Goomagizzles!

This summer while visiting my Grandma Paddy and Auntie Lisa the kids were introduced to goomagizzles. Goomagizzles are little treats made with leftover pie crust. My Grandma's mother use to make them. Lisa say hers included raisins, but the ones we made this summer did not. They were simply pie crust sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and baked. I had some left over pie crust today so we made goomagizzle for a little treat. We cut them into Christmas shapes because we are READY for Christmas in this house!
getting ready to roll the dough!



Manning the rolling pin!


cutting a bell

adding the cinnamon sugar

more cinnamon sugar


Yummy!!
Delicious!

Halloween 2010

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We had a GREAT Halloween! We went to the pumpkin patch, the zoo, carved pumpkins AND went Trick or treating. Lorelei was a fairy (didn't wear her wings) and Sagen was a Werewolf at the zoo (without the mask) and Spiderman for trick or treating (again without the mask).

Camping!!!

We went camping a few weeks ago with a group of friends. We went up on Mt. Lemmon so it was nice and cool. The kids had a really good time and really enjoyed themselves.
Playing with the headlamps in the tent.

Exploring nature.

They had the greatest time on this log!

Moxie was a little sick :( she spent the whole time in the pack and play.

Just a pic of our boy.

First day of school!!

The first day of school this year was a BIG day in our household. Lorelei started Kindergarten and Sagen started preschool. Since I am so late in posting this I can tell you that it is going GREAT for both of them. Lorelei Met or Exceeded ALL of the Kindergarten standards for the 1st quarter, she has gotten a score OVER what is necessary at the end of the year on one of our district tests, and she is starting to read a lot of words. Most importantly she loves it and is interested! She WANTS to read things and she WANTS to go to school. I was going to let her stay home one day because she had a cold and she didn't want too. Sagen is liking school as well. He has the option to stay home with grandma and grandpa on Fridays, but he chooses to go to school. He loves playing with the other kids and is doing well with following directions.
Here are some first day of school pictures!

Getting ready to go.


Some nervous smiles and faces!


Look at our cool backpacks!


At school.



breakfast!




With her teacher Mr. Herndon. He ROCKS!


Walking to class

Summer

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Here is a slide show of our GREAT summer road trip! We drove from AZ to ME and spent about 2 weeks there. We had a great time with the Raymonds, Pipers, Allens, Lees and our family. We went to the beach, had a birthday party and went to Santa's Village. It was a busy wonderful trip. Then, we headed to MA to see Kadin, Emily and Bucky. We had a great time with them and enjoyed playing in their cool yard. After that we headed to PA to visit Molly at her grandmother's farm. The kids had never been to a farm and had a great time exploring. True to form, Sagen stripped down with in the hour and sang the "naked dance" song for Molly's grandma! After that we stopped for two weeks to see our family in Iowa. We saw friends and family there and had ANOTHER birthday party. We were tired when we finally headed home. Once we got here we hung out with the Wallace's a lot and added a new puppy to our family. Oh, and had ANOTHER birthday party. It was a GREAT summer!!

Give me a T, give me a H, Give me REE!!!

Today my baby turns 3! He is the best boy in the world. He is so grown up in some ways and still my baby in so many others. He still LOVES his mama and LOVES to cuddle. If he is upset, mama is still the only one that can calm him. Here are some of the things he can do:

• He can talk circles around most kids his age and many five year olds!
• He can climb anything, run fast and far, and hit and kick a ball.
• He is very happy boy (most of the time) he can find joy in almost everything.
• He is also can cry like NOBODIES business! He is LOUD!
• He can stay dry 95% of the time.
• He LOVES to swim.
• He has NO FEAR.
• He can take a tumble and jump right back up.
• He know the words to a lot of songs (even some I wish he didn't)
• He is shy sometimes and VERY friendly others. He will tell complete strangers his business, but he would never go with them.
• We can pretty much trust him to play in his room by himself or with his sister.
• He is funny and makes us laugh everyday.
• He LOVES to give me hugs and kisses

I can't believe he is three. I love him more then any other baby boy in the word and most of the girl (except one).

FIVE!!!!! That is right, I said FIVE!!!

My baby girl is now five. I have written 5 birthday blogs about her and spent 5 wonderful years being her mama. I love watching her grow and change. She is no longer a baby, a toddler, or even a preschooler! She is a girl. A little girl mind you, but she is getting bigger everyday. She still likes to get cuddles and hugs from her mama though so I can handle it (sorta). This year has once again brought about a lot of changes for her.
She can do a lot of new things. Here are a few of here 5 year old skills:

• she can hop on one foot (we found this out after we told the Dr. she couldn't and she looked at us and hopped across the room)
• she can write her name and copy other words. This is still not one of her favorite activities, but she will do it.
• she can read some small words and repetitive books. This is something she DOES enjoy.
• she can spell small words if I help her break it down. I have HIGH hopes that she will be a great speller unlike her mama.
• she is starting to color more carefully and stay in the lines better, but she does not like to draw her own pictures to much.
• She STILL loves to use her imagination and will play for a long time with her brother while he pretends to be one character from their show of the day and she pretends to be the other.
• She choose quiet sitting/thinking activities as much as she chooses loud rambunctious ones.
• She can comfort her brother when he cries as long as she wasn't the one who MADE him cry.
• She STILL closes her eyes when she says "cheese" which makes her very hard to photograph.
• She can take an idea or thought and make it into a full sentence for a letter or a story.
• She loves playing with her friends and her brother, but is also content playing alone.
• She is still taking ballet and will join Daisy Scouts this year and MAY choose to play a sport (don't worry we will make sure she is not over scheduled!)
• She is getting braver and braver in the water. We also need to sign her up for "big girl" swimming lessons where I don't have to get in the water with her.

I can't believe she is doing all these things and turning into such a big girl. I am proud of her. She is off to BIG things like Kindergarten and she is taking it in stride. I on the other hand tear up at the though :P

Preschool Graduate!!!

This is Lorelei 2 years ago on her first official day of preschool. She didn't want to look at the camera, but we do have proof that she was there.




This is her today at her preschool graduation. I do not know where that time has gone! She is now onto the big world of KINDERGARTEN!!! Let's hope her mama can handle, because I KNOW SHE IS READY!!!!!!

Receiving her diploma


Freshly graduated showing off the goods.

Just thinks she looks beautiful here.


With mommy and daddy. Sagen was to busy eating cake.


Notice my red nose. I didn't SOB but I did cry.

Baby Birds!!

A few weeks ago we notice a humming bird sitting on a nest by our front door. When she went away for some food we check and there were two eggs.



a few days later we check again and found these cuties. We of course didn't touch them or even breath on them, but we checked on them everyday.


Last week there was only one and then none. They had grown up and flown from the nest! We are so happy.

Speaking of birds growing up and moving on stayed tuned for pictures of our own little bird as she leave the nest of preschool. That's right! OUR BABY GIRL WILL BE A PRESCHOOL GRADUATE!!

Lorelei is a punk rocker!!!

Last week was spirit week at our school. Lorelei and I decided to go punk and give her a mowhawk. Each pony was a different color. Needless to say, she won the prize for preschool that day (and no neither Brain and I were judges).

Spring Break!

We had a great spring break. We went to the zoo with Shannon and her family, the Desert Museum with Molly and her sister Ali (I don't have pics of the zoo), went to the safety fair and got new bike helmets (for free!), had a kite flying day, and Easter! It was a busy and fun break!



Desert Museum

Riding the turtle statue at the Desert Museum



Lorelei the bat.


Sagen the bat.


Lorelei was into making faces that day!

Dying eggs

When we dyed our eggs we used the whisk trick that a friend of mine found. We stuck the eggs in a whisk so the kids could get them in and out of the dye easily. It worked great!


Lorelei showing off the whisk trick

A day outside


kite flying




playing ball






Easter

With their baskets.

A gift from the Easter Bunny. We did have a egg hunt, but all those pictures are on the video camera.



posing for pictures





Giant eggs from Gramma


While all the boys were running around Lorelei sat quietly playing with her new Polly Pocket from Lisa. It is VERY uncharacteristic of her to miss out on the rough play so she obviously LOVED it.


Dress up!

They also played a lot of dress up.