheCross and Rosary Miracle Prayer Apps

These are 2 apps I've just read about and plan on installing. They will be great task helpers for our family and to do with the kids.

The kids also have been having a ball playing games, drawing and making music on the iPad. 

I swear the entertainment, learning and usefulness of these apps on our iPad seem endless. Please comment and share your favorite App!

Joined the "i" club

Well I technically have been working on Apple computers back in college and also currently at work. We also own a used iPod (courtesy of Hertz lost and found). But this is our first Apple purchase. An early birthday and anniversary gift from the Mr. Posting this with the iPad using the Blogger app, let's see if it works!

First Soccer Practice

Tonight was James' first soccer practice! This is his first time playing. James loves to run. He also loves to kick a soccer ball. Now let's see how he does playing on a team. :)

Meeting Coach Matthew. His coach is a student at Texas State University. He's really nice and patient with the kids. James even said to me on one of his water breaks, 

"mama I like my coach."

James is playing on the San Marcos AYSO. The playing fields are about 10 minutes from our home at the 5 Mile Dam Park along the Blanco Vista river.

Coach Matthew played a few fun games with the kids like freeze tag...

...James loves playing tag and he's quick, but whoops he picked his ball up and ran. 

Still learning :)

The team has 4 and 5 year olds. And it's co-ed. They are called the Panthers.

Coach Matthew did some dribbling drills with the kids playing "Red Light, Green Light".

James' feeling after his first practice....he really likes it. :)

And this was the gorgeous sky when we were leaving practice at 6:30pm. The river is to the left behind the white fence. And those homes in the hills overlook the river.

Our little boy is growing up! We look forward to watching him play his first season of soccer.

Lent: Bargaining time with God?

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday and our Ohana went to Mass as you can see above. I just loved the homily Father Matthew gave, so I wanted to post and share about it.

Father Matthew talked about how he perceived Lent as a kid which is also how some misinformed Catholics and non-Catholics may perceive it. He said when he was younger he thought Lent was a time that called us to bargain with God, to do good self-righteous deeds to get on God's good list. He also thought that the more pain and suffering (for example like kneeling on rocks for hours) your acts brought the better. Then as he got older and studied the Scriptures he realized his view of Lent was completely wrong. First and most important, there is never enough good self-righteous deeds we could do to earn Salvation from God because we are sinners and we will all continue to sin. Amen Father Matthew. Only His perfect and holy Son could, and He died for our sins. By Grace Alone are we saved. So why the reason for Lent? Why the ashes? Why the fasting? Why do Catholic, Episcopal, Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Lutheran Christians observe Lent?

In Old Testament times people used ashes as a sign of repentance. They did this as an outward sign of their inward posture of repentance. Check out Daniel 9:3-6, for an example "So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes...". Ash Wednesday begins Lent, a time when we stop and assess how we’re doing in our walk with God. We should try to assess our walk daily throughout the year. Once Lent is over we strive to continue with our repentance. Lent helps us identify spiritual areas in which we can grow and sinful areas that we need to avoid. To repent, put simply, means to turn away from sin and turn toward God. We use ashes as an outward expression of our need to begin again.

Lent is not one of those things we have to do its something we want to do. Father Matthew said last night we should embrace our sufferings with enthusiasm as they bring us closer to God. It's like an athlete training for a goal, they may suffer through all their practicing but the results bring them to their goal. What I am giving up, or fasting from, are behaviors or attitudes that keep me from getting as close to God as He wants me to be. They're different for everyone and it's meant to be a time of renewal, and making new and better habits that won't just be for Lent but for throughout the whole year.

I want to share my post about my fasting during Lent last year...
"46 days if you count Sundays...


...which I did this Lent when I fasted from all beverages except for water. I thought I'd write a blog post of what I learned from this fast. "Fasting brings us to the realization that we depend on God to sustain us through all things, and that even when our own will fails, God's grace is sufficient in satisfying our hunger." I find much truth to this quote. It wasn't easy for me to only drink water, especially in the beginning of this fast. But when I thought I didn't have the will power, when my stomach turned from drinking water in the early mornings, I focused my attention on my dependence to God and fostering gratitude. I know that many people fast to "get something out of it" (like growing closer to God), but I learned that actually I should focus on what I need to respond to: awareness of sin, repentance, and bringing my body in line with what was happening spiritually. In responding, I did get something out of it. God is awesome.


"When I fast and I share in that fast with others for others, it is in that moment of giving up that I feel equal with all, especially the least among us." I could relate to this quote during my fast as well. I mean think about it - do you think the homeless and the poor are distracted in their thoughts of the planning and prepping of food? or the sensory pleasure of food? Instead of these distractions I bet more of their thoughts lead to praying and talking to God.


Jesus taught His disciples that prayer and fasting is powerful in casting out demons when He said, "This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting." Mark 9:29.


I'm glad I did this fast this Lent. I learned a lot, I prayed a lot and I listened a lot. And I recommend doing a physical fast to bring your body in line with what is happening spiritually."

Weekly Menu Kitchen Printable

I love being able to make these posts. Tell me, how many of you out there actually feel accomplished once you've made a recipe, craft or idea you pinned on Pinterest? :) Ha ha. Well this project came from compiling a couple ideas and printables I pinned on Pinterest in my "For The Home" pinboard. Now that Stephen is home in the evenings and we are finally having dinner on a regular basis as a family, I wanted to get more organized with my weekly menu and what's for dinner. Usually I would just wing it with the kids, and honestly some nights it would be cereal or breakfast items for dinner. But I'd like us to have more well balanced dinners and I think planning ahead helps. 

So I put my Graphic Design degree to good use and recreated my own weekly menu for my kitchen. I found the royalty free kitchen tool silhouettes on Getty Images. And I got my cute free fonts from Fonts For Peas. I loved the "Be Grateful" and "Just roll with it" quotes I saw on some other printables so I added those to my menu design.

Another tip I got from an idea I pinned was to print the menu out and then frame it behind glass. Then you could write on the glass with a dry erase or wet erase marker. So clever! Wipe away each week to start new! And it helps that I work for a company where I could print my menu and have it framed. I love how it turned out!

So if you would like to use my printable I've loaded the high res jpeg onto my Photobucket album "Free Weekly Menu Printable". Feel free to grab and save it, resize it and print it. I made mine approx 7"x20" to fit my long skinny wall next to my pantry door.

Best Friend Visit

My best friend, Robyn, is here visiting! Despite the rainy weather we've had the past 2 days, it hasn't stopped us to go out and have fun. We took her to some favorite spots as well as some new ones. We've gone twice already to the Natural Bridge Caverns in New Braunfels. This time we decided to check out the Wonder World Caverns in San Marcos closer by. These caverns did not have the rock formations from dripping water like the other ones, these were caused by an earthquake and are right under a fault line that we were able to see in the ceiling of the caverns. You were also allowed to touch any of the rocks.

Of course the kids enjoyed this outing. And we had a pretty funny tour guide.

We hiked down the caverns about 100 feet below the ground. And were down there for about 45 minutes.

There was a "dark room" in the cavern where the tour guide turned off all the lights. This pic was taken before the lights went out. :)

After the cavern we were taken to this pretty cool anti-gravity house. You literally were leaning while walking through it without falling over.

After the cavern and anti-gravity house there was a train ride into the Mystery Mountain & Wildlife Park. You could feed the deer and goats from the train. Aunty Robyn and I were getting the deer food ready for the kids.

James got nipped a few times by these deer because he forgot to open his hand flat while feeding them. But he loved it!

Watch out Aunty Robyn these deer were quick to try to eat the whole bag out of her hand!

We take a lot of guests that come to visit to one of our favorite restaurants on Lake Austin, the Hula Hut. Super yummy Mexican Hawaiian food. Here are Madeline and Robyn sitting at our table on the enclosed pier. We ate delicious Hawaiian fajitas and chicken flautas until we were stuffed! So we had to go walk it off at the capitol.

Madeline took this picture of us in front of the state capitol. She did pretty good. We showed Rob around inside, went up to the 4th floor of the dome and saw the Senate Room.

On one of the other days we drove Rob down to see the Riverwalk in San Antonio. I wanted to take her on the boat ride through the canal but it was raining on and off. 

So instead we just walked part of the Riverwalk. And had lunch at the always good Salt Grass Steakhouse where we had excellent service.

I remembered to bring some bread so the kids could feed the ducks and birds.

We also took her by the Alamo and walked around the inside and surrounding gardens.

Aunty Robyn was here just in time to see Madeline's 2nd grade school performance, it was a folk square dance. She did great! I will have to upload the dance video soon. Here they are after the program.

Here is Madeline with one of her best friends, Ashleigh. I believe her 2nd grade class (there are 4 of them) did an Irish folk dance.

While Rob was here we also had an adult evening out and Stephen and I took her to the Alamo Drafthouse to see a movie and get the whole experience those special movie theaters provide. We also checked out our new frozen yogurt shop in town, it was pretty yummy! And on her last morning here, we went downtown for breakfast and ate at Le Café Crêpe (pictured above). Love this place. We had the best breakfast!

Stephen got a ham, egg and swiss cheese croissant, the kids split a chocolate croissant and a Crêpe au Chocolat nutella filled, Rob had there Morning Crêpe with Eggs, spinach, mushrooms, onion, Swiss cheese and I had the Chloe's Crêpe with Nutella and bananas. A great way to end our wonderful visit with our wonderful best friend and Aunty!

Pretzel Kisses

Aren't these so cute!?

My work is having a Valentines Sweets Potluck tomorrow morning. I was trying to think of something yummy to bring. Awhile back I made these Pretzel Kisses for a baby shower I threw for our neighbor. I made them with the regular milk chocolate kisses. Well I saw these recently on Pinterest using the stripped white chocolate kisses and red and pink M&M's for Valentines. They are super easy to make, the hardest part is unwrapping all the kisses! Place them on pretzels on a cookie sheet with wax paper. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees and stick them in for approx. 3 minutes. You don't want them to melt completely, take them out before the kisses start loosing their shape.

Then press on some M&M's (I couldn't find pink ones, so the red and orange ones from the original mix had to do) and stick them in the refrig to cool and harden. And that's it!

I hope my coworkers like this salty sweet snack!

The past 2 days I've been helping the kids make lots of Valentines with Madeline's scratch'n'sniff cards, and James' 3D sports cards for classmates and neighbors. They passed some out early this evening at church. Tomorrow Madeline's class is having a Valentines party. And Mrs. Kate is taking James and her boys to meet with her mom's group for a Valentines gathering at a local Senior Home. The kids should have a fun Valentines Day. I just picked up some Dollar Tree toys and things for the kids Valentines gifts. And Stephen and I are going simple (or so we agreed) with a card and chocolate so we can spend our money to go out this weekend when my best friend is in town.

I look forward to spending my Valentines at home tomorrow evening with my Ohana. I love my husband. And I love my kids. Nothing could be better than spending time with My Valentines.