May 2012

I just uploaded a few more fun things from the crazy month of May. Paige received the Presidential Physical Fitness award this year. Way to go Paige!

 Paige LOVES crafting. Right now, she likes to make food out of clay :)

 Paige and Elaine...these two are 2 peas in a pod. I could see them starting an animal shelter some day...

 BFF!

 I'm either desperate, crazy or both. I let the kids buy this huge pack of water balloons. They were told that part of the deal was cleaning them up afterwards. They had so much fun :)

 Kindergarten graduation!

 The program was so cute. I made it through without any tears :)

 Daddy and Hes

 Momma and Hes

Mrs. L, Hes, Mrs. M! They were awesome teachers! 

 Paige and Mrs. K. Paige adored her :) She's such a great teacher, one of the best.
I took this video as the 1st and 2nd graders were going back to class after recess. I love these kids!!

Soccer!

School is officially out! Wow. May is a crazy month. To celebrate school being out, I fired up Photoshop and did a few pages. I haven't scrapped in a few weeks, I've missed it! These are pages of Braden's soccer season:

I honestly don't know what happened this year. B has grown up so much! He loves playing soccer :)

{Supplies}
templates- Crystal Wilkerson
Soccer Cutups- DD
elements- Anna Aspnes

2 more days!

I found this on Pinterest!

It's titled "Summer in Arizona" :)

2 more days (1 more for Braden) of school!!! It's getting HOT outside and homework is getting in the way of swimming!

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!

 I just adore these kids. I just adore being their mom.

I'm so feeling so blessed today. I remember being 5 years old and wanting to be a mom. (Along with my dream of being owner and waitress of Kriston's Kafe and being a nurse on the side)

Who knew being a mom would be so challenging and rewarding? Mom made it look effortless. (no joke, I have one of those mothers that always has her stuff together.) Seriously, my mom is such an inspiration to me. She has so many great qualities. I love her so much :)

oh boy...that's a good one

via Pinterest

Oh boy...that's a good one!

shooting hoops

I stayed a little longer at school today so Heston got to play at recess with the 5th and 6th graders. Don't you just love the way the boys are letting Heston play and even rebounding the ball for him? The kids at school are just awesome.

I get the biggest kick out of Hes and his granny shots :)

B's B

Braden's letter artwork was selected for the district art show last week. He didn't want me to take this but he was a good sport anyway :)

It's almost May...May?! 

4 more weeks and school's out?! It's hard to believe but yes, I am ready.

gotta love Pinterest

Pinterest is fun, right? So many ideas, so little time! I tried a couple of things this week that have been pinned. First up is this idea for scrapbooking-

I jotted down some things the other day and made it into a digital page. I think I may resize it, print it out at home and put it in my Smashbook. 

a little side note: Aaron and I did Pat's Run yesterday along with every other person in Phoenix :) 28,000 people! It's a huge event. At the end of the race, you run into the ASU stadium like you're a football player...it's pretty awesome! Last month I jacked up my knee and it threw my prep for this run off. I have a love/hate relationship with running. I shouldn't say I run, I'm more of a jogger. Injuries have a funny way of kicking you in the a** and making you realize what a blessing your health is! Hooray for our health :)

Next thing is this Monterey Chicken recipe:

 We could always use another recipe for chicken breasts right? I made this last Sunday for dinner, it was really good and easy to make.
and I also made these to go with it. 

Heroes for my daughter

Another brilliant article by Brad Meltzer...

 The Top 10 Heroes to Teach Your Daughter How to Fight

Tina Fey= my hero

She makes me laugh like no else, she's just pure awesomeness :)

Guilty Pleasures

 On Chicago

 On Dancing and Prepping for Zombies

a gift

How to write your own obituary- Brad Meltzer

I found this TED talk by author Brad Meltzer the other day. I can't remember the last time I was so inspired by something...it's hard to even put into words how profoundly this moved me. It's about 16 minutes long but well worth your time :)

I'd love to hear what you think...

 

 

my week

This week has been spent taking care of sick kids and a child with a sprained ankle on crutches. Everyone is better and life is good. We spent last weekend hanging out with Matt, Alisha and their kids. We went to the Easter pageant, the kids swam, the boys golfed and us girls hit the ribbon store :) It was so fun to see them and our kids just loved spending time with their cousins. It's awesome having people come and visit us!
Working at the school makes me happy. Evelyn, Gaia, Brenda and I all get along so well and we have a blast. We were joking around about being "cool aides" and then it was "Kool-Aids". Brenda made the shirts for us, awesome! 

 

On Monday, I was talking to a 2nd grader named Olivia at lunch. I was asking her about her weekend and she said, "Hey! I'll ask my mom and see if you can come over and watch me fly my kite. I can make you some lemonade, too!"

How precious!!!! :)

from the archives

 Aaron gave me my first digital camera in 2003 and these were some of the first pictures I took.

 Braden taking a nap with Gaga

 hanging out with Papa

 Grandpa celebrating his 80th birthday

 Paige and Daddy

 little Bray :)

15 things you should give up to be happy

A couple of friends posted this on Facebook and wanted to share it with you. Good stuff

15 things you should give up to be happy

Paige's school album

My current project right now has been updating the kid's school albums. I posted some of Braden's album a while back and this is the front page. I sound like a broken record forgive me but time just goes by way too fast...

Here are some pages from Paige's :)

The whole idea of putting school albums together terrified me. The project just seemed like too much work. I bought this school template album at DD and it has made the process doable. 

 She's so little! The picture with her in the glasses features the haircut she gave herself. The lady at the salon tried to fix it but I think she made it worse :)

{Supplies}

CZ School album set 8.5x11

AE School words No. 2

DD Just linens paper No. 14

DD Just linens paper No. 15

DD Notebook paper

 

Mom's birthday layout

 I found this adorable FREE template the other day. I put the pictures in first and decided how much I like the colors that came with the template. That worked out great and saved me some time :) 

{Supplies}

fei-fei's stuff outlined no. 8 template

Ali Edwards Love Something Brushes

tab- Echo Park For the Record kit

label and flower- Au Contrair by ScrapKitchen

 

our little monkey

Every year at our school, they have Donuts for Dads. The dads eat donuts with their kids then they come out to the playground and hang out. At the beginning of the year, H was all about the swings. Now he is obsessed with the monkey bars. He couldn't wait to show Daddy and Paige his skills :)

 {Supplies}

Templates by Crystal Vol. 1 (I got this set on sale for a $1 and I love them!)

Ali Edwards Kids are Cool brushes

Ali Edwards Twenty Twelve brushes- I love these date stamps. I feel like I get my money's worth because I use them a lot.

DD Clean Stitched Banners #1

Good stuff

via Pinterest

It's just a number...really!

Intro to Adolescence

We've gone through some big changes this year. Our eldest son entered the wonderful world of junior high school. What comes to mind when you think of junior high? I get this nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach when I think back to those times. Thank goodness I had a great group of friends and thank goodness I never have to live those years over again! I jokingly say, 

"If you can survive junior high, you can survive anything."

B has a tough class schedule this year and there have been some growing pains along the way. He's got a lot on his plate and it's harder to keep things balanced. It's been a humbling experience and an important lesson for me to realize how much my son needs me now. Not just for the rides, meals and clean clothes. Just to be there for him as he's trying to figure out who he is. To reassure him that everything will be okay and yes, he will get taller. To teach him how important it is to be a leader and not a follower. To remind him that it is a good thing to have friends that bring out the best in you. To pass along something my dad would tell me...that he can do whatever he wants to do as long as he sets his mind to doing it. To remind him that life has it's ups and downs and we must strive to learn from every experience, the good and the not-so-good. Most importantly, to hug him and tell him how much he is loved...

And so begins the chapter called 'Intro to Adolescence'

Be Yourself!

I {heart} the '90s!!

A friend on Facebook posted this link
48 pictures that perfectly capture the '90s
Awesome, right?!
 The '90s were good times! After looking at those pictures, this one came to mind.
Me and my roommates our freshman year circa 1993. You can't see but I had black Doc Martin boots to go with this look...

 and this?! This is just one hot mess... ;)

Beauty

pinterest.com

fun slide at the carnival

Here are some more pictures from the carnival. We got a good laugh watching them come down this thing :)

Mom's rules

This sounds about right :)

a day at the carnival

 

We took the kids to a carnival in Gilbert this weekend. In the picture with Aaron and the kids, you'll notice how "excited" Paige was that Heston beat her at a water gun game :)

Hooray for Heston

Hooray for Heston! 

He was chosen as Student of the Month for January. He loves Kindergarten, dinosaurs, Captain America and Legos. I need to get a video of him singing "It Will Rain" by Bruno Mars...it's so dang cute :)

computer issues

For the past couple of weeks my little laptop was having some issues. Well, it finally bit the dust. Our computer guy/friend Jeff worked his magic and recovered my stuff. Aaron told me he would buy me a new hard drive for my laptop. But, guess what he surprised me with for Valentine's Day instead?

A new purple laptop!

I am so very happy and excited!

Here's to more scrapbooking with a bigger hard drive! Hooray!