Best and Worst Day of the Year

School's back in! I can't believe I took almost the entire summer off from blogging and we're already back to Day One of school. I say it's the best day and the worst day of the year because I'm SOOOO happy to have them back in school BUT, 6:00 a.m. comes very very early in the morning. Within about a month, I'll be done with this already and guess what...only 8 more months until summer break!! JOY JOY!!!

Well here's Sydney and Gavin off to their first day of 6th grade and 3rd grade. They wanted to ride the bus to school, which made me kinda sad. I always take them to school and walk them to their classes. This year they wanted to trek it alone. I guess I'm cramping their style now. My babies are growing up... sniff sniff :(

Luke ADORES his older brother but he ADORES Gavin's DSi more, so he knows once Gavin's off to school, the DSi is all his (for at least 8 hours, that is)!!!

Here's the infamous $40 bag that my daughter wanted. She obviously doesn't know that we are in a recession nor does she realize we have 4 kids...but of course I caved...she is my only daughter after all :) !

So long SUCKAS!

This little guy starts preschool next week. Pictures to come!

P.S. I will fill you in soon on all the things that happened to us over the summer! Stay tuned!

Mary and Doug Finally Have Their Sugar Plum!!!!

Mary and Doug left for China last week and today they finally...after almost 4 years...got their baby girl. Kailahni Xiu Gang. She is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!! I can't wait to meet her when they get back. To read about their amazing journey (Mary is so awesome about journalling every single thing), go check out their site:

http://babygirlschneider.shutterfly.com/

Congratulations you guys...she was so worth the wait!

Blueberries and a 4 year old's dream

My kiddos LOVE fruit...especially blueberries. They could eat pounds and pounds of blueberries. The other day, my 4 year old, Luke, opened the fridge looking for the big white bowl of washed blueberries and to his dismay, they were GONE! He was so disappointed. He said to me "Mom, I want to grow a whole bunch of blueberries so I can have them forever and ever". What a GREAT idea!

The problem...I have no garden and I live in Arizona. I guess that's two problems. I have an area reserved to start a garden at the end of the summer. But I have to be honest, I have never heard of anyone in this horridly hot state ever growing blueberries. Does anyone out there know how you grow blueberries and where they actually grow the best? Luke would love you forever if you give me any tips. Thanks.

My very adventurous and future gardener, Luke.

Last Day of School...AWWWWW!!!!

I have been on a blogging break. But I will try to catch up. Today is the last day of school. Trust me when I say this is "Bitter Sweet"! Can't wait to sleep in but I do not look forward to 4 kids at home fighting.

Stay tuned!

SUGAR PLUM IS ALMOST HERE!!!!!!

My friend Mary has been trying to adopt a baby girl from China. The process has been long and grueling. It's been an emotional roller coaster. And as the time got nearer, anything and everything that could have gone wrong has gone wrong including stopping all adoptions because of the Swine Flu. But after over 3 1/2 years, she got her referral today. I can barely type this because I'm shaking with excitement. We can not be more HAPPY for Doug and Mary and we can't wait to meet the Sugar Plum!

Doug and Mary, we are so beside ourselves with joy for you and Jacob and Benjamin. When we heard the news, we started screaming and crying, including Sydney. The whole family is beyond excited!!!!!! We are all just thrilled for the good news.



This isn't her but I just thought this little girl was so cute.

If anyone would like to read about Mary and Doug's journey to get their little girl, click here.


This is Mary and I, back in the 80's.

Skate or Die!

So we found this ramp at a yard sale for $10. I was probably more excited to find it than Scott and the boys were. Growing up we had a huge half pipe in our back yard. My dad built it for my brothers to skateboard on. Well in about a week, as soon as that thing was done, we were like the most popular kids on the block. Most of the neighbor kids played on that thing for hours every week. It was super fun....that was until my dad heard weird noises at night and found half the neighborhood kids in our backyard having a skate party on the ramp...can you say LAW SUIT!? So after that my dad had to pull a chain across it and lock it up at night so we didn't get the pants sued off of us for some punk kid breaking his neck.

Well Gavin is still learning his way on the skateboard but he totally rocks it on the roller blades. He couldn't wait to get home from the yard sale that day and try out his mad skillz on that ramp.

He was very afraid at first...and the first couple of jumps were SCARY! But within about 10-20 minutes, the kid was jumping leaps and bounds across that thing. It was so funny watching him.

He was almost practically doing the splits every time he came off that ramp.

And one point, every time he would jump in the air he would look like a super hero.

Because I was worried about him smashing his face in, I pulled the ramp next to the grass. Well that didn't last long. Once he learned his moves, that ramp was pulled out to the street. Cars were swerving around it to get by. And of course, our house has become the most popular now because of the ramp.

But as long as the ramp is in the street, they can break their necks...it's not on my property...not my problem! So skate away...I'm a cool mom like that!

Of course Dylan and Luke tried to get in on that action.

Dylan is either really scared in this picture or he's take a poop! Poor kid never gets any privacy doing his bidness.

"Hmmm, yeah, I think I'll try this out"

"Whoa, this looks a little bit harder than I thought"

"Maybe if I teeter the skateboard up here and then just jump on it, I might catch some air"

"Well maybe if I just slightly slide my body down it won't be so dangerous"

"Oh forget it, I just cannot do this...this skateboarding bizness is for the birds"

Oh and there was NO WAY Scott wasn't going to try out his old 80's moves.

Oh dear lord, I see yet another injury in our future.

Yeah right poser...but it does look pretty SA-WEET!!!

Day One AGAIN!!! Grrrrrr!

I'm on day One of the South Beach Diet again.

I'm in a really really bad mood!!!!

Any ideas or suggestions for the next two fun filled carb-less weeks?