Gaunt with the Wind!

7 Quick Takes

2012-02-01T12:17:00.000-08:00

1. Exactly 4 months today until we move back to Washington! Ahhh. A lot of unknowns, for example, where we will live (job depending).

2. Last Fall a lot of my girlfriends from college gave birth, and this Spring I have 9 girlfriends from my community of friends here who are going to have babies between Feb. and April! That is CRAZY! 4 girls and 5 boys! I am truly going to get my baby fix. So fun!

3. We are officially done with bottles for awhile :). Genna transitioned to a sippy cup a lot easier than I thought she would. She eats with us and I have no extra feedings. I haven't felt this freedom in a long time!

4. The last few nights Cory has been able to take a break from studying and it has been so fun to have him around! I can cook while he plays with the kids and we can spend our evenings hanging out together! Life is going to be soooo good in 4 months!

5. Our sister-in-law Chrystal is coming in a week to Arizona! We are pretty excited because she gets to spend a weekend with us. She made it just in time before we left Az. The best part is the trip is free because her work is sending her down to Phx for a conference! We will celebrate Genna's birthday while she is here :).

6. Is it just me, or do any other moms daydream for ONE day to spend in your house without kids. A day where you can lay in bed all day and watch movies, get up only to eat and go to the bathroom. No responsibilities, just relax. I know, so exciting. This is my BIGGEST fantasy. haha.

7. Every room in my house has a sleeping baby right now! I better sit down and enjoy this quiet time before I have babies crawling all over me.

Things that made me laugh/smile lately....

2012-01-30T06:51:00.000-08:00

1. I posted this video on FB, but if you haven't seen it, I hope you will take a look now. Joey is such a happy boy....most of the time. However, he is also very sensitive. When he gets in trouble or has to stop doing something he wants to do, we usually have tears. He knows if he starts sobbing he has to sit in time out to collect himself with deep breaths. About a month ago I noticed he would start laughing, instead of sobbing. It wasn't his normal happy laugh, but more of a "I'm trying not to cry laugh." Everytime I hear him laugh like this I can't help but crack up. I caught it on video the other day! Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

2. Genna is really into giving kisses lately. The victim is often unexpected. Beware little children if you are getting your diaper changed while Genna is nearby. Joey and our little friend QC are often attacked with a wide open Genna kiss. Not only is her kiss wet and slobbery, but it also means her entire face is on top of theirs. I don't have a picture of what I just described, but I did capture one of her kissing her baby doll.

3.The other day I had to bring the car seats into the house because I was transferring them to a friends car. While they were sitting in our living room Joey not only wanted to sit in it, but he also wanted me to buckle him in. What a goofy toddler.

4. The other day I bought Genna these fake skinny Jeans. They are so cute on her and I just had to share :)

5. We went to Red Robin on Saturday to celebrate Genna's first birthday and Cory finishing his written boards. The kids each got a balloon. When we got home they were having so much fun letting the balloon go so it would fly to the ceiling. It was fun at first, but got a little old, so Cory tied some string to the original string. The kids had a great time playing and even Genna could reach!

6. Our sweet girl turned the big O-N-E last Wednesday. I took a few photos of her on her birthday while her brother was sleeping (such a challenge to capture a photo of her when her older brother is jumping in front of the camera). This was one of my favorites.

7. Cory finished his boards!! Such a huge relief. However, we are not done yet. In the next 4 months he has his Clinical boards, his 3 written parts of the Clinical boards, several exams from his classes, and lots of job searching and packing (which I will be doing a lot of). Please continue to keep him in your prayers. It is stressful time for us both, but we are relying on God's grace to make it through.

Happy 1st Birthday Genevieve Sophie!

2012-01-25T05:00:00.000-08:00

January 25th

Photo taken by my sister @
www.sunshinecharlie.com

I know this is totally cliche, but I can't believe our sweet little peanut is 1 year old today. This past year has flown by. Genna brings so much joy into our life. Her shrieks, giggles, screams, and babbles make us smile every day. She is so curious about the world around her.

A few milestones our sweet girl has reached in the past 12 months:

-Walking by 11 months
-Sleeping through the night (most nights) by 7 months (once we got rid of the pacifier).
-First word 10 months (light and airplane-this one thanks to her brother)
-8 months she got her first tooth

At 12 months Genna is interested in:

-Playing with all of her big brothers toys.
-Kissing the face of anyone who is laying on the ground.
-Screeching all sorts of noises just so her brother can repeat her
-Eating table food
-Learning to climb stairs
-Putting things in her mouth, but getting better.

Sweet girl, we can't wait to watch you grow and change each and every day. Thank you for being such a bright light in our lives. We love you so much!

A few pictures of Genna:

1 month

2 months

3 months

4 months
Photo taken by www.sunshinecharlie.com

5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

10 months

11 months
photo taken by www.sunshinecharlie.com

12 months

Big day...

2012-01-23T07:22:00.000-08:00

Dental Boards part 2 are approaching. Cory has been studying non-stop for the past 2-3 months, on top of going to Dental School, taking care of his family, and balancing normal life events. Lets just say he is so ready to be done (and I am too).

When does this take place? This Thursday and Friday, the 26th and 27th. Yes it is a 1.5 day test composed of 12 sections, 60 questions each. I know Cory will do well, but I would like to ask you all for extra prayers for him this week. Pray he sleeps well, that his anxiety level doesn't rise, and that he can feel prepared for this exam.

We really appreciate your prayers and we know that without them we wouldn't be where we are today.

Good luck Cory! Your family is so proud of you and your hard work. We love you so much and can't wait to spend more quality time with you!

Helmets are not just for bikes....

2012-01-20T06:56:00.000-08:00

For a 2 year old, they are also for laying on the floor playing with cars.....

And they are also used for eating dinner because we all know how dangerous meal time can be.....

And lastly, when cleaning up your toys, helmets are a must!

Oh how I love toddlers!

Parents

2012-01-11T06:41:00.000-08:00

I remember my mom telling me when I was younger that I would not understand a parents love until I was one. I usually shrugged that off thinking, whatever. Now I know what she means.

No matter what my children do, my love for them grows exponentially each moment. I may not always get a good nights sleep or any sleep at all, I may get vomited on several times a year, I may want to pull my hair out multiple times in a day due to constant whining, and I may feel desperate for alone time at least once a week, but no matter what, these things somehow deepen my love for them.

When I see the tears streaming down my 2 year olds face, my heart melts and I know that the only thing either of us can do is sit together and embrace. When my 11 month old wakes up at 4 am crying because of stomach pain or teething, the only cure is cuddles and kisses.

I may be walking around in a constant daze, but I know that I have so much love in my life. I know I am beyond blessed to have these two children placed in my care (Cory's too). Sure, I could be well rested each day, but my life would not be as fullfilled as it is with my children in my life.

So thank you to all parents out there for sacrificing so much for us and for loving us unconditionally. Thank you especially to my parents and Cory's parents for teaching us how to love our children with that same sacrifical love. And thank you to God for modeling this better than anyone!

Reflection

2012-01-07T07:06:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we returned home from an almost 3 week adventure visiting family and friends in California and Washington. I can't put into words how much this trip meant to us. We cannot wait to move back to the PNW in June.

As we landed one last time into Phoenix, I was mixed with different emotions.

1. Sadness knowing that this may be the last stretch of time where I get to spend time with many of my dear friends I have made here. It amazes me that in just 4 years I can develop such deep friendships with people whom I never knew before moving here. God has placed these people in our lives and I am so grateful for them.

2. Joy knowing that we will soon be back in Washington. The green trees, the rain (yes I said rain), the water, and living close to family and friends is worth every part of this move.

3. Anxious as we await for news about jobs. We have no idea exactly where we will end up and that is exciting and scary at the same time.

4. Trusting that God will take care of our family. He will lead us to where we need to be and I know we will find the most happiness where ever that might be.

5. Relief knowing Cory will soon be done with school. He has basically been in school for the past 22 years! We are finally getting to a point in our life where we can enjoy our FREE time together. I can't wait.

The count down is on to May 31st! 20 weeks and 5 days! My goal for the next 20 weeks is to make the most of my time here in Arizona. I want to get out and do something fun/new once a week. Let me know if you want to join me :). I also want to spend lots of time with my sweet friends here in AZ. Hopefully I will be able to post about these adventures soon.

Happy New Year everyone. I hope 2012 is as exciting as it looks to be!

Our baby is walking!

2012-01-04T14:50:00.000-08:00

This Christmas our sweet girl took her first steps! Joey was so content sitting in one place that he did not begin to walk until he was 14 months old, but Genna is not content sitting still. It is no surprise to us that she is trying to keep up with her big brother. This past month we have even heard her say the following words: hi, bye, eh ane (the sound her brother makes when saying airplane), dada, and mama. I can't wait to hear her say more words. We are so in love with this sweet girl. Here is a video of Genna taking a few steps and her big brother trying to do the same :).

Interesting

2011-12-21T08:25:00.001-08:00

My friend Amy sent me this in an email forward and I thought it was so interesting. Watch if you wish.

First sentence/conversation

2011-12-12T19:58:00.000-08:00

Today as I was cleaning up from dinner Joey turned to me and said, "I pooped!" Shocked I asked, "you pooped?" Joey then responded and said "Yeah!"

I know this seems like a simple conversation, but it was a big deal to us. For one, he had never said "I pooped" before, which to us is a complete sentence. But the big deal, was when I asked him if he pooped, he actually said "yeah."

Usually if I ask him a question that requires a "yes" response, I get a confused look on his face and/or he "repeats" the question with some sort of baby babble we don't understand. So yes, when Joey told us he pooped...we jumped for joy!

It's the small things that count sometimes! Go Joey!

100th post this year!

2011-12-08T10:34:00.000-08:00

I wish I could tell you my 100th post was going to be phenomenal....but its not. It will just share some details in our life that you may or may not be interested in, but thats okay. I am just excited I managed to write at least 100 times this year. :).

So now on to my post, which should really be titled, "What is it like being married when no one is in school?"

Cory and I were discussing the other night that we have never been dating/married out of school. When he finishes in May will things be easier? We have managed to get a long and stay very much in love the past 7 years we have been together while one or both of us were in school, but imagine life where no one has to study at night and every Saturday! Imagine when Cory can be home to help me put the kids to bed, and Saturdays when we can go on a family outing. Ahhh....I see the light.

I know things could be much more difficult. I think of my sweet friend Mary, who has 3 boys under 4 and she is home without her husband who is in the Military. When I think of her situation, I realize I have no room to complain (love you Mary!).

With all things considered, I am very much looking forward to having my husband back. Dental school may have kidnapped him for the past 4 years, but I believe I have almost paid my ransom and I should be getting him returned to me soon. Hey may be a bit frazzeled and exhausted, but at least he will finally be able to enjoy life and his family.

We love you Cory and we are so proud of how hard you have been working. We know this is hardest on you. Continue to fight the good fight and know your family is cheering you on as you cross the finish line!

No matter how far away you roam....

2011-12-05T21:29:00.000-08:00

I've been hearing the song:

a lot this year and it is getting me very excited to fly home for Christmas. Phoenix is a fun place to be in the winter. It is nice never worrying about slipping on ice when you are driving and you can pretty much be outside 8 out of the 12 months, but going through Christmas without snow and freezing temperatures, and without a chaotic house of family members just isn't the same.

Last year we had to stay here because I was only 4 weeks away from my due date, so going home is extra special because we haven't been home in two years for Christmas.

What are we looking forward to most?

Hanging out with my sisters....

Doing random, goofy things with my brothers (in-law)

Watching Kyle hand out random/hilarious gifts....

Seeing all the cousins together and watching our kids interact with both sets of Grandparents.

Eating big family dinners and playing games....

And of course celebrating Christmas and going to our Christmas Mass as a family. So many things to look forward too. There really is no place like home for the Holidays :).

7 Quick Takes

2011-12-02T07:26:00.000-08:00

1. Dental Boards: is making our life a little dull around here. Cory has scheduled his boards for the end of January and so he is spending all of his "free" time studying. He comes home from school, spends a few minutes playing with the kids, but then heads to his bedroom to study. He eats dinner with us, but then leaves to study for the rest of the night. We sure miss having him around, but we understand that if he studies hard he will be ready for the test in Jan. Lets just say I am making a lot of crockpot meals because trying to cook dinner at night without Cory available to help watch the kids is difficult. We will be celebrating come Feb. :).

2. Recipes: speaking of crockpot meals, I found an awesome website on pinterest that has amazing crockpot meals. You should check this site out if you are a crockpot lover like me :).

3. Organization: I have been in a serious organizing mode lately. Living the apartment life can be pretty cramped sometimes and I am trying to simplify things. I am trying to do this without spending too much money. We are all about saving, saving, saving :).

4. Nanny: One of Cory's classmates and his wife just asked me to watch their baby starting in January for two days a week. I am really excited to watch their sweet daughter. It will be fun to have a cuddly baby around and to hopefully teach Genna to be gentle. Plus, with moving costs coming up in June, it will be nice to put the money I make into savings to help pay for that :).

5. Not so terrible twos: I have been pleasantly surprised to find that Joey has been overall pretty pleasant throughout his 2's so far. I thought year one-two was way more difficult than two-three has been so far. Mainly because he is starting to communicate finally. Don't get me wrong, he still has his moments, but now I can reason with him and he understands! He is becoming a better eater because of the reasoning aspect. Such a relief.

6. Big Boy Bed: We transitioned Joey into a big boy bed. I think I overthought the whole thing. I really felt it would be more difficult then it was. He really loves his bed and stays in it until we get him up. He has been getting up earlier (7am vs 8am), but that is fine because I am up before than with Genna. He has always been so good about going to bed when we tell him to, so I shouldn't have been so worried.

7. Walking before 1?: Genna started walking with a "walker" yesterday. She is way more advanced than Joey was (he walked at 14 months). Genna is only 10 months old. I wouldn't be surprised if she takes steps around Christmas. Running after two kids could get a little crazy :).

Moments that made me smile these past two weeks.....

2011-11-29T07:02:00.000-08:00

My family brings so much joy to my life for many reasons, but mainly for how goofy and weird we can be. We may not be a classy family, but let me tell you, we sure have fun :).

Here are a few reasons my family makes me smile:

1. Joey is OBSESSED with Airplanes. He can spot the tiniest plane in the sky, and this happens in the car, on a walk, in a conversation, in the middle of a tantrum...you name it ;). He screeches as loud as he can this sound "ehhh ane!" over and over and over and over again until someone acknowledges him. So when we went to a fundraiser for a Crisis pregnancy center at an amusement park the other day, you can imagine the joy this airplane ride gave him. :) You can tell he is smiling from the back of his head!

2. I swear I have the goofiest husband who can make me laugh when I should be really mad at him. He is constantly on the floor wrestling with the kids and cracking them up. We couldn't ask for a better dad/husband. This face he is making cracks me up.

3. Genna is getting such a funny personality. She is my little peanut. I just love her sweet smiles and her cute babbling sounds. She is very much our little diva in so many ways, but we adore her more and more each day. I just love her cute nose in this pic.

4. Joey is the king of facial expressions. He is one of the most animated kids I know....constantly making sound effects and fun faces to go along with them...as seen here :).

5. Eating for Genna is serious buisness, don't you dare walk away from her while feeding this hungry girl :)

6. Such a goober :).

7. Run, ran, running, runner...these words describe my two year old son perfectly. He doesn't walk anywhere lately. You say bath, he runs waving both arms saying bath over and over again, you say big boy bed, he runs to his bed in the same way, you say bye bye, same thing to the door. Love toddlers.

8. Can a 2 year old boy get any cooler than this?

So many reasons to smile at the Gaunt household!

Jack Gaunt aka Granddad

2011-11-26T08:21:00.000-08:00

Cory's sweet Granddad passed away shortly after his family had their Thanksgiving dinner this past Thursday. His body had been slowly failing him and he was laying in a bed in their home. His wife, all of his children, their spouses, and a few grandchildren were present at the time. There is no doubt he was surrounded by so much love at the end. He received his last rites the day he passed away too. Jack wanted to spend one more Thanksgiving with his family before leaving this world.

The memories of Jack are never ending. He was a joyful man who loved his family more than you could imagine. I only knew him for the last 6 years, but I feel honored to have had the chance to get to know him. He is famous for his AMAZING piano playing, for "Granddad's pancakes," for his glass of Brandy every night, and for his big bear hugs. The first time I met him he gave me a big kiss on the lips....talk about a loving, welcoming human being.

In 2009 Cory and I had the opportunity to spend a few days with Cory's Granddad and Grandma. The picture below was during our tour through San Francisco. What a great tour guide Jack was.

We didn't know if we would have another opportunity to see him again, but luckily we got one more chance. We visited last June and had the chance to introduce our children to him. These photos will be treasured by our family for a long time!

A great man has left our family and he will be greatly missed. In honor of him on Thanksgiving night, Cory, Shelly, and I all took a shot of tequila (we didn't have brandy).

We love and miss you so much Granddad. Keep those saints and angels singing and dancing with your love for music.

Trotting like a turkey ;)

2011-11-25T06:50:00.000-08:00

Today, I am so thankful for my family, my children, my health, my God, and for so much more. I will get to more of that later, but first I want to share about my first experience running a 10k.

Two girlfriends of mine invited me to start running with them in September. I was excited to start working out and running really is my thing. So we woke up at 5:30am three days a week and started running together. We made a goal to run a 10K in November. I never thought my body would be ready for this race, but sure enough, I made it ready.

We all signed up for the Turkey Trot, along with some husbands and another friend. I was pretty nervous to run 6 miles, but somehow I managed. My girlfriend Heather and I started off pretty fast zig zagging through the crowd of runners. The first two miles were great, then mile 3 and 4 got a little rough. Mile 4 was uphill the entire way. As we rounded the first loop, I saw my sweet family cheering us on.

Poor Joey was so confused as to why I didn't stick around and hang out with them. I guess the last part of the race he kept saying, mama? mama? haha. At least I know I am loved.

Cory caught some fun action shots of my friend Heather and I running :).

Out of no where, Cory comes running through the bushes screaming my name, holding the camera. We couldn't stop laughing. Such a funny guy.

Somehow, I managed to finish the race. I was hoping to get around 60 minutes and I got just under 58 minutes :). I checked my results online and was extremely confused why my results said just under 60 minutes. I checked my bib and realized I had accidently switched my bib with another friend, therefore our running chips also got switched. So she got my time/place and I got hers. haha. So according to the results she (I) got 10th place in my age division, and 66th of just over 150 runners. I was pretty excited :).

Look who greeted me when I finished my race :).

Here is the whole group of us girls....

Here is one of the boys and girls. Please note I am the only one without their husband :(. At least I had him there cheering me on :).

Diaper Dodgeball

2011-11-20T06:36:00.000-08:00

The other night our family had some much needed fun. I love when simple moments like these make you smile for days. Joey still keeps bringing diapers to us to play this game. Hope you enjoy it as much as we have!

Giveaway fun

2011-11-19T22:27:00.000-08:00

There is an awesome giveaway at this parenting blog I follow. It is a canvas from mypix2canvas. You can check it out at this blog :).

Update on Cory's Dad

2011-11-14T21:19:00.001-08:00

Update on Cory's Dad: Turns out the doctors didn't quite get it right the first time (we are not complaining). He does not have a clot in his lungs...instead he has a blockage in his gallbladder and needs surgery. They may allow him to go home and have the surgery. Thank you so much for all your prayers! We are touched by the outpouring of support.

Prayer request

2011-11-13T18:56:00.000-08:00

We would like to ask you all to keep Cory's dad Ric in your prayers. He went to the ER earlier today to find out he had a pulmonary embolism. He is in San Francisco visiting his dad Jack who has not been doing well either. Please keep both in your prayers. Please pray for the doctors, for my mother-in-law Cindy, and for their sons, and for Ric's mom, sister, and brother. Thank you so much!

20 and counting :)

2011-11-08T14:09:00.000-08:00

I don't typically use my blog as a soap box, but I am going to make an exception. Today I saw that the Duggar family made an announcement on the Today Show. They told everyone they were expecting baby #20.

To the Duggar family, this is exciting news. To a majority of the public, this is everything BUT exciting.

Let me be clear, I am very happy for this family. I probably fall into the minority feeling this way. I have followed this family ever since they became public. I even own one of the books they have written. I admire this huge family for many reasons.

For one, the parents are two of the calmest, loving, and happy parents I have ever seen. I try to imagine how I would look if I had 19 children and I cannot imagine I would be half as graceful as they are.

Secondly, their children are so respectful to others and to each other. They are so willing to serve others and love anyone they come in contact with. Isn't that what a huge majority of parents strive for. A child who is compassionate, emphathetic, and loving towards all people?

Thirdly, the Duggar family is completely self sufficient. They do not ask anyone for anything. Their large family does not inconvenience others. They find ways to save money and they make a lot of their own food, household items, and clothing. Giving back to society is a big part of their life, serving others and caring for those who need help.

Lastly, their children are so happy. They love each other so much, they love their parents, and are obviously well loved themselves. Not one of their children seem deprived for attention. In fact, I would say they all get more attention than many children in the United States who only have one sibling.

So my question is, why do so many people roll their eyes when the name "Duggar" is mentioned? Sure, they are different than most families, Mrs. Duggar goes through labor more than most (myself included) would ever desire to, and I am sure their house can be extremely chaotic and loud at times. But why do those things warrent a look of disgust, or a rant on fb? Why do people care so much that the Duggar family wants so many children? I don't see people freaking out because someone choses not to get pregant? Can you imagine if someone rolled their eyes everytime you mentioned the name "Cameron Diaz" because she doesn't want children? The point is, I think people should cut the Duggars some slack. They are strong Christians, who live their lives for God and truly feel this is where God is leading them in their lives. They didn't plan on having 20 children when they got married. They chose to take it one child at a time and this is where that took them.

Maybe I feel so strongly about this because my husband and I have a similar mindset. People always ask me how many children we want to have. I have been responding by telling them this, "We are taking it one baby at a time. Each month we pray for guidance, we examine ourselves mentally and emotionally, and then we decide if this is the right time. Although I highly doubt 20 children are in our cards, I am not closed to the idea. What I am most interested in is following God's will in my life and living my life for Him while I am here on earth.

Thanks for listening to my rant. Your thoughts are appreciated and respected :).

Hi....I mean, Trick or Treat :)

2011-11-01T10:48:00.000-07:00

Last night we took this little man trick or treating:

He was a bee again for the second time in a row, not because I have some strange obsession with them, but because we had a theme this year. I will get to that later. Our halloween party started early with the safe halloween party that Cory's school puts on. Before we left the kids took some pics with Grandma. As you can see, Genna was our little lady bug :).

Cory had to work until 4:30, so he met us at the party. Joey was so excited for daddy to show up.

We only waited a few moments and then his daddy came around the corner. As soon as he saw dad, our little bee booked it to dad!

Genna waited patiently in the stroller.

They had so many games and activities available for the kids. Joey played a ton of games, but I only took a few pictures. Here he grabbing toys/candy from the pinata.

We also ran into Dr. Chavez. Joey loves him :). He is one of the faculty members involved with the Catholic Club.

We ran into this guy dressed up as an ant-eater. Joey loves to hug people in full costumes. Cory video taped it. Unfortunately it got a little awkward. The ant-eater was just too tall!

After lots of fun on campus, we went home to have pizza and to get ready for our night of trick or treating! Around 7pm we packed up to drive to the neighborhood close by. Here is a bad attempt at a family photo :).

Notice Joey, Genna, and I are all bugs, and Joey is the bug catcher :). So fun.

My mom tagged along too! She even put on some wings to fit in :). It was fun having her with us.

Joey was such a funny trick or treat. He loved saying "hi" instead of "trick or treat." He also enjoyed running into their houses when the door opened up! He also learned that if he was allowed to pick the candy, he could just grab a huge handful (lets be real, huge for him is like 3 pieces of candy). He could hardly hold his bucket, but boy did he have fun! Here is a video of him trick or treating :).

9 months!

2011-10-25T08:14:00.000-07:00

Our sweet girl turned 9 months old today and what a big girl she is becoming! We are just in love with her developing personality. She LOVES to be with her family at all times, especially her big brother.

A few milestones:

She has a tooth. One has completely shown through her gums, and the other is just starting to poke out (both on the bottom). I was starting to think she was taking after the Gaunt side (they don't get teeth until about 14 months), but sure enough she started teething.
She is a quick crawler. She officially started REALLY crawling the day she turned 8 months.
She loves to chase her brother around the house and he loves to be chased. They play SO well together. Joey is very sweet to her.
Getting into everything is an understatement. I swear, just when one child is trained to know what he can or cannot touch, I have to start all over again. Saying no to this girl is so hard sometimes.
She LOVES her daddy. She would prefer to have him hold her over me. I love watching them together.
Genna loves to be held for a few minutes and then she is off to play (in fact, both just crawled into my arms for a 5 minute cuddle).
Night time is the worst time of day for this little girl. She is ready to eat by 6 or 6:30pm, and let me tell you, if she is not fed, no one is relaxing! When 7pm rolls around, she is ready for bed and sleeps straight until 6-6:30am. No matter what time she goes to bed, she always wakes up at that time. I am really learning to become a morning person!

We love this sweet girl so much. I can't believe she will be 1 in 3 short months. Genna, you are such a precious gift to our family and we enjoy every day we have with you.

Our little star :)

2011-10-18T10:40:00.000-07:00

My older sister is a fantastic photographer, you should check her out at at www.sunshinecharlie.com

She entered a baby blog contest with pictures she took of our sweet girl and she was featured in their blog today. Check out our sweet Genevieve

Toy or Sister?

2011-10-17T09:09:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I think Joey loves to spend so much time with his baby sister because he thinks that she is his own personal toy. Lately I have been finding the two of them in odd situations....

Apparently Genna is fun to catch in his bug catching net. (both thought it was hilarious)

Then, last night, as Cory and I were putting our groceries away, we noticed both kids had gone outside and Joey had shut the sliding door. When we went out to check on them, this is what we found:

It didn't even phase her. She just loves to be with her big brother and she will allow hiim to do whatever he wants to her.

The other day cory also noticed that Genna's head was soaking wet....we are pretty sure Joey dumped his sippy cup of water on her head, once again, she did not mind.

They just really love being together. If Joey walks out of the room, Genna crawls after him crying the entire time.

Her eyes are so blue....not sure where they came from!

We gave them a bath together for the first time and Genna and Joey had a blast.

Pumpkin Farm

2011-10-16T08:03:00.000-07:00

Next year when we head to a pumpkin patch, I am pretty sure we will be freezing our bums off. On friday we spent the morning at the pumpkin patch in 95 degree weather! That is insanity. We are in mid October and still HOT! Although, believe it or not, I can wear jeans in this weather and not sweat! I am seriously worried about moving back to WA and developing Hypothermia! haha. But seriously, I am going to need to buy a whole new wardrobe :).

We had such a fun time with a couple of my girlfriends and their kids. Lots of farm animals, kernal corn boxes, pumpkins, and fun. I took both babies by myself and it went so well. Genna just layed in the stroller (it was her nap time) while I followed Joey around looking at all the farm animals. Here are a few of my favorite photos from the day and a video of the boys on the train ride (please ignore my high pitched voice)!

He is his Father's son!

Go Genna Go!

2011-10-11T08:14:00.000-07:00

Full House

2011-10-08T11:46:00.000-07:00

The last few days I have been thinking about how much I miss living with my girlfriends in college. Sometimes I think it is insanity speaking because I don't think I could live with 7 other grown adults again, but then again, the memories I have with these girl are so special.

I miss our spontaneous moments. I miss laughing with the girls, staying up too late chatting with them. I even miss our fights over who did/didn't wash the dishes or coming home to a pile of our stuff sitting in the living room with a note saying the stuff will be given away if not claimed (ok, maybe that is an exageration). The point is, living in community with other girls who were doing their best to stay true to their Catholic faith while attending a secular school was such a blessing and I don't know that I truly appreciated my time there. I hope I can take this as a sign that I need to do my best to enjoy each moment instead of looking to the future, wishing the next stage would begin.

I am so grateful for all the girls I lived with and I miss and love them all so much!

Friends

2011-10-07T11:32:00.000-07:00

Joey and Genna have started to play together lately and I just can't get enough of it. Joey is such a sweet big brother. Here they are reading books together :).

Joey loves to play with his little sister, and she loves to kiss him. Here they are interacting together like they do so often.

Hide and Seek

2011-10-05T07:02:00.000-07:00

We officially have a crawler (video will be posted soon). She is not too fast yet, but she is definitely getting around. She is even trying to pull herself up already! I think she just might walk before Joey did (14 months).

The other day I found her in this predicament.

Don't worry, I rescued her and gave her lots of kisses :).

Genna has become extremely animated with her facial expression lately. One thing I noticed, she loves to stick out her tongue!

Happy Wednesday!

Far sighted parenting

2011-10-01T07:39:00.000-07:00

I have been attending this really neat bible study for women in the North West Valley here in Phx, which is an ecumenical event. We meet every Thursday morning for two hours. One of the best parts is they have a VERY organized childcare for the momma's to drop their children off for two hours. They are so good with the kids and Joey just loves going to "school" as we like to call it :).

The first hour we begin with a couple praise and worship songs (last week they sang a Matt Maher song, I felt pretty proud to see him represented, haha). Anyways, we then listen to a woman who gives a talk/testimony to a few verses from Ephesians. After the talk, we move to the second hour, which for me is to take a parenting class. We are reading this book called Parenting by the Book. I really like it so far. We have only read chapters 7 and 8, but, my eyes have been opened so far.

The first chapter discussed Far sighted parenting. He explained that it is important to decide what qualities and character traits you want to see your child with when they are 30 years old. Then, every parenting decision we make should be made with those things in mind.

As I examined my own parenting, I realized that I was doing a lot of things for Joey that I know he could learn to do on his own, such as putting away his toys. I realized that if I continue to do everything for him, as he grows older, he will become pretty dependent on others to do things for him. I am sure I would have realized this soon enough, but reading this book at this point in Joseph's life has been extremely helpful. As far as parenting goes, I am always thinking about the here and the now, never into the future.

Other things I realized I need to focus on with Joey are manners, teaching him to be patient (I still need work on this), to never give up, to know how to fail, that it is okay to fail at times, but you have to get back up and try again, and most importantly, to desire a relationship with God and to love others. I know what you are thinking, I have a big task ahead of me. I also know that these will take a long time to teach him, but I am so excited to try.

I have been reflecting on myself too and realizing I need to model these traits everyday for him. I also need to be praying for each of my children every day. As much as I would like to see them learn all the traits I mentioned above, what I desire most is for them to be happy because they have chosen to follow God's Will in their life. Parenting is such an adventure and I am so grateful God has blessed me with two beautiful children, and hopefully more one day too! Here is to a new day, with new parenting challenges and hopefully a lot of sucesses too!

2/3 of the way to 1....

2011-09-26T08:50:00.000-07:00

aka 8 MONTHS!!!

Our sweet girl turned 8 months old yesterday. She is a ball of energy. Completely different from Joseph. Going to church with her has become quite the challenge because she would prefer to crawl on the ground then to be in our arms. At home, we can put her on the ground for 2 hours and she is content playing with her toys the entire time. She constantly goes from the laying down position to the sitting position on her own. This began a month ago. Lately when we get her up from her nap, she is sitting upright waiting for us. It cracks us up.

She loves sitting in the high chair when we are eating dinner. We give her these little rice sticks that melt in her mouth and baby puff snacks. She just enjoys throwing those everywhere :).

Yesterday she sported her Seahawks Cheerleading outfit with daddy. They even beat the Cardinals so we are thinking she was their good luck charm :). I used to have this same outfit when I was little, so my cousin got it for Genna too :).

Genna used to love this bouncer so much, but recently has decided it constrains her too much. She would rather roll/crawl around after her big brother. A few changes I have noticed in her most recently are:

-She is definitely a morning person. She is up and ready to go anytime between 6-6:30 am. Luckily I have been getting up early anyways, but my goodness, we don't sleep in around here on the weekends.

-She is a great napper. She usually takes 2 naps a day, lasting about 1.5 to 2.5 hours. Joey was not a good napper, but always slept late, so I guess you only get one or the other :).

-She LOVES to eat. If we don't get it to her fast enough we have a back arching, screaming baby :).

-She will eat anything. Peas, beans, etc. This is so nice because Joey was much more picky and would hardly eat/drink his bottle.

-She is such a happy girl. Always smiling and slapping her legs. We are so happy to have her and to watch her grow into such a beautiful girl.

I want to ride my bicycle....

2011-09-24T21:55:00.000-07:00

I want to ride my bike!!!!!

26 and reflecting

2011-09-21T09:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my 26th Birthday. In a lot of ways it was just another ordinary day, but what made it different was the many reminders of how blessed I am to be surrounded by so many loving people. I am so blessed to have so many encouraging people in my life. All of you give me such motivation to live my life for Christ and to live a life of love. Although I constantly fail in this area, I am moved by the examples I see in all of you. Thank you for being such an inspiration in my life and for helping me to constanly stive to become the best version of myself.

With that I leave you with the top 5 things I am most grateful for this year:

1)God. I am so grateful for His presence in my life. He has always taken care of us and is always there for me, even when I don't feel like anyone else is. He has brought so much joy to my life this past year and I know that he is really trying to work on me lately. I feel his presence in my daily tasks and I am trying to be more open to allowing him to take total control of my life.

2)My family. Especially for my husband who has been so kind, understanding, and patient with me. I know I am not always easy to be married to. He works so hard in school and I often find myself complaining about my day. Instead of ignoring me, he listens to what I have to say and always encourages me to bring these worries or frusterations to God. Also for my beautiful children who make me laugh and smile daily and remind me to simplify my life.

3) For my SBS girls. This is my group of ladies here in Arizona who are all wives of medical doctors, Dentists, or of people in the medical profession. I am so encouraged by their love and generosity. They constantly remind me of my purpose here on earth and are always challenging me to grow in my faith.
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4) For the time we were able to spend with Cory's grandparents this last summer. Life is so precious, and you just never know when you will have to say goodbye to someone. Our time spent visiting with his Grandpa and Granddad was very precious to us. What I am most grateful for is that Joey and Genna were both able to meet them for the first time. Watching his Granddad decline so quickly has been tough, but we have to trust that this is all in God's plan and things happen for a reason.

5) For God making it clear to us that we are to head back to Seattle after Cory graduates. This has been looming over us for the past 3 years and we finally feel as though we are clear on where he wants us to be...although knowing God, this can change soon :).

I have SO many other things to be grateful for, but I am a mom and I would be neglectful to my children if I continued writing, so we will leave it at 5. Thanks for all of your prayers for us and know we will continue to pray for you. Here's to another wondeful year, full of ups and downs, but hopefully a LOT of ups :).

Talking...finally

2011-09-18T20:55:00.000-07:00

Joey turned two and his vocabulary has finally started to improve! I started thinking I would never hear him say momma :). He can repeat a ton of words now and there are many words he says on his own:

momma
dadda
apple
bubbles
ball
please
peas
no :(
thank you
cheese (if we tell him his food his cheese he loves it)
shoes
bye bye
hi
Gen (sounds more like G)

He can also make the following animal sounds (dog, cat, monkey, duck, lion, pig (my favorite), cow, and horse)

Here is a quick video of him saying a few words, I need to capture a better one, but this will do for now :). The video captures Genna in her cuteness too :).

the bond of siblings

2011-09-13T10:15:00.000-07:00

It is amazing how siblings can just instantly bond. There is something so special about having a brother or a sister. I know from my experience that my sisters are my best friends. I know we have each others back no matter what and that they will always be such a big part of my life. What I didn't realize, until having my own kids, is how instant that bond happens. The way Genna looks at Joey when he gets up from a nap is with complete love. She lights up and cannot contain her squeals and smiles. If I take Joseph to his high chair to eat and she cannot see him, instant tears. They only stop when I move her to a spot where she can once again watch her big brother.

The other day I got Genna up from her nap and set her next to her toys. I sat down to do something and looked over to see that Joey had run to her side and was playing with her. They played for 30 minutes by themselves. Joey gave her toys to play with and Genna was just staring and smiling at him.

The other day I was holding Genna and on his own, Joey came up and sat on me and started hugging her like this. Of course it was difficult to capture a great photo, but these photos are so precious to me.

We are so blessed to have these beautiful children! I cannot wait to see them grow old together and I pray they stay close.

The big picture....

2011-09-09T08:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was one of the craziest days I have ever had. I don't remember the last time I was so distraught over something. Now as I reflect over the whole situation, I realize now that in the big picture, it really was not that big of a deal, but at the time, I was so flustered.

I would say one of my strengths is being pretty organized. I like to know where things are and I try my best to keep my home organized. Well, yesterday that all flipped upside down. I went to a women's bible study yesterday morning. After I picked my kids up from childcare I was putting them in the car and I set my purse down next to the car. Next thing I know I have reached my apartment and my purse is no where to be found.

I immediately picture my purse sitting on the ground in my parking spot! I turn around as quick as I can and drive the 10 minutes back to the church. The purse is gone. The next logical thought is, we are at a church, of course someone turned it in....right? I get both babies out of the car and lug them around to three different offices and no one has it. I feel the tears start to come as I am asking my last contact. Pull it together is what I kept telling myself. It has to be with someone who is just going to call you. I go home and as soon as I see Cory I burst into tears. I have such a bad feeling.

About 20 minutes after I get home I receive a phone call from on campus security explaining that my purse was discovered at a gas station!! and they are pretty sure things are missing. We pick up my purse.....

This is when the tears really started flowing. I felt literally sick to my stomach. I emptied out my purse and everything was gone. License, credit/debit cards, phone, sun glasses, gift cards, etc. I felt so violated. I was just standing in the room sobbing and Cory immediately starts making phone calls. I was a mess. I just remember Cory looking at me and saying "Athena, I know you are upset, but you HAVE to pull it together." haha. I told him I was trying, but my emotions were so uncontrollable (no, I am not pregnant!).

So needless to say, I did pull it together and we made all necessary phone calls and we feel a lot better now. I have a much better perspective on this whole thing. We are all okay, no one died, and we are all safe. God is taking care of us and as soon as we put our trust in Him, things started to work out. We both felt at peace. It is amazing how little things can seem to be an unmoveable mountain in the moment, but in reality, it is just a bump in the road. Life is so good and we are both so blessed to have such an amazing support system. I hope and pray whoever stole my items really needed it...oh yeah, and that they don't steal my identity :). But lets face it, who wouldn't want to be me for a day, right? haha! (See I can find the humor in all this).

Feels so good to be reunited

2011-09-06T17:43:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I went to LA to meet up with 4 of my girlfriends from high school! One friend (liz) flew in from Providence, 2 flew down from Seattle (lara and kaleigh), and I of course came from Phoenix. Our friend Amy lives in Covina and offered her home for all of us for the weekend.

Special thanks to Cory who not only took care of both babies all weekend alone, but as we were driving to the airport, Joey got sick and vomited all over. I felt so guilty leaving him, but he insisted I go. It was so nice to get a break from my regular responsiblities. He did so well with both of them and I know they had as much fun as they could with a sick boy.

My highlights from the trip were:

-laying on the beach at Newport Beach. We swam in the ocean and jumped the waves. I literally had the best time and the big joke was me saying that was the hardest I had laughed in 10 minutes...because we literally laughed so much on this trip.

-Meeting Amy's new boyfriend.

-Walking along Rodeo drive and seeing all the big name stores where celebrities tend to shop. It was a fun experience for sure.

-Visiting Santa Monica and eating at Bubba Gumps.

-Laying by the pool and drinking a margarita.

- Kaleigh is getting married early this summer, so it was fun to talk wedding details and look through her bridal magazines.

So many fun things happened, but mainly I just thoroughly enjoyed chatting with my girls.

One on One with Scott Hahn, Part 2 of 2

2011-08-31T22:12:00.000-07:00

Here are some other random things from our conversations:

-Regarding his personal spiritual life, he is a member of Opus Dei and follows its spirituality. It was obvious that he truly loves being in Opus Dei. For spiritual reading, he leans most heavily on the writings of St. Josemaria Escriva, Opus Dei’s founder.

- Mike Aquilina, an awesome Catholic theologian known for his mastery of early Church history and the Fathers of the Church, is Scott Hahn’s best friend and fellow member of Opus Dei. Interestingly, Mike Aquilina co-authored a book with Fr. Juan Valez (mentioned in “part 1” of this post), entitled Take Five: Meditations With John Henry Newman.

-So I was always baffled by the events of Gen. 9:20-27. While Gen 6:9 describes Noah as “righteous”, “blameless”, and one who “walked with God”, and while Noah is the only one (along with his family) who was judge worthy enough to be spared by the flood, it seems according to Gen. 9:20-27 that Noah is actually a horrible person, a drunkard, and an unjust man. After all, only a heartless, cruel man would condemn his own grandson to a life of slavery, simply because his grandson’s father accidently walked in on him drunk and naked. How are we to make sense of this!!?? For any of you who have wondered this same thing, or are now wondering it, you’re in luck! Scott Hahn has revealed the hidden meaning of the passage, thus vindicating Noah, in his book A Father Who Keeps His Promises, pg 85-87 (if you want to know his explanation but don’t have access to the book, let me know and I will clue you in....or you can buy it!). I stumbled upon this book years ago and was so excited to finally understand that passage. But then as I was reading Scott Hahn’s book Understanding the Scriptures last year, I approached the section on Noah excited to find his revealing insight of the true interpretation of Gen. 9:20-27, and instead I found that the interpretation is not even mentioned (and no alternative explanation is given in its place)!!! How could this be!!! Talk about disappointment and confusion. So of course I brought it up to Scott Hahn in the car. As it turns out, Scott Hahn did include the interpretation of Gen. 9:20-27 in his submitted manuscript, but it was left out of the final edition.

-This next one was a little bit of a surprise: Upon being asked how he has any time for his wife and 6 kids, considering he works as a professor at Franciscan University, is the director of the Saint Paul Center for Biblical Theology, is the Pope Benedict XVI Chair of Biblical Theology and Liturgical Proclamation at St. Vincent Seminary, is continually and ardently studying the Bible and the Catholic faith, is traveling almost every weekend to various events to speak and teach, and has written over 20 books (and continues to write), not to mention his countless other articles, essays, and Biblical commentaries…yes, considering all that, he responded that he spends more time at home and has more time available for his family than almost any husband/father he knows! How is this possible!!?? It turns out he only works one day a week (actually, two half days) at Franciscan University, and most of the rest of his work can be done from home.

-For those of you fortunate enough to have been introduced to the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible (a project headed by Scott Hahn), I have an update. Although the only Old Testament volume to be released thus far is Genesis, 85% of the Old Testament commentary has already been completed. It appears that Ignatius Press is taking their sweet little time getting the rest of the volumes published. BTW, the New Testament series is already completed and is now available in a single, combined, one-volume New Testament. It is plain and simply the best Catholic Bible available in English.

-For anyone who has read the introduction to Scott Hahn‘s book Signs of Life and are dying to know (as I was) what the Bible passage is that he neglects to mention as the one that almost destroyed his doctoral thesis and which he prayed face down in the rain in desperation asking for our Blessed Mother’s prayers that he might be able to understand it, and then miraculously the next day he does, it is Heb 9:16-17. For an explanation of the interpretation that he discovered (though he takes no credit for it, insisting that it came from Mary), see the full page topical essay on pg. 429 of the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible.

-After asking him nonstop questions for almost 2 hours, I dropped this one on him: “We believe that God is perfect justice, so how am I to understand various passages from the Old Testament where God acts in an apparently unjust way?” And then I gave him the example of an episode from Chronicles where thousands of people were killed by God in retaliation because King David chose to take a census against God’s wishes (no surprise, he knew the chapter and verse). The look on his face said “do we really have to go there now?” Then he said “I hate to dodge your question, but I am already starting to lose my voice, and I still have a 3-hour talk to give tonight. Do you mind if we talk a little bit about you?” I can’t believe I almost caused Scott Hahn to lose his voice! In my defense, he sure is a talker. When we got back in the car after his talk, I told him to brace himself for 2 more hours of non-stop questions because he no longer had a reason to save his voice. He was more than willing to talk the whole way J. By the way, I forgot to ask him on the way to the airport to get back to me on that question.....bummer.

Needless to say, it was an unbelievable experience to spend so many hours in personal conversation with one of my all time favorite Catholic writers, and a person whose writings have been so influential in my faith. I am so thankful that our Lord (and Marie J) gave me this once in a lifetime opportunity. If you ever get the chance to go watch Scott Hahn speak, or to listen to one of his talks on tape, or to read any of his books, I highly recommend that you do it. After all, as I can attest, your faith in Christ might be renewed and your path in life might be revealed by it.

One on One with Scott Hahn, Part 1

2011-08-29T22:28:00.000-07:00

As a busy man and one who generally spends as little time as he possibly can on social media sites, I am breaking from the norm and doing my first blog post, as Athena promised not far back. I had the distinct pleasure two weekends ago to spend about four and a half hours driving Scott Hahn back and forth from the airport. Athena’s mom, who is a pro at organizing Catholic conferences, had called Scott Hahn’s house about 6 months ago and was able to get him to come to little Sandpoint, Idaho, to give a 3hr talk. She knew how much of a fan I was of his work, and of our mutual connection with Opus Dei, and so she was generous enough to fly our family up to Sandpoint for the weekend, and offered me the opportunity to be Scott Hahn’s driver. Are you kidding me!!?? Of course I would.

Scott Hahn was an extremely nice and personable person. When I told him that it was going to be around a 2hr drive to Sandpoint, he joked that I must have drawn the short straw and expressed his sympathies that I had to spend a large part of my day being his chauffeur. Looking at the bright side of things, he smiled, laughed, and joked that I was going to get some time off Purgatory for my generosity. I must have done a good job concealing my bursting excitement because far from being generous, I was fulfilling a dream.

He asked me about my spiritual journey, and so I told him my long tale of sin and conversion. The climax was reached when I spoke about the night 4-5yrs ago when God gave me a profound revelation while praying a Rosary with Athena. After receiving the revelation, I grabbed a randomly selected book out of my roommate’s (Andrew St. Hilaire) closet and went immediately to the chapel to pray. While on my knees in front of the Blessed Sacrament, the purpose of that revelation came to light as I learned that I was called to be in Opus Dei while reading that random book: Ordinary Work, Extraordinary Grace, by Scott Hahn.

Scott Hahn was so excited when he heard that story. He praised God for making His will known to me in such an extraordinary way, and at the same time was humbled that his book was instrumental in the process. I told him how I have been attending Opus Dei events in Phoenix for the last 3 years, and he asked me who the priest is that runs them. I said that it was Fr. Juan Valez, my spiritual director. It turns out that Scott Hahn has known Fr. Juan for years, even before he became a priest. Before I know it, Scott Hahn is excusing himself to make a phone call. The next thing I hear is: “Hi Fr. Juan! This is Scott Hahn. I am here with Cory Gaunt, and we were just talking about you and about his wonderful story of coming to know God’s will for him in Opus Dei. Let me put you on speaker phone.” It was unbelievable; I am still buzzing over it. Certainly a moment I will never forget.

On a separate note, Scott Hahn told me that his all time favorite theologian, by a long shot, is Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI). He had first started reading Joseph Ratzinger’s books (by random chance) while he was still protestant. Now you can find Joseph Ratzinger referenced in many of Scott Hahn’s books. He wrote the forward to Joseph Ratzinger’s book, Many Religions, One Covenant, and he even wrote a book about the Pope’s biblical theology, called Covenant and Communion. Scott Hahn met Joseph Ratzinger twice before his election as Pope, and once since. When Joseph Ratzinger was elected as Pope, Scott Hahn was sent a flurry of emails, texts, and phone calls congratulating him that his favorite theologian was now Pope. Lastly, it was Scott Hahn who years ago insisted that Fr. Fessio, head of Ignatius Press, publish more books by Joseph Ratzinger; Ignatius Press is now the official English publisher of Pope Benedict XVI’s writings.

In the next post I will cover more interesting things that I learned about him and various other subjects.

2 years ago....

2011-08-28T21:29:00.000-07:00

We gave birth to this precious baby

One year ago today, we celebrated this sweet boy's birthday in Sandpoint, ID with all of our family and some friends

Today, on August 28th, we celebrated Joseph's 2nd birthday! Last night he had a friend over and they had so much fun playing, bathing, and watching a movie with popcorn :).

We had a big 3 way party for Joey and his two friends Caden, pictured above, and Jenab who all turn 2 within 3 weeks of each other. It was so much fun. We had a big bbq, and played with Joey's new water table, water balloons, and went swimming in the big pool. Joey is so good about swimming under water now. It is kind of scary because he will just jump in and you really have to watch him. I guess he is a little fish.

Happy birthday Joseph! We love you so much!

7 months old!

2011-08-25T18:13:00.000-07:00

I don't know how I could possibly have a 7 month old baby, but time is flying and sure enough she is growing like a weed. I forgot how much they change around this age. How aware they become and how much fun they are.

She loves her prunes :)

Genevieve's most recent changes:

-She LOVES tummy time now! YAY. She will play for at least 30 minutes on the ground with her toys.
-She has started this scoot crawl. It is more of a push with her legs and drag her head crawl, but she is sure trying to move.
-Genna truly loves her big brother. Anytime he comes near her arms go out and wait for his head to come near so she can attach herself to his head and give him a big, slobbery kiss.
-She loves her bouncer. The girl can really jump. Sometimes she will sit there for an hour. Especially if her brother is in the room. She will watch his every move.
-We are currently teaching her to fall asleep on her own now. She is getting better about crying for less time. It is always hard, but she was waking up so much throughout the night needing her pacifier that I have become completely exhausted. Now that her tummy pain has pretty much gone away, she was ready. Tonight is the first night she was put down for the night without a paci. and unswaddled. Here's to a good night :).
-She loves baby food. Her face always gets pretty messy, but she has been devouring it.
-We just can't get enough of her sweet smiles and sounds. I am so amazed with her everyday and I just love watching her grow and change :).

Happy 7 months sweet Genna. We love you more than you know.

Na Nue

2011-08-18T14:48:00.000-07:00

This week has been a very happy week for this momma. Sweet Joey not only learned to say love you (Na Nue is how he pronounces it), but he also said momma yesterday....I love it!

As far as I am concerned, he can say "momma" as much as he wants :).

Scott Hahn

2011-08-14T16:22:00.000-07:00

This weekend we had the opportunity to watch one of our favorite Catholic Theologian's, Dr. Scott Hahn speak in Sandpoint, ID. It was such a cool experience because we not only heard him speak, but Cory also spent about 5 hrs alone with him driving him back and forth from the talk. Cory had the opportunity to ask a lot of questions and to get to know him better.

So, after meeting him, I can tell you that he was one of the nicest men I have ever met. He had such a joyful spirit about him and was extremely generous with his time. He really connected with Cory. When Cory got out of the car with Scott Hahn he was just beaming! It was so cute. Cory plans to blog about his conversation later, but for now I will leave you with a few photos!

7 Quick Takes

2011-08-05T15:05:00.000-07:00

1. I am tired. We made a big mistake giving Genna a pacifier when she sleeps and now I am a slave to it. Last night I swear I was up every 20-30 minutes to replug her. She never needs to eat, she just wants her pacifer. In a few weeks when Cory is on break, we are going to try operation take pacifier away. Wish us luck.

2. We gave Genna green beans today for the first time. She seemed to like them :). However, she doesn't eat quite as much as Joey did!

3. We are heading to Washington next weekend, just for the weekend...crazy I know. My mom is bringing Scott Hahn (a Catholic speaker) to do a mini one evening retreat and we plan to attend. Cory gets to drive him from the airport to the church which is about 2 hours each way! I bet you can imagine he is excited :).

4. I am looking forward to cooler weather very soon. We have made it through 2 of the 3 hottest months here...although september can still be pretty hot, it is usually the beginning of a cool down, depending on the year. I am looking forward to running outside, biking, and letting Joey and Genna play outside :).

5. We have been really into cooking and eating healthy lately. It is really fun trying to revamp our eating habits. If you have any yummy healthy dishes, please pass it on :).

6. T-10 months until Cory graduates from Dental school! So excited. I can't believe how fast these last 4 years have gone....which leads to number 7.

7. After a LOT of prayer and consideration, we have pretty much decided to move to Seattle when Cory graduates! We are super excited to get back in contact with many old friends. :).

its lightening....nope, just the generator!

2011-08-03T21:31:00.000-07:00

So we are in the middle of monsoon season here in Arizona and tonight was no exception. I heard the rain hitting our windows, so out came the camera to document the rain. Just as I turned on our camera our generator went out....it was intense. Please ignore how stupid I sound in the commentary. It is just too cool of a video not to post.

3 years of marriage

2011-08-01T14:18:00.000-07:00

I know this post is a bit late, but, Cory and I celebrated 3 years of marriage on June 27th. It is amazing how fast time goes by after you have children. Once children are in the picture, it is difficult to find alone time with your husband. Therefore, we found it fitting to spend a weekend away from the babies....out first one in almost 2 years!

Our friends watched Joey and Genna for the weekend, meanwhile, we spent one night at the Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak Resort

It was so relaxing and beautiful. It is cheap to stay there during the summer because it is in the off season :). Bonus to living in Phx during the summer I guess :). We spent the day pool side. Our favorite part of the pools was the lazy river.

After a full day at the pool we went to check in to our hotel room. We were surprised how nice it was for the price we paid.

After cleaning up, we got ready to go out to dinner for our official Anniversary celebration dinner.

We went to Babbo, an Italian restaurant we love. It was nice to sit down for dinner and not have to attend to a baby, but just enjoy a nice, quiet meal.

Okay, so maybe it wasn't all that quiet :)....

After dinner, we went back to the hotel and played some mini golf in the rain....so fun :). And then came back to our room and played games. We even got as creative as enjoying a game of poker using gummy bears!

We had such a great time. I am so blessed to have a husband like Cory. He is truly my best friend and the love of my life. I can't wait to see what God has in store for us for the next 50 years!

Kissy Kissy

2011-07-29T14:43:00.000-07:00

4th of July....well lets be real, 3rd of July

2011-07-27T14:47:00.000-07:00

We actually celebrated the 4th of July on the 3rd this year. We went to the home of our good friends, Michael and Alyssa. Our mutual friends Tyson and Theresa joined us. We had such a great time.
All of us have children, a total of 4 under 2 years old :). So we began the night with a bbq and pool playtime with the babies. The boys and Genna all had fun in the pool and enjoyed a very yummy dinner.

Here is a sweet photo of Joey and Nathan watching the fish in the fish tank :).

Around 7:30 we put all the babies to bed so us adults could play some games. Theresa was very pro-active and she prepared a night full of "minute-to-win-it" games for us to play. They were rediculously fun! We decided that we couldn't just play for fun, we had to have something to win. So after collaborating for about 1 second :), we decided the winning team (we played couples vs couples) would get free overnight childcare and the losing team would be the ones to provide it :). If you have children and you don't live near family, you know how beneficial free childcare can be! The games were intense!

We started off with bouncing pencils into 8 glasses. It is much harder than it looks, but totally fun. Cory and I took this one :).

Another event was stacking 7 ding-dongs on the forehead. Much harder than you think. We too took this one! (Funny, I only seem to have pics of the events we won, trust me, we definitely lost games).

Michael took this game very seriously :).

This game was impossible for us....we just gave up :). You had to roll a toothbrush with two pieces of floss (I know, perfect game for cory) into a cup. No one could do it. FAIL!

This game was fun. We had to blow all of the cards off the cup, except for the last card, the joker. We won this one too :).

Note: we didn't win this one :). This game required you to unstack and restack the cups in a minute. We couldn't quite do it in a minute, so we just did best time. Alyssa and I tied 2 different times and had to do some intense overtime rounds. She won!

After all the games were done, we all finished within 1 point of each other! In fact, 2nd and 3rd place ended in a tie, so a tie-breaker had to take place. After all was said and done, here are the results:

1st place: Tyson and Theresa

2nd place: Cory and Athena

3rd place: Michael and Alyssa

It was such a fun night. We played till 11pm, which is late for a bunch of moms and dads whose babies wake up bright and early! Oh well, it was totally worth it :).

Top 8 reason why Auntie Liz might be more fun than mom and dad.....

2011-07-26T09:55:00.000-07:00

1. Auntie liz lets you sleep on her whenever you are tired :). This photo is just so precious!

2. She climbs big tree-houses with you, even when I walk REALLY slow :).

3. She lets us eat outside by the lake :).

4. Auntie Liz encourages me to play in the dirt and get extra dirty!

5. She holds me all the time and always makes me smile.

6. She lets me play in the water for over an hour, and when it is time to leave, she even picked me up (soaking wet) and carried me to the car.

7. She helps me play on toys at the playground.

8. Saved the best for last: She lets me spread the lotion all over her face EVERY morning! So FUN!

Liz, we had so much fun with you. Thank you for spending a whole week with us this summer. We can't wait to see you again soon :).

6 months old!

2011-07-25T10:17:00.000-07:00

Today our sweet little Genevieve turned 6 months old. It blows my mind how fast she is growing. She is such a sweet girl and we fall more and more in love with her each day.

At 6 months Genna is doing the following:

Smiling and laughing a ton
Starting baby cereal and food
Really interested in what her big brother is doing.
squeals and growls all the time.
Sleeps through the night without eating, however she is a pacifier girl and sometimes wakes up multiple times to be "re-plugged."
She is great at rolling, but does not like tummy time. So when she rolls onto her tummy she gets mad pretty quickly.
She LOVES to jump. Sitting still is not her cup of tea.
She loves to hold onto toys
She enjoys grabbing anything in her reach.
Sleeping in the ergo is one of her favorite places to sleep, mommas too :).
Loves touching daddy's face
Enjoys dancing with mommy.

As you can see she is doing very well. Overall she is pretty relaxed. Genna still has gas pains every once in awhile, but overall she seems to be growing out of it. I think she wakes up throughout the night more often because of stomach pains, but can usually be soothed back to sleep with a pacifier. We are still swaddling her at night because she wakes herself up with her arms. We love her so much and are enjoying watching her grow and learn new things.

I left my heart in San Francisco....

2011-07-23T21:16:00.000-07:00

Well....maybe not, but it was the only title I could think of :). I have finally made it to my last post about our trip to the Northwest this summer. Our last part of the trip was to head to San Francisco to visit family, to watch Cory's little brother Kyle graduate from Cal Poly, and for the two of us to check out the area for possible living potential. It was a quick, busy trip, but totally worth it!

We flew into Oakland on Wednesday, rented a mini van and drove to Cindy's (my mother-in-law) dad's home in Antioch. He is such a sweet man. He was a Dentist, so it is fun for Cory to hear his many stories from his life as a dentist. We took an opportunity to get some pictures with Grandpa. We will always cherish these photos!

After lunch with Grandpa we took of for Newark to borrow a car from Ric's (father-in-law) parents. We were able to visit for a little bit, and here are a few photos that we took. I love this one because it is a 4 generation photo of Gaunt men/boy/girl.

Joey touching Granddad's nose :)

After visiting with the grandparents, we hopped in our cars and drove to San Carlos to visit with Cindy's brother and sister. We had a wonderful feast made by Cory's Uncle Clyde and Aunt Linda. Our kids were so exhausted from this long day, and poor Genna started having some gas pains. Little did we know we had a baby whisperer at the house :). Cory's aunt Care rocked our sweet baby right to sleep. We were so thankful for her help!

Joey loved playing with his 2nd cousins

Cousin Will with Genna

Sitting out by the fire, drinking wine and enjoying
hilarious stories about Grandpa, and their family
when they were younger!

The next day Cory, Ric, and I drove all around San Francisco to get an idea of the area. Meanwhile, Cindy took the kids to Ric's parents house and watched them while we were out and about. Here is a pic of Cory and I on our trip in San Francisco and another precious photo of Genna with Grandma.

The last leg of our trip was to dive 3 hours south to San Lusi Obisbo to watch my little BIL graduate from college. We were so proud of him. We met him for dinner on Friday night and then went back to our BEAUTIFUL hotel on the water.

View outside our window!

The next morning, Cory, Ric, Cindy, and Kyle all got up and went to the bars at 6am to celebrate Kyle's graduation. There were tons of parents out at that time of the morning. It is such a funny tradition. I happily agreed to stay at the hotel and sleep in with the babies :).

6am Cheers!

At 9am Kyle Graduated from Cal Poly! It was a nice graduation. It was pretty hot outside, but nothing compared to the Phx heat.

Joey was a little restless sitting in the stands for the graduation. We let him walk between all of us when he started getting antsy. Unfortunately he lost his balance and walked backwards, tripped over the bench seat in front of us and fell and whacked his head on the next level. He was just sobbing, until we gave him the Ipad to play with. He immediately went from a WAHHH to a hahahaha. It was hilarious.

Here are several photos of us posing after Kyle's graduation.

Cane Self-defense....

2011-07-11T21:59:00.000-07:00

While we were in San Francisco we went to Cory's Grandpa's home. He is such a sweet man and is always so hospitable to us while we are there. He is a spunky guy for his age, which I just love. While we were there he randomly told us that he had been taking cane-defense classes at the senior center and wanted to demonstrate. So, he and his granddaughter demonstrated for us. Enjoy the pictures. Lets just say I would not want to get on his bad side :).

God never makes mistakes....

2011-07-07T11:41:00.000-07:00

BUT if he did I am pretty sure I was supposed to be a singer :). haha...I know this sounds so stupid and I am literally laughing to myself because I am a) shocked that I am actually thinking about posting and most likely will post this and b) I know God doesnt make mistakes.

I just LOVE music....and singing. This thought came to me as I was driving to the grocery store last night. I was singing extremely loud on my own and was getting very moved. Maybe this is normal, but I really love music. It takes me to such a happy place. It helps me to dream the impossible.

I remember as a little girl sitting in the car and staring out the window, singing a song I would make up on the spot. I am sure they were never very good, but it made me happy.

Ehh....we all dream about things like this right? alright, back to reality :).

cousin playtime

2011-07-05T21:56:00.000-07:00

I loved watching the kids all play together. Joey really loves his cousins. Hopefully once Cory is done with school they will be able to play together more often. Here are a few photo's of them all playing together.

Sandpoint Idaho

2011-07-01T20:39:00.000-07:00

The last weekend we were in Spokane, we stayed at my parents summer house in Sandpoint, Idaho. I grew up spending all of my summers throughout my high school years here, and I had the time of my life. Sandpoint is one of the most beautiful places on earth. It is fun to share it with my children, husband, and in-laws. While visiting Sandpoint, we went to the state park so the kids could play on the playground.

Liv on the slide...she was so cute.

These 3 are all within one year apart!

Kaden was goofing off.

Picnic at the park

making smores in the yard

We played so much Tripoly on this trip :) can you tell
Chrystal and I are the ones who married into the
family? We are the crazies :).

Grammy and Granddad feeding sweet Genna.

My parents summer house

raking up some of the grass so we could play some bocce ball

Could this be any more beautiful?

Friends from high school used to always ask if I missed my friends in Washington during the summer. I always did miss them, but I had my Idaho girlfriends that I was always so excited to see. There were 3 other girls who lived in Sandpoint all year round, and had homes on our street. We spent almost every single day together during the summer. We would swim, jet ski, watch movies, go into town, put on plays (the barbie beauty pagent was our best...haha), laughed, cried, etc. These girls became more like family than friends. All three girls came to my wedding too! They will always have a piece of my heart. While visiting with Cory's family I was able to see one of the girls, Taryn. She is such a beautiful person inside and out. Here is a pic of the two of us.

This trip was so fun, I wish I could spend my whole summer there instead of hot Arizona...oh well.

Children's Museum

2011-07-01T07:44:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things we did in Spokane was taking all the kids to the Children's Museum. The cousins had so much fun playing together. It wasn't a huge museum, but the kids still had a super time. Joey loved painting, playing with the water....playing with the big sand box, etc. Even the adults had fun too. We took so many pictures, but I will try my best just to post the best ones :).

Spokane Falls and Riverfront Park

2011-06-26T14:56:00.000-07:00

While in Spokane we were able to participate in a lot of fun activities the town has to offer. On this particular day we went to Spokane Falls, which at this time of year is amazing because the water levels are so high. Standing on the suspension bridge was so fun....and wet! We even went on a Gondola ride over the river. Joey was a little nervous at first, but then he warmed up to the idea. Gen was all smiles.

We also went to look at the ducks. I used to come here as a little girl, except I was able to feed the ducks bread. Now you are not allowed to, which I understand, but still, I wish Joey could have experienced that. He LOVES birds of any type, so this place was fun for him. However, I don't remember seeing so many geese there when I was little. There were more geese than ducks. I love this photo of Joey, he is just so excited!

Granddad took some time off work to hang out with us. I love this photo of the two of them :).

And of course, when at riverfront park, you have to go on the carousel. It was so fun to take Joseph for the first time.

Spokane BBQ

2011-06-24T21:33:00.000-07:00

The first night we were there was actually pretty busy! Cory's parents were so generous to host a bbq with Cory's best friend, Taylor, his wife, Amanda, and their daughter Elsie. My friend Kaleigh just happened to be in Spokane, so she came over for dinner too! My sister Tara and her fiance Drew were also there for the occasion. Cory's older brother Kevin and his wife Chrystal also joined us with three of their children. Needless to say, it was a packed house, but so much fun! Cory's parents made great food (chicken and steak) and we just hung out and played games. It was so nice to be able to relax outside and wear a coat in May!

Here are some of my favorite photos from the night:

Elsie (Taylor and Amanda's daughter)

Kevin, Cory, Taylor

Amanda and Elsie with me

Sibling Love

2011-06-23T16:58:00.000-07:00

Last night we were finishing up with dinner and I was doing dishes...all of a sudden I heard Genevieve CRACKING up. I look over and this is what I see:

Road trip

2011-06-23T14:16:00.000-07:00

After a wonderful week on the West side, we (my sister Tara, Drew her fiance, Cory, the babies, and myself) hopped into my parents mini van and drove to Spokane. We left after dinner Friday night. It was about a 6 hour drive from my parents. We figured if we left then, both babies would sleep on the way there. Genna (trying out some different nicknames) was super. She slept for most of the trip. Joseph however is AWFUL sleeping in the car and he slept for about 45 minutes. Luckily my sister had a touch screen phone that stopped his tired crying. Oh well. We all got to spokane in one piece!

We were tired the next day but so happy to be in Spokane

Dinner Date

2011-06-22T20:16:00.000-07:00

One of the last things we did on the West side was to take a drive to Seattle. We met some old friends for dinner at the Old Speghetti Factory. Andrew, Lindsey and John St. Hilaire rode the ferry over with Lauren, Elena, and Madeleine Frisch and they all met us for dinner. It was so fun to chat with the girls...because lets face it, Cory and Andrew pretty much chatted on their own while us girls caught up.

The Frisch's and the St. Hilaire's are both such great friends and we were so grateful they took time to see us. We can't wait to see you again. Here are a few photos.

Where my heart remains

2011-06-18T15:07:00.000-07:00

Whenever we go to Washington, we always try to make a trip to Bellingham. I just love that city. As we were driving on I5 my heart started beating extra fast as we passed by the 9 mile to bham sign. It is truly one of the most beautiful places in the world. We only had one day, so we spent the morning walking around our favorite park, Larabee. Then we went to Mass with our favorite priest, Fr. Qui Thac, and afterward went to our favorite Brewery for lunch, Boundary Bay! You are probably sensing a theme...we visited all our favs :). Here are a few photos from our day!

Shelly

2011-06-17T09:20:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite parts about visiting home is getting to see Shelly. She is such an amazing friend/adopted mom. I have known her since my senior year of high school when she became my confirmation sponsor. She has such a loving heart and is so good to me and my family. The babies just love her. We were lucky enough to visit with her two different times. Once at my parents house and once at hers.

She has a beautiful home on the Puget Sound, which I like to call her "dream house" :). Thanks for all your love Shell! We love you!

Around the house

2011-06-16T14:15:00.000-07:00

Some of the best parts of our vacation were just hanging out around the house. My mom and dad sure enjoyed playing with the babies. My mom took joey on walks, read him stories, colored with him, and brought out the lego's to play with.

Gen got lots of cuddles from everyone and even got a fun jumper from my mom. They were both very spoiled by the Grandparents. Uncle Drew and Aunt Tara came to play too. Joey can say Drews name...it is pretty cute. Here are a few pics I took while we were hanging out at home.

Papa's Trucks

2011-06-15T15:36:00.000-07:00

We were really looking forward to taking Joey to my Dad's work. He owns a Propane company and the just recently built a new office. I knew Joey would love to see the big trucks and to meet the office ladies (he is pretty social like that). We got lots of cute photos of him in the trucks, but here are a few of my favorites:

Breakfast at Tiffany's....err...the Stanwood Cafe

2011-06-14T14:45:00.000-07:00

The first Sunday I was in Stanwood (my hometown) I met up with two of my closest friends from high school. I have been friends with Amy and Kales since I was a freshman in high school. We all ran cross country together and had many classes together. I also went to church with kales.

Kaleigh drove up all the way from Olympia to meet me for breakfast! She is so sweet. Amy happened to be in town for a wedding, so the timing was perfect. She lives in LA while she attends Physical Therapy school.

We met at the famous Stanwood Cafe for breakfast. It was fun to catch up with the girls I love. Here are a few pics taken at this breakfast.

meeting sweet Gen for the first time

I even got to visit with Kaleigh in Spokane!

Make new friends, but keep the OLD!

2011-06-13T21:59:00.000-07:00

Our trip to Washington was filled with so many fun adventures, but I will be breaking up the posts by special moments I want to remember.

The first day we arrived we had a reunion with many of our college friends. I tried my best to invite everyone, but life is crazy and I am sorry if you didn't get an invite. There were so many people that I realized we failed to send an invite to and I am sorry this happened. Hopefully next time we will see you!

My parents were generous enough to offer up their home for our use. It was so fun to catch up with such close friends. We ate good food, drank good drinks, and laughed a lot. My favorite part was playing our favorite college game, If/Then, Why/Because. Both Cory and I really enjoyed our time visiting that day and we are so thankful that we have such amazing friends.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the night!

All Siena House Alumni

Xavier House Alumni

Why hello again

2011-06-10T07:07:00.000-07:00

I know I have been absent in my posts lately, but I have a good excuse. I have been traveling for almost 3 weeks. We have been all over Washington state, and now San Francisco visiting family and friends. Wow, what a trip. Both babies have been SO good. I am so thankful. In fact, Joey has been sleeping until 9:30 am everyday, and taking 3 hour naps! Gen has been great too. Sleeping through loud noises and always smiling. She has developed a not so fun habit of being awake and wide eyed at 6 am...oh well. I do enjoy my quiet time with this sweet pea.

I have so much to blog about when I get back. Our trip was amazing, but I am looking forward to getting home and back into my routine. basically the purpose of this post is to tell you I will be back soon, so stay tuned :).

I will leave you with a few sweet photos to keep you going :).

In sandpoint Idaho...where I spent my summers in high school

Happy Birthday to....

2011-06-02T17:05:00.000-07:00

CORY!!!

I am so grateful you were born 27 years ago. I love you so much. Thank you for being an amazing husband, dad, brother, and son. You are the light of our life. Love you so much!

A weekend visitor

2011-05-19T14:12:00.000-07:00

Last weekend my best friend Amanda came for a visit from Colorado. She wanted to meet Genevieve and to spend some quality time with us. We didn't do a whole lot because of the babies and because she was getting over a cold, but here are some of the highlights of her trip:

1) We went to Cory's Dental school Luau. This is a tradition his class started their first year of school. We had amazing pulled pork and rice for dinner, along with an assortment of sides. After dinner we also had a show. 3 young girls performed for us. Of course the weather was perfect, so the whole thing was outdoors! Joey had such a great time running around.

2) We went to our friend Joey and Karen's for a BBQ. We had a great time eating good food and drinking great margarita's :). More on this later.

3)We went for a walk around campus and found two geese with their brand new baby! It was so fun.

4) Finally, Amanda and I got to lay out by the pool while the babies took a nap. Thanks to Cory who was studying at home and was able to keep an ear out for the babes.

It was so fun to have Amanda here. We have been friends since kindergarten and it amazes me that we have stayed in contact this long. Thanks for coming to visit Amanda! We love you!

Mother's Day Surprise

2011-05-09T16:41:00.000-07:00

*Note* The surprise is at the end of this blog (and no...I'm not pregnant) beware, it is not for the weak of stomachs :).

This Mother's Day was full of excitement and fun. It started off with a pedicure. Cory and Michael (Alyssa's husband) surprised us by sending us out for a pedicure! Such a sweet gift. It was fun chatting with my dear friend too!

Alyssa is such a fun person to hang out with. She was my first friend in Arizona. She has a son named Caden, and a little one due to arrive in November!

On Sunday Cory made us French Toast for breakfast and then we packed up the babies and went to the Zoo. It was a very nice, WARM day. Joey loves being outdoors and he LOVES animals. So we knew he would have a blast, but poor Genevieve was not into the heat :(. Luckily she got used to it and ended up sleeping for a lot of the morning. Joey loved pointing out all the animals and Cory loved showing them to him.

Thankfully they had a splash park. Joey wasn't too certain he wanted to play in there, but then he got used to it and was cracking up!

Next Cory found this fun creek and Joey was in HEAVEN! My favorite part was when he was eating his sandwich and walking down the creek. He tripped over the dam and fell face first into the water. His sandwich got soaked and he immediately put it in his mouth! GROSS! haha.

Gen was so tired, so I had to catch a cute photo of her sleeping!

What 20 month old can stop to eat? Cory literally followed him around feeding him his PB&J sandwich!

Every mom has to get a picture with their kids on Mother's Day!

This was the awesome Orangutang center. They were soo funny and cute. They totally put on a show. Joey loved it.

Cory and Joey went into the Monkey Village. These monkey's just climb above you in the trees...it is awesome to see.

Gen needed to eat, so my lovely husband offered to feed her while I played in another splash park with Joey.

After getting soaking wet, and getting shoved around by some big kids (of course after lots of fun) he was cold, tired, and sad. We had to take off his wet clothes and continue our ride to the car. This is Joey pointing to the flamingo's as we are walking back.

He was soo tired when we got to the car. He never sleeps in his car seat, but as you can see he did on Mother's day. The last one was his face when he woke up....had us laughing pretty hard.

After the Zoo we went to our favorite Mexican restaurant. We went with our good friends Erin and David. We had a nice dinner, but as we were finishing up, Joey started gagging, then screaming. This could only mean one thing.....vomit. Cory immediately decided to pick him up and try to run for the bathroom. Why he thought that was a good idea is beyond me...because the moment he picked him up Joey vomits ALL over our table, mainly hitting Cory's almost finished plate! This elderly woman was walking by and she literally gasped out loud and turned to look at us. Her husband hurried her along. Had Cory started walking to the bathroom I guarantee he would have a) vomited on another table or b) hit the line of people waiting to be seated! We, of course felt so bad for joey, but we also were laughing so hard after we realized what happened. My friend Erin couldn't stop laughing because she said it reminded her of a movie when you see someone vomit and you know they are using a hose to make it look powerful. Luckily Joey recovered quickly and was laughing and talking to us.

Oh, that is a Mother's Day I will NEVER forget! haha.

Family away from home

2011-05-05T08:16:00.000-07:00

I would like to introduce you to my "family" away from home. When we moved to Arizona almost 3 years ago, we were both extremely sad to leave all of our close family and friends. It is difficult to live so far away from the ones you love, but we were extremely blessed to meet such amazing people when we moved here. My first year I became a part of a group of women who formed a bible study/support group for wives who have husbands in the medical field (doctors, dentists, optometrists, physical therapy, OT, PA, etc). This group has been such a lifesaver for me.

The girls in this group come from all different faiths and backgrounds, although we are almost all Christian. Some of us have children, others do not. Either way, we support and care for each other. If one girl is in need, we reach out to help them. If someone needs meals, we make them. If someone needs childcare, we watch their children. When I went to the hospital, one of our dear friends Alyssa and Michael watched Joseph for 4 days! As hard as it is being away from home, it is comforting to know we have such kind, loving friends like these families.

The other day we had a BBQ to celebrate the end of the year and to bring our families together. I have posted several pics to show you:

It's fun to watch the children play together!

Rebekah and Jazmin (with baby Ava)
Ava is 10 days younger then Gen.
Jazmin has another girl 1 week younger than Joey.

Adrianne and Emily holding Noah and Gen

Carol, Crystal, Ali (Liam), and myself

Brian and Brad (Ali and Adrianne's husband)

Tyson, Theresa, and Nathan

Michael, Crissi, and Addison

hands full

2011-05-03T13:08:00.000-07:00

Lately I feel like I am on display when I go out by myself with our two babies. For example, today I ventured to the Post Office to mail a couple packages. In that short trip I was stopped by 3 or 4 people who gladly told me I had my hands full!

The sarcastic side of me wants to thank them for pointing out the obvious.

The nice side of me (which I showed...don't worry) acknowledged that, yes, I certainly do have my hands full, but also told them I love having it that way. Then, I nicely asked if they wouldn't mind holding the door open so I could barely make it through with my double stroller!

For some reason, people just want to stare at them and me. I'm guessing they do this for one of two reasons: a) my babies are cute, or b) watching me juggle two babies is entertaining...(I am sure the first of the two is the correct answer haha).

Having two children under 2 makes life exciting. I am enjoying every moment with these beautiful babies and I am so grateful God trusted them into our care. I feel like I am really getting into a routine. Of course it helps that Gen is sleeping 9-12 hours at night, but even without the sleep, our day is running smoothly. If you want to know if it is way to difficult to have children this close apart, my answer is to go for it! Joey loves having a sibling and I don't think it takes away from my time spent with him. He is in no way denied love or attention. If anything, it has taught him to be more patient and independent.

God knew what he was doing when he gave us Joey and Gen, as long as we continue to trust in him, life will be good!

Joby

2011-05-01T20:34:00.000-07:00

Don't you just love pictures like these? This is Joey's best friend Caden. He is 2 weeks younger than "Joby," Caden's name for Joey :). Everyone needs a best friend :).

Meet Gen's future husband :)

2011-04-30T15:29:00.000-07:00

One of my closest friends in Arizona is Karen Schad. She is Joseph's Godmother too. Karen is so much fun to be around and everytime we get together we can hardly breathe because we are talking so much! We get together once a week to get our babies together (and lets face it, to talk). She had her son, Owen, exactly 5 weeks after we had Gen. He is such a sweet boy. We always joke that Owen and Gen are going to get married :). So here are a few pics of our photoshoot with them. Note: Owen was ready for a nap, so he was not happy.

I love baby pictures :). So unpredictable!

Tonight is one of those nights........

2011-04-27T17:17:00.000-07:00

when you have to sit down with a glass of wine and laugh.

People often comment on what a happy boy Joseph is, and he is very happy, but with that happiness comes a mr. grump too. I think his terrible 2's are starting a little early. He isn't communicating has well as both him and I would like, which is a big part of the problem.

Today, for example, he was an emotional wreck! Gen was having a rough day with her stomach pain, because of this we didn't make it outside today. This made for a long morning for Joey. His peak meltdown occurred when he was watching a Veggie Tales video. It got to a certain point of the movie and suddenly he went crazy. He started sobbing and saying no over and over again. I tried everything and he just would not calm down. Then we tried lunch because I thought maybe he was hungry. He hardly ate any food and so we had a early nap today.

How exhausting.

If only I could get in his mind and figure out what is going on in that little brain.

Luckily for this little guy, his cute moments make me (almost) forget about those not so cute moments. Today when I went to get him out of his crib after his nap, he was announcing over and over again that he went "pooh, pooh" haha. It is his new favorite word, and he tells us everytime he goes!

Oh yeah, and he recently decided he LOVES to color. He has been in his high chair for an hour coloring. Who is this kid? haha.

Well, lets just say I am looking forward to relaxing tonight with my glass of wine in 2 hours...but who is counting down the time?

Easter Weekend

2011-04-25T10:10:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a busy weekend we had! We spent the entire weekend together as a family and it was so fun! On Saturday we started the day off with an Easter egg hunt at Cory's school. Joey loved it. He only gathered about 5 eggs, but still enjoyed it. They divided up the egg hunt by age, so Joey was in the 0-3 year old hunt....it was over in less than 3 minutes! haha.

After the egg hunt we went over to the blow up slide. I didn't think Joey would be able to climb to the top, but he did....slowly but surely. It was so funny watching him inch toward the top of the slide as all the big kids were passing him by.

Once he got to the top he didn't quite know what to do. He played at the top for awhile as other kids piled at the top and then went down the slide.

Finally a sweet girl helped Joey get down. I love watching other kids helping each other out!

He wanted to do it again and again. Joey actually got pretty fast at climbing to the top. My favorite moment was watching him get knocked backwards down the slide by a big kid. He had a smile the entire time, even after the big boy landed on him!

After we pulled him away from the slide we made a visit to the Easter bunny. He walked up to the bunny with open arms ready for a big hug. It was pretty cute. He just kept staring at him!

Next, we had to drag the sad 20 month old back home so we could get ready for the next part of our day, Lincoln's first birthday party. I used to watch Lincoln, until we had Gen. He had the cutest party. His mom, Debbie worked really hard to make it special, and it was! He had a Dr. Seuss themed party. Joey had such a great time, especially wearing his party hat! He didn't take it off once!

His highlights of this party was the "green eggs," Lincoln's toy room, playing bean bag toss with dad, and Lincoln's swing!

The rest of the night was pretty calm, we came home, took a nap and prepared for our dinner party the next day!

Easter morning we woke up to a big breakfast: Egg casserole and fruit. It was delicious, and the best part is Cory put it together! Woo hoo :).

After breakfast we went to Easter Mass, which was wonderful! I always love the joyful feeling you get on Easter after 40 days of sacraficing during Lent. When we got home we prepared a ham dinner for a couple of our friends from the Catholic Club. Our special guests were Erin and David, Joe and his mom Joanne, and our friend Scott. Dinner came together nicely and we had a fantastic time. After dinner Erin and David stayed for some games.

What a fun weekend. I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend as well!

HE is RISEN!

2011-04-24T09:46:00.000-07:00

Happy EASTER!!!!!!

We pray you and your families have a very BLESSED EASTER!

All about Genevieve

2011-04-21T15:23:00.000-07:00

Our little girl will be 3 months old on Monday! She is such a sweet girl. Gen smiles at us all the time. She is even starting to make sweet cooing noises. I forgot how much I love hearing a baby try to talk to you! She is an awesome sleeper! she sleeps about 12 hours straight...sometimes I have to re-swaddle her, but she always goes right back to sleep. I feel like a new person now that I am getting so much sleep!

She adores her big brother. I often catch him going up to her and hugging her, smiling at her, and kissing her! Today, when I went to get them out of the car, I noticed Joseph's hand was in her car seat under the blanket. I moved the blanket to find him holding his sisters hand! How sweet is that?

I have been so bad about giving Gen "tummy time" lately. So I decided that at the same time everyday I would make sure she had "tummy time" starting yesterday. Today when I put Gen on her tummy she immediately rolled to her back! WOW...she is picking it up pretty quickly.

We are still trying to figure out what is causing her to be uncomfortable at night. Because of some major problems with Thrush Cory and I made the extremely tough decision to stop breastfeeding. As emotional of a decision as it was, we felt it was the best thing to do (but that is a totally different story). Anyways, we have tried sensitive formula, and now we are trying Soy formula...it is hard to tell if she is lactose or just allergic to formula. I was allergic as a baby...so who knows.

Otherwise, life is good with two babies! We are enjoying getting to know Gen better. Here are a few of my favorite recent pictures of Genevieve.

I am obsessed with bows lately. They are so fun, but often, very impractical! I can't count the number of times we have arrived at our destination and the bow is over her eyes, yet she didn't make a peep.

I also love sleeping baby pictures! How can you pass those by? What a sweet sleeper!

California Girl

2011-04-17T08:48:00.000-07:00

One of my dearest friends from high school came to visit us last week. Amy is currently going to Physical Therapy school about 30 minutes east of LA, so we have been extremely lucky to have her come visit every once in awhile. She had a break from school and so she was able to come visit. We didn't do a whole lot, because having two children under 19 months slows you down....but we did go on a walk to the park, attempted to go swimming, watched the movie "Tangled," (I had to watch this girly movie while she was here), got frozen yogurt, and played some games. I was so sad when she had to leave, but I can't wait for her next visit! Now for some photos. Sorry, a few turned out blurry, but I wanted to include them anyway.

Out to dinner the first night at Abuelo's

Sweet Gen pretty much slept the whole time

We attempted to go swimming, but as soon as we got there, Gen got a bad stomach ache and started screaming. We finally got her to sleep, as you can see below. Joey, who used to LOVE swimming, did not this time. He was scared when he couldn't touch the bottom, so as you can see below, he tried to escape!

Pool time!

Joey wanted to go to the playground
instead.

Getting plenty of cuddle time

look at that smile!

Last night, bbq and margarita's!

Cheese!!!

Our little goof

2011-04-12T15:36:00.000-07:00

Joseph is such a funny boy. He makes us laugh because he is so goofy sometimes. The other day we were out to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant with my friend Amy. Towards the end of dinner he was getting hyper, so I caught it on camera. Enjoy :)

What we've been up to lately

2011-04-06T20:36:00.000-07:00

-Cory-

Other than going to the Clinic everyday, he has been extremely busy helping me out at home. Having two little children under 20 months doesn't give us much free time, but, we are enjoying it most of the time :). He loves coming home to wrestle and play with the babies. In his "free" time, he has been doing a lot of reading. I swear, this guy never goes anywhere without a book. He is either reading a book, or browsing through Amazon to see what book he wants to purchase next :). Just the other day I bought him a St. Patrick's day pin that said "Irish for a day" and the only way I could get him to wear it was by telling him he could buy a 10 dollar book if he wore it ;). Cory's most recent activity was creating a poster board on Catholicism to be displayed outside the school chapel for diversity week. Tuesday was religion day, so the different groups were asked to represent their religion by putting together a board that explained the specific religion. Cory was VERY thorough and stayed up til 3:30 am working on the board. He did a great job!

-Athena-

I have been one busy mom. The last few months have been both the best and the craziest times of my life. I LOVE being a mom of two children. They bring so much joy to my life, but I am not going to lie, it is extremely challenging sometimes. This is definitely the most selfless time of a parents life. I feel like I am finally catching a SMALL glimpse of Christ's love for us and the sacrafices He made for us. I am really trying to embrace my life as a stay at home mom and to do my best during the day to make our home environment a happy, comfortable, loving place, meanwhile making sure that I am making time for prayer and relaxation. I find I have to lean on God much more than I have ever had to before children, but that is a good thing! In my "free" time I am participating in a bible study (the book of Esther) with other medical/dental wives, I have play-dates with fellow moms, and "date nights" with Cory (playing games, watching movies, bible study, etc). I recently went to a great Women's conference put on by the Phoenix Diocese. It was so nice to spend a day growing in my faith.

-Joseph-

This little 19 month old is growing into quite the little boy. He is full of love, joy, laughter, goofiness, opinions, and strong will :). He loves the outdoors, dogs, his sister, looking at pictures, watching sesame street, lamb chops play along, and veggie tales, and he is really into walking in circles ;). He has started talking a lot more and will repeat a lot of words we say to him. He makes us laugh all the time and is one of the goofiest kids I know. Joey is sensitive and very loving. He also has strong opinions about when he wants to eat, when he wants to go or stay outside, when he wants to go to bed, and his strongest opinion is about who can hug his mom :). He is such a joy! I love watching him grow each day and learning new things.

he insists to sit in our new stroller
in the middle of the livingroom

-Genevieve-

What an amazingly sweet and smiley girl miss Gen is. All you have to do is look at her and she gives us a huge smile. She is really easy going about 80 percent of the time. Unless her stomach is bothering her she is a happy baby. Some things she loves: her pacifier, her daddy, Joseph, kisses, stroller rides, and her food. We love this little girl so much!

Conversation with Joseph

2011-04-05T14:11:00.000-07:00

Joseph is really trying to talk a lot lately. This is a funny "conversation" I had with him the other night while Cory was studying.

*NOTE: We did not train Joseph to walk in circles, nor did we offer him treats for doing it. He just loves to walk in circles. If we open the front door, he darts out and when he gets to the walkway he instantly starts walking in circles. This is especially funny when someone is at the door :).

7 Quick Takes

2011-04-01T15:46:00.000-07:00

1. Last weekend Cory and I had our first date night without any babies since Gen was born! It was so nice to get out with him. We went to the Odontoblast (Dental Prom). It was so fun to catch up with good friends and just to hang out together. Our awesome friends Tyson and Theresa watched both babies for us. Thank you!

2. Genevieve has slept 8+ hours that last few nights! It is so awesome to finally get a full nights sleep. I am a pretty structured person and keep both kids on a strict routine to help get them sleeping through the night at an early age. Joey was sleeping 12 hours by 13 weeks, so hopefully Gen will be close to that too. She is 9 weeks now. The only difference with her is that she is much more gassy. Poor girl seems to have so many stomach problems, however, we have started to burp better and that has relieved some of the pain.

3. I am going to a women's conference all day tomorrow with my friend Erin. I am so excited to have a full day devoted to God. I will let you know how it goes....oh and pray for Cory, he has both kids by himself all day! What a great husband :).

4. Joseph (19) months now, is finally starting to say some words. These are the words he says now (sometimes hard to understand):

all done
cat
dog
bird
burr (as in cold burrr)
bye bye
hi
dada
momma (on occasion)

5. Joseph is also going through an interesting "shy" stage. Whenever we are around adults, he is so outgoing, but as soon as another child comes along, he gets so scared. He will hide behind me and/or want to be held. I am not sure why this has started happening. Hopefully he will grow out of it. Also, he does not like watching people hug. If Cory hugs me, he gets all upset. If he sees someone on TV hug, he gets upset. haha. It is so weird.

6. Genevieve is smiling so much lately. Other than her stomach troubles, she is so easy going. She lets her brother hold her, she is patient when I have to stop feeding her to deal with Joseph, she is just an all around fun, sweet girl. We love snuggling with her and we are so grateful to have her in our life.

7. We are starting to try and figure out where God is taking us on our next adventure. Cory graduates next June and we have to decide where we will go from here. Without getting into too much detail for now, we could use some extra prayers that God will make it clear where he wants us to be come the summer of 2012 as Cory needs to start making arrangements for his job. Thanks in advance for the extra prayers, and once we have more clarity we will have a single blog post explaining in detail what is going on :).

Picture to share

2011-03-30T13:09:00.000-07:00

I was getting some love from my babies. I can't believe how much joy they bring to my life!

We got a new double jogging stroller. Cory and I are going to start running together! When it gets too hot, then we are going to start our Insanity workout DVD. I am so excited to get back in shape. Joey's is not happy in this picture because I was stalling our walk to take this picture. He was happy as soon as we started walking. This was their first time in the stroller and he LOVED it. As soon as I brought it out, he could hardly contain himself. The weather is beautiful right now, so I am hoping to get out a lot before the summer heat starts.

Do they look alike?

2011-03-29T09:45:00.000-07:00

Joseph at birth:

Genevieve's birth

Joseph 2 weeks:

Genevieve 2 weeks:

Joseph 4 weeks:

Genevieve 4 weeks:

So what do you think? I think they have similarities, but you can definitely tell one is a girl :).

The life of a Dental Student

2011-03-25T20:44:00.000-07:00

So Cory comes home every once in awhile with funny conversations he has with patients. Tonight he had me in tears laughing because of one conversation he had. This sparked a blog idea, I am going to post some conversations he has had to give you an idea, of course I will leave out names for confidentiality.

conversation 1: Older patient with Dementia, who always asks Cory if her husband was supposed to come back with her to Cory's station. (Her husband had his own appt. so he was supposed to wait for his student doctor to get him).

Cory: Hey look, your husband is coming back.
Patient: He must have gone somewhere
Cory: No, he didn't leave, He is just now being seated.
Patient: Yep, He must have gone somewhere.

Conversation 2: Same patient, she was sitting in the dental chair as Cory was treating her.

Patient: So what kind of classes are you taking?
Cory: Mainly Dentistry classes
Patient: Oh....so you want to be a Dentist?
Cory: Yes, that is why I have been treating you the last few times you have come.

Conversation 3: Same patient

Cory's supervisor to patient: You're blood pressure is a little high today.
Patient: It's not everyday you have a cute, young man working on you!

Conversation 4: A newly retired woman with a lot of dental work needed.

Patient: I need to get my teeth fixed quickly because I need to go to Ohio at the end of April.
Cory: Why do you have to go to Ohio?
Patient: My son was fighting in the Iraq war and now he is deceased.
Cory: Oh, I'm really sorry to hear that
Patient: Well his injuries actually aren't too serious.
Cory's thoughts as he tries to keep a straight face: Wow, she really mispoke on that one

Conversation 5: Old 80 year old man, super sweet and flirtatious

Patient to Cory's partner: I sure am lucky to be surrounded by beautiful women all the time.
Patient to Cory's supervisor: If I wasn't married and was available, I would date you right now.

Flowers make all things better :)

2011-03-23T13:45:00.000-07:00

2 days without a shower, nap, a bad case of Thrush for both Gen and I, and a lack of sleep can bring you down....

...but when your husband offers to go grocery shopping and then comes home with these:

and you realize how blessed you are to have a loving, helpful, hard working husband, you realize those other things don't matter. As rough as these last two months have been, we are very blessed to have two beautiful children, each other, and our faith in God. Thank you Lord for all you have given us!

Round 4

2011-03-20T20:39:00.000-07:00

We had our final visitors this last week. My little sister tara came to visit and stayed a whole week. We had so much fun together and I just loved watching her interact with Joey and Gen.
Tara had one week off before she starts student teaching in a resource and life skills room in Bellingham. She was really happy to get away for her break and "relax" in Arizona. I put relax in quotes because anyone with kids knows there is not much relaxing taking place....but she still had fun.

The first day we just lounged around upon her request. She was so exhausted from her finals she just wanted to drink her coffee and stay in pajamas the first half of the day. I didn't blame her!

While she was here we pretty much played with Joey and Genevieve. She helped me make some great dinners and we played lots of games :). I just had fun chatting with her and catching up. We hadn't seen each other since July! Here are a lot of pics from her stay here:

We bought these chairs for Joey and Genevieve,
Tara tried to sit in one :)

Waiting to be seated at the Black Bear Diner

After a hike at Thunderbird Park

Helping A. Tara bake...what fun...and what a mess!

A. Tara made playdo!

On Wednesday, our parents joined in on the fun. They had been in Austrailia/New Zealand for the month of February (They were in Christchurch, NZ 20 hours before the earthquake and had been in the Cathedral that was ruined!) so they were anxious to come meet their new Grandchild :). Here are some pics of their time here.

First time seeing Genevieve

Mariners Spring Training Game

For the Love of the Game :)

He kept walking up and down the hill! He was dancing
and clapping for people, what a riot. He was having
the time of his life!

The game was during his nap time, so as soon as we
got in the car he pooped out ;)

sleeping on Grandpa, so sweet.

So sweet...what an angel!

Waiting to be seated at Red Lobster :)

Me and my handsome Dentist :)

Top 10 ways my life has changed since having a second child

2011-03-11T09:45:00.000-08:00

10. I now want long hair, because I foresee a lot more pony tail days! Showers are more difficult to come by :).

9. I am having to learn to accept a mess every once in awhile. Trying to keep my home as spotless as I would like is not realistic with two children under 19 months! ha.

8. Multi-tasking is my middle name right now. Did you know I can breastfeed Genevieve and feed Joseph at the same time?

7. I am spending much more time outdoors with Joseph....going on walks is what gets us through our morning sometimes!

6. If it won't poison, poke, kill, hurt, bite, corrupt, or break, Joseph can play with it! Today I found him playing with a packaged pregnancy test...and I just shrugged my shoulders and thought, I sure hope we don't have a random visitor right now :).

5. On a tough day, a chocolate chip cookie (and many prayers) can get you through....the more I eat gives me an idea of the type of day I have had.

4. I am much more willing to take out the garbage and recycling in the evening of a tough day :). The long walk to the recycling bin helps me calm my mind :).

3. Sesame Street on youtube is now my favorite youtube station. It has saved me several times while feeding Genevieve. Joey loves it....and Lamb Chops play along on youtube. Thank you internet!

2. You can pretty much find me with a child in my arms at all times. Sometimes both. (I wouldn't want it any other way).

And the #1 way my life has changed since having a second child is.....

1. I have much more love in my life! The cuddles, the laughter, the smiles, the giggles, all of it. I am so blessed with two beautiful, healthy children and even though at times I am a walking zombie, I realize how luck cory and I are to have Joseph and Genevieve in our life!

Daddy's girl?

2011-03-09T20:46:00.000-08:00

18 months/1 month

2011-03-06T12:17:00.000-08:00

Joseph is 18 months!

Wow, I can't believe he is already a year and a half old. He is such a big boy now and a big brother! He just adores his sister and loves to "help" take care of her. His favorite "helping" tasks are burping her and pulling the diapers in and out of the diaper pail :). What a good big brother.

A few things Joseph loves to do right now:

Playing outside. He could do this all day, everyday.
Going down the slide. He has no fear, he loves going face first!
Watching Sesame Street videos
Kissing Mom and Dad
Making animal sounds. His favorites are monkey's, dogs, and lately, ducks. His quack quack sound is hilarious, more like a "wok, wok"
Trying to put his shoes on.
Helping me pull out clothes from the washing machine to go into the dryer, however, he does not like it when I put clothes in the washer! ha.
He still doesn't say to many words, the only words he says is Dada, Hi, uh-oh....and lots of other sounds. He babbles a lot, and seems to understand more. I guess he is just a little slower on the vocabulary.
He loves to play with the toys in his toy chest. Especially taking them all out! We are working on cleaning them together.
He enjoys "helping" mom make dinner.
He does not like it when Dad hugs mom. He is kind of possessive haha.
Mostly, he loves to be around people....and people love to be around him. He is very sensitive and loving.

Genevieve is 1 month

These last few weeks have flown by! I'm not sure if it is due to lack of sleep or because I have two children or because of all the visitors, or maybe it is all of the above! We are extremely blessed with a beautiful girl. We are falling in love with her more and more every day. She brings so much joy to all of us.

A few highlights from Genevieve's first month:

She is a great eater! So quick in fact we are having to slow her down because she was getting so gassy. We are hoping this helps.
She is a great napper...during the day we just have to lay her down and she goes right to sleep....nightime is a bit different. She needs a little more coaxing at night....I guess she is a night person like her dad and I.
She tolerates her brother burping her and touching all her body parts (eyes, nose, ears, toes, fingers)
She is patient when mom needs to attend to her brother.
It takes awhile to burp her, but she eventually lets one out. Sometimes I am shocked on how loud she can be.
She is a tough cookie....we remember Joseph would scream if he went pee once in his diaper. The other day I took her with me to the store and when I got home I went to lift her out of the carseat and she had a full blowout, but didn't make a peep...in fact, she was great!
We love this girl so much and can't wait to see her develop and grow!

Baby woes, advice welcome

2011-02-28T22:29:00.000-08:00

I don't mean for this post to be too negative, but I am so exhausted and thought maybe someone might have some good advice. Our sweet little girl seems to be having some trouble in the late afternoon/early evening/night. All day long she does great. Eats well, sleeps well, has plenty of wake time...but then around 3-5pm she seems to show signs of stomach pain. Sometimes she will wake up after 1 hour of sleep and scream in pain. I can't tell if it is reflux or gas pain. For example, this was our day today:

2pm- feed
3pm-sleep
4pm-wakes up screaming, I check on her and she has vomited a TON. All over, looked like everything I fed her (and this is 2 hours after eating). She then falls back asleep after we clean up and sleeps for another half hour and then wakes up crying.
4:30pm-Feed
5:30pm-Sleep
6:00pm-wakes up in pain screaming, no vomit this time, but a couple big poopy diapers.
7:30pm-Feed
8pm-Sleep
8:30pm- wakes up screaming in pain,

then she was up on and off for several hours, eating one more time until 11:30pm. The poor girl seems to be in pain.

What I have tried:

-Given up Dairy
-Burp a ton and keep upright for awhile
-she is sleeping on an incline
-gas drops

I made a dr appt for tomorrow morning, but I just thought maybe another mom might have been through something similar and would have some advice. As much as I would like some sleep, I feel so bad for her. Can't be fun. Thanks for your help!

melts my heart

2011-02-26T16:47:00.000-08:00

Round 3/Baptism

2011-02-25T15:22:00.000-08:00

Last week we had a visit from our good friend Shelly! She came for about a week, spending most of her time with us, and visiting a few friends, getting to play golf one day :). It was fun to have her here with us. She was great with the kids and even made us a few meals. I felt bad, Joseph got pretty sick while she was here, so we were not able to do too much, but we did enjoy hanging out here. She was so helpful and it was nice having company, especially while Cory was studying for finals. We miss her already!

While she was here Genevieve was Baptized. Her Godparents, Tara and Drew, could not make it, so she along with our friend Joe stood in for them. The Baptism went really well and we are so happy that Genevieve has officially entered the Body of Christ. She did great during the Baptism...no tears :). She was alert during the whole thing!

Here are a few pictures from Shelly's visit and from the Baptism:

walking around oldtown scottsdale

Ringing the bell at the Mission Church in Scottsdale

shelly, us, and Joe

My grandparents

Friends Karen and Joey (Joseph's Godparents)

Friends Erin and David

Round 2

2011-02-23T20:38:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago my big sister, Nicole, came to visit us. She left cold Spokane for beautiful weather here (70's and 80's). We had so much fun with her here....other than losing our one key for our car (but that is another story for another time).

Nicole has recently discovered her amazing talent in photography. She is an awesome photographer and actually donated most of her time here to take pictures of our kids and family. She also did a couple photoshoots for two of my friends. It was great for her to spend time with both babies. Joey loved playing with her and I know she had fun too!

Here are a few pics (I guess I didn't take too many because she was taking so many) that I took when she was here.

Genevieve's Big Day

2011-02-19T14:02:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow, Feb. 20th, our little Genevieve Sophie will be Baptized. We are so excited for her to enter the Body of Christ. After a lot of consideration, we asked my sister Tara and her fiance Drew to be her Godparents.

Both Tara and Drew are great role models in their Catholic faith and I know they will both greatly impact Genevieve's faith life. Tara is such a loving person. She has been through her fair share in life, and has remained one of the most positive faithful people I know. She has embraced her Catholic faith whole heartedly. I look forward to Tara meeting Genevieve for the first time in a few weeks.

Drew became Catholic a few years ago. He went through the RCIA program at Western's Newman Center. He received his sacraments at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Bellingham. It was an honor to be present for his big day. Now he gets to be a part of our daughters big day too! Drew is one of the NICEST people I know. I honestly have never seen him be mean to anyone! He is so sweet and thoughtful. I couldn't have picked a better guy to marry my baby sister and now, to be our daughters Godfather.

Unfortunately, they will not be able to attend the actual baptism, but I know they will be praying for her tomorrow and for the rest of her life. Thank you Drew and Tara for accepting this role in our little girls life. We love you and can't wait for you to meet her.

Tara and Drew Last May at our parents 25th wedding anniversary

Newborn pictures

2011-02-12T22:22:00.000-08:00

My sister Nicole came to Arizona this weekend and took some amazing photographs of the kids and our family. Here are a few samples: