Day 30-The grand finalle

Day 30-Your favorite song

I'm going through my iTunes list in my head right now because I have never chosen a favorite song before. What will it be?


Our wedding song?

A church hymn?

A song I love to sing?

A favorite childhood song?

Something with soul, or rock and roll?


My brain hurts.



Here's a list of some of my faves, since I just can't seem to narrow it down to one without having my brain explode.

I'll be - by Edwin McCain

Hero - Mariah Carey

You Raise Me Up - Josh Groban

Free Fallin' - John Mayer (or Tom Petty. Both versions are great!)

Crazy on You - Heart

I am a Child of God - LDS Hymn Book, Children's Song Book


These are just a few of my favorites. I'm sure I'll come up with 10 more when I am going to sleep tonight.
Music has always been a HUGE part of my life. I have an entire list of songs that I am emotionally attached to.



And with that, this blog challenge comes to a close.

Stay tuned for our next post, guaranteed to contain pictures of cute kids.

Day 29- What I have learned

Day 29-During this challenge, what have you learned?


I think this post goes hand in hand with the "How have you changed" post from day 28.
 
 
The more you learn the more you change.
 
The more you change the more you learn.
 
 
I have learned:
 
1. That I am not as creative in my writing as I once thought I was. (Sorry Mrs. Rider.)
 
2. I really, really, really love my family (But I already knew that.)
 
3. I need to be more adventurous.
 
4. My photography skills are improving!
 
5. I love blog comments! (thanks Melesa!)
 
6. I talk way too much about Cantaloupe Corner. I can't seem to stop myself. It's just so much fun! 
 
7. There are almost no pictures of me in the last few years. I must be camera shy.
 
8. 30 posts in 30 days is practically impossible.
 
9. I am terribly unorganized. And I'm working on it!
 
10. I am so happy I started this blog! I love looking back through the years and seeing what amazing changes
have happened. Some of these changes are so small and some are life changing!! It is fascinating to read back through and see what we were doing a year ago and how much we have grown.
 
11. Whoever invented blogging was a genius.

Day 28 - Then and Now

Day 28-A picture of you from last year and now.  How have you changed?




Last year (May 2010)
Taken at the AZ Rattler's game at US Airways Stadium.

Now (March 2011)
in our Backyard.

Some changes are blatently obvious.

I cut my hair.

 

oh, and I'm pregnant with our 3rd little boy.

So much has changed between then and now. I am still running my own business but I have learned so much more about who I am as a mom, wife, crafter, business owner, etc.

I sent Simon off to preschool for the first time and it was hard not to get teary eyed as I drove away. He's growing up too fast.

Ryan has grown from being a toddler to a little boy. *sigh*

I have grown too, more than just my expanding waistline. I feel like a better mom, a more confident woman, and I feel like everyday I am slowly becoming the person I really want to be.

We still live in the same house. Our days are pretty much the same as they were a year ago but I believe that with every year we learn a little more about ourselves; our talents, our weaknesses and strengths, our good and bad habits.

I have also learned that I am a lot like my mom, and even more like my dad.  :)

That's a lot to take in in just one year.

I hope this next year is just as fantastic!

Trains, strawberries, mischief, and rain.

With our train loving boys, you would have though we had seen all of the train stuff that the Valley of the Sun has to offer.
We went to a new park last week that I have heard about countless times and I can't believe it took us so long to get there! It really was as great as everyone said! It is called the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale, AZ.

As we pulled into the parking lot I was surprised by how much the park looked like the real Grand Canyon Railway Station. You even go to a real station ticket counter to buy your tickets for their little train!

There is tons of stuff to see, like the enormous steam locomotive that greets you at the gate.

Then they have a train to ride on too! It is a scale model of a small diesel train engine with small cars. It even has a cattle car and a red caboose. The boys couldn't get enough of the train!  According to Simon we rode it 6 times! (really only 4, but who's counting?)

 Simon was nervous the first time riding it. He wasn't scared of the train, just the whistle. After I took this picture Ryan sat on my lap and covered his ears too.

There was also a great little museum with all kinds of unique train stuff.

 The museum included 2 full size passenger cars that we walked through, and Ryan tried out the comfy chairs.

When we were going in to the museum I was a sign that said it would cost 2 tickets for each adult to enter, kids are free. I asked the nice lady at the counter if I could buy the tickets from her and she looked around to see if anyone was listening and said, "Here, take these."
She handed me 10 tickets! She said a lady had given them to her as she was leaving the park and asked her to give them to someone who could use them.
What a way to make a fun day even better! I passed on the good karma by donating the money I was going to spend on tickets to the museum.

I'm adding the train park to our list of places we need to go often! My little engineers loved it!



The next day was Christmas, at least that's what it felt like. We got our new baby swing in the mail and I got my new 50mm camera lense! WOO HOO! 

I didn't get to try out my lense that day because just as Newton's law would predict, my camera battery was dead. :(
The next day I got to snap my first pictures with it! I am head-over-heels in love with this lense. *sigh*

 Simon picked out a strawberry plant to put in our backyard. Our garden isn't quite ready yet but we thought some strawberries in our planter would brighten up the yard.

 Cardboard boxes = hours of entertainment!

 Ryan is my sweet and michevious little boy. I actually get nervous when he is quiet because he is ALWAYS getting into something. This day it was straws. He wanted his dad to make him a "big straw" by putting 3 little ones together, end to end. He found his 3 straws and left the rest on the floor.

Rain is a great thing when you live in the desert. It only comes a few times a year so we make the most of it. The boys splashed in the puddles before we hopped in the car to go to the library. I didn't realize until we got back home that Simon's shoes are on the wrong feet. lol.

Ry guy and his orange shirts. He picked this one out himself.

Can't you tell I love my new camera lense? Here's Ryan posing like a pro in a too-big t-shirt. We were snapping some pictures for my shop. He makes the sweetest little model. I am so happy he's mine!

Now I think I am almost caught up with our lives. I still don't have any recent preggo pictures of me. Being the girl behind the camera has it's drawbacks. I'll post some when I finally get them! I better hurry, in 9 or 10 weeks little Mason will be here!

We interrupt this challenge for an update.

We have been up to some fun stuff lately so I wanted to share a little.


I got my hands on a wheat grinder and learned how to make homemade fresh ground wheat for bread! I think I'm in love.

And we canned some yummy blackberry jam. To go with the homemade bread, of course.

 And while I've been working inside the house our weeds have been growing like. . . weeds. So me and the boys attacked the garden and said goodbye to the weeds! They were such good helpers and wow did they get dirty. I wish I would have snapped some "after" pictures.

 Some of the weeds were almost as tall as the boys. We had to dig about 18 inches underground to pull out all of the Bermuda grass roots. It was gruelling work for 2 little boys and a 7 months pregnant me but we got it done! Woo!

Me and da boys went to Greenfield park for the first time in about a year. It was all brand new to them.

Ryan showed off by climbing up the monkey bars!

Simon makes a good monkey too.

I snapped some shots of a new T-shirt I made for Ryan. I posted a tutorial on my Cantaloupe Corner blog if you want to make one too!

 Funny Simon. He got a new t-shirt too. Since he is such a train fanatic, we made him a Trainiac T-shirt. He wore it two days in a row. I had to hide it on the third day so he wouldn't wear it again. :)

 I sure love this kid!

And this one too! I love that the duck looks like it was colored with a sharpie. lol. 

The boys favorite part of the park was the "shaky shaky bridge". Ryan was so scared of the moving bridge at first but once he built up his courage we couldn't get him off of it! He found his new favorite playground game, running across the shaky shaky bridge.


What else have we been up to?

Simon is still loving preschool and we are currently trying to pick the "perfect" kindergarten for him. I can't believe he is that big already! It is bitter sweet. He has been working hard on his letters and numbers and can easily count to 100 now! He is also getting to be a good reader. He read me "Hop on Pop" last night. I'm such a proud mommy.

Ryan is as mischievous and fun as ever. We get to spend some time together while Simon is at preschool. He goes shopping with me or we will spend time reading books or coloring pictures. He has just discovered Simon's markers. No matter where I put them he finds them and he colors some part of himself, or his clothes, everyday.
His favorite color is orange and he insists that he wears and orange shirt everyday! We have even picked up some orange plaid shorts and orange sandals to match all of his orange shirts.

Our little Mason will be here in about 2 months. May 30th is the due date. We are hoping I can be induced early since our other boys were so big. The earliest the doctor will induce will be May 23rd.
Mason still doesn't have a middle name. I'm sure we won't pick it until the last minute because right now every time we start talking names we start throwing out random middle names like "Danger".

The boys are getting excited for their baby brother to arrive. Simon loves to feel him kick and Ryan is finally starting to understand that he gets to be a big brother soon.

I'm still running Cantaloupe Corner for a little while longer. My shop has been doing well and I am really enjoying it! But. . . pretty soon I have to close it down for a while. boo hoo. But I have more important motherly duties to attend to and I am sooooo excited to meet our sweet little boy. Being a mom is the best thing in the entire world!

Jeremiah is still working the daily grind at Farnsworth Wholesale. We love getting to spend some quality time with him on the weekends and he has been working hard trying to get our yard, and his sister's, back into shape.

That's all that's going on around here. We are having fun, staying busy, and enjoying life!

Day 27-Why am I doing this?

Day 27-Why you are doing this 30 day challenge



This challenge started out as a fun way to stay connected with my sisters and a way to kick myself in the pants and actually start blogging again. I obviously am not finishing this challenge in 30 days but I will finish this challenge!
I have learned so much about myself with each topic that comes up. I don't read them beforehand. I look at the topic right before I start blogging about it so that I can think of the first things that come to my mind. Sometimes it would have helped a lot to take a few days to prepare something more heartfelt or informative, but. . . oh well.  That's part of the fun.

I love how this challenge has helped me to think ouside the box and find new things to blog about rather than the typical "This is what my kids did today" posts.

I'm so thankful that Melesa, Aimee, and Heidi have all started this challenge! I am enjoying their blog posts and seeing how they interpret the daily challenge different than me.

I'm already at day 27! I'm almost done! Maybe I'll have to create a challenge of my own so I won't quit blogging. 
Maybe. . .