Red Rock with The DeRusha Family

Mo loves to take shots of nature.

Daddy and Raine start their trek.

Snack Break!

Group shot on the big rock.

Say cheese kids :0)

I am not ready to hike yet...

Yep, we headed out there again, but this time Mo and Dublin joined us. We convinced our great friends Erin & Tommy DeRusha to come with us. They were here visiting family for the Thanksgiving holiday and they were excited to hike an old favorite of theirs. Mo was just as excited to get out in the wild also. He was very impressed with our children and their hiking abilities. We love the outdoors, why wouldn't mini-me and mini-mo love it too? Reece was very eager to lead the group. He felt like he was Jake's big brother & Ashley's little sister. It was cute! Raine wouldn't keep up with us and would purposely stop because I wouldn't pick her up. She is so stubborn! We took a break at the huge rock and took some pretty pictures. Hiked some more and stopped again for some snacks. Mo enjoyed shooting the scenery and came up with some cool pics. It was another great morning out on the trail.

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope that all of you are as Thankful as we are. I asked my students to write a

Top Ten List of Things They Are Thankful For and then I wrote one.

10. Teaching 5th grade again

9. Free tickets to UNLV Basketball, Wranglers hockey & Bette Midler

8. Paying off a credit card last week

7. Mo's landscaping business doing so well

6. Deidre the best babysitter ever

5. Reece's preschool, he loves it there

4. Weekends spent playing with my kids

3. My awesome friends & family all over the country

2. My Beautiful Family

1. My Lord & Savior who provides me with all of this

Red Rock... Take 2

I am addicted to that beautiful place. I brought the kids out there again on Saturday, but this time with tow other children in two. After convincing my dear friend Jess to take pictures of my darlins (on an hours notice); I gave her a few hours without her precious gems Violet and Riley.

Reece adores Riley and was so excited when he heard we were bringing the Baldwin children. Violet was an awesome helper and led the two boys along the hike while I trailed behind with Raine. She was a trooper again this time, a little bit more needy bit still did her fair share of hiking. I think we probably could have hiked the whole strenuous 3 mile hike over rocks, through rocky creek beds, under huge boulders, and around rocky crevices. The kids were cruising right along and we almost made it all the way to the end where a spectacular pool is filled by a trickle down what must be a 1000 feet of vertical sandstone cliff, but we had to start heading back to the car because the Baldwin kids were heading to the UNLV basketball game and needed to be home by 1:00. The kids hustled back to the parking lot and had yet another snack. The best part of the morning was the fact that Raine wore a new pair of Dora undies and kept them dry the whole time. She even went potty on those awful national park style port-a-potty with the toilet on top of the big hole in the ground. I was so proud of her! We will be heading out to Red Rock every weekend until it gets too cold. My kids and I love it so why not! Hope you don't get sick of reading about it!

3 day week full of excitement

I had Monday and Tuesday off this week but the rest of the work week felt like a whirl wind. Wednesday I had the annual observation by my administration (yes, I nailed it and was a model teacher), Thursday a field trip to the Lied Discovery Museum and Friday was a solid teaching day minus 6 kids. What a huge difference it was in my room with out those six students. In NV they allow 34 kids in the 4th & 5th grade classrooms. Today I had 23! It was heaven. My class is a very chatty bunch of kids so it was like they were asleep or something. I had a very enjoyable week, even though I had to write an extremely boring paper for my free ipod class. I also have to write an intricate lesson plan, blogg style for the Laura Ingalls Wilder book "The Long Winter". I probably should have started this assignment a week ago. I am the queen of procrastination and work better under pressure so it will get done and get done well. As for the weekend, we have several things to accomplish. I will take the kids on a quick bike ride and then for another hike at Red Rock. Saturday night I am going out with my dear friends Erin and Jessica whom I haven't spent time with in ages. Sunday we will go to church, nap and watch football all afternoon. I will also try and complete my blogg lesson plan. Mo has several landscaping jobs in the works and will probably be busy with those all weekend long. Yay~we may actually be able to go visit friends during Christmas, that is if all of his jobs come through....

Hike at Red Rock Canyon

You wish you were with us on our hike today because you would have had a ball!

Look how happy we were, yes the whole time! I have been waiting for this day for since my kids were born. I can't wait to take them hiking again next weekend!

My kids were rock stars! We started around 11:00am and when we returned to the car it was 1:39pm. I was so shocked. We brought Dublin dog and she was more of a pain than the 2 yr old. Reece wouldn't stay with Raine and I, he would scurry ahead and then call back to us from a top a rock, it was fantastic! We had lots of snacks and played hide and seek in the wash. Then as we were leaving we found this really tiny run off from the natural spring. I told Reece to grab a stick and play in the water. Raine followed right behind her big brother except she was actually standing in the water. I can't wait to take them out again next weekend. I really need to be independently wealthy so I can be outside playing everyday! I was so excited to have another fantastic outdoor adventure with my 2 awesome angels.

MUSIC

My weekend has been spent playing with my little wonders, listening to music, organizing photos, grading papers, doing laundry and cleaning. Can I just say that without music, I wouldn't have been able to enjoy half of those things or actually get through them. It's so much better cleaning when loud hyper music is playing in the background. My kids ask for their Elmo, Mickey Mouse or Veggietale music while taking their evening bath. I can find great tunes on my satellite radio while driving around town. The best part of music is the memories it brings back. I was importing some of my cds to my itunes and it brought back so many awesome memories of college and even high school. I also realized that I need some new music. I think I will raid my friends collections soon. I was watching some clips on utube and starting making a list of artists I have been wondering about. Music is such a powerful way to express your thoughts and enjoy other people's talents. I really miss hearing my talented friends Melissa and Shontell sing...

Bike Rides

I am so thankful for my wonderful morning. I was awoken by 4 yr old arms cuddling around me and then the beckon of a 2 yr old. We all snuggled in front of the tv watching some toons until Reece asked his daily morning question, "Where are we going today Mama?". "How about for a bike ride baby" I replied. He was so excited, he ran upstairs and got dressed to go. It was only 7:30 am and I still hadn't had my coffee. We made it out the door around 10 am; which was far too many hours for Reece to wait. He was such a good boy on our 2 hour ride though. Raine is a testy lil 2 yr old and bugs her big brother. He would say, "Mom, Raine just hit me. Mom, Raine is crowding me." I tried to distract Reece by playing I spy, but he'd rather tell me a story. The first Batman story turned into a novel full of chapters. It was so entertaining. I wish I had a video camera. After a few more minutes and lots of "When are we gonna get there?" comments we made it to the red swings playground. After almost 2 hours of riding around in circles, we arrived at our destination. I felt bad cuz I didn't let them play for very long. I had to get home to feed them lunch and shower before meeting my girlfriends for lunch. We rode back home as quick as a flash. They were very thankful we went on our ride, something I plan to do with them every Saturday morning.

Halloween Traditions

Halloween traditions in Las Vegas include candy, chili, grilled cheese sandwiches and family! Ever since we have lived here, our surrogate family (the Dahirs) have always invited us over for every, yes every holiday celebration. Well first my dear "sister" Shontell, up and moves to Reno, then my goofy "brother" Kristopher moved to Virginia. Poor Mama Kris had no children left to entertain her this Halloween. We were very thankful she invited us over for her yummy chili and grilled cheese. The kids were troopers, I made them eat a sandwich before they hit the streets. Who knew they loved grilled cheese so much? Mo and I indulged in the yum-o food after trick or treating.

Can we go yet? Raine was getting tired of waiting for us to be ready.

As you can see, Reece decided to wear Optimus Prime this year. If I would have ordered a Batman costume when I wanted to, I'm sure he would have chose that. I think he may just get a halloween costume for Christmas this year...

Daddy did the door to door business while I waited in the street snapping pics. My kiddos thought they were guests in every house. They would walk right over the threshold and into the homes. It was driving me nuts. After only about 10-15 houses Reece asked if we could go home. He said he was tired of walking and he had lots of candy already! I was all for it because I don't think he will ever ask that again.

Hand me down costumes are the best! My mom bought my cousin Dylan the Tigger costume and each of her grandsons and Raine have worn it also. That is money well spent Mom! Casey James always picks the best costumes and then passes them down to his cousin. Reece just loves wearing Casey's old treasures. Thanks kiddo!