The Harris Family

Our Garden

2010-08-09T12:15:00.000-07:00

This year when we planted our garden we made the girls little boxes so they could plant their own things and be able to weed them and take of them and watch them grow. They really enjoyed the whole process! It was exciting to see what they grew and how well they took care of them. They were out there weeding their boxes regularly and the joy on their little faces when they were able to harvest some things was incredible! :)

A Visitor

2010-08-05T14:26:00.000-07:00

Look what we found out in our front yard! I'm not a fan of snakes sneaking up on me at all! I find them interesting to observe but when I'm walking along and almost step on one I freak out just a bit! But I managed to recover quick enough to grab my camera and get the girls so they could see it! Gotta love the Zoom feature on cameras! There is NO WAY I would have really been that close to that snake! ;)

Painting

2010-08-04T14:23:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to pain our front door for the longest time! It's still a yucky primer gray, not a fan of it. We've lived in this house almost 5 years now and since we moved in I've been wanting to paint the door but I can't figure out color to paint it. I've always wanted to a nice red door but with the house being white with green trim and a green roof I was afraid it would look too... Christmas-ey. So it's taken me a long to finally get it done. I just opted with white paint and green trim to match the rest of the house, original- I know. But it really looks nice now that it's all done! I even found some vinyl at the Dollar Store down in Vegas that would look great on it! :)

Preparing the door.

Finished door!


The vinyl- WELCOME May all who enter as guests, leave as friends.

Playing Together

2010-08-03T13:55:00.000-07:00

This morning (around 10am) I was out working in the yard when the girls decided to come out and play with some magnet game they have. I was really impressed at how well they were playing together and getting along. It's moments like that, that make me proud to be a mommy! I love to see them all playing together so well.

Landscaping 1

2010-07-28T13:24:00.000-07:00

We've been trying to make some changes in our back yard this year. We've got a few ideas of what we want to do but they are all going to take some time. Here's a small one I managed to complete. This area was all weedy so dug up the weeds and some of the lawn and put in some edging and rocks. I planted some rhubarb and spearmint there too! It was hard work but actually quite fun. Seeing the finished product was totally worth it! Now if only I would have remembered to take a before picture so that you'd really be able to see the improvement! You'll just have to settle for the finished product.

Popsicles

2010-07-13T10:25:00.000-07:00

This summer I decided I didn't really want to spend so much money on the popsicles from the store. I just get looking at how much sugar are in them and the cost, lets just say I wasn't impressed! So instead we made some out of yogurt! The girls and I had a lot of fun experimenting with those. We even layered a few with real fruit.

Fun in the Sun

2010-07-06T09:39:00.000-07:00

As soon as warm weather hits this how we spend most of our summer!

Nothing but swimsuits and sunning in the sun!

I would usually make them snacks to eat outside.

Snack Time!

More Fun on the Farm

2010-07-05T12:06:00.000-07:00

This year after the 4th of July Jeremy went down to help out his dad on the farm. Our plan is that in a few years we will be returning to take over the farm and raise our family back in Grace. I must admit there is one thing that is my ultimate favorite part about the farm... I do enjoy all the farm but there is ONE thing that I have quite the obsession with!.... The 4-wheelers! I absolutely love driving those around! The girls and I totally enjoyed ourselves just driving around and seeing the farm and driving through the fields :)

Horse Back Riding

2010-07-04T11:48:00.000-07:00

The girls LOVE being on the farm with Grandma & Grandpa Harris. I think their favorite part is that Grandpa lets them ride the horses! They sure have a blast!

4th of July

2010-07-04T11:36:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July! Hope everyone had a great time!

Owl

2010-06-30T18:41:00.000-07:00

Our neighbor was out of town and we take care of his house when he does go. As I was over there checking up on things I thought to myself, "hmmm, that it is one realistic owl statue!" Well as I got closer I realized it was a real owl on the ground just staring at me! I had to run home tell the girls, get the camera and get a few pictures of it. I love all the fun wild life stuff the girls get to experience due to where we live! They really enjoyed watching it. I believe it might have been injured because it wouldn't fly away it just finally hopped away from us out of sight. I really hope none of the cats find it! Such a beautiful animal.

Zotz!

2010-06-30T18:39:00.000-07:00

Did you ever try these when you were younger? No? Well when I was in High School we would buy them all the time! I was so excited when I found them in the store! I had to get some and have the girls try them! Oh what fun seeing the faces they pulled! :)

Girls go to Vegas!

2010-06-27T18:31:00.000-07:00

My dad has been having heart problems. We had a bit of a scare that he needed to have a procedure ASAP so my sister-in-law, Vanessa, and I decided we would go down with our girls and hang out Grandpa Doo-doo's place and help take care of him. We weren't sure what the procedure would entail. So we headed down and stayed for a week and then our husbands came down together for the weekend along with Noe & Cassie and Aunt Sammy! We had so much fun! It was nice to get us all together and enjoy the weekend. I can't decide who enjoyed the stay more, us or Grandpa! We were also taken to Metro Pizza to enjoy some REALLY good food! Loved that place!
We also set up a tent in Grandpa's back yard and camped out for a night or two with the girls!

While we were there Arell ended up with a really bad sty on her left eye. She had a small one before we left but that week while we were there it really got bad. So we ended up taking her to the eye doctor while we were there. They gave us some drops and told us to apply some warmth to it. It really seemed to help.

While we were there we decided that all the girls just needed to go out and have some fun! We went to some really fun stores! We hit this one called THE ATTIC- a second hand store that just had some really neat stuff in it. Boy did we have fun! :)

Then on the way home Jeremy & I and the girls kind of took it easy and stopped in at a park to have lunch and just played for about an hour or so before hitting the road again and continue on trek on home.

Grandpa Harris' & My Birthday

2010-06-12T18:38:00.000-07:00

For our birthdays this year, Grandpa wanted to take the girls swimming and teach them how to swim. So we headed down to Smithfield's Recreation Center and took the girls swimming! They had a blast! I swear those girls are part fish! They totally enjoy being in the water. Jeremy & Grandpa were the only ones that got in with the girls and they really had their hands full! With only two of them and three girls it was hard to keep track of all of them because once they started feeling a bit secure in the water they would try to take off on their own! After our fun water day we took off to Logan to have a late lunch at Quizno's.

Starlings

2010-06-04T18:33:00.000-07:00

Today we found some baby Starlings in one of the apple trees next door! They've just hatched it looks like. But the girls are loving the idea of being able to see such tiny little birds so close. I'm sure the Mama bird isn't enjoying all this attention on her nest! But it will definitely be fun for them to see how they grow!

Senedra's Year End School Program

2010-05-25T08:15:00.000-07:00

Senedra's class had a program for the end of the year. They did a singing program and then finished off with a cute dancing number.

Adara & Senedra's Year End School Program

2010-05-25T08:12:00.000-07:00

For a year end program the whole school (Pioneer & Oakwood) put together a wonderful program and performed it out on the football field. They did a great job! These are just a few videos of the performances they did!

Las Vegas- Erica's Graduation

2010-05-20T08:13:00.000-07:00

We went down to Vegas because my awesome sister was graduating from college! So proud of her! We went down and spent the weekend and did some fun stuff. We went and visited my Dad and swam in his swimming pool (much to the girls delight) and BBQ. We visited a petting zoo, Bonnie Springs Ranch, that was attached to an old fashioned "town". The town was closed for the day but you could still go through and look around and see everything. We then went and had a picnic at a nearby park only to be visited by some wild donkeys! Afterward, we all went and played on the playground that was nearby. As for Erica's graduation, we went down and celebrated with her but didn't actually get to see her walk, we were just happy to be able to spend time with her and celebrate her achievements! Congrats Erica, we are EXTREMELY proud of you! :)

Senedra's 6th Birthday

2010-04-13T21:27:00.000-07:00

Senedra turned 6 this year! Time just goes by so fast! She is getting so big. This year she chose a Sleeping Beauty theme. We have to get a little creative around here since we are usually on a very tight budget. For little party favors for the girls I rounded up some whiter paper bags I had and cut down the tops and added ribbon for handles. I then printed out some Sleeping Beauty coloring pages and activities and made little books for the girls, I also found some ring pops at the Dollar Store and some crayons that I separated out so each girl only received 3 and wrapped them up with a little piece of paper and some Princess fruit snacks! As for the games I attempted to draw Sleeping Beauty (try not to look to close, she doesn't look that great!) and we played Pin the Crown on her. The girls decorated cupcakes, played Barbies and we had Adara help play Hullabaloo with the girls a wonderful game for parties!

Easter

2010-04-04T21:26:00.000-07:00

Easter was really fun for the girls this year! Since it was the day after the wedding my dad and my sister Erica were still around. My mom drove down from Grace to join us and we colored eggs and did a little egg hunt with the girls! They loved it! Being able to spend time with family always makes everything better! :) The girls got some new church dresses, treats, butterfly nets, sidewalk chalk and some bubbles.

Noe & Cassie's Wedding

2010-04-03T18:04:00.000-07:00

Another brother got married. The wedding and reception was held at Castle Manor in Logan.

A Summary of March

2010-03-31T16:16:00.000-07:00

Yup, you guessed it! Here I am playing catch up now! :) It seems that summer hits and we take off running till school starts in the Fall. I love our summers, just not much time to blog!

March was a pretty slow month for us.

Jeremy's birthday was on the 2nd and just did a small birthday party with our little family for him.
Took Jeremy in to the hospital for a meat compaction in his throat. Thankful that it really wasn't anything too serious.
Grandma Sally (Jeremy's grandma) passed away. She was over 90. We attended her funeral in Boise.
Aunt Erica came for a visit during her spring break.
While Erica was here all of us girls- Mom, Erica & Sam and I went to the Olive Garden for some girl time.

A Happy Be-lated Valentine's

2010-02-22T08:52:00.000-08:00

Grampa Doo-doo (aka Grandpa Teodulo) sent all the girls a Valentine card! The girls LOVED them! Thanks again Grampa & Julie! :) We love you!

Adara's 8th Birthday

2010-02-11T12:19:00.000-08:00

This year Adara decided she wanted a "Black puppy dog" theme for her birthday... your guess is as good as mine. :) I thought for sure there was no way I could come up with some fun stuff with a puppy theme! But we did find some things! I made her invites with the same theme and then drew out a little puppy on some poster board so they could play "Pin the Tail on the dog", we made some puppy dog ears for the girls to wear and I have such a great friend that volunteered to do some face painting for the girls. Then as a party favor I had some white paper bags that I made into "Doggie Bags" for the girls to take home, in them I put some bubbles and a little frisbee. Overall I think everyone had fun! :) But I really couldn't have pulled it all off without some great help! And the best part! We had a friend that made her a little puppy dog cake! It was amazing!

Thanks Aunt Erica

2010-01-27T12:11:00.000-08:00

My sister Erica went to California over the holidays and as an added bonus her boyfriend Ben took her to Disneyland! :) So she got the girls each a hat. They love them! Thanks again Aunt Erica!

Adoption

2010-01-25T05:58:00.001-08:00

I have a wonderful friend from College, Debbie, who was blessed enough to give birth to little Abby almost 4 years ago. But the Lord has not made it possible for her to have any more children.

They just signed up for adoption and they need our help. Look on my sidebar and see their cute little family. If you click on their photo you can read their Profile. And if you wouldn't mind spreading the word they are asking as many people as possible with Blogs to put their Adoption Button on your Blog. Follow the instructions on my sidebar.

Thank you so much for all of your help. Debbie is the BEST Mom ever, and deserves a dozen children at least. Please help her find a match so they can help their family grow.

You can see their little family by visiting their Blog: http://sodaspringsaggies.blogspot.com

Playing in the Snow

2010-01-21T11:51:00.000-08:00

We got a pretty good snow fall today, it was perfect for making snowmen! So Arell and I went out to build a little snowman just her size. :) We had a lot of fun! I'm not a huge fan of playing out in the snow because I HATE to get cold and most of all I HATE to be cold & wet! But it was actually pretty warm we just got really wet but had a blast!

Sammy's 20th Birthday

2010-01-09T11:40:00.000-08:00

This year Sammy turned the BIG 20!! :) We had a little birthday party for her today. She didn't really want a cake this year, just some of mom's yummy Chocolate Chip Oatmeal cookies. So We put the candles on two cookies!

Happy Birthday!

Christmas

2009-12-25T07:23:00.000-08:00

For Christmas we stayed home Christmas Eve and had some family time. Then the us and the girls went to bed early so Santa could come and visit us! Adara left him a note and it read:

Dear Santa,
I have been super-duper good this year. Could you please get me all the things I ask for? Here are the things I want for Christmas. Zhu-Zhu pets, a lot of Littlest Pet Shops, some Purple & Black Nintendo DS, some black snow boots, a scrapbook set, a new packet of trident gum (the flavor I have please), and a very pretty jacket. Oh, Santa please oh please, please with a cherry on top can make sure every child that is poor gets a present? THANK YOU, Santa!!!

P.S. I'll leave cookies on the coffee table and I forgot I want a black lab real puppy thanks, Santa.

Love, Adara

Santa wrote a response to her and left it by her plate of cookies that she left out for him. :) She was so excited to find it the next morning! She ran into our bedroom with her sisters where we read it all together.

Dear Adara,
Did you know that all my elves have been talking about you? They are all very impressed that you have gotten 100's on your spelling tests, for being top of your class and making new friends this year. That makes me very proud of you too!

The elves and I were busy getting my sleigh ready for the big trip. The reindeer have been training each day, so they would be ready for the big Christmas Eve journey!

So, you can see we've been keeping busy, but also looking forward to visisting you. I see that you have asked for anew Scrapbook kit, Zhu-Zhu pets, Nintendo DS and much more from me this year. Your wish list says you want something special! The elves and I searched the workshop to see if we might be able to find it for you!

Thanks for going to bed early on Christmas Eve and for the yummy cookies!

Merry Christmas and Warmest Wishes!

Santa Claus

P.S. Thanks for being such a good girls this year. I hope you understand that with many children in need I can't get you everything you want. Oh! And remind your sister's to write to me next year! Can't wait to hear from all 3 of you: Adara, Senedra & Arell!

We then had Christmas morning here at home. Then later went up to Grace and had Christmas with my side of the family. It's so much fun to open presents with little kids! They are so excited! After all the presents we had some lunch and hung out talking and playing games. Arell then decided to run off and play in Nanny's and Aunt Vanessa's makeup. Aunt Sammy decided she would just do make up on the girls :) They loved it!

We then went down to have Christmas with Jeremy's side of the family. Where we opened more gifts and spent time with Don & Norma :) After such a full day we came home and crashed!

I love Christmas! But I'm always grateful when the holidays are over and done with! :)

Adara's Christmas Program

2009-12-22T09:47:00.000-08:00

Adara's class did a little Christmas program. Their songs were way cute and they even had some actions to go with some of the songs. :) We ended up with 4 different videos of the program so I won't bore you with all of the videos I will post one of their singing and the 2nd one is more for you to see her teacher. The young lady that grabs the microphone and is standing by Adara is her teacher... doesn't she look like a H.S. student!? She is such a cute gal, she is 23 yrs. old. and shorter than I am (I am 5'1'')! Adara adores her teacher and makes her cute little cards and presents to take her all the time. :)

My Super Heroes

2009-12-17T09:24:00.000-08:00

My little super heroes :) This is what we do most days... run around with ~~blankets~~ capes around our necks saving mom from any and all evil doers ;)

Bit of Bad luck...

2009-12-15T08:18:00.000-08:00

We woke up Monday morning to find the back of our van window broken out... no clue what happened! We had parked it out in front of our house, our only thought is that MAYBE a snow plow went by shooting a rock through it or something.

Silly Sammy!

2009-12-13T08:17:00.000-08:00

Sammy comes over to do laundry and play with us sometimes... Today she decided to mix the two!
It started out by discussing how the girls like to climb into the dryer and hang out and then she got the curious if she still fit in the dryer! :)

Here she is going in.....

Here she is coming out...

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

2009-12-06T08:16:00.000-08:00

My mom stopped in for a visit today. The girls just love their Nanny and fight over her attention :)

Cooking Queen

2009-12-02T08:01:00.000-08:00

Arell LOVES to help out in the kitchen... in fact she loves to help out with anything you are doing. She just loves to be involved in everything. Which can be very trying at times :)

Thanksgiving

2009-11-30T07:34:00.000-08:00

Every year for Thanksgiving we go up to my mom's in Grace. We are so blessed that we can have Jeremy's family and my family just all get together at the same time so that we don't have to try to split our time between both families on this holiday. I didn't really get much in the way of pictures. We went up to help my mom out with what was left of the cooking, we ate, talked & played some Rock Band!

Arell loves to be in the middle of everything and always helping. So here she helping her Nanny finish up the cooking for our Thanksgiving meal. She's such a great helper! ;)

Halloween

2009-10-31T07:59:00.000-07:00

This year for Halloween Adara wanted to be an Evil Fairy, Senedra wanted to be Tinkerbell and Arell chose to be a Skunk! I decided to try to put together the girls costumes this year, especially after receiving "sticker shock" on a Tinkerbell costume. I made their tu-tu's and did their makeup. We went to our wards Trunk-or-Treat and then up to Grace to visit the Grandparents. Aunt Vanessa & cousin Izzy were cute little Ladybugs! So cute! :)

We ended up with quite the haul, Jeremy and I made sure to inspect a few of those treats ;)

Pumpkin Walk

2009-10-25T16:00:00.000-07:00

We've never taken the girls over to the Pumpkin Walk in Logan but we were out driving around after Jeremy's work party and saw a sign for it and decided to pop on over. The girls really enjoyed themselves! I think we'll make an attempt to take them every year from now on.

Autonomous Solutions Inc. Family Day

2009-10-25T13:15:00.000-07:00

This year ASI (Autonomous Solutions Inc.) had a family day for all it's employees. The purpose is to show the families what spouses have been working so hard on and for us all to hang out and get to know each other a little better. Jeremy absolutely LOVES working for this company. We couldn't ask for a better employer.

GUIDELINE is a big army truck that plays "follow the leader." It has a cable spool on the front of it that you can hook onto any vehicle (or you could even hold it and walk) in front of it and it senses speed and turns of the lead vehicle and follows exactly, TOTALLY unmanned. It even works in reverse!
BAT CAT was a project for the LAPD. A vehicle that is totally unmanned and run by a remote control. It has an "arm" that stretches out about 50 ft. vertically and can "grab" things like a car and lift it up in the air.
SPECTOR is a small omni-directional robot! It's used to inspect the underside of vehicles, to look for bombs.
CHAOS is... chaos! :) Actually you can read about it HERE. The video clip below is of CHAOS in action. :)

P.S.
Don't mind the dates on the pictures, my camera was not set properly.

Crazy Hair Day!

2009-10-15T15:37:00.000-07:00

Another year, another Crazy Hair Day earned! You can see last years HERE. This year she wanted to have braided pigtails that stood up! So this is what we came up with :) We started with 3 pipe cleaners in each pigtail in which I just braided right along with her hair.

A Family Weekend

2009-10-12T15:59:00.000-07:00

This last weekend we planned to have a family outing with Luis, Vanessa, Izzy, Mom, Sammy & our family! On Friday afternoon we all drove down to Ogden and stayed at one of our time share places for the weekend. Then on Saturday we went to The Living Planet Aquarium and then to Tracy Aviary! On Saturday night after we had been out all day we gave Arell her little birthday gifts that we had saved for her since we had, had her family Birthday party the previous weekend. And technically this Saturday was her real birthday :) On Sunday we just came home.

Pictures of checking in to our room & The Living Planet Aquarium:

Tracy Aviary & time at our room:

Puzzles

2009-09-29T09:50:00.001-07:00

The girls love to make puzzles. So we all helped out on this one. They are always so proud and excited when we complete one. :)

Our Version of Twilight Vampire's

2009-09-13T15:11:00.000-07:00

So we were all sitting in the living room when we realized we were missing Arell and it had gotten REALLY quiet... which usually is NOT a good thing! Withing minutes she came running out to us looking like this! She had gotten into some of Adara's body glitter and covered herself! She totally reminded me of Edward from the Twilight movie! She was so powdery white until she got in the sunlight and then she just SPARKLED!! LOL Gotta love this kid! Now the mess she left on the carpet was a different matter! :(
See she even pulled a vampire look for us ;)

Hippity Hop

2009-09-12T15:09:00.000-07:00

Arell is always making us laugh! I think it's a prerequisite for being a little trouble maker! She loves to put both feet in one of my shoes and "hop, hop, hop" all around the place! :)

Frogs

2009-09-05T15:09:00.000-07:00

It seems like every year about this time we find a little frog about the size of the one in the pictures. The girls are always so excited, so we have Jeremy catch it and let them play with it for a bit. I won't touch it! :) But the girls sure like to take turns holding it. Then later we let it go, so it can go back to it's family.

Reading

2009-09-03T15:08:00.000-07:00

I caught Senedra "reading" to Arell. It was so cute to see them sitting on the couch together. Senedra can't read but she has quite a few books memorized from us reading them to her. They are so cute!

Bugs, Bugs, Bugs!

2009-09-01T15:07:00.000-07:00

Arell has turned into quite the bug girl! She is taking after Senedra. :) I caught her outside all by herself catching grasshoppers.

Huckelberry Picking

2009-08-29T12:32:00.000-07:00

My in laws came over today and asked if we would be interested in going huckleberry picking. I really enjoy going up in the mountains especially to go huckleberry picking! :) Mmmm, Huckleberry Pie! The girls really had a great time exploring.

Meet Your Teacher & First Day of School- Senedra

2009-08-28T14:57:00.000-07:00

Senedra had a "Meet your Teacher" the day before school officially started. The bus came around and picked up the kindergartners at their designated bus stop and if parents or siblings wanted to ride with them they could. So Adara rode the bus down to the school with Senedra and Arell & I drove down and met the bus at the school. Adara showed Senedra the way to her kindergarten class room. :)

So then for the actual first day of class my little Senedra was sick to her stomach, I think it was more nerves than anything but she had, had the stomach flu the past week so I didn't want to disbelieve her just in case so she didn't go "THE first" day. She went on Thursday, August 27. She was so happy & excited at home when she was getting ready.

But then when we went to her bus stop over at the church her mood quickly changed, I could tell she was REALLY nervous, she got on the bus and sat by herself, I could tell she was scared and crying a little bit. I felt so bad! I just wanted to rush onto the bus and pull her off! But I just stood and watched the bus drive off with her. Arell and I then rushed home (it's like a 5 min. walk) got in our van and went to meet the bus down at the school. When she got off the bus she was so sad looking, she just clung to me as we walked into the school to her classroom. As we got there then the tears really started up. She was crying so hard for me not to leave her, just full body sobs! I felt so bad. I finally got her to sit down and Arell and I had a seat in the back of the class room until she was a little distracted and seeming more comfortable then we slipped out.

But when she got home she was so happy and excited! A good end to not so good start! :)

First Day of School- Adara

2009-08-27T14:57:00.001-07:00

Wednesday, August 26, 2009 was the first day of school here in Preston. She is a big 2nd grader! I can't believe how big she has gotten! They grow up way too fast! She was so excited to tell me all about her day at school! And that her teacher Mrs. Humphrey's is shorter than me! LOL

Viva Las Vegas!

2009-08-19T14:59:00.000-07:00

My Dad turned 50 August 16th!! So my step mom planned a big 50th, Over the Hill, surprise party for him! And as part of the surprise my step mom wanted all of us, Dad's kids, to go down and be part of the surprise! And since it had been awhile since any of us had gone to visit him we figured it would be a great surprise to him. And it was! The look on his face when he saw all of his kids and grandkids jump out and surprise him was priceless! We had a lot fun visiting him. We even were able to go down to the strip with Luis, Vanessa and Sammy, the girls had loads of fun playing with my dad, Grandpa Doo-doo, in his pool, and we were able to go enjoy some shopping at an Outlet Mall.

Coppertone Bums

2009-08-07T15:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, just a warning before I totally shock all of you, there will be some BUMS showing!!

Every year I try to take a picture of my girls and their cute little bums! I know, I know they are going to totally hate me when they are older but I just can't resist! Although, I think this is the last year I will do this (insert Tear here) because they think they need to grow up and I certainly don't want to be called in for kid porn!! Anyway, at the end of the summer my girls have achieved some massive tanning from countless fun in the sprinklers but their cute little bums always stay white! They remind me of the little Coppertone Baby on the sunscreen bottle.
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Day of Reckoning.... or so it seemed

2009-08-06T14:56:00.000-07:00

Today all day has been overcast due to smoke in the air. You can see the ash on things outside, the air smells of smoke.

It was kind of creepy, I was sitting in the living room when I noticed the there seemed to be an eerie orange-ish kind of lighting streaming in through the windows. So I got up off the couch to check and see what could be causing it. I then grabbed my camera and headed out the back door. I felt like I was walking into a some sort of zombie movie. The lighting was perfect, there was a radio playing off some where in the distance and the air just seemed so thick and silent. Not even a vehicle driving by!

Turned out there were a lot of fires going on in surrounding areas, but it sure seemed creepy! :) The 3 pictures are of the sky around 4:00 pm or so. The bottom right picture is of some of ash that has fallen on our trampoline.

Samanta's Baptism

2009-08-01T12:19:00.000-07:00

My youngest sister was baptized into the LDS church today! It was such a surprise to us all when she gave us the news. We are so proud of her! :) We then went over to her apartment for refreshments! And she was confirmed the next day.

Before she was Dunked!!

After she was Dunked!!

Crafting: Caterpillars

2009-07-09T08:58:00.000-07:00

Another crafting project with the girls! We used egg cartons, googly eyes and pipe cleaners. :) the girls loved them! They had so much fun painting them.

1. Senedra's, 2. Adara's & 3. Arell's

4th of July

2009-07-04T11:36:00.000-07:00

For the 4th of July we always go up to my mom's and have a BBQ, games, and Fireworks. And since Jeremy's parents are from Grace also we just invite them up and are able to have both of our family's together at the same time! I love it!

USU Friend Reunion

2009-06-28T17:42:00.000-07:00

Jeremy and I made some great friends when we were going to USU. And to this day we still try to keep in touch the best we can. We try to get together and have picnics so we can see everyone! This year we met down in Layton, it was a BLAST! We all have little ones so it's kind of fun to see them interact with each other. I forgot my camera so I totally stole pictures from everyone else's blogs. :) The first picture is the mom's with all the kids, 5 mom's to 15 kids! And we didn't have everyone in our group still. We missed you Emily!! And the second picture is all of us from USU. It's always so much fun to meet up with everyone and catch up. Hope we have many, many more reunions to come!

Little Helpers

2009-06-26T17:00:00.000-07:00

Some days my girls and Hubby are just the best!! They all pitch in to help with what needs to be done! It doesn't happen very often, but I happened to capture it this time! :)

Adara & I worked on dinner...

Jeremy, Senedra & Arell worked on folding a load of laundry...

I just LOVE all my helpers :)

Crafting: Binoculars

2009-06-15T16:43:00.000-07:00

I love to craft with my girls! We made binoculars out of toilet paper rolls! We covered them with designer paper to look all pretty, stapled them together and then strung ribbon through them so they would be long enough to hang around their necks. The girls had a fun time with them.

I wish I would have gotten pictures of them playing with them in the backyard because they ended up taking their "wild animal" stuffed toys out and placed them all over the yard and then they went on a sight seeing Safari adventure!! :)

Silly Arell

2009-06-12T16:10:00.000-07:00

Arell is the little clown in our family, she is always making us laugh!! I love this little girl so much! :)

Other places to store your Gum!

2009-06-11T22:22:00.000-07:00

Ok, so this has been quite a while ago but as I was going through my pictures tonight I found these and just had to post....

Arell loves to have gum! I mean seriously what kid doesn't love to chew some gum? Anyway, well she also loves to pull it out of her mouth to talk or to eat something else. Well she is definitely no Violet (Charlie & the Chocolate Factory), she does not like to hide it behind her ear... her favorite place is on her.... NOSE!! Seriously, where does she get some of her ideas!?

Trip to Nanny's House

2009-06-06T09:16:00.000-07:00

So we went up to Grace to visit my mom. I LOVE our back yard! My favorite part is the giant Weeping Willow tree back there! In fact my girls seem to have fallen in love with it as well! It is the best climbing tree ever!! :)

Later on we found a sword that Sam & Luis made when they were younger. We then had to have a lovely sword fight with Sammy :)

Finger Painting

2009-06-05T08:47:00.000-07:00

The girls wanted to paint yesterday so we pulled out all the painting stuff and let them have at it! Turns out we've lost all the paint brushes so our wonderful Aunt Sammy suggested we finger paint! What a great idea! The girls loved it!

I must say this is my favorite one! I love all their drawings but this one was the cutest to me because of what it is. Senedra informed me that this is Jeremy with a Mohawk that is on fire!! Seriously what an imagination!!

Secret Messages on My Fridge

2009-06-03T07:48:00.001-07:00

This message was left the other day on our fridge... Hmmmm, I wonder who could have left it there. :) I love little messages like these from my girls!

Bike Riders

2009-05-28T08:30:00.000-07:00

The girls wanted to go for a bike ride and since we live on a Hwy. we like to take them over the church parking lot since it's right close by. The love just racing around and having the open space without having to worry about traffic.

Then these pictures Arell was being the leader of the pack that quickly left her behind! She finally had had enough and started dragging her tryke along. :) I sure love that kid! She always makes us laugh. :)

*The pictures were taken with my cell phone so they aren't that great.

Crafting: Turtles

2009-05-15T11:34:00.001-07:00

Every once in a while I like to pull out a random craft the girls to make and have fun. I chose to have them make some turtles. They were so excited! Here they are working ever so diligently on their projects.

When they were done I told them they should take their turtles outside play with them and make a Turtle Kingdom! Little did I know that, that translated to "make a Turtle Kingdom by digging dirt out of my flower beds so you can play with the turtles in the dirt!"

Here is Arell with her Turtle. I had Arell do a different type of turtle from the other two because I felt it was easier for her.

Here is Senedra with her Turtle. She made her Turtle a bit more colorful! Oh, and you probably can't tell but she colored her plate so it looked more like the turtle was sitting on a rock that was in water! I love the creativity of each one. :)

Then here is Adara with her Turtle. She is so precise and particular in her coloring. :) She colored her plate all green because she wanted it to all look like it was part of the shell.

Notice all the dirt!? Ya, one of my flowerbeds now has a hole it! ;) Oh, and here are the patterns for the turtles. The one Adara & Senedra made it is just for the shell I free handed the head, tail and legs and then we just glued on "googly" eyes.

Fun in the Sun

2009-05-15T11:16:00.000-07:00

My two little goobers having fun outside today! It's actually a very beautiful day here.

My girls are a bit too adventurous for my liking! Watching Senedra stand up on the swinging teeter-totter made me all nervous. Then Jeremy calls me out to some see Arell and she is just so happy to be up here! Then Jeremy helped her down to the bar she had been standing on and she imediately went into hanging mode.... what you don't see is that she actually attempted the flip! Jeremy caught her right before she landed on her head! I remember doing this as kid in elementary school but seeing my own kids do it, is another thing! It's official... I'm a Mother. :)

Kittens

2009-05-12T10:01:00.000-07:00

The girls love going up to visit Grandpa & Grandma Harris! They love playing on the farm. On our last visit they had a few new kittens to play with. Here's some pictures of them playing with them. Arell LOVES those kittens but she's still a little rough with them.

Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-10T10:37:00.000-07:00

Today for Mother's Day I was greeted with breakfast in bed! Jeremy says it was all Adara's idea to make me breakfast in bed. Love my girl. My mom says I would I always wake my dad up and do the same thing for her. Then Adara gave me two little gifts she made me in school. They were adorable.

Then Senedra gave me something she had made, so cute:

And of course Arell had to give me a present too, she wouldn't be left out! ;) A lot of you know we have been working for quite a while at potty training her and it has been quite the adventure. :) But I think we finally got it down!! She still has a few accidents but we are down to about 1-2 a week! YEAH!! Anyway, she brought me a dry diaper from last night (we haven't started on the overnight potty training yet)!! Only a mother could really appreciate such a gift! ;) She was so proud of herself.

We then went up and visited Mom's in Grace and spent the rest of the day up there. :)
Hope everyone had a great Mother's Day!

It's Lion-ing!

2009-05-04T10:02:00.000-07:00

Last night we had a big thunder and lightning storm. The girls were all playing paper dolls in the front room when all of a sudden a huge clap of thunder sounded and they all squealed and then the lighting flashed and lit up the house. At this point they were up and running around all excited about the lighting. So they ran back to my little corner where
I was crafting to tell me all about the lightning.

Adara & Senedra: It's lightening! We saw it! The thunder really was loud and scared us.
Mom: Yup, it was kind of cool. :)
Arell: It's Lion-ing! It's Lion-ing!!
Mom: What, Arell?
Arell: (wide eyed and center of attention by now) It's Lion-ing outside!
Mom: Oh!! It's lightening!
Arell: Ya! Scary!!

Spring Walk

2009-04-30T12:19:00.000-07:00

A weekend or two ago the weather was just beautiful! And Adara and Senedra had spent the night at a friends house so it was just 3 of us at home, Dad, Arell & me! We decided to take Arell on a little walk. We didn't go far and I trailed behind them trying to get some cute shots of the two. Arell though kept wanting to stop and investigate everything! Along the way we came upon one of our neighbors dogs. It's really friendly but Arell seems to have a bit of a fear of animals as big as she is! Not that I blame her. :)

It was a nice quiet day for us. The other two didn't get back till later that day and it really allowed us to spend some much one on one needed time with Arell. We try to sneak in some one on one time with each one when we can. Or just have a mommy & daughter or a daddy & daughter date with each one. Even if it is just a quick run to the grocery store a just a ride to get an ice cream cone. :)

Senedra's Birthday!

2009-04-14T07:59:00.001-07:00

Senedra turned 5 years old on Monday, April 13th! Since we had already had her a little family birthday party we decided to take her McDonald's for dinner and some play time. She loved it! They ate their dinner and then ran around and played on the playground... I even went up and played with them. :) Aaahhh, the benefits of being short! We did have a great time.

Senedra's Birthday Party

2009-04-14T07:57:00.001-07:00

We had a family Birthday party on Saturday for Senedra. We just did our normal thing of having all family over, having cake & ice cream and opening presents. Nothing to fancy around here! She wanted to have a Sleeping Beauty cake this year so I just made her a little personal cake added Sleeping Beauty to the top. Much easier and definitely cheaper! This year Senedra's Birthday Wish List consisted of:

puppy
make up
Barbie dolls
a summer dress
summer shoes to match a new summer dress
or money to just buy what she wanted ;)

She seems to be growing up so fast! And such a girly-girl! She's usually my little tom-boy but she was asking for very girly things this year. :) It's amazing to see how fast they grow and change.

Anyway, here's the pictures from her Birthday party at least. :)

*I usually do 2 slide shows; One of the party and one of Birthday person through the years but unfortunately it's not something I will be able to do for Senedra. :(

Blogging Gift

2009-04-11T18:58:00.001-07:00

I won! I won! I was so excited! :) A friends blog that I follow had a drawing for her one year Blogiversary and I won! She sent me this beautiful kitchen towel set. I love them! And even a cute card to boot. Thanks Cristy, I really do love them! :)

Well, that got me thinking... "I wonder how long I've had my blog for? I should be coming up on a year here soon too, shouldn't I?" So I went and looked... I started blogging June 2007!!! Talk about a shocker to me! So I think I'll have to do something like Cristy did and have a little gift for my 2 year Blogiversary in June! :)

Adara's Walk

2009-04-10T10:55:00.001-07:00

Last week Adara reached 100 A.R. (Accelerated Reading) points. As a reward they get to walk down the whole hall with their mascot the Panther! She was really excited! I must say I'm really proud of her. She loves to read, loves to read to her sisters and even tries to teach Senedra how to read. Her reading scores totally surpass the requirements for her age/class, she is reading at a 3rd grade level. Alright, bragging about my kid time over. ;)

Spring Witches

2009-04-08T15:03:00.000-07:00

So we have not really been up to much lately. Adara had her Spring break last week and that was interesting having her home for the full week... she is so bossy!! Constant fighting all week long due to her two younger sisters not wanting for follow Adara's play script or agenda! LOL I'm just glad she is back to school this week. ;) Anyway, here's some fun pics of them playing "witches" on their brooms! Adara and Senedra found two big brooms and tied their pet on them. Arell not to be outdone needed one too and found a little dust pan brush and had me tie on her little puppy "Penny" who really took up her whole riding space. :)

Mother Nature's April Fools!

2009-04-01T08:58:00.000-07:00

I am a HUGE fan of the movie "French Kiss" with Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline.... anyone else out there? I don't know how many times I have watched this movie I just love it! But this morning when I woke up a line from this movie ran through my head. It's where Kate (played by Meg Ryan) is in the hotel room with Luc (played by Kevin Kline), Luc has been giving Kate instructions on how to be sexy, mysterious, provocative...like a French girl. Well by this time Kate has finally had it and is very frustrated and blurts out:

"Happy - smile. Sad - frown. Use the corresponding face for the
corresponding emotion. "

Which is along the lines of what I want to yell at Mother Nature!! "Winter- Snow. Spring- Sunshine. Use the corresponding weather for the corresponding season!!" Seriously!! We "officially" hit Spring March 20th! Someone apparently forgot to let her know...

Here's some pictures of what I awoke to today. I'm also done with my rant for now... I'm off to find my electric blanket again and to make myself a nice cup of Hot Cocoa.

Birthday Box

2009-03-26T11:51:00.000-07:00

I went into a store in Logan, that I had never been into, a few weeks ago. I found something I REALLY liked, they had a ceramic cupcake that the top came off of! It was so cute! I LOVED IT! Well being the cheap-skape that I am I was NOT going to pay $17 for it! The idea behind it was that since it is hollow you set it out on someones birthday where they can see it. Then later in the day when no one is watching you put a present in it and hide it! Now this just sounded like such a fun family tradition!! So I've been thinking about it off and on for the past few weeks of maybe making my own cupcake but I couldn't figure out how so instead I decorated a box!

I thought it turned out kind of cute. I'm still going to figure out a way to make a cute little cupcake though! That will hold stuff! :)

Again, this was NOT my original idea (I wish it was!), I don't even know who to give the credit to. I did change the cupcake to a box and I changed the wording that was on the tag for the cupcake. Here's the little "tag" note I wrote, that goes with it...

The Hidden Gift Box!
Here’s a fun family tradition you family will surely love!! On Birthday morning set your little gift box out where your family is sure to see it, especially the Birthday person! Then when no one is looking hide it somewhere! When the Birthday person realizes it has disappeared they will begin to search through out the house for it… when they find it, it will hold a
fun birthday surprise!

Modeling

2009-03-20T08:06:00.000-07:00

Wednesday we had a girls day out and went shopping with with my mom and my sister Erica. Erica was down visiting from Vegas for the week! We were very excited to have her here since it had been awhile since we had seen her. My girls especially were happy to see Aunt Erica, they were very shy around her when she got here last Friday but they quickly warmed up. Especially since she told them she was taking them clothes shopping! We went to Kohl's (which by the way always seems like they are having these incredible sales) once there, Aunt Erica told everyone to pick out one outfit, one shirt & a pair of pants. Well Arell lately has just wanted dresses, I swear every one of my girls goes through this stage where they just want to wear dresses, anyway, back to where I was actually going with this! She picked out a dress instead of pants! Here they are modeling their new outfits today.

Moments you live for as a MOM

2009-03-19T10:10:00.000-07:00

I have to start out by saying how proud I am of my oldest, Adara! For last month to two months she has been saving up her money from doing chores and some that was given to her for her birthday. What she was saving up for totally amazed me... It wasn't something for herself which I thought for sure I would be, she's only 7! How many kids do you know that wouldn't want to go gun ho on buying toys for themselves!? Well she was saving up to buy both of her sisters a "Tini Puppini". I must say I'm not a fan of these toys... I think they are rather ugly! Ssshhh... lets not tell them that! :)

Adara wanted one for her birthday and her Uncle Luis & Aunt Vanessa got her one. She received "Tisha, Tini Puppini"(the one with blue hair). Then she decided since she loved hers so much and that it would lots of fun to play with her sisters that she needed to get them one too. So she got Senedra "Tutu Tini Puppini" (the one with the purple outfit) and Arell got "Toffee Tini Puppini"(the one with red hair).

I'm just really proud of her for thinking of her sisters instead of just herself! Maybe, just maybe! I am doing SOMETHING right as a parent! :)

Jeremy's Birthday... March 2nd... kind of behind

2009-03-19T10:08:00.000-07:00

Again I'm a little behind on posting this post. Jeremy turned a grand ol' 33 on March 2nd. So we had a little family birthday party for him. We don't really do much just have some cake & ice cream; just a little get together for him.

Vanity?

2009-03-09T17:34:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I don't know how often I change the look of my blog... I really like to keep changing it and make it look nice. Is that vanity showing thru!? LOL The only thing is that I am going crazy having to re-bookmark ALL my friends blogs that I have! And having to re-install all the "extras" I have on the side so I'm trying to find a more permanent look (ok, lets be realistic I'll still probably change it but hopefully only half as often! :)). But I can't seem to find a layout that I just LOVE and says, "ooh, this is me!" Any suggestions or ideas? Any of you have favorite sites you go to for layouts that you are willing to share? :)

Blogging Games- Pay it Forward

2009-03-04T08:33:00.000-08:00

I saw this on my friends, Kamaile's & Emily’s blog, and thought it was a cool idea. I like games and I love giving presents. :) No pressure if you don't want to play along. But if you do, join in the fun!!

Here’s how it works. I will send a gift sometime this year to the first three people to leave comments linking me to or telling me about their “pay it forward” post on their blog. You have to post to your blog like this and then leave me a comment.

Potty Training

2009-02-27T21:25:00.000-08:00

So we've been working on potty training Arell for what seems like forever and a day!! When she first showed interest back in October (shortly after she turned 2) I wasn't quite ready for her to start potty training so I let her do her thing and only followed through half heartily. You see when my other two decided that they were ready to be done with diapers at the age of 2 that was great because we had another child on the way and I certainly did not want to have 2 kids in diapers by any means! Now with Arell being the 3rd and me not expecting anytime soon, I didn't really want to have to worry with the constant trips to the bathroom, stops along the road, and all the accidents that come along with it. It just seems so much easier to keep in her diapers overall. But now I feel that due to my indecision, wafering back and forth over whether to potty train or not. Now she doesn't seem to care either way. She'll go if she feels like it or if she feels like she is busy she'll just wet herself.

The other morning I woke up to find her in the bathroom putting her dolly on the toilet! It was very cute.

Adara's Birthday

2009-02-24T12:06:00.000-08:00

Adara turned 7 years old on February 10th (I know I'm way behind on getting this posted!). We always do a family party and then a friends party for her. Her theme that she wanted this year was Cowgirl Strawberry Shortcake! Which is like almost impossible to find! So for the family parties I usually don't do much "theme" wise other than her cake which I decorated with Strawberry Shortcake.

For the friends party I found some pink cowgirl hats for them to wear and made pink cupcakes for the girls to decorate. I then had the movie playing in the background so they could watch it! They had so much fun running around, watching the movie, decorating cupcakes and playing an awesome game that Aunt Samanta got Adara for her birthday! Hullabaloo, it says for 4-players but we played it with 8+ .... they had a blast!!!

Uninvited Guest

2009-02-17T11:34:00.000-08:00

So the other day I was getting ready for Adara's 7th birthday party, with 6 of her friends from school. Busy day, if you have ever had a birthday party for one of your kids. ;) I was in my kitchen with my back to the sink when I started hearing a funny noise behind me. At first I ignored it because snow had been sliding off our roof all morning long, so I just chalked it up to more snow. Then I realized that the sound I was hearing was a little closer and did NOT sound like snow. Well we have been having some issues in our area with Voles trying to overtake our little neighborhood, so I began to think, "OH, NO! They are starting to invade my house!" So I slowly turn around to see a loooonnnnnggggg white head poking out from my top drawer right next to the sink!! Trust me a very un-nerving experience!! As I stood there kind of in shock it pulled itself back into the drawer I took that as my chance to "escape!" I quickly grabbed the phone and made my way to the bathroom where I stood up on the edge of the tub and quickly dialed Jeremy at work...

Jeremy: Hello?
Me: "Pssst!!"
Jeremy: Yes?
Me: Jeremy? what is long, skinny, white and furry!!??
Jeremy: Ummm, is this a joke? What are you doing? Or even talking about!!?
Me: There is something in my kitchen!! That's the best description I can give you.... WHAT IS IT!!??
Jeremy: I have no idea, can you send me a picture?

Well the entire time I was on the phone with Jeremy I was whispering to him, why? I don't know, maybe I was afraid it would attack me from that drawer who knows! Then I heard him crawl down the back of the drawers... so then i had to go and investigate and see where he went so I went and pulled out the bottom drawer to see where it might have come from and where it might have gone to!! And lo and behold there was a hole behind the drawer!! So I grabbed my digital camera, video taped it and this was it what I have.....

So it turns out we have an Ermine Weasel! Well when it went back in the hole it didn't come back so that night I had Jeremy filled the hole with some steel wool so I hope that, that will take care of any other uninvited guests! ;) Lets just say I was VERY thankful he didn't decide to join us for the birthday party!

Crazy Hair Day...

2009-01-23T07:20:00.000-08:00

So today for School Adara's first grade class was to have a "Crazy Hair Day" but do to school being canceled she was unable to go so we decided that we needed to do crazy hair day here at home instead!! Now their idea of "Crazy Hair" just makes me feel kind of old!! Since their idea of "crazy" is having it all crimped!! :) Now I feel truly dated! LOL Here are some pictures.

A day for Visitors & Sugar Cookies...

2009-01-20T13:35:00.000-08:00

So last week I had some visitors stop by! My sister, Samanta came to visit me and we had Subway for lunch together followed by some serious WiiFit time and just some Wii games later. Then a little a while later Cassie (my brother Noe's girlfriend) came over to visit too! So we all went to the kitchen and set in to make Sugar Cookies!! It was a lot of fun just haning out and chatting together! Well they mostly made fun of me for not knowing how to make sugar cookies! I think last week was like my 2nd or 3rd time I had ever made them in my life! LOL I know pretty ridiculous, huh!? Anyway, What inspired the cooking of the Sugar cookies was a little show that my kids LOVE to watch and I must admit I'm a bit addicted to it to! They are too cute! It is called "Making Fiends" here is the clip of the one we had watched.

Now Arell watched that episode like 3-5 times within that morning and then would run through the kitchen yelling, "Suuugaaaar Coooookie!!!" Kind of in that growl-y voice the fiend does! She sure does make me laugh. :)

Anyway, here are some pictures of us having fun with the cookies. Cassie also brought over a little boy that she babysits occasionally to play with Arell they are about the same age.

Christmas of 2008...

2008-12-31T20:46:00.000-08:00

Since a good friend told me it was time to get my Christmas pictures up I guess I better get moving!! Thanks for the motivation Lacey! :)

So for Christmas we stayed home... last year we decided our little girls were getting to the age where we wanted to start having our own little family traditions. We used to go up on Christmas Eve and spend most of the day at my mom's and then we would stay up till around 11 pm or Midnight and we all would get to open one gift, then we would go to bed and I of course being the one that just refuses to grow up! :) Would get up bright and early and bound through the house waking everyone up to open presents with me! I've never been very patient when it comes to presents! lol Anyway, as I was saying, we decided we wanted to start doing Christmas Eve at home as our own little family and then driving up to Grace on Christmas day. Well this year due to a big storm that came through plus all of us going through a bout of the stomach flu that week we didn't get to have Christmas with our families until that weekend. Then to top it off we went and had it at my mom's house first and then tried to go down to Harris's and got stuck in some nasty drifts! What an adventure it was trying to get Christmas done with Family this year!

The girls are always so much fun to watch as they open their gifts! This year my mom gave them each a package of socks. Now Adara is getting to the age of where you give her underwear, socks or the cute little under t-shirts she gives you this look of "please..." but my little Arell is NOT! LOL She was so funny to watch when she opened up her little package of socks! She was so excited she went around making sure everyone saw what she had gotten and then proceeded to take every single pair out and then lay them out one by one! We decided that by the way she was counting she came out way ahead on the gift loot chart!!

Well here are our Christmas Pictures of 2008! Another great year!!

Falling Behind & Raking up Leaves...

2008-12-11T14:39:00.000-08:00

So I have been slacking a bit! What's new! I seem to go in spurts I do really well for a while and then I stop and then I pick up again! Aaggh! Sorry. Anyway, this was last month when we were out raking leaves in our yard. I swear we were never going to finish! It just always amazes me at how many leaves 3 Maple tress can produce! We had like 10 good piles like this one! Jeremy and I went to work on it! Adara and Senedra were off playing with friends and Arell was napping... prime time to get something done! When there are no kids around! Although I must say I sure missed having the kids squealing, giggling and jumping in the leaves! I think that is one of my favorite things about raking up leaves... being able to jump in to the piles! Except I just wish they would rake themselves back up after we are done! We were done making piles and were just working on bagging all those leaves when Arell woke up and joined us outside. She looked so cute all bundled up in her blue coat I just couldn't resist getting some pictures of her... I know this probably sounds totally conceited, but... I just love my little girl and it always blows me away when I look at her and think how beautiful she is! I'm just so lucky to have such beautiful little girl! Yes, I'm sorry I'm very prideful when it comes to my little girls sorry! Ok, I'm done bragging and being proud mommy! LOL

Talk a little...

2008-11-11T07:50:00.000-08:00

Arell has starting talking! She didn't really start until after she turned two. I must admit I was starting to get a little worried. But she just didnt' see the need to start I guess when all she had to do was point and everyone would just run and do what she wanted! LOL Anyway, we've been having fun with her and having her say some big words just because they are the funniest to hear her say! Here's a video of her saying some words. She tries to say Hippogriff, hippopotamus, dinosaur and my sister told her to say, "Sammy!" at the end, but it sounds much more like "hampy". lol

A new Addition!

2008-11-10T07:26:00.000-08:00

So we have had a bit of excitement around our house this weekend! My brother and his wife had a brand new little baby girl!! She was born Saturday November 8th. She is the prettiest little thing ever! She has a full head of black hair that is tipped with blonde highlights, she is absolutely gorgeous! Of course it could be that I'm a bit biased being a proud aunt. ;)

Vanessa's Baby Shower

2008-11-10T07:06:00.000-08:00

About a week ago I attended a baby shower for my sister-in-law. She is so cute! She received a lot of gifts! I am so excited for them! I had seen a "diaper cake" on a friends blog so I decided to attempt it my self! It didn't turn out to bad. The shower was fun she had a good turn out, it was good to catch up with some of the people that
showed up!

Adara's Front Tooth!

2008-11-09T19:12:00.000-08:00

Adara has now had a loose tooth for over a month! It was one of her front top teeth and every day that that tooth hung there poking out slightly askew, I always wanted to pull it out!! Put Adara wouldn't let me near her!! So the other day she came home and showed me toothless grin!! She had lost her tooth on the bus... finally!!

The Outcome

2008-11-05T10:59:00.000-08:00

In lieu of yesterday's great excitement and anticipation, I thought I would just post Obama's Acceptance Speech and McCain's Concession Speech. All I can say is I am, as many are, ready for change. As we all hope that it is for the better. And to support and buoy those hopes we should all do as McCain says, "....unite behind our President..." whether it is who you voted for or not.

It's SNOWING!!

2008-11-04T10:12:00.000-08:00

So I definitely have mixed feelings about all this lovely snow.... I am so excited to see everything covered in white and see how pretty it is. It just seems to me that it kind of muffles out the nasty world around us and makes all so beautiful! But, and I do mean a BIG BUT!!! I hate the cold! Today it's just these big, white, very wet snowflakes. It's not sticking but does make for a pretty scene as I look out my windows.

Halloween!

2008-11-04T09:35:00.000-08:00

So I'm a bit of a slacker getting these posted, sorry. We weren't planning on going Trick-or-Treating this year... *gasp* "How dare we not take the children out!?" I know, I know but we've kind of done a little family tradition since Adara was born, we get some candy, make popcorn, and put in a Halloween movie. We take our T.V. and set it up in our back room, pull out blankets and sleeping bags, turn off all the lights and camp out as a family. I have just loved it! I monitor how much candy we get and nobody has to go out in the cold! No, really we always have fun but this year Adara insisted on going Trick-or-Treating. I was hoping our little tradition would last a little longer but alas it was not to be. So here are some pictures of them in their cute little costumes. Adara was a witch, Senedra was a Skunk (very cute!), and Arell was a little Princess. I figured if we were going out I would dress up to in a costume I've had for about 2 years now, kind of a Renaissance dress. The only thing is I look HUGE in it!! It had some tulle around the hips to REALLY make you look wide and hippy! I felt like I was wearing my hips in my armpits! Oh, well 'twas Halloween! We even got Jeremy to dress up as a Grim Reaper but only for a little bit!

Tagged!

2008-10-24T15:16:00.000-07:00

Tagged -
1. Post the Rules to your blog
2. Answer the six 8 items
3. Let each person know they have been tagged by commenting on their blog.

8 Favorite TV Show: (Naming 7 was a stretch because we don't have T.V. really these are shows I catch as reruns or on DVD)
* House
* Bleach
* Any of the CSI's
* Grey's Anatomy
* Pushing Daisy's
* Cold Case
* Scrubs
* ummm, I can't name any more!

8 Things I Did Yesterday:
* washed dishes
* Cleaned the house
* Took Adara to school in the morning
* Picked Adara up after school & dropped her off at her little Mini Cheerleading camp
* Made dinner
* Picked Adara up from Mini Cheerleading camp
* Watched movie with Senedra
* Did some grocery shopping

8 Things I Look Forward To:
* Paying down debt
* Lower gas prices :)
* Christmas
* Date nights
* Reading books
* Bubble baths
* New Kitchen cabinets
* Snow (for now... I love the look of snow I just HATE the coldness ;) )

8 Favorite Restaurants:
* Olive Garden
* Firehouse Pizza
* BlackStone
* Marie Callendars
* Village Inn ( I LOVE their hot chocolate)
* Fredrico's
* Any place that serves good California Rolls
* Anywhere else because I don't have to cook

8 Things On My Wishlist:
* A new Dishwasher
* A new bed
* A fancy digital camera, SLR with interchangeable lenses
* A dining table (bigger to fit all of us)
* A 42" or bigger flat LCD HD TV
* A bigger iPod
* A debt free life :) (a girl can wish can't she!)
* Lots of beautiful Gerber Daisies!

4+4=8 picture tag. Pick the 4th photo from the fourth folder in your My Pictures:

Summer 2007
This is what happens when Adara (on the right) & Senedra (on the left) go to Grandma Martinez's (aka Nanny)!

8 People To Tag: Anyone that feels like doing it for fun!

Mummy's and Spiders and Bats.. Oh my!

2008-10-22T17:06:00.000-07:00

So Monday night we did our pumpkin carving with the girls. Adara and Senedra knew exactly what they wanted to carve on their pumpkins but I figured carving was going to be a bit boring, messy for Arell and plus put her past her bed time so instead I took one of the Butternut Squashes that we had in our garden and decorated that! She was so proud of it she loved carrying it around for a bit.

As for Senedra she wanted to do a bat and Adara a spider. Well after we put Arell down for bed we got busy carving the pumpkins! I cut out the tops and had each one "gut" her own pumpkin. Of course Adara being our little girly-girl did not enjoy this process to much!

Well while they were doing that Jeremy thought that would be a good time to ask for the carving kit supplies, hmmm.... now you see this is totally a problem! Why? You may ask... well you see I forgot that tid-bit! I forgot to purchase a pumpkin carving kit! So we had to improvise... we used what ever was handy! And here is how REAL men carve pumpkins. LOL

So considering we were kind of improvising with tools they didn't turn out to bad.

More Tortillas!

2008-10-15T07:17:00.000-07:00

Ok, so the other day I get to making tortillas so we can have some fajitas for dinner. Well of course my lovely little girls want to help me out!

As I'm watching them help me I'm thinking, "how in the world do they get so dirty or make such a mess!?" Well as I'm going through the pictures Jeremy had taken of us I come across these ones....

Every time I think, "where do they get that from? or why would they do that? or even why would they say stuff like that?" I tend to answer my own questions within seconds because I catch myself doing! I have got to pay better attention to my actions!