1. Caden would like to learn how to ride a 2 wheel bike. He received a bike from Santa Claus with no training wheels and he has far outgrown his old bike with training wheels. We started the learning process, but hopefully by the end of the year, Caden will have mastered his new bike.

2. Eat more healthy. We’re now massive unhealthy eaters, but somehow vegetables manage to evade our kitchen table. This year, we will attempt to get some vegetables, in some form, onto our plates….and eat them!

3. Finish our house. Since we are in no position to move anytime in the foreseeable future, we need to get moving on remodeling, repainting, & organizing. We may not be getting the home of our dreams, but at least we can try to make this one look more like it.

4. Get more organized. There is not enough storage space in this house. We also make too many runs to Target to get that last minute gift or ingredient for dinner. Perhaps this will go along with #3!

5. Work on potty training with Connor. We would love a life where we didn’t have to buy or bring diapers everywhere. He’s still a little young, but hopefully…

6. Get out and do more! We would love to take more day trips. Even if it’s just to the zoo more often. I received a new camera for Christmas so I hope to capture some of this memories on film too!

Last….keep this blog up to date!

This was the first year of Easter Egg coloring that both kids could participate in. I only did a dozen eggs since I wasn’t sure how much interest Connor would have. I did the traditional egg food coloring and looked up some creative colors on McCormicks website. Caden could do the coloring on his own with no help for me. Connor loved putting the eggs in, but wasn’t vey careful about it. So, we only had 1 casualty egg which is pretty good. I think we’ll have to do more than a dozen next year.

Caden’s school had it’s 2nd annual Christmas Program.  This year they decided to hold it at an elementary school’s gym to accomodate all the parents, grandparents, siblings, friends, aunt, uncles etc….you get the idea.  All of the classes (except for the infant room) had their time in the spotlight and sang a few Christmas Carols. 

Caden got all dressed up and his teacher’s grandmother knitted each of them a beanie hat.  His class was definitely the loudest out of all the classes. 

They entertained the crowd with:

Santa Claus is Coming to Town (As Santa was coming in to greet all the families)

Jingle Bells (Desert Edition).  This was a cute rendition.  Here are the lyrics:
Driving through the sand
With his jeep well in command
Over the rocks and brush
Santa’s in a rush.

Jingle Bells, lizard tails
Hot and sunny day
Santa’s jeep is packed with toys
So everything’s okay

Santa rounded out the evening and water and cookies were available for all. All of the grandparents came and saw Caden.  This will be his last Christmas Program with Goddard, but next year will be Connor’s first!Â

The we spent our evening with our friends the Gapasins.  We had an old fashioned BBQ complete with hamburgers, sausage and chicken (Fresh and Easy has the BEST Grill Pack that goes on sale for $5.99 quite often.). The main dishes were complemented with chips, fruit salad, pasta salad and of course grilled corn on the cob!

After dinner was over, we headed over to Big League Dreams where Gilbert was having their fireworks this year. We picked a spot of the Polo Ground field and laid out our blankets and lawn chairs and waited for it to get dark.

After much waiting and Caden asking “Is it dark yet?”, the time came for Fireworks to start. Caden was so excited. The show was just like every other fireworks show that everyone else saw that night. They did shoot off fireworks that spelled out “USA” which was pretty cool. Then the finale started. At first we thought it was pretty weak, but as with the rest of the economy, figured everyone (including the city) had to make cuts somewhere. Just when we thought it was over, a huge bright stream of fireworks were set off from a much closer distance. It was amazing, but scared all of us a bit when it started! It was probably the best ending to a fireworks scene I have ever seen. However, once it was over, we realized that there was bright red ash falling into the crowd! Once the lights came on we found the remnants of the fireworks scattered throughout the field. A little scary, but no one was hurt (to our knowledge) and our family was safe.

We hope everyone had a happy and safe 4th of July. We can’t wait until next year!