Hard Work Paid Off

Roderick has been wanting a new bike for quite sometime so my mom came up with a great idea that he should earn his own money to buy his own bike.  So he agreed.  He spent many weekends at my moms house helping her mow the lawn, dusting, vacuuming, trimming trees, picking up garbage, playing and entertaining his sisters and younger cousins.  He did whatever was asked of him.  Sometimes it was hard for him to want to say yes but then he thought of that bike that he wanted and did it with no questions asked.  He worked so hard for this bike.  Thanks mom for the idea and helping him out and thanks to everyone else who pitched in a dollar here and a dollar there.  We are so proud of you Roderick. Thank you for all your hard work.  He loves his new bike.

Happy Birthday Maya and Roderick

Roderick and Mayas birthday are 1 day apart so it gets a little crazy at our house with birthday parties.  This year I thought I would try and do cakes for them.  So with some advice from my dear friend Lori I was able to pull it together. I had so much fun doing them I can't wait to do another one.  We celebrated Mayas 3rd birthday on Sunday and had her favorite meal which is hot dogs lately.  Then we were able to hook up to skype and have my brother via web cam for cake and presents.  That was a lot of fun. 

We celebrated Rodericks 7th birthday and had some friends and family for some cake and ice cream. While Roderick was at school I decorated the house and made a big poster for the window I also did his cake while he was away.  When he got home everything was ready for him.   He was so surprised when he got home and when I looked at him to see his expression he was crying and I asked him what was wrong and he just gave me a thumbs up with a big hug and said mom everything is just perfect.  It melted my heart.   We will be having a friend party for him tomorrow.  I will make sure to post about it.  I sure love my kiddos and can't believe how fast they are growing up.  It is so fun watching them go through each stage. 

The weekend before Rodericks birthday my mom kept him overnight and Rodrigo and I painted his room and decorated it like the Chivas soccer team.  When he came home he couldn't believe it.  It turned out great.  That was also a fun early birthday surprise for him.  His dream is to play for the Chivas when he grows up. 

Happy Birthday to Kidney!

September 2oth was the 1 year anniversary of my dad receiving his new kidney.  We decided to do a little surprise party at Grandpa Porks.  It was pretty fun the kids just wanted my dad to keep walking in the house and saying surprise.  They loved that part.  We had some Chinese food and some yummy cake made by the Knight family.  Before cake Lexi asked if we could sing Happy Birthday to the Kidney.  So we did.  It actually was kind of emotional.  It was a great idea if you think about it.  We are so glad that dad is here with us today still fighting as hard as he can and being such a great trooper.  We love him so much. 

Pumpkin Patch

My moms work had a family night at the J&J nursery for the pumpkin patch.  We have done this for the last couple of years and the kids get so excited about it.  They take you on a little hayride to the pumpkin patch and you get to pick out your pumpkin and then ride back.  It is really fun for the kids and I actually really enjoy it myself.  The weather was beautiful that night.  Roderick and Rodrigo were determined to find the biggest pumpkins they could and the girls wanted little ones.  We told the kids as long as you can carry your own you can have any one you want.  Of course we were just teasing them but they did a great job carrying there own pumpkins back.  Now if we could just find time to get them carved.





Preschool

Lexi started Preschool back in September.  Her teachers are Mrs. Benson and Mrs. Mangum. The same teachers that Roderick had.  She goes Monday thru Thursday for half a day at the elementary school.  It is a such a wonderful program and I couldn't ask for better teachers.  She loves going to school.  She was so excited when she came home her first day and told me that there was a Cameron and a Aubrey in her class.  She talks about them every day when she comes home.  It is so fun having a boy and a girl in school.  I have to ask Roderick 20 questions so he will tell me about his day and Lexi well she gets home and tells me every little detail and talks about it for days.  It is so much fun to watch her learn and grow.  She wants to stay all day long.  She is learning a lot and making a lot of great friends.  I can't believe she is in school now.  Maya wasn't so happy those first couple a weeks but I think she is liking the idea of being the only one with mom for half a day.

Zions National Park

For Labor Day weekend we decided to head to Zions.  I told Rodrigo that we should probably make sure we had a reservation but he said that there were so many camping spots that we didn't need to worry.  We headed out on Saturday morning at 6:00 with 3 other families and cars following behind us. This was the first time they had been camping for most of them.  We arrived at the park around 11:30 and when we pulled up the signs posted said all camp grounds full.  The kind park ranger gave us a piece of paper that gave us phone numbers and addresses to near by campgrounds that we could check out.  I was hoping that we would not have to turn around and drive all the way back home.  We called about 7 places on the paper and the 2nd to last one we called had spots available but it was another hour drive to get there.  We talked to a guy that saw us trying to figure something out and told us  that there was a place down the rode that was free that we could camp at but there were no toilets or water.  The entire group decided that would be o.k.  I didn't agree with 3 little ones and 2 of them being girls.  We went and checked it out there were a lot of people pitching there tents but while we were trying to find a spot a man stopped us and said that someone was going through the camp and robbing people.  So we decided that was not the best choice and started driving one more hour to our destination.  We finally arrived and it was not so bad after all we got to camp right next to a lake it was pretty fun.  The kids got to play in the water.  We decided to just hang out at camp the first day and then the next day we would go to Zions. The next morning when we got to Zions we didn't realize that you had to shuttle into the park so we drove on a road with construction for the first couple of hours when we realized that we were on the wrong road.  We drove back down the canyon parked the car and got on the shuttle.  We decided we would hike the emerald pools.  It was a pretty hard hike.  The kids were troopers.  I think they helped me more than I helped them.  We had a really great time.  It is beautiful there.  When we got back to camp that night the wind had picked up and broke our E-Z up canopy and had collapsed one of the families tents.  So in the dark we were trying to put everything back together when we finally did it was 9:30 and we still had to fix dinner.  We got dinner fixed and everyone put in bed and after everyone had finally fell asleep the wind picked up and it broke all 3 of the family tents we were lucky that we had my mom and dads pop up.  So all of our friends had to sleep in there cars.  Lets just say we packed up early that morning and headed home. When we got to the exit of the campground we had to wait for 1 hour because there was about 3 feet of red sand that had blown on the road and they were trying to push it to the side because cars were getting stuck in it.  We were all just laughing at this point because so many things went wrong on this trip.  It will be a trip that we will never forget.  We also had frogs, scorpions, mice, and bats going through our camp.  I don't think our friends will be going camping with us any time soon.  I was so happy to get home. 

Cousin Fun

This summer the kids had so much fun together.  We did so many activities and had some fun sleep overs.