Abducted by Aliens on the 4th of July

Obviously all our pictures aren't on here but I think you can see that we had a great time....lots of laughs, lots of adventures, and most of all, lots of driving! We drove from Vegas to Albuquerque, NM, then to Roswell, NM, to Carlsbad, NV, back to Albuquerque, NM, and then back to Vegas.... crazy!!!!

Here is a snapshot of our trip:

Hanging out at the KOA halfway between Roswell and Carlsbad

They had a fun, free firetruck ride which Blake LOVED... It was a pretty cool old truck.

Storytime with Uncle Brian...of course! Brian makes up some pretty crazy stories though.

Swimming with Aunt Cindy

We did make it to the Carlsbad Caverns and they were pretty awesome. We went late in the afternoon...took the elevators down and HIKED OUT!!! Not a very good idea but the only feasible one at the time. We were able to stay and see the bats come out at dusk.

Blake hitching a ride on daddy's back... what a way to go!

Even with getting to ride the whole way up and down he was exhausted that night!

The whole reason for the trip was the 4th of July and of course that means fireworks... YES we kept Blake up to see the fireworks...and NO he was not impressed. Maybe next year.

Again it was a fun trip and we love to be able to make these great memories and share times with great friends. We know Blake won't remember these yet but we have pictures to share and
great stories to tell him and soon enough he will start to remember!

Good to be Green

We decided to head to Downtown Henderson for their St. Patrick's Day parade. It was the first time we had gone to any of their parades and Blake's first real parade ever! It is fun that we live in a city that puts on events like this and gives you a "small town" feeling.

Blake had fun and liked watching all of the floats, cars and horses go by. It was much hotter than we would have liked but that is what you expect in the desert.

We look forward to many more parades for all the holidays in the future.

2010 in a glance

Wow... I can't believe 2010 has come and gone. It has been a really great year for us. Of course we have had our struggles just like everyone else but we have also had some really amazing times too. This year we were able to enjoy things as a family of three!

January - The Cox family came to town and we took family pictures which now included Blake! Other than that we just continued to settle into family life.

February - We celebrated our 8 year anniversary. Dan took a little trip to Utah and went hiking with his friend Brian.

March - We had a few visitors this month. Auntie Laura came to visit for a weekend, and Grandma Holly and Grandpa Mike were down for a week.

April - We celebrated Easter at home and were joined by Robert, Lisa and the girls. We also had a Families Supporting Adoption Education Conference.

May - We took a weekend trip to CA to watch Morgan and McKenna play a baseball game. I was able to celebrate and enjoy my 1st Mother's Day. We had our 6th and final post placement visit with our caseworker, and we also had a meeting with our lawyer for finalization of Blake's adoption.

June - Dan and I both helped out with Girls Camp for a few days. Auntie Laura visited for a weekend trip. Dan celebrated Father's Day.

July - We went to South Dakota/Mt. Rushmore for the 4th of July. We had all our family and friends here for Blake's finalization,sealing and blessing. Our friends Marvin and Maria came to celebrate Dan's 30th b-day. Blake and I went to Utah for the Stampin' Up convention.

August - We enjoyed the end of summer and stayed at home and relaxed!

September - Grandma Holly and Grandpa Mike came for a final summer visit. Blake and I went to visit friends for a weekend in CA. Auntie Laura came for her final summer visit.

October - We made a trip to AZ so the girls could go to Time Out for Women. We celebrated Blake's first Halloween and dressed as a farm family... Farmer, cowgirl and cow!

November - Blake turned 1 year old! Took a trip to Park City for a little time away. I had my 30th b-day. Grandma Holly and Grandpa Mike came to spend Thanksgiving with us.

December - Marvin and Maria were here for a weekend. We went to CA to celebrate Christmas with friends. We took Blake to Disneyland for his birthday - and mine too! Spent Christmas in AZ with the entire Urbancic family. Auntie Laura, Robert, Lisa and the girls were all here to ring in the New Year.

Christmas 2010 - AZ style

If anyone knows me...or my father-in-law...we take a lot of pictures. So I made a slideshow to help show what a great Christmas we had.

We spent Christmas this year with the entire Urbancic side of the family. Unfortunately Dan's dad had just undergone a pretty big surgery and wasn't able to travel anywhere and we all decided it was time to get together and spend our Christmas together in AZ. Steve and Amy (who had just moved to ID)were very excited to get out of the snow and come back to some warmer weather. It was wonderful to all be together and enjoy the family (as big and loud as we are getting!) There were 10 adults, 4 kids, 3 dogs, and two babies in bellies! It was quite a bunch.

We enjoyed our traditional (but less tradition this year) Christmas eve dinner and reading of the Christmas story. Things just don't seem quite as spiritual when you have three little boys running through Luke 2. We also enjoyed Christmas morning which seemed to go by in a flash...no longer did we do things in an orderly fashion. It all sort of went by in a blink of an eye and you opened something when it came your way.

I say all of this jokingly... Christmas is so much more enjoyable with the laughter and sounds of children in the house. There may be occasional arguments over certain toys and we might not all get along all of the time but the memories that are being made and the times that we spend together and starting to become very and far between and we cherish the times that we do have. We are so thankful that we were able to spend Christmas as a whole group and we love each other so much. It was a great time and the adults loved the evenings and naps when the kids were quiet and we could catch up on life too. Thanks mom and dad for hosting us all and letting us come and run through your house. We enjoyed it so much. Merry Christmas.

CA Christmas

For the past 9 years we have always gone to California and done a "California Christmas" party with our friends and family who are still there. This year we decided to keep it small and just had a small group of us get together for some dinner, presents and then we headed to see Santa! We found out about a great park out in Irvine and does a wonderful display and puts on a Christmas train that takes you to "the North Pole" to see Santa. It was a lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed it (I think all of the adults did too).

It is always so nice to go and visit our friends and family in California and enjoy the holidays with them. It was really nice this year and do something just for the kids and have Blake with us and have him be able to get in on the activities. I think next year he will REALLY enjoy Christmas (oh no!)

Christmas Card Photo Shoot

I decided I wanted a break this year and was not going to do handmade cards for Christmas...plus we had this cute little boy that we could show off...so we headed out to get some pictures done that we could put on a card. Deciding that was the easy part... having an active 1-year-old participate in the photos...not so easy.

Our good friend Jenny was great and worked well with Blake...even when we picked one of the coldest days yet to go out and get the pictures done. But we were quickly running out of time and really had no choice.

We think we got a ton of great shots and love how the card turned out... hope those who got one did too!!! Merry Christmas!

Happy Turkey Day

Grandpa Mike and Grandma Holly from Arizona decided to come and join us for Thanksgiving this year. It is so nice to have visitors and extra nice not to have to travel for the holidays!! We love to spend time with family, especially the ones we don't get to see as often.

It was kinda cold so we made sure to bundle up whenever we went out and about.

We went shopping (gotta catch some of those Black Friday deals), the boys went to the movies while the girls did the cooking on Thanksgiving, we made sure to visit the conservatory at the Bellagio to see the beautiful flowers and we also made a trip to the Ethel M Chocolate Factory to see all of the lights.


We had a great visit but most importantly we were reminded of all the blessings that we have and all of the things that we really are thankful for. We have such a great family, and amazing friends. We are thankful for the Gospel that is in our lives. We are thankful for the health that we experience and the jobs and home that we are blessed to have.

Trick or Treat....

The whole country family... Farmer...cowgirl...and cow!!

The cutest cow you've ever seen....MOOOO!

The cow in his barn!

He didn't quite get the whole trick or treat thing but he did catch on that things were being placed in his bucket and he watched to see what was happening with that whole concept.... I am sure he was just wondering what in the world is this all about and what is going on???

The farmer and his very tired cow after a looong night!!!

Happy Halloween to everyone and we can't wait to start planning for next year already.... Oh wait I guess we need to get through a certain little man's first birthday that happens next Saturday!!!!

Our little pumpkin

On Saturday afternoon we decided to head to the pumpkin patch for just a little bit. It was fun and Blake liked the pumpkins. He was actually in shock for a bit. He was just wondering around looking at all of the bright orange pumpkins and probably just wondering what the heck they were.

Then he got a little more adventurous and he should have stopped while he was ahead. He decided that he wanted to choose a pumpkin... and if you know Blake he doesn't choose the tiny ones that are in his hands and that are easy to pick up... NO! He decides to go for the big ones that are a challenge. Well... this one was sort of a draw. Blake won because he was able to pick the pumpkin up... but the pumpkin won because on the way to the ground the stem got Blake right under the eye and left him with a nice little reminder that he should pick on someone his own size!

Needless to say our journey at the pumpkin patch ended a little sooner than expected...

(Of course Blake cried for a minute or so but that was all... we really do have a tough little man on our hands!!)

America the Beautiful

Not in any particular order obviously...

We had another great 4th of July... this year we decided to head to South Dakota and visit Mt. Rushmore! Where we get these ideas I don't know but they are good ones and tons of fun.

We packed up, jumped on a plane, joined our friends Brian and Cindy and the rest is history. We had a blast exploring South Dakota and the things it had to offer. We were able to do quite a lot in the few days we were there and we had beautiful weather to enjoy as well (not like to 115 we left in Vegas!)

We explored the Rushmore Caves, saw Mt. Rushmore itself, took a train ride, saw some dinosaur remains, went to Wall Drug of course...and we watched a great firework show... with a bunch of other things thrown in between.

Another state, monument, national park, all checked off our top-do list!!!

so LUCKY...

Blake with his St. Patrick's Day bib thanks to Jen... So cute (looking so tired too!)

Blake in his St. Patrick's Day "Green"!

Blake getting kisses from mommy..

This year we had a ton of think that we had to remember how LUCKY we are. We are LUCKY to have Blake in our lives. We are LUCKY to have the Gospel in our lives. We are LUCKY to have such great family, who love us.... Things are great right now and we are just LUCKY that we get to sit back and remember that!!!

A day full of LOVE

Of course this little guy is the reason there is SO much LOVE in our house right now and we spent the day celebrating him! He got all dressed up in his red vest (thanks cousin Preston) and went to church and then we came home and just played and laughed and cuddled together... what more could we have asked for!

It was a perfect day.... completely filled with LOVE!

On another note... I do want to say that I have the best Valentine ever... Dan is the best husband and dad that I could have ever hoped for. He works so hard for us and loves us both so much. He does so many things for us and I am a pretty luck girl!

Eight years later

Feb. 2, 2002

We were married in the Los Angeles Temple eight years ago today! Time goes by so fast and life sure gives you some surprises. We never knew what we were in store for but we are so thankful for the things that have come our way and the experiences and events we have been able to share so far in our lives together.

It is so great to be able to enjoy each day with your best friend and really get to know each other. We are blessed to have been able to grow with each other and have such special times as just the two of us.....

We now embark on a new journey as a family and are excited about that. We never thought that it would take us almost 8 years of marriage before we were here but we are sure it was perfect timing and are excited about the future. Here is to 888 more wonderful years together....

Our family now... Feb. 2, 2010