Polar bears

My conversation while driving with Cadence a few days ago...

c: mom which of these bears do you like better (she was looking at a animal picture book)
me: i like the polar bear
c: why
me: because it looks soft and cuddly
c: (after a pause) i bet you won't say that when it starts growling at you
me: (with a giggle) i bet your right

:)

Bathroom redo...

I have been working on the guest bathroom on and off for this last week. I painted the cabinets probably last year with a bright color and put a grayish fabric on the fronts of the cabinets (forgot to take picture with old fabric on). The original cabinets were so dated, dark brown colored. I thought the bathroom could use a uplift at the time but I never liked the way it turned out...this last week I finally got the urge to redo it again. :)

Here is the before color.

And after...

I put a canvas type fabric on the fronts. The paint is more white and the fabric has more of the creme in it. It ties the colors in the counter tops together well.

I also never liked the really old huge vanity mirror and Dylan accidentally cracked the glass on the middle mirror a few months ago. So it was time for it to come down as well! Here is the before...

Once it was off the wall, I realized that someone at one point had a little built in vanity and there was a huge hole behind the current vanity.

I found a mirror that was the right size on Craigslist for $30. I liked the wood style but not the color (it was black and gold). So a good coat of spray paint took care of the color.

And it was still a little bland, so I put black glaze (thank you Drea for your leftovers :)) on the edges to help the wood detail pop out better.

Here is the final product on the wall!

I'm really happy with the way it all turned out. It was a easy way to give the bathroom a fresh new feel!

Alchemy Heart

Last night Israel had a show for his band, The Alchemy Heart.

We were super excited for him, it was a big show and had "real" tickets to get in! The picture above was taken when Mark and I were having dinner just before the show, talking about what a great opportunity this was for him.

These pictures are terrible of them playing but at least it captures a tiny bit of the evening. The show was at the Hard Rock Cafe and was packed full, 250 people! There were a couple promoters there that want to talk to him this week about future bookings when national bands come through. Such a great opportunity for him! His music is really really good...and I'm not just saying that because we are friends. :)

Alchemy is the pursuit of transforming common metals into valuable gold.
"It's how I feel sometimes, common with the desire to be valuable."
-Israel Whittemore

Summer Garden

I'm excited to be able to begin a fall garden soon, this summer everything died off except for a couple things. Above is sweet potato's. A gardener friend gave me little shoots and taught me how to plant, and they are doing great. I hope the actual potato looks as good as the leaves do!

I also have a nice pumpkin vine growing...but no pumpkins. I've had a bit of trouble with aphids on them so maybe that has something to do with it. I've had a few blooms but only male stems, no females (pumpkins need both to grow and I'll have to manually pollinate).

And I'm still getting a few eggs a day.
The girls defiently have slowed down with the heat.
~I'm ready for this hot, hot weather to be done~

Flower the Fish

If you look close enough in the bottom of the toilet you will see Flower our fish.

She has gone on to a better place. :)

The kids took it well, a bit bummed.

They asked if we could get another one soon...I guess we'll be making a trip to the pet store soon (maybe we'll leave with a dog! :))

Mark was hiking Camelback mountain when the dust storm rolled in last week. He took the picture from the top and quickly came down...but didn't beat the storm. He was blasted with dirt but thankfully was ok. :)

Easier with 1?

Yesterday was the first day (that I can remember) just having Isabelle without another kid being around. :)

One thing that I have always dreaded was grocery shopping with all the kids. It is honestly torture for me because I use coupons and so it takes me just a little bit longer. I thought that it would be a lot easier with just 1 along...but Isabelle is easily distracted as you can see from the above photo and she does not like sitting in the shopping cart!

Reminds me a lot of how Dylan was when he was little. Ok, maybe not quite as extreme as he was...at least she doesn't run away. :)

Overall it was much easier just having her...and it probably helped that I "bribed" her with a ring pop treat to eat while we did our shopping. :)

I'm excited to have time with just Isabelle while Cadence and Dylan are at school. I'm interested to see how different she is and what she will want to do without the help of her siblings.

Cadence's 1st Day of Preschool

Today was Cadence's first day of preschool, she is going to Phoenix Christian 3 days a week for 3 hours each morning. She has been so excited about starting class!
Her and I went to the store to pick out a backpack. Her only requirement was that it needed to be both pink and purple...and of course the only ones left in that color were princess backpack. She of course loves it!


She was a little timid once we got to class. Hung onto my leg for awhile.

Her teacher is very sweet and it is a small class which I really love.

I was doing good with her starting school and then the teacher prayed for the kids and she started to cry during asking God's blessings over their lives. And that's when the lump formed in my throat and I told myself to hold it together and not let the water works come out. :) I've been emotional this week about some other things and this was the icing on the cake. :)

When I picked her up and she said she loved it. That she listened to everything her teacher asked, "but some of the other kids didn't". :)

Dylan had some walkie talkies and they broke in a accident a couple weeks ago. He has been super bummed about it and the plan was to take them to Grandpa R to see if he could fix it. Instead of fixing he had a extra set of walkie talkies and gave them to Dylan. Dylan came home from school and was super excited about the gift! He and our neighbor friend Emerson played with them all afternoon.

So much fun!

Thank you Grandpa!

Dylan also lost another tooth yesterday morning.

Actually Mark pulled it out but it was just dangling there. :)

1st Grade!

Can't believe Dylan is in 1st grade!

He was a bit nervous last night about starting up school again. He asked if he could just stay home with me. I asked him how would he learn and become even more smart? His response, "I know how to read and add already". It had the tone of, Mom I already know the main stuff what else do I need to learn? :) Made me smile.

The girls and I walked him to his class and stayed for a few minutes. He was chatting with friends from last year and I could tell he felt comfortable. His home room English teacher (english & social studies) is Ms. Sleasman and the Spanish (math and science) is Ms. Palmero. Both seem to be really great teachers.

This school year starting felt like he was old...that he didn't necessarily need me to be there but was glad that I was.

I'm excited for this year for him!

Tradition

Every year since there have been grandchildren for my mom she has taken us to a few nights in a resort here in town. The kids look forward to it every year! We had our annual in town get away this week and the kids had a great time!

My mom brought some craft supplies and the kids made masks,

Had squirt gun fights,

Did lots of swimming,

and played giant chess. Well, at least the boys kinda played. :)

We also went to the heart museum. I had no idea about it but it was really neat. They have all kinds of displays and things for the kids to learn about the heart and information about staying healthy.

These boxes were filled with different sized "hearts". When you pressed the button it would light up the heart and show you which animal that sized heart belonged to...it had a range from a humming bird to a elephant.

We were the only ones there for most of the time so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. They had an area where you could use stethoscopes which the kids thought was great, they practiced on the "dummy". :)

Even Isabelle gave it a try :)

Jake practicing CPR

It was a great few nights.

So much easier than past years for me as the kids are getting older. In years past it has always been so much work to stay at any hotel with little ones.

Thanks mom for another great memory with the kids!

Gift Stock Up Sale

This week Target had the bi-annual 75% off toys sale. Last year was my first year to take advantage of the savings and this year was another great year. I was able to stock up on all these toys for Christmas & birthdays for $92 total with tax! That is a huge savings!! I am pretty excited about getting so much shopping done and saving so much!