Caught up!!!

Yes, it is official. I am completly caught up with my blogging! I have pretty much spent this entire day catching up, but now I am done! Now, how long can we go without doing anything worth blogging about? Not long I am sure!!!

Guess who's one?

That's right! My baby dog is one! I thought we would never make it. Despite her being the cutest dog in the world, I thought we would never survive the potty training, chewing, biting, ignoring, etc. The list goes on and on! But, she went to puppy school, figured out it was more fun to go potty outside, and definitely became part of the family. She is still a lot of work, kinda high maintenance! It's still like having a third child! But we love her and she is becoming a pretty good dog, (contrary to what Cody's family thinks!!) She is an angel when I am around, because I am the boss! I hear she is a terror when we are gone! Just like a child! For being the one who never, ever wanted a dog, I think I love her the most! Alexis calls herself the momma and Avery is becoming her buddy now that they are home together all day! The kids bought her some toys and a new bone for her birthday and she loves them! Happy Birthday Ariel Snow White Halliburton!!On the way home when we first got her, 7 weeks old
Her first pic with the girls!

Still a baby!

So cute!

Now, full grown lemon and white beagle. AKA, Ariel!

Mini photo shoot

Back in January, we took Avery for her 2 year old pictures. Well, she screamed bloody murder the entire time, so we left. We said, when we bring Alexis in March we will do both then. Well...now it is August! So Toni, the girls babysitter and I took them out to do a little mini shoot. We got some pretty good ones, but I am definitely no Micaela Anderson! We will be returning to her this fall!

Alexis loves posing, I should try to make some money on her!!!

Love this one!

Avery has the smile down!

This is her cheese face!

They really are the best of friends!

The girls being silly!

This is my fave. Their faces are totally relaxed. With their relaxed faces so close to each other, I never noticed that they have a lot of the same features!

Cheesin!

And of course, Alexis had to take one of Toni and I!

10 Years!

Again, I feel old, but Cody and I have been married for 10 years! We got married August 7, 1999 in Prescott AZ. We have done so much in these 10 years! I graduated college, he started a business, we bought a house (that is now too small!), have had 11 vehicles, 2 kids, cat, dog, 3 fish, and many other numerous accomplishments. We have never been away from our kids, so we decided to do a long weekend away without kids. We went to the Intercontinental Montelucia resort in Paradise Valley while Cody's parents watched the kiddos. We had so much fun. The resort was amazing, beautiful and relaxing. It was so nice to just be able to go and do without worrying about getting the kids ready or bedtimes. We relaxed by the pool, ate, ate, ate, and watched some movies. It's amazing, 10 years has flown by so very fast, and its amazing, we even still love each other! We were gone for 4 days, and by night 3 I was ready to get home to my kids, but then, when I got home, I was ready to go back! I guess there is no happy medium! Happy Anniversary my love!

I made Cody get his first pedicure, and as you can tell, he LOVED it. :)

The view from our patio

Our patio, SO relaxing!

The view from the resort, Camelback mountain!

Our first dinner out.

Breakfast at the resort

Our actual anniversary night

At the restaurant, Ruth's Chris steakhouse, YUM

The last morning. I could have sat here forever!

And, a blast from the past! I think I look exactly the same, but Cody looks like a kid! And this is how it all began!

Helper girl

What do you do when your helper girl goes to school? Train another one! Avery really wants to be the helper now that Alexis isn't here, and I love it! She is so adorabe and always saying to me, "Mommy, I a good helper girl huh?" She has also decided that the dog is now hers.

She unloads the entire thing!

And is very proud of herself!

Then puts the dirty ones in!

Her "baby puppy Ariel"

School days!

Who started kindergarten? Alexis Dawn! I hate to admit because I certainly don't feel it, but I am now old enough to have a child in school. Real school, not preschool. Where has time gone? I remember it like yesterday when Alexis was first born! Why do they have to grow up so stinkin fast? Needless to say, Alexis was ecstatic to begin real school. She went to preschool last year with Miss Vickie and Miss Liz and loved every minute of it. I think they really prepared her for kindergarten entirely. She woke up that morning (July 30, year round school!) with a smile ear to ear and said, "Mommy! Today I go to school! Get up!" So, I got up! I took her school shopping a few weeks ago, and she had to pick out all the latest fashions. Anyone that knows Alexis knows that her favorite color is rainbow, so it was only appropriate that she wore a rainbow dress on the first day of the rest of her life!

The official first day of school portraits!

Avery was a little nervous that sissy was leaving...

But Avery got a sack lunch too so she wouldn't feel left out!

Here is Alexis in front of her school, Eduprize elementary in Queen Creek.

Waiting in line to go in the classroom with her classmates

This was Avery when we pulled in to the house and did not have Alexis with us. She was hysterical because she wanted to go get sissy! She thought we were going to leave her at school forever! They really DO love each other!

Alexis after her first day with her nametag!

Doing her first homework!

The cake we made to celebrate! (It has a piece missing because Alexis doesn't like frosting! Not my kid!)

Everyday when I pick Alexis up from school, she says it was AWESOME! She likes all of the boys, I never hear about any of the girls, just like when she was in preschool. She seems to be making many new friends, behaving, and learning so much already. She is learning to read pretty good now, and enjoys doing homework! We are so proud of her! And Avery is adjusting to having sissy gone and having mom and dad all to herself! And mom is adjusting to having only one kid at home during the day. Avery is so quiet ( for the most part), but we still miss Alexis and her stories all day! We now just have to wait until the afternoon to hear them! Only 3 more years until Avery goes now!

Cousins

Our cousins from New York came to visit a few weeks ago Maddie and Gabbie. The girls had so much fun with each other despite the age difference. Alexis loved hanging out with the big girls and the big girls loved taking care of the little girls! We went to the water park, out to dinner and had a bbq and GG and Joe's house. It was a lot of fun and we hope to see these girls again sooner than every 10 years!!!

Gabbie, Alexis, Maddie and Avery
Girl time at GG and Joe's house!

Potty time

Since Avery turned 2 and maybe a little before, we have been working on potty training. Well, as most of you know, it has not been going well at all! She is my stubborn one. Wants to do everything on her own time. We have some hit and missess, mainly misses, but she is so adorable so that saves the fact that she will prob go to kindergarten in pull ups. They do make them that big, I have checked! Anyway, this was a hit! Alexis sat in their room and read like 20 books to Avery and she finally went potty! She got 2 gumballs and a poopy prize. We went to Walmart to buy her a toy since it was her first #2 success. Yes folks, we do try bribery. Whatever works!

Avery and her poopy prizes, and Alexis and her helper prize.
Avery putting her laptop to work trying to go again. I think she thought she got a new toy everytime! No such luck. Anyway, we keep trying and hopefully one day.....we will be pullup free. Until then...

Vacation 2009

This year for family vacation we decided to spend the week camping. We went to Clint's Wells near Payson. We bought a camp trailer a year or two ago and decided to really take advantage of it. We love being out in the woods just relaxing and spending time with our family. The dog and kids love it too! We do so much when we are out there, but usually come home well rested! Sorry for all the pics, but I use this blog as kind of an online journal since I am like 5 years behind on scrapbooking!!!

Our campsite

We spent the first rainy night watching kids movies in the trailer. It was really fun and cozy!




Ariel loves to be able to run free in the woods all day. She is so good when we are camping. Maybe we should just move to the woods!!

Alexis learned to chop wood much to my objections!!! But nobody lost a finger!

Alexis thought this was a great place to pose and loved posing for multiple shots!

Love the flower!

Avery had to have a flower also!

She started to pose also!

All my girls in this gorgeous meadow right by our camp site.

Cody and his beautiful daughters

Avery riding daddy's shoulders when we were out exploring!

My girls and I on the quad, Ariel had to come every time. She only fell off once!

Alexis and the humongous "wishing flowers"

Bang!

Bang! (this was so freaking funny in person!)

The torrential downpour on Saturday. Alexis was scared of the thunder and lighting since we were only protected by the flimsy tin walls of a camp trailer. She said, "mommy, it doesn't rain like this at our house!!" It was very cute!

Alexis and Avery ready for a ride in the buggy, don't know why Alexis has a knight cap on considering it was like 80 degrees!

Avery checking out the crawdads, not too sure about them!

Alexis on the other hand loved them. We took hot dogs to catch them with because usually that is what you use to catch them. Alexis was getting frustrated because we were not catching any, so she suggested we use her chewing gum. Well, she started catching them left and right after that. She was very proud of herself that she was able to figure out the optimal bait for crawdads. She is still telling us to be sure to bring gum when we go fishing for crawdads!

I love this pic of Avery. It is camping at its finest! Dirty face, comfy clothes, just kicking back in the lounge chair eating Cheetos out of the bag. This is why we love camping!

We were camping over the 4th of July, so this is the girls posing in their 4th of July shirts.

Patriotic Halliburtons!

Waiting for the fireworks to begin in Payson

Avery and papa. Cody's parents joined us for a couple of days too. Avery thought the fireworks were quite loud, but loved to watch them!

Alexis chillin watching the fireworks. This was the first year I think that she was really inter rested in them. She told me which ones were her favorites and what colors they were. She LOVED the finale, which I must say was fabulous!

Alexis riding the quad all by herself

Avery doing some important business!

Alexis napping on her quad!

Avery checking out the quad she is too little to ride!

Alexis showing Avery the ropes!

Our fam out on a family ride, so much fun!

Camping is hard work!

Alexis crashed out on a ride with Cody. Good thing she didn't fall off!

Enjoying the camp fire, ready to make smores!


This is why you don't feed smores to a 2 year old!

Alexis and the finished product! No chocolate!

Cody and the girls by the fire.

We hope to have many, many more family adventures in the woods. We had a great time. Last year was a week in Disneyland, so this was a much needed change!