Lions, Tigers And.... Zebras OH MY

being overcast today allowed us to get out and enjoy the Arizona whether a bit. we decided to do so at the phoenix zoo. we packed lunches and brought the kids swim suits so they could play in the really nice water area they have. first i would like to start off with a cute pic that i captured of the twins. jazzy decided to steal a smooch. jayvin was having it for the first couple but after a while.....enough was enough! the pic says it all and really shows them in a nutshell. best friends and worst enemies!i was able to capture nature at its best. photography is not really my forte. I'm always a second to early, second to late, a heads cut off here and have managed to let a few pics of the floor sneak into my collection of family moments. but this one came out pretty good!
Nathans not purposely trying to introduce himself to the horse, holding onto it was the only way we could get the kids next to the statue and even then they kept looking back ready to run in case that horse decided to pounce!
now of course most importantly we were able to capture a really sweet moment between ridge and i but I'm going take just a few words to point out how this pic really shows my progress in my weight loss! OK back to the cute moment. ridge is such a water baby, already knows how to swim underwater and loves to be a dare devil from the side of the pool and this is him doing what he loves best...getting wet!
jazzy loves to take pictures and this was her doing. "mommy take a picture of me sitting over here". so here's my beautiful baby girl taking time from her play to bless us with a "cheeeeese".

as i said above, total water baby! he must have ran through this thing a couple dozen times.

here's my handsome man. his smile could make anyones heart melt and if it doesn't then.....your just lame lol i mean look at him hes adorable!

and don't forget about this girl.......she just cracks me up!

4th Of July

i was pretty stoked about this 4th. i mean the kids surprising remember last years fire works extravaganza but they seemed more aware this year. we went to the church that nathan and the kids attend every Sunday. the church is always participating in big parties and such on holidays so they are our "go to" for a safe place to go.

below is jazzy enjoying a pretzel that is still hanging from her mouth.

by the way here is jayvins new do. it suits him well and he will look like such a tough guy when he starts his Muy Tie kick boxing (i don't think that's spelled right) but if you know the kid then you know that his tough guy image is just that, a image cause the guy is the most cuddly and sensitive boy i know!

here is jayvin doing what he does best. loving on his sissy




they were so excited that fire works had started that i couldn't get both of them to even look at the camera for a second.
Ridge was SO enthralled with the fire works. he sat there the whole time doing his "Ohhhh Ahhhh" it was so cute!

i hope everyone had a safe and fun Fourth!

I Have No Shame, Let The Bragging Begin

that's right! i am so proud of my kids that i will brag till I'm blue in the face.

jazlynn and jayvin both are very intelligent and if you have ever met them then you know this but this blog is for jazzy since i have pics of her in action. i home school them for now till kindergarden and then we will be putting them in a Montessori school which i feel will suit them well. ridge on the other hand might need a military academy lol hes well behaved kid and listens but the kid is a tank, its the best way i can describe him. anyways i thought i would share some pics with my friends and family and show them how well jazzy is doing with he math. were past shapes, angles, colors, numbers, alphabet, and we have really tackled spelling and i must say its one of their strong suits. but math is jazzy's favorite. she can add and subtract numbers

up to ten. so here's the pics don't mind the scribbles those are from ridge who had gotten a hold of the book earlier

5mins Of Play=20mins Of Cleaning Up

kids-1

team n&k-0

5mins of play=20mins of clean up

but the smiles and laughter was priceless!!!!

out of the blue (this is how we roll in our casa) we decided to have a silly string war in the kids room. yes...we do have silly string just laying around for this reason! it was Nathan and i against the twins. we had a blast and here is the after math!

here's jazzy's hair decorated in silly string! she thought it was "so beautiful" and now wants pink hair. i told her that next time we go to the store that we can get some wash out pink color.

ridge was originally apart of our game but quickly decided that this was just to crazy for him. i think he got decked one to many times!

ridge freaked over this! he, like the rest of my squad HATES a mess and when he discovered his bed in a shamble the above reaction is what we got!

the rocking horse got it best!

and the twins beds aswell

here's the floor. this took a good 20mins to clean but i tell you.......to hear the kids laughing and to see their faces, i enjoyed every bit of it! most people might say that this is why their happy to be young parents to appreciate this fun but i say I'm happy to be a young parent for the simple fact that i don't think my knees could have handled the 20 mins of crawling i had to do to get this all up!


shes not quite aiming but it will fire

i wish i could zoom in on his face cause its absolutely priceless!!

just one more day that I'm thankful for in my crazy life =)

Puppy Paws

jazlynn and jayvins 4th birthday party was a huge hit! it may seem like a little much but first, the kids don't get presents and two, i did this for all under $250. that's $125 per child so i think i did pretty good.

Nathan has proven himself to be quite handy! i had him build this dog house that literally covered the whole entrance of the house! it was HUGE. its made out of card board and cost us about $4 to make because of the supplies. as you can see it came out really cute.

In lieu of gifts we asked that everyone to bring something to donate to a no-kill animal shelter. the turn out was great! the shelter we ended up donating to was Halo Animal Rescue. they gave us a tour of the facility and told us about the organization. the place was really clean and the dog and cats were well taken care of.

when the kids first came in we had them get pampered and transformed at the "puppy Parlor". i had made these dog ears out of head bands and felt, painted the kids nose, gave them some freckles and gave them a cute bandanna to put around their neck.

all the kids had a chance to visit "Puppy Love Pet Shop" to adopt a puppy and received their goody bags which were just brown "doggy Bags"

Nathan also made this really adorable dog house out of card board. the kids had a BLAST playing in this and its still up at grandmas house getting lots of use!
here's jazzy and jayvins friends ryan and ayden. over all there were about 30 people who attended which i was pretty shocked since no one really let me know one way or the other. so i made these cute "puppy treats" to resemble dog bones in dirt. while transporting the from one fridge to the next i dropped one all over the floor, let out a few choice words and then grabbed the camera. its looks very life like even on the floor

i thought it was suiting to serve hot dogs and then some other treats as well. this year i really tried to keep it simple with the food unlike every other year

the kids enjoyed a really yummy chocolate fountain as well. i also decided to serve everything in dog bowls......un used of course.
the first game we played was "Give The Dog A Bone". pretty much the same concept as pin the tail on the donkey. as you can tell i made the sign myself lol its horrable but you get the point!

the other game we had was a relay race to see what "pup" could get as many dog bones in the dog bowl first. every one loved this game and it took up a good 15mins.

i usually make my own themed cupcakes but i thought i would do something different this year. so we did a "barkin Robbins" essentially it was just an ice cream bar. just vanilla ice cream and then i put all the fixins in dog bowls. coconut, broken candy bars, Reece's pieces, m&m's, peanuts and prob anything else you could imagine! that too was a big hit, between the parents and kids!


i think the party was a success. either way the twins had a ton of fun and that's all that matters! now we are planning ridge's party for October and should be just as fun. we have his theme and were already planning the big bash!

Olivia, Now 7 Months

i know,a blog is long overdue. i haven't even gotten to the twins 4th bday party that was in May and were already coming up on ridge's 2nd bday here in Oct. but first i want to update everyone on Miss Olivia!

rick and anna are obviously very proud of their beautiful baby girl! as rick would say "she is very advanced for her age"! lol here she is reading like no bodies business. i mean if thats not smart i dont know what is!!

she is obviously beautiful and every time i see her i just wanna pinch her fat cheeks! i haven't been able to get myself to hold her much. i guess out of fear i don't know. I've never really developed an attachment to her and i think I'm scared that if i hold her now that i might. one day i think that ill get a grip on myself and be able to embrace her for what she is. a gift from god! i was never much of believer but when Olivia came into our lives its hard not to believe in something!

the girl is growing like a weed! here she is sitting up all by herself! i haven't seen her since mothers day and i miss her tremendously. the last few weeks have been very hard on me. I've cried often and holding back the tears has become harder and harder everyday. see the thing is, i will never regret what i have done because the happiness that rick and anna are experiencing outweighs any hurt that i will forever feel. I'm at a mourning period right now, something that i have never let myself feel till now. never the less i am so happy to have been apart of Olivia's life even if it was for such a short while. if i could do this again i would but i don't think i would ever find a better couple then rick and anna and I'm not sure if i want to even try.
I'm not sure because i didn't ask but i think she sleeps in her room now in her "big girl bed" knowing anna, I'm sure this was hard for her but look at her, shes standing like a pro! anna must be proud of her little princess.

oh my GAWWWWWD! this child is so darn cute I'm thinking rick might have to lock her up and throw away the key! my fave thing in this pic are those cute little curls that protrude from behind her ears!

as you can see she doing perfect and rick and anna are just the best. i love all of them so much! as for me.....well I'm getting there. don't get me wrong I'm happy but yes, i am hurting as well. I've had a great support system here at home so slowly i know ill make it through. seeing these pics and getting updates is what reminds me that it was all worth it. rick and anna send me updates from time to time, anna texts me at least once a weeks to say hi and even though i don't see her really, i know/think that if i ever asked too that i would be welcome any time and that is a sigh of relief. from the beginning i always said that if they wanted a closed relationship that that's fine and i would understand. I'm a constant reminder of how Olivia came about and i can only imagine that would be difficult on any mother. but now that we have had an open relationship with communication i feel it would be devastating if things were to change.

well i think that's all for now. rambling is one of my many talents so ill quit while I'm ahead!