Happy Birthday Parker!

Valentine's Day is coming. It is always a good time of year, Matt's birthday is the day after- my forever SWEETHEART! Plus tons of candy and everything is pink!

Speaking of birthdays...our firstborn just turned 9!
Crazy fun, we've had for almost a decade! I love you PJ!

Ringing in the New Year

Okay so I am ready to post again...I put a lot of effort into the Christmas blog so I having been coasting off that for too long.

Happy 2009! Matt & I are so ready for a new year. I don't usually get into it but his enthusiasm has been contagious. The boys are clueless about the whole thing, they have just been asking for more of those popper things!

Christmas was more of the "herding cats" exprience, that I am sure I will miss dearly in my old age, but not yet! I also heard of a new expression that sums it up, "like trying to nail Jello to the wall." Yep, that was Christmas at our house!

Wrapping it up

Merry Christmas! What a year! Recessions, bail-outs, earthquakes, oh my! I am left feeling so grateful for a partner in this life. The picture of us is a favorite of mine because I was so miffed at Matt that day. It is a great reminder of what marriage is all about, sticking together through the tough stuff! Wishing you a beautiful Holiday Season with those you love, The Archuletas

PJ the DJ

That is what he calls himself. Maybe he is just more of an audio person in general because he sure hates the camera. I think I traumatized him with it at a young age. I still have that obsessive desire to capture his every move but he has put the skids on it. I think that is one of my favorite things about Parker, he knows his boundaries & how to commuicate them! Wow! Most adults I know can't do either!

"Thing 2"

Kaleb is having such a fun year in 1st grade.

He is in a class with his best buddies, Cade & Joey.
The teacher could not keep Kaleb & Cade straight so she named them "Thing 1" & "Thing 2." It is such a delight to watch him thrive at school. Our little social butterfly. All the teachers at the school work with Matt, so they laugh about how much Kaleb acts like his dad.

Ahhhh... Aden.

Aden has been mommie's little home-body lately. I love that he & I can hunker down during the week & just enjoy our home. He is not too cooperative with the camera, he is not big on cooperation in general, actually! But, I did manage a few pics to capture his spunky & stubborn personality.

Collin's Funny Faces

These are just a few of the silly things Collin has been up to lately. The change from baby to boy is becoming more and more evident each day. He is our last child so I am trying to cherish every bit of it. He also learned a new word yesterday, "sick," he uses it to say yucky or gross. As you can imagine, this new vocabulary word comes in handy a lot in our house full of boys!

Thanksgiving 2008
Pretty much like herding cats, enough said.

Holiday Stress

I am so bugged out this time of year. I cannot seem to shake the stress of making it all come together in a string of "Hallmark moments." It never happens that way, which is always okay, so why am I addicted to the chaos of Christmas? I actually have all my Christmas cards (yes, I still do those) assembled, addressed, & adorned with appropriate postage! It is not even Thanksgiving! Look at my sweet boys, all they can think of is "when will the 1st snow come ?", "can I eat the marshmellows and just skip the sweet potatoes ?", or "hey Mom!, I found the hacksaw for cutting down the tree this year!" So I guess this post was a point of release for some of this unwanted tension in my life right now. Peace on Earth...or at least in the hearts of my little men.

Play Date

Matt & Jayson & some serious yardwork.



Raking leaves, well...posing for mom so she doesn't make you rake leaves!




Collin, indoors, basking in the autumn sunlight.
He knows he looks good.