Three is Better Than Two

Crochet

2012-01-29T19:00:00.000-08:00

Crochet. I kinda love to crochet. I haven't even known how to do if for a whole year. I love making cute things! Although I have never made anything for me or either one of my boys. I better do that. I have been throwing some ideas around of maybe an Elmo hat for Liam. My goal for this year is to make a little newborn hat for all of our family members (cousins included) that are having babies this year. I have one cousin having a boy and then Tony has 2 cousins that are both having boys.
These are the hats that I made this week. They are all going to Sewing For Babies. I feel so good about doing this. I only wish that I could see how cute the little babies look in their new hats.

Sewing For Babies

2012-01-25T15:47:00.000-08:00

So I joined this community service group called "Sewing For Babies." They make little hats, blankets, booties, clothes, and burial outfits for the little ones in the NICU at the hospital. They get together once a month to craft and then bring whatever they have finished throughout the month. I volunteered and am going to concentrate on making little hats and booties and maybe try some little gowns. I am excited to finally be involved in something and especially something so good. My sister-in-law had her baby very prematurely and I remember how much it meant for someone to donate a little pumpkin hat for him to wear in the hospital instead of the white little hospital clothes. It will also give me a good excuse to continue learning to crochet.

Swimming In January

2012-01-24T18:45:00.000-08:00

Yes it's true. We went swimming in an OUTDOOR pool in January. Tony's grandparents came for a visit so we went swimming at their hotel. I can honestly say that I love Tony's grandparents. They are awesome and you can tell that they genuinely love all of their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.

Living in the Desert

2012-01-24T18:37:00.000-08:00

Ok found a new feature on my camera that it can super zoom when in micro mode. Whoa! I was able to get some good close ups!
Which do you like better? The one with it's head turned? Btw it's a wood pecker

Grinding up some mesquite pods

Hummingbird taking a bath!

The Polar Express

2012-01-20T10:06:00.000-08:00

Forgot to add this video of our awesome trip on The Polar Express

Dad's party

2012-01-07T21:14:00.000-08:00

New Year's and Cowboy Liam

2012-01-07T20:55:00.000-08:00

We celebrated New Year's a day late due to Tony's work schedule. Boo I know. He had to work all of the holidays this year; Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year's Eve... ya no fun! So we had our neighbors come over and watch the firework show put on by Tony and Braden on our back patio.

For Christmas, Hannah got Liam so pretty awesome Woody pajamas and he wanted to rock the cowboy thing one night in his jammies, my hat, and his rocking horse.

Fishing

2012-01-07T20:52:00.000-08:00

Finally had a free day that we could take Liam out to use his new fishing pole that Santa brought.

Love that we have a place like this so close to our house. I just wish we had a little canoe or something to go in

My Blog Winnings

2012-01-07T20:50:00.000-08:00

I've been waiting for the last item to arrive in the mail. These are the things I won by entering blog giveaways. All within the same month. Ya I was pretty excited! I got a Bluray DVD combo pack of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" (never seen it, but hey it was free), some super cute earrings, and a reindeer shirt for Liam.

Crochet Newborn Hats

2012-01-01T21:13:00.000-08:00

For these little cuties ^, I made these cute little hats!

My cousin had some cute little twins right before Christmas and she asked me to make some matching hats for their newborn pics. Austin and Alexa are going to look so cute in them! I can't wait to see them wearing their hats!

Hopes

2012-01-01T11:02:00.000-08:00

Here's to hoping that 2012 brings another one of these cuties to our family!

Playing in the Snow

2011-12-30T21:41:00.000-08:00

Had lots of fun sledding!

How Liam felt about the snow when we first got there. He had just woken up from a nap so he was a little crab for a while, but he had a lot of fun when he woke up a little more.

My snowboarder

Tracy's House

2011-12-30T21:37:00.000-08:00

Liam loved the kitties. Too bad Mommy is super allergic

Liam got to shoot a rifle for the first time!

Played with Brooke's pony, Katie

Those darn farm girls wake up way too early! Oh well

Wow! What a hottie!

Mills Family Christmas

2011-12-30T21:33:00.000-08:00

Rob had an allergic reaction

Tanner practiced saying the prayer. He sat on the chair and folded his arms and yelled at Joshua to be quiet saying "PRAYER!" Adorable!

Emily

Tan the Man

Joshua

Everyone gathered watching Tina's Christmas DVD

Grandma got a snow globe

Lee Family Christmas

2011-12-30T21:24:00.000-08:00

Dad got a really fancy water proof camera. WATERPROOF is the key there. My dad has dropped several cameras in the water when fishing. ;)

Liam got a coon skin cap!

Ben and Saige

Grandma

Liam and Saige liked my new camping chair

Doug and Gavin.
It is so weird to me that I have a 14 year old nephew. WAY WEIRD!

Hannah and Sarah got matching jackets

Tracy, Mike and Emily

I made Ethan a hat and he decided to wear Gavin's beard too

OK so here's a story. When Hannah and I were teenagers we made a music video while my parents were out of town. He dressed up in different costumes and sang and danced to different types of music like 80's and rap then at the end our famous quote, "Aren't you glad we are who we are?" Well, this year as our Christmas gift we decided to do a remake and this is the family all gathered around watching it!

Our Little Family Christmas

2011-12-30T21:15:00.000-08:00

This year our Christmas plans were extraordinarily packed! I was dog sitting for a couple in Scottsdale from the Thursday before Christmas until the 26th, so Liam and I spent the nights out there. So we did our little family Christmas on the 24th instead. Above is the creepy urns with the couples previous Great Danes in them. Ya weird, I know.

Liam got a Cars 2 fishing pole! He is pretty excited about it! It came in a little backpack with sunglasses and a tackle box. He looks pretty snazzy!

Santa even dropped off some dog treats for the puppies!

Tony got me some new clothes! Thank goodness! I've been needing some and he did a great job shopping!

Tony got a new hat (which he loves and wears all the time) and some new sunglasses. So I had some pretty cool looking dudes to share my day with :)

This was Tony's big gift that I've had in my plans for a while. It took a little longer than I thought because I had to iron on the interfacing to the back of the shirts and cut them all to the right size to fit on the quilt. I should've measured a little better, but I really like how it turned out. This is made from Tony's high school and mission t-shirts. He can tell you the story of each shirt.

December Birthdays!

2011-12-30T21:11:00.000-08:00

My mom with her cutesy headband I made for her.

I love this picture!

For Tony's birthday, I got him tickets to go see "The Forgotten Carols." It was pretty amazing! It was great to have a date and even better to see this play! The day before we sat as a family and read the entire book and played the cd along as we read. It was so awesome!

Doug jammed on the guitar and Liam and Saige both loved it!
It is so fun having family so close

Pic Overload of Recent Events!

2011-12-17T21:09:00.001-08:00

Tony's dad works for the Yavapai-Apache Nation so we went to a tribal blessing of a structure that Tony's dad help get grants for. (He is grant writer for the Nation) I didn't know it was allowed, but this is picture of us and we are praying and blessing the structure; it was actually a ropes course for the youth camp. It was such a cool experience to be there. We were the only non-Native American people there and it was really cool to get an inside look into their culture. We first put dots of pollen onto our foreheads and shoulders before we prayed. It was very cool.

Liam got to sing with the Primary kids at the Ward Christmas Party

My parent's stake put on an amazing Christmas Nativity. They had a program and a live nativity with animals to pet. They also had a guided tour through the town of Bethlehem. Above is Liam asking if there was any room at the Inn.

A fish stand in Bethlehem

Chicks at the live Nativity

The donkeys

Liam got to buy a gift of gold to bring to the baby Jesus. This was such a well done production; it brought tears to my eyes just to think about actually being able to go through Bethlehem and buy a gift to bring to baby Jesus. I felt as if I was in Bethlehem. Special experience!

My parent's did a skit/song at the Relief Society meeting. My dad played and sang "Christmas Cookies" at least I think that's what it's called. My mom acted silently along side making real sugar cookies which she handed out afterwards. My parents are awesome!

We made gingerbread houses as a family. We had a decorating contest; Liam and Tony against me. I think I won since Liam pressed so hard to get the candies to stick that the house ended up caving in. Oh well, it was fun and we all ate some yummy candy.

Blessed

2011-12-11T17:25:00.000-08:00

I have been extremely blessed as of late. In the last week I have won 3 giveaways on a couple of the blogs that I follow. I won the bluray combo pack of Twas the Night Before Christmas. Just today I found out that I won some cute little grey rosebud earrings and a little reindeer outfit!!!! I am pretty excited! It feels so great to win things!!!! When I get them in the mail I will surely take pics

Hiking

2011-12-08T20:19:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week we went on a family hike. The top of the mountain overlooks the P.I.R. (Phoenix International Raceway) I thought it would be cool for Liam to see a real race track like "Ching Ing" or Lightning McQueen races on. It was really cool to see the vast desert that was behind it too.

This is one of our puppies, Missie Sue. She is suffering from pretty bad lupus and that's why her nose looks so scabby. She may not be with us too much longer, but she did surprisingly well on this hike.

Cormorant

Vulture

Most of the hike was a pretty steep incline, but we did okay.

Family Day Trip To Sedona

2011-11-30T10:28:00.000-08:00

We started the day off at a structural blessing with the Yavapai-Apache tribes. It was really cool! It is hard to see but if you look close you can still see the yellow pollen dot on Tony's forehead. It was very cool! Tony's dad works for the reservation and helped get grants to build a youth center so we were included in the ceremony.

The first thing we did in Sedona was go on a hike. I think we went on the Yavapai Vista trail just outside the city limits of Oak Creek Town.

Liam insisted on fishing every little puddle on the whole trail with his little fishing stick. Yes he is a man after his Papa's heart.

We walked around downtown Sedona and had lunch. Liam was just barely bigger than the geodes.

Look at that red dirt and the background.

Played in the leaves since we don't have any like this around our house.

Tried to take some artsy fartsy pictures. What do you think?

The real reason we took this trip. Someone besides Liam has an obsession with fishing :)

We went to the trout farm and fed the fish

Liam was so proud of himself because he caught a fishy (leaf) on the end of his fishing pole (stick)

Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T16:19:00.000-08:00

Mom's wonderful turkey. She did a really good job!

The kids table

My little turkey!

Turkey, oyster stuffing, roasted red potatoes, broccoli casserole, green bean casserole, rolls, deviled eggs, squash and apple casserole... See the turkey sandwiches in front of the turkey? Doug left right after dinner to go hunting and Dad is leaving later today or tomorrow to meet him. Hopefully they will bring home some meat this time!

The Holiday House

2011-11-23T18:14:00.000-08:00

This year my friend talked me into selling some of my things at a 2 day long craft fair called the Holiday House with her. It was a little crazy because I somewhat procrastinated making things until the last couple weeks before the event.
The first day of the Holiday House I had what I guess I would call a "panic or anxiety attack" and had to leave early. I literally made myself sick. It was so strange I could not control myself. I could not relax. Luckily I have an awesome friend who stayed at our booth and sold our things.
The next day I took it easy and came in in the early afternoon. I was much better the second day. I even got a massage while I was there.
We made a lot more money than I thought we would. $$$ :)
I still have mixed feelings about doing it next year because of my experience the first day. We shall see if I decide to do it again.
Also if you see anything that you like and want to order let me know.
We sold bow ties, beard beanies, chocolates, nativity sets, hair bows and flowers, and animal beanies.

A Day in the Life of a Boy

2011-11-23T18:13:00.000-08:00

Digging in the dirt

Getting super excited to see firemen on our street!

So tuckered out but still wearing fireman boots
:)
Life is great!

Family Get Togethers Get a Little Nuts

2011-11-23T18:08:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Rebecca's 11 birthday and instead of cake she got a tootsie roll with whipped cream. My mom is creative.

Liam and Saige holding hands

How to entertain a Toddler 101:
Turn Caillou on the lap top.

Visitors from Alabama

2011-11-23T18:03:00.000-08:00

Things are just the way they always were.
Uncle Gary still prefers to lay on the floor. I still feel like Aunt Linda and Uncle Gary love me as they always have even though it's been forever since I saw them last.

Ben and Maysa

For Jeremy's birthday we had pumpkin pie instead of cake. Oh it was good!

Aunt Linda and my mom played a game and switched the letters around on this little decoration to see how long it would take people to recognize it.

Christmas

2011-11-15T15:54:00.000-08:00

Christmas is going to be a little different for us this year.
Tony's new schedule with his promotion requires him to work both Christmas Eve and Christmas. Bummer I know.
Instead of the usual schedule of Christmas, Liam and I will be spending the nights in a nice home in North Scottsdale dog sitting while Tony is at work then celebrating Christmas after church on Christmas Day. Exciting! I am also getting a hefty paycheck which is much needed so it will be good.

Homemade pumpkin puree!

2011-11-13T20:14:00.000-08:00

Instead of paying however many bucks it is to get the pumpkin puree at the store I made my own with the pumpkins we already had. It was super easy and kind of fun. I just did what it said on my friends blog and viola!
http://kadydiddesigns.blogspot.com/2011/11/roasting-pumpkins.html
Instead of mashing it with a potato masher I just put it in my magic bullet! Simple as that!

(This was from one smallish pumpkin)

Veteran's Day

2011-11-11T14:17:00.000-08:00

No celebration is complete in Tolleson without the Mexican dancers. Also had the high school band come play for us.

Hot dogs, chips and soda

As we were waiting in line for our lunch a little boy came and gave Liam a little flag. Pretty much made his day!

Had a couple jets fly over. Liam thought that was pretty cool.

As the event finished up they were taking the balloons down so Liam scored a whole bunch!

Thank you to both of my Papas for serving our country and helping it become what it is today! Miss you Papa Lee!