She's baaacck!!!

Oh how we've missed our sweet lil' Carli! With her being sick a couple of weeks ago, and then this past week, and an on going cold-ish type thing that it seems like has gone on forever and that every child has had, she's just not been herself! Well, she's now on the mend! Here are some pictures of her playing outside! She's actually playing-not fussing, whining, wanting me to hold her...just playing and chattering! Yes, chattering! I have proof that she really does talk! For those of you who have been around Carli, you know that when she is in public, she is very very shy (not sure why?) and hardly talks and when she does talk, it's quietly. So, scroll down to the bottom and pause my music, come back up here to the video and play it. The video is long-5 minutes to be exact. I could'nt cut any of it out, she was just too cute!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

A survey about your first born

Again, another survey has been flying around all over Facebook and in my email inbox. So, I'm posting mine here:
For all you mommas out there-here's a survey all about your FIRST BORN! Let's see how much you remember!
1. WAS YOUR FIRST PREGNANCY PLANNED? No
2. WERE YOU MARRIED AT THE TIME? No
3. WHAT WERE YOUR REACTIONS? Suprised
4. HOW OLD WERE YOU? 19, 20, once I had him
5. HOW DID YOU FIND OUT YOU WERE PREGNANT? Home test
6. WHO DID YOU TELL FIRST? Aside from Anthony, Molly Lewis
7. DID YOU WANT TO FIND OUT THE SEX? No
8. DUE DATE? June 6, 1994 –it was later changed.I wasn’t as far along as we thought.
9. DID YOU HAVE MORNING SICKNESS? Oh yes
10. CRAVINGS? Rice Krispy Cereal, icecream
11. WHO/WHAT IRRITATED YOU THE MOST? Little boys
12. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CHILD'S SEX? Boy
13. DID YOU WISH YOU HAD THE OPPOSITE SEX OF WHAT YOU WERE GETTING? No, I could never picture myself with a girl. Even both sides of our family had mostly boys
14. HOW MANY POUNDS DID YOU GAIN THROUGHOUT THE PREGNANCY? 20
15. DID YOU HAVE A BABY SHOWER? Yes, two
16. WAS IT A SURPRISE OR DID YOU KNOW? We knew
17. DID YOU HAVE ANY COMPLICATIONS DURING YOUR PREGNANCY? No
18. WHERE DID YOU GIVE BIRTH? St. Joseph Hospital, Bryan, TX
19. HOW MANY HOURS WERE YOU IN LABOR? 14 hours. I had to be induced
20. WHO WATCHED YOU GIVE BIRTH? Anthony
21. WAS IT NATURAL OR C-SECTION? natural
22. DID YOU TAKE MEDICINE TO EASE THE PAIN? No Epideral- sounds strange, but I was terrified of needles!? And no for pain medicine. I wised up when it was time for my third child
23. HOW MUCH DID YOUR CHILD WEIGH? 7 lbs. 3 oz.
24. WHEN WAS YOUR CHILD ACTUALLY BORN ? June 22,1994
25. WHAT DID YOU NAME HIM/HER? Austin Anthony Ramirez
26. HOW OLD IS YOUR FIRST BORN TODAY? He’s 14! That 15 is fast approaching!

Valentine's Day Weekend

It all started off, FRIDAY the 13th-Carli and I had our Valentine's Day parties at school. That morning, as you can tell by her picture, she was NOT a happy girl! She had tossed and turned all night saying her ear hurt. She had no fever, but her ear looked red and she said she hit it on her bed. So I thought nothing of it. Away we went to school.

My friend Kathy, made these cookies for Carli's treats for her class. This is actually MY cookie she made for me, but Carli's looked like this but were hot pink! They are truly delicious! The best ever!

Around 10:30 am, at school, Carli's teacher came across the hall to my room and said that Carli felt warm and that they had her in the office taking her temperature. I went down to the office to see my boss taking her temp, for third time, because it was registering 102 and she barely felt warm. As soon as I walk in, I noticed that glazed look in her eyes! She didn't even reach for me! I then realized that she was having a febrile seizure!!! It lasted a few minutes and when she came to, we gave her Mortrin and I was headed home! She slept from school until time to go to the doctor at 2pm. Turns out, she has a double ear infection! She got an antibiotic and the last time she ran fever was Saturday morning! THANK GOD she's on the mend!

Friday night, Anthony and Austin headed into Houston to pick up Anthony's cousin Penelope. She attends the Houston Art Institute for Culinary . It was interesting to hear all about her courses, her apartment living, and friends!

Saturday morning, everyone woke up to Valentine goodies from yours truly!
Later that day we all went out to eat, a Valentine's Day treat from Anthony!

Penelope and Austin. Tyler and his much needed haircut!

Carli, eating! She was feeling a little better, but oh so so cranky!

We all came home with some full bellies. We just hung out until later that night when we needed dessert! And then a movie!

The next day, we didn't go to church, I wasn't taking Carli with all that she went through and still CRANKY! Church should be a pleasant time! :)

That morning, another treat from Anthony, breakfast. I think he had to show off his culinary skills to Penelope! Ha! It was good! We had pancakes, sausage, eggs, and toast.

Later that night, we all took Penelope back to her apartment. We were all sad to see her go. We really enjoyed her company. AND since it was only 30 minutes away, she'll definitely be back!

A day of LOVE!

I really love everything about Valentine's Day! The chocolate, the conversation candy hearts, the flowers, cards, the colors, and the thought of all of this love being spread around! Although, it should be year round that we show our love!

Aside from it being Valentine's Day, it's also our dearest friends' WEDDING ANNIVERSARY! Can I get an AWWW!!! They're celebrating 15 YEARS!!!!!

Bart and Deyanira are the sweetest, kindest, funniest, loving couple you could ever be around!What a beautiful family they are!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY Bart and Deyanira!

I hope everyone has a LOVELY day!

"Kids, DO NOT try this at home!"

I knew we should've got Tyler a skate ramp for Christmas!

"I'm HANDSOME AGAIN!!!"

That's what my Austin said when he woke up and he looked in the mirror and saw that his scrapes/burns were gone from his face! I just had to take his picture! Bless his heart!
He's had a good week! Thank you for keeping him in your prayers!

Funny email

I saw this at work and a couple of times in my email inbox today. I had to post it here!

We who have taught children, or love children who have been taught, know this is funny!

FROM A DIARY OF A PRESCHOOL TEACHER:
My five year old students are learning to read.
Yesterday one of them pointed at a picture in a zoo book and said, "Look, it's a frickin' elephant!" I took a deep breath and asked, "What did you call it?" He said, " It's a frickin' elephant! It says so on the picture!"
And so it does...

"AFRICAN ELEPHANT"

Hooked on phonics! Ain't it wonderful!?

Piggy banks

Carli loves "piggies" and she loves money! The girl's got a couple of piggy banks.

So then why did I find all of this money....

from here?...THE PIANO!

When I was cleaning her room, I was dusting this little piano, when I noticed how it rattled. I knew something was in it. I carried it to the livingroom to try to dump out whatever was in there. It was heavy, full of money! Here she's showing me where she put the money in at. It's the slit that the stand for the sheet of music goes on.

Weekend Randomness

This weekend I battled a cold, but had to keep on truckin'. Friday night we bought a new couch. I loved our other couches. In fact, the love seat and chair still looked great, however, the sofa was the complete opposite...it's been through a lot and even had a big hole in it that continually got bigger (it was on the middle cushion). We really love the new couch. I'm still working on my pillows/pillow placement. The kids love it too, mainly because they ate free food at the furniture store and each came home with one of these.

Saturday afternoon, Tyler went to a birthday sleepover and the rest of us went to our church's youth group's fundraiser. It was really fun! They had the gym transformed to look like an Italian restaurant. There was child care provided (they fed them too). We had valet parking, reservations. The food was wonderful. There was a great menu. Dinner salad, I had lasagna, Anthony had spaghetti and meatballs, then we could choose the type of cheesecake. I had chocolate and Anthony had strawberry. There was even music and candlelight! the junior high and high schoolers did all the serving. We had a very nice evening and they raised lots of money.

Sunday, we picked up Tyler, went to church, ate lunch afterwards and then headed home. Once we got home, I took a nap. By the time I woke up, it was time to take Tyler to confirmation and for me to watch the Grammy's-which I really enjoyed! Jennifer Hudson, always my favorite! Oh, especially when Whitney Houston gave her an award. I like it when they pair up the different artists to perform together. Very interesting! I think my favorite was Justin Timberlake, Al Green and Boys to Men...it's hard to pick! Who was your favorite?

And a side note: Miss Carli is back to her ol' self! YAY! Let's just say, she's REGULAR again! :)

Also, Austin is doing good. His face looks a bit rough still, but definitely better. He wouldn't let me put a picture on here.

I hope you had a great weekend!

Christmas gifts

Yeh, you read right, Christmas gifts...I don't think I ever posted pictures of these fabulous hangers and bow holder, that my very crafty sister in law made. Kayce made these for each of her neices and nephews for Christmas. I've seen pictures of all of them, she totaly got their "favorites" pegged. Here's Austin's...see, she knows him! Sponge Bob Square Pants is his all time favorite! There's actually four hats hanging on it, you just can't see the other two.

Of course, Tyler's. Not sure why there's only one hat on there? He usually has his belt on there too, but he had it on that day.

And Miss Priss's bow holder! I was in the process of re-arranging them, so I didn't have all of them on there.

I knew that Chad was very crafty, but who knew Kayce?! Oh I'd love for Kayce to do a post on all of the things Chad has made! AND of all of the other hangers and bow holders she made! HINT HINT!!

Kayce, we love love love the hangers and bow holder, you know that...especially Carli! She was so funny that night!

Super Bowl

Sunday afternoon, we all headed over to The Ortiz Family's house for a Super Bowl party! I DID take my camera, but unfortunately, it stayed in my purse. We had a blast! There were lots of people there for football, fajitas and all the fixins', side dishes, snacking, desserts, and drinks. The kids (which felt like there were tons of) ran all inside and outside-alot of playing, the men watched the game, some of the ladies did too. NOT me! I was much too busy eating and talking! I didn't even see one single commercial! I did however see Jennifer Hudson sing! She sings so beautiful! I just wish she wouldn't have lip synced.

We stayed until the game was over, which caused us to drag ourselves out of bed the next day!Thank you Ortiz Family for inviting us over! Like I said, I'm moving in with y'all! I LOVE your house!

YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS:

FIREPROOF!
Anthony and I watched it last night and we both thought it was amazing!
You can click on this link and it will take you to the movie trailer.
http://www.fireproofthemovie.com/

Austin

I had to keep Austin home from school yesterday and today. He had a rough day with seizures yesterday. His first seizure he had on Tuesday, we didn't see, but apparently, he had been standing in his room and fell face first onto the carpet and had obviously been that way for a while. We walked in after he was finished. He has a bump on the side of his head, with what looks to be carpet burn. His face, oh that handsome little face of his has carpet burns/scrapes all down his forhead and nose (the nose looking the worse). It looks really bad! POOR CHILD! He has gone over two weeks without seizures! We have really monitored what he has been eating. Sunday, after church, Tyler had confirmation class early (due to Super bowl being that night), the parents were invited to stay, they served pizza. We let Austin eat some. This confirming that TOMATOES are another food that causes his seizures! We always kind of thought that they might, but for the past couple of weeks, we completely stayed away from all tomatoes/tomato products. The seizures occur around 1-2 days later and the day he has them, he usually has several. The last seizure he had was last night around 7pm, so I think he's done. He's just very tired and I'm sure his face hurts. It sure hurts me!
I pray everyday, several times a day, and the healing of Austin's seizures are always in everyone of those prayers!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLAIRE!

Where do I start? I'll try to do this without making Claire (or myself) cry-we're some criers! Today is my best friend Claire's, aka "Claire-Bear", BIRTHDAY!

We grew up living next door to each other. We started playing together when she was 5 and I was 3! We practically lived at each other's house. We would even walk in each other's house without knocking. Just come and go as we pleased! I remember all of our toys, family trips, happy times, sad times.

(WEEBLE WOBBLES! She had their tree house and I had their circus)

(BARBIES! Man, we had way too many of those and everything that went with them. The Dream house, pool, motor home...)

I remember trick or treating, our clubhouse in my backyard, riding bikes to The Oaks Food Mart to get Reese's Peanut butter Cups and Dr.Pepper, swimming all day at the Royal Oaks Raquet Club, and who could forget POOH'S PARK-roller skating every weekend! Then, there was the matter of boys...OOOHHH the posters! Yes, there was Rick Springfield, Thomas Howell, and others, but there was NO ONE like:
KIRK CAMERON!

Soon after came our "TRUE LOVES":

the NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK! We were SO going to marry ALL of them!

Hmmm...the high school years...even though there were a lot of times I couldn't go with you or you didn't want little "Shelly" to go with you, we had a blast when we did hang out!

I'll just leave this picture to represent those times. No need to talk about it! :)

Well, years go by and we both marry our REAL TRUE LOVES!

Claire, I am honored to be your best friend/sister! I'm proud of the terrific wife you are to Ryan and the awesome mommy you are to Harrison! I love you!

Have a HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Comfort food

When I'm sad, mad, and stressed I turn to my comforter...FOOD, preferably chocolate! Well, lately, for some reason, I've NOT been wanting to eat if I am sad, mad, or stressed! Instead, I've been baking!?!? Yes, baking, and not really eating what I baked!?!? Isn't that weird? Anyway, yesterday, I baked...
I started off with these two things:My two food loves are bread and chocolate, so when I saw this on another blog, I had to jump on it and bake them! I mean, my two favorites, baked together! I couldn't even imagine how it would taste?I rolled out the dough and seperated into triangles. Placed a snack size MilkyWay bar on each piece and wrapped it up.Then they went into the oven, at 350 for 12 minutes.Look how yummy! Now I did eat two of these! The chocolate and caramel are melted inside! Austin said it was like eating chocolate cake! I can not even describe how absolutley scrumptious they are!!!! Next, I did chocolate chip cookies and

a plain yellow cake.
Then the kids (Anthony included) had Bluebell Homemade Vanilla Icecream and chocolate syrup with it. They ate all day and night!