Birthday Month

In January we have 2 birthdays to celebrate. Chandler's birthday is on the 10th and Olivia's is the 16th. He recently turned 9 and she turned 3. Right now it's OK, but I'm sure it will get very expensive as the kids get older. Madelyn isn't far behind, her birthday is in February.

Here are some pictures of our small celebrations

Happy New Year

2008 brought us many wonderful and exciting things, we can't wait to see what 2009 has in store for us!

Happy New Year!

Christmas Day

My little tool man! Elijah LOVES tools. When Justin starts working on something, Eli was always trying to take tools and help. So we got him his own for Christmas and he is thrilled.

Hurry up Dad, those are MY tools!

The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse set was a little heavy, but that didn't stop Olivia from trying to pick it up. Mickey Mouse is her favorite thing right now

Chandler kept telling me, "Mom, I want 2 Webkinz for Christmas." He got them!

Madelyn's favorite thing right now is High School Musical, so she was excited to get a game from Grandma Debi

Decorating the tree

Decorating Christmas cookies for Santa

Eli had to decorate a cookie too, he just wouldn't sit at the table to do it!

Miss Olivia LOVED having a Christmas tree

Madelyn was so glad to finally put up a tree!

Because of our move, we didn't put up a Christmas tree until we got to California. When we were finally ready to put one up (on December 23rd) I had to call a Lowes and 3 Home Depots before I found one with any trees left.
The kids were beyond excited, and had so much fun!

A couple of weeks ago we went to California because Justin had a job interview. It was a Tuesday morning in November, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. The kids love the beach, they don't care how cold the water is, so of course they ended up soaked. EXCEPT for Eli. If it weren't for Justin, he would have been soaked too.

Making a run for it...

Getting closer

Carried away to safety!

We went back to the beach after the interview. This time I put everyone but the baby in their swimsuits. I knew I wouldn't be able to keep them out of the water!

Chandler was obsessed with seaweed for some reason.

The girls and their castle

Eli is ONE!!!

As cliche as it is, I can't believe it's already been a year. Elijah is one! We decided just to have a little family party for him (just our immediate family), but it was great. The theme I chose was "monkeys". Eli is my littlest monkey, so it was quite appropriate.

Eli picked the chocolate chip eyes off his monkey cupcake. He never smashed it all over his face, just all over his high chair.

This is one of the monkey cupcakes I made. It was banana cake with chocolate frosting.

My big monkey showing my little monkey how to work the toy.

The monkey party!!! Eli got so many presents, and ALL of the kids had a blast playing with them. You would have thought it was their birthdays by how excited they were.

Another Soccer Saturday

We spend most of our Saturdays at soccer games. Madelyn's is usually first, and are only about 2 miles from our house. Next come Chandler's games, and they are usually very far away. All of them have been in the metro Phoenix area, but it's a pretty big place. Last Saturday, the game was over 50 miles from our house. I really don't mind the driving, but Eli hates being in the car.
The part I really didn't like was the heat. It was almost 100 degrees, pretty miserable for November.Water break

Taking the kick for the keeper-apparently he has this awesomely huge kick that none of us knew about!

Pretty girl! She is an awesome player too!

We spend most of our Saturdays at soccer games. Madelyn's is usually first, and are only about 2 miles from our house. Next come Chandler's games, and they are usually very far away. All of them have been in the metro Phoenix area, but it's a pretty big place. Last Saturday, the game was over 50 miles from our house. I really don't mind the driving, but Eli hates being in the car.
The part I really didn't like was the heat. It was almost 100 degrees, pretty miserable for November.

Halloween Pics

Although Halloween may be my least favorite holiday, we had a great time this year. Madelyn and Chandler were excited from the moment they awoke. Olivia, on the other hand, was a pain in the morning, and refused to wear her Pluto costume. She put on Mady's ballerina tutu, and we made our way to the kid's school. After we dropped them off, Justin, Olivia, Elijah, and I ran to Starbucks, to get a coffee before the costume parade began at school. The parade was fun, and we got to see all of the kids dressed up.
That afternoon, I had to go to Chandler's class and "help" with the party. His teacher had asked me the Saturday before when we saw her at the school carnival if I could take care of the class Halloween party. I do love planning parties, so of course I obliged. Despite the fact I only had a few days to get everything organized, the kids had a great time.
After school, I fixed dinner. We had a homemade pizza shaped like a jack-o-lantern, with pepperoni features. It turned out really cute, and the kids even ate it (they don't always like pizza-strange children).
About 5:30 we headed out trick-or-treating, because I wanted to go before the littlest kids got too tired. The neighborhood really came alive. I have never seen so many people out and about. It seemed like every other driveway was filled with a group having a party and passing out candy. We got so much candy, there is no way we will eat it all. We had a really good time this Halloween!
I had to take a picture of Madelyn (cowgirl) and Chandler (skateboarder) before they went into school. Chandler told me he wanted to be a skateboarder because he wouldn't have to do very much, and he could still play soccer at recess. Pretty practical I think.


Eli (cowboy) and Libby (ballerina) in the car

I made them all pose before we set out trick-or-treating

"Dad, when are we going trick-or-treating?" In the evening, she FINALLY put on her Pluto costume that she HAD to have from the Disney Store. I don't know why, but she really loves Pluto.

"I don't know why my face is covered in chocolate!"

Happy Halloween!

Who knew Justin was such a master pumpkin carver?

Sure Dad, uh huh, whatever you say...

I can't believe how big my kids are getting!

Ewwww, pumpkin slime hands

Look at my pumpkin! She has been obsessed with pumpkins since they started showing up in the grocery store in September. We have 9!

Keeping Busy

I was going through the pictures I've taken over the past month, and it overwhelmed me. So instead of a lot of little posts, here are some pictures of what has been keeping us busy...

Madelyn playing soccer. This is her third year, and she's doing better than ever!

That's my mischievous little princess Olivia

Elijah loves to swing at the park. He always HATED his baby swing, though.

For a couple of days it was "cold" (highs in the low 70's) and we got to break out the long sleeves.

One morning when the kids were on Fall Break I took Mady, Libby, and Eli to the park.

Desert Breeze

A couple of Friday's ago, I took Eli and Libby to Desert Breeze Park. When we lived closer, I took Mady and CJ there all the time. It's not that we're super far now, I just don't think to go there.
I decided to take the kids for a ride on the train. At first Olivia was adamant that she did not want to ride it. I forced her on, and she just sat there with her ears covered. I told her that it wasn't going to be loud, but it wasn't until the train started moving (quietly) that she uncovered her ears. Then she LOVED it. She got so excited, she was talking about everything we were passing by, and just really enjoying herself. Eli had a good time too. He just sat on my lap and pointed at everything we passed.

After the train ride, we rode the carousel. Olivia rode a giraffe and Eli got the animal right next to her, which happened to be a horse. It was the fastest, ricketiest carousel I had ever been on. After snapping a couple of pictures, I had to put my camera away and cling to Eli's horse so I wouldn't succumb to the centrifugal force!

After two rounds on the carousel, we went to the spray park. Of course the kids had a blast. Of course Olivia did not want to leave. That was to be expected. Eli was so cute, because he got to use his newly acquired walking skills on the soft padded ground of the spray park.

Opening Day

Madelyn's team name is "The Pink Sparklers"
Obviously it's an all girl team!

Running after the ball

In between the action-Chandler is not used to so much down time at a soccer game, he's usually warming up for his own game.

On the pitch, waiting for the game to start


Our friend Nick holding Eli. He and Mady were letting Eli throw the ball-his absolute favorite game in the world!

Coach Justin and Coach Rob analyzing the game :)

Madelyn and Chandler had their first soccer games of the season last Saturday. We had to be at Madelyn's game by 7:30 am, and it was already hot! At first, Madelyn was a little hesitant, she just jogged along the side of the action. But after "prompting" from her dad, she started to get in the middle of everything.

Chandler's game was miserably hot. It was humid, over 100 degrees, and it started at 2:00 pm! The boys sat under an umbrella when they were not on the field, but it was terrible. They played ok, not their best, but not too bad for the first game.