A Year in Review... A Year to Look Forward to!

Yes, I am at home at 10:00 on New Years Eve... I let my boys stay up till 9 tonight and that was to late, by 8:45 Arlo was breaking down.  So, the boys are in bed and I thought... what would be better than posting 1 last post before the new year while watching Dick Clark's New Year's Countdown.

In 2011...

Arlo started talking and has not stopped!

Cohen has learned to crawl, walk and run.

We moved out of the parents house and move into a little house in East Phoenix.

Arlo went camping, ice skating, rode a quad, went on water slides and roller coasters.

Cohen is now giving and blowing kisses, mimicking words, making shooting and car noises, puts his finger to his lips and says 'sssss,' throws away his diapers and everything else.

Tim has gone back to school and started in a new position at his work.

Arlo learned to jump off diving board, ride a tricycle and balance bike, play hockey, soccer and football.

Cohen loves to show off for the camera and pose with a beautiful 'cheese' face! Uses signs for please and milk and climbs non-stop.

I've been a stay at home mom and a daycare provider for 3 other little ones.

2011 has been so busy, and our boys are growing up way to fast.  They have learned so many new things (this list is puny compared to what has really happened!) and continue to amaze us every day.

Here are some random pics of our boys in 2011.

Our new cat... for the night!

Arlo was showing us his hurt finger in this pic.

Zupas, one of my fav restaurants, decided to open right next to our house!!!!

This is the cheese face!

This is the sign for please.

2012... please slow down!!!  OR... Give me more hours in the day and an extra day in the weekend!!! Please. And. Thank You. 

Red, Green and Blue Christmas

Christmas was wonderful and oh, so heartbreaking this year.  Arlo has been so excited all month for Christmas to arrive and this year for Christmas he got 2 ear infections and strep throat.  He started to get sick the day before Christmas eve, that night he woke up with a temperature of 104.8!!!  I was in panic mode.  I started in with rotating through advil and tylenol to keep his temp down, and the next day his temp spiked up past 104 two more times with being on the meds.  So on Christmas Eve we went to urgent care.  No one wants their child to be sick, but I was grateful that when we went to urgent care they didn't just send us home and tell us there was nothing they could do.  When Arlo and I got home, it was already 7:00 PM, so for our Christmas eve program my dad, brother, husband and kids all listened to Tim read the story of our Savior's birth, opened our christmas jammies, and piled in the car to see Christmas lights.  When we got home, we put the kids to bed, and then quickly remembered that we forgot to put out cookies for santa, so we got Arlo back out of bed, put cookies and milk out and an apple for rudolph.

 My poor sick boy

 Tow's new Say Cheese face

 Opening Christmas Jammies

Wearing Christmas Jammies

Even Bryce got some!

We had to drive by our favorite house again!  On our way home from lights we noticed a red light flying through the air so, Arlo and Daddy went out to investigate and decided that is was, in fact, Santa and Rudolf!!!!!!

Looking for Santa!!

 Leaving Goodies out for Santa and Rudolf!

When Santa did come... he left no stocking unfilled and brought way to many presents!!!!

We have no fireplace so we improvised!!!

Santa and Rudolf loved their cookies and milk and even left the boys a note!!!

The Power Wheels was a gift from Grampy and Uncle Bryce!!!!

The Christmas Day Bomb!!!  And this was still with us picking up wrapping paper throughout the morning!

Santa thought I was extra good this year and brought me a new ipad!!!!

After a morning filled with presents, church, more presents and a much needed nap (after another horrible night with a sick child) we went over to grammy's house for Christmas dinner with my family and of course... more presents!!!!!! 

Arlo and Lani got so carried away with opening presents, they started to open every present the touched, not caring who's it was!  It was pretty funny!!!

 Grammy opening up her new mop... (that was what she wanted!)

 Brycie opening up his new shoes?????

Brycie, being Bryce and showing our sister Niki his unmentionables on facetime on my new ipad!! (It was so nice to have her there with out being in AZ!)

We made it though Christmas alive, but our poor baby spent most of the next day like this...

Overall it was a wonderful Christmas!  I just pray that next year we will all be healthy for it!!!!

Getting Ready For Christmas!

2011 has been a special Christmas.  Up until this Christmas, our children have been either non-exsistant or to young to really get into the Christmas spirit.  But, this Christmas was the first of many MAGICAL Christmases.  Arlo (2.5) was old enough to really understand and get into the Christmas traditions that Tim and I have started.

So on December 2nd we all decorated the house.  The boys got into the Christmas spirit by wearing funny headbands...

We all decorated the tree.  The first ornaments that Arlo wanted to put on were the candy canes, as soon as Arlo would put a candy cane on, Cohen would take it off. 

One tradition that Tim and I have started is everywhere we go we get an ornament.  We have ornaments from hawaii, cancun, keyenta, cannon beach, disneyland, etc...  We also have family ornaments from every year that we have been together and then we started buying the boys an ornament every year as well.  It is something that Tim and my families both did for us. So our tree is filled with memories from our own childhoods as well as our own family memories that we have made together.  Our tree is not a matching one, but it is so fun to decorate, because every ornament has a story. 

Here is Arlo's and Cohen's 2011 ornaments, they picked them out themselves, notice it is already missing a hand, what you do not see is that the other hand has already been glued on.  Both ornaments this year play music, which make them a magnet that the boys cannot keep their hands off of.

When we finished decorating the tree, we had to put it up on a chest and surround it by the couches because if we did not... well, we had to protect it from curious little hands!

We also decorated the rest of the house with a few odds and ends.  Here are some fake poinsettias that I gave as a present in a white elephant game, then picked out for myself!

Here is Arlo's favorite decoration for the season.  Tim and I have no idea where it came from or what it is, but when Arlo saw it he knew exactly what it was, he said "it's the liahona!"

Arlo's next favorite decoration is the m&m cracker.  Yes, it dispenses m&m's... it does not make hard to understand why he loves it!

Tow's favorite decorations were all of them.  Since we are just renting our house and we do not know how long we will be here, we did not put up our pictures and decorations because they are the hardest things to pack and unpack.  So needless to say, when we finally put things up on our walls, Cohen could not get enough of it.  On a daily basis (more like 5-10 times a day) Tow wants to be picked up and toted all around the house as he points to all the different decorations and we have to tell him the names of those decorations.  

 For the holidays we also did crafts together...

We made and played in snow...

I finally figured out what the snow was made of... Diaper Stuffing... it was a mess to clean up!

One of our favorite holiday activities is to drive around and look at Christmas lights.  While we were driving we came upon this house...  Tim says it is white trash, I call it WONDERFUL!!!

So, Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!!!!!