Bountiful Baskets

I have been hearing lot about bountiful baskets. I FINALLY broke down to try it out.

its $15 for a basket of produce. $3 first time fee. $1.50 handling fee. First time total is $19.50. Any other time I do it will be $16.50

I am so glad I did it. So much FRESH produce. Great Quality.

I ended up with 7 ears of corn, lettuce, 2 heads of cauliflower, 2 things of broccoli, squash, 2 avacodos, 7 bananas, 2 mangos, 6 oranges, 9 apples, 6 kiwis, 18 red potatoes...cant wait to cook some of it!! it all looks so good.

If you live in AZ I suggest checking out bountifulbaskets.org

pay on tuesday or wednesday pick up on saturday!!

cleaning the house

and trying to explain why I NEED the house clean

"a clean house makes a happy mommy"

"well a happy Chevlynn is messy"

how could I not laugh...I guess I DIDNT make my point?

Thank you Target

First THANK you for being soooooooo organized on Black Friday. I got everything I wanted and I didnt get there last night to wait. In fact I pulled up at 4:40am and your lines were the longest lines I have ever stood in but they went sooooo fast. It was a truly enjoyable shopping experience, it was so fast I had enough time to go home and go back to bed before the kids woke up.

Second thank you for the free $20 gift cards with all the stuff I bought this morning.

Third, THANK you for not always putting clearance stickers on your clearance, because of this.....I got my dream kitchenaid mixer for $30....NORMALLY $300! YAY!

Today has been a truly enjoyable day!!!!!

Our Pediatrician

Our pediatrician is Dr. Stephanie. WE LOVE DR STEPHANIE. I know I've said that before. WE LOVE HER! She is amazing. She takes her time with the girls, she talks to them, she listens to me when I have concerns. We have been going to her for almost 4 years. When we first started, she was single. We saw her right after she got engaged. We saw her a week after she got married. Then we saw her right after she found out she was pregnant. We saw her a month or two before she went on maternity leave.

Yesterday I got a birth announcement from someone I didnt know. I figured it was a family friend of Daniels. I showed him tonight. He had no clue. So I looked the unknown parents name on Facebook. IT WAS DR STEPHANIE.

How nice of her to send us an announcement. Another fine reason WE LOVE DR STEPHANIE. Who else would do that. She knew we wouldnt be seeing her as often because of our lack of insurance. She knew how sad we were about it. She is the best. EVERYONE should see her!

I feel so lucky to have found such a nice and caring doctor. :)

THANK YOU DR STEPHANIE!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!

The kids have been so excited for halloween this year. Last year we didnt let Cheyenne trick or treat because she was so young. So this year was the first year both girls dressed up and went

We start our night at Nana Pinks house for some dinner, Chili and cheesy garlic bread, YUMMM!!! Then the kids got ready (Nana Pink had all their costumes at her house!)

Chey was a cat

Chev was Esmeralda from the Hunch Back

they both looked adorable in their costumes and played them off very well!

It honestly took about 4 houses for Chey to realize what was going on and before we knew it she was at the doors getting candy before Chev. She was so cute and funny.

it only took about an hour of trick or treating before we saw they got kind of quiet, Chey managed to open some candy and start eating it. OOPS!

they wore out about 7:30 and we went back home. We made it a lot further this year. Got more goodies and had way more fun!

honestly the best part of the night was the house down the street who had a full creepy graveyard set up on their front yard (best one I had ever seen) And on the way up to the door, Chey stopped to growl at some of the scary skeletons, EVERYONE was laughing!

Chev never failed to say trick or treat and thank you. And Chey never failed to not let people put the candy in her bucket...SHE HAD TO DO IT!

We had a fantastic Halloween, we hope you did too!

say a small prayer....

please have my dear friend Bumni in your prayers and thoughts...She has heart problems and she just called me to say she was taken by ambulance to the hospital because her heart is beating tooooo slow and they arent sure whats going to happen.... (I'm trying not to freak out!!!!!!) She is my best AZ friend!!!!!

Dear Santa-

a darling friend of mine, Alicia, is moving to NYC next month. I am saddened by this. Yes, I know she does not live in AZ and does live in Cali but at least she was close enough to visit. For Christmas I would like a trip to NYC for when its not toooo cold and snowy, I want to visit her (and shop!)

I swear I've been a good girl this year :)

Thanks-
April
(the girl really wanting a NY vaca!)

C-H-E-V-Y-N-N-N

no, it might not be how you and I would spell Chevlynn but its how Chevlynn spells her name and I think its so cute!

Best thing to Happen to Fresh Veggies

I LOVE steamed fresh veggies. LOVE THEM. I dont however love the taste of the ones done in my microwave steamer and sometimes its a hassle to use the steamer basket..can we say TOO MANY DISHES to dirty. I was given 3 boxes of these Steamer bags from Glad. HI fresh broccoli cooked in the microwave in 3 minutes!!!!!! It tasted like I steamed them in the steamer basket. No water needed. Just fresh veggies, the bag and the microwave.

I just ate a huge plate of fresh steamed broccoli at work on my lunch break. Oh and thanks to them I am experimenting more with meals, I've made from scratch beef and broccoli and shrimp lo mein! SO tasty!

"x" marks the spot.

I have slowly been working with Chev more and more on her letter writing and recognition. She has this book that she can write in and it wipes right off. every night she gets the book out. Sits on my lap and we practice writing her letters.

Last night she was doing it in the living room and I was in the Dining room on the computer. I hear her yell..."Mommy come look, I have two x's" I walk in. She is working on the letter "X" all by herself. No one told her it was the letter x. I was pretty excited that its starting to stick. I was starting to think she would never remember her letters.

Best part of it...I NEVER worked with her on the letter x. we still dont know exactly how she knew it!

Allergies...

Chev has recently become obsessed with allergies. Every time she goes to feed her daddy some food she asks him "Daddy you allergic to _____?" its cute.

A few nights ago Chev got a glass of water. Took a big drink. She started choking on it. She was choking so hard it ALMOST concerned me. I know better then to panic so I told her to set her glass down and put her arms up. Something she has always done, it calms her down and she is fine. Well she did. Once she stopped coughing she looked at me and said "Mommy, I think I'm allergic to water!!!!"

I dont remember the last time I laughed so hard!

Nancy's Amazing WALL clock

My Mother in Law is AMAZING. She had this FANTASTIC Idea to make a clock on the wall. But not just any clock. Check it out.........



Look CLOSELY. Notice there are NO numbers. Each picture represents a number. 1 o'clock is one person. 2 o'clock is Two people.

My favorite.... 10 o'clock ...my youngest daughters foot prints the day she was born...10 tiny toes! And of course 12....my oldest daughter with easter eggs....one in her hand and the other 11 Hickman's eggs in the carton!

I love her creativity....she has some great ideas!!!

weeds

My kids are growing like them. I think last week Chev could run under my legs without ducking. This morning she was standing next to me and I realized she hits JUST under my belly button. When did my little girl grow. Not to mention she completely skipped size 9 shoes. One week she was in size 8. literally a week later I had to buy her size 10's! No wonder my poor girl has been sleeping so much! Eh Chey is next!..............

Water slide fun.....

I generally dont like when Hubby makes big purchases without checking with me first since I handle the accounts and pay the bills. But he came home with this the other day:




I actually didn't mind. It is so fun and the kids love it. I LOVE IT! And it was so much cheaper then brand new.......

so much excitement.....

...I could scream.

but until everything works out, I cant say anything!

Photoblog....

follow my other blog HERE

Baby Audrey

I did my first REAL photo session with Baby Audrey. Audrey's mommy, Alyssa, was one of my teachers in High School who I became very good friends with. I hadn't seen Alyssa in over 2 years. It was great catching up with her. And seeing her new baby. Audrey was 2 1/2 weeks old for these pictures. Mommy was VERY VERY happy with the out come.








see more pictures here

Nikon D40

I've been dreaming of the Nikon D40. Daniel knows how bad I wanted it. I talked about it all the time.

He called his Papa and told him he know what he could get him and me for our birthday and for us for christmas. He told Daniel to do some research and let us know when we made the purchase.

I found a Nikon D40 that came with the works. and by the works I mean...Camera Body, 2 lens, camera bag, two batteries, battery grip, 4 gig memory card, card reader, card holder, lens cleaning kid, lcd screen protectors, tripod and a dvd. Possibly even more..there might be things I forgot! All of it for the same price as just the camera and two lens at costco. SCORE!!!

I am loving this camera. I am pretty much obsessed with it! THANKS PAPA WHITE BEARD!!!!!

and thanks amazing husband for giving up your birthday and christmas gift for me :)

here are a few pictures I have done so far....

dig your toes in the sand

Since the day Chev was born I have dreamed of taking her to the beach. We finally got to do after we checked out of our hotel we headed to Newport beach for some fun in the sun. The water was freezing. FREEZING!!!!! but the sand was warm. And the kids LOVED it...well they loved the sand...not the cold cold water! I will say I NEVER dreamed of cleaning so much sand out of Chey's diaper.







the trip was amazing. Worth every penny. Both kids did way better then expected and it will be a weekend we will never forget!!

4th of July...Disney Style

I have NEVER dreaded the 4th of July more then I did this year. I was seriously saddened everytime I even thought about it. What made this year different? Maybe because this years annual fireworks at GCC were canceled. Every year we have a big BBQ at my moms. We watch the fireworks from her house. It perfect. But fireworks didn't make it in the city's budget this year. Mom canceled her bbq. Our family tradition was coming to a hault.

Daniel knew I was bummed. So July 3rd I got a text message from my amazing husband at 5:30pm. "we're going to cali tonight!" I instantly called him and asked if he was kidding. Thats not something to joke about after all. He was serious. By 6:30 we had a hotel room booked, laundry in the wash and we were heading to the grocery store for snacks. Chev super excited by the fact that we announced to her "WERE GOING TO DISNEYLAND!!!" She threw on some princess pjs, some sunglasses and her shoes and said "ok I'm ready to go...lets go now!!!"

We didn't get to our hotel until alittle after 4am. We checked in and TRIED to sleep. Chev yelled at me everytime I talked in the bed "Mommy stop talking and go to sleep". After a few hours a sleep, some breakfast and clean clothes...we headed to the park. We were lucky it was walking distance. Yay.

We entered to hear music we get over by sleeping beauty's castle and a bunch of characters were dancing around.

Chev announced to us "I'm not doing anything until I meet Snow White" So we headed to meet some Princesses. After what seemed like forever but turned out to be about an hour maybe an hour and a half...we met Mulan,


Ariel "the little mermaid"


AND SNOW WHITE! After that Chev said "ok lets go home!" Yeah I did not just pay $138 for 3 pictures! Sorry kid.

We headed to toon town, Met mickey mouse, saw Minnie close and personal. Then pluto....then we needed to get out of the heat and started our way back to the hotel for some rest and food. On our way back to the enterance we saw Chip and Dale, Woody and his girlfriend, Mary Poppins, Donald Duck, Pluto again, And Goofy

For Dinner we walked to Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. BEST SHRIMP EVER! I think I might be drooling as I type this. Yummm. The kids got a HUGE kick out of the GIANT shrimp walking around and HAD to take a picture with it.

Back to the park after dinner. Got the girls names on their Mickey Ears. Headed to pickie hollow to meet Tinkerbell and her friend.


Rode its a small world...BOTH girls fell in love with it!!!! Then headed to watch the fireworks. Seriously most amazing fireworks and tribute to our nation I have EVER seen. I was in awe. Chey feel asleep in the mei tei about 5 seconds into the LOUD fireworks. At the end of them...chev clapped and then asked if we could ride "small world" again. We did!



After that we road the circus train and then the storybook land boat..which I HATED. I was so scared we were gonna fall in the water. Next thing we knew it was 11:30 and park closed at midnight....and we had no souviners yet. Hit up some shops and headed back to the hotel.


BEST 4th Of JULY EVER!!!!!!!!!! We plan on making it a new tradition and hoping to take more family with us next year!!!!

John Deer

I've been meaning to post these pictures. We went on a tractor ride around the neighborhood with the Burtch's...so fun and a great photo op!


We also got to see Angela's amazing talent...she can pick her nose with her tongue...I know her parents were proud...I was! (Angela I know you've been anxious for me to post this picture)


AND I got to hold the amazingly cute new baby Sam....I wanted to take him home so bad! Daniel (and Jessica) said NO! :(
I absolutely Love the Burtch's. They are an amazing family and so fun. Not to mention Diane's house is so gorgeous in such a fun area. So green and homey. Not to mention the kids love it! Thanks for always welcoming us over