Twirling Princesses

Here are some pics of Courtney's 2nd dance recital. The girls were absolutely darling, and enjoyed the "princess theme." Courtney really loves her friends & her teacher, Miss Ashley.

Tapping tondue!
Working her magic with a bibbidi-bobbidi-boo!

Huntington Beach

Oooh! That water's cold!!! The Pacific Ocean waves are much bigger than the Atlantic Ocean waves we're used to. Woo! We kept getting knocked over.
Check out this cool cave Xanderman dug out of the sand! He worked at it for at least an hour.

It was the perfect day for relaxing at the beach. We sure do miss being close to the ocean. Darren found another great way to recycle an empty lunchables box!

Courtney loved the beach and kept discovering shells and running back and forth to add them to her collection. The last summer she spent at the beach (in Maine) was when she was just one year old, so this will most likely be her first memory of the ocean.

Here is our attempt at a sand sculpture (it's a turtle).

Disneyland!

Our little family had a marvelous time in Disneyland. Darren thought the vintage Mickey t-shirts were a bit much, but I thought they were cute, don't you agree? (Yes, I am a match freak, I know)

Darth Maul is so creepy... but he's Alexander's fav Star Wars character. Xander gets excited when he's sleep-deprived because his red eyes lead him to believe that he's turning into Darth Maul-boy. Defeat him, you must!

Ho....Pah.... he is quite intimidating...

At the Jedi training.... Alexander was thrilled when he finally got picked to become a Padwan. He was so serious and paid attention like his life depended on it. Courtney, from the sidelines, gave him some sound advice: "Xander, use the FOREST!"

Courtney was all smiles when she got to meet other REAL princesses. Cinderella was thrilled that Courtney was dressed just like her (minus the pink cowgirl boots). They practiced some princess twirls together.

It was a bit of a let-down meeting Prince Phillip. She was expecting Sleeping Beauty and instead some weird guy in tights shows up and tells us that Sleeping Beauty was... still sleeping.

Little Miss Courtney tells everyone she meets, "Did you know that I am a REAL princess?" (Just FYI)

Pee Wee's Big Adventure--Flashback!!

Do y'all remember that movie hit of the 80's.... Pee Wee Herman? Well, on our way to LA we drove past these very random dinosaurs & I knew them from somewhere in my childhood. On our way back to Phoenix, we saw them again and drove 15 minutes to the next exit just to go back and see them. Sure enough, when I asked the lady there if these were, indeed, the famous dinosaurs, she said yes! They are actually opening a museum there... apparently a big part of Holywood history, LOL! This is where Pee Wee notices his wallet is gone and has to work off his meal at the diner. A waitress, Simonne, befriends him and they watch the sunrise from the inside of this T-Rex's mouth. She is making excuses why she hasn't gone to Paris and Pee Wee says"Everyone I know has got a big BUT..." ring any bells? (To get an idea of this dino's size, look close and you will see Alexander standing on its right foot.)

There's a Lizard in Our House!

The boys were out in the backyard weeding, and Courtney went out to join them. Just as she opened the back door, a lizard was running across the porch, bounced off her cowgirl boot, and into the house. The boys came running in, yelling, "There's a lizard in the house!" Mr. Lizard was hiding behind our couch, so Darren flipped it upside down, and it wasn't there. We decided that he had crawled up inside the couch, so we hurried and pulled the couch outside, to shake him out.

OK, so he wasn't in the couch. He was hiding under the toy box. At this point, Darren had taken every box and piece of furniture in our house and made a blockade/running path to shoo that lizard out the back door. We moved the toy box, and our lizard friend ran under the entertainment center. Darren completely emptied the entertainment center, DVDs, movies, scrapbooks, TV, VCR, you name it, it was out. Then came the shovels and bowls......
About a half hour later, they scared the poor little intruder out, but then Darren trapped him under two couch cushions. After a grueling 10 minutes more, Darren got the guts to grab the lizard's tail and fling him out of the cushions. The lizard (luckily) found the running path and scurried out the back door. WHAT a mess! And all for a little lizard! (Darren will tell you the lizard was enormous!)

Star Wars Party

Xanderman had a wild & crazy 9th birthday party with his friends. He is a bit obsessed with Star Wars, so that's what we did! We made light sabers, played Star Wars Bingo, Lego Star wars projected on the wall, pin the control panel on Vader, & had dinner from Pizza the Hut.

Literally the "hit" of the party was these light sabers the kids made from pool noodles & PVC pipe. Darren had as much fun as the boys, being "the bad guy." The cool thing about these: you can hit as hard as you want and it doesn't hurt! The boys played with these for at least an hour!

This cake was supposed to look like the scene in Star Wars when Ben Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker are dueling it out on the lava. Hmmm... interesting.

Look out Armstrong...

The champion... we are so proud of Darren! He completed the Tour De Phoenix! 75 miles on a bike in one day is quite an achievement. He says it was the hardest thing he's ever done-- at one point he crawled under some old truck on the side of the road and waited to die (or have a rattlesnake bite him)!
The kids made him a sign & cherred like crazy when he came across the finish line!
Post-race handsome-ness! Check out the medal...

World Conservation Award

Tonight Alexander earned his World Conservation (Panda) Award, and a total of 9 arrowheads. Way to go! We are so proud of him! He loves being a Cub Scout.

Pinewood Derby

This year was Alexander's fist Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. He took 1st place in his den and then 3rd place in a combined den race (be sure to watch the video below). It complied with the rules but had a little "extra" engineering. When it comes to the Pinewood Derby some secrets will be taken to the grave.

Cutting out the car.

Counting fingers after cutting.

Sanding, sanding and sanding.

Alexander's design. Since Home Depot's #20 car, driven by Tony Stewart (or as Courtney says "Twenty Stort") is his favorite NASCAR, the theme was easy.

4....3...2...1....

Day at the track

Boat Race

Unnamed and Untamed!!

Big Foot!!

Iron Outlaw!!

Nasty Boy!!

Easter Sunday

ONE, that's right, ONE good picture is all you get after THREE hours of church and TWO major sugar headaches.
Need I say more?

It's so tough being such a drama queen... waaahhhhhh

Eight-year-old boys respond better to bribery.

What a handsome guy... and such a great kid.

Oh How I Love This!

I finally got brave and tried to cut some vinyl lettering with my Silhouette. 15 minutes later, viola! It was so easy... ooh, the possibilities! I love using all my fonts. The "Families" is a sign I made, and the "for all time" is just a rub-on to put on the wall.
More neat-o things cut out by the Silhouette... so fun!
Oh my LAND (ode to Barb) I just figured out the print & cut feature. Sorry, I just can't contain my excitement:)
TaDA! Here is the coolest tool in scrapbooking, the Quickutz Silhouette. It is a marvel.

It's Official... I'm Old

OK, so who even likes birthdays anymore... unless you get spoiled, of course. And spoiled I was, I'm ashamed to say. We had a crazy "Bunco with the Boys" night with some of our fav couples, then the next morning my friends surprised me with a B-Day breakfast @ Cracker Barrel, THEN that night we had a crop/pizza late-nighter. Party weekend! I think it was a little much, but I had a great time with my friends & family.

Just in case it isn't obvious how old I am.....

I Received A Call Today...

Back in September, I entered a page layout {on a whim} for a contest @ the Phoenix Scrapbook Convention. It was completely last minute, and I made the layout with scraps of paper I already had-- nothing special at all. I received an email the next month, saying that I'd won the Phoenix contest and $1,000 in QuicKutz product. The call today was to inform me that all the convention winners across America of "The Right Tools Make All The Difference" contest were judged together and that I'd won the Grand Prize! I was totally shocked, stunned, speechless.. you name it. The prize for this is either a getaway crop to Utah or $5,000 in products.
I left Darren a message on his cell phone that is completely crazy-- I sound like Stevie from Malcom in the Middle. "Darren!" Breathe. Breathe... "I just got..." Breathe..... "a call....." Breathe... " from QuicKutz....."
The QuicKutz blog link: http://quickutz.typepad.com/qk/2008/01/that-didnt-real.html

The link to see my layout:

http://www.quickutz.com/qk2/news/contests/2007/righttools-results.aspx

All I can say is THANK YOU, QuicKutz-- you made my day!