Rocket's Red Glare

 

You know as well as I do that the 4th of July means delicious BBQs, patriotic colors, fireworks of all kinds, and water fun of some kind. This 4th was nothing short of that.
My dear dear friend Pam came to town for a quick 24 hour trip. She invited Berns and I and the girls to swim in her hotel pool in the early afternoon. She was staying at the Hard Rock Hotel. It was quite the neat pool full with tropical plants, a water slide, and a sandy beach entrance. it was also full of tattooed rockers and blonde bombshells. We looked like quite the circus show when we showed up adorned with floaties and life vests...but hey--we are cute :)

Later that evening we ventured to my Uncle's house to BBQ (which was torture for me since I can hardly eat any of the delcious food that was set out...I wanted nothing more than to CONSUME the frosted cookies and potatoe chips in LARGE AMOUNTS). The girls LOVED roaming around the yard, playing in the blow up bouncer, and eating goodies to their hearts content. We then put all the kiddos in the back of at truck to enjoy our own fancy show of fireworks. Zoie was in heaven. She oooohhhed and aaaahhhhhed and jumped and squealed. She was more fun to watch than the actual fireworks.
After that we drove home while watching the millions of different fireworks shows going off all over the Las Vegas valley--it was amazing watching them go off all around us.

the day was simple and full of smiles and laughter--meaning it was perfect.

The Beast

There is a little corner in our little house that beholds many great and wonderful treasures. Treasures like stuffed mice, books about saying goodnight to the moon, and caterpillar's whose feet make music. Buckets of toys overflow and pretend castles adorn the floors. It is Zoie's corner...

Every night--after we have said good night to the moon, after we have snuggled the stuffed mouse, and closed the doors to the castle, I pick up the corner so that it looks crisp and clean for the next day of adventure:


Then the sun rises...and the beast awakens...and she ventures to find her treasures...and this is what becomes of the corner:





But with a face like this..you really just let it happen...and wait to clean up the magic of play time until the beast goes to bed...

So She Thinks She Can Dance

And I'm gonna have to say she would win the competition.

Little Rooster had her first big dance recital on June 20th. She is too ridiculously cute. We were graced with her getting her groove on to a little jazz number, listened to her clickity clacking with her cute solider tap number; and watched her "get down wit' her bad self" during a hip hop dance.

Riley LOOOOOVEs dancing and is excited to join the competitive tap team in the fall. We are so proud of her! Videos to come soon..just wait...she's too darn cute. *proud mama moment* *sniff*.




One tough cookie.



My Little Tap Star. She can shuffle off to Buffalo like it's nobody's business.



....And all that Jazz....

Something to Everyone

I am a daughter.

I am a wifey.

I am a mother.

I am a singer, a dancer, a theatre goer

I am a chef, a maid, a story teller, a tutor, a laudromat.

I am a baker, a seamstress, an author, a finacial advisor.

I am a nutritionist, a nurse, and a "regulator".


AND NOW...I am apparently a piano player? wha??!!
Sooo....a couple of weeks ago I was called to be the pianist in RS in church. My first response was, "um...I dont play the piano". (well, plunking out the top hand doesnt count as playing the piano). And then my mother's voice rang in my ear--"You dont EVER turn down a calling--there is a reason you get that calling". So of course my answer was "Ya, Sure, I'll be the pianist."

Again, I dont play the piano. So my friends, I went to lovely Deseret Book and purchased "Hymns for the dumb person that cant play the piano but takes a piano playing calling" book....(really, it is just a Simplified Hymn Book). And now I have been busy teaching my self and plucking away at the keys.

It is times like this that I kick myself for not taking lessons from my Aunt Gay- Piano Extrodinaire (that is her official title) while I was growing up and lived 2 blocks away...


But that is not it.

Apparently I am also a translator...or will be soon enough. The girls and I will be taking a trip to Brasil to see the family this fall...but we will be going without Berns (he has to work). Because of this I can no longer hide behind the brillantness of having my husband ask and answer every question I have when we visit. It is now time for me to buckle down and learn the language. This is what I've got so far:

"Eu soy Americana. eu no fala Portuguese. Eu entendo un pouco portuguese"....moohaha...



Here I come Brasil...watch out...I'm bringing my piano book with me.

Day 2

doing WAAAAAAAAAY too much of this....


makes me do this....


....and a little of this....


....and some more of this...


The only thing that kept me sane while I taped...my Peapod


Remember this heinous thing? Why oh why have we not taken it down yet?



A WHOLE LOT of yellow paint was painted (its our main color...)



I got sick of painting walls--Riley looked like a much more fun project.

Day 1

Let the demolition begin. Berns spent day 1 ripping out baseboards...what a hassle! Lucky for me that is a boys job. I spent the day putting up blue tape. BORING! It is the most tedious annoying job cause it takes so long and has to be perfect since you don't want the paint to look dumb. I hate blue tape. I despise blue tape. Blue tape and I are NOT friends. Riley and Berns spent some quality time painting while I sat on the stairs to make sure Zoie didn't venture down there to be destructive--she was NOT happy about this.

What did we discover? This house is going to take forever to finish with a destructive one year old around....

Ripping the baseboards out.


the blue taping begins....booo



The painting begins!!



This is what Zoie thought of not being aloud downstairs to help paint.

EXTREME MAKEOVER--Home Edition

Well friends, folks, strangers, passerbys, and random viewers:
WE BOUGHT A HOUSE! WOOT WOOT!!

After eleventy billion days in escrow, we finally closed on June 4th! We are super stoked and can't wait to move in.....However, the moving in wont happen for awhile. Being that we live in Vegas, the only kinds of houses you can buy are foreclosures (if you happen upon one that is actually being sold by the owner it's a miracle). Most foreclosures are not in the best shape because people are bitter and tear the house apart before they are asked {told} to vacate.

Lucky for us, the house we chose wasnt destroyed--it was just dirty (the carpet makes me gag) and the paint colors were....well...hmmm.."sherbert-y" (really neon green, bright orange, bright blue, puke green...hmmm)
So we didnt nessecarily buy a "fix-er-upper"--we just bought a "cosmetically challenged" house. We plan on spending the next month or so repainting, tearing up floors and putting wood ones in, putting in moulding...blah blah blah--basically making it purty. :)

So here you have it friends. Our new humble abode BEFORE we have touched, scraped, painted, or torn anything. I promiss to post pictures of the transformation. Yay for us--life is good.