Fire Station Field Trip

We went on a field trip to a fire station yesterday. All the pictures are pretty self-explanatory. Our group was so big that the station asked if some of us could come a little earlier so they could try to get us through faster & easier. So, right after P.E. we went up there. Our group was very small as many parents still had kids in the 2nd P.E. group & couldn't get up there early. Yeah for us. Both kids have visited fire stations before -twice each in preschool. The only new thing they experienced was the safety trailer. They learned fire saftey rules & smoke was blown in . They had to escape out the back window & down a ladder.
Only problem with this type of field trip is Hannah is a worrier. She had trouble sleeping last night because she was afraid our house would catch on fire. I'm pretty sure she'll want to get to Home Depot to price escape ladders.

On another note, we are still waiting for that real estate deal to go through. It's an almost agonizing wait (for me anyway).

Hannah will start playing basketball with the homeschool league next Wednesday. After that she'll play hockey-no, not ice hockey.

There's not too much exciting to report.

Happy Birthday Fred

We want to say happy birthday to our brother-in-law. If you are reading this we wish you a great day. I've been thinking how I want to remember everyone's birthday by saying so here on our blog. I'm thinking it may be hard to cover everyone on their actual birthday so I may just list once per month with everyone I want to send best wishes to. I would feel bad if I couldn't post for some reason. I'll start in February. Okay? All right then...

Above is a picture of Boba Fett aka Joshua. I don't have many new pictures. And above that is a picture of my souvenir from Disneyland. Since both sets of parents pitched in and paid for most of it I thought you guys would like to see it now rather than waiting till your next visit. Can you make out our last name in it? I love this kind of lettering. When we were on our honeymoon I got an ocean themed one that says "Todd (heart) Kathy". It's in our bedroom. I thought having a Disney themed one for the whole family would be appropriate. I specifically asked the artist for pirates,Cinderella,Ariel, & Tinkerbell & this is the end result.

Happy Birthday Hubby!

Today is Todd's birthday! He's lucky my mom is coming over otherwise he probably would not get dinner at one of his favorite restaurants this year-Texas Roadhouse. Birthdays will be suffering cutbacks this year. I usually have a problem getting him a present because his "want" list is stuff like a new Mac. Yeah,right. Both the Steelers & Cardinals have given me great birthday ideas just in time! Hard to believe. I think I need to buy division championship shirts for both teams in bulk so I have extra when they wear out. When will both of his teams go to the Superbowl together again? I think the chances are pretty slim. Oh, and the Penguins won on Sunday too so it was a hat trick of sorts even though it was just a regular season game for them. Still, all 3 of his teams won. I guess it was an early birthday present. Just in case any of you are unclear about this-Todd will be cheering for the Steeleres first, Cardinals 2nd. The Cards making it to the Superbowl have me thinking my Blackhawks could overcome their curse someday in my lifetime! Impossible things CAN happen.

No pictures today. Next Monday we have a field trip to a fire station so I hope to get some good pictures from that. We tour the station & the kids get to go in a fire safety trailer that teaches them what to do in case of a fire & how to get out. I think they blow fog in so it's "smokey".

We are thankful for the people who have been praying for Todd's job situation. The one really good prospect unfortunately did not pan out. The city of Phoenix has sent a rejection letter as well as a couple other companies. I know I'm pretty discouraged & am trying really hard not to worry. One of my favorite verses is in Jeremiah 29-For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord....plans to give you hope & a future...
I believe it deep down but it's certainly hard to remember in the midst of trouble. God has a plan. I just don't know what it is & it drives me nuts. I'm a good planner-why wouldn't he share it with me? Apparently He's a better planner. We're approaching 9 months of unemployment so we are still in need of prayer. I'd appreciate prayer for my job as well. I want to keep my blog fun & not bog it down with my complaints/frustrations there so I just ask for prayer for me to be able to "deal with it".

More Family Snow Day

Joshua having fun.

Last year any pictures I took had lots of other people in the background. Notice what's behind them this year? We loved a weekday after school starts. The only problem was not having some stranger take a family shot of us. A problem I'm more than willing to have when I know Todd can photoshop one of us into another picture!

And Hannah having fun!

Joshua, Frosty, & Hannah


We went up to Flagstaff on a Tuesday to play in the snow & then went to Strawberry to spend the night with my parents. The snow where we went sledding was too soft to make a snowman or snowballs but it was perfect for snow angels. When we got to my parents house there was some snow around & it happened to be very good for making a snowman and some snowballs. I actually found a twig that shape for the mouth. The kids had a ton of fun & wore themselves out. I'm looking forward to the next field trip wherever that might be.....

Our Flagstaff/Strawberry Trip

Playing in the snow is fun.

Being able to drive back home in 2 hours to enjoy the warm sunny weather is priceless!

Happy New Year!

All of us at the Narnia exhibit at the Science Center. I'd have had a lot of pictures of the very cool stuff inside but video & still photography was a no-no in here. Don't know why & it was disappointing but we could get our picture before we went in. At least they let us have that.

Mother's Day 2008

Letting our butterflies go. That was a fun project that I hope we can do again this spring.

Hannah caught the bouquet at Paul & Cami's wedding. She was excited about that.

Joshua at a Roadrunners game.


Happy New Year to everyone. We hope 2009 is loaded with blessings for you all!

I have been sick for four days but started to feel better yesterday. I'm spending today cleaning everything that was let go while I was too tired to do anything-plus washing everything I coughed all over. Fun, huh? I'm glad to be getting better & really hope the rest of the family doesn't get it. We want to take the kids to play in the snow next week when all the other kids start school again.

We are still waiting to hear from the City of Phoenix. The bad news is if they even call in January then Todd probably won't be able to train until March. At least that's what we've heard. Good news is one of Todd's clients finally got an offer accepted. They did an inspection yesterday & close of escrow is supposed to be next Friday. Thank you Lord!

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to post just a small tiny handful of some of my favorite pictures from last year. This was really hard to do since there are literally hundreds of pictures to choose from. I pared down our Disneyland pictures to just 250.
I admit I like to take pictures of my family. I'm even good at printing them right away. I'm an absolute failure at scrapbooking them. I'm hoping to get better at that.