Happy Birthday Nicholas!!!

Happy Birthday Nick, who is 12 today. I can not believe how fast time goes by. Seems like yesterday he was taking his first steps and off to his first day of school. Tonight we will celebrate his birthday at Brooklyn brothers restaurant as a family, then have cake and ice cream at home. Tomorrow night his friends will spend the night and we will have our surprise trip for him. For Nick's birthday he got a new drum set. It is beautiful and he loves it. For all of you who told me I was crazy for getting my kid drums, and for those who said it would drive me crazy. Yes you were all right. Now lets all say it together once and be done with it. I told you so....LOL

Road Runner Hockey

Saturday night we took the kids to a road runner hockey game. Emily's school district had a fundraiser to help raise money for music and art programs at the schools. We had a great time. The boys who were a little hesitant on going, had a blast. Emily really enjoyed screaming and cheering on her team. It has been a really long time since Don and I have gone to a hockey game, and the kids had never been. This is something we will have to do again with them.

Since the end of baseball tryouts our house had been pretty quiet. The kids have two weeks of school til Spring break. And two weeks till we leave for Uncle Augie's wedding. This kids keep asking if we are going to Disney world, sadly the answer this time is no. We plan on spending plenty of time at the beach and will be busy with wedding stuff.

Nick's birthday is this week, a big 12 years old. He has already received his birthday gift from us. A new drum set and ear buds for his Ipod. Thursday night we will go to dinner, Nicks choice. Then Friday night he will have some friends spend the night. I am going to surprise Nick and his friends by taking them to play laser tag Friday night for his party. He will be so excited!!!

The perfect little black dress

For the last 3 Fridays, I have been shopping for a dress for my brothers upcoming wedding. How hard would it be to find a black cocktail dress?
Now I do not consider my self over weight, but I could lose about 10 lbs. I have plenty of dresses that I have worn for hubby's work parties that would be great for the wedding, except for the fact of those 10 little lbs I can not seem to loose. Those ten pounds is a whole dress size for me, making me a size 12. Size 12 use to seem really big when I was much younger, but now I can actually fill out the dress with some curves. Anyway after today's shopping experience I have decided that the perfect little black dress is an urban legend. All the dresses in my size are either mother-of-the-bride dresses or something my grandmother would wear or hootchie momma prom queen dresses. Neither of these types of dresses will work, I fit into neither of these categories. So my quest continues for the perfect little black dress, that I now believe does not exist.

Well it is with sad news that I post this morning. For the last two weeks Michael has been trying out for the school baseball team. However last night he found out that he did not make the team. Michael says he is fine with it and he is just happy he got the chance to tryout. Well this breaks my heart for him. I know how much he wanted this, but there is always next year. His dad and I told him that he could play tennis or golf. He liked those ideas, so we will see what happens.

Emily's school performance last night was wonderful. We got to school about 615 and we took her to her class to get ready. The show started at 630 and all 4 kindergarten classes took the stage and sang 4 songs, Your a grand old flag, This land is your land, Thirteen Stripes, and Proud to be an American. Again last night, one of those moments where tissue was needed. After the kids were done singing all the parents were invited back to the classrooms for punch and cookies. It was a nice performance, and we are so proud of Emily who was in front row singing her heart out. I have added a few pictures of Michael's birthday.

As a Christmas gift from my in-laws we got season passes to the Arizona Science Center in Phx. On Sunday we decided to take the kids for a few hours, we ended up staying almost 5 hours. The kids and Don and I had a great time. The Science Center had a exhibit of Star Trek memorabilia from all of the old movies and tv shows. I am not a big star trek fan, but the exhibit was really neat. We stopped on the way home to a Mexican restaurant for dinner and came home and watched Star Trek, The Wrath of Kohn. I had never seen it, so it was interesting to compare to what we had seen earlier in the day.

Monday was a day for catching up on laundry. Its amazes me how quickly it backs up when you don't do a load a day. Yesterday I did 8 loads of clothes and still have 2 more. Tonight we will find out if Michael makes the baseball team at school, and Emily has a patriotic performance at school. This will be her first real night time performance. Hopefully this week will be quiet for us, but its not starting out that way.

Busy Week

Well this week has been very busy for all of us here, mostly Michael. Its amazing how he can run the way he does. He is like the energizer bunny. LOL. This week started out on Sunday. We had a very relaxing Sunday watching movies and playing video games. Monday morning Michael had a field trip at school that left the school at 5am. So Sunday night he spent the night with a friend of his that lives up in town. Saved me from driving him up at 415 in the morning. Monday night it stormed and driving into town was not fun. Monday night Michael did not get home until 830 so Don had to wait around at work till he called to say he was back at school. His field trip was to Bisbee, AZ and Tombstone, AZ. Tuesday started baseball tryouts for Michael. There are 27 kids trying out for 13 positions. Our odds are really good, and we wish Michael the best. Tryouts are from 4-6 so again Don hangs out at work then picks him up when he calls. This will last M - T- W- Th. this week and next. Today, Friday is Emily's valentine party at school, so I am going to go and help out in her classroom. There is no tryout practice to night. So hopefully we will all have a quiet night, playing video games or movies. Tomorrow, Emily has a birthday party at Pump it up. I am not fond of this place. For a party with the boys this place is great. A party for Emily, its pretty bad for her asthma. Most likely after her party she will spend the afternoon in bed resting.

Tomorrow we will be picking up Nick's birthday gift early. He is getting a 5 piece drum set. I know you all have told me how crazy I am, how this will drive me crazy, but I think it will be ok. I grew up with Drums and band music. This will be ok. Nick is so excited. He got to pick them out,about a month ago, they are beautiful, fire engine red and black. So tomorrow afternoon we will set them up and our quiet home will never be the same. Tomorrow is also Valentine's day. We will be staying at home tomorrow evening grilling out Steaks and Swordfish steaks and hanging out with friends playing the wii. Hopefully next week will be quiet and laid back compared to this week, but with baseball tryouts all week, Nicks field trip, I doubt it.

Happy Valentines Day to all of our friends and family. We Love you all. Hope you all have a great day with your Valentine.

It is tradition in our house, that on the night of your birthday, we will go out to dinner. Any place the birthday person wants to go, so we end up at places that we normally don't go; like cheesecake factory, olive garden, seafood restaurants. Michael choose this year to go to Teakwoods. Now don't get me wrong, we like this place, we eat there all the time. Its the only nice restaurant we go to in our small town besides pizza. We had a great time at dinner. Then came home to open gifts and have cake, however when we got home we were so full from dinner we skipped the cake and ice cream and will have it tonight. Michael is having a few friends over tonight for a video game marathon as a birthday party. Then on Saturday we will travel to Scottsdale to have lunch with his grandparents. Birthdays in our house always seem to last several days.

Happy Birthday Michael!!!

Well today its official. Michael turns 14. Can you believe it? I sure can't. Seems just like yesterday he was so tiny, well I guess not so tiny for being a ten pound baby. Who would of ever thought that this ten pound chunky monkey would ever be so tall and thin? Michael is an amazing kid with so many accomplishments under his belt. He is such a great kid and will go far in the future. Happy Birthday Michael. I love you. XOXOXO

Michael was invited to attend the Honors Choir & Band Festival at Desert Vista High last evening. This is a huge honor. The concert was wonderful. The choir sang first, singing 4 songs, then the band played 5 songs. During the intermission the percussion played steel drums. Again wonderful. I am so happy for Michael that he had this wonderful opportunity. He did an amazing job.