A Slide Down Memory Lane...

These pictures were taken at a park on the Fort Huachuca Army Base. When we were children, our family lived on this base for a short while. My Mom was pregnant with Julia and Shannon, Andrew, and I were little kids. My very pregnant, due any day Mom took us to this park on the base to play and Shannon was going down this slide and she fell off and broke her arm. My Mom ended up giving birth to Julia a day or two after that. When I saw the park, memories of playing there as a kid came back to me. The park hasn't changed much but I can't believe we used to play at playgrounds like this one! Talk about unsafe!! I think I would have a heart attach if the playgrounds still looked like this! Knowing our little monster Effie, she would want to climb this monster slide and slide down with her arms way up in the air! She is a dare devil!

Maxyne going down the same slide her Mom broke her arm on 28 years ago. Julia, a kid at heart!

The merry go round that kids used to fly off of. Remember those??
Effie and Gabe enjoying watching everyone play on the dangerous park. Of course she has her balloon! Lol.

Our little family.

Shannon...I can't believe she got back on the slide!

She made it down with NO BROKEN BONES!!! I think she is pretty happy about that!

May 2, 2009

A Little Town Called Tombstone

My Dad took over an Army unit in Fort Huachuca, Arizona so in the beginning of May we took a very very very long (14 hour) road trip to Arizona to attend the Change of Command Ceremony. He took over a drill sergeant unit which is funny because I could not imagine my dad yelling at soldiers....but I guess since he's the boss he doesn't really have to yell...unless he wants to. Anyway, we went up a little early to go to Tombstone which is only about a 30 minute drive from the Army base. My ENTIRE family was together this weekend! Over 20 of us!! We were so excited to see Tombstone. We got there and it was a cute little western town, we watched a gun fight, took an old fashioned picture (which I will scan and post in this posting soon...I hope), we went on a horse and buggy ride, ate lunch, and got yelled at by a few of the locals...oh and got ran out of the town by the Marshall's. I am not kidding! To make a long story short, all of the shop owners and all but a few of the locals are SO MEAN!!! We wanted our whole family (about 20 of us) to take an old western picture so we were trying to work out a deal with the photo shop and they treated us like we were nuts, no discounts!! So Gabe, Effie, and I decided to get our family picture done and they were only going to let me try on 1 dress so I asked Julia to come back with me to help me find a dress and the lady yelled at Julia, IN HER FACE!! Needless to say, we didn't get our picture taken there but this lady from the shop was following us down the street yelling at us! It was crazy! So the Marshall's showed up a while later right when we were driving out of the town. I'm sure they were going to come hunt us down!! I don't recommend going to that town! My Mom & Dad said they went about 10 years ago and it was so much different! All the people are rude and everything is over priced and the gun show wasn't that good. Enough complaining, here are some pictures we got while we were there...

Me & Effie in jail!Effie & Daddy with a dead cowboy.
The old town at the gun show.

Yes, my brother ate that huge hamburger!

Effie slept through the horse and buggy ride.

May 2, 2009

I-Scream...U-Scream...We ALL Scream for ICE CREAM!!

Can you tell she likes ice cream cones?

April 29, 2009

Chocolate OVERLOAD!!

Sweet tooth...she gets it from both of us...April 28, 2009

HAPPY 4th Birthday R.J.!!!

My sister Shannon's son R.J. turned 4 in April and he had his birthday party at Pump it Up. It was so much fun! We had a whole warehouse room to ourselves which included about 6 inflatable activities. I didn't think Effie was going to like it very much, I wasn't sure if she would be afraid of this stuff since it is SO BIG...boy was I WRONG!!! She LOVED it! My Dad took her down that slide at least a dozen times. He also took her in the bounce house and the obstical course. I was so excited to see my Dad have so much fun with Effie, as he had just returned from Kuwait a few weeks prior to the party. Gabe had to work so he wasn't able to make it to the party, but Effie and I had so much fun!

R.J. had about 25 friends at his party!! He got a lot of neat presents. It was a Star Wars party, Shannon had me buy all the party stuff so I picked up these fun Darth Vador helmets that have 3D glasses on them and the napkins, plates, & cups were 3D!! It was so cool! I think all the kids (and adults) had plenty of fun!

The birthday boy going down the slide.Jesse, Grampy, and Effie GOING DOWN!!
Effie & Grampy going down...again.

Amy on the slide.

Kiki on the slide.

Effie & Grampy...again!

Maxyne having so much fun!

Jim, wishing he were a kid again!Grampy & Effie...again!!

Jace, Julia, Effie, and Grampy.

Effie trying to go up the slide by herself while Grampy took a break.

Effie on one of the bouncers.

Effie & Amy...you can see how much fun Effie is having by the way her mouth is wide open.

Grampy & Effie taking a break.

The Darth Vador helmets.

Star Wars party!

All the kids!

The Star Wars cake.

R.J. making a wish!

April 25, 2009

She LOVES Spaghetti!!

This is why we don’t have spaghetti “more often”…

Need I say more?

April 23, 2009

Our Teeny Tumbler

Effie and I are taking a Mommy & Me tumbling class. She tumbles, I follow her around. This is our 2nd class and she is doing so great! She is learning so much in the second class. She learned how to walk on the balance beam, hang on a bar, climb through a tunnel, do log rolls, summer salts, and go up and down the slide…the right way!! Gabe came to class with us this day because she was having a test. SHE PASSED!! Yaahh Effie!! (Effie - 14 months)

April 20, 2009

Zoo and Babies

A couple of my friends and I went on an outing to the Santa Ana Zoo. It was a very small zoo! My friend was joking that it should be called the monkey zoo because they have so many monkeys! There is a really nice playground for the kids to play at…Effie was playing with her friends Teddy (18 months…for real, I’m not kidding), and Jameson. Teddy and Jameson are cousins. We had a fun day at this little zoo but I would like to take Effie to a bigger zoo with some big animals. She would love it!

Teddy (18 months), Effie (13 months)Teddy
Jameson (13 1/2 months)

Teddy, Jameson, and Effie

April 16, 2009

A Happy Easter Sunday!

We had a great Easter in San Diego with My sisters! My sister Shannon was the hostess with the mostess and my sister Julia made my favorite dessert! We decorated Easter eggs, had a fabulous yummy meal minus rolls – I was in charge of the rolls…I can explain! I started making the rolls in plenty of time for dinner but what I did not realize was that the recipe I was using had to rise…TWICE!! Ok so it’s been many years since I made rolls! The rolls were ready about 10 minutes after we FINISHED eating!! Everyone sat at the table waiting for the oven timer to go off…everyone still wanted those rolls! The rolls were so yummy! I don’t know if I will ever get asked to do rolls again…ha.ha.ha. Effie had fun on her second Easter egg hunt. She also got a new pretty pink dress. I made her a little purse to go with her dress. She loves being in dresses and loves poofy, frilly, lacy, anything girly! Every time I get her dressed she has to stop at the mirror and admire her cuteness!

Instead of making deviled eggs to go with our Easter dinner, Gabe came up with the bright idea to blow up our Easter eggs!! I’m not kidding…see the videos below. We had so much fun blowing up our eggs that we decided that will be our new Easter tradition! I know…we’re weird. But we had a BLAST!! Ha..ha..ha…-Pun intended!

Easter egg hunts, dying eggs, blowing them up, yummy dinners…all of those are fun; but we also took time to remember the true meaning of Easter.

Effie's little purse that I made her to match her Easter dress.
Effie...13 1/2 months

Jessica & Maxyne dying Easter eggs.

Eric & R.J. dying Easter eggs.

Effie & Daddy dying eggs.

Effie was so serious about dying the eggs!

Daddy & Effie hunting for Easter eggs.

Effie hunting for Easter eggs all by herself.

Auntie Julia swinging Effie.

Effie loves slides!!

Going up...

Going down...

Maxyne crossing her eyes.

April 12, 2009