:)

One of the things that I love about coming down to visit family is that fact that they only want me now for my children.  I know my place.  I am their chauffeur.  I bring them and they could care less if I accompany them or not.  They take them and it doesn't matter if I stay or if I go.  Hello Date Night!!!

pie

I like pie.  This thanksgiving I had the pleasure of eating many different kinds.  I like pie.

Turkey Tacos !?!

so we have a taco themed pot luck tomorrow and I was thinking that since we have a bunch of leftover turkey that I could just shred it up and we can bring it for some shredded taco fun.  Tim looked at me and called me weird.  Do you think I'm weird?

Turkey dinner

Thanksgiving can be really crazy sometimes going from one family to the next so I decided to have a little turkey dinner on Saturday.  Since it wasn't actually Thanksgiving I decided to get a little creative with the turkey.  I make a really great chicken in a crock pot and I decided to try cooking a turkey in there.  Well, I got the smallest most pathetic turkey I could find, then I put it in there and the lid didn't go on to good.  But after about 15 min. of persuasion it agreed that it really did fit into the crock pot and it would be ok if I cooked it there.  

Then after a very hectic day with the kids (some days the kids can be little angels and help not hinder plans and tasks that need to be accomplished, not one of those days) that involved a trip to the zoo I came home, through some stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy together and called it dinner.  (We will not mention the biscuits and green beans that I meant to cook and didn't remember until we were seated.  I didn't mention them then so why would I now.)  A dinner that was a success with very happily mashed potatoed children.  There was much bath time after dinner let me tell you.  

After dinner I had planed on having some individual pumpkin pies for dessert but they didn't get made (I did mention that the hectic day involved a zoo trip and did not involve spending a day in the kitchen).  So our family went to Coldstone for some yummy dessert (Bubba I loved the birthday gift) followed by trip to the bookstore.

All and all a very fun and successful event within our little household and I'm thinking that it should become our new family tradition.  We'll call it the PreThanksgiving Turkey Dinner.  

The curse of the Potty Trained

Ok, so now that Mara uses the potty she knows that she can get up in the middle of the night to go on the potty.  She gets up so she can just sing on the toilet for awhile.  Two to three times a night.  

Anniversary

Our anniversary was yesturday.  :)

this picture is from my birthday party.

Once again, Long time and no posts

So, all you wonderful people that come and check on my blog have been disappointed to find no new posts as of late.  There is no real excuse and I am sorry.

Well, on to some updates.  Mara is now potty trained and has flooded the bathroom only once with her overzealous use of toilet paper.  Now because she uses the potty and is over 37 inches tall she can play in the IKEA ball pit while Resa and I go about the store.  Theresa likes to just go.  And then go.  And she keeps on going.  She climbs on everything but has some issues with getting down.  Both children are very pleased with the new posters on the wall from the Dairy Council of Arizona and I look forward to playing with the food cards they sent.  (Who new that they gave away free milk propaganda to small children in the state?)  

This Friday I plan on taking the kids "Trunk or Treating" at the church down the street.  Mara is going to be a cat and Theresa will be a bear.  This is subject to change.

As for me, I lost my camera recently on a trip to the zoo.  I had an extra child with me that day and was trying to take pictures.  I put the camera in my pocket but it must have fallen out when I picked up one of the kiddos.  So no new pictures for a while folks. 

Fall is here

I left the house in a sweater today.  It's starting to get cold. :)

A week at mom's

I heard Aunt Barb and Uncle Ed were going to come to town so I popped in for a visit.  It was fun hanging out with the family down here.  Got to go to the mountains and play in a creek with the girls plus I went to Art in the Park.  Plus I had a little birthday dinner at Chili's last night.

Through this all, I FORGOT MY CAMERA.

Luckily I got some pictures with my Uncle's camera and Tim brought the camera down when he came to pick me up.  So I only have limited pictures.

Happy Birthday Casey

It's my brother's birthday. :)

Birthday Party

Resa's birthday party was today. It was really fun and I'm really glad to have Mara back. Plus I must give major props to Rachel for the awesome birthday cake. She always does a really good job. Here's some pictures:

I miss her

Mara is with silly gramma. It is just so quiet at the house without her, but I know she is having fun and I get her back tomorrow.

Theresa's birthday was yesterday. It corresponded to the word's biggest Ice cream social hosted by coldstone. We had a day of loving on Resa and ended with some yummy ice-cream. :)

New slide show

So I finally got some new pictures up. Most of these are from August but some might be from July. I had some really neat pictures of storm damage that was about a month ago.

It's been awile

I think the person I was stealing wi-fi from has moved. Hehe.

So nothing much has been happening. Mara still sings and dances around the house pretending she is a butterfly, or a cat, or a kangaroo...etc. Theresa is using her new found ambulatory ability to exasperate me. The other day I taught Mara how to climb a tree while Theresa ate it. Life is good. They just opened up a new splash park cave at the zoo. Going inside it reminded me of visiting Karchner Caverns a few years back.

Right now I am getting prepared for Theresa's first birthday. She is already a year old, that just went so fast. I don't have to do much because it is going to be at a pizza place and they tend to do all the work. I've just have to tell them accurate numbers so that I we will have enough tables reserved but no one really has responded to the e-vite. Oh well.

Mara is leaving me on Wednesday, she gets to go and spend a few days with "Silly Grama". I'm going to miss her but I know she will have a blast with Grama, as always. The thing is, what am I going to do with just one kid?!? Weird.

Grr...

I forgot the phone when I came to get the air fixed on the car. Grrr... I just had the air fixed a month and a half ago. They just said that it was a couple of 'O' rings that blew off and all the freon leaked out. Tim's staying up and watching the kids right now so I don't have them here. grr... It's suppose to be 114 today and 111 tomorrow. What the hell am I going to do with no air in the car and two kids. So far they haven't quoted me a price. The check is free since they just did it and they are hoping that it was just a bad part. Grr...

Ok, so every thing is the same stuff that I already had done so no charge. :) On a brighter note how about a picture of ME and the kids. Since I take all the pictures I seem to be rarely in them. This one was taken while on the Carousel at the zoo by the lady running it. She must have thought I needed help when I was trying to take a picture of both girls while be right next to them at the same time.

Happy Birthday Mark!

It's my Brother Mark's Birthday :)

Normal Day

So today has been very musical thus far. Mara has discovered a recorder and is playing along with the radio with occasional singing mixed in. Resa has abandoned her favorite hobby, trying to eat the toys Mara is currently playing with, and decided to take everything off the bookshelf and put it in the middle of the hallway. Resa seems to be getting around on just two feet more and more these days. She's not walking yet but she will lean on the wall to go down the hallway if she doesn't want to hold onto the book shelf.

Week in review

So, I haven't updated in awhile but I've been lazy. But you only show up to the blog for pictures and videos anyways.

SATURDAY:

What's been happening with me you may ask. Well nothing really. But my cousin on the other hand, she just got her Doctorate. (Now that was a fun party and how many people can say that they have a doctor in their family) My brother Casey flew into town for the graduation and that was cool because I haven't seen him for so long. During the whole weekend I almost always saw him holding on to someone's baby. It was kinda cute.

SUNDAY:

The day after the graduation I took Mara to the zoo. (I know what your thinking...'Again') It was really fun because it was just me and her for a couple of hours with Theresa sleeping at home with Tim. I decided to get a 'Wild Pass' for me and her. It was so cool because it gives us unlimited train, camel, and carousel rides. Since it was just me and Mara, we actually got to ride the camel. (Resa is not old enough.) Later in the day when Tim was out with his friends I took the kids back to the zoo and went on the train ride and it was pretty cool and informative. I'd never done that before. And naturally we ended the day with the carousel. Mara got really excited that we were going to go on it. She had never gotten to go on the zoo one before. And after that was all done she was really happy. Then we got on again. Pure joy is visited upon the 3 year old. Theresa just loved it to. She wasn't too sure about it but when it started she just held onto the pole for dear life. All told we went around on four different trips around.

After that was all done we had good naps and Mara woke up around the time that it started raining. It was pouring down so hard that our yard flooded and the street we live on turned into a mini river. We made cardboard boats and sent them sailing down the street. (I got the idea when I saw a pink laundry basket go floating by.) Mara also got to put on her rain boots and splash in all the puddles on the way to church and back. It had been so windy just before that a tree had fallen onto the sidewalk. (It was a small tree.)

THE REST OF THE WEEK:

All normal adventures involving the various indoor play areas.

SATURDAY:

Rachel had her birthday party at a little gym. She turned 3. There was a lot of tumbling, jumping, and balancing to be had. Pictures and video soon to follow. After a very active time I have brought both kids to parent's night offered by my church. As of writing this I am without children and so I am writing about them.

Events over the Past week or so

Phx ConGames: I lost Tim to non-stop battle tech games for about a day and a half. I enjoyed several different card and board games. Plus there was this awesome bug tiddly wink type of game called X-Bugs. The kids really enjoyed the children's area. They had these Giant Foam Blocks that built up stuff really high but were highly unstable. Resa sat still for awhile and some older kids in the area tried to build a wall around her. I think it got three bricks high before she crawled through. Mara liked running in and out of an inflated Castle.

Father's Day: It kinda ran into the ConGames but there was special painted cards and what not.

Tim's Birthday: He's now 29. We celebrated the day by just hanging out as a family together like he wanted.

Christen's Wedding: CONGRATS!!! Mark and Christen are now married. It was a fun wedding with alot of folks I haven't seen in awhile and some new family. The only issue is now the kids have 3 uncle Marks. :)

Visit down to S.V. : Just some nice chillin' time with my mom and dad. We roasted hot dogs over an open flame and had some smores a little bit later. Plus Tim got to hang out with his brother some and that doesn't happen all that often.

Well that happens to be the bare bones of what has been going on with us. More pictures and videos to come soon.

Photoshop

If there was any person who happened to not know, I like to go to the zoo. I like to go to the zoo alot. It is a fun place where the kids get to see fun animals and run around all over the place. I also get to learn new and interesting facts every time I visit and I get to take lots of pictures. Many, many pictures. Well what to do with them all? I have been making little scrapbooks with them but I now am rediscovering the joys of Photoshop. Expect to see some interesting things. This current composite involves a spotted bear and Mara.

Some notes on this bear. The spotted bear at the Phoenix zoo is almost always hiding. You have to know where to look. (Behind the bamboo in this one spot you can usually see them but is makes a horrible picture.) To get there you have to go through this one dirt trail that, although it is not the most difficult, it is a little extra work. The trail goes all the way around the bears little love nest (the zoo is breeding them) with some good spots to see the bears all the way through. It's a little bit of a hike for hardly any bear but there is some good birds and fish along the way so it is kinda worth it. But to gear my self up I always tell Mara that we are going on a 'bear hunt'. Well this last time I was really ready to hike this thing because I was going to get a good shot of that bear if it killed me. So we go in and the first spot to see is that stupid bear. Right there. Out in the open. No hunting required. But all that matters is that I got my shot.

You Tube

After much contemplation and alone time with me and the computer I was able to discover the wonders of putting all the videos into one nice clean location. Located at the bottom of this website is a new player that plays all my youtube videos. There is a really long good one of Resa crawling around. I hope you enjoy.

Slideshow

I figured out the slide show. Took me some time but HA HA HA. I am smarter than the technology.

The Weather

Ok, so I come back home and start on my new revised summer routine for the girls. This will involve many trips to the mall play area. We have a blast while we are there and I join the kids to the kid's club that meets once every other week. I would have taken pictures of the actual club thing but Mara is apparently afraid of people dressed up as cartoon characters. (Who knew?) But the slide and the lizard are always a big hit.

But then I saw the weather report over the next few days. It involved clouds, wind, rain, and a 20 degree temperature drop. I don't know about other places but for the end of May in Phoenix that means some fun times outdoors. So we have been spending some awesome times outside. We have gone to the zoo, the park, long walks, and just hanging outside for no other reason than we could. It is not every day we get weather this nice.

The picture of Theresa was taken in the farm area at the zoo. That is an actual tractor tire. Mara is on a stone frog that is outside the path that leads to the bears love nest. Another highlight to the day was when the 400+ lb turtle went for a walk.

Some Updates

I haven't updated in awhile because I've been busy working on some side projects.

Resa is crawling and can say Mama. Mara is loves to play and dance. And now she can climb the red ladder at the park

Nothing Much

I haven't been doing much lately but just going out in my little yard and enjoying the wonderful weather we are having right now. At the time of posting it is currently 84 degrees and there is an expected overnight low of 59. I think we have eaten outside for the last 3 evenings or so. Here's another video of Theresa. Mara's feet make a cameo appearance in parts.


I'll be making a small trip down to Sierra Vista next weekend and another trip down to Tucson the one following. If anyone wants to see a picture of my brother bound in duct tape visit The Ratliff's link at the bottom of the page.

Toe Food

I was with my friend Rachel at Cracker Barrel the other day. She asked if she could feed Theresa some mashed up carrots and I said, sure. Why not right. So here I am just eating my chicken and dumplings when Rachel gets tired of using the spoon.



The waitresses thought that this was so cute.

Fun Weekend

So on Thursday I went to the zoo. Friday and Saturday I went to the Tempe Arts Festival. Today (Sunday) I went to church, and now I am staying home just hanging out.

The zoo was fun, especially because we went on a different route than normal. I always like just going and enjoying the animals. Mara really gets a kick out of some of the animals, especially if she has seen them in any of her cartoon movies. Plus there are different places all around the zoo where she can just play. After a while she even got to pet some sheep and play on the tractor. She really likes going up to ride it and she can get on and off all by herself. I put Theresa inside an egg while I was there. It's hard to take pictures of her while we are out without them all being her in the stroller. But fun was had by all.

The Tempe Festival of the Arts was fun. There are always fun paintings and whatnot to look at. Plus I love getting something from Shishkaberrie. (If you don't know it is chocolate covered strawberries on a stick.) They also have a free craft area for the kiddos. OK, so only Mara gets anything out of craft time right now but Theresa likes to look at the stuff and lunge for it like she is going to eat it.

That is all I really have right now. Feel free to comment so I know someone is looking at all this.

Let's try this out

Just seeing if I can put a movie on this thing.

Out and About

I'm just out and about today. The big Shopping center have a fountain where Mara can play. She likes to take Green Bear with her.

I'm here really early with Tim and the kiddos. It's funny because I guess I beat a group of Stroller Strides women. I don't think my children would let me exercise while watching me from thier strollers. Oh well. I get enough exercise chasing my three year old on her trike.

OK, Let's get serious

Now I am going to get serious about this blog thing. I want to keep various people updated and into what is going on with me and my family. I want a place where people can hear about my child's first tooth. And I want to show off pictures of my kid on her trike to the whole world. She is that cute. So now, this blog. I may not have been diligent before now about updatining before, but I am now. This is mostly due to the fact that I now have a laptop and camera/camcorder and bug wireless off some neighbor. :) There will be many posts to come.