Our newest family member

So most of you already know this but we were adopted by a kitten when we moved to this house a little over a year ago. We named her Gabby because she is very "vocal". Nathan wanted to name her "Meow" because she "meows a lot" but I talked him into something that could mean the same thing but was a little more "normal". Anyway, due to our very hectic life, I neglected to get Gabby spayed and this spring I realized she was pregnant.

She had 3 kittens on June 10, the same day we were out of town for our Pace Family Reunion in Utah. The runt of the litter didn't make it but I named her anyway. In the second picture, you can see how tiny little Penelope was compared to her brother and sister.

Then we were left with a boy and a girl, who we named Tony and Cleo. Tony is the black and white one and Cleo is the orange one. They were inseparable for the first 10 weeks of their life. They slept curled up together one way or another all the time and they played with each other constantly.

Cleo was not meant to be a member of our family forever. She was just a bit too skittish and afraid of her own shadow to be comfortable in the house full of rambunctious boys so we gave her to a family who was more suited to her personality and she has been very happy there. (In these pictures she is running away from a ribbon that was laying on the ground!)

Nathan became very attached to Tony though and I just didn't have the heart to make him give him up. He insists on taking Tony to bed with him every night although in this pictures they fell asleep together watching tv on our giant ottoman! Tony has made himself completely at home, even sleeping in Jonathan toys and high chair! So Tony is our newest member of the family. He's a cute little guy and just as "vocal" as his momma! Tony is also very fond of curling up with and playing with Aden which is quite a site to see this little kitten playing and sleeping with a 100lb golden retriever!

It's Pumpkin Patch Time Again!

We got to go to the pumpkin patch and corn maze here in town last weekend with Grandma & Grandpa and the kids had a blast! Look how much they've grown!!!!

Jonathan loved the corn maze cause he got to just run and run and no one was telling him to stop or which way to go or anything.

Nathan loved the maze and the hay ride and the giant pumpkins! David enjoyed the hay ride the most I think.

What a fun time! Thanks Mom & Dad!

Gooooooooooal!

Well...not too many goals this season actually but Nathan has really enjoyed playing soccer this fall and he's pretty darn good! I've gotten some decent shots of him in action and of his brothers and their antics during the games.

They all certainly are keeping us all on our toes!

Nathan's last game is next Saturday but I hope he will decide to play again next year because we've really enjoyed watching him get out there and grow as a player!

He does really well at getting out there and going after the ball. It's so fun to watch your child learn a new skill and then develop it over time! Go Nathan!!!!

Christmas Merriment

Christmas was fun with the kids this year. David and Nathan enjoyed their presents. Jonathan really had no interest in opening any of his presents but he was happy anyway. He just enjoyed practicing his walking skills, walking around in circles, drinking his bottle while the rest of us explored our gifts! Once his gifts were opened, he enjoyed playing with them. Here's our Christmas pictures...

Thanksgiving with the Wright's

We decided to travel to Arizona for Thanksgiving this year and spend the holiday with Doug's family. It was so much fun to see all of them and to watch the kids playing together and having such a good time. We had a great Thanksgiving feast, shared with the Wright's (sadly, minus Jared, Laurie and co.) and the Cluff's. There was basketball and ping pong. Then we spent the rest of the weekend enjoying our short time together. Girls' only time was spent making clocks and seeing Twilight. The guys enjoyed video games and basketball. We even got an adults ONLY night out! Imagine the luxury of THAT!!!

OUR FEAST


COUSINS...


AND JONATHAN'S FIRST BLACK EYE

FPOA Football Tournament

FPOA = Fresno Police Officers' Association

FPOA puts on various sports tournaments for the officers during the year. Soccer, Softball, Football, etc. So Doug played in this "flag" football tournament a week or two before Thanksgiving. It might as well have been tackle football for how much these guys spent on the ground! He had fun even if they didn't win. Too bad I didn't get any good pictures of him actually playing. It was fun for me to go watch Doug play with his motors team and I also got to meet some of the wives of the other officers which is always nice.

David and Nathan had a good time playing on the playground. Then David came and watched the game with me and took some pictures. Jonathan enjoyed pushing the stroller around, especially when he was trying to sneak onto the field! He was also fascinated by the P.A.L. PT Cruiser.



OH!And don't for get the between-game-father-son bonding!

A Day at the Park

I decided to take the kids to the park a while back to get them out of the house. We had an abundance of stale bread so we took that to feed to the ducks and we invited Aunt Mandy along. The ducks were happy to eat our stale bread and we had a good time.

David engaged in his favorite pastime, swinging, swinging and more swinging! He was in heaven!



Nathan, our little daredevil, climbed the jungle gym dinosaur, then climbed the jungle gym but not the part your SUPPOSED to climb, nooooo, he climbed on top of the beam ABOVE the monkey bars and then jumped OFF!!! He also climbed some trees and generally just ran around like a typical boy!



Jonathan just enjoyed pushing the stroller all over the park and Aunt Mandy and I followed him wherever he went. Such a cute little thing! He couldn't see anything but he didn't care! He was pushing that stroller as fast as he could make it go!