Bella, Gabe and Josiah

It’s pretty sure that the train park is one of Gabe’s favorite things to do in Phoenix. He really doesn’t want to go to any other park and would be perfectly happy if that the only place we visited.  We did our best to avoid all crowds and groups while Great Gram was here, but she flew home the day after Christmas, so we decided that it was a good day to hit the train park. Josy was a little nervous about the train, but sitting on Daddy’s lap made it all better. Gabe was not interested in the carousel. When we pulled up, the first thing he announced was that he wasn’t going on the “ferris wheel.” But we figured that Josy might like it. He was definitely nervous, but once again, holding onto Daddy helped a lot. Before Great Gram left, I did need one more picture of her and Gabe. Gabe insisted on having all of his pirates weapons...

Christmas Day we were all up bright and early, since that’s what happens when you have small children. We did manage to make them wait for presents until the adults had made coffee and we’d taken all of the matching-jammies-in-front-of-the-Christmas-tree pictures (including adding a picture of the 3-week-old-nephew who couldn’t fly over), although I’m pretty sure we were torturing all of them.  My kids all got Christmas socks, so Josy, who already had a thing about shoes and socks, insisted on putting them on before he would open any other presents. This is definitely the face you want when a kid opens your Christmas present. Uncle Seth may have thrown a wrapping paper ball at the perfect moment... After the presents were opened, there was breakfast, a zoom call with the missing family, and lots of playing with all the exciting new presents. Gabe’s pirate costume keeps getting more and more elaborate, this time thanks to Auntie Rachael and Uncle Matt. Christmas Dinner When we were all

I have a bunch of pictures and since I didn’t do a good job of posting daily, I get to catch up all at once. So these are all the random happenings up through Christmas Eve. There was so many snuggles with Great Gram. Josy was helping wrap presents and was super proud of himself for bring the present in and putting it in the tree. Josy has gotten really good and eating his bowl of cereal. Gabe wanted Gram and Gramps to both put him to bed, so this is how they carried him in. Bryson got a new fireman costume from his other grandparents, so he wore it all day. We really just had a pirate and a fireman running around the house yelling “Ahoy Matey!” Gabe also asked me “Mom, do you know what would be a huge, gigantic help? Could you get my fireman costume for me?” How old is he??? The boys may be starting their own street bike gang??? Josy was sure that he needed to ride the balance bike. I ended up pushing him around awhile and he thought it was great. But I still need to get those picture

Last Christmas, my parents gave us the gift of a weekend away. They were going to keep the kids for the whole weekend and we were going to fly to Seattle just the two of us. Unfortunately, that was supposed to happen in March, so it didn’t happen at all. So, instead, they kept the kids last night and Pat and I spent the last two days in Scotsdale, just the two of us. It was wonderful! We ate all sorts of good food. We walked along the canal. We tried indoor skydiving. (Unfortunately it just convinced Pat that he really does need to go skydiving. While it was fun, I didn’t instantly decide that I need to jump out of a plane...) We went to a Brazilian Barbecue place and they asked if we were celebrating anything and we told them that our anniversary was next week. So they decided that we should celebrate that. Yes, I did make Pat take a picture in front of a cactus. And yes, he did complain. But he will also thank me for it later when I put all the pictures in a book and he can remember