Tribute to the Girls

When posting about my girls weekend I came across all of these old pictures. I wanted to have them somewhere so I'm posting them all here with a little description.

The first picture is us at the Sun Youth Forum (a citywide event where high schoolers get together to voice their opinions about issues). We always loved getting dressed up and going for the sexy school teacher look.

The rest of the pictures are all in collages. Picture 1 is top left, 2 is top right, 3 is mid left, 4 is mid right, 5 is bottom left, and 6 is bottom right.

1 - My baby shower 2008

2 - Our first girls' trip 2005

3 - Amanda and I baking at Christmas in my first house 2005

4 & 5 - Christmas dinner at PF Changs 2005

6 - Our favorite things dinner

1 & 2 - "Our favorite things" dinner. We all brought one of our favorite thing for everyone. Real goldfish, green tea, and notepads were just a few of the things we received.

3 - Senior awards assembly

4 - Junior homecoming dance

5 - Homecoming football game

6 - Me and Mandy in Australia for our senior trip

1 - Bush rally at Thomas and Mack

2 - Random pictures Amanda and I took our freshmen year. She used it to make me one of my favorite shadow box frames!

3 - Senior prom

4 - New Year's Eve dinner at Agave 2009

5 - Aunt Mandy and Aunt Lauren with Vancey-Poo

6 - Dessert at melting Pot, Christmas 2007 1 & 2 - Brooke's Bridal Shower 2008

3 & 4 - Day before Brooke's wedding in Colorado

5 - Brooke's wedding day

6 - My wedding day

1 - Sadie Hawkins dance 2004

2 - Girls trip to ASU - 2006

3 - Out to dinner

4 - One of the many meals at IHOP during high school

5 - Senior prom

6 - Senior awards night

I love you girls and cherish all the memories we've made over the years!

Nap Time

Today Chad is home with Vance. Vance was in the toy room playing with his cars, so Chad went in the garage for like 15 minutes to get a few things done. When Chad went back inside he couldn't find Vance.

Apparently Vance went in his room, took off the shorts Chad had dressed him in, got in his pajama drawer, put on his pajama shorts, shut the door, and laid down for a nap. He was out cold when Chad went in his room. How funny is that?! I guess the kid knows when he's tired even if it is only 10:45 am!

So over it

Since December Chad has been working Friday-Monday and I work Monday-Thursday. That equals NO DAYS OFF TOGETHER. It wasn't a big deal for like the first 3 months, but the past 3 months I've gotten so sick of it!

Any activity that takes over like 3 hours is out of the question. It's impossible to go out of town together, take a day trip to the lake, etc. There are so many things that I feel like we can't ever do. I try my best to think of tons of little things but it isn't the same. We never have a day to just chill and relax together either.

Plus he has missed, my mom's 50 birthday party, Easter, Mother's Day, etc. If you think about it pretty much every holiday is celebrated over the weekend which means no Chad. Or we have to wait for him to get off at 3:30 which seems like it always ends up being 4:30 when we have something planned.

I know he hates it just as much (if not more) as me. Not only can we not spend time together, he doesn't even get to go to most of the fun stuff. He's a good sport and just works hard anyway. Everyone he works with just raves about him and I believe it. Chad is an incredibly hard-worker!

There was a weekday position available a few weeks ago, but that particular position gets off at 4:30 which won't work unless we change his fall school schedule. There isn't any wiggle room in his school schedule so if we have to change it that means adding another semester. I'd rather suck it up for another year than add another semester. I'm ready to be done with the UNLV undergraduate program.

We've thought about looking at other companies, but even though he doesn't get paid very much hourly, our insurance is SUPER cheap. Plus I'm ready to possibly start thinking about another child and if we switch companies you never know how long you have to wait for insurance benefits to start.

...Breath Allison...I clearly have some venting to do. I know I should just be grateful that he has a job. I try to tell myself that and normally it works. Today it doesn't. I can't think of any alternatives for at least the next year, so I just need to embrace that and move on.

But today all I want to say it ggggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

I'M SO OVER CHAD'S JOB TODAY!

Turtle, turtle, turtle

We were at my Aunt Laurie's for my grandma's birthday and Vance saw these turtles they had in there backyard. He was obsesssed with them and showed them to everyone he could convince to follow him.

This is the baby turtle - This is the daddy turtle -
This is the mommy turtle -
If you're thinking the mommy turtle looks a lot like a rock, then you'd be correct. After seeing the first two turtles, Vance just assumed this rock was the mommy turtle. This kid cracks me up!

He spend the evening running (literally) from turtle to turtle. He would get down and talk to it (as in the pictures above) before moving on to the next turtle only to start back at the beginning. It made my night easy.

Maybe we need a turtle...

HS Girls Weekend

In high school I made some of the most amazing girlfriends. We all went on a high school graduation trip and decided to go on a trip together every 5 years. Here was us then -

Well, it's already been 5 years since then so we met for a weekend together in Arizona.

I was the last to fly in and this is how they greeted me. I almost didn't recognize them ;)We stayed at Amanda and Lauren's adorable apartment. Thursday night we stayed up late catching up one everyone's life. 5 years has gone by fast, but A LOT has happened.
Brooke, Amanda, Lauren, & Me

I brought little goodie bags for all the girls. The bags were full of random items with cheesy sayings. For example, crazy straws - "Even when life gets CRAZY I know I can always count on you." It was SO cheesy, it was funny. Oh I love these girls!
5 years ago we made a time capsule full of random things that reminded us about our friendship. We decided every five years we would open it up, go through it, and add new things. Needless to say this had us laughing so hard. Some of it was really special and reminded me of some things I had forgotten.
Of course no girls weekend is complete without shopping. Brooke tried on this floppy hat and now I'm totally obsessed with finding one to wear by the pool. Isn't it so Hollywood?!
One of our obsessions is Ellen Degeneres. In high school we owned all her stand-up videos and books. We used her jokes all the time. Our dream is to go to her show together one day. When we say this billboard we couldn't help but take a picture in front of it. Also, notice the crazy straw? Great minds think alike.
Friday night we went to Pizzeria Bianco. It is rated as one of the top 10 pizza places in the US, so it was a must! It's a really small restaurant and tons of people want to eat there. It doesn't open until 5:00 but we got there at 4:00 to get in line and we were already pretty far back. We ended up waiting 4 hours to get seated!
Luckily Lauren and Amanda knew the wait would take awhile so we brought some games to keep us occupied while we waited. Lauren had this box of conversation starters that I totally want to buy now. It's full of funny/random/deep questions that really do get the conversation going. It made us answer questions we hadn't really thought about.
We finally got seated and ordered our food. The pizza was delicous! It was worth the wait, so if you're ever in Phoenix make a stop at Pizzeria Bianco.
Afterwards we went to a little place for gelato (as if we didn't already eat enough) and talked. We talked so much I'm surprised any of us had a voice left at the end of the weekend. What I love about these girls is even though we don't see or talk to each other all the time, we can always pick up right where we left off.
We talked for so long we started looking like this and decided it was time to head home.
I didn't get any pictures of the next day but we did a little more shopping and then headed to this beautiful resort with an awesome pool. It was amazing to relax by the pool without Vance there driving me crazy. It was the perfect way to end the weekend!

I truly feel blessed to have made such lasting friendships at only 14 years old. The fun, careless girls I met in high school are now responsible, professional, caring, giving, goal-oriented, loving, adult women (who still know how to be fun and careless). I KNOW that we will still be having girls weekends together when we are 80 years old. Hopefully 5 years goes by fast and we can be together again soon (unless Amanda or Lauren get married before then...).

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE you girls! Thanks for an amazing weekend!!!

The Recipe

I didn't post the recipe originally because whenever I see them on blogs I never actually do anything with them. Apparently I'm the only one who is that lazy. Since I took the time to type it up, somebody better be cooking this one day! ;)

I think you might be able to get 2 pizzas out of this recipe if they aren't too big. Here it is:

1 lb. chicken breasts sautéd in olive oil and diced (add garlic salt to taste)
1 cup ricotta cheese (part or skim)
1/4 cup pesto
2 cups mozzarella cheese
1 cup parmesan/romano mixed shredded cheese
1 package pizza dough
Mix ricotta cheese with pesto. Roll out pizza dough. Make your pizza layering the ingredients in the following order: ricotta and pesto mixture, chicken, mozzarella, parmesan/romano cheese mix. Bake at 425 for 20 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and crust is golden brown.

Pesto Chicken Pizza

This is by far my new favorite homemade pizza. It is DELICIOUS! I'll definitely be making this again. Don't you love finding good recipes?!

51s Game

Shell had a promo where you could free tickets to the 51s game. We always fill up there anyway so we got 6 free tickets a game of our choice as long as it is Sun-Wed. We thought it would be a great activity for family night so we headed to the ball field on Monday night. We took Amy's kids because she has been helping us so much with Vance that it was time to return the favor.

It turns out Mondays are Value Nights and you can get hot dogs, popcorn, cracker jacks, and pretzels for $1 each. The boys thought it was so awesome to buy food from the concessions (shows just how cheap we normally are)!

They devoured the hot dogs and quickly asked for more food. Who can resist those cute faces? While everyone else ate, Colton sat there refusing to eat his hot dog. I don't know how that kid doesn't wither away to nothing!

Vance however needed no encouragement! He was mad at first because we didn't put all the condiments on his hot dog. Once he got his ketchup, mustard, and relish he was much more satisfied. Apparently Chad and I have pushed our love for all sauces/condiments onto Vance.

We ended up sitting on the grassy are and just letting the boys run around. They all had so much fun. The weather was perfect and it was great to sit back and relax. Who knows, maybe we'll try to get more free tickets and go again?!

At the park

We live right by a park and I LOVE IT! I've thoroughly enjoyed being outside. I think it's good for the soul. Plus Vance is way less maintenance when we're outside ;)

We had Amy & David and my parents for dinner and a Survivor finale party (we're lame - I know). We had some time to kill before the show started so we walked down to the park to let the kids play for a little bit.

Colton taught Vance how fun it is to just let your feet hang. I liked watching when their arms got tired and they slipped. I'm a mean mom!

Brayden came up with the most hilarious trick. He would use the bar to swing himself as fast as possible down the slide. At the end of slide instead of putting his feet down and walking away like a normal person, he kept his legs out street and flew off the slide landing on his bum.

I kept trying to get a picture of him in the air but it never worked. Take my word for it. It was so funny. He was so proud of how far he could "jump."

Vance & Colton were glad Grandma and Grandpa came so they didn't have to walk. They did fight over who got to sit on Grandma's shoulders though.

Thanks everyone for a fun night!

Too Stinking Cute

Is there anything else to say?

BBQ at Krista's

Our friends Krista and Paul invited us over for a BBQ last week. Chad was busy wrapping up a few things for finals week, but Vance and I were happy for some company.

Krista and I have been trying to get Vance and Aidan together for awhile now, but we both work so scheduling gets crazy. The boys hit it off immediately! I think they almost look related because their skin and hair color is pretty similar.
Hopefully Aidan won't pick up this trick that Vance decided to show off. Hey at least he didn't pee his pants ;)

After playing these little guys smelled like boy. You know what I mean moms. They needed a bath asap! Aren't they too cute. Definitely blackmail for in the future when they are trying to be a ladies man.

After dinner Krista wanted some help decorating the new house she just moved into. The guys were supposed to simply hold the curtains up so we could see if we liked them or not. This isn't exactly what we had in mind...

All the Terry, Smith, and Waldron boys. (The Zobrist's came later, but I didn't get my camera out again). That's a whole lotta boy!

Thanks Smith's for a fun, relaxing evening! It was great for Vance to have somebody else to play with besides me!

Mother's Day

I always love Mother's Day, but this year was a little different than normal because Chad works on Sunday. He did his best to make it feel like a special day though. This post is going to go all over the place because I can't get the pictures to move on the computer I'm using.

We got this corny t-shirt for my mom. She was making fun of them, so I decided I'd get her one and laugh inside as she pretended to love it when she opened it. That's just what I did! She is still trying to tell me she loves it, but I'm not buying it.Vance giving Grandma our gift.

We went over to my parent's house for homemade vanilla and raspberry ice cream. YUMMY! While the boys were inside slaving away, Aspen and I played a mean game of tether ball. I wish I could say the picture below was of me winning, but I was desperately trying to stop the ball before Aspen destroyed me. My wrist is still bruised from all the ropey's I did.

Vance and Briton played with the remote control car. The weather was so beautiful it was so much fun to just play outside.

This is me on my way to church showing off the corsage Chad got me. Chad gets me a corsage to wear to church every Mother's Day. It's a tradition I look forward to every year!

Before church Vance and I made a present for both of his grandmas. He loves foam stickers so he went crazy and made what I think is a beautiful picture frame! We also gave them Almond Joys (their favorite candy) with a heart that said, "Have a JOYFUL day!"

Chad's gift to me was a deep clean. I can't even begin to tell you how fabulous my house looks. He is also tackling the honey-do list that was building throughout the semester. He promised me I'd have everything marked off in 2 weeks. This may not sound too exciting but I was stoked! He took me out for sushi too - my favorite! (Thanks again SO much Amy for babysitting).

I'm so grateful for my mom as well as all the other mother figures in my life. To name a few: my mother-in-law, my grandmas, my sisters, and my friends! I hope you all had a Happy Mother's Day!!!

Gotcha

Since I was a little girl, my dad used to think it was hilarious to throw a cup of cold water on us when we were in the shower. It is a prank that hasn't lost its appeal in 20 years! If for some reason one of us girls is showering at my parent's house, my dad can't help himself. Don't get me wrong, we've gotten him plenty of times too.

***Let me clarify because of a comment an anonymous reader left me - This is not something where anyone sees anyone in the shower. All pranking is done with a shower curtain or wall in place. We aren't the kind of family who likes to see each other in the shower. Didn't realize that needed clarification but apparently it does. This isn't behavior that I feel is weird or unacceptable - nothing but a light-hearted prank.***

Back to the point...

This last time I really outdid myself. My dad had gotten me about a week before and I was thirsty for revenge. I grabbed a 3-gallon water cooler, dumped all the ice from the freezer in it, filled it up with water, and left it there for the water to chill before my dad got in the shower. Then he got in the shower... Aahh - the moment of joy. I dumped the entire 3 gallons of ice cold water on my dad! I did take out the ice cubes, but the water was FREEZING! He yelled, "Holy crap! That's a damn bucket! I'm gonna KILL you!!!" My mom and I started laughing hysterically.

Sweet, sweet revenge. Way to go me! Now I have to watch my back though...

Summer's Here!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love summer. The weather has been so nice that it's been killing me to go to work four days a week. I told Chad I didn't know what I was going to do on my day off exactly, but it would consist of me in a swimsuit relaxing somewhere outside.

I went to my mom's and we got out this water sprayer thing. When the boys were sick of spraying me I tried my best to teach them how to lay out. My tanning didn't go over so well...maybe next time.

Grandma had water guns for them too.

We also went to a splash pad with Diana and Blake. I had never been to that park before but it was really cool. I can't wait to go back!

It was a little too cold, so the boys and myself didn't last too long in the water.

Vance was content to sit wrapped up in his towel and just watch the other kids.

We went to a splash the other day with my mom and dad. Can you tell I'm part fish?

If anyone is ever going swimming you know who to call for company!

Grandpa was nice enough to play with Vance in the water. The splash pads will definitely be more fun when it gets a little warmer.

Thanks Grandpa for entertaining Vance!

I LOVE SUMMER AND CAN'T WAIT FOR IT TO GET A LITTLE WARMER!!!