some cute pictures & other fun stuff

this is my little big girl at the park. love that smile!

this is my small struggling garden! two rows of sugar snap peas, 2 watermelon mounds, 2 rows of pole beans, 2 zucchini mounds, 1 small beefsteak tomato, 1 early boy tomato, 1 lemon yellow tomato. gardening in the desert is a bit different than container gardening on my back porch in florida! I still have a small garden off my back porch where I have some hyacinth & tulips coming in. I have a couple of rosebushes back there and I am going to plant my pumpkins there. I have a couple of small geraniums in pots back there, too. I have some sunflowers & wildflowers to plant in another small bed. I also just got a small jasmine & a small honeysuckle. They smell soooooooo good! I know that none of my flowers match, but I love them all!

this is my cute little ainslers! She is getting too big! She sat on the porch steps while Daddy & Hannah rode bikes.

This is my sweet budding artist! She loves to play with Parker's chalk. I really need to get her some of her own!

This is Ainsley laughing at the park the other day.

This is my little baby looking not so much like a baby! I can't believe that she is big enough to climb up on the playground equipment!

This is my adorable little girl playing her favorite game, pat-a-cake! Seriously, she screams when you stop! Love those little pink crocs! I can't believe I found them that small. She has the tiniest feet ever!

My adorable girls riding their bikes this afternoon! Aren't they stinkin' cute?!

A close-up of the bike ride!

Okay, that's enough for the pictures. Let's talk about the past week! My mother's day was pretty cool. Thomas got me the new President Hinckley inspirational book about women. It was totally unexpected! I watched my RedBox 27 Dresses. Then I went and scrapbooked with the girls at Cori's house. My father-in-law came over to wish us all a Happy Mother's Day and we planned our trip to California. Woohoo! Now that I know details, I am really looking forward to the trip. I think that it will be fun. I am NOT looking forward to the drive. Ainsley hates her carseat. So, 10-12 hours in the car is NOT going to be fun at all!

Monday was a pretty ordinary day... bills, clean, cook, more bills, and more cleaning! I actually got some scrapping done. I finished a few client pages. They are so cute! I wish I could share them, but they aren't my kids or my memories, so I won't. Although, I am very tempted to put my kids' pictures in some of the pages! But my client has two boys so the pages are geared towards boys... Oh well!

Today was a busy day! Have I mentioned that my children don't sleep? Here's an example. Hannah fell asleep at 9pm last night. Perfect! Well, right as Thomas & I were getting ready to go to sleep about 10:30, Hannah woke up ready to go! So, I put her on the couch with a blanket and a pillow and strict instructions not to bother me! lol! The couch is literally less than 10 feet from my bed. I put on kids' shows and went to bed. Ainsley woke up at 3am to eat, I fed her and Hannah was still awake. But she fell asleep as I was putting Ainsley back down. Ainsley woke up at 5:45 again to eat and then she stayed up! I figured that Hannah would sleep until 9. Ainsley fell back asleep about 8. So I climbed back in bed for a few more minutes. My phone rang at 8:30 (thanks, Angie! just kidding! call whenever you want!) and then Hannah woke up at 8:45. I got the girls ready and headed out to drop off Thomas' glasses at his office. We got off the 45th South exit and were waiting to turn at the light... BAM! We got rear-ended. We're all fine. I put the car in park, jumped out to check on the car. It didn't appear to be damaged. The old guy who hit me yelled at me to get back in my car and drive since there wasn't any damage. Ummm, you hit me hard enough to jerk my car really hard, you're getting a ticket buddy! I grabbed my cell phone and called Thomas to get the police non-emergency phone number. I looked up and the JERK left! I was absolutely furious! And more mad at myself because I didn't get his license plate number. I pulled to the side of the road and called the police anyway. They said that unless there is noticeable damage they won't do an accident report in a hit and run because anyone could pull over to the side of the road and claim an accident. The Highway Patrol was very reluctant to come out and the lady told me to just leave. So, I did. When I got to Thomas' office, I got out and checked again and you can totally see the bolt marks from his front license plate holder (there was no plate there!). They are perfectly imprinted into my bumper. JERK! Sorry that just really pisses me off. He didn't ask if I was okay or if my KIDS were okay. I have TWO carseats in my car and you can definitely see them from the back. But we're all fine,, so that's good. So, I decided that I had earned a patio table. I ran down to IKEA, but they were sold out of their very cool glass patio tables. I was very sad. So I ran to Wal-Mart and got a few things that I needed and a few supplies for a craft project. I took Hannah to Wendy's for lunch. She ate her ENTIRE kids meal and most of the frosty. She must have been super hungry! Poor little girl! Not sleeping really makes a girl HUNGRY! Ainsley ate half of my fries. Does anyone else get self-conscious when they eat out at fast food restaurants? I was sitting there with my extra large fries and 44 oz Coke ( I KNOW! Not gonna lose weight that way!) and felt like a big ol' fat cow! I think it's because at the table next to us there was a tiny toothpick of a girl sitting in her exercise clothes eating a PLAIN baked potato! I think I am just self conscious right now. anyway... We got home, cleaned up a little, made dinner, watered the garden, rode bikes and played at the park. Disclaimer: I know that I am not fat. I am just not comfortable because I have re-gained some weight lately. I am still in my size 6 jeans, but they're tight and a month ago they were falling off. It's just frustrating because of my food allergies. The only thing I can drink is water or soda. I can't drink juices at all. I can't drink diet drinks because of the artificial sweeteners. I am really trying to limit my soda intake. Other than the fountain Coke today, I haven't had one in almost a week. And I have limited myself to one can of soda a day. I am drinking tons of water! I can't eat any of the typical lose-weight foods. I am allergic to fruit... all fruit except strawberries and raspberries. I try not to eat too much of those because I don't want to develop an allergy to either of them. There are very few veggies that I can eat. I go through 5-6 heads of romaine lettuce every week. Thomas and I have eaten almost half of a 5lb bag of carrots since Saturday. I am supposed to limit my poultry intake as well. I have an egg allergy and my allergist told me to not eat chicken more than a couple of times a week. So, that leaves me with a lot of carbs like potatoes & pasta. They have never affected me before! I hate getting old! I think this is just my body getting used to Ainsley not nursing as much. We're down to just a couple of times a day. I am hoping that she will wean herself from all daytime feedings before we leave for CA. I'm not in a hurry to rush her.

anyway... the plan for wednesday...
EXERCISE
plant some more garden stuff
work on some scrapbook pages
work on some craft projects
clean the bathroom
scrub the shower
mop the kitchen floor
trim scrapbook pages
make some chore/job charts

well, i am off to get some stuff done! y'all have fun and I will keep you posted on the garden & the craft projects & the weight loss!