I LOVE IT!

For 3 1/2 years I have been washing dishes by hand. Let me tell you, it has been horrible! I'm the type of person who lets things pile up to the point of driving me crazy before I clean. So therefore the sink was always full of dishes. Plus I would just look at it and go.... ewe there's at least an hour and a half's worth there. Well, when Paul's school money came in we decided to get a new dishwasher! We had one that was at least 10 years old, and it was definitely used and abused. I don't think water even sprayed out of the thing. Dishes came out dirtier than they went in. It was just time. The new one arrived at 11:30 this morning and it took us 2 hours (and saved $100) to get the old one out and the new one in. I had a big pile of dishes waiting for it. It is AMAZING! It cut my dishes time in HALF! Now I'm actually excited to do the dishes. Hooray for new things that work!

White Christmas?

No... White birthday? YES! Yesterday (dec 30) was Paul's 27th birthday. It was storming all day the day before and all night. I was looking out the window and said "Paul it's going to snow for your birthday. WAIT! IT IS SNOWING FOR YOUR BIRTHDAY!" I was really excited. It wasn't enough to stick or play in but it was definitely snowing! Paul's parents and brother Kevin came down and treated us to La Paloma. When we first got there I asked Paul if he wanted them to know it was his birthday and he said NO. So I didn't tell the waitress. But I guess one of his parents did because the waitress came out and asked for everyones attention. Then the WHOLE restaurant sang happy birthday to him. His mom was walking around with Hayden and his dad paid before we were done eating. They both denied it was them. We went home to cake, but we were so full that none of us even had any. I'd say it was a good, relaxed birthday.

The end is in sight!

Paul just finished block 3 of the nursing program, which was pediatrics. It was a roller coaster! He spent his clinicals at Maricopa Medical Center. He would come home and just want to hold Hayden after seeing what some parents did to these poor children. Anyway... He saved all the time consuming homework until the last week of school and had to rush to get it finished in time. But those that turned it in on time got it back to fix it on the last week, so it was about the same anyway. He was very worried that he wouldn't pass this semester. (Even though I knew he would do great.) He got a call from his teacher on Tuesday and was talking to her for 2 hours! Turns out she lost one of his clinical packets and he had to tell her everything thing that was on it. All in all, he PASSED this semester with a B!! I'm very proud of him. We are almost there. Just one more semester and then the NCLEX test (or whatever its called) and he will be an RN!! WOOOOO!

Family pictures

Tiffany (simplyphotog.blogspot.com) was so kind as to give me a photo shoot for my birthday back in July. They turned out AMAZING! I'm so happy with them. It was about time we got some pictures of our family.

I caught you a delicious bass

Paul's parents came down for conference and we decided to go fishing on Monday. Paul and Bill went to Cluff Ponds way earlier than I wanted to get up. Around 8 Paul called me and said "will you bring stuff to fix eggs?" I thought they caught a HUGE bass and wanted a skillet and some eggs to go with it. I get there and they had only caught one, which they threw back. Paul gets the eggs and bacon cooking and I grabbed a pole. I went on the dock and just started throwing my line out. As I was reeling it back, it felt a little bit heavier but I thought I just had some weeds or something... I pull it up and yell HOLY CRAP! Yeah it was tiny.... BUT it was my first fish ever. (there are other people around too, and they laughed at me) I yell for help and paul says to keep it in the water. As soon as it hit the water, it got off of the hook and swam away! I was going to cook that thing!! Paul stops coming toward me and says "oh well it was tiny anyway." I realize that but I wanted a picture!

There was a guy down the lane that caught one this size and I took Hayden closer to see it. Later it started to rain and he didn't have windshield wipers so he had to leave. He felt bad for us so he gave us his last catch of the day. It was a pretty good size one. 2 to 3 pounds.

This is the one Dad caught, and is about the same size as the one I caught.

Hayden is 2!!

Hayden turned 2 on Monday. We just had a small party with the 3 of us. He didn't seem to mind. He got some tractors and a wooden ambulance.

At 32 inches, he is in the 1% for his height. I knew he was short, but come on!

He still weighs 25 pounds (going on about 6 months now)

He puts words together well making almost complete sentences.

He can name most things or repeat it if he doesn't know.

Motorcycles and cars continue to be his favorite toys.

He learned how to play Trials (motorcycle game on Xbox) I'm not sure if that is a good thing.

He is happy most of the time.

He gets many comments on how happy and cute he is.

He loves to play on the cars in front of Bashas.

He loves tickle fights with daddy.

He can count to 10.

His favorite food is mac and cheese.

He loves bath time and will splash until mommy is soaked!

He continues to amaze us with how smart and happy he is.

He is still nursing, but we hope to be done before Halloween. (if not sooner, cross your fingers)

He loves to look at the fish at Walmart.

He also loves the banging fans in the Garden section. (anyone know what I'm talking about?)

He thinks that every dogs name is Sugar.

Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day weekend we always go up to Columbine and camp with our friends. This year it was just us and Clint and Tiffany and their family. Brian and Marie joined us for an evening which was a lot of fun. It wasn't too cold which made it nice, and we all slept in the cabin which was nice too.

Last year there was a big lightning storm and as we were walking up the hill, this tree got struck about 50 yards from where we were. You can see where it split the bark.

Just getting some nature shots...