My Christmastime Favorites

Watching Gary and Canyon open their presents.

Giving the Heaps the sign Gary made for them.

Hearing the Nativity story.

Waking Canyon up Christmas morning.

Going Christmas Caroling on Christmas Eve with the Kirkman Family.

Learning to sew a little better while making Skye's table clothe and rice bags.

Hearing Canyon undeniably say "Gandma" when my mom brought over this red wagon Christmas morning.

Visiting Albuquerque and shopping with Skye & going to A River of Lights with Dad, Clorie, Skye, Matt, Canyon, Jesse, and Michael K.

Waking up next to the love of my life Christmas morning.

I miss you guys!

And I miss Mexico, and the warm sunshine. Is it time for another reunion yet? Maybe we should have them more often.

Just so I don't forget...

These day's Canyon is obsessed with AIRPLANES. He spends a lot of his day with arms out "swooshing" around the house like an airplane. He loves it when Gary and I join in.

He is learning to pray. He folds his arms, bows his head (peaking to make sure we are doing the same) mumbles, then victoriously says "AMEN." He is often the one to remind us to bless our dinner.

He is quite a helper. He loves to work right next to me and Gary, whether it be folding clothes, doing dishes, making dinner. He especially loves to feed Nitro and Lola.

He loves his DAD. He loves to play and rough house, go on adventures, tickle his tummy, eat popcorn and watch cartoons with Gary. They are already good friends.

He gives perfect kisses and lots of them. He puckers and hits you right on the lips. He will kiss you over and over and over, until your heart is completely melted into mush. (He sees his mom and dad kiss, and he gets lots of kisses too -I am so happy he knows about kisses)

Every night before bed he likes to read a Dinosaur book, be told "Good night little Dino" after which he smiles and growls like a Dinosaur. He also asks for a song before we leave the room. His favorites from me are Amazing Grace & Three Little Birds (Bob Marley) and from Gary, You Are My Sunshine & Give Said the Little Stream.

He has learned to say "la you" (love you), frequently says "tan too" (thank you), and rarely says "peese" (please).

When he says "mama" and he thankfully he does a lot, I turn to puddy. He sweeps me off my feet and takes me to his world in a split second. We play, dance, clean and laugh. He makes my day.

A road trip...

Canyon, my Mom and I took a road trip to Goshen, CA for my cousins wedding. It was a long drive, but worth the fun. I got to spend my Mom's 11th cancer free anniversary with her (yeah MOM), visit with family I haven't seen in a long time, introduce Canyon to new cousins, meet new puppy Aiko, and attend a beautiful wedding. Here are some pictures from our trip. Mom's new puppy Aiko, who is soooo sweet and well mannered.
Aunt Debbie and the Bride-to-Be, Sam.

Jocelyn, Canyon, Noah, & Tyler. They all hit it off and enjoyed playing.

My mom and her sisters (Sharon, Mary, Mom, Debbie, Linda). They all pulled together for a wonderful wedding.

It's a BOY

My two favorite ultrasound pictures:

His sweet little face.

Two perfect legs.

I just can't do it...

I can't make my blog private. My decision to go private wasn't from any particular incident, I just felt a little to exposed and attached to people who don't really care about my life or my families life. However, I am glad to have people who are genuinely interested in us to check out our blog (Gary has informed me that it's a family blog, not just my blog-as if he has ever participated in a post & he never wanted it to be private). So I am keeping it open and staying optimistic that nosy people don't click my way. Sorry to toy with your emotions.

GOING PRIVATE

I am going private. Please send me your email so I can add you to my safe list. I am pretty sure that you can be added even if you are not a blogger. I enjoy sharing my life with my friends and family so please send me your email so we can stay in touch.

Hope & Gratitude

Last night when I went to bed my heart was filled with hope and gratitude and my cheeks were stained with tears. I have hope that our country is headed in a direction of change and of tolerance, hope that it will be a better place for me, for my children, for everyone, and hope that we will all be able to unite for a better world. I am grateful to witnesses this extraordinary time in our country’s history, grateful to have a renewed sense of patriotism, grateful to live on this earth in this country at this time.

Meditations on Indifference

Daily Advice from the Dali Lama:

What we do in every moment brings about new circumstances, which themselves will contribute to the arising of other events. Whatever we do, we are participating, whether voluntarily or not, in the chain of cause and effect. In the same way, our future pleasure and suffering will result from present causes and conditions, even if the complexity of these connections escapes us. We are therefore responsible for ourselves and for others.

Halloween

Thrilled to be a "dino," Canyon wore his costume all day long. He would give an occasional growl and search for his tale between his legs. He was absolutely adorable. I took out to Grandma Orina's in the afternoon where he enjoyed playing under her magical peach tree & then we went to Grandma and Grandpa Kirkman's where we caught some other sweet and scary kids.

Pumpkin Patch

Last Thursday Canyon & I went to the PUMPKIN PATCH with Cara & Bannon. I love the Pumpkin Patch and was happy to finally go. Of course Bannon & Canyon were hilarious and super excited about everything. Canyon was a great helper. He searched for corn, pointed out rotten pumpkins, and attempted to carry his own pumpkin.

The GRAND CANYON

Gary spent 8 days in the Grand Canyon on a river trip in the beginning of October. He rowed a raft the entire time, slept on the water during the night, made new friends and enjoyed every minute of the adventure. He considers it one of the most wonderful & memorable times of his life and is so thankful for the opportunity. Here are some pictures from his trip.

A sibling for Canyon

A sibling for Canyon will be arriving this April. Gary and I have been so excited and we feel so blessed to have had this baby come so easy. We have been talking about babies a lot in our house and Canyon seems to be excited every time he is around or sees a baby. He especially loves his two cousins that were born last month. He also enjoys toting around a baby doll, wrapping it in a blanket, kissing it, and giving it nap time (which he quickly discards at the sight of a more interesting activity). He is very sweet and I know he will be a wonderful big brother.

I am thrilled and grateful to be having another baby. I am finally getting past the fatigue and sickness of the first trimester and aching to hold a newborn in my arms. Gary has been very accommodating and kind with all my needs and has been coming up with all kinds of crazy names (most of which cannot be used for a human child).

With my excitement about a new baby I am even more grateful to be giving Canyon a sibling. I love my brother and sister so much. I consider them some of the most important and influential people in my life. Despite the teasing, bickering, and annoyance we caused each other growing up we are now friends, good friends. You know the “Sunscreen speech?” Well there is a line that says “Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.” I believe this to be true and I hope this is an inspiration I can teach Canyon and our new baby.

A weekend away...

It had been 1 1/2 years since we spent a day and a night together alone. That is too long. We didn't really think about how long it had been until we got the chance to get away. This past weekend Gary and I went to Greer (a gift I won at my work Christmas party last year). The weather was cool and wet, but we enjoyed a short hike, watching movies, eating food and giving eachother 100% of our attention. I love Gary so much! I am so happy he is my husband.

A picture from our hike
The rain coming down.
On our way home there was a thin sheet of snow. You can imagine how happy this made Gary.

Inspirations of Peace

I have been reading a book of daily advice from the Dalai Lama. yesterdays advice was:

In order to to transform self-hatred, we need to become aware that we have developed a false self-image and instead cultivate an authentic and healthy self-confidence based on our fundamental human qualities. We should be humble and more open to others.

Then today I was browsing the Internet and found this picture. You can barely see the photo, but it is of 9 young boys dressed as Mahatma Ghandi to celebrate the Peace Activist's 139th birthday. It is so sweet to me to see people remember and honor such an amazing man.

Despite all the turmoil in the world I still find inspiration and hope for PEACE. I believe that the human race is good. I believe that we do care about each other and I pray that we can continue to open our hearts and minds to cultivate a more peaceful world.

A trip to Albuquerque

With my Dad and Clorie returning from New Hampshire and the Holly's having a weekend full of football we headed over to Albuquerque for a fun filled weekend.

On Saturday morning Matthew played a football game (coached by Mark).

They won and it was so fun to watch!

Later that afternoon we put on our Wildcat gear to watch a Arizona/New Mexico collage game.
Hanging with Matt
Me and Skye at the Game
Mark got to take the boys out onto the LOBO field to play a scrimmage during half time.

I recently got back in touch with my old friend Kelli. She came to a sopapilla party that my dad had on Sunday. It was wonderful to catch up lost time.More pictures from the sopapilla party:

YARD WORK

Gary and I have been working hard all summer on our yards. Before the summer came to and end I thought I would share our progress with you.

Flowers in pots in the front yard:

I planted 3 new rose bushes in the front yard flower beds:
More flowers in the front yard:
We planted a vegetable garden in the backyard. The prettiest part of the garden right now is the marigolds I planted to keep the good bugs coming. We had cucumbers, lettuce, zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes, peppers, watermelon and cantaloupe in our garden. Canyon has loved the grape tomatoes and cucumbers. I have been loving everything:
We got our sprinkler system fixed at the beginning of the summer so we replanted the grass in the back yard:This is the entrance into the garden. I can't wait to grow something on my arbor next year:
Our most recent project is laying the sandstone. It has given our yard a softer, less square look. I absolutely love it. The grass is coming up great in between the stones:
These two have led us to one final project for the summer. Making a "dog yard." They have chewed and dug everything you can imagine. We have had to replace multiple sprinkler heads, replant grass, fill holes, repair fences. So for the sake of our yard (and the dogs) we are relocating them to a side yard where they can dig and chew without causing heartache: