Snow Day

Sad as it is, Mackenzie Rae had never seen snow until this weekend. Poor thing is almost 5 years old.... anyway, we went to Mother Nature's Farm and to my sister's neighborhood snow days to play and sled in the "snow". Unfortunately, the quotes are because it was fake stuff, not the real stuff. They crush ice and then spray it in the air. Despite all that, the kids had a great time and here are some of the pics to prove it.

Out looking at Christmas lights.

Cheese!

First ride down the hill! Hmmmm....

I think I should eat it!

Shelby taking Sydney down the hill

Sorry for chopping your head off Kenzie!

Gotchya!

A Day At The Zoo

We are Phoenix Zoo members so we go pretty often, but this time it was for Ryan's company picnic. The girls and I usually go on weekdays to avoid crowds, so Daddy doesn't usually get to go. This time was a family event and we had a great time. We are sporting our tie dye shirts that Mackenzie made for us. Yes we looked a bit goofy, but it was clear we belonged together.

Ms. Sydney Shea first wanting to get in with the monkeys then being "too cool"

Ms. Mackenzie Rae in all her glory!

Couldn't help but post this one!

Sedona

It's sad but true, fall is two hours away! What I mean is, we had to drive two hours north just to see leaves falling. We just spent the weekend with our brother and sister in law in beautiful Sedona. We had a great time and want to share some of our pictures.

The family on a hike

Having fun on the deck of our creekhouse. Thanks Aunt Shefali and Uncle Gavin!

Sydney attacking her sister



The biggest leaves in the world!



Auntie Shefali teaching Kenzie how to hike



The car ride home!

Halloween Time

Halloween around our house is always a huge thing, thanks to Ryan. Every year since I've known Ryan he's had a Halloween party. We love getting all of our family and friends together for a night of dressing up silly, lots of food, and catching up. In some cases we get to see people we haven't seen since the last Halloween party. This year was no exception, our 8th Annual Milczarek Halloween Party was as fun as usual. Here are some pics...

Some of the guests... Nach Family, Darryl and Suzanne (Mom and Dad) and Graham Family (Kaiden is missing from the pic, probably ran off to play with the other kids)

Barb and Steve (Mom and Dad), Jason (my brother)

This is the pinata frenzy!

Ryan as The Big Bad Wolf, the girls were the three little pigs, but we didn't get any pictures of us. Hopefully someone else got one and will send it to us!

This is our 2nd Annual Haunted Garage! We have a great time making it and this year Mackenzie was a huge help!

More pictures of Halloween night to follow soon! Thanks again to all of our friends and family for making this year's party as fun as always!

Painting at the Phoenix Zoo

A good friend of ours told us about a neat event at the Phoenix Zoo on Monday. The Wyland Foundation (A non-profit environmental group) Every Drop Counts tour was in town, and the environmental marine life artist, Wyland, was painting a mural at the zoo. The really neat part is that he invited kids to join him. The mural will stay at the Phoenix Zoo at a location to be decided later. I will be sure to update when I know where it will be. The really, really neat part is that Mackenzie got a chance to paint and below is her artwork...

Mackenzie's butterfly

Wyland, the artist, with Mauren and Mackenzie after they finished painting

Wyland with the whole group in front of the mural. Mackenzie is right up front.

Too Long

Goodness! It has been too long since our last post.

Ryan and I just celebrated our 7th Wedding Anniversary yesterday. On our anniversary, we enjoy talking about our actual wedding day and every year we say it feels like it was just last year. It's really fun remembering what a great day it was. The only thing that stunk was that it was 105 degrees out. Our wedding was at 10am, so the wedding itself was nice, but it started getting so hot that our poolside reception didn't last too long! That's okay, because we had an after party at my parents house and got to continue the celebration.

We are really in the swing of things, just in time for all the holidays to kick in and mess up our routine. Oh well, that just keeps us on our toes and having fun. Mackenzie had her first sleep over at Bama and Papa's house last night for THE FIRST TIME. She had a great time and said, "she was having too much fun to miss us!" That was so sad, yet so great to hear. Sydney really missed her sister while she was gone. She didn't really look for her, but she really seems out of sorts until her sissy came home. They are all napping right now, Daddy too. I look forward to spending time with the whole family as soon as everyone gets up. Here are some of our more recent pics. Enjoy.

Here is Sydney keeping busy while we were cleaning the garage.

Anyone notice a trend here?

Here is Mackenzie dressed and ready for her dance class.

Look, I'm floating without any help. I'm a Duck right now, next year I'll be a Seahorse!

Hi!

Here is Mackenzie looking way too old for 4 1/2!

This and That

First, Mackenzie started Jazz/Ballet combo class last week. Here is a picture of her in first position (ballet). She loves dressing up for class and reminds the teacher every time that she is a good listener and some of the other kids are not. Although that is true and I am very proud of her, we need to work on not pointing out others' faults. Any ideas on that one?



Next, my friend and neighbor introduced me to www.bountifulbaskets.org . It's a produce co-op that gets its produce from a warehouse that distributes to our local restaurants and grocery stores. You pay $15 dollars for the basket and get between $35 and $50 worth of fruits and veggies. The pick-up dates are every 2 weeks and you can participate whenever you want. I did it this last weekend and I am very happy with what I got. Here is a picture of what I got this week all for just $15. They also sell other things like granola, honey, olive oil, and peaches.

Great Time

It's been too long since the last post. First of all, we had a great time in NY with family. We have a huge family and we are so grateful for their hospitality while we were up there. Click on the picture of the girls looking out the plane window below to view the pics from the trip. There are a lot there, but if you have the time, you have to see the beauty of Niagra Falls.

Trip to NY

As for the normal stuff, Mackenzie starts preschool (just two days a week) in two weeks. She is excited and more than ready. Sydney is repeating just about every word we ask her to and now has a vocabulary that includes up, ball, purple, apple, and of course "no". I honestly think she's forgotten how to say momma. She will say, "hi daddy" when he gets home from work or on the phone, but I haven't heard momma in a long time! Oh well, I'm still excited hearing real words from her. Here are some of our latest pics of the girls.

This is Sydney's new silly face, I love it!

Mackenzie swinging away in cousin Doreen's backyard

Beautiful girls and getting ready for our trip to NY

Here the girls are drinking their morning milk and watching cartoons. Shhh! Don't tell Sydney, Kenzie's milk is chocolate!










Sydney wants to be just like her big sis, she is willing to push her out of the way to do it too. Here they are in Mackenzie's new reading corner. She is so proud of it.









Now Ryan just had to be mean and take a picture of me packing for our 11 day upstate NY trip. I'm sure he's documenting my overpacking problem for further discussion, i.e. rubbing it in when I have to pay the over 50lbs. fee at the ticket counter.

I truly can laugh at the fact that I was thinking I could fit both the girls clothes and mine it that bag!

Trip to Tucson

Here are some photos of our trip to the Reid Park Zoo in Tucson last weekend. Actually, these pictures were all from the water play-area at the zoo, but you gotta do what you gotta do to keep cool right?

Playin' in the pond

Adorable

Woohooo!

Look what I did!!!

Great Fun

I'm ready for the bike parade!


115 Degrees, do I need to say more?

Daddy and Me, where to next?

Sydney's got the right idea!

We had a great 4th of July weekend. Mackenzie insisted on calling the 4th Flag Day. We tried to tell her that there is another day with that name and the 4th was Independence Day. Try convincing a 4 year old that you know what you are talking about! Maybe next year.

Well, lets see... here are some pics of our week. We would love to hear how everyone else celebrated. Let us know.

~C