Halloween

Our own little Iron Man and Lady Bug!

Halloween Preschool Program

This is the one picture I have from Tucker's program.  Its so hard to get pictures with all those people crammed into the room...and its more fun to just watch and enjoy.  Tucker's to the left of the Witch, and the cute girl in the strawberry hat two away from him is Naomi.  He came home a couple of weeks before this and told me all about how he really likes this cute girl named Naomi in his class, and that he thinks he has a crush on her, and he might even like to live with her. :)

It's a BOY!

Soccer

So, after taking a season off, Tucker decided he'd like to play soccer again, so we signed him up. On the day of his first game, we went to the soccer store to buy him cleats. While at the store, Nora Jane found everything pink. Then Tucker said he needed to call Dad's friend (Dan) Schovaers and tell him about his game that night. He had remembered from a year and a half before, that Schovaers game to his game. Although we don't see much of him anymore, I let Tucker call him, just to see if he'd come. Schovaers did show up and Tucker was thrilled. The game started and Tucker was on fire...complete opposite of our last experience with him and soccer. He stole the ball and dribbled it all the way to the other end of the field for a goal not once...but twice! We were so proud of our little man! But I think even better than the goals was the celebration dances he did out on the field after scoring the goals. He had all the parents on both sides of the field just rolling. The second picture is his "Kick Buttowski" pose, which he also did after scoring a goal.


Tucker ended his season, playing in 5 of the 8 games (due to St. George trips) and scored a total of 6 goals!!  So proud of you Tucker Man!

Tucker's first day of Preschool

Tucker has been so looking forward to preschool, although sad that he wouldn't have Miss Celeste again. The best part has been our fun carpool. There are three other kids on our street that we carpool with, and they have been a blast...seriously the kids all get along so well and it is such a party in the car on the way to and from school.

Mexico Trip 2010

We left on Monday June 21 to drive to Mexico.  Daniel had to stay home to deal with the HVAC stuff in our new home we were purchasing (we were closing a couple days after we got home, so this had to be taken care of).  The kids and I caravan-ed down, with Daniel's Parents (Mark and Anne Marie) and siblings (Michelle, Amy and Stuart).  The plan was to drive to Phoenix Monday, stay at the Arizona Grand Resort and play at their water park all day Tuesday, then drive to San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico on Wednesday.  The drive to Phoenix was going great. We were about 30 minutes outside of Flagstaff, Daniel had just purchased his flight and would arrive about one hour after we did.  We got back on the road, and suddenly highway 89 was closed due to forest fires in Flagstaff. After driving 23 miles, we were detoured back those 23 miles, and sent around the south rim of The Grand Canyon.  It turned out to be about a 5 hour detour.  All in all the 10 hour drive to Phoenix ended up being a 16 hour drive...and Daniel's flight got in and he checked into the hotel about an hour before we got there.  The kids really did great, until the last hour and a half into Phoenix...Nora Jane had it...and just screamed.  We won't disclose how fast I went, but I didn't bother following Mark anymore, with Anne Marie's permission we just took off and got to the hotel as fast as possible.

Here's Nora Jane and Grandma at the Grand Arizona Resort Waterpark.

Tucker posing with the frog at the rainforest cafe at Arizona Mills.

Tucker took this picture of us at a Pace favorite: Tia Rosa's Restaurant.

Nora Jane posing.

Tucker posing.

DRIVE TO MEXICO:

Now we begin the drive to mexico.  I think it was just about a 6-8 hour drive.  First using my iPad, I was able to locate a Dunkin Donuts on our way out of Phoenix.  UHMM!  We've passed the border, and have probably been driving for 4 hours, when we hit some dead animal parts on the road.  We brushed it off as roadkill...until it kept happening for about the next 30 miles.  It was smelly animal intestines and stuff, and first we would watch Mark hit them, and then we would.  It was unreal the amount of dead animal insides all over the road.  And the smell!!!!  Finally we approached this truck:

Every time it changed lanes, or hit a bump...more guts fell out!!!

ARRIVING IN SAN CARLOS!!

Here are our condos. (this is actually taken from our condo, at the condo across the courtyard.)  There's the beach...yeah, that close!!!  Softest sand...warmest water...it was amazing.

And here's the pool!  On the other side of that cabana is the kiddie pool section, which was really shallow and divided by just a wall to the regular pool part.  The kids could both touch and just played all day in that pool!!

Here was injury #1 (and since I don't have pictures of the rest, I'll just list them all here)  It was our first full day in Mexico, Thursday.  Tucker was running through the cabana, to follow us all back to the condo.  You can't see it in the picture, but they had a set a stairs just off the side of the cabana, that go down underneath it, and they place metal grates over the top to keep you from falling in the hole that are the stairs.  They were doing construction, building a new curb around this hole, with cement and wires and such.  Well Tucker narrowly missed falling in the hole, and sliced his foot open on the wire.  We took him into the Clinica in San Carlos, where we were happy to meat a Mexican Doctor, who went to medical school in the US, married an American (who was his nurse and front desk receptionist) and had a second American Doctor working with him.  It was all very nice and clean.  We totally lucked out..it was just a surface cut, no stitches (or shots) necessary!!!  Tucker was able to run and play, and was excited when the doctor said the ocean water would actually help it heal.

Injury #2  Tucker was walking with his dad on the cement wall, separating the beach from the grass, and fell off, and scraped up his thigh and back.

Injury #3 The last night we were there, Tucker cut his heal open on a piece of glass in the kiddie pool.  Two weeks later, the piece of glass eventually made it to the surface of his skin, and we had to take him to the pediatrician to get it removed.  We still have it taped to a tongue depressor.

Hanging at the Beach.

From the balcony of our condo, all ready for church.

Daniel's Family: Michelle, Amy, Anne Marie, Mark, Stuart

Nora Jane running around in her cute Mexican beach dress.

Nora Jane playing with Daniel's cousins (that are hers and Tucker's age), Abby and Chloe.  (Mark's family has gone here since he was a kid, so we were there with his parents and 5 of his siblings and most of their families.)

San Carlos was the cutest little fishing village.  Daniel took lots of pictures in the marina...these are just a few.

One day, driving into Guaymas (a bigger city about 10 minutes Southeast of San Carlos, that now has a Sam's Club and Walmart!) we saw this and dubs it the mexican horse trailer.  Its just a flat bed, with fence panels set up on it.

If only this had been the whole drive home....Nora Jane had to have her outfit changed 4 times on the drive home.  One of which was for throwing up 30 minutes outside of Flagstaff, where we stayed the night and drove the rest of the way home on Saturday.  We've now learned that she gets carsick.

All in all it was a wonderful trip.  We had such a nice relaxing time while we were there.  Daniel got to do two days of deep sea fishing which he's always wanted to do.  I've heard his family talk about their Mexico trips so much...and it was fun to experience it for myself.  I hope to do it again someday!!

Oh Nora Jane...what will we do with you!

Last night we went to the "Corner Bakery Cafe" with Grandma and Grandpa Pace and Amy and Stuart. Nora Jane was coloring with her crayon on her kids menu. Grandma tried to take the crayon from her to circle a word on the word search...and Nora Jane screamed at her and really let her have it. After a moment or two, I turned to Nora Jane and explained that she needed to be nicer to Grandma, and that maybe she should tell her she was sorry. Nora Jane looked right in my eyes and very plainly...in her own jumbled language, said, "but...I not sorry." 'but' and 'sorry' were the only clear words...but she was shaking her head the whole time...so it was pretty clear what she meant.

When I came home and told her dad the story, his fear was that she may be smarter than we all think.

My fear is she is going to be a teenager.....

Tucker's 4th Birthday

Tucker on his 4th birthday!

Tucker's first skateboard!

Ironman from his good friend Luke.

We invited a few families that we're friends with to come to Kangaroo Zoo on Tucker's birthday. It was a blast! Thanks Hille's, Carter's and Beck's!!

This was Tucker's family celebration on Sunday. He got a DC shirt from Uncle Stuart, Uncle Nathan and Aunt Brooke! He was sooo excited. It goes with his DC shoes.

Lego Toy from Grandma Pace.

A Transformer!

And another skateboard!! Tucker always was asking for two skateboards for his birthday, so that he could have one for his friend Luke to ride.

And an attempt from Mom (and Grandma and Amy) at a skateboard cake, per Tucker's request.

Mothers Day

Daniel and the kids woke me up with an envelope, and in the envelope was a print out of the email Daniel received saying that I had an iPad, and they would notify me when it was in the store!

Nora Jane's curls lasted beautifully for Mother's day! And this is the dress my mom bought Nora Jane for her birthday, and I've been dying to have her wear, but it's been so dang cold! I was so excited to take her out and take pictures.

Curly Q

We had a wedding reception to go to on Saturday, so when Nora Jane woke up with a sore bum, I decided to give her a bath, and put curlers in her hair, so see how it would turn out...













Here the kids are all dressed up for the reception: