Ten Years

Ok, just love that my 100th post is about celebrating ten years of marriage to my best friend, Rabu Leyva. Ten years ago today we said, "I do." Today, i say it all over again. Rabu Leyva, I DO! I love you, I love our life, I love being your friend and your wife. (seriously did not mean to be a poet today).

Here are a few pictures from our wedding day July 21,2001.

Sadie ~ 8 Months

Sadie is 8 months!! Our little smooga-booga is getting so big. Today she crawled!!I am still kinda in shock at how quickly this is going. I mean really you would think by the third one I would get used to how quickly they grow and change...but nope! NOT USED TO IT!!!

Sadie is exploring her world and is fully mobile. It may take her a little while to wiggle her way to what she has her eye on, but she is determined to get there. She has just today started to crawl forward just a bit. All month she was going in reverse. Watch out it is about to get interesting around here.

So much action and adventure with our three little girls. What JOY!! Sadie you are using your words like momma and dada to make us smile. You are amazing and we are so glad God sent you to our not so little anymore family.

Here are a few of her 8 month pics that we took in the blazing heat! (don't ya just love summers in Oklahoma?)

Sadie is like...um...this is my photo op!

blessed....so so blessed

Happy Father's Day Rabu Leyva!

Rabu you are the BEST daddy to these girls. They love you so much! You are exactly what we need for our family! You make us laugh, you make our family fun, and you cover us as a father should. Thank you for being an amazing man, a wonderful example to your daughters and the best daddy I could ever wish for to our children. We love you, happy father's day!

Paisley, Paisley Bo Baisley

Just a few pics of Paisley Poo while we were grillin' dinner...she was lookin' so stinkin' cute I had to capture a few shots...enjoy!

Sadie 7 Months

At seven months Sadie is a professional sitter and making good progress at rolling around to change her surroundings. She is curious about everything. If something is in reach her hands are on it! She is such a happy kid, content to watch and laugh at her family. She has now mastered the art of saying "da da" and "ma ma". Unfortunately, as with the other girls, "da da" came first. "Ma ma" was not too far behind though. She gives pretty good snuggles. My favorite time with her is the couple minutes that I get to cuddle with her before she goes to sleep at night. She is just full enough from her last bottle and sleepy enough that she will lay her little head down and cuddle with mommy as I pray over her. Love those sweet moments. We love you Sadie dear.

conversations with Lexi about secrets and rainbows

Secrets

Lexi was wanting to keep something a secret from daddy, so daddy tells her, "baby, we don't have secrets with family." Later that day Rabu was leaving to go somewhere and he says to Lexi, I will bring you back a surprise. Lexi asked what the surprise was and he said, "I can't tell you." She sweetly responds, "no secrets daddy." You never really know what is going to stick, this apparently did.

RAINBOWS

Tonight Lexi was coloring and she says, "Mommy I am going to color a rainbow." To which I said, "that sounds great baby it will be so pretty." After a pause she says, "I am going to go over the rainbow, mommy can you take me over the rainbow?" While I was trying to figure out my response to such a wonderful request she says,"I want to slide down the rainbow."

That sounds wonderful baby, I sure wish I could take you over the rainbow and slide down with you.

Childhood is so magical and simple, why does life get so complicated?

Proud of my Little Dancer

Today was Lexi's first dance recital. She has been taking dance with Tippi Toes since last August. She has really enjoyed her dance class and loves doing the dances for us. So we bought the costume and dance shoes for her recital.

Today we were getting dressed for the recital and BOOM...total. melt. down. "Mommy, I don't want to go to my 'cital. I don't want to dance. I don't want to be cute." Oh ok... breathe Kyna, what do we do...

option one...go all "toddlers in tiaras" on her and make her do it tears and all....
option two...calm her down and with my best negotiating skills talk her into performing...
option three...let daddy handle it.

Option one...Um No, not my style.
Option two...this did not work...I needed a professional negotiator to get her to budge
Option three... ah yes...daddy to the rescue.

He took Lexi over to her staging area with all the other girls from her dance class. Tried his best to get her to dance. The recital started and I did not see them. I did not know if she was going to dance or not. Then her group came out. No Lexi...sigh...oh well.

Later Lexi and Daddy came bopping out from behind stage and Lexi looked so happy. Come to find out she and Daddy had been handing candy out to the dancers as they came off stage and telling them good job. She was happy as a clam just celebrating those who danced, she had no need to dance herself. Rabu said it was such a joy to watch her celebrating her friends. Better than watching her do any dance. I could not be more proud!

Love you Lexi our little dancer-encourager :)


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Sadie G ~ 6 months

Our sweet Sadie Giovanna is 6 months old today! A whole half year old! It seriously is going by SUPER fast! The sweet girl is now sitting on her own for short periods of time. She laughs hysterically at her sisters. She is completely enjoying the wonderful world of solid foods. She has had the joy of having avocado, banana, and sweet potato along with the regular rice cereal. The girl can eat! She has kept her calm chill-axin demeanor. She is just glad to be along for the ride.

Happy Half Birthday Sweet Girl!

Survival and Meals

We did it!! We survived basketball season and tax season!!! Can I hear an amen! We could not have made it through without the support of many dear to our family. To all of you, thank you for your help and sacrifice. It has been a crazy couple of months, but we are slowly emerging from the craziness to find our normal life again.

Part of finding our normal life again is meal planning. I did pretty good sticking to a meal plan through busy season until the last couple of weeks. Survival...that was the goal! I am heading to the grocery stores in the morning and here is what is on the menu for the Leyvas this week.

Saturday: Chicken Ropa Vieja with fiesta rice (skinnytaste.com)

Sunday: Golden Chicken and Potatoes (myrecipes.com)

Monday: Chicken Enchiladas (skinnytaste.com)

Tuesday: FFYS (fend for yourself, in my case fend for yourself and three little ones too!)

Wednesday: Spicy Shrimp Fried Rice (skinnytaste.com)

Thursday: Beef and snow peas (the pioneerwoman.com)

Friday: Pork Carnitas with avocado, rice and black beans (skinnytaste.com)

I will be saving part of the Chicken Ropa Vieja to fill the chicken enchiladas for Monday. I will prep the enchiladas on Sunday and refrigerate so that all I have to do on Monday is put them in the oven to heat up.

Another thing that is great about all these meals are that they are "lower point" meals. With busy season over, I no longer have an excuse to not lose this baby weight. Hello waggon, nice to see you again, may I jump aboard! I am doing weight watchers and a weight loss challenge at work. I am trying to make sure we are making lifestyle changes, and not do a diet.


So here's to God helping us through the busiest season of our year!


I have yet to reclaim my home completely, but like I said we are emerging SLOWLY! :)

Brainwashing?

Brainwashing? No.... it is what the pros call "product placement" ;o)

HOOK 'EM HORNS

Sadie 5 Months

Sweet Sadie G - she is now 5 months and too much fun. She smiles all the time except when I am trying to take her picture...ugh. But here are a few pictures of her sweet face. Happy 5 months sweet girl.

Proof the girl will smile! This was her first bath with big sisters. As you can see she loved being in the bathtub with the big girls and the big girls were a "huge help" ;o)

Paisley turns Two!

We had a wonderful, quaint party for our special girl today. The original plan was to have the party at the park since our home was not really guest ready. (I have been a little busy with some tax returns.) Oklahoma weather did not cooperate. It was 40 degrees today so we moved to plan B. Thanks to Grandma and Pa Pa, we got the house straightened up enough to have the party at our home. It was wonderful just the same! The Tahlequah girl cousins came to celebrate as well as our sweet friend Laney. The girls had a fun time playing and eating cake!

THE BIRTHDAY GIRL

LEXI MADE SURE EVERYONE HAD PARTY HATS

COUSINS (Paisley, Lexi, Adalynn, and Annalee)

NOT SURE ABOUT THE CANDLE - JUST WANTS TO EAT THE CAKE

PAISLEY, LEXI, LANEY, AND ADALYNN

being oh so patient and waiting for Elmo cup cakes

PAISLEY HAD PLENTY OF HELP OPENING HER PRESENTS

MY BEAUTIFUL BABY GIRL IS TWO!

BIG SISTER "READING" PAISLEY HER NEW BOOK

Yes, Lexi is wearing pjs. She is a jammies girl. The moment we get home she wants to put her jammies on. So she said, "well Mommy since we are not going to the park then I can wear my jammies to the party." We chose our battles today...this was not one of them. Sure hunny wear your jammies...I wish I had mine on too!

Sadie starts Solid food!

Well if you consider rice cereal solid food...

Now that Sadie is 4 months old she gets to eat rice cereal. She was so ready for it. Here are a few pictures of her first cereal meal. Pictures taken by the wonderful photographer, big sister Lexi Leyva.

~The first bites...she caught on quick. Yummm~

~MOM... stop taking pictures and feed me~

~Lexi wanted to make sure and capture our home during busy season... socks, shoes, blocks, blankies and oh yes...Dave Ramsey ~

~That was yummy but still hungry momma!~

Sadie 3 & 4 months

Sadie is the most perfect addition to our family!! She is such a wonderful baby. She smiles and uses her voice all the time. She adores her sisters and loves watching them play. Sadie we could not imagine our lives with out you. We love you! Happy 3 & 4 month birthdays! :)

What's for Dinner

OK, folks its the two months of the year where I just may fall off the map. We will see. Rabu has basketball season wrapping up with playoffs and I am in the middle of tax season. Not to mention we have three beautiful girls that we are trying to be good parents to. So if I don't return a text or a phone call or email, please do not take it personally, you probably just got trumped by making dinner for my family, doing a tax return, or cheering on my favorite coach.

I wanted to share the meal plan for the week. I have linked to Gina's site before but thanks to her I now have a weeks worth of meals that I am excited to make.

Here we go:

Sunday : Slow Cooked Sweet Barbacoa Pork
Monday: Turkey Chili Taco Soup
Tuesday: Chicken Pot Pie Soup
Wednesday: Pork Chops w/ Mushrooms
Thursday: Santa Fe Chicken
Friday: Leftovers
Saturday: Frozen Pizza or something like that

Lets see how this goes...

Its only two months...we can do this!

Snow Day

Today was a snow day. Rabu got to stay home from school and his basketball game was cancelled so it was family time all day long!! Lexi has been talking about building a snowman since it snowed last time so she could not wait to get out there and build one. We bundled up and went out to do just that. Here are some of the pics from our day.

They made a really big snow ball

Then Lexi threw it at Daddy!

Then to build the snowman.

I could not get a picture of the finished product because as soon as we were done she kicked it over and starting stomping on it in absolute delight!

Poor Snowman

and she kept stomping and stomping!