Year in Review

2008 Memories
Not enough time to sleep
Lots of laughs
Lots of tears
Many kid meltdowns
Half marathon
Mark's dad visiting
Watching Chris succeed with his lamb at fair
Death of Aunt Carol
Reconnecting with Uncle Tony
Laughter and tears with cousins in NY
Reunion in Tucson with Up With People friends
Memories of a lifetime flooding back
Many mimosas in Tucson
Markie starting school
Lizzy starting a new school and thriving
New gym for Lizzy, level four competitions
Fun with the girls in Vegas
Lots of fun supper clubs, friends have come and gone
Buying a car with Bella
Visits from Mark's sisters
Couple of 10K's
Long trip to Yuma
Celebrating Nancy's mom's birthday
Over indulgent Christmas
Watching the kids grow and mature
Birthday celebrations for everyone


It was a good year. The kids are growing so fast. Our household is constantly in motion. Always something happening. We are blessed with friends and family that visit often, as Markie allows his room to be transformed into the guest suite with sleeping in his "loft" aka bunkbed. A few visitors we have had as overnight guests: Grandpa Larry from Michigan, Nana & papa from Yuma, Michelle from Tucson, Curtis from Seattle, Heather, Hilary and Bob from Cleveland, Jean from Minnesota, about a half dozen of Lizzy's friends from Mesa and Tempe, Ben from Tempe. We added a new member of our family with the adoption of Smudge the kitten. Zelda's health is failing as she turned 16 this year, but she is hanging in there as she is Bella's constant companion. Oh, and I almost forgot our snake, whom I found in our kitchen one night and now lives in an empty fish tank. I wonder what will come in 2009, always an adventure. We are looking forward to an ironman for Mark in Idaho, another week in Sedona, a birthday celebration for me in Cabo, adults only July 7 - 12, anyone want to join us? God bless us all and keep us healthy for another year!

A Christmas in Yuma

Some pictures of our Christmas in Yuma. The kids and I went down on Monday and Mark came down after getting off of work on Christmas Eve. We had a great Christmas! It was full of lots of opening presents, putting batteries in various games and cameras, baking, eating lots of good food, lots of fun. A few things the kids said that stand out in my mind. Markie on Christmas morning looking at the presents under the tree, "This is like three Christmases." Lizzy after the opening was done, "I got everything I wanted." Markie got a special impromptu blessing after saying hello to our priest in Yuma on our way into mass that has been there since I was growing up, he promptly fell asleep after that. (Markie, not the priest.) Bella enjoyed everything but I think she liked the tabletop dancing, singing santa my mom has at her house better than anything. It was a fun Christmas, hectic as we returned home Christmas night since I had to work the next day. Chaotic, but I thank God for every chaotic, hectic moment as I know others who are less fortunate are alone for the holiday, and I am blessed with a fun, big family.

Christmas Photos

New outfits and shoes for three kids : $90 (used some shoes we already had for two)
Haircuts for two oldest kids: $19.98
Dollar store bribe to get their haircut at the cheap place: $6
Matching pajamas for the second shot: $12 (clearance at wal-mart)
Pictures at the expensive place: Priceless if you can get a shot off.

After herding everyone into the car, shoving extra shoes, brush, gel, hair accesories in a bag, off we go 15 minutes late to Portrait Innovations. Got inside, no problems yet. Try to put the brand new dress over Bella's head, she is screaming, throwing her body on the floor, all I can make out that she is saying is "no dress". The only other clothing I have for her is the pajamas and the scooby doo tshirt she napped in w/ her diaper. The picture lady comes over, asks me if it is typically difficult to get her picture. I am thinking, nothing is typical with a two year old. I calmly tell her she will be fine, so off to the Christmas tree room we go. I finally get the dress over her head and two out of three buttons done. Now the fit gets really good, lots of crying, screaming. It was endearing to watch Markie and Bella try to help by talking to her, offering her sippy cup, etc. They were very patient, especially Lizzy since she has been waiting for weeks to get her picture in her new outfit. Anyways, the picture lady finally asked if we wanted to come back another day, I asked if I could come back in an hour, I figured I could run next door to Target and buy a different outfit for Bella, calm her down and come back. Much to my dismay, they could not fit me in again until Monday. I will be in Yuma on Monday until after Christmas. I find it hard to believe they had no openings until Monday. I find it hard to believe they cater to kids, yet could not squeeze me in in an hour seeing as how my child was having a world class melt down. Anyways, they did not make any exceptions in their busy schedule, someone needs to open a photography place down the street, they are just too busy! So off we went home. The pictures you are seeing are my two basically following Bella around until she would look at the camera and I tried to snap away. They best pictures are in front of my neighbor's yard. When my battery went dead on my camera I just gave up. I did snap a few fun ones.

Guest Blogger

Wel, since the trend is a guest blogger, I invited Smudgy to be my guest blogger today. She is constantly walking across my keyboard desperate to get a message typed out with her paws, so I thought I'd give her a shot, who knows, maybe she will start her own blog when she is a little older.


Meow. Boy, am I hungry. Well, I will have a bite of dog food until someone decides to fill my bowl, I like it better anyways. Since the kids are off to school on that big yellow bus I have the run of their rooms. Well, now that my belly is full it is time to go lay on Lizzy's bed and look out the window, maybe I will take a midmorning nap......before the little one wakes up and starts chasing me and pulling my tail. She is the only one that likes to play with me, I keep trying to chase Pumpkin, the old orange cat that was living here when I arrived, but hejust blows me off. Well, nap time.....yawn.....

ELP kid

Lizzy made ELP! ELP stands for Extended Learning Pull-out Service. It is a one day a week pullout program where she will be bussed to another school to work in a resource room with an ELP teacher who has been specially trained to offer students additional challenges in a variety of areas. It is an acclelerated program as well as an enrichment program for grades 3 - 6. The goals for the program are: 1. To develop and use various creative and critical problem solving skills 2. To develop and use extensive research skills 3. To develop self direction and a positive self image. She had to test into the program and get at least a 96 in one area as well as pass another test, she got a 98 nonverbal, a 94 verbal and a 86 quantitative. On the WISC-II/IV/Binet test she needed a 128 in any area and she got 133,137 and 139. I am so excited she has this opportunity. Her teacher wanted her to test, but I really didn't think she would make it. She has always done well in school, but I just never thought she was gifted, just a high achiever. I was surprised last week when she casually told me on Wed. that her teacher told her two days earlier she had made the program. I got the info in the mail a few days later. Why is took her two days to tell me I'll never know....because I know she really wanted to make it. I am so excited we chose her neighborhood school this year. Knowing my tax dollars are going for her education is nice, and having her close to home is great. She has a great teacher and a nice class. She is still trying her best, which is all I can ask for. Way to go Lizzy, we are all proud of our new ELP student!!!