Bowling

Although our tummies were not loving life, we still managed to do one fun thing after Christmas.  We tried to go to the movie to see "Rise of the Guardians", thinking no one else but us would want to see it on a Friday at 4...alas, the theater was full, so we wandered the mall, got Red Box movies and Mcdonalds and made it a movie night.  So our next attempt at one last fun with Alex was to be bowling, and we succeeded!

The speed of Tommy's ball never exceeded 1.63 miles/hour.  It was quite impressive what gravity can accomplish with a little friction.

I bowled  a perfect score, whatever that could be.  I do love the shoes though.

Enjoying his freedom.

The gang concentrating. It was fun and we always end up saying how much we should go more often! Maybe next year we'll go more often?

Noel

I'd like to say we had a great Christmas day, all of us, but unfortunately, I can't say so for myself! I caught a nasty bug and spent the day living a total liquidation of the basement and the attic. However, the big round jolly guy did come to our house and spoiled us all, I even lost 5 lbs!

Grandma and Grandpa came for Christmas Eve. We opened a few gifts to get in the mood.

Almost there...

These are the only pictures I managed to take, then I went back to bed for another 24 hours, fun fun!

Birthday 7

I'm a little behind (well, not really, after Christmas, my behind is NOT so little), anyyyy howww, Nicky turned 7.  He was Lego spoiled and had a few friends over.  We had a Pinata or Arpiata Tommy calls it.

Happy Birthday to my favorite Nicky is the whole world!!!

Nos Voeux/ Our Wishes

Nous vous souhaitons un tres Joyeux Noel et une excellente Annee 2013.  Cette annee chez les Inmans a ete tres belle, comme chaque annee que Reed et moi avons passée ensemble, 20 annees d’ailleurs!  Alex a termine ses etudes a Higley High School. Il a travaille dans un restaurant un certain temps, puis vient de terminer 4 mois chez TRW, la meme boite que son papa.  Il est prêt a nous quitter pour aller servir 2 ans de mission pour notre eglise, l’Eglise de Jesus Christ des Saints de Derniers Jours.  Il part le 2 janvier pour l’ Utah d’abord, puis en mars, pour l’Ukraine.  Maddy est en 6eme annee, chez les grands!  Elle a commence  a jouer de la clarinette, mais je ne pense pas que ce soit une vraie passion.  Elle se rejouit d’avoir 12 ans debut janvier, de commencer le programme des jeunes filles a l’eglise et de faire du babysitting…et de mettre du maquillage, mais bon ca, on verra!  Elly est en 5eme, elle fait du piano cette annee et ca lui plait beaucoup.  Elle voudrait epouser Justin Bieber ou One Direction, mais bon ca, on verra aussi.  Nicky est en 1ere, il trouve que c’est tres facile a l’ecole, pourvu que ca dure.  Il fait du karate et voudrait etre ceinture noire, mais bon ca, on verra hein. Il est fou de Lego et on pense inventer une sorte de gands pour proteger ses doigts quand il construit ses Legos, les vendre sur Ebay et devenir riche.  Tommy a commence la “preschool” cette annee.  Il aime tous les enfants a l’ecole, “celui a cheveux comme ca et celle a lunette”, mais il ne se rappelle pas souvent des noms.  Il voudrait bien etre un pilote, après un builder guy, puis un policier, si il a le temps, mais bon ca, hein!  Moi, je suis toujours chef de l’entreprise Inman.  Je les mene a la baguette, mais ils restent, donc c’est que c’est pas si terrible que ca! Et Reed, il travaille toujours pour TRW, nous fait de beaux airbags bien costauds.  Il aimerait bien prendre ca retraite l’an prochain, mais ca, on sait bien qu’on ne verra pas!!!!

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  This year at the Inman household has been very good, just like the past 20 for Reed and I.  Alex is 19 and graduated from Higley High School.  He worked for Some Burros for a few months while in school, then for his dad after the summer until now.  He is now ready to go serve a 2 year mission for our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints.  He reports to the Missionary Training Center in Utah on January 2^nd, and leaves for Ukraine in March.  We are finally getting rid of him, one down, 4 to go!  Maddy is in middle school in 6^th grade, she is very excited to turn 12, baby-sit, wear make-up, drive, date, get married and move out…2 down!  Elly is 11 and in 5^th grade. She started the piano and likes it.  She wants to marry Justin Bieber and move out…3 down!  Nicky is in 1^st grade and just turned 7.  He is getting pretty old and starting to lose his teeth.  He loves Karate and Legos, so we might send him to Japan or Denmark…4 down!  Tommy is 4 and in preschool this year.  He loves it and cannot wait to go to Kindergarden next year.  He still gets to hang out with mom most of the day though, but I don’t mind.  We’ll keep him one more year.  We actually recently added a new member to our family.  He is 3, furry and cuddly.  He’s fairly obedient and very much in love with me.  He weights 12 lbs, we call him Buster, we’ll keep him too.  Reed is still working at the same place, making everyone safe on the road, well if they first crash that is.  And I’m still holding the fort, making sure everyone stays on their toes or I threaten them to send them away to Ukraine…and Alex never believed me!.

Love always,

Reed, Muche, Alex, Maddy, Elly, Nicky and Tommy Inman

www.inmansfromqueencreek.blogspot.com

Winter wonderland

Snow? No, not really, but same color and temperature, close enough to a WHITE CHRISTMAS!

We are just so easily impressed in this Valley :)

Ahhhh December

First thing first, Saint Nicolas came from Belgium to bring very little gifts for the Belgian kiddos in AZ. They' ve been good enough for him, so he made the long trip, on his donkey!

We colored pictures to show him how serious we were about this Belgian tradition.

Youtube has tons of videos of Saint Nicolas visiting the children in Belgium (none of them wearing a tank top in December like Maddy though)

And then we waited and hoped that his donkey wouldn't be too tired to make it to our hot AZ...although I have heard that this is where the great Saint spends his vacation after working hard in Europe!

2 weeks to go

Our dear Elder Inman has 2 weeks before his big departure.  We have created a blog where I will post his pictures and letters.  Here is the link here, but you can always click from my blog too.
He leaves on January, at 8:30 am, with Delta Airlines.

I am collecting boxes of kleenexes.

Belgium Movie

This is a great film on Belgium on Youtube! If you have 25 minutes to kill, click here
It makes me super homesick watching it.  It's absolutely gorgeous!

This is why I like couponing! A well stocked pantry, with about 40 Mac n' cheese boxes for free, 20 potatoes for free too.  I spend less than $400/month for all 7 of us, including everything from toothpaste to flour.  When I come home from Fry's where I spent $45 and saved 73% or from CVS where I paid $2.34, got a razor, chocolate, cards and soap and still earned $13 for my next order, then I feel like I'm a hero!

Let me know if you ever want to try, it takes time, the more you spend time on it, the more you save! I enjoy it, if I didn't, I wouldn't do it, really! The only bad part about it, is trying to fit all that food in there!

Eleven

I don't know why my children think they need to keep having birthdays! I stopped having them when I turned 29, it's much better that way.  And they even get excited about it, like it's fun to get older!!! If they only knew, but I won't tell them, I won't burst their bubble quite yet, they'll figure it out soon or later!
Here is my new 11 year old. This is the time when we have twins at our house, both our girls are now 11 for a couple of months, but Maddy would rather die than admit she's the same age as Elly.

I just told her how old her dad really is!

Christmas homework! I gave them all a Walmart toy book and they are marking away what must be on a wish list!

Sometimes, it's sad to be a puppy and to be put out of arm's way.

One Direction music!

Meet Buster

We have a new friend at our house.  He is a sweet little Yorkiepoo, 3 1/2 years old, well behaved and well spoiled by all!

He understood really quick who runs this house and follows me everywhere I go!

The end

Captain lost without his hat

To celebrate the actual big day of Halloween, we started off with a Block Party! We hosted in front of our driveway and had a pretty good turn out.

Luigi, missing his twin Mario...or is it Mario here?

I am now de-pumpkinizing my house for a few weeks, until we Christmasize it.

I have a total of 12 lbs of candies to eat, gotta go...

And it's on again

It is that time of year again, the one that makes dentists happy. I think Halloween was invented by an extremely smart dentist anyway: best way to make sure he has customers all year.  Then Weight Watchers introduced the minis, you know, the mini Mars, mini Snickers, mini Butterfingers, mini M&Ms...they're so mini, it can only be mini calories! AH! I don't care, I'm still mini stealing them from my mini people in my house, feeding my mini belly.

We kicked off the season with Cortina's Fall Festival -why do we have to hide our true reason to party by calling it "Fall", in fear of hurting the feelings of the .001% of the population that likes to ruin it for all of us? It was a HALLOWEEN party people, call me a devil worshiper, go ahead!
Anyway, sorry, got off on the political over-correctness theme of our century!

Time to call the exterminator!

Caught Maddy briefly, just enough time to embarrass her and take her picture.

Then we had our annual Ward Party, which is at one of the parks in our neighborhood and attracts about 1,200 people!!!

Nicky aka Barny Fife and Tommy aka Captain Hook

Some cute/scary neighborhood friends.

And then it is time to trade...and from me to take the minis!


Now onto the real big day on Wednesday...more to come...

Random

Just a couple of random things about my boys that I need to write down, so I don't forget.
Alex is playing stupid. For some reason, he put the laundry basket, the mesh kind that can collapse, over his body.  He got stuck and came down stairs asking for help to get out.  I didn't help, I was too busy laughing. And yes, this is my 19 year old, not my 6 year old!
Tommy had a canker sore.  He also like scrambled eggs: "Mom, my thorn really hurts when I eat tangled eggs".
I taught him how to say Pumpkin in French, it's "potiron", but he kept saying "petit con", which means little jerk!
The joys of motherhood! I'd like to dedicate this post to Reed, who made these possible :)

19, nnnnnnnnineteen

I have been a mother f or NINETEEN years! Can you believe that, 19 years, that is a lot of years to be a mommy! And guess what, I'll be a mom forever too! In 2 years, I will have been a mom longer than not, if that makes sense. However, I'm way to young to have a 19 year old, we all agree on that one!

]

Oh, yeah, this post is about Alex, not me, sorry!  He still got some presents for his b-day, even if his truck died a month ago and he got a new car, a GT something that makes a lot of noise and goes too fast (but we were looking at resale value in 3 months and that was the best we could get). 

And he was very excited about all his gifts...all 18 pairs of socks and 2 twin flat sheets, toothpaste, deodorant, floss and carmex, oh YEAH!!!

And here is Elder Inman, ready to go trick or treating I guess?