I won a prize! A birthday Luau! Shopping! Baking! And ofcourse, lots of cute pics!

This past week has been busy, busy, busy!

Friday morning started off really really good when I found out I won a giveaway from Lil' Woman! I couldn't believe it! I never win anything! I won a $40 gift towards anything at CSN.com How fun is that?! I have had my eye on some of these for a while, so I went a head and ordered this and this on Friday and they should be arriving any day now. I am so excited! It's one of those items I have been wanting for a while now, but couldn't justify spending the money. With shipping and everything, I only paid about $1.50. Thank you so much Lil' Woman! You should check out her blog too, her and her big man are really cute;)

Friday night my sister came over and we started making and preparing the food for my mom's birthday luau the following night. There was alot to do! So we were up pretty late getting everything done and then cleaning up the mess. We also indulged in the key lime pie that I had made the night before. It was low carb, sugar-free and absolutely AMAZING. I have been trying out recipes from this girl's blog and I am so happy that I found her. She is a master at making low-carb, sugar-free deliciousness!! I had 2 big pieces every day over the weekend and somehow my weight still went down... crazy! I also saved a piece for my grandmother who is diabetic and she absolutely loved it. She was so happy to share in dessert and not worry about how it would affect her.

I picked up my mom Saturday morning and we headed down to The Loop. It's about a 20 minute drive over to a stretch of road with great restaurants, shopping and music. They have the cutest little boutiques with unique clothing and accessories and lots to look at and lots to do. This was important be because I needed to keep her busy while the rest of the family got her house ready for her party that night. I was bringing her back around 5:30 when we would walk in the door and everyone would yell "Surprise!" She had never been down to The Loop before, so she was excited to go. We had alot of fun walking around and checking out all of the shops. We got very lucky with the weather. It could have been a scorcher considering the weather on the days before and the days after. But it actually wasn't too bad and we even had a breeze. I didn't even sweat. Yay!

Her party was alot of fun. Old friends she hadn't seen in a while showed up, along with family and other friends. Everyone's babies were crawling around and having their own fun. Then at the end of the night, we all decided to crash there. Even my sisters neighbor decided to stay (only because he was too inebriated to drive himself home). So he slept on the couch, Amy on the little couch, her hubs J slept on the floor in the living room right beside my sister Erin and her man C. Joe and I slept in the bedroom downstairs. The munchkin and her cousin each got their own bedroom upstairs. Not fair at all I tell you, but whatda gonna do?

This was the first time the munchkin had slept the entire night in her pack n play and not in her own crib. I wasn't sure how it was going to go. I gotta say, I was mighty proud. She went down at 8:00 and slept soundly through the entire night until about 7:30 in the morning. I was also afraid that she was going to freak out when she woke up in a strange place. But instead I just found her standing up looking around and talking quietly in her little baby babble.

My mom made breakfast for everyone. Her specialty, bacon, eggs, biscuits and gravy. Yum! I skipped out on the biscuits and gravy and had brought my own muffin, but it was all still delicious and it was so much fun having everyone around the table for a big breakfast, along with the addition of our guys and little kiddos. I think it would be really awesome if we could all live in a huge house together. Ofcourse, we would all have to have our own private quarters equipped with kitchens and private living spaces.

Sunday was spent recouping and getting ready for the next week. I usually make up a bunch of food to prepare for the week ahead and this is also the day we do all of our laundry.

The munckin's babysitter's kiddo was sick on Monday and Tuesday so we took turns taking off work and staying home with her. It was pretty awesome having an extra bonus day to spend with her. My favorite part of the day with her is in the mornings before her first nap. We usually only get to spend that time with her on the weekends.

I am slowly easing my way back into carbs. Things like brown rice and whole wheat pasta are things I definitely want to incorporate back into my diet. So last night my girl Gina took me out for some sushi. There is this new sushi place near my house where you can sorta build your own roll and you can opt to have it with brown rice! It was so good. The spicy tuna practically melted in my mouth. It had been over 3 months since I was able to eat any sushi (this is huge coming from someone who previously ate it 1-2 times per week... or more). It was a glorious reunion. Her hubby and their little boy came over with her and stayed and hung out with my hubs for some bbq pork steaks while we ventured out for the sushi.

I gave the munch some edamame and she loved it! I bought them already shelled at Trader Joes, boiled them for about 6 minutes. I then peeled the skin off of them and laid them on her tray. She gobbled them up. Look how happy she is!


She has just been so much fun lately. She is clapping really well now and waving hello and goodbye. It's so amaing to see her grow and learn new things every day.


Her and her little cousin are definitely partners and crime. When they are together, they just follow each other around and get into everything. Here they are trying to pull things out of the fridge.



Reading books. They are so smart.

For the first time ever, they were actually sharing toys and handing each other things.

Our friend Justin brought his little girl Mya over to play too. It was pretty hilarious watching them all crawl around like a small herd of animals.

They kept fighting over who got to hold Mya's cheerios.

I put the munchkin in this little dress on Sunday. I thought she looked so adorable in it, we just had to do a photo shoot.


She got some cool new shades on Sunday from Target. This is as close as I could get to a picture of her wearing them.

I had alot to do in the kitchen yesterday before we could head out for sushi and not much time to do it. I gave the munchkin free reign over the storage containers cabinet to keep her busy. It worked like a charm.


So there's my week. I better get back to work!