Wakeland Homecoming 2009

Ok...I am going to try to explain the "mum" thing to my Arizona family! It is a southern tradition to exchange mums for homecoming. Apparently the bigger and tackier the better. Yes-even the boys wear them on their arms. It is a very big deal!! The goal is to have the biggest, tackiest (the kids don't call them tacky) mum at school. You do not wear the mum to the dance, but you do wear it to school on Friday and at the homecoming football game.

Here is Preston posing with his mum!

Here is the mum I spent hours making for Preston's girlfriend Kinzie. I spent quite a while on the Internet researching all the "rules". The seniors wear plain silver and white.

It literally hung to her feet. I attached a ribbon so it could hang around her neck! She was PUMPED (according to her mom) and had the biggest one on the cheer squad. Mission accomplished:)

Preston all dressed up for the dance!

Preston and Kinzie

All the kids they went with!

It took so long for all the kids to get there that we were able to get some more pictures with the gorgeous sunset!

Career Day!

It is career day at school to day. The kids get to dress up as what they want to be when they grow up. Here is how the conversation went with Rachel.

"Rachel what do you want to be when you grow up?"

"I want to be one of those people that takes care of all the animals."

"Oh, a Veterinarian?"

"No."

"A zookeeper?"

"No. I want to work at that store that sells all the puppies."

"Petsmart?"

"YES!! Petsmart!"

So there you have it! She wants to work at Petsmart when she grows up:)

First day of school 2009

The first day of school seemed to come too quick this year! Rachel really loves her teacher and I think she is a great fit for her:) This is Rachel and her first grade teacher on "meet the teacher" night up at school.

First day of First Grade!!!
Sitting in her big kid desk. No more tables!!

Preston was not so excited about school! Summer went too fast for him too:)

First day of 11th grade!!

Preston and Michael being very tolerant of a weird mom!

Summer Highlights 2009

Summer has flown by again! I really enjoyed our time off together, and had so much fun with my kids:) Here are a few highlights...

We got invited to spend the day with our friends on their boat. Rachel loved the tube-until she didn't! She looked like this the entire time until the very end and then started sobbing. Having this much fun can be very stressful!!

Wake boarding with her brother however- not stressful at all!!! How cute are they!


Preston is getting pretty good on the wake board!

Check out this move:)

Rachel really likes hanging out on the boat

One of our favorite things was going to Arizona to visit our family and play with all our cousins! Apparently we were having way too much fun to take very many pictures:)
Here are a few we did get. Jumping with cousins on the trampoline...

And taking care of babies! Rachel was obsessed with Secret! Can you blame her???

Rachel played a little indoor soccer

We celebrated Nana's birthday

Did TONS of art and cooking projects

Check out these yummy, perfect looking peanut butter cookies Preston made from scratch!!

We got to "babysit" Annie (Jeff's parent's dog) for three whole weeks!

And I did a little re-decorating!!

new curtains for Rachel's room:)

California Vacation!!!

We decided to head to California this year for vacation!

Rachel had never been, and Preston didn't remember because he was so little when we were there last. We took a family vote and decided to spend some tome in San Diego and L.A.

Our first day there was spent at the San Diego Zoo! None of us had ever been, and it is definitely the most beautiful Zoo we have ever seen.

We're here! This is how Rachel spent a lot of the day! (San Diego is much "hillier" than Texas!) Thank goodness she has such a strong big brother:)

The polar bear was so cute! He seemed to really like Rach.

All of us at the bird show

Look at this view!

The sky ride was a hit!

The next day, we spent playing around our hotel. We were right on the bay and it was a gorgeous day!

We rented a small catamaran and had so much fun!

Sometimes Preston can trick us into thinking he is not like a normal teenager because he is so sweet, but this proves it! He is laying on a lawn chair about 15 ft away from Jeff and I!!

Rachel has a fun daddy!

Preston and Rachel spent 2 hours building this huge castle!

This is the view from our room! I can see why people pay the big $$ to live here.

We went out in the evening to Mission beach for some dinner and fun!

We rode some rides at Belmont park

Back to our hotel for a fire in the fire pit and s'mores!

Jeff and Preston getting the fire going.

Did I mention it was very chilly at night!! Here we are all snuggled up toasting marshmallows:)

Falling asleep by the fire!

After a fun few days in San Diego, we drove up the coast towards L.A.. Our first day was spent at Disneyland!

on the tram headed to the park.

Posing it up in front of the castle (which you can barely see!)Teacups

Dumbo ride

Waiting for the 4D movie

Rach and Pluto

We decided to ride this river boat and were chosen to go to the very top with the captain! We were the only ones up there and it was really cool!Rachel got to blow the whistle!

The Captain took our picture

Getting ready for fireworks. (They were amazing!)

We had so much fun and it was a very long day! We stayed until midnight so needless to say we were all exhausted! Rachel fell asleep in Daddy's arms on the way to the car...

And Preston was asleep soon after we got to the car!

The next day we headed up to L.A. for some sight seeing!

Hollywood!

Back in Santa Monica at the pier.

On the big Ferris wheel:) Did I mention it was cold at night??

Our last day was spent at Venice beach. The boys got a boogie board and did some body surfing which they said was fun but cold!

Jeff

the hand off
Preston

Rach and Presto playing in the waves

We had so much fun! The best part of vacation is spending time together:)