Texas trip

At the end of May we went to Texas to visit Melisa and Joshua and Amelia. We had a good time and we're grateful for their hospitality! They're also good tour guides.

We went to a snake farm. We actually got to touch the albino reticulated python (I think that's what these are) and I got to hold a ball python too. Too bad we had to fly home or we could have bought one for $40! :)

Then we went to San Antonio and toured the riverwalk and took the boat ride. That's us in the back of the boat. It was hot. And humid. Poor Christopher was just dripping sweat by the end of the ride and even passed up ice cream in favor of cold bottled water. Matt and his dad also explored The Alamo.

We got to go up to the lake house owned by Joshua's boss and the boys got the Sea Doo up and running. Matt went out first with his mom and Christopher.

After Matt & his dad flew back to AZ to go back to work, Grandma and I took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese one morning while Melisa got some shopping done. They were both quite excited when Chuck E. came out to visit. Christopher had to show him his new cars.

A crib box makes for great play time. Amelia was quite content, in bunny ears and pajamas, to color in one of the boxes, while Christopher and Grandma had a fun time driving the other one on all sorts of errands.

1st year of "preschool" - Done!

We did a home-based preschool this past year with two other moms and we rotated which house the boys went to each week (2 days a week). We could hardly believe when it was done, but in May we ended the year. And we absolutely had to have a "graduation" party!

With cute hats.
And diplomas.
And pictures with the moms who taught these sweet boys at Joy School. Miss Karen and Decker are to my right in the blue shirts and Miss Nylene and Caleb are on the other side. It was a fun year for the boys and we're doing it again next year.

One more picture from April - I just had to

Christopher was getting ready for a bath. Matt went outside to do something in the yard. Christopher got distracted from the idea of the bath and had to go see what Dad was doing. Mom grabbed the camera. And here is the result.

Old MacDonald had a farm...

We've had a few extra critters around here lately. Yard work, spring time - the types of things that bring all sorts of new life around.

Christopher has really gotten into putting on Matt's straw hat and going outside to check on the plants and see if any animals are visiting us.

Not too long after we put plants in the back yard, one of our rosemary bushes became a sanctuary for three baby rabbits. Right here you can see at least two of them.

Here's a better shot of one. They were just hanging out under there for a few days. They didn't run away or even move when we got close, but they were probably too young to know any better. So yeah, there were three. Then the next day there were two...and the next day one...we told Christopher that the mommy had just been coming back to take them home...

Then a pair of birds decided to build a nest on top of our front porch light. Four eggs, and all four babies hatched and lived. You can just see the tops of their fuzzy little heads here. I couldn't really get any pictures of them as they got older because of:
- the momma bird. Standing sentinel over her little brood. The parents both starting getting pretty agressive with people who came up on the front porch once the babies had hatched. They wouldn't actually touch anyone, but they would be really loud and fly pretty close. The babies have now grown up and flown away. So we cleared the nest. Then two days ago, another nest was built. And the cycle begins again.

More March fun - Jimmy & Daisy visit

Jimmy and Daisy graced us with their presence in March, and we were very glad to have them! Christopher was just this close to filing a formal petition to be adopted by them...

We had a picnic at Fountain Hills while they were here, and had to do some silly poses while the fountain was going off. This is Jimmy, "not feeling so well" after we ate lunch...

This is Christopher, "blowing off some steam"..... he struck that pose all on his own.

This one is a little dark, but there is nothing better than some quiet time with Uncle Jimmy, listening to the iPod.

This picture was the first picture I took with my camera phone. Completely unrelated to Jimmy & Daisy's visit. But still undeniably cute.

It's about time for an update....1st quarter 2008

Christopher started sleeping in a "big boy" bed on January 4th! We took the guard rail off about a week later and he's fallen out a few times, but in spite of our wanting to keep him contained in the crib, he was ready for the bed.

Ummm...how to explain this one? Well, Pooter is a big cat with lots of long fur. He tends to pull out clumps of fur and either scatter them like kittens on the carpet around the house, or swallow them. The swallowing part results in nasty furballs which he tries to chuck up on our bed around 3 a.m. So I started shaving his fur. Then the clippers stopped working. It was a couple of days before we got the new clippers, so we had to snap this shot of poor Pooter with his reverse mohawk in the meantime. :)

Grandma Nell gifted us with a very large amount of grapefruit at the beginning of the year, and Christopher got quite good at helping Matt juice them in the mornings.

Bandanas are just cool. He didn't this one off for at least an hour.

Easter came early, but we actually managed to get a picture with the Easter bunny at the mall this year. This is Christopher with his friend Joseph. I actually took this picture on my new camera phone and somehow managed to upload it to my computer! Yay for me!

Christmas pics - Inside

Christoher and Ellie looking at the Christmas I Spy book.

Personal home theater. Waiting for the rest of the family to wake up Christmas morning.

Ummm...thank you Uncle Jimmy for helping Christopher get started on his modeling career.

More "macho" shot with Daddy and Nerf guns.

Okay, back to the cars. This picture is a little dark, but he loved simply lining up his cars and bringing the Mac truck to come visit them and show them the new place to park.

Christmas in Utah - Outside

We went to Utah for Christmas to see Emily's family. Here are some pics of the outdoor fun:

Yep, he looks pretty cute all dressed up for sledding. This was Christopher's second time in snow but first time sledding. He had multiple layers of everything going on here. It was COLD!!

The obligatory family shot. Actually one of the few of us all together. Christopher's attention is still on the sleds. He wants to keep going.

Christopher had a really good time running around in the fresh snow with his cousing Ellie, and being chased by the "snow monster" who was so cold that he wouldn't take his hands out of his coat pockets.

Every time we turned around Christopher was trying to eat the snow.

Or he was falling down in it. And then trying to eat it on his hands and knees. It's sad how those Arizona boys can get around a little too much snow. It's so foreign to them, they just lose their senses. :)

Late Christmas update - Part 1

I'm pacing myself (extremely) at updating our blog with Christmas pics this year. We basically celebrated Christmas 3 times. The first time was on the 17th with Matt's family. Christopher's favorite gift was a garbage truck. It lifts a garbage can and dumps it into the back, has a driver, makes the backing up beep noise - Christopher couldn't have been happier with it!



Then we had a little get together with our friends Jason & Erin on the 19th. They gave him a Disney movie version of the Scene It game. He was thrilled just identifying all the characters on the outside of the box. He was also potty training and was currently running around with no pants on, so Daddy provided a little bit of prop placement to get the G-rating for the blog.

Our Christmas Card

Santa picture

First we practiced at home with Pooter and Christoper wearing the Santa hat. It went well.

Then we went to the mall the next day and Christopher worked on his funny smile for his picture with Santa, but it was still good. And then he got to ride one of the reindeer that are visiting the carousel. Quite exciting.

The birthday boy!

Hi everyone! Our little boy is now three years old! It's hard for us to believe. Here are just a couple of pictures from his birthday at home. We had a family birthday party at Matt's parents' house earlier, but we didn't have our own camera there.

Not quite sure what he's doing with his hand on this one, but he was pretty excited about the "TV game" (his name for video games) for the Wii that his daddy got for him (you decide for yourself which "him" the game was really for). :)

This one is fuzzy - don't know why. Three candles on a brownie. And he blew them all out himself while wearing Daddy's baseball hat.

Halloween pictures

Christopher was much more interested in Halloween this year than he was last year. He enjoyed trick or treating more, but he got tired of it pretty quickly and just wanted to go back to the house and help Daddy to pass out candy. No pictures of that part, it was too dark.

Last week he and his friends from Joy School had a little Halloween party where they did a parade for the moms and then sang some songs they'd been learning.

He really, really enjoyed helping Daddy gut the pumpkin!

One of our neighbors had a skeleton costume from a few years ago that she let me borrow after she saw Christopher's costume at the Trunk or Treat at church on Saturday. So we both got to dress up as skeletons last night. We went to a neighborhood party by Grandma's house before coming back to our house, and that is where we got our faces painted. Christopher was not wanting to pose for pictures at this point. He wanted to head out for the candy!

Daddy got him to give us a good smile after we got home and before he headed to the bathtub. He had a really good time being "scary."

It's been a long time but...

We have actually been doing things. I just haven't posted them on the blog lately. But even when I do, who's really looking at them? Sigh. Send us some comments, people!!

Christopher found some heart stickers and proceeded to experiment with body art.

In Flagstaff last month Christopher helped me get every bit of frosting off the candles from my birthday cake.

This one absolutely had to be posted. "Christopher lets Uncle Arch hold him." It was a "read" letter day. Get it? ;) This is serious progress in Christopher and Arch's relationship.

Back at home on my actual birthday, Christopher helped Matt put the candles in the cake and then he sang "Happy Birthday" very sweetly and helped me blow out the candles. Matt wore his SPAM shirt for the special day.

Then Christopher helped us eat the cake. And here began the great debate: use a fork or use his hands? It was a tough choice, but the hands won out. And then the bathtub removed all evidence of the crime committed against the poor piece of cake.