Day 3-6

Days 3-5 I really can't excite anyone about my "Me Time". It was boring to most and LUXURIOUS to me. I practically did NOTHING. I slept in until around 8 (or later some days). I went shopping with my friend, Monica, Friday night. We went to Scottsdale Fashion Square. That was a fun time. I used to work at that mall and besides some of the stores changing, the mall really hadn't changed throughout the years. It still is a place to walk around after a nice dinner or a "meat market" for the single crowd. It is quite the place to people watch. Ranks up there with the airport.

Saturday, my high point was brunch with my mom at IHOP. Fun huh! Was for me because I could eat breakfast foods all day if I could and was for my mom as she is feeling better and wanted to get out of the house for a bit. Then we went back to her house and I noticed her water heater was leaking so we worked on getting that fixed. She had an expensive day on Saturday!

4th of July was another day that I stayed inside the majority of the day. Cleaned the refrigerator and did some laundry. See I told you...boring! But on the bright side I have a clean fridge and clean clothes! Ha ha

It was an eventful day for Luke as he had his 1st ER visit. He hit his head while in Ohio and ended up with staples. I was really bummed that I wasn't there with him for this momentous occasion, but everything ended up alright in the end. TJ did a bang up job! (can you believe they handled everything without mom? Crazy that they can manage without me, right?)

Here is a picture taken of Luke's head after the staples.

After the ER visit, Luke took a little nap and then they were off to a 4th of July carnival. Again, proof that Dad did a terrific job! Know I now he can do these things so no excuses, right?

Today, I went to work for a few hours and then after a brief hello to my mom I decided to go and see a movie. I wasn't in the mood to sit at home. I actually thought about seeing Eclipse again (I know I am obsessed) but, am hoping that I will be able to see it with Steph and Morgan when they come home from Japan. I went and saw Knight and Day with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. It was terrific. Just what I needed. I laughed a ton! They were great together in the movie. Very entertaining! Two thumbs up!

Now I am off to bed! I am actually setting my alarm for the morning because I am taking some friends to the airport so they can go get out of the heat. They are going to visit family in Alaska! I think they will actually be COLD. They say it is in the 50's and 60's during the day which is like our winters!

Having a nice time, but missing my boyz! It is very quiet....and CLEAN in my house! I am getting a little weirded out about that. I haven't had to yell at anyone in many days so either that will make me more patient when they return or I will have saved 9 days worth and BLOW! I am a little nervous to find out...poor boys. They have no idea what they are in store upon their return! :-)

Until later...

Kid Pitch...oh my!!!!

Matthew is playing kid pitch baseball this year. YIKES! It is so much fun to watch these boys each year. Every year they get better and better. This year Matthew is trying out catching and pitching. Can you believe that???? Matthew looks so big to me, then I see him in the catching gear and he looks like my little guy again!
Baseball was TJ's favorite sport growing up so it is really hard that he cannot coach Matthew at baseball. He is just too busy during the spring to coach. He is going to sign Luke up for tee-ball this summer...that is a fun time! There are usually more parents than kids on the field since they are just learning at that age.
Here are some videos of Matthew playing ball...some are a little long, but want his Grandma Casey to see him play!

Matthew catching....

Casey at the bat...

Matthew got a hit!!!!

I have some of him pitching, but I need to go to bed. I will try and get those up tomorrow.

I'm Back in the saddle again!

I am gearing up for another busy tax season. Need to start posting again so I can keep up with everyone. Trying to get some pictures uploaded tonight from our trip to Disneyland, Christmas, & Matt's 8th birthday party.

But for now here are some of the Chistmas card picture rejects. What? You didn't get our Christmas card? That's odd? I will take that up with the post office! :-)


This just makes me smile...or laugh hysterically!

It just seemed weird to have our Christmas picture in a sleigh when it was 80 degrees outside.
This is just one of the many funny pictures in my "2009 Memories"...
I made Pluto get down next to Luke because we paid for his dinner and the little S _ _ _...I mean scoot (as my Mom calls him) fell asleep at the very beginning of dinner! I want to show him this when he is older! :-)


This was last Easter. The boys had the flu. They had gotten a movie from their Grandma Casey for Christmas and I can rarely get them to sit still. They didn't move. In fact shortly after this picture they fell asleep. Bummer of an Easter for us! :-(

This was taken in Florida on our summer vacation to Disney World. I will look at this picture and remember what it felt like that week when it hits 115 degrees here in AZ. I LOVE the Dry Heat!

Squirrel...

One of the few family pictures we have. LOVE Luke's shirt! Isn't it funny!

Showing off our Cardinal pride!!! (And my LOVE for Kurt Warner!!!!!) For some weird reason TJ wanted that stuffed reindeer in the photo. Things that make you go hummmm?

And my #1 reject....

Need I say more? I guess it doesn't look so bad when I preview, but TJ's eyes look like they are going to pop out. It probably isn't that funny to everyone since you can't see it close up. It reminded me of his "military picture." I wish I had a copy of that to share so you all could laugh with me.

TJ's Birthday Gift

I have once again waited until the last moment to work on his gift. I find it so hard to buy for him since he can NEVER wait to get something that he wants. Therefore, I usually try and make something for him. This year I decided to take the boys pictures holding the letters that spell out DAD. I was having such a hard time deciding between black & white photos or color ones. I finally went down and asked him which ones he liked.

This what he ended up choosing:

Matt's was easy. We just had to decide which cheesy smile to use. I had to take several of Luke because you never know how they will turn out since he doesn't sit for more than 1/10th of a milisecond (I really don't know how long that is, but it adds humor to my story).

Anyways, this is one of Luke's that I/we liked also:

These are the black and white pictures that we chose and also a different one with the "A"

I think he will enjoy the gift. When I thought of doing it I wanted to have it for home, but then I thought he might like it at his office so I guess I can use these other pictures for that.

Surprise!

I finally decided to sit down and update my blog! Can you believe it? I haven't even checked other blogs because I know I am so far behind that I will never catch up...so I am just going to start fresh!

Matthew started school this past week. He is now in 2nd grade. He has enjoyed it so far, but they didn't have any homework last week....it will be coming this week though. I am glad to have him back in school so we can get back on to a routine. I find it hard during the summer when there are no routines. We are looking forward to a great new year for him.

Here is Matthew on his 1st day of 2nd grade...

And here was Matthew on his 1st day of 1st grade...They do grow up too fast, don't they? sniff! sniff!

Our Day Off!!????

Sundays are our only day off these days. The last month or so TJ has been taking Matthew to some spring training games. The Cleveland Indians (one of TJ's favorites) started playing spring training here in AZ...not usually a good time for a CPA to go watch games. However, he wanted to spend his day off going to see the Indians play. I couldn't say no. He even took Luke to a game one Sunday. He has asked me to go before, but I have passed because this is the day that I get my laundry caught up (well kind of-it truly never is done), clean house (at least pick up) go grocery shopping (I have my MOMMY helping me with this...she has been cooking me dinners once in a while. I have her pick up the boys then I come home from work and she feeds us. Then I (try) and help her clean her kitchen). Anyhoo, I decided that I should do the "good wifely" thing and compromise ONCE so I said I would go today since they were playing the Cubs here in Mesa. Soon after I agreed to go (and he bought tickets) I realized I needed to have a den meeting for March and this Sunday was the only free day. So we went to the game-left at the end of the 6th inning and then came home to have a den meeting. We are preparing for the boys to participate in a cub mobile race. So everyone got to have a turn at riding the cub mobile. Luke was patient for a while then started to get a little ticked when he wasn't getting a chance ( I have 10 Tiger cubs in my den). Finally he had his chance and he was happy again. He is such a drama "queen"!!!! I don't know where he gets that! I just pout - so must be TJ! :-)

TJ and Matt go super early to try and get autographs. Today he got Johnny Peralta's autograph.

The Sports nuts!LOOK! A picture with me and my 2 boyz! This might be a collectors picture! These are very rare!

How cute is this??? This is Matt's hat. He won't wear his own hat, but he will wear Matt's. I think he does it because he knows it bugs Matt. Do you really think that he thinks like that at 2?

How do you like Matt's pit crew?

After dinner Luke and I got in the jacuzzi! It was so relaxing! (but still need that massage!)

So we had a GREAT day off - had some beautiful weather and now I am getting ready for bed to start the work week again! But, only 16 days left (and counting!)

Penguin Day

Matthew's class has been learning about penguins. The first graders had a program for parents to come and see what they have been learning and they had a little program at the end. It was so cute. One of his friends dressed up in his black pants and a white dress shirt and a little black bow tie. It was so cute. I had forgotten my camera, but my friend Brenda had hers! YEA!!!! It was a fun time and so cute to watch them waddle like penguins. They had a BLAST having their parents in their classroom too.

PS- I am still alive, but very tired and am really ready for April 15th to be here!!!! I need to get better at hiding it because Matthew keeps asking if I am "STRESSED". I just tell him that STRESSED is DESSERTS spelled backwards so lets go get a treat! Thank goodness that tax season is almost over! I give in way to easy these days. I am not up for the fight! :-)

Only 24 more days!!!!

Cards lost!

Started to get ready for the Super Bowl party at our friends house and was load things up for Luke...he fell asleep. So I decided to wait until he woke up to go to the party...he was in one of his "terrible 2" moods so the nap was going to be a great thing. He fell asleep on the couch and fell off and started to cry so I picked him up and started to rock him in the rocking chair and...next thing I knew...there was only 7 minutes left in the 2nd quarter. I fell asleep! I NEVER take naps during the day so I must have really needed that sleep! I loaded Luke up and we joined the party at half time.

So sad the Cardinals lost, but am so proud of how far they went this year! It was so exciting to see them achieve so much! Matthew is a HUGE football fan and got very upset when they lost! I didn't have my camera, but my friend Barbara had her phone so she took this picture and one of her little guy who was also very upset too! The picture is very grainy, but you get the idea how bummed he was...never like to see them cry!

Go Cats!!!!

TJ is getting ready to pull his pants down...

Well here they are...the long awaited photos of Matthew and TJ wearing thier Arizona shirts with pride! Devil pride that is! As I take their pictures for prosperity, they include the pitch fork sign on thier fingers! It kind of looks like a gang sign, huh. Anyways, we have started the tradition in our family, that the annual U of A versus ASU game will result in the losing team will have to wear the winners shirt to our family Christmas. I am not sure if the Butler's and the Haney's are in on the bet, but we Casey's will be starting this new tradition.

I have more pictures from Christmas that I will post later, but thought I could at least get these out before I jump into bed. Hope you enjoy as much as we all did! :-)

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!

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!