South Meets Southwest

Easter Week

2013-04-05T09:31:00.002-07:00

We had a very exciting and very busy Easter week. On Thursday Little Lowell hosted a little party for a few of his friends.

Everyone brought treats to share and there was way to much food, but no one seemed to mind.

We are still working on sharing, but Little Lowell did a pretty good job taking turns with his favorite toys.

After a lot of eating and playing, we all took a short walk to the park next to our house for the hunt. Lowell and another dad spread out all of the plastic eggs filled with treats for the scramble.

Little Lowell had a strong start in the hunt, but once he found out there were treats in the eggs he slowed down and just wanted to eat the candy.

After the hunt all of the kids played for a bit at the park.

On Saturday, our HOA also put together a hunt for the neighborhood children.We had to change shirts mid-hunt because LL opened his first egg and, in his attempt to eat the candy, got chocolate all over himself!

When the Easter bunny came out LL stayed very far away and wanted nothing to do with him!

Later that afternoon, we had one more party to go to. At this egg hunt, the plastic eggs were all empty and the idea was for the kids to turn in the eggs at the end of the hunt and collect their prize. Little Lowell did not really understand this concept and just went from egg to egg opening them and putting them back on the ground! He told me that he thought the Easter bunny took all of the candy.

He was a little bit braver around the Easter bunny when dad was next to him, and I think he even managed to give him a high five.

He was very happy about his prize bucket after the hunt, and the treats and prizes in there have kept him busy for days!

(Little Lowell in the back, keeping an eye on that bunny)

Taking a break and enjoying a cake pop.

After the party we packed up our bags and drove over to Tucson to spend Easter with my sister and her family. We woke up early to go to mass and then went to a beautiful brunch.

The Easter bunny at the brunch walked around with a basket of candy and once Little Lowell discovered this, he and the bunny became fast friends.

(Roy and Natalie)

(Elizabeth and Jim)

(Cousin Bryce)

(Happy Family)

(Emily, Bryce and Little Lowell digging through the candy basket)

(Trying to get LL to stand still to take a picture!)

When we got home we tried to do one more egg hunt for the boys. At this point I think LL reached his egg hunt breaking point and told me "Mama, No More Egg Hunts!" So Bryce was solo on this one, but he managed fine all on his own.

We had such a fun time with everyone and feel very blessed to have such wonderful family and friends.

Splash Pad

2013-04-03T07:28:00.001-07:00

Nursery Update

2013-04-02T10:27:00.001-07:00

We are about 16 weeks away from the arrival of our little girl! With the Easter holiday this was a very busy month, but we were still able to make quite a bit of progress on the nursery.

Lowell painted the room a very light pink, the color is from Benjamin Moore and called "Pink Cadillac."

We were very happy to use all of the furniture we saved from Little Lowell's nursery.

Right now the room is a very pink, but we hope to add some other colors in the room with the artwork, decor, curtains, and etc.

My mom and I had fun picking out the baby bedding and quilt for the room. There isn't a set theme for the room, but we are leaning towards more garden and nature decor, and lots of pink of course!

The bassinet will make its way to our room after the baby is born, but for now will be hanging out in the nursery. The bassinet has actually been used by all of my nieces and nephews (Elizabeth, Bryce, Emily) and Little Lowell.

We are hoping to add more greens and yellows into the room as well to help coordinate with the quilt.

My brother-in-law's mother sent us the most beautiful lamp shade for the room and it fits in very nicely.

Although I would have preferred a chandelier light fixture for the room, Lowell reminded me that we do live in the desert and a fan would be much more practical for the room. We were able to find a vintage looking one that Lowell added a light kit to as well.

We still have a lot of work to do in the room including adding crown molding, adding artwork, hanging drapes, and organizing the closet. Below are the decorative birdhouses Little Lowell and I painted yesterday to add to the nursery. We had fun painting them, but this morning LL was running around the house saying that the baby needed to share her birdhouses with him!

We had a very busy Easter week and I will get those pictures up shortly.

Birdhouses

2013-04-01T15:24:00.001-07:00

Little Lowell and I had fun today working on a project for the nursery. I painted a few decorative birdhouses to hang in the nursery and LL painted a few if his own.

Disney Land Trip

2013-03-21T17:25:00.001-07:00

Busy Weekend getting ready for #2

2013-03-17T20:04:00.000-07:00

This week we went to the doctor for a 22 week check-up and confirmed that we are having a girl!

Her official due date is July 20th, and although we still have quite a bit of time before she arrives we wanted to get a jump start on the nursery.

The room was a blank slate, but it started to feel like a nursery once we started moving the furniture in. Little Lowell transitioned to his "big boy" room last year so we were very happy to use his old crib and changing table set that Grandpa Lowell built.

We picked out a light pink for the wall color and plan on adding a bunch of green and yellow accents so the pink isn't so overwhelming.

Little Lowell is very excited for the baby and really wanted to help dad work on the nursery.

He is learning his letters, so even an instruction manual provides entertainment for him these days.

While those two were at work upstairs I decided to cross a few smaller projects off my list.

With as many pictures as we take, a photo gallery wall is a must! I painted over the old red matting on the frames for some brighter colors and hope to have all of these up on the wall very shortly.

While Lowell was busy painting and installing the light fixture, Little Lowell and I went shopping with Grandma and started working on a very pink wardrobe for the baby.

After a long day of work we took Little Lowell to the train park near our house for a sunset ride on the train. We love this park since it is about a five minute car ride from our house. Little Lowell and I have a yearly pass for the rides at the park so we try to go at least once a week.

We still have a ways to go, but can't wait to post pictures of our progress so far.

Happy Birthday Bryce!

2013-03-10T22:38:00.000-07:00

My favorite nephew turned three years old a couple of weeks ago and we had a great time at his party.

If you ask Little Lowell who his best friend is, he is most likely to tell you "Bryce." So need less to say this was a day that he was also looking forward to.

He had so much fun playing with his cousins and spent the majority of the day playing in the giant bounce house which was rented for the party.

Bryce, Little Lowell, and their cousin Sophia (my cousin Raquel's daughter) were all born within about 7 months of each other, so it is amazing to see how big they are getting whenever we get together.

The pinata is always a highlight for the kids at the birthday party.

(Beautiful Family)

Bryce taking a go at the pinata.

Little Lowell actually holding the bat with two hands!

Once the pinata was broken there was quite a scramble for the candy. Bryce's gathering skills were quite impressive and he quickly filled up his treat bag.

Little Lowell still needs a bit of work on his gathering skills. He picked up a handful of candy and right away requested that someone open up his lollipop!

(Bryce taking stock of his loot)

Bryce was very excited to blow out the candles on his cake, but still held onto his candy bag the whole time!

Little Lowell was ready to sing "Happy Birthday," and it only took us the entire week prior to convince him to say Bryce's name and not his own!

(Blowing out his candles)

(Dessert Table)

I helped out with the desserts and my favorite to make were the mickey mouse cookies.

Bryce got some great presents and he had a lot of help opening them.

As the party was winding down we took a walk to the park and the kids still had more energy to burn!

January Photo Dump

2013-01-27T20:22:00.000-07:00

December Photo Dump

2013-01-27T20:10:00.000-07:00

November Photo Dump

2013-01-27T19:30:00.000-07:00

October Photo Dump

2013-01-27T19:18:00.000-07:00

I apologize for not keeping up with this little blog the past couple of months. I figured since there was no way I was going to catch up with everything we have done the past couple of months I might as well still try to upload all of the photos. At the end of this month we took a short hike up "A" Mountain in Tempe, had my 10 year high school reunion, and trick-or-treating.

Halloween Decorations

2012-10-29T11:05:00.000-07:00

Almost every house in our neighborhood decorated for Halloween weeks ago. We didn't want to be the only house that was not getting into the spirit so I made a few signs.

I found the wood in the Home Depot Scrap pile for fifty cents each and I already had all of the painting supplies, so the signs cost me $1.50 to make. I got the ideas for the signs from one of my favorite kids stores and they were pretty easy to print and trace out.

I was just going to put them in front of the pillars, but Lowell convinced me they would look much better hanging up. My two handsome guys got to work and they were up before I knew it.

It is hard to tell in the picture, but they actually do show pretty well from the street. Little Lowell loves being out in front of the house and pointing out the ghost, bats and pumpkin to all of our neighbors.

Busy Month

2012-10-28T10:49:00.000-07:00

Little Lowell has been having so much fun with all of our fall activities. I bought his costume in September and we have been slowly working with him to wear it. The first day I took it out of the closet, he wouldn't go near it. After a few weeks he finally agreed to put it on once he associated it with fun and candy. Although, no amount of candy has convinced him to wear the dinosaur head hat.

He had his first Halloween party a couple weeks ago and got to take his dinosaur costume for a test drive. All of the moms at the party lined up in the back yard and the kids walked around and got to trick or treat. My little guy saw my big bowl of candy and decided he didn't need to go any further and sat down right next to me. Several of the other moms saw this and started bringing the candy to him! We like to call that Lowell's lazy trick or treating.

There was a bounce house at the party and I was surprised he could even fit through the opening with his big dino belly.

My niece Elizabeth came to visit and LL had so much fun with her. A few weeks ago it was still warm enough to take a dip in the pool.

We took them to the big bounce near our house. In case you can't tell, my husband looks like the big kid in this picture.

LL always had a great time at Jump Street, but this time was even more special because he loves to follow Elizabeth around and do everything she does.

Technically Elizabeth should have been in the over seven area, but I convinced her to come and jump with our little guy. She didn't want to admit it, but I think she had more fun in the little kid area.

(Going down the slide)

(Taking a break)

Last week we went to Mother Nature's Farm with a few friends. LL loved being able to get up close with the animals.

There was a little staging area to take a picture with the giant pumpkin. I could hardly get him to stay still and in this picture he was yelling that he wanted to go back to the chickens.

"Hello Goat"

He loved the little playhouses at the farm and we might need to start planning on building him one in the near future.

I was surprised I even got him to stay still to take this picture, but on top of that he even let out a big "Mooooooo!"

Making his way through the hay maze.

On Friday morning we went to the City of Chandler carnival. I forgot my camera, so I didn't get to take any pictures. In the afternoon we went back to the downtown for another Halloween festival.

He loved picking out yet another pumpkin from the pumpkin patch. He still isn't too good about waiting in lines so we only managed to squeeze in a few of the carnival games in. His favorite game (which didn't have a line) was the cake walk because he loved walking around in circles and dancing to the music.

The highlight of the evening was when he got to get up on stage for the Costume contest. He loved the loud music and being able to see out into the crowd.

He didn't win a prize, but he didn't seem to mind.

We still have one more Halloween party to go to tomorrow night and of course trick or treating.

Busy Weekend

2012-10-09T10:43:00.000-07:00

The weather is finally starting to cool down here and we have been enjoying our time outside.

One of LL's friends was turning two this weekend and we had a great time at her party at a park. LL is quite a handful on the playground. He always wants to get on the equipment that makes me just a bit too nervous.

His favorite part of the party was definetely the cupcakes. After he consumed the cupcake he was looking for a place to clean his hands and made pretty good use out of my skirt!

Later that afternoon, Bryce and Emily came for a visit and we all went to Schneff Farms. Don't let Bryce's face fool you; those two LOVE their wagon rides.

First stop was the train station. LL has become a little obsessed with trains and he was over the moon when the conductor yelled out "All Aboard!"

Emily sat next to Grandma and was excited to join in on the fun.

(Three good looking guys)

(Looking out the train)

(Checking out the farm)

After the train ride the two boys made a bee line toward the tractor.

LL is very excited to visit Alabama in December and ride his Grandpa's tractor.

Bryce looked like he knew what he was doing up there!

They had a great little playground and these three can never pass up a quick trip down the slide.

(Going down the slide)

(Climbing up)

(Down the dirt road)

Their favorite part was definitely the pumpkin patch.

Bryce got to work right away and started to fill up our wagon with the pumpkins. When he wasn't looking I would sneak them back into the pumpkin patch.

(Brother and sister)

(Showing dad the pumpkins)

(Emily!)

(Met his match)

(Cousins)

(My two Lowells)

After the pumpkin patch we headed over to the cookout and had hot dogs. LL ate all of his, took a bite of mine, and then went and tried to eat Bryce's! Afterwards we sat by the band and LL danced his heart out. The lead singer took a liking to LL and gave him a tamborine to jam out to.

The next morning got an early start to "A" mountain in Tempe.

This was Lowell's second trip up the mountain; he made his first trip when he was about 8 weeks old.

This time instead of being carried up the mountain he managed to walk a good part of the way.

(Looking out over Tempe)

(Top of the mountain)

Later in the evening we went over to a friend's house and they made us a wonderful dinner and dessert. We finished off the evening with LL singing "Happy Birthday" on the drive home.

Trick or Treat Sign

2012-09-06T08:34:00.000-07:00

Every couple of months I go to a Bunco party with friends. Most of us don't really care for playing for money and instead exchange small gifts as prizes. Last month the theme was "Pinterest" and everyone had to make a craft to exchange. I decided to make a knock off wooden Halloween sign. Lowell cut and sanded a wood board that was about 16"x 10".

I primed it and then painted it a bright Orange.

I stenciled in the letters using the tip of a ball point pen. I started with black as the first color to fill in.

Last I added white as a border around the letters and for the candy decoration. Lowell also added some hardware on the back for hanging purposes. I went home with a very cute craft from the party, but I was still a little sad to have to part with my Halloween sign. I am pretty sure one is going to pop up around our house as it gets closer to October.

Linked to Fall Pinterest Party: Bower Power, Young House Love, Our Fifth House, and Ugly Duckling House.

Surf Wall Completed

2012-08-30T09:15:00.000-07:00

I started working on this knock off surf art project back in March, and although I loved how it turned out I felt that it needed a few more pieces to really complete the look. I then made a huge surfboard sign and a few other pieces. Once summer hit, between moving and vacation, this project hit the back burner. Little Lowell's room was one of the first we got set up at the new house, and I quickly realized that he was going to need additional art pieces to fill out the beach wall.

This turtle piece was by far the easiest and my favorite, because it reminded me of our trip to Hawaii where we swam with the turtles every morning.

This highway sign was Lowell's favorite, and he is already requesting a larger version for his garage.

I wasn't too sure about this beach scene, but Little Lowell approved and quickly recognized the beach and started to sing "Let's go to the beach, Let's go to the beach."

After figuring out a good layout, Lowell hung them up in Little Lowell's room. Although it was time consuming, I couldn't be happier with the way this project turned out.

Cost wise it was probably about $10 for the paint and $25 for the wood.

This is definitely my favorite corner in the house. In the morning we love to hear Little Lowell on the baby monitor saying "Good Morning Turtle, Good Morning Crab, Good Morning Fishy" and so on.

Emily Mitchell Photography

2012-08-22T14:40:00.002-07:00

A few weeks ago we had Little Lowell's two year old pictures taken by Emily Mitchell Photography. Emily did a fantastic job and couldn't be happier with the photos.

She really captured Little Lowell's spirit and personality and actually managed to get a few shots with him sitting still!

We went down to Tempe Town Lake to take the pictures and Little Lowell loved running around the park and checking out the lake.

If you are looking for a photographer in the Phoenix metro area I would definitely recommend Emily Mitchell Photography. Emily was great with our little guy and also does maternity, newborn, family, and senior portraits.

You can check out more of her fantastic work on her website.

DIY Playhouse Makeover

2012-08-20T09:25:00.002-07:00

My mom bought a used playhouse and it was in major need of a little TLC. So I picked out a few spray paint colors at Lowe's and went to work. It took about six cans of spray paint (three white and one of brown, red, and green) to get two good coats on.

The roof came off the playhouse very easily. The doors and windows were a little more of a challenge to paint, but just took some patience and a lot of tape and newspaper.

The playhouse went from a major eyesore to a very cute addition to the courtyard. Little Lowell loves playing in it, but to be honest he didn't really seem to notice that it got a new paint job.

Now we just need for the weather to get back below one hundred degrees so we can spend some more time outside.

Linked to Fall Pinterest Party: Bower Power, Young House Love, Our Fifth House, and Ugly Duckling House.

Birthday Palooza

2012-08-01T07:12:00.000-07:00

After we got back from California we kicked it into high gear for Little Lowell's 2nd birthday. His favorite music group, The Wiggles, were going to be in town the day before his birthday so we decided to start the celebration a day early.

He was mesmerized the entire performance and even started dancing during a couple of the songs.

Lowell made a wooden bone for LL to give to Wags one of the characters in the show. He was very excited when he got to hand it over.

Lowell had quite the entourage between us and his two grandmas and cousins who also enjoyed the show.

The little ones had a blast and we felt like we were at a rock concert for toddlers. My favorite moment was when grandma was trying to get a picture with the three little ones. As you can see they could all work on their poses.

Bryce and LL were holding hands on their way out and I just had to snap a picture. I am sure that they are going to be quite embarrassed by this picture in a decade or so.

The next day we went out to dinner to celebrate his birthday and I forgot to take my camera. LL had his favorite dinner of chicken strips and broccoli. Afterwards the waiter brought LL out a huge birthday cookie with ice cream and a candle on top. He had the biggest smile as we all sang "Happy Birthday" to him. We had to order more desserts for the table because the birthday boy did not want to share his cookie.

A couple days later my niece Elizabeth came to visit and helped me get ready for the birthday party.

We had fun putting up all of the decorations and actually just used a bunch of LL's toys as centerpieces since we were having a Disney Cars Birthday.

I saw a cute photo idea on Pinterest and used a bunch of picture of Little Lowell from the last year to make a giant number two. I used two rolls of red dollar wrapping paper to save the walls from the double sided tape I used for the pictures. I loved this party addition so much, but was a little sad when I had to take this decoration down!

He had a great time once all of his friends arrived to celebrate with him.

Lowell used his new charcoal grill and grilled hot dogs and sliders for everyone. He also made macaroni,bacon baked beans and grilled corn, so needless to say no one went home hungry.

It was a little overcast but the weather held up for the kids to get some pool time.

(Grandma Erin keeping an eye on LL)

(Elizabeth at the coloring station)

I was planning on making cupcakes, but my mom made my day a little easier and ordered a cake for the party.

As soon as I lit the candle and the singing began his face lit up.

He really enjoyed the cake and did not let much go to waste.

After the cake it was time for everyone to take a whack at the pinata.

(Bryce going after the pinata)

Everyone walked away with a big bag of candy

We then brought out Grandma's present and Little Lowell was very excited and jumped right into the car.

(Bryce and Uncle Jim)

After the party it was time to open the presents.

For the first few presents LL actually got into unwrapping the gifts, but after he saw a toy he wanted he was ready to start playing.

Dad seemed just as pleased as Little Lowell by all of the new toys.

Our little guy had a great day and thank you to everyone who came out to share this special day with us.

Summer San Diego Trip

2012-07-27T09:10:00.001-07:00

As most of you know, we were in San Diego part of last week and weekend. 2012 has seen lots of changes for us, and we had a wonderful opportunity to get away. Thanks to Lilia for putting the trip together. We stayed at the Coronado hotel and had an amazing time on the beach. Little Lowell was convinced the hotel was his new house (ha!)

Sedona Day Trip

2012-05-24T08:18:00.000-07:00

It is already over 100 degrees here in Chandler so we decided to escape the heat and take a day trip to Sedona. We got to Sedona and had an early lunch at Oak Creek Brewery. While we waited to be seated Little Lowell found a spot where he could look over the ledge and wave to people and yell out, "Hello people!"

He was very well behaved at lunch and enjoyed some lemons while dad enjoyed a beer sampler. We walked around the little village that had a fountain at every turn. Little Lowell loved to explore and walk around every fountain. Someone managed to wipe out my stash of change in no time at all.

After lunch we went over to Slide Rock State Park which was originally a private farm with an apple orchard. The main attraction of the park is on the creek where the slippery creek bed creates a natural water slide. Little Lowell was able to slide down a few of the toddler sized slides with dad's help.

This park is perfect for toddlers and has numerous creek beds for them to explore. Little Lowell's favorite activity was to fill up his bucket with rocks and then dump the rocks back into the creek.

There was a small bridge over the creek which he insisted on crossing again and again.

The water was a bit chilly and when it got to cold we jumped out and warmed up in the sun. It usually wasn't too long before Little Lowell was ready to jump back in.

We spotted a few small fish in the creek bed and the rest of the time we were in the water Little Lowell was insisting that he was stepping on the fish.

Little Lowell was very brave and most of the time he refused to hold our hand in the water, but he did relent on the more slippery parts of the creek bed.

The park also offers amazing views of the red mountains. Little Lowell would point up and say "Mountains all around!"

We spent a few hours at the park before it was time to go, but Little Lowell would have been happy to spend the entire day.

On either side of the creek there were several spots for Little Lowell to test out his climbing abilities.

After having fun in the creek we explored the apple orchard.

More amazing views

The last thing we did before heading back was to stop for ice cream. Little Lowell enjoyed his treat and would wave to the people walking by.

He was so exhausted that he took a nap the entire ride home. The next morning he was still talking about the mountains and the fish!

More Surf Art

2012-04-24T11:30:00.000-07:00

Lowell was cleaning out our garage a few weeks ago and he found a bunch of scrap wood pieces. I decided to use all of these extra pieces to make a few more knock off surf pieces for Little Lowell's room. Lowell painted all of the base colors on the pieces and I went to work adding the art and letters.

I didn't stop to take pictures until I was already finishing up the third piece, but here is the post on how we made the first set of knock off surf art pieces.

The "Surfboards" sign is huge and is about 7" x 41". This simple piece is definitely my favorite one so far.

We had a spare wooden surfboard left over from the surfboard letter project so I painted a surfboard and added the number 4 for my little guy, Lowell IV.

Although it isn't really part of the surf theme, I loved this little anchor and will try to find somewhere to add it.

I am going to add a few more pieces before we get all of these up on the wall. We figured it was better to wait so we can figure out where to hang all them instead of having to move them around every time I finish another one.

Veggie Garden Update 2

2012-04-17T12:50:00.002-07:00

The vegetable garden continues to grow rapidly. The bellpeppers are beginning to have small little fruits that need to grow. There are tiny tomatoes on all four plants. I am still waiting to make that salad.

Better After Feature

2012-04-11T10:48:00.000-07:00

I am so excited to have our living room makeover feautured today at one of my favorite DIY blogs Better After which is run by Lindsey who is also a fellow Arizonan.

So head on over to check out our living room transformation!

Decorating Easter Eggs

2012-04-11T06:04:00.000-07:00

Last year when we decorated Easter eggs, Little Lowell was about 9 months old and he was content to sit back in his high chair and watch us do all of the work. It is amazing how much things can change in a year!

This year he jumped up into his learning tower and was ready to help out. He wanted to throw the eggs into the cups of egg dye, so dad how to help him gently put each egg into the cups.

The hardest part for him was having to wait for each egg to come out.

After the eggs were dry we let him hold his finished project under close supervision. This was quite a promotion from last year when he was only allowed to hold the plastic eggs.