Happy Birthday Aleshanee

On Thursday, July 12th Aleshanee turned 7.  Here she shows off her silly crazy side which she does often for pictures.

Here I was trying to get the girls to take a nice picture together but they did funny faces instead.

I can't believe how fast she is growing and what a big girl she is.  

A Little Piece of Me

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Photo Shoot Featuring My Three Oldest Daughters

You guys are going to LOVE this!  

Some very lovely things that I have won being modeled by my daughters.  They loved it so much that they begged and pleaded to take these lovelies home with them.  =)

My 3 oldest girls.  Saphire (22), Ashley (26), and Aleshanee (6)
Headbands: Enticing Treats

Ashley
Necklace: Rellas Bellas

Aleshanee
Headband: Magpies and Fireflies

Saphire
Headband: Enticing Treats
Necklace: Miss Mommy

Ashley
Headband: Magpies and Fireflies
Saphire
Headband: Enticing Treats
Necklace: Miss Mommy

Saphire

Headband: Enticing Treats

Necklace: Miss Mommy

Saphire

Headband: Enticing Treats

Necklace: Miss Mommy

Behind the Scenes Blooper Shots
(they wanted these included)

You all should have been here, yes, it was as fun and hilarious as it looks.

Necklace: A Little Piece of Me
The first fabric flower necklace I ever made last year for my niece.  She wore it to a party on Sunday.

I hope you enjoyed this as much as we did making this for you all to see!!!

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Treasured Time

 

I got to see my granddaughter Aaliyah twice this week.  I don't get to see her often so it was fun to have her over two days in a row.  She had fun playing with Dakota and Hayden while Aleshanee was at school

Dakota and I had one on one time and had fun together building a house for her little toys and then a witch house.  Not sure how she came up with that one but it was so much fun.

When Hayden woke up from her nap she put on her (well, mine but they took them from me and they think it's theirs) high shoes (that's what Aleshanee calls my heels), grabbed one of her many bags and was having fun walking around the house by herself.

Later, Aleshanee came home from school and while Dakota was napping... made this box car for Hayden and pulled her around the house for  a little while.  It's so nice seeing them play nicely together.

Daddy surprised us with a night out.  Money is really tight right now so these times have been scarce lately.  We got to go to Aleshanee's (well, my favorite now too) favorite place, Menchie's for yummy yogurt.  I could eat there everyday, I want some now.  :)

We strolled through our neighborhood mall for the evening.  The girls stopped to watch the fishes.  It was so cute because that's the first time the three of them sat together like this to watch, so quietly.  It was so cute to see Hayden pointing and trying to tell us something about the fish.

The girls stopped for a hula hoop session.  Aleshanee is a pro, and I don't mean that lightly.  She is a super pro.  Dakota, not so much.  She hasn't learned how to do it at all yet but she has fun trying.

Towards the end of our night, the girls spotted these green chairs.  They loved it so much they had to ask Daddy if they could get it.  I had told them no but they had to ask Daddy just to be sure.  I thought they were $18 each, crazy!  So we told them that if it was a few dollars (which we both knew it wasn't) that they could get it.  Took it to the price scanner, they were all excited with their hopes really high..... scanned.......... $23 each!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  What?????!!!! The girls were disappointed to say the least.  There were tears involved.  =(....  Daddy settled on a couple of stickers then they were happy.  By the way, those chairs were salon chairs for dolls.  What will they come up with next?

We all had fun.  It was nice to get out of the house for a change.  Having a tight budget, sky high gas prices, husband's work hours and overtime slowing down... these times are treasured.  Just being together, experiencing life, and being able to witness the girl’s reactions to things around them is just so precious.

All my heart…

Salena

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Two little helpers

having fun trying on Sponge Bob hats while out and about
these two are hilariously silly but hardly witnessed by others

As I was making dinner tonight, Aleshanee came into the kitchen and asked me if she could open the canned goods that I was going to add into the pan.  She loves to help me and although we have the worse can opener and have replaced that thing so many times, it doesn't stop her from struggling with that thing in order to get the job done.  She worked on opening 3 cans and it took her a while to do it.  I hadn't noticed until she told me, that she had drained the liquid out of the 2 cans of stewed tomatoes.  Ugghh, that's what gives the sauce it's liquid!  Well, nothing I could do at this point.


I was making spaghetti for dinner.  By now, Dakota had wandered into the kitchen to see what we were doing.  I started on chopping the onion and the garlic.  The girls both wanted to help with peeling the garlic so they did.  They watched as I chopped it up and put it into the sauce along with the stewed tomatoes and the can of spaghetti sauce.


While this was going on, Aleshanee somehow noticed there was laundry in the dryer and asked to take it out. She thought at first that the washer and dryer needed to be switched out.  I explained to her that the dryer needed to be emptied out into the basket.  The washer door was opened and there were a few really dirty rags in there.  I asked her to pick up the baby's dirty clothes which was outside the washer on the floor and put it into the washer and close the door so none of the clean clothes would fall inside and get dirty.


I was so proud of her for not only opening the cans for me and helping to peel the garlic but that she initiated the laundry and was working so hard to empty the dryer which is stacked above the washer.  After she was done, I noticed her climbing up to the dryer and turned it on.  I told her we do not play with the dryer or washer and she is to never turn it on.


Then I noticed, she had taken the dirty baby clothes and put it into the basket with the clean clothes and put the dirty rags from the washer into the dryer and turned on the dryer.  Oh NO!!!!!  Gross!!!!


I quickly tried to fix the mix-up but realized that I would need to wash the clothes all over again because I know at least baby's dirty clothes was in there and who knows if there was a wet dirty rag in there too.  So I re-washed the laundry and wiped down, cleaned and sanitized the dryer.

my two sillies at the Ice Age Dinosaur Exhibit at the mall

These types of situations causes me as a mom to do everything myself so these mix-ups don't happen.  It is a waste of resources and a waste of time.  But it was so nice to work together and to teach them why I do what I do.  My daughter, Aleshanee has always been interested in helping around the house and initiates all the time.  I need to include them and let them help me more. 

In our house, we love spaghetti.  I thought I'd share the recipe, well there really is no recipe but here you go.  =)


Salena's Spaghetti Sauce


Ingredients:
2 pounds ground beef
1 large onion (chopped)
4 cloves garlic (minced)
garlic salt (to taste)
pepper (to taste)
layer top with dried Basil
layer top with dried Oregano
2 cans stewed tomatoes with liquid
1 can spaghetti sauce (any store bought sauce)
Olive oil (I don't measure, I just add some in)
2 Tbs Butter
1/4 cup Sugar (to taste)


Directions:
1. brown beef
2. add onion, garlic, garlic salt, pepper, basil, and oregano
STIR
3. add stewed tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, olive oil, butter, and sugar
STIR
4. lower heat, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes


Add to your favorite pasta and serve.  Enjoy!  =)

All my heart,

Salena

Homework Nightmare

My First Grader

When the school bus pulls up in front of our house, I am so excited to see my daughter.  I ask her about her day, give her big hugs and walk arm in arm into the house as she passes me her backpack.  

I have this obsession, no one really knows about it and those who do think I'm weird, sick in the head and just plain crazy.  My obsession is FORMS.  I love forms, announcements, notes, letters, mail, calendars, you see where I'm going with this.  Before we even get into the house I'm trying to open her backpack to see what she has for me.  But maybe I'll elaborate on this subject another time.

When I take out her homework folder and planner, I literally feel overwhelmed.  I mean, as a mom of three little ones it's the norm around here daily.  I dread the homework.  Husband is at work, the two little ones have needs, whining and screaming in the background like the world is going to end.  How is anyone supposed to focus and concentrate in this chaos?!  My daughter has special needs so homework time for a simple worksheet and reading usually takes hours to complete.  The whining and screaming continue as does the tugging, climbing, and non stop questions from the other two.

Is this supposed to be so hard?!

Then there is the homework problems that appear to be so easy but then I sit and ponder, is this what they mean?  I look at my daughter and I'm like "I have no idea what this is".  Yes, I know, way to be confident and able to help my child right?  I'd just hate to see her to go school the following day and the teacher mark her paper wrong.  How heartbreaking.

Schools should seriously have classes for parents to teach us how to help our children with the homework being assigned.  Even simple things could be misunderstood and therefore my child will get it marked wrong if I think it's right and teach it to her that way.  This is only first grade and my younger two are not even in school yet.  I can see this getting worse as the grades progress.  Lord, help me.

Salena