Holbrook Hotties in Houston

We Have Officially Moved...

2009-08-18T13:41:00.000-07:00

...to our new blog address. Please find us at www.everythingmurdock.blogspot.com.

Calissa's Baptism

2009-08-05T22:58:00.001-07:00

Cali had her baptism last Saturday. She looked so beautiful. Here are a few pictures. We are so proud of this little girl.

Cali with Grandma and Grandpa Murdock

Cali and Grandpa before the ceremony, all in white.

I love this picture.

This was a very special event. Congratulations Cali!

Arizona Fun With Blake

2009-07-16T14:03:00.001-07:00

Me, Mom and Angelina

Mom with all her babies

Dad with all his babies... all in a "hot" tub

Blake giving Nolan and Aiden a ride on the quad

Kensington drew this in the sand in the backyard: "A Arizona by Kensy. To: Blake/Manda heart B&A 8/15/09

Blake and Cali, Kensi at Madera Canyon

Our picnic in Madera Canyon with Megan!!! So fun.

look at that cute girl

Brae and Belli

In the shade it wasn't half bad that day!

Manda & Meg high school cheer buddies & forever friends

Arizona critters are everywhere and so nasty. This guy is better than the critter chewing its way through my sister's walls and better than the two mice we caught in a trap this week. And better than all the tarantulas and snakes we have seen on this trip! I actually LOVE this guy!

We hiked down the creek. It has water running and it was beautiful. The water was freezing but everyone thought it felt good. We were all in flip flops. City folk...

They found this pool of water to stand in.

Notice Hercules in the back. Still standing in water...

Our family... standing in the pool of water. haha :) We are so cute

Blake & Manda

What a fun day!

It's almost time to leave my home town. I am so sad and still homesick if that's possible but I am excited to return home to Houston! I am anxious to get the drive over with. I HOPE I don't have any super exciting posts about the drive itself this time. No mechanic and no tow truck guy stories. See you back in Houston.

Swimming With Mom

2009-07-13T17:20:00.001-07:00

This is the sign at the entrance to my mom's community. My mom isn't even 55. Haha. We went swimming with her this weekend with Blake.

Blake & Bella

Cali, Angie and Momma

Blake was throwing the kids in the air and they were doing flips! This is Nolan. He ended up doing back drops but he had FUN!

Kensington had the back flip perfected! This scares the crap out of me! But she looks beautiful! Such form!

Patagonia Lake

2009-07-11T06:13:00.001-07:00

Last Friday the girls and I went with my sister, her kids and our dad to the lake south by the Mexican border. It was a blast! We got to tube behind the boat and I got to ski! Soooo amazing!

Nolan, Cali, Ken, Bella and Destiny ready to go...

Aiden & Bella in the tube sitting in the inlet

Brae, Me and Angie after we went tubing! My dad was able to get us off the tube twice. Both times hurt pretty bad. The first time we hit the water hard. The second time my sister let go and Brae's head flew up and the back of it hit my head. She and I both tasted blood after and I had a small gash on my head above my eye. It was worth it though! haha

Nolan, Bella, Cali, Ken & Desi

Aiden is fearless! He loves the water like all his siblings and cousins. (oh and Aunt Mandy)

Brae and Nolan on the boat

This is me skiing! It was so hard to get up and stay up! I was sore for days after this...

Bella and Desi swimming from the tube to the boat

The sunsets are one thing I miss about Arizona! They are breathtaking

This is me finally getting up on my 3rd attempt. Then the boat died and I went down. I loved my day at the lake with my family! I want to go back.

The Sweatshop and Slavedriver

2009-07-11T06:12:00.002-07:00

For many hours this week this is what I turned my sister's house into... A Printshop :)

I think she felt obligated to HELP ME!! haha

We stayed up late many nights getting the invitations ready to send out. Believe me when I say it was a Celebration this day. (We were on our way to the lake but made one pit stop...)

Woo Hoo!!! My sister can stop calling me a slave-driver now!

My Dad's 50th Surprise Birthday Party

2009-07-11T06:12:00.001-07:00

My dad didn't know the girls and I came into town and he didn't know they were throwing him a birthday party. They brought him home in a blindfold and we were in the garage waiting to surprise him. The DJ played a game where he had to guess the song and the artist. After one song she put me on the mic and I was SUPPOSED to tell a story so he would know it was me.

However... I was crying before I even started talking and I tried twice to tell the stupid story. I got a few words out the second try and my dad started crying. It was really emotional!
They decorated the garage (the dj called it a barn haha) and they had music and food and friends and family there!

This was my favorite. I made so much fun of them for bringing the Huatabampo Hot Dog guy in to cater food. Awesome!!!

You know you're in the sticks when... hot dogs on wheels rolls in! :)

This is me, dad, my two cousing, Scott and Cory and my little seester and nephew! Angie just jumped in right as they were taking it! Silly girl. It was a night I'll never forget!!!

Happy Birthday Dadda!!!

Where I Come From

2009-07-11T06:07:00.001-07:00

Where I come from is a little bit country... and a LOT redneck! haha
I love it here!!! As I got back in the car after taking the above picture, there were cows crossing the road. This guy was one of them. My girls came back to my sisters and told my brother in law we saw a "happy cow". No lie. They call them happy cows here. :)
This is my dad's barbeque! It tasted SO good and in fact, we are grilling the same meal again tonight!!! BBQ chicken, corn and frijoles. (and a little bit Mexicano here too)

This is also on my dad's party post but this fits perfectly into my 'redneck' post too! This was the caterer at my dad's party. :) I gave them such a hard time about the hot dog guy coming! I didn't try the Sonoran dogs that night but the hot dog I had was the best hot dog ever! I can now go to the Wal Mart parking lot to get more if I want. haha We loved the Huatabampo guy!

This is my dad's "hot tub" in his front yard. This is what they were all doing when I brought Blake home to meet them. :) It's actually cold water in it. Who would think different in Arizona when it's 110+ degrees outside.

Redneck? Ummm... yeah! 7 kids and one adult in the cold tub in the front yard!

Arizona Days

2009-07-08T23:53:00.001-07:00

This has been such a fun week so far!!! The desert is so amazingly beautiful. I forget. It's monsoon season right now so we are getting rain almost everyday and in the desert you can see it coming in over the valley or pouring down on the mountains in the distance! The best part is you can smell the rain here! I love it. It has to be my favorite smell. There is so much to write about. Some of it will be for a post of it's own so for now...

My brother in law took us out to go horseback riding on Monday! It's one of my all time fave things to do besides go toobing behind a boat! The ride was awesome. The weather was good and the scenery was beautiful. This is Bella and Desi before our ride.

Bella and Destiny again, this time it was right before Desi said "Aunt Mandy, I want off!" So she went back home and we traded her out for...

Cali!!! Bella and Cali rode this horse and it was good until the end when they were both complaining that they were squished in the saddle!

Kensington looking so hip ready to ride her horse.

The mountains are so pretty. Let me just tell you a little about my horse. He likes to be in the lead. He likes to run DOWN hills and UP hills. When he starts to trot the horses behind him like to trot too. He hurt my butt, my legs and my back muscles SOOOO bad. For two days straight! haha Ouchie, my ...

Braelyn was in the second group to go out. I, of course, was in both (hence the soreness). My brother in law, Noah, thought this older group would like to trot, run but Braelyn wasn't so happy about that. She was pretty ready to go home about half way through.

I love this little man! This is Aiden and he's a complete handful. My sister stays so busy with him.

Today, I met my girlfriends at McDonalds. I have known them since kindergarten. I had my first sleepover at Melynda's house (pink shirt) and Gayle and I go way back (borrowing her parents' van without them knowing before we were legally old enough to drive). Oh yeah! Fun times. It was really great to see them for a bit.

A preview of what's to come... Friday we are going out on the lake to do some of this!!! I can not wait. And I even more can not wait (does that even make sense, well it's after midnight so who cares if it does or not) for Saturday when Blake comes into town for five days! He's in for such a culture shock. :) It's a different way of life here. I will blog about it as soon as I get a chance. It's so nice!

More to come...

Our Trip To Arizona... So Far

2009-07-05T16:32:00.001-07:00

We left on Thursday to come to Arizona to visit family and to surprise my dad for his Surprise 50th Birthday party. Our little trip took a turn for the worse when our car left us stranded in Bakersville, Texas. We were blessed to get roadside assistance and were towed from Bakersville to Ft. Stockton. The tow guy was scary and was covered in tattoos from head to toe and had some freaky piercings. However, I did notice a wedding ring which brought me comfort and the girls and I, along with Maxy, climbed into his wrecker for a 40 minute ride. He dumped us off at an uncertain location to have a mechanic look at our car.

This is the 3rd hour after the break down and the kids were waiting for them to assess our car problems. This was right before they all 4 got their feet covered in grease. Ugh! Such a mess.
We stayed that night in Las Cruces, NM when my angel of a cousin came to meet me halfway from Ft. Stockton to Cruces and she climbed in my car and drove us to her place for the night. She saved me that night since I was so drained from a very long and emotional day. We got to Sahuarita Friday at noon and have been playing ever since. Well, kinda...

This is us on my dad's monster of a quad! So much fun! I love it. He lives on a lot of land so it's fun to find trails and ride in the sand washes near by.
So, this is a new addition up at my dad's. Two cattle. Huh! My sister told me to not get attached if you know what I mean. I asked my dad about the cows today and he said for their property to be considered a "ranch" he needs 2 cows. If he only has 1 it's only a "farm". hmmm, didn't realize that's all it takes these days. I am going to consider getting 2 cow so I can have a ranch too.

No lie- the girls rode in this golf cart for 6 hours straight on Saturday. They drive it around. After Kensington got it stuck once, there were no real problems. Though, today she did drive it through a tree and my niece got all mangled and has scratches all over her face and arms. Wow! Look at how many children can fit in one golf cart! Impressive. Hey, where are your parents, kids!
I grew up here and I don't remember seeing so much wildlife before. Since we've been here we have had 3 ticks on Kensi and Cali, we saw this TARANTULA down my sister's front steps this morning and the girls "claim" they saw scorpions yesterday on their golf cart adventures. Disgusting! At least in Houston we only have flying roaches! haha
We took a walk today with my mom, her community has a family of owls. This is the baby. We were so close, it's so amazing! And on our walk we confirmed that what the girls thought were scorpions are really lizards with their tails up.

Bell and my niece, Destiny playing at grandpa's house
This is my cousin, Kensey from Las Cruces. We love her and she is really sweet. Thank you girl for coming to save us Thursday night!
I will post more pics soon of the surprise party and of me and my mom and sister! Yay for family and for vacation!

The BIGGEST and BEST news ever ever in the whole wide world

2009-06-30T15:11:00.000-07:00

Blake and I are engaged!!! To say I am happy is an understatement. Ecstatic! Thrilled! That's better. We told the girls on Sunday and they were so happy too! They went off on their own and made up this song:

"Hallelujah! Blake and * mom are * going to * get married"

It will be August 15th (yes, of this year!) so mark your calendars. We will be married here in Houston. More details will come!

This Day...

2009-06-18T09:33:00.001-07:00

This day we are called upon to do hard things...

Summertime

2009-06-11T17:19:00.000-07:00

You gotta love Texas Graduations!

Jordan graduated along with 700 or so others from Klein High this past weekend. It was held at Reliant Stadium where the Houston Texans play ball! I am really proud of my oldest niece!

Sarai and Ana came down from Dallas. It was way fun to spend time with them there.

Skyler went to the MTC this week to report for his two year mission for the church. I can not express how proud I am of him. He's an exceptional young man and he's going to be an awesome missionary! I miss him already though. It's a strange feeling. He went in yesterday.

While Shannon and Jared took Skyler to Utah I was able to spend some time with the other kids. We went to the pool twice this week. Here are some random pics of our time. It was really, really FUN!

I think I am super fortunate to not only have my four little beauties but to have all nine of these kids in my daily life and my sister's little ones also (even though they live far away :( . I have so much love for all these kids. They honestly could ALL be my own. It's an amazing feeling.

Falling Teeth

2009-06-07T18:00:00.001-07:00

I think it may be a record or something? Braelyn pulled out 3 loose teeth tonight. Three! I think the Tooth Fairy may be in a bind for the payoff for this unexpected loss. All at once...

She wanted me to take a pic of the three teeth but I thought it was a little nasty so here is a pic of her instead. :)

Braelyn's Talent Show

2009-06-07T17:31:00.000-07:00

Brae has been looking forward to the 5th grade talent show since last year in 4th grade. About 3 weeks ago she came home on a Tuesday and needed music with no words for the song she wanted to sing by Friday. I was so overwhelmed that week and I had no idea how to get that for her so I bribed her with $10.00 to NOT participate. (Good mom, huh) because I didn't know how to help her. She ended up getting her friends to sing with her and one of their dad's downloaded the song on itunes. Thank you, thank you! :)

This was the three girls after singing. Brae looked so beautiful that day! Like always. Two days before the show Braelyn lost her voice. How stinky is that! She had to forego her solo but she did an amazing job still!

After school we celebrated Cali and Bella's bdays and Jordi's graduation with a trip to Starbucks for Frappaccino's. So yummy! So fun!

This is Braelyn's group singing "You Belong With Me" by Taylor Swift.

Happy Birthday Bella

2009-06-05T06:19:00.000-07:00

Two years and one day apart from Cali... Happy 6th Birthday to my beautiful baby girl!

Happy Birthday Cali

2009-06-04T06:55:00.001-07:00

My little llama is turning 8 today! Eight is so great. She is excited to get baptized this summer. She is still my tiny girl and I am so thankful for her in my life. Happy Birthday Beautiful!

Bella's "Bugz" Kindergarten Musical

2009-06-04T06:39:00.000-07:00

Bella is the ladybug. This is her friend, Cassandra.

She is right in the front middle.

This performance was soooo adorable! I LoVeD it. In the first video, when you get to 1 minute 5 seconds it's Bella on the microphone with two other little girls. Just the 3 of them. You can't see anything but you can hear well. It is soo cute! My baby is now a first grader. Wow!

Ken's Awesomeness At The Pool...

2009-06-03T16:19:00.000-07:00

Check her out... :)

Kensington's Birthday Pool Party

2009-05-31T14:31:00.000-07:00

Kensington had two girlfriends from school over for swimming and a slumber. This was everyone all together before the party began. The two little girls are friends from downstairs.

Isabella

We had pizza delivered to the pool and then had watermelon! Yummy.

Braelyn

Bell

Kensington always finds a puppy friend wherever we go.

Kensi, Taylor and Sarah

This child on the right in the tight green suit was a demon child. His dad was having a bbq on the outside of the fence. He was running amuck poolside. He would push the girls in and take toys from other kids. He came over and took a piece of our pizza then came back for seconds. He made my three hours at the pool not so relaxing.

I could write how his father behaved when he joined green child in the pool but I will spare you the details. Let's just say, this child behaves the way he does for a reason!

ANYWAY! Glad the girls had fun and I am so glad that one birthday is down! Happy Birthday Ken!

P.S. I did NOT give him seconds on the pizza ;)

Cali and Bella Birthday Celebration

2009-05-27T20:23:00.000-07:00

Cali and Bella will be turning 8 and 6 next week but we needed to do their "Ditch School Day to go out to lunch with mom" this week due to next week being the last week of school and having multiple programs going on.

Here is them skipping out of class...

They decided they wanted to go to IT'Z for lunch and fun! They were each going to get their own day but they wanted to do it together. So sweet!

Getting ready to ride the roller coaster. Notice their matching outfits- they planned it.

On the bounce house.

After eating a brownie.

Sisters

This was so random. We had gotten our lunch and had set it on a table while we went to fill our drinks up. As we were doing so this man approached me and asked if the girls would pull a name for a drawing they were having for the elderly to win a cruise. I said sure and so we went with this man (while our food got nice and cold) and they were able to participate in this. It was really neat! Here is a video of the girls. This man (Mr. Buddy) is on the Christian Radio here in Houston and he lets Cali pull the name first and then Bella pulls a surprise second name! I was hoping I could go on that cruise but my name didn't get in that mix. :(

The girls and I had a great day eating, playing and shopping! Happy Early Birthday to my BIG baby girls.

A Relaxing Day

2009-05-25T19:07:00.000-07:00

After church the girls and I went for a drive out in the country to look at some houses. It was so gorgeous. I am a real country girl at heart. We ended up in a neighborhood and we got out to play for a bit. After reading the post from Friday maybe you all can relate to why I loved this neighborhood so much. The first three names of the streets are: Leisure Lane, Idle Lane and Lazy Lane. Yes please. Sign me up! Today my friend, Alona, invited us to go to Surfside Beach with her and her friends. It was so fun! Truly, I loved sitting there and doing nothing. The girls had a good ol' time!

Kensington building a sand castle. She poured her bubbles in to make it extra sticky.

Kensington and Braelyn eating lunch.

Susannah and Kim making Braelyn into a mermaid.

The most beautiful mermaid ever!

Kensington found a new friend.

This is a fish head. Do any of you remember the song: Fish head, fish head, roly poly fish head. Fish head, fish head, eat 'em up. Yum! ??? That's what comes to mind when I see this picture.

Bella and Cali snacking in the back of the car. Look at these humongous Cheeto Puffs. I got more pics of these two girls but none of them turned out great. :(

I am not a fan of the way my hair looks in this pic but I had a good time! I went in the water which is a rarity! haha

I thought this was funny. This is what I found after one of my girls used the potty when we got home! Who doesn't love the beach??

I just don't want to have to go back to all the responsibility tomorrow. Can anybody fix that for me...

How Would You Describe Me?

2009-05-24T20:32:00.000-07:00

I am filling out an application for something bizarre and it asks how my friends would describe me. So... how would you???

Rant & Rave

2009-05-22T18:44:00.000-07:00

Today has been IN!!! TENSE!!!! For those of you who may suffer from anxiety it is best for you to log off before reading on…

My "To Do"

Last night I had finished this board for a birthday party Brae was going to today right after school. I put the finishing touches on it and it was ready to be wrapped when I had the genius thought to check and make sure the name was spelled correctly. To my dismay we left out the second “e” in Kimberley. Ohhh Awesome!! So, this morning not only did I wake up to a filthy dirty, messy place but I also woke up to the remembrance of needing to re-do this board (the 2nd re-do this week)! After I drove the girls to school (Gleannloch Trip #1 for the day) I came home and did the dishes, cleaned up the dog pee and poo from the previous night, and picked up the house a bit. Then, I read scriptures, and went to work out. I am only going to get to run 3 times this week due to how hectic it is and that’s one thing that I am not willing to give up. After that, I made some phone calls for someone special and ended up giving myself 10 whole minutes to bathe and get out the door to go visiting teaching. (Gleannloch Trip #2). Still making phone calls on the drive there as well. J After visiting I returned to the girls’ school (ate with Bell yesterday there) for lunch with child #2,3 and 4. Took these pics

You will not find a picture of Kensington with me because she never will sit by me when I come. This is her from across the cafeteria. She is second from right at that far table (in black). Sometimes I get my feelings hurt but I truly believe that she doesn't want to sit by me due to some mental issues she used to have with separation anxiety. She told me later today that when she sees me her stomach hurts and she doesn't want to have to go home with me. She also wouldn't take a pic with me though (and that was due to embarrassment!)

On the way home from the school I stopped by a friend’s house to talk to her about doing some vinyl in her home. Finally got back home right at 2 and had an hour before I had to go get the girls. I went on the patio and sanded the old paint off the sign for Brae’s gift. After you finish the board like I had, it leaves the letters imprinted in the old paint. I painted over even though you could still see the old letters. I switched some laundry over, folded a load of laundry from yesterday, returned a call and discovered I needed to drop something off down the street for a different order I am working on, and took my puppa out to go potty. Then, it was time to tell Blake bye as he stopped to pick something up(he's leaving town for 9 days :( and then puppa and I were off to pick up the girls from the escuela (Gleannloch Trip #3). We then went to Sonic to get my new favorite drink, the Mango Limeade (yummy!) and to the Trophy Store to drop that thing off. While I was there I got a phone call from Braelyn… “Mom, are you going to be done with that board because we need it by 5:00). It was after 3:30 at this point and I hadn’t even started the vinyl yet! So, I got back home at 4:00 and went to work. After I finished hers up and it was drying (I hated it bc you could still see the old letters behind the new ones… uuggh!!) (as a side note- I use ribbon to tie around each board when they are done. Yesterday at Wal Mart I picked up my sheer black ribbon. When I went to tie it on the board I found it wasn’t too black at all. It was Navy! Perfect for this day haha) I finished a board Bella is giving as a gift tomorrow! And started a proof for an order for a good friend of mine. Then, it was 5:15 and time to take Brae the gift (Gleannloch Trip #4). We got home and I was able to breathe a little bit and did some more house work and wrote down all my ideas for this blog. Then we left at a quarter til 7 to drop Kensington off at her friend’s house (Gleannloch Trip #5). Holy Smokes!! Now Bella, Cali and I are at Burger King eating a nice dinner together. Well, they are playing on the machine while I type this out. I have to go home and finish up two more things that I need by tomorrow by 10am. That’s when I pick up the girls and then head to a bridal shower for a woman who ALWAYS supports me along with her amazing sister! Then, Bella has her party after mine. Life is SO busy right now with no relief in sight. Next week I think I will hit the ground running on Tuesday. (Monday I am planning to relax though and do something extra special with the girls.)

Here are the HIGHLIGHTS of my past week amongst the chaos:

I found out today my good friend Eric, proposed to his girlfriend of over a year! They are getting married in Denver in August!!! I am SO completely happy for them. The Stallion and Barbie!

I was reunited with one of my favorite shows with one of my favorite people this week! Thank goodness Friday Night Lights Season 3 is finally out!!! I LoVe it!

I got my deposit back from the old house. The entire amount. It is now in a savings account waiting for our move OUT of the apartment at the end of August. J I am very grateful!

Braelyn’s bike had broke last week and we were stumped as to how to fix it or get it fixed. An idea popped into my head earlier this week to see if Wal Mart would exchange it since it hasn’t been 90 days yet and I still have my receipt. The 90 day mark is this Sunday. We took it in yesterday and they told us to go get another one without question! So, she has a brand new bike and it was a real blessing! I am glad it broke when it did!

I fumbled across the new Mango Limeade ;)

Lunches with Blake (Tuesday) and my ladies Thursday and Friday

If you are still reading this nonsense you are truly a good friend (or really needing some major entertainment)! I hope my head stays on straight the next couple days! If any of you are about town and see my head rolling around please pick it up and bring it by! OR chances are I’ll be on your side of town soon enough!

Ken's Birthday Day

2009-05-14T19:59:00.000-07:00

She started her day with some presents from us. She got new outfits.

I pulled her out of school at noon and we went to lunch together. I had to convince her to upgrade her lunch location from McDonalds to... the mall food court. haha She had Taco Bell (cheap date) and I did not. We went shopping with her birthday money and had a Frappacino on the way out. It was a nice afternoon.

At the mall we were doing some much needed bathing suit shopping for her. She chose one at Justice and I had to tell her "no" because it was a little bit immodest. She gave me a nice silent treatment for quite awhile while being her stubborn little birthday self.

This was what broke her silent treatment (when I let her buy this...)

Kensington has been asking for something specific for her bday for months. Blake custom made it for her... Kensington anticipated what Blake would bring her all day... This is him leading up to it...

Look at how cute she was getting it

This is what she specifically asked for. As long as it didn't have her "other" nickname on it she said. (Refer to Mother's Day post)

I loved how her new outfit matched the skateboard. She was really, really good riding it. She threw another pouty fit when I made her give me a turn. What, doesn't she trust my skills not to crash into things??? The next day she blamed me for scuffing the board up too) I didn't post a few days ago when I hit another pole in my apartment complex with my car... oopsie but I really didn't scuff the board.

She had a lovely birthday. I have two more in two weeks. uughh! Please help me.

Happy Birthday Kensington

2009-05-13T07:11:00.000-07:00

Kensington is 10 today! I just posted some pictures from the last year. She brings so much comedy into our home. She is a real joy! I am so thankful for her in my life.

Fun with Photo Booth

Showing the Christmas Moose which is now in the garbage can

With her sisters at the school carnival

Kennedi has us all wrapped around her tiny finger! So much fun!

On the ferris wheel downtown after Christmas. She loves this hat!

At Annika's baptism last summer

First day of school

She is amazingly beautiful! In all ways.

My Prestigious Award

2009-05-13T07:06:00.001-07:00

Haha Check this out:

Quite an honor I must say!

Click here

Mother's Day Gifts

2009-05-10T17:30:00.001-07:00

I have had a great Mother's Day so far! I woke up to breakfast in bed (on a cutting board), then got a double breakfast by being invited to Shannon and Jared's house for breakfast. There we had french toast with strawberries and cool whip and sausages! It was so delicious. Thanks Jared!!! I love you. After church I came home and picked up a tiny bit then slept for an hour and a half! After last week I definitely need to catch up! The girls all gave me amazing home made gifts. So nice! I love them all! I want to share with you a Quiz Kensington filled out and gave me...

"How Well Do I Know My Mom?"

1.Her favorite color is pink (indeed it is. I told her this the morning before she took the quiz when she asked me)

2.Her favorite television show is Survivor/Lost (gave her this answer too although she had to know this one on her own)

3.Her favorite kind of car is Not a Trailblazer (hahaha)

4. Her favorite sport to watch on tv is Nothing

5. Mom's favorite sport to play is Nothing (huh...)

6. An expression or saying that my mom always uses is I got a headache (Really? I do...I really don't get them ALL that often)

7. My mom always gets angry when she has a headache (wow Ken!)

8. My mom's favorite foods are lasagna, hamburger helper (uugh), and everything she cooks (well I am probably my biggest fan of my food! Or close second to one other person)

9. My mom's favorite meal is Everything (steak and potatoes, BROWNIES)

10. My mom's favorite restaurant is Chick Fa La (for fast food, yes. Olive Garden and Saltgrass for sit down)

11. My mom's favorite vacation was Arizona (isn't this the only vacations I take??? haha I love seeing my family)

12. My mom has a funny habit of talking on the phone (huh... again, wasn't aware that I did this all that often)

13. My mom really looked pretty on the day she Everyday (aahh... tear)

14. My mom really looked silly on the day she died her hair orange (it was supposed to be blonde! Never again! Never. I was in tears... you can ask Shannon about this somber event. I looked like Ronald McDonald only more orange)

15. My mom doesn't know about the time I am not telling my mom that (hahahaha- my favorite answer)

16. My mom's best friend is Kuulei (and Shannon, Angel, Angie, Selina, Blake, my mom)

17. My mom's pet name for me is Nonny/Boobie (yes she likes the first one, put a check mark by it, doesn't prefer the second, put an x by it)

I love this little girl! She makes me laugh so much when she's not giving me a run for my money by being so STUBBORN! She will be the death of me as a teenager. Mark my words. I love each of my ladies. They treat me so good, better than I ever deserve! I am thankful for them in my daily life and for my mom! I have so many amazing women in my life! Happy Mother's Day!

Astros Game

2009-05-10T17:17:00.000-07:00

Fireworks

Friday night Blake and I went to the Astros game. They played San Diego Padres. It was so much fun to be there. At first neither team was scoring but eventually our team actually hit the ball and made two runs in one inning. That was the final score, 2-0. Hey, isn't the 7th Inning Stretch normally at the BOTTOM of the 7th inning? I could have sworn! haha After the game they put on the most incredible fireworks display ever. Blake and I were talking about how much the tickets cost and we figured they charge so much so they can pay for the fancy stadium and the fireworks after. It was sooo much fun to be there!!! Go Astros.

Random

2009-05-04T07:52:00.001-07:00

My favorite neighborhood store, Ace, closed it's doors this weekend. I loved the feeling when I would shop there. I am really sad. I am happy however that on Friday I got my paint for 85% off. So, I paid $1.95 when I normally pay $12.99. Yay! I stocked up for my business.

Here is a pic of me and Bell leaving the pool last week. Notice my book... it's the last of the Twilight series and I finished it yesterday! I LoVeD it. I am sad now because now what??? It took me like ten months to get through all four. No time! It was amazing and I want what they have!

So, the pool is still pretty cold, esp. if it's not hot outside. This was Cali just out of the water. I thought it was cute. Notice her adorable, pruny, woo woos (feet).

With Blake's help, Cali lost her tooth yesterday. It was in there dang good! She was tough and really wanted it out! It was sweet how they worked together to get it out, even when pliers didn't help. haha

The older girls commented on how I always post her pictures on here after she loses one. How can I NOT... look at her! She is the most adorable kid. Messy hair and all...

I don't have a picture to post of this one but it's blog worthy for sure. Saturday afternoon the girls were in the kitchen and Cali was on the counter with the cabinet door open above. Kensington was on the ground and went to jump onto the counter and she smacked the top of her head into the open cabinet. As she started to cry I came out to see what was happening and as soon as I saw her holding her head I saw the blood also. It was soo scary to see your child's head bleeding. I couldn't tell where it was coming from and how bad it was at first. We put pressure on it with a wet rag and waited for it to stop bleeding. I hoped it wasn't going to need stitches and we went with that. After some time, ice and some ibuprofen she was feeling better and the goose egg resided. Poor girl. She was very sweet after (she was RELIEVED she didn't need stitches) and told me she was glad I was there with her during that. Considering her past of stitches in her tongue, stitches in her cheek, a broken finger, swollen eye, etc. she should have had to go in this time too. Poor baby!

Honk Honk

2009-04-27T14:46:00.000-07:00

I don't often honk at other people. Like never. Today I picked up the girls, ran some errands and then headed home. When I pulled onto Spring Cypress I got into the median to wait for traffic to clear so I could merge into the lane. As I was waiting another brod pulled behind me to do the same. As an opening cleared I went to go and the woman behind me pulled around me and went. So, I laid on my horn and let her know that was just plain rude. My girls were surprised and I told them that she was rude and took my spot. After a few seconds I said "If that woman did that on accident I feel really bad that I honked at her." It was quiet for a second then Kensington said "they make horns for a reason mom". "That lady made you mad and you know that was wrong!!!!!" With some venom! We were busting up. She is our little comedian.

I Did It Again!!!

2009-04-25T15:40:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday I dropped my cell phone in the water. Did you all hear about it? The end of my life pretty much. It means so much to me. It is my means of communication with the entire universe!~ It almost killed me to go Saturday through Monday until my precious phone was replaced by the awesome insurance company. All last week I was so careful around water. I never wanted that trauma to happen to me again and be left without a phone.

Guess what...

I did it again. Today! One week after the last time I did it. I was doing dishes this morning and I had a pizza pan on the sink with about a quarter inch of water in it soaking. The cell was dropped, hit the water in the pizza pan and bounced off. IT really was not a big deal. It BARELY hit water. The cell is gone. And my claim went into insurance too late today. So, now I don't get it replaced until Tuesday. :( TUESDAY!!!! Whatever will I do until then? World... don't give up on me. I will be back...

This will be my last claim for another 358 more days. They are dropping me after this. I am making a new rule for my cell... it may not come into any bathrooms or into the kitchen. We learned the hard way.

Friends... email me or call my home phone until Tuesday. I know... trauma for us all.

Oops... Crap!

2009-04-21T19:03:00.001-07:00

I had 2 "oops... crap" moments this morning". First...

For the last five days I have been smelling (poo) in my closet. At first I didn't pay much attention to it. I thought it was brought in on the bottom of a shoe because I didn't see it anywhere. Each day I would move more stuff around the look for something where the smell was coming from. Yesterday I got the steam cleaner and put some potent smelling stuff in it and cleaned it so good. It smelled better until last night when it smelled much worse! So, this morning I got down on all fours and sniffed my way around the closet. I was smelling shoes, bags, carpet... everything! Until... Ahah! I found it- the large pile of poop on top of a second set of food storage boxes, way in the back of the closet. I was so happy. I think I said "Victory" aloud. So happy, there really was a reason it smelled that way. Ok, SICK! I was happy though I will tell you that much!

The second oops has a little background. My brother in law, (big brother) Jared, always teases me about everything. He never lets anything go. Never! I am still trying to live down some bad stuffing I made for Thanksgiving forever ago (wet croutons). He always teases me about how I hit everything while driving. He always points out that they are stationary objects. Well that was a long time ago. I have done really well at not hitting anything now for about five years... until this morning.

I was backing out of our complex and I was parked next to the covered parking and I cut my turn too soon and hit one of the poles. Yikes! I actually saw some paint fly. It's not too bad, right???

The first "oops...crap" was great! The second, not so much!

Twilight Zone

2009-04-18T16:46:00.000-07:00

Today I must have woken up in the twilight zone. The morning started out promising and all was well... until I was inspired to clean my bathroom and by so doing I dropped my cellular device (which has EVERYTHING on it, internet, instant messaging, texting, the list goes on and on... basically my LIFE LINE) into the sink!! It barely touched the water and so I thought it would be fine but oh, how wrong I was! That was the beginning of where the day went terribly wrong. So, I am working on five more boards that are due by tomorrow for work and after my phone incident this morning I had to pick up one child at her friend's house, take one child's friend home and then add a newly formed trip to Verizon in my already busy day. When we left it was TORRENTIAL DOWNPOUR outside. Like seriously, where did that rain come from!!! We went all the way to Verizon for them to tell me to call a claim in and that's all they could do. So, an hour out of my day for nothing. At that point NOTHING flowed right all day. My vinyl wasn't working for me, paint wasn't drying the right way due to the weather. The kids were at each other's throats. So, at one point I threw my hands up and told the girls I had to go to the gym to run it off. I hated it though bc I had no cell phone in case they needed me and I went in the rain. Crazy. Then, I came back and decided to take the girls to the Hannah Montana movie. As we left I noticed my car wouldn't unlock with my little remote. Finally I got in and while I was driving to the theater I noticed my locks on the inside and the windows wouldn't work. What in the heck!!! And it was pouring outside. So... my phone and my electrical on my car all on the same day. What the heck! As we got to the theater it was a flood zone! The girls liked driving through the water!

The movie was great!!! You should see it if you haven't yet. It made me miss my family and being 'home'. So bad. :( After that we went off roading on the way home then my windows and locks worked again. Huh! I have no idea. My cell is due to be here Monday. I seriously don't know how to function without it. How bad is that! The day has gotten a bit better though. The rain stopped. How incredibly bizzarre of a day. And not in a good way. I need to finish up my five boards for tomorrow. Yikes! Hey, too bad I didn't wake up in the Novel Twilight... I have a feeling that would have been much more exciting...

Our Dallas Escape

2009-04-12T17:38:00.000-07:00

We went to Dallas last Thursday for a two day getaway. I went up to spend time with my friends. Thursday night we stayed with Angel and her family! We had a great time. I loved staying up and giggling into all hours of the night!!!

Friday a group of us met at a park for a picnic. I loved this picture of Ellen and Bella.

We shared the park with a large group of people having their company picnic celebrating 'Good Friday'. They had a DJ who played really good music! The company had a Petting Zoo come in. All of our children ended up IN the petting zoo! haha This was amazing! They had them feeding the baby animals. This isn't the greatest picture of Braelyn but it's so cute. They had a bunch of tiny, multicolored baby ducks.

Friday night Cali, Bella and I ate at IHOP for dinner. It was really fun to have it be the 3 of us! And they loved eating breakfast for dinner! This was the best picture I could get with my cell phone camera. It's pretty funny...

Brae and Ken were each at a friend's house.

We stayed at a hotel Friday night to spend time with one of my best friends. This pic is so cute- they were watching tv through this mirror! The tv is actually the other direction but they got creative.

With Masey and Kiki! Man... we miss them!

Saturday I had the best pedicure (thanks Dad and Robin) and then met Ku'ulei and her kiddies at Applebees for lunch before heading out! I miss my Kandy!!!!!!!!!

It was a lovely weekend. It was too fast of a trip though. I was exhausted driving home Saturday. So tired! It's true that when you return from a trip you are more tired than when you started. And I was tired when I started. haha I loved my time with all my friends!!!!

Tender Mercies

2009-04-09T11:54:00.001-07:00

Elder Bednar describes 'tender mercies' best as he says, "I believe I have come to better understand that the Lord’s tender mercies are the very personal and individualized blessings, strength, protection, assurances, guidance, loving-kindnesses, consolation, support, and spiritual gifts which we receive from and because of and through the Lord Jesus Christ."

This week I received one very sweet tender mercy from Heavenly Father that was unexpected. I am so thankful for family and friends who are always there for me and who uplift. This week I had a sweet moment with a good friend who completely touched my heart and made me feel so much better! For you, friend, thank you so much for your kind words and for your hug. Family and girlfriends are the best! I am so lucky.

Happy Easter

2009-04-09T11:40:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter! We colored our eggs earlier this week with our friends. It's amazing that they can finish in all of ten minutes. :) They had lots of fun and now they're ready for the Easter Bunny to come hide them. We are off to Dallas for a few days but we'll be back in time for Sunday.

Kensington's Infinite Choir Concerts

2009-04-04T16:56:00.000-07:00

Kensington joined choir the beginning of this semester. She has had practice twice a week before school. They have practiced hard. All of her concerts began this week. Thursday she had three at her school. This morning she had her fourth at a Children's Music Competition in Houston and this afternoon she performed at her school festival. Her last one will be next Tuesday at a school close by. So... six concerts in five days! I am drained to say the least. Lots of practices and performances this past week! Let me just say that the Klein ISD is amazing! Her music teachers are brilliant and these kids blew me away. They performed three songs each concert and they are beautiful and complicated! I am really proud of her.

This was concert #3. Ken is standing under the director's hand.

Concert #5 Flyers Festival. Casual dress. Ken is the one in the front row... cute pink hat.

Frank Flyers Carnival

2009-04-04T16:35:00.000-07:00

Today we went to the Frank Flyers Festival. If you remember my post from last year (when the girls and I got stuck in the mud) this year's was so much better!!! Haha There was no mud!

Cali, Bell, and Ken on the slide

Brae and Bell waiting for the rock climb

Brae conquering the rocks

This is how Bella descended after her climb

Cali AFTER her snowcone and cotton candy

Brae AFTER her snowcone... (went all over her). She got a new shirt out of the deal. Proud owner of a Frank Flyers Tee.

Braelyn's Permanent Hair Dye

Cali's Do

Kensington looked like a granny with white hair

Cali and Bella

This year they added a petting zoo. It was amazing. The animals were so cute. We were worried about the well being of all these helpless animals with toddlers...

This goat was so soft and sweet!

Braelyn with a duckling

Cali holding a duckling

Apartment Living: Part Doux

2009-04-01T16:20:00.000-07:00

apartment of love

We've been here for one month. I KNOW we're loud. I try but to no avail.

Today as I watched the neighbors directly under us pack up their U-Haul I wonder if we had anything to do with their move. huh..... How bad would it be to live under us? Poor poor family.

Well, we'll look forward to see who the new poor saps will be to move in downstairs.

"Not That Innocent"

2009-03-30T15:34:00.000-07:00

Britney is pretty hot right now! She is in Houston tonight for a huge concert. I have a ticket to something much better than the concert (KK's birthday get together hee hee) but I want to write about how happy I am for Britney's amazing comeback.

I don't know that I have ever been a big fan of hers. I like her music. I don't think she has been a good role model or anything but I really hated what happened to her in the eyes of the public. I have always pulled for her to make it through her hard times. I think Satan wants nothing more than to build someone up to have it all only then to let them fall, and leave them alone. That's what happened to her. The entire world loved her until she started having hard times. I know it's part of what stars bargain for but I can't imagine the entire world watching me make my mistakes. I can't even imagine how hard it would be to feel that kind of pressure. So... random as this post is... Yay Britney. I am happy you pulled it together!

(HaPpY 2nD BiRtHdAy KaKeS!!!!!!!!! Wow, we love you a lot!)

Visits with my family

2009-03-27T11:27:00.001-07:00

We are so lucky to have had family come through town the past couple weeks! Last week we got to see my cousin Trish from San Antonio while she was in Houston on business. We went for a walk with the girls to the pool then hung out. It was so much fun! I had a great time!

I told the girls not to go in too deep. When we left, Bella's pants were soaked.

She is a fun and crazy girl.

Tricia

Curtis came into Houston for two days on business also. He is from Indiana. He and I were extremely close growing up. Now, we never get to see each other. I am so glad we got to be together for a few hours. Now, I am happy for Bre that she gets her husband back! I seriously don't know how she does it with him traveling so much!!!

This is us at CiCi's Pizza. Blake and Curt had never gone before. Man, they were missing out. haha Between these two men, the girls were spoiled, spoiled. It was fun!

Curtis and Mandy. I don't like this picture of me but it was literally the fourth one we took so this is it! :)

I am missing my sister, mom and dad so bad! So, if they could come through town on business anytime soon I would be so happy. If not, maybe I can go to Arizona on business. hmmmm.....

Crazy Times

2009-03-25T18:25:00.000-07:00

This video is of Maxy and the girls "playing". He gets so hyper. Sometimes the girls love it and sometimes they hate it. Now he's laying behind me chewing his bone. Cute puppa!

I haven't had much to post about lately. Life has been super busy and pretty dull, nothing really blog worthy. Today, I walked down (and I do mean down) to the parking lot and my car was covered in bird droppings. I have parked there numerous times in the last three weeks and that's never happened. I told my sister that some men were cutting down branches out of all the trees yesterday and she thinks the birds got their revenge! On my car!!! It was a real mess and what's really embarrassing was that I had to go pick up the kids like that bc there was no time. I should have taken a picture. Dang! Seriously, it was unbelievable. Not just a couple but it was covered. When the girls and the Burdin boys climbed in they each had to tell me how gross the car was. We had to take a trip to good ol' Bubbles. ;)

Just real quick... apartment living. Some good and some bad. I love the simplicity of it! It feels good to me. I don't have to worry about much upkeep. The biggest complaint I will have here is lugging all the groceries up the three flights and I especially foresee me loving this come summer. Oh joy! haha

Funny or Not So Much

2009-03-07T20:07:00.001-08:00

I told you I would blog about apartment living. So our adventures begin...

Today we were all ready to go to a friend's baptism and we were leaving in plenty of time. I told the girls to each grab some garbage to take down on our way out of the complex. One of the bags had cat litter in it (the entire litter from last week) and I didn't tie a knot in it because it's easier to carry that way. So, the girls all went out before me to head down the 40 stairs and by the time I got out there Bella had attempted to carry down the heavy bag of litter and as she did so a hole formed in the bottom dumping quite a lot of dirty cat litter with some surprises in it onto the stairs. And through the bottom of the stairs onto lower stairs. So, I got the broom and dustpan and some new garbage bags and cleaned it up. A little litter remains on the next flight down. We wanted something real nice for our new neighbors, who are sure to love us already anyway- they live right beneath us. :) So... funny or not???

Thankfully we were still on time for the baptism.

Our Five Minute Move

2009-03-02T20:19:00.000-08:00

We moved this last weekend into an apartment just down the road from where the house was. It was a miracle the packing got done considering I began the Sunday prior and we moved that Friday. And I had to complete orders that week and deliver them. And celebrate Brae's birthday, etc, etc. ANYHOW... the move went very well I thought. Flawless, actually. :) We had so much help from church. This ward is so amazing and I am so grateful for all the help. Blake and his dad were so generous and we had a lot of laughs along the way. Ask those who helped unload how lovely they thought it was to bring our belongings up to the 3rd floor. Especially the washer and dryer and the big screen tv. MMmmm. We are getting unpacked now and trying to get caught up with what got left behind over the weekend. To all those who helped with dinners, babysitting, packing, loading, unloading... I love you and am glad for your help. I needed it. For those who would like our new address please comment and I will email it to you.

Blake took turns giving the girls a ride in the U-Haul. They had fun.

Can I just say how hot he is! Yes I can cause it's my blog. How did I end up with him?

I just have to throw this picture in. Blake is playing guitar hero in the background. Ken is playing along but I wanted to make note of her outfits lately. Take a close look. She has on arm warmers that are all diff. colors, a pink plaid hat, and some grey pants with diff. colors. She really is a trendy girl but lately her outfits have been so colorful it's making me think if maybe I am way out of what's hip anymore. ;) She's a doll.

Spreadin' the Luv

2009-03-02T20:12:00.000-08:00

Here's a fun blog game courtesy of Kelly (I am really excited about it!!!)

The first 3 people to respond to this post will get something made by me.My choice. Made especially for you.

Restrictions and Limitations:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It will be done this year.
4. You have no clue what it's going to be, because I don't even know what it's going to be!
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The Catch:

You must re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 3 people who comment on your post and agree to do the same!
So get ready for your mystery treat but be prepared to share the love!

Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you get when you get it.

6th Challenge

2009-03-02T20:07:00.000-08:00

I liked this post from my friend, Nettie the Monkey. :)

1. Go to the photo folder in your computer

2. Go to the 6th folder of photos.
3. Go to the sixth picture.
4. Put the picture on your blog along with a description of it.
5. Invite six friends to join the challenge (if you like it and want to... go for it! I can't wait to see some of your pics)
So, here's my picture:
Bella's first day of Kindergarten. August 2008. If she looks a bit unsure, it's cause she was! She adores school now though.

Happy 11th Birthday Braelyn

2009-02-25T14:06:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Baby!

We are busy this week packing for a move (you can see boxes in the background). To make time to celebrate Brae's birthday I pulled her out of school at noon today (she had an "appointment"...for lunch with mom) and we went for Chinese food. It was so yummy.

This is her trying Egg Drop soup for the first time.

Mom and Brae at lunch, I mean her eye dr. appointment.

After lunch we went shopping with her birthday money. We ended up at Justice and she bought her yearly bathing suit and adorable MATCHING sunglasses.

To end our fun time we both got a Frappacino from Starbucks. It was the first time she has ever been allowed to get one. It's a special day! Playing hooky is fun!

My First Ebay Sale!

2009-02-22T18:01:00.001-08:00

Life has been BEYOND busy lately. MandysWallCandy has been doing well! Over the holidays I did two open houses and both were successful. I have been thankful for repeat customers and word of mouth referrals. I recently did my first "Show" at a woman's home and it went well! I have slowly been doing Etsy and Ebay. I am SOOOOOOO happy that today I had my first ebay sale! It is a huge deal! I am excited to see where this business goes. Woo Hoo!!! Celebration Time!

Fun Morning with The Murdock's

2009-02-21T12:50:00.000-08:00

This morning Blake and his dad took the girls to a celebration in our neighborhood. The police and fire department were there and they had bounce houses and popcorn, soda and lots of fun handouts. The girls had a BLAST!!! The firemen turned on the hose from their truck and the girls got soaken wet!!! They loved it. They came home and changed and then continued their fun time at McDonald's for lunch and treats. Talk about being spoiled! They are still talking about it...

Cali's Letter

2009-02-20T09:12:00.000-08:00

I hope (you) were green on March 13 (put a 7 over the 3) or else if you don't you will get pinched and I am sure it will heart but I never got pinched so I am not sure.
Love,
Cali

On the move...

2009-02-19T16:48:00.000-08:00

The girls and I are moving next weekend. Please examine the picture below:
Squished!!!!! This is what it will be like after our move. We are going into a teeny, tiny apartment. We are going to do it for 6 months to save, save, save!!! I feel super good about the choice to do so. It's the right thing but I am not looking forward to many aspects of it! Maybe I can blog about it frequently so you can all laugh at how ridiculous it will be. All four girls in one small room. 3 flights of stairs. One puppy going potty. More to come!!! We are moving next weekend, the end of February. Big week ahead!

Survivor Time Baby!!!

2009-02-12T12:23:00.001-08:00

We are HUGE Survivor fans and it starts tonight! WoO HoO. We all got Survivor buffs for Christmas from Shannon. The girls are wearing them to school today. This photo is from Christmas morning with them all wearing them. So fun! I am missing the show tonight because I have an Open House for MWC but thank goodness for TiVo. :)

Where Oh where has my sister gone??

2009-02-05T14:27:00.001-08:00

I have been missing my sister lately. She used to call me every day but now she doesn't. Ever. About a week and a half ago she started reading The Twilight series and she already finished all four of them BUT!!!!! she started to read them again. I miss her. If you see her will you please tell her to "Put the books down and be done." Your kids miss you and so do I. :)

I am calling the Twilight Addiction Hotline now to report her. Don't laugh at this post, you know exactly what the mayhem is about, don't you.

Lost!!!

2009-01-30T14:35:00.000-08:00

Caution:::: If you have not watched Wednesday night's episode please don't read on!!!

Was anyone else shocked to find out that Charles Whitmore used to be an "Other"!!! I was floored.

And is anyone else just as confused as ever! Confused and LOVING it!!

My Weekly Horoscope

2009-01-29T13:44:00.002-08:00

I have no idea how this ever started but I get a text each week with a horoscope sent to my cell. So, it's uncanny how true they can be (even though I don't believe in them). Check out what I received today:

If you feel like you just haven't got enough hours in the day then it's probably because your "to-do" list is unfeasibly long. Slow down!

Uh-huh! Enough said...

2009-01-29T13:44:00.001-08:00

Check It Out...

2009-01-28T12:41:00.001-08:00

Want to see some new gifts for Valentine's Day? Even if you don't you should check out my business blog to see if there's anything new in the vinyl world since the last time you scoped it out. Make sure you browse through the archive to go backwards to see everything. I can custom design vinyl products too. You can MUTE that song if you'd like. I do everytime. haha. Thanks for your love and support. I am having a lot of fun doing vinyl!!! Click the following link: www.mandyswallcandy.blogspot.com.

And also, in the future you can click the link at the top right hand corner of this blog to always go to MandysWallCandy!

My Cookie Monster

2009-01-26T16:56:00.000-08:00

Bella has ALWAYS been a fan of cookies. Every time there are cookies being baked she is all over them. If there is open cookie dough in the fridge she eats it then says she didn't. Today she saw my dough (MY dough-notice the tube I package it in~haha) on the counter and asked if she could open it. I said no. The next thing I knew she was across the kitchen from where she was two seconds before and on the counter WITH the cookie dough in her lap. Where else! She is my little cookie monster! She is a joy. I can not believe she will be 6 this summer. My baby...

My Humane Society Trip

2009-01-24T10:13:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I took Max to get his first set of vaccinations at the Houston Humane Society. My experience was kind of a bad one just because I had to wait forever to get out of there. Do you know that feeling that comes when you seriously feel like you are stuck somewhere and you are at the mercy of others to get out. By the time I wanted to leave I invested too much time and swore our turn was coming soon so we stuck it out. It is a really nice facility and all of Houston agrees because they were all there in front of me in line. I wasn't going to blog about it until I was standing second in line to pay (for 20 minutes +) and the vet tech came out and called the next dog to come back. To everyone's amusement the dog whom she called was named....

..............Can you guess it??? Blake got it right away!.............

"OBAMA!" It was pretty funny and everyone in the waiting room busted up in laughter and one woman even said while laughing "You named your dog Obama". Regardless of how you feel about the man, it was hilarious and blogworthy. :) I am so happy I am free from the Humane Society now. Whew!!!

We love Emily and Molly Jane

2009-01-24T10:09:00.000-08:00

Thursday was a fun day! Our friends from Dallas were returning home from a Houston overnight and stopped by for lunch. It was so great to visit and try to cram a whole year into two hours. I had the best time. We sure do miss you! These pictures are so funny, they kept taking them with the umbrella????? It's sad when the kids are growing so fast and we are missing out. Molly is amazing. Braelyn toted her around on her hip the entire time even though Molly is a big girl now. :) We loved it.

What's Your Favorite???

2009-01-19T17:27:00.000-08:00

I am taking a poll of my blog-land readers to find the most popular scent from Bath & Body. I think your opinion counts as the general consensus, don't you agree!

I am putting together a Valentine's Day basket for MandysWallCandy and I want to put some goodies in it from B&B but I am not sure what's hot! Please comment and leave your fave.

Mine is Coconut Lime Verbana

F.Y.I.~ MWC is coming out with V-Day gifts. Be thinking about a personalized gift for your loved ones.

Our Car: More than a Funky Smell

2009-01-13T19:07:00.000-08:00

Some people, who will remain nameless ;), tell me often that our car smells. Here's something extra special about the car. It is WAY more than a funky smell. Check this out:

Amazing! You know, it made this noise about two years ago then it stopped and today it started back up again. It seriously sounds like someone (or something) is hitting the back panel in the back row. Kinda creepy. If I remember correctly it first did it to Shannon when she was driving. Today it made me laugh. Should I be laughing? What else can you do.

Look Who Came and Look Who's Happy

2009-01-08T10:11:00.001-08:00

Recycle Much?

Uh Huh!

Loathing Houston

2009-01-02T12:08:00.001-08:00

I am very happy in Houston with the exception of 2 things. I absolutely hate

1) the humidity (it kills my hair. For a reference picture see the 'Aquarium' post below) and

2) they do not come to pick up garbage or recycling on or after a holiday. There is no make up day!

I have two garbage days each week so that's not a big deal. Recycling however comes every Thursday and for the past two Thursday's it has been Christmas and New Years. And with Christmas we had enough recycling PLUS Shannon and Jared left town so they brought over their recycling too. It is driving my absolutely crazy in our garage! Can someone throw me a bone please? I am getting ready to load it all in my car and drive it to HEB and sort it out and recycle it myself. I have one more week to wait if I am waiting for the city. Help me! I am drowning, literally.

So, the scooter is just resting on all the mess and the lawn mower lives there but the boxes and all three totes are full of recylclables. And I love how the garbage is exploding out the top of the can. Lovely.

Building Bears

2009-01-02T10:46:00.000-08:00

For Christmas the girls were given gift cards to "Build A Bear". We decided to take them to the Galleria Mall to use their gift cards yesterday. I am not sure if we chose the best day to go because all of Houston was at the mall on New Years Day! This mall was amazing, the largest mall I have ever been to! It has four floors (the top floor had all businesses) and had pretty fancy stores! I was blown away! The girls had fun using their gift cards. I was glad Mr. Numbers went with us to help the girls buy their bears and the outfits to go with. Thanks Blake!

Mad Search

2009-01-02T10:41:00.001-08:00

On New Year's Eve Cali and I went on a mad hunt for some CHOCOLATE COVERED CINNAMON BEARS. Can I tell you that Kroger, CVS, Walgreens, gas stations and Wal Mart do not carry them? Please help us out... does anyone know where you can buy them?

Christmas Joy to the Max

2008-12-28T16:05:00.000-08:00

We are having so much fun with little Maximus! He is two months old and brings a lot of joy into our lives. He is a lot like a baby to our family. He is getting lots and LOTS and lots of attention. Do you remember my "Referee" post a few months back? Well, Blake and I are now playing referee over the puppy. Who held him last and who is next and for how long...etc, etc! He is a Dachshund/Poodle mix. He is the cutest and we especially love his random bouts of hair sticking up in random places on his little body! He is adorable!!!! When he plays fetch he pounces like a rabbit. Soooo cute!

Downtown Aquarium Fun

2008-12-28T15:32:00.000-08:00

On Friday we went with The Murdock Family (Blake's mom and dad, brother Ben and his family and his brother Scott and his family) to the Downtown Aquarium. We had sooo much fun together. I was impressed with the exhibits of the fish. We got to touch stingrays and see humongous fish and snakes (gross) and tarantula! We saw tigers and eel and sharks! We had fun riding the ferris wheel and the train! It was a great day! We went to eat afterward and eventually that night we made it to see The Curious Life of Benjamin Button! ( I thought it was entertaining but did it really have a purpose???) Our day at the Aquarium was a wonderful time and we were so happy to have been invited!

Look how very sweet! Bella was making a wish while throwing a coin into the fountain. Blake's father, Lynn, is so wonderful with the girls as is Blake's mom. We count their love in our many blessings.

Look how HUGE this fish was!

We got to see them switch out the tigers! After the switch they fed this girl! I was impressed with how close the Tiger came to the glass. The feeding was amazing.

We all got to ride on the Giant Ferris Wheel! I am so afraid of heights but this is pretty fun.

Blake, Ken, Cali and I rode in this gondola. Brae rode with Scott and Aly and Bella rode with The Murdocks!

My hair got so jacked up with the darn humidity that day!!! Uuggh, Houston! Anyway, Cali looked too cute to NOT put this picture up.

This was the Shark Adventure Train Ride. We got to ride under the 'shark tunnel'. I won a bet while standing in line for this! Thanks for paying up Blake with a lovely shoulder massage! I bet that we would get on the next train! I barely won when we slid in with the rest of the family when the conductor tried to get Blake, Brae and I to wait.

Kaleb (Blake's nephew) and the girls standing in line to ride the carousel

Dinner at Taco Bell after! We all had fun "relaxing" at this restaurant. :)

Brae, Cali and Ken sat at their own table and behind them were Ben, Sara, Kaleb and Dylan. Bella sat at her own table for awhile then joined Ben and Sara's table for cinnamon twists.

Aleathea, Lynn, Aly, Scott, Manda and Blake.

Christmas Goodness

2008-12-28T15:24:00.001-08:00

Our holiday season was jam-packed and the most stressful one to date! With running the business it added so much stress and chaos around our home! It lasted all the way up until Christmas Eve. I don't have pictures yet from Christmas Day but I want to share a few miracles that touched our hearts! We had someone do a drop at our door with a home-made gingerbread house. The inside was filled with candy too. The girls and I loved it! It was a beautiful treat! We also had a drop at our door with presents and plenty of goodness to go around! What was left was really too much and we were very humbled. Many tears were shed from the generosity of others! It was a true act of kindness! We also loved when our next door neighbors rang our doorbell on Christmas Eve and brought gifts for each of the girls specifically. It was so sweet! We are not sure if they even celebrate the holiday or not so it was very touching! We have had many blessings that surround us but these three were true acts of charity that I wanted to share!

My Saving Grace

2008-12-19T22:32:00.000-08:00

I am so glad the last week is over! I can't even begin to tell you how intense it was! I had my second open house for my business on December 5th and I received a lot of orders from it! I had 13 days to complete all the projects! If you add everyday life and the holidays (school programs, parties, shopping, Christmas cards, teacher gifts, etc...) to the nightmare of the orders you get ONE MELTDOWN.

This season has been one of many lessons learned. I won't bore you with the knowledge gained for the business but I will share things I have learned in general. I learned that you can survive on very little sleep, four hours Sunday night, Monday night, Tuesday night and an 'All Nighter' on Wednesday night to have the orders done by Thursday. I learned that Late Night Talk

Shows are a lot funnier on little sleep. haha I learned that vinyl is dangerous work. Do you know how many injuries we had this week alone! I learned that you can add getting a puppy to the mix of this past week and you can find joy amongst all the craziness and poo.

(Meet Maximus... one cute little puppy. He is a Dachshund/Poodle (Doodle according to the girls) mix. He is 2 months old and the girls gave it to Blake for Christmas! He is adorable.)

I learned that I can sleep sitting straight up at a dentist office and a Frappaccino can cure the tears during a meltdown Wednesday morning when it appeared there was NO WAY to get the orders done. Here are the most important things I have learned though... that family and friends are always there to help and that Heavenly Father provides a way to help us even when it appears there is no way.

(This was one of my favorite signs I made this week for a woman. I think of The Jones' every time I see it :)

I blogged about how The Hairs helped us two Sundays ago and they also came back over the following Monday night for FHE to help with vinyl. Then, later that week Shannon and my friend, Lisa came over to help... ALL DAY, and ooh that was a harsh day! Then, this week, my friend Tiff took the girls for hours after school to help me while I worked. And can I just say how much I love Blake for what he's done to help! He has surprised himself by how good he is with peeling vinyl and recently applying it to ornaments (when we had 35 ornaments the night before the deadline!!!) He stayed up late with me during this past week working then on Wednesday he told me he was staying home from work to help me. If he hadn't done so there would have been NO WAY that I would have finished! We worked so hard! I can't describe how much it meant to me, in so many ways, that he would stay home to help me! Priorities are huge to one's heart.

We completed all the orders and sleepily I went to drop them all off. I

crashed when it was all over and finally get to blog about it all! I am

trying to get caught up in life now after the craziest two months of my

entire life!!! I am thankful for what I have learned professionally and

personally and I know that Blake and my friends are my 'Saving Grace'.

Holiday Party

2008-12-14T17:33:00.000-08:00

Friday night was Blake's holiday party at Moody Garden's Hotel in Galveston. It was a beautiful event and the food was delicious!!! The hotel was gorgeous and was all decorated for Christmas. After the party we walked out to the "Festival of Lights" presentation. It was a really fun time! This is the only picture from the night. As a side note, the time away was MUCH needed. If I hadn't gone I think I was going to need to be admitted to the psych. ward! I feel much better now.

Snow in Houston

2008-12-10T13:51:00.000-08:00

It is darn cold today! We were sitting in line at school and it started to sleet. I was impressed with that for Houston. The next thing I knew it was snowing. It lasted for like twenty minutes or so. Pretty crazy!!!

Where Have All The Dresses Gone???

2008-12-10T13:44:00.000-08:00

Well, I will re-phrase that question... Where have all the MODEST dresses gone? I went to the mall last night with Blake to look for a dress for his holiday party coming up. We looked in every major store in the mall and every other store that looked like it might sell a dress. There are NO modest dresses out there. Out of every store we went into I tried on 3. None of them were long enough!

I loved this picture. We were in Dillards and this was my favorite dress of the night. Blake picked out this ROCKIN' sweater to go with it! What do you think?

Intense

2008-12-08T16:08:00.000-08:00

So, last Friday was my second open house for MandysWallCandy. It was a huge success. I had one women who needed her order by Monday. Since she lives an hour away I was trying to complete the order by Sunday at 5:30 so my friend from church could take it into work and save me a trip. :) I didn't get a chance to start the order until about 3pm on Sunday. There were 18 ornaments and one small tile. We were invited to the Hair's for lunch/dinner so I took the vinyl over there and we created a small sweat shop. Jared, Skyler, Kamryn, Shannon, Braelyn, Blake and I all helped! We were so fortunate that my friends stayed at church for 'Break the Fast' so we could drop the order off to them still. We met them at like 6:45. It was intense!!!! Too much pressure. (Shannon sat where the ribbon sits and notice the baby in the bottom of the picture~ haha)

THURSDAY

2008-12-06T11:22:00.000-08:00

I had quite a big day on Thursday. Blake took the day off for some well visit appointments so we hung out. In between appointments he and I went to see Twilight. I felt like the last one on earth to see the movie but learned since then that there are 'others' who are still in the dark. haha

I loved the movie. I had no expectations for it because I had heard both good and bad things. I was pleasantly surprised. I just thought they could have cast Jasper and Emmett better mainly. Maybe Esme too. Okay, and Rosalie and Alice as well. haha I liked Edward and Bella! So, besides the casting of the vampires the rest was awesome!

After the movie I was so excited because I got to drive Blake's car. It is a stick shift and I hadn't driven one since high school. I know, right, forever ago!!! Like 11 years. I was so nervous at first. Right Blake!!! :) I did pretty good after driving through the parking lot at the movies and gave him the keys back. He insisted I drive more (he heard me talk about wanting to drive it for a month now and we never had a good time to do it) so I got to drive on a main road by our house. This main road had like 30 stop signs (no exaggeration- Champions Forest) so I was scared to stall the whole time. But I didn't. Yay me!!! haha I felt sad because I couldn't do my usual Cali stops that I do in my automatic ;)

To finish a great Thursday I want to write quickly about Survivor. The end of Survivor had me biting my nails. Can I just say that I hate Corinne. Is that nice? I don't hate much- but I really, really can not stand her. She is a wretched, miserable and horrible person. She is plain nasty! I was sooo happy she was voted off! Here are her parting words to those who are left "I hate all of them, I hope they all have miserable lives." So endearing and just one example why I think so highly of her! Go Matty! He's my favorite!

Galveston Day Trip

2008-11-30T14:17:00.001-08:00

Breakfast at The Huddle House

Blake & Manda at the beach

Lunch at The Rainforest Cafe, Galveston Island

This picture is of a large boat that was smashed into this building. The boat is on the left. The building was destroyed. I wish I would have gotten more pictures of the damage still left from the hurricane. It was really horrific and sad. One house had lost an entire side and we could see into a bedroom with the blankets on the bed still.

Saturday I went with Blake and his mom, dad and grandma for a day trip. First we ate breakfast then we headed down to Galveston for the day. It was really fun to be with his family. I loved it! When we got down there we drove around and looked at different things. We saw monuments from different wars, a Carnival Cruise line that was docked, and a lot of the damage from Hurricane Ike. It was so relaxing and nice to drive along the beach. We ate lunch at The Rainforest Cafe there. It was such a wonderful day! I was thankful to have my nieces watch the girls and I was so thankful for the invite with the Murdock family.

Putting Up The Christmas Tree

2008-11-30T13:59:00.001-08:00

The day after Thanksgiving the adults braved the crowds for the Black Friday sales. I was disappointed with the lack of great deals out and by the small crowds it looked like I wasn't the only one. When we got home we put our Christmas tree up. It was fun! I think the tree looks good!

CrAzY LiFe!!!!!

2008-11-24T14:26:00.000-08:00

Eating lunch with the girls at school~ Balance Amanda Balance

I forgot to get a picture of the three of us eating lunch (what a shocker, my brain...) so we got one at home!

Manda & Blake time! Notice the huge laundry pile in the background. Doesn't it look glamourous! I think it's a permanent pile. ;)

Can we get any crazier over here? Life is certainly hoppin!!! Check it out! Life with four girls is busy enough but add an amazing social life, running a business and the holidays and you have enough to make you go insane!!! haha Here are some pictures from the past couple days. My business open house from a few weeks ago was a success and I am coming up on my deadline to have all my orders complete... and just in time for a second open house! Aagghh! It is such a blessing! The girls have been on self propelled mode with a lot of their homework while I try to keep my cool. They have been figuring out a lot of their own dinners too lately. Laundry piles up all the time (as you can tell in the bottom picture haha) and the housework is never up to my Par!!! But, life is rewarding right now and I am very happy! Oh, the other day we were driving in the car and Cali said "Mom, you may want to start making dinners again!!! I am sick of Captain Crunch!!!!" Oh I felt so bad! I have made dinners every night since then! And no, it wasn't yesterday when she said it. It was three dinners ago :)

Sidenote~ gas is down to $1.59 here! Yes!!! Is it imaginable that it will drop less than $1.00? I think it may!!!

Girls Disco Elf Dance

2008-11-18T06:23:00.001-08:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Loving the Gas Prices

2008-11-17T17:46:00.000-08:00

I use this blog as half my journal so I wanted to make sure and note the gas prices today! I got gas and filled up 3/4 of my tank for like $30.00! I seriously doubt we will see gas prices like this for long but I am soooo loving it while it lasts! I think we are all in shock that they have dropped over $2.00 a gallon from what they were a few months back! Yes!!!!

Dancing Elves!!!

2008-11-17T12:48:00.000-08:00

Okay, I am having the best time with these videos! My little sister sent me the one with her kids first and I was laughing so hard there were tears! Every time I see her daughter it cracked me up so much! Her smile is just too cute and doesn't she look natural on that body!

Then, Angie sent me one of her and me! Too funny... I had to put them on my blog! Shake it, shake it!!! We are so awesome!!!! I love the ending when we are really getting into it and I love the Macarena!!!

Dallas Baby!!!

2008-11-17T10:19:00.001-08:00

Me and Sweet Baby!

Our dinner with Michael, Angel, Shannon and Jared

The Birthday Boy! The surprise was so fun! Check out his dinner! It's called "The Whole Enchilada"!!! He had to take some home in a box! Oh, you would have thought that I ate this meal because I went to close their van door with my bum and I DENTED the door pretty bad! Seriously- I put a huge dent in it- Happy Birthday Mike??? Sorry about that...

After dinner the kids were conked out at Angel's house! This is Rylan laying over Ellen and Taylor! It was sooo funny.

Tay-tee and KK sleeping upside down in the chair! How do they fit!!! It was adorable!

I think we look good! He is so gorgeous! Thank you Ku'ulei for taking the pics!!!

This past weekend Blake and I and the girls went up to Dallas! It was quite a roadtrip! If Blake can survive the car ride, I am certain Blake can survive AnYtHiNg!!! hahaha

We had a great weekend! Saturday we were able to visit with Paula and her family and we were able to meet their sweet little baby, Millie. She was yummy and I loved her! It was the best being able to visit with her again! Saturday night we surprised Michael for his birthday and we went with Shannon and Jared & Michael and Angel out to LaHa Ranch for dinner, DoubleDip ice cream for the best StrawAna in history and then went to see Quantum Solace. We had the best time with them and we laughed a lot! I LOVED it! I fell asleep during the movie though. A lot of action, too confusing and we were too close to the BIG screen. haha Saturday night we hung out with Ku'ulei and the kiddies! It was soooo good to chat and be together... just not enough time in the weekend to spend the time I want to!!! Sunday we went to church and I loved that too (can you tell I LOVED my weekend), it was great to see friends! I was sad I didn't get to spend more time with more people! Sunday we had lunch after church at Angel's! It was my favorite meal that she makes! It was special! I think in life that relationships formed and kept are the most important things!!!! I am happy though to be back in Houston- at home-and I am grateful for a wonderful weekend with those I love!

MandysWallCandy Open House

2008-11-07T14:51:00.001-08:00

I am excited to announce that my Open House was a success! I am so happy with the turnout and support from yesterday when I had my first open house for the little growing business. I am happy to share that I had 27 items on display! It was a great feeling! Please check out what is new with my vinyl creations at www.mandyswallcandy.blogspot.com! Happy Holidays!

Houston Wildlife

2008-11-03T21:53:00.001-08:00

Tonight I walked into my bathroom and was startled to find a guest on my wall! I have these guests on a weekly basis here in good old Houston!!! I can't even count how many lizards I have removed from inside our home. I ran back out after seeing it and noted (to myself) how gross they are when they are not outside, then I proceeded to use the ladies room and told the lizard to not jump on me (haha). I was going to leave it but I thought it might scare the girls if they were to see it in the morning so I trapped it between an old doggie dish and my dust pan and as I was scooting it across the wall I smashed it's tail! Now come on... that is just disgusting! Poor lizard, I felt bad as I put it outside tail-less. :) Then I wiped the tail off my wall! Enjoy!

Halloweenie Night

2008-11-02T19:41:00.000-08:00

I loved that Cali brought home a little puppet from school that she made from a book and it was called Halloweenie! It was about a dog.

Our Halloween night was fun! It started out with a bunch of whining and complaining and the girls were so anxious to go out so out we went!!! Shannon, Jared and the kids came with us and we just went around our house. The kids made bank! I have great memories when I was growing up when we went to Santo Thomas every year. I will always remember the house that gave out sodas! I would never waste money on that but I am glad they did it. :)

I am glad Halloween is over and now I am loving picking up candy wrappers around my house!! Man, I have complained a lot about this holiday. Sorry, I will promise to be more uplifting now!!! Kell, I was thinking about you and your family last night with the Longhorns game.

Happy Girl

2008-11-02T19:40:00.000-08:00

I am such a happy girl. There are so many reasons on WhY i am so happy! Here is just uno:

I got gas yesterday for $1.99 a gallon! uh huh... life is goooood. haha

Goodbye Sonic 99cent Sticker

2008-11-02T19:27:00.000-08:00

You all know how addicted I have been to Sonic Cherry Limeades!!! Four years ago a sweet, wonderful, caring "angel" gave me a 99 cent car windshield sticker for any 44 oz drink at any Sonic. I think it was a sticker from heaven! It was coveted. (haha heaven and coveted, doesn't sound exactly right) Seriously it was hard to get your hands on one of those stickers and I was so thankful because for the last four years (at least) I have gotten a Cherry Limeade almost every day of the week except Sundays. If you do the math I got my sodas for half the price of all other Americans haha. I don't think Sonic was thinking when they put out those stickers and I definitely don't think they planned to have people use them four years later! They should have put an expiration date on them haha. Anyway!!!! I started to feel really guilty recently to use my sticker anymore so I peeled it off yesterday. It was a solemn day. :( I had to do a little mourning because now I pay full price... EXCEPT when I buy at happy hour any day of the week for half off drinks and half off drinks before 11am. :)

Carving Pumpkins :)

2008-10-30T15:46:00.000-07:00

We were invited to carve pumpkins with Blake and the Murdock family. We all had a wonderful time (relative term when you are talking about carving bunches of pumpkins with four children) and the girls and I were very thankful for the invite!!! While we were there my friend's boys came over to share their pumpkin with three eyes, they live two houses down! It was amazing... that all five of our pumpkins turned out!!! Happy Halloween!!!!!

High School Musical 3

2008-10-27T13:41:00.000-07:00

We had the funnest night seeing High School Musical 3 on Saturday! The girls have planned to see it for my birthday for over two months! Isn't that sweet... that's what they wanted to do for MY birthday. :) It was so much fun and worth the money I think! When High School Musical 2 came out we did a huge party with the Hair kids and that was something I missed this time since this one came out in the theaters! :( My friend Blake came along with us and I could have been mistaken but it looked as though he enjoyed it as much as the girls did. haha. Serious!

Did I mention... I loved this movie!

Trunk Or Treat

2008-10-25T10:48:00.001-07:00

Last night was the annual trunk or treat at church. The girls had a great time and I didn't have such a bad time myself. :) The kids looked great. I wish I had more pics of the Hair family to post. I will get some on Halloween night. Halloween is not my favorite holiday! So much time and work and money for one night, maybe two!

Kensi was a gymnast! It was pointed out to me that her mom(cuckoo) wrote on her cheek "Go Team". Do gymnasts have "Go Team" on their cheeks? haha Someone is losing their mind!

Cali was Hannah Montana but when she refused to wear the blonde wig she went as Miley Cyrus! She was so beautiful.

Brae was the cutest bumble bee

Bella was a pink cheetah and Brae showing off her stinger!

Kennedi made the sweetest Tinker!

Goodbye 20's

2008-10-23T13:33:00.000-07:00

A couple months ago I wrote on my bathroom mirror "Be Happy You Are In Your 20's". I have to erase it now. :( It is so hard to know that I will never be able to say I am in my 20's ever again. :) I had the best birthday. It was super memorable. I woke up to homemade gifts from my little beauties and lots of love from them. Shannon and Jared (and Kennedi) took me to breakfast at Cracker Barrel. It was delicious, i had french toast with peaches and whipped cream. After breakfast Shannon and I went to see Duchess. It was rather depressing and we both cried but it was fun to be together and Keira Knightley is amazing! We had a good time. We also grabbed lunch and went to the bookstore. It was a great day! Last night I had a birthday dinner at Olive Garden with my sweet, cute, hot, neighborhood best buddy. :) When we got parked it started to downpour. When we got inside we were both soaked through but it made it unforgettable. haha. Maybe my 30's will be even more memorable and more exciting than anything I've ever experienced! I am thankful for all my friends and family who texted me and called me and left me messages on facebook. I am thankful to have all of you in my life. It is my relationships that make me so happy in this life.

My Birthday Family Home Evening

2008-10-20T17:33:00.000-07:00

Tonight Braelyn did a family home evening for my birthday. I will have to admit that it will take a miracle for me to actually LiKe this crazy BiRtHdAy! but the girls made me laugh so much. If any of you know I am totally going to spend my birthday in a coffin all day all dressed in black. I am NOT OK with this one. haha

Check out our good times. We glued these candles on 'my' cake one by one. The girls sang me a special song which was a church song 'I Am A Child of God' mixed with 'Birthday Girl'. And Braelyn wrote a knock out poem. It reads: "Happy Birthday Mom, I know you're turnin 30, Don't go getting dirty. You may not be so happy, but I am indeed, cause soon I'll be 11, 1 year older and wiser too, and it's all because of you (in a good way). So happy birthday isn't fun for you, I know you like this birthday poem that I made up especially for you.

Isn't she so sweet. I loved my fhe!!!! Even if I am not okay with the dreaded day!!! Two months ago I actually wrote on my mirror in my bathroom with eye liner 'be thankful you are in your 20's!!!' Kensington asked if she could take it off today. I said don't rob me girl!!! :)

Shoplifting

2008-10-20T13:33:00.001-07:00

This should be in addition to our last post at Hallmark when the soap spilled on Isabella's head! As we left from Hallmark and were driving down the road (unnamed daughter) was telling me about these cards she got at Hallmark with people's names on them. Ok, ok, that should have been the first sign to me that something didn't sound right but as it typically is with me when I have a lot on my mind I kinda tuned out what she was really saying and was like 'uh huh'. I did hear her mention 'free' in her conversation though. We got to Shannon's house and she started bringing me these cards that had different people's names on them. I put two and two together to realize they were what she was talking about on the car ride and that they didn't look like they would be free at all!!! I went back to Hallmark today to pay for them, all 12!!! It came to $13.00 of name cards. Thank you to my wonderful child whom will remain nameless but she is a city in England! I loved splurging on these cards that are of absolute no use!!! haha.

Please notice though how sweet she was to get a card with my name on it!!!

When Does This Ever Happen?

2008-10-18T16:09:00.000-07:00

Today we went into Hallmark to get a card and two minutes in Bella had to pee so bad she almost peed her pants. I told her to ask the woman who worked there if they had a restroom, which they told my little 5 year old who was about to pee her pants, that they did not! So, off we went across the parking lot to Jack In The Box for Bella to go potty. She and Kensington went into the bathroom while I purchased a soda. It was only a second later that I heard Bella crying really loudly in the bathroom. I got my soda cup and went in to see what the heck was going on. I walked in to find her in tears and to see soap all over her hair! The soap container fell out of the wall and dumped onto her head!!! Really- who does this happen to? I had to get a photo and blog about it. It's just too good to pass up. If you are wondering we all went back into Hallmark with her looking just like this! My little orphan.

Photo Shoot:Blood, Sweat and TEARS!!!

2008-10-18T11:46:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been a year since the girl's had their pictures taken. It's that time again? Are you kidding me? Ku'ulei and I ventured out to capture their true personalities! Let me just say that every year, it never fails, that before we even leave the house there are tears! They aren't happy with their clothes or their hair, it never fails! And they are all ten and under. I am sure I am in for it when they are all teenagers! The tears continued while taking the pics and the 'blood' in my title came when Bella swatted at a mosquito on her face and...well, you can imagine the rest of that one. Good thing Kooks has photo shop to get rid of that massive bug bite right on her forehead. :) I am so thankful to Ku'ulei for her mad skills and her love for my family! We love you Kooks!

Survivor Babee!!!

2008-10-16T14:57:00.000-07:00

It is SO that time again. Survivor is back on and all you lucky readers get to hear about my opinions all the time! It hasn't gotten heated yet so I have been mellow on my comments. haha Shannon's family and ours have played along with the game for years and we have all watched together for 7 years now!!! It's a BIG deal. Take a look at who I am this season. I am already willing to self sacrifice just to get Kelly off. ;) I am not a fan of hers. And I like the yellow team! My favorite players this season are: Marcus, Dan, Maddy, Jacque(was), Bob, Charlie and Sugar. The winner of Survivor gets one million dollars at the end of the season and our winner gets a $5 Sonic gift card. Five Cherry Limeaids are equal to a million bucks! haha

Election Day!!!

2008-10-16T14:52:00.000-07:00

I am not Catholic but this video really touched my heart. Thanks to Alona for putting this on her blog first. Election Day is fast approaching. May we all vote so our country can be put into hands that will cherish family values.

Amanda, the Referee

2008-10-09T21:20:00.000-07:00

I have many callings in life but tonight I will share one of my greatest! That of a referee. I am always trying to keep the peace and make life as fair as I possibly can. Well, actually I just hate all the arguing and want it to go away. Here are some of the things my girls fight over on a pretty daily basis.

It's my turn in the middle (in the car)

She got to ride up front last time

I get to knock on the door. Mom, she knocked on their door last time

I get to hold KK first (Kennedi, even though she is huge now, doesn't want to be picked up so much and she tells you that in complete sentences! Still, my two older girls call who is picking her up first)

I sit by mom (at dinner)

Mom you always sit between those two

I get to conduct the songs in fhe

No, I want to say the closing prayer (always tears!! every week, never fails)

I get to do my hair first

I get to kiss mom first (YES! They started to call numbers to give my kisses and I put a stop to that after day two! I am more than a number people!)

I get to push the cart

I get to return the movie to the slot

It's my turn to check the mail

I am first on Webkinz, no she was first last time

It's my turn to hold the remote

there are so many more, but I will leave you with the newest fight and my favorite thus far...

(between Belle and Cali at the end of bath time)

it's her turn to pull the plug!!! I pulled it last time!!! and yes there are actual tears over this every time!

Kids Are So Funny

2008-10-06T19:40:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend Brae and Cali went out to the car to get one of Cali's toys and Bella asked me where they were going. I told her Brae was going to take Cali for a drive. Bella told me she wanted to go too. When I told her I was kidding she was hurt and she said "Mom, you're going to the bad place".