Moses Lake Round-Up Rodeo

My cowgirls in their rodeo get-up! I didn't get their cute new boots in the pic. We finally convinced Alizah that her pants had to be "too long" so they would cover up her boots! They love watching the saddle-bronc and hearing about their Great-Papa Doodle and the team roping and dad tells them stories about his family. Their favorite, of course, is the queens and we tell them about Aunt Britni and Aunt Megan. These are the times I hate being so far away from what I grew up with. Horses were such a part of both Brandon and I's life in Idaho. The girls get quick tastes of it, but not enough in our books! Brandon is really wanting to find a horse. I hope that something comes up so that he can share that with his "girly-girls".

SHHH....we are surprising the girls in the morning and taking them to Silverwood-the big theme park in our area. It's a few hours away, so we are getting up early and packing the sleeping girls in the car and telling them mom has a doctor's appointment. Hanna has been bugging us for years to go. I can't wait to see their faces!!

Hanna's new bedroom set is almost put together. We got her a mattress today and started putting everything away. Our house is slowly getting put back together and everyone seems excited about their new rooms. The girls are leaving again on Wednesday to Idaho and we aren't going to pick them up again till Labor Day weekend. It's almost a week and a half that they will be gone and they are so excited to go see cousins again! This summer has been great for them. They actually seem to know their cousins and spent lots of time with them. While they are gone, I plan on.....working/cleaning....and READING in the sun:) I've had a little too much vacation too this summer. How will I ever handle school this fall??

Alizah's Accomplishments

Alizah has had an amazing summer! She has a wonderful swimming teacher who has been patient with her for years....last year she wouldn't even get in the pool. This year she has learned how to swim the backstroke, crawl, and a little butterfly! She will dive (stomach flop) into the pool and swim across to the other side! I am so proud of her. She works really hard and loves to go to her lessons. We have a very giving neighbor who lets us use their pool and a friend teaches her lessons there. Hanna is also in lessons and seems to be progresses quite a bit too! She loves to do her front flips off the diving board and tries really hard to outdo Alizah:) Now Piper's accomplishment is to put her nose in the water, we are working on getting her pig tails wet....

Alizah also has finally learned to ride her bike without training wheels. She showed an interest when her cousin stayed for a few weeks and would take off on his bike and she couldn't go. Within the week she'd conquered her fear. She's got a few cuts and scrapes, but seems to be willing to keep trying. I was in the kitchen and she came walking in and said, "Mom, it happened again, but it's not bleeding this time..-scrape from falling" She'd taken off on her bike to see the deer down the street. I didn't even know she'd left. Don't think I'm a terrible parent, anyone who knows Alizah knows she has not left my side for six years.... She's opened up a whole new life for herself!

The girls have one more week home and then they leave again for a week and a half to Idaho for the rest of the summer before school starts. We are going to hit the pool as much as possible and we are switching up their rooms to allow for a new bedroom set that Aunt Kiki made for Hanna. We'll post pics as soon as the mess is cleaned up!

3 month post

300 yards from our room!

" Scuba Steve"


Right outside our back door.....

At the Tulum Ruins holding an iguana that peed on me! YUCK!!

We only went off the resort once to go to the ruins and Playa de Carmen for the day. Every other day we spent laying on the beach, eating (it was all-inclusive and the food was unreal), reading, and RELAXING! I have never been on such an amazing vacation and I will plan another trip as soon as I can....

Now, I'm finally able to sit down and recap after our vacation and document some of our past couple months. Here goes...

May: Kids graduation from schools- Alizah from kindergarten, Piper from Aunt Kiki's pre-school and Hanna from her first year at Kimber Academy. Brandon's life changes with getting Apple TV.

June: We go on Cancun vacation while Lindsay takes care of the girls. I finished an entire book and Brandon finished the first chapter of a book:) Our front yard gets landscaped with beautiful rocks and shrubs. Rocks are very easy to take care of!! Lindsay is successful with the "gum bag" and Piper's potty training. (She hasn't mastered it yet, but at least she's trying finally.)

July: Beck family reunion on Oregon Coast. Hanna flys on an airplane to Idaho by herself to see grandma. Alizah starts swimming lesson and finally dunks her head!

We have been away so much this summer, but the gym is still standing each time we come back. My staff at the gym is so wonderful this year that I'm beginning to think they don't need me anymore! Brandon and I both put in a lot of hours in between vacations at work , but the breaks have been worth it from this past busy year. We are headed to out again with Brandon's family this week to Chief Joseph Days in Wallowa, Oregon and then to Idaho after that to pick up our girls from another visit with their grandparents. We are planning to bring back the cousins for a visit in August. Let's hope I get some more down time to show everyone pictures from the past few months.

Hanna turns 9!

So nobody drop dead....I'm actually posting. I got two comments last week alone that said they only get to see my family from my sister's blog. The guilt trip has worked and here we are. Hopefully it means a new blogging kick for me.

Hanna is 9 years old, got a haircut last week and looks so grown up! This is a picture from her Pinecone Princess pagaent. She was asked to be a little sister for Miss Moses Lake Outstanding Teen, McKenna Ries and because McKenna won Hanna participates in a little pageant of her own and goes to multiple community appearances and parades. She loves the crown!

Hanna's birthday party was a little dramatic this year. She had a Peace themed sleepover at the gym. We tye-dyed pillowcases, tye-dyed eggs, and played games. The drama part was that one little girl got sick at the party and the following week 11 of her guests were sick, including Hanna and Alizah. This followed 10 of my coaches/teachers gone last week, so it is definately hit Moses lake!!

I have so much to blog and really don't even know where to start. I am headed for the next two weekends to State gymnastics competition where my girls will compete. I'm super excited because two of mine did so great they made a special Washington team and get to compete again at a special meet along with state.

We also have ducks to blog about at school. The school is raising two little ducks that aren't so little after the last few weeks. My pregnant teachers are about ready to kill me with the smell. The kids love them though!

Kids need me, so more later....

Naughty or Nice??

This picture is of Alizah covering up something she did. (Hanna had told on her) She claims there is nothing under her hands. After we finally pulled her away from the table.....this is what we found....

Now, apparently, Piper knows how to spell AND write, because it was blamed on her. The teacher in me even got a little upset. (I know most of you invision me praising this kind of fine motor control and the creativity in use of writing materials...ha, ha) Alizah and I had a discussion about how moms can tell when kids are lying. A lying's child nose turns red just like Rudolph's. We had this same conversation a few days ago and the same reaction came from Alizah...Her hand slowly moved up to her face to cover her nose. I think this is an admission of guilt if I've ever seen one!! I'm not sure if it's her age or not, but we are having problems with her telling the truth over the smallest things.
In the mail today, also came letters from Santa! The timing was not the best because Santa told Alizah she was on the top of the nice list!! Oh no, I guess lesson was not learned today....

Cheerleading Performance

So since we don't have enough to do, the two girls have taken up cheerleading. Korbi is the coach and she recruited for extra girls and it has turned into an amazing opportunity for Alizah. Of course Hanna likes it too, but Alizah has become a little obsessed. Brandon had bet me $$ that Alizah wouldn't perform at the high school basketball game a few weeks ago and I was skeptical, but she came through and couldn't wait for the next one. She's never been one to perform in front of people, talk or pray in church or even hold a picture during singing time. She's starting to come out of her shell and this cheer program has been wonderful for her. On Friday morning, I walked into her room and she popped out of bed and said "today is cheer day!". Throughout the day, she continued to ask about a hundred times, "is it 7:00 yet?" She begged her dad to come see this performance and was as proud as a peacock when he came. We love that she has seemed to find something that makes her so happy. It sure helps that her "sister-Auna" is in the class too. Korbi does a great job with the girls and they have cheer/dance/stunt and tumbling in their routine. They'll have another performance in january, hope she can hold out till then:)

Gingerbread House

A grandma at the girls' school put together kits to decorate gingerbread houses, so of course we had to buy one. I was lucky to hold them off till Friday to decorate it. It was an event and a mess! The girls were super good about not eating the candy. I think I ate more than they did. Piper held out till the last picture then begged to eat the snowman's head. It was a fun project and it even had a light that we put in the inside to light it up. The girls are getting pretty excited about the holidays. We decorated the tree and wrapped a few presents. Hopefully we make it through the last week of school and all of our holiday activities!