Amazing people

I was inspired by Toni and Andrea to go read about this amazing family, the Nielsons. They live here in the valley and recently survived a plane crash. The husband and wife are in critical condition, the pilot actually passed away shortly after the crash and their kids (who weren't on the plane) are with their aunt and uncle up in Utah. I am so moved by the love and compassion from people all around the world who don't even know these people. And especially by their family who have stepped up in any way possible.
It made me think (and want to share)that I hope my siblings know that I love their kids so dearly... I would do anything at all for my nieces and nephews. I would give up my whole life to help them or do anything I can. I hope that my sisters and SIL's know how much I love them, their kids, and their families. I love them so much and I was really moved to tears reading this families story. When you try and imagine all that they are going through... I have always said that I may not the be best mom in the world (I really do try) but I DO pride myself on being the best Aunt. ... I'm kinda emo right now just thinking about it.

That's it, I'm going to Cali, I miss those kids too darn much!!

Check out these stories and their awesome donation pages and auctions all to benefit this family. They are going to have upwards of a million dollars after all the medical bills etc. Its pretty amazing seeing all that is being done to help this family.

Thats certainly NOT Katie!

Little stinker.... (refer to yesterdays post.) Well today I caught Lacy with a starburst. We keep our candy safely secure in a pot on top of the fridge. I asked Lacy where she got it and she confessed to also eating 2 pieces of pink bubble gum, 2 lollipops, some fruit snacks (we consider those candy), and more starburst. I was so baffled when I went into the un-touched kitchen. I made her show me how she got them and this is what I witnessed. I was so angry, yet sooo amazed.

It reminded me of a story Shawn's family always tells of when they lost Shawn when he was only 2 years old. The whole family was frantically looking all over the house and neighborhood for their sweet boy to find him sitting quietly on top of the fridge watching all the commotion. Who would have thought to look UP for a 2 year old?? Well like father like daughter... the little monkey climbs right up like its the easiest thing in the world. AHHHH... what am I going to do with her!?!?!

At least some happiness came when the dark clouds rolled in yesterday and brought us some much needed moisture. We went for a walk in the sprinkling rain and then went to Kelly's house for some yummy ice cream sandwiches. When we left their house it was pouring. Hugo loved the rain! IT makes me so happy, because I do too!! We had a super fun walk home with his hands in the air looking up in wonder giggling at one of the mysteries of the falling water coming from seemingly no-where. Can you imagine witnessing rain for the first time on your face. The sweet innocece of children. I loved so much this tiny experience, my boy is such a sweetheart!

You know you are an Arizona native when the happiest moment of the week comes hand in hand with dark black clouds rolling in from the southeast promising a heavy load of moisture to pour all over your clean car, dirt pile in the back yard and strait hair... I love monsoon season!

That Darn Katie!!

Has anybody ever seen the move Drop Dead Fred? I used to love this movie when I was a kid- it is the darn funniest movie ever, I still love it.

Except now, Lacy has her own "Fred"... and her name is Katie Bella Jones. All day long, every single day Lacy is playing with Katie, up to no good, wreaking havoc and being mischievous with her friend Katie. But un-like Fred, Katie is a real girl who we can all see... except Katie lives 355 miles away.

Every time we need to scold or punish Lacy, she said "Katie did it."

Me: "Lacy why did you push Hugo over?"

Lacy: "I didn't, Katie did, we should put her in time-out"

Me: "Lacy are we supposed to dump out all the juice on the floor?"

L: "No Mommy, that's bad, Katie did it"

L: "Katie hit Hugo"

"Katie un-buckled my seat belt"

"Katie doesn't want to go to bed"

"Katie left the door open"

"Katie woke Hugo up"

"Katie painted this shirt"

"Katie dumped all the buttons on the floor"

"Katie got all your shirts out"

"Katie got into the nail polish"

"Katie climbed on the fridge and got the starburst"

KATIE KATIE KATIE!!!!

I told Shawn the other night we need to get Lacy a new imaginary friend, because next time I see Katie I'm going to be really mad at her! She is always getting into so much trouble at our house. Either that or the Jones' really just need to move closer so I can spend more time with my sweet niece and see that she really isn't the demon I'm starting to think she is!

I love my nieces and nephews dearly, and miss them terribly.. and Lacy is just tainting their images!! Katie isn't the only one though.. Israel, Cameron, Anna, Susan, Brian Jr, Koby, Billy, Alex, Jaden and Braxton have all been known to cause some drama over at our house. The only one that hasn't caused any problems is Paxton and I haven't even met the little guy yet!! Katie is just the most awful of them all!!!

Lacy has such an imagination.. she needs more friends. REAL friends!

After the game was even better!!

When we got home from the game the kids were so excited to see us, HUGO TOOK HIS FIRST STEP WITH NO HANDS!! We didn't get the first one on camera, but we did get the second time. It wasn't as good, but it was still super cute. I was so excited. He is so good at pulling himself up on anything he can get his hands on, but he is usually too chicken to let go of anything, he automatically sits down... he is sooo cute! I love him!

Fun at the Game

My dad got way awesome seats to the D-Backs game up in a party suite. We weren't sure how awesome it would be, especially because we felt like we were walking forever into the back corner of the whole stadium.. but it was incredible. We got some awesome free food and deserts, had seats floating over right field with the best view of it all, and got to spend some quality time with the parents and hubby, kid free! PLUS... My awesomely fantastic, wonderful, amazing, radical, sweet, incredible, un-selfish brother watched the kids so we could go. (He turned down the seats and told my parents to ask us) Not only did he watch them last minute. He played on the slip 'n slide with Lacy, folded my laundry and took out the trash. I told you, he's the best Bro ever!!!

Oh and the D-Backs slaughtered the Padres!

New Blog

I have been wanting to start this blog for a long time. Mwa Hoo I used to have a website for this business I started but it just wasn't getting much attention compared to the amount of time and money I put into it. Plus.. I am more of a hands on crafter, not a computer designer, so I didn't really have the knowledge or patience to work on the website. (Plus I think Charmaine was getting sick of me bugging her for help all the time!)

Well most of you who know me pretty well know about Mwa Hoo. My sisters, mom and I started this little business doing all things crafty. From announcements and invitations to blankets, clothes, furniture, even party planning. We do a lot of work, mostly by word of mouth and really enjoy it.

Well I figured a blog was a lot more manageable than a website that cost a lot of money and was impossible for me to figure out. I got the blog name a wanted a log time ago and finally got the motivation I needed.

Chantal has started the CUTEST blog talking about all the cute crafts she does. Chantals gettin crafty! She always does the cutest dang things and inspires a lot of the crafts I do. She is so good at sewing, painting, scrapbooking, sculpting and a lot more. She is always blowing me away with everything she does, she's amazing! Based on my calculations Chantal, you ARE awesome! You've inspired me to finally get mine blog up and running. I want to be just like you!

Both my Mom and Mother in law, all my sisters and sisters in law and even my brother inspire me to be creative.

WARNING... this is going to be LONG. I have to give a shout out to those who inspire my creativity most!
My mom has taught me all I know. She is a seamstress, artist, Mrs. Fix-it, interior designer, nurse, teacher, therapist and such an awesome friend. Most of the crafting I do can somehow be thanks to my mom and all the fun things she has taught me to do by either showing me, watching her, or her giving me lots of ideas. I call her all the time asking her questions about sewing, painting, fixing things, etc, she's amazing. All my sister have natural talent and creativity. Charmaine is a whiz at the computer doing beautiful work digitally. She also is an amazing painter. She learned super young to paint and it just stuck with her. She is an awesome paper crafter and interior designer. She has impeccable penmanship. She is probably the most natural talent of us all (besides my mom, of course) Samuel and I have always wanted to start our own little deli/bakery. He is so fun! He also always makes home makes his Christmas ornaments every year. He is used to crafting and is really good at it, growing up with 4 sisters! Clarissa is such a fun crafter! Everything she touches, she improves. She will see the potential in everything and will turn an old piece of junk from the thrift store into a rare, priceless beauty. She has such vision and really is awesome at whatever she does. My mother in law is the best best cook I know. Everyone in the family is always raving about everything she touches and I have heard multiple people say that she should cater. She also has the cutest decorated home. It is such a happy home. She also gives me lots of cute things to make my home better. We love to craft together and I cant wait until she works less so we can do more together (wink wink) Krista is just perfect in every way. She is always inspiring me as a mother and a wife. She is the funnest mom and is always thinking of fun things to do. She is also an amazing cook- she collects cook books and does beautiful things, like cake decorating. She really needs to teach me, I wish I could do that! Adelia makes the most gorgeous jewelery. Every time my mother in law goes to visit she comes home with more stunning jewelery that Adelia has made. She is amazing. She is also a professional interior designer and her house is amazing. It is really like a model home (she used to design model homes, so its no wonder!) Chazilyn is always making fun things for the home. I have so many things in my house that are from Chaz. My sister makes fun of me anytime I get anything new and cute in my house saying "Did Chaz make that for you?" Its really true, she has gorgeous taste and makes the cutest things. Heather, my non sister in law, sister in law is just as amazing as everyone else. I love having her so close- that she can craft with me whenever I want. She is truly my best friend, I love her to death! My dads have also inspired me. My own dad is a very eloquent poet and is so creative in all that he does. The more I get to know about my father in law the more I learn how creative he really is. He sings beautifully and plays the piano gorgeous. Most of all my husband inspires me. Everything I do, I do to impress him :) He is always making me feel good about the things I do and compliments me in everything. He is so fun and will put up with my crafts all over the house. Sometimes I can even sucker him into sitting down and painting with me, or helping me cook, etc. He is such a good husband, you should all be jealous!

Whew... I told you it was going to be long, I'll be impressed if anyone at all reads it.

Well now that I got that out, go check out my new blog. Mwa Hoo.. and an etsy shop coming soon.

5 years STRONG!

Last week my hot husband and I celebrated our 5th Anniversary!!! I have the best husband in the world. This last year has been the very best yet, I'm so lucky to be married to such a wonderful man!

Lots of pictures from our life together-so far!

So far my married life has brought me:

~3 different houses

~2 beautiful children

~12 nieces and nephews (with 2 more on the way!)

~lots of money

~no money at all

~lots of trips to California

~over 20 different cars & trucks, one little motor bike, one quad and one Ranger

~one awesome cruise

~lots of Sunday dinners with the Brown family

~6 hospital visits

~Shawn working for family, owning our own business, loosing the business, being un-employed, crazy job perspectives and now a job we both love.

~Me being able to stop working and be a FULL TIME SAHM (stay at home mom!)

~Hard times

~Good times

~loosing 3 grandparents

~Lots of sickness and lots of health

~Becoming a lot closer to both sides of the family.

I could go on and on but most of all my married life has brought me lots of lessons and happiness. I know more than ever who I am and what I want in life. I am so grateful for Shawn loving me enough to be my everything. He is so wonderful and even though our marriage and family takes lots of work- its the best thing ever! I am so happy- thanks Shawn for 5 great years, I can't wait for an eternity more! I love you babe!

NO MORE DOC BAND!!!!

Hugo finally got his DOC Band off. I am so thrilled. The difference is amazing. I am so happy with Cranial Technologies, they have all been amazing over there! I had a lot of fun decorating his helmet. I didn't get pictures of all of them (I think I missed 2), but here are the ones I DO have. Also the before and after pictures. The before are on the left and after on the right. ENJOY!

Lacy's week away, 1st day of preschool and SOCCER

We missed Lacy a ton last week while she was at Yosemite with her Mimi and Papa. We were especially jealous that we were not with them. I can't wait to get the pictures from them to see all the fun times they had. Lacy has talked about it non-stop and has begged for Mimi since the minute she got home. Mimi is apparently her very best friend in the whole wide world. She does have the best grandparents. My kids are the luckiest! They left Friday night and I was already missing her that night. It was much different being away from the kids when WE were on vacation. But having Lacy gone was completely different. Hugo missed her like crazy. He would crawl around the house whining looking for her, sit in her room waiting for her to come home. I kept myself super busy, so that was good.

I went with my mom twice to As You Wish to do some fun pottery for her Birthday. We had a nice girls lunch with my mom, Clarissa, Elise and I. Had a couple nice dinners with Shawn and Hugo. A REALLY nice birthday dinner for my mom and I, which included them singing to us and some free ice cream. I did lots of fun projects for my mother in law while she was gone (pictures to come!) Hugo got his helmet off (I'll give that one its own post)!! And tons more.

As You Wish, Take 1
As you Wish, Take 2

My Boys at Chili's the night Lacy came home

As for this week, Lacy startes preschool! We got to go and meet the teacher yesterday and today she had her first day. She was so excited. She has been begging to go ever since she knew about it. She woke up super early and wanted to get ready as soon as she pulled me out of bed. She got all dressed in her cute outfit she picked out and got her backpack, got her hair braided, had some cereal and was ready to go! We still had 45 min. to kill so we cleaned the car, took some pictures and did a little pep-talk for school. As soon as it was not too early, we went and got Carson. She was even MORE thrilled to have her new best friend in the car! I think it made the first day a little easier. For both of us! The two of them got eachother excited and talked about their new back-packs and that they each had a new booster for the other in their car... and easier for me because Hugo was in the middle of them and he was getting annoyed from their antics and was getting fussy by the time we got there. He was about to loose it so I was happy to get them out of the car :) They did really good. Hugo and I ran a bunch of errands and when the kids got back in the car they both talked a hundred miles a minute about school and recess and books and their crafts, etc.

As if preschool wasn't enough for the day (Lacy crashed on the couch right after lunch, she was pooped!) we went to see Shawn play soccer for the first time. He did really good, the game was lame tho ending early, Lacy wasn't too happy, she didn't like people kicking balls at Daddy, him being stuck on the field, people running and screaming. He had a break for a min so we ran over and Daddy told her he was having fun and not getting hurt. She was much happier after that (and an Icee). Overall it was a very busy, fun filled day.

Whew... sorry for the way long post!