Yard Work, Father's Day, & Buddy turns 1!

In the past month my Mom came to visit. It was nice to have her here to visit & help out. She & Brad worked on painting the fence together. It looks so nice now; it's safe to say it's the nicest looking fence in the neighborhood!

And check out that lawn! Doesn't it look nice? Okay, it just looks like regular lawn, but in comparison to the dead stuff there before, it looks beawesome! I read an article last week about a man from a nearby town that came up with a way to spray paint the lawn green on foreclosed homes in an attempt to get the home sold faster. It was in a local paper, but I found an online pic & small blurb about it here.

My parents, my sisters & me Oct. 2007.

Brad with Buddy on the day he was born.

Brad's parents and Missy in Tombstone April 2009.

I also missed blogging about Father's Day. I have wonderful Fathers in my life.

My Dad is a great Father and Grandfather. I have such fond memories of spending time with him growing up. In the Winter, I would sometimes go with him to plow snow. It was fun to sit in the warm cab of the truck with him, listening to the radio. And he always chewed DoubleMint gum. I smell that gum and immediately memories flood back. We would go with him to shoot grades on job sites. Now they have fancy GPS equipment for that, but I remember holding a tall plastic measuring stick (I'm sure that there is a formal name for that, but I have no idea what it is). A special bonus on those days was that we usually got to stop in at a gas station for a treat.

I also have a wonderful Father-in-law. He helped to raise Brad into the amazing man he is now. He has an extensive knowledge of history and is always willing to share that and everything else he has with us.

Brad is an exceptional Dad. We love & admire him so much. He works so hard for us & I am so proud of the things he has accomplished in his career. I appreciate that me staying home with our children is as important to him as it is to me.

I can't believe Buddy turned one last week! What a handsome Little Man he is turning out to be! And so smart, too! He is picking up his signs right & left. He signs "Love you!" to Daddy each morning as he leaves for work & signs "prayer" each night for Family Prayer. And, when he sees something he really wants, like candy, he will sign "Please...". He is nearly walking. I imagine it's only a few weeks away. He loves facing forward in the car now & giggles & shouts as we drive fast down the hill from our home, the wind tousling his hair. For his birthday he had football cakes. One large one for us:(I made it a little too oblong...).

A small one for him to demolish:And demolish he did!

I've started cloth diapering him again. I've found some All-in-Ones (AIO) that I really like. They are from Monkey Snuggles, an Etsy shop, of course. They are so cute & well-made!

Lands' End $100 Bathing Suit Giveaway - My Virtual Model

This morning I was over at Pajama Mommy Community entering their Lands’ End Bathing Suit $100 Gift Card Giveaway.

I went to the Lands' End site to check out their swimsuits as part of the requirements for the Giveaway. When I clicked on a suit to get a closer look at it, I noticed that there was an option to try it on My Virtual Model. Hmm... had to check that out!

What I found is that you can personalize a virtual model to try clothes on for you to see what they may look like on you. How cool is that! *cue the I Love Technology song*

Anyway, head on over to Pajama Mommy & enter the $100 gift card giveaway. Who can't use a new swimsuit?!

What we've been up to:

A few weeks ago we were excited to have some family come to visit. It was fun to play with Brad's Grandma, his Dad, his brother, and two of his nephews. We spent one of the days they were here playing at the beach. This was Buddy's first time to play in the wet sand. Brad and I got a little too much sun.

I forgot to post pics of Missy's Birthday cake. I've had some star shaped disposable tins for a while that she's been wanting to use, so we each had our own cupcake size cake.

I've continued to train for the half-marathon. I'm up to 5 miles at a time. I hope to make it up to 6 next week. It's hard to be on the treadmill that long with young kids. Fortunately, our friend, Heidi, shared a toy that her daughter has outgrown. It has provided me with a few extra minutes each day & the girls have had a blast with it.
Recently, I started using the services of Deals to Meals. I am loving it. In the past, I would sit with the ads for all the grocery stores. One by one I would write down the things that were on the sale that I typically would use in our meals. Then I would try to come up with a menu plan for the week using those items. Effective, yet time consuming.

Deals to Meals does all that and more for me. On top of all that I listed already, they will tell me what's a really good deal that I should stock up on for my food storage. If I do a little at a time, hopefully getting a year's supply of food won't seem so daunting.

So, one might think that means a lot of driving around to different stores. But, not so. I really wish we had Super Wal*Marts out here because they would price match & I could do all my shopping at one store. But, noooo... (I blame this on unions. I'm not fond of unions. In fact, I think they pretty much are worthless- unless you're the one collecting all the money. I imagine those people think they're pretty cool. Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox & back to the topic at hand.) Fortunately, we have WinCo. They don't price match, but I carry my little lists with me & usually what I'm looking for is cheaper there. But, if not, then I make a little stop in to the others stores throughout the week as I'm running other errands.

Like going to redbox. That's another of my new favorites. $1 rentals that I can return to any location. Yes, it's only 1 day rentals, but that's ok. And, did you know, you probably already did because I'm so behind on these type of things, you can go to their website & reserve the one you want. Then you already know it's there when you go & you don't have to stand there scrolling through the menu. I'm loving technology these days. "I love technology, but not as much as you, you see... But I still love technology... Always and forever."

Oh, and as a side note, I've recently become a Nu Skin distributor. I'm having a giveaway for a Body Care Essentials Package on my Spa At Home Mom blog. Only one person has entered so go over & enter. I'm not opposed to giving it away to family or friends. Well, I will be using a random number generator, but if it happens to be someone I know in real life, that's okay with me.

Peace out!

Happy Mother's Day!

As I think back over the past year in regards to being a mother and the women who, by learning from them, have helped me to become a better Mom, these are certain images that come to my mind. Here they are in no particular order...

My Incredible Mom with the girls the day Buddy & I came home from the hospital.

My Wonderful Grandma Neat-a & me!
Buddy and me moments after he was born.
And then all 3 kidlets...
One of my favorite pics of my Mom & me together. Not so flattering for me, but, you can see how happy being with my Mom makes me!

My Caring sister Kami with E.E.
My Always Supportive Auntie Elizabeth giving Missy a ride on one of her horses.
My Sister-in-law Jennie. She is the one and only SuperMom!
My Amazing Mother-in-law.
My Fearless sister Natalie with her 2 girls
Kami with Missy & Sissy

My Treasured Grams & Auntie Elizabeth at the Mitchell Sealing

Here are my Parents with all of the grandchildren in Oct 2007. Two more Grandsons have been added since then & another grandchild due at the end of this year.
Pregnant together with my Vivacious friend Shannon.
My friends Outstanding Sherrie & Sweet Jamie
Marvelous Sarah can be counted on for anything, anytime and any place.

Here is Sissy with Delightful Grandma Hendrix

Missy cuddling on the beach with Nana
My Beyond Awesome sister Mayme with her daughter E. Mayme is BeAwesome!
Nana with E.E.
About to Pop Natalie with Mayme and Nana in the background.
These kiddos are my pride and joy. They make my life complete!
As I was putting this together I realized that I don't have any photos of the 4th Great Grandma. She is coming to visit us tomorrow and I will have to make sure we take many pics in the few days that they are here with us.
This last pic is one of my Mom when she was pregnant with me. I am so grateful for her perseverance, her faith, and her sheer determination. After losing 3 babies before me, I am in awe of her ability to continue on. She has been, and always will be, a wonderful example to me. Mom, I'm sorry I didn't get a card in the mail to you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all you do for me and for my family. You are all of the wonderful adjectives in the English language rolled into one.

I hope all of the women out there have a wonderful Mother's Day. I know that some of you aren't biological mothers, but I know that you all touch the lives of others in ways you may never know. Also, there are so many women that I look up to, but I don't have a picture of. Please know so many of you mean so much to me!

There is a wonderful talk by M. Russell Ballard from last year's LDS General Conference. I have really enjoyed reading it today.

Happy Mother's Day!

Twitter

When I first heard about Twitter I thought it sounded like an enormous waste of time. If you have a blog, why would you tweet about little things that happen throughout the day? Isn't that what your blog is for? And you have to keep it 140 characters or less? What a pain!

Okay, now I'm an addict... And, yes, it can take more time from my day than I have to begin with, but it does have some positive things about it. I'm able to keep in contact with friends easier. People who are going through the same things as I am: homeschooling, autism, flylady, weight loss, lds, etc.

During this past LDS General Conference, it was like a virtual note taking of the talks. Some may say, "Well, were you even paying attention to conference?" As well as I could with 3 kidlets demanding my attention. So, it was a nice way to see things I had missed. Yes, I'll read through the Ensign anyway, but it was nice to see everyone's ideas about what was being said. Almost like a Sunday School discussion.

I can also send photos I take with my camera to twitpic.com, which then in turn are tweeted for me. I think I may be able to also do this with facebook, but I haven't figured that out yet... Anyway, it's convenient when I'm snapping a quick pic.

(Mr. Cuddles on the treadmill)

(A pic I took today as I put clothes away in the girls room. Apparently, the animals were having a discussion with the zookeeper...)

(And, Sissy's mouth after falling a couple Sunday's ago)

If you decide to become a twitnit (or a twitknit, I'm one of those too), I'd suggest using TweetDeck. You can go to tweetdeck.com and download the program. Then it keeps it updating in real time and is easier to follow what's going on. Plus, it gives you the option to update facebook at the same time as Twitter. I'm all about multi-tasking, eh? Also, from TweetDeck, I can see what my facebook friends are updating. Oh, yeah, and come follow me at http://twitter.com/fringies

Anywho, better get back to putting away the clean dishes...