Slip 'n Slides - More fun than you think

Who knew Slip 'n Slides were so much fun? Here are some pictures from a birthday party we attended a few weeks ago!

Nathan doesn't really have a 'slide' approach...
he just runs down!

My favorite Slip 'n Slide picture by far,
just because of Elsie's expression.

Even a grown up took the plunge!

...more party fun...
Here's 1 year old Maysen rocking out her sunshades.


Nathan REALLY enjoyed {throwing} his first water balloons




This last picture is one that cracks me up, kids are so funny.
Elsie took one of the sponges for a water fight
and proceeded to clean Maysen up!

"High times for Melvin!"

Not sure why that movie line just came to me and if you are able to guess what movie it's from, I'll host my first blog giveaway! If you guess right, I'll give away something, not sure what the prize is yet but I'll work on it. Hint: It's one of my most favorite movies. :O)



This day definitely was "High times for Nathan!" We drove into Phoenix on a Friday night to eat and afterwords, we took Nathan to this park in central Phoenix. To lay the groundwork, Nathan is {mildly obsessed} with 'Choo-Choos'. I'm sure he gets this train fascination from his Great-Grandad. During the week, Nathan asked me every single morning, "Ma, C, Choo-Choooo?" [Interpretation "My see Choo-Choo?"] Most of the park trains have shut down due to high temperatures, but this park was still running the train and boy did we get a bang for our 5 bucks at this park!

Here is Nathan on the Choo-choo.

Portrait of a happy little boy...


The park also had a carousel, so Nathan rode the carousel horses for the first time.



But this was the real, magical moment. Check out the expression on this face.
If your not sure what that expression is...its called "Wonder".


This is what he is looking at...



And notice he's in the hot rod car...hmm, reminds me of someone...



Portrait of a REALLY HAPPY little boy...


Lastly, here are two videos:

Building a Backyard

We have begun the process of building our backyard.

It's a s-l-o-w process.

Here's some pictures of Greg installing the sprinkler system with help from our friends Josh and Brian.









Greg shared an observation about the differences between Texas and Arizona. He said, "In Texas, you would never-never-never-never see someone installing a sprinkler system in sandals."



I have to brag about my husband. Look at this picture, I don't even know what this is, but it's something Greg had to put together for the sprinkler system. Greg can do ANYTHING.





Great Success! See the water?


On this particular day, Brian got a little help from Nathan...


but it was short-lived...kids have a short attention span.




"Don't mind me, I'm just gonna drive around you while you work."






It was a little dusty at times...


but it equates to off-roading for a 2 year old.


That's it for now, Bye!

Blog Giveaways...a new trend.

I've become a pretty seasoned blog surfer (read: a new hobby) and I've noticed that blog giveaways are a hot trend right now. I'm not the only one who has noticed this either. One blogger that I follow, recently had a blog giveaway, you just needed to leave a comment to enter. That post (pictured above) had 912 comments! Can you believe that? Crazy.

I share all this to simply explain, this particular post is really an entry into a blog giveaway, hahaha. The Design Girl is giving away a blog makeover and one of the ways to enter is to post about it on your own blog. So here's my post...I hope I win, I hope I win, I hope I win! :O)


By the way we have had so many activities in the last few months and I am sooo behind on posting the pictures. To put in writing what I have in my head, here are the posts and pictures that are soon to come, not in any particular order;

• Greg-Off the Road Again.
• Who knew Slip N Slides were so fun?
  
• Choo-Choo, Vroom-Vroom.
  
• Monsoon Madness Mud Fest
• Building a Backyard
  
• My first Scrapbook Order!

07.08.09 @ 10:11:12 pm Pacific Time Zone

I was online, taking a Photoshop tutorial.
I had to take a self timer picture from the coffee table.

Fun Liz, thanks!

It's growing on me....Digitial Scrapbooking.

You may remember at the beginning of the year, I started a something called "Project 365". To summarize, the project kits sold out, I wasn't able to get one in time, I thought I'd try the project in a digital format but I was running into a huge learning curve. My daily pictures were piling up, I was getting really behind, so I basically gave up. Chalk up "Project 365" for 2009 as another one of my unfinished projects! Or maybe not.....

Since I've been doing more in Photoshop lately, I've made huge strides in my learning curve, so I'm thinking about picking up where I left off. My 'Project 365' may end up being 'Project 174' or something but that makes it more unique anyway, right? *grins* That's what I'll tell myself.

So check out this digital layout that I whipped together in about 30 mins (not bad in Scrapbook-time). Leave a comment and let me know what you think, should I try to play catch up and have a "Project xxx" to show for at the end of the year?

If you don't know about these things....you should!

Uncooked Flour Tortillas.

A while ago, Courtney told me that she buys uncooked flour tortillas from the grocery store. Whaaaat? "This is BRAND-NEW-INFORMATION!" (Any guesses on what show this line came from?) So I no longer buy the pre-packaged 'Mission' brand flour tortillas anymore, because basically, they taste like cardboard now. I eat these cook-em-yourself tortillas all the time-10am for breakfast, at noon for lunch, at 8pm for a snack. I kid you not. YUMM.

Folex Carpet Cleaner.

Ahhhhmaaazing!! And super easy to use. I'll never bother with any of the other brands like "Resolve"-which has 7 different types of stain removers by the way. Why would you need 7 different types of stain removers-I ask. Because none of them work-I answer. I found this bottle of Folex carpet cleaner at Walmart. What a surprise that *I* found this at *Walmart* which is equivalent to 'The Mall' for me.

Dunkin' Donuts Coffee

If you making coffee at home, Dunkin' Donuts brand coffee is the way to go. It's just so good and in my humble opinion, so much better than Starbucks brand. I know this is blasphemous to some of you reading, but you have to try it first before you stone me. I recently hit the local grocery store, and the price for a bag of Dunkin' Donuts coffee was $9. I was aghast, it's $6 at Walmart but I didn't have time to go there, so I bought Folger's in an attempt to save money. What a mistake! It's awful, it tastes like an ashtray or what I think an ashtray would taste like. I guess I've officially become a Dunkin' Donuts groupie but I know for a fact that I'm not the only one...there are others out there...I've talked to them. If they are brave, they might even leave a comment on this post.

That's all I've got for now...but trust me about these things!

Product tester in the making,
:o) Julia