Story Time!

Ivy's been "reading" Charlotte's Web in school. I love the projects they do on the story! Too cute to not show everyone!


I don't know if you can see it, but on the web there's light blue lettering that says 'Terrific'.



Seriously, I'm so far behind on the times! There's a 'new' version of Charlotte's Web as a movie that we haven't even seen...sigh...at least it'll make a great Christmas present!

Catchin' Up - Spring Gardening and Fall Veggies

Yes, I know it's fall now, but going through the camera and trying to decide where to start I couldn't pass this set of cute pictures up!











We decided to let the kids have a flower runner box along the front of he garden fence and had to plan flowers right away! Of course, all but one stubborn little flower bush plant died over the summer and is now happily residing between the purple "Green" Beans. (I commandeered the runner for the 'purple' beans. Riley helped plan them though)

19 'purple' bean plants in all! The makings for a great Thanksgiving dish!

The stubborn flower.

Second one's almost ready!

Riley's baby watermelon.

The first watermelon!

Riley likes to go say 'Good Morning' to the baby watermelon...telling 'him' to keep growing.

The watermelon plant is huge!

Yikes...

2 months...really? 2 months since I've posted on our blog? Shame on me.

Well, time to get caught up, and boy have we been busy! Gardening, Kindergarten, birthdays and roadtrips! And for anyone that's remotely familiar with me, you'll know that I HAVE to post things in order. So while I get everything in order to post, I'll leave you to giggle over this hilarious pic we took from our trip to recent (like last week) to Disneyland with Karen and Lexie.

Utterly Freakin' priceless.

Additions to the Zoo...

I guess just I can't say no...especially when it pertains to more free pets.

Wait I take that back...if it was another dog, I really could (and have) say no. Another kitty might be the moment of caving in.

But when the new pets come in their own home, there was no denying the newest members to the McGuire Zoo...a pair of Zebra finches.


Meet Neko and Inu.

Ivy started a new tradition when she named the Christmas Present Gerbil "Mouse McGuire". New pets will be named an animal name; the finch's names mean Cat and Dog in Japanese.

I've never had a bird before (Kim had a parakeet when we were 8/10ish) so this has been a fun learning experience. They have to stay with a mate and are busy arranging, then dismantling their nest. I'm expecting an egg pretty soon.

I know they're kinda hard to see, but that was the best pic I could get with them being so flighty. Inu the male likes hiding up the the greenery while Neko the female dives into the nest whenever I have to change their water/food.

I love listening to their calls, sometimes they sound like little chickens clucking...quite interesting!

Kim's Deployment

Well, if you haven't heard from her blog, Kim's currently serving on her deployment in Kandahar, Afghanistan. And of course, she hasn't even been at the air base for a week yet and it was attacked. Well, they attempted to attack...Here's the news story.

It's nice to have my brother in law in intelligence as he gets to see the actual reports that come from the region. Granted he can't tell us everything, but he assured me that Kim was completely ok when he called. Adding to that, I got to talk to Kim this morning (they're about 12 hours ahead of us) and she said it was nothing.

Goodness, I hope her deployment isn't gonna be filled with instances like this...please remember to keep her and all our troops in your prayers.

On a side note, but related to Kim...Ivy wrote her first letter! We've been trying to explain where Kim is and why she won't be home until after Christmas, so we showed her and Riley a bunch of desert books and such. Ivy saw a picture of a camel and asked me..."Kim has a camel?" Needless to say, she just had to go draw Kim's new "pets". She also copied a letter that we'll be sending to Kim...It's great practise for learning where those Upper and Lower case letters go!

Camping Trip

This year's camping trip was a bit unusual compared to the other years we've gone, but still always enjoyable. Through some scheduling errors and other mishaps, we missed out on most of our extended family going. So as it turned out, only our family and Karen's family went! Although we greatly missed everyone, it was rather nice just the 7 of us. (In fact Ivy kept naming off everyone that should have been there.)


John doin' what he does best...STEAKS!! Too bad there were no campfires allowed or he would have been grillin' them...





It rained quite a lot this trip so the kiddlets had plenty of time to do camp crafts.







On the second day we all decided to talk a walk, and I got a bunch of nice pictures!








Mornin' Sunshine!

First cup of Cocoa is always the most important...

Happy 18th!

Haha...no I'm not celebrating my 18th birthday for the 2nd time...

Bridget's now an adult!

Scary thought...just cuz it makes me that much older!  12 years older to be exact!

Happy 18th Birthday Bean!

Riley's Birthday

Well, after many delays...we finally had Riley's Birthday Party.  Even though I think we did it some time in April (when his birthday's at the end of Feb!) it will sit in the right order in the scrapbook...if I ever can get to that point!

Ivy's Art Work

Talent in the fine arts must run in this family...Bridget's a fantastic artist, I'm a pretty good author and Dad's great on both ends of the artistic spectrum!  Well, add another artist to the list...

Ivy's in love with drawing lately.  Everything from 'Toothless' the dragon from "How to Train Your Dragon" to bikes, flowers, birthday cakes...and the list is always expanding.  Now she's learned to write 'love you' from memory and is busy making love posters for everybody.  Here's a few...

After drawing this one, Ivy runs up to me and asks "How write Kim?"

                                 

I asked her for which Grandma this was for and Ivy said both!

I love the 'corrections'  on this one...This was for her Grandpas, but she used the wrong word example and re-wrote Grandma.  I wrote out 'Grandpa' and she looks at me and says, "I got an idea!"  Ivy added the 'p' in front of the first 'a' and then said, "There, all better!"

Don't feel left out if you didn't get one named to you...I'm sure there's more to come!

3 Things About Me!

Its fun to learn new and different things about our friends.

3 names I go by:

1. Jennie

2. Jennifer

3. Oneesama (Bridget's name for me in Japanese, meaning 'Honored Older Sister')

3 places I've lived:

1. Mesa, AZ

2. Queen Creek, AZ

3. San Tan Valley, AZ  (same house...new city name)

3 places I've worked:

1. Walmart

2. America West Airlines

3. Fry's Food and Drug

3 places I go every week:

1. Ivy's school

2. Work at Walmart

3. Post Office

3 places I've been on vacation:

1.  North Carolina

2.  Four Corners

3.  Disneyland!  (I think you'll notice a trend here soon...)

3 people who email me regularly:

1. Linda (My mother-in-law)

2. My mother

3.  John / Kim (they email me about the same)

3 people who text me regularly:

1. Kim

2. John

3. Mom

3 people I'd love to see right now:

1. Kim and Steve

2. Karen and Fam

3. Either parent of mine

3 places I'd rather be right now and with whom:

1. On a Alaskan Cruise with John...(hopefully next year!)

2. Blue ridge reservoir with the Family

3. On a road trip somewhere with the family

3 things I did before noon

1. A load of dishes

2. Played with kids and their play-doh

3. Took Ivy to school

 
3 foods I love to eat:

1. Japanese/Chinese

2. My in-law's Italian cooking

3. John's steaks

3 places I love to eat:

1. Taco Bell

2. Red Lobster

3. At home with family and friends

3 goals I have:

1. Keep losing weight

2. Get the many project I have done-- scrapbooking, writing...

3. Get my house cleaned up

3 things I am looking forward to this year:

1. Seeing Kim and Steve in June

2. Disneyland!

3. My 10th anniversary

3 people I've talked to today

1. John

2. Kim

3. Bridget

3 places I want to visit some day:

1. Japan

2. Ireland

3. Hawaii

Anyone that wants to take a shot at it...by all means, have fun!

Odd Little Boy

So Riley likes to go to bed wearing things.  It started off with a purple 'ski' cap and now it appears he's moved onto sunglasses.  Half the time, we're not even sure he's asleep or faking it!

 

This family just keeps getting bigger...

It's so interesting to see how many people from different backgrounds and upbringings you can get into one family!  Ivy and Riley just gained another uncle (Steve) almost a year ago, and now they have a step Aunt and Uncle.  Pam's son Charles (my step brother) and his fiance Kiera tied the knot earlier this month while on graduation leave from Marine Corp boot camp!  We're all so happy for them and very proud to add another Marine to our long list of military family members.

 Congrats to you both!!

Easter

Hope everyone had as much of a nice Easter as we did!