To Blog or Not to Blog

Halloween 2011

2011-11-03T23:10:00.001-07:00

I made our costumes this year... Yip Yip's from Sesame Street. Of course the little ones decided they wanted to be the Yip Yip's cats.

I got the idea for the Yip Yip's from Martha Stewart's web site. Things to note... costumes were horrible to actually trick or treat in because they were hot and hard to see out of. I wanted to save money so found some blankets from garage sales to use that was way cheaper than buying at store. I love to recycle costumes!! We used pool noodles for the mouths... much easier than stuffing with pillow stuffing. Oh and by the way... no sewing just lots of hot glue. There are some good u tube instructions out there too.

Summer 2010

2010-07-09T13:10:00.001-07:00

Challenges of the summer.

The first challenge for the summer was attending Jr. High Camp with our church! Really it was no challenge, but I didn't know how working with the Jr. High kids would be. God has shown me they need the silliness of life before they too start facing the challenges of this world. So for the summer I have decided to work with the Jr High ministry and see if I can give them a little silliness and love. Not sure what God has in store for this new challenge, but I feel the tug at my heart, so I'm jumping in!

I'm starting to read, The Reason for God by Timothy Keller. Just in the preface I'm realizing this book could an amazing read. I'm not sure how much I will be able to dive in, but I'm going to give it a shot. The very first part is already shedding some light from some of those questions in life that you just seem to question, but not really question. Can there be just one true religion? So you see how deep this book will be and I'm hoping I can stay with it.

The third challenge of the summer has come with the health issue.... again. My mother has cancer again.... yes.... again. This will be the 4 time and 3 kind of cancer. She is an amazing fighter for life! I feel God's comfort with this area.... I'm not sure if it's because I have given it up the Lord or because I'm not facing it. But for now I'm at peace with it. But once again my memory seems to be leaving so the blogging must start again. We had a wonderful day swimming with her and all the grandkids. It was a good day.

The fourth challenge of the summer will be my floors.... they are a mess and I am going to try to make a plan and attack them. This may fail, but I'm sick of them and something must be done!

So summer... here I come!

Dec 2009? What???

2009-12-11T09:04:00.000-08:00

Our turkey centerpiece.

How did December come so fast this year? WoW, time is just flying by! We did have a wonderful thanksgiving with a last minute change of Amanda and Chris coming home for the holiday! What a joy it was to see them and have the whole family here for thanksgiving. The added bonus was finding a new house for them just ten minutes away... another 10 days and they will be making their move back to Arizona.

We have been doing some holiday traditions along the way in December... we went and saw Santa at the mall and danced with Mrs. Claus and listened to her read the book The Night Before Christmas. Princess P was totally into dancing and listening to the book. She even won a prize! Mrs. Claus said she thought she was just the cutest thing dancing with her!

I was not very happy with the Santa people this year! They would not allow me to take my own photos, even though I bought some of their one shot photos! I love capturing the kids with Santa and him chatting about their list... but no I get one photo that doesn't fit in my photo book properly because of the way the take the picture! ERRRRR!! I "accidently" took one photo of the kids on his lap, unfortunately the kids did not know I was sneaking it in and a couple of them we not looking at the camera. I did send them an email telling them that we will not be back unless they change this policy.

The house is coming along with our decorations... the tree is up... the kids did a wonderful job of decorating again this year. I love that they can do most of the decorating and they explore all the ornaments and the memories of the "special ones". I got the stockings hung and my door is decorated. Poor Tyler can't seem to get the lights on the house yet because he had to clear out the branches off the tree in the front yard. Boy do those mesquite trees grow like weeds!
Here are some holiday spots in our house.

Opps... these are Christmas Crafts we are working on.... gifts....

Halloween 2009

2009-11-13T12:40:00.000-08:00

Star Wars.... 2009

Ghostbusters....2008

Incredibles... 2006

I'm lonely so I'll chat...

2009-11-09T13:33:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm not really LONELY, but I don't have anyone to brag about my weekend. I already showed off my work to my facebook friends.LOL
This was a productive weekend, well at least in the creative crafting section of my life. Friday we finished up the 8 turkey shirts. They were a big hit and so easy. All you need is a plain shirt, some acrylic paint, and some hands and a foot. LOL And here is what you get....
I also had a sewing day with my Mamma. She and I had a blast embellishing an outfit for Kylie's big 8th birthday.

And finally with my small group (group of 4th-6th girls from church that I try to lead) we had a get together and made cute flower clips for our hair. I made a turkey.

WOW, been away.... update!

2009-10-22T09:11:00.000-07:00

OH ME OH MY... life has been busy but of course blessed and fun!
Halloween is quickly approaching and this years family theme is Star Wars... unfortunately I only have 2 of the 5 costumes ready.

We just returned from our fall break vacation... we had to crack open the coin jar and have a garage sale, but it was WAY worth it! We headed down the Mexico with 3 other couples and had the BEST time. There were 11 kiddos and 8 adults. We had each family make one dinner a night so I only had to cook one time! That was just one of my favorite things about the trip. The beach was perfect! We were a little concerned about the H1N1 flu but since all of our kids have it in their classes her in the states we figured, what's the difference?
Here are some pictures of our fab trip! I had been fighting migraines for two weeks before and I didn't have a one while we were there... tells me I need to move to the beach, right?

San Deigo 2009

2009-07-02T11:14:00.000-07:00

Our June has ended with a trip to USD for the Dobson Basketball camp. (The kids and I ride along and go to the beach while Tyler works his basketball camp.) We got to stay in the dorms. It was actually really nice, with two bedroom and a full kitchen/living area. There was no tv so it was a little slice of heaven. However there were 7 kids and 3 adults in this small dorm. But it worked!

We headed to the beach the first day and caught some huge waves for our boogie boards. Tanner was in the water FOREVER! Of course he got burnt on his face only to the point of blisters. Poor guy!

Tanner with shades and hat so he doesn't fry anymore.
The family at the cliffs in Point Loma checking out the tide pools.
Kyky loved to board but mostly build dams and castles in the sand.
The girls lovin up the beach!
Princess P loved playing in the sand and jumping in big holes!
Point Loma on top of San Diego.
Tyler doing a little boarding. (He and the other coaches played more than the kids!)
My oldest loved to hang at the beach too. She loves to be in the water and just sit and watch the water.

The other kids had a few burns from missed sun screen. We were grounded from the beach because of the burns for one day. Total torture for me since the beach was a mere 3 miles away and I had to sit around in a dorm all day with crabby sunburn kids and no tv! But the next day we were back at the beach and got a couple more times in from begging dear Dad for another day at the beach to play. Here are some photos of our trip. We also went to Point Loma for some tide pools and a national monument.

Summer, summer timmme!

2009-07-02T10:46:00.000-07:00

Remembering the good ole days of listening to summer music with the windows down in the yellow bug. Gosh I actually miss that little car! I'm thinking how fast this summer has already gone by! First starting the summer with a camping trip, next a week at camp at UCYC camp as a camp group leader for Kelsey's group, and then a week of rest (LOL) vacation Bible school, and then onto San Diego. WOO and that is just the half of it!

Here's the crazy waterslide at camp we called it slide and die. (I was not brave enough for this one!

Girls on top of camp from our Geo Cache Hike.

Kelsey rock climbing... all my group got to the top. (I did not try this one either.)

The worship time at camp was the best. The lessons were fun and the music was amazing. (I still am having a hard time hearing because the worship center was a rockin!) God is so great and through this camp I saw kids just purely worshiping the Lord. AMAZING!!

Here is a link to see the video of camp.
http://www.ucyc.com/Junior2Videos2009.htm

The boys had a weekend with our small group for a paintball weekend in Flagstaff. They had a great time too.

Mud vrs The Dumas Family

2009-05-27T09:58:00.000-07:00

This year for memorial day we decided to head up to the mountians and camp. We started off the trip by backing out and then deciding to go ahead a try. We knew the weather was going to be wet and cool. One of our four had a bit of a cough, but we decided ok, lets go for it!
We brought along a friend and our two dogs which meant to were really loaded up! The drive up was really good, not alot of traffic. We started looking for a place about 5 pm and ended up stuck with a place at 10:30 pm. (When I say stuck with a place that is very literal! We got stuck and just put up the camper. Note alot of stressful moments of backing a camper and tempers here.)
We finally got to into beds about 11 ish and had a nice rain to put us to sleep. The next morning we had to make the camp area livable. Ty and I moved pine needles in all our mud areas so the kids wouldn't be falling and tracking mud all over.
We played most of the day under the cover of tents from the rain occasionally having a dry spot to run through the forest on a quick walk.
The kids had some new toys to play with bb guns, archery sets, and knives.
Can't believe we didn't have a run to the hospitial! We went fishing in the evening to Black Canyon Lake but didn't catch a thing.
I didn't even get out of the car because Princess P had fallen asleep and it was just too plain cold to be out there fishing.

The kids had a quick fire before the rain started up again and then we were off to bed. The next morning brought sunshine and a ray of hope that we might actually get some of the mud to dry up so we could get out of the mud. We decided to go to the lake and fish while the weather was nice. We headed for Willow Canyon Lake. There were open spots for parking at 9am on a holiday weekend so we were excited. Then tons of people filled the lake and there wasn't an open spot on around for fishing. Luckily we had saved a spot before the rush and were actually catching fish.
Of course every-time a kids caught a fish there would be some sneaky fisherman come in and put his pole right next to ours. Poor manners in my opinion! Trying to steal someone else's fishing spot! BOO to them!

After fishing we headed back to camp. We caught 6 fish and thought we would eat them for lunch. But after seeing big black clouds start to come in we quickly decided to load up and try to get the camper out of the mud. WE DID IT!! Yeah, and even on the first try as the rain quickly started fall. We threw everything in and jumped in the car and headed down the mountain. On the way home we had a blow out on the camper. Luckily the sun hadn't set so we had light. We had a really nice officers pull in behind us so no one would run into the back of us on the busy highway, and our spare was not flat! Yippee! We did it and the kids loved camping! So for all the downs at least we caught some fish!

Mothers Day Tradition

2009-05-14T08:52:00.000-07:00

I love my mothers day book and each year I put in a new picture I'm amazed at how fast the year has flown by. This year Kelsey and I went on a shopping day for my mothers day gifts. The kids were very generous this year. (He He) I got some perfume and a couple of new shirts and some earrings.

Blessed our mess.

2009-05-13T12:19:00.000-07:00

Church trees in full bloom.

Central Christian East Valley- Gilbert

This past Sunday we finally had our youngest, almost 2 yrd old, blessed at church. We didn't plan a big party like we did the r other children, but we did have some friends and family join us at church. There were a TON of other families up on stage with us too, so it was pretty informal. Here some pics from our day.

The whole family got up on stage to show our love and commitment to Princess P. blessing. (It's gonna take all of us to raise this last one.)

Princess P did really good and loved the attention.

My oldest turns 12?

2009-05-09T23:31:00.000-07:00

Ice Skating when it is 103 degrees outside is the perfect summer birthday party. We had so much fun going ice skating Friday night for my daughters 12th birthday. Yikes, twelve

Mom and daughter on the ice!

We even got Dad and little P out there a couple of times. Not sure who held who up on those laps.

My great sis n law happened to be in town and helped with the cake pops. WoW were they fabulous! Thanks AMANDA!!

Mothers Day Plants

2009-05-06T14:32:00.000-07:00

Today we made some pots and planted them for our Moms. Here are some cute pictures of our day.

It's getting hot in here!

2009-05-06T14:04:00.000-07:00

So with the warm weather we had to venture outside! I'm so excited to get to spend some time with my nieces this week. I'm gonna love on them as much a possible! Here are some photos of our fun day at the water park.

Fun Day!

2009-04-10T23:55:00.000-07:00

I had such a great day Friday am! I made pancakes and eggs, had a Easter Egg Hunt, went to the park, saw the horses, went to another park, had five little ones all surrounding me with joy on their faces, and I WISH I could have had a picture of it. Some days, I just love my job!! Friday was one of the best. Especially when they all told me they loved me! Warms the heart in a special place when not only your own kids love you, but the ones you watch love you too!!

What are your songs?

2009-04-08T11:21:00.000-07:00

I have this file with the words WHEN I DIE.....
A few years back my hubby and I took a trip to Cabo for our 10th anniversary. I panicked right before we were leaving and made my husband write letters to the kids in case we died. I also wrote some letters and put what I wanted my songs to be at my funeral.

Here are my songs. I'll Fly Away by Jars of Clay, I Can Only Imagine by Mercy Me , and a new one I just discovered, I Will Rise by Chris Tomlin.

This may sound morbid, but I want my death to be easy and no frills when that time comes. I want to go out of this world as CHEAP as possible too!

Here are the words to I WILL RISE:

There's a peace I've come to know
Though my heart and flesh may fail
There's an anchor for my soul
I can say "It is well"

Jesus has overcome
And the grave is overwhelmed
The victory is won
He is risen from the dead

[Chorus:]
And I will rise when He calls my name
No more sorrow, no more pain
I will rise on eagles' wings
Before my God fall on my knees
And rise
I will rise

There's a day that's drawing near
When this darkness breaks to light
And the shadows disappear
And my faith shall be my eyes

Jesus has overcome
And the grave is overwhelmed
The victory is won
He is risen from the dead

[Chorus:]
And I will rise when He calls my name
No more sorrow, no more pain
I will rise on eagles' wings
Before my God fall on my knees
And rise
I will rise

And I hear the voice of many angels sing,
"Worthy is the Lamb"
And I hear the cry of every longing heart,
"Worthy is the Lamb"
[x2]

[Chorus:]
And I will rise when He calls my name
No more sorrow, no more pain
I will rise on eagles' wings
Before my God fall on my knees
And rise
I will rise

Duck time

2009-04-03T14:25:00.000-07:00

Today we did a fun book activity. I got this idea from Sandy. She has a ton of ideas that I am going to try to put into our learning days during pre-school time.
These are the books we used for the Duck lesson.

I painted the kids feet yellow and stamped it onto a light blue piece of construction paper.

I had the kids use markers to add the grass, feet, and bills.
Didn't they turn out GREAT!!

The kids wanted to paint Ms. Paula's feet, so I let them take turns doing just that! (They kept saying "Tickle Ms Paula, Tickle?") LOL, I guess that's what I kept saying to them as I was painting their little feet. I'm putting a file together of the books and art work we do. I will use mine for the file!

The kids liked listening to the stories. The Ping story was a little long.

J is for Jelly!

2009-04-02T13:01:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to organize my daycare/preschool crafts for sooooo long. I just don't know how to do this organizing thing. So today I"m going to attempt! We do so many fun things in the year and I take pictures, but it seems every year I'm always looking for something new. I need to keep track of what I've done so I can reuse some of these ideas with the next year. Yesterday's project:

J is for Jelly Bean!
Bag of jelly beans and put a hand full in a cup for each child.

Have the children sort by color.

Have them count how many jelly beans are in each color.
I took an ice try and put numbers in the bottom so the children could put the jelly beans in the matching number spot.

You could also use an egg carton instead of an ice tray.

And finally for the older children we graphed how many jelly beans were in each spot by their color.

(We also added colors to see how many total jelly beans we had.)
The kids loved this activity and I was so surprised how well they did with the math!

I'm a fooled one!

2009-04-01T13:50:00.000-07:00

THIS DOES NOT LOOK LIKE Cheerios!

Someone got me this morning!! HA HA HA HA!! Good one! I think it was Tan man since he gets up so stinking early!
April Fools!

Yippeee Garage Sale Scores

2009-03-28T22:40:00.000-07:00

Today the boys went to do some male bonding in a tent (blog later). So while the men were away, the girls went to SHOP/PLAY! I love to garage sale shop. I think because its like a treasure hunt and you never know what your going to find. Love the deals but sometimes I get home with junk just cause it was such a great deal.
Another thing that garage sale shopping does is teach a lesson or two to my children. Not only are we being GREEN by reclyling but we are saving TONS of money on items that we need or use. Like CLOTHES!!! My kids also know if they earned $5.00 they can't get much from Wallyworld but if they go garage sale shopping they may find that very item they wanted to buy at 35.00 for only 3.00 (Little Petshop Houses)
It's also cheaper than a babysitter. I give my girls about 4 or 5 bucks to spend and they use it pretty wisely! That is only spending $10.00 for about 4 hours of shopping. Not to bad!

Found this for Daddy! Princess P was thinking of Daddy today! She thought this would be fun to hike with when so she gets tired you can use this. It's brand new for $8.00.

The girls found some clothes and some more polly pockets for 1.00.
Mr. T's finds:

Here some finds for Mr. T on our garage sale shopping day..... I know clothes, boring! (The green shirt is Eddie B.)Kylie found this for Mr. T since he was bonding with his Dad though! I thought it was sweet of her to think of him!!

This is like the suit I bought for her last year for 20.00 bucks, but this one is BRAND NEW WITH TAG I got for .50 cents!! WOOO HOOO 3t, perfect for the sprinkler or mall splash!

Peyton's toy that she wouldn't put down, had to fork out a buck for blues clues. I splurged and bought the sprinkler for the awful price as stated on box! Yikes, retail!!
..

New little writing desk Kelsey found for 2.00 goes perfect with her chair...

We found a flat stone to make cookies, or pizza on, some baking pans and Kylie got brand new Highlights magazine a years worth for .50! The lady also gave her some cards for spelling words for free. (I think she liked Kylie.) She had a four month old dog that looked just like Chewy when he was a puppy. He was cute. Peyton loved it too! Oh and Kylie got a new/used lunch box (Cinderella) for .25! It was fun to shop with the girls. But we miss you guys already!

Funny today, NOT yesterday!

2009-03-26T10:49:00.000-07:00

It was such a lovely day yesterday! Of course, we all have to get out and play. So while we are out enjoying the backyard, I decided I needed a drink after about 45 minutes. I tried to open the door, and for some reason it won't open. IT"S LOCKED!! HOW CAN IT BE LOCKED?? OH NO!!!

My first thought is one of the kids is in the house and has locked me out. I do a head count. 3- 2yrs olds check 4 yr old- check and 1-5yr old-check whoosh! Ok, got everyone,

Maybe someone has come in the house and locked me out, maybe a robber? No, that's just crazy thinking, because I always have the doors locked. Maybe, it's that silly ghost who makes noises and then makes my blinds move, no he is a harmless figment of my imagination (or so I keep telling myself). Ok, so how did this happen. It's a sliding glass door!!

I then take all the kids out for a walk to a few neighbors houses to find a phone. After the 6th house we finally find someone home. I call hubby and leave him a message. I call my mom and she says she has got a key! Yeah, for mom's who live close by!!

I can get into our garage with the key pad, but the inside garage door to the house is locked too! At least, there is a fridge and snacks in the garage, so the kids are having fun with popsicles and fruit snacks. It's been a couple hours and the kids are starting to have to do potty breaks. Oh goodness, what are their moms going to say when one of their kids try to go to the bathroom in their back yard! I can just hear the little rascals "well, Mommy, I went potty in Ms. Paula's back yard." LOL, Oh well, it couldn't be helped. I did set up a card board box bathroom area so there was some privacy and we pretended to be camping.

Well, finally help shows up! My knight in shining armor, without his keys. You heard or read me right, no keys to the house! Crap! So he tries all his knightly ways to infiltrate the house, but it's shut up like fort knox. So he is sent out to get us lunch! In the meantime, my mother shows up. As she is pulling up she realizes she has brought the wrong keys! Yikes, this is getting pretty comical now. But the kids are starting to get a little tired of playing outside even though we've pretended to camp, but the water table up and did sink or float activities and played ball, swung, played in the tent, and picked up seeds for planting. Whoosh, maybe it's just me who is tired of being outside!

Finally, my mother returns with the correct keys and we all go down for naps! Oh THANK YOU GOD FOR NAPS!! Moral of this story, hide keys somewhere so you can get into your own house when you get locked out!! Maybe I should look into a combination lock for the front door.

Memory Lane

2009-03-23T14:44:00.000-07:00

Before he saw his own picture.

After! Isn't he so cute!! AHhh,
While reading a friends blog, who just returned from Africa on a Hoops of Hope trip, I was filled with joy from my own memory of photos I took last year. Matt had a few posts that were just incredible reads about his recent journey. I love how you can just feel the joy from these kids without even being there. I think sometimes we forget how laundry, crabby kids who want to watch tv instead of going to bed, or you know, American life can just get bogged up. I think Africa is starting to call my name. During service this past Sunday, I was brought to tears for the call to serve in some form of mission work. I think the tears were mainly from fear and trying to hold God off. I know that may sound weird, but there are times when I know God wants me to follow what He wants and I am stomping my feet and holding on to what I want instead of what He wants. I guess I feel like I could move my whole family in a second and leave all this STUFF of life behind to really do Gods work, but then there is the other half who might not embrace these same feelings and it is hard to figure out what God wants from me? I know that if God really wants me to leave all this behind I'm willing to try but He is the one who has to break to my hubby. So I will wait and see what God wants from me. My friend Kelly, embraces the experiences she has had with her African love and really makes life changes for others, which I totally admire.
Anyways, this was just suppose to be a memory walk of some gorgeous pictures I took this past year in Jamaica.

They loved seeing their pictures on my digital camera. So much that they all starting coming over and modeling for me.

I wanted to take a few home with me! This girl kept giving me hugs and her smile almost knocked me down. It brings me tears just thinking about the joy I had from that 45 minutes of photo shoot.

Life update

2009-03-22T23:41:00.000-07:00

Hi! Yes, I'm still alive but the blog post got a little obsessive! I was checking blogs, commenting on blogs, and my focus got a little lost. So here is my update. Life is all good, God is great! We just got back from a fun family camping trip. There were people actually panning for gold. I didn't realize people still did that. LOL
My kids were such a mess! But we had fun hiking in the middle of nowhere. It was so quiet! Nice. The sun was out and the sky was blue. We camped by a beautiful stream and from our spot we could see snow on the mountain. We went fishing (but only caught one fish), went scouting for our dream cabin. We saw bald eagles flying free, deer, and a few specks of gold. My favorite part of the week was the rock splash fight with the whole family. The boys against the girls. (With exception of Kylie who was hanging out with the boys cause she doesn't like to lose. No faith in our splashing ability!!)
We did have a little visitor at night a couple of nights which kept me up for fear of being eaten in the middle of my sleep. I totally thought he was sniffing the camper right by my head. UGH!! If I could only sleep at night I would like camping so much more.
We actually stayed an extra day cause we were enjoying the heck out of each other even though it was FREEZING at night. On the way home we even decided to get a night at a hotel because they had a pool. We are such spur of the moment people. The kids loved it and we got to shower a little quicker. LOL

Cardinals, Super-bowl????

2009-01-21T16:01:00.000-08:00

Kids praying for a miracle that the Cardinals would go to the superbowl.

God said: "DONE" (God can do anything!) LOL

History in the making.

2009-01-20T17:11:00.000-08:00

When I was a little girl my parents were invited to an officers "meet and greet" the president. At that time, the president was our 37th President Richard Nixon.

I guess I was just the cutest baby there because he tried to kiss me. (I'm sure there are pictures in the white house somewhere of this event.) However, I threw up a fit. My Mom was a little miffed, I'm sure. What a moment to have your baby almost kissed by a president (who at that time had not had his little secret discovered yet). So I guess he patted me on the head and signed a card for my baby book.

(Picture here of signed card....opps forgot, my mother still has baby book.)

When Mrs. Nixon walked by, I put my hands up and went straight to her. (Still photos I'm sure in the white house to prove this story.) As you can clearly see I really am a name dropper. See last post, Keeping it Real.
Now today is REAL history in the making. No my little one has no kisses of claim to fame but we do have this.

Notice the perfect timing of the Bible and his hand raised! Of course the picture would have been better without the stinking pacifier and a smile on her face. But this is my REAL life, remember. LOL

Now today was historical. Yes, I who did not vote for the "YES I CAN" campaign, was still moved by today's speech. I am proud of this historical day, and excited for my new Commander and Chief. So our family will pray that he will lead with guidance from the Lord, and we will pray for his leadership. Good Luck President Obama, I really think your gonna need it. I am excited for this new, young, face in Washington.
(Weren't his girls just the cutest. I mean how can you not love them!)

Keepin It Real

2009-01-19T15:17:00.000-08:00

I have been awarded the pristine award for being blog Honest! Yeah.. Thank you TUTU! So with that I get to tell you ten things about me.. I guess I have to keep it honest too.
FIRST thing I would like to share is my cluttered life. Yes, I admit I am clutter freak! I see an open counter and somehow I clutter it up. I have piles and piles around my house. I think I just don't care (until we have people over then I just lock the door to that room). LOL
TWO: I'm addicted to historical romance novels. I love how the big, strong, handsome man comes into save the innocent young lady!
THREE: My evil twin comes out right before school sometimes. Especially when my kiddos are not getting ready fast enough for school. UGH, I really hate my evil twin!

FOUR: I'm a volcano. Sometimes things boil inside me and then all of a sudden I explode. (Kinda into my evil twin.)
FIVE: I have no idea what is designer.
When people are talking about purses or shoes, basically anything with fashion, I'm clueless.

SIX: I think Oprah reminds me of the character of Nicoloae Carpathia in the Left Behind Series.

SEVEN: I peak during prayer with my kids because my two year old is so cute praying.
EIGHT: I sometimes can't sleep at night because I'm scared of the dark. I sleep with a bat under my bed like Tutu, but might have to get some hairspray too. LOL
NINE: I'm a name dropper! I used to live two doors down from Mark Consuleos. We also had last names both starting with C so I ALWAYS had to sit by him in class too. I'm so jealous that he is an actor because when I grow up that's what I'm gonna be.

TEN: I want to be a country bumkin. I'm hate living in the city. (See last post.)

Now to pass on the love I'm suppose to choose 5 blogs honest award worthy blogs…
AND THE WINNERS ARE:
Jen at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam, my friend who loves to share her bedlem.
Kelly at Africankelli, who has such a real perspective on life.
Michelle at Girl, Outnumbered Who just makes you laugh with her honesty! Seriously FUNNY!
Just a Girl is the opposite of me in the organizing department and has it together. (But admits she got in the wrong line for husband cleaning.) LOL
And the final award goes to Star, Laughing Through Parenting, a new favorite read in the blog world. She is a mom with great advice.
This was fun and I hope you all have gained a little more of who I am.

My own cowboy tale.

2009-01-16T20:31:00.000-08:00

This photo is from Sept. 28, 1991. We started dating in Feb. 1991. (We were married in June 1993.)
UGH, I found a blog yesterday (the pioneer woman) that has grabbed me in and I can't get enough.

I'm a sucker for a good romance, and this is a good one. NOT to mention it has to do with a cowboy (YIKES just gets me all steamed up) and a city gal. I laugh, because I was a city gal looking for a nice cowboy, or farmer, to spend my life with. Of course, my dear sweet husband just came along and swept me off my feet.

Gosh, I love my man! But really, he totally gave me the wrong impression! He was wearing cowboy boots and a cowboy hat. He was tall, dark, and handsome. (Still tall and handsome, but his dark has turned into sexy silver.) He had cute little curls coming out the back of his hat (I used to love to play with), and he was two stepping. I wanted to swing dance, but he said the right song never came on, I should known then and there that he was no country boy!

HEE HAA! I thought I had scored! Little did I know, he was a city boy at heart. Luckily for me, I love him to death, and wouldn't trade him. I often wonder if I really could have handled being a country gal? Maybe some day we will have our front porch swing and sit and watch the stars. This is my little dream world after all.

A great find!

2009-01-15T13:58:00.001-08:00

This year I wanted to bump up my daycare to a slash preschool! What does that mean? Well, instead of playing all day we now have some "organized" playtime. I setup a schedule for the day and really try to stick by it. (I would say 3 out 5 is not bad!) I have some little ones, but we still try to do some preschool activities. Here is my schedule in case anyone needs some ideas.
PRE-SCHOOL
6:45 - 7:30 Arrival - Breakfast
7:30 - 8:40 Self-Selected Play-time
8:40 – 9:00 Circle time/ Calendar/Music
9:00 - 9:15 Potty Breaks
9:15 - 9:30 Snack
9:30 –10:15 Art/Learning Center and Activities
10:15-10:45 Gross Motor/Outdoors Time
10:45-11:00 Potty Breaks/ Wash Hands
11:05 11:45 Circle Time/Story, Songs, Finger Plays,
Basic Concepts (Colors, Shapes, Numbers, Alphabet)
11:45 12:00 Wash-Up for Lunch
12:00 12:30 LUNCH
12:30 -1:00 Transition to NapTime - Video/Toothbrush/Bathroom
2:45 - 3:00 Wake-Up Time
3:00-3:15 Potty Break
3:15- 3:30 Snack time
3:30 – 4:30 Independent Activities/Clean-up/Preparation to go Home

I have found a ton of ideas on preschool activities from a FAVORITE website of mine. Shelley Lovett at childcareland.com! She has some of the best ideas! She has free videos to teach you how to teach your own kids. I am also signed up to get daily art projects sent right to my email! IT IS FABULOUS! Here are some of the things we have gotten from Shelley's website.

Coloring leaves for stick leaf songs.

Playing with shaving cream on table and drawing letters.

Sorting shapes, colors, ect...
There are so many ideas! Check it out.

Wordless Wednesday (w/title)

2009-01-13T14:17:00.000-08:00

AZ Snow Man.... melted!

Current temp today 74 degrees! We are trying to understand what snow is???
Directions from Luckyme,

Mission: Please destroy photos when done....

2009-01-12T16:42:00.000-08:00

I think my laundry room needs a makeover (besides having some actual laundry done). I totally believe I would get more laundry done if I actually liked the space the laundry was in. RIGHT??? Or is that really possible to like laundry, anyways, I digressed. I have seen so many cute things on
.
And if I had some nice black baskets like these from pottery barn I could make the top shelf actually look nice and ORGANIZED.Now I'm not really an organized kind of gal but this blogging thing is actually making me a better person. Truly! I made garland for xmas, I've made resolutions for new years, and now I'm actually going to try and organize this disaster. I really think it might just do the trick for my laundry. I think I need something like Kendra in the corner. I can get all the laundry done but the putting away seems to be a problem! I would also like the rest of my walls painted and finished with some nice black wall art. Like this....

And if I could just clean off my counter, it would all be beautiful
Now can you picture all that? Now if I could just have 2 days to do all that I will show you the results.

Testing, testing, hello, is this working?

2009-01-10T17:58:00.000-08:00

Hello? Hello? Umm, this feels like a test. Since I gave my resolution to the public, written down, and in bold print even, I have been feeling this push to commit. I now understand why the dietary people who create diets for individuals make you write down a journal of everything you eat, or when planning a budget you have to write down everything you spend. What does it do when you write it down? It makes you accountable! Yikes, ACCOUNTABLE, meaning just because I wrote my new years resolution word of the year, COMMITMENT, means now I feel accountable for all of those silly little goals. (Funny thing my husband thought at first glance that I wanted to be committed, like in a crazy place.) HA HA very funny my dear sweet husband! ERRRR Anyways, this whole commitment thing, I feel like I have been trying. I have had a few discussions with God, so that means I must be praying and taking things to Him more often, right? And when a couple of friends this past week asked us over to a football game dinner, I said yes, and we went. (Even though my almost 2 year old tried to spoil the fun, we quickly adjusted the plan! BUT WE DID IT! Yeah, (You know, the whole committing to strengthening friendships commitment.) I committed to another Bible study, that sometimes just goes way over my head, but by the end God shows me it was perfect. However, I do feel like this must be a test. Do you ever wonder if God just puts things in our path to see if we REALLY mean what we say? I have felt like that today. I was picking up dinner (yes the heathy eating commitment hasn't really taken flight yet) when I turned off the radio and had a conversation, out loud, trying to sort through a new offer to commit myself to a big project. (Does anyone else do this or do I really need to take up my husbands advice?) It dawned on me that my first commitment this years was to God. WOW, and now he has given me the opportunity to maybe take that commitment to him to help others. I don't want to really say what kind of commitment this maybe be in the form of because there are actually a couple that God has place on our hands. Hope all my other blog friends are really working towards their resolutions for the year. Let me know, I would love to hear about them.

wordless Wednesday (w/title)

2009-01-07T09:46:00.000-08:00

Tying chairs to table!

To prevent this! Humm, what will she do next?

Staying off the fence!

2009-01-05T21:46:00.000-08:00

One word challenge. A word to describe what you want 2009 to focus on. The Tip Junki e has put up a great idea for focusing on this resolution.
I think my word will be (drum roll please).... Commitment! Yes, the big C word. I would love to have an organized life where I could just commit myself to anything, but just trying to pick a service time at church sometimes gives me an ulcer. This year I'm trying to commit myself to many things. Commit myself to God first and foremost. I want to take everything to God first. I want to commit myself to choosing joy instead of whatever emotion that seems to hit my nerves first. I want to commit myself to live in the moment and to take in the precious life that God has given me. I want to commit myself to all relationships not only my family but to friendships. Commit to a healthier lifestyle and actually exercise this year.

commitment |kəˈmitmənt|noun1 the act of committing or the state of being committed.• dedication; application : the company's commitment to quality.• a pledge or undertake

He did it with all his heart, and prospered.

2 Cor. 31:21

Flashback Friday...2008

2009-01-02T16:09:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I've taken a little time away from my new found obsession of blogging for the holidays. I wanted to capture the fine memories of 2008 so my Dori mind won't forget them all. BLESSED!! That is the top of my list from 2008. I started the year off with a two week notice to head for Munich on a last minute planned trip, by myself, to visit my brother for a week. I'm not real sure how I got all the pieces to fit perfectly for me going, but I did and I'm so grateful I did! While Chris was working, I was hoping on trains and roaming the country. Munich was beautiful and the people were absolutely kind. Spring break we got together with my brothers family along with my parents and went to Disneyland for a week. It was a fun and CROWED trip. The park was so full but our families had fun despite the long lines. In May, I earned a free trip from my Once Upon A Family business to Jamaica for a whole week. Tyler was unable to take the trip with me, so I headed to another country on my own. I did meet up with some friends and had an incredibly peaceful week sitting on the beach, snorkeling, going for boat rides and winning an archery contest. The women on this trip were some of the most amazing women, and we all had so much fun. This summer we went with Tyler to San Diego for Basketball camp. While he was coaching we went to the beach, harbor, and swimming in the hotel. Later that month we went back to San Diego for Tyler's conference and the kids and I went to Legoland (were in an earthquake), to the beach (found the best beach!) and relaxed in the hot tub. Tyler coached at an FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) Camp and we went up to Flagstaff with him and stayed in the dorms. We didn't get too much camping this year, but have put it into the new years list of things to do. As you can see, traveling is one of our favorite things to do. Soon I will be posting some of my New Year's Resolutions....

R U busy yet... Friday's Flashback

2008-12-19T13:56:00.000-08:00

Well, thanks to my SIL for suggesting Friday Flashback.... here is a flashback of my week. Since I'm always on the look out for crafts. I got this stringing project idea from another blog (sorry forgot where) and tweaked into a Christmas craft. It was super easy and the kids really enjoyed it. I cut out a cereal box in the shape of a ginger bread man and had the kids sponge paint them. I made small cuts on the sides (about 5) for the kids to string the yarn back and fourth between. The kids added some buttons for the eyes and a few other details.

I made the coolest little gifts for classmates and friends, Marshmallow Men!

I was blog hoping and found this

wonderful idea on Speckled Egg. It was really easy. I used some white chocolate and warmed it to the directions and then dipped the marshmallows. I then added the m&m's. My kids loved handing them out at school. We already need to make another batch. The other thing we made this week was Cinnomon-Sugar Chocolate Covered Pretzels. I found this through another great blog Your Homebased Mom.

I bagged some of these up and gave them out to our neighbors and friends. It was also a great to bring to our last minute rsvp caroling get together. The kids loved caroling almost as much as the adults. I think we had about 40 people gathered for some fa la la laing. The best part of the night was when a genteman came to the door saying..."How did you know this was exactly what I needed tonight." Makes you kinda wonder why. I hope all is well for this sweet man. The week was wonderfully busy and we ended it with pajama day for my dc/preschool kids. We danced to some Christmas music and opened gifts. Gosh, I love those kids! Buckle up its weekend time!

In the mist of chaos

2008-12-18T12:00:00.000-08:00

I have piles and piles of photos, cds, books, scrapbook supplies, preschool curriculum all around me. I would love to have one of those HGTV shows come in and help me organize it all. Truly, I think I'm going to need professional help. In the mists of all this chaos, we had to run to a school music program. AHHH- my little man was so adorable up on stage. He was so proud and sang loud. I truly think my son loves to sing. When he was little he would ALWAYS hum. When he likes the food he eats he hums. When he was the ring bearer for my brothers wedding he sang twinkle twinkle little star all the way down the aisle. Mr T. just always has a song in his heart. Now my little man is almost as tall as I am, and he is still the sweetest boy on earth. (No lie!) I really loved having a night of reflection on how happy he makes me. Thank you God for this beautiful little boy, who I know will work wonders in your name.

PS. I cannot figure out how to use commas. I've even been researching the stupid things. I still haven't figured them out yet.

Wordless Wednesday (w/title)

2008-12-17T12:53:00.000-08:00

Princess P. sneaks out the doggie door!

The perfect DVD...

2008-12-16T18:47:00.000-08:00

So with all the cutbacks our family is making for the holidays I decided to make something for my daycare families. I did this for mothers day too. (I think the mom's really liked it!) I've been taking photos of all the projects we've been doing this year. (Well, the projects that I can pause and take photos.) I have also recorded a few movies of the kids singing, dancing, and just playing around. Now I'm not an expert on how to make a dvd but it seems pretty easy with the IDVD movie on my mac. I'm going to hopefully find a cute label to get on them to finish them off. But today while cruising blogland I discovered this great site, our best bites which has ideas on how to make the outside of your gift just a precious as the gift itself. You may want to read a few of her other posts too, cookies, pretzels, they all look so good and easy to make. Umm well it looks easy. Unfortunately I'm getting so many creative ideas I don't know which to pick from and did I mention it's December 16th! Yikes. Another site I keep bumping into is My Little Cottage In The Making. I'm getting excited just to get creative with my wrapping this year! WOO Hoo! This is so not like me. Well you'll have to take a look and tell me what you think. Be honest now! ThAnKs

Dream fighter

2008-12-14T19:05:00.000-08:00

I had a fight today with my dreams. Before going to bed last night my hubby and I tried to watch a movie. He was channel flipping,. Unfortunately while flipping I saw a very disturbing scene. Oooo YUCK! I decided I was no longer in the mood for tv. It was time for bed. I woke up revisiting the scene but only in my dream. Double yuck! I said a quick prayer to God asking him to relieve me of this memory. Dori (see profile) was needed for this one! I decided I did not want to go back to sleep with that in my head so I got up and headed to the grocery store. My few items pickup at the store became a full on grocery trip. I felt like I was in a funk all day. We went to church this evening which I was really hoping to pull this funk out and be renewed through worship. Which I was.... my mind was pulled into things that God does to astonish us.
1. God himself. 2. Nothing is impossible for Him. 3. God involves Himself with ordinary people like you and me. 4. God actually cares about you and me. 5. That people actually think they can grasp and comprehend Him. (He's just too big to put in a box.) How great thou art! This is a photo of the milky way. If you think this is amazing just think of who made this! God is SUPER DUPER AMAZING!!

Santa and Snow....

2008-12-13T22:03:00.000-08:00

Oh we had such a wonderful night! I love seeing Santa and the Christmas lights! Traditions are so fun and sitting with Santa is a big one for our family. I have an album that I keep out for the holidays of all the past years we have seen Santa. It is so great because I just put one picture in a year and I'm all caught up. YEAH!! I am a consultant for Once Upon A Family. This company has really helped me to focus on the important things that we do with our family, like traditions. (Plus I got to go to Jamaica for free!) OUAF has simple tools to help make those traditions achievable in our crazy lives. Tonight we filled our book with the 2008 Santa picture. We just made the cut off for the end of the line. WHOOSH! Santa was terrific. He spent at least 25 minutes with my kids going over their past behavior for the year and what each one wanted for Christmas. We got wonderful pictures to capture the moment so my Dori brain will always be available to get a visual. We also caught pretend snow (bubbles) in the Santa area. Princess P. loved the "snow"! You can tell by her face that she was in pure kid heaven. Another tradition that we do during this time is to visit a very special neighborhood that has lights galore and also a backyard walk through of the story of the birth of Christ. This year one of our friends let us take a family picture on the rocking horse. So I have warm fuzzies thinking about our night and I'm sure the kids will be dreaming of sugar plums dancing in their dreams.

F is for Friday, F F F. ( Make the f sound!)

2008-12-12T09:26:00.000-08:00

Ok I'm trying to come up with a theme day and I think Friday is the day! I could go with F is for Fabulous Friday's, or Freak Out Moments Friday, Funny Friday, Fa La La Lahhh Fridays, Finally its Friday, Friends Friday, Hmmmm the possibilities are endless. Maybe I could have a little help here?

I think today we will go with Freak Out Friday Moment of the day! LOL ahhh well my dear friend Ms. A., whose daughter I watch, was telling me about a party she would like to host. Get this, a theme party! FUN FUN!! I started telling her about a wodnerful store I found in Kansas that had vintage clothing. I had to buy up hand full of them. But when I got home I thought now what the heck can I do with these! April had to check it out so I said I would wear one Friday morning when she dropped off her daughter. I think she totally forgot because for some reason her husband who (by the way) has never been to my house, all of a sudden shows up on THIS MORNING!! I was in shock when I answered the door and little Ms. A. was laughing!! OH my! I really wish I had a good photo to show you, the detail on the pants is the best! But alas my battery has died and I'm not putting on this out fit ever again after seeing this one picture! OOOHHH GROSS! Well if you can't laugh with them, ummm how does that saying go??? Dori moment!

What was in those Wheaties this morning?

2008-12-11T13:07:00.000-08:00

Ugh, I woke up feeling such a sense of accomplishment with my new garland from The Nester challenge yesterday. My special part of the front entrance-way that says "Hey look at the effort I put into Christmas". When WHAM BAM! All heck broke out. My lovely, peaceful spot was being sabotaged by my mind. I started noticing all the places in my house that looked horrible! Ok one thing I want to make sure when writing this blog is that I'm REAL! Sometimes this is a little hard for me because I would like for everyone to see my little spot in the world as perfect. (Thank you God for showing me that I'm not.) Anyhoo, My imperfection started to become neon in my view. YIKES

what a mess. I had a spazz attack and I let my children know that they had a lot of work to do when they got home. (Hmmm, I don't think they were the creators of all these piles around me but they did have their share.) It really became uncomfortable in the house. I had to just sit on the floor and have a little talk with my Father. He pretty much sat me down and said Dori....breathe.......Dori Be still! BE STILL! Ok, ok I hear you Lord! I asked for some forgiveness and He showed me some. I jumped up and decided it was time to have some fun! It was time for snow and sparkle! I got out the shaving cream and added a little glitter and WAL LA Snow and Sparkle! We made a bigger mess and had fun doing it. The kids had such fun playing and reminding me once again that these little (or big) piles of messes will only be with me for so long so don't sweat the small stuff.

My new garland....

2008-12-10T18:55:00.000-08:00

So I'm new to the Nesting Place but have already felt inspired to do something unusual for me! DeCoRaTe! Yikes that word just scares me when I think I might have to try and create something. But I guess I lurked on enough blogs that it got me thinking if everyone else says they can't do much with garland (which I beg to differ) than surely I can do a little something. These women have totally transformed their garland pieces! So I'm going to show you my before (well not really I had to dust before I took the picture LOL) and then my after. I don't have a fireplace but the kids and I are thinking of building a fake one so we can have a place to hang our beautiful stockings that my dear sweet mother has made for all of my children. So here goes.....

What can your cereal box do?

2008-12-10T12:37:00.000-08:00

Last night I was trying to come up with a cute project for my daycare/preschool kiddos. I'm so pleased with how our little Santa's turned out. My kids range from 2 to 5 years old and they really enjoyed painting, pasting, cutting, and putting these little guys together. You can do these for your kids too, just follow the steps. Step 1: Open a cereal box and cut it into triangle. Step 2: Paint with red paint (we sponged ours) Step 3: Glue on white strip of paper for face. Step 4: Add accessories. (We used foil for hat and socks.) The kids had fun taking pictures with their Santa's. We like to take pictures or our projects and put them in a scrapbook to keep.

Love my tree.

2008-12-09T14:14:00.000-08:00

I love our Christmas tree. This year it is even better because the kids did so much of the work. I didn't even have to pull it out of the box. (Tree was a super deal from a neighbors garage sale for $5.00, pre-lit and super easy to put up! Yeah garage sales!) I love to look at the tree all lit up and remember all the ornaments and where they came to find a home on our tree. I think it will be hard to give up those sweet homemade ornaments my children have made through the years! Just getting up in the morning when its still dark and turning on the lights of the tree and thinking about why we even celebrate Christmas is such a blessing. My hope is for everyone to take a little time out of this busy holiday and enjoy a moment each day where you can reflect on the reason for the season.

What my 2 yr old finds funny!

2008-12-06T13:17:00.000-08:00

1. Climbing onto chairs to get into cupboards that mom has put stuff in to keep away from me.

2. Playing in the toilet with a whole roll of toilet paper.

3. Pushing the water button on the front of the fridge to create my own pool of water on the kitchen floor to play in.

4.Taking off all my clothes after my mom has just wrestled me down to get me dresses.

5. Jumping in mud puddles in the back yard with my new shoes and then coming into the house to make mud prints with my shoes on the clean floor.

6. Painting with paint on everything but the paper mom gave me, especially my lovely face.

7. Getting on my tippy, tippy toes to reach in the drawer to get out the pencils and pens to draw pretty pictures all over the walls.

8. Dumping nails (along with a screwdriver, hammer and anything else I could fit) down the toilet hole that Daddy was fixing just to see where they would go.

9. Throwing food on the floor.

10. Giving Mommy boggie kisses.

Learning to blog!

2008-12-05T08:31:00.000-08:00

Step 1. Read blogs to get an idea on what to blog.

Step 2. Make a blog

Step 3. Ignore all work needing to be done like laundry, clean-up, dishes, ect.

Step 4. Hmm figure out how to work your blog and make it pretty. (Haven't got that down yet.)

Step 5. Have actual people read you blog worthy site. LOL this may take awhile.

Step 6. Have a reason for blogging. What is your goal?

While the idea of blogging sounds fun, it is a complicated thing. Well at least for this blonde! I have a few blogs I read daily and really get miffed when they don't blog. It's like a tv show. You don't want to miss an episode. Now I have started reading the blogs they follow as well. (Does this mean I'm getting addicted to blogging?) I am finding such great crafts, ideas to perk up the house, and even just taking a step back to notice things like the trees changing colors through beautiful pictures my friends post. Oh, and saving money by learning how to use coupons properly. What a new great game this has brought to my life! Now, I would love to say that I have ran right away from my computer to try some of these new crafts but I can't seem to find the time. I'm not really sure how these wonderful women can fit it all in. Maybe they don't have 2 year olds just waiting for Mommy to get on the computer so they can climb on the counters and get into the cupboards. Maybe its because they use laptops and can actually see their kids getting into trouble. Not sure but it is something to consider when jumping into the game of blogging. With all that said. I have found this new past time exciting and tempting at the same time. I would really like my blog to be something my kids and family can look back on and say, wow Mom really did have some meaning in her life.

Here is a blogspot that said paste this on your site or "embed it" ???? Like I said still learning. So I'm gonna try it and see what happens. LOL

Winter in AZ

2008-12-04T10:30:00.000-08:00

winter in ArizonaThe leaves started to change yesterday and some even fell to the ground. We have had such warm weather the trees aren't quite sure it's actually winter. We still have changed our wardrobe because I refuse to wear shorts in December! I love the idea of jumping in a big pile of leaves with the kids, but our trees are still a little young to produce a big pile. Of course that doesn't stop the kids from trying. My youngest has also discovered Christmas lights and loves to ooohhh and awwww as we walk past each house. This will be a nightly treat for me!

Love this quote from a 2yr old in my house today....

"I never get a break around here!" (This was after he got in trouble hitting someone with the rake he took from another two year old.)LOL Got to love those kids.

Can a non-writer blog?

2008-12-02T10:07:00.000-08:00

So I've been wanting to blog for awhile now but I stop thinking about it as soon as the thought pops up. Why you ask? Well my little secret of not being able to write. SHHH don't tell my kids I don't want them thinking they can't because their Mom couldn't. Way back in the 4th grade a teacher, Mrs. P,, told my mother I was not college material and I would not get beyond high school so she should start planning my life accordingly. (This was one of the worst or maybe the best things she could have told my mother.) My mother started tutoring me all the time. This is probably one of the reasons I graduated from college with a communication degree! - Thanks Mom for all the extra time you spent with me. But the story does not stop there.....no no no, in high school one of my most favorite teachers, Mrs. L,, didn't think I was all that great of a writer either. Well, at least my grades didn't reflect any writing awards in my future. Hence the reason for not blogging. I'm not sure I want my dirty little secret out there in blog land. But there are so many times I wish I did have a blog to let my voice ring out to others, my feelings and emotions that only my family and daycare kids get to understand. SO I decided this might be a way to make me become a better writer. New Years resolution.... to blog.