The Desert Botanical Gardens

Seriously... one of the most beautiful amazing places I've been.

It's all desert plants, every kinda you can imagine. There are paths you walk through, boards to read and learn, wildlife to see. It was just so very relaxing! The boys loved it, John and I loved it maybe more! LOL
The main reason we went was because there were having a butterfly exhibit where you could go into their netted "cage" with them and see them up close. They were awesome, and huge! I had NO idea how big they were. The people in there to teach you about them told us that they don't really land on people. He said they are the "cats" of the butterfly world, they just don't really care that you're there, kinda just whatever about people, lol. He said they have other butterflies that will land on people are just very social but the Monarchs, not so much. Now of course not 5 minutes after they tell us that, what happens? One lands right on Tristans shirt! He has this insane attraction to animals, or I should say they have an insane attraction to him. He's just got a special something about him with animals of all kinds. And not 1 minute after the one came and landed on his shirt, one landed on his EAR! He was in HEAVEN!!
Jacob on the other hand... took a few to get used to it. He started crying when we got in there, ugh! So the mother I am (my friends will understand) I say quietly in his ear as I kneel next to him, "Jacob, they are flippin butterflies, what do you think they're going to do, attack you?"... suck it up child, lets enjoy! lol. He got over it pretty quick and once it was his turn to take pictures, he was all over them :)
Anyway here are some pictures from our day, it really is a great place. Would be fun for a romantic walk :)

Tristan's Birthday!

How does time go so quickly? Can someone please answer me that? Just yesterday it seemed like I was sitting in the hospital being a Mom for the very first time, and holding a brand new sweet baby boy. And now... he's 8??? Seriously ?!?!?!?!?!?!



Wow... it seems completely impossible.

This child has brought so much joy to our lives. He is sweet, caring, sensitive and just an all around good boy. He's an amazing son and a super brother! I am so glad that we were chosen to be the parents of this great kid. On his actual birthday I brought cupcakes to his class but this past Saturday we had his Party... and at my most favorite place (NOT) Chuck E Cheese. We had a great turnout, if I remember correctly I think 17 kids total were there. Lots of playing, eating, singing to be done at Chuck E Cheese, 2 full hours of fun!!
Anyway, here are some pictures!

Halloween, Friend visits and School Festivals, OH MY!!

Well the boys' Fall Festival at school was this past week, last Friday. Now that I am part of the PTSA I helped set it up. It was fun and its been great getting to know the girls in the PTSA. They are a great group.
They did the CUTEST pictures for the festival to raise money. They set up hay and fall decor, it was super cute! So of course, being who I am... we had a couple pics done! (and I snuck in a pic of my friend Linda and I at the Festival)




We also had our friends, the Johnson family, that came out to go to the Science Museum and spend the night at the house here. The museum was having a Halloween special so we all met up and went there then hung at the house for the night. I made pumpkin pancakes the next morning for breakfast and they were on the road mid morning. It was great to spend time with them!! And we hope to do it again soon :)











And now just a few from Halloween night when we went trick or treating :)

What a weekend!!

We had a fabulous weekend!!

Friday was my birthday... and for my birthday what did I do you ask? I went caselot commissary grocery shopping! LOL. Thats right, don't be jealous.
I did pretty good. They didn't really have a good "system" here for it; it was just kind of a clustered mess! Everyone walking everywhere. So between that and the heat (it was outside), being alone and trying to lift things, having to continuously say "oh excuse me, can I squeeze by you and grab that" and leaving my purse in the cart... I was done! I grabbed what I thought would be most beneficial and BOUNCED outta that place!
My cart was insanely heavy and I'm sure if someone had a hidden camera on me trying to push it through the tents and then into the store (which is across the parking lot entrance) it would've been fairly amusing to the viewers.
Here are a couple pics. Now mind you, I picked up a few more things in the store as well.



Then the night of my birthday we were lazy around the house, ordered pizza, didn't do much of anything! Saturday we had plans to go to the zoo and feed the birds that I love so much. But early Saturday morning John got a call from work that he had to go in for a bit. Oh well, me and the boys packed up and went anyway. I turned out to be a hot nasty day, 110 degrees is not fun for walking around the zoo. So we got a chance to feed the birds twice, walked around a little, had some lunch and left. We met John back at home, relaxed a little, we were all tired from the heat.
Me and the boys ready for the zoo!


We decided to go to Black Angus for dinner, gosh I love that place. The food was delicious!! After that we went down to a play called "Westgate" here in Arizona. It has a bunch of shops and kiosks, lots of shopping to be done there! LOL
While we were there we went into the Fossil store. I oooo'd and awwwwww'd over the purses, and sunglasses and John tried on a couple watches. He ended up buying me purse! Its this really pretty shade of green (so obnoxious I love it) and its perfet, so ME!!! PLUS, he bought me the matching wallet! Spoiled? Yeah I'd say so!
Here are some pics of the wonderful bag....




And the jewelry... wow! My boys picked out jewelry for me, and boy do they ever know ME! Tristan got me this amazing bracelet, silver with green stones in it, and Jacob got me an amazing medallion necklace thats a gold color with orange stones. They are both perfectly my style and I love that they picked them out completely by themselves. They each also got me Halloween jewels LOL!!! I guess the Halloween display was just to tempting to pass up for Mom's birthday. I love it!



And here I am sporting the jewels on my Birthday!


The beautiful floral display my hubby had delivered for me :)



OH AND THE BEST PART, I FINALLY ORGANIZED MY CLOSET AND GOT THE BOXES OF CLOTHES AND SHOES OUT!