For Twilight Fans

Mark fell asleep on my lap and I love holding him... so I've been web surfing and blogging.. blurffing if you will.

Well the Leelou blog hooked me up with this HILARIOUS blog! And the author has the same name as me... Lauren's are the best!

Here it is... (be prepared to laugh!)

Lauren's Bite

Digital Love

I think I'm getting to know photoshop pretty well. I just downloaded a bunch of freebies off a couple different sites and I'm in digital love! Shabby Princess just released a new kit this month called "Happy Go Lucky!" It is SO flippin' cute. I made my new blog banner with elements from the kit!

I've been blog stalking and my new favorite blogs are A Little Bit Scrappy and Brookie-Wookie! Megan introduced me to Megan from Scrappy and I love her! And Lara's blog has a bunch of links where I found Brooke. Also from Lara's blog I found a great site called Srapping Simply. You upload your pages and they print them for $1.99!!!

Here are some of my other fav's!!

The Golden Girls
Designer Digitals
Heather Ann
Delicious Scraps

Anyway.. I love digital scrapbooking! I could download all day! So now I'm going to try and convert all you old school scrapbookers!!

Allie-isms

Sometimes I have no idea what she's gonna say...
*Me: Allie will you put your books on the shelf please?
Allie: (sigh) I'm sorry little baby book, for what I have to do to you. Mommy made me do it.
Me: ?

*(Talking to herself) I have to go potty really quick. If I pee my pants I get in trouble! Hurry!!

Sometimes I know exactly what she's going to say. She says these phrases all the time!
*This is absolutely ridiculous!
*Are you kidding me?
*I just don't want to!
*I just love you!

And she's quick to ask for forgiveness...
I'm sorry! I won't draw on the bed any more. Now can I have the markers back? Please mom!!


And she loves to sing. Here are her versions of some well known favorites...
*You better not shout, you better not cry, cuz I'm telling you what to do! Santa Claus is coming to town!
*Book of Mormon stories that my teacher tells me what to do!!
*Ring around the rozos ashley ashley we all fall down!


She loves quoting movies...
*Pickles stink. My mother makes me eat em! (Little Rascals)
*I don't want to be a princess! (Princess Diaries)
*Swish and flick (Harry Potter)
*Bibbidy Bobbidy Boo (Cinderella)
*Forts don't got carpet! (Dennis the Menace)
There are so many more I could go on forever. She has an incredible memory!

She's growing up so fast. I just have to document her little Allie-isms!

Out with the Old, In with the New

Yesterday we all went to Mesquite to "look" at trucks.

Well looking turned to buying!!

Me and my new baby!!

Isn't she purdy?!

Allie keeps asking me if we are gonna wreck this one. I say no, no mommy is being safe and careful!! There is this really nice beeping noise that goes off if I don't have my seatbelt on so I won't ever forget again!! Dustin loves it for the towing capability and the four-wheel drive, the kids love it for the DVD player and I love it because its so pretty. It was the first one we looked and and it was exaclty what I wanted!

I just feel bad for this old beast.

It was a great truck that we loved. It had about 250,000 miles of hard, fun livin! I will miss it.

Spring

Dustin took these pictures yesterday. I love Spring!!

Mark's Hair

I thought the poll I have on my blog needed a little explaining. Dustin and I have been going back and forth whether or not to cut Mark's hair. Dustin likes it long and I think Mark needs a trim. The other day it was sticking up all over the place and Allie suggested that Mark needed a mohawk! (Taj Totten is her church buddy if that explains anything!) So I spiked Mark's hair into a crazy mohawk!

Then I thought it would be a fun poll- Lets see how many people think Mark needs his hair cut?! Well you guys all loved the mohawk and 17 out of the 20 people who voted said don't cut it!

Then a few days ago I was playing with Dustin's new camera and snapped these photos of Mark...

Isn't he the cutest?! I've decided his hair is wild but that's just who he is! He's adorable and a little crazy! So the hair stays but I probably won't be mohawking it any more!!
Thanks to those who voted! Your input was most helpful :)

And this picture has nothing to do with Mark's hair but I thought it was too cute to leave out!

Love my little Markie Mark!!

Warm Springs

Sunday afternoon Dustin went to Warm Springs and snapped these photos...

He was working on shutter speeds. I think they turned out pretty neat!!

Sense and Sensibility

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, is the story of Elinor and Marianne Dashwood. In the first chapter Elinor is describe as having

"an excellent heart - her disposition was affectionate and her feelings were
strong; but she knew how to govern them."

While Marianne is described as

"sensible, clever; but eager in everything; her sorrows, her joys, could have no
moderation. She was generous, amiable interesting: she was everything but
prudent."

Thus the "sense" of Elinor and the "sensibility" of Marianne.

Upon the death of their father, their brother John inherits their home, leaving the Dashwood women homeless and impoverish. They find a new home, a cottage located on a distant cousin's property at Barton Park. Here the two sisters find love and lose love. They grow in their trials and try to balance out their senses!

Sense and Sensibility is a great book. Like all other of Jane Austen novels it is full of quick witted humor and satire of 19th century lives.

I also loved the movie! It follows the book extremely close. Five stars for Emma Thompson's screen play! I recommend both the movie and the book!!

HAPPY READING!!!

Yesterday

I just wanted to post really quick and let everybody know that we are ok. We were in a wreck yesterday at the intersection at Wally's. I had Allie and Mark with me. They were both buckled up in carseats so they are perfectly fine. I wasn't wearing my seatbelt! (I know I know... won't let that happen again!) I hit my head on the stearing wheel or windshield I'm not sure which. I just have a sore neck and a bump on the head. The truck isn't running. I'm not sure at this point if its fixable. But we all walked away and are fine!

I just wanted to tell you all thanks for your thoughts and prayers!

Thanks!!

Thanks for all the comments yesterday! My favorite was Torrey's idea to duct tape Mark in his walker! I think THIS is why she likes duct tape so much!! I'll have to give it a try.. he he!

Mark is slowly learning baby sign. I started teaching him to sign "thank you" and even though he can't do it yet I think he understands what it means. Most mornings I break a banana into about three pieces so he can feed himself. Today he kept trying to put the pieces in my mouth. Every time he shared it with me I would sign "thank you" and he would smile and try and give me more. It was so cute!

Which led me to this thought... I am so thankful for the rain! President Robinson asked us to have a special fast every month to relieve the west from the drought. I'm sure many of you have been fasting for the rain as well as me. In the past I've been terrible at fasting.. using pregnancy and nursing as an excuse to eat but I think I was cheating myself out of blessings. The past week it has rained on and off every other day! I'm so thankful for fast Sunday every week and I know that Heavenly Father hears our prayers and answers them. Its has really helped my testimony to put all my faith in him and see the results first hand.

I think that it is so important to say thank you and to teach our children to say thank you too. Whether it is just a simple thanks for a silly comment on a blog or thanking our Father in Heaven for blessings!

Thanks for reading!! :)

Live and Learn (I guess)

Much to my dismay Mark has given up his morning nap.

This was the perfect time for me to get showered and ready for the day. Usually I put him in his walker and he scoots around in the hallway while I shower. Now that he has started really walking on his own he hates his walker and tries to climb out of it! So I can't do that anymore. When Allie was his age I had a play pen to put her in while I showered. But the sides broke on it and it won't stay up!! So I can't put him in that. Now what?!

Today I tried closing the door to the bathroom and letting him run around in there while I showered. I covered the toilet and put the garbage can up where he couldn't get in it. He'll be good, right? WRONG!!

As soon as I was in the shower he had all the towels out of the cupboard, my blow dryer out and all the toilet paper off the roll. Then he came over and opened the shower curtain and let all the water spray on him and all over the floor. By now I'm covered in shampoo bubbles and he peaks in at me and laughs and sticks his head in the water. AHHH! I try and get clean as quickly as possible but he now is soaking wet and the bathroom is flooded. He is still laughing...

Well on an upside he and I and the bathroom are all clean! But what do I do tomorrow when I want to take a shower? Should I invest in a new playpen? Should I put him in his crib and let him cry til I'm done? Or do I have to wait til he takes his afternoon nap at 1:30 to shower?!!

Help! What do you other mama's do with your kids when you want to get ready in the mornings?

Arrow Canyon

While I was helping in Estefan's kindergarten class yesterday, Dustin and his mom went out with the little kids and took pictures. They went up to Arrow Canyon. These are some of my favorite pictures...

They got "a little mud on the tires!"

Dustin is working on using the telephoto lens. He tries to explain all the F-stops and focusing and lens how to's but I zone out and just look at the pretty pictures!

I (heart) Photoshop!

I just finished my very first digital scrapbook page!!! I'm so excited! I think it turned out pretty dang good.

What do you think? (say it looks good! please!)

Thank you to Megan, Lara and Natalie for your advice, help and encouragement!! You guys are great.

Well that's one page down.. only about 100 to go!!

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I finished another one since I posted... here's my second digital scrapbook page!

Coke for Camera

He did it!! Dustin has been off Diet Coke for two weeks! If you remember the post from a few weeks ago we made a deal- if he quit drinking Coke I would get him a camera. He decided on the Nikon d40. It came in the mail yesterday and he took off for the hills this morning to try it out!!

The Mesa this morning:

I for one am very impressed with this camera. I don't regret buying it for him at all. Plus I get to use it too and didn't have to quit anything to get it.. he he he!

A Beautiful Day

Today was such a beautiful day. We spent the whole day outside. Our cousins Caleb and Elise came over to play so that made it even better! We had a picnic out on the lawn.

Allie posing for the camera!

Elise is so happy! She loves apples!!

Mark learning how to eat an apple. Kinda scary.. don't think we'll try that again for a while.

Allie and Elise decided to play dress-up with me. When they got me all fancy Allie had to crown me Princess of Genovia. This is a video of my coronation. Pretty funny.. but maybe you had to be the one being crowned!!

Elise being beautiful!

The boys wanted nothing to do with make-up and princesses. They spent most the day in the tree house!!

Caleb burried Estefan in the grass. Estefan said, "Now I'm all camoflagued! You can't see me!!"

One with nature!

The camo boys!!

We had a great day. Hope the weather stays nice. I'm ready to bust out my shorts!!

What's Left...

When I took Estefan to school I noticed that the road was open so I drove down to see what was left of the church. I only had my cell phone so the pictures aren't great. But the scene wasn't that great either. Its so sad. Here's what's left....

I was lucky enough to catch this picture. The fireman is Captain Walch at my dad's station. He was coming out of the church with this picture of Christ when I was walking by.

It may sound cheesy but it reminded me that Christ is in everything. It sad that the church burned down but its part of some plan that Christ has for our valley. It also made me think how grateful I am for tithing and the fact that we CAN and WILL rebuild!!

Fire

The Logandale Chapel is on fire. I can see flames from my house. Dustin heard its an electical fire. I'll post more when I know more.

****Update****

I still haven't heard what caused the fire. I do know that it started in the Relief Societ wing. Here some pictures of the fire from 5:30 this morning taken by Jack and Gaye Nelson.

Little Stinker

I had Dustin put childproof locks on all the cupboard doors. Well that didn't stop Mark. He found the Lazy-Susan and pulled everything out of it! Little Stinker!

"What?! I'm I doing something bad?

"Hey Mom. Nice camera."

"I'll put them all back when I'm done... I plomise!"


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I love diapers.com! Diapers delivered to my door and they throw in a nice cardboard box for the kids to play in!! What could be better?!

I call this the...

Redneck Playpen!

"Get me out of here!"

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Attack of the Baby Monster!!

Sorry its sideways! Mark's geting better at walking everyday! He still prefers to crawl but he walks about half the time. He's getting so big!!

Love my Little Stinker!