Home Sweet Home

Dale is almost 5 1/2 years old now. He keeps things loud and lively around our house most of the time. He really struggles with letters, reading, and communication (as well as behavior). He's actually doing pretty well at math. We don't know the source of his delays and have done genetic testing after the geneticists at PCH really made a connection that I thought surely was the right one. It was both a relief and a frustration for it to be wrong and be back at square one. At this point Dale will probably be repeating Kindergarten again. It's not the worst thing in the world because he started very early anyway, turning 5 after he'd been in school for over a month, but I worry about doing it again and him still struggling because his delays/struggles could possibly not be maturity related. I spend a lot of time worrying about Dale. I worry about him both academically and socially. He honestly has such a sweet, tender, and good heart. I worry about him when the time com...

This morning at breakfast Brighton asked me if I could enroll him in college classes while he is in high school, because he doesn't want to be in college for eight years. I said "I'd love to Brighton! But you know college is only four years, and then you have the option for a Masters or a doctorate" He says "I want to get a doctorate" and Adaira says "I want to get a nurserate!" Ha ha ha, love her.

My kids are always warned 3-4 times when it is time to leave for school in the morning. Nothing different this morning. Adaira and Brighton were messing around and playing when it was time to go, so I announced "Alright, time to go" and they didn't stop. I announced it again and then counted down from 5 to 1 until I was locking the door. Adaira whined about how she didn't know where her sweater was, and I told her she should have been ready to go and not playing with Brighton. We get in the car and she is upset about her sweater and finally yells "I wish you were dead!" to me (she's a peach isn't she?). I immediately pull over and order her out of the car and tell her to start walking (we were about 150ft from the intersection at Dobson & Galveston). At the light I told her to turn and continue walking to the bus stop another 50-60 ft away. At that point I asked her to apologize and picked her up at the bus stop and we headed to sch...

 So I've always had the real estate itch, and I even joked with Justin once earlier in the year about buying an investment property with the cash we had on hand from selling our home. I wasn't too serious and he wasn't hearing it. After talking to a friend over the summer about her plans to start buying and flipping properties, the bug hit me again. I talked Justin into it since we had enough money sitting in the bank since we still hadn't started construction on our house. We looked at buying from bank auctions for about a month but didn't see any really good deals, so decided to shift our focus to MLS and look at homes we could actually see before buying (unlike the auction homes). This little gem was a probate sale and we put an offer on it within 2-3 days of it being listed. We paid $113,000 for it. It was a 1960s era home, 3bed 2 bath, 1092s.f. in Tempe that hadn't seen a single upgrade since the decade it was built. Did I mention it was FILTHY??? Absolut...

Volunteering in Dale's class, kids have just come in after recess. Dale's friend to me "We were playing Special Agent and catching bad guys and taking them to jail!" Me, "That's so cool! Did you know that Dale's Daddy is a special agent?" He runs over to Dale and says "Dale I didn't know your dad was a special agent!!" Dale looks excitedly surprised about the news and says "No way!" Me, "Dale didn't you know Daddy is a special agent?" Dale, "What?! I thought he washed cars." Because Dale has seen Justin wash a car...ever. LOL! That kid is just hilarious.

I've really been neglecting this blog. To be honest I'm too distracted with my smart phone. That is totally the cause. Stupid piece of technology... One Sunday morning, Adaira and I were the only ones ready and dressed for church. The weather was nice, so we tried to take some pictures with our new camera.  Beautiful girl, inside and out. This little girl can't get enough of frilly skirts. She wants to wear a skirt every day, all day.  Brighton in the army clothes he claimed from the "old stinky house" Daisy is usually naked  Any kind of water, even water slides, are welcome on the trampoline when it's hot outside.  Daisy will hate me for this picture one day...  Justin doesn't like to have his picture taken, but I want to have him in these posts every once in a while!  I am aging... Getting little girl inside to get some clothes on.  Our herd of livestock and our working dog.  Dale can be su...

A few days after Dale's birthday we headed to the Happiest (and most expensive) Place On Earth! Four day passes for everyone except Daisy since she wasn't three yet and was free. Lucky for her she was already tall enough for most of the rides though! Brighton realized on this trip that he doesn't like the flutter in his stomach from steep drops on rides, so he sat out on a lot of fun rides that he enjoyed the last time we came here. Bummer! Adaira, Dale, and Daisy couldn't get enough of them! Daisy didn't realize the fun that awaited her when we first got into the park. We headed straight for Cars Land and while waiting in line she proceeded to lay on the ground and hassle me when I wanted her to move forward with the line. She's such a beauty though! She soon learned what it was all about though!  Having a blast! We even met up with our friends the Crop family a few of the days we were there.  Our kids loved having a buddy(that wasn...