Little People, Big Adventure

Since my trip to Dallas last month with the girls was such a success, I decided to take on another challenge. I drove from Austin to Dallas today (3 hours) with the girls. We will be here for 4 days and then we are headed to Prue, Oklahoma to visit Adam's mom, sister, and grandparents. The drive from Dallas to Prue will be about 5 to 5 1/2 hours (total time) then on Monday, I will be driving the whole 8 to 9 hours home. I just may be CRAZY!
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Tomorrow night, my sister and I will be going to the Britney Spears concert in Dallas. I cannot wait to see Brit's comeback! I will definitely give you all a report on Wednesday!

BYE BYE Michael and Yummy Recipes

So, just as I, and all of America, suspected, Michael Sarver went home tonight on Idol. The truth is, he is not a bad singer. He just isn't as good as some of the other guys. Oh well! At least he gets to go home to his 2 adorable kids and will probably make some money on the tour!

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Now, about the recipes...

I have tried 2 recipes from Kelly's Recipe Blog (Kelly's Korner) in the last week: The Swiss Chicken and The Poppyseed Chicken.

Oh My Goodness...(in Kelly's cute southern accent!)

The swiss chicken is really good. I served it with cranberry sauce and green beans. Delish!

The poppyseed chicken (which I have never had before last night, even though Kelly says it's a common dish) is the best ever! Adam says that it's his new favorite food. We had it for dinner last night and Olivia and I had it for lunch today. I still don't know how to insert links...(Amy, can you help me?) but the website is listed below. I highly recommend both. Now I have to try the artichoke chicken she posted this week!

Happy Eating!

http://kellyskornerrecipes.blogspot.com

My IDOL Recap: Motown Night

Not that anyone cares (or should) what I think, but...

Contestant #1

Matt Giraud:

Matt really is coming up. I think calling him Justin Timberlake is a S-T-R-E-T-C-H, but he really is good. I would buy his album based on his performances thus far.

Judges:

Paula, Your eyes are a little red tonight, GURLfriend.

Kara, You are not Simon. Stop trying to be. You are annoying me. Thanks!

Contestant #2

Kris Allen:

I love the arrangement. Oh and you're cute too!

Judges:

Kara, Here's the thing, I am tired of hearing you say "Here's the thing..."

Simon, Don't try to put the cute boy down. He does not need to be conceited.

Randy, It is all good! Thank you.

Contestant #3

Scott McIntyre

Do you think that Scott knows he has pink pants on?

I love Scott, but it looks like wardrobe is playing a trick on him, but it doesn't matter what he wears, he is amazing!

"You Can't Hurry Love." I like this version, no matter what the judges say. I also like Majic 95.5, for the record.

Paula, Simon is not pleased. Do not speak for him. I am sure he will tear you up right about now.

Simon, You just confirmed. Stupid Paula. Simon thinks it was rubbish!

Randy, Okay, enough Dawg.

Kara, Shut Up!

Yes, Yes, I know Scott will never win this contest.

Contestant #4

The Artist formerly known as "Megan Joy Corkery"

I wonder if she'll do that weird little dance tonight?

(Paula and the drunk comment about Simon's pickle being under her skirt??? What's Up?)

Dear Megan,

You are not Amy Winehouse. This is a good thing. Embrace it.

XOXO,

Me

P.S. My daughter likes your sleeve. She is 3!

Judges:

Randy, "Mad Love" is a movie from the late 90's staring Drew Barrymore and Chris O'Donnell. Not Megan. Not Joy. Not Corkery. (It was not a good movie, but I loved it. Yes, I have a thing for bad movies and anything Drew Barrymore.)

Kara, Shut Up!

Paula, This is not a beauty pageant. It's a singing competition.

Contestant #5

Anoop Desai

Please let him sound just as good as he did last week, PLEASE?!?!

My husband would like to see you more dressed up. (I don't know why?)

Judges:

Kara: Shut Up! PLEASE!

Paula: Sweet and Tender?

Simon: Thank you!

Randy: Stop saying "Anoop Dawg." It was over a long time ago.

Contestant #6

Michael Sarver

Excuses. Excuses.

Who will be worse? You? Or The Artist?

You or The Artist?

You or The Artist?

Toss up... but it's,

You!

Sorry. (In my best British accent.)

P.S. You woke my baby up from a deep sleep. Shame on you.

Judges:

Paula, Las Vegas lounge. Were you there before the show tonight?

Simon, Thank you for acknowledging that Paula is talking non-sense!

Kara, PLEASE...Shut Up!

Contestant #7

Lil Rounds

Smokey Robinson, Did you really just say that she could sing the phone book? Do you know how many times Paula has slurred that in reference to some cute male contestant?

Judges:

Randy, How you be? (Do you know that this be improper grammar?)

Kara, Do you need me to say it again?

Paula, Do you have ear goggles on?

Contestant #8

Adam Lambert

This was the best of the night. Duh Kara!

Adam, you look great tonight.

You sound great.

I still love you.

Judges:

Kara, You are an idiot!

Paula, Ugh! Have another drink.

Simon, You are the man! Thank you for pointing out how DUMB the ladies next to you can be! (I can't believe I wrote "You are the man! That is as dumb as Kara and as 90's as Randy!)

Contestant #9

Danny Gokey

The class clown. Did you color your hair?

You are proving to be an excellent church choir director.

Judges:

Simon, You are right. It was not good.

Randy, Never the best! Is it ever?

Kara, SHUT UP!

Contestant #10

Allison Iraheta

You ROCK, my sister friend!

You should not have been in the bottom 3 last week and definitely not again this week!

Judges:

Kara: Sit down and Shut UP! PLEASE! I beg of you.

Randy: Dope? Is that still cool? Let me answer that for you? "Nope!"

Paula: Are you slurring? I can't understand you.

Better run My living room is a mess and Olivia just put my exercise ball in time out! I am obviously not paying enough attention to my surroundings!

And before anyone gets the wrong idea, I am not bitter. I love American Idol...the whole show and all of the contestants that can sing 1 million times better than I ever could. I just had a long day and was having a little fun at the expense of the American Idol. XOXO

Good Morning!

I took this picture of Olivia and Amanda yesterday morning. Amanda and I have been sleeping in the guest room, or "Nana's room" as Olivia calls it, so Amanda's late night feedings don't wake Adam and Olivia. Olivia comes and joins us when she wakes up in the morning. She loves to have her picture taken!

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We have been watching Dancing with the Stars on Monday nights for the last couple of weeks. Last night I went to lay down with Olivia and fell asleep. So, I missed most of the show. I was bummed, but what really bummed me out was missing the show that comes on after Dancing. Has anyone been watching Castle? Castle is about a murder/crime writer who, in the first episode, was experiencing writer's block. A murderer in NYC began copying crimes from "Castle's" books and he was called to consult on the investigation. The head cop happens to be an attractive woman. Though they solved the case in the first episode, Castle decides that his next series of books will be about a NYC based lady police officer. He starts following her on all of her cases as research for his books. As you have probably already guessed, there is all sorts of tension and interesting dialogue. It's a great show, but I missed it last night. Maybe I can download it on iTunes? If you haven't seen it, you should try to catch an episode.

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What have I been doing in all my other free moments? Well, since Saturday at 12 a.m., I have been watching Twilight. First I downloaded a rental to my laptop and stayed up until 3 a.m. Saturday morning watching the movie. (I read the books after the movie left the theaters, so this was my first viewing!) Saturday I gave it a rest...mainly because my download only lasted 24 hours and the computer version kept stopping and starting again. (Something about streaming video...I dunno!) On Sunday, I discovered that Twilight was available on Pay-Per-View, so Shannon and I watched it twice. (Shannon has not read the books and saw the movie for the first time on Sunday. Needless to say, she is now reading the books and encouraged our 2nd viewing on Sunday.) Then yesterday, since I had the pay-per-view movie until 1:30 p.m., I watched it again. Then...my DVD (pre-ordered from Amazon) came in the mail. So, I watched all the bonus features and extras last night. Yes, I am a teenager stuck in a 31 year old body. Enough said!

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No IDOL tonight. The president is going to be speaking, so IDOL is delayed until Wed/Thurs. BLAH!

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Happy Tuesday!

Add'l Note:

When Amanda woke up this morning, she was grinning and grinning up at the ceiling. I asked her if she was watching the angels and seeing her Nana and she cooed and smiled even more. Then Olivia woke up and came in the living room to find me. First thing she said was "Mommy, when I woke up I was looking at Nana." I about freaked. Then she said, "Nana was wearing her wedding dress. Who was she marrying?" I realized that she was looking at the wedding picture that I have of my mother hanging next to my bed. It was so weird though. I was talking to Amanda about my mom and Olivia just comes in talking about her and tells me that she was looking at her. It makes me wonder??? God is amazing. You just never know what children see and what spiritual connections they have.

Olivia's Weekend Fun at Logan and Ella's 4th Birthday

Visiting Daddy at Work

Play Dates

My friend, Dee Dee, was watching her nieces yesterday and asked if we wanted to meet for a play date at the park. Bethany is about 2 months older than Olivia and Lucy is almost 1. The girls had a great time playing at the playground, in the sandbox, and having lunch at Chick Fil-A. I wish I had taken more photos, but the picture below is of Liv and Bethany building sand castles. They were "picture perfect!"

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Smiles, The Lie-Berry, and Gas

These all have nothing to do with one another, but all are a part of our day today!



This does not do it justice at all, but Amanda smiled today. She really smiled, not just that gassy grin. Olivia was in her face this morning cooing at her and saying "You little cutie pie!" in a shrill voice and Amanda got the biggest grin on her face. No gas involved. Of course, I had Olivia do it again and again trying to capture "the smile on camera." The above picture is as close as we got.

In other news, Olivia had her first trip to the "Lie-Berry" today. She had so much fun. Libraries have changed a lot since I was a kid. They had a whole room dedicated to kids 12 and under. She played on a kid friendly computer, did puzzles, put on a puppet show with several other kids, watched a bit of Madagascar 2 (she didn't want to sit and watch the whole thing), and we read and checked out books. She brought 12 books home and we have already read 6. I am so glad that we have new books to read. The same old same old was getting OLD. HAHA!

We also went to the park today where there were several pre-teen girls playing. There were also some elementary school girls at the park. (You need this information to "get" the rest of the story.) Anyhow, Olivia went down the slide a few times and then told me that she was going to play with "those girls." She pointed to the 5th graders (I guessed their age, but they later confirmed.) I wasn't sure how the girls would react but Olivia walked over to the picnic table where the girls were sitting and said "Hi! I am Olivia." They were so nice to her. They let her sit with them and talk. She told them that she had a baby sister and so they came over to see her. (I was sitting on bench watching her play.) Olivia introduced the girls and they all took turns looking at Amanda. As if on cue, Amanda had a huge release of gas and all the girls laughed. Olivia then became "the cool" girl because her sister had made everyone laugh with her bodily functions. I thought it was hilarious how Olivia gravitated towards the older girls and had no problem walking up and chatting. She is getting so big.

More Olivia-isms and AI

Olivia, Amanda, and I were listening to a new Spanish CD in the car today. After hearing the songs over and over again at least 3 times, I started to sing along. I sang a few notes and heard "Mommy, why are you crying?" Olivia was seriously concerned about me. She thought that I was crying when I was actually singing. Oh gosh! I must be really bad.

Speaking of singing, American Idol was great tonight. I still love me some Adam Lambert. He was my favorite, but Danny Gokey and Allison Iraheta are close seconds. Kris Allen is a really cute and he can sing too. I think Jasmine Murray needs to go bye-bye! The girls just aren't that good this year, dog!

And does anyone know the spoilers for tomorrow night? There are supposed to be some big changes...

Maybe they are voting Kara DioGuardi off the show! Does anyone else think that she talks too much?

Little Angels

Our friends, The Rossi's, came over last night. They have a little girl who is close to Olivia's age and a baby boy. The girls love to play together but both have similar personalities. Bossy! We never have to wonder what Liv and Julianna are doing because if they are not playing right in front of us, then we can hear them bossing each other around in the other room. Last night the girls took off to Olivia's room and after a while we noticed that it was really quiet. Adam jumped up and said, "It is too quiet. They are into something." He ran to check on them and what he found was NOT what he expected.

Olivia was sitting on her bed and Julianna was on the floor. Olivia had a book in her hand and was "reading" it to Jules. Adam said, "What are you doing?" Olivia held up the book so Adam could see it and said, "I am *reading to Julianna from The Bible." And she was! In this case, the quiet was not trouble at all, but our little angels were reading the good book! Priceless!

*Olivia does not know how to read. She looks at the pages and tries to remember what we have read to her! I am working on the reading, but we have to get the letters down first! :)

And speaking of little angels, on Saturday Olivia and her friend Shelby were playing dress up at our house. All of the neighborhood boys were outside playing and riding bikes when our doorbell started ringing. Adam went to the door and 2 of the boys (second graders) were there and wanted to know what the girls were doing. Adam told the boys that the girls were playing and to leave them alone. (I might have been nicer, but Adam is a tad protective.) Next thing we know, the door is being quietly opened and the boys are peeking in. Then the girls came out in their princess dresses and before I knew it...there were 10 boys from age 2 to age 8 in my backyard playing and being bossed by Olivia and Shelby. (Yes, we let them in. I can watch them better in my backyard. They are contained!) Most of the boys were in first or second grade. I told Adam that we are in serious trouble. Olivia is not interested (well, maybe a little!), but the boys are already knocking on our door and she is only 3! This prompted Adam to start polishing his shot guns! (Wink! Wink!)

AI

Go Scott! I am so happy with tonight's results. The only thing that I would change...NO Tatiana in the wild card round. She is a character and she can sing...but I just don't see her as an American Idol. I am happy that 3 of my top 4 picks made it into the competition.

Adam Lambert

Danny Gokey

and Scott McIntyre.

Be sure and go to iTunes to download your favorite songs. I missed out last year on some of Jason Castro's songs (Oh yes! I still love him!) and iTunes removes them when Idol is over. Luckily...Jason should have an album out soon!

The Top 12 will be decided tomorrow night! YAY!

Road Trip

Olivia, Amanda, and I traveled to Dallas last weekend. It was Amanda's first trip and of course, my first trip by myself with the girls. Amanda slept the entire way to Dallas on Friday and both girls slept the entire car ride home on Sunday. I am so lucky to have good travelers. Olivia started traveling around 4 weeks and has always been good in the car. Hopefully Amanda will follow in her footsteps. So far, so good.

One of my very best friends, Lauren, had her little boy on 2.26.09 so Amanda got to meet her future boyfriend while we were in Dallas. He is a cutie and looks just like his daddy already. I know it's sort of "faux pas" to take an infant to the hospital to visit another infant, but we broke the rules this one time. It was totally worth it to see the little angels together!


Tate and Amanda

Tate and Amanda

Grand Nanny Reavis with Tate and Me with Amanda

Me, Amanda, Lauren, and Tate

The next set of pictures are some that my dad took at his house and shared with me yesterday. I took my camera, but didn't take any photos. I think I was too busy sleeping!

Amanda loved being walked and held by her Gramps. I got a break because Gramps handled most of the feedings and walked the baby to sleep each night. When I arrived home, I was recapping the weekend for Adam and told him how nice it was to have Gramps and KK watch the girls while I slept in. Adam said "Gramps DOES love his girls!" So true!


Sleeping on the couch in front of the fire. So cozy!

AWAKE!

More sleep.

Uncle Drew holds Amanda for the first time.

As always, Olivia had a great time playing with Drew and Pierce. She even decided that she no longer wants to marry her daddy (good thing!) but now wants to marry her Uncle Pierce (not so good thing!). I guess there's always Arkansas! HAHA!