Best Birthday Ever!!

(this picture was taken... a long time ago)

This child of mine is so AWESOME! All day, he has been completely convinced that it is my birthday. He has probably told me, "Happy Birthday, Mommy!" 30 times. He told me that he wanted to make me a blue cake, and put one candle on top and then have me blow "REALLY HARD!". I can't even tell you the number of hugs I've gotten or how many times I've heard, "I love you so much" today. Such a sweetheart. Tonight after Griffin went to bed, Noah started telling me that it was my birthday again. Then he told me about the cake and the candle. He asked me if I wanted to blow out a candle and I said sure. I lit the candle that was on the dining room table and told him that he needed to sing to me. He proceeded to sing the SWEETEST rendition of Happy Birthday ever. "Happy Birthday, Mommy. Happy Birthday, Mommy to you. Happy Birthday. Happy Birthday, Mommy... and friends." And to top it all off. He told me that he wanted to give me a present. He went to his train table and found his favorite train, Ben. He held it out to me and said, "Here ya go, Mommy. Happy Birthday!"

Yep, it has been the best birthday ever!

and i quote...

Noah: "Mom, what are you doing?"

Me: "I'm working on the computer."

Noah: "No, you not working, you blogging."

little things

I've been reading through some older posts on this blog and found that I really enjoyed reading the posts that didn't have a specific topic. The posts where I talked about our daily lives. I'd like to get back to that a little. Here are some things that have happened in the past week(ish).

• Noah slept in 'til noon yesterday!!
• We went to the library as a family and had a lot of fun.
• Ammon taught me how to play chess and has been amazed by my awesomeness. We've been playing every night after the kids go to sleep.
• I have 5 laundry baskets full of clean, folded clothes that I need to put away.
• Griffin slept through the night last night.
• Our dinners are mostly made up of garden vegetables.
• My favorite snack is a grilled zucchini. I eat at least 1 everyday.
• We went to the temple on Saturday.
• I am teaching Noah what sounds the letters make. So far he knows g, h, o, and e.
• I've been working with Photoshop and I'm really learning a lot.
• My car got hit while Noah and I were at a yard sale. Noah kept telling the guy, "You hit my car. You hit my car."

Dinner for two...

Last Thursday was our 4th wedding anniversary. Ammon told me weeks ago that he wanted to make me dinner that night. He scored big points right there. #1 - He remembered. #2 - He had something planned. At that point, it didn't matter what he made...

The day came and Pap came to pick up the boys for a couple hours. Ammon said I wasn't allowed in the kitchen. I sat in the living room and flipped through my Family Fun magazine and my Martha Stewart Living magazine. I heard Ammon working in the kitchen and enjoyed the couple moments I had to myself. Finally he came to me, took my hand, and led me into the kitchen. On the table, was a beautiful meal. Hand-stuffed tortellini and a side of pineapple.

Gorgeous, right? After much praise, I took my first bite. Ammon watched me with a HUGE smile on his face. I told him that the sauce tasted like Taco Bell sauce. He said it was. And the filling tasted like refried beans, salsa, maybe onions, cheese etc... He nodded. The praise continued and he finally told me that he would let me look at the recipe. When I did, I was shocked that he remembered. All the ingredients came from Taco Bell! See, after we got married, our wedding party went to eat at Old Country Buffet but Ammon and I went off on our own. We stopped at a Taco Bell. Ammon had his tuxedo pants on and his tuxedo shirt unbuttoned and untucked. I looked a little less classy... I mean I had just gotten married so, my hair was beautiful and my makeup looked great but someone at the temple had taken my bag, leaving me no change of clothes. My brand new husband saved the day. I ended up wearing his plaid pajama pants and since I couldn't pull a shirt over my head due to my 'do (hehe), I put on one of his striped button down shirts. It was quite the outfit. Anyway - we ate at Taco Bell on the way back to the 'burg and Ammon remembered. 4 years later, still Taco Bell. But, Taco Bell with class!

Thanks babe! You did GREAT this year. Not sure how or if you're going to top it. Love you!

ps- if you're interested in the recipe, i'll get it from ammon and email it to you.

He knew right away...

that we were perfect for eachother. I'm grateful everyday that he stuck around long enough for me to figure it out too. I love you Ammon! : )

Happy 4th anniversary!

(too bad i don't know how to work my scanner. if i did, there would be an adorable picture of the two of us right here)

Oh photoshop...

how I love you!!

I've been playing around with some of my favorite photos...

Here is my original. It's good, right?

But look at this!! This is my favorite picture of all time. At this moment anyway...

Today I learned how to work with textures. I'm not a HUGE fan of the way this one turned out but... it looks old-timey and that can be cool for certain photos.

There. That's better. Not quite as warm. I like it.

The rest of these were done with that technique I learned a couple days ago. LOVE THESE!

Original

Original

Original

Original

What we were doing...

on 07/08/09 @ 10:11:12

cool, huh?

Ammon did not think this was as cool as I did. But really, when is this ever going to happen again? It's not. And I guess that's true for every day that has passed but, the play with numbers was just too awesome to pass up. I was scrapbooking and Ammon was doing this:

He's almost done with the last of the Twilight Saga.

While I was waiting for the husband to finish reading, I continued taking pictures.

Ammon plucked my eyebrows yesterday. Not too bad, eh?

Can we please go to sleep now? I'm getting a little wacko. Not like Wacko-Jacko. Just the normal wacko.

Free Photoshop Class!!

Ok. It's no shock that I enjoy photography. I love to look through my lens and imagine the perfect images I'm capturing. I love to photograph my children and sometimes I get really great shots. I loved this picture of Griffin. I really thought it was great. And it is. I still like it. But I started this free photoshop class over at JessicaSprague.com and check it out!

I was able to tranform this.

into this!

I love the soft antiquey look. And the frame?! It's going to be hard not to use that on ALL my photos. LOVE IT! Did I mention that the class is F-R-E-E?? If you have photoshop, you need to take this class. I've learned so much!

Skim-boarding

Ammon and I were able to escape from the babies a couple times while we were at the beach. (a HUGE thanks to the family for that one!) One time we went and played in the ocean all by ourselves. We had bought a wave rider and a skim board and decided to give them a try. It was so much fun to play in the ocean with my sweetie. He helped me catch some good waves and then helped pull me back. What a guy. When I was exhausted from the waves, I just sat in the water and watched Ammon try to skimboard. If you know Ammon, you know that he's freaking awesome at everything he tries. Seriously, this man can do anything. Well, anything except sing. But anything else, he's got it. : ) He tried and tried and just was not getting it. In his defense, he had never seen anyone skimboard before. He wasn't exactly sure how it was supposed to work. His skin was being scraped off by the sand everytime he biffed it. Finally, this 4-year old came up (his name was Noah) with his skimboard and showed Ammon how to do it. It was so cute. This kid said that it was funny watching Ammon fall down all the time... Good stuff.

He finally got the hang of it!

More beach pictures!

I told you I had a lot of pictures...

Trying to keep the camera dry!

Bottoms up!