HAPPY BIRTHDAY and More

On October 11th it was Shawn's 37th Birthday, damn he is old. I am only kidding!! On October 18th it was Maddy's 9th Birthday! Ok now I feel old!! We have, I guess you can kinda call it a tradition, for any special occasion we always go to Thunder Valley for Dinner. I know what you are thinking, it's not to gamble! Honestly, it's the DESSERT bar at the buffet. That is the most important part of dinner!

On Maddy's actual Birthday we hung out at home. My Mom and Dad and one of Maddy's best friends, Lidia came over. We had Tacos (Maddy's pick) and Stuffed Quail ( Shawn's pick). Shawn's parents were there too! Maddy got Guitar Hero for her Birthday and holy cow is it a ton of FUN!! The kids also rode their quads.

Yesterday we went to Bishop's Pumpkin Patch with the school, K - 2nd grade gets to go. We had a lot of fun! And of course I had to get CRINKLE COOKIES YUMMY!!! Yep they are already gone too!!

It was also my Grandma's Birthday. She turned 84. I have always been blessed having my Grams around. She cooks the best Portuguese Soup EVER and her Onions holy yummy!! I can't share the recipes cuz they are "in the family" but trust me they are awesome!!

Here are the rest of the Birthdays... Holly (we aren't saying how old, she is older then me! ok only by 2 months but still!); Tiffany (she gets married in a month!!!); and Aaron (he shares the day with Maddy). SO Happy Birthday to you!!!

Getting caught up...

I really am trying to blog more often but I swear time is flying by way to fast!!! I have so much I want to share too!!

Let me see... I totally forgot to share that Wyatt, who has never before played on Monkey Bars, can now go across them!! It was a very exciting day when he came home to tell me. It wasn't that long after school started that's what was surprising to me.

At the beginning of the month I went to my cousin, Alayna's house to take some pics of the belly (she is prego, VERY prego, due date is the 22nd) and while we were there Cousin Tiffany and Noah came over. I have mentioned before I have a pretty big extended family, any time we are at a family function Noah is carried off in someone else's arms all day long and I have never really gotten to hang out with him. He is the cutest little boy ever. We sat down with him on the grass and all he could do was laugh, it was great!! So of course I was taking pics! One of them is with Maddy and Wyatt, I almost cried. Wyatt looks so grown up next to Noah. I will see if Alayna cares if I share her belly pics they are cool! I have to do some adjustments first, haven't gotten there yet! By then I will have a pic of baby Harlee (her daughter) We can't wait to see what she looks like!!

Let see what else has been happening, oh yeah we had our 4H club meeting and it was a Halloween theme so the kiddos all got to wear their costumes it was lots of fun!! A couple of the officers, came up with a great game to play after the meeting and all the kids got a little bag of candy. I must say if you have an opportunity to join your local 4H club DO IT!! It really is a lot of fun and the kids learn so much on so many different levels it's really cool! So you will see Maddy as Batgirl and Wyatt as Batman! And since we are on the 4H topic my friend Valerie and I are the Beginning 4H leaders and we had our first meeting this month, HOLY COW!!! We have 19 kids and 3 Junior Leaders (well 1 official Junior Leader and 2 Junior, Junior Leaders). It is a huge group of kids, they are awesome!! In case you don't know what Beginning 4H is... basically we teach Kindergarten - 3rd Grade and we kinda prep them for becoming a regular member in 4th Grade. In 4th Grade they can start selling animals and showing them. I have been leading this project for 5 years and I dragged Valerie into it 3 years ago (Thanks Val!) Anyhoot our largest group was 10 kids and we thought wow that's a lot. Well look at us now!!! I am very excited about the group, they really are a great group of kids! I have said it before but I really do love living where we do. I couldn't imagine living in a city. We have such a small community here and it's great. That's it for now but I know I will post more soon...I have Maddy's 9th Birthday to talk about!!

Sarah Palin

So for those of you that don't already know this... My cousin Alayna is from Wasilla, Alaska. Her mom Adele is friends with Sarah Palin. Here is a news article that came out right after the announcement of her running as VP with McCain. Adele is the one laughing on the couch and her husband Alan is sitting to her right in the chair laughing. Alayna is married to my cousin Chase and they were married in Palmer, Alaska which is right outside Wasilla. If you have never had a chance to travel to Alaska you truly are missing out! It is an amazing place! I gotta say Sarah Rocks!! In a strange way by having some kind of association to her, Maddy is getting into politics. She loves to read or hear things about her. She is watching the VP debate as I type! She may not understand it all but she thinks it's cool!! So on that note... whether Sarah Palin and John McCain win this election, her being out there has made this a very interesting race. So Sarah Thank You for making this one interesting!!! : ) I have also posted the link to Adele's website. She is an amazing Christian Singer and has made a difference to a lot of people out there. We are very fortunate to have Alyana in our lives and also the pleasure of knowing her Mom and Dad. They really are great people with great hearts!!

Here is the link to the New York Times article...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/05/us/politics/05wasilla.html