"6" Tag

Okay, so my cute friend Jenn tagged me a couple weeks ago. And now that I am through with the overwhelming San Diego stuff, here it goes! Six random things about ME!

1. 
   

1. I am very particular about my laundry. Not to say I do such a great job but my mom taught me very specific ways to sort and cycles and detergents to use. Which means Mike has done {maybe} 3 loads of laundry in the 8.5 years we have been married. It also means that on the few occasions that my brothers have lived with us - I've done their laundry as well. And I only use Tide and Downy.
2. I wear the same sweat pants to bed 93% of the time{they need an occasional washing}. They are WAY too big {belonged to my 230lb high school boyfriend} and often have holes along the bottom where I've walked in them but are still holding on after 12 years! I think this bugged Mike at first but he now recognizes them for the warm, comfy, figure friendly sleepwear they are, and nothing to do with said 'X'. I ♥ my GHS baseball sweats!
3. I hate {I know, its a strong word} to scratch anyone's back! It totally grosses me out, my fingernails feel all nasty, the tips of my fingers get all tingly and I get all creeped out, uhhhhh! Pretty sure this comes from the hours I spent scratching my mom's back, for mere pennies, years and years ago. This, however, does not in anyway mean that I don't love to receive a back scratch - just doesn't happen much when you are unwilling to reciprocate!
4. The only 2 times I have gone to the hospital {besides pregnancy related stuff} both included feet and water. The 1st time, I was walking down a stream at the park and sliced the bottom of my foot open pretty good, I had to get like 12 stitches. Ouch! The 2nd time I was up in the mountains with my cousin swinging on a rope over the river, my hands slipped and I fell right in - spraining my ankle.
5. Bring on a party! I am always up for anything social...I love outings with the kids, date nights, scrapbook nights, dinner parties, lunch dates, bbqs, birthday parties! You name it - I am there! And I am totally okay to throw it, even last minute!
6. And to go along with the last one, I really like to cook/bake. Nothin' fancy, although I would love to learn someday, but I love eating and people - cooking accommodates them both!

Hope I didn't bore you! Now, I tag...Kelli, Angee, Jayne, Viv, Marcae and Dari. I would love to learn a little more about all of you, but no pressure!

San Diego, at last!

Okay, I have put off the update of our San Diego trip way too long, not because we didn't have an absolutely wonderful time - but because we took 350 pictures while there and it just seems a little overwhelming! So, here it goes...all 350 pics, just for you! Seriously, just kidding! {I will try and keep it short and sweet!}

Day 1

Agenda: Drive from St. George to Wild Animal Park

Loved the safari! Nice relaxing ride through all sorts of wild things, maybe we'll bag the trip to visit grandpa and grandma in South Africa - we've seen it all!

The kids were so happy to just be out of the car and running around!

And thanks to Steph's brilliant idea of family pictures each day, we got this cute one while there!

Day 2

Agenda: San Diego Zoo, Padres baseball game

Another, not-so-bad, family pic.

Saw a lot of cool animals - hyenas are creepy, gorilla's cute and I especially like the zebra/horse thingy{forgot what it is called}.
Of course we couldn't go without a little grumpiness...

but once we ate our almost $50 lunch (yikes!) things were much better!

Hippos were a favorite - coming and going! = )

Pais liked watchin' the monkeys with her buddy, Ike!

And then the tram stole the show, go figure!

After some quick naps {yes, the whole family} we headed to the ball game!

Padres vs. Rockies

After 12 innings, we had 2 sleeping kids and a tied game so we decided to call it quits! Good thing too - the game went 22 innings and ended after 1am the next morning.

Day 3

Agenda: Sea World

We got to see flamingos for the 3rd day in a row but got to feed them this time!

We also fed sea lions and dolphins!

Adi thought it was sorta fun to get drenched on a ride with dad...

the one with mom - not so fun! {Steph and I had a blast though!}

Shamu rocked!

Paislee was so intrigued by the Shamu on her lunch box - she forgot to look up!
We also had fun at the pet show, dolphin show and seeing the sharks (x2)!

Then our family headed down to La Jolla to see the beach/shopping that we had been told was great. As we drove into town - we quickly realized that it was a little too great/fancy for our shorts/hoodies and 3 kids but, luckily, we found a Hard Rock that was A-O-K with the aforementioned stuff! Afterward, we headed down to the beach. It was dark and my camera battery died so sadly no pics but it was awesome watching the waves crash over the cliffs/rocks.

Luke really wanted to go to the beach so we found a little cove that had sand and headed down the stairs. The tide was in so we had to wait for it to go out in order to get to the sand. We did this and Luke and I had a great time getting our feet wet as the tide came up each time (despite it was freezing!) but Adi kept saying that she didn't like it one bit and just wanted to go back up so we headed to the other set of steps - these started like at my waist so I waited for the tide to go out and quickly threw Adi and Luke up just in time for a HUGE wave to come up as high as the stairs and drench Mike and I! Needless to say, we called it a night! It was just a little embarrassing to walk through the streets with soaking wet pants, thank goodness it was dark!

We also saw and said "hi" to Jeffrey Jones, the principal from Ferris Bueller's Day Off! Pretty cool until you look him up on wikapedia and find out some not-so-nice stuff about him, so we'll leave it at that!

Day 4

Agenda: Coronado Beach, Navy Aircraft Carrier Museum, Carnival at Mission Beach

This was a very cold day! But we headed to the beach anyway! The kids had a blast playing in the sand, finding shells and putting their feet in the water.

Then the guys chose to go to this old ship turned museum.

Adi and Luke saw some pretty cool stuff while Paislee and I waited in the car (she got a much needed nap while I enjoyed some reading)

Then it was off to the carnival that the Pickle's had found earlier that day! Some nice, teenage boys just happened past us and GAVE us $20 worth of ride tickets! So, we lived it up and hit all the kiddie rides.

And this is the end of, the end of our story, story! Unless, you count the gruelling 12 hour drive home! And the 5 days it took to post it! :)

D-U-M-B!

Dumb,
dumb,
dumb,
dumb dog!

*More proof as to why Miley cannot be unsupervised at anytime! Sheesh!

growing up

Paislee has hit a few milestones lately!

♥she's talking lots more. she loves to call peoples names over and over til she gets their complete attention. But her very favorite word {making up 99.9% of things she says} - NO! It doesn't get boring though, she has quite the variety of ways to say it and thinks/knows she's pretty cute doing it.

♥she has followed in Luke's footsteps with an obsession for shoes {another new word}. Only the shoes she chooses to obsess over most of the time are these super cute white church shoes that pretty much look hideous with anything BUT her Easter dress!

♥she is stubborn and feisty! We have to pick our battles around here, proof being that she has worn these shoes several times in public much to my chagrin.

♥she is very independent. she can often be found wondering the house by herself with her own little agenda. last week she took all the letter magnets off the fridge, put them in paper cups and hid them behind the couch cushions, I am still trying to figure that one out.

♥ and {last the best of all the game} she is totally into cartoons/tv/movies! Yippee for me! I can sit her on my bed, turn on Noggin, and then get in the shower/change the laundry/check my email/whatever and come back to Paislee still on the bed, cute as can be with NO messes!

Love you Paizers!

Hide and go seek...

...turned into Hide, forget and mom finds at our house on Sunday!


Friday, the kids decided to take Luke's car collection to the kitchen and play hide and seek with them. Very carefully {full of giggles} they went to each drawer, cupboard, and closet and "hid" each one {there had to be over 30 of them}. When they were through, they went back to "find" them. I had no complaints. I love it when my kids will play together, that is, until Sunday as I was making dinner and came across this:

and this,
and this,
and this,
and this too!

Apparently, they didn't find them all! I thought the first one was funny and took a picture. then was even more surprised when the second popped up. I never expected to have such a collection of pictures {or cars}! Chad and I had a good laugh with each one and Luke was a great sport- collecting each one and putting it away, always thanking me for finding them for him. There is NEVER a dull moment with 3 kids in the house! Gotta love it! :)

on a positive note

With 2 days left of the dreaded tax 'season' and me being completely at my wits end/feeling sorry for myself/ornery/exhausted/constantly complaining/snapping at the kids/cursing the dog...{I could go on} I got to thinking about my weekend and realized that it was pretty dang good despite my lack of hubby so I thought I would {as Mike was singing to Adi recently} "eliminate the negative, accentuate the positive, latch on to the affirmative and don't mess with Mr. In-between"


Here are a few "positives" from my weekend!

an unexpected lunch date

3 visits from chaddy {friday, saturday, & sunday}

smart cookie sugar cookie break

serious guitar hero/text twist playing with chaddy

2.5 full hours with my hubby{no kids}

visiting with old friends + making a new one

sunshine

target, costco, & walmart with NO kids

NYC reminiscent frozen yogurt - tdf!

on time to church = taking the sacrament

more sunshine

learning about Jesus, John, and their friend, Jordan ;)

a walk through the park w/ sunshine

a NAP

guacamole {x2}

a quick phone call w/ my MIA mother

movie party = popcorn & rootbeer floats

cooking/baking for someone other than myself

sending kids outside to play

midnight goodnight phone calls

new 'summer 2008' soundtrack

sweet dreams of san diego...2.5 days to go

Pretty positive, huh?

Have you seen me?

Just missing dad a bit around here,

April 15th can't come soon enough!

President Monson

I just wanted to quickly say just how awesome it was to be a part of sustaining this wonderful man as the new prophet of our church today. I had chills as I got to stand and raise my hand in support of him and tears when my sweet daughter asked if it was her turn to stand up yet. So touching to see her arm shoot into the air. Happy uplifting weekend!

Adilynn's new best friend

So, my brother, Chad, has been finished with hair school for almost a year now. But has gone back and forth on deciding what/where and, more so, just taking the jump/risk. A couple weeks ago he got up the nerve to interview for an assistant position in this salon that is awesome! It totally fits him - high end, hip, clean! The owner loved him! Next step - bring someone in and do an actual haircut. This is where I enter... despite the fact that I was kinda trying to grow my hair out from Chads last experiment {not in a bad way} and he has a million cute girl friends that would happily get mohawks for Chad - he talked me into it again! {I was his very 1st trim, took him like 2 hours and my head was raw from the round brush, I also let him cut some serious "fringe" a couple years ago that I wasn't quite hip enough to pull off}

So, this afternoon he arranged for Daniel to babysit while we headed to Provo to do the cut. I had no idea what he was planning on - just that it had to be above the shoulder and that Chad went to a lot of effort to practice and get it just right, this was done on a doll head. Now enter Adi's new best friend...Chad brought the doll head to show me his plan and alleviate the panic I was feeling after Daniel said it was "cute, short and spiky in the back". Adi thought the doll head was the neatest thing ever so Chad let Adi keep her.

I couldn't help but laugh as she carried her around all afternoon, sat her next to her at dinner, curled her hair and then scared Luke and Paislee by putting her face in front of hers so "they would think she grew a body" she also told me "isn't she sooo cute! she would look even better with my real lipstick and maybe a real body" then last of all she told me "don't you think she looks exactly like you mom!?!" Here are a few pics of her with the doll. What do you think...could she be my double?