Want to start a craft club with me?

I've seen this a couple times on other blogs and I had actually wanted to start one a couple years ago but got too insanely busy to do it. I thought it might be hecka fun if I could get this going now! A chance to meet new people, get out of the house and away from the kids and work on a goal of being more crafty and learning new things.
I was thinking of starting it in August maybe September and just following THIS GROUPS formula. It seems to be working out splendidly for them.

If these criteria fit you then give me a shout and let me know that you want to be apart of it.

1. Live in the Mesa area or willing to drive.
2. You're able to get a babysitter to meet on a weeknight once a month.
3. You want to have fun!!!

THIS BLOG has tons of ideas of things you could do when it's your turn to host.

Have you met my pet?

What Chris wanted for his birthday more than anything in the whole wide world was a puppy! He looked and looked for the perfect dog and even turned down the cutest little puppies I have ever seen and picked Valentine. She's a boxer and the breeder we got her from was AWESOME. They will even dog-sit for us!

Valentine is a name we got from the book Ender's Game, it's been our name list for our girls but never fit. She was almost Pigeon (from the childrens books Pigeon wants to drive a bus, Pigeon wants a puppy... they are AWESOME!) but Cecily and I voted Chris and Jocelyn down.

Did you know that puppies are contagious? It's actually quite serious and spreads quickly. A month ago Chris's sister got a puppy (boxer/bull dog mix) and then his parents fell in love and got one and then Chris (and me and Cec and Ash) had to have one too. The same day we got our puppy my brother went and got one (not a boxer though.) What's scary about this whole puppy wanting disease is it even spreads to wanting babies. I am so baby hungry right now, it's weird. WHY IS MY BABY-ASHER GROWING SO FAST!

ANYWAY! Back to the dog. Xena is loving her and is so happy to have a friend. We're one big happy family!

A Man Date; a social engagement between two {or more} straight men.

Today is Chris's 29th Birthday, hard to believe but the guy with the baby face is getting old! I planned a Man Date for him on Saturday so he could hang out with his manly friends and do men things like shoots guns and eat meat. I was so nervous being a girl planning what I thought would be a good man date. It turned out good I suppose since they all said "it was fun!" when asked by us wives.
They didn't go out to Usery Pass they went to a place far away in the desert. But they did get some man food.

My brothers are gun crazy right now and have SO MANY! They brought all of theirs to share. Thanks Tim & Rock for being so awesome and helping your sister out!

Anyway, it's been a party weekend here at our house because Saturday we friend celebrated Chris's birthday, Sunday was Father's day and now tonight we will be celebrating Chris birthday family-style.

Happy Birthday, Chris!

Oh my heck!

I have been trying since I started my first blogspot {i heart libros} to design my own blog backgrounds. Now that I'm thinking about it I have been trying to design my own myspace {deleted it!} background too. Still can't do all the html poo but I got my own design up and I'm finally satisfied. I can move on to more time sucking tasks. If you want to learn use THIS SITE. All the other ones DO NOT WORK!

In other news...

1) Van door is fixed. Chris told me I'm not allowed to tell you how much so I'll just leave it to your imagination cause it's a good amount just for a van door! OR we can make this a guessing game... The kids were SO happy to see the van again they were cheering and Cecily even noticed that her door works! But no one was as happy as I was to be in my big girl van again. Being 2 weeks without it was hard, although I did get to spend more time with Chris driving him to and from work and I got to listen to my books too! A shout out to my chauffeur Katie who took care of me twice (actually three) when I was stranded.

2) It's hard to cut a one year old's hair, I cut Asher's hair last night and he looks like a mini-Chris. He kept moving and trying to dive into the tub from the sink but I caught him but he has a little bald spot on the side because of it. Oh well, gives him more character.


3) I have trained Jocelyn and Cecily to respond to "Do you get what you want when you throw a fit?" It's great cause it's been stopping the fits in their tracks and making the past two days heavenly.

Jocelyn and Mail

I mentioned in my last post that Jocelyn has to get one of her molars pulled. I didn't tell you the whole saga behind it but I will share it with you now. Jocelyn has been complaining about her tooth hurting for almost a week. When she woke up sobbing holding her cheek I knew I had to get her in ASAP. I called her dentist first thing and he's out of town for the week and so I called my friend and got her kids dentist phone number. He was SO GREAT. His staff was SO NICE. We had a really great experience there. He told me that Jocelyn would probably be happier with her old dentist since she knows him but it was up to us if we would use him again or go back to our first dentist. I left it up to Jocelyn and she decided she wanted him because he gave her two tokens to get toys with.

Yesterday, she gave me this sealed envelope and asked me to mail it to him. I said, "yeah, okay" and threw it in my "TO DO" basket. Jocelyn left to go to the Ranch with my parents for 2 days so I decided to open it to check to make sure she wasn't sending them trash (she had mailed her BFF junk mail stuffed in an envelope the first time I mailed something of hers)

Here's what I found.

So Dr. Johnson is FOR SURE going to get this little gem in the mail next week, even though I want to keep it BADLY for myself.

The Good News

Cecily got her cast off on Monday! She couldn't walk on it for two days cause she didn't feel comfortable but Wednesday she did and it's been WONDERFUL! That was my BIGGEST worry was if she was going to walk with the cast and after she got it off. I don't know if you remember when Jocelyn broke her leg she REFUSED to walk with the cast and even when she got it off she didn't walk for another month. It was so stressful and exhausting because I was 8 months pregnant carrying around a 4 year old.


*Left my camera at home, so these are with my phone.

WE RENTED OUR FREAKIN' HOUSE!!!!

This was the BIGGEST answer to our fast and prayers. Seriously, Sunday was fast Sunday we fasted and of course we have been praying nonstop since we evicted our last renters. Monday, the first call I got was this family and he saw it on Tuesday and just signed the papers over an hour ago. We are so HAPPY and GRATEFUL!

The Bad News

Jocelyn has an abscessed tooth and has to have it pulled. It's been causing her A LOT of pain and I got her into a GREAT dentist (Thanks Amy!) and he told us what was going on. The bad part is my dentist was out of town so I went to this guy. Jocelyn liked him and wants to keep going to him but he's going to be out of town the next 2 weeks and can't get her in til late July. It's a little frustrating especially since we just paid to get the cavity fixed and now the tooth just has to be pulled.

MY FREAKIN' VAN WON'T START!

I told you about the van door but the alternator went out and we got it fixed but something happened with the battery and I have been stranded at home all day because of it. I love my van, why is it being so mean to me?!

Don't worry, I'm counting my blessings still. We're going out tonight and I'm working Friday and Saturday. (I heart A Savory Affair)
Life is good.

PS: Listen to this song, a bride picked it for her video and I really needed to hear this today cause it totally brightened by day. BRAND NEW DAY by TIM MYER

UPDATE: CHRIS GOT THE VAN WORKING!!! YEA FOR CHRIS!!!!! So add that to the good news, van working and soon van doors will be too cause I'm going to the dealership tomorrow.

3 Days til Cecily gets her cast off!

Today was her first day of her summer dance class. Before we left she asked if they were going to teach her tricks. {I think she is wanting to learn gymnastic tricks, so if you know a place that offers these trick-teaching skills let me know!} She had a blast at class! Her teacher said it was a little difficult with the cast but she tried really hard, so next week will be great when she has the cast off.

It's just a small room added on to their house but I was impressed with how nice they were and how happy Cecily was to be there and I think that's what counts. AND IT'S AFFORDABLE! It's June and July for $20 a month. Here's their number if you want it.
Julie Halcomb - 924.0310
Janna Squires - 288.1482

Just to embarrass him.

It's a new month {Can you believe it's June already!?} and it's Father's day and Chris's birthday back to back so I made him my computer desk top. I love you smooski-poo!

Again, you can download these desktops at SHABBY PRINCESS.

Just so you know my check list is going splendidly! I've got 3 weddings done in 3 days... I know! Holes in wall... CHECK! Thanks to my awesome daddy-O! Van door is gonna have to wait, and crafts for kids has turned into finding a cool place to go or visit, I've learned they would much rather get out of the house. And cross your fingers cause we might have found a really nice family to rent the house!

Have you ever wondered what chocolate milk would taste like with honeycomb?
Well, let me tell you, I did and I didn't like it.

What got this thought in my head? When I was in elementry school we (Timmy, Rocky and I)

would try to get to school in time for breakfast, (they served cereal and bagels and other goodies before school) We would eat cinnamon toast crunch with chocolate milk. It was our favorite!

The other day the girls begged for a gallon of chocolate milk and I got it. I was looking for a snack at about 9 pm and I didn't have cinnamon toast crunch so I used honeycomb instead. It started off ok but towards the end the combination just wasn't working out. So if you feel like it give it a try, but let me know of good cereal combos it's my and Chris's favorite late night snack.

THERE ARE SO MANY FLIPPIN' FLIES IN MY HOUSE!

These are all the ones Chris killed in about ten minutes. Gross, huh!?
Cecily has even mastered the art of killing them with her hand. There are still 6 roaming flies that I'm just going to end up naming and making a bed for them in my kitchen cause they won't die, and they won't go away.