Lincolns 8th Birthday

Lincoln celebrated his 8th birthday in November and he was so excited!

This is his army cake that started out as a How to train a dragon cake and by midnight, I found it much easier to sneak up in his room, grab some army men, wash them and stick them on.  Perfect!  He loved the cake.

 Petie!  Grandma Jensen sent Lincoln the long awaited Panda Pillow Pet that Lincoln asked for in July.  He was so excited.....

That he gave poor little Mike to Brinley.  I told him that Mike is going to feel bad just like in Toy Story.  I'm not sure that it phased him at all.

Daunting Drumstick Dash 2010

***Scroll down to the bottom of the blog and turn off the music before playing this video clip.

Sorry for the fuzzy pictures.  We will definitely work on better quality for next time.

What do you do on Veterans Day?

We aren't used to having Veterans Day off with school so we weren't quite sure of what to do.  I decided that we should go to the parade after our morning run.

 

 It was really fun.  We were able to see lots of bands, jeeps, scouts, soldiers, fancy vehicles and airplanes that flew by.  This picture below (blurry) that has a beauty queen in it caused a lot of ruckus.  The older men sitting by me whistled as loud and as much as they could at this lady more than they did with the veterans and the ladies sitting on the other side of me wanted to know why this queen was getting so much praise because she obviously didn't fight in a war.  It was pretty funny to be between the two groups and hear what they had to say.

Loud Sirens!

Below people are carrying flags that have the men and women who gave their lives for us this last year from AZ.  I couldn't believe how many of them there were.  This went clear down the street.  Everyone stood and clapped really loud.  Neat experience.

I had to get these guys because they looked like they were straight out of a commercial from the 60's with their big cheesy smiles waiving.  Very fun!

Afterwards we went over to Sweet cakes bakery for a cookie and headed home. Of course Lincoln said, we've wasted half the day now.  He would rather sit at home.  That is what we did for our first Veterans Day off. I hope that everyone took a few minutes to remember those who have served for our country.  We have 3 family members that served as well.  A BIG THANKS to grandpa Ellis, Travis and Brock.  Wooh-hoo!

Horseback riding

This is Lincoln so excited for the date that he and I went on.  We decided to go horseback riding.  Lincoln was so excited to be able to wear the helmet because it is just like the people that ride the horses on TV.  I brought his cowboy hat but the guy incouraged me to put the helmet on him.  Oh well, maybe next time.

Lincoln was in front of me and he was on a horse named buster.  I was on a horse named Bess.  Buster was pretty good at following the other horses but Bess was pretty interested in walking over tall bushes to rub her belly and walking into short trees to try to scratch her sides.  She also liked to stop and grab leaves off the trees to eat.

We went in a group of 11 people.  There was a family from Phoenix and a family from Gilbert and Lincoln was the youngest.  The trail was pretty fun. (minus the powerlines in full view)  They showed us different pits that people had dug to find gold, but they stopped after about 5 feet down if they didn't find anything and then just left the pits open.  This area probably wouldn't be the best place to play capture the flag with all the pits, cactus and snakes.  It was really fun and I definately plan on doing it again.  I might try another company a little further in the canyon so that we don't have to have every picture show power lines.  We ended our date with pancakes at Village Inn and then heading over to the Mesa-Gilbert Airport where we watched 4 marine jets gear up and take off.  I love having dates with my kids. 

Responsibility

 Congratulations to Brinley for getting the Responsibility award through character counts at her school.  She didn't really understand what this was or why they made her walk up to the stage but she got this great certificate and a pretty cool cardinals shirt to show that she is a cardinal of character.

 I took this picture of her recieving her award from the assistant principal and then he had her turn around so that I could get a picture of the three of them and my cameras flash wouldn't recharge so this is all I have.

Lincln took this nice picture of Brinley before the program started.  Thanks Linc!

The going ons outside my house.

The above video clip is of a couple birds that snip off my flowers and eat something off the end and then throw my flowers on the ground.  I think it's a little strange but whatever makes them happy. 

This is Sammy.  We have decided to name every lizard in our backyard Sammy because Sammy can be a boy name or a girl name and we aren't sure of the gender so we have made it easy on ourselves.

This was on day when it was raining like crazy.  I could not believe how fast the place feels up with water.  If you enlarge the picture, you can see the rain coming down at an angle.  Pretty crazy.

 This is another picture of the rain.  Pretty soon after this the road was a river and the park was the lake.  It's nice to get rain like this to clean the dirt off the sidewalks.  I have never seen anyone spray the sidewalk off like we did growing up and I haven't seen anyone wash their car at home but I being the rebellious one that I am did wash my car out front, I will probably get fined from the community, oh well, my car is clean.  It must have something to do with living in the desert and conserving water.  hmmm!

Over at the park is a big blue dumpster that they bring out to put all the grass shavings in for the park.  They cut the grass as short as they can and rake up all the shavings and put them in the dumpster.  Then they seed because the rhye grass that they use for the summer can't handle temperatures in the 60's and will go dorment.  The new seed is already coming up and should look really good in a couple weeks.  I thought I would share this because I have never seen or heard of this before.  The things people do to have a good yard.  I think it's great!

Where is everyone?

Lincoln and Brinley were so excited to get to hang out at the pool for fall break.  It is a little harder to get to the pool when they have school due to homework and everything else.  We got to the pool and had it all to ourselves.  That would be because it was 99 degrees and not 100.  Nobody in Arizona goes to the pool when the temperature dips that low because it is just too cold.  The kids actually said the water was cold and didn't play in it for very long.  I think that is so funny.  I guess we are adapting to the weather. 

It must be time to put the swim suits away.

Is there anything on my face?

This is what Brinley's face looked like pretty much every day in May.  She thought it was funny to put food on her face and then of course ask us if there was anything on her face.  We learned to ignore her after a while and I think it wasn't fun for her anymore.  Yay, no more dirty face.  Now we get to ignore the lifting of the shirt or the shorts riding up, just to get our attention, I'll spare you the pictures of that grand idea.  What will she think of next?

Lincolns first Karate Tournament

Lincoln had his first Karate tournament today and he did pretty well.  We had a lot of fun watching all the different types of Karate and Lincoln ended up taking 3rd place with his Kata.  He got a trophy but not just any trophy, a green trophy which is his most favorite color of all.  He carried it around the whole rest of the tournament and showed it to everyone that he walked past. 

Congratulations Linc, we're so proud of you!

I did it

I bought a sewing machine two weeks ago and I have hemmed about 8 pairs of pants and I made this:

It was fun and I may have to attempt something else really soon.  I think Brinley likes it as well.

School Days

Today is the first day of school for Lincoln and Brinley.  They were so excited for the big day.  Brinley put her clothes out on her bed Sunday morning.  I set their alarms to wake them up at 7:30 and Lincoln was up at 6:00.  Brinley was up at 7:00.  Brinley could sleep in until 10:00 if I let her.  No need for alarm clocks today.

I asked Lincoln if I could take a picture of him before school and he came downstairs in some shorts from 2 years ago that hit him about 5 inches above the knee.  We went over what were his school clothes and what were his play clothes.  He said: how about we pretend like tomorrow is the first day of school and I will wear these today and tomorrow I will wear new clothes?  I said: How about you get upstairs and get those shorts changed right now or it won't be a good day.  He changed his shorts just like I asked so I can't complain.  (however, I pair their clothes up so that they will have matching clothes when they put them on and he switched clothes so now there are some unmatched clothes somewhere) and yes, Monique, I do need to get over it!  He came down and said, one picture and that's enough.  Ok, here is Lincolns first day of second grade picture.  I know he will have a great day.  He always does.

This is Brinley in the outfit she picked Sunday morning.  I asked her if I could put braids in her hair and she said no, she would like a bun.  Wow!  She really wants to get decked out for her first day.

These are Brinleys cute shoes that I thought would be so fun to wear with  her pink and black outfit.  She has decided that she would rather wear her other shoes. I told her that they don't match.  She doesn't care.  I told her that her white socks would show more than her cute outfit.  She didn't care.  I guess my kids will dress how they want.  hmmm!

These are the shoes Brinley chose to wear, cute but brown with white socks sticking out like a sore thumb and she couldn't be happier.  She looked at the picture and said oooh, those are sooo cute!

Last of all, this is Brinley's backpack.  She is very upset that it is touching her bum.  When we arrived at school she took it off and handed it to me.  It was just too much for her to handle.  I think it's cute and I think that she will have a great day with her cute clothes, fun teacher and new class for her first day of kindergarten.

As for me, everyone keeps asking what I am going to do.  Well for my first day home alone, I am going to take a shower without any kids walking in to ask for a snack.  I am going to sit here with absolutely no noise in the house.  I may clean the house today or maybe tomorrow.  I may even go for a walk all by myself.  Happy day for me!  When 4:00 rolls around, I will pick the kids up, give them a snack and haul them off to karate, bring them home for homework, dinner, showers and bed.

Who knows what I will do next week.  I have a lot of things in mind but I don't know that I have time to do everything.  My big list is to do some family history, help out in the classrooms at school, find a part time job, go swim some laps, jog a few miles.  Have dinner ready on time and the laundry done before anyone gets home.  Wish me LUCK!   

Vacation Time

I had to rewrite this one because it was way to long. 

The kids and I headed out to Utah for a break from the heat.  We did the annual apple tree pictures so we could see how Lincoln has grown with the tree.  This tree is the best climbing tree ever.

Anna and Brinley posed on the stairs, such cute little ladies.

We had a little birthday party for Brinley.  Thanks to Mom, Katrina and cousins for putting it together.

Notice, Lincoln isn't there because it was a pink birthday party.  He did manage to peek around the couch throughout the whole party.  They had lots of fun and ate lots of frosting.

I managed to get a few pictures of moms fun yard with all the pretty colors. 

We went to Lagoon with Moniques family and had a blast but we didn't take the camera.  We also went to Lava Hot Springs and my kids had the time of their life.  Brinley spent most of her time with cousins on the waterslides and Lincoln spent most of his time on the diving boards.  I was able to relax.  It was very nice.

This is Shenay in the front pulling all of the little cousins on the floaties.  I think Shenay won best cousin award for the day.

Then it was off to Blackfoot for the Ellis reunion.

The kids play and play in the beautiful park like yards all day.

They also spend a lot of time on the 4-wheelers.  This is Lincoln and Dallin.

This year uncle Ron added to his property.  He got alarm clocks so that we would all be awake at the crack of dawn.  These roosters were hilarious.  (Really, they didn't wake us, it was Aunt Jan's car alarm along with uncle Lonnies, they won't admit it but it's true) They didn't care that we were there, they just joined in with the festivities.  At night they climb in the trees to sleep.  Apparantly Ron started out with eight and now there are three and a lot of happy foxes.

We also had the privelidge of watching these nice looking horses pass by.  What a treat!

We had a pinewood derby with some pretty cool looking cars.  There were some great rewards handed out and we also did the annual duck race down the ditch.

This year the Aguilar family was over Thursday night dinner and for dessert we made homemade icecream.  It was quite the treat.  Below shows a few of us starting up the makers and then next to that is Denny with Ice cream running down his face. Behind him,  Monique and I serving and serving and serving until we ended up pouring it (melted) into cups. It really was good, a little rich but good.

Doug and Caleb were enjoying their ice cream and so were Shayne and Lincoln.

  Below is the old swingset that everyone grew up with.  It has many memories such as me falling off the top and breaking my arm.  Lincoln breaking his leg and so on.  Anyway, when you add water and a great big tarp at the end, it is a rip roarin good time.  My Aunts were keeping everyone entertained with their totally hip moves on the slide.  They are fun energetic and very spunky.  I love to be around them and hope that someday, I can grow up to be just like them!

This here is grandma and grandpa.  They have made life so great for all of us.  We all have wonderful memories of Blackfoot, the farm, the toys, the haystacks, the corn, the bulls,  and the houses that Grandpa built.  Everything here has a story or a good memory.  How lucky are we that we are able to share this with our children.  A big thanks to Deb for putting the reunion together this year and also, for sharing her pictures since someone wasn't in camera mode for the trip.