FALL

On my list of things I love about AZ is the beautiful fall season. Here are a few pics of the kids doing some fun things you can only do in the fall.....

Picking Pumpkins at the pumpkin patch with Justins joy school class

Going through a corn maze
Jessicas very first friend, Amelia...born on the same day, a few hours apart, and her Mom and I shared a hospital room together. Not fun sharing a room but I got a great friend out of it.

Picking Apples....and then canning and canning and canning...apple slices, applesauce, apple pie filling.....alot of work but they are so pretty when they are done

finding a few raspberries

"APPLES!"

Kids after eating chocolate chip cookies....honestly the first ones I have had turn out in 3 years...high altitude issues???...I don't know..but I wasn't giving up....how hard could it really be to make a cookie?




Cute girl in a cute cowboy hat

BIG L

(Mom, Grandma, Me and My Baby Girl)


Before I left MT I asked my Grandma...who combined has 8 kids and 34 grandkids and I think 12 great grandbabies.....if she had any good parenting advise for me.
With out hesitation she said.............

"PUT THEM TO BED EARLY, TAKE A DEEP BREATH AND BE GLAD YOU MADE IT THROUGH ANOTHER DAY!"


Grandma, I love you! I think you are AMAZING! and I miss you tons!

EVERYDAY TIDBITS

Too long in time out

finding moms camera

I will try not to match them again but I couldn't help it. My aunt Kim made Jessica this skirt and Justin just happened to have a matching shirt

and I just happened to have matching ribbon:)


Wishful thinking

Going to first day of Joy school

My sister-in-law just got hired as a 1st grade teacher....her first full time job ever (Tanya, you are amazing! you will do great!) Chad and I started dating when her first baby was 14 months old (he is now almost 9)...her baby girl is almost 5. It has really got me thinking about my children and how precious they are and the time I have with them and the influence I can have on them before
they are spending more time out of our home then in. And even though there are days when I want nothing more then to shut my self in my bedroom and be left alone that this stage won't last forever and I'm sure I will look back and wonder where the time went.

I love my kids and I hope to always remember them just like this.........

WHAT? REALLY?

BET YOU CAN'T GUESS WHAT HAS JESSICA SO ENTHRALLED..........

ARE YOU READY???

YA, A FLIPP'N TARANTULA!!!! I think my daughter is a freak....she loved it....she was the only one who loved it even the other 3 little boys wanted nothing to do with it. I personally couldn't even get close enough to take the pictures.

NO it was not found at or around my house. My neighbor brought it over....gotta love neighbors. Apparently they don't bite humans....don't care! Do I really live in Arizona? Montana doesn't have creepy things like this or black widows or poisonous centipedes or scorpions they have big stuff like bears and mountain lions...and those things don't freak me out and give me night mares. You don't have to have your house sprayed everyother month to keep bears out nor do you walk into your garage and almost step on a mountain lion. OK can't even talk about it anymore my skin is crawling.

Just in behalf of AZ this is one of VERY FEW things (like 3) that I DON'T like about living here.

Here we are more then half way through August. Our schools here started August 10th and although I don't have kids in school...summer has definitely slowed down a bit. Chad has been SUPER busy with work, we have had a couple birthdays (#32 and #26), I start Joy school with Justin next week (its a group of moms who rotate a home-based preschool), Jessica is walking everywhere and our newly landscaped yard has been torn up because of some concrete work that had to be done....

I wish I could just film this little girl for one day. She is fearless, has a bit of tomboy in her (she loves to play with dirt, rocks and cars), and hates to be told no....honestly the saddest face ever when she gets in trouble all you want to do is hold her and give her loves.

But if I was her I would want to keep up with these super cute boys too!



Although she did not like sharing her bath....

ALASKA

Chad got to spend 2 weeks of July up in Alaska "working" during the salmon runs. I know there are many of you out there who think he has a great job when it comes to this sort of stuff...and he does.....but I am still trying to figure out how he worked this one out. He was mainly on bear patrol but was also able to spend time (go fishing) with some friends that live up there. Since there are a lot of beautiful pictures, Chad doesn't blog, and I don't know the whole story.....here is a slide show............