A Fall Week in Arizona!

I am still trying to figure this picture thing out.... all of the pictures are in opposite order of what I wanted=)

Anyway, we had a very busy but very fun day yesterday... it started out that Daniel and I did a 2 mile walk to raise money for the Crisis Pregnancy Center. There were about 30 people from our church who did it as well and I believe we were able to raise a large amount of money for the CPC! I put Daniel in long sleeves and a jacket because it was actually cool in the morning and by 10:30AM it was blazing hot so I had to strip the poor child down to his onesie=)

Then in the afternoon, we went to Aubrey's 2nd birthday party... it was a lot of fun! All the kids dressed up in their costumes... what was I thinking when I bought Daniel's costume? He could only wear it for a few minutes because it was way too hot for him!

They also had a petting zoo and Daniel was fascinated with all of the animals... he named them all "MAX!"

He loved the little pigs!

I was praying so hard he wasn't going to touch this animals "back side!"

Here he is in his adorable dinosaur costume and his little "lady bug" friend! All the kids looked SO cute in their costumes!

They also decorated pumpkins but I didn't get a chance to take pictures of that because I was chasing Daniel around for most of this party and watching him drink 4 juice boxes of APPLE JUICE! I usually dilute his apple juice with water but I let him drink them straight from the box as a treat since nutrition rules are supposed to go out the window for a birthday party! I was very thankful that Aubrey's mom decided to buy the 100% juice brand with no added sugar!

Then on Saturday night, we went over to our friends Clint and Jennifer's house in Maricopa for dinner... we had a great time with great friends! Another couple was there with their two little girls and Daniel had such a great time playing with them - the cutest was watching them play/sing "Ring Around The Rosie!"

On Friday night, my mom came over to the house to watch Daniel and Brendon and I got to have a nice date night!

Then on Thursday, I hosted a playgroup at my house and I ran to Fresh & Easy to buy pumpkins for the kiddos to paint and the lady gave me these beautiful lilies complimentary! Another reason I LOVE this store! I have really enjoyed watching these lilies open up every day... I should have taken a picture from today - they are gorgeous! I LOVE FRESH FLOWERS!!!!!!!!!!!!

As I said, at our playgroup they painted pumpkins - what a mess but what fun! The below picture is Daniel's masterpiece!

Here is Daniel in his painting gear - this is after I cleaned him up so just imagine what he looked like before!

All of the babies playing in the rock garden after painting!

On Thursday Night we hosted our couples group and had a great time!

One of the play groups we are part of went to the coolest playground that I have ever been to in my entire life on Wednesday called Playtopia!http://www.chandleraz.gov/default.aspx?pageid=666 Trust me! They did not have playgrounds like this when we were kids! Daniel had such a great time and so did I! My favorite part was that instead of sand on the ground, they have these real unique wood chips so the babies don't get as dirty!

On Tuesday night, we had Ryan and Matt over for dinner and a game night! These two guys started as interns at Christ Life Church under Brendon's oversight in the summer and were hired full time in the fall... they still work with Brendon and we enjoyed hanging out with these two incredible guys!

As I said in my last post.... last Saturday I tried the baby hiking backpack and really hurt my back so my wonderful mother watched Daniel for me most of Monday because I could hardly walk! Thankfully, I am feeling much better but I have a new found respect for my back!

Off to my Beth Moore Bible Study!

Been a crazy week!

On Friday, we finally got to visit the Phoenix Zoo! I have been wanting to take Daniel because he is really into animals now - he loves Max (our dog!) and he says "duck" and "quack, quack!!" Also, anytime we go for a walk or a hike, he loves it when he sees or hears wild life. So, on Friday some of our friends went to the zoo and we had a great time in spite of the fact that it hit triple digits! Thank God for the shade and the misting systems!


The above picture shows Daniel staring intently at the flamingos!

These are Daniel's friends - Madison and Makenzie!

Our friends Amanda and Paxton in front of the giraffes! I think Paxton and Daniel could be brothers because of their coloring!

I took Daniel on Wednesday to have his picture taken in his skunk costume but the below picture is of him in his dinosaur costume and I think he looks incredibly cute in it as well! When Daniel was younger, it was much easier to have his picture taken... this was the first time I have taken him to get his picture since he started walking and it was "fun" to say the least! Let's just say he was very curious and wanted to explore the entire portrait studio! HAHA!

On Thursday, we hosted the Mommy and Me Group from church at our house and it was a lot of fun - Sara taught us the basics of knitting! I have always wanted to know how to knit and I think I will enjoy it but I am going to need a few more lessons in knitting before I attempt anything!

We also had some out of town guests that arrived on Thursday and stayed with us through today.

On Friday night we had our couples life group then I had to wake up very early Saturday morning to attend Traffic School from 7:45AM - 1:00PM!!!!!!!!! uggghhh=( This is the first traffic school I have ever attended and it was tortuous! In Arizona, we have cameras at intersections and on the highways (pretty much everywhere!) and they caught me going through a red light. My options were to pay the ticket and get points on my license or I could go to traffic school and it would erase the ticket... What an awful way to spend a Saturday morning!

When I came home, we decided to take an afternoon hike before going to my parents house for dinner... this time I wanted to wear the baby backpack to see how I handled it. My pride would not let Brendon have it back when my back started hurting, so... this morning I woke up in some extreme back pain!

Daniel is waking up from his nap so I better wrap up this post... the above picture shows Daniel's new skill he is learning. Feeding himself!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last picture for today is Daniel's favorite activity and my least favorite - his sandbox! It means I have to bathe him after everytime he goes into the sandbox because he gets sooo dirty! I should get used to it as dirt goes with having a boy=)

Naughty Daniel!

So... I was very focused on figuring out how to upload pictures on to this blog... however, my mother instinct kicked in and thought that I should turn around to see what Daniel was doing... Brendon and I were having coffee this morning before he went to work and he left his coffee cup (HALF FULL!) on the end table and Daniel decided that it would be cool to try to reach it and have a sip then pour it on our WHITE carpet and play with it with his fingers and hit it with his hammer to see how the coffee splashes up when you do that! Not to mention he had super cute Californian pants and adorable Janie and Jack socks that were coffee stained too! Oh well!

I kind of figured out how to upload pics but I can't figure out how to move the pics once they are uploaded so if anyone knows, please tell me!

I bought Daniel a Dinosaur Halloween costume but my mom found this skunk costume and bought it for him too... when she brought it over, I just had to put it on him to see if he would actually wear it and doesn't he look soooooooooooooooooooooo cute in it! I will have to take a picture of the back too because it is so stinkin' cute! HAHA!

I mentioned in a previous post how much Daniel loved Audrey's necklaces so I found these blue beads at a Party Store and it is the best $1 I have ever spent! Daniel LOVES them!

This is one of Daniel's favorite toys - His Grandma and Grandpa "Florida" got it for him for his birthday!

I just love this outfit - we call these his CSI Miami pants because they are the classic "Miami" style white, drawstring pants that have the cutest turtles embroidered on the cuffs!

On Friday, I got to spend the afternoon with Melinda and she highlighted my hair, lightened my base and cut my hair... I LOVE getting pampered! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! That night we went over to my parents house for a really nice dinner!

On Saturday, I bought a jogging stroller... my friend has a little boy that is a few months older than Daniel and she is expecting her second child very soon so she bought a double jogging stroller and sold us her single one. It has a hook up for me to put my iPod in and has speakers on the inside of the stroller so Daniel can listen to music!!! Brendon and I tried it out and went for a long roller blading adventure and just had a blast!

Then he got his hair cut Saturday night at Toni and Guy http://www.toniandguy.com/ - totally recommend this place for guy's haircuts - they are amazing stylists!

Tonight, we are going to the IMAX theater to see Wild Ocean 3D... we are going to take Daniel with us too as I think he will really like it!http://www.imax.com/ImaxWeb/filmDetail.do?type=nowPlaying&movieID=code__.__66707

Quick Post Before NCIS starts=)

Okay have to make this quick because I have a new episode of NCIS waiting for me on TIVO - NCIS is my FAVORITE TV show now...

Anyway, I was hoping that tonight I could attempt to figure out how to post pictures on my blog but I am really too tired to try to figure it out!

Yesterday I took Daniel to Freestone Park and we met up with some of our friends there. It was so fun as it was Daniel's 1st time to the park that he really enjoyed it - I held him as he went down the slide, then he really enjoyed the toddler swings, and he found the sand! SO... it is supposed to be cooling down here in Arizona since it is October but we got so hot in the sun yesterday that we decided to take a nice walk around the lake/ pond because there was shade and we needed relief=)

http://www.arizonaandpacificrr.com/spot/freestone/freestone.html The really cool thing about this park is that on the weekends they have this adorable little train, carousel, and another little ride for the little guys to enjoy so we are going to have to visit the park on the weekend soon!

Today, we met up with a group of friends that we have a weekly play date with and I just love hanging out with them - this is a group of moms and babies (all within a month of Daniel) that we met at a breastfeeding support group at the hospital... the group met every Friday but when the babies turned 1, they had to "graduate" but we have continued to meet every week for a play date and we all just have a blast swapping stories, tips, advice, concerns, recipes, etc.

I am soooo excited as I got Daniel's Halloween costume last night - he is going to be a dinosaur!!! Definitely by the end of this month I will know how to post pictures and I can't wait for you to see him in this ADORABLE costume!

I am off to see NCIS with my brother!

Daniel's Busy Social Life

Daniel is taking his Saturday afternoon nap after partying the day away at A's Birthday party! Daniel LOVES birthday parties... balloons is the first thing he notices, he loves cake (and he only gets it at b-day parties!), new toys to play with, friends to hang out with, and good food! Daniel ate SO MUCH FOOD this afternoon - I couldn't count how many pieces of cheese he ate and how many times we had to go back to get more fruit salad for him... it was kind of embarrassing=)

On Thursday we got to attend the Mommy and Me Play Group that we have at church and I just love hanging out with those moms! We are reading Shepherding a Child's Heart http://www.shepherdpress.com/product.php?productid=16134&cat=0&page=1 and I am really enjoying it as well as our conversation about the book in our group! The play group was at our friends Sara and Audrey's house and Audrey has dress-up necklaces that Daniel was totally obsessed with ... in fact, he had to have all 8 around his neck the whole time! At one point, Audrey had 2 around her neck and Daniel went over to take those off her neck to put on his! I am glad that Brendon was not there to see his son with 8 pretty necklaces hanging around his neck=) I couldn't stop laughing!

Then Thursday night, we have our couples life group that we host at our house and we always enjoy that!

Yesterday I took Daniel to a Kindermusik Sign and Sing class http://www.kindermusik.com/Classes/SignSing.aspx with some of our friends and he LOVED IT! I am just really enjoying this stage because he is very eager to learn new things! I was so proud of him because he started using baby signs around 10 months old so he already new some of the signs they were teaching.

Now it is our time to have a social life, so Brendon and I are going to drop Daniel off at Phillip's Basketball game and my parents are going to watch him this evening so we can do something fun!

Have a great weekend!

Happy October!

Daniel is in bed... sleeping just like an angel! Brendon and I love going into his room after he has fallen asleep just to watch him - it is so precious!

Yesterday, Daniel and I went with some friends to a really fun place called ARTVILLE http://www.arizonamuseumforyouth.com/artville.aspx . This is a museum created for little guys under age 4 - every room has a theme like the living room, kitchen, garden, art studio, art gallery, performing arts center and the list goes on! I have a feeling we will be visiting this place a lot=)

ARTVILLE is located right in the historic village of Mesa which has some fun shops like Bella Fine - http://bellafinedecor.com/, Blissful Living Studio, http://www.blissfullivingstudio.com/ and Domestic Bliss http://www.domesticblissdesign.com/ to name a few - so if you ever come to Phoenix, make sure you visit downtown Mesa, as there are so many museums, art galleries, theaters, antique shops, and great places to eat BUT most importantly is ADORN LOUNGE. Melinda who has done my hair since I moved here sold her old salon and opened this salon in the Spring and it is AMAZING! I thoroughly feel like Cinderella as soon as I walk through her front doors - she gives only celebrity treatment and she could be an amazing interior designer in addition to her talents with hair and an incredible business woman! I just love spending the afternoon with her as it litterally take 2+ hours for her to do my hair so you can only imagine how much we talk about in 2+ hours! Of course, a lot of the time is spent talking about my baby Daniel so I had to stop by Adorn Lounge since I was in the area so Melinda could see Daniel as she only gets to hear about him but hardly gets to see him.

Then last night Brendon had a spontaneous idea to hike South Mountain as a family so I packed Brendon some hiking clothes, got myself and Daniel dressed for the adventure, stopped and bought one of those baby backpacks for hiking and met Brendon at the office and off we went to hike South Mountain! It is getting that time of the year around here where we can start enjoying the outdoor sports/activities because it is starting to cool down in the evenings! On our way home, we stopped at the famous Southern California Fast Food Joint IN-N-OUT for some yummo burgers and fries! http://www.in-n-out.com/

Today, Daniel and I met some friends at the mall. We went to Stride Ride to get Daniel's foot measured - he is now a 4.5! Then we all took the babies to the pet store because they LOVE looking at the puppies. We ended our time at the Wildflower Bread Company http://www.wildflowerbread.com/ for their kids' afternoon activity which includes a glass of milk, a fresh baked chocolate chip cookie and an art activity for the kids to do! Yes, I let Daniel have sugar today - I was only going to let him have a bite of the cookie BUT he wanted more so I let him eat half of the cookie! I think he is a total addict now=) It was so nice to have fun girl time at the mall!

Happy October! Good Night!