I Love The.....

RAIN!!

I've always wanted a swimming pool in the back yard.

Welcome to my swamp.

Everyone else is getting burned out on the rain, and the mud...but NOT me!! I have a garage, a cement driveway and I don't go out much. Let it pour!!

At The End Of A Long Day....

Of torturing Daddy while he sleeps...

Climbing into places she has no business being.... (props to the stroller for holding her though!)

Someone needed some Dora the Explorer down time!!.....

With the ever faithful black kitty. She loves him. She had her arms wrapped around him and her cheek against his. She was worn out after a long day of reigning down terror on my house hold....

A New Decade

I thought I would recap the last 10 years. It was kind of interesting thinking of all these things!

2000: Made varsity cheer. Broke my leg. Finally started dating Brent after months of worship. Football team takes state. Watched Jed Wheeler graduate!
2001: Brent graduates. Cheer some more. My sister goes to Cedar. Become active in the church again.
2002: Brent goes on a mission. I graduate. Start beauty school. Aunt Pat dies.
2003: Take out my endowments. Sealed to my family. Make the biggest mistake of my life. Grandpa dies. Graduate beauty school.
2004: Get divorced from biggest mistake!! Move home. Get Nevada cosmetology license. Get fired from my job for being "too fashionable" (not joking) Fall in love with Brent again after much denial. Start work at Valley Curls.
2005: Brent and I get married. Move to Vegas. Move back to Logandale. Go back to Valley Curls!
2006: My niece is born. Move again. Get two kitty cats. Brent decides to become a police officer.
2007: Brent is offered a job with city of Henderson PD. Start coaching cheer. Get pregnant. Granny dies.
2008: Pregnancy and all its insanity. The birth of my daughter. Move again. Buy my beautiful Tahoe.
2009: Quit cheer. Buy a house.
2010: The beginning of another year!!

If anyone shares any of these memories with me or has any others. Please remind me!!

A day in the life of Ella!

The climber. ER should have a bed reserved for us, I just know it.

Helping mommy do laundry. I swear to you she climbs in there herself!

The master chef. Nothing like a good pot of froggy!

The organizer. All her toys assembled tallest to smallest. Another victim of OCD in our midst.

And a little bit of naked tent time to round the day off.

Note: If there are any perverts out there looking inappropriately at the tent picture, just know: my husband is a cop and knows how to kill you and make it look like you were robbing the joint. AND he also has an arsenal of weapons..... ask santa.

New Years Resolutions

Resolutions are as follows:

1. Stop swearing or at least take it to the minimum
2.Learn how to install a sprinkler system
3. Regain some of my flexibility
4. Teach Ella her colors, body parts, animals, etc.
5. Eat less sugar
6. Finish one of my many literary geniuses
7. Be nicer
8. Go to all my church meetings
9. Loose the pounds I gained at Christmas (blaaaaahhhh. Months of hard work, only to be sabotaged by pie. Oh how I love pie!)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

The wreckage of the day!!! Ella was spoiled rotten and got too many toys! I don't know where they are all going to go!

Christmas morning. Brent had to work so Ella and I spent it with my mom, dad and brother. We got up at 5:30! We are still big kids!

Ella's dollie from Grandma. She was giving it loves.

We played white elephant bingo Christmas Eve night. It was so fun!! Jordan and I won the most, we have the gambling gene in our blood!! Ella thinks she is playing too!

Family picture!!! We had to wait for the timer. You would be surprised how impatient children get in 10 seconds!! Everyone looks oh so beautiful and handsome!!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!

This Stuff

Every year for Christmas, when my dad worked for Nevada Power, his friend Art would bring him a big Ziploc bag full of this stuff. I don't know when it started but it has been a long time tradition!! We loved it so much and anticipated its arrival every Christmas Holiday. We never knew what it was named. One day my sister and I deemed it "Art Shaner's Magic Potion". And that has been its title ever since!! I begged my dad to get the recipe one summer, when Christmas was too far away to wait for the delicious goodness. A few days later he brought it home. It was hand written with no title. I always laugh when I picture: 2 men, dressed in Dickie's work clothes, steel toed boots and hard hats, exchanging recipes at break time!! I LOVE this stuff!! I can't just have a taste and walk away. I can't just have one taste. I have to eat half the bowl and have someone physically remove it from my sight or I eat until I am sick. I think it's the Karo syrup that addicts me.

Does anyone know the real name of this stuff?