Beyond The 49 Fall Festival

We have been attending a church close to our house here in Tucson, called Real Life Christian Fellowship, and we absolutely love it there. It is a particular blessing after having struggled the last year or so we were in Virginia to find a church that fit. It's a mission-focused church, which speaks to my heart and the kids are thriving in the children's and youth groups, which is an answer to my prayers. Den was able to only attend once before he left, but he left wanting to go back, so that's one in the win column too! This past Sunday, Real Life sponsored a community fall festival, dubbed Beyond the 49 (our zip code is 85749, get it?). Our worship service was conducted outside on the grounds of the festival and then the fun began! 

It was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL morning. Sunny and hot without a cloud in the sky

We were blessed to have Clarence Lee, a world renown motivational speaker, deliver his message during the service and again during the festival.

How many men do you know that can use their chest muscles as an impromptu table?

After the service, the festivities kicked off, including this pick-up game

There were your usual festival games

And face painting / glitter tattoos / hair coloring

Summer and Abby showing off their crazy Halloween hair

Paige met up with her friends and then I only caught glimpses of her now and then. LOL

Kona Berry brought their Kona Ice truck out and provided cool treats to everyon

Local BMX stars, The Peraza Brothers put on an awesome show

Right before the girlies and I left, Clarence Lee delivered his message along with a strong-man demonstration that Paige got picked to help with. 

For a man who bench presses over 600 pounds, deadlifting two girls was a breeze

Love Paige's face here

All in all, we entertained our church family and over 700 members of our community. I am never one to push anything on anybody, but if you are in the Tucson area and you are searching for a church home, come check out Real Life. I think you'll be glad you did.

Family Photo Shoot

There are tons of photos of the whole fam that I haven't posted from our family photo shoot, but in the interest of saving time, I am just posting some of my favorites. One of these will most likely be our Christmas card photo this year. Which one is your favorite? Let me know in the comments below!

The Only Cowboys That Will Ever See The Playoffs

If we can't be Bulls, we have to be Cowboys! For those of you who have missed my posts from earlier in the season, Summer is now cheering for the Tucson Cowboys. Considering her aspirations to be a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader, it seemed a good fit. 

The Mighty Mite Cowboys came out of their regular season 6 and 1, second in the points behind the undefeated Falcons team (which, I know, not many of you really care, but these boys have played an AWESOME season).

Saturday was our first playoff game and it was an exciting one.

Boys are getting pumped up for their game

My girl, getting her cheer on!

So proud of all of these girls, who have worked so hard this season

 This is my favorite football coach. He is so INTO the game.

Final touchdown to seal the deal. Cowboys win 24-14!

 Notice the rosy cheeks? That's because it's the end of October and still 90*. Gotta love living in the desert!

I know that in previous years, I have posted pics from every single game, but I decided that this year I would just do one big post at the end of the season. We'll see how that works out.

A Week In The Life: 21 Oct - 27 Oct

This week started off pretty slow, but definitely didn't end up that way!

We started off our week (or ended last week, depending on how you look at it) with a trip to the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum with out sweet friends the Chinnocks.

Summer had her 4th Grade Program on Wednesday morning and her Chorus Halloween Musical Wednesday night.

Summer brought home her salt dough relief map of Arizona.

The girls got their second letter from Daddy

Some sweet gal from the Lobos or the Dragons Boo'd us. It was such a nice and welcome surprise.

I just had to get a pic of this!

Saturday started our CAH-RAZY weekend. Paige washed cars with our church youth group.

The football team that Summer cheers for won their first playoff game 24-14 on Saturday morning.

Look at these cuties!

Saturday night we went to a Halloween party at our across-the-street neighbors' house. Can anyone guess who Paige is?

And for the next few days we will be praying for all our friends in Poquoson, who are beginning to feel the effects of Hurricane Sandy.

Hope everyone has a great week!

The Addams Family

Tonight was Summer's Chorus Halloween Musical. The kids did such a great job! This is just a sample of the last number. The video was too long to upload. The director is going to post a video of the whole performance on her website. I will try and link to it when it's up.

Tales Of A Fourth Grade Program

Today was Summer's 4th Grade Program at school. The kids did a great job. I would like to point out that the kids on the stage make up the ENTIRE fourth grade, which is one of the main reasons we chose to live out here in the boonies.

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

Our dear, dear friends the Chinnocks, are here in Tucson for a month or so before they head over to the ROK. We are trying to cram as much time together in as possible. Yesterday after church, we drove out to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum to enjoy the absolutely gorgeous day.

I absolutely love their hummingbird exhibit. Next to my kids, (and other people's kids) animals are my favorite photography subject. I was so excited that they hummingbirds were cooperative with my madness.

The Bog Horn Sheep were just dying to pose for me

So were these big corny girls

Somehow this is the only picture I ended up with of Paige and Abby

I am pretty sure this squirrel may be morbidly obese

Summer and Meli - these two have been buds since they were 15 months old and we all lived in Tucson the first time.

Martha and I skipped the aviary. She doesn't like birds and I don't like being pooped on. Summer came running out of the exhibit, followed closely by another lady who was practically hyperventilating. So, of course, I had to go in and see what all the fuss was about. This guy is by far the biggest spider I have EVER seen. It wasn't part of an exhibit either, it was just crawling around. It's hard to reference it's size from the picture, but it was bigger than my hand. No way was I putting it down there for size comparison. 

Gratuitous beaver shot!

You thought the squirrel was fat? Check out these portly prairie dogs!

 This is what fall looks like here

I was happy to get some shots of animals that frequent our yard from safely behind a fence. This coyote was so pretty. 

Then there's these nasty little buggers - javalinas. Don't let their slightly cute pig-like appearance fool you - They are stinky, vicious, destructive, and they make my dogs bark at night while I am trying to sleep, automatically making me think someone is trying to break into the house. Which then makes me sit in the dark and jump at every little sound. I am a sleep deprived women and it is all their fault! Plus, they are technically rodents, which would make me hate them on principle.