making me happy

We(John & I)are finally relaxing after a long day. The boys are all tucked into their beds & the house is quiet. We enjoyed, along with the boys, 2 baseball practices, 2 basketball games (all in different locations), a scouting activity @ Lowe's, & 2 birthday parties! We were all over town today & are so happy to be home. I thought I would post the things that made me happy this week (no particular order).

1). indoor soccer
Tanner & Carter just started another session of indoor soccer. I was very hesitant to even start this in the 1st place. John signed them up for the 1st session w/out telling me. We did not need one more activity on the calendar. I am apologizing to John right here & now :-). I will admit that indoor soccer has been a blast to watch. The boys are enjoying it & so am I.



2). my "FUN" socks
I love "FUN" socks, especially on cold, rainy days.


3). baby Thickers
I am in LOVE! Oh my goodness, my scrapbooking friends who know me well, know that I LOVE Thickers. I have a fun collection of them...different fonts, colors, sizes & textures. Look at what I found @ Green Tangerines, baby Thickers. These are the smallest Thickers you can buy right now. These are my absolute favorite scrapbooking product (right now). Run & get some...before I buy them ALL -LOL!



4). family time
We drove down to my parents house last Sunday to have dinner & birthday cake with my Mom. She celebrated her birthday on the 20th & we helped her extend her special day a few days longer. I love this picture. The grand kids were so excited to sing happy birthday, help blow the candles out & then grab a few candles to lick the frosting off of -LOL. Good times.


5). girl scout cookies
Ummmm, yeah. I have been enjoying these little things way too much! Some of our favorites: John, Carter, & Garrett love the Thin Mints, Tanner Loves the Lemonades(new to our house this year, so new that I had to hunt down some GS today in the Raley's parking lot-LOL) & I love the Carmel delights & well, Mr. Brody will eat any that he can get his hands.


6). facebook
It is a time-sucker on the computer...but it sure is fun! I have loved catching up with childhood friends, high school pals, & friends from college. Are you on facebook? Add me if you haven't already!


What did you enjoy this week?

{Project 365}

Tanner had a play off basketball game that didn't start till 8:20 pm. The whole family went to cheer him on. Mind you, Brody is usually in bed by 7:30 pm. This is how Brody cruised home from the game @ 10 pm...still clutching the basketball. Very happy & content in dreamland. Wonder what he dreamt about :-)?

I am including all 4 of ladies( Lorelie C., Kerrie E., Kristen W., Steph J.) who responded to my "pay it forward post"(my last post). Watch your mailboxes for something fun this year :). Kerrie & Kristen, can you please email your home address to me at doeraimi@gmail.com? Thanks ladies, this is going to be fun!

Have a happy Thursday!

pay it forward

This has been on a couple of my friends blogs and the idea sounds fun. A little excitement when the mailman comes and something to get your creative juices flowin' when it is your turn to send it out.
This is how it works:
Pay if Forward Exchange is based on the concept of the movie "Pay it Forward".
I will send a hand made gift to the first three people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join the PIF exchange.
All the gifts will be made and posted out 'sometime within the next year'.
How exciting to not know when your surprise package will arrive!
What you do in return, is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.
This Exchange is only open to those with active websites or blogs.
ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS PROMISE TO POST THIS SAME 'PAY IT FORWARD' MESSAGE ONTO YOUR BLOG, WHICH MUST BE ACTIVE IN ORDER TO PLAY. YOU WILL PAY IT FORWARD TO THREE PEOPLE WHO COMMENT ON YOUR BLOG.
I'd love for you to join me! Will you?
Other comments are welcome,
but only the first three will be my Pay it Forward recipients.
Sounds like fun, right? No pressure, just fun.

Happy Birthday to you!

Today is my Mama's birthday! Just wanted to give her a special shout out on her special day! I want her to know that I love her & that I am thinking of her today. My Mom is simply amazing. She managed to raise 5 children & was there for each of the births of her grandchildren( all 10 of them). While raising 5 children, she held down a part time job that soon became a very full time job. She has volunteered on the Rape Crisis hot line for 25 plus years. She is always serving others,whether it is through church, the people she works with or her friends & neighbors. She ALWAYS makes time for everyone. She has held numerous callings/positions @ church that have demanded a lot of her time & energy. She is an amazing public speaker & brings me to tears every time. She bakes amazing treats, she makes the best sugar cookies & homemade pies. She is crafty. She did not bat an eye when I volunteered her crafty skills in the 4th grade. I told my teacher that my Mom knew how to make dough ornaments & so she did , with 30 4th graders(all in her spare time, right?). She scrapbooks, she makes cards & she can SEW. She has made baby blankets for each of my boys & they have literally loved them to death. She has even had to re-make a blanket or two for my boys. She is now making all of the grand kids their denim quilts with denim that has been worn by family members, what a treasure. She is one adventurous Mom/Grandma. She has hiked to the top of Half Dome & she went sky diving, simply because my cousin asked her to go. I can seriously go on on about my Mom but I will leave my Mom with this:
I LOVE you Mom & feel so lucky, every day to call you MY MOM! Happy Birthday! I hope this year is filled with love, laughter & happiness.
Please help me wish my Mom a special Happy Birthday!

Heart Breakers

I LOVE these little boys to pieces!
Enough said!

playing catch up

I have had a super busy week. Coming down off of my fabulous scrapbook weekend with not alot of sleep & then jumping into the Kit club kitting party several times in the last week left me with little or no time to snooze. We pulled an all night-er on Wednesday & were able to finish just in time. This is a little peek into the kitting sweatshop- umm I mean workshop(I snagged this off Kinsey's blog-hope you don't mind Kins :).
There was lots of hard work. Lots of giggles & fun. I really do enjoy my job & the friends I work with.

Happy to report that we were able to get our kits kitted & ready to move out the door. Very exciting times for Green Tangerines & I am so happy to be a part of it. Some of the Green Tangerines crew has been down @ the Costa Mesa Expo this weekend debuting our kits & I can't wait to hear all about it.

On the home front, we have enjoyed making Valentine boxes.



Tanner was told to bring a shoe box that they could decorate in class(love those kind of assignments). This is what he made. Isn't it so cute? It is so Tanner! I love it!

We had fun addressing Valentine's &

making Valentine sugar cookies.






I about died when I listened to a message that was left for us on Friday afternoon. It was a little girl from Tanner's class telling him to check the porch & then to please call her back. This is what Tanner found.

The note on the inside was addressed to:
My valentine Tanner, from your Valentine!
It was very sweet. I was totally trying to not make a big deal about the whole thing. Tanner was embarassed but was so polite & gracious when he called her back to thank her. H-E-L-L-O !!! He is in the 4th grade. What will high school be like?

We also attended 3 basketball games on Saturday!

{Carter is # 2}. Both Tanner & Carter had AMAZING games today. Tanner had a break out performance. He was simply amazing on the court. Started the game off with a basket in the 1st 10 seconds & did not stop. His offensive & defensive game was on fire. Carter went on a shooting spree on the court. He even sunk a 3 pointer today. It was so much fun watching them do their thing on the court. I was one proud Mama.

Valentine's day was crazy. We attended (the above mentioned)basketball games plus Garrett's game, did our weekly grocery shopping, John reffed 7 games, & I managed the boys. My sweetheart managed to suprise me with a JUMBO heart balloon & a very sweet card. Then, later that day, in the mail I received another Love note from him with an itunes gift card tucked inside. It was very sweet & such a suprise. He kind of laughed about it & said "it has taken me 12 years to figure out that you would probablly love a piece of snail mail from me". LOVE it, indeed I did. I thought it was very thoughtful & sweet. Thanks sweetie!

We hope your month has been filled with the people you LOVE & the things that make you smile.

Brody @ 20 months

WOW! Where does the time go? 20 months already? Really?
In a few short months, Brody boy will be two years old.
My baby is not a baby anymore... we can officially call him a toddler.

Here is a little re-cap of his life @ 20 months.

- he is happy & has the best giggle.

- he is a great eater, our best yet! he will try everything & anything. He ate broccoli this week & loved it even when his brothers were making yucky noises.

- he wears 2T-3T clothes, this boy is SOLID!

- he is down to one nap a day(if even that). He plays for about 45 minutes before falling asleep somewhere on his floor.

- crawls out of his crib.

- he has been attending nursery @ church for about 2 months now & LOVES it.

- he is learning to count. He is great with two & four & a high five for 5 :).

- he is still dancing. His favorite time to dance is in my scrapbook room where is he is NOT supposed to be. He will run in there & start dancing. It is so cute that he doesn't get in trouble & I am pretty sure he knows he's dang cute!

- he loves to brush his teeth. It is his favorite part of our bedtime routine.

- he has learned to take his diaper off, not a good thing.

- he is no where close to being potty trained, oh well.

- he loves to yell "go guys" when he watches his older brothers play basketball.

- he is still climbing up on the counters & has learned to open the fridge...nothing is safe.

- his vocabulary is growing every day! He can mimic everything we say! He even says "Raimi" & dude.

- he loves to read/look @ books. It is the quiet point in our day. We love to snuggle on the big read couch & read. It is one of my favorite parts of the day with him.

- to let you know that he wants to read a book, he will say "Couch-Couch" & race you to the couch so we can sit& read. We do this several times a day! I love this daily routine.

-he gives the best smooches & gives them when you ask "Brody, can you say I love you?"

- he loves the choo choo trains & gets excited when we drive by the train yard.

- he loves Go-Gurts, burritos, chips & salsa(would drink salsa if we'd let him), bananas, mandarin oranges, P&J sandwiches, & Moms Diet Coke when he can sneak some.

- he loves animals. Loves to drive down Baseline & point out the cows & horses.

We love this little boy & the fun he adds to each & every day!

coupon adventures

Look what I scored for under $2.00 today!


I am still using my coupons & scoring some sweet deals.
Today I purchased/received for free:
8 cans of Progresso soup
3 rolls of Bounty paper towels
2 tubes of Colgate toothpaste
1 bottle of Windex(I will get this for free after I mail in my rebate-SCORE)
1 can of Windex wipes
6 boxes of raisins (impulse purchase for Brody)

Again, you can check out Laina's site for daily deals/updates.
Happy shopping!

scrapbook weekend recap

I had a fabulous weekend. It was awesome to reconnect with these girls.






We had endless hours of fun, chatting, listening to music, watching movies, eating, scrapbooking, answering table talk topic questions, late nights, lack of sleep & seriously laughing several times until we cried.

Some of my favorite memories/sayings from this weekend were:
- Just GOOGLE it! With three laptops present, we looked up anything & everything!
- Edward from Twilight made an appearance on Eve's pillow the 1st night we were there. Then he'd visit others while they took a nap.

- The DJ BLING made its appearance again...scary!
I have decided I am as white as it gets & will NEVER have a career in the RAP world-LOL.



- Lisa saying "come back" in her best Rose voice from Titanic -hilarious!
- Little presents/treats from everyone = FUN.
- Vampire teeth from Eve...posing for pictures with Edward.


- Not going to bed until 2:30 am every night.
- Denise saying "Bow to the Deakin", aka Michelle.
- Each of us having a 6 ft. table to ourselves.


- feeling happy that we had finally found the perfect beach house & then to receive a recorded message saying that the home was in forclosure...so sad.
Does anyone need a vacation home or somewhere to invest their money?

- enjoying the beautiful view.


- Actually scrapbooking & getting layouts done. I created 20 layouts this weekend!


- having the chance to catch up & spend time with these dear friends. Really grateful that my friend Michelle could make it too! We don't get to see each other very often & when we do, it's a treat!
A HUGE thanks to the girls for making this another fabulous weekend @ the beach. A HUGE thanks to John, who knows just when when I need to escape & for being capable & willing to hold the fort & troops down!

We're here...

We arrived @ our awesome beach house yesterday! It is amazing...our favorite so far. We have so much space. We each have our very own, six foot table to spread out on. We were thrilled to have just been able to get ourselves & all of our supplies here. You would not believe the amount of stuff we brought. Here is the view from the back of my Tahoe.




We are having a blast. Late nights, junk food, laughing till we cry, scrapbooking late into the night, fun music, favorite movies, & just some good, serious girlfriend time! I have managed to complete 12 layouts so far, with a whole day ahead of me tomorrow.



Huge kuddos to my hubby who is @ home taking care of the boys. He's getting them to their various activities, basketball games & even purchased new shoes for Tanner & Carter today! He totally ROCKS! He is amazing. I know the boys love having him all to themselves. I appreciate his willingness to let me escape. You are awesome John-boy. Love you!

project 365

{2.3.2009}





Our titles. Just in case we ever forget or if we are ever unsure! I received these free stickers in the mail & we had fun playing with them.

project 365

{2.2.2009}



Pretty self explanatory or in other words...woot-woot!
I stood in line @ the school starting @ 6:30 am this morning.
I had to make sure we got Garrett a spot in the kindergarten class this Fall.
He can't wait...neither can I.

Give Away

I just entered for a chance to win this Hoover Floormate vacuum(thanks for the tip & link Julie).


If you remember correctly, my nick name growing up was Hooverina!
I still enjoy vacuuming so this win would be right up my alley!
Check out this site www.mommybrainreports.com
Have a great night & let me know if you enter.