Our Journey To The Desert.....Lake Havasu, Arizona :)

Orlando Airport~Ready for Vegas! Gracie is heard through the entire terminal yelling out the window..."oh no!" "Plane, come back...away!" "There it goes!"


Jumping on trampoline with Gramma K.K.


Jumping with cousins


Jumpn' with mama


Cousins Jake, Jenna, Jones & Colter!


Riding the Hippo as Gracie calls it.


Papa Bear & Gracie eating "Dot Dogs" (hot dogs)


On Lake Havasu in the boat...whee!


Todd brings an exciting twist to things as always...


...and yet another...sea shell Todd toes!


Gracie met up with some ducks, we tried feeding them her goldfish, as Papa Bear threw them in for the ducks, she grabbed them & ate them before the ducks could.


Walking along a small California beach on the other side of Lake Havasu City






Papa & Gracie fighting over Diet Coke...what happens in AZ stays in AZ!


Gracie, our little explorer, found a trail and wanted to climb up the little hill, she grabbed my hand for me to come along, so we did and this is us at the top!


Here is our view from the top.




We found pretty Desert Flowers!


More pretty Desert Flowers!


She crashed on the way back.


Date night! Free sitters (grandparents of course) and they paid for our date, wish all sitters came with that package!


Here is the new 1977 Corvette! Whoohoo! Not ours, it's Bill's (Todd's dad)




Gracie loved playing in these bird baths in the back yard. Here she is talking to us while we were all sitting outside.


"SO BIG!!"


"YEAHH!"


Lulu ran a 1/2 marathon...go Lulu!!


Matching t-shirts!

Happy Easter!

We had a really fun Easter with Gracie. Last weekend she had her first egg hunt, which she was awesome! She was running after every egg and as she'd pick them up she'd say "one, two, one two." Then throw them in the basket and go for more. So fun! We colored eggs & she had fun putting stickers on them, and on Good Friday we went to see a kid's show, so there's a photo of her, she's always front and center dancing to the music! We started Easter Day with putting eggs in her bed while she was still sleeping. She woke up and I heard the eggs rolling around and then I hear her say..."EGGS!" silence "OH WOW!!" She was SO excited waking up to eggs, why did we even bother with the basket? We made a bunny cake and she had fun eating her big chocolate bunny her gramma got her! Hope you all had a Happy Easter! xxoo :)

It's me, Gracie, introducing...

I am so proud of my daddy! He built these himself, some Saturdays while mommy was at work I helped him! Here is a link to his website www.fieldelectronicdrums.com and utube link www.youtube.com/user/fieldelectronicdrums (if you haven't already seen it)

Daddy said I'm the official "tester", this is me testing away and rockn' out!

No use crying over spilled milk!

Is that the saying? Well anyway, what about crying over a spilled home made cheesecake?
Just LOOK at that mess!! If Gracie were awake she'd say, "Oh no, mommy! MESS!"



I know you're gasping, HOW on earth did she spill the cheesecake? It didn't even make it out of the frickn' oven! Well, I've been up late, my eyes are crossed and I can't see straight, I should've gone to bed, but no, I ruined Todd's birthday cake this year, which was this darn cheesecake recipe (the one last year was perfect, and the 1st time I'd ever made one, which now I'm willing to bet it was beginner's luck and should have been the first and last time I made one) whatever!
So I thought I'd redeem myself and surprise him for Valentine's Day! So here it is, Todd! Shelby is licking the remains off the floor as I type this. Isn't it lovely? I placed my Valentine's towel ever so carefully next to the remains, to say, Happy Valentine's Day! Maybe next year...maybe not!

I know you are all snickering, asking yourselves, why didn't she just BUY one in the FIRST place? That's fine, but if it hadn't fell in the floor, it's way better than any store bought cheesecake.

And poor Todd, not only does he not get a yummy cheesecake, he's going to have to take the oven door apart because it oozed into these holes, which I have no idea what purpose they serve and you can see cheesecake through the glass. I have made more messes for Todd this week....here's another captivating moment...

Yesterday I was being a "good wife" helping Todd organize his work space. He had these really heavy boxes to put up in the attic. I was concerned about the weight of the boxes and asked him if the beams weren't up there, would they fall through the ceiling? He said yes but we have a floor on top of the ceiling to support whatever we put up there.
So after we were done, I was getting a few toys for Gracie, I took a step on this board that lays on top of a section of the wood beams in this one spot, (the previous owners put it there) so anyway, in a split second the board came flying up and my leg shot through the ceiling, my leg dangling in thin air and I was staring down at the garage floor through the hole I had just created and thankfully the support beams around me broke my fall. I have a cut on my knee and a bruise on my leg.
Here's a photo of the hole that Todd gets to fix! Poor Todd!



PS...I wound up salvaging the cake & decorating it! (no I did not pick up the part that fell on the floor and put it back in! haha even though I have clean floors, that's just gross)

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Love to you all! ;}

It's been a while...

...since I've thought about posting a blog. This year has been good so far. The first day of the year we took the stupid for sale sign out of the yard! So that was a great start, which led me to claim my house back so I went through every part of our house, even the attic and organized. It was actually fun!
Todd's drum business is still in progress, he's at the tail end of it and by next week should start selling them, we are very excited. He plays a show this Saturday night in Orlando, there's going to be a live radio station & a few record companies there watching.
My work has been eventful, a few weeks ago I started doing lash extensions on a male, which has been interesting. He is a trans gender and feels he's a female inside a male's body. He is a very sweet man and of all things he is a self contracted plumber!? It was a bit awkward for me at first, what do I say when I'm finished? "You look so pretty with those lashes!"..."You are FABULASH"...or what I spouted off last time I saw him was "you wear them well!" And I thought to myself, that was well put!
Recently I had a new bride & her mom come in for a makeup trial run. It was Daughter Barbie & Mama Redneck Barbie! Each one had huge collagen injected lips, and it wasn't enough to have HUGE lips, but after one spoke, they would pout them and push them out and pucker them as far as they could and would look at each other, staring with wide eyes for approval. And me, staring back and forth with wide eyes, thinking, are these chicks for real? As I did Daughter Barbie's makeup, Mama Redneck Barbie with black roots, left over lip pencil on her lips, had her legs crossed knitting a blankie for a friends baby, would every so often look up from knitting and pucker her lips out, I wasn't sure if it was in approval or disapproval. And did I mention they were both as fake and baked as fake & bake could possibly be? They must go twice a day! And the bronzer they had on, on top of it!!

Side note - you know I'm just doing this in fun, right? I mean, it was hilarious. The girl was so sweet, she was actually tons of fun, you know, just like Barbie!

So when I was done doing Daughter Barbie's makeup, OH NO! Staring in the mirror she says "I love my eyes", pucker, pucker, turn my face to the side, oh and another pouty pucker, "I love everything" pucker, "but I need a brighter pink lipstick"...pucker. Looks at me, "do you have anything brighter?" Well she was wearing the bright glow in the dark neon Barbie pink shade when she came in, and that is what she wanted..."I'm so sorry the owner doesn't have that color, maybe you'd like to go home and put yours on and see what you think", I said. She looks in the mirror, pucker, pucker...imagining the glowing neon hot pink lips..."okay, I'll do that." So the following week she came in and we did her hair trial run because she loved the makeup with her fabulous glow in the dark neon pink Barbie lipstick! (Gag, barf) Hopefully her soon to be hubby likes it, I'm sure he's blinded by now with it, so it'll be all good on the BIG day with those BIG neon pink lips! :) Don't you just wanna be there on the wedding day to see what HE looks like after they've said their vows and kiss?

Here's a few examples of Gracie's conversations:
Tonight after eating a fruit roll up, which she just had for the first time at her cousin's house this past weekend and loves them, she was sitting on my lap, turns around and looks at me and says
"all done...more?!"
me- "I'm sorry, they're all gone!"
Gracie - "Ooohhh nnnnooo!....More?!"
me - "You ate the last one, sweetie, it's in your tummy!"
Gracie - looks down, pulls her shirt up, looks at me "NO WAY!"

This past week for 3 days in a row she was very distraught about not being able to see the moon. She LOVES the moon, says it with such passion..."MOOONNA" And points and laughs and waves and says "Hi MOOONNNA" The first night she couldn't see it, I told her it was hiding, playing hide & seek with her. So she comes in the house with her head down walking around with this sad look and says "Mooonn, Hide it!" "hide it...Moon!" And sulked. It was pathetic, I felt so bad for her.

Everything is "YAAA" or "WHEEEEE" or "OOOHHH NNNOO" or "NO WAY" or "SHELBY!" or "WOW!" she sings "I said no, I said wow, I said no" And she calls me by my name sometimes, it's very funny.

This morning was a horrible wake up experience, I'll back up and say for some reason she woke during the night, so since I was too tired to check on her daddy went and just brought her in our bed, nice, so that made a wrestless night for all of us. Not to mention Shelby decides to pee in the walkway to the bathroom in the middle of the night, which is a rare occurrence as well. So I wake up to Todd swearing because he got up and stepped in it! Then Gracie wakes up shortly after at 6:30am, sits up, looks at me and says "DONE!" I just stared at her and then wack, she hits me to get up, and before I could react, she takes her other hand, wack and hits me again. I thought, do I need to put her in time out or spank her before we've even gotten out of bed? No good morning, no huggies, just sass and attitude. So she's on the floor, standing next to me, pulling my hand - and this also is not a typical conversation in the morning, the whole night was wacked...
she says "show"
me- say please
gracie- "no"
Todd - trying to silently laugh under the covers
me - say please
gracie - no
Me - say please or you get no show
gracie - no way
me - fine, no show and I'm staying in bed
gracie - no - pulling my hand - show
me - say please
gracie - pu, pu - even though she can say please
me- okay fine I'll take it even though I know you can say the word

This situation showed me we are both stubborn mules, but I won! haha ~ I know, not proper "mom" behavior, actually she was a big girl saying please! Good girl, Gracie!

Side Note: This morning she woke up, gave me the biggest hug, snuggled with me for a little while, then got out of bed, pulled my arm and..."PLEASE"! :) YAAA! Much better morning.