LOTS of photos, TONS of cuteness....

This was our way of celebrating St. Patrick's Day (I know it's not very original): Green Mashed Potatoes. It was all just for the fun, the girls don't like mashed potatoes normally, let alone when they're green. And I LOVE mashed potatoes, but the green was a little weird even for me!

Arissa is totally faking in this picture....I don't think she ate a single bite!

Sweet Mallory.....decorating our Easter Eggs.

Doing the decorating.....see their headbands? I totally made them! :o) The first thing I've ever sewn that actually turned out decent.

Easter cupcakes!

Easter Sunday, heading in to church.

Mariah gave a spur-of-the-moment talk in Primary...this was her as she finished, can you tell how proud of herself she was??

Finding the eggs!

Discovering the easter baskets. The Easter bunny didn't lead the girls on a hunt w/ cute clues like he did last year. They were a little disappointed, but liked their baskets & goodies nonetheless.

"Found one, mama!"

I bought the girls' baskets @ Joann's, weaved ribbon through them the best I could (purple for Mallory, Green for Mariah, and Yellow for Arissa) and voila:

Going through their loot at the annual church Easter Egg hunt (this was actually the day before Easter).

In the middle of making the headbands:

These flowers were sitting on my desk my first day at my new job. I walked in, all nervous of course, and saw these.....I was instantly happier and at ease, especially when I saw the card. They were from my three friends who used to work in South Bay w/ me but had transferred to downtown several months before I did. I was so appreciative and I'm sure my day ended up being a good one mostly because of these flowers!

Welcome spring!

"Ah Spring!"
Originally uploaded by •Laurie•

This is how I feel today! I love love love spring....the weather is neither cold nor hot, there's a marine layer every morning, the girls can finally wear sandals so I don't have to search in a panic for socks every morning, and best of all: my hydrangeas are blooming. What was just a bunch of seemingly dead branches last week, are now full of green baby leaves that almost look like rosebuds because they're just starting to grow. It's only a matter of time before the actual flowers bloom, and I can't wait. :o)

new card

This is a card I made recently (I made like 4 versions of it but my scanner is being all crazy so I could only post one). I made them for some of my co-workers.....thursday is my last day in my current office and I wanted to give some people a little note before I left to tell them I'm so thankful for them and that I'll miss them.

I haven't made cards in so long; it was a lot of fun...I've missed it!

photo tag.....

Okay here's the deal with this tag: you have to use pictures for all the answers and you can't use your own pictures. Go to Google images or any other search engine.

Mine are a little out of order, cause I have problems uploading photos to this blog!

Favorite color:

usually blue, but sometimes apple green, or a pale yellow.

Where I live:

how many other cities have a big old lemon as their mascot?

Bad habit:

I eat way too many of these!

Favorite Animal:

I love me some rottweilers!! This one looks just like the one I had when I was younger.

Favorite food:
Enchiladas suizas...avovado slices on top.....refried beans.....mexican rice. if I could eat this for dinner every day of my life, I'd be happy.

My job:
I have many but these are the ones that take up most of my time. Mommy to 3 little girls, and a Legal Support Assistant @ the district attorney's office.

Picture of me:

My hobby:

I would generally say my hobby is "crafting", but that's too broad a term to find good pictures of! So knitting represents it all.

I tag....anyone I know who has a blog and happens to read this. :O)

New Blog Look!

You like??? I know I know....it's harder to read and makes the pictures look funky. But I just loved the background picture so much, I figured I'll leave it for awhile. Then I'll change it back. :O)

I'm in love!

With our newest addition to our family....a new table.

Saturday as Arissa and I were going shopping, we passes by a yard sale on our street and my eyes were drawn to this table. A new kitchen table has been on my list of "things we so need but so can't afford" for a long time. The only kitchen table we've ever had was my parents when they were first married...that's an old table. The chairs were upholstered and were just a mess, ripped and ugly, and.....brown and orange (they were probably really stylish when my parents got them). The wobbled, we had to prop the table itself up w/ a book under one leg. It only sat 4 people, which obviously is a problem considering our family of 5!



So anyway we drove past the yard sale and I saw the table...it was exactly what I had been thinking about when I imagined what kind of table I'd like to buy. It looked kind of country, shabby chic, which I loved. And I counted 1, 2, 3,4, 5 chairs! I drove right by though because I knew I wouldn't be able to afford it.



On our way back from the mall, it was still there. I sped into our driveway and told Jesse just go look at it! Just go see what it's like and ask the lady how much. So he did, and he came back and said it was really nice.....that sealed the deal because before when I've seen things I wanted at yard sales, he just dismissed it completely. I had to borrow money from my Grandma to pay for it, we had to have a friend pick it up and bring it home. But now it's there and everytime I walk into the kitchen I smile because my kitchen actually looks how I would like it to. It's so great!



It has a nice shiny top so spills wipe up easy and it gleams in the sunlight. It came with two leaves, and Jesse wanted to put both of them in right away. I thought it was too big, but we're trying it out. It's just so perfect because it CAN fit 6, maybe even 8 people if need be. And maybe we WILL have some people over for dinner now that I'm not embarrassed to sit at my own table!



And here's our first meal at the new table....minus the family photographer (me!):

Oo la la

This is a new book I just got...I started reading it last night and could NOT put it down.



It's a huge book, the pictures are so beautiful. It makes me want to take next month's rent money and use it to buy a one way ticket to France. It's not just about Paris like lots of other books, but it's about this lady who bought a farmhouse in the south of France and moved her whole family there to renovate it. I just love it.

Everything looks better framed:

Of course the girls don't need any help looking pretty but....

I recently learned how to use "brushes" in photoshop and have downloaded several swirley ones. I love them. This picture was already photoshopped and was pretty nice on it's own, but then I added the frame and it's just beautiful!!

Mallory Boo

Mallory Boo
Originally uploaded by mc41912

I miss this age....this was before she could shout "I don't like you, doh-doh!!!!" to me.

pretty arissa

pretty arissa
Originally uploaded by mc41912

After a day at the "Community Celebration", out to dinner w/ Grandpa.

bobiah and barney

bobiah and barney
Originally uploaded by mc41912

Barney used to be her constant companion....now it's just her blankey (also barely visible in the top right hand corner of this picture).

i surrender!
Originally uploaded by varf

How cute is this? The title of it ("I surrender") makes it even cuter.

So something I was thinking about today:

Balancing my checkbook.

Never done it. Not EVER. So I live in a constant cycle of trying to remember my balance and what I've spent, along w/ checking online every 5 minutes to see if anything pops up that I've forgotten. Not only does it make it pretty hard to manage my money, but it also makes me a little bit insane.

WHY do I spend and never write down the transactions?

Because I feel uncomfortable making the person in line behind me wait an extra minute while I write it down. I know, I could do it after I leave the store, but I tried that before and that never worked either, I need to write it down while I have my checkbook open in the store. But I always feel like I need to rush out of there so that it doesn't inconvenience the people behind me. And today I was just thinking: that's pretty dumb.

Why do I care so much about where that person has to be or has to go, that I need to rush to get out of their way?

So I apologize to anyone who might end up behind me in line any time soon, but darn it i'm going to record every transaction I make for every store I go into.....so I can better manage the $5 I have left over for myself every paycheck. :o)

LOVE LOVE LOVE

na semana passada
Originally uploaded by rosaechocolat

My next craft undertaking: hand embroidery. So today (instead of working....shhhh.....) I'm browsing all the many ideas and patterns and projects on the web. I love the old-fashioned, heriloom, sort of childlike look of it. And it seems to me that for the most part, it must be easier than counted cross stitch.