Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Fall in Phoenix

It has been beautiful here in Phoenix now that the sun has calmed itself down. It's a nice time to have visitors and spend some time outside.

Here is Olive in her ladybug costume.


Jackson was a dragon - he is demonstrating the "trick" in "trick-or-treat".


Joss was Snow White. She could not wait!


We finally were able to carve pumpkins on Halloween day. Joss drew all the faces and Shawn cut them out. They turned out so cute~


Joss' preschool group took a field trip to a pumpkin patch. Here are the babies on a haystack.


This is the tractor at the pumpkin patch.


Shawn's grandparents came for a visit and brought their Billy Bass Fish. Joss and Jackson loved to sing along!


Mom made these pajamas for them when we visited earlier this year. Olive is finally big enough to wear them, so we had to get a shot.


We went to visit Brandon and Jessica in Safford and went to the Graham County Fair. The kids loved the animals:


...but they really loved the Kettlecorn!

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

U2 and the Black Eyed Peas!

In the midst of one of Shawn's busiest weeks ever, our friends, the Whitmores called us up and invited us to go to the U2 concert with them last night. They gave us a screaming deal on the tickets and, honestly, who can pass up U2? Not us! We rushed to find a babysitter (thanks Shia) and off we went. It was awesome. The Black Eyed Peas opened and seriously have to be one of the best openers of all time. They are so fun! It didn't hurt that we were with the Whitmores- and Sarah, all pregnant, can really shake her groove thing! It was a blast and we are now sleep deprived and Shawn has a lot of catching up to do, but it was worth it!

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Vegas Baby

It's been awhile since we went to Vegas - for some reason I kind of forgot to put up our Vegas pictures. I guess it's true what they say - What happens in Vegas...

We went to Shawn's cousin, Patrick Fleming's wedding at the Tropicana. It was a beautiful, sweet, simple wedding and we got to see a lot of Shawn's family. Shawn's parents kept Joss and Jackson for the weekend, so we only had Olive to wrestle with.

This is the last few moments we were there - probably a good thing...


We didn't bring Olive's shades, so Uncle Kevin let her borrow his. They look better on her anyway!


In front of New York New York. You forget how amazing the buildings are there.


Hey Kevin, can you take our picture?

(aren't Kevin and Lexi the cutest couple?!)


Shawn and Olive after the wedding. She was soo good. Didn't make a peep!


It was fun to get together with everyone from Butte. We got there Friday and left Saturday. It was quick, but it was fun!

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Phoenix Children's Museum

For some reason, even though all our kids are 3 and under, we still have a hard time getting all our schedules to mesh. We finally had a Saturday that we were all together long enough to do something and it was so fun! Thanks to the Culture Pass which made the price nice!
We went to the Phoenix Children's Museum and it was so fun. Joss and Jackson were in heaven and it was nice that we didn't have anything to rush off to - we could just be together as a family and hundreds of strangers.

Here is the entrance to the Museum.


They have this great craft room where the kids can paint this house - it's been painted over and over and over again - the museum loses square footage every day!


I have this same picture (pose) taken just over a year ago -


Cruising around - I don't know who has the better seat:


Olive got to get out and play a bit too.


Joss loved this area - she got to pick out whatever she wanted:


You can see in Jackson's eyes that they were ready to go at this point.


It was a lot of fun - how great is it to be a family?!
Special thanks to Ampy Paige for supplying the clothing for the O'Leary kids.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Love Montana Summers

We just got back from our 3 week vacation in Montana. All of my brothers and sisters were able to be there for a little bit. We had so much fun and LOVED being able to be outside. We did not miss the heat in Phoenix, but it's always nice to come home. Here are some pics of what we did:

Sophie, Joss, and Charlee playing Ring-a-round-the-rosies


Uncle Jess showing Joss sparkler safety


They all LOVED the 4-Wheeler.


Joss dropped her ice cream and found the cleanest way to get more out of it.


Hiking up at Hyalite


There were bunnies all over the yard. This little baby let us pet it!


We went to the Custer Battlefield Re-inactment

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Livin it up!

We were lucky enough to have visitors this month. Reid had some training in Flagstaff, so he and Mishel came to visit. We decided it would be a good weekend to bless Olive, so Paige decided to come along too. Thanks to her and the Ivory's for letting us use their fabulous house and pool. It was a fabulous weekend!


Here's Jackson trying hard to look cool.


Joss and Jackson proving that goggles are not nerdy!


Shawn getting in some good Olive time.


They had a blast playing with Uncle Reid.


Joss got some sunbathing tips from her Auntie Mishel.



We love having visitors!

Monday, May 18, 2009

Blessing Pictures by Natalie

Yesterday we blessed our sweet little Olive. It was a beautiful day and she is a beautiful baby. My friend Natalie came and took some sweet pictures of little Olive. She edited and posted them on a new blog - go ahead and take a peek!

www.olivekay.blogspot.com

Such a sweet thing!

Thanks Natalie!!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Updates

It's been a couple of weeks now, and we are getting used to our family of 5. Here are some of the latest pics of the babies!


Joss loves her baby sister!


Joss loves to take pictures of her brother and sister...


Sweetie Olive - not quite fitting into her hat~



3 Amigos

Monday, April 20, 2009

Olive Kay O'Leary

Friday, April 17th, we went to the hospital to meet our newest little family member. Most of the morning was spent timing contractions and watching ESPN. We also got in a game or 2 of Boggle. A few hours later, we were into the harder part of labor. For whatever reason, my epidural didn't take except for in my legs, and since the baby didn't come out of my leg I felt way more than I expected. After much pain and a shout (scream) for my doctor to get ready, our little girl was born. It was wonderful to see her.

We spent a lot of time trying to figure out her name. A few nights earlier we went online to do a last minute brain storming session, and added a few more names to our list. We had a lot of input via texts from friends and family and even from our nurses and we finally decided on Olive Kay. I am Karmen with a K after my dad, Kirk, and Shawn's mom is Kathy with a K, so we thought the middle name Kay was fitting. Joss called her Melissa for awhile (Her good friend's mommy's name) and now she is calling her Charlee (her cousin's name). She has always liked to sing I Am A Child of God, and towards the end where it says "Teach me all that I must do, to live with Him someday" She sings it "Teach me Olive I must do, to Him someday", so I'm sure she'll end up loving her sister's name, since it is in her favorite song.

We are loving our new and improved family. Little Olive is absolutely perfect and we are loving every minute with her. Joss and Jackson are crazy about her and love to help out. Here are some of the pictures. There are sure to be more soon!

Here is the newborn picture at the hospital.



Here is Joss and Jackson's first time with their new sister.


This is the first few minutes at home where Joss got to hold her. She has been so looking forward to being able to hold her for "4 minutes". 4 minutes went by very quickly!


I almost forgot the stats. She was born at 2:19 in the afternoon. She weighed 8 pounds, 7 ounces, and was 20 inches long. She is a good listener and likes to look at the stars.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Thundercats are GOOO!

On our way to the hospital! Details to follow!

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Baby Who O'Leary?

We've added a poll to see what people think we should name our baby girl, who is coming NEXT MONTH! We may or may not go with what everyone votes for and we may end up with a completely different name, but it will be fun to see what everyone thinks in the meantime! Let us know if you have other thoughts or suggestions!

Sunday, March 1, 2009

3 Years Old?!

On February 2nd our baby girl turned 3! Wow, time really does fly when you're having fun! It was fun to go through her pictures since she was a baby.



This was last Easter. She looked so big then and so little now.



Here is when she was coming to work with me. This was a classic Joss face.



On her blessing day. Just 2 months old! It was such a beautiful day.



So much has changed since then, and no matter what is happening in our lives, good or bad, everything has been sweeter because Joss is part of our family. She is a good big sister to Jackson and she can't wait for baby girl - she wants to hold her for "5 minutes"! There is nothing more amazing then our perfect little family and I look forward to seeing it grow and cherish where we are at now.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

M-O-N-T-A-N-A, Montana, I love you!

We just got back from 10 days in Montana! No one wants to go from Phoenix to Montana in January, so we got some cheap flights! (Thanks, Mom and Dad!!) Caroline and Charlee were able to join us too and we packed tons of non-stop fun into 10 days! I put Mom and Caroline to work on projects for my house, I had a horrible bout with hives that I didn't think I'd recover from, we saw Auntie Kelli at Carroll, met up with my awesome friends from high school, did some kick-butt (and some days sweat-free) Jazzercise, visited Great Gramma Stovall and Auntie Ann and Great Gramma and Grampa Brown, got in plenty of sales-tax-free shopping, ate at the best local places, and put up with sub-zero temperatures.

The pictures ended up a bit out of order, but I don't think you'll lose too much of the highlights!


Here are all the grandbabies. This was taken on the last day and took about 15 minutes to get them all somewhat sitting together! They are wiggly!

Charlee, Jackson, Sophie, and Joss


We went to Burger King to play in the playplace - it was about 4 degrees this day so we did as much indoors as we could. We tried to get all the kids together, but it was nearly impossible, especially with this little girl in blue that wanted to be in all the pictures!


This is in the Montana history portion of the Museum of the Rockies. We made sure no one was looking and propped Jackson up on the cannon with Grampa. He probably has something similar in his safe...


Here is Joss at the Museum of the Rockies next to the Torosaurus. She made the comment "I don't like dinosaurs, I like kitties!" Mom's allergic, baby... Hello Kitty will have to suffice!


Great Gramma Brown was able to meet us at the museum and get some more time in with the kids. Great Grampa Brown also came all the way back from Lewistown to visit one day too. It's awesome to be loved!


Here is a picture of Joss in front of a scientist cleaning up some bones. Notice the AZ shoes she is wearing? You can take the Arizonan out of Arizona...


The hill at the bus stop isn't as steep or as long as I remembered it when I was a kid. We all went down and played in the snow!


Gramma pulled Joss and Jackson all around the backyard!


We made it to the cabin one day and Auntie Ann helped Joss and Jackson sit on Powder River! That was a highlight for them!


It is never fun to leave, but it is always worth the trip! We came, we trashed, we left, and loved every minute! Phoenix gave us nice, warm Welcome Home with Temperatures near 70. Can't wait to do this again!