Santa Came!

We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!!!

Like always it was so hectic we didn't get any pictures taken; but we did get these and it paints a pretty picture of our morning.

This was the first year Dylan really understood the whole Santa thing...Jeff went to get him up at 6am to open presents and as soon as he said, "Santa came and brought presents." Dylan popped his head up and repeated "Santa brought presents!" He was very excited to see what was left for him.

And yes that is Caesar with his nose in a stocking but if you look closely you'll notice it isn't his initial on it it's Dylan's!!! Sneaky puppy....

This was the aftermath of our 2 hour present opening extravaganza...each of the boys made out very well and so did Jeff and I for that matter!!!

Thank you to everyone who sent us gifts, cards and goodies....we love them ALL and love you TOO!!!!

One thing I miss.....

Living in OR had it's disadvantages with all the rain but there is one thing I definately miss and thats the occasional snow storm!!!

In all the years we lived in OR and I in WA as a child I don't think we ever saw anything like this.

Jeff's mom (Norine) just left AZ last Monday to spend Christmas in OR and this is what she flew into!!

Just a pretty picture

I took this picture while we were driving down the road the other night and thought it was so pretty!!!

Our 2008 family gingerbread house...

For family home evening we made our annual Stout Family Gingerbread house. AJ drew out the design before we decorated it and for the most part it came out just as he planned..... if only we could get Dylan to not try to eat it before Santa comes!!!

We hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season!!!

Jingle Bells!!!!

Dylan listens to Christmas music every night at bed time and the other day we were sitting in his room and he had his xylophone and out of nowhere he starting singing Jingle Bells....ENJOY (btw sorry about the quality it was from my cell phone)

It's the most WONDERFUL time of the year!!!!

IT'S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS........!

I made this stocking hanger last year in Enrichment and it is definately one of my favorite decorations that we have! In case your wondering the 6th stocking is for Caesar - YES WE ARE THOSE PEOPLE....

This was Dylans first year to actually help decorate the tree and it was also his first year to put the star up....Trevor passed down the tradition this year to his little brother; he had been doing it since he was 2 years old and with such a big gap between them he was quite bummed to give away his job!

DIDN'T DYLAN DO A GREAT DECORATING JOB!!!????

AJ came up with this cool decorating idea.... We had bought these stocking hangers that spell out S~A~N~T~A a few years ago when we had a fireplace and weren't sure what to do with them AJ thought it would be cool to put a letter on each shelf and it really looks cool!


We want to wish all of our familly and friends a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Sleeping Arrangements...

So Dylan is in a big boy bed now (he actually has been since we moved into our house). We first tried the transitional bed that transformed from his crib while we were in our old house but the head and foot board were tall and it freaked him out..... so we went and got him his own big boy bed with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse bedding so that he knew it was his and only his.

So every night he has gone to bed so well without a tear and everynight we hear him playing and laughing and having a great time but of course we never know what it is he's doing thats so funny because we are too afraid to open the door because we don't know how he would react to us coming in after putting him to bed.

Well I got the guts the other night to go in and see what it was exactly he does once he's in bed and this is what I saw.....

1. He was wearing pajamas before he went to bed
2. His head was on his pillow
3. He was cozily tucked in
4. His friends weren't taking over his bed

Why so many friends you may ask - well I have tried in many different ways to eliminate the friends but some how and I don't know how he actually knows who is missing out of all of those friends he has in his bed and he will search his whole room in a panic looking for anyone missing!

I guess as long as he sleeps right?!

AND WHO COULD RESIST THOSE PUPPY DOG EYES!

Teeth

Well it's happened again!

By the time our family is done the Tooth Fairy is going to be broke...... He looks like someone punched him in the mouth and all of his teeth fell out!!!

Congrats Trevor on another successful tooth pulling

Happy Halloween!

We had a fun Halloween this year! It was kind of hectic since we just moved into our house only 2 weeks before but we still managed to carve a pumpkin, put up SOME decorations and trick or treat the neighborhood to our best ability!

The boys looked really good in their costumes this year too - too bad we didn't take the second to take a GOOD picture of them. You'll never guess who AJ was - Indiana Jones of course! Trevor was Peter Pan - and to clarify to everyone with their comments he chose this costume because when we went to Disney Land his favorite ride was the Peter Pan ride and since then he's been into it. Dylan was the SUPER SLEUTH Pooh Bear!

WE HOPE YOU ALL HAD A FUN AND SAFE HALLOWEEN!!

Busy busy busy...

We have been so busy this past month I feel like there is so much I need to put on here and I never have the second to do it. As many of you know we are moving! Well we actually already have just not to the final house. What some don't know is that it's a different house than we had first said due to some unforeseen circumstances. But like always when one thing falls through it seems to be for a reason because we found the best house perfect for the STOUTS! It's in Pecan Creek South which for those of you who don't know it is the new subdivision named after our old subdivision. We move in this weekend which is very exciting and if you asked the boys the best part is that they all get their own rooms! We will post pictures and more info once we are moved in.....

I wanted to spotlight AJ also because for the past month he has been working very hard on his first book report and this past Friday was his presentation. He did such a great job and we are so proud of what he learned and created for this project. He got a B BUT only because I requested a second copy of his directions because I accidentally threw away the originals and apparently the parents actions effect the children's grades too so he would have gotten an A if it wasn't for me.... I felt so bad when I saw that and in case AJ reads this he still gets the money for an A grade for this one :-) He created a movie poster by designing graphics on Fireworks on the computer and wrote a review of the "movie"/book. He has such a talented imagination and everyone was quite impressed by what he created!

My Mom and Step Dad sent this to me for my birthday!!!

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My Boys

Today they boys and I were hanging out relaxing before I had to go to work and it was probably the calmest time in a long time....much to cherish I must say!!!
My little bookworm....he was reading his brothers book - he tried to start where AJ was and AJ had to explain to him that it was cheating not reading from the beginning. LOL
Biggest Bro & Littlest Bro

I feel so lucky to be the mom of these 3 crazy boys. They make life so interesting and are always keeping me on my toes. I'm so proud of the way they are becoming young men (at least the 2 older ones - Dyl has awhile before I can say that) they are so smart, kind and caring and are always here for me and eachother. I couldn't ask for 3 better men to have in my life.

I LOVE YOU AJ, TREVOR & DYLAN

Poor Baby

Well we thought we were lucky and had avoided the dreaded eye injury every little guy gets at some point in their lives but we were wrong...... Dylan had a accident last night while playing the I'm gonna get you game with Trevor and heres the outcome.

It's been a very long time since this little guy has laid in my arms like this and didn't want to get up 1 minute later!

His little eye was a bit puffy when he woke up but it's already getting better

Nothing can stop Dilly from being cute!!!

For the most part it's healing really well already. Last night was hard because he was tired and kept rubbing his eye and each time after he would do the sniffle pout and then fall into a complete cry..... .POOR BABY!

At long last......!

Well we FINALLY went to the TOM PETTY concert after 6 months and 12 days of agonizing waiting! It was so much fun and like always he didn't let us down. Steve Winwood was his opening act and he did a really great job too; we didn't really know too many of his songs but still they played great so what can we say....... I love that we have made a tradition out of seeing him in concert for our wedding anniversary (11 years! WOW - well actually not until the 30th!).

So as requested we took pictures but I only took my cell phone in so they didn't come out that great but here they are!

This was around the end of the concert - if you look closely Tom Petty in in the front right in the middle (look for the blonde head)

This was when Steve Winwood was playing - hes the one sitting at the piano at the far left

We had front row seating in the tiered seats - we could have gotten closer but I didn't want to have to try to see over people in the ground chairs!

Just one more blurry picture for everyone!

The ZOO crew....

Our niece Mandi is here FINALLY and we took her to the zoo this past weekend! Here are a few pictures from our visit....

The elephant exhibit has a new viewing area that is really cool! Dylan saw it pick up the silver barrel that is in the picture to the left of the pole in front of the elephant and thought it was it's cup and started talking to it and showing it HIS cup! It was really CUTE...

Something else new and exciting that we hadn't seen since the last time we went was the new exhibit for the monkeys.....it was really neat to see them so close and watch what they were doing. It was really hot out so most of them found big leaves to sit under and shady spots to nap.





Here's Mandi running through the water in the splash pad area


We all got a little wet some more than others....



shirtless Trevor showing off for the girls!



Skip skip skip to my loo!


Yes their cousins! Identical cousins all the way ~ they laugh alike, they talk alike some say they even walk alike! (Sorry I watched Nick at Nite as a child instead of cartoons!) Anyway, we had a great time even with the heat. THANK GOODNESS FOR THE "TRAIN" RIDE!

When you wish upon a star................

We just got back from our trip to Disney Land and we had such a great time! It was all 3 boys first time, Jeff hadn't been in at least 11 years and I haven't been there for 15 years so it was definately time to go!

We were worried it wouldn't be too much fun for Dylan but he had a blast! His favorite ride was the Winnie the Pooh ride; I think he went on it about 10 times AT LEAST.





The boys had tons of fun and we made sure to try everything at least once....well almost everything. The pictures above are us on the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride. We did get a chance to do the NEW TOY STORY MANIA in California Adventure and it was pretty neat. We didn't think we would get a chance because the lines were 5 hrs long at first when it opened and 5 days later it was only 45 min! What luck to go by it at just that time.... especially since right after we got in line people started piling in and when we got off the ride there was up to a 2 hr wait.

Jeff had a great time too! He bought himself an authentic Indiana Jones hat and walked around thinking he actually was Indie! It was really funny ;) We also all got Mickey Mouse ears (well I got Minnie Mouse ears) with our names on them.... Jeff and I had Mom and Dad put on ours ~ my idea and I thought it was quite cute!

We also had the chance to see some friends from OR which was great! We spent a lot of time with our friends Stacey and Paige (Paige is Trevors "girlfriend") and had a ton of fun with them! We also had dinner with the Burdicks; another family we have missed a ton since we moved to AZ. It was so great to see all of them and we are so happy it worked out that we actually got to!!! We also had a chance to visit with my Aunt Carol and Uncle Dan (we actually stayed at their house) which was great and for the 1st time in 15 years I saw my Cousin Lee; the boys had a ton of fun with him in the creek in the backyard.

A few crazy things happened too OF COURSE...... while we were on the Matterhorn IT BROKE DOWN!!! We got stuck on the top 3 stories high and workers had to come get us ~ the good thing we got 2 passes to go on any rides and get in front of the line (well worth the paranoia we indured). Also on Thunder Mtn. Jeff and I rode together and somehow during the tossing and turning and FUN my camera got smashed and the screen broke (hence the not so perfect pictures). Last but certainly not least while we were on Splash Mtn. I had my cell phone in my purse and all though it didn't even get that wet my phone BROKE! Thank goodness for insurance....and all this within the 1st day and a half! No complaints though because it wouldn't be an adventure without mishaps! :)

Here is Jeff SURFING the matterhorn bobsled where we got stuck! He is so proud of this picture....

All in all it was a great trip that definately won't be forgotten! We can't wait to go again ~ hopefully sooner than later......until then ENJOY our PHOTOS!!!

To the man I LOVE....

Happy Fathers Day to my wonderful husband Jeff!

You are a great husband and father and I am so lucky to have you in my life. We have grown together so much and have created a perfect family during our journey together. It's crazy to believe that we are celebrating our 9th anniversary this year and I look forward to having a lifetime of many more anniversaries with you.

Thank you for supporting me and always being there for me. Not many men could deal with me and my crazy ideas! I love you so much and could not imagine my life with anyone else.

I know that we have had a crazy year and I am grateful that in the end of it all we are still standing and even stronger than ever!

You are a great dad and the perfect guy to play BALL with ~ just ask Dylan. Our boys look up to you so much and enjoy every second they spend with you. Each one of them has a part of you that makes them so special and I smile whenever it comes out in them because it only shows that we are doing something "right" as parents. I can only hope that our boys grow up to be like you.... a strong, understanding and loving man.

We love you so much and hope that you have a wonderful day!

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to ALL my dads!

I wanted to wish my DAD a Happy Fathers Day! He's the coolest dad anyone could ask for and if you wonder where my craziness comes from it's him! He's an extremely funny person that can make you laugh at all the right and well even the wrong times..... :)

Thank you for supporting me with all my crazy ideas and letting me figure it out so I can learn from it..... there are so many times when I just wish I could get the answer and have it done but in the end appreciate having to figure it out alone because it's helped me grow.

I'm glad your my dad because the things I have learned and inherited from you I wouldn't be me without. I must say my musical influences would probably be quite different and that would just SUCK!

I love you DUDER!

I also want to say Happy Fathers Day to Keith (my step-dad)....... I know we have had a crazy life in the past and things seemed hectic with me around and I just want to say thank you for putting up with me (or at least trying). We haven't always had the best relationship and I am glad now that I am older that we have put it behind us and developed a friendship.

I appreciate the things you taught me growing up although I might not have seemed like I did at the time...... I am a better person, wife and mom because of the responsibilities I learned from you.

Happy Fathers Day!

AND.........

I love you Papa! You have always been my 3rd father and I love you so much. I wish we could live closer and I miss you everyday. Thank you for always being here for me and loving me and taking care of me! Because of you I have been deemed a PRINCESS by many and I must say I really like that role! Most of my great memories as a little girl include you and I love you for that.

Happy Fathers Day Papa!

Last but certainly not least!

I want to say Happy Fathers Day to my Father in Law Richard.

You are a great man and have a great heart and I want to say thank you for all that you have done for us! I am grateful to be a part of the Stout family and to have you as my Father in Law.

TAG U'R IT!

I've been TAGGED! My "wonderful" friend Valerie tagged me.... this is a first so here we go!

A- Attached or Single: VERY Attached
B- Best friend: Jeff
C- Cake or Pie: cake
D- Day of choice: Fridays..... things just seem to go right on that day
E- Essential item: waterproof mascara
F- Favorite Color: PURPLE
G- Gummy bears or worms: Black Forest gummy bears or NOTHING and ONLY the white ones
H- Hometown: Arlington, WA (not Virginia the actual Washington state!)
I- Indulgence: Purses and flip flops
J- January or July: July ~ 4th of July is 3rd favorite holiday and 2 of our boys were born this month
K- Kids: AJ (9 1/2) Trevor (6 3/4) Dylan (22 months)
L- Life is incomplete without: My husband and kids
M- Marriage Date: August 30th (although Jeff always says it's the 31st-WRONG!)
N- Number of siblings: 2 sisters & 2 brothers
O- Oranges or Apples: Oranges
P- Phobias or fears: Lakes (the thought of fish swimming by me freaks me out)
Q- Quotes: Life is like a box of chocolates you never know what your gonna get; Forrest Gump
R- Reason to smile: french toast in bed
S- Season of choice: Fall - it means the holidays are coming
T- Tag 3 times: Lindsay Sarager, Susie Packer and Maren Urkov
U- Unknown fact about me: Have you ever heard of the Woo Woo Kid? Or how about Sonnie Wisecarver? No you say.... well now you have. In 1944 my Great Uncle was 14 yrs old and well for some reason he had a thing for older women and married a 21 yr old this was illegal you see just as it is now and he and her were arrested. A yr later the guy did the same thing and ran away with a 25 yr old woman. So you say what does this have to do with me well I'll tell you..... September 16th 1987 a movie premiered starring an up and coming actor by the name of Patrick Dempsey (yes THE Patrick Dempsey) called "In the Mood" the autobiographical movie about my Great Uncle Sonnie Wisecarver and Patrick Dempsey played him in the movie. As a 6 year old (my birthday was the day before the premiere) I could of cared less that I was at a movie premiere with actors such as Patrick Dempsey and Beverly D'Angelo (she played the wife of Clark Griswold in the Vacation movies) but it's true I did and that is something very few know about me. I wonder if Patrick remembers me.... hmmmmmm.... probably not huh?!
V- Very favorite store: Old Navy
W- Worst habit: I analyze way too much about everything
X- X-ray or Ultrasound: ultrasound
Y- Your favorite food: this is a tough one but I guess it would have to be fajitas
Z- Zodiac Sign: Virgo

Jenn's Mom is in TOWN!!!!

WooHoo!!! We are so excited because my mom finally came to visit although we wish the visit would have been longer we are glad she came and we had so much fun with her! We kept her busy the whole time fitting in as much as we could to give her a real taste of AZ.

My mom lives in WA so AZ was a big change for her that she really enjoyed!

She flew in on Saturday the 24th and the first night was a girls night and we went to dinner at the LongHorn restaurant - if you haven't been GO it's AMAZING!!

Sunday we went to the Zoo, Monday we had tons of fun at SunSplash waterpark (sorry no pics of that....), Tuesday we did a lot including seeing the new Indiana Jones movie and then we went to a Diamond Backs game.

Wednesday-Friday we had a lot of fun on our adventure to Tucson.... we saw cowboys and canyons and did a bit of swimming. We finished Friday just Jeff, Mom and I at Alice Cooperstown which was a ton of fun!

We had a great time with my mom and we can't wait for her to come back!

WE LOVE YOU GRAMMA DAR!!!!

Where the Wild Things Are.....

Day 2 was a lot of fun! We spent the day at the Phoenix Zoo. My mom really enjoyed the weather since it was raining that day in WA; she also realized how dry it is here and learned that water is a persons best friend no matter what your doing. This was the only day we actually relaxed in the evening and stayed home which was nice.

RIBBIT!

The grunting turtle!!!

Pretty Birdie

The Diamondbacks LOST......but we still had FUN!!!

On day 4 (Tuesday) we went to the movies and saw INDIANA JONES and later that evening we had a fun time at the ballpark! AJ really got into the game and had our whole section chanting and cheering towards the end and all though they lost AJ was deemed the biggest fan at the game by people around us! We are definately a Baseball Family!

Dbacks biggest fans!









AJ chanted non stop all night and actually helped them score 2 runs......








Memorabilia from the World Series









Not the best picture but we had fun!