Connor's Birthday

Con turned 12 this week. OMGosh, where did the time go? I blink and another year goes by. He is taller than me now. He is wearing a size 101/2 men's shoe. My baby is no longer a baby :) Connor got an XBOX for his birthday. He has been enjoying the Halo game a little too much, ha ha. Tuesday was our weekly park day with the homeschool group I started. We went to Exploration Park and taught the kids in our group how to letterbox. The box was a good hike up a baby mountain. It is one of our friends birthday this week as well so we shared cupcakes. That night we went to Memphis BBQ and Con stuffed himself full of biscuits and bbq. This weekend he is having some of his neighborhood buddies spend the night.

Teeny Tiny Tree Hugger in Me

Tonight I can't sleep so I am up randomly surfing my favorite blogs. The teeny, tiny tree hugger in me (my friend April coined that term today) read some great posts lately about small things you can do to benefit your family and the earth, so here they are:

Miranda talks about a program called Swaptree, which is basically trading your books, dvd's, cd's and such to another person. The thing that caught my eye was the video games. It drives me crazy how fast the kids go through them and when you sell them back you only get an insulting fraction of the price you paid. So, we simply stopped selling them back and I have piles of these games that my kids are tired of.

Tara informed me that I can cancel those bulky,waste of paper phone books that I get. I honestly did not know this. Yes, I do always recycle them but not getting them at all would be even better.

Leid Science Center

Wow, we were busy last week. Two park days, book club and the Science Center. Next week will be even crazier with Con's birthday :)
Look for more pictures soon! Click on these to make them enlarge.

Book Club

The boys really look forward to going to book club every month. Carter makes a big deal about choosing the perfect book to share with his friends. This time he brought the book Underwear. He got some good ideas for new books from his friends.

Some Park Day Pictures

My three kids playing at the park :)

Leaving Las Vegas

The final decision was made this afternoon. We are Colorado bound. This is a huge opportunity for Bob and I am happy for him. Connor seems very excited about the move. He is excited to have water parks, museums, amusement parks, and most of all a ZOO. Carter is not so sure. He has a lot of questions about the logistics, how we will make sure all the bears make it and so on. We expected this and that is why we have been preparing them for this for a while. Both boys and I will miss our friends. I wish I had a time table for the complete move but I am thinking mid summer will be about right. I would like to get to Colorado in time to enjoy the few months of no snow :)

I have been reflecting a lot about this change for a few weeks now and I am ready to move on. Las Vegas was a huge change in our lives. I can honestly say that I really grew up in Las Vegas. This is where I learned that I can truly raise my family on my own. In Phoenix, we had so much help but in Vegas I had to learn to do things on my own, especially with Bob traveling so much. Vegas gave me a confidence in myself that I didn't have before.

Vegas will always be special to me and the people that I have come to love here will be hard to leave but everything in life has a season and our Vegas season coming to a close now feels right.

Adventures of Frog Pond

Written by: Carter

Once upon a time two tadpoles were expelled by the evil Uncle Milton from the Frogville Stream. Uncle Milton captured them in a small bottle and gave them no food. He sent them in the mail to Las Vegas where he was sure they would never be heard from again.

Unfortunately Uncle Milton's evil plan was foiled by a hero named Bat Kid. Bat Kid rescued the tiny tadpoles from their packaging and began the process of creating a habitat for them to thrive in.

Bat Kid used his super powers to turn the tadpoles into healthy and strong frogs. The day came when the frogs were strong enough to be released back into the wild. Bat Kid found a pond (in his backyard) where the frogs could be safe and happy. The frogs were strong enough to make their way back to Frogville Stream where they attacked Uncle Milton and made him apologize for keeping them captive in a jar for weeks. Uncle Milton promised to never catch frogs again. The frogs returned to the Bat Pond and lived happily ever after.

Moms note to other parents: While the boys finally enjoyed seeing the process of metamorphosis, I would never, ever recommend buying tadpoles through Uncle Milton's. Read the reviews on this product. You can also read our experiences with this and see how much more money, effort and heartache this took. If you live in an area where you can't find tadpoles in nature, ask your fish store. Occasionally they accidentally get shipped in with the feeder fish and the store will gladly give them to you. This is a much better way to rescue a tapdole :)