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.