Teeth and Tiger

This week, Emily lost her first tooth. I has been wiggly for a while so she was brave enough to allow Palmer to pull it out with a pair of his pliers! She is braver than I would have been!

and here she is after she let Palmer yank out her 2nd tooth a few days later!

This is Tiger...or Pumpkin.... or Toes. We don't really know what to call him. Our other cat, Oreo, met her match a while ago and fell victim to a skunk. We are not sure if she will come back, (I'm sure she's dead.) so in the meantime we met this little guy. Our friend, Shannon Perkins, knew of our unfortunate loss and brought him right over. We fell in love with him....Palmer, not so much! He has to be an outside cat, like Oreo, but this guys loves people too much. He was always at one neighbors house or another. I wasn't sure what we we're going to do until my wonderful neighbors, the Hughes, came to my rescue and adopted him. "Max" is now living his life as an indoor cat next door, and Hayley is kind enough to bring him by often for us to visit. I really liked him. Hew was a sweetheart and had 8 toes on his paws! I think for now, we will stick with fish:)

These pictures were obviously taken when Palmer was at work, as you can plainly see, he is in the house and on his chair!

Meet Oreo

Emily has wanted a cat for as long as I can remember. She finally convinced Palmer to let her keep one down at the shop to help catch mice. She went to work with him and earned a trip to the pet store. Here she is! Funny thing though...Oreo is still at our house. I guess she's still a little young to go be on her own. The girls are lovin' every minute they have with her. I can't wait to see what happens when it's time to take her to work.

Emily's 7th Birthday

Emily celebrated her 7th birthday with her friends, Lauren, Katelynn and Hailey. She wanted a jungle birthday so we had animals all over the place. We painted ceramic jungle animals, played fun games and did face painting. Here's Emily with her toucan!

Emily has really been getting into legos. She was super excited to open these from her Uncle Scott and Aunt Misti.

We went with cupcakes this time! We found some cute jungle toppers and candles and made rainbow cupcakes! They were really neat!

Happy Birthday Buddy! You are getting so big. We love you!

Christmas 2010

We did celebrate Christmas, I promise! I have been really bad about posting but am determined to keep it up. I need to do a lot of catch-up! Here are a few pictures from Christmas.Emily and I worked on our Annual Gingerbread house! It's unfortunate that she likes to keep it on the piano all season for decoration, because by the time she's done with it, you wouldn't want to eat it!. It always looks so yummy when we are building it!
This is Christmas Eve at the Goodman's. The kids had a blast meeting Santa and opening presents from each other. The cousins each draw each others names to give a present. Lindsay was so funny! The cousin that drew her name couldn't be there for Christmas Eve, so while the other kids opened their toys, I gave Lindsay her pajamas to open. You could tell by the look on her face that she was disappointed! Good thing Santa came by shortly after that!

Christmas morning at our house. Palmer and I gave the girls a play kitchen for their big gift this year. They love it! Lindsay is always cooking food for us! Cheryl and I stayed up late Christmas eve putting it together at her house. You can see here that Lindsay finally warmed up to her new jammies!
Here is Emily is her new jammies! She asked Santa to surprise her this year and he didn't let her down. Her favorite thing this year was a Dorothy doll from the Wizard of Oz, one of her current favs!

Here is a video of our visit from Santa! Lindsay was so excited, as you can see! Paetyn, not so much!

Bulldog of the week!

Emily was picked to be "Bulldog of the Week" in her class! She got to make a poster all about herself. She did a great job! It was killing me to let her do it all herself....i love a good art project! She graciously let me do a few drawings since I was hovering over her! Way to go!

Girls Trip 2010

My friends from high school and I went on a fabulous trip to Disneyland for a few days. It was so much fun! Alisha, Erin and I drove out together and met Katie and Amy at our hotel. Erin's mom got us a deal at her timeshare, so we had a two bedroom condo to stay at with a kitchen and everything. The weather was perfect and the parks weren't very crowded. Amy only came with us the first day, but it was fun to see her and her little boy, Rand! He was the perfect Disneyland baby. Never cried and let anyone of us hold him! We had a great time reuniting.

We could not get enough of this little guy!

We met Erin's brother, Ty, and his wife for dinner our last night. It was really cool to see them. I hadn't seen Ty since he was in high sschool!

Tower of Terror. We booked it at the end of the night straight from dinner in downtown Disney all the way here. I about died! We made it just in time to use our fastpass:)

This was one of the best trips I have ever taken! I can't wait to make this a tradition! I love these girls! Thanks Palmer for taking care of the girls while I had my own girls trip.

Halloween party

Lindsay and I went to our playgroup halloween party and had a great time! There were crafts, fun games and lots of goodies!

Summer Vacation

So I am finally going to post about our summer vacation. The girls and I spent a few weeks in Chandler. One week we spent with Aunt Amy and the other week we spent with Cheryl, Natalie , Amy and Teesha. Angie also came down from Nebraska! Oh...and we all had our kids too! We had a really good time and found a lot of places to take the kids. Here are some pictures!

We found a water playground at the San Tan Village. We actually didn't know it was here until we came. It was hot and the Disney Store was having a great sale on swimsuits! So we bought each one a new suit and change in the bathrooms! The girls loved it!

We came to this McDonalds for Breakfast and Lunch! I loved how the play area was just right for Lindsay and so much cleaner than the play places with the tunnels and slides! Emily had to take her picture posing on every creature!

We went to an indoor bounce place called Bounce Jungle. The kids had a blast! We went once just the three of us and then again when all the kids were there! The big slides were a big hit!

What's a vacation without a trip to the mall! What is a trip to the mall without a spin on the two-story carousel!

We were able to spend time with my sister Sarah too! We went swimming in her awesome community pool! It was just like going to the beach! The girls still ask when they are going to go there again! Thanks for spending time with us and for cooking us dinner, Aunt Sarah! Oh, and we also had a cookout with Lori and Mike. The girls always love going to visit them!

Here we are at Bounce Jungle, this time with Amy and Teesha joining in on all the fun!

Emily built a cool sand castle at the pool. This picture was taken just as Lindsay was about to knock it down! Emily freaked out! I love it!

We also went to the Children's Museum of Phoenix. It is a must for anyone with kids in the Phoenix Area or visiting the Valley of the Sun! The kids had so much fun and there was so many hands-on things to do!

Lindsay loved the grocery store! She felt so big! She did the shopping, Olivia and Emily handled the cash register and Brandon took care of re-stocking! Then they would start all over again!

Noodle Forest! This was a new addition to the museum. I was really hard to find Lindsay in it! I kept getting run over by kids playing tag or hide and seek every time I went in looking for her!

We also went to Makutu's Island...formerly known as Club Disney! The kids always have a good time and wear themselves out! This was the first time we came and actually got to see Makutu!

We had a great time on our little vacation. We didn't have to go very far either! We did so much stuff! Some other things we did were...

1. Rainforest Cafe with Lori and Mike! Thanks Mike for letting Emily take you to the Cafe Store! I guess she knew I would be no use to her!

2. Awesome visit to see my good friends, Dan & Rachael Earl! The girls had a blast playing together and it was great seeing their new baby girl, Charlie!

3.Swimming with all the kids at the pool!

4. Sleepover with all the cousins!

Thanks for letting us stay at the condo, Grandma & Grandpa! We are soooo going to do this again next summer!

Family rules

I am in love with our new Family Rules canvas. I was inspired by one I found at Decor Allure, and also the trend of subway roll signs, as seen here. My friend, Rachael, who is an amazing photographer, designed it for me and had it printed on canvas. Thanks Rachael! I can't wait to do more!

Camping on Mount Graham

We went camping for a week in June, and I am finally getting around to posting about it! We had a great time! The kids played from sun up 'till way beyond sun down!

Josh and Natalie brought up this fun game and Lindsay couldn't get enough of it! She loved trying to carry all the balls from one rack to the other!

Another thing the kids couldn't put down...the hatchet! This was taken when the girls finally had a chance to try chopping wood! There was rarely a moment when one of the boys didn't have it! Of course, they were always supervised...what kind of parents do you think we are!

Lindsay enjoying a peanut butter sandwich! Yes! I have a child who eats sandwiches!

We had many craft projects for the kids to do! The girls painted jewelry boxes, and the boys built models, like an airplane and a boat! I think Alisha even did a helicopter!

I know, it's green, but Lindsay liked it anyway!

We even found a little patch of snow under some trees.

Here is a picture Emily took of me and Lindsay. Remember...I was camping and didn't bother with makeup and stuff!

Emily and Lauren had a photo shoot out in the meadow. They love having their picture taken!

Lindsay and Palmer. Lindsay thought it was cool that her coat was just like daddy's.