Ahhhhhh.....Vacation

Eric and I both had time off while the kids were home from school, we had many great and wonderful projects planned to accomplish around the house, but instead we enjoyed sleeping in, playing games, watching movies, and a couple of trips to the zoo. Our zoo pass has been one of our best investments! We went to the Phoenix zoo and then found we could use our pass at the Tucson Zoo, I'll post pictures of that later.....maybe!

This poor boy can't go too long without a snack, I can't wait until he's a teenager!

Poser!

Who can resist Grady-man?!

5 years old!

Alyssa turned 5 on November 23rd, she had such a fun, simple birthday party with her friends. The kids all got to make their own pizza, then I sent them outside to play while I cleaned up the kitchen and baked the pizza. After a game of duck, duck, goose on the trampoline, the kids ate their pizza and some birthday cake. It was the cheapest, easiest and most fun party we have done for our kids! She had sooooo much fun playing with her friends!

fantastic pizzas!

Rockn' game of duck, duck, goose

Our big 5 year old girl blowing out her candles (Eric was in charge of "making" her cake)

Eric spied something unusual that night in the laundry room.

Our poor little birthday girl partied too hard on her birthday, she fell asleep in the laundry basket when she went to put her shoes away in the laundry room!

Alright, so maybe I am not really going to keep up on my blog as well as I had hoped! :) So, tonight I attended my first school board meeting. They are building a new high school that will open in time for the 2009-10 school year out here by our house. There are 4 options for boundries that will be voted on next month, 2 of these options do not include my neighborhood which means kids from my neighborhood would attend Florence High when they have a new school practically in their backyard- down right rediculous! Anyway, as I was explaining to my girls tonight why I was leaving and my purpose in attending this meeting I got thinking about how absolutly thankful I am to live in a free country where I can express my feeling and opinions and they are heard! (Actually, Sonda was heard and I am glad she let us throw her under the bus and was willing to speak and represent our group tonight because I was too nervous). I know, it's not 4th of July or Thanksgiving, I am just feeling quite thankful and a great sense of pride for my country tonight! I think it might also have something to do with the fact that my trip tonight started at Chevron with a 64oz. Diet Coke and ended at the good ole' Florence McDonald's with some chocolate chip cookies, not to mention the great women who attended with me and turned my mini van into a party van!

"Granny and Papa"

I found out that my cute little hillbilly grandma and grandpa Asburry in Georgia who I love more than life itself, have been looking at my blog. That gives me good reason to update my blog! Hope you enjoy the pictures of Grady. You need to have Christina show you how to make a comment! :) Grady now has 6 teeth, 4 on top and 2 on the bottom. He had a heck of a time teething but even when he is crying we still think he is soooo cute!

This is when our little Grady man started crawling, he is 7 months old in these pictures! Now he knows how to go up the stairs. We are still working on teaching him to go down the stairs without getting any new bruises!

SERIOUSLY?!

I'm on the PTO board at Cambree and Hailey's school. The past two years we have put on a fall festival that requires TONS of hours of hard work and preperation but is rewarding in the end. The week before the festival, I have a plan to accomplish everything that needs to be done. Everyone one has to cooperate with my plan for it to go smoothly, this year my kids (and my immune system) did not get this memo. Here is how this fantastic week went:
Alyssa and Braden came inside very proud to announce to me that they made a river in the backyard. They weren't kidding, and yes, that is my lawnmower that I did not put away sitting in water! Another PTO member came over with her daughter so she and I could work on stuff for the festival. Of course Alyssa and Braden took her daughter Georgia staight to the "river" to play in the mud! Since that day Georgia has been asking her mom to take her to the "water house"!
I started to loose my voice and didn't feel so hot but put that on the back burner because things for the festival were falling apart left and right. Thank goodness for Eric who was such a HUGE help last week! Saturday, Braden woke up with a fever, we druged him and somehow made it through the day. I don't know how, but we managed to pull off a successful fall festival that night! By Sunday that poor little Braden was really sick. I took him to an urgent care by our house and they sent us on to the ER. I had strep and pneumonia, poor little Braden had tonsillitis, a throat infection (not strep), and Mono of all things! After an I.V., some sprite and a popsicle, he was ready to come home!
A BIG THANKS to friends who have helped with my house and kids (you know who you are)!

Happy Birthday Hailey!

August 29th was Haileys 7th birthday. When she came downstairs the living room was decorated with hot pink streamers and "happy birthday" balloons! She chose to have french toast for breakfast. Eric takes the kids to breakfast for their birthdays but they decided to wait until Saturday to have their breakfast date. On Saturday she chose McDonalds for breakfast and I think she ordered one of everything on the breakfast menu! Nothing like getting spoiled on your birthday!
All Hailey asked for was a "my e pet" she was thrilled to get a pink poodle!

Haileys birthday was on a Friday, that night we went to a family dance at her school. She had lots of fun at the dance and after it was over, grandpa and grandma Asburry came over for cake and ice cream! Saturday, we had a birthday party for her cousin Kallie, and finally on Sunday we had a big family party at our house. She ended the party weekend with Kallie and some of Erics brothers spending the night at our house so they could go dove hunting Monday morning!

Happy Birthday Hailey!

We Love You!!!

WARNING....

If you leave your kids at my house, I will not actually "watch" them!
Alyssa, Braden, Blaise, and Emily plastered themselves and my wall in the time it took me to take a quick phone call. O.K., so maybe there is no such thing as a quick phone call at my house, I should have known something was wrong because the kids were so quiet outside. It was not until Emily came into my house and stood on my CARPET that I found out what they were up to! With the words that followed when I saw her standing on the carpet, it's a good thing Sonda was the one on the phone!:) I thought it would be punishment to spray them down with the hose, however, with this rowdy crowd I should have known better, they thought it was the most fun they had all day!