2009 Fall Class Pictures

Here are my cutie pies.

Fall Break Zoo Time

During our fall break we spent a day at the Zoo. Yes, I love the zoo and so do my kids. We took a friend with us and we had a great time. All the animals were out and about since it is finally cooling down a bit here. I love to take the wagon for Lewis to ride in and to carry our lunches but what usually ends up happening is he wants to pull the wagon. It gives me a break and he sure loves it and the wagon is much easier to get in and out of instead of the stroller when you want to see all the animals.

Aren't the lions so cute?!

The monkeys were all over in their enclosure having fun and we stayed for a long time to watch them!

Remember I said it had cooled down not cooled off, let's not get crazy--it was still 92 that day so we enjoyed the fan cooling us off at the coyote enclosure!

We were feeding the ducks and turtles in the pond and Griffin fell in so he had to run through the kiddie splash pad to rinse off all the muck, he looks sad doesn't he?!

Our favorites, the tortoises

Cheetahs eating (kinda gross!)Chillin

This is one zen baboon!

watching the baboons in their enclosureHmm, I wonder if Wil E Coyote could catch this roadrunner?!

Lewis is 3!!

Yes, my sweet handsome prince is 3! I can't believe how fast the time has gone by! He is one fantastic addition to our family and we love him lots! He is so sweet and loving and gives fantastic kisses. (He's becoming a bit more stingy with them so I know the Terrible 3's are about to hit.) He loves to "go play friends" and lives on "p-butter honey" sandwiches. He is an electronics wiz and can play the Wii, Nintendo DS, and PBS Kids games on the computer just as good as his older siblings. He is better than I am! I love that I have him all to myself for 2 more years before he heads off to school. He is just at that age where everyone in the family wants to be around him and play with him because he is so fun and everything is so exciting and new. We really fell blessed to have him in our family!

Lew decided on "noodles" for his birthday dinner, which in this family means PF Changs or Pei Wei lo mein noodles. We were really bummed to have to go there but, we did it for Lewis. My mom came down and took us all out. It was a delish dinner and Lewis loved every last bite!!

The Great Wall of Chocolate for dessert

We also had cake and presents at our house on Sunday morning, his actual birthday. Grammy made the cake and had her two helpers, Helen and Mary learning all about cake decorating. They mixed the frosting, made the colors, spread the icing, and learned how to use the decorating tips for icing. The biggest problem was I only had tiny tips. The star and the circle tips were the smallest ones ever and the girls had to really squeeze to get the icing out! I think they did a fantastic job and Lew sure loved his Thomas cake. (Grammy also got him a pinata but we will save that for it's own post!)

Wow! A gift certificate to Macaroni Grill! Helen's favorite! (Its a long story)

blowing out candles

Griffin's latest prayer

Griffin says some really good prayers. He loves to be thankful for our blood and bones and mentions them often. He also likes to have a "most favorite part of the prayer" session after he is done praying and he asks everyone what their favorite part was. Sometimes his prayers are short and to the point but sometimes he prays for everything. Last night was one of those nights..here are some highlights

Thank you for our blood and bones
Thank thee for energy
Bless that if the power goes off it will come back on 'mmediately!
Bless that everyone in the world won't have any more headaches
Bless that Matthew (neighbor) and I can always have play dates forever
Thank thee for electronics
Thank thee for hands and fingers to play electronics games.
Thank thee for Zeus (our dog) who is old as a grandpa

Please bless us that no one will have any bad dreams
Bless the offer on our house will be accepted today, tonight..or maybe tomorrow
Please bless everyone in the world will be good and no one will go over to the dark side

Laundry

In our family we have a laundry system.

Griffin takes the dirty clothes from the bedroom hampers and sorts them into white, dark and light piles in the laundry room hampers.

Mommy washes and dries the clothes.

Helen and Mary hang/fold and put away clothes.

It's a system I can live with!

So for fall break Helen and Mary were up in Flagstaff with my parents for 3 days while Griffin and Lewis stayed home for some personal mommy and daddy time. One night, Griffin went to put on his pj's and found none in his drawer so he just put on a big sleep shirt. When we were about to say our bedtime prayers he asked when Helen and Mary would be home. I thought it was so sweet he missed his sisters until he explained..."I really need them to come home and do the clothes so I have some pajamas!"

Classic

I love that it didn't occur to him to ask me or Brad for some pajamas or to even go see if there were any clean ones in the dryer or spare room aka--sorting clothes room.

Crappy things to do today

1. Pay IRS $968.57 from our 2007 tax return where, thanks to Brads dyslexia, we messed up and got overpaid...bummer

2. Pay Az Dept of Unemployment $240.00 for overpayment, Brad worked off and on while he was laid off and the dates got mixed up on a week he worked with a week he didn't work so they think he worked when he didn't and we need to pay them back...sigh

3. Buy 4 new tires for the Yukon XL to the tune of $500.00. You gotta love SUV's that have tires that cost $125 each! On the plus side, no blow-out because the tire sensor went off and we pulled over to find a huge bulge in the back right tire and were able to change it before it shredded with us on the freeway going 80 miles an hour! Sadly, the other 3 were in bad shape too so we had to replace all 4.

So, anyone else having as much fun as us? :>

Blast from Mission Past

Ladies and Gentlemen please check out this post from an old friend and his legendary mission tie. He kindly posted this at my request and even dug up a picture of us from way back when. Amazingly we look exactly the same!

I have to add that I lost/misplaced the tie and thought I'd given it to DI or something but this summer I found it in my dad's closet at the cabin. I was yelling "SWEET!!! NO FREAKING WAY! IT'S HERE!! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! WOW, THIS IS AWESOME!!!! HARV IS GOING TO BE SOOO HAPPY!" My kids rushed in and were a little bummed I was so excited over a tie but once you read the story you will know why I was so thrilled! Enjoy it!

Science Center

We went to the Science Center with our friends the other day. It was really fun. We really enjoy the Center because they have so much to do that is hands on and even 2, 3, and 4 year olds have a great time. They just got rid of their Lego exhibit which was a huge hit with my kids, but are adding a Robot's exhibit--based on the movie Robots--which will probably be really fun too!

We had great fun with our friends. Lewis is always happy to go play friends. We started in the Planetarium and learned a bunch of stories about the stars and constellations and then we started playing! We learned about weather--and got rained on inside, played music, had fun with magnets and weights, and even ran around some mazes! We had a really great time and are so happy to spend time with our friends!

Lew's favorite the magnetic ball wall. You move the pieces around and make a maze for the ball to go through all the way to the bottom. If you are really good the ball will rocket out of the bottom and shoot half way across the room, at least that's what Lewis thinks is super cool!

Our friends on a bed of nails!

Wheel races!

spinningErosion

Outdoor Maze

Crazy Hair Day

It's Crazy Hair Day at school and this is what we came up with. The back of the girls hair didn't get a picture but it's in a half a bun/half a ponytail. Griffin just gets spiked! So we were up early for the crazy hair and tomorrow is picture day so we will have another extra early fun hair day! Stay tuned!

Aunt Judy & the boys

My Aunt Ann sent me this picture from 3 years ago of Griffin and my Aunt Judy. I think it is great of both of them and when I showed Grif he said "I love Aunt Judy, I wish she never died." Me too Griffin! I'm just glad I have lots of pictures to remember her by!

Here they are at Easter 2007