Beautiful Day in Arizona!

It has been so gorgeous outside ALL DAY LONG! I couldn't help but snap a shot of the mountains tonight. They are soooooooo purple, and the clouds are amazing!

Fun Doing Scrappin'

I found a few minutes last night to do some scrapbook pages. Here's what I came up with...

I just love this whole digital scrapbooking thing. It's easy, it takes like only a couple minutes, and it's practically free!

Let me know if any of you are interested in learning how to do digi-scrapping. I'd be happy to show you a few know hows and pointers :)

Tate's a Star

My Mom bought Tate this little V-Tech Piano at a Garage Sale for $3 (What a Deal) and he love it so much. He's learning to play songs on it and it's pretty easy to follow since you just play the notes that light up. I want him to learn to play with 5 fingers instead of just playing with which ever finger is easiest, but I guess I need to remember that he's only 3! Tate's favorite part about playing is that at the end of the song it will say, "You're a Star". He always smiles and blushes when he hears that!

Can you tell what song he's playing?

Family History Memory Game

This is what I have planned as a game for Family Home Evening...
I printed up two of every card, and they each have the name of the ancestor and how they are related to Tate. We are just going to play the basic "Memory Game" with matching up the two that are the same. I'm hoping that he can learn who everyone is... I only went up to his Great Great Grandparents, and this is only my side of the family. I'm planning on doing Bryan's side soon.

Pay it Forward Winners

Okay, the lucky winners to this game are...

Numbers 3, 5 & 4!!! That would be Amy Griner, Kristy Jamieson, and Heather Frazier. I used Random.org to choose the comment numbers, so NO I DIDN'T JUST PICK MY FAVORITE PEOPLE TO WIN!

I love you all!!!

I have NO IDEA what I'm going to make you yet, but I promise I won't take FOREVER. I'll try and get with you soon :)

Learning to Climb the Spider Web...

Climb Tate-You Can Do It!
That's good, now pull yourself up.
You made it-Horray!
Now we just need to practice climbing back down!!!

New Calling = Practice Time

I love hearing Bryan practice the piano, and now that he is the Elder's Quorum "Backup" Pianist-he has to practice ALL THE TIME because he never knows when he's going to be called on to play!

Picture Backup

We had a big scare recently with our computer.

It ALMOST crashed and we could have LOST ALL OF OUR FAMILY PICTURES along with everything else!

So, I asked a friend how she went about backing up all of her pictures. Here's what she said...

1. Organize all of your pictures on your computer under folders-2006, 2007, 2008, etc. From there create sub-categories of every month- January, February, March, etc. Rename each picture to explain facts- who's in it, where is it, etc.

2. Backup pictures onto CD's-if possible one CD per year. ( I had a ton of pictures, so I used about 1 CD per 2 or 3 months). Lable CD's and place in handy little case.

So I did it-finally! I have to admit, it took me several months to "catch up", seeing as I was majorly disorganized. But now, I don't have to worry about my computer crashing and losing my pictures. And plus, it's really nice to be able to take my pictures with me when I need them!

Oriental Salad

I'm working on making a cookbook with lots of pictures, and I'm so excited about it! Here is one of my favorite salad recipes...

Ingredients:

1/2 Head Green Cabbage
1/2 Head Red Cabbage
4 Long Green Onions, thinly sliced
4 Tbsp. Slivered Almonds
4 Tbsp. Sunflower Seeds
1 Pkg. Top Ramen Noodles (Smashed without Seasoning)

4 Shredded Chicken Breasts (optional)

Dressing:

½ C. Sugar
1 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Pepper
1 C. Vegetable Oil
¾ C. Seasoned Rice Vinegar

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together, except dressing. Add dressing shortly before serving.

Pay it Forward Game

I'm so HAPPY because...

I just won a "Pay it Forward" contest on my friend Kylie's blog. I seriously never win anything so this is very EXCITING FOR ME!

Do you want to play?

Here's how it works, it's easy and fun:

1. Make a comment on my blog, and I will pick three random winners in a few days


2. I will deliver/mail something homemade and wonderful to the winners


3. If you are one of the lucky winners, please post this on your blog to keep it going!

Come On, Come On... You know you want to play!!!

Rub a Dub Dub-Tate's in the Tub

Tate's learning to wash his own hair!

Get it Wet
Put Shampoo In Lather (very quickly)
Try and get it all out
All Done!

James is Home!

We ALL ARE EXCITED, not just my Mom...

Congratulations James on serving such a great mission in Chile! We missed you A LOT!!!

Fun with Grandpa Great

Tate loves going over to Grandma and Grandpa Bloomfield's house...
Especially when Grandpa lets him try on his oxygen machine!

Oh what fun!

Family History Packages

I meant to post this earlier, but I'm just now getting around to it. Anyways, this is the gift that I gave to my family for Christmas this year. What is it you might ask? It's ALL of the pictures, life histories, PAF (Personal Ancestor Files), and other related material of my ancestors on CD's. I've been collecting and gathering material on my ancestors for years now, and I thought that this would be a good way to share these things with my family.

FRONT COVER BACK COVER
INDEX OF FAMILY HISTORY PACKAGE
CD'S INSIDE-THERE ARE 9 CD'S TOTAL
I bought the cases and inserts from POLYLINE a company located in California.

All of the CD'S are numbered, the idea is that when I update my files periodically then I can send a replacement CD-suggesting that they toss the old one and replace with the newer.

I'm pleased with the way they turned out.

Being Brave...

Have you all tried the Bertie Bott's (Every Flavor Beans) from Harry Potter? Here are SOME of the flavors.

Bryan despised the soap and rotten egg. As for me, I'd have to say the black pepper and sardine were pretty nasty! We haven't been brave enough to try the BOOGER OR VOMIT flavor ones yet!

Fun Crafty Weekend

Bryan finished the pool job that he's been working on in Gilbert, so he was home all weekend long. He was so nice to let me do my crafts, to do dishes and laundry, and to watch Tate. (I didn't even ask him to) I felt so spoiled!

I'm really just a copy cat when it comes to making crafts! If I see something cute, I can usually copy it pretty easily.

I stole both the 1st and 2nd project ideas Here.

I've been looking for a cute way of displaying Tate's handprints-canvas is perfect!

I've been wanting to copy Nie Nie with the sillouettes for such a long time, and I finally did it. Now I just need to frame them. I think that they turned out pretty good, amazingly they look like us.

Dual Climate Control- A MUST FOR US!

I'm ALWAYS cold, and Bryan's ALWAYS hot!!! Thank-goodness for Dual Climate Control in our truck. And thank goodness that we live in Arizona (at least for me)

Interview with Tate

1. Q: What's your favorite color?
A: Blue... & Pink

2. Q: What's your favorite ice-cream?
A: Um, chocolate; I like vanilla too, but I like chocolate too too!

3. Q: Where's your favorite place to go?
A: In the family room.

4. Q: What's your favorite thing to make with Mommy?
A: Cinnamon Rolls, no I mean donuts.

5. Q: Who's your girlfriend?
A: Anika

6. Q: What's your favorite toy?
A: My microphone

7. Q: What do you want to be when you grow up?
A: Um, a Daddy and a doctor

8. Q: Why a doctor?
A: So I can give people shots.

9. Q: What's your favorite sport?
A: Go to bed-that's my favorite sport.

10. Q: If you could buy anything in the whole world what would it be?
A: Chocolate milk

Hot & Cold Packs

Tate LOVES crafts almost as much as I do! Yesterday he asked me if we could make some bean bags. So, we did. But, they aren't just the ordinary throw-bean bags. We made one filled with rice and the other filled with beans. Now he has his very own hot and cold packs.

Tate was thrilled with his first sewing project! I had fun too

I'm Done!

I've been working for the past six months on writing a book of Tate's first year of life. And... I'm proud to say that I'm ALL FINISHED! You can preview it by clicking HERE. And, you can buy it by clicking HERE. I'm so excited to get mine, it's coming in the next 10-12 days!

Happy Day, Horray Horray!

I'm soooooooo excited BECAUSE... our neighbors gave us their home entertainment center (surround sound with 5 speakers and a sub woofer), and Bryan got it set up for us! It's awesome, we've been watching movies ever since!! So, now I just have to convince Bryan to heat our pool and we'll have a REALLY fun party at our house (food, swimming, games, wii, and lots lots more...) I think I'm going to need some help convincing him! But, doesn't it sound fun? I don't know why but I'm in the party mood!

A SUNBEAM A SUNBEAM-JESUS WANTS ME FOR A SUNBEAM...

Well, crazy enough my baby's a sunbeam! Sunday was his first time in primary, and he loved it.

Cute Story: During Sharing Time the primary president asked the children if anyone knew "where they lived before they came here". Tate raised his hand and answered, "I lived on Second Water Trail, and my phone number was 1645537836 (random numbers).

Our Christmas

Okay, I know I've been the biggest slacker with blogging lately! Really I don't have any excuses. Well, just so you all know... I'm back from my "blogging vacation!"

Just a little catch-up from the Holidays...

We had a wonderful Christmas! Santa was very good to us, and everyone else was very generous as well. Tate was totally into it this year which made it lots of fun!!! He loves his new scooter, and rides it just about all the time. My favorite gift that Tate got was a treasure chest with a lock and key that my Dad made for him. Tate likes it A LOT too!!!

We got a ton of really nice presents, here's just a few of them...

Tortilla-maker (I've already used it several times & the flour tortillas turned out great, I tried making corn tortillas once and that was a disaster, but I'm not giving up)

Pressure Cooker-Okay, I don't know what I ever did without one of these! It cuts cooking by 1/3 of the time!!!

Salad Spinner-I've already made more salads now that I have this.

I-POD- We've had lots of fun with this one as well!

Okay, so that's a brief overview of our totally spoiled rotten Christmas!