February Highlights

The kids basketball seasons were in full swing. We have had two basketball games every Saturday since January. Zane has done really well but just doesn't seem that interested in it so I am sad to say that this was probably his last season of competitive (as 3rd grade gets) basketball. Quinnelly's team did really well. I think they only lost one game. This was the first season she played without her friends Tylere and Bailey. It was hard for her to be on a team with girls that she didn't know at first but in the end she adjusted and had a fun season. Her basketball season overlapped a volleyball team that she wanted to be on and it's now softball season. There were two weeks where she was on three different teams playing three different sports. Jeff and I were frantic trying to get her everywhere. Luckily Grandma JoJo is on call to help out and is always willing.


We took a break on Presidents day and went to the zoo. We like to take our bikes when the weather is nice and ride around the zoo. When we arrived and saw that the parking lot was full we began to get worried that it was going to be hard to get around the zoo with our bikes, but we managed. We had a great time. The kids and I clocked ourselves against a speed detector and Q was the fastest. We stayed for a couple of hours. It was a productive day. The highlights were: Z found a worm, we know how tall we are in horses, getting up the hill on a bike to see the elephants is hard, we saw our cousins Annelise and Jilly-B and the kettle corn wasn't very good this time.
On the Friday before Valentines Day Jeff sent me roses and chocolates to school. They were beautiful. On the actual day we got the kids balloons and a stuffed animal, they were quite disappointed though that they weren't delivered to them at school. That night we went to Rob and Amy's for an Adult Valentine's Day Party. My favorite part was telling what our "adult movie" names would be and then the group had to figure out which one belonged to which person. Mine was "Trampy Vampy" (I was staying true to my Twilight self) Jeff's was "Buck Naked" (I'm not sure where which inner self his came from).
I went on a field trip to the Renaissance Festival with Quinnelly's class. There were a gazillion kids there. It was good to see that they toned down the boob-age for the kids. There were a couple of Queens that had cups between their bosoms that the little boys were very curious about. The joust was a hit and they were all about the crazy, funky, expensive and overrated hats. They all had to get one. It was fun and I am glad that I took the day off to go with her.

Last but definitely not least.... My Big Zane turned 9! We had a fun flag football party for him and his friends. I think that there were 13 boys at my house. WOW! We had so much fun but I was seriously pooped when it was over.

As soon as his friend party ended our family came over and we had Zane and Blue's family party together. The kids played with all of Zane's new toys the adults played Dance Dance Revolution, Shauna kicked booty, and we grilled hot dogs.

February was fun but busy! We are all looking forward to March and relaxing a little during spring break.

Nov, Dec, Jan...

Can I do that? Can I squish three months into one post. Probably not but I am going to try. Ok here goes:

November: I went to Disneyland with the student council kids from the high school, so fun! Z and Q got registered for Wham basketball.

December: Kids finished up their semesters with flying colors. We had a wonderful Christmas. Everyone got exactly what they wanted. Nativity at JoJo's was a success and Nativity at Grandma Sherry's was a success. At JoJo's Zane was a wise man and Q was the narrator. At Grandma Sherry's Z was a wise man and part of the multitude and Q was Mary because nobody else was trusted enough to hold Cutler (our 7 week old baby Jesus). We went to Jeff's holiday party at work. The food was great but we couldn't stay for the dancing, it was the same night as Winter formal at the high school. (Jeff was really bummed...ya right!)

January: We went to Williams to play in the snow and to ride the Polar Express. We went to three different Walmarts trying to find snow shoes and gloves so we wouldn't freeze our patooties off. We go a cute family picture for mom and even saw Courtney, Tate and Danica up there too. Quinnelly won Fifth place in the Higley Invitational track meet. It is a track meet for 6th 7th and 8th graders in the Higley district. She was racing against all of the girls and did really well. We are so proud of her. Basketball is in full swing for both Q and Z. They are doing amazingly well.

That's about it. February is coming up fast. We have a lot happening in our lives right now. I will do my best to update this more than every three months.

HALLOWEEN

Quinnelly started out "kick-in it old school, go-in as a ghost" but she couldn't breath underneath it and Aunt Gini quickly helped her turn the ghost into a modest Toga. Zane was Captain Rex from Starwars. They didn't trick or treat much. The cousins came over and they had a great time. It is turning into a fun tradition that they trick or treat together. I will be sad when they grow out of it. Q said this might be her last year. We had Kenzie-k over and she was a cutie patootie pink flamingo. Well she was sort of pink. Shauna forgot half of her stuff. We missed little Dix this year. I heard that he got stuffed into the crawfish thing again. Helen what the hay...? So it's almost time for turkey day. My favorite. YUMMMMY ! Peace out home skillet mother fry pan. That one is for my bro.

Busy Busy Busy!!!!

So school started for the kids and myself. Zane is in third grade this year and Q is 6th. Sixth grade at her school is middle school and is considered junior high. She is feeling like hot stuff being able to switch classes. Zane is doing well, he really likes his new teacher.

I'm teaching all ASL level one classes this year. Five sections of the same thing gets boring but I am really enjoying my students. I think it's going to be a great year.

As if I don't have enough to do with young women's and all, I have started graduate school at ASU this year. I am taking twelve credit hours. That's four classes. I know, I'm crazy. I can see that now that the semester has started. I should have started with baby steps. Because one of the first assignments from one of my classes is literally a thirty page paper I am seriously rethinking if I can do this or not. I graduated from ASU almost 11 years ago. I'm no good at writing that kind of stuff anymore. I have some great friends who can tell that I am in way over my head and brought some real food in to my poor little family.

That's what's going on in our neck of the woods and why my blog has been neglected for a while.

Bowling and Lunch

Wednesday the kids and I were bored so we went to lunch at Streamers and then went bowling. We are way to competitive. I don't have any idea where that comes from. I won the first game and Zane won the second game and Quinnelly was mad for the rest of the day because she got beat twice. She usually beats us all at everything. We need the Harpers to get back into town so the kids have something to do and I have someone to talk to.

Bowling shoes are cute. Can you tell who belongs to which foot?

My perfect form... ya right.

Zane was bowling with a huge 9 pounder. That's 1 pound 2 oz lighter that what he weighed when he was born. We had a good laugh about that.

Q wouldn't smile for the camera after she lost. She's so much like her dad! (hahahahahah)

The Apples Don't Fall far From the Tree!

We have a late start for church, 12:00, so the kids like to play games in the morning. Jeff is really good with them because most Sunday mornings for me are filled with meetings. So this is what I came home to on Sunday. The kids and Jeff in a heated game of Monopoly-Here and Now version. The CPA was giving them pointers on how to trade properties, and why you would want to get Camelback Mountain for LAX (airport) to make a monopoly. Before I knew it they had houses on their properties and the money was a fly-en! When I played monopoly as a kid we bought the properties, held on to them and went around the board until we were dizzy. No body ever won. Watch out, my kids know that they don't have to pay flat rate 2,000,000 income tax, they can figure out what 10% of their income is.

Q Turns the BIG 11!

Quinnelly turned eleven on Saturday the 12th of July. She was born around ten at night. She weighed 8 pounds 2 oz and was 21 inches long. She was really due on the 4th of July. We were going to name her Liberty if she came out then, just kidding she was always going to be our Quinnelly Rose.

She has been at BYU basketball camp with her friend Tylere Twitty for the last week. She flew up solo and stayed at Tylere's grandma's house with her. She had a great time and we are eternally grateful for the Twitty's for taking such great care of her. She flew home solo from Salt Lake on birthday.



After we picked her up from the airport we raced over to Grandma Jo's for her birthday party. It seems like every birthday party of hers with the exception of the two have been in her back yard. Here are some of the highlights:




It's hard to see but this is Q at the Sky Harbor Airport. We are picking her up and she is holding a Happy Birthday banner.




This is her pinata. It was really heavy. Grandma Jo always gets the perfect pinata. This one was really heavy. We couldn't hang it up without it breaking so we had another plan...




Pinata toss... youngest to oldest.




They all had to toss it back to Q.



BUSTED!!!!

Almost all the Cousins... missing, little Dix, Big Mac, Tate, Cort, and Danica.