Christmas and our beloved pineapple

We had a great Christmas! Thomas woke up to a brand new train that Santa spent a long time putting together, only to have Thomas destroy it within an hour.

He was very spoiled he got so much stuff, we need to build shelves in his closet.

Here is an overall look at the spoils, he had a lot of fun playing in the wrapping paper, thank you to all our family who made sure he was sufficiently spoiled! Thanks to my mom who drove down here to spend Christmas with us, and for always offering to watch Thomas so we can go on a much needed date (Blindside was amazing by the way).

Here is our pineapple or what is left of it. For those of you who don't know about our Pineapple plant, we brought back a pineapple from Hawaii from our honeymoon. We decided we would plant it, and it grew and grew and got pretty big, our poor pineapple lived 6 good years. It recently died when we left it out in the cold, I haven't had the heart to throw it away yet. Paul is growing us a new one, but it won't be the same. we will miss you pineapple.

Happy Halloween

We went to the Freeman Pumpkin Patch a few days ago, and it was a lot of fun!

They had a petting zoo which was Thomas' favorite, they also had a train, hayrides, carousel, and a corn maze.

Thomas got to decorate his pumpkin with washable markers.

Thomas was the cutest little ninja if I do say so myself, we had a lot of fun at the Trunk or Treat. Thomas loves all the candy!

Two years old

For Thomas' Birthday we went to the Safari Park in Sedona, it was so much fun! Here is Thomas feeding the giraffe a cookie.

Here is the little guy opening presents.

Here he is in the tunnel his dad bought him, it attaches to a tent, which he loves!

And Grandma Hale bought him a push trike for his birthday, he was spoiled rotten for his two year old Birthday!

Happy Birthday Thomas!!!!

I just wanted to wish my Birthday Boy a great big Happy Birthday! I can't believe he is two, where does the time go? I just want him to know how much we love him, and couldn't begin to imagine life without him. I cant help but remember a year and a half ago when he was having open heart surgery and seeing him strapped to a bed with tubes everywhere, how lucky we are to have him. I remember sitting in his room by his bedside when bells started ringing throughout the hospital , the baby next door had gone into cardiac arrest and within a few short minutes that precious baby passed away. I will never forget that horrible feeling, Paul and paced the hospital floors that night, there was no way we could sleep. That was probably one of the most defining nights of my life knowing how much you love someone and how you would do anything for them. Thomas has been our little miracle and you can tell by the picture what a happy and fun kid he is! We love you Thomas!!

Paul is the big 30

We also just had to get this adorable sandbox for Thomas! He loves being outside, if he had a choice he would stay out there all day.

Can you tell Thomas loves Oreo cookies!

Can you believe he is 30 years old! We had lots of fun for his big day. We started the day out with golfing, and then lots and lots of Wii and Guitar Hero, then we went to Red Lobster and then we topped off the evening with mini golf. It was a long day, but it was fun, Thomas especially like the mini golf. The next day we also decided to celebrate we took a trip to Phoenix and went to the Melting Pot with some friends. It was so much fun, I love fondue it was a fun experience. Thanks to Paul's mom for watching Thomas so we could have a night out!

Paul is starting Thomas out young!

Girls Weekend and Thomas

My mom, sister and my niece Brianna came to visit over the weekend while Paul is out of town. We had a lot of fun shopping, swimming and just hanging out. ( Brianna is mad because Thomas shut the door on her)

This is one of Thomas' favorite hang outs he loves cabinets, he was so cute with Brianna, he followed her all over the house saying Bree Bree. He also loves when Grandma comes to visit she has so much fun with him, she is very entertaining for him.

Thomas has finally decided he will use the spoon, I was so proud I had to take a picture, he also signed Please today, I almost fell off my chair. I have been trying to get him to sign that for so long, its good to know he is paying attention.

This is just a random pic of Thomas at the rodeo, he was a nightmare there would not sit still for a second, anyway he is doing great walking all over the house getting into trouble wherever he goes. He misses his dad and is looking forward to him coming home soon!

Washington D.C

Wow! I haven't blogged in quit some time sorry about that to our handful of readers. We have been traveling like crazy, Thomas and I went to Utah for almost two weeks, we came home for four days and then we went to D.C. We had so much fun in our nations capitol, I had no idea I would enjoy D.C. as much as I did. Thomas also loved it! The Washington Monument above was his absolute favorite site, we went to see the monuements at night when they were all lit up. Thomas could not quit staring at it.

I highly recommend seeing the monuments at night it was nice and cool and they look amazing at night. It was so awesome to be around so much history

Our first time on a real life subway, it wasn't as dirty or scary as I thought it would be. Although it was kind of scary thinking just a couple of days after riding this subway that it crashed.

Thomas at the Air and Space museum of course we had to go to this museum look who I married.

More Washington D.C

I just had to post this! We went to the National Archives and if you have been there or have seen the move National Treasure you know that bright lights are forbidden around the Constituion. Well Paul gets right up to the glass to take a picture and forgets to turn off the flash. He did this right in front of security needless to say he was not allowed to use his camera in the museum again.

Our hotel was right down the road from a real life outdoor movie set, the gawkers said it is some new Reese Witherspoon movie. Not sure of the name of it, but we thought it was pretty cool.

Well we finally got to see the White House, after an hour of driving around to find a parking spot and then another hour to walk to it. We walk up to the gates and then they decide to turn the light off. Sorry the picture looks kind of weird Paul had to do some crazy stuff to the camera to get it the shot.

Working Vacation

The real reason we went to D.C. is for Paul's work, he is the Union Negotiator at his work and he had to go there to a training class. Thomas and I just tagged along. Paul was in training for 12-14 hours a day, Thomas and I did get pretty bored some times but we went on a lot of walks, played at the playground and went swimming.

Thomas loves to swing!

The resort we stayed at was on a beautiful bay, with amazing boats docked there, it was kind of crazy there were a ton of jellyfish all over in the bay.

Thomas at the swimming pool, the water was freezing!!

Utah

wow! I have not blooged in a long time, sorry to the few of us who follow this blog. We have been pretty busy working on our yard and going on vacation. Thomas and I took a long trip to Utah recently and we had so much fun. We first went to his Aunt Kellyanne's Graduation from Taylorsville High. We were so excited to see our family, it had been a while!

Thomas found this Rocking horse at my brother's house that he loved and couldn't get enough of.

We went to Lagoon with my family, for the first time with Thomas, he couldn't ride to many rides, but he did like the Merry-go-round, well he liked it once it began moving.

This is Thomas' cousin Brianna, they had so much fun together (they kissed most of the day). Thomas just loved being with all of his cousins, We were really sad when we had to leave. So to all of our family out there Thomas' misses you and he want's you to come visit!

Too Many Rocks

So we finally decided on grass.. real grass.. that means sod, sprinkling system, curbing, hmmm this is starting to sound like a long project, no to mention the trees, shrubs, garden... and please no... the maintenance.. mowing, watering, fertilizing... I'm tired just thinking about it. But, I digress, first things first: ROCKS!

We have twenty tons of the stuff... what to do with forty thousand pounds of decorative rock... People Paid money for this stuff?? It is way to expensive to pay someone to haul it away, I could take about forty loads to the dump in my truck.. still expensive and about a month long process wheelbarrowing it all out into the truck and taking load after load after load. No way.. throw it over the fence. It was a nightmare until Julie had the brilliant idea to put it on Craigslist. I resisted at first (see craigslist killer) and thought who would come and shovel out weed invested rocks for hours on end just to get some free rock. Finally, I relented, I put an add up saying if you want to come shovel it, and haul it away, you can have it... within an hour I had people responding and within two days I had 20-30 emails from people in Prescott wanting to come pick it up... unbelievable.. before I could blink my backyard was empty of all the unwanted rocks.

People even sent me pictures of what they did with it.

Gotta give Julie props for that one! Saved me hours of hard labor.