Holiday Greetings!!

Wow, it's been awhile since I've updated the blog. Not much has been happening besides school and the holidays. Sammi was William Shakespeare for a speech assignment at school. Boy it was fun making her dress in her grandma's clothes and wear felt on her face. I made the collar out of paper, I must say I think she looks pretty convincing hehehehe. Can you say teenage blackmail material?!!

Then Sammi and Noah both made the honor roll and perfect attendance at school this trimester. I went to the assembly and took pictures of them getting their awards. It was so great.

I couldn't resist posting this picture of Noah sleeping with his dog. Spike has his paws wrapped around him. It was too funny.

Michael's Craft Class

Kassi still goes to craft class at Michael's every week. My sister Carrie goes too, and the girls love it. Last week, my dad was lucky enough to be the one bringing Carrie to class. The girls made cyclops monters, but before they did, my dad decided to show the girls a cool thing he could do with the googly eyes. They thought it was soo funny, so did I that's why I grabbed my camera real fast. It looks like Kassi will be going to preschool later this month to get help with her speech. I know she will really miss going to craft class though. We will have to make sure that her and Carrie still get together to play though, or she won't know what to do.

Thanksgiving

Ok, so this is how it went down. The beginning of the week, I knew that my aunt Jeanette and her son, TJ were coming and they were bringing TJ's friend. My brother Wyatt was coming, but my brother Jason wasn't sure. We had invited Mike's parents to come, but then we heard they might do their own thing because Mike's sister Lori and her family didn't have anywhere to go. So of course I invited them too, that meant I had enough people to actually make a turkey and a ham. So the DAY BEFORE THANKSGIVING, my mom calls and mentions that they don't have anywhere to go for Thanksgiving. I reminded her that I had invited her months ago, and I was told they wouldn't be able to make it. Then she said, "Well it's probably too late to come now, right?" I was ecstactic! "Are you serious? Well come on over then!!" Then my brother Jason called to say he was going to come too. So that is how we ended up with 6 more people at the last minute. It was so much fun. My mom and Glen and the boys, stayed until Mon. morning. On Fri. my mom, Wyatt, and I got up at 2:30 am to hit the Black Friday shopping. Our first stop was Mervyn's where if you were one of the first 250 people in line, you got a $10 gift card. We each got one. Then on to KB toys where there was a news crew walking around the store. I don't know what happened, one minute I was standing next to mom when a lady with a camera walked up and asked me why I got up so early to make these sales. I look around and notice that my mother is NO WHERE to be found. So my dumb reply was "Uh, I have 4 kids and I need the sp..specials, uh d..d..deals." (ok, so I found out I'm not so good in front of the camera, you should have seen my deer in the headlights imitation). So after Mervyn's we hit Target and Michael's. Then we were home by 9am. We still had time to go to the movies with everyone, after our naps of course. On Sat. the boys went paintballing, Glen took the girls to the movies, and mom and I went to Tucson to visit my uncle Ray. He hasn't been doing real great, so we wanted to go visit him and see how he looked. He was doing pretty good and we were very happy to see him walking around and talking just fine. He still isn't out of the woods, but I definately think there could be some hope there. Sun. Mom and Glen decided to avoid the holiday traffic and wait until Mon. to drive home, so we played games and ate leftovers. I was so happy and excited to have the last minute guests. It was great to see my Aunt Jeanette too and then to visit my Uncle Ray, it was just an amazing weekend. We will have to do it again sometime!!

Grandma's House

My kids always have the week of Thanksgiving off from school, and Mike usually takes it off as well. We wanted to do something together as a family, so we went to my grandmother's house in Cordes Lakes. It is about 1 hour north of Phoenix. They have a garden up there that my kids love to go out and find the ripe vegetables and pick them for Grandma. Noah found a big radish out there and just thought it was so great. We even drove out to Linx Lake by Prescott to have picnic later. It was a nice relaxing time. Mike and Noah went that night to camp with Uncle Matt whose campsite was close to my grandma's house. They took Spike with them and had a lot of fun.

Childhood Memories

After returning from Louisiana, I was surprised at the memories that came flooding back. But first I should explain the situation a little more. Shortly after my parents divorced when I was in 1st grade, my dad remarried to Phyllis. She had a son, Paul, who was a little bit older than me. We would visit in Louisiana during the summers to see our dad. My mom remarried to Dennis when I was in 2nd grade. Dennis and I didn't seem to get along, so I asked to live with my dad. I went to live with dad and Phyllis in the 4th grade. We lived in Louisiana, Stephanie hadn't been born yet, I think. I remember that Paul and I had a very hard time sharing my dad. We were both pretty possessive of him and competed for his attention. But it wasn't just his attention we competed for, we made a contest out of everything. I even remember fighting over a patch of clovers in the backyard, because we wanted to see who could find a 4 leaf clover first. But one memory that sticks out most was when I was outside playing with some friends. Me and a couple of other girls were taking turns racing each other down the street. There was this one girl that wasn't always nice to people, and it was my turn to race her. I just knew I was going to win so that I could show her up. Well, she won, and those of you that know me, know that I don't take losing very well. I was so mad that I walked up and slapped her. When her parents came out, I started cussing at them. At some point, I realized that I had gone too far and I knew I was going to be in trouble, so I ran home. Sure enough, the girl's father came knocking on the door to talk to my dad. I hid in the hallway so I could hear what they were saying. I remember my dad telling the man that I don't normally act that way and he apologized for me or something. When my dad closed the door, I was expecting the worst, so when he called me to him, I went very slowly, knowing I couldn't talk my way out of this one. I was shocked, however, when my dad turned to me and said, "Don't swear. Now you need stay out of the front yard so that it looks like I grounded you." Boy, was I surprised, but more than that, I felt a sudden surge of love for my dad. I don't know if it was just because he was merciful or what, but I truly felt like he was on my side. The other part of the story is that, my brother Paul was going up and down the street telling all the kids in the neighborhood what I did to the girl that wasn't very nice to people. I remember him using the words "my sister". He was proud of what I did, and even bragged about me being his sister. I know that these terrible actions of mine shouldn't have made me so happy, but the memory of my dad protecting me, and my brother claiming me, just made it a good day.

Sign My Guest Book

Hi all! I'm kind of bored right now, so I made a guestbook for my blog. Please be sure to sign in. If you have a picture available that's great, if not, just sign in and say hi! I would love to see who checks out my blog. So even if you are just a secret blog stalker, please sign in (yes, I'm talking to you, Kim). Thanks!!

Happy Halloween

The other day my brother, Wyatt was nice enough to bring over his Guitar Hero 3 game so that I could check it out. But his toughest competition was Kassi. He even had to give her ice cream for "winning". We had lots of fun.

On Halloween we went to my dad's house. Course my dad was gone hunting (he got a deer yesterday, by the way) leaving Bonnie home alone with the 4 kids on Halloween. Daniel had some of his friends come over and all the older kids went trick or treating together, while Bonnie & I took the 3 little ones around. Mike stayed behind at Bonnie's house to hand out candy. I was surprised when we got back to the house the find the big kids were already done. They did 43 houses in the time it took Bonnie and I to do one street. But they all had fun!! It was great! I hope you all had a great Halloween too.

Stephanie's Wedding

This weekend, my dad and I flew out to Louisiana to attend my sister, Stephanie's wedding. It was beyond description, and well worth the trip. It seemed like after my dad divorced Stephanie's mom, that was just the end of seeing the other side of that family. I think that I can count on one hand how many times I have seen Stephanie since then. Plus, I had a step-brother that I never got to see or talk to again either. I was in my early teens and didn't really make an effort to keep up the relations, and didn't know how to go about it anyway. But going to the wedding, it was like no time had passed at all. We felt like family again. I got to see Paul, my step-brother, his wife, Tania, and their kids, Katie,3 1/2, and Cameron almost 2. I also got to meet Stephanie's two boys, Caleb, 3, Zachary, 14mo., and Nick's son, Kaleb 5 or 6 I think. Phyllis was so happy to see us, and we got to see Aunt Gail, and Phyllis's brothers too. Tiffany, Keyth, and Annabella were able to drive out from Georgia, to come as well. Course I think I'm getting sick of seeing her! Just kidding, she was a big help to me at the wedding. I was the photographer, but ended up needing to fix some hair right before the wedding, so Tiffany took the groom and groomsmen out for pictures. From then on, we took turns taking the pictures, and they ended up looking pretty good. I think my dad really enjoyed playing with all his grandkids that were there. Annabella was really jealous though, and started crying, "Gampa, mine, Gampa!" At the reception, little Katie told her dad that she wanted "that man" to sit by her, and pointed to my dad across the room. Then she looked at me and said quite proudly, "That's my grandpa!" It was soooo sweet. There were a couple more heart warming and tear felt moments when they did the Daddy-Daughter dance, and then when dad gave a toast with Phyllis and talked about how proud they were of their daughter. It was definately a trip I'm not likely to forget anytime soon, and one I will cherish. I am looking forward to keeping up with the family there now.

Family Pictures

And the winner is...

Last month, my kids entered a contest at Red Robin Restaurant, to create a new gourmet burger. The kids had to fill out a form with a list of ingredients and how they would make thier burger. Jessi got a notice in the mail yesterday, that she was the winner of the local restaurant that she turned it into. I don't know if her recipe will go on to the national competition or not, but we were so excited for her. She got a certificate and a $50 gift card to Red Robin. She took us out to dinner last night to celebrate. I didn't make a copy of her recipe before we turned it in, but we think we remembered what her recipe was, so if you dare, here is "Jessi's Specialty Burger":

1 hamburger bun - lightly toasted

1 hamburger patty

lettuce

tomato

2 fried eggs

secret sauce - mayo, ketchup, chopped onions & pickles, and bacon bits

4 kids and a dental office

Those of you with kids are thinking, "4 kids and a dental office? Enough said!" Which is true, but I must tell you of my misadventure. Having finally gotten dental insurance that is actually worth a dang, I proceeded to make apppointments for my perfect children. I could only get two in at a time, so I started with the 2 oldest children. It happened to be a day when school was out, which seemed like a good idea at the time. So I loaded up all 4 kids in the car, complete with one toy each to keep them occupied in the waiting room. I really had thought this through, and some how, even with 11 years experience, I thought everything would be fine, afterall, my kids are older now right? Wrong!! So we walk in and of course the first thing I have to do is fill out paper work. I take a corner in the huge waiting room and fill it with me and my kids. "Just play quietly" I say as I hunker down to fill out the Magna Carta of Dental documents. It goes ok for about 10 minutes (ok, meaning they have only been loud enough to wake one or two dead people, which as a mom with 4 kids is somehow acceptable to me), then Noah gets called in for his appointment first. I finally finish the documents and take them up to the front, then Sammi gets called in as well. I find the water machine and those cone shaped cups and take a drink to the remaining two kids to share. This is of course where I went wrong. Cuz no sooner was the cup out of my hand, then the two girls started to fight over who got a drink first and how the other person was going to drink it all. To which I gestured to the water machine, on the other side of the waiting room, and told them there was plenty of water, they could just go and get more (mistake #2). After my announcement, I had to turn my attention to Sammi who had come back out to tell me that she had to take out her earrings for the x-ray, "but mom, they told me I couldn't take them out for 6 weeks, my ear ring holes will close up" to which her eyes start to brim with tears, of course my sympathetic mom response was "Oh for crying out loud, they won't close up, come here we'll take them off for a minute, it will be fine" Little did I know that the reason you can't take them out for 6 weeks, is because they won't come out, no matter what you do. As I pulled, pried, and twisted, Sammi's tears turned to full fledged tears right in the waiting room. Realizing that this wasn't working, I decided to take her into the bathroom to look in the mirror so that she can take them out herself, and hopefully it wouldn't hurt as much. I left the other 2 girls in the waiting room after telling them to stay right there, that I would be right back. After about 2 minutes in the bathroom I knew there was no way we were getting those earrings out short of ripping them out, so I told the x-ray tech that they wouldn't come out, could she do the appointment without x-rays, to which the girl told me she would just do the x-rays with the earrings in, it was no big deal. To which I'm thinking, then why did I just spend 10 minutes trying to get them out? So I finally return to the waiting room to find my other two girls racing across the room to the water machine fighting over who would get to fill up the cup this time. The waiting room is of course filled with parents watching my kids zip around the waiting room like wild indians. What I wanted to do was grab each girl by the ear and pull them to the other side of the room and yell at the top of my lungs at them. But of course there were too many witnesses, so I settled for a whispered, but threatening, "get in your seats now!" They went to thier seats but obviously didn't realize that I was seething because they continued to argue. I was distracted from my seething to fill out more paper work, some for me and Mike so that we could make appointments as well. While I'm filling out even more paper work. Jessi decides to start throwing her teddy bear into the air and catching it, while Kassi decided to jump up around to try to catch it first, which was of course an exercise in futility. I tried to ignore them and finish filling out the papers because in my mind they were in for it when we got home. Finally, Noah and Sammi finished their appointments and of course I was told that my though my kids brush their teeth, they are not doing it right. Because they had plaque in places there shouldn't be any. So the dentist gave all my kids a demonstration on how to brush correctly. I went to the front desk to make the appointments for Mike and I and I told the kids to get in the car, I would be right there. I was watching them from the window and saw that they left the doors open so it wouldn't be too hot which was fine. The lady at the desk took forever to make me the appointments as she had to make profiles on the computer for both of us. I was getting worried, so I kept watching the kids in the car and they seemed fine. Just as I was finally able to leave. Sammi and Jessi come crashing through the door "Mom we're so hot and you left us all alone for so long!" Which of course every head in the waiting room turns to look at the terrible mom that would do such a thing. So after 2 hours in that office, I put on my best fake smile and walked out the door. "Get in the car and don't talk to me" I say through clenched teeth, which only grants me silence for about 2 seconds. I ignore the complaints and whining until everyone is in the car and the doors are safely shut, then I explode. I promptly tell them that they are all grounded from the T.V. for a week. They finally realize I'm seriously mad and I thought that meant they would be smart and keep quiet, but of course not. The first thing out of Sammi's mouth is, "does that include the computer?" I'm shocked at her stupidity and answer, "it does now, do you really want to keep talking?" I finally got my silence all the way home where I promptly put myself in time out in my bedroom to cool down. Then I get a phone call from Tiffany because we were going to my dad's house for dinner that night, and she was letting us know that they would be swimming. Well, I already told my kids that their punishment was no t.v., but I couldn't just let them have fun now, so my husband came up with a solution. When he got home he calmly announced that they could swim at grandpa's house if they recieved a spanking now. I was sure no one would want one, but to my surprise, they all lined up for their spankings. It went oldest to youngest, when Sammi came out sobbing, I decided I was going to show no sympathy and told her to go to her room to cry to which she replied, "it's not that, it's just that I forgot what a spanking felt like." After I started laughing she stopped crying. Soon we went to grandpa's house for dinner and swimming. Of course knowing the story, Grandma Bonnie said to Jessi "I bet you're never going to act like that again at the dentist, huh?" To which my 8 year old replied "Oh come on, it was 2 hours what do you expect?"

Is it any wonder that when it was time to take the other 2 to the dentist, that I forgot all about it and now have to wait another month to get in again?

The Zoo

Kassi and I went to the Phoenix Zoo with Grandma & Grandpa Hogg, Carrie, Jordan, Aunt Tiffany, and Annabella. We had so much fun looking at all the animals! Plus the kids got to play in the water at the splash pad at the zoo. It was nice to be able to spend more time with Tiffany and Annabella before they had to leave.

Jessi's Baptism

Jessi turned 8 this eight year, which of course means she was able to be baptized. She looked so beautiful in her white dress. Her daddy baptized her, and her Uncle Jason confirmed her. I also have to make special mention of her dress that Uncle Jason picked out for her (since I had forgotten about getting her a dress, and all the places to get baptism dresses are in Mesa, by where he lives) he did a great job getting one that was definately her taste. She was so excited to be baptized, we are so proud of her decision.

After the baptism, we invited family and friends to our house for a birthday party and lunch. It was such fun and we want to thank everyone that was able to come and help make it such a special day. Tiffany and Annabella were in town too. It was nice to see them while they were here. (There, that ought to teach my father in law to stick his tongue out at me!!)

Tiffany and I were able to work on some family history, including doing a couple of interviews with older family members. It was so much fun. Mike agreed to babysit the kids for us one night while we went to do an interview. As you can probably tell from the picture, this is Mike's idea of babysitting!! Not really, Annabella just thought the kennel was so much fun to play in, one time spike crawled in there with her! We had so much fun visiting with Annabella and Tiffany and were especially grateful that they could be here for Jessi's baptism!

August & beginning of September update

Well, as you can tell from my previous posts, we had 2 weddings to attend in August. Both of which were cousins of mine. We also attended the blessings of my niece and nephew (the twins). School started on Aug. 13, the kids were excited and nervous at the same time. Noah got a teacher that he had as a sub last year, when his teacher had a baby. He didn't like the sub last year and it was a constant fight to get him to go to school. But we just made it clear that he had to respect her no matter what, because she was his teacher. I felt good about this because his only complaints were that she was strict and yelled alot, so I just felt that she had different methods that he didn't like. So I was really surprised when we found out that the teacher requested to have Noah in her class this year. My husband said it meant that Noah did what we said and respected her, even though he didn't care for her. But Noah was a little disappointed to see who his teacher was. Again we told him to just worry about his own actions, and make sure to give his teacher respect. It must have worked again because he was chosen as student of the month in his class for August.

Sammi is in the 5th grade and just had her 11th birthday on Sept. 3rd. I can't believe she is 11 years old. Mike and I took her and her best friend Kaylee out to dinner with us, then to the mall. While at the mall we surprised her by getting her ears pierced for her birthday. Then she surprised me by asking if she and Kaylee could go shopping the stores in the mall by themselves. I was shocked, she'd only been 11 for a day and she thought she could off in the mall without an adult??? I don't think I'm going to handle her growing up very well.

Jessi is in the 2nd grade this year, and my focus is to help her with her reading a little bit more. I think if she wanted to be better at reading, she would be, but because it's not something she wants to do, she doesn't even try. It's so frustrating. But she is my creative one, always thinking outside the box. You only have to look at how she likes to dress herself (outside of school) to know that is true. One day she wore a school navy blue skirt, with a green shirt, a pink leopard print vest and my black boots, that went up to her knees. Maybe she'll be a famous fashion designer someday!

I don't have Kassi in preschool this year. I take her to Michael's craft store once a week where they have craft class for kids her age. My sister Carrie, (She's 3 yrs old), somes to the class too, and they have so much fun. Each week, the teacher features a different letter of the alphabet, and they do about 4 or 5 crafts with that letter. Kassi is a constant source of laughter for me. She is always making me smile. We have fun together, and work on writing her name, and practicing to write the alphabet.

Mike is in Las Vegas this week, taking a class for work. He has been busy with work and his church calling lately. He is in charge of the young men in our ward and that includes working with them in scouting activities. Right now he's working with 2 boys to help them achieve their Eagle Rank in Scouts. He's also thinking about getting back to fixing up the house again. We still need to finish the family room, which is quite an eyesore now that the rooms around it are done.

I haven't been up to much lately. I'm back to my coupons and grocery shopping, I need to stock up again since I wasn't home this summer to do my shopping. I am looking forward to a trip I'm going to take in October to Louisiana. My sister, Stephanie, is getting married. Also, my sister Tiffany is coming to visit in a week. I can't wait to see her and my niece, Annabella, again.

Well, that is our family in a nutshell!! We hope you are all doing well, and please be sure to leave a comment so that I may know that you were here.

My Cousin Josh's Wedding

Monique's Wedding

Here is my first attempt at wedding photography. My cousin Monique just got married in Aug. and realized that she would rather spend her money on a videographer than a photographer, so I voluteered to help her out. Some of these are just fun pics with my kids and pics that I liked, they're not all edited yet, but I think they turned out alright for my first try.

Our CA trip

Well, a week after we returned from CO, we took the kids to CA to see my parents. The plan was to drop off the older 3 over the weekend and then come back. Well, it didn't work out that way, my mother asked me to stay and so I did. We sent Mike home on an airplane and I returned a week later with the kids. I had a nice visit while I was there, I got to go to the beach twice. I saw my cousin Kerri and her husband and daughter. My cousin Elizabeth, who lives in Utah, was actually in LA with her kids too, we got together and played games. I even got see some of my friends from high school, Rachel Schnieder, Kelly Hanlon, and Roslynn (Frick) Casterline, just to name a few. The kids got to hang out with Grammy and Grandpa Costello. They were of course spoiled as expected. They had such a great time there. While we were there, my brother Jason came to visit my mom and brought his girlfriend with him. Her name is Terena, and it was her first time boogy boarding in the ocean, she had so much fun, she didn't want to get out! It was a nice relaxing time and I really enjoyed it, but I'm also glad to be home finally. I felt like this summer was one thing after another, so I'm happy to take a deep breath and try to find some order in my house.

Tag your it

I've been Tagged!!!

Jobs I’ve Held:
1. Mc Donald's
2. Glamour Shots
3. Video Powerstore
4. Cost Cutters
5. Hollywood Video
6. Now I am a MOM!!!

Movies I Can Watch Over and Over:
1. Sleepless in Seattle
2. Dirty Dancing
3. Pride and Prejudice (the one with Colin Furth)

Places I Have Lived:
1. Bossier City, LA
2. Tucson, AZ
3. Oxnard, CA
4. Glendale, AZ

TV Shows I Enjoy:
1. American Idol
2. Medium
3. So You Think You Can Dance
4. Grey's Anatomy

What were likely the 1st things you thought when you saw your significant other for the first time?
What a Jerk!! But since then I have learned that was just an act cuz he didn't want everone to know what a great guy he is.

Places I’ve Been on Vacation (other than the U.S.):
0 Places out side of the U.S but Tiffany and I need to plan a trip to Ireland, and my husband has promised to take me to Australia for our 20th anniversary.

Favorite Foods:
1. Mexican Food
2. Ribeye Steak (but only when my husband cooks it)
3. Salads of all kinds

Websites I Visit (almost) Daily:
1. Email
2. Blogs of family and friends
3. Familysearchindexing.org

Body Parts I Have Injured:
1. Broken wrist
2. kidney surgery(not sure if that counts, but afterwards, I sure felt injured!)
3. Giving birth to 4 kids really should count as injuring yourself too.

Nicknames I’ve been called:
1. nickalodeon
2. nicorette
3. naggy nick
4. nickerella

Now I get to pick other Blog buddies to do this!
Tag, you're it:
1. Merri DeGuili
2. Mom
3. Ruth Jester (now you have to get a blog!!)

Uncle Spike's House

Uncle Spike and Aunt Barb's House

Our last adventure on the way home, was to stop at Uncle Spike and Aunt Barb's house. They raise horses, and are up to 54 horses right now. The kids were so excited to see them all, it seemed like they wanted to see every single one. Uncle Spike is my mother-in-law's brother, but we don't get an opportunity to visit with him and his family too often. It was nice to be able to see them.

Crater Lake Slide Show

Crater Lake (What the hail were we thinking?!!)

This was the main event of our trip. My husband has been backpacking into Crater Lake throughout his life. It's one of his most favorite places to go, and for the past year he has been planning this trip to take us to see it. We went with his parents, and Jake, (one of our nephews), his brother Scott, his wife, Tausha, and their 3 boys, the youngest being 18 months old. We have been preparing for this trip for a while, which is one reason we went to Fossil Springs a few months ago. But while Fossil Springs is 4 miles each way, Crater Lake is a 7 mile hike each way. I was really worried about my physical condition (you know, LAZY!) but it turned out not to be too bad physically. But the weather really kicked our butts. On the way in, it started getting cloudy and dark and we were worried about hail, which has caused hypothermia to one of Mike's brothers about 12 years ago. So when it started to rain and hail, we stopped at the last bunch of trees before the top. (Did I mention that the top is the Continental Divide where it is too high for trees to grow?) Mike and Noah hiked up a different way because of where the cars needed to be parked and we were supposed to meet him at the top before we finished hiking into the lake. When the rain and hail stopped, we decided to start hiking again, but soon after it started to rain. Kassi's hands were getting so cold and she wouldn't do anything I told her to keep them warm, so I just scooped her up and carried her, trying to keep her hands between the two of us. I had a small glimpse of what pioneer mothers felt like as they were traveling across the plains. To me, it wasn't an inconvenience, it just needed to be done. I didn't feel like complaining about it (which is a big deal for me!!) I just did it because I loved her. It was a great feeling, because I didn't feel exhausted or winded, I probably could have done it longer if I needed to, but my father in law had called Mike on the radio, and Mike came down from the top and was able to take her the rest of the way to our lunch spot. After lunch, the rain cleared up and we continued into the Lake. I was so proud of my kids. Everyone hiked without complaining even though they each had to carry a pack that was 1/3 of their body weight, course I think Noah's was a little more than that. Kassi of course, wasn't carrying anything, but she led the way to the Lake hiking all by herself, telling stories and singing songs as she went. We went into the lake on Tues, and didn't come out till Thurs. We had a whole day in there to relax and enjoy the beautiful scenery. It really is a beautiful place. The hike out was alot more trying. I hailed on us even harder, and there was a thunderstorm where we had to set up our poncho club (we strung our ponchos up like tarps in the trees) and waited for 2 hours. It was finally looking better and when we got to the top we were so hot, we were shedding all our warm clothes and ponchos. But soon after we did that, of course the rain suddenly came down hard, we were too close to the cars to stop at that point and just threw our ponchos on and kept going. My kids were real troopers, and didn't complain the whole time, it was like one big adventure for them. On the way out, they even stopped to play in a snow bank on the side of the trail. My husband is my idea of a hero, on the way out, he went to the cars first, and drove closer to the trail, left his pack and came back to get his mother's pack for her. He even carried Kassi on a couple of occasions. What a guy!!! I'm real surprised that my body didn't have any long term ill effects, and quite proud of our family. It was a good bonding experience.

The Sand Dunes Pictures

The Sand Dunes

We went to the Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado. The sand dunes are soooo big and there is a disappearing river that meanders in front of them. We were lucky that the river was running when we came. It wasn't there just 2 hours earlier from what people were telling us. The kids played in the water and sand. A park ranger even came and gave the kids a geology lesson about the sand dunes formed. They had so much fun. Mike and his brother, Scott, took Noah and Devon to the top of the sand dunes. It took them a long time to get up there. They were very hot when they got back down to us.

After the sand dunes, we went to a pool that is heated by a natural hot spring. Unfortunately, it 100 degrees outside and the hot water wasn't too refreshing. But I can imagine how nice it would feel on a cold day. Course the weather changed on us really quickly and our 100 degree weather turned into a hail storm within less than an hour. But we were done swimming by then anyway.

Wilson Family Reunion

We have been a very busy family this summer. July 13th we went to Colorado, for a long vacation. We started out our Colorado vacation by going to the Wilson Family Reunion in Mancos, CO. My father-in-laws mother and brothers and sisters plan a reunion every 2 years where they find a place to go camping together. Of course their idea of camping is that everyone brings thier big camping trailers. Well, that works for me!! Some of Mike's uncles brought quads and motorcycles. To say that Noah was in seventh heaven was an understatement. Kassi met a friend while she was there, Emma actually lives in Apache Junction, AZ so we may have to get them together again. We celebrated 2 birthdays up there. My nephew Jake, and Mike's Grandma Wilson. It was nice to visit and to watch the kids have so much fun.

Check out my Slide Show!

Visit with the Jesters in El Paso, TX

The end of June, I took the kids to El Paso, TX to visit our good friends The Jesters. The kids had a really great time. We even had a birthday party for all of them because Kassi had insisted that she was going to have her birthday at Lainey's house this year. They got to go swimming, and play together. It was crazy with 8 kids in one house, but they had a great time. Ruth and I each made a circle journal. Circle journals are something your supposed to pass around in your circle of friends and each contribute to each month. Well Ruth and I each made one out of envelopes which fold accordian style. Each month we will make a postcard type scrapbook page for each other that will fit inside the envelopes. Our theme is "Then Sings My Soul", meaning we can make a card about anything that inspires us. I'm a little behind, I only have a few more days left to make the one for July and send it to her. Check out my slide show above to see some pictures from our trip. We were so busy there, that I didn't take too many pictures.

Trip to Tucson

Last Sun. night, I got the phone call that my Uncle Ray was in the hospital in Tucson, and it didn't look good. He had been revived twice within a couple of hours. So plans were made, and family from all over, came to Tucson, including me. Even my sister, Tiffany came from Georgia, bringing my niece, Annabella, and my grandparents from Pennsylvania. While it is still a trying time for our family, we are enjoying each other's company. We still don't know which way my uncle is going to go, but we just keep praying for him. I came back to Phoenix yesterday, but I will go back to Tucson on Thurs. I took Jessi and Kassi with me to Tucson and left Sammi and Noah with my other Grandparents in Cordes Lakes. They went to a vacation bible school while they were there and had a great time. Jessi and Kassi got to hang out at my Aunt Jeanette's house with my cousin TJ. TJ introduced us to a video game called Guitar Hero II. I'm quite addicted to the game. Jessi enjoyed it too, and even sticks her tongue out the side of her mouth just like her grandpa Hogg does when he plays the guitar!

I really enjoyed my time with my mom, Tiffany, and Annabella. Annabella got to know her Aunt Nikki a little bit better this week I think. I enjoyed taking as many pictures of her as I could.

This one was taken right after Annabella hit Tiffany in the eye. I call it her pirate pose. ARRRR!

Well, I will try to put the rest of my pictures on snapfish and post a link on here. I will be going to Tucson on Thurs. then on to El Paso on Fri. to visit with my friend Ruth. I will keep everyone posted.