For all those who come to this happy place, Welcome!

My little Cinderella's woke up about 7:30am this morning & worked their little booties off until about 1pm. I had them washing walls throughout my house, scrubbing floors, vacuuming, cleaning the tub, sink, dusting, and cleaning "the dog room" (aka laundry room) which they both just barely survived. But it paid off my house looks fantastic and there is no way I could have mustered enough pregnant energy to do it myself. This was their reward. We went to the mall and bought them all a pair of new shoes & they each got a packet filled with Disney dollars featuring various characters. This is a tradition we've established whenever we go to "the Land" . They can spend all their dollars on whatever they want. But when they are gone. They are gone & they aren't allowed to spend any money until the last day. So they can have 3 days or so deciding what it is they want most. Then the last day is usually a shopping spree. It works for us. So I did tak

I thought today might be a little slow, which is okay. Today is Sunday & I'm exhausted. We were up at 6:30am to get Megs off to the airport & get ready for Jen & Jeremy Greer's baby blessing, which started at 8am. Jason thought like he was Speed Racer and we made it in good time. Tessa was gorgeous and slept through the entire thing just like a perfect angel. We came home. Avery & Paige painted a "Boys" sign for Chase Gaddie's bday and I made pancakes. We put faces on them and then I was ready for a nice long nap. I wanted to go to my ward at least for Sacrament Meeting, since a bunch of us in YW got released - but Jason got called in & there was no way I was going to church dragging 3 kids along (I know I'm the worlds biggest wimp! My mom is probably rolling her eyes right about now, 'Yes, Maren. You are a wimp.') Around 4pm we headed over to Jason's parents for Chase's 2nd birthday. I think my kids were more excited then h

This is how we began our morning. Avery & Paige helped Jason wash both dogs. They were covered in slobber & dog water, but had a good time doing it. My kids second favorite restaurant is Peter Piper Pizza - were we went to eat before the movie started. Each of the kids got tokens to spend & ate lotsa yummy pizza. Movie Time Saturday - to see the latest kids movie! Can we say Kung fu Panda should be on your must see list if you have kids or even remotely like Jack Black. It was really well done and rolls along with J.Black humor around every corner. Afterwards my kids thought they were Kung fu Masters. Check out their mad skills. In front of the Cinemark by our house is this outdoor kid splash area, which really comes in handy if you live in the desert and it's 100' degrees and your kids are determined to get wet. You think they would be sufficiently tired out after that - no such luck. We headed out to the HAC ... if you live in the valley and don't know

This is Avery Brooks Carter & Paige when Paige was a few months old. Avery is the oldest child of my sister Kelly. She also has 2 younger brothers but always wanted a " stister " - from an early age Avery adopted Paige as her younger stister . Don't they look like they could be stister's ? This summer we get the pleasure of having Avery stay with us for 13 days just by herself. Paige has been at her wits end for weeks waiting for Avery to get here. Yesterday... that day came. My baby sister Megan flew down from Utah with Avery. She was super excited to ride on a plane AND get to spend the summer in " Marizona " with her favorite Aunt & cousins. Paige wanted to take them out to eat - so we went to my kids favorite restaurant, IHOP . Avery & Paige had the chocolate chip face pancakes. Megan couldn't decide which was tastier, her stuffed french toast OR the syrup on James cheek. Paige & Avery got to attend their first Quinceneara (I k

During the summer a bunch of local theatres offer Summer Kids Clubs, where they show previously released kids movies for a dollar or two a ticket Harkins , Cinemark , & AMC (they might have it where you live) - anyway, it's movies like Shrek the Third, Bee Movie, Flushed Away, etc. This weeks movie was the cartoon version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & I almost didn't take them because I didn't think they would really be into it. As you can see from the pictures, I am wrong. We went to Target & they couldn't stop fighting in the aisles. They wanted swords so I bought them these little softee baseball bats in the dollar section. Then when we came home they were determined I could make them masks. So I made them masks & capes out of old t-shirts, you can check out the SSC blog where I explain how I did it in 6 easy steps. Needless to say - it provided a fun afternoon & my kids (and their friend Seth) have been wearing the capes daily since we