Random Craziness!

Alex is awesome! She lets me do her hair any way I want most of the time. We can get pretty wild with our ideas. Her favorite is when I french braid her hair and then the next day take it out and her hair is all wavy. Perm for a day we say! Alex recently got her hair cut short again so our crazy hair days have been on hold for a while. I came across these pictures and they made me laugh. We just have to put this in the blog book. Imagine what she's gonna think when she's 16. Heck, maybe she'll still be wearing her hair this way. Who knows what will be in style. She won't care either way. As long as she thinks it's cool, she rocks it!

Sydney on the other hand....... Likes her hair long and left down. I have to tell her it's going to be windy to get her to let me put it up. Sydney's long hair is well taken care of, so I don't mind what she wants to do with it. She always looks beautiful no matter what. They're so different. A wild child like her mom, a calm conservative like her dad. Can you guess which is which? I always do Alex's hair how I would want to wear mine if I didn't have to be a grown up! You rock with awesome-ness Alex(and you do too Sydney).

Good things are growin.....

I will be the first to stand up and say, I love my job. I love being the librarian at school. I like working with all the kids and getting to know all of them. I love reading them books, seeing them every day, and what can I say, I LOVE BOOKS! I didn't know when I took the job that I would have to host a book fair. Well I did. Here was our theme this year. Thanks to my Aunt Bev and the Jr. high school librarian, we had some pretty awesome decorations, even if I do say so myself!
Here are the bags we made for the teachers wish lists. They fill out a wish list, then parents generously buy their kids teachers a book and the book goes in the bag, then the bag goes to the teacher.

We made vines, and flowers, and carrots, and radishes, and beets, and potatoes out of pantie hose (thank you Aunt Bev), and much more!

Yes, we even had corn growing in our library....

Artichokes popped up too! We have a school garden that gets all the seeds when were done. YUM!

We even went as far as decorating the ceiling. The kids loved it! I think every inch of the library had something to do with something growing. The theme grew on us so much that even though the book fair has been over for a week or so we still have the decorations up.

We had a great showing of support from all the students and parents and teachers. We beat last years total for money earned and we earned $2200.00 in new books for our library. WOW! All in all it was a great experience, glad it is over, and can't wait to do it again next year!

They're back!

We had an Easter Primary Activity today. I'll be posting pictures of that in the near future. Today as we came home from the activity, we noticed our swallows are back! Every year since we have moved into this house, the swallows have returned every Spring. I thought for sure a Hawk had gotten them last year. I even chased that nasty Hawk away a couple times because I didn't want it to get our baby swallows. I'm not sure if these swallows are the exact same ones we've had since the beginning but we enjoy having them here.
The first couple of years we lived here, we would knock down the nests when the birds went away in the fall. Now we leave them up year round. We had a winter visitor (some kind of bird) this year that kept the nest warm for our swallows until the day they returned.

That day was today! We're so glad that they are back!

Uncle Scott comes for a visit

Last Saturday, we spent time at my parents visiting with my Uncle Scott. We slept most of the day because of the late night/ early morning we had at the movie release party. When we finally did climb out of bed we went and had lunch and visited. I think this is maybe the third time the girls have seen my dad's brother Scott. This is only the fourth time in 12 years I have seen him. I think Clay has met him once or twice since we have been married.
It was great to see him and a lot of fun to spend time and visit with him. I know my Dad would like to see him more. When Uncle Scott is here we always make time to go and visit.

Dragon Training 101

Today is Friday, YAY! It is also the one Friday every other month that I had to work, BOO. My mom came down and babysat while I went to work. After work we went to the mall. We ate, walked around, window shopped, and went to see How to train your Dragon! It wasn't what I expected. The kids loved it, I cried, and my mom thought it was ok. It was a perfect Friday to complete a near perfect week!

Fun Friday (part 3)

After Tsunami night, it was time to go to Walmart for the New Moon Midnight Release Party. WOW, we had fun. We were all a little tired, wet, cold, and maybe even a little cranky. Tsunami night was over at 10 Pm so we had to wait until Midnight for the movie to be released. The girls brought their jammies and blankets and were ready for a long night of waiting. The girls were ready to go but after watching the making of Twilight twice, they were slowly losing their energy.
And then they crashed! They slept through most of the party (slept until mom started yelling answers to the quiz for a chance to win another raffle ticket!).

This crowd could be compared to the Target crowd on the day after Thanksgiving. All walks of life were present and accounted for. Men, women, children, babies...... all wanting the same thing. NEW MOON. There were refreshments, drawings, movie trailers, quizzes, trivia games, giveaways and lots of chit chat to keep us busy until Midnight.

We were all given these Midnight release fan kits. Poster, tattoos, trading cards, quizzes, and lots more. By the time midnight came around they were still raffling off prizes. I was pooped. I grabbed my copy of New Moon and headed to the check out. I gave my two raffle tickets to a group of giggling, screaming, hyper teeny boppers, wished them luck and headed home.

I WENT,

I WAITED,

I WON!

Fun Friday (part 2)

After the hike, we went to lunch with Uncle will and Catlyn. Then we headed back home to change into our swimsuits and rest a few minutes before heading back to Sierra Vista for TSUNAMI NIGHT!!! The girls were ready to go. We get there a hour ahead of time to get a good place in line. We still weren't the first ones there this time. It was a little chilly outside but we didn't care. We just want to swim!
The next few pictures might be a little blurry. My camera wasn't taking good pictures with the flash on so I turned it off. It took better pictures just poor quality.
The girls swimming away. They're mermaids that's for sure. We are sooooo ready for summer to get here.

The girls by the boat slide. They had so much fun going down the big slides, the boat slide, playing under the mushroom, swimming in the big pool........

The free pizza and drinks were a plus! They would eat a little, go swim. Come back for more pizza and a drink, go swimming again.

Cheers for Pizza Hut and the yummy dinner (that I didn't have to cook or clean up after YAY!).

Inner tubes. Do I need to say more?!

From 7 to 10 PM the place is rockin. Good music, good fun, lots of water and LOTS of people!

About 9:45 we PULL the girls away from the water so they can start drying off to get in the car. It's always chilly when you get out of the water.

Tired and looking forward to changing into warm, dry clothes and heading home. Little did they know we still had a Midnight New Moon party to go to. Gotta love Spring Break and no bed times! The Fun Friday continues!

"The Cave"

No, I didn't have a breakdown! The things kids say, sheesh!

*Don't forget to pause the blog music so you can hear the video*

Fun Friday

Spring Break 2010 is drawing to a close. Why not go out in style! We had a very BUSY and very FUN Friday. This is a three part post because we did so much in one day. This year Spring Break flew by. We're not at all ready to head back to school, but we only have 9 WEEKS of school left!

Our Friday started with a dentist appointment (for me) in Sierra Vista at 7 AM. We had gone to bed late the night before so it was a little hard for all of us to get up this morning. After the dentist we called up Uncle Will and Nana and had them meet us out at Coronado National Monument to hike to the cave (again).

This is the decent into the cave. If you look closely at my moms arm you can see a pretty bad scrape. She took a pretty bad fall going in but was a real trooper and ventured onward!
The girls were so excited that Nana was going hiking with us. They just had to show her the couch! We all took a little rest after the hike up.
The Girls. We had so much fun once we were inside the cave. The hike up was tiring but I'm so proud of my mom for sticking with it and making it. I did a lot better this time around. I didn't huff and puff and have to stop near as often as I had to the time before. Will and Catlyn brought up the rear and were awesome at encouraging my mom to keep going. The girls of course lead the pack and set a very fast pace (as always).
Clay is awesome. He gets to hike every day at work so this hike was a piece of cake for him. We love spending time with him. Girls, I love your Dad!

Will and his girlfriend Catlyn made the trip with us this time. I have to say, my little brother has turned out to be a great guy. We enjoyed their company a lot.

We went deeper in the cave this time, all the way to the back. We saw some really cool formations. Most of the ceiling formations have been broken off by people but a few of the larger ones (like this one) are still intact.

There was so much to see. Really amazing rock formations. Made us want to go to Kartchner Caverns again!

Will and his biggest fans. The girls love to do things with Will. They rode around in his truck all day, forget mom and dad when uncle Will is around.

We always stop outside the cave before we head down for a little snack.

The group on the way down. We had a great day and this was just the beginning.

Last but not least, Will and Catlyn. I think she rocks. We had a good time hanging out with both of them. A camping trip is in the works, so get your gear ready Uncle Will.

Happy Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG BROTHER! I LOVE YOU!

I hope you have a great day! We miss you and we're thinking about you!

Chiricahua National Monument

On Monday we went with some friends to the Chiricahua National Monument. It was the first official day of spring break (not to mention Clay's day off and he was being woken up at 6AM), and we were very excited to go hiking. It took about an hour and a half to get there from our house. When we got there the kids went exploring with Clay down by the creek. They had lots of fun throwing rocks in the water. I stayed at camp and visited with our friends. I'd like to say I helped with the cooking of breakfast, but I didn't! Breakfast is served. We had biscuits and gravy, eggs, and hashbrowns! We even had our choice of apple juice, milk or water to drink! Now that's breakfast!! I didn't have to cook or do dishes. Spring break rocks!
After we got all the breakfast put away we went to the visitors center. This tree was right out front in the parking lot. It was huge! We watched a very informative 8 minute long movie and browsed around the gift shop. They had some really cool things to buy. The favorite thing for the kids were these birds that you squeezed and you heard the sound they made. They had tons of different birds. Turkey's, owls, and blue birds just to name a few.

Then it was time to lace up our hikin boots and hit the trail. The kids (Alex and Kade) lead the way and set a very fast pace (again). There was so much to see. The only bad thing about the whole entire day was....... THE WIND! It was so windy. In the morning it was freezing, by the afternoon it had warmed up but the wind made it feel chilly. Not one of the kids ever complained!

Sydney and Alex had a great time. I want to go back, it was so much fun. You should have seen all the kids climbing the rocks along the trail. Man, were they having a good time!

Some of the rocks were just MIND BLOWING. Huge and balancing like nothing I've ever seen. It reminded me of Dragoon and the rocks we use to climb out there.

The scenery was so beautiful. There was still snow on the ground in some spots. It was amazing all the wildlife we saw, the birds, the plants. We are planning a return trip when the weather is a little warmer!

The whole group (10 seconds!). We went with our friends the Nelson's. This family is AMAZING. They took their five kids (3 month old included) out for a hike. Not once did I hear whining, complaining, or grumbling from the adults or kids! WOW, that's all I can say.

Our family (we rock), standing by a really big rock (it rocks)! Like I said MIND BLOWING. These rocks were HUGE. Hopefully you get the hint. Well worth the trip out there to see some of these amazing rocks!

I liked this picture. Clay is an awesome photographer. I had more fun than I thought I would. It was really hard to leave (and to convince the kids it was time to go) at the end of the day.

We stopped at the Faraway Ranch(I think that was the name) for lunch. We were in charge of lunch. Nothing like the Nelson's breakfast but it was still good. We had sub sandwiches, potato salad, granola bars, chips, and lots more. By the time we stopped for lunch we were a little behind schedule. The Nelson's had to hit the road for an appointment. We stayed behind and explored the ranch house, the barns, and the ranch. It was a lot of sight seeing. They weren't giving tours that day but we enjoyed being able to walk around and see all the sights. We couldn't go in any of the buildings but we could look in windows. There were some really cool things to see. Very old things.

What a great start to our spring break! We have many more adventures planned so stay tuned. If anyone is now planning to go to the Chiricahua's to go hiking (which we highly recommend), let us know. We'll go with you anytime!