Sunday, January 9, 2011

California: Day 2

Day 2 of our California trip found us at that wonderfully magical place, Disneyland.  I had been a little bit worried that Preston wouldn't be able to ride most of the rides, but he was the perfect height and age.  There were only 2 rides in the whole park he wasn't able to go on!  And Vivi was the roller coaster queen.  The wilder the ride, the more she liked it!



 The first ride of the day.  It was a perfect time of year to go.  There were hardly any lines at all, and the weather was perfect!
We went and saw Nemo on the submarine ride.
After several other rides, the boys left to ride the train while the girls waited in line to see princesses.
 
Vivi got her face painted while we were waiting.
 Towards the end of the day, we headed over to Tom Sawyer's Island.  I think the kids could have spent all day there exploring.

 Trent was having the most fun. ;)


Grandpa was especially having fun scaring the kids in the caves.
The end of the day.  By the time we left the park at 6, Preston was asleep before we even took 10 steps out of the gate.  He slept all through dinner, the whole ride back to the hotel, and kept right on sleeping through us getting him dressed in his pajamas and putting him to bed.  We wore him right out!
Such a fun day!
 
Everyone's favorite ride:

Trent: Space Mountain and Thunder Mountain Railroad
Kiffon: The Haunted Mansion (I loved the "Nightmare Before Christmas" decorations they had up)
Trenton: Splash Mountain
Colson: Splash Mountain
Vivian: Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain
Preston: Buzz Light Year and the Jungle Cruise
Grandpa Stock: Splash Mountain and the Matterhorn
Grandma Stock: Thunder Mountain Railroad and the Haunted Mansion
Sean: Thunder Mountain Railroad
Grandma Guercio: Space Mountain

Saturday, January 8, 2011

California: Day 1

So back during the kids' Fall break, we decided to take a little trip over to California.  With Trent's new travel schedule, our family was in desperate need of some together time.  So we got all the grandparents and uncle Sean, hopped on a plane and had so much fun!

Our plane got in nice and early, so we checked in to the hotel, got a few groceries, and headed straight for the beach!

We went to Crystal Cove State Park, and they had some of the most amazing tide pools.
We spent hours looking and wading through them all.  This was all of my kid's first time seeing the ocean.  They were all enthralled with it.
 The guys and kids were all happy to be playing in the water... It was a little chilly for me though.
There were rocks everywhere covered top to bottom with mussels.
Sean decided to start a mud fight with the boys.  They were happy to join in.




Vivi kept her distance though.
Preston was okay until some of the mud being flung around got in his mouth.



We got him to smile again though.
It was a great first day.

Friday, January 7, 2011

2010 Recap

Last year was an eventful one for us, with lots of fun, changes, and growing.

In January, Preston and I both turned another year older.  We also got a dog, Cal, (which BTW I had swore I would never do again) who has grown on all of us, and we can't imagine him not being a part of our family.

In February I went on a major reorganizing spree and got almost every closet in our house in order. Vivi became a toothless wonder when she had to have two of her bottom teeth pulled, and Trent was ranked one of the top eight territory managers in his company and won a week long cruise to the Caribbean.

With March came more reorganizing projects, Preston got some new shorts he wouldn't take off, even for me to wash, Cal had a run in with a barbwire fence which required him wearing the cone of shame for 10 days, Trent and I started a rigorous workout program so we could look and feel okay in a bathing suit while on our cruise :), and I learned how to reupholster ottomans.

In April, Preston broke two locks on the door going to the garage, making it necessary for me to make several trips to Home Depot to buy new locks.  He also started gymnastics that month.  It must have snowed a lot because I have lots of pictures of snow.  This was also the month that Trent and I left for our cruise, and had lots of fun in the sun!

May brought with it more birthdays.  Trenton and Colson both turned another year older.  We added yet another pet to the family, a bearded dragon named Zion.  Vivi learned how to ride her bike without training wheels, much to our delight.

June was a big month for us.  Vivi graduated from Preschool, Trenton had his 5th grade commencement, and Trent got promoted to Regional manager, which brought with it a move to Dallas, TX, coming up in Jan. 2011.  The three oldest kids also had all of their dance recitals that month, and then, HOORAY!  School was finally over!  Vivi and I went for the first time to the American Girl store and loved it, and we celebrated Trent's birthday.

In July Vivi got to go on a trip with her grandma and grandpa Stock and her cousin Taryn.  And this was the month Trent finished his last class and earned his Bachelor's!  YAY!!!

August was spent purging and cleaning the house in preparation for putting it on the market.  Trenton started middle school, Colson 4th grade, Vivi kindergarten, and Preston started Joy school with Miss Jen.  Trent's diploma arrived in the mail in August, and his being a graduate was official.  Colson also got his braces on, and our aunt Sherril and uncle Roger moved to St. George.  (We miss them dearly!)

September was another big month for us.  Vivi turned another year older.  We found out at the beginning of the month that we are going to have another baby.  We also finished up getting the house ready to sell and signed papers with our realtor friend to get it on the market.  3 days later, we found out that we wouldn't be moving after all.  YAY!!! They changed the boundaries of Trent's region, and Denver would now be the more central location, so we quit packing and called our realtor and told him to not put our house on the market.  Since we weren't going to be going anywhere, Trent decided it was time to officially finish the basement by making it into a movie room.  I laid on the couch in the movie room almost the whole month with a bucket nearby. 

October still found me sick 24-7, and still laid up on the couch most of the time.  We spent the last week of Oct. in sunny California visiting several themes parks and beaches.

In November, Colson went in for his second round of braces.  Trent was gone most of the month traveling, so when he took the whole week of Thanksgiving off, it was a nice treat.  We spent Thanksgiving here at our house with my mom, brother, and Trent's cousin Derek.

In December Vivian found out that she is finally going to have a sister!!!  We bought a real tree this year, and got the house all decorated for Christmas.  We had lots of movie days while the kids were out of school for Christmas break, and cousin Trey came to visit for a few days, which the boys thoroughly enjoyed.  We had a quiet Christmas at home, and the grandparents and uncles came over for brunch and gift exchanging.  Steve, Trent and Cal went on a hunting trip (Cal's first) and came home with lots of yummy pheasant.  Trent also took the three oldest kids up skiing/snowboarding for their first time, and they were having tons of fun until Colson and Trenton both threw up on the hill.  (Luckily the ski school gave us a rain check :))  We rang in the new year this year with some of our best buds.

So there are some of our more memorable events of the year 2010.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Catching Up To Do

I was looking back at all of our pictures from the last few months, and realized I missed blogging about a lot of things!  For example,
we had a going away BBQ or Aunt Sherril and uncle Roger, who we were very sad to see leave us for St. George.  We miss them very much, but hope they are loving their new home.
We celebrated not only Vivi's, but my mom's birthday as well.
We went to a Rockies game.
Vivi went with tiara and all.
And we got to see some awesome fireworks there.
 We also went to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo down in Colorado Springs, where we got to feed the giraffes,


and the birds, and got to see lots of amazing animals in-between.
We celebrated Halloween.  (Can you believe this is the only picture I have of Halloween this year?  I'll have to step it up a notch for next year.)
We saw the leaves change.  I love the fall.
We went on a seriously fun vacation.  (More on that later.)
We celebrated Janet's birthday,
 and my brother Dustin's birthday, who is a serious turd when it comes to letting us take pictures of him. ;)
And Colson got braces on the bottom teeth, and new wires for the top teeth.

And that is our last couple of months in a nutshell.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Six

I am seriously behind on my blogging!  I never go this long!!!  I have lots to catch up on.  First and foremost, Vivian had her 6th birthday last month.  She is growing so fast!  It seems like only yesterday we brought her home from the hospital, a brand new babe.  She was such a tiny little peanut!  She weighed only 6 lbs. when she was born.  Quite a bit tinier than her 8+ lb. brothers.  I remember putting her in her car seat for the first time, and worrying because we couldn't seem to get the straps tight enough around her.  The nice thing about her being such a peanut, she was able to wear her clothes longer because it took her forever to grow out of them.

Vivian came in to this world with quite the scowl on her face.  She didn't seem very happy or excited to be here.  When she was first born, one of the nurses in the hospital looked at her and said, "Oh, so serious!"  Trent immediately said, "She doesn't look serious.  She looks just plain ornery!"
She looked pretty grumpy for a few weeks,
but it wasn't too long before she must have decided she liked it here after all, and smiled all the time.  She was a very happy and content baby.

Here are a few of my favorite baby pics of Vivi.
 9 1/2 mon.
 8 mon.
8 1/2 mon.

And now she's six,
and growing up way too fast!!!

I don't know what we'd do without our Vivi.  It would take all of us a lot longer to find things, that is for darn sure!  I don't know how she does it, but she knows where everything is in our house!  The boys will come and ask me where such and such of theirs is, and of course I tell them, "I don't know, I don't use it."  Next thing you know, here comes Vivi, strolling in the room with whatever it is they were needing.  We always ask her where she found it, and she always replies that she saw them put it where she had found it, or she saw Preston with it earlier. (And I'm sure she made a mental note of where he put it so she could tell the boys later.)  She's one observant little girl.
Vivi is such a thoughtful little sweetheart.  She is always writing notes to others, telling them that she loves them.  And about 90% of the time, there will be a chocolate taped to the note.  My kind of girl.  I am grateful to have a girl amidst all these boys.  At least I have someone to sit on the couch and roll eyes with when all of the boys are wrestling and acting like hooligans.  Plus she is just a sweetheart.  She just adds that softness and sweetness to our home that would surely be lacking if she weren't here.  We love you Vivi!