More of the BAPTISM

My sister Arlene with her husband Mike and daughter McKenna

The proud parents....

What is a party without SMORES?

My sister Desiree--who by the way--has the same tissue type as me (we found this out when we were all tested to try and find a donor for my brother who had leukemia). She is my donor if something goes amiss with me.


Just a big THANKS for all the support from family and friends!! Ali is really loved.

Memorial Day

We started the day out with a photo shoot with Ali in her Baptismal dress. The pictures turned out great. I'm getting a shot of her printed on canvas to hang on our wall. Her Baptism is this Saturday!!!

After pictures I promised Ali she could use some of her Birthday money and buy another Webkinz. We went to the store and they were having a one day sale so I bought Chaz one too. Ali owns the Webkinz on the left-Henry, Starfire, Sammy and Sally. Chaz owns the one on the right-Hatcher. The kids are crazy about their Webkinz. With the Webkinz, after you purchase the animals, you can enter a unique code for each animal into the Webkinz program on the computer to activate the online Webkinz. Once activated, you can take care of the Webkinz in every aspect--food, exercise, health and etc.. The online Webkinz is where the fun is.

Next, a quick stop at Balboa Park. The trees are amazing so I just had to capture a picture.



Finally, a day at the Zoo. It was the perfect day for the zoo because it was cooler so all the animals were out. Every exhibit had active animals which is hard to find at the zoo on most warmer weather days. Afterwards the kids told me the funnest part of going to the zoo was the Tram ride (who cares about the animals).


To end the day, both kids are coughing and I think I'm going to keep Ali home from school again.
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Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!!!

The other weekend we met up at LaJolla Shores beach with the Heals. Guess what I did? It was a lot of fun!!

The Birthday Parties are over........

For Chaz, we had a Buzz Lightyear party. I wanted to make a Buzz cake but it is rather complicated so I ended up making Alien cupcakes and Chaz absolutley loved them!!!





For Ali's birthday we had a Pony Party. Ali is really into horses and is going to a horseback riding camp this summer. I found a cute pony cake online and made it for her party. Her and her friends thought it was so cool!!!

ONLY 3 WEEKS LEFT.....

Many of you know that Sunshine, Jen and I are in a swimming class at Miramar college. We swim twice a week in the mornings from 6:30am to 7:30am. This is our second swimming class that we've taken together and I think we are technically in the advanced swimming class because this class has a lot more of the butterfly stroke in it. As you can see from the pictures, there is a certain amount of fashion in swimming. We especially enjoy the flower hair caps. Of course you can't see our sexy suits, go ahead and let your mind imagine-- how great our competitive swimming suits look :) Hopefully we will continue this in the fall and add a few more friends with us--the possibilities are endless.

I'VE BEEN TAGGED

This is a fun one--- Jen:

This is what you do:
1. Pick up the nearest book (at least 123 pages).
2. Turn to page 123.
3. Find the 5th sentence
4. Post the 5th sentence on your blog.
5. Tag 5 people.

This is from 100 Greatest Love Songs. I'm picking a song from this book to sing in my class. The 5th sentence is "hold me in your arms tonight." The song is Hero by Enrique Iglesias.

I tag Jessica, Maree, Tara, Emily and anyone else who hasn't been tagged.

All I can say is ---FUN!!!!

I thought these pictures were very representative of my kids. I love the trampoline for my family. My kids are always outside jumping on it. They've made up all sorts of crazy games and have such a great time on it.

My Favorite Cereal is BACK!!!

About a year and a half ago, I discovered this cereal at Costco. It is healthy and tastes wonderful. I just love it so much---I think I could eat it for all my meals and never tire of it. Then, about a year ago I couldn't find it anywhere at Costco. Everytime I shopped there, I would look for it and started feeling battered with the disapointment hitting me over and over again. I was desperate. The other cold cereals just seemed inadequate compared to this one. I tried other brands of flax cereal thinking they might taste similiar but was disapointed everytime. I searched on the internet and looked for this specific cereal at Vons, Ralphs, Henry's and Trader Joe's, but I couldn't find it. Except for the memory, it almost seemed like something that never existed. After several months I gave up and decided that I must savor what little memory that I was holding and move on. Then to my surprise, about a month ago it was back at Costco. I noticed the green box and the scrumptuous picture on it. At that moment everything was silent to me except for my footsteps approaching the cereal. My hands reached out and grabbed a box and continued grabbing box after box until my cart was sufficiently full. I don't remember what else I bought that day, but I do know that I have added this cereal to my food storage needs so that I can rationalize buying it in bulk. I recommend to all my friends that you should buy this cereal. If for some reason you don't have the same passion for it as I feel, no biggie, just drop it off at my house and I will eat it for you!!!

What Can I Say???

I'm not sure who or what to blame for this, but I think the origins began a couple of weeks ago when I noticed that I had written in Ali's baby book that she could write her name when she was three years old. After reading this I realized that I haven't yet tried to teach Chaz how to write his name and he is turning four soon. So, I sat down with him and showed him how to write his name. He was a quick learner I can proudly say. Then, on Easter, the Easter Bunny gave Chaz some Buzz Lightyear figures. Him and Ali were playing with them and just like Andy in the movie, Ali wrote Chaz's name on all of the Buzz Lightyear toy figures. Unknown to me until later, she got a little carried away with writing names (using a Sharpie) and signed a lot of her toys and Chaz's toys with their names. The next day Chaz found the Sharpie marker (and I guessing that since he felt he could now write his own name and only the day before he had watched his sister label many toys) he decided it was his turn.

On his hamper's lid--

Can you make out Chaz's name?

I can see now which letters I need to work with him more on....
Gosh, the letter "H" is improving, It must be all the practice he is getting.

Ali's good example to Chaz on how to properly label your toys

Let's not forget Ali's toys too

Moral of the story---Don't spend too much on your children's furniture

I'VE BEEN TAGGED (and I'm a little slow :)-but dependable)

Ten years ago I was: 25 years old and married for 3 years. I had graduated from BYU two years prior and was working as a Registered Dietititan. I think it was around the time Cary and I bought our first house (we've bought 5 houses total). We lived in an apartment on the second floor and the people underneath our apartment would smoke a lot!! We decided to buy a teeny tiny house just up the street to get out of the smoke. I learned after that experience that I can't live in old houses--they are just gross.

Things on my to-do list today: Last minute practice for the Messiah performance tonight. It should be a lot of fun. There is a fun group of friends from our ward that are singing together. Read to Chaz. Help Ali with homework, math drills and piano right after school. 2 loads of laundry. Some sort of exercise.

Three bad habits: 1.) I worry too much!!! (am I reading enough with our kids, our house payment is too big, I need to get my exercise in--yikes--sometimes I just want to not think about anything) 2.)I spend a lot more money when shopping on-line than in the store. I guess it is easier to click-click!! 3.)I'm not a meal planner. I've realized this more with a family and do try do plan out meals better.

Six things most people don't know about me:

1.) When I was in second grade, I entered a coloring contest. I took the picture home and had my sister who was three years older than me color it and then I brought it back to school for the contest. Somehow I won the contest and the big coloring book prize. I know I can't be so proud of this --but I'm sure most of you didn't know this about me :)
2.) I grew up on a dairy farm in Montana and milked cows for money in highschool. I must say I'm not much of a farm girl--always afraid of the animals and not liking the smell and all. But, milking cows was very good money and I was motivated by money.
3.) While still in college, I won the "Dietitian of the year award." Pretty amazing and very surprising for me.
4.) In college, my roommates and I figured out how to get candy out of the coin-op candy machines without a coin. I still know how to do this but I don't do it and I'm not planning on teaching it to my kids.
5.)I've never wore braces and I have very straight teeth. In fact, I've had a dentist ask me if I wore braces before.
6.) I'm a middle child in a family of eight children (I think that is where I get my craftiness).

I'm going to tag anyone who hasn't already done this!!!