I’m sure everyone can tell that KJ is growing up fast now. I know it seems that she is now 14 going on …college; but a look at where she spends her time and effort helps to understand what she is really about. As she turns 14, the things that are most important to her are now her young women’s program, seminary, school, cheer, and her family. She spends 99% of her waking time on church, school, cheer, and family activities; and that is not an exaggeration. When she was 10, the things that were most important to her where school, family, church, cheer, violin, and playing with friends and fam. So, you can see that she has really not changed too much. She just stopped playing with friends and her violin. She really misses the violin and begs us to take lessons. But, we ask “when would you like to take lessons?” This brings up another change in KJ’s life. She is the busiest kid I know. Her big brother is very busy, but she has him beat. Her daily schedule is something like this:
4:50 – get ready for school
5:45 – go to seminary
6:45 – go to school
3:20 – school is out, go to cheer practice
6:30 – cheer practice ends, go to mutual or cheer for a game
9:00 – do homework, read scriptures
11:00 – go to bed

KJ is our sleeper. I’m not sure if it has to do with her lack of sleep during the week, but she can really sleep in. I have a little cold, so I took some medicine the other night and slept until 9 AM. I got up and joked that I had pulled a KJ. But, she was still asleep for another hour. So, in that small way, she is a true teenager.

KJ is not really infatuated with boys yet. I’m happy to report that yesterday I asked her to name her 5 favorite boys; she responded with Dad, Kyle, Tanner…she then paused. This is where I was waiting for the name of some boy at church or school. I was mistaken. She continued with the names of her male cousins; who are all 10 and under.

Kj is, however, very excited for the stake dances. She has her first dance this Wednesday. She’s lucky to be going with her big brother.

KJ has developed a special relationship with Kyle that will likely carry through to adulthood. While her attitudes and activities advance in maturity, she’s becoming a wonderful little lady. I’ve noticed that Amy and I are starting to treat her more like an adult as each day passes. I honestly don’t remember that last time we corrected KJ. She is a smart, focused, driven, sweet, tender, principled young woman who is guided more by her testimony of the Savior and the Restored Gospel than by any other thing.

The most telling thing I can say about KJ is that she has many pieces of knowledge to learn in this life, but she is wiser than nearly every adult I have ever known.

Happy Birthday Kjirsten.

Sixteen years ago today a little teen-age girl gave birth to a skinny little baby. I had only been back from active Army duty for three days. I too was skinny and young. Amy and I had just worked through the hardest 9 months or our lives. Finally, he was born and everything has been easy-street from there. It finally seems like a long time ago that Kyle was born. He has been here for Amy’s and my entire adult life. He has grown from my favorite little buddy to an exemplary young man. You always have grandiose wishes for your children and I wonder if reality always outperforms your dreams. Kyle is as fine a man as any I have ever met.
Today, Amy and I experience measureless joy as I ordained Kyle to the office of Priest and we were blessed to witness his patriarchal blessing. So many spiritual thoughts, memories, feelings, and promptings; all are too personal to share. But, I must say, this is one of the finest days for a father. I can’t imagine more happiness. I held Amy’s little hand as Kyle saw his existence laid out before him. A true fulfillment of the efforts and dreams since the day I held Amy’s little hand as she labored to bring him into the world sixteen years ago.

Happy Birthday Kyle!! Thank you for sharing it all with us. You are a fine example of what a young man should be.

I am grateful beyond words for the calling I have to serve as a father to my kids and a husband to my Amy. This morning was especially spiritually rich for me. On a day which could represent such dismay for the country I love, I was surrounded by tender mercies.

Our Priesthood leaders asked us to support Prop 102 and my family responded. They did all they were asked to do and more. My wife and kids displayed the faith required to accomplish anything. I can truly say these kids, Kyle, Kjirsten, Cicely, Alycia, and Tanner, as well as thier mother, are the types of disciples who would have pushed the hand-carts wherever their Prophet asked. The Lord does my work for me. All is well when you have a family like this.

I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.

Guns & Mormons

Just using my first amendment right to express my other first amendment right and my second amendment right.

Ah, guns and Mormons, we mix like chocolate and milk.

Disclaimer

Since we are always begging friends and family to come visit the wild west of Tucson, we need to post a disclaimer. We will now be requiring signed liability waivers for any and all visitors. We cannot be held liable for injury or death related to, or arising from encounters with any of the following wild beasts—which are all common to the area:
Rattle snakes of any kind, Javelina, Scorpions, Foot-long Sonoran Centipedes, Coyotes, ROUSs, Tarantulas, Wolf spiders, Brown Recluses, Coral Snakes, Aliens ( not the green kind ), Janet Napolitano, or Liberals

Sweeeeeet

Alright, so first we’ll start out with the boring girly-girl stuff. Alycia, Cissy and I all went and got haircuts and highlights. That took like three and half hours and then we were starving so we went to the girls favorite restaurant and got some good ol’ Mexican cuisine. Then we went to get pedicures and we all had these little Vietnamese dudes doing them. They were totally talking about us in Vietnamese and it was really bothering me. They kept on asking Aly and Cissy questions but they would both just respond, “What?”, because the girls couldn’t understand a thing that they said. So I had to keep on translating and I finally just told them to nod and say okay and shake their heads and then look away because I didn’t feel like translating anymore. It sort-of worked except when the guy told Cissy to stay put for a minute while the polish dried and she dutifully nodded and shook her head and got out of the chair to put her shoes on. He about had an aneurysm and so I had to tell her to sit back down and wait a minute. We then went to blockbuster and rented some chick flicks (Penelope and Nim’s Island) and grabbed some goodies and headed home. Lots of fun and pampering was had by all. Until……….. they got word of the amazing experiences the other group had.




Just as Amy was taking Cicely and Alycia to the hair salon, Tanner and I checked KJ and Kyle out of school and drove to Phoenix for the game. We drove straight to the Marriott adjacent to the stadium and checked in. The room was great and overlooked the stadium. We then had some light dinner and went to the game. I told the kids we had seats in the nose-bleed section, so they were surprised as we entered the lower level and kept descending the stairs until we reached the first row, 45 yard-line just behind the Bronco bench. The kids were extremely excited about our seats and the whole experience. The stadium roof was closed and AC was blaring. As the Broncos jogged to the sideline, we started to call out their names and get some waves and thumbs-up. We had a great time cheering and talking to our favorite players. Most waved at us or gave us some kind of sign. As we cheered the players, the Cardinals fans next to us would sometimes give our guys crap and it was fun to see them react or not. Brandon Marshall kept making fun of the bald guy next to me and did some funny loser signs to them. I asked how many sacks Jarvis Moss would get this year and he shrugged; he then went on the field and sacked Leinart. He came right back, took off his helmet and said he’d get about one sack this year. I was very impressed with the Broncos players. They didn’t listen much to the Cardinal fans yelling but responded all the time to us, their fans. We had little conversations with many of the Broncos and really enjoyed some of Marshall’s and Stokley’s antics. Champ Bailey gave us the nod quite a few times, which made Tanner’s year. Many of you know, Tanner is a huge Bailey fan. He has Champ’s poster on his wall and wears his jersey as often as we’ll let him. KJ is a huge Domonique Foxworth fan and Foxy gave us one thumbs-up right before the game, but got very serious; since he was actually playing all game. We were having the time of our lives and wanted a 6 quarter game. By the time the game ended, I had lost my voice, the Broncos spanked the Cards, we had interacted with our favorite team and we were on cloud nine. The game ended and players jogged to mid-field and we figured that was it. Until, Champ Bailey cooly strolled towards us and we were all a little shocked. He walked right up to Tanner, took off his hat and handed it to Tanner. I was too shocked to remember the camera in my hand. I had just snapped one of Bailey walking towards us and just remembered to take another as he walked away giving Tanner the thumbs-up. As the crowd pressed closer and we made sure Tanner wouldn’t have his prized souvenir stolen, Domonique Foxworth jumped the bench and walked straight to KJ, took off his gloves and handed them to KJ. Dozens of fans were reaching and tearing at KJ to get her souvenir, but her big stud brother was holding off one side and I was holding off the other. By the time we turned around, Kyle barely got a shot of Foxy walking away. We yelled our support of the two DBs and Tanner and KJ were shaking with glee. I was then able to see that Champ had signed the hat he gave to Tanner. It'll be tough to ever top this experience for the kids or for me. When we returned to the hotel room, Tanner said “I got Champs hat, Kjirsten got gloves, and Kyle got to give money to a hobo.”

Quick update

Not much time; Amy is taking Cicy and Aly to get their hair done in about 10 minutes. I'm taking Kyle, KJ, and Tanner to the Broncos game in Phoenix. The kids don't realize that I got 1st row 50 yard-line tix right behind the Bronco's bench. I'm just hoping to get a wave from Champ or whomever. I'm wearing my custom-made Spencer Larsen jersey, Kyle's wearing Brandon Marshall, Tanner's wearing Champ Bailey, and KJ's wearing her favorite Domonique Foxworth. I had to get KJ a custom jersey as well since they don't make Foxworth jerseys in ladies sizes. I'll post pics of the new hair and the game when we return. We're staying in Phoenix overnight since the game will be so late. So, mom and the girls are going to have a sleep-over in my room and watch chick stuff; like the recorded Palin speech from earlier today. Palin for Pres!!! Check out the sweet new pics of Cicy and KJ.

I think I can.......

It's time for a start-of-school update. Let's go youngest to oldest.

Tanner is being home schooled by Amy and is enjoying all the time
spent with his foxy teacher. He's taking all the normal classes for a
4th grader. He's also taking French; as are all the kids. He works
in the library on his own PC and desk.

Aly is also being taught by Amy. She's using the K12 system, which
you can read up on at k12.com. She is learning a lot and starting to
become more self-motivated. This is a necessity since Amy spends most
of the school day with Tanner. Aly uses the home PC, with a 26"
screen (spoiled), and her own desk area also. I'm happy to report
that my girls still get all dolled up like they were going to school each
day.

Cissy has really taken an academic and maturity leap this year. She
works through her curriculum with very little help or teacher
motivation. She works with the other kids in the library on a table
with Amy's laptop. We have another PC, but Cissy likes the pink
laptop.

KJ is attending Cienega HS. She's on the JV cheer team and working on
her student counsel run; more news on this when I get some. She is
taking all Honors classes except English, which the school filled
before KJ re-enrolled. We'll get her in the Honors class, but we need
to fight a little more and a little harder. We just got KJ's cheer
pics and they're way too cute,crap. KJ has lots of homework, but she gets
it done in near perfect state each day (night). She is still a great beehive president and really enjoys Cissy being in her class with her.

Kyle is now a sophomore at Cienega. He plays WR and C for the JV
team. He also has a crazy schedule with football, school, mission
work, teacher quorum president duties, eagle scout work, etc. He has all
Honors classes as well as AP Biology, and AP European History. Of
course, he's doing well with school and juggling his duties. He
drives to Seminary each morning and is becoming a decent driver. I'm
really not scared to have him drive on his own later this year.

Also, my kids' foxy teacher will probably be a grandma in 6ish
years……….think about it.

You can't improve perfection?

When I was Kjirsten's age, my parents gave me a Valentines card that read "You can't improve perfection". Well, we're trying now that the 4 oldest are all in braces.

We decided to use our trailer and go camping at Hawley Lake in the White Mountain Apache Reservation. Our trailer is stored just outside the reservation, so we had a nice drive with nothing to pull. We had no problem grabbing the trailer and heading to the camp site. Unfortunately, we were running a little late which meant it was dark and the camp office was closed when we got there. The Indians who run the place were still there, but our reservation was taken. So, they put us in the last spot. I loved the spot because it looked down on the lake and had plenty of room for a fire pit, and it was transverse to the other trailers. The spot was sloped a little more than slightly. Still, we backed in, unhitched and started to plug in. The electric plugged in fine and that was a blessing. The water was spilling out the bottom, on the downhill side. Kyle and I searched for the leak and found that our water heater had burst over the winter. Turns out the winterizing drain doesn’t drain the heater; you have to drain that separately. So, no hot water all weekend. I enjoyed the freezing mountain showers, but only Amy and I showered. BTW, Kyle didn’t smell. I disconnected the water and started leveling the trailer with the leveling jacks while Amy put together the inside. As KJ, Kyle and I jacked the downhill side and Amy was getting stuff out of the car; the jack slipped, the tongue fell and the trailer tipped toward the extended pop-out. My first reaction was to throw my shoulder into the falling trailer. Amy jumped toward us to hold it up too. The trailer is about 9,000 lbs. But, we weren’t thinking, just reacting. Tanner and the dogs were inside the trailer and had a good lurch. Chihuahuas are so skittish. Something to remember when training for weapons use. Of course, the trailer settled on its axels and didn’t fall. But I peed a little in my pants (threw them away later). We got the trailer as set as we were going to get that night and left the rest for the morning. We all slept at a fun angle that night. Next morning, we removed the heater and fixed 2 other leaks. We stabilized the tongue with an alter of rocks and reset it. We pulled the trailer through after moving a boat and pulled it onto some rocks to level. After the repairs, and positioning, we were in great shape and pulled out the awning. Our front door looked right down at the lake.

We then started to have less adventurous fun including fishing, crawdading, cow tipping, mallow roasting, hotdog roasting, puzzle making, movie watching, rowing, etc. We also went into town and had a great red-meat meal at one of our favorite steak places.

The trip was a great adventure and we learned that when things don’t go perfectly, the kids are more than willing to pitch in and have some fun while we’re at it.

No, I'm not insane

As some of you may already know, Elliot and I have decided to home school our children this year through an online program. We came to this decision after much prayer and thought and discussion with school administrators and, of course, the kids. We started thinking about this option after a few incidents regarding the schools and came to the conclusion that this will be the best path for our children at this time. At the end of the year, we will reassess the situation and decide where to go from there. I'm excited to work with my kids this year and I hope this turns out to be a good bonding experience for us all. I'm not stupid and I realize this will be A LOT of work but I'm positive that together we can accomplish anything. Kyle will still continue to play on the JV football team for the high school and KJ will continue to cheer for JV also. Arizona has a state law the mandates the local schools must let all home schooled kids participate in all the extra-curricular activities, as long as they make the cut(which Kyle and KJ already have done). So as long as I keep them active in outside activities and sporting programs, I'm not particularly worried about them missing out on any socializing. Besides, we all know that Elliot is a social butterfly and all the kids seem to be taking after him. Also, I hope that everyone realized that the picture of Alycia is her faced super-imposed on Queen Amidala, Tucson hasn't changed our values that much.

Happy 11th Birthday Lee-She!!!

Sometimes your kids put new posts on your blog and you know nothing about it until you get a call from someone asking about that post. I think I need to make it a rule that no new posts are published until Mom has proof read it. Some really embarrasing things could get out to the world faster than you can bat an eyelash and there would be no way to take it back! Anyway, enough of that. Tomorrow our sweet little Alycia ( or lee-she) will turn 11 years old. Holy CRAP, where does the time go? She is turning into quite the little lady though. She is taller than both her sisters and she is one fast little sucker! That chick can move and will one day be an awesome track star. Alycia is very athletic, but she also has a sweet, sensitive side to her that I think is sorely lacking in our society today. All these femi-nazis think women need to be demanding and crass and over-bearing, but our sweet Alycia is out to break the mold and we couldn't be more proud. When she was at a school function, this lady asked Alycia what she wanted to be when she grows up. Alycia replied that she would like to be a Mom. The lady told her to pick something else because a Mom wasn't appropriate. Alycia was upset and picked a different occupation. She came home that day and expressed her deep desire to be a mother. Alycia is the type of girl who is concerned about who she remembers to invite to her birthday party, not to ensure her populatiry at school, but to make sure she invites those girls who aren't usually invited to parties. Everybody loves Alycia. She has friends spanning many age groups....even a few boys. You'll find her playing guitar hero with stinky highschool boys in Kyle's room and then turn around to see her playing dolls with 2-year-old girls from the ward. It's a joy to have Alycia in our family and a joy to be her parent. I wish I could make her stay a little girl forever, but, I'm too late now so I look forward to watching her develop into the Daughter of a King that she obviously is.

Happy Birthday Alycia. We hope you enjoy your riding lessons.

No more having to wake up early for school!

This is Alycia and i just decided to write a post on the blog and there is really only one thing that is really worth writing on the blog and i am guessing that most of you know this already, but all of the kids are going to be doing school online this year. But if we don't like it then we will go back next year, if we like it we will most likely be doing school online for a really long time. If any of you already know this then i guess you don't really need to hear this! Anyway,we were all kind of scared and worried about the whole thing, but when our parents told us about it we sort of calmed down and decided to be open to ideas. As you know Kyle is in high school so it is a lot harder for him to adjust, i don't know why, but that is the way that it is. So i just wanted to say to you kyle,get over it! Anyway when our parents decided that we were going to do it we were not really surprised that we were going to do it. We took tests that decided what classes we would be in and, as far as i know, the the better you do on the test the better class that you get in! We got our results back and all that i know is that we all did really well. That's pretty much it though! I will keep you all updated about that and we will see what classes we all got!

Girl's Camp

Sorry it took so long to post. I've been having so much fun this summer. Anyways, we woke up around 6:15 to meet at the church. It's about an hour drive up the mountain, but once you're at the top there's no cactus! The first day was mostly setting up and greeting. We did activities by level with our Youth Camp Leaders (YCLs). THat first night I was in a tent with my friend, Ashlen- you'll see her in a lot of th pictures- and two other beehives. Cissy was with our othergood friend Alyssa- also in lots of pics (she's the really short blonde). We four were planning on all being together, but we ended up having assignments. Our ward is so big that they didn't have enough tents for us, so we brought some. We got exactly eight hours of sleeping because we went to bed at 10 and woke up at 6, but that time included teeth brushing and writing in our journals, etc.
The next day, Thursday, we went on the hikes. Cissy's first year one is more of a nature trail. There was a girl that got hurt so she and Alyssa ran there and back for a big first aid kit just to find out that she didn't like taking pills. I have no clue how she could've gotten hurt "hiking that". Mine was definately harder than last year, but it wasn't too bad. I made sure to stay at the very front with my friand the whole time so I could be first to the showers after the first years. It's more of a rinse off since it's one minute and freezing. We washed our hair outside. That night we did our skits. We were practicing at our camp site and it started raining then it was a really bad storm, so we all ran to the lodge and we stayed in there forever and performed our skits in there, too. That night we worked things out with some other girls and the leaders and Ashlen and I moved in to Cissy's tent. It was dark and their tent was a mess, so it took a while, but we got situated with Alyssa and Cicely on the air mattress and Ashlen and I were on foam ones. This year they had new tents, so they didn't allow cots, which was a bummer because last year when I had one, I slept so nicely. I survived on the foam, though.
Friday was our favorite day. We did rotations that included archery, paintball, crafts and a humanitarian project. I liked the paintball. Every day we had scripture time and it was very calm. We did a Battle of the Bishops that had family fued and knockout (some call it speed or lightning). Our team didn't win, but it was still very fun! That night was awesome. We did a singing trees thing where we all sang a hymn we previously prepared. Then came a testimony meeting with our ward. Everyone was crying their eyes out except me because for some reason I don't cry during spiritual stuff like that. IDK. Then we went to inspiration rock which looks over the whole city. It's very pretty at night. When we got back we went into extreme tiredness mode where we all went crazy. We were all so goofy and the leaders even started a breakdance- off. It was hilarious. Our ward started the pony game- a tradition at camp here. Lots of people from different wards joined in and it must have lasted for a good half hour. We had to stop because some cranky party-pooper campers said it was too loud and they needed their beauty sleep. When we went in our tent we were still in extreme tiredness mode, so we sang camp songs to ourselves. We got to sleep around midnight.
The next morning the scheduled wake up time was 6:30, but we had to get up at 5:30 to start packing up, otherwise we would have never gotten out of there. The final flag lowering was our ward, so I got to do it with my fellow second years. We ended up getting back around noon. We showered and then took a short nap until Tanner's loud friends started arriving for his party.
So that was our YW camp experience this year. It was awesome!!! We're already looking forward to next year when Alycia will be joining us. Speaking of Alycia, she was very happy when we got home and made sure to tell us how much she wanted to go with us. It couldn't have been too bad, though because she went and got a pedicure and went to lunch with Mom while we were gone. Well, ...that's all.

Happy Birthday Tannerman!!

Our youngest and most spoiled child(they go hand-in-hand) turns nine years old tomorrow and we are feeling quite old. We celebrated his b-day with a swim party on Saturday and we'll do a small family party tomorrow--since we are his only family around. The invite to visit is still WIDE open to anyone willing to make the trip, so we don't want to hear the excuse from anyone that they were never invited! Tanner invited many of his little buddies; several are as crazy as Tanner. They went 100% for 3 hours and it was great to see Tanner amongst his own kind. It was like letting a spider monkey go in a cage of other monkeys and watching the fun unfold for 3 hours. There was lots of throwing, catching, running, jumping, yelling, flipping, flopping, and no crying--cause no girls were invited. Tanner got an electric guitar from us as he always wants to be like Kyle; no complaints here. The girls arrived safely home from girls camp a few hours before the party on Saturday. They had a great time, but we'll let them fill you in. We did notice one thing....although our girls are not usually grumpy, they sure were cranky after girls camp. But, after a little nap they were back to their usual sweet selves; which was good since several families came over after the party to hang and swim and our girls are the best lifeguards/babysitters in Tucson.

Hot weather and hot chicks

We just finished a fun visit from Jeff, Jen, Jarrin, and Jaliece. It was great to have them. We spent most of the time swimming; as you can see from the pictures. The four adults dined at the golf course clubhouse and had a visit from a little rattler which was a good welcome to Tucson for the Donalsons. We’re grateful for all our friends and family and love visitors.

Kyle is now in full swing with JV football. He has weight training 3 times weekly and practice about every day with scrimmages thrown in now and then. Kyle also just received an award for his diligence in seminary last year. Amongst other things, he read the Old Testiment, memorized the Quorum or the 12 by seniority, and read scriptures 20 minutes each night. He’s a great example to his younger siblings and friends.

Kjirsten is very busy with the JV cheer schedule. She practices every day, but not at the same time as Kyle which makes for lots driving for Amy. It’s a little difficult dropping a 13 year-old off at high school cheer practice. But, if anyone can take on the challenge, KJ can. Although KJ is fine, we are having a hard time not being overly protective of our little girl.

Cicely is fitting in quite nicely in the young women’s program. She loves the support of her sister and making new friends is in her DNA. She’s excited to go to girl’s camp and will not stop talking about it. Her health is 100% now and with daily meds it will hopefully stay that way. Thanks again for all the prayers and support.

Alycia is 10 going on 13 and hates being the last girl while her Beehive sisters leave her behind. The 3 girls do spend most of their time together, but when Kjirsten and Cicely are off doing YW stuff Alycia is very vocal about the fact that she’s not 12 yet. I have a feeling it’s going to be a long year since Alycia only turns 11 on July 15th. Lee-she is our little fish in the family. She’s always first to get in the pool and last to get out. She has so much athletic ability it will be fun to see her in Junior high sports next year.

Tanner is half monkey and half ball of energy. Tanner loves to help dad BBQ and he is always tossing a ball in the air or shooting hoops in our 110 degree weather. Tanner just wrapped up his baseball season with a semi-final tie. Unfortunately, we didn’t advance, but it was a fun season watching Tanner pitching strikes and nailing more kids at bat than any other pitcher in the league (he got to be quite feared by the other teams). Tanner is definitely the baby of the family and plays the part quite well when necessary. Tanner became a trend-setter recently when Mom cut his hair into a mohawk. Now Mohawks are popping up all over the neighborhood much to our ward's delight(we get a lot of eye rolls at church, what else is new?).

Ell is still doing very well baptizing the hell out of everyone in Tucson. Seriously though, we have had a lot of success in doing missionary work as a family and the experiences we’ve had here are priceless. We are so grateful for the opportunity we have to preach the Gospel and welcome any chance we get to teach a lesson in our home. Work is going very well and we are so grateful to have such a good job despite liberal attempts to shut down our economy.

Amy keeps trying to leave on one-way flights to Utah. But, she can’t get the kids to go with her, so she stays. She loves being a mom to her kids and she enjoys being a mom to all the neighbor kids as long as she gets a little time to read. Amy is sick of all the focus and money paid to environmental issues so she drives very fast everywhere she goes in either of her 400+ HP cars. Seriously, she drives fast. Amy spends most of her waking time loving her kids and taking care of Elliot (and the dogs). She’s proud of the fact that she’s a stay-at-home mom and grateful that she gets the chance to spend time with her kids before they’re adults…….Kyle takes his driver’s permit test on Monday.

My Plea!!

Hello All- So here is my official first ever blog post in my entire life. Pretty exciting eh? Okay so it's not that great. My reason for writing to everyone is to make a public plea for people to come VISIT US!!!! Not to say we are desperate or anything( although I will get down on hands and knees and beg upon request) we do tend to get kinda lonely down here in good ol' Tucson. If you do come visit I can promise you all of these great ammenities which will be included with your stay:
1- We will give you your own room complete with clean sheets and towels ( you have to share a bathroom with the boys but your welcome to use the girls bathroom also!).
2-All the food in our pantry. Just so you know, we are not hippies and therefore do not have anything organic. If you are a hippie, you may want to bring your own food.
3- Unlimited access to our super cool swimming pool. Bring your own sunscreen though, that crap costs an arm and a leg(highway robbery if you ask me).
4- Great conversation and some astute political views from my incredibly intelligent (and good looking)husband.
5- Five wonderful kids who love to play with all their cousins!
Seriously, we would love to have family and friends come visit anytime you can get away. I realize gas costs a lot of money right now but can you really put a price on good memories?

Cruise was great

We just got back from the cruise to Cabo and Ensenada. The trip was great. We had no problems, sickness, or injuries. With 7 people, including Tanner, that is a huge blessing.

We found that a cruise is good for adults and not that great for the kids. I know the kids would disagree and rate this as one of the best vacations, but I think we spent too much time on a ship that is really geared more towards drunken gamblers. Tanner had a hard time going 5 days without baseball or football. He asked to play mini-golf every few minutes. But, he gave us all some respite by asking to play ping-pong every so often. The girls made some friends but mostly hung with the fam. Kyle never ventured out since the talent was super low. Kyle and I hit the gym once, which was very fun. We played lots of skip-bo, go-fish, and Dalmuti. The girls really wanted to see the evening show one night. So, I took all the girls and Tanner—Kyle would rather have jumped off the side, and Amy was asleep by 7. The show was the biggest waste of 1 hour in my entire life. Think disco costumes and crappy dancers. Even the girls looked very confused at the end. I could tell they were wondering if the show was a bad joke or if that is what a “show” is all about. The food was crappy but plentiful, so I was cool. The deserts were very tasty. I had some good bonding experiences with each of the kids which made the trip worth while. The stop in Cabo san lucas was fantastic. 97 degrees and sunny. We took a little glass-bottom boat tour and spent the rest of the day on this great beach. The beach is at the end of the Baja. On one side was the calm, fish-filled sea of Cortez. On the other side, about a 200 meter walk across nice sand, is the rough pacific. The kids loved the big pacific waves while Amy and I loved the still sea of Cortez. As we do at all beaches, we set up some rely races across the sand. My kids are starting to beat me at everything. I love it. You should see Kyle bear crawl. I’ll try to get some video on youtube soon. It’s all in HD, so I’ll have to figure out how to post HD or convert the footage. Our next stop was Ensenada. I haven’t been to Ensenada for about 15 years. It’s a real nice town. Very clean, nice streets, markets, restaurants, people. My buddy, who served in Sonora, tells me that’s how you know the drug lords have taken over. Anyway, I enjoyed the shopping—which is all we did. Kyle is not a shopper and bought nothing. The girls wanted to buy everything and made off with some serious booty. Tanner also got some cool stuff. Amy doesn’t really like knockoff Mexican wares…..so she bought nothing. I love cheap crap, but couldn’t find anything I liked that day—you can’t bring sweet Katanas back on the ship. It was great to be away from everything for a week and just have every minute with the family.

Cicy's health is 100% at this point. She has some tests scheduled for the 16th to make sure she's fine; and she has to stay on this medicine for about 6 months.

Tanner just had his baseball tourney and played like a madman. He pitched nearly perfectly and scored the go-ahead run in the top of the last inning. Unfortunately, the opposing team turned a grounder into a run which tied the game. Tanner was extremely distraught since we will not be advancing to the championship tomorrow. He had some great plays which I will try to get on youtube.

Hola

Hey everyone. School is over and i never have to go back to middle school! I tried out for the cheer squad before we got out at my high school and made JV, so I'm looking forward to practice this summer. besides the cruise, Cissy and I are going to girl's camp in June, which I'm super excited for! That's about it.

;D Kj

SCHOOL'S OUT!!!!!

This is Alycia....

I am so excited that school is out! next year i will be going to middle school! KJ will be going to high school too! i will miss elementary school but i have to go to middle school some day and i choose now!

Tomorrow (Monday) we will be leaving for a cruise! i am so excited! i wanted to go on a camping trip but a cruise is just as good! i will tell everyone when we get back on Saturday all about the trip!

I have an update on Cicely's health. For those of you who don't know; Cicely had a UTI (urinary tract infection) about a month ago which did not respond to treatment and her kidneys started to swell and the right kidney stopped working. Last week the doctors had no answers so we gave her a blessing and made an appointment with a pediatric urology specialist. We saw the specialist yesterday and found that her infection is responding to the crazy-expensive medicine she just started. So, she should be fine and she is looking and feeling great. We are going to go ahead with the cruise on Monday. Thanks to you all for your prayers...and don't feel bad if you didn't get a call. This info seeped out, we didn't call people and tell them. I have a feeling it started with one of the 17 daily calls between Bonnie and Amy.

Kyle had an end-of-year party last night. I’m still convinced he’s 6. But, I guess all his friends are too. Everyone was load, awkward, and unsure of themselves. It was painful to watch. At least they didn’t play video games all night. The swimming looked fun since it started to rain aggressively.

The middle school had a promotion celebration for the 8th grade. This is where the school celebrates that fact that so many of their students are not going to graduate high school so they had better throw a party now. I hate the celebration of mediocrity, so I didn’t attend. Amy went and got some video and developed a deeper disdain for the school. Kjirsten is one of four 8th grade students who scored all A’s all year. She is the president of the National Junior Honor Society chapter at her school. She skipped the last grade and became a leader in her new grade. KJ also earned the highest AIMS (standardized test by which schools are graded in Arizona) test score for her school. She also won the Math Moves You national scholarship which provides a scholarship for KJ’s college years and a $1,000 scholarship for her school. The school never mentioned the award or even thanked KJ. I expect a little recognition from the school and I’m sure KJ does as well; although she will just blow it off like she doesn’t care. To get back on track, at the promotion, several students received awards for such things as academic excellence in science, etc. I realize you want to encourage struggling students, but at some point you have to recognize those who consistently work so hard and achieve. Our whole society seems to be spiraling into a love of underachievement. Eventually, achievers will lose their spark when the carrot is removed and they have nothing to chase. When income is taxed at 70% and C students are rewarded who will build and drive the country? I suspect KJ will regardless.

On a lighter note, Alycia had a promotion celebration at her elementary school since she will be attending the loser middle school next year. She had a great school year and she was pushed by her teacher to do better than she thought she could. I think Aly is setup nicely for middle school thanks to a teacher with expectation. Aly and I spent a day and night on the Star of India sail ship in San Diego. He school class had a field trip and I tagged along as a “chaperone”. We had a lot of fun and not a lot of sleep. Aly and I will always remember hearing the cry of the whales just off starboard—these were actually cars driving by at night. But, we were salty, mangy sailors that day.

Tanner’s baseball is almost done. He has 2 more games in the tourney. Amy gave Tman a Mohawk. He looks his best in a Mohawk. He spent the whole evening hanging with the high school crowd and I think he enjoyed it. I know Kyle female friends love having T around.

Amy and I are thinking we may get a nice date this weekend since the baptism was postponed until Sunday. Amy took the girls to get pedis and manis last night while I had to stay home and watch the teenagers act stupid. Actually, I just folded laundry and shopped for guitars on ebay.

Thanks again for your prayers and concern for Cicy.
ERC.

Welcome

Please leave any posts related to any member of the fam.

I'll start with a quick update.

Cicely is being inducted into the National Junior Honor Society tonight. She is being welcomed by KJ, who is the president of NJHS at her school. Tanner's baseball team just made the playoffs, so baseball will continue for another month.

We just took a great hike for mother's day. I'll post some pictures when I rip them off the camera.