Mini-Golf

We took the kids Mini-golfing for the first time and had a blast! I didn't think they would really get it, but Josh caught the hang of it quickly, and Brooklyn just loves evey inch of attention that she can squeeze out of her Daddy! :)

Josh with his buddy Tyler Campbell. He sure looks up to him and just loves him to death!

Josh, Ashlyn, Brooklyn, and Tyler at Golfland! My kids have not yet been successful in looking at the camera during a group photo! We will have to keep working on that one! :-)

Neon Craft Day!!

This week I found some fun neon colored paper and made a couple cards, until my eyes started to hurt from the bright colors! :-)

Jail Break!!

We have been very blessed that Brooklyn has not learned to jump out of her crib yet! Today, she was napping while I was cleaning the downstairs. I thought I heard her wake up, but decided to finish my project before getting her. I walked upstairs and was shocked that her accomplice, Joshua had thrown the stool in her bed and set up a tote for her to climb out. I stood there for a few minutes to figure out how my toddlers could come up with such a brilliant plan to get her out of her cage..I mean crib!!

Planting our first Garden!

The wonderful Skousen family lent out their farmland to any families in our stake that wanted to plant a garden. We were so excited to learn how to garden and grow some yummy veggies. My camera died before I got a snap of our final project, but I get one posted in the next few days. We planted tomatoes, red peppers, jalapenos, some other hot peppers that I completely forgot the name.., watermelon, muskmelon, zucchini, yellow squash, cucumbers and radishes.
It was definately an adventure being so close to the other lots and keeping our kids entertained while we planted. Josh and Brooklyn kept digging up the seeds and looking for the vegtable that we kept telling them would grow from the dirt. Ah you gotta love it!

Joshua S & Joshua K

Joshua attends preschool with another Joshua in his class. To keep them apart, they are called Joshua S & Joshua K. We met Joshua K at the park yesterday and it was so funny to hear the boys playing and calling eachother "Joshua S, let's roll down the hill" & "Joshua K let's look for alligators in the water!" It was quite amusing just listening to them. We definately need to come up with better nicknames for them!!

Featured card project

I don't feel that I'm incredibly crafty, but I've been in the crafy mood lately and I've been wanting to show my sisters different projects that I've been working on. Since we all live in different states, I figured blogging different projects would be the easiest way to show you girls. These are some cards that I made this week.

Daddy's Little Girl!!

Brooklyn is definitely Daddy's little Girl!! She has been sick this week, and yesterday was just so sad all day! She just moped around the house until her Daddy got home and that was the first time she even smiled! She just needed her Daddy's famous hugs to make her feel better!!

Free Dinner!!!

I heard a rumor of free tacos at Jack in the Box, so I printed my coupon and decided to check it out!! We each (kids included) handed the cashier a coupon for 2 free tacos each, and they actually handed us 8 tacos for free! No tax! No other purchase necessary!! I was so excited! Not only did I not have to cook, but we ate a completely free dinner!! You can't beat that!

Mommy can I have a glass of...Ranch!?!

It's absolutely no mystery in our house that we love Ranch dressing!! We eat it with everything from veggies to pizza to chicken nuggets and french fries. Yesterday Josh was being my helper and getting Brooklyn a drink. I came into the kitchen as Brooklyn was dipping her bread into her...what I thought was milk...until I realized that it was a glass of ranch dressing!! I know my kids love Ranch just as much as anyone, but to drink it straight is a new one!! Gross!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

This Valentine's Day was definitely my favorite of the 6 that Doug and I have shared together. Mostly because I was completely and utterly spoiled!! I woke up to the sweet smell of my favorite breakfast of biscuits and gravy and found a beautiful flower display that Doug had somehow hid in the fridge the day before. We spent the day shopping and running our normal Saturday errands. We we returned home, the kids were exhausted and fell asleep early and left us with a fabulous, romantic evening. Last week, Doug had asked where I wanted to go for Valentine's Day and I joked, "Palo" which was the formal black tie restaurant on our cruise. He completely surprised me and recreated the restaurant with his own gourmet cooking, menu included. It was absolutely delicious!

Doug, thank you for a wonderful Valentine's Day, but also for loving me through all of our crazy trials and struggles over the years. You are an amazing person, and I love you!! Happy Valentine's Day Sweetie!! :-)

This morning Iwanted to snap a few pictures of the kids that I could scrapbook. This morning was filled with bribes for Chocolates and treats, but I think it was worth it because we got a couple of cute ones!! :-)

Daddy's Little Helper!

Doug creates the most delicous dinner rolls, but he doesn't make them very often because they take all day to rise, and it usually makes a huge mess in our kitchen. Today was no expection to that mess, except this time he had a little helper!! These pictures are Brooklyn in her training to become a Master chef!

Look Ma!! No hands!!

cHoCoLaTe FeStiVaL!!!

We went to the Glendale Chocolate Festival Today! There were hundreds of vendors that covered everything from strawberries, apples, and key lime pie to french fries and potato chips in chocolate! I wasn't brave enough to try to chocolate potato chips, but the kids sampled about every item there was! The favorite item was the carmel apple covered in M&M's!! Yum!

Who wants to kiss this Chocolately Princess!?

The kiddos are screaming "I love Chocolate!!"

Disney Vacation Slide Show!

Our Disney Vacation!!

We just returned from our 2 week, much needed, Disney vacation. We spent a few days in Disneyworld with Doug's parents. We had so much fun traveling to the different parks and spotting the Disney characters walking around. Brooklyn was so in love with all the Princesses and Josh got to see his #1 hero: Buzz Lightyear!! We then boarded the beautiful Disney Cruise with Doug's parents, his sister Natalie, and her family. We were so excited to spend time with them, especially since we haven't seen Mark since before his tour in Iraq! Our Western Caribbean cruise ported in Key West, Cayman Islands, Cozumel, Mexico and then the Disney Island (Castaway Cay). We had so much fun and we were pampered to death!!
Joshua loved the kid's club and wanted to spend most of his days there, as well as the pool. They did the coolest activities. His favorites include Tinkerbell trying to find Peter Pan and needing the kids to help her. She sprayed the kids with glitter Pixie Dust and helped them fly across the room to find Peter Pan! They also did magic shows and plays and had a PJ dance party! Brooklyn's favorite thing to do this vacation was to spend time with her Nana and Papa. She couldn't get enough of them and their loving attention!! She loved to play in the pool with the cousin Sasha, and play in the sand at the beach!
Doug's favorite part of the vacation was haggling the Salesmen in Mexico and showing off his Spanish speaking skills to get some awesome souvenirs! We were able to attend some awesome entertainment shows in the evenings with Mark and Natalie while Doug's parents tended to the kids. (Did I mention that we were totally pampered)?
My favorite part of the cruise was definitely the food!! We had some of the most delicious dishes and we even had 24 hour room service! We basically ate non-stop! That is definitely my kind of vacation!! We had an awesome housekeeper who I swear cleaned our room every time we left!! It doesn't get much better than that!!
Now it's back to reality and I'm currently on my 7th load of laundry and trying to remember how to keep house. I keep leaving dishes outside my bedroom hoping that someone will take them away for me...but they're still there!!

This is Traveling Day!! What would I do w/o my pack mule Doug? He carried all 8 suitcases for us! Yes 8!! We are ridiculous I know!!

Daddy holding his little Princess. The picture was cut off but Brooklyn is sporting her beautiful Belle Princess dress that her Nana created for her!! She was absolutely beautiful, but wouldn't sit still long enough to snap a great picture!

We had a Pirate Party one night and we all dressed up and danced on the top of the ship. Josh thought it was so awesome because all the Disney characters dressed up as Pirates too!!

Here's a question for ya'll: which is Chip and which is Dale!?! (I finally learned how to tell them apart!!)
Answer: Chip has a Chocolate "CHIP" colored nose, while Dale's is red! :-)

These kids sure love their grandparents! They were both fighting over which one got to sit on Papa's lap until Doug intervened and helped them both snuggle with their Papa. (Can you just see Josh's smug little expression because he got his way?)

Here's Mama with the kiddos. We are waiting for the bus to take us to Magic Kingdom!

Doug and I had a wonderful time together this vacation and really enjoyed how spoiled we were! This picture is one of my favorites. It was taken at the beach of the Cayman Islands and shows the beautiful ship in the background!

Brooklyn had so much fun building sandcastles with her Daddy!! She tried to swim but got so annoyed with those pesky waves, so she spent the rest of the day soaking up the sun at the beautiful beaches!

This is my wonderful Mother-in-law, Jenny and sister-in-law, Natalie!! We had so much fun with them, and can't wait to do it all again soon!! :-)

It's traveling day again!! Josh was too tired to walk, so Doug simply piled him onto the rest of the luggage!! :-)