Why I do it

Drip

Snip

Thrill

Spill

Words

An

Have

Of

September

Frame

Special

Memory

I,m    going   to    love     tomoro

The above are Kimball's spelling words that he typed up for practice. When I asked him why he wrote, "i'm going to love tomorrow" at the bottom, he said, "because you're going to come to my school and be my art teacher tomorrow!"

Aww, it made my heart happy that he's still so sweet and innocent and loves me to be there at school. The teacher asked if I could be the art helper on Thursday's, so I go to Joey's class and help out, and then go to art with Kimball's. I love seeing them at school and I love that they still want me there :)

Litlle boys playing, first haircut, and Father's Day

I just love to see these cuties playing together. One day they took turns getting pushed around in a box. One person would climb (or be lifted) into the box, then the other two would push them around the house. They loved it!

After Tionne's mom braided his hair at a visit, the braids quickly came out. I had just gotten approval from CPS and mom to cut his hair. When I took out the braids his hair was crazy and wayyy too long, so I cut it just a bit. Enough to clean it up, but not too much to cause any upheaval.  But he looked so cute with his wild, crazy hair.

                                     

We made breakfast in bed for Peter. It was cinnamon bread french toast--soooo yummy!

Peter got some cute, homemade gifts from the boys, a red lobster gift card, and an electric smoker

In order to break in his new smoker, I had gotten a smorgasbord of meats--sausage, steak and lobster. It was a yummy meal!

And a yummy father's day tie cookie cake

We love you Peter!  Thanks for being such a great Dad. Thanks for all the wrestling and playing you do, all the the great, thoughtful talks you have with the boys, patiently trying to teach them how to be great men. Thanks for driving back forth so much when you had to be in Phoenix so you could be with all of us. We love you and I don't know what I'd do without your help!

Kimballs 6th Birthday

 Kimball REALLY wanted to have a birthday party with friends. But poor kid had a mom who refused :)  When you're pregnant, fostering, and your husband temporarily lives in a different city, you have zero desire to do a party. 

But, as blessings always come, another family from church wanted to have an ice cream party to celebrate the last day of school (which was the day before Kimball's birthday. So in a very ghetto way I asked if I could use this as a birthday for kimball too--they graciously agreed. There were no presents, but Kimball got to be surrounded by friends and blow out candles on his cake.

Now the cake, was another story. Again, with not much energy to do fancy things, I went to the store and saw a clearance Happy Memorial Day cake for really cheap. I simply scraped off the "Memorial" and we had a Happy Day cake.  I ma so glad Kimball is easily pleased :) One day Big Guy, I'll give you a great party.

 On Kimball's real birthday the next day, we dropped Tionne off at his parent visit and took the boys out to breakfast at McDonald's.

 We then went to the Pima Air Museum to see the 80 acres of planes and other aircraft.

 The boys loved the hands on stuff. Getting to fly and control planes

 We got a jet flying overhead in the following shot--along with some bunny ears. Kimball got to pick out his own jet for an early present.

After we picked up Tionne, we went to the theater to see Epic.

                                          

 Race tracks, cars and gum and this boy is pleased.  He wanted a "really cool race track."

 Kimball's birthday request was McDonalds chicken nuggets, peas and chocolate milk.

 I attempted to make a batman cake, but the icing was too runny and turned into a blob...poor Kimball had some funky cakes. But it did take great and he wasn't too disappointed.

Happy Birthday Kimball! We love you very much!  You are such a happy, strong, tall kid who just loves to laugh and enjoy life.  You love wrestling with Dad, going to the pool, and adventures in the desert. You are very smart and a great reader. You still have a strong tendency to want things (some things at least), to be very neat and organized...like your plate, napkin, and silverware have to be very neatly placed; and when you set your clothes out for the next day they are VERY neatly folded and stacked. And I love that you think the 2 dots on your chest are belly buttons :)

Kindergarten Graduation and last day of school

 I was so cute to see Kimball graduate from kinder.  He is a smart kid and we were able to survive the 2 suspensions :)  Luckily 1st grade is going much better now that there is a different mix of kids.

 My cute little politician below and his sweet teacher Mrs. Avelar and principle Mr. Topp.

 Of course the best part was going back to class afterward and eating all the treats.

 The last day of school each class performs their own skit. Joey's class did wakin up is hard to do. Cuttie Joey, taking after mom and dad, was embarrassed being in front of everyone, but he was so cute and giggly. (white shirt, blue pants in back)

 Kimball's class sang their 1st grade song to show they are ready to move up.

 After the performances we went to a yummy Mexican restaurant and stuffed ourselves with chips and dip and them over stuffed some more when the food came out.  The boys did a great job this year and we are very proud of them.

 Tionne loved the little fountain out front

Memomrial Day Family Triathlon and lunch

This memorial Day I was really missing the Captextri in Austin Texas.  So i decided to make our own family triathlon for anyone who wanted. It was really fun to have our boys do their first mini tri. They did a great job and it wss fun to do it together. 

We had some friends from the ward join us in the fun adventure.

We did the bike, run, and then swim.

                                  

 Tionne got tired so I carried him through the "run. It is definitely more of a jog when you're

pregnant and carrying a toddler :)

 We decided to end with the swim so all the kids (and adults) could cool off.

 Joey was pooped by the end

 My awesome girl I train, Michele Vercimack, did her own first tri and did awesome. I was so proud of her.

After a fun, early morning tri, we went to Errie's group home and picked her up for the rest of the day so we could all go take the rafts on the lake, eat and swim at the water park.

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