New Floors and Other Such Happenings

March has been busy with lots of fun happenings!

Marks parents celebrated their 35th Anniversary and 

took us all to the aquarium for dinner and sight seeing!

It was a blast.

My favorite was touching the sting rays and eating the tilapia.

The girls was the mermaids! Oh my.

 We dressed in green this month and ate green cupcakes- 

they were SO very good!

And the biggest highlight of this month was the addition of our new floors!

I LOVE them! 

We had help from friends laying them and we tore the carpet out ourselves.

Marks family watched the kids- HUGE THANKS TO YOU ALL!!

They look amazing!

We still have trim work to do but overall it is SUCH an improvement and the cleaning is a breeze!

I just sweep everything right up with a broom and mopping it is a piece of cake!

They are wonderful!

I also made these cute cakes for a friend's little girl who was turning 1! 

I just LOVED how they turned out!

The big one was for the guests and the little one was for Jadyn to smash!

We had such a fun playdate this week with Erika and her girlies. 

We colored sugar cookies-messy but a blast!

In other news, I will be 32 in 2 days- yikes!

Hard to believe I am that old already.

Mark and the twins have been home on Spring Break this week and it has been GREAT! 

Although it is much harder to keep the mess under control when all the kids are home every day!

But it is well worth it!

So, that seems to be all the happenings in the Gomez house !

The weather is great out here if I forgot to mention! 

60's today:) 

I am really hoping that Spring is on its way! 

No Pinching Today!

We are all wearing GREEN today so noone will get pinched:)

We are having Ruebens, chips and pickles for dinner tonight with

Green Velvet Baby Cakes for dessert.

YUM!

Ruebens remind me of when I worked for Vinny D's , a New York deli in PA. 

They had the BEST Ruebens ever!

I gained about 10 pounds the year I worked there.

Not Joking!

Can I just tell you I LOVE being a mother- my kiddos are pretty swell.

They have been such delights for the most part lately.

We ate outside yesterday- Mark grilled sliders on the grill and they tasted AWESOME!

It was like 74 degrees.

We all sat around talking and Mark played with them in the grass.

It was the best! 

Good to have days like that!

Chore Chart Chalkboard

For a while now, I have been trying to come up with a creative way to use a chore chart- paper ones were always needing to be remade and the stickers would fall off, etc. I thought about a dry erase board, but the size I needed was like $20, plus the cost of the markers added another $10. So, I decided to make a chalkboard. I bought some thin panel board at Home Depot (were Elijah made a mess by throwing up on the floor) for $2.97 and had it cut so I got 2 large boards- about 36 inches across and then 4 smaller boards as well. The chalkboard paint was $8.00 and I have over half a can left for other projects:) I painted the board with 3 coats of paint and it works perfectly. Every day I can change the jobs and date and I keep track of how many days they have completed their jobs in the corner at the top. If they get 5 checks, they get an allowance so they can learn to save, give and spend. 

I think it turned out great and is exactly what I had envisioned! 

Love Notes

My children LOVE to write notes. Some are love notes, some are mean notes, some are informative notes and most are hilarious notes! I really should take more pictures of what they right because they crack me up! If anyone needs suggestions for gifts for my kids- paper and envelopes(they beg me for envelopes, which I rarely give them) They love to cut and draw on their little notes. It is cute.

Ella will leave them at everyones spot at dinnertime. Arianna will write one to the boys in her class inviting them over and telling them she likes them. Sophia likes to write about animals and will start numerous animal books complete with illustrations.

Maybe someday one of them will be an author or illustrator- that would be cool.

On another note, the weather has been GORGEOUS here lately! 60's and sunny- cant beat it!

Did I mention I joined Costco a while back and I just LOVE it! The only down side is that it is hard to get out of there spending less than $20! But I must admit you can get GREAT deals if you know your products and compare ounces and prices! Its definitely a plus for our family to buy bulk!

Also it cuts down the trips to the store in general! 

My favorite thing right now that is a HUGE money saver for us is Log Cabin pancake syrup- it lasts us 4 weeks and is, I want to say, like $6 for 2 huge containers! We love our pancakes and waffles in this house, so it has been a HUGE money saver!

Elijah got a cashew stuck up his nose today. Fun. I panicked because I didnt want to spend $30 for a trip to the doctor. I called the doc and they said to keep trying to show him how to blow his nose- which as of yet he has been unable to do- several hours later he got the hang of it and the cashew flew out of his nose! $30 saved!

We are having bacon wrapped filet mignon with  roasted potatoes and a cherry almond blue cheese salad for dinner tonight:) Thats what happens when I go to Costco- Do we REALLY need bacon wrapped filet mignon- no- but it just sounded SO good and for the price- I just couldnt pass it up:) 

Go write a love note today:) 

This is For you mom!

I FINALLY got my hair cut and colored! 

I looked back through my pictures and discovered that my last hair cut was, I believe around March of last year- so it has almost been a whole year since I have done anything to my hair! Hard to believe. I am going to try to stay on top of my hair and try to get it "freshened" up every 3-4 months which you HAVE to do if you want to keep a cute shapely short hair cut! We shall see.

My mom always says I need to:) 

So when I think of haircuts, I think of my mom!

Love you and miss you, mom!! 

Hope you like the new "do'

Ladies Coffee

Our church started a Ladies Coffee ministry where we get together 2 times a month to drink coffee and let the kids play. It is a great way to get to develop relationships with other moms not to mention it is FUN! I SO look forward to getting together each month. 

Its great to get new ideas from other moms, to pray together, to talk about our struggles, to receive encouragement, to have fun, to drink coffee:), to let our kids play, to teach them to get along and develop social skills, the list could go on and on!

 I am blessed to have these woman as friends!

 oh, I forgot.. we have some pretty amazing treats too!

and if you live in the Denver area- PLEASE come! 

You will love it!

visit our church website for more details!

I Heart Valentine's Day!

 I *HEART* Valentine's Day!

To me, it is a special day to treat the ones I love 

to a little bit of FUN! 

I try to come up with create "treats" to surprise and delight:) 

Treat #1- Deliver balloons and a card (and a big Hershey's KISS for Mark) to those who are in school! Ella told me she cant wait to go to school to get the Valentine balloon! 

Treat #2- Valentine Play date with food, crafts and Valentine exchange! (Thanks Sarah!)

Treat #3-  The kids favorite meal all fancied up a bit- dress up, candles, piano music, nice plates! I gave Elijah a fancy glass and decided to trade it in for a sippy cup about one minute into the meal! 

Treat #4-  Chocolate Fondue- strawberries, bananas and marshmellows dipped in yummy chocolate! What a gooey mess that turned out to be! 

Treat #5- Surprises from daddy! He really is the best!) Roses(for me) and the PERFECT cards for all of us! We are blessed....

Fun with Friends! 

2011 Homemade Valentines

(the one I made is featured below:)

  The Gomez Family resturant- serving spaghetti, chicken Parmesan  and squash!

 Daddys gift to the kiddos- rose petals- they had SO much fun!! 

my favorites of the day!

 
It was the perfect *HEART* day! 

Full of lots of laughs, hugs, kisses-

PURE SWEETNESS!