From Ashton's Mouth

Yay! It's Wednesday again. I am loving letting all of you hear what my silly kids say. Visit http://familyamericanstyle.blogspot.com/2009/07/what-keeps-us-ticking.html to hear from other funny kiddos!

Last weekend we took a little stay-cation. On Saturday we went downtown and got to ride the train. The boys thought this was the best part!

Even Miss Daisy enjoyed the train.

We went to the Phoenix Museum of Science and had a blast checking out all the displays and we watched a really cool 3D Shark Movie!

They even had a lego display and the kids got to dress up as princes, knights and princess and play around in the lego castle.

Saturday night on our way to dinner, Ashton wasn't feeling well. He said "Mom, I think I'm home sick."

We got to eat at some fun restaurants and we brought home a bunch of plastic kids cups!

When we were getting ready to head home, Donn told the kids "Say goodbye to the hotel room."

Ashton said

"Goodbye room, we will miss you!"

He was sad to leave! When we got home he said

"Mom, I think I'm hotel-sick!"

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Today was the first day of school. The house is very quiet today which is helpful during nap time, but I had just gotten used to having them all at home and now I have to get used to them being gone!

Lily has been a little worried about school because none of her close friends are in her class. I've been a little worried too! This morning she said "I am going to make so many new friends because I don't know anyone in my class!" She certainly has a good attitude! So proud of her!

I have been agonizing over whether or not to put the boys in different classes this year. They have been together from the moment they were born, and I wondered if they might like a break. They have never been too dependent on each other. I decided to try different classes this year and we will see how it goes. This morning, after the bell rang, I hung out for a little bit to peek in to their classes and see how they were doing. Bailey was busy showing his teacher his tooth that fell out yesterday and Ashton was sitting at his desk, quietly chatting with new friends. Neither of them seemed to be having any problems being separated! Proud of these guys too!

Blog Hop - Favorite Kid Pics

Well, I have a FEW favorite pics of my kiddos! I had decided to pick two pics of each babe, but as I was searching for those, I came across some other shots that just couldn't be left out!

This is from one of our summer stay-cations. Ashton has his poolside beverage.

She was a drama queen even at this age! I set her in this chair to try to get a picture and she started bawling! One minute later, I sat down with her in the chair and she was ALL smiles!

One of the things I love about this picture, besides the darling girl with the huge piece of watermelon, is the background. My Mom's yard made an EXCELLENT backdrop!

Everyone wearing their hats that Grandma made.

Check out his chubby, dimpled hands. He was a little chubby once!

Poor little beat-up boy! His head always seems to be the most injured!

Doesn't Bailey just look so happy to be on his new bike? And you can see a little bit of curly hair!

A Little Photogenic!

My two guys on the way to their first day of preschool. They were not quite 3 yet. I'm not sure how I manged to say goodbye without completely losing it!

Funny Baby!
Miss Daisy's Cute Toes

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!



I used to glue bows to Lily's head ALL the time, but not so much with Daisy. I really like her glued-on bow and silly scrunched up smiley face!

Miss Daisy

My Baby is 11 months old! I know I say it all the time, but I really can't believe it's been almost a year since I had her. Time really flies way to fast when you're having too much fun! Daisy kept the flower on her head for about 1 second and sat in this chair for 2 seconds. I had time to get one shot. Pretty lucky shot!

Playin in the waterfall at Grandma's pool!

Daisy loves to sort the shapes in her little kitchen. Sometimes she tries to put shapes from other toys in to the kitchen sorter and when they don't fit she throws a fit! oh j/k! Not my Daisy!

Daisy tried her first chocolate chip cookie the other day. I think she loved every bite!

What My Munchkins Say!

I have tried to keep track of most of the hilarious things my kids do and say and now I can join with http://familyamericanstyle.blogspot.com/and share them with you on Wednesdays! We'll start with Lily:

Lily and I were playing at the park. She had just started being brave enough to go down the bigger slides. She tried a new one and I was waiting for her at the bottom. When she got there she said "Wow! That scared the HELP out of me!"

Here are some shots of Lily from 2005:

The O.C. Blog Hop - Carmel Corn & Easy Cheesecake

It's MckLinky Blog Hop time and this week is Favorite Recipes. I remember having this carmel corn when I was little but it has been a very long time since I've had it. My Mom surprised us with this for a 4th of July dessert. Holy Mackrell! I am pretty sure I ate more than anyone else! Enjoy!!

Kathy's Karmel Korn (chewy)

2 1/2 C brown sugar

1 sq real butter

1 can eaglebrand milk (sweetened condensed)

1c white karo syrup

Cook to 200degrees (very soft ball). Pour over popped corn (we used 3 bags of no-butter, no-salt microwave popcorn). Yum Yum Yummy!

I really love desserts. And the easier they are to make the better! Here is another one of my all time favorites.

Best Cheesecake

Make graham-cracker crust with real butter or buy pre-made crust.

Beat together:

1 8oz pkg soft cream cheese

1 can eagle brand milk

1/4 c fresh lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla

1 c sour cream

Fold in one small can drained crushed pineapple. Garnish with mandarine oranges. Refrigerate over night, if possible (if you can wait that long to eat it).

Who? How? Why?!!!

There is at least one advantage to being one year behind in my scrapbooking: It is much easier to find the comedy in this situation, NOW, than it was last year!

I was scanning through the pictures in my camera, when I came across some shots that I did not remember taking.

Was I sleep walking and taking pictures of the boys' messy room?

I am pretty sure that is a nightmare I would avoid even in my sleep!

And then, finally, a picture that put everything in to focus:

Oh Bailey! You know you are not supposed to touch my camera! However, it is very funny that you left this incriminating photo!

3 Things You May Not Know About Me - Blog Hop

1- I have an extra set of ribs. Most people have 12 sets of
ribs, but I have 13. They are short and squatty and totally__________(insert your favorite word here)
a. interesting
b. freak show-ish
c. lucky
d. gross
e. all of the above

2-My feet are claustrophobic! They do not like socks or shoes and they really hate tucked in bed covers! We cover ourselves with only a down-comforter at night, with easy escape routes for my feet! It's really great that it is warm enough here to wear sandals year round!!

3- I have a bit of Closet OCD. I like all the clothes to be organized in a certain way and almost every one's closets are organized differently. Lily and Daisy's clothes are organized by color. The boys' clothes are arranged by coordinating/matching outfits and my clothes are organized by the length of the sleeves. I have maybe 2 pairs of pants that need to be hung up, and I let Donn organize his own clothes! My Closet OCD is closely related to my Laundry OCD (certain items get hung up, others are folded in a very specific way)! **edited** Donn told me to add Proper Dish Placement in the Dishwasher OCD!

*Bonus* And here is one extra item you may not know about me: I have always wanted a Cozy Coupe!
Last week it was reported in the news that the Little Tykes cozy coupe was the most sold car in the US in 2008. It beat out the Honda Accord and the Toyota Camry! Well, I have wanted one of these cars since we had Lily (9years ago). For one reason or another, we never got one. We were looking at them just last week while trying to get some Birthday ideas for Miss Daisy. I thought they were kinda expensive and pretty much ruled out getting one. Then, the other night while Donn was out riding his bike, he saw a Cozy Coupe siting at the end of someones driveway along with a bunch of other garbage (foreclosed home :( ). He asked me if I wanted him to go back and get it. I said we should check it out and if it was in good condition we could keep it. Take a look at this:

I think it is in great condition! It is missing all of the stickers but it is hardly faded at all. I let the kids have a car wash and they cleaned it up. And I found out that I can order brand new stickers for it on the Little Tykes website! So we got our Cozy Coupe for $1.45 + shipping! I LOVE IT! I do have a bit of guilt that we never got one for the other kids because all of them have played with it every day since we got it!

I've been taking a free class at JessicaSprague.com on photo-editing and have been learning some fun new tricks! This is my most recent homework.

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Our 4th Festivities

We started our day at Grandma and Grandpa's. First some delicious breakfast sandwiches then a very refreshing swim.
Later that evening, everyone came over to our house for some pizza. Grandma made caramel corn. OH. MY. GOSH. I overdosed!! It was so yummy! Around 9pm we all camped out in our room to watch fireworks. There is a farm up the street from our house and they put on a really great fireworks show! The best part: we don't have to leave our house to have a perfect view! As soon as the fireworks are over we just toss the kids in bed!

As is tradition, I took pictures of the kids in their patriotic duds. The boys wore very fancy wife-beaters this year and Daisy wore one of Lily's old shirts. Cuties!

This is just a test.