For Valentines Day Jack's preschool went on a field trip to a Surprise Fire House! Jack and Nolan were in heavan. All the little kids and some little brothers and sisters got to climb all over and even inside of the fire trucks! The firemen were so great. They opened up all of the secret compartments on the truck and showed the kids all of the tools and gear. Two of them even got all geared up and walked along on their knees so the kids could touch the gear, that way if the kids ever saw them in action they wouldn't be afraid.

All the kids got to walk through the fire department and see where the firemen ate and slept and what happened when they got a call. The fire chief asked if any of the kids knew what else they did besides put out fires. Jack was quick to announce that they came to our house all the time when he fell down and hurt himself.

After the field trip everyone headed over to Surprise Park for a Valentine exchange and cookie decorating! Can you say sugar rush!!

Big Brother, Big Helper

There's a new picky eater in town. Nolan, who once would eat whatever you put in front of him has learned the phrase " I don't like that, I want a popscicle!".
He won't even try anything unless it's the usual stuff he likes. It's so frusterating because I just know that he will like it if only he would take that first bite! Jack, who is now almost 4 years old, has all of the wisdom and experience of a big brother who has been through this sort of thing. Sitting across the table, Jack is just FULL of advice for Nolan on how and why he should eat his food. He goes over and over the fact that Nolan will not get a snack if he does not at least try his dinner. He even demonstrates that it is in fact edible by taking a big bite of his food and saying "See Nolan, it's yummy and now I have big muscles! You should try it, you might like it!" Usually this works because Nolan mimicks EVERYTHING that Jack does ( which is where he got the " I don't like that" phrase in the first place). Tonight however, his terrible two stubborness was in full effect and he would not have any of it. So after Jack finished his plate, he went over and told Nolan he would help him eat his yummy food. I swear, just when you think you are going to throw in the towel because you are sure that your kids don't listen to one single word that you say, one of them does something like this! Jack stood there and very sweetly told Nolan to "eat his yummy yummy vegetables so his tummy would get full" and even put the spoon up to his mouth and pretended to eat a bite and said "Mmmmmm!" and then carefully fed Nolan every last bite of his dinner! I couldn't help but laugh at Jack's facial expression with every bite, how he opened his own mouth. I don't know when I started getting a kick out of these little things in life! I just think this was simply sweet and am glad to know they actually do listen to us!

nieces

Britton just loves basketball. More like he eats, sleeps and breathes basketball. So when he started his freshman year of high school at Willow Canyon he could hardly wait until basketball season started in the Winter time. He even went to summer ball conditioning allmost every day to prepare and keep his skills up. So when he didn't make the team he was needless to say a little upset. I thought it would devastate him but to my surprise, he handled it very maturely. He went to the first practice and waited to talk to the coach and asked him if he could do anything at all to be on the team.... anything. Britton came home, drafted and wrote his resume and gave it to the coach. He was now on the team as the official manager. I must say that part of the reason he didn't make the team was because he was in marching band first semester and his band instructor believed that band was life, life was band. He didn't make most of the tryouts/practices the first few weeks of basketball. So as manager he is able to travel with the team to all away games, sit by and help the coach and even practice with the team during the week. The week befor last the coach told him that since he was looking so good at practice ( and I think his excellent team spirit and hustle were a big motivator) he was to get to wear a jersey and play!! Last week the coach put him in last quarter and he did awesome! A very excited Britton came out after the game to tell me that during the after game huddle the coach said that Britton was going to be playing more often since he had played so well that game! Yay! I am so so so proud of this kids perserverence, dedication and positive attitude! Teachers and coaches have ALLWAYS loved him for those qualities. It is so fun to watch him grow up and continue to amaze me. I love you Britton!

Sitting by the coach. ;-)

GO # 12 !!

FINAL SCORE, WILLOW-62, BOULDER CREEK-51 !

Nolan's hand 2 weeks old

torture treatment

Lately I have to beg, plead and steal kisses. The boys act like it is a form of cruel torture and say "Noooooo!" and squirm out of reach whenever I hug them and steal kisses. sniff sniff. So yesterday, during one of these torture treatments I was holding Nolan's arms and kissing his sweet chubby face and he was giggling and squirming and finally said (remember he's barely two) " Mommy, would you just stop it!" and I said, " but I just want to give my baby kisses." N~ " Oh, bwother!" and gave in with a roll of the eyes. What happened to my snuggleuffigus? I thought I had more than 2 years! He looks so much bigger than a 2 year old, but he's still my little baby!

Sea World

We went to Sea World a couple of days after Christmas for our 2nd annual family tradition.
This year was MUCH more pleasant than last years experience! Which is really a good thing since I practically begged and promised Jim that it would be worth it. The boys lasted most of the day walking around and enjoying all of the animals and sights. Well, Nolan lasted all day, Jack doesn't do so well without a nap! The first day was insanely busy and we didn't get to see much besides the aquariums and outdoor exhibits. Those were the boys favorites though so it was a lot of fun. We spent a long time in the salt and fresh water aquarium caves and the boys were just fascinated with everything in those big tanks! It was so nice actually being able to watch the fish and sea creatures without chasing the boys out the door.

Jack would have jumped right in the sting ray tank if I'd let him, and almost did! There isn't a moment of fear or hesitation with this child! He jumped right up onto the wall and stuck his whole arm in the water and was petting all of the sting rays. He wanted to put his finger in their mouths! Crazy kid!

This was in the shark exhibit which we had to go through 3 times.

There was a Christmas Tree forest set up in the front of Sea World with a maze of beautiful Christmas trees and a snow blower to make things even more festive. It smelled sooo wonderful and with the Christmas music and chilly weather, I didn't want to leave the forest. The boys thought it was pretty cool too. Remember, we are from Phoenix so we are easily impressed with this sort of thing!

I had to put Jim's "artistic shot" in the story. It is pretty.

Nolan L.O.V.E.D. the penguins. He stared at them forever and cried when we had to go.

Our Family Christmas 2008

Jack at Papa's house



Rock Band at Papa's house


Nolan

What a busy Christms we had! It's wonderful having so much family living close by, we get to have one Christmas party after another!
The week before Christmas the boys all went to Dorena & Sergio's house for the Wilson family Christmas party and had a great time. There aren't any pictures unfortunately because I was sick and didn't go. On Christmas Eve we all went to my parents house and had a wonderful dinner and lots of fun! Thanks Dad & Brenda!!! All of my brothers and their families were there. My sisters Carrie & Rachel live on the other side of the country and couldn't make it this year, we missed them a lot! (I saved you some banana cream pie Rach!)

Grandma Brenda, Buffy and JoAnna.

Uncle Brett

Gwen and Jim at the Lloyds house

Christmas morning at our house just gets more and more fun each year! Maybe because we keep adding a child to the family each year! As the boys get a little older it's so much fun to watch them as they get really worked up and excited over all of the celebrating and gifts and family fun. Britton is getting pretty expensive to keep up with on Christmas! Thank goodness he doesn't ask for much and is mostly into sports! I hope everyone had as wonderful of a Holiday as we all did!

Britton got a new stereo, a catchers bag, a MP3 player, a feather bed, movies and a couple of X-Box games among some other smaller things.

Nolan is really, realllly into trains so Santa brought him a train station with motorized train! We will see how long it stays put together. He also got a bunch of other toys and games and movies.

Jack was a wise man this year at the Stevenson Christmas party.

Jack and Santa!

All I Want for Christmas....

Oh, Costco.... they have everything you could ever want, and some things you didn't know you couldn't live without. Jack spotted this cute little dinosaur from across the warehouse. He gasped and got all bright eyed and said "Oh mommy, can I touch him?" Oh sure...but we're just going to pet him, not bring him home right.....? He blinks his eyes, moves his head and roars and even chomps on leaves. He is pretty cute, I almost did buy him but I'm sure he would end up being $150 piece of furniture shoved in the corner after just a week or two. Nolan wouldn't get closer than about 10 feet near the thing and was happy to leave. Jim has turned Jack into a "I want everything I see" child this year. I'm not very happy about it, Jim thinks it's cute. It started with all of the toy catalogs we recieved over the last couple of months. Jack and Nolan will sit in Jim's lap an go through the catalog at least 3 times and Oooo & Awwww over everything. Now Jack says " I want that for Christmas mommy!" at every single toy he sees on t.v. and at the store. Note to self: unplug t.v. after Halloween next year.

my humble garden

I have always wanted a backyard garden. Of course living in Arizona presents some gardening challenges, such as 100 + temps most of the year, rock hard dirt instead of soil and itsy bitsy backyards taken up by the all necessary swimming pool and patio. Albeit these challenges I was set and determined to grow a garden that any Midwesterner would be proud of. So first things first, I obviously needed to start a compost pile to make up for the complete lack of usable soil in my yard. So for months I dedicatingly and persistently chopped and saved every morsel of compostable items from our household. Did you know dryer sheets can be composted? After only a few months of tending to my compost pile, I had beautiful, rich soil! I could hardly wait to get to Lowe's and purchase several pots. I had already ordered some heritage seeds from Victory seeds co. they had been sitting on my kitchen counter top, patiently waiting to be plopped into their compost pots. The day had come. I spent all of 3 days mixing, planting and watering my little seeds. I now had planted; carrots, onions, lemon basil, lemon balm, collard greens, kale, turnip greens, thyme, parsley and oregano. Oh the glory, oh the bountiful harvest I will have in just a few short weeks, my very own vegetables free from ecoli, pesticides and factory altered genetics.

Fast forward about 6 weeks.....................................................................

I had been watering my seedlings 2-3 times a day, moving them to better spots in the yard when they looked heat stroked and making sure they were happy. Mind you it is the end of summer ( I post on a whim). One morning I go outside to water all of my plants which are looking B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L. by the way, thank you very much. And what do I find???? A bunch of pots with pathetic looking bare stems poking out in all of their bareness! Oh the shock! What the heck has happened to my lemon balm, my carrots, my KALE....NOT MY KALE! All that were spared was my basil a few carrots the turnip greens and the herbs which were up on the windowsill. Was it the dog, a bird, pests the kids??? No, this was to tidy a job for them. Each leaf was precisely picked off at the stem. I couldn't figure it out, no bugs in sight. The next morning I got up early to go check on what's left of my garden. What do I find in my near demolished collard green pot? The fattest, smuggest, green caterpillar I'd ever seen! He was to fat to escape. He might have even been cute if he hadn't just destroyed my poor little defenseless garden, the garden that had cost me about 20x's what I could have purchased it for at Sprout's. It all made sense now. A couple of days earlier, Britton had chopped down the overgrown, dead pineapple vines that ran along one side of the pool. A few times a year those vines were home to a huge population of beautiful butterflies that we loved to go out and admire. I guess there were still a few caterpillars left amongst the dead vines and when we chopped down their home they took refuge in my poor defenseless garden. Alas, I couldn't be to upset at the little guy. Don't get me wrong, I still tossed the little bugger into my bachelor neighbors house whom I'm sure doesn't have a garden of any kind.

The caterpillar incident took place about 2 months ago. I've moved on. I can look at butterflies and not wince now. After all, I still have a few happy plants growing away. The boys went out and picked there very first, very own baby carrot the other day! They were pretty impressed, which is what inspired me to grow a garden in the first place! Victory! They each plucked their carrot out of actual soil and stared at it in amazement. Jack said "Mommy! I just found a carrot!"

Nolan said "Oooooooo, cawoot!" We went inside and washed it off and to my amazement they both sat and nibbled their carrots away! Unbelievable! Mission accomplished! My children will know that vegetables actually come from hard work and nature and not the produce department.