MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Oh my goodness.......it's time to play catch up with my blogging! We've had a nice and busy Fall. Back on November 4th, Nathan and Jacob were baptized, and we had a lovely celebration/reception . Jacob had his biopsy and endescope done, and we did find out, he is defficient in enzymes that digest lactose, so he is deffinitely allergic to all dairy products, and when he's a bit older, they'll do more testing to find if he has more allergies. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving.......spent the day with my parents and relatives from my mom's side of the family, and rang in the Christmas season with Dave's parents in Flagstaff on the Sat. of T-Day weekend.

Now we are ONE week from Christmas!!! I have all of the cards written and sent out. My shopping is almost done. I haven't started to wrap gifts.....that will be Thurs/Fri. I'll be doing most of my baking on Wednesday. Tonight, we had a fun Christmas Carol and cookie night at church, and on Thursday, Gregory has a performance at school. The boys really enjoyed helping decorate the Christmas tree, and seeing all the ornaments. They are all very excited about Christmas! Dave did a great job with the outdoor lights. I call him Clark ( from Christmas Vacation )! We always make it a point to watch Christmas Vacation early in the season, as it is so true, and it just seems to get us in the spirit:)

We hope you all enjoy the sights & sounds of the Christmas season! Have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

TRICK OR TREAT!!

Happy Halloween to all! Of course on Tuesday, we had our evening of carving pumpkins......that's always a lovely smell and mess:) Eli was able to carve his own this year, and he had so much fun! We had a great Halloween! We've been having a Fall heat wave, so the weather was great for the evening. Nathan & Gregory had a blast going door to door. .....And with Nathan being 3 going on 6, he said some pretty funny comments. At one house, they had already said trick or treat, and Eli & Gregory had got their candy, and Nathan screams.....HEY, DON'T FORGET ABOUT ME....PLEASE!! Jacob even got in on the fun, and got some candy in his mini pumpkin. The boys counted all of their candies, and Eli topped out at 102, Gregory @ 89, and Nathan was at 90. I'm not going to have to buy any sweets for a long time!!

ELI'S PARTY PIC.

ELI'S 10TH B-DAY PARTY

Well, Eli's party went off without a hitch.......it went great! He had 4 of his buddies come for a party at the roller rink, and they had a blast! A couple of the boys had never been on skates before, and by the end of the party, they were all wanting to race eachother. After the roller skating, the boys came back to our house. They sprayed eachother with silly string spray, and had a football game. Two of his friends spent the night.......which of course meant popcorn, video games and movies all night....until about 2am. After everyone had left on Sunday, Eli told me it was his best party ever:)

HAPPY 10TH BIRTHDAY ELI!!

Ten years ago today, Eli was born!! He had a great day.......other than getting a black eye while playing basketball at school:( He chose that we had pizza for dinner, and pumkin pie ( his favorite ), for dessert. The evening was beautiful, so we stayed outside, and rode bikes till dark, then we all watched a cute Halloween movie, " My Mom Has a Date With a Vampire ". This coming Sat., he's having a skating/slumber party, so I will be posting B-Day pics after the party.
I just finished going through his baby pics, and .......wow.......it seems like it was just yesterday that he was that little baby, and now he is TEN YEARS OLD!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVE & GREGORY!!

Over the last 3 weeks, we've had Birthday parties, and the flu go through our family. Back on August 25th, I surprised Dave with a big 40th....OVER THE HILL....party. He had no idea I had been planning it for about 3 months, and his parents were a great help getting him out of the house the day of the party, while we were getting ready. Well, the day before the party, Jacob, had come down with a fever and the runny baby runs! Knowing the party was the next day, I took him to the Doc, and she said he probably picked up a virus, and it would have to run its course. So, the day of the party comes, Dave's out of the house, and my family's over helping me get everything ready. Jacob's fever spiked to 104,his hands & feet turned purple, and he was very lathargic. So, just 2 hours before the party, I took him to the ER. As soon as the Dr. saw him, he was talking like he'd have to be admitted to the hospital. They took several lab tests, and they all turned out pretty good. It took 2 doses of Motrin, plus the Tylenol he had at home to break his fever. The purple hands & feet were due to a low Hemoglobin level, so he's now on iron drops. I was just so happy it didn't turn out to be anything too serious! In the meantime, Dave arrived at his party, and was very surprised to see all of the family & friends, and was shocked to hear I was at the hospital with Jacob. Thanks to my Mom and Kerrell hosting the party while I was gone, everything turned out great!! Now after going through a day like that, Gregory's 6th Birthday party with all of his little buddies was the next day, the 26th. He had a Pirates themed party. We had a pinata, fun games, and cake & ice cream. Gregory had a wonderful and very special day. We got him roller skates for his Birthday, and he has a great time on them!

And so the story continues.....The Tuesday following the weekend of Birthday Parties, Jacob wakes up with a rash all over his little body. I take him back to the Dr.'s, and it turns out with the high fever, and the rash, he had rosiola. He's continued to have the "runny baby runs" for 3 weeks now, and they've been testing it, and seem to think it's a virus. Then it continued for our poor Jacob, as this week, he came down with the croupe cough. After having breathing treatments, he seems to be doing a bit better, and is smiling, and talking in his adorable baby language again.

As for the other boys......Eli was home sick 1 day with his allergies bothering him, and Gregory was sick 1 day with a fever, but they're both back in commision. Nathan & Dave have been fighting a cold this week, and so far, I haven't caught anything.

After the last 3 weeks, to sum it up best.......there's just never a dull moment!!

LIFE'S LITTLE HAPPENINGS

Well, here I am back to my blog, and trying to play catch up. We wrapped up our summer with some more FUN. Dave & I celebrated our 8th wedding Anniversary on August 7th. We went out for a nice steak dinner, and a movie....we saw Chuck & Larry.....very funny movie. We had a great time!! It's been an amazing 8 years, with new experiences and adventures, and I look forward to each new day and adventure with Dave.....I am very lucky to have him as my best friend,my soul mate......my husband and he is such a wonderful Daddy too!! Now the funny twist to our anniversary;our Anniversary was on a Tuesday, so we went out on Sat. On that Sunday, we decided to begin the LONG task of painting 2 walls in our room RED. So, on Tues., our real Anniversary, our room was all torn apart, so we had to sleep in the living room, and the boys all slept in their sleeping bags.......it turned out to be a family movie night/slumber party. With the temps the way they are, you sure wouldn't know it's the end of the summer....it's hotter than ever. Over the summer, we did have lot's of stories to share about GG. I keep telling the boys, she's looking down with a big smile, and she's our angel. We did have a very nice summer, with some fun, well needed get aways, and many memories were made.

FUN IN FLAGSTAFF

A ton of fun is what we had in Flagstaff!! It was such a nice get away and even relaxing too. Usually, when we go at this time of the year, we camp, but since Jacob is so young, we opted to hotel it this time. It is Monsoon season, and on the way up to Flagstaff, we did have some heavy rain, but the storms never really interupted our outings. While we were up in the area, we headed to Sedona......beautiful place......actually, one of my favorite places to visit in Arizona. We went to the Red Rock Crossing State Park. The Oak Creek runs through the park, so we hiked through the park, and the boys loved swimming in the creek, and going on the natural water slides. We also had a picnic under a HUGE willow tree, with the creek flowing right behind us. The veiws of the red rock mountains/hills are absolutely spectacular. It was a great day!! While we were visiting Dave's parents, Gregory decided he'd like to spend the night with them, so he did so. He had a great time and he's ready to go back! Dave's mom does beautiful artwork, using water colors. So, she helped gregory do some paintings, and he was so proud! We all headed up to Snow Bowl Ski Resort for a picnic. We were hoping to ride the scenic sky ride(ski lift), but it had been stormy that morning, so it was closed for the day. However, the weather did cooperate for our picnic, and the sun was even shining too. After the picnic, we went hiking up the second mountain, to the other ski lodge and lift......we made it about half way up, and it was a bit too steep for the kids to hike. We then headed to the Lowell Observatory. We went through the museum, watched a movie on the planets/universe etc., and went on a tour of all of the telescpes. It was very informative, and the location of the observatory, is over looking the town of Flagstaff......very scenic veiws. The hotel that we stayed in had an indoor pool and hot tub, so over the course of our vacation, we did a lot of swimming as well. The boys all had a great time, and really enjoyed all of the hiking, swimming in the creek, and all of the new sights. It was one of those vacations that we weren't on any specific timelines, we even had time to veg out and watch movies in the room. When it was time to head home, we felt very refreshed! It was so much fun!!

CRAZY COUPLE OF WEEKS

We all had a wonderful 3rd and 4th of July. .......Actually, our fun started on the 2nd. Cousin Geoff came to spend the night with the boys on the 2nd. Eli was just so excited, and they stayed up till about 3am watching movies and playing PS2 games. On the 3rd, we went to our local lake for the firework show, and festivities. We found a grass area that was reserved for a group of marine vendors, that didn't show up, so we had a huge grass area to ourselves and one other family. We brought the little Webber grill, and cooked out, played ball, and we even brought a little inflatable pool, so Jacob could stay cool. We had a wonderful 4th. We spent the evening at Uncle Rob and Aunt Linda's house, for swimming and a bar-b-que. To top the night off, he had put together a CD of Patriotic music and the soundtrack to Star Wars, and que'd it to play along with the firework show, that we had an awesome veiw of from there backyard.



Then came 7-7-07......a day that was supposed to be full of luck......it didn't turn out that way for us. That afternoon, both, the AC in the mini van and our house stopped working. Keep in mind that we are in the middle of the summer and temps are reaching 117.....needless to say, every AC repair company has a long wait at this point of time. We were displaced from our house for 10 days!! Thank goodness Mom & Dad live close, and we were able to stay with them. Once the shock of the situation wore off, it turned out to be fun.....kind of like an unplanned vacation ......the boys were all thrilled to get to stay with them that long.



In the meantime, the boys just finished swimming lessons today, and they all did a great job! To celebrate, this afternoon, we went to see Shrek 3......it was a very cute movie. It was Jacob's first movie going experience, and he slept through the whole movie......so that meant, I was able to watch the whole movie!! On Monday, we'll be heading on vacation to Flagstaff to visit Dave's parents, and we'll be spending some time in Sedona as well.



.......UNTIL NEXT TIME.......LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST!!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!

Happy 4th of July to all.......have a fun and safe holiday!!

WE'RE BACK!!

We're back from vacation and back into the swing of things, so I thought it's about time I update my blog. We had an awesome vacation! The boys had no idea that we were going to Disneyland until we pulled into the parking lot. They were all so excited and amazed at everything in the "Magical Kingdom". Gregory and Nathan really enjoyed Fantasy Land and Eli enjoyed all of the "mountain" rides and loved Tomorrow Land. Jacob was even able to go on some rides on my lap. His eyes were so big and bright on 'It's A Small World". We got to the park at opening and stayed till midnight. For a summer day, it wasn't too crowded, as the longest line was about an hour. We wanted to get on the Nemo Submarines, but the line was 5 hours......I think we'll try next time. We were able to get on 18 rides; we thought that was pretty good with 4 kids. It was such a fun day, and I can't wait to go again!

The day after Disneyland, we all slept in till about 8:00(that's late for us). We were all ready for a relaxing day........so, we spent a lovely day at Newport Beach. We went boogie boarding, played in the sand, and had a delicious fish-n-chips meal. We ended the day with ice cream and a walk on the beach. What a wonderful vacation it was!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY........AND WE'RE HEADING OFF ON VACATION!!

To all of the Dad's.......we wish you a very Happy and Special Father's Day!! We'll be spending Saturday with Dave's parents, and we're having a bar-b-que with my family on Sunday.......And of course on Sunday morning, the boys will be making a special breakfast for Dave.

I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off, trying to get ready for our vacation. We'll be leaving Monday, on our way to California. We're going to the happiest place on Earth.....YES....that would be Disneyland!! We're so excited, we haven't been there since Eli was 2. We haven't told the boys, so I think they'll be pleasantly surprised. We'll also be spending some much needed relaxing time on the beach ,boogie boarding and building sand castles.

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG

I am trying to keep in touch with our friends and family a bit better. We always have so many stories and pictures to share, I thought this would be a good way to keep everyone updated with what we've been up to. So, sit back, relax, and ENJOY!!