city lovin

this was a much needed day spent playing in phoenix.  we didnt have a plan really, we all just met up with our bikes and took it from there.  we ended up in some really cool old neighborhoods,  a park playing frisbee, another park with live music, a street filled with grass and some bean bag tossing, a scary neighborhood, an old van, the duce, my big fat greek restaurant, and a hotel elevator that felt like the dungeon drop at six flags.  i love playing with our tempe friends.  these 2 guys are a part of our tempe clan that we hold near and dear to our <3.  aren't they cute?! 

                                                           

  if only we could squeeze in more days like this !

Trader Joes Tuesday

This is it.  One of our top selling snacks in the store.  Seaweed snacks!  If you like sushi then you are in for a treat.  Basically they taste like sushi without all the filling which makes sense because that is exactly what they are!  A package comes with about 20-30 pieces and there is hardly any nutritional value to them meaning you can eat as many as you'd like without feeling guilty.  What's even better is after you eat about 3 pieces, you kind of loose your appetite for snacking altogether because although they are surprisingly good...it is seaweed you are eating.

we love old stuff

You want to impress a girl?  Take her on an antiquing date.  Thats exactly what Matt did and it was awesome!!  I have successfully turned Matt into my antiquing sidekick and I'm happy to say that he makes a fantastic one.  We checked out a new antique mall that just opened this month and though it wasn't quite full yet, we still found some treasures.  I guess I went a little crazy in the toy department.. but they were deals I couldn't pass up

Matt's find:  Ventures records.  We listen to them everyday!

 One of the things I look for when antiquing are vintage children's books.  I love love love the illustrations and they are just so unique to me.  My favorite artist is Eloise Wilkin and the 2 books on the left are illustrated by her.  Golden books are my thang.  I have 20+ of them back in Texas just waiting to be read.

I have added these books to my Arizona book collection (from past purchases)

 These little dolls are EVERYWHERE in antique stores and I am guilty of LOVING them!  They are miniature Madam Alexander Dolls that feature Disney/Fairytale characters.  What I love is that their eyes open and close when you raise them.  I recently found out too that these were McDonald's toys about 5 years ago.. haha!  Im sure all these came from lots of little grandma collections.

  Sooo if I don't have any little girls running around here soon I will have to give my dolls up for adoption because my collection is out growing its shoe box!

Another thing I am guilty of loving is Fisher Price Little People.  I grew up with these toys and LOVED them.  Matt thinks I am living a childhood I never had with all these toys.  I definitely had an awesome childhood.. I just want the same for our lil ones one day I guess.  Anyway we both saw this and HAD to have it.  Once we got it home we broke it open and played with it..what?
Successful night.. yes!  

Trader Joes Tuesday

 I declare this my new favorite cereal.  We are big cereal eaters here at the Cline residence so this will definitely pop up on the cereal shelf more often.  Its just as good as it sounds and they don't skimp at all on the nuts or the gigantic toffee clusters.  Its amazing how your taste buds "mature" and begin to like all those foods you swore you would never like as a kid.  I would be gagging at the thought of eating spoonfuls of nuts back in my high school days (no im not still in high school...that seems to be the question of the day EVERY DAY at work.)  Thank you taste buds for allowing me to eat this without gagging.  What a treat!

I happen to be eating this for lunch as we speak.  Can you tell I  just worked a 4 a.m. shift?  I don't let work get in the way of my bowls of cereal. Never.

how do you wear your fanny pack?

these are my happy pills

i love easter.  easter is a good reason to eat jelly beans.  REAL jelly beans.  the ones that only include 8 colors where you can't mistake what their flavors are.  why try to change something so perfect into something so horrific like coffee and popcorn jelly beans?  answer me that.  sticking to the basics here in this household (and hoping it won't lead to cavities)

Trader Joes Tuesday

Trader Joes.  Gotta love the place.  Im going to start posting a Trader Joes product a week to show you our favs.  The thing about this place is that all the products have no artificial ingredients or preservatives, plus they also have a huge selection of gluten free and organic foods.  Then they save on money by putting Trader Joe's name on the box instead of the manufacturers name.  Cool stuff huh?!

These are our favorite granola bars.  They are thick, moist and like eating a cookie.  Promise.  This is one of the few peanut butter foods that I actually like.  So heres to tasty peanut buttery goodness

2 down 10 to go

Resolution #2 for the year down.  Although since we weren't as diligent with this one we are continuing it into March to better make a habit out of it.  February's resolution was to keep up with sunday lessons and pray more.  We will master this one just you wait and see!

Resolution #3 for March is to run 5X a week.  Im happy to say that we have done good the past 5 days!  Piece of cake right?  mmm.. cake

Trying to find this album to buy to have some new running music but can only find it on groove shark:

Jack Johnson The Mango Tree

1 - IBD Medley
2 - Rodeo Clowns (with G. Love)
3 - Breakdown
4 - Home
5 - I Shall Be Released
6 - Badfish-Boss DJ
7 - Moonshine
8 - Rainbow (with G. Love)
9 - Let It Be Sung (with Matt Costa & Zach Gill)
10 - Gone Going (with Will.I.Am)
11 - Imagine
12 - Free (with Donavon Frankenreiter)
13 - Give It To You (with G. Love)
14 - The Cove
15 - Country Road (with Paula Fuga)
16 - Better Together (Hawaiian Version)
17 - Girl I Wanna Lay You Down (with ALO)
18 - Orange Whip Groove
19 - Holes To Heaven (Acoustic)
20 - A Brokedown Melody
21 - The Horizon Has Been Defeated (Acoustic)
22 - Crying Shame (Culver City Dub Remix)
23 - Pirate Looks At 40
24 - Butter Nut (with The Sprout House Band)
25 - Constellations (with Kaukahi)

Listen to it hear: mango tree  its ohhh so good

schow X 4

And we are back in the lemon orchard!  Our friends Olivia and Tyler asked if we could take some quick pictures of the fam and of course I said YES!  Ive been meaning to practice with our new camera and this was a perfect opportunity.  

The REALLY fun part for me was attempting to edit the pictures in photoshop.  Im trying to learn more liiike editing those stubborn shadows and making all the pictures uniform.. but as for now the "levels" and "vibrance" controls have been my main picture editing go to tools.  And well, here is the end result.    This was a fun day:)

 We had to keep reminding the kids about the park we were going to AFTER we took the pictures.  They so didn't want to hear that

 Here is our little model :)

Once the jelly beans ran out he resorted to dirt

 The fam

Pretty mama

They like each other :)

We ended the day with these bad boys.  Home made waffle cones!  Best purchase EVER was this waffle cone maker.  Anyone want to make some?