Another Year Older & Wiser

hahaha yeah right! JUST OLDER! I finally found my FIRST white hair a few months ago! YIKES!!! Although, I have yet to see it grow back {of course I plucked it for safe keeping}.

Ok now I have finally caught up with my dear OLD hubby!

His birthday was the week of Thanksgiving and now mine.

I tease him that he’s OLD, but then a month and a half later – I “catch up!” LOL

By the way, do you like my new playlist? Enjoy it while you can because it will only play TODAY!

{maybe if I give enough hints – hubby will get that cake for me! I’ve already printed the $3 off coupon & will be placing it where he can easily find it. heee heee}

**I also want to add a BIG “THANK YOU” to all who have sent kind, loving emails, cards, meals and donations to my Mom’s Fund. My family and I appreciate your thoughtfulness and generosity!

♥((BIG HUGS))♥

My sister, brother, uncle and I spoke {I was so nervous and it took me days to prepare for it} at my Mom’s service and a dear family friend sang several songs {he is so amazing} and it was beautiful. I’m so grateful that my brother and his wife were able to be here. I wish they could’ve stayed longer, but they needed to get back to their kids. Can’t wait til they can visit again this summer!

Mother's Day/Weekend

I had the BEST Mother's Day/Weekend this year!!!

The weekend started out with the boys leaving for the Father/Son campout. They had a few extra people with them - Ben's friend Trey & his son, My Dad & a neighbor friend.
See how excited they are to go on their camping trip?!

Nathaniel ALWAYS has a way of finding interesting things to bring home with him. This is a DEAD crawdad. He's pretending to eat it. He ran in the house & grabbed a measuring cup to fill with water. He wanted to boil it and EAT it! I said NO WAY!!! Eeeeewwwwww! Ben made him throw it away. Whew!

Here's my fave boys returning from their trip. No need to bring a change of clothes. LOL They had a BLAST!!! They also quickly became a HIT because they all brought AirSoft guns and played around. They shared so other boys could play too. They thought it was cool to shoot at the water in the nearby creek because the way it looked when it hit the water! Boys are too funny!

While the boys were away, I had bunko! I was in the 3-way tie for most wins or losses (can't remember which one) but in the roll-off, I didn't win. Oh well, I got this CUTE door prize! The kids thought it was funny.

My sweet niece, Chantel, spent the night so she could be with the girls while I was out that night. Ended up staying out til 3am. I was soooo tired in the morning. The girls had fun getting makeovers from my niece & watching Hotel for Dogs.

After Ben got cleaned up from camping, we got some pizza for the kids. Then we snuck away on a date. He took me to Chili's for dinner and we wanted to spend a little more time out, so we hopped over to the theater and got there just in time to see Star Trek. I'm totally NOT a trekkie, but it was pretty good, esp with the eye candy!

Sunday morning, the kids woke up & wished me Happy Mother's Day right away! Awwww what a nice way to wake up! Kids hugging & kissing me while I was still in bed. So sweet!!! Nathaniel asked me if I would make Belgian waffles. What??? He quickly corrected himself, Ummm Dad can you make pancakes? That's more like it. hahaha So, he did. Ben makes the most delicious pancakes!

We got ready for church and the kids hardly fought. YAY!! What a nice morning! Ben took this pic right after church! I just told the kids to come stand by me but they immediately squeezed me with big hugs! {I almost fell over from all the love♥}

I love all my sweet munchkins that make me a MOM! They can definitely drive me crazy sometimes, but I wouldn't trade any of them! I couldn't imagine my life without them! They give me so many hugs & kisses every day, I love it!!!!

These are the fun & lovey dovey cards I got from my darling kids & Ben!

Ben loves putting my card in a place where I will find it {I do the same thing - it's fun}. Who doesn't love surprises? He usually places my card on my vanity or pillow so I will find it when I'm getting dressed. This year, I found it on my keyboard {yep I snuck in to check my email after breakfast - tee hee}. He's a sneaky one!

Ashley's card was sooo cute! She made it at school and inside it says all the things she loves about me! Awwww. She also made me a "diamond" necklace! I wore my pretty diamond to church. She was so happy!

Inside the card:

I like being with my mom most when going swimming with her.

If I could give my mom something special just from me, it would be some flowers.

It really bugs my mom when ask her if I can play. {she means begging for xbox or computer time}

My mom helps me most when she helps me make my bed.

My favorite thing about my mom is she makes dinner for me.

One of my mom's favorite places is the snow. {ummm this one is questionnable. not a huge fan of cold, but do like to play in the snow like one day a year}

My mom likes to go out to dinner.

My mom looks prettiest when she puts makeup on. {at least she can appreciate my hard work 'trying' to look pretty - LOL}

My mom is special because she's kind to me.

I like it when my mom tucks me in to bed.

My mom's favorite food is chinese food. {yep that's one of my top faves, it's a close tie with Mexican & Italian}

If my mom could have anything she wanted, she would probably have 4 children. {she said she put that answer because we already have 4 kids}

At church, all the primary kids got up in Sacrament meeting to sing a couple songs for the Moms. This is one of my favorite times at church! Even if they're not singing or don't remember the words, the fact that they get up there and smile back at me - awwwww just melts my heart!

The talks during Sacrament meeting were Awesome!! Especially Jaime's talk all about being a Mom! You Rock Jaime!!!

They got subs for us in primary, so we could go to Relief Society. It was AMAZING being with all the wonderful ladies and the lesson was incredible!

The kids also made these cute cards at church:

Ashley & Anson made some too, but they were cards that you wrote something inside about your Mom. Ashley said she likes that I have brown hair just like her. Then she drew a picture of me, I think with blue hair & brown eyes! heee heee

Oh my goodness! They totally spoiled us at church! Not only did we get the sweet cards from the kids, but this is what they gave all of us too. A super delicious cookie from Sweet Cakes {a family in our ward owns it}, caramel/chocolate dipped pretzel, primary cookbook {kids wrote the recipes with the 'real' recipe attached, bookmark & sweet quote to hang on fridge.

Ok, so I broke my almost 2 weeks of 'no treats' diet and had a couple bites of the cookie & pretzel. Shared the rest with the fam. Could you resist those?

After church, we went to visit Ben's Mom. Ben picked out an apple scented flameless candle (takes batteries) & cute mug {both from Real Deals} for his mom.

She loved them both!
Ben & his Mom

Ben made fabulous BBQ Chicken & baked potatoes for dinner. My parents came by {and brought yummy fresh corn on the cob already cooked & hot for us to have with our dinner} and I gave my Mom her gift.

I found the delicious White Cheddar popcorn seasoning {she loves getting this topping at Harkins movie theaters}, white & yellow popcorn kernels, popcorn bowl & $15 GC for Hollywood Video.

ME & my Mom

I love my Mom so much! She is the BESTEST Mom!!! Thank you Mom for always being there & all that you have taught me!

It was a fantastic weekend! Hope you had a good one too!

CONGRATULATIONS!!

I used http://www.random.org/ to select the winner of my Blog Birthday Surprise!


#47 Janan
Janan said...
Kaiya's
September 22, 2008 3:23 PM


{I know her comment doesn't make sense because it's one of MANY! hahaha}


I was excited to have so many comments that I decided to pick 2 more winners!
Janan had posted SO MANY comments (luv ya) that when I counted out the comments, it was JANAN again! LOL I had to keep hit the AGAIN button twice on Random.org to get these winners:


#22 Julie
Crazymamaof6 said...
So GNO this week!are you excited?i totally am... i guess.yes i am . i love a night out.it's been too dang long.
September 21, 2008 11:56 PM


#4 Charlie
charlie said...
Happy Birthday to your blog..Happy birthday to your blog..and I hope(as its one of my favs) there are many more!!!!!!!!!!mwahhhhhhh
September 21, 2008 3:30 PM

Charlie, I need your mailing address. You can email me at andreadickinson [at] yahoo [dot] com so I can get your gift to you!

THANK YOU for all the WONDERFUL comments!!!! I feel SO LOVED!!! Those of you who were posting more than one comment were cracking me up!!! LOVE YOU ALL!! :)

I wanted to post pics of your surprise, but Blogger won't let me right now. UGH! I'll have to come back and try later!

Happy Birthday Bloggy!!!

{photo from PinkCakeBox}

TODAY my blog is ONE YEAR OLD!!! wow!
{isn't that the prettiest cake? when I saw it I just had to show it off}

I want to THANK Julie for inspiring me to start my own blog! I just LOVE reading her blog daily! Mine is not nearly as fun & interesting & exciting as hers, but that's OK. I have accepted that she is WAY cooler than I am. LOL

I also want to THANK all my blog friends & real friends that read and comment on my blog! I just LOVE comments! You all make me feel so SPECIAL! And I LOVE reading all your blogs! I LOVE the laughs, sad times, good times & hard times that y'all have shared!

To CELEBRATE this great year of blogging by keeping in touch with friends, making new friends & learning new things, I'd like to host a GIVEAWAY!!! YAY!!!

Yep, you heard me...
it's my BLOG BIRTHDAY
and
YOU
get a PRESENT!!!

I'm going to keep it a surprise, but when I pick a winner, then I'll show you what you've won!

{oh and sorry but it's not Halloween related}

It's just a little sumthin I saw and thought it was cute to share!

Now here's how to enter:
LEAVE A COMMENT on this post!!!
Simple, huh?

Leave as many comments as you like and I'll randomly pick a winner!
{you don't have to have a blog to enter,
but if you don't have a blog please leave me your email address}

So, if you've read my blog & never commented, now is the time to introduce yourself! I LOVE making new friends!!

Hmmmm I think I'll end it on Wednesday at midnight!
(that's September 24th)

Now go on...leave me some LUV :)

Crazy Hair Day & I'm So Thankful...

The kids told me today is CrAzY hAiR day at school. So, even though we woke up late, I hurried to give them weird hair (or at least weird for them). Here's what we came up with:

Nathaniel's spikey mohawk

Felicia has 6 ponytails

Well, to be honest, we were running out of time, so
Ashley just has 2 ponytails that stick out


They were still pretty excited about their wacky hairdo's !

I haven't done my "thankfuls" for a couple days. Well, I guess you could say that by posting our fun family pictures...I'm thankful for my digital camera! It's not top of the line but it's also not bottom of the barrel...it's just RIGHT!! I love it! I love taking pictures - I don't claim to be the best photographer, but I think my pics turn out pretty good. And if I didn't take pictures all the time, no one else would. I enjoy documenting our family life with pictures!

So, here's another "thankful" for today! Using my wonderful camera, I took pictures of our lawn to see how it would do. To be honest, I wasn't sure our winter lawn would actually grow. I was hoping, but also trying to be ready for disappointment just in case it didn't grow the way I wanted. Remember, we've never put in a winter lawn before, but to my surprise it actually grew! YAY!! I'm so thankful for our winter grass that grew right before my eyes! (Oh and I'm thankful for all the water we have so that it could grow!)

Here's our lawn just 5 days after seeding

(it's kinda hard to see, but there are tons of green sprouts)

And now here's our lawn this morning! (just 10 days after all our hard work) I think it's gorgeous!! Yes, it has a few bald patches, but for the most part, it's a thick lush lawn! Apparently, we need to get a little more seed to fill in the "not-so-lush" areas. (our neighbor gave us that handy tip that we had no clue about) Our backyard is filling in also, but not quite as great as the front. Probably cuz we didn't really prep the backyard, we just threw the seed out there and a little fertilizer that was left. So, actually, it's doing pretty good considering we didn't put much effort into it.

My NEW Computer

...IS TOTALLY AWESOME!!!


Ben worked on my computer this weekend...installing all the new parts (motherboard, processor, extra large fan, memory, video card & 2 large hard drives), then installing windows, new anti-virus program, all my "must-have" programs and all my backup files. Now it is finally running very smoothly and super fast! YAY!!! So, I just had to try out Photoshop to see how much better it works w/ all my new super cool stuff. WOW! It's so great! THANK YOU THANK YOU my dear hubby for all the work and time you spent on my computer!! I just can't say it enough...You're THE Best!!! I LOVE my new computer!!

Anyway, here's the new layout I created w/ my smokin' hot computer!

Credits HERE

My Boys

Our family would not be complete without our BOYS - Nathaniel & Anson!!

I love our girls, but our boys definitely help even out the drama (by not having much of it). They are SUPER!!

When Nathaniel was a baby, I called him "my little sweetpea" and Ben would call him "chicken wing" for some odd reason. LOL :) He was definitely the CUTEST baby! And talk about CUDDLY!!! YAY! I love to cuddle. We would fall asleep on the couch together for the longest time in the early morning hours. He is still my big HUGGER and tells me all the time how much he LOVES me and how I'm the BEST Mom!! How can I resist his charming ways? I can't! He's a great helper, smart, talented, kind, loves the bugs and outdoors, energetic, good worker and super fast, so sweet, very loving and adorable! (<- oops I mean Handsome.) He's also incredibly good at video games, since a very young age. He can totally work the electronics and figure stuff out so easily, he's clever that way. He enjoys taking things apart and putting them back together. Which I don't mind, as long as it's not my stuff. ha ha. He has been a climber since before he could walk. Boy would that get him into trouble! He was a major handful once he could climb & walk/run! It didn't help that his sister was only a year younger and wanted to do everything he did. I can't believe he's 9. I told Ben the other day that he's already half-way to 18. Oh my gosh! I don't want him to age another day, stay young and sweet forever!

Credits HERE

Then, there's my happy little Anson. Oh how I love that he's small (not petite just small). He is the cutest little thing! He thinks he IS Diego (you know, Dora's cousin or something). He just cracks me up! He is SO Funny! His little nickname is "Bubbers" or just "Bub." Don't ask me how he got that, I'm not really sure. That's what we call him sometimes and he answers cuz he's used to it. At least it's not "Bug" cuz I knew a family growing up that called their littlest one that. ha ha. My "little man" is also a sweet little cuddly bear. He gives me hugs and kisses when I tell him I need some love. And he's becoming quite the little helper. He's at that stage where he's trying to do everything by himself for himself. So, sometimes it gets difficult for him because all my other little helpers want to help him. They're being so nice, but I have to remind them that sometimes he doesn't want their help. And he can definitely throw a fit once in a while, but thank goodness he's a cutie pie cuz I just can't be upset at him for long. He's 3 and growing, but I also want him to stay this age forever. I'm enjoying my kids so much! They're all at ages that are so FUN! (*again, they can all be major pains in the rear end, but for the most part they are pleasant)

Credits HERE

Nathaniel and Anson, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!

My Girls

I am so Thankful for my GIRLS - Felicia and Ashley!!

Felicia is my little mom and super duper helper! When she was little, her nickname was "FiFi" (pronounced FeeFee). She was so cute that sometimes we would call her "Miss FiFi" and she loved it! So, she went into nursery at church (at 18mos) being called FiFi but seemed to outgrow the nickname by the time she was 3. She loves to paint, write me little notes, help cook, sing (esp karaoke), and dance (in her room when she thinks no one is looking).

Ashley is our "Little Bunny" or just "Bunny" well that's her nickname, but we call her that almost all the time. She seems to like it. She's always had a little 'bounce' in her step and she's such a cutie pie. She definitely has her own style and stubborn attitude.

They are so cute, sweet, lovable, cuddly, smart, funny, helpful, grateful, creative, talented, and growing up way TOO fast! I can't believe they're already 8 and 5. I remember when they were born, seems not THAT long ago! Well, I could go on forever about how fun they are, but I will spare you. Anyway, I created a layout using the pictures we were trying to take on Sunday after church. We were in our front yard just enjoying the nice weather and beautiful sunset. So, I decided to try and take our picture together, plus Ashley was wearing the craziest outfit and her new boots. She loves her boots and wants to wear them with everything (and I mean everything). At least she looks darling wearing them, so she can get away with it, for now. LOL! Felicia has new boots, too, but seems to be a little more conservative with them. ha ha :)

I LOVE YOU, MY SWEET ANGELS!!!

Credits HERE

I'm Thankful For...

MY HUBBY!!! He's so Awesome!!! He's the Bestest husband I could ever ask for!

Why?

1. He's my BEST FRIEND

2. He's HOT (I mean, who can resist Spider-Man??)

3. He's FUNNY and always makes me LAUGH (that's very important to me)

4. He's a ton of FUN to be around

5. He's a great DAD (the kids totally adore him)

6. He LOVES his Family
(pics-Ben w/ his sisters & Mom, Us @ Mesa Temple Visitor's Center)

7. He's very HANDY (he can fix tons of stuff! he's also great at construction-he did most of the remodeling on our house himself, with the help of my Dad.)
(pics-our kitchen before we bought the house, Ben doing demo, our kitchen Now)
Incredible, huh?!

8. He HELPS around the house when I ask for it, including helping the kids with whatever they need help with (baths, getting dressed, band-aids, homework, listening, etc)
9. He can be very SPIRITUAL, when he wants to be (pic-Nathaniel's Baptism)

10. He is an excellent LEADER

11. He let me FRENCH-BRAID his hair when it was longer last year (isn't he the cutest?)


12. He is always willing to HELP and SERVE others

13. He ROCKS at Karaoke on the XBOX (he can pretty much sing any song - boy or girl parts- cuz he's great at mimicking and doing impressions)

14. He's an ok SPORT about me kicking his butt on fighting games on the XBOX 360 (tee hee)
*ok to save his rep, I'll add that he's way better than I am at Gears of War and Halo3 online (I do good in co-op, but online, well I get killed way more than I do the killing).


15. He hasn't gotten UPSET at me when I haven't wanted to cook dinner for the past few weeks. Normally, I love to cook, but for some reason, I haven't been in the mood to cook or plan what to make for dinner. So, we've had super-quick-easy meals (like quesadillas, nachos, cannery beef stew, cannery chicken & rice, pasta w/ sauce from a jar, etc) or some take-out lately.

16. He's building me a NEW COMPUTER because I asked him to (well, it's my early-Christmas AND Birthday present) and I got to pick all the parts that go in it!!! YAY!!! We're talking HUGE harddrives so I can continue to digi-scrap! :) Woohoo!!

Ok, I could go on and on and on, but I'll stop now.


Ben, Thanks for ALWAYS being there for me and LOVING me so much!!! I LOVE YOU OODLES & GOBS!

(Ok, I admit, I got the idea for listing what I'm grateful for during the month of November from Kristy & Julie. It's a good idea, so yes, I'm being a copycat. Oh well. I needed an idea and theirs is good!) I also had tons of fun finding some old and recent pictures of Ben to add to my post!