Happy Halloween!

Schoolhouse Rock!

Max did GREAT in Schoolhouse Rock! This was his first experience being in a musical, and he had a BLAST! It was so much fun to watch him up on the stage. In the program, each actor wrote a bio about themself...Max's said "Hello, my name is max and I have 2 little brothers and I love to play video games. I am a pretty funny guy once you get to know me. I'm in the 4th grade at BBS. I am the singer of Conjuction Junction in this play. I like to play football, basketball, and baseball."

I loved watching him dance during this song!

Here's his big solo in "Conjunction Junction"!

Happy Birthday, DAD/GRANDPA!

We had a wonderful time celebrating my Dad's birthday last night! We all jumped out and shouted "SURPRISE" when the birthday boy arrived! Each kid made up a fun game for us all to play and Grandpa got some very nice presents from each grandkid! Fun night!

Sam's Birthday Party

What an AWESOME time we had celebrating Sam's 3rd birthday! When we asked Sam what he wanted for his birthday, he always answered, "Everybody at my party." That is exactly what he got and had the time of his life! All his cousins, brothers, grandparents, aunts and uncles together playing.....that was the best present of all! Sam loves vanilla ice cream and SPRINKLES. So, we enjoyed some of that as well. What a special celebration for my special Sam.

I will never forget the sweet look on his face while we were singing. He was so excited it was actually happening!

Vacation Time!

We had a great family vacation to Rocky Pointe, Mexico with the Verdugo family! We enjoyed sun, fun, relaxing, and time with each other...

Max's discovery speech on his name...

Max did his second Discovery Speech on "Where my name came from". This was such a fun speech for Max to research and do. Max is named after Rich's gradpa, Max, and it is just precious to hear him talk about his Great Grandpa Max. What a truly awesome man he was, and I pray my little Max grows up to be just like him.

Luke's first choir concert!

Here's the STAR with his fans after the concert!

Luke did such a great job at his first choir concert! We had such a great time watching and listening to him! Ms. Holemon did such an awesome job with the kids. All the kids were so joyful and you could really tell they were enjoying themselves.

Here's the first song/rap the 2 combined choirs did. It's called "Concert Etiquette Rap". My sweet boy had the FIRST solo to start off the show!

Here's the Cub Singers singing "Dem Bones"


And last but not least, here are the Cub Singers singing "Three Black Socks"

A very special play date...

What a sweet afternoon my boys had today....my good friends from Symphony Chorus, Mohamed and Jon (both Freshman at Arizona State University) are big kids at heart, and LOVE hearing about my boys when we carpool every Monday night to rehearsal. They hear me gushing about how awesome my boys are, and how good they are at video games, etc. So, they asked if they could come over and "challenge" my boys to some Guitar Hero! It was SO sweet....Max and Luke were SO excited to have them over, and Mohamed and Jon were SO sweet to my boys... they even brought Doritos and Mountain Dew for everyone to enjoy. I pray MY boys grow up to be such sweet, respectful, kind, nice young men like Mohamed and Jon!

Luke challenged Jon to some Guitar Hero...

the boys LOVE their new playmates...
what a FUN time we all had!
yum....Mountain Dew! Thanks, guys!

I LOST MY TOOTH...sniff sniff!

So, I'm back in my bedroom, and Luke comes running in with a shaky voice, tears streaming down his face and says, "Mommy, I lost my tooth!" As he opened his mouth blood started GUSHING everywhere, and there was a HUGE hole in his gums. Max comes rushing in the room, and explained the whole thing...."Luke was playing on the computer, and got very frustrated, and was biting on his shirt, and when he pulled down his shirt in his frustration, he yanked out his tooth !" Well...so much for me constantly telling Luke, "It doesn't hurt when your tooth comes out, it will be so wiggly that it will just fall out!" This didn't feel so good...but, his tears of hurt quickly turned into tears of joy when he realized the tooth fairy will be making a visit tonight....

I'm happy, but that is not what I thought it was going to be like...

it bled A LOT...
he put the tooth under his pillow immediately
bless his little heart...

Fun field trip with MAX...

I had the privledge of going on Max's field trip to the Heard Museum today. We learned all about the Native Americans! After the great tour, the kids got to make their own bracelets out of glass beads. It was a really fun time to be with Max and all his buddies.

Max working on his bracelet...

Max and his buddy, Jake with their finished products!
All the kids got to work with a Pump Drill...this is how the Native Americans make most of their jewlry.

Lunch time with Max's buddies...

Max's awesome 4th grade class

Quality Time with Luke...

If you were to ask Luke what he would want to do more than anything (play video games, watch TV, hang out with friends, get a new toy....), it would be to hang out with someone one on one and spend some quality time. I got to do just that with my little sweetie pie today. We went to his buddy, Aiden's birthday party at Polar Ice skating rink! We had SO MUCH FUN! I laughed so hard watching Luke never give up tackling the ice rink! He fell SO hard SO many times, but never got frustrated and kept the HUGEST grin on his face the whole time. He said, "Mommy, this is the most awesomest, best day ever. I'm having a lot of those days lately in my heart."

He really started to get the hang of it after a while, I kept saying, "Keep your feet together, take little steps, then GLIDE!"

You have to turn your head to the side to see him in action......it's priceless!

Happy Birthday to Daniel!

We celebrated my sweet nephew, Daniel's 11th birthday tonight! The cousins all loved being together celebrating their BIG cousin. Each kid had a present for Daniel, and before dinner we all went around and told why we love him so much. I love Daniel, because he is super sweet and sensitive. I also have the HONOR of being his Godmother...I'm so proud of my little Daniel, and think he is a great leader and friend to all his siblings and cousins. Love you, buddy! Happy Birthday!

Max has been practicing really hard, and surprised Daniel with a special rendition of "Happy Birthday" on his guitar...

Remembering September 11th.....

The boys' school did a wonderful ceremony this morning. Luke's choir had their DEBUT performance! They sang the Star Spangled Banner so well...I loved the innocent sound the choir made on this very poignant day. I LOVED watching the choir "warm up" and get ready and then perform - Luke was so proud. I was so proud of Luke - you could tell he really enjoyed being a part of the choir.

There's my little tenor...

Max is enjoying the ceremony, he asked the question, "Why are you called firefighters when you do so many other things than just fight fires?"...
The firefighters came, and had Coach M dress up like a firefighter!
The kids LOVED seeing him dress up in the 60 lb. suit!
And here they are...the Bright Beginnings Choir (check out the cutie in the front row)!

Welcome to the world, Miller Dylan

My dear friend, Tia had her 2nd baby boy today! Miller Dylan was born at 7:31 am and was 6 lbs, 12 oz, 18 inches long. He joins big brother, Toby who is 5 years old. Tia said, "I now have "kids" instead of one child!" Congrats, Tia and Matthew!

Take me out to the BALLGAME!

We had a great time at the D'Back's game today! Some friends from church weren't able to use their tickets and let us have them! 3 rows from the Dodgers dugout! What a way to watch a baseball game! We were so close and were really able to get into the game - it was fun to see Joe Toree and Manny Ramirez (BOO!) so close. Max caught a ball (Dodger player threw him one) and Luke caught a shirt! Fun day with my fun family!

Ahhh....relaxing.....

Ahhh....what a relaxing, wonderful time Rich and I had at the Pointe South Mountain Resort on Saturday and Sunday! This was a thank you gift to us from our church - Rich organized the church's golf tournament this year. It couldn't have been better timing after our "vow renewal", this was like a little 2nd honeymoon for us! The bar even had Red Stripe beer on sale...that was our drink of choice on our 1st honeymoon 12 years ago in Jamaica!!! Thank you to Papa and Grandma for watching the boys Saturday and Sunday...they had such a wonderful time and did it all! Movie, golfing, San Tan Flats, more golfing, McDonald's, and just having FUN! Thank you!