Another One Bites the Dust!

Well, for those of you who are wondering, "exactly how many siblings of marrying age does Rob have?"....well none left that are single! (Sorry Ladies!) Jesse and Hannah got married last weekend and what a great love story they have! Jesse fell for Hannah's beauty when they were at Summer Camp their early High School years! They dated for a coupple years in High School, broke up....(meanwhile Hannah NEVER could get over him) got back together a few months ago...the rest is history!

Funnily enough Hannah was AT our wedding and she and her sister even decorated the front porch of the cabin with toole....those were the days!

So happy for them. Rob was a groomsmen, I was a bridesmaid, Robbie was a ring bearer--Margaret watched Elise during the wedding! She really does help raise our children. Everything went really well even though Robbie refused to carry the pillow. Hannah was so excited and happy she didn't even notice!

Unfortunately I was too moronic to take a picture of the happy couple together, or even....with us. Oh well. We know where they live.

She wears high heels, I wear sneakers...

Robbie decided to try on Aunt Margaret's new shoes. Kind-of cute, kind-of wierd...hmmmm. Anyway, now it's recorded forever and you all can stare and laugh! My kid keeps us guessing! Today he decided to wear his snowboots to swim lessons, and he got plenty of stares and giggles...he has a strange obsession with footwear!

Peaches

Well, Robbie is taking swim lessons this week and next with the city of Surprise. Somehow it seems impossible to get up, get breakfast, and get there....by 9:40, which is a bit pathetic. Yesterday I really wanted to clean up the kitchen and unload the dishwasher before we left so that i didn't have a panic attack when I came home to a disaster after swim lessons and several errands in 115 degrees.

So I tried something new--I plopped Elise in her bumbo and gave her a peach. She loved it, didn't choke and die, and it kept her happy and safe from Robbie while I tried to get stuff done. YAY. She is finally starting to eat some table food. Some nights I even blend up our dinner for her to eat. Now...to get her off the expensive formula!

Mother of the Year

Well, the other day after a llloooonnnng week without Rob I was carelessly shuffling groceries into the house in the 113 degree weather. Grabbing the last bag with my pinkie, I slammed the car door with my hip and started heading to the house. Robbie started screaming his head off and I assumed he had wanted to shut the door himself (and if you're wondering, yes-- him wanting to shut the door could cause a fit of this magnitude.) But, as I slowly looked around I saw that his little hand was shut into the backside of the door. Lovely. I burst into tears, dropped all of my groceries and got his poor hand out.

I rushed him into the house and got a bowl of ice water for him to put his hand in. I asked him after a couple of minutes, "would some chocolate pudding make you feel better?" He replied, "No but chocolate milk will". One chocolate milk, coming right up!

Attached is a pic of him with Batman tatoo bandaids on every finger.

Thankfully my little man was very forgiving.

Exercise

Well, Rob had to preach this weekend as he does every summer and it pretty much brings our house to a screeching stop. No noise. No fun. No activity or talking. Just studying. The. Whole. Weekend. For two weekends no less. BUT, in the end he does a great job and God really speaks through him. All that is background information for the purpose of this post. Last night while I was looking for something soundless to fill my night, I opened up my laptop and stumbled upon this: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking Once you look at this glorious website, you will understand why I spent the next four hours reading through her entire blog and salivating. I heart cooking, even more than that I LOVE eating...so does Rob and Robbie and so far Elise can hang too. I plan to make almost everything on her entire website because it all looks droolingly delicious.

For example, this:
http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/recipes/desserts/pineapple-zucchini-sheet-cake-with-cream-cheese-frosting/ Which I promptly went to the store after church today to buy the ingredients for, and Rob and I have eaten half of so far.

Which brings me to my point. EXERCISE. Exer.Cise. Whatever---I exercise for the sheer purposes of: 1. fitting into jeans (not a bikini, just jeans. I like to set my goals at an attainable level) and 2. eating. I love to eat. The purpose of exercise to me is to allow me to eat more than carrots and hummus on any given day. (Being a healthy person is just an after thought for me. I'm shallow. So sue me.)

All of this makes me sometimes want to do my own cooking blog. I don't follow recipes though (unless I'm baking, which I rarely do) which would make it very difficult to try to teach someone else how to do. So anyway, all that rambling to let you all know (if there are any "all" out there reading this) that I will be going to the gym tomorrow. To work off the cake that I have eaten today.

Phoenix to North Carolina to Tennessee and Back

My cousin Chris is seriously "The Baby Whisperer"

Surprise party for Aunt Shirley and Uncle Glen's Anniversary.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree

The hurrican wind simulator at the Children's Museum in Charlotte

We had a family reunion for my dad's side of the family in TN last week, and celebrated my dad's aunt and uncle's 60th wedding anniversary. Which is such an awesome thing to celebrate, people can't seem to make it to five years these days, YAY Aunt Shirley and Uncle Glenn!! I so love and respect that couple. When my dad's mom died of cancer when he was young they helped raise him and his three siblings. They seem to always "take in strays" and are very loving and generous. I waant to be like them when I grow up. It's so awesome to see all of my dad's family and get caught up a little bit. I'm not gonna lie, it was especially fun to see Uncle Chuck, Aunt Michelle, Chris and Courtney. They are my favorites and were so great with the kids. They fought over who held Elise, and rolled around on the ground playing with Robbie and Toby and Jacob. We had a blast.

On the way there, our flight was delayed causing us to miss our connection in Minneapolis.....sooo Delta put us on a different flight through Atlanta and UPGRADED US TO FIRST CLASS FOR FREE! You hear stories of stuff like that happening...itjust never happens to you, right? Yah well, for once, it happened to us! Although I will admit it spoils you a bit to know what you're missing up there in first class. That was officially my first trip ever in first class (and possibly the last! ha~)

Turns out Elise doesn't like flying. She was pretty whiny and fussy, but Robbie was a champ. We stayed two nights in Charlotte, NC and spent the day downtown Charlotte Wednesday. Thursday we drove the 3 1/2 hours to TN and spent the rest of the weekend with family. We had SO much fun, Robbie loved every second of it because at any given moment there was someone there to play with and/or entertain him! Thanks to Jim and Terri for letting us all stay at your adorable house!

On the way home, no free upgrade to first class unfortunately! But we were all able to sit in the same row, so that's nice too. My poor sister got stuck in Johnson City, TN at the airport for 6 hours and then had to go back to our cousins because they couldn't even get her on a flight that day because of bad weather. So, sorry for her--but thankfully for the four of us, that didn't happen.

I love all of you Ater's!! Thanks for planning the reunion, and for having us! I'm going to try to post the pics in a slideshow this time because it takes FOREVER to load a bunch of pics on here, so hopefully you can see all of them. There's a couple great ones of Elise. (didn't work, can't figure out the slideshow...so I've been uploading pics for an hour!)

The Laizure's are Home!

Well, after our many traveling adventures, we are BACK! I have had so much fun this summer....but I am SO glad to be home, in my own bed, with my kids in their own beds! Our Summer Extravaganza 2009 included our awesome trip to Atlantis, Paradise Island, two separate trips to Lake Powell (equalling 9 nights there), a short weekend trip to my mom's in Flagstaff, and a visit to Charlotte, NC and on to TN for my family reunion. Our children did amazing with all of the traveling, but they are happy to be home too.

Robbie's quote of the trip to TN: "I have a bigger waterslide in the 'Hamas". AND "Mom, Jen just punched me right in the face!" (Jen is his imaginary friend who is apparently abusive)

Elise now has TWO bottom teeth and is working on sprouting more down there now!

Rob is headed to Detroit MI for a week beginning Thursday and then his brother Jesse is getting married n ext Friday!! So, we are "home" but the chaos never ends around here.

Coming soon---pics and specifics on the Family Reunion in TN.