It's always a treat

when Nana & Pa come town!

On Saturday, after the soccer and baseball games we took them up Mt Lemmon for the afternoon

it was SO BEAUTIFUL up there
You can't go up to the top of Mt Lemmon without stopping at the Cookie Cabin for some pizza and the yummiest, biggest cookies.

Wooops, guess these crazies didn't read the sign :)

My kids love love love to play games (yep, definitely my kids) so before my parents got here I told them that I played LOTS of games growing up and that Nana & Pa liked to play games too.

Wow, did my kids take that literally. The SECOND my parents walked in the door they were hittin' them up to play games! And Nana & Pa were great sports to play the Ladybug game and Uno all weekend long. AND Nana brought them a puzzle which was a hit too!

We loved every minute having Nana & Pa! The kids loved reading with them, playing games and being their "neighbor" for the weekend! We got to go to our favorite restaurant Cafe Poca Cosa while they were here (seriously, if you ever come this way its MUST, and if you live here and havent eaten there you are missin' out) and my mom and I even got an afternoon away for lunch and some shopping!

Ya I'm A Rockstar

because...

"I Can Walk!!"
and...


"I Can Do Laundry!"


Mom's note: Morgan decided to finally start walking this past weekend with just a few days to spare until she turned 14 months! And boy were we excited since Nana & Pa were in town to witness her first steps. She's still working on it, but I'm thinking give her a week or so and she will be cruisin' all over town. Nothing quite beats the look on a baby's face when they take those first steps, I never bore of her looking around to make sure everyone saw and then sitting down to praise herself with THE biggest grin and clapping for herself :) Ya she's a pretty cool baby!
Oh how I love her!

I got nothin'

How is it possible that I am sitting at my computer drawing a complete blank??

Its not like I've been blogging away lately :)

So I figured I'd download the pictures on my camera and that would give me something to blog about. Well apparantly I have been awful lately about taking pictures (I know, BAD MOMMY) because there weren't too many

So here's what I've got:

Paul has been hunting and gearing up for his deer hunt next week!

Dove Season

Brig & Raegan had a BLAST going dove hunting with him

I love this picture Raegan is so HAPPY and Brig looks a little disgusted :)

But they loved it and were so excited to tell me how they got to rip the heads off...are you kiding me?

***

As for me I have been busy busy with the

8 Weeks to a Better You Challenge

Remember a few posts back how I was starting a wellness challenge...well that little idea turned into 120 contestants! It's so great and we are thrilled to have so many people committed to doing this challenge with us. If you didn't get in on the action, but wish you did stay tuned, we are thinking in the Spring we will go for round 2!

(Julie, Keri, Karli & Yours Truly)

Saguaro National Park Labor Day Race

I really really underestimated this race, we signed up late and figured...

8 miles, we got that!

But this was NOT an easy 8 miles, it was UP HILL most of the way, but we didn't give up and in the end it was very rewarding. I was so proud of my buddy Karli, this was her FIRST RACE and she did great.

We will definitely be taking this race more seriously next year!

Raegan started soccer on the T-Rex team!
She has been so so excited for soccer, but I'm not gonna lie now that its started she seems much more interested in water breaks and .....

Tanner!
They hugged and held hand the ENTIRE 1st game :)
When she would pried herself off of Tanner she did great. Oh man this girl, I tell ya!


Brig is playing baseball again this season. And I must spend every game wrestling with a 1 year old and trying to not lose a 4 year old, because the season is more than half way over and I dont have 1 picture yet {I know, BAD MOMMY!} I'll get on that!

Funny story though, Brig is a big Yankees fan {thanks to Paul} and when the season started he said "I want to be on the Yankees, but its okay if its another team. As long as I'm not on the Red Sox, I WON'T PLAY!"

Yep, you guessed it
The Red Sox it is...luckily he got over it



And just because I think she's cute....
here's the 1 year old that's respoinsible for no baseball pictures

Sorry for the rambling on and on, but as we say in our house

"You get what you get, and you don't throw a fit"

So Deal!

When I grow up I want to be...

my little sister

(or any of my sisters, for that matter)

Meet Stacie:

she is so talented, and I must say gave me a pretty darn cute little niece, Lenna!

Stacie has always been amazing with a sewing machine, she can create ANYTHING and usually does it without a pattern, and uses scraps or clearance fabrics and supplies. She is known for taking clothes apart or anything she can get her hands on to use the fabric or embelishments.

Are you starting to see why I want to be her when I grow up? :)

She recently opened an etsy store with some of her fabulous creations

Check this out:

The Assymetrical Apron

Amazing, right?

Perfect Christmas gift, if you ask me!

She also is selling these darling baby dresses that she makes out of BANDANAS!

Check out her blog:

ReadJame

and her etsy store

ShopJame

My baby...

turned 1!!!

Not really sure how it is possible...but I do know one thing for sure we ADORE her

We celebrated the big day by having the cousins over for a birthday celebration
that entire day she had no idea what was going on, but she loved all the attention and LOVED being sang too. And of course in true 1 year old fashion, the wrapping paper was more of a hit then the actual presents

the cake....

her own little cake....

gosh I just LOVE her

"not so sure they MEANT to leave this cake on my tray"

"maybe I should find out"

"hmmm, i guess it's okay!"

"in that case....YUM!!"

Oh Morgan...we love you so much!

You are such a sweet baby and pretty much have our entire family wrapped around your little fingers! We love your chubby smile, how much YOU love food ANY FOOD, your little giggle, and especially how you love to sleep.

We are so lucky to have you in our family.

We love you Mo!

Missions and Lions

my little brother got his mission call for our church last week

he will be serving for 2 years in Ghana

cool, right?

I think so

You know what else I think is cool? The above picture!

Thats the Ghana flag painted on his face {not my brothers face, but that would make it even more cool} I told you...COOL!

Back to the story...

the whole family was on the phone when he opened his call and we were all so excited.

When I got off the phone I looked at Brig and Raegan and said

"Guess What? Uncle Alan is going on his mission to Africa!"

Brig got real serious and worried and said

"What if he gets eaten by a lion??"

I love that kid!

Congrats Elder Henderson, we are already so proud of you

First Day of School...

the kids have officially been back in school for a week now...

A few days before school started Brig told me he was excited to FINALLY be a "grader"

Here he is the 1st Grader...

He tried not to act nervous that morning, but I could tell he was a little anxious.

But boy was he ready to get his new Yankees shirt on and head out the door!

And as soon as we got to his classroom his teacher walked up to him and said

"You must be BRIG!"

I loved her already for that and so did Brig.

When he found his table he was at the same table as 2 of his best buddies...and he was set to go!

He LOVED his first day and we loved hearing all about it.

******

And then there is the preschooler, little Miss Raegan!

Oh how she has been excited....she loves school.

The only thing that would have made her even happier is if I would have told her YES one of the million times she asked me if she could start kindergarten...one more year little one, dont try to grow up too fast on me.

I made a BIG mistake and told her she was starting school the same morning as Brig, then that night AFTER she had laid her school clothes all out and gotten her backpack ready for the big day I realized she didnt start for 2 more days. OOPS!

I felt awful, but even though she was disappointed she handled it like a champ.

But that made the REAL THING even more exciting for her...she couldnt wait to get there.

She has the same cute teacher as last year but lots of new kids in her class, she LOVED it and went on and on telling me all about it when I picker her up.

All in all the first day of school was a hit!

As for me...it was a bittersweet week! I loved some one on one time with Morgan, but I missed the other kids too.

I'll pay you a million bucks if you can figure out how to freeze time or at least slow it down.

Any takers??

9 years ago

we were doing this...

9 years later

4 years of school

4 apartments

2 homes

2 states

3 kids

Loads of learning experiences

Lots of growing up

&

Countless laughs

We are...

more in love and happier then ever

which I am sure I thought wasnt even possible on our wedding day, but I was wrong.

I have fallen even more head over heels with my man over the last 9 years, and thank my lucky stars that when I was just 19 years old I was smart enough to snag this guy and take the plunge...

it was the best thing I ever did.

This gets us through

the hot hot Arizona summers

july rainstorms

When Monsoon season comes it pours and pours and pours {which is rare in our little desert}...its a glorious thing really

And we cant help but run out and play in it,

well, all of us except for this hesitant kid....

but even he can't resist the summer rain in the end.

Because yesterday the rain turned the slide into a waterslide, and who can turn that down

What's a girl to do

when her brother is off playing at a friends house?

What she never gets to do when he's around...

Watch a Princess Movie, of course!