Darci

Just Because..... this picture was taken at one of the kids' soccer games in October...

County Fair in October

Another post from October....

These are from the county fair back in October. Each of the kids had a school art project on showcase. We let them each choose 1 ride to do. Darci liked her ride until it started and then she cried the whole time until it stopped.















I love this picture.....

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Darci LOVES Okra

Another post out of order.... Back in September....

Well I love Okra, but even so it has to be fried. But Darci picked one out of the garden and ate the entire thing RAW. It makes me sick to think about it. Yuck! But she liked it....

Out of Order... Soccer in September

OK, so finally on to update my blog... I can't believe I'm typing this at the end of December! The kids played soccer in the nearby town of Pima this fall. Paige and Kevin were on the same team. Derek was on a different team. Since Tad works and sleeps a lot it meant a lot of long Saturdays trying to figure out how to get them all to games, usually that were separated by an hour or so and occurred right in the middle of Darci's nap time. So it wasn't always fun to get ready for the games, but the kids sure enjoyed playing. I think Derek was the slowest player on his team, but he finally scored a goal on his last game. Kevin scored a goal too somewhere in the middle of the season. Paige started off great running and getting right in the middle of things, but as the season went on, she seemed to lose interest a bit and had more fun sitting out.

Derek (2nd kid in from the left on top row)


















Kevin - last kid on right on top row
Paige - 3rd in from left on bottom row

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas! Attached is our Christmas Card for this year (Click to enlarge.... No, it is not a great picture of Tad and I, but Derek took it so I think he did a pretty good job!). Here are some highlights from the year...

Darci is almost 3! She is enjoying being the only one home during the day... She is (knock on wood) FINALLY potty trained!! About 98%... She is talking SO good and is SO smart with the little questions she asks. She is sweet and we love her.

Paige is 5 1/2 and is in Kindergarten. She gets so excited everyday she can come home and tell us she didn't get sent to time out that day! She is so active and has so much energy and LOVES to talk and move around. She loves to play with friends, get her nails painted and do flips on the Nana's trampoline.

Kevin is 5 1/2 and is in Kindergarten too! He has improved dramatically this year with his speech. I can understand most of what he says and he gets the sounds right when he slows down. He is so smart and is a great reader. He loves to play soccer and football with the boys at school during recess.

Derek just turned 8 and is sweet MOST of the time! He is in 2nd grade and doing great. He is a cub scout this year. He loves to play video games and build things out of legos.

Tad stays busy working at the mine. He is working night shift right now and we can't wait for him to switch over to days.

I (Joy) am now working in the PACU (Recovery Room) at the hospital 3 days a week. I was lucky to fill in for someone who retired and they liked me enough to offer me the job. I love it. I am also trying to finish my bachelor's degree from Western Governor's University by April of next year so life is VERY busy around here.

We hope all is well and everyone has a great Christmas and New Year!

Check back again, our blog is updated now and then (in my SPARE time!)

Dear Santa....

Here are our Dear Santa letters this year. We sent them to Santa at the North Pole (Alaska) and are excited to see if we will get responses back. I didn't notice until after the letters were in the post that my scanner had cut off some of the letters....

Kevin -



Paige -



Darci -



Derek -

Dancing Elves...

Christmas wouldn't be complete without our yearly Elf dancing...

Surfing Elves....

Happy Birthday Derek!!

Derek turned 8 on November 10th... I can't believe he is already 8!!! He is very sweet and quiet when he wants to be and loud and obnoxious when he wants to be too! He is in 2nd grade and doing great. I'm pretty sure he is going to be smarter than me, not that that says anything.... We had a little party for him in Nana and Grandpa's playground. It was dark and cold, but with a train ride and glow sticks and pizza and cake it turned out fun for all the kids. Derek has been wanting a hamster for a while, so Nana and Grandpa gave him money for a hamster and Grandma Toni and Papa gave him a cage and we got him some other stuff and some accessories for the cage. He's been great with it (Raptor) so far, plays with it everyday and makes sure there's always food in the bowl.

Raptor....



Darci "helped" me make the cake and cupcakes for his school class.



This is why I am going to buy cakes from here on out. They NEVER turn out even remotely pretty, so this is what we ended up with this year!

Kevin in Kindergarten

Kevin has done amazingly well in Kindergarten. It's funny because they make you do a Kindergarten pre-assessment here to see if your child is really ready for Kindergarten. Kevin scored really well on everything except the coordination stuff like jumping and standing on one foot (?). At the end of the assessment the teacher told me "sometimes with summer birthdays Parents decide to wait a year.....". But he has excelled at everything. He is ahead of Paige on most intellectual type things, she is ahead on social things. His speech is getting much better, that is really the only thing holding him back right now. Here is some of his doodling and handwriting....




Crazy name writing in the beginning...





His handwriting is SO neat!









Here, he was making his own tracing lines.





These videos are Kevin and Paige reading about 2 weeks ago. It's amazing they are reading this good after only 2 1/2 months of school.