Sean got his Masters Degree!!!!

Woo Hoo!!! After a very long, rough, and exhausting year and a half; Sean got his Masters in Politics from Brandeis University!!!!!!! He started it when he lived in NY and life changed and he never finished it. After coming to Arizona he was able to petition the universtity and was able to finish. What a blessing! I am so proud of how hard he worked to finish this while working and taking other classes to get his supervisory certificate.

Our little farm!

One of our kids favorite things to do is ride the pony (Trixie). Lucky for us the pony is a real sweetheart. She had a foal this spring and they are lots of fun. Dad and Sam are working on getting a cart for her to pull. Add to the ponies the 2 goats and I don't even know how many chickens we a have a nice petting zoo. Too bad we can't charge admission!

My Sam!

Sam is my little man and has been struggling with so many changes in our family. We have to remember to take time to play and do fun things. He has lots of energy and loves to wrestle with his Dad.

Kindergarten

Lia started school this year. She is so excited! The first few weeks were a little tough on all of us. Sean was home all summer and then went back to work, Josh went on a mission, Mom didn't start babysitting for awhile and Lia went off to school. It was a tough adjustment. Sam took it the hardest. Lia was tired the first week, so I was glad they went on a short schedule for the first few weeks. She struggled for a bit, she is a perfectionist and got real frustrated when she couldn't do things right. I visited with her teacher and things seem to be going great! We miss her at home though.

Lia got a haircut!

Lia got tired of her hair being in her face and she hates pony tails, clips or anything in her hair and wanted it cut like a girl from cheer camp. She wanted her bangs cut completely off but I talked her out of that. She loves it and likes how easy it is to take care of (mom likes that especially since getting her ready for school takes awhile).

Picnic at Weinema 2008

It seems that every spare minute of the past summer was spent either getting Josh ready or working on the house. The kids had had enough!!! They begged for a picnic and Sam was desperate to learn how to shoot Dad's gun. So we went for a picnic. Of course Dad manged to squeeze in a trip to the cinder pit to fill in a hole in the driveway. Poor guy can't help himself. The picnic area was beautiful, the hills are green and the wildflowers are blooming. We had a great time. Towards the end of the trail it connects with a river, which the kids and the dog love playing in. They splashed and threw rocks forever it seemed. Lia filled her pockets with beautiful rocks, she must have weighed 5 pounds more. When we were done we went to the cinder pit to shoot. The kids were so excited to be "big" enough. Was weird to go shooting without Josh. It was a great day and everyone had lots of fun!

First Football Game

Well football season is here, it's still not the same when you don't have anyone playing. But...we did have a cheerleader!!! Lia went to mini cheer camp this summer and got to cheer at our first game. She was so disappointed when she realized that she couldn't cheer at all the games. She was so excited and did great!