Christian is on leave after basic training

Chris and Steve came up to Phoenix when Chris was on leave from the Marines and they stopped by for breakfast.  Well, Chris spent the night as well.  We had a lot of fun and the kids as always loved to see their oldest cousin and Uncle Steve.  Chris is going back soon for infantry training in Camp Pendleton.  It was good to see Chris and I hope he enjoys his time in the marines!

Curtis!

Curtis came out for a visit for about four days last week.  Curtis visits us anywhere from one to four times a year.  This was his first visit of 2013.  We had a great time.  As usual he cut everyone's hair, we ate a lot of good food.  This time he had a chance to see Lizzy compete in a gymnastics meet.  Other highlights included a trip to In and Out Burger, Happy Hour out with Patty and Jan, lunch at Someburros, a movie for him and Mark, lots of fun with the kiddos!  Curtis always brings lots of laughs and fun, even if he does encourage bad behavior from Michael!  All of the kids look forward to a visit from Curtis, and I do to as he is one of my best friends.  I met Curtis when I was about 10.

Vegas: Family Style

We went to Las Vegas in January for a gymnastics meet for Lizzy at Lady Luck.  My folks joined us and we stayed in their time share.  It was a great weekend.  We left Markie with his Aunt and Uncle, so he is not in any pictures.  I think when he was little he got burnt out watching Lizzy do a lot of gymnastics, and he has seen enough to last him a while.  We had a free day there without any gymnastics so we went to NY NY and Lizzy and her dad went on the rollercoaster there.  We all went to the Coke and M&M store which was a lot of fun.  We hit a buffet in our hotel that everyone enjoyed, along with a meal at our favorite Vegas stop, Steak n Shake.

Christmas 2012

Another Christmas on the books.  Never a dull moment during the holidays.  We went to Nana and Papas house for Christmas this year.  We drove down the morning of Christmas Eve and drove home Christmas night.  It was so fun.  We went to mass Christmas Eve and had La Fonda for dinner.  Everyone scurried off to bed about 9 p.m. to get to sleep before Santa arrived.  Lizzy was the latest going to bed about 10 and got very anxious to go to sleep when she realized via the Norad tracker that santa was getting close to Az.  She fell asleep in record time.  All of the kids except Michael woke up at various times of the night, I think they were having trouble sleeping with dreams of Santa Claus coming down the chimney.  Everyone got great gifts.  It was a whirlwind trip but worth it to spend time in Yuma with Nana and Papa.  Michael had a blast too.  Some memorable gifts:
Lizzy - kindle fire, Markie - samsung tablet, xbox games Madden 13 and a war game, Bella - a mini tablet and art sets, Michael - anything with Hulk or Captain America.  Mark's favorite gift was a miller light hat with a bottle opener on it my mom gave him.  I liked my gloves I can text with on.  Fun had by all.  We are blessed to have so much.

Auntie Anne's Apple Farm

We kicked off fall break by driving three hours to Winslow, Az to the apple farm there.  We caravaned up with the Kash's.  It was so much fun.  We picked apples, ate apple pie, picked our own pumpkins, went through a huge corn maze!  What a packed day!  It was a long day trip, but so much fun to explore Winslow!  We missed Markie, as he stayed back with Aunt Kim and hung out with her and Alex and Ben for the day.  We hope to make it a tradition as it was a blast.  I can remember visiting an apple farm as a kid, and there is nothing like taking a bite out of a fresh apple just picked off the tree!

Lizzy's Birthday

As usual I told Lizzy absolutely no slumber party for her birthday, and sure enough we had about a dozen girls spend the night for her birthday.  This year we decorated pillow cases and filled coke bottles with various sand, shells, etc.  It was a lot of fun as usual.  Lizzy chose to have all gymnastics friends over this year.  We also celebrated as a family at Oreganos.  We had a great dinner with Aunt Kim and Ben and Nancy joining us. 

All about Lizzy at 12
Loves:
gymnastics
poptarts
mac n cheese
starbucks frozen drinks
mustaches
Taylor Swift
Her little brother Michael
The Biggest Loser
anything chocolate
drama class
math
baking
her iphone

Bella's Birthday

We celebrated Bella's birthday on August 7 this year.  August 8 was the first day of school and her actual birthday, August 9 was the second day of school.  So on the 7th we headed to Peter Piper Pizza with Deanna and her kids, Kim and her kids minus Ben who had his first day of school, and Nana and our whole family.  It was a lot of fun.  We had a huge Hello Kitty cake when we got home.  The cake was amazing from a bakery I had a groupon from, but sadly enough Bella did not like it because the bakery put chocolate chips in the cake and Bella hates chocolate chips in anything.  But it was a beautiful cake! 

Bella turns 6, things she loves:
macarroni and cheese, esp the frozen kind.
pop tarts, smores flavor or hot fudge sundae.
chocolate milk in one kind of sippy cup only.
canned pears and applesauce
dancing
gymnastics
McDonalds
My Ipad
sleeping a long time preferably in my bed.
school
things her way whenever possible.

We had a party for Bella a week later so she could invite all her friends.  It was a swim party with bingo and pin the tail on the donkey and tattoos.  It was fun.  All her friends came.