bad day

First, slide my 40 pound back pack down my arm and break my favorite watch.

They don't even make it in this color anymore. :(

Next, takes me three hours to get home because of this.

Good bye $$

Come home and find that the cat did this

on Gwenny's bed!!

Now my head is pounding from crying all afternoon.

Weekend please come soon!!

procrastinating

Let's face it, I'm just putting of reading. And I keep glancing over at this book:I haven't even read the first paragraph and it's killing me. I might have to wait until Labor day weekend, or even worse, fall break?

Things are pretty crazy over here. But great news- Drake LOVES his preschool. He's got all the kids in his class obsessed with pirates. Everyday he's building pirate ships, making pirate hats, and binoculars, and swords, and flags, and even a parrot. It's adorable! And I love that he's excited to go to school every morning.

Gwen is also doing fabulous and loving getting to socialize with the big kids. But I believe it was hanging out with the big kids that led her to wanting to do this:
We chopped her hair off last week. Ryan and I are still a little sad about it, but Gwen loves her hair and how grown up it makes her look.

Friday night Ryan and I did a 5k with our running club (that we have not been able to go to in ages!). And it was hard! Running when it's 96º out just gives me the worst headaches. And apparently it was hard for everyone else too because I won my age group!! Holy smokes was I shocked! I wasn't even dreaming of it, and in fact we were about to leave when I heard my name called. I didn't even know what place they were talking about and had to ask when I got my medal. If I hadn't peed my pants already, I would have when they told me it was first place. I'll just enjoy this last year of being in a different age group as Chrissie and Carolyn since they're way way faster than me!This is Chrissie who won her age group, and me. Carolyn won overall women. I believe her time was 20:07!!!

Ryan also did really well. Despite his not running for a while, was only 12 seconds slower than his last 5k-which was a really good time. Good job honey!
Some of our fellow Lightning Bolts who came out for the run. It was a great time!

And now back to reading about torts.

busiest of weeks!

This week has been cuh-razy!! I think I'm averaging 4.5 to 5 hours of sleep a night this week and here's why:

Ryan turned 33 on Monday! Unfortunately this is just about the only picture I have to prove it. We had family and some good friends over, it was a fun night.


We also had first days of school. Gwen's been in school for two weeks, but Ryan, Drake and I just barely started.

Naturally Drake had to wear an ASU shirt to school on his first day so he could blend in with 84% of ASU's population. Honestly, I can't believe how many people wear ASU clothing at school. It's everywhere!! And it's cool and all, you know high school morale and stuff, but still it's kinda weird too.

You know what else is weird? Girls totally get all skanked out to go to school there! Not even kidding today I saw a girl wearing a tank top as a dress!! What would she have done if she dropped something and had to bend over? Why would you dress to look so dumb when you're going to a university? Okay, I'll hop off my soap box now.

Here are my two cute boys on their first school day. Drake also wanted to wear his Yoda birthday pin. Silly boy. He goes to preschool at ASU with me. Well I don't go to preschool, but go to ASU, and he goes with me. You know what I mean. And good news is he loves it! He also has been taking naps there even though he tells me he doesn't like that part. But it's pretty neat because for example today he forgot to grab his lunch box from the counter on our way out the door. So at lunch time I just picked up lunch at the student union and walked over to the preschool to drop it off for him and steal some hugs and kisses before I headed back to class. It's fun being able to just go over and see him whenever I can.

And here I am, geared up to go back to school after a SEVEN year break. And holy smokes, it's hard to get back into the swing of it. I've been reading and re-reading like crazy. And even as I'm writing this, I'm feeling guilty for putting off reading and my first writing assignment. Ho hum, I guess I'll get to work now. This marks the end of my social life.

seven years...

is a long time! I'm glad they've been with you Ryan.

Thanks for marrying me here.

I love you!

She's in FIRST grade!!

That day is here. Way sooner than I thought it'd be. She's off to school ALL DAY, EVERYDAY!! So she woke up nice and early and put on the outfit that she laid out the night before. And what better for breakfast than oatmeal? (It's green because my kids insist on sprinkles in their oatmeal which then turns it funny colors)

I swear she doesn't get her posing from me...

Ryan does that pose in almost every picture.

And don't you love her sock/shoe choice to go with her outfit? She's quite the fashionista.

And there she goes, without even looking back.

Cali vacay in pictures

Disneyland:

Cousins less Kit (and Katie who stayed in AZ)

I brought the kids and met up with the Taylors, Collards, and Gigi at Disneyland.

Ryan had to work.

Check out Gwen's eyes.

Drake LOVED the roller coasters. Even Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mtn!!

It's a good thing we did those Chinese body stretching treatments so he could be tall enough for the rides.

Ryan just couldn't take missing out on Disneyland and drove over to surprise the kids.

The next few pictures are a series of Gwen poses I think you might enjoy.

Finally a group shot on day two, after we lost Kolby and Gigi who both had to get back to work.

Here's where we got the fifth member of our family, the turkey leg.

We all enjoyed this turkey leg for a good hour and a half.

See, Gwen still has it!

Drake midway through day two. Fell asleep but still has a death grip on his Pirates of the Caribbean sword.

After Disneyland we went up to Concord and spent a couple days in the Bay area.

And I'll close with this adorable picture of Aubrey pouting.

my boy is growing!

Friday night I kissed my three year old Drakey boy good bye forever and then went back to work on this baby.

I'm so darn clever! (he turned four)

When Drake decided he wanted a Yoda cake for his birthday, I might have been a little panicked. So I decided to make a buttercream transfer, and it was so much easier than I thought. All except for when I tried rolling it up to put it on the cake! If you do a buttercream transfer, DON'T try to roll it up. I squished it, had to re-freeze it, and then was mostly successful at salvaging Yoda.

Drake often (like 4 outta 5 nights) will wake up in the middle of the night and get out of bed and then get in bed with me for the rest of the night. Strangely he decided the couch the night before his birthday. So instead of breakfast in bed, he had breakfast on the couch.

He really wanted a Star Wars birthday, and we didn't even have the movies,

so this was a no brainer birthday present.

The light saber.

He now believes he's a Jedi Knight.

We took the kids to Jump and Shout, then off to see Despicable Me.

(such a cute movie!! highly recommended)

Then had the family over for cake and ice cream bar.

And this is how his night ended. Conked out on the coffee table with his toys surrounding him. Aww, my baby is four!!! Does that mean he's not a toddler anymore?

Gwenny's sixth birthday started with breakfast in bed- pink "6" pancakes!

Oh, just look at my baby girl! How is she so grown up?

Gwen had a Fancy Nancy tea party with her friends. It was darling, they all made hats and got fancy jewelry.

Present time with friends.

Drake's still happy.

Present time with family.

By now Drake's so sad that he hasn't gotten any presents yet.

Poor boy, just wait two more weeks!

She got all six candles out in one breath!

Happy Birthday sweet Gwenny!

I love you to pieces, my big six year old!!