Amazing Grace.

Our church put this video together and I cry everytime I see it and hear the this song. Thank you Lord for your Amazing Grace. 


Amazing Grace from David Tate on Vimeo.

Swim

They did this song at church on Sunday and I love it. 

How are you living your DASH....................

I have never been afraid of dying. Even after this last year with all we have been through, death still doesn't scare me but after hearing this poem in my small group Monday night it has really rocked me into reconsidering death. Ok not death but how I live my life and what my eulogy will sound like when I die. I had a really hard time putting something together for my dads funeral. I mean what good can you say when some one has committed suicide. But someone, I am not sure who, said this to me, "Deidra you can't let the suicide define who your dad was." That was deep. I am still working that out in my head and my heart but it gets better everyday. So my point to all this is that we have to come up with three "dash" statements that we want read at our eulogy.

I am wondering what my dashes are? How is my life defined? Am I living a significant enough of a life that when I am gone I will leave a legacy that my family and son will be proud of? Or am I just going through the motions of life like the rest of the world. I know this sounds morbid with all the talk of dying but we only get one chance (isn't that a song). But seriously we really do only have this time between when we are born and when we die to make a difference. So my challenge is what is your dash gonna stand for. I will let you know when I figure mine out I am still working on it.




The Dash
by Linda Ellis

I read of a man who stood to speak
At the funeral of a friend.
He referred to the dates on her tombstone
From the beginning to the end.

He noted that first came the date of her birth
And spoke of the following date with tears,
But he said what mattered most of all
Was the dash between those years.

For that dash represents all the time
That she spent alive on earth
And now only those who loved her
Know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not, how much we own,
The cars, the house, the cash,
What matters is how we live and love
And how we spend our dash.

So think about this long and hard;
Are there things you’d like to change?
For you never know how much time is left
That can still be rearranged.

If we could just slow down enough
To consider what’s true and real
And always try to understand
The way other people feel.

And be less quick to anger
And show appreciation more
And love the people in our lives
Like we’ve never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect
And more often wear a smile,
Remembering that this special dash
Might only last a little while.

So when your eulogy is being read
With your life’s actions to rehash
Would you be proud of the things they say
About how you spent your dash?

© 1996 Linda Ellis

Held

Thank you God that your word doesn't say that our worlds will be perfect once we walk with you but when life seems rough and we don't have the answers that you WILL HOLD us.




Two months is too little
They let him go
They had no sudden healing
To think that providence
Would take a child from his mother
While she prays, is appalling
Who told us we'd be rescued
What has changed and
Why should we be saved from nightmares
We're asking why this happens to us
Who have died to live, it's unfair

[Chorus]
This is what it means to be held
How it feels, when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive
This is what it is to be loved and to know
That the promise was when everything fell
We'd be held

This hand is bitterness
We want to taste it and
Let the hatred numb our sorrows
The wise hand opens slowly
To lilies of the valley and tomorrow

[Chorus]
This is what it means to be held
How it feels, when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive
This is what it is to be loved and to know
That the promise was when everything fell
We'd be held
[Bridge]
If hope is born of suffering
If this is only the beginning
Can we not wait, for one hour
Watching for our savior
[Chorus]
This is what it means to be held
How it feels, when the sacred is torn from your life
And you survive
This is what it is to be loved and to know
That the promise was when everything fell
We'd be held
We'd be held

This is what it is to be loved and to know
That the promise was when everything fell
We'd be held

This is what it means to be held.....

We are dog sitting for the lovely Nikki from Cliffs office and the boy is loving these sweet dogs. They are so good to him.

 

 

 

 

Lifes Adventures

On a Tuesday we had our friend Bob over for dinner. Our conversation topic was about living and experiencing as much as we can before we are too old or before we die. We talked about some of the things we would like to see or do in our life time. It was a great conversation. The next day I was on the phone with my Liz mom who was frantically packing for a trip to Albuquerque for a conference.

I was so excited to hear she was going because we were really wanting to go to the Balloon Feista. So I called Cliff and Bob and suggested we make the last minute trip to Albuquerque to see the balloons and reminded them of our conversation the night before. It was perfect my mom and Darla were going to be there and I hadn't seen either of them since May so it was perfect timing. So we loaded up the Rover with the four of us plus my friend Liz and her dog and set out on one of lifes adventures and we were so GLAD we did.

The ballons were incredible. If you live in the area you should make a point to go see them. I want to do it again myself. It was fabulous here are a few of the many pictures I took. ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!

 

This was the sunrise. We left our hotel at 5:15 after driving all night and only having a couple hours of sleep at best.

 

Hail Hail the gangs all here. One of my lovely bridesmaids lives in Albuquerque so she joined us for the morning.

 

This is called the morning assention. They put all the balloons up in the air together.

 

Check out his balloon with the moon next too it. SO lovely.

 

This was one of my favorites just simple and fun and great colors.

 

Look Zacky it's Nemo did I mention it was freezing and Zack wined most of the time. He recoverd himself though I will explain later.

 

It was so strange we would turn and look one way to watch a row of them take off and then then when would turn around there would be another whole group blowing up ready to take off.

 

 

 

We had a special thing happen to us that we didn't even realize what was happening. If you notice in the group picture there was a Santa. He was a helper to the blue and red bumble bees. We chatted lots with him and asked questions about the balloons. He noticed Zack was acting less then stellar and he walked over to me and got super close. He said I am going to hand you a card. Act like we are just shaking hands. He said every year all the balloon owners print up thousands of trading cards and I only have a handful of them left. If anyone knows that I have them they will swarm me and it will be total chaos. Well being new to the balloon fest I had no idea what he was talking about but went along with him. He shook my hand and handed me a card. It was like a drug deal for sure:) So a few minutes later this girl walks up to him and says do you have any trading cards. He politely said no we are all out you have to come earlier in the week to get those. So we felt privelegded to have a card of the bumble bees that hold hands. Which I think my mom eventually ended up with.

 

Yes this is Darth Fader in all his big glory.

 

As the sun came up and the balloons started to thin out our little boys spirits started to rise.

 

 

 

 

I love this shot.

This expensive ride is what changed his attitude. Once he realized that there were bounce houses and this trampoline contraption he was a happy camper.

 

 

 

 

We had a really great time. We ate Sadies for dinner which is one of my favorite places in the world to eat. And I got to spend some time alone with Katie which hasn't happened for years and we had great conversation and some serious laughs.

My cute boy, my niece Kaycee, and the greatest wedding ever!!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tutu's in the making

Hey blog friends and my family who thinks I have disappeared from the blog world. I haven't I promise just mad at my blog and haven't been in the mood to work out the huge kink of it not allowing me to upload pictures. So I am trying again. Anyways for my first post I am debuting these adorable Tutu's that I am making and selling. They are so super fun. I started making them for my nieces for Christmas then realized I have so many friends with little girls or nieces and want everyone to have one but I couldn't afford to make everyone one so I am selling them for 25 dollars. They are fabulous and good for Halloween, Christmas or Birthday gifts. Please pass this around, I can ship anywhere and they come in shin length, knee length or shorter for the little, little girls and any color you want. The pictures here are of the ones I am making for my nieces and the green and yellow one is only half finished which is why it is not as full. If you are interested please shoot me an email and we can talk details. Thank you for your support.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Questions on why?????

So it has been a rough couple of weeks for the friends and family that surround me. One friend lost her young sister to suicide, another friend just had a miscarriage tonight, my brothers best friend was killed in a car accident, and then a guy I went to high school with killed himself. I didn't know him well but know of him. What is up with all this death. It makes my heart hurt and there are never good words to say to anyone in any of these situations. I remember how I felt so soon after my dad died and as a people we always mean well by the word we offer but sometimes I think it is just best to listen, not ask questions, and never tell anyone you know how they feel. We never know how anyone feels no matter if we have experienced something similar. We have not walked in their shoes so we don't know what it is like to be them. I am in deep prayer tonight for all the hurting people that are in my life. The song that always comes to mind is the one where the chorus says he gives and takes away my heart will choose to say blessed be his name. God gives and he takes away and we may never know why this side of heaven but I know he has a plan for all of us so I lean on him tonight as he is the only one who can truly comfort the pain that is all around. Love to you all.

Zacks first day and the Montessori misconceptions

Zack had his first day of school and it went fabulous as far as I can tell. Apparently they learned about using their quiet feet. It was funny I walked in and it was all boys and a couple of girls so it was a very appropriate lesson that they all learned about having quiet feet in the classroom. When he got in the car I asked him if he was going back tomorrow and he said yes. I asked him what else he worked on and he said lunch. So I guess if he learned to use quiet feet and got to eat food that is a good day.

I have a feeling that with all my talk of Montessori some of you are either curious or have already formed an opinion of what Montessori is. There is a lot of speculation that Montessori is cultish or is based on religion and that is not true at all. As true with most things in life there are Montessori schools that have an element of religion but that was not her original intention. So here is the run down of what it is and where it came from for those of you who are curious or confused.

This information is taken straight from the AMI official website.
http://montessori-ami.org

Dr. Maria Montessori


Maria Montessori, 1870 - 1952

Born in Chiaravalle in the Province of Ancona in 1870, Maria Montessori was the first woman to practise medicine in Italy, having graduated from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Rome in 1896. As a physician, Dr. Montessori was in touch with young children and became profoundly interested in their development. Through careful and exhaustive scrutiny, she realised that children construct their own personalities as they interact with their environment. She also observed the manner in which they learned as they spontaneously chose and worked with the auto didactic materials she provided.

Her approach to education stemmed from a solid grounding in biology, psychiatry and anthropology . She studied children of all races and cultures in many countries around the world, soon seeing the universality of the laws of human development played out before her. She continued her observations throughout her life, widening and deepening her understanding until her death in 1952.


Life's Work

Maria Montessori opened her first Casa dei Bambini (Children's House) in one of the very poorest areas in Rome, the then notorious Quartiere di San Lorenzo.

"It was January 6th (1907), when the first school was opened for small, normal children of between three and six years of age. I cannot say on my methods, for these did not yet exist. But in the school that was opened my method was shortly to come into being. On that day there was nothing to be seen but about fifty wretchedly poor children, rough and shy in manner, many of them crying, almost all the children of illiterate parents, who had been entrusted to my care"... "They were tearful, frightened children, so shy that it was impossible to get them to speak; their faces were expressionless, with bewildered eyes as though they had never seen anything in their lives."... "It would be interesting to know the original circumstances that enabled these children to undergo such an extraordinary transformation, or rather, that brought about the appearance of new children, whose souls revealed themselves with such radiance as to spread a light through the whole world."

Indeed it was as though this radiance had been caught in a stream of consciousness, for a mere six months after the opening of the Casa dei Bambini, people from all walks of life, from every continent came to see Maria Montessori's miracle children.

In 1909 she gave her first Montessori course, expecting to have as students only Italian teachers. To her amazement people attended from many different countries. Probably that was the origin of what would become a serious handicap in the evolution of Montessori pedagogy.

"Since the beginning Montessori pedagogy has been appropriated, interpreted, misinterpreted, exploited, propagated, torn to shreds and the shreds magnified into systems, reconstituted, used, abused and disabused, gone into oblivion and undergone multiple renaissances." (Renilde Montessori)

There are various reasons why this should be so. Perhaps the most important is that although Montessori pedagogy is known as the Montessori Method, it is not a method of education, in other words, it is not a programme for teachers to apply. Maria Montessori was not a teacher .... the Alpha and Omega of her pedagogy lies with the children.

Maria Montessori was a scientist, and as a good scientist, she was earth-bound and highly spiritual in her pursuit of truth. She studied medicine, specializing in psychiatry and anthropology. She was also an outstanding mathematician. Although she would never have considered being a teacher, she studied educational methods for many years and found them wanting, possibly because none of them took into account the two seemingly paradoxical extremes which are at the center of her pedagogy: the universal characteristics of the human child, and the child as a unique, unrepeatable, respectable and admirable individual to be unconditionally accepted as one of life's most marvellous expressions.




So that is who Maria Montessori was and this is what a prepared classroom would look like:

Montessori classrooms provide a prepared environment where children are free to respond to their natural tendency to work.

The prepared environment offers the essential elements for optimal development. The key components comprise the children, teacher and physical surroundings including the specifically designed Montessori educational material.

Characteristics of the prepared environment include:

Montessori


Beauty, order, reality, simplicity and accessibility.


Montessori


Children must be given freedom to work and move around within suitable guidelines that enable them to act as part of a social group.


Montessori
Children should be provided with specifically designed materials which help them to explore their world and enable them to develop essential cognitive skills.


Montessori
Mixed age groups (eg. three to six, six to nine, nine to twelve) encourage all children to develop their personalities socially and intellectually at their own pace.

"Beyond the more obvious reasons why it is sensible to group the ages three by three, such as the little ones learn from the older children and the older ones learn by teaching the younger, every child can work at his own pace and rhythm, eliminating the bane of competition, there is the matter of order and discipline easily maintained even in very large classes with only one adult in charge. This is due to the sophisticated balance between liberty and discipline prevalent in Montessori classrooms, established at the very inception of a class. Children who have acquired the fine art of working freely in a structured environment, joyfully assume responsibility for upholding this structure, contributing to the cohesion of their social unit."

There are prepared environments for children at each successive developmental plane. These environments allow children to take responsibility for their own education, giving them the opportunity to become human beings able to function independently and hence interdependently.


Please feel free to walk around this website. It has tons of information on Montessori.

Night time trail ride

Cliff, Zack, Cameron and Cole went on an night time trail ride on Saturday night. I think fun was had by all the blazer caught on fire well the new wiring Cliff spent all day working on. The got stuck and had to be wenched out, his exhaust is super loud and he can't park in the drive way because something is leaking out. But thankfully we have other vehicles he can drive and the boys made it home safely. The little boys were great which we were thankful for because Tirsa and I were able to have an almost kid free night. We had Conner but he is a jewel so no problem there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cliff and I totally agree with this concept so keep your clunkers people........

"Dave's Thoughts on "Cash for Clunkers"

Dave's Thoughts on "Cash for Clunkers"With all the buzz about Cash for Clunkers, it’s easy to think that it was a great way for people to get a better set of wheels. But was it really? No way! Cash for Clunkers was simply a way for broke people to buy cars that they really couldn't afford. It was a bad idea on multiple levels. But before digging into that, let’s take a little history lesson.

About a decade ago, a fair housing program was started, called a sub-prime lending market. The idea behind it was that everyone “needed” to own a home—including broke people. The government decided to start a program to reinvest in communities, which allowed pretty much anyone to borrow money to buy a house. Lending companies charged high interest rates, causing already struggling families to go even further into debt.

Basically, this was a program designed to encourage broke people to buy houses. Most people didn’t even know it existed until it unraveled and became the number-one cause of our recent recession. The government took those stupid loans back and securitized them, which created the financial mess last fall. Helping broke people buy houses didn’t turn out to be a great government program. Guess what? Helping broke people buy brand-new cars—and now home appliances—will turn out just as bad.

The Cash for Clunkers program was designed exactly for people who should not take advantage of the program. You trade your $2,000 clunker in for a brand-new, shiny $20,000 car, and the only way you can afford it is with a high-interest payment. That just means you really couldn’t afford it to begin with. Doesn’t this sound like the sub-prime mortgage problem all over again?

When you drive that new car off the lot, you’re immediately going to lose $4,500. The worst car accidents happen on the showroom floor. New cars go down in value like a rock. The government thinks it’s going to save the American auto industry by putting broke people into cars they can’t pay for. It’s going to come back to bite them—and the rest of us—in the form of taxes galore.

Another bad thing about this program is that we, the taxpayers, are paying for the new cars! It’s morally wrong of the government to take money away from us—against our will—in the form of taxes and give that money to someone else to buy a stupid car they can’t afford in the first place! This is theft, plain and simple.

Cash for Clunkers is a program that redistributes wealth in the name of the environment, and it’s going to be a curse on the car dealer and the manufacturer that carries the paper. It’s going to hurt the broke person who bought a car he couldn’t afford. And it’s already a problem for our country, because it’s adding dollars to the national debt.

There’s always a twist with government programs like this. They try to think of creative ways to help people, but the situation usually ends up worse than it did before they “helped.” In the end, I should decide what to do with my own money. If I want to buy you a car, I will! And if you can’t buy a car without actually paying for the whole thing, then you’re better off keeping your “clunker.”

So good riddance to a really bad program that has done more damage than good." Dave Ramsey

Mommy take my picture

 

 

 

 

We set our pool up again this weekend because we had some friends over and we have gotten a lot of use out of it. The kid loves the water what more can I say.

San Diego

Ok I think I figured out how to get pics to come back to my blog in the form of a slide show. So instead of posting individual pics I will start doing this if I can continue to get it to work.

Zack and I were very blessed to get to go to San Diego several weeks ago to see some really great friends. We had so much fun at the beach. It was so fun to hang out with the Chester Long family I would do it again in a heartbeat. We miss you guys thanks for letting us crash your vacation. Mark next time lets learn to surf:)

Why aren't you blogging?

I am farming on Facebook. Sorry:)

7 Pounds

Last night after going to dinner with the fam Cliff and I decided to rent a movie. Obviously in the world of movies there are a gazillion options. We decided on the movie 7 pounds. If you are interested in watching this movie yourself stop reading because I am about to give away the end.


Here are the basics Will Smith kills seven people including his wife in a car accident because he was playing on his phone instead of watching the road. Scary we have all been there. Anyways his goal is to do something really nice for seven other people to repay for what he did. But in the end to do the nice things he must kill himself. He gives his eyes to someone, his heart to someone, his house house, his kidney, his bone maro, half his liver, one other thing I can't remember. Anyways he didn't want to live he felt so lonely and lost and saddened by the loss of his wife but he also wanted to do something to help others before he tool his life.


I am sharing this with you all because since my dad has died there are just certain things I can't watch on TV: CSI any violence and this movie should have been one of them. I felt so heavy after I watched it. Cliff doesn't know but I laid on the couch after and even cried a little bit. I actually said when it was finally over well at least he was trying to change the lives of other people in a positive way before he offed himself. Suicide is a sad horrible thing. No family should ever have to experience it and I wish I wouldn't have watched 7 pounds it made me relive my dads all over again. So mental note read all reviews of movies for now on so that I know what I am getting myself into. And I need to learn to walk away when I know that it isn't for me. Don't we try to teach our children this type of thing.

This blog is experiencing technical difficulties

I have come to the capacity in my picassa account. I can take up to like 400 pics on my camera and needless to say I love to take them so I think at this point I am full. So if you are having trouble seeing the pics this is why. I will work on fixing this in the next few days.

Beast two

I woke my sweet husband up at 8 this morning and begged for his help with this one. We got it down in about an hour, bagged, and now it is at the curb. My original plan for this space was to make it a shaded sand box for Zack but after little convincing on Cliffy's part we are opting for a garden. He says if we do a sand box the neighborhood cats will just use it as a litter box. It didn't take much and I said ok well then how about a garden he said get after it. I will keep you posted. I am in love with a lime tree from Lowe's that will be my first purchase for the corner. Can't wait.

 

We have been picking prickers out of our hands and bodies for several hours now. I hate cactus.

 

 

 

Beast one

So one of my many goals this summer has been to remove the three and half cactus out of my yard. I say half because one was itty bitty. So this week while we had a break in the weather that is just what I did. Cactus are super evil by the way and Zack was the best pricker puller outer you can imagine. For all you desert rats I did try to save one and half of the cactus. We'll see if I can keep them alive. The others were just to big.

 

This bad boy fell over one day while we were away during the fourth of July. The stump to this was massive.

 

 

 

This is a praying mantis that we found.

 

Now you see it.

 

 

Now you don't

 

These are the two I am trying to save. Don't ask me how I potted them alone but I did.

 

Then we started excuvating the rocks so we could level the ground where we put Zacks tramp.

 

 

This boy worked his little naked bootie off.

 

 

 

 

 

Mom these are the directions to my trampoline

 

 

 

Trees don't stop us

 

What would we do without bob

 

 

 

 

He was sent to his room for being naughty while we put the tramp together and he went in his room and just opened his window. Booger

 

 

let the jumping begin.

 

 

I took a stab at it lets just say some body functions don'y work so well when I jump I didn't last long.

 

 

 

Yesterdays adventures......

Yesterday Zack and I ventured to my small groups play date. It was ok but when I got there I really didn't know any one and if you know me then you know me and big crowds don't get along, but the boy did get to enjoy this woman's amazing pool. The little cave section was a working hot tub. Yes it was super cool. After we left there we met up with my friend Tirsa and her boys and headed to the coolest park I have been to probably ever. Unfortunately it is about 30 minutes from our house so not one we will frequent often but super cool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Does he stil suck his fingers?

In case you were wondering yes he still sucks his fingers when he sleeps. At night I won't lay with him if he is going to suck his fingers so in his bed at night he is doing good but give him any chance and those suckers go right in.

 

 

 

Hoover Dam Bridge

In case you have been here to see us this summer and you are dying to know how the bridge is coming along, it is almost finish, well at least the arch part. Because we have had so much company we have watched this bridge come together literally. It truly is spectacular.

 

 

 

Stir Fry

While my in-laws were in town we made a huge feast of stir fry on my dads out door stir fryer. I love it and hadn't gotten a chance to use it since it has made it's home in my back yard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He decorated the inside of his card instead of the back of it. Thank you for the card Uncle Dillon and Aunt Robyn.

 

 

Playing trains with his papa wayne

 

Reading books and wrestlin' doesn't get better then that.

 

 

 

 

The Actual Party

I didn't decide on what we were doing for Zacks party till like three or four days before it was here. Vegas in July is a rough time to have a party. We only know a handful of people and having the party at our house was out because our house sits on the wrong side of the street so our back yard isn't good unless you want to die of heat stroke. Well at least in the dead of summer. So then I thought we would have it at the Condoplex at the pool but then we decide the sprinkler pads would be good.

I am calling his party the fast track party. We played a quick game of duck duck goose, which they loved, then we ate cake, quickly opened presents and headed to the water.

 

 

 

 

My friend Tirsa got him this really fabulous spidey chair that worked perfectly for him to sit in while he opened his gifts.

 

 

Yes this is a guitar. Thank you Brock and Dorie and seriously we appreciate not doing the drums. Just remember you guys have three children I get to buy annoying toys for no I am just kidding. He loves it though. He is in a band just about everyday.

 

 

His nana got him this super cool peddle car. He was very generous and let all his friends have turn before we hit the sprinkle pad. I don't think he realized it was his he was being way to nice letting his friends ride. Unfortunately we haven't used it much because it is too hot to hang out and ride bikes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beautiful Kaylie

 

The adults mingling

 

My adorable friend Dorie

 

Baby Kaders. He's my boyfriend.

 

Grandma Marcia and Kade getting wet.

 

 

Wet Noodles.

 

 

 

Scary old man checking out all the kids, no I am just kidding this is our friend. But we told him parents probably thought he was stalking children.

 

 

 

Me and baby Connor

 

Cliffy me and Connor

 

even Mrs. Jackie was having fun.

 

At one point I couldn't find Zack and then I found him running the fastest little circles around this fountain. He was lovin it.

 

 

 

Then we hit the park for a dry off before we came home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bob got Zack this killer spidey suit. He loves it. Thanks bob.

 

 

Thats just funny

 

 

Aunt Sandy and Uncle Norm sent a game, a very melted bag of M&M's and a fun booked called Not Norman.

 

 

 

 

Zack turned four

So two Saturday's ago we celebrated Zacks fourth birthday. Can you believe it? How is this child four? Well whether we like it or not he is and four fits him. I made him a racecar track cake. I know it looks like a number eight but it is a race car track. Here are the pics leading up to the cake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes those are chocolate brownies in the background. It is a rare occasion I make them but what can I say I was in the mood for them.

 

 

 

He was doing great entertaining himself while I made the cake. Gotta love this boy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today you turned four

Dear Zackary,
Today is your birthday and what a four years it has been. I can't believe you are four. It has been a crazy year. I will cap it for you. Last year when you turned three we went to the movies to see Wall-e and then went to Aunt Sandy and Uncle Norm's for cake and ice cream. Daddy was already in Vegas working his new job. In August we moved across the country to Henderson, NV. We lived with Aunt Brandi and Payton for awhile then they moved out and lived across the street. Payton is your very best friend. Yall either play really well together or fight like siblings. We got fifi the ferret this year and she LOVES you. You let her out every morning and she kisses you until I finally have to tell you to let her go.

You took an art class and played soccer this year both of which weren't completely successful. But then we put you in gymnastics and you have accelerated beyond belief. You have coach Brandon on Tuesdays that says you and Mason are the best listeners. On Thursdays you have Miss Bre who also babysits you on occasion and I am pretty sure you have a slight crush on her. She loves you too. You are a super star at gymnastics. Coach is working on getting you to do a flip into the foam pit.

We moved into our new house about three weeks ago. You were a little skeptical and had some issues adjusting now all I hear is that you want to go home no matter where we are. I love that you love our new home. I do too.

You went on your first of hopefully many more white water rafting and 4 wheelin trips. You liked it a lot. But you are a home body some days I can't even convince you to go to the park.

You are a fish in the pool. Yesterday in fact you learned to swim to the bottom of the four foot deep end to retrieve a toy with out my help. You are a super star.

You are also obsessed with video games. Currently crash Bandicute is your favorite I have to really limit your time or you would play all day. As I am typing this you are asking to play.

You have sucked your three middle fingers since we got you. Today you turn four and today we start breaking you of that habit. We have started preparing you but I think it will be a long road. We will see how you do.

We are having your party at Mission Hills Park with some your gymnastics buddies. Your grandparents all pitched in and are getting you a trampoline. I personally can't wait because then you can jump on that instead of my furniture. Mommy and daddy are getting you a leapster 2 which is a little game for you to play.

We love you sooooo much little boy. You officially became a Mitchell last August but to us you have been a Mitchell since the day we laid eyes on you. We are so blessed that God chose us to be your mommy and your daddy. We love you happy 4th birthday buddy.

Love Mommy


Some funny Zack sayins:

I can do it mommy all my by self
Daddy you my boy
Fifi you my girl
Mommy you my best friend.
Mommy you night night me, aka will sleep with me.
Mommy I want to be a baby and suck my fingers.

Our fourth and final trail.........

was probably the most stressful which is why I only have two pics of it. First of all we knew we wanted to get to the lake. We knew there was a trail because it was marked on the map. BUT sometimes reading a map and getting there via an ATV is easier said then done. We ended up going off road well ok all of this was off road but this was really off road and it was in the desert so the land scape wasn't as beautiful, well it was in its own way. Long story short the trail we needed we still aren't sure we found and we crossed into a place where ATV's were illegal and we knew this because of the sign that said no ATV's past here. Well we were already past it on the wrong side. So we had to knock down a gate go through someones yard who we found out later was a drunk and probably had no idea we were there. It was a little scary considering we had rode forever and there really was no way to turn back the way we came and we weren't sure how long our gas would last. We did have an extra tank. So needless to say pictures weren't first on our list.

 

 

5 am ride!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our friend Bob that we met at our Condoplex was the one that invited us to go on this trip with him. He owns his quads and we rented ours. So the way the weekend went was we got there Friday at 1ish we ate then borrowed two quads from a friend of his and went out on our first trail. (I don't have pics of that yet). Then we came back had dinner hung out then the next morning we went rafting then picked up the quads we rented at like 12:30. We only rented them for 24 hours so in my crazy head I decided I wanted to get the most out of renting them so I got this guenis idea to get up at 5am on Sunday and go for a morning ride before breakfast. So that's what we did and it was cold and fabulous. It had rained just enough to get the quads wet and dampen the ground so there wasn't so much dirt. A friend on facebook asked me what would posses me to wake my child up that early to go riding my response is pay backs for every other day of his life that he wakes me up so early. JK. Anyways the following are the pics of me and my boys and our morning ride.

 

 

 

 

 

Remember when I said to remember the lake that we passed on our way up to Marysvale. Well this is it. Isn't that amazing.

 

 

 

 

 

Isn't he so freaking cute. I love this kid he was so fun. Most of the time he road with me. He was so cold I put him in front so that he could get warmed up on his legs by the engine. This was probably the funnest we had together because I was trying to distract him from the cold and so I was being silly and telling him I needed his help getting down the hills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was a really steep hill. You can't tell but Cliff got stuck and had to go into four wheel drive. Zack and I opted to go around on the easier trail. Cliff was a super star getting up this, after all he loves rock climbing the only difference is he is usually in a full size vehicle.

 

 

 

It was a nice morning trip we didn't see any wildlife it made me sad but all in all it was a fabulous ride.

End of trail 74

It is kind of scary 4 wheeling. Let me explain. First of all you have these huge helmets on and glasses and some people even cover their mouths so that you aren't eating the dirt from the person in front of you. Your wheeler is really loud so the only thing you can hear are the voices in your head. Lets me honest we all have them. You are going semi fast depending on where you are in our situation we were never really sure of the time and when you are deep in the woods like we were you have no idea what is going on with the weather. When we first started down trail 74 it was sprinkling HUGE drops of rain that hurt your body while going fast on a quad. But it stopped once we got going and the sun came out it was perfect. These next few pics are when we came out of the forest. Please notice the skies are getting darker by the minute and we still have a ways back to camp.

 

 

 

 

Crazy huh. It looks like a totally different day from the earlier pics. Thankfully that storm never hit God was just giving us beautiful skies and some nice cool air as we cruised along the river.

 

 

 

 

Obviously we made it back to tell you about it. I love going 4 wheelin in case you didn't know. Ha ha

Act II of our weekend.

Yes Bob this is snow whether you believe it or not. His theory is God dumped a bunch of sand on the top of these here mountains, but we know the real truth I think cliff said the top of these mountains are at 10,000 feet but don't quote me on that

 

 

More pics from trail 74

 

 

These little bridges were all up and down this trail. We finally pulled over to get a fresh drink from the stream and let the kids run around. I wanted to fill my camel pack up with this water but it was full. The water tasted amazing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I am in a group of people this is one of my favorite things to do take a group shot with my timer on my camera. I find a high enough place, set the timer, and run to join the crowd it always is interesting. Love all these people

 

Lots of group shots by the stream.

 

 

 

 

 

 

4 Wheelin over the fourth.

Here we are in Vegas at 6am filling up, getting coffee and breakfast.

 

 

 

 

The beautiful lake that we passed on our way to Marysvale, remember this pic I will have a better one that is from way higher.

 

He was yelling for his daddy to wait for him.

 

 

Don't worry we wore helmets all weekend we were just pulling them off the trailor.

 

Getting everything unloaded. Ya I stood around and took pics instead of helping

 

 

 

Lunch at the main campsite. We stayed in a hotel but the people that Bob new that were there camped so we set up our own little kitchen next to them so that at night we could eat with them.

 

I am telling you this kid loved it.

Lots of corn hole was played.

 

 

 

These two love to hate each other. haha

 

Breakfast at the prospect before white water rafting. It was the only place to eat in the whole town. It was fabulous.

 

 

 

 

These are some of the beautiful mountains that were right by the place we went rafting.

 

 

He was naughty in the truck on the drive over and got in trouble so he was in a foul mood.

 

The cross over to rafting. Apparently there are lots of snakes because everyone kept telling us to watch out.

 

We got a disc that cost a fortune with these pics on it from our trip. The last section we went on was a class three. I was not holding my paddle right because I was holding on to Zack.

 

 

 

 

It was a lot of fun. It was the perfect river for the kids because for the most part it was lazy. They didn't like being so cold and trust me it was cold. Like Buffalo water cold.

 

 

This is the kids after the rafting trip. They started to melt down at the very end of the trip but as soon as their feet hit the ground they started yelling that was fun. Mommy I like that.

 

Brandi hurt her butt on the rafting trip. They let us body surf down one of the rapids and she had a hard time stopping so her but got a nice scrape on it.

 

 

This was the second ride we took. I didn't take my camera on our first ride out on the quads so I will have to wait to get pics from my sister. So after rafting we went to eat lunch at camp then we geared up and went on trail 74 which took us up into the mountains and looped around to where the river is. This was seriously like a spiritual place.

 

 

I mean seriously look at this view it was fantastic.

 

 

Aren't we a cute family

 

Well this is only the beginning but I will leave you wanting more. So check back. I have a ton of pics to share but don't want to bore you in one sitting so come back and I will post more in the next couple of days. I LOVE QUADS in case you couldn't tell or didn't know.

Rag a muffin

 

 

 

 

And no we have no plans of cuting his hair. We love it.

Fast fun shots

Mommy take a picture of this.........

 

 

 

 

We have friends

This bad boy is nothing compared to my friend who lives in Africa who just posted about a spider that was as big as her hand. So this is pitful compared but never the less he lived above my kitchen window but I killed him. Sorry spider lovers couldn't risk him eating my kid.

 

This little buy is so fun he lives in the cactus outside the front door. Everyday you can see him running around catching the little bugs. I didn't realize that is what they eat. He let me get so close to him before he scammered back home. Lizards must have just hatched in our back yard we have several tiny babies that live in the cactus's back there.

 

 

Attempting tomatoes.

This bag of potting soil was freaking heavy. No thanks to the people at Lowes I loaded this sucker onto my basket and then into the back of my Rover then onto this dolly where it landed in my back yard. I am attempting to grow tomatoes. I didn't get a final pic but we planted to buckets full and we are trying the topsy turvey I will let you know how it works out.

 

 

 

 

Fathers day Weekend

How I survived fathers day weekend. My brother and rockin sister in law came to visit us and we had a blast. We did the whole Vegas scene starting with Hoover Dam in the heat of the day see my kids face it explains it all.

 

 

 

I must have bribed him with something oh yea candy that is how I got him to smile. Isn't this the coolest pic. The brigde in the back ground is of the new bypass brigde they are making for those of us who would like to get to Phoenix or vice versa without having to deal with the Hoover Dam traffic that can be up to two hours if you hit it just right.

 

Zack loves my brother I am not sure why. Just kidding he is ok most of them I guess.

 

 

 

 

Little water fight action on the way back to the car. Zack definitly won.

 

 

 

 

One night we tried to go to a club to know avail we just ended up hitting Fat Tuesdays multiple times crying, laughing and plum goofines happened on this night

 

 

 

The next night we went to a wonderful Greek restaurant road the rollar coaster at New York New York then hit the oxygen bar for massages. Still haven't decided it that is a hoax but it was nice to sit and chat for awhile.

 

 

 

 

 

Bob went out with us too.

 

 

No I am not drunk I had this thing attached to my back that was Zapping me and they were daring me to turn it up. I got to like four and wanted to cry. Crazy thing.

 

 

 

 

 

We had a great time. I am soooo glad they came. We stayed out so late every night that by the time fathers day was here my butt chilled in the bed most of the day trying to recover from the lack of sleep. Thanks to all of you who either called, texted, or facebooked me. I really did have a peace about the day. Thanks Dan and Tera for the great distraction and by the way happy 2 years.

Daddy hung us a Hammock

Did I mention I love my porch. It is my goal to spend a little bit of time out there everyday even when the weather is crazy hot. Zack and I swing just about every day most days more then once.

 

 

He almost fell asleep in it then he sat up and said mommy I throw up so we had to get out. Little motion sickness I think:)

 

 

One of the MANY MANY projects.....

See the rock

 

Now you don't.....well that is because one of the many projects that need to happen at this house is the excavation of all the rock in this back yard. We are going to be water wasters and plant grass. Sorry we both grew up with it and if I am going to have this small of a yard so will my son. So one day when I couldn't unpack one more box I took myself outside and started filling the wheel barrow.

 

No we never dress him it is a waste of laundry when we are home he is forever taking them off so I give up. Only when we leave the house or have company.

 

 

He could be in Africa

Don't these pics remind you of the little African pictures you see of the children working in the fields. Well he isn't in Africa he is in our backyard where he spends a ton of his time these days. We flooded our backyard with this baby pool he calls this the "muddy". Every day he says mommy I play in the muddy. Very cute.

 

 

 

 

I lied

Ok so I lied we are moved in as far as our house but the garage is a whole other story. When my dad died we went through his house we made three piles a keep pile, a toss pile, and a garage sale pile. Well lets just say the keep pile was maybe bigger then it should have been. But in our defense it is really hard to throw someone else's possessions because in a weird way it is your only connection to them other then your memories. So this is mostly my dads stuff in this garage we still half a garage to move over from our condo. So Cliff has been working so hard in the hot Vegas heat to organize all this stuff so we can keep most of it but also fit the other stuff we have. I think we can do it. But the chances of a car being parked in this garage ever is slim to none and we are ok with this.

 

 

 

 

Side note we have six cars in our possession so where are they all you ask. Well heres the run down. One is still with my sister at the Condoplex. Three are parked in front of our house and two are parked in our new neighbors back yard. How awesome is that. Thank you Stephanie.

Part Monkey Part Acrobat

In the midst of the moving craze Zack and I took a break and joined my small group at a friends house. And yes you are looking at an in groud trampoline freaking awesome. This kid by the way has no fear.

 

 

 

 

A visit from Auntie Cherl and Uncle Randy

So the weekend we moved Auntie Cherl and Uncle Randy came to Vegas for work which they come every June. We are so blessed to get to spend time with them. The last two times we have gone to PF Changs. They love that place and so do we. Zack LOVES Cherl. I mean this kid could not stay off her. He loved on her the entire time she was here and if you know my kid you know that is huge usually it takes a little while. I think he is starting to remember people. They got to come over and be the first to enjoy the back porch. We love you guys.

 

 

 

 

Ps. They are really our cousins but for Zack sake they are an aunt and uncle:)

I am so mad I just realized not one stinking picture of Randy. Zack liked him too it was so cute we were riding in the back of the car and he looked at me and pointed to Randy and said mommy is that Papa. He wasn't sure I said no that is Randy and he said oh yea Randy. He liked Randy too I just don't have a pic of them. Bummer.

Catching up

So we are moved in and I mean moved in only a few boxes here and there but for the most part we are in. I have not blogged in forever. So this is going to be a catch up on the last couple weeks.

Zack was a trooper the day we packed the kitchen he did all the high cabinets.

 

 

 

Here he discovered bullion cubes. Mmmm I loved these as a kid. Don't worry all you health fanatics I didn't let him consume the whole salt block. He sat it down and suddenly it disappreared. As we packed I educated him in all the different spices which are a a requirement to be a decendant of the Madison family:)

 

 

 

 

See it made him so happy. Love this kid

 

Yes this entire bucket is just spices and you want to know what is so sad it wasn't the only one:) What can I say I am as obessed with them as my father was and yes I do use them ALL.

 

Happy Birthday Dad

Happy Birthday Daddy, Today you would have been 58. If you were here we would probably have gone to the Yard place restaurant that you and Cliff like so much. Yall probably would have shared a couple of those shots of beer. Then we would have come home and I would have made you some kind of cobbler dessert probably apricot and of course had ice cream with it. That was your favorite. I miss you so much dad. Wish you were here.

Our lives, the move and no internet

Ok I am not sure what I did before I had internet.....seriously. I always say it is my window to the outside world.......so by now you have guessed that we have been without internet which in turn means we have moved. As I type this I am fishing off of some unsuspecting neighbor praying I hit send before I loose my signal.
We are loving our house. Not settled but love it just the same. We still have a garage full of stuff at the Condoplex because we pretty much have run out of room in this garage. Yeah we thank my dad a lot for that:) Cliff is working on arranging and rearranging things in there so we can bring the rest of our stuff over.

We also made it though our first fathers day without my dad. I think this mainly had to do with the fact that my brother and sister in law came to town for what I call a last minute vacation. I say last minute vacation because they called me on Tuesday and were here by Thursday. We were out till four or later every night that they were here that meant that by Sunday we were all so tired I just slept the whole day. A friend of my dads which is our age invited us to dinner Sunday so we went over there and had a nice time.

What else....Oh yea the water pressure in our new house is really my only complaint. Third world countries have better pressure then we do. I know they don't even have running water exactly my point. If you flush the toilet while someone is in the shower it literally drips out of the shower. I have thought more then once it would be quicker to just hose myself down with the water hose which works great.

We have hung out hammock planted tomato plants and have kept all the plants from my dads funeral alive. Zack is settling in after a week and a half of not wanting to poop at crabapple he prefers the potties at the condo. But he is doing better and slept till 6:30 this morning in his own bed which in and of itself is a miracle. That is our catch up I have tons of pics but they are held captive in my camera till I get internet. Hope you all are doing well. Come see us the house is open for visitors, except for the month of July we are booked haha. Well we could have more but someone will be in a tent in our backyard.

Please pray......

Hey everyone, our 19 year old cousin Elise is on mission trip in India. She is having a great time but her toe is infected REALLY bad. Her missions trip is over on Sunday but after that her and two other girls are suppose to backpack across Europe. She took pics of her foot and sent them to her Dr here in the states and she has been told to stay off it. That will be super hard to do while backpacking. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for her and she raised the money all year long by herself so please pray that God will heal her so she can continue through the weekend doing God's work in another country and also be able to enjoy her vacation. You can hit her blog at http://elisepeace.blogspot.com She is a wonderful girl that is full of life. Let's pray shall we.......

More progress.....

Someone on Facebook said they hadn't seen the fron of the house....so here you go. This is the front. Excuse the yard yes we know we have a lot of work.

 

Here Zack and Cliffy are moving furniture out of the guest bedroom so that we could buff the floors

 

Hee-man one and two

 

Zack was in a super helpful mood Sunday we aren't sure why

 

Here they are moving the hutch

 

 

 

Cliff preparing to BUFF.

 

Zack wearing daddies googles.

 

Cliffy Buffing those floors. We must get them really clean because we are doing stamped concrete but for now until we can afford that we just have to get the grout up.

 

This is the mess that was left by said Buffer. It is a total freaking mess. I spent about three hours trying to get the dust up.

 

Sweep, vacuum, sweep, vacuum, mop, mop, mop, then when that was done I mopped again. I hate grout dust. Maybe someday my house will be free of it.

 

When I decided I couldn't dust any more Zack came along and took over he was making a Thomas track.

 

 

 

I did do some painting in my kitchen in the earlier part of the day. All I have to do now is the drawers and the cabinet doors.

 

These are the floors cleaned and mopped a hundred times.

 

This is my read wall I had to wipe it three times to get the dust off.

 

This was the set up that Cliff made for Zack, since his "bedroom" was being worked on.

 

He has become a gamer at three. Every Early Childhood bone in my bode know's I shouldn't let him play it so much but he loves it and it allows us to get lot's of work done on the house. So happy gaming little buddy.

 

This is our first piece of furniture installed in our house. My dads china hutch that I was going to inherit someday. Although that came way sooner then I ever wanted it looks amazing in our space. I think my dad would be proud of how much we have put into our little house. It is really freaky how much his furniture fits us.

 

Now let the moving begin.

PS. We are going to wait to do the floors due to some issues we are coming across in the kitchen.

The house thus far!!!

 

This is the living room accent wall it is blue. I LOVE it.

 

This is the kitchen accent wall finished!

 

 

This is going to be the color of the cabinets. We are not in love with it because painted on it looks very close to the color of the main wall. But it is a nice color all the same.

 

 

 

This is our bedroom. I couldn't remember if I posted pics of it or not but this is it finished. Tan and Chocolate. I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!

 

ANGELA

Last Sunday I took the day off from life and went to Wickenburg to see my best friend from Jr. High. Actually truth be told we are more like sisters. Our lives were paralleled in so many ways good and bad that we were instant buddies. She lived with us on and off when we were young and over the last ten years our lives have taken us in different directions, but God is amazing and he brought us back together. I have a feeling that we will be seeing a lot of each other in the days to come and I can't wait. It is amazing sometimes I wonder how I ended up in Buffalo? What my point is here and this is one of Gods little gifts to me lately. Nothing like getting a sister back. We shopped and hung out just the two of us for six hours of uninterrupted fun. I love you Ang see you again soon.


I suck at getting pictures of two people when you have hold the camera, that is hard. No we aren't high just laughing so freaking hard.

 

 

 

Last weekends progress

I am super behind in my blogging because my house is one section away from being all painted but this is what we did last weekend. Our awesome buddy Bob came over last Saturday and we made a huge dent in our project.

 

This is the color of my dinning room which is connected to my kitchen which now has some red in it as well.

 

 

This is Bob painting out bedroom. He did the whole bedroom and the hall way all by himself he really is amazing. Love you Bob thanks for your help.

 

Bob turned 50

Bob turned 50 this weekend so all his family from California came into town to celebrate. They took us to an amazing dinner on saturday so we decided we needed to show them how things work in the condoplex. We had a great BBQ complete with a big game of farkel in the evening.

 

 

 

 

This is Al (Bob's dad) racing on the scooter with the kids.

 

 

 

 

Joan giving Al a high five after his spectacular scooter run

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joan and the littles coloring after filling our bellies with yummy goodness.

 

 

Fun was had by all. Bob has become a pretty special friend to us here at the Condoplex. It was great meeting his family we are all going to make a trip at the end of the summer to spend sometime at his parents house. They live three miles from the beach. They are our kind of people. We had fun this weekend love you all.

House Sitting

We got to house sit for Cliff's boss and his wife over the weekend. We enjoyed their amazing pool for two days. It was nice to walk right out to a pool. We will definitely be having one at our next house.

 

 

 

 

Our weekend in a nutshell

We finished texturing the ceilings in the whole house. We textured our walls in the master bedroom. It is the only walls we are texturing. We kind of messed them up texturing the ceilings to we didn't really have a choice. We started ripping out the tile in the hall way in kitchen. What were we thinking that is hard work.

 

 

 

 

 

This is Zack hanging out in the guest bedroom. We put a pool up in the back yard to he has something to do while we work. He doesn't last long it is in the shade and is super cold.

 

Here is Cliff taping the ceilings in our room so we don't mess up the what is already textured.

 

 

 

This is the texture in our bathroom. I know it is super hard to tell but it is called grass texturing we think.

 

This is the removal of the tile. We are so sore today.

 

 

Rascal Flatts

Tonight I went back to the suicide survivors group which by the way I still haven't decided if I like, I mean the people are great but the concept is rough. But I will continue to go because I feel like I have taken a little something away both times now. Each time you go you state who died this time we had to name them by name, what relationship they were to you and how they died. It sucks yea I know. Therapeutic in a weird way. I don't think I have said my dad's name out loud since he died because I always call him dad saying his actual name tonight was hard. Anyways after we did that facilitator played this song by Rascal Flatts. They nailed this song and yes the whole room was crying.



There is no video so here are the lyrics:

Rascal Flatts, Why Lyrics
Looking for Rascal Flatts tabs and chords? Browse alphabet (above).

Artist: Rascal Flatts
Song: Why
Album: Unstoppable
Rascal Flatts Sheet Music
Rascal Flatts CDs


Download RingtoneSend “Why” Ringtone to Cell PhoneDownload Ringtone

It must a been a place so dark, couldn't feel the light
Reachin' for you through that stormy cloud
Now here we are gathered in our little home town
This can't be the way you meant to draw a crowd

Oh why that's what I keep askin'
Was there anything I could have said or done
Oh I had no clue you were masking a troubled soul, god only knows
What went wrong and why you'd leave the stage in the middle of a song
Mmmmmmm

Now in my mind I keep you frozen as a seventeen year old
Rounding third to score the winning run
You always played with passion no matter what the game
When you took the stage you shined just like the sun

Oh why that's what I keep askin'
Was there anything I could have said or done
Oh I had no clue you were masking the troubled soul, oh god only knows
What went wrong and why you'd leave the stage in the middle of a song
Yeah yeah yeah

Now the oak trees are swayin' in the early autumn breeze
The golden sun is shining on my face
The tangled thoughts I hear a mockingbird sing
This old world really ain't that bad a place

Oh why there's no comprehending
And who am I to try to judge or explain
Oh but I do have one burning question
Who told you life wasn't worth the fight
They were wrong
They lied
And now you're gone
And we cried

Cause It's not like you to walk away in the middle of a song

Your beautiful song
Your absolutely beautiful song

We still haven't tired from it.....

These two love to be outside. They helped themselves to a picnic with french fries on the stoop

 

 

 

These little suckers are the best. I learned to make them from a long time family friend. Twice this week we have had bacon in spite of the swine. These are stuffed jalapeno's wrapped in bacon. Yummy.

 

 

She is super cute this one

 

Cooking out again

 

Fajita's on the grill are awesome try it sometime.

 

Childrens Museum

On Saturday we took Payton and Zack to the childrens Museum. It was fun they saw Clifford

 

Planted flowers

 

Rolled bones up a conveyer belt

 

And Payton shopped at Smiths

 

They played in water

 

Used another converyor belt

 

And pulled themselves to the top of a poll with a rope

 

 

 

We made these paper airplanes

 

Then they fell asleep in the car

 

And we hit Sonic

 

Just another day in the life.

I know they are all super cute.

On Friday I watched my friend Dorie's kids and my niece. They had a great time together. Although I discovered that five is hard and I am not sure how Jon and Kate plus eight actually survive with all their little's. I always wanted five and these are good kids but seriously I am not real sure now. We'll keep you posted:)

We made homemade green play dough complete with a little mint extract for a yummy smell.

 

 

Kade enjoyed a banana from the fruit net that I actually had from Zack.

 

 

Let the house projects begin

Taking pictures in house are not easy. I am talented enough with the camera to know how to give justice to what has transpired in this space just today but here are some pics anyways.
This is just a plain like off white tan color. What ever it's name it was not a very good color.

 

This is the sky

 

This is the starting of the grass

 

More grass

 

 

 

I know it is hard to tell but this is a road that wraps around the whole room. Tomorrow or this weekend I will add a yellow strip. And by the way it is chalk board paint so he will be able to draw what ever he wants on it. Super cute. I am so excited. My Liz mom and I got him new bedding for Christmas and that was the inspiration for the room.

 

 

 

 

The green color is more of a grass green the pics really don't do it justice so I guess if you want to see the true color you will have to come visit. Don't come too soon though I have a whole house that needs to be painted.

But here is the list of stuff we have finished in two and half days.

Four closets primed and painted, washer and dryer installed, dishwasher installed, two ceiling fans, and now Zack's room. Yea it is happening slowly but surely.

Off Roading Flop

So last Sunday we attempted to meet up with several other four wheelers to go off- roading, but after driving almost 50 miles the wrong way and getting pulled over for driving too fast through an emergency wreck we ended up home two hours later mad and hot. So we decided to go find our own trail on the other side of Hoover Dam.

 

 

He was so tired he even slept through the bumpy roads.

 

 

Getting our truck into four wheel drive

 

The view from the road

 

These are what Cliff likes to call poser pics.

 

 

We don't have a flat it just looks like. I volunteered to get out to take the pic because this sort of stuff scared me.

So ever since I moved to Las Vegas there are signs all around Hoover Dam that say watch our for the long horned goats. I never really believed we would ever see one, much less a heard. In fact when my friend Cheryl was here a couple weeks ago I said to her that is my goal to see one of those suckers before we leave Vegas. Well low and behold we don't just see one we find 10.

 

This guy at first we thought was fake. You know how you see statues of animals here and there. Then all the sudden he moved. I couldn't believe it. So we slow down I climb out the window and take lots of pics of him. Then.......

 

 

We realize there is a whole heard of them.

 

Click on the picture and open up this pic full screen and you can see all of them at the bottome. They just watched us as we cruised by.

 

 

 

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They blend in so well.

 

He was having a blast off roading not being in his car seat. Which by the way was more like driving down a dirt road.

 

We picniced.

 

Had a lovely view of the river.

 

The trail we took

 

These little dudes really exist.

This girl turned 33

Brandi turned 33 on the 20th four days after me. We spent her day at the pool. She made us homemade pizza and I made homemade cake that was horrible but at least it was cute.