Christmas, sunshine & palm trees...oh my.

We piled up the kids, the presents (Christmas for 5 kids and Birthday for 2 kids), and headed for sunny South Florida to spend the holidays with our family and friends. It's going to be a very Merry Christmas. Not to rub it in and I looked at the weather channel and it is going to be sunny and in the high 70's for the remainder of our stay... Marc and I plan to escape and hit the beach during nap time! When I grow up I want to be a "snow-bird".

The ornaments were waiting for the kids and Aunt Jenny made sure they were not all put on the same branch :)

The kids waited for Abue (Abeulita is Spanish for Grandma)

The girls were excited to see her car.

But no one was more excited to see her than Kobi.
If I didn't know better I would question if I had any genetic responsibility for this girl.

She is wonderful, giving, compassionate, kind and gentle. Just like her Abue (grandma).

Not to mention the fact that they are physical clones of each other.

They have something special these two, and I just love it.

Happy Birthday Baby!

Mina had her 3rd birthday yesterday, but if you ask her she is now 6 years old. I tried to convince her she was only 3 but she is sticking to 6. Now I think it is adorable and we are just going with it. She wanted to make her own birthday cake so of course I obliged. She picked out a bunny shaped pan, and loaded that bunny up with chocolate frosting and tons of sprinkles. It sure wasn't much to look at, but the kids LOVED it.

The process is half the fun

She also wanted dumplings for her birthday dinner, no shock it is her very favorite food. This little peanut can eat her weight in dumplings.

See my ugly, I mean yummy cake! I think we as parents sometimes try way too hard to make our kids have the picture perfect day. I'm really trying to remind myself of this as the holidays are fast approaching. Yesterday was soo low key, It was great to see Mina so happy over the simple things and not having a stressed out Mommy trying to create perfection. Doesn't she look just a little happy. And this was her favorite gift, a baby panda bear that moves and cries. She has not let it out of her little clutches.

I love this photo, not just because I love the subjects of the photo, but because of the expression on Mina's face.

One of the things about raising kids day in day out, is that you don't notice the changes in them. You don't SEE them growing up. It breaks my heart that I missed out on Mina's first year and a half. I only have one photo that captures that time, so it is engrained in my memory in an intense way. While we waited for her, I spent countless hours staring at her little face in this one photo, so sometimes when she has her hair all pulled back and she raises her little eyebrows,,, I only see this baby in a yellow jumper, and my heart melts and breaks simultaneously.

I can't say for certain, but I am thoroughly convinced that every morning before they wake me up, Mina and Finn have a meeting and decide which one is going to be the trouble-maker for the day. They are NEVER on the same page. If one is happy the other is sad, if one is following rules the other is testing the limits. They like to keep me and pops on our toes.

Mina had her ballet recital yesterday and it was a hoot! I love how even though their ballet teacher is standing on the corner of the stage "doing the dance" none of the girls are doing the same thing at any point.

After the dance her teacher gave her a tootsie pop and we brought her some flowers, apparently the tootsie pop was the highlight of the event because we have talked about it at length today.

And the fact that she got to order a soda at lunch afterwards, this is big time. We were so proud that she actually went on stage and did her little dance... I was shocked. You know they do this just for the mommies. So stinkin' cute.

What's for dinner?

We call this Medi-pasta, aka Mediterranean pasta, it's Collin's favorite. If you cheat like I did and have your chicken already cooked this will take about 15 minutes...If not just cook up a few chicken breast, before you start your pasta.
Ingredients: Chicken ( I used a rotisserie chicken and just took all the meat off, my favorite trick for quick weeknight cooking)

Farfalle (bow-tie pasta), Olive Oil, Mushrooms,Onion, chopped garlic, olives (black and green at our house), sun-dried tomatoes(in olive oil), artichoke hearts, white wine, Italian dressings, feta cheese (not pictured)

First go ahead and make the bow-tie pasta as usual... put the water on to boil and then start the rest.
Put a few tablespoons of olive oil in the bottom of a hot pan and cook up the mushrooms for a few minutes then and the garlic & onions ( I had green onions which work fine, but would normally use a red or white onion,,don't stress it)
Go ahead in dump in half a jar of sun dried tomatoes, mine where already chopped, bonus.
Now don't get excited this is for the pasta. The pan is really hot so go ahead and pour in a nice big glass of white wine. Also add a few tablespoons of Italian dressing. Let it cook for a few minutes.
Add in your shredded cooked chicken, artichoke hearts and olives.

Once it is all heated up turn it down to a medium simmer until the pasta is ready. About 5 more minutes.

Drain your pasta, pour chicken mixture over the top and cover with feta (Parmesan and/or mozzarella works too, you can't go wrong with cheese). When you are making something like this- make it to your taste, exact amounts don't matter. If you add a little more, a little less, or completely forget one of the ingredients, it will still be yummy. Perfection only matters when you are baking, I don't like baking... I'm not good at following directions :) Next week I will do a 4 ingredient family favorite.

Do as I say not as I do..

I was looking at my photos from the past few weeks this morning, and I came across this one.

My husband is an amazing father, and when we were begging for a bon-fire the other night he delivered, even though he only had a few wet logs and a bundle of newspaper. This looks just a little bit scary, doesn't it? Mina honey, do as I say not as I do :)

December Babies

Will all the Mama's of late December babies please sympathize with me for a second.... My youngest 3 kiddos have Birthdays in the same week, the week before Christmas no less. It is really hard to make their birthdays extra special 2 days before Christmas. Jack & Kobi's school has a big rock out front. They let parents sign up to paint the rock on special days. So even though Jack's b-day isn't for 2 weeks we decided to make today his school birthday. Last night Mina had a fever so, Jack, Kobi, and I snuck out alone and painted the rock for his upcoming birthday.

He's got a "thing" for monster trucks, please don't tell him his Mama's artistic ability is ridiculously lacking, he saw the pathetic truck I painted and said,"Mom, that is awesome". Good 'nuff for me!

And today we went to his class and brought obnoxiously blue frosted cupcakes and made a huge mess for his sweet teacher.

There is something special about those December babies....I'm sure of it!

follow along.

www.fromfivetosix.blogspot.com

My great friends met their precious daughter a few hours ago, and the first photos took my breath away. We have talked for hours about the possibilities of this moment. But seeing a peaceful happy gotcha day made my heart leap this morning. I am so excited for this beautiful wonderful family. They are fantastic parents of the coolest, sweetest kids. I can't wait to hold beautiful Jemma. Mina has been talking about her and praying for her, of course she thinks Ms. Jaclyn went all the way to China just to get her a friend.

Their blog is www.fromfivetosix.blogspot.com

As promised... Paella (the cheater version)

You can find my favorite recipe for Paella here I usually add shrimp and clams when I make it. It is fantastic and worth the effort when you have a crowd or for special occasions but it is not for weeknight cooking, not in my house anyway. Here is the cheater version I came up with that is super yummy and takes a fraction of the time.

Prepackaged yellow rice mix

Olive oil

Onion (chopped)

Garlic (3-4 cloves chopped)

Chorizo (3-4 links)

Large can diced tomatoes

Parsley

Frozen peas (about 1 cup)

2 pounds Raw shrimp (peeled and deveined)

cilantro (for garnish)

lemon wedges (for garnish)

The Chorizo is what makes it...you can play around with every other ingredient, but leave this one alone. It will give it all the flavor. You can find it anywhere, you probably just never looked. First step, make a batch of this yellow rice, just like the instructions say...While it is cooking we will make the rest of the dish... by the time the rice is done it will all come together.
Put some olive oil in the bottom of your pan/skillet what have you, throw in your chopped onion and garlic. Cook it for a minute or two add in the chorizo and break it up real good.

In about 5 minutes it will look like this.

add in the can of dices tomatoes about a tablespoon of parsley and the cup of frozen peas. Then let it simmer until the rice has 5 minutes left to cook.

Add the raw shrimp and then COVER (it will cook the shrimp) It will take about 5 minutes to get all nice and pink. You can stir it once or twice while it cooks. When it looks like this it's done. Hopefully at the same time as the rice. Dump the cooked yellow rice in a dish. Now pour the shrimp mixture over the top. Garnish with the cilantro and lemon wedges. 25 minutes...as my 5 year old would say...easy peasy lemon squeezy.

p.s. I knew I hated taking photos of food, especially because I cook in the evening so I have to use the flash. I may need to figure something out if I am going to keep posting food photos, it sure looks better in real life than in these photos, once again I have pw envy...

Our favorite family Christmas tradition...

We usually go to the mountains to cut down our Christmas tree. We grew up in South Florida so cutting down your own Christmas tree is big stuff for Marc and I. We usually make a weekend out of it and drive a few hours to a great little farm in the mountains. Since we will be going away for Christmas, this year we stayed a little closer to home. It was still a great little place and a fun afternoon.

Thank God for "Mama#2", Finn absolutely adores her...the feeling is mutual.

Thank God for Collin who plays along with his dorky mama saying,

"everyone point to OUR tree"

Kobi got the first "hack" at the tree.

Now Jack's turn...

A good day :)

We had our family photos taken last weekend...The awesome woman who took the photos just posted them to her blog, she is one of my very favorite people. http://www.audrabenderphotography.com/ I love that she takes all the photos and then just gives you the disc so you can print them as many times as you want. LOVE that! One of them will be our Christmas card, not sure which one...whatcha think?

My Black Friday score...or maybe not?

I've been wanting to get photoshop for awhile. I am always a few years behind, technologically speaking. I found it on sale for a price I couldn't refuse and then spent every possible moment this past weekend staring at my computer screen. I am not one for instruction manuals so I had quite a time figuring it out... the little I did actually figure out. Just what I need, something to pass all my free time that will frustrate me beyond words. I may just throw it out the window. So this was my first and only try. It only took me a few hours to achieve this...hopefully I am over the learning curve.

This is the before photo. Now if someone could explain how to "photoshop" that orange cord out of the background of this photos (in under 50 words, I get confused easily) I would be really appreciative.