Tatum, Tatum, Tatum!!!

It has been a long first week back to school for our little Tatum. She is sure missing her siblings! And she has been rather grumpy. I have asked the kids to give her extra attention when they get home from school and this is what happens:

Tatum accessorized by Carlie. (Not sure why she had the "CRAZY eye" thing going:)



Let me explain this next picture. In July we stayed a few days with my little brother and his family. Stephanie was 9 months pregnant with their 2nd daughter (who was just born on July 23, 2010--Devoney Avery). Tatum was OBSESSED with Stephanie's huge belly. She kept asking me if I had a baby in my tummy. One time she asked, "Mom...do you have a baby in your tummy?" I said, "No, Tatum, I don't." Then she says, "But you got BIG CHEE CHEES!!!" So this has been on her mind for a month now. She wants a baby in her tummy AND big chee chees and big sister Carlie delivers! Kind of strange, I KNOW, but we had a good laugh:)


It's gonna be a LONG school year:)

First Day of School 2010!

Yeah!!! The kids were SUPER excited about school this year! It was Max's first day of Kindergarten this year!!! He's been waiting for this day since his 5th birthday (in January--he thought you got to go to Kindergarten AS SOON as you turn 5...VERY disappointing:) I decided to wait until the 2nd week of school before I started teaching piano again so that I would not have a repeat of last year. Click here for a quick reminder! (Tatum would NOT be denied the photo opportunity! She WILL be starting pre-school in 2 weeks)

So Carlie is starting 5th grade with Mrs. Schanaker:


Ethan is starting 3rd grade with Mrs. Littley:


And Max started Kindergarten with Mrs. Lombardi:

Max was TOTALLY fine his first day. Mom was a bit of a mess. It was a very over-cast morning and I definitely did not NEED my sunglasses but was SOO glad that I had them! I went to leave so I called to Max through the fence and told him I was leaving. He came over and reached his little hand through the fence and grabbed my finger--STILL tearing up just writing about it!!! It's all good. He got off to a GREAT start and is TOTALLY ready for this new adventure in his life:)

Ahh!!! My niece is ENGAGED!!!

This is a picture of my sister, Anne (the one in the middle). What?!?! You can't tell we're sisters?!

Well okay...biologically speaking, we have different fathers. Brief family history: My dad married my mom and adopted Anne when she was 8 and she has never had anything to do with her biological father. So she's my sister and always has been. She is 12 years older than me and anyone who knows her knows how AMAZING she is. Anne graduated from college in 3 years, married and had her own successful business at 19 (which is still running today), 4 kids, president of the Deming, NM Schoolboard....okay you get it! Yes...I am the loser slacker of the family:) So her first child, Britney (the one on the right) was born when I was 9. Her next child is Cassel, and Kursty (the one on the left) is her 3rd born. Catlin was born a few years later. So I was like my sister's personal nanny. I practically lived with her--I even got pulled out of school when she needed help with the kids. So her kids are kinda like my kids too:) So I'm almost freaking out as much as my sister right now...almost.

Kursty is currently 19 years old, just finished her freshman year at NMSU and was headed back east to continue her schooling when all of the sudden...this amazing guy falls out of the sky! His name is Britton Dalton. He is from Silver City, NM--which is only 1 hour away from Deming, but they had never met before because he was an in-active church member. Well about 2 years ago he decided to get his whole family active (which involved teaching and baptizing his non-member dad) and go on a mission. He served in Australia for 2 years, comes home in May, meets Kursty after being home only 2 weeks, purposes to her 2 weeks after that!!! CRAZINESS!!!! So here's a cute pic of them:


Soo...not AT ALL what Kursty meant to be doing this year but when it's right, then run with it! The official wedding date is Saturday, November 19, 2010 right here in good ol' Mesa. Anne is in her element. She is an amazing planner and organizer so I know that this will be the wedding of the year--hands down. I like to joke with Anne saying she could possibly be marrying off #1 (Britney 23) and #2 (Cassel 21--just recently home from his mission in CA) this year too! She's not laughing about that, but if anyone could pull off 3 weddings in a year, it would be her!

A Carlie Concert!

So, our Carlie is a lot like "Jo March" from the book "Little Women." She LOVES to write plays and hosts concerts that always involve all of her siblings in some way. So we are quite often entertained by their impromptu performances.

This performance was more thought out. Carlie handed out these fliers:

(She found out that the boys had friends coming over so she changed her concert to the next day:)

Well, Ethan was the host--with a complete script written out for him.



Tatum and Max were the dancers. Carlie TRIED working with Max on the choreography but he didn't quite cooperate. But the show must go on! We're not sure if Max is a future head banger or exotic dancer. (I'll be showing this video to any prom dates in Max's future just so they know what they're in for:) See what you think:


Well, we were THOROUGHLY entertained to say the least! Carlie...you were FANTASTIC too! And some day when you're on American Idol, mom and dad will vote for you! Thanks for the show!!!

New Mexico Roadtrip (again)!

We have been all over NM this year it seems--but when 90% of your family are there, it's a guaranteed blast! So we loaded up our car and drove down to Deming along side my older brother, K.C. and his family. We like driving the "back way" through Globe and Safford. So we made a stop in Pima, AZ to see the new temple on the way.

July 4th is a big day for my dad as he has headed up the town fireworks show for about 18 years now. Chris LOVES going down for the 4th because he gets to play with fire and light those monstrous fireworks. Me...I get the 4 kids BUT this year was sooo much fun because we had all of the cousins there!!! My mom bought about 50 packages (no exaggeration) of those glow necklaces and bracelets so each kids had like 10 a piece! They had way too much fun with these things--I had to lie to my dad and tell him that the kids LOVED his show when then honest truth was that they hardly saw any of it because they were too busy playing Star Wars with their necklace light sabers! But the show WAS fantastic and everyone who helped with the fireworks came back safe:)


Sabey--Travis' daughter

Seth (K.C.'s son) and Ethan--BEST BUDS

We also spent a lot of time at my sister's house. Kursty (my niece) was out of town this week so the girl cousins had THE BEST time raiding her closet and wearing all of her high-heeled shoes!


Now on to part 2 of our trip. The kids have been BEGGING to go camping now for a while. Chris and I.....NOT big camping fans. But anything for the kids right?! So we decided that camping in NM would be cooler (temperature wise) than AZ and boy were we right! We went to Cloudcroft, NM and nearly froze our butts off!!! It was absolutely beautiful there. We were high up in the mountains. We enjoyed nice cool weather the first day and had a great time hiking around looking for firewood--the girls LOVED finding flowers to decorate Papa Frank's hat:)




Papa Frank...ALWAYS a good sport!



Well....it started to rain...no POUR on us about 10:30 that night. At 12:30 a.m. we decided to move the kids into the van as water was now coming into the tent. So the kids stayed nice and warm and dry in van. My dad, Chris, and I stayed in the tent wet and FREEZING!!! The rain finally stopped about 4 a.m. which meant that we got like 2 hours of peaceful, quiet sleep. But, we made the best of it and got up and started a fire bright and early. We were going to try and stay a 2nd night but as it began raining again the next morning, we decided to pack up. We were ready for cold weather but not cold and wet weather. Every article of clothing we brought was wet and we really didn't want to have sick kids. So we headed back to Las Cruces to my little brother's house. BUT on the way....we made a little impromptu stop at WHITE SANDS!!!!

This place rocks! It's in Alamogordo, NM and we were already filthy so we figured why not?! Let's add some sand to our wet messy family and van! The kids LOVED it! It was much warmer there so we all enjoyed being warm again! Tatum was not happy to leave this place and cried for about 10 minutes after! A little history lesson: White Sands is actually an ancient sea bed and the sand here is super fine and clean. It is nicer than most sand we play in on any beach any where else.






We spent one more fun-filled day in Deming with my family. We went to the arcade, watched "Despicable Me," played at the park, and then topped our whole trip off with dinner at Si Senor's--only the BEST mexican restaurant in the world:) We had a great 8 days in NM. Always fun to go but also always good to come home:)

Canyon Lake!!!

Holy Cow!!! I had NEVER been jet-skiing before and I LOVED LOVED LOVED it!!! I grew up riding 3 and 4 wheelers all over the farm and I thought there could be nothing better than a 4-wheeler but I'm a convert!!! I love the jet-skis!!! My older brother, K.C., and his family came into Chandler to stay with us a few days on our way to NM for July 4th so we all went to Canyon Lake yesterday (Thursday, July 1st) and we rode ALL day long. Here are some pics:





We even trusted Carlie to drive one on her own--I decided they are WAY safer than 4-wheelers and I started driving those things when I was 4 (not sure WHAT my parents where thinking and not sure how I survived my childhood:). But we had a FANTASTIC time and I can't wait to go again!!!