A Fresno Snow Fight

I decided to load up the back of my truck with a load on snow while on the way home from a recent scout outing. I was thinking snow men and snow angels on the front yard. Ya right! The kids know what snow is for- for pegging someone on the back/face with! It all went well until the kids started throwing snow balls at passing cars. As it turns out, people don't like that.

Sleeping Beauty Sleep

I walked in on this quaint little scene a few mornings ago. She really was asleep. Just. Like. That. Note the authentic drool and awesome bed head. She guffawed out loud when I showed her this picture. We were in Target the other day and I promised a treat from the $1 bins at the front of the store for good behavior. Lizzie was so thrilled to buy this gem of a treat - the sleeping mask I mean. And guess what? It really worked!

Cast Off!

Today was the big day - the day WE'VE ALL been waiting for - the day Lizzie get's her cast off! Remember last month when she broke her cute little pinky toe? Click here if you missed it. It has been a long 4 weeks for all of us. Bath time was a struggle just trying to keep the cast dry - until we found AQUA SHIELD (thanks again, Sue!). Needless to say, that cast got wet more than it should have. The moldy stank that came after the wetness was almost too much to bear. (In fact I think I'll go stick her bedding in the wash right now so we can start getting rid of the permeating odor!)

We did a photo shoot yesterday so we could commemorate this momentous occasion. This was the best of about 30 pictures. What a cheese nut.

So here she is on the exam table just before the nurse lady came in. Check out the cool artwork that we did on her cast last night for our FHE treat.



Here's a close up of her brave face. She held strong through the whole thing and only looked slightly nervous. Afterwards, she told me that she thought she would cry. What a tough girl. She knew it was going to be loud so she was holding her ears to protect from all the noise. (The saw hadn't even started at this point.)
Let the sawing begin! Jackson was in my arms at this point - screaming in terror.

Then came the cool pliers to pry the cast apart.


After the sawing was finished Lizzie was anxious to see her foot for the first time in a month. She sat up to watch this last part. The scissors came out to cut the cotton...

And wah-la! There's our first glimpse of her stinky stinky foot! It was the pinky toe that was broken - all those others are her normal toes. It looked slightly twisted to me, but they took her immediately to x-ray and check out the bone.

It was comical to watch her try to walk again for the first time all the way to the x-ray room. Step, hobble, step, hobble... One last x-ray...


And we were finished! The doctor showed us how her bone had already started to grow back into place nicely. The new bone growth is soft at first so there will be no gymnastics, jumping or trampoline for another 2 weeks. I did remember to bring 2 shoes for her to wear home. It was a glorious sight to see 2 shoes on Lizzie's feet. She was equally thrilled.

This was her "totally content" face as we left the hospital.
A purple sucker to celebrate the loss of a purple cast. Can't get any better than that. Bye, bye cast, smell ya later! Hopefully not.

Hiking Squaw Leap

Saturday was a low key day for our family so we decided to take a trip up to the foothills and catch some of that beautiful sunshine that has been pouring down on us these past few days. Enjoy a short video of our hiking adventure.

You know you're having fun when...

it's a DOG PILE!

The United CAKE of America

We got to make a cake for Trevor's Blue and Gold cub scout dinner this week. It was supposed to be an American theme so we decided to make this most beautiful delectable fruity-licious cake! We were all so please with it's gorgeousness. Here's the breakdown:

Jello cake (white cake with red jello)
cool whip
fresh strawberries and blueberries


Here's a little song just for you, cake:

Oh beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain.
For purple mountain magesties
Above the fruited CAKE!

Pet Store here we come!

Today was a big adventure day for Joy School. We've been studying ocean life and the letter S this week. And today was the day we got to go to the store and check out some of those animals in person - er... fish!

These kids loved checking out the fish and all the other animals in the store. It was like watching a pin ball game the way they bounced back and forth between the displays. And Jackson was there too, which made things even more interesting. (Mmm-hm. You know what he's like.) My favorite part of the outing was when walking out the door the kids all spied the "cookies" by the register. They all begged and begged for one of these most beautifully iced cookies until the lady told them, "Those are not for kids. They are for DOGS!" Whew! That curbed their interest instantly!

You know it's time to go to the grocery store when you run out of....

Neslte Quick
Bread
Eggs
Tortillas
Pretzles
Cereal

(Notice how I didn't mention any fruits or veggies? I guess we like to eat the opposite of the Atkins diet around here. High carb, low protien.)

What food does your family need to survive?

"I looked out the window and what did I see?"

"PINK popcorn popping on the apricot (er... plum) tree!"


The kids love it when the trees begin to blossom. I have to admit that I do to. We were driving in the car yesterday and Lizzie and Jackson both could not contain their enthusiasm every time we drove by a "popcorn tree". They would shriek, "There's another one!" about every 2 seconds. (When Jackson says, "There's another one!" it sounds like, "nuh-wun." Oh I love it!)

Then the conversation always goes something like this:

Lizzie: Mommy can we eat that popcorn?
Me: No sweetie. It just looks like popcorn, but it's really just flowers.
Lizzie: Can we eat the flowers?
Me: (chuckling inside) You can eat the flowers if you want, but they won't taste very good.

good inspiration, execution falls short

So I've been wanting to do this great wall collage of black frames ever since I saw Rebecca's. (I totally ripped off one of your pictures - hope you don't mind!) She is so creative and crafty - just like I like to think I am. Doesn't it look great?! It's the combination of that earthy yellowish wall color with the black and white contrast that just speaks to me!


I complimented her up and down about how great this wall looked in her house so she sent me a picture of her inspiration for the same project. Here it is, below. I found out later that it was from potterybarn.com. And who doesn't love Pottery Barn? They do everything good - just like Rebecca.


I've had this stack of frames sitting next to the piano ever since we took down the Christmas tree. Remember all those frames on that tree? They looked so great up there I just couldn't part with them after the season.
Finally I got up the courage to put them on our wall. And this is what I got. (Sorry, no "Before" picture this time!)

It turned out ok and I'm satisfied with it for now. But it will need some tweaking for sure. I'd forgotten that all of Rebecca's pictures were black and white (mental note #1). She also put up the same kind of wainscotting and moulding like the Pottery Barn picture (mental note #2 for Jeremy). And the contrast between the wall color and the frames is not what I wanted either (mental note #3 for Jeremy and me).

The next project will be painting and I think I've finally nailed down a color - and there have been several attempts at finding one. Don't peek at the wall behind our drapes because there are about 8 different shades of "caramel" paint samples to choose from! It's called Bungalow Gold from Lowes. So whenever we get around to that project I'll post an update.

My project execution would have been better had I paid attention to the details. For now, thank you Rebecca for your inspiration.