Go Diego Go!

To say that Anson LOVES Diego, is an understatement! He LOVES watching the show, he has a couple of Diego movies, plus he has Diego toys. Now he also has a Diego doll & dress-up outfit! He just got this tonight and absolutely could not wait to get it on! It consists of the pants, vest, backpack, telescope, and watch! He was so excited to run around looking like Diego! LOL :) I took these pictures and had to digi-scrap it right away!

Plaid paper, dots frame, & stich came from ShabbyPrincess

Yellow blocks paper & both grungy frames came from LemonaidLucy

Yellow & Red ribbons & yellow buttons came from TangieBaxter

Red ribbon frame & "Celebrate Life's Moments" came from DigitalScrapbookPlace
~Thanks for the cute scrapbook designs!

Screen Shots!

One of the coolest parts of Halo 3 is that you can go back and watch a recording of the level you just played in the game. Then, you can pause it, and take a picture (called a screen shot). So, here are some fun pictures we took. Now, we were playing multiplayer last night and told everyone to group together, so when we went back to see the footage, we could snap a group photo! I know...we're dorks, but it was fun!

Here is a picture of my character (Black Cat SIX is my gamertag)

I'm holding a detachable Gun Turret (machine gun) w/ a Gravity Hammer on my back!

Totally Awesome, huh?!

Here's one of Ben (w/ Rocket Launcher) and ME (w/ Hammer)

YES, I got him a few seconds later. ha ha

We're still getting everyone together.

And that's ME firing the gun turret (machine gun).

Ok, here's the best group photo:

L to R: Brian (Xx TERMINUS xX), Jason (CuBsFaN00), Ben (Beninator), Pat (Punisher Bump), Mark (DevilDriver 666), ME (Black Cat SIX), and Brad (rogue 122)

Ben just liked this one cuz it caught him in the air!

Everyone turned, but you can't see me cuz I'm in back.

So, there you have it! That's how we spent our FUN Friday Night...playing Halo 3, of course!

Pack Meeting & Girls Night

We had fun at pack meeting last night. Apparently, every time one of the cub scouts receives a Wolf Badge, they get to "lap up" some whipped cream that always has a hidden treat and everyone shouts "Woof! Woof!" while they eat it. Nathaniel had been looking forward to this wonderful tradition! He actually kind of took his time savoring every mouthful. He was pleased to find 2 mini candy bars. He's so funny!

(Background paper from ShabbyPrincess)

We are SO PROUD of Nathaniel for all his hard work and his achievements in the scouting program! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!

Nathaniel's also excited because my Dad (Grandpa Call) invited him to go on his ward campout... just the two of them. And they get to go fishing! Nathaniel can't wait for that because he even has his own fishing rod that he's bringing. I can just hear it now..."Grandpa, when are we going fishing?...Is it time to go fishing yet?...Can I get my fishing rod out, just to look at?...Grandpa, I love fishing!" He's such a silly boy!

Girls Night! Girls Night! Gotta Love the Girls Night Out! We went to R&R Pizza (Greenfield & Baseline) for dinner. Then we headed over to Janan's for treats, Halloween crafts & chatting. I had so much FUN! And we made some cute Halloween decorations. Well, I only made one, but I watched everyone else make more. ha ha. I have to buy some ribbon to finish it, then I will take a picture. I really enjoy being able to get out once a month to be with the Girls! We always have so much fun together & can talk about anything! It's so great! Being one of the "night owls" I didn't get home til 4:30am, just in time to wake up Ben to get ready for work. I only got to sleep for a couple hours then got up with the kids. So, yes, I'm tired today! But it's worth it!

WOOHOO!!!

Ben and I "Finished the Fight" on Tuesday evening! He went to GameStop w/ a friend to wait in line Monday night around 10pm. Halo 3 was being released at midnight. He came home around 12:30am with the game! We put it on immediately (I mean how could we go to bed w/o playing for a little while). We played til about 3:30am and went to bed around 4am. We had to get the kids up for school at 7:15am. Yikes we were tired! As soon as they left for school, we went back to bed for a couple hours. We started playing again just before the kids came home. Anson had fun hanging out with us while we played. He's a funny little guy! We had to start & stop a few times helping the kids with homework, phone calls, etc. Anyway, we finished the game around 7pm. Ben played more after dinner with his friends online. Yesterday we played a little while the kids were at school trying to find the "hidden" items. We found most of them. Ben and Nathaniel played together last night . They had a lot of fun!

We have also been working on our pool pump. The dang thing overheated or something from losing pressure, boiled the water in the pipes, and a big pipe melted! Of course, it's the part that connects several other pipes, so we had to get a new one of those plus other parts to connect everything. We did most of that on Monday, but we had to wait for all the glue to bond and setup. So, we finally turned it on Tuesday afternoon, seems to be working but still has lots of air in the system. We shocked the pool yesterday and ran the pump all evening (it hasn't been on in over 2 weeks, so the water is yucky green). This morning it's looking tons better. It usually takes a few days to 2 weeks to get the pool back to where it should be...blue & clear! It should be ready just about the time it's cooling off. Isn't that how it always works out? Oh well.

Ben went back to work today, so I can get back to my schedule. Nathaniel has a pack meeting tonight and will be receiving his Wolf badge, 1 gold arrow & 5 silver arrows! He was supposed to receive those back in May, but because the Scout shop had moved they didn't get the badges in time. So, now he finally gets what he's earned. WAY TO GO!!! He's been working hard on his scout stuff. He already has 3 parts (out of 12) done toward his Bear!

GIRLS NIGHT TONIGHT!!! YAY I always look forward to our girls' night out!

Gotta go get all my stuff done today!

HALO 3...Finish the Fight!

We are so stoked (yes, stoked) because HALO 3 (only for the XBOX 360) is releasing tonight at midnight!!!! We pre-ordered our Legendary copy at GameStop, so Ben is going to pick it up tonight! He has Tuesday & Wednesday off work, so we will be spending those 2 days playing co-op (that means both of us on the same team playing together at the same time)! Then we will play online with friends! Yes, it's true, I'm an online player with my own account (my hubby had to create my own online account cuz I wanted to use my own gamertag & earn my own points). It's just too much FUN!

(I got all these images from the Halo 3 official website.)

So, if I don't have a chance to blog tomorrow, you know where I'll be...playing games with my hubby! This is the BEST GAME EVER! Nathaniel is so jealous that he has to go to school while we play. ha ha :)

Another Scrapbook Page

I'm having too much FUN! I made another scrapbook page. The two pictures from my previous post I created using ACDSee Photo Editor (free 30-day trial offer). I also downloaded Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 (free 30-day trial offer). I thought photoshop was too slow on my computer, but I decided to give it another try. Plus, I couldn't figure out how to create my page w/o having to use pre-programmed templates. I wanted to create a custom page using my freebie pages I've downloaded. Anyway, I think I've got it figured out & here's the result:

(I got the paper, letters, & embellishments from ShabbyPrincess.)

I love, love, love all the wonderful background pages, letters, and embellishments that so many creative people have made! I also think it's awesome that they give some away for free (but that's also to get you totally hooked and want to buy more)! Well, it worked...I'm hooked! I think both programs have good features. I guess it also depends on what you really want to create and how much time you want to spend doing it.

Scrapbook Fun

I found a few digital scrapbooking websites and decided to give it a try. So, after downloading lots of freebie packages and 30-day trial programs, here are 2 of my creations:

(I got the paper & frame from www.tangiebaxter.com)

(I got the paper, ribbons & embellishments all from www.scrapbookflair.com)

I love scrapbooking, but I usually don't sit down & get it done. This was a lot of fun to create on the computer. It's easy to share them online or print if you want. I don't know if I'll use all my ink to print them, but they certainly look cute!

Ward Campout

At the end of August, our ward had a campout at Camp LoMia in Pine, AZ (yep-where they have girls' camp). It was so much FUN!

Ashley loves climbing trees (well, all the kids do).

Ben & Me

Nathaniel found this huge log & rolled it over to the campfire. He actually wanted to add it to the fire, but we told him to just set it next to it. ha ha! Always trying to be helpful.

Ashley, Ashlynn (friend), and Felicia

Alyssa (friend), Ashlynn (friend), and Felicia being SILLY!

Ben turned and kissed me at the last second when I snapped this picture!

Nathaniel & Ashlynn were the first ones back from the long kids' hike because they ran the whole way down! WAY TO GO!

Anson was having a blast exploring! (At night, lots of kids called this the "scary" bridge. ha ha)

Nathaniel found this awesome caterpillar. I looked it up online and it's called a "Pamina Moth" or Automeris pamina. We kept it & brought it home with us. He named it Mr. Big. It was about to cocoon but then died. If it would have lived, this is what it would've turned into:

Isn't it pretty? The kids were sad, especially Nathaniel, when Mr. Big died. We were looking forward to seeing it transform.

1st Picture...1st Day of School

Ok, I just wanted to see if I could upload a picture easily. This was the kid's first day of school.
Nathaniel (3rd grade), Anson (just turned 3 & stays home w/ Mom), Felicia (3rd grade), and Ashley (Kindergarten-all day). They were so excited! They LOVE school.

YAY! I Have a Blog!

Ok, so lots of my friends have blogs, and I enjoy checking them each day. So, I guess I should finally have one of my own. It took me a little while to figure out what I wanted it to look like, and I will probably change it periodically til I figure out how to get it looking cool like everyone else's. The main reason for my blog is to stay connected w/ family & friends, and hopefully re-connect with old friends or make new friends. I've already found some friends thru blog-hopping, which is fun and time consuming. I totally lose track of time when I'm on the computer. It just zooms right by me. Again, I've already lost tons of my morning just playing around with this blog thing, so I gotta go.