Breakfast with Santa

We had breakfast with Santa this morning. My oh my...what an event. It was fun, but Santa is so popular this time of the year. It was an experience. But the boys were able to say Hi to Santa and Matt got to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas...Madden 2009. If you haven't figured this out....my son is a sports fanatic!

This was Luke's first meeting with Santa. He wasn't so sure. He didn't cry, but he just sat on his lap and would not look up. We were calling his name trying to get him to look up so we could take a picture, but all that he would do was try and look up at me with his eyes and not lift his head. Not a totally bad experience though. He was a little happier after he received a candy cane.

A kiss from Mommy to make it all better!

Each of the boys were given a toy from Santa. Matthew received this really cool game called Hyper Dash. It looks like a lot of fun. TJ says it looks like advanced Simon. It can be played inside or outside. Santa said it would be great when friends are over and they can have little races or something. Pretty cool.

Luke got a new Dora movie. You won't believe it, but Luke is in LOVE with Dora, too. (Matthew used to LOVE her when he was 3 or 4). He was very happy and all smiles.

Cardinal's Game

Last week Matthew had quite an experience. He has a friend, Christopher, whos Dad knows an assistant coach on the St Louis Rams. The Rams were in town so Christopher and his Dad, Todd, asked Matthew and another friend, Dakota, and all the Dad's to go to the game in hopes that they would get a chance to go down on the field before the game. They packed up the car and left for the game at 8:30. They got to the stadium at 9:30 to tailgate until about 11:00. They then got some passes and were able to get on the field during the pre-game. The boys were excited, but I don't think they really realized what an opportunity they were having. The "Big Boys" on the other hand were in awe! TJ was on a high for days! They were standing right where the players were warming up. TJ said they were running on the field and doing drills and it sounded like a heard of cattle were coming towards them.

One of the Refs came up to them and talked to them.

Another coach for the Rams started throwing the ball to the boys and some of the players were even giving the boys high fives!

They saw some Hall of Famers, I believe, but TJ would have to explain them, because I have no idea! The guys even had their picture taken with the owner of the Rams. TJ said she was super nice!

I am sure I am leaving out a lot of details, but the overall experience was amazing and a long day. They left at 8:30 and got home at almost 6:30 I think. This is the coach that our friend Todd knows from Washington.

This is a link to PhotoBucket to see ALL the pictures they took. There are a lot of them, but some of them are really amazing to see how big these players are.

Handsome Young Lad

Just had to take a moment and share Matthew's school picture. Isn't he a handsome little guy! You can't really tell from the picture because he isn't smiling so big, but he has these huge big front teeth! He looks so big!

Had to get the retakes done because he decided to drink some chocolate milk or eat something chocolate right before he took his pictures and he had this long line of chocolate something right in the middle of his cheek! Bummer! Anyways, these turned out great! I love you Matthew!

University of Arizona vs Arizona State University

Well tonight is the annual rival game for the Cats and Devils. You know that I graduated from the U of A and TJ from ASU...let alone I worked to pay for him to go there (with special thanks to the GI Bill!)...Anyways, Matthew and TJ left this afternoon to hop on the University of Arizona Bus towards Tucson for the game. They are riding with Brad & Steph. Someone will be coming home very sad! I made a bet with TJ & Matthew that if the Cats win tonight, then they have to wear a Cats shirt to our family Christmas and if the Devils win I will be wearing a Devils shirt. Don't know how this will pan out. We will find out soon. Go CATS!!!!!

Super busy!

Not much time to blog these days! Crunch time for us at work and my house is a mess! I hope to get it cleaned up soon and all the boxes & totes put away soon. Will feel better then...but it will be just in time to pull them back out to clean it all up! Not trying to sound like the Grinch, but it's just a fact! I NEED to slow down!
Anyways, hope to get some new pictures up soon.

Life after Twilight

Well...I first want to say that Matt did win his game and thankfully, I will be there today to watch him in his playoff games. I loved the Twilight Movie! It was so hard to put that amazing book into a movie so I knew going into it that it would not be what I had pictured in my mind since I had seen the movie posters and Edward & Bella were not what I had pictured. I am an 80's child and my Edward was more like Jake Ryan...tall..dark...& handsome. However, Edward didn't totally let me down either. By the end I did feel the love between Bella and Edward and can't wait to see what they come up with next. Most importantly, I was able to share the experience with my sisters, my niece and some friends. Overall it was a wonderful time!

A bunch of Random Nonsense

Well it has been a long time since I have written anything so I thought I would just check in.

I am so excited...this Wednesday I am going to see the movie Twilight. I have been waiting for almost a year to see this and Morgan's, my niece, high school (she will actually go there next year and Ben is there right now, but it sounds funny telling the story since Ben isn't going...) is having a fundraiser for their prom night festivities...they are showing an advanced showing of the movie. It is not scheduled to come out until Friday. Since it is a fundraiser the tickets are a bit more, but so worth it...now I don't have to go to a midnight showing of it!

Anyways, when I found out about the tickets, I have so many friends that I know that are in love with the book too that I sent out this mass e-mail to everyone and we ended up getting about 19 tickets. YEA! I can't wait! The only downer is...get your kleenex...Matt's flag football 1st playoff game (and a single elimination tourney) is this Wednesday at 6:00. Chances are they are going to win so I will be able to watch him play on Saturday, but when I told him he started to cry! Then he just bawled "I want my Mommy to come to my game" parts of me laughed at the pure obsurdity of his moment, and other parts is afraid I will put him in therapy for the rest of his life (just kidding...I really don't think that). Am I a terrible Mom for not even thinking twice about missing a movie that I can't wait to see and missing his game?

My Halloween Week

My week started with me making pumpkin bars. You will notice that we all enjoyed them and Luke hadn't gotten any so when I was up stairs putting the laundry away, Luke climbed up on the stool and started digging into the pumpkin bars. He liked them!


Monday, TJ gave me a wonderful gift! He had a "little" procedure done and I am super grateful that he did. Thanks, TJ! I'm glad you finally took one for the team. Anyways, on Tuesday when he was at home recouping, we (everyone in our office) sent TJ some flowers of well wishes since he was starting to get in touch with his feminine side. He then sent back an e-mail to thank us stating how hormonal he was and how he thought the flowers were the most beautiful arrangement he had ever seen and that he was weeping with joy knowing we cared for him so much! Then asked if we could watch Thelma & Louise over the weekend. It's been fun teasing him!
Here is a picture that TJ took while he was recouping of all the things that help him heal.


This was dinner one night-it was a busy week so I made the boys little frozen dinners. Lukes had corn and chocolate pudding in his and needless to say, Luke enjoyed making a mess rather than eating.

Thursday night we had a pack meeting for boy scouts. It was a costume party so we took the boys. Matthew LOVES Pokemon so he wanted to be a Pokemon Trainer and Luke was a fireman.

Luke LOVES his little blanket-we call it Blue. just puckers his lips and touches the tag to his mouth. Super cute. We usually try to keep blue in his bed, but he sometimes goes and gets into his bed and get blue out.

Friday night before it got dark we went to Mom's house to Trick or Treat so she could see the boys. Luke was cranky and tackeled Matt for some reason and just laid on him.


After we left Moms we went over to some neighborhood friends of ours and had dinner and went Trick or treating. Luke made it to 3 houses I think before he passed out. After trick or treating we went back to our friends house and partied a little bit. They live in a culdesac and they blocked off the street so little traffic was coming around.

It was a great time, but have had a long week! Cannot believe it is November already! How crazy is that? I am ready for some cooler weather though! Where is it????? Hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween!

October Bunko @ Amy's

Every month my MOMS group gets together for Bunko. This month Amy MADE us dress up for Halloween. We always have such fun anyways, but we had a ball tonight. Amy really knows how to throw an awesome party! Check these pictures out!

Who knew she had these sexy legs??? Aunt Amy???

The Naughty Vampire & the Spa Girl (this might be my NEW profile...what do you think? Boy scout Den Mom or Spa Girl???)

The rabbit jumping out of the magicians hat! She is soooo clever!

A Waist of Time...nice one Susan! And the one who guessed it was Sisi! Way to go!

The Kitty Litter cake...yes it's edible!

Look at my awesome cake...not my cleavage!

No one was really sure they were going to be able to eat it....but have no fear in the end everyone had at least a taste!

Here are the Daffodil Divas!

It was a great night Amy...I hope we got out of there early enough for you & Scott! :-)

Let's go Brownies!

Here are some pictures from our game today! Matthew and his team are doing so great! Their record isn't great, but the boys are learning a lot and are having fun! Matthew is QB and is loving it..but actually loves to play anywhere just so he can play! This boy is all heart! He LOVES the game! Donna everyone is commenting on all our Browns attire. Might have to take some orders and have you buy us some shirts & stuff. Can't much Browns stuff down here!

Mike's visit

"Big Jet" and all of us!

My cousin, Mike Robert, flies a jet for Pella Windows. He called yesterday and said he would be in town today for 3 hours and wanted to meet for lunch. Matthew, Luke and I hopped in the car and drove over to watch his plane land (even though his co-pilot actually landed) it was SUPER COOL to watch. I got to hear him talking to the tower while we were in the lobby waiting for him to land. Matthew said to me as we were walking up to the lobby "Mom you are so lucky to have a cousin who flies jets" and then he said "and I am cool too because I get to meet him!" He was so excited...so was I actaully. Amy, Garrett and Connor made it to the airport just after he landed, but Mike brought us over to his jet and we got to go in to see how the cool people fly! It was incredible! The bathroom toilet lid was covered with the same leather that is on the seats! How cool is that?

We then jumped in the car and went for lunch. We decided to go to this restaurant over at Desert Ridge that one of our clients owns. I had only been there once...about a year ago...well I didn't remember exactly where at Desert Ridge it was. I was driving around looking for it knowing Mike, who was in Amy's car, was probably FREAKING out...and he was! I finally found it and atleast they got to see what cool stores are over at Desert Ridge for the next time they fly in and need to buy their wives a gift or something! :-) See I am always thinking! Thanks Mike for the visit and the tour!

Matt playing his DS while we were waiting...he was pretending he was catching the ball...he was playing Madden 2009

Mike taking Matthew and Garrett out to "Big jet!"

"Big Jet" that is what I decided to call his jet...for those who watch Little Einstein's...

The Bathroom...

More outdoor fun

Here are a couple more...mostly so my mother-in-law, Donna, can see the boys.

Just another day at the Casey's

It started to cool down a little bit and the boys were playing outside. Here are a couple video clips of them playing...they are short!

My Cakes

A couple of weeks ago, Matt's school had a cake walk and a cake auction. I made these 2 cakes for the auction. I wanted to do one for Matthew and had to do a "girly" cake, too. It was fun playing with purple & pinks!

Back it Up!

This is a PSA (public service announcement)! Make sure you back up your computer data! I had an external hard drive that I had all of my data on. Thought I was being safer by putting all the data on the external HD in case my C-drive crashed. Well...I think I have some type of computer virus, because if anything can go wrong on a computer it is usually my computer. Any way, TJ had backed up about 2 months ago so I haven't lost it all, but I have no idea what I am missing. Oh well...you live and you learn! The sun will come up tomorrow! :-) Thank goodness that I had uploaded a lot of pictures to ofoto.com and also on the blog and that my photographer, Amanda, has made. You can go to her blog and click on her labels for the boys and see more pictures there. Anywho...TJ I love you and am in no way blaming you for this little bump in our life freeway! This is just a great learning experience and I just wanted to share so others can learn from our mistakes! Now go and back up your computers!

I'm an Aunt? Mom? Step Mom? What?

This past weekend I was looking at the fish in our fish tank and I thought one of the mickey fish ( they are called Mickey fish because they have a black mark on their tail that looks like Mickey's ears) was very fat. I said to Matthew "oh my goodness...I think this fish is pregnant!" TJ came home and said the saw the fish was large, but thought he ate one of the other fish since it is missing. (fish are weird). Anyways, tonight, TJ was cleaning out the tank and as he was sucking up all the fish poop & such he said "You were right" (somehow, I never get tired of hearing that)! There were baby fish swimming around. You could barely see them, but we saw at least 6. He thinks they won't live long since TJ fears the Molly fish are going to eat them. (fish are weird). Just trying to post events in my life so I can eventually move that picture of me in my uniform off the page! Ha ha!

It's my Birthday!

Hello! It's my birthday today and I am very blessed! I am so happy (except I would LOVE to have my house organized), but otherwise super happy! I had a great day. I played hookey from work again today. That makes 3 days now. Luke was a little under the weather on Friday and yesterday Matt had gotten strep and today well...today I just wanted to stay home. I was doing some things around the house. I finally finished my book, Breaking Dawn! LOVED IT! Then I got the call that Matt wasn't feeling well at school so I went and got him. We came home and took a little nap and then I went and got a facial. It was a very nice day. My 3 boyz got me an IPod! I have never had one and finally decided I was ready. After I loaded some songs onto it, we plugged it in and we danced. It was a GREAT day! Thank you to everyone for loving me and always being there for me! I truly am blessed! Hopefully, I have written enough to push off those pictures of me in my uniform. If not, I will have to make another post! Tee Hee
Love you all!

Tiger Scouts

Matthew is starting cub scouts this year. He will be a Tiger Scout! Somehow, my wonderful, generous, and most thoughtful, husband of mine, volunteered me to be his Den Leader. So all summer I have been stressing out about the "uniform". The day finally came and we had to go sell Scout-o-Rama tickets last Saturday at the grocery store. The boys looked so cute/handsome in their uniforms. Not a big fan of the Den Leader's uniforms, but I decided to take one for the team. Matthew was excited that I had a uniform too...and I guess that is all the matters.

I can be fun too sometimes!

Don't know what came over me tonight, but had a little fun with dinner. Had gotten these alphabet tator tots at the store the other day so I decided to bake some chicken nuggets and tator tots. When I was putting them on the plates, I thought "how fun...I can spell their names out" then I thought "I can make some smiley faces and use their tator tots as the mouth" So I did. I called Matt to eat and he jumped up to the table and asked for something to drink then he was surprised at what he saw. He said "It's my name! How cool"! I said, "I know...isn't that fun!" Just wanted to share a grace filled moment I shared with my son tonight!

Here are my masterpieces! I know...I am such a dork! I really don't have that much extra time...something just came over me tonight!

August Birthdays!

Happy Birthday to you...Happy Birthday to you...Happy Birthday to .....

Yesterday we celebrated all the August birthdays (TJ, Brad & Chad's...Aunt Carolyn too). Mom had everyone over to her house for reubens and maid-rites. Yum Yum! It's always fun to get everyone together. Brad didn't have to work on his 40th (yesterday was his actual birthday) so they brought over some mojito mix and they all enjoyed those! Amy had to leave a little early since she had to work last night. Aunt Carolyn's birthday was yesterday as well, but their family went to Flagstaff to visit Miles at college. We had a great time eating...talking a little politics (and I mean a little since I don't like to talk about politics), drinking a little (TJ & I didn't partake since we had to work today!), and laughed a lot! Since Amanda was coming over, Mom was hoping to get a family picture, but it didn't happen so I took a picture of the cousins instead. Look at how Ben & Morgan have grown. Ben has his permit now and his parents enjoy having a driver! Morgan is growing into a beautiful young lady.

It was also my friend Niky Cross Taylor's birthday yesterday. Niky if you are reading this can you believe that I still remeber that? I can still remember all those sleep over's at your house! See what you have to look forward to! :-)