A friend said she needed to watch this once a day . . . I totally agree

A Good Cause!

This is a campaign near and dear to our hearts....for obvious reasons.

Focused Campaign - PCSO Rifles 2010


Monetary Donations are being requested to purchase

Patrol Rifles for Pinal County Sheriff's Deputies Pinal County Sheriff, Paul Babeu will purchase much needed automatic rifles essential to the safety of the Sheriff's Deputies who are charged with protecting Pinal County Citizens. Your partnership in this endeavor will assist in the ongoing battle being waged in Pinal County's desert areas between Sheriff's Deputies and the Mexican Drug Cartel members and their affiliates. Dangerous incidents have increased through the past few years and are now escalating to a point where Deputies are involved in high speed vehicle pursuits, shoot outs between deputies and smugglers, incidents of ambush, as well as the deputy who was injured in a shooting. These incidents show compelling evidence that Pinal County Deputies need automatic rifles to NOT be out-gunned by Drug and Human Smugglers.

The Pinal County Sheriff's Office will purchase these rifles from an Arizona Manufacturer, Sun Devil Manufacturers in Mesa, Arizona. The decision to buy 'Arizona Made Rifles' is to help offset the economic damage brought to the Arizona business community by the SB 1070 Boycott. These rifles have been tested and are being made to the specifications of the Sheriff's Office.

The Sheriff's Office is unable to accept donations of used weapons, as they have not been tested and must meet regulation and uniformity guidelines for Deputy's use.

 If you would like to donate towards this effort you can do so either online using the item code 2-C-1 or you can mail your donation to:
Pinal County Justice Foundation, Inc.
6832 S. Kings Ranch Road #2-16
Gold Canyon, Arizona 85218

Donation online

http://www.pinalcountyjusticefoundation.org/ or http://www.sheriffpaul.com/


Your donation is a tax deductible contribution. Please make all checks to: Pinal County Justice Foundation, with Deputy Rifles written on the Memo line.


Thank you to Rock River Arms, Colona, Illinois for lending the Pinal County Sheriff's Office 50 rifles for deputy use until the donations for the purchase of the permanent rifles have been received.

Kolten's Arrival

Kolten Rhett McKenzie - born August 4th at 1pm.  Weighed 6lbs 15oz and was 18 inches long.  We are so glad to have him here.  His birth went very smooth - the best of all my csections for sure.  So far, he is a super good baby.  He is nursing really well, sleeping good, and hardly every cries - I just hope it continues!  Matt and I are still in shock I think - that we have 4 kids.  Still seems surreal.  I don't feel old enough to have 4 kids!  It's only been 11 days since he was born - we already can't imagine our family without him, he makes it feel more complete.

In recovery - a few minutes after finishing surgery

Kaden, Bai, and Lex couldn't wait to come see him!

Love this face - this was about the only time we heard him cry

Matt and I could both just stare at him forever 

Ready to leave the hospital!  I think this was my shortest stay of them all.  C-section was Wednesday at 1 and we got to go home Friday morning.

Home for the first time

Kolten and Papa

Kolten and Nana (by the way - a HUGE thanks to Nana!  For staying with the kids while we were in the hospital, buying groceries, cooking freezer meals, cleaning my house, etc, etc, etc.  Thanks mom - love you!)

Kolten with Granpa and Oma

The kids are all fighting over who gets to hold him - wonder how long that will last...

Helping with Kolten's first sponge bath

It is so fun having a new baby in the house.  (Although you forget how hard it can be, even with a good baby.  I will be glad when the postpardum emotional roller coaster is over and when he's not eating what seems like every hour. I will also be glad once things calm down and we can get back to a schedule.  But for now, I'm just trying to enjoy this sweet, sweet baby boy!)

Summer Days

This is what most of our days have looked like this summer - tryin to stay cool by playing in the water!

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The last couple of summers my parents have been so nice to have Bailey and Kaden come visit for a week.  The kids, of course, LOVE being there "alone" and love all the fun things they get to do: swimming every day, getting snow cones, going to the movies, going to the dollar store, and playing games - lots and lots of games!  Kaden learned several new ones including Clue and Yatzee.  Lexie acted lost all week without her brother and sister at home, but was excited to go and visit for a couple days when we went to pick them up.

Having a bbq at Nana's house!

Bailey reading to Clancy

Going to see the temple for home evening.

Greer 2010

For our vacation this year - we went up to Greer for a few days with my family.  The weather was beautiful  - we enjoyed getting out of the heat, spending time with family, relaxing, playing games (laughing ALOT), going fishing, hiking, and eating lots of good food.  Here's some of the pics:

Having fun with cousins

Hanging out at the cabin

Making necklaces with Nana

Going fishing at Big Lake

Picking flowers

Eating s'mores

More fishing - there were tons of lakes to choose from

Going on a few hikes

Car Seat Cover

I finally got it done!  I swore I would NEVER make another one after the last couple I made.  But I couldn't resist making one for this baby - and this was the easiest one yet and didn't take nearly as long!  I'm really happy with how it turned out.