Sabino Canyon and Pinnacle Peak

This year while we were in Tucson for Christmas we decided to go for a short hike in Sabino Canyon. I know it may seem crazy to go for a hike when you are 6 months pregnant, but it turned out to be just perfect! The weather was gorgeous, and so was the scenery.

It is not far to drive to Sabino canyon, and I think the boys were ready to get outside and run around a little bit. They did a good job of staying close to Mommy and Daddy while looking at all the fun desert plants.

It was fun to show the boys how different the plants are in the desert as opposed to the ones at home in northern Utah. The boys loved to look at the saguaros and count how many arms they had and see how tall they were. They also liked to watch for new arm buds growing on the saguaros.

We were laughing at how ambitious this particular saguaro was, growing 6 new arms at once. We saw all different shapes and sizes of saguaros, which was pretty cool.

We also got to show the boys several types of cacti up close (this one is a barrel cactus).

Don't worry. We didn't let the boys get TOO close.

When I first moved to Tucson for graduate school, I thought the desert was dry, barren and kind of ugly. After living there for over a year and then going back to visit every year, I find myself enjoying the beauty of the desert... because it IS beautiful in it's own unique way.

We had a great hike. We went uphill and down, on paved trails and over dirt and rocks. We ended up going a little further than I expected, but we were not going too fast since the boys were walking and so was their pregnant mommy. Along the way we stopped once or twice to take some pictures of our family. At least in this one Joe and I are both looking at the camera, right?

What do you think? Do I look six months pregnant to you?

There were saguaros everywhere! It was fun to see so many, so close together. We even ended up hiking past Sabino dam, where we saw water flowing in the river. We managed a pretty nice family photo nearby.

The boys did great on our hike. They both walked... most of the the time.

Ephraim tired out first, and had Auntie Em give him a ride. Daddy ended up giving him a lift for part of the time too.

By the time the boys were asking to ride, we were nearly done with our hike. They really did a great job out walking in the desert with us. Here both of the boys are sitting on a round rock with Emily.

Jacob got to ride on Daddy's shoulders too. Mommy was not offering rides, since I am already carrying on kid on a full-time basis.

Check out how tall this saguaro is! We saw some really tall ones!

After our hike we went back the the Devereaux's for lunch. Then it was time for Ephraim's nap. While Ephraim was sleeping, Jacob and Aunt Emily made an airplane out of tinker toys. Cool huh?

It didn't last too long, but it was fun while it lasted!

Later that evening we ended up going out to Pinnacle Peak for dinner. It is a fun place to eat in Tucson, and happens to be the location where Joe gave me my engagement ring.

In addition to good food, they have a Traildust town that is tons of fun for the boys. They got to take a little ride on a train with Aunt Emily...

spend some time in jail...

 and hang out with the natives. So much fun!

The boys had a lot of fun seeing the town and all the fun cardboard cutouts you can put your head into. This picture of the boys "blowing up" Emily makes me laugh.

What a fun and busy day we had!

Play Doh Anniversary

Tuesday was our wedding anniversary. Can you believe that Joe and I have been married for 8 years? Wow! The most incredible thing to me is that I love Joe even more now than I did when we got married.

We decided before Christmas that we would postpone celebrating our anniversary until the middle of the summer. It is financially more feasible then, and hopefully we will be able to get away and spend the entire day together doing fun things like going on a bike ride (which is really hard to do 6 months pregnant).

However we did go on a date that evening. We went to a matinee of Tron and then out to dinner. It was nice to spend some time alone together.

Earlier in the day Joe and his dad went to the Dodge dealership to get a replacement van key for me. I lost mine (or had help losing mine) 6 months ago and never found it even after tearing the house apart. So we have only had one key to the van, which has been a pain in the rear.

While they were gone, Emily and the boys amused themselves with the Play Doh and tools that the boys got for Christmas.

They had so much fun rolling out the Play Doh, stamping shapes with it, and trying out the various tools they received.

We also got this nice folding table for Christmas. It is adjustable and can be just the right height for the boys. I am sure it will end up in our toy/craft room and the boys will love using it.

It was really great that Aunt Emily spent so much time with the boys while we were visiting. They had a lot of fun with her and it gave me a chance to relax and get some crocheting done. Plus it was just fun to watch them getting to know her a little better.

I have a feeling we will be playing with Play Doh a bit more often now that we have so many cool tools to use!

Devereaux Family and the Cool Dudes

The day after Christmas this year was a Sunday. So of course we all got ready and went to church with Grandpa and Grandma Devereaux. Since we were all dressed up, after church we found someone to take a picture of all of us together.

From left: Emily, Jane (Grandma), Steve (Grandpa), Deborah, Joseph, Scott (Great-Grandpa)

In front: Ephraim and Jacob

Here is a picture of my little family with Great-Grandpa Sabey. The boys did a pretty good job of holding still and smiling for the camera.

Here is a picture of all the boys.

We try to get a nice picture of Joe's family every year, and I think they turned out pretty well this time.

I forgot to mention that while we were out shopping earlier in the week, we found some sunglasses for the boys. So of course I had to take some pictures of them wearing their shades. Don't they look like little secret agents or something?

What a pair of cool dudes! They are getting so big!

Ephraim kept putting his glasses up on his forehead, which cracked me up. He was really working those shades!

Christmas Day

Christmas morning Joe and I did not want to miss any of the action, so we actually set an alarm, got ready, and headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Devereaux's. Wouldn't you know that Ephraim was awake when we got there, but Jacob was still out cold.

We left the bedroom door open a little bit and he woke up. Since all the presents were wrapped and the Santa presents were hidden, we managed to have breakfast before we opened presents! First we gave the boys their gifts from Santa. We told the boys that Santa left their presents at Great Grandpa Sabey's house where Mommy and Daddy were sleeping. Both of the boys were very excited by the new sets of Duplos they got.

Jacob had specifically asked Santa to bring him Legos this year, so he was really happy with the tanker truck and Mac truck that he and Ephraim got.

The boys also got some little laptop computers, which the adults had to try out as well (or at least some of the adults!).

Ephraim was especially interested in his computer, but of course he loves anything with buttons. It will probably be a little while before he is really proficient at playing with it, but he is persistent enough that I am sure he will figure it out.

The rest of us got lots of great presents too. Here is Joe about to open his traditional new shirt and pants. As you can see from the picture, he was also using our new HD video recorder to capture our Christmas. Maybe I'll have to see about uploading some video later.

The boys got so many nice presents. They got books, clothes, Play-Doh, coloring books, crayons, a little white board with dry erase markers/crayons, ornaments, underwear, board games... and I'm probably leaving something out! They had so much fun opening all their presents.

The presents that I was most excited about was the ones I made for my boys. I made each of the boys their own super hero cape. They turned out really great and the boys were really excited about them.

The capes are reversible and have the boy's letter on one side. The other side of Jacob's cape is black and has the batman symbol on it. Ephraim's cape is red on the other side with the logo for the flash. The capes fasten with velcro, so the boys can put them on and take them off by themselves. So nice!

I also made the boys some fun seek and find bags for when they need to be quiet at church. Hopefully they enjoy those almost as much as the capes.

I got some nice presents as well. There was a whole box of the cutest little girl clothes for the baby, and a nice blanket that Aunt Emily made. I got a pretty dress that I can't wait to wear (after I have the baby). Joe surprised me by giving me a jawbone headset for my cell phone, which will be really handy. Now I will be able to talk on the phone and still get other things done. It will be fun to be able to chat while getting boring things done, like the ironing. :o)

So we all had a great day. Ephraim was finally at the age where he thought opening presents was fun and he ripped the paper right off, so he was fun to watch.

Of course we played with our presents after opening them. Ephraim was tired and ended up taking a late morning nap. We decided that the reason Ephraim had seemed more grouchy than normal while at Grandpa and Grandma's house was because he wasn't sleeping well with Jacob. We figured out last night that Ephraim kept falling off the bed multiple times each night. No wonder he was grouchy. He told Emily that Jacob kept pushing him off the bed! So we decided to let Ephraim sleep on the bed by himself while Jacob slept on a futon (a.k.a crouton) at the foot of Grandma and Grandpa's bed. Hopefully that works out better.

Ephraim woke up from his nap just in time for a yummy Christmas dinner, complete with ham and pecan pie. So tasty! I also got to talk to my family on the phone for a while. So we had a fun and Merry Christmas, and hope you did too!

Twas the Night before Christmas...

and at the Devereaux house there was much to be done. First we had to watch Grandpa use his cool new machine to crack some of the pecans that the boys had helped pick (ok, Grandpa probably picked most of them :o). That way we would have fresh pecan pie for Christmas dinner- yum!

We also had to make some cookies for Santa. Auntie Em made some yummy gingerbread and Jacob helped her roll it out and cut the shapes.

Jacob thought it was a lot of fun to help. He liked to pick out the cookie cutters and press them down onto the pan.

They made all kinds of shapes. Stockings, stars, gingerbread men, cacti... and yes, even a Christmas moose or two.

Isn't Jacob the cutest helper ever? What a sweetheart!

Of course that evening we had to leave some of the gingerbread cookies for Santa, along with the boys letters. Don't the cookies look great?

Before Christmas (Dec 21-23)

We had a great time in Tucson before Christmas even arrived. Joe and I really enjoyed staying at Great Grandpa Sabey's house. It meant that we could sleep in and get ready for the day without being bombarded by the requests of our little people. By the time we got to Grandpa and Grandma Devereaux's house the boys were already fed and dressed! So it was like a mini-vacation from parenthood for Joe and me. Thanks Grandpa and Grandma!

The boys had tons of fun things to do. The first day we were there they were out in the backyard, raking leaves and helping Grandpa pick pecans.

We were amazed at how warm the weather was! The boys were actually nearly sweating when they were outside and it was only 10 a.m. I actually ended up putting them in shorts so they didn't get too hot. Good thing I packed some.

We all enjoyed playing out in the sunshine. We don't get a lot of that in the winter... especially not without having to wear a coat!

The boys also had tons of fun things to play with inside. Grandma had this fun train puzzle that Jacob couldn't get enough of! He would put the cars in alphabetical order like he was supposed to, but then he would drive it around, which was hilarious. He and Aunt Emily even built a village out of their Legos, and you can see that the train puzzle is in the middle of the village.

It was fun how creative the boys were with their Legos. You can see that they actually put roofs on the Lego houses using folded paper. That was totally Jacob's idea. What a smartie!

You may recall that over Thanksgiving Joe ended up growing a beard. After going home and showing it to his parents, he decided that it was time to shave.

I told him that I wanted him to shave off various parts to make himself look different, and of course I took pictures of  him. Here is Joe with a goatee and big lambchops.

Isn't this hilarious?! It totally makes him look like he needs to be in a western movie or something!

So next Joe shaved off the lambchops (thank heavens), leaving only the goatee. I told him that I liked the goatee much better than the beard. What do you think?

So he decided to leave the goatee for a while.

Meanwhile back at the Devereaux's, the boys were having fun playing alphabet hopscotch outside. Check out their board! It goes all the way from A to Z!

Jacob and Ephraim both gave it a try and it was hilarious to watch them try to figure out how to alternate jumping on one foot and them on two!

Jacob was getting the hang of it after a while though! They thought this was tons of fun.

Another activity that the boys enjoyed was going on flashlight walks with Grandma and Aunt Emily. After it got dark the boys would each get a flashlight and they would walk around the neighborhood and look at Christmas lights. They had a lot of fun and burned off some of their abundant energy too!