Hey All! So after a lot of careful consideration and a long talk with myself I've decided to go private with this blog. If you want an invite please leave your email address. I'll make the change at the end of the year. Sorry I've been a sucky blogger lately but hopefully the new year will bring a new commitment. And here's a pic for you all to enjoy.
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Hello Blogging world..have you missed me? It's possible right? Well I'm just a month and a half behind on my blogging so I thought I'd throw it all out there right now. Well not all. Just a couple of things and then maybe I'll come back and put more out there.
So this particular post has pix from our annual trip to the pumpkin patch and some photos of some super cute kids and a woman on her 29th birthday.
This is a pumpkin just in case you've never seen one.
When I took this picture I really really hoped that it would look like Will was laughing...umm guess not.
The entire time we were at the patch Will talked on his pretend phone. He's obsessed with phones right now.
The pumpkins seemed to go on forever and ever.
Lizzie walked up to me and said Mom take a picture I look like a farmer. I guess some grass in the corner of your mouth is a requirement for all farmers.
I was totally stoked for fall and have spent as much time as possible outside soaking it all up.
Abby picked the last of my flowers and I enjoyed it immensely.
I decided I don't have enough pictures of Will and gave him a little photo shoot. Umm ya he's slightly handsome...holy cow what am I going to do when he gets older!
For my 29th Birthday we went out to dinner and came back to three happy kids my friend Mindy made me a cake and we all sang Happy birthday. Really the only thing I really wanted was a picture of all three kids looking and smiling at the camera with me.....well I guess there's always next year.
Almost made it.
Well I'll try to post the rest of my pix sometime soon. Leave a comment if you've missed me blogging.
Why is when I do something so incredibly fun and adorable it takes me like 3 weeks plus to finally post it on my blog. Maybe I should stop editing pictures and trying to put them in cute little layouts...yada yada yada.... Anyhow I need to give you all a warning now. There are a bazillion pictures and all have a plethora of shades of pink. There are lots and lots of pix of adorable children. And although I didn't get pictures of everything that I wanted to, now that I'm posting I'm really really glad.
We had a Fancy Nancy Birthday party...Now for those of you who don't know Fancy Nancy, I'm so sorry. She is a joy to know. We read and reread her books. If you want to read go to your local book store or Library the authour is Jane O'Connor and for those of you who really don't want to get to know her well she basically makes all things fancy, she loves: Anything spoken in French, Pink, Lavendar, Glitter, butterflies and anything that looks fancy. So we had all of Lizzie's guest come in their "fanciest attire" (attire is a fancy word for clothes) and then we gave them mini-makeovers. We did everyones hair and added a few accesories, then glittered everyone with some glitter spray. Big shout out Thank you to Patricia, My Mom, and Tammy, they helped with all the hair and doing other party games while I painted toe nails and finger nails. While the kids waited for their fancy session they played Hualabaloo ( a game a friend gave Lizzie the day before the party), Fancy Pose Tag (freeze tag) We read Fancy Nancy books, colored pictures and made necklaces with rope licorice and candies. After everyone was fancy we added just a few more accesories (you really can't have enough) and we gave all the girls feather boas and tiaras and the boys recieved top hats and ties. Oh and everyone had a new pair of sunglasses fancy indeed!
I didn't get any pictures of the makeovers or the games because I was busy painting finger nails but once I gave them their accesories I couldn't stop taking pictures. They were so adorable!
those feather boas were totally worth every penny and every minute of clean up!
The boys were a little hesitant about the ties (they had flowers on them) but they decided because they were black it was still cool.
Honestly aren't they delicous! So ooh, la la! I loved every second of it!
This was a post kiss/darling..picture they all blew me a kiss and called me "darling" Love IT!
The kids were so excited to give their presents. And were oh so generous. I wish I could name Lizzie's favorite gift but she loved and appreciated them all. Her friends were truly Fabulous!
Lizzie with our neighbor girl Gracie! They are the cutest of friends.
Jackson and Lizzie, he didn't want me to do his hair but wanted me to paint his nails.. I get the biggest kick out of him!
Lizzie and Megan. Megan is one of our car pool girls and I still can't get over how adorable she is!
I pondered forever what to do for a cake and seriously thought of a lot ideas but when it came down to it we wanted a fancy cake but I didn't want to take the time so we had a store bought cake with fancy roses added to it. It looked fancy until I took it out of the case and smeared the frosting on the side of the cake. So we didn't get too many pix of it.
Cute still the same and hassle-free
Lizzie's haul of presents from her great friends. We invited so many kids and that was still an edited list. Next year I told Lizzie she'll have to cut her list down even more. Nothing like 16 5-6 year olds! Phew!
I love this picture so you can all see the feathers that were carpeting our carpet! I still say it was totally worth it!
My mom was able to make a quick surprise visit for us and brought Lizzie her gift. Abby got this same gift for her 3 birthday and Lizzie has been eyeing it every since so My Mom in her infinite wisdom picked one up for Lizzie too, unfortunaetly so had I luckily I hadn't given it to Lizzie so I was able to return it but all I can say is Great Minds think alike!
Grandma and Grandpa Rawlings were able to make it down for all the fun too and brought Lizzie some great gifts. Lizzie LOVES her Fancy Nancy purse book and loves beading necklaces just like her Grandma and loved even more her custom jewelry made with love from Grandma!
After all the festivities Me, Patricia and Tammy were able to make it to Women's broadcast and loved every second of it. We then went out to dinner and all I can say is I'm super blessed to have the in-laws I have. It was a wonderful day.
The next day was Lizzie's actual birthday and we were able to have a nice small family dinner together. My brother Garret made it up and thus made it a special dinner.
Lizzie loves her Uncle Garret even if he does bribe her with Money...
Lizzie has had her eye on this shirt ever since we took her school shopping and had described it to Abby. When I went to buy it Abby was with me and without me pointing it out or anything Abby walked right up to and said "Mom this is Lizzie's shirt. We have to get this for Lizzie." She then carried it around the store until we bought it. She worked really hard on keeping the shirt a secret from Lizzie and Lizzie was so excited to get it. My favorite part was seeing Abby's face as Lizzie unwrapped it. Priceless moments.
Cake part 2: We made a chocolate cake and I let Lizzie and Abby go to town with all the sprinkles in my kitchen. When we were eating it Lizzie said "Mom I love this cake so much more than the cake yesterday." I asked her why and she said, " Because we made it...mmmm..it tastes soo good!"
I still can't believe she's 6! Man that's gone by so fast. In the next 6 years she'll be turning 12 and starting jr. high, then 6 years after that she's 18 and on her way to college...that totally sucks!
This tutu a friend made for Lizzie and she wears it all the time but my favorite is when she wears it with her pj's She's such a doll.
Thanks Lizzie for being our first child! We couldn't ask for a better, smarter more adorable way to start out our family!
On August 29th I (meaning Andrea, many of you may think it was Jeremy whereas he's an AWESOME runner and incredibly talented but no it was the lesser of the talented Me.) Ran 13.1 miles just because I could..well that and I had an awesome partner who said I could..well and it oddly enough sounded like fun. I've been training with my partner Mindy for quite a few months. We've been running together for a little over a year and at the beginning of the Summer she suggested it and I decided why not. It was an A*M*A*Z*I*N*G experience that I would do again and again. We chose to do the top of Utah half marathon which is held in my second home a.k.a. Logan. There were over 2200 runners ranging in age from 12-79! I was super excited and nervous at the start of the race and even threw up at mile 2 but was able to make up some good time and finished in just over 2 hours. I lost my running buddy after Mile 2 and seriously had to do some serious soul searching on why I was running the race but after I concluded that I was running the race for me and only me and it really didn't matter what my time was and I realized I didn't have to impress anybody with a killer awesome time. I really relaxed and got into the grove of running. I felt great through out the rest of the race and really enjoyed myself..I know it sounds impossible to be able to enjoy yourself while running but I really did. And now I'll show you pictures of me running and the post race...I'm going to warn you that I look far less than adorable and I'm really aware that I am super sweaty and these are in no way glamorous but I'm super proud of them anyway.
Me waving to all my wonderful family that should up and all my great friends who helped cheer me on! (sidenote: I'm seriously staring at my little girls because there hair wasn't done and I was mortified they were out in public with hair like that..shallow?? Maybe but I'm a mom and hair that is neglected means a child has been neglected (k not really but I have issues with it) (Obviously.))
I thought this was my end time but no...I had to wait in a line for them to take off my ankle chip..that really really sucked. mainly because I was sure I was going to throw up again at any second.
Me with my girls afterwards if you notice in my hand I have 4 cups that I guzzled so fast and another two not pictured that I drank before that. I was thirsty and oh so hungry!
Cute Abby even if her hair is neglected.
Everyone kept calling to see where I was so I just went and sat by the ambulance so people could find me..I figured it was the safest place for me to be.
This is Mindy...she's awesome she finished in an hour 48 minutes...she won't tell you she's awesome though, just because she's that kind of person. I'm so glad she helped me train she really is the best running buddy a person can ask for.
Now that you've endured those nasty pictures however inspiring they are....... after the race I went back to Jeremy's parent's house and cleaned up I had an amazing photo shoot with Brooke Snow which I'm pretty sure I cyber-stalk she is INCREDIBLE. Anyhow she took THESE photo's. I felt so awesome taking them not because I'm a super babe but because I had set a goal that day and majorly accomplished it and I was super happy with myself. It really shows in my smile and the last picture of me jumping in the air...holy crap after I did that and landed I realized how tired my legs where after running 13.1 miles but still a great experince that everyone should be able to have.
ummm in case you were wondering about the title of this blog post I was both the Beast and the Beauty I looked pretty beastly in the running pictures and I felt Beautiful in my little photo shoot.
The End
Lizzie had a lot of exciting firsts at the end of August and like a good Mom I documented them all. First off was her first ballet class. I really didn't want to push Lizzie into ballet but when I heard about this new classical ballet studio opening I asked Lizzie if she wanted to give it a try. Lizzie debated about it for a little while and then decided if she didn't like it she could do soccer in the spring. I was so happy and had such a trip down memory lane as we went and bought her first pair of ballet shoes and leotard and tights. She's done remarkably well and really enjoys it. I really try not to be to pushy about it but I would be just thrilled if she continued on with it.
Lizzie's hair slicked back into a proper ballet bun. With a hair comb that I used to wear with my ballet buns.
Striking her poses quite well. I could be biased but she's quite the natural.
Lizzie's next big first started the next day with her first Day in Kindergarten! Lizzie has been ready for ages but it was nice to get it officially on it's way. I was prepared for my tears but the thing that caught me off guard was Abby's. She and Lizzie have done nearly everything together this Summer and when we dropped Lizzie off to School Abby sat right down next to Lizzie and threw a huge FIT when I told her it was our time to go. Abby cried the whole way home and said she wanted to go to school with Lizzie. I think Lizzie missed Abby while she was at school but when Lizzie came back she told Abby all about school while they shared an after school snack. It was one of those small moments that I know I'm going to have to throw in their faces when they're teenagers and they hate each other.
Lizzie all ready to go to school. Her new kicks, her favorite monkey shirt, a butterfly back pack and a giant kiss to her favorite sister.
Lizzie in her class ready for me and her siblings to leave so she can start ruling the classroom.
Lizzie was so silly when she came home and showed me her picture she made. Then gave me some model directions of how she wanted her picture taken.
She wanted to show everyone that she can blow a bubble...I mean afterall she is a big Kindergarten girl now.
This is her fashion smile. Don't know why she calls it that but it sure makes me think she's growing up way too fast!
