Flagstaff & Grand Canyon

Click on the picture for more!

We finally made it to Flagstaff and the magical snow!  After leaving Gallup in the early am, we made a quick pit stop to see Meteor Crater...the largest, most preserved meteor site on Earth! The meteor actually hit 50,000 years ago and is pretty much just a giant hole.  I am the only one who has been there before so I was outvoted on the trip :) The kids actually enjoyed the museum and seeing the big hole, as well as touching a 1400 lb. piece of actual meteor straight from outer space!

Next stop...Flagstaff! The kids truly could not believe their eyes as to how much snow had actually fallen! It came up to my knees and Luke's waist! They were super anxious to get out of the car and just play so we drove through the NAU campus where Craig & I both graduated from, checked in to the hotel and quickly changed into play clothes. We headed back to campus to one of our old spots for snow playing....the football practice field! It has a giant, flat space, as well as great hills for sledding. We had so much fun playing, sledding, building a snow fort and having a giant snowball fight! Poor Luke...the snow was so deep he literally could not walk! He would try and take a giant step and fall down, getting stuck like a turtle! Needless to say, he spent most of the time being carried around like a sack of potatoes :)

We spent the evening at dinner with our friend Martin and his wife Ivy. I have known Martin since 7'th grade and Craig since high school. He went to college with us and he and Craig were in each others weddings. Sunday was Grand Canyon day! A day late thanks to the weather but still on the agenda! The kids loved it!!! They were all about climbing the rocks and now want to be big enough to raft the river...hmm....another adventure trip is formulating in my brain!!! Next stop...Tucson!

Adventure #2...Snow Tubing!!!

 

Click on picture to see more!

Well these warm weathered Texas kids sure had a change of pace today...snow tubing! The place Mrs. Rinn sent us to was a BIG hit with my guys!!! They had seven hills, all with different jumps, steepness, curves, etc and a lift up to the top. The bummer was once you got to the bottom, you had a good 1/2 mile trek back to the lift! Our "early" spring break helped yet again...there were less than 30 people at the entire park the whole time we were there!!! We never once had to wait for tubes, in line, etc! We spent a solid 3 hours completely exhausting ourselves having a ball! Once again, I proved to have the daredevils for kids...my guys were going on the biggest runs primarily with adults...and headfirst!!! Little man was going solo whereas most kids his size were in doubles with parents! UGH...their teenage years are gonna kill me if at 5, 7 & 8 this is how they act!

After tubing the plan was to make the 7 hour drive to Flagstaff. Fortunately we are "go with the flow" people cause plans changed! About 3 hours out of Flagstaff we hit the motherload of snowstorms! Flagstaff apparently has received 18+ inches today! We drove a good 27 miles in complete whiteout with maybe 5 feet of visibility! The kids were troopers being silent so we could focus on driving!! Fortunately we had a few blips of random cell service and were able to get ahold of Kerry and my parents to quickly change our hotel plans and find us a new one in the next closest town on the freeway! And it's a good thing we did...by time we finally made it off the freeway, the hotels were jam packed!!! Needless to say we are spending the night cozy and warm in Gallup, NM. Tomorrow we will make the rest of the drive where the kids will be utterly shocked to see what 18+ inches of snow looks like!!!

11 Day Road Trip...

 

Click the picture for more!

 Craig learned a few weeks ago he had to be in Tucson for work over Spring Break...my wheels started turning and I quickly discovered we could all tag along at very little cost to us and have a super fun road trip! The plans were put in motion and the kids are over the moon that we are off to White Sands, NM, Ruidoso, NM Flagstaff, AZ, The Grand Canyon, Tucson, AZ and Phoenix AZ!

Stop #1 was White Sands, NM...oh what a fun "dumpy town" this is!!! Not much to look at but we hit the jackpot on activities! We left last (Wednesday) night around 8pm and drove through the night in order to be able to have as much time here as possible. I was literally at breakfast at 10am with two friends on Wednesday when Melissa informed me that there is an additional awesome activity only 40 miles from our hotel...you will see it in stop #2! (They are doing just the NM part of our trip  a few days after us so she did a much better job researching the area!) I literally packed a family of 5 in less than 4 hours to be able to leave at night rather than this morning!!!

We arrived at 4:30 am (the kids actually slept most of the drive which was great!), threw everyone into beds and our rested children woke us before 8...we were off for a LONG day of fun! Let's not forget Craig's 35'th Birthday is also today!!! Poor guy...drive through the night, get no sleep and now put on a Birthday smile to enjoy the day of fun! Our first destination was the New Mexico Museum of Space (nerd fest if you ask me!) The boys and Craig all really enjoyed seeing the rockets, missiles, pods, etc and it ended up being a very fun hour poking through the museum!

Next stop...White Sands Sledding Park! Oh what a hidden gem this is!!! 300 square miles of white sand dunes plunked right in the middle of this mountain desert area...it literally looks like someone just dropped sand from the sky! Being that it is the middle of the week and Spring Break isn't actually until next week...it was empty! We literally saw less than 25 cars on the 16 mile path through the place!!! Armed with our sleds from the Lichts (who were here last year and got "robbed" on the sleds and graciously let us borrow!) we found our own private "cul-de-sac" to spend three hours sledding! It is literally white sand hills that looks like fresh snow for as far as you can see. Climbing the hills over and over again is the hardest part!!! Towards the end, an older couple stopped to watch the boys sledding and the lady actually ended up borrowing a sled to give it a try as well!

After quick showers for our sand filled kids, we were surprised with a bday cake delivered to the hotel by my parents and had a fun dinner celebrating Craig's big day! Dinner was followed by swimming to clean all the nooks and crannies filled with sand that the boys didn't get out in the shower!

It is now 8pm and we are all in bed, exhausted, a little burnt and anxiously waiting for tomorrow's adventure...snow tube sledding!!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I am the luckiest girl in the whole world...I have not one but four Valentine's every year! Being the only girl does have some advantages on this Holiday!!! I get flowers from four handsome men, I get kisses from four awesome guys, I get to sit back and watch these four guys clean the kitchen from the yummy steak dinner I made them while I sip my favorite wine and I am told more times than I can count how much I am appreciated by these four guys! Seriously, not having to share this day makes it extra fun for me!!!

In all seriousness, I actually do just love Valentine's Day. I love being a stay at home Mom that gets to be at the school for parties. The boys all had parties from 2-3...yikes! Fortunately their classrooms are literally next to each other so I just went from room to room enjoying spending the afternoon with each of them :)

Click here for a few more pics of party fun!

The little things...

Being a Mom is hard. There are days where I truly want to "forget" I have kids just for a few minutes. Don't get me wrong, I love my guys with every ounce of myself, but the constant chaos of daily life, the fighting, the not listening, the arguing, the mess, the laundry, the not even having time to pee without being interrupted, the spills, the laundry, the endless cooking, cleaning, homework, sports, the laundry :), the falling into bed exhausted  and that damn alarm going off right as I just closed my eyes, the public scenes we cause just about everywhere...all reasons you just want one of those "Calgon take me away moments" now and then. And just when you finally get one of those few, precious minutes to yourself, you walk out to check why the house is so eerily quiet and find this....and all of those reasons listed above just sort of vanish as you stand there smiling taking as many pictures of this precious moment as you can so that you never, ever forget it.

My little stars...

Basketball season is in full swing! All three boys are on different teams with Craig coaching each of them :) You can imagine how my Saturday's are spent!!! (and I wouldn't trade it for anything!!!) I got a new long range lens for Christmas since I am the Momma of boys and it is designed for action/sports pictures which is my next 15 years :) Here are a few of my favorites of my three all-stars!

Raptors vs. Spurs

Click here for a few more...

I have three very LUCKY little boys that will not even appreciate it until they are older! Aaron was back in Texas so we took the boys to watch him play in San Antonio. This game completes our tour of Texas Professional Basketball Stadiums ;) We have now seen Aaron play at all three stadiums...Houston, Dallas & San Antonio much to the delight of my people!!! This was by far the best though because they were all sporting custom made, signed, official NBA jerseys from the BIG man (7 ft. tall Aaron) himself! Seriously...how many kids can say that they get to go to these NBA games, score amazing seats, get VIP passes to wait after the game by the locker room AND wear custom Jerseys that a player had made specifically for you?!?!? I cannot wait until they are old enough for it to actually hit them :) Once again, "Mr. Aaron" is the coolest person my kids could ever have as a 'best friend' and truly the nicest guy in the NBA!!!

Christmas Part 2...

Click here to see...

Hooray...we woke up to discover that Santa came! The boys were giddy to discover their WiiU was not under the tree but rather in the fireplace! It must've fell out of the bag! We had a super exciting morning with more gifts than we can ever play with!!! I am personally a fan of the voice changing Transformers helmets!!! Santa did leave some rather questionable gifts :) Bow & arrows and inflatable boxing gloves can only end one way in this house...click to see :)

Christmas Part 1...

Click here to see all the fun!

 

We had the most wonderful Christmas with getting to celebrate two times! We let the boys open their brother gifts on Thursday night, had their class parties (and my last day of teaching!) on Friday then immediately got in the car and headed to my parents :) Kerry, Jeremy & the girls were flying in the next morning so we wanted to make sure we were there! Kelly, Chris & the girls, as well as DJ & Christy all came over as well and we all got to spend time with 7 cousins (Brian, Matt, Luke, Emma, Abby, Molly & Mackenzie) running around and playing together! We literally spent the whole weekend together just hanging out and it was absolutely perfect!!! The highlight was attempting to get all of them to sit together for a picture and all smile at the same time!!! With four girls 2 & under, plus 3 rowdy boys...you can imagine how this went :) Christmas Eve was the official present opening much to the delight of everyone except Molly...she literally slept through the whole four hours! We were all spoiled beyond belief and actually had to attach my Dad's trailer to the back of my car to get everything home! The night ended with a "hairy contest" with even Kerry & Abby joining in! DJ took the grand prize but the boys were runners up with their mustaches from Aunt Key!!! Their coveted trophy now sits in a place of honor on our bookcase :)

Not too big...YET!

 Click to see more!

 

So my sweet 8 year old still is a true believer. Whether or not he has doubts, I am unsure. I am certainly not going to ask and he is too smart to question things aloud right before Christmas! I fear the questions may start rolling in right after the loot arrives, but for now I am enjoying my pictures of my three believers!! Enjoy...

Sledding!!!

 Click on picture for more!

 

Five years later my kids still look forward to our neighborhood's annual sledding day! They bring in tons of snow, provide sleds, cookies &  hot chocolate and let the kids go at it!!! This year we had our friend's the Rinn Family join us. They have three kids...Riley is in Brian's class, Bryce is in Matt's class and their little guy Ryan is two. The kids all love hanging out together and had such a fun day sledding! It was 74 degrees, our a/c is actually on and the only reason they had on pants/long sleeves was for the muddy, mucky mess!!! Sledding in Texas....you never know what you're gonna get!

Lego Discovery Center & Six Flags!

 

Click the picture to see more fun!

 

 

This past weekend we took the boys to Dallas for a weekend catered to them! Friday night we used our passes to go to Six Flags Over Texas. My guys LOVE this one as it has 3x the coasters as the one in San Antonio and some really HUGE ones! What a GREAT night we had...Brian reached yet another magical height and was finally able to ride Superman Power Tower, launching him and Daddy 32 stories into the sky with a smile on his face the whole time!!! Much to his dismay...Luke was just shy of the next magical height. He is so discouraged always being the short one left behind so him and I have a deal...if he can't ride, Mommy can't ride. While I do enjoy the rides with my big guys, my littlest guy loves having the knowledge that he's not always the one left behind with whoever is willing to stay with him :) Fortunately for us, the two teenagers working the old wooden coaster were paying zero attention so as Craig and the boys were pulling into the station they looked over to see me and Luke heading up the hill! Getting to be the one to experience all of these thrills with Luke for his first time is the most rewarding thing as a Mommy. Him squeezing my hand going up the hill and screaming "we made it Mommy" makes my heart skip a beat!

Saturday we surprised the kids and our resident elf "Zippy" had tickets waiting at the Lego Discovery Center and Aquarium for us ;) What a dream for my three boys! Matt's dream is to be a marine biologist and obsessed with anything ocean, particularly sharks. We have seen a lot of America's aquariums but had not been here yet so the aquarium was right up his alley! Brian is our Lego freak in the house and was beyond excited to spend the day among his favorite toy! Luke was just thrilled to spend the day with "his boys" being nice to him :) By far the funniest part of the day came when we walked under the blacklights! We have been battling the pink-eye plague since Thanksgiving along with Kelly's family...UGH! The boys and I have been on Vigamox pretty steadily as we keep sharing our disease. Check out the pictures of what Vigamox in your eyes smeared on your face looks like in blacklight!!!

After a fun few hours, we returned to Six Flags for FUN, Round 2! My kids are theme park junkies making the yearly gift of renewing our season passes by my parents the PERFECT gift for our family! And in keeping with Christmas...our kids solidly believe our elf is the coolest!

Raptors vs. Mavericks

 

Click here for a few more pics!

 

"Mr. Aaron" was back in Texas last night playing the Dallas Mavericks. Craig and I decided to make the roundtrip trek (thanks to teaching 3'rd grade!) to Dallas in order to take the boys to the game! Talk about boys dreams coming true...Aaron scored us floor level seats and was texting the boys from the locker room before the game. He was waving at them and giving "air fives" from the court, they made it on the jumbortron a few times, ate nachos, cotton candy and popcorn, and then the best part...had VIP passes to stay after the game and hang out with Aaron. Luke was so excited when he saw him that he literally went running and flung himself into his arms!!! It was seriously a good thing Aaron caught him, as Luke would've fallen on his head :) The boys so LOVE Aaron Gray and we are thankful for his friendship and the way he just loves on our boys! Seriously...what little kid can say they have a best friend in the NBA?!?!?!

Halloween!!!

Click here for more halloween pics!

Another Halloween has come and gone! My guys all decided to be "hereos" of various forms of a ninja, a ninja turtle and a an army guy! This was the first year they all had independent thoughts on costumes and all picked out their own (Luke's was recycled but he still loved it!) Much to the delight of my boys, we had family friends join us for trick-or-treating! Craig and Russ took the kids begging for candy while Melissa and I sat with sangria and candy in the driveway! I'd say it was a pretty perfect night!

Fall Carnival

 

Click here to see my kids having a blast!

So all of my time since school started has gone to the planning and executing of the school carnival! I took on the role of PTL Vice President and alongside five of my closest friends am having a blast! Even though we are crazy busy with all of the fun on our agenda, I wouldn't have it any other way!!! The fall carnival has always been a the "dud" side, with a few games and a jumping castle in the gym. We decided to "GO BIG"!!! We had a teacher auction, a costume contest, trick-or-treating, six HUGE inflatables including a sticky wall, a rockwall, four bungee trampolines, a haunted house, a hayride and food vendors! The catch...we weren't planning on the coldest day in October history to occur...complete with afternoon rain! All said in done...the kids had a blast, the school was amazed and we pulled it off without a hitch! We even managed to bring in $5000 on our teacher auction (our goal was only $500), all which we are giving back 100% to the teachers!!!!!

Pumpkin Patch

Click here for more pics!

We had so much fun last year at Jersey Farms that we decided to go back! Aunt Kel, Uncle Chris, Emma & Abby came along this year for the fun!!! Unfortunately Uncle Johnny & Aunt Christy couldn't make it due to Uncle Johnny's broken ankle and Gaga & Papa were out of town. Oh my goodness...what fun we had! My oldest friend Andrea happened to be in town so she got to come along for the fun as well :) She was so excited to meet the girls! We saw all the animals, took a hayride, learned how dairy farms work, fed newborn calves, picked our pumpkins and finished our day eating yummy Bluebell ice cream  Even though Abby hated the pumpkin patch and Emma spent the whole day plugging her nose from the yucky smells...we had such a fun day at the farm!

Viva Las Vegas!!!

Click here to see more Vegas fun!

Aunt Key, Uncle Jerms and the girls live there, Craig & I have been multiple times, the boys have heard all about it and seen pictures and now....they have been to Las Vegas and done Las Vegas!!!! Craig and I took the kids to Vegas last week to see the sights, do the stuff and best of all...hang with Aunt Key, Uncle Jerms, Molly & Mackenzie! Molly is turning 2 next week so we even got to have an early party with her!!! Aunt Key played the hostess with the mostess and took the boys everywhere kids could have fun in Vegas!!! Uncle Jerms even came home form work for a day to spend time with us! We surprised them with a Ford mustang convertible, saw all the hotels, rode the monorail, played games at Circus Circus winning LOTS of prizes, saw the Bellagio water show, went to the top of the Eiffel Tower, went to M&M world and Coke World, rode spiral escalators, visited the world's largest golden nugget, went to the world's largest gift shop, went to Mandalay's aquarium, spent the might in a castle, watched a volcano erupt, went to the Hoover dam, took a tour of a candy factory, had an Elmo Birthday party complete with angry two year old and so much more!!! We had such a fun time in Vegas and can't wait to go back!!!

Luke's Family Party

Click picture to see pics :)

 Luke is on celebration #3! Since we are in Houston leaving for Vegas, we decided to celebrate Luke's Birthday with the family and save trips for everyone back and forth! Luke is still on his Birthday HIGH and acting like a present crazed maniac!!! He had dramatic reactions for every gift he got and took great delight in ripping open and playing with every present!!!  All I have to say is...Luke is one lucky little boy!!!!

Officially Five!!!!

 

Click the pic to see Luke's Birthday!

 

Little man is officially 5!!!! He woke up over the moon with excitement and I truly don't think his smile left his face all day! Brian and Matt made sure he got up early enough to open presents before school and funny enough...the biggest hit was the angry birds undies!!! He ripped them open and wanted to wear them immediately! After a breakfast a cupcakes and ice cream (does it get any better?!?!?!) we headed off to school. Luke requested a birthday lunch of Subway black olive pizza (not what you picture from Subway!!!) and an Icee so that's what he got ;) I spent the day with him at school, had lunch and then celebrated with his class treat of rainbow push-ups! Luke also got to pick his dinner so Chick-fil-A it was! Mind you...this was directly due to their being a playground and NOT the food! After a free ice cream sundae for the birthday boy from the manager, it was home to bed!

Clearly the last two days of birthday festivities got to Luke...it is 9:15am and Luke should be at school with his brothers...instead he is in my bed sleeping as he was beyond overtired and crabby this morning resulting in a massive meltdown over a green bowl at the breakfast table! He was so out of control, yawning and telling us he is so "sweepy' that we decided back to bed was in order! We actually had to pretend to call his teacher and get permission as meltdown #2 arrived when  we told him the plan! I guess it's not easy to grow up no matter how big or little you are :)

First friend party!

Click here for party pics

 

Luke is officially five tomorrow...a thought that makes me want to cry! We are officially the parents of three kids....no more babies, toddlers or preschoolers...we now have to say we have three kids! Don't get me wrong...I love having three kids! I'm just not sure I'm ready for my sweet baby to cross to the dreaded other side full of eye rolls, sassy mouths, conscious lies and angry attitudes in need of adjustment!

In true growing up fashion Luke requested a "friend" party this year. He was no longer satisfied with a family party consisting of family and close friends...he wanted his school friends to be the guests! (Sorry to those no longer considered cool!!! Don't worry, the family party will still happen and you are all still needed for presents (direct quote) but you are all no longer the cool people he wants to hang with at parties!)

Craig and I honored his request and had a party at the bowling alley today with his Pre-K class. Much to Brian and Matt's dismay...they were also NOT on the guest list! Luke had an absolute blast!!! He ran around with his buddies, bowled, had pizza, cupcakes and soda and totally played up the fact that this was HIS BIG DAY! He sported two birthday badges and a birthday crown and had a smile that never left his face! Tomorrow is Round 2 with a birthday treat of rainbow push-ups at school, Mommy bringing Subway to school for lunch and a special request of...Chick-fil-A for dinner!