I did it-

It almost seems sinful, but I did it.... I went out and bought a cuttlebug! Seeing everyone's awesome embossed cards and getting a chance to use the Epic for myself last weekend... I decided I had to have one. Luckily I just got an award check at work for a designation I earned at work so I used a little of that to buy this machine. I cannot wait to start create with it.

And More Hiking...

After work Kenny and I went out hiking again. Click here to read about it.

After our hike we went to Chipotle for dinner (yes we are totally addicted!) and then took Shelby to the dog park. We are trying to socialize Shelby... but there wasn't another soul at the dog park! So we just played ball and came home.

We had a much better Monday than my poor dad... he got his work truck stuck in the river bottom up in Wickenburg! He was stuck for 3 hours before they got him out and it took 2 tow trucks to pull him out!

Thunderbird Mountain H-2

A couple weeks back DH and I decided to try this trail ( the H2 ) trail which is the mountain on the "other side" from where we hike regularly. Somehow we felt like we took a wrong turn and just wandered around in the desert for an hour ... turns out that is a trail too! It was the H1a! Anyway, that one is just a flat trail in the desert-- very boring and not recommended.

But today we did get to try out H2... we liked it, but it was a little tough going up. The trail is VERY rocky and hard to get a good pace going.

It does have some beautiful views...

and oh it feels good to make it to the top!

On the way down the trail has lots of loose gravel and more big rocks...

The trail took us about 45 mins- an hour.

The facts-

Length- about 2 miles

Level- moderate

Cost- FREE

Hiking

Today we went hiking with our Hopie. She did so good!

White Tanks- Waterfall trail

After all the rain we had this week DH and I decided it was a great opportunity to try out theWhite Tanks Waterfall trail. The waterfall is only present after a rain and were were lucky enough to see the light trickle of a waterfall that was left. The weather was perfect, but it was super crowded up there. There were a lot of families with small children, elderly and lots of dogs do this hike will do for all ages.

The facts:

Length of trail- 3.3 round trip

Level- easy

Cost- $6 per car load

Going White

Okay going green, but these are white!

My DH got some new undershirts this weekend and was going to toss out all the old ones. All I saw was a pile of fabric and thought to myself, "What can I do with these?" Then I remembered a magazine article or maybe a blog I read about using rags instead of disposable paper towels to reduce waste... ah ha! So I cut the shirts apart into paper towel sizes and I am going to put this basket under the sink and try to use less paper towels.

Twins!

Michelle just e-mailed me this picture and I wanted to share- my favorite one so far!

Catching Up!

So I completely dropped the ball on my post/picture per day goal! Let's see if I can make up for it a little bit--

Tuesday I made Lemon, Garlic, Basil Chicken... I was SO confident it was going to be delicious that I took this picture of it-

Funny story about the parsley on the plate, I sent Kenny to the store to get basil leaves for the recipe and he brought back this bunch of parsley - cute :) So I thought I mind as well use it to dress up the plate a little: ) Anyway, I am not sure what went wrong but the rice was SO lemony and sour we couldn't eat it! It was horrible so I am not posting the recipe. It sure made the house smell so good and fresh though.

I didn't take any pictures on Wednesday or Thursday... it was rainy and cold here. Here is a picture of one of the local parks near us... they pretty much all look like this because they are set up to be water retention areas/parks. It still looks funny to see them full of water.

Wednesday Kenny was at his Nana's house and Michelle and Trevor came over with the kids... I am SUPER jealous I didn't get to see them this week! boo hoo. Wednesday night was my monthly card class out in Mesa that I went to with my buddy Jackie. Click here to see our projects. We had a blast as always. My mom didn't come along this month because she was home with my dad. He has been having some health issues. For those of you who know my dad, know he NEVER goes to the doctor... Well he finally went so you know how bad he must have been feeling. They aren't sure what he has, but they did some tests and he has to go back in a couple weeks.

Thursday was long day for Kenny he had some appointments down in Nogales and ended up having to drive through a really bad dust storm (that actually blew over a semi!) and then through the rain that was coming down in buckets like Illinois/Arkansas rain! He made it home safe and sound and we just stayed in that night.

Friday morning we went to a funeral for Kenny's great uncle Willy. It was a nice service with a 9 gun solute, Taps and nice words from family. My Uncle Kenny is buried at the same cemetery so we stopped by.

That afternoon we went to see The Book of Eli and tried out the Dbox seats. Dbox seats are interactive type seats that vibrate, move and shake with the movie. We thought they were okay, but not worth the extra money (it was $17.50 each!).

Later we went to ice skating with Melodi and Jereme.

It was a ton of fun, but actually pretty hard! Kenny was a natural, but it took me a while to get the hang of it again. Poor Jereme got to know the ice the second he stepped on it...

I had to take a lot of breaks because my ankles hurt SO bad... I ended up with bruises all over my ankles!

Here is Kenny on one of the breaks.

This weeks crafts

Wednesday I took the my favorite monthly class at Scrapbooks etc- LOVE NOTES. We made these fun 5 cards. I love the lollipop card the most...

Thursday I headed over the Creative Quest (in the pouring rain) to make this cute little card-

Then today we took the Scrappin Sampler (also at Scrapsbooks etc) and made this miniature pizza box, scrapbook page and frame. The frame is really fun because the teacher used a strip of fabric! You just tear a piece of fabric and wrap it around the chip board frame- um totally awesome!

Lemon Pie

4 eggs

1 stick of butter

1 whole lemon (not the seeds, but everything else)

1 1/2 c. sugar

mix all ingredients in the blender. make sure all of the lemon is pureed well. use a 8 in pie crust and add mixture. cook 40 mins at 350 or until golden (mine got a little done, but still tastes awesome)

Winner!

It's time to pick a winner for the magazine/book give away... well actually its past time to pick a winner! Okay the random number generator says # 3 - Sheila C you are it! Congrats!

Good Times

Friday Kenny had to go to Yuma for some appointments and didn't make it back in time for our hike, but I still went with our friend Beverly. Afterwards we met up with the guys at Red Robin (yummm) for dinner and to make some plans for camping and day trips coming up. Later Kenny and I stopped by to see Michelle. Matt is home from the hospital and I swear looks even smaller at home than he did in the NICU! Apparently Zack is not to trilled about Matt being there-- wait until Emma comes home and he realizes there are 2 of them! Emma should be coming home shortly and Michelle explained that she can't come home yet, because she hasn't developed the the instinct to suck so they are still feeding her mostly by a tube. I guess babies don't develop that instinct until they are 36 weeks and since she is only about 35 1/2 weeks she just isn't there yet (Matt developed this early). It was so fun to visit with them and play with Zack. You just can't be around that kid and not smile!

Saturday I started the day by going to my $10 quilt meeting at 35th Ave Sew and Vac. When I got back we cleaned the house and that afternoon we had Steve and Barb over to watch the Cardinals. Steve brought some pictures of Matt and his family. We recently reconnected with Matt and learned that in 2009 he got married and had a baby! They are planning on moving back to Arizona (from SD), but don't have a time frame for that yet. Dylan (their baby) is just adorable! We had the new Pizza from dominoes. None of us were overly impressed with the changes they have made to their recipe, but it was still delicious even if it was an hour late! Unfortunately the Cardinals were losing so bad we just couldn't finish the game, so Kenny, Steven and I headed off to the Saturday night Fusion service at Church. The only difference I noticed was a lot more music, but we enjoyed it. After church we decided to go see Avatar in 3D! We have heard mixed reviews of the movie, but all 3 of us enjoyed it!

Sunday morning we went to church with Donna and my mom (yes we went to Church twice in 1 weekend!). Same sermon, but I still took a little something else out of it that I didn't hear the first time around. After church we had lunch at Chipotle and did a little shopping. Donna stayed awhile to play with the pups.

She just loves Toby, but brings them all goodies. Later in the afternoon we picked up my parents and went over to my grandparents house to celebrate my grandma's 75th b-day!

We had a lot of fun chatting and just hanging out.

For dinner my parents had us over for Chipotle style burritos- she had shredded carne asada, black beans, brown rice, lettuce, cheese, hot sauce etc and we built our own burritos. It was SO good! We ended the weekend with $2.99 blizzards from Dairy Queen (courtesy of my mom) and a serious game of guys vs. girls on wii bowling. The guys won...

Now it is time to head back to work for another week, but at least it is only a 4 day work week for us (we are taking Friday off).

Make n Take

This afternoon I stopped at Creative Quest and made this fun little card-

and when I got home I found this little guy in the mail (bought him on e-bay)

sometimes...

Sometimes this is what our kitchen looks like by Friday on a busy week (like this week).

Sometimes the island is piled high with unopened mail and unread magazines. Sometimes we run out of work pants because we haven't done laundry. Sometimes our fridge is completely empty and we just have to eat out. Sometimes the yard needs attention, the garden needs watering and the cars need to be washed but we don't do it.... because we have been so busy out playing with friends, seeing shows, hiking the mountain, going to classes or whatever that week included... and that is okay. It's okay because the memories we are creating making are worth more to us than a perfectly clean house.

Not so typical Wednesday

My morning started off with a horrible traffic jam, which made me an hour and 2o mins late to work. It wouldn't have been so bad had they not directed all the traffic down a dead end road! UGH, luckily I work for a very understanding boss.

After work Kenny and I hiked Thunderbird again. We are both really enjoying the hikes, but have to push ourselves on the uphill climbs. We shaved 8 mins off our time today and did the whole trail in just one hour and 12 mins!

After our hike we headed out to Mesa for a fabulous date night! We stopped by Scrapbooks etc so I could get a page stamped off for the album club... and get this : I DIDN'T BUY ANYTHING! Amazing I know.

Then we went to Freddy's for dinner- it was delicious and probably counteracted all of our hiking efforts... Then we headed to the Tempe Improv for a FREE show ($50 value!). There were several local comedians AND Norm Macdonald showed up as a surprise! He was hilarious and we had a lot of laughs tonight.

When we got out of the show it was sprinkling and smelled like rain- awesome night!

I won!

Do you remember I told you about the block challenge at the local Quilt store... well I won! 3rd place, but still got $10!

Also, I did my first scrapbook page for the 2010 album club-

We go out walkin'

Tonight we tried to work on Shelby's New Years resolution and visit the dog park, but -

today is Tuesday...

So we just walked around the track. Not much socializing for her to do, but she got to be around other people. Its a good start :)

Amazing Evening !

After work Kenny and I hiked Thunderbird mountain with our friend Jackie. It is a 4 mile trail and we are doing it in about an hour and 20 mins now -- not to shabby for beginners! Its always a lot of fun, but super challenging.

After the hike we met up with Michelle and Trevor at the hospital to meet our Godchildren!!

This is baby Matt... isn't be little!? The other pictures I have seen don't really show just HOW little they are, but maybe you can get an idea with this tiny bottle near his face... That bottle gives them just 22 calories of food! Amazing huh?

Kenny holding Matt and Me holding Emma (proud Godparents!)

I am simply amazed by these beautiful babies! What an amazing thing God has done for Michelle and Trevor (and the whole family that gets to enjoy them)!

Baby Emma and her momma

Matt

Kenny holding BOTH twins! Hilarious to those of us who were there... he was terrified of them!

AMAZING NICU nurse with Matt

Emma's little foot is barely bigger than Chuck (the NICU nurse)'s thumb!!

Little bitty Emma

Mama and here babies!

Our other Godson Zack at dinner. He is such a ham.

When we walked into the NICU Michelle was holding both of the babies and when I first laid eyes on them I was just amazed. There is no other word to describe it... they are SO small and beautiful. We had such a nice time "meeting" the twins, holding them, staring at them and chatting with the NICU nurse. Did you know babies do not have knee caps?? They won't have any until they are 2-3 years old! Also, can you guess what part of their body will never get bigger than it is right now today?? Their EYES! Amazing huh?

After visiting we all went to Applebees to celebrate Kim's 40th b-day. We were at the restaurant for about 2 hours and well after poor Zack's bedtime. We had such a great time just chatting, eating and being entertained by Zack.

What a great way to start the week!