We had a cul-de-sac bonfire last Friday night with our wonderful neighbors. You know when you move into a new house you pray for nice neighbors.....well, we have THE BEST NEIGHBORS EVER! We love them, they love us, the kids adore all of them and our neighbors shower our children with love and gifts continuously!

Our neighbor Lisa put it together and she had food and others brought things too. There was taco dip and chips, homemade chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter brownies, smores, hot chocolate and Starbucks coffee. Let's just say I ate a lot of dip and chips since I am dessert free these days. It was very unsatisfying compared to the other stuff. If you know me at all you know I would much rather skip dinner to get to dessert..... Here is a pic of the 3 ladies in our cul-de-sac that just love Jamie to death.

That weekend we went over to Uncle Bob's house to squeeze oranges and spend time with Aunt Edna.

I took Aunt Edna for a walk and we sang hymns the whole time. Aunt Edna cannot communicate much these days but she can remember every word to songs about Jesus! Amazing.
Jamie loves her Aunt Edna.

Kiddos

Life at home. Little guy wrote "mom" all by himself just out of the blue. And here is his "man" and "flower". :) heehee.


Got a cradle at a garage sale for $3.50. It fits 3 babies. :) Oh and Jamie prefers her brother's pajamas to her own.

She Didn't!

Yes, I gave up desserts. 6 days clean now. Slipped up on accident here and there but nothing major. I feel most guilty about the cup of hot chocolate I had last Friday night at the cul-de-sac bonfire. The first day was torture. Every day after has been just as bad. This is really hard for me. I am pretty sure the longest I have ever gone without some type of sweet is overnight while I sleep. My clothes don't fit me better yet and I haven't lost any weight but it's pretty cool that I have actually made it 6 days now. Oh and I gave up sweets until Easter, for Lent, although I am making an exception for any dessert related to my birthday so bring on the birthday cake and ice cream! :)

Last Saturday

Last Saturday we spent the day at Bartlett Lake and the evening at Uncle Bob's. Bartlett Lake was about an hour away from the house but with the DVD player in the back it was an easy drive for all. It was really neat to come over the hill in the desert and see the big blue body of water in front of us. You can drive right up to the edge of the water and spend the day. Which is what we did.

Lake view from our drive up.

We made a fire a little ways up from the lake and cooked some hot dogs that tasted oh so yummy!

And the kids played by the water for the rest of the day.

Then we went to Uncle Bob's and Jamie played in the hutch Uncle Bob was making for about an hour. :)

Wearing mama's boots while playing with her favorite door. :)Back into the hutch!

Uncle Bob the tickle monster.
Cousin Karen with her parents.

Daddy, his kids and his dog.

Valentie's Day

Our actual Valentine's Day wasn't very exciting. Daddy went to work so I made the kids I Heart You toast with a toast stamper and gave them their Valentine's Day goodie bags. We were busy getting ready for MOPS and headed out to our meeting bright and early. It was a wonderful morning with our MOPS friends with again a lot of eating, chatting, and eating some more. Oh the food. Oh the lovely food.

MOPS meeting: Fruit pizza I made. I think there were two small pieces of the crust left.

Two mommies who are in my group.

Candy pops I made at our MOPS meeting.

Little girl I made.
Little boy I made.
The definition of love.

Valentie's Day Stuff

We had a fun, candy filled Valentine's Day this year. Seems like as soon as you are done celebrating one holiday another one sneaks up on you. We don't have time to eat all the candy from the previous holiday before we are getting more for the next one. All these holidays are keeping me from losing weight! Well, a lot of things are keeping me from losing weight but I do find myself saying, after Thanksgiving I will lose weight. No, after Christmas. After Valentine's Day. Wait, no, after my birthday....... Anyway, that is a whole other story......

Our Small Group got together the Friday before Valentine's Day for a Fondue party. It was sooo yummy. More reasons I am not losing weight; parties, friends and food.

Pete's first ever Valentine's gift from his friend Sienna. It was early in the morning and he wanted chocolates with his juice. I told him only mommy can do that!

P. and I got a sitter and went out on a Valentine's Day date. We did a Groupon for Babbo's Italian and had an amazing dinner out on the patio just down the road from our house. It was sooo good. The weather was beautiful and we had such a relaxing time just chatting without any disruptions. Then we headed off to the movies to see Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol which was also awesome. All around a great night.

The kids and I made a fruit pizza for our family Valentine's Day dinner. Jamie started helping me decorate with fruit.

Then she started eating the fruit so Pete helped me decorate.

He was proud of the turnout.

And Jamie was proud of finishing the fruit.

Pete and dad finished the puzzle model car they were working on. It was a good father-son project and the car is now painted red and looks awesome. Not really but that's what happens when a 3 year old paints things.

I told P. last night I am not buying the kids any candy for Easter. Their baskets will be fun of anything and everything non-edible.

Cuter Than Cute

Prettiest thing I have ever seen.

Play Grounds

This new place opened up near us called Play Grounds. It's a big indoor play area for kids with a sitting and eating area for the mamas. It's kind of expensive but it's totally worth it once in a while. With a coupon it's $6/kid for all day. Food is extra but the kids can easily split a kids meal and the grown up food is really good. We went last Friday with my Mom to Mom group and had a great time. The kids LOVED it. Can you tell?

Rise and Shine

Jamie's favorite song.

Rise and shine and give God the...

Jamie: Glory Glory Glory

Rise and shine and give God the....

Jamie: Glory Glory

Rise and shine and give God the glory glory, Children

Jamie: Children of the Lord.

Not exactly sure what she says after that...... :)

Big Kids on Big Kid Swings

Been visiting a park that is within walking distance of our house lately. It's a nice one but I don't like the wood chips it has under the playground and swings. They are not forgiving when you fall in them and since my kids rarely wear shoes it can get ugly. We had a nice time on these swings the other day talking, singing, people watching and laughing. It was even better when daddy showed up on his bike during a break from meetings on a day he was working from home. :)

Come visit us. We will go hiking.