Good Grief

Seriously, I haven't updated since Aug. 08'? Now I am so far behind I don't even know what to talk about. Well lets see.....The kids are doing incredible in Kindergarten & I am so proud of them. In December they each had a Holiday program at school & it was so cute. I of course cried. Dakota my emotional kid, brokedown half way through his second song. I think he realized all eyes were on him & he freaked. Why are boys such babies???? On the 20th of December my sister in law & brother in law had their second baby. Olivia Gray Hughes. Our poor family all 5 grandchildren are born in December. On the 24th the Three-Plets turned 6. They each made their own Birthday cakes that day. We had a small party with just family. I am thinking about doing a party before school gets out so they can celebrate with their friends. My Dad & Valerie came in Christmas Day which was so nice. Since my father in law doesnt get along with my Dad we had to celebrate with them first thing in the morning. Such a pain in the ass. Whatever! The day after Christmas started 6 weeks of sickness in our house. It was fevers, snot, some vomit & diarehha. We would be well for a few days and then it would hit again. Madison & Riley got it the worst both of them had numerous Dr. visits & two rounds of anti-biotics. Madison missed 6 days of school & Riley 5. The Dr. thinks Madisons sickness is somewhat related to allergies. It seems two of her sicknesses happened right after we did two big hikes. She has been taking Claritan daily now for the past 2 weeks & is doing better. I guess she isn't use to the desert plant life yet. Besides hiking with the kids we also tried ice skating & tennis. All the new activities have been so much fun. They also started T-Ball this past week. Dakota cried yet again at the first practice thankfully Steve was there to help coach & after the first 15 minutes Dakota sucked it up & had a great time. I have lots of photos but unfortunately I have broken yet another computer so until I figure out how to get my photos off the broken computer I wont be able to load any. I almost forgot, we have a new dog named Chloe & she is a Shih Tzu. We had her for 10 days when Madison dropped her and broke one of her front legs in two places. So our already expensive dog now has set us back $5 grand due to the surgery needed to repair her bones. What the HELL were we thinking getting a dog. Small dogs are cute & all but they are high maintenance. They are hard to potty train, fragile & they bite & bark a lot. PITA! I can't remember if I mentioned before that I went back to work for the Gap after the kids started school. Anywho the store I was working for had the worst management team running the store that I decided to seek emplyment elsewhere. I wanted to stay in retail because that is what I know & love. I applied at Gymboree & got a part time assistant manager position. I LOVE it there. It is small & quaint & it helps support my shopping addiction. Ok so I believe I have covered the last 5 months. I really need to keep up but time just seems to get away from me. Ciao for now

Goin' Golfin'

Steve has been taking the kids to the park to hit balls & they are loving it. Yesterday afternoon he decide to take them to the driving range. It was so damn HOT 102 to be exact & still they had a blast. Riley is definately the one who enjoys the most. Here are few photos & some I took afterwards during cool down. Enjoy!

We survived the first week

So the kids survived the first week of school & I did too. It was so quiet around here that is was deafening. The kids came home every afternoon with their list of new friends & what they learned that day. Their classes are similar in their curricullums but the teachers each have different teaching styles. The kids were even invited to their 1st Birthday party from a classmate that we went to on Saturday. I meet with Dakotas teacher tomorrow just to have a touch base about Dakota. Madisons teacher actually called this evening to tell me how much she enjoys having Madison in her class & that she is the little helper not just for her but for all the students. Yes at home we call her Mommy Madison. I will hopefully get some input about Riley soon from her teacher as well. Her teacher is the one I am not all that impressed with so we will see. By the end of last week I was so bored that I decided to look for a job. I went up to the outlet mall & applied at The Gap. I worked for Old Navy until I was 20 weeks pregnant with the trips as a Manager so I decided what the hell. My sweet husband is totally against me working especially in retail. I promised him it was only part time just something to fill the void in my mornings. Well Gap pretty much hired me on the spot & today was my first day. I am doing shipment & even though I was only there 4 hours (6am-10am) I was totally exhausted when I got home & so sore from all the boxes...lol... I havent lifted anything except my children in a long time. My first day was good but we will see. So my husband decided to buy the kids a set of golf clubs this past weekend (yes real ones not the plastic kind). He took them to the park to hit balls (plastic woofle ball golf balls) & they had a blast. Suprisingly, they were all connecting with the ball. Riley is my very athletic kid & she is good at every sport. She was upset when the other two wanted to be done because they were sweating to death. When it cools down Steve can take them out to the driving range which I am sure they will all LOVE. I guess that sums up the last week for us. Ciao for now :)

First Day of Kindergarten

I can not believe I have 3 kids in Kindergarten. It was a very exciting morning here at our house. It was kind of chaotic once we got to the school having to deliver 3 kids to 3 different classes, drop off tons of supplies & trying not to shed any tears. We didn't get as many photos as I would of liked but I will try to get a few more when I pick them up. It is very quiet here & I totally miss them. There hasn't been a minute so far that I haven't thought of them. I know they will do very well in school as they are three very bright kids. I decided to seperate them since they have been together since birth & this will really give them a chance to spread their wings. They each have very strong personalities and they are constantly competing with each other which makes it hell here at home sometimes. This time away from each other every day will hopefully help, at least that is what I am hoping for. Here are some photos from this morning that I turned into one of those Scarpblogs. Later...

A fun Summer Day

A few days ago my sister-in-law forwarded a blog to me that talked about making "Rag Jewelry" (the blog is "A Friend to Knit With"). It looked like fun so this morning I went to Walmart to get some Bandanas & my sister-in-law went to JoAnns in search of some cool fabric so that we could make "Rag Jewelry". Here is a photo of some of the fabric. Here is how to make them....(straight off "A Friend to Knit With" Blog) Start with either a Bandana or light weight fabric. Cut your bandanna in a strip. About 1 1/2 inches wide. And put that rotary cutter down. No perfect cuts here. Just use scissors and make sure you cut it all "choppy". (It will fray better.) Kids do a great job at this. Then, get the strip wet. I lied to my children and told them that they work best if you use a natural body of water. A lake. A river. A creek. An ocean. A pool. (Not natural? Really?) Anything but the kitchen sink. It just made it seem like a better summer project if you make it outside. And then, twist. It works really great if you put one end in your mouth. And hold it with your teeth. And then hold the other end, and start twisting. Not too tight, or it will curl. And not too loose, or it will lay too flat. And then tie it on the body part of choice. Wrist, ankle, or neck. DO NOT TIE TOO TIGHT. They shrink a little when they dry. Then, cut the excess fabric from the knot, and let the fraying begin! Here are some photos of what we made today out by the pool. BTW the kids LOVED it & I did too. I have on 5...lol Pretty Cool huh. The idea is to tie them on & not take them off. They will begin to fray. Who knows maybe you will start a new fad in your area. Have fun I know we did. Ciao

You must check this out....

OMG this is the best website www.srapblog.com if you have a creative bone in your body you must go there. Actually you really don't have to be all that creative they have pre-made templates to choose from. I have OCD & this is truely my new obsession. If you want to see some that I have created try this link. http://scrapblog.com/myscrapblog/Myscrapblog.aspx if that doesnt work try a people search & put in PHXLULU. Here is a bit of an update on us. We finally got news that the kids were accepted to the school we were hoping for. They are very excited & so am I. I can't believe school starts Aug. 11th, I never started school until after Labor Day. Since there are three kindergarten classes I requested the kids be seperated. I am a bit nervous about that as I think Dakota is going to have a hard time at first, he is our sensitive child & tends to be very emotional. I think I cried on the first day of school every year until 8th grade. I have no idea why I did but I did. The Summer has been nice here in AZ "Hot as Hell" but nice. The kids have been swimming everyday for 2-3 hours. I can't believe how well they are swimming after just learning 3 weeks ago. I mean these kids are diving into the deep end to retreive things on the bottom of the pool. No formal lessons just me as their coach. They are little brown berries. So cute! We have been spending a lot of time with the in-laws which the kids enjoy very much. We have been going to dinner with friends & family a few times a week as well without kids which has been very nice for Steve & I. He has been working so much in his new job but he really seems to be liking it. Ok well thats it for now Ciao

Lightning Fast Update....

So we have been in AZ for just over 2 weeks. It took two months to pack the old house & less than a week to unpack. I can not stand to live out of boxes it drives me nuts to not be accessible to all my stuff. Speaking of stuff... We had two major garage sales, numerous drop offs at the Salvation Army truck, tons of trash, a house that is 1000sf bigger than our lasthouse & still I have to much STUFF. I mentioned on another post that I am convinced our stuff fucked in the back of the big rig & created more stuff because truely where else did it come from? So the house is so nice & roomy & its wonderful that we have pool. It took the kids one week to learn to swim & yes I taught them all by myself. YEA MOM!!!!! It truely is HOTTER than HELL here just as I remebered. Madison told me that is was too HOT & we needed to move back to our old house...lol... I don't think she was kidding either. We are in the middle of Monsoon season right now so every afternoon just as we are getting out of the pool the clouds are rolling in & the wind picks up. If we are lucky we get an incredible light show & even some rain. We had a BBQ with family on the fourth & actually went to see fireworks on the 3rd up at Anthem with some friends & family both were a good time. I am enclosng some photos of the new house & the kids dressed for fireworks. This was the first time in 5 years we weren't with my Dad on his Birthday (4th of July). We also had a tradition of spending it with our triplet friends & always getting a pictures of the kids together. I really missed that this year. Well thats it for now just wanted to say "we survived".....