Way to go Jake

Jake made it into his Junior High Honor Society! He had to have straight A's all year, get teacher recommendations, and have shown service in his community. He was only one of 22 kids selected at his school. And he is one of only 3 boys! That should be lots of fun for him. We are very proud of him wanting to do volunteer work like his sister did. Im sure it will be a lot of hard work, but we know he will be great.

Lindsay Graduated!!!!!!

Well Lindsay is finally out of High School. I cant believe I can now say I have a college student. Ugh am I that old? :) We are so proud of her, she had a great time in High School. She was very involved, in lots of clubs, did lots of community service, and still pulled off straight A's. I don't know where she got her study habits or her outgoing personality, because that is the exact opposite of me:) And up until today she had decided to go to NAU, but we just got the letter that she got into Barrett -the ASU honors college, so we went to take a look at it and we decited it was a better fit for her. As much as she said she wanted to go out of state, even NAU was too far, so she is really relieved to be going here, and she even gets to stay in the dorms, which are brand new....she is so happy to be getting out on her own, and we are excited for her to become independent- I guess slower than we were thinking but still happening.

And I never thought we would be able to do this, but her graduation gift was a new car. She was so excited, she had no idea. We had bought it over a month ago, but had to hide it so that we could keep it a complete secret. It was so fun watching her open the box with the key in it, and having no idea what it was. She actually started crying. It was so fun seeing her so excited. I cant wait to see what fun she is going to have at ASU. Looks like we are Sun Devils fans now....

Time Flies

It seems like just yesterday Lindsay was so small wanting to cuddle and play, I feel like I blinked and now she is almost an adult, graduating high school and getting ready for her life apart from us. Although I am very excited to see where her life will take her, I am dreading the day she leaves. Girls are so amazing, so emotional, so full of energy, so full of things to say. Its so sad to look back and see how fast kids grow up, and regret not spending more time enjoying the time instead of looking forward to the milestones that they hit.

We sure had a lot of fun, when she was younger we moved around a lot, and she took it in stride. She was pretty resilient and made the most of the moves, she loved the adventure of it all. Unfortunately she still has that adventurous spirit and wants to move all over. I'm trying to prepare myself for the time when she actually leaves knowing its a part of life and we will see her as often as possible, but it still makes me sad not being able to tell her goodnight every night. All I know is until she leaves she is probably going to feel smoothered :)

How We Spent Christmas

This Christmas was a lot of fun. For Christmas Eve we went to the Costleys like we have for several years now, which we really look forward to. We have a lot of great food with family and friends. We had our car all loaded up, and when the party was over, we headed to Disneyland. We had never seen it all decorated for Christmas, so we figured Christmas day was the perfect day to go. We got to the hotel about 1:30am. and crashed into bed. We woke up at 6 and opened a couple of presents, then headed out. It was drizzling, but we were in the happiest place on earth, so we were trying to not let it get to us. We all had jackets for the rain except for Lindsay so we had to buy her a poncho - she was thrilled. We were able to go on several rides and the park was really dead so we were running everywhere, but by noon we were soaked and had had enough. We went back to the hotel to get dry, open the rest of our presents, then we went to dinner at TGI Fridays then we went and saw Yes Man (very funny). The next day we were at the park all day and went on all the rides several times. We had such a fun time together, I think having lived away so much sometimes I just like it to be our little family so that we can just enjoy each other. We might just have to make this a tradition.

Christmas Lights

So, this is our house this year. Jake finally got his musical lights, he spent a lot of time getting them just right and we love how they turned out. We have sat outside many nights watching all the songs. We sure appreciate all the hard work he puts into our holiday decorations each year.

Lindsays First Accident

Ok, so we thought we were pretty lucky, teenage driver and no accidents or problems, but we knew it wasn't going to last. I get a call from Lindsay saying I needed to get to where she was because there was an accident. My first question: "Is anyone hurt?" Thank goodness the answer was no. But then my next question "Who's fault was it?" And she said mine - dang I was hoping some snow bird had hit her car because of the rain:) So I go to where they had pulled off to help her deal with this. She said she was behind this guy and he slammed on his brakes and she hit hers, but she slid into the back of his car - yah right. I looked at his bumper and I think it had a slight dent, but as you can see, her car took the brunt of it. She was pretty shaken up. All I can hope is that she will remember this and won't be as distracted next time she is driving.

Winter Formal

It was Winter Formal this last weekend and Lindsay and a bunch of friends went. Her date was her boyfriend Geoff. We had to track the kids down so that we could get group pictures, and of course the girls were late getting ready, and a few didn't even make it for pictures. They all looked so nice, this was the first time that Lindsay and I fell in love with the same dress - thank goodness. They went with 8 other couples to BJ's for dinner then on to the dance. When theres good music, she can't help but dance and by the end of the dance her make-up is about gone and her hair is straight again, so she said they had a lot of fun. But it seems like with every dance, the end is near and she will be graduating, its like this big count down that I'm not ready for. But she is making the most of her senior year, and hopefully making herself a lot of memories.