New Addition....

We've up-sized again....we sold my beloved Jeep Jogging stroller (it was gone 3 hours after posting it on KSL). I really did love that stroller...and I used it quite a bit. I was a little disapointed when I discovered that Jeep didn't make a double jogger. They really need to start looking into that.

With the weather warming up I really wanted to start running during the day instead of waiting until after the girls went to bed. We found a double stroller on KSL (I told you we were addicted!). It is a Columbia. The lady bought it a year ago, used it a few times, then decided that it was too hard to get her kids ready to go out running, so she bought a treadmill. The stroller had been sitting in her garage for the last year. It is pretty much new, and runs like a champ! And I got it for half the price if I were to have boughten it new! Score!

I took the girls out in it today! Charley said she missed running with me...it was nice to be able to take the girls with me. And Gabby seemed to like it!

Rosenthal Blood!

More and more lately I have become my more like my mom. (Don't worry mom, it's not a bad thing! It's a good thing!) Last week on KSL (I think I may be addicted to that site!) I bought a little dresser I thought we could use as an entry table (to replace our bookshelf). We got it really cheap, and I spent this last week sanding and staining! I think it turned out pretty good!This is the dresser when I first got it. The picture does not do it justice on how bad this thing looked. It was previously in a little boys room...they scratched letters in the door, and it looked like they took a pencil and jabbed the side of it.

This is the dresser after I HAND sanded it.....yep, it was a pain and a half...It took me 3 days to sand it all down! On the third day a neighbor came by to see what I was doing and offered me her electric sander....so I used it to do some finishing touches on it. After I stripped all the old stuff off, I filled all the scratches and scoffs with wood filler....then sanded that down.

I put two coats of stain on it, then put a few coats of the gloss coat stuff on. We took the knobs off and founds some new ones to put on. And lucky our home teachers came over today, they ended up help carrying it all up so I didn't have to!

And the finished Product.......

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Ben wanted me to tell everyone he helped put the last gloss coat on and put the new knobs on. This was my first attempt at doing this. I was really excited to do it....when I was younger my mom did this all the time. I didn't know why she liked doing it so much....but for some reason, it is fun! I can't explain it, but I can't wait to do it again...I'm totally gonna redo my dresser in our room. And I bought a dresser a few months ago for the girls on KSL, that I am going to redo as well!

The title is refering to my mom's side of the family. My grandfather, uncles, cousins, my mom, and even some of my other aunts are all handy with everything....literally.

1st Hair Cut!

Before

After

I am a little weird about our girls hair! I want it long! Charley didn't get her first "trim" (she hasn't ever really gotten a cut) last summer. I was trying to hold off on Gabby getting one until she was older, but I couldn't control her hair anymore! Charley was easy because she had curly hair, and it was easy to hid her random long strays! ....However, Gabby has straight hair, and her hair is just plain CrAzY!!!! She had these long tufts on each side of her head over her ears. They were literally longer than her shoulders, but the rest of her hair was still by her ears! As I was looking at her last Saturday, I decided it was time!

The Cruise....the Birthday Boy!

Last year when Ben turned 29 he was a little depressed that he would soon be 30. I told him for his 30th birthday I would throw him a HUGE party! He did not like that idea one bit! So I asked what he did want to do for his 30th Birthday? He said he wanted to go on a cruise. We talked about it all this last year, telling people that we were going to go. A few months ago, as I knew his birthday was approaching, I asked if he really wanted to do it?....we talk about doing a lot of things, but never really do them... But he said he really wanted to. So we went on line and found a cruise that was during his birthday weekend....and where he didn't have to take too much time off of work....and was a good deal! Thanks to our tax return....we went!!!! We were even able to fly my mom out to watch the girls while we went! I knew they would have much more fun with Nana then with us anyway....as it was, Charley was pushing us out the door to go....she had a long list of things she and Nana were going to do while she was here! Even though Gabby, Mom and Jordan got sick, I think they had fun! I was more worried about Gabby, she's more attached and a lot younger than Charley, but she did great!

A few days after we came back, Charley was asking when dad's birthday was. I realized she didn't know it was Ben's birthday because she wasn't there. So we made a cake, and surprised Ben when he came home from work!

Happy Birthday Ben! We Love You!

Love, your Girls!

The Cruise...Mexico

Off the boat in Ensenada, Mexico....they had the biggest flag I've ever seen!

These were official signs that they had in Spanish on one side and translated to English on the other side....so the English translation is hilarious...makes you wonder how bad we translate things from English to Spanish?!
Our boat docked....it looks huge compared to the other little boats....and we are like a mile or so away from where we took the picture.
Main street had lots of little shops!
I'm not sure who these heads are supposed to be of....but man, they are some big heads! (to clarify I am talking about the head statues behind us...not our heads!)
Ben had to get a fish and shrimp taco. he heard they were really good here!

The Cruise...the boat!

boarding the boat...
we found little animals housekeeping made with towels every night after they cleaned our room....
at Karaoke....Ben made plugs for his ears....one lady was HORRIBLE!!!!...and she was so loud!
Ben and I hanging out in one of the lounges....I think it was one of the comedy acts going on!
Laying out!
the cool water slide on the boat

The Cruise....the food

Our table-mates!....we ended up becoming really good friends, and after the dinners we would hang out and go to the shows and comedy acts together!
Ragu, our waiter, he's from India! He was so much fun! We liked having him as our waiter!
I ordered Gespacho, and the waiter asked, "you know that gespacho is a cold soup?" I told him yes....when he brings it out this is what is set in front of me.....I asked "did you freeze it?" .....a few minutes later her comes and pours the real gespacho around it. He thought it was funny.
above was the chocolate melting cake....I would totally go on another cruise just for this cake.....it was pretty much the best thing I have ever tasted!
I'm not sure what it was, our table-mate ordered it, but it looked pretty!
They gave these to all the mothers on mothers day.....it was a like a chocolate cheese cake.....very yummy!
This was salmon....I don't normally like sea food...but since I was on a boat, I thought "why not?!"....I didn't realize that 'smoked' salmon tastes more like raw fish, then cooked....i had one bite and almost gagged!

Yes, I took pictures of the food! I did because it was sooo yummy. And we ate so much of it!

Cinco de Mayo

Yesterday at "pre-school" we talked about Cinco de Mayo. And as part of our activity we made little Pinatas! I blew up a balloon for each of the kids (it was Charley and 2 of her little friends), and then dipped strips of newspaper in glue water and pasted it on the balloon. It was a little messy, but it was something that the kids didn't really need help with, and they loved it. We hung it to dry over night, and this morning we popped the balloon and our newspaper was left in the shape of the ball. This afternoon we filled the ball with candy and attached some string. We had some friends over for dinner, and after we ate their daughter and Charley took some wooden spoons and broke the pinata!