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.

Mark's Birthday!

Mark's birthday was celebrated in a few different ways. To kick it off the night before Lizzy made him a rainbow cake similar to her famous rainbow cupcakes. It looked so good we decided to eat it that night as we couldn't wait til Marks actual birthday the next day. It was great cake and fun to have it early! The morning of his birthday we had the carpet and flooring installed in our living and dining room . That was fun as Mark had about an hour notice it was happening that morning and had to empty both rooms very quickly. The flooring looks great! Mark, Michael and I went to Mark's favorite restaurants for a late breakfast. The one picture is of Mark and his very large chicken fried steak and biscuits and gravy he had for breakfast. That evening we went to Red Robin as a family. We really enjoyed the garlic fries. Then we had to race Markie to his hip hip class and to top it all off we stopped at McDonalds on the way home for ice cream. It was a fun day full of a lot of eating! Happy Birthday Mark!

A night out with D!

We went out in Scottsdale Friday night to celebrate Deanna's birthday. We went to a blow dry bar first wchich was really fun and then we walked over for sushi happy hour which woulda been dinner had we had better service. We went to Sting Ray to try something new, but I think next time we will go back to Ra which is my favorite. Then we did a little shopping and finally ended our night at cheesecake factory where we split a fabulous cheesecake. It was a fun night out.

Now I will write a bit about how Deanna and I met. It was 1987 and we were about to begin our freshman year at ASU. I had a knock on my door and I opened it in my robe as it was early in the morning. D said, I am your roommate, I said, I already have a roommate. She said, I am your third. They overbook the dorms so she lived with me and my crazy roommate Christy for the first three weeks of school til they found her a room on the second floor with her own crazy roommate and I can't remember her name. Some of my favorite memories with Deanna: everything from freshman year especially watching dirty dancing many times at the dollar theatre and Mazatlan spring break. Being pregnant at the same time, having her at the birth of Markie, and finding out she was moving back to the valley after a 8 year hiatus in Florida.

Michael is turning into a big boy!

Today Michael saw Bella and Markie headed out the door with their back packs and had to have a back pack for himself. He also insisted on walking all the way to Lizzy's bus stop and would not ride in the stroller. Three more years til he goes the school himself!

Sedona

We booked two weeks in Sedona this year. The first week was July 7 - 14. We stayed in the stone house. It was a great house, the first hotel in Sedona it was a historic house! Our first day started out with two sick kiddos, Michael and Bella. A quick stop at the pediatrician and Walgreens and we were on our way with a diagnosis of a fever for Bella and hand, foot, mouth disease for Michael. The worst of it for Mikey was Friday, my birthday of course, so Sat even though he looked horrible with sores all over, he was cleared for vacation. We had a slow evening the first night with two sick kids, swimming for everyone but Mikey and pizza ordered in. Kim and kids came up for first two nights which was fun as always. Mom and Dad arrived for their week on Sunday. We had a relaxing week, lots of pool time, a few sight seeing trips with mom and dad, and lots of activities at the new activity center.

White Mountains

Nana and Papa offered to take the two oldest grand kids, besides Chris, to Big Lake camping for a week. Lizzy broke her foot two days before, but she still went, even with an air boot. They stayed for 6 nights and had a great time. They fished a lot and Lizzy caught her first fish. They played many games of UNO. It sounds like they had a great time. It was a great week for the two cousins to get to know their nana and papa better. Nana told lots of stories about when their moms were little. It was a week where many new memories were made!

Fun Times Spring 2012

Some different shots of different fun times this spring!  Playin in the yard and tub, Michael after a haircut and at the park!