Senior Night


This Friday's football game was Senior Night. As tradition goes each senior and there parents from the football team, cheer team, dance and band are escorted onto the field and thier names announced in honor of thier achievements the past four years. This was a fun night for us and an honor to escort Amanda onto the field, it seems like yesterday when we came to her first high school football game that she cheered at and now this was one of her last. Boy how times goes by!!

Our Video Montage

Okay, so below is a montage that is pretty much The Cunningham's over the past year. It basically covers from when CJ got his Arrow of Light up till last weekend as my Nursing Halloween Party/Ed's Fireman Halloween Party. During this time both our boys got the priesthood and everyone had a birthday, swim, 4th of July etc.... I hope you will all enjoy.

View this montage created at One True Media
My Montage 10/30/08

A Year in the Life of The Cunningham's

Well what can I say.... Our life has been crazy this past year, and to say I have had time to update my blog would be a lie. This time last year I entered a vigorous 16 month nursing program that at the end would get me my RN degree. This has been a dream of mine for a long time. As of right now I am 4 months away from graduating and to say the least it has been a journey all on it's own, one that would take to long to write about. Basically it has taught me alot about myself and what I can do if I put my mine to it. I have had incredible moments and also moments of weakness but overall I feel like I will be a great nurse in the end. As for the rest of the family.... Ed is a full-time firefighter for the city of El Mirage, and as of next week will be a firefighter/paramedic when he graduates from the paramedic program on November 7th. We are all so proud of him it has been a long year, with school, a booter year for firefighting and a shoulder surgery, needless to say he is an incredible example to the kids and a great husband supporting me with my nursing program. The kids I will start with the oldest, Amanda- wow she is 17 and a senior, she is so beautiful and is loving her year, she is still cheerleading and is now applying to colleges ( I fill like I shouldn't be old enough to have a child going to college ahhhhhh!!) She has been accepted to NAU(northern arizona university in Flagstaff) but is still in the process of applying to others before she makes her finally decision. We are really proud of her and are excited for her to start her life. Sam, he is sixteen and is on the varsity football team for the high school, he seems to be loving it, and he has come a long ways too with discovering the young man that he is and planning for his future, he wants to be a culinary chef, sounds good to me, I love food!!! Joey- he is thirteen (yes 3 teenagers at once, you would like I would need therapy!!!) he is great growing super tall almost as tall as me,and is the loved by the girls, that cunningham charm!!!Joey competed in swim this past summer and did really well. CJ- he is twelve and started middle school this year with Joe, he loves that and is doing really well. He is still into football and pretty much anything that has to do with sports.Cj also competed in swim this year and really loved it. Emma- she is ten and still continues to swim, she did really well this year and keeps getting faster. I think she has really found her love. She loves being the only one in elementary school and that she doesn't have her brothers looking over her!!! Her life evolves around her friends, school, swim and listening to the Jonas Brothers. Well as you can see we have been busy I am hoping that in four months my life will calm down enough to be able to update our blog on a more consistent basis. Needless to say the Cunningham Family has been incredibly blessed this year and to complain would be ungrateful. We love our life and look forward to what life has to offer us. I plan on putting up pictures so look for that. So till the next update.... take care

Clear Creek

Over the Labor Day Weekend our family went to Clear Creek and camped. This is truly a beautiful place. It was so nice to get out of the heat and be one with nature. Our first night there, right before bed we heard in the distance the roar of a bear, needless to say mom was a little nervous, however I did not show this emotion until after the kids were tucked into there tents and Ed and I where in ours. The next morning we were joined by Grandpa and Uncle Gary for our hike down the canyon. Now, this is NO ordinary hike, this is hiking down a steep slope of the canyon to get to the bottom. Once there you are greeted by extraordinary views that are hard to explain and only pictures can do this place justice. We spent most of the day hiking around the canyon and playing in the water. (Believe me when I say there was plenty of water), plus a few slips on rocks and my lovely slip on a log. Our hike up to the top was even harder then coming down and the kids made it look like it was a walk in the park for them. Ed and I however were sucking wind. Talk about a cardio work out!!! We finished our camping trip with smores and great talks as a family. We will definitely be back.

Clear Creek

Cj's Heart

This summer CJ went to the hospital. As part of his follow up care he needed to visit the Cardiologist. Dr. Nowlen had him do a stress test, CJ called it the "Gatorade Test", it's the ones that you see on the commericals where they show the athletes on the treadmill hooked up to a heart monitor. He also had him on a Holt monitor for 24 hours, this is where you are hooked up to electrodes and a monitor is attached and you wear it for 24 hours. It actually looks like a purse, CJ called it a "Man Purse". To cut a long story short, all the tests came back normal, CJ is in great health, this was all for precautionary measures. Needless to say, CJ has a beautiful perfect heart!!

A Great Heart

Chasing Cars

What can I say. The pictures pretty much tell you the story. Our beautiful 16 year daughter Amanda decided to be a Nascar driver for the day, as you can see by the pictures she did not win!!!! She is alright, but she gave Ed and I quite a scare. I am sure that when she does drive again (Ahhhhh!!!!), she will look both ways before turning!!!

Check out my Slide Show!

Wonderful San Diego

In July we took the family to San Diego for a well deserved vacation. We rented a beach house and spent a week of relaxing and playing. Russ and his family joined us as well Grandma and Grandpa Cunningham. We spent most of our time at the beach laying out, boogie boarding, collecting sea shells and burying Amanda and her friend Kenzie in the sand!! We also went to Legoland and of course mom's home away from home Sea World!!!! We also went to Seaport Village and Old Town San Diego where we ate amazing Mexican food. Overall it was a fantastic week, one that won't soon be forgotten.