Sping Break 2009

Taylor & Ashlyn and her friend Dallin at the Californa Academy of Sciences Museum

Dallin & Haleigh

Camden & Sadie

Sadie & Alexa

Sadie in the tidepools

In San Francisco the California Academy of Sciences Museum at Golden Gate Park is free the third Wednesday of every month. In March that happened to fall on our Spring Break. We decided to join the Bruschke clan and visit this newly renovated museum. We got in early but still had to wait in line for over an hour before we got in -- but once we did the kids had a blast. They enjoyed the tidepools, the aquarium, the natural history portion of the museum and the Rain Forest wuth amazingly beautiful butterflies. Our trip was quick but fun. The kids enjoyed meeting up with their good friends. We miss the good ole days of bike riding, ball throwing and trampoline jumping of the old cul-de-sac. It was crazy to watch the two oldest of these two families head off to Mutual together later that night? Sad but fun to watch them grow up!

Taylor Turns 12

Taylor had very specific birthday plans. Football & video games. He got what he wanted. Taylor and 12 boys played football for close to 2 hours. After football they came back to the house for pizza and 4 gaming stations set up for their gaming extravaganza. Playstation 2, X-box, WII. Guitars played, cars raced and boys ate. It was a fun night for all, especially Taylor.

The Suns Game!

Troy & I

Julie & I

Right before both Julie Martinez and I celebrated our birthdays (they are only 2 days apart) Julie's husband Matt got tickets to the Suns game in his firms suite. Gotta love cushy seats, private bathroom and a catered meal! It was a fun night! This was my first time seeing the Suns live in action. The boys kept laughing at my apparent appall at what the cheerleader were wearing and of course their dance moves - gross! Gosh does that make me sound OLD! Luckily the Suns performance completely outshined the "dancers". They won by 40 + points! Thanks Matt for a good time - let's do it again soon!!!

Lion King

For Della's Christmas and Birthday we got her and the rest of the family tickets to the Lion King. It was such a great night. We were lucky enough to get tickets on the aisle so we could see the animals parade right past us and we got an eagles eye view of the amazing costumes and choreography since we were on the third row!! The best part was attending a cultural experience that everyone enjoyed. There isn't much these days that my almost 12 year old and my 4 year old both enjoy equally!

Haleigh as Pocahontes Wins 2nd Place!!!

Haleigh with two friends and neighbors. Kine Miltun and Cassie Bump.

Haleigh as Pocohontes

Haleigh is always ready for a fun project or activity. This past two months it has been the speech club preparing for the schools oratorical contest. She picked her character, researched and wrote her speech and proceeded to memorize her 5 minute prepared report on Pocahontes. I did nothing but proofread her final draft. I was so impressed with her. She honestly did this all on her own with no encouragement or even support. Should I be admitting that? I think she had to ask us 500 thousand times to buy her a costume. She even got on the internet and told us which stores carried it and how much it costs. What an amazing girl we have. Am I bragging? Well she deserves it. Go Haleigh we love you and are so proud of your effort. It paid off when she recieved 2nd place out of 20 students. She qualified for the district contest next week. She has a good chance since there you have to have your speech completely memorized and she was the only one at her school that did! You go girl!

UTAH FUN

After Christmas we went to spend a few days with family in the snow of Utah. The first day Troy took Taylor, Haleigh and Camden to Sundance for a day of skiing with Aunt Cherrie and Max. Sarah stayed at home with Sadie and Sophie. They spent the morning at the Kangaroo Zoo - a warehouse full of bouncies and blow up slides etc. After lunch we went up to see our skiing kids. They all had a fun day. Another day we went up to Heber and went tubing with the whole Lassiter family. Thanks Nana Pat for such a fun activity. It was pretty cold but managed to hold out for the 2 hour session. The sun was shining -it was a beautiful day in the snow. Both cameras that made it to the fun had dead batteries :( so we only got a few pictures but at least we got a few!

Sadie & Sophie

Camden skiing at Sundance

Taylor, Troy before they tackled the black diamond run with Aunt Cherrie!

Haleigh skiing at Sundance

Andrew & Haleigh posing with Sophie

The non skiiers

Sadie and Troy tubing at Soldiars Hollow

Sadie ready to go on the tow rope

Yep even Nana Pat tubed!!! Can you believe it?

Haleigh & Bella

Sophie and Cherrie

Christmas 2008

Christmas was fun and relaxing. We started off Christmas Eve with our traditional tortilla soup and drinking our rootbeer reindeers. The kids each got to pick ONE present to open and after reading the Christmas story from the scriptures it was off to bed. Christmas morning came with the excitement of presents. Mom and Dad especially enjoyed making Haleigh wait till the last present to get her "helmet" & scavenger hunt for her motor scooter. It was especially enjoyable knowing that she probably peeked and knew all the rest of her presents. Thats a whole other story probably not blog appropriate :) We love Haleigh but man oh man that girl.....

Here is Sadie proudly displaying her own bling. She kept wanting to wear Haleigh's. Now she has her own. Your so cute my sweet Sadie! You can't really tell in the picture but now our little princess has her own little crown!





The boys were very excited to get the wii set up and start rocking out with the rock band and baseball games. The girls got a turn eventually!




There she is....the screaming was deafening. She loved her only present from mom & dad and I think has forgiven our torture since she has ridden the battery dead so many times over the holiday we lost track. Thank goodness she has friends to cruise the neighborhood with!

The crazy Plewe Crew with beautiful Christmas smiles. It was a great morning.

Shortly after the present frenzy we all gathered in the kitchen to help cook and scarf down our big Christmas breakfast. Bacon, sausage, OJ, Hash brown, and pancakes. Yumm. It was a very Merry Christmas. After a big breakfast and a morning of the wii and scooter riding, we met our friends for another of our traditions...a movie. We saw Marley and Me and well let's just say it was rated PG but if Taylor didn't already know about procreation -- he does now. It was a good movie it just discussed how you start a family many times as well as supported by visually hints. Oh goodness. I was embarassed for my almost 12 year old. I ended my fabulous day by going to bed at 8:30 pm. Now thats a MERRY CHRiSTMAS!

Best Husband Ever!!!

Recently I had a little accident in the kitchen (almost cut off my finger...) and I have been unable to do a few things that needed to get done....and can you believe it Troy suggested he go and buy some flowers and plant them? Yes he "designed them himself, with inspiration from a friends planters. GO TROY. Aren't they pretty? Here are some of the amazing things Troy has done lately:

1) planted flowers

2) gone w/ his wife to see Twilight!

3) done the dishes everyday since the injury

I am a lucky girl!

Thanksgiving FINALLY!!!

Thanksgiving was a fun week. Della, Troy's mom came for the whole week. She was able to come the weekend before and got to watch Taylor's last football game, Haleigh & Sadie's last soccer games and our Primary program. It was our first and last year all of our kids will be in it together!!! We had a fun Turkey Day with yummy food! Troy and I even got up early and did some Black Friday shopping. Later that day Troy and Della took the kids on a 3 mile hike to Lost Dutchman. They did pretty well and had fun climbing on the rocks at the top.

My Super Speller!!!

Taylor qualified for his school spelling bee for the second year! He came in third place this year! Way to go Taylor I am so proud of you.