Sierra's 10th Birthday!

Wow. How did that happen anyway? 10 years old! Here are a couple of pictures from her birthday!

Family pictures...2008

We haven't had family pictures taken since 2006, so this year we went in and had them done early! Yeah. The kids are sure growing fast! Sierra is now 10 and Kaden is 6. I swear I just brought them home yesterday and now look at them! Aren't they goodlooking kids! We even had one taken of the kids and Great Grandma who is 91! It was Kaden's idea to do the one with sunglasses and I LOVE it!

Cocoa...our newest addition...

This fall, we lost Sassy. It was such a difficult thing. I knew that I couldn't look at another mini daschund and so we looked for a different type of dog. Meet Cocoa...she's 1/2 Pomeranian and 1/2 Shih tzu. Isn't she adorable? She has a really cute personality and we are really enjoying her. Now if we could just get her potty trained!

Halloween

Wow. Time sure flies. I can't believe it's already past Halloween! Sierra didn't want to go as a "diva" this year as it was too boring so she went as a dead diva. LOL. And then there's Kaden. I couldn't talk him into a "nice" costume for nothing. I tried for a Transformer, Spiderman, Power Ranger, but no...it had to be a "Scream" costume. Go figure. So this year instead of cute little Halloweeners, the were terribly ghoulish!

Back to School

The kids were so excited to start school this morning. It was fun watching them be all excited and ready to go....at least until they were gone. Sigh. It's hard....I always thought I would have another child, but when you send your baby off to first grade and have no other children at home, the loss is more than I imagined. All I ever wanted to be when I grew up is a wife and a mother. I know I can "fill" my time with all sorts of things, but in reality what is most important to me is growing up so fast. Not having another child is like being cheated out of your most sought after dream and the worst part is, it's something I'll be cheated out of for an eternity. Life holds many sought after treasures, but to me I'd much sooner drive an older vehicle that runs well and have another child than have a newer vehicle or bigger home or whatever. I value those things I can take with me forever and those things only lie within my family......

Boating fun...

We had blast these two weekends boating. Kaden and Sierra both tubed for the first time. It was so much fun. We love having a place to get away from it all and focus on each other. These two weekends were no exception! Sun, fun, family....what more could a person want?

Family mini vacation...

This summer has gone by so fast and it seemed that we didn't do half of the things we had planned. So....we decided to cram as much into the last 3 weeks of summer as possible. It was so much fun! We went to our cabin for two weekends and played in the boat and water. Doug went wake boarding and even learned to "surf" behind the boat! What fun that was! Doug's brother and his family were up there also so it made up for us not being able to join them earlier this summer and the other weekend Doug's other brother and daughter joined us too. One of my best friends and her family also came up. It was so much fun we'll have to do it again!

Then we made a quick 5 day trip to an amuzement park/water park for two days, visited a huge copper mine, and a plane museum! Sierra was thrilled because we got to go to the Golden Coral which has become her favorite restaurant. We took Doug's brother and his wife with us and it was fun visiting with them. All in all, we had a wonderful time! Now school can start and a normal schedule (whatever that is) can begin!