Team Espinoza

Dear Annabelle,

Today you turn six months old. You have a happy and laid back demeanor. I love that you smile every day now. You even smile at the cats.

You have come along way physically. I would see the picture of the baby in the “What to Expect The First Year Book” on its belly, pushing up on its hands, and holding its head up high. I was a little worried for a while that you weren’t meeting this milestone. Then one day I came in to get you from your nap and there you were, pushing yourself up on your hands and holding your head up high. I am wondering if this is how it’s going to be the rest of your life. Will I be worried about your development, and then one day with no warning you just do it?

Daddy was drilling you the other night about rolling over. You rolled over one way and then Daddy coached you to roll back the other way. Then he said, “Again!” and you happily did it. You were a good sport about it.

You had your first cold this past month. We ran out to get a humidifier for your room late one night. You were having trouble breathing and kept waking up. You really hate your nose being suctioned, but who wouldn’t? You recovered from your cold just in time for a cough. You still have the cough, but you don’t have a fever and you are still eating okay.

You are still being breastfed. Eating is not a problem for you and you have actually started playing while you eat. When you are done chugging you come off, give me a huge smile, and then attack my boob again. It’s so darn cute, but I have to stop you from stopping and starting again, so you will learn to eat. Lately, you have started teething and you like to teeth on my boob. Thanks.

You drool like its going out of style. You try to chew on everything. One of your favorite activities is grabbing stranger’s fingers and sticking them in your mouth. A few fingers even make it into your mouth. Your first tooth has yet to arrive.

Standing is joy for you. You prefer to stand than to lay on your belly. I have stood you up and leaned you against something and you stood for five seconds.

Rice cereal was introduced to you two weeks ago. You really like the stuff. Lately it has been hard for you to eat, because of your cough.

Your two fingers upside bring you comfort when you tired or hungry. I am not sure when you switched from your thumb, but it is quite funny.

You bring your dad and me such joy. We took you to feed the homeless last week. I carried you around in the Baby Bjorn and a lot of them came up to see you. They would try to get you to smile and you would smile right back at them. You would try and grab their hands. They would ask what your name was and I would tell them and ask them for their name. You open doors to the Gospel, which you don’t even know. You bring your little light and joy wherever you go. We pray that you will always shine your light of the Jesus inside of you.

Next month you will travel to the other side of the world with your parents to share Jesus. I know you are going to be more of a missionary on that trip than me or your dad will be. I am trusting the Lord for your health and safety. You will be my sidekick for ten days. It will be challenging, but it will be worth it. Your Daddy and I have always prayed at every significant occasion that we would be more for the Kingdom of God together than separate. You are now a part of that vision. You are a member of Team Espinoza.

We love you very much and can’t wait to see your personality grow and develop.

Happy Birthday, Annabelle!

Love,
Mommy

Team Espinoza moved to a faster server yesterday and it was down longer than expected. I was even cut off from email! So I was not able to update yesterday.

We have not moved the gallery over yet, so Annabelle’s gallery and photo are down right now. We made a temporary page and I may post a photo later today. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy our faster page loads!

“That..That..That don’t kill me, Can only make me stronger…”

Seriously. This song gets stuck in my head. You know you are singing it too.

I LOVE spinach salad and finding creative ways to eat baby spinach. We can all use a little more green in our diets. Here is a recipe that I found that makes spinach taste like candy. I made it tonight and it was delicious!

Here is a link to recipe at allrecipes.com, but I have also pasted a copy below.

Jamie’s Cranberry Spinach Salad

Prep Time: 10 Minutes
Cook Time: 10 Minutes Ready In: 20 Minutes
Yields: 8 servings
“Spinach, toasted almonds and bits of dried cranberries are tossed together in a bowl and dressed with a sweet and tangy vinegar and oil dressing full of sesame and poppy seeds.”

INGREDIENTS:
1 tablespoon butter
3/4 cup almonds, blanched and slivered
1 pound spinach, rinsed and torn into bite-size
pieces
1 cup dried cranberries
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
1/2 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons minced onion
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup vegetable oil

DIRECTIONS:
1. In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Cook and stir almonds in butter until lightly
toasted. Remove from heat, and let cool.
2. In a large bowl, combine the spinach with the toasted almonds and cranberries.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the sesame seeds, poppy seeds, sugar, onion, paprika, white wine vinegar, cider vinegar, and vegetable oil. Toss with spinach just before serving.

When I made it:

- I only used 1/4 cup of sugar. Half just seemed too much.
- I used apple cider vinegar, because that is what I had in the pantry. It was still good.
- I didn’t use poppy seeds, because I did not have any in the pantry.
- Be careful, not to burn the almonds. I totally burned my first batch.
- The suggestions on the site recommended Craisins. I used them and they were delicious!

Bon Appetite!

I think the blog accountability worked. I was motivated to get the house cleaned and I did it! The whole house isn’t cleaned, but I accomplished what I wanted to get done. It is surprising what pieces of junk you will find in your top bathroom drawer. Am I really going to use this rusted snap barrette? My hope is that since the drawer is clean I will use it instead of playing the See If I Can Cover Every Space on My Counter game. So thanks blog friends for holding me accountable to cleaning my house today. Now can you hold me accountable to flossing my teeth everyday?

I don’t have anything scheduled today, so my plan is to get the house clean. A few weeks ago I told Daniel that I would schedule one day a week to stay home and clean. I have yet to reach that goal. So here I am today with no specific plans and I must chisel the bathroom countertops and clean the goop off the floors. Not that any of you folks out there really care if my house is clean. I am just hoping that by posting about it, I will have accountability and actually do it today. I’ll update tonight if I get anything accomplished. I just want to wow Daniel when he walks in the door.

Cheers! Here’s to hoping I get off my arse and get the house clean today.

I went to hear Beth Alves teach tonight with some of my old family and friends from my previous church, Northwest Christian Fellowship. Beth Alves teaches about prayer and prophecy. She is the author of “Becoming a Prayer Warrior” which is fabulous book that covers the basics of prayer. Listening to Beth teach is like listening to your favorite Grandma share her wisdom and fun stories. Tonight she taught about the basics of the gift of prophecy. It was really good. She teaches the first Monday night of the month in San Antonio. If you are interested in going with me just let me know.

I titled the post “Signs and Wonders,” because this phrase has come up a lot in my day to day life in the last few weeks. Our missions team has talked about seeing God heal the sick during our trip. I have listened to two different sermons where the phrase was mentioned. Today my friend brought up the subject of expecting healings as a normal every day occurrence. Tonight Beth mentioned praying for God’s anointing for signs and wonders. I believe God is doing something in the hearts of His people. I think sometimes as Christians we don’t believe that big things can happen, but God can do anything! He is God. I believe we are about to see God do some miraculous signs and wonders in our lives.

You may have noticed a change here at teamespinoza.com. Our old theme was tired and old. This new look is a temporary fix until we can really transform the site into our dream blog. The future design will be more of a challenge for Daniel to create and require more time. In the meantime, I hope you like the new digs!

Fun Fact:  We took that photo of ourselves in front of the Spanish Steps in Rome. Ah, Rome.

Tonight is the Season Premiere of the twelfth season of The Amazing Race. Daniel and I are so excited, because this is our favorite show. I get so tense watching it, I have to watch something else to calm down afterwards so I can get to sleep. It is fun to see the countries that they travel to and the challenges. We cringe every time they are the “ugly americans,” and we rejoice when we see teams embracing the culture. We root for our favorite teams and hope the bickering teams lose. We like to play along and determine which road block we would do. It is some great television and you are missing out if you have not watched a season yet.

Daniel and I almost applied to be on the show when we got married, but we did not think we could get six to eight weeks off from work at the time to film it. We were going to be “Multi-Ethnic Newlyweds.”

Check out the new season tonight!

I am exhausted tonight, so I don’t feel very inspired. We woke up early (for us) at 6:45 this morning to get ready and join our team at the Philippines Missions Team Rummage Sale. We made some money from the rummage sale for our trip today through selling spaces for others to sell their stuff, brisket plates, and our rummage table. It was a successful event!

After the rummage sale and a little down time we went with the Springirths to drop off something green for dinner to the lovely Boyds in the hospital. Seriously, hospital food is disgusting.

We watched the incredibly boring aTm and Oklahoma game with Pete and Rachel. The highlight was watching two Oklahoma band members dance as if they were Jennifer Beals on crack. We laughed so hard. You would have to be as tired and delirious as we were to appreciate the dance that we watched over and over again.

Baby Ezra was born on All Saints Day at 4:51 p.m. to our awesome friends Josh and Beth.

Congratulations!