Stopping in Gilbert

   On our way back from Texas, we decided to spend the night in New Mexico and then visit Megan near Phoenix the next afternoon. Our kids did so amazing in the car (and QP napped 4 hours straight midday) that we pushed through--meaning Fox drove 1,080 miles in a day--15 hours of driving with 3 stops--Dallas straight to Phoenix. Thank you, my children, for being such road warriors!!
And of course thank you, my husband, for being such an excellent driver!
 
  I was so excited to have more time in Gilbert with my sweet sister Meg and her cute family! Fox had never visited before, so we were on a mission to get him to love it. Happy to say that he looooves it now :)

Throughout our whole trip, Coco talked about seeing Sadie the snake.  So, the first thing she wanted to do was hold it...and then pick out a mouse for it to eat.  Eewww...Josh obliged her after we ate.  She picked out a white one from the bag 'o frozen mice (while we all cringed) and got to watch Sadie have her meal.

How amazing is this wall of cupboards?!

The beautiful backyard with the sweet Sadie dog.  There is a trampoline to the side, too.  We loved hanging out in the backyard. The most perfect weather in the dead of winter!

The kids were very excited to be out of the car:

Meg and I at the preserve near the library:

Twinners!  These boys are so cute.  They came home from school and got right down to their homework! I love how Ethan often puts his arm around Jonah when he talks to him.

Girl cousins in this family are few and far between, so they have a special bond.

   Josh pretty much summed it up when he said, "Arizona is great.  The neighborhood is great. The downside? Oh, it's...you know...hotter than death."  But perfect in January!  We love you Abbotts and hope to see you again soon!

Quincy is 1!!

     Quincy boy turned 1 last week!!  We celebrated his birthday in Texas with his Ellis grandparents, which was so fun.  The drive was 21 hours and went much, much better than expected.  Quincy only cried for a few minutes when he got thirsty.

  If you look at the above picture, you will see that Quincy is ripping the birthday crown off. Stinker!

Grandpa Rick picked out the most awesome, rainbow cake.  Fun to smash!  Q was a big fan of the ice cream.

  And...a sad attempt at a photo with the grandparents.

On our way back from Texas, we decided that we would stop to see my big sister Meg and her family in Arizona.  We got there much much earlier than expected and were able to have birthday cream puffs (the Hulihan tradition) made especially for Q by Megan, who did a much better job than I could have done!

Not so sure about this...

Better!

    Although our trip back was smooth, too, I think Quincy got addicted to falling asleep by the car motion.  Or else he is moving down to one nap a day (eeek!).  Anyways, he is just so happy to be out of his car seat and crusing around in his new shoes now!

  We sure love having Quincy in our family--he keeps all of us on our toes and is a wiggleworm but still a great cuddler! 

Toddle, toddling, toddler...

Our little baby boy is turning 1 next week.  How did that happen?

Also, he is walking! He is literally toddling everywhere now.

Here's what he's been up to lately:

Riding in style on his Christmas present from Grandma Betty!

Squirming for photos, as seen here and in the one below:

Coco still has not warmed up to Quincy--look at those devil eyes on her!

Mooching food off of Grandpa's plate...constantly...Grandpa is too nice!

  Quincy is a very interesting boy.  He, like his cousin Mitchell, tends to like hard things to cuddle with, and will often be soothed only by holding things like chapstick, pens, and sample bottles of lotion.
    Quincy loves music and will stop to dance whenever he hears the slightest beat.  He is a great napper but definitely a picky eater!
   Quincy literally walks around the house all day long, exploring everything.  It is exhausting but fun watching/rescuing him.
  Our plan for his birthday is to travel to Texas so he can meet his Ellis grandparents for the first time.  20 hour car ride, here we come!

A Very (Un)Merry Birthday!

Fox and His Boys

  Fox had a birthday a couple of weeks ago! He had a busy but good day that started with volunteering at Cash's school and ended with chocolate cake! However, as per tradition, his birthday triggered a string of unfortunate circumstances! His birthday weekend was spent dealing with a case of lice on Cash (curse you, public school!), hours at a laundromat using every last cent of birthday money to get everything dried, and as a result, an unfortunate shrinking of his favorite wool coat.
     
   The day after that, my parents' car got backed into while we were leaving a Target parking lot. We also found a few more straggling lice throughout the week, which meant everything got washed 3 more times to be safe. So, life lessons were aplenty as Fox started the next year of his life.

Lessons learned:
--Take your wool coat to the laundromat
--RIDx does nothing for lice. Stick to tea tree shampoo, olive oil, and a hair dryer.
--Don't go to Target in the midst of crazy Christmas shopping!

  As far as "tradition", last year, Fox had an all-day migraine on his birthday.  The year before that, he was recovering from his second hernia surgery.  The year before that, our car broke down on his way home from work and the beautiful cheesecake I baked him turned out to be completely uncooked in the center!

   This past year has been really hard on him--hello, months-long unemployment--yet he continues to amaze me with how strong he is staying! In fact, after that string of trials and doing countless loads of laundry, he said, "You know, we really are blessed." I wanted to say, "Are you kidding me?!" but it's true--we have been kept healthy this year, and our children are growing and thriving.

So, a very MERRY birthday and BLESSED new year to my husband of a DECADE who literally drops everything to serve me and our children the minute he walks in the door...

You deserve the best, and I know that good things are coming your way this next year! I love you, my lifetime boyfriend :)

When Mom's away, Coco will...

...color her entire hands in blue "washable" marker. Washable? Really? Hmmm, Crayola, this is after 15 minutes of scrubbing with various solvents...

...pour herself a bowl of sprinkles, breakfast of champions.

Don't worry--she only ate a few spoonfuls before I got to it! I think...

 I think someone is LOVING having a baby brother who needs to get laid down for naps gets mom out of the room for a few minutes.

And thus begins her year as a 4 year old!

Coco's 4th Birthday Recap!

   Cosette had her birthday last month, and, despite going to the ER in the morning, she had a good time! 

Grandma gave her a fluffy unicorn before heading out to Wisconsin.

On the way home from the E.R., she got to go to the toy store and pick out this bow/arrow/dress set from the movie Brave.

She requested strawberry angel food cake for dessert!

Auntie Ru gave Coco the movie Brave and a ton of her favorite treat--bubble gum!

She spent some birthday money on this color-your-own purse.  So cute that Daddy is helping her--she did great staying in the lines!

  Coco is such a fun, goofy girl!  She really doesn't care much for dolls and would much rather spend her days dressing up, singing, or playing horsey (oh yes, that is where I pretend I am the horse and she sits on my back while I gallop-crawl around the house. Not my favorite). She is working on her Scottish accent to be like Merida from Brave and has gotten quite good at it!  She is definitely her Daddy's girl!

2 months later...

  Our laptop is slowly dying, so it's hard to upload pics--but here goes! Here is Quincy at 9 months:

And the other crazies...

  For his 10 month shot, this dark, dark photo is the best I got out of the bunch :(

 He was wailing and wailing and only little distractions could console him (after I decided that chopsticks aren't the best things to chew on):

 
 Now here is my happy Quincy boy when not being forced to pose on a chair!  He is standing and actually started taking steps tonight!

  He is growing 4 top teeth right now, so we've had some sleepless nights these past few weeks.  Other than that, he is a fun, curious baby boy.  I can't believe he'll turn 1 in 6 weeks!  Too crazy :)