Zoo

The boys and I went to the Wildlife Zoo & Aquarium. We have not been since Trey was little and it was re-done.
We stopped for corn dogs first...one of their favorites.
They got very excited on the drive over because the jets were taking off and landing at Luke Air Force Base. At one point there was a jet right over us.
They had some new hands on exhibits, so Trey got to tough stingrays and starfish. Coby just wanted to splash the water, so he got a little wet.
We walked the whole zoo.
There were a ton of monkeys. A couple of them were eating leaves, so Trey threw some so they could reach their arms out and get them.
The black panther was right over our head, he never looked down at us, but we got to see him very well.
Trey got to feed the new baby giraffe.
Coby was not interested in the petting zoo, so Trey went in. He was so sweet, he was looking for all the small animals and then got down on the ground to pet them.
They both fell asleep on the way home.

Holiday Fun!!

We have been busy with holiday fun!! I cannot believe it is almost 2009.
Time to catch up!
We went into Trey's classroom to decorate houses. He was so excited to have us there. Coby was happy to be eating all of the decorations. Trey's teacher let Coby make one also. Trey got Student of the Month for December!!! We are extremely proud of him. He works so hard and is an amazing reader. Of course being a boy, he loves math. He is constantly asking me the answers to big addition problems. Seeing as how I am not a fan of math, I finally gave him a calculator so I could stop racking my brain.
We went down to Tucson the weekend before Christmas to celebrate with my family. Everyone was there except Dan and family because the took a trip to Arkansas.
We stopped in Tempe to look at Costco and Ikea...we are on a mission to find bunk beds for the boys. We met up with my Uncle Chuck at Ikea to get a cooler full of fish from Alaska.
We had a good time in Tucson. Lots of food and fun!
Flagstaff got 20" of snow, so we had to go let the boys play!! We just went up for the day, but it was plenty of the cold for us. We stopped and had pizza first with some of Mark's family. Then we hit the slopes. Trey, my little dare devil was on the big hills speeding down. Coby, not so much. After a few times down the hill with Mark I asked him if he wanted to go with me. His response was, "I don't wike it". HA! HA!
After the slopes closed we went over to the NAU campus and played a little more and then headed home.
Christmas Eve Mark grilled steak and halibut (the fish courtesy of Chuck) yummy!
After dinner every year we head out to see Christmas lights. We go to a house in north Phoenix that you can walk through. I have been going there since I was young. My grandparents used to live in that area. We also go to one in our area that must have 75 inflatable decorations and the homeowners dress up and hand out popcorn and candy.
The boys were able to open 1 present from mom and dad...new pj's.
Christmas morning was exciting as always. The boys are so good about taking turns and sharing. Trey was excited about all the presents he bought for us at his school santa store.
I read Marley & Me when it first came out, so I wanted to go see it after the present opening. Not a good movie to see when you have had to put 2 dogs down recently, especially when 1 of them was a Labrador.
So after we cried our eyes out, we went over to Juli's house (Mark's sister's sister in law). We had dinner and a gift exchange.
Late Friday afternoon we went over to Mesa to see my grandparents and uncle Chuck. We were all supposed to go to dinner and see the temple lights, but my grandma got sick. So we went out with Chuck for pizza. We stopped at a huge camping/hunting store on the way back. They had a inside aquarium and some shooting games for the boys.
On Saturday Mark, Trey, Coby and all the boys from his family went to a hockey game and us girls went to dinner.
Mark took the boys hiking at Thunderbird park and tomorrow I will be taking them to the zoo.
2008 was a year of ups and downs, but we are grateful to have each other and look forward to another year of watching our kiddos grow!

Suns Game

The boys went to a Suns game last night while I got to relax and make cookies!
They had a great time. Mark said they did really good sitting during the game.
The boys were chosen by the cheerleaders to go on the "smile cam". Trey went of course, but Coby was not interested. Mark tried to get a picture of Trey up on the screen, but he was not fast enough.
They have a huge play area for the kids and they both enjoyed that.

Busy Weekend!

We had a unexpected trip this past weekend. Neither Mark or I had to work, so we decided to pick Trey up from school after lunch and head up north.
We went up to Sedona first and relaxed at Mark's families condo. We all (18 of us total) went and had dinner at a Mexican place (very yummy!) and then headed over to Tlaquepaque to see all the lights. Yes, I know it has a funny name, it is a condo complex that most homeowners decorate each Christmas with a theme. The boys loved Tom & Jerry, Spongebob and Peanuts. It was rather chilly, so we had to bust out the winter coats, gloves and hats.
After that we went and spent the night with Mark's parents. The next morning there was a Christmas parade that Susie coordinated. So we all sat on the sidewalks of a main street, well as main as a small town gets, and watched the parade. The boys were excited because a lot of the floats through out goodies.
For lunch we went to The Haunted Hamburger in Jerome. The food was very good and the boys loved the ghosts that were flying around on the wires.
Jerome is a very neat town. It is an old copper mining/ghost town with a lot if history and amazing views. After lunch the men took all the kiddos to an old park to play. They even had a old metal slide, I have not seen one of those in a long time.
We got home just in time for the U of A football game. Dan came over and watched it with us. His family was in Tucson for the weekend, he had to work so he stayed back.
The boys are going to a Suns game tonight. It will be Coby's first time.

Thanksgiving

All my family came up for Thanksgiving weekend. We had a yummy feast and then relaxed and played games. On Friday we all did some shopping. Mark and my mom were the crazy early birds. They all headed home Saturday mid-morning.
Saturday night we went out to dinner and played in some "manufactured" snow and saw the Christmas tree at Westgate. We walked around a little...saw Calli at work and browsed through a "build a car workshop" as the employees call it. It is pretty neat. Coby could not keep his little hands off all the cars. The boys might have to add it to their Santa lists.
We also went up to Mark's parents house to take family pictures. Trey did a wonderful job. Coby was not at all happy about it. We played at the park for a while. Cottonwood actually has trees that change season so they were beautiful and the boys got to play in piles of leaves. Trey studied the seasons and wanted to know why there were no trees around with changing leaves...only in Phoenix!! There was also a ranch right by the park, so we got to feed a horse.

Halloween

Here are some pictures from Halloween night.
Trey was Batman, I think he has been every superhero now!
Coby was a skeleton, although he would not put the hood up or the mask and gloves on.
FYI...if you double click on our pictures you can see a larger photo :)

October

We had a busy October!! Time to catch everyone up!
Trey has been doing amazing in 1st grade. We cannot believe all he is learning. Some of the stuff he is working on I did not learn until the end of 2nd grade. He reads very well and loves to do math. He is in football right now and will move on to basketball in the new year.
Coby is getting to be such a big boy! He loves his older brother and the fact that he can boss him around too. He loves playing outside and football with Mark and Trey. He is talking so much! Including sending Trey to time out if he makes him mad. He also calls Mark "Mark", so Mark will say, "I am Dad" in which Coby will respond, "I am Coby".
We went to a pumpkin patch two weekends ago. The boys loved the corn mazes and jumping castle. They each got to pick their own pumpkins at the end. We also went to an outdoor mall and they were able to dress up early and go trick or treating to all the stores. They also had a lot of activities and food. Coby was very excited, he would say, "trick in treat" instead. After he got his first treats he said,"Mom, two candies". Needless to say he talked about trick in treating for the whole week! So when Halloween did arrive he was ready to go. He loved the decorations at our house and around the neighborhood. He is going to love Christmas!
We carved our pumpkins and cooked the seeds the night before. Trey likes to draw his own face. Coby wanted nothing to do with them, he just keep saying, "gross" or "disgusting". Which, by the way is one of his favorite words. This week at the grocery store, everything I put in the cart was "disgusting".
The boys had fun trick or treating and were thrilled with all their candy! We would tell Coby to say thank you to each person and he would say, "say thank you". Everyone was laughing and him, but he was serious about getting his candy. He really loves fire trucks and every year our fire truck goes around with its lights on and hands out candy. He was so in awe that he stopped chewing the candy in his mouth. Trey got to sit shotgun in the truck when it stopped. Trey loved to hand out the candy, we all went and sat out on the sidewalk. He was especially excited when some of his classmates stopped by.

September Vacation!!

We just got back from San Diego after a long awaited trip!!
We had to keep postponing it because of the mess at my office.
The first day we played at La Jolla shores for a while. Trey had fun boogie boarding and getting buried in the sand by dad. Coby was not a fan of the sand, but still enjoyed himself. Mark held him out in the water and put his feet in and that was close enough for him. That night we took grandma out to our regular spot...Point Loma Seafood. It was for her 80th Birthday which is the 12th.
That evening Coby took a nice spill into one of grandma's tables. He has a nice gash in the corner of this mouth and his chin got cut up too.
Friday we went to Sea World. We had just seen all shows last visit so we only went to the Clyde and Seamore show (it was closed before). The boys loved it, especially the little otter.
Trey was very excited to go on the rides with Mark. He had fun playing in the new Sesame Street area. There were new rides, one of which was a spinning one like the teacups at Disneyland. Mark was spinning him so fast he couldn't keep his head up! He was laughing so hard, but I was thinking he is going to be sick. I was right, he heaved into the trash can by the dolphins...poor boy, but he was ready to keep going.
That night Mark and Trey went to the movies and Coby and I stayed back with grandma.
The next morning we hit the swap meet and then went back to the house to relax. After Coby's nap we headed up to Point Loma to see the Cabrillo Lighthouse. Before the park entrance is the military cemetery, there were so many headstones all lined up. What a reminder of our servicemen/women and their sacrifices. We walked down to the tide pools, which are covered this time of year because of the high tide. We walked around on the rocks and the boys went on the shore. Then we walked up to and explored the lighthouse. The panoramic view of the city was amazing.
That night we went to North Park to a Chicago pizza joint. It had really crunchy crust and was yummy!
We made it back home at a decent time and are getting ready for the new week.
I start my first full time child for daycare tomorrow!! I am excited for the new adventure and opportunity to stay home.

Trey's First Day of First Grade

Today was Trey's first day of first grade. He was SO excited!! He has Mrs. Seiber, she is new to Apache, but has been teaching for 15 years. His grade is so big, that they have had to hire a new teacher each year. He made a little book about his day and was thrilled that they got 4 recesses. He has 3 friends from last year and they are known as "the boys". They all are in different classes this year, we all joke about that being done intentionally. They all met up during recess though.
He had chicken nuggets, chocolate milk (his favorite drink) and a muffin (not sure if it was an actual muffin or biscuit).
Coby did really well without him, but I am sure that will get harder each year until he can go with!
After we picked him up and were boiling inside, we went swimming. Mark came and met us and we all swam a little longer.
After Trey had a snack he took a little snooze, which was not surprising.
We are excited for the new school year and it gives us great pleasure watching him learn and grow into such a great kid!

BIRTHDAYS!! 7 and 2

Here are some pictures from the boys Birthdays.
We celebrated as a family on their actual Birthdays and then had a combined party for them. Trey is so great to share his party with Coby and hope that continues!
Trey had a Hulk cake and I made a car/truck cake for Coby.

Fourth of July

We went to the Peoria Sports Complex for the 4th with Dan, Crystal, Alex and Ryan. This was our second go around and their first.
They were supposed to have activities for the kids, but it was so windy they could not set up any of the inflatables. The boys entertained themselves running around instead.
It was a nice fireworks show with patriotic music.

First Grade here I come (Trey)

Trey has finished Kindergarten!! He had a nice presentation with his class and another Kindergarten class. They were the 4 seasons and must have sung at least 10 songs that they had been working on all year. He had a wonderful teacher, Mrs. Batz and we will all miss her, but look forward to a new victim, I mean teacher HEE HEE!!
As you can see in his pictures he has a little damage to the forehead. He and a little girl collided on the playground and her tooth went into his forehead, gross!! No stitches, thank goodness, the school nurse got the butterfly bandage on good enough. He had a follow-up visit and has scar tissue forming and because of his skin tone he has to wear a hat and sunscreen during the healing process, which he reminds us of all the time!

Visit to Grandma's

The boys and I went up to Grandma Sue's and Grandpa Russ' house for the day. We all had a good time. Grandma, grandpa, and Trey all picked cherries off grandma's cherry tree. There were a lot of them. Trey also went snail hunting in grandma's pond. It was a very good trip.

Soccer Season is Over

Well Trey's first go at soccer was a success. This was his first time playing soccer on a team and he loved it. He wants to know when he can play again. The last game was on Saturday and he had 4 goals. Soccer is the perfect sport for him because it involves being aggressive and a lot of running which are two things that are inherent in him. We had a team party at the coach's house after the game and that was nice. His coach was great. She made sure they learned the fundamentals and most importantly they all had fun. On to the summer and basketball. Trey will play basketball this summer. A good cool indoor sport.

Our little boy is growing up fast

It took Coby a while to say his first words but we cannot get him to stop talking now. Unfortunately one of the words he learned from his brother is "no". Yikes not a good word for a almost 2 year old to know. He loves playing in the backyard with his brother and going to watch Trey's soccer practice and games. He calls him "tay". Here is a picture of him in Las Vegas. We all went to Vegas two weekends ago because I had a conference for work at Mandalay Bay. The boys had a great time at the pool.

Our "Student of the Month"

Well it is with extreme pride that we can say Trey was named student of the month for April. We found out a couple of weeks ago and we were told to go his presentation last Friday. So we went to the presentation and watched him get his student of the month certificate and his smile is great because he is missing 3 teeth. We could not be any more proud. Sorry for the real bad pictures but you can get the idea.

Changes to our Backyard

We have renovated some of our backyard recently. It has been great to have some grass. We added about 520 square feet of sod and added pavers between the grass and the rocks. The boys are loving it. They have spent more time outside in the backyard in the last 2 weeks then the whole time we have lived here. At some point we will be adding a fire pit.

Mark's Higher Education

Well I am writing this a little bit late and most of you have already heard the news. I have finally graduated with my undergraduate degree in Bachelor of Science in Business Administration/E-Business. I received my degree from the University of Phoenix. It was some time coming and many schools later. For a good laugh I have decided to list the higher education institutions that I have credits with. This list is starting from the beginning.

• Triton Community College
• Northern Illinois University
• College of Lake County
• University of Arizona
• Pima Community College (Not sure if I finished the class :))
• Rio Salado Community College
• Glendale Community College
• University of Phoenix
  

Wow that is a lot of schools. Anyway it took a while but it is done. I have started my Master's program at (you guessed it a different school) Western International University. The program I am enrolled in is the Master's of Business Administration in Information Technology. Let's just hope it does not take me 15 years and 8 schools to complete this degree program.

Easter Pictures of the Boys

Pictures of the boys on our new grass in the backyard.

Trey's First Soccer Game

Trey started playing soccer for the first time last weekend. As you all may have guessed he loves it. Gees go figure Trey likes a game where you can run and be aggressive. It is right up his alley. These pictures are of him playing goalie.

Mark's Trip to San Francisco

I went to San Francisco to help a my Eric bring back a car he leased. It was a lot of fun and I got to see a lot of San Francisco that did not see on my previous trip. Here are some pictures.

We rented a GOcar (look at the pictures) to tour the city and we drove it to Chrissy Field, Golden Gate Bridge, and the Presidio. Then the next day we visited Muir Woods and saw the redwoods. We also made it up the hill to Alamo Park to see the very cool houses and then Nob Hill. We also had a drink at the Top of the Mark. The Top of the Mark is the on the top floor of the Mark Hopkins Inter-continental hotel on Nob Hill.

All in all it was fun trip. Oh Yeah we also ate very well while we were there.

I will add more pictures once I get the pictures from Eric.

Up North