My Sleeping Angels

This is when I love them most...

Last night, both kids wanted a little mommy snuggle time - we all ended up falling asleep together! When Chad came to bed, I was the only one out of the three of us that woke up so I grabbed the camera and started snapping at two of the loves of my life! I thought it was so precious that they were facing each other with their hands touching.

16 and Pregnant

MTV has a show called 16 and Pregnant, where it shows 16 year old couples going through their pregnancy. Up until last nights episodes, all of the couples or mother's have kept their babies. Last night a young couple was featured that decided to give their daughter up for adoption, despite the support of their parents. I mean, making the decision to give your baby up for adoption has to be incredibly hard in itself at such a young age, but without the support of your parents, has to be even harder. Although the couple was young, they thought more grown up than their parents it seemed like and they knew that their daughter was going to have a better life than they could give her. They wanted to be part of an open adoption and wanted their daughter to know how incredibly loved she was and that is why they made the decision that they did. They showed the entire adoption process, from selecting a parent to handing their daughter over. It was incredibly emotional and I think that I cried the entire time.

Adoption is an incredible thing, and I have had a few friends and family that have had their lives blessed by this amazing gift that one mother and father can give to another. Circumstances and situations have been different for each family that I know, but in the end, what a gift, and they are blessed with amazing children, just like the couple was from the show.

Couldn't resist sharing about this great giveaway!!!

I love a blog called Perch where the author has really cool style and features all sorts of products and offers tons of giveaways! This is the latest! Clip on the Perch hyperlink and enter yourself in to win these great products, as well as, check out the cool blog!

Redken is giving away all of these products pictured below to one lucky Perch reader! That is ten products to one of you! These are all great products! You will get Quick Dry 18 Instant Finishing Spray, Outshine 01 Anti-frizz Polishing Milk, Spray Starch 15 Versatile Ironing Spray, Extreme Iron Repair, and the entire Blonde Glam Haircare line!

Cool!

Was going to check etsy shops and it was down for maintenance, but had a How Tuesday episode to watch and learn from! Thought these were cool and look very pretty! Maybe I will make these for my new house - if we ever get one! Won't start on that though right now! In the meantime, enjoy the flowers!

This Is Why I Teach!

For days like today, where I met up with two incredible former students Celeste and Laken, at school to teach them how to make their own flower/bow clips! This has been in the works to try to do a morning together as soon as Laken got back from down South, where she spent most of the summer with her dad! She got the ball rolling by telling me she got her hair stuff and that she was ready when I was! We planned to meet while Kyan was away at camp (not really away, just the morning, at the Little Gym)! We talked a lot about high school and school shopping, as both are just around the corner!

What the girls didn't know, is that I was secretly interviewing them for babysitting duty! HA! They both passed with flying colors - wasn't hard though, as you will see in the pictures - Lola adored her time with them! Lola is the tough sell, not Kyan, he loves everyone! So rest assured mom (she, along with my mother-in-law, are always saying - "You know Jenni, you really need to find someone to watch your kids other than family!"), I found two great girls that I would trust with my kids, and I will be able to rely on someone(s) other than family to babysit, when I need to! Laken and Celeste - YOU ARE HIRED!!!

Celeste and Lola playing with the dry erase markers! This was really cute, because Lola kept going to the marker jar, then to Celeste to have her open them, then to the white board to scribble, and back again!

Making flowers/bows!!!

Laken's turn to play the marker game!

Staring at her new friends!

Cheesin' it up before we left to pick Kyan up at the gym!

My favorite one of the three girls!

Trying to squeeze all four of us into the picture ~ think that is why my neck looks all crazy!

Sleepy time on the way to get brother!
Took her all of about 30 seconds in the car before she was out!

***Thanks girls for such a fun morning! It was so fun to see you and teach you a thing or too! Can't wait to see all of the pretty bows that you made!***

"I love our day together mommy!"

Kyan and I got to enjoy a mommy/son "date" today thanks to Auntie Susie! A former student and mama, both of whom I adore, invited all of her 8th grade teachers to lunch before she starts high school (set for today) at noon, right in the middle of Lola's nap. I wasn't going to miss lunch and seeing everyone, so I asked Susie last week if she was willing to babysit Lola for the day - that way I could get some good QT in with Kyan (who is ever so patient with lots of time being consumed on Lola). She was more than happy to take Lola off of my hands for the day and Kyan and I were able to enjoy a movie: Ice Age 3, go to lunch with friends, and swim at Susie's afterwards!

Kyan and I before the movie started!

Lunch with Alison at NYPD - Yummy! Thank you so much Calibrese family!

Kyan and his friend Steven at lunch - they were having fun together both at lunch and at the movies! I love the girls that I work with and we are so fortunate that our children are so close in age!

Swimming with the Garretts - Lola was still napping when we were done with lunch and I had to go see a house (bid #3 on house #3, fingers crossed) so I left once again and left the kids with Susie - Jearel came home and Kyan went right in the pool with him. By then, the girls were up from their naps and they swam too! As soon as I got back to the house, I jumped in with them, as I was still sweating from looking at the house: bank owned and NO AIR is HOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTTTTT!

Thank you Susie for putting up with my little drama queen! I can always count on you and appreciate you so much - and not just because you babysit my kids!

Thanks Kyan for being such a cool kid! I had a blast on our date today and can't wait to have another one!

Yummy Dinner!!!

While making dinner the other night, Lola decided it would be funny to play in the dog's water! HA! Not funny - she made a giant mess!
She was getting in trouble and had to stand and get a lecture from me! How can I resist her face though - so trouble didn't last too long!

However, Kyan is a master mixer and helped me stir the stir-fry!

Stir-fry = EASY TO MAKE!!! Pick your vegetables, we chose: zucchini, carrots, onions, bell peppers, and celery! Along with the veggies, we added chicken and jasmine rice!
To top everything off we used our favorite sauce!

We are trying to get back to cooking at home and this is one of our favorite dishes to make!