Boogie, boogie, boogie, and......KICK!

Lucy's dance recital was Wednesday, June 24, 2009. She was so excited to be up on the stage again. That is definitely the best part of taking dance lessons. According to Lucy, her best move is the "knee pop up". She has demonstrated this move to anybody who will watch for the last two months. She loved her super curly hair and mascara and how her dress "twrilled". Two hours of a dance recital to see Lucy dance for three minutes. Priceless.

Watching these little girls (and boy) dance is great! You can just see the wheels turning in their head as they think of the routine and try to get that information from their brains to their feet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Gy7JF2zDdg&feature=channel_page

To see video of Lucy skills, check out our videos on YouTube.

Search under McDieselDog.

Lucy Graduated Valedictorian

Lucy graduated from preschool May 21, 2009 from "My School Preschool". They didn't actually have valedictorians but I'm sure that she would have been it.

Her school is taught by two well seasoned teachers, Miss Kathy and Miss Nannette. These ladies are very good with the kids and teach them so much. Lucy was reciting the Pledge of Allegiance by the time she had barely turned three. Smarty Pants!!

This is Clara, Lucy, and Eliza. We carpooled this year three times a week. You hear hilarious things from the mouths of 4-year-olds.

I will not miss the field trips that seemed like they were every other week. One time we missed the train. I mean we ACTUALLY missed the train. We were to ride Trax into SLC and back and couldn't find the station in time to board. Lucy was very distraught and inconsolable. I had to promise her we would take our own ride with her friends on a different day and it would be way cooler. Not that she hasn't rode the train many times before.

Lazy Daisy

I decided it was time to put Daisy's video back up. This is the video that aired on America's Funniest Home Videos.

Traveling Summer 2009

So it begins. Our first official camping trip of 2009 is in Moab, Utah. We love Moab. Who doesn't love Moab? We stopped in Helper on our way down and picked up Madison's cousin.

The kids wanted to go arrowhead hunting around Ken's Lake. That would be Ken McDougald's Lake y'all. Brandon's father grew up in Moab so we have the inside skinny on all the places to go that aren't packed with people. No arrowheads were found but the kids did each have a bag of flint. They are just as excited at the idea of making their own.

The cactus were in bloom which made them a little easier for the kids to look out for. Lucy was the only victim this time. Loryn caught a toad and shared with Madison and Zach. She was very excited to take him home and show her mom. "Toadie", however, made a break for it close to the river. There would be no souvenir pets this trip.

The kids wanted to stop at "Hole N' The Rock" something bad. It sounded like the most amazing place to them. Brandon had been telling them about how his Uncle Ken made in the mountain just like this. Only cooler. Boy, were they ever disappointed! The neatest part were the sculptors outside. I have to admit that they were my favorite part too.

Memorial weekend in Moab is the Moab Art's Fair. My kids love to go here. This is the first place we ever saw "gnome be gones" which are now our favorite pieces of yard art. Check out sugarpost.com to see his creations. The kids tie-died (their favorite), made sand art and played bingo. It started raining cats and dogs for about 15 minutes while we were there. After a stunning double rainbow appeared to Lucy's delight. The best part about rain for her are the rainbows after.

Everyone enjoyed hiking. Our favorite hike inside Canyonlands were the Cave Springs. Ladders, caves, petroglyphs, cowboy camps, etc. make this hike awesome for kids.

Newspaper Rock is always amazing. This is the first time our kids have been here. Brandon and I told them all about our trips here when we were kids. Grandpa Adair would take us 4-wheeling on Elephant Rock in his old Bronco and our friends old Land Cruiser. SCARY STUFF!!

Until next time....happy traveling!

Daisy ate today!!!

Yeah Daisy! Daisy hasn't ate by her free will for eleven days. She ate a whole can of food this morning AND drank water. This is huge. She must be feeling better.

Every morning we give her eight humongous pills. She is very good about hiding the pill in her jowls until you not looking and then spitting them out the little skunk. She also acts like a toddler and turns her head all around so you can't get to her mouth. I've had to get creative so she'll even let me near her. I've tried frying up some bacon and rolling the pills in the grease, and smothering them in cheeze wiz. I finally had to resort to just pushing them down her throat and then holding her mouth shut for a minute until she swallows.

She also get 500cc of fluid pumped under her skin morning and night. This causes two large bumps under her skin while the fluid collects. We are basically giving her implants, and while I shouldn't admit it, I'm a little jealous.

We are off to Moab for the Memorial Day weekend and taking both dogs. This is the start to our camping season and it should be interesting with two dogs. We've only had Diesel up until now.

Wish us luck!

Our Little Banana

Daisy has been pretty sick now for over a week. We noticed last Saturday that she wasn't acting quite right. On Wednesday she ended up in the "doggy hospital" to receive fluids because she was so dehydrated. Poor pooch.

Since then, her medications have increased to everything and her symptoms have increased to everything and her diagnosis has been nothing! And don't forget the bill. I would rather forget it actually.

Her numbers for her blood tests are "off the charts" and "quite alarming" which make the doctors "very nervous". Her bilirubin number (which causes jaundice) has climbed up to 15.5 and normally should be 0.1-0.5 This is why she is our little banana. I promise you have never seen yellower skin, eyes, gums, etc on a dog. It's quite alarming.

The good news is she is still here with us. Diesel, however, needs someone to wrestle with NOW!

Zach's 9th Birthday

Zach turned 9 on April 23. He had to choose what to do for his birthday because he had scouts, baseball practice, and a singing program for the 3rd grade all on the same day. He chose to go eat! He loves the ribs at Texas Roadhouse. Brandon was totally on top of everything and got all his presents and cake. Here are a few pictures from Zach's special day. Sorry about the quality - I need to fix that.

Zach's favorite animal at the moment are armadillo's. Good thing they have one here. He's chugging a cold one though.

Riding in the saddle.

Hello Out There

Wow! It's been a while, but I definitely want to start posting again because this is my way of scrapbooking about my family. It's that time of year again when our family gets really busy with all our activities. I love posting them so that my kids will remember all the fun things we do.

We just returned from San Diego to visit Uncle Jeremy and Nancy. We LOVE this area! It would be really easy to live her and it's not hard to see what Jeremy loves about it. Grandma Char came with us this time. She hadn't been their since she was a little girl.

We did Sea World again because it's always fun. Jeremy and Nancy have season passes and brought Nancy's niece and nephew.

Journey to Atlantes roller coaster ride

We decided these sea lions were just like our bulldogges! They would even only open one eye to look what was going on around them during their nap.

The San Diego Zoo is HUGE and bright! We had great weather for our entire stay.

Brandon and the kids love to swim in the Ocean in April. It's way to cold for Char and myself!

We went to Old Point Loma lighthouse and then the tide pools nearby. We honestly could stay at the tide pools all day. Sea anemone and barnacles, among many other living creatures, are amazing to us. fun, fun, fun, fun, fun

Brandon took some beautiful pictures of the San Diego temple.

Madison turns 11 - YIKES!

Passing out Zingers to her friends in Ms. Randall's fifth grade class.
Sisters

For Madison's birthday this year we were in Vegas. Madison and Angielee went to see Phantom of the Opera. Madison had not seen it on stage before (she LOVES the movie), so we got seats right under the chandelier. Brandon and Zach were very happy to go to the shark reef during our time together, but all the better for us. We had a blast! Just Mom and Madison cruisin' the Strip!

As a family we hit the M&M and Coca Cola stores. Lucy went nuts with the green M&M. She didn't know what to grab first and hauled Ms. Green around forever. She was not happy when all we let her get was a grape flavored chapstick from Coke.

M&M 3D movie

Ugh!! Brothers!

Kick A** Chopper at Treasure Island