having fun...

with my newly won stash of scrapbook goodies:this series of pics were taken in a photo booth at Great America theme park with my best friend, shawna. we were sophomores in high school, having the time of our lives. fun memories!

oooo....ahhhhh.....swoon!

yesterday i got one of the happiest packages i have ever received...a stash i recently won from http://scrapnart.com/news.php. it was their lucky subscriber contest and my name (along with two others) was randomly chosen!! oh my! okay, now i'm gonna bust out a phrase uttered by most contest winners, but it happens to apply to me too: that NEVER happens to me!!! i have been patiently waiting for my prize package and yesterday my waiting paid off - big time. i did a happy dance/skip/jig thing when i opened it. my family thought i was crazier than normal. that was evident from the looks on their faces.
this box contains some of the yummiest, most desirable products out there..........and they are now MINE!! i'm still quite happy about it. and, of course, had to photograph ALL of it for y'all to see:





i am a lucky gal indeed! :)

still learning

so as much as i love photography, i struggle with photoshop. oh how i wish i understood it all...magically! alas, it is the thorn in my side because it is a necessary 'evil'. the cold hard truth is most professional photos ARE edited. i'm not saying i am a professional photographer, but if i ever had a hope of being one, learning photoshop is a must. i know the basics. so this here collage took me more time than i care to talk about. i'll keep at it though because i am bound and determined NOT to let it beat me!!!!! i will conquer photoshop. i will.

simple belief

stepping forward

my oldest, ben, graduated from elementary school today. i thought it would be easy enough to get through the ceremony. ha! not when they sing songs like wind beneath my wings (while some students passed out roses to their 'heros'), and that's what friends are for. there was even a girl who did a mean solo...very reminiscent of dione warwick. anyhow, this mom was crying like a baby watching her 'baby' step boldly into his future. it's going so fast.


ben and his teacher, mrs. pleis. she is awesome, and i'm glad to say kyle will have her next year. she truly loves her kids and it shows. i feel blessed that my kids have someone like her teaching them.

and me, the proud, beaming mom!!!


his next destination? sky vista!! onward and upward! i love you ben.

getting over his fear...

i think these pics will definitely be ones that noah will laugh at one day. maybe when he is in the olympics winning a gold medal in swimming??? ;)help me..... (of course what do i do? take a picture!)
it wasn't all bad. he smiled quite a bit. the lessons are definitely getting easier!

indiana jones meets the paddle bandit!

noah is, like my older two boys and ever other kid for that matter, obsessed with indiana jones right now. this hat and shirt is a part of his EVERYDAY outfit. this morning was no exception...pajamas and all. he was watching backyardigans and it was the episode of the paddle bandit. this inspired him into action. he grabbed the nearest paddle (yes, there was more than one) and went to town!


i promise i am not being paid by sun microsystems to advertise for them. i used to work there when we lived in cali, and i still have TONS of sun stuff!



on fathers day we went to colorado springs to be with my in-laws. they had the missionaries join us (as usual) and the new guy, elder cook, is a balloon master!!!! he was able to make an indiana jones balloon..........AMAZING!!!! i was in awe! this guy rocks and i'm sure with his mad balloon skills he will be able to convert so many to the gospel. well, that and of course the message he will bring ;)

action-packed weekend

it was one of those weekends where you can barely catch your breath because you are going from one activity to another. i was in full-blown cheerleader mode on saturday. both kyle and ben had their first baseball games (which they won - yeah). so i was at the baseball park from 9 to 12:15, then it was a mad dash to go home, get noah in his swimsuit, and get him to a 1:00 duel birthday party at the spray park. i was the designated photographer so i was behind the lens from 1 - 3. this was fine by me, it is where i prefer to be anyway. then after the party it was back home for me to whip up a macaroni salad (which turned out heavenly, thank you very much :) ) for sunday's fathers day festivities. with some of the leftover eggs i hardboiled for the salad i made eggsalad sandwiches for dinner. then we loaded up in the car one more time to meet some friends for ice cream. oh wait, i almost forgot, after ice cream we had one more errand to run...we had to go to the store and get a few more ingredients for the fathers day feast. of course we had to go to THREE stores to find what we needed. geesh. breathe. it's all good!spray park play............



steph is the assistant coach for kyles team. he was in heaven because baseball is his favorite sport. a sport he played very well growing up, and one he dearly misses playing and being involved in.

i was so happy to see my boys out there, giving it their all, and doing pretty good. it makes all the running around from this practice to that one so worth it.



it was a bit tricky because there was this big fence (okay, i'm grateful for the fence because it does protect the cheering section) but it made it harder to get the good shots. oh well. next time i'll have to see about getting a press pass to get me on the field ;)


swimming lessons. i suppose i should put this in a post all it's own, but i wanted to jam-pack this one! noah has swimming lessons twice a week. thursday was his first one. where he is sitting in these pics is where he stayed the whole lesson, and even that was a struggle. oh i hope this week he will be a bit braver and actually go IN the water. we'll see.
at least he is in it with two of his buddies: logan and taegan. i think that brings him some comfort!
sorry for those of you who may want more than a post all about my kids, but these days that's my life. however, i do plan on starting to sew diaper bags and baby items again. AND get my etsy shop filled again. so there will be a post on this in the near future. in the meantime, thanks for suffering through the personal stuff ;)!!

baseball practice

tonight ben had baseball practice. i went and, like always, was behind the camera most of the time. but i captured some priceless moments. it's so heartwarming to watch your kids giving all they got to a sport. then seeing the joy on their faces when they are in the zone. i am embracing every single moment of being their mom!!



what a face!!! love this little dude!




and this little dude....


some friendly brotherly wrestling....


after about 35 minutes of sitting by me, wrestling with noah, and watching ben, kyle decided to wander off and find something to take his mind off of the boredom. what did i find him doing?? messing with a fire ant hill, of course. what else?? i got these shots without him even knowing i was there.

messing with fire ants has it's drawbacks...apparently they don't like it when you stab at their home with sticks and rocks.

Mancold

a friend of mine sent this to me and this is totally how i've been feeling!!!!!!!
okay, enough whining. for now. :)

sinus infection = misery!

yes, a sinus infection is quite possibly one of the most miserable sickness' (of the minor ones you could have). on top of the regular cold symptoms, you get these 'bonus' symptoms: ear ache, plenty of drainage, face pain, and lets not forget the headache that makes you beg your husband to decapitate you. it's intense, and i'm usually pretty tough about being sick. this has turned me into a whiny baby. so all i've wanted to do is curl up in a ball and sleep the pain away. but a mom cannot easily do that with a busy four year old, so i sucked it up and took him to a local water spray park yesterday. we packed a picnic lunch and soaked up way too many uva rays (despite the soaking layer of sunscreen - ah, ozone layer i do miss you). noah had lots of fun:

here he is with some of his buddies!!
i was able to forget my sinus misery for awhile....until noah threw a fit and yelled, no screamed to the top of his bity lungs, in my face. after that, we packed up and left. the momentary bliss was gone and it was back to the real world of disciplining, enforcing, and all the other lovely mom duties. sigh.

betcha didn't know.......

that my sister nichole and i were extras in the star wars movie! mmm hmmm. i was that blue chick and she was padmay (sp?). this is our publicity shot. not bad, huh!okay, given that i don't even know the names of these two characters you've probably guessed that i was not an extra in the movie. (because the cheesy marble framing on the picture wouldn't have given it away, right!) no, this was taken at disneyland after we rode the star wars ride. it was a lot of fun to do though. and yes, i did WANT to be the blue chick!

silly crazy sexy cool!

this guy is all of those and more! i just laugh and laugh - a lot. he is not afraid to be stupid and totally dorky, and i adore that quality. i am not a stifled person...can't be. i have tons of silliness bursting out at the seams. i sure am glad my mate is the same way.

oh, and he's a hottie too. that wasn't necessarily a requirement of mine, but it's a nice plus.


and he's a man of nature and all things outdoorsy. good for this nature gal!

he gives me lots of stuff to scrapbook about. and supports my every crazy creative whim...and there are a lot of those. i am kind of a mess in this regard. all over the board!!!
thanks for being mine my dear sweet stephan!!! i love you

yo gabba gabba love...

ever since the debut of this show............
noah has been hooked! he loves this crazy show. the first couple of times i watched it i was in awe at the sheer nuttiness of it. i mean, it's weird. that said, i have to admit (in this very public forum) that i kind of like this show. yes, i like it a lot. once you get past the bazaar-ness of it and let yourself enjoy it, you will. i know it. or maybe i'm totally alone in this, which is fine. it wouldn't be the first time! there is this segment called super martian robot girl. it's so random. i don't even have dreams that are this random. totally out there. i think this show is some kind of cult classic though. i was in urban outfitters a month ago, with noah and stephan, and from WAAAyYYY across the store noah spotted a series of yo gabba gabba toys. at urban outfitters. yes. i couldn't believe it. i had convinced noah that they didn't exist. not yet anyway. for the first time in noah's young life he was dragged from a store kicking and screaming in agony - toyless. those toys were a pretty penny. like twenty five dollars or something crazy like that. so when we got home we went on ebay and other websites trying to find them cheaper. no such luck. in fact on ebay they were more expensive! jaw drop! how could this be?? the only explanation is that this show is an underground cult classic. oh, further evidence of this.....they make t-shirts. adult t-shirts. proof positive in my book of it's classic status.