.

Happy Valentines Day

2009-02-18T07:48:00.000-08:00

Who knew you could make play dough out of Koolaid. I found this recipe on the internet and I think it is the coolest thing ever and my kids like it too. What I like about using koolaid is that it makes great colors and the playdough smells YUMMY. We decided to make some heart cutouts to take to Nick's daycare on v-day.

Day 36

Koolaid Playdough Recipe:

2 1/2 Cups of Flour

1/2 Cup of Salt

1 T. cream of tarter

2 pkgs. koolade

2 Cups of boiling water

3 T. of oil

Mix all dry ingredients together, mix wet ingredients together. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients until a ball is formed, let cool. Once cooled kneed, when playdough feels consistent it is ready.

Day 37

Day 38

Day 40

Day 42

I thought J's teacher had a great idea when she decided to incorporate some learning into the kids v-day party. Since AZ became a state on valentines day she decideded her class would have a red, white, and blue valentines party. Jordan decided he wanted to give koolaid playdough to his friends at his vday party so we mixed up a batch. I found this cool website obamicon me and this is where we created his picture.

Of course I had to make some treats so little N could take to daycare. I found this idea out of a magazine. So this year I finally followed through with a valentines treasure hunt, it was really last minute. I had the boys look all over the house and yard for clues, they really had trouble finding the clue in the ice cream container and underneath the mail box, lol. They found their last clue in the storage shed, I got the older boys a cd (weird Al Yankavick and John Cena, it goes to show how different they are) and Nick got an etch a sketch.

Day 45

On Presidents day we took the boys snow tubing and we had such a good time. When we got there little N went down the hills all by himself. Trey confirmed that he is fearless, he wanted to go down all the big hills and I think he did. It was a good thing that Jordan's tube was a little flat this helped him go down the hills but at a little slower pace than Trey, whew!

Day 47

2009-02-04T08:20:00.000-08:00

Yeah! Trey got a haircut

I finally convinced Trey to get a much needed haircut, I know the style is long but seriously this boy was on the verge of homeless looking, lol! I thought he would put up a bigger fight but once I showed him a picture of what I would like he gave in, whew! I know the picture is a little blurry these are the results of my camera phone and little N helping me take the picture.

Payson area trail system

Here is the trail map that we use when hiking around our little town. I just love that there are so many trails nearby that we can get to in under 5 minutes. I also love that hiking is a great activity that my family loves and we can do it together and it cost nothing. So Willie and I have decided we are going to get ready for Huffin and Puffin in the Pines, we are planning on doing the 8 mile run. I know it sounds a little crazy for us but we decided that this is something we both have always wanted to do. We are doing lots of research to figure how to train and all that good stuff, I'll have to keep posting on our progress.

2009-02-03T13:36:00.000-08:00

So this is what we do when we are bored and waiting to pick up Trey, we take pictures with my phone. It actually is really entertaining and helps pass the time.

We made cupcakes for our little Super Bowl party! I used the whole bottle of red food coloring trying to get my frosting to turn red, Yikes. Good thing Jordan and Willie knew our players numbers because I had no clue. Unfortunately the Cardnials lost, but it was a good game.

Peach Orchard Trail

The boys found a hood to an old car and they thought it was the coolest thing. I told them if they could hike it out they could put it in their room, little did I know they would actually try it. Poor Nick he fell down so many times on this trail I don't know if he was tired or it was his shoes but it was the saddest thing. Of course Jordan brought his football. I was really suprised when his ball only got stuck once in a tree, but he did have to go looking for it a couple of times off the trail.

Day 32

2009-01-28T08:21:00.000-08:00

day 26: Yippie, My sisters graduation day from beauty school.

day 25: Trey spent the weekend working on an extra credit project for his science class. That is the planet Uranus your looking at in the picture. The extra credit consisted of picking a planet to make a model of an giving a brief summary of that planet. Well of course Trey Picked Uranus!

day 23: Trey had his play tonight and he did an awesome job!!! O.k. I know I must be a bad mom when I didn't realize how big his part was, he was the wolf in a short play about red riding hood and her red cape. Trey and little red riding hood were the two main characters and they both did a great job.

day 21: This is what I found peeking out through the ground today!! Yep these are the tulips I planted in the fall.

day 20: We got a new hot water heater... we got a new hot water heater... we got a new hot water heater.... I just can't stop signing that song. Wow, you never really don't know what you have sometimes until its gone, and then you get it back and you realize this is how everyone else lives. Yippie, I love love love taking showers for as long as I want now or until Nick decides he is taking a shower with me.

day 17: There was a moment I know I saw it, if only it was for a few seconds there was a moment between these two brothers, ha ha. I think I actually I saw Trey care about his brother for a few seconds and I got it on film, lol.

While I was at the parks and rec. department I picked up an area map of the hiking trails around town, so with the map we decided to go for a hike on Saturday. Nick loved holding the map and telling us which direction to go.

day 14: I went to sign Jordan up for basketball at the parks and rec's department and we just couldn't leave without seeing the ducks and running up and down the hill and few hundred times, lol.

day 11: All I have to say is that Nick is the LUCKIEST little boy to have Willie for a dad. Super Nick, flying shoes, and hands that shoot juice, these are the words and games that Nick and Willie play together. I really have to sit back sometimes and watch these two play their games it is the cutest and funniest thing that I have ever seen.

2009-01-12T12:52:00.000-08:00

day 10: Video games, endless amounts of quarters, and Pizza!! Every other weekend we try to take the kids out for lunch, this has been our new favorite placeDay 9: Yep, those are my running shoes!! As part of my new year's resolution I decided to get myself a gym membership. I really want to start making the most out of every day and so I thought if I wake up early go to the gym and then make breakfast for the kids this will help me accomplish alot. I am keeping my fingers crossed we will see how it goes!

day 7: I just love this picture of Nick's butt hanging out of his p.j.'s. I took this picture during a much needed haircut. I never really realized how red Nick's hair was until I saw all of his newly cut hair on my black chair, wow what a huge contrast!!

day 6: I found this amaryllis on clearence at wal-mart today and I thought it would be a fun project for the boys to help me plant it. I never really knew how easy it was to plant bulbs indoors. I thought I would give some paperwhites a try after I saw them in a magazine so I have them planted in clear containers all through the house and I can't wait to see how they do.
day 5: Yeah! The kids went back to school today. Actually, the 2 week Christmas break really flew by so fast.

Happy New Year

2009-01-02T09:17:00.000-08:00

Project 365

I decided I would participate in this super cool idea for the new year. Here is my first picture, it was taken at my sisters new year's eve party. After we counted down the seconds to the new year I kissed my hubby and then I found this party hat, I thought it would be a great picture to start off my project.

We had so much fun at my sis's party the theme was famous couples, duos, or pairs. It took us forever to decided on our costumes. Our top three were Al & Peg Bundy (Married with children), Nacho Libre and the nun, Ricky Bobby and his wife (Talladega Nights). I had to have Melissa help us decide on our final choice, which was Nacho libre. I really can't believe my hubby wanted to be this, but we got tons of laughs at the party.

Willie could only wear the mask for the first 5 minutes, luckily I got him to put it back on so I could get a picture of him, of course the wig had to go on top of the mask. I guess I can't blame my hubby I could only wear my headpiece for a little while as well. Here's a picture of my sister and her hubby they went as Ron Burgundy and Veronica Corningston from the move Anchorman. I think they pulled it off really well. I wished I would have gotten a picture of all the couples at the party, I missed Joe dirt and Brandy, Billy Madison and the pretty teacher, and Cher.

I loved Sonny Bono he was in full ski gear he had the ski boots, poles, helmet, goggles, and blood on his face. I really liked John McCain and Sara Palin, this guy went

all out he had his hair bleached that day and he had lines shaved into his hair so it would look like he had a receding hair line.

Day 2 in my project 365

Our dryer went out 2 days before Christmas (love that) so we ran to Sears and found this front loading washer and dryer set. The boys just love to sit in front of them and watch the washer and dryer do their magic, its better than t.v.

We made a quick trip to phoenix to let the boys spend some of their Christmas money. Willie dropped Nick and I off at Tempe market place and he took the boys to the mall. Nick just loved this cute little magnet set inside the dressing room at Old Navy.

Jordan's teacher gave him a pet rock for Christmas, so Jordan decided he needed to make a friend for his rock.

December 2008

2008-12-28T12:58:00.000-08:00

Looking back at December

We had a great Christmas, the boys got everything they asked for (I think). They are at that age where they are asking for video games and money (which makes me a little sad), good thing I've got Nick. This was the second year that the boys made each other presents. Trey made Nick an apron for the kitchen he was getting from Santa, and he made Jordan a sleeping bag for his stuffed animals. It was a little scary letting Trey use the sewing machine, he wanted to floor it on the foot pedal, I am wondering if this is a sign of the future (driving, YIKES). Jordan decided back in November he would start making Nick mini books and he made Trey a cadi holder for his phone/controllers. It's a good thing we covered it in family guy images or else I don't think he would of liked it. Yes, I said family guy that's what the fam watches when I work nights (I just love my hubby). When I asked Willie what he wanted for Christmas he said Hulk hands for me and the kids, well thats what he got! You should have seen the faces on the kids when Willie kept pulling out more and more Hulk hands from the giant christmas bag they were in, Priceless! They have had so much fun playing with those things, now where do I put all those green hands.

Reindeer Food

Some other things we did this December included making reindeer food. This is something we have always done and this year we made enough to hand out at my works Christmas Party and a few left over to send to cousins.

Reindeer

Food

Recipe

Dried Oats, Sugar, Sprinkles, Glitter

Sprinkle on the lawn at night,

The moon will make it sparkle bright,

As Santa's reindeer fly and roam,

This will guide them to your home.

Gingerbread House

Every year we also decorate a gingerbread house. This year the boys did not have the patience to wait to put the candy on the house so our gingerbread house was really struggling to stay up.

2008-12-18T13:41:00.000-08:00

I just love this free digital desktop calendar from shabby princess, I thought it was just too cute not to share with everybody.

December

2008-12-13T11:55:00.000-08:00

This week Nick and I went to story time at the library. All of the kids got Reindeer ears and a jingle bell necklace and Nick got his picture taken in front of the Christmas tree. The story this week was the gingerbread man and I think Nick's favorite part of story time was watching the puppet show. Nick really liked decorating his gingerbread boy,

cookies were handed out in between activities and games, and all of the kids at story time got cute little treat bags.

We will definitely be going again next week, I just love the library!!!

I found this site were you can decorate a gingerbread boy. The boys had so much fun decorating their own "gingy". This is Jordan's penguine gingerbread boy and here is Nicks "gingy"

Jordan had his is Christmas concert this week and his grade sang three songs. It was a nice short little concert (thats how we like them). Jordan was so funny he had a scowl on his face the entire time his class was singing, he said the lights were to bright and they hurt his eyes, ahh poor kid! After the concert I took Jordan to where else but Chilis and we had dessert. I really enjoyed this because we got to spend some quality time together. Willie stayed home with Nick and Trey, Nick is just at that age where sitting and being quiet is an impossible task.

2008-11-16T09:22:00.000-08:00

We had a great Halloween this year and the boys loaded up on tons of candy. By the end of the night Nick was dragging his bag because it was so heavy for him (Yikes, that's way to much candy for a 3 year old). I tried to get some pictures in before we headed out, but we all know how that goes.

Drillbit Taylor (trey), Yoda (nick), Darth Vader (jordan)

Here it little Yoda running to beat the boys to the doorbell, I think that was his favorite part of trick-or-treating. Trey was so helpful with Nick he made sure that Nick held is bag up each and every time, he kept Nick from ringing the doorbells more than once, and he didn't even laugh when the old guy he almost fell over when handing out candy (he saved it for when we walked down the street).

Bucket of treats for J's 3rd grade class

These popcorn hands were such a hit at Jordan's class party, we made a few extra so Nick could take some to his daycare.

Jordan played flag football this year and I am so glad we decided to do flag football instead of pop-warner (ya know that whole broken arm thing). Jordan's flag football team was the Patriots and the season went by so fast. Since the season started football is all Jordan could and still thinks about; he watches football with Willie, plays football at recess, draws pictures about football, would wear his football jersey everyday if I let him, looks and organizes his football cards, and his teacher says she thinks he day dreams about football.

What a fun weekend

2008-11-10T09:58:00.000-08:00

We spent the day here, at Horton Creek !!!

A couple of weekends ago we spent the day at the Horton Creek and at the Tonto Fish Hatchery. This was suppose to be the last of the warm days so we really wanted to get out and do something before the weather really changed. The boys loved feeding the fish at the hatchery and racing each other to all of the different pools of fish. After the fish hatchery we drove to Horton Creek picnic area and had lunch. After lunch we all went down to the creek, of course Jordan brought his football and the boys played monkey in the middle with their dad. The game consisted of Trey standing on a rock in the middle of the creek and Willie on one side of the creek and Jordan on the other side of the creek. The game proceeds with the person in the middle trying to catch the football as it is thrown over their head, if the ball does get caught by the person in the middle (on the rock in the middle of the creek) then they trade places with the person you on the side of the creek.
As with many of the games played by my boys it got a little rough and lots of wrestling over the football took place. They boys loved it when the ball fell into the water and they had to race each other for the ball. While the boys did this Nick and I went exploring looking for bugs. Nick was so cute while we were walking through some tall dried grass he started repeating the words from one of his favorite books "were going on a bear hunt, we're not afraid".
Uh-uh! Grass!Long wavey grass.We can't go over it.We can't go under it.Oh no!We've got to go through it!

swishy swashy!

I love the picture of Jordan completely soaked from the waist down, the water was so freezing cold. We had so much fun here, I am hoping that we can make it up here and test out the Hortain Trail before it snows.

Fall

2008-10-29T10:22:00.000-07:00

We have been getting ready for that time of year by making Carmel apples, decorating with pumpkins, planting spring bulbs, and hanging our Halloween calendar and banner. Fall break has already come and gone, and yes we did survive with no t.v. and video games. The boys brought home not so great report cards and so until the grades come up all electronic devices are forbidden. This has been really hard to enforce but it is getting easier with time. However, the boys have spent so much time outside and I don't think our trampoline has ever gotten so much use. It is so funny to see the boys playing the games we use to play on the tramp when we were kids (thank goodness we have a net), and Nick is right in the middle of every game! I got a little crafty and made the Halloween calendar, each day I put a little treat in the pocket for the boys, and this helps Nick count down the days to Halloween. Also, I have always wanted to make banner and so I thought Halloween would be a perfect
time to try to make one, it was super easy!! (love that no-sew glue)
I do have to say that I have the sweetest husband he brought home the flowers in the last picture, "just because" !!!
Ahwwww how sweet !!!

Blue sky, sand, and lots of freckles

2008-10-03T10:46:00.000-07:00

Nick and I spent the day at the park enjoying the beautiful day. Nick spent most of the time in the sand volleyball courts, there is just something about that boy and dirt, he just couldn't get enough of it.

Heritage days

2008-09-25T10:41:00.000-07:00

Payson had Heritage days a couple of weekends ago and so we spent the day at the park. The boys learned how to make ice cream in a bag, we watched a melodrama, and ate some yummy snow cones.

2008-09-10T13:03:00.000-07:00

Have you ever been to Fossil Springs?

If not you need to go!
A couple of weekends ago we spent the day here,

it was like we were on a tropical Island. Fossil Springs has pool after pool of swimming areas, along with places to cliff jump (this is way to scary for me). The water was so clean and clear and just the right temperature for us. There were so many different areas to check out, but we stayed in our little spot that was already equipped with a rope swing. I am so glad that I brought life jackets for the boys, the water was moving a little fast and it was better to be safe just in case. Trey had fun catching minnows in the small pools of water and he was the first to try out the rope swing. It took him at least 10 minutes before he finally made his first attempt on the swing.

It took Jordan alot longer to warm up to the idea of the rope swing, he had to make small attempts taking off from a large rock in the water and then gradually working his way up to the tree, but he did it and I am so proud of him!!!

We brought with us lots of sunblock, lunch, and a couple of tubes. The boys had a good time trying to push me off the tube, and they loved it when their dad held the tube for them so they could ride down the little waterfalls.

It really is hard to believe that this is in Arizona !!!

Nick enjoying lunch

Doesn't this boy look tired!!!

During the ride home Nick kept saying "the best day ever, the best day ever", this truly turned out to be a great day!!

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL!!!!

2008-09-06T11:30:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went with our good friends Monica and Levi to go to the University of Phoenix Stadium to watch the Cardinals play the Dever Broncos. Monica and Levi drove to Payson from Grants, NM, met us at our house and we to the game together. We had so much fun at the game, Monica and Levi are die hard Bronco fans so it was fun watching them support their team. I met Monica at Western New Mexico University, I convinced her to join the Movement Science program and somehow we survived the program together. Monica has been such a good friend to me, she has always there for us even helping us load our U-haul when we moved to the crappiest town in the world Elko, NV. Monica just found out that she is expecting a baby girl in October I am so happy and excited for her and Levi.

2008-09-04T14:43:00.001-07:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Pine Hike

2008-09-03T11:10:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we had to get the kids out of the house so we decided to go for a hike. We took the kids to the Pine hiking trail in Pine, AZ. Willie and I had been on this trail before and we knew it would be an easy hike for the older boys, but we were not sure how Nick would do. So we packed up and headed out for a mid-morning hike. Nick did so well on the hike he loved every minute of it, of course he had to stop every 2 sec. on the trail and pick up sticks or rocks. He said he needed the sticks to fight a bear with, for some reason Nick thought we would find a bear on our hike, lol! During our hike it was cloudy and we thought it was going to rain but it made the hike so nice and cool. I think next time we go hiking I will get some of these for Trey and Jordan. After the hike we headed into pine and got some ice cream, YUMMY.

2008-09-01T21:42:00.000-07:00

So we have been a little busy around here!!

2008-08-26T09:13:00.000-07:00

The boys are back in school now and the first few weeks were a little rough but now they are settling in just fine. The boys started school on the July 30th and I am so sad to say that I have no 1st day of school pictures, it really seems like it just snuck up on us . However, it is so nice to be back on a schedule and have a routine going again. I am so happy to say that Nick is finally ready for this.

We have been reading lots of potty training books and his favorite is this one ZOO POO. I laugh every time I read this book and I just love all of the cute pictures. I almost forgot to tell everyone about Nicks imaginary puppy "Rosco", yep thats right he has an imaginary dog! It is the funniest thing we have ever seen. Nick's puppy (by the way dad helped name the dog) follows him everywhere, even to bed.

Jordan turned 9 this month

I want to cry every time I say that, I really can't believe he is 9. We had apple pie instead of birthday cake, I guess when you give choices to a 9 year old boy he will pick the most far out there option. lol!!!! Here are some picks of my sweet Jordan

To add to the craziness of things Willie and I decided to go back to school, yep we are both going to get a degree in nursing. Right now we are both taking online chemistry, the offical class is called Introduction to General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry, doesn't it sound sooooo exciting! Yep this means alot of late nights drinking this .......

A day at the river

2008-08-17T13:00:00.000-07:00

Weekend Fun

2008-08-13T15:07:00.000-07:00

This weekend we took a short little trip to the Tonto Natural Bridge. We were a little unsure how Nick would do, last time we went here we had Nick in a baby carrier and now he was able to walk or I mean run down the trail. All in all Nick did really well he had lots of fun jumping down the railroad ties of course I was holding onto his little hand for dear life and he had no idea why mom was freaking out. Trey and Jordan were a little upset because we would not let them climb up the mossy rocks, it was really crazy how far up the rocks people were climbing. While exploring we found lizards, lots of ants, and a birds nest (of course Jordan wanted to throw rocks at the nest so it would fall out of the tree, got to love a boys mind). I can't believe we finally got a picture with me in it, it seems like I am all ways the one taking pictures.

Swimming with Cousins

We finally got to hang out with Aunt Melissa, Deegan, and Maddie, it took the entire summer but we finally got a chance. We spent the day checking out Mel's new house, breaking up fights, and swimming. It really is a miracle that Trey and Deegan didn't kill each other, lol.

Summer Flowers and Thrifty Finds

2008-08-09T12:49:00.000-07:00

I love

flowers!!!

I love planting, watering, and growing flowers. I discovered this love when we lived in Silver City, NM and we finally had a yard at our rental house. I had know idea what I was doing and I still don't, but every spring we would buy a container of wild flower seed mix and plant it. I thought I was going to die when we moved from our house in NM to an apartment in NV and I had no yard, not even a sunny spot on my porch to plant flowers. But, now we have a house and I am filling every bare spot in the yard with peranniuals and bulbs. I think I got my love for gardening from my Grandma Smith I remember how beautiful her yards were, from the green lawns to the tiers of flower beds she had in her back yard. During her funeral a story was told about when my grandpa brought her over to the United States from England (this was just after WWII), as the story goes she began to cry the further south they drove all that she could see was brown desert all around her. Honestly I can't even imagine her shock coming from beautiful green/wet England to dry Arizona. Any-how here are some pictures from my yard, I do have to say that Black-eyed Susans and Red Geraniums are my all time favorite flowers. But now that we are back in Arizona I have to be more water wise and find some drought resistant flowers that I can love.

Look at my

thrifty finds

Look what I found at the thrift store..... I know I know I am a little weird but I love to find things like this "Vintage" chair and these pictures. It really does make me so sad when I think about how our society is so wasteful, I know I am not totally innocent but I love it when I can make one persons trash into my treasure. Here are some sites I love to check out freshvintage, nesting place, junk market, and one womens cottage life

2008-07-29T08:48:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you,

Nick is finally 3!!!!

I can't believe my little guy is 3 years old, man time flies by so fast.

2008-07-24T13:45:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading this book Twilight (which was a small miracle, O.k. so everyone knows that I have a very short attention span, ya know that ADD thing, lol!), anyways it was sooooo good!!! My sister in-law Keilah told me about this book when we were up for the Butler reunion and she let me barrow it for the very long drive I had ahead of me. So I read this book during the entire drive to Colorado and back, poor Willie he had no one to talk too. Anyways I would definitely recommend this to anyone, it was a great read. Now I am off the library to see if they have the series, I am keeping my fingers crossed.

We just got back!

2008-07-21T08:42:00.001-07:00

We just spent a week camping outside of beautiful Salida Colorado. Some of the things we were able to do during our visit were white water rafting, ziplines, soaking in the hot springs swimming pool, visiting down town, playing at the parks, hanging out at the Royal Gorge, and we stopped by the Albuquerque Zoo on our way home. This is a view from our campsite it just got finished raining and I got this great picture of the clouds rolling over the mountains.

We went through the Independent Whitewater Rafting Company to go rafting on the Arkansas River. This was my third time and the boys second. We rafted through Browns Canyon which had class III-IV rapids, due to all of the snow this winter the water was running really high for this time of year. This year we ended up in the raft with the guide who did all of the rowing, in the beginning I was really disappointed because I thought it was not going to be as much fun as the previous years but after realizing how fast the water was going, and how great our guide was we turned out to be really lucky. The guide joked with us and pointed out lots of landmarks and gave us names for all of the cool looking rocks (pink panther, tombstone, and elephant rock). At one point throughout the day one of the rafts in our group flipped over while going through a big rapid, everybody was o.k. but I got to go in the newly recovered raft and help the guide travel down the river while we picked up her overboard crew. You might be wondering where Willie is in the pic., well he hurt is back and then reaggrivated it during the week (poor Willie)!

During our stay we visited the worlds highest suspension bridge at the Royal Gorge. The boys got to ride in the aerial tram, walk across the bridge, watch and gun show, and check out the animals at the wildlife park. Did I mention how hot it was but we still had fun. I forgot about Willies selected fear of heighst and now I know where Jordan gets it, the two of them were o.k. on bridge just as long as we kept walking fast and did not stop.

Some other things we did were ziplining at Captain Zipline tours. This was so much fun and was not as scary as I thought it would be. Here is a pic. of me in my gear and another of me on the zipline.

We did lots of soaking in the Salida Hot Springs swimming pool, which is always fun. This year I taught Jordan how to jump of the diving board, and this is where he hung out the entire time. Nick had lots of fun he only bit a hole in one pair of floaties, lol.

We are on our way to the Butler Reunion/Colorado Campout

2008-07-10T09:20:00.000-07:00

I tried to get this post up before we left to Colorado but with all of the packing and stress never posted, so I am going to post even though it is a little late and we are already back.
This is the first year that we get to go to the Butler Family Reunion, we have either lived out of state or have been on the Colorado campout and have alwaysed missed it. Last year Willie's Aunt Gail wanted to celebrate Grandma Butler's birthday by making a quilt and having everyone add a square to the quilt. This is our square from last year and the slide show was put together by my sister-in-law Lyndsie (thanks lyndsie for letting my barrow this). In the blank gaps I added a poem, date, and names & ages of the kids. I then used an iron-on transfer to some fabric and then embelished the quilt square with some buttons.

4th of July Fun

2008-07-09T13:54:00.000-07:00

The 4th of July was very wet and soggy this year! It rained all day and we were unsure of what the big plans were going to be. We finally decided it was inevitable that we were going to get wet, so we packed our umbrellas and blankets and headed to the park. We finally settled on a spot right on the golf course and set up camp. Jordan was a little hesitant about the location he wanted to be at the park so that he could find his friends and play, as the night went on he became happy with our sweet little spot on the course which had a great view and very few people. While waiting for the fireworks to start the boys played with their glow sticks, ran around chasing each other (of course whipping each other with their glow sticks), and snacking on lots of yummies. The 4th of July is truly one of my favorite holidays, I just love the excitement the day brings from the parade to the fireworks...

I do have to update everyone on Jordan's arm, he finally had surgery last month and had his plates taken out of his left arm. It has been a very slow month of recovery and trying to keep Jordan from playing like a boy has been very hard. We had strict orders from the doctors no riding bikes, scooters, jumping, and other things that involve pushing, pulling, lifting, or tugging. This is an almost impossible order that was given to Jordan, I honestly thought about investing in a roll of bubble wrap and on a daily basis wrapping Jordan's arm up and send him outside to play. Tomorrow we go in for Jordan's check-up and x-rays and I am a little nervous to see how his bones are growing, I am keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best.

Mini-Vacation

2008-06-30T08:50:00.000-07:00

The weekend after school got out we had a little mini-vacation to the Arizona Grand Resort. I absolutely love this place it has everything (except a microwave) that my little family needed for a great time. Trey and Jordan loved the lazy river, jacuzzi, and the wave pool. Jordan was still a little hesitant to go down the water slide, ya know the whole being afraid of heights thing, but once he finally tried it he was hooked! Nick lovveeedddd the wave pool and the lazy river. Just a word to the wise a sunblock with an SPF of 8,000 is highly recommended. On our little stay we took my mom to a Diamondbacks game, which went way to fast. I walked around the stadium with Nick for most of the game, he loved looking for the diamondback snake throughout the entire stadium.

Wow!!! It has been a really long time since I've blogged

2008-06-26T08:32:00.000-07:00

Lets see it has been a long time since I have blogged and there has been so many things we have done. Willie and I went to the Kenny Chesney/Keith Urban concert, we had so much fun.

All I have to say is that Keith was amazing he was so much better than Kenny, that boy is a really great guitar player and he is pretty cute (Freaking HOT) too.

Sorry my blog for neglecting you!!

2008-04-03T16:25:00.000-07:00

O.k. it's been kind of crazy around my house (not really), but that sounds like a good excuse RIGHT. To catch everybody up spring break went better than I thought (Sorry Rayel I had no idea that you guys had the same days off as us). We did go to box canyon with some of my friends from work, the boys had a lot of fun and nobody fell into the water, Whew!! We signed Trey and Jordan up for soccer and we have survived a week of practices. Trey had his first game last night, and his team did really well. Trey had alot of fun, I could not get a good picture of him during the game so I took this pic afterwards (You've got to love the lobo colors).

Check out my Slide Show!

2008-04-03T16:14:00.001-07:00

March calendar

2008-03-07T13:32:00.001-08:00

I love this new free march calendar I found, it looks so springy! Speaking of spring the boys spring break is next week, Yikes!! I haven't really thought of what we are going to do yet. Unfortunately we can't go hang out with my sister and her kids because they will still be in school, this happens every year. !@##@!**

Nick is just getting over being the devil, oops I mean sick!! Everytime he gets sick (a cough and runny nose) it takes him sometime to get back to my sweet little boy! During this episode of not feeling so well Nick managed to spread the entire board game of Fact or Crap which has a million-bazillion tiny cards all over the house, pull both racks out of the oven and climbed half way inside (don't worry mom it was not on), decided to eat the ice out of our dogs water bowl, and pretended like he was going to give me a kiss but decided to bite my nose instead!!! Thankfully today he acted closer to normal than he has been in a long time YEAH!!!

Fun in the Snow

2008-02-27T14:12:00.000-08:00

This weekend we surprised the boys and took them tubing. It was so much fun!! Trey is a true daredevil, he was only nervous the first time he went down the big hill and then there was no looking back. Jordan on the other hand was not so sure about the big hills, he would make it up about half way and then decide he would be o.k. (I always forget he is afraid of heights).. Nick loved every minute of the day, we took him down some pretty big hills, and now looking back on it I have no idea what we were thinking. Here is a video of Jordan and me going down the hill together, I love the very end of the video when Trey goes after Jordan's tube (of course he has one of his own, but he is a true brother and has to drive Jordan crazy)!!!!

Thanks mom

2008-02-22T09:09:00.000-08:00

We took the kids to my moms house for the day and Willie and I got to go out to lunch and a movie KID FREE, yes this was a small miracle for us. We went to Olive Garden for lunch, it was so nice not to have to speed eat and we also got to watch the Bucket List (a non Disney movie), it was a good day, thanks to my mom!!! Nick had so much fun with my mom and he did not want to leave!!! And did I mention how much Nick loves grandma's car!!!

Willie just called me and said he got us tickets to go to the Kenny Chesney: Poets and Pirates Tour, yippie I am so excited. The concert is going to be at the Phoenix Stadium and Kenny is bringing Keith Urban (he is so freaking hot) and Leann Rimes. Last night at work someone asked me what Willie's hobbies are beside playing raquetball, I had to think about that one for a minute. I came up with watching sports, playing fantasy football, and exercising. Then I thought about my hobbies which are; scrapbooking and taking pictues, later I realized that the list really is not that long for both us. But, I told my co-worker that my kids are our hobbies and that we spend are time with them doing things together as a family! Speaking of kids I just love this picture of Trey and Jordan, it was takin on our campout last summer. I just love Trey's smile and how Jordan is smashing Trey's ear forward.

Did I mention that I cut my hair short, and then I went back a week later and got it cut even shorter. This is just not like me, but I love my new cut. I'll post a picture of my new hair-do soon.

2008-02-14T09:56:00.002-08:00

XOXOXO

Happy Valentines Day!!!

Jordan got off to school with valentines cards and treat bags in hand but Trey is to big for these things now a days BOO HOO!! Nick will be going to daycare today so he picked out some Diego cards for his friends. Willie got me a bouqet of roses, which I love!!! This year I decided to get the boys a cd instead of tons of candy and junk, Jordan will be getting Alvin and the chipmunks and Trey is getting the Simpsons.

Jordan suprised me with "mom are you going to do a scavenger hunt again this year", when we lived in Nevada and I had nothing to do I planned a scavenger hunt for the boys on valentines day. It's funny the things kids remember so if I have enough time before work I will try to come up with something.

Don't you just love the free desktop calendar I found on Shabby Miss Jeans http://shabbymissjenndesigns.com/goodies/goodies.html . I have been thinking about getting back into scrapbooking and so I have been leaning towards digital scrapbooking and thats when I found Shabby Miss Jean's site. Love it....

2008-02-05T17:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday school was cancelled because of snow and O-how the boys were excited. I think this is the most Trey has ever played in the snow, in the past I think he was just to skinny and would freeze the minute he would step outside. Today school did not start until 9:30 and I could not wait to get the boys back to school, however they were trying to convince me it was cancelled again NICE TRY.

Let's see after the major holiday at our house (SUPER BOWL) last night the boys were full of cafeinee and disappointment. Let me explain the dissappointment part. Jordan wanted to bet Willie on the game and Willie kept telling him that betting is not really a forsure thing and it can have bad consequences. Well Jordan kept pursisting and so finally Willie gave in, the BET was 10 marbels (we use marbels at our house as a reward system, a certain amount of marbles can be exchanged for things like playing the playstation). SO 10 marbles was a pretty hefty wager, Jordan was going for the Patriots and Willie was routing for the underdogs the Giants. All through the game Jordan was convinced that he was going to win and if you watched the game it all came down to the last couple of minutes. Well the Giants won and Jordan lost 10 marbles. Long story short Jordan lost and had a huge melt down, I'm sure this will be one Super Bowl he will never forget.

Before I go I need to check off fixing the garbage disposal from my to do list!

This one is a long story but we did it by ourselves, and I am a firm believer in

You can do anything you but your mind to!!!!

I love Pottery Barn

2008-01-28T12:58:00.001-08:00

So, if you don't know by now I am in love with Pottery Barn and I love everything they have. However, I do live in the real world and I can not afford to buy anything from them. But I do love to get ideas from their catalog, so recently I decided to purchase new chairs from of course Target (the best place in the world)!! X-Back chairs

I bought these chairs in December, I was so excited because Target offered 15% off on these chairs and free shipping (which saved me $50 in gas running to Phoenix), Yippie I love a good bargain.

I am now in the process of painting my kitchen table black, hopefully it will turn out. Here is my inspiration picture from Pottery Barn, once I am finished with my table I will post a picture of it.

Eating for LIfe

2008-01-27T09:19:00.000-08:00

This is the cookbook I have been using and here are a few of the recipes I have actually made (WOW)!!!

We made it through the Holidays

2008-01-25T08:11:00.000-08:00

The holidays are finally over and now we are starting to get back into the groove of things. I never really make New Year's resolutions, but this year I am going to try to become more organized, focuse more on my families and my overall health "eating healthier and exercising more", and work on the house. To start eating healthier I am planning out dinners that I can "actually cook", and making a shopping list of the ingredients that we need to buy. Yes, I know that this is how normal people do it, but I have always let Willie do most of the cooking and I have almost always worked nights. So by using the "Eating for Life" cook book I am following my first resolution and I am following my second resoultion by making a shopping list (hopefully this will end my daily visit to wal-mart, yep you know it's bad when the wal-mart greeter knows you by name!) I am following my second resolution. Also, to become more organized I VOW to clean my bathrooms and my fridge once a week, start developing the loads and loads of pictures on my computer, get the garbage disposal working,post more often, and fix the sound on my computer. So I am going to start from here and we will see how things go.

2007-12-04T22:00:00.000-08:00

2007-11-28T15:54:00.001-08:00

Yippie, Jordan finally got his cast off!!!

2007-11-28T12:43:00.000-08:00

Yippie, Jordan finally got his cast off!!! Jordan broke his arm in September by falling off a skateboard. Jordan then had to have surgery on his arm in October because the bones were not growing together properly, which led to 2 plates, 4 screws, and a night in the hospital. Now finally 2 an 1/2 months later he finally got his cast off.

2007-08-21T10:38:00.000-07:00

Salida, Colorado

2007-08-21T09:52:00.002-07:00

We had so much fun camping this year in Colorado. We were able to go white water rafting, visit the Royal Gorge, ride a train, and swim in the hot springs pool. We stayed in Albuquerque on the way home and we were able to visit the Aquarium and Zoo there.

Our first Post

2007-06-20T10:56:00.001-07:00

This is our first post and we are so exicted! We just got back from camping and we had so much fun. The boys loved the camp fire and making s'mores, and I loved watching them. Trey and Jordan played king of the wood pile, threw rocks in the pond, took a "walk" into the woods, and loved playing campfire idol. Willie educated the boys about "Snipes" and told some really good scary stories around the campfire. Nick loved every minute of the entire trip, except for the car ride, he made that quite the adventure. I was really worried about Nick around the campfire but he did really good and kept his distance from it.