You know you're not in Idaho when...

You know you're NOT in Idaho when very sweet smelling orange tree blossoms are in bloom right out your front door.


You know you're NOT in Idaho when Syd asks, "Are those REAL palm trees?" And when I tell her that they are she asks, "Where are the coconuts?"


You know you're NOT in Idaho when babies come in twos!


You know you're NOT in Idaho when there are cactus huggers instead of tree huggers.


As you can see we have arrived in Phoenix to visit Diane and her cute family! We are so excited to be here and we are happy to have a few days to relax. The weather was cold today but the forecast looks promising for the rest of the week...swimming pool here we come (white bodies and all)!

Can't Do Withouts!

My friend Maren posted an "absolute can't do without list" on her blog and it got my little pea brain thinking about all of the day-to-day luxuries that make life sooooo much better. I've been jotting down things here and there as I think of them, and while I'm pretty sure I COULD do without them if I had to...these things are sure nice to have around in my little world:

(In no particular order)

*Hand Lotion- I am a little obsessed, I can't function w/ dry hands!

*Treadmill & Asics- we have a love/hate relationship.

*Quickbooks- I shudder to think where Wood River Dental would be w/o this program.

*Acne Free Face Wash- will I ever be too old for zits?

*Book of Mormon Made Easier- One day I will be a scriptorian. (It might be in my next life though).

*Computer w/ high speed internet- I was without it and I'm glad it's back :)

*Dyson Vacuum- never go without one!

*Knee pillow- can't sleep w/o it, I even take it when we travel.

*Unlimited long distance & Caller ID- So I can talk to whomever I want for however long I want to.

*Drive thru at the bank- if only the post office would get one too!

*Nordstroms bra- makes you look like you have a little even if you don't.

*Target- enough said!

*Wednesday lunches w/ my friends!

*Cell phone- how did we function w/o them?

*ANYTHING sweet- skip dinner for all I care.

*PetSafe bark collar- it only works part of the time, but it still helps!

And last but not least...

*Photoshop- and a kind sister who answers my thousands of questions w/o complaint!



(Sorry Maren, nothing labeled "Ideal Breeding Material", maybe on my next list :)

What's on your list?!?

Happy Birthday to Sydney!

Sydney's birthday was exactly one week ago, so I figure better late than never and I fully blame my computer problems for the delay. Here are a few photos of the little celebration!!!

5 Years old...are you serious?!?

The first birthday cake I didn't make myself :( Notice the nice finger swipe in the middle, frosting is just too tempting (even when you're 5)!

Balloons from Atkinsons, and when you get hi-float in them they last FOREVER!!! I'm sorry if I ever send a balloon home with your child that gets stuck in your vaulted ceiling and doesn't come down for two weeks!

Make a wish!

I think you will all agree, this kid is cute!

And I'd like to personally thank Jeni for the "body stamp" which was more like a "body sharpie". Let's just say that Syd's preschool teacher asked, "WHAT happened to YOU?!?" It does come off eventually :)

{TOP 5} Tuesday!

This 'TOP 5' was really for last week, but then my computer died and I never got these posted. These are some of my 'TOP 5' favorite pictures of Syd (since it was her birthday last week and she turned 5 years old). I had too many to choose from and probably every time I look at them I would pick 5 different favorites...it was a hard decision!!! And even between these 5 I couldn't pick my favorite, so I'm having a vote. The one that gets the highest votes it the TOP of the 'TOP 5'. Some of these pictures I picked because they were cute, and others I picked because they made me laugh. Enjoy and happy b-day (late) Syd!!!

#1-

#2-

#3-

#4-

#5-

I can't believe my baby is 5!

Yeah, I'm back!!!

In case any of you haven't noticed, my hubby and I have been having a little bad luck lately. First our roof leaking, then our freezer dying, and the latest...our computer TOTALLY died! I'm talking we went to Best Buy and bought a whole new hard drive. Luckily my pictures were all saved to an external hard drive so they are safe. So now I am back up and running and hopefully bad luck comes in 3's and now we're done!

Dan and I got to spend the weekend in Vegas at a Mercer Training Meeting with some of his staff. We were in meetings ALL day and believe me, my buttocks was tired of those conference room chairs! It was a great meeting and we all learned a lot, and although some of the changes at the office that need to be made are not fun, I feel like the things they taught us will be for the best in the long run.

Here are a few photos from our trip:

We stayed at the Venetian Hotel, here is the hallway coming off of their main lobby.

The view out our 7th story window. I told Dan it looked like the 'Great and Spacious Building' and unfortunately we were IN it!

Dan and Jared & Maren in a little plaza INSIDE the hotel, it totally looks like you are outside. This was the closest thing to sunlight we saw for days!

We went and saw Phantom of the Opera with the Hills. It was excellent!

This is Imtiaz, the main speaker at the meeting. They gave out Pooh Bears to anyone who was pregnant or wanted to be pregnant. And they said that the rumor is that if you have Imtiaz kiss your bear it will bring you good luck! So of course I had him kiss my bear only to have it stolen right off my chair in the conference room. That can't be a good sign to have the lucky bear swiped :(

And finally, right before heading for the airport, we had our first visit to In-N-Out. I've never been in a fast food restaurant that has a line that starts at the door and goes the length of the building and across the front to the cash registers. It was crazy! All Dan could say was that they weren't charging enough for their burgers!


Overall we had a great trip! Thanks to my Mom, KayLynn and Dan's Mom for helping out with the girls. We really appreciate it!

HELP!

My computer is having MAJOR problems...I'm out for a few days :( Check back later!

I'm In!!!

I've heard such mixed reviews about Twilight that I'd almost chosen not to read it. But then I decided I should probably read it for myself and then decide how I felt about vampire books. And my opinion is...I really liked it! I thought it was a fun, easy read that captures you from page one! I don't know if I'm in love with Edward, but I love his character and how kind he is! Yep, loved it!

I can't wait for the movie to come out because I know we're going to have the best girl's night ever on opening night!

Now I just need to go to Amy's and get the other two books :)

Frustration!

This is my camera that ran out of batteries during Kallie's parent visiting day at Ballet.

These are the two pictures I got of Kallie before my camera totally died.


This is the battery charger we stopped at home to pick up before our trip to Boise. This also happens to be the battery charger for my OTHER camera, NOT the camera I had with me :(

These are our sad faces because we don't have any photos of Sydney's little birthday celebration in Boise. We stayed at a hotel and the girls swam their little hearts out. We also went to PoJo's where Sydney won 300 tickets on the Sponge Bob game! Then lunch at Red Lobster and home. You'll have to imagine all of the cute memories I could have captured if only I had grabbed the right charger...uggghh!

Pretty

So since I've had my blog, suddenly I'm interested in photography again. I took some classes long ago, but when I got my digital camera I sort of lost interest. But it has been so fun to start snapping a few again!

As some of you know, we are finally buying furniture and decorating our bedroom (no we're not re-re-decorating Amy...it wasn't decorated in the first place). So I took these pics to hang above our bed.

Which would you pick to frame?

#1-

#2-

#3-

#4-

(If you hate them all you can tell me that too, and I will buy some more flowers for myself and try again :)

Nachos Baby!

Jeni & I had quite the trip to Twin yesterday for a leadership training meeting at D.I.. First of all, I went to pick Kallie up a few minutes early from school, but they told me they were all in an assembly. So I figured she would just come out at the end of school with the rest of the kids. So Sydney and I waited and waited and no Kallie. So (from the parking lot) I called her teacher to see if Kallie got on the bus. Her teacher told me no, that she had sent Kallie to the office early to go home! So I walked inside the school and there was little Kallie sitting on the floor where she had been waiting for me for 1/2 hour! And I had been sitting out in my car for 1/2 hour! Poor girl, next time I'll just walk in and find her!

So we went to Twin, did a little shopping and decided to get something for dinner at '9 Beans and a Burrito' (Is that what it's called?). So the nachos were ok, but the rest of our dinner left a little to be desired, at least neither one of us had to use the facilities at DI, but we were wondering!

Heart Attack on a Plate!

Jeni loves them!

This is a very hideous picture, but I didn't feel like I could post one of Jeni and not one of myself! Ugly!

After '9 Beans' (which I may not go back to for a while), we headed to our meeting. The meeting started at 7pm and we still needed to go to Target before we headed home, but we thought we could go at 9pm when the meeting was over. But NO! The crazy meeting lasted 3 hours! I know I sound like Laman and Lemuel, but I sort of wanted to bang my head against something hard by the end of the night. It was interesting to have a tour and see what they do at Family Services and at the Employment Office, but 3 hours really! There were a lot of people who had to drive an hour after the meeting ended. So (after stopping for ice cream of course) Jeni and I pulled in around 11:15 or so. Crazy...and we didn't even get to go to Target :(

Tuesday Again!

Here's my Tuesday {TOP 5} for today...

I think todays list actually begins with yesterday because we spent all day in Boise and came home tired and hungry to a house that was a little on the messy side (we've all been there right?). I ask my kids all the time how many moms they see around our house and their answer is always the same...ONE! So I then go on to tell them that one mom can't take care of everyone by herself, that everyone in our house needs to do their share and clean up after themselves (I sort of sound like my mom- that's a good thing though Mom!). I truly wish I could clone myself sometimes, I would have one of me cook and clean, one of me to focus only on the kids (bake cookies, play house, make projects etc.), one of me to relax and do what I want to do, and one more to fill in the gaps and do everything else. Sounds nice to me :)

So the {TOP 5} for today are the top things I wish were ALWAYS done! I seriously wouldn't care if I never did them again! I want them to be done and done right, I just wouldn't care if they magically took care of themselves!

#5- I wish the car was ALWAYS clean, inside and out! I would love it if everyone picked up their own garbage, carried in their own stuff and that the inside would always be vacuumed and sparkling clean!

#4- I wish the dishes were ALWAYS done, washed, put away and the counters cleaned! That would be heavenly!

#3- I wish this dog was ALWAYS freshly bathed and smelled nice and clean and that his teeth were brushed so his breath wouldn't be stinky anymore. Oh and while I'm wishing, if he would stop yapping at everything and everyone that would be nice too :)

#2- I would love it if my laundry was ALWAYS washed, folded and put away! It would be quite pleasant not to have laundry baskets piled with clothes throughout the house. Oh and if they could never get stains on them that would be nice too, thank you!

#1- I'm not sure why this is the dreaded task around my house but I would love it a lot if my bathrooms (all 2 1/2 of them) were ALWAYS sparkling and clean without a germ to be found. I would love the faucets to be shiny, the baseboards to be wiped down and the toilets to always be flushed (that's not too much to ask, but people at our house struggle with it)!


Maybe I should call the pizza guy and ask him if he will come over and do a few of these things for me, then he might not think my hubby is such a lucky guy :)

By this list, please don't think I'm a lazy whiner (at least not all the time) I just like to think of all the fun things I could do if these things were never on my mind.

What tasks would you love to never have to do again?!?

Food & Friends...nothing better!

Can I even tell you how much I LOVE friends that you can call, and even if you haven't talked for a while, your conversation picks up like you saw each other yesterday! That is how I feel about these cute friends from Meridian that I met today for lunch at Olive Garden in Boise. Jen left a message on my machine the other day, and when I heard her voice I was so happy! They were so nice to come to us because we didn't have much time...you guys are great!

The four of us, Jen, Julie, Wendi & Me. Syd took the picture...at least you can see most of our faces :)

Jen & Julie- you two are beautiful!

Me & Wendi- Oh how I wish you lived around the corner still!!! Kallie was mad we went without her, she wanted to see Alexa!

Thanks for a fun lunch! You're the best!

That's Gross!!!

Let this picture be a warning to you not to proceed if you have a weak stomach...the following pictures are disgusting!

Nice boog Syd!

Dan thinks his is yummy (and yes, he did give me permission to blog this photo)!

Like father like daughter! Can you tell that Sydney is laughing her head off in this picture?!?

Gooey Gack! (Thanks to Diane and Syd's preschool teacher for the recipe...I finally got it right!)

The Recipe! So your family can pretend they have huge boogers too :)

School Lunch!

Last week we got invited to eat lunch with Kallie. The kids of each grade got to invite parents to come for lunch on a different day. So Tuesday was the 2nd graders day. We picked up Subway and met Kallie at Hailey Elementary.

Even Dan took off an hour to come, yeah!!!

Oh, how I love this girl!

Even Livi got to come because Bridger (her brother) was getting tubes in his ears.

The funny thing was the Kallie finished her sandwich and cookie lightning fast, gave us all hugs, and ran off to recess while we finished eating! She loves us, the food was good, but the playground was calling! :)