We said "I Do" in 2002

It's been a jam-packed 9 years.
5 addresses
4 kids
10 jobs
7 vehicles
and lots and lots of love.

9th Annual Christmas Costume Party

It's hard to believe that we've had 9 Christmas Costume Parties already! Even though planning a party with a 6-week-old isn't the smartest thing I've ever done, I'm glad we didn't forego the awesomeness!

Host and hostess... the first year that I took the easy way out and dressed in a sweater instead of in a costume. The sweater was super awesome though so I didn't feel too bad!

The Peng family, complete with their newly adopted daughter Lily!

Kirstie and Tony- man I wish this picture did Tony's sweater justice. It was THE UGLIEST THING I have ever seen!

The Dowd family as "4 Calling Birds"

How do you disguise a 8-month pregnant belly? Dress it up as a snowy hillside and call yourself Christmas Eve!

Sugerplum fairies were definitely a trend of the night!

3 Little Kittens who lost their mittens

In case you were wondering where I get my love for dressing up and having parties, look no further!

Arielle, Adrie, and the 2nd place winner, George!

Grand prize winner, Elijah the Shepherd!

Of course there were lots and lots more festively dressed people that I didn't take pictures of. Oh well. Thanks for coming everyone! And if you didn't come this year, you DEFINITELY should come next time for the 10th annual!

Thankful Today

Today I am thankful for:

1. a 15 year old niece who came to entertain my CRAZY children for 3 whole hours so that I could cook and do laundry in relative peace

2. clean sheets and a freshly made bed (see #1)

3. being finished with my 7-year-old maternity clothes and being able to refill my closet with my regular clothes (see #1). it's like getting a whole new wardrobe without spending any money!

4. fresh cranberry sauce (see #1)

5. a sister-in-law who brought me a latte

6. a healthy, chubby-faced, good-sleeper baby

7. a husband who is willing to run to the store for me so that I don't have to change out of my pajamas

8. a 6, 4, and 2-year-old who still take afternoon naps

Because all you really wanted was some pictures

After a quick 4.5 hr labor, she's OUT!!!!

Proud Daddy!

Relieved, exhausted, happy mommy!

What were we thinking?!

Perfection

Let's just pretend that Landon's face doesn't make us all afraid for Stella's safety...

Landon is actually very gentle with her and LOOOOOVES giving her kisses and hugs...

She finally opened her eyes...late at night when everyone else was sleeping... I don't really blame her!

Grady can literally sit with her for an hour straight, cuddling, singing... it's amazing to see how much he loves his baby sister!

Big News

Somebody lost a tooth tonight....
It had been loose for just over a week and she's been fretting over it, sleeping with a plastic baggie close by just in case it fell out when she's sleeping, wondering if it would hurt if she let her uncles pull it out for her.

Well tonight, while she was in bed, she pulled it out all by herself. She came out to show us, smiling from ear to ear with a mouth full of blood [are they really supposed to bleed that much?].

She is very excited and proud and said that she's not sleeping tonight because she's going to wait for the tooth fairy who she knows isn't real because there aren't real fairies but it's really just her parents pretending to be fairies.... yeah, yeah, yeah. Just try to enjoy the moment little girl!

ps. what are we supposed to do with her tooth? throw it away? keep it? save it for stem cell research?

A most wonderful surprise

Dylan was working on fixing our leaky, squeaky kitchen faucet this morning and he looked out the window and said to me,
"Oh look. Aunt Joy's here"

WHAT!!!!!!! How can this be? She lives far, far, far away in New Mexico. She's not coming home until Christmas......
Well, I guess her plans changed :)

Stella June

We are so happy to announce the arrival of Stella June!
Born November 3, 2011 at 6:53am
8lb 11oz, 21inches

Emma is ECSTATIC to have a baby sister. She said "Mom, God obeyed my prayers because I told him I wanted a baby sister and He gave me one."

Grady is a very proud big brother and glows when he gets to hold her- until she starts crying. Then he pushes her away fast!

Landon loves having a real live baby doll to hold and poke. He points out all of her features (none too softly) and keeps smothering her with hugs and kisses. Thank God he's healthy right now or we'd have a major problem on our hands!

Basically, Stella is one lucky baby girl to have so much sibling love surrounding her :)

Halloween 2011

This year, because their mom is so un-festive, Emma and Grady took it upon themselves to create Halloween decorations and dress up our house. They raided my tissue paper stash and made super spooky bats and spiders and pumpkins and signs and then taped them up all over the front of our house:

Then, for the first time, they (Dylan) carved pumpkins:

For trick-or-treating, Emma dressed up as a ladybug, Landon wore the monster/alien/bug costume that Grady refused to wear 2 years ago, and Grady was a pirate:

Landon really got into the whole trick-or-treating thing and promptly put every piece of candy he was handed straight into his mouth, wrapper and all:

Trick-or-treating is very much alive and well just down the street from our house. Literally hundreds of kids come out and the houses are super spooky and tricked out with all sorts of special effects. But NO ONE comes down our court because of the bend in the road and it's so dark. So, instead of buying a ton of candy that I would eat all by myself, I bought a box of real fruit fruit snacks to pass out. Yep, I'm that mom. And since no once came, my kids are stocked up with snacks that I'll actually let them eat- definitely one of my better ideas!

Not cool raccoons

Not cool at all...

Progress

5 years ago we sold our little 800 square foot house and bought this house. We loved the location. We loved the additional square footage. We loved gaining a second bathroom. We loved that Dylan could have an office at home. We loved that most of the interior had already been upgraded. And we loved the potential in our back yard.

2 years ago we began our back yard makeover by digging out part of our hillside and relocating our hot tub into the hill...

One year ago we added a back patio and french doors that lead out to it...
And finally, for the past few weeks we've been doing this:
We are SO excited to now have irrigation and, as Emma calls it, "the green kind of grass" (ie. not the brownish kind that we've had for the past 5 years!) in our backyard!

In 3 weeks when we're actually allowed to walk on it, I'll take some more pics and again someday when we have all of the borders planted. I just don't want to overwhelm y'all with more than one project competed per year ;)

The Fall Edition

Here's a photo recap of what we've been up to so far this fall....

Since Phil Collins isn't currently touring, I took Dylan to an Amy Grant/Michael W. Smith concert for his birthday...

Grady turned 4 and had his first real party, complete with digging for buried treasure....

We went camping with some dear friends from Cal Poly....

Landon turned 2 and got his first set of wheels (he can almost reach the pedals!)...

and he moved into a big kid bed....
and he started shaving....

My great friend from childhood, Christen, got married....

Our niece was a "real life" [homecoming] princess....

I sent the kids into the backyard to burn off some energy and they created this super safe contraption....

(a plank, a slide, and a lawn chair turned into a bridge)

We went to Mt. Diablo on a tarantula hunt....

Dylan took us to work with him and we stopped at Stinson Beach for a little fun....

And here I am, 38.5 weeks pregnant cooling off my swollen feet and hoping that this kid will come out SOON!