Sedona & Strawberry

On the way to Sedona.

Snoopy Rock. Do you see it? We liked this rock!

At Grandma & Papa's house.

The little bit of snow left was covering a pile of rocks. Just enough left for snowball fights! We had a fun mini-vacation but I was happy to have our big comfy bed back. My cell phone died while on the trip so if you call, I'm not ignoring you. I hope to stop at the Verizon store tomorrow if I have time.

Hannah starts theater again this week. The kids have 2 football games left. Last week they each had a touchdown. Hannah pulled 2 flags & Joshua pulled one. The week before that, Joshua had 3 touchdowns in 2 games.

Flagstaff Sledding

We went to Flagstaff last week to search for snow. I had heard there was snow left and that there wasn't much left so I was a little concerned about our annual snow trip being a letdown. As you can see there was some snow left but it was hard and icy. We went up on Todd's birthday and spent the night in Flagstaff. Friday we went to Strawberry to visit my parents but we took the scenic route through Sedona. The kids had never been to Sedona. We took a few pictures and walked around for a little bit before getting off to Strawberry. We came home yesterday. I had a sore throat and still do but it was still fun time with my family.

Here is yet another Joshua "moment". After we got in the motel room after dinner Joshua needed to use the bathroom for awhile:) He came out and looked around the room and declared that he was glad there weren't video cameras in here like there was in the bathroom. What is that boy talking about??? After checking it out I find the "video camera" was actually the heat lamp light bulb which did look a lot like the video surveillance cameras on the ceiling of Target or Walmart. I love that kid!

I'll post the Sedona pictures next.

January Birthdays/Happy New Year!

Well, Happy New Year! A little late I know. We spent a quiet new year's eve at home playing games and setting off a few fireworks. We didn't even make it to midnight because Todd got scheduled to open the next day. So as you can see we haven't had an exciting life to update you on.

January birthdays:
Todd-I love you hubby:o)
Fred-Our brother-in-law. We hope your day is blessed.

Hannah was in her first Spelling Bee last night. There were only 6 kids in her age group and she's mad at herself for going out in the 3rd round on an easy word. I can't console her with how hard it is to get up in front of people and spell (correctly), how it's never the same as practicing at home, or how nerves just get the best of you. I hadn't signed her up at first because of money and because I knew how she'd take it to lose even though spelling is her favorite subject. I was asked to take the pictures for the yearbook and my fee would be waived so while she had over 3 weeks to learn the words she didn't have as long as the others. I don't think it would have mattered as it is just different up there on stage actually spelling the words in front of everyone. She has said she'd do it next year. Now that she knows what it's like I think she'll be a little less nervous and next time I'll get the list sooner. I put up a picture but she was not smiley. In fact, I don't think I took a picture of any smiling kids. They all looked nervous.


The kids are still playing football and Hannah starts theater again at the end of the month. The play will be Robin Hood. We're looking forward to a quick visit with my mom this week and later this month will be our annual snow trip to Flagstaff with an overnight visit to Strawberry.

Christmas 2010

Some fireworks are legal now. Yay!

Christmas Day

The kids with Grandma & Papa and 2 cousins.

Joshua with Santa gifts.

Hannah with her Santa gifts.



I meant to post on Christmas to tell everyone Merry Christmas and to have a wonderful day celebrating our Savior's birth. I really did mean to but obviously I didn't get around to it. We opened one gift on Christmas Eve like we usually do. Hannah opened her gift from Joshua which was a $25 gift card to Harkins so we could all see Narnia:Voyage of the Dawn Treader. It was very sweet of Joshua to use his own money to buy her that. Joshua opened a present from Hannah that she "bought" at Bible Study. It was a Steelers football. I opened the Prince of Persia DVD and Todd opened the kids' gift to him. It was the Veggie Tales Meaningful Life DVD. Knowing how much he likes It's a Wonderful Life the kids went in on buying that for him which we watched that night.

Christmas morning we got up and sang Happy birthday to Jesus and ate our traditional breakfast of birthday cake. We surprised Todd this year by buying a store bought cake instead of making one at home. I prefer homemade & he prefers store bought. He got his way this year. Then we opened presents and went to my sister's house for dinner. We opened more presents there and came home to play some of the games Hannah got as gifts. She's really into family game times and there's a couple we haven't played yet. Altogether they got for Christmas: Buzz Lightyear operation,Clue,Apples to Apples,Cranium Jr.,Disney Pictureka,Blokus, and a newer version of Connect Four.

Sunday we went to see the movie with Hannah's gift card. I really wish so much had not been changed from the book and that they didn't go out of order with some things. Good movie if you've never read the book:) I wish I didn't like the books so much so I wasn't disappointed with the movies. I don't hate them, I'm just let down a bit. Later that night Todd lit some sparklers for the kids. We played Blokus before Todd went to bed.

I have a big "Thank You" to give to our secret Santa this year. This year has been another tough one financially. Each year since Todd's layoff has gotten progressively worse and it's finally catching up to us. We were prepared to tell Joshua that Santa is really us because there was not going to be a pile of Santa gifts for either of them this year. They are understanding kids and not hung up on expensive gifts so I knew they'd be okay. They understand when we say we don't have the money for something. God knows our situation though. Even though the kids don't "need" the presents and they are just "wants", God saw to it to bless us through generous strangers. We received a gift card to Walmart to buy them presents. The pictures are above. Thank you "Santa" for being so kind to my family. We hope that some day in the (very)near future that we can bless someone else the way you have blessed us:)

Random stuff

Todd took this awesome picture of 2 of our hummingbirds. Yes, they are ours:) I am sure it wasn't but a few seconds before that one got ran out of the yard. If you have hummingbirds you know they don't share well.

An updated Blackhawks picture. I love it when the kids humor me.

Cute kids from after church today.


Not much new. I just wanted to post a few pictures before Christmas.

I am pleased to announce I worked my last Friday & Saturday of the year these past 2 days. With Christmas Eve & New Year's Eve falling on a Friday I have some forced nights off. The next weekend I work will be 2011! Exciting, huh?

Really, that's about it. Of course we are looking forward to celebrating Jesus' birthday on Saturday. Everything is pretty low key this week and I kinda like it that way. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and remember the reason for the season:)

December Birthdays

Two December Birthdays
Happy Birthday to:
Jim-my brother
and
Brendan-our nephew
Have great days:)


Not much new going on or many pictures. We had our Christmas party with HEofS on Monday. That's what the picture is from above. The kids started flag football last week. I'm very disappointed that they are still able to wear shorts in December though. As I try to find the silver lining in this I have decided that the warm weather is helping us save money on our electric bill. The heat rarely kicks on. Still, I'd rather have some sort of winter weather. Hannah was excited that her team jersey is yellow & black. Yep, they're brainwashed.

Here's another Joshua "funny" for those of you not on Facebook:
The scene is me trying to explain to him the difference between fact & opinion.
Me: A fact is something you can prove. You are 7 years old. An opinion is what someone thinks of something. You are the cutest boy I know.
Joshua: No, those are both facts.
Isn't it nice to see his Daddy's confidence in him? No self esteem problems for this shy kid. Although I will admit he does have a point.

Snoopy!!! Performance

With friends after the 1st performance.

After the 2nd performance

With some cast mates

Hannah's theater performances of Snoopy went great. She was awesome! So were her cast mates:) She had one show on Friday & 2 shows on Saturday. We are not allowed to take pictures or video so the best I could do was take pictures after the show with Snoopy's doghouse. I'm not sure if it was copyright laws or that it distracts the kids or both. Only a staff photographer could take pictures and I am waiting for my CD of pictures to arrive in the mail. Then I should be able to post action pictures. We were so proud of her! The Spring play will be Robin Hood.

Ho Ho Ho

Just the 2 of us:)

Just a few pictures as there's nothing new going on. Hannah has a busy week of rehearsals and shows. I'm glad she's enjoying it since she had to pay the tuition herself. She's still been saving for the next session that starts in January. I think she has close to $190 saved so far thanks to birthday money and Craigslist sales!

Joshua was sick last week and mostly better now. He has a lingering cough and a runny nose. We got our tree up last week too. Todd worked all kinds of hours last week and the weekend but he got today off and Thursday & Friday. Every year I get a picture of the kids in a Santa hat. Hannah's stocking and Joshua's stocking holder have places for a picture so I update each year. It's fun to look back at their "growth" every year. My mom came for a two night visit last week. We're looking forward to Thanksgiving and Snoopy performances later this week.

Thank You Uncle Fred!!!!

Thank you (Uncle) Fred for thinking of the kids on your Hong Kong trip and sending souvenirs from the Disneyland there. The kids both collect pins, although Hannah has far more than Joshua. With the pins you sent, Hannah needed the 2nd lanyard to fit them all on. We enjoyed looking at the maps and were not quite as jealous as we were when we found out all the stuff that's missing from the Hong Kong park. We'll probably have those maps till they fall apart. Thanks again!

Visit with Todd's parents

Joshua playing checkers with Grandpa at Cracker Barrel

At the White Tanks new library nature walk.

The State Fair ribbons. Hannah with her 3 first place ribbons,one participation ribbon, & 2 honorable mention ribbons. Joshua with his 2nd,3rd,4th, & participation ribbons.


Last week Todd's parents came for a short visit Thursday-Sunday. We ate out at yummy restaurants,went to the new library out by the White Tank Mountains, and went bowling. I had one game with 4 strikes and a score of 169 beating everyone. I mention this so I have a record of it because I usually cannot break 100. While I admit to having the bumpers, I didn't really make use out of them in that particular game. The first 2 games I DID need the bumpers but I guess I got better with practice:)

The visit ended too soon and Hannah is always sad after a trip to the airport. We thought it would cheer her up to put up the Christmas tree. It's up and so are the little trees the kids keep in their rooms.

Todd's been working a mixture of mornings and nights this week. It throws my plans out of whack but I'll survive. For example: Todd was supposed to work 9am-5pm today. He got sent home because they needed him for tonight for some reason instead. So now he went in at 2:30pm and works till 11pm which means he cannot possibly open tomorrow at 5am as was originally scheduled. The rest of the week and weekend is unknown at this moment. How does that mess me up? Well, Joshua woke up sick today which means we can't get to Bible Study tonight. I have to stay home with sickie. Little stuff like that. I don't like stuff messing up my well thought out plans. Oh well. I guess it's "lounge around and watch a movie" night. Enough complaining. I'm glad he has a job:)

Hannah in Wonderland Birthday Party

Not sure how to make the picture not be sideways. Go ahead and tilt your head to get the full effect. Go on. Do it. Oh well.

Another view

With Grandma & Papa

Do you remember the light saber battles in Alice in Wonderland? Me neither:)

Hannah's birthday party was this past Saturday. The kids had fun playing at the park. I was glad my cheshire cat cake ended up looking like the cheshire cat for the most part. I had to explain to a few people why my "teacups" (plastic coffee cups) said "Drink Me" on them and about the "Eat Me" cupcakes. I think it was another successful & very merry unbirthday party :)

We pick up the kids' artwork and ribbons at the fairgrounds tomorrow. Of course the kids are super excited about Grandma & Grandpa coming to visit later this week for a few days.

Halloween 2010

At the bowling alley.

With the Humphreys Family

With the Fletcher Family.

Obi Wan and an angel.


The pictures are pretty self-explanatory for Halloween. We went out with the Fletchers 1st before they had to go to a party. Then we went to the Humphreys' neighborhood. Todd stayed home to watch the Steelers lose. They got some good candy and what they don't like we are putting in the shoe boxes for needy kids.