Camping at the Lake

Last weekend we decided to plan a camping trip at our local lake, Lake Pleasant. Due to work and Tay's soccer game we could only go for one night. We packed up and got to the lake at 5pm on Saturday night. Aaron; Jer's brother; and my friend Shonna joined us. There were a few injuries with Diesel. But he is a boy and nothing major! It was a little nerve racking at first. We had a lot of fun!

For those that don't see us often. Diesel is a MAJOR daddy's boy. If Jer's doing it Diesel has to too. We have to have 2 of everything so that Diesel can be just like his daddy. He wants Daddy over mommy all the time and follows daddy around like a little puppy dog. It's so sweet to see their bond. Here they are looking at our camp fire.

Uncle Aaron and his girls

Shonna and I.... Yes Shonna was that cold. It was so nice out though!

Shonna and the Girls

Jer and I

Can you tell they are related?

Pretty much as soon as we got there Jer showed Diesel that he could throw rocks into the lake. From there on out that was all that Diesel wanted to do. He was so proud when the rock would splash in the lake. Yes he is throwing left handed but he writes with his right.

The girls wanted to try and fish. I am not sure if they knew what they were doing but this was such a sweet picture!

Uncle Aaron had to save to hook. It was caught on something. It was pretty funny. He was in the middle of the lake and he pulled out his Blackberry to check and send a text. You just can't leave technology

So Aaron wanted to take Diesel swimming. We stripped him down to his diaper but he didn't want to have any of that. As you can see he kept his legs up so that Aaron couldn't put him down.

The girls wanted to play in the water after that. So we left them strip down and get dirty... Mud Pie anyone?

The boys brought horseshoes to play. Like I said above Diesel has to be with Jer.

One of them would throw their horse shoe and Diesel would pick it up and carry it back to the him. It was too cute. He would try and throw it too. It was pretty funny. He would wind up then couldn't let it go at one time he ended up with it around his arm. 1 point for Diesel!

It was pretty warm out and Shonna and I found some shade while the boys got sun burnt playing horse shoes. Shonna's a teacher so at one point we graded her school papers.

Diesel is such a little man. It took me a few tries to get this picture. He has a new thing of not looking at me when I take a picture. He knows too. He gets a grin and looks away. I had to trick him for this. I asked him where the airplane was. What a Ham...

So although Diesel wouldn't swim with Aaron he had no problem going in with Jer. He wouldn't get out of the water. Hr loved it.

The boys took Diesel for a little over road adventure right around the camp. Diesel got to drive... Watch out student driver!

Rolling Baby

So the video pretty much says it all. Diesel is a ham. I was watching Rye cheer on Friday night. I looked over and this is what I saw. I had to go over there and take a video it was just the cutest funniest thing I had ever seen. He kept doing it over and over. He must have seen Tay or the other kids doing it.

GO! FIGHT! WIN!

We have a little Cheerleader on our hands. Rylee cheers for our church cheerleading program. All the cheerleaders have the same uniform and cheer for rotating football teams. There are 15 girls on Rylee's squad. She has a game every Friday night from 6-7pm. It's so cute to watch. Rye's on the youngest squad, the girls range from 4 to 6 years in age.

As you can see not all the girls are on the same page. It only makes it that much cuter!

Here she is at the Half time show. It only lasted about 1 minute. Rylee is in the back row in the left side of the picture you can see her in between two girls.

Diesel

On Monday night I was getting Diesel ready for his bath. I had taken his diaper and clothes off and then had to go into Tay's room to tell her something. I walk into the hall and there is my naked Diesel peeing on the floor. I scooped him up cupped his pee pee and brought him to the bathroom to have him sit on his potty. I figured he would be all dry at this point but nope! He Peed on his potty for the first time. There was a lot too. The girls came in and we were yelling and clapping and cheering Diesel on. It was so cute! He had the biggest grin I had ever seen. I think he is in the begining stages of potty training. He grabs his diaper when he is wet and lets us know he wants to be changed. We bought the potty a few weeks ago. I did a lot of research on which one is best for boys as far as the pee guard goes. I am very pleased to say all his pee stayed in the potty!

So My Grams and Gramps were in Chicago a few months ago and brought home some Chicago Bears PJ's For Diesel. Gramps' favorite football team is the Bears. Last night I figured I had better put him in them and get some pictures. Just don't tell anyone ok... ;) (i'm a cowboys fan)

Tonight Jer had just gotten in the shower and Diesel really wanted to shower with him. He's kinda over baths right now. We let Diesel get in with Jer.

This is what made me run and get my camera. I saw this and it was too cute. He was standing under the water getting wet just like Daddy. Everything he does has to be what daddy does. Jer got out after this and Diesel had the shower all to himself. Of course I was standing right there with the door open flashing away with my camera. I took about 30 pictures. He was just too darn cute!

He was washing his hair. He thought it was thought it was GREAT!

He loved to just stand under the water and let it fun over him.

Wash Wash Wash ... Wash Wash Wash... Wash your body wash your body!

It's he just the cutest little boy ever!

Dino Hugs and Dino Kisses!

A Fair Affair

So the Arizona State Fair is going on right now. Jer's Best Friend was in town from Washington so we all decided to head to the fair. It was a lot of fun. I must say not only is the fair held in the Ghetto but the fair it's self was pretty ghetto. I mean it's no San Diego Fair grounds or even Ventura Fair grounds. The first ride Taylor wanted to go on was a roller coaster. Daddy went with her. When they got off they said it was pretty intense for a kiddy ride.
I was able to get Rylee on a few things. This was the 1st of a few Fun houses we went on.

This was the next ride Taylor went on with my friend. I wasn't go to do it. Taylor is in the top right corner

This was her reaction after the ride. She thought it was so cool.

Jer tried to win us some prizes. lol... He didn't end up winning anything. Taylor and Rylee both won prizes at the end of the night playing the water gun game. Our odds were good. It was both girls and then a friend. Tay was winning both times so Jer had to come up behind her and tickle her arm pits so she would mess up and Rylee could win. It was pretty funny!

Yes it was that cold that we needed to bundle up. It was a Sunday and the fair wasn't very crowded. I think it was because the Az was playing the Cowboys in football. Also this was the 3rd day after the fair opened and the opening night there were was a shooting and a few stabbings. Again it was GHETTO!!

My hunny bun and I... We were munching on fair food. Oh how I LOVE Fair food!

So it was a Sunday night and they had figure 8 car races on a dirt lot. Imagine demolition derby and NASCAR. It was so much fun! Diesel really enjoyed it. His new obsession is "vroom vrooms" as he calls them. Taylor really liked it too. She even had a dream that night that she was driving a green #69 car (the winning car that night) and she was the only girl and won the race.

So towards the end of the night we convinced Rylee to go on a roller coaster. Let's just say she literally tried to climb out after the 1st drop. It was the cutest, funniest, saddest thing I think I have ever seen. But it was lots of fun!

Diesel stole my Lemonade and boy was it good lemonade. Here is just being a Ham.

Rylee and Taylor both wanted to try this. Rye went 1st. She had fun the 1st few times then the look on her face said it all. The guy lowered it and she just got to jump up and down on the bouncy part. Surprisingly she did 100% better then Taylor

This was the 1st up that Tay did. After that she lost it and was crying and screaming. It was sad and I was shocked my little dare devil had had enough.

It was such a fun day with our best friends and our family. We hadn't done anything like that in a really long time. Everyone enjoyed it.

Getting Started

So being in Arizona we are away from all our family and friends. Yes there are a few of both here but for the most part everyone is in other states. Most of you know I love to take pictures, and with the kids growing so fast, our lack of visits to family and their lack to visit us, what better way then to share our life with the outside world.

Yes, I have a Myspace and a Facebook but so many of you don't. Yes I can email pictures but it really is a pain to upload them all. So here I am on The Hanel 5's 1st official BLOG! Let me let you into our world. The craziness of our lives and the ofcousre updates on the kids! Feel free to visit when you want and to check out our updates!

Hope you enjoy as much as we do!

Welcome to my Life!

Danielle