Memorial Day

Catherine-Memorial Day 2004, age 2

We are so thankful to all of the men and women who have served our country! Memorial Day is one of the first holidays that we have formed a family tradition for. We take those little flags and go to the cemetery and put them in veterans graves. I have the cutest picture of Catherine, who had just turned two, with her hand on her heart carrying the flag. I will put it up. We will take some pictures today and I will post them. We appreciate those in our family who have served and especially who still serve. Also, their loving wives who have to live without them for long periods of time! Manda and Angela, you are amazing women! We love you!

The New Pad

The Front

Our Realtor, Lena, in the Kitchen

Looking Upstairs from the Family Room

Looking into the Family Room from the Formal Living Room

Here are some pictures of our new house, pre-move in. We are so excited to have our very own place for the first time EVER!!!! Will post more after we move in. Hope you like...

Vote!!

I just added a poll. Please vote for Team Edward or Team Jacob.

Jam Packed!

We are so poopin excited for Auntie Mira to come this evening! We will get to go after naps and pick her up! The girls are so excited to have company and love to read the books that she has given us for their birthdays and Christmas. I am so happy to see her, I have not gotten to see her face to face since right before I found out I was having Sarah. Then, after Auntie Mira leaves on Saturday, the Ghigleri's come on Monday for a day. Then it's Cat's recital and we are off to Louisiana to visit Manda, Kate and Luke. Jam packed!!! Then we come home and close on our house and I get to move.....again. Probably the last for a couple of years. Hooray!!! If you want to see our floor plan go to www.drhorton.com and click on Phoenix, Az. Then, click on Queen Creek and a group of 4 little orange houses will be near the middle. They each have a name, click on Waverly at Pecan Creek. Then, the second page of floor plans has the Cunningham, which is ours. I am so excited that we found a house so quickly. It was a spec house, so it was already built and ready to move in. It saved us a lot of time, since our lease is up July 1st. I am excited to start painting and decorating. I finally get to paint!!!

Swimming, Drowning with Flair...whatever you want to call it!

Sarah after a full day of lessons

Cat after being dunked

Blowing Bubbles

Debbie, Sarah and Cat

As stated earlier, we started swimming lessons this week. I was very pleased with Catherine on Monday. She didn't fuss or act timid like she normally does and Tuesday was the monsoon so we didn't have lessons. Wednesday she fussed and cried and actually screamed bloody murder, not the best day we have ever had. Yesterday, went really well again. Sarah had only been making it about 5-10 minutes before she got to cold and got out, but yesterday she got back in and learned with the other kids how to fall in, turn around, kick to the wall and climb out of the pool ( she had help, we didn't let her do it by herself). Debbie really wanted them to do this so if they ever did fall in, they know how to get out, since most of them won't completely be able to swim after lessons are over. I am hopeful that Cat will be close though and by the end of the summer will be comfortable. Today, we have our makeup lesson from Tuesday, so we will see what today brings. Wish my poor girls luck, it has been pretty chilly!

Blasts from the Past

We started swimming lessons on Monday and had to take yesterday off due to a monsoon. I love monsoon season, it is one of my favorite parts of living in the desert! It is so beautiful to watch as a storm rolls across the valley and then hits. The rain is intense and the thunder is so loud! Yesterday, both Cat and Sarah got a little scared when the house shook and a huge clap of thunder roared outside. I love it. We always went outside and sat on the porch to watch the thunder and lightning when I was growing up. It was part of my Mom's summer routine. We would sit in the dark and ooh and aah over it. I loved sleeping upstairs in the summer, with the fans blowing and it still slightly light out at 10p, looking out my window until I fell asleep. Or the sound of rain on our tin roof, and the smell of the lilacs outside my window. It seems peaceful to remember, but at the time I am sure it wasn't. It is a shame that everything looks better in retrospect. I have been reading "Pride and Prejudice for like the billionth time, and watching it on our DVR (we recorded the Kiera Knightly version). I love it! It appeals to my sappy romantic nature I suppose. I love the soundtrack too and am going to get it. I have the song Dawn on my playlist, check it out. Also, a friend of mine had some CD's that are a playlist that Stephenie Meyers made for herself when she was writing each of her books in the Twilight series. I love them and borrowed them to make myself a DVD. I am loving listening to the lyrics and thinking about all the books and the characters and the relationships and how really good songs perhaps played a part in her writing what she did. It also is a really great way to pass the time when you are cleaning your floors. I would love for anyone to leave a book list or a song list for me to read and listen to.

Mother's Day...Hooray!

Catherine and Mommy

Brady and Berta

Sarah, Cat and Mommy

Sarah and Mommy

I love Mother's Day! I really enjoy having a day that is all about me, who wouldn't? I am the luckiest Mommy and wife in the entire world! I have two beautiful, healthy, active, creative, smart girls. They drive me up the wall on a daily basis, but ultimately, they are my joy! My husband is a hard worker, and provides for us in all ways, he spends so much of his time working so that we can do all the things that are important to me. I am so happy to have such a fabulous man by my side. He made me a yummy breakfast in bed, with BACON! We all know how much I love bacon! Then, I had choir practice and church. We came home and put Sarah to bed and had lunch. Then, we went to the Thomason's for dinner. We had delicious kabobs, rice, asparagus and salad. For dessert, Karson made a 3 layer cake with white chocolate frosting and shaved white chocolate on top and pirouette cookies all around the sides. Plus, homemade rocky road ice cream that was to die for. I am so chubby this morning! Not that I am not a bit on the chubby side every morning...hmmm. So, we ate and then chatted for a while and brought our kids home for bed. It was a very nice Mother's Day and my present is that I get a whole Mother's Week. I have appointments this week to get a pedicure and manicure and an hour long massage, so I am excited to go and have my treatments, but I always love coming home to my family.

More Husband and More Edward

Whew! What a week! On Tuesday I had Pre-School Musical Theatre, which was one of the most fun times I have had in a while! We danced to "Do Re Mi" from "The Sound of Music", I had more boys than girls, which was amazing! They all did such a good job! Friday, was Top Performers, so Brady was supposed to have meetings in the morning and have the afternoon off, but he skipped out and stayed home with us, which meant that I woke up and had a husband! I enjoyed having him home so much. We went out to his work to drop some things off and have lunch at the new cafe with a friend. Then, we went to my sister-in-law Sarah's house to look at their new kittens. Hopefully, we will be getting two soon. Sarah loved them and was dragging a kitten all over the place and laughing and talking. Cat was trying to be brave, she touched the cats and then actually held a kitten twice to take it back to it's Mom. We had a nice afternoon and then I took Cat to her friend Olivia's butterfly birthday party. It was so cute! I also got to watch the Twilight Teaser and I am so excited to see that movie. It comes out around my birthday so that is a nice treat for me! If you haven't read the Stephenie Meyer "Twilight" series, first you are nuts and the only one, and second READ IT! They are fabulous books! I have encluded some great pics from the new movie.Enjoy!

One of those days

Today is just one of those days, where no matter how hard I work, I am just tired, cranky, and sad. I hate blue days. On a better note, I picked up cans and lids from the cannery and on Thursday or Friday will put 50lbs. of wheat and 50lbs. of oats into #10 cans and can them for our food storage. I am at Grandma Thomason's and I am about to grind all that wheat into flour. Fun! I enjoy doing food storage. It makes me feel that I am doing my part to prepare for the future and take care of my family. I also am a master planner, so it is right up my alley. Not much for today...

My Basket is Bountiful

Today I had my bountiful baskets and I was so happy! I called my parents because I had to share that I received 11 carrots, 2 red bell peppers, 1 large head of romaine lettuce, 7 tomatoes, 1 head of broccoli, 7 bananas, 4 cucumbers, 4 zucchini, 4 onions, 3 avocados, 11 limes, 13 potatoes, 7 oranges, 9 apples, 3 grapefruit, and 2 bunches of cilantro. It is just amazing to me. I had to take a picture because it looked so beautiful to me. With the price of food right now, to pay $15 for all of it makes me happy too. I love bountiful baskets and it made me think about how bountiful my basket of life is. I have a good family, wonderful kids, a nice place to live, fun things to do, and good food to eat. I enjoy all of my many blessings and I am thankful for them!