Warning: Grandparents Only!

...or you may be bored to death...

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Santa

We did actually see Santa (there wasn't even a line), but no picture since the smallest package was $17! Xander climbed right up on his lap and told him he wanted a Mac for Christmas (from the Cars movie). Then we walked around and did a little shopping and Xander played on the new soft playground. It was nice to just be together, we sure are happy for Scott to have a break from school!

Swagbucks

Have you heard of swagbucks.com? It is a free search engine powered by Google and Ask.com. Every time you perform a search, you have a chance to win swagbucks. Once you have enough, you can redeem them for gift cards and all kinds of stuff! I have been using swagbucks for a about a week, and I have won 14 swagbucks so far. That is not enough to get anything yet, but I figure I am doing the searches anyways, so I might as well get get something for it!

Click on the banner below to join. (By clicking on the banner, you will help me to earn swagbucks too!)





You can see the store and what you can buy with your swagbucks here.
FAQ's are here.

And...if it asks for a referral code, mine is 264858. Thanks!

Happy Birthday Xander

We celebrated Xander turning three last night, even though his birthday isn't really until the 20th. I can't believe he is three already! He's such a good kid and is really turning into a sweet big brother. Happy Birthday kiddo and we love you!

p.s. I got a little ambitious making that cape and the cake - that might never happen again!

Proof

that fall really does exist in Texas!! I couldn't let these gorgeous leaves go to waste, so we conned our friend Eric into helping us take some family pictures last weekend while his wife was out of town. He was such a good sport making Xander laugh and getting the kids' attention. We couldn't have done it without him. Thanks Eric!

...and, just an extra one I took recently while she was in a standing mood

Seriously.

You've got to be kidding. I swear we just put her in the dang crib a little while ago. This weekend she'll be seven months old, but geez, will ya SLOW DOWN for a minute! = 0

Halloween

Our pictures from the Trunk-or-Treat at church didn't turn out that great...so I took some later. Xander absolutely loved trick-or-treating but he had to take his costume off after a once-around since it was close to 80 degrees. Here are the pics from that night - Scott dressed up as Bishop Jones (yes, he really shaved his head like that!) and I was going to be a witch but the rest of my costume didn't make it.

Nice excuse

Ever have someone cancel something for "religious reasons" when they belong to the same religion you do? Thanks.

Score

I paid $1 for all of this! Thanks to Mardi, I've been "couponing" for the last month or so. It definitely can take some time but who doesn't love getting free stuff? Especially when it's stuff you use. Who knows what I'll do with the "Age Perfect" nonsense.... ;) Thanks Walgreens and Frugal is Fabulous. Here's the breakdown if you're interested:

• Schick Quattro on sale $5.99, BOGO free coupon from the Sunday paper, and (2) $3 coupons from the Walgreens Easy Saver Catalog = overage $0.01
• Wrigley's gum$1.19, BOGO free from Walgreen's ad, BOGO free from Sunday paper =free
  
• Glade Wisp flameless candle $5.99, $2 rebate, $3 coupon from the paper = $0.99
• Zest 3-pack $2
• Almay one coat mascara on sale BOGO free, $6.99 rebate, $1 off coupon = overage $1
• L'Oreal Age Perfect Pro Calcium Radiance Perfector $19.99, $19.99 rebate, $1 coupon = overage $1

Tagged by Mardi

8 T.V. Shows I watch

1. Grey's Anatomy
2. Private Practice
3. Prison Break
4. Desperate Housewives
5. How I Met Your Mother
6. House
7. Bones
8.

8 Favorite Restaurants

1. Cafe Rio
2. The Melting Pot
3. Los Lupes (Irving, TX)
4. The Pastry Garden (Hattiesburg, MS)
5. In 'N Out
6. Olive Garden
7. Gandolfos
8. Beto's (or whatever it's called now)

8 Things That Happened Yesterday

1. playgroup at my house
2. piano lessons
3. quiet time while Scott & Xander went to the BYU game :)
4. fixed a hole in Scott's jeans
5. hemmed some curtains
6. made cookies, not very good though
7. dusted, sort of
8. some laundry

8 Things I Look Forward To

1. runnung 20 minutes w/o stopping
2. Christmas
3. financial security
4. organizing some food storage
5. Going couponing every week - it's addicting
6. every one sleeping in
7. hanging out with friends
8. General Conference

8 Things On My Wish List

1. owning a house
2. my treadmill NOT breaking
3. a grand piano and a room to put it in
4. be able to remove my head so I can cut my own hair
5. Go on a mission with my husband
6. good health
7. no more hurricanes
8.

8 People I Am Tagging

1. DaLena Thomas
2. Laura Ryan
3. Julie Mangino
4. Kayla Marie

Creeper

Dang it. She's been getting around for a little while now, but I was hoping she would forget somehow. Savor the immobility!

I heart Avocado

Last week I decided Maggie was finally ready for some "real" food (now that she's five and a half months but I swear it happened over night). So I threw some avocados in the blender and gave her some. The first two days she wasn't quite sure about it, but now she scarfs it like a champ!

Maybe she won't be a picky eater?

Bridal Veil Falls

Mom, Abby, Ethan, and Carly *sorry Carly :o*

Maggie and Xander chompin'

Last night we grabbed some burgers and headed up Provo Canyon to see the falls. (Obviously that is not my photo, it was too dark and mine didn't turn out). It was so beautiful, even Xander appreciated it. He kept saying "Huge mountains!" It was a nice little hike, even though it got in the 50s by the time we left.
I never really appreciated the mountains til I didn't have them anymore and it was wonderful to spend some time there with family.

Ride

Xander has always LOVED motorcycles. Probably because he remembers when we had our last ones. I'll never forget when Scott sold his and Xander screamed and bawled when the guy rode off with it.
He was so excited for a motorcycle ride with Grandpa, it was almost too much fun for him to handle. He even got to wear a (vintage) helmet. Thanks, Grandpa!

The Eyebrow

I've always wanted to be able to do this....four months old and Maggie's got it down! Actually, I didn't even realize she was doing it until I was looking through the pictures. Funny girl.

Olympics Fan

Aren't the Olympics exciting? (Especially when there's really nothing else on tv) So we've been watching them quite a bit. Xander found this somewhere, I think it's Ethan's, and knew exactly what to do with it. He ran around yelling "ta-daaa!"

It's Time

So, apparently my kids are cursed with the 'old man doo'. This is what Maggie had to start with...
and I tried really really hard not to shave the rat-tail in the back since she's a girl (Xander had his first haircut when he was a week old). But I can't take it any longer because it turned into this...
So tonight for FHE we all helped cut her hair off - well, what little hair she had. Actually it's really thick there at the bottom :p Poor girl.

Petting Zoo

Here's our version of the petting zoo at Fritz Park. It was very fun, but incredibly HOT! Xander is a big fan of animals. We went last week and he still talks about it.

Pet Peeve

Um, EXCUSE me, but has anyone ever heard of a little thing called PERSONAL SPACE? If you have, you must be one of the few. And I'm not even talking about when a total stranger feels the need to rub your pregnant belly or poke at your young child. Granted, when you're standing in line for something it is acceptable to be clos-er to people, so that others know you're "in line." However, it is not acceptable to be so close to someone that you are constantly bumping them, looking over their shoulder to see what they are doing, joining in any conversation that may be going on between these other people, or breathing down someone's neck.

Standing in line at the Red Box machines for a movie is best done in the morning when there are less people around. Otherwise, I constantly feel VIOLATED as kids are pushing me over and their parents are looking at the movies on the screen over my shoulder...and so on. Hello! I stood in line for 20 minutes, now let me have my time with the box in peace! Am I nuts or is anyone else bothered by this!?

July 4th

Well...our computer was broken for a little while, but now that it's fixed I thought I'd post about our Fourth of July. We went to the Lone Star race track with some friends for fireworks and a pony ride. All Xander heard was "horses" and he was ready to go. Because how do you describe fireworks to a two-year-old who's never seen them before? But once we saw them he was hooked! It was a pretty impressive display, no "Stadium of Fire," but definitely the best I've seen in a long time. And since we went on July 3rd to avoid the crowds, we had to go back on the 4th just for the fireworks.

Maggie and her friend Konnor

these two have so much fun with each other

watching the horse race

Xander riding a horse...

and jumping inside a horse

he even went down the giant slide

chasing each other

is it dark yet?

and Xander dancing while we wait for the fireworks!

ShaZAM!

So, I know most of you probably aren't into digital scrapbooking, but I subscribe to this Photoshop Friday newsletter/tutorial thing. It's AMAZING! This wonderful woman, Jessica Sprague, shares her knowledge about digi scrapping and doing cool stuff to photos. Anyway, today she learnt me how to make the colors in pictures POP. And then I turned it into an action so it's even faster. So now that you want to learnt how to do this stuff too, check her out here. There is an index and you can find all kinds of things you can learnt to do with your pictures. Happy Friday everbody!

Just trying to get a movie of the little woman laughing. She's done better movies, but I love Xander singing "My Heavenly Father Loves Me" in the background.

Knock on Wood

Yeah, never mind about the AC being fixed. It might start feeling ok in here about the time I'm ready to go to bed. And don't worry about the "fix-it" guy who brought his nosy nine-year-old son for me to entertain while he worked outside for three hours. I'm so glad that's over. Wait. I probably shouldn't say that...

Heatwave

Speaking of the heat...@#$%*! Ever wonder how hot your house would get if you didn't have the AC on? Though this was at ten o'clock at night with the fans blasting and it did get down to 80 by morning. I don't want to know how bad it would be during the day. Thank goodness the AC was fixed by nine this morning or I was going to have to be creative about where we would spend the day. Ah, the joy(s?) of renting...we really do have a pretty great landlord. I don't know how he got someone here so fast, but I sure am glad. I just hope this thing doesn't break again anytime soon - I think it's on its last leg!

Grab a Towel

MSNBC staff and news service reports

updated 11:08 a.m. ET, Thurs., June. 26, 2008

CINCINNATI - Heavy perspirers, take note.

It may be "dry heat" out there, but Phoenix leads a list of America's sweatiest cities, according to an annual ranking from deodorant maker Old Spice.

The desert city's average high temperature was 95.1 degrees in June, July and August 2007, the company said. As a result, the average Phoenix resident pumped out 26.4 ounces of sweat per hour. That's the equivalent of more than two cans of soda. Las Vegas is America's second-drippiest city, followed by Tallahassee, Fla. San Francisco, with an average summer temperature of just 63.5 degrees, is the nation's least sweaty city, coming in at No. 100 on the list. The company says its findings are based on computer simulations of the amount of sweat an average person would have produced walking around in cities during the summer months last year.

So I don't know about you, but I've been feeling a little sweaty lately. More than two cans of soda in an hour!? Gross!! Dallas comes in at a mere #18. Seriously!? A dry 95 degrees is nothing! And now it's July...

You can see how other cities ranked here

A few weeks a go for Maggie's blessing, Scott's parents and my dad and brother came to visit. We even got to celebrate Scott's 30th birthday while they were here - a pan of rice-krispy treats for Scott and ice cream cake for the rest of us. Uncle Jake spent several hours outside with Xander throwing water balloons and squirting each other with water guns (which is apparently a fast way to make friends with Xander). It was so fun to have them here, we're glad they could all come!

Happy Half-Birthday Xander!

Poor Xander. He's just been feeling left out - with the baby, and then Scott and I both just had birthdays. And since his is so close to Christmas, we decided to do a little something for him. So I made this yummy rocky road cheesecake that I've been wanting to try. But apparently Xander doesn't like cheesecake, I guess he gets that from Scott. Still, I thought it was pretty great - not too sweet.

4 squares Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate, divided

2 pkg. (8 oz. each) Cream Cheese, softened

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup milk

1 tub thawed Cool Whip

3/4 cup marshmallows

1/3 cup chopped peanuts or almonds

1 Oreo Pie Crust (6 oz.)

MICROWAVE 2 of the chocolate squares in small microwaveable bowl maybe 20 seconds; stir until chocolate is completely melted. Set aside and allow to cool.

BEAT cream cheese, sugar and milk in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add melted chocolate; mix well. Gently stir in cool whip, marshmallows and peanuts. Coarsely chop remaining 2 chocolate squares; stir into cream cheese mixture. Spoon into crust.

REFRIGERATE 4 hours or until set. Store leftover pie in refrigerator.

Disney Princess

Free-spirited and wise. You have a strong passionate spirit that touches and changes all who know you. The wisdom and common sense that you have is really what guides you through life. Even so, you also have a very playful side that loves adventure and excitement.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

Really!? Pocahantas? hmm...ok. I saw this on Shannon's blog and it's kinda fun!