Where to Begin......

Yes, I know it's been a while. I hate blog guilt. But now that I've been visiting all of your wonderful blogs I feel the need to update.

 
Visited some VERY long time friends (Hubby, Ben and myself were all in the same primary together)  I love the kind of friends that you can see every few years and it's like no time has passed at all.

Went to Wicked with my whole family and mother in law. It was FABULOUS!!

Celebrated the big 30 something.....

Did a little baking with the kiddies. I love that.

Went to the ranch multiple times and enjoyed every minute of it. J and little C went on a monstrous bike ride and C absolutely rocked!

How Sweet It Is!

Made REAL homemade dark chocolate ice cream. Smooth, creamy, delicious ice cream.

Justin's reaction was "Sweet mother of Mergatroid!" (I think that's good :)

It was so worth every ounce of energy that was spent melting the chocolate, tempering the hot and cold mixtures together ever so slowly, and taking 2 days to get it to the point of " Holy Crap this is good" :)

I think the kids agree. But next time I'm putting brownie bits in it.

My latest creation.....

This is the wedding cake I did for my sister in laws niece/cousins husbands niece/other sister in laws sister's niece. :) So I guess we're related . :) Anyways, I am pretty happy with the outcome.

This is my parent's backyard. I love it. It's so peaceful and beautiful.

I Know, I Know....

Blame it on Facebook. I can't stop myself. Some of you are really good about keeping up on both and I don't know how you do it. So my blog has suffered and I feel kind of guilty. I wish I had time to post pictures, tell you how busy I've been, etc. But I'm trying to plan our summer vacation and need to find a Vegas hotel that has a great swimming pool for kids. So I'm asking for help.......Please? :) Anybody have any good ideas?

Alright, I give.

I never do tags. I don't know why, I just don't. Victoria tagged me once and I almost grounded her. But my sweet cousin Jacque tagged me and I can't not do it because I really like her. (not that I don't like Victoria, but I can tell her no pretty easily. ;)
So here goes....
4 jobs I've had:

1. Retail at Merry Go Round (please don't ask)
2. Shipping for Motorola
3. Dental Assistant
4. Cheerleading Teacher (again, don't ask)


Movies I've watched more than once:

1. Moonstruck
2. The Notebook
3. Pride and Prejudice
4. Sense and Sensibility

Places I've been:

1 Calif
2. Utah
3. Washington DC
4. Mexico

Places I've lived

1. Arizona
2. That's it.

People who email me regularly: (I don't like this one. It makes me look pretty lame)

1. Kids Schools
2. Pottery Barn
3. Ward Humanitarian Specialists
4. Amazon.com
5. My Mom just emailed asking if I needed ammunition for our guns. ?!!!! Didn't even ask how the kids are. ;)

Favorite Foods:

1. Mexican
2. Italian
3. American
4. Chinese
(I think that about covers it)

Things I'm looking forward to this year:

1. family reunion in Utah
2. Spending time at the ranch
3. Toria going to HS
4. All girls cruise!!! (hopefully)

TV Shows I watch:

1 The Office
2. American Idol
3. Man VS Wild
4. Heroes

Disneyland!

The Tower of Terror. I hated it almost as much as Emma. Never again.

Gracie obviously enjoying herself. ;)

Victoria had her bday cheesecake

On California Screamin'. She's going to hate me for putting this on here. ;)

We ran into the Hursts at Calif. Adventure! It was very fun.

We stood in line for 2 hours for pictures with the princesses and when it was our turn they had Mulan, Jasmine and Ariel! What a rip off! ;) (I do like Ariel though)

The girls being good sports in line for what they thought was their one chance to meet Cinderella.

Aarrrgh?

Don't Forget To VOTE!!!

All Mesa residents, don't forget to vote YES for PROP 300 on Tuesday! If you don't know what it is, read here.

THANK YOU!!!!!

YouTube Food Supply Presentation

For all of you that missed Living Essentials (or is it Essential Living?) last night, you can see my mom's whole food storage presentation on YouTube at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGaTlwYs-s
It's in 9 different segments, but you can just follow the links on the side (or below.) BYUTV is also going to put it on their website, but it's not there yet. I'll link it as soon as I can find it. ;)
I'll try to find out earlier than the day of when the next show is and give you all a heads up.

Renae

Pop some Popcorn and Grab Your Notebook!

Hey Everyone!! Tonight on BYU TV at 7pm they are airing the 1st of 4 segments of my Mom's food storage class. I'm so excited!! (can you tell?) Sorry for the short notice. But maybe you can call it FHE!
Let me know what you think after watching it. ;)!!! (unless you don't like it. Then there's obviously something wrong with you and I don't want your opinion anyways ;)
Renae

To Post or Not to Post?

Well, every time I go to the computer I have this sense of guilt because I haven't posted for a while. Why is that? If I have to actually try to think of something to write about, doesn't that mean that there's probably not much to say? (at least that's interesting) I love reading all about everybody else's lives. The vacations, the recitals, even the poop stories make me smile. (Janelle ;) So why do I feel pressure to create a literature masterpiece every time I sign in? (which obviously still hasn't happened) I think I have blog performance issues.

Oh well. On that happy note, here's what we've been up to. Ummmm.......

Emma lost her first tooth! And then the next one came out two days later. She was thrilled.

Gracie learned how to stick a spoon on her nose. (courtesy of Justin) It was pretty impressive since she could keep it on there and walk around at the same time. Or maybe it's pretty gross that her nose was that sticky to keep a spoon on it. Either way she was happy about it. ;)

Valentines Day 2009!

Movie Night Alexander Style

So it's a three day weekend, everyone's sick (except me) , and there's nothing to do except whine and complain (them, not me). I'm in the den (avoiding the kids) finally getting rid of all the Christmas boxes and .......Ding! I have the greatest idea.

IT'S MOVIE NIGHT!!!

They spend the next 6 hours coloring and glueing their "drive-in cars" or in Cameron's case the Imperial Star Destroyer. No fighting, all smiles and even helping one another! We pop some popcorn and settle in for some old home movies that night. I might even count it as Family Home Evening.





Also.......we're going to Disneyland for the first time as a family (I haven't been for 13 years) and I need advice on where to stay, where to eat, etc. Everyone seems to have their own tricks for making it work and I'd like to know all of them. Please Help?

Castles and Coasters

Every year the Phoenix Fire Dept.
rents out Castles and Coasters (right off the I17 and around Dunlap. Our old stomping grounds) and all the firefighters and families get in for $5. This year we needed no diapers, no stroller, and the kids could ride almost everything. They had a blast and so did Justin and I. I think we're ready for Disneyland!
Emma and Grace were thrilled to ride everything (can't you tell by the death grip and grimace on Emma's face?) And Cameron and Victoria actually had fun.....together!! You can see them smiling while they're sitting next to each other?!!! Will wonders never cease? ;)

Now, this is one of those free fall rides that I refuse to get on. Victoria was practically dragged on it (can you tell?) and Cam has no idea what to expect. I love the last picture which was taken when they were almost to the bottom. Justin looks like he's going to hurl, Toria's just plain mad, and Cam looks like he's just holding on for dear life.

It is SOOOOO time for "The Talk"

Poor Cameron. Someday I'll be able to make a whole book about the things he says that make us laugh. To read his previous story, click here.

This morning I made him an egg over easy and while sitting at the kitchen table he asked, "Mom, how come some of the eggs turn into chickens and some don't?"

"Well Cameron, some eggs are fertilized and they turn into chicks and the ones that aren't are the ones that we eat."

Easy enough. I'd answered without it getting too awkward. Score one for mom! Unfortunately Justin was listening and decided to take this conversation to the next level. Probably to make me squirm. He loves that.

He says,"Cameron, don't you ever wonder why if the mom has the baby and the dad just marries her, (again, to understand this comment click here.) then why do some of the kids look like the dad?"
Now, my eyes are popping out and I'm giving him the "What the heck are you doing?" stare. You see, we have three girls and ONE boy. I have to give the "girl talk" to three kids and he has just one. One!! I've already totally screwed it up with Victoria. She caught me unprepared and I ended up using Lego's as an example. Yeah, Lego's. I think I've scarred her permanently.

ANYWAYS.......

If Justin is going to start with birds and bees and such, he'd better take it upstairs and hopefully not use the Lego's Cam just got for Christmas. Fortunately Cameron was ready to diffuse the situation for me. Here's what he said....

"Well, isn't it like on America's Funniest Home Videos when they have a picture of the dog in a tutu and a picture of dog on a tightrope? And then they take the two pictures and put them together and it ends up being a dog with a tutu on a tightrope?"

Exactly.

That's Totally Redonculous!

OK, if you haven't seen BOLT yet, you might not get it. And I promise I won't post any "spoilers". (wouldn't want to ruin the Disney cartoon for ya) But it is a great one to go see.



Anyways.... one of the characters say "that's so redonculous" in the movie and now the kids (meaning Victoria and friends) think it's the new hip word. Victoria's been saying it every other sentence and after a while (like 5 minutes) it gets a little bit irritating. So Justin and I thought we would try a little experiment and join in on the new catch phrase. (we tried to fit it into every other sentence also. It's not as easy as she made it look) Somehow, having your totally lame parents say the same cool word as you suddenly makes the word totally "uncool".

WOO HOO!!

And then I thought, if that was all it took, what else can I do with this new idea? Maybe if I never cleaned the house, she might think dirty things are lame and start cleaning her room! The possibilities are endless!

But since I'm now posting this, she'll read it and be onto our diabolical plan. Oh well, it was good while it lasted.

Pictures of my sugar cookies for Emma's class. They were too cute to not post and just let a bunch of kindergartners eat.

Happy Birthday!

Today is Justin's 37th Birthday! He is home sick from work (seriously, he's not faking it). Last night we celebrated because we thought he'd be at work today and here's what we did.

Costco's All American Chocolate Cake. Anybody that knows Justin knows he's a total chocoholic. This cake is like chocolate overload. (he looks sad because there's so many candles. I'm right behind ya babe.)

Homemade pizza (his favorite and everyone elses)

(this one has peppers, onions, and spinach. Definitely mine)

The kids think they're being creative when they have olives on it. ;)

Happy birthday sweetie. We Love You!