Hairstyles for boys

This is what happens when your mom does hair...
Because I do hair, my boys have had more styles in their first few years of life than most. Tanner had his first haircut when he was 3 months old and was given his first "shoeshine" (highlights) at the young age of 3. Its been long, short, colored, and bleached all before he turned 6. Since Rylan already has blonde hair, I am not ready to color that anytime soon.

School starts August 11th...Tanner is going into 3rd grade. Rylan is in pre-school.

Tanner has pretty thick, slightly wavy hair. This season he is sporting one of David Beckham's older looks...the shaved head. Very easy and low maintenance. #2 clipper guard all over. Perfect for playing football in full gear under the Phoenix sun & 100 plus degree heat. He does not have time to comb or style his hair in the next few months. This is the best look for him at this time.

Rylan has thin and straight hair. We choose another David Beckham hairstyle. This style came shortly after David's shaved look grew back. We call it, the mini-Mohawk. As you can see it looks oh-so cute on him and he can wear it a couple of different ways. It's fun, its funky, and it totally fits his personality. I must say this look is much cuter on a 4 yr old.
Chad says all I have to do is color his hair purple and he will look like an Umpa Lumpa. That would scare the crap out of Chad...he is very frightened by those little purple men in the movie, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Summer Movie Fun

It's hard to believe that the summer is almost over for the kids. Today was our last movie of the summer. For the last 10 weeks on Tuesday's I took my kids and my neighbors kids to the Harkins Theatres Summer Movies. Each week they played a different kids movie. For example we saw Surf's Up, Shrek 3, Bee Movie, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Flushed Away, & Wallace and Gromit. The kids really get a kick out of going with all their friends and ordering Slurpee's. It was pretty cheap, a good deal you couldn't pass up in the Phoenix summer heat. 10 movies for $7!

Uncle Scott'v visit

Chad's brother, Scott was in town over the weekend working for TV Guide at the American Idol auditions held in Glendale. He worked for a couple of days and then spent the rest of the weekend hanging out with us here at home. I think every time Scott comes into town for a visit, its just a little reminder for him -not- to have kids. The boys love to wake him up in the middle of the night or at the crack of dawn to play or wrestle.
They like to sit by him during dinner and make him messy,
they like to be tossed back and forth in the pool,
and they like to watch Daddy and Uncle Scott go on tour with their band.

FitTv with Sharon Mann

In Shape with Sharon Mann Pilates/Power Yoga 30min
Hosted and designed by four time Canadian Aerobics Champion Sharon Mann, this exercise show blends Pilates, Kick boxing, Tai Chi, Boxercise, Boot Camp, Yoga and Interval training. It's loaded with fitness information and extra fitness tips.

Since I was up really late last night, I didn't have enough energy this morning to do an intense weightlifting workout. As I was making breakfast for the kids, I was watching FitTv and saw the above Pilates/Yoga segment. It looked nice, calming, and refreshing. I never thought I would be into this sort of exercise, but it has great balance, stretching, and breathing techniques. You can check www.fittv.com for daily schedules of your favorite shows. Lately what I have been doing is recording all the episodes of Cathe Friedrich and few other Yoga/Pilate ones and doing high intensity, weightlifting in the morning, then will go to Yoga and more calming exercise in the evening to wind down.

Football shall rule our lives!!!!

Tonight we had Tanner's first parent/coach meeting for tackle football...yes, that's tackle football, Lord help us. Last year he played flag football and really had fun with it. He practiced 2 nights a week with games on Saturdays. And ya know if he missed a practice maybe once or twice, it was no big deal. Well this year, things are different. He is on the Mighty Mites Cardinals team and things are getting serious. For the entire month of August he will practice from 5-7pm Monday through Friday. You heard me correct, Monday through Friday!!!.
We were in the process of planning a trip to San Diego for a family vacation Aug 22-26. That means he would miss 6 hours of practice and would not be able to start in the first game...Sept 6th. They have to log so many hours of contact practice before they can play in a game. Not to mention he has team pictures on the 23rd. The coach pretty much says that unless you are dying, you need to be at all the practices. And every week they will need to study for 70 plus plays in the playbook. This is going to be alot of work for Chad and I! Tanner will pretty much have no life the entire month of August, and neither will we. So no vacations for us till we leave for Florida in November.

This is our future...video gamers

Tanner had a few friends over today. Like we do almost every Tuesday or Wednesday, the boys go out and get some exercise. 11:30-3:30pm, 5 little fishes swim.

After a long day of exerting ourselves in the pool, its time to really put our brains to work by playing video games. They look so into it, don't they? I wonder if they all will become professional video gamers and make the big bucks???

Bountiful Baskets Food Co-op

I joined a food co-op that consists of mainly of produce. You can also order breads, nuts, oils, and teas. We just got our first basket this week. I was amazed at how much we got for only $15!! Peaches, Nectarines, bananas, plums, strawberries, oranges, big green leaf lettuce, celery, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, radishes, whole onions and carrots. Every two weeks you can place an order to be picked up on Saturday. The next delivery date is Sat. Aug. 2nd.

You would need to place your order before Wed. July 30. I would highly recommend doing this. My girlfriend kept telling me about it, I can't believe it took me so long to join. First time orders are $17 to pay for the baskets they put your food in each time. You bring bags to take your produce home in. The website below also has great information on produce storage. There was alot about storing produce I was not aware of.

http://www.bountifulbaskets.org/home.html

They also send out 5-10 recipes to use with the items you received in your basket. I tried these two and they turned out great!!

Oven Roasted Sweet Potatoes With Onions Recipe #193144

This is a wonderful, easy dish that even my husband loves and he swears he doesn't like sweet potatoes. I have served it for Thanksgiving dinner to rave reviews. I like it because it is WW core. It can easily be doubled. by Chef #372968

50 min 15 min prep SERVES 6 ·

4 medium sweet potatoes, cut into 2-inch pieces · 2 medium red onions, cut in to 1-inch pieces · 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil · 1 teaspoon lemon pepper · 1/2 teaspoon salt 1. Preheat oven to 425. 2. Combine all ingredients in baking dish. 3. Toss to coat the veggies 4. bake for 35 minutes, until the sweet potatoes are tender and onions are soft.

http://www.recipezaar.com/

Sauteed Radishes Recipe #88634

This comes from Sarah's Secrets. I love radishes, so I had to give this a try......Glad I did. SO GOOD by Boca Pat

15 min 5 min prep SERVES 6 ·

4 bunches radishes, washed & quartered · 2 tablespoons butter, unsalted · salt 1. Heat butter in fry pan. 2. Add radishes and salt. 3. Saute until crispy.

A loss is mourned...

Today we lost a very special friend...our pet scorpion. They boys found him belly up at the bottom of our pool this afternoon when they went for a swim. He must have gotten lost while he was wondering in the backyard last night and fell in. I thought I made it clear to everyone to be very safe around the pool. Obviously he was not listening. Ok, I am actually not sorry for this loss at all. I hate any form of bug. EWWWW!!!

What happens in Vegas...stays in Vegas, baby!

Our friend, Erik was turning 30 years old. What better way for him to celebrate than Casino style. His wife Jess threw him a Las Vegas style casino party complete with dealers, Blackjack, Texas Hold em, and Roulette table. Everyone was given $1000 in play money upon entering. Now wait, not only was this a casino party, but you could dress up as your favorite Las Vegas character as well. Chad entered the house as an older, fatter Elvis Presley. Which he received best costume for by the way. I on the other hand decided to come as a girl going to Vegas ready to party since I am horrible at trying to decide on any costume. Other costumes were...pimps, gold diggers, prostitutes, lady luck, cowboy, king and queen of spades, and just married couples.


We gambled till 10pm. After the tables were shut down they gave out tickets for every $200 we had. Chad and I had alot of money to cash in! The host had cups behind $15 Starbucks, Cheesecake Factory, and Barnes and Noble gift cards. You had to put your tickets in the raffle you were hoping to win. Chad won the Barnes and Noble and I the Starbucks gift card....Thanks Jess & Erik!!! Wow, This was a lot of fun!!

I love FitTv

I love to exercise to FitTv Cathe Friedrich!! She is awesome. We have Direct TV, its on channel 261. Just to name a few, her segments are under CardioBlast , Core Max, or Stretch Max. I have been working out with her now for a couple of weeks. Every time...and I mean every time I do one of her workouts I am in pain (good pain) the next morning if not before the end of the night. She pushes you to the max. I did her Kick, Punch, Crunch cardio workout and thought I was going to vomit when I was done.
I am more into weightlifting so I tend to do those the most. Each segment is broken down into sections of the body (i.e. biceps & triceps , legs & glutes, Upper Body Pyramid, Lower Body Pyramid etc...) or all over Muscle Endurance. Her cardio ones are Step Blast step aerobics or kickboxing. Love them!!!
Since it is on TV you do have commercials, but since I have DVR, I am able to fast forward and get a continuous 50min workout. Her Core Max segments are 30 min. They are different stomach and core muscle exercises using the balls. I will do one hour of her weightlifting and mix it in with a core segment or a cardio segment. I try to do about 1 1/2 hours a day. I am so obsessed with it I will get up at 5:30am (which I hate) & do one in the morning and one at night sometimes. My front living room has turned into a weightlifting/step aerobics room.

To do her routines you will need a stability ball, 8lb exercise ball, 3lb-25lb dumbbells, barbells to put on 10lb-40lbs, a step, & stretch bands. You can actually go to her website and get her videos. Since I get it for free with my satellite, I will stick with that for now. However, if you do not get FitTv and want to get into a great workout routine, you should definitely check out her website! http://cathe.com/ or check out her blog in "my links to check out" section.
If your thinking about joining the gym, don't waste your money!! Get on FitTv...she will kick your butt!!! Its like I have my own personal trainer at home. I talk about it all the time and can't get enough of it. She is an inspiration! And has inspired me to work even harder. I am getting up at 5:30am everyday for crying out loud!
Other workouts on FitTv I like are All Star Workouts Yoga Zen with Sara Ivanhoe, any of Gilad's Bodies in Motion (ex.Cardio Kickboxing, Chest Triceps, Abs), Total Body Sculpt with Gilad

Camping

This weekend we went camping with our neighbors David, Tricia, and their girls. The guys went up Friday night. They drove maybe 10 miles up the I-17 only to find out there had been a bad accident and traffic was at a dead stop for about 2 hours. Our campsite was only 1 1/2 hour away from our home. They left at 5:45pm and arrived at the Stoneman lake campground at 10:30pm with 4 kids, a camper, and a dog.
I had to work Saturday morning for a couple of hours, Tricia and I drove up in the afternoon.
When we arrived the boys had set up a great campground for us. We had an hour or so before a 30 min. torrential downpour occurred. The dust turned into MUD...lots and lots of mud! Thank goodness David and Tricia had a pop up camper for us to take refuge in. The kids played with all their toys and drew pictures, they were perfectly content. We on the other hand, were soaked as we were trying to set up the last tent before the rain came. After a while the rain stopped and we were able to get out and slop around in the mud for a bit. This makes for a very interesting weekend.
The kids made sure they could get as dirty as possible without even trying. They are kids, what do you expect! We had very little rain, just a few sprinkles every now and then throughout the night.

The sun eventually peeked through the clouds and we were able to play some games and build a fire to make our cheeseburgers. Of course you can't end the evening without smores... lots and lots of smores. That is if you can get them from your stick to the graham cracker...and lastly to your mouth without dropping them on the floor. We had many smore camping fouls. Good thing we had plenty to go around.

The kids went to bed somewhat early, they had gone on quite a long hike earlier in the day with the guys. That gave the adults some time to reminisce and have a few drinks by the fire.
Rylan was up most of the night coughing and moving all over the tent. I had a nice night listening to all that and the rain hitting our tent, hoping it was not going to come through. The four of us didn't get up till 930ish when we smelled the breakfast our friends were making. The rest of the morning was pretty much enjoying the day and getting ready to pack things up. Tanner loves the walkie talkies so we let him take the kids on a little adventure hike so we could get things ready to go for the day. They don't get very far before he radio's in. "beebeep...Mom? Rylan has stepped in mud...beebeep...Megan also has stepped in mud." They came back with mud up to their ankles! What a mess. They had fun and that is all that matters.
From Stoneman Lake AZ...until next time....

BBQ with friends and Rock Band

It was time to bring the neighbors over to swim and play Rock Band. We cooked out some good food and the kids swam for a good portion of the night. Swimming makes them very sleepy, that is when they crashed to the movie Alvin and the Chipmunks all piled up in our bedroom.
I don't know how they slept through Traci's rendition of Dead or Alive on Rock Band or Tricia singing Nirvana. They actually did a really good job. It was her first time playing, not singing though. Everyone tried out the drums and guitar, only a few of us sang. Not as easy as one might think. But fun indeed. I personally think the guitar is easier to play than the drums.

Things to do when its so hot out!

OK so most of our days when I am home with the boys are spent by the pool. They just love to swim. Never get tired of it. I found this octopus contraption that my dear old neighbor Suzanne (who moved away)gave Tanner for his 6th birthday. It has been hiding in the storage cabinet in our garage for quite sometime. It was always a pain to blow up...Chad thought he threw it away...sorry Suzanne. I kept it. Look how much fun it is though!!! The boys had a blast!!

About every 45 minutes or so I have to pull the boys out and re-apply their sunscreen. With our UV Rays so intense here, its just something you have to do. I also make them sit out for awhile and take a breather, grab a snack or in this case...they heard the theme song from the Transformers movie. I heard the music get louder on my Ipod so I peeked around the corner to check on them. They were jammin out!! Playing the air guitar and drums. RyRy was singing his little heart out to What I've Done by Linkin Park. He doesn't even know the words except for a couple of them. He knows the beat and the sound of the song...how it is suppose to be sung. The rest is da-da-da, ra-ra, blaaadaaa...daaa. He cracks me up. They had to play the song over and over. After the 5th time, it was enough. They were bummed. I had to stop them. Tanner was swinging his arm so hard on the air guitar, I thought it was going to fall right off. We got some talented little munchkins here! Check them out!!

copy and paste this link onto your web browser if you cant see the video below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBw41SX_l50

Rylan loves to do "homework"

During the summer I always get a workbook for Tanner to do while school is out. Keep his mind fresh so he doesn't forget anything he learned that year while he spends countless hours on the Wii. He earns his time playing video games by doing his workbook...so don't worry, its all good.
Rylan watches Tanner and wants to do everything Tanner does.
I was at Costco one day and got him the Pre-K activity pack.
I would highly recommend it for something fun and learning to do at home. It includes a Learn to Count CD-ROM, FUN-damentals DVD, Hooked on Phonics... ABC's, Coloring, Colors Shapes & more, Math numbers, and Letter sounds workbooks. He can't wait to get his books out and get to work. On this day he was so proud of all the letters he was writing. We had to take a picture of it.
He has been working on writing his letters for the last few months now. He can spell and write out his whole name!! He will often like to just grab paper and start writing random letters and show much excitement when we tell him how proud we are. I can just tell him to pick out any book, I will read him the directions and he just does it! Knows all his colors, numbers, letters, some sounds. For example, I will say, "what does Bah-Bah-Baby start with?" He will say "Bah-Bah-B!" His favorites... "Rr-Rr-Rainbow, starts with R just like me, Rylan, R!" (although Chad thinks we should keep that one on the downlow) or
"Uh-Uh-Umbrella, starts with the letter U!" I can't even begin to describe to you how overjoyed he is when we tell him how awesome it is that he knows his letters and sounds. He does this funky little dance, head shaking, mouth movement thing. It's pretty comical.

Happy Fourth of July!!

God Bless our Nation! I want to take the time right now and give a special thanks to all our Men and Women serving in the military. I am so greatfull for their bravery and courage to fight for Americans. My Uncle Shannon currently in the Air Force, is being deployed to Iraq in just a few short weeks. His wife is my moms sister and they have 4 boys. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family. His family is his strength...We love you guys!!

How about a game of baseball? We played baseball in the pool at our neighbors house and BBQ'd. After that we spent the rest of the night at Chase Field watching the Arizona Diamondbacks get spanked by the San Diego Padres. That was a bummer. Thank goodness there were fireworks to see after the game.


I am proud to be an American! Here are some pictures from our day.

Sunny Days

Yet again we have another sunny day here in Phoenix. Our neighbors and friends came over for a swim.

My friend and co-worker Kim, drove all the way up from Tempe with her 7 week old little boy, Ethan. She has been on maternity leave and has been a little bored staying at home while her husband is working such long days.

Today was a lay by the pool, chat with the ladies, baby down for nap, squirt gun fight with kids, feed the baby, have lunch, get more tan, take the baby in the water, watch a movie, play with kids, have some dinner, feed the baby... kind of day. Whew!!
It was really nice spending time today with all of our friends. I am very happy that Kim and Ethan were able to join us and spend the whole day and well into the evening here at our house. She said she just might have to come up here more often especially if I am going to feed her lunch and dinner while she is still on maternity leave.

All the kids loved to see the little baby!

Rock Band and Rylan's photo shots

Tonight Tanner is having Zach sleepover. They have been together all day practically. On Tuesdays we do the summer movies. Today was Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. The kids said it was "ok". They didn't really care for it. The point is to get the kids out of the house and do something fun.
After lunch it was time for some fun in the sun. To escape the heat, swimming is the best exercise in the summer. Tanner, Zach, Rylan, and I swam for hours. The boys came in for an hour or so then our other neighbors came over to use our pool, out again we all went. It looked like a rain storm was coming in. The helicopters were flying above our house. The news people get all excited when the monsoon season comes. Because we were outside we weren't sure what was going on. We heard thunder and saw some lightning. Thought we better get out of the pool and check the news real quick. Funny how its 105 degrees outside, little wind, 6pm, and sprinkling. We were freezing cold!!! No one wanted to get out of the pool to get their towels. Turns out just north of us there was a dust storm and some good rain. News was all over it. We get excited out here when it rains....

I came home from the grocery store tonight and Chad, Tanner, and Zach were jammin on PS3 Rock Band. They were so cute. Chad was singing, Zach on drums, Tanner on guitar. I have attached some video. Its pretty funny. They mixed it up a bit and the boys were singing. Not too bad. After hearing the songs over and over, they got the beat and the notes down pretty well. I let Rylan takes pictures of them....and a few other miscellaneous things along the way. Rylan loves to take pictures now. He will take snapshots of everything!


Enjoy the show.....

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