Eat at Chili's

Tomorrow all of the Chili's Restaurants in the East Valley will donate 10% to the Stock family. So please go eat lunch or dinner and help them out. It's such a simple way to help. Just be sure to tell them that your there to help the Stock family. Thank you!

Family Christmas Party

Every year my grandma and grandpa put on a Christmas party for the grand kids. She does such a great job. First we have dinner and then the little kids do a craft. After that Santa stops by and brings each child a gift. Then we do a pinata and cookies with hot chocolate. Yum! Thanks grandma and grandpa for a fun night.

Jackson wasn't to sure about Santa but once he gave him candy and goodie bag he liked him.

Bargain Hunters

Hey all you bargain hunters! My mom's neighborhood where we live is having a community yard sale this Friday November 6th and Saturday the 7th. Be there early because it starts at 6:00 a.m. Hopefully it will be good. We will not be participating however I will be out on the hunt for something, who knows what but I'm sure I will just have to have it. Oh, and did I mention it's all phases of the Queen Creek Ranchetts. So just thought I would pass the good word along!

Schnepf Farms

My Mom and I took the kids to Schnepf Farms also over the break. They had a lot of fun going on all the rides and kicking up dirt. It wasn't very crowded so that made it nice. I think Jackson's favorite was the playground. Avery's favorite was the bee ride because she got to ride with grandma.

Now this one was kind of scary because they ride it by themselves and it goes up and down. I was afraid that Jackson might jump out, but he did okay.I love this picture with Jackson's arm around Avery. Makes me think they do actually like each other. Or he just didn't realise he was doing it.

October Break

For October break Heidi invited us to the ranch. My kids have never been and I had only been once when Heidi and Fletcher were married. So we jumped at the chance to go, we just wished daddy didn't have to work. My kids had so much fun running around outside and seeing new things. Jackson loved looking at the horses. We took a day trip into Albuquerque and went to some thrift stores with the kids. Us moms spent some time crafting and enjoying each others company. Jackson and Avery got to ride a horse for the first time. Jackson just liked to sit on it and if it moved he would scream. Avery did like it and was very proud of herself when she was done. These are some pictures that I took around the ranch. Thanks for the good times Heidi! This is the old ranch house where Fletcher lived, once upon a time.
Jackson on "Cookie."

Beau (I love this kid)

Avery on "Jake."

Jackson cautiously looking at the goats. The kids liked looking at the goats until we told them, "not to get to close they will bite your fingers off." They all seemed to scatter after that.

Avery's 4 years old!

This was Avery's first official birthday party with friends and invitations. In the past her birthday is has been on labor day weekend so we were always out of town and that was my excuse for not doing a party. This year it wasn't so I had no excuses. We decided on a fairy party. Avery was so excited. I enlisted the help of my sister in law who is amazing and did tons of the work. The party was so much fun, I just love this group of girls they are all so nice and polite to each other. These are some of the pictures taken at the party again by my sister in law wendyshepherdphotography.blogspot.com . We started by reading Alice the Fairy book which I love and then we played fairy, fairy, troll (like duck duck goose) musical fairies. Then we decorated our jars with stickers that we later used to collect pennies that the tooth fairy dropped for us. Then we ate sandwiches in the shape of a butterfly and had fairy fizz (raspberry lemonade w/ pop rocks) to drink. We sang happy birthday and ate our daisy cupcakes, opened presents and then hunted for our pennies. Lot's of pics and lot's of fun. Thanks Wendy, Heidi and mom for all of your help!

Family photos in Newport

We took family photos while we were their and the boys were not to happy about that. My mom's friend found us the photographer and he met up with us before the boys came back home to work. They turned out nice and now that it's over I'm so glad we did it. These are a few of them. The whole family. Don't worry we will crop out the 2 guys in the background.

My hair does not do well in the humidity of southern California .

Newport Beach

THE BEACH

Oh how we already miss the beach. The kids played for hours in the sand and more importantly took long naps. Sorry there are a lot of pictures I couldn't decide. They had a big storm come while we were there. I mean BIG! Water was running down the streets from the ocean. They built up the sand on the beach with tractors the day before to try and prevent that from happening but it didn't work. A body surfer died at the wedge. You can see from these pictures how huge the waves became and how dangerous. They only let professional out for a certain amount of time.

Before the storm.

After. The waves were 15+ feet clearing the pier.

FASHION ISLAND MALL

Fashion island mall is the best mall ever. They have so many things to do there we could have spent all day there. These are some of the things we did not to mention shopping and eating. A must do if you are ever in Newport.

Jackson loved the koi pond.

The kids wanted to ride the escalator so bad. And let me tell you it was so much fun.
We rode the carousel.
BALBOA ISLAND
We took the ferry over to Balboa Island it is this quaint island that is only 7 miles long so you can easily walk the whole island.The kids thought the ferry was so cool three cars ride on it with you and the people/bikes sit on the sides and you ride across the bay to the island. They have this cute little downtown with shops and the original hand dipped chocolate banana (I didn't have one).

They have amazing houses and gardens there.
Jackson loved the horse.
This was the cutest shop it was a tea party shop. They had a little girls birthday party going on while we were there and they dress up in these big hats and fancy dresses. Every little girls dream. This is the closest Avery will ever get.
This is one of their fire trucks on the island obviously not the one they use on a regular basis. They do have one engine for the whole island.