Tuesday's play date

Tuesday we got together with my cousins Abbie and Stephanie and some of their kiddos. I finally got to meet baby Elliot. And then we said goodbye to Aunt Emily, Jonah and Elora and they were headed back to Utah shortly after we left :(

Labor Day

Tucker was doing flips

Trent was doing double front flips

Uncle Bart was throwing kids off the diving board

Trent's brother has a gorgeous house with a huge backyard, where we spend a lot of time with Trent's family. Labor Day was no exception. All the kids had a blast. Paisley has no fear and was jumping off the diving board and going down the slide just like the big kids. That girl will be 2 one week from today. I can't believe it. It's kind of hard to think that my baby is that big and I'm not pregnant. That was my life for a while, so it is fun and new to be moving to a different stage in life. It's also a little weird and sad. But good.

Catching up from last weekend

Henry, Charlotte, Tucker, Jonah, Grammy Donny, Elora, and Sarah

Sunday evening we spent with my family and had tons of fun!

A fun week with family

Tuesday Trent took the 3 big kids to the Diamondbacks game. Paisley's heart was broken that she was left behind. The two of us had an exciting night of grocery shopping.

Thursday evening my sister Emily arrived from Utah with her two kids Jonah and Elora. We spent that night, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday having fun with them and the rest of our family!

Elora, Charlotte, and Paisley

Paisley, Muscle Jonah, Charlotte, and Henry

Friday my cousins Jill and Macey met us at the Splash Playground in Tempe. It was a blast!

Henry, Paisley, Charlotte, and Jordyn

Emily and Elora

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday while Trent was fixing my car and his, we went swimming with my brother Adam and his kids.

Ethan, Moqui, and Kaleb

Jonah and Adam

I hope the Monsoons aren't over yet!

If you don't live in AZ, you might not know about monsoon season. The best time in the summers are when you get the monsoons. Big, heavy dark clouds full of rain that we rarely see. I love how they can come on so fast with a boom of thunder and a burst of lightning, then the rain speeds down so fast with the air still hot and thick. Unfortunatley it usually only lasts a matter of minutes and many times after we're all in bed. Here are pictures from one we were able to enjoy a week or so ago.

Paisley didn't bother with an umbrella, but just ran back and forth from the covered patio to feel the rain splash down on her.

Help me pick out a dress!

I bought a Groupon ( a site that offers great discounts as long as a large enough number of people purchase the deal that day) for Shabbyapple.comhttp://www.shabbyapple.com/ and I still haven't used it yet. I need a dress, but am having a hard time choosing. It's especially hard not being able to try things on (the one downfall of online shopping!). Anyone know what you would pick for me? I like Antiquated (but my cousin has it, but we don't go anywhere fancy together). I also like Ingrid, Fifth Ave, Jacob's Pillow, Bathesda Fountain, and The Ramble. Anyone have a favorite?

Rags to Britches

Thank you for all the positive comments! I'm so excited to start drawing this weekend!And it was exciting to get more than one comment on a post! I have a good friend with an etsy shop called Rags To Britches. She makes darling jumpers and skirts with vintage fabrics and she also has some stinking cute onesies. Check out her shop by clicking here.

Artsy Fartsy

So, I used to love art and drawing. I haven't really kept up with it, but would like to do much more with it and take a painting class. I would love to make art for nursery decor and possibly custom simplified portraits. Here is a rough one I did of my cousins son Sam. I would like to do colored ones in the future. Like I said this was just a quick, rough one, trying out my drawing after a long, long break. What do you think.
Here's the photo.

Here's the "portrait".

Craigslist crushes

It's been a while since I've "window shopped" on craigslist. Here are some lovely items I spotted this morning.

This cool retro chair.

This amazing light fixture.

This lovely vanity. I would snatch this up if it wasn't listed for $325. I love the light fixture, but it is pricey as well, and I don't really have a spot for it. The chair is great too, but I don't care to spend $150 on it. It's fun to look though.

Busy, me? yup

Last Thursday was busy. And really fun. In the morning I took Henry with 2 of his friends to preschool (along with 2 of my other kids in the car- it doesn't take much to fill the seats of the suburban these days). We went from there home to get dressed, then off to Costco with the girls where we grabbed groceries and a hot dog lunch for the kids. Straight from Costco to Charlotte's school to drop her off, then to Kathi's to drop Paisley off while she kept her and Henry so I could go to lunch for my sister Sarah's birthday. It was yummy and fun. My mom, sister Karen, SIL Lauren, and Grandma Donna were all there. I only got a camera phone picture which I can now not seem to get off my phone and onto my computer unfortunately! The day had me very grateful to be able to spend time with my sister Sarah. When Sarah had her second brain surgery early this year and the diagnosis was cancerous this time we were told that her time with us may be very short. My mom was worried that she might not make it to another birthday and here we were sitting at Paradise Bakery, eating, talking, and laughing with Sarah and my heart feels so full of gratitude for that gift.
After I picked up a couple of pizza's from Papa Murphy's, collected my children and came home, it was time to get ready for girl's night at my house. Cleaning, making cookies, and chocolate dip for strawberries and pretzels consumed the rest of my afternoon. Then the girl's showed up. I had grand plans to take plenty of pictures, but neglected to ever get out the camera. You'll just have to take my word that it was a great night. There was about 10 of us eating, laughing, and playing Scattegories.

Today promises to be another busy one. By 7am I had already gone to the gym and grabbed a few groceries from Walmart. Now I'm off to take kids to preschool and then straight to visit teach some lady friends. From there I will have a little time to feed the kids lunch before taking Charlotte to school and coming straight home to put the kids to bed before a primary meeting at my house! At least I get to rest tonight. Maybe pancakes are in order for dinner?

Date

Our anniversary was Wednesday which usually would mean we would wait to celebrate on the weekend because Trent has scouts Wednesday nights and it is a school night for sitters. However our usual sitter has not started school yet, and I talked to Trent's partner in scouts to get him out of it this week (without him knowing it). I was planning to surprise Trent by picking him up from work, but since it took me a little longer than I wanted to get away I called him when he was about to leave and asked him to meet me at a certain intersection. He was confused, but came to meet me. I wanted to try a new restaurant and go somewhere a little nicer than a regular date night. I looked at tons of restaurant reviews online and asked people for recommendations. I am kind of a food brat when I go out (which is funny because I am not a good cook at all). Nothing sounded super great to me except a couple places. I wanted to eat in Northeast Mesa so if another storm like Tuesdays rolled in we could drive out by the river and watch the lightning or if it at least cooled down we could lay in the truck bed and look at the stars. I was debating between two Italian places (which Trent doesn't usually love, but they had great reviews and I was hoping great steak) I decided on Alessia's after reading an article about how romantic and tasty it was. Now I wish I had chosen Caffe Boa Bistro. But oh well. The restaurant was tiny and I'm not sure why it was called romantic (maybe if it had been cool enough to sit on the cute little patio- so many of the places considered romantic were because of cute patios with romantic lighting and fireplaces, but that's just not really an option when it's 110 degrees out). My entree was tasty but the appetizer, salad's and Trent's steak were just average. My very over thought out plans didn't quite pan out how I wanted. After dinner there was no sign of clouds or any cooling down so we headed to the theater to see Inception. At least that was great!

And did I mention that instead of a card I gave him a deck of cards, and on each card I wrote one reason I love him or one thing I love about him! That's 52 things, and I could've thought of more :)

9 years

  This day nine years ago was the smartest I've ever been, cause I married this guy!
I remember being so overwhelmed with love and gratitude that day, knowing we would be together forever. I never could've imagined how much more I would love you today.

You might not remember meeting me for the first time at pole vault camp when I just turned 16 and you were about to turn 19, but I remember. I'm so glad that fate (and pole vaulting and some mutual friends) brought us back together for a "blind" date when you were 22.I am the luckiest girl in the world and I know it.

School time!

It's here! As of today three of my kid have started "school". Tucker started second grade. Charlotte started Pre-Kindergarten, and today Henry started Joy school. So we are part excited and part sad. The kids definitely need the stimulation and I definitely need the break, but this just means more growing up! We had a wonderful summer together with lots of fun and even more swimming (I'm actually sick of it!) But we are ready for some sort of schedule and learning to go on. Here are my big kids on their first days of school this year.

Turns out rolling backpacks are great toys. The kids can't wait to use them at their next sleepover with Nana or Grandma.