The Arizona Raisors

Front door redo

2011-12-10T21:08:00.000-08:00

As you can see my front door was clearly in need of a makeover... So I had a free evening and wah lah!! Just in time for christmas. Only took one pint of semi gloss paint, a foam roller, a small brush a litte painters tape and batta bing batta boom. Although something to keep in mind when you are painting your front door you need to leave it open to dry. This is something I didn't think about when I started. It was a very interestin task keeping the kiddos inside while the door was drying.

Holiday Cookies

2011-12-03T19:59:00.000-08:00

Browned butter and cinnamon frosting on Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

Regular old oatmeal chocolate chip cookies turned gourmet with the addition of a little drizzle of browned butter with cinnamon frosting yum!!!

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1/3 cup white sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/3 cup white flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup oatmeal
1 cup (1/2 of a 12oz package) chocolate chips

Cookie directions:
Soften butter and cream with sugars. Add egg and vanilla beat well. In a separate bowl combine flour, salt baking powder and soda. mix dry ingredients with butter mixture and mix well. Add oatmeal and chocolate chips last. Drop tablespoons onto a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 12min or till lightly browned.

Frosting
1/2 stick butter (1/4cup)
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp milk

in a small sauce pan heat butter over medium heat until golden brown stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and add vanilla powdered sugar and cinnamon and mix well. Add just enough milk to make and icing of drizzling consistency. Drizzle on warm cookies

I am a potty training genious!!!

2011-08-04T21:15:00.000-07:00

Yes I am bragging a little bit.... deal with it.

Ok I'm sure you're wondering what in the world would make me make such a bold and outlandish statement. Well... I am very proud to say that I have sucessfully taught 2 children to go potty in the shockingly short amout of time of 1 1/2 days each.

I'm sure you're all wondering how I achieved this amazing feat and I certainly can't take all the credit (I'm trying hard though) I had lots of help and advice from lots of sources. I mainly talked to my husband's aunt Diane (thanks Diane) that potty trained almost all of Steven's cousins. She had alot of really good advice for me and then I got an e-book about the 3 day potty training method.

Jace and I rocked the 3 day potty training method around christmas time. All you do is pump them full of liquids and put them in underwear. (crazy I know) It took him one whole day of accidents and the morning of the 2nd day it just clicked and he was pee trained. We did so well that this week I decided it was Nellie's turn to give it a run.

We started Tuesday and things went even better than they did with Jace! She had only a few accidents the first day but its mostly where she starts in her underwear and we run to the potty and then she finishes. They actually say thats a good sign that she is them learning how to controll their bladder. She even stayed dry through nap time!! We didn't stay dry the first night but it she got it the 2nd night and I tell you my friends (beaming with pride) we haven't had an accident since.

The best part of this whole thing is...

NO MORE DIAPERS!!!! YAY!!!!!

I'm totally up for training other people's kids but its gonna cost ya... ;)

Nellie's last picture in her diaper

Diapers... you will NOT be missed

Yes its been a while...

2011-05-29T16:30:00.000-07:00

Sorry guys I know its been a while since we've posted... Steven changed the password on his blogger account and Its taken me a while to figure this new one out. Ok so I really just wanted to share a little piece of inspiration I got the past couple weeks.

I just recently finished a great book called "how to bake a perfect life" By Barbra O'Neal, and overall I was very impressed. I've actually looked at this book several times over the last few months every time we have been at Target. I finally decided I needed to buy it and read it and I'm so glad I did. It was a great story, easy to read, and it even came with hidden treasures... recipes. The book was all about how a woman dealt with difficult times in her life by baking bread. I have been left so inspired... seeing as how this is a very difficult time in my life this was perfect book for me. Couple this great inspiration with the

great baking book for christmas, thanks Scott and Penny I think I have a great combination here. I've already made some great Whole wheat and oatmeal bread that was absolutely fantastic (especially as french toast yum!) The only thing I'm wishing now was that I had a kitchen aid to help me with my mixing. I'm hoping for one for my birthday or christmas this year (nudge, nudge, wink, wink)I think I'm definately on to something here... baking my life better...

Super Bowl

2011-02-05T19:42:00.000-08:00

Hurray I am finally getting to use one of my christmas presents!! My wonderful husband gave me the cake ball book for christmas and I have been dying to try every single one of them out. (i need and excuse to make the Owls. they are just so friggin adorable) But I was so happy when I found the football one just in tme for our superbowl party and they turned out so cute! I'm still working on the dipping process, (I can't quite get them from the spoon onto the wax paper with out severely messing them up) so these the bottoms aren't actually covered in chocolate but I think they will still be good. I'll have my superbowl party guests take a vote. Hurray go me for being festive

New Pictures

2011-01-12T20:25:00.000-08:00

So I got some amazing new picture frames for christmas and I was trying to find pictures to put in them but I wasn't able to find any I liked. So I looked at my children and noticed that they were both dressed and had their hair recently combed so Hello Photo Op!!! I took them out into the back yard and got some really cute shots. Yeah I was pretty excited about it too. And now all of these pictures are up on my wall in my adorable new frames. Thanks Santa

Halloween 2010

2010-11-02T07:45:00.000-07:00

I think Halloween is always more fun when you have kids. They get so excited to dress up and candy is so much more exciting to a 2yr old than a 25yr old =) We had so much fun this year for Halloween. Jace was wolverine, Nellie was a hula girl, Steven was an Army guy and I was a circus ring leader.

We went to 2 trunk-r-treats this year and the kids had a blast at both. I think we will do the whole trick-r-treating around the neighborhood thing next year when Nellie is a little older. Jace totaly had the hang of it this year. At our trunk-r-treat he kept saying "tricky-treat mommy" and held out his bucket. He kept comming back again and again expecting me to give all the candy we brought to him. So cute.

Nellie didn't really make the rounds with Jace and daddy but she did dance for anyone that asked. It almost looked like she was actually doing the Hula. So here's a few pictures from our Halloween adventures this year.

My wolverine enjoying a quick sip before he returns to kicking butt Hula Nellie.
Nellie actually had a huge blow out in her costume. It was absolutely aweful and we ended up having to throw away her grass skirt. It got all over her white onesie so I took it off, put her coconut bikini back on and we went home naked.

Brother Halterman was making baloon hats for the kids at the party and Nellie got a heart hat. Its about as big as she is.
Spiderman JonesMaine the cookie monster

The wonder that is Nellie

2010-10-26T07:49:00.000-07:00

I was thinking back today about how big my kids are now. I get the idea of how big they are sometimes when they purposefully and willfully do the exact opposite of what I tell them to do. But then I have to remind myself that even though they have minds of their own and have grown so much they are still just babies.

We went to a halloween party on Saturday and a woman had a 6 week old baby in the most adorable little bear costume and it made me think about how Nellie was about that age last halloween (8 weeks) I can't believe how fast the time goes by.

She was so little last halloween but now she is so big I just wanted to take the time and write down a few things about Nellie

1. She is walking all over creation now. She started walking about 2 weeks before she turned one and no one has been able to stop her since.
2. Nellie is my little scavenger she will throw food from her highchair just so she can get to it later in the day. She actually gets mad at me when I clean up under her chair. She even scavenged for food at the halloween party under the serving table. So cute.
3. Nellie loves drinks. If you have something to drink she wants it. She doesn't even really like her own sippy cups she prefers anything else.
4. She is so sneaky. If there is something she wants but knows she shouldn 't have (like your drink) she will carefully get close enough to it then grab and run. Jace is often a victim of this tactic
5. Nellie is the happiest baby you've ever seen everything makes her smile especially Jace. They play so well together now and Jace tickles her all the time which makes everyone laugh.
6.Nellie's favorite game is peek-a-boo which she will play with anyone that gives her any sort of attention.
7. Nellie loves Katy Perry. Any time a katy perry song comes on she gets so excited and dances her little heart out. We've made it a point to have family dance time now.

Nellie's Halloween Costume what an adorable hula girl

Pretty little girl

She fell asleep like this in the car I just had to take a picture

So dang happy all the time

Nellie I love you so much my sweet little angle. Just don't grow up too fast I love you just the way you are.

Nellie's one year pictures

2010-10-17T14:51:00.001-07:00

Since I bought my camera I've been trying to get better at taking pictures but it seems that the better I get the more mobile and uncooperative my kids get. Taking pictures of someone that just learned to walk and therefore just realizing all the freedom they have is hard work. My goal was to get some one year old pictures of Nellie but that didn't really happen. She was so not having it. I tried and tried to get her to sit still for 2 seconds and even looking at me was too much to ask. By the end of it I was so frustrated I was about to cry. But I got home and was happy that I got a couple of useable cute pictures of her but still sad that it took so much work just to get those. Nellie when you look back and wonder why you don't have very many cute pictures of yourself don't blame me. I tried my best.

Jace on the other hand was slightly more cooperative and I ended up getting in a few good shots of him too. I have got to say that he is one good looking boy =)

My favorite picture so dang cute. This is the face he makes when I tell him to smile for me.

Happy Birthday Nellie!

2010-09-03T12:56:00.000-07:00

I can't believe my baby is 1 already! It seems like this past year has flown by much faster than I would have liked. I feel like she was just born and now here we are celebrating her first birthday. Nellie is walking all over the place now and is so amazingly adorable it is a joy to watch her grow. We celebrated her birthday with a mini party with 2 other friends from our neighborhood that are the same age as her. We did a party just for the 3 girls. I did a butterfly theme and made pick cupcakes with white chocolate butterfly wings on top. I was kinda proud of myself.

The Birthday Girls

Eden, Gwennie, and Nellie

Yumm cake!!

3 friends with 3 babies that are friends too.

Callie, Me and Kate (and Gwen too)
To clean off the cupcake mess from the babies we played in the backyard with the water on. I guess Nellie was thirsty after all that cake. And of course Jace had fun too.

Natalie's Baby Shower

2010-08-16T09:19:00.000-07:00

I'm always excited about babies especially when its new additions to my family. Natalie and Dallas are having a new baby girl in October so it's baby shower time! Hurray

Our own water park

2010-07-22T11:44:00.000-07:00

After all of our hard work on the backyard we figured it was time to enjoy it. We finally have grass growing and where there is grass and kids there is a waterpark. I remember tons of times growing up where we would all get our swimsuits on and run through the sprinkelers or jump on the trampolene with the sprinkeler underneath. AAAhhh such happy memories. Well now the best part about being a mom is getting to pass down those traditions to my kids. We bought Jace a slip and slide for his 1st birthday party and miraculously it survived our move without getting any holes. It is a really fun finding nemo one where you screw the hose in one end and as it fills up with water it sprays out of holes that run all the way down the whole legnth of the slide. Simple yet efective design and the kids love it. Even Nellie (who has a hard time getting wet sometimes *such a girly girl*) throughly enjoyed herself in our backyard waterpark.

Here's some pictures from our fun

You are not making me get my hair wet Mom!!

Jace jumped right in

Ok i guess i like it

Happy kids

Daddy and Nellie

It seems like I never make it onto this blog it's all pictures of the kids and an occasional Steven. So this is me making it onto the blog =)

Child labor

2010-06-02T20:41:00.000-07:00

Yes its true I'm putting my kids to work!!! But don't worry its totally legal and they love it! Jace is my sweet helper boy. He loves to be involved in anything and everything I am doing especially when there is water involved and especially when there are bubbles to play with. I decided it would be a fun and much needed activity to wash the car with the kids. Nellie wasn't too thrilled as I had to pen her up in the play yard (she kept trying to eat all of Steven's tools in the garage) But Jace and I had a blast. And of course i got some free child labor =)

What a good helper and so much fun too

Oh a little side note. I got to go to the zoo this past week with my wonderful lovely Heather and her boys. Sooo fun I love you heather

Uncle Sam!!

2010-05-27T15:22:00.000-07:00

No not the government uncle sam (although it is fun to say it that way) Jace and Nellie have an actual Uncle named Sam and they got to meet him this last weekend. Steven has 3 half brothers from his dad's first marriage and Sam is the youngest of the brothers. He was in town for training for a new job and I guess he heard our air mattress calling his name so he had to come stay. We had a lot of fun getting to know him. Jace especially, since Sam has a little boy himself he and Jace were best buds.

We all went swimming at Callie's condo

Hi Uncle Sam =)

Jace of course loves to be in the water he played long after we were all ready to get out. I swear that kid would be made of water if he could

This was nellie's first time actually getting in the water while swimming. We tried once before but it was too cold. I think she likes swimming...she looks pretty happy

Nellie also got to hang out with her buddy Eden. Such cute swimsuit models

Nellie's first time in the pool. I think my kids were supposed to be fish. They love the water.

Finally a Garden!

2010-05-02T09:43:00.000-07:00

Saturday was Gardening time (kinda like hammer time but with more dirt and less gold pants) We have been working on our back yard ever since we moved in 6 months ago. Steven has been working so hard on it we moved a ton of rock, rototilled the whole thing (destroying our sprinkeler system in the process) Then fixing the sprinkelers, we planted trees and grass and now it was finally time to plant the garden. Steven got me some railroad ties to be a super cool border around my garden and we filled it up with dirt from my Mom's. We did about half plants and half seeds. We did Tomatoes, peppers, basil, parsley, corn, beans, pumpkin, cantaloupe and Im hoping to do sweet potatoes here soon too. I love having a garden it makes me feel so frugal and organic and the fresh veggies are awesome too.

Jace of course was the perfect little digger helper. I think we are going to get him a dirt box of his own so he won't dig up the plants. He LOVES to dig. He's a boy =) and I think we've already established that Boys love dirt
Nellie was helping too. She was trying to eat the dirt though so she spent most of the time in the stroller silly girl
I don't know why he thought that would be a good idea.

At least she doesn't have any teeth yet

I have the sweetest husband in the world. I mentioned to him that I wanted a flower garden so he made me one. And he bought me my favorite flowers to go in it. Lillies I even have 2 different kinds now. Thanks baby

I went out to check on my flower garden this morning and my lillies had opened up for the sun. They are so pretty I love my garden!

My big little helper

2010-04-14T14:46:00.000-07:00

Lately Jace has been wanting to help me with everything. It is almost like he feels left out if I am doing something and not including him. I guess I should be happy about him helping me so much. It just is hard to be happy when everything takes 5 times longer when he is helping. He helps me sweep, unload the dishwasher and now even feeding his baby sister. He is such a big helper especially when it comes to Nellie. He just loves her so much and it is so cute to see him taking such good care of her.

Happy Birthday Jace

2010-04-01T09:54:00.000-07:00

My sweet little boy turned 2 yesterday sigh... I can'tbelieve he is so big so fast. I feel like he is still my baby but he's not. He is a little man now. We celebrated his birthday on Saturday. We had a little party for him at the park by our house. I was trying to plan this elaborate party and go way over the top (you know me) but I didn't even get to do any of the things I planned and I think the party turned out better because of it. Two year olds do not have a very long attention span and me trying to wrangle them all in for a game would have been frustrating and lets face it futile. So instead we just played at the playground, ate hotdogs and my glorious cupcake pops then cake and presents. It was perfect. All the kids loved it and I think Jace did too.

This is the amazing awesome cake that Steven's Mom made (looks like something I would do=) she is so talented I was seriously impressed

Jace and daddy enjoying the cake. This was one of our days we could eat sugar (one of only 10 we get this year) I think I went a little overboard with the sugar. I felt seriously sick afterward. But it was just so good I couldn't resist

Jace's favorite part of the party was blowing out the candles. It was so windy that I think he only got to blow out one but he still had fun.

Jones got in trouble and was sent to timeout. I guess his brother and cousin wanted to make him feel better so they did a group timeout it was so cute

Nellie didn't need cake to have a good time. I can't believe she kept those sunglasses on. I think it was all the attention she was getting. Either that or she really is a girly girl that loves her accessories. I think its BOTH!

I love that tongue she always has it out. Me and my super cute little baby girl

Oh and Happy Birthday to Penny her Birthday is today

We Love you Penny!!!

My Beautiful Family

2010-03-10T15:22:00.000-08:00

We have this amazing park that is literally right across the street from our house. It is a great place for the kids to play and a place for me to work on my photography skills. It might just be me but I can't believe how adorable my kids and my husband are. I'm so lucky to have my beautiful little family. Enjoy the pictures I sure am. (especially since I'm not in any of them one of the perks of being the photographer =)

Thats what little boys are made of...

2010-02-26T07:37:00.000-08:00

So the nursery rhyme goes...

"What are little boys made, of made of...

What are little boys made of?

Snips and snails and puppy dog tails

Thats what little boys are made of"

Well in the case of my little boy we need to add another ingredient to the list of what he is made of and that ingredient is DIRT

We Figured it out... well mostly

2010-02-16T09:13:00.000-08:00

So after lots of doctors visits and even a trip to Phoenix Children's Hospital we finally figured out why Nellie got so sick. It isn't a normal occurrence for babies as young as Nellie to get a urinary tract infection or in Nellie's case a Kidney infection. My pediatrician was worried that there could be something more serious going on and that was causing her to get the infection and it turns out she was right.

We went to Phoenix Children's on Thursday last week to have a few tests done. One was an ultrasound to check to make sure her kidneys weren't damaged from the infection and the other was a VCUG to figure out what the heck was going on. The VCUG is a really cool procedure (it would have been so much more fun to watch if it wasn't my baby on the table) What they do is insert a catheter into her bladder and fill it up with contrast material. Then they take periodic x-rays to see how things are flowing in there. It turns out that Nellie has vesicourital reflux a condition where her urine backs up into her kidneys when it isn't supposed to. Fortunately it wasn't a severe case only being on one side and it was a level 2 out of 5 for severity. So our treatment is preventative antibiotics for 6months! Then they redo the VCUG to see if she has grown out of it yet. I'm so excited that the fix is so simple and easy just 3/4 of a teaspoon of medicine at bed time but I'm seriously worried about my baby being on antibiotics for 6 months. And if she ends up getting another kidney infection while she is on the medication they might have to do surgery. Yikes! Lets hope it doesn't come to that.

Ok the bad news isn't over yet it gets worse... So I got the most terrible call from my doctor yesterday. She was taking a closer look at Nellie's x-rays from the vcug and she noticed something wrong with her hips. She apparently has pediatric hip dysplasia. My niece Emma is actually having surgery next Tuesday to correct the very same thing. I found out that is a genetic trait that runs in families in baby girls. I'm trying my hardest to look at this as a blessing. Since we had the test done for a different problem we were able to detect the hip problem early so she hopefully won't have to have surgery like Emma. We don't know the full extent of it yet we don't have our consult with the pediatric orthopedic surgeon until next Friday. Funny enough we are seeing the same doctor Emma is.

I'm sure everything will work its self out (at least thats what Steven tells me) but i'm sure your prayers wouldn't hurt. I'll keep you all updated as we see doctors and learn more.

At least she is still as cute as ever

Happy Baby Back

2010-02-04T14:40:00.000-08:00

I am so happy to finally have my happy baby back! I feel like she has been missing for a whole week. The reason she's been missing is a stupid sick bug took her away from me and left me a grouchy moody baby instead of my sweet happy one.

It snuck into our house on Friday night giving Nellie fevers off and on all afternoon and into the night. Usually if it is just a cold or flu bug the fevers last a day or so and then go away. But this was a nasty mean bug and it kept giving her fevers all weekend so by sunday she was seriously sick and not to mention seriously grouchy. Well you would be too if this sick bug bit you. I even almost took her into urgent care on Sunday night. She made it till Monday and we got the first available appointment with the Pediatrition.

When we walked into the office the first thing everyone said was how pale Nellie's face was. This was a serious bug and you could tell by the way she was acting that she was miserable. The doctor and lab people poked and prodded her all day trying to figure out what was wrong with her and which sure didn't help. The doctor poked her to get a cath for some pee and the Lab people poked her twice to get her blood. But thankfully it was all worth it. She had a urinary tract infection bug a pretty bad one. Almost bad enough to take her to the hospital but thankfully not. She got a shot of antibiotics on monday and a perscription on tuesday. But her tummy didn't like the perscription so it was back to the doctor on Wednesday for another shot and another perscription. Finally today she had beat the bug back enough to start feeling better.

She is smiling and laughing and making happy faces again it is like I have my wonderful happy girl back and I'm so glad.

What a day, What a day

2010-01-31T19:41:00.000-08:00

I don't understand why everything seems to happen all at once. Its like when you actually decide to make plans in advance on a certain weekend and then all of the sudden there are a ton of conflicts on that one weekend you decided to make plans on but the last 4 weekends in a row you were sitting at home on your butt watching re-runs because you had nothing better to do. This always seems to happen to me. So as a rule of thumb I usually try not to make plans but then I'm somehow disappointed when it was the 3rd weekend in a row I absolutely had to go rent a red box to keep from going mad. So now with that glorious introduction let me tell you about the day I've had today.

I don't know how I did it but I've gone about 7 years without having to speak in church. The last time I did I was 18. Steven has never heard me give a talk that's how long its been. So I guess after 7 years it was finally time and it was this Sunday we were supposed to speak. So Friday I start to feel sick. I am achy all over and have fevers on and off. I try to just shrug it off and I can't rest that much anyway since I'm a mom. Well I guess Nellie caught the bug from me and is super cranky with fevers too. Oh and did I mention that Steven and I are the new sunbeam teachers and we have no less than 10 sunbeams in our class. Its also that time of the month which just makes everything worse. Seriously Its bad enough having to give a talk but me and Nellie were both sick. I just wish things could be simple. I guess I will take giving one really difficult talk on a super scheduled day if I only have to do it once every 7 years. But I think my luck with that has run out. They are on to me now

A day of Fun!

2010-01-14T13:56:00.000-08:00

I took the kids to the Phoenix Children's Museum today. Well actually my neighbor Kate took us. I guess she had a membership and some guest passes that were about to expire so she wanted us to use them. So it was me Jace and Nellie, Kate and her 2 kids Edgren and Gwen and My friend and Neighbor Callie and her baby Eden. Its funny since we've lived here I've made lots of Neighbor friends something I haven't really done before. But all of our baby girls are only about a month apart from each other.

I've never been there before so it was nice to get to explore new things and we will definitely be going back. They had a little play area for the kids 3 and under and we all had a lot of fun there. And of course we had to get a picture of the 3 girls all the same age. They are so adorable together

Gwen Nellie and Eden

Jace had a ball too with all the fun activities there were for kids to do he loved planting flowers for his mommy He was master chef in the kitchen area. At one point he had oven mitts on both his hands. He wanted to keep them on too. He ran to the next exhibit without taking them off it was super cute.

and of course the little boy loved playing in the race car

And after a long day of playing hard and having fun Jace found a nice place to take a nap with his baby. He loves his babies

A day of Firsts

2010-01-06T17:36:00.000-08:00

Today was a big day of firsts for both my kids.

Today was Jace's first time going Potty in the acual potty chair. We have been trying unsucessfully for a few weeks now where he will sit on the potty for 2 seconds then get up and pee on the floor (or yesterday it was my bed). Or sometimes he would make a real effort only to go pee once he was in the bathtub. Today was the day I could feel it in my bones. I sat him down and took some warm water from the bath and poured it on his weiner and it WORKED! He peed. It scared him at first so he stopped really quickly but then with a little more warm water he peed again. It was so awesome after so long of trying to finally make some progress. He got a sucker for a reward and we called daddy to tell him all about it. I know it's only the first step but I'm so happy we finally made it.

Nellie's big first today was that she rolled over all by herself. I've been practicing with her for the last few days. I lay her down on her back and then pull her leg over just far enough so she still has to work to roll over and then let her go. After doing that a few times she was on her tummy and just rolled over onto her back. Just like that.. Like it was no problem at all. What a little pro.

And my first today was getting both kids down at exactly the same time so I had 2 1/2 whole hours to myself. It was amazing I got so much done. I was feeling ambitious and did the laundry and painted a wall in our bedroom. Now if only I could get them to do that every day....

Spicy Black Bean Soup

2010-01-05T18:18:00.000-08:00

So ever since Steven discovered Black Bean soup at the Cheesecake Factory he's been totaly in love with it. He has always liked beans and I'm finally learning to make them for him. So here is what I made for dinner tonight and I've got to say I'm pretty proud of myself. Personally I think it is even better that the restaurant soup. It's especially good with a little cheese and sour cream on top and tortilla chips on the side. Enjoy!

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 medium chopped onion
2 minced garlic cloves
1 teaspoons minced crumbled dried thyme
2 1/2 cups cooked black beans, with one cup of cooking liquid reserved (or use canned beans)
2 cups chicken broth
1 cups diced tomatoes (I use canned)
1 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoons Red Pepper
2 teaspoons Black Pepper
Direc tions
1Melt butter and oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until the onion is soft and translucent.
2Add the garlic and thyme and cook for an additional three minutes.
3Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low, cover, and simmer for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4Remove three cups of the soup from the pot and process until smooth, adding the puree back to the soup after it is pureed. (Do this in batches to avoid having hot black bean soup all over your ceiling!)
5Reheat until the soup is thoroughly warmed again.

Worst Blogger award Goes to ME!!!!

2010-01-03T21:54:00.000-08:00

Ok I've decided that i'm the worst blogger in the world and if they had an award to give out for bad bloging it would go to me. So it is one of my new years resolutions to be better at it. Well the actual resolution is to be better at preserving memories of my children. Like I'm going to get at least both of their first years in a scrapbook. I love writing in my journal and now I've started one for each of my kids so I can write down the silly adorable things they do so when they are my age they can read about how cute they were.

So speaking of keeping memories I'm super sad that my camera's memory card magically got reformatted and erased all my christmas pictures. I don't know how it happened it just did so now I'll have to rely on everyone else that took pictures that day for photos.

I did have a few from after christmas. Nellie is at least in her christmas PJs having tummy time with a super sparkly super fun christmas ornament from our tree. And Jace of course is showing her how to properly play with said ornament. What a good brother.

This is the most adorable picture of Jace. He got this ball pit for Christmas and this is all he has been doing in it. He loves to just lay in the balls and stare at the tree while drinking his juice. I forget that he is in there some times. He even likes to watch TV from his ball pit. I'm afraid sometimes that I won't be able to get him out of there. But at least he likes his christmas present. This week we went to the Zoo with Marilyn and Hannah. Hannah decided to come stay with us for a few days while she was here on break. I've loved having her around and so I thought she could tag along to the Zoo too. It was so nice of Marilyn to take us and we had so much fun. Although I seriously underestimaed the weather that day. I didn't have on a very warm Jacket and Hannah didn't have one at all. Fortunately her blood has warmed up a little since she's been living in Flagstaff. But at least the kids were warm

Jace loved the elephants he got so excited looking at them. They have this new observation area that makes them way closer and way cooler to look at. And of course Jace knew exactly what noise an Elephant makes. What a smart kidThis is my favorite picture of all time. Jace's favorite part of the Zoo is Harmony Farm where they have the goats you can pet. He just loves going from goat to goat touching them all and in this goats case giving it a hug on the butt. Thank you Hannah for a picture well captured

Me and Nellie waited outside the petting area. She's not into goats yet. I'm sure she'll love it someday. Just like her brother

Oh and we can't leave out the fact that I can put Nellie's hair in Pigtails now. I love it and she looks so cute with them in. She doesn't really care for the putting in of the pigtails part but what girl does. Beauty is pain Nellie. Beauty is pain.

New Years

We had a blast at Steven's aunt Nancy's house for new years. Jace is totaly in love with fire works and did just about as many fire works as he could get his little hands on.

Well there is the update for now lets hope that my resolution to keep up on my bloging will stand the test of time.

Christmas and Kid update

2009-12-06T15:29:00.000-08:00

Its begining to look a lot like Christmas at our house. We got out all our awesome christmas decorations (since we are huge Christmas fans) and I am especially proud of our tree. Last year I decided we needed to have a theam for our tree. So its kind of a Santa/Snowflake theme but mostly it is a red and white theme but I love it. I made all those snowflake ornaments last year and they look so good on our tree. I'm proud of myself every time I look at it. Nellie News...

Nellie as I'm sure most of you have noticed is a CHUNKER! She is 17 pounds at 3 months old. Some people might think thats a bad thing but man I love it! The main benefit is the sleep. Starting at 2 months she would sleep 5-6 hours regularly at night. Now, at 3 months old, we are up to 7-8 hours regularly. There was even one night that she slept 11 hours straight! I woke up the next morning and couldn't believe it. I'm pretty sure Jace was a year old before he slept 11 hours and 9 months before he slept 8. The other main benefit is buff arms. I was holding another baby that was about a month younger, and several pounds lighter, and I couldn't believe how easy it was. So anyone who thinks having a fat baby is bad I'll gladly disagree with them. Besides fat babies are super cute

She goes crazy for this little light up star toy I bought her It's totally adorable to watch her look at it.

Jace always seems to find a new and exciting way to crack me up. Last week he was having a little snack, puffs and juice his favorite. This time I decided to let him have the can of puffs to see what he would do with it. Thinking briliantly he came up with the idea to combine his 2 favorite things into one really amazing and yummy snack. Unfortunately the combination didn't work out so well.

Don't worry though Jace is determined enough to still get his juice no matter what. I love my kids they crack me up.

Up and Running

2009-11-23T15:05:00.001-08:00

Well things are moving along nicely with unpacking and making our new house feel like home. I think we are down to about 6 or 7 boxes left to unpack. Which I am seriously proud of us for. We have only been in our house for 3 weeks and we're almost completely unpacked. My mom has been in her house for almost a year and she still has boxes left =) Sorry Mom

We LOVE our new ward and have already made some new friends. Fortunately for us we had some old Friends we already knew. Jake Bell and his wife are in our ward that Steven knew growing up. Kathryn and Brent Olsen which I knew in Highschool and College and even a couple we knew from our first ward after we got married the Danielsons. We've even gotten into their babysitting Co-op they have and it is so nice to not have to pay for babysitting.

Steven has started Refing Highschool Basketball. We have been talking about him doing this for almost a year now and he is finally doing it. He went to a bunch of training meetings and has his first game next week I think. Our 10 year plan is for him to be a reff in a big college conference or even the NBA and then he can be an Engineer in the off season. He'd like that job a lot better and I don't blame him I'd hate to be stuck at a desk all day. I don't know how he does it.

Oh and we got a new computer!! It has been almost a year since ours broke and we would fix it so it would work for a month or so then break again. It was seriously aggrivating I'm soooo happy we have a new one now so I can post more often and just keep in touch with the real world.

Catching up

2009-11-08T12:18:00.001-08:00

Since we finally got our computer fixed again... and hopefully it will stay fixed this time... we decided to do some much needed catching up.

Halloween was awesome firstly because we were officially moved into our new house and secondly because of the awesomeness that was Jace's super cool Jack Jack costume. I tried to have him be Jack Jack for halloween last year but I, of course, waited until the last minute to find him a costume and couldn't. It was mainly becuse they just don't make a whole lot of costumes for really little babies. So this year I had to get creative. Jace still wasn't big enough to fit into a child size costume so we had to make our own. I have to give credit to Steven's friend John. A couple years ago he was the most amazing Mr Incredible so I stole the costume Idea from him. So we bought some red sweats, black duct tape and a tube of black lipstick (for the mask). I taped over the sweats to look like black briefs and taped up his church shoes to look like boots. Then a little lipstick and hair gel and wah lah. An awesome Jack Jack costume.

Isn't he cute!!!

Nellie was a pumpkin. She loved her costume because it was very warm and snuggly and she was held the whole time. What baby wouldn't love that.

And last but not least I finally broke down and gave Jace a hair cut. He has been looking very scraggily and scary for a long time but I didn't have the heart to cut off those sweet little baby curls. I finally convinced myself that they had to come off some time so after 19 months of growing he finally said good bye to his baby hair. I'm so glad I did though. He looks so much better with it trimmed more grown up (*snif*) but better.

Health, Halloween and House

2009-11-05T09:58:00.001-08:00

Health - First off an update on mindy. She is doing great. She had her surgery and everything is fine now. It took her an extra few weeks to get healthy but she is there now. we appreciate all the concern and help. By the way our computer went down again and that is why there wasn't an update sooner. we really need to get a new one but they cost so dang much.

Halloween - Of course it was Halloween recently and we have a couple of pics for you. I (Steven) was a ninja. Mindy was a very hot cop! Nellie was a pumpkin. And Jace was the best Jack Jack ever! He got so many compliments and thanks to some duct tape and black lipstick I would have to agree.

House - We finally closed on our house and moved in! Like I said our computer is down so i am sneaking this post from work and only have a few pics from my phone so here is a pic of the kitchen and you'll have to wait for pictures of the rest.

and of course just a couple more cute pics of our awesome kids!

I just can't catch a break

2009-09-26T23:33:00.000-07:00

I seriously have the worst luck with having children. Don't get me wrong I love my kids and I'd much rather have something go wrong with me than with them but seriously... a girl needs a break every now and again. I had a serious case of de-ja-vu today as we spent the better part of the day in the Emergency room.

I had this problem last time with Jace about 4 weeks after I had him I started bleeding and we ended up having to have emergency surgery to remove the leftover placenta that was causing the bleeding. My doctor knew about my situation with Jace and tried to get everything out but I still started bleeding. Fortunately this time when it started we knew exactly what was going on and rushed strait to the ER. I lost a lot of blood and had to get an IV then they removed a few more large clotts but they held off on surgery to see if things would clear up on their own after they got the bleeding under control. They gave me some medicine and sent me home but if it doesn't clear up in the next little while then we'll have to do the surgery.

So this is my plug for your prayers. We need all the help we can get so please pray for us that everything will be fine from now on and we won't have to do surgery again.

Adjusting to life with 2 children

2009-09-21T13:08:00.000-07:00

I still can't believe I have 2 kids now. I understand that I had Jace and now Nellie but it just hasn't really sunk in yet that I have CHILDREN plural. I'm sure it will hit me when Nellie starts requiring more attention. She just eats and sleeps and poops right now which is great because I need the time to get used to dividing my attention. Jace is not really handling the transition from only child to big brother very well. Don't get me wrong he absolutely LOVES his little sister its me he is mad at. I've heard its only a phase so here's hoping it gets better before it gets worse.

Funny little tid bit for you. Jace was feeling especially deprived of attention so he decided to help himself to my free arm... the arm I wasn't using while I was trying to feed Nellie. So he climbs up onto the couch and snuggles up against me and the next thing I know I am buried in unconscious children. It was totally cute and so fun to have both my babies snuggled up against me listening to them breathe. I just had to take a picture.

My little Handy ManSo the batteries went out in one of Jace's toys and I asked Steven to replace them. Jace was very interested in the battery replacing process. So interested in fact that when the job was done he didn't want to play with the toy he wanted to be like daddy and fix the batteries again. He cried and cried until Steven let him have the screwdriver so he could fix the toy. It was so cute

Nellie's first Photo shoot

2009-09-08T15:10:00.000-07:00

So I've had my camera for almost a year now and you'd think that I'd be really better at using it. Well It's harder than it looks. I must have taken a million pictures to get a few good ones. But she is so cute it was fun taking them and even more fun when I got some good ones.

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Welcome Baby Nellie

2009-09-05T15:46:00.000-07:00

Nellie Jane Raisor joined our family on Tuesday September 1st a little after 6pm. So Tuesday morning we went in at 3am (yeah I know but it was the only time they had left) It actually turned out to be a good thing we were scheduled that early because almost every other induction scheduled after us got bumped. So we got on Pitocin at 4:30 or so and after a long day of labor she was born at 6:07pm. So the reason my doctor decided to induce me 2 weeks early was so I wouldn't have another 9 pound baby... well it didn't work Nellie was 9 pounds 3 ounces and 21 inches long. Yeah and all that was 2 weeks early. I can't even imagine what she would have been if we had waited till 40 weeks. I could have had an 11 pounder on my hands. Yikes! Thats a scary thought. Thank goodness for my wonderful doctor. Everything went really well at the hospital the nurses were amazing and Nellie was so perfect and healthy that we only had to stay 24 hours.

The end is in sight!

2009-08-23T11:32:00.000-07:00

Well we had our much anticipated doctors appointment this past week to find out our induction date and it is....

da ta da daaaaa

September 1st!

That is just under 2 weeks early. I can't wait to get my hands on this baby and get her out of my stomach. The doctor said she is in the 88th percentile for size and she definitely shouldn't stay in there much longer. We get to go in at 3am! Yeah I know but it was the only time they have available and my doctor said going in at that time is good because we are less likely to get bumped. Wish us luck in just more than a week we will be having our baby girl

Camera Shy

2009-08-16T16:51:00.000-07:00

Why are tummy babies always so shy? I don't understand how they know you are trying to look at them but they know alright. I think they can sense that you are trying to take a peek at what they are going to look like when the come out and for some reason they don't think it is fair. "you can't get a look at me, It's supposed to be a surprise" well this was our failed attempt to ruin the surprise and get a good look at our daughters face before she arrived. Of course she had her hand in front of her face the whole time. Maybe it's because they know the kind of abuse they are going to get from the camera after they are born. She just isn't going to take it in the womb.

Well the ultrasound revealed that she is almost 7 pounds already. Which is absolute insanity seeing as how I have a month to go still. If she gains weight like she is supposed to the last month I'm looking at having a 10 or 11 pound baby on my hands. So I think we are going to start talking about an induction. Jace was over 9 pounds and it looks like Nellie won't be any different. Pray that my doctor is merciful and lets me have her early. We'll know more at our next doctors appointment next week.

Regular Ultrasound Face Picture

Baby Face with Hand
Look at those fat fingers

You are trying to ruin the surprise and I won't let you

Oh my hand is just so cumfy

Dancing Machine

2009-08-11T08:29:00.000-07:00

Ok, so this was too hilarious not to post. Jace is a dancing Maniac! He has a new favorite show on the Disney channel called the imagination movers. Every time his show comes on he gets so excited and has to dance and I mean he HAS TO DANCE. This time even warranted putting down the sippy cup so he could dance better. Sorry it is sideways and it's not very good quality I took it with my phone, but I'm sure you'll still love it!

Big week

2009-08-09T21:07:00.000-07:00

We have a very big week coming up! This wednesday is our 4year anniversary and next Monday is my Birthday!!!Yay!!!
I honestly would be a lot more excited for both events if i wasn't so enormously pregnant. That kinda limits the activities you can do to celebrate both events. But I guess even just having kids limits you a lot any way. We are probably just going to find somewhere to go eat (which is my favorite thing to do now any way) so any suggestions of a new restaurant to try would be great!

Next week is also our ultrasound appointment to find out how big our little girl is getting. Since Jace was a man child when he was born (over 9lbs) my doctor is insistent that we don't have history repeat its self. So we are doing an ultrasound to see how big she is and based on the results we will decide when to induce me early. I'm already measuring 2 weeks ahead so the chances of her being big are quite a lot. I'm really ok with being induced early and anyone who has been pregnant, especially in the summer, will agree that the last 4 or 5 weeks are the worst! So cutting some of that being miserable time down will be just fine with me. We'll keep you posted on when she will be making her entrance, but in the mean time wish us luck on our big week ahead.

Happy Birthday Annie!

2009-08-04T23:48:00.000-07:00

Today is my niece Annie's 3rd birthday! I can't believe she is getting so big so fast. Happy Birthday baby girl We love you so much and are so happy to have you in our family.

Baby Shower!!

2009-07-27T21:14:00.000-07:00

The best part about having a girl is getting to buy her a whole new set of clothes, blankets, bibs and just about everything else a baby needs but this time in the wonderful color of PINK!!! and of course I get to have another baby shower! Yay! So for any one who didn't get one in the mail consider this your invitation. I'm very proud of my handy work in making the invitation it makes me so happy every time I look at it. Hurray for new babies especially ones that let you add a little pink to your life.

Lincoln is Home

2009-06-24T16:59:00.001-07:00

And yes ladies and gentlemen he is as goofy as ever! Tuesday we got to pick Lincoln up from the airport coming home from his mission to Santiago Chille. I was actually quite pleasantly surprised that our little goofy Lincoln is now just a bigger version of his same goofy self. I was expecting him to be all grown up but "NEVER" he would say. He did have some trouble remembering some english words which I thought was totaly hilarious and adorable. He doesn't have an accent though he said there were lots of Gringos down there to talk to. Keep the english in his head. But yes ladies he is alive and well and now on the meat market. I am actually very curious to see what kind of crazy wonderful girl it will take to love my adorable goofy little brother. We shall see....

So his flight came in 10 min early so I didn't quite get time to fininsh coloring in the O on welcome. I think he still enjoyed the gesture. It's really the thought that counts right...
Raggity Lincoln. His suit had holes all over in it and his pants pocket had a huge poorly done patch on the back pocket. Lincoln... it's time to burn your suit. =)
Lincoln and Jace finally got to meet eachother. He got lots of pictures by email but things are always better in person. I think Jace likes his Uncle.
Hurray for Lincoln we are so happy to have you home.

My Little Drummer Boy

2009-06-13T10:31:00.000-07:00

Yeah Man!

So we had our Rock band set out for a party I had for the kids in my sunday school class and Jace could not get enough of the drums. He saw a few of the kids in my class play and had to join in the fun. We tried to get him to play a song but... Well he is only 14 months old. He loved it

Mommy where's my other stick?

D-Backs Game

2009-06-02T13:49:00.000-07:00

I am very pleased to announce that we finally have at least one of our computers up and running again. We got our desktop back on track after some expert help from Steven's step-brother Kirk Thank you Kirk. I can't tell you how frustrating it is to try to do something on an incredibly ancient and incredible slow computer that should take you about 10 minutes but it ends up taking an hour because I have to wait 5 minutes for everything to load. Even the start window takes for ever to load on that old thing. So hurray for technology and hurray for having my wonderful fast computer back. And with a better computer comes more blog posts so everyone wins.

So this past friday my wonderful dad decided we needed to have some quality family time together and what better way to do that than at a D-Backs baseball game. I have to admit Steven has tried to convince me to go to baseball games with him before and i'm not one to jump at the chance to go. I just don't enjoy baseball for the game its self like he does but... if the right people are going I'm totally on board.

Dad and Diane

Dallas and Natalie

Cameron and Alma

The Raisors

We had my Dad, Diane, Cameron and his wife Alma, Dallas and Natalie and Steven Jace and I. It was really fun even though I spent the majority of the game trying to wrestle with the 14 month old. We actually ended up going down to a little play yard they had there for the little kids to get some of his energy out he was much better for us after that.

Unfortunately even with our Rally caps on and everything the D-backs lost terribly 10-6 to the Braves and even more sad was they couldn't do the fireworks show. I guess it had something to do with high winds or some other sort of baloney. Oh well though the whole experience was fun and we'd love to do it again.

Mommy and JaceKisses for Daddy
Thank you for taking me to the game daddy =)

Fathers and Sons

2009-05-27T10:32:00.000-07:00

Jace and I went on a fathers and sons camp out this last weekend. I know everyone is probably thinking I am crazy for taking my 13 month old child on a camp out. I have to just say to that.... you are absolutly correct! I am really dumb for doing it. Let me explain though. We left about 3:30 friday afternoon, so we got to the camp site a little before six. At that time it was just starting to rain where we were but I assumed it would stop sometime or another and we could just have fun. Well, it never really stopped.
That is strike number one. Jace and I didn't let that get to us though as you can see from the pics Jace got to play a little in the car while I cooked so he wouldn't wander off and also to protect him from the rain a bit. After dinner someone put up a huge tarp and the guys sort of gathered in a circle and just hung out by latern light. this was Jace's favorite part. He loved standing in the middle of everyone and dancing throwing dirt and climbing onto people's laps. At this point I thought everything was going to turn out great.

But then it was bed time. Here is where strike two happened. First off let me explain that I thought this through quite a bit and felt prepared for bed time. Boy was I wrong. I had his pack and play in the tent with some of his favorite blankets and set up to his liking. I dont know if it was the rain, being in the tent, or just him knowing there were people outside but Jace would not go to sleep at all. So about 12:30ish I finally tried putting Jace in his car seat. This seemed to work initially yet after about 15 minutes he decided it wasn't comfortable. With out draging it out too much longer I ended up holding Jace in the front seat of the car wrapped in a blanket the whole night so he would stay asleep. Me getting maybe an hour of sleep because Jace would move every ten to twenty minutes.
The only good thing was that in the middle of the night it stopped raining. I thought maybe we could have a fun morning and move on from the terrible night of no sleep. The sun cam up about 5:30 in the morning and the rain came back about 5:35. that was stike three. So I put Jace down and packed up the unused tent and crib and we were on our way home by 6:15.
All in all it was a fun trip, a fun and exhausting one thats for sure. The fun Jace had the night before made it worth it.
Next time we try camping I will make sure there is no chance of rain at all and Mom will be there to work her sleeping magic on the kid.

Long Time no Blog

2009-05-20T08:42:00.000-07:00

So first off we need to apologize for our lack of blogging. This year has been rough for our computers. As of now we have one computer at a technitions house being fixed and our other is completely fried to a crisp. We now have Mindy's computer from 5 years ago that is probably 10 years old. it is almost impossible to do anything on that computer it is so slow. So now I have resulted to blogging at work during my breaks.

To update everyone on what else has happened in the last month; Mindy's belly is getting bigger and bigger each week. Here's the proof... Jace is running around like a mad man. Jace can now answer the questions, 'What does a dog say?' and 'What does a Bear/Lion Say?' Sometimes he gets cow or chicken with some coaxing as well. He will sometimes say hi to people, but love to give hi-fives at anyones request. He still loves balls and says ball ball which I consider his word for basketball. He recently has fallen in love with baseball bats as well since he started coming to the elders softball games i have to watch me play each week. He will stand at the backstop with his hands in the fence and watch two or three innings straight before he gets distracted. Then when we get home he will go for his own bat and walk around swinging the bat. That my little ball player! Oh, he also like to chase flies. I am talking about the bug kind. We have had an influx of flies the last couple of weeks in the house so I go around swatting them with the Fly Swatter. When I get one I would say 'Sucka' in a funny voice for Jace's amusement. So in turn Jace will take the swatter and go over to the back door where the fly's like to hang out take a swing and then grunt in a low voice not too dissimular to my 'sucka' and smiles real big at me and Mindy. It is so funny. And lastly Jace is still practicing his dance moves anytime he hears music, but then again anyone who knows Jace knows that from since he was just a few weeks old he has been gooving to the music any chance he gets.

I promise we will do better with the updates.

Suprise Suprise

2009-04-11T16:22:00.000-07:00

Yes it's true we defied all odds and we are having a girl! Friday was a very suprising and wonderful day when we had our ultrasound. As usual our baby was not very willing to let us look between her legs but she finally gave in and I couldn't be happier. Steven is still in a little bit of shock though. He kept asking the ultrasound tech if she was sure it wasn't a boy. We even picked out a boy name... that's how sure he was =) I am so happy we are having a beautiful baby girl. Now the next task is finding a name for her... any suggestions are welcome... YAY WE'RE HAVING A GIRL!!!!!

Jace's First Birthday

2009-03-18T09:58:00.000-07:00

Jace's 1st birthday is rapidly approaching and we want everyone to be there to celebrate with us. So if you didn't get an ivitation consider this yours. We will have lots of food, a slip n' slide and of course cake. So come one come all to help us celebrate Jace's first birthday.

Dunktastic

2009-02-24T21:28:00.000-08:00

Our son is the best dunker in the world! Watch out superman and kryptonate here comes Jacester

Baby's first Snow trip

2009-02-20T21:12:00.000-08:00

Ok so I have to apologize. I lost the cord that connects my camera to my computer for a while so I haven't been able to post pictures in a while. But I found it today (it's amazing what you can discover with a little cleaning) so hence the post.

I couldn't resist sharing this photo it was totally adorable. This is from Jace's first experience with spagetti, and I can't be sure, but I think he likes it. YUM!

This past week Heather and I decided our kids needed to experience the snow, you know before it all melted away. And with all the storms we've been having lately we thought it would be the perfect opportunity. So we loaded the kiddos in the car and headed up the 17 to find us some snow. I didn't think we'd have to go too far because of the storms but we did. We didn't run into any snow until we were about 3o min outside of flagstaff. But It gave me an excuse to see Hannah which I love so it all worked out. Hannah told us of a great park with lots of snow to take the kids to. So after 2 hours of driving we found the park got the kids all bundled up in their snow attire... and then this happened

And this...

They absolutely hated it! I couldn't believe it. Actually I couldn't stop laughing. It was so hilariously ironic that we spent 2 hours in the car for them both to scream as soon as they got out.

Jace was interested in the foreign white powdery stuff at first, but once he figured out how cold it was he wasn't so happy about itOh what is this stuff...

But both kids liked the sled thank goodness. I was afraid the whole trip would be a disaster but thanks to a snow free playground and a cherry red sled all was not lost

But needless to say I think it will be quite a while before we try to take kids to the snow again.

I Am OK

2009-02-13T19:40:00.000-08:00

So I went to the doctor and she said that I will be able to keep my eyes! She actually said my eyes had an allergic reation to the certain kind of contact she gave me. she gave me some liquid steriod eye drops and antibiotics to fix me. we will try a different kind of contact next week. close one!

Zombie eyes!

2009-02-12T18:07:00.000-08:00

So my contacts hate my eyes, or is it my eyes hate my contacts? Guess I will still be wearing glasses around. Poo.

Viewers beware

Oh Baby!

2009-02-05T11:47:00.001-08:00

Oh Baby, the Raisor's are having another baby! I know I know we can't believe it either. I was just a couple days late with my period and without even telling Steven I got a pregnancy test and it was positive.

Let's just say we were both shocked. I guess it was just meant to be. Jace just turned 10 months old so they will be about a year and a half apart.

We had our first doctors visit today and got our very first pictures of our new little peanut to show you. Isn't it cute!

Don't you just love these kinds of wonderful suprises =)

First Steps

2009-02-04T17:45:00.000-08:00

Jace took his first unassisted steps today. We've known that he has been close to walking for a while now. He loves to run around the house with his walker toy and he is really good at standing on his own. But today as I was eating a frosty and Jace was standing next to me so I moved back so he was standing on his own. Then I offered him some of my frosty and that's all it took. He took 4 or 5 steps toward me and got his frosty reward.

It's amazing what the lure of a little frosty can do =)

Suns Game!

2009-01-21T20:52:00.000-08:00

For Steven's Graduation present I got him super sweet suns tickets. We were in row 7 right behind the suns bench. We have been talking about going to a suns game for years and just never got around to it. It was so much fun. The atmosphere was amazing I had no idea that people got so into the games. We were so close to the action too. We saw Eddie Johnson an ex suns player, we said hi to Gambo a sports news caster. he was super nice and chatted with us for a bit. We also sat right next to Jerry Colangelo! We were so close to him we even tried to read his diamondbacks world series ring!. After the game we ran into Dan Marjlee. It was seriously so much fun we are definately going to have to do this again very soon!

Steven and GamboSteve Nash sinking a 3 pointer
Shaq shooting a free throw

I can't believe how close we were to the action! I loved every minute

New Car!!!

2009-01-16T18:10:00.001-08:00

So ever since the death of our beautiful infinity in the parking lot of the hospital, we have been barely surviving on one car. I have been braving being at home all day while Steven was at work. I have been trying for months now to get Steven to buy me a new car but I haven't been successful until now! Today we officially became a 2 car family and I absolutely LOVE my new car! It is beautiful. I wanted a crossover or at least something higher off the ground so it would be easier to get Jace in and out. My solution the Saturn VUE. It gets really good gas milage for an SUV and it is of course the sexiest car on earth! But the best part is the price. I know you'll all be jealous because we got it for only $4500.

I LOVE MY NEW CAR!!!

My Picky Baby

2009-01-12T15:43:00.000-08:00

So Jace has been unusually cranky lately. He has had a really hard time sleeping. He wakes up several times a night and it takes him a really long time to go back to sleep. This was really wierd for us because usually he is a really good sleeper. I had the hardest time figuring out why he has been so grumpy. I finally figured it out. We have been trying to save money lately so I decided to get the cheaper brand of formula instead of the really good expensive stuff. There was a huge price difference between the 2 it's actually like a $10 difference. Apparantly my son can tell the difference. He wouldn't drink the bottles we gave him and when he would drink some of it he would get really cranky. It's not like we gave him that much formula it was mostly for his bed time routine. So we broke down and got him the expensive formula and now he is so much happier.

I guess we just have a picky baby with expensive taste =) Silly boy

Christmas and Catching Up

2009-01-09T21:52:00.000-08:00

I must appologize to our loyal readers we have just had and incrediblly busy couple of weeks. I know, I know that shouldn't be a good excuse for not posting for so long. But we are back and we are so happy to be back

when you hear what we've been up to I'm sure you'll understand what took me so long.

Steven sucessfully graduated from ASU on December 19 and boy did we have a good time celebrating it. Steven's brother Scott and his wife Penny and 2 boys Jones and Maine flew in to be there for the graduation. It was great to have them here for Steven's big day. My brother Dallas also graduated and between his, Drews and Steven's graduation parties, we were pretty busy.

As you all know this was Jace's first Christmas and boy was he excited. Just look at that joy on that cute little face. (Just a little side note. I had to get him a "My first Chrismas" pair of Pajamas he looked so adorable in them)

Jace got some really fun toys for Christmas his favorite was his fun table that sings and plays music. And it is the perfect hight for him to help him learn how to stand and walk. He loves it. Infact we had a really hard time getting him to open any other presents.

And every little boy must have a ball =)

Jones loved trying on Uncle Steven's New Christmas shoes. Ummm... I think you have a lot of growing to do before those fit you kid.

Scott and Penny spent the night for Christmas eve and Steven's Mom came over to help us open presents. It was a crazy mess afterward but we loved every minute of it. Baby Maine was so adorable snuggling with his daddy. It was his first christmas too =)

New Years was a blast! Every year Steven's family does a party at his Aunt Nancy's. We make homemade Pizza, play games, watch movies all night and of course there are always FIREWORKS! I think Jace might be a little pyro maniac in the making. He loved the fireworks! I think the Sparklers were his favorite. Then again what little kid doesn't love bright lights.

Sorry for the long gap we'll try to not let it happen again =)

Another Character Comparison

2008-12-28T22:36:00.000-08:00

Aparently our family are look alikes for many tv characters. This is our nephiew Maine who looks an awful lot like Lando's co-pilot from star wars. It's gotta be the cheeks =)

Graduation Party

2008-12-08T23:40:00.001-08:00

Today was a great and auspicious day. Steven just finished his absolutely last day of classes EVER! Since he doesn't have school Tuesdays and Wednesday is reading day... Ta dah he's done! Which means that after a few horrific finals (yuck) graduation will be upon us! Yay I can't wait.

I want to make sure everyone knows about Steven's Graduation party. I have already gotten a few of the invitations I sent out back so I thought I'd make the announcement that you are all invited. It will be Saturday the 20th at 7pm till whenever at our house. So please come and celebrate with us Steven has worked so hard for this and it is finally here!

Don't you just love the awesome invitations I made for him. I made a bunch of other ones but they were too "girly" ah men... Why does everything with poke-a-dots call their manhood into question? But the man gets what the man wants I'm just happy he is finally graduating!

Oh soooo tired

2008-11-27T00:16:00.000-08:00

I know it is hard being a baby. Life is tough man. There is all the eating... all the pooping... the crying... and of course a kids gotta play. But after a while, it just wears you out and you get to a point where you just need a break.

I think I was reading the grocery adds while he was in his highchair happily eating his food. Which he likes to do all by himself thank you very much. After a while I noticed he was a little quite. So I look over at him and he was zonked! He didn't even stir when the flash went off on the camera. I was seriously close to peeing my pants I was laughing so hard

Family Pictures

2008-11-19T20:32:00.000-08:00

We took these awesome family pictures at our vacation to the beach in July (Hence the reason Jace looks so small) It was an exceptionally bright day when we took these and I think the light was bugging Jace because he looks just plain mad at the world in all of them.

Then again it is hard to get decent pictures of babies they just don't usually like to cooperate. Silly kid. Well we did what we could and I think they turned out great. I especially like the one of our backs walking away on the beach. I think I'm going to have that one blown up and put on our wall. I've seen people have pictures blown up to look like paintings I have no idea where to go to get that done so if anyone knows where I can get that done let me know.

Zoo Trip

2008-11-15T17:53:00.000-08:00

So one of the benefits of being a stay at home mom is you have time during the day to do lots of exciting activities like go to the Zoo. Heather, Guinness, Jace and I all made the trip this past week and had tons of fun. Granted we didn't see a whole lot of the actual zoo and animals. Oddly enough babies aren't really in to animals they have a hard time seeing. They did get a kick out of the kiddie playground, eating sand, and attempting to eat the goats at the petting zoo. You know just general little boy stuff.

Jace also liked the cubby hole. And it made for a good picture too. And you know me I never miss a photo op.

Oh and now we have a standing man! Jace totally pulled himself up to standing on the bench and stood there like a pro for like 5 minutes! I can't believe my little boy is growing up so fast.

Aside from trying to eat goats at the petting zoo. Mommy is always fun to try to eat.

At least we attempted to see animals... But the kids weren't too interested.

Playing in the dirt... I ask you what could be better? Nothing I can think of =)

And speaking of a photo op... I got some great shots of Heather and Guiness.

Soooo cute!

Totally Hilarious Picture

2008-11-12T18:54:00.000-08:00

I thought this picture of Jace was totally hilarious. I had no idea he could make a face like that let alone get a picture of it. So I just couldn't resist sharing it with you all. It makes me laugh every time I look at it

Happy Halloween

2008-11-03T13:48:00.001-08:00

Halloween was awesome this year. We had out first Ever experience with Trick or Treaters. Every other Halloween we lived in an apartment and no kids came to trick or treat. Now that we've moved into a house I fully expected kids. So I decked out our front porch with as much halloween stuff as I had (which wasn't much) then we lit some candles for a little mood lighting (oooooo) then we sat on the porch and waited.

I was surprised that more kids didn't come before it got dark. I thought especially for the little kids you would want them back home before dark. Then again we didn't get very many little ones mostly teenagers. It was a surprisingly fun night just sitting on the porch handing out candy.

Jace wanted to wear his hulk costume. Who can say no to that cute mug? Not me

My costume was my orange shirt and black pants I know that's cheating but who cares

Then on Saturday night we got invited to Stephanie's party where we really got into the Halloween spirit.

Happy hulk family
Stephanie and Jason and Ethan were the cast from nightmare before halloween. Jason was Jack Stephanie was Sally and Ethan was the little dog Zero. Totally cute costumes and it was a really fun party.

Now it's time for Christmas he he he...

Notes from our trip

2008-11-01T11:22:00.000-07:00

So to catch you all up on our trip to Georgia. So Jace and I spent 2 weeks with Scott, Penny, Jones and Maine playing, hanging out and having tons of fun. The best part though was when Steven spontaniously made the trip to georgia after his EIT test to bring Jace and I home. Here are just a few highlights for you to enjoy.

I'd like to say that Jones and Jace played together the whole time we were there. They didn't show too much interest in each other at first but did have some moments where they played well together. Playing might be a stretch. Jones liked to beat up on Jace fun, but Jace took it like a pro.

There were some fun cousin times together like bath time. The best thing about bath time was how white Jace was in the bath next to Jones. He looked like an albino kid =)

And of course Jace had to taste the Georgia variety of grass. I think he was trying to see which brand he likes better =) Oh and it was really cold while we were there I had to buy Jace some warmer clothes his shorts just weren't cutting it.

Jace got to spend some quality time with his uncle... which is one of the main reasons why we went there

And of course Steven got to spend some time with his new nephiew Maine.

And of course after weeks of being sooo close to crawling Jace finally did it! While we were waiting at the gate at the airport to go home. We really wanted Scott and Penny to be there to see it but at least now we have a good story about the first time he crawled.

We had a really fun time in Georgia. I actually was kinda sad coming home. I miss wearing my sweater and especially since Steven was there I could have stayed a lot longer.

Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-22T11:56:00.001-07:00

In the spirit of the fall season we decided to do something festive by going to the pumpkin patch at Pettit Creek Farms. It was only about a 45 min drive away and was way worth the drive.

They had pumpkins and a petting zoo, hay rides and crazy animals to see. Even though the kids were really too young to really know what was going on I really think they enjoyed it. I know we did.

My favorite thing to take pictures of is of course my super adorable baby Jace. I think he looks like a baby model in winter fashion. I know my opinion is just a little bias. But that's ok I'm his mother I'm allowed to be that way

We went on a hay ride to see the farm and some of their cool animals. I'm sorry to say that Jace was more interested in chewing on the hay ride than he was in the animals we saw. Silly boy

Jones and Jace are having tons of fun playing together. Super cute cousins. I think Scott is enjoying them too. =)

Of course a farm is always a good place to work on my photography skills. I got some super cute shots of Scott and Penny. I have got to add that Penny looks fantastic for just having a baby 3 WEEKS AGO!!! Go Penny go you look great!

Missing my Family :(

2008-10-18T23:30:00.000-07:00

So it is late on Saturday night and I (Steven) am missing my family like crazy. This past month or so I have really crazy busy. I am about to take this huge test that says I can be an engineer once I graduate. The problem is that it is quite hard and as a result I have been at school late every night lately. On top of that now Mindy and Jace are in Georgia visiting baby Maine and the other Raisors. My test is next Saturday and they come home the next Monday. I cant wait for the day! I actually was just looking at some pictures and videos of them and wanted to just share with everyone out there reading this, and hopefully my love as well, how much I really do love my family and how I just cant get enough of them. One more week and then one more month of school and all I have to worry about is work and most importantly my family!

Some of the pics I was just looking at;

Jace loves this;

Isn't she beautiful!

Beautiful Baby Maine

2008-10-15T09:20:00.000-07:00

Mindy and Jace are in Georgia for the next 2 weeks seeing our new nephew and cousin baby Maine. Last time we were here I didn't bring my camera cord so I had to wait till we got home to post pictures. This time there is a new baby to take pictures of and I couldn't wait to share them.

I'm still working on my photography skills with my new camera but I thought these were pretty good pictures enjoy.

My Little Racer!

2008-10-04T09:57:00.001-07:00

We were just walking down the isle at the store the other day when Jace turned to me and said "Daddy, I want to drive that mustang over there. Can you please put me in the car?" I should mention that this comment was made through his wide open eyes (and mine too). So Mindy and I were able to give our son what he wanted, a good ride! Go little racing Razor!

Yay for baby Maine

2008-10-01T23:40:00.000-07:00

Steven and I became an Aunt and Uncle again on Monday when Penny had baby Maine. Her C-section was scheduled for tuesday but she went into labor on Sunday night. They went to the hospital about midnight and baby Maine was born by C-section at 6:30! He was 7lbs 12oz and 20.5 inches long.

We are so happy for Scott, Penny, Jones and our new nephiew!

Look at all that hair!!

So cute!

Baby's First Baseball Game

2008-09-29T13:08:00.000-07:00

This weekend we took Jace to his first (and last) game of the season. We have been wanting to take him for a while now but we finally got the opportunity. Steven's Aunt Brooke was going and invited us to go along. We were even able to score some really good free tickets from one of Steven's friends. It turned out to be a really good game too the Diamondbacks even won! Woohoo!

Family Photo:
We didn't even think to ask someone to take a picture of the 3 of us but some really nice guy offered on his way out so ta da! Family picture

Jace has had his diamondbacks onesie for a while now but we scored this super cool hat while we were at the game. He actually has another hat but it is still way to big for him so we got another one just for the game. We had to search almost every store for one that fit him but we finally found the perfect one.

What's the point of having a kid if you can't spoil him every once in a while. In fact we spent more on him than the entire rest of our day. But we couldn't pass on his little diamondbacks bat. He loved that thing he was hitting Steven with it and loved throwing it at the people in front of us. Good thing he was so cute or they would have been a little more mad at him =)

The end of the game turned into a real nail biter and everyone was on their feet so Jace got on my shoulders for a better view. I had to wear Steven's hat so Jace wouldn't attack my hair. His favorite thing to eat lately

Well I think hair was his favorite thing to eat until we gave him some Cotton Candy. He loved it! Much better than hair=)

Then of course we figured he would have a better view on daddy's shoulders

Even Auntie Brooke came over for a visit=) We didn't have seats next to each other but she was the reason we got to go to the game at all. Thanks Auntie Brooke =)

Scooting and Pretzel Love!

2008-09-26T12:17:00.000-07:00

Jace has really been working on his crawling skills lately. He is pretty good at rolling over a few times to get where he needs to go. But that isn't enough for my little man. He wants to be able to take on the world at a little faster pace than just rolling. If there is something he wants that is just out of reach he stretches himself out, puts his head down on the ground and pulls his knees under him. Then when he stretches back out he has moved a little. Yay for my little scooter.

Stretch...

Tuck...

And look at me go!

Jace absolutely loves pretzels! Infact I can't keep them away from him. He especially loves the big thick ones. I think they are easier for him to hold on to. But I give him one while I am making his baby food. (Otherwise he screams bloody murder) Once I get his food made I try to take it away from him so he will eat. but oh no. He gets so mad when I try so I just have to let him have it. It actually helps him eat. I put a bite of food in his mouth and then he sucks on the pretzel to help it go down. What a funny Kido

I just love pretzels. They help my food go down nice and easy

Mommy I'm just so happy

Maybe I can get them both in my mouth at the same time =)

My Handywork

2008-09-20T20:35:00.000-07:00

For some reason TV shows really inspire me. I guess if you are going to watch TV it might as well inspire you. So lately my inspiration has come from the Home and Garden Network. Since we have a house to decorate now I needed some ideas and HG TV is the place to get it. One of my favorite shows is called Design on a dime where they take a room and give it a total make over for under $1000. A little more dime than I have but they still give you good inexpensive ideas. One really good Idea they had was to use old furniture and resurface or paint it to make new furniture.

So my first project was our guest room. This should probably be the last room on my list but I found a killer idea and I just couldn't help myself... and it's much easier to redecorate a room when you have a good idea =)

So I found this old desk in our Garage it used to belong to Steven's Grandfather. I liked it so I painted it to match my room see what you think.

Before

After

I am so proud of the way it turned out. I love it now! Infact I love it so much I'm going to use some of my extra paint to do an old bookcase we have to match.

Next step was paint and what's the point of painting if you con't have a little fun =)

The finished wall. Not the finished room I still have a few more touches to do. I did get the bed mostly done I got my awesome pillow from Ross only 12 bucks! I love bargain shopping! I'll keep you posted on the finished product =)

Happy Birthday Guiness

2008-09-15T12:08:00.001-07:00

This past week was Jace's friend Guinness's 1st Birthday Party. We had so much fun watching him open his presents.

And of course the best part of every first birthday party is watching the baby tear into his birthday cake. I can't tell for sure but it looks like he just might be enjoying his cake =) Just maybe

They had a pinata for all the other little kids and Jace definitely wanted to be a part of it. He was just so excited about the colorful crinkley package that he didn't really care what was inside.

I love my daddy. Especially when he gives me candy. =)

Oh and the best part by far was the dog. Jace has this new infatuation with dogs. He absolutely loves them. He always gets so excited whenever there is a dog arround. His eyes get all big and he kicks his feet like crazy. He always wants to touch them and laughs hysterically whenever he gets licked. It looks like someday we are going to have to get him one.

Happy Birthday Guinness!

Jack Jack Survey

2008-09-08T08:19:00.000-07:00

Does our kid look like Jack Jack from The Incredibles? We want to take a survey from you guys. Here are a couple pics...take a look and scroll down to compare and drop a comment and tell us what you think.

It's been a while...

2008-09-04T15:25:00.000-07:00

Sorry to all you faithful readers. It has been a really long time since I have posted. We have been having some problems getting our internet hooked up at the new house and combine that with learning to live with 4 kids in the house instead of 1 and unpacking it has made for a pretty busy couple of weeks.

Well just to catch you all up we have had some exciting new developments around our house...

Jace has said hello to solid foods =)

I tried seriously hard to get him to eat just the rice cereal stuff the doctor tells you to feed him first. But he wouldn't have anything to do with it. He would cry and cry when I would put it in his mouth, and I don't blame him. I tried a little bit of it and that stuff is nasty! It is so bland and gross. So I decided to mix it with a little baby food (sweet potatoes) and it was like magic! Now the crying happens when I can't get the stuff IN his mouth fast enough =) What a silly kid

I just love this stuff Mommy!

Oh and look what he found on the counter the other day.

This is my pretzle see...

Mmmmm so salty and yummy!

Another new and exciting development is that Jace is starting to sit up all by himself! That's right Folks we have a sitting man! He is growing up so fast I can't believe it!

Yeah, I know I'm cute!

Ok this isn't a new development but I have decided I need to loose the rest of my baby weight... and the weight I gained before I got pregnant... So Steven and I are doing Weight Watchers. I'm seriously excited. I have so many friends that have had great success with it that I am giving it a try. So I'll keep you posted on how we do =)

Moving Fun!

2008-08-26T21:22:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was a ton of work! We finally moved out of our crummy neighborhood and into a house! We are just renting of course it's Steven's last semester of school and once we he graduates and we save up a little we are going to buy a house! I wish we had our big beautiful house all to ourselves but we are actually sharing it with my sister and her family. It will be quite an adjustment going from a household of 3 to a household of 8! Especially when 4 of the eight are under 4 years old.

The best part of our new house is our new ward! Our old ward was hard to go to and we didn't feel that welcome. But this new ward is Fantastic! Everyone is so nice we love it and it is so nice to actually have a spriitual experience at church! What a concept!

We still have a ton of unpacking to do but once we get all setteled we'll have a housewarming party

These are a few of my favorite things

2008-08-15T11:30:00.001-07:00

Jace definitely has favorite things to play with and they are even more his favorite when they are combined. Her loves sitting in his bumbo he gets to have a cool view point and loves to watch what I am doing. He also loves playing with his rings. He tries to see how many he can fit into his mouth and then see how far he can chuck them. Silly kid. Here are a few pics with the dinamic duo making my kid the happiest on earth =)

I just love my rings

I could eat them here or there... I could eat them everywhere

Playing with my jungle gym is so much more fun in my Bumbo

Bumbo Bath time

Oh just a little farther I know I can get those rings

Wonderful Birthday/Anniversary Weekend

2008-08-09T23:12:00.000-07:00

I love the month of August! In fact I think August is my favorite month for 2 reasons. First is my birthday and 2nd is our Anniversary. Now I'm sure you're all wondering why our Anniversary isn't first but I was born way before I had an anniversary so it gets to be first.

I have recently come to really appreciate and enjoy my birthday. I don't think I really enjoyed my birthday until my wonderful husband showed me how. He absolutely loves his birthday, and the world revolves around him when it is his day. Lucky for me that means the world revolves around me when it is mine.

Fortunately for me this year I get a birthday week. Steven's mom is going to be out of town on my actual birthday, and since the family tradition is dinner at the restaurant of your choice, we celebrated a week early. Of course I chose the Cheesecake factory Yum! They have the best mahi mahi dish that is to die for! So with dinner this weekend and my actual birthday next weekend it's like my birthday all week!

August is also our 3 year anniversary, and who doesn't love their anniversary? Instead of getting each other wrapped gifts we bought each other massages! My mom watched Jace for an hour or so this afternoon while we went. It was so relaxing and fun definately a great anniversary gift.

Another new fun thing to add to the exciting weekend is Dallas and Natalie are spending the night at our house tonight, and tomorrow we are going to our new ward. Yay I can't wait!

I love my friends

2008-08-07T10:49:00.000-07:00

I love having good friends that don't care if you drop in on them unexpectedly. Danean is one of those friends. We love to randomly stop by her house when we are in the neighborhood and she doesn't mind a bit. It also helps that she has a baby Julius that is only a few months older than Jace so we can talk about baby stuff and our kids can play. Well Jace really isn't old enough to play with other kids yet but Julius was sure fascinated by another baby.

Woah you look fun to play with

I love my Mommy!

Laundry time

2008-08-05T10:32:00.000-07:00

Where's the baby...?

Here I am Mommy!

OOh I just love hiding in the laundry. Dryer sheets taste sooo good yum!

New Baby and Pics from our trip

2008-07-30T09:38:00.000-07:00

Our neighbors and friends Melissa and Bryan Rogers welcomed a new baby girl on Saturday Morning isn't she cute

Welcome Baby Kaylee Marie

Family picture!

Me and my Auntie Kathy

Me and Brett.

I love Grandma so much I'm going to try to eat her!

Yeah I know I look good

Yeah I'm ok with this whole ocean thing just as long as I get to wear my cool shades

Daddy and Me

Reading on the beach My favorite!

Yes you can have too much fun!

Balancing Act

2008-07-16T08:39:00.000-07:00

Taking care of a newborn can definitely be considered a balancing act. In our case this act is literal. And the funny part about it all is the baby loves it!

Lunch with Heather and new baby clothes

2008-07-11T11:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday me and my good friend Heather Stevens got to have a girls afternoon out. Well girls afternoon with babies lunch. This is actually a tradition we have been attempting to keep up since high school. Every few months we try to go to lunch together. It was easy when we both went to ASU now that we both have babies it is a little more difficult but totally worth the effort. Her little guy Guinness is about 6-7 months older than Jace so hopefully soon they will be able to play together and then we can do play dates too.

The best part about her baby being a little older than Jace is hand-me-downs! Heather generously gave me all the clothes that Guinness grew out of. So Jace now has more clothes than Steven and I combined but at least he looks dang cute!

Heather and Guinness

Jace's new clothes

Yeah man I know I look good =)

Happy Birthday Steven!

2008-07-08T17:30:00.000-07:00

Steven turned the big 25 this past week on July 6th and boy did we have fun celebrating. It is nice to have your birthday right around a holiday because you almost always get a long weekend for your birthday. Steven had friday off work so we didn't have to wait till sunday his actual birthday to start celebrating.

Steven got golf clubs from his Mom for his birthday. He figured it would be a good investment to learn how since it seems like everyone in the engineering world plays golf. Another reason was the head of his company asked him to play but he had to turn him down because he didn't know how. So off to the driving range we went to try the new clubs.

Jace liked watching daddy hit the balls from his new bumbo

Steven practicing every chance he got (inside Sports Authority in their golf section)

His first sip of Soda in 3 weeks. He decided to take the day off for his birthday. I'm so proud of him for giving up soda.

Then we went to Famous Daves for his birthday dinner

Happy birthday baby I love you!

Happy Birthday Lindsey

2008-07-08T17:15:00.001-07:00

July 3rd was my sister Lindsey's 26th birthday. Me and Lindsey, Steven and Diane all went to this quait little sandwich shop on Main street to celebrate. Then Steven and I took Lindsey shopping for a new outfit. She really needed something hip and since I am slowly becoming more fashion forward (Steven is teaching me) I decided to lend her a helping hand with picking out her outfit. I think we did pretty good Steven was there coaching us through it =) Happy Birthday Lindsey!

Working Woman

2008-07-02T16:00:00.000-07:00

As of Yesterday I am officially a working mother. Actually now that I think about it all mothers are working mothers! In fact they work a lot harder during the day than most people do. The only difference is Mothers don't get to clock out at 5pm and go home and relax. They are always on the job 24/7 and they don't even get paid for it!

Well now I am a working mother that actually gets paid to work. I started back at my wonderful stay at home marketing job yesterday and so far so good. It is actually quite the tricky thing to work with a newborn I can only do my phone calls when he is asleep. Which doesn't leave much time during the day to work but as long as I get all my work done it shouldn't matter. I can send emails and arrange schedules when he is awake because no one will hear him on the other end of the phone screaming or just talking (something he really enjoys lately)

The best part is having more money. Things have been a little tight the last few months living on only one income when you are used to having 2 but we need to start saving for a house since we are going to buy one when Steven graduates in December. So we are going to try to live off one paycheck and save the other. Who knows how that will go seeing as how I have a uncanny ability for racking up medical bills. Oh well it was for a good cause. Having a baby is definately worth a few bills. Yay for Mindy working again!

So I can't have 2 posts in a row without pictures and since I don't have any pictures of me working (that would be boring anyway) Here are some of my latest pictures of Jace.

Congrats to Our Newest Missionary

2008-06-25T13:41:00.001-07:00

Saturday was a big day for our family as our newest Missionary Landon received his mission call. He had a super fun (so I heard) pool party to celebrate and open his call with his friends and family present. I was really disappointed that we weren't able to make it.

Landon was called to the New York City, New York mission Spanish speaking.

I actually think one of my aunts went there on her mission but I can't remember which one hmm... any way now that Landon is going to learn Spanish he and my brother Lincoln will have their own secret language that they can use when they don't want anyone else to know what they are saying. Well except for the billion other people who speak Spanish. Ok so they can use it when they don't want ME to know what they are saying. Man I'm so disappointed I've always wanted to have a secret language!That's ok maybe someday... *Sigh* Ok congratulations to Landon whatever!

Some Pics from our trip

2008-06-19T16:06:00.000-07:00

So just incase you were all wondering Jace and I made it back to Arizona safe and sound. I have a seriously good baby! I love taking him places and letting everyone see just how cute and good he really is. There were probably 10 other kids on the plane with us and he was by far the best behaved. He slept almost the entire way there and back!

I loved walking through the airport you should have seen the smiles I got from people. There is just something about a baby that makes everyone smile and when you are the one holding the baby it seems like they are all smiling at you.

I had so much fun with Scott and Penny and Jones. Jones loved Jace and having his Aunt Mindy to play with. And since I had my new camera I took tons of pictures here are a few of the good ones.

Mindy and Jace in Georgia

2008-06-13T19:57:00.003-07:00

This week Mindy and Jace are in Georgia visiting Uncle Scott and Aunt Penny. Steven just started a new job so he didn't want to take time off work because we are taking off a week in July for our trip to Laguna (Which I am seriously excited for) Even though Steven couldn't come I have lots of free time since I'm not working at the moment (which is great by the way) and Steven wanted Scott and Penny to meet Jace. So Georgia here we come!

I was actually really worried about the flight. I used to travel for my work and I would hate the idiot lady that would bring her kid on the plane and they would scream the whole time. I did not want to be that idiot lady that everyone gives dirty looks to. But my little mad did so good! He slept almost the entire flight. He woke up once to eat and then it was right back to sleep. Everyone in the airport smiled at me and told me how cute he was (like I don't know just how cute my own little boy is I'm his mother Duh!)

Since we have been here we have had so much fun! I especially love using my new camera =) But silly me I didn't bring the cord with me to get the pictures from the camera to the computer so you will all just have to wait till we get home to see. With my new camera I got a 4GB memory card and I am so glad I did I can take tons of pictures and believe you me I have been taking tons. I am still getting the a hang of my camera but I'm sure there will be at least some good ones to share.

Missing Mesa Man

2008-06-09T12:25:00.001-07:00

So Here is a sad story (don't worry it has a happy ending) This past week was Scout camp for our ward. Steven being the Deacon's quorum adviser took a few days off work to go be with the boys.

As soon as Steven reached camp Geronimo on Thursday afternoon he called me saying that one of his boy's grandpas was missing. He was supposed to get to the camp on Monday but he didn't arrive. It was that day that people started asking me if I had heard about the man from mesa that was missing. "Yeah he is in our ward" Crazy!

They fortunately found him on friday morning around 8am.. I guess he and wrong directions to get to the camp and got lost. Then his truck got stuck in a ditch and since he was so lost no one was able to find him to help him out.

He finally left the truck and hiked to the top of a mountain to get cell phone reception to call his wife and the police. He was pretty dehydrated but otherwise ok. We are all very thankful that he is home safe and sound

New Camera and I'm a little Snap Happy!

2008-06-05T15:20:00.000-07:00

Yay I got a new camera! I have always wanted to have a really nice camera as long as I can remember. My dad has a really nice one that he actually used to use when he was the old fashioned photographer at Rock n R Ranch way back in the day. He even made me sit through one of his photography classes he taught. Not that I really learned a lot from his class oops I fell asleep (sorry dad) I came out of it with a love of photography and beautiful pictures. So I finally mustered up enough money (and the courage to spend that money) It's really funny how I have a hard time spending money on things. Sometimes Steven has to force me to go shopping because I have needed something for months but I just don't want to take the time or money to get it. You would think being a girl makes spending money come easily. Well some of us (me being some of us) have to work on it!

Now that I have a baby and I am actually getting a few more wedding invitation jobs I have a lot of things I need to take pictures of and the old digital camera wasn't cutting it for me any more. I sought the great wisdom and experience of my friend Kate, who is a professional photographer. She reccomended a few things and we even went to the Zoo one day to play around with her camera. I fell in love all over again and had to get one. I ended up getting a Cannon Rebel XT. I know there are 2 upgraded versions of this camera currently on the market but remember I have a hard time spending money and buying this camera was as much courage as I could muster. So to make a long story short I got it! I am so excited I can't stop playing with it and taking pictures. I have a long way to go learning what looks good but here are some of the shots I got so far I think they are pretty ok. Tell me what you think

My little guy is so cute It doesn't matter what kind of camera you take his picture with it still turns out great!

My little niece Rachel

Say goodbye to my old camera! Bye camera!

I thought this one was cool with his reflection in the hood of the car

Annie is so cute! Watch out though if you get her to pose she has a killer smile where she looks like she is gritting her teeth and she closes her eyes. But personally I think she looks even cuter candid

And of course one more of my sweet little boy This is my favorite so far.

Don't worry there will be plenty more where these came from. I LOVE MY NEW CAMERA!!!!!!

Happy blessing day!

2008-06-02T11:15:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Jace's blessing day. We were going to bless him last month but I with my surgery and family conflicts it had to wait till June. I am so glad we waited though because it was so much easier for me to plan and we could have all of our family there.

I was debating at first wether or not I was going to buy him a white outfit to wear but then I found out they made little baby tuxes and I had to have one. Steven and I spent almost all day friday looking for one. We found some at burlingtons but they all had crosses on them. We finally got a recomendation from a store clerk to try this little mexican store on 48th St and Southern. And jackpot! We found the perfect one! They had these ones with tails that I really wanted but they didn't have one small enough. But I really liked the one we got anyway. He had a little white shirt and pants, a tie, a cute little vest and a Jacket to top it all off.

After the blessing we had a luncheon at my grandma's house. We had alot of our family there and we had food and cake and it was a really good time. Thank you to everyone who helped us make this day special.

Sleepy baby

2008-05-25T16:37:00.001-07:00

I was trying to change a stinky baby the other night at the park and was amazed at how well a baby can sleep on anything.

Happy Birthday Jim

2008-05-20T14:43:00.000-07:00

So yesterday was my late step dad's birthday. He passed away from cancer a few years back but even though he isn't with us anymore my Mom decided we should still celebrate his birthday. So yesterday we had a really fun party at the park in his honor.

It was really fun we had BBQ chicken, fruit salad and home made root beer (Jim's favorite) we even had cake and ice cream. After everyone had eaten we all took turns telling what we had learned from him or what we had remembered the most about him. I didn't think I was going to have anything to say when it was my turn, but I surprised even myself with my memory about Jim was that he never yelled. It actually annoyed me at the time (I was a teenager what can you expect now it is a treasured memory) But any time someone would be mad and yelling at someone else Jim would always say "where is the fire? Why are you yelling? I don't see a fire" I guess in his mind having a fire is the only circumstance where yelling is allowed. =) It was so much fun getting to see all my step brothers and sisters and most of all getting to remember Jim.

Happy Birthday! We love and miss you!

Fun with Chocolate Cake

2008-05-15T13:09:00.000-07:00

Ok so since I have been home and in bed for the last few weeks my only outlet has been watching TV. I like watching while Jace eats or just having it on in the background for ambiance. I have recently become adicted to the show top chef on bravo. I've actually almost become adicted by default since daytime television is pretty much non exsistant even with cable. Ok any way on this show top chef the chefs have to create great tasting food and great looking food. It is so fun watching them come up with creative ways to make their food look better. I enjoyed it so much that I decided I would try my hand at it. I made this really great fancy decorated cake for my Mom for mothers day but I didn't get to take a picture of it. So I had some free time and decided to make another one with some extra flare. The extra flare being the Chocolate swirl garnishes =) so fun. So here is my creation that I got some really good pictures of.

Baby Tattoo

2008-05-12T14:01:00.000-07:00

So last weekend we went to a party Steven's work had at a park in Scottsdale. We went primarily so Steven could show off Jace to everyone he works with. While we were there Steven and his friend Kathryn decide that Jace needs a tattoo. Don't worry folks it's just a stick on. You know one of those that you put on with a wet wash cloth. What kind of parents do you think we are? I actually thought it was really cool so here are some pictures.

I have a strange feeling this is going to come back and bite us in the butt when Jace comes to us with a real tattoo and says "well you thought it was cool when I was a baby!" Stick on Jace it was a stick on!!!

Some Cuteness

2008-05-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

Here is a video of little Jace hiccuping so you should put your sound on to hear it.

Below are some pictures as well. Steven's favorite is the knee high picture. Looking like a real player with those socks!

Here is one of Jace with his cousin Rosey Jane. She is about a month older than Jace and look how much bigger Jace is than her. We sure do have one big boy.

Hospital and Emergency Surgery

2008-04-28T22:37:00.001-07:00

Usually I like to keep blog posts happy and interesting. This post is interesting but not that happy. Sunday morning unfortunately found us in the emergency room. I have been bleeding for a while now, as you should a little bit after having a baby, but every now and again I would have huge gushes of bright red blood that would leave me feeling dizzy and weak.

I didn't think too much of it the first few times it happened because some of the books I read said that was normal in the first few weeks. Well it didn't go away and Saturday morning I had another gush in which I lost a significant amount of blood that took me all day to recover from. Since this was Saturday and there are no doctor's office open, we decided to wait until Monday and make an appointment. I was so worried about it though that we decided, if it happened again we would go to urgent care.

Well Sunday morning it happened again and in we went. First going to urgent care and then they sent us to the ER so they could do an ultrasound to find out exactly what was going on. They discovered that I had some left over placenta that the idiot intern that delivered my baby didn't get out. So I had to have and emergency surgery called a D&C to remove the rest of it. I think they commonly use this surgery for women who have had miscarriages because the anesthesiologist thought I had miscarried.

Everything went well with the surgery and I even got to go home that night. The doctor told Steven that they found quite a bit so it was a really good thing we went in. Everything should be fine with me now and I have a check up in a few weeks with the really nice doctor that did my operation just to make sure. The worst part is I feel like I just had another baby and now have to recover all over again.

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers hopefully this should be over and I can finally get back to normal.

Birth Announcement

2008-04-20T20:02:00.000-07:00

Here is Jace's Birth announcement. I just need to find a good place to print it and then you'll all get one... in case we forget to mail you one... then consider this one the one we sent you =)