My 9 year old Little Man

October 17th was Little Man's 9th birthday. While Grandad was here we celebrated so on the actual day of his birthday we didn't really do much. I made him the dinner and cake that he wanted and he got to open his presents from us.

Happy (or not so happy) Halloween

This year the kids wanted to be mummies for halloween so for the last couple of weeks I (with the much appreciated help from Laurel) was making mummy costumes. Thankfully they turned out great and the kids actually looked like mummies!
The morning of halloween Maddi had a party at her preschool. They played games, ate junk, and went "trick or treating".
That afternoon I had to work and was fortunate enough to even get off early. We quick came home and scarfed down dinner, got all mummified, and headed out. Of course I had to take pictures of the kids and Little Man, of course, had to be a grump about it. One he got to the trick or treating part of the night he was much happier.

Maddi before her party


Maddi with her preschool class

The not 3 scary and one not so happy mummies

Kenni in full character

Laura and her (what she called) scary mad face

Suprise!

I know what you are thinking. Either Traci has fallen off the face of the earth or she has quit blogging. Well I am still here and no I haven't quit blogging. I have been working afternoons where Maddi goes to preschool. Even though it is a part time job I don't have a lot of extra time. I thought Maddi going to preschool would give me more time to goof around but I am busier than ever!

Over the kids' fall break this year we had some suprise visitors. Grandad, Mary Lew, Aunt Tammi and Allison. Well James I and knew they were coming but the kids had no idea. The night they got in they had us meet them at Cracker Barrel for dinner. When we pulled in the parking lot I saw right away Aunt Tam taking a picture (one of very many while she was here! HA!) and they quick ran inside so the kids wouldn't see them. They were browsing around when we walked in and it took a minute for the kids to realize it. Laura with her sharp eye saw Aunt Tam and Ally first! All the kids were so happy!

The next morning Laura, James, and Kenni had a half day of school. While they were at school James and I took Ally and Maddi with to run some errands. One errand was to go pick up James' check. The girls got to go inside and eat doughnuts and also while we were there they got to sit on a loader that was in the yard.

Saturday we had a family get together. Since our house is on the small side Greg and Laurel were so kind to let us have the get together at their house. I forgot my camera but I'm sure by now you all know the normal pictures of Greg and Laurel's, horses, chickens, hay...
After we got home from chruch Sunday the kids showed Grandad the Wii. I think I'm pretty safe to say that in the near future Grandad will be purchasing one himself! He fell in love with bowling AKA arm chair bowling! HA! The kids showed him boxing and some of the other sports too but bowling was his favorite.

Monday Grandad, Aunt Tam, and Mary Lew went to visit Aunt Bobbeye, Uncle Boyd, Uncle Charles, and Jaine. Aunt Bobbeye has fallen recently and Jaine was in the hospital also so James and I stayed home with the kids. I braided the girls' hair, they played Barbies, and they also made rice crispy treats.
Tuesday Grandad took the boys to the barber. I always cut their hair so Grandad thought it would be a nice treat for them to get a different haircut. I only know how to cut it one way! They boys decided to get flat tops. When they got home we headed to Wal-mart. Grandad and Aunt Tam wanted to take James shopping for his birthday since it is just around the corner. He got an "adult" fishing pole and some bait and stuff for his tackle box. After Wal-mart we went and saw Dolphin Tale at the movie theater, then we went to Target and Albertsons. On the way to Albertson's we passed by Eegee's, which is a sub shop and they have amazing italian ice type slushy made with real fruit. I decided to make a last minute stop there to pick up some eegee's. Grandad now affectionatly calls it Eggee's .

Wednesday we got up early for a family day of fishing up in Mt. Lemmon. Aunt Tam and Mary Lew stayed home and unfortunately Laura wanted to stay with them. So the Ladies went out to lunch and shopping and the rest of us headed up the mountain. It was beautiful and Grandad loved the scenery. Ally had never been fishing so that was an experience for her too. She did great! After a while she just ended up collecting snails and just had a blast! Little Man was the only one who caught a fish for the day but Ally still got to see it and touch it. She wasn't scared one bit!

After our fun filled fishing trip, we came home and just hung out at the house. They were going back home the next morning and their flight left super early. So we took some pictures, played chicken foot, had a family bowling tournament on the Wii (which Grandad won) and the kids slept out in the living room one last time.

I do have to say I am glad there are not 10 people in our family every day but it was a great visit and one the kids will always have great memories of!

Maddi Gail

Maddi has been asking me to curl her hair for a while now. The problem is that every time I touch her head she cries and whines because I'm hurting her. Today she asked me again to curl her hair and surprisingly enough she was really good and didn't whine once!

Maddi's First Day of Pre-School

It's hard to believe that Maddi is already pre-school age. I still remember like it was yesterday when Laura started pre-school and now here we are sending our baby! Her first day went on without a hitch and she had a blast!

Watch out MC Hammer, here comes MC Maddi

Maddi is just a super funny kid. Last night I was watching tv and she just busted out a little beat and started break dancing. If I laugh when she does something she gets mad and cries because she thinks I'm making fun of her. So all the while I was trying so hard not to laugh but eventually I couldn't take it anymore. She got mad at me and ran off and cried. I eventually convinced her that I am laughing because she makes me so happy. I had her do it again but I got the camera first. Again the video isn't as good as the first time she did it but you get the idea.

http://s279.photobucket.com/albums/kk149/ozbirn454/?action=view&current=003.mp4

1st Day of School

Yesterday was the first day of school. I don't know what was wrong with my children this summer but they were just horrible kids. Fighting and whining all the time. I was counting down the days for them to go back this year! Laura is in 5th grade, James is in 3rd, Kenni is in 2nd, and Maddi will be starting pre-school next week. They all got off to school okay but when I picked them up the first thing Laura said to me was "I'm never coming back here" Now for those of you who know Laura, know that that isn't the first time she has said that! She said she likes her teacher but she doens't like the new principal, at lunch she had to raise her hand to get up to throw out her garbage, if the lunchtable isn't clean underneath everyone that sat there has to clean it up before they can go, and pick up was SO HOT! James liked his teacher and Kenni still wasn't sure about his. He is used to having younger teachers and this year she is older. He said she is kind of mean because she yelled at he whole even though he and his friend Haley were quite. So we'll see how today goes!