Got toys, will play

Brutus has been a welcome addition to our family.

Roxy has always been such a great dog

that I didn't expect to enjoy another

dog this much.

He is very attentive to everyone in

our family. He takes turns visiting with

each of us in the evenings.

During the day when it is just

us he follows me.....

From room to room

So this is what Brutus does, he follows me around all day.

First with one toy........

Then two toys!

And if I don't play before I know it he will

bring the entire basket of toys to me.

Please Mom, can we play?

Roxy and Brutus have become great friends.

Love my puppies!

15 for a few more weeks

With Russell's 16th birthday just around the corner
I was just thinking about how much he has grown .
He was just 2 1/2 when I first met him.
And look at how he has grown.

So What is Russell doing these days?
He is a Sophomore this year
Getting ready to drive (watch out!!)
Tae Kwan Do
Loves to play video games and computers
Learning to play the guitar

Today we went to the orthodontist for spacers and he will be getting his braces on in 2 weeks.
We are very proud of you and all you are doing!
Can't wait to see what the next few years hold for you!

Lot's of homework!

Rapunzel, Rapunzel

Kimberly got to be the helper at story time. As Ms. Lorie read the book Rapunzel
she would call out to Kimberly in the tower "Rapunzel, Rapunzel let down your hair."
It was pretty cute and Kimberly had a great time.
Ms. Lorie also read one of Kimberly's favorite books

'Franny B. Cranny, there's a bird in your hair.'
What a fun day!

Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer

For the past month and a half Kimberly has been singing Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer
She carries around her microphone and sings it all of the time. It is on my Zune (Ipod) player and she is always asking me to play it at home, in the car, all of the time.
So the other night Grandma Connie asked her to sing it for her. So we set up the Zune player, got out the microphone and called Grandma Connie.
These are the pictures of my little doll with the phone in one hand and the microphone in the other.
We will have to get the video on here. I will have to say that this was the highlight of my hollidays!! Watch out American Idol here she comes!

Biosphere 2

Brooke's Kindergarten class got to visit Bioshpere 2.
It was very cool to see! Here are a few pictures from our visit.

At a size comparable to two and a half football fields, it was the largest closed system ever created. The sealed nature of the structure allowed scientists to monitor the ever-changing chemistry of the air, water and soil contained within. The health of the human crew was continuously monitored by a medical team.
Inside was a rainforest, an 850 square meter ocean with a coral reef, a 450 square meter mangrove wetlands, a 1900 square meter savannah grassland, a 1400 square meter fog desert, a 2500 square meter agricultural system, a human habitat with living quarters and office, and a below-ground level technical facility. Heating and cooling water circulated through independent piping systems, and electrical power was supplied from a natural gas energy center through airtight penetrations.

The tour begins in the human habitat. Here you will see one of the apartments where the Biospherians lived, the farm area where they grew their crops and the kitchen where they cooked their meals. Your guide will then lead you through the airlock door into the wilderness areas of Biosphere 2 where you will experience firsthand the environments of this engineering marvel. You first enter the tropical savanna. The trail system then travels along the 40-foot ocean cliff where you look down into the million gallon tropical ocean. As you move along the trail, you descend into the lower savanna along the mangrove through the tropical thorn scrub and into the coastal fog desert. From the desert, you now go into the technosphere. The technosphere is where mechanical systems make control of the Biosphere 2 environments possible. You then descend through a tunnel into one of two lungs. The lungs are large geodesic domes that originally prevented Biosphere 2 from exploding or imploding.

Rainforest

A banana tree

This is the end of our tour in the lung. It was really cool to see how all of the things worked behind the scenes.

Surprise Visitor

Bud and Sophie surprised us this week and came to visit. It was such a wonderful surprise!
Bud's daughter Michele started baby sitting me before I was 2. So I have known their family
for most of my life. I will have to fill you in on more of that story later. I just wanted to share these pictures! It was a great visit! Hopefully we won't wait so long for the next visit!
Thank you so much for coming to see us! And dinner was great! We love you !!

The kids had to sit by Bud and Soph on the way to the restaurant and at dinner.

Russell brought a deck of cards and they played while we were waiting for our dinner.

By the end of the night Kimberly was calling Bud "My Buddy!!"

It was so cute to see how much the girls enjoyed being with them.

Russell and Soph sure hit it off! They were sharing stories all night.

Ok, here is a little more of the story...........

Michele started watching me before I was 2 years old. I spent a lot of time with their family over the years. Their family is in so many of my memories growing up. They were at every important event of my life. Having Bud here to visit brought back so many happy memories!!

Michele has been a very dear friend to me! She has been there for the good and the bad, happy and sad! She is truly the closest thing I have to a sister! And I am so happy to have her in my life! So here's to many more years of friendship! Love you sweetie.

100 th Day Of School

Today was the 100Th day of school. Brooke's class had to bring in a collection of 100 to show her class.

They had to be in groups of 5 or 10. We picked ribbon and made 10 rows of 10.

After we stapled about 85 of them Brooke told me her hand was broken and she could staple any more.

It was fun to see all of the collections that everyone brought in. And Brooke had lots of fun. Happy 100th day of school sweetie.

A Visit to the Fire Station

Our Girl Scout troop visited the fire station on Thursday. It wasn't the first time that my girls had been there and it was really neat to see how they have grown and now understand what the firemen do. Last year we went for a preschool field trip on Kimberly's birthday and she wouldn't go near the firemen when they had all of their gear on. This time as Fireman Levi got dressed

they asked the kids "who is this?" each time he put on another layer they would ask again "who is this" And Kimberly got it this time. She ran up to him when he was all dressed grabbed his hand and said "See it's just Levi!" Woo Hoo.

Here is our troop with the firemen. We had a great time learning all of the important things they do to help our community.

What a great day.

My Sick Kiddo

We had a long week, Kimberly was running a very high fever all week. It would get really high and then come back down with OTC medicine. All she wanted was for mom to hold her. She is so funny she fell asleep on the couch with her magic wand in her hand.
What a sweetie.

It is so hard when the kids are sick and there is nothing you can do to make them better.

We have been snuggling and watching lots of Ruby & Max and Kimberly's new favorite show Super Why! Hopefully there will be some new episodes on soon we have seen the 3 we have recorded way too many times :)

This picture just cracks me up, she emptied out her toys and was sitting on the couch in the toy bin. I think she got upset with me and when I came back in to check on her she was asleep in the toy bin. What a silly girl.