Phone Photography

 I am currently in between cameras. This would have been a desperate situation a year ago, but I use my phone for pictures a lot anyway. It's super convenient. Maybe a little too convenient because I tend to take a lot of random pictures too. For example: 


Ranch dressing. It's so delicious why not? I took this one because we are fans of Greggs Ranch. Try it and you will find it extremely difficult to tolerate any other brand of ranch salad dressing. 

So when Costco quit selling it and no other grocery store in Las Vegas stocked it, life got rough (no more salads or carrots!). And then one day, I am in Costco and I see it in someone else's cart. It's back!! I had to text Noah a picture because his vegetable consumption was impacted the most.

Too many fish in a vase= too many dead fish.

For pack meeting our ward held goldfish races.  That's right, all you need are a couple of rain gutters, bendy straws and goldfish. We ended up bringing home a whole bunch of little pets. Two were dead by morning and the rest were gone by the time I got back from helping in Zack's class that same day. I took the picture to get Matt's permission to flush them before the kids got home. Permission granted. 

Imitation isn't always flattering. I found these sad, sad bunnies

Four attempts to turn this the right way. I give up!

and chicks at the dollar store. Who would spend $1 for these when you can spend $1 for the real ones...located at the end of the same aisle? 

Pick up your danged picks!!

I sweep on a regular basis, like multiple times a day. And yet, one morning, I swept up all of these guitar picks. Matt got a "these are all going in the garbage/quit dropping your picks on the ground" text from me. The tone was a little angry. Also, after sending the text I found another one on the laundry room floor and one upstairs on my bedroom floor. Sometimes threatening texts work though, I haven't found one since. 


During my bread search I came across this bread. It amused me. Bimbo bread. In Vegas. Get it?? Oh and you pronounce it BEE-mbo. Sure you do. 

I will not purchase Noah Hunger Games "capital colors" nail polish. But I will send him a picture of it. 

I take a whole bunch of auto related pictures. Besides all the shots of my fuel costs and super cars I took these. 

There was a low tire pressure warning in my car. It might not be a big deal, but it made me nervous, like I am going to lose control of my car at any moment nervous. It didn't bother Matt so much since he wasn't in danger of losing control of his car at any moment. After days of begging him to go put air in my tires, I did it myself. And I got all messy. I wasn't happy about it. 

I left Costco (where parking spaces are really large and luxurious) to find this parking situation. There was PLENTY of room on the other side of that Hummer. 

Unbeknownst to me this happened at either the post office or Fresh & Easy. It looks just as bad in real life. I noticed the scratch when we were leaving to go see The Zookeeper. I will forever associate the two. I hated The 

Zookeeper almost as much as I dislike the person who keyed my car.

   

Imagine what it must be like to be Matt. He is almost always the recipient of these pictures. Noah just informed me that this is what Facebook is for. My apologizes for using the wrong social network for my phone photos. By the way Noah, I think this is what Instagram is for. 

Boys Who Like Girls

Matt & David love Girls. They love them so much they drove all the way to LA and back in one night to see them. They love Girls so much, the wanted to see them again in San Diego. They figured the best way to go see Girls again was to take their girls. A smart move, I wasn't going to turn down a little California getaway without kids. 

A few things about this night. 
1) When we got in line to go in, I felt like I was transported into a John Hughes's film--pegged jeans, blousy shirts, super styled boy's hair. It was kind of bizarre. 
2) It was poor strategy on my part to take a Dramamine before we left. The theory was good, I have been car sick on my last two California drives, but for some reason the less drowsy-version of Dramamine makes me super tired about 6 hours after I take it. I was falling asleep during the concert! 
3)Turns out, I like Girls too. They are a talented band (definitely the best, lead singer was born into and left a crazy religious cult band). Although if you are a little drowsy some of the songs could put you to sleep. This could be a good thing if you aren't driving and are trying to get some rest. Not so good if you want to fit in with all the hip teenagers. Thankfully the too loud and overly enthusiastic keyboardist kept me from dozing off for too long. 

Really cool venue. All the youngsters were standing in front of the chairs, so you will have to take my word on the interesting fashions. 

Before we drove home, Emily & I seized the opportunity to go to the Container Store since we don't have one here (yet).  Matt & David took the opportunity to go to a Guitar Center because there are two in Vegas. Two. 

February 29

Once, every four years, you can have fresh from the oven cinnamon rolls for breakfast. (Or a donut if you don't like cinnamon rolls.)

Once, every four years, I will deliver McDonald's for lunch. 

Once, every four years, you can have some of the treats that are never allowed. 

Once, every four years, let's do something fun. 

Like a scavenger hunt, with some puzzles to solve. 

The Activity

The additional participants: Aidan, Sam, Henry, Ethan.

Once, every four years, let's eat some place fancy--

and bring the kids.

Happy Leap Day!!

Lucky Number 13

It is a little mind blowing that I am the mother of a teenager. Where did the time go? This was a friend party year and for the past month I have been trying to get Noah to decide what he wanted to do. I threw out options and had amazing ideas, but I couldn't get him to commit. He LOVES the Hunger Games so when I saw my friend Rilie's awesome birthday party ideas I thought we could use some of them and take the boys to play Lazer Tag. But then he broke his arm and the Klondike was the night before so we ended up with an impromptu birthday-eve sleepover with Ethan and Sean.  He wanted to eat pizza and go to an arcade and almost ended up at Chuckie Cheese but then remembered Grazianos. My kids love that place. 

I warned him the night before to be up before 9:00 to open presents or he would have to wait until Matt & I came home from the gym. Noah, who used to be an early riser, has become a major sleep-in-er especially if he is up all night the night before. I was thinking maybe they'd be up by 8:30. They were up before 7:00. 

 We didn't have anything planned for his actual birthday, so Matt & I took him out on the town. It was his choice for lunch but he was indecisive and tired and didn't get enough sleep so Matt picked what we both thought would be a safe choice for him. He liked it ok, but it's no Emmett and Ethel's. He later said he would have rather gone to Fuddruckers. Teenagers!?!!

On Sunday we invited all our Vegas family to come celebrate his birthday. Thank you  Pinterest for the perfect cake idea.  

Because I enjoy a little subway art in my life, I decided to make one in Noah's honor. Here are some, but not all, of the things that relate to Noah at age 13. 

Now Everyone Has Had One...

A few weeks ago, Noah was talking about how he has never broken a bone or been to the ER. You know what that means...time to break something. 

While we were in San Luis Obsipo, Noah took a crash on a scooter. He had a nasty cut on his elbow and some scratches on his hip and shoulder. The darn kid wasn't wearing a helmet so I was glad that it wasn't worse. I cleaned up his wounds and we decided to wait to see about the pain he was feeling in his arm. By the time we got back home, it was still bothering him, so to be on the safe side we went to check it out. Sure enough, broken. 

Fortunately, it isn't a bad break and he will only be in a cast for four weeks. Also fortunate was that he had a good excuse to miss the Klondike camp out. 

Birthday and Babies

Of course we would attend to Charlie's Michael Jackson birthday party. Leanne transformed the barn into a hip hop dance club so these kids could bust a move. 

Prior to the party, some of the kids set up a VIP lounge upstairs. Zack was designated as the bouncer, a job he took very seriously. He didn't let a single kid who wasn't on the list into the lounge. Question: how do 7 and 8 year-olds know about VIP lounges?  The VIP concept was quickly stopped once the adults heard about it and Zack felt really bad about his role. He was so sad he didn't want to go to the party. 

Matt finally convinced him to go and he quickly found happiness and his awesome dance moves. 

Moon walk:

more moon walk:

These great dance teachers taught the kids routines to Thriller and Beat It. They all took turns performing with Charlie on the stage. 

After the party there was plenty of time for couch bonfires

and hanging out with cousins: 

These three were nearly inseparable, except for this moment when these two were drinking non-caffeine cola in the back of Papa's car. Henry was probably in the bathroom. 

We had so much fun that some of us couldn't be bothered to change out of pjs. (This picture was taken around 2:00 in the afternoon). 

I had the luxury of spending plenty of time holding the twins. I mean seriously, how cute is Levi?  

And Caleb? Our other reason for visiting was for their baby blessings. We are so happy to have two more little cousins to love. They are unbelievably sweet.

Our Punny Valentine's

Some holidays I have it together. But due to my Blue & Gold responsibilities, this Valentine's Day,  I did not.  I ended up at a gas station the night before purchasing some candy so that I could leave these little surprises around for the boys. 

I included a little surprise note in each lunch. 

For Zack: 

Noah:

Ben, was the hardest because, well, he's Ben and is limited on what he will eat. He ended up scoring because I rarely buy soda and never put it in a lunch. 

Ben got off the bus and told me that for "some reason" he didn't remember to pass out his Valentines. I have yet to find out the reason, he says he just forgot. How bizarre! How do you just forget to pass them out when everyone else is? Don't you feel bad when you are looking at your box full of Valentine's knowing that you didn't pass any out? I just don't understand.  Oh well, at least now Matt has candy to give out to the Webelos. 

We finished our day of love celebrating by taking advantage of kids eat free at Islands. Dinner for everyone for less than $30. I love that.