Need Help...

Grant has to do a report on a Traditional Australian Christmas.  For extra credit he can bring in a dish that is traditional to share with his classmates.  It seems to me in the little I have researched the Australians either one: Share in the English Traditions at Christmas time or two: They go to the beach or go camping because it is a long weekend and it is summer time there.  If you know of an "traditional" Australian Christmas dishes, could you email them to me.  I appreciate your help!

Random Thoughts by Me!

~As I was getting dressed today in my Arizona Winter Finest, Jeans, pretty new green sweater and my flip flops, I thought. "Ah today Arizona is good cause it is December, it is kind of chilly (like 50 when I took the kids to school at 7:30) and I can still wear my flip flops. Now I would much rather spend the Holiday season trudging around in boots and a coat ~not zipped up if you know me at all, and oh and I probably don't have socks on inside the boots. Just ask Bill's folks, they used to borrow me socks when I would come over and hang out cause I never had any on. :-) But for today I am happy to be in my jeans and flip flops.

~Not all children like Gingersnap cookies from a box. It was James' turn to bring snack for school today and he asked for gingerbread man. Well, we can't bring homemade things into our schools here and all I could find at the store were above said cookies. Most of the kids took one bite, turned up their noses and chose not to finish their snack. James on the other hand went...Yummy mommy those were great! Can you buy me more?

~Bill wrapped some gifts last night and put them under the tree. This NEVER happens. He likes to be the last one to bring out his offerings. I guess he decided they are "safer" under the tree wrapped then "hidden" somewhere for me, err the kids, to find. Now if only I could remember Betsy Alexander's techniques for rewrapping her Christmas gifts. :-)

Happy December!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?

I love wrapping gifts, so I would rather put things in a box and wrap it up!

2. Real tree or Artificial?

The artificial-pre-lit tree is up,

but I would prefer tromping through the Montana snow to cut our own!
3. When do you put up the tree?

Last year I didn't put up a tree because we were traveling,

and this year it went up Monday night after Thanksgiving.
4. When do you take the tree down?

I like to keep it up until New Year's Day then take it down.

If you don't even put one up you don't have anything to clean up.
5. Do you like egg nog?

Yum!Yum! I like making Egg Nog French Toast and Pancakes too!

(just substitue egg nog for the milk)
6. Favorite gift received as a child?

The set of Twin "cabbage patch dolls" my mom made me. One was a boy and one was a girl.
7. Do you have a nativity scene?

I have not found one that I just LOVE yet!

I do have a Precious Moment Ornament that is Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus.
8. Hardest person to buy for?

Our Parents. I like to give them gifts with meaning

so I put a lot of thought and time and effort into their gifts.
9. Easiest person to buy for?

Bill! I usually have a list bigger than a budget

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?

In the last couple of years neither! HaHa! I do have plans for Christmas cards this year, they have been started, but I don't know if I will finish them. I have really good intention!
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?

I really can't think of one. I guess I truly believe it is the thought that counts. I do remember that a family friend one time made some Christmas goodies for us. She was a dear sweet lady and she smoked. All the food tasted like cigarette smoke. But again the thought that counts.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie?

White Christmas hands down!

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?

All year! I like to be done 2 weeks before Christmas so we can enjoy the season.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?

I don't think so...
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?

I love Bill's families tradition for having plates full of goodies while opening presents.
16. Clear lights or colored on the tree?

One of our trees has pre-lit white lights.

The other tree is a fiber optic tree with colored lights.

17. Favorite Christmas song?

The Prayer...and new favorites this year: Silent Night and Noel sung by Josh Groban
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?

I love to stay home, but it's fun to travel to family once in a while
19. Angel on the tree top or a star?

I have an angel!

20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?

Bill's family opens gifts on Christmas Eve, and my family opens one gift on Christmas Eve and the rest on Christmas day. I guess I won on this one...We open 1 gift on Christmas Eve and then we open the rest Christmas day. When we are home for Christmas we like to drag out opening the gifts all day. 2 years ago we started opening the first gifts at 7 am and finished opening the last gifts at 7 pm. It was such a fun day!
21. Most annoying thing about this time of year?

I don't like that you can buy Halloween and Christmas Decorations at the same time.
22. Favorite ornament theme or color?

I love traditional red and green especially on a nice plaid. This year I did buy tiny little navy blue stockings to hang off the back of the chairs to match the decor. I put red and green plaid bows above them and stuck red and white candy canes inside them too!

23. Favorite for Christmas dinner?

Ham, cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole, marshmallow yams, hot fresh rolls, pinapple casserole. Yum Yum

November Update

My good friend reminded me yesterday that I have been neglecting my blog. So here is my quick update!

~Grant punched a hole in his head at after school care the day before Thanksgiving. Bill drove home to find not even a little scratch near the dried blood. We have reminded Grant that running around not paying attention can and will result in a meeting of his head and the window air conditioning unit. The unit will probably win.

~I boycotted the traditional Thanksgiving dinner and made cinnamon crepes filled with Bananas, Strawberries and Cream Cheese, Mushroom Artichoke Egg Frittata, Bacon and Sparkling Cider mixed with Orange juice. I then went to work and was very Thankful to not be out travelling this holiday season, especially with small children. Bill hung out at home with the kids and was very thankful for our TV, cable and Thanksgiving day football and movies.

~Christmas Shopping is almost done.

~Christmas Tree is up...not decorated yet, but up.

~Billie is wondering where the Christmas cookies are. It isn't even December 1.

It's a good day around our house!

November 11 is a GREAT day here. Happy Birthday to James and congratulations to Mike and Kel for their new baby born early in the morning. We are very excited to share this day with our darling new cousin and nephew!

Here are some pictures from our weekend. (not the greatest, I took them with my cell phone)

We ate at James' favorite resturant. Village Inn! When asked what he was going to eat he told me to guess. "I think you are going to have a Village Inn Funny Face." "Ahh mom, You are just too smart. You ALWAYS guess what I eat." (Cause that is ALWAYS what he orders there.)

Grant and Billie waiting patiently for their meals.

James was sick on Friday so he didn't finish his whole meal and we didn't even cut into his icecream cake until Sunday. We went home and opened presents. Then it was bed time. James' lovingly passed his "crap" around and he was the only one who went to school today. Billie and Grant are finally keeping down crackers and 7up.(for now at least) Good thing I had today off. This is the part that is stressing me out about having a job. The twice a year the kids are sick, I have to figure things out. Bill has been awesome and stayed home with James Friday. I think it will be helpful when his commute is only 30 minutes instead of 1-1.5 hours. Plus he will miss all the bad traffic. Here is a link to the job he will be on. He is coming on as a Project Manager and jumping into the scheduling side things. I am so proud of my scheduling man! This is going to be a great move for him and us. And let me brag some more about him. He has really picked up the slack from me not being here all day.

He can vaccum like none other! Thanks Babe!

Here's Jack!

I grabbed the camera last night while we were putting the kids to bed and got some better pictures of Jack. He has done surprisingly well. He handled being crated all week (except today) really well. He only slightly ate up his new bed, so now he is just sleeping on the hard bottom of the crate. He did have an accident tonight. I think he was severely abused by his former family(if he even had one) because as I started yelling at him (he POOPED on the carpet) he immediately dropped to the floor and began "army crawling" to get away from me. The yelling was enough and he sat on his bed for the next 2 hours without hardly moving. He is learning to sit well. We are feeding Sadie first to continue with her dominance and he sits really good if he sees that he is getting fed next. He has a funny quirk: His upper lip gets caught in one of his canine tooth and he looks a little...well, not quite right in his head when he does it. It is pretty funny and we laugh at him when he does it. He definately wants to be a lap dog.

Today I had the first internal conflict that really tore me up about working. James woke up in the middle of the night and had thrown up. I haven't accumulated any sick leave or time off yet and we were training today on a really cool topic. Bill said he would work from home today with out hesitation, but it really tore me up to not be here. Bill is amazing and wonderful and I trust him completely, now I am having to trust myself to really trust him. He did great with him today and when I got home the WHOLE house had been vaccumned and picked up. Gotta love that. Next week I switch to my on the job trainind and my hours are more "family" friendly. We will still have to switch off with the kids, but I can get them off to school and put dinner in the crock pot before I go off to work. I am really going to love my job and all the posiblities. I can see myself getting interested in things that I don't think even 2 years ago I could picture me doing. It will be fun to see the places I will go. :-) Have a happy weekend!

It's a BOY!!!

He wouldn't take a good pictures, but this is our new boy "JACK." He was turned in to boxer luv rescue with a severe case of Bronchitis and a nasty cough to go with it. He is still coughing a bit, but so far he has blended nicely into our family. Sadie is happier than an old lady with new knitting needles. They played all day yesterday and today all they have done is slept. Jack is a bit under weight and we are going to have to work on fattening him up but I think he is going to be a healthy sized male. We are excited to have him and he seems to be a really fast learner. It will help Sadie to have a companion while I am at work and the house is quiet.

Not quite goblins and gouls...

Night Ninja~aka~Grant

Super Girl~aka~ Billie

Jack Sparrow~aka~James ("aargh Matey, Happy Halloween" got some pretty good laughs)

Getting anxious. Can we go yet mom?

Halloween night was so much fun this year. We decided to go out as a family and walk the neighborhood. It was fun to see so many of the neighbors sitting out in their driveways checking out all the action. The night was beautiful. I don't think it was colder than 75 degrees. It is kind of night to not have to worry about the costumes being big enough to fit clothes and jackets underneath them. And you can't beat all the loot we got.

Every good thing...

I believe that the saying is Every Good Thing Must Come To An End. But here is the thing. I don't look at this as MUST...Tomorrow I officially go on pay role outside of my home. I got a really cool job where i can be snoopy, people watch and wear cool blue Latex gloves. Now I will know what all the girls are really carrying in their purses and I will know the best time to come in and out of our little town. I will probably be MIA these next two weeks as I am doing the training thing during the day. My awesome friend is keeping the kids both in the morning and after school until I can beat the traffic home to get them. The Cool thing is that Bill and I get to commute together in the morning. He works like 2 block from where I will be. 2 whole hours of uninterrupted time in the car together. I think there is another saying for that. Something like...what won't kill you...hmmm!

I did this really cool last days of being a stay-at-home-mom project. I even took pictures so I could post it. Well darn-it! I took the pictures with OUT the memory card in the camera, so now I have to figure out how to get my pictures off the camera. CRAP. I should really get my hair darker...maybe then I will have more of a brain. Wish Me luck! :-)

From the Happiest place on earth to a pile of laundry!

Greetings from the laundry pile! After months of planning we managed to get the kids into the truck on the farce that dad was home from work early and we were going to catch dinner at this really great restaurant. 4 1/2 hours, 2 potty stops, 1 Starbucks run, 2 movies, and 2 recharging game boys later we made it to the Happiest Place on Earth. The reaction was pretty good. It was 2 1/2 hours past their bed times so they were all pretty sleepy.

Here are a couple of fun highlights:

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One of the greatest memories from the trip was getting reservations to Club 33 You should go read about the neat history about this club. It was an amazing meal. We ate until we were stuffed. I am not sure we will ever get a chance to do that again, so it is an incredible memory.

Bill in front of the door. You have to ring this bell and tell them your name and what time your reservation is.

This is the french lift. You can either walk up the stairs or take the lift up.

This is all of us. We are outside on the balcony overlooking the streets of New Orleans.

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This was really cool. The Nestle Toll House Kitchen. The kids got to learn how to make cookies. Not that they haven't been taught, but it was cool someone else showed them too!

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The Grizzly River Run was my personal favorite. I know 4 other people that enjoyed it also! The first day that we went on it here is the ride count.

Mom: Once

Billie: 4 times

Dad, Grant and James: 5 times

I am pretty sure this is the 4th time!

This will make anyone smile. Watching a raft go through the geyser.

It is completely random and just by chance will you go through it of miss it!

If you go through it there is no chance in staying dry.


Here they are at the end of the 4th time. The boys still had one more to go. This was Wednesday and when we packed to go home on Friday morning, most of these clothes were still damp despite the fact we had them layed out all over our hotel room.

Can we say soaked to the bone?

(We went on this ride 2 more times on Friday before we came home.)

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Happy Halloween from the Haunted Mansion. You can't not go to Disney at Halloween time and not do this ride. Very cool!

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This was the one ride that James was still too short to go on. (It was okay, I went once and had an upset tummy the rest the day)

Bill, Grant and Billie going on California Screamin. You go up and down and upside down. Everyone else loved it...let me just say that it deserves its name.

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If you look to Bill's right, who do you see? Yes our little girl is really a dare devil. This is one of those rides that goes to the top and they drop you and you bungee up and down. Pretty much a free fall. At this point my stomach was so upset that Grant had to take the picture cause I couldn't even look at the ride. ************************************************************************************
We also enjoyed many other of the attractions at Disneyland and California Adventure. We saw lots of shows and learned some really interesting things about the history of Disney. Bill said next time we do Disney though we are going to experience the cruise. Not as much walking! I guess we need to start researching good amusement parks for awesome roller coasters. I knew I shouldn't have gone on the roller coaster at New York! New York! in Vegas preggo with Billie! :-) It was a wonderful week and we enjoyed our family vacation very much.

Our thoughts are with those in CA this week dealing with the fires.

This, That and Scaling the Fence

THIS:

Today was pajama day at school. For $1 they get to wear their "dress code appropriate" jammies. Billie and Grant were asked to bring their pillows so they could read. James thought it was pretty neat to wear his favorite jammie pants with his boots.

THAT:

Easiest Apple Pie: (thanks to Amy J. for this delicious recipe)

Crumb Crust: 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 1/2 tsp. sugar, 2 Tbsp cold milk, 1/2 cup oil. Mix all together and pat into bottom and up the sides of pie pan. Do not roll out!

Topping: 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup butter mix together until crumbly. You sprinkle this over the filling.

Filling: 4 cups sliced apples (about 5 or 6 apples depending on how full you want the pie), 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 2 TBSP flour. Mix and toss with apples. Put into unbaked crust.

Baking : Slide pie into a brown paper bag and close tightly. (Or you can cover loosely with foil. I have never made it this way, there is something about baking it in the bag I can't get over.) Make sure your bag isn't going to touch the heating element. NO PEEKING! Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour and 45 minutes. ENJOY!

I literally made this last night in 15 minutes. The hardest part is slicing and pealing the apples, but thanks to the Pampered Chef Apple Peeler Corer thing it goes fast.

Scaling the fence:

I decided to clean and mop the downstairs this morning so that I could go upstairs and work on some other fun things. In my pjs (I didn't have to pay a dollar either) I was going about my normal cleaning. The sliding glass door needed a good clean, so I cleaned the inside, then went out to clean the outside. No big deal, done it before LOTS of times. I am cleaning away when I hear this big clank. Well, the dog is outside with me and there is nothing nearby that looks like it fell. That is when I realize that it was the dowel that we put in the door at night clanking into place on the track. Ah crap! The door won't even open up enough that I can get my hand into it to reach the phone. The kids are all at school, the dog is outside with me. The gate is locked and the key is also INSIDE. Well, at first I pull a chair up to the fence to see if I can get over it that way, too short. I look around trying to figure out what to do, I know that there is a latter in the shed that is locked up and the key IN the house. I see the wave climber. So I pull it over to the gate, with the dog looking at me like I have just sprung a gasket. I get up on it and it is tall enough to get me over the fence. The worst part was the landing. Rocks, bare feet...I am not a small girl. OUCH! But I hobble around to let myself into the house. What an ordeal. A word of advice...MOVE THE DOWL the next time you are cleaning the sliding glass door and home alone. I think this one will be written down next to the time I tried to step into the garbage can to smoosh the garbage down...Until the next adventure!

Friday Night's should always be this good!

This weekend Bill suprised me with the best date! I knew I needed a babysitter, I knew we had reservations at Tarbell's in Phoenix.

We watched Mark Tarbell on Iron Chef America a couple of weeks ago on the food network. Bill called the next Monday and we got a reservation. While we were sitting there dipping our bread into the yumm-o olive oil, Mark actually came up to us and asked us how we were doing, we chatted a minute about Iron Chef and Cat Cora and then he thanked us for coming in. It was SOOOO cool!

For all you food lovers, this is what we ate:

*Cornmeal Crusted Calamari w/adobo & whole grain mustard sauces

*Double-Cut Pork Chop, Wisconsin cheddar grits, and collard greens, caramelized onions & wild boar bacon

*Bill had the London Broil special that was melt in your mouth delicious!

*Warm Chocolate Cake with Pistachio Ice Cream
"almost better than sex"

Then after dinner, we had 6th row seats to the Trisha Yearwood Concert. She has such an amazing rich voice and she is a classy performer. We had great seats, full tummys and a full evening.

The kids went to play at our friends house. They have 2 kids, Grant and Billie's ages, a cat, a dog and an acre back yard. They came home plum happy tired! Billie asked me this morning that Daddy and I need to spend more "alone" time together and can they go to their friends house EVERY friday...I will check it out girly!

Is Fall in the air?

Here are a couple of pictures from this last week.

I LOVE LOVE fall! It is my favorite time of year. It is peach time, time to start holiday decorating, the evenings are starting to cool down here, we had a couple of days this week below 100 degrees. I spent the week eating and canning fresh peaches, mostly just eating but I did some canning. I only had two broken jars...one I noticed was chipped when I pulled it out of the wash water, and the other broke while processing. This year I made note to not process any cans upside down (2 years ago, I processed my last batch upside down...not sure why I would ever put the jars in upside down.) The kids worked on a Halloween Craft this week. Making sucker ghosts while I washed sticky peach jars. Happy Fall!

Moving up in the world

We are finally moving up in the world. These are the things that have either opened or are coming soon:

Chipolte

Wal-Mart

Wendy's

Cracker Barrel

Wells Fargo

Pay Less Shoes

Pet Smart

Office Max

Peter Piper Pizza

Lowes

We/I no longer have to drive 20 miles to get the basic stores like wal-mart. It is pretty fun to have these new places close by.

Now if only we could cool the temps off here, it would be even better!

Our labor day weekend we are working on finishing up the crown molding in the family room/ kitchen. I will post a picture of what the after looks like. It seems like so long ago Bill's parents were here helping us paint it yellow. I still love the yellow though. And good news for them, we don't really have a whole lot of walls left to paint, so they can come and not have to work! :-) Happy Labor Day!

Happy Happy Joy Joy

So I started trying to organize my scrapbook stuff. I realized that I have a lot of projects sitting waiting to be done, so this last week I have made an attempt to finish some already started projects. Here is one that is a new project. This is my mini album from our mini trip to Disneyland in July. I used the menu from the resturant where we ate dinner as the front and back cover. Yes the menu was a pirate hat. Here are a couple of pictures of it!

TGIF I think!

I had a couple of minutes this morning and was playing around with some digital scrapbook stuff that I downloaded. I am not a huge fan of digital, just because I like the sensory part of paper scrapping. But this was some cute "paper" and I wanted to play around with it. Don't worry it won't go in any of the boys' books.
I am finally feeling better. After having had a fever on and off for 4 days and then a nasty sore throat this is a much needed releif. I finally got in to see my chiropracter on day 4 and he worked out some problem areas in my neck and shoulders. I guess I literally carry my stress. So far only Bill has cought my sore throat but nothing that has kept him home. The kids are all carrying on like normal.
School is going very well. James seems to really love kindergarten! He enjoys going every day. His new term is, "oh stink!" He uses it for everything bad and good. Fitting term for little stinky! Billie is really loving her new teacher. She has awesome stadium seating in her room which seams to be the hot topic for our girl. She has been coming home to her "daycare" of animals and teaches them everything she is learning. She is our teacher in training. Grant is cool enough for the 4th grade. He really is aware of the choices that his classmates are making. I don't know if this awareness will be enough to stop him from making some of the same bad ones, but I am glad that he is aware of it nontheless. He thinks it is quite unfair that he had to read for 20 minutes as opposed to his siblings 15 minutes. I keep telling him that it is tough to grow up. He is turning into quite the little man. He loves learning about all kinds of non fiction things. So goes the first 2 weeks of school.
I am off to meet Bill for our newly scheduled lunch date. What a better thing to do with your friday afternoon! Lunch alone! Chow!

Inside Scrapbooking LONGER PREVIEW VERSION

I came across this the other day. I think it is totally hilarious. After having the flu all weekend, I needed a good laugh. Hope you enjoy!

*GROSS* Blister

I just wanted to post a picture of what my blister looks like. It hurts, so I haven't been walking the kids to school. Hopefully by Monday it will be healed. No comments from the peanut gallery about needing a pedicure. I know! I know!

What did you do all day?

In Honor of all the mothers with kids STILL at home during the day!

My MIL sent this to me today. I am so happy to be at a stage where the mess made in the house during the day is from either me or the dog. (Even if they did loose James on his second day of Kindergarten!) ENJOY!

A man came home from work and found his three Children outside, still in their pajamas, playing in the mud, with empty food boxes and wrappers strewn all around the front yard. The door of his wife's car was open, as was the front door to the house and there was no sign of the dog.

Proceeding into the entry, he found an even bigger mess. A lamp had been knocked over, and the throw rug was wadded against one wall. In the front room the TV was loudly blaring a cartoon channel, and the family room was strewn with toys and various items of clothing.

In the kitchen, dishes filled the sink, breakfast food was spilled on the counter, the fridge door was open wide, dog food was spilled on the floor, a broken glass lay under the table, and a small pile of sand was spread by the back door.

He quickly headed up the stairs, stepping over toys and more piles of clothes, looking for his wife. He was worried she might be ill, or that something serious had happened. He was met with a small trickle of water as it made its way out the bathroom door.As he peered inside he found wet towels, scummy soap and more toys strewn over the floor. Miles of toilet paper lay in a heap and toothpaste had been smeared over the mirror and walls. As he rushed to the bedroom, he found his wife still curled up in the bed in her pajamas, reading a novel.

She looked up at him, smiled, and asked how his day went. He looked at her bewildered and asked, "What happened here today? "She again smiled and answered, "You know every day when you come home from work and you ask me what in the world I do all Day?" "Yes," he replied incredulous.

She answered, "Well, today I didn't do it."

First Day of School

Today is the first "real" first day of school. James only had screening on Friday so today is my first real day alone! James was standing in line watching all the other kids cry. He asked me "why are all the other kids crying?" He did great! I did great! Not one tear shed! WAHOO! We walked to school and then I jogged home. I have a blister on my heal to prove it! I can't wait until the morning temps are below 90 though. It was a warm walk to school and with the high today being 114ish I think I will be driving to pick the kids up. The dog must be sad not to have James home with us because she promptly went back to bed. My goal today is to get into the swimiming pool alone for at least 20 minutes. :-) Have a great one!

High School Musical - Breaking Free Remix

In Honor of the first day of school!

Tomorrow is the first day of school and Saturday HS musical 2 hits Disney. We are pretty excited at our house. This will be me this year. Soaring, Flying, BREAKING FREE! (With a couple of tears I am sure.)

Edit: High School Musical 2 premiers on the 17th. Oops. Hope I didn't cause any riots! :-)

Page of the day

Here is a modified version of a page we did one night with one of my club groups. I thought it was a simple picture that deserves a simple page.

Enjoying the end of summer

So we really didn't do much yesterday. The kids helped me do some yardwork in the morning as it was overcast and breezy. I am sure it wasn't hotter than 95. Then the rest of the day we just hung out, played and watched TV. There isn't much time during the school year for TV so I have let them watch it alot the last couple of days. It rained for a while in the afternoon and then the kids swam. We already went and gathered our school supplies, so backpacks are packed and waiting in their rooms. It is amazing how fast 10 weeks really can go. Here's to the start of a new school year!

A little Friday Love

Just Click on me and I'll take you there!

I just added a Scrapbook album to the side of my blog. It is the one titled "Journey onto Paper" You should be able just to click on the current page and it will take you to my pages. I hope to keep adding to it as I complete more or have more time to scan in the ones that I have done. Enjoy!

On a scale of 1 to a million, He gets a...

Sunday was our anniversary, so Friday Bill brought me these lovely roses. 2 dozen this year. He told me I was only going to get a dozen so I was suprised.

Then yesterday I had a little bit of a "blue" day, so he suprised me with the blue flowers after work to cheer me up! Isn't he awesome! So thoughtful and so romantic. I love my guy!

Happy Anniversary Bill!

I love you at least 12 times over. I never imagined the kind of husband you would be, but you are living up to my wildest dreams. You are my biggest supporter, my best friend and thank you for allowing me to run wild after my crazy dreams. Thank you for 12 wonderful years!

Kindergartners are Brave!

We are counting down the days until school starts and mom is an "empty Nester." James' isn't so excited about kindergarten. So each day I have been making some comment about him going to kindergarten. As I was kissing him last night I said, "Love you my little kindergartner!" And he says to me, "Mom, I can't be a kindergartner. Kindergartners are brave and I'm not brave." LOL! I can't wait for the first day of school.

Jedi Training Academy 1

He was so excited to be chosen, I don't think he was actually listening to the instructer.

Jedi Training Academy

James was in Hog Heaven to have been selected and then to get to fight Darth Vader

Disneyland

Disneyland was so fun! Billie and James were finally able to ride most of the rides. They loved all the splashy, scary, jolty rides. James asked us every 20 minutes if we can go back for his birthday in the fall. Riding the carousel in Fantasy Land. I am holding onto Maddie and James. Yes my hair is pink! I love it. Felicia (my stylist) did a great job with it!
Bugs life~visiting with the ants.
Mr. Toads wild ride. It was pretty crazy. Good thing toads can't really drive.
Saying hi to Max at Goofy's Kitchen where we ate breakfast with the characters.
Waiting for the Fantasmic show. It was incredible. I would have to say this was my favorite thing. It was put on over the river's of America. They had these amazing misting fountains, which they projected images onto the water. It was really cool. Very worth the long wait to get great seats!

Family Reunion

We had a great time on our family vacation. Big Bear was such a nice change from the desert heat. The road up to Big Bear was a bit of a challenge though. 4 out of 6 in the car suffered from motion sickness.

Here we are having a "vomit stop." No one actually threw up, but most of us felt like it. Hunter didn't feel sick but "wanted to try just in case." I guess we were rubbing off.

Bill didn't have to vomit either, but he wanted to check out the view.

We went to a really neat "zoo." It was a rescue/rehabilitation zoo. Basically it was a last chance for most of these animals. We went on the feeding tour and learned some really interesting info about the animals that they keep here.

Swimming was a daily activity. The kids stood in line to get thrown by dads and grandpa.

Chestin's family doing their skit "Where's My Important Papers?" It was a totally "fun" activity. :-)

Billie's Birthday Party was a huge success. We made homemade lip gloss, door knob hangers, little heart shaped necklace charms, ate gigantic flower cupcakes and watched the sing along version of High School Musical.

The party girls with their cupcakes. It was a great night!

See you all next time!