Burrr!

So the weather has kinda sucked lately, (I think it's sucked for everyone in the west but I don't really know thou as we don't watch TV, yet alone the news.)
But Since it's been cold I've been locking myself inside away from the burr and wind and cold and having to wear a coat- ness'. I've gradually become bored, so I started organizing pictures and came across the fun day we had just a few weeks ago (when the weather was great and warm and I looovvveeed it!)

Dave had the great idea to go fly kites, We had never done it with our kids yet and I was concerned about actually finding kites at the store. So we went to good ol' wallyworld, and Dave being a guy went off on his own looking for the kites while I decided to ask an employee. So I asked this lady and she was like
"ohh ya we definitely don't have any kites yet, we don't get those till later in the summer" (make sure and add the authoritative tone of 'I know this for a fact')
-bummer I was thinking.
So I went off to find Dave who was only an isle over, and there he was standing in front of about 50 kites or so.

We picked up a barbie (princess in Brynley's terms) one, and of course a robots (transformers) one for Payton. At a buck a piece I thought that was pretty sweet. Since I've never bought kites before I thought they'd be more pricey.

The wind wasn't too strong but strong enough and would kinda come in waves.
Brynley loved it at first but than she got to where she had this look on her face "like wow, that was fun now why am I holding this string up in the air still- this is boring."

Payton had lots of fun until the wind would stop and his kite would fall- than he'd get frustrated with it, he kept wanting his to be highers than Brynleys of course and than he started acting like the robot on his kite was attacking everyone, especially barbie.


I was of course during all of this rolling on the ground trying to get some shots of the kite in the pic with the kid. I'm sure the people watching us thought I was crazy- but it was a lot of fun, and I so can't wait for it to be warm, so we can go and do it again....
*Did you hear weather -I SO CAN'T WAIT FOR IT TO BE WARM AGAIN, IF YOU DON'T MIND, PLEASE, THANK YOU, YOUR GREAT, WE LOVE YOU, PPPLLLEEAASSEEE!

Deals!

So Dave has been frustrated as of lately cuz' he doesn't really have a work space in our home, and so he hasn't accomplished much and just ends up wasting time on (the evil word) WOW-(world of warcraft) *one can never know the passionate hatred I have for this game, but I'm working through my issues :)

Anyhow he mentioned getting another computer and desk so he can work at it- *insert me thinking here "another computer, geez we already have three."
We eventually after a few weeks settled on just getting a monitor and desk and he can dueley his laptop with the monitor- So Dave now has his own little corner of nerdyness and I try to shield my eyes away from the wires hanging everywhere (it's his space, it's his space- don't worry bout it, don't look at it-it's his space)

Anyway on our little adventure to get a desk, I wanted to check out the goodwill first cuz' I rather have some desk that has potential to become something better and I could have a project to do, but negative, no desk. (They did have an awesome chair that had such sexy legs and form that I wanted it but they were selling it in a set- bummer) But I did find some .99 cent jeans for Brynley -Score-
And at Wallyworld I found some little shoes for her for $4, which we needed cuz' her little feet are squished in her old ones (I've been looking for shoes for her for awhile, I didn't want to pay full price since it's gonna be summer soon and she'll be wearing sandles, but I did feel bad for her feetsies, so I needed to get some dang shoes)


While we were at Walmart Dave said he wanted a lamp for his desk, and I seem to be attracted to anything that is green lately so this box caught my eye and the $9 clearance price tag- Yay! I also recognized it as a lamp that I'd eyed before, I liked the shade, but there was no way I'd pay the original $40 price tag (I'm too much of a cheapy or "tightwad" like my dad- too bad I don't have the middle intial T like him.) So I grabbed two of those and off we went.

I was really happy bout my clearance lamps until I realized that we'd have to carry all that we got up the stairs :( Luckily we got two pack horses, I mean Kids, to load up and help us with everything, and a super man husband! Cuz' geez who ever makes two trips that's just stupid.

On a side note- My flowers are still alive :) And I loooovvveee them.

Flowers

I really love my Hubby!

Sure we like any couple have our times when we get on each others nerves and the stupid little things drive us crazy (like not hanging his shirt the right way on the hanger :) But he really is just amazing in how sweet and thoughtful he is and how calm of a temperament he has. My perfect match I'd say :)

He brings me home flowers pretty often just to tell me he loves me and thinks I'm beautiful-- which is really much appreciated since I don't always feel beautiful when I've been home all day tending to the needs of our family.

Anyways he brought these home last night and I think they are my favorite yet.

He of course was thoughtful of Brynley too and made sure to give her her very own.

She loved it of course and carried it everywhere. I love that she is such a little girly girl

I really love the little green flowers.
Who else can't wait for spring, and the green, to be here:)

Kids-duh moments, and Pico de gallo-yum :)

So life has just been going along-- Payton and Brynley are usually really good together but lately I've noticed that they are fighting a lot more and just being mean to each other. I was thinking this morning on how I can solve this little issue and it was like 'duh' they need a break from each other. Three months playing with the same person and always being with them would wear me out and make me fiesty too. I love it when the answer comes easily and I don't have to struggle with it. Now I just need to find a way to do this :)




On another note my amazing sister in law, Dafne, gave me some of her recipes and I'm in love with making her Pico de gallo, and thought I'd share her yummy, simple way of making it.
*Do note I am no cook and I mean no cook!- food is my biggest struggle, I just don't enjoy making it. Putting me in the kitchen for hours is like putting me in my own personal torture chamber, so this is an easy easy recipe :)

Dafne's Pico De Gallo

First you have to have a cute little helper to watch and advise you not to cut yourself every few min.:)

ROMA TOMATOES

How ever many Roma tomatoes you want in it. For our family I usually use three or four. Dice them to whatever size you prefer. I like ours fairly small but you can make them bigger for a chunkier dip.

CILANTROThan some Cilantro (It's by the lettuce heads usually-I worried about finding this cuz' I had no clue what it was at first--ya I'm no cook), I usually use half of the bunch for our fam. Cut off the very ends but don't worry about pulling all the leaves off the stems. And than just cut them as small as you can or like them-(I'm sure there is a proper way to do this, but I don't know it)

ONION
Than Onion, Diced. I usually only use two to three slices of it because Dave isn't a huge fan of onions and they can really overpower it.

LIMES
This is Dafne's signature item, she puts lime juice it seems on everything and it surprisingly makes a huge difference. I usually will use half of a big lime.

SEASONING
Dafne uses Salt and Chicken flavored bouillon-(you can find it in the ethnicity isle--and I would recommended it, it's yummy stuff and works as a great seasoning for tons of stuff) I usually just put a few pinches of each on it.

And of course your cute little helper has to be the first to try it, She'll tell you if it's good or not :) Enjoy!

More examples

So I just finished some grad announcement examples for my nephew. I was definitely in a grungy modern mood with these ones. They were really fun to do and a nice break from the schedule-- I put the kids down for naps, got my earphones and Pandora and had a great break :)

Geez Finally! About Here!

So the trip here is LOOOONNNGG! 11 hours or so. Dave's parents luckily were thinking and for Christmas got us a small dvd player for the car trip. I had Payton with me in the car, which anyone who knows him, knows he is a jabber mouth and just doesn't stop talking, so the movie thing was great and Karen(Dave's mom) was super smart and gave him a little map and every few often stops he would get to open a present (cars, coloring books, ect) So even though it was long and I stared at the back of the trailer for what seemed to be forever (except when we hit Denver heavy traffic and Glen(dave's dad) who's use to busy traffic felt at home and left me in the dust- yes I was quite panicky- Dave had Jarvis(our gps) and I am just a little ol country driver, luckily it's pretty much just a "stay on the highway drive") we eventually got here.

I was very glad for the help of our nephews (Kody & Ty) when we got here- Carrying furniture up three levels is not fun! (Plus Kody's company on the drive was nice too.) I thought it was fairly funny too that Dave thought he was getting the easy quiet kid for the drive, and for some reason Brynley finally found her voice on the trip and has not stopped talking since- now we're blessed with two jabbermouths. :)


It is really beautiful here- this is the view I get to wake up to everymoring. Almost every road is three lanes of traffic and 45mph and up, and there's barriers down the middle of every road so you have to figure out what areas you can turn left on or not--(lots of U turns going on) At first I was fairly nervous about driving but I finally took Jarvis(our gps) out and just drove around and got to know the roads- they are defiantly not in a grid and so many of them have the same names except ending like boulevard, parkway, lane. Everything you can imagine seems to be here and close, We still after two months haven't really gone very much south in Colorado springs.

I must admit I was fairly nervous about apartment living, having never done it before, But it's not nearly as bad as I dreamed it to be. Sure I really miss my fridge :( But you can't beat being able to deep clean your whole house in 15min. and being able to vacuum the whole house without unplugging the vacuum. What a treat! *Isn't Bryn so cute-she had to be in every photo :) (also if you notice we don't have a dining table :) you can tell what's more important to us nerds)
I do wish we had a back yard and that Tiki could be here with us, we miss him terribly and he's had quite a rough time adjusting too--soon though hopefully we'll sell our home and be able to buy one here. (Here's a shameless plug, if you know anyone interested here's a link about our home FosSale Home) But we feel very very very blessed to have a job at this time and to be able to make it paying our house payment and rent, that is blessing enough.

We really have been loving it here and it seems like Life has almost slowed down a little bit, we have more time to just enjoy the kids and sit and watch movies together as a family cuddling on the couch. I have been a little bit busy with trying to teach the kids preschool (since payton only got half a year this yr.) and trying to be more outgoing and social. One thing that has been really great is Brynley pretty much potty trained herself as soon as we moved here ( I was worried that she would have a huge setback with the move and everything new and all) She hasn't had an accident at all and sleeps all night in her big girl underwear. It's been great :)

My Parents have already come out for a visit which was super fun, even though I started going a little crazy without having everything in the apartment organized and clean :) sorry mom. We broke down and got a Wii for Payton. (he was addicted to Halo and wanted to play it all the time and I wouldn't let him cuz' the only time we play it is when we have a whole bunch of people and have a Halo party and since we still don't know anyone who plays we don't play it) So we got a wii and the old mario games, raving rabbids, and the sports game. We had alot of fun playing it with my parents and laughed at the fact that Payton can whoop us all at bowling. and not to mention my dad's mii character( balding, tiny eyes, arrow nose and huge glasses) I promise we didn't just play games the whole time- we aren't that nerdy of a family. We went to the garden of the gods and shopped and ate out alot :) Raced Levi through Walmart-(when your little bro is around you can so not act your age) We miss them and hope they can come again soon!


All in all it's been great here, we of course miss our families (I especially miss having projects to do and working with Dad) but the ward here is great and since no one really has much family close they really become your family. Payton has adopted a grandma and grandpa here and we went and ate dinner over there this week. We have made some great friends (Melissa and Dave ) and love to hang out with them, Hopefully Mellisa's sweetness will rub off on me, she's one of the nicest, sincere, sweet, happy people I know. We've been trying to workout at the gym here together *trying as the main word there :) But all in all it's been great here especially the weather-- I never knew it could be so warm in the winter :) And no icy roads is heaven-- but we still get snow occasionally that sticks for a day or two and than it's back up in the 60's. The weather is great did I mention that!

Anyways that's the super long, overdue post all about here :)

Ugh

So I finally got my computer monitor calibrated- looked at my blog and went ugh, and than didn't look at it again for a week. I'm still not really happy with it, and I've been to busy to really fix it.

I'm still learning Illustrator and loving the program- it's awesome and so so powerful, and Dave's niece is getting married so I've been working on some announcements for her, I need to get working on our nephews graduation announcements, and another one of Dave's nephews is getting married and might have me do their announcements.--I'm very much enjoying it and love having the opportunity to practice and get better.

We are loving it here and I feel quite busy (with trying to actually be social instead of a introvert). Anyways I promise dear blog that I won't neglect you anymore.

Here are a few samples that I've done for my neice (none are really my favorite, but I always seem to be that way)