New layouts

I haven't had the opportunity to scrap much this month between work and Maddie's birthday party, but I did finish a couple of layouts from an Embellish It kit. I love these monthly kits and they are quick, easy and cute for when I need a little jump start. You can check them out at embellishkits.com  

The first layout is of Maddie playing at Merriman Park in April. She had a blast chasing the birds, and really believed she could catch them. I love all the layering in this kit.

The second layout is Maddie helping plant flowers in March. She was a great helper until I got them all planted and realized that she was going behind me and pulling out all the flowers by their blooms! 

Thanks for visiting! 

Project Life - Week 37

Welcome to Project Life 2013! If you are new to my blog, welcome! I hope you will stay a while. I'm Jessica, wife to Juan, mommy to 1 year old Maddie. I am also an electrical engineer by day and I am participating in Project Life, a different way to record our lives by taking one photo a day. This was inspired by the fabulous Becky Higgins who has put together a wonderful kit to make this challenge easier.

I am using the digital kit on shutterfly (hopefully Olive once it has been released), find more info at http://www.beckyhiggins.com/blog. This digital version uses Shutterfly and is SUPER easy to use! See my completed pages for 2012 using the Shutterfly Cobalt kit HERE.

And finally, my POTW (pictures of the week):

Tuesday - Maddie's first day of School at Ascension Day School. She was very ready to go. I packed her a yummy lunch in her new Bento Box and Lion lunch box. She also had her nap mat, diaper bad, and lovey "Monkey, Monkey." When we arrived at school, she immediate ran to the play kitchen. Maria and I had to go to her and say "bye-bye". She looked at us a bit odd and then went right back to playing. When we picked her up, Miss Lisa said she played and had fun the entire day until nap time when she kept saying "no mimi, no mimi" and getting up. Mrs. Jackie continued to put her back on her mat and rub her back and finally she did fall asleep. She was completely out when we arrived. In fact, Mrs. Jackie tried to gently wake her up by rubbing her back and Maddie just pulled away and kept sleeping. She was glad to see me though, but said she had fun and wanted to go back so that is GREAT news! Hopefully Thursday will go as well. The school posted an adorable video of the toddler class playing Freeze Dance. Maddie looks like she is having a blast and running all around!

Wednesday - Daddy and Maddie watching Tree Fu Tom and doing the motions to "activate" the magic, it is a bit like yoga. How cute are they together?

Thursday - Maddie at "Circle Time" at school. She is completely engrossed and apparently trying to eat the plastic apple.

Friday - A full day of preparing for Maddie's Birthday party tomorrow. Nana was here to help with the food and Maria was here to help with Maddie. She also cleaned, which was a huge help! We actually got almost everything done and prepared! Tomorrow should be a fabulous day.

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Saturday - Maddie's 2nd Birthday - A Sesame Street Party was a huge success! Maddie ran non-stop and had a fabulous time. All of the kids enjoyed the games and activities and almost all the food was consumed. It was a huge effort for both Daddy and I, but it turned out spectacular and we will have wonderful memories of this day for a long time to come. If Maddie doesn't remember it, we have plenty of photos to document the memories for her. I love you my sweet little girl! You are my everything, Happy Birthday!

Video of Maddie and her Cake

Video of Maddie opening Presents

Sunday - Today is Maddie's 2nd Birthday. Since we have been so busy this past month preparing everything for her party, we decided to spend the day together as a family as Maddie's favorite place, the Dallas Zoo! We took Maddie to see the Koala's, Kangaroo's and feed the birds. These birds were very aggressive. They tried to steal Maddie's hat. She was very brave and wasn't scared at all; but the birds did attack Daddy. I'm not sure why they took such a liking to him, but they were pecking at his ears, head, and arms. Maddie loved the lizards, crocodiles, snakes, and other reptiles. Why do I have a feeling we are going to end up with a reptilian pet at some point? When we returned home, we let Maddie open her presents from Daddy and I. She was super excited every time she opened an animal and knew when she opened the big present it was a "jungle." Every animal that she had Daddy open she told us it's name and what sound it made. This was impressive since there was a Flamingo, Ostrich, Polar Bear, Camel, Seal, Turtle, Hippo, Bear, etc. She is definitely an animal lover. 

Video of Maddie Feeding the Birds

Video #1 of Maddie Opening Presents

Video #2 of Maddie Opening Presents

Monday - Daddy installed Maddie's Toddler Crib conversion kit today. She only fell out of bed one night and then she just slept on the pillows below her bed, she never cried or anything. I am glad though that there is now a small rail to help keep her in bed as she flips and turns all night long. This morning I caught a quick photo of Maddie, Abuelito and Abuelita headed out for their daily walk. Maddie LOVES walks and would be content to walk the neighborhood all day if we would let her.

Thanks for visiting!

Project Life - Week 36

Welcome to Project Life 2013! If you are new to my blog, welcome! I hope you will stay a while. I'm Jessica, wife to Juan, mommy to 1 year old Maddie. I am also an electrical engineer by day and I am participating in Project Life, a different way to record our lives by taking one photo a day. This was inspired by the fabulous Becky Higgins who has put together a wonderful kit to make this challenge easier.

I am using the digital kit on shutterfly (hopefully Olive once it has been released), find more info at http://www.beckyhiggins.com/blog. This digital version uses Shutterfly and is SUPER easy to use! See my completed pages for 2012 using the Shutterfly Cobalt kit HERE.

And finally, my POTW (pictures of the week):

Tuesday - Another new recipe from Pinterest tonight, Turkey - Veggie Mini Meatloafs from Shrinking Kitchen. They weren't bad, but not one of my favorites. Hubby is not a huge fan of turkey burger. He prefers the real beef!

For the meatloaves:

1/3 cup whole wheat bread crumbs

1/2 cup 99% fat free chicken broth

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil

3/4 of a red onion, diced

5-ounces baby carrots, finely chopped, or grated

1 1/4 pounds 99% lean ground turkey

2 Tbsp nutritional yeast

1 Tbsp organic milled flax seed plus 3 Tbsp water

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1/8 tsp all-spice

For the glaze:

3 Tbsp organic ketchup

2 tsp A1 sauce

1/2 tsp Sriracha sauce

Step by step

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Add bread crumbs to a large bowl, and pour chicken broth over crumbs.
3. Combine milled flax seed and water, stirring well, in a small bowl, and place in the refrigerator to set.
4. Heat 1 tsp oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add red onion and carrots, and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Transfer to bowl with soaked crumbs. Add the turkey, nutritional yeast, milled flax seed mixture, salt, pepper, and all-spice. Mix with your hands until well combined.
5. With your hands, form small meatloaves, approximately 1 cup in size, and place on a rimmed, nonstick baking sheet. Bake mini meatloaves until cooked through and browned, about 40 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, prepare the glaze. In a small bowl, mix together the ketchup, A1 sauce, and Sriracha sauce. Brush over meatloves before serving. Enjoy!

Thursday - Maddie starts school on Tuesday and Thursdays next week (a Mother's Day Out program from 9am - 2pm). Her monogrammed nap mat arrived today and she was excited to try it out. She seems to be very ready for "school" and excited to begin. 

 Friday - Maddie and Daddy watching TV, probably Dora the Explorer! Like Father, like Daughter.

Saturday - I worked until about 2am Thursday night and when I arrived home, I didn't have a garage door opener. Juan switched vehicles with me to take Maddie to dinner since I was planning on working late. I called and called, but he was asleep and never awoke. After almost an hour of calling and ringing the doorbell I finally lost it and banged as hard as possible on the front door. It woke him up, but also woke up Maddie. I tried to get her to fall back asleep, but was having no luck. I was completely exhausted so Juan said he would lay on her floor until she fell back asleep. Apparently she was having none of that and climbed over the rail and dropped onto Daddy. Pretty soon she was climbing into bed with me and Daddy let her. I hoped it was a one time occurance, but Friday night after Daddy put her to bed and returned downstairs.....I heard a little pitter patter of feet and suddenly there was a little imp at my bed saying "Mommy". I chased her back to bed and she did finally fall asleep (with pillows piled below her bed), but this morning first thing she climbed out and again appeared in our bed. Daddy immediately decided the climbing was too dangerous and took the front off her crib. We quickly learned at nap time that there was no way to keep her in bed or in her room as she can now open any door. We settled for putting the gate up outside her door as the gate still seems to be a bit complicated for her to manage. I ordered the toddler conversion kit for her bed, but it will probably take about a week to be delivered, so for now we are using lots of pillows in case she falls out of bed.

Sunday - Maddie loves puzzles and dinosaurs. I ordered this 4 pack of wooden dinosaur puzzles for her online and didn't realize how small they would be. I figured they were way too complicated for Maddie, but I was completely wrong. I only helped her a couple of times and now she can put the entire 12 piece puzzle together with no assistance. She matches colors and pictures and knows what corners and edges are. She also knows the difference between Tyrannosaurus Rex, Stegosaurus, Triceratops, and Brachiosaurus.    

Monday - Tonight was "Meet the Teacher" night at Ascension Day School. School starts tomorrow and Maddie's teachers are Miss Lisa and Mrs. Jackie. Since Maddie is so tall and so advanced, they recommended moving her into the 2's and 3's class in lieu of the 18-24 month class where she should be. It appears she is still going to tower over a few of the children in her class. We are just hoping she will be able to keep up and not get frustrated or fall behind the others. She was perfectly fine exploring her new school and loved the playground, crying when we told her it was time to leave. We had dinner after at Babe's and our waitress asked Maddie if she wanted to dance the "Hokey Pokey." Maddie was all for it and tried to mimic the motions of the waitress's as best she could. It was too sweet and when she returned to the table she kept saying, "more pokey, more pokey." Dinner was a difficult even after that, as she clearly wanted to be dancing in lieu of eating.

Thanks for visiting!