Family Update

A lot of things have been happening in our little house hold lately. First of all, Jon and I both have church callings. I am the Bear Cub den leader in Cub Scouts and Jon has just been called as the 11 year old scout leader and Primary Teacher. These callings will keep us both busy during the week and on Sundays for Jon. Lucky for us my group meets on Tuesdays and Jon's on Wednesdays, so the issue of child care will not be a problem.

Secondly, we are looking for a new car. Jon was in a car accident last week and his car has been declared a total loss. It was the other driver's fault but, the appraisal on our car will not give us enough to get another one without payments, which is what we want. So we have to layout all of our options and make a decision.

We have also decided to pull Colin out of school. Arizona has a public school home schooling program and we are working to get Colin set up with that. He is in such a small school right now, that some of the teachers were unable to accommodate Colin and his 504 plan in a way that we thought they should. He has been miserable this year, so we decided to finally pull him. As soon as we get the final approval from Arizona Virtual Academy, Colin will be taught at home. Hope fully, by the end of this coming week. It will definitely be challenging, but worth it in the long run.

Miss Curiosity

I probably take more pictures of Alison than anyone else in my family. She is at such a fun and cute stage right now. Her little personality is starting to shine through. She is such as joy to have in our family.

First Day of School

School Started on August 6 here. We live out in more of a rural area, so the schools are kind of small. There were not enough spots for all of my 4 school aged children to go together so, they had to be split up between 2 different schools. Connor and Andrew go to Coronado School and Colin and Hayley go to Valley View. School goes from k-8 grade here. Here is Andrew walking to the bus stop with his big brother Connor one of the first days of school. Andrew likes school a lot, but it is a long day for him. He leaves for the bus at 7:10 am and doesn't get home until after 4. One Friday he came home and said "Finally, I don't have to go to school tomorrow."

Alison's and Colin's Birthdays

My baby girl has turned 1 year old. She is growing up way too fast. We decided to have a double birthday party for her and Colin, since both of them were born in August. We don't know that many people yet, so we invited our friends the Richardson's over for a BBQ and to sing Happy Birthday. They have 5 kids with one due in October. It was definitely a full house. Alison got a new toddler car seat and a walker that is shaped like a little dolly stroller. She loves it!! Colin got a new Nintendo DS (in blue), some games and lots of legos.

We decided to play it simple and do cupcakes instead of a big birthday cake. It worked out well for everyone since, we had such a large group. Alison really enjoyed her cup cake. If you couldn't tell!!

Busy, Busy, Busy

I haven't posted any pictures lately and I am sorry about that. We have been extremely busy getting kids settled in school, trying to figure out extracurricular activities schedules, closing on our house, making an unexpected trip out east, and much much more! Tomorrow we are celebrating Colin's and Alison's birthdays together. That should be a lot of fun and I know I will have plenty of pictures to share. Now that the house is officially ours, I can really start making it into my home. There are so many things that I want to do, I am not sure where to start. I am just glad that is finally over!! It took FOREVER to close.

More Apple Annie's

Mmmm! Peaches!!

Asian Pears

Apple Annie's Orhcard

Here comes the tractor to take us into the orchard

Here we go!!

What a hot day!

Today we went to Apple Annie's Orchard in Willcox, AZ with our friends Amy and Devon Britton and their son Landon. Jon and Devon were deployed together in Iraq in 2003. They moved to Arizona a couple of years ago and I guess we have followed behind them. Anyway, it was Peach Mania this weekend so, we were able to go and pick our own peaches as well as some asian pears. It was very hot though and the kids let us know about it. They did have fun finding some ripe fruit to pick and using that picking tool to get the high ones.