GIRL SCOUT COOKIES!!!!

So, I'm a Girl Scout leader. And for some reason I thought that it would be "fun" to be the troop's Cookie Mom. Woooooow. It has been an adventure. Especially cuz not only did I volunteer to be in charge of all our own troop's cookie orders, I volunteered to be a Cookie Drop-Off point for 11 other troops to come pick their cookies up from. Little did I know I was going to have 14,000 boxes (a mere 1/3 of the cookies for our area) dropped off to my house at 8:30 a.m. on VALENTINE'S DAY. I was a little stunned when a big diesel truck with a 40 foot trailer pulled up to my house, followed by another 26 footer!

Then they started pulling huge pallets off that were TALLER than would fit into my garage. They then basically left 9 pallets on my driveway for a few of us to unload and start separating! We had to get them all into the house and the garage because the 40 mph winds were blowing them over and a snow front was coming in. hahaha. Wooooow.

It all worked out. The other Girl Scout troops all came in to load their cookies up into their cars and vans (with no one but yours truly to help). And they ALL knew I am 5 1/2 months pregnant. But hey! Who WOULDN'T be able to do that kind of labor after catering as many years as I have...that was a piece of cake! (Tell that to my legs and preggo belly last night! :) )

ROCK STAR birthday party

As many of you know, the girls HAVE to include the boys in their parties. So the themes they have been choosing over the last couple of years (anyone remember their 7th Bday Pirate Party with the 35 kids?...THAT'S another story) that the boys would want to come to. This year it was a "Rock Star" party. The kids all came with colored streaks in their hair, rock star clothes and glitter on their face. We made rock star music videos, they got to arrive on the red carpet and were "styled" with spray paint hair color and tattoos. I made a Disco Ball cake with Hershey's Kisses (It's a good thing it was a party for kids cuz it didn't turn out QUITE like I wanted it to. My white frosting ran out and so I had to use chocolate. :) But they didn't care. They thought it was cool), decorated the house (with the decorations Brian so graciously took the girls to Party City in Tucson to buy...again, an hour away...at 8:00 a.m. that morning) and then Brian even let us spray paint his bald head. What a good sport!

The girls had so much fun! And I guess so did Brian and I. :)

And I'm posting so many pictures so that the other kids' parents can see the pictures from the party of their kids.

Xoe & Xanthe's 9th Birthday

The girls turned 9 this year and this is the first year it's REALLY freaked me out that they've gotten so old. I just can't believe it. I'm really going to miss my "little girls". I think it's the realization that they are soon going to be talking to me like young ladies (so I've been told) and not like little girls. They still are, however, such good little girls and we have such a fun time together. They're very excited for their little brother to be here and I know they are going to be such a big help! These pictures are from THEIR choice to go to Olive Garden (in Tucson, and hour away, of course) to spend their actual "day", which was on Monday, February 4. Their party is on Saturday.

Oh, and the last picture here is of the "princesses" with their eye covers that night after we got back. I'm not kidding you...they specificially asked for these. And they've used them ever since.

Our First Post

So, I know so many people who have family blogs and I swore I didn't have time for it, or wouldn't fall into the "fad". But now that I'm wanting to share pictures with family and friends about things that are happening in our super southern corner of Arizona (5,000 feet up), I think it's time I started one. Happy blogging! :)