Category Archives: Family

Family, Flashbacks

Vital Statistics

3 years ago:

Today:

Thursday, February 25, 2010

25 pounds & 35 inches tall

(exact same weight, but 2 inches taller than 6 months ago)

I won’t go into the percentiles, but let’s just say that he’s still LIGHTWEIGHT and SHORT so he’s well proportioned!

Today he had his blood pressure taken for the first time…

80/42…normal

And here he is with his “friend”, Dr. Yen:

He was such a good patient ~ letting Dr. Y look for “buggies” in his ears and checking out his eyes and his mouth.

No shots.

Just a high five, a couple sugar-free lollipops, some animal crackers, a Spiderman AND a Buzz Lightyear sticker.

Next scheduled visit in 1 year…

We LOVE Dr. Yen, but he’s not a person we like to see a lot of.

Family, Flashbacks

Happy 3rd Birthday, Holden!

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They say kids grow up fast, and now I know this to be true!

Where does the time go?

My “baby” is 3 today…seems like he turned 2 yesterday and 1 last week! Sigh…

Holden was due on Monday, February 26, 2007. I guess he decided he wanted to be a Sunday baby like his big sister, Elliott, so there we were, driving the 30+ miles to Los Gatos from Gilroy on a Sunday morning @ 1:30 am. It was POURING down rain and I remember telling Jay to “take your time. I’ll be OK.” I told him not to talk to me so that I could breath through the contractions.

We arrived at Community Hospital and had to go through the Emergency Room since it was after hours. I sat there in a wheelchair while Jay parked the car…the woman could not find my chart. What? I pre-registered AND the doctor sent over my records from her office!!! NO, I was NOT going to fill out all the paperwork AGAIN while breathing through contractions every 3-4 minutes. Figure it out people…so, I begrudgingly signed my life away on all the forms and told her that Jay would fill them out!

I was wheeled to a room, changed into the standard issue hospital garb and requested an epidural STAT. The nurse explained that she’d have to page the anesthesiologist since there wasn’t one on staff at the moment. Huh? OK, whatever. Dr. Clark strolled in about 45 minutes later – in street clothes, hair a mess, NO badge, NO white coat, nothing! “Hello, I’m Dr. Clark and I’ll be doing your epidural.” Me thinking, “Um, OK….can I see a hospital issued badge? Your white coat? Anything that indicates you know anything about inserting a needle into my spine? Anything?” Well, I must’ve trusted him because he wheeled the cart in, oh the beautiful epidural cart, and went to work. Fortunately the nurse came in during the process and said, “Oh, Hi Dr Clark!” So then I knew I was really in good hands!

Dr. Clark worked his magic and I was a happy camper. My dear friend, Melanie picked up Gramma Kathy and Elliott and drove them up.

We were ready!

Things were going great until baby’s heart rate dropped…a nurse called for anyone and everyone to come into the room. She panicked. I panicked. Fortunately a nurse that was calm, cool and collected came in, and took my hand and said that everything would be OK.

Sure enough, I soon was ready to push. I was afraid of this stage because Elliott was “sunny side up” and I pushed for over an hour and a half. Well, this time baby #2 was coming full steam ahead and they told me NOT to push because we had to wait for the on-call doc! So, I just laid there with my oxygen mask on (something I didn’t have with Elliott). She finally walked in, with coffee cup in-hand, took one look and said, “Wow! We’re going to have a baby!” Two pushes and there HE was. I think she assumed I knew what I was having because she went about her business – suctioning and unwrapping the cord THREE TIMES from around his neck – Holden was a “triple cord” baby. That explained the sudden drop in heart rate. Finally she yelled, “It’s a BOY!” I remember crying out with joy…I was totally on the fence and still had NO feeling one way or another. I was ready for a little “Sloane” if she were a girl or “Holden” for a boy.

He was just perfect and resembled his big sister at birth – but again, he had his own precious little look. Less hair. A little cleft chin. Beautiful “pink” color. And gorgeous clear lungs. Those first cries are so special. I can never tire of those squeals. I now had a boy. A sweet son. This was one of the best days ever.

Sunday, February 25, 2007

8:46 am

7 pounds, 4 ounces and 20 inches in length

Holden Oliver Aspiras came into this world.

You were a mama’s boy from the start.

Happy Birthday Sweet Boy!

May you have many adventures, discoveries, giggles and good times on your way to FOUR.

You’ll ALWAYS be my BABY….I LOVE YOU!

Family, Feathered Nest, Fun

Back To Earth

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After an “out of this world” weekend celebrating Holden’s Happy Day, it’s Monday again and we’re back down to reality!

A to-do list awaits me (and it’s a cUtE to-do list, I might add):

There are thank you notes to be written for all of Holden’s fabulous gifts…

Birth certificates to order and appointments to be made:

Laundry to be done…

And laundry to be folded:

Floors to be vacuumed:

And groceries to be fetched:

Just when all the excitement is over from one celebration, there are a hundred more filling up the calendar ~ Art Night @ E’s preschool, Popsi visiting, Holden’s actual birthday on Thursday, Baby Shower, St. Patty’s Day, Lolo & Lola visiting, Easter, Spring Break, E’s 5th birthday, E’s preschool graduation and her very first official dance recital!

So much to look forward to over the next few months.

Never a dull moment.

LiFe keeping us on our toes.

The good. The bad.

It’s LIFE and eVeRyDaY is special…

…so I will get to it and start checking off my to do list for today.

Hope your Monday is also filled with one check mark after another!

Family, Feathered Nest, Fiestas & Fetes, Flip Flops On The Rocks, Food, Friends, Fun

100 & 3

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Today is special for a couple of reasons…

We celebrated Holden’s 3rd birthday.

This is my 100th post.

I’ve been at this blog thing for almost 4 months now and already at 100 entries. Wow! I didn’t think I had that much to say!

I’m having a lot of fun with it and am looking forward to the next 100! If I stay at this rate, we will be at 200 around the first day of Summer. Another reason to celebrate.

Speaking of celebrations, today we had a houseful of astronauts, robots, martians and aliens. Hard to believe my little space cadet is already THREE.

This was Holden when the guests started arriving:

Oops!

It was a BLAST! (pun intended)

Thanks again to all our little astronaut friends for coming to our planet for an afternoon of fun!

Below are a few recipes and links to the extra terrestrial eats:

For the “taco bar” I just browned up a couple packages of ground turkey and chopped onion and added 2 envelopes taco seasoning and a little water. I set out crunchy shells and small flour tortillas with all sorts of toppings lined up ~ shredded lettuce, cheese, sour cream, mango peach salsa, sour cream, jalapeño rings, cilantro lime corn salsa & guacamole. Everyone created their own taco masterpieces ~ super easy!

Battlestar Bean Dip

2 cans Campbell’s Bean soup with bacon

1 pint sour cream

1 package taco seasoning mix

1 pound sharp cheddar cheese, grated

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and then transfer to an oven safe dish. Bake @ 350 for 30 minutes or until bubbly. Serve with Fritos Scoops or your fave tortilla chips. (Another yummy recipe from Melanie Corona!)

Pineapple Limeade (AKA Solar System Citrus Punch)

Midori Martian Margaritas

Cosmic Cake

Layered Cupcakes

Alien/Martian Sugar Cookies

1 package Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie mix

McCormick NEON food coloring

1 small container (12 oz.) white/vanilla prepared frosting

Gingerbread man cookie cutter

“Red Hots” candies

Prepare cookies as directed on package for “cutout cookies”. Roll out dough, as directed, and cut out with cookie cutter. Place only about 8 cookies at a time on cookie sheet and bake for 7-9 minutes @ 350. Let cool and then frost with lime green frosting.

Lime green frosting:

I used about 25-30 drops of the green in one small (12 oz.) container of frosting. Frost cookies and then add Red Hots candies for the eyes!

Family, Fashion, Fitness, Fun

Band-aids, Ballet & Battlestar Galactica

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I took this picture to show off Miss Elliott’s new tap shoes.

She looked so darling in her new navy blue unitard with hot pink hearts, silver sparklies and cute little ruffled sleeves. Her shiny new tap shoes tied with a neat bow.

Then there is the band-aid on her knee!

The adhesive bandages that she wanted NOTHING to do with months ago are now flying off the medicine cabinet shelves. We had Curious George, Hello Kitty, Sesame Street and Disney Princess varieties and still, about 8 weeks ago, there were NO takers. Now we’re just down to the “adult”, plain, generic, boring skin-colored version and, still, those are seeing popularity. Any little itch, pain, scratch, dry skin, you name it….they need a band-aid.

The same thing goes for those temporary tattoos…one day she wanted not a thing to do with them and now she wants me to apply them weekly ~ and those things stay on FOREVER!

Maybe she’s watching too much Miami Ink. {wink}

Jay captured this picture last night at dance class.

It’s the quintessential dance pose, isn’t it?

(I thought this was taken during the ballet portion of her class, hence the “Ballet” in the post title. Somehow “Band-aids, Tap & Battlestar Galactica” doesn’t have the same ring to it, so I’ll leave it as is. Just wanted you all to know that I noticed this discrepancy) {my OCD coming out}

Today is Holden’s big outer space birthday party.

We are heading to another universe this afternoon for some space travel.

I’m glad the solar system is working in our favor right now and we have SUN! Hip hop hooray!

More cosmic photos to come……

Happy Weekend!

Family, Fashion, Fun

Fancy Rassy

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We love the Fancy Nancy series in our house!

If you have a little girl(s) and haven’t discovered these darling books yet, check them out!

You can view the fanciness here.

Auntie Bucky sent the Fancy Nancy Christmas book last year which made a cute addition to our more traditional holiday reads. We also have Fancy Nancy and The Posh Puppy…which Elliott calls “The Polish Puppy”! But, I think my favorite so far is the original F.N. story.

Looks like we have a “polish puppy” of our own….

I hope you have a fanciful, fashionable, feathery and fUlL oF fUn FrIdAy!

Family, Flashbacks

No Brakes

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Jay shot this picture yesterday…

It’s symbolic to me in a couple of ways.

The red bike symbolizes Valentine’s Day.

Yesterday was gorgeous…we sat outside and enjoyed Chipotle for our V-day lunch. It made me long for warm (not HOT!) Summer afternoons…they will be here before we know it!

The words “No Brakes” are also ironic to me.

I look at Holden riding Elliott’s “big girl bike” and I feel like LIFE has NO BRAKES!

Wasn’t my baby boy just born last week? Now he’s riding a bike?

The countdown is on to his 3rd Birthday ~ 10 days from today.

I guess I’d better hang on because I don’t see things slowing down anytime soon!

May your week go by fast, but may you cherish all the special moments that come along with it.

Family, Feathered Nest, Food

Kid Swap

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My friend, Hollie, had a brilliant idea…

Take turns swapping the kids and celebrate Valentine’s Day sans midgets!

GREAT idea.

Jay and I celebrated last night and the Sullivan kiddos will come spend a few hours with us tonight.

We went to Saturday evening Mass and then came home to prepare a Pioneer Woman Valentine’s dinner:

Filet with onion and blue cheese sauce
Twice Baked Potatoes
Bread Pudding with Bailey’s Irish Cream sauce

Talk about a meat and potatoes meal. Veggies were NOWHERE to be found on this table tonight.

Personally I don’t like to prepare steaks at home…I always screw them up. I think cooking steaks is a science and it makes me WAY nervous. But we were trying to save some dough and decided to stay in. I substituted PW’s ribeye recipe with some filets. I told the butcher to say a prayer for me that I wouldn’t massacre them. They turned out OK, but the onion blue cheese sauce was simply out of this world and oh SO easy to make.

I’m telling you, the sauce was divine!

I’ve also not been able to successfully graduate from the school of bread pudding…not too sure why…it’s NOT that difficult.

I attempted PW’s sourdough bread pudding and substituted some almond extract for a portion of the vanilla and added sliced almonds on the top rather than the pecans she calls for. I also used Bailey’s Irish Creme Coffee liquor in place of the Jack Daniel’s for the sauce. Both substitutions worked out nicely and the pudding had a very distinct, but not overpowering, almond flavor.

We were so stuffed from our hearty, stick-to-your-ribs dinner that we just sampled the dessert, but are looking forward to enjoying it again this evening.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

~XOXO~

Family, Food, Friends

Enchiladas And Olympics And Wine…Oh My

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Last night we had a nice, relaxing Friday evening with the female half of the Sullivan family ~ our friends who live 2 doors down.

I found these scrumptous looking enchiladas on one of my favorite blogs and decided it was the perfect night to make them. I’m going to rename them “You had me at cilantro” chicken enchiladas, though.

I LOVE me some cilantro. Forget the chicken, cheese, sour cream, tortillas…..I made these for the cilantro! This flavorful herb runs throughout this recipe and I was chompin’ at the bit to try these.

Here is the line up:

Two ingredients are missing from this pic…the ginormous bunch of cilantro is covering up the little sour cream tub and I also used some jarred roasted red peppers which didn’t make the photo shoot.

The meat from one whole rotisserie chicken made eight HUGE enchiladas.

And here is the final product:

They were SUPER DUPER yummy, but I was expecting them to be a little spicier…we added some jalapeño rings and then they were absolute perfection on a plate!

These paired with Gramma K, good friends, a couple bottles of wine and the Olympic Opening Ceremonies was the perfect way to wrap up the week and welcome Valentine’s Day weekend.

So, if you don’t know what to make for your special Valentine, may I suggest these…spicy, creamy, cheesy, cilantro(y)!

Family, Food, Frugal Finds

Sleepless In SCV

Last night I was up 5, f-i-v-e, cinco, cinq, cinque, one, two, three, four, FIVE times!

All because Holden fed Riggs, our Border Collie, this:

Ugh! Don’t feed your dogs high fiber bran cereal people!

This is where Riggs will be ALL day:

This is what I will be drinking ALL day:

Maybe with one of these on the side:

That was rough!

But now to get Elliott to school for her Valentine’s Party…

and maybe swing by the Starbucks drive-thru on the way!

P.S. The Parisian Almond Créme you see above is my NEW favorite! If you love almond (yes, please!), try this…pour it in your coffee, sit back, close your eyes and imagine yourself strolling through the streets of Paris…that’s what I do.

Have a caffeine charged Thursday!

Au revoir.