Where to begin

It has been well over a year since I last posted, that I'm not even sure where to start. Some told me to just start from today and go forward, others suggested going back.... ahhh, what to do?!  I think I will just post pictures from last year and do as much as a catch up as I can :)  And then when I find  my memory card to my camera (the pictures I will post tonight will be from my phone)  I will do another "catch up" post.   The thing is I have really wanted to get back to blogging.  Its my best form of journaling (pathetic, I know) and although I'm sure everyone on FB loves to hear about everything, I don't think I want everyone on FB to hear about everything. So, I hope to use my blog as a journal, where I can feel comfortable posting all the pictures I want and any updates of our family I want.  When I do that on FB it just makes me feel weird, and I feel like I'm losing important memories by not putting it somewhere.

 Last year for Christa's wedding we finally made it back to Alaska for the first time in 5 years.  It was great and there was a small part of me that actually missed Alaska (shh...don't tell Devin's dad ;) )  The kids loved it up there and seeing their cousin Wesley.  I wish we could afford to go back more often, especially in the summers, while we are dying of heat here in AZ.

 This picture came out blurry of course!   I remember this day getting ready for church just being in awe of how cute they looked and realizing that they are mine!  I love these two and as much as they keep me on my toes, I wouldn't change it for anything.

 Playing outside.  This was last year.  This year, before Devin deployed to Qatar we planted grass.  I wanted them to have a yard that they could go outside and play in.  The grass is already dead :(  Its hard to maintain grass in Arizona during the summertime.  This summer we got up to 118 for 2 days in a row and then stayed around 115 for several days afterwards!

Playing Puss-N-Boots.  I really just love how well they play together and how much fun they have pretending.

 Then there was the time that Rylie looked like Angelina Jolie.  Poor thing!  This was during the Holidays while Devin was deployed.  She had been running a fever but not severe.  She woke me up in the middle of the night saying her face hurt, but I almost sent her back to bed.  Instead I turned on the light and I'm glad I did...her lips were huge!   Luckily since Devin was gone I have great friends here I was able to take her to the ER in the middle of the night and drop Ezra off at Corynn's house. Turns out she had strep throat...who knew that swollen lips was a sign?

 This is my awesome Pac Man cake that Corynn made for me for my 30th birthday.  I will have to track down more pictures of that event.  She did a great job with my 80s inspired birthday party since Devin was still gone.  It was a lot of fun.  I was having a lot of morning sickness at the time so I'm glad she forced me to be social on my big 30.

 Ezra lost his first tooth back in March of this year.   We were up in Utah for Ethan and Courtney's wedding (again, need to track down more pictures of that)  It was quite exciting for him and scary.  He lost the second tooth about 5 days later.   My little boy is growing up.

 Part of our trip home from Utah was stopping at Hoover Dam. Not the best picture of me, why do I always end of being the one taking the picture and not the one in the middle :)

 Something that I have done the last 3 years is spoil myself with pedicures, about every 3 months.  I love them!   Turns out you can have them paint kids nails and only charge $5.  So now its something that me and Rylie do together. We love to go paint our nails.  She is quite the diva while we are there.

 oh yeah, we are having a baby... Oh, and its a girl.   I'm due in less than 2 weeks at this point!  The kids were beyond excited to find out what were having and still are.  I will do a much better post on this soon. 

 We did manage to get out and go up to the Cabin this year.  Its so peaceful and beautiful up there.  I'm glad that my grandparents have the cabin for us to visit. Ezra is in his element while up there...and Rylie too.  I hope that we take more advantage of it more often.

 

 Mothers day this year.  I have been craving a lot more salty than sweet this pregnancy and I'm pretty sure there was at least a month straight were all I wanted was hoagie sandwiches... yummy!  

 Last day of preschool for the kids.  Ezra will be in kindergarten in "two more sleeps" and Rylie has one more year of preschool before kindergarten.  I loved that they got to go to school together and be in preschool together.  I always knew who was good and bad during the day :)  

 

 not the best picture of Devin...but we don't have many of us together so I am posting it anyway!  Neva and Scott came to visit the beginning of the summer. They were a huge help in preparing for baby.  We cleaned out the garage, went through all our baby stuff, organized the office...cleaned and then cleaned some more.  As a reward of all our hard work we decided to go stay at a nice resort for the last 2 days they were here.  It was perfect and crazy all at the same time :)  

 Neva making the kids act like a statue...????

 Then we went to Sweeties for a week.  The kids have a very special bond with Sweetie. We swam a lot at sweeties house.. Ezra is a really great swimmer, Rylie is timid but by the end of the week she was taking off her floaties and doing great.   We have gone swimming several times this summer and she is still doing really good... I'm proud of her since she was so afraid at the beginning of the summer. 

 Rylie helping Sweetie water the garden.

 

Rylie being Rylie! :)

 

 

I am going to be posting more random pictures as I find them...but also hope to just start catching up on everything too.   I think my next post will be about being pregnant :)