Whoopie Pies

I love to cook, but I always seem to misplace all my recipes.  I seem to always be running over to the computer in search of a recipe. So, I thought it would be fun to take pics of the food, and type the recipe into the image. Eventually I'll print them all out and place into a binder. Maybe it would be a fun gift to give one day for when one of my siblings gets married, or goes off to college.  I have been on a desert kick, and today we made whoopie pies. Delicious!

 (recipe was found on all recipes).

Micah's 5 Months

 He is always so happy after his bath, so I thought why not?  I know one day he is going to ask me why I would do that to him? And I'll show him his little face and say, "How could I not!" Please ignore the girly pillow in the background.  I change him on Ariana's bed after he is done bathing.  Another thing he may hold over my head one day.

David's 31st Birthday

So in the midst of moving and David working and working on his last two science courses he had a birthday.  His 31st Birthday!! His actual birthday landed during the week on a Wednesday, but we decided to properly celebrate it on Saturday.  Mainly because I have no car, and since we did not have our pantry stocked yet it made it hard to cook anything without having to run to the store.  For his actual birthday I made him breakfast, and the kids made him a scavenger hunt to find the birthday cards they made him.  Then on Saturday David got to choose what he wanted to do.  He is the easiest to please.  All I have to do is go to the gym with him and he is the happiest guy. Later in the day I  made a yummy dinner, and we got to eat peanut butter reese's ice cream pie as his birthday cake.  He loves peanut butter.  Usually getting him a gift is difficult because there never seems to be anything that he specifically wants.  This year was easy.  He has been hitting the gym pretty hard lately so getting gifts was super easy.  The gift he wanted was one of those blenders that blends shakes right into a cup. There was one on sale at GNC.  I love seeing him every morning make his peanut butter banana whey cookies n' cream protein shake.  He looks so content.  It makes me happy. ( A happy husband plus minimal dishes in the morning I say we both got presents on his birthday this year!)

Ariana and Viggo showing off their birthday candle placement.  Can you tell Viggo helped a lot with the spelling?  Drove Ariana a little nuts lol.

 Yes, I know David is lighting is own candles.  But if you have ever seen me use real matches you would light your own birthday candles too.

 Sometimes Micah reminds me so much of Ariana, and other times he reminds me of Viggo. He can't wait to eat real food.  I feel so bad. Sometimes eating in front of him feels like we are torturing him.  He wanted a bite of ice cream cake so bad.  Here he is seated and ready hoping to get a little taste.

 The kids getting ready to sing Happy Birthday.  I love how Ariana is looking at her Daddy.  Since the moment she was born she was his. 

Happy 31st Birthday David! We love you tons!!!! Muuuuuahhhh 

Moving to Tucson

We are now official residents of Marana Arizona.  Which is in Tucson.  So far so good! I actually really like it so far.  The north part of Tucson is surprisingly green and its desert landscape is actually really beautiful.  I feel like it has the best of Northern Arizona and Phoenix put into one.  The town is no where near as big as Phoenix but not as small as cottonwood or Sedona.  Then you have all the pretty desert vegetation with mountains.  Not Red Rock ones like Sedona, but they are still really pretty. And then its like 5-10 degrees cooler than Phoenix, much like cottonwood was.  Which means at night it cools down quite a bit.  Which makes me happy.  During our big move it was hard to bust out my fourth baby (my Nikon).  So while it remained safe and packed away I cheated on it with my phone and Instagram.  Sometimes its just so much easier to whip out my phone to catch little quick moments.  And I am glad I had it around so I could capture the beginning of our new adventure.

We took off July 6th at 4:15 in the morning.  We were so tired!! David got like two hours of sleep that night.  But we made it. The kids slept through most of the six hour ride.  This was the first time I got to see the house that David picked out for us!  I will admit I was a little nervous about letting him decide on his own where we were going to live, but he picked the perfect home. It has a great school for Ariana, has tons of gorgeous running trails.  Like real desert trails that take you into the desert. Everyone out here either runs or bikes.  It's motivated me to want to start to run again.  Or get a bike! I think riding at night with the kids would be so fun.  The home is wonderful.  Has tons of light.  David knows I can't stand dark rooms.  For some reason it makes me irritable and just grumpy.  I think it's because I grew up in San Diego where people keep their windows open all day and no one fears keeping shades open, because of the heat the sun may bring in. I don't know if it's because its a newer home with better insulation or because how the house is situated according to the sun, but I can keep the shades open all day and the house temperature is not affected.  It remains cool so well. So I can't open my windows, but at least I can let the suns rays enter the home. And its just such a cute home! I'll post pics soon once we have unpacked and decorated a little.

Since we moved out of my parents home we had no food! So we took the kids to Burger King.  I don't know why but they had so much fun there.  And there wasn't even a play place.  They must have just been grateful to not have to be in the car anymore. 

Our first week mostly consisted of putting stuff together, reading, playing, watching the sunset every night from our back yard and just adoring Micah.

And the kids got to visit David at his North Tucson office.  He had a slow day Friday so we went out there had lunch with him, and the kids got to hang out for a while in his office.  Who knew they would think David's job was so fun?  They loved sitting in the sound booth, and then they wanted David to check their hearing.  Then the kids wanted to check David's.  So, I guess we are off to a good start.  First week in Tucson turned out to be a lot of fun.  We are tired but we are having a lot of fun. 

Fourth of July

Fourth of July seems like it happened so long ago.  I think it was because we were so busy getting ready to pack up our things the next day so we could leave by four in the morning on Saturday.  You heard me right 4:00 A.M.  That way the kids could sleep through most of the six hour trip, and so we wouldn't have to drive during the hottest hours of the day as we headed to Tucson Arizona.  

But before I get into the details of that little adventure I have to tell you about our Fourth of July.  Even with everything going on we took time to celebrate! We started with our ward breakfast.  We had so much fun, and the breakfast was supper yummy.  Then we went home, and my parents and brothers and sisters took Ariana and Viggo out to play a round of tennis.  My family loves playing sports on the holidays.  And my kids have naturally been adopted into the tradition.  David and I and Micah on the other hand made a quick stop at my friend Danica's for a bar-b-que.  Food and company was excellent as always.  After that we quickly rushed back to my Dad's house.  Got all the details on the tennis match, and how the kids did.  And before we knew it we realized we had to leave before we missed the Fourth of July fire works.  We thought about heading out to Coronado ( glad we didn't heard it was horrible it was all over the news) but we decided to stay in good ole Chula Vista.  We headed down towards the Olympic training center parked, and had our own little tail gate.  I am so glad we stopped to get pizza and slurpees along the way.  I can't remember the last time I had a slurpee, I remember them being so much better.  I think it's because I love a good fruit smoothie, and I really just don't like soda ( Except Root Beer ).  Anyways there we waited for the show to start.  Ariana of course made a friend with the little girl right next to us.  Which made her night. And Viggo well in between acting like a goof, and throwing his fits I think he ended up enjoying the night.  Micah slept through almost the whole thing, but awoke just in time to see the lights.  I am so glad we got to spend Fourth of July with friends and family before we left.  All in all it was great day.  How could a Fourth of July in San Diego ever be bad..... right.  Oh how I will miss this city. It was nice living in it again even if it was just for a little bit.  But it's time for my family to start a new chapter.  Wish us luck!

Isn't he so handsome! 

 David and I were looking at these pictures of us, and we realized how much older we are starting to look.   It doesn't help that I decided not to wear any makeup that day.  

Oh the days when I didn't need it.

Micah sleeping while I got to eat some pizza with the kids. 

 Ariana and her new little friend mezmorized by the fireworks.

My Viggo taking a break from throwing a fit to enjoy the show.... lasted about a minute, but just long enough to get this shot.  

Someone Turned 13

Naomi turned 13 in the month of June.  June 12th to be precise.  I can't believe she is thirteen.  She is suppose to be the baby of the family.  I still remember when she use to crawl into my bed at night to sleep with me when I was in high school.  I have had a lot of fun getting to spend time with her again.  So it's official we once again have a teenager in the home.  I love hearing all her stories, and just watching her grow up is a lot of fun.  Before I know it she will be in high school, and off to college.  We snapped some pics of her on her Birthday.  We slipped out around the block while everyone was watching the NBA finals. 

 

10 Things To Know About Naomi

1) She is a sweetheart.  She loves being loved on.  Especially by her Mom and Dad.  

2) She loves hanging out with her older siblings.  She loves how Megan dresses.  She can't resist teasing Mario ( her best friend ) finds Josh annoying but loves the attention she gets from him, and thinks the world of Jessica.

3) She loves to draw, and do crafty things. Even wants to cook.

4) She is a great Tia.  She plays with my kids ALL the time.  They are going to go through Naomi withdrawls. 

5) She pretends not to be paying attention when you ask her to do something that she doesn't think will be fun to do "chores". 

6) She loves Zelda.  I think she got that from Megan.

7) She is quite the little swimmer.  She loves it.  She is like a fish.  She could go swimming everyday all day.

8) She gets bored easy, so she is always looking for something to do. (Except cleaning up after her pets ;0) )

9) She loves the gospel.  

10) She is the best sister.  I know her and I will be close FOREVER! I just don't want her to get any older because she may just find out I'm such a nerd.  I love this little girl so much!!

Love you Homie!! 

That's what Viggo use to call her because he couldn't say Naomi at first.  So that's what I call her now. 

Dateless

My hubby has been in Arizona since last Sunday training for a new job that he got with Newport Hearing.  We are very excited, but at the same time sad to leave beautiful San Diego.  We will be heading out to Tuscon Arizona this weekend.  He was scheduled to be gone for a week and two days.  Probably would have been two had it not been for the Fourth of July. I really miss him. I am so excited to see him tomorrow night.  The kids miss him tons too.  A couple of weeks back we were invited to a friends wedding, and I thought for sure we would go together.  But his training days left me dateless.  That's right I went to the WEDDING alone!  When I say alone I mean ALONE.  I had no girlfriends to go with, NOBODY! Lucky for me everyone was so nice to me.  But as nice as everyone was, I felt like a third wheel. But, I was really proud of myself for still going.  Sometimes I forget how much I depend on David, and it really made me appreciate his company so much more.  I was really hesitant about wearing this dress because of the horizontal stripes ( women's nightmare when trying to be discrete with extra poundage) but I couldn't help myself it was cute and comfortable.  I bought myself this handbag so I could easily cover up the love rolls, and off I went.

The wedding by the way was gorgeous! A photographer's dream.  The bridesmaid dresses were to die for, the colors in the bouquets just made my heart sing, the bride was stunning, the food was delicious, the center pieces looked like they came from a celebrity wedding.  It was perfect.

My little sister wanted to conduct a photo shoot on me.  Being behind the camera is a lot more fun!! I used the wrong image size for this layout, but I am too lazy to go back and fix. That's why it looks a little fuzzy, sorry.