Halloween

Hard to believe Halloween has come and gone already. Here are pictures of Dr. Darin and Courtney (Pebbles)Flintstone.

Darin School Photo

Finally Darin has his school pictures. Hard to believe my baby is 6 and in the 1st Grade. Before you know it we'll be empty nesters!

And the hair is gone!

So Gavin came home one day last week with no more hair. And I mean he cut it short. He looks like a totally different person - more grown up! And his Grandma Howe paid him $5 for every inch he cut which was a lot so not a bad deal.

Gavin's School Photo

Gavin brought his picture home today, what are the chances?
We're all waiting to see when he'll finally cut his hair. But still a handsome guy. Gotta love that smile!

Courtney's School Photo

Here we are almost 2 months into school and Courtney is the only one who has brought home school pictures. Darin hasn't even taken his! But here is little Ms somethin somethin. She'll be 14 next month and is in the 8th grade this year.

First lost tooth

So i'm not very prompt on posting but well I am posting so that will have to be enough. Darin lost his first tooth, oh, about 3 weeks ago? It had been loose for a few days and it was hurting everytime he ate that day, then about an hour after dinner he comes running in, my tooth came out! And he really did lose it, in the grass out side. No finding that thing. But we wrote a note to the tooth fairy and she totally understood and left 5 bucks (she didn't have anything smaller and well it was the FIRST tooth). So here's a picture of the gap.

Ice Princess

Courtney participated in her first ice skating competition today. She placed 7th out of 7 :( but she did a fabulous job and really enjoyed herself. It was a good learning opportunity and she's excited about doing another. Unfortunately her coach is moving next month but we're hoping to get her in with another coach and join the figure skating club so she can continue to compete. Way to go Ice Princess!!

My new Office Assistant

So Chloe has decided she wants to help me work, although I don't know that you could classify it as help. It's kind of like when she wants to "help" fold the laundry.

In the morning, she will follow me into my office, jumps up on my lap, then climbs right onto my desk. After some desk checks to make sure there is nothing new on my desk, she plops right down in front of my monitor. Sometimes she tries to catch my mouse as it moves around the screen - funny kitty.

Not sure how much longer she will fit though, she's growing noticeably everyday. And wrapping us all tighter and tighter around her little paw.

New Member of the Family

They finally talked me into a cat. The neighbors had kittens and posted a sign out front of their house this weekend. We went over last night and they had one left. Chloe is joining our family today and I have to admit she is very cute. Bruce wanted to name her kitty, but we all vetoed that. This morning Bruce, Courtney and Darin went to the pet store and got a litter box, toys, food, a bed and feeding dishes and now we're clearing out a space in the laundry room for the litter box. Darin is very excited, keeps asking if we can go get the cat (we left her at the neighbors until we could get the house ready) and Courtney has been begging for a cat for awhile now. Hopefully she'll box train quickly and not tear up all the furnture!

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Summer Vacation 2009

So we took our annual summer vacation to California right after the kids got out of school. We left June 6th and returned June 14th. Courtney took her friend Christina, and Gavin took his friend Cody, which made for a large group so Gavin followed in his car while the rest of us took the van. We went to Disneyland (of course), Medieval Times, Uncle Ian's and shopping. The girls spent a day at Knott's Berry Farm as well. I think everyone had a good time. Here are the photos from our trip.

Soccer

So Darin has decided to play soccer this year. He is my first kid to express any real interest in sports. Yesterday was his first practice. He cried for part of it and then complained when he got home how the shin guards hurt and that he was very tired. But at least he looks good in the uniform!

6th Picture Tag

Rules: Go to the pictures folder on your computer
Choose your 6th file
Choose your 6th pictureBlog about it.
Tag 6 more people!

This is a picture of Courtney in our backyard in Chino Hills. It must have been a Sunday because she is wearing a dress. She must be about 8 or 9 years old. Hard to believe just how much she has grown. She really is turning into quite a young woman, attitude and all! Thanks for the blog tag Carol! That was fun to reminesce and also see how many bazillion pictures I have now accumulated.

Never a dull moment with teenagers in the house

So I am coming to find that there's never a dull moment when you have teenagers. Gavin called Saturday night, "Mom, I have a problem, a deer ran into my car and now I can't open the drivers side door". Just what I wanted to hear. Luckily no one was hurt, and I'm pretty sure the deer won't be filing any claims. But he ran off without providing his insurance so I guess we'll have to pay for this one.

Christmas Day Photos

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So I started to post about Christmas Day earlier and then the power went out and I lost it all. So let me try again. I think everyone had a really great Christmas this year. They received lots of really cool gifts and seemed genuinely pleased with them. Courtney was up at 6:15 am, while waiting on the couch for a reasonable hour to arrive she fell asleep. When I got up at about 7:30 she had woken up again. I finally let her wake Darin up at 8 am and they proceeded to open gifts. I made breakfast (french toast) and then everyone spent a few hours trying on new duds, playing with new toys and generally making a mess of the place. We got ourselves together around noon and headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Howes to have lunch with them. The kids were fairly patient as we visited for a bit. At home again we tried out more of our "stuff" and then I made a Christmas dinner of filet mignon, mashed potatoes and gravy and rolls. We opened our Christmas Crackers (or poppers as the kids call them) and then watched The Dark Knight. The snow began in the evening around 6:30 or 7:00 and continued all night. In the morning we woke to about 6 or 7 new inches of snow. Needless to say Bruce's lights around the sidewalk and driveway were buried. All in all was a great Christmas. The roads are icy and the air is crisp but we had a great time together as a family and I know those days are numbered now that the kids are getting older. Here are some photo highlights of our day and the Snow that followed.