jedi training

To confirm the rumor that we are living in Queen Creek now, let me just say WE'RE BA-ACK. We moved last week. What a whirlwind that was for us!

But before I give all the boring details of moving, let's discuss the jedi training held at our house in Flag for Blue's fifth birthday. We started off by making our own droids.

These were decorated icee cups that were later used to hold their candy from the pinata.
Next we trained with light sabers(water noodles). The kids absolutely loved this! They could hit each other and I didn't have to worry about anyone getting hurt because the water noodles were soft.

The kids played "yoda says" and then practiced using their light sabers. After all that training we took a break and had cupcakes with yoda sodas. My cupcakes were a huge FLOP but that didn't matter because the kids just wanted to drink their yoda sodas(lime sherbet in 7-up).

I just love how all of the kids are slurpin' away on their sodas.

We sang happy birthday and Blue jumped the gun and blew out all his candles before we were even done singing.

We ended the party by defeating the death star. It was a soccer ball pinata that I had painted all the white spots grey. My boys thought it was a good looking death star. All the kids got a chance to try to crush the death star with a light saber but the light saber just wasn't strong enough so we ended up using a metal bat to finish it off. It was hilarious to watch some of the kids "use the force" when we would tell them to try to find the death star by using the force. They would hold out their hand and start wandering around.

I can't believe Blue is five years old! We love his spunk, his big heart, and his million dollar smile; we even love his lisp:)!

toot my own horn

Last summer I took some pictures of a baby boy who was born with club feet. At two weeks old, Baby Tanner had full leg casts put on that he wore for approx. three months. Well he is now a poster child(okay maybe not a poster child but he did make it onto a mailer for an upcoming seminar) for Phoenix Childrens Hospital. And guess whose pictures they used? Take a look for yourself right here.

long weekend

Heidi and her kids and Tana came to visit this weekend. Since there was no school yesterday we enjoyed them an extra day. Even better, though, was the snow we got last night...because then it was a late start for Reed this morning. He definitely needed the extra sleep after going full speed all weekend long. I do believe Cy wins the award for most die hard snow lover. He didn't even have a pair of snow boots but yet he stayed out in the snow the longest. I sure hope he didn't get frost bite. Josie enjoyed the snow as long as her mom was pulling her on the sled. My boys loved having other people to play with so thanks guys for coming up! Tana and Blue built a snow man (it was started by all the kids but only Tana and Blue persevered). I didn't have any carrots but asparagus works just as good for a nose. Oreo's seemed like a good idea for the eyes. Here are a few pics...









And we can't forget baby Macy. I think the only time she ever left the arms of Tana was when Tana was building the snowman. Gosh, what a baby hog!:)

our aluminum anniversary

Colby and I have been married for ten years yesterday. Traditionally this is the aluminum/tin anniversary. What kind of gift do you get that is aluminum?
I was telling Colby that I don't FEEL any older than when we got married ten years ago, I sure LOOK alot older. I'm just glad he still thinks I'm beautiful. Love you Colby.

i wuv fronk

Beau is really into saying he loves everything. He loves Tom & Jerry, he loves comercials about Alvin and the Chipmunks. His latest is Ze Frank, a chef who is dog on the disney channel. It is only a five minute clip but Beau just "wuvs" him. He has taken to cooking up a few things of his own. He totes around this play pot with a pretend corn cob in it. He will open up the pot and say "fwala" (voila).

best exercise ever

When we first moved to Flagstaff I couldn't figure out why our neighbors would go outside while it was still snowing and shovel their driveways. They would do this two to three times a day. Now that I am a seasoned "Flagger", let me enlighten those who don't know either. It is to keep up with what is coming down. If you wait till the next day to shovel your driveway for the first time, you are looking at at least 2-3 feet of snow. But if you shovel at intervals it isn't so hard. Well, yesterday afternoon I went out, while it was still snowing, and started to shovel my driveway. I had already paid two guys earlier in the morning to shovel it. They did an excellent job and by the afternoon I was regretting not having them come again. So while I was just shoveling two small lines for my tires to get through, a friend of a friend shows up. Amber and Chad had company this weekend and due to the snow had to stay over on Monday. I'm so glad they did because that was who showed up to help me shovel my driveway. Thank you Zack!

This morning my back was sore, my legs were sore, and my arms were sore. And I didn't even shovel my driveway by myself. I was dreading going and shoveling AGAIN since it had snowed most of the night. I mean, come on, just because it was great exercise doesn't mean I wanted to exercise again. Well, I opened my garage and to my surprise, my driveway was already shoveled! Once again, I'm so glad that Rachel and Zack were stranded here in Flagstaff. What a relief! I was/and still am so sore!



My front walkway got shoveled too! I usually never do that because I am so exhausted after finishing the driveway. Thanks again!

snow days

This is what was going on all day yesterday at our house:


I didn't think it was ever going to stop. Since we got dumped on so bad, today was another snow day. This afternoon my boys ventured outside. Of course, it takes a good 15 minutes to put on the snow suits, jackets, boots, and gloves. Then there is the adjusting of the snow pants over the boots to prevent the snow getting into the boots and adjusting the gloves over the jackets so the snow doesn't get into the sleeves- times that by three. Whew! That is alot of work, but worth it when I see how much fun my boys are having out there.

Reed started to dig himself a little snow cave on our driveway.

{This is our front walk way. The snow hadn't completely melted from our last storm over a month ago, so this is snow on top of a big mound of ice.}

Blue and Beau love to eat the snow. I do too, as long as it is fresh:)

I couldn't find Beau's real gloves so he was wearing those cloth-like gloves. He never complained even though the snow stuck to them like velcro.

The snow was so deep that Beau kept getting stuck up to his waist. He wanted to keep up with Reed and Blue so bad that he would try to contort the top half of his body to see where the other boys were headed so that when I got him out he would chase after them.