Happy Valentine's Day!!

This Valentine's Day was definitely my favorite of the 6 that Doug and I have shared together. Mostly because I was completely and utterly spoiled!! I woke up to the sweet smell of my favorite breakfast of biscuits and gravy and found a beautiful flower display that Doug had somehow hid in the fridge the day before. We spent the day shopping and running our normal Saturday errands. We we returned home, the kids were exhausted and fell asleep early and left us with a fabulous, romantic evening. Last week, Doug had asked where I wanted to go for Valentine's Day and I joked, "Palo" which was the formal black tie restaurant on our cruise. He completely surprised me and recreated the restaurant with his own gourmet cooking, menu included. It was absolutely delicious!

Doug, thank you for a wonderful Valentine's Day, but also for loving me through all of our crazy trials and struggles over the years. You are an amazing person, and I love you!! Happy Valentine's Day Sweetie!! :-)

This morning Iwanted to snap a few pictures of the kids that I could scrapbook. This morning was filled with bribes for Chocolates and treats, but I think it was worth it because we got a couple of cute ones!! :-)

Daddy's Little Helper!

Doug creates the most delicous dinner rolls, but he doesn't make them very often because they take all day to rise, and it usually makes a huge mess in our kitchen. Today was no expection to that mess, except this time he had a little helper!! These pictures are Brooklyn in her training to become a Master chef!

Look Ma!! No hands!!

cHoCoLaTe FeStiVaL!!!

We went to the Glendale Chocolate Festival Today! There were hundreds of vendors that covered everything from strawberries, apples, and key lime pie to french fries and potato chips in chocolate! I wasn't brave enough to try to chocolate potato chips, but the kids sampled about every item there was! The favorite item was the carmel apple covered in M&M's!! Yum!

Who wants to kiss this Chocolately Princess!?

The kiddos are screaming "I love Chocolate!!"

Disney Vacation Slide Show!

Our Disney Vacation!!

We just returned from our 2 week, much needed, Disney vacation. We spent a few days in Disneyworld with Doug's parents. We had so much fun traveling to the different parks and spotting the Disney characters walking around. Brooklyn was so in love with all the Princesses and Josh got to see his #1 hero: Buzz Lightyear!! We then boarded the beautiful Disney Cruise with Doug's parents, his sister Natalie, and her family. We were so excited to spend time with them, especially since we haven't seen Mark since before his tour in Iraq! Our Western Caribbean cruise ported in Key West, Cayman Islands, Cozumel, Mexico and then the Disney Island (Castaway Cay). We had so much fun and we were pampered to death!!
Joshua loved the kid's club and wanted to spend most of his days there, as well as the pool. They did the coolest activities. His favorites include Tinkerbell trying to find Peter Pan and needing the kids to help her. She sprayed the kids with glitter Pixie Dust and helped them fly across the room to find Peter Pan! They also did magic shows and plays and had a PJ dance party! Brooklyn's favorite thing to do this vacation was to spend time with her Nana and Papa. She couldn't get enough of them and their loving attention!! She loved to play in the pool with the cousin Sasha, and play in the sand at the beach!
Doug's favorite part of the vacation was haggling the Salesmen in Mexico and showing off his Spanish speaking skills to get some awesome souvenirs! We were able to attend some awesome entertainment shows in the evenings with Mark and Natalie while Doug's parents tended to the kids. (Did I mention that we were totally pampered)?
My favorite part of the cruise was definitely the food!! We had some of the most delicious dishes and we even had 24 hour room service! We basically ate non-stop! That is definitely my kind of vacation!! We had an awesome housekeeper who I swear cleaned our room every time we left!! It doesn't get much better than that!!
Now it's back to reality and I'm currently on my 7th load of laundry and trying to remember how to keep house. I keep leaving dishes outside my bedroom hoping that someone will take them away for me...but they're still there!!

This is Traveling Day!! What would I do w/o my pack mule Doug? He carried all 8 suitcases for us! Yes 8!! We are ridiculous I know!!

Daddy holding his little Princess. The picture was cut off but Brooklyn is sporting her beautiful Belle Princess dress that her Nana created for her!! She was absolutely beautiful, but wouldn't sit still long enough to snap a great picture!

We had a Pirate Party one night and we all dressed up and danced on the top of the ship. Josh thought it was so awesome because all the Disney characters dressed up as Pirates too!!

Here's a question for ya'll: which is Chip and which is Dale!?! (I finally learned how to tell them apart!!)
Answer: Chip has a Chocolate "CHIP" colored nose, while Dale's is red! :-)

These kids sure love their grandparents! They were both fighting over which one got to sit on Papa's lap until Doug intervened and helped them both snuggle with their Papa. (Can you just see Josh's smug little expression because he got his way?)

Here's Mama with the kiddos. We are waiting for the bus to take us to Magic Kingdom!

Doug and I had a wonderful time together this vacation and really enjoyed how spoiled we were! This picture is one of my favorites. It was taken at the beach of the Cayman Islands and shows the beautiful ship in the background!

Brooklyn had so much fun building sandcastles with her Daddy!! She tried to swim but got so annoyed with those pesky waves, so she spent the rest of the day soaking up the sun at the beautiful beaches!

This is my wonderful Mother-in-law, Jenny and sister-in-law, Natalie!! We had so much fun with them, and can't wait to do it all again soon!! :-)

It's traveling day again!! Josh was too tired to walk, so Doug simply piled him onto the rest of the luggage!! :-)

Twinners!!

Doug was so excited to find similar sweaters for him and Josh to wear to church together. Joshua always tries to copy his Daddy's every move, so he thought it was just so cool to match with his Daddy. He ever wanted to wear the "cool stuff" in his hair to make it spikey. :-) Like Father, Like Son!

Day at the Zoo

Joshua has been learning all about zoo animals in school and has been begging me to take him to the zoo, which we did this week! Josh was telling Brooklyn about the zebra display when I snapped this picture of her giving him a big hug. He is such a good big brother to her, and she absolutely adores him!!

In college, Doug wrote an interesting song titled, "What's the sound of a Rhino," in which he creates this growling sound in the back of his throat, and insists that Rhinos make this sound. It has been quite a topic of conversation in our household to whether Rhinos actually make any noises sounding like this at all. (I know we need to get out more). Anyways, in this instance Joshua is growling at the Rhinos, trying to get them to talk back to him! Unfortunately, we still have no answer to our question..."What's the sound of a Rhino?"

This picture is actually from last year when we visited the zoo, but it was so cute that I had to include it.

Our Little Princess!

Have any of you ever had a toddler that threw a tantrum because they did want to wear the outfit that you put them in!?!? This morning Brooklyn decided that she needed to wear this Princess outfit to go grocery shopping with me! After the crazy morning that I'd had, filled with multiple trantrums, I decided I just didn't care anymore, and just drove to the store. I have to admit she looked pretty cute, so I smiled at all the other shopper's questioning glances, because at least for the moment she wasn't crying!!

Can you just see her saying, "Now, I'm ready to go!"

Joshua Started Preschool!

Joshua began preschool this week at "The Little U Preschool." He attends each morning of the week for a few hours each day. I can't believe he's old enough to start school. He looked so grown up with his little backpack! I'm not sure if he loves it more, or if Mom loves the break more, but either way it's wonderful! :-)

Joshua was singing a new song that he learned at school when I snapped this picture, and I can't stop laughing at his goofy face!

This is Joshua's school-work that he wanted to show-off!

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY JOSHUA!!

Joshua I can't believe that it's already been 4 years since you were born!! You have always been my little explorer and have experienced so many things in your short little life. We've moved 5 times since then, including 3 different states. Your Daddy and I have watched you learn to walk, talk and talk back!! You are so much fun to watch grow and I love you to death!!

Joshua's favorite things include:

Super heros

Buzz Lightyear

Cars

Singing along to his favorite tunes

Wrestling with Daddy

Hugs/kisses

Thomas the train

Acting out scenes of his favorite movies

Swimming

Swinging at the park

Playing drums on rockband

Being Mommy's little helper

Showing off the characters on his new underpants

Playing with (or antaginizing) Brooklyn

Joshua partied so hard that he passed out on the floor surrounded by his new toys!

Rockin In the New Year!

We had so much fun at our New Year's Party and rung it in playing rock band and celebrating with friends!! We ate crab, stuffed mushrooms, and every kind of dessert imaginable! You know you're getting old when your party ends at 10 because we watched the ball drop in New York (10 our time) and called it a night!! :-)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Our Mini-rock stars!! This song goes out to Michaela on the guitar, Kenzie jamming on the Mike, Josh banging those drums and David on the bass!!

Carmin is concentrating so hard to get a perfect score!! You go girl!

Molly jamming on her guitar!! Go Rock Stars!!

Auntie Carmin snuggling with her neice Kenzie and nephew Brody!

Year 2008 was an awesome year for us!! We bought started the year w/ my baby Josh turning 3, and loved that our lovely daycare lady completely potty trained him for us! We bought our first house in March, made some wonderful friends, hosted many awesome parties, loved our visits from Collette, and Nana and Papa. Celebrated Doug's graduation with his MBA! Celebrated Brooklyn's 2nd b-day, and my 25th! It was a wonderful year wrapped up with me quitting my job so that I could stay home with our little toddlers! We laughed many laughs and cried many tears, and ended the year celebrating with wonderful friends! I couldn't have asked for a better year! I look forward to what 2009 will hold for us!! Here's to our next year's adventures!!