Singing Boxer Puppies to Sleep

This is the cutest thing I've ever seen. My friend Stacey found it on You Tube. You've gotta see this. We should all be so lucky. Ha Ha. Be sure to pause my Playlist at the bottom of page so you can hear the video.

Talk to you soon,

Michelle ~

Embrace the Camera

Here we go again. We just wanted to have one last hurrah before school started, so we decided to go to the beach. The kids were so excited, my husband was so excited. He and Trey wanted to go body surfing and couldn't wait to hit the waves (no pun intended). Well, hit was right. Only, they didn't hit the waves, the waves hit them (actually Trey) right into the ocean floor. They had been out body surfing for about a half hour. My husband said they were getting ready to come in and eat. He turned around and said to Trey, "How bout take this last one." Trey said ok and began swimming with the wave, as he did, my husband looked back again and knew, this is not the wave to take. So he turned and yelled "No, not this one", but it was too late. Trey was already swimming and caught up in the wave, and before he knew it, the wave had beaten him up and slammed him into the ocean floor. I was taking pictures on the beach and saw them coming in. Through my camera lens, I could see Trey holding his shoulder, and told my daughter, "he's hurt, I know it." We packed up, drove home and to the Urgent Care, and 2 1/2 hours later, he was in a sling and told he broke his clavicle (better known as the collar bone). I thought we were done with broken bones. We haven't had any major injuries for about 8 years now.Now, that's not the end of the story. Not only was school starting in 3 days, but we had just taken time off from baseball, signed him up for basketball, and he had had his first game the night before (which, btw, 5 hours before the game, he wiped out on his skateboard, tearing up his elbow, hip, knee, hurting his wrist, and cutting up 3 toes; all on his left side). I know, I know, your asking, how did he cut up three toes? Well, it's called wearing no shoes while you're doing this dumb thing in the first place a few hours before your game. Not too smart Bobby (I mean Trey - ha). And to top it off, tore a hole in his brand new pants bought for the new school year. Could it get any worse - YES! Enter the broken collar bone. No more basketball for 4-6 weeks. Bummer.

Talk to you soon,

Michelle ~

Colorado River Rafting

Have you ever been river rafting?? This was a first for me and my kids. It was the BOMB! (Cool if you don't know the lingo-ha) The tour was called a level 2 and 3, meaning how hard and rough the water drops were going to be. Plenty rough for me. We did the 3 hour tour (we made it back, unlike Gilligan and his friends), and it felt like we were riding forever. Along the river, the guide talked about the area, famous myths, the rocks and canyons, and the famous Canyon Castle (yes, a real house built into the canyon in which you have to take an elevator down into it). Cool huh?! You can find it on TLC I think. They did a whole TV special on unique houses.


This was such a great experience for me and my family. The kids and I had never done anything like this before and we had a BLAST! The other family are some friends of ours who we got to share the ride with. My children are the two in the very front of the boat. Here, my son Trey, is riding the BULL as they call it. He thought this was "beast", as he says (this means cool, awesome, you know). This is a great family vacation and a memory we will always remember.

Talk to you soon,

Michelle~

Bookmark and Gift Box

My kids started back to school this week, boy was that a sore subject in our house. After the excitement of getting new school clothes wore off, it was time to start looking for those back to school supplies. Each year I make the kids back to school gift bags or baskets complete with school supplies and some other little goodies to cushion the blow of getting up early and starting the grind. So I loaded up my cart and off I went. There were some really good deals at Walmart (.15 notebooks-can't beat that). After fighting off the crowds, I headed home. With the gift bags, I always like to give the kids a little added something, a personal touch from mom.

Both my kids have really been into reading this summer (don't know what happened there - ha). While I was browsing the SCS site (a stamping site I follow), I found the cutest little bookmark. I was really excited to make this as my daughter has really gotten into reading lately - yeah. I always see her bending the corners or sticking paper in her book to mark it. This is such a cute idea and fits right onto the corner of the book page you are reading. I also made a little gift box to keep it in.


My daughter's favorite colors are pink and orange, and she loves Hawaiian flowers, so I thought it fitting to design her bookmark accordingly. I thought it turned out pretty cute and she loved it. When she opened it up, she comment on how cute it was and then turned and said "It's so cute mom, what is it?" I laughed and told her it was a bookmark and how to put it on the corner of her pages. She again said it was so cute and thanked me. Then she walked away. About 2 minutes later, she came back and said "How do I put it on again?" I guess the cuteness of the creation overshadowed the simplicity - ha ha. Kids, gotta love them.

Talk to you soon,

Michelle~

Gorgeous Colorado

Ahh, beautiful Colorado. Steamboat Springs to be exact. This is where we finished out our vacation. Last stop, Fish Creek Falls. Isn't gorgeous?! Everything is so green and pretty. Not to mention the Colorado River winding through every place we went. Simply awesome. This huge waterfall was at the top of the mountain, way at the back of the trail.

The start of our little hike began here, and took us back to a little pool of water where the water from the falls collects and is surrounded by large rocks. My son and his best bud decided they would go for a swim in the little pool. Did I mention the water was about 40-45 degrees? Pretty cold. I put my feet in it to cool them off. They, (the boys), decided it would be fun to to take a dip in the water pool, I mean immerse themselves, to cool off. My son said it felt great. Only a little cold. Kids, what do they know. I say if it is 45 degrees, it's too cold for me.

This is the rock everyone seemed to pose for pictures on. It gives you a nice background of the falls and shows off all its beauty. I think this would make a great Xmas card. WOW, simply gorgeous!!

Michelle ~

River Rafting pictures to come.

AMAZING!!

We just returned from an amazing trip to Colorado. My son had a baseball tournament in Steamboat Springs, Colorado and man was it beautiful. On our way to Colorado, we made some stops along the way and one of them was to the Grand Canyon. Now you'd think being a native of Arizona, I would have seen the Grand Canyon a few times, or at least even once. NOPE! I lived in Arizona for 22 years and have never been to the Grand Canyon once (my husband still finds this hard to believe). So, since this was a vacation and tournament wrapped up in one, we decided to hit the canyon. All I can say is "breath taking." You can't imagine till you've seen it up close and for real. Pictures only can't begin to do it justice. This is just one of the many shots we took. Isn't it AMAZING?!

And of course your trip is not complete without pictures to tell that you were there. This is my wonderful and beautiful family. Of course I'm not in the picture because I'm the one with the camera. Price you pay for being the photographer. Don't worry, I got in on the action too. This one had a great view. It was very hard to get my daughter in the pose as she was deathly afraid of being by the edge. All she could think about was slipping down the canyon.

A fun trip and great memories!!

Michelle ~

Cooper

I'm not sure if I ever shared any pictures of our newest addition to the family. This is "Cooper," our boxer. He's 2 years old. He's the best dog. Playful, loving, a BIG lap-dog, or at least he thinks he is.



He just looks at you with those eyes and you can't help but love him. Especially when he's just made off with your freshly baked cupcakes. Yeah, 24 of them to be exact. Boy, was he in big trouble that day.



He's SO smart too. We've taught him to sit, shake, high-five, and get his leash. He's the cutest!

This is when he's just a pup. I think almost 2 months old. Just look at that face, how could you ever stay mad at that. :O) We love ya Cooper!