Simply the Bryans Family Blog

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-21T12:00:00.000-07:00

" Sometimes burning bridges isn't a bad thing... It prevents you from going back to a place you should have never been to begin with. "

Merry Christmas and a VERY Happy New Year from our family to yours!

Hello! :) Homemade Play Doh!

2010-09-06T14:05:00.000-06:00

Hello visitors! We'll just pass right on by the fact that I haven't updated this blog in freakin' forever, but hey... here I am! Today I thought I would post a super fun tutorial on how to make HOMEMADE PLAY DOH! Yay!! Found the recipe and just love it! Not sure if I will ever by play doh from the store again- this is CHEAP, EASY and FUN! Emma doesn't enjoy it nearly as much as Abby does, but hey, that's okay! Abby will sit for hours and play with this stuff, and she thinks it's super awesome that "I" made it! ;)

Things are going well here, Emma started school a couple of weeks ago, and she is loving it! Abby starts preschool (tues & thurs) tomorrow and she's very excited! She had a little preschool summer boot camp type thing where they went for a straight week and though the first 2 days were tearful at first, she got into the swing of it and made me some adorable little crafts!

Jer is totally loving his job that he's had since January, and we are ultra blessed that he found it, it's a fantastic company and he gets wonderful benefits and security! I, myself, am busy with this and that. A lot of blog customizing for customers and making blinkies this summer for me! I've started working out with two good friends of mine and the pounds are fallin' off slowly, which is so neat to see! I've never really ever worked out, or attempted any weight loss type thing, but I'm confident that I'm doing it the healthy way (exercise and watching what I eat- a "little" heheheh!) therefore I'm super happy! I couldn't have better friends, they push me when I'm feeling lazy (which is most the time heheh!)... So, onto the play doh!! Enjoy!

Homemade Play Doh

Ingredients

1 Cup Flour

1/2 Cup Salt

1 Cup Water

2 tsp. Cream of Tartar

1 tbsp. cooking oil

food coloring

vanilla (for smell, use whatever smell you want)

I tossed all the dry ingredients into a medium sized sauce pan... the flour, salt and cream of tartar (finally found a use for that stuff! LOL!)

All the wet ingredients went into a measuring cup... the water, a dash of vanilla (for scent, use whatever scent you want)

Abby chose the color yellow, so it's not too pretty being mixed up...

Over medium heat, I poured in the wet ingredients...

Stirring everything together, here I start stirring pretty fiercely, LOL!

Couple minutes of stirring over medium heat, the "dough" starts to pull away from the side and to form a ball...

I turn the dough out onto a plate and then start to kneed it for a couple of mins, till its smooth. Careful, it's warm! ;)

Abby likes to help me kneed it!

Then... it's play time! I had made a batch of purple before the yellow batch... to store it, I just pop it into a ziploc baggie and keep it in the fridge. It lasts for quite a while!

Here's some pics from the first 2 batches we made, green and pink... just tossed the green the other day Abby LOVED it for a long time!

Emma enjoyed some play doh playing too! :)

Sweet lil photo shoot...

2010-06-02T17:24:00.002-06:00

I've been taking a bunch of pictures lately! I guess because the weather is just so nice and the backyard is gorgeous, that seeing the girls back there playing makes me want to take a lot of pics! LOL! I've two of the cutest girlies in the whole wide world! I'm one proud momma! :)

Anytime I grab a camera and head out back Abby runs to the fence and starts striking pose after pose, it's hilarious!

And... after today's eye dr exam... miss Emma! :)

Family website FINALLY updated!

2010-06-02T12:34:00.000-06:00

WHEW! I've spent the last 2 1/2 days updating our family website! Along with several family picture pages, I've added the three following celebration pages:

Abby's 3rd Birthday Page!

Easter 2010 Celebration Page!

Christmas 2009 Celebration Page!

Hello!

2010-05-28T10:46:00.002-06:00

Wow, has it been forever or what?! Well yesterday was Emma's last day of 1st grade, so we are officially on "summer vacation" with a nippy 51 degrees and thunderstorms for weather. LOL! We've been so busy this year registering Abby for a summer week of pre-preschool and her fully registered for preschool starting in September, getting Emma "graduated" from 1st grade AND Girl Scouts- she's going to be a big 2nd grader AND Brownie next year! We are so proud of her, we don't even know the words to explain it to her other than to tell her we are proud, and even though she smiles and tries hard to be a good girl and do the right thing, I don't think she will ever fully understand the utter pride and love we have for her until she's looking into the eyes of her own children with such love... It's been such fun raising my girls thus far and I overflow with pride and love every day!

We had planned an extravagant summer with our first actual family vacation to either South Dakota or to the beaches of Washington and Oregon, but we decided something smaller to start would be in order, so we think we might take an extended weekend break to a near by hot springs and plan a few fun little memories along the way. Emma also has summer camp with Girl Scouts up near Red Lodge in July, as well as a SEVENTH birthday! Whew!

Recently I've been confronted with a lot of various family related topics and issues and even though we'd love to visit Washington so the girls can see where their Grandma Debby and Grandpa Wayne live, the past month has been pretty rough for our close little family. A couple of days ago, my dad self admitted to an in-patient therapy for 21 days, and he really needs this summer to get his bearings and heal from his lifelong disease and battle with alcohol that's been reeking havoc on himself and our little family. I don't live near, or I think I would be affected more deeply, but I will forever love my daddy and am so proud that he's finally taken this very important step in his life, because I want him around me, Jeremy and the girls for a lot longer! He's so strong and amazing, with his faults and his regrets... he's only human and even though he's admitted his problem a long time ago (isn't that the first step... admittance?), he's finally just now taking the steps necessary to help heal himself and our little family. We don't have a huge extended family, it's pretty much just his sister and two brothers, their dad, me, my mom and brother and a couple of cousins, but we all used to be very close as I was growing up, so they are all dear to me. Family is so very important, and it's sad sometimes that I'm not able to see the ones who love me, Jeremy and the girls as much as they do, more often.

I haven't been taking many pictures of importance lately, just snapping a few off each month. I guess I need to get back into being camera crazy huh? Maybe this summer when the weather is much nicer! I will leave you all with a few random pictures! Take care all, and remember to love those who love you!

Abby snuck into a picture Jer was trying to take of our yard... good job at a chemical company = GORGEOUS green, lush grass in the summer! :)

Our adorable 1st grader (at the time)! Next year- 2nd GRADE!

Here's Emma's smock from Girl Scouts, all of her patches are on and she's ready to become a Brownie next year! May 31st is her bridging ceremony!

Another picture Abby snuck into! Here's 24 completely amazingly gorgeous roses I got from my mom and dad for my 32nd birthday earlier this month!

And the night before my mom left from a long stay with us, we snapped a picture of the girls fresh out of the bath and a very tired grandma! Miss you mommy! Love you the mostest! :*)

Here comes Peter Cottontail...

2010-03-24T12:33:00.001-06:00

Been a while?!

2010-03-01T11:09:00.000-07:00

Hello, hello blog visitors, family and friends! It's been about forever huh? I guess I just get wrapped up in everyday life that I completely space updating this neglected family blog! Not that our family isn't around and kickin', just that we get busy! And especially busy was this weekend! I'm so proud of the UMPH that Jeremy had this weekend, LOL! We painted and re-arranged the girls bedroom for starters, it's now pepto pink! LMBO! I love it, but it's sure PINK! heheh! I'll have pics later in the post! That was on Saturday, we had gotten started on Friday, moving out the toys and whatnot then we all enjoyed some painting and by the end of the day, everything was moved back in, all re-arranged and even some toys retired! While the first coat of paint was drying Saturday, we hustled out into the backyard and did some major raking! The snow has been melting very slowly, and the ground is still pretty hard, but the leaves and DEER POOP (OMG!!!) was exposed and rake-able! So to raking we went! 5 or 6 lawn bags later, the yard is looking like it's ready for SPRING which is right around the corner, thank goodness!
Oh and some exciting news~ my mom is going to be here in THIRTEEN days! WOOHOO! It will be so nice to have that 'mother figure' around to give that unconditional love that I miss, lord knows I don't have anything that even vaguely resembles either of the things I just mentioned! Ah well, what can ya do?! Not a whole lot other than to keep your chin up and focused on the positive folks in your life! So other than a super busy month with Girl Scouts (Emma has a Girl Scout Fashion Show potluck later this month and Girl Scout COOOOKIES! YUM!) and my mom visiting, we are just pluggin' away at life! Jeremy loves his new job that he started Jan. 5th and that makes life so much nicer! We are truly blessed that he found such a wonderful company to settle into! Ah well, I promised some pictures, so I better get those posted! thanks for stopping by, hope everyone's March is super fantastic and that you keep those positive, uplifting people in your life close to you and let them know they are loved!

PRETTY IN PINK!!! :D

Abby was sooo pooped out at the end of the day!

Told ya she was pooped out! She passed out eating a cookie at the kitchen table! LOL!

Random Girl Scout meeting, sitting in their circle!

And Abby helping mommy do some cleaning! Never too early to start them off slavin' away!

Oh Happy Day! LOL!

2010-02-01T10:56:00.003-07:00

Hi visitors, family and friends! Has Uncle Sam visited you all yet?! Well he visited us over the weekend and after dolling out a large chunk to bills and getting everything payed up through April, we decided to treat ourselves to a few goodies! ;) We re-decorated our living room and are completely loving the results! The girls also got a bunk bed, and Abby moved into Emma's room. THAT has been a struggle, but we're taking it day by day, hoping that it will get easier/better for us.

Here's a few pictures from the last little while since I updated last... enjoy! Hope everyone had a nice weekend! :)

Bundling the girls up to walk Emma to school!

Tons of snow!

So the girls played out in it!

Pretty pic in black 'n white of Abby and I :)

Abby dressing up LOL!

Getting ready to go to Abby's first dentist appt...

And... some gorgeous deer right outside my back door!

Pretty Girl!

Another pic of Abby and I!

And our living room re-decorated!

Girls and the new bunk bed! :)

...from a friend.

2010-01-08T14:05:00.003-07:00

I got this wonderful digi-scrapping layout from an online bestie of mine named Tammy. She loves to digi-scrap with pics of the girls, and she made this for me... I just adore it to bits and pieces! Thank you Tammy!

(to see full credits of layout, click +here+)
(to see layout full size, just click picture)

Wanna see something cute????

2010-01-03T18:43:00.000-07:00

Family and friends have a wonderful 2010!

Some pics! :)

2009-12-31T13:49:00.002-07:00

Well Happy New Years Eve, visitors! I hope your 2010 is a fantastic one! And I hope you all had a great Christmas! Our decorations are all taken down, though the girls continue to sing Christmas carols non-stop! I have to get our family xmas page going eventually, and will add all the pictures I took xmas morning, but here is a small taste + some random other pics! :)

Christmas morning...

Here was our tree Christmas morning- the girls got tons of loot! :)

Emma big present from Santa

Abby just having opened a present

A couple of pics of some of their loot...

Christmas Eve we decorated some cookies for Santa...

Emma's Girl Scout Troop had a Christmas Party, which was so fun!

Emma decorating her gingerbread house...

Emma eye balling Girl Scout friend Madison while she opens her present (we picked Madison and got her her present!)...

Emma opening her present from a girl scout friend, Dana

A couple of cute pics of Abby's new haircut from Jer's phone @ the haircut place...

Thanks for visiting everyone! We want to put a special thank you out there to our family and friends who we shared the holidays with, and a special thank you to family and friends from whom we received special gifts from! We all appreciate your love and friendship very much! Remember to treat people with love and kindness for the 2010 year, and know that YOU are special in your own way and to LOVE yourself! :) Happy New Year!

Hello!

2009-12-23T10:03:00.000-07:00

Hello and ALMOST Merry Christmas! heheh! Well Emma's been on break this whole week and it's been nice to just take it easy and relax... oh ya, and to sleep in! ;) The girls have been good, getting a little stir crazy here and there, but that is to be expected. Our snow had melted for a while, but currently, it's snowing again and we have a bit on the ground now. We've finished our shopping for the girls and I've wrapped everything... just the other day we took the girls to the store to pick out presents to eachother, which was fun to see what either one thought the other would like! Last night Jer went to a super awesome website called the PNP... http://portablenorthpole.tv/home and he put Emma's name in there and she watched it this morning! She's all full of questions and was in awe! It was sooo cute! What a fun idea to keep the idea of Santa alive!

The girls got their Christmas pics taken... you want to see some cute kiddo's?? Of course you do!

Told you they were cute! :) Hehehe! I have to thank Jeremy's family and everyone involved that got the girlies to smile so adorably!

So yesterday I got our package from my folks and wrapped all of their presents to the girls (and enjoyed our gift card- thank you mom and dad!!!) and was brave and put them under our tree. I haven't put any of the other gifts under there, they are all still in hiding (lol!)- but the girls have done very good, only one package out of place this morning! I was scared to wake up and see wrapping paper everywhere and toys spread across the living room, ROFL! But... they did awesome and haven't even shaken a box (Jer!!!)... so I'm very proud of them! It's awesome that they are enjoying Christmas so much this year! I think it's because there's an overall feeling of peace and happiness this year... Things are really looking up for our little family and I can't wait to see how amazing our new year is going to be! I've got some really special new years resolutions that I'm going to adhere to and make sure that my girls have a great 2010! I want to be a happier mommy and a more loving wife! How's that for a resolution!? ;) I'm going to try hard to raise my girls w/ positivity and love in their hearts and try and keep them away from negativity and teach them what is and is not acceptable in how people treat them. It will be a year for learning, love and peace!

I've got some more pictures I've rummaged up... here's some for everyone's viewing pleasure, heheh!

Did I mention that I HATE kazoos?

And per usual... Abby's dressing up... she's ALWAYS got something over her clothing!

Forts are HUGE right now! Daddy's always making some sort of "house" or fort for the girls!

Holy Static, Batman! LOL!

This is what Emma's teacher had the kiddo's make for parent xmas presents...

I completely blubbered while reading this poem.... gotta love when Emma looks at me while my voice is all cracking and squeaking towards the end and says "Are you crying?!" LMBO!

(click to make picture bigger if you want to read it)

Emma w/ her Girl Scout troop getting ready to sing Xmas Carols for a local nursing home...

Well I better wrap it up, LMBO! Get it... wrap?!? I want to wish everyone that visits a very Merry Christmas and a positive and loving New Year! Check back soon, there will be tons of pics this weekend!

The Girls & Santa

2009-12-15T11:29:00.000-07:00

It's been an extremely busy week! I'm sure the rest of this week will prove to stay busy too! It will be nice to be able to relax during Emma's Christmas vacation which starts the 18th... sleeping in- ahhhh! :D So recently we took the girls to go see Santa and Abby did so good this year! Every other year since she's pretty much freaked out big time, lol! This year we kinda had to drag her off of his lap, she was diggin' him! heheh! So here is the picture we got! Hope everyone's having a great week!

Some holiday pictures...

2009-12-11T13:37:00.001-07:00

Hello blog visitors! :) I have a slew of pics to post of the holiday shenanigans going on here in the Bryan household... Girls decorated a gingerbread house recently, and we put up our Christmas tree as well, so I snapped off some pictures of that occasion as well! Hope everyone else is enjoying getting ready for the holidays! We are planning a nice, mellow Christmas this year at home and I've really enjoyed decorating for it this year... so enough rambling from the peanut gallery, here's some pics!

Abby wouldn't stop eating the icky candy! Who knows how old it was!

Our pretty finished Gingerbread House! :)

The girls decorating our tree....

How about some pictures?!

2009-12-04T14:47:00.000-07:00

Anyone want to see some pictures?! Yes? Well... here's some! :)

These pics are from a Girls Scouts "Bring a Friend Night" thingy that Emma went to this past Monday night... she invited a friend from her class, Erin, who ended up joining Girl Scouts!

They learned about Girl Scouts and at this particular time, they built edible campfires (out of candies hehe!) and learned about campfire safety...

The pictures below are from a Girl Scouts Pot Luck and Investiture Ceremony we had a bit ago...

Some of the troop girlies that could make it...

Abby & her friend Alayna giving hugs!

Girlies on stage...

And a little chicken nugget love! :)

Thanks for stopping by! Take care and remember to be kind! <3

Light bulb moment...

2009-12-02T14:09:00.004-07:00

You know what I decided today? I decided that I'm done apologizing for being ME. I'm done saying sorry for the music I listen to or the way that I raise my kids. I'm done saying sorry for the friends that I keep, or the things that I find interesting. I'm done appeasing people. I'm done with the fake smiles and laughter. I'm NOT a bad person, and I refuse to let anyone treat me like I am. I am done saying sorry for my "quirks". I'm pretty freaking normal considering people in this day and age... I don't kick bunny rabbits or trip little kids... I'm pretty damn NORMAL. I'm HAPPY being me. If you don't like me, don't worry about me. If you think I'm not raising my children properly, take it somewhere else, I DON'T CARE. You think I'm spoiled? Well, I am- by my mother, father, husband and my two perfect daughters- they spoil me AND... I let them! I'm done worrying about the people who are worrying ABOUT WHAT I'm DOING! If you don't like me, don't worry about what I'm doing... It's NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS! I have enough to worry about in my life... don't YOU in yours?! I am not going to burden people anymore. I won't pretend to like you, and you can stop pretending to like me! I don't need anyone in my life other than the people who genuinely care about me... if that's not you, you know where the door is. I'm done being bullied- and YES I said bullied. I refuse to be called ungrateful simply because I won't take abuse. So let's say... someone chooses to do something nice for you- does that entitle them to treat you like crap? To say vicious things about you within earshot?? To roll their eyes, scoff and demean you at any given opportunity?? Or to judge you? Or gang up on you with like minded people? NO it does NOT! No one deserves to be mistreated, EVER. Some people are so childish and immature that you just can't help them- they enjoy the way that they are, and will never, ever admit that they are wrong! To those people, I say GOOD RIDDANCE!

This is my blog, to express my feelings, and I don't care if it's on the internet for God and everyone to see, I will post whatever I want to, whenever I want to, be it about my family, pictures of my girls, or about how I am feeling on any particular day. That's all for now... I'm off to be a mother, wife and daughter to my loving, caring, wise and amazing mother & father. And obviously, the use of the word "YOU" in this post is generalized... but I'm sure the "YOU" people know who YOU are! Don't worry about me, and I most certainly won't worry about you! I'm done with nasty people in my life- completely DONE and OVER IT! My mother told me today on the phone not to be small... she said "Don't be small, Sarah..." and she is so right. I can't lower myself to the degree that some people put themselves at... I can't. It will ruin MY life and everyone in it and I care about the people in my life. I care about how I treat people, and how I EFFECT people. Every word we say in negativity will hurt someone, or hurt someone's someone be it their child, their significant other... it doesn't matter. It's a vicious circle this thing we call Hate. So here I am, refusing to be small! I'll raise my chin up and be proud of myself and my husband and children, because they are amazing. I will make mistakes, and I will apologize (novel idea, huh?) for them... I will be ME, and I will be proud. Take care readers, and remember to be kind... I know it might be a struggle for some... but TRY. :)

Reminders...

2009-11-30T13:52:00.002-07:00

"The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past . . . we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. . . . I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it."

Charles Swindoll

"Cruelty hardens and degrades, kindness reforms and ennobles."

Robert Ingersoll

"Of all the manifestations of power, restraint impresses men the most."

Thucydides

"Minding your own business . . . includes [avoiding] eavesdropping, gossiping, talking behind other people's backs, and analyzing or trying to figure out other people."

Richard Carlson

"Great people talk about ideas. Small people talk about others."

Unknown

"Know thyself."

Socrates

"To give up your individuality is to annihilate yourself."

Robert Ingersoll

"What doesn't destroy me makes me stronger."

Friedrich Nietzsche

Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.

Thomas à Kempis, Imitation of Christ, c.1420

Anyone can become angry - that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way; this is not easy.

Aristotle

Of the seven deadly sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back- in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you.

Frederick Buechner

What I’ve learned about being angry with people is that it generally hurts you more than it hurts them.

Oprah Winfrey

All excess is ill, but drunkenness is of the worst sort. It spoils health, dismounts the mind, and unmans men. It reveals secrets, is quarrelsome, lascivious, impudent, dangerous and bad.

William Penn

It is only out of ignorance that people are cruel, because they really don’t think it will come back.

Maya Angelou

The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism.
William Osler

When you stop drinking, you have to deal with this marvelous personality that started you drinking in the first place.
-Jimmy Breslin

The greatest gift a parent can give a child is unconditional love. As a child wanders and strays, finding his bearings, he needs a sense of absolute love from a parent. There's nothing wrong with tough love, as long as the love is unconditional.
-George Herbert Walker Bush

If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do well matters very much.
Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis

When you are a mother you are never really alone in your thoughts. A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.
Sophia Loren

Everybody prays whether [you think] of it as praying or not. The odd silence you fall into when something very beautiful is happening or something very good or very bad. The ah-h-h-h! that sometimes floats up out of you as out of a Fourth of July crowd when the sky-rocket bursts over the water. The stammer of pain at somebody else's pain. The stammer of joy at somebody else's joy. Whatever words or sounds you use for sighing with over your own life. These are all prayers in their way. These are all spoken not just to yourself but to something even more familiar than yourself and even more strange than the world.
Frederick Buechner

Compassion is sometimes the fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else's skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too.
Frederick Buechner

Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid.
Frederick Buechner

You can't be too careful what you tell a child because you never know what he'll take hold of and spend the rest of his life remembering you by.
Frederick Buechner

Chinese Proverbs

A bad word whispered will echo a hundred miles.

A closed mind is like a closed book; just a block of wood.

A man must despise himself before others will.

And to finish this post off... thank you for stopping by our blog! Will be posting pictures soon! :)

Remember... "Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless." ~Mother Teresa

'Nuff said... :D

2009-11-28T12:14:00.001-07:00

A little Emma-Awesome'ness...

2009-11-19T10:07:00.001-07:00

Update! :) 11-1-09

2009-11-01T09:21:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! Thanks for stopping by! We enjoyed our Halloween celebration last night, and hope that you all enjoyed yours! :) Over the last couple of weeks, we've had a fun Girl Scouts Halloween Party (that our troop hosted!) and Emma enjoyed a class party, and last night we went over to a friends house, had pizza and then went trick or treating with their family! Here's a few pictures over the last little while, and later today (hopefully) I will get some pictures uploaded to our family website...

Emma's Girl Scouts Halloween Party....

Emma, Victoria and Savanna

Emma as Ariel

Some of the girls from Emma's girl scout troop

Emma's team putting together their skeleton first (contest)!

Costume Contest

Two lil kitties! hehehe! Myself and Jamie (fellow girl scout mommy)

Ahhh! Don't be scared! :P

Carving pumpkins & Trick or Treating...

Every other word was EWWW, GROSS... LOL!

Our finished pumpkins! Jer made me a skully pumpkin this year!!! :)

Scary face!

Pretty girls!

Trick or treating with friends!

Emma and Victoria

Daddy and Abby

Our lit up pumpkins!

Abby's 3rd Birthday! YAY! 10-5-09

2009-10-05T11:08:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone! I have some fun birthday pictures to share! Abby turned 3 on October 3rd and we had her birthday party last night @ Chuck E Cheese! Here's some pics! Enjoy! I have some other random pics towards the bottom! :) Thanks for stopping by!

Abby's pretty cake!

Mmmm cake time! :)

Present opening time!

Playing @ Chuck E Cheese!

Abby and her friend Alayna

Typical Abby! Grrrr!

Abby and Alayna playing!

Abby this morning playing in her dress up clothes! :)

Little Update... 9-14-09

2009-09-14T12:22:00.000-06:00

First off... Happy Birthday Jer!!! The big 3-0!!!! :D Hehehe! Now, onto some pictures, hehe! This wknd, our Girl Scout troop set up a fundraiser to raise some $ for future projects and stuff for the girlies, and it was super fun! We set up a car wash, hot dog lunch and sold the left over cookies we had. We did pretty well, and had a really nice time! Here's a few pictures!

And this past week, Emma went to the dentist to get a baby tooth pulled, because there was the adult tooth coming up behind it quickly! She should be a jack o lantern for halloween, lol!

Luckily, Emma's quite fond of the dentist! LOL!

And a quick pic of Abby, my forever tinkerbell! She's almost always in some sort of dress up dress lately, her favorite is Tink... *sigh*

Thanks for stopping by everyone! Hope you're having a good end to your summer! thanks for stopping by!

Hi! Sharing some pics... 9-6-09

2009-09-06T13:18:00.001-06:00

Hello, hello! Here I am sharing some pics over the last little bit... hope you enjoy them and thanks for stopping by!

Here's a couple of random pics!

Here's Abby, on our way to pic Emma up from her first day of school...

Hi Mom! I had a good first day of school, here's a hug! :)

Here's a bunch of pictures I took the other day! We got some very friendly AND HUNGRY visitors!

Momma duck almost came into our house for more crackers! LOL!

Abby wasn't quite sure what to think of Momma duck getting too close!

These babies are soo precious!

There she goes w/ her babies!

And here are even more pics of Momma duck and her babies! I can't help myself from taking pics of them, I think they are soo cute!

I moved their little cracker stash down towards the grass some, they were pooping all over my patio! LOL!

Momma duck was getting a little huffy at me, she was puffing herself up and making a funky noise thru her nose holes, so I thought it was best to stop taking pictures! LOL! She is sure nice when I'm bringing her and babies food, but she doesn't want me to hang around for long!

And Saturday afternoon, we took the girls to a super fun park that was equipped with a great little water area- which was perfect since it was SOOOO hot!

Abby was having TOO much fun w/ the water gun things! LOL!

SOAKED! :P

Back home... for a little bit of light reading... what's that she's reading??

Yep, we're starting her early... LMBO!!!! She's got good taste, huh?! ;)

Back to school for Emma! 9-28-09

2009-08-28T09:02:00.002-06:00

Emma started school on Tuesday this week! Our big 1st grader! We are so proud of her, and she loves school so much! So it's just Abby and I during the day now, she misses her big sister a lot through the day. This week has been kinda rough, getting back onto schedule and I've recently registered as an adult sort of council member for our local Girl Scout troop, so I've been attending a lot of adult meetings, I normally wouldn't have even been privy to... Tuesday we had a huge convention in Billings and all of the moms in our troop had registered and joined, so we were all there, and then last night was a late night too, having a service unit meeting here in town. Whew! Busy busy! And that doesn't include Emma's regular every 2 wk Girl Scout meetings! :D I'm having a blinkie sale this week too, and oh my goodness, I kinda had a sneaking suspicion that it would be the end of me, and it has been. LOL! I've got mounting orders and not enough hours in a day to get them done AND take care of everyone else... I just about had a nervous break down yesterday thinking about it all! I've got my graphics store to take care of, and I revamped our family website recently, so I've just taken on a little bit TOO much, I think. Mommy needs a vaca! :P Anyway, enough blabbering... my whole point of my post was to share the link to Emma's 1st Grade webpage that I made the other day... enjoy!

Click me to go to Emma's 1st Grade webpage!

So excited!!! 8-21-09

2009-08-21T13:06:00.001-06:00

Picture Update! :) 8-16-09

2009-08-16T13:37:00.001-06:00

I know, I know, I've been a naughty blogger, LOL! I'm thinkin' I may give this lil blog a face lift, what do y'all think? LOL! I will work on that next! :D Here are some pictures of what's been going on lately...

My mom and dad were here to visit this past month, and we hung out a lot! One of the days, we went to Cooke City, which is a nice and barfy ride, LOL! Just up over a HUGE mountain pass and through winding, insane roads, LOL! It was good times for sure! heheh!

Grandma Debby and Abby

Grandpa Wayne and Emma

Abby

Lots of freaking driving!

Some scenic photos! :)

Emma lost her first tooth a few weeks ago, it was quite traumatic and the next one won't be TOUCHED until it falls out of her head! LOL! Jer pulled it and you would have thought he killed a puppy in front of her. Emma's quite dramatic anyway and very sensitive, so she screamed bloody murder for about 10 mins straight and wouldn't look at the tooth, nor touch the tooth, nor have anything to do with anything for a while there. She got over it quick though and loves her toothless grin! :D

And finally, we went to the Montana State Fair last night, and it was a total blast! We all went on rides and ate yummy fair food! Abby's getting old enough to enjoy rides more and we were all able to have a nice time last night, we danced to a funky cover band playing, watched a few minutes of a comedian hypnotist, Abby experienced her first rides and we grubbed down on some AWESOME deep fried cheesecake and snickers! YUM!!

On our way to the fair

Me w/ the girls on the carousel

Daddy having some fun too!

We went on a ride called the Wiggly Wurm next, it was fun!

Loadin' everyone up!

Abby had a blast!

Daddy and Emma gettin' on the ferris wheel, Abby and I are already on it (and I'm freaking out, lol!)

HI UP THERE!

Abby looking up at Daddy and sister!

Daddy and Emma got off the ride first... HI DOWN THERE!

Did I mention the yummy food!!! Mmmm!

Daddy sharing his Gyro's!

Mmmm deep fried cheesecake!

The girls got ice cream!

The VERY bad idea ride... the ominous clouds should have given it away...

Emma was smiling, until the ride started... she now calls this ride The Swing of DOOM, LOL!

Mommy and Emma on bumper cars!

Fillin' 'em fulla sugar before heading home! :D

That's about it for now! Emma starts school soon, so there will be more pictures, I'm sure!!! thanks for stopping by! Hope everyone's having a nice summer! :D

Hi all! 7-18-09

2009-07-18T17:48:00.001-06:00

Thought I would do some picture updating since I just took a million pics off my camera! Things here have been crazy- Abby's decided she wants to pee on the potty now, but no pooping. Which I completely get, that is totally fine... but the cool part is, even when she's in a diaper, she will come to me and ask to go pee! :) So we are about 50% panties and 50% diapers around here, it definitely is keeping me on my toes that is for sure! I wanted to get a lot done for my store as well since my mom and dad will be here Monday evening to visit for the week, and I don't want to have to worry about designing stuff for the weekend when I release my new items! I just released some super cute blog wear for Blogger users that I'm really excited about, I hope they become popular. They are relatively cheap too, so that is a plus! Even my friend who isn't too savvy in the blogger installing department was able to install and even customize the graphics for the blank tags and stuff, so it's pretty easy to do! It's been hotter 'n heck around these parts so there's been a lot of sprinkler and pool playing! The other weekend we went to Thermopolis Wyoming for a family friends funeral service, and oh my gosh was it ever HOT there, probably up around 100 degrees for sure. Man, all I did that whole trip aside from chasing after Abby's little butt was SWEAT. Blech. I have a few pictures from our trip and a few others from the past couple of weeks! Hope that everyone is doing well, thanks for stopping by!

Abby's a big girl!!! We went and let her pick out her own panties!

Girls playing in the sprinkler the other day...

LOL!!!

Brrrrrrr !!

Silly girls!

Now Emma's cold... BrrrrRRR!

It was about 98 degrees outside that day but they both managed to be VERY cold!

One night after dinner we went across the street to the school that Emma will be going to in Aug, and played on the playground there...

Abby's a nut!

This was her totally adorable expression after she climbed that by herself!

LOL!

At home rolling around in books... LOL!

This is Abby crossing her arms over her chest giving me the pouty face...

Another one of the girls' antics... making a "bed" on top of the coffee table, complete w/ the pillows from the couch and Emma's blanket from her bed...

Goldie got a new home! I wasn't sure he was going to make it there for a while, he worried me... but he's bouncing back!

The girls on our way to Thermopolis Wyoming!

This picture is for my mom, it's an inside joke!!! :D

Once we got to Thermopolis, we met Jer's folks at a mexican restaurant and Abby enjoyed some lip gloss while waiting... LOL!

Update! :) 7-6-09

2009-07-06T13:35:00.001-06:00

Hi all! I'm gonna post a bunch of pics that I've taken over the last little bit... Emma had her 6th actual birthDAY on July 3rd, so my baby is six now! WOW! Time flies when you're raisin' kids huh! Heheh! She's a sweet heart and is so well behaved, I'm so proud of her! She had a "pretend" party at school before school ended, then a b-day party w/ her friend Katey a couple weeks ago, and now finally, she has had her "real" birthday! She and I went to see Ice Age 3 in 3D, which was super awesome. I'd never seen a 3D movie in the theaters before, it was freakin' RAD! LOL! We grabbed a small pack of cupcakes for dessert, since we were kinda burnt out on birthday cake from her party the week+ prior, so some chocolate cupcakes were had by all! YUM! She got some b-day money from her GG (great grandma) and a gift card from my mom and dad, so she got to go to the store and pick out something (pics below! hehe) special. The next day was the 4th, and we headed up to Red Lodge to Jer's folks to see the parade there. The weather was lovely, and a lil storm blew in, cooling it off and offering some cloud cover, it was great. Got to see my MIL's garden she has going on, and Emma even has a little section (I should have taken pics, dang it!) and it's soo freakin' cool! We had a super weekend and here's some pictures! :) Thanks for stopping by!

Miss Abby!

I have *THE* most adorable children ever... they take my breath away...

The girls trying to kill themselves by sliding down the stairs on blankets and pillows... *sigh*

4th of July in Red Lodge, at the parade. Abby with her harness on, LOL!

I'm chillaxin' in Abby's stroller! ROFLMAO!

Emma's got the best view, right on PaPa's shoulders!

Grandma got Abby a push up ice cream!

Then daddy gave her a sour candy and she spit it out with an icky face!

The Budweiser Clydesdale's

And their pimp ride! LOL!

One of the toys Emma picked out...

Daddy helping her put it together...

The other toy she got with her birthday money.

Balloon Jer got her for the morning of her birthday...

Abby playing outside...

Giving me the stink face!

4th of July! :)

Jer setting off a smoke firework thingy's...

...and Abby plugging her nose, it was so stinky!!!LOL!

Emma and Jer with sparklers...

The girls enjoying homemade pudding pops!

Emma's 6th Birthday Party Day! 6-30-09

2009-06-30T08:46:00.002-06:00

LOL! I was talking to my mom on the phone last night and she loving reminded me yet again, that I need to update this poor forgotten blog! hehe! So, I've been extremely busy with my new website and guess what?! It's done!!! woohoo! I will more than likely make new blinkies today and alter some older ones w/ the old blog url on it, but here it is: http://www.designsbysarahbryan.com! That site, right now, is for my blinkie and blog design. Hopefully this site will be more fun and easier to navigate! It's definitely easier to work with, than the blogger platform! AND... I edited the free template and added all of the content BY HAND! I didn't open FrontPage once!!!! All with good old notepad and firefox! Well, I used a program called notepad++, which edits particular types of files and it ROCKS! So, now I have the week to work on a brand new didi scrapbooking collab I agree'd to take part in with my store partner/friend Tammy and another store owner/friend. So, it should be really fun, I'm hopefully going to bust out my part today or tomorrow. I have a lot of ideas brewing! So on Saturday we had Emma's 6th birthday party day! LOL! She's not technically 6 until July 3rd (which is right around the corner!) but another girl scout mom friend of mine named Sherri thought it would be fun to do their b-days on the same day since a lot of our same friends are in girl scouts too and some are going to be busy the rest of the summer etc etc. So Sherri and I busted it out, and it was fun planning and playing! :) The girls had a nice time too! We went to the local park here called Kids Kingdom and the kiddo's played while the mom's hung around and chatted. I have some pictures here to post, so I will get to those before I get busy for the day! Thanks for stopping by!

MMMM! cake!!!

Attempting to light the candles, but it didn't work, too breezy in the totally gorgeous day!

So the girls pretended to blow out the candles! LOL!

Cuttin' and passin' around cake!

Munchin' cake 'n ice cream!

A great barbie, coloring book, lip gloss and bracelets from Savannah her sister and Mom! :)

Putting on lip gloss!

Cute coloring book!

Emma's buddy Katey opening her card and present!

Abby and Daddy!

Spongebob bubbles!

More present opening! :)

The girls spread out on a blankie doin' the present thing!

Reading a card from friend Madison!

Busy busy! :)

2009-06-24T14:35:00.000-06:00

Hey readers! Sorry it's been a while since I last updated! Ever since my mom left and I hadn't updated a while, I kinda just drifted away from the blog! It doesn't mean anything bad or weird happened, we are doing the same ol' thing here! Enjoying our summer, that is for sure! I think the hot weather has come finally, today it's close to 90 degree's out there, but I'm pretty chilly indoors w/ air conditioning, LOL! Emma, Abby and I went to a Piggies and Paws party last night, which was really fun, at a friends house and boy were there a lot of people there! Guess everyone wanted a keepsake! It's where you do a hand or foot print and add a few embellishements (scrapbooking) and matting to it, and frame it up nicely, it should be really cute when it's done. Other than that, I've been really busy trying to do my part, monetarily, for the household, LOL! I recently updated a web site that I made for Jer's previous co-worker (www.thomaelumber.com) and then I finished a customers blog yesterday (www.adorableexpressions.blogspot.com) which turned out extremely cute if I do say so myself! haha! I will finish up my 3rd blinkie of the day shortly (just finished my second one a minute ago) AND... yesterday I purchased another web site for my blinkie, blog and web site design! www.designsbysarahbryan.com. I'm hoping to make this site more professional and streamline, easy for people to navigate and maybe I can generate more traffic and get more jobs! :) Wouldn't it just be fabulous if I could go back to school to learn more about web design? *sigh* That would rock, but it's REALLY not in the cards at this point! So yes, very busy for sure! The girls are doing good, Abby actually PEE'D ON THE POTTY last night!!! She always sits up there and plays around doing this and that with the TP and everything else she can get her hands on, but last night she said to me "OH! I have to PEE!" and so we hurried to the potty and she sat there for a minute, then got all concentrated looking and went! I'm so proud of her! She hasn't said anything about going today, but it's okay! It's a start! LOL! I'm not going to really START training until she turns 3, which is coming up in Oct. Maybe she will surprise me and take the lead before then! Well, my little break is over! Time to whip out another blinkie and get it sent off to it's owner! :) Hope everyone's having a nice week and thanks for being patient with my lack of updates! Pictures next time I promise!

Huge Update! Tons of pictures!

2009-06-16T10:51:00.001-06:00

Okay, this will probably be the longest post ever! LOL! It's been forever since I updated our family blog, but for good reason! My mom just left last Saturday back home, she was visiting for a few weeks and it was so nice! *sniffle* I miss her a lot and I know she misses us too! She will be back at the end of July w/ my dad (who drives straight here from WA like a mad man!), so that is going to be super fun! Wow, where did I leave off? Okay... Emma graduated Kindergarten and we're so proud of her! Her last day of school was June 5th, and my mom got here on the 29th and she also celebrated her birthday here too, which is June 6th, we took her out to eat and hopefully she had a nice b-day! :) While she was here she helped give my back porch a makeover, lol! She spent most her 'vacation money' on flowers, pots and potting soil to beautify my outdoors! It was so nice to plant flowers with her and enjoy a few days of sun. It's been an interesting spring, almost summer, with a lot of overcast and rain showers! I know it will be hot soon though... Oh! and me and a friend are planning our kiddo's b-day parties for the same day and time. The girls met in Daisy Scouts and have b-days in the same month (July), so we figured we'd get together w/ the rest of the scouts and just have a fun b-day party! It's super duper soon though, so we have to get crackin' on that! LOL! I have the invites that I have to send out, so that is on me and I don't want to procrastinate either! It should be a fun time with a bunch-a 5 and 6 year old girls runnin' amok! LOL! So, summer break has started for Emma, she really misses going to school, she got a little teary eyed thinking about not going to school for a while hehe! I really am happy she loves school so much, hope she feels that way for a while! Well I have a lot of pictures, so I will post some of those for everyone to peruse! Thanks for stopping by!

Neighbor was cleaning out her shed and found an old trampoline and gave it to the girls! LOL!

Emma in the playhouse door way...

Pretty flowers!

Future home of wild flowers!

My mom planting flowers!

Some daisies and a basket w/ marigolds and sage in it! :)

A petunia (Emma picked it out) and some Thyme

Abby!

Emma Lou!

NAUGHTY SQUIRRRREL! Eating the bird seed out of the feeder!

Girls wrasssslin'

My mom and the girls

PARENTAL SUPERVISION FAIL!!!!

So.... lonely.... LOL! Poor Abby! She never gets to have any fun... *pout pout*

Also, while my mom was here, Emma had her Girls Scouts Spa Party, LOL! It was a fun night of pizza, kiddo facials, fingernail and toenail painting and giggles! Oh, and the girls had to be in their jammies! LOL!

Getting a facial!

EWWWW! It's okay, it's just oatmeal and honey!

Fingernails getting painted!

There was a lot of coloring while my mom was visiting!

Oh and we have Supergirl issues in this house! A ton of outfits w/ Supergirl on them... these are just a couple... LOL! They were all Emma's and passed down to Abby! Which reminds me, I need to get more pics of her in more Supergirl outfits! :P

Well that is about it, until I can think of anything new to post! LOL! Thanks again for stopping by! See you all soon!

Emma's A Kindergarten Graduate! :)

2009-05-28T14:40:00.001-06:00

This morning we had Emma's Spring Concert and little graduation ceremony, it was so sweet! I would have enjoyed myself far more and perhaps even gotten a little teary eyed had it not been for my outrageously out of control 2.5 year old... *sobs* Ah well, such is life. I got a few cute pictures and Jeremy was video taping a lot of it with the digi video camera. She was so proud, I just love seeing that certain particular smile on her face, it warms my heart! Here's some pics and the small snippet of video that I took w/ my camera.

Givin' her Papa a high five!

Singin'!

Yay!!! Proud girl!!!

There is Emma and her teacher, she's got THE best teacher ever, Emma is going to miss her a lot!

This is so neat that what they did... they had them draw a picture on the first day of school and then one now and compared them! These are hanging outside Em's classroom...

And here is a video that I took w/ my camera of them singing!

Almost forgot! Emma's second school picture!

2009-05-26T11:16:00.002-06:00

I forgot to mention! On Friday Emma got her school pictures back. They had taken pictures at the beginning of the year, and then a whole classroom photo towards the end of the year. Well, they tease and taunt you by taking a 'sample' picture of your child alone along with the classroom photo, to get you to order the alone photo. Well I would have just scanned it and altered it, but it had a serious watermark on it that I didn't want to spend time trying to remove, so I just ordered a package! :X Here's how it turned out! It's super cute, she's such a big girl! I'm so excited for many years of school photo's to come!

A quickie...

2009-05-26T10:00:00.002-06:00

Hey, the other weekend I posted about Emma's Girl Scouts Tea Party in the Zoo and I had put the rest of the pictures on our family website, so here is the link to that particular page! Enjoy!

http://www.simplythebryans.com/emma_girl_scouts4.htm

Wahhhh! SICK!

2009-05-26T09:44:00.002-06:00

Well over the weekend we ALL managed to catch a cold. I'm even sick!!! I've had "mommy immunity" all year long, haven't been sick at all while every other week the girls are sick, but my body has finally given in! Bleh! I feel awful! :( Started Sunday into Monday, Abby's got it the worst, gave it to me, now Emma's got it bad and Jer will be the last to get it, I think. Waaaaah! Sucky! Anyway, our weekend was chill. Not much went on, oh! Emma did go to a birthday party on Saturday at a bowling alley. She loved it. Never been bowling before, but I think we might have to start going every now and then, it's a nice small alley and super fun! Here's some pics over the weekend and the bowling alley! I'm completely zonked and wish I could crawl under a cozy blankie for a much needed rest! But alas, a mother can not! LOL! Enjoy the pics...

Friday, Jer and Emma started the weekend off by going to the local Drive In here and saw Night at the Museum 2, from what I hear, Emma lasted about 15 mins before passing out! They wanted to see Monsters Vs Aliens but it was on too late. They got home at like 11.30pm that night as is, she was snoozing!

Bowling Alley birthday party!

She actually picked up a spare once! Not too bad! :)

She was very anxious watching her ball go down the alley! LOL!

She used a 'ramp' a couple of times...

Hers was the second "E", she did pretty well! :)

The party.. she's the second from the right!

Yes, that is a picture of her butt! She's the one in the middle, LOL! Between the stools! I just got such a huge laugh out of this picture! LMBO!!!!

That's it for the pictures... Hope everyone had a nice memorial day and didn't get sick like us! LOL! We have a super busy week this week actually. Thursday is Emma's Spring Concert at school (oh yes there will be a million pictures!) and then Friday at like 5:30 am, my mom will be here for her visit! Then there is only a few more days of school left for Emma until summer break, her last day of school is a June 5th, and that day only goes until like 11:30, no lunch or anything. Oh and since Emma's birthday is in the summer, they give those kids a "pretend" birthday and Emma's is June 3rd, which happens to be a field trip type of day so I have to take treats to a local park here, LOL! That will be lots of fun too! Oh! and my mom's birthday is June 6th, hehehe! OH! and Jer will be out of town starting the 31st to Georgia for work training, wow... all of that sounds extremely busy... I am tired now. LMBO! Until next time...

Weekend update! :)

2009-05-18T09:32:00.001-06:00

We had a super fun weekend and I can't wait to share some pictures with you. So, ready to get started?!

Well, Saturday Emma had a Tea Party in the Zoo with her Girl Scout troop and it was a blast! It was amazing weather and was a relatively lovely time! Here are some pics from the day...

We started the day off decorating our tea cups for the zoo...

Daddy even got in on it, he grabbed a cup from our cupboard and got to doodling!

There's mine... lol! I'm no artist that is for sure!

Emma had fun trying to write her name on her cup!

Daddy had to put a Superman logo on his, LMBO!

and, there is Abby putting Fruit Loops into my cup!

Here's a peacock, wandering around through the zoo, there are many of them...

Don't think it's the same peacock, but he's got a female behind him, cornered against the retaining wall, it was so neat to watch him strut his stuff and do this thang...

Here's a picture of the girl scouts that made it to the zoo tea party!

I'm going to add the rest of the pictures to our family website and update this blog w/ the links and whatnot. I took SOO many pictures, I couldn't post them all here and bore the crap out of everyone! LMBO! So, that lasted most of the day, after out little tea party, everyone walked the trails and looked at the animals and stuff, it was a lot of fun, the girls loved it! Then on Sunday we decided to pack a picnic lunch and go on a drive. We started out at Jer's folks to have a little visit w/ them, and then hopped back into the car and found a lunch spot...

Lots of driving!!!

Abby watching a show...

Silly girls!

The scenery really isn't all that impressive... lots of dried grass stuff... LOL!

The girls' grandma sent us along our way with suckers for the girls, so they were able to enjoy them after we ate our lunch and got back in the car...

"Is my tongue red?!" LOL!

On our way home, we stopped at a neat little drive in for ice creams! :)

And this is my feeble attempt to get Abby to take a snooze in the car- it totally didn't work... she will not sleep anywhere unless its her bed! Gah!

So there you have it! We had a nice weekend full of fun and gorgeous weather! Today the weather says it's supposed to get up to 88 degrees! OMG! Right now the house is all opened up and it's lovely out, but I know it's fixin' to get hot hot hot today! I have a ton to do, I had a blinkie order over the weekend, and have to get that done, I have to get some sort of product done for next Saturday at my store, and hmmm, too many other things like dishes, laundry... oy- I'm getting overwhelmed! LOL! So anyway, I better get busy, it's going to be a LONG day! :X Ta ta til next time! :)

X to the Terra... woot woot & some rambling. Lots of pics! :)

2009-05-15T08:59:00.001-06:00

So... for those of you that aren't in the 'know', LOL! About 8 or so months ago, our Taurus began acting up, we are leaning towards tranny issues... well Jer's folks graciously let us use their Honda, which has been on it's last leg the past week and it scares us! LOL! We are thinking starter for the Honda, which is easy enough to fix (as long as I don't have to fix it, tee heee!)- I mean like relatively inexpensive, nothing over $100 and not too terribly hard to replace ourselves (when I say 'ourselves', I mean Jeremy, along w/ the help of his dad via cell phone). Well after the starter, what else would there be? The Honda is about what? 25 years old?! LOL! It's a good little car, but it's dying a slow death! LOL! So over the past week, we've been nickle and diming our way to our very own car! *GASP* Now keep in mind we haven't had to make car payments to a car dealership, ever, really, so this should prove to be interesting! Again, those in the 'know' know what we are talking about. Hehe! So here is what Jer picked up, all by himself, WITHOUT approval from me mind you, and he picked wonderfully- no complaints from me (I know some people are shocked about the 'no complaining' part... but it's true!)... so w/o further ado~ Our Nissan XTerra...

Emma was in awe sitting back there while Jer hooked up her booster seat. She thought it was so cool. LOL!

See.... WHOA expression.... lol

Abby's happy because she can actually see out the windows now... it sits pretty high!

Before Jer put in her booster seat, I think in the picture he's strapping Abby in, it's kinda dark... lol!

Hooking Abby's car seat in...

So there ya have it! Jer is pretty excited about it! He got home last night and we hopped in for a ride to Goodwill for some tea cups. Emma's got a 'tea party' at the Zoo tomorrow with her Girl Scout troop, and it's the zoo's annual geranium festival, so that will be fun. They are going to sit on blankets and eat little cookies and have tea (or lemonade). So we grabbed some cute little tea cups last night to decorate and stuffs. I also grabbed 3 coffee mugs, all mismatched and funky sizes (I like BIG cups, LOL!) and everything was only a buck fity! Can't beat that with a stick huh! Gotta love the Goodwill. I knew I would find something quirky and fun there for her tea party. It's supposed to be awesome weather tomorrow too, and our party is at 1, so you know I'll have a million pictures of tea and zoo animals! It's not like the normal zoo one would think of, I think they have like 1 bear (that they probably captured themselves getting into their trash cans, ROFL!) and a raccoon or some crap like that. It's the most pathetic zoo ever! I grew up going to the Portland (Oregon) Zoo and it's a huge, great zoo, so this sad little Billings (Montana) Zoo is so very small and has like 5 animals, LOL! I think there might be a tiger or something, but they are always hiding or sleeping somewhere and you can't ever see them. Oh well, I will try and get pictures, and it's always fun to be outside w/ the rest of the Girl Scout troop, lame zoo or not. ;)

So yesterday before Abby and I went to pick up Emma, she was outside playing and it was a nice day, so I thought I would take some pics... so here's lil miss Abby's photo shoot, LOL! Can you tell I love my camera! I take toooo many pics! HAHAH!

Eating lunch before going outside...

Free at last, free at last!!!!

She likes to dig up rocks and throw them into the creek behind our house...

Like so...

And here's a few random pics over the last week...

Abby eating a lil popsicle

And when I say lil, I mean LITTLE, they are new popsicles called Mini Melts or something like that and they are slow melting popsicles, pretty cool!

Emma doing what she usually is doing, writing or drawing...

...very intently! LOL!

It's a red crayon in there with legs and arms and whatnot, it's terribly cute. And underneath she wrote a lil somethin' somethin'. I should take a closer pic of it... it's so cute! Sometimes they don't finish all their projects at school, so she brings home stuff unfinished and Emma likes to finish them at home a lot.

Okay well that is that! Whew! I have some sweepin', vacuumin', dishes and laundry to do today. The story of my life! :D Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Mothers Day post-post... LOL!

2009-05-11T19:06:00.001-06:00

Here's a POST post... an AFTER Mothers Day post. Bahah! I'm a goober. So, we went to a local park here called Kids' Kingdom that has a huge area for kids to play on w/ slides and whatnot. We met up with Jer's family and his sisters husbands family as well for some picnic foods. We brought a mothers day cake and everyone brought something else equally yummy. We showed up pretty early and let the girls get the playing out of their system, but it didn't work, they wanted to play and play and play and not eat, not be social, and just play and play and play... rofl! We were about 3 hrs late for Abby's nap too, so she was a total bear. LOL! Here's some pictures! Enjoy!

Emma made me this necklace in kindie! :)

Jer doin' what he does best, playing XBox...

The girls at the park on Mothers Day...

Abby's butt completely dried off this covered slide @@ Her butt was soaked!

Amazingly yummy cookies... Raisin Crunch Cookies

2009-05-09T16:56:00.001-06:00

These cookies are AWESOME! I remember I went on a huge kick with these bad boys and was making them just about every other week when Abby was younger. I hadn't made them for a while because well... to be frank... they constipate me (must be TOO much fiber, LOL!) and the coconut gives me gas. ROFL! I am sure you wanted to know that! At least when you go to make them, you will be thinking about constipation and gas! What a lovely memory! LMBO! Anyway, these are freaking awesome and everyone here loves them!

Go ahead and make them, but be forewarned, they are ADDICTIVE! ;)

Raisin Crunch Cookies

You Need:

1 1/4 c. flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 c. oats

1/2 c. {1 stick} butter

3/4 c. firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 c. granulated sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

1 c. Raisin Bran (I just used the Raisin Bran Crunch and they turned out awesome!)

1 1/4 c. shredded coconut

1/2 c. raisins

You Do:

Preheat oven to 350. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and oats in a bowl and set aside.

Beat butter and sugars in a large bowl w/ hand mixer until light and fluffy.

Add egg and vanilla, mix well.

Gradually add flower mixed, beating until well blended.

Add cereal, coconut and raisins, stir until well blended.

Drop heaping teaspoonfuls of dough onto baking sheet.

Bake 14 - 16 mins or until lightly browned.

Remove to cool on wire racks.

YUMMY!!!! Enjoy! :)

What's shakin....

2009-05-06T13:12:00.002-06:00

Thought I would post a lil update'eroooo.... not much going on lately. Just the day to day grind. Heh. I've snapped off a few pictures over the last week or so, so I will post those here...

This past friday I had an appt that I had to take Abby to, and well Jer was at work, so here is my mode of transport... LOL! Abby liked it, at least! ;)

Then on Saturday Emma was invited to a birthday party of a little girl that is in her Girl Scouts troop, and it was at the local roller rink. So Emma's been on skates twice in the last 3 or 4 wks, LOL! She had a blast yet again, won a little game they played and did the limbo too, on skates! She's getting better at the roller skating thing that is for sure! I think we'll be at the rink A LOT this summer...

Not the best pic, but that is Emma doing the limbo, LOL!

If you touch the ground, you are out, and get a piece of candy, here she is skating back w/ her candy!

Goober!

Sunday was my birthday, and we hung around the house most of the day. Jer went to see Wolverine w/ his dad at the movies, and the girls played outside a bit. I'm not sure when these photo's were taken, but they are cute ones. LOL! Jer took some of these pics...

Abby was confused, she thought the coffee table was her bed, and the folded pile of laundry, her pillow... *sigh* LOL!

ACHOOOO! Seconds before a sneeze! Daddy shot that picture!

Daddy took this picture too!

Mommy got her camera back and snapped this cutie!

Awwww!

Emma showing me her Earth Day word search... she looks a little... tired... or stoned, which ever... ROFL!

Well that's about it for pictures. Once the week arrives, we are back to the daily day to day... Last night was Girl Scouts and Emma had a fun time, she painted me a little terra cotta pot, and they planted a pansy in each pot for the moms, it was so sweet! I should take a picture of that too! LOL! Today is early out for Miss Emma, so I better go get myself in the shower while Abby's napping... thanks for stoppin' by! Take care til next time!

Brain spinning'ly busy...

2009-05-01T10:44:00.000-06:00

So as some of you know, I "run" an online business. I guess some people wouldn't consider it "real" work, but hey, it's my 'thang'... so as some of you MAY NOT know, this weekend, more specifically May the 2nd is National Scrapbooking Day. Bored housewives all around the nation are running to their local craft stores and purchasing up tons of scrapbooking papers and elements to 'preserve their memories'. Well, I don't deal in the paper aspect of it, I deal in digital wares. The housewives gasp in horror!!! Digital? What does that even mean? Well, digital scrapbooking is just as valid and interesting as the old paper stand by... well, frankly, without the mess. One manipulates their digital program of choice (I use Adobe Photoshop) into creating fabulously stunning 'layouts' and then proceeds to print them, or takes them somewhere to be printed. There are actually businesses that will print out out a whole book of your 'digital layouts' for the right price, LOL! Shutterfly being on of them... Well, I provide many bored and wealthy (hahaha!) housewives with digital wares to create their lovely preserved memories. Though my store is a little bit unique, it's not really in traditional 'digital scrapbooking' sizes, which are typically 12 inches X 12 inches, to fit a page perfectly when printed. My particular products were designed with signature tag creators (for places such as online galleries, forums and e-mails) and web/graphic designers in mind. They are all smaller products and are of a lower image resolution to be easily worked with in your digital program of choice. And are easily used for online purposes, such as creating blogs, web pages, even animated banners (that 'we' so lovingly call 'blinkies'). The digital scrapbooking community is quite large and involved, as are the housewives and craft stores that deal in their paper scrapbooking. It's all about preserving your memories and enjoying yourself while being creative! :) Anyway, like I started this post out stating that this weekend is National Scrapbooking Day, the digital community gets involved as well, and lots of online stores that deal in digital wares has sales and issues free items to people, or 'freebies'. Well, my little corner of the internet is no different. We have freebies and sales going on all weekend, and I'm a busy little bee! I'm hoping to generate so much sales this weekend, I can finally get that boob job that I've always wanted... *joke*. Whatever sales I do generate, I will be grateful for, as I put a lot of hard work into my store! I have a wonderful friend and partner Tammy who lives a half a world away in another state, who shares in the glory! :D So yes, busy, busy! Over the last while though, I've managed to snap off a few pics of the girls, lemme rummage some up for ya, here's a reading session that took place the other day! Enjoy!

Emma reading her book she got from the school library...

Abby loves to be read to, especially by her big sister!

Abby doing a little bit of reading herself! LOL!

And the sad motto to that little above story in pictures is that mommy is a slacker and forgot to get the school library book in Emma's backpack on Wednesday morning, so now Emma has to sit out (or so she says, we'll see when she gets home today from school) and color at the round table while the other kids in class get to go to the library and pick out a book. :( Bad mommy!!!! *sigh* So, this weekend we are going to go to our town library which only happens to be like 5 blocks from our house (yay for walking!) and get Emma signed up with her own library card and pick out a couple of books. As if she doesn't have enough books here, but I understand her thirst for knowledge, bahahaha! ;) Aside from that, I will be celebrating my big fat 31st birthday on Sunday, go me! LOL! Birthday's tend to loose some of their sparkle 'n shine after you have kids, so per usual, it will be a mellow occassion with birthday cake- which is just fine. I'm happy as long as I have cake, I could probably eat birthday cake every day of the year... *sigh* Anyway, enough rambling from me, as if I don't have enough shit to do today, OH! Why I even decided to make a blog post... I stumbled upon a super hilariously fabulous 'mommy' blog today... I put it in the sidebar to the right with a link, but here it is again, go visit and have fun reading! ~~~~~> http://mommyknows.com/

Ta ta for now~ until next time, be cool!

Hello, hello! Weekend re-cap

2009-04-27T14:55:00.001-06:00

Howdy blog readers! :) How was everyone's weekend? Hopefully good! Ours was pretty basic... though the girls were at eachothers throats on sunday... was it a full moon or something? LOL! It was melt down after melt down on sunday, made me wanna pull my hair out most of the day, bahah!

On Saturday the day started early, as the neighbor kids from down the way came over and everyone played outside for a while. There's an older sister, she's around 10 or 11 years old, and then there's Connell, he rides the school bus w/ Emma every morning and afternoon to the kindergarten, he's Emma's age. Then they have a younger sister who just turned 4. They all have irish names, I can't remember the girls' names, Kiernan and something or other, LOL. So after playing outside Saturday morning, they decided they wanted to see Emma's room, so I sent them down to ask their mom and then they all came rushing back and stomped upstairs to Emma's room. Everything was "Oh cool this, and Oh my gosh that".... "Emma's got a computer AND a TV in her room?" LOL! Ya, she's kinda a spoiled rotten brat... no really, she's a good girl (oh... 95% of the time), she deserves her things. So the kids played VERY LOUDLY in her room for a while before the running in and out of the house started to drive me nuts, LOL! It was about lunch time, and Abby's nap time, so I had to usher the munchkins on their way, they assured me they were going to the zoo that day, so it was okay that they were going on home. Heh! They are good kids from what I can tell.

Then saturday night we did some grilling and I had what I think might be the very best steak that I ever had. Jeremy sauteed sliced garlic and mushrooms in butter and I was in freaking heaven, I swear to god. It was soooo yummmy! During the day on Saturday I made Pina Colada Cheesecake squares. I recipe my mom introduced to me many years ago, and they are a serious favorite! Here's the recipe! Sorry no cool pictures since I totally spaced taking them! :D

Pina Colada Cheesecake Bars

What You Need!

1-1/2 cups HONEY MAID Graham Cracker Crumbs
1-1/2 cups BAKER'S ANGEL FLAKE Coconut, divided
1-1/4 cups sugar, divided
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter or margarine, melted
4 pkg. (8 oz. each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
1 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs
2 cans (8 oz. each) crushed pineapple, undrained, divided

Make It!

PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Mix graham crumbs, 1 cup of the coconut, 1/4 cup of the sugar and the butter. Press firmly onto bottom of 13x9-inch baking pan.

BEAT cream cheese, remaining 1 cup sugar and the vanilla with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs; beat just until blended. Stir in 1 can of the undrained pineapple. Pour over crust.

BAKE 40 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool. Refrigerate several hours or overnight. Cut into 24 squares. Drain remaining can of pineapple. Top each square with about 2 tsp. of the pineapple and 1 tsp. of the remaining 1/2 cup coconut just before serving. Store leftover dessert squares in refrigerator.

These are the most fabulous bars ever! They are a huge hit in our house! Hope you guys will make them at your house too! So... Sunday we hung around and watched a lot of movies and just chilled. The girls were at eachothers throat most of the day, pushing, biting, hiting, LOL! I had to finally separate them and put them BOTH down for a nap to save my sanity! ROFL! Those types of days are out of the ordinary, I just think they were just both having off days on the same exact day! We made spaghetti for din-din and relaxed in front of the boob-tube until bath and bed time.

Tomorrow we get a new directv box that allowed us to pick up local channels, and I'm so excited about it! We've had directv for around 5 yrs, and oh my god, they never were able to get local montana channels, so we don't get to watch our own local news or anything like that, and we get channels from california (thank god we don't live there, alllll there is on the news there is murder! It's insane!) and when our shows come on they are always 1 hour later, which we just pretty much go to bed and record it with our DVR and watch the show the next night since we can't stay up until like 11 pm to watch Lost or Heroes, it's really sucky. LOL! And we love our shows! hahah! Well I'm pretty sure I like them more than Jeremy, he won't sit through some of my shows like Survivor! haha! So that is thrilling, hopefully all goes smoothly tomorrow morning when the guy gets here to install it all. We also got some super great news in the mail today which will help us out with medical insurance for the girls, I'm really happy about that too! So things are lookin' up! Dark days will always be lurking, but we gotta remember to think positive!

Well, I have to run and pick up Emma, hope everyone has a great week! Take care until next time!

Weekend wrap up! :D

2009-04-19T16:20:00.003-06:00

We've had such wonderful weather this weekend, we've been blessed! It looks like rain's rollin' in though, the sky's getting a bit gray. We were pretty busy on Saturday - here some pics of the deer in the neighbors yard before the girls went out to play... and the girls playing, of course!

We stopped by Old Navy and I treated myself to a pair of capri's since I have been doing really well w/ my 'business', LOL. Jer picked out a pair of pants from the sale wrack for like 4 bucks, LOL! Wish my capri's were that cheap :X Old Navy is one of my favorite place to get anything denim, and we hadn't been in probably a year or so. We popped into IHOP and had dinner before heading home.

When we got home, Jer and I stained some shelves we had picked up a weekend or two ago...

Here's the shelves on Sunday after they had been completely stained and sat over night...

And here's what we did with the shelves today- Sunday, LOL!

These are Emma and Abby's birthday picture frames w/ their hand prints. Jer said we better stop at 5! ;)

Emma's side...

Abby's only two! LOL!

Sunday we've lounged at home, I laid linoleum in the girls playhouse after having spent a while yesterday (saturday) getting all the leaves, twigs and dirt clods out of there. I took out the shop vac and gave it a good vacuuming yesterday too. I will probably never lay linoleum ever again, OMG- what a pain in the rear. Jer only helped me twice, I feel quite accomplished!

Well, the day is slowly ending, Jer is fixin' to make some curried beef for dinner but he's got to run to the store because we forgot an onion yesterday. LOL! Right now Emma's out back w/ a neighbor boy from down the left a bit who joins her every morning at the bus stop, he's in kindie too, and an older special needs woman (probably around mine and Jer's age, perhaps a year or so younger) who's older'ish mom lives directly to our right, and they're kicking a soccer ball around. And so that leaves miss Abigail who's been very, very cranky these past several hours, so I'm going to go give her some Tylenol and rock her a bit on the couch. Prolly will call my momma too, she's comin' to visit soon, I can't wait! :D

Fabulously amazing quote...

2009-04-15T12:29:00.002-06:00

Read this on a friends blog today... it amazed me.

"A little girl can be sweeter (and badder) oftener than anyone else in the world. She can jitter around, and stomp, and make funny noises that frazzle your nerves, yet just when you open your mouth she stands there demure with that special look in her eyes. A girl is Innocence playing in the mud, Beauty standing on its head, and Motherhood dragging a doll by the foot."

Alan Beck

Exciting Easter & Spring Break is over!

2009-04-13T12:36:00.001-06:00

Well hello lovely blog readers! How was everyone's weekend? Hopefully as lovely as ours was! Here's a lil run down of our weekend...

On Friday we built the girls' Easter Bunny House... it was a good time!

On Saturday we went and got Abby her very first hair cut and I snapped off a bunch of photo's because she was being a very good girl and got a well deserved sucker.

We colored eggs Saturday night too, that was super fun.

Abby liked dropping the eggs into the coloring cups a little TOO much, I think.

We only came away from the coloring experience with one accident (*coughjeremycoughcough*) and the eggs were sure pretty!

We played most of the day outside as we were just blessed with outstanding weather all weekend.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter like we did! The girls played w/ their Easter baskets and had an egg hunt in the backyard, even ate some chocolate bunnies, LOL! You can check out our family Easter Celebration Page for 2009 HERE if you're interested in seeing more photo's! :)

I've been a busy bee today updating our family website, I added Emma's pictures from her Girl Scouts Princess Ball to THIS PAGE, and then I added SIX (count them, SIX!) brand new pages of photo's to our Family Pics Pages; 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22! Told you I've been busy! I dunno how I find time, I'm crammed doing banners and graphics for people's websites and just try and find time to squeeze in some website time for myself, LOL! My host right now, Go Daddy, is kinda being cranky, so if you get any errors or slow uploading of the pages, just check back later! ;)

Emma went back to school today, whew! It was actually a very lovely spring break, everyone got along nicely and I'm proud of my girls for behaving themselves. LOL! It was a rough night Sunday night, everyone was tired from an extremely fun filled week, so it's very nice to get back into our regular groove. Not sure what we'll be doing come summer break, but we'll have to plan a few fun trips here and there. I know my mom will be visiting in end of May begining of June while Jer is doing a work related Kodak training thingy in Georgia, so that will be fun, and my dad usually visits in the summer too, around the end of July. It will be really nice to see him again, I miss him a lot. It's always nice when my folks come because I feel like myself, like I can truly be myself and not be judged, harassed, bullied or misunderstood. Ahhh, could you imagine living that way all the time? Ya, I can. But I'm over that! *shrug* Anyway, I won't be a sour Sally, we're all smiles here. I thought of a new saying that I'm going to start telling Jer... "If you're happy, then I'm happy." :D Alrighty, well Abby's nappin' so that is my cue to hop in the shower and get some chores done all while grabbing a bite to eat and watching some shows on the DVR. Hope everyone's well and had a great Easter where ever they are! :)

Hippity Hoppity.... Gobs of pictures!

2009-04-11T10:35:00.007-06:00

.... Easters' on it's way! Heheh! Here's some photo's from the last few days, and last night of the girls building their Easter Bunny house, or 'hutch', LOL! I'm also uploading a snippet of video of Emma reading from Horton Hears a Who- she's a great reader! :D

{click images to make larger if you want to!}

Emma and Abby playing on my bed reading...

Here's some video of Em reading to Abs! :)

This was yesterday, it turned out to be a lovely day! We played outside a while...

Per usual... Abby's doin' her own thing... LOL! It's like trying to wrangle a wild monkey! HAHAH!

Here's Emma and Abby last night, putting together their bunny house!

Well that's about it for pictures! I'm going to have to update our family website soon w/ these fun pics of Easter! I will have tons more tonight, we are coloring eggs! Weee! Hehehe! Then I will photograph their baskets and the Egg Hunt in the mornin'! :) Hope everyone has a super fan-freaking-tastic Easter where ever they are! :)

Pride...

2009-04-09T22:32:00.002-06:00

Good evening blog readers! Here I am, blogging from bed! LOL! I guess I just have a lot on my mind and poor Jer's ears would probably start bleeding if he had to listen to anymore of my babbling, heheh! So, lucky you all, eh? Hmm, where to start? Well, first off, I just have to say that I am so proud of my 5.5 year old, Emma. Today she really proved to me how thoughtful and mature she is, and she's becoming such a smart and loving person. I had the misfortune of having to explain a few things to her today that you'd think no 5 year old should have to hear or deal with, and she took it quite well. Frankly, it had to do with the on going family squabble that I find myself constantly in the midst of- and luckily today it came to a head and I made a decision for myself and my family that I think will benefit us in the long run. I guess it's hard to explain w/o going into gross detail, which I'd rather not have to do via a blog post, just know, dear readers, that I have amazing children and I'm so very proud of them and blessed to be their mother. And if anyone's out there reading in internet-land and has felt misunderstood in life, and has felt bullied or burdened, please know that I understand and have felt that way myself a lot lately. There's always a choice though, remember that.

So, after that fine note- who is excited for Easter? Anyone? LOL! We are excited here, that is for sure. Several days ago we got a bunny house- like a gingerbread house, but with bunnies, lol! for the girls to construct over the weekend, and they are really looking forward to that! Tonight we went out and bought a ton of eggs to color saturday during the day, and last tuesday at Girl Scouts, the troop made little carrot holders for bunny food, for the Easter bunny of course! ;) Emma's excited to sprinkle that out in the backyard saturday night. We're gonna get them each a basket probably sometime friday or saturday and hide them for sunday morning, lol! I told Emma that we'll leave the eggs out for the bunny on saturday night, and MAYBE he will find them and hide them for her and Abby to find sunday morning- boy did she get excited about that. Now, if I mention Santa, she is pretty sure that he doesn't exsist (wonder where she got that idea?!) but when you mention the Easter bunny, she's all over the idea! hahah! Goofy kiddo! :D I'm pretty excited for her and Abby too, they are both looking forward to coloring and hunting for those eggs. Good thing they are both HUGE fans of hard boiled eggs, egg salad sandwhiches and deviled eggs- which I know we're going to have a butt load of! Ah well, here it is ten minute to 11 pm, and my eye balls are spinnin' starin' at the laptop screen. I'm sure Abby appreciates me clickin' away over here in bed on the keyboard too- LOL! And no need to gasp people, yes, we sleep share w/ our 2 year old, she's in her toddler bed in our room. It's my gift, that I give to her, to hold her near to me until we are both ready for the space. Emma turned out wonderfully because I gave her that gift and again... I'm so proud to be their mother. Thank you all for reading- good night and sleep tight! :)