Merry Christmas

Hey everyone its been a crazy month of crocheting, weaving, sewing, scrapping, and wrapping trying to get ready for Christmas. I will get pictures downloaded soon all of the crafy goodness I gave away this year. Santa was good to us this year, we got a Wii, games, and all kinds of other good stuff. I also got a nice gift right before Christmas, a new cell phone. I am now the proud owner of new beautiful red Samsung Rant. Oh sweetness and light I love this phone!We have been up since 5am so I am going to keep this short. I hope everyone is having a great Christmas. I appreciate all the love support all of my friends and family have shown me this year, its been the best gift of all.

Its December already!!!

Okay where did November go? Well now its time to start thinking about Christmas, but before I do that I wanted to show you some Thanksgiving crafts that my middle daughter made at school. My daughter's teacher is seriously crafty. The children made two costumes, a pilgrim and an Indian (Native American.) They also made a turkey napkin holder out of a toilet paper roll, too stinkin' cute. I just had to share.

Twilight Movie

Here I am in front of the Twilight poster at the movie theater, with my Twilight t-shirt on. This was taken after we saw the movie since I didn't have time before the movie. ( I hate how I look in this photo I had to stand at a weird angle to make sure there wasnt too much reflection on the poster.) Here is my opinion of the movie: Yes, I liked the movie. Was it as good as the book? No. No one should have expected the movie to be as good as the book because honestly we all had our own ideas about what the movie should look like based on what we saw in our own minds as we read the book. That being said I still felt that movie hit all the major elements of the book. The things I liked (without revealing too much to those who havent seen the movie by now): I liked the back story added to certain plot lines, I liked the prom scene too. I was dissapointed in few things: First and foremost I felt like the entire movie moved too fast, I wanted it to linger more in certain scenes or areas. Second, I wish certain parts of the book had not been left out. Third and last, I didnt like the actor they cast as Mike Newton. So there you go my unsolicited opinion. Will I see it again and buy the DVD? That is a definite yes. I wonder if they will make movies out of the other books? The answer to that is yes! Summit the company that made Twilight will be making New Moon into a movie. Here's hoping they can get the orginal cast back.

Mandy's next class

Okay fans, I am going to be teaching a double mini album class at Scrap Happy Sisters in Glendale, AZ on December 17, 2008, at 6pm. The cost of the class is $29.50. I put a sneak peak below of the two albums we will be making in class, a scallop album and 4x4 laced album. I would love to see you all there, don't miss out because the classes have been filling up quickly. If you live in AZ and cannot attend the night of the class you can pay for your kit over the phone and pick it up at Scrap Happy Sisters another day. All my classes have detailed photo instructions so that you can complete it at home. Now I am onto my other holiday projects.

Scallop Album

4x4 Laced Album

Twilight the Movie Countdown

Okay I wont be going to the movie tonight at Midnight like the "die hard" fans will be but I am hoping to go on Saturday. I will let you all know what I thought. My husband bought me the soundtrack to the movie so I have been trying to get into the mood for the movie. I also bought myself a t-shirt with the Twilight cast on it. Wait, I am too old to wear those kind of t-shirts? Maybe but I dont care, I am wearing it. I will post pictures of me at the movie theather after I see.

YouTube, we love you

Sorry you haven't heard from me in awhile. I just finished up another scrapbook class I will be teaching in December and of course I have started the insanity of making Christmas gifts so they will be ready in time for Christmas. Other than that have been getting my daughters over colds and getting out their winter clothes.

My YouTube Find:
You never know what you will find while you are surfing on You Tube. My husband and I were goofing around looking for music from different countries (instead of doing important stuff like working and doing housework) we happened upon a group of videos by Bulgarian singers. I love this song by Bulgarian singers Anelia and Miro entitled Zavinagi. You can watch the video for it by clicking the link below. I don't speak Bulgarian but someone posted the English translation in the comments section. I think both of the singers have great voices. I just thought I'd share some of the weird things I find while avoiding my housework.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGLZHZpOPBo

Halloween Pictures!

I {heart} Halloween! So here are some pictures that week took on Halloween. I am waiting to see the pictures my sister Samantha took, hopefully she will e-mail them to me soon and I can post those as well.

Okay so I'm no Bella Swan but I really liked the fangs!

I was sweating big time in this cape but I love it too!

This our dog Shadow dressed as a pig, its his birthday on Halloween and his nickname is pig-dog because he snorts like a pig sometimes.

Here are the girls.

My oldest the Gypsy.

My middle daughter the Ballerina Princess.

My youngest daughter Tinkerbell.

David wore is his "This is my costume" t-shirt, he promised he would dress up next year. The girls got lots of candy and had a great time with their grandparents before and after trick or treating. I hope all of you had fun.

I was tagged!!

Okay I was tagged by my sweet cousin Marisa; I want her and everyone else to know I am supposed to be doing laundry and dishes instead of typing this blog post.

Had you for a second there didn't I. ((((Evil laughing)))) I despise housework so this gives me an excuse to do something else.

So here goes my 8's

8 TV shows I watch (really its like used to watch I just seem too busy these days to remember to turn the TV on at night after my children go to bed. And they cancelled some of the shows I really liked.)

1. CSI
2. CSI New York
3. ER
4. Criminal Minds
5. The Ellen Show (because my neighbor watches it while our children play after school)
6. The Tonight Show
7. Mystery (PBS Series)
8. Word Girl (PBS kids show)

Can you tell we don't have cable yet.

8 Restuarants I like to eat at:
1. Red Lobster
2. Olive Garden
3. Outback Steakhouse
4. Cheesecake Factory
5. PF Changs
6. Bamboo Grille
7. Elephant Bar
8. Carlos O' Brians

8 Things that happened today:
1. I bought our dog a Halloween costume.
2. I did dishes.
3. I did laundry.
4. I drove the girls to school, they missed the bus.
5. I talked to my mom.
6. Made preparations for my husband's birthday on Saturday.
7. I ate a peanut butter and honey sandwhich for lunch.
8. I surfed on You Tube instead of moping my bathroom floor.

8 Things I look forward to:
1. Halloween!
2. Christmas!
3. My sister Holly coming to visit.
4. A day when I dont have to get up before 6am.
5. Seeing Twilight the movie.
6. Doing my Christmas shopping.
7. Finishing some Christmas projects.
8. Taking a nap.

8 Things on my wish list:
1. A Zutter. (Its a cool scrapbook related item.)
2. For the economy to get better.
3. A raise for my husband and brothers-in-law.
4. I wish I could finally lose the extra 35 lbs I have been carrying around the last 4 years and never find them again.
5. I wish I could take horse back riding lessons so I could ride with my oldest daughter.
6. I wish and hope that my youngest daughter will be totally toilet trained before 5th birthday. (Remember she has an Austism Spectrum disorder, potty training is way down on the list compared to communication and safety. It will happen, I am just impatient.)
7. I wish my sisters did not have to work.
8. I wish that my older sister and my brother-in-law can adopt a baby next year.

8 People I will tag

Hmmmmm, I have to see who has been tagged and get back to you on that.

Halloween is tomorrow I will take pictures and post them then. I hope you all have a great Halloween!

Where have I been????

Okay I know where I have been but all of my adoring fans (all three of you) are definitely wondering what I have been up to these past two weeks. So here is the top ten things I have been doing:

1. Celebrated oldest daughter's 10th Birthday (Yikes! I have a 10 year old!!!)
2. Oldest daughter got glasses. (Picture to follow)
3. Worked on and survived Crafting Saturday at my church.
4. Caught a cold.
5. Laid in bed for two days, then got out of bed and cleaned.
6. Went to the Desert Botanical Gardens (The Monarch Butterfly exhibit was awesome, photos to follow.)
7. Worked on my Christmas Album class (Teaching it tonight!)
8. Obsessed about Halloween costumes.
9. Tried to figure out how to attend 3 "Fall" parties at school and 3 parent-teacher conferences all in a 72 hour time frame.
10. Re-read Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and 1/2 through Breaking Dawn. (Edward, SIGH, to bad he is fictional, wink)

I promise I will get more pictures posted things have just been CRAZY. I miss you all.

Legos are for girls (and Mommy too!)

My dear husband bought himself a set of Legos a while back because he wanted to use them for a robotics project he was doing in his spare time; little did he know that once our youngest daughter saw the aforementioned Legos that she would take great pains to get her little hands on them. Daddy gave permission for our little darling to play with the Legos (while supervised by Mommy.) Ever since her first Lego experience she has become quite interested in building with them; houses and towers are her favorites. She also likes to build the projects that are shown in the little booklet that was in with the Legos. Today she asked me to the make the red truck that was in the instruction booklet. I was really digging this so I put the little Lego man inside the cab so he could drive our truck. We had lots of fun so I took some pictures of our red truck and my youngest playing with the Legos.

See the Lego man's smiling face; he is in Lego Truck heaven.

" Mom, Help! Its stuck!" (Mom puts down the camera and prys the Legos apart.)

She likes to build tall buildings. "Up, Up, Up," says my girl.

"Honk Honk Beep Beep Vroom Vroom!"

Keep on Truckin' my blogging friends!

PS. Thanks to everyone that weighed in on the Facebook question. I am going to keep working on my Facebook page and enjoy the pages of my friends.

Facebook

I have been goofing around on Facebook today; inviting friends and updating my profile. I am taking a poll on what folks think about Facebook so please vote; yes I really want to know that's how twisted I am.

Girly Hair

This is my middle daughter, my princess, the girl who loves girly hair! Sorry the pictures are not great but I was late for church and wanted to snap a quick photo. I dont think it turned out too bad but if I were to do it again I think I would use bigger sections of hair.

Now I know you are asking yourself: "Where did Mandy find the idea for this hairdo?" Well dear friends, I was blog stalking my cousin Marisa's blog and she has several "Little girl hair do blogs" listed on her blog. I listed I few I liked:

http://babesinhairland.blogspot.com/

Her girls are so cute!

http://piggiesnponies.blogspot.com/

Can I just say, "Oh my heck! The lady has talent and patient children."

http://cute2tryhairdos.blogspot.com/

Really unique ideas here, so great.

That's how we roll in girly town!

Funny stuff my daughter says

The picture I posted has nothing to do with this post other than its a picture of my three girls. I just wanted everyone to see their cheesy grins while you laugh at the silly things the girls have said to me recently.

Today:
My youngest daughter (who is 4 years old) was looking that pigeons that have taken to sitting(& pooping)on top of our swing set while she and her sisters are at school. My youngest sent Shadow (our dog) outside to chase the pigeons but the pigeons were not impressed or threatened in any way by our small dog.

Since the birds didn't leave she started waving her arms saying,"Shoo Shoo birds."

She turns to me and says in a very serious tone, "I can be the scarecrow."

I had to laugh, how practical my girl is trying to keep the pigeons away by being a scarecrow.

Meteor Crater, Navajo County Fair & Rodeo, Quading

This last weekend our family went to Holbrook and Show Low, Arizona, to spend some time with Kris and Stan (my in-laws.) On our way to Holbrook we stopped at Meteor Crater; this was very exciting for our family as we are big fans of Space Exploration and all things Space related. We took a quick tour of the museum and then went out to look at the crater.



We climbed back into the car and headed to Holbrook for the Navajo County Fair & Rodeo. Unfortunately, the rodeo started late so I don't have any pictures other than the picture of the arena. My camera doesn't handle the dark well. One of the best parts of the rodeo was when Lela participated in the Grocery race, this is where they put packages of stuff kids like to eat (chips, juice boxes, candy, etc) in the arena and a bunch of kids run out their and pick it all up. Lela sprained her ankle but she was a trooper about it. Our other favorite part of the rodeo was the bull riding. The bulls won hands down with only two riders holding on long enough to get a score. One rider did get stepped on pretty bad and most likely ended up with a few broken ribs but he walked out of the arena on his own power. Lela and I walked around the fair looking at the craft winners, their were some really beautiful quilts (sorry no pictures, got to respect the artists.) The girls fell asleep on the way back to the in-laws.

Okay now some of you who know me are thinking right about now: "WHAT??? Bull riding?!? Mandy watches bull riding ?!? Well not exactly, my parents got Lela interested in bull riding and then David got into it too. So yes, I watch bull riding with my family.

Oh, and just for the record, I do not own a pair of cowboy boots......yet.

The next morning on Saturday, we took my in-laws quads out for a ride around their property. Okay, "quading" is that a real word? I am not sure but lots of people own quads and go quading. In fact my in-laws hosted a really big quading jamboree recently with 350 people. Crazy! Who knew? Not me obviously. Here are some photos of the girls and David on the quads. Yes, I drove one of the quads, badly. In my defense, you have to use your hands to drive and since I have advanced carpal tunnel it really hurt to hold down the lever that was the gas for so long. Oh well, I'll just have to work on it because I have been told that I will be involved in quading expeditions in the future.

Photos, as promised

We are off to the rodeo tonight out in Holbrook, AZ, where we will be meeting my in-laws. The girls are all dressed up in their cowgirl boots and jeans. I promise to post pictures tomorrow because they just look so stink'in cute. But, before we run off to the rodeo, here are the photos I promised. This is only a smattering of what I have been doing. I have another mini album I will be teaching at the end of October, a Birthday Girl album I just need to photograph it. I am making cards, scrapbook layouts, and have plans for a large canvas as well. My printer is out of ink so I literally have 7 scrapbook layouts sitting on my desk waiting for journaling. No, I don't write out my journaling by hand most of the time because my handwriting has become less legible each year with the advance of my carpal tunnel but I do try because I want my girls to remember what my writing looked like before it becomes totally illegible. Okay now that I am off that tangent here is the pictures I promised.

This is the front cover of the Christmas Mini Album I am teaching in October at Scrap Happy Sisters. Its a 10 page mini book, I just really loved the papers by 3 Bugs In A Rug.


This is the Family Canvas I am teaching at my church's craft day in October. The Family letters are vinyl which is sweet because its so easy to work with.

The Recipes album is a gift for my mother-in-law, her birthday is this month and we will be seeing her this weekend.

This canvas is a project I started at CK Convention Phoenix in September of 2007. I just finished it in August 2008 but hey I got it done right? This will be a Christmas gift for my husband's grandparents.

See you tomorrow part'ners!

Color Inspiration Card

I have this REALLY talented cousin, Kristina. She has an awesome blog http://www.kwernerdesign.com/blog and was recently asked to become a Garden Girl (for those of you not familiar with the online scrapbooking world let me tell you this is a HUGE honor.) Congratulations to my cousin, UR DA BOMB! She does a color inspiration challenges on her blog and I just haven't taken the opportunity to participate until now. Of course I had nothing in my stash that fit the color scheme so I just winged it. So here is what she chose:

And here is my card, which has probably missed the deadline for today (hey its the thought that counts right?):

Teaching classes, being a parent, & more

Where have I been, well I have been very busy with lots of things. I promise to start posting more of my scrapbooking work. I will do a post soon that shows all the work I have finished lately. I am going to be teaching a Christmas mini album class at Scrap Happy Sisters http://www.scraphappysisters.com in October. I missed teaching scrapbook classes so I jumped back in. (Again I promise photos will be posted soon.) I took a very long break from teaching classes because I needed to focus my energy on taking care of my children during the summer and deal with some things that related to the business that I closed. In a way, I needed to grieve for what I had lost. I was burnt out creatively and I needed to get back to reality, which unfortunately is often harsh so its doesn't leave much time for scrapping.

I am also helping out with my church's crafting day in October as well. I am supervising some projects and teaching a canvas class (photo to follow.) This is something I am doing for fun because I love the ladies at my church and love all the crafty stuff that we make each year; its kind of our "get-ready-for-the-holidays" crafting day.

What else I have been up to, well being a parent. What that means is dealing with with my daughters and each one is very different. My oldest daughter is struggling to adjust the rigors of 5th grade. She has two folders to keep track of, a daily planner to write in, she has to change classes two times a day, and she is also in band this year in addition to the usual- P.E., Art, Music, Library, & Computers. She has always done well in school but this year she has been struggling to be organized. Its hard to watch your children fail and know that you cannot fix it for them, you can only help them by giving them support and helping them deal with the consequences of their actions. This is the year things get serious for her, she has to learn that from now on this is they way life is going to be. She is going to have to grow up some and take on responsibilities that she doesn't enjoy. While this is a difficult time for her she still maintains her sense of humor, enjoys her favorite activity horse back riding, and is coming along with her flute lessons.

My middle daughter is struggling with reading, but was lucky enough to be put into a special reading program at school that will help her. We are also going to have her eyes checked to make sure her vision isn't giving her trouble. We will be reading, reading, & reading with her at home. Other than her reading troubles she enjoys school and is making new friends and is just a very happy girl. She joined the Shine Your Light Singers this month, we wanted to give her a chance to do several things at once. This group does singing, acting, and dancing; we are very excited to see how she does with it.

My youngest daughter continues to improve in her second year of preschool; her therapists tell me she is making good progress. I have to say how thankful I am that the state and school district I live in provides my daughter with so much assistance. I have not talked about my youngest daughters diagnosis on my blog a lot but I think it's important. Just in case you are new to my blog I will explain what I am talking about. Our youngest daughter was diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder in 2006. Most people know what Autism is but not what Austism Spectrum Disorders are and to be honest I cannot describe what they are in a short sentence other than to say that our daughter's particular disorder gives her trouble with sensory input and she has a moderate speech delay. If you want the full story e-mail me and I will share.

Back to my point. Our daughter has 5 therapists that work with her. She has an Occupational Therapist, a Speech Therapist, and Music Therapist that work with her at home 1 hour each week (that's 3 hours of therapy a week if y'all are counting.) At Preschool, she has a Speech Therapist and an Occupational Therapist that work with her and her classmates. Let me tell you how often I thank God for these therapists. I don't think I can say how much they mean to me and our family. These women (her therapists) are a very dedicated people who love children and give all they can to help their students succeed.

I am complimented all the time on how well my daughter is doing and always respond they same way- I don't do the work my daughter does. I review with her and put in place the work that her therapists have given me. I like to think that the best thing I have done for my daughter is to love her just as she is and try to have her live up to the same expectations that I have for her sisters. We also believe in helping others so we decided to join the Austism Society of the America this year. We are trying to raise money for Autism Society of America so if you are feeling generous go to our donation page today: http://www.autism-society.org/site/TR/Events/newsite-norightcolumn?px=2179173&pg=fund&fr_id=1040

Wow are you exhausted from reading this post, sorry if you are but thanks for listening!

A Shout out to Bob

Who is Bob? And why is he being written about on my blog. Well, Bob is a man who is reading the first book Twilight Series because his wife Emily loves them. And because Edward kidnapped Emily and Bob wants her back. Her is Bob's blog:

http://edwardkidnappedmywife.blogspot.com

I thank Bob for his male perspective on Twilight, he seems like an open and honest guy. Go read what he has to say its interesting.

Back to School

Sorry it took me so long to get these posted I have been very busy decluttering and digging out from a very busy summer.

I got distracted...

You'll notice my previous post about what we did this summer was dated August 4th because that was the day I started working on it but it wasnt posted until today August 9th. I got a little distracted when this came in the mail:

If you haven't read this yet, don't continue reading this post, and if you are not a Twilight Saga Fan you'll just have to ignore this post too. I was really looking forward to this book I finished the book in about 10 hours. I barely slept, mostly didnt do housework, but did manage to feed my children. I finished the book Monday but then had a bizillion things to do to get the girls ready for school so I haven't had time to talk about the book until now.

Here is what I thought of the book: Sweet!, what?, really?, NO-Way, well I guess...., hmmmm

Now for the interpretation of what I just said:

Sweet!- Bella and Edward get married and run off to an island honeymoon.

What?-Bella is pregnant, what? I didn't think the undead could procreate so this kind of goes against the traditional vampire model. Which hey, kudos to Stephanie Meyers for putting a new twist on that but is just didn't seem right.

Really?- Bella handles herself as a newborn vampire really well, which at first I was like okay she is different from most but that is just TOO convenient.

NO-Way-Jacob (werewolf) imprints on Bella and Edwards daughter Renesmee (half-human/half vampire) Okay I know they mentioned other werewolves imprinting on children before but this just did not seem right to me. This was NOT the way to end the Jacob-Bella-Edward love triangle. This REALLY bothered me.

Well I guess...It makes sense that someone would find out about Renesmee and that the Volturi would show up. I also figured the werewolves would help regardless of the Jacob-Renesmee connection.

Hmmm- I did like that she introduced other groups of vampires from other parts of the world that was very interesting. And I did like that she left the situation with Renesmee with hope that she could survive her uniquess and that there were others of her kind. Also the revelation regarding the "werewolves" in Forks and La Push really being "shape-shifters" and not "real werewolves" was interesting as well.

Now here are the questions I have wondered about: Does this mean that Stephanie Meyer will write about the werewolves/shape-shifters now? Will she write about Renesmee and Jacob? Will there be another saga? At this point I don't know but I will say that if there are more books in the future I will be harder please because of my disappointment in this book.

What we did this summer

Okay since back to school is only a few days away I thought I would just do the summer round up so you could all enjoy the crazy things we did this summer. This is going to be long with lots of photos so get a drink, a snack, and get ready to oooh, ahh, and laugh at all we did this summer. Also, don't forget that if you want to see the pictures bigger than they are here, just click on them. Yes they are going to be really big if you do that, so don't say I didn't warn you.

Lela, our oldest daughter got her ears pierced the day after school let out, on May 22nd. (I finally gave in, what drama this caused with our middle daughter Cora, who is now counting the days until she can get her ears pierced, sigh)


The next week on May 27th David's step-sister Karali got married, here he is with the bride. Karali and I are balancing out the universe, she has three blonde-headed boys close in age to our girls.



















Then on June 4th our middle daughter, Miss Cora turned 6! After her party she asked how long it would be until she would be 7! I have to slow this girl down or she'll be a teenager before I know it.



















In June I also got to watch my youngest nephew, Ethan, (he just turned 1 year old) for a few hours one day while his Nana (my mom) got her nails done. Ethan is my younger sister Samantha's little man, she works full time right now so Nana and Papa (my mom and dad) watch him and his two siblings (big brother Morgan aged 7 and older sister Katie aged 4.) Look at those cheeks! I just love to nibble those cheeks!



















Anaya, our youngest daughter, took her first dance class in June at The Little Gym. Okay I am not a girly-girl per se but I was so freaking out over how CUTE my daughter looked in her dance clothes, tap, and ballet shoes. I watched her all through her dance class planning what dance outfit I was going to put her in next.



















Our family enjoys the Phoenix Zoo, so here are some pictures of us on the Endangered Species Carousal while we took a break from the hot summer sun.



























July 1st we went on a fun field trip with Anaya's summer Developmental Preschool group to our local Bounce Play Place. Here is Anaya sliding down the slide. (In case anyone reading this doesn't know already, Anaya has an Autism Spectrum Disorder. Anaya goes to a Special Education Developmental Preschool at a public school in our school district. We are very proud of the progress she has made in the last two years. As always, if you have any questions about her disorder please feel free to ask me about it. I love to help people get educated.)



















July 3rd was Anaya's 4th birthday (yikes my baby is 4!) July 3rd is a big birthday day in our family because its was also Ethan's 1st birthday and David's cousin Karah had her son Ryker that very day this year. (Note to self: I need to get a picture of Ryker to post on the blog, he is a cutie.)















July 4th we all got in the car and headed for Cedar City, Utah for 5 days of fun at the Utah Shakespearean Festival. I have been attending this festival for many years and each year it just gets better so if you are inclined and can go one summer check them at here: http://www.bard.org/ Lela attended her first live Shakespear play; we took her to Taming of the Shrew. Lela really enjoyed herself, I was so impressed that she was able to following the story even the dialogue was 16th Century English. Lela also attended Fiddler on the Roof with my parents. David and I attended Two Gentlemen of Verona and School of Wives while we were at the festival as well. We took the girls to the Green Show and we ate tarts (according the fine gentleman that sold the tarts to me - our tarts were fat free because we were eating them outside, they also make you look more attractive, well maybe not, but when said with a perfectly bawdy English accent you might just believe it. wink wink nudge nudge)

The girls played at the park with my parents while we were at our matinee of School of Wives and then we all went to see Disney's WALL*E. We also went to Cedar Breaks which is near Bryce and Zion Canyons. We had a great view and saw lots of wild flowers that the girls were crazy about.


















Okay is it just me or is my Cora always making some kind of distressful emotional face in the pictures I take of her. (She's my drama mama in case you didn't know that.)

This part of our vacation was not withouts difficulties, the first night we stayed at the resort I wacked my head on the low ceiling of our loft bedroom. That little middle of night walk in the dark pretty much knocked me to the floor and gave me a huge bump on my forehead that lasted over a week.(Seriously, could I be any less coordinated on vacation than I already am at home.) We didn't have air conditioning so we sweated all night the first night (gasp! Doesn't everyone in the Western region of the United States have air conditioning, I guess not!) We didn't need the air conditioning the rest of the week because the weather was cool and beautiful. We also had to have the brakes replaced on David's car. This meant spending 2 hours in the waiting room with our daughters with nothing to entertain them as all their stuff was in the car. I had no idea it would take that long! My children survived and lets just say that we were all very happy to leave when the car was done.

The next destination on our vacation was Sedona. We love Sedona! We go to Sedona at least twice a year. This was a nice place for us to stop and catch our breath before we came home. I washed clothes like a mad woman. We went swimming at the resort's pool and David cooked for us. Being away from home for a week was great but we were ready to come home. Sorry no pictures from Sedona this time but I promise our next trip I will post something.

Cupcakes from Boston Market. Okay they didn't taste as good as they looked but since I am total freak I took pictures of them anyway on July 17th. (Thank you for enduring this cupcake break here at my blog.)















Our next fun event of the summer was July 23rd, when the girls dressed up for a Princess Tea Party in our living room. (Sorry you folks out there that only have boys; this is just how we roll in Estrogenville when David is at work.)


























This is the tea set that we use when we have tea parties; I have had it since I was 8 years old and its very special to me. I am so glad that I have my girls to share it with.















I hope you have enjoyed our summer wrap up. We had a great time and yes, I am glad school is starting. We did some back to school shopping (sorry no pictures) and went to school for meet the teacher. Stay tuned for the back to school pictures!