Family Pictures 2009

We had three different family picture sessions in the last two weeks. It was a lot...especially if you know my kids and their disdain for getting gussied up. First we had a "cousins" picture that my mom wanted taken of just her grandkids. Then we had a Beecroft family picture session followed by a Harris family picture session. It was a lot but the results were well worth the effort. I'm so happy to have an updated family picture of BOTH sides of the family. All the pictures were taken by my big bro, Brandon. I LOVE them!

The Christmas Post

I'm much too lazy to do two Christmas blog posts. I was going to...but now I'm not. Anyone interested in how we spent Christmas can find a long post on my journal blog. Just let it be known that our Christmas was pretty fabulous!

ilovescotchtape.blogspot.com
(I'm thinking about scaling back to just one blog like a normal person. Hmmm. This family blog doesn't get much love.)

A mothers plea...

Dear Children,
Please don't put jelly beans in your nostrils. You might start laughing and accidentally inhale them.

A jellybean lodged high up in a nostril is not easy to retrieve. So please...don't.

Thank you,

Mom

Waffles for dinner?

Yes! Waffles for dinner! I got a waffle maker for my birthday (thanks Mom and Dad) and I was eager to try it out. Mornings can be somewhat rushed and chaotic so I thought I would try out my new waffle maker tonight for dinner. First, I read the instruction booklet from cover to cover. It's the only responsible thing to do.
Then the girls helped me mix up the batter. The booklet that came with the waffle maker had all kinds of interesting and delicious sounding recipes for batter. Unfortunately, I waited until the kids were starving to start dinner so I just used the recipe on the back of the pancake package. I plan on making some of the homemade waffles very soon.

Waiting....waiting....
A perfect waffle in only one minute! Are you kidding me?

I think the smiles speak for themselves.....

Thanks Mom and Dad for my new toy. I love it!

I am a Child of God.

I accidentally had my camera set to night vision so it looks a little funky but the cuteness still comes across loud and clear! You have to pause the music at the bottom first....

Favorite parts...

• parents "kind of" dear
• the eye blinking at the end
• the mess ups

Least favorite parts...

• my singing voice...please disregard

Captain Deano's Crew

Well, it's that time of the year again. Time for the annual JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes. This is the third year we've participated since my nephew Dean was diagnosed with Type I Diabetes. The kids were all so excited to go and see their cousins and do the walk. Delly even agreed to wear pants (instead of her standard dress) which was a huge deal. We got there early to walk around the booths and enjoy breakfast and get free stuff!

I just realized that we're missing an important element to our family picture....DREY! Whoops. My bad.
My friend Ali ( from nursing school) and her boyfriend Joe, came out to walk with us.

"I can hold an apple and a stuffed bear and balance a water bottle on my head...can you?"
Group picture before we headed out to walk....

The walk was a huge success this year. I had an unfortunate incident earlier in the week ( I don't want to talk about it) and was sporting a twisted ankle and two bruised knees. Eric accidentally hit his foot with a sledgehammer (don't ask) and my mom had knee replacement surgery earlier in the year and Tia's arthritis was acting up...but in spite of all that we had a great walk!

The kids especially enjoyed all the bouncy houses once we were all done walking.

Once the walk was over and we were walking out to the parking lot to leave, Drey got the mother of all bloody noses. I've never seen a nose gush blood like that for no apparent reason. It was a bloody mess but we eventually got it stopped....random!

That evening we all gathered at my moms house to eat Chinese food and dress up for Trick or Treating. This is the first year EVER that my girls didn't want to be a princess of some sort. Avery wanted to be a vampire (but didn't like wearing the teeth) and Delly wanted to be a witch. It was fun to do crazy hair and makeup this year...aren't they so stinking cute!?

We usually go out to the Queen Creek Halloween celebration but this year the kids just really wanted to trick or treat in the neighborhood. It's the first time we've ever gone trick or treating and the kids had a great time! My ankle was mad at me for continuing to walk on it after it specifically told me at the Diabetes Walk that it didn't want to be walked on anymore....but the kids had fun and that's all that matters! Drey was a Sumo wrestler and Gage apparently is too cool to hang with us....he went with his friends trick or treating... because they're cool and we're not. We had fun anyways!!

TRICK OR TREAT!

Delly could never remember to say "trick or treat" so she would just say "Happy Halloween!" and then hold her bag out.
It was an exhausting day but a good time was had by all!

Happy Halloween!

50th Wedding Anniversary Celebration

This past Saturday was Joey's parents 50th Wedding Anniversary. We had a big party for them at their house to celebrate. Here's some pictures from the night..........

Does anyone else see the resemblance?

Cutting the cake...you can't see it really well but there's a picture on the cake of 50 years ago (to the day) of Joe and Nadean cutting the cake at their wedding reception. Cute, huh?

There was some great food including a table

that was LOADED with candy. Little bags were provided to fill up. My kids really tried to take advantage of that! I had to pull the reins on more than one occasion as I caught EACH one of my kids pouring huge scoopfuls of candy into a bag. I don't think so.

I was the designated photographer for the evening so when I took a break to eat Joey grabbed the camera and snapped some shots...mostly of me shoving food down my throat... and filling a bag FULL of candy! Busted! Good thing I'm the MOM and nobody took away my M&M's.

The party was a big success, mostly thanks to my two sister-in-laws and not so much because of me. Joey and I did make a video montage of pictures throughout the years that I'm going to try to figure out how to post. Don't hold your breath though....

HAPPY 50 YEARS!