Christmas 2009

We had the most wonderful Christmas this year. Grandma Tweet-Tweet and Grandpa Buckle (Kari's side) came to visit. We had such a great time. We took Grandma and Grandpa to Makutu's Island and they couldn't believe how fun it was. We built graham cracker houses, and had lunch with Aunt Pam and Uncle Fred. Christmas Eve my Mom and I got to wrap all the boys presents, and then of course, there was Christmas day. I think we all thoroughly enjoyed watching and helping the boys to unwrap their presents. They got so many wonderful gifts. The favorites seem to be the fire truck from Santa, and the indoor bouncer from Aunt Lana and Uncle Rob. To top it all off, Grandma and Grandpa were nice enough to watch the kids for 3 hours on Saturday so Kib and I could get in a nice long bike ride. What a treat. Saturday night the adults went to a very nice restaurant at Wild Horse Pass. The food and atmosphere were outstanding, and we actually got to have entire, uninterrupted, intelligent conversations for a change. This really was our most fun Christmas so far. We enjoyed having family around for a change, and seeing the boys enjoy the day so much was memorable and heart warming. Here is a quick preview of our Christmas week activities.

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Christmas Newsletter 2009

This may be a repeat for some of you, but here is our annual e-newsletter. Enjoy!

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Thanksgiving Weekend, and other November happenings

It's so sad that we have become so busy that my blogging has been reduced to once a month. We have had so much going on this past month. I took and passed my pilates certification. Zane learned to ride his bike without any training wheels. It is truly amazing to watch. He was only 3 yrs and 4 months old when he figured it out, and he hasn't put them back on at all. Wow. Ryder is becoming quite the little pill, he can't wait to be 2. He sings and dances to all the musicals that we have on the TV. not only does he know the songs, but he is memorizing the dances. It's so fun to watch. Everyone who comes over gets to watch him "perform" for them. He is starting to love being in front of an audience. Kristi and Blake came for Thanksgiving weekend this year. It was the first holiday that we have had them for and we all really enjoyed ourselves. Thanksgiving day was so fun. We did the Turkey Trot again this year, and I baked for 2 days to get ready for the 13 people that we fed for dinner. Our dear friends, the Johnson's, came over for dinner and brought the most delicious food with them to contribute to dinner. The whole weekend we spent outside with the kids enjoying the fresh air and nice weather. I have posted just a couple of fun photos from Thanksgiving.

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Halloween 2009

We had such an interesting Halloween between Zane being in the hospital with Pneumonia, and Ryder working on a bad case of flu/walking pneumonia/bronchitis. We decided to send Zane as a patient, seemed fitting given our week. The people we saw on the streets thought it was a pretty cool costume (little did they know). Ryder went as a monkey. We didn't make it more than about 10 minutes, and Zane was begging to go home. We were happy to oblige. We came home with about 6 pieces of candy, every parents dream. Sadly we missed out on a lot of fun festivities, but there is always next year. We are just grateful that the boys both seem to be on the upswing from all of this.

Paint time

I have been sick the past few days and although I feel better today, I am exhausted and weak. Both boys were itching for things to do this morning since they are used to me constantly keeping them busy. In my own selfish effort to be able to do as little as possible I broke out the art kit that Aunt Andrea gave us. It was a huge hit. We did finger painting and water colors for the better half of an hour. I am so proud of both of them, and impressed with how much Zane enjoys these creative, quiet, activities. He continued to paint on and off the rest of the morning. Too cool. Here are a couple more token photos from this past week.

Our trip to Cali

We were fortunate enough to take a trip to CA this past weekend. We stopped part way to stay with our friends Jenny and JR. They are so much fun, and handled our wild brood very well. We spent the majority of the weekend with our dear friends, the Gassner family. As you can see from the photos, we had a great time. It was somewhat fall like there. Their son, CJ had a soccer game saturday morning that both Zane and Ryder really enjoyed watching. Then we went to Apple Hill to enjoy the fall festivities, such as Apple Pie, and pumpkin patches. It's unfortunate that our trip was so short. It is always nice to see old friends. The word update for Ryder, he now says, "ELMO" with precision clarity, and diaper is another new one. So fun!

September 2009

As much as I love blogging, I haven't done a very good job of keeping this up to date this month. So, I am lumping it all together in a slide show. The boys are always keeping us busy. As you can see from the photos, the boys are playing together more and more. They now have a "cave" that is Zane's bed. It has helped to make him want to go to sleep at night. We have been kayaking every couple of weeks which is a blast. Zane is getting so smart, and so interested in doing things that exercise his mind. He will sit for hours and play with Lego's, blocks, playdough. Kib and Zane had a Daddy-son night out and they went to a WNBA playoff game. It was a huge hit with Zane, so much so that all three boys went back for game 2.
Ryder is talking more and more every day. He says Banana, and is working on apple. He sings the ABC's and Chitty chitty bang bang (neither of which are distinguishable with words, just melody). He says waffle, which is more like bobble. He is also working on his animal sounds. This age (18 months) is so much fun. I just wish I could hold on to it forever.
Everyday is something new and exciting. Can't wait to see what October holds for our little gang.

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Random September happenings

I completely butchered the blog this week (this is my 3rd attempt). So here is the skinny on our boys. Zane is just so much fun, challenging, but fun. He loves preschool and always comes home with the best projects. He is working on learning to recognize and write his name. He has been working with Daddy this week on learning to ride his bike without training wheels. He seems to be doing really well. He jsut freaks out when he notices you aren't holding onto his seat. We bought zane a halloween costume, and it ended up being way too small. So we took it back, and much to our pleasure, he decided he wants to go as a police officer (and we already have that costume).
Ryder is at that age where he is growing and learning by leaps and bounds. He has started climbing onto our recliners, and with a little help, onto the couch. This is a big deal for a kid that still wears 9 month clothes. He loves to go outside every morning and ride bikes. He is feeding himself all of his food now, which as a parent is a huge time saver.
The boys are finally getting to the point where they are playing together more, they are wrestling a bit now. And scaring me half to death some times. Zane has been using more and more imagination these days, building things, pretending. In an effort to pre-occupy him the other day I put blankets up around his bunk bed, creating a cave. It worked so well, that he won't let us take it down, and now he is sleeping with his door closed again, no more "I'm scared"
Anyway, life is great. The weather is getting cooler around here, and we are really looking forward to spending more time outseid again. (BTW, the underlining is compliments of Ryder who did something to my computer and now I can't get it off).

Our Cruise

Kib and I are back from our trip, and needless to say, it was AMAZING!!!!
We made it to Barcelona with no problems thanks to Kib upgrading us on our flights. We spent three days in Barcelona and fell in love with it. The people, the culture, the public transportation. It was all fabulous. We saw so many of Gaudi's amazing buildings. Frankly, we didn't know who Gaudi was before our trip, now, we are amazed by him. The food was amazing in Espana, as well as all of the places we visited.
Once on the cruise, we started our trip with a day at sea. There is so much to do on cruise ships, it's great. We went rock climbing, roller blading, I worked out (got some personal training sessions in) and we ate, and ate, and ate. Oh those coconut cookies, they were my kriptinite.
Our first port was Mt Visuvius and Pompei. This was the day that I was looking forward to the most. I studied a lot about Pompei in school, and to see it in real life was a dream come true. We first went to Mt Visuvius, it was almost a mile shorter than it was 2000 years ago, and still magnificent. We climbed to the top and we were able to look in the crater. No Lava, but cool none the less. Then we went to Pompei, what an amazing place. The Romans, city of Pompei, were so advanced for their time. As our tour guide said, "we havn't ever invented anything, we just think we did." So true. I don't think Kib was initially excited about this day, but by the end, he was enthralled with it all.
The next day we went to Rome and Kib and I decided to see it all on our own. And we did. We used our feet, and some public transportation, and did as much as we could in 10 hours. We went to the Vatican and saw St Joseph's Basilica, it was HUGE. Then we scurried over to the Sistine Chapel where you aren't allowed to take photos, so don't ask to see any. From there we ran to the Coliseum we got the opportunity to skip the hour wait for tickets, followed by an hour wait to get in, by joining a tour group, it was great. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable, then we followed that same tour to Pantheon Park. It was a great day.
The third port we went to was for the Pisa, Italia. Not much to say about this place, it was cool to see the leaning tower of Pisa, and that's it. Big building, leaning 14 ft the wrong way. The neat part was when we learned that originally they only built the first 3 stories, and then the building started to lean, in the other direction from where it leans now. Then a few hundred years later they added the next 6 stories and tried to straighten it out, and it now leans in the opposite direction. Weird. Apparently there are a handful of buildings in Pisa that do this.
The next port was VillaFranche, France aka Nice and Monte Carlo. We spent the day hiking up to a Fort that was at the top of the mountain dividing Nice and Monte Carlo. It was a very enjoyable day. We didn't love most of the people here (what can we say, they were French) but we enjoyed our relaxing day of exploration.
We ended up with an extra day at sea, there was bad weather, and we couldn't get the ship into port, so no Marseille France this trip.
We talked to the boys almost everyday. They did great without us. Maybe a little too well, just kidding. They loved going to our friend Vonie's house everyday, and playing with Kortnei and Josh on the weekends, and they really bonded with Reyna during our absence.
We are so lucky to have had this amazing experience together we enjoyed experiencing things on our own that neither of us had ever done before. It was quite the trip and we can't wait to do it again.
Here are some of the photos from the trip, I pared it down from 700 photos to 82, so you get the gist of out trip, but just not the details.

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Our Colorado Trip

This past week we went to Colorado for a Reed family reunion. We had such a wonderful time. Kristi and Blake were able to join us, and that just made the trip perfect. We drove both ways, and spent some time camping before we went to the reunion in Winter Park, CO. The pictures are pretty self explanatory, although we took over 600 photos, and I dwindled it down to about 40. So a lot of our photos aren't here, but you'll get the jist of just how much fun we had.

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Extreme Kari Makeover

This is me at the beginning of the day on Saturday. For those of you that I hadn't told, I won a $2000 makeover. I have been dieting for the past couple of months, dropped 27 lbs, and lost 45" throughout my entire body. I went from a 10/12 to a 4/6. My name was entered in a drawing for this makeover, and for the first time in my entire life, I won. The makeover consisted of teeth whitening, a new outfit from one of our local stores, a month of free yoga and pilates, a professional photo shoot, and hair and make-up. It was just like "What not to wear" they even did a big reveal for me and my friends and family came to see "the new me." I am so grateful to my makeover team, and especially Dr. Cronin who got me on the right path. I haven't looked/felt this good since high school. Here are a handful of after pictures. I don't have the professional ones yet, but these still speak volumes.

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Some fun July stuff

We have had such a wonderful month. This weekend Kib and I went out for an overnight. We headed to a local hotel, and spent the night in the pool, just having fun. We stayed overnight so that the boys could experience waking up without Mommy and Daddy. They did awesome. We are so blessed to have Reyna living with us, the boys really consider her part of the family. I was so worried that they would freak out, and they never even batted an eye.
We had ice cream cake last week with some friends, to celebrate Zane's birthday. You can't have a birthday, without cake. Ryder is walking like crazy, he loves it. Life is so much better on 2 feet. He is even working on walking with his hands down. Other than that we are just trying to get ready for the next, totally crazy month, of vacationing. Here are some fabulous photos of my favorite boys.

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Just had to post

I am sitting in the living room, checking my email, and both of my boys are dancing in front of the TV to the movie "Brigadoon." It is the cutest thing I have ever seen. Just had to share all the cuteness in my house with everyone else.

Zane is 3 !!!!!

Zane turned 3 yesterday, and we had the most wonderful day. When Zane woke up we had the house decorated with streamer in some of the doorways. He enjoyed ripping them all down in record time. We opened a gift from Chloe (Andrea) and it was a police officer dress-up. Zane freaked, and tried his hardest to convince me to let him wear it all day. We had waffles and whipped cream for breakfast.
We made our way up to Scottsdale for our normal Friday outing. First the Chiropractors and then to Chik-fil-A. After our trip to Scottsdale we took Ryder home and hired a sitter to watch him. Then the 3 of us were off for an afternoon of fun. We started out at Build-A-Bear (a first for us). And Zane built a dog, a firefighter dog, that he named....Kitty. (that cracks me up). Then we went to the Lego store so Zane could pick out some new Legos. It's not a new place for us, but everytime we walk in there you would think that Zane and Kib had never been to such an amazing place. We played at the play area at the mall for a while, and then headed to Famous Daves BBQ for dinner. This is Kib's favorite restaraunt, that he has some how convinced Zane that it's his too. They both at like it was the last meal they would ever get. What a riot. The last stop on our day of fun was a place called Makutu's Island. It is an enormous indoor playplace, like a gerbal cage on crack. It was AWESOME!!!! We spent 3 hours there, and had to bribe Zane to leave becuase Kib and I were just too tired to play any longer.
When I set out planning our day, I wanted to make it special, and all about Zane (hence leaving Ryder at home). At one point Zane told me that this was the best birthday ever. That's just too funny coming from a 3 year old (like he has so much to compare to). But Kib did say numerous times that we had an awesome day. That was nice to hear. I wish we could have one Zane day and one Ryder day every week.
Here are some of the photos from yesterday, ENJOY!

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Our July 4th weekend

We had the most fabulous holiday weekend. We went to Show Low (northeast AZ) on Thursday to get a jump start on our weekend. Show Low is a beautiful place in the mountains with breathtaking scenery and cool weather (80's, not 110's). The best part is that our good friends, the Callister's, live there. We spent the weekend at the Callisters house along with another family, the Buckmeisters. What a great group of people to be spending a long weekend together. Friday we we got the house ready for the party the next day, everyone helped, including the guys. We managed to get done before lunch and decided to go to the top of one of the largest mountains around (10,200 ft). At the top of the mountain (can't remember the name) was a Ranger Tower, most everyone, including the kids, went to the top and got to talk to the Ranger. It was so cool, and she gave each of the kids a gift bag of smokey the bear stuff.
Saturday we had breakfast in town at a local fundraiser, it was so fun to feel like a part of this community. Then we headed to the parade where we had the best seats in the whole place. Our friend Dave went at 4 am to reserve us seats and he did so right next to the judging station. Thanks Dave!!!! After the parade was we had a great BBQ at the Callisters with a bunch of their fabulous friends. The boys spent most of the day taking turns on the dunebuggies. They are so fun. We love going out into the seemingly endless woods and just driving for ever. Zane and Ryder love it too, both fell asleep at least once while out riding. That night we went to see the local fireworks, we watched them from a bluff overlooking the city. Zane thought it was really cool that we sat on the roof of our car. Sunday we headed home, back to reality. This was an awesome weekend thanks to the kindness of the Callister Family. We can't wait to do it again next year!!!!

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Our Trip to NY

We went to Rochester a couple of weeks ago. I don't have too many pictures since my family all took a bunch (hint, hint, send them to me). Anyway, we had a fabulous time. We got to see my sis-in-law, niece and nephew, who, unfortunately, we only get to see every couple of years. The highlights of our trip for the kids was our day at the Children's Museum. My friend Stefanie went with us and the kids just loved it. One of the days we found a bounce house that Zane LOVED. And we even got in a playdate at my friend Janice's. That was awesome, and very relaxing.
For me, it was just nice to see my family and friends. We stayed with my Mom and her husband, and they went out of their way to make all of us comfortable. Most nights Kib and I went out after the kids went to bed, even if we just got ice cream, it was so nice to have people at the house so we could leave and spend time together. We went out for dessert with my good friends Elliott, Stef, and Janice. It was a blast, felt like old times. All in all we had a fabulous trip and although we won't be making it home again for a few years, we look forward to the next trip out there.
Here are a few of the photos that I did get, more to follow once my family sends them my way (hint, hint)

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