Zoo

Sharing some family photos from November.

An afternoon at the Phoenix Zoo.

It still doesn't seem real that my baby boy has a baby.

And that photo with my husband, my baby boy, and my tater tot. Kills me.

Kills. Me.

Disneyland 2013 (Day 1 )

Moments from Day 1 of Disneyland.

"Frozen" themed entrance.

Lots of time spent at Toontown.

Lots of Tater photos.

Even grown ups pose with characters (we had quite the chat with Jack).

The castle....sigh.

Sunday was Day 1. It was busy, but that was expected. We just skipped the long lines and took the crowds in stride. We hit the park at about 9 am (early for us) and stayed until closing at midnight. We did go back to the hotel for some chili, a nap, and to bundle up with coats and mittens.

Yes, there are many more photos to edit and share.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a magical day!

Perfectly Imperfect

Have I ever mentioned how crazy my life is?

I'm absolutely sure that we have had friends and family members looks at us and think "they are crazy!  Why would they decide to have 4 kids?"

Yeah. We're not that family that you see out in restaurants, with 4+ kids all sitting quietly, coloring while they wait for their food to arrive. We're the family that is loud and crazy.

But lately, I've been feeling that my life is perfect the way it is.

We have lots of bad things happen EVERY SINGLE week. Not life ending, but certainly BAD. I have 1 young adult, 2 teenagers, and 1 tween. And they don't always make the best choices. But neither does my husband and I. And that can certainly create some drama and heartache.

But with a few years of practice under our belts, I'm learning to roll with the hard times. They are just a part of our life.

As are the good times. Which happen EVERY SINGLE week also. The times when we are all together and laughing and joking and loving and being crazy.

And even though my family is flawed, and we have not been perfect parents, I think our life is pretty good!

We're perfectly imperfect.

Christmas Morning

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

My house is quiet. Everyone is still asleep. At 9 am.

Weird. But in a nice way.

We celebrated Christmas last night. Mark thought he had to work, so we planned on opening presents Christmas Eve, but then he got the day off. Kids wanted to keep gift unwrapping on the Eve.

So last night we watched Family Stone. My Christmas Eve movie. It's kinda predictable, but has a few laughs and gets me teary eyed at the end. I need to get a little emotional to truly love a movie!
Some of my fave quotes:
"Don't dilly-dally there, pretty lady. We're all gonna be down here talking about you." and "You have a freak flag. You just don't fly it."

I'm sure you can find it on Netflix.

Then we feasted on tamales and beans and chips and salsa. Yum.

I also bought a ton of deserts, but no one was really hungry by then (we had appetizers too).

Next it was present opening time. Emma kept asking all night "can we open presents now?" She was so excited. It's nice to still have one that can hardly wait! I think everyone was pretty happy with their gifts. Just a few clothing items need to be exchanged for larger sizes.

Then a QT run, breakfast was made and chilled overnight in the fridge, then we all went to bed.

So this morning, I just have to bake that casserole and some cinnamon rolls. That's it. Nice and relaxing!

We're going to Mark's parents' house today for a barbecue and to Zoo Lights tonight.

Moments to remember:
Mom spitting wine all over herself.
Mark giving a toast (new tradition?)
"It's a Samsung"
Listening to my family talk and laugh while I'm getting tamales ready
Alec walking through the front door in his work clothes and everyone laughing and cat calling
The smell of the undecorated tree (just white lights and a star on top), it's like it was showing off for the holidays!
Katie screaming as she opened her Hello Kitty sketch book.
Trevor/Chelsey falling asleep on the futon while Emma, Mark, and I made the breakfast casserole.
Being surrounded by my family.
Being surrounded by my family.
Being surrounded by my family.

Merry Christmas. And I hope everyone has some special time this holiday with their loved ones!

And no, I did not take a single photo. Had the camera phone all ready, but instead just sat back and enjoyed the moment. And I don't even regret it this morning.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to your family from mine. May you have a day to enjoy with your loved ones!

Peeps

I saw my firstborn last night. He and his fiancee made a turkey dinner for us, since I will be working on Thanksgiving. We had a really nice time.

But then it was time to go home. And I'm not sure why it hit me so hard, but I got a little emotional. There may have been tears.

I just miss him. I know that he has his own life, and can't be around all the time. In fact, I'm thinking too much together time would just start up some arguing (between everyone in the family). But I feel like I'm leaving a piece of my heart behind when I say goodbye to him.

He is one of my peeps. And as the mother hen, I want to wrap my wings around all 4 of them and keep them very close.

But, truth is, it is not just the moments that we say goodbye. It is lots of other moments too.

Like how when I make cinnamon rolls, we have 2 too many. There are 8 in a roll, or 2 each for my kids. Now there are 2 leftover.

And this makes me think of him. And a million other things.

And I hate that hole in my heart.

If You Speak to the Lake.......

Happy Monday everyone.

Remember when I mentioned that we were heading to the zoo on Saturday? Well, it turns out that if you take your sweet time and find a million other things to do first, you might not make if farther than the zoo parking lot.

Yeah, we got there 15 minutes before the zoo closed. I was so bummed! I really wanted to spend some time outdoors enjoying the beautiful weather and moving our bodies a bit.

Then Mark came up with the idea to go take a walk around the Tempe Town Lake.

Ooh, good idea smart hubby of mine!

Here are a few photos from the day.

Hope you took some time to enjoy yourselves this past weekend. Now go have a productive Monday!

Happy Father's Day

Great big hugs for all the dads out there! And an extra special hug for the local dad in the Bell house!

For all the big and little things you do.

Like back rubs at bedtime.
And going to the daddy/daughter dance.
Attending school functions and being that cool dad.
Showing up to cheer at all the soccer, basketball, football, and baseball games.
And stepping up to coach that one soccer game.
Being there to comfort (and clean up) when the kids urp (throw up).
And being goofy and making us all laugh.
Going to work when you don't feel like it.
Agreeing to all the family getaways (like Disneyland for the millionth time).
And making dinner when Mom is at work (even if it is just cereal night).
Helping with homework.
Endless amounts of patience (most of the time).
Impromptu trips to Claire's with the girls.
And a million "drive me to the gym".
And even the "dad, I need to talk to you".
Painting little toenails and fingernails.
Brown bag lunches at the school.
A laugh, smile, touch, and/or hug whenever needed.

We love you and appreciate all that you do for this family!!

Carlsbad mini-book

I finally got prints of all my photos and had some time to play.

I started with a basic color theme. And rather than use patterned paper I chose to stencil designs using the 3 paint colors. The goal was to keep it simple, but different from my other projects

However, I did use paper for the covers. I used gel medium to adhere the paper to the book covers and added some rub-ons and a few stamps.

The inside of both the back and front covers are the same polka dot paper.

I attached the photos using tape. Some pages have 1 photo, some 2 photos, and a few even have 3 photos.

They are attached so that 1 side can flip up to reveal journaling on the back of the photos.

The only embellishments used were rub-ons and some inking around the edges.

I wanted to keep the focus on the photos.

I can't believe that I took so many photos in just over 2 days. I originally thought this would be a smaller book. I had to make several design changes due to various factors (such as dropping the Instax idea due to terrible quality of the photos).

The book has about 25 pages, but about 50 photos.

Hope you enjoyed! If you have a fun summer getaway planned, let me know how you are planning to document the trip!