create

Our theme for this months collaboration with Heather and Lesli is create. Again I had big dreams for this photo but the small space in which I currently reside did not allow for my plans to come to fruition! My little Bonnie is very much a creative soul. In fact so are all my kids, I like to think they get it from me!

The Party

Remember back in February when Sam turned 12? We I put off her party until March and am just now getting around blogging about it. Why do I always feel a step or 4 behind? Well because it was a party year (i only throw parties for 3,5,8,12 and 16 years) I knew it needed to be a big one but having no home of my own I really struggled with what kind of a party to throw. My sweet sister in law who just happens to have an amazing home theater room offered up her home to have the party at. I really procrastinated the planning and preparing for it but it turned out pretty cute none the less! I was just fun bold graphic brightness all night long...add in 14 twelve year old girls and it was one wild night.


My mother in law helped me sew these custom pillowcases for each of the girls so they would have a cute cozy pillow to snuggle up with during the movie. I called my other sister in law at the last minute feeling the party just needed some oomph, and asked her to make me some pom poms to hang, and she obliged with 12 giant colorful ones that just made the party pop! My favorite things were the veggie cups and the water bottles, they turned out so cute!

After homemade pizza and breadsticks the girls picked out their pillows and candy and headed up stairs to watch the movie. I don't think they even watched the movie at all but whatever!! After the move we had cake and ice cream and played Dance Central on the Kinect. While the girls were up with the movie, we tried out the game and my sister in law showed me she had some amazing moves!!
A big thank you to all who helped (and there were a lot) make this party possible. It was a great success!

52|2012 - Spring

Spring! Ahhh spring! Not that we have really crazy cold winters with snow and all that but the minute it starts warming up the kids kick of their shoes and are outside enjoying the nice weather until it's just too dang hot to go outside!! Nothing says spring quite like an evening swing with a cousin!
These 2 little rug-rats are peas in a pod and partners in crime. They either love each other or hate each other. They both run so hot and cold it can be quite a volatile when they get together. But when the stars align just right then the heavens open and all is right in the world!

Check out all my liked girls and how they interpreted the this weeks theme!

Michelle, Heather, Jenn, Heather. Rhonda, Tracey, Stacey, Andrea, Jessica, Amanda, Sarah, Janet, Lesli, Carla, Lena, Rose, Naomi, Amanda, Tracy, Heidi, Veronica, Jean, Amy, Liza

52|2012 - Underneath

"MOOO-ooo-OOOMMmMMmm"

"MOOOOTTHHEEERRRRRR"

"HUUUuuunNNNY"

"KrIIIIiiiiiiisssstin"

Where is she? They all ask.

I am never on top of anything...I am always underneath! I can't seem to get ahead of the things that seem to pile on top of me. (Note how I am 4 days late posting, I can't even stay on top of this just for fun project) Not to mention that I am the one at the bottom of the totem pole. The low guy, the last in line. Lately the pressures of life just seem to be too much, so I have decided today I will stay underneath the covers where maybe, just maybe no one will find me. Probably not though!

Check out all my liked girls and how they interpreted the this weeks theme!

Michelle, Heather, Jenn, Heather. Rhonda, Tracey, Stacey, Andrea, Jessica, Amanda, Sarah, Janet, Lesli, Carla, Lena, Rose, Naomi, Amanda, Tracy, Heidi, Veronica, Jean, Amy, Liza

10 on Tuesday | So much to say

I have so much to say I keep thinking in Facebook status' so I will just put my random thoughts into a 10 on tuesday post.

1. I bought my tickets to Hunger Games last night and I am wayyyyy excited!!

2. No matter how hard you try, you cannot suck in fat arms.

3. Teenagers just might be the death of me.

4. Before I got married everyone told me how hard marriage was but seriously NO ONE told me how HARD being a parent would be. Justwhen I thought we were coming out of the hard busy little kid phase we are dealing with a whole new set of issues that are even harder...I never thought I would look back on little kids driving me crazy as the easy time of life!

5. I am worried that I have missed some of the core teachings in my older kids, because I was to frazzled dealing with being a mom to 4 busy kids and now it is too late to play make-up and force it down them because they have already become who they are! Crap!

6. Why does cold cereal have to have so many calories in it? 170 calories for 3/4 cup. Seriously, who eats only 3/4 c of cold cereal.

7. I think I should get off the computer and go for a walk but I am afraid I will need to go to the bathroom and have to turn around...a real conundrum!

8. My son has saved and earned over $300 fixing broken iPod's. He wants to sell his Kindle Fire and buy an iPad. It seems like a waste of money to me...should I let him do it?

9. I really really really want a new camera. I just can't justify spending the money when I live in a travel trailer and the cost of the new camera would cover like 3 months rent in a house. Anyone want to help me out here? I am open for donations!

10. These are things I could have out on facebook so I plan to have an enormous amount of comment responses to these, so get typing!!

Broken

We spent an eventful evening in the ER on February 21st. While preparing Samantha's birthday dinner I heard a blood curdling scream which is not uncommon around this family especially with 2 very overly dramatic girls in the home! It was Bonnie. Sam was stacking brick pavers to see if she could make a tower as tall as Bonnie. Not such a good idea because when the tower got less than half as tall as Bon the thing started to sway and came crashing down on her hand. The skin wasn't broken but her hand had swollen to 3 times the normal thickness, eventually breaking the skin from it being so stretched. They called it a swelling blister and it was nasty! We couldn't tell if anything had been broken because of the swelling so we iced it and tried to get the swelling down and gave her some pain medicine. After about 2 hours it was apparent that her thumb was probably broken because she would not move it like she would move her other fingers. We took her into the ER in Mesquite to have some x-rays done, sure enough the thumb is broken. She was a pretty good little trooper and was just happy to have unlimited iPad time!


They splinted the thumb and referred us to an orthopedic surgeon in Mesquite. The next day I called and couldn't get an appointment for 3 weeks so with a lot of work and phone calls I found an ortho that would see us in Las Vegas the next day. There was a bit of a concern with what looked like a hole in the bone that showed up in the x-rays.
The orthopedic surgeon sent us for blood work thinking it could be an infection and an mri to see if they could determine what the "hole" could be. Well hours and hours of driving and sitting in doctors offices and having blood drawn and sitting thorough an mri that bonnie woke up before they finished and the conclusion that the radiologist had was...a bunch of question marks. The ortho looked over the scans from the mri and had had nothing but question marks too so they referred us to another ortho that handles all the "weird" cases. NICE, now we are are a weird case. So another drive into vegas and hour sitting in the waiting room all to have the new ortho tell us that he's not sure and he went to get a colleague that deals especially with the hand. The end result being that they "think" it might just be a benign cartilage growth...not a hole a growth. They said it is not something we should be too worried about but if it is something bad it will manifest itself quickly and we will need to have regular x-rays done for the next while and we will probably need to monitor it until she is an adult!! Fun stuffs!! So with a bright shiny highlighter pink cast they sent us on our way and will x-ray it when we come in to take the cast off at the end of the month and pray that the growth hasn't grown!! So the moral of the story is NEVER STACK BRICK PAVERS IN THE DESERT LOT NEXT TO YOUR HOUSE! The end!

52|2012 Week 10 - Vegetables

I was going to take a photo of my boys playing xbox, or the youngest girl watching princess movies "vegging" out on the couch but in my attempt to pretend to be a good mom I decided to go literal with the theme this week! Samantha's party is tonight and with the $40 worth of candy I decided I better at least try to counter balance that with something healthy! So here I cut peppers, carrots and celery for the veggie cups! Those peppers were almost too pretty to cut into!


Don't forget to check out how the other gals in our Linked group interpreted the theme for this week.Michelle, Heather, Jenn, Heather. Rhonda, Tracey, Stacey, Andrea, Jessica, Amanda, Sarah, Janet, Lesli, Carla, Lena, Rose, Naomi, Tracy, Heidi, Veronica, Amy

52|2012 Week 9 - Spirit

I'm a little late in the game on this due to the fact that I was preparing for a 20 mile pioneer trek and subsequent recovery!!

"Spirit"

I had a number of different ideas of how to portray spirit in a photo, But I settled on the spirit of this valley. I never thought it would happen, I fought it and fought it but I have fallen in love with this dusty windy sometimes backwards small town. There is a special spirit here. I think it is because there is so much pride and love for this valley. Those who live here want to be here and love it here. (You would have to because there is not much of a draw other than community here...not even a stop light in this sleepy little town!) It has taken some getting used to no Target or good restaurants and a whole new way a living day to day. I have learned to plan ahead like I never have before! But I have to say that the spirit of this place has gotten under my skin and I just might be here until I die!

Don't forget to check out how the other gals in our Linked group interpreted the theme for this week.Michelle, Heather, Jenn, Heather. Rhonda, Tracey, Stacey, Andrea, Jessica, Amanda, Sarah, Janet, Lesli, Carla, Lena, Rose, Naomi, Tracy, Heidi, Veronica, Amy

12

12.Practically a woman (well in the emotional department)Pancakes in the shape of a birthday hat.Purple layered cake.Her very own make-up and a brand new quilt.


(yes that is peanut butter on her pancakes, don't knock it til you try it)

love

Our February collaboration subject was Love. Ahh love, there are so many ways to interpret in a photo, the most wonderful of all the emotions. I chose to show my love for 3 things1. Pale Pink - the color of peace to me! 2. New blooming buds that mean spring is on its way3. Shallow depth of field (that means there is a small area of the photo in focus).

Check out Heather and Lesli's blog for their interpretations of love.

52|2012 Week 7 - Body Parts

**I am playing make up here. This is for my 52 week challenge and I missed week 7 due to no internet!! **
BODY PARTS! Yes there were certainly lots of body parts at cheer competition a few weeks ago. And said body parts were doing all sorts of things that I can't imagine our bodies are made to do!! These girls are extremely talented and flexible!! They did great at competition taking 2nd place in a number of the categories!! I'm proud of my little cheerleader!!