Our Weekend

 Thursday:  I went out for a much needed girls night.  We got to celebrate Shelly and Amanda's birthday and it was a blast....love all these girls!!  There were about 12 of us there and such a great group of girls!

Nick was such a trooper and watched the kids for me right after he a just gotten over a little food poisoning...eeek!  Good husband! (although, I do give him a hard time that he decided to get "sick" so he could stay home and watch basketball games all day, ha!)

 Friday:  Speaking of basketball games, Friday after work, we got home, I put the kids down for naps and this is what I did all afternoon.  It was glorious!  Since we have moved into the house, I don't think I've sat down and watched hardly any tv so I decided that with some good games on that afternoon, I would just sit and do nothing. :)

 Saturday:  I had a UIL competition with some students Saturday morning.  My kid was competing in a Computer Application test, he killed it by the way...blew everyone out of the water!  While I was there and Nick was helping his dad move furniture, Gigi and Auntie Em watched the kids for us.

As I've said before, Finley is obsessed with dogs!  She isn't around Auntie Em's dogs a whole lot but Luke and Piper were there on Saturday and Finley was in heaven.  She can even say "Piper" clear as day and it's the sweetest thing.

 Seriously Finley looks like her daughter!!!  I'm going to laugh when Blake and Emily have a dark-haired baby some day :)

Granddad and Gigi were nice enough to let the kids stay the night at their house Saturday night.  Nick and I didn't have any big plans but then Beau and Stacey asked if we wanted to go out for awhile.  It was perfect timing and it had been awhile since we'd been out with them so we met up and had the best time.  

Obviously we love the kids more than anything and miss them when they are gone but we were secretly excited to be able to get home late, sleep in, have breakfast together....but then we got that 6:30am text message that every parent hates.....

"Cole has been throwing up for a few hours"

Ugh....nothing worse than your baby being sick!!  We got up and headed back to their house to pick up the kids.  I was going to bring Finley home right away so she wasn't around him but when we got to their house, he seemed like he was in a great mood.  But I do know that kids can change so quickly!  I took Finley home and then Nick brought Cole home a little while later.  Cole took a nap, woke up totally normal and has been fine ever since.  It's so strange, was just sick for a few hours then was totally fine.  I mean, I'm thankful that it was nothing like what Finley had a couple months ago because that was miserable.  Plus, we have to stay completely healthy because Ryan, Rachel, Cameron and Sydney are coming this week to spend Easter with us and we cannot wait!!!

Thanks Gigi and Granddad for taking such good care of our little guy while he was sick.  Sorry about your sheets, mattress, pillows, chunks of food in your bed that Granddad had to pick out :)  We owe you big time and we understand if you want us to buy you new bedding :)

And last but not least....Nick hung our curtains, yay!!!!!

Sonoma....adults only!

 We have been planning this trip with the Bell's for a long time!!!  Well, we had been planning "A" trip with them for a few years now but either Sharon or I was either pregnant or nursing a small child so we finally decided to take the plunge this Spring Break.  We decided to go to Sonoma in California because the first time we were in that area, I was freshly pregnant with Cole and so extremely sick.  The second time we were out there, Finley was about 2 months old and nursing so I couldn't quite partake in the festivities.  

This time, however, it was just the adults and nobody was pregnant or nursing.  Well, Sharon technically is still breast feeding but she was such a trooper and just pumped whenever she got a chance.

My parents were so kind to drive down to Texas for a couple reasons.  1.  they had to deliver our new kitchen table.  Yes, we live in Dallas and couldn't find a kitchen table but of course found one when we were home over Christmas at my parents favorite furniture store.  And 2.  They were going to watch the kids for a couple of the days we were gone.  It was so nice to have them here for a few days and I so wish we could've had more time together.  

Since I have been on my crazy diet lately, I had not gone out to eat in almost a month so we splurged a little bit and went out for some yummy pizza one night they were here.  I did cheat and had one small piece of pizza...oops :)

 Finley absolutely loves Mimi!!!  She wanted my mom to hold her all the time, it's adorable!!

 Papa and Cole....ahhhh!!!

 

 Nick and I flew out Monday afternoon.  I was sad to leave the kiddos and my parents, this was the longest I had been away from them.  But, it was so nice to just have some alone time with Nick and our good friends.

 

 AND, Nick upgraded us on the way there.  It was a 3.5 hour flight so we thought we might as well upgrade.  We had free food, drinks, bags, free movies...it was fabulous!  I had two glasses of sparkling wine and was loving every minute!

 We worked it out with Chris and Sharon that we all arrived within minutes of each other so once we picked them up we spent the afternoon/evening in San Francisco.  We had an excellent dinner and then drove up to Healdsburg, where we rented a house.

This house was adorable!  It took some crazy (scary) roads to get up there but the views were amazing.  

This is from our porch the first morning we were there.  It's always a little foggy there but quickly burns off.

 We also had a bit of a hike to get to the front door.  That is Nick waaaaay down there....

 Our first morning we didn't waste any time.  We hit up Freemont Diner, which apparently is pretty popular and the food was to die for.

 After breakfast we hit up 5 winery's.

Our first stop....Gloria Ferrar

 Then St. Francis

 We had to stop at Paradise Ridge because this is where Blake and Emily got married.  It was as beautiful as we remembered!!

 This is where their ceremony was

 And, what was so cool was that after we did our wine tasting, Nick looked over and saw Blake and Emily's wedding album on one of the tables.  Their photography was advertising and we thought it was so cool that it was Blake and Em's!!!

 The four of us with their album :)

 Next stop....Ledson

How cool is this place!!!  Amazing building!

 After we were done with day #1 wine tasting, we just hit up a pub in Healdsburg and went back home, we were exhausted.  The house we stayed in had the best porch.  We sat out there almost every morning and night and the weather was absolutely perfect.

Day #2:

We did about 4 winery's the second day and our favorite was Twomy.  Chris and Sharon even joined their wine club.  That was definitely one of our favorites!!

Day #3:

Our last day of wine tasting, again, we hit up about four.  I think day 3 was probably my favorite.  Now, I was a little sick of wine at this point but I loved the places we went.

Ferrari Carrano

 Pretty Sharon :)

 Bella...this was my all time favorite!!!! 

It was a small winery and the tasting room was in that cave.

 What it looked like walking into the cave...so cool!!!!

 Their wine was my favorite and we definitely bought some bottles!  Like I said, by the 3rd day, some of the wines all start tasting the same so when I tasted Bella's wine and it had such a distinct taste, I knew I loved it!  We really debated on joining their wine club but since it's a good investment we decided to sleep on it.  Well, I've slept on it for 3 nights now and I still want to join the club, ha!  I think we probably will...at some point.

We always had the best lunches while we were out wine tasting.  The last day, we went to this adorable store in the middle of nowhere and bought cheeses, meats, chips, crackers, olives and bought a bottle of wine and just sat out in the garden at Lambert Winery.  The weather was divine and that is definitely a perfect day!

 We were out there just the perfect amount of days.  We certainly were so excited to see the kids and sleep in our own beds but we truly had the best time with the Bell's!!!  They are so near and dear to our hearts and just one of those couple's that we love traveling with.  Can't wait to do it again with them!

 I do have to share this picture that my dad sent us while they were babysitting.  Cole was so excited to go hit some golf balls with Papa and he was nice enough to send us this adorable picture.  I'm sure it was such a fun day for my dad!!!!

 My parents had to drive back to Colorado Wednesday morning and then Nick's parents finished out the week with the kids till we got home on Friday.  We are so thankful to both grandparents for helping watch our hoodlums.  It's so nice to not worry about them and know they are in good hands.  

However, while we were gone, Benson figured out how to get through our wrought iron fence in the back so Nick spent all day today putting some mesh stuff on the fence so he can't get out.  Dumb dog...that's exactly how we wanted to spend our Sunday :)

Happenings Lately

 We have been busy getting our house in order the last few weeks.  I'm sure it doesn't take the average person to get through every box as long as it took us, but I guess we've been procrastinating.  So much junk sat in our garage so it was kind of the "out of sight out of mind" thing.  We finally got sick of having both cars parked in the drive way so we spent all day yesterday cleaning out the garage and going through every box and boy, did we throw a TON of stuff away!!  Nothing makes me happier than throwing things in the trash!  

We have tons of trash bags ready to go to Goodwill and lots of baby stuff ready to pass down.  It was so exciting to finally pull my car into the garage and everything be organize...yay!!

The kids had fun hanging out in the garage/front yard while we organized and Finley even tried to help as much as she could :) (by "help", I mean undo everything we had done)

What!?!  This girl being naughty!!!  Never!!!

 Saturday morning after our chiropractor appointments, we had to go pick up a mattress from Nick's parents house.  It wasn't even that close to lunch time but both kids ended up passing out in the car.  Luckily, they both transferred to their beds and took pretty good naps.

 Saturday afternoon, Roxy was outside just hanging out in the yard.  Finley whined at me till I let her outside to be with Roxy.  Finley just sat their with Roxy and pet her.....

then gave her hugs.

 This girl....has an absolute love for her puppies.  If we'd let Roxy sleep in her crib with her, she would be the happiest toddler ever!  I'm pretty sure Finley is Roxy's favorite person too because Finley shares all her meals with her...and then when we throw Roxy outside for eating her food, Finley gets mad at us and cries. :)

 I also did some grocery shopping this weekend and found this beauty....

I can eat spoonfuls of this stuff!  I've been on a bit of a "raw" diet lately so when I'm craving a little bit of sweet, this stuff is outstanding!

My chiropractor has put me on a pretty strict diet to try to help with some inflammation I've been having.  I can't have sugar, carbs, gluten, grains, only raw dairy, 100% grass fed meats and limited fruits.  You are probably wondering what CAN I eat.  The first couple weeks were hard, just trying to find things to actually eat but now I'm really enjoying finding new recipes and being creative.

This is basically what I've been eating the last 3 weeks:

Breakfast:  pick one from these options and alternate them

Scrambled eggs with whatever veggies are in fridge, sprinkle raw cheddar cheese on top.  Seriously, there are more veggies than eggs in my omelets!!

Plain greek yogurt with strawberries or raspberries (the only fruit I can have is berries and granny smith apples)

Hard-boiled eggs

Smoothie:  spinach, blueberries, 1/2 banana, coconut milk

Black coffee with coconut milk cream - the only coffee my chiro has approved is Organo coffee, which works perfectly b/c my family started drinking that coffee last year and it's our favorite coffee!!

Lunch:

Organic tuna with veganaise, celery and pepper

Salad (I'll make a big salad on Sundays and will last most of the week)

Mash up a couple hard-boiled eggs and add veganaise and pepper

Or any dinner leftovers

Dinner:  (these are some of the things I've made lately)

Zucchini boats

Chicken Marsala

Chili

Basic meat/veggies

Lots of salads

I eat raw almonds/cashews, couple slices of cheese, granny smith apple with almond butter as snacks

I certainly do miss some of the "comfort foods" and being able to eat whatever I want but if I had to choose to eat whatever I want or physically feeling bad again, I would stay on this diet, no questions asked!!  I have been feeling so good lately and so much energy!!  I do have a couple rough days every once in awhile but overall, I feel amazing!

I'm going to stay on this diet till we go to Sonoma next week and I'll try my hardest to eat as good as I can while we are on vacation but then when I get back, I'm going to get back on the diet along with a detox and then after that, we will slowly introduce a few things and see if there is anything specific that triggers my pain.  With our family history, I wouldn't be surprised if it's gluten...but we will see.

Also, my waistline is loving the new diet!!!  :)  Although, my weight is not even hardly an issue, as long as I'm feeling well...but it is a nice bonus! :)

My parents drive down on Friday to stay for a few days.  They still stay with us over the weekend and then when Nick and I leave for Cali, they will stay with the kids for a couple days and then Nick's parents will finish out the week with the kids.  We are so lucky to have the best grandparents!  The kids are going to have so much fun with both grandparents!!

This week needs to zoom by....we cannot wait for California!!!