How Often?

do you go shopping?

At the end of a long day last week, Todd and I were talking about what the other did that day. After I filled him in on my day he asked, "Is it a goal of yours to shop everyday?" You have to know Todd to understand that he wasn't being mean when he said this. Perhaps a little concerned about finances, but not mean. I am a pretty frugal girl too. My shopping excursions don't total to very much. (Except at Target, every time I go there I spend at least $70 - I have to stay away from their bulls eye) I think Todd really was curious to know why shopping is always on my "to do" list.

So, I am wondering, am I alone here? Do you make daily trips to the store? Or are you a really good planner and do all of your shopping - food, gas, clothes, etc, on one day? I aim for this. However, I always seem to forget something, or something doesn't get put on the list in the first place. At any rate, I am making it a goal to not spend money or shop for at least three days this week! I bet this will please my husband, and my daughter. She hates shopping with me!

Harrison's Field Trip!

On Friday Harrison's class got to go on a field trip and, lucky me, I got to go too! We went out to Superstition Farm, a working dairy farm, in south Mesa. It was way fun. You just had to get used to the smell ;)! We went on a hayride and learned all about cows. There was a hay maze to play around in. The kids also got to feed goats and horses, and pet and hold bunnies and chickens. I hate birds, they really freak me out. So I felt hypocritical making Harrison hold a chicken, so I could take a picture!These birds though were really quite tame and are used to being held, I imagine. There were some really beautiful chickens too with feathers that covered their talons and a mane that resembles a lion's. Some of Harrison's girl classmates held on to those creatures like they were cuddling a puppy or a kitten - gross. (I really hate birds!)

All in all, a fun day. The farm is open to the public too, on Fridays and Saturdays, if you are interested in taking your kiddos on your own.

Harrison feeding a horse:


Brave Harrison holding a chicken - he looks thrilled, huh?


His whole cute class:

What the heck????

So my big project on Monday was going through every single toy that my (spoiled :))kids have. I sorted, cleaned, and purged. I boxed up some toys to store, this way we have fewer toys out. Then when my kids get bored of the toys currently out, I can pull out the stored toys and bingo - new toys!!

I then organized everything. Some special toys got to go in the kid's rooms. All of the other "community" toys were placed in the toy room.

My house was clean, fresh, organized!

Then, hours later this is what the toy room looked like:



Did I have the whole neighborhood over? Heavens no. This is the work of one little angel:

The good thing was, since everything was organized before, it took less than 5 minutes to getting this room back in order.

By the way, this girl has the shortest attention span. This is part of the reason the room got so messy. She plays beanbags, blocks, peek-a-boo, books, dolls - in about 5 minutes. Then she repeats herself. I can not keep up.

Happily Ever After...

My blog has been on my mind, and I started thinking about the title of this little thing, "Happily Ever After". I realized that I really am experiencing happily ever after, every day - good or bad. I am so grateful to all of you who help make my days a little better, a little happier.


Today I "happily" crafted:

I still need to paint this frame and then it will be, oh so Irish!

My grandparents came over with TONS of hand - me - downs from my Dad's cousin's little girl (does that make her my second-cousin) - these clothes are in terrific shape and adorable, some of them haven't even been worn and still have the tags on!! This makes me very happy!!

We headed over to the park, for the second time this week, to enjoy the beautiful Arizona weather with our friends. There was happiness shared by all!

Alyssa in her "new" clothes!

Looking into Harrison's beautiful face always melts my heart.

Right now Todd is doing the dishes, I am blogging on his order to relax, yes this makes me happy too! Have a wonderful day, full of happiness.

Sushi!!

Like Bethany, who very eloquently blogged about her passion of Fresh & Easy, I too love this place. This Saturday I headed over there to get some California Rolls, since Todd likes Sushi and California Rolls are about as Sushi as I will get! We asked the kids if they wanted some of our "adult" food.

Lyssa loved it!! She is a really good eater and is never picky, so no huge surprise.





Harrison thought we were all crazy to eat something that looked like it had "sea weed" in it!!

For the Grandparents....

Dang, I am some issues with uploading my pictures, that is why they are such different sizes, I don't favor Harrison over Alyssa, or her over him, for that matter. Oh well - here are some pictures you missionaries!!! We love you.

Back to the blogworld

Yes, as many friends have pointed out, I have been MIA from blogger. Why? Nothing too exciting, just life. I was going to take pictures of some of the projects I have been working on latley to share, but my camera needs new batteries and I am too lazy to put new ones in right now. I will share later. Anyways, I have been up to -

• hosting a Superbowl Party
• crafting, crafting, crafting
• Young Women stuff - there is so much going on in our YW program right now!
• Enrichment stuff - I was on the dinner committee last week. I am seriously crazy to volunteer to do more stuff for church right now! At least it was fun. We went to the visitor's center after dinner and the new Temple President, President Clark, spoke to us. It was lovely. Then we watched the film that the Easter Pagent people put on describing the making of the pictures of Christ's life. And then saw the pictures. You should go to it! Stephanie Pratt's husband, Aaron, is in one of the pictures. The pictures are amazing. My favorite two are the Baptism ones. John the Baptist and Jesus - well the people portraying them - looked so happy in it!
• Art Masterpiece
• playing with my kids
• reading some fantastic books - Nicholas Sparks, Dr. Laura, and John Grisham are the best!!
• shopping garage sales
• taking care of sick kids - AGAIN
• disinfecting the entire house - which also means tackling mountains of laundry too
• taking sick kids to the doctor's and the pharmacy
• getting Valentines - for Harrison's teacher and teacher's aide I bought some bubble bath and attached a note that said, "May your Valentine's Day Bubble over with fun!"
• watching season 3 of LOST on DVD and now season 4 on TV
• fantasizing about Matthew Fox and Josh Holloway - really, I had a dream about Matthew Fox, I LOVE when that happens!!!!
• practising the piano - didn't know I can play? Well, I haven't for YEARS. My cousin Stephanie asked me to accompany her on a solo at her neice's Baptism. After much bullying - just kidding - I decided I would do it. So, I have been practicing so much my arms and hands ache, but I think I can pull it off. The Baptism is this Saturday, so I will let you know how it goes.

I think this just about covers it all. I will post some pictures of the crafts soon if you want. Hope you don't think I am crazy and all because of my celebraty (sp) crushes -

do any of you have celebraty crushes?

Do any of you love LOST?

Do any of you do something fun for your kid's teachers or friends or honeys for Valentine's Day?

Do any of you play piano? And would love to come play at a Baptism this weekend? PLEASE?

And in case I forget:

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!