The Not So Stay At Home Mom

Out of Africa Park

2009-05-28T18:16:00.000-07:00

Sunday we did a mini road trip to Camp Verde and visited the Out of Africa Park. It was a lot of fun and the weather was perfect. Of course my batteries in my camera died, but I did get a few good shots. We got to feed the giraffes, watch a snake show (I. helped bring the snake back to its cage), and got entertained by the tiger splash show.

The big 5!!

2009-05-28T17:09:00.001-07:00

It has been too long since I've posted, but my baby girl turned 5. I'm not sure where the time has gone, but she's growing up so quick.

Train Park

2008-11-07T13:31:00.000-08:00

We finally get to enjoy the beautiful weather Arizona has to offer. Today we went to the Freestone Railroad Park with our MOMS Club friends.

Halloween Weekend

2008-11-04T08:10:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Halloween weekend. Friday we carved our giant pumpkin and went trick-or-treating. Saturday Jason & I had our Wine Club costume party, good times. Enjoy the pictures.

Texas Vacation

2008-10-23T16:04:00.000-07:00

Well we survived our Texas vacation, it was fun, exhausting, more fun, and finally home. Pauline & Charlie's wedding was very beautiful and our girls were fortunate enough to be flower girls. They had so much fun getting all dressed up and Izzy got a beautiful up-do. The following day we went to Fiesta Texas and enjoyed going on all the rides. It was a busy week after that preparing for Papa's surprise 50th birthday party. Nana got a karaoke machine and we have 2 little singers who love the microphone. Enjoy the pictures!

Godspeed Uncle Randy

2008-09-25T12:55:00.001-07:00

Our dear Uncle Randy left this morning for Iraq for his second tour of duty and will be gone for a year. We are very proud of him for wanting to serve his country. We hope that he has a safe return and we will miss him very much.

Remember.....

2008-09-11T16:16:00.000-07:00

This morning I was remembering where I was and what I was doing on September 11, 2001. I remembered how scared, sad, angry, nervous I was. I pray that never again innocent lives will be harmed on American soil again like they were that terrible morning. We were very fortunate that no family or friends left us that day, but there are many that were and for that my heart aches for their loss.

Not much to say.....

2008-09-05T08:53:00.001-07:00

Okay so since school has started it seems that everything revolves around that. The girls and I are busy everyday. Izzy has school Monday, Tuesday, & Thursday, Wednesday Izzy has ballet, and Raena takes a class on Thursday. We meet for playgroup on Fridays. The weeks are starting to blur together! Hopefully soon I'll have something more interesting to post about!

I'm as giddy as a school girl...

2008-08-20T12:48:00.000-07:00

I haven't been this excited about getting a book in the mail for a long time. The Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer has got its fangs in me. In 3 days I read the first 2 books, Twilight & New Moon, which means I got a little sleep deprived. I'm praying my UPS man will be early and deliver the next 2 books, Eclipse & Breaking Dawn, by Raena's nap.

Izzy was quite giddy this morning as well. She started her new ballet/ tap class and is having fun meeting new friends.

Thanks Auntie Wendy...

2008-08-12T12:31:00.000-07:00

Auntie Wendy loves to spoil her nieces on our most recent trip to their house we came home with a loot of stuff including this horse that talks and sings. Unfortunately I already dislike the song, please let the batteries die soon! (just kidding).

Raena's Birthday Party

2008-08-08T14:13:00.000-07:00

Today we had Raena's birthday party with our playgroup friends. We had tons of fun playing, decorating wood butterflies, and making a butterfly with pipe cleaners and coffee filters. Here are a few pictures.

Raena's 1st Day of School

2008-08-08T14:11:00.000-07:00

Thursday was Raena's first day of school with Miss Rachel. She did wonderful and had lots of fun.

Happy 2nd Birthday Raena!

2008-08-05T15:53:00.000-07:00

Today is Raena's 2nd birthday! While Izzy was at school today, I took Raena to Build A Bear to make her very own bear.

On the way home she decided to decorate herself instead of the bear house with the stickers.

Bye, bye crib

2008-08-04T15:14:00.000-07:00

This weekend we dismantled the crib. I still have to paint the chair rail and do touch up paint, (you'll notice a spot behind her bed that she picked out while still in her crib) but here are pictures of Raena's big girl room. I'm still debating on changing her name plaque because that went with the crib bedding. Jason doesn't want me to because he likes it, but it doesn't match anything else in the room.

It's Official....

2008-07-31T15:03:00.000-07:00

Well it is official Raena will be moved out of her crib this weekend. Raena totally fought her nap today and would not fall asleep. Jason took over so I could pick up Izzy from school. As I was pulling in to the school I got a call from Jason informing me that she jumped out. Bye, bye crib. I guess my weekend plans just got made for me. C'est la vie!

Ice Cream Party

2008-07-30T13:58:00.000-07:00

Today Izzy had her ice cream party for her Summer Fun Learning class. She had a great time with Miss Rachel & Miss Carrie. Raena got to join the party too.

Izzy's First Day of School

2008-07-28T12:40:00.001-07:00

Today was Izzy's first day at her new school. It is a different schedule for us so it will take a little time adjusting.

Making Pizza

2008-07-28T12:35:00.001-07:00

So Saturday Izzy asked for pizza for dinner. So I decided to go the homemade route. Izzy even ate some of the peppers, but she said no mushrooms! Of course Raena ate everything.

And some pictures of them being silly...

Oh Me, Oh My

2008-07-22T15:55:00.000-07:00

Oh Me, Oh My we have little bears in our house. The girls and I stayed in today and their cousins came over to play.

Bad mommy...

2008-07-21T15:23:00.000-07:00

Okay so I was a bad mommy the other night. Right before the girls got in the shower, I got busted by Raena putting some cookies away and the moment she saw them said "cookie please". I couldn't help it.....she's just too darn cute and of course Izzy had to have one too.

Busy, Busy, Busy

2008-07-18T16:22:00.000-07:00

Monday - Jason, my niece, and I floated down the Salt River. It was a lot of fun, I haven't been in about 7 years.

Tuesday - We went to Sun Splash water park and again had a lot of fun going down the slides, in the wave pool, and soaking up the sun.

Wednesday - I took my niece to a tour for ASU. Then we ate at Kabuki Japanese Restaurant and had sushi, YUMMY! Then we shopped all afternoon.

Thursday - Brought my niece to the airport. Man was I exhausted!

Sorry I don't have pictures of any of our outings because most of it involved water and I don't have a waterproof camera, LOL.

Playing in the rain....

2008-07-13T19:17:00.000-07:00

Don't you love acting like a kid and playing in the rain. We are having a wonderful rainy Sunday evening. Jason was showing me the plants & tree he planted and girls decided to play in the rain.

Our Artist

2008-07-11T08:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the girls were coloring and I was quite impressed on how Izzy has gotten better at coloring. I guess practice does make perfect!

We have an exciting event planned for tomorrow!

Izzy's Letters

2008-07-09T14:54:00.000-07:00

I wish I was as creative as Izzy. Her imagination is so neat. Today she wrote a letter to her friend. She told her a story about a princess meeting her prince and living in a castle.

I was promptly informed I needed to get an envelope and stamp to send the letters off to her friend.

My babies are growing up

2008-07-08T15:50:00.001-07:00

We stayed in today. Izzy was running a low fever and has a runny nose. We skipped our Summer Movie, Alvin & The Chipmunks, and watched it at home instead. The girls enjoyed it, mostly I think because it had music in it and I made popcorn.

Back to the subject of my post. Last night Izzy discovered she can open the gate in the family room, which means trouble for mommy & daddy because she lets her sister out as well. I also realized Raena is putting sentences together quite well. For instance, 'I don't want to take a nap!'. After her little protest she did nap. None the less, she's going to be 2 in less than a month and getting quite talkative.

That's it for now, I need to start prepping for dinner.

New Look

2008-07-07T15:24:00.000-07:00

So the header picture is about as creative as I can get! I'm not what you call artistically inclined, thus stick figures, LOL.

I wish I knew HTML better! That is a college course I might just have to take. Speaking of that I am currently in the process of figuring out what to do about getting my degree. I am 3 classes shy of an associates degree and I would prefer to do everything online. I have more research to do and hopefully I will be a student again this fall.

A long holiday weekend

2008-07-07T08:01:00.000-07:00

It was a wonderful holiday weekend! Friday was filled with lots of fun. We spent the day with Jason's step-sister and her 2 boys. We put up our ginormous water slide and went swimming. Izzy has really made strides this year, now she just has to get the floating thing down. Then we went to their house for dinner & to watch fireworks. They were about 2 miles away, but the show was still great to watch. The girls were pretty well behaved for staying up until 10pm! That is a rarity in our house.

Saturday we took the girls to the resort my parents vacationed at for the weekend and went swimming again! After that we went to Dave & Busters for food, games, and more fun! By 4pm we were all wiped out!

Sunday swimming, again!! That's it in a nutshell.

Quite a busy day

2008-07-03T07:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was so busy that I couldn't get to blog. Izzy had summer school in the morning. Then my SIL took her to Amazing Jake's all afternoon! It was a really nice break for me. They had so much fun and went on all the rides and got lots of goodies from their tickets won.

My niece flew in from Green Bay and Mom & I picked her up from the airport and took her to her fave place, In and Out Burger! It had been a while since I've been and it was oh so good.

I did snap some pictures of Raena. She was trying to get everything into her cozy coupe.

Tuesday's Outing, Arizona Museum for Youth

2008-07-01T15:43:00.000-07:00

This morning I took the girls to one of my favorite places for kids, the Arizona Museum For Youth (AMY). It is a hands-on fun play place and museum.

The play area is called Artville and has a fun tree house with slide and 2 rooms that change with the exhibits. Right now is Table Manners and they had a fun bistro equipped with play food, cash register (with play money), tables, chairs, piano, and clean up equipment. This was the most played in room.

They also got to paint a patriotic flag!! Which is one of Izzy's favorite things to do. The picture of them painting didn't turn out for some reason. But here is the end result.

Izzy's Flag
Raena's Flag

And some pictures of other play areas. We had a really fun day!

Running errands again...

2008-06-30T18:11:00.001-07:00

Once again we ran errands while Izzy was in her preschool. I was in search for a bedskirt for Raena's big girl bed and ended up finding myself a dress for SIL's wedding in October and a new backpack for Izzy. She starts school in less than a month!! It has been a long day. We plan on doing something tomorrow!

Outing on Thursday

2008-06-27T08:06:00.000-07:00

Not at home on Thursday, what were we doing....
We went to the library so Izzy could get her prizes for the Summer Reading Program. We've read 12 new books. She got a cute butterfly book mark and Wikki Sticks. She played with the sticks for at least an hour. If you don't know what they are they are like pipe cleaners, but sticky. I would like to get more to show her how to make letters of the alphabet.

Then we met my SIL at Chick-Fil-A for lunch and let the kiddos burn some energy on their play equipment. Unfortunately Raena did not cooperate and didn't eat her lunch. Gotta love the almost terrible twos.

Next time I will have to bring my camera so you can see where we go.

Starting My Blog

2008-06-24T15:17:00.000-07:00

Okay I'm taking the next step into the online scene. I hope by starting this blog I can stay connected with friends and family. It is true the life of the stay at home mom is not so. The girls and I are always going somewhere or doing something. I have a lot to learn so please be patient with me!

Lots of love,
Nichole