Showing our DisneySide

We love Disney. Disneyland, Disney movies, and someday I would love for us all to go to DisneyWorld! So, I was SUPER excited to be chosen to show our #DisneySide with a @Home Celebration Kit! 

When the box showed up I was first shocked by this wonderful surprise!

A new American Tourister Suitcase.  

Then I opened it and was again surprised by all of the fun things I found! 

Here's an overall picture of what we found in the suitcase (plus a few more things that I couldn't fit in the picture!). 

I knew that I needed to go simple because N8 was going to be on travel then entire week I was planning the party. So I decided on a movie viewing party, treats and Mom's visiting! 

I sent out invites through a Facebook event and began figuring out what treats I should make!

The day before the party I made some cute oreo mickey's using regular sized and mini sized oreo cookies and some melted chocolate chips. I think these were the most liked item a the party! 

Part of the party kit included some large papers to cheer on runners at Disney runs. I had them out to encourage some coloring.

I filled my kitchen table with all of the "goodies" that were sent to me and encouraged everyone to take things that interested them. The favorite items were the large print of Mickey & Minnie with the heart balloon. 

Since I was sent so many fun things, I decided to do a couple of giveaways. Ladies could put their name in a bowl if they were interested in winning: measuring cups, Iphone5 case, cupcake liners or cookie cutters. I think the cookie cutters were the most coveted item!

The snacks were all out of the counter. 

Sprinkle cookies, Mickey shaped PB tortillas and Mickey Oreos. 

I also make some yummy white chocolate popcorn with M&Ms and marshmallows. 

I was ready for everyone to come! 

I ended up with a pretty good crew of kids! 

 

And a good sized crew of moms who appreciated the time to sit and gab while their kids enjoyed Tangled!! 

Everyone stayed for about 2 hours and left happy with hands full of Disneyside treats!

My friend Megan was the proud winner of the cookie cutters! 

All in all it was a fun party with lots of fun goodies. After seeing what so many others were doing for their parties I was quite intimidated. But I think for the group of people I was catering to, this was perfect!
Now everyone wants to figure out how to get down to Disneyland!

Disclosure: I have a relationship with MomSelect, BSM Media & Home Celebrations @Disneyside. Many of the items used at the party were given to me as promotional items. All opinions are my own. 

Love Day!

 I would say the N8 and I aren't super romantic. We lean toward the practical side of things. So when I opened my Valentines gift from N8 (a few days early) I was super surprised!

Personalized M&M's with our names and pictures printed on them!

Super fun and super sweet! I loved it! 

The kids had Friday (which was Valentines day) off from school so we took advantage, got a temple apartment down in LA for Thursday night and took off.

We stopped at one of our favorite burger joints we've found along the way called The Habit! 

We happened to arrive at the temple at the same time as another family from our ward that happens to have teenagers. They offered to watch the kids and N8 and I were able to go together and do a session! 

Friday morning the kids and I wandered the grounds waiting for the visitors center to open and to enjoy the beautiful LA weather! 

We ran a bunch of errands on the way home and ended our Valentines day night at an adult ward activity. There was a great dinner, we had fun visiting with friends and played some silly games. Happy love day!

Family Home Evening-an inspired program

Throughout this year our Ward has decided to have several monthly focuses. For February the focus has been having weekly Family Home Evening. President Thomas S Monson said this about FHE: 

I begin with family home evening. We cannot afford to neglect this heaven-inspired program. It can bring spiritual growth to each member of the family, helping him or her to withstand the temptations which are everywhere. The lessons learned in the home are those that last the longest. As President Gordon B. Hinckley and his predecessors have stated, “The home is the basis of a righteous life, and no other instrumentality can take its place nor fulfill its essential functions.- Constant Truths for Changing Times

 We're pretty good about having it each week. It's not long, and generally not planned far in advance, but we know it's important and the kids enjoy doing it. It's a time for us to go through the upcoming weeks agenda, share scripture, a short lesson and a fun activity together. 

A few weeks ago we needed to have a practical lesson. How to load clear the table and load the dishwasher.

We began with making sure they knew to dump any "trash" (peels, uneaten food, etc) in the trash rather then the dishwasher.

Then the all important, check to make sure the dishwasher doesn't have clean dishes inside! 

Then how to correctly put your plate and silverware in. 

Everyone needed to give it a try! 

It's the simple things. 

The kids are still not perfect in putting dishes in. Mostly they just put things in the sink forgetting to check the dishwasher. But it's a work in progress!

Project workbench

After getting my new compound miter saw for Christmas, I knew we needed to rework our work space in the garage. N8 is a firm believer that since we have a 2 car garage, 2 cars should be parked in it. It is nice to have both cars in there and it keeps it sort of clean, but only sort of! 

While at Home Depot a couple of weeks ago I saw a workbench that I though would work just perfectly in a spot on the garage. It was a prebuilt workbench for a reasonable price and it was SUPER easy to put together (like about 5 minutes!). 

So here's the before:

Then I moved everything out of the space:

This is the workbench before it was set up:

And set up ready to be filled!

And all reorganized! There's lots of space since there is the shelf on the bottom, plus now we have flat space up top (a countertop of sorts!) to be able to work on!

Dad's wedding...

This weekend at headed out of town at noon and started driving to Phoenix. We had just been there 2 weeks previously for New Years so the drive felt long! We stopped for dinner in Avendale about 7:30 at Cafe Rio, it was so yummy (that or I was super hungry!).

We pulled into my dad's house at 8:15, said a quick hello to my Aunt Mary and Uncle Bryce that were there at my dad's, unloaded the car and headed to the airport to pick up my sister, brother in law and niece.

Saturday N8 and the kids got up and ready to head over to the Gilbert AZ Lds Temple open house! They said it was awesome! Benjamin and Emma especially loved being able to go inside a temple.

I stayed home and visited with family, made a last minute white shirt run for my dad and helped set up the church.

We all headed over to the church for the wedding. My dad got engaged in the middle of December to Joann. The wedding was was 5 weeks later. They have known each other for years. Her husband (who passed away a few years ago) and my dad were cousins and grew up together. I'm not super clear on all of the courtship, but it was obviously a whirlwind considering the timeline. 2 of my siblings and myself had never met Joann. We've now met and know that she is very nice and are happy that my dad is not alone. For me personally it is still a challenge. It was fast and in my mind my mom has not been gone very long at all. I hope that over time it will get easier.

One blessing of weddings (and funerals) are seeing family.

Henry is always the life of the party!

On Sunday afternoon we headed over to my brothers to visit. We hadn't had a chance to visit over Christmas so it was a great chance to visit. The kids had fun sticking their toes in his pool (even though it's January!! Gotta love Arizona weather!).

Benjamin woke up this morning barfing, a perfect way to start a drive home, NOT! But we made it, have laundry going and are getting put back together. I'm looking forward to staying home for a while!

1993 Time Capsyle

While I was in Phoenix at my dads house, my sister and I went through a bunch of stuff. A little cleaning up and clearing out.

One little gem we found was a Time Capsule from 1993!!

I must have made it at a mutual activity. Here's a bit of what was inside:

An all about me page

Some pretty fabulous pictures, including this one that needs a little explanation:

For a mutual activity the youth we put into groups and given a list of ward members they had to find in the mall. The ward members were dressed up so they were more difficult to find. My mom an I were a couple, this would obviously not fly these days given her cross dressing and my immodest dress! Still one of the funnest and funniest memories with my mom (I was eleven a the time!).

Me and my best friend Randi!

Me, my cat Emily, Mark & I as he was leaving on his mission, My grandparents, mutual activity, Lucy's baby blessing and my other grandparents:

Newspaper clippings of things I was "into" including: Country music (my mom took Randi and to a Reba concert!), the Phoenix Suns and Christian Slater!

A random magazine picture of 2 prom dresses I'm assuming I liked at the time:

A cassete tape I still need to listen to:

And my favorite candy: Butterfinger, bubble yum and atomic fire balls! I wonder what they would taste like now!

And a bassoon reed (I played the bassoon from 6th to 12th grade!)

So fun to look through and remember all of these things. I'm interested in what the tape will have on it!

New Years...the end

On Friday we went over to Karen's in laws (about 20 mins north of my dad's house). They have a man-made lake in their backyard and the kids tried their hand at fishing.

Benjamin caught a big carp, the only catch of the day!

Karen, JoAnn (Karen's mother in law) and I went a did a little shopping while everyone else went on a little hike/geocaching. Then we went and checked out the new Phoenix Lds Temple! It will be dedicated sometime this year!!

A busy fun filled trip! We're headed back in 2 weeks...