Happy Birthday Gracie and Ella!

Happy Birthday to my sweet, sweet girls! Well, I only actually gave birth to one , but the other is just as special to me. Here are the girls as newborns; Gracie is on the left and Ella is on the right. I can't believe we just celebrated their FOURTH birthday! But we did and we ROCKED it OUT! See below!


Marky transformed the backyard into a stage!


I made guitars out of boxes and paint stick stirers, painted them and attached rubber bands as strings. (Thank you to Aunt Mimi for helping me with that!)






Here come the rock stars!












Aunt Jessie and Little Ava


My best buddy . . .


Check out these tats!


The rock star princesses!


Grammie knows how to ROCK!


Beautiful girls . . .


And MY Nana and Papa were there to celebrate also! I was so happy they could come!


My Mama and Rich


Gorgeous Jessica


Uncle Mark and Ava, they are best buddies!


Here the kids are decorating the guitars with jewels and stickers. So much fun!





Make a wish!


Mark and I asked Kar if he wanted to paint his fingernails. At first he yelled "NO", but then I showed him pictures of guys on the internet with painted nails (like Dave Navarro and Steven Tyler) :) So he said yes after that. I thought he looked very edgy.


Ha! Ava tried on every piece of Ella's new dress up clothes! Such a ham!


All in all, it was a wonderful day. I love setting up these parties, these girls are everything to me and I want them to have the best birthday ever!

Ella Gets a Bike!

My littlest baby is about to turn four. How did this happen? It just goes by so fast! We decided to get her a bike. She's been riding her cousins' bike and loving it. My sister and I found one at Toys R Us, but they didn't have one in the back and wouldn't sell me the floor model. I then instructed my wonderful husband to go pick up the bike at another store. He got there and decided the bike I picked out was too big for my little beans so he picked out another bike - it was PERFECT! Tinkerbell and her friends, two flowers, sparkly plastic things on the handle bars - FABULOUS. Here are some picutres of the the cutest bike I've ever seen!

Lizzie turns 31 . . . blah!

I just turned 31, not too exciting if you ask me, but I'm 31 no less. I did get a special dinner with my husband! Mark and I haven't been on a date since February. Too long! He took me to Donovan's in Phoenix. My favorite type of restaurant is a steak house and Donovan's is certainly one of the best I've ever had. It was a little different inside than I expected; really old school, not what I expected (I always think everything's going to look like Scottsdale!) But what it lacked in decor,it made up in service and quality food! Better than decor! For each table there is a first waiter, a second waiter and a busboy. And the food was spectacular! We ate and ate and ate . . .and talked and talked and talked. I love my husband so much. He is truly my best friend. I love talking to him to get his opinion on my career and I love hearing his dreams and aspirations with his. I love talking about art and travel and fashion. He is so unique, I have never met another person like him. To sum it up, we had a great time. After a long and wonderful dinner, we met Mark's cousin, Arielle and her boyfriend who was in town for drinks at the Merc Bar. Merc is a favorite bar of mine - try to find it - it's hidden at the Esplinade in Phoenix. Here are our date pictures before we went out.

Miss Piper Jean

ntroducing . .

iper Jean!

Made by . . . Roberta (& John)



Isn't she lovely? It's so fabulous that my bestie had a baby! And she is the most beautiful little baby girl! Cutest little features and chunky cheeks! She is gorgeous! Congratulations Birdie and John!

Pied Piper Contest . . . Last one for awhile!

heck out the Pied Piper's Newest Contest:




She is ready to have her baby girl soon, so this will be the last contest for awhile! Have fun! Just click on the Pied Piper Button to the right of my blog to get to her blog! :)

Highland High School! HHS!

y Dad is so great with my kids, he is the best Grandpa ever! He had this fab idea to take Karsten to a high school football game, he chose the high school Karsten will eventually go to; Highland High. Thank goodness Karsten has a Grandpa who will teach him about football and stuff. He sure isn't learning it at home!

When Karsten came home, this is how I found him: tatted up! When I asked who did this to him, he said a girl! A girl! Mama is so not ready for this! :)

Early Release Day Fun

The kids had an early release day last Friday, so I picked up the muchkins, with Ava in tow and we headed out to lunch. (BTW, the food court at San Tan Mall really stinks!) We ended up at Hot Dog on a Stick. Their kids meal is pretty cute, not so healthy, but kinda cute. They got hats and tattoos, who doesn't love that with a kids meal?

And after lots of begging, I scrounged up enough change to send them on a ride! We had fun!