Spring Training

What is great about living in Phoenix in March? Baseball!!! We headed out to a game the other night. We couldn't have pre-ordered a more lovely night. Beautiful sunset, perfect temps. Great company. Nate and I took this picture, but I didn't like the way I looked, so I made him take another.

Whoops! Looks like Nate wasn't quite ready.
Okay, I get it, you're messing with me.

And ice cream! MMMMMmmmmmm! The game was fun too. The red team vs. the blue team. One of them won. I'm just happy to go!

Want to know how to tell if you have Canadians sitting behind you at a baseball game? Well, if you are from Arizona, you all come in sweaters. If you are from Canada, you are in tank tops and shorts. And once they start talking, you can tell :) And we had our favorite vendor working that night. If you've ever been to a sporting even in the Phoenix area, you know who I'm talking about. "Lemonade! Lemonade! Just like Grandma made! You know you waaaannt it!" Love that guy!

11

Sammy da Bull turned 11. My baby. My last born. Sigh....

We had a slumber party (Nate was out of town for this one too....I'm sensing a pattern. Very smart on his part.)

My wonderful and talented friend, Mindy, made this incredible cake as a gift to Sam. Sam loves to watch any baking shows and Cake Boss is her favorite. I WISH I had my camera on me when Mindy showed up with this beauty. I thought Sam would pass out. She kept saying, "My first fondant cake!" Mindy truly made this a special night for Sam.

And presents! We LOVE presents!

And I truly couldn't bear to mar the cake, so I stuck a candle in an ice cream cone and we sang to Sam. But yes, we had to cut it open finally. So yummy!
And what made this birthday extra special this year? Grandma and Grandpa Woodard made the long drive down to spend the weekend! I gave her a dress form so she could design and make clothes for her American Girl dolls. Sam loves to sit and draw and make clothes for her dolls. From the look on her face, I think she likes it! Megan gave her some cloth to work with.
About a week before her birthday, I was going through some drawers and I came across an old nightgown of Sam's. Just about everything Sam has owned is very "special" and not be to outgrown or given away. Sam had a silky blue nightgown that was just like Wendy's, from Peter Pan. She loved this nightgown. And I couldn't bear to get rid of it. So I got to thinking....and called another talented friend of mine. (Aren't I lucky to have so many great friends?) And she made it into a pillow. So now Sam can sleep with it at night again!
And grandma and grandpa made Sam's year. She has been dying for a Kindle. But no way was I going to buy her one. I thought she would take better care of it if she had to work and save for it. She had been saving her little heart out and grandma and grandpa kicked in the last of the money that she needed. That Kindle has not left her little hand since she got it. As part of her gift, I bought her some books to download.
And then, of course, we had dinner at Pei Wei and ice cream at 31 flavors. A special day for a special girl! Love you sweetie!

And here is some of Sam's handiwork, designing coll clothes, she'll just sit on the floor and hand sew for hours.

Brace Face part Deux

Megan got braces! And guess who put them on her?!?! And guess who was helpless when we wanted to take pictures of her with the cheek retractors in?

When she was done, we made her put Matt's glasses on for an "Ugly Betty" comparison. And before you get mad, and tell me I am damaging her self esteem, just know she called me Ugly Betty until Nate made her stop:)

Pretty dang cute, Megan! Teenagers seem to be able to carry braces off much better than adults.

Today

Today was one of those days. Just a great day. The weather has been glorious, so I decreed that we would do yard work. The girls both had sleepovers, but I informed them of this yesterday, so they were on board. Nate and I were up early. Cuz my next door neighbor has a Harley and every Saturday he backs it out of the garage and revs the engine for about 10 minutes. Before 7:30. Every Saturday. Anyway, we were up early and my allergies were flaring up. So I took an antihistamine and it put me to sleep right away. When I woke up 2 hours later, the yard work was almost done! (disclaimer: I actually like yard work, so this was not planned). So I went to the gas station for lawn mower gas ($14 to fill up the red tank) and mowed the front yard. It was the least I could do. Then Nate and I lazed in the back yard and I attempted to get some sun on my white legs. The girls had a picnic on the roof. Yes, on the roof. They thought it was the coolest. I cut my hair with the kitchen scissors. (It's a sickness I can't overcome.) We rode our bikes to the park to play 2 on 2 basketball, where I realized that Nate and I have never played basketball together. I think it all stems back to when we were dating and tried to play tennis together. We've never played sports together again. And we are still happily married. Anywho....after a game of basketball, we played HORSE. And I was leading! For about 2 minutes. Until Nate pulled out his, shoot left handed. Shoot from behind the backboard. Whatever. We played tag in the sand. Which is harder than it sounds. When you never exercise. We went to the store hungry. We shared a lot of giggles, hugs and smiles. And now the girls are going to camp out in the backyard, they have it alllll set up. Now if only they could stop bickering......I guess they are exhausted from all the happiness :)

Duh Jen

Yeah....so this morning I was not at my best. I'm not complaining, just explaining my frame of mind. I got new wires in my braces yesterday. So I kept waking up last night because of the discomfort and I was feeling very tired and tender this morning. Anyway, I get ready for work and I have carpool duty so I am backing out of the driveway (running a few minutes behind, of course) with my signature drink in my hand and I go to put it in the cup holder, but yesterdays soda was in the cup holder. Soooooo, since I was still in my driveway I decided to toss the old can out to the side of the house and then I would pick it up after work. White trash, I know. Since I could hear my car engine I knew my window was down, so I picked up the can and hucked it out the window. Kind of hard. And it turns out the window was only rolled down about three inches. Nate just had my car washed so the window was really clean. THWACK! I about made Sam tinkle in her pants it was so loud. So there I sat with soda all in my hair and running down my face. Needing to be to work in 20 minutes. Nice. Of course I started giggling at myself, got my face wiped off and got myself on my way. Luckily it was a non-patient day, I was sporting There's something about Mary bangs all day. Megan is now calling me "the crusher" for my awesome ability to crush cans against invisible windows:)