Bandelier Trip - May 2008

I found some photos on my old camera of a day trip we took over Memorial Day weekend up to Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico. It was a fun day with the kids and they handled the hike great!!! It was really a great day together with our little family!!!

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Note: We know that Nash's hat isn't quite hip - it was brand new and needed to be washed and "broken" in. But, hey you know how OCD I am about my kids not getting sunburned, hence the hats on everyone. :)

Are You Ready for some FOOTBALL!!!!

Ragan wants to do a Fantasy Football League with our Friends and Family. There are 12 slots in a league so we have 11 available - first come, first serve. We think this could be a lot of FUN!!!

"The NFL kicks off the 2008 regular season on Thursday, Sept. 4 with an NFC East showdown when the defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants host the Washington Redskins at 7 pm ET on NBC."

Please respond if you want to join and we will start the draft a few weeks before the kickoff game on September 4th. Be thinking of your team name and what the champion prize should be at the end of the season!

Oops!!!

We have been so busy getting our house ready to sell - we've had our carpets cleaned, realtor and appraisers here with another appraiser still to come and the mover as well. Everyday this week we have had someone coming here to look at the house, so I have been trying so hard to keep everything super clean - we painted the walls in all the bedrooms and almost every other wall in the house and the moulding throughout the house too - it looks like new again. So with all this going on, my boys have been somewhat ignored I guess you would say.

Yesterday, Ragan gets home from work and notices that Jacob's hair has been cut. Hmmm... Logan too! How observant am I??? While I was showering, cleaning, or showing the appraiser around (who knows when) Nash decided to be a barber to his little brothers. Nice, I know. So, it looked pretty bad - Jacob looked like Jim Carrey in Dumb and Dumber with the front cut straight across and Logan had a few of his curls whacked out in big chunks (I should have got a before pic). Last night, I buzzed them with some help from Ragan to show me how to do the sides. Here are our boys after getting their hair "fixed."

Well, at least they won't be as hot when we move to the Valley and the heat of HE_ _!

I'm just glad Lainie is too young and doesn't have any hair for them to cut - yet. Seriously, what am I going to do with these three boys of mine??? Gotta love 'em though!!!!

Our Trip to Thatcher - July 2008

We got to go to Thatcher for the Fourth of July, actually for a whole week. We had a lot of fun spending time with Ragan's family - all his brothers, spouses, and most of the kids were there. It was a great time! The posts go backwards by date - so I hope it's not too confusing.

It was a great week! I hope that we can all do it again soon!!!

Happy Fourth of July

We were pretty lazy for our Fourth of July. Our boys slept through all of the early morning events: the canon firing and the fire engines with their sirens on waking everyone up. We didn't even make it to the parade.

We still had a fun day hanging out with family and that night some of us went out and watched the fireworks with Grandma.

Lainie and Tyla in their patriotic outfits looking so cute!

Lainie grinning for me!

Oh, I almost forgot to write about our fun night out - grown ups only. Yes, I even left Lainie with the babysitters. We had three girls to watch our four kids, I figure I was safe, I just hope the babysitters were.

First, we went out to eat at El Charro. Ragan and I always try to get our fill of the good Mexican food in Thatcher whenever we visit. Unknown to me, one of my wonderful sisters-in-law told the waitress that it was my birthday, so they came out with a lot of the staff to sing and give me some fried ice cream - which I was so embarassed. Oh, but that's not all, OH NO!!! Some guy in the restaurant shouts out, "What about the sombrero?" So why I sit there about ready to cry (seriously) because I am that embarassed they make me wait while someone goes to get the HUGE sombrero. They put it on my head and sing to me, the dorky birthday girl. This isn't me, but this is how dorky I probably looked. Ole!

The night improved after the sombrero episode. We all went bowling. It was so much fun!!! I was probably one of the lowest scores for the night, but it was fun even though I stunk it up.

Sunday was a Fun and Special Day

Sunday is always crazy for us trying to get four kids all ready and keep them somewhat clean and pressed, ourselves ready and presentable, and then still make it ON TIME to Church. Guess what...we did it while we were in Thatcher. It was a great day at Church with Ragan's parents and Nathan's family there.

But Church was just the beginning of our GREAT DAY...

Lainie rolled over for the first time from her tummy to her back. Big event and I missed it(I was so sad). Ragan got to see it though.

Lainie in her Church dress.

I just love that smile!

Here is her after Church outfit.

Tyla and Lainie ready for the day.

For dinner, Jenni was able to get us the Palmer Family building for us to all go down and eat some good food. It was so much fun. The kids played and had such a good time together. The adults did some playing of their own. It was a fun time! Thanks Jenni!!! By the way, Randy and Jenni must have been hiding or something because I didn't get any pics of you guys! Sorry!

Ragan and Lainie just chillin'!

Logan in his "golf cart" with his golf club in the back (see the PVC pipe). We may just have the next Tiger here - he had so much fun whacking the ping pong balls with his club.

Nash enjoying his yummy ice cream!

Jacob shoveling it in too!

Alan and Nathan playing some ping pong while Chelsea and Sonda watch on! Nathan was the ping pong champ for the day!

Way to go Nathan!!

Grandpa and Grandma holding Tyla and Lainie.

Later on Sunday night we went over to visit Grandpa Howard. We sat and got to talk with him for awhile. This was a special moment for us! It was the first time that Grandpa Howard got to meet Lainie. I love these pictures!!!

Lainie with her Great-Grandpa Howard

A good day with a good ending!

Mount Graham

On Saturday, June 28th, we all went up to Mount Graham with all of Ragan's family, except Tyler, Garret, and Savannah - we missed you! We had a lot of fun just hanging out and talking, eating good food, and the kids even "fished" a little. "Fishing" consisted of tying a twig to the line so no one would get hooked. They didn't care, they all had a blast.

Grandpa, Alan, and Grandma with Tyla

Logan giving a pirate face or a wink, I'm not sure. You should have seen how much dirt he had on his face at the end of the day, but I forgot to get a pic of it. GROSS!

Ethan, Nash, and Jacob building a fort.

Everyone coming back from the pond.

It was a fun and relaxing day up at Mount Graham with Ragan's wonderful family!

Moving Update

We found a house to rent in Arizona!!! YEAH!!! What a relief to know that we won't be homeless.

This post is for anyone that wants me to forward you our updated Arizona address, phones, and email so that we can keep in touch with you all.

So leave a comment with your email address and I will shoot you an email with our info. once we get all our new phone numbers and stuff.

Oh, and THANK YOU to everyone that gave us feedback about good places to live! We found a really nice house in a great neighborhood. THANKS!!!!