Getting Our Money's Worth!

There are times when having a big family pays off!  When we got in to town, I looked into Preschool classes that were offered at the local rec center.  We have always done that in whatever town we lived in and been pleased with what they had to offer.  I went in and took a look around and found that in this town, they had soooo much more to offer!!!

The rec center here is huge!  I mean, huge!!  They offer all the same types of classes that we're used to but the actual facility is amazing!  There are a couple of huge swimming pools, including a small one for the little ones, an incredible rock climbing area, several basketball courts, racquetball, bikes, treadmills, weights and my favorite: an indoor wood floor, track!  It's up on the 2nd floor and basically goes around the perimeter of the building!  But being indoors means we can use it any time of the day, in any weather and it's still comfortable!!!

We actually signed up for a one year family membership!  My parents signed up as well!  Even Scott's mom signed up so we all have access to this amazing building!  My parents get up and go running at 5 in the morning!  Sometimes Levi and Tanner go with them!  They shoot hoops, or play racquetball.  Tanner also enjoys running with Grandma and Papa!  Nana enjoys walking on the track and is excited to try out their pool!  She loves swimming! 

Last night Sabrina and I decided to hit the track!  It's been way too long since we were able to get out and go running and we have missed it!  It felt good to run!

The crazy thing is we only pay like $50 bucks a month for our whole family to have access to all these great activities!  The kids that are 12 and older can get dropped off and spend a couple of hours there without having a parent with them!  Tanner and Levi took advantage of that for the first time last night!  They swam, played hoops and wore themselves out for a couple of hours!!!  Now that's what I'm talking about!!!!!

On a different topic, it was 18 out this morning when we woke up!!!  I'm guessing it's still shorts weather in Arizona.  But that's ok because the blue skies and Fall leaves on the ground totally make up for the cold here! 

Fall Family Festival 2011!

Tonight was our annual Fall Family Festival!  It was a huge success!  Soooo much fun!  We even had a few extras join us!

After eating chili and cornbread, we jumped into the fun!  We played pin the nose on the jack o' lantern, bean bag toss,  fishing for popcorn balls and a doughnut eating contest (without using your hands)!!!  The great part was, everyone participated....even the grandparents!  :)  Here are a few pics!

 Go Talli!

 Nice try, Levi!

 Nana was close!

 Right on Vanessa!

 Go Grandma!!

 She was sooo excited to fish!

 He was excited too.  He just has a funny way of showing it!  Hahaha..

 Tanner was reeling in a whopper!!!

 This was the best game of the night!!!  Lots of laughs for sure!!!

 Random strangers!  Just kidding....friends from school!

 We had to keep yelling to Izzy, "No hands!!"  He would just grab that thing and shove it in his mouth real quick!

 Papa rocked this game!!  Impressive for sure!

 Sabrina and another random friend! 

 Miss Jazz was tough competition!

My mouth was sooo tired of chewing!  Homemade cake doughnuts take longer to chew than fluffy ones!!  Haha....

Well, there ya have it!!!  It was a fun night!  I love Fall and especially love spending time with my family!  They look forward to this night every year!  And hopefully they will remember these days long after they grow up and leave home!  Hope you all had a fun, safe night!

Guess What??????

IT'S LADYBUG SEASON!!!!



I had no idea that the ladybugs came after the flies!!!  How delightful is that????  There are hundreds of them!  It's like they all hatched at the same time!  There are several of them in our house but they don't bother me nearly as much as the flies!  Thank goodness!!

I can hardly wait to see what comes next!!!

Goodbye Flies!

We moved into our new home at the tail end of 'fly' season.   The most disgusting season of all!  I didn't even know there was such a season!  We were bombarded by hundreds of flies in our house at all times!  We went through 6-8 fly swatters!  Nothing more disgusting to me than a fly in my kitchen....let alone hundreds of them!  Everyone we talked to about them said it was 'a bad year for flies' and 'it's just that time of the year!'  Oh joy, I can hardly wait until next year!  But we will be wise to them next year! 

Scott already swapped out the hinges on our exterior doors for self closing hinges!  With this many kids going in and out the doors, they were constantly left open!  Not anymore!  But the last few days the temperature has dropped and we're down to a handful of flies in the house in the morning when we wake up.  The change in temperature makes them very slow!  Easy targets now!! 

And to think a few pesky crickets used to annoy me at the house in Arizona....at least they stayed out of my kitchen!

HEAVEN!!!!

Have I mentioned yet that I love our new home???  If not, let me tell you.....I really do.  Today was the perfect day.  We (and by 'we', I mean all of us including 2 grandmas and 1 grandpa) worked outside.  Papa trimmed trees, grandma's and grandkids hauled the cut branches to the farthest back corner of our property, we stopped to feed the neighbor's horses, mowed the grass and Scott basically spent the whole day working on little projects.   A very productive day indeed!!  Sabrina and I even went and bought 5 little kids winter coats (there went a chunk of change)! 

I love that our kids can be outside this time of year, enjoying the beautiful Indian summer, playing and running all over the yard!  At one point this afternoon, I looked outside and saw Scott, Levi, Tanner, Thomas, Isaiah and Papa all playing football together!!!  Now that was the cutest thing ever!!!!!  I should have snapped a picture but I didn't think of it. 

We are getting settled and it's so nice to have all the boxes emptied and pictures hanging on the walls!  It took a little longer this time around and I still have some rearranging to do.  But I have nothing but time so I'm not worried.....

Here are a couple of pics I snapped with my cell phone while we were out feeding the horses this morning.

They are kind of shy horses...or maybe they are just not used to high pitched, squeaky voices from small children!  We blew through a bag of carrots in no time!  Horses that live on the other side of the fence are so much easier to take care of!  Haha, the kids keep asking when we can get some animals....we have been here 2 weeks.  Nothing like jumping into 'country living'!!  Sabrina was checking Craigslist today for cows, horses, sheep, goats, donkeys, miniature donkeys and Yaks......of course.  She tried selling us on how 'cool' it would be if we had a giraffe in the pasture!!!!  I wonder where she gets her impulsive self????  Ok, I thought it would be a fun idea.....if it could survive the winters!!  Otherwise we would have to build a really tall barn!  

More pics soon! 

Home Sweet Home!!!

Well, here we are...almost a week at our new home.  Tonight, Levi asked me where Vanessa's room was.  Hmmm, the house is really big and there are lots of bedrooms, but seriously?  I had to laugh.  You can tell he is a boy and has better things to fill his head with!

I will have to post a pic of our backyard.  You probably remember what our previous backyard looked like.  Concrete and pool.  This one is grass and trees as far as the eye can see!!!  Horses to the left, horses to the right, cows as well!  Yeah, life is a little different!  Kids are outside all day, playing in the dirt, running down to the creek, giving each other rides on the riding lawn mower (and actually mowing the grass willingly!), picking veggies from the previous owner's garden (thank you!!), and overall just having a great time!

We still have not actually signed papers on our house.  The seller/builder is still trying to finish the house.  Did I mention how thrilling it is to move into a house that is 95% finished??  It's mostly done but there are enough things that are not done to make it exciting!  For example, the master bath.  Sigh...it will be beautiful and amazing when it's done and we're super close now but still not able to use it.  For now, we trudge up to the 4th floor and use the bathroom up there to shower in the mornings.  It's a cute little bathroom up there but I will be so happy to be able to use my bathroom.  It's amazing how much we take for granted the little things in life!  :) 

I have some pretty funny stories that I hope to get on here in the next couple of days.  It's been so crazy, sometimes all we can do is laugh!  And come to think of it, we do an awful lot of laughing around here!!!
All the grandparents are adjusting well and are mostly unpacked and getting settled.  They are adjusting to the fact that there are now several children in and out of their doors, several times a day!  Our kiddos are loving having them all here!!!!  Such a blessing!

Here Already??

Can it really be that time??  Time to load all these boxes into the back of a 53 foot semi!!  I'm pretty sure you shouldn't be friends on Facebook with your movers.....but then again, we really like our movers!  And we really appreciate their willingness to move us!

Everyone is soooo excited to move!  And this will be the longest week of our lives as we patiently wait for Friday to get here.  Both sets of grandparents are packed...well mostly, and ready to roll out of here.  Everyone is dreaming of cooler weather and Fall days.  Our K-7 grade kiddos are on Fall Break from school starting tomorrow.  They get two weeks off, so that means they will be home with me all day....helping me clean and finish up all the last minute packing.  

We will miss the wonderful friends that we made here.  We have been welcomed with open arms and have felt like it was home.  We won't miss the annoying crickets or the scorching hot pavement that fries your feet when you forget for just a moment and go someplace in you bare feet, we won't miss the thought of scorpions and black widows lurking in the dark shadows, we won't miss the $700+ electricity bills every month, we won't miss having the water come out of every faucet in the house warm no matter how long you let it run, we won't miss the dust storms that coat everything in their path....but we will miss having blue skies as far as the eye can see and the warm water in the swimming pool and the palm trees that sway in the breeze.

I will say, it's been an experience and we wouldn't have traded it for the world!!!  Stay tuned for our next adventure!!  It's going to be awesome!!