Thanksgiving Weekend Fun!

What a wonderful start to the Holiday season we had this weekend! I love Thanksgiving. It's such a fun time to get together with family and eat lots of yummy food. It just doesn't get better than that. This year we spent Thanksgiving day at Andrew's mom's house. Auntie Kerri, Uncle Jonathon and baby Adria got to come down from Vegas to spend the holiday with us, which was such an extra special treat! Baby Adria is such a doll, and just couldn't be any cuter!

Josh and Ben had a blast playing with their cousin, Stevin, and painting Christmas ornaments with Grandma B.

The kids all played hard all day long, and by the end of the night, everyone was so tired! Baby Adria even fell asleep on me... I could just eat her up!

Because we were elsewhere on Thanksgiving day, I decided to make my own Thanksgiving meal on Friday. I'm not much for Black Friday shopping, and I love having tons of leftovers, so I just couldn't resist the opportunity! I was up at 5:00 a.m. making pie and preparing the stuffing for the turkey. I made all of my Thanksgiving staples, including an herb roasted turkey, homemade apple sausage stuffing (with homemade croutons), fruited sweet potatoes with a streusel topping, mashed potatoes, homemade cranberry sauce and cheddar corn bread muffins.

For dessert I made a pecan pie (actually made 2 because I burned the first one... the lesson learned was don't try to bake with a massive headache!), and a completely from scratch pumpkin pie. I had never roasted a pumpkin before, but after having done it this year, I don't think I'll ever buy a can of pumpkin again! The pie was so light and just plain tasty.

We were so blessed to be able to spend the day, and the meal, not only with my parents, but with my best friend, Gabrielle, and her family. Gabrielle just had her 4th child on November 3rd. Baby Jameson is so cute, and so sweet. I just loved holding him.

Josh and Aaron, Gabrielle's oldest son, are best friends themselves. They play together so well, and are always sad to go home. It is pure joy to watch them playing together. Kayleigh is Gabrielle's oldest, and she is just a gem. Ben and Jack are also just about the same age and, although they are a little young to really play together, we hope that they will bond as Josh and Aaron have. Here are some photos of the kiddos having a great time together:

What a fun day it was!

On Saturday we started to get the house ready for Christmas. Although we didn't get as far as we would have liked (thanks to my beginning to come down with a cold), we did get the Christmas tree up and decorated.

What a great Thanksgiving weekend. I can't wait for the rest of the holiday fun we have planned over the next month!

July 4, 2009

We spent this year's Independence Day having good food with some great friends and had such a blast! Earlier in the day I was surprised with an invite to do some shopping with my best friend and her mom and aunt. So I met up with them at the mall and after helping her pick out some maternity clothes they invited me to join them for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. I really enjoyed some time with Gabrielle without children. I think I could count how many times we've done on one hand and still have fingers left over! After lunch I came home and we all got ready to head over to our friends Kevin and Melinda Ridgeway's for a BBQ with our small group friends. We had such a good time with our group of friends, and the kids had a blast all running around together and of course spending time in the pool.

There was so much food and it was all so good. Melinda makes the best cookies, and Lana brought a killer chocolate pudding desert. By the end of the evening we were all stuffed!

After we were able to pry all of the children out of the pool, we all loaded up and the whole group headed over to a park in our friends Dave and Sonja's neighborhood to watch the fireworks that are shot off from Tumbleweed Park. It was perfect. A great fireworks display with none of the hassle of the crowds. And to top it all off, it was totally free! Doesn't get better than that!

The boys both just loved the fireworks. I don't think Ben even blinked for the first 10 minutes of the show! They were both shouting out their "Whoas!" and "Wows!" and "Score!" (whatever that means!). After a while Ben got tired and took a little rest on Daddy's lap.

When the fireworks were over we all came home and crashed out. We were so exhausted! But it was such a fun day. Thank you Ridgeways for opening your home to us. We had a great time!

It's a Small World After All

Last night I was bored and monkeying around on Facebook when I decided to flip through the pages of people I had graduted high school with to see if there were any other old friends out there that I hadn't been in contact with. In looking through the old familiar names, I ran across one that I recognized outside of high school. Her name is Danna, which jumped out to me because of the unusual spelling. I thought to myself, that's how Ben's preschool teacher spells her name. So I clicked on the page and discovered that I had in fact graduated with Ben's preschool teacher and have had no idea all year. We never had any classes together and didn't know each other, but it was so funny to see that we had attended high school together. That's what I love about Facebook. You just never know who you're going to find... or who will find you.

Sometimes however, Facebook seems to know a little TOO much. I was checking my page the other day and saw that Facebook was suggesting that I add a friend. Usually it does this if it sees that a couple of your friends knows the same person so they think you might know them too. But the person it was suggesting to me is an ex-boyfriend of mine from like 11 years ago. We didn't go to the same high school, we don't have any common friends, nothing on Facebook should link us together. But there he was under the People You May Know section. Makes me wonder what else it knows about me... Get out of my head, Facebook!

Embryo Adoption

We have some dear friends, Todd and Jen Wright, who have struggled with infirtility for the last 5 years. A little over a year ago, God revealed to them His plan for their family. Embryo Adoption. I can't tell their story anywhere near as good as the lovely Jen, so please visit her blog here. You will be blessed by reading it, even if you don't personally relate to the struggles of infirtility. Jen and Todd have adopted 12 precious babies from a couple who had their family through in-vetro and wanted to give their remaining embryos a chance at life.

Jen and Todd were recently featured in a local news story about Embryo Adoption. Although it is just a snippit of their story, we are so excited and encouraged to see Embryo Adoption getting the attention it deserves, and so desparately needs, especially in light of the fact that we now have an administration in Washington that has no regard for the unborn. We pray that God continues to enlighten the world to this beautiful gift of life He has given us! Please take a few moments and watch this:



Life is precious. Life, as definied by God, the creator of life and therefore the only one capable of defining it, begins immediately upon fertilization. Just because a child isn't living and breathing outside the womb makes it no less a valuable person than you or I. I don't often do this, but I ask anyone who reads our blog and has a blog or any other way to repost this, that you please pass it on to help spread awareness of this all too well kept secret.

Flat Stanley

Over the weekend, the boys and I went with my dear friend Julie up to Montezuma's Castle and Sedona. Julie invited us to go so that we could take some pictures with Flat Stanley. Flat Stanley was sent to her from a little girl from North Carolina who is in 1st or 2nd Grade and wanted to learn some things about Arizona. Of course Julie planned on taking pictures of Flat Stanley with a cactus, a cowboy hat, and other things that are synonomous with Arizona, but she (always being the over achiever) wanted to send her some pictures of something a little out of the ordinary, hence the trip to an ancient native american dwelling carved into the side of a mountain!

It took us about an hour and a half to get there, and along the way Josh and Ben became good friends with Julie, making up games involving stealing shoes. I hadn't been to Montezuma's Castle since I was a kid. I think Josh was a little young to understand what exactly it all meant, but he did think the thing on the mountain was pretty cool. After our history lesson, and Josh taking TONS of pictures of random people and trees, we headed up to Sedona for lunch. The weather was beautiful, and of course I was so destracted with the kids that I didn't take any pictures while we were there! But take my word for it that Sedona is a must see in your lifetime! After lunch we headed home. It was a great way to spend a Saturday... and I think Daddy (who got to enjoy the day at home fiddling around and relaxing all by himself) would definitely agree!

Twilight Bandwagon

Yes, I have hopped on! I am about 50 pages away from being done with the series, and it has been quite an enjoyable read. I'm sure that I will probably read it again at some point. This series is quite the phenomenon. I know multiple people that have gotten completely addicted. The biggest "Twerd" I know is my friend Jennifer. Jennifer is attending Twicon, the Twilight Convention, in July, and entered a commercial contest, and asked us to be actors in it. If you haven't read the books, you'll have absolutely NO idea what is going on, but if you have read them, it's AWESOME! Check it out and don't forget to rate it! And remember, Andrew and I will be available for autographs! =)

Old Friends

On Wednesday I was able to get together with my long time friend Peter, who I know from high school. Peter and I go all the way back to early Freshman year. He even introduced me to the guy who ended up being my first kiss (that guy's a whole other story... don't ask!). We have remained friends all these years, but haven't seen each other since my wedding, but have talked randomly on Myspace. Since I have seen him last, he has graduated from medical school and is now a resident at a hospital in NYC. It's so strange to think of him being a real honest to goodness doctor, but on the other hand, it doesn't surprise me one little bit. He was in town for New Years, and so we were able to get together. Andrew was nice enough to stay home with the boys so Peter and I could go have lunch and catch up. After lunch we came back to the house so Peter could meet the boys. Joshua warmed up to him right as he was leaving, but Ben loved him from the start. The funniest thing was that when Peter was playing with Ben, Ben ran over to the toy bins and pulled out Joshua's toy doctor set and brought it over to him and they played with it together. So cute. It was really great to see him, and I hope we can get together again when he is in town.

4th of July

What a big wonderful weekend we've had! We really decided to celebrate Independence Day in style this year. It's so nice when a holiday falls on a Friday giving us a long weekend to relax and spend time with friends and family. Our original plan was to go see the fireworks at Tumbleweed Park, who holds Chandler's official display. But my car accident and the resulting neck and backache put an end to those plans as spending hours in a park with no comfortable place to sit did not sound appealing to me or my back. Instead, we got together with some good friends from church who have 2 boys just about the same age as ours and did an impromptu barbecue and swimming party. Josh and his little buddy Nathaniel had a blast together, and it was nice to hang out with Jennifer and Brandon again. After leaving there, we met up with some other church friends and were able to watch the Tumbleweed fireworks from their neighborhood park, and totally avoid the crowds and traffic. Of course neither of the kids really wanted to nap that day, which is always the case when you really want them to nap, but they both were such troopers. Josh fell asleep on Andrew's shoulder shortly after getting to the park, but woke up in a great mood when the fireworks started. Ben was not at all interested in sleeping unless he was in his car seat, but was such a mellow happy boy and just sat on my lap watching everything around him. We got home at almost 11 pm. I think that's the latest we have ever kept our kids out. But it was so much fun!

Then on Saturday, Auntie Kerri and Uncle Jonathon finally had a chance to come from Las Vegas for a visit. They hadn't even been able to meet Ben yet! So we piled in the car and headed out to Avondale for a family barbecue. It is always so much fun to get the whole family together. There is no comparison to a house filled of 5 little kids ranging from 3 years to 1 month, and everyone getting along and having fun. The kids splashed in the kiddie pool in the backyard, everyone ate way too much good food and genuinely enjoyed being together. What a joy filled day! The gathering was even more joyous, because we found out that there will be a new addition to our family come March. Auntie Kerri and Uncle Jonathon are expecting their first baby! We have had such an awesome weekend. Here's a slide show of all we have done. Enjoy!

A Glimpse Into our Future

Andrew was informed today that Joshua has a girlfriend at school. There is a little girl, Emily, in Joshua's class that apparently has a big crush on him. They run around holding hands, and Emily always wants to sit next to Joshua during snacks and lunch. We always said that all of the ladies were going to love Josh and those big brown eyes, and I guess it's starting already! In addition to Emily, Joshua had a little "fling" with a girl he met at his counsin Chevlynn's birthday party on Sunday. She apparently liked what she saw and decided that Joshua needed a big smooch right on the mouth, so that's what he got. So apparently, we've got the Ladies Man on our hands! I don't think I'm ready for this. =)

Thank You

Not to sound like an Oscar acceptance speech, but Brenda and I would like to thank a few people. Things would have been MUCH more difficult if we did not have someone to watch Josh, and my mom did an awesome job of keeping Joshua safe and happy for the 4 days we were gone. Joshua seemed to have a great time with Grandma and I don't think he wanted her to leave! Big thanks also to Brenda's sister for being with Brenda on Friday morning/afternoon while she went through the initial recovery process. This allowed me to spend more initial time with the baby, and Brenda had someone to help her as well. Lori waited something like 3-4 hours in a small waiting room before being called into action... she's a trooper! And we definitely want to thank all of the wonderful people that will be bringing us meals over the next couple weeks, and Valerie for putting that all together. Not having to make dinner (and probably lunch) for the next couple weeks will be a huge help to us. I'm sure I am missing other people, but anyone else that has helped us out along the way, we appreciate you as well. Thanks everyone!

Joshua's Little Buddy!

The J-Man apparently has a friend at daycare... the teacher says they do this almost every day!

Prayer Request

For those of you out there that are of the prayin' persuasion, we have a request. Friends of ours, Steve and Nancy, were due to have their first child, Ashley, in early December. Unfortunately, Ashley decided that she was coming on Sunday night, 8 weeks early. She weighed in at 4 pounds, 7.8 ounces, and they have been told that she is doing extremely well and she has not needed any help breathing. Nobody foresees any problems, but she will probably have to stay at the hospital for another 3 weeks or so. Please pray for Ashley's health and for a short hospital stay, and for Steve and Nancy so they can keep their heads together through all of this and turn to God when they need strength.