Our Little Wizard!!!

For dinner tonight we had kabobs.  As we sat at the table after finishing, Tatum grabbed one of my skewers and immediately pointed it at me and said, "YOSA!!!"  What she is actually trying to mimic is a spell seen in the Harry Potter movies--"Wingardium Leveosa!"  (the levitation spell).  We all started laughing out loud!  Chris and I turned all of our kids into Harry Potter nerds this summer by reading the books out loud and watching the movies and who knew that even the youngest--Tatum is 23 months old--was paying attention as well!!!  I was shocked that she was the first one of our kids to think about using the skewers as wands.  Well after that we had ALL 4 kids running around with "wands" in their hands shouting spells at each other--the dogs being the main targets.  I know...CPS would probably frown on this event but we managed to keep it under control and no eyes were lost!!!  

Bubba Mad-Eye Meeker!!!

Here is the newest addition to our family!!!  Our black lab, Mookie, passed away earlier this summer and we have all greatly missed her.  We decided it was time to get another dog mostly for our other dog, Minnie, who is now 14 years old and in need of another canine companion.  So I searched the internet over and found our perfect pup!  He is a lab/shepard/pit bull mix and we have named him Bubba!  His full name is actually Bubba Mad-Eye Meeker.  "Mad-Eye" because he has 1 blue eye and 1 brown eye and we are HUGE Harry Potter fans here in the Meeker household and "Mad-Eye Moody" is a character in the books that has 1 fake, blue, roving eye.  Bubba is a fantastic dog and REALLY laid back for a 3 month old pup.  The kids are having the best time with him!  He sure makes us laugh and we are really enjoying having him in our family!

Girl's Weekend Out!!! Ananheim, CA

I got an email from a great friend, Stacey Jernigan,  wanting to know if I wanted to take a road trip out to Anaheim, CA to go to a fitness expo and hand out with a old friend that I hadn't seen in some time--Liz Nuttall.  Well...I jumped at the chance and rearranged my piano schedule so that I could go and boy was I glad I did.  I had the BEST time hanging out with Stacey and Liz.  The fitness expo was great fun too.  We got to try out all the latest new exercise equipment and take classes--I came home SOOOOOOOO sore!  It was ridiculous how sore my arms were!  I have a LONG way to go to catch up to Liz and Stacey and their rockin' bods!  It was just plain fun to hang out with friends, stay out late, and eat out at nice restaurants all without kids--LOVE my kids more than anything else in the world but it was nice to get away for a short time!  So here are some pics of us in action!

Before class

Right in the middle--I'm all red and sweaty!!!

GG's 87th Birthday Party!!!

My Uncle Don, Mom, & GG

I received a phone call from my dear sweet GG the week before her birthday and she told me that all she wanted for her birthday was to have Carlie play the piano for her.  Her actual birthday is  August 8,  1925 so she would be 87 years old this year--how could I resist her request?!?!  Soo...Carlie and I made a last minute road trip to New Mexico to visit our dear sweet GG.  We got up at 4 a.m. on Saturday (Aug. 8th) and drove to Duncan, AZ first so that I could get my hair cut and colored from my most favorite hairdresser, Sunny Perez, and then on to Deming, NM where we met up with my mom and Lori at the nursing home.  GG was dressed and ready to go eat lunch and do some serious shopping!  Our first stop was lunch at Denny's (NOT my choice) and then GG wanted to go to Wal Mart and the Dollar Store.  She is a SERIOUS shopper.  There is definitely no rhyme or reason to the things she picks out--white tennis shoes, a Dr. Pepper, a gift card tin, and some sunflower seeds.  Then onto her favorite place, the Dollar Store.  Man she went to town there!  I had to do some major thinning out of her shopping cart--she had a thermometer, flower seeds, 2 pairs of scissors (which she is NOT allowed to have because she cut her own hair about 2 weeks ago) and many other unnecessary things.  But we made it out with what we decided would cause the least harm. 

 Carlie and I stayed at Anne's house.  It is always fun to hang out with my sis and her kids.  We did facial peels with Britney and stayed up talking for way too long!  But it was great fun and we had some good laughs.  

The big birthday bash was held on Sunday at Anne's house.  My Uncle Don came in from Lexington, KY to celebrate too!  GG had written all of us cards and we all got to open them at her party.  She also made sure we all had St. Christopher medals to put into our cars so that we would all be safe when driving.  I am having a REALLY hard time watch my GG get older.  She has always been as sharp as a tack mentally but that is slowly slipping away from her.  I am soo glad that Carlie and I could go down this weekend--not sure how much longer we'll get to have this wonderful person in our lives.  She is the best Grandma ever--hands down!!!  And I just love her tons and tons!!!  Here are some pics of the birthday bash!

GG's new do by Brit!

Here we are with our St. Christopher medallions!

The 2nd Day of School!!!

Yes!!!  The title is correct!  I was such a LOSER mom this year and I TOTALLY forgot to take pictures of my kids on the first day of school!!!  (To my defense, on the first day of school my day began at 4:30 a.m.  I worked out, came home, showered, dressed, got 4 kids going in the right direction, taught 3 piano lessons, and THEN drove the kids to school!)  SOOO maybe others will cut me some slack but my daughter is definitely NOT!  Oh well!  What 'cha gonna do?!?!  Here's my beautiful kids on their SECOND day of school at Chandler Traditional Academy-Independence Campus on Tuesday, July 28, 2009.  Ethan is starting 2nd grade with Mr. Bro.  Carlie is beginning the 4th grade with a set of team teachers--Mrs. Hight and Mrs. Hare.

Heading Home!!!

Day 10 (Friday, July 17, 2009):  We packed up and headed off to Philadelphia.  But before this we went to Lancaster, PA--Amish Country.  It was really interesting to see the Amish people in their horse and buggies and to see them plowing fields by hand.  I have to admit that I am somewhat envious of these people because they really have their priorities straight--family first no matter what and anything that takes away from that (electricity for example) is not necessary.  I'm not saying that I want to go without electricity myself but I often think about how crazy and busy my life is on a day-to-day basis and how I'd love to slow down a bit.  Not really sure how to do that at this point in time but I can definitely appreciate what the Amish are striving to do.  Here are some pics of us in Kettle Village.  The kids had a great time decorating gingerbread men at the Amish cookie store: (Max said his gingerbread man was bitten by a wolf!)

Well!!!  What an AMAZING time we had!  I can't believe how amazingly well this trip went!  We had SOO MUCH fun and it was nice to be out of AZ during one of the hottest months of the year.  I was afraid that we would all be tired of each other by the end of the trip but we can't stop talking about what we want to do next summer.  I am soo grateful to now have so many more wonderful memories with my family and can't wait to create some more!!!

Hershey, PA

Day 9 (Thursday, July 16, 2009):  Our vacation was quickly coming to an end but we saved the best for last (in the kids' opinion).  Hershey is the most beautiful and clean town I have ever seen.  Milton Hershey was an amazing man and did many great things.  As he and his wife were never able to have children, he has made a great place for children everywhere.  There is an orphanage and a boarding school for under-privileged children, the whole town smells like chocolate, AND Hershey park is THE BEST amusement park I have every been to!  (I think it kicks Disney's butt)  We were not dressed appropriately for the park as we quickly noticed that we were one of the very few people not wearing a swimsuit.  Chris ran back to our hotel to remedy the situation as the amusement park also had a huge water park right in the middle of it all!  So we spent the ENTIRE day being wet!  We would dry off long enough to go on a few rides and then head back to the water slides to cool off!  We even got rained on for about 20 minutes during our day there--but that was all the rain we experienced our entire trip back east so we are not complaining, it just added to our "wetness."  But it was soo much fun.  I can't remember the last time I was at a water park going down huge water slides!  It's been years!  And it was just soo much fun being around a bunch of people who didn't care about their hair, make-up, or clothes!  I know by the end of the day I was looking pretty ratty but I was enjoying every minute of my time there!  This was the kids' favorite place--hands down.  Even Tatum couldn't get enough of the water slides.  Here are some pics of our experience: