We're Positive for Strep! Yuck!

Jamesy was sick all weekend so I took the boys straight to Dr. Wil on Monday morning. They both have strep! He's been home from school all week so I've had all my boys home! It has made for an interesting week. Thank goodness it's a short week and I'm not hosting Thanksgiving dinner. The boys will be healthy (well, at least not contagious) for the holiday and I am thankful for that.

I'll leave you with a few pictures I took of Grant a couple of weeks ago at Joe's Farm Grill. We went to lunch with an old high school friend that moved to Gilbert. It has been great chatting and hanging out with her. Hugs Des!

P x P x P = Jaiden's 7th Birthday!

What did you do today? We went to Jaiden's birthday party at Peter Piper Pizza! I have to admit I was full of anxiety as we drove down the highway. I was not looking forward to 10,000 square feet of screaming kids. To my surprise...it was dead! I don't know why and I'm not going to tempt the gods by asking. It was great. Jaiden enjoyed herself. In fact, we all did. Her mom did a great job on the cake and cupcakes. Unfortunately, Grant wasn't feeling himself so we had to leave a bit early.

So, I've been really interested in working on my photography. I really want to create memories for my kids. I've been taking pictures but didn't delve into Photoshop until today...here's what I came up with.

Jamesy Day

Yesterday was Jamesy's birthday. I call it Jamesy Day. We had a blast. It's really crazy to think that I've had this incredible boy in my life for six years now. What would I ever have done without him?

James got an mp3 player for his birthday loaded with Johnny Cash, Taylor Swift, and James Taylor. He is walking around the house with his headphones on singing every other word...it's priceless.

James in his classroom with Mrs. Hinderland

Sweet Baby James being GOOFY!

Hi pretty girls!

Grant is getting his play on at the play
ground

Mom's Boys

The Homeboys

Holy Schnepf!

We go to Schnepf Farms every year in October and love it. What a fun place to let the kids get dirty and be kids. This year we decided to go on Halloweena (in normal land that would be a typo but here it is perfectly acceptable). What better way to celebrate, right?

It was AWESOME! The Farm had candy at all of the vendors so the kids got to trick-or-treat. Here are all of the super spooky things we got to do:

• walk around the farm and enjoy the agriculture...big beautiful sunflowers, pumpkins, peach trees. It felt so good.


• ride roller coasters, swings, slides and tricycle races


• roast yummy marshmallows and make s'mores- my kids' favorite thing to do


• eat dinner at the d-lish Farm Restaurant


• take home scrumptious Caramel Apple Pie!!!

Needless to say, Peter, John, and Tink had a blast and the parents did too!

spook⋅y

spook⋅y  /ˈspuki/
Spelled Pronunciation [spoo-kee]

–adjective, spook⋅i⋅er, spook⋅i⋅est. Informal. 1. like or befitting a spook or ghost; suggestive of spooks.
2. eerie; scary.
3. (esp. of horses) nervous; skittish.

This is Grant's new favorite word. Both of my boys have inhereted my passion for all things that go bump in the night. "It's bananas" as Rachel Zoe would say. When we pull into Target now, Grant says "Mom, go see the spooky!"

In the spirit of my favorite holiday, here are a few [spoo-kee] shots.

http://domesticbliss-domesticbliss.blogspot.com/

http://www.kmckaydesigns.com/

Okay, so this one isn't spooky, but man....it's HOT! It's from the photo shoot for InStyle. I will for sure be making that mag a priority!

P.S. As a reminder, I {heart} Edward.

Grandma's House

Elisha visited from Texas to pick up Madisyn this week so we all went over to Grandma Sue's house to visit. Here are a few cute pictures from the day. The kids don't get to hang with their cousin very often, so it was a big event. They made pizza for lunch for us all!

Back Update: So, I've been going to physical therapy twice a week for my back. There's still a lot of pain, but it tends to be during the second half of the day. My specialist appointment is Tuesday so I'm super excited to get that out of the way. Maybe he will be able to tell me what's wrong and how to fix it! =)

I took the plunge...

and created a new meetup group! I'm super excited and nervous at the same time. The group I created is called Ruffled Feathers Paper Crafters. I have a vision that we will all meet often to create altered projects and that everyone will {love} the group.

I am hoping that I am not the only person in the world (okay, Queen Creek)looking for paper crafters to hang out. We shall see though. I will post more about this soon.

On another "plunging" note, my handsome boy, James, starts KINDERGARTEN (gasp) on Thursday! OMG-so nervous that I will drive in the wrong lane, park in the wrong spot, get yelled at, embarrass my kid, not be good enough for the women in the PTN, embarrass myself, and everything else that is associated with school. Oh, the memories I have about the horrible experiences. I hope my son has better luck with the education system than I ever did.

Grant-ISMs

Okay, so this weekend the fam went to Arizona Grand Resort to play in the water. Grant went to Grandma Sue's house to hang out with his aunts and g'ma while Terry and I played with the big kids. By Sunday I was missing him so much that we sat around the breakfast table and talked about all of the Grant-ISMs we could think of. I'm going to try to capture them all again so that they are documented and I can look back on this and tear. My big boy got his hair cut today too...OMG! He went from infant to toddler with every shear.

Here it goes:
*Peder-Pan (his favorite movie-he asks for it 5 million time a day)
*Oh-tay (okay)
*Wub-Youuuu (Love you)
*Too-tie mommy (Cookie Mommy)
*No Mama (often used when I say no first)
*No wan it (Don't want it, used with a pushing away motion of the hand)
*Daddy Tatch (Dad and Grant love to play catch together. Grant loses the ball in wind up typically)
*Tum-On (Come on!)
*Ouh-Hide (Used to get Daddy to take him out to play ball)
*Ready, Set, {insert running, then wait 3 seconds while he runs ahead}, GO!
*Wun, Two, Free, Four, Fibe, Sits, Seben...(up to15! This kid rocks with numbers)

why is he the way he is?

Sometimes I sit and watch Jamesy sleep. I wonder what he's dreaming about in that grown up brain of his. I feel sad that such a little man lives with so much weight on his shoulders. I wish I could have done better by him. I know that he is what he is because of his experiences. Gosh, I love him!

Nine Reasons Why I Adore My Little Man:

1. He looks past all of the small stuff and cares for people for what they really are. We went to the pool a few weeks ago and he was the only boy who made friends with kids that had Downs Syndrome. He saw past everything. I was so proud

2. He LOVES Johnny Cash. He runs around the house singing "MY NAME IS SUE...HOW DO YOU DO?" What 5 year old has impecabble taste in music?

3. Jamesy is loyal. Once he makes a friend, it is a friend for life and he will do anything for them!

4. He is confident! For that he is eager to try new things. I love that about him.

5. He likes to smell good for the ladies. It's the cutest thing to watch him put on "man spray" so that he can smell good. I love that he spikes his hair too!

6. He has more personality in his pinky than most people have in their WHOLE body!! It just oozes out of him.

7. Everything just comes naturally to him!! WHY? I don't know . He's just that kid. I love that about him.

8. He's such an amazing brother. He protects Grant, Jaiden, and Chelsea. He wants them to be near him always. He has a heart of hearts.

9. He's a lover not a fighter. This kid begs to snuggle! He will love on me forever. He wants to snuggle in the morning, snuggle in the evening...and everything in between. He picks flowers for me and offers to make me breakfast. He's gonna make some husband!

James "Rocks the House" Plank

So, James started basketball on Tuesday. He joined a team with his tumbling coach through the YMCA. He did great at his first practice. His coach said that he was a little intimidated by the class size, but did a super job. His coaches have donned him a new name...James "Rocks the House" becuase he is such a go getter. I couldn't be more proud!

On the same note, Jaiden finished up soccer a couple of weekends ago and did great! Her team took second place...by ONE game!! They would've otherwise been undefeated. She had a great coach this season and signed up for the next round. GO Coyotes!!

Lu-Hoo-Zu-Hrrr

I just realized that other than our holiday cards we didn't share any of our amazing photography!! So, here are a few of my favorite shots taken December 2008. There were so many to choose from, it was hard. A sincere thank you again goes out to our brilliant artist, Rebekha Pailliotet.

You've been Duff-ed!!

{Here we come Taylor!}

WE GOT 'EM!!! Jen and I have been patiently waiting to get tickets to take Jaiden and James to see Taylor Swift and she got them this morning!!! SO rad. I can't wait to stand on the seats and belt out or favorite songs. I can't wait to watch Jamesy scream at the top of his lungs for her. (Sigh)

James favorite song in the whole wide world for those of you who don't know or haven't heard him sing it is "ihatethatstupidoldpickuptruck"...lol-Picture to Burn.

I {heart} you!

Happy Valentines Day!! Today we went to Jaiden's last soccer game of this season. It was good. Those kids really get out there and play! Then we went to Grandmas and Chuck E Cheeses to celebrate.

In the spirit of love and passion here is my latest project. This is part of a mini book that I created to celebrate "Just the Beginning" of my little G-man! I am passionate about crafting and crazy in love with my munchkin!

P.S. Photography by none other than Rebekha Pailliotet

Crazy December

Well, it has once again been a crazy December. We left the week before Christmas to see my fam in CA so that we could be back in time to get the kids off to their respective parents. It was chaos trying to get everything done a week early, but it worked out. We got home on the 23rd and enjoyed being home together as a family. Terry was home quite a bit and got to enjoy the kids. It was awesome. Here are a couple of random shots from the past couple of weeks:

Chomps the Dinosaur!

This week we had a traveling visitor...it's Chomps the class pet! Yay. We did lots with Chomps. He went with us to see Grandma in California and had a great time. He got to go to the snow with us and throw snow balls. We loved having Chomps and hope he had fun too.

James and Chomps in his room

Chomps loves Christmas!

Have a Cool Yule!

My super creative photography genious (Rebekha Pailliotet) did our Christmas pictures recently. I've been uber eager to learn more about Photoshop and she offered to give me some tips and pointers. Here's what I ended up creating! This is my favorite family picture yet! Thanks Rebekha. You're the best.

Schnepff Farms

We went to the pumpkin patch this weekend and let the boys roam. Here are some shots of the family.

Things I love...

I know. Meg reminded me this week that I needed to update. I've been dreading uploading my pictures from recent trips and random things and so I've slacked on the blog. I thought I'd post a little something fun just to passify you all and give you a little insight into my brain (I know it sounds scary, but bear with me). More to come VERY shortly...

{things I heart}

the smell of Grant in the morning

sleeping in

spooning with my husband

the color GREEN

Arizona summers

James with blue hair

James with any color hair

a can of Dr Pepper just out of the slushy ice chest

new car smell

Dave Matthews-ants marching

Jaidens unprompted hugs

freshly painted toe nails

singing really loud in the car with the kids

Our trip to Orlando!

So Terry hosted a few workshops in FL this last week and so we decided to take the kids on a Minnie vacation (pun intended). The kids had a BLAST! It was great. My favorite part was that Disney decorated for Halloween. Growing up in California, it was interesting to see the differences between Disneyland and the main park at Disney World. I will say that while it was totally worth it, traveling with three kids is NOT for the faint hearted.

Here are the kids on a ride with dad/Terry. He was smiling, but really hates rides.

The kids and Big Bertha...one of the clydsedales at Sea World

The kids with the sea turtles

Those cool decorations I was talking about

Our Milestone Weekend!

So...Grant is officially walking! Yay!! He's walking across rooms now. It started with a couple of steps. But now he's a traveling man. It was so cool to watch. I will post pictures as soon as I can catch him walking. He falls everytime I get the camera out! LOL

AND- James started riding his two wheeler with NO training wheels. He's doing such a great job!