Had a great weekend...

I always look forward to weekends where there are lots of fun things to do. This weekend was no exception because Dale's birthday was on Sunday so we got to party this weekend. Friday night, Dale was taken to the ASU game by his friends and brothers. He got a free ASU T-Shirt thrown to him and it was just his size. And ASU won! I'm sure they arranged that because the team knew it was Dale's birthday. Saturday night we went to Fuddrucker's which we do for Dale's birthday every year.

All of our family and friends come too and we nearly take up the whole room. We tell funny stories, eat good food and laugh a ton. As far as Dale's birthday present goes, I got him a pair of dumbbells. Exciting, I know. But he really wanted them so that's what I got. I would have loved to get him a whole set but I was shocked to learn how much a whole set costs! So we will have to gradually build up to that I guess.

And this weekend was also really fun because my sister's baby shower was on Saturday. She asked me to decorate for it and my parents have a BEAUTIFUL backyard so I was really excited to do this for her. And it just so happens that my dad is an awesome cook. YUM!!! Anyway, here are some pics of Magi's shower:
Special "M" for Max Cookies that my mom made:
We had these maypoles on ether side of the gate were people came in:
My parents have a clothes line on the side of their house. Yes, they still use it! Can you believe it? I thought it would be easier to decorate it than to take it down so we tied mason jars with flowers in them to the cords.
Same type of thing over the gifts too.
Can you guess now what she is naming him?
Caution, not a real cake!
Who looks this cute when they are 7 months prego?
I have to give a big thanks to my friend Heather who came early with me and helped set up. And a big thanks to my mom for "sponsoring" the shower. Can't wait to meet baby Max!

I am so "bummed!"

So I send my kids outside so I can relax for just a minute. Yeah right. The drip sprinklers came on and they all sat around one and played with it. Now I have a bunch of dirty bums to clean!
P.S. Clothing is optional at our house and the kids usually opt out.

***Disclaimer*** This is a yucky post!

This post is not intended to make my husband feel bad or rag on him, I just would like to take this opportunity to point out how different men and women can be.
So for the past week, late at night, I've been hearing weird noises. I finally could hear the noises good enough last weekend when I was laying on the couch dying from the flu. The noises were coming from the attic and it sounded like something was gnawing on the wood! Then I heard scampering! Then I heard squeaking! OH NO! MICE!!!! EEEEEEEE! "DALE! There's mice in the attic!!!" So Dale comes running out of the office and he's not upset like me, he's excited! Here's his chance to do battle! He was even more excited than when we had the wasp's nest in the bushes last summer. He gets a chair and goes into the garage where the hatch for the attic is. He pokes his head up there and of course, they all hide. Little jerks. So he comes back in to the house telling me there's nothing he can do to catch them now, we'll have to wait till he can get some sticky traps. "What? Wait? They are going to come in to the house!" He promises me they can't get in to the house. Meanwhile, I keep hearing their nasty little noises and I'm ready to move in to a hotel. I keep imagining that scene in Ratatouille where the ceiling comes crashing down in that lady's house and a billion rats come pouring out.

So Dale finally brings home sticky traps last night. He goes up in to the attic and puts some of the kid's Easter candy on the traps to bait them. He goes to bed like a little kid on Christmas Eve waiting for Santa to come.

So this morning while I am still in bed (Dale wakes up before me to get ready for work) I have my back turned to the door when Dale comes in. He wakes me up and says "I caught 3 of them!" I roll over and, wait... "what's in that plastic bag you are holding? Are they in there? Did you bring them in the house???" (I think he might have thought I was going to get out of bed and celebrate with him) "Take that to the outside garbage!" "Get them out of my house!" I have to say that I feel bad for reacting so poorly. My sweet husband was truly victorious and all I could think about was that I was woken up first thing in the morning by someone holding a very thin bag of dead rodents.

So, he calls me just a little bit ago and says he's "reveling in his victory." Then it occurs to me, they couldn't have died on that sticky trap just overnight. So I ask, "Were they dead when you found them this morning?" He says "No, they were alive." "Were they ALIVE when you brought them in to the house?" Dale says "Not after I bashed their heads!" "DALE ALAN MORRIS! YUCK!" He only gets called his full name when he has truly freaked me out.

So I have to apologize to my man for yelling this morning. I hope he wasn't too disappointed when I didn't haul out of bed and slap him five. Thank you dear for getting Ratatouille and his buddies out of my attic.

I haven't heard any more noises but Dale says we have to assume there's more until we can go for a while with out "anything" getting stuck on the traps. Meanwhile, I may need to go to counseling to cope with this event.

This is gonna be a long one...

I am so behind on life! Ever since Ragnar, it seems as though I have been busier than I ever have been before. I'm sure I've had more hectic times, but I can't remember them. I've had a lot of stuff keeping me busy, but but for the sake of your attention span, I will only recap the more exciting things of the past month.

1.) Ragnar baby!
This was by far one of the funnest and crappiest things I have done in my life! Our 12 women team ran 187 miles relay-style from Wickenburg to Mesa. The course was divided up in to 36 legs and we each had to run 3 of them. I think I can speak for the group that we all had a blast and we'd do it again but it was HARD!!! I have never been more tired in my life! I'd say I got about 5 hours of sleep total in those 2 days. It was unseasonably warm and the heat messed us up! Here are some of my fave pics:

Here is the gang the first day:
Props to Cresta for running her first leg in a hula skirt!
Whoever thought of hanging the disco ball from the ceiling is a genius.
Becky and Heather were our drivers. They, BY FAR put up with the most crap out of anyone. They both drove humongous vans filled with stinky, crabby runners. I'm amazed that they didn't just give up and drive us all over a cliff. I wouldn't have blamed them if they did.
Contrary to this picture, none of us got lost! Miracle!
We all had to match of course, part of our uniform was our "bling" visors with our initials in rhinestones.
Here we are coming across the finish line! Can you see the elation on my face? I'm in the way back with my arms up. Never have I been more relieved to be done running.
We did it!

2.) A few days after this, I photographed a wedding. I used to do this all the time but now I have 3 kids and it's next to impossible to do this for a business when you have babies, but this girl was a good friend of my sweet sis in law so I came out of retirement just for her. And now I'm glad to be back in retirement because I felt so rusty!

3.) Funny that this is #3 on my list because Rex turned 3 this month! Dale took him to an ASU baseball game with his buddies and he had the time of his life! Then we had a small family party at my parent's house.

We played ball
Thanks to Magi for bringing the bubble machine
Rex loved his Razor!
Don't ever buy expensive party toys or games, just buy balloons, that's all they'll play with anyway.
Here's Rex getting sung to.
Okay, my sis makes the most rad cakes around. Last year she made a tank cake
And this year she made him a monster truck cake.

4.) I'm still training for my marathon which is now less than 4 weeks away (yikes!) Last Saturday, Karolee and I ran down by Usery. It was an awesome run until I injured my knee on the LAST mile! My knees are in poor shape as it is. So now I am nursing it and hoping for the best. I've already registered for the race and the money is non-refundable so I will compete in that marathon if I have to hop on one leg for the whole thing! I'll be darned if I'm out $80 bucks!

5.) I've been at death's door since Thursday with the worst flu ever. I felt fine all day, I ran errands and everything and then (Stacy Johnson, don't read this) Ella barfed up an entire sippy's worth of milk all over herself and her car seat. Needless to say, we drove home with every car window down. Rex got a kick out of that. By the time I got Ella in the tub and removed the "drenched" car seat from the car, I started feeling awful. Sore throat, hacking cough, sore and achy body, nausea. Thank goodness all my kids went down for a nap because I just laid on my couch unable to move. So yes, I had a barf covered car seat in my front lawn until the next day when Dale could go out and clean it up. The worst thing about it was that I missed the Post Ragnar Party! I was so bummed! I really was so looking forward to hanging with my "Sole Sistas" again! The good part is, I never threw up! I felt like it a lot but I was able to keep a handle on things. Today is the first day I've started to feel somewhat normal. Tabby and Rex have had their flu shots and they haven't showed any symptoms yet. I am praying they don't get sick because I can't think of a worse combo than the flu and tons of Easter candy.

So that about sums it up! Thanks for reading my super long post! Happy Easter!

This is what I get for blogging!

Some of you may already know that I have the world's most naughtiest baby. I don't say that to be mean to my baby Ella. It's just a fact. She has learned that when I go in to my office (where kids aren't allowed) it's party time. Here is just one example of the stunts she has pulled while I've been in my office:

Exhibit A - Naughty Ella who is mad at me because I caught her and spoiled her fun.
Exhibit B - smears all over my kitchen counter.
Exhibit C - Stains on the carpet and kitchen floor.Exhibit D - favorite MAC lipstick; obliterated.Sure, I guess you could say that I should have kept this in a safe place. It was in my purse in the middle of my big kitchen island. I thought it was safe enough. But now one of her favorite things to do is push the kitchen chairs over to the island, climb on top and see what kind of naughties she can find. So now every time I need to go in my office, which is a lot because I work from home, I have to move all the chairs on to the carpet (where they don't glide on the floor.) For me, that's easier that keeping the island clean. Really, who keeps their kitchen island clutter free? Isn't it just another storage area? She's lucky she's so darn cute!

I'm Three!

It's Rex's birthday tomorrow! Happy birthday to my buddy boy!

We love you so much! You are the most thoughtful good-natured little boy and we are so blessed to have you as our son!

Rex Stats:
Loves: pepperoni pizza, basketball and baseball, monster trucks, motorcycles, Hot Wheels, soda, Cars the Movie, flip flops, camo, pirates, playing sports with his dad, and his stinky blanky.

Nicknames: Bubba, Little Dude, Bomp-a-Chomp (from the Wiggle's song), Buddy Boy, Rexy, Bompy, Chompy

I love that he still lets me snuggle with him. When I hold him he says "I'm mama's baby boy."

Here are some pics I took of my big 3 year old today:
He got distracted when he saw an ant. He said hi to it and then told it to smile for the camera.
The number on the back of his favorite shirt says it all:

Shower Power

It looks like spring threw up on my desk. It's because my sis asked me to be in charge of her baby shower and these are the pretty colors we are using. I know you're eying those newborn diapers on my desk. NO I am not pregnant. Those are for the diaper cake I'm making for her. Her shower is March 29th and I can't wait to use all this fun stuff. A big thanks to my mom for "sponsoring" the shower!