Olivia Jane turns 17!!

17! Ten minutes before her official birthday begun at 11:50 pm Olivia started her birthday medley of songs that sang about 17 year olds...She always livens things up! This little girl has had quite the year. Many ups and unfortunately many downs...but she knows the value of stepping back and doing some self care and recognizing what truly is important.. Grateful she was able to walk away from the accident she was in and am hopeful this next year will bring more laughs and joy. I love you Olivia. You are gorgeous, smart, kind, funny, entertaining and truly yourself! What a privilege to be able to do this journey called life with you!

On her birthday her young women's president (me) decorated her door with hearts and things people like about her. She also got a QT hot chocolate-yum and a breakfast sandwich. As a family we went and saw the new Jumanji movie, it was hysterical. we got our fill of popcorn and soda. For dinner we picked up chicken tenders and salad from the grocery store as well as a store bought cake...all her favorite things. Olivia's birthday is the perfect post Christmas celebration!!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2019

 We went to Winterhaven, the local Tucson neighborhood that goes all out with Christmas lights. I love that neighborhood and would gladly move there..nobody else is on board with that. The lights looked amazing as always.

Benjamin and I at Barbara and Ron's house for Christmas Eve. There was a stellar Nativity (where were the pictures?) 

My babies.

Holman cuddling with baby Leora. She was loving on this baby magnet!

Christmas day we went to Nan and Papas for some Christmas Bingo..I lost.

 You know it was a great day when we all took a Christmas nap! We had our standard Mexican food, mini chimi's and moms party chili dip, yumm! Then we had ugly steaks for dinner..another food coma!

Benjamin got me twin cabbage patch dolls....they are the smell of my childhood. Literally brought tears to my eyes.

Fly like an Eagle....Holman earned his Eagle!

Holman earned his Eagle..it truly was all him from start to finish. He chose his project. He called and arranged everything with the facility, called people to volunteer and led the group. He chose the Therapeutic Riding of Tucson. Its an organization that provides horse back riding to kids with physical and mental disabilities. The organization needed to put their sensory bridge in a new spot, it needed to be repainted too. It was an 8 hour experience. We had to unscrew the wood planks, dig out the old bridge, dig footers for the new bridge and paint it all.  It was a ton of work! Holman showed his true grit when he passed his board of review and was awarded the Eagle rank and he still went back to the facility to paint their logo on the bridge .

Well done son. I had know idea how much work an eagle project really is. Watching you jump over all those hurdles was truly impressive. I can see why this rank is well known even outside the scouting community. What a honor to be your mom!

Watershed Project 2019

The Tucson Watershed Project is one of Tucson's best kept secrets..You attend a class that talks about water harvesting and then you get rebates from the City of Tucson when you implement water harvesting projects. You can then help your neighbors with their water harvesting projects and "earn hours" for your neighbors to do a project at your house..Thanksgiving weekend we hosted "the gravy bowel" project at our house. 

We rented a tractor and got to work!

On a side project we took down our guest house fence that was falling apart. Robin, JC and Hillary helped us. It had rained a lot so it came apart like butter.

These newly created berms can hold a lot of desert rain!

All that water will now stay and soak into our property instead of running on by.

Thanksgiving 2019

Thanksgiving at the Holman's was awesome! Robin had the place looking mighty festive. It was such a relaxing and yummy afternoon. The Websters came into town so that always makes it fun.

   There is a great friend from high school, named Ian, who has special needs he calls me once a month and asks about my siblings. I wanted to be able to send him a picture of us. Hillary and John were game.

                                       
                                                 Look at these adorable place settings!!

We went on a family walk and Bella and I took a picture.

Holman, the whole man! 15 years December 1st

How can my Happy Jack be 15?! Holman's birthday is only 4 days after Anna. Even though he has s December birthday he does not want to have Christmas associated with it. He didn't want the tree up and decorated till after his birthday. Holman has a hard time asking for gifts. So shopping for him for his birthday or Christmas can be quite challenging! We finally got a little bit of information out of him so we ordered him a nice watch, Stratego it's a board game for 2 and a drone. I hope this drones manages to not die within a month like his others :-) This last weekend Holman signed up to do a 500 swim for a swim invitational. He was super nervous about it because he's not known for doing long-distance races but decided to challenge himself ... he then questioned his reasoning. Right before he got in the water he said to me Mom I enter the pool as boy and will come out a man. This kid makes me laugh so much!! he is didn't so much this last year he finished his eagle project in November so that he could receive his eagle and been spent in December he really cranked it out this last year. I'm so proud of them for his diligence, hard work and excellent example he is to his brothers and sisters. He also is a total goofball and perpetual kidder just like his mom we have a lot of fun!

Anna turns double digits!! November 27th

The day before Thanksgiving Anna turned 10! Can't believe my baby is in double digits. This year she had a birthday party. We invited some of her school friends and church friends over for pajama wearing/trampoline/manicures/ lunch and crafts.  We also watched The Greatest Showman. Bella and Olivia came to help make slime with the girls and paint their nails and help the girls make bracelets. They were awesome big sisters and a good help to me. Nana also came by to help, Nana makes everything better. Anna felt truly loved. She doesn't have a party every year but when she does it's a lot of fun! The girls were all so sweet and made cards and picked out things Anna loves. Anna is a fun and unpredictable girl. She is independent, super creative and joyful. She's also a good student. Her dyslexia has not slowed her down. She had a big report due this week and we had put it off because we were busy with a lot of other  things. I woke her up early Friday morning so that we could finish the report and I told her you tell me what you want to say and I'll write it out and then you can just copy how I wrote it. She said no mom that would rob me of being independent...love this girl!!

This last Thursday night Olivia was taking the kids to swim practice. It was at 6 p.m. so it was dark and she was turning onto  Tanque Verde road. She looked left and we don't know if the truck that she collided with had his lights off or if he just changed lanes.. either way it sent Livy's car sailing into our neighbors fence. All airbags deployed, glass flew, it was quite the wreck. Luckily a woman who is a nurse was driving home with her son who was icing  his knee so she pulled over and gave Olivia ice for her forehead which had a huge cut. She put a towel on her head to stop from bleeding.  Benjamin was on his way home from work he called Papa and after the police and ambulance and everybody left they were able to give them a blessings. I took Olivia to the ER because of her head wound. Unfortunately we went to one ER sat there for two hours only to find out that they didn't have a plastic surgeon on scene to help with the scar so we went to another ER and sat for an additional 5 hours only to not have a plastic surgeon help us.   It was probably one of the longest nights of my life.We are grateful that everyone was able to walk away from the accident including the other driver so grateful that everybody survived.  So grateful that everyone wore seatbelts. We are sad to lose our car.

Halloween 2019

Holman's costume was a commentary on the ocean. Full of trash and plastic...my activist child.

     

 Anna as Cruella Deville

Parkin as Totoro....a Japanese cartoon character

Olivia as Waldo from Where's Waldo

Bella and her friend Halie dressed as Paul Blart Mall Cop from Season 1 and 2

I love that the new movement is if teenagers bother to dress up and knock on your door, you give them candy. They aren't partying or vandalizing just holding onto childhood a little longer. So happy all my kids were well received. Anna and Parkin went trick or treating with their cousins Dan and Ivy.  Olivia and Morgan chaperoned them until they headed off to a party. Holman also went to a party. Benjamin came home to me in a chair with the dog at my feet and the kitten at my head. He thought I looked really sad. I thought I looked really cozy. I had my preschool performance in the house earlier the whole living room was cleared out and full of folding chairs. There were about 50 parents who came. A quiet night was quite fantastic.

Boat day!!

With a husband that is attractive and smart, I am so grateful that his strong genes came through for our children. Every once in a while I love seeing an attribute in them that is so me. Like "National Boat day." My son told his swim team coach that they needed to honor this holiday with boat races at practice. She called his bluff so he strapped the boat to the van and took it to school. He is my kindred spirit in tomfoolery. Bless this coach and my teachers who believed (or were also willing to entertain my own personal amusement) National Candle day, that I was on the wrestling team and that I was an ASL interpreter for my friend... just to name a few. I really should substitute teach in high school just for penance. Three cheers for a Dad who helped attach the boat and for marrying a girl who is fun size.

UCLA and Carpenteria, October 7th

For spring break we went to California to play on the beach with friends and visit Beryl at UCLA. She was so sweet and treated our whole family for lunch on campus. We got to tour her dorm and check out the beautiful campus. It was lovely! It is no wonder it is the # 1 public University in the USA (that's whet all the banners said ). Benjamin and I sported our UCLA shirts that she bought us when she visited us in the summer. She is thriving there, she has been involved with research projects and was part of a publication. We love watching her success and miss her!

After our visit with Beryl we headed up to Carpenteria State Park. We camped on the beach with the several Whetten families and the Butler family. The water was cold but that doesn't stop the kids or Benjamin from jumping in. I had to talk myself into it, but once I got in had a blast with the boogie board. Benjamin and I went on a couple runs and some strolls down their beautiful shopping center. When we were leaving we stopped at the local candy store, everybody bought something. Last night Benjamin finally finished his jaw breaker...9 days later. of course he didn't suck it for 9 days straight just a little each night...I could never do that! Unfortunately Bella didn't have the time off so she took care of the house, that was a huge blessing for us.

Some September pictures..

 Parkin dressing up for crazy day at school....we are just glad he didn't shoved into a locker..

 Anna getting an award at school!