Katelynn loses tooth #2 !!

Two weeks after the loss of her first tooth, Katelynn lost her 2nd tooth. The event was eerily familiar. This tooth began to loosen with the loss of her first one. The rest is almost exactly the same as last time. The ToothFairy left her $2 this time and she plans to spend it at her schools' Christmas gift shop.

Katelynn Lost Her First Tooth !!!

Wow ! What an ordeal this was. Her tooth had been loose for almost a month. No one was allowed to touch it. On Sunday She let Dartell look at it, after a lot of convincing. I won't lie. Some wiggling did take place. Dartell asked Katelynn if she could see it again and before we knew it her tooth was out. She was in shock at first, but when she saw blood she lost it. Slowly she realized that she wasn't going to die. Then a sibling mentioned the "Tooth Fairy". That was all it took. She put it in some water and left it on the counter. The next morning she had a crisp $1 bill. Guess what she bought with it. A 6 inch solid chocolate santa. Thank you Tooth Fairy.

Halloween

Just wanted to share a few pictures with you.This year was kind of mellow, but we still had a really good time.We kept the house decorations to a minimum, but I did add this really cool spider that I made. Hopefully next year she will have a web. FYI you can click on the pictures to make them bigger.

Buddywalk

This was such a fun event. Last year just over 2000 people came to help support Down Syndrome. I would bet that this year we doubled that. Mascots were everywhere. Baby Bop, Barney, Suns Gorilla, Cardinals, and AJ was McDonalds Hamburglar. The kids loved it. The walk was less than a mile but the support was overwhelming. Emily got to walk some of it. She was sooo- cute. There were people all along the course to clap and cheer and just give support to those who walked. As we walked by they would give us five or make a human bridge to go through. Emily doesn't give five yet, so she would hug them. At one of the human bridges she hugged her way through it. They just passed her down the line. She was so funny. There was so much for the kids to do and it was all free. They had carnival style games, A rock climbing wall, pony rides, a DJ,too much to list it all. Free food too. Ice cream, cotton candy,Burgers and hot dogs. Next year will be even more fun. Can't wait.

Thursday Night Dinner

Tonight for dinner I made Chicken with pesto and angel hair pasta. I was really surprised at how easy and delicious it was. Even my kids loved it. While we were eating we were talking about how school was for each of the kids. My fourth grader Julianna caused quite a ruckus on her turn. Julianna told us that she had been given a new assignment at school and that she made her teacher laugh. This is her story........

Teacher: "Class your next project is to pretend you are an announcer on the radio . You can announce what ever you want.You have a few minutes to decide."

Julianna:Thinking to herself "I don't know what to do. I don't know anything important. This is so hard...........Oh, my aunt Missy is pregnant, I can announce that. Whew, glad I thought of something."

Teacher (as she passes out a worksheet): " Ok, class everyone write your announcement down and answer all the questions about it on this worksheet."

Julianna excitedly fills hers out. She answers a few of the questions and then suddenly stops.

Teacher: " Is everyone almost done? Are there any questions?"

Julianna: "Do I have to answer all of the questions?"

Teacher: " Yes, of course."

Julianna: "My announcement is that my Aunt Missy is pregnant, Are you sure I have to answer the last two questions?"

Teacher looks down at the worksheet to see what the problem is. The questions are "how" and "when". Suppressing laughter: " I think you can skip those."

Julianna: "Whew, That would not have been good."

Everyone,but the younger three, got a good laugh from that story. I snapped a pic and told her it was definitely going on my blog!

Schnepf Farms Pumpkin Festival

Last Thursday we went to Schnepf Farms Pumpkin Festival with my sister Missy and her family . We had so much fun. The kids all climbed a rock wall and rode lots of rides. We went on the Haunted Train Ride and got a little spooked by some of the Haunters. I think my favorite was the carousel from 1916. It is the oldest working carousel in Arizona. It would make a great location for a budget horror flick. A good time was had by all.

It's All About the Sweets!!

Friday was such a fun day. Dartell came over and baked for most of the day. We had 6 different kinds of cookies, pumpkin bread, and rice crispie treats. I spent most of the day sewing Mary's pirate costume and then I made a huge pot of chili for our wards Trunk-or-Treat. These are some of the kids' costumes. AJ was Slash. Mary a pirate. Julianna an evil fairy. Katelynn, Abby and Emily were all witches. Nichole was Ariel. We had a lot of fun!

Weekend In Mexico!!

So a couple weeks ago Dartell, Joanna and I drove to Mexico to spend the weekend with Jesus(Joanna's husband). We had a great time. We went to see the Temple in Juarez. It was beautiful and there were butterflies everywhere. We also went to Central Park. It is almost like a zoo. They had a Giraffe and a lion and ducks and deer and probably more. It was so cool. You could feed the Giraffe and pet it . The food was amazing that weekend. I did find a few things that I didn't like( i.e. pig skin, manudo,corn with chili),But I loved most of it. On Satuday night everyone goes outside to just hangout. Sooo nice. When I am home there is always so much to do.The other picture is at the top of Freedom Bridge on the way home. We were waiting to cross the border and we were in two countries at the same time. Very cool. I look forward to going back.

Dancing in the Rain

With rain being such a scarce comodity here in Arizona the kids tend to take advantage of it when it comes. This is Emily's first time out to play in the rain. She loved it, even though she was only out two minutes. The other girls were soaked to the bone when I finally got them back inside. This is Mary, Abby, Katelynn and Julianna hamming it up for the camera. I think they had fun, What do you think?

A Nice Sunday

Sunday was a good day. Nothing special just good. We had a great dinner, pork roast and red potatoes, and then dessert that Missy brought, cupcakes that almost didn't make it, and we finished the evening watching Emily color and then a few hands of Nerts. It was a great day. I love Sundays like that. Friends, family, good food and games. What more do we need?

Girls Night at the Ballpark

So this was a great Girls Night Out. We had alot of fun. It didn't hurt that the D-Backs won. It was the perfect ending to the perfect weekend. More weekends should be like this.

MY BIRTHDAY !!!!

We had a great weekend. Friday Burt and I went out to dinner with my sister Missy and her husband Curtis. We had a lot of fun. Saturday was GIRLS NIGHT !! The plan was to go to Dave and Busters (chucky cheese for adults) eat dinner and just play around. We all met at Missy's at 6pm. To my surprize my mom came down. We had a blast!! The food was delicious and the games were addicting !! On Sunday Missy's family and Dartell came to dinner. Ummm Roast chicken.... we even had cake and ice cream. Monday was another girls night. We went to the Diamondbacks game. That was so fun. I will post pics of that later. This was a great birthday weekend !! Thanks guys !!!

All about Emily

So Emily has been trying to walk for quite some time. Here she finally has it.. She is still wobbly but does a great job. The other pics are of Emily looking through a window. She was trying to give Burt a kiss. We just thought it was cute!!!

Burt Is My Hero........

A little over a month ago we bought Burt a new bike to ride to and from work(save gas). At first we went to Walmart and spent about $200. I thought we got a good deal. After less than a week it was broken. Upon taking it to a pro bike shop to fix it, we learned it was made wrong and had parts that were out of date. We took the bike back to Walmart and returned to the proshop to purchase a second bike for Burt. All is good with this bike, except that since Burt has had it he has also had an inkling to try a triathelon. Burt is a runner and has been since High School. Burt is also now a biker. He logs about 50 miles a week, give or take. Burt is NOT a swimmer. He doesn't like the deep end, doesn't like to be splashed, and on more than one occasion has told me that we will never own a boat. Here comes the Hero part. He completed his first Triathelon this weekend. It was, to say the least, exhausting. He had to swim 420 yards (think 4 football fields), bike 12 miles, then run a 5k. All one right after the other. Here are some pics I took during the race.