Slide.com, you got nothin'!

I love Slide.com, don't get me wrong, but I jumped at the opportunity to figure how to animate my own stuff on photoshop because now I can add just a little bit more personalization to my slideshows, kinda fun! Don't ask me how I know this weird stuff because, honestly, I couldn't tell you how I got from point A to point Z on all this, and I'm really still scratching the surface, but...like...totally cool!

ANYWAY! I thought our family should take some photos mid-year, because, why does it always have to be Christmas when we decide to take a family photo? Why not when you're rockin' your summer tan?

Beautiful Boy

I have a little talker on my hands! This child can say almost any word you throw at him. His newest is Helecopter. He's really not just a baby anymore. And I'm loving it! He's become my little buddy! He's helping me around the house, he's learning 'cleaning up.' And he laughs and smiles constantly. Honestly, it's such a pleasure being his mommy!

I'm starting a website for my Cutest Blog on the Block designs soon. This has been keeping me so busy! I've got so many facelift/card requests that I've hired on my sweet friend Becky as a partner. Poor girl had to learn Photoshop in a week! But she's been a real trooper, and now I have an office with two computers set up in my house, and when we're not chasing our children, we're feverishly designing things! It's a lot of fun!

Joe is loving his work with Ecolab, I'm so grateful he's found something that he loves to do!

I'm still in the Primary Presidency, loving it, and Joe is now Secretary in the Young Mens Presidency. We have started reading our scriptures together, and separately, and it has blessed our lives tremendously. I'm so grateful for the Brother from Elders Chorum who came into our home and reminded us how important it is!

:)

Wish Upon A Star

Oh my heck! I went to Disneyland! It really was a dream come true! My good friend BriAnne called me one day in January and asked if I wanted to go, and of course I jumped at the offer! So after roping my sweet mommy into babysitting, and my sweet sister into dogsitting, off we went! We had some problems finding the happiest place on earth (I hate navigation!!) but once we got there, we were like little kids again!!!

This is me outside my trailer! Okay, it's actually Cruella's!
This is Brianne and I the morning of the happiest day!!! We really were glowing with excitement!!!
We had so much fun riding Monster's inc!!
Okay so I didn't spend the $20 to buy the photo, but I took a picture of it with my camera. This is a picture of me in pure horror on the Tower of Terror ride, this is a picture of BriAnne in pure bliss, after having forced me to go on the ride!! I loved it after the 3rd time around. :)
Bri, thanks for the AMAZING trip!! I loved every second, even though we got lost on the way home too. I'd do it again in a second. Thanks for helping this mommy become a kid again for a few days! :)

A NEED for technology...

I MEAN WELL when I head to the laundry room to iron my husbands badly wrinkled shirts. I try to think about my grandmother and mother before me who slaved over a hot iron with a happy smile and a song to press their loving husbands shirts. I mean why not? The man of the house goes to work each and every day to earn the bread money.

But the end result is always the same:

WE LIVE IN AN AGE where rockets are orbiting into space, computers are the size of jelly beans, and your car can parallel park by itself! So why oh why have we not invented an easier way to remove a wrinkle from my husband's shirt!!!

Bumping in to things:

Ethan and his buddy Drake love to play together. They share everything, especially the cold/flu's that have been going around this season!
Recently Ethan discovered a funny new trick where he covers his head with a blankie and hobbles around the room laughing and running into things. He thinks he's funny! He taught Drake his new trick.
This shrounded figure is Ethan.
On a side note, talk about control, our dog looks like she might be well trained, but just you wait until I turn my back on her, she goes right for the crumpled up snotty tissues and any morsels that Ethan leaves laying around...
We still love her though. :)

Playing with Pictures

Ethan wanted to go out for a ride on his John Deer on the open road, so I said okay. The Paparazzi took this shot.
He often peers into flower beds pondering the meaning of life. :)

Baby book comes to life:

These are some pictures I took at the Phoenix Zoo this week. The zoo was practically empty so we had the chance to really see the animals up close. That little monkey and his monkey friends were running right past our legs! And we made sure not to taunt the tiger so he didn't come out and eat us like what happened at the San Diego zoo recently. Some people are, well, not smart. Ethan made connections between some animals he's seen in his books too. I love it that he's learning so FAST!!!

I'm Jammin

I'm very excited to introduce my new passion. Creating ditigal scrapbook designs like these papers and I'm also learning how to do elements like brads, ribbon, and so on! This is my very first paper pack named Jammin. Aren't they fun?

Wishing you...

Santa scares me

I had it all planned out! I didn't even let Ethan see Santa and I just set him in Santa's lap and tried to distract him whil Joe took the pictures. But the curse of the scary Santa got to him anyway. At least Ethan got to tell him that he wants cars for Christmas. :)

You Might think your looking at some pictures of London Fog, but no, this is sunny, dry, Arizona! This last few weeks we've had rain all day and fog in the morning!

Holiday at Hillary's

We really did have a little Holiday over at Hillary's yesterday afternoon. Everyone brought treats to eat and Hillary's amazingly beautiful home was decorated to the T with Christmas trimmings. I'm not kidding when I say, it's beautiful!
We all gathered in her living room while our adorable babies bonked, scratched, hit, and pushed eachother down. Jackie made a comment about the toll pregnancy, childbirth, and nursing takes on our bodies. Believe me, we all had something to say about that! The word 'pancakes' comes to mind. :) I'm sure glad I have all my fun friends to discuss lifes little moments with! Thanks girls! And congrats to Kristy, your new baby is so precious!

Need a white elephant gift?

This may gross you out, but it must be said...
Did you ever wonder why they bother to add scents to soap? You know -- scents like "lilac morning" or "grapefruit splash" or "evening dew" -- those kind of smells?
Soap companies don't want you to know, but here's the ugly reason...
They do it so you won't notice how disgusting the soap smells once you've washed your butt.
Studies show that 93% of people begin their showers by soaping the lower regions and working upwards. That means that 9 out of 10 people rub something against their face that, only moments earlier, was gliding and probing where the sun don't shine.
So now you know... The scents are added so you won't realize you're washing your face with tush-tainted soap.
But before you puke into your keyboard, check out Butt / Face Soap.
This brilliant cleanser solves the problem by clearly defining which side of the soap is for the face, and which side is for the butt.
The words BUTT and FACE are clearly molded into the sides of the soap. And, to make sure there's no confusion, the Butt side of the soap is brown. Crude? You bet. But it gets the job done.
Now that you know the dark secret behind soap scents, how can you possibly return to your old soap habits? For your next shower, switch to Butt / Face Soap -- And when it comes time to wash your face, fear not and breathe deeply. (just make sure you're sniffing the right side).

This comes from a hilarious website called stupid.com and I've bought a few white elephant gifts from this website. Go there just for a laugh too!

Wal-mart?

This woman must be going to some high-end Wal-mart if she gets "all dressed up" to go. I tell ya, I purposefully put on my pajamas when I go to Wal-mart because you stand out like a sore thumb if you wear anything better. But I'm sure glad there's a dollar store she can go to where she feels more casual. :)