Aziz 1st Birthday!

We celebrated our friends Sulaiman and Joey's baby boy Aziz's 1st birthday recently! He such a cutie. It was great to see the whole family and how much Aziz has grown. Ethan and Hudson had a great time at the party. Ethan thought it was "off the hook"! Here are some pictures:

Mini Me

Table cloth peek a boo.

Yum Cake!

Happy Auntie Z

Presents!

Prince Aziz in his new super hero cape from the Fagan's!
Handmade by a local AZ mama.

I totally should have gotten one of Aziz, Jacynda and the boys! I hate when I miss a good photo opp. Hopefully we will see them all again soon. Happy 1st Birthday Prince Aziz!

parent teacher conferences and student of the month!

 

This week we had parent teacher conferences and Hudson received the student of the month reward for cooperation in September! We had the ceremony this week - here is the little man going up to get his reward.

Bert visited the boys teachers and received two great reports!

Hudson knows all of his letter names and sounds, counts from 1-100 and by 10's to 100 and knows all of his shapes. He received outstanding marks in language, math, science and social studies. He is very social, plays nicely with the other kids and is enjoying his new sense of independence. He actively participates, is helpful to his classmate and just needs a little guidance about being respectful and not talking when the teacher is talking.

Ethan had a great start to 2nd grade! He also received outstanding marks in language, math, science and social studies. He is currently in the top math group (93%) and top reading group (92%) in second grade. He is reading 118 words per minute (87 is the end of the year goal). He is doing exceptionally well with his understanding of money. He needs to remember to be patient and use his self-control when he is frustrated. This is something he has been working on since Kindergarten and each year he improves, he also needs to focus on using capitals and punctuation when writing. His teacher thinks he is a good candidate for Mesa's Extended Learning Program. We will learn more about that in the Spring.

We are so proud of both of them!!!

Hudson is 5!

Hudson celebrated his 5th birthday with a night out at Amazing Jake's with his family, Nannie and Tom and his best buddy Saiber! They ate as many cookies as they wanted, went on the frog hopper a gazillion times, bowled and played until we caught them starting to fall asleep on the coaster, haha. Happy birthday little guy!

in the car with hudson

I took Hudson with me on an errand today it was a 40 min round trip to downtown Mesa and he talked the whole way. Here is a little peek into the mind of Hudson with his conversation on the way there ...

Does that sign say Preston? I have a boy in my class named Preston. Why does that say Rd? Oh like junior is Jr? and doctor is Dr? What number exit to we go too? Why does that sign say one way? So you can only drive forward?How many blocks until we get there? That sign said 8th! Do you know what sound th makes? It goes -th- that was 8th street. And that's 6th street ... So are we at main street yet? I think that brown building is building 1. Why are you passing it? You don't know which building it is? Yeah we're here. Why did we come here? Why is there a Legos? Who built this? Can I put that in the drop box? That's it? We are leaving already?! Its gonna be a long ride home.

Hahaha, yes it will be a long ride home!!!

you have my heart

Then, 2001

Bert and I have been married for 10 years today! We celebrated last week by spending the day driving north with stops at Sedona and Flagstaff along our way to the Grand Caynon. We had long walks, delicious quiet (kid-free) meals together, and a precious night of just the two of us. It was awesome.

Now, 2011

Today we celebrate all that we have been through together ... friendship, love, growth, adventure and of course our share of challenges. I am grateful that we have always worked through our challenges together. We truly adore each other. I can literally spend all day wasting my time with with my husband (and many days we do just that) without every tiring of his presence. I am grateful to have a constant source of love in my life and am so thankful for this man, our family and the life we have built together. 

Bert, you have my heart.

hudson and some friends

A couple of weeks ago, Hudson had some kindergarten friends over to play. It was pretty funny when they decided to create a band. They played for quite some time. We were dog sitting my friend Sara's dog honey, who listened to the band play.

the grand canyon

This week marks our 10th wedding anniversary, wowza! To celebrate Bert and I headed north to the grand canyon. Neither of us had been and it was really past due that we visit and see this wonder for ourselves. We took the scenic route and stopped along the way which made for a really lovely road trip. We always reconnect really well on road trips and this was no different. It was lovely.

First stop was breakfast in Sedona. Always a wonderful place to visit. I never get tired looking at the red rock mountains. They calm me so and leave me feeling at peace.

Then we drove through scenic oak creek canyon and stopped at a viewpoint about 20 miles outside of Flagstaff.

Once in Flagstaff we had lunch downtown at a place called Mountain Oasis. Really great stop for a sandwich. I can't believe all the times we have been to Flagstaff we never went downtown. I felt like we totally missed out all these years - it was a really nice downtown area.

Bert was a good sport here, I wanted to take a photo of the pretty canyon painting above his head. I think the artist is Lynn Mathews and I want to check out her work more. I had a portobello burger pictured below and Bert had roast beef with pepper and onions with a super yummy pasta salad. Such a great lunch!

Finally we arrived at the Grand Canyon. It was really massive and beautiful. We had a great stay at El Tovar which is right on the canyon. We literally walked out the hotel and it was right there.

That's our hotel El Tovar on the side of the canyon.

There was a fire on the North Rim about 10 miles away over the canyon, the winds pick up in the evening and it filled the canyon with smoke. Around 5pm was the worst of it, we ended up going inside for awhile as breathing was tough. We went back out around 7pm before dinner and the air was a bit better. It was the perfect time of day to see the canyon. All the tourists seemed to be at dinner so, it was really quite and peaceful. Just gorgeous. I couldn't get over how blue the rocks were.

 

Our dinner was at 8pm - we got dressed up a little and had a lovely fine dining experience at El Tovar. The food was delicious and being that it was a little later in the evening it was quiet and romantic as was our late night canyon stroll. Just perfect.

I love this man!

I don't think I got how big it was right away -  I needed time to take it in, a few different angles, viewpoints and times of day helped me gain the full perspective (and we only really saw a small portion of it). We woke up the next morning and walked along the Trail of Time, it really hit me how amazing this canyon was. We saw a red condor, some squirrels and lots of birds. I was excited that we had binoculars in the car to see even more but, when we looked they weren't there. I think I took them out for Hudson one day so, I bet they are in the garage. Oh well - next time. We are already talking about going again someday.