First Day of School 2011

Wow. It is almost the end of the first semester and I'm just putting pictures of the first day of school. We were so excited to go to Franklin South this year. Maggie and Kash are in the same class and Lucas started kindergarten all day! (Yay for mom!) Violet started preschool as well and Tuesday and Thursday from 8:30 to 11:00 became my favorite times of the week.

Maggie 2nd grade. It's funny to see how much they've changed in such a short time. The pants she has on in this picture are now high waters and she's grown a few more teeth in since this time too.

Lucas kindergarten. Same goes for Lucas. His shoes in this picture are now too small! They seriously grow right in front of our eyes.

Violet wanted to be part of the back to school group. I love the bed head.

Almost a month after school started for the kids, Violet finally had her day. She was ready! This is her with Miss. Christie. Violet starting preschool was one of the best days of my life. Man I love that little girl but let's not kid ourselves...she was ready for school and I was ready for a break!

Much needed vacay...

Remember in my last post when I said I was glad I was doing my last drive across the barren desert? Well, I was wrong because 2 weeks after we moved home we had to go back to Reno and drive our truck and trailer home. This time though, we brought two of our very best friends the Gardner's and we made a mini vacay out of it. We spend the first night in Reno and then drove over to San Fran on Friday and then Vegas on Saturday. It was the first time we have done a vacation with friends and no kids and it definitely won't be our last!

Craig or Craigery as I like to call him and his sweet wife and one of my best friends Julie. We met them in our ward here over at our Harmony house and it didn't take long to realize we would be friends for life. You don't come across that very often and especially where the wife and the husbands like each other. It was meant to be...aren't they cute?

We drove over to Tahoe after lunch and Craig couldn't take it... he had to swim, just look at the color of that water. It was pretty enticing. I will miss Tahoe during the summer if I must say. Will you catch me swimming in it? No way.. too cold for this az girl. I'm used to Saguaro Lake and it's  80 degree water temps.

So we drove over to San Francisco on Friday for the day and we had so much fun. I had never been there as well as the Gardner's so we did the whole tourist thing, taking pictures every 10 feet along the way. Sorry for the pic overload.

I can't remember what they were talking about but I thought it was funny how they were doing the exact same thing..Julie and I laugh at their bromance sometimes.

We thought we were doing ourselves a favor by curling our hair and making it look nice not realizing that the cold salty air would have it almost straight by the end of the day.

We got there right at lunch time and had to have some clam chowder and fish and chips...I'm craving it as I type. Sooo yummy!

Conversation here was how much money it would take for Craig to jump over the railing into the water...he was seriously considering it and then Julie said she'd pay him double not to do it...I can't even imagine how cold that water is.

You can kind of see the bottom of the Golden Gate Bridge..of course the one day we are there it's totally foggy. What gives?

We couldn't keep Craig away from the water. Seriously. Part fish maybe? They are too cute.

 I cannot believe how steep those streets are. Climbing up them was terrible. It was like a 15% incline. Lets just say my calves and rear end got a major work out.

Alcatraz. So cool. Too bad the tours were sold out. That gives me one more reason to have to visit again!

Trolleys. So cool. The price to ride? So not cool. When it came to a stop I had to run over and get a pic. Seriously, $6.00 per way? Or $5.75 for all of us to take a taxi ride from hell over to China town. We obviously chose the latter and it was way more fun/scary.

We walked down the crookedest street. That was pretty cool, I can't believe people actually live on it. I can't imagine how you move in or out of one of those apts.

China town was fun, kind of felt like Tijuana. Got some cheap trinkets for the kids and they were so pumped because they thought we actually went to China.

Remember when I said we had to go back to get our truck and trailer? Did I mention that it was Russell's Ford F-350, full size crew cab, extra long bed? Can you tell that we are driving this small bus down the crookedest street? If you've ever been down it you know we were crazy just thinking about it and we almost hit every curb and maybe a few pedestrians along the way. It was hilarious.

I had to snap a pic of San Quentin for a few reasons. 1: we always watch documentaries on the National Geographic channel about all the crazies that get sentenced there. 2: Johnny Cash sings a song about San Quentin and who doesn't love Johnny Cash? 3: stupid Scott Peterson is rotting away in there.

I didn't take as many pics in Vegas but we had a fun night. We went to Sushi Samba at the Venetian for some ridiculously priced sushi, then saw the Blue Man group which was fun but I wouldn't see it again. The thing I enjoyed the most was our room.

We stayed at the Wynn and it was the nicest room I've ever stayed in. So plush and beautiful. The bathroom alone was awesome. Too bad it was only for one night. But by the end of the weekend I was ready to see my crazy kiddo's again.

Thanks Craig and Julie for coming with us. You guys made the trip such a blast...when are we going to Disneyland?



time for an update

We moved back to the good ol' valley of the sun during the hottest time of the year. Russell hates it and misses Reno everyday. I am loving every second and soaking up this sweet Arizona sun. The move down was easy since we were blessed to have a moving company take all our stuff for us. The kids did great and we are all settled in at Russell's parents house. They left for their mission to Bolivia two weeks ago and they are so excited for this new adventure. I think I'll think twice about having a bigger home, it is quite the task to keep a home and property up like this one but we are so grateful and willing to be here and do this. I miss some of our Reno friends but I love being so close to family and the kids are really enjoying school. Maggie is even in the same class as her cousin Kash and Lucas just thinks it's so fun to go to school with Krew and Kash.

yes, I was a nice/dangerous mother and let Maggie and Lucas out of their seats for a time to stretch their legs...it was a risk but we all did it growing up and we're okay right?

For as many times that we drove back and forth across the most barren desert you'll see I was so glad to know this would be my last...

Maggie's 7th Birthday!

Once upon a time there was a little family who had a big baby girl, 9lbs 6oz big to be exact. She was a beautiful baby and so loved by all who knew her. This girl was named Maggie. Not Magdalene or Margaret, just Maggie...because her parents liked it that way. She quickly became a big sister just 19 months later and she loved her little brother like a best friend. She was a smart little girl with a lot of character to boot. Maggie loved broccoli before she could even pronounce it right and she still does to this day. She loved to learn all kinds of new things and did really well in school. Fastforward 5 years or so and now she's a big sister x's 2 and more than helpful to a grateful mother. She still loves to learn and asks to do "just one more page?" of her math workbook each night before bed. This not so little anymore little girl just celebrated her 7th birthday and begged to have it in Reno before her family made their trek back down to the Arizona heat for good...

She had a party with her friends and enjoyed a barbecue out on the back porch in the beautiful warm sun.

After the children's bellies were full of hotdogs, hamburgers, chips and watermelon they watched intently as Maggie carefully opened each present. She was very blessed to have such wonderful friends who gave her gifts beyond her wildest dreams. They each knew how much she loves to create things and add all kinds of treasures to her arts and crafts box.

The most exciting event of the party was of course the pinata and the kids all used their brute force and strength to break it open to see the loot fall to the ground.

After the song was sung, wishes made, and candles blown out the mother of the birthday girl, gathered all the children like a hen gathers her chicks and piled them into the car for a trip to the movie theater. 8 little chicks with bags full of candy enjoyed "Mr. Popper's Penguin's" and it was everything they could have wished for. This not so little, little girl felt like the luckiest girl in the world.

But...her birthday wasn't over yet. On the morning of her actual day of birth, July 15 2004 she awoke to the smell of her favorite breakfast. Crepes. With strawberries. And whip cream. And powdered sugar.

Maggie wasn't the only one excited to be celebrating her birthday that day. She had the aforementioned little siblings to share in her delight. After breakfast was served and little bellies full the mother gathered her real little chicks into the car again for a ride this time to Walmart and Target to let Maggie cash in her birthday money for more toys...a cupcake maker and an ice cream maker! A long and eventful day led to dinner time when she would request her favorite dinner. Lasagna with garlic bread. Of course a family celebration wouldn't be complete without more cake and ice cream and presents from Mom and Dad.

This year this not so little, little girl wanted a cake from Baskin Robbins and while it was delicious, her mother decided this would probably be the last ice cream cake in this particular families future.

You can see how happy she was because she didn't have to slave over cake or cupcakes that may or may not turn out but nonetheless the ice cream cake could never taste as good as the money she would save on making her own cake from scratch.

Even though the small chick-a-dee's look a little scared of the giant knife that the mother had to use to cut the expensive cake..they filled their tummies until their hearts were content.

And the birthday girl had the most wonderful birthday she could have ever dreamed of and the mother and father got the most wonderful, beautiful, smart, helpful, kind, energetic, caring, funny, silly, and sweet daughter they could have ever dreamed of.

We love you so much Maggie girl!