Love This....

I love reading through my kids school papers and finding something like this. Sure made me smile!  The part about me cheering him on and helping him when times are tough, melted my heart. 

Logan wrote such sweet things about his two favorite teachers but the best of all....

 

Was finding out the his dad teaches him "how to be the ladies man!"

Bahahaha!!!! I didn't know Justin knew how to "be a ladies man!"  Guess he saves that side for his girlfriend :) 

Some Times I Really Don't Want to be the Parent!

So Ella's new favorite thing to do is.....

Yes that's right....her favorite thing is to MOON YA!!!

She thinks it's hilarious and it is. But no I can't just laugh at her because I am the PARENT!!  I have to be as serious as I can and tell her that we don't show people our bums. All while she is giggling away. The struggle to parent her is real people!! 

  

She will just randomly pull down her pants and MOON ya! I really hope I can hold my serious face so that I can teach her it's not appropriate to MOON people!  She's too young to learn about the times when it is appropriate to MOON people......Bahahaha!  Just kidding!!! 

Wish me luck cause inside I am laughing!  Guess I'll keep on being the parent though :) 

Just Incase

Some playdough bounces up and gets in your eye. 

You might as well wear goggles just to be on the safe side!! 

What a character this little lady is!  Gosh how I love her!! 

Then she fell asleep like an angel on the couch tonight.

 Love this little lady!

Birthday Boy

Logan got to spend his birthday in Mexico.  His birthday wish was that we got on a long ranger ride in the sand dunes, which we did.  It was super fun the Pauls even rented a rhino for our stay so they could have fun as well.  Lots of laughing took place!!

Logan's other request was fireworks.  Justin and I went and bought some but then it turned out to be a very windy night so we couldn't shoot them off.  We will plan an evening when we get back to Pima and go out in the hills to enjoy the fireworks.

All in all, I think Logan had a fun birthday!

Sure love our Logie Bear!  He brings so much fun and laughter to our family!

Happy birthday Logan!!!

Thanksgiving

This year we decided to mix things up and step out of our normal Thanksgiving traditions. We decided to go to Rocky Point for the long weekend. The kids have Wednesday off so that meant we could have 3 full days in Mexico. 

It was so fun!! 

We even talked our good friends, the Paull's, in to joining us. 

We had one really warm day that was just beautiful!!  The other days were a little chilly for laying on the beach. 

I love this family of mine!

Sophia fell in love with Mexico!  That could be because she got her own apple soda at every place we ate....lol!

The Chicken Hut for Thanksgiving dinner was phenomenal!!!

This is a tradition I could get use to!  So yummy and no work for me!  That is a win win in my book!!

Our Thanksgiving feast!

Good looking group if you ask me. 

After our delicious lunch we took the kids to the candy store. In Mexico everything is so cheap, the kids get to pick out a whole bag of candy. They were thrilled!!

Not the best picture but we really had our ranger loaded with kids!  We got some seriously crazy looks

We are so happy we talked the Paull's into joining us for a trip to Mexico. We love this family!!

Gotta love a guy throwing machetes on the beach right?!?  Hahaha.....only in Mexico! 

Ella loved that the Paull's brought their dog, Sandy. She played with Sandy a lot!  

Mangos in Mexico are the BEST!!!

But I think we have finally figured out what gives our boys, well Logan and Hunter, the strange rash/blisters around their mouth. Guess they will have to eat mangos cut up so that the juices don't get all over their face. 

Kiersten getting a few braides. 

Brooke got a few as well. Did I mention Hunter asked me if he could invite his friends, Brooke and Nevaeh, to go to Mexico with us. I figured no one would let their kid leave for Thanksgiving weekend, especially to go to Mexico. So I said sure ask them. Well it turns out Brooke's mom trusts me more then I had thought....lol!  No we really were excited to have Brooke join us. Nevaeh of course had family things to do so she couldn't come. 

Brooke was extremely helpful and super good with Ella and Grant. I was glad she came with us! 

It was funny because our friends the Earp's just figured Brooke was another foreign exchange student of ours. So Terry asked Brooke, "So what country are you from?"  Bahahaha we all got a good laugh out of hat when Brooke said strangely, "Ummmm just Pima, Arizona!"

What a funny girl Kiersten is! 

Couldn't get her to take a serious picture with her mango. 

We love the night time trips to the churro stand. Fresh churros are delicious!!!

And the roasted corn doesn't disappoint either!! Sophia enjoyed it for sure! 

"No Way! Dreams Do Come True!!"

Since we will be in Mexico on Logan's birthday we decided to let him have his presents before we left. He was thrilled to say the least....

A mini BMX bike to use at the skate park just blew his mind. It's what he was wanting but I had him pretty convinced he wasn't getting it. 

Logan was jumping up and down when he found it and said "Dreams really do come true!!!"

He also got a pair of under armor shoes that are blue and yellow (Pima colors) and a Lego set. 

Happy birthday Logan!!!

11 Things I Love About Logan

1.  I love his zest for life. 

2.  I love his carefree spirit! He doesn't usually sweat the small stuff which is refreshing after having two perfectionist kids!

3.  I love his smile!  Man it lights up a room instantly!

4. I love his charm. I know it's probably going to get him in a lot of trouble with girls as a teenager but man is he a charmer. And it's so natural to him! 

5. His love of sports!
6.  He truly is one of the funniest kids I have even known.  I have no idea where he gets half of his comments from.
7.  I love how responsible he has become at his school work.  This year he has really matured and we often find him studying for tests or working on projects for school.  I don't even have to ask him to study for spelling anymore.  He is such a smarty pants!
8.  I love the connection he has with Ella.  He is her favorite for sure.  They has very similar personalities and it is fun to watch.
9.  He has a tender heart and always cares about the under dog or the kid thats a loner.
10.  I love his desire to choose the right.
11.  I love what a performer he is.  He lights up the stage when he is on it!!!

I love you very much Logie Bear!
Happy Birthday!

Sushi?

So I took Kiersten and Grant to eat at the Sushi truck in Thatcher today after we hit the gym. 

I believe their faces tell it all....

Kiersten was dying the whole time trying to choke down even a taste. I didn't even order anything raw. I am not a big fan of raw fish either. But a California roll....yes hit me up. 

The only reason Grant is smiling is because he liked the chop sticks....lol. 

Doesn't look like the sushi truck will be our new dive. 

Love Kiersten face though! 

Two Buns

I brought Grant back some fun printed underoos from our trip to Pheonix.  

He liked them.

He told me, "Mom I don't want to be inappropriate but I really want to show Mrs. Lines (his school teacher) my new underwear!"  He said, "It's funny because I have two buns now. Buns in the front and buns in the back!"

LOL.........

And so I did take the picture and send it to Mrs. Lines.  She is an awesome teacher and good friend.  I knew she would think it was funny.

Lindsey Stirling

So for Kiersten's birthday Justin and I gave her tickets to see Lindsey Stirling in concert. Only the funny part is, that I forgot to tell Kiersten that we got her that.... Now don't judge.... the months of June, July and August were blurred with many issues and struggles. So you can imagine how surprised she was when out of the blue at the end of October I was telling her about it. 

Just have to laugh right!  It was fun to REALLY surprise her with it!!

Originally Justin and I were going to take Kiersten and Hunter to the concert. Since they both take violin lessons right now. But it turned out that Justin and Hunter had a hiking camp out the same weekend so they couldn't go. I wanted to take someone that plays the violin and Maliya came to my mind. My mom was going to take Justin's ticket. But the day before we were leaving my mom wasn't feeling good and she felt like she should just stay home and rest or she would really be sick. So that's when Logan scored a ticket to go. He was thrilled!!

It worked out great because him and Maliya had a great time together. This would be me letting them have Wetzel Pretzels for dinner!!  

We had to leave right after Logan's soccer game so that we would have time to eat dinner and get changed for the concert. 

I really didn't know how good of a concert it was going to be. So you can imagine my shock when Lindsey started to perform!!!  It was awesome!!!

The electrical aspect of the show is phenomenal!

Kiersten must have told me a dozen plus times how hard playing the violin And dance at the same time would be. Only Kiersten said the proper words for what Lindsey was doing on her violin and the exact names of dance moves she was doing. LOL!

Kiersten must have thanked me a least 20 times for taking her to this concert.

I love giving a birthday gift that I benefit from.....hehehe!

Love these peeps!

We had a wonderful weekend.  Did some shopping which is always fun, ate too much and had some good laughs.

Sure glad Maliya could come with us!

Love this girl!

Happy late birthday Kiersten!

I love doing things for Kiersten because she is genuinely appreciative of everything.

What a Day of Soccer

This was one of those days that you'd love to relive over and over and over again!  It started at the soccer fields at 6:30 in the morning. 

Logie Bear loves playing soccer!!!  And man does this kid have a high gear when he needs it!  He has lightening legs! 

This is the championship weekend for soccer and Logan was dreaming about winning it all. He has been talking about this day for weeks!  

His team, The Dabbers, won their first game. Yay!!! Which meant they moved on to the championship game at 11:00. 

During the third quarter Logan put himself in the way of a kick and got kicked hard in the knee. He went down and spent the third quarter break on the field with coach and the refs. They gave him ibprofen and had him walk it off. He was limping the rest of that quarter. 

Logan played defense until the last quarter of the game when Coach Isaac moved him to forward. We were behind by one goal going in to that forth quarter. Then Jobie Rojas made a goal and tied us up. There was about 2 minutes left in the game. We were all pretty sure the game was going to overtime. 

Then Logan kicked the winning goal!!!!

It was epic!!!

When the refs blew their whistles ending the game the boys started screaming and running towards each other. Logan ran towards me and as he got closer he started to cry!  He was so emotional about winning in general but to have just made the winning goal with just minutes to spare was more than his little 10 year old self could handle. 

It brought me to tears to have him run to hug me first after such a victory!  

His teammates started yelling, "MVP! MVP!" And Tanner Emery, the tallest kid on the team, put Logan on his shoulders as they all celebrated the win. It was a magical moment for sure!  Logan was on a high for days and days! 

Isaac is a fabulous coach!

Grant was the "team manager," and he took that job very seriously. He stayed at Isaac's side during every game. It was pretty cute. Grant was in heaven! 

Way to go Logan!!!

Way to play with all your heart!

We have all loved watching you play soccer!

We found out the following week that Logan was chosen to be on the all-star soccer team. He was ecstatic!!!!

Looks like there will be four more months of soccer in our schedule. 

After I took this picture Logan said, "mom, you need to post that picture on FaceBook and let the ladies know we are available!"

I am going to pretend he meant available to wash cars or pull weeds. LOL!  What a character!

Girls Trip

I have been looking forward to this girls trip for months!  Thanks to Stacie for letting us crash at her beach house in San Diego. It ended up being a very hectic time to get away. Without telling me, Justin just went off his meds and then started taking double of another med. a med that's a huge upper, so he can be super hyper and energized but the crash coming down is intense. Oh how I could strangle him!

It was rough to leave but once I figured out where his rude comments were coming from and I took control of the Adderall I felt more comfortable leaving. Thanks to my sweet mother-in-law who offered to keep Ella at night so Justin wouldn't have to deal with a two year old.  It was better for both of us to have some space anyway from each other.  I needed some time to digest the hurtful things he said.  It was so shocking be spoken to like that because it is so out of character for Justin.  We have never spoken mean to each other.....EVER!  That's when I knew something must be messed up with his meds.

With in 30 minutes of arriving at the condo we had a visit from the police in the alley. Kind of exciting! 

Next morning we picked up Mary from the airport and hit up The Donut Bar! 

Makes my mouth water just looking at this picture! 

Thanks Stacie for the fun picture of myself jumping with joy on the beach!  Love having my toes in the sand and listening to the ocean waves! 

Lunch on the beach is pretty much the best! 

The sunsets are killer too! 

Stacie had just had surgery on her foot a couple of weeks earlier so when we went to the mall we pushed her around in a wheel chair.  Kind of fun for a few hours!

We shopped a lot can you tell?!? We came away with some really cute clothes!

I love these ladies right here!!!

They are both so amazing!  The best part of the trip for me was just relaxing and chatting about life and it's challenges.  Life is hard but having wonderful people in your life to help you along with way is what makes all the difference!  So grateful to have been able to get away with them.  It was just what I needed.

And believe me we had plenty of laughs!!!

This was a trip for the books for sure!

My lead foot did get me in to trouble on the way home.........dang it!!!  But the cop was very nice and brought the ticket down from going 23 miles over the speed limit IN A CONSTRUCTION ZONE, to just 5 miles over and no construction zone mentioned.  Huge difference and I was very grateful!

Thanks Stacie for inviting me on this trip and for being such a great friend!  I love you very much and look up to you in so many ways!