Carls Jr Blah!

I have been intrigued by the Carls Jr ad for the "big carl"  I am not a burger eater unless it is a good old fashion BBQ or every now and then I crave a big mac.  Which is why tonight the big carl sounded appealing, even though it is a million calories and fat grams.  We had a buy one get one coupon.  This is only the 2nd time we have gone to Carls Jr since we have been in Vegas.  It used to be one of my favorites, now it is really too expensive.  I'd rather go to Red Robin my favorite place for almost the same price.  Last time they messed things up big time and this time they did too.  We got chicken stars for the kids but what was in the bag when we got home was the crunchy burritos that resembled an egg roll.  We could not even figure out what they were but they were reminisent of the burrito flavor from cafeteria school lunches.  The kids absolutly hated them and even wiped their tongues.  We couldn't blame them, I don't know how they sell, they were not good!  As for the "big carl" it was not good.  It was not close to the big mac in flavor and well as for the ad saying how much more you get, I   A. do not need it and  B. do not  need to pay the price.  The price of a big mac value meal last I had one (when I was preggo) was about 5.89, while the meal for the "big carl" was 8.95!!!! HOLY!!! I'll say it again I'd rather go to Red Robin for a few bucks more.  Lance drove back and got the chicken, they threw in a dessert for the trouble, HOORAY for more calories. At any rate I will most likely never go back to Carl's Jr.  I had my fast food fix for quite a while and am looking forward to the summer of freshness I hope.  I am weeding the garden like crazy and have seeds ready to plant but I want to go learn a few things first! :)   I think I acctually am happy when things like this happen to remind me that fast food looks better than it tastes or makes you feel.  I should have taken a picture of how sad that burger looked compared to the photos and the commercial! Now my tummy feels BLAH!

Birthday Party!!

Rori's party turned out great.  I was working on little sleep.  Rori wanted a mermaid cake and I thought that would be so much simpler than the castle cake from last year and it would have been aside from the fact I decided fruit rollups would make a great backround of water and seaweed.  4 Hours and 4 1/2 boxes later at 3am I decided I was too detail oriented and did not make this easier on me than the castle cake.  But it looked beautiful.  I will now add fruit roll up artist to my resume, and from searching the web I can see I have a niche in this as there was no fruit roll up art to be found.  I am sure it is out there though!  I also was unable to make the chocolare portion until the morning as Lance had bought me a bottle of vanilla and when I opened it the seal had been peeled back.  Now I am more than sure that the vanilla wasn't tainted but I decided not to take the chance on a whole birthday party worth of people.  We had a total of 7 adults and 7 kids and a baby aside from our family of 6 so it was a great turnout.  We had a fish pinata that Lance my artistic husband made in 10 minutes out of a paper bag stapled together and wrapping paper.  The kids had a great time playing and running and riding around.  We are so lucky to be in a group of friends that our kids all get along and that even the 7 year olds are gentle and look out for the younger kids.  I do not think we have had one fight in the 2 years I have been in the group now.  It was a great party.  I was able to enjoy it more than last year.  I am really liking this house.  I hope we can get the boxes gone through and cleaned out of the garage over spring break next week.  

My little girl is 5

Poor girl she has allergies so bad right now.  I am guessing ASH since that is what is on the high right now!

Cake and cupcakes for her class, I made it a flower. 

Birthday dinner!  Sprinkly banana pancakes with whip cream!

Liam gave Rori her present and wanted to see what it was!

AND........here she is being sassy she wouldnt let me take her picture on her new bed :(

I think time passes way to quickly then we handle sometimes.  How is my little girl 5 already.  I can remember being 5, I can remember being pregnant, I can remember bringing her home, It swirls in my head all the things that time is and how fast we blink and it is gone.  When we moved in to the new house we upgraded her from her toddler bed to a twin bed.  She officially joined the big girls club.  Yesterday was her birthday and she went to school.  I made her a small cake and cupcakes for her one class and then for dinner we had our getting to be traditional sprinkle birthday pancake dinner.  She had told me she wanted mac and cheese and I was prepared to make the change but at the last minute she changed her mind so we had the pancakes.  We gave her one gift and then her other 2 she will get at her Birthday party we are having on Saturday.  One being her new big girl bike with training wheels. (We may have to add a 3rd present of a helmet if her other one doesnt fit.)  Yesterday she had several calls and when GG called she told her "I can't talk too long I have lots of calls coming in" She also is getting a little sassy and I do not like that. Her present she got last night was a Dr kit.  She is always playing Dr and I got her a cheapo one from the dollar store she played with for months, I found this one at Christmas Clearance time and picked it up.  Her other gift on Sat will be a school shirt she can wear on Fridays which are spirit days and we havent got one for her yet.  She is such a beautiful girl I love her so much.  She told me the bad fairies didnt come to this house they lived at the old house so Thank goodness!! :) It was a nice day I'll add more from her party!

my new photography website

Leave me some comments let me know what you think :) This is just a starting point for a bit so I do not have to send people to my flickr site to sift through photos.  :)   I appreciate feedback right now! :) Thanks
Free website - Wix.com

Progress report and Genie lamp?

Lance hired some day Laborers to help clean out the back yard from the winter leaves and weeds and trim all the plants down in the old house to move things along faster.  One of them found this object that to me resembles a Genie Lamp.  I have know idea where it came from but I love it.  I tried to rub it to no avail, I did not wake the sleeping Genie, but I am going to keep it out and hope it brings good luck, it is a beautiful little piece!!

I am very thankful and grateful for my new friend Jessica who rescued us many times during this move helping with the kids.  As luck would have it she also only lives a few miles away now so I hope I can return the favor for her as well.  She is a wonderful friend already.  We share a growing love for out cameras and will be challenging each other to better our skills I am sure.  Her daughter Summer is just a few months older than Pierce but is well loved by all the kids.  I feel so lucky that in all the mom friends I have all of our kids get along so well. 
We turned in the keys to the other house on Wed, and I started to get a cold.  I am grateful we got through the move before it happened.  Let me just document this last month so I can remember the stress I have been through.
First we got the notice the owner was moving back to his home and given 30 days to move out.  Then came the stress of finding a new place. Then Rori had the death fairy dream thing and freaked me out, then Liam got sick and then Pierce got sick, Brendan got sick,Liam got a rash and Liam got sick with something else, Pierce got sick with something else, both requiring a trip to the Ped. Rori had a fever and was sent home from school.   With antibiotics the green goo has gone away but they all still have runny noses.  (My kids who rarely get sick) Brendan also cut three teeth this month and learned how to army man!  My root canal from Nov became infected and had to see the dentist on emergency and got a refferal to the endo for a re root canal.  :(  Had to rescedule the re root canal due to the cold I got.  Had all of our utilities tuned on over at the new place except for the gas that needed to schedule out 5 days, and supposedly sent me an email about paying  my bill that had been paid but crossed the email that I never got all while waiting all day for a gas guy to show up.  Called and was told about the email thing and resceduled for another 3 days out only to get home 2 days later to a missed card from teh gas guy, called and explained I was never told Thurs but Friday all they could reschedule for was Tues, I told them no way, they got me scheduled for mon.  Monday we left the door open for the guy and came home to a note about finding out where the dog leg pipe went to in the back yard... WTH??? and found out on Tues that there was once a hot tub in the back yard.  No return call from the gas co, so made another call Wed and a gas guy was out an hour later, and finally we have gas!!!  My boys were a mess of dirt from the backyard at the old place the garage at the old place and the dirt of the new place.  See pic of boys in the dirt.  So you can imagine a week without baths was pretty dirty.  We were given the wrong size truck for teh move which resulted in 2 trips instead of one and also was charged for the larger size which was remedied by a phone call.  The house took forever to detail out with the kids coming and making messes behind us but I think we left it in better condition than we moved in, I hope they like their new patio.  I am so mad I didnt get a finished photo without all the tools and mess on it.  We had started building this as we thought we would be there for years and thought it would be less work to finish it than to take all the tiles out.  It cost us an additional 40 bucks or so, so I hope they like it, it was just rocks and 2 slabs when we moved in.  Wed we also turned the keys in to the house and the walk through went well.  Hopefully we will get all of our deposit back.  Whatever we get back is my new camera so I hope it is all! :)  So it has been one long month.  I hope the Genie lamp brings us good karma in this house.

Liam's swollen goo eyes

Pierce's eye, both eyes did this before the medicine kicked in.

Liams rash

the patio Lance built at the old house.

So far the kids have been outside for hours a day running and riding their bikes and playing in the dirt and their sandbox.  I feel peaceful in this house so far, and now we just have to wait and hope that the budgets cuts wont affect us too much.  I am praying for Lance to have a job and then I can really destress.  I do not want to move for a long while.  Tonight we are going to pick up a twin bed for Rori for her room that I found on Craigslist.  Photos coming soon!  We will probably check out the clearance center this weekend and see what finds we can find. I am also planning Rori's 5th Birthday party for the 20th.  She wants a mermaid theme and I have some ideas! :) I hope the weather stays as nice as it has been so we can have an outdoor party!  I am slowly working on boxes and figuring where I want everything to go and I can't wait to be settled in.