A Day With Lisa and Sydney

A couple of days after Christmas, my sister-in-law(Lisa)and her daughter(Sydney) came out for a short visit. We haven't seen Lisa and Sydney in two years, so we were very excited they were able to come. We decided to make a day of it, and we went out to lunch, to see the movie "Bolt" and then went to Zoolights in the evening.


Here are Maddie and Sydney in the parking lot of the movie theatre. Sydney is 11 months older than Maddie, and they were inseperable for the entire day. It was really cute!

While we were waiting for Scott and Lisa to get the movie tickets, I took the kids aside and snapped a few photos. Aubyn, once again, refused to pose for me. But here's a good one of the girls. LOL

We took the kids to see the movie "Bolt". It was a cute movie, and the kids had a great time. Popcorn was had by all. :)

In the evening we went to see Zoolights at the Phoenix Zoo. We hadn't been in a couple of years, and it was really fun. COLD, but fun! The kids just loved the foot massagers. LOL

We had a great time with Lisa and Sydney, and we wished they had been able to stay longer. I hope we get to see them again soon.

Christmas Day

Our Christmas Day started out around 7am with the kids trying to be sneaky and peak at all their presents before we got up. We had put a baby gate up in the halway the night before, so the kids wouldn't come out of their rooms while we were wrapping presents. I awoke from my sleep at the sound of Aubyn climbing over the gate, and loudly whispering to Maddie what presents he saw under the tree. I poked Scott and told him the kids were up, and he got up and started getting dressed. By the time Scott got into the living room, Aubyn was back over the gate, and both the kids were pretending to come down the hall for the first time rubbing their eyes as if they just woke up. They didn't realize they had left the kitchen light on. LOL

Here are the kids with their favorite new toys. Aubyn got a new skateboard, and Maddie got a new bike!

We can't forget to look in our stockings! :-)

And we can't forget the dogs! Jax loved all the toys and treats in his stocking.


Chewey liked hers too.

After we got dressed, we went over to my mother-in-law's house for the morning. The kids got a little practice in with their new toys before the rain started. :)


Here is Aubyn with his cousins, Amber and Ashley.

In the evening we went over to my parents house for dinner. All the girls made up a dance for us to the song Winter Wonderland. It was pretty funny.

Sawyer looked really cute in his Christmas outfit. I just had to post of picture of him!

Here's all the kids with Santa at my mom and dad's!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Charlston Dance

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Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year, Scott and I took the kids to his mom's house for dinner, and then to my parents house for dessert. And like every year, we stuffed ourselves silly with turkey, stuffing and yummy pies!


Here's a picture of Scott and I in his mom's(Susan) backyard. Our 11 year old neice, Ashley took this photo for us.

Here's Maddie modeling the turkey shirt she made at preschool. She's so proud of it! She did a wonderful job.

Here is the family photo we took in Susan's backyard. I was wanting to get a good shot for the Christmas card photo this year, but the kids were not cooperative. We did end up getting a better shot later in the day, but I'm keeping that one a secret until the Christmas cards are sent out. :)

Here is my nephew, Sawyer, enjoying his green jello with whipped cream. Mmmm.

Here is my 13 year old nephew, Austin. He is a BIG New York Giants fan. (In case you couldn't tell from his shirt) He spent dinner and dessert with my family and then his dad picked him up for the weekend.

Sawyer was apparently still hungry after his jello. He is so excited to be walking. Now he can get into EVERYTHING! :-)


After dessert we all sat down and played some dominoes. You can't go to my parents house without playing a game of dominoes. It just wouldn't be right!

All in all we had a wonderful day, and I am glad we were able to see everybody.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and I wish everyone luck on their holiday shopping. LOL

Puppy Class

Jax started puppy training a few weeks ago, and so far it's going pretty well. He's learned how to sit and lay down, and we've learned how to teach him not to pull while we are walking him (although that one seems to be a slow process for us!), as well as how to teach him not to take things without permission (that one will be an even slower process..LOL).

At his first class, he barked for the first 5 or 10 minutes at all the other dogs, but after a bigger dog showed up to class, he shut right up. :) Our trainer had us face him away from the other dogs so he couldn't see them, and that seemed to help as well. He barked a little less at the second class, and then this past week, he hardly barked at all.

He is starting to get the hang of loose leash walking. He used to pull all the time, but now when he catches himself pulling he will immediately stop and sit down until I tell him it's ok to go. He still pulls a lot, but he seems to realize as soon as the leash is tight that he's pulling and stops. Yay! Hopefully with some more practice he will stop pulling altogether.

A few weeks after we got Jax we realized he could jump the 24 inch tall baby gate we were using to pen him in our bathroom while we were gone. So we bought a 32 inch baby gate and that worked...for about another two weeks. Then he figured out how to jump that one too. So we stacked them on top of each other to make a gate that was almost 5 feet tall....and this weekend he figured out how to climb it. He's apparently very smart and persistent. But he doesn't get out all of the time. It seems he only climbs the fence when he needs to potty, and then he'll pee by the back door. I am glad he at least knows where he's supposed to go. I feel bad when we are not there to let him out. I would like to install a dog door, but we don't have a sliding glass door, so we'd have to get a wall door. Scott is not sure he wants to cut a hole in the wall, so for now we'll just keep working on the potty training and try to let him out often.

All in all, the class is going well. We have about 5 more weeks to go, and so far it's been a lot of fun!

Ghetto Pool

Here in Arizona the weather stays warm (hot!) most of the year. It's the end of October and we're still getting days of 90 degree heat. So a few weeks ago I came home from work and the kids were out in the backyard with Scott playing in the water. Now right now, we're on a pretty tight budget, and playing in the water at our house usually means squirting each other with the hose or playing in the sprinklers. My children, however, have come up with what I like to call "The Ghetto Pool".

These bins are usually used to store all the outside toys. We keep them on the porch and for some reason the kids just love dumping everything out and filling them with water.

Aubyn and Maddie took turns with the hose.

I don't know what Aubyn needs the goggles for, since the water is only a foot and a half deep. LOL

I think we'll have to find a new water activity next year. The kids are definitely outgrowing their ghetto pools. :-)

Jax Can Jump!

So we've had Jax for a little more than two weeks now. We've all pretty much adjusted to our new routines (even Chewey, who I was worried would be overly aggressive with him!). We keep Jax in our bathroom at night and we have a fence in the doorway so he can still see out and we can see him. For the most part, this has worked great (more about that later!). He has gotten used to sleeping on his bed in there and we've gotten used to taking him out about once a night.




During the day, this is Jax's favorite place to sleep. I don't know what he'll do when he gets too big to fit in there, but for now, it's really cute!

As a normal, mischievous puppy, Jax is constantly looking for new things to get into and loves to jump on the furniture (and children!). He is quickly learning the words, "Good potty!" and "Off!" We are going on 3 days without an accident! Yay!

Don't let this innocent face fool you! His favorite activity is stealing shoes and hiding them under my bed. Since he is only 15 pounds, he can still fit under there. And it's quite entertaining when he tries to lick Chewey in the face. She hates it and starts barking at him immediately. He then goes tearing around the living room and into our bedroom and shoots under our bed. Chewey follows him, but as she's too big to get under the bed, she shoves her head under there and barks at him until he runs out the other side and back out the door. Both tails are wagging the whole time. Very funny!

I'm not quite sure how he got under Maddie's princess chair, but he did. The places this dog can squeeze into!

Jax decided today he needed something off of the counter. I don't officially approve of this behavior, but I do think it is funny. But he will be trained! :)

This is Jax's "area". We have his bed in here and we keep his food, water and toys in here at night. We put him in here everytime we leave the house, and until today this has worked out great. I came home today from picking up Aubyn and Jax was waiting at the garage door when we came in. He managed to JUMP the fence! Scott and I are trying to come up with a solution to this problem. Any suggestions?

Maddie's Birthday Bash!

On Saturday night we celebrated Maddie's birthday at Peter Piper Pizza. It ended up being a HUGE party, as we had 19 children show up. Everyone played some games, ate some pizza and had a blast!

Here's a picture of Maddie's cake and balloons. Maddie loves Dora the Explorer, and this is the second time she has had a Dora themed birthday. I tried to get her to choose someting else, but she wanted Dora, and in the end it was her party, so we let her do what she wanted.

While we were singing "Happy Birthday" Maddie just smiled and smiled. I think she was a little embarassed by all the attention, but she loved it too!

Every year I try to get a shot of the kids blowing out their candles. I have no idea why I love that shot so much, but I do. So here it is. LOL

Here is Maddie with a couple of her cousins and Aubyn. Amazingly enough, my sister arrived at the party BEFORE we did. Shocking, I know!

Maddie had so much fun opening her presents. Her friends and family spoiled her rotten and she ended up with some really nice things. She had so much fun at her party, and she can't wait for the next one!

Maddie in her party dress

I just had to give a little update of Maddie in her party dress. We are getting ready to leave for Peter Piper, and I think she looks soooo cute in her party dress. What do you think?

Maddie's Birthday Party!

Madisen turned 4 on September 29th, and we are celebrating tonight with a party at Peter Piper Pizza. Only a couple of people that we invited haven't RSVP'd yet, so we are expecting a crowd! I'm sure it'll be crazy, but tons of fun! I'll be posting photos from the party in the next few days, so be sure to check back!

Our New Baby!

Scott and I have been wanting another dog for many months now, but we weren't sure how our older dog, Chewey would do if we got one. We went back and forth about it for a long time, and we still hadn't decided for sure what to do when we found the cutest puppy at Petsmart. He's 9 weeks old, and we're not sure what he's a mixture of, but he's really cute and we just had to have him!

The shelter that comes to our Petsmart is called Valley Dogs, and the way dog adoptions work with them, is you have to foster your dog for two weeks before you can adopt them. They want to make sure each dog is going to fit in with the rest of the family, so it won't be abandoned later. We signed the foster papers yesterday and brought him home. The shelter had already named him Jax, and since he responds to it already, we decided not to change it.

So meet our new baby Jax!

Isn't he a cutie?

Here he is hanging out in the yard.

Rest time!

I didn't realize how much he looked like Chewey when she was a puppy !

So far, so good with Chewey. Jax wants to play with her all the time, and she doesn't like it. They've had a few barking matches, but she hasn't tried to bite him yet. I am sure in time they'll both figure out their new routines and all will be well.

Now onto potty training! :)

My Family Weekend

Last Friday my Grandma, Aunt Susan and cousin Megan came to town for a visit. I always love it when we see them, which is not often enough! We had a lot of things planned and only a couple of days to do it all. It was a crazy weekend!


The day they arrived here was my Grandma's 83rd birthday. My family and my sister's family went over to my mom and dad's to help celebrate.


Here is my cousin, Megan with all the kids. From left to right: Aubyn, Maddie, Megan, Tatum, Sawyer and Austin. Five kids in one house made for a crazy time, but it was a lot of fun.

We couldn't let the weekend go by without getting a photo of my sister and I with our cousin, Megan. We are the only three grandchildren on my dad's side of the family.

On Saturday we went out to lunch at Serranos. We met my 3rd cousin, Camille there as well. Front row: Camille, Tatum, Austin, Megan, Aubyn and Maddie. Back row: Aunt Susan, Grandma, Philip, Kim, Sawyer, Scott, me, Mom and Dad.

On Sunday all the grandchildren and great-grandchildren went to have professional photos taken for my Grandma for Christmas. It certainly wasn't easy getting five children to look all in the same direction! Somehow we managed to get a few good shots. I think my Grandma will like them.

On Monday evening my mom and dad hosted us all for a BBQ. We ate too much and played a few games. It was tons of fun! My Grandma, Aunt Susan and Megan went home this morning, and I can hardly wait until we can all get together again. :-)

Family Fun Night

Scott and I had been thinking for awhile that we needed to have a family day with just us and the kids. So yesterday we took the kids to a late lunch at Oregano's. It was yummy! We had pizza and garlic bread and a dessert cookie. The kids loved it! Afterwards we had a big surprise!

Here are Scott and the kids in the parking lot at Oregano's. Scott has just revealed that we are taking them to the Arizona Diamondbacks game. They don't look very excited, do they?

Here's Aubyn after he discovered that I did NOT forget to bring his D-backs foam finger for the game. Now he's excited! :-)

Here are the kids and I at the ballpark right before the game started. Maddie held her Beat L.A. sign throughout most of the game and cheered right along with Scott. After some Dodger fans started bantering with Scott I threatened to go downstairs and sit with Bret and Sarah. (You would have to know how my husband is at sporting events!) LOL

Here are Scott and the kids. Aubyn was excited that the free giveaway of the day was a new Diamondbacks T-shirt. And look, he's supporting Scott by wearing his Five Digits hat. How sweet!

Here's a picture of the field during the 4th inning. I don't know if you can see it, but the red banner going around the field says Wilson Electric. That is the company that Scott works for. Cool, huh? LOL

All in all, it was a fun evening. We ate too much, our team was crushed, and Scott lost his voice taunting the Dodger fans, but we had a wonderful famiy fun night. We hope to do it again soon!