FIFTEEN: Crappy picture - Good Memory

Celebration of St. Patty's day and  Casi's B-day at Grandma Chris's

NINE

A quicky post on Tanners B-day party for his ninth birthday. 

Cupcakes and treat bags for Tanners Movie Party.

Invitations

This is what happens to when a 9 year old boy receives a Airsoft pistol for his birthday; utter chaos.

After the "utter chaos", the boys settled down into organized voting in order to determine what movie they would watch first. They settled on a system where they could cast their vote in private and protect the secrecy of their ballot.

This is what Casi and I did during one of the movies. OH! Yeah! You know you want one!

Native North American Palms

Andrea's Canyon trail head, Indian Canyon

A few weeks ago Nate, the kids and I went to Palm springs. 


Say it again.


Palm springs. 


I know! It sounds wonderful doesnt it?

There is a city near Palm springs called 29 palms, and a canyon called 49 palms, and another canyon called palm canyon. From the names, it would seem that palms are pretty important to this area. So I started asking people about the palm trees.

“Are they native?”

Murray Canyon trail, Indian Canyons

  I got a variety of answers but in the end Wikipedia solved it.

“Washingtonia filifera (filifera - Latin "thread-bearing"), with the common names California Fan Palm, Desert Fan Palm, Cotton palm, andArizona Fan Palm. It is a palm native to southwestern North America between an elevation range of 100–1,200 metres (330–3,900 ft), at seeps, desert bajadas, and springs where underground water is continuously available."

Just in case you wonder about Palm trees too.

 Seems like those that discovered the Palm springs area really liked the Palm trees. They liked them enough to count them** and name their city's after them. I guess if you live in the desert, a tree (any tree) would be pretty spectacular. 
And trust, the native “oasis” Palm stands are pretty incredible.
 
** 29 palms is a palm oasis, that when discovered had 29 palms in it. (I looked that up too. The locals, I asked, didn't know shit about their area.)

Casi taking a dip in the waterfalls at the top of Murray Canyon trail.

The other thing I found out about Palm springs - it has a HUGE wind farm. Do you know what that means? IT’S WINDY. so windy. so very, very, very windy.

Las vegas

Tanner wanted a new hat for our trip to California. He specifically wanted a $40 hat from the Nordstrom Rack and when I said “No” to the $40 hat, Tanner, well cried. I have never cried for a fashion item nor have I witnessed crying for one and I must admit I became distressed too. I mean “what if this is THE hat” that would make his trip all the more better. So I took him to F21 and purchased one for $12.00 but there is a part of me that still wants to go back and get that $40 hat.

oh, and Tanner's and his friends running around saying Fedora is pretty darn cute too.

Comes with stache. Batteries not included.

When Tanner told me he wanted to be Orville Wright, for his great American project at school, because he had a "great mustache". My response was "Well, then why not Einstein he has great hair and a mustache and he was known to carry around an umbrella."

Costume: 

• Pants (size 8) purchased at the DI after two trips. 
• White shirt (size 16) also purchased at the DI
• Vest (adult man size Medium) found in flower bed one winter-y day
• Newspaper boy hat purchased at Target. Men's department
• Mustache purchased by Leah. Trimmed by me.

Crafty girl night

I know it seems like I am not the crafty type but get this, last month, I invited people over to make magnet boards. (I blame pintrest.) This craft project involved a trip to the DI for frames, the purchase of $60.00 worth of sheet metal that I hand cut to fit into each frame, painting, and mod podging (yes its a verb). I even made candy bars.

That's right. HOMEMADE candy bars!!! 

And?

They taste just like the ones in the store. 

One the night of said crafting we painted our frames, ate snacks, decorated the metal and watched the movie The Help. 

I think all the frames turned out cute and that we had a good time. I think they would all do it again. I think.

Leah made two frames; one for her necklaces and one for Emily to use for pictures. 

I think my mom is so cute

 

 Sheri made one to hang her necklaces, Mom made a board to hang notes and photos, and Lisa made a board for her daughter to use (who loves birds!).

 Casi covered hers with pages from an old book and used hers for make up and jewelry. I did two frames (only one shown) for jewelry and (possibly makeup). I went with the metallic and black frame; simple and a bit boring - just like me.

But guys, I am a bit worried. This crafting thing. It might not go away anytime soon because, soon after I finished this project, I went out and bought a crochet needle and crafted my first dish cloth while watching New girl.

I am afraid of what's next.

HomeMade

My weak attempt at getting back on the blog wagon and wishing everyone a Happy Valentines Day. Complete with photo.

Tanner decided he wanted to make all of his valentines this year. of course, I tried to convince him that it would be easier to buy cards, complete with Phineas and Ferb, from Shopko. Guess who won the discussion?

Helo Blogging World (or at least the 9 followers of my blog)!

I took a much needed breather.

Its been crazy busy.

so here are the last few months:

OCTOBER 2011
Nate and I took the kids to Silver Lake with my sister Leah and her cutie-ba-tootie kids and  50% of salt lake city's residence to see the fall colors. It was crazy-ass beautiful!

Nate teased Casi so I could get a picture. 

Nate and I then went to Cali to visit Tami and her incredibly adorable family, drank wine, purchased wine, and celebrated 16 years of marriage.

Nate insisted we bird (he could not handle the mosquitoes). 

 We went to a Salon tasting at Swanson Vinyards. It was seriously the best experience ever and if anyone asked me what to do in ... "I would say go to Swanson. They do more that chicken broth and you will NOT regret it."

 Nate did some cigar smoking and caring around my purse. I love the part where he carries around my purse. We then went out and bought tampons to solidify the deal.

We also went to Robert Mondavi for a tour of the gardens, an education to the process of wine making and, of course, wine tasting. Their wine tasting, however, was better left in the bottle. After we were done slugging our wine at Mondavi, this cute European young man (I get to say that becasue I am almost 40) leaned over the table after our host left the room and asked me, "Did you like any of those?" and I replied something like "They all taste like ass." and then we laughed becuase we were buzzing on all that terrible wine.

Big ass fermentation barrels.... 56 of them, from France.

I did some remodeling. Finished a basement bedroom, basement bathroom, basement hallway, recarpeted and finished the baseboards in the "lounge area" off of the kitchen, recarpeted the stairs, recarpeted the TV room in the basement, and tiled, tiled, tiled.