Constitution Day

My patriotic sweeties.

First Day of School

Yesterday was the first day back to school. Tara is in the 3rd Grade and Lily is in the 1st Grade.



This will be an exciting year for Tara. Lots of changes in the 3rd Grade. She now has her own desk, she will be using textbooks and must keep a student planner. She will be receiving letter grades and has the opportunity for Principal's List (all A's) and Honor Roll (A's and B's). Her classroom is also located upstairs with the upper grades.

Big changes for Lily too. Lily's classroom is located in the main building (she was excited to see Tara at school 3 times yesterday.) She will now rotate each day to Specials (Music, Art and P.E.) She reports to the 'big' playground before school and has lunch with all the other 1st Graders.


What was the best part of your day?

Tara - ...long pause..."nothing really."
Lily - P.E.

Fremont Indian State Park

I was looking at some of the pictures I took on our vacation last month and I came across the ones from our picnic at the Fremont Indian State Park.

I was standing in the kitchen at Granny and Grandpa’s house when I heard my niece ask “Grandpa, can we go on a picnic today?” We threw food and drinks in a cooler, grabbed towels and fishing nets and were out the door within 15 minutes. I love spontaneous ideas and this outing proved to be another reason why.

How cute is this little guy? He sure enjoyed eating our extra Cheetos.






Clear Creek. The girls were trying to catch some fish. The water was freezing cold.

Sardella's Pizza Camp

My girlfriend sent me a message and asked if Tara and Lily would like to go to pizza camp? I thought to myself “what is pizza camp?”

Pizza camp is where you learn how to make pizza. You learn the oven can cook a pizza in 6 1/2 minutes and cook 200 pizzas in one hour. You learn that the refrigerator is 37 degrees and you can walk into it and see your breath.

You learn how to…

Toss the dough




Spread the dough


Put the sauce and cheese on


Put the pizza in the oven


Cut the pizza


And take the pizza home


You also get to enjoy an afternoon with your friends.


Sardella's Pizza Camp

Uncle Bill

Most of the people who read my blog are family and know Uncle Bill. For those of you who don’t, let me introduce you.


Uncle Bill is my Father’s oldest brother; he is the oldest of 5 children. He is married to Aunt Leslie and they have been married for 44 years. They have 3 children and their oldest daughter is Cousin Mary, my very best friend. Because of my relationship with Mary I am also close to her Mom and Dad. Earlier in June Uncle Bill was not feeling too good and was just not acting like himself. He was transported to the hospital on June 3rd because of signs of a stroke. He spent his 66th birthday in the hospital. He was released after a few days with a diagnosis of ‘dehydration.’

After his release there was still odd behavior, difficulty driving and concerns of his ability to do certain tasks. His family knew they would not be able to get him back to the doctor or hospital, so they came up with a master plan and tricked him into going to the ER on Wednesday, June 30th. The MRI showed 4 brain tumors. He was transported to Barrows Neurological Institute at St. Joseph’s Hospital. Friday morning they did surgery for 5 hours to remove not 4 tumors, but one elongated tumor the size of a bratwurst. The surgeons were able to remove the rest of the tumor in a second 8 hour surgery on Tuesday July 6th. The pathology report showed it is a high grade Glioblastoma brain tumor, which is very aggressive. Chemotherapy begin the 3rd week of July for about 6 weeks.

This is shocking and heart breaking news for our entire family. We have gone from not knowing, to disbelief and now to a recovery plan. We have been on the internet and have read of the grim prognosis. Doctors have shared with us the worst and they have also shared with us the possibilities.

Let me tell you, my Uncle Bill will recover. This is a strong man who has a will and desire to live. He is a husband, father, grandfather, uncle, great-uncle, son, brother, friend, retired Fire Chief and a former Congressman in Arizona’s House of Representatives. He has many reasons to keep on going and pushing forward with his recovery. He has hunting trips and fishing trips on the calendar and he does not plan on missing them (we just haven’t told him they will need to be rescheduled.) He makes us laugh with his jokes, he can build or fix anything (even an X-Box with the 3 ring of death - picture above), and he tells us funny stories by the campfire (and protects us from the camp skunks.)

We love our Uncle Bill and we are praying for the very best outcome.

Summer Vacation

The girls and I returned last week from a 1300 mile road trip to visit family. This has become a summer tradition for Tara, Lily and I. We would love to take Daddy with us but we are usually gone for an extended amount of time which makes it hard for Michael to take that much time off of work.

Our destination is Utah and we visit our cousins and Granny and Grandpa. We have made this road trip several times over the last 8 years. I was thinking about how much this summer tradition has changed over the years. For starters, our trip keeps getting further away from home. My brother works for Utah State Parks and his job has taken him to 3 different locations; Coral Pink Sand Dunes, Monroe and now Lehi. While his family was living in Monroe, Granny and Grandpa decided to relocate and retire in the same small town. The other ‘change’ is how I use to pack for this road trip. I use to take strollers, pack-n- plays, booster seats, diapers and about 20 binkies (the girls would drop them while I was driving and I could not always stop.) Now I pack DVD’s, DS games, stuffed animals and favorite books. The trip may be longer, but the load is definitely lighter.

Although our load is lighter our memories of each trip will last a life time. We come home with so many great stories to tell Dad. We come home with new favorite foods; Tara loves Neapolitan ice cream now just like her Uncle Dave. We come home with more experiences; Lily can now do the monkey bars. The girls helped their Granny and Grandpa in the garden and planted flowers in the front yard. We come home smarter; Davy taught us Wii games and Nicole taught us new card games. We come home with more style; Rebekah knows fashion. We come home with new recipes from Aunt Janette. We have new silly jokes to tell that Darci and Littlebit taught us.

Even though we come home with such great memories, there is no place like home. We are happy to be home and happy to be with Daddy again. I have more to share from our vacation and pictures I will post, but for right now…all is well.

(Darci, Tara, Davy, Nicole, Lily and Littlebit)

6 Days Late

Last month I posted about Lily being born 9 days past her due date. My beautiful Tara started the ‘late’ trend by coming 6 days after her due date. I remember holding Tara for the first time; she was a dream come true.

Tara is celebrating her 8th birthday this week!

What a celebration too. She got her ears pierced, she had 10 girls over for a swim party and her cousins are here from out of state helping her celebrate.

Tara is an easy going, fun-natured and loving child. One characteristic I love about Tara is her willingness to compromise; she is always willing to give up what she wants to make others happy or to help an unpleasant situation. I see this characteristic on a regular basis with her younger sister. Tara loves Lily so much; she is a wonderful older sister.


Tara makes me laugh, she says the funniest things. She is an excellent swimmer; I am always amazed each swim season at how well she can swim. She loves to learn and exceeds in every subject in school. She loves to watch TV; you can ask her anything about Hannah Montana or iCarly. She also loves to read and is trying to read all the fairy books by Daisy Meadows. Tara is a great kid and we are so blessed to have her in our family.


Happy Birthday Tara! We love you dearly!

Last Week of School 2010

This has been quite a week. There have been many emotions ranging from sadness to excitement. There was water day, game day, safety day, class celebrations and Kindergarten promotion. And in the end, I am the proud Mom of a 3rd grader and a 1st grader.


Tara
How did you feel the first day of school? Nervous
How do you feel now? Pretty good
(Tara and her teacher)

Lily
How did you feel the first day of school? Sad
How do you feel now? Cool
(Lily and her teacher. Tara had Mrs. F as her Kindergarten teacher too.)



On Wednesday (Safety Day) Miss Arizona, Savanna Troupe came to talk to the Kindergartners about water safety. This is Lily’s 2nd time meeting her and getting her autograph.

Wet n Wild Fun

This gang got season passes. I think it is going to be a fun summer!

Lily's Rose

Lily is my companion in the yard. She likes to help me water flowers, trim the rose bushes, pull weeds and clean our Hummingbird feeder. Last time she took all the roses I cut off and arranged them in cups of water for our outdoor table. She also took this picture, I thought it was beautiful and wanted to share.

A Fun Way to Watch TV

They keep me smiling.

9 Days Late

Friday at school Lily’s Kindergarten class had a Mother’s Day Tea Party. Each child greeted their Mother at the Kindergarten door and escorted them to their seat. The kids performed songs and afterwards served us cookies, fruit and punch. It was such a delightful way to spend some time with Lily. She made me a hair bow and smothered me with hugs and kisses.


Lily has grown about a foot this year, she is reading and in a few months she will be entering the First Grade. Lily also celebrated her 6th Birthday last week. I have never seen someone so excited about their birthday. She was doing the usual count down of days; however this year I was teasing her that we should have been celebrating her birthday on April 26th. She was 9 days late and did not join our family until May 5th. She was worth the wait!!


Lilers completed our family. Lily is funny; yes, we even call her ‘silly Lily.’ Lily is affectionate. She told her teacher this year that she loved her so much she could just squeeze the life out of her, all this while squeezing Mrs. F’s leg. Lily always has a big smile and a hello for strangers and can make the grumpiest cashier smile. She loves books, puzzles and shopping. Lily loves her sister.I remember one time we were driving on the 101 and Lily started crying, it was an unusual cry and I thought she was hurt. I kept asking her what was wrong; she finally stopped crying enough to say “I miss Tara.” Tara was in Grandma’s car driving right behind us on the freeway.

Lily is now 6 years old and does not want to be treated like a baby; but it is sooooo hard not to treat her like one, when she will always be my baby. Happy Birthday Lily!!

Whiskey Row Marathon 2010

Here we are again! One of our favorite family traditions - participating in the Whiskey Row Marathon.

This year Daddy, Aunt Leslie, Tara, Lily and Mommy did the 2 Mile Fun/Run Walk.

Participating in the 10K were cousins Mary, Will and Isabel. This was Isabel's first 10K and she finished in 1:11:04. Mary had a personal best with 1:04:24 and Will completed the race in 1:00:07.


Life is Good!

Father/Daughter Dance

Tonight was the Girl Scout Father/Daughter Dance. Tara and Lily had a wonderful time with their Daddy. The theme was a 'Circus' complete with dancing, carnival games, hot dogs and popcorn. They actually won 7 bottles of soda playing games.

GS Camp

The girls and I attended Girl Scout Encampment this weekend. We had a good time.

We camped for 2 nights at Shadow Rim Ranch outside of Payson. It was absolutely gorgeous. Temperatures were a little chilly at night - low 30's. We were fortunate enough to sleep in cabins; however, the cabins did not have heat.

This camp's theme was a Hawaiin Luau. The girls enjoyed movie night, arts/crafts, games/activities, a hula dancer, hula lessons, skit night and nature walks.

Lily's favorite - the crafts


Tara's favorite - games and skit night


Mom's favorite - spending time with Tara and Lily. Oh...and not cooking.
All the meals were catered :)

Moments like this...

The other morning I went to wake the girls up for school. I saw Tara sleeping with her bunny and I just melted. I had to get my camera, I do not want to forget moments like this.


I tried to get a picture of Lilers too; but I woke her up and she started yelling at me...I try to forget those moments.

2nd Grade Musical

The 2nd graders at LB performed a wonderful musical yesterday at school. The kids wore the colors of the rainbow, each color representing a Pillar of Character. All students at school are expected to display behaviors that reflect the 6 Pillars of Character.

Blue – Trustworthiness
Yellow – Respect
Green – Responsibility
Orange – Fairness
Red – Caring
Purple – Citizenship

Tara had a speaking part and a special verse she sang with two other students. She did awesome, I was so proud of her!! Tara is a kind and caring person. She loves to laugh and she has a silly sense of humor. These characteristics were obvious during the performance. She was not shy on the stage and you could tell she enjoyed singing all the songs. I teased her that she looked a bit like Hannah Montana (who she loves) the way she held the microphone during her singing part. Way to go sweetie!!