Curly hair girls

I just had to post these pics of the girls with curly hair!  I think they look so adorable.  We curled their hair with hot rollers for the wedding rehearsal, to see how it looked.  Well, it looked great...for about an hour.  Then they looked homeless.  Oh well, it was fun while it lasted, that's why I took a picture!

Mr. and Mrs. Boyd (finally!)

On October 11 we were privilidged to be in our good friends wedding.  Evie and I have been friends since 7th grade.  We have been through tons together, and she is my oldest friend!  I got married at 19 and she had her son Shayne at 19, and now, finally, 10 years later she finally found a fabulous man to marry.  Jake is amazing!  We tease her because when they started dating he was only 17!  Jail bait! They dated for quite a few years, but waited for her to graduate college and buy a house, and all that boring stuff before they got married.  I feel like we planned this wedding for 10 years at least!  Anyway, it went off without a hitch and was beautiful.  Our entire family was in it so we had a lot of fun getting all dressed up! 

Ev and the flower girls, Avery and Alexis

Avery, Trista (my niece), Alexis and Shayne (Ev's son)

Me and my girls and Trista before the weddingThis was literally 5 minutes before the wedding started!

Avery did not cooperate during rehearsal, so I was super worried...

But they both did fantastic!  They were the most beautiful flower girls ever!

Married!

See, told you, we were gorgeous!  Best dressed family there!

Little Miss Ree posing for the camera

Cody's family, AKA Evie's other OTHER family

And my family, Evie's other family

Alexis thinking she is hot stuff!

And I love this one!  My girls and ALL boys!  I am in trouble!

We had so much fun in this wedding, and are sooo happy for Evelyn, Jacob and Shayne!  Congrats to the Boyds!

Boobie Walk 2009

This was the 3rd year our family has done the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.  We started it 3 years ago when I met Michelle Mann at my work (in pink below :)).  She was recovering from breast cancer and asked if we wanted to go.  It was a lot of fun and a very uplifting experience.  We felt like it was a cause we should definately support.  Then, when I was being treated for thyroid cancer, Cody's mom Jackie was diagnosed with breast cancer.  She completed chemo and radiation and now has a clean bill of health.  So, breast cancer awareness is now that much more important to us.  I have 2 little girls who now have a family history of breast cancer.  That is something I NEVER want them to have to go through, so I will do whatever I can to bring awareness to the matter and try to help find a cure so my children never have to endure this horrible disease.  Being a cancer survivor myself, I know how scary it is to have cancer.  Just the word itself makes me cringe.  To think that something so seemingly small can take your life and make it hell up until the end just makes me sick.  I know many cancer survivors that are very close to me.  My BFF Marmmett, myself, Michelle, Jackie, Judy, Cody's grandparents on both sides, and many others have all been faced with a cancer diagnosis.  I am glad to say that those still living are doing very well, and we are so blessed.  I really truly hope that someday, cancer will be a word never to be heard of again.  But, unfortuanately, I don't think I will live to see that day.  Until then, I will carry on my fight to end cancer any way I can!  Congrats to all the survivors out there!  Be proud and celebrate!!  See ya next year!

Michelle

Fall Break

With this being the first year Alexis is in school, we are having to get used to not being able to go and do whatever, whenever.  Normally, we would just head to the zoo anytime we wanted during the week when we had nothing else to do.  Well, this year we had to plan around school.  Alexis gets a 2 week fall break from Eduprize so we tried to do a lot of fun activities with the family because Alexis misses out on some of the fun things we do now.  We went to the movies, the park, and the zoo.  Next week we have a wedding to be in so we will be busy with that!  Pictures of that next week!  Sorry for the randomness of the pics, but blogger has changed the way the pics upload and it is a nightmare to try to rearrange!

I love the family shots, but it is always difficult because you have to get an innocent bystander to shoot the pic!

My silly girls at lunchtime!  They were much mor interrested in feeding the ducks then eating our picnic lunch!

Of course Alexis' favorite part was petting the goats!  We have always joked that one day she is going to be a goat farmer because she loves them so much!  Avery liked to see all the animals and was really good at spotting them in their habitat.  And of course we had to get $13 worth of ice cream and $30 worth of souveniers!  But check out those placemats!  So cute and we even found one with Avery on it!  We had a great day, all the animals were out and the weather was beautiful!

Bye Bye Kitty

Harley was our kitty.  Cody and my first child.  We got her the week before we were married, 10 years this year.  We rescued her and at the time, the vet thought she was about 4 or 5.  So that would make her 14 or 15 now.  Well, over the last year she had gone from 12 pounds to 5.  She had also become senile.  But, she was happy, and the kids were happy, and all was happy.  Well, one night Avery was holding her and she got spooked by the dog and bit Avery on the knee.  This was the 4th time in 2 weeks that she had bitten Avery.  This time her teeth went straight in to Averys knee.  Immediately it swelled up, but I thought that we would just watch it.  The next day Cody and I both had to work, and our babysitter was very concerned with how her knee was looking and Avery was barely able to walk on it.  So, we had the babysitter bring Avery to the doctor.  The doctor said that cat bites were the nastiest and that you had to be very careful.  So, Avery had to be on 2 weeks of heavy duty antibiotics, and eventually her knee healed fine.  But...Harley had to go.  We took her and had her put down.  She was so old and sick and unpredictable, it was the best for all involved.  We miss her!  It is very wierd to not have a cat, because I have had one my entire life.  We are getting used to it though, and we still have our crazy dog!

Fall

By the way...I absolutely LOVE fall. I really don't get that excited about the change in seasons...except this one! I guess because I live in the valley of the sun. Fall means being able to leave your house for pleasure again. It means spending the afternoon at the park and not getting heat stroke! It means pumpkins, leaves, fall festivals, trick or treating, thanksgiving, orange, football season, sweaters! I love everything about it! I am already decorated for fall, and burning those fall candles all day long! Ahhhh. I am in heaven!

(My cuties last year! 2008)

School update

My Alexis LOVES school. In fact, that is an understatement. She has now almost completed her first quarter of school. Kindergarten is AWESOME. She tells me every day in the car that school was...AWESOME. She loves going to see her friends, recess, lunch, coloring, cutting, pasting, painting, singing, writing, and especially reading. She is doing so amazing with the reading. At her school they get Sam books. After they can read a list of the first 25 sight words, they are able to start taking these books home. She gets to bring home a new book every day. She is on book 25, and has completed all the 100 sight words. She can read anything you put in front of her. I am so proud of her. Reading is so important, and the fact that she loves it and is very good at it makes me very happy! Last week they had a little open house to see what they have done the first quarter. It was very cute! We got to see some of the things they have made and hear some of the songs they have learned. She did so great. It was tons of fun to see her with all of her friends (mostly boys!) and see her teacher Mrs. Orr. We are looking forward to seeing her grow and learn even more the rest of the year!

Alexis and her teacher Mrs. Orr