Tyler's Thankful Feast

Tyler and Mrs. Aupperle. She moved to California...we will miss her!

Jackie, Tyer, and Spencer enjoying the 1st grade Thankful Feast. Love these boys!

Football Season 2011

It's been a great season for football. Cody's team ended 2nd in his league, Preston's third, and Tyler's 2nd. I am so proud of my boys and for what football does to build their character. It's been a great season!!

The boys!Cody and Coach Eric. We love him!The Buccaneers!

Power Ranch Winter Festival

Each winter our community has a big winter festival. There are shows, booths, bouncers, and food. Best of all, hundreds of pounds of snow are shipped in. Now this is my kind of snow storm...Lots of white stuff in 70 degree Arizona sun! The kids had a blast!

Preston

Tyler
Dane

They just couldn't get over the Dave's BBQ pig!

Dane was psycho on the bouncers! He is definately the fourth of four boys!

Pumpkin Patch 2010

We have a family tradition of going to the "Mother Nature's Farm" pumpkin patch every October. All of the boys were very excited about it. They are getting older, but still get excited about this special night. Look closely at Cody's pumpkin. He was careful to pick out one that looks like a "butt". I know, I know...But, what do you do with a 10-yr.-old???

Dane was beside himself. He was so excited to be it the dirt, on the tractor, and with the baby ckicks! He watched the chicks for a good 30 minutes.

We Heart Football Season! Go Special Forces!! Go Jets!!

First Day of School 2010

The boys...
Cody was the most ready to go back to school. He just needs his brain to get going again. For him we shopped for Volcom, Quick Silver, DC's, and sports shirts. He is kind of getting into the brands, and thinks he's pretty hot stuff. Don't worry, I still packed a butterfly napkin with a note on it in his lunch box! We gotta keep 'em humble right? He is excited to be in a class with some of his buddies and an awesome teacher! Preston started the 2nd grade today. He was so excited to go this morning. Cody has talked about Mrs. Garcia for two years now...he loves her! I asked Preston this morning if he was nervous. He said, "No mom...when's P.E.?" Believe it or not, that is about how nervous Preston was to start Kindergarten. He was excited to be seen with his camo. backpack and DC shoes. What a good boy!

Tyler started Kindergarten today. He went to bed with a smile last night because he was so excited. I am a little sad because he has been such an easy child to have at home. However, he was ready. He went ready with his Batman backpack, Clone Wars lunch box, and football water bottle. A little aprehensive at first, Tyler quickly relaxed when he saw that several of his buddies were in his class. Good luck with that Mrs. Cruz!

THE backpack. Enough said.

Tyler and Mrs. Cruz. She is a dream teacher...we love her! She loves the kids, and they know it! Not to mention the fact that those kids leave Kindergarten really knowing their stuff...which I love!

Preston, Brit, and Andrew. Good, good friends of Preston.

Brendan, Cody, and Conner. Good, good friends of Cody.

We feel so blessed to be able to have our children attend such a fabulous school. We love the teachers and the administration. Both the kids' and Warren and I have met some lifelong friends here. It's going to be a fabulous year!

Carlsbad Beach 2010

We met up with the Bonds one of the days on our vacation. We always enjoy hanging out with this family, and Kendra doesn't seem to mind tagging along with all of the boys. We really had a good time!

Throwing rocks.

Boogie Boarding

They spent hours finding sea shells and crabs.

Dane was a total poser at the beach.

Disneyland 2010...The Rides!

We had such a fine time at Disneyland this year. Everyone in our family thoroughly enjoys "The Happiest Place on Earth". However, I think that Warren gets more excited than anyone to go. He never went as a child, and I think he is making up for it now! There are no pictures of me on this vacation for some reason...don't cry, we'll take more of me on the next trip!

This is what Dane looked like the entire time. We were worried about taking him, but he opened and closed the place each day with the rest of us! He is SO ready for California Screamin'!

This is what happened every time we tried to take a picture with all four boys. What you don't see is the group of Asians to the left cracking up, and taking videos of us trying to get our four boys in a picture together!



Tyler is our first child who is totally into the characters. It was so cute. He wanted to wait in the little character lines and get pictures with some of them. I loved it!

Tyler and Tigger!

This was one of Dane's favorite rides. We went on it over and over and over!

It was fun this year because most of our kids wanted to go on all of the scary rides. We got Fast Passes and Switch Passes, which made getting on and off all of the rides quick. We love nothing more than spending time with our little family. We had an awesome time!

Treasures For Teachers

Our family had the opportunity to participate in the Disneyland Give A Day program. With the help of many of our friends, we were able to collect over 120 gently used books to donate to "Treasures For Teachers". This is a program that collects books and teacher supplies for needy schools here in Arizona. We collected the books, sorted them, wrapped them, and delivered them to a big warehouse in Tempe. It was a great experience for our boys!

6 Boys and a Babe

Dear Friends,

Just in case you were wondering what I did with 6 4-year-olds on a rainy, wet, Friday morning, for two and a half hours, I would like to tell you.

1. Let them take out every toy from every bin that we own.

2. Read The Magic Fish, by Freya Littledale (My very favorite version...).



3. Create our own magic fish with sequins, pretty paper, and string.



4. Look at "Finnigan", the Coates family magic goldfish.


5. Jump off the top of the bunkbeds (Don't worry, I made them stop after I found out...).


6. Eat homemade brownies, and talk about why powdered sugar is way better than frosting.


7. Wrestle...did you even need to ask?


8. Clean up, clean up, everybody, everywhere!


9. Play "Duck, Duck, Goose" and "I Spy With My Little Blue Eye".


10. Wait for mom by the window.


***And now, I am going to take a nap.


Sincerely,

Monica

Arizona Ice Blocking

Over the long weekend we were invited to go ice blocking. Boy, the memories that this activity brought back. If you are from here I am sure you remember the good old days of blocking down the hills at Freestone (It's now not legal there). We went where the hills were huge, and even Dane had a blast. However, the funnest part was the "Summer Sled" that my friend brought. I don't have a pic of it, but it was faster and more exciting than any block of ice, sled, or toboggan that I have ever seen. I want one!!

For all of you in snowy places, click here to see the official description of ice blocking...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_blocking

Tyler spent the entire time playing with a McDonald's toy he found...go figure.