Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Okay, so there isn't much of a Winter Wonderland here in AZ but we can pretend.

Thanks Kristina for letting us borrow the snow clothes.

Halloween, Crafts, and Tap Dancing

I know, it's about time, but this is how we celebrated Halloween all month long.
(Warning-This post will be a little long, but there will be lots of pictures and a video at the end)

Naomi's cousins were in town the week of Halloween, so we thought it would be fun to go to the zoo. The kids had so much fun!

Naomi's preschool had a Halloween party. They loved wearing their costumes, playing duck duck goose, decorating cookies, and eating yummy treats.
This year we decided to go to Mother Nature's Farm with Caleb and Karen. I think the kids would have spent the whole time in the bounce house if we let them. But we made them feed the animals, pose behind the wood stand up, and pick a pumpkin.
The top left and middle pictures are from our ward trunk or treat. The The top middle picture is of the bed of our truck which won first prize for Best Trunk. Naomi had so much fun, she especially loved the train ride. The other pictures are of activities we did on Halloween. Naomi and I went over the Karen and Caleb's house to paint pumpkins and make spider cupcakes. We had so much fun. At home Naomi finished our Monster bags.

I now think that Halloween is tied for first with Christmas when it comes to Naomi's favorite holidays.

I've been wanting to make a Christmas wreath for my door for a while now but wasn't sure which one I wanted to do, so I found this site: http://eoberrys.blogspot.com/2009/11/easy-pottery-barn-inspired-christmas.html and knew that I could do this wreath. So here is my finished product.
I mostly followed the blog, but since I couldn't find the twisty tie stuff I used hemp thread that I had on hand and tied it on and I got all the ball decorations from the dollar spot at Target. I am very happy with the how it turned out.

I also made my own ring. Got the idea from this site: http://thecreativecrate.blogspot.com/2010/04/easy-diy-rings.html I like how it turned out but I think if I use some other buttons I might like them better.

And now for my favorite. Today Abbey, Jack's older sister who I babysit once in a while, gave Naomi her old shoes she had grown out of and one of the pairs was her old tap shoes. She helped Naomi put them on and Naomi fell in love. She even created her own dance. Enjoy!

Once Upon a Time...I Ate a Monster

Naomi loves when I tell her stories. I usually tell her the story about Little Red Riding Hood, but Naomi decided she had a story for me and this is how it goes.

Once upon a time there was a little boy, he was a monster. He had little legs and little arms, and red eyes. One day he grabbed my arm. And then he grabbed my hair. And then I ate him. And he was delicious. And he said, "get me out of your tummy." The end.

October Fun

We've been busy doing lots of fun stuff. Here are some of the things we've been doing lately.

Coloring.

Naomi was coloring this cute monkey and I look over and a marker is missing from the table. I walk up to her and she shows me what else she's been coloring.

Gymnastics.

Naomi started a new dance/gymnastics class. She loves it. She also loves her teacher's pet turtles. (Notice the super cute boots, they were on sale and we couldn't resist.)

Playing at the park.

Okay so this actually isn't a picture of us at the park, because I usually forget my camera, but I just thought it was super cute. This last week was fall break and we went to the park almost everyday.

Play Dress Up

We had fun playing dress up with Jack and his big sister.

We also went to Peter Piper Pizza, played playdoh, went to the library, and many other things.

Oh and I can't forget the show Naomi put on for me.

What We've Been Up To Lately

I know it's been a while, part of that was because I had basically no internet for 2 weeks. So now I'm going to catch you all up. Brace yourself for a long post, but I will make it exciting with pictures and movies.

Naomi has been busy with preschool, she loves it. She also just started gymnastics, it's once a week for 45 minutes. But she loves it and she loves her teachers.

We've also been playing with Jack again. Naomi and Jack have lots of fun together and fight like brother and sister. One day they laid down on the carpet and said they were making carpet angels.

Naomi is going through a fun make believe stage. She likes to pretend she's grandma and I'm Naomi. She also likes to pretend she's one of the characters on Phineas and Ferb. She's usually Candace or Isabella. Sometimes she likes to be Perry and she'll make me sing the "Perry Come Home" song.

The weather has been a little cooler lately so we've gone to the park more, played with Caleb and Karen, visited cousins, and worked on some crafts.

A week ago we went out to celebrate Cory's birthday and we ate some pretty amazing cupcakes, wish I took a picture because they were pretty looking too.

I finally painted Naomi's room (pictures to come soon).

This past week at scouts, I got a spider bite and tons of mosquito bites. The spider bite got pretty bad on Friday, but it's looking a lot better, still not great but definitely better.

That's just some of the things we've been up to lately, hopefully I'll be better about posting.

Our Disney Vacation

So I started writing my Disney post before my Preschool post but I didn't finish it until after I published the preschool post. For some reason the post shows up underneath the preschool post.

So if you want to check out the Disney Post, scroll down, it's just under the preschool post.

Enjoy!

First Day of Preschool

This year I decided it would be good for Naomi to go to preschool but I didn't want to pay the money. So with a group of my friends, we formed a preschool co-op. It's great, there are 6 kids and each mommy takes a turn teaching. Tuesday was Naomi's first day of preschool. She was so excited! I think she was more excited about getting to wear her backpack. And yes her backpack is as big as she is. I tried to find a smaller one for her, but they didn't have any at the store where we were. I figure she'll be able to use it for a long time.

She had so much fun! She wanted to go today, but I told her we only go 2 days a week.

I'm glad Naomi likes it so much!


Here's a little humor for the day. Today we were playing at Nicole and Caleb's house. Naomi and Caleb decided to play dress-up. Naomi puts on this cute Butterfly costume from Old Navy. She comes out and models it for Nicole and me. And then she asks us, "Does this make my butt look big?" Nicole and I couldn't believe what she said, we just laughed. I soon realized that she got that from Phineas and Ferb. Gotta love her!

How I Spent My Disney Vacation

A couple weeks ago, we went to Disneyland with my family. It was so fun to see everyone, especially since it had been a year since we were all together. Naomi had so much fun with her cousins, and of course she just loved Disneyland. She still talks about Disneyland. Everyday since we've been back she says, "I want to go to Disneyland again."

So this is how we spent our vacation.

Day 1 (Tuesday)
We drove over to California, it was a quick 6 hour trip. I know 6 hours seems long in the car, but it really wasn't too bad. We got there and hung out in our rooms. Then we went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner. It was fun, the food was good, and the cheesecake was delicious. We tried not to stay up too late because we planned on getting into Disneyland when it opened.

Day2 (Wednesday)
The next morning we woke up. Everyone was excited. We walked across the street and waited in line to get into the park (yes I said across the street, our hotel was across the street, it was awesome).

Here are Elise and Naomi as we wait in line.

Once we got in we raced to hit the rides we wanted to before they got too busy. Of course we rode Indiana Jones, and my oldest niece was just barely tall enough to ride. We rode Pirates, Dumbo, the Carousel, the Teacups, Buzz Blasters, Winnie the Pooh, Splash Mountain, Matterhorn, Space Mountain, and so many other rides I can't even remember. Here are some pictures from some of the rides we rode.


We also went to Mickey's Toontown. We walked through some of the houses. The kids met Mickey and Goofy. The kids spent some time in jail, it's probably because they tried setting fireworks off in one of the buildings (okay so the jail and the fireworks thing is all part of the fun of Toontown).


They met Mickey and Minnie again later. They met Fairy Godmother, Alice in Wonderland, The Mad Hatter. They also met a lot of princesses. They even met Silvermist, Tinkerbell and Terrence, there was a little drama while waiting in line but we survived.



We had so much fun in Disneyland! We were very tired, but it was worth it.

Day 3 (Thursday)
We spent Thursday in California Adventure. Most of us had never been there, needless to say we were all really excited. The girls were especially excited since we had reservations to eat at Ariel's Grotto and meet all the princesses. It's a little pricey, but totally worth it. The food was great and the time the girls had with the princesses was awesome. They had all the kids get up from all the surrounding tables and learn a princess dance. Then the princesses came out and stopped by every table to talk to the kids, take pictures and sign autographs. The girls loved every minute.


After eating, we headed straight to Califoria Screamin, which was awesome. Then over to Toy Story Mania (which is similar to Buzz Blasters in Disneyland), which was also awesome. The kids rode the carousel. We rode Soarin' Over California, Monsters' Inc. and tons of other rides that I can't remember. But my very favorite ride of the whole trip was The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. It was so awesome, I screamed like a maniac but it was worth it.

We played in A Bug's Land. The kids loved it. They spent the whole time playing in the splash pad area. Then we moved farther into Bug's Land to ride some rides, but we found another splash pad area and spent the rest of the time there. No rides, we'll just have to ride them next time.


The kids met more characters: Jessie and an Army guy, Pluto, Chip'N'Dale, Mr. Incredible, Lightning McQueen, and Mator.


That night we quickly spent some time in one of the gift shops. Naomi used her money she had been earning from doing chores and got a deluxe Princess and the Frog figurine set. I got the Mr. Potatohead Disney accessories. I think this will be my new tradition when we visit Disneyland, to get more Mr. Potatohead pieces. They are super cute and Naomi loves them too. After a little shopping we quickly got dinner then headed back for the "World of Color" show. It was amazing. The water, the images, the music was spectacular. The kids loved it, we loved it. It was a great way to end a great day.


Day 4 (Friday)
Friday was our beach day. We all woke up got ready to take family pictures at Huntington Beach. We found some lady on the pier to take our picture. We chose her because she was holding a huge camera and taking pictures herself, we figured she knew what she was doing. And she did a great job, we found out she was there taking pictures of her son doing a Triathlon and that she was LDS.


After pictures, we hurry and got lunch and headed to Bolsa Chica beach because Huntington Beach was too crowded. It was windy and chilly, but that didn't stop Cory or my brother-in-law Brett from jumping into the ocean. They convinced my little brother and me to jump in to. It was so cold it took my breath away, so I decided I would play in the sand with Naomi and my nieces. I tried to help my niece, Maddie, build a sandcastle but I found out I'm not very good at it. Later Cory and Brett came up and made sandcastles with the girls.


After sandcastle building and destroying, they decided they should jump back in the ocean one more time. Maybe not the best idea, since Cory came out of the water bleeding and thinking a fish bit him. It wasn't too bad but my dad and I decided to go to the lifeguard tower to get a bandaid. Well lifeguard Scott told us it wasn't a fish, it was a sting ray. Yes, you read that right a sting ray. He came over and checked out Cory's foot. Luckily the sting ray only got grazed, so they lifeguard cleaned it off and put a band aid on it.


Cory wasn't in any pain, so they lifeguard told him if it started throbbing to soak it in hot water and left. We cleaned up all of our stuff and left to go see the house where my dad grew up (it was only a mile away from Disneyland and our hotel). We had a half hour drive back and Cory figured he'd be fine so he drove since the sting was in his left foot and not his driving foot. Shortly after leaving, Cory's foot started throbbing. You wouldn't think that a little scratch from a sting ray would be that bad, but oh it was. Cory was in so much pain, I hadn't seen him like that since we were first married and he had to have a minor surgery. He didn't think that a sting from a sting ray was this painful. By the time we got back to the hotel his foot wasn't throbbing as bad (still painful) but it was super swollen. As soon as we got to the hotel, Cory hobbled to the room and filled the tub with super hot water and stuck his foot in. He said the pain immediately went away and the swelling went down.

Even though Cory got injured at the beach we had a fun day!

We had so much fun seeing my sister, Jen, her hubby Ryan, and her 5 daughters, my sister Hope and her hubby Brett, my brother Brad, and my parents.

On the drive home, Naomi said she wanted to visit Grandma Dorie at home. I told her we couldn't go to Utah. And Naomi said, "No, grandma lives in Disneyland." She is so funny. I know Naomi loved it.

Thanks Grandma Dorie and Papa Steve for planning such a fun trip!

Dresser Before and After

So here is the dresser, in it's original form.

I was really nervous to re-paint this dresser, that I put it off for a couple of weeks. After some research I found the best and fastest way to repaint would be to first use deglosser, then paint a couple of coats. Deglosser worked great and was way easier than having to sand it.

Here is the finished product.

I like how it turned out. But I'm still undecided about the handles. For right now they will stay silver, but maybe I'll paint them black or white or pink. What do you think?

That's Gonna Leave a Mark

Naomi loves to run, and when she runs she leads with her head. So when she falls guess what hits the ground first?

look at the awful bump, if you look at the bump closely you can see a scar from another time when she fell and hit her head

So this is how it happened. Last night Naomi and her friend Caleb Collinwood were having a pillow fight. Well Naomi came running into the kitchen with a pillow that was taller than she was, she tripped and cracked her head on the tile. It was awful to watch. I just held her while she cried and when she was ready we iced it for a little bit. She doesn't like it at first, but then got to eat some ice too so she was happy.

look at how much it is sticking out

Today it was hardly noticeable, just a bruise mostly. When we were grocery shopping today Naomi was bouncing and skipping around and of course she falls and hits her head again. Luckily it wasn't tile so it wasn't as bad.

I think she got my accident-prone genes.

House Guests

Last week my best friend Kelly and her family came to visit us from Utah. We had a lot of fun, but it was too short. We went swimming in our neighborhood pool, ate good food and good desserts, played at our house, went to Tempe Beach Park, and rode on the carousel.

Naomi playing with Faith.

Here Kelly and I are standing with Naomi and Kira. Kira didn't like the park too much.

Naomi loved riding the hopping bunny.

We had so much fun! The girls played well together. Can't wait until they come visit again.

3rd of July

I call this post the 3rd of July because that's when we celebrated the 4th, since on the 4th we were driving home. But it was a fun weekend. We spent the weekend in Colorado with Cory's family. We ate Grandma's cookies, ate at good restaurants, played games with Grandma, and hung out with all the cousins. Naomi had so much fun. Here is what we did on the 3rd of July.

We went to the Blanding Parade with the whole Crowley crew (this is everyone minus a few people). We had really good seats and we were near the beginning of the parade, so we didn't have to wait long.

Here's Naomi sitting with her bag waiting for the parade to start so she can get some candy.
These are the F-16s that flew over us, twice.
Here they are collecting the candy. The older cousins were helping the little cousins collect candy.

This tractor thing is called the Big 4. Grandad was excited to see it because last year they couldn't get it started before the parade so it was pulled on a trailer but this year it ran on it's own.

Here Naomi is showing Grandma all the candy she's gotten so far.

We saw lots of horses.

This guys was showing off his whip skills, but he also got the horse next to him.

It was a pretty good parade, and Naomi and all the kids ended up with way too much candy.

It was a fun trip, but too short.

June Recap

June was a fun month, but it went by so fast. So here is a recap of how June went.

Swimming lessons was fun and Naomi became a little fish. But if you call her that she says, "I'm not a fish, I'm Naomi!"

Naomi floating like Snow White (that's what her swim teacher called it).

Naomi was the example to the other three kids of how to jump in. Naomi is swimming to the steps in the pool, with a little help from her teacher. She did awesome!

Went out to lunch with Daddy.

We've played with my nephew, Brennan.

This is Naomi at 3 months, can't believe she was once as little as Brennan. They don't like identical like their daddy's, but there are some similarities.

We also started a countdown to Disney Trip. I think we started counting down at 36 days.

So on each link is an activity we can do to help us get ready for Disney. Here are some of the activities we've done.

Princess Party (done this one a few times)

In this picture Naomi is fighting the "bad girl" (that's what she called the imaginary bad guy).

Then she died :(

Then Prince Woody saved her.

Painted pictures of Princesses and Tinkerbell

I also worked on a couple projects. I repainted a dresser (pictures coming soon). And I re-finished Naomi's letters'.

So that's what we did in June.