Zoo Lights Times Two!

Every year at Christmastime we go to Zoo Lights at the Phoenix Zoo. The lights are really phenomenal and the kids love it (I love it, too). This year we went to the preview for donors while my parents were here, then the next week we went again when Keate and Melissa and their crew were down for Thanksgiving.

Annie Turns 2!

Birthday morning on her new pony

Opening presents at home that night

Checking out the tigers across from where we had her party

Feeding a giraffe

Opening presents with a little help from Dad

As a Mom I am constantly amazed at the personalities that my kids exhibit. Annie is and has pretty much always been an animal lover. If we're out shopping and she sees a bird, she runs toward it. If she sees a dog, she wants to pet it. Because of her love for animals we decided it would be fun to have her party this year at the zoo. The area where we were set up was directly across from the tigers. During the party he must've seen something because he started roaring like crazy. It was kind of creepy, but also really cool. We were also right along the backside of the giraffe exhibit and right next to the area where you can go and feed the giraffes. Annie and Ryan both went up to feed them and while Annie absolutely loved it, the whole thing freaked Ryan out and he decided he'd rather not be a part of it.

All in all it was a great day. I know Annie won't remember this party as time goes on, but it sure was fun to watch her thoroughly enjoy her day!

Happy Halloween!

This year when we asked Ryan what he wanted to be for Halloween, he responded, "I want to be Buzz Lightyear and Dad's going to be Woody." Well OK then! With that in mind, we decided Annie would make a darling little Jessie and if I had time I'd come up with something to resemble Bo Peep. Here's the finished product--what do you think?

School Days!

So it's official--Ryan is a preschooler! He started on August 13th and absolutely loves it! The Wednesday before we went to an open house which made him comfortable so on the first day of school (and every day since!) he couldn't get out of the car and run to the door fast enough. I hope he is always this enthusiastic about school! Right now he goes three days a week for two hours at a time which is perfect for him. Each day he comes home with a fun new art project or a worksheet that he's done that he can't wait to tell me about. It's fun to watch him learn new things and exciting to see him grow and develop. I did shed a couple of tears when I dropped him off on his first day, but they were tears of a proud mom, not a sad one.

(By the way, I know the picture is horrible, but it's all I was able to get the morning of his first day of school. Usually he is Mr. Photogenic, so I don't know what happened, but you've all seen enough cute pictures of him to know this was a fluke! :)

California Adventures

Miss Annie ready for a road trip!


Checking out the giant Sequoia's with Papa

Annie at the fire station with Papa

Giving Papa and Fireman Zach a high five

Engineer Ryan checking out the fire engine


At the beginning of August we took a trip up to Tehachapi to visit my parents. Bryan was busy with work, but he drove us up then flew back to work for the week and flew back to drive home with us the following weekend.

In addition to enjoying the beautiful mountain weather, we took a day trip to see the Giant Sequoias, visited the fire station and spent a day with my Aunt Teena and my cousins Michael and Kassie and got to meet Michael's new baby Kiran.

We all had a wonderful time and my kids loved the time they got to spend with Grammy and Papa. Before we came home my mom made my favorite birthday cake (it was my birthday month, so it counted!), which made the trip just that much better!

Swim Lessons!

Ryan and his teacher Chase

Ryan waiting for his turn to "swim"

This summer I did as we all do in Arizona and signed my kids up for swim lessons. Ryan had lessons back when he was 9 months old, but last year we opted out. Anyway, he really enjoyed it this year. For the first session he absolutely loved his teacher, Miss Erin. The first day he wanted to run away to wherever I was, but after that he did great. The second sesson he had a really hard time adjusting to his new teacher Chase. The first week there was a lot of crying involved until he got into the water. By the last few days he'd get up and immediately want to get ready for swim lessons (even though they weren't until a couple of hours later). The first session I also signed Annie up for a Mommy and Me class, and that didn't go over so well. She likes playing in the water, but she absolutely looses it when she isn't standing. Trying to put her on her back or hold her on her stomach did not happen. We pretty much spent every day playing with the pool toys in the shallow end while the class happened a few feet away. I didn't think it was worth totally traumatizing her, and my goal was just that she would get comfortable in the water, and I think we accomplished that.

Happy Birthday, Ryan!

Last week Ryan turned 3. He had a couple of fun-filled days--lots of presents, Toy Story 3 with Mom (for the second time), dinner with Grandma and Grandpa, and a party at Bounce Jungle. If I were 3, I would've been in heaven. I think he was, too. Here are some pictures of the festivities:

Cousins

Shannon, Me and Dianne

The girls with our girls

Shannon and Corey renewing their vows

Two weekends ago my cousin Shannon and her husband Corey renewed their wedding vows in celebration of their 15th anniversary. It was a really touching event and I was glad to be there to support my cousin. When I was young, my two cousins and I spent our summers together in the thriving metropolis of Needles, CA with our grandparents. We were all only children and these two were the closest thing I had to sisters growing up. My cousin Dianne just moved to Kingman so this is the first time the three of us have all lived in the same state. I'm excited and hopeful that we will be able to resume that closeness we had when we were young.

Recent Projects

So I've really taken to this whole sewing thing, and have been having lots of fun doing new projects. Here's a sampling of what I've been working on:

I made this cute sailboat quilt for my friend Katherine's baby boy who is due next month

Close up of the sailboat quilt

A cute coordinating little taggie lovey blanket.

The back is super-soft fleece-type material that is heavenly.

A cute little dress made from a onesie, with matching headband

The set of onesie dresses I made for my friend Brittanie's baby shower.

Baby quilt I made for my cousin Tara's soon-to-arrive baby boy.



The material has various vehicles and road signs, and the back is cars, busses and motorcycles.

Cabin!

Every year Bryan helps out with our stake Girls' Camp as a shotgun shooting instructor. This year he had to be there on Thursday afternoon and they asked him to help tear down camp on Saturday morning, so we decided to go up to the cabin and enjoy the cooler weather. We had a nice relaxing weekend hanging out as a family, and the kids loved being able to play outside all day long. I absolutely love the Arizona mountains and am still amazed at how green and beautiful this "desert" state is.

Annie's First Day of Nursery

May 30th was Annie's first day of nursery at Church. She had actually gone in with Ryan a couple of weeks before and they let her stay, but we took a picture to commemerate her official first day. She absolutely loves it and goes right in, sits down and starts playing with the puzzles. I'm sure it's a little easier to adjust with her big brother close by. Mom is thrilled--it's nice not to have to wander the halls with her for two hours since she usually can't sit still. Yay for nursery!

Camp Snoopy!

The last weekend of April we went to Southern California for a long weekend. We thought Ryan would enjoy Knott's Berry Farm and we were right--he loved it! We got to have breakfast with our friends the Barnes', play at Huntington Beach and generally enjoy ourselves. Then there was the small issue of me killing the battery of the suburban, but that's a whole different post...

What I've Been Up To

So I obviously haven't been busy spending my time blogging, but I have found a fun new hobby--sewing! I started doing some really basic stuff a couple of years ago and a couple of months ago I made a really simple patchwork baby quilt for my cousin. When I was doing that, I had to enlist the help of one of my good friends to help me finish it, and somehow she convinced me that I could quilt and do all kinds of cool stuff. So I went out and bought a really basic quilt pattern, and made the baby quilt below for my step-sister's new little girl Amanda. It was the first one that I did completely on my own and while it wasn't perfect, it came out really well.

Also, whenever I go into Joann's it seems there is some cute material that I think would look cute for something for Annie. I've made one dress for her, but I decided to try just using the material as a skirt and add it to a t-shirt, and I thought it came out really cute.

Right now I'm working on a really cool sailboat quilt for another friend who is having a baby boy this summer. After all these years, it's fun to finally have a hobby!

Spring!

At the beginning of the month I decided it was time to have pictures of the kiddos done, and they came out adorable! I can't believe how much they look alike or how big they're getting, but the pictures are proof!