J gets Straight A's (Again)

Just thought we would let you know how AWESOME J is doing in school. She got straight A's for the second time this school year. J usually does very well, and it doesn't surprise us how smart she is, but we are so proud of her so we thought we would share the great news with all of you. We get weekly email updates from her teacher, and her teacher is very happy to have J in her class, she is a great student. If you ask J what she thinks of school, well, that is a different story, she does not like it, at all. This is her Sixth grade school picture, doesn't she look so beautiful, and so grown up?

J keep up the AWESOME work, we are so proud of you, we love and miss you tons.

Baby A gets Two Teeth!

Baby A has finally cut her first two teeth. We feel lucky that it has taken her so long to get them, but man was it miserable for her and us getting two at the same time. It was a long almost two weeks. With the joy of cutting teeth we experienced lot's of fussy ness, very little sleep and a small appetite. We felt so bad for her. She is really enjoying brushing her own teeth. I have been trying to get some pictures of her new teeth, but haven't been very successful, but got some cute ones trying. =) I got this video of her while I was trying to get pictures of her teeth but she kept trying to grab the camera.

D's Truck

D has been spending a lot of time re-building a 1991 Chevy Pick-up Tuck. He bought it a while ago at an auction for really cheap. But it had no motor in it, actually there was nothing under the hood. He ordered a new crate motor from Chevy, and has spent a lot of time in junck yards picking up all the other pieces. He has finally gotten the motor together and it is running. It needs to have a tune up, then it is heading to the paint shop. I wish we had pictures of it when he got it, cuz boy what a difference. I am not sure if you can tell how "clean" the engine is, but it looks GREAT! He has a new motor, headers, hoses, wires, battery, everything even new paint! We will post more pictures after it gets back from the paint shop.

Poor Maq!

I feel so bad for our poor dog, Maq. Baby A loves him so much. She is always chasing him around the house, picking at him, and crawling all over him like he is her jungle gym. He does very well with her, don't worry he gets her back, while she is sleeping he likes to go in her room and lick her while she is sleeping, which usually disrupts her "beauty sleep", we now make sure her door is closed all the way at night. =) Here is a video and some pictures of her "playing" with Maq.

My First Slide

Grandma C was up visiting last week it was too cold to walk out side so we went to the mall. We let Baby A play in the play area, and she really liked the slide. Here is a cute video of her going down the slide.

Playing in the tunnel.

Happy Birthday Grandpa J!

Grandpa J turned 55 last weekend. We did not have a party or anything but Grandma C, treated him to dinner and a movie. Grandpa J is really itching to retire soon. He has worked for SRP for many years, I can't remember if it is 25 or 30 years, so he has earned it. Grandpa J has also had an itching for a new sports car, he went and test drove a really nice new special/limited edittion Mustang Convertable, but Grandma C said NO. Maybe when he retires, she'll change her mind. =) Happy 55th Birthday Grandpa J, We love you!

Another FIRST Place Trophy for Team Aspire!

This Past weekend J competed in her third cheer competition of the season. It was held at the Dodge Theater in downtown Phoenix. It was a great place to have the competition, comfy & good view from wherever you sat. The great news is that Team Aspire brought home another First Place Trophy. The team seemed to really bounce back from last weekends 2nd Place finish. This time their routine had a few extra twits added to their stunts, which made it that much more difficult. Of course J did AWESOME, I have to say I think she is the best on the team. =) Now it is off to Nationals in Palm Springs, and we hear their routine is gonna have a little more added difficulty then it did this last competition. Her competitions are a blast to watch, we would love for you to come and cheer her on.

After this last competition we took a nice stroll to Chase Field (where the Diamondbacks play) and had lunch at Fridays while we over looked the torn up field. It was a great afternoon. Thank you Grandma C, Aunt C and the Kargs for coming to cheer J on.

Let's get it Started

Going up-J is in the front left group on top

Spit Pyrmaid, J is 2nd from left in the splits

Break it down ladies

What a finish

Recieving their FIRST Place Trophy

J's Cheering SectionSisters

at Chase Field

Proud DaddyOur Family

Baby A's 10 Month Update

Wow, 10 months, where has the time gone? I cannot believe our baby girl is almost a year old. It seems like just yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital. With all that said we have already started making plans for her 1st birthday party, may as well make the best of it. =)

Baby A gets more active every month, she is all over the place! This month Baby A has learned to clap and play Patty Cake, (you can watch this in the post before this one). She has also started to cut her first tooth. That was going well until about two nights ago, that's when the crying, runny nose, diarrhea and fever started, needless to say I am running on very little sleep. Baby A enjoys playing with her toys, and watching her Baby Einstein videos, she also loves to give kisses, big wet kisses. My heart attack for this month was A falling out of her high chair. She is OK, but it scared the daylights out of me. I was right there, I just bent over to pick up her sippy cup, and up and over she went. We now put her seat belt on EVERY TIME! Here are some new pictures of Baby A.

See the bump on my head?

Kicking back in my high chair.I love bath time.My pretty dress & cute boots.Sneaking up on Maq - poor dog. =)

Patty Cake - Patty Cake

Baby A & her friend Jasmine

My girlfriend Heather and I were very lucky to be able to go through our pregnancies together. Little did we know that we would both have girls and that they would be only two days a part. It is always fun to get the girls together. Here are some pictures of the girls at a recent OfficeMax "holiday party".

Baby A giving Jasmine smooches

Heather and Jasmine- Go Patriots!

M Goes Back to Work

I have really enjoyed being home with Baby A for the last 10 months. We are truly lucky that we have had the option of me staying home and raising our baby girl the way we want, with our values, morals etc. Unfortunately, with me no longer working our financial situation has become "tight". To help us out I have looked in to a couple job opportunities, something that I can do to help bring a little extra money in, and still be a mom. I tried looking into work from home type jobs, but that didn't really lead anywhere. Then I was offered an AWESOME PE position through the county, I would be in charge of teaching PE teachers all over the county the correct way to teach PE-great opportunity for my career, but not for our family. I just wasn't ready to head into a full-time position, stop nursing, put Baby A in day care, and all in two weeks, so I turned the position down. Then I looked into a couple gymnastics coaching positions, what fun that would be. But they only paid $8 per hour, it was gonna cost me $7 per hour to have someone watch Baby A the nights D had to work-I would be loosing money if I took one of these positions. I needed something with a flexible schedule, somewhere that would work around D's work schedule so he can be with Baby A when I am not. Well, that lead me back to OfficeMax. For me it is an easy job, I make good money, and they are willing to work with D's work schedule. I started back this past Wednesday, and it was like I never left, I guess after being there 11 years then taking 10 months off, I kinda didn't leave. =) The plan for now is I will work two evenings a week (5-9), and two weekend days a month. The money I make will be for date nights, for extra spending money etc. It works out great all around, it gives us a little extra cash, me time away from the Baby and D time with the Baby. Keep me in mind for all your printing needs. =)

J's Cheer Competition Update

J had her second Cheerleading Competition of the season. This was a huge competition compared to her first one. Team Aspire was not as prepared this time around, with the holidays and no practice for two weeks the team came back a little "rough" dropping the first two opening stunts, but finished nice and strong. With five other teams in their division, team Aspire brought home a 2nd Place award. We were happy to see a 2nd place award, just think of what it would have been if they hadn't dropped any stunts. We are very proud of the team, and look forward to next weeks competition. Go J and Team Aspire. Send us an email if you would like information to come and watch J's next competition, the more the merrier.

We have SNOW!

Ok not as much as our Cousins in Michigan. But it was nice to wake up to a light dusting of the white stuff. It probably won't stick around too long since this past week was warmer than it has been. We are expecting more snow later today and tonight, so we will see how long it stays for.

Family Time

We went down the other day to spend some time with J. With J's busy schedule it has been hard to get some good quality family time, but we try and squeeze it in as often as possible. We had a really nice afternoon so I thought I would share some of the pictures.

We went to Fiddlesticks for a friendly game of Goofy Golf. D and I took turns carrying Baby A in the snugli, I had her the first 9 holes and he the last 9 holes. At the end of 18 holes D was the big winner with a score of 60, I came in second with a score of 69 and J finished up with 75. We didn't do too bad until you look and see that par was 43. =) After Goofy Golf we hit the go karts for what we thought was gonna be a nice friendly race. D & J took to the karts first, and it was no race, J kicked D's butt. Now it was my turn to race J, she did not hold back she was bumpn, rubn' and cuttn' me off. It was a good race until I T-boned her, we were both ok, it was so funny. After our collision it was a race to the finish with J squeaking by on the last turn to take the win.