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!