"Camping" day-cation!

This is what happens when:

You do 6 hours of yard work in flip flops. Lesson learned.

(do you like my pinterest inspired toes?)

You have long hair and it wont stop falling out in what seems like clumps!

Now I know why we have drain-o in stock.

It took me an hour to detach the whole vacuum and 30 min to put it back together again.

I think I am ready for brain surgery.

And sorry that picture is way gross.

You take pictures on aunt Valerie's phone.

Glad I didn't partake in that activity.
Or procreate with Buzz from Home Alone.

Backyard Soakin

A special thank you to the man who helped me shove this beast

 of pool into the back of my car at Walmart.

It was quite comical.



LOL!

One of my least favorite things to do ever is teach, especially in relief society. I don't mind being in the presidency and being in charge of activities and having meetings and going on visits. That is all peachy. Preaching to the choir is what I don't enjoy. There are so many suitable women other than me who would be perfect for the job.  I have get to teach once every three months. When my month is drawing near so are my nerves, hives and anxiety levels. The week of my lesson is ridiculous. I can't even drive by the darn church building and not go into a seizure thinking about what is soon to come on Sunday. The only perk to 8am church is that I don't have to wait around all day to give the lesson that I prepared for hours but knows nobody will like it or they didn't relate or feel the spirit and that it was a complete waste for them to have had to sit and listen to my mumbling for 30 minutes. Am I being to hard on myself?

Anyway, after putting myself through this torture I finally came up with a solution. Back in the day when I was completing beauty school I was getting ready to take my state boards. One of my instructors told us that if you dressed and looked professional and like you know what you are doing then they will pay less attention to you while taking your practicals. Instead they will focus on the rag a muffins. So pretty much fake it til you make it. Genius. And I am here to tell you that it totally worked!

So, how was I going to apply that to a relief society lesson? We all know the quirky reputation that use LDS women have... dect out lesson tables! If I had a cute table scape then they won't pay a ton of attention to me but on my decorations! And if anything else it would make me look like I knew what I was talking about. So I put my plan to the test today.

No it wasn't over the top with an ice sculpture of the temple but a step up from the usual dry silk flowers that have been in the closet for years. I still put in lots of preparation time but I felt more relieved knowing that if my lesson was bombing they would at least have something pretty to look at. And it gave me an excuse to buy pretty flowers:) FYI, Trader Joes is the way to go for good, fresh, cheap flowers!

If you are wondering why I am sharing this with you well, it's because I found the best blog ever and I want to share it with you! When I am preparing my lessons I have to discipline myself to sit at the computer for at least 2 hrs with no interruptions (meaning no FB, email checks. yes I am that lame). Once I do my required length of time I reward myself with some pinterest and blog stalking! Last night I had just finished up my lesson, printed it off and sat down to look at some blogs. Who cares if it was midnight, I needed my reward!

Some how, some way I happened onto this ladies blog called Beehive and Birds Nest. Oh. My. Hysterical! This lady is something else. She is a mother of 6 and her blog is witty, sarcastic and humorous when she is talking about her every day life as being a mom. I'm pretty sure I read her blog for about an hour and the whole time I had to keep myself from busting up laughing and waking up the whole house.

I love how she loves being a mom but isn't afraid to point out the downside of having and raising  children. That every day isn't going to be perfect and that she wished kids came with an on/off button. Because if they did she is pretty sure they would only be on for 20 minutes a day!

She had this great post called So you're stuck at home with a baby/toddler/preschooler, huh? It's about  how you get to have lots of shopping trips at Target with the red limousine:

And a few things she's learned is that the sooner you give a kid a band-aid, the sooner he'll shut up. Or that there is no need for babies to read. But if someone could figure out how to get babies to scrub the bathroom floor then we might get on board.

And another one of my favorites:

Telling kids you can’t afford something is nothing to be ashamed of. It’s going to teach them that they can’t have whatever they want. It’s also the ultimate argument-ender:

Child: “Mommy, please can I get this [insert name of weird plastic animal with oversized head]. Please, please, pleeeeease???”

Mom: “No. If we buy it we won’t have money for bread. Although I’m sure zhu-zhu pets taste very good covered in peanut butter.”
Child: “oh.”

See, this lady is classic! Maybe her blog was pulling on my heart strings a little this past week due to my uber sensitivity and stress level from my lesson and having whinny kids on top of it was not an option for me.

It didn't make me feel so bad that the only way I could get the boys to stop fighting and yelling at each other was to tell them that the neighbors can hear all that noise and they will think its mommy and daddy yelling so they will call the police thinking we are hurting them and will take us to jail. Worked like a charm....sadly.

Or that the only way I could get Rusty to stop screaming in the car was to pretend pull over and tell him that he will have to walk home if he doesn't stop. Also sadly worked like a charm. I really need to figure out a way to discipline my kids without instilling fear!

On top of being ridiculously funny she has some great DIY projects and good recipes. I am making her cinnamon rolls this week! I guess I have to look at my lesson as a win, win. I got to pray and study about being grateful in our everyday lives and I found me a great new blog to read:)

Her blog is here. Only do yourself a favor and read it during the day so you can laugh out loud.

Since we've been gone...

We got a new computer a few weeks ago but we are finally up and running! It's so nice to feel connected to the world again (since we don't have smart phones or ipad thing-ies.Yes, we are still living in the dark ages over here).

A few things to catch you up to speed on us:

We find any way to keep the kids busy and entertained. Rusty was getting whinny while I had a hair client over so I put him outside with a water container and a cup. An hour later he was still washing off the patio

and then decided to wash himself.

Casey and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary! This picture was taken right after Casey proposed. Don't we look so young and in love?! Good news: we are still more in love then ever! Bad news: not so young. Darn it.

But as the years go on it makes me more aware of how happy I am that I get to spend eternity with this guy!

We went to Marcie's graduation from ASU!

It just so happened to be on Cinco De Mayo so there was a Mexican fiesta at my parents to celebrate.

Breanna and Martin came to town for 2 whole weeks! Which also meant we got to meet their new baby Claire! It was fun catching up at a GNO.

Claire is such a sweetie and could smile at you all day:)

We took the boys to a DBacks game and Marcie also came with.

We went to dinner first then decided to get treats for the game at a gas station before heading out to Phoenix. After we left the gas station Casey remembered that oh ya, we were out of gas. He pulled off the freeway and into a QT, filled up then pulled back onto traffic. We were waiting at the light to get back on the freeway and noticed that an undercover cop had pulled over and was talking to a guy. As I was making a snarky comment about uh oh somebody just got busted Marcie screams, HEY THAT'S AUSTIN! Her fiance who is a police officer. Sure enough it was Austin so we start honking the horn to get his attention since his back was to us. He couldn't really turn his back to the guy he pulled over so he pretended to have to get something out of the car and gave us a quick wave. It was too funny. What were the chances?!

I of course whipped out the camera. I have a better picture where homeboy is staring right at me while I was taking his picture but I figured better not risk the chance of  him or his buddies finding me in retaliation. I guess Austin was on gang patrol that night and right when they pulled him over his wife started screaming, no he just got out of jail last week please don't take him back! Nice.

The game was great and they even won!

And I love this pic because the whole night Lane was too into to the game to look at me for a picture. Then all of a sudden while I was taking a picture of Rusty he popped his face into the camera and made this face.

 I had a wonderful mothers day! By far my favorite gift was this "hand" bag Lane made for me. I see a future for him in purse design and I have zero problems with that:)

Our Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad,

WEEK!!!!

No Casey and I didn't wake up with gum in our hair. Or got gyped the window seat on the bus. Or got soap in our eyes during bath time. (I love that book!) But having to eat lima beans at dinner came pretty close to what our awful week consisted of.

A few weeks ago my sister and her husband did the GM diet because some of their friends did it and lost a ton of weight. While reading her blog post about their diet in my mind I was thinking that they are crazy! I have never done a diet in my life time. Nor Casey. We take food very serioulsy. We LOVE to go out to eat. In fact, I don't think I have ever made a meal on a Friday or Saturday. Ever. Going out to eat on the weekends is what we look forward to. Oinkers yes we are! 

In curiosity I went to their website and looked it over. All fruits one day, I could do that. Veggies another, duable. You get beef for 2 days. Score! The GM diet is good in the fact that it is like a cleanse. It is for 7 days and you get to actually eat food. As days went on the diet stayed in my mind. First being totally out of the question. Then slowly turning into maybe this is something I want to try. I am all about living and having a healthy lifestyle. No I don't eat all organic but I try to add in some good things between our hotdog and pizza meals. So after pondering and asking my sister questions. Even after her saying it is pure H. E. double hockey sticks, I finally decided that I was going to DO IT!

I knew I couldn't do it alone so I enlisted Casey. My hero. It would have been impossible for me to have done it without him. I owe him BIG time. The first half of the week was going good. I did feel weak and had a headache the first night but the temptations weren't as bad as I thought they would be. Casey would come home to asparagus and corn for dinner and would proclaim that there is no purpose to life without good food. I agreed 100 percent!

doesn't he look so happy:)

On the fourth day was when it became hard(er). Milk and banana day. Banana's rank on the top 5 foods I hate list. Just milk in a glass probably ranks #10.  At the store I didn't know how many bananas to buy seeing how that's all we could eat that day. I didn't know if I would be so starving that I would eat 10 even though I don't like them. Or how many Casey would eat. So I loaded up just to make sure.

Ya, together we only ate about 6. Me only eating 1 and a half. Sonic route 44 water extra ice is what got me through this day. Actually every day. There are lots in the freezer waiting to be made into banana bread!

Friday was probably Casey's hardest day. He is an ice cream man. Boy, I felt so bad when he had to just stare at the life sized poster of Iceburg's delicious ice cream at Golfland while we goofy golfed. You know, instead of going out to eat. It is still a bit traumatizing.

But we DIT IT! We thought those 7 days would never end. It was everything that is mentioned in the post title. However, the reward was well worth it. Casey lost 10 pounds, I lost 7. I did learn a thing or two with this experience.

Doing the diet really makes you aware of how often you eat out of bordem and entertainment. So many times I would have to catch myself from popping a cracker or whatever in my mouth while giving meals to the boys or while passing the pantry door. Those little things add up and I am more aware of what I put in my mouth. You are also supposed to drink a ton of water. I am surprised at how my body craves water now. If I am not drinking enough, it will let me know.

So all in all it was a good experience... glad it's over. I'm sure I will do it again in the future after the bad memories have escaped my mind:) Jenni my good friend knowing that we were doing this diet text me saying sometimes the toughest things we do are the most rewarding. And she is so right!

WT Baby

How to become a white trash baby:

Step one.

Run around the hood shirtless because your brother sprayed you with the hose. Then proceed to collect Cadbury chocolate covered peanut butter Easter eggs  from the neighbor.  The neighbor's can't resist a cute blue eyed shirtless boy. Or maybe she was feeling buyers remorse after cleaning out Dollar General of their 4/$1 left over bags of Easter candy.

Step 2
Park it on the drive way and let the (minimum) 2 pound chocolate egg sit in your hand and melt until it gets so gooey it starts to drip all over you.

Step 3
Decide to save your mom some clean up work and paper towels and just lick yourself clean... like a cat!

With these 3 easy steps you can become WT, too!

Easter Easter Bo Beaster

Banana Fana, ok I won't finish. 

Here was our Easter:

Preschool bunny ears

Easter egg hunt and Grammy and Papa's

Adult 3 legged hunt

Yeah, we scored $40! I think that pic is blurry. so sorry.

 

Pinata for the little chicks

Sunday morning. They had a nice sugar rush before 8 o'clock church

Easter baskets aren't complete without candy pooping animals:)

I had my fair share of  butterfinger eggs.

Next week is diet time. No joke. Details to come.

T- Ball time!

Lane is on his first official sports team! He is LOVING every single minute of it. Practices or games can't come often enough for this boy. Our team is full of other boys from our ward so it makes it even more fun. Rusty, well. He enjoy's begging candy off of other people, almost getting ran over by a car after darting into the street to go look at the horses and crying bloody murder because he doesn't get a treat after the game like the players. I wish they had a T-ball team for 2 yr olds. GO DBACKS!

What's a birthday without a boat?!

We found ourselves on another boat! It was the fathers birthday so in honor of his 51'st year of life we went to Gainey Ranch for their gondola rides. When our huge group walked up the guy in charge took a big breath in anticipation of how they were going to fit us all in one gondola since they only had one running that night. He thought we would all fit so we took the challenge. Normally it seats 6 but 9 is pretty much the same. My mom was worried we would sink the titanic but rest assured that we wouldn't it was all aboard!  

We made it back dry! It was a little rocky getting in at first once we figured out that only one person steps in at a time (my bad, sorry mom!). And what do you know, who would have thought that our gondola driver person would be from Mesa and went to Mt View all they way in "Venice":)

Whip it....

... whip it good!

In the past week we have been collecting cans of whipping cream from different occasion's. You can't let good stuff like that go to waste. We have become creative on how to eat it up.

You can find our family doing whipped cream shots at night. 

Yep, straight out of the bottle.

Bottoms up!

 

Or dolloped on a no bake cookie.

My best concoction yet, strawberries dipped in my mom's homemade hot fudge with a sprinkle of peanuts and... whipped cream on top.

You can hear the fridge opening and closing around the clock with the nice sound of a fluffy spray. Now I know why I never buy it. Addicting!