Happy Birthday Miss Myranda :)

My little girl is now 14. She has grown up to be such a beautiful young woman. I am surprised all of the time by how smart and funny she is. Myranda brings laughter into our home. She also is a peacemaker most of the time and has helped me out many times. This birthday was like the rest of our birthdays this year. We had two concerts to attend that night. So we opened presents and sang Happy Birthday before the concerts and ate the cake after. We got Myranda a Kindle Fire for her birthday. She is enjoying that a lot. Mason got her a book that she had wanted and his girlfriend Alexa came and gave her a shirt. Myranda is now a Mia Maid and is looking forward to attending her first dance. I can not believe that she is old enough to do that yet.

Tis' the season for Holiday Concerts

I love Christmas time. One thing I always look forward to is attending the concerts that my children are in. On Myranda's birthday we had two choir concerts to attend. Lauren is in senior chorus at Patterson. She was so beautiful on stage. She sang like an angel :) As soon as her concert was over we rushed to Basha High school to see Bryan in his concert. We were about 25 minutes late (which I hate) We missed part of one of his choirs. We were able to see him in the others. I am so proud of Bryan. He has such a wonderful voice I am amazed every time I hear him.

On Tuesday we were back to Patterson to see the band concert. Braxton has picked up the baritone very well. He did a great job in his concert and I could hear the baritone clearly :)

On Thursday we attended the Phoenix girls choir where my niece Maxi was performing. She did a great job and I am glad I was able to attend that also.

For some strange reason Payne didn't have a holiday concert, so that is why I didn't see Myranda perform.. Next Christmas :)

Mason's new car...

The Saturn that we bought Mason blew up... It threw a rod. He had to junk the poor little car. With the money he got from the junk yard and most of his savings he purchased a 2001 Dodge Intrepid. It is a nice car. He is happy that it is an automatic and has a nice radio. It is just not that good on gas. It costs him much more money to drive, that is not very helpful in his budget.

A couple of weeks ago Matt answers the phone and it is Mason on the other end. He got in a little accident on the highway. Luckily no one was hurt. Masons car has little damage, it looks like the other car needs a new rear bumper. Mason received the ticket. Hope Mason can still march The Academy since this accident will pretty much wipe out his savings. He is a hard worker though. I am sure he can figure something out :)

Really? More bugs...

We just found out that our house has termites :( Last Thursday Lauren spotted something hanging from the ceiling. Matt didn't know what it was, but thanks to Facebook and a friend who was unfortunate to have had the buggers and nice enough to post pics of the tubes that they make I knew what it was. I also knew that it wasn't good. Tonight we had an expert come and tell us how we are going to get rid of them. Not cheap. As long as it works right? Next Wednesday they will be here to drill every foot around the house and then in the room that the bugs are in they will drill every six inches up the wall and on the ceiling.. wow that would be a boring job.. but I guess it pays well :)

An oldie but...

So I wanted to make sure I put these in, since I neglected to do it at the time. Back in May, Lexie graduated kindergarten. One of the parents decided that they wanted a graduation ceremony. Patterson does not do one. (Hull did) The ceremony was nice. It was held in the back yard and they had built a little stage and bought all of the kids a cap. They sang a couple of songs and the teacher Mrs. Wilson gave them the certificate again. The kids played in the yard one last time and had some yummy cake. I am so proud of my baby :)

Lauren Bowling Birthday

Lauren was able to invite two friends to go bowling with her for her little birthday party this year. This is the only party that the siblings were not allowed to attend. Lexie didn’t really understand that too well. It was nice to see Lauren and her friends on a different level. We went bowling and then we went to Clair's for the party favor. Each girl picked out a little something. Lauren has real nice friends and is turning into a real nice young lady... love you Lauren :)










Lauren and her friend Anne






Lauren and her friend Morgan

Kittens..Kittens

What can I say, I am a sucker. I adopted two kittens. Mao and Blu. We decided to keep the name Mao because it kinda sounds like "meow". Although he is trying to rule the house. Blu was originally named "Mariska" I just didn't see it. They are really cute and very patient with the kids. Treble even kinda likes them. One is having some issues, we need to work some things out. But they are very cute :)

Happy Birthday Bryan

Bryan just turned 17. Once again my kids are so stinkin' busy that we didn’t really get to celebrate his day with him. We had cake and presents at lunch between Bryan getting home from sleeping in a cardboard box that night and a matinee for Camp Rock. BTW he slept in the box at a park for youth conference. Bryan finally blew out his candles this year... :)

Myranda/Dad date....

Matt took Myranda to the Taylor Swift concert. They had a blast. Myranda made a poster and a shirt in hopes that she would be noticed :) Matt had video taped parts of the concert and Myranda edited a nice piece that she put on Youtube. The Arizona Republic took her video and posted it along with their story about the concert. I think that is very cool...Myranda is very talented with the computer and editing of videos.

Bathroom “fix”/ Painting our house...

Matt and I went to go look at paint swatches and pick out colors that I loved. We went to the store and purchased the paint that I liked...until I put it on the wall :( Now I need to go back and buy the test size.. I hate wasting money. Since we moved into our house the main bathroom had a leaky toilet. The tank not the yucky part. I just kinda ignored it until last week. I don’t know why but I just couldn’t live with it anymore.. So Matt took the flooring out and the removed the toilet. The smell was unbelievable. There was mold and the entire floor was wet. The problem was worse than I had thought. So we went and purchased new flooring and a new toilet. It will be very nice once it’s put together. The goal is to get it finished before Thanksgiving.

Happy 10th Birthday Lauren...

My sweet girl Lauren turned the big 10 on Oct 19th. I can’t believe how fast time is going. She is growing up. The kids were on fall break and had to go back to school on her birthday. She wasn’t overly thrilled with that, but at least she could share some red velvet cookies with her class. Since her birthday was on a Wednesday, we were supper busy and she wasn’t able to open presents until 8:30 and the older kids we not able to be there. But we still had a nice time. Lauren asked me to make her carrot cake for her. So I did and it was yummy... We are still planning her party with her friends. I think that we will have it on Veterans day.

New skill??

I am going to attempt to learn how to sew. I went to the store and purchased a pattern. Today Matt and I went and purchased fabric. I am excited and cut out my first pattern today. I hope to put the dress together tomorrow.. Let's just hope I cut it okay :) I'll post pics tomorrow..

Here is an image if the first part of the dress...

Ramblings....

Mason returned home after a great season with The Academy. They ended up in 15th place but really feel they should have been at least 13th. Even though they didn’t get the place the deserved their show was so awesome. I enjoyed watching them. Their sound was amazing. I am so proud of Mason and all of the hard work that he puts into his craft.

Mason is attending CGCC for criminal justice and is working for A+ Book Fair. He is saving to march The Academy again next year. Mason is also the Visual tech for a local high school marching band. (non paid but great experience).

Mason is the new owner of a 95 Saturn. One problem is that it is a stick shift. It took Mason a while to get a hang of driving the car but he got the hang of it.

Bryan has been cast in two shows. He is in the Queen Creek production of Camp Rock. He plays Andy and is the understudy for Nate. The show runs in October. He is also in his high school production of Oklahoma. He is cast in the ensemble. He is also the understudy for both leads Will and Curly. So he has a lot of work to do learning 5 roles. Basha will have an understudy show so I will be attending that evening also.



We were lost without a dog, so I was “window shopping” on Craigslist and found a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppy. He was 6 months old and he was being sold for the cost of his microchip, vaccines and neutering. That is such an awesome deal. So Matt agreed to go look and the puppies. We drove all of the way across town, when we got there, of course we fell in love. We picked out a tri color. His name was Monster and he seemed to love the kids. He doesn’t really seem to chew very much. But best of all he will play or cuddle just a very good boy. We had a hard time choosing a new name for him. So we took a family vote and by a very close vote his name is Chestnut.

Rugger

What can I say, I miss this dog. We adopted Rugger the day we moved in. He was a 6 year old black lab who loved to suck on his blanket. Yes suck, not chew. He and Bryan were buddies. His face would light up when Bryan would get home from school. He was the best dog ever. Until one night he made a very bad choice. Braxton and his friend Marcus came in the front door and for some strange reason that I will never understand why, Rugger got up and bit Marcus in the arm. I wasn’t a nip it was a bite. I have never been so shocked or saddened by an animal before. Luckily the neighbors are being cool about the bite. I will always miss Rugger...

Move and unwanted guest...

We are now living in our new home..whew.. I still have some unpacking to do, but we are getting there. The move itself we well. We are lucky and have wonderful family and friends. Along with church members we were all moved in. It only took a few hours. Brother and Sister Stratton stayed behind and put together the kids beds so we could sleep well the first night. I got a little creeped out the first night in our house though... I came to clean the house before the truck got here with the stuff and found a dead scorpion.. So of course I was sure there had to be living ones. The move happened and no more signs of the bug. UNTIL Lauren went into my bathroom and comes out “mommy I think that a scorpion is next to your bathtub” so I sent Joe to check it out and yep, there it was a living scorpion. So that creeped me out even more. When it came time to go to bed I asked Matt to check out the bedroom for stinging creatures. He gave me the all clear. So I lay down on the bed and look up on the ceiling and what do I see? Yep a baby scorpion... Needless to say I got very little sleep that night. Fingers crossed and knocking on wood.. I have not seen anymore since we moved in. I really hope they stay away..

Happy 19th Birthday Mason...

Today is Masons birthday and he is away on tour with The Academy. I believe that he is in AL tonight. I sure hope that he is having a great day.. I can't wait to see him in a couple of weeks.

Tonight is our last night in our rental house. I am going to miss the size of the house, but I am hopeful that the smaller house might help us stay close. Instead of running off upstairs. I don't know if that makes any sense.

I see all of the work that we still have left and think WOW... but it's almost over. I can't wait to post photo's of our new house and new dog.

We will be without internet until sometime Monday. Hopefully all of the install goes easy. Until then I better get to work :)

School

Well yesterday was the first day of school. The summer went by way too fast. I really enjoyed having the time with my kids. The summer each child had a day where they planned and made lunch for the family. That was the best idea I have had in a while.
Last week we bought our back to school outfits. I will finish all of the back to school shopping after we move. (fingers still crossed that we’ll get to move in this weekend)
The kids were all happy to go back. Bryan is a junior at Basha High school. Myranda is in 8th grade at Payne. Braxton, Lauren and Lexie go to Patterson and are in 6th, 4th and 1st grade. Wow they are growing up way too fast.




This past Saturday we purchased a live feed so we could watch Mason compete in Texas. I was so happy to see him. I really do miss him. I know that he is enjoying himself on tour. What a great experience he is getting. They are in Dallas today and the weather says it’s 105 but they have humidity.. sure hope he is drinking a lot of water...

Okay... life got crazy

Well, I am very new to this whole blogging thing and I started off very motivated. My problem has been I have been over thinking what I should post. (like adding photos and long stories) So... I have now decided that I am not a big writer. I just want to do this little blog for memories... My grammar will not be perfect. There may or may not be photos... but hopefully I will post more so we can remember some of these good times.

Life has been crazy... we are moving AGAIN. The move is in a week (fingers crossed) and I will be down sizing my home. It is hard to part with things BUT I will have a nice house that is ours again. That will be heaven. I can't wait to get out of this rental. Our landlady is really not a nice person. That is all I am going to say...

We are adopting a dog. We will pick him up on the 30th.. His name is Rugger and he is a six year old black lab.

School starts on Monday. Man the summer went by very fast. We did the Harkins summer movie pass. That was very fun. We went to Colorado for a vacation. I'll write more about that later.

Mason is on tour this summer with The Academy Drum and Bugle Corp. They got new uniforms this year and look very sharp. He will return on Aug. 16th. So he's missing out on helping us move... poor guy.

Well I will close for now, I really do hope to start to post more... (fingers crossed)

Lauren's little party.

On Sunday Lauren invited all of the family to her room for a party. She made invitations and set her room up with stations. She had many stations, including make up, nails, tea party, board game, craft and a dance floor.

We all came to the party. It was very fun to be silly together. The dance floor was a big hit. These are the times that I cherish. I love watching everyone get along. Even though the dancing eventually turned in wrestling (dad and boys)

I will introduce my six kiddos... Let's start with the boys.


My oldest son is Mason William. He was born July 28, 1992 at 9:03am. He was 7 lbs 7 oz. and almost 22 inches
long. Mason has always been very independent and strong. He is very quiet (except with his friends)
Mason started playing the sax in 5th grade. When he was in high school they talked him into playing the trombone.
Mason has excelled in playing music and really enjoyed marching band. Last year he auditioned for the DCI drum corp The Academy. He made it and toured the country. The show was called Strangers in Paradise. They did very well and place 14th in finals. This year he is going to go on tour with them again. (if he can pay his fees) The Academy will preform in Denver this summer. We are planning to drive to Denver to see them along with our family. I am so excited to see all of our family and support him. Mason is attending Chandler Gilbert community College. His major is criminal justice. I really think he would make a great police officer. He has a great sense of justice and he is physically fit.


Bryan Matthew was born on October 22, 1994. He was born at 3:13 am and was 7 lbs 2 oz. Bryan has always been very compassionate. He always has stuck up for the underdog. Bryan is good at many things. He just needs to pick something :) Bryan has been doing theater lately. Right now he is in Hairspray at the Queen Creek Community theater. He has done
productions with Valley Youth Theater. I am trying to have him audition for the Xfactor. I really enjoy listening to him. Bryan is 16 and begging to get his license. (He knows what he needs to do) He was backing out of the driveway the other day and ran into a pole and did some pretty big damage on my pilot. Not fun... No wonder car insurance is expensive. haha. Bryan is a sophomore at Basha high school, where he has made some great friends. Bryan's favorite class is seminary. It is a place where he can have some peace.



Braxton Fred Eugene was born March 10, 2000. He was born at 1:45 pm and was 6 lbs 2 oz. He has always been small, but he has the biggest heart and spirit. Braxton is in 5th grade at Patterson Elem. His teacher this year is Mrs Kross. He is a very bright young man. He got 1st place in the science fair this year. Braxton also came in 2nd in the spelling bee. Braxton has also done theater. He was in the Hobbit and Peter Pan at Valley Youth Theater. Braxton
even won an acting award (A STAR AWARD) for Best Supporting Actor. I loved his acceptance speech. He thanked mom and dad for driving him. Braxton is really quiet. I guess he isn't shy. He just chooses his words wisely. Braxton loves to play sports. Right now I am sitting at football
practice. This is our families first ever football experience. I sure hope that he likes it.


And Now the girls...

Myranda Lorene was born on December 15, 1997. She was born at 11:00 am and was 6 lbs 10 oz. She had dark skin and black hair. She looked so different that her
big brothers. Myranda has never had a shy bone in her body. She could make a friend anywhere and has. Myranda loves to learn. She is in CATS at her school. Myranda has always been a wonderful reader. In elementary school they would have her be a guest reader for other classes including older classes. Myranda loves technology. She says the morning announcements at her jr high in the morning. Myranda also enjoys theater and has been in many productions. Myranda plays the sax and is in concert band and jazz band. Her band teacher also lets her be drum major during pep band. In her free time you can find her on face book, making you tube videos
or on her cell phone.


Lauren Jennifer was born on October 19, 2001. She was born at 11:30 and was 7 lbs 5 oz. She is in 3rd grade. Her teacher is Mr. Hoppal. She is doing great in school. She is really a smart girl. She has tons of friends and her teacher says she is a natural leader. Lauren loves girl things... she is my girly girl. Lauren has more lip gloss than any girl could even need. Lauren and I love to watch Project runway together. That is our girl time. Lauren is a good dancer. Right now she is in a winter guard group called Jubilee. She is learning how to toss rifels and flags. She is having a good time. I am having a good time attending her competitions.


Lexie Grace was born on May 23, 2005. She was born 3 weeks early and weighed 6 lbs 14 oz. Lexie got very sick after she was born. Most likely due to being early. Lexie is my baby and probably always will be treated younger that she is. (I know, I know) Lexie loves to be a helper (except for cleaning) If someone is sick she is the first there to try to get water or offer 5 year old medical advice. Like hold your breath and drink water. Her remedy for a tummy ache.
Lexie doesn't like for someone to be alone. She will go out of her way to make sure either mom or dad aren't alone. Lexie is in Kindergarten this year. While she started off a little slow she sure has blossomed. Her reading is on level and she counts amazing. Her favorite show is Max and Ruby. She could watch that all day... and has once. I can't believe that her birthday will be here soon. She will be 6. How did that happen really?

Well that is a little blurb about my 6 kiddos... I will be posting tons more. (someday)

Sad news today

I found out this morning that my Uncle Charles is not doing well. He is in ICU and his lungs are shutting down. He is my dad's last living sibling. I will try to go to CO if things turn for the worse. I haven't seen my uncle very often. I remember a trip to California when I was young. I remember Uncle Charles being very superstitious. He wouldn't get on a flight to LA because of the flight number. It is so hard to watch a loved on die of something like smoking. It is not an easy death. It was painful to watch my mom. I am so saddened to hear about my uncle.

Busy Wednesday.

Whew!!!! Wednesdays are hard. Today for example. Braxton has steel drums after school until 4. Football from 5-7 (about 30 minutes away). Myranda has Jazz band after school until 4:30 then mutual from 7-8:30. Bryan has Hairspray from 5:30-7:30 in Queen Creek. Lauren has winter Guard from 5:30-7:30 at Basha. Mason has class from 7:10-9:50. Matt and I both have Pack meeting from 6:00-7:00. Oh and Matt has band tonight also.... It's not all going to happen. Like I will miss pack meeting and Matt will be late to band BUT all of the kids will be where they need to be. (with the help of a friend of Bryan bringing him home)

Wow... I guess I'll try this

Well, I have really enjoyed reading my sister in laws blog she has. I love how she now has a record of interesting things. I will try to follow in her big footsteps :)

I am not very well spoken but I really want to remember cute things my 6 kiddos do. They are growing up way too fast. I can see them out of the house before I know it.