Happy Anniversary!

Today is our 9th wedding anniversary - I can't believe it's already been 9 years!! They've flown by so quickly. I decided to post some pics from our big day, since hardly anyone has actually seen any of them :) I really was so lucky to find such a great guy to marry. He's better than I could have hoped for and is a totally amazing dad, too! Thanks for making the last nine years the best of my life Doug. I love you babe!!

Carlsbad Caverns

the mouth of the whale

My Dad came to visit us for a week at the end of July - yeah!! We love when Papa comes to see us. During his visit, we took a little trip to Carlsbad Caverns, about a five hour drive from here. It was totally amazing being inside those gigantic caves. Everything was really beautiful and it was so huge that it took us 3 hours to get all the way through. The only thing that was a bit unpleasant was entering through the bat caves where the smell of guano is almost too much to take. It was really hard not to throw up from the smell and I'm usually not that sensitive to stinky stuff! But that part didn't last long, just until we were really into the caves and from then on we thoroughly enjoyed it!

Spar Far Away

On the hike

Keegan with his spider, Jack

What a view!

Buddies

Striking a pose at the lake

Fishin with the girls - we all caught one!

Our friends invited us to this totally cool log cabin up in Spar, Colorado for an extended weekend. It was built in the 1880's and was really rustic and charming. It was so beautiful and peaceful there - it felt like we were in the middle of nowhere! The kids had lots of fun exploring the little stream in front of the cabin, hiking, fishing and playing. The adults played cards and Scrabble to pass the time at night and did some fishing, too. We were sad when we had to return home. Thanks for the invite Andrea :)

Campin Out

Nice head lamp, Doug!

Keegan and Doug were planning on attending a father/son campout a couple of months ago, but Doug had to work at the last minute and they didn't end up going. Ever since then, Keegan has been begging to sleep in the tent in the back yard. They finally did last night, and Keegan really had a lot of fun! It was nice of Doug to sleep out in the back yard with Keegan, and I thoroughly enjoyed having the whole bed to myself :) !

Shelling Peas with Great-Grandma

I think this is so cute! I'm so glad Keegan got to spend some quality time with Mema. We haven't been up to Utah in a couple of years and Keegan had a great time getting to know his great-grandparents.

the 4th

Keegan loves his Papa!

On the road with Riley& Oliver

Visiting with Mema & Wiley

Happy 4th!

Tiare & me

Keegan and Triston had so much fun together!

We drove up to Utah with the Drakes the week of the 4th. Doug and his little brother, Quinn, went hiking and camping with Travis, Jeff and their brothers. Keegan and I got to visit with Quinn's wife, Dani, and their son, Triston. We also saw my dad and grandparents and visited with one of my lifelong friends, Tiare Ita and her family. It was a pretty short trip, but we had a lot of fun catching up with everyone!

Girls Trip to Mexico

I've been planning a girls trip to Rocky Point in my mind for the past couple of years and finally got one together the last week of June. There were seven of us who went, and we had so much fun! We pretty much just layed out, ate amazing food, and shopped the whole time we were there. We also managed to stay up way too late every night talking or playing card games. It was a really nice break from reality for all of us, as no kids or husbands were allowed :) The girls who went were Sarah Shepherd, Karen Skousen, Joy Simmons, Jamie Drake, Marybeth Weeks and Tracy Hiatt. Thanks to my mother-in-law, Sharee, for letting us shack-up at her house for a night and to Rod Herbert for his generosity. We all had a great time!!

Salsa baby, yeah!

Most of you know already that I'm a total salsa dancing freak!! Before Doug and I were married, I would go salsa dancing every week with my roommate, Deb. We loved it so much that we even traveled to NYC to go to a great salsa club there (I worked for the airlines, so it wasn't too difficult :) Anyway, my love of salsa music and salsa dancing hasn't subsided since marrying a non-salsa dancer. Doug was totally thrilled when I found a salsa class at our local gym several years ago. I've been attending faithfully ever since and the pressure is off Doug to learn how to salsa! The song that you're listening to is just one of my new favorites - doesn't it just make you want to shake your booty?

Dynomites Soccer

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Rocky Point

Keegan and I went to Rocky Point, Mexico last week with some of Doug's family. It turned out to be a girls trip since all the men were at home working. We really enjoyed the beautiful weather and sandy beach.

The kids racing their Crocs

The whole crew

Grandma & Grandpa

Baby Bella was a big hit!

Otter Pop frenzy

The cousins

Our last night in Rocky Point :(

Sunbeam!

I just ran across this recording of Keegan when he first started learning "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam." He was probably about 2 1/2 or so - his little voice is just so cute! It was his favorite song for such a long time, along with "Popcorn." He made us sing those songs to him every night right before he went to sleep. He's growing up so fast, it's nice to remember when he was just a little munchkin :)

Agua Caliente

Doug & his sister Maline (does anyone else see a resemblance?:)

Grandma Gooch

While we were in Tucson we went to this really beautiful park called Agua Caliente. The kids had a lot of fun running around and playing in the little stream. Here are a few of the pics I took.

Keegan's Name!

Keegan wrote his name for the first time today and we're all pretty excited about it! Now we just have to tackle the lower-case letters! :)

Day at the Zoo

Keegan & Kara strolling through the zoo

Keegan sick of taking pics :)

The lion was pretty mello, just enjoying the sun!

Today Doug took off work and we all went to the zoo. Keegan loves the animals but doesn't like the "stink" very much! Anyway, we had a good time and the animals were all in pretty good moods!

Explora Museum

Keegan & Kara mastering the art of windmill design

The band has arrived!

We went with some friends to the Explora Museum downtown today and the kids had a blast! It's a hands-on place for kids to make all kinds of discoveries. There are tons of experiments and so much to do that even after being there for 6 hours, we didn't get to everything and the kids still didn't want to go home. The trip was a definite success, so I'm sure we'll be going back frequently!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone!! Gary and Sharee drove from Tucson to visit us this weekend. We watched Keegan's soccer game (he scored a goal for the other team!) Saturday morning and went to Old Town for some shopping that afternoon. Today was spent at church in our Sunday best and then preparing a feast for Easter dinner - none of us will be hungry for a while! We also went hiking up in the Cibola mountains this evening. The weather was beautiful and we're hoping that spring has finally come.

Keegan with Grandma & Grandpa

Amber's Visit

Amber came to Albuquerque for the first time ever this week :) She had some much deserved time-off from work that she needed to take so that she didn't lose it, so she was with us for a week. We didn't do anything really exciting - she kind of just blended into our lives. I was hoping that she would play volleyball with me (I play twice a week at the church), but she was a little too shy and ended up being the resident babysitter instead. I don't know why she didn't want to play - we all know about that killer, light as a cloud, side-arm serve!! :) We did end up hiking in the Petroglyphs and going to Old Town during her stay. We were all sad to say goodbye and Keegan is definitely going to miss torturing her with all his car, train and helicopter games! :)

Keegan's Prayers

Sometimes Keegan's prayers are pretty hilarious. He just kind of goes off on tangents and forgets that he's in the middle of his prayer and then has to get back on track and end it. Some of the stuff he says is so funny, we wonder where he gets it. Also, he just throws in some Spanish, too. He's a little obsessed with the sun and moon lately, as you'll hear from the sound clip. The other night he said, "Thank you that the moon is so shiny and the sun is so bright." He also prays for a baby pretty much every night without fail - so sweet! Anyway, here are two prayers from last week.

Kendall and Harper Come to Town!

Sweet little Harper

Kendall and Harper came to visit for 10 days at the end of January. It was so much fun to just hang out with them. Of course, Kendall was pretty busy during her stay. I had booked cuts and colors for about 20+ of my friends. So she was working for 2-3 days straight and I'm such a terrible secretary that I booked her appointments half an hour apart for the whole day without any breakfast, lunch or dinner breaks! Needless to say, we were pretty exhausted by the time the "Beauty Shop" closed, but all my friends were thrilled with their hair :) Keegan loved spending time with baby Harper (he calls her "little billy goat" because she eats pretty much anything, including paper) and was really sad when they left. I had to take them to the airport at like 4:30 in the morning, so he didn't really get to say goodbye. He woke up that morning to find that they were gone. He came into my room and said "I miss Kendall and Harper." It was so cute and a little heartbreaking. We can't wait to see them again!

Remembering the "chupy"

So I was talking to a friend today about how we got rid of Keegan's binky, which we called his chupon or chupy. I had vowed to take it away at 2 years but then my resolve weakened and I put if off until he was 2 1/2. Anyway, we were down to just this last one, so I decided that it was now or never. We warned Keegan about a week ahead of time every day that we were going to send the chupy away. So we bought 3 helium balloons because I really wasn't sure how many it would take, took Keegan to the park, had him say goodbye, and sent the chupy into the atmosphere. That thing seriously took off! I thought that it was going to be really hard for Keegan and it was at first, but after a couple of days he just stopped asking for it and moved on with his life - thank goodness! Still, every time I watch this clip, my heart breaks a little.

33 Already?

Happy birthday to me!

So, I can't believe that I'm already 33 years old! Time really does fly and I'm not totally loving it! Anyway, some of my girlfriends took me to lunch for my birthday, which was really fun. Thanks guys :) Mom and Dad sent some cash, which is always appreciated, and Doug took me to dinner (we had steak, of course - I'm such a carnivore!) and gave me a really great gift. He got me a massage and facial at La Bella - whippee! I love it!!! The only thing is that I feel like I have to earn that massage. Like I need to do a triathlon or something to merit such fabulous treatment. We'll see, maybe I'll line one up just for the reward of the massage afterward! As if that wasn't enough, Doug made me a delicious chocolate cake and invited our friends, Ben & Kristina, and their kids over for cake and ice cream. Thanks to everyone for making getting older a little easier!!

Harper's Blessing

Publish PostThe boys

The girls

Guess who wanted this pose? Mom - she's a real fan of The Sound of Music - can you say "Cukoo, Cukoo?"

I love this pic of Mom & Dad - Dad doesn't have his classic deer in the headlights look!

Kendall & Harper

Three generations of look alikes :)

Kendall decided to have Harper blessed by my Dad in Florida, and all the brothers and sisters tried to make it out for it. We were only missing the two oldest, Shannon and Frederick. Since it was such a quick trip for me, I decided to go alone, which was really hard! This was only the second time in Keegan's life that I've spent the night away from him. Thanks to Kristina for watching him while I was gone :) Anyway, it was really fun to have the clan together again. We reminisced, hung out and had a good time. Mom hired a photographer for the occasion and we all had a fun time hamming it up for the camera! Hopefully it won't be too long before we all get together again.