i heart ... weird chief

this weekend

brook and i went to the

tempe festival of the arts.

there were men juggling fire...

and dogs wearing hats...

but we didn't really find any art that we loved.

that is,

until we found

weird chief!

oh man i love his art!

here are his paintings

i have to have:

bono

U2

the mad hatter

george washington

abraham lincoln

and these are the other paintings

that i loved:

willy wonka

bjork

joan jett & debbie harry

radiohead

daft punk & ll cool j

marilyn monroe & audrey hepburn

edward scissorhands

morissey

i heart ... baby tortoises

i was at stacy's house the other day

and ammon came in saying

there was a baby tortoise on the front porch!

what?

that's crazy!

but there it was.

isn't he the cutest?!

i swear baby tortoises are my favorite animal!

or maybe my favorite are

those baby sea turtles that are scrambling over the sand

to get to the ocean.

ammon made the tortoise a nice habitat

until he could find out who the tortoise belonged to.

we wondered for a split second

if maybe kyle was actually a girl!

remember kyle?

could this be kyle's baby?

but no.

our grandpa the veterinarian told us kyle was a boy.

turns out the baby tortoise belonged

to the neighbors a couple of doors down.

ammon knocked on their door and they said yes he was theirs.

then they gave ammon

a 2 dollar bill as a reward.

i think ammon was happy about that

because i think he loves money

as much as he loves baby tortoises.

(or maybe more!)

i heart ... american gothic in 3D

have you seen this sculpture yet

in downtown mesa?

it's so cool!

see how tall it is?

taller than the street lights.

taller than a two story building.

ammon, kaitlyn, brennan and thomas

i took my nieces and nephews to see it.

it's called

god bless america

by

j. seward johnson

after the kids played around the statue,
brennan thought it would be fun
to walk around the mesa arts center.
i've been there many times,
but this was the first time i went just to walk around.
it was so fun and so beautiful.
even baby thomas had fun!




i love the colorful planters!

there are several water features for the kids to play in.

perfect destination for when it gets hot!!!

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i heart ... st. patrick's day

my favorite st. patrick's day tradition

is to go to fountain hills park

to see the fountain turned green!

thomas, sierra, kaitlyn and ammon

isn't it so pretty?

but looking at this picture,

i just want to pinch some of these kids!

where is their green?

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i heart ... clayton's drawing

the other day my nephew clayton and i were coloring together.

i was coloring in a my little pony coloring book

because i'm not creative enough to draw,

but he was next to me drawing a picture.

i was very focused on coloring my pony

so i didn't even notice what he was drawing

until he was done.

when i finally took a look

i was fascinated.

i asked clayton to tell me about it.

here is what he told me:

*the people at the top of the page are

Heavenly Father and Jesus.

*the person at the bottom of the page is

Joseph Smith.

*the house is Joseph's house.

*the little yellow rectangle with the dots on it

at the bottom

are the golden plates.

*the big brown dot next to the golden plates

is the stone that was covering the golden plates.

*the brown rectangle under the stone is

"the log that moved the rock" off of the golden plates.

i asked clayton why Heavenly Father and Jesus

have hearts drawn on them

and he said,

"because they are so happy that

Joseph found the golden plates."

clayton may love swords,

but he really is the sweetest!

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i heart ... this oompa loompa

my poor little nephew eli

has to take medicine

that turns his tongue purple.

(temporarily!)

it's so dang cute!

if he were mine

i'd give it to him everyday

to keep his tongue this way!

it especially looks cute with his blue eyes!

.

i heart ... this scary kid

look at this sword uncle brad gave our nephew clayton!

clayton wanted to tell you,

"the sword is very deadly.

i think the sword is awesome.

its fortune is to rule the world.

when you touch the tip of its top, it's very sharp."

i love this kid!

i heart ... spinato's

awhile back i was at the park.
i overheard these two women talking.
one was going on and on about this
kind of secret italian restaurant.
she was like, "it's hard to find.
it's in this dark industrial complex.
you would never know it was there
unless someone told you how to get there."

and then she said,
"i'm from new jersey and i've had amazing authentic italian food
but this is the best i've ever had!"
at that point i was sold!
but i didn't know the name of the restaurant
and the directions she gave the other woman were fuzzy -
and i didn't want her to know i was eavesdropping
so i didn't dare ask her any details.

but then last wednesday i got a lucky break.
while at joe's farm grill with my friends
one of my friends started talking about this
mysterious italian restaurant
in this obscure industrial complex
and i said "hold it right there!
i need names and directions!"

spinato's!

it's called spinato's!

so today i went!
my cousin jennie was in town
and asked me where i would like to go for lunch.

i knew just the place!

we started with the bruschetta

(fresh roma tomatoes, fresh basil, diced garlic, evoo, and balsamic vinegar)

super good!

jennie's baby, journie,

shared some bruschetta sans tomatoes and stuff.

she wasn't loving the balsamic vinegar!

i ordered the baked spaghetti calzone -

yes, a calzone stuffed with spaghetti!

i want to kiss who every thought of this!

genius!

jennie ordered the

fresh spinach pizza
(fresh baby spinach carefully marinated in "secret seasonings”
then baked with fresh roma tomatoes, diced garlic, and mozzarella cheese)

awesome!

and finally for dessert

we had the

pumpkin gelato and peppermint gelato.

journie loved it

and i think that is a good enough recommendation!

sadly, as it turns out,

spinato's is not as mysterious as people thought it was.

it felt mysterious

because, yes, it was hard to find,

and in a totally obscure location,

and in an unfinished building...

but there are actually 3 other locations

in the phoenix area.

nevertheless,

it was sooooooo good

and i'm just going to keep on pretending

it's a special little secret place!

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i heart ... these surprise visitors

today the doorbell rang
and look who it was!

my nieces, paulina & natalia

i love it when they surprise me!

paulina had ridden over on her dora bike

(which is funny 'cause she kinda looks like dora

and she's riding a dora bike!

get it?)

and natalie pushed a stroller full of, like,

a gazillion stuffed animals!

but do you think they were coming to see me?

oh no.

they don't come to see me anymore.

they come to see lucy!

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i heart ... joe's farm grill

last night for visiting teaching

i met some friends at joe's farm grill.

the whole experience was fun.

it was fun being with my friends...

the atmosphere of the restaurant was fun...

even the food was fun!

i had the

grilled peanut butter & banana split sandwich

(p.b., chocolate chips, crushed pineapple,

fresh strawberries and bananas)

it was just as good as it sounds!

hmmm...

now here was something interesting...

my friends said,

"have you seen the bathrooms?

oh, you have to see the bathrooms!"

yep.

barbies and g.i. joes

and some weird puppet movie playing.

your guess is as good as mine.

p.s.

this guy's been there too!

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i heart ... zinc bistro

in honor of president's day

my bff brook and i had lunch at zinc bistro.

okay, not really in honor of president's day

but really in honor of having the day off.

(no disrespect to washington & lincoln. love them!)

to start we shared the

onion soup gratinee loved the gruyere!

for my main course

i had the

crab and truffle omelette

with bearnaise and straw potatoesit was perfection.

nice and simple and light

after the very flavorful onion soup.

our plan for dessert was

tahitian vanilla bean creme brulee

but they were out of some of the ingredients!

oh well.

that just means we have to go back.

so instead we went to grand lux cafe

for beignets.

no complaints!!!

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i heart ... pan-fried onion dip

image from foodnetwork.com

i just made

ina garten's pan-fried onion dip

for the super bowl tomorrow

and oh my!

divine

i cannot wait until tomorrow to eat more of it!

i want to eat all of it right now!

but i also want everyone to try it

so i'll have to control myself.

wish me luck!

p.s.

i would like to change the name of this dip.

it doesn't sound all that appetizing.

how about

caramelized onion dip?

much better, i think.

p.p.s.

so the game is over

(and my team won! yay!)

and guess what?

so sad,

but the dip is not as good the second day.

but it was amazing right when i made it.

so do you know what that means?

eat this dip immediately!

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i heart ... my picture book of songs

when i was a child my mom would sing to me
and my brothers and sisters
from my picture book of songs.
and now my nieces and nephews are enjoying the same songs.
thomas especially loves these songs!
i can't tell you how often he grabs my hand
and pulls me to the piano.

this is his favorite page:

i think the above is his favorite page

because he loves the picture,
not just the songs.

i love the pictures in this book too!

(look at his cute little hand turning the page!)

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