Sadie turned 4 on May 12th. She was all about Rapunzel this year, or as she would say, "Reepunzel." The girl is obsessed with Rapunzel! A couple of weeks ago she couldn't get into the car and Noelle was in the car so she yelled, "Ellie, let your hair down." Ellie does have long, beautiful hair, but she opened the door to let Sadie in. She was so much fun on her birthday. Whenever the phone would ring she would run to it and frantically say that it was for her. Ben and I have called her our little treat since the day she was born and she still is such a treat! She is a sassy, spicy treat these days! She made things very easy for me despite her Rapunzel theme, she just wanted chocolate frosting and sprinkles for her cake!
Speaking of Sadie, you never know what is going to come out of her mouth. Yesterday, when Ben was leaving for the wildland fire, he stopped by the house to grab a few things and say goodbye on his way out of town. Before he came home, I explained to the kids that Dad is going to be gone for a couple of weeks because he's going to go help on a fire. I didn't want to worry the kids or anything so I didn't make it sound dangerous or anything, I just explained that we're going to miss him, we need to hurry and say our goodbyes when he gets home because he will be in a hurry, but he will be back in a couple of weeks. Well, that's just what we did. We said our goodbyes, gave hugs and kisses and stood in the driveway to wave as he drove off in the firetruck. As Ben was getting into the firetruck, Sadie yelled, "Bye Dad. I love you! I hope you don't get dead!" Both Ben and I just laughed. We have no idea where this came from. I don't think that she really understands what death is though because she didn't say it with very much concern. She just said it very matter-of-factly.
I can't close this post without talking about food a little. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a very deep appreciation for food, so I will probably talk about it quite often in my posts. I mentioned that Natalie from Perry's Plate has been one of my inspirations in the kitchen. Well, I didn't get her permission to talk about her so I hope she'll forgive me for a minute. I think she will. I really like her approach on things in the kitchen because we share some commonalities. She adds spinach to a lot of her dishes to boost vegetable intake and nutritional value. I do this too. I like to add it to eggs...my kids call it green eggs :). I add it to smoothies, quesadillas...just to name a few things. Natalie loves sweet potatoes and I do too. I am all about using these two super foods, amongst others, whenever I can. Natalie believes in whole grains. Anyone who knows me, knows that this is important to me. Anyways, Natalie just puts some fun spins on some of these foods for me and this week was no exception. If any of you are looking for a good vegetarian meal, or even if you aren't you have to give this http://www.perrysplate.com/2011/03/stacked-roasted-vegetable-enchiladas.html a try. I'm not vegetarian, but we do try to have a couple of meatless dinners each week and this recipe is a keeper at my house. While you're checking this recipe out, cruise around her site a little. A couple of weeks ago we made her energy balls for a healthier snack that my whole family loved!...and as I sit here preaching about how I like to eat healthy, I'm eating chocolate chip cookies! I never said I was giving up my treats!!
Pregnancy update...the photo below is me today at 24 weeks and 3 days pregnant. I need to dig out some photos from previous pregnancies to show you all the difference from what I think I should look like at 24 weeks pregnant. I know that I'm not huge, but I am bigger with this one than what I have been with other pregnancies so I feel like I am. I keep saying that it's because I'm in my 30's or that it's because it's my 5th. Who really knows? Onto more important things...the baby is growing well measuring in the 50th percentile. Most of you already know that Ben and I don't find out ahead of time what the gender is, but Ben will tell you that it is a boy. He didn't get a peak or anything. He just has a hunch. He has been right with the first 4 so we will see how he does this time.
