Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Introducing JOSHUA...who is turning 1 today!

A LOT has happened since I was here last and I think it's about time I update this thing!

Today my baby is 1 and I've never even posted about him!  Joshua Michael Francis is about the sweetest baby I've ever met and it has been such a fun year with him in our family.  He is so easy going and has the greatest smile, his whole face lights up and people comment all the time about loving his smile.  He rarely cries and has always just fallen easily to sleep by snuggling up for a song before you lay him in his bed.  He had some sweet rhythm and is always bouncing to any beat.  He loves Dave and always wants to see where he is and makes sure Dave pays attention to him.  His big blue eyes are different from the other kids and he kind of has his own unique look, I think he kind of looks like my dad.  He loves to give "kisses" with a nice open-mouth kiss and is "SO BIG" all the time.  He waves hello and good-bye and makes this funniest noise like a machine gun.  He is now walking around for about 8-9 steps at a time, but is still crawling in super-speed mode most of the time. He is getting more of an opinion these days and has developed a screech/squawk that drives us nuts, but definitely gets our attention!  I love this little guy so much and love how much he loves me too :) I am very lucky to be his momma and am still so excited to get him out of bed every morning to play...he's just that sweet.

























HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOSHY!
WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Stationery card

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Friday, October 21, 2011

I recall, Pocatello in Fall...

Fall has been so nice here in Pokey! I thought I was going to be freezing by now, but we made it thru soccer season w/o jackets and are now loving the crisp mornings, beautiful leaves and warm afternoons.  
Here is a rundown of the last month or two happenings...


Zanna and James both played soccer again this fall and did awesome-- James has a great natural aggressiveness and scored a couple of goals each game...



Zanna improved SO much this year and is a great ball-handler.  She had a stellar coach that taught her so much about the game and gave her a great new confidence.  She scored quite a few goals and really worked hard...
I love this picture of her looking like a true soccer chick!

Dave was so happy to purchase his own lawn mower- finally!  He taught everyone the rules and they all mowed in safety goggles :)


DELETA!
James did great for his first time on rollerblades

There is a classic skating rink in town called Deleta that has been here for years and every month the school has "skating" day where the kids can take the bus to the roller-skating rink and parents can meet them there and skate with their kids for free.  We had a blast teaching the kids to skate and Dave even took Mia out in the stroller (they have strollers there that you can borrow for free-- love small towns!)

Zanna tried the classic skate and stayed close to the wall most of the time :)

no caption needed.


In Sept. we had a great visit from Mindy and Bryce and the kiddos, but I don't really have any pictures besides these two.  The kids played so well together and they even got to attend our Primary Program so that was fun.  We love finally being close enough to family to have fun little weekend trips and look forward to many more!
This is Mindy and Bryce's little guy formerly known as Matthew Brent Mildon.  At 10 months old they legally changed his name to Kaiser and call him Kai. People thought they were a little crazy, but I love the name and am happy they are happy and finally content with his name :)

Daddy's helper


Like most kids, Mia is obsessed with water and with our cars so this was the PERFECT activity for her


Zanna and James are on the same Jr. Jazz basketball team and they were both so excited after their first practice so we stopped and got them their own bballs to practice at home.  I wanted to get Mia a playground ball and luckily they had one that looks like a basketball because wanted to be just like Z and J.  She is now obsessed with balls too...love it!

A couple weekends ago Matt, Court and Isaiah came to visit and we had a great three days with them


Mia loved the Jello and we had brownie cake with peppermint ice cream layered dessert-- an old family favorite :)
Courtnee did some face painting and nail painting and the kids loved their new looks
James smeared his a little and added to it, but it was a really cool batman 

Last Sunday we carved our pumpkins and like usual James was hesitant to get his hand in the goup!
Mia thought it was awesome!




another obsession...the vacuum.

On Wednesday we went apple picking on some people's property in our ward--it was a beautiful, beautiful day!
Mia wanted to take bites out of all the apples...
James aka "Johnny Appleseed" was our best climber
 and Dave was our best picker...they were a little higher than our little step-stool could reach
I tried to be as helpful as I could, and did pretty well with this big belly of mine (32.5 weeks)!

Funny story...
We were just picking and enjoying the orchard to ourselves when all of a sudden these 10 cows and bulls came trotting down the hill and straight towards us.  At first I thought it was fun to show Mia the cows so close up, but when I realized they were coming right at us, I got a little nervous.  We quickly circled behind them and sadly, our best bag of golden apples was left on the ground and the cows went right for it and started eating our hard-earned apples!


Normally we wouldn't be nervous around cows, but it was these bulls and their stare-down looks that got us running to the car!


Their best apple-faces...




We bought an apple-peeler and made yummy apple crisp for dessert!


On our last cabin trip (Oct. 6-7) we were lucky enough to enjoy the first snow of the season!


Mia loved it and ate a nice lunch of crackers and snowballs.

We actually lost power in the cabin for about 4 hours and had fun in our pajamas playing yahtzee, ping pong, eating candy, shooting dart guns and we took a walk to see the snowy views.


Dave won for best outfit.

Medical School Graduation

Medical School Graduation
May 20, 2007 Hershey, PA