oo-da-lolli

Spring break was a bust. Nothing went on. However, the following week was fab-tastic!

The mother had a birthday! I got a sitter and was able to spend the day with my mom and Marcie. It was a blast. My dad decorated her car and filled it with 49 balloons. Apparently she now needs a new horn because she busted it from honking too much while driving the kids to school.

I am used to having a mom who honks the horn often while driving... or screeching over speed bumps... or screaming out the car window phrases such as "don't burp your bottom" to you, your friends and pretty much the entire Mesa High student body on her week of car pool. I guess during her birthday honking episode she was tooting to the tune of happy birthday then had an encore of ♫and many mooooore on channel fouuuur and scooby doooooo on channel twooooo♫. I guess one little reserved girl in the car quietly said, this is kinda freakin me out. Haha, oh girl you have no idea!

We took her to Pita Jungle, one of her favorites. I jumped all over that idea because I have always wanted to try it out but I don't have a pita lovin husband willing to eat there. My dad was able to join us for lunch in between work.

After lunch we headed off to go shopping! My mom wanted to show us an entertainment center she has been eyeing for a few months to see how we felt about it. Well instead of showing, she ended up purchasing! So proud of her! She also got a cute red hall table. We stopped into Poppy's for treats and more home decor and of course...Hobby Lobby.

For dinner we went to Matta's. I think I had more fun on her birthday than my own!

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The father had his birthday a few days later. He turned 50.

 I kind of freaked out when I realized he was turning 50. Not like that is old but I always have felt that I have very active, adventurous younger than most of my friends parents, parents. And I still do. I am blessed to have parents who are very much involved in not only their own lives, but mine and my kids too. Also with very little health issues along the way. That is not a common story and I am very grateful for them.  I think it just weirded me out because I am going to be in their spot in not that much time!

I always have a difficult time trying to figure out a gift for him. There is hardly anything I could buy for him that he doesn't already have or need. Plus he is one who doesn't want us to spend our money on him. So what do you do? Get him a pinata! Since Priesthood session was on his birthday we did the pinata after conference on Sunday.

I made some loot bags to go along with it.

Rusty caught onto the fun and had to try it out.

We made sure to Pandora a few Spanish tunes on a cell phone to fully grasp the pinata spirit.

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I think everybody got a turn at whacking. We only had to re-tie it back on the rope twice and scotch taped it up once to get more turns. I love the long grass. If looks so fluffy in the pictures and made finding the candy a little harder.

I think I was in an extra good mood because it was conference Sunday and I didn't have to spend 3 hrs in the halls wrangling a child 2 months shy of nursery age.
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So lastly, I must share about my April Fools trick. hehe.

I completely forgot about April 1st until my sister asked if I was doing anything to fool Casey. She told me her ideas which were pretty hilarious so that got me wanting to do something as well. I quickly brain stormed some ideas like having Casey think I was pregnant with a pregnancy test. But I couldn't think of anybody that I knew that was pregnant, non the less knowing them well enough to ask them to pee on a stick for me.

Some how I thought about doing a fake DQ coupon because Casey's middle name is pretty much ice cream and he gets so excited when we get coupons in the mail for it.

I googled DQ coupon images and copy and pasted the pictures on my Memory Mixer softwear. I was trying to think of what to say on it to make it sound legit so I totally made up the blizzard flavor and "spring in" to make it sound Easter-ish. I printed it out and put it in our mail box. What do you think, believable?



I had to print it out over at my parents because our color ink was out. I showed it to my mom and she couldn't resist and put one in their mail box too.

So long story short Casey didn't buy it. However, somebody else did! How it went down was my mom and dad were sitting at the kitchen table and the pile of mail was on it. My mom nonchalantly picked up the coupon and was like wow look at this.

Long story short again they hop in the car and  headed over to Dairy Queen to get their 6 free blizzards! They pull up and it was crowded and my dad said it was probably because everybody wanted their free blizzards. haha! Usually they do the drive thru but since it was crowded my mom "talked him into" going inside because it would be easier.

My dad handed the coupon over to the boy taking their order. I guess they boy was looking at it point blank, reading it for 2 minutes without saying a word then all of a sudden turned around and walked toward the back of the restaurant to talk to his manager! My mom couldn't keep it in any longer and told my dad is was and April Fools prank. I guess he didn't think it was that funny until they sat down with their frozen hot chocolates and not a chocolate bunny covered strawberry blizzard and then he could laugh and say he thought some of it sounded fishy.

Oh father, thanks for making me feel successful. I vow to get Casey somehow next year!


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50 more

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Remember this post? Due to a request (a long time ago) I have had this sitting in my draft file being totally forgotten about and half way done. I saw it a few weeks ago and decided to open it up, dust it off and added a few more to it.

I hesitate to even post it because for one, I am not that interesting, two I may seem harsh or strong minded and three my dumb blonde tallies will rise on your list you have going on me. But since I took the time to actually make the list I will post it so it wont feel like a complete waste.
So

I am a girl who:

* wears Vaseline as lip gloss.
* licks the sides of the popcorn bag clean of butter.
* busts Enya in the car and sings along with my 4 yr old.
* loves rooms decorating in all white. I call them fluffy rooms.
* thought you could only buy books from amazon
* ultimate pet peeve is getting stinged on toppings in my blizzard or concrete... or if its not mixed well.
* can't stand clutter, even threw away my high school diploma.
* thinks Ruffles and BBQ Lays dipped in sour cream is the bomb.
* bought 10 bottles of irresistible apple B&BW lotion because they were being discontinued.
* likes to watch the movie Rudy so I can listen to the background music.
* is addicted to Cherry 7up and Strawberry Crush, thanks to Casey.
* would check mark the "other" box because I didn't know what Caucasian meant.
* could sit in the laundry room and sniff Tide soap all the day long.
* is a scrooge about 2nd baby showers just because you are having a different gender. If that's the case I want a bridal shower after every 10 yrs of marriage to update all my stuff.
* failed my drivers license test for the first time
* is a necklace junkie.
* idol was Wendy Peffercorn, yes from the movie Sandlot.
* felt old fashion when 3 yr old niece looked at my tooth brush and asked if it turned on and I said no.
* could swim everyday of the summer.
* loves to watch my boys sleep at night, including Casey. Is that creepy?
* thinks PotteryBarn and Yogurtland  is over rated. sorry.
* can't wait to get old so I can go to the salon and have my hair done once a week.
* never went back to my Philosophy MCC class mid semester because I had a speech due the next day and  didn't feel like writing one.
* is t.e.r.r.i.b.l.e with remembering birthdays.
* doodles on the wall while taking a shower
* just saw Forest Gump on tv for the first time and when it was almost over realized Bubba Gump restaurant is affiliated with the movie. I always wondered why they had those shoes out front you could take pictures with. It all makes so much sense now!!!
* will probably never own a pet.
* does not like fruit in leafy green salads.
* keeps the inside of my car clean at all times.
* if gets cold while shopping at Walmart will take a sweater and wear it then put it back before checking
   out.
* kinda wants to get stung by a bee so I know what it feels like.
* super glued my fingers together and thought I was going to have to drive myself to the hospital to free them.
* is always looking for a reason to eat out.
* has never gotten into on-line shopping
* wants to go on The Amazing Race show .
* uses hand soap to wash my face at night. I'll be paying for that later.
* still wears my Etnie skater shoes circa 2003
* has a hard time making the bed.
* just read the book How to Win Friends and Influence People and highly recommends everybody to read it
* bank account is doomed if I ever have a girl.
* has to stop and think before writing the letter W.
* emailed Blue Bunny to let them know that their Monster Cookie ice cream was not living up to it's
   name and only had 6-8 traces of "monster" cookie within the half gallon.
* has to have the fan on while sleeping.
* swears Wendy Williams is/was a man.
* thought hand me downs were pronounced hammy downs and would sing by this shall menno instead of by this shall men know in the song As I Have Loved You.
* procrastinates until the very last minute possible.
* loves to give gifts.
* does not like de-boning rotisserie chickens, it gives me the willies.
* could watch tv for a whole day and not feel guilty about it.
* always asks hypothetical questions which drives the hubbs crazy!

That would make a bakers dozen Bob {A Post In Numbers}

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We had a birthday boy this week. Casey turned 29!

A celebration was in order to commemorate his last year as a youngin:)
.On his actual birthday I needed to be at our relief society birthday party activity. So Tuesday night the 2 of us were able to sneak away for dinner at Cheesecake Factory.

On Thursday Casey got home from work earlier than the norm so we had a late lunch at Bellagio's then picked up his free dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

Since he was going to have his "birthday party" at the dunes a few days later he insisted that for his birthday all he wanted was food. Homemade food. Was he trying to give a subtle hint that I don't cook enough? Well he got his wish. Tacos, queso dip and his new favorite buster bar ice cream dessert as his birthday cake.

I have the best husband, ever. I love how after he kisses me goodbye before he leaves for work (at 5am) he always fixes the covers that I have tossed and destroyed from the night so they are smooth and straight and fully covering me again. I love how he meticulously cuts the pan of brownies so each piece is exactly equal and the same size. I love how he leaves me love notes that say I love you more than you will ever know, because honestly, I love him more than he will ever know.

  hello blue eyes!

I did a lot of baking/cooking this weekend for RS birthday, Case's birthday and dunes trip. I felt like I didn't leave the kitchen for days. 52 cupcakes, a cake, buster bar dessert, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, double batch of muddy buddies and that is only the desserts. That brought the total sticks of butter used count to 12!

I made a new frosting recipe which wasn't tasting quite right, a little too buttery:) I had Casey try it to see what he thought on his way out to play basket ball. A few minutes later he texted saying he could feel the butter in the bottom of his stomach and that it needed something else. I responded with, are you sure it's the frosting or the Krispy Kremes?!  I figured out I forgot the powder sugar, duh.

 Just call me Butter Crocker!

I was on the computer and heard the toy horse playing it's music so I turned around to see Rusty pushing  Lane from behind looking like this. I laughed for 5 minutes straight.

I think somebody was sick of hearing me complain about all the cold weather so to be nice we got warm 80 degrees! This allowed us to go swimming 3 times this week! Yep, it was awesome.

We started out in our community hot tub but that didn't last long until both boys jumped in the actual pool. Cold or not, here they come! It was way cold for my liking so I did not join them. However, bless you sunshine. We have missed you!

      

We made it over to my parents Friday and Saturday. The boys ended up in the pool on both occasions with half of the neighborhood kids as well.

Swimming before Easter...not too shabby!

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The Family That Does Antibiotics Together Stays Together

Have I mentioned that I curse winter? Because I do! Blast this nasty cold weather... and I don't even live where it snows. Poor, poor Michigan, Idaho, New York, anybody who lives in snow people. I wish you warmth and spring time, pronto!

If it weren't for all the crap in the air due to winter I wouldn't despise January- April so much.  Rusty caught a bad cold 3 weeks ago. We literally stayed inside for 4 straight days to get him on the mend as fast as possible. Unfortunately his cold turned into a double ear infection. His very first one. We started his 10 days of amoxicillin and life went on.

I got sick a few days later. Casey kept egging me to go into Urgent Care. I swore I was getting better but secretly I thought I was going to go cross eyed from all the pressure building up and tightening in my forehead. 8 days later I woke up and finally surrendered.

We had stake conference that day. Since I refused to take Casey's advice earlier in the week I figured I better go to church first and save myself the guilt trip. We sat in the YW's room to listen to conference so the kids could play and so I could crank the heater up to warm my shivering fever. Ya it was totally pointless to go. The whole time I was sitting there wondering what the heck I was doing there. I couldn't tell you one thing that was said. But then again it's kind of hard to listen to the stake president while Shakira is crossing wires with the satellite station transferring conference from the stake center to the ward building. I did make it through conference and my 3 hour wait at Urgent Care. Sinus infections are a bust. You can't taste a darn thing!

So now we are entering this week. Rusty had finished is antibiotics for a few days and I think he is all good. Nope. He was up for 3 hours Friday night crying. I thought it was just his fangs coming in so I doped him up on Tylenol and he finally went to sleep. Throughout the weekend he was good but just extra clingy. This morning I went to fold laundry on my bed and when I came in to check on him I found him like this. Dead asleep on the floor at 10am.

Luckily he had his 15 month well check this afternoon. The doctor said his ears had never cleared up and he still had both infections. My heart dropped to the floor. I felt horrible, no wonder he wasn't feeling good. I am so dumb to have not thought about his ear infections never getting better. How long would I have gone without going back to the doctor and thinking it was just his teeth?!! He is on round 2 of drugs and I hope this time it works! I am beyond ready to sit pool side soaking in the vitamin D sun and putting this sickie business to rest for a loooong time!

In the meantime I managed to have a little fun.  Friday after the kids went to bed I met Marcie and my mom at Harkins to see the best movie ever...Never Say Never!!! Haha it was awesome! To be honest I was more excited about my popcorn and Dr. Pepper but once the movie started  I was totally sucked in. It's amazing what that kid has done in 2 years. If you want to make it extra fun go with your groovy mom who will dance, sing and flash heart signs with you!

I made a really yummy and EASY dinner tonight, pizza buns (scroll to bottom of post to find recipe). Only I used my bread recipe because I didn't have that oil ingredient. With 1 batch of my bread dough I made a pan of pizza buns, a loaf of regular bread and a loaf of cinnamon bread. Love killing 2 birds with 1 stone. I even started at 4pm and we ate dinner at 6! See, easy peasy. Make it for din din tomorrow!

It's a good thing I can finally taste again!

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Got Me Some LOVE

We started our valentines weekend with being in charge of the ward adult party Friday night. I don't know how I'm going to like this new no ward party committee thing. The Relief Society got dubbed first of this change. Luckily I have amazing help. Michelle Yomomato is my activities coordinator and she rocks. We decided to do a homemade ice cream contest/social and tied red, pink and hearts into it.

Cheesy is always better so Michelle's husband volunteered himself to dress up in this huge heart costume. As the couples arrived to the party they got to capture their love forever with Heart Throbby Bobby! I think this will be my favorite keep sake for a long time:)

I had an extra special Valentine come off the bus yesterday from school.

Can you tell that this is his favorite thing to wear?!

Cupid delivering his gift to daddy

 

We had a yummy (no wait) candlelight dinner.

BBQ Chicken Salad for the adults, Pasta Roni and chicken

for the kids.

Afterwards we went to the animal store (Bass Pro Shop) looking for boots for dad

then Yodipity for dessert!

It was an awefully romantical day!

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Count Your Blessings

I have a serious soft spot in my heart for a little hair salon on Gilbert and Brown called Tantrum.

I truly believe that without my 7 year experience of working there, I would not be where I am at today.

I am happy to say that Tantrum is and was my only place of occupation. I was lucky enough to have done my beauty schooling during my senior year. This allowed me to enter the work force directly after graduation. Little did I know I was about to enter into one of the best things that has happened to me.

Not only was I able to work for an amazing boss, Mack, who can back comb like nobodies business, I also made life long friendships with amazing people. Of course the girls I worked with are some of those life long friendships. The best part about Tantrum is that there was NEVER that katty, jealousy girl bologna  EVER! That says a lot. Especially at a hair salon! I have too many memories to even count that put a huge stinkin smile on my face. Most of those where made because of Heather:) Oh how I love Heather! I wish I could give a shout out about everyone but that would make for a loooong post:) You know who you are and I love you!

About 3 years into hair styling I decided to take a break and go off to BYU Hawaii for a few months then return. When I did return a new girl named Melinda had started working there. I was getting acquainted with her. Asking her name, where she went to school, the normal getting to know questions. When the family questions arose is when it all started to get interesting. I explained that there were 7 in my family, my twin sister and I being the oldest. While I was saying this she got a huge smile on her face then excitedly said she had twin brothers who just got off their missions and were both single. Well what are the chances of that! Long story short, Melinda is now my sister in law and with out her my life would be completely different. How thankful I am for her! I love her with all me heart.I know what a blessing it was for us to have worked together because without her I would not have my Casey and 2 boys.

Another great thing about my profession is that your clients become your friends. Some of my favorite clients were the Dooley girls. I started doing Chantel's hair pretty much right when I started doing hair on the floor. She was one of my first clients. We became instant friends. Her sister Krista started coming to me as well. They are the type of people who can make you feel like you've been connected to them since you were born. I want to say almost like family. I did their hair for years when they finally convinced their mom to come to me because she had never colored her hair before... along with their sister. So now I know the whole family! Lets just say that on my very last day of work at Tantrum, Krista was one of my last clients and we were both in tears! She promised me that when she got married I was to do her hair.

Well four years later the big day arrived! Yesterday I spent the day out in Fountain Hills and was able to do her wedding updo. While I was at her parents house doing hair I was reminded as to why I loved the Dooley family so much. They were so welcoming and acted like I had been over millions of times before. I met the dad for the first time and while I was doing Krista's hair I learned that he was outside washing the windows on my truck! Seriously, who is nice enough to wash their daughters hair dressers windows on the wedding day! I also did Chantels hair who was the maid of honor.

Krista was gorgeous! I was also blessed to have learned how to do "sex kitten" big hair from Beth who is the updo queen! I told you, lots of blessings come from that wonderful place:)

I am so happy Melinda gets to do the Dooley girls hair now. She did an amazing job on Cynthia and Tana's hair for the wedding.

Tantrum was a great part in my life. Looking back it was something I desperately needed in my life at that time. However, I am so grateful that I am able to stay home with my boys and not have to work. I am so thankful and feel tremendously blessed to have this opportunity that a lot of moms don't get to enjoy.

Isn't it interesting how blessings come from blessings!

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Good Morning Mr. Breakfast

( I said that in my best Pee Wee's Big Adventure voice)

We are here. 

The lovely stage of wanting to feed themselves/walls/blinds/ floors like a big boy.

No spaghetti or lasagna until 2012 (slight exaggeration).

AAAND somebody finally got their top 2 buckaroos!

He ordered steak for dinner to celebrate:)

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Monster Jam

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Casey wanted to take Lane to Monster Jam for a fun father, son outing. I thought it sounded great. I have memories of going to monster trucks with my dad.

Rewind a few weeks back. I went to our Stake Preparedness Fair and attended a class on teaching your children self reliance. I was sitting and listening to the discussions and all the ideas people had. Great ways on how to get your kids to be motivated, do their chores...basically learn how to do their part in the world they live in and have success.

After the class was over I had a sense of guilt . Am I doing the best I can as a parent to help my child yearn a sense of accomplishment and worth? No not really. I am really good at doing things myself to avoid making a bigger mess in the process of him "helping" or to simply save time and have it done the right way (which selfishly is my way). He is also given way too many things on a silver platter in my opinion...this is all my fault though. I have failed so many times in making him feel like he is helping and contributing to whatever is going on. I left this class excited, motivated and ready to make a new start.

 For FHE we read a story from the Friend about being a happy helper and what it means to do your part, even if we don't want to. We can do it with a frowny face and have a bad experience or do it with a smile and feel how good it is to serve and help one another. I then presented the good boy jar. If mom or dad saw Lane do a good boy thing he could put one handful of beads in the jar. If he could get all the beads to the top by the end of the week he could go to Monster trucks with dad.

Not everything is going to end in a reward. I figured since he was going to go to monster trucks anyway, might as well get him moving and working for it!

During the week he was really good to get those beads in the jar. He struggled a little some of the time but after a nice reminder he remembered what he signed up to do and got those beads in the jar. I didn't realize how small those beads were. I was using what I had around the house and it was either that or cotton balls. Saturday it was almost full so I secretly dumped some in then let him put in a handful for simple everyday things like washing hands and putting on his clothes:)

The big night finally arrived! The good boy was pumped and ready to reap his reward!

Lane was pure happiness when he got home. He had a smile from ear to ear. I think things are just more fun without mom sometimes.

I sent them with the camera. I should have figured that when dads in charge of the pictures, you don't end up with what you had in mind returned to you. None with the both of them together and more pictures of the trucks then the kid:)

I don't care. All I care about is that they bonded.

They are both such good boys.
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Home Improvements

These home improvements were done a while back. A year while back. I am filtering out my pictures saved on my computer so I figured I better post them.

One our favorite things to do as husband and wife is house projects. Once we finish something my favorite saying is "we are not doing or adding anything for a long time!" Famous last words. It's not like our house is even that big. It totals almost 1500 sq feet. 4 years later we can still manage to come up with something to spruce it up. Heaven help us whenever we have a bigger home!

I wanted, needed something above the windows that line the side of the house. Didn't want curtains, would take up some of the natural light I hardly have as it is. I am a sucker for moulding so Casey got busy.

before:

 

after:

Loved the outcome. Would do a few things differently next time though. I like to call this house the guinea pig, trial and error house:)

The counter tops were pretty bad in the kitchen

before:



after:

Granite you may ask? On the contraire! We wanted granite but were too cheap to fork out the dough. Especially since this is not our forever home. We found this product online that you paint over your existing counter top that resembles granite. 65 dollars later and 2 days of work (due to drying time for the paint) we had new counter tops!

Oops, these got out of order

before:



  

after:

Not fancy by any means but suits our little abode quite nicely.

To end, a precious moment I walked into the other day. They really do love each other.

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