The little ones and I packed a lunch (not really, but shoulda) and nearly circled the valley today. Ended up at Town Square (a necessity). Promised them some time to play after the errands were done. I love that place, it is so quaint and picturesque feeling. I think it would be a great place to take pictures...{jen} there are lots of store windows, colorful shutters, colored walls, a bridge and beautiful landscaping. And actually I did. Made Samantha pose for a few in the kids playground. Tried to get some of Jack...but as you can see he would never actually look at me. Every picture I got was of the back or side of his head. He doesn't have time for a camera.

They had a good time and I simply tried to keep up.

Love this sweet girl for humoring me...for a moment. I asked her to do something sassy for a pose and she told me she didn't know what that was. So I told her to just be herself. That, she got! Although this isn't the picture. I'm working on another one with the dreamy effect again. It didn't turn out so I gotta keep pluggin at it. Hopefully it will become worthy of a post!

Jack cruising through the maze. He did not have time to stop and pose.

Jack wishing he could climb the 2nd level window.

Hanging out the little play house windows. They eventually just climbed out of them!

Declarations and New Inventions

I was declared the "best mom ever" today. All because I took the little ones to the park for a whoppin' 15 minutes before school let out. I am not such a park girl. Don't know why, just don't go very often. But it was such a beautiful day I couldn't help myself, for 15 minutes that is. In reality, that was all the time there was in this busy day. But it was a super fun 15 minutes. I love this picture of Jack, how his dimple stands out in the sunshine. Caught Samantha coming down the slide. They had a good time, unfortunately I had to leave with Jack kicking and screaming in my arms because he had NOT had enough! I promised him we would go back tomorrow. To that he responds with a whimpered "k".

After picking up the big ones from school Kristen got some kinda wild hair and decided the pickle jar looked to good to pass up. She "invented" a pickle sandwich. Bread, cheese, pickles. She though it was a GREAT idea. More surprising is, she actually ate it and wants one in her lunch tomorrow...we'll see how she feels about it in the am. She said to me, mom, this should be a sandwich for real. I had to break it to her that she is not the first to come up with

the pickle sandwich idea.

Here she is taking it in...impressed that she really likes it

Ladies...

Start your engines!!! The cookies have arrived!

If you ever wondered what 235 boxes of Girl Scout cookies looked like, check this out!

Yikes...now I gotta divy them up and get to passin' out!

You'll be hearing from me!

Messin' Around-edited

Chris' version Jessica Sprague version

Original photo

(So i redid this photo with the tips Chris gave me, but I still don't think I did it right...clearly I just need to REALLY practice!)

Trying out a few tutorials at Jessica Sprague...kinda hard...not having a clue about much in photoshop. But I tried the "dreamy" effect with a grunge border. Not sure if I did the effect right. Pretty sure this wasn't the best photo to try it on. But I just took it of Jack today and thought it was cute. Is he supposed to be that white with a dreamy effect? Any thoughts people??? I also tried her "eye" popping tutorial...but no luck with that. When I got to the brush step it didn't do anything. Pretty sure I messed up somewhere, obviously.

Got registered for her class that starts next week...can't wait. Actually following through with something I wanted to accomplish for this year...yay for me!

Favorites!

If money, time, and babysitting were no object, where would you go and with who?
I would love to tour Europe...see EVERYTHING...with my squeeze, of course


When was the last time you cried?
I almost cried the other day in front of my kids...I couldn't take being mom anymore that day. But actual tears...the season premier of Lost...when Hurley told Claire that Charlie had died (hope that's not news to anyone!) Wow, that was a few weeks ago. I don't normally cry that much. Although I'm certain that I have cried more in the last 8 months than I have my entire life! Oh ya, I just remembered, I teared up the other day when I found out that Laura's sister finally got a baby to adopt.

Five things you were doing ten years ago-1998
1. Loving being a new mommy to my 7 month old little Nathan
2. Turning a whopping 26 years old...those were the days
3. Working full time, yuck, as an office mng. to a real estate co.
4. Just getting into scrapbooking
5. Applying to a gazillion law schools (for doug)

Five things you were doing five years ago-2003
1. Finding out I was pregnant again after a recent miscarriage
2. Serving as the 2nd counselor in RS over enrichment and having a nervous breakdown cause of it
3. Totally loving being a mom to my two little ones
4. Struggling through our first job out of law school
5. Driving back to Vegas from Utah in a complete blizzard with just the kids and I (after already having a fender bender in Salt Lake cause of the snow) Vowing to never go there in the winter alone again! And I haven't.

Five things you were doing one year ago-2007
1. Making plans to live without an income for an undetermined amount of time (preferably less than 6 months-not quite how that turned out)
2. Getting ready to be self employed
3. Celebrating Jacks 1st birthday
4. Stressing out
5. Stressing out A LOT! Having no idea the worst was yet to come.

Seven of your favorite hobbies
Trying to be an awesome Scrapbooker
Sewing, when I'm not scrapbooking
Reading, if I'm not watching tv
Blogging, when I should be cleaning something
Pretending to be a photographer
Pretending to know how to decorate
Shopping, now that I got down!


Five favorite foods
any can of diet coke
anything with chocolate
anything made with cream cheese
anything made with sour cream
anything made with mushrooms or peas

Five places you've been
Hawaii
New York
Florida
Norway
Oregon

Five favorite memories (its really hard to pick just 5...I could go on forever!)
1. One of my families many road trips to Oregon to visit Grandma & Grandpa. This particular trip I rode in the car with my 3 older brothers, (my mom drove her car with the younger 2). We just had a really good time together. It was one of our funnest trips.
2. My wedding day. It was so much fun. I was so relaxed. I remember really focusing on taking it all in. Really enjoying every step. Absorbing all the beauty of the day. I was having so much fun that Doug had to literally drag me out of the reception 1 hour after it was supposed to be over.
3. Giving birth to each of my kids but especially my 2nd baby, my first daughter. It was such a great experience, I wish they could have all been that way.
4. Holding Jack for the first time 5 days after he was born.
5. The first real, coherent conversation I had with Doug 4 days after the accident.

round TWO

Thougt we were goooood
On the mend
Got a taste of the outside world
Targets world anyway
Then last night happened
Samantha...again
up, a lot, crying
ears hurt
Urgent care first thing this morning
didn't even want to bother with waiting for a dr. appt.
double ear infection
She is now crashed next to me

WHAT THE HAY!!!
the poor girl has been sick
for weeks now
calgon, take me away

TAG NUMBA ONE

I've been tagged 2 times now so I guess I'd better get to it. This first one is from Leslie...5 things about me people might not know. Hers were cool and exciting things. My life...not so much. So it has taken me some time to conjure up some old memories to give ya'll some "shock and awe"!!
Here goes...

1. I love Air Supply and...wait for it.......................................................................old Barry Manilow,
ya know the ones, Mandy, New England, ya. Can't believe I admitted those. I even made Doug stop in to Best Buy and get me an Air Supply greatest hits a few years ago cause my collection was on tape. It was humiliating for him to say the least. Now that's love baby!

2. I slept in on my wedding day and was a little late to the temple. Did my makeup in the car. Doug was beginning to panic to say the least. I had some good excuses though. It had rained all night and the power went out (not actually positive about that)...anyway, my mom was sapposed to wake me but crazy her went out to an early breakfast with some friends and wasn't home to wake me at a decent time. It's all her fault. Oh ya, and I didn't go to bed till like 2am either.

3. I always got teased on the bus in middle school by a couple of mean boys. My teeth weren't pretty and they made sure I knew it on a daily basis. I eventually wore braces (for 4 years).

4. In highschool I took the car without permission (my parents weren't home...whats a girl to do) Drove up to the canyons with a bunch of friends. On the way down my headlights went out and we had to wind down the rest of the canyon in the dark. Once we got to the mouth of the canyon we called for help. I don't recall the repercussions of this...I must have blocked it out..

5. I'm a bit of a chronic hand washer. No wonder my hands are so dry.

That's all I've got. Not super exciting. I was a good kid. Rarely got in trouble. Boring would be another way to put it!

So now I guess have to tag a few of you, don't worry if your not listed here, I'll get you on the next one :)...Heather, Jen, Stephanie.

Oh....the life we lead

This week has been super fun. We've done a lot of breathing treatments. A lot of watching tv. A lot of rubbing of the eyes and wiping of the noses. Samantha practically had walking pnomonia...didn't see THAT coming! Jack is just a wreck with a really bad cold. I've pretty much been holding him for 5 days. On Wednesday as I was getting ready to head to the Dr. with them, the school called to let me know that Nathan had fallen in the bathroom and cut open his chin. They were certain he would need stitches. Grreeaat. Atleast I was on my way to the dr. anyway. But of course as luck would have it, the dr. couldn't do the stitches. So after our 2 appointments for Samanth and Jack we then got to go wait at urgent care for Nathan. Nothing like being stuffed in a room with tons of sick people (especially my own who are pretty much crying by now). Thankfully Doug was done at court and was able to come and relieve me. He stayed with Nathan and returned home ONLY 2 1/2 hours later!

Thankfully they were able to take care of the wound with dermabond. No stitches for my boy. He was a trooper and the wound doesn't look bad at all.

Like they say "When it rains, it POURS!"

By Friday the kids were perkin' up but now Doug is on his deathbed and I may be following!

We will soldier on!

Isn't Jack the saddest thing you've ever seen?????

OK, blogger is officially RETARDED tonight! Look at my jacked up layout!

The Ears...

They got pierced. A few weeks ago actually. I realized how bad I have been at posting about my kids. A lot has gone on with them. Samantha has been begging to get them pierced for a very long time. It's funny to me how much she loves the bling. More than her sister. The day we went to do this I was planning on doing both girls. Before we even left Kristen got chicken and said she would wait till she turned 8 to get them done. Samantha asked again if it would hurt and I told her not too much. She was worried but was not backing down! Here she is sitting in the chair waiting. Doesn't she look happy???

She braces herself just before the prick

After both ears...I guess it hurt more than we thought!

After this, Kristen announced that she would NOT be getting her ears pierced when she turned 8 (which is in a few months). The chick at Claires was good and fast. Samantha had barely got out her first cry before she had the 2nd ear done. She was quite upset for awhile, but did manage to pick out another pair of earings to wear when she was done with these. They are a pair of pink guitars, now that's my girl!

The Cards

First of all thanks so much for all the wonderful well wishes. You guys sure know how to make a girl feel loved. I had a great day. Got lots of nice new clothes. My wardrobe is always in desperate need. The kids this year went all out on the birthday cards so I just had to share what they picked out...they are so bizarre!

From Samantha

Inside: "Do whatever it Takes" ?????


From Kristen

Inside: "Hot girls rule" (she later appologized to me for getting me a cat card, but she couldn't resist it. Me, not a big fan of cats) this photo is quite disturbing!

From Jack

Inside: "Theres one in every family" so true!


From Nathan

Can't explain the inside. But obviously he went for the OLD joke!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

Since I don't have any sisters who can do this for me, I have to do it myself.

If i were Carols sister these are the things I would love about her :)

Look how adorable she is...who wouldn't love those big brown eyes.

She was the sweetest sister ever.

She never wacked her brothers on the head every morning to let them know who was boss.

Here she is on her 5th birthday.

She always shared her cake with grandpa, his birthday is on the 6th.

Those brothers are eatin' her up!

Again, her brothers were her biggest fans.

They always stood by her side and were happy for her happiness!

Here she is on her 7th birthday. She got a bird (we weren't jealous at all!)

But we were jealous of that sweet dress she wore!

That doily table cloth was her favorite. Mom always pulled it out special for her.

Birthday #10. Obviously she was the cutest sister.

Perfect teeth and all!

Again celebrating with grandpa ( he WAS the best...do miss him).

She was always so nice to share her fashion knowledge with others.

Purple overalls with draw string ankles pulled tight were the hippest thing when she wore them.

Even then she was a crafty girl.

Making some awesome ribbon barettes with extra long tassles and feathers.

She was so generous and would give them to friends (for a small fee).

Happy birthday to my sweet sister Carol, I'm so lucky to have her!

Now you can commit me to a mental institute

The Dress

It doesn't fit anyone anymore.

Another sad milestone in my children, for me.

Made this little thing for a special little wedding.

She was a flower girl, along with her baby sister.

Hard to believe it's been nearly 5 years.

Kristen wore this dress forever, then passed it on to Samantha.

As she squeezed into it on Sunday I realized that it would be the last time.

So enjoy my little flashback to July 2003 with me.

My sweet little Kristen, 3 years old