Picnic at The Farm

A while back ago the kids and I went on a picnic with a friend of ours to a place called The Farm at South Mountain just down the street from where we live. It's an oasis filled with acres of pecan trees, lawn grass, organic gardens, restaurants, art galleries, shops and retreats. This is a place Ben and I have talked about having some kind of reception at. In the spring/summer months it is absolutely gorgeous, as for now it is a little dead, but still a fun place to go relax and let the kids run free! Oh yeah, the trees even wear sweaters (believe it or not, it does get cold here!)

Valentine's Day Pictures

Alright, these aren't the cutest pictures that my children have ever produced but I must admit, Amelia was a ham during this session! While Carter wasn't having it, Amelia decided to be the biggest cheese ball ever. I think they came out cute enough for Valentine's Day presents... enjoy!

Proudest Mommy!

You may be wondering what this chicken scratch is right? Well, this here is Amelia's first time writing her name! Since Amelia is our first child I'm not familiar with the stepping stones and the order they go in, but I can tell you I was so proud of her!! She has always been good with her letters and was identifying them when she was about 20 months old. Sheila (Grandma) had given her a princess workbook to practice writing letters, so I started working with her on writing the letters in her name and here is the results!

Photos for our New Year's card...

We decided this year instead of having professional photos taken we would load up and head to a scenic place here in the valley. Ben took us to the Raven golf course at Verrado near where his Mom lives. It was gorgeous out there! Of course we couldn't get a photo with both kids looking so we settled on the best one we had. My Mom took some of these photos (the one on our card) and I snapped some of the kids and the super cute ones with Ben and Carter. If your wondering, Amelia is holding a stuffed EVE from the movie Wall-E, it's her new best friend right beside Wall-E himself.

New Year's Cards

For those of you who I didn't get a chance to mail our New Year's card to here is how they turned out. Unfortunately I chose one of the most expensive cards so we were limited on the amount we could purchase. I tried scanning this one but it didn't come out very well but I think you can get the idea. We hope everyone had a wonderful New Year!

Bringing in the New Year right!

Okay, so not all of you need to be jealous that we were basking in the sun in January! This is the reason people live in Phoenix, Arizona and man, was it great! My brother Terry and my nephews Anthony, Kaleb and Payten were in town visiting after Christmas. We all stayed up to see 2009 (except Payten who feel asleep on Sheila's shoulder.) The kids had a great time playing with their cousins, we'll sure miss them!

Christmas Day

Christmas this year was mild in comparison with last years! It was very low key, we had Grandma and Grams here with us. Amelia and Carter were exited to wake up and see that Santa left them a kitchen. Although Amelia's response was "I wanted the pink one!" See, every time we went into the Kids Pottery Barn store she would play with the kitchen on display which was pink. Needless to say she is loving their red one, it plays just the same way the pink did! All in all we had a great Christmas and missed all our family!