Ringing in the New Year...

... with a little bit of color. Happy New Year!

Ready For The A.M.

We have the evening all set. Santa's cookie? Check! Santa's Milk? Check! Reindeer carrots? Check! Fat lip, comical belly and beard? Check, check and check. Welcome Santa.



Looks like someone's having a beautiful Christmas.

We anticipate that Owen is going to have a baby cardiac arrest when he sees this in the morning. He went to bed with no presents under the tree. He will wake up to this. It's good to be a little boy.

Holiday Cheer From Arizona

Christmas is upon us again and that means another trip to the railroad park, where everyone goes out of their way to make things extra Christmasy. Although we didn't sit in Santa's lap (by request of a certain 2 year old in our company), we did say "hi" to him and tell him Merry Christmas. Being in the gifting mood, we also decided it was time to do something about our car that was hit by the golf ball hail and ended up looking not unlike a golf ball itself.


This is the train that welcomes park-goers all year round. It looks decidedly cheerier these days.


There are lots of Christmas lights throughout the park. These guys are fireworks.


Bout to roll on the train around the park. Owen had a very good time and we followed suit. It's tough not to catch the Christmas spirit when you have a 2 year old with you.


Ah yes, our (Carrie's) new car. We are smitten.


Wagons, wagons, we love wagons. We also like 72 degree Christmases!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Take Your Baby To Work Day

We just realized there are a few blogs we started to post but never did. We probably weren't in a creative mood and felt bad just slapping the pictures up. Since we still don't feel creative, we decided to just slap the photos up anyway. Don't want to waste a cute photo, right?

So I present: Owen hanging at my (Carrie's) office circa November 2009.

In all honesty, I hope he doesn't end up in a job like this (i.e. sitting in front of a computer for 9 hours a day).


This is the face I make when I have someone ask me to write another memo. So many memos in government work and so little time.

It's Beginning To Look Alot Like Xmas

Five more days till Christmas. My goodness times goes by quickly. All and all it's been a nice holiday season for us. Ed is officially on break though he has one more week of his school. All our presents are shipped and we are almost done shopping for Owen. He has asked Santa for a truck and some apples. I think Santa will come through this year. We checked out neighborhood Christmas lights and baked cookies. We just want to go to the Railroad Park and ZooLights and I think we have done everything on our holiday tradition list.


This guy's house was crazy. The lights played to music, there was a bubble machine and a faux snow machine. The side of his house was decorated too and he had a firepit where the kids could roast marshmellows. I guess he goes crazy at Halloween too so we'll have to check it out next year.


It wouldn't be Christmas without Christmas cookies.


Owen was mildly into making cookies. He liked cracking the eggs and playing with the flour. I lost him after that but he jumped back in to help when he saw the frosting and sprinkles come out.


Cutting out the middle man - who needs a cookie when the sprinkles can go straight into your mouth.

Goin' On A Tree Hunt

What do you get when you have 3 moms, 4 kids, 1 dog and a chainsaw? Why a fun little getaway in Pine, AZ of course. Dawn wanted to cut her own Christmas tree this year. Kristi (Miles' mom) had a friend with a cabin in Pine. Ed had an insane amount of work to do this weekend. So it seemed like a perfect reason to pack up the car and take a road trip up north.


Playing in the cabin. And I use the term "cabin" very loosely. It was a house. A fabulous house. The woman who owns it has it set-up for guests: movies, music, dog food, fire pit, wine - you name it, we had it. It was wonderful and I am very grateful to the woman, who I will probably never meet, that let me sleep in her home.


The boys were in heaven playing pretend in the forest.


Goin' on a bear hunt... we're not scared...


Dawn and her Christmas tree. Pine doesn't exactly have trees fit to be a Christmas tree but we managed to find one that would work. Unfortunately, for her, she did not get to use the chainsaw. The trunk was tiny and it would have been silly. Fun but silly.


Something about a toddler with a saw didn't feel right. But, we needed fire wood and he volunteered.


Only thing not pictured is the large dog on Dawn's lap and the large chainsaw in the trunk. Needless to say, we were cozy but we had a dang good time.

One Reason To Love Arizona

The sunsets are just amazing. Pictures below snapped from our backyard.

Belated Thanksgiving Post

We are late posting the Thanksgiving photos but better late than never. (We say that a lot lately.) Thanksgiving was nice and also not so nice this year. Nice because Robyn came down to celebrate with us. Not so nice because Owen and I were sick. But having Robyn around for that reason was also very nice because she could help out with Owen and I could sneak in some extra sleep. Plus she helped Ed grade papers. Probably not the trip she had in mind in terms of fun and craziness but it was a huge help and relief for us. Anyway - onto Thanksgiving fun!


Making mashed potatoes crazy Ed style.


Robyn and the best gravy in the world. The best, we say!


Owen and I were down and out but managed to clean ourselves for some turkey goodness.


Owen and grandma anxiously awaiting pumpkin pie. (It was exactly one year ago on Thanksgiving that Owen took his first step. Seeing how far he has come was one of the main things we were thankful for.)