"Stop that Wind."

The weather is gorgeous this time of year in Arizona. We have been driving with the windows down a lot lately. Every time I put the window down, Cohen says "mom, mom, stop that wind!" I think he's starting to like it though. Especially when I put his window down.

i wuv you

Jovie was saying "I love you" over and over again. For a long time she didn't say the word love. I would say "I" to start it off, then she knew what was coming next but "love" isn't the easiest word to say, so I would then say "love," and then she would say "you," very long and clear. Then we got to the point where she left out the "love" all together because she knew what we were doing. I'd say "I" and she would say "youuuuuuuuuuuuu." Now she says the whole phrase:)  Right before I took the video she was saying "I love you" over and over again. I went to go get the camera and she said "no cheese" as in I'm not going to smile and say cheese for you mom. You can hear her say no cheese in the video, it's pretty funny and quite cute.

Obama Mama

President Obama visited the valley last week and when I heard that he would be in Chandler, I alerted my friend Jen, who was an Obama campainger for the 2008 election and she and I packed up the kids and drove to the Mesa Airport to see Air Force One land. We were sucessful and saw the plane land and through my binoculars we could see Obama go down the airplane steps (we couldn't quite tell it was him but only two people came off so, so one had to be him). Then we walked over to the street were people were lined up to see the Obama's motorcade entourage drive by. It was cool to see in person and a lot easier (and more managable with the kids) than waiting several hours in line to see him at the Intel manufacturing plant where he was speaking.

What does the Backson do?

I took the kids to the latest Winnie the Pooh movie this past summer and fell in love with the cute story and fun songs. In the movie, Owl and the gang are trying to read a note that Christopher Robin left for his friends. Owl reads it incorrectly of course, and instead of reading "be back soon," he reads "backson" and concludes that Christopher Robin has been kidnapped by a creature named the Backson. A very cute song follows about the mischief that the Backson causes and what he looks like. Hence, we have been singing the Backson song around the house for the past couple of weeks. Out of no where, several times per day, Cohen says to me "mom, what does the Backson do" and we name off all of the things that we can think of from the song. Have I mentioned that I like this movie?!

New Year, New Hairstyles

Jovie's first ponytail.

O Christmas Tree

The most wonderful time of the year

We jumped on board with the Elf and the Shelf this year. The idea is that the elf is watching if the kids are naughty or nice and that he will of course report this to Santa. So you hide the elf somewhere new each night and the kids get to find him in the morning. I'm pretty sure Joel and I are having more fun hiding the elf than the kids are finding him. It also comes with a book that explains the elfs job to the kids and has good pictures.

A local bookstore was having pictures with the Grinch. Jovie and Cohen both gave the grinch a high five. Neither one of them wanted to sit by him alone so I had to jump in the picture while the book store employee took a quick picture. Jovie playing at the park.