Driving...

Me- Are you rolling your eyes at me?

Niko- No I was just looking up at that bird up there.

Me- Whatever

*we laugh*

Niko- I sometimes roll my eyes at my brother when we're playing because he can be annoying

Me- He is just excited to have you for a brother. He loves playing with you and it's the coolest thing that he has a big brother.

Niko- I know. Was I excited when he was born?

Me- You were very excited to have a baby.

Niko- Yeah, a baby, not a brother *laughs*

Me- No you were excited that he was a brother too. Imagine if he was a girl. You'd have to deal with the whining and crying and silliness that you get from a girl. Gosh, that would be worse than having a brother that is excited to play with you.

Niko- Yeah, but I would have had my own room...

Me- Oh, because she would be sharing a room with Bethany. True.

Niko- Yeah all these years I've been sharing a room, I would have had my own room.

*we laugh*

WEST VALLEY EVENTS COMMEMORATE 9/11

While we were at a 9-11 event in the Phoenix Valley on Sept 11th a reporter followed Matthew around as he toured the Peoria Fire engine. Turns out he made it in the paper.

Article excerpt from yourwestvalley.com (click on the link to view the whole story) If you go to the actual article link, his picture is the last one in the slide show. The comments are at the end of the article.

PEORIA

Andriana Clesceri watched as her 8-year-old son, Matthew, received a tour of a fire truck Sunday afternoon at the Peoria Sports Complex.

Clesceri looked on as a firefighter explained the engine to her son.

“It’s fantastic that he’s getting a chance to find out how important firefighters jobs are,” she said. “I truly appreciate everything they do as well as police officers and military because it’s their job to keep us safe.”

The Goodyear resident and others were at 9/11 Memorial — Hope — 10 Years Later at the Peoria Sports Complex.

The Wedding

Kevin and Tiffany had a beautiful wedding on Saturday. They have been dating for 9.5 years. They met when they were 16, working at Magic Mountain. Over the past years, they have grown up together really. They have grown to love each other's families and can't imagine each other without each other. We were so excited to share in their beautiful and unique wedding. They put their own creativity into it and it was fabulous and so 'them'.

The wedding was in Temescal Park. Beautiful setting!

Everyone looked stunning and beautiful and handsome. Weddings are so fun to get dressed up for and specialed up...

Kevin was so fun to watch his expressions as he waited for Tiffany to come around to the isle. You could tell he was soaking in the moment, the big picture of everything. And then he looked down and saw her standing there...
She was such a beautiful, sweet bride!
The ceremony was short and sweet and had many cool symbols of tradition in it. The vows made me cry. "Promise to love who you are and trust you in what I do not yet know..." or something like that. But it was very cool. About 9 minutes total...Mike timed it

The reception was a great party. There as a little bit of dancing, finger foods (that olive stuff was amazing!!) Then the NomNom lunch wagon came for dinner. It is one of their favorites. It was a very personalized, unique memory of THEIR wedding for sure. The food was great and half the fun was waiting in line for it. It was a whole social thing.

Kevin and Tiffany were right there, calling out the order numbers, helping guests with their food and having a great time.
It was such a wonderful time. Lots of smiles and laughing and good family times. We are so happy for Kevin and Tiffany and so glad that they had a wedding that everyone will remember.

We had some good times in between the big events too. It was fun visiting with Chris and karen and hanging with them. It was a blast getting to know Dallas. He is such a smart cookie. He taught me what a wombat was :) We got to see Chase before he went off to school. He is such a doll too. Those two boys are adorable. Love the family time.

Friday we headed to the Eco Station. They rescue animals and rehabilitate them. Chris and Karen were going to go to the zoo, but when plans for that fell through with everyone else, they decided to join us at the EcoStation. It was pretty interesting. We learned some things. And then after it was great to meet some of the people that Mike works with over at the office.

Niko liked the bobcat...
Friday night was a great time of cousins, aunts, grandmas, uncles...lots of people from lots of different limbs of this huge family tree :)
Saturday more family came in and we had even more fun visiting and laughing and enjoying the love before the wedding!

Knott's Berry Farm

This past week we have been in CA visiting family. Mike's cousin got married on Saturday so we headed over a few days early to spend some time with family and cousins and aunts and uncles. Matthew stayed in AZ with grandma (my mom) so it was just the four of us.

On Thursday we headed to Knott's. Being that everyone is in school, the place was empty. we walked right onto the rides...all of them. (well maybe not all of them, but ay one we wanted to go on)...Like Camp Snoopy rides :)

Yep, they made their rounds and went on all the camp snoopy rides they could...and they had a blast!

this was them 5 years ago! Weren't they adorable?

The Pony Express ride was awesome!!



Fun times and great memories!!

‎9/11 Never Forge

It's not a profession, career, or job..To us its a calling. Don't mourn our fallen brothers or sisters, instead let their memories live on for the passion they had to help and serve others. When we sign up we know that sometimes all that go in don't always come out. For those that haven't made it out I will forever keep your memories alive.

BRÁITHEREACHAS THAR GACH NÍ....Brotherhood Above All Else

‎"Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks. Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you shall be the miracle.” ~ Phillips Brooks

This week in photos...

Got some photos from this week off the camera.

Niko is here with his class, getting ready to start.

Reviewing strokes.
Bethany doing relays and sprints with Pre-Swim...
Catching her breath...
After all that hard work, how about a piece of yummy Banana Cake with Chocolate Glaze...yummm....Hey, it's made with whole wheat flour, it's healthy!! hehe
This is pretty much what it's been like this week...
Check out the water coming off the rain gutter! Crazy...
Which is why this guy probably wandered in...He was originally inside. I killed him. No easy task! It's guts literally spewed out and it sprang back to form and kept crawling around. The bug spray had no effect on him whatsoever. It was horrid, absolutely horrid! I screamed and Matthew cried. Mike wasn't home, of course, but he'd probably be up on a chair anyhow. I have a handle on spiders, beetles, ants, those stupid tailless scorpions, and even scorpions. But these ugly things. Plain atrocious.
Matthew kept yelling, "GET IT OUT OF MY HOUSE!!" So I threw it out on the patio. Guess who's sleeping in my bed? Isn't it funny that kids think that a parents bed is free from anything scary at all? No bugs or spiders or bad dreams could ever find there way into a mommy's bed, huh?

Realizing that I haven't been bringing my camera along too much lately. Makes the blog posting not as jazzy...We'll work on that.

So Niko began swimming class this week. He's in preparation for swim team. Taking a class to review some strokes. He loves being back in the water. He is doing good and looks forward to going to class.

Because Bethany missed out on volleyball because of her knee, she is doing pre-swim team also. It gives her an awesome cardio workout for conditioning and it focuses on teamwork as well...She feels good afterwards.

Matthew is able to swim around in the other pool (for now) while the two older ones are busy.

Bethany's big project was turned in this week for one of her classes. They had to design an artificial limb and it had to be able to grab candy from the bottom of a 5 gal water jug. She put forth a good, creative effort, and was able to grab some candy which means she succeeded and passed the assignment. :)

Matthew had a good week too. He is trying hard and talking with his teacher today, he is described as a very happy little kid, always willing to help out, and always eager to learn. Of course he is, he's my 'Superstar' :) (so are the other two, but he's our superstar at his school)

Niko completed some Unit tests this week and did very well on them. He is learning how to answer essay questions on these tests. 5th grade requires more work than 4th, that's for sure. But he is doing great with the challenges. He is very intelligent. He loves getting school finished on time and staying on schedule.

Man, has the thunder and lightening been active this week. Downpours of rain, hail...There's supposed to be a super-nova this weekend, but I don't know if we'll be able to see it at all with the clouds...It's interrupted Niko's and my hiking schedule.

Mike started up at Crossfit Prescott this week. He is loving it and getting his booty handed to him. There is a really huge, beautiful, new, massive Crossfit that just opened in Prescott. It's actually a little intimidating and doesn't have that good family feeling when you walk in. It's so pretty, you are afraid to drop sweat on the floor-not a good feeling for Crossfit. Mike's been waiting to see what was going on with the two 'boxes'/gyms before starting up. After doing a couple workouts at the original, smaller, not as glitzy box, he felt more at home there. When I went there, I could feel the difference too. Fell in love :)

Mike has been at AZ State Fire Training from yesterday until Sunday down in Phoenix with a group of guys from Prescott Fire. He has been working hard, learning a lot, and reconnecting with several guys he has known and worked with from Phoenix and Tucson areas. It has been good so far.

Cruisin' On A Sunday Afternoon...

Labor Day Weekend...I guess it's the official nationwide "End of Summer" weekend...Doesn't really fit somehow though. I mean it used to, when we were kids, when our summer did officially end after this weekend. But now, kids have already been in school a month and it's not like the weather cools off magically after this weekend. But it's a good weekend to get stuff done that we've been waiting all summer to do, that's for sure! So, Saturday we worked around the house, cleaned up/organized the garage. Unpacked a tad, ensy, wensy bit more. (Yes, we still have boxes are yet to be unpacked)

Yesterday we got in the car and headed a short trip up the mountain to Jerome and Sedonia. Forgot that the rest of AZ had the same idea. But it was still fun, close and got us out of the house.

We saw beautiful views at the ridge of the mountain to the east that divides us from Sedona. We stopped off at Mingus 'Lake' (pond really). The views were breathtaking beautiful.




We came down the mountain through Jerome. Kids haven't really seen it yet. The fire station was having an open house so we of course, had to stop in, check out the trucks. We chatted with one of the captains and the chief gave us a tour of the inside of the station. It is a great station with a ton of history to the area. Love how the fire stations in these smaller towns are always a pillar in the history of the community. Some things never change.

We stopped at a great little restaurant in Cottonwood, Georgies, and filled up on some yummy hometown cooking, and then went through Sedona and on up to Flagstaff. It was a fun and pleasant Sunday drive, despite the traffic. Love that all this additional beauty is just a short drive away.

Bountiful Baskets This Week

Bountiful Basket offering this week...

Oh how we love our Saturday mornings. The anticipation of what we'll come home with...

The Conventional Basket this week had a head of romaine lettuce, a bunch of spinach, a bag of carrots, a bunch of celery, 7 ears of corn, 22 new potatoes, 12 italian plums, 5 bosc pears, 6 nectarines, 2 mangos, a bunch of very sweet mini grapes, and a bunch of bananas

We added on a Mexican Pack this week. 2 avocados, a bunch of cilantro, about 12 jalepenos, 3 green chilies, about 9 tomatillos, about 12 limes, 2 yellow onions, and a clove of garlic.

I made authentic Chili Verde last night with all the tomatillos and some of the other stuff. It was yuuuummy!!

Had a conversation with Matthew today about nicknames, or "second names" as he calls them. He was telling me that everyone at school, even his teacher, calls him Matt, "It's cooler"...Oh gosh, that just sounded odd to me-Matt. I knew this day would come, but he just DOES.NOT fit the name "Matt" to me yet. I tried to wrap my head around it, get a grasp on it, as I looked at him and said "Matt?...Matt"...Ummm...just didn't set and he even laughed when I said it, at it's oddity coming out of my mouth. "Other people might call you Matt, but I'll stick with Matthew for now"...I guess it's a mom thing.