Casey the Indestructible Hero

Random conversation at dinner tonight. We were talking about the chicken we were eating, and then...

Alex: "Uncle Tasey is a nurse. He works at a hospital."
Nate: "Yup. He takes care of people. He works at a hospital."
Alex: "He saves people. He fixes people. Uncle Tasey works at a hospital and saves people."
Nate: "I know. Uncle Casey fixes them when they're sick and when they're dying."
Alex: "I KNOW. He makes people NOT die!"
Nate: "I KNOW! He works at a hospital and saves lots of people!"
Alex: "I KNOW! Uncle Tasey also fights the bad guys. When the bad guys try to get me, Uncle Tasey gets those guys. Like yesterday when I was home and those guys tried to get me. Uncle Tasey GOT 'EM!"
Nate: (Perplexed look that seemed to be wondering how he was somehow trumped in this conversation about Casey's awesomeness.)

U of A Band Day 2010

Having completed four U of A Band Days myself, I was excited to return to the stadium and watch Steve march with the Pride of Arizona. (P.S. Mountain View...what the heck?! A rating of GOOD?! Lame.)

Mom was super nice and forked over her life savings to pay for us all to go see Steve march.

I apologize for the poor quality of video. I'm a slacker and only carry my phone with me. My camera is more of a trophy camera that enjoys long naps on the shelf. That and apparently only nosebleed seats were available.

So here they are marching onto the field. If I find that mom's camera video is better than this, I will replace this one so you guys can enjoy the full 15 minutes of Steve's gloriously blinding sequins and shiny tuba.

My sadness is that I did not get "Bear Down" or the tuba line dance. The pain haunts me. Next time I go over to Mom's, I will have Steve do a solo dance in his uniform, just for you. (Yes you will, Steve. Shoosh.)




(NOTE: YouTube took my video down because it was too big, so here's a couple someone else posted with the link included in case the screen doesn't widen enough on my blog.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g36TOrIrsb4



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ivVt-w19sQ


We love you, Steve!

U of A Homecoming Football Game - Arizona vs Washington

I was completely stoked when I won football tickets from my work for the homecoming game. Football, yeah, okay, but Steve does a halftime show! With SEQUINS! So we waited for halftime in great anticipation. Did I mention with SEQUINS?!

So...Great football game. Good nachos. No halftime show. FAIL.

But here they are in all their glorious spirit standing at attention on the field while homecoming ceremonies took place.




My only solace: We kicked Washington's BOOTAY!

Halloween with Cousins

So, you probably realize I'm only blogging tonight because Jami knows where I live and will harm me if I don't put the Halloween pics I have up.

I have lots of other super awesome pics and videos to blog, so just as soon as the children are grown, move out, and I'm retired, I'll get those up. ;-)

Side Note: I have no idea why these images are tagged with a 2007 date, but let's pretend it says 2010.

Here are all the babies before we headed out. Ethan really doesn't like it that he's included in that group "Babies" because he's almost 12, but he's included until I say he's not, darn it! (He looks enthused, doesn't he? Sort of like "Next year I'm just buying a bag of candy, a computer game and staying home...")


We have Harry Potter, or Nate as we like to call him. The cute thing is Cody LOVES Harry Potter, so as soon as Nate donned his Harry Potter costume, Cody just called him Harry Potter. It didn't matter how many times Nate corrected him, Cody still said "Hey, Harry Potter!"

Next to Harry Potter is Katelyn and her own witch costume concoction. I think she did a great job! And she loves holding baby Casey all snuggled in his Super Man costume. Cape included!

Katie was really confused about Emmy's costume. "Why is it red like a devil but it looks like a fairy?"...to which Jami answered something along the lines of "Because she looks cute but she's a little devil!"

Cody was Batman. Cody is Batman. Cody will always be Batman, because he never takes his costume off. lol

Alex is our resident Jedi. You may recognize his costume from 2008. Yes, thank you, thank you. He wanted to be Iron Man, but I told him that "Jedis are WAY more powerful, cooler AND they get lightsabers. What does Iron Man ever have, huh? A glowing chest? LAME!" And THAT, my friends, is how you recycle costumes from previous years.

Ethan is a dementor from Harry Potter. Look at that grumpy face! He's really getting into character...


House to house we go, begging for candy.


Ethan said his dementor costume was too hot and his gloves were making it hard to open candy, so I took a whirl as a dancing dementor. Yes, I am a freak.


Alex using his Jedi mind tricks on me. "You will get that camera out of my face and carrrrryyyyyy meeeee...."


Nate and Kate truckin in the motherload.


Cody was Batmaaaaaan...Batmaaaan...Batman! (Yes, I'm singing to you.)


Every year we go to the same neighborhood where some friends live. It's great because all the neighbors sit outside on their porches or driveways and hand out candy. One guy takes pictures every year and puts a rotating slideshow up on his garage door with a projector. There is also one house every year that had little nooks and crannies where guys dressed up like Freddy or the undead jump out at you and scare your socks off. We LOVE going here every year. Turns out, we met another Harry Potter fan who asked to have a picture taken with Nate because she hadn't seen another Harry Potter all night!


Here's another house that went crazy with a Nightmare Before Christmas theme. Love it!


The kids did a Halloween play and sang a Nightmare Before Christmas song (This is Halloween), so Kate was really excited to see these decorations.


We had a blast. Saw lots of great decorations. Met great folks. And got to spend our first Halloween with our cousins. Sorry I don't have more pictures of Emmy or Casey. If I find some on my phone, I'll be sure to post.

Happy Belated Halloween! (At least I made it before Christmas. Don't hate.)

Pride of Arizona - U of A Family Day

I'm so behind on blogging and haven't updated because I feel like some should come before others and just haven't had the time. But this one needs to go up!

We had such a blast at U of A Band Family Day in early October. We got to practice with the Pride of Arizona and see all the fun (fun = hard work) Steve gets to have everyday. So here are a few pics and vids from our day with Steve.

First, families were asked to march with their band geek. Mom went out first, taking that 40 lb Tuba head-on: (I know you said no pics mom, but I found one of my backside decorated with a tuba, so yours is going up too!)



Steve and mom insisted I take a turn marching with a tuba. I have a much deeper appreciation of what kind of lung power it takes to be a tuba player in a marching band. I found this picture on Facebook with a comment "Does this tuba make my butt look fat?". Sigh...it's not the tuba.


After we pretended to be Steve for a little while, we went up into the bleachers to watch practice. It was a little toasty outside and I forgot to put sunblock on the kids, so they tried to find shade any way they could.



Pride of Arizona Marching Band Group Hug??



Here's a few of their formations.


Hmmm....that's a rough life there, Steve. Must be hard to be so close to the dance line.


And now the fun. Remember how these videos look when you're viewing my next blog post "U of A Band Day 2010" ;-)

This is where we got to watch the band as they practiced only a 12 count move at a time for a few hours. Everytime they finished the move, the band director would stop them and say "Check it". They'd all scramble over a couple of steps from where they were and try again.




After having a "Stop. Check it." good time for a couple of hours, we got to see a full run through of one of their songs. They start on the side of the field and haul booty to their spots. Good times. Good times. Here it is:


And last, but definitely not least, a little U of A pride and some Tuba line dancin. If you're not sure which one Steve is, he's the tall lanky one in the middle. ;-)


Love you Steve! Thanks for letting us come embarrass you for a day. :-)

When I Grow Up...

I was having some Q & A with Alex one day, where I just asked him random questions to see what he would say. I asked him what the moon was made out of and he said, "Paper". When I asked him what kind of paper, he looked at me like I'd lost my mind and said, "White!".

I laughed and immediately thought of Jami giving me a stern look and rebuking me for never putting pictures or videos on my blog. So here's our little conversation about what Alex wants to be when he grows up...

What We Did On Our Summer Vacation

And here's our quarterly update! I can't believe summer vacation is over already. What a busy summer! Here are a few of the blips I managed to actually take pictures of.

The kids also had some really fun campouts with Mom and Dad, so as soon as I get those pictures from them, I'll post 'em.

We kicked off the summer with a couple of graduations and birthdays. Here's my little Stevie-Weevie all grown up and graduating from high school!

We're all smiling here because we're trying to hide the fear. The little brother we used to torture now towers over all of us. "We did it out of LOVE, Steve! LOVE!"

Here's Ethan on his 11th birthday. I know! I can't believe it either! Especially when he said, "Now I'm 11 mom. So only 5 more years until I can drive!" Noooooooo....
I told him we could do whatever he wanted for his birthday. So we set up Settlers of Catan and played the night away.

Birthday cupcakes. Mmmm...

Mama's Little Helper

Alex is quite the little helper in the kitchen. We were making hard boiled eggs so we could make grandma's famous deviled eggs for dinner. Here he is cracking and peeling a dozen hard boiled eggs.

Here's a video of Alex crackin' and peelin' those eggs for me.



And so with good must come not-so-good. Alex LOVES to be a "fixer guy" like his daddy, so his favorite new thing to do is to unscrew any screw he can find. Suddenly cupboards in my house are hanging crooked, the boys' dresser doors are now on the floor, electronics are dismantled, and here you can see the bathroom pipes had been tampered with by my little "fixer guy". Here's Darrick fixing what Alex "fixed".

Here's Alex's latest victim: Kate's Leapster. "But it wouldn't turn on, Mom!"

School of Rock

It's Friday night. Time to Rock! Whenever the Xbox 360 decides it wants to work, we have some family rock out time. The best part of playing Xbox with the kids is that the Xbox is bit busted, which means it has to be handled with care to get it to work. Ethan has figured out that if he gently massages the Xbox and whispers "Come on. Come on." while it's loading the disc, it just might load the game and play it. If it doesn't, the gentle massage turns into a light tap until he works up to almost a full body slam.

The funny part about that is Ethan seems to have a knack for getting the games to play, so he's deemed himself a "Level 5 Xbox Engineer". Apparently this means you can get the games to play on a broken Xbox about 50% of the time. Katelyn then deemed herself only a "Level 3 Xbox Engineer". So, if she can't get it to work, she calls in the Level 5.

Alex is taking pictures of family music time. The picture of Kate sitting by the piano with her guitar and Nate on the piano was too blurry to post. But we had some fun jam time!

This is what happens when you give kids 3 months off from school in 100+ degree weather that requires a lot of indoor time. Here's Kate with a bit of Cabin Fever.

Trip to Fergie Baby Town

You all know I trekked up to Idaho to see The J and her newest little monkey. Jami's posted about every pic I had, but I thought I'd put a few of my favorites up. Here's my baby girl, Emmy. Aunt Becca and Mat brought the kids to the hospital to visit Mommy. They were so cute. They were getting a little restless, so I strapped them into the stroller and played "Go Go Speedracer" for a bit.

Cody Bug and his cute dimples.

This is when I first met little Casey. He always looked much bigger in the pictures we first took, but this one shows just how tiny he was.

So I stole him, drove back to Tucson, and he's mine. ALL MINE! Muwahaha. Okay, I didn't do that. But I did steal him away from Jami whenever she'd let me. :-)

This was my view for almost a week. LOVE THAT MONKEY!

The day I had to catch a flight back to Tucson, I had planned to watch the kids while Jami went down to see Casey for a bit. Jami ended up getting sick the night before, so I got to go back and say goodbye to Casey. I was sad J was sick, but super happy I got to see him before I left.

When I got there, they had him under the Bili lights to bring his bilirubin levels down. The nurse first told me I needed to leave him in there, but after I broke down, begged, and fell to her feet, washing her comfortable nursing shoes with my tears, she let me hold him for a bit.

I wanted to stay longer, and I wish I had. My flight was delayed 2 hours! But I took one last shot of this tiny little thing that turned me inside out. Can't wait to see him in September!

Little Casey with his eyes open.

Swim Time!

This summer we were lucky enough to find a PHENOMENAL babysitter. Not only did she play with the kids and teach them how to swim (which is an enormous feat), but she also had my house spotless and all of my laundry done every day. I asked her to marry me but she said "No". Sigh...

So, here's the last day of summer vacation. The kids are showing me how they can all swim now. If you know anything about my kids and water, you know that even a little drop of water on their faces when getting their hair washed turned into an epic Titanic-drowning moment of "AHHHH WATER!!!" Here's Alex swimmin around in his float-assist outfit.

I LOVE this picture. He's not just floating on his back. No. In true Nate style, he's floating on his back, holding his breath, WITH goggles on.

Kate is a little fish! She just dives right in.

Here are some quick videos of the kids swimming. I'd like to apologize in advance for all of the "Woooo! Good Job!" comments I made. I was being a supportive mother, so you'll just have to turn your volume down. :-P




We had a blast this summer. There's a whole lot of fun we didn't get pictures of, like late evening trips to the park to play soccer and baseball, outings to the mall just for the sole purpose of sitting in air conditioning, monsoon lightning shows and rain blitzes, sleepovers with grandma and grandpa, family movie nights, Wii Super Mario Bros Smackdown nights, and more! (I know. I suck at remembering to take pictures. Sorry!)

School starts Monday and we're EXCITED!

Nate's Wall of Wisdom

Though many words of wisdom were added after this photo was taken, I wanted to make sure everyone had a chance to bask in the glory that is Nate's Wall of Wisdom. (before the humidity killed the sticky notes and they fell all over his bed.)

If you click on the picture, you should be able to read the notes, but I'll translate starting on the top row, from left to right. Make sure to check out the stick people with one fleeing from the other.


1. Never use the boys bathroom.
2. When Ethan bullies me, ignore him. (Fleeing Nate picture)
3. When Alex is on my bed, ask him to get off. Sometimes he says "No".
4. When Ethan tells me something important, ignore him.
5. When Ethan says something mean to me, ignore.
6. When Katelyn bothers me, do not cry. Well, that happens all the TIMES.
7. When there's a problem, tell the truth.
8. When Katelyn's teasing, ignore her.
9. When Dad's flusterd, don't talk near him. but sometimes ("But sometimes" was added after Darrick saw the note and said "WHAT?!" lol)
10. When Alex asks over and over again, ignore him.
11. When someone gives me something, always say "Thank You".
12. If Ethan asks me to play together, I might say Yes or No (so, 50-50 chance is good, eh?)
13. When Dad's fustrated (frustrated), try and help to make him happy. But sometimes not really.
14. When I do chores, help mom.

Obviously, you can see my parental admonishing in there. Apparently, my responses to everyday problems are:
1. Ignore it.
2. Ignore it.
3. Ignore it.
4. Sometimes life happens. Ignore it.
5. Always say Thank You.
6. Be a good helper.
7. Tell the truth.
8. Be polite. If other person isn't polite, IGNORE IT.

This "Ignore It" trend makes me think I know what the paper bag on the head was all about. :-)
Nate Showing Mom How to Ignore It

Graduate in the House!

When Casey graduated this year, we all descended on Prescott for some partying and mayhem. (You know...partying loudly in hotel lobbies, taking up one side of a restaurant with our party of a thousand, staying up until the wee hour of 11PM, burning cop cars, ...that kind of thing.)

The best part is we all ran around with cameras like we were hired to photograph a wedding. Nearly all of us have the same picture taken from varying angles, and since Jami beat us all to the blogging punch, I had to sort through all of mine to see if there were any you might not have seen in her posts yet.

So, here we go...

Graduation Ceremony

Here's Casey's personal cheering section patiently waiting for him to take the stage. I was so impressed by how well the older kids just hung out for almost 3 hours through speeches, reading graduate names, etc. Thank you to Aunt Missi for purchasing the "Shhhhh" bribes just before we arrived. They stuffed their faces so full of sour patch kids before the ceremony began, they had entered the sugar crash phase about the time the first speaker got up. NICE PLANNING!


Waiting for our graduate.


Steve giving me the "I will confiscate that thing" look.


Well, Hello Nurse Waldron! I believe Casey was one of six graduating male nurses. It must have been sooo rough, Casey. All those years, classes full of cute, young nurses-to-be. Hmmm, me thinks I found Casey's motivation for becoming a nurse. ;-) (Well, aside from wanting to save people and all.)



After the ceremony was over, we all gathered outside for some pictures and congratulations. Here's grandpa snuggling with Emily.


Steve, Casey, Dad, and Pete. Getting ready to trash some cop cars! Wooooo!



Alex and Cody decided to have a game of chase. Alex's water bottle had a hole poked in the top, so he was squirting Cody as they ran around the tree. Suddenly, Alex decided he wanted to play something else and walked off, while Cody continued running around the tree laughing...until he realized Alex was gone.

"Heyyyyyy, where go?!"



Grandma's turn to hold the baby.


Here's J vogueing. "Strike a pose. Vogue, vogue, vogue."


This is Casey's "OH MY GOSH, NO MORE CLASS!" look. His friend Michael (on the right), a boss from previous employment, even made the trek to Prescott from New Mexico to witness this historic moment. I love Michael. Not only did he go out of his way to bend Casey's schedule so he could go to school, he also thought I was Casey's younger sister. Whether he was lying or not, is irrelevant. He still said it out loud. :-D

Graduation Dinner

After graduation, Mom and Dad took us all to Outback for some sustenance. The food was good, the company was great, and Casey's prime rib was ginormous! (Sorry I don't have more pictures of dinner. I was stuffing my face.)

Graduation Mayhem

After dinner, we all met at the courthouse downtown to let the kids play in the park and have ice cream.

I had to take this picture so next time I saw Steve I could tell him, "See?! You used to be that little. Now look how tall you are!" Then, while showing him the picture, I'd try to tousle his hair, but realize I couldn't reach that high. Then he'd smack me in the back of the head because I wouldn't see his 6 foot wingspan of an arm coming. Yeah, I think I'll just post it on my blog here.

"Look Steve! You used to be that little. Now look how tall you are!" :-P


My girls looking for puppies to play with.


The kids being silly. (Except for Ethan. I swear he was born with that look. Didn't even cry when he came out. Just looked at me seriously and asked me for food and a computer.)


Now, Singing in the Rain starring Steve as Gene Kelly.


Claire, Emily, and Kate. So cute!


Alex wanting to be part of the photo session.


And now, we break for a 'Casey's Life Lesson Moment'...

The boys brought light sabers to duel with at the park, but they brought only 3, just enough to share with Dallin. Cody was feeling left out and was running around the boys screaming "Cody's turn! Cody's turn!" The boys, of course, kept saying "No, not yet. We're playing."


After watching Cody get shot down multiple times, Casey's veins in his neck began to bulge and his skin turned green. He gathered the boys together and lectured them on the finer points of sharing.


Ta Da! Cody has a light saber. "ON GUARD PEEPA!"


And now, back to our regularly scheduled program...

Our little ballerinas.


Awww. Emmy walking to Aunt Missi.


Grandma and Grandpa took us all out for ice cream. Of course, the kids pick the ice cream with the darkest red and blue dye they could find. "Say AHHHHH!"

The Aftermath

After getting cleaned up and ready for bed, we met everyone at the hotel patio/fire pit for some toasty warmth and hot cocoa.

Fun Before Goodbyes

I hadn't planned on staying overnight, but Mom hooked us up with a hotel, so we couldn't say no. The next day we met up at Dad's hotel to have breakfast, then headed over to check out Casey's house.

Casey's neighbor/landlord has a bazillion cats. The kids kept trying to get the cats to come over to Casey's for some love. A couple of these cats looked like they needed to give up the doughnuts and bagels. HUGE!



After the tour of Chateau Casey, we decided to take a walk to the park. (a long walk, because we got lost)


When we got to the park, we found there was some sort of swap meet that day, but the playground looked relatively empty, so we headed over.

So glad we did! We stumbled upon a Prescott gem; The only remaining playground Merry-Go-Round in Arizona. Immediately, the kids hopped on. Didn't take them long to start learning about G forces.

A man from the swap meet came over to tell us that all of these death spinners had been removed due to a large number of injuries and even death. As I realized I hadn't seen this type of playground equipment since I was a kid and gave him my "Wow, really?" nod, I hear the kids yelling "FASTER!"

Bring on the injuries.




Alex having some water fun.


Ethan conquering the jungle gym.


We had such a blast seeing everyone. Congratulations to Casey on his graduation! And "Thank You" to the Marriot and Prescott for hosting what I'm sure Casey refers to as The Insanity.