Christmas (Finally!!)

Our Christmas was fabulous - I love this holiday! We opted for a real tree again this year and found the most beautiful one. We had a great time decorating it together and it looked so pretty and peaceful, I never wanted it to come down.

A few weeks before Christmas Brayden lost his first tooth. Boy did he think he was grown up! At his dentist appointment in November the dentist saw that it was a little loose and Brayden obsessed over it and wiggled it until he wiggled it out. He looked so cute with a little missing tooth.

We had our family Christmas party on the 23rd (I had to work on Christmas Eve - boo!!) and it was so fun. There were even a few celebrities that made an appearance! Santa came with presents and all the kids were in awe! We even had our China and California cousins on Skype and Santa was able to send them a present using Christmas Magic - it was amazing! All the kids personally received their Christmas pajama's from Santa himself. Then, the Dancing Doll and the Dumb Baby made their appearances. Good times were had by all. Christmas morning was spent opening presents and visiting family.

A few days after Christmas Mark and the rest of the guys in the family went snowmobiling in Yellowstone for 3 days - BRRRRR!! The high during the day was 15-18 degrees. Surprisingly, no one froze. They had such a great time and look forward to doing more activities together.

My attempt to catch up...

A few months ago I was working on my laptop on the couch as we all watched a movie. In the excitement of the movie, one of my dear children accidentally knocked the small table that had my computer on it and spilled my drink....all over my laptop!! Apparently, rootbeer + laptop = fried motherboard. Bummer!! Sadly, my internet capabilities were greatly hindered by this. But, I am now back up, sort of. I have another computer that is several years old and sooooo slow, but it works! YAY!!

Well, the title says it all. I am waaaayyyy behind in blogging and have missed several major events. Let's see if I can catch them all now.

November 17th was Brayden's birthday. He's 5!! I can't believe it! He is so grown up, it just amazes me everyday. He started kindergarten this year and is doing amazing. He is learning math (addition and subtraction) and is reading. He gets so excited when he realizes he CAN do these things. So, for his birthday we just had a small party - grandma and grandad came over for Brayden's favorite dinner, spaghetti and meatballs. (The second picture was the present that grandma and granddad gave Brayden - it was a Star Wars toy wrapped to look like a robot! It was the greatest thing!)

November 20th was Landon's 3rd birthday. He is growing up so fast too and changes everyday. He is definitely feeling comfortable and part of our family and is, most often, a typical 3 yr old. He can be the sweetest thing but can be a terror too. Then he smiles and it's so hard to get mad at him - and he knows it so he uses it to his advantage! He loves to play and is always laughing - sometimes I'm not sure he knows what he is laughing at but that laugh is so cute! For his birthday, we had to celebrate a little late because Landon was sick but we did celebrate. Thanksgiving morning we met with grandma and granddad for a "Birthday Breakfast". Landon picked out his favorite doughnuts for everyone - he loved it.

The last day of school in December was Brayden's school performance and it was just too cute! His class sang "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" and looked so adorable! He was pretty nervous at first but quickly got into the routine and did awesome.

(here is Landon waiting patiently for the performance)

Brayden is the youngest kid in his class but notice how much bigger he is? He is at least a head taller than everyone else. Hopefully one day all the other kids will catch up to him.

Ok, I think that gets us caught up until Christmas so that will come next.

Well folks....it happened! On December 31st at approximately 9:15AM, Landon Jameson Mariano officially became a Mariano! We are so happy! He has been part of our family since February so it's feels so good to have it be official now. Yay!!! Now, take a look at that face - isn't he a cutie?!?!?!

P.S. I realize that I am super far behind in blogging....I have 3 birthdays, a school program, Christmas, and I'm sure many other things to blog about and I will get to it eventually. Maybe I will even share the ill-fated story of my laptop and the reason I am so far behind....someday!

October 2009

Boy have we been busy! But for some reason we didn't take a lot of pictures...oops! But, we did take some Everyone is still doing fabulous and we are having fun.

Brayden had his first field trip and I got to go with him! All the kindergarten classes went to Schnepf Farms for their Halloween festival and it was so much fun! There were fun kiddie rides, pig races, and we got to pick a pumpkin at the end. There were also enough parent chaperones that we each got 2 kids and then split up to have some fun! I had Brayden and his friend "A" and it was great. I hope I always get to do the fieldtrips with the boys!

The weekend of the 24th Gilbert had a Halloween party at Freestone park. There were fun games and bouncy slides, as well as a few characters. It was a lot of fun and something that we will definitely make a tradition!

We also got to have 2 Halloween's this year. On the 30th our ward had a Trunk-or-Treat so the boys got to dress up and we even did a trunk. There was a great turnout and the boys got a ton of candy! We even won first prize for best trunk! Woohoo!! The boys costumes looked awesome too and they were so in love with them - that's the best part! We had a mad scientist, Zorro, and a cute little scarecrow.

Then, on Halloween night, we went to the Queen Creek Trunk-or-Treat. That was a lot of fun too! In addition to the trunks there were a bunch of kids games they got to play for more candy. Unfortunately Tarell wasn't with us for Halloween night but he had his own fun. And, we ended up with WAY TOO MUCH CANDY!! I think next year we may find an alternative to keeping the candy.

**Stay tuned for birthday pics for Brayden and Landon!

Here we grow again...

After swearing it wouldn't happen again...

We got a dog!!!

And she is super cute! The boys love her and have been having sooooo much fun playing with her. It took a couple hours but we settled on a name and she loves it and has answered to it from the start. So...meet Maizy!

YAY!!!!

Landon is now potty-trained! YAY!!! It seemed to happen overnight, after working with him for months. We are so proud of him - and he is proud of himself. He hasn't had any accidents, even at night. Amazing!! He even go to pick out his own underwear. He now has a great selection of Cars, Spiderman, and Elmo underwear. So cute!!

Seattle vacation

We went to Seattle the end of July for a much needed family vacation. It was so much fun to see family and check out some great places. Here are some pictures we took:

Hanging out by the waterfront

The boys were all so excited to see the guys that throw the fish - when it came down to it they were a little hesitant. Landon wouldn't go anywhere near the "disgusting fish" as he put it.

I really miss all the fresh flowers in buckets at Pike Place - they are so beautiful and cheap!! This picture doesn't do them justice at all!!

We even got to go out on grandpa's boat. We went in waves so unfortunately there aren't any pictures of Brayden and Tarell, but isn't Landon cute driving the boat?? These are a tad little blurry but too cute! They were being so silly!

The boys loved the Space Needle! We were so high up!

Of course we had to get a picture with all the grandkids - aren't they a handsome bunch? Maybe next time they will sit still - right!! If anyone got a good picture I would love to have it!

We also went to cousin Tom's wedding - I wish we had some pictures of that. The boys all looked so handsome and Tom and Rebecca looked beautiful! And Aunt Anita - we didn't get a picture of you either! We are horrible! We miss you all and wish we could see you more often!

We had such a great time! Thanks to everyone who made it possible for us! We love our family!