So we survived the first week of preschool yipee and after tomorrow we will have conquered the 2nd :) All of my worries were definitely put to rest after the 1st day! Last thursday when I went to pick Ryder up he was just finishing up his adorable craft. Unfortunately once he saw mama he was checked out! You could see the relief in his face haha! Not for me but because since the night before we went through all of the events that were going to happen that day. I think I told him about 20 times (he asked me to tell him ha) The one that he was the most excited about was that I was going to pick him up and take him to my work where mimi will meet us there and then take them back to her house :). Mimi to ryder is equivalent to the park a big huge park with slides and swings and a playhouse haha. He ABSOLUTELY adores her. He will throw me under the bus anytime, little stinker! Anyway so once I walked into the room he said "lets go see miiiimmmiii" and I said well wait we have to finish up. He was done and I was a HUGE disruption! oopsy! So needless to say the last 10min he was naughty rolling on the floor and I was humiliated because my kid was doing what "my kid will never do" thing. His teachers are absolutely fabulous seriously we are soooo lucky. Their patience is inspiring, so Mrs. W is talking so very calmly to R and encouraging him to make good choices and that she understood how bad he wanted to go but that he had to finish up and then he may go. During that time R DID do a foward roll Im not going to lie I was looking around for the nearest shovel to dig myself a hole to crawl into... She still just kept her cool beyond belief. I on the other hand was mortified. He did eventually start to listen and follow the directions and finish up what he was supposed to be doing. I told them I was SO sorry for disrupting and that from now on I will NOT come in until the very end :) I picked him up on tuesday and they said he had a fabulous day and that he makes them laugh often... ahhhh! Now thats more like my Ryder:) I have just realized that I cant go into his room, atleast not until he understands that when I get there doesn't mean that he can stop whatever he is doing! This is truly the best thing for our little man I am so excited! So far I ABSOLUTELY adore this little preschool. I could not have done better in picking what was best for R. The class size is SO small and there are two FABULOUS teachers yay!!!

PRESCHOOL.... AHHH!

Well today was the day! The day my precious sweet boy started preschool. Im not going to lie the past few days leading up to this were filled with guilt, regret and questioning if We were making the right decision. My hubs and I had really been talking it up telling Ryder that it was going to be so much fun. We told him how wonderful his teachers were going to be and how he was going to meet fun new friends and he was excited! Last week I was really doubtful and then I went to a couple of orientations that they had, one for the kids and then one for parents. When we walked into ryders orientation his teachers were just shy of putting him up on their shoulders chanting his name with cheers. It really was so wonderful how welcome and special they made him feel :) When I left there I was so excited and so was he. We would talk about Mrs. W. and he would get excited. Then we had the parents orientation and can I just say that these women are serioulsy some of the sweetest most amazing women. I gathered this in a little over an hour. Fighting back tears every so often because they made me feel so warm and fuzzy :) Im kinda serious! These people are FABULOUS!!! They talk with such sweet assuring voices and you can just tell that they LOOOVE what they do!

So today was the day!! I set my alarm because we have to be there at 7:45 ya know! uggh! But I will say it was not bad at all, shockingly! I woke the kids up and Ryan stayed home so he could go with us to the first day, so sweet! He's a busy guy.. Anyway I tried to give them some time to wake up so they didn't feel rushed. I had packed Ry's lunch the night before and laid out everyone's clothes so that would be one less thing I was rushing around trying to do. It worked out super well!!! This is Ryder (above) in the carseat.. When we pulled up he had a huge smile and told me "mama, I'm excited!!" Oh how that made me happy to hear. Weird enough I was finding myself a little excited too!

We got out of the car and I handed him his sweet little spiderman lunch box. I wanted to get a quick picture of him on this bench I saw (nerd I know) but all the sudden he started getting upset and crying. So Ryan and I were both asking him what was wrong and he said that he needed his mama, awww! So I got down by him and I asked what was wrong and why he was crying and he told me he WANTED to go to school! Woohoo! You see we walking the opposite direction of the school to try and get this picture and he got upset. So cute! I was so happy he wasn't crying because he didn't want to go! Phew!

See the bench in the background? Well I gave up haha! Here he is trying to recooperate from his thinking he wasn't going to school trama haha!

This is the fabulous MRS. W I dont know her well but from what I have gathered so far man oh man she is one neat woman! She has been a teacher forever and you can tell she just loves it! She has written books and also written in chicken soup for the teachers soul book. This is her passion and she is so talented how lucky are we??

This is when we just had gotten there and Ryder walked right in and sat by her. She really has such a way of making the kids feel special and comfortable! She talks to them, asks them questions and really cares about what they have to say.

This is Ryder's "official teacher" Ms. W isn't she so stinkin cute? I dont know is she has a boyfriend but if not I wish I had a little hottie to hook her up with haha! This is one of Mrs. W's daughters. There is another one also but I dont have a picture of her... yet. They are such a neat family. All of them teachers and they all absolutely love it! This is their 2nd year that they have done this preschool and they are doing great and growing. I have a feeling we may be here a couple more years :)

I had just gotten there to pick Ryder back up and here is my HAPPY boy wearing his paper plate hat with a cut out star ( so adorable) How cute! I really had such a great feeling after dropping him off today. I wont lie I cried for about 15seconds after Ms. W gave me a note telling me that she is going to love my child so much while I am gone! I got a little upset but I knew he was in good hands!

Heaven! This was Ryders 1st day of school treat! R had a lot of fun today on his first day. He looked SO happy when I came back to pick him up, YEAH!!! I feel 100% better about my little man going to preschool! He is going to LOVE IT!!! I will say I think we have made a great decision about this one. Praise the Lord. I think my doubts were common fears that every parent feels at some point! One more thing. It went by pretty fast! I dropped him off went and cleaned my salon took P to dance and then it was time to come back and pick my boy up! Only with about 20 min. to spare. Perfecto!

Funny story: So when we were driving away in the car I was asking him questions about his day... I said did you get to play outside and he said "yes" then he proceeded to tell me that he put sand on luke! I said "excuse me? " I didn't want to yell at him because I want him to always tell me the truth even though I instantly got a little mad because HE KNOWS BETTER!!! I said R why would you do that? And he said that he was so sorry! I asked if he told luke he was sorry and he said yes. Then I calmingly told him that pouring sand on someone is in NO WAY SHAPE OR FORM OK!!! I asked him how he would feel if someone did that to him, I told him he has to be a nice friend or he wont have any blah blah blah!!! The funny part was that he totally told on himself! He truly is not a mean kid, im not sure what compelled him to do that. Frustrating because he knows thats not ok.. So we will add that to our speech before school everytime he goes! IY YI YI!!!

What a mess!

I'm not quite sure how she managed to cover herself to this extent. It did not even require a wipe down I had to give her a full blown shower! Look at her hair, it was even all over her legs. I started laughing so hard and then of course I had to grab my camera. She thought she was pretty funny too! Ahhh the daily life of a 2 year old. I miss those days haha!
Sassiness and all I love this little gal to pieces she truly is the best!!!

Camping :)

Another camping trip? Yep! but this was a little different because we had finally had the chance to take out our new trailer we had just recently bought! I was SOO excited to use it finally! It was P-E-R-F-E-C-T!!!! Nice and cozy, clean, comfortable, and roomy. Not to mention showers :) I know I know not real camping but when it comes to having small children this is the way to go! It was a blast!!! This was Ryders little buddy hunter, it is so fun to see R playing with new friends he really had a great time with him :) These goof balls sitting in the buckets they thought they were really funny!

This was Paisley's friend elise, they are 5 days apart and her mom and I had the same due date. They weren't really that interested in each other they are still a little young :) I know in the future they will really like each other :)

The picture above makes me laugh! I love how R's chest is bowed out, haha! Hunter found a way to his heart with racing, it is his favorite thing to play. He always wants to race! Or be chased either or are so much fun to him!Paisley wanted to get in on the action too! I like how she joined in!
Ryder making sure his sister isn't getting too close. He was very concerned where she was, look at his smile probably saying "haha I totally dusted her"
The dirtier these 4 got the better! They were cracking me up! By the end it looked like we had wet them down and then rolled them in powder dirt! We didn't care getting dirty and having a blast is what camping is all about!

My silly boy!

The kids had such a great time getting dirty and playing that we ended up just staying until about 8pm it was so nice. We were in NO hurry to get back to this heat! We went on a rhino ride later, made dinner, and then showered and headed down the mountain :) The kids slept the whole way home and life was good! Camping in seriously one of my favorite things to do! I love it!My versatile little girl! Haha! She likes to wear girly fun and cute things but she is also not afraid to get dirty. Just how she should be haha! I cant have a prissy pants on my hands :)

Thanks to our friends in flagstaff for a great weekend :) Ryan went to college at NAU where he had met the families that we went camping with. They are such SWEET people. We dont get to see them that often but when we do it is always a good time. I look foward to many more camping trips together....

outdoor lovin

We did so many fun things when we were in Pinetop that I wanted to try and take as many pictures as possible :) I know these have been lingering in for the past few weeks but finding time to get on the peter (as Ryder calls it) is sometimes impossible!!! R gave up on the fishing and just decided to play with the cup and he had a blast... Ha! Whatever makes em happy sometimes.

I thought she looked so stinkin cute here! BTW the boots that both of my kids have on are FABULOUS!!!! They are croc boots you know the famous croc shoes that I always swore my kids would never wear? Ya that brand haha! Which by the way are the ONLY shoes R will wear! I had searched for hours one day trying to find them and they were nearly impossible to find! I'm not sure if crocs stopped making them or what but I had searched and searched and nothing! So I was sifting thru all of the sights my search came up with and I had found a craigslist add in Denver, CO that said she had all of these croc boots for $15 bucks!!!! These are 40$ boots people WOOHOO! Nothing makes me more happy then to find good deals ha! So I contacted this lady and she was super nice and I had asked her if she had the specific sizes I needed and she did indeed, another WOOHOO! So then I started thinking???? She told me that for every additional pair you get 1$ off, I was already getting a super great deal so I decided to buy another pair for next year as well hee hee! I mean what's a girl to do? Now dont get me wrong the good ole fashioned rain boots are adorable but they are heavy and clunky and narrow... R has a very wide foot so these work perfect! They are also super light! I have already got tons of use out of them and I know in the winter I will be able to throw some thick socks on and use them in the snow, 2 for 1 if you ask me.... Can you tell I'm excited about my find??? If you are interested check out Denvers craigslist :) They had Blue, Orange, Yellow, and Pink LOVE EM!!!

He was quite proud of this head lamp he was wearing. He had it on for quite awhile. He had to show me his boo boo!

Seriously!!! He got a speck and I mean speck of water on his shorts so of course they had to come off! R was too funny here as you can tell he was very into what he was telling me with his hand gestures. I'm not sure what he was saying because I was too busy following him around paparazzi style haha!

Where do they think they are going?

Seriously! Where do these two think they are going looking like that? LOL... Well we were getting ready to leave for the weekend and I had just given them a bath and got them all cleaned up, one of the last things before we were going to hit the road and I see the escape artists at work forgetting one thing... their clothes haha but they did remember their backpacks :) Paisley was like hey, wait for me I'm right behind ya. I love these two little ones MORE than anything! The innocent things they do and say just melt my heart and often times make me almost pee my pants!


Funny story that happened a couple months ago that I keep forgetting to write down andI dont want to forget it... So one day I was loading Ryder into the car and he looked at me and said..

Ryder: Im soo sorry mama

Mom: For what honey? Why are you so sorry?

Ryder: Im so sorry mama, Im so sorry I have the swine flu...

Mom: HAHAHAHAHHAHA! What? I pretty much was laughing so hard I had to call someone to share the randomness with.

Where did this come from you ask? About a week or two before he said this my 10year old neice got pretty sick and she was crying to her mom (my sister) "Oh great I have the swine flu" but kinda serious lol. So I know that is where he got it from. We laughed pretty hard this little guy makes me laugh all the time he is hilarious!

HUH?!....

Um so the storm we had a couple of weeks ago was BRUTAL!!! I couldn't believe it! Paisley and I were outside when I looked over to the west of us to see a huge brown wall coming towards us. We had just gotten done playing in the water slide so when I saw it coming I quickly unplugged it and unhooked it from the blower ran that part up on the porch and ran inside! The kiddos and I stood by my back door and watched the destruction begin. Ryder became hysterical fairly quickly when he saw his favorite toys being destroyed right before his eyes. So what does a mother do? Grab your camera of course to catch the action. Poor guy he was so upset. He said "mama tell it to stop" I really felt so bad because mama can take on a lot but Im pretty sure mother nature would have won that one lol!

The picture above is our water slide hooked onto a pillar on our porch... Thank goodness it came that way or it would have been history. BTW that thing is not light not light at all and it got drug like a piece of paper, whoa!

Going.... Going...GONE!!!

The trampoline was hard to watch. We had just got it for christmas and the kids loved it! It's been a little too hot to jump but nothing a little sprinklers couldn't handle. When it first started to fall apart I ran outside you know like I was going to save it and then I envisioned myself tumbling across our 2 acres and I decided to pull my head out and realize it was going bye bye WITHOUT me haha! My house during that was quite hysterical... funny and sad. Ryan wasn't home from work yet so it was me, my crying kids and my camera lol! I really felt bad but I had to catch the action I could not believe it.


This is the aftermath look at the back fence, it was getting dark by now so its a little hard to see but stuff was everywhere I will admit it was a little scary. We have also decided that we will have to bury our next trampoline. Even if we pipe glued the pieces the enclosure will never be able to handle the monsoons. We have a couple neighbors who have had the same thing happen to them so I think burying it is our only option. Ahhh so fun! There were also countless trees down around us in the surrounding neighborhood. Also lots of roof tiles came up on several 2 story homes across the street from us. I really have never seen anything like this and I have lived here my whole life :)

This was Ryder's first fishing experience and he loved it! We didnt catch any fish but the look on his face when he cast the pole was priceless! SO CUTE! I have to say I really love to fish I haven't been able to in well.. 3 years or so but back when it was just me and the hubs we would always go fishing. He likes to go out in the float tube and fly fish but I am completely content on shore on the side of the lake.

Fishing actually kept ryders attention for waaay longer than I thought it would. He really loves spending time with his daddy. They are quite the little buddies.

This face of his was so cute he was so excited at his victory of a successful cast!

Lil miss could have cared less ha! She was just being silly. I was a little nervous those big rocks were not the safest terrain...

We had a great time we always do. Pinetop is my favorite place in AZ. The weather is beautiful and there are so many fun lakes to go play around in. I hope to take our trailer and go up there one last time before the warmer season is over.