Ami's long awaited 5th birthday party!

I LOVED Ami's party! It was a lot of work, as usual, with me questioning why I do this every year...but the kids look forward to their parties all year so I'm happy to be able to give that memory to them. MY FAVORITE THING - Ami's cake! It was so cute this year! Last year...not so much! Too bad this is the best pic I have of it (remind me not to designate Mom as photo taker again. She's not into the close ups like me). I made it one night while listening to my fav audio book, Blessed are the Cheese makers. I loved the cake and so did Ami!

The girls all came in princess costumes...

They ate pizza and princess fruit snacks and cupcakes first. I had a veggie plate for them but I don't think any of them got any!

The only boy there besides Caidgen, cousin Cooper was a legend with some of the girls I heard afterwards. He was the second to last to "slay" the dragon pinata and he knocked the head right off. More than one girl went home and told Mom about that. Chloe said, "so Ami's dad tied him up by the neck - not the boy, but the dragon.." so cute! We had plenty of the authentic - come to find out not so tasty Mexican candy for the kids after Stella got the last hit. I'm so glad I got a true Mexican pinata because it lasted through 18 kids! A few pieces flew out with each kid's hit so they were all rewarded a little bit before the big race for candy.












Ami loved her new Aerial backpack and bike. I forgot to give her the bike until hours after the party! I love the deal I got on it - 20 bucks off Craig's list. And it's really nice and pretty. She needed a bigger bike so she can ride without training wheels. Her little one required LIGHTENING speed pedaling or she'd fall over!






Here's me and Andrea who drove all the way from Camp Verde. Such a sacrificer! She's great for supporting the kid's parties! I will post a pic of Blue and I when I get one - my friend Dawn took that one. :)

New Paint...

Here's the amazing handyman at it again. Ross was slow this week with work so I hired him to do my stairwell. Hey, it's only been almost 3 years since we moved in. It was time.
What a lot of work - the ceilings are like 17 feet high. Unfortunately I didn't get a pic of him on his scaffolding. The gymnastics alone would have made for enough work, but no, I had to give him MORE. I bought the paint at wal mart like a DUMMY. It was thin and runny, and whoops!: the drugged up employee with acne and long hair mixed the 2 gallons of tan paint a little wrong...
Can you see stripes where Ross put the first, then the second gallon on? One can had more blue undertones... So i had to get new paint (the pricey Home Depot brand) and Ross REDID the tan walls...
He was a sport about it. In the end it was still gorgeous. Tan everywhere with the back wall a slate blue. We bought a suede chocolate brown black out roman shade for the window - I finally gave in to my cave man hubby and the AC bill. It is now DARK with the shade down... The last pic there is from upstairs - my brown wall and the tan and blue. Don't ask me why the half wall looks lighter than the tan wall - deceiving picture since they are the same color. Or has the wal mart paint duped me again???????

All in a day....

We spent the night at my mom's last night since I did her and her best friend's hair. What should have been an uneventful sleepover turned out to be one obnoxious night for all of us. Somehow, the back of Mom's house has become home to a mosquito hive (though there is no standing water to be found...). The little buggers come out to feast at night - this night on Ami's face. After a fitful night of little sleep, I myself having batted away little "buzzes" in the blackness all night, I awoke to see Ami slightly resembling the Elephant Man. Poor Blue didn't go to sleep til 1 am but I dragged him up to look at her puffy eye at 7. We thought it was from the mosquito but I took her to urgent care to be sure. That was a fun waste of 2 hours. I've waited all day for the swelling to go down, and now I'm just pissed. Her eye seems to be getting MORE inflamed. I counted Caidgen's bites, by the way, before he got in the shower tonight and there were 17 that I could easily see on his face, neck and arms. I've got quite a few myself. Blue apparently has bitter blood because he's bump free.
funner news: Caidgen can officially blow bubbles! He did it all evening long. I'm bursting with pride - seriously! It's been something he's always wanted to do. Ah...success.
Success has certainly NOT gone to his head. He's still just a goof. Ami insisted on taking his pic tonight after reading time, and HE insisted on making a funny face. That's what they do all DAY LONG - make each other laugh with ridiculous gestures and sounds. It certainly motivates me to not let them stay up too late. I need QUIET!!!!!!

One last news of the day - nothing silly about it. My doctor called and wants a specialty ultrasound because my baby has too much fluid in his kidneys. It's hopefully nothing, but when the doctor calls at 5 pm and is taking it seriously, I get nervous. I'm kinda sad about it all. I don't want my little KICKER to be broken....

Happy 60th, Ross!

We all surprised Ross at the bowling alley for his 60th b-day. It was so fun (though sad that Blue wasn't there since he works nights now)! I think there were 15 of us there - all family. Of course he and Mom bowl strikes - even TURKEYS like mad...so do a few others in the family, namely NOT ME...
I stuck with the kids. This was their first time ever doing it (the WEE doesn't count). They loved it!!! Ami got everyone their balls. She would have done better had the ball had more force behind it by the time it moped into the pins. By the end of the night Caidgen bowled a few frames for me without bumpers and he actually hit pins! He got 9 down in one shot! He totally beat me in the first game - I think everyone did! But I rallied by the end!

Ross' expensive tools were wrapped in princess paper!

July 4th

We started out the 4th at Jeni's house this year. The kids LOVE her little "jet ski!" Caidgen and Ami have really awed me with their progress with swimming. we had great food and a laid back time with Jeni and her "mister fan" that soaked us through.

Then we went to Mom's for another BBQ. MORE great food and tons of swimming. More like, cannon ball contests (I sat those out) and holding-your-breath-til-your-blue contests. Blue, ever our risk taker, busted out fireworks for us in spite of the cops' warning about mandatory 30 days in jail. TC was great about playing star wars fights with Caidgen and Stella by the pool with noodles. Caidgen even knocked him in the pool once.
Blue became Ironman for me! All I need now is for him to be just a tad more of a smart ass, a nice Hitler stash and I'd say it's a dead ringer...

life

let's see...I'm tired but might as well update a tiny bit.
My car got slammed into last week at a Serrano's parking lot. Nice loser just left...

That SAME day at Hamilton pool men STARED at me the whole time- yes people, I'm pregnant and in a swim suit, aka, fat suit. Geese, you'd think they'd never seen one. When we left my friend Jen got out just before a cop chained the only OPEN gate and I was locked in for a half hour. Yes I did call 911 and bitch someone out before he came back and opened another gate. He called me SWEETY. I could have taken the baton off his belt and beat him.

Every time I pee I have a strong contraction - that's a fun regularity these days.

Ami was SOO bad at the store today I pretty much told her to go to bed and that I didn't want to see her face till tomorrow. Of course, then me and Cage went in her room to pray and read stories. Can't not do that. Soon after I thought I heard her almost rehearsing an apology - I thought maybe she was playing with her stuffed puppy. I decided that as long as she stayed quiet I wouldn't harangue her (like that word?). A few minutes later she called me in and said, " I called you in here to apologize. I'm sorry that I was bad to you today." It was amazingly precious. You go Amie!

Blue works 3pm to 11 pm Mon thru fri now. that translates to 12 to 12. He has to leave early to satisfy the Haught in him and to work out. I love his hard body, but we will see if it wears on me. why can't he just be fat like me? JK honey.

My photo printer is broken. Sucks. I really want to fix it, but is it worth it?

My stair well is getting painted tomorrow. Yeah!!! I will take pics, but will I bring the camera upstairs to post them...we will see...

I'm not tired anymore - as much. For the first time in this pregnany - and it's the last trimester. My body is a little odd. :)

jump roping memories

Remember this little ditty from our jump roping days on the playground...

Miss Suzie has a steamboat
The steamboat has a bell
ding ding
The steamboat went to heaven
Miss Suzie went to Hell-o...
Operator
Please give me number 9
And if you disconnect me
I'll kick you in beHIND
the fridgerator
there laid a piece of glass
Miss Suzie sat upon it
And broke her little ask-
me no more questions
I'll tell you no more lies
The boys are in the bathroom...
Help! What is the rest? My friend Antone called wanting me to remember this song from grade school and of course I COULDN'T because I have a crap memory. But Stella did - she's spending the night with us tonight (T.C's "adopted" daughter in the 3rd grade). Anyone else remember it???

a short synopsis of what we have been doing this summer...

This is of course exempting SWIMMING, which we seem to to every day... Memorial Day we did a spontaneous camping trip to Hegler's Creek. The kids LOVED every single second of it. Blue and I loved it too, although we were tempted to leave those 2 children in the woods and just leave because they were SO HYPER the whole time.

I've never heard the kids laugh so deeply as they did on Blue's forest made tree swing. I don't think that tree will ever recover. But it will be eaten by bark beetles soon anyway, right? Just kidding. It actually looks like AZ is getting some serious rain again....
Father's day was great. We made blue this cookie cake. All I could do to support his "diet" was sub oil for applesauce. He loved it though...loved it. I think that is a great effect of cooking for a dieter - they have heightened taste bud enjoyment for any old thing you make them! We also surprised Blue with a backyard swing so he can sit and enjoy the fruit of his labors out there. I thought it would be a nice change from a tool that just gives him more work to do (don't get me wrong - I still have a list for him).