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!

Card Games

We're home and after our long ride (not as long as usual-but this didn't seem to lower the amount of screams:), the kids were excited to be out of the car. We quickly unloaded and I threw some laundry in. It's so hard to come home to a clean house and then within a matter of minutes it looks like a bomb of clothes and stuff went off. I can't believe we fit it all into the truck. There are Christmas presents that I'm trying to hide and sense that I'm trying to make out of the mess. So in the midst of all of that, Alizah says, "Play a card game with me mom". So what do I do, leave the mess (didn't really want to do it anyway) and sat down and played "Go Fish" with Alizah and Piper. I have to document this because it's the first time that we all played together-actually played, not pretended to hold the cards! It was amazing to me that the game did not end up with cards being thrown cuz someone didn't know the rules. It was easier for Alizah to win, because Piper would set down all of her cards one at a time to find the match. Alizah was extremely patient as Piper would look through each one every time. Like I've said before, we seem to be moving into a different phase of our lives. The girls are getting older and playing more together. When we got our new kitchen, Piper said she was thirsty, went into the kitchen got a cup and got her own water out of the fridge with the water dispenser in the door. Brandon and I looked at each other in amazement. Things are changing!! Now don't get me wrong, I still do a "little" too much for my children (people who know me are laughing at this point), but they are getting so old and I know time is flying fast with them....

School Pictures

My friend Jenn, came to our school to take pictures for the pre-school. Piper was not necessarily cooperative, but I think they turned out great! People have been checking my blog lately wondering why I haven't been posting, I've got to get in the routine again! We are preparing for leaving for Idaho next week for Thanksgiving. I'm trying to pack as I'm doing laundry and getting all my school stuff done. The kids are super excited to get out of town and see family and cousins. I'm excited cuz we have a new DVD player in our truck!