Thursday, October 28, 2010
Fall Break at the Water Tower
During fall break we met some friends at the water tower to cool off from the heat. The kids had so much fun, we should have gone there every day of the week.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Crazy Storm
We had a crazy storm blow through here today. It started out just windy and rainy, but when the hail came down it sounded like it was going to come through the roof. It was the most intense storm I've ever been in. I wanted to get some pictures or video while it was happening, but I was huddle up on the couch with four crying, freaked-out little kids (Jared, Allison and the two I was baby-sitting). Most of these pictures were taken about 2 minutes after the hail ended and it was suddenly blue skies and sunshine.
There was so much water on our brick patio that the turtle sandbox was floating away.
Some places had golf-ball sized hail. This little stuff was bad enough, I can't imagine...
Looks like snow in the desert (sort of).
The hail broke one of our flood lights and chipped our freshly painted trim. Grrrrr...
Thank goodness we haven't planted our fall garden yet.
The wind knocked over our patio table, shattering the glass top.
Our nice, pretty grass now looks like this. The yard is completely flooded and all that muck and leaves are just floating on top. The worst part is that Clint just put down our winter grass seed yesterday. And now it's all washed away.
But we got off rather easy as far as damage goes. There are a bunch of downed trees in the neighborhood and quite a few families in our ward have major roof damage. One family had a huge section of their shingles torn off and the rain leaked in soaking the drywall which caused the ceiling to collapse in one of their bedrooms. Clint's parents had a tree fall on their house, but as far as they can tell it didn't do any serious damage, thank goodness. My brother-in-law had his back window of his truck broken by the hail. The weather guy just said Gilbert got 2 inches of rain today. Let's hope the weather tomorrow is a little less exciting!
There was so much water on our brick patio that the turtle sandbox was floating away.
Some places had golf-ball sized hail. This little stuff was bad enough, I can't imagine...
Looks like snow in the desert (sort of).
The hail broke one of our flood lights and chipped our freshly painted trim. Grrrrr...
Thank goodness we haven't planted our fall garden yet.
The wind knocked over our patio table, shattering the glass top.
Our nice, pretty grass now looks like this. The yard is completely flooded and all that muck and leaves are just floating on top. The worst part is that Clint just put down our winter grass seed yesterday. And now it's all washed away.
But we got off rather easy as far as damage goes. There are a bunch of downed trees in the neighborhood and quite a few families in our ward have major roof damage. One family had a huge section of their shingles torn off and the rain leaked in soaking the drywall which caused the ceiling to collapse in one of their bedrooms. Clint's parents had a tree fall on their house, but as far as they can tell it didn't do any serious damage, thank goodness. My brother-in-law had his back window of his truck broken by the hail. The weather guy just said Gilbert got 2 inches of rain today. Let's hope the weather tomorrow is a little less exciting!
Monday, October 4, 2010
More of Hayden's Brain
These were Hayden's writing assignments last week. I wish I could put them in his handwriting, but this is all his own spelling.
Big Money: Imagine you had a hundred dollars, but you couldn't keep it. You had to give it away to a person or charity. Who would you give it to? What would you want them to do with it? Here's what Hayden wrote:
I love how he spelled "they" three different ways in one sentence.
The next assignment was to write a story to go with a picture. The picture was of a chef with a bowl full of something in front of him, with his head back and his hand on his forehead. Hayden titled it:
I love 1st grade!
Big Money: Imagine you had a hundred dollars, but you couldn't keep it. You had to give it away to a person or charity. Who would you give it to? What would you want them to do with it? Here's what Hayden wrote:
If I had own hnjrid dolrs I whud give it to frends and thay whud ate the dollrs and day trnd into own hnjrid dollrs and they whud spend dere self.
I love how he spelled "they" three different ways in one sentence.
The next assignment was to write a story to go with a picture. The picture was of a chef with a bowl full of something in front of him, with his head back and his hand on his forehead. Hayden titled it:
The over koct dinre
ownc dere whus a shef dad did not no how to kuck. The next day he got a resape in the mell and it had numbrs to show how to mack it rite.
I love 1st grade!
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Playstation Move House Party
A few weeks ago we were selected to host a Playstation Move House Party. Playstation sent us two of their new Move controllers, an Eye Camera, two new games: EyePet and Start the Party and some other goodies for the party. SCORE!!
All we had to do was invite a bunch of people over to try it all out. So last Saturday three of our favorite familes came over and we had a great time playing together. These two games are very "kid-friendly" so the kids had a blast!
Maybe they were little too kid friendly because this is where they guys ended up after about half an hour:
But overall we had a lot of fun with the games. I think most people liked Start the Party over Eyepet. Taking care of a virtual pet was fun at first, but got old pretty fast. In Start the Party you compete in mini-challenges using the Move controller doing things like brushing an alligator's teeth, catching toppings on your pizza, zapping ghosts in the dark, swatting bugs with a tennis racket, and lots more.
Lots of snacks + new video games + great friends = fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon!
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Hayden's Brain
This week for homework Hayden was asked to put these words (ten, bed, he, you, will) in alphabetical order. So this is what he did:
ent
bde
eh
ouy
illw
Makes sense to me!
ent
bde
eh
ouy
illw
Makes sense to me!
Friday, September 17, 2010
Anyone Want Some Watermelon?
After the majority of our garden died from a combination of AZ heat and a forgetful garden water-er, the watermelon plants decided to go crazy. If you remember we built two garden boxes last spring. The five little plants in the second box are the watermelon. 
Here's what we've got today: 
The green turtle sandbox is under there somewhere. Since we're now in the middle of fall garden planting season, the watermelon has to go so we can put in an automatic watering system and get some new vegetables planted soon. I'm planning on peas, bulb onions, green onions, lettuce and spinach. I hope our fall garden will be more successful than our summer garden was.
Here's what we've got today: 
The green turtle sandbox is under there somewhere. Since we're now in the middle of fall garden planting season, the watermelon has to go so we can put in an automatic watering system and get some new vegetables planted soon. I'm planning on peas, bulb onions, green onions, lettuce and spinach. I hope our fall garden will be more successful than our summer garden was.
Friday, September 3, 2010
First Day of School
And apparently I neglected to post the First Day of School pictures too. Bad mommy!
Our first day of school was waaaaayyy back on August 11. I did take some pictures, but not very many. Here's Hayden ready to go to his first day of 1st Grade.
I couldn't get Kyle to pose by the front door. He was too excited to begin 3rd Grade and had already jumped in the van so this was as good as I could get. Can't you just feel the excitement oozing from his expression?
Once we got to the school I was able to get a photo with him and his new teacher, Mrs. Trejo.
Hayden's teacher was nowhere to be found, so we settled for a picture next to her line-up sign. He's thinking, "Could you hurry up Mom? I want to go play on the playground!"
I didn't cry this year, surprisingly. I usually do just fine until my kids start getting teary-eyed when it's time for me to leave. But they both seemed okay that morning, Hayden was just a little nervous because none of his friends were in his class this year. The "first day excitement" quickly wore off to the "everyday drudgery" and we are now fighting the daily homework battle and they are counting down the weeks until summertime.
Our first day of school was waaaaayyy back on August 11. I did take some pictures, but not very many. Here's Hayden ready to go to his first day of 1st Grade.
I couldn't get Kyle to pose by the front door. He was too excited to begin 3rd Grade and had already jumped in the van so this was as good as I could get. Can't you just feel the excitement oozing from his expression?
Once we got to the school I was able to get a photo with him and his new teacher, Mrs. Trejo.
Hayden's teacher was nowhere to be found, so we settled for a picture next to her line-up sign. He's thinking, "Could you hurry up Mom? I want to go play on the playground!"
I didn't cry this year, surprisingly. I usually do just fine until my kids start getting teary-eyed when it's time for me to leave. But they both seemed okay that morning, Hayden was just a little nervous because none of his friends were in his class this year. The "first day excitement" quickly wore off to the "everyday drudgery" and we are now fighting the daily homework battle and they are counting down the weeks until summertime.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Kyle's 8th Birthday
I can't believe I forgot to post pictures from Kyle's Birthday.
He had a "Detective Party" and we sent out invitations to his friends that had to be decoded (the writing was reversed so they had to hold it up to a mirror to read it.) When they arrived at the "Kyle and Friends Detective Agency" they were given their official detective badges and we started on the games. First they played "Who Am I?" where they had to guess the name of the person who was taped to their back using just yes or no questions. After that we discovered that the treat bags were missing, so the boys had to solve {cue Perry Mason theme song} "The Case of the Missing Treat Bags." The clues were found in and around the house and some had to be decoded (luckily the thief left the code breaker behind) or enlarged with their magnifying glass, or held up to the mirror, or a riddle had to be solved. But it was no problem for these gumshoes. They cracked the case with plenty of time to spare for cupcakes and ice cream.
And there were a few minutes at the end for Kyle to play video games with his friends.
On Sunday we got together with Clint's family to celebrate some more and to eat the Bugs Bunny cake that Darlene had made.
I hope he had a fun birthday and that he thinks its great to be eight! We love you Kyle!!
He had a "Detective Party" and we sent out invitations to his friends that had to be decoded (the writing was reversed so they had to hold it up to a mirror to read it.) When they arrived at the "Kyle and Friends Detective Agency" they were given their official detective badges and we started on the games. First they played "Who Am I?" where they had to guess the name of the person who was taped to their back using just yes or no questions. After that we discovered that the treat bags were missing, so the boys had to solve {cue Perry Mason theme song} "The Case of the Missing Treat Bags." The clues were found in and around the house and some had to be decoded (luckily the thief left the code breaker behind) or enlarged with their magnifying glass, or held up to the mirror, or a riddle had to be solved. But it was no problem for these gumshoes. They cracked the case with plenty of time to spare for cupcakes and ice cream.
And there were a few minutes at the end for Kyle to play video games with his friends.
On Sunday we got together with Clint's family to celebrate some more and to eat the Bugs Bunny cake that Darlene had made.
I hope he had a fun birthday and that he thinks its great to be eight! We love you Kyle!!
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Kyle's Baptism Day
As luck (or stupidity) would have it, I dropped our camera just as we got to the church and broke it. Fortunately Darlene brought her camera and let us use it to get a few pictures of the special day. 
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Saturday, July 31, 2010
The Day My Kids Forgot How To Smile
Another disasterous day at the JCPenney Portrait Studio. I have to lay part of the blame on the photographer. She was just awful. But as you can see from these shots, she didn't really have much to work with. We tried and tried to get a normal smile from Jared and Hayden. And Allison just didn't want to be there. It was next to impossible to get all of them looking at the camera at the same time. Usually we'll at least get one decent shot that we can put up on our wall, but not this time.
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