Random Dozen - Easter

I saw this on a friends blog. She gets these random 12 questions from somewhere every week and posts them with her answers. I've had a hard time posting on the ol blog lately due to random depression and some computer issues so I thought I'd give this a try. Plus who doesn't like a good q & A session. So for the two ladies who read my blog (love ya girls) here ya go - Easter edition Random Dozen :)

1. How do you feel about the marshmallow Easter Peeps?

I have a a general dislike of the Peep in general. Yet every year I buy a box and eat one just to make sure the sicking sweet gritty still taste awful, and they do.

2. Chickens are notoriously nervous creatures. When you are nervous, what is the best way to calm down?

I get nervous when we drive on freeways due to a terrifying accident we were in involving a big rig in 2004. The best way to calm myself down involves lots of deep breaths and some visualizations of us at our destination. My husband helps me tons too, he can talk me though anything.
 
3. People say, "April showers bring May flowers." Do you enjoy Spring rains?

I adore the rain. Coming from the San Francisco Bay Area I am use to days of rainy weather at a time. So I miss it terribly here in the desert!

4. When I was randomly flipping through TV channels this week, I saw a show in which tattoo parlor employees received tattoos of a co-worker's face on their bodies. I can't imagine having a portrait of a colleague tattooed on me. But if someone forced you to receive a portrait tattoo (face only) of anyone, who would it be? Why?

My son Caden. No matter what happens in this world he will always be my baby :)

5. Would you rather have a tattoo (any kind) or a nose ring?
Oh tattoo hands down. Who wants the constant sensation of something stuck in your nose?

6. Do you have any special plans for Easter?

Going to dye eggs and hang out with some friends who will be visiting from Utah. We will eat lots of chocolate and watch General Conference. Throw in some scrappy goodness and it's sounding like a great weekend!

7. Cadbury Eggs or Reese Eggs?

Reese Anything!!!!!!!!!!

8. What was the last thing/person you took a picture of?

My son after he climbed into the cat tree, lol. He just looked at me like "hello put that thing down and get me out of here lady!"

9. What book are you reading now, or what was the last one?

I just finished The Actor and the Housewife and now I'm reading The Thirteenth Tale.

10. What do you think is the most difficult task when it comes to Spring cleaning?

Drapes. Ugh how I hate taking them down and beating them. Seriously considering just vacuuming them this year. Whoever thought sueded drapes were a good idea should be drawn and quartered!
 
11. How many pairs of flip-flops do you own?

3. One black, one brown and one white.

12. Which color makes you happiest?

Yellow daises, Blue ocean and green grass all make me very happy!

Hope you all have a Happy Easter weekend. Remember it's about more then the chocolate bunnies :)

March 12 of 12 - Obsession Addition

I thought that this month I would do our 12 of 12 on our current obsessions. So I documented the things or places that we just can't get enough of lately :)

I am a huge scent person. I love to smell yummy things and once hooked I usually can't ever find the item again or the product is discontinued. So when I first sniffed this Bath and Body Works hand soap Nectarine Mint I was addicted immediately. I bought 10 bottles! I totally smell my hands after each time I wash them :)
 

Caden is completely obsessed with crawling through and under things so our friend Lisa gave whim this tube to crawl in and he is hooked. Thank goodness cause it's so much better for mommy then crawling under tables and in cupboards
. 

Brownies - nuf said :)

Caden and I go to the local library every Thursday morning and meet some friends for the free story time hour, some library goodies and some park time (love you ladies!) I have become obsessed with trying new recipes since I'm home now and we are on a really fixed income, so I have been checking out cookbooks. I have had so much fun looking through  them and have found some great recipes. They also have a fantastic kids cookbook section. I checked this one out and had so much fun looking at all the recipes that are made right from Dr. Seuss books.

We are also obsessed in this house with free movies! We check out 10 a week and have a blast watching them together almost every night. I get Caden a ton of kids shows too. Oh and they have tv series too, free, awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Scrapping - I'm obsessed with this hobby every month of the year. It totally relaxes me and usually involves some fantastic girlfriends :) I had just finished this layout. LOVE IT!!!!!!!

I am a cinnamon fanatic. We found these bad boys on a trip to Utah last year and I bought 4 boxes. I horded them and hardly shared more than 5 candies. On our shopping trip that morning I saw them at Fry's. I think I actually squealed, lol.

As I said earlier I'm a huge scent person. So it makes perfect sense that I adore Scentsy products. I have hosted one party and been to two others in the last month and I know own 15 different scents. I have 4 warmers and a totally would burn  a different scent in each one if we had a bigger house. I was totally addicted to the Poinsettia Pine this day. Currently I'm hooked on Coconut Lemongrass - yummy!!!!!!

Ok way back in the day (which was a Wednesday if you're curious) in high school times DJ worked at a Sonic. I got hooked on the cherry limeade drinks and would have one at least 3-4 times a week. About a month ago I found out from a friend that Walmart sold a cherry limeade sugar free drink mix. I ran out grabbed some and a Sprite Zero, went home dumped a  tub of the mix into the 2 liter and served over ice. Totally obsessed, and now always have one in the fridge :)

I love to bake and cook. I can get easily obsessed with a recipe and work to get it perfect. This usually drives my family nuts cause they have to ea it over and over again. This month my family did not complain as I attempted to perfect cake doughnuts. 3 batches and I think I got it right. Warm homemade doughnuts = good nights!

We go to the duck pound several times a week and walk around in the beautiful weather before it gets to hot here is a few weeks. Caden will sit and talk to the ducks for hours if I let him. We sing the quack quack waddle waddle song and feed then bread. It's a great time.

Ok here is my self portrait for the obsession edition. My husband has always been a huge gamer (within reason - he has never missed a family event to play or anything like that) and I decided that I would learn about his game so we could share some time together do things he likes too. And in fairness he did try to scrap with me one night - turns out I don't share my toys well. So I learned about the game, and then found that I had lots of fun and found myself playing occasionally without DJ. Over the last 4 years I have become totally enamored with the intricacies of the game and adore the joy it brings to DJ that I share the time with him.

Gigity - That's all I have to say

Our Wednesday Ritual

So since I have been home with the baby it has become our Wednesday ritual to go to the local animal park after nap time. We have a great time walking around and looking at all the animals, feeding the ducks and strolling through the aquariums. It's extra fun when nana can meet us for the day. This trip I thought it would be great to pack the camera and take a picture of everything Caden paused to look at or got excited over so I could show the day through his eyes, sorta. 

The first stop is usually to the meerkats. He loves to point and giggle and these cute little guys as they dig and fidget.

 

After the meerkats we go to the walk thru aviary where Caden can get up close and personal with the birds. This day these two guys were following us around. I think they had figured out stroller = dropped treats, lol.

 

They were very pretty though. I loved the bright blue!

 

Next we move on to the Giraffes. We take Caden uo to the feeding station and he loves to see their long tounges. This day they were not so interested in us and stayed out in the pasture eating :)

 

From there we mosey over to the Singing Dogs. This one took an interest in Caden. They sat staring at each other. Caden babbled to him and the dog would just cock his head to the side and listen. When we went to leave the little guy was Caden the whole time, until he turned the corner.

 

From here he points to the Llamas, so we're off to see them. We always ask them if their mama's a llama? Then Caden looks at me and I say why of course your mama's a llama and he belly laughs. Makes me smile!

We turned around to see this guy stalking us, lol. He was snapping at us through the fence and followed Caden all the way down to the end. I was talking to him the whole time but he was only interested in the stroller. 

When we turned the corner we were face to face with these guys. Caden kept pointing at them and babbling. We think he was pointing out that they were eating out of a bowl.

Just across the way is the baby nursery so we took him in there to oh and aw over the little ones. There were baby deer and ocelots. There were baby land tortoises. But at the end exhibit there was a baby wallaby in this adorable makeshift pouch. We all loved this little one. So cute :)

So this made us want to walk over to the Kangaroo walk about. We saw this albino wallaby who looked like he had not ever missed a meal! The sign by him states that albino animals hardly every live more then a few years because they can't blend into their natural environments and predators can find them easily. So this little (hahaha) guy was saved by the zoo, awwww. And because this is a family friendly blog he has been given a modesty dot :)

As we walked through the exhibit we noticed a lot of mama kangaroos with full pouches. I think we counted 3 babies on board. They crack me up laying out propped up on an elbow just chilling. Caden was talking away to these ladies. They would look over at him and then just close their eyes in the warm sun all cozy and happy. Love it!

From there nana spotted the train and we had to get on cause my little guy LOVES trains. He had a great time and to our surprise he actually looked at all the animals as we went by. He would point to each once and look at us for an explanation. The train has a loud speaker system so the conductor can explain what we are looking at as we go by. Caden would look at the speaker and talk back, lol.

This mama was standing guard over her baby who was only 2 days old. So cute :)

Couldn't help it, had to post this one. Proof he has a top tooth. He's growing up WAY too fast.

After we made our way through the zoo it was time for Caden's favorite part of the park, the aquarium. He loves it for all the things he can see eye level, all the things he can touch and of course cause he can get out of the stroller and walk! 

Nana is so patient with him. They are buddies foe sure. This tank has huge lobsters and I swear Caden licked his lips, lol. He always stops at this one and just stares at the spiny guys walking around.

More proof that he is all boy. Every single tank that holds a snake, frog or anything slimy he stops and watches. These guys are poisonous dart frogs. They remind me of those plastic toys you push down and they pop up in the air really high. They would be just sitting there and then all of a sudden hop to another rock, made Caden crack up.

I can't help it but every time we stop at the penguins I recite lines from Madagascar. These guys had just been fed and were getting ready to go for a swim. They feed them twice a day 10am and 4pm, so cool to watch. 

Walking like such a big boy:)

Much to nana's dismay Caden really likes the eels. Nana hates snakes or anything that resembles a snake.So she stops for him to look and pretends to not care, but I can see her skin crawling, lol.

I love this fish! Have no idea what he is but he has blue stripped teeth! How cool is that? I will hold Caden up to see the tank and this fish swims right to the front of the tank and will watch us walk back and forth. I wonder if they have as much fun looking at us as we do looking at them?

Sting rays! You can pet these guys and for a small fee they'll give you some food and you can feed them. I love these guys too. Caden likes to look at them but when one gets close his grip gets very tight. He never squirms or cries but you can tell he's not sure how he feels about them.

This guy is hardly ever down in the water so this is the first time Caden has seen him. He was very active and swimming around. Caden stopped and looked but refused to get too close. I think this park has 5 different species of albino creatures.

Caden was not very interested in these little guys, but I love otters so I stoppped and watched them for a while. These little ones had just arrived at the zoo 30 minutes prior to this photo. They are Asian otters and will be one of the main features of the new aquarium building that will open in December this year. There are three otters and they are super cute, go check them out!  The park is open 365 days a year. The zoo is open 10-5 and the aquarium stays open until 10pm! We go a ton during the summer at night cause it's air conditioned and Caden can run like mad all he wants. Great family fun.