....lil' cowboy

I love this picture of my friend Mandi's little boy Brian

He was dressed in cowboy boots, cowboy hat & cowboy clothes

Giddyup!

.... it's great to have friends

These five gals are best friends. Two of them are sisters, another two are sisters.... all are best friends.

Two are celebrating their 18th birthday & heading to college. The others are already at college, waiting for them.

Brings me back to my high school days of my best friends. I need to go dig out my pictures & rev up my scanner.

Friendship runs deep.... way deep.

Oh, and they know their secrets too.

::wicked laugh::

....pioneer days

I love Pioneer Day Celebration.

My girls love Pioneer Day Celebration.

Why wouldn't they?

They had.....

• snow cones
• kettle corn
• pony rides
• moon bounce
• cotton candy
• sack race
• spin the apple ride
• hot dogs & hamburgers @ 9 a.m.
• fish for candy

Loved spending time with my friends & taking pictures of their little ones.

Loved taking pictures of my little gals.

But seriously.... hot dogs & hamburgers at 9 a.m.?!!

{Fiesta Texas}

Yesterday we tagged along with some friends to Six Flags (aka Fiesta Texas). Maddie's best friend Lilly & her mom have season passports, which came with a coupon book letting them bring friends for free!! So, armed with the coupons the girls got in school for a free pass to Six Flags, and my free ticket, and Katie's best friend Vanessa.... we hit the park.

This was going to be the first time that Madison would be able to ride the "big rides". Yep... she didn't have to ride JUST the kiddie rides anymore. Last year Katie rode her first big ride with me & her Uncle Dan at Sea World. It freaked her out BIG time. She started screaming in the middle of the ride "GET ME OUT OF HERE!" and "STOP!!" So, I really didn't anticipate her wanting to ride much of anything either, except for the kiddie rides. Which barely leave the ground. However, I did have a secret trick up my sleeve. Her friend Vanessa.... and it worked! She rode on more roller coaster rides!

The first ride we came to was an all wooden plank roller coaster. That was Maddie's first and last roller coaster ride. She sat with me, and not her best friend. She clinged for dear life (and I mean that literally). You should have seen the picture they snapped of us at the end. Her facial expression, body expression, and my facial expression telling her to "LET GO" was priceless. Not priceless enough to pay the $19.95 price tag to get a copy of it though. Needless to say, she was our bag holder & drink holder the rest of the day and waited at the exit gate while we rode our rides.

We did make it to MY favorite world....

the WIGGLES WORLD!

I love the Wiggles. Maddie told me "Mom, don't tell anybody, but I still love the Wiggles". So, we waited for a mini show to start, and the girls went on a few rides to please Maddie, since they were kiddie rides.

Here the girls are waiting for the Big Red Car ride...

I just LOVE tormenting Katie on making her go with her sister while I watch from the sidelines!

Yeah, she's really thrilled.


After the Big Red Car ride, and some airplane ride, Maddie came and sat with me to wait for the show to start. When it started.... the four awesome characters came out and sang a few favorites. I was so happy to see another mom making a fool out of herself and doing the hand gestures to "Hot Potato" and "Romp-Bomp-A-Stomp". I might just have to have another baby just to get a chance to listen to the Wiggles again.... then again, I do have all these nieces & nephews..... I'll make them listen to them over & over & over again when I see them.
Aunt Amy will be so cool. {{probably not... but I can hope!}}



THEN came the highlight of our day...
THIS is what set off of event of what was to happen

The Teacups

Yep, who would've thought this little ride would make Katie do the unthinkable? I mean, when you see some kid puke, do you think "oh gross!" or "wow, so glad I'm not his mom! that would be so embarrassing!" Well, I was that mom. All 4 girls go on this ride twice, in a row. Katie closed her eyes toward the end. Irene & I weren't sure if Katie was enjoying the ride or getting sick. She got off, and immediately said "I need to sit down". So we sat. Then we walked to the next ride. She was a little red. OK, VERY red. I started to push the pop on her (bought the $12.99 cheap container so we could get unlimited pop that day. Irene had a $3 off coupons, so we were "popped" out by evening). We had already ran out of water like 30 minutes after we got to the park! Then Vanessa started to get dizzy & sick. Finally at the end of waiting for this ride, Katie sits down on the ground and says
"I'm going to puke"
Ohhhhhh great.
So I walk her & her friend to the exit area, started up the steps, hear something, turn around, and Katie pukes all over the place. Ugh. Granted, it's just liquid. I grab her and run for the grass, to which the girl who worked there said "you can't go there" and I turned and said "OK, can she puke right in front of you then.. is that where you want her to puke?" OK, I may have been a little rude, but geez girl! Give a mom a break!


We ended up leaving the park and heading to the fast food restaurant for lunch & to sit in the A/C for a few hours. OK, we fit in a trip to Nordstrom Rack too... and a sporting goods store b/c it was raining & lightning. After 2 hours in the AC (and the big girls were feeling MUCH better after food & cooling off), we were good to go back. Good thing we went back too, b/c everyone was leaving! We had faster access to the rides.
While Irene & the 2 older girls rode "THE SCREAM" (you can see them in the above picture to the left), I took the little girls on a little swing ride. Before long, I started to see flip flops all over the ground. Flop flop flop No wonder they call them flip flops. It truly does sound like a "flop" when they hit the ground. ::snort:: The expression on Maddie's face is like those of the other "scary" rides.
Frantic & holding on for dear life.

So, long story short... {OK, not really short} we had a great time. Maddie rode on her favorite log ride at the end, & we did a few more rides involving speed that I'm surprised Maddie went on, and enjoyed. I don't really see myself as a season ticket holder to anything amusement park... unless Maddie eventually grows out of this fear. Bummer. I really like roller coasters.

{my 1st photoshoot + tressa}

I am in love with photography. Not sure if it's in love with me, but I'm a wannabe. I wanna be able to take awesome pictures of my girls. I wanna be able to take awesome pictures of my friends & family members, in the way I see them.

So, this past Saturday morning, I met up with my friend Mandi and her adorable little model Tressa. I say model, because she knew exactly how to pose, how to smile. Piece of cake! We met in the morning, hoping for a few good pictures, and we did get a few good pictures! Next stop on my list: learn how to operate in the manual side of my camera & learn how to use photoshop! (OK... first before that is to GET photoshop!)

Here are few cute pictures that turned out awesome for Tressa's baptism pictures.

{bangs... and a new lens}

For my birthday, I bought myself a new camera lens with my birthday money. I LUV it! I used Katie as a quick prop to try it out... here you can see her new bangs.

(that was for Aunt Marcie, Aunt Tiffany & Grandma N so they can see the bangs!)

Course, I tilted the camera WAYYYYY too.... something. So, for your enjoyment, I am uploading it for your neck pleasure in the way you find most pleasing. Either tilt alllll the right to the right, or tilt allllll the way to the left. Your choice!

Next time, I won't tilt so.... far.

{love comes softly}

Last weekend I sat on our couch, flipping through all the channels we have (and we have TOO many!). I found the Hallmark channel, and saw that it was a pioneer type of movie. So, I started watching it. Katie soon joined me, and we watched the entire movie. It was SO good! So clean! So wholesome! So unlike anything we see on TV these days!




Then, we saw the advertisement for more movies like this one that was running ALL day Saturday. So, I DVR'd all the movies. All 7 of them! Sadly, we missed the very first movie.

What movies am I talking about? Janette Oke's Love Comes Softly series. My mom brought me some of these books home from the library to read when I was a teenager, and I read a few, but then I think I grew tired of them.... can't remember why I didn't finish them? Maybe b/c it was such a huge series? I dunno.....

Every night this week, we've managed to watch one movie (one night we watched two). I'm kind of sad now that I deleted them after we watched them. This is in order the movies we watched (OK, it's not in order... I can't remember which was first, next, etc):

Love Comes Softly

Love's Enduring Promise

Love's Long Journey

Love's Unending Legacy

Love's Abiding Joy

Love's Unfolding Dream

Love Takes Wing

Love Finds a Home

Yes, they were cheesy. Yes, we noticed they started using the same houses & small pioneer towns for the backdrops of the movies (which are supposed to take place all over the US). Katie & I laughed & giggled as the dashing young man came into sight, to catch the sight of the beautiful young girl...... and long story short, there was always a marriage at the end of each movie. But, all in all, great story lines, great romance (OK, cheesy romances), and I wished they would quit changing all the actresses with each movie! AUGH! Not to mention our lingering questions "what happened to Jeff? Where's Cookie? Why is Belinda wearing a blonde wig? She was a dark brunette with a cute smile! Why is she SOOO cross? and mean?" Were any of the old pioneer men good looking like they were on the movies? 'Cuz they sure don't look good looking in those old time photos we see in everyone's picture albums of their relatives who don't smile. They look cross. Mean.

Just a few things we were thinking out loud while watching....

Tonight we finished the last movie. Katie laughed b/c it has Hayley Duff in it. She thought that was way cool! What made us laugh even harder, was at the end of the movie, the production was SOO cheap, the father of the new baby walked away, proudly showing off his doll. NOT a real baby! Oh, that was hilarious.

I casually mentioned to Katie if she liked those movies (she's really loving the pioneer stuff lately), then Little House on the Prairie might be cool to watch. She said, "Oh... uhmmm... no thanks".

{Happy 4th of July America}

This morning our ward (church) had their annual breakfast & flag raising ceremony.

It was awesome.

I took a beautiful picture of the flag, but the clouds were gray, so I waited until the blue skies came back, but there was no wind. Finally, the wind came for a brief second (and I mean brief), and caught a beautiful picture of our grand ol' flag!

This afternoon I am baking up a storm

(well, started this morning, still going at it...)

I am making Martha Stewart's One-bowl Chocolate cupcakes, and they're TO.DIE.FOR! Yummm

Recipe for the chocolate frosting will be on my recipe blog soon...

I am also making Mike's grandma's Banana Nut Cake. This cake is a pain to make. You've got to sift the flour FOUR times and then measure.... plus you've to beat the egg whites until they're foamy. UGH.

But, it's still one of the best banana nut cakes out there.

Heading off for a dinner @ Mike's boss' home along w/ swimming. Then we're watching fireworks.

Happy 4th of July!

(one more for the road... I know you're still thinking about them!)