Wow how time flies!

It is May, it has been awhile since I posted a new entry! Tomorrow is the last day of school and the house is filled with the smell of cake for Abbey's 10th birthday party we are having right after school tomorrow!

Ten years! I can't hardly believe it! She is not my first to reach that mile stone but at times she seems so much younger and older all at once.

She is just finishing up 4th grade, she is one of the youngest kids in her grade...most of the kids have passed the 10 year mark...Abbey has done a lot in her 10 years...

She went to her first major league baseball game when she was just 5 days old.

She was born a city girl we lived in the heart of downtown Phoenix.

When she was born had one grandpa (Carl) and a great grandfather(the great One), two grandmas (mom and sue) and two great grandmas (my grandmothers). Ten years later she has One great grandfather (the great one) gained and lost a grandpa (Bill)and three grandmas (Mom Sue and Bana) and two Great grandma's (G.G. my grandma and Grandma Jean, Jims grandma). She has lost but also gained!

When she was born she had one brother, 10 years later she has two. Tim 11 and Max 3.

She has been to both coasts and the sea of Cortez. At 7 she parasailed and 9 she surfed.

She has grown oh man has she grown, a few days before her birthday she is just over 5 feet tall!

She is spirited, never afraid to be different or to really care what others might thing. She is far more confident than I was at her age. She is caring and loyal, she has a big heart. She is never afraid to try new things and never shy around other people!

She plays volleyball and has tried other sports tennis, t-ball, basketball and even gymnastics.

She is a pesky little sister and a helpful mothering big sister.

What will the next 10 years bring, we wait at the edge of our seats to find out, I am sure they will be filled with joy adventure angst and all those lovely things that go with teen age years....

But mostly I hope they are filled with love and laughter and good friends....to help her get through it all!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Abbey!

Somedays you win somedays you....well you know...

I am glad to report today it was a win, even when it seems there are so many things that could be and are going on that are not in the "win" catagory!
I didn't have work today, and while that sounds great it is just a reminder that I need to get another job. I decided to take advantage of the time with Max while Tim and Abby were at school. He had a little bit of birthday money and I thought we would go to the mall and see where that took us. As I was getting ready Jim called from work and asked if I would bring him something he forgot. Max loves to go to Daddy's work because it means a trip to the airport and there are so many things that he loves there! On the way they we drove though Papago Buttes by the zoo, Max exclaimed Mommy mountain! I want to climb it! So we drove on to the airport and we saw the new light rail trains (very exciting) then a large crane, and of course plane after plane. It was a trip filled with ooohhhs and wows! On the way back I decided we would "take a hike" Max was VERY excited! So we pulled into Papago Park, I though hole in the rock would be the perfect "hike". We drove in at the zoo entrance and right away he knew where he was, I thought we might have to take a quick walk around the zoo, but he was focused he wanted to hike! We drove around found a parking place and started up the hill! I asked him to stop to take a picture and he was not going to have that! "No Mommy hiking" He raced up the back of the hill which is mostly stairs out of railroad ties. When he spotted "the hole" he asked' Who made that" I let him know that god and the wind did.
Here he is in his victorious moment!


Here he is with the zoo in the back ground
When we got to the bottom we checked out the pond near the car. He is waving at the ducks. Carefree skipping across the bridge...

We went to the mall and picked out a new "Cars" toy and had fun just wandering the mall. It is interesting to see where a almost 3 year old will take you!

Tomorrow we are celebrating Max's 3rd birthday! I enjoyed today so much, he is really putting his words together and becoming such a little man. I am going to take advantage of this time with him. Max gets the short end of the stick a lot catering to the older kids schedules and activities, it was nice to have a carefree day..... and all day all I could imagine was my Dad smiling from ear to ear to have another hiker in the family!

15 dollars a week!

That is my new saving plan!
I just have to do that for the next 8 years!

See my dear friend Sandra and her family are planning on going home in just over a year, back to Australia, I get misty even thinking about it. But being the resourceful girls we are we hatched a plan. My friend Marin and I will both have big milestone birthdays the same year, so we are going to have the ultimate girls night out and go visit Sandra and family in Australia!
See the thing is about big plans like this is the more people you tell the more accountable you are to MAKE IT HAPPEN! Sandra figured out over lunch that if we save 15 dollars a week for the next eight years we will have over 6,000 to have a great blow out of a trip!
So I am telling you all my BLOG readers! Ask me how much I have saved!

We figured out our boys will be 18 and our girls will be 16 so we will have so catching up to do! That is if we survive the teen years with our girls!

Who wants to come with us?? 15 dollars a week that is it! I think I might have it auto deducted from my paychecks, hack I might even go for 40 a pay check! Maybe we can fly first class!