Interested in stamping?

I have talked to a few people recently who enjoy making cards and stamping and what not, since my mother-in-law, Summer, is a demonstrator for Stampin Up I thought I would see if anyone else would be interesting in getting together for a Stampin Up party. We would make a couple of cards and she would have a catalogue there that you could order from.As of right now, we are planning on April 25th (that's a Saturday).  Let me know if you are interested. You can check out some of the cards she has made here. I recommend looking through February, there are some super cute cards there. 

Our Trip to the DBG

Zach had to go to the Desert Botanical Garden to take a picture of a certain type of mesquite tree for one of his classes. Since you have to pay to get in, one of his coworkers suggested we make an event out of it and go as a family. So we did. Zach and I have been together once before, for one of his office Christmas parties, but it was at night so I've never really seen what they have there. Let me just say, hooray for kids getting in places for free and for student pricing. All three of us got in for what it would normally cost one adult. We contemplated paying the extra $2 to see the butterfly exhibit but we were kind of pressed on time so we decided we will have to go back to see the butterflies. I think Madie will enjoy that. It was super crowded as we waited in line to pay to get in. They have this exhibit going right now. Chihuly, I think is the guy's name, and he makes glass sculptures that resemble things found in nature. Some of the pieces were strange, but some of them were really neat. 

Madie was very interested in watching the people around us as we waited to buy tickets.

Our little family

Madie and mommy in the hut

Madie and daddy in the hut

People aren't the only ones to get cancer :)

She enjoys her tongue.

There are a bunch of other pictures I took (like the glass sculptures), but for some reason my computer is being super slow at uploading them so I will have to post those later. 

Free Stuff

So I found this new blog http://ladyofthedeals.blogspot.com It has all kinds of free/bogo deals. I came across this one : 

The Hinckley 2-DVD Gift Pack...Free!

Click here to redeem your free Hinckley 2 DVD Family Fun Gift Pack! This includes :

~Journey to the Promised Land(animated dvd)

~The Trek West(docudrama dvd)

~48-page FHE idea and activity book

~8 animated Book of Mormon character magnets

Shipping and Handling is even free! Don't miss out on this awesome deal!

I just signed up and am excited to get it, especially the FHE idea book. 

Giving makes the giver happy too!

The first 5 people to leave a comment on this post will receive, at some point during the year, a super-duper hand-made decoration or goody from me. What it will be and when it will arrive is a total surprise! The catch is that you must participate as well-before you leave your comment here, write up (or copy & paste as I did!) a pay it forward post on your blog to keep the fun going. Then come back, let me know you're going to play, and sit back and anticipate the arrival of your gift!Remember that only the first FIVE comments will receive a gift from me, so be quick!
This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make or send!2. It will be done in the next month or so. 3. You will have no clue what it is going to be.C'mon, you know you wanna play!

Busy, busy, busy

I feel like I have so much to post, which is probably part of why it has taken me so long to actually do it. I know, that only makes it worse because then there is even more to post. Zach is still always super busy with homework. His spring break started this weekend and it has been nice to actually spend some time with him. 

Here is what I have been up to lately as far as crafts go: I made a bunch of invitations for Lori's bridal shower. That kept me pretty busy for a while. It took me longer than I had wanted to find a layout I liked. They match the colors she has picked for her wedding. There are four versions, here they are:

That was my craft of the month for February. For March, I got my inspiration when I walked into Michaels on Friday. I saw that all of the Easter baskets were half off. I realized Madie will need an Easter basket and so I started looking through the assortment. Needless to say, I didn't find anything I loved, or anything I liked at a price I was willing to pay. Call me cheap, but I just didn't want to pay eight dollars for a basket when I knew that the dollar store sells them and I could just decorate it myself. So I continued my shopping and happend to walk down the isle with all of their other baskets, which were also half off. I found one that was $2.50. I can handle that price. So I wandered over to the dollar ribbon bin and found this roll of cute yellow felt flowers. Add some white and pink paint and some pink satin bows and voila! A cute, girly, home made (or home decorated, at least) Easter basket, for a grand total of $3.50!

Pavlov's Madie???

Classical conditioning at its best: Madie gets excited when she hears the microwave beep...she knows food is coming. When I realized that she had made that connection I thought of Pavlov’s Dogs. She also gets excited when she hears "la la la la, la la la la, Elmo's World" no matter where she is or what she is doing she stops and finds the tv or computer screen and get excited and claps her hands. She even likes when I sing it, she smiles at me and laughs. This has become her new favorite place to watch tv.

Yes, she likes to stand as close as physically possible. We're just waiting to see how long before she figures out that there are buttons on the tv and when she pushes them all sorts of fun things can happen.

Since I don't want to end on a serious note I will talk about her doctors appts now and finish with all of her latest shenanigans. We went to the physical therapist a week ago and she basically said she has no idea what is wrong with Madison. She is showing signs of a couple of different things and they kind of contradict each other. So she showed me some excercises to do at home with her and said that I don't have to bring her back unless I have any questions. I was glad to hear that since the place I have to take her to for all of these appts is up by St. Joe's hospital, which is about a half hour drive without traffic. She also saw that we had an appt for last Friday with an orthopedic surgeon and advised us to not do surgery at this point because what they would most likely do is muscle transfers and that often makes the situation worse. So we drove  back up to Phoenix on Friday, the surgeon looked at Madie's arms and said to just do what the physical therapist showed us and to come back in 6 months because she is too little for surgery right now anyway. 

Now on to my crazy, silly child. She discovers a new way to be silly pretty much every day. She likes when I take her pacie from her with my mouth, and then she leans in and grabs it back with her mouth. I started turning it around before I would put it in my mouth so it would be backwards when she grabbed it. For a while she would just use her hand to get it but then she decided it would be funny to grab it backwards with her mouth. I thought it was hilarious and when I started laughing she started laughing. 

Madison pulls up on everything now. Here she is pulling up on one of our kitchen chairs. She often uses her mouth as a third hand to help get herself up. 

She has also discovered her tongue (again) and loves to stick it out...or just leave it hanging out while she crawls or walks around. 

Does anyone else see the resemblance??? :)

Explanation of the fried frogs

Ok Randi Sue....here you go!

It was a little bit before Christmas and I was at my parents house along with Kristi and her girls and Dustin and his kids. My dad was reading a book to Benjamin and Curtis and somehow made everything about frogs (the book had nothing to do with frogs). It was quite entertaining, probably more so if you were actually there. So when it came time to send out the email sign up for our Christmas brunch all of the usual products were listed and at the bottom was this: "products (like muffins or bagels), chocolate covered ants, deep fried frogs, fried stuff with cheese, etc." The fried stuff with cheese is a Friends reference but the deep fried frogs went back to when my dad was reading to the boys and kept talking about frogs. I thought it would be funny to actually bring deep fried frogs, so I looked in stores for gummy frogs but couldn't find any. My parents went to San Diego a couple of weeks ago and saw some at Sea Port Village, so my mom got a few and brought them home for me to fry for my dad. I found a recipe online for fried twinkies and used that batter. 

That is the story of the deep fried frogs.

Time for Updates

I know it has been a while since I posted last, but between homework and taking care of a sick baby I haven't had time or energy. To make up for being awake from 2:30 to 3:30 this morning Madison is still sleeping, so I figured I would update this thing. Madie is getting so grown up. She is into everything. She can pull herself to standing, crawl, walk...pretty much you name it and she can do it. And she has the bruises to prove it. She is always so proud of herself when she pulls herself up to standing or walks.

Here she is sporting her new sunglasses which I got for one dollar at target, in hopes of deterring her from always wanting to play with my sunglasses.

She has a mind of her own. When she saw Zach laying on the couch she wanted to sit on top of him. At one point she was leaned forward with her hands on his back and it looked like she was giving him a massage...but she moved before I could get a picture of that. 

I got my hair cut two weeks ago. I like it. There is no before picture becuase I don't like the one I took.

This was my attempt at fried frogs. They are not real frogs, they were gummy frogs. My second attempt was much more successful, but I didn't get a picture. This was for my dad.

This is mostly for Lindsay because she has asked several times for updates on what Zach does in school. So here are some pictures of the models Zach has been working on this semester. He does several drawings for each one before he makes it into a model. Maybe over spring break I can get him to post about them and explain what he is doing.

Overall, things are going pretty well. Zach is super busy with homework as usual. We are only about 1/3 of the way through the semester and he has already made as many models as he did all of last semester. I stay pretty busy keeping Madie entertained and following her as she explores her surroundings.