School is OUT!!!

I am so excited for school to be out. I absolutely love the summer vacation. It would perfect if I could have all my kids with me though. Morgan and Jensen will be leaving after we get home from our annual Lake Powell trip that we are taking in just two days! The kids love this trip and look forward to it all year.
I have decided not to go back in the fall to teach. One of the greatest responsibilities in this life is to be a mother and I am going to stay home with our little "JR". It is sad to leave teaching for awhile, but it will definitely be worth it. Morgan and Jensen are excited for me to stay home as well. I put in a lot of extra hours at the school my first year and they want me to be home more. I am really looking forward to that!
All of the kids did so well in school and got excellent grades. Morgan and Jensen had straight A's, Matthew had all straight A's except for one class (I think), Garrett got all straight A's, and Rylee got some A's too! Smart kids!!
We went to Garrett's 8th grade graduation and was pleasantly surprised with him getting one of the most honorable awards (in a parents eyes) that a student and son could receive. He received the "Character Counts" Award. Out of all the kids in his graduating class he was selected as having the best character. There are six "pillers" to this program (which I don't remember at this time). He is such a great kid and we are so proud of him.

Valley Vista Baseball

We went to Matthew's baseball game last weekend and had a lot of fun watching him play. He is a sophmore this year and on the JV team. Valley Vista is a 5A school and Matthew is so talented to be able to make the team. Their team is really good and enjoyable to watch. Good thing because they went in to extra innings and finally had to be called at a tie game because there wasn't any more sunlight to play. Matthew did really well and we are so proud of him for getting back on the diamond after his accident with the ball. He hit a ball and it came right off his bat into his face. He broke his left cheekbone,got quite a fat lip, and suffered a concussion. He will have to wear a cage on his batting helmet for the rest of the season. His team mates have given him the name of Angelina (After her famous huge lips). His first time up to bat he took the first pitch and hit it right up the middle and got on base!

Surprise!

I had a surprise birthday party for Morgan and it went off without a hitch. Morgan has developed some really good friends this year and I am so pleased! It has been complete drama since first grade. This year has been so different and I believe it is because of the friends she has. They all come from great families and are really down-to-earth girls.
The hardest part about the whole thing is that she was getting frustrated with me because she wanted to have a party and I had to tell her that we were going to have a party with the family. She loves family parties, but after her last friend birthday party (drama, drama, drama) she has had family parties since. She even told me that she was aware that her last two parties have been with the family. I knew it was killing her.
I had Jensen get her address and phone book for me when she took a shower one night. She takes extremely long showers so I was able to call all of her friends, but two which I called the next day, to invite them. They all were really excited to play a trick on her and never gave her any clue that they were going to surprise her.
I had my mom keep her and Jensen over at her house while I picked up the girls. Then my mom told her that they were going to get some pizza for all of us to eat that night (us, nana and papa, and visiting family from Tucson). When they were on their way back from Papa Johns, I called my mom and told her that I needed Morgan to come back home because I was cleaning her closet out and needed her to come help me because it was a disaster! Morgan hates cleaning with me- I throw everything away! The girls got into place and we heard them come in. She immediately came downstairs and we got her good. She was so surprised and excited to see all of her friends.
We ate pizza and then her teacher, Ms. Elliot (also my friend) taught them how to play NERTZ the card game. They caught on really well and played a few rounds. Then we made flower hair clips. They had a blast doing this. I am glad I thought of this because it probably was the funnest thing they did. They all kind of made the same ones and then decided which ones they were going to wear each day of the week the following week at school. Then I put in a movie, Bolt, and they watched it for about 15 minutes before they got bored and played hide-and-seek. They stayed over until about 9:30 pm and then I took them home. They really enjoyed themselves and I am glad I could make Morgan happy. Happy 11th birthday Mogie!

Gotta Love the Innocence

If you know Rylee, you know how young and innocent she still is. She found these treehouses in a magazine and brought them to her dad and told him which one she wanted him to build. I guess she showed Garrett first and Garrett just laughed and asked her what she was thinking. She couldn't understand his doubtful attitude! She told him that we had the "sticks" to build it!

What Do You Think?

I was wondering if I could get some feedback on this Twilight issue I am having. The series is definitely good and I enjoy it. However, I have a problem with my daughter reading them. Now, some of you might have let your daughters or sons read them, but I would like to know how you came to that decision. I feel that they are too adult for my barely 11 year old. None of her friends are aloud to read them and I have teachers emailing expressing their concern about it. What are your feelings?

Power Outage and One Smart Boy

The whole Gila Valley's power went out the other day. It was interesting to experience this 3-4 hour ordeal. It showed many of us what we should have during something like this. After staying at home for awhile and the kids getting restless with not having any lights, video games, or TV, I decided to go up to town and do some grocery shopping. While on my way, Chantel called and asked me what we were doing. I told her that I was headed up to town. She reminded me that it was pointless because the registers at all stores were down. Jensen was really bummed because I told him that he could spend some of his birthday money at Blockbuster to buy this toy "bob" from Monsters Vs. Aliens. He really had a hard time with no power available to him and now to find out about the stores not working either was just too much to handle.
We decided to go over to my mom's house where Chantel, Rachel, and all the kids were at. My mom found some really annoying gun blasters that they all started to play with. After a while we all decided to go back to our own homes. I decided to get comfortable with a good book. After I got into it, Jensen came walking in with a white envelope.

Jensen: Mom, can we open this and read it?
Mom: Why Jensen, what is it?
Jensen: It is a letter from the electric company.
Mom: Why do you want to open that?
Jensen: Maybe it will tell us what we need to do to get the power to start working again.
Mom: Well Jensen, that is not going to tell us that because it is just a bill and besides, there is nothing we can do about it. The whole valley doesn't have electricity.
Jensen: Well, maybe we could just read it to make sure.
Mom: Jensen, go find something to do. Go read or practice the violin. Enough about the electricity. We can't do anything about it honey.

5 minutes later.....

Jensen: Mom?
Mom: Yes Jensen.
Jensen: I think I know why we have an electric bill!
Mom: Why do we have and electric bill Jensen?
Jensen: Because Matthew and Garrett left the Wii plugged in all weekend and it is still plugged in!!!


You see, Darren had heard on some radio talk show that the Wii game console takes up as much electricity as a refrigerator. So he gave a great lecture to the kids about turning off the power bar when they are done playing with it. Jensen was thinking that our power got turned off because we had an electric bill and Matthew and Garrett were to blame. He wasn't too happy with them.

Smart boy though- he found the electric bill!

Terrible Blogger!

So I have decided that I am a terrible blogger. I have never been one to keep up on journaling. I get so busy with life that I don't ever think about getting on the computer to update everyone on it. I also don't think that anyone actually cares to look anyway. Well, just to update: Darren and I are expecting our first and LAST baby! We are really excited, especially Darren. We went to our ultrasound a couple of days ago and got pictures. When I walked into the bathroom to get ready for work this morning, I noticed that he had one of the pictures on HIS mirror. What a proud daddy! He always is asking me how JUNIOR is doing. He has been calling it JUNIOR since the day we found out I was expecting. Anyway, he always has to ask whenever I do anything, how Junior did. When I take a shower, he asks if Junior liked his bath and asked me if I washed his hair. He is certainly a trip! The kids are all excited as well. Of course Morgan really wants a girl and all the boys, of course, want a boy. I don't know what Rylee wants or if she really even cares what it is. She is just happy to be alive!
Teaching is going much better. I have gotten into the swing of things and pretty much have it all figured out. The first year is definitely no fun though. I don't know what is going to happen with next year. As all of us know, our country and state are in an economic crisis and it is even affecting the schools now. My principal told me that I may not have a job next year because the state is cutting all full day kindergarten programs. Yes, I know that I am not a kindergarten teacher, but there are kindergarten teachers who have been here longer than me that get first dibs on a teaching position. This means that I would have to let my position become available to them because I was the last hire. It is definitely a bum deal, but if I were in their position, I would expect it too. There are definitely other options for me to look in to if this does happen.


Jensen just celebrated his 9th birthday on February 1st. We had a lot of fun having family come over to eat. We realize that our house is definitely not baby proof. Our travertine floors caused a lot of accidents! He also was in his very first pinewood derby. Darren and he worked very hard on his car. It looked great and Jensen was so proud of it. Darren thought he was out of the woods when Garrett raced his last race. Little did he know! Anyway, Jensen got third place which is perfect, no district races. He will also be receiving his Wolf next week. He is such a good boy and a fun addition to the family.



Matthew just made the JV baseball team and we are so excited for him. He is such a good ball player! This is such an accomplishment because he goes to a 5A school were the compitition is FIERCE! He is also turning SIXTEEN next week. Darren is definitely not old enough to have a sixteen year old, okay maybe he is, but he does not LOOK like it. And what about me? I am really not old enough for this, but I might look it- all the sun damage you know!! Matthew is such a good kid and we are proud of him and his acklomplishments.


The other kids are all doing well too. They love to still hang out with each other. They have started this new game were they go down underneath the bridge to our house. They pretend it is a town. They make weapons and stuff because Matthew of course loves to torture them, being the older brother and all. They decided to "kick him out" of their town and have wars with him. They all have made up names for this town underneath the bridge too. They are all so funny and hilarious to watch. I am so glad that we have a house like the one we have where they can have these kind of memories to look back at. We love all our kids so much and our proud of the people they have become. They only get grounded every once in awhile!!

Lastly, I just wanted to thank all of you who have been so supportive to me during the "rough" times I have gone through and am still not done going through. Most of you may have heard that something took place that went very well in my favor. FINALLY. I do not want to directly comment on this because of the privacy of the issue and those special "little ones" who are involved. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!!!!!