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