New Shoes!

Holy cow! Savannah and Griffin had been complaining that their feet were hurting when they wear their shoes. Now, we just got shoes at the beginning of school (the end of July) and Alyssa got shoes in November. Everyone had grown...the girls grew 2 to 2.5 sizes, Griffin went up a size and a half, Alyssa a half size. Still! Everyone found shoes they love, except Savannah. She was very bummed that she is no longer in "kid sizes" she's now a women's size 7.5. I'll have to take her to a few more places to find something she feels good about :)

so here we go....

Griffin's New Shoes

Cassandra's New Ecko Red high tops

Alyssa's new "hot lights" the toes light up as do the strap!

Alyssa drawing

One of Alyssa's favorite things to draw are "happys" or smiley faces. The funny thing is, she draws all of them with donnies (pacifiers) in their mouth! I got a cute pic and video of her drawing happys one evening. So cute!

100th Day of School! February 19th

all the students released balloons with their (safe) contact information. The cards asked that whoever find the balloon, please call or email the school to say how far it went.

watching the balloons go off into the sky! there are 690 students at the school. everyone who was there participated!

Savannah's fabulous teacher, Mr. J talking to the kids about making predictions on which way the balloons were floating and why

Cassandra (holding Alyssa) and some of her BFFs

Savannah and her 100th day glasses in class

some crazy friends of Savannah's!

Mr. J in the back and all the 100th day party goers!

Griffin's class (he's in the blue shirt with Alyssa standing next to him) and Ms. C. his class was just starting to color their "100" glasses!

Arizona Rain

The backyard after our almost 3" of rain over a 4 day period. Who said winter was over??? 

The Front yard!

Front yard!

Last week we got hit with a series of winter storms. They brought a lot of wind and rain. There was even a (supposed) tornado in Scottsdale. Up north was hit hard with snow. One friend told me they got 56" of snow in Flagstaff. It was so nice to have a bit of winter hit, the clouds, rain, thunder all made for some awesome snugglin' weather!

Update!

Well howdy do out there!

I just realized it has been a whole 10 days since I posted! Has life really been that busy? I guess it has! Well the kids went back to school. Their first week was a little rocky. Nobody wanted to get back into the swing of getting up early, homework, studying, etc. I can't say I was overjoyed either. I don't think Alyssa and I did much at all that week. We just sorta sat and played, took some walks, went to the park and realized "geez, everyone is gone" all dang day long.

Our 2nd week back got a little more hectic, a little more involved. I think I mentioned awhile back that I was elected PTO VP in November. Well the gal who was President (who had been VP but moved up when the orig President resigned~follow so far? LOL) decided that after 2 months it was too much for her so SHE resigned. Guess what that made me? Ya, you guessed right. Now I'M President. It has gone well so far. I got all the information from her and had my first PTO meeting on the 11th. It went smoothly even though I was a nervous wreck. We have a lot of great events planned from Family Game Night, Movie Night, Family Valentine Dance, Spring Fling, Fun Run and so on. I have two great ladies still on the board to serve with me and I feel very lucky to have them.

Shane is good, keeping up at work. He's been doing a lot more outside too. He showed the kids how to putt a golf ball so they did that night after night for a week. Then he got them a new soccer ball and a new football. They play toss many nights during the week. Alyssa has overcome her fear of the slide so now everyday we go out and she slides for forever (ok, it just feels like forever). She has also gotten really good at peddling her trike so she does that indoors and out. Yes, I let her ride her trike in the house :P  The big kids are good too. Cassandra started riding lessons at her Papa's house. She gets 2 more on her own and then Savannah will do some on her own. Then they will do lessons together. She has a great time, rides for about 2 hours and comes home SORE for a couple of days. She wants to join an after school Lego club run by her teacher. We'll see if that pans out as well. That would have her gone 4 afternoons a week which seems like a lot to me with homework and all. I guess we'll try it because we can cut back if it's too much.

That's about it here. The weathermen say rain all next week. I hope they are right. I sure was wondering where winter went, it was 76 degrees today. Now, I am not complaining because it sure as hell isn't 110 out but I would have taken a month or so more of the 50's. So we'll see if this rain shows up. They are calling for quite a bit of snow in the northern and eastern part of the state too. My fingers are crossed!

Take care!
XO

Happy Birthday Me :)

Usually I avoid any sort of attention for my birthday. I don't know exactly why. Sometimes I think it is me exercising my right to not have a party. Our birthday season starts in September and by the time we get to January I am all partied out. I also have a hard time being the center of attention. Sometimes I just feel blue about getting older so I don't really want to "celebrate" the passing of another year. Maybe it's also because I put so much heart and effort into the kids' parties (and Shane when he wants one) that I  have no effort left for my own.

So this year I still didn't want a scheduled get together but I sure have been blessed to have a wonderful, special birthday. I got to start out my day with a wonderful breakfast with my Mom, Sis and Alyssa. We dropped Brittany off at home and mom went with me to the mall to get a top for my hot date with Shane tonight.  That brings me to the 3rd cool part of the day, Mom offered to watch the kids after school so Shane and I can go to a movie and dinner. I can't think of a better birthday present than getting to spend it with my family :)

Thank you to everyone for the wonderful birthday wishes! It means a lot that so many of my family and my friends have taken time to send me emails and messages on Facebook to help me celebrate!

Love you all

Susan

Happy New Year 2010!

Wow! I can't believe how fast the year has finished up. I mean really, starting around September 15th (Gumpy's birthday) things go into hyperdrive around here!

We had a wild year here with kids, family, home, work and a myriad of other things in between. Aside from Shane's hospital stay in April, we had a good year. It was hard to watch so many friends and acquaintances go through hard times with work, layoffs, losing their homes and moving. I hope that for 2010 there will be more positive things for the economy and for employment opportunities.

I feel very lucky that we had our family close again this year. The kids have done well in school, been healthy and happy. Shane and I are happier than we have ever been. I am totally committed to my continued weight loss and being a healthier person. I hope that is something that rubs off on the kids too. I mean, I try to keep them healthy but I am hoping they learn about doing it on their own...without me forcing them to eat an apple rather than a Pop Tart!

We have been blessed to have good friends around us. We are also so happy for our friends (the kids' godparents) Doug and Cindy because they are having their first baby this May. It's been a long road for them and we couldn't be happier for them.

All in all, life has been very good to us. I know that when my head hits the pillow each night that I am very lucky to have what I have and to have WHO I have even more.

So for all our family and our friends I hope for you much love, health and blessings for this New Year.

XO
Susan