We're Positive for Strep! Yuck!

Jamesy was sick all weekend so I took the boys straight to Dr. Wil on Monday morning. They both have strep! He's been home from school all week so I've had all my boys home! It has made for an interesting week. Thank goodness it's a short week and I'm not hosting Thanksgiving dinner. The boys will be healthy (well, at least not contagious) for the holiday and I am thankful for that.

I'll leave you with a few pictures I took of Grant a couple of weeks ago at Joe's Farm Grill. We went to lunch with an old high school friend that moved to Gilbert. It has been great chatting and hanging out with her. Hugs Des!

Jamesy Day

Yesterday was Jamesy's birthday. I call it Jamesy Day. We had a blast. It's really crazy to think that I've had this incredible boy in my life for six years now. What would I ever have done without him?

James got an mp3 player for his birthday loaded with Johnny Cash, Taylor Swift, and James Taylor. He is walking around the house with his headphones on singing every other word...it's priceless.

James in his classroom with Mrs. Hinderland

Sweet Baby James being GOOFY!

Hi pretty girls!

Grant is getting his play on at the play
ground

Mom's Boys

The Homeboys

Holy Schnepf!

We go to Schnepf Farms every year in October and love it. What a fun place to let the kids get dirty and be kids. This year we decided to go on Halloweena (in normal land that would be a typo but here it is perfectly acceptable). What better way to celebrate, right?

It was AWESOME! The Farm had candy at all of the vendors so the kids got to trick-or-treat. Here are all of the super spooky things we got to do:

• walk around the farm and enjoy the agriculture...big beautiful sunflowers, pumpkins, peach trees. It felt so good.


• ride roller coasters, swings, slides and tricycle races


• roast yummy marshmallows and make s'mores- my kids' favorite thing to do


• eat dinner at the d-lish Farm Restaurant


• take home scrumptious Caramel Apple Pie!!!

Needless to say, Peter, John, and Tink had a blast and the parents did too!

Jamesy and His World Record

So, Terry was playing around with our new web cam and here's what he came up with...

Grandma's House

Elisha visited from Texas to pick up Madisyn this week so we all went over to Grandma Sue's house to visit. Here are a few cute pictures from the day. The kids don't get to hang with their cousin very often, so it was a big event. They made pizza for lunch for us all!

Back Update: So, I've been going to physical therapy twice a week for my back. There's still a lot of pain, but it tends to be during the second half of the day. My specialist appointment is Tuesday so I'm super excited to get that out of the way. Maybe he will be able to tell me what's wrong and how to fix it! =)

I took the plunge...

and created a new meetup group! I'm super excited and nervous at the same time. The group I created is called Ruffled Feathers Paper Crafters. I have a vision that we will all meet often to create altered projects and that everyone will {love} the group.

I am hoping that I am not the only person in the world (okay, Queen Creek)looking for paper crafters to hang out. We shall see though. I will post more about this soon.

On another "plunging" note, my handsome boy, James, starts KINDERGARTEN (gasp) on Thursday! OMG-so nervous that I will drive in the wrong lane, park in the wrong spot, get yelled at, embarrass my kid, not be good enough for the women in the PTN, embarrass myself, and everything else that is associated with school. Oh, the memories I have about the horrible experiences. I hope my son has better luck with the education system than I ever did.

Friday Blues

So every Friday I get the blues because James leaves me for a few days. I know I should be happy that it's the weekend, but life's just not the same without him. Terry and I drove James to his dad's this afternoon. When we got home, I made oven fried chicken with mashed potatoes. I was needing some comfort food.

Update: Last week I wrenched my back and just haven't been the same. In fact I was in pretty severe pain until Wednesday. I'm now going to physical therapy and have an appointment with an ortho specialist to see what the heck is going on. I get this "muscle spasm" thing every so often, but this time was definitely the most pain I've felt. I've got to get down to the bottom of it.

On a lighter note, my girlfriend (take a bow Michelle Marshall) had a super idea. Instead of buying chipboard books at the paper crafting store, she suggested making a mini book out of the kids old board books! So...I started mine tonight! YAY! It's super cute and I can't wait to post pictures of the finished product! The paper I used is from My Minds Eye which always seems to make me happy. Click here to see the paper line. I've also been dabbling in the distressed ink arena and I'm having a blast doing it! I heart Tim Holtz!

Also, I'm hosting another "Altered Letter" class at my house in a couple of weeks. See August 2008 archive for pics. Give me a shout if you're interested. The more the merrier
Hope everyone is well! Thank you for all the well wishes!

why is he the way he is?

Sometimes I sit and watch Jamesy sleep. I wonder what he's dreaming about in that grown up brain of his. I feel sad that such a little man lives with so much weight on his shoulders. I wish I could have done better by him. I know that he is what he is because of his experiences. Gosh, I love him!

Nine Reasons Why I Adore My Little Man:

1. He looks past all of the small stuff and cares for people for what they really are. We went to the pool a few weeks ago and he was the only boy who made friends with kids that had Downs Syndrome. He saw past everything. I was so proud

2. He LOVES Johnny Cash. He runs around the house singing "MY NAME IS SUE...HOW DO YOU DO?" What 5 year old has impecabble taste in music?

3. Jamesy is loyal. Once he makes a friend, it is a friend for life and he will do anything for them!

4. He is confident! For that he is eager to try new things. I love that about him.

5. He likes to smell good for the ladies. It's the cutest thing to watch him put on "man spray" so that he can smell good. I love that he spikes his hair too!

6. He has more personality in his pinky than most people have in their WHOLE body!! It just oozes out of him.

7. Everything just comes naturally to him!! WHY? I don't know . He's just that kid. I love that about him.

8. He's such an amazing brother. He protects Grant, Jaiden, and Chelsea. He wants them to be near him always. He has a heart of hearts.

9. He's a lover not a fighter. This kid begs to snuggle! He will love on me forever. He wants to snuggle in the morning, snuggle in the evening...and everything in between. He picks flowers for me and offers to make me breakfast. He's gonna make some husband!

Grant the Great

How did we make such an incredible little man? He's a talker, man. He won't quit. It's so great to finally be able to hear what he has to say. I'm making out about half of what he is saying, but it's better than nothing, right?

He says:
Mama, Daddy, Baba, Juicy, NO! (shocker), peas (please), hi-hen (chicken), too-tee (cookie)...and a million other words I can't figure out yet.

Oh, and by the way...I STILL think he's gonna be my south paw. {fingers crossed}

Stay Tuned-

James "Rocks the House" Plank

So, James started basketball on Tuesday. He joined a team with his tumbling coach through the YMCA. He did great at his first practice. His coach said that he was a little intimidated by the class size, but did a super job. His coaches have donned him a new name...James "Rocks the House" becuase he is such a go getter. I couldn't be more proud!

On the same note, Jaiden finished up soccer a couple of weekends ago and did great! Her team took second place...by ONE game!! They would've otherwise been undefeated. She had a great coach this season and signed up for the next round. GO Coyotes!!

Lu-Hoo-Zu-Hrrr

I just realized that other than our holiday cards we didn't share any of our amazing photography!! So, here are a few of my favorite shots taken December 2008. There were so many to choose from, it was hard. A sincere thank you again goes out to our brilliant artist, Rebekha Pailliotet.

You've been Duff-ed!!

{Here we come Taylor!}

WE GOT 'EM!!! Jen and I have been patiently waiting to get tickets to take Jaiden and James to see Taylor Swift and she got them this morning!!! SO rad. I can't wait to stand on the seats and belt out or favorite songs. I can't wait to watch Jamesy scream at the top of his lungs for her. (Sigh)

James favorite song in the whole wide world for those of you who don't know or haven't heard him sing it is "ihatethatstupidoldpickuptruck"...lol-Picture to Burn.

Strep!!

Yuck! So bummed. We were going to go to a Valentines Day party with all our friends tomorrow! I ran James to the doctor this afternoon because he's been complaining of a sore throat. And this kid's not really a complainer when he's sick. Anyhow, glad we went. But SO sad we're missing out on all the fun!

On another note, I am emotional today because I had to sign my baby up for KINDERGARTEN today!!! I can't believe he's been growing for 5 years already. Craziest thing. I'm not typically the emotional mom. I'm not a gusher and I thought that since he's already been in preschool for two years that this would be a cinch. Then I pulled up to the ginormous (only a word in my vocab, I know) school and got so depressed. Pretty soon I'll be screening girlfriends! No wait, that's already happening.

Here's James new school. He starts Eduprize in July 2009!

Chomps the Dinosaur!

This week we had a traveling visitor...it's Chomps the class pet! Yay. We did lots with Chomps. He went with us to see Grandma in California and had a great time. He got to go to the snow with us and throw snow balls. We loved having Chomps and hope he had fun too.

James and Chomps in his room

Chomps loves Christmas!

Have a Cool Yule!

My super creative photography genious (Rebekha Pailliotet) did our Christmas pictures recently. I've been uber eager to learn more about Photoshop and she offered to give me some tips and pointers. Here's what I ended up creating! This is my favorite family picture yet! Thanks Rebekha. You're the best.

Schnepff Farms

We went to the pumpkin patch this weekend and let the boys roam. Here are some shots of the family.

Things I love...

I know. Meg reminded me this week that I needed to update. I've been dreading uploading my pictures from recent trips and random things and so I've slacked on the blog. I thought I'd post a little something fun just to passify you all and give you a little insight into my brain (I know it sounds scary, but bear with me). More to come VERY shortly...

{things I heart}

the smell of Grant in the morning

sleeping in

spooning with my husband

the color GREEN

Arizona summers

James with blue hair

James with any color hair

a can of Dr Pepper just out of the slushy ice chest

new car smell

Dave Matthews-ants marching

Jaidens unprompted hugs

freshly painted toe nails

singing really loud in the car with the kids

Our trip to Orlando!

So Terry hosted a few workshops in FL this last week and so we decided to take the kids on a Minnie vacation (pun intended). The kids had a BLAST! It was great. My favorite part was that Disney decorated for Halloween. Growing up in California, it was interesting to see the differences between Disneyland and the main park at Disney World. I will say that while it was totally worth it, traveling with three kids is NOT for the faint hearted.

Here are the kids on a ride with dad/Terry. He was smiling, but really hates rides.

The kids and Big Bertha...one of the clydsedales at Sea World

The kids with the sea turtles

Those cool decorations I was talking about

Our Milestone Weekend!

So...Grant is officially walking! Yay!! He's walking across rooms now. It started with a couple of steps. But now he's a traveling man. It was so cool to watch. I will post pictures as soon as I can catch him walking. He falls everytime I get the camera out! LOL

AND- James started riding his two wheeler with NO training wheels. He's doing such a great job!

Crazy Week...

What a whirlwind week it's been. We've been dealing with the whole car wreck/insurance thing all week. I wouldn't even bring it up, but I'm not sure James will EVER let me live it down. He's told every person we've come in to contact since then. We went to the market and I kid you not he said the following to the clerk: "Hi, my name is James. My mom got us in an accident and wrecked her Nalli. We are okay, but she totalled the car." OMG!!! Can you say embarassed? I think I shrunk down to the size of a pea.

Anyhow, we are all okay and poor Bessie is probably in yukon heaven wishing evil things upon me. But I'll miss her. She was absolutely my favorite car in the history of my driving career. She wasn't just a mom wagon. She was family. RIP Bessie.

Okay, enough sad stuff. Let's talk about HALLOWEEN!! Yay for October. I may have jumped the gun a little, but only by a couple of days. A couple of my friends (Meg and Tara) already have their fall decorations up so I really actually feel behind the eight ball. I put mine up Friday and I am so excited. I made new ones this year. Here are some pictures of my crazy metallic pumpkins.

Spooky enough? I love the ravens! I changed out their eyes for rhinestones. I painted roses black and frosted them with black glitter. Then, I added loose featheres to the pumpkins...SO cool. I love the way these turned out! I also made a wreath for the front door. As if my house isn't scary enough?

And finally, my sister Robin and her husband came into town for the weekend. We had a blast. We went through baby things and cooked. We tend to do that. When we spend time together, we enjoy spending time in the kitchen. Anyhow, we had some really great conversation. Last night we played CLR and Farkel. It was a blast. Thanks for coming out guys!!