amanda's senior photo shoot (agian, and not the last)

we have lots of fun taking a few pictures every now and then. our next adventure old town (hopefully no grouchy ladies tell us we can't sit in the flowers)







i'm so excited friday we're leaving for colorado (finally!!!) until wednesday. hopefully not thursday because i scheduled elijah's teachers visit in the morning. then friday i have a wedding and the crazy august wedding month begins. i'm also getting ready to start taking fall/winter/christmas pictures (i know, already right?!) but i want to get as many in before the weather and life gets too crazy. so if you're interested in pics, send me an email and i'll give you all the info. i probably won't post again until next week (can't wait for the much needed family vacation)

this one's for dad...just in case you forgot what your kids looked like

we had tons of fun at the gardens and seeing the butterflies. it's the first time this year i've taken the kids to the butterfly pavillion. i think we'll go back tomorrow. only we're going to take pictures with amanda!!! yeepie! and for all your viewing pleasure....

my kids are soo cuTe!











here's elijah telling me "mom take a picture or me turned off" he likes to pretend like he's eve and wall-e. i love that movie!!!



well i think i have another stinky diaper to change, a couple baths to give, and a movie for ME to watch (since mario wouldn't watch it with me, now he's out of town so he has no say.) by the way...we love you dad and miss you.

one more for tonight.

so i've been kind of intemidated by engagement pictures. i mean i'm good with the kids, i'm confortable with kids. but i wasn't nervous for this one, it was my brother! and i just had fun and i love the pictures. he's getting married next month. i'm so excited, i think we're all so excited. i don't know why.
maybe because
1. i get to buy a new outfit
2. i get to get my kids new outfits
3. we get to spend a fun weekend in arizona and the swimming pool
4. it's the last rasband sibling getting married
or probably
5. because katrina is soooo rockin' awesome!!! seriously she's beautiful but so real and natural and fun and they are so cute (but not the kind that makes you sick cute) together!!!


(click on the pictures to make them bigger, trust me they just look better bigger)

LinDSeY!

I can't believe how much fun it was to hang out with lindsey and 9 or 10? of her closest friends. she's turning 12 very soon and we thought it would be way fun to take some totally crazy and bright pictures. and it was fun fUN FuN(ky). i love this girl!!!! and all these girls they were just beautiful and silly. here's just a taste.

my sister's photo shoot

i've been meaning to post these pictures since tuesday, but it's been a busy week.

last monday i met up with my sister and some of her best friends. one is moving away soon so they wanted some pictures before she left. i was totally nervous. for one there was my sister who knows what she likes when it comes to photos and two because the fabolous briana was there and she takes amazing pictures. i didn't want to leave them wishing they would of asked some one else. but it was fun, and i think they liked most of the pictures. funny thing though i had my nieces tween photo shoot scheduled for thursday (there wasn't too much of a difference except the older girls had higher heels!)

camping in the backyard (and my mom's flowers)

my husband's getting impatient and wants to play guitar hero so i can't type too much. elijah loves to pretend to camp outside so i set so tents up for him...that's pretty much the story (all of the pictures of elijah were too blury:(.



i'm so lucky i get to go to my moms house often (very often) and enjoy all the hard work she does in her yard. she has beautiful flowers and beautiful grass and you should see the garden this year!!!

our garden

i never imagined growing our own food would be so fun and amazing. it's awesome to see the kids so excited everyday to see the tomatoes getting bigger and redder. everyday elijah shows me the garden and ashleigh picks weeds everytime we're outside. the best thing though, they want to try more vegetables!!! they took bites out of chiles, ashleigh tried to eat a bell pepper like an apple and elijah ate little carrots out of my moms garden. we're already making plans to add to our garden next year!

i made it myself!

just some proof that i do have a sewing machine and i actually know how to use it (a little). i had fun, the fabric is fun, and there's a cute little flower on the front but i didn't get a close up of it. i have more really cute fabric i thought about making a dress with but i originally bought it to make a purse and i almost cut it up to make a dress, but i still really want a purse (anyone have any cute patterns or ideas) i was thinking something gathered...

the bushman's

so i'm not saying where or when i took these pictures. but it was short and sweet.

our 4th of july

here's ashleigh after i told her she didn't need to take a bath because she already took on plus she was ready for bed...but what do i know? so she got in anyways. of course i was upset at first, but then i figured what's the big deal, it's just water. so my next thought was to grab the camera!


our sparkler experience. these are the only pictures i took because soon after elijah tried to pick up a little piece that was still hot and burned his fingers. luckily grandma pat was there and quickly put mustard on the burns. that's right - mustard! it worked elijah calmed down but didn't want to see anymore fireworks. so he stayed inside and played wii, then ashleigh didn't want to be outside so i got to spend most of the evening inside while everyone else spent 2 hours shooting off all the fireworks. the kids did go back out a little later. it wasn't a total bust.

the flicklin's v2.0

i had so much fun this morning taking pictures! that's right - this morning - and i've already got pictures done. i was too excited to wait to look through them. the older boy is turning 4 in a few days and the baby just turned 1. i loved the relaxed totally not posed session. the boys loved the camera and were great sports. can't wait to do it again!!!

happy birthday daddy!!!

yesterday was mario's birthday. i didn't post yesterday because i knew we had some fun things planned to do that evening. i'll just get right to the pictures.

so really i tried to go through these and not post so many, but there were so many i wanted to share. i love taking the kids to do things they've never done before. and minature golf is perfect and fun. i knew they'd be excited, but they were way more excited then i ever expected. elijah keeps asking me when we're going to play again. and play again we will soon. we bought 2 tickets with three games each (we only played one) and we can go back anytime to use the other games + we got 80 tokens for $10.00. they have an online coupon for tokens. check it out. putt putt


first - here's ashleigh on the way to play. i guess you always have to be prepared to go swimming. lately my kids won't go anywhere without their floaties. it's kind of cute. but annoying when i have to carry ashleigh, my stuff, and her floatie!
















elijah and asleigh spent a lot of time telling us what to do. elijah had to always tell and show us where the whole was (sometimes they tried to hide it behind the blocks and obstacles and stuff) and ashleigh just likes to tell everyone what to do.



ashleigh also thought every time there was a block or something big enough for her to stand on, she had to stand on it. but she's so cute!










how you know that it's time to be done playing putt putt...



so we went inside for some video games, skeeball, basketball, deal or no deal, and those spin games where you just try to land on the jackpot (that we did twice winning 250 tickets each time!!!) oh yeah! and dance dance revolution!!!






we had fun, the kids had way too much fun. (now this morning they are grumpy) but i can't wait to do it again. and mario had a great birthday. i'll do a post about what i got him later (after i take some pictures)
also he's having his birthday bbq on friday (he thinks his birthday is all week long) but we love him and had so much fun celebrating with him.

i have the best friends.

even though i haven't seen some of them in over 6 years!!!

but i feel like i talk to them almost everyday (or at least once a week) since i read their blogs. well one of my byu friends is pregnant and a few weeks ago she had us guess the gender of her soon to be baby. i guessed right! and she sent me (my kids) a gift!!!

elijah saw it in the mail box, knew it had to be for him. he brought it inside and tore off the wrapper pulled out what was in the box and immediately they were coloring and admiring all their crayons. we also took them to church on sunday. let me tell you kelsey is so smart she sent two!!! you're going to be a great mom, you already know the "everyone has to have their own that's the same" rule.




by the way not only is she so crafty, but she's hilarious. i love reading her blog and then showing my husband the things she says and the people she runs into in her day. i always thought it was so amazing that of all the people at byu while i was there i had the 3 coolest girls in my ward and on my floor. i was so lucky (i think part of it was inspiration) that i got to meet these three. i love you guys rachel, kelsey and jacki!!!

our garden

we picked some green chile from our garden last week. elijah and ashleigh were really excited about it, then dad convinced them to try it...










elijah thought his chile was really hot..

and here's dad confirming that yes, he did pick the really hot chile.






i love my backyard right now, even though it's very small. we are having a lot of success with our garden and my flowers. did you see that massive tomato plant taking over the corner!!! we think next year we might try to make our garden bigger some how. right now we're growing lettuce (that some animals or bugs are eating) we have 1 cucumber plant and it has a ton of flowers on it, 2 bell pepper plants (elijah calls them dr. peppers, i wish!!!), 2 green chile plants, and 3 tomato plants. we want strawberries next year and i would love a fruit tree. (really if you saw my backyard you'd laugh at all the stuff we try to put back there)