Sibling Sunday

This Sibling Sunday is bringing an end to vacation time for Daddy. As of tomorrow he has to return to work after being off since the 10th. Which means that tomorrow will be the first day that everyone will be out of the house and leave me with the feeling of things are just way to quite. I'm not to worried about it though because come 2:20 tomorrow afternoon when the oldest two get home, I'm sure the thought will go through my mind about "Just why was I thinking it was to quite?"

Tomorrow is also the last day of the month of March, which means yet another year of whirlwind birthdays are over! From here on out we pass them one at a time, and even the months that have several, they aren't all living under the roof of this house. So that means that I don't have to break the bank buying presents, which is a very good thing after this month.

In the land of siblings, we had a wonderful surprise happen this week with report cards coming home from the high school. Sweetpea had 1-A, 4-B's, and 1-C. Binky Sue had 1-A, 3-B's, and 2-C's. Which makes it the very first time that our Sweetpea had a better report card then our Binky Sue. It is also the first time in more years than I really care to count that the average grade was a B and not C's with D's. Last quarter I had told Sweetpea that I give up fighting her about her homework and her grades. That she either would do it and show everyone, or she wouldn't, but that I would no longer fight with her about all of it. After a couple of days she really didn't like the fact that I was no longer asking her if she had homework, and I was told that I was supposed to care about that stuff as Mom. To which I pointed out that I wasn't the only one that was supposed to care about it all. Sweetpea pointed out that she wasn't interested in being like Binky Sue with the good grades all the time because she just doesn't care that much about school. The whole thing is just long and went on for a few weeks, but the basic thought is that suddenly she wanted me to care about it all, and to point out to her just how very smart I believe she is and tell her that if she really wanted to she could have better grades without even working half as hard as Binky Sue. I guess after so many years of trying everything I could think of, I finally found the right thing to say, because this third quarter was like a dream! No phone calls from teachers about homework, no phone calls begging me for idea's about just how to get her to do anything! The final great was seeing the report card she handed me. I have never expected all A's, but I do expect them all to do their very best everyday, and if that very best is a D then so be it, as long as they can look me in the eye's and say they gave it their all. Sweetpea needed this one though, just to show her how very well she really can do with just a little bit of effort. Binky Sue was nice and didn't point out that her class load was 5 times more difficult this year, and cheered her younger sister on to doing it again for the final quarter. Sweetpea got to hear endless amounts of how proud we are of her for this one, and encouraging her to keep doing just what she did. Sweetpea is never going to like being told she has to prove to the teachers that she knows this stuff, but if we can get through the rest of her time in school without having to feel like I am engaged in a non stop battle with her, I'm going to be a very happy Mom. So a huge CONGRATULATIONS to my Sweetpea and her showing all of us just what she can do with just a little bit of effort!! Way to go my baby girl!! Way to go to both of my girls for their great report cards! This week should bring Little bugs home. Little bug is also doing much better after having a rough start to the week with a seizure last Sunday, and then having to spend the day at home on Monday.

Well, I have the feeling that I may be rambling on and on here with this entry. So time to close for now. I hope that everyone has had a wonderful weekend spent with those you love. I hope that the month of March has been one filled with good memory making times. I hope that this week brings good things to all.
Everyone take care, and once again this week keep family and friends who will be traveling in prayers.

I think I need a vacation!

Okay now that I have possibly fried my brain editing photo's that I got paid to take on the 12th, I'm very happy to declare that I'M DONE!! I'm pretty sure that the young man is going to be very happy with his portraits, and I'm just really happy to be done working on them. Just one more time of him having to come over and make his final choices on which one's he wants printed. I've enjoyed doing them, but with all the birthday's, the spring break and the vacation, I ended up doing a two day push to get through all of them just to play catch up with myself here.
The picture's on here tonight are more from the trip...I know you all are surprised that they aren't pictures of more rocks! Don't worry I still have several of those waiting to be posted. These are from the Cruiser's Cafe that we ate at. They seem to be good fill in pictures till I get around to the other right now. Since I didn't feel like eating that night, I spent my time moving things around the table to take pictures of them instead. Never let it be said that I don't know how to keep myself amused! Give me my camera and a table filled with stuff and I can entertain myself for hours! I think everyone was happy that I didn't demand to take pictures of their food though. When I took my Mom's glass of water she kind of had a look of "What in the world are you doing?" I'm sure if I had done the same with the plates of food I could have gotten yet another lecture that day.

I hope that everyone is having a wonderful weekend, and that tomorrow is another great day. Everyone take care!

Here Kitty, Kitty

I think I will skip posting anymore rock photo's for today and join in for the Feline Friday instead. To bad the cats are both still in a bad mood with me for being gone. I'm also very happy that the camera has zoom abilities or I would not have been able to get any picture of a cat here this afternoon. If I haven't mentioned before that it is a bad idea to make these cats mad, let me make it very clear right now...IT IS A VERY BAD IDEA TO MAKE THESE CATS MAD!! Since we got back there has been a lot of knocking things over done by Angel, and Eclipse has made it more than clear that she isn't happy about the fact that we dared to leave the house.(I won't mention just how...just know that it is a very gross thing that she does.)

Anyway, I was happy to see that Steve was back last week and trying to get all of the kitties to come back out of hiding! I am going to wait and see just where he puts the Feline Friday post, since he seems to be in the process of doing a new blog for pictures. Don't worry though, I will come back later tonight and add link over to his place.

I hope that the week has been good for everyone and the coming weekend is a wonderful one. Everyone take care!

Update: Just here to drop the link over to Steve's

Tired of pictures yet?

So, is everyone tired of reading about the Grand Canyon yet? Well then lucky for you this will be the last batch of pictures and last time I write about that part of the trip! I will move on to my next set of favorite rocks to post about. These pictures today are just the more personal one's. The first one was shot at Grand View Point, where the wind was blowing like crazy and chilling all of us. The temperatures up in the area had not climbed back up from the storm that had come through earlier in the week here in Arizona. I found it pretty cool to see the area with snow on the ground. We all could have lived without the strong winds though.
Lunch at the Shrine of the Ages, and Littlebug just having to stand in the piles of snow that were still laying on the ground. Even better were the huge piles of mud that we had to get around or through to get into the picnic area. It was a very pretty and quiet area though so perfect for our lunch break.
Another of my favorite picture of Daddy and his Sweetpea. I'm still trying to figure out how she didn't freeze sitting on the stone wall with the winds blowing so very much at the Grand View Point. I know that she had a strong hold on her sketch book the whole time she was sitting there. I also learned that my Mom will still call me by my whole name when I scare her to much here. There are areas that you can get a little further out past that stone wall, and being the daredevil that I am when it comes to taking pictures, I went around it to get some other shots. I got to hear from behind me my whole named called out and was told to get back on solid ground! To which in true child form I looked back over my shoulder and told Mom that I was fine and she shouldn't worry. I also found out that even at 38 years old, when you do finally get back on solid ground, my Mom will still smack me for not listening to her and lecture me about not doing things like that.

Finally part of the whole group at one of the Desert View Drive lookout areas having tons of fun just being wild really. I think it was here that they started talking about wanting to spit over the edge and how many bounces do you think it would take to get to the bottom of the canyon.

Okay, I'm now done posting about the Grand Canyon and all it's rocky glory! Anyone who has read my blogs long enough knows that I just cant pass up on pictures of rocks, so of course there are more to be posted but from a different area! I hope that this week is going well for everyone and if you like rocks just come back tomorrow. Everyone take care, and keep family that is on the road traveling back to their homes in prayers.

Sixteen years and seven days ago

Daddy's girl from the start
Daddy's girl still


March 20th was Sweetpea's 16th birthday. Since we were up at the Grand Canyon for her birthday, my 16 years ago post had to be delayed. The theme for her became very clear to me while we were at the canyon that day though. She is still just as much a daddies girl as she was when she was tiny little baby. Of all of the pictures that I took that day, the one's of the two of them sitting while she sketched are my favorites. I knew just what pictures I wanted to look for in the cases and scan to post for this entry.

Her morning started off with all of us bouncing on the bed in the suite around her singing a very loud early morning version of happy birthday, then a dog pile on the birthday girl, and finally a pillow fight! Then it was get dressed, off for breakfast, and then the drive to the canyon. With lots of people there we took extra time to find just the right area's for Sweetpea to be able to sit and sketch. I know that I have posted bits and pieces of information about the trip so I will just end with one more time saying Happy Birthday to my Sweetpea for her Sweet 16!!

Very first picture, first day home
We knew early on that art was a favorite
First Birthday
Kisses from Daddy
Who is lecturing who in this one?
Love those french fries!!

Grand Canyon Pictures

Well I finally figured out just how I wanted to post multiple pictures from the Grand Canyon. So this post will have the slide show, and then tomorrow I will post with a few more personal favorites and details about our time at the canyon. For now I hope you enjoy the pictures of the Grand Canyon.

Just Quick

This is just going to be another quick entry here today. I'm still trying to get through all of the pictures, and feel like I'm playing catch up around the house still. My Mom and Larry are rolling out of town sometime early this morning, so good byes were said last night. I'm hoping that they have a better trip going back home then they had coming out here.

The picture is of the sign for Cruisers Cafe in Williams that we ate at for Sweetpea's birthday dinner. They took an old gas station and converted it over, very much a touristy kind of place, but they had good food.

Anyway, I hope that the week is going well for everyone, and I am still going to try to get back on track here.

Monday Morning Ramble

I'm sure that my last couple of days worth of entries have been pretty scatter brained to try and read. I seem to be having a heck of a time trying to get back into the swing of things here, so just give a little bit of time and I'm sure that I will get back to my normal level of "makes no sense" posting.

I'm trying to figure out just what I'm going to do with the pictures that I took on the vacation. The question running through my mind is "How do I want to post them for anyone who might want to see?" The next thought is do I have enough patience to get it done right now? I'm thinking the answer to that is no right now, so maybe I will just try to do single picture entries for the next couple of days, then get a more complete one done for anyone who might want to see more pictures.

Anyway, the above picture is of the Grand Canyon Railway that runs out of Williams Arizona. Williams is a very small little town that sits on historic route 66. It is very much a tourist area, but costs a little less then staying right up in the Grand Canyon. It was a very cute little place to explore and the kids loved being on the old 66. They kept talking about having the feeling to watch the Disney movie Cars. They also enjoyed asking questions about it and learning about its heyday before the the interstate bypassed the town in 1984. By the way it was the last town in America that sat along route 66 to be bypassed. The town was founded in 1880 by "Old Bill Williams" who was a trapper, scout, mountain man.

There is the small history lesson for the day. Who knew I had it in me? Anyway, I hope that the week gets off to a good start for everyone. I will be back with more pictures, and who knows maybe even some more history lessons. Everyone take care!

Sibling Sunday

Spring break is sadly coming to an end here tonight. This last week has flown by and I'm left sitting here trying to figure out just where it went. Sweetpea can not wait to return to school tomorrow and brag about her Sweet 16th birthday, Little bug is happy about school starting back up tomorrow to share all the news about her spring break, and Binky Sue would just rather have another week off.

Time with family visiting is also winding down here, Wednesday they are going to leave and start their drive back home. This whole month is ending up being a blur for me, but it has been a good one. The only thing was tonight Little bug seemed to be having some seizure like activity, but she rebounded quickly and was up and moving in no time at all really. Since it was the first vacation that we have taken since the start of her Epilepsy 3 years ago, I think she did very well though. All of the traveling, and the busy of the whole thing and nothing till today.

I'm still trying to get myself back on track here and probably going to need a couple more days to get that achieved. I hope that everyone has had a great Easter and that the week gets off a good start.

Home Sweet Home

Just going to keep this short tonight since I am very tired here tonight. We are back home again from our trip. As soon as we got in the house I had to start laundry and several other things since the girls head back to school Monday.

In a couple of days I will sit and try to pick some pictures and do a post, but till then I hope that everyone has wonderful Easter tomorrow.

Another Blog from the Road

Wow what a busy couple of days we have had!! Yesterday Sweetpea got just what she wanted and was able to sit and draw at the Grand Canyon. It took us a little bit of time to figure out just where to go and not have so many people to have to try and fight our way through, and for her to have a good place to sit and just draw for a little bit. By the way...if you should ever plan a trip to the Grand Canyon, try to avoid the Mather's Point area. We found a great place for our picnic lunch at Shrine of the Ages, and had lots of fun singing happy birthday very loudly.

Last night was dinner at Cruisers Cafe? I'm going to have to check the name when I get home and download pictures because right now it is all becoming a blur. Anyway, it sits on historic route 66 and was just a lot of fun to check out. This morning we started off the day with wandering all of the shops on the drag of the historic route 66 in Williams, and of course some shopping therapy was taken care of. Then it was off to find a picnic area to cook up some lunch and head over towards Coconino area to check out Oak Creek, Slide Rock, Call of the Canyon. Tonight is our last night of over night away from home. So we have enjoyed spending the night here in Flagstaff. Tomorrow is head to Sedona and slowly make our way back home.

I have tons of pictures which I think may take me a week to get them all downloaded. I hope that everyone has had a great week, and that the weekend is a very good one. See you soon with an entry with some pictures!

Blogging from the road

I'm not going to have any pictures to post for a couple of days because I'm not real sure just how Sweetpea would feel about me downloading them onto her new laptop. We are on vacation and made it into the little town of Williams AZ. this afternoon. The drive was very beautiful as we came through the mountains and could see the snow that had fallen over the weekend. My Mom and Step Dad are staying just outside of town in the KOA and they are very happy with just how beautiful it is out there. After making sure they were settled in out there we heading into the town to find our hotel, and oh man...there were some very happy squeals of joy once Daddy got the door open to the suite. Two very large rooms, three queen size beds, jacuzzi tub!! Oh I'm thinking I might not be making a trip out of this room till time to leave here on Friday! Well...okay so that isn't true but man it is an awesome thought right now.

We got our stuff brought into the rooms and took a quick lap around the hotel to see just what all is here and where it is at...and then it was off to pick up some dinner since I had a real DUH thing happen while packing this morning. I totally forgot to pack the meat for the meal that we were going to have tonight. So I guess those smoked briskets will just have to wait in the freezer for us to get home again and have them then. The really good thing to come out of it was right away finding lots of other little things in town that I want to make sure and either get pictures of or check out before we leave here. The girls were all happy to see that we were on Route 66 going through the downtown area, and suddenly we all had the thought that we should have brought our copy of Disneys "Cars" to watch. We all think that the downtown area here looks just like the one in the movie. I just hope that when Speed McQueen goes tearing up the main drag that we are far enough away and will hopefully be safe.

I think that is about it for this entry. Tomorrow is Sweetpea's Sweet 16!! Grand Canyon here we come!! I will do an entry for Sweetpea with pictures about 16 years ago today thing when we get back home. Paige thought is would be a pretty cool idea to blog about our trip so that may be what you see here for the next couple of days. I hope that everyone is having a great week. Happy Birthday Opa!! Oh and I will blog more tomorrow night and probably have Paige help me with one...let you know just what the birthday girl thinks about being here.

Everyone stay warm, safe and just enjoy tomorrow.

17 Years Ago Today

Thinking about turning two

Thinking about turning 17

Wow!! Where have the last seventeen years gone? She is still the happy smiling child that she has been since the day she was born. Just going to keep the writing to a minimum here today, enjoy the pictures from her very first day, her first couple of birthdays, and just some other random favorite photo's. Happy Birthday Nennie!!

First bottle

Who needs utensils when you have a face?

Me? I'm not up to anything.

MINE! Must have frosting!!

Look I have him wrapped around my little finger...oh and I'm the Germany arm wrestling champion!

Hey!! I still can not reach that cookie jar!!

Feline Friday

This is a game of find the kitty cat in the picture. Angel and Eclipse have been less than interested in letting me take pictures of them since last Saturday when Trinity graduated from having to sleep in her kennel. Actually they have been very upset with me about the fact that both dogs have gained full access to the house for most of the day. Now I know that having a cat mad at you is like putting your life into their little paws...but I never planned on having Trinity having to sleep in her kennel forever. I also don't plan on having Mia do it forever either. I think what has made Angel the most upset is that for the first couple of days till we could see how Trinity was going to do being out at night, she was the one in her kennel. Angel is not a very forgiving kitty, and I'm sure that I should keep an eye on any high pieces of furniture for the next couple of days, or I risk being dive bombed from above by that cat. By the way, it is Angel that you are looking for in the picture, on the shelf behind Trinity.

Alright, this is the last Feline Friday post that I'm going to be doing for the next couple of weeks. I really do think that a lot of people have taken posting breaks, but if you want to host leave a link in comments and maybe anyone that is still reading will see. I hope that everyone has a great couple of weeks, and look out cause when I do get back to posting it will probably be tons of pictures from our trip. Everyone take care and have a wonderful, and safe weekend. Oh and Happy Easter!

Distracted with thoughts of other things

I've noticed that I have been slacking on keeping up with this blog here. Heck I have been slacking on trying to get out and have a day of taking pictures. I'm pretty sure it is because of being distracted with thoughts of other things right now. Two more days and the birthdays of this house start, by Saturday Mom and Step-Dad will be here, Sunday is Binky Sue's birthday so there is her dinner to be planned and a cake that is going to need to be done. Tuesday is going to be a busy day because of having to get stuff around for the Grand Canyon trip, getting Trinity and Mia off to "Going to Grandmas" where they are going to stay while we are gone.(Is actually the name of the kennel that they are going to.) I've found myself feeling bad the last couple of days about not being able to take them with us, we have almost always traveled with animals in tow, but from everything that we have heard they are going to love their time at "Grandmas". Wednesday we load up and head out of this area for the trip. I'm already finding myself stressing a little, hoping that it is everything that Sweetpea wants for her Sweet 16. To tell the truth I really could care less if anyone else enjoys the 4 day trip...I want it to be everything that she wants for this one.

This whole distraction thing isn't anything new for me really. Anytime we have family coming out to visit, big events to be planned, I find myself taking a couple of days...or maybe more...to just sit and think about all the other things instead of getting stuff done that I need to right now. What is really funny is it isn't like there is a ton of stuff that I want to get done this week, but I just don't seem to have the ability to stay focused and on task at all! Anyway, maybe I should just head back into having thoughts of other things for the rest of the night. Maybe tomorrow if I can have thoughts of taking tons of pictures at the Grand Canyon, Sedona, Slide Rock, and Oak Creek...maybe I will finally find the motivation to stay on task.

I hope that everyone is having a good week. Prayers for safe travel for my friend Christy, who is having to make a trip home, and hope that the rest of this week is good to everyone.

Feline Friday

There are days that there is just no way I can get a good picture...today was one of those days with the cats. Angel and Eclipse were just not in the mood for having their pictures taken, so I'm finding my self having to go through past pictures and find one that I haven't used for today's Feline Friday.

If you want to play along just see if your feline with work with you to get a pictures, and leave a link in comments. Also the 14th is the last Friday for the month of March that I can temp host here. So if you would like to host leave me a comment to let me know.

I hope that everyone has a great weekend!

Sunset

Really pretty sunset tonight...to bad I couldn't seem to hold the camera still enough to get a really good picture of it.

Happy Birthday March!!

It is time for the March Birthday's to get started. It seems over the years I have made friends with lots of other March babies and the 4th starts them. So a great big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my buddy Christy!! Happy Birthday to my sister-in-law this week, I hope that you get lots of pretty pink things...like roses maybe? Over the weekend will be my friend Juli's birthday, and then, and then. Then my birthday, then buddy Gina's birthday, then my Binky Sue, then my Sweetpea turns Sweet 16!! Let's not forget Opa shares the same birthday as my Sweetpea! Then there is another friend, and another, and then just one more. No I'm not actually going to list out all of the names, because sometimes seeing the actual list of names just scares me. So many great people born in the month of March, how could anyone not like the month? It is also a pretty poor month in this house. Three birthday's in 8 days time, no wonder most of the year we are not really a cake eating kind of family. You try getting through 3 cakes in 8 days!

Anyway, Christy you get the March birthdays started and I hope that you have an awesome day! I hope that all of the birthday people have great days this year! So instead of doing an entry just about every day of this month for them this is the Happy Birthday entry for the whole month! I wish all of you a very Happy Birthday!!

Just for fun

Just for fun we did some pictures with the paint splatter back drop. Girls were really happy that the dogs wanted to be a part of the pictures. Trinity did the best sitting still for Binky Sue and after Mia washed Sweetpea's face clean she was willing to sit for a picture on her lap. Little bug didn't like the fact that the dogs just would not sit still for a picture with her, I think her picture makes it pretty clear that she wasn't happy.

Anyway, the month of March seems to be off to a really fast start here already. So much to get ready for, and at current pace I think I may run out of time before I run out of stuff to get done. I hope the week is off to a good start for everyone.