Family Pictures

We finally got family pictures taken and mainly so that we could have a decent picture on our Christmas cards this year. We had a good friend of ours take them and she did a great job! Despite the cold, windy weather and Kali not wanting anything to do with pictures...and 163 pictures later...this is what we got. These are just some of my favorites!! Thanks so much Cathi for doing such a fabulous job and for sticking it out with us!!

No kids!

This was the Saturday after Thanksgiving. (I know I'm a few weeks behind) It was so nice to have a night out and for those of you who have children you know exactly how I was feeling! After a busy Thanksgiving week and seeming like endless cleaning up and cooking and taking care of the kids...we decided we needed a night out with just the adults and no kids. It was SOO nice and not to mention the food was delicious! My youngest sister Kathryn and her newly-wed husband Sam drove out from Utah to spend Thanksgiving week with us and Kristin and Neal. We had a great time and it was even nicer to have an evening with adults only and great food that I didn't have to cook or clean up! Here are just a few pics of us at dinner with them. However, we did feel that there was a sister missing!! Kelli we love you and wished you were here too!!

Train Ride with Santa!

The weekend after Thanksgiving we took the kids and went to the Sacramento Train Museum with Aunt Krisitin, Uncle Neal and cousins Millie, Justin, & Simon. Aunt Kathryn and Uncle Sam were visiting from Utah and so Aunt Kathryn came with us also. We took the kids on a fun REAL train ride that lasted about 30 minutes.

There were Christmas carolers or entertainers that came through each car and sang to us while we waited for Santa to come. Once Santa showed up you can see the look on Kali and Zach's faces and how they felt about the whole situation. Let's just say Zach almost jumped out the window because Santa's hand was touching his shoulder when we took the picture with him and Kali nearly strangled me!! It was quite the ordeal! Other than that, the actual train ride was a lot of fun.

Posing!

I thought this was so cute! This was just a play day at the park and Kali decided to pose for the camera. She is quite the girly-girl! I can't seem to get Zach to even look at the camera these days. We'll have to work on that otherwise you're only going to be seeing pictures of our little princess!

Our little "Angel" turns TWO!!!!

November 3rd was Kali's 2nd birthday!! That's right our baby girl is no longer a baby anymore. In fact she thinks she is quite the big girl these days! Kali had a very fun birthday and we have the proof to show you. She got a new big girl tricycle, lots of big girl dress-ups, plenty of baby stuff and accessiories, and even her very first My little ponies. After each present she opened she had to try it on or open it and so by the end of opening presents she was all decked out with her dress-ups and jewelry and arms loaded with a baby in one arm and a diaper bag in the other. As you can see after she blew out her birthday candle she decided to take the first lick of her cake!!

HALLOWEEN FUN!

Sorry it's a little late but I just had to post these halloween pictures for all to see. Halloween this year was a lot of fun! We went trick-or-treating in our new neighborhood with our cousins, Justin Capell, & Millie & Justin Hinson. It seemed the night was never going to end and either was the candy!! Zach obviously went as a "cool BIG muscle Spiderman" and Kali was our sweet little "Angel". We were hoping that the costume would rub off on her a bit because she has been anything but an angel these days! That's right...the "terrible two's" have set in! Anyways, Kali thought Zach's costume was so "cool" she had to try it on too! She makes a pretty cute spiderman don't you think?

My Sacrifice

So for Mark's 29th birthday, which was on the 9th, I asked him what he wanted to do. Of course he came up with the brilliant idea of going to Sand Mountain, Nevada to ride quads for a day or two. This has been quite the touchy subject in our home because of Mark's rather large purchase of not one but TWO four wheelers this last summer without my consent!! Since then I have refused to go riding with him or even learn to ride the expensive toy because it is just not a priority to me nor do I want to even give him any idea that I am the least bit pleased with his purchase! SOOO...back to his birthday, he said he didn't want any gifts except for me to go riding with him and we leave the kids with Grandma and Grandpa Stacy. Now I liked the idea of leaving the kids and this was HIS birthday so I gave in and we made the plans with some friends of ours who also left their kids and we made the 4 hour trek to Sand Mountain, Nevada. So we thought we were smooth sailing once we left but little did we know it would be quite the eventful 2 days! We got there Friday afternoon and Mark forgot the keys to the quads. Luckily his Electrical Engineering degree came in handy and he was able to hotwire the quads in the first attempt and we were on our way around the dunes. So this was my first time and nobody told me that my thumb would be throbbing after two minutes of riding!!! Well, I just sucked it up and decided I needed to quit complaining and enjoy the time with Mark since it was his birthday afterall. So after forgetting the keys, getting the truck stuck in the sand, having a mix-up with the hotel, and getting a $125 ticket for riding out of the boundary markings our eventful weekend came to an end. Did I have fun? It was quite the sacrifice and eventful but of course I had fun! We had a blast and it was well worth every minute and I hope Mark had just as much fun despite all the road bumps along the way! I'm sure it wasn't everything he had hoped for his birthday but he's just happy his wife can ride and does quite well at it! He called me "A Natural!"

Taking the plunge!!

So I finally decided to make an attempt at this whole blogging thing! My sister-in-law Sheila has convinced me that it's easier than scrapbooking (I'm still working on Zach's first year and Zach is almost 4 if that tells you anything) and so I am tackling the challenge and joining the blogging club!! I love seeing all of our friends blogs and I think it is a great way to stay in touch. My family has had a website (worldbrown.com) for the past several years and that has been our way of staying in touch. Unfortunately my family has decided that it's too much of a pain because everyone has to have a certain program to update on it or lets just say its a little "old school" so we are not continuing to update on that website anymore. SOOOO...that brings us to "The Stacy Crew" blog. It's free...it's easy..and it looks really nice if you know what you're doing. I don't, so we'll see how it turns out! Here it goes!! Life in the fast lane with the "Stacy Crew"!