The Linn Family

SemperFi Bowl

2012-01-03T20:56:00.000-08:00

Today we went to the Semper Fi Bowl at Chase Stadium in downtown phoenix. It was a bunch of fun. This was the first year for this particular bowl so it was pretty low key - less than 5,000 people. Plus it was open seating so we got to sit anywhere we wanted.

The Marines hosted this bowl game and they did such a great job with everything. The national anthem and the presentation of the flag was amazing. Plus they did a fly-by. It was really moving to watch. During the half-time show they had about 20 new recruits swear-in. I couldn't help but feel for them. They all looked so young and scared and yet here they were, taking an oath to protect our country and all of us. I am so grateful for our soldiers.

The teams were East VS. West. They were the top 100 high school football players from all over the nation. We knew it would be a close game but we were rooting for WEST!

Olivia was insane.

as always.

We brought Garrett along and those 3 boys had a blast together. Most of the game they sat along the front wall.

Then they got caught on the jumbo-tron! They were so excited. They thought they were celebrities for a few minutes.

Oh! ..and WEST WON! 17-14

New Spec's

2011-12-31T14:11:00.000-08:00

Two years ago we took the whole family to the optometrist for some check ups. The silly man told Dan and myself that our children had wonderful eye sight but we could, if we wanted too, purchase them reading glasses. Why would you ever get reading glasses for a child with perfect eyes you ask?? I wondered the same thing but we politely declined and went our merry way.

Spencer in his 9 year-old wisdom heard the optometrist say "Your child needs glasses, especially to read". We have been assuring him for 2 years that his eyes are fine and that he just misunderstood the doctor. Well this school year he has taken it a step further. He asked his teacher if he could sit in the front row because he couldn't see the board and he tells her that he can not see anything. At his 11 year-old check-up he failed the eye exam. I thought FOR SURE that this dang kid was pretending because he just wanted some cool accessories (like one of his best friends). In my mind, there is NO WAY for him to be a successful baseball player if he really can't see.

Reluctantly I decided to take him to a NEW optometrist to check out his eyes. I did a lot of research and found one that used new technology so Spencer couldn't cheat his way into a super cool pair of glasses.

Sure enough he is near-sighted and has an astigmatism.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T19:39:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas

Love: the Linn family

Since I failed to send out Christmas cards this year (I'm Sorry!) I figured this would be the perfect opportunity to give a family update for those that are dying to know how 2011 has treated our little family. Here goes:

Olivia: Miss Livy turned 4 just a few days ago and is continuing everyday to bless our lives with her odd-ball personality. She is very precocious and a little wild and incredibly amusing. She says the strangest things. She is all girl and loves everything pink, glittery and Justin Bieber. She really loves to dance. I am hoping to get her enrolled in some dance classes in January.

Ethan: "E" turned 9 last August and is in 3rd grade. He loves school and is doing wonderfully. Holding strong to all A's & B's. He is very goal oriented and is usually good on achieving those goals. He is a talented athlete as well. He played a season of flag football this fall and really enjoyed it. Next time we will be putting him in tackle though, he just has a natural aggression that he was not able to use in flag, for fear of penalties. He is also playing Club baseball for the Raptor's 11U team. He is growing tremendously in baseball and he makes me so proud.

Spencer: Spencer turned 11 last October and is in 5th grade. This little man has finally met his match with school. He is highly intelligent and has been able to coast through school without studying and doing much work until this year. This year it has all caught up with him. He has learned the hard way that school is numero UNO in his life for the next 10 years! I think that finally, at the half-way mark, he has discovered that he is a smart kid and with 10% more effort he is a freaking genius. Spencer is also super athletic. He plays baseball for the same club team as Ethan, the Raptor's 11U. He is a huge part of the team and always a starting player. He is a phenomenal second and first baseman as well as a force in the outfield. You wouldn't guess it by looking at this kid either but he can CRUSH a baseball. Not too much longer and he will be putting them over the fence.

Ryleigh: Bug is going to be 14 in February.... she is half-way through her 8th grade year and is anxiously waiting for high school next year. She is SUPER driven. She always strives for straight A's and up until this year has always been successful. She has a couple of teachers this year that she struggles to learn from but she still manages a high 'B' in those classes. She is working hard at earning money to go to Europe with her Spanish teacher in May. So far she has saved $750.00 of the $4500.00 that she needs. We are really proud of her. She is also an athlete. Right now she is playing softball for her junior high school. She rotates between center field and first base. She is a great spirit on the team and a good player. She had spent most of 2011 playing softball for a club team with her cousin Jayda. They had a blast together and both of them improved tremendously!

Dan and I continued to raise our 4 wonderful children and are constantly grateful for their individual little personalities. I really mean that too - I am not just blabbing nonsense here. We talk - on a regular basis - about how lucky we are and how awesome we think our kids are. Dan graduated from Nursing school in August and in a freakish swing of amazing luck got hired on almost immediately at Banner Good Sam in Phoenix in their PCU department on the cardiac floor. He is really loving the work, but he is still going to school. He should have his bachelor's by this time next year (at which point he says we can PARTY!) and then he will apply for both NP & CRNA school. I am so grateful for him and the life that he provides for our family. I have just been busy being the mom. I drive kids all over the place and back again. I love every minute of it and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Well until next year.....

Merry Christmas

Happy Birthday Lou Who

2011-12-19T09:09:00.000-08:00

Four Years ago today our family got a little bigger and our lives got a little brighter.

We sure had no clue that the sweet little red-headed baby would be a wild crazy maniac at four. But I sure am grateful for her spunkiness - she keeps us on our toes for sure.

Happy Birthday Olivia Kaye

I love you!

Some information about Olivia:

Favorite Color: Purple & Pink

Favorite Food: Apples & grapes

Favorite TV show: Yo Gabba Gabba!, Dora, Bubble Guppies, Team Oomizoomie

Favorite Movie: Nemo, Monsters Inc, Cinderella

Favorite Toy: Squishy Squishy Squashies, Babies, guitar, piano & babies

Favorite Song: Baby by Justin Bieber

Favorite Store: Target

Here are a few pictures of her over the past year:

Olivia & Addysen

Battle Nativity

2011-12-17T14:12:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite Christmas decorations is the Nativity scene. In the years past I have tried to collect one a year, so I have a lot of them now. Most of them are up on higher shelves but some are either too big or too small or I just don't have enough space for them. When I set them out I like to have them set all beautifully so that I can see the whole scene, everyone looking out (towards me).

Olivia the other hand thinks it needs to be a more realistic set-up. She goes behind me and sets them all up, surrounding baby Jesus, probably more like it should be. It is definitely a battle of the wills. everyday.

A little Set-up is in order....

2011-11-28T16:07:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we set up Christmas. I love doing it, and usually I set it up on Black Friday but this year we had a baseball tournament so it got pushed back a few days but it was not any less exciting.

Olivia has really taken to the excitement of Christmas. She LOVES all the lights and ornaments and things shaped like Santa and she really loves to play with one of my nativity sets.

She asked if she could put the star on the tree this year so Dan helped her. We left the fake tree in the box and opted for a fresh one. 9 feet! It is huge!! It smells so delicious though and so it is worth it.

Our semi-finished product ~ it is in need of some more ornaments so I will probably add a few more in the next few weeks. Really I am just so excited for Christmas this year. I love this holiday!

Thanksgiving - Part 2

2011-11-25T16:01:00.000-08:00

On Thanksgiving day we went over to my parents house and celebrated the day. Just them and us. It was a lot of fun, not to mention nice and relaxing to have such a small group. We didn't skimp of the food though. Just because there was only 9 of us was NO REASON not to have TWO {20 lbs each} turkeys! One deep fried and one oven roasted. mmmmm. delicious.

Before dinner my mother got this crazy idea to go burn off a few pre-Thanksgiving calories by playing a family game of kickball at the park. It was a lot of fun but the next day all the adults were a little sore. [blush]

I sure am Thankful for family and the joy that they bring to our lives. Nothing is more important than family and I hope and pray that that will never change.

Thanksgiving - Part 1

2011-11-21T17:40:00.000-08:00

On Sunday we hosted Thanksgiving for Dan's family. Yes, it was at our house. Our 1358 sqft home. We had 25 people all smushed it. It was definitely cozy, but thankfully, we like each other - a lot. So it was actually quite nice.

The nicest part was I didn't have to cook everything. We did it potluck style, which worked out nicely since I only have one oven.

In order to get everyone to fit, we converted our patio into an outside dinning area. Thankfully, we live in Arizona and the weather was beautiful!

It was a bunch of fun having everyone together, which has been a first in SEVERAL years (okay, we were missing Cory, but his wife and kids were here {3 out of 4 ain't bad!})

Since we have had a new addition to the grand kids since our last Linn Family Grand kid picture we needed a new, updated picture of the crew. Twelve and counting.....

[can you believe that this was the best picture of them after the 15 that I took!?]

I love this time of year. It makes me reflect and realize how thankful I really am. I love Dan's family. We have so much fun together and I am grateful for the closeness that he has with all his siblings and the fun that we all have when we are together.

To be continued.....

(Thanksgiving part 2 taking place on Thursday)

Halloween 2011

2011-11-01T08:18:00.000-07:00

Okay - WOW! How did Halloween just sneak up on me this year?? We are usually that family that has costumes planned by the end of August, purchased by the end of September, the house decorated by October and the GOOD candy bought by mid-October (and then hidden in the house). But this year.... I don't know what happened. The house was decorated the first week of October but that was it.

We totally scrambled for costumes the week before. I purchased our bag of lame candy at 2:00 on Halloween afternoon!

We were still finishing dinner when we started getting our first trick or treaters so needless to say, I was rushed! And i didn't get any pictures of my kids.

Thankfully, I took pictures of the kids on my cell for my mom on Saturday before our Ward party. So here they are - the best that I got!

Miss Olivia - Our Southern Belle.

She picked out her own costume this year, she really didn't care what she was as long as she was pink and frilly. She loves this costume, and she is even more excited that it has now made its way to her dress-up box.

Ethan - Zombie.

Every year Ethan wants to be bloody. Since we were super uncreative this year it was the perfect year to allow this. $4.00 for white face paint, black eye paint, fake blood, and brown teeth paint. Some old clothes and we have a costume! It was great. Plus he was in "heaven". Only downside, he couldn't wear a costume with any blood for the school parade, and since he has blood on all layers of his clothes he couldn't wear his costume to school.

Spencer - Nerd.

This was totally put together on Saturday about 1 hour before our party. Spencer really didn't know what he wanted to be, he really just wanted to wear the Harry Potter glasses from last year. So we talked him into wearing some of Ethan's clothes and pulling them up to his waist, Dan made him a pocket protector to match his pink tie and then we combed his hair. He looked great. Only downside, he apparently is too cool to dress as a nerd for the parade at school. So he also went costume-less to school.

Ryleigh- Dice.

Ryleigh is the only one that planned ahead. I knew that she wanted to go as a dice for the last month. That of course didn't stop me from making it last Saturday. She originally wanted to be a fuzzy dice, but when I went to purchase the fur it was like $40.00, and that was on sale! So she had to go as a regular shiny dice. She seemed happy enough. She and Jayda trick or treated the neighborhood together with some friends and I think they had a great time.

Happy Halloween 2011

Young Love

2011-10-25T22:00:00.000-07:00

Spencer doesn't know this but something fell out of his backpack this morning....

and I was nosy, and I read it, and it was hilarious!

It was so funny, in fact, that I had to post it to our blog so that I could remember this day forever.

Spencer told me a couple of days ago, before I found this, that he had broke up with Savannah because she was getting "really annoying" and because "she always follows me around, and wants me to do stuff with her. Plus, her friends are annoying."

ha! Boys....

I am so proud

2011-10-17T13:42:00.000-07:00

In August Daniel graduated from Nursing School, and at the end of that month he took his state board test and passed! Making him a Registered Nurse. YAY!

I don't think it is even possible to adequately express how excited we are about this. Shortly after graduation he started up classes at Grand Canyon University for his Bachelors degree, which he should have in about a year (at which point, he said, we can have a party!)

So not only is it super exciting that he is done with the first part of his education..

but....

He also got a job!!!

Not just any job either....

He got hired on at Banner Good Sam in Phoenix!

In their PCU department - and he is working days!

I don't think people realize this but this is a big deal! A hospital like this doesn't generally hire new graduates! Not to mention giving him a day shift and in a department like that! I am just so proud of my husband and so excited for our future!

Today is his first day of work - so send him good vibes!

A Super Huge Thank You!

2011-10-14T13:42:00.000-07:00

I am so thankful for every one's support of Ryleigh! I just have to express my gratitude.

At the beginning of the school year she found out that she is eligible to go on a Europe trip with her classmates at the end of May. They will be travelling through France, Spain & Italy for two weeks. The only catch is - it's not free.

Obviously, with our limited funds we told Ryleigh that we would love for her to be able to go but unfortunately with our very limited funds we just could not cover the $4,000.00 tab... :(

She was not phased by this. All she heard was that she could go! Only a minor detail that she needed to save more money than she has ever seen in her life.

Ryleigh went to work. She has been diligently babysitting and saving every penny. Even when friends want to go do something that requires money she just says that she has none, even though she does have some stashed away. I am so proud of how hard she is willing to work. The unfortunate reality is, when we crunched the numbers, she just couldn't babysit enough to reach her goal.

That is when the letter was decided upon.

She took her time and wrote our closest friends and family with a sweet letter asking for any monetary donations they would be willing to send her way.

This is where I am thankful!: I KNOW how stressful times are for everyone! I do not know a single person that has not downsized or struggled recently but so many of our loved ones have set aside money to send to her. For some people I know that it doesn't come easy and I can not even begin to express my gratitude. I know that Ryleigh is incredibly grateful and whenever she gets a little letter in the mail or an email she is beyond excited. It is like a surprise Christmas!

So I just want to say thank you.

Thank you

Family Picnic

2011-10-13T17:49:00.000-07:00

Fall Break is not the most genius invention in this day and age. I don't know about anyones kids but my kids are not tired of school yet. In fact, we are just starting to get in the groove of things when BAM! we get a whole week off of school. Just because it is changing seasons. - somewhere in the world it is changing seasons... because here in Gilbert, Arizona it is still blazin hot!

We decided to have a little family picnic at the park with Dan's family towards the end of the fall break. I bought a bunch of blocks of ice and we all packed a picnic lunch and we met up for lots of fun! I only got pictures of the kids Ice blocking before my battery died.

On your marks...get set....go!

Hayley was kind enough to march all the way up to the top of the hill and help Olivia out.

Baby Brother - all growed up

2011-10-11T22:00:00.000-07:00

I have been watching my little brother Chad play baseball since he was 5.

He's 18 now.

The fields are a little bigger.

The boys are a little bigger.

But he is still my little baby brother and I still LOVE watching him play.

He has been red shirted for Phoenix College this year so we went out to a scrimmage fall ball game. It was pretty fun to watch. Kinda... actually is was kinda boring. They are all so good that nothing was going on. There were no errors, no in the park home runs. Well hit balls were caught in the outfield. Pretty different from 11 year old baseball.

The kids came along of course, and with her little baggie of snacks - Olivia was an angel. The boys, just enjoyed the game.

Chad - still number 34!

And still catching!

A Birthday in the House

2011-10-06T09:55:00.000-07:00

Today is Spencer's birthday! YAY!

He is eleven.

I can't hardly believe he is getting so old.

Since I always struggle to get a picture of Spencer with his eyes open, I figured I would post one with his eyes partially open.... and of course one of him playing baseball.

Two pictures that are perfectly Spencer:

I love this kid.

Happy Birthday Spence!

um... wow! You know you are impressed!

2011-10-01T15:39:00.000-07:00

You know I am in a blog-funk when I forget to even blog about my anniversary! WOW! I suck.

As stated, today is our anniversary.

12 years!

twelve.

1-2.

twelve

wow

Since I am lame and forgot to plan ahead, I don't have a picture of us. So here we are 12 1/2 years ago: on our way to Prom.

I am so happy that we have had so many great years together, and I look forward to many many more!

We spent the morning in true Linn Family fashion: Daniel coaching the boys double header and me keeping score/stats. We really wouldn't have it any other way.

We are about to go out on a date: going to see Moneyball and then going to Elmer's for dinner. Thankfully we have some free movie passes or else it would just be dinner!

Then we will come home and watch the World Series on TV.

Great day!

Take a moment... {updated}

2011-09-26T22:26:00.000-07:00

Many of our blog readers know about our family friends that lost their daughter 3 years ago. Well this last weekend they were featured on the news talking about their charity, and hoping to get support for it. I was a little bummed that the news mostly focused on Ethan's craftsmanship of the actual caskets, and not the need for funds and donations to help build the caskets. The only way for them to continue to help other families that have found themselves in a similar horrific tragedy is to get donations.

I would LOVE it if all my readers would pass this along or re-post to their blog, post to their facebook, tweet about it or whatever! Just spread the word that this fantastic family needs more support!

I have been asked HOW YOU CAN DONATE to Kambers Kaskets. Here is the link: http://www.kamberskaskets.com/How_You_Can_Donate.html

Man Makes, Donates Children's Caskets in Daughter's Memory: MyFoxPHOENIX.com

A Very Special Friend

2011-08-30T13:13:00.000-07:00

Monday's and Thursdays are very exciting days in the Linn household. Olivia and I are lucky enough to babysit - every week!

We are loving it.

My sister-in-law, Aubrey, had to go back to work after having her sweet baby girl, Addysen, this summer and her husband (Dan's brother), Adam started back to school a couple of weeks ago so that means we get to watch her! They think I am doing them a favor - but it is really me being selfish. I just love babies, and I really love this girl. She is so sweet.

Olivia is LOVING having a real live baby around. She is constantly worried about her.

"Addi is hungry."

"Addi is tired."

"Addi needs her paci."

"Addi is thirsty."

"Addi wants to play with me."

"Addi wants a babydoll."

"Addi wants me to hold her. Not you."

Thankfully there is no jealously with Olivia ~ just love. Plus she is really great with her. She is so kind and patient.

Of course, at 6 weeks old, Addi makes it real difficult to watch her since she does this all day:

And this:

So lets see.... today is Tuesday ~ 2 more days until we get to watch her again.

Wanted

2011-08-17T09:48:00.000-07:00

Wanted: Little Red Curls

Possible Suspect:

Three-Year old Female.

Height: 40 1/4"

Weight: 35.2 lbs

Hair: Red (last seen with curls)

Eyes: Hazel (Blue? Green? Brown? depends on the mood)

Suspect was last seen with a pair of scissors.

update:

An arrest has been made.

The female suspect was apprehended by the front door of her home, apparently trying to escape. She had discarded the scissors while trying to make a run for it. Below is a copy of her mug-shot. Apparently the suspect tried to change her appearance by giving herself a mullet.

After a fair & speedy trial. Olivia Kaye Linn of Gilbert, was sentenced to 3 minutes in time-out followed by a new haircut. All victims are recovering nicely.

Ethan's 9th Birthday

2011-08-15T05:30:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! This is Ryleigh my mom gave me the option to guest blog for Ethan's Birthday and I was more than happy to do so!

Ethan

Okay so I decided to do a little survey on Ethan and some of the things he is into here is some of the questions I asked.

1. What would you like for your Birthday?
A typical boy answer Lego's, Nerf-Guns, and a remote control car

2.What is your Birthday dinner?
Okay be prepared this dinner is a heart-attack waiting to happen but at least it delicious..... Hot Wings, Apple-Snicker Salad, Jalapeno Poppers, and Caesar Salad mom said that last one was a must.

3. What are you looking forward to most about being nine?
Mmmmm... ummm... uhhhh being a bear in Cubscouts.

4. What will you miss about being eight?
My Birthday from when I was eight years old.

5. Whats your favorite Movie?
Him: Transformers 3 Me: How can it be the 3rd when you haven't even seen it yet? Him: I don't know I just am pretty sure its a good movie. Mom: You need to pick a different movie because that really can't even be your favorite if you have never seen it. Him: Fine.... Transformers 2

6. Favorite color?
Red

7. Favorite animal?
A shark

8. Favorite restaurant?
Ruby Tuesdays

9. Favorite thing to do during summer?
Going to Sunsplash

10. On a scale from 1 to 10 how excited are you for your birthday?
Uhhh a 6... He said he is nervous for some reason he said it feels weird to turn 9 that's why it is a six.

Well we love you Ethan and hope your Birthday is wonderful!

Happy Birthday Ethan!

Another School Year

2011-08-10T10:37:00.000-07:00

Another school year is upon us and I think I am the most excited of them all! Of course all the kids are pretty stoked but I.......... well lets just say it has been a long summer.

We will go in reverse order this year:

Ryleigh:

Oh my! Can you believe how beautiful she is? I can't. Of course I may be partial.... but still. I mean look at her! She is going into 8th grade this year, her last year of junior high school. I think she is pretty excited, but a little nervous. Last night we had the open house for her and while her teachers seem pretty good, she is disappointed (to say the least) in her selection of classmates. Apparently all the girls that are in her classes are all "drama", which Ryleigh has no time for {thankfully}. She tested out of Language Arts and only has English this year which means that she is lucky enough to have 2 elective classes. She chose Drama & Spanish. We learned that at the end of the school year the foreign language students get to take a trip to Europe, so we are keeping that on the list, and I am sure she is currently taking donations for that cause. She also signed up for accommodated PE this year. In this class she helps the kids with special needs do PE. We thought that is was pretty awesome of her to sign up for that ~ plus it was an application process and she was accepted. Yay! Also, her Science teacher, used to be an Elementary teacher and she had her Uncle Cory as a student once - we are hoping that doesn't hurt her! :)

Spencer:

Spencer is going into 5th grade this year. It seems like only yesterday that Ryleigh was in 5th grade! I am absolutely flabbergasted at the speed at which youth passes by. Spencer was a little disappointed when he saw that he wasn't in Ms. Murray's class (his 3rd grade teacher made the jump up to 5th) but I am more than excited with his current teacher. Her name is Mrs. Ruhrer and she seems great! Super organized! Plus all his best friends are in his class - which means it will be a great year again for him. His best friends parents are super involved with the school so their kids always go to the class with the best teachers. I am thankful for that.

Ethan:

Ethan is in 3rd grade this year! I am so excited about this year for him. His teacher, Mrs. Stenson, appears to be very very organized and structured. She has been teaching for 16 years so she is well seasoned. Ethan really thrives in a well organized classroom and I believe this one will be great for him. He is a beast though! He is one of the older ones in his grade because his birthday is at the beginning of the school year (next week) but he is at least a head taller than all the other kids. I bet the line at school looks hilarious.

**Olivia gets to be home with me for one more year!**

Hooray for school!

Swim Party

2011-08-07T21:50:00.000-07:00

My grandparents are fantastic! They really love to be grandparents and it shows! They have so much fun planning things to do with the kids and then executing them. This last week my grandma threw her second annual lunch-date/swim party. It was just as fantastic as last year - PLUS we grew! They had a granddaughter move to Arizona since last summer so she got to have fun with us too!

Ethan Surf-sliding

Bela, getting Livy back for squirting her in the face earlier.

Check out Gideon's dive! I know your impressed.

They set up a little pool in the backyard and a slip & slide and the kids had a blast sliding on the slide and then going right into the water.

Then of course we had to have "after swim" treats.

Emery getting her ice cream

The party! They all played so well together and had so much fun!

It looks like we just had a bunch of ice cream but that wasn't it! Grandpa BBQed hotdogs for lunch and grandma made little sandwiches for the grown-ups plus we had chips and cupcakes, and great conversation.
We had an absolute blast and we are already looking forward to next year!

Skateland! ....say what???

2011-08-04T23:10:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago Dan's sister sent me a text asking me if my kids would be interested in going to Skateland this summer. Apparently there was a smoking deal on groupon. I pretty much laughed to myself - Skateland really? Who goes there anymore? I told her sure! Thinking mainly that it would be a nice afternoon where she would take the kids and I could be alone... in the quiet... alone....

The bummer part of my plan was that I have 4 kids! No one has enough room in their car for all my kids to fit, so I had to take them, and since Olivia was going too she asked me if I would stay. I said sure... but I must admit, I was not excited.

Okay - I had a blast!

Granted, I spent most of the time picking up kids from the floor or trying my hardest to dodge kids that were already on the floor. But it was so much fun!

Olivia could actually skate pretty well on the carpet but the slick smooth rink was too much for her. She was a slippery mess. She always started off with high hopes, but by half-way through she wanted me to hold her.

Spencer took to skating pretty quick. He biffed it a few times in the beginning but really didn't have much of an issue with it. He did have some random girls ask him if he wanted to hang out.... aaahhhem! Back off girls - I will take you out!

Ethan and Garrett were on the same level as far as skating abilities go... Lets just say the wall was a good place for them to hang out.

At one point Olivia got one of this little "skate mates" but she didn't like it because you have to skate in the middle part of the rink with them and it was just too small for her.... maybe we should have let Ethan borrow it (below).

Okay, so maybe Ethan was one of those kids I was trying not to trip over all afternoon, but to his credit he would keep getting back up again. Over and over. He was doing a lot better by the end of the day. He even went around the whole rink one time without falling.

Ryleigh and the older girl cousins were pretty good with skating. They had a lot of fun too! Ryleigh even couple skated with ME! I was so happy because Spencer told me it would be embarrassing to skate with your mom....tear...

When Olivia got bored of skating she took to dancing. Sorry its so dark. It was during the laser show.

Feather Friends & a Freak

2011-08-02T20:37:00.000-07:00

Back in the Spring a friend of ours offered to put a feather in Ryleigh's hair. Ry was super excited for a feather, and up to the adventure. I had never even heard of it. Since then I see them EVERYWHERE! They are the fashion statement of the moment. The one Ryleigh got in the Spring finally fell out and she wanted a new one. So rather than pay the $30.00(ish) per feather to put in, I decided to do it myself. So I bought the supplies and put one in her hair, and of course Livy wanted one too!

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

On a side note, Olivia is a freak!

Think Sid Phillips

She loves baby dolls.... she has about 9 of them and each one has their own names, they take naps, they get hugs and kisses and she loves them all equally - however - she also tortures them equally.

Meet Gina: The legless baby...

and Babydoll: the headless baby...

Jenna: Stabbed in the heart...

She still loves them all, despite their handicaps that she has inflicted upon them. They get just as much use and some of the others.

We are just hoping she doesn't need therapy someday.

Lots of fun in the sun

2011-07-18T10:34:00.000-07:00

So it's pretty hot here in Arizona! Thanfully there is a super fun water park less than 15 minutes from our house!

SunSplash!

This year I was smart and purchased Season passes for us (well, for me and the 3 older kids) If you buy them before the end of May they are only $49.99 each - they are regularly priced at like $80.00 each! If you buy a ticket at the door it is $26.00! So I got a pretty great deal! We have tried to go once and week and we are having a blast. We always look forward to our little swim party! One week Dan and Olivia came along with us too and so I bought a waterproof camera and took pictures along the way.

In order for Olivia to be in the Wave pool she has to wear a life jacket, which she actually didn't mind wearing.

Ethan LOVES the wave pool - not really sure why....but he does.

Ethan & Spencer under the waves

This whole day Dan spent most of it with Olivia in either the Wave pool, lazy river or the tadpole area. She is about an inch too short for the slides. Maybe next year.

I got to be the lucky one and ride the rides with the kids. This is Ryleigh and I on the Master Blaster! So FUN!

Ry in the Lazy River.

In the Tadpole area they have these slides for the little kids, which I am sure to them seem huge! Olivia had a BLAST going down the slides, she just did it over and over and over....

Spencer and Ethan - there is always room for a little healthy competition. Racing on the lily pads.

In the end we had a REALLY fun day! We were all a nice golden brown (except Dan, who was an ouchie blistery red) and exhausted..... I can't wait to do it again.

We play a little Baseball

2011-07-13T22:05:00.000-07:00

Spencer made the 9-10 year old All-Star team this year! We were so proud and SO EXCITED! The extra fun part was that Dan got to be a coach for the team since their Little League team won the regular season. {he is an amazing coach}. The picture above was our team banner that we had hanging behind the dugout at each of the games. It was 3 feet tall by 9 feet long! I was so pleased with the way it turned out -We even had people from other teams taking pictures of our banner! It did make me feel bad for just a brief second that the other teams all had lame banners - but just for a second.

Spencer played second and batted clean-up in all their games. Since the league wanted us to field 14 players (way too many, I think!) he did have to rotate with another boy for an inning or two per game but for the most part he did play most of the time. In all honesty, all bias aside, he played really well.

SO - ya.... In the last game we were playing the Queen Creek All-Star team that had gone undefeated and in the bottom of the last inning Spencer hits a walk-off double (at the center field fence!) to bring in the winning run! So Awesome!

In the end the cards were not in the Superstition Little League All-Star's favor. In order to advance onto the final round of the play-offs we had to win 2 of the 3 games - which we did! - but so did the Queen Creek All-Stars (their only loss was to us) but they allowed less runs to score on them than we did, so they got to move on and we got to go home. It was a bittersweet day for us, because the game we played against them was phenomenal but it is never fun to lose. Better luck next year!

My Main Man

2011-07-10T00:01:00.000-07:00

I tried to get Dan to do a photo shoot for his 30th birthday but he opted out. Then I asked him if he would be interested in writing a blog post about what the last 30 years have been like for him and he opted out of that too. So it is up to me to talk about this amazing person that I am lucky enough to be married too and all his 30 years. I decided to do this interview style....

What is your favorite color? ummm.... I would have to say blue. (Ironic really, because I (jeni) HATE the color blue!)

What is your favorite food? anything.my.wife.cooks (said in monotone)

...C'mon if you were having a last meal what would it be? hmmmm..... I guess you could put just like Steak and grilled asparagus and salad. (by Steak, he means a thick cut tenderloin cooked Medium-Rare)

What is your favorite thing to do? That is a very broad question you know... ya...? I would have to say, watch my children play sp....baseball and softball.

What are you into right now? uhhh... the only thing I can be into right now is school, and hopefully finding a job. (as he is playing NCAA Football 2011 on the XBOX)

What is your favorite memory from the last 30 years? That is a hard question...... Probably when I came home for R & R (from Iraq) and you and the kids were waiting at the airport.

What is your worst memory from the last 30 years? (with no hesitation) The day I left (for Iraq) you guys, in that gym, that was horrible. Why was it horrible? Because I didn't know if I would ever see you again.

What are you looking forward to the most in the next 30 years? hmmm... that is an interesting question.... being done with school... so I can work and provide for my family, you know....the important things.

Tell me your thoughts on Ryleigh? what! okay... fine... Three words to describe Ryleigh.... Goofy. Strong. Leader

Three words to describe Spencer? Smart. Funny. Charismatic

Three words to describe Ethan? Compassionate. Driven. Happy

Three words to describe Olivia? Whirlwind. Quirky. Stubborn

What about me? careful now.... Three words?? well...if you can do it all in three words.... Determined. I can't say things like Sexy can I ? well that would be weird since I am typing this. Okay...Sexy. Not necessarily one word, but I would say jack of all trades. What does that mean? Well once you want to figure something out, you learn how to do it and then you do it.

What is your biggest accomplishment? Being a father, not that I have necessarily accomplished being a father but attempting to accomplish it.

Anything important that you feel like you have learned over the past 30 years? Nothing is so bad that you can't get through it.

Okay, In all honesty I am surprised that I got that much information out of him!
Well, today my husband turns thirty! I look forward to spending the next thirty years of his life by his side.

I LOVE YOU DAN!

Happy Birthday

Swim Lessons

2011-06-24T22:48:00.000-07:00

Well it's officially a million degrees outside and so that makes pool time a MUST. I decided to put Spencer, Ethan & Olivia in swim lessons for the first month of Summer and I was pleasantly surprised how much they learned.

Olivia was in a swim class with her second cousin Bela. These two were so cute together and to watch learn together. The only problem is one day... one of them (I don't remember which one started it) had to go to the bathroom, so the life guard brought her over to her us and we took her to the bathroom, followed by the other one then needing to go to the bathroom. This continued everyday.... Why? You ask.... Why did you not take her potty before her 25 minute class? Oh, I did! That little girl can squeeze out a drop on demand!

That is Olivia! She is swimming under water all by herself! I am so proud of her. Thankfully, this year she has been a little timid of the water. Which is a HUGE improvement over the last 2 years.

However, she can NOT float on her back by herself... therefore she failed Otters... Yep, she has to repeat the course. next year.

The boys... I put them in regular swim classes this year, instead of Dive lessons like last year. I looked over the list and decided to put them into level 4 since they already know how to swim, they just don't know the difference between the different strokes. They were nervous to start the class and they were a little upset that I was putting them in swim lessons because swim lessons are for the "little kids". I assured them that I put them in the older class and I was sure they would be with kids their age......

well... they ended up learning a lot about the different strokes.

At the end of each class they got to have a little fun on the diving board and the boys used this opportunity to show off what they learned last year.

A Great Dad

2011-06-19T18:31:00.000-07:00

My kids seriously lucked out!

They seemed to manage to get one of the greatest dads around. I don't know if they know how lucky they are but someday when they are parents themselves I know for a fact that they will look back on their childhood and know that they had something special.

Happy Father's Day to my amazing husband!

CamWOW!

2011-06-14T10:25:00.000-07:00

I downloaded this app for my phone called CamWOW and never in a million years would I have thought it would occupy my children more than anything else in our home. They are obsessed with it.

The perk to them being obsessed with it, is I get entertained every time I open up the pictures on my phone.

I just thought I would share...

My Little Helper

2011-06-11T19:36:00.000-07:00

Olivia LOVES to do chores. She is always asking me what she can do. I know part of it is because she wants to be just like her older siblings and the other part of it is because she loves to log onto her job chart on the computer (www.myjobchart.com) and check off her chores and get points.

The problem is... she is only 3! There are only so many chores she can do. So I added watering the flowers to her chores. She loves it.

I think she gets her green thumb from her Grandma Regloo & Great Grandma Suey because these flowers are looking beautiful! She takes such pride in them! She waters them daily, feeds them Miracle Grow on Wednesdays and picks off the dead ones everyday.

And she does it all with a smile on her face!

{LOVE HER}

Proud Parent Moment!

2011-05-17T21:31:00.000-07:00

Dan and I were on the USSSA website this evening looking for Spencer's club teams' rankings and we clicked on a link that took us to this page:

Can you imagine our surprise! Spencer looked at it and said "That's me!" We were completely dumbfounded and so excited for him! He now thinks that he is famous. We are so proud of him!

Do you remember when I originally posted this picture HERE?

Night Hawks

2011-05-16T10:04:00.000-07:00

Ryleigh has been playing a little ball too this season. She is playing Major's softball for the Night Hawks. The best part of this season is she is playing with Jayda (cousin) and the worst part of this season is they are 1-15! ouchie.

Saturday is the first play-off game. Wish us luck.

I think the team has struggled so much this season because we have three girls that are playing up this year, meaning they are too young to play this age, but they are playing anyways. They are not bad players, but they are young, so they are just not as experienced.

Their coach has done stuff to try and motivate them to win and play hard - but I think it has been lost on most of the girls. I, personally, think he has been too nice to the girls this season. I am not suggesting that he needs to be mean, but I also think that when they make an error it is okay to call them out on it. Apparently some other parents on the team disagree. When you coach with only positivity you end up with a losing team. I am just saying....

The girls did have a car wash one Saturday to raise money for the league, so that we didn't have to sell anything or get money from the parents (which is appreciated!) The girls all had fun together and I think it was good for them to hang out and just have fun, without the stress of being in a game.

At the end of the car wash coach announced the All-Star nominations for the team. Ryleigh and Jayda were both nominated to go onto All-Star try-outs.Yay girls!

As a side note, Coach did put in a good word for both Ryleigh & Jayda with a club coach and both girls got an invite for a club team called East Valley Pride! So even though this season is ending, we will keep going. As aways.

I am a mother.

2011-05-08T17:07:00.000-07:00

I never thought I would be a mother. My friends would dream about their future families but I didn't. They had all their kids names picked out before we were even old enough to date, I didn't even think I wanted kids.

To every one's surprise I became a mother and wife before any of my friends. To my surprise it is everything I never knew I wanted.

I never imagined that I could love something so much. Motherhood is the most rewarding and frustrating and beautiful and psychotic thing in the world. I feel like a crazy person and the most sane person all in one emotion.

I have four amazing children that I love more than I ever imagined I could. It is amazing how you can love something so much. I love being their mother and I am grateful for every moment I get to raise them and have them in my life.

#1 Mudcats

2011-05-05T14:01:00.000-07:00

This baseball season has been AWESOME! I loved every minute of this season with the boys.

Fortunately for us the boys were able to play on the same team in the minors and so Dan decided to be the assistant coach for the team. The head coach, Ben, was Spencer's coach last spring season so it was fun to have some of the same kids as last year and to see how much they have improved!

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:

Spencer has had an absolutely stellar season. I have been keeping stats on the boys this year and as of their last regular season game his batting average is a .762! He hit 7 singles, 1 double, 5 triples and 3 home runs! Plus he has 17 Runs batted in! We are so proud of him!

Ethan! Not to be outshone by Spencer is definitely proving himself to be an amazing ball player. I requested that he be bumped up from coach pitch to which ever team Spencer is on this season so that we could limit the chaos for us and allow him to be more challenged (coach pitch was torture for him last season). He has definitely shown us and his coach that he deserves to be playing up! His batting average is .458 with 5 singles, 1 double and 4 triples and 8 RBI's! He has moved into the number 3 spot on the batting order too!

Ethan playing 2nd base (left)

Ethan is not only a great hitter but he is amazing in the field! Coach puts him at second and right field mostly (we have one pitcher that throws really fast, so if anyone gets a hit off him it will be flying to right field and he knows that Ethan will catch it!) I love that he plays with intensity and a love and respect for the game!

Spencer at short stop

Spencer has played most of the season at short stop with the occasional visit to second and first (once he even pitched!). This kid has a golden glove and a rocket for an arm! Spencer is always enjoying himself and just playing to have fun and just so happens to be awesome in the process! He has natural ability for this sport and I hope that nothing stops him from continuing to play throughout his life (okay, at least High School)

-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-

Every so often Ryleigh will not be busy so she will come show her support! But mostly I need her to watch Livy for me while I keep score.

Speaking of Livy, she is a little whirlwind of crazy. She always has a blast at any of the kids games as long as I let her run around like a maniac with all the other kids. She makes "best friends" so easily! I am so thankful for all the other parents on the team that have helped me with her when she has to go potty or something during a game!

The second to last game of the season the boys officially clenched the title of #1 team by beating the #4 team! They were all so excited - and as parents we were so happy too!

This team has been so much fun this year, and the parents are so great too! I am really sad that the season is coming to a close... Next week starts the tournament!

Easter

2011-04-27T07:30:00.000-07:00

Ahh Easter - the day diabetes was created.

The kids LOVE IT! I actually love it too. This year I do feel like I lacked in teaching the kids the true meaning for the season, I mean we discuss it but we could have done more. Because in all actuality it is probably the most important holiday of the year.

This year was just straight-up candy. Usually I try to do less candy and more small toys or itunes gift cards or something like that but this year I just didn't have it in me. I was a lazy bunny this year.

The kids don't mind though, I LOVE their little sleepy eyed faces on holiday mornings.

After a breakfast of the traditional creamed eggs on toast (bleck! I make scrambled eggs for me & spence) the younger 3 hunted eggs. It was fun with Olivia this year because she could actually do it all by herself.

I apologize for the shirtlessness of this picture. She just wants to be just like her big brothers. I'm sure this shot will go in her wedding slide show in 30 years after she has her PhD:)

Just a typical Saturday!

2011-04-24T21:42:00.000-07:00

Okay, so maybe this particular Saturday wasn't exactly "typical" but it is not foreign for us. It seems that more than one weekend a month is out of control crazy, and it just so happens that Saturday April 23, 2011 was just that for us - plus I had my camera out and I was documenting along the way.

We started at 7:00am! Dan's little brother Ammon had his Eagle Scout Project at Sunshine Acres. It is a home for homeless children. For the project we cleaned up the playground (and boy oh boy was it needing it!)

I couldn't help taking a picture of this sign - what the....??

We actually left Ryleigh at home to stay with Olivia so we wouldn't be chasing her around like a crazy person! So the boys came along and it was great for them. They were such great helpers. I was so proud.... and of course they were rewarded with Krispy Kremes.

We actually had to leave the Eagle project early because Ryleigh's softball team was having a carwash that we had to be to by 10am. So off we went!

Jayda is on the same team with Ryleigh so she had to be there too and Ashley came along for moral support.

They ended up raising nearly $200.00! I was so proud of them! They had such a great attitude and had so much fun together - which is good because it has been a ROUGH season! ...but I will post on that later....

At the end the coach called the girls together for a little team meeting and announced the All-Star nominations. Ryleigh got the highest number of votes for the team! yay! So she will be headed to the All-Star try-outs at the end of the season! We are WAY proud of her!

When the carwash was over at 2:00 we headed over to Spencer's club team's baseball practice and used the field next to them to practice some softball pitching because coach wants Jayda and Ryleigh to pitch at the game on Monday.

After an hour of so of that we headed home - to make dinner.

I got within 10 minutes of being ready to eat dinner when I sliced my finger wide open (like a fillet) on a can of baked beans.... rrrg. Super inconvenient timing. So Dan and I decided that it would be best if I just drove myself to the ER (actually we decided on Urgent Care but they were all closed) so that way we wouldn't be wrestling with the kids!

Three stitches (and only 45 minutes! THANK YOU GILBERT HOSPITAL!!) later I came home and shovelled dinner in my face and cleaned up the kitchen in time for Easter egg dying...at 8:30pm...the night before Easter.

10:30pm: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Black Sunday

2011-04-04T14:16:00.000-07:00

I know today is Monday but April 4th will always be Black Sunday for us. Today is the 7th anniversary of Black Sunday and I have never blogged about it mainly out of fear. I don't want to stir up any unwanted feelings for my husband or any of my blog-readers but I feel today that this deserves a post.

April 4, 2004 Daniel was in Iraq. Sadr City, Iraq, with the 1st Cavalry Division. They had only been in Iraq a few weeks, and in fact were still in the process of switching command from the 1st Armored Division that was there previously.

All I know is what Dan has told me about this horrific day (it actually ended up lasting several days) and that is not much, but insurgents started attacking 1st Cav soldiers that were out on a routine patrol sparking a HUGE battle. By the next day 8 soldiers had been killed and more than 60 were wounded. This day was so different than any other in the war, that there is even a book about about it called The Long Road Home.

I don't ever speak for Daniel about these events because I just don't know. I can't relate. I wasn't there. So therefore I will only talk about it from my perspective.

I was home - alone in Texas with our three small beautiful children.

I was beyond scared and overwhelmed. I was still adjusting to being a single wife with three kids. Ryleigh was in kindergarten and both the boys were at home. Ethan was just a baby and Spencer was a curious toddler.

Just like I was still adjusting to the life of a soldier's wife, the rear-detachment soldiers were also adjusting to running the division back in Texas while most of its 100,000+ soldiers were fighting in Iraq. Rear-Detachment is supposed to be a support for the families back home, and for soldiers that were not eligible to deploy. When a soldier dies in combat, rear-D finds out first, sets up the necessary procedures and then the family gets notified. It is supposed to be a smooth running operation.

When a soldier dies in combat everything goes dark. The soldiers have no way of getting in contact with their families back home. The phone lines get shut down, the computers & Internet get shut down and letters stop until all the families have been notified.

It was more than 10 days before I heard from Daniel. It took Rear-D almost 2 weeks to notify the eight families of their soldiers death and the other 60 families that their soldier would soon be returning to the United States in grave conditions. As wives, we tried to stay connected with one another and be each others support, but we were all in a state of panic. Waiting for those two officers in their Class-A uniforms to knock on the door and tell you that your husband was a hero and they are sorry.

In the weeks that followed the other wives and I attended at least 5 funerals or memorial services and did countless numbers of fundraisers to help the families survive while they were waiting for the military to finish the final paperwork. We watched kids and tried to be strong. We were grateful that our husbands were safe and we were sad that their husbands were not.

All of our husbands made it home. I will be eternally grateful for that. They have all returned a different person than we said good-bye to on March 12, 2004 but I don't believe that it is possible to live through those horrible days and be the same.

I am thankful for my soldier. Even though he has not been in the military for 5 years now he will always be my soldier. He is the hero of our family. I love him with all my heart and every year on this day I thank my heavenly father that Dan came home to us. I know that he was protected. I hope to never go through a year like that ever again. You honestly don't know how much something means to you until you realize how quickly it can be taken away.

*if you want to read about April 4, 2004 you can click on this and read a 26 page article that gives a brief account of that day along with the days leading up to it.

Club Ball

2011-03-26T14:06:00.000-07:00

Spencer started up with a club baseball team back in January. The team was just forming so it was great to be able to get in on the beginning of the team. Being an original team member has its perks. However, being on a new team also has its downside. the kinks.

Wow, our little team had a few kinks too! The first tournament we played it was pretty rough. We looked like a little league team trying to play with the big boys. I am thankful, however, for our amazingly patient and knowledgeable coaching staff. The continued to work the boys hard and teach them how to be great players.

Well this past weekend it all paid off.

Spencer up to bat - Spencer has been in a batting slump. He has really been struggling at the plate for some strange reason. It is like a freezes out there. He is amazing in the batting cages and when they are doing warm-up hitting but then when he faces a kid in the game - nothing. Well in this game he had a VERY timely hit. A single to right field, which allowed the go-ahead run to score!

During pool play the coach will put the boys at different positions, and on this particular game he had Spencer at second (he is usually Right field), Apparently Spencer felt the need to prove himself over at second with this AMAZING snag! Yes, that is the ball in his glove!!!

We ended up winning the Championship in our bracket and the excitement in the faces of these boys was absolutely priceless!! Even the coaches were giddy!

Instead of trophies they got rings. I think it is pretty sweet!

Way to go Raptors!!

Thirty!

2011-03-21T06:09:00.000-07:00

ya... so I turned 30 today! Right now actually... I was born at 6:09 am -

thirty years ago today.

This year I have had a few friends turn 30 also and a couple of them have done a cute little post about who they are, and I am going to do the same. I think it is such a great idea! How awesome for future generation to have. What I wouldn't give to have a little snippet of my great-grandmothers life when she was 30.
So I had my awesome cousin Nikaela take some pictures of me last weekend (it felt a little weird, I won't lie - kinda like I was taking senior pictures!) so future generations will even know what I look like at 30!

My occupation is Wife & Mother, in that order. Although sometimes I think I forget about the order.

I have been married to my best friend Dan for 11 and 1/2 years!

I have 4 wonderful children!

-Ryleigh ~13

-Spencer ~10

-Ethan ~ 8

-Olivia ~ 3

They keep me insanely busy. Ryleigh is very social and plays softball. This year in particular she has been playing non-stop since September with Fall-ball, Jr. High softball and now Spring-ball. Spencer is on a club baseball team which occupies most weekends and a few nights a week. Plus he and Ethan are on the same Minors little league team - so ya - I am ~~knee~~ ~~waist~~ neck deep in baseball and love every minute of it. Of course I love it more when we are winning!

I am not really a hobby person but there are things that I enjoy. I really love to cook and lately I have started to love baking. I love to eat too - so all of these work nicely together.

As a result I go to the gym. I do not enjoy the gym.

I love sports! Baseball (duh!) and football are my favorites - basketball is my least favorite - okay I hate it. It is for pansies. I really really really love college sports. The intensity is awesome.

My favorite color is Purple! Always has been - and I think it always will be. The irony of that is - I only own 1 purple shirt (that I rarely wear) and I don't decorate with purple either. But I do love it! I promise. My least favorite color is blue. I think it is because it is overused.

I have a little OCD - just a little. I am not a compulsive hand washer or anything like that but when I vacuum I have to have nice straight lines and I get irritated with my kids when they feel the need to run around in circles in the middle of a beautiful freshly vacuumed floor. I also don't really know how to just sorta clean. I can't just do a quick pick up. I have to pick up, sweep, mop, dust, wash the windows, scrub the baseboards (okay, I don't always scrub the baseboards.). It really irritates my husband. He tells me they are all "side-projects" and I "need to just focus at the task at hand" - so maybe it's just ADD.

I have 6 siblings! I love them all, however I am pretty much the suckiest person ever about keeping in touch with them. All of them, but one, live in Oregon so we don't see each other and I don't enjoy talking on the phone. I can count on one hand the number of times we have chatted via webcam even. wow. I really suck.

I married into 5 siblings, 1 half sibling and 6 step-siblings. Most of them live close by, so I am better at keeping in touch.

Speaking of living.... In my married life I have lived in 4 states. Arizona, North Carolina, Texas & Oregon. There are parts that I love and parts that I don't love about all of these states. But Arizona is home, and I am hoping that it always will be. Unless it gets sucked into Mexico or something. I just love the weather! Yes, 115* in July is hot and ridiculous but I love it - I would rather be in that than -20* and snow. Or 50* and rain for 10 months out of the year (wink wink to my Oregon family).

Alright, this post is officially long a boring so I will end it here - adios!

Happy Birthday too me! Here's to thirty more amazing years!

Changes

2011-03-14T09:53:00.000-07:00

I have decided to be a stay - at - home mom!!! I honestly could not be more excited and at peace about my decision. I can't believe how smoothly our house has been running since I have been home this last week and a half. I spent the first 4 days cleaning the entire house, which felt amazing plus I have been able to cook dinner again and have time for my kids! I love it! I am so grateful to have a husband that allows me to stay home with my kids. Thanks so much Dan!

Gross

2011-03-14T09:45:00.000-07:00

Poor Spencer & Olivia had the flu FOR - EV - ER!!!

Seriously.

Spencer was home from school for nearly a whole week. They both had fevers that hovered around 102* for about 6 days. I felt so bad for them. It was a rough week for me....and probably them.

Finally after a week of the flu and being quarantined to Spencer's room they both emerged healthy - yeah!

....until the next day. When Spencer started complaining of ear pain. So I took him over to the Urgent Care and he had double ear infections! Then the next night, Olivia started complaining of ear pain, so I took her to the Urgent Care and she had double ear infections!!! As of today they are 4 days healthy and on Amoxicillin and life is good! Man, I am thankful for healthy kids!

A teenager in the house

2011-02-23T05:19:00.000-08:00

Can you believe that she is 13 today??

I can't.... really.... I am having the hardest time wrapping my head around this. I can't believe how fast time seems to move when you are a parent.

Thankfully for me - Ryleigh has been the most wonderful tween-ager EVER! I could not ask for a better kid. Sure she gets a little naggy (but what girl doesn't?). She is incredibly helpful around the house, she is an excellent student (currently with a 3.75 GPA) and she is busy with extracurricular activities. She is a great friend and low drama (which, in my opinion makes an even BETTER friend!) and a wonderful example to her younger siblings. She is spoiling us!

I love this girl SO MUCH!!!

Happy 13th Birthday Bug!!!

I LOVE HIM

2011-02-14T11:41:00.001-08:00

Happy Valentines day!!

Princess Olivia

2011-01-28T12:58:00.002-08:00

Olivia & Daniella

I have mentioned before what an amazing aunt Dan's sister Nicole is, and I really truly mean it. She has kids and family of her very own and yet she still thinks of all of her nieces and nephews too! I love my nieces and nephews as well, but I am really bad about having them all over for a play date or movie night or whatever. I always feel like a crappy aunt whenever Aunt Coco is in the vicinity! Seriously though, she is awesome. On January 17th she took Olivia and her daughter Daniella to Disney on Ice.

My grandma was so kind, she bought Liv a princess (Rapunzel) dress to wear to the show. I thought she looked beautiful. ....she thought she look beautiful too!

Daniella is several years older than Olivia but they still get along pretty well, Olivia gets along with everyone and Daniella is a go-with-the-flow kinda gal. Nicole was not the only adult to go - she talked Dan's other sister Kaela to tag along, and so did Dan's mom (little gramma) and grandma (grandma kaye). So it was just a fun little girls night for them all.

Nicole, Danielle, Olivia, Kaela

Olivia even managed to come home with Mickey ears and a princess cup.

Here is a little video of the dancing brooms from Fantasia:

In the Club

2011-01-25T12:58:00.000-08:00

2010 has started off with a bang! We are busy - as usual, but we are actually unusually busy! At the beginning of the month Spencer was invited to be on a newly formed club baseball team, called the Raptors. When we asked Spencer if it was something he wanted to be able to do - he could hardly contain his excitement. So we threw some club baseball into the mix of weekly activities in the Linn household.

The club atmosphere has been a pretty huge adjustment for Spencer. There are so many new rules and exciting things in club that are not allowed in Little League. It has been an adjustment to have pitchers really launching the ball, catchers being able to pick a player off, balks, big-barrel bats, and all around amazing talent - everywhere! Not to mention a practice or two a week and a weekend or two of games a month. It is a full schedule for a kid - that is for sure.

One week, instead of a regular practice, the team went to a baseball clinic was was put on by professional players Ian Kennedy, Russ Ortiz, Ted Barrett, Barry Enright, Matt Cain and Mark Reynolds. It was Spencer's first encounter with a "celebrity" and he was pretty star-struck. I managed to get a few pictures of him getting some autographs at the end:

Mark Reynolds

Matt Cain

This last weekend (January 22 & 23) was the teams first tournament. I think it was a bit of a shock for the boys. They were caught a little off guard by how good these teams are! We pretty much got beat down, however as the weekend progressed we got better. I really have high hopes for the team. I think we can really have a great team some day in the near future. We have another tournament this weekend (in Anthem - yikes) and I am hoping that we will be that much better!

The team itself has been together practicing since the Fall, so they have all had a chance to play together for a while and the coaches know the players pretty well. Spencer has only had a couple of weeks with the team, so he has not had much of an opprotunity to proove himself. The coach only lets him play a couple of innings a game right now, which is frustrating him - a lot, but at this point it is for the better. His fielding is good - he is not lacking in that department, and coach has been putting him at 2nd base, and he has really taken to it. His bats - however - are what is keeping him on the bench. These kids pitch at about double the speed of regular little league and when he gets up to bat he freezes! Hopefully that will get better soon too! We will just keep practicing.

Family

2011-01-12T08:19:00.000-08:00

For most people Christmas is a two week block of festivities. Which is totally exhausting! This year we were lucky enough to have a FULL MONTH of festivities!

...I am still exhausted...

The second week of December Dan's dad and step-mom came to town for a little visit. We had a lot of fun, but it was pretty hectic since the kids were still in school and Dan and myself were in the middle of finals for school. Then they left the day before winter vacation started - and then the two weeks of parties began - then as life is returning to normal Dan's little brother Cory, and his wife and two boys came into town (they are stationed in Italy for the Air Force) and so we partied it up with them for about 10 days. At some point during their stay one person had a full days rest, since we were passing around the flu.

We really had SO MUCH FUN (other than the flu part) but man oh man - I am tired and FULL! Why do we feel the need to eat so much when we are with family???

When Cory & Hayley was here we were able to get a picture of all the grand kids on the Linn side. It is pretty rare to have everyone together!

Hello & Goodbye

2010-12-31T15:13:00.000-08:00

New Year's was pretty fun this year for us. Dan's little brother, Cory and his family, are visiting from out of town (the Air Force has them stationed in Italy) so it was a real treat to be able to spend time with their little family. PLUS!! Fireworks are legal in Arizona this year!! So of course all the men were so excited to put on a little show for the kids. They couldn't wait until midnight to light them off, they ended up doing it at about 10pm (they said it was because they didn't want to disrupt the neighbors at midnight! I think they just couldn't wait any longer. The kids loved the show. Except - it was FREEZING. It was 26 degrees outside when we were doing this.

Olivia LOVED the sparklers! She probably went through 20 all by herself! I am super disappointed in them though because when I was a kid they were bigger and the lasted ten times longer! These ones are not even big enough to write your whole name in the air with. Lame.

So 2010 was tough. I don't know many people that had a particularly profitable 2010. Most of our family and friends are working hard and doing the best they can to stay afloat and we are right there with them.

        Dan worked hard all year long to get good grades so that he can graduate in 2011 with his Nursing degree.  He really enjoys the field and really is thriving. I am so proud of him. In December he became eligible to take his LPN exam and start working as a LPN while he is finishing school if he wants too. The jury is still out on if he wants to do that or not. I might be better to just keep pushing forward on school. School is taking so much of his life, I have a hard time imagining him trying to fit a job in there too.
         I graduated in June (at the top of my class) from PMI with a certificate to be a Medical Assistant. I enjoy the field immensely, I was frustrated with the work and disgusted by the pay. After all that school and hard work we discovered it would end up costing us money for me to work as an MA (as long as Olivia was needing Daycare) Unfortunately, MA's are a dime a dozen these days and so they are often paid very little. So in August, I started back to school at Chandler-Gilbert. I decided to bite the bullet and go for it. I have always wanted to be a Certified Nurse Midwife. Why do I keep waiting and putting it off? No more. I could be done already if I would have just done it long ago.
         Ryleigh, of course, had an amazing year. She started Junior High in 2010 and turned 12 and joined Young Women's, and managed to pull off all A's and B's in school. She consistently chooses amazing friends and is a constant light in our life. In the Fall she made the Girls Softball team for her Junior High and we are currently enjoying those games.
        Spencer, started 4th grade and turned 10 this year. He is hilarious and has such a great attitude. He continued to amaze us with his baseball abilities and how smart he is.... that sounded bad - because I know that he is smart but he is really really really smart. One day this year he started talking to me about the different layers of the Earth and I was blow away that he can retain that kind of information.
         Ethan started 3rd grade this year and it was tough. We actually had a meeting with his teacher about possibly sending him back down to 2nd grade. He is very very young for his grade and so we thought that it was just too much for him right now but after our little meeting with his teacher and a discussion with him about what it expected in third grade he turned it right around. He has been a phenomenal student ever since, with all A's and one B at the end of the semester. He also turned 8 in August and Dan was able to baptize him. It was a special day.
      Olivia turned 3 right at the end of the year. She is absolutely hysterical. She says the most random and off the wall things and has us rolling on the floor at least twice a day. She has a little "potty" mouth (she says sentences like "What the crap?" and "what the freaking heck?". Its funny how it doesn't seem so bad coming out of an adult mouth but them it sounds terrible coming from a toddlers mouth.

Hopefully 2011 will bring new beginnings! Daniel will graduate in August and hopefully be able to be find a job with the VA (thank you for being a disabled Vet!) and in June we are hoping to move into a bigger house! I will be able to apply for the Maricopa Nursing program in May (there is a 2 year wait list! :( ) and the kids will continue on their little happy lives!

Merry Christmas

2010-12-24T21:04:00.000-08:00

I love Christmas Eve. It is full of traditions - one of my favorites is new jammies! My kids were all pretty excited for them this year, I love how they have all caught on that they will be getting PJ's on Christmas Eve so they are are pumped for it! No let down that it is just clothes....

We went with a Monkey theme this year, and it all started because of Ryleigh. She requested feetie Pajamas, and we found these awesome red ones that have sock moneys on the feet and then we found the same theme in all the other kids sizes. I love that they all match - it is so cute!

Merry Christmas from our little Monkeys!

...oh, and I couldn't help putting this one in here, she is waiting for me to get the camera ready.

Zoolights

2010-12-24T08:30:00.000-08:00

Our family, and about 4 million other Arizonians, went to Zoolights last night. This was a first for me and my kids, but the rest of our family were seasoned pros.

I was surprised at how neat it was. I loved it!

Apparently Christmas Eve Eve was the night to go to Zoolights. We had to walk almost a whole mile (Mapmyrun.com said it was .89 miles from where we parked to the Zoo front gates) just to get inside - plus we had to wait in line to buy our tickets for over an hour... then we perused the zoo

for the next hour and then we walked the mile back to our cars! We left my Grandparents home at 6:30 (and grandpa was hoping to be home to get to watch the Suns game at 8:30) and we didn't get back to their place for Hot Chocolate and Doughnuts until 10:30!!
Overall I think it was totally awesome and my kids had a great time, and I am totally in awe of what they can do with Christmas Lights. It is beautiful!

Three Years Old Already!

2010-12-19T13:59:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that our little Lula ( I don't quite remember how she came about that nick-name) is

3 years old

today. It seems like just yesterday but yet so long ago that she was born on a dreary Corvallis, Oregon day, back when the Beavers had a good Baseball & Football team!

There was a time that we thought we would only have three children and we were quite content with them but now I could not even imagine a life without her. She is a light in our family and I love her to pieces. Plus, she is absolutely hilarious.

I love you Lou Lou!

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-11-28T19:43:00.000-08:00

This year was a fantastic Thanksgiving year! I LOVE Thanksgiving! It has always been one of my favorite holidays and this year did not disappoint me. All the men in Dan's family went Elk hunting over Thanksgiving day so we had to have our big dinner the Saturday before (which was great because then I got to have another Thanksgiving with my family on Thursday) and we celebrated over at Adam and Aubrey's. I made the turkey this year and it was AWESOME! If I don't say so myself.

I was really good at taking a bunch of pictures with Dan's family but I totally forgot to take them at my family's party. It was equally fun and delicious though and can I just say - I LOVED that I didn't have to worry about rushing to someone else's Thanksgiving. I was able to Eat, Sleep and be Merry on both days!

So here are some pictures from the first Thanksgiving:

Gramma Kaye: Our family matriarch.

She loves her children and grandchildren so much and we can all feel her love and compassion for us. I am thankful for her.

I am also thankful for Thanksgiving football games in the backyard. I am grateful that the grown-ups come out to play with the kids - what great examples they are.

Dan has 3 sisters but only 2 of them live here in Arizona and sadly we don't get to see them as often as we should, they are phenomenal ladies though, and my kids really love both of their aunties. Nicole (left) is Dan's oldest sister and the kids all call her Coco - Olivia LOVES her! She is the best at spoiling and loving unconditionally. Kaela (middle) is a great aunt too. We see her even less than Nicole, mainly because she lives more than a 2 minute drive from us and she works a funky schedule, but that doesn't stop her from being amazing to the kids too and they know that she is awesome.

Ashley

Miss Olivia

Ryleigh (with her Chocolate Silk Pie)

Daniella

Jayda

I have some pretty fantastic nieces too. I get the privilege of knowing Ashley and Jayda on a different level since we are neighbors. Thankfully, Daniella (who is painfully shy) actually came up to me and gave me a hug on Thanksgiving - and she looked me in the face! yeah!!!

We tried our best to stack the kids up and get a fun picture but it was just not happening. Someone might have gotten a better picture than this, but this was the best one off my camera. We are missing Maddox and Kingsley (Cory & Hayley's boys) because they live out of town but I did hear they are coming for a visit soon, so we will have to recreate this then!

My nephews are pretty great too! They are all the same age practically so they can play with each other FOREVER! Sometimes they do argue a little about the activity they are going to do (usually because Spencer always wants to have his way... or no way)

This was the clearest picture I had of Joel - he is a wild child!

Ethan

Spencer

Garrett

And of course Dan has a little brother that is a year older than Ryleigh, so even though he is technically their uncle we always group him together with the nieces and nephews. He doesn't seem to mind - yet.

Ammon

Funny thing: I let Ammon take my camera around a take some picture with it (I think he is really into photography) and when I uploaded my pictures I had about 20 shots of Ironman on the trampoline in different positions - so I decided to post a few...

Update!

2010-11-19T20:36:00.000-08:00

Ryleigh had softball tryouts this week and she found out today that she

MADE THE TEAM!!!

We couldn't be more proud right now. We are so excited for her and can't wait to watch some competitive softball!

YEAH RYLEIGH!

Halloween - oops!

2010-11-13T07:56:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that I have not posted Halloween. It seems like I can go for months struggling to come up with stuff to post to this blog and then all of the sudden I have 20 things that I need to post all at the same time! But I like everything to have their own days - so I try to space out the posts.

Anyways, so here is Halloween Finally.

Spencer went as Harry Potter. He is really into Harry Potter right now, I think it is because he is finally at an age where he can read the books and really understand what is actually happening in the story and it is really a fascinating story - if you have not read the books then do it! The movies do it no justice - if you think they are good, then you are in for a real treat.

Ryleigh was a Salsa Dancer. cha cha cha. A friend of mine makes herself a costume every year from scratch and then lets Ryleigh and my other nieces go through her box of old costumes each year. I am grateful for that because I don't know what is going on with costumes for older girls but they are horrible! They are so trashy.

Olivia was Pebbles Flintstone. I actually made this costume myself. Thankfully it was pretty basic, thanks to prehistoric designs. I thought she looked great and she loved it. Olivia was very unsure about Halloween this year before Halloween, she did not like the scary stuff at all.... but then she learned the magic words "trick or treat" and you get candy and now she is all over it! She asks me if we can go trick or treating at least every other day.

Ethan was a dementor from Harry Potter. He pretty much just likes to be the nemesis of whatever Spencer is going to be. As long as it is scary. Ethan likes creepy gross things and Spencer wants to be the happy fun things so it works out pretty well for them. The only bummer was everywhere we went he couldn't wear his mask - rrg. So he just looked like a weird-o in a black dress.

Since Halloween was on a Sunday this year it kinda messed with things a little. Thankfully our ward puts together a pretty fun Halloween party that we went to the week before Halloween and then on the Saturday before Halloween we went over to my grandparents house for a little Halloween party that they put on for the kids and then we went over to their stake trunk or treat, which turned out to be a blast.

Yellowjackets

2010-11-09T08:32:00.000-08:00

Ryleigh is playing softball this season. It has been a tough season for their little team. The fall season is always a little tough for regular players because club teams are allowed to come in an play as a team and coaches that recruit teams before the season can then sign up as a team. Since we were not a part of either Ryleigh just got assigned to a team of girls. The girls on the team are great but they have never worked as a team together and it shows. Unfortunately they have lost every game so far (and Thursday is the last game) but it seems that they are all still having fun playing.

This season Ryleigh has taken to catching. She says that she loves it, and that makes me happy. Originally their team had a girl that wanted to be the catcher, and she was excellent at it, but after they lost their first game she quit the team. So Ryleigh stepped up to the plate (literally) and has stepped in to be the catcher, and she does a great job. I am proud of her.

But... I think her love is first base. She is great at first base and this season it has been a real workout because most of the throws that come her way are not a straight shot to her, and she is having to run, jump and dive for it.

She is a great hitter! She loves to bat and she is pretty aggressive at it. In fact at her last game she hit a GRAND SLAM! yep! That's right. The bases were loaded and she smacked that ball all the way to the fence! I was a proud mama!

The fun part of this season is that Ashley & Jayda (cousins) are playing too! We are 1/3 of the team! haha! The girls are so cute to watch play together. This is their first year playing and both of them have really made such huge improvements. Jayda has actually started pitching and she is good! She is probably the best pitcher on our team. She really loves softball, I think, and will probably go on to play in the spring. Ashley is so fun to watch. She runs like Bambi (in fact that is our little nickname for her) and she is ALWAYS smiling. She is so cute. Ashley's first love is cheer leading, and it shows. I don't think she will be able to continue with softball because it will conflict with cheer, but it has been fun to watch her anyways.

Since Ashley has this amazing gift of height (she might be taller than me - if not , she is as tall as me) and so she can almost ALWAYS draw a walk. We can always count on her to be the base runner we need.

At our last game Jayda was pitching and she got smacked in the face with the ball - and lets just say it was a bloody mess. She very calmly covered her face and walked off the field and her dad and the coach got her some ice and stopped the bleeding. We had to stop the game for about 5 minutes to help her out but since our team is missing a player we couldn't continue without her. So as soon as she stopped bleeding....

She walked back out there and pitched the rest of the inning, and she did an amazing job! I think she struck the rest of the batters out!

So Ryleigh is going to try out for her Junior High Softball team next week, and I will keep you posted on how that goes.

A little sneak peek!

2010-11-04T21:05:00.000-07:00

We had my amazing cousin Nikki take our family pictures again, and once again they turned out amazing... the only trouble is figuring out which ones to frame...or at least put in the big frame. Here is just a little sampling of them.

A New Blog

2010-11-01T09:54:00.000-07:00

I am being ambitious! I am starting a new blog devoted to food! I really like to cook, and I am pretty good at following a recipe so I thought I would start posting recipes that my family loves. The goal of this new blog is to get a new dinner recipe posted everyday for one full year! I don't know if I can do it - but I am going to try my very best. I am hoping to find some variety in my dinner routine - I feel like we are eating the same things over and over again! So - follow if you like.

http://365recipes.blogspot.com/

Giants

2010-10-27T16:48:00.000-07:00

This fall Ethan is playing for the Giants (so it is quite exciting that they will be playing the Rangers in the World Series). We are actually lucky enough to have him and his cousin Garrett on the same team - which is SUPER handy for transportation purposes! He is playing at the "Rookie" level, which is just below Minors. They are learning how to pitch at this age so for the first 2 innings one of the kids from the team pitches and then for the remaining 2 or more innings a machine pitches to the kids. Ethan is officially the "old" kid this year. There might actually be older kids on his team but I feel that this should be his last year at this level. I don't know that he will excel in the Minors yet but it will at least challenge him, whereas now he can be a little lazy and get away with it.

Ethan loves to play CATCHER! He always has! Even in T-Ball when there was no point in even having a catcher he wanted to be the one to sweat in the gear! This year we decided that if it was his true love we would would buy him his own gear - so we did. We decided on that for a couple of reasons. 1. Hygiene purposes - 13 sweaty boys all sharing the same gear - ick. 2. Knee Savers! The gear that the league provides does not have any knee savers attached to the back of the shin guards (and lets see you squat down for 15 minutes + and see how your knees are feeling!) and we wanted him to be able to walk as an adult. Of course he loves having the gear - it makes him feel pretty studly!

I must mention too - that he is a phenomenal catcher. Especially for his age! He can dig a ball out of the dirt like no kid his age can! I love to watch him catch. He totally understands the game from the perspective of the catcher. He has even been "framing" the ball. Which is where after he catches it in his glove he quickly pulls it in right in front of his chest so it looks like it was right in the strike zone! He is just awesome! ...and so cute!

Since, at their age they still shuffle positions he usually only gets to catch once or twice a game depending on how many innings they play but he is a good team player so he doesn't really mind sharing the position. Last night, when I took these pictures he also played third base and left field. Both positions were a total bore for him. He was drawing pictures in the dirt with his cleats... and who can blame him - at this age... those positions really are a bore. zzzzzz

Of course, just like all kids - he LOVES to bat! He is rather good at it too. He can usually get to first with no problem. Like Spencer, he has an amazing eye for the ball and so he doesn't swing at crappy pitches and as a result he walks a lot - but that is okay by me because there is a difference between walking because you stand at the plate and don't swing at anything and knowing what to swing at and what not to swing at. Last night he walked at his first bats and the second time he got a base hit. (In the picture below you can see the ball come in and hit the ground in front of him after he hit it) Garrett was up to bat right after him and hit a TRIPLE and brought Ethan home, which started a huge rally for the team and we ended up winning 10-8! Our first win!

We are really proud of Ethan and the amazing little player that he is becoming and can't wait to watch MANY MANY MANY more years of baseball!

Red Sox

2010-10-23T11:40:00.001-07:00

So of course, as always, we are in the middle of a baseball season. It is FALL BALL TIME! This time around both the boys are playing baseball and Ryleigh is playing softball but instead of lumping them all together in one post I have decided to give them each their individual post throughout the season, and since I happened to have my camera last night Spencer gets the first post.

Spencer is playing for the Red Sox this season (it does seem like someone plays for the Red Sox every season, too bad we are not Boston fans because we have enough Red Sox hats to outfit the whole family). I really like his coach. He is really good at explaining the game to the kids and teaching them proper techniques. The only down side of his coach is that he takes the “Fall Ball is a ‘learning’ league so it is non-competitive” too seriously. I think we are the ONLY team that doesn’t play to win, and as a result we have not won – EVER. In fact it is usually ridiculous – like 15 –3. I do understand that Fall Ball is a good time for those players that don’t normally get a lot of playing time to be able to play more key positions (rather than Right field) but C’MON! It is killing me!!! And in all honestly I think it is discouraging the boys. Who will want to come play baseball in the Spring if the Fall was full of disappointment Winning is more fun than losing.

Spencer has really grown to love playing First Base this year. I am happy that he has found his little perfect position. To be perfectly honest – he is great at it too! I really like watching him on first base, and at this age it is a LOT of work 9 times out of 10 the ball is not a straight shot at first when they are throwing it. It really challenges him to stretch out and move and get his glove on the ball – plus he is involved in nearly every play, which is just what he likes. We even bought him a first baseman's glove this year which he thinks is pretty rad.

He also really likes to pitch still – but what kid doesn’t? He is a great pitcher when he has a great catcher. I have noticed that when he feels like the catcher might be weaker than others he throws softly and then it doesn’t always make it across the plate – resulting in walks. I also have noticed that I think he is a great closing pitcher. His arm definitely has a 20 pitch shelf-life. But man – when that kid is on target he is ON!

Of course he still LOVES to hit! He is pretty great at it too. He has his very own unique batting stance which I think is adorable, not many kids his age have a stance. He also has an amazing eye. That kid knows what pitches to hit and which ones to watch and which ones to foul off. He reaches base most of the time and last night was no exception. In fact these two pictures of him batting are in the 4th inning. We were down 5-2 and we had the bases loaded with two outs and of course Spencer was up to bat. Not only did he get a hit but it was a BOMB!(Can you see that little white line through the sky in the second picture? that’s the ball!) Right down the third baseline all the way to the fence! It ended up being an 3 RBI triple and we tied up the game! Unfortunately in the 5th inning he came in to pitch again (after pitching the 4th inning) and the team started to unravel. He walked several batters and the catcher started to get tired and stopped catching the ball and there were a lot of over throws on the field. We ended up losing 10-5. Regardless of the score I do love to watch him play though! I hope it never ends.

Kristi & Me

2010-10-13T22:20:00.000-07:00

My little sister Kristi and I were hanging out this evening when she informed me that I was in need of a blog update. I told her that I have been horrible at taking pictures lately so I had nothing to blog about. We are doing LOTS of stuff! Spencer and Ethan are in Baseball and Ryleigh is in Softball and Olivia is in Crazy. Plus we had another ER visit (this time for Ethan - more staples!) So we decided to take a couple of webcam pictures of us for me to post! Enjoy....

Happy Birthday Spencer

2010-10-06T08:35:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Spencer!

I can't believe it! Spencer is 10 today!!!!! 10 - that is like two whole hands...from now on he will always be in double digits! whoa -

But, in all seriousness I love this kid! He brings such a light into our home. He is happy, playful and generous and I have loved every second with him.

This year we have seen such a change in him - he has become more mature and responsible. He is coming home and getting right to his homework and completing it in a timely manner, and he is more focused on the field when he is playing baseball. Honestly, I just couldn't be more proud of him right now.

He is such a fantastic kid and I am excited to see what the next ten years will bring.

I love you Spencer!

One more time around

2010-09-30T08:05:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow Dan and I are celebrating our ELEVENTH wedding anniversary... and we are doing it in true Linn family style. We will be spending the evening together in our camping chairs watching our two amazingly talented little boys play baseball. One of these years I am sure that we will do it up right and get away and celebrate this amazing milestone but for now we are completely satisfied with spending the evening together side by side watching our future.
Sometimes eleven years seems to have past like nothing. Just yesterday we were way to young, way to immature, and way to selfish to be joining ourselves to each other for eternity... but then I see all we have done in eleven years and I am completely amazed. We have brought FOUR of the most beautiful and amazing children into this world and love every minute of their little lives, we have lived on both sides of this continent and in the middle of it too! We spent over a year apart from each other while I raised our little family and Dan protected this great nation. We have had a busy eleven years! I am grateful for everything these years have brought us because it has always made us stronger. I love you.

The Healing Field

2010-09-13T08:02:00.000-07:00

Last year we learned about this tribute to September 11th in Tempe. It is called The Healing Field.

Last year, after taking the kids we instantly decided it should be a family tradition. This year we even went twice! We went on Saturday evening and listened to the ceremony and enjoyed the music. People were singing and some were just instruments playing Taps, Nearer My God to Thee and God Bless America. It was so emotional. There were hundreds of people in the crowds holding blue lights and listening to the ceremony. The news was there too - which was kind of a downer because they had to have their big news trucks and bright spot lights in the middle of the peaceful, dark, quiet fields.

Sunday I took the kids back to the healing field so that we could see it in the daylight and with less people. My kids are a little embarrassing though because they would run around like crazy people! I tried explaining to them the reverence that is expected in a place like this and they just didn't get it! So here are some pictures:

Ethan's Baptism

2010-09-13T07:24:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, September 11, 2010, Ethan was baptized. It was such a great day. We are in Arizona now, so we were able to be surrounded with lots of family and friends. It really ended up being awesome.
We are so proud of Ethan for making such a great choice and we are grateful to have him in our lives.

We love you Ethan!

The food at the luncheon - it was so yummy!

Ethan on his big day! I can't believe how big and handsome he is.

Our family

With and without secret service

It is about time....

2010-08-19T11:37:00.000-07:00

So Olivia's hair is finally to the point where it looks cute straight! For the longest time her hair was the texture of baby duck fluff. Whenever I would straighten her hair she looked like Doc from Back to the Future! But finally, she has enough hair and it is long enough to look cute. Of course, as soon as she takes a nap or we go to the park (like we are in this picture), and she sweats a Little, it springs back up again into an unruly afro. At least it looks cute for a couple of hours.

Happy Birthday to my Little Man!

2010-08-15T09:04:00.000-07:00

Ethan is 8 years old today. I can hardly believe it. He is growing up way too fast!

Happy Birthday Buddy!

We love you!!

First day of school!

2010-08-11T07:57:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day of school! The kids are so excited and so am I!!

Ethan is starting 3rd grade!

Spencer is now in 4th grade!

Ryleigh is in 7th grade!

It finally happened.

2010-08-09T07:27:00.000-07:00

Olivia's First Hospital Trip

we knew it was only a matter of time.

She was standing on the top bunk of her brother's bed (and apparently they were playing a little game of "lets jump off the top bunk onto the pillows on the floor" thankfully we had no broken bones!) and the ceiling fan was going at full speed. She got a nice little gash on the back of her head.

She had a total blast in the hospital! She got a teddy bear to keep and all the attention was on her. She was in the best mood ever and she was acting like a total crazy wild woman the whole time! I was so embarrassed because she was supposed to be in pain - but NOOOO - she was having a grand ol' time.

Thankfully she was able to watch Dora and Diego on Dan's cell phone, that kept her still for a few minutes.

She came home with 5 staples!

Lunch Date

2010-07-22T15:05:00.000-07:00

My grandma lives super close by, which is very convenient. Plus she just retired last year, which is also very convenient. Plus, she is a pretty young gramma which is AWESOME! Last week she called me up because she wanted to have party for her Great Grandkids - just for fun, and just because she can.

So she called up Nikaela (my other cousin with kids)and I and asked us if we could get together for lunch an some water activities this week. Of course we agreed! What a cute idea.

When we got there she had her back yard all set up with a Toy Story slip n' slide and an inflatable pool. Plus she was BBQing Hot dogs, made little finger sandwiches, chips, fruit salad, Cesar salad, pasta salad, Popsicles and cookies! We had enough food to feed all the potential Great Grandkids she could have!

Olivia and Bella are little foodies - they love to eat. They are actually very similar, and there is only a 10 day age difference between them, it is fun to have them so close too! Who knows their second cousins?

Ryleigh was not able to attend our shindig because she is at Girls Camp with her Young Women's group (I sent her with a camera so hopefully there will be pictures of that coming!)

Of course, as with anything the party ended with a Naked Olivia. She has a problem keeping clothes on for some reason.

Stay-cation

2010-07-12T20:32:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we took the kids on a little local vacation. Dan's sister told us about a resort in Phoenix called the Arizona Grand Resort - the prices were not too bad so we thought it would be a great little weekend getaway with the family.

It was a total blast!

The resort has a private water park for hotel guests only that had 3 slides, a wave pool, a lazy river and a kiddie pool.

Our Suite overlooked the Oasis Water Park area of the hotel and we had a little private balcony that the kids could torture themselves with. Here we have a picture of Ethan getting his head stuck in the railing!

The second day we were there I decided to be brave and take my nice camera down to the water. I followed the kids around while they did all the various activities throughout the park. The smaller of the three slides was a twisty curly slide. It was pretty fun, but a little weak - it would have been perfect for Olivia but you have to be 48" tall to ride the slides (lame).

The larger two slides, however, were CRAZY! Apparently they are 8 stories high! At the top of the slides you can literally see the entire valley. You can see Chase field and Sun Devil Stadium - it was really a very cool view - I wish I would have gotten a picture of that!

All 3 of my older kids are little daredevils. They loved the slides and they did them over and over again. This morning I only got pictures of Ryleigh and Ethan on these slides because Spencer said he didn't like the way it made his tummy feel like butterflies were inside of it. So we stood together at the bottom of the slide and captured these awesome moments.

Of course the lazy river was always a great way to relax and cool off. The only problem was people that apparently thought it was the racing river. They would literally run around chasing each other - which would make it a little less relaxing.

The last day we were there I got smart! I went to Walgreen's and bought a cheap little $10 disposable WATERPROOF camera!

Lifesaver!!

Best invention ever!

So the rest of these are just random pictures with the waterproof camera!

Olivia waiting on the steps of the lazy river for a double tube.

Ethan, Garrett & Spencer running around like crazies!

Olivia and I floating down the lazy river

Olivia under the water!

Ryleigh & Ashley on the lazy river

About mid-day Livy got pretty tired so she took a nap - on me - in the wave pool.

Garrett & Joel (and Ethan is on the right) under the water

Ryleigh and Jayda under the water

Dan and I - can you tell which one of us burns?

Swim lessons!

2010-06-29T13:26:00.000-07:00

I put Olivia in Swim lessons this summer because she is such a fish! We just started this last Monday and so far so good. She is not crying or drowning, which is an excellent sign. There are 3 kids in her class and so it is very individualized which is really wonderful and it is NOT a mom & tot class so I just get to watch her from the sidelines! She is the little class clown too. She loves to splash the other kids and the teacher and be wiggly. She is a crack up to watch!

Dan's sister Nicole asked us a few weeks ago if we would be interested in putting the boys in dive lessons with her son Joel and the other boy cousin Garrett and so of course we agreed. They started this last Monday as well and they are really enjoying themselves. They have been working on how to step off the diving board these past 2 days, so no diving yet. But they love it anyways.

This is Ethan, doing a cannonball

After they started getting the hang of properly jumping off the board the teacher threw in a little extra task. Catching a tennis ball as you jump off the board. Can you see the tennis ball in the next few pictures?

Better Late than Never

2010-06-23T07:43:00.000-07:00

So this year, just like all other past years we did participate in the Spring Baseball Season. The only problem was that we did not get ANY pictures so I was completely reliant on family coming to the game and taking the pictures for me and then getting the pictures to me. (that would be why this post is a month over due!)

Spencer played Minors this year. During practices I was really nervous. Their team was not so put together and were definitely going to struggle but I didn't say anything to Spencer because he thought they were the best team ever! The first game they ever played as a team they actually clobbered the other team! I was totally blown away. As the season progressed they still did really well and I was proud of them. They were not the best team in the league but certainly not the worst.

Spencer I think found his place in the game. His coach was impressed with his ability to catch almost anything. He has an amazing glove... and so he was placed at First for most of every game. Thankfully Spencer really loves it there. He actually wants to continue playing there and wants a 1st baseman's glove. Of course he would rather be pitcher (BUT I wouldn't! that is stressful when your kid is the one pitching!) but first base is a good alternative because you are always getting the ball.

Ethan played in the Coach Pitch age this year and it was torture. Last year we had the connections in Oregon so I bumped him up - but this year in Arizona I have no connections so he had to play with kids his own age. I think next year he will be old enough to bump up... I am praying he will be old enough to bump up! I took pictures of him at one of his games but I can not find them - and the only picture I have is this one:

This picture is not even at his game! One of Spencer's teammates was late at one game so they put a shirt on Ethan and stuck him out in Right Field. He really loved it and thought he was hot stuff! He is a remarkable player and so I really hope that next year he will be a little more challenged.

I was the official score keeper for Spencer's team which I loved way more than I ever thought I would. I got to know these boys on a totally different level and see the game from a statistical point a view! I really hope I can do it again next year. Of course, the draw back is you can't take any pictures while you are keeping score!

Vegas Vacation

2010-05-29T17:26:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we took the kids to Las Vegas for a mini vacation with some friends and their kids. We had so much fun! We stayed at the Rio and had a really amazing view of the strip - at night it was amazing.

We drove up on Thursday afternoon and got in town and checked in just in time for a late dinner and bedtime but on Friday we spent mostly the entire day at the pool. It was awesome. The weather was pretty nice except for the wind. Apparently the winds got up to 20 mph and it wouldn't have been so miserable except for one of the pools has a sandy beachfront so sometimes when the wind would really pick up we would be pelted with sand. The kids are like little fishes and had a blast swimming all day.

Then in the evening we took the Rio Shuttle over to the strip and we took the kids to see the water show at the Bellagio. The show was really fascinating. All of the kids really enjoyed it except for Olivia (and her bestest friend, Brookie) they thought it was "scary" - I am not sure what was scary but they were hilarious about it. I think the people down on the strip are scarier than the water show - but whatever.

Then on Saturday we decided to have some family friendly activities so we took the kids to the Shark Reef Aquarium at the Mandalay Bay. Personally, I felt this was totally overpriced and dull. We walked through the entire place in less than an hour and it was so over crowed with people it was a real struggle to get close enough to see any of the neat things they had there. There was a walk through tunnel that was literally right through the tank (so you had water and sharks on all sides and under and below you) and that was pretty neat but you felt obligated to move along since there were so many others behind us.

Not to mention it was so dark in there that I couldn't get any decent pictures, this is the only one that really turned out. I need to learn how to use my camera in the dark.

Then we went back to the Hotel and took a good long nap - and then we took the kids to the Adventuredome in Circus Circus. It was a total blast! I wish so badly that we would have skipped the Aquarium in the morning and just spent the entire day at Circus Circus.

I discovered that my kids are quite the little dare devils. As you can see Ryleigh, Spencer and Ethan are all on this ride! Ethan was actually not comfortable with going on this ride at all - he was actually just hoping to get away with only riding the merry-go-round and the bumper cars but Dan (being the loving father that he is) "encouraged" Ethan to go on the rides. He actually ended up LOVING IT. This ride was his favorite of the night.

Olivia hated waiting in her stroller. She wanted so badly to get out and play too -

The kids on the bumper cars

This was the line for the Roller Coaster (it actually does 2 loops and a barrel roll) and Ethan had to have an adult ride with him so Dan and I flipped a coin and I won (and I say won - because we both wanted to go!) Ethan was so cute because his hands were so sweaty while we were waiting to ride! He did love it though!

Ryleigh ended up riding it again with Tayler, Kylie & Matt.

Finally it was Olivia's turn to ride some rides. We took her over to the Frog Hopper because she was giggling at it the whole time. She would laugh and say "that is hilarious" as she was watching the other kids enjoy it. This ride is one of those that shoots you up to the top and then slowly drops you back down and then up and down and up and down.... anyways. It was not nearly as hilarious when she got on - to her anyways.

We made it up to her with a ride on a horsey (yeah, Dan lost this coin toss!)

Then on Sunday we got up, packed up and headed home. We left early enough so that we could get home in the mid afternoon so we could relax and get laundry done before we had to start up the week again. At about 1:15 we were about 10 miles north of Wikiup, AZ when we came to a complete stop... for a long time. After about 5 minutes of waiting in the car we got out to see if we could see what was going on. (This road is under construction so we thought it was that)

This is what we saw in front of us and behind us:

Yikes.

We decided to sit for a while because turning around and going another route would add another 90 minutes (easily) to our travels. At about 2:00 three life flight helicopters flew in. At 2:30 I got called my mom and had her check the ADOT website - she confirmed a serious car accident and said the site said that it would be 3:30 when the road opened.

Okay.. we can wait...

3:30 - my mom calls.... ADOT says 6:00 now!

We decide to turn around.

So we go back up to the 40 and take it East towards Flagstaff (oh, but my mom informed me that the I-17 was also shut down because of a serious car accident which left us with few options). We ended up taking this road through Prescott that is twisty and slow and windy and scary and carsickish.... bleck. It was awful. So we finally arrived home at about 8:30pm!

So much for relaxing.

That alarm clock Monday morning was rough. really rough.