What we have been up to....

Zoey discovered her thumb is much more tasty than some silly pacifier.
We are also working on sitting up on our own without falling over immediately:)

Kaden is excited to be back in school ( and so am I!)

Gavin just wanted to be in on the picture taking action

Lil miss perfect looking gorgeous before her bath!

2010

Well....I sat down to write down a few of my goals for 2010 and found that I could not. stop. writing. I don't know what that says about 2009, but apparently I have a lot to accomplish! Some of them are small things, some of them are bigger. Some are ongoing goals that will probably be on my 2011 list as well. Regardless, I am sharing them with the blog world in hopes that it will make me more transparent, and also help me to be accountable to sticking to it. I will report back at the end of the year, and hopefully I can put a check by most of them!

1. Pray more for my kids
2. Pray more for my family and friends
3. Be a better friend
4. Make more friends both women and with other couples
5. Be more organized with daily tasks
6. Go shopping less
7. Dance with my kids atleast once a week
8. Stop yelling when I am frustrated
9. Read a book (instead of magazines which has been the extent of my reading lately)
10. Lose the last 10 ish pounds of baby weight
11. Run another marathon
12. Spend less time on the computer when my kids are awake
13. Go on a date with my husband atleast once a month
14. Plan more special one on one time with my kids
15. Cook more and plan weekly menus
16. Stop trying to keep my house spotless....3 kids, 2 dogs, 1 husband--it's never gonna happen!
17. Stop comparing my life/myself to others
18. Limit my Starbuck's to 1-2 times per week or less
19. Join a bible study
20. Get more involved in church/community

Whew! a long list, I know, but I am going to do my darndest to try to accomplish it :) Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

This will help you start the year off right....it does for me atleast!

Christmas recap

Christmas eve started with a day full of playing and tree climbing and fighting off bad guys. Then our superheroes had to rest before church!

He wore his power rangers costume all day and asked to where it to church too!

When we got home we had hot cocoa and then got to do our tradition of opening our Christmas Jammers!

Here are the studly boys in theirs:)


Me and Zoey looking pretty snazzy in ours too!

I attempted to get this santa hat on Zoey but her head is already too big (Those jammers are size 6 month and she is only two months!) So instead she looks like a Christmas Gnome:)

One of her other Christmas outfits

Then it was off to bed so Santa could come......

The next morning we had to wake the boys up so we could open presents before Joel had to go to work.

Our two Santa's

They both got really cool remote control cars (best 10 bucks I ever spent!)

I got Joel a new camera since he always complains that I have the camera when he needs it!

Gavin does some serious damage with his new shopping cart. Just like his mommy;)

Kaden had been asking for a Trumpet this year after I already did is shopping but I did a last minute purchase on line and it came in time!! He LOVES it:)

Then Joel went off to work and later that day my family came over.

As always, the Grandparents always go overboard!

This was Hannah's favorite present!

Aunt Robyn and Zoey enjoying the chaos!

Then the day after Christmas we went over to Joel's Parents for some more spoiling!

The grand kids

Kade's favorite present was this microphone. It is pretty cool and needless to stay he has no stage fright!

Rockin' out:

We wish you a Merry Christmas....

two proud parents

two cute boys

3 happy moms (who is that grabbing my chest!!)

2 months!

Seriously...2 months already! I cannot believe it. Zoey is A-mazing! She is such a good baby, and is often forgotten about because she demands so little attention. Yesterday she slept from 9:30 to 7am. I'm not bragging but....ok maybe bragging a little:) I think this "little" girl has nearly doubled in size already too. I will find out tomorrow how big she is now and I cannot wait! She is smiling so much now and I can't wait to see how her personality will be.

Oh how time flies!......

SO much to blog about....where to start?

So, Joel finally finished his walk and we are so proud of him and of course happy he is home! He walked almost 400 miles over the span of 2 1/2 weeks! But, by the time he was done I barely recognized him...He was in desperate need of shower, shave, and hair cut! Here is his before picture: YIKES...he looks like a serial killer!

Then while shaving and cleaning up he had a little fun:
Uh.....no, please don't leave it like that, dear!

There we go, that is the man I married! Whew, I was getting worried there!

We decided we needed a get away as a family so we went up to Christopher Creek where my mom has a little place. Look what was crossing the road on the way up:

The boys had been missing Joel a lot so first thing they did was have some snuggle time!

watching a movie

Hangin out by the fire

look at this cutie!

This is my current favorite pic of the boys...I love it!

After our trip up North we were happy to be home and get back to normal again...atleast as normal as we ever were. Kaden had some good big brother time with Zoey :)

We had a great Thanksgiving on Thursday and Friday....too many pics to post but this one of my favorites:

She has smiled before but this is the first time I was able to capture it on film!


Then it was time to kick off the holiday season by going to the Gilbert tree lighting festival.

Kade is actually "protecting" Gavin from the big santa because it freaked him out!

The Chik fil a cow was there.....Gavin thought it was a bear, and was also scared of it too.

The Tree!

Kade said he had a good time!


And most recently, today we went to the Mesa art museum for youth thanks to Mikele swiping a cultural pass!!

We have a chalkboard at home, but it is much more fun to do it here!

Gavin liked the water painting

Miles found a cool bucket to sit inside:)

All aboard!

Our two little chefs

Mikele enjoyed the fine cuisine

okay, this picture did not rotate...but look close and tell me if you notice something....a little off.

Gavin had a blast!

Okay....we are caught up , for now atleast!