Random Pictures

I have a problem.  I will admit, I am sometimes a little OCD.  I LOVE things in chronological order.  I pretty much organize everthing that way.  I tried once to file my pictures on my computer by child but I just couldn't.  They are back to months and years.  Tim's mom just gave me a whole box of letters that they wrote to him while on his mission.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself while I sat and put 2 years worth of letters in chronological order.  Today, I am stepping out and making a little change to this blog.  I forget about the pictures on my phone when I do my blog and I happened to remember that I hadn't looked at them for a while.  I just found a few pictures that my kids took that I didn't know about.  They were from the end of last school year.

 

Alexa and Olivia - I think they were modeling and the hallway was there runway.

 Someone caught McKenna red handed climbing up the pantry.

(Seeing this picture makes me really appreciate my new pantry.)

 A Self-photograph

 

 Who knows why this was taken.  But I know who did it.  (Check photo above.)

Maybe I'll download some more pictures from my phone and throw some more in - just randomly.  What a big step for me.

Preschool 2012

The High School in our area teaches a course on child development/preschool.  The second semester they students plan and teach a preschool class under the supervision of their teacher.  It's super cheap and I knew that McKenna would love it.  Since none of my girls ever went to preschool (we just did "mommy school" as they called it.) they were pretty jealous of her.  They wanted to know about everything she did.  At the end of the semester they had a little "graduation".

Here's McKenna's little friend that we carpooled with.  He's so darling, isn't he?

 McKenna

Singing the ABC's.  You can definitely hear McKenna singing.

 

 

Too cute.  Now off to Kindergarten.  Is that really true?  Can my youngest be going into kindergarten?  Wow, does time fly.

 

 

Camping in Mt. Lemmon

 We finally took a family trip.  We wanted to hurry and go before it got really hot.  The nice thing about Mt. Lemmon is that it's about 20 to 25 degrees cooler than here in Tucson.  We just went one night but it sure was fun.  Not like our last unforgettable camping trip.  We had foil dinners, s'mores, and of course, pancakes for breakfast.  Real camping food.  The girls love camping and I'm getting better about trying to enjoy it also.  I do love being together as a family with no distractions.  Just sitting around the campfire and relaxing.  So different from our regular every day life.  

 Tim in action.

McKenna was loving the crank radio and so we enjoyed lots of songs and a little dancing.

 

 

Can't wait to go again.

Annie - May 2012

I have really enjoyed the girls school.  They go to a Charter school in Tucson and I feel like they are getting a great education.  On top of that, the girls have been able to be involved in many things.  Every year they plan on putting on a musical.  The music teacher has a background in doing children's theater.  In May they performed Annie.  We all got involved.  Olivia and Maya were in the Chorus, Alexa helped backstage and I shopped for props, bought fabric, sewed and altered costumes, painted sets, helped backstage and had a great time getting to know some dedicated and wonderful moms.  It was quite an education for me also on how stressful and how much work just goes in to pulling something like this off.  Especially with such a tiny budget.  People really stepped up to help out.  It was an experience to say the least.  I was worn out by the end, I can't imagine how the teacher felt.  Here are some pictures and video clips of the performances.  The kids really did a great job.  This was a first for a lot of them.

I helped with these orphan costumes. 

Maya's little speaking part.

Miss Hannigan

This girl did great.  She has such a strong voice.

Grace, Annie and Daddy Warbucks

NYC.  Maya is in the red polka dot dress next to the clown and Olivia is in a green dress to the right of Annie.  She gave up a darling dress that we found so that Annie could wear it for one of the scenes.  That's just how she is - just goes with the flow.  Such a sweetheart.

Rooster is my favorite character.  Love that he used an accent and everything.

After the show!

Such a fun time for the girls.  I think they are looking forward to the next one.

No, it's not Easter but I'm finally posting about it.

So, I've really gotten bad about this whole blogging thing.  I really need to prioritize and make this more important.  The sad thing is that since I've decided to get caught up, my computer will not recognize my card and so I can't download any pictures.  So, it may be a while.  Luckily I have some on here already that I haven't blogged about.  Here goes:

We were lucky to have Tim's parents come and visit with us over Easter.  We tried to make sure and fit in the usual Easter stuff.  Which meant that they had to wake up early and dye the eggs.  Which is why they are in their jammies still.

 Then for the Easter Egg Hunt.  You might notice that we are in doors.  Not becuase the weather was bad but because we have no plants or trees to really have a good egg hunt out our rental.

 Luckily, we found a few places. 

 And, seeing that we are in AZ now, you can't hunt for Easter eggs without having a water fight around the pool.  They didn't want to swim because they thought the water was too cold so they opted to squirt each other.  Hmm.  Looks like they are just as wet as if they would have gone swimming.

Nice shot, Maya.

 Sunday morning the girls got up and checked out what the big E Bunny brought them.  They seemed to be pleased with it.

 Alexa really was pleased with her basket, just not with the picture taking.

 Cool Beanz!

 After church, we of course had to take the annual Easter photo.  No new dresses for us, we all wanted a new house instead.

 And yes, finally a picture with Abuela and Grumps.  They didn't get the memo that we were taking pictures in the backyard so they were speedy and had already gotten comfy.  Still such a nice picture, don't you think?

Wow, how time flies.  This seems so long ago.  I really need to catch up before I forget all the latest events in this house. 



Spring Break

Since we spend our lives in the car between, school, basketball, band and church, I didn't want to go ANYWHERE for Spring Break.

We called our friends, Shayla and Josh and invited them to go to the Zoo with us one day.  It was the nicest experience I've had at the zoo.  No stroller and all the kids just stuck together and we all enjoyed the nice weather and all the animals.  No diapers, no crying, no kids running away.  No issues whatsoever.  So nice!

Alexa's favorite animal is a giraffe so we had to get a picture of her being one.  Does she look like the one behind her?

The peacocks were everywhere and McKenna wanted to take a picture of one.  I think she did a pretty good job.

The girls found this little play area and ALL wanted to be a turtle.  AND get their picture taken.

After the zoo we brought lunch to eat at the park next door.  I think the kids enjoyed the park more than the zoo.  Did I mention the weather was perfect?  We found a little hill to sit on to eat lunch with a little stream surrounded by rocks that curved around and down into a nice lake (man made, of course.)  The kids started taking goldfish and floating them down the stream to see whose would make it to the lake first.  It kept them busy for a long time.  They didn't want to leave.  I'd call that a successful trip.

Even the big girls wanted to play.

McKenna was thrilled with herself that she jumped from a rock that was in the stream onto another rock.  Which meant we had to video tape it.  She is so fun.

I have to be the worst photographer ever.  I love to capture moments and experiences with my kids but I get so involved I forget about the pics.  My mom and dad came down to spend a few days with us during our spring break (since I told them I was refusing to drive anywhere.)  I tried to make it enjoyable for my dad and so we all decided to go to see the missile silo here in Tucson.  It was pretty interesting.  The girls thought it was pretty neat going inside and I was amazed at how much technology and smarts went into it that many years ago.  Olivia and Maya got to be the captain and co-captain and sit in their chairs.  Then they got to turn the keys that would have set off the missile if it was still functioning.  They felt pretty important.

 McKenna being so patient and good.  Love that face.

 The missile.  Can you believe that I forgot to bring my camera and all I had was my phone, and then I didn't even get one picture with my parents.  I really need to take some photography lessons or something.

Another highlight of the grandparents being here was that Grandma had just gotten a new Vitamix so the girls wanted to use it for every meal. (The sample guy at Costco really sold the girls on it when they had the samples - only my budget wasn't sold on it.)  We're just glad the sample guy convinced Grandma and that she was willing to bring it down and share with us.

I Spy!

The girls love to play Spy's.  One day Alexa was so cute and played with McKenna all afternoon.  They were spying on their other sisters.

I got a little footage of McKenna on the walkie talkie letting Alexa know that she sees Maya on her bike.  She told her that she was going to draw her a picture.  Alexa told me that she told McKenna to draw pictures of what she saw since she can't spell yet.  I love when my girls play together.  And I love that Alexa isn't too old to still pretend.

Taking a Break!

Since we've been in Tucson, life has been pretty busy.  Between school with the girls and Tim's busy work schedule we have been trying to cherish our family time.  One day Tim was home a little early from work so we decided to take a little hike.  Sombrero Peak is just about 5 min. from our house.  The weather was just perfect.

Alexa was looking for our house - it's out there somewhere.

Even being desert, the view was so nice.



On another night, we were talking to the girls about indian leg wrestling.  They had never played it before so of course we had to have some challenges.  Not to toot my own horn but I did pretty good.

Alexa and Daddy

McKenna wanted a turn - somehow I think she was at a disadvantage.

And after beating Alexa, she decided she needed to dress the part to be able to beat me.