HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEGHAN

WOW!! How time does fly. I woke up this morning really early to wish Meghan a happy birthday and can't really believe she is 15 years old. Thanks so much for being such a great child and teaching me a long the way how to be a better parent. I Love you so much Meghan. I hope you had a great birthday.

Happy Birthday Paige.

Happy Birthday to you Paige. Yesterday, May 5, Paige celebrated her 12th birthday. I can't believe it has been 12 years. She was only 6 lbs. 8 oz. 19in. long when she came to our family.

Now she is growing up way too fast and she will be going to her first Young Womens activity tonight. She is way too excited for this next step in her life. My biggest question is, "Why do my kids grow up sooo fast?"

Thanks Paige, for being the great kid that you are. I hope your day yesterday was as terrific as it could get. Love you lots!!!

Spring Break activities

We began our week by celebrating our friends' 20th anniversary. Tami and Steve Parisot came down from Utah and enjoyed a night out on the town with us. The benefits of being locals is that we got some great deals. We started off the night with reservations for the TOP OF THE WORLD restaurant located on top of the stratosphere (107 stories up). While the tower doesn't turn, the restaurant does (one revolution every hour and 20 minutes) and there isn't a bad seat in the place. It was an amazing view and as our reservation was for 7pm when the sun was setting, we were able to see the city go from daylight to dark and see all the city & strip lights turn on. It took about one hour and thirty minutes to have dinner so we were able to make one complete rotation and see the whole city in every direction. As the food is very pricey, we'd recommend that anyone wanting to enjoy the view just pay to go up and then sit in their observation lounge. You'll get the same thing we did for a whole lot less.'

After dinner, we had show tickets for Le Reve located at the Wynn. Tickets were 2 for 1 and the show wasn't until 9:30 pm, but with dinner being some distance away and us taking a wrong turn along the way, we just made it. We sat 1/2 way up, and the "stage" was a pool of water, so we were just out of the "splash" zone. Loaded with acrobatics, dancing, special lighting, and of course swimming, there were no dull moments. Of course, no pictures could be taken during the show but the after shots were beautiful.

On Tuesday, Jim took the day off and we headed to the adventure dome to play all day. Thanks to Jim's free tickets for giving blood and the buy one get one free tickets from the Las Vegas entertainment book we paid for a total of TWO TICKETS.

Since Madison was not quite tall enough for the BIG rides, she and Parker had to get the junior tickets. Needless to say, Madsion was very disappointed. She wanted to go on the sling shot ride the most. Because she couldn't go on the big rides, Madison and Parker got to rock climb and bounce on the trampoline at the adventure dome. Madison LOVES TO ROCK CLIMB. I think that is her sport. Everytime she gets and opportunity, she takes it and does amazing things. She was able to get to the very top of the climb and ring the bell. All other kids her size were giving up/falling off after just 5-10 feet up.

Parker getting ready for his big jump. It was so fun watching him try to make the trampoline work with being strapped into the harness.

Finally, before heading back to work, Jim took Meghan & Paige to see: "Escape to Witch Mountain". Fun movie with good special effects, and they even tried to tie in some of the story line/characters from the original movie, but you can do so much more in today's movies than you could 30 years ago, so they did. We finished up the week with taking Meghan to the oral surgeon for a consultation for her wisdom teeth. She will have to get out all 4 teeth this summer after school is over. After that, we headed over to Jason's Deli for a great lunch. I ended the day by taking the kids to a park and letting them play for about one hour. We finished our spring break activities and the kids slept in a little bit before we prepared for Easter activites. More on that later. Needless to say, I think we got a lot of spring breaking done and I don't think the kids will want to go back to school on Monday.

I'm a REBEL

I am officially a student at UNLV. I got my acceptance letter yesterday in the mail. I have been accepted into the graduate program of Counselor Education. I will be starting in August for the Fall semester. Ready or not, I am going to be a student once more. I feel very accomplished since this program is highly competitive and they chose me to join their program.

Getting more behind....

Well, I have failed in keeping my blog up to date during this new year. My goal was to post weekly, but I have failed to keep that goal. I do't think it is getting any better since I have accepted a long term sub job at Madison's school, EVA M WOLFE for about 4 weeks. I am a bit nervous! I haven't worked full time at an outside the home job for about 14 1/2 years. So far, I have enjoyed being in the classroom. I just feel for Parker. He is struggling , but I keep telling him it is just for one month. I don't think he can grasp that concept. Every thing in our home is great. I am beginning to appreciate the time I can spend with my familyin the evening since we are all away during the day.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PARKER

Four years ago we welcomed our baby boy into our home. He has proven to be a bundle of joy and fun for all of us to enjoy. We are so thankful for him and love having him in our home.

Whats been going on?

Well, it has been a couple of weeks since I have posted anything to the family blog. I really don't have any excuses at all except that I have been busy like the rest of the world. We had a busy month in January and February is looking even busier. To start out January, I decided that ALL the kids would participate in something outside of school. Needless to say, I have been a cab-driver getting Meghan to Hollywood kids, Paige to basketball practise and games, Madison to piano lessons and Parker to soccer. So my calendar is very full but I can't blame anyone but myself.


We were able to enjoy a visit from Grandma Coffey January 19-26. It was a great week. I helped her scrapbook her Alaska trip. We celebrated her birthday. Parker, Grandma and I went to the park and feed the ducks and geese. Parker also took some time to swing on the swings too. Grandma took Parker and I to Nancy's Quilt shop to look around for quiliting stuff. We miss regular visits that we were able to have when we lived closer. THANKS GRANDMA for spending a whole week with us and letting us make wonderful memories with you.

The ducks and geese up at the park are sooooo tame that they were eating out of our hands.

Parker loves to swing and swing and swing and swing. The day we went to the park was a little cold because the wind was blowing, but that didn't stop Parker from swinging in SHORTS in the middle of January. I don't think Madison or Parker believe in pants at all. They both seem to just LOVE their shorts no matter the weather.

Soccer is once a week for 45 minutes. Parker seems to enjoy running around the gym more than hitting the ball with his feet. He also LOVES to pose for the camera when I am trying to take pictures of him playing soccer. So far these are the only good pictures I have of him at soccer. Only one picture that actually proves he is in soccer. Paige has also been busy with her basketball practises and games as well. She practises two times a week and has a games every Saturday for six weeks. She always wanted to try basketball so we finally got her signed up. It is a lot of hard work, but she has improved a lot since the very first day. She plays in every game too. She has accomplished a lot and we are very proud of her.

Paige is #2 on the court.

Meghan has been busy with her group at Hollywood kids. This is a theater group who performed Aladdin and Meghan did all the lights and sound for ALL the shows. With rehearsals and performances she was at the theater almost everyday for 4-6 hours at a time for almost one month. We stopped counting the hours. It was A LOT but she really enjoyed it and made some great friends too. It was all worth it.

Madison and Paige with Jafar after the production and Parker just loved the Genie. Parker went up the the Genie after the show and he was so kind to get a picture with Parker. Parker gave him a HIGH-FIVE to congratulate him on his performace. They all did such a great job. Meghan will continue with the group Applause for the next production.
So, I think that wraps up the month of January. We shall be just as busy in February with Parker's 4th birthday, my birthday, and more rehearsal at applause, piano lessons and basketball for Paige. I guess my new motto is, "the busier the better."