Friends!

New fun stories to tell. We finally took the kids bowling on a Sunday. They have been asking to go bowling for quite some time and to join us we took along Alison and her son Jack. All the kids had a blast. Of course when you go in a HUGE group of 7 people, you always feel like you will be the loudest group but to our avail, the bowling alley was REALLY loud and I think in fact we were the quietest. LOL.

We played 1.5 games (we had a 2 hour time limit) and we munched on pizza, chicken tenders, fries, cheesesticks and SODA!! Lol. The kids were pretty much in heaven. THey did pretty good to. Watching Jack and Neya was TOO cute and watching Carina master how to toss a bowling ball down was even better. She can get so frustrated if she doesn't do something right the VERY first time (sounds a little like her momma). The grownups, despite the gutters being up did NOT play the best of games of course except for dad who got like 3 or 4 strikes at the end of the game! Darn him. I almost had him beat till that lucky streak!

That night we also went for a walk and played at the basketball hoops. Rian walked and walked and pushed his little flinstone mobile around and RC and Carina played 2 square. HOwever, I am pretty sure she made up her own games because her rules and games are NOTHING like what we used to play. Maybe that just means we aer old and out of touch with kids these days. LOL.

Here are some fun pics from the weekend. And we should have another update soon from our mini vacay to Sedona (thanks Gabe, Tiff, Aaden and Noah!)

SUPER DADDY!!!!

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Our day at the bowling alley!

Speed Junky In Training!!!

So many things have gone on since even the 10th, some good some bad. SO the BAD is that we found out we have to be out of our house on November 1st which is 4 months before our lease is even up. WHY you ask. Well our wonderful landlord has decided to foreclose on his house so we were in a super fast hunt for a house. Needless to say I took half a day solid. Looked for houses and found one. IN the heat of the moment we called a realtor, submitted an application and WAH LAH! We have a new house to move into on September 15th.

Yet again, along with the GOOD, came bad. The NEW bad is that we have to postpone our trip to California for about 4 days! I know it doesn't seem like much but we REALLY want to get out there to visit precious baby Aaden and Noah when they arrive!!! So the sooner the better but HOPEFULLY if we wait longer, they bake longer :) Well the other downside is that we have to take the girls out of Paseo Verde and enroll them in an all new school. WELLL new to Neya. Carina went there for Kinder, 1st and 2nd. SOOOO really its not THAT bad.

NOW the good. The house is GORGEOUS compared to our current house. It has 4 bedrooms. 2.5 baths. a loft. A family room AND another "decoration room" as I call which will house our table. I am super excited. Potentially the girls will have their own rooms but for now they are going to have to share because we have A LOT of visitors coming in December and probably November so we want to make sure they have a "place of their own". I will be sure and post pics of the new "pad" once we are settled. So excited!

ON top of all this Rian is turning 3 weeks! Gosh how time goes on. I would write a big long story on the emotions I am feeling but honestly I figure I will save that for his ACTUAL birthday or else I may stop planning the party for AZ and the one for CA and just try and pretend as though he isn't hitting a major "grown up baby" milestone :) Brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it....sooooo....

The only other SUPER cute stuff is that Rian is FINALLY wearing shoes on a normal basis (which in AZ is tough cause typically we all just wear flip flops but he is having a hard time walking in sandals so we he FINALLY fits the DC's Dusty bought him and he TOTALLY walks great in them. Neya finally finished her first couple weeks of Kindergarten and although she wants to go back to preschool to see her friends again, she is also pertty darn happy with her accomplishments. She learned to "spell" her name....and by spell I mean WRITE, but either way its HUGE. Carina is in 4th grade and her first couple weekends by pretty well. She had to switch teachers already but only because her first teacher only came back to help until the found a more permanent 4th grade teacher. THE HIGHLIGHT is that Carina got into PI. It is Project Ideal for gifted kids. HOPEFULLY she can transfer to that at that new school without having to go through the whole testing process.

Anywho. I am going to post a video and a couple pictures from today. Yes it was roasting but I still don't like Rian outside walking without PANTS on in case he falls, because I don't want him to get burnt from the hot hot concrete. So don't think I was trying to be negligent and make him melt in the AZ heat ;)

Future Speed Demon? Perhaps!

First Day of School!!!

So today the kids had their first day of school. They are all soo grown up now.



Rina went into 4th grade. Talk about realizing how old you are! She was the hardest to get ready in the AM. The hair needed to be straightened, hairsprayed, puffed and primped and her outfit needs to be just right. Needless to say she looked absolutely adorable but I also think this is the last year I am going to be able to take pics or even drop her off in front of her class as now she will be "too cool" for us so we took advantage and I got some cute pics of her but not nearly as many as Rian and Neya, darn her for growing up! Haha :)





Neya, Neya, Neya! Off to Kindergarten she goes :) Lucky for me she is still young enough to NOT get embarrassed by mom and snapping away with the camera! Haha. she was super excited. It wasnt her first time in her class, we went on Friday for meet the teacher day but it was the first time really seeing all her new classmates. She was RELALY shy but according to her sister that was short lived because while in the lunch room Neya was cracking up with her newly found friends! Yay Neya! Needless to say after 5 minutes of us sitting in the class he was ready for us to leave and get on with her day. Whoever said independant kids were easier than dependant ones was a liar! I wish they cried or even CARED when I left, instead our kids are more into growing up :(







The girls did REALLY good and although it is still sad to see them grow up I am glad they are always excited to start a new adventure and now that leaves THE BOY!

He was the hardest of the day. Given his start in life, and how touchy they made daycare seem (not even a SHRED of daycare for the first 6 months)it was REALLY hard to make myself believe this was the best thing for him AND us. He has NEVER had an issue being left with a sitter or meeting new people but this was still a new adventure for ALL of us and one that will still take some adjusting to. He did GREAT the first day, such a big boy. They said after we left he only cried for a couple minutes and that after that the only time he cried was naptime! Gosh, who knew it would be that easy. STILL I won't be able to shake the feeling I have in the pit of my stomach when it comes to his sensitivity of Germies and Sickness, but I guess we can only take it one day at a time. The worst case is that he gets OOBER sick but I am hoping if we keep up with shots, keep an eye on any funky symptoms and stay going to his scheduled heart appointments he will be okay. Like everyone keeps telling me: "you can't keep him in a bubble forever" but I surely wish I could!






So as hard as I thought this day would be, they were soo much easier. The kids did great and of course I heard all about it as soon as I walked in the door!

Our Weekend!!

This weekend we hung out with some good friends. Although I have no pics from Saturday, we hung out with Matt and Xander, it was still fun. We went to the mall, grubbed out at Johnny Rockets (where it took us 2 hours to eat (pretty much), 1 hour to order and then at least another 45 minutes to eat. LOL. All in all it was quite the experience. Matt brought over Coraline for the girls to watch, in 3d and they were stoked. Although he kept telling them it was better in the dark, of course they couldn't resist and watched it midday with all the drapes closed :)

That night we decided to go out with a few friends as well for an adult night out. We hung out with Alison, Matt, Nate and Shawn, enjoyed some Applebees (well mostly enjoyed, although we aren't the BIGGEST Applebees fans) and then off to karaoke at Native New Yorker. It was a pretty packed night due to a birthday party going on (we got yummy brownies from the party go-ers), so we only sang a couple songs. I do recall, a little Run-Around Sue, I like big butts (i dont know the actual title..I know...gasp!), a michael jackson tribute by RC and I even sang but of course it was a country song (which is the only kind I am comfortable singing in front of folks).

All in all the night was pretty fun, Matt and Nate had to call it a night early, but they were fun while they were there.

Then Sunday rolled around and we attempted to be lazy, but of course it wasn't that easy, we had lots of last minute things to take care of for school and all that good stuff not to mention our PLANNED hangout time with the Cordero Family. We went to lunch at Arribas and topped off the afternoon with a trip to the waterpark. here are a few pics as of course you can only blab on about a waterpark trip so much...pics are way better :) Enjoy!

Cordero Family

Rian

Aubrey

Rian and Neya

Rian being a dork

Walking Machine!

So we posted his first few steps and those were soo adorable but look how far he has come:

**Sorry they are dark**

HECTICNESS!!!!

These last...two weeks or so...have been SUPER busy. Work is crazy, family life is crazy and the days are flying by so fast. Few highlights are, Grandpa Rudy came to AZ to visit, mommy had a FUN work function she attended and we have hung out with some great friends.

Enjoy the pics, sorry for no captions or explanations it is LATE and I am a tired Mommy!!