On a semi vacation - stop in Colorado Springs

My family and I are in South Dakota visiting my inlaws - we drove from Texas, so it was a loooooong drive!! LOL But, we made a short stop in Colorado Springs and visited the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. If you're ever in the area, I highly recommend this zoo - the views from the mountains are spectacular! Just bring comfy walking shoes as you will be walking STEEP hills, lol!! Here are some pics, including Catie and Austin feeding the Giraffes!! :)

hugs,
Anjee

Don't think I shared these listings on here?

Things have been so hectic with both kids home for the summer and I didn't get a chance to share these listings with everyone. The sweet ladies of the Boutique Jaynes invited me to join them in a YAY! Summer guest launch and I wanted to make something extra special for the launch. I listed brother/sister matching Mouse Clubhouse party sets :)

The listings are over now, but here are more pics if you're interested:


BOY'S SET

GIRL'S SET

I had such a blast guesting with all of the Jaynes - they are such sweet and talented ladies!!!! Thanks y'all!!!!

hugs,
Anjee

RAH -t- DAH! Catie goes to the DCC camp

Fun, fun, fun under the hot Texas sun!

Since daddy had work-education courses to complete most of this last week in Dallas, I took the opportunity to take Catie to an absolutely unique opportunity to cheer, dance, and do crafts with the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders! It was either that, be stuck in a hotel room, drive all over Dallas for 3 days to different things, or go shopping all day, every day, lol, so I gave Catie the choice and you know now what she chose...

For those of y'all who don't know, I grew up about 20 minutes south of downtown Dallas...in my elementary to high school years, it really wasn't a suburb of Dallas. Now, my hometown, where I was born and reared for 18 years of my life - is really getting close to a suburb of Dallas. Maybe in the next 5-10 years, it definitely will be. Wow - progress, huh?

So, gotta love those Cowboys and their cheerleaders!!!

I gotta say - these ladies are absolutely so classy and sweethearts!

will update more soon...

in the meantime...

The Best Pics from DCC Camp, including Cheerleader Pics and Pics of Catie and Austin with the Cheerleaders after the camp :)

Out and About in North Dallas area

We just recently went up to Dallas this past week so my hubby could complete some of his continuing education credits. On the last day, my sister and I stumbled upon a wonderful deli called "Hanging Out" - such fresh an wonderful food!! We were almost done with our sandwhiches when we saw the desert menu...a little pg-13, but kinda funny...

CLICK THE PIC to see the menu up close...

hope I don't offend anyone ;)

hugs,
Anjee

Sharing birthday pics 6 weeks late, lol

Everything has been crazy since the first of May in our house, so six weeks after our birthday, I can finally share pics of Catie and my b'day cake. We only put 6 candles on the cake - the rule is since I had Catie on my 30th b-day, that I get the same number of candles as she does (since I'm 36). I really love the cake Catie picked this year for us, lol..

I hope to catch-up on a lot of things today and the next few days, so a bombardment of posts?? :)

hope everyone is well!!
~Anj

Catie really liked the Circus Event at her school

So she decided to "tame" her brother, the "monkey," in a faux Circus, at-home-event this past week. Check-out her outfit...she dressed herself to be the ringleader, lol.

A day in the life with my sweeties....lol...

~Anj

Painting Austin's Room....

Well, this was an adventure!!! Austin wanted to paint his walls as I trimmed everything, lol. My hubby trimmed the ceiling part and then rollered it all in...These are the preview pics.

I'll update soon with how his room looks now!!! :)

hugs,
Anj

The Greatest Little Circus in Texas...

Catie's Kindergarten Class had a "The Greatest Little Circus in Texas" Show this morning and I took some pics to share of the event. My camera battery died about 1/2 way through the show, so I didn't get all the show's pics - Luckily for me, Catie was in the first 1/3rd of the show :).

Her daddy said that she was turning around in the opposite direction as everyone else - I didn't notice as I was too busy clicking away, lol...

You can see more pics here:


Catie's Kindergarten Circus Show

hugs,
Anj

Blast from the Past...

Pulled out some paintings that I made before I had kiddos..."CAP" is my pre-marriage initials, I'm now a "CAR" (I go by my middle name-ish) ;).

It's been so long since I painted...ebay is kinda slow, maybe I'll pull out my paints :)

~Anj

How Precious is this???

Aren't these sisters adorable?? These cuties are Sarah and Marisa, little sweeties of Stacey.

I was so excited to be able to make matching sister sets for them (and a matching mommy skirt for Stacey)...and couldn't wait to share pics of these sisters when Stacey sent them. The last pic is of Marisa alone - isn't she pretty in pink??

all the best,
Anjee

Now this was a yummy meal!

Can you believe this meal is lo-fat, low-cal? It is!

If you have a Randalls or Safeway near you, you can pick up the first one in the frozen section. It's an "Eating Right" selection (the shrimp, broccoli, etc one that you stir-fry)...you can learn more about it here:
Eating Right Info

We've made this a couple of times with rice on the side and this last time we made it, we made it with a Weight Watchers veggie stir-fry that's only ONE point! We altered the recipe slightly because we didn't have walnuts on hand. The original recipe uses cooking spray, sesame oil, broccoli, and walnuts. We used cooking spary, sesame oil, broccoli, pecan halves, and added carrots. YUMMY YUMMY!!! I like the original receipe and our alteration :) If anyone would like the recipe, jlmk!!!

happy and healthy eating,
Anjee

A Late Saturday Night...

Well, I wish I could say that it was something exciting - something fun and creative, but the truth is

I was up until 4 am Sunday morning doing Taxes.

Oh No...they aren't done by any means at all. I just entered in the "data" part into the Turbo Tax software. I still have to do ALL the business stuff and I'm sooo bad, I think it's been 6-8 months since I tallied/did my books for my business.

Every year I say that I'm going to keep it up to date...and you see what happens, I get to May or June and then poof. I stop keeping track. The next week is going to be something else...lots of math, etc.

And yes we OWE this year...again.

Happy (pre)Tax Day everyone - do you owe or are you getting money back??

numerically yours,
Anjee

My Little May Day Girl, Catie

My Caterina always amazes me...she has little to no fear and of course, I know as she gets older as a teen and up, that will worry me more. As she approaches her 6th birthday (and I, my 36th birthday, as we were both born on May 1st - unplanned!), I am somewhat trying to capture the best of what my heart sees in her.

She's my little princess and I love her, but I've always been fascinated as she gets older to see the difference between Mom and daughter, especially since we share the same birthday. We have so many things in common, but there are some distinct differences. Catie knows or meets few strangers. She is incredibly confident and other kids are drawn to her confidence. I, on the other hand, am usually quite shy... She seems to always do what she likes or wants in social situations at school and couldn't care less if anyone else wants to do it - what happens is that kids gradually start doing what she is doing. Not all of them, of course, but it just amazes me to watch. It's a little spark in her that I admire - that air of confidence.

I'm sharing some pics of her personality, taken recently at Disney. The first shots were taken at the Beirgarten restaurant in Germany where Catie was pratically the ONLY dancer on the floor for abour 15 minutes. Gradually, other kids come onto the floor and joined into a Christmastime story. :)

The second pic is of Catie opening up the World of Disney store in downtown Disney. A castmember selected her to open the store while she was getting a Hannah Montana makeover at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. You'll see one of my older sisters in one of the pics.

The last pic of Catie as Hannah is just for fun, lol...

Sharing Some Watercolors Catie made

I thought I'd share some watercolors that Catie made about 11 months ago right after she turned 5...these are some of my favorites!!! I meant to post them earlier, but I've so been neglecting my blog :( Her 6th birthday is coming up soon, so I'm getting a little sentimental about my baby growing up :(

I'm so sentimental, but I just love these :) :)

Can you guess who all of these pics are??? Go ahead...I'll give a special prize to Starbucks (a latte on me ;) ) for the first person who guesses all correctly ;)