Christmastime!!

Yay!!! Its December!  I think this might be my favorite month of the year.  Not just because of Christmas but because it seems to make the best in people come out. *well most people* lol  We just put up our Christmas tree and lights around the house and to see the looks on my girls face was just so priceless.  I wouldn't give that up for anything.  They get so excited over the little things still, which I hear doesn't last too long so I'm taking advantage of it while I can.  Here's a letter to Santa I thought I'd share with you all.

Dear Santa,

I've been a good mom all year.  I've fed, cleaned, and cuddled my children on demand and visited the doctor's office more than my doctor. I was hoping you could spread my list out over several Christmases, since I had to write this letter with my daughter's red crayon on the back of a receipt in the laundry room between cycles, and who knows when I'll find anymore free time in the next 14 years.

Here's my Christmas wish(s):

I'd like a pair of legs that don't ache *in any color except purple, which I already have*, and arms that don't hurt or flap in the breeze, but are strong enough to pull my screaming child out of the candy aisle in the grocery store.  I'd also like a waist, since I lost mine somewhere in the fourth month of my pregnancy.

If you're hauling big-ticket items this year, I'd like fingerprint resistant windows and a radio that only plays adult music, a television that doesn't broadcast any programs containing talking animals, and a refrigerator with a secret compartment behind the crisper where I can hide to talk on the phone.

On the practical side, I could use a talking doll that says, "Yes, Mommy" to boost my parental confidence, along with two kids who don't fight and three pairs of jeans that will zip up without the use of power tools. I could also use a recording of monks chanting "Don't eat in the living room" and "Take your hands of your sister" because my voice seems to be just out of my children's hearing range and can only be heard by the cats.

If it's too late to find any of these products, I'd settle for enough time to brush my teeth and comb my hair in the same morning, or the luxury of eating food warmer than room temperature without it being served in a Styrofoam container.  If you don't mind, I could also use a few Christmas miracles to brighten the holiday season.  Would it be too much trouble to declare ketchup a vegetable?  It would clear my conscience immensely.  It would also be helpful if you could coerce my kids to help around the house without demanding payment as if they were the bosses of an organized crime family.

Well, Santa, the buzzer on the dryer is ringing and my daughter saw my feet under the laundry room door.  I think she wants her crayon back.  Have a safe trip, and remember to leave your wet boots by the door and come in and dry off so you don't catch a cold.

Help yourself to cookies on the table, but don't eat too many or leave crumbs on my clean carpet.

Yours always,

Cassie and Scarlett's Mommy

p.s. one more thing...you can cancel all my requests if you can keep my children young enough to believe in Santa for at least 6 more years :)...

Halloween *part II* :)

This year Halloween was the best.  We went trick or treating around our own neighborhood which had a pretty good turnout, and got to pass out candy to kids.  Every year I would buy candy, and every year, NO kids would show up.  This year they actually did, I think I might have been a little too excited.  I decked out our deck *pun intended ;)* with some awesome spider webs with a large scary spider and some jack-o-lantern garland and pumpkin lights and a few other miscellaneous things.  You could definitely tell that we were celebrating Halloween. When it came time for our little family to go trick or treating, I filled a bowl with what was left of the candy and told the kids we passed that it was there since we were out and about.  I also warned them to only take one piece each because I put a camera up and I knew where they lived.  Lol their faces were PRICELESS.  The girls were so excited to go trick or treating.

We even got dad in on the gig!!  (Trust me, its a big deal :))

They have him wrapped around their tiny little fingers.  <3

After we wrapped up all the houses on our block, we visited a few other places.  The last place we went was to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Their block always has almost every house participating so its a fun one!

By the time we got home the girls were no where close to being ready to go to sleep.

 
So I let them stay up for just a bit later than usual and indulge in few small pieces of candy.  They were in heaven. All in all, we had a great night.  Hope you all had a great one too!!

Happy Halloween from the Stanescu's!! <3

Halloween (the beginning) :)

Halloween time is here!!! The girls are super ecstatic this year.  They chose their own costumes, and makeup/hair.  They are all into it!  I love all the excitement of this part of the year. With birthday, halloween, thanksgiving, and Christmas, its just non stop!

Scarlett is going as Rapunzel.

I think she makes an awesome blonde and an awesome Rapunzel. :) She LOVES the long Rapunzel wig.  She insists on growing her hair that long now. 

Cassie is going as Cinderella.

Since her hair is short we borrowed a wiglet and added it to her hair and I think it matched pretty well!  She was so happy that she got to wear "fake hair" too. Lol They had their Halloween Parade at school and got to show off their costumes. Boy did they show off too. To say these girls like attention is an understatement.  I swear they are going to be actresses when they grow up!  Cassie was excited to see that her teacher dressed as a princess too!

We also went to Bashas and decorated a Halloween cake.  They love decorating anything really but cakes are fun because if you "accidentally" get icing all over your hands/arms/etc you just gotta lick it off right?!  Well thats what they think so they went all out. 

So far its been a good start but tonight is Halloween so Halloween candy, Here we come!  We have about 4 destinations we are hitting up tonight so lots of pictures to come!!! lol  Happy Halloween everybody!!

The past few months...

Wow!  It has been so long!  Partly because we've had a crazy few months, mostly because my daughter decided to smack my laptop screen and crack it.  Not good. One of those things where you never realize how much you need something, until you don't have it anymore. I rely on this computer for pretty much everything! Lets cross our fingers and hope this one lasts for a LONG LONG time! *crosses fingers*

Since I've been away many things have happened!

The girls entered their second year of school!

They are growing up so fast! :(  Ok ok, its only pre-k, but they are learning so much!  I can't believe how much they've learned so far and its only October.  Just this week I mentioned that we need to carve pumpkins and Cassie corrected me and said, " Mom, you're wrong, those are jack-o-lanterns, NOT pumpkins, gosh." I also turned 25 since, have I already become senile? lol Let's hope not.

The girls turned 4 years old!  They were so excited for their birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. It was all they talked about for MONTHS.  Nobody could forget when and where their birthday party was going to be.

They had an amazing time, and got to see some school friends that they hadn't seen in a while. They even had their first birthday sleepover! 

Probably the last for awhile too.. lol they were up until almost 1 am!  I thought only teenagers pulled all nighters like that!  Guess not. :) Aunt Julie got their ear's pierced for their birthday!  They showed anybody who walked by and even a few that didn't heard that they got them done lol.  They are so happy and feel like big girls. :) 

Hubby and I just celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary!  Is it weird that it feels like we've been married forever, yet seems like just yesterday we were getting married?  I don't know.  It's been an amazing 5 years though!  

We celebrated at Beni-Hana's of course!!! 

The girls came along and celebrated a late birthday dinner and received special mugs!  

Within the last month we had another big change.... We moved!! Ya!  Moving sucks, but hopefully we don't have to move again for awhile.  Lol I'll tell ya the whole moving story later... All in all its been an amazing few months!  Thanks for tuning in for the recap! :) Hopefully I'll do this more often so they won't have to be so long.  :)  

Until next time!! xoxo

Little Surprises...

Phew! Thank God for nice weather! Man I've been waiting awhile to say that, and for most of you, especially those on the east, are still waiting to say those words.  The girls are finally better, not 100%, but almost there!  I am sooooo happy!  I'm even happier for the fact that we are going to the Renaissance Festival tomorrow!  The four of us, plus my mom and dad!  Its going to be a wonderful day.  Lots of pics to come I'm sure.  Speaking of pics, look what little surprises we found the other day!

They are super adorable!  One is fluffy, while the other one is medium lengthed hair.  My mom thinks they are persian.  IDK.  Can you believe they curled up like this?  It was way too cute to pass up not taking a picture. They are very playful, which the girls love. And boy are they obsessed with them!  Every 2 seconds, they are picking them up and putting them different places.  Or dressing them up. lmao

Thats Princess Minnie!  And her sister is Cammi.  Well I'm assuming they are girls.  I guess give it a few weeks and we will know for sure.  They look like girls so.......

The girls were invited to their FIRST school friend birthday party today.  They were soooo excited!  They had a great time.  It was a "boy" friend, dont get that confused with a "boyfriend" lol ;) (hey they are only 3 years old guys! come on, give me a few more years before i have to worry about that!) So it was all about the  superhero's.  They got to decorate superhero hats, do a sack race, break a pinata, which they LOVED, and than play in the park for a while.  It was so beautiful out that we all had a great time!

Scarlly decked hers out with Mickey and Pooh Bear stickers and Cassie did superheroes and smiley faces.  They had BLAST doing the sack races. Which was awesome because I never would have thought about doing that with them!

All in all today was a pretty good day!  Here's to tomorrow becoming another great one!!! Hope everybody is doing well! <3

LOW FAT SUPER YUMMY MEATLOAF

So I haven't made meatloaf in a long time because I thought that no matter what it would be too fatty and I wouldnt want to screw up my diet. I dont wanna fiddle around with using ground turkey (its just not the same! i need some beef! lol). So today I played around on the recipe maker and found a way to make a SUPER yummy meatloaf that is really low fat/carbs/etc! You get a hearty/rib sticking portion, eat it with a power food and hey its an awesome meal! Here's what I did!

LOW FAT SUPER YUMMY MEATLOAF

Ingredients:
non stick spray
1lb 93% lean ground beef
salt to taste
pepper to taste
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1 or 2 clove's of garlic *whichever you prefer* (i always use a lot) 
4 oz hungry man spicy sauce *or you can use just tomato sauce*
1c of finely chopped onion
3 egg whites (no yolk)
1 cup of Rice Crispies cereal
and 1 tsp of ketchup for at the end.


Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a loaf pan with non stick spray. Mix ingredients together except ketchup. Bake for about 40-45 mins. Spread the ketchup on the last 5 minutes. Slice into 4 even sections. 1 piece = 1 serving. 


I got to the part where you were supposed to use tomato sauce and saw i had only tomato soup or that sauce for sloppy joes so i threw that in there as a substitute and OMG it came out way better.  The spiciness of the sauce gave it a little more flavor and kick!  Hope you guys like it!! My kids and husband ate it and thought it was awesome! Then i told them I used rice crispies instead of real rice and breadcrumbs and they were like WHAT?! lol You couldn't even tell the difference! lmao.  If you guys make it comment on here and tell me how you liked it!

Slowly becoming a loser..... ;)

So, as most of you know I joined Weight Watchers.  I've known for a long time that something needed to be done but man, I just love food!  What can you do?  So in January my grandmother and I, hopped on that "New Years Resolution" bandwagon and joined.  We did this a few years ago, and both succeeded, and lost a good amount of weight!  However life goes on, marriage, babies, etc add to your waistline and before you know it, your back where you started!  So far things are going pretty good!  5 Weeks in and I've lost 13 lbs!  Yay!! Now I know I'll probably kick myself for saying this come a week I lose nothing, but... (here goes nothing) its been relatively easy..... I think most of it is just learning new portion sizes and not mindlessly eating in front of the tele.... Tomorrow I weigh in again, crossing my fingers, and taking as many accessories off as a I can to make the scale go lower.. (hey my earrings can get pretty heavy you know!?) Wish me luck!

I also got a Wii Fit!  I was sooooo happy when I saw that box sitting on my table for Valentines Day.  I'd been hinting for awhile now that I wanted one, and now I finally do.  It is way too much fun to be called exercise... (does anybody else hate that word?) :) Blech, exercise.... there got it out of my system. The girls even like to join in and "exercise" with me.  Speaking of, they are still all sniffly!! When will this end?!  I hate, let me reiterate, I HATE when my kids are sick... no fun for them, me, anybody that crosses our paths, etc.  I think last month we were in the doctors office maybe 4 or 5 times?!  They are pros at taking medicine now, which really isn't something to brag about but, man a few months ago, it was like pulling teeth to get them to take medicine.  I'd have to chase em down, maneuver them into some kind of hold that I'm sure would win me an award if I was competing in an MMA fight.. and force this awful liquid that comes in colors that are sure to stain whatever they land on, into their mouths.  If I succeeded, they were distraught and wouldn't talk to me for at least an hour.. These girls are so stubborn! 

*yawn*  Why am I even still up?!  Tomorrow is a busy day so that's all for tonight.... I hope to get on here more often, so wish me luck for that as well :)

Here's to becoming a loser!...................... (weight wise that is) ;)

Long time no see!

Wow, it's been awhile since I've been on here!  Sorry about that, the past few weeks have been crazy!  Two weeks ago our household came down with a bad case of strep throat, DOUBLE pink eye, and sinus infections... Can you believe that?!? What are the odds of having all those things at once, especially when it affects the whole family! lol IDK but I'm guessing that they are pretty low.  The girls have been out of school for two weeks and are going absolutely BONKERS!  I've slowly lost my mind, but am seeing a light at the end of the tunnel because  now that they are feeling better, school starts again on Monday!  YAY!  I never would have thought that school was so awesome for my kids.  My family can attest that I was dreading the first day of school for my little ladies.  More for me than for them.... This is the first time they would ever really be away from me, or family.  They had never been with "strangers".  I wanted to just sit tight in that parking lot until school was over.  Fortunately the time flew by and everything went smoothly.  The second day was a little easier, but by the second week I was a pro!  The girls were pros from the first day, lol.  I remember looking around that first day seeing a good amount of kids screaming and crying for their parents to come back, or not to leave.  Than I look at my girls and they were so happy, and ready to face the world. Cassie even had to say, "Bye mom, you can leave now!"  Sheesh, thanks for the sentiment Cass. :) Anyways, if you cant tell, I'll be so happy when they are back in school.

In other news:  I am SOOOOOO excited for the Renaissance Festival this year!  It starts this weekend and I want to go so bad.  It looks like great weather to go to!  Low 70's all weekend.. how perfect is that?  Hopefully we can make it.  If not this weekend, we WILL be going sometime this season.  I want to dress the girls up as little princesses.  A few years ago I worked there and now the only way to go is if you're dressed up.  You truly have more fun!  And although that tight corset may hurt your ribs, it does wonders for your self esteem! ;)

Alrighty, well better get going, my kids are fighting over a chair.  Can you believe that?  A CHAIR.... they each have one, the chairs are identical, nothing special about one of them and they are fighting over it.  I will never understand that, lol I know i fought with my sister when we were little but not stupid things like that!!! We fought over the TV remote, lol or the last SQUEEZIT... uh hm mm just ask my mom about that one... lol Just say the words " great squeezit incident" and she'll know immediately what you're talking about... :) :) :)

Talking to myself....

I saw a quote today that said, "There are no atheists in death."  It really made me think.  I guess growing up Catholic, going to church all the time, going to Catholic school for the greater part of my life, it was never a thought that there was not a God.  I can't imagine not thinking there was one, I guess I would feel lost?  I don't know.  I asked my husband what his thoughts were because he really hasn't stuck to one religion too seriously his whole life, he feels that in the end everybody is just trying to get to the same place.  I think that's true as well but I cannot imagine a life of not praying or going to church.  Geez, even when I'm not praying I'm talking to God.  All day everyday, I'm talking to him, and I realize it probably just looks like I'm a mumbling lunatic but, I guess that's my way of feeling better about things that maybe scare me, or just things I'm unsure of.  Who do people who don't believe in God talk to?  Do they just hold it in.. I think I'd go crazy!  It made me laugh when I thought about how over the years my prayers went from asking God to help me pass a test to "Please God watch over my babies......"  In the end, I guess whether you are praying or just telling God your problems and asking for help, its a conversation with somebody you trust infinitely, and I cant imagine my life without those conversations. :)