yea uncle steve and Emma too.

So we went to Phoenix last weekend for my big brother's graduation from DeVry, and my little sister's baby's blessing. It was so great to be able to be there for both exciting times. We are so proud of Uncle Steve


it was fun to be with Parker and Granny and Granddad
The kids loved yelling "yea uncle steve" when he walked across the stage.


Okay LOVE may be a bit strong. It got a little long towards the end.


Granddad forgot how much fun it is to take a road trip with kids. Jared was okay with leaving his big boy pants on the side of the road, but was way bummed that he didn't see a coyote in the process!


Just reminding my self why I am not sad that I don't live in a city anymore (you can't tell in the pic, but all the brake lights were on, and I was in the carpool lane)!



but this is why I love Phoenix: (besides my family that lives there of course)


SO here is what I got at IKEA: the VANNA ta da! I'm not entirely sure what category of furniture it falls into, but I LOVE it so much. I call it my mini mudroom.

This is what it looked like before IKEA

And that I why I love IKEA. It gives me one more happy place in my house. And if you want to see how cute my niece Emma looked in her blessing dress head over to my sister's blog
Phew that was a long post!

Miss independent

SO my sweet Hannah is growing up. Unfortunately that means she wants to do things on her own. I found that out the hard way a couple of times last week. On tuesday I asked Hannah to put the scissors away and this was the result:



She had decided to give herself a haircut on the way to put the scissors away. I didn't even notice it until I went to do her hair for girls night. Luckily I have a fabulous friend who is an amazing hairstylist. I called her and she worked her magic! (Thanks again Candice). The problem is that Hannah LOVED getting her hair done and hopefully she won't see cutting her hair as a way to get to go to the stylist in the future!

She looks so sad because I told her that I took the picture to send to Santa if she ever does it again. I'm not above a little blackmail.

Then the next day, she was helping me chop lettuce for tacos. I was showing her how to tear the lettuce with her hands (trying to keep away from anything sharp) and I left to go help Jared and came back and she was gone. I figured she had gotten bored and decided to do something more exciting than tear lettuce. A few minutes later she came downstairs and I noticed something red on her finger. Apparently she had gotten a knife out to cut the head of lettuce, cut her finger (luckily ony slightly), seen the blood, walked upstairs, washed her finger, and put a band-aid on. All without a word to me. So she is cutting the apron strings (a litle early in my opinion) and wants to be "like a grown up". Sigh- I am so not ready for her teenage years!

rest of wanda witch pictures.

So here is the rest about the party. Jamie came up with a fear factor game, which is what most of my pics are. The whole party was so much fun. Thanks everyone who came. Jamie has more pictures on her flickr account, and I am still trying to figure out how to get them. Maybe I will add them when I do.

wanda witch winners!

IMG_1218
Originally uploaded by joshuaterry77

Wanda Witch Party

So, last year I saw a Halloween party idea on Meckmom that I totally wanted to do, but we were in the middle of moving and I didn't really know anyone. But this year I enlisted my awesome friends, Jamie and Jenni to be my witches (hee hee) and throw the party with me. It was this past Friday- and it was so much fun! The idea behind it was that we were the witch sisters and no one was supposed to know who we were. SO we created a fake email address and only communicate with the people we invited through it. And we pretended like we were also invited and we had no idea who was throwing the party. We had a ton of fun trying to keep it a secret, and still talk up the party so people would still want to go. I think that Shannon was the only one who figured out who we were.
Anyways, we spilt into teams and went on a scavenger hunt around town collecting ingredients for the witches brew.


I am surprised how competitive some people are, oh and my team thought that I was going to drive them into the river, but it actually was turning out well, until we got the the park where one clue was and someone had stolen the clue. SO we had the confess and tell our teams who we were, but it was still a blast! Then when we got back to my house we played a version of fear factor. My husband is a pansy! We were out in the 2nd round. And do you know what the totally disgustion thing was that made him quit? OATMEAL! seriously? I was more than a little disappointed. But he probably saved me, because I am pretty sure that there is no way that I could have drank the nasty concoction that they had to to win. Way to go Katie and Ty and your iron stomaches!
After everyone cleaned up and Gordon stopped puking (just kidding Gordon), we played what-if, which I hadn't played since college. I think that the whole night was tons of fun- now I have to decide what project to do next! Here are some pics. to be continued!!!

Picture tag

Carly and Greg had this on their blog and it looked like fun. Go to your picture files and choose the 4th picture from the 4th file and post it, and then tell about it. We store our pictures alphabetically by month and year so my 4th folder was August 2003, and this was taken at Hannah's blessing. It is amazing to see how much our family has changed. My neice, Ashley is a senior in high school now (she's the one in the back). And Zach is the blond sitting in the front row on the right- he looks completely different. Plus, now we have added 6 more grandkids since this picture was taken. Crazy how fast time flies! So anyway, I tag all of you who read this. DO it- it is easy and fun.

Okay funny me- I actually did it wrong. But since I already wrote all of that, I am leaving it. Our 4th file is actually April 2003 and this is the picture I should have put up

it's from a family trip we took when I was pregnant with Hannah. Kerry went with Dad to the California Dental Association Convention and we went to Universal Studios. It was a blast, even though I couldn't ride any of the rides. Doesn't Kerry look like a baby in this picture? When did we get old?

Fire drill! or material possession obsession

Okay so we didn't exactly have a fire drill, but this week the kids are talking about what to do incase of a fire. I know that it is important for them to know, but it was a little tramatic for my kids. Let me explain. Kerry did a great job talking about what to do if there is a fire. (I wasn't home, I was shopping). He calls me and asks if I think that Granny's house would be a good meeting place- she lives 2 doors down- it was Hannah's idea.
So I am way proud of them and then I get home. They told me that they checked the smoke detectors and that they know how to get out of the house. Then somehow we get on the subject of going back in. Kerry told them that they don't go back in the house for anything. Well, that started the waterworks! We're not talking a few tears here and there, we're talking full blown devastation.

"But what about my toys," cries Zach.

"We can buy new toys," says Dad.

"But Dad I will miss Rose and Sleeping Beauty, and all of my other stuffed animals that I don't know their names," says Hannah between sobs.

Seriously?! It took us a good 10 minutes to calm them down. Apparently, my kids have attachment issues- to their stuff! It was so hard to keep a straight face. But I did because they were so serious. Does this mean that they have too much stuff? And I have to admit that I am a little worried if we have an actual fire- I guess if I can't find them I should check the playroom- can't you just see Zach standing at the window throwing each stuffed animal to the safety below?