Congratulations Delaney!

Delaney's school, Col Meyer Elementary has a Character Counts program. Delaney was presented with a special award for showing Respect throughout the first quarter of school. We are so proud of her.

Delaney's trip to the pumpkin patch

I went with Zoe on Tuesday, and Delaney on Thursday to the same farm.  Delaney is pictured with her friend Cheyenne in one picture and Ja'Nia in the other.

Zoe's trip to the pumpkin patch

I went with Zoe and her Kindergarten class to Black's Farm for a field trip.  The kids had such a fun time.  Zoe is pictured with her best friend Mckinley.

Veterans's Day is coming soon

I love that my kids go to school on Ft Huachuca.  Many of the children have a parent deployed now, previously, or in the near future.  The teachers really appreciate that this affects the kids and work very hard to support our troops.  Emily brought home a note this week asking that we send in the names of immediate and extended relatives that have served or are serving in the military.  We did a quick brainstorm and listed about 17 relatives on both Rick's and my side of the family.  Later, we realized that we had missed at least five more.  Emily brought home the materials to create a star for each person.  She was so excited when she came home from school yesterday and told me that her teacher had created a portion of the bulletin board for just her family.  Thank you to all of you who served and are serving!  P.S.  These pics were taken with my cell phone and may not be the clearest.  I will try to get more with my camera!

Don't give up on me!

I know it has been a while since I posted.  But, don't give up on me.  We got a new computer and I haven't figured it all out yet.  I had to go to Best Buy tonight just to find out how to open the camera that is built in.  Turns out, it was pretty easy! (It does really cool special effects, too!) I also had to get a card reader to plug into the computer to get the pics off my camera.  I promise that I will get caught up.  Keep checking back!

Plain Cheeseburger

This just cracked me up!  I ordered Emily a plain cheeseburger at McDonald's yesterday.  She opened her paper and immediately looked at me and said, "Did you get me a cheeseburger or a hamburger?  Because, this is just ham."  After I thought for a moment, I realized she they didn't put cheese on her burger!

Zoe's Soccer Game

Watch as Zoe runs the ball down field and sets up the goal for her team. Go Rattlers!!!

Zoe's Soccer Game

Go Rattlers!!

So She's a Robot?

We really enjoy sitting with the kids and having dinner conversation. You never know what will be said. I told the family tonight at dinner that my Aunt Frances (in her 80s) had the battery replaced in her pace maker today and came through the surgery fine. To which Emily replied, "So she's a robot?"

Kiss My Bubbles

Delaney swims with Sierra Vista Team Tsunamis. She swam competitively when she was six and seven, but stopped swimming when we moved here and she gave soccer a try. She decided this summer that she didn't want to play soccer this year, but instead wanted to swim competitively again. Things are a whole different ball game for her at the meets because she no longer swims in the 8 and under class, but is now 9 and swims in the 9 and 10 year class. She swam a 100 Breast, 50 Backstroke, 100 IM, and 50 Butterfly for the first meet of the year. We are so proud of her. She qualified for regional finals (in the first meet!!!!) in two of her events. Her next goal is to improve her times to qualify for state finals. She has another meet coming up in a couple of weeks and we are so excited to see how she does!

Soccer Referee

Nick is a soccer referee for the Under 12 teams. We are so proud of him!

GOOOOAAAAALLLLLLL! (GOAL)

My little Zoobie Doobie is quite the soccer player! She plays with the Rattlers in the Sierra Vista Soccer League. My girl scored her very first goal! We are all so excited to watch her play. She loves it! Rick is the soccer coach for her team and they are all so cute. Her team is 4 and 5 year olds.

Saguaro National Park

The girls and I took a trip to Saguaro National Park one afternoon. It is about an hour drive from us, right outside Tucson. Here is a link to the park's website. www.saguaronationalpark.com We took the eight-mile-loop drive through the park and really enjoyed seeing the desert and its wildlife. We spotted a roadrunner, several lizards, and a kangaroo mouse. And probably the most significant thing we saw, we didn't see. On one of our stops we got out to take pictures and saw a temporary caution sign near the rock. So we walked over to read the sign. It warned that Africanized Bees were swarming in the area and were very aggressive. If they came toward us, we were to run to our car, roll up the windows, close all vents and call 911. Needless to say, we got to the car as quickly as we could and finished the loop. We never did see any bees swarming, but it is all the girls could talk about for the next week. We also saw a teddy bear cactus. The Teddy Bear Cactus is also known as the Jumping Cholla Cactus. This is one desert plant that scares us! This beautiful almost soft looking cactus can be the most painful of plants to run into in the desert. All of the little fuzzy parts are prickly needles that can pierce even a pair of shoes. If you get near one of these, you are not likely to get just one needle, but hundreds. The needles go deep into your skin (searching for water) and are more difficult to get out the longer you wait. We were told, not to try to pull them out with your bare hands, as you will get them stuck in your hands as well as where you are trying to remove it from. The needles seem to jump to each place you touch! We took this picture from the car and the girls were all yelling for me to hurry and close the window. They take it pretty seriously, as do I!! The large saguaro cactus shown here is the namesake of the park. They are actually fewer in number now than they were when the park was established. The cacti began to die out in great numbers after a couple of freezes about 50 years ago. They are slowly coming back, though. They are a beautiful plant.