Parent Profiles

It's been a long time in the making..and thinking...and putting together. BUT, now it's official! We have another profile, another way to be contacted, another avenue we are putting our hope into. We are LIVE on Parent Profiles.com!

Here's the link if you'd like to visit, but by all means, SHARE IT! Help us spread the word that we are looking to adopt another miracle into our hearts and home!

Our Parent Profiles Profile!

http://www.parentprofiles.com/profiles/db29885.html

Eagle Scouting

Supporting Family

Supporting our family and having their support is very important to us. We went together over to California to Joyce's sisters house to support her son, J while he received his Eagle Scout Award. J is the oldest of our nieces and nephews. He worked really hard to earn this award before he turned 18.

Joyce, Daisey, Grandma G, and nephew.

We helped get the refreshments ready, and chairs set up. Watching the nephews (there were four of them) and keeping Daisey out of trouble gave us all plenty to do. Doug was asked to read the Eagle Scout charge for J.

Doug reading the Eagle Scout Charge

Shortly after that, it was time to give J his Eagle Scout award. It was such a great experience to be a part of.

Nephew J pinning his Mother's pin on his mom.

J's Mom and Dad celebrating with a smile!

Daisey's favorite part was all the cousins to play with! She loves to make-up games, and imagine all sorts of things with her cousins. They had a great time and played really good together.

Daisey and cousin.

Even though we're a state away, our family is important to us! We love getting together to support each other in the triumphs and happenings in each family. We count ourselves truly blessed to have such a large, loving, and supporting family!

~Doug and Joyce

The Zoo

The Zoo

We decided to head to the zoo, so we took a few friends with us. It was great to be outside in the fresh air and spending time with family and friends. The kids like to see all the animals and the adults like to let them run!

Doug helped the kids look at the turtles in the pond.

Lil'miss L, Daisey, and Lil'mr K looking at the prairie dogs in the zoo. They were eating lettuce and other vegetables and making all sorts of noise!

Daisey  had a great time watching the Giraffes.

Lil'Mr. K, and his sister Lil' Miss L. 

They loved each other, and looking 

at the  animals! 

The kids had such a great time looking at all the animals! We brought a picnic lunch and sat to eat by the Giraffes. We walked around to see all the animals. The Lions and Tigers were out laying in the sun and the Otters were busy playing in their little pond. It was a great day with each other and we were glad to have been able to bring some good friends along too!

~Doug, Joyce, and Daisey

ZooLights

ZooLights!

We got a pass to the Zoo this year, and after Thanksgiving they put animal lights up around the zoo! We thought we'd try it out. It turned out to be a lot of fun! There were all sorts of animals. It was cold, so we got some hot chocolate!

 

Daisey got all bundled up and 

ready to go look at the lights!

 The Giraffe lights were Joyce's favorite! The Momma moved down to touch the baby's head. It was sweet!

 This was a true Arizona display!

 Wild Pigs, or Javelina! 

It was fun to see all the things

 they put into lights!

 Daisey loved the peacocks!
All the colors were so bright.

These blue lights were wrapped 

around Saguaro cacti! Joyce thought it 

was pretty cool, and risky!

We always have a good time together as a family, but this was one of our favorites. It's certainly something that we'll be doing again. As we walked around, there was Christmas music playing, and cheer in the air. Nothing better to get us in the Christmas mood. 

~ Doug, Joyce, and Daisey

Decorating the Tree

The Tree

Our Christmas Tree has a small story. We bought it our first year married. So it's getting kinda old, we've been married 11 years in June. At first, we disagreed with the color that the lights should be. I wanted white ones, Doug wanted colored. I thought colored was kind of childish, and I have to admit, it wasn't my favorite until Daisey came along. Once she came along it seemed to fit. Then we started adding her "kid" ornaments on it. That even made it better.

Decorating the tree has always been something that we've done together. It hasn't always been Doug's favorite thing about the holidays...putting ornaments on the tree. But for me, it kicks off the season. We get an ornament at every place we go, every vacation, every new adventure. So we have quite a few. Some from the Space Center in Houston when we went on vacation to my sisters house 7 or 8 years ago. Quite a few ornaments are from Disneyland or DisneyWorld. We've been there quite a few times. One ornament is from the Grand Canyon, which was Daisey's first time staying at a hotel. There are so many memories and they all get to be put on our Christmas Tree.

Daisey putting on her very first ornament, from 2010. "Baby's first Christmas"

Doug and Daisey decorating the tree

Doug putting on the Star, the last touch.

 The star always goes on last, and Doug has to do it. I'm just not tall enough! Those few inches in height difference really make it easier for him to get it up there.

Nothing sets off the Christmas Season better than Christmas jammies and a decorated Christmas Tree. Unfortunately, there are quite a few strands of lights on our pre-lit tree that have gone out. I'm sure by the time we take it down there will be more lights out. I guess we need to start thinking about getting another tree.. I think this one will be colored lights too. Our Family Tree needs to be as colorful as our Family is.

Always,

Doug and Joyce

The Phoenix Zoo

What a Zoo!

So after Thanksgiving we decided to go to the Zoo. We had bought a year pass and were able to get in the cousins for free, so we thought it would be a good thing to get the kids out of the house and out to see something new. They had a blast running from animal to animal and wondering what they were going to see next.

Joyce's Sisters Family looking for the turtles

First stop, the turtles and snakes! 

Some of them were hard for the kids to see. Thank heavens for benches!

The littlest checking out the Gophers!

Doug and Daisey looking for the Wolves

Daisey and her cousins trying to find the Bobcat

Daisey is always concerned with where we're headed. So naturally, she had to check out the map with Daddy!

Joyce, Daisey and the oldest cousin checking out the giraffes from the Safari hut!

Joyce and Daisey in the monkey experience.

We didn't get to see the whole zoo, it's a big one! But we had a great time and got to see some tiny monkeys up close inside the enclosure. Best of all we spent time together with our family and Daisey got to make memories with her cousins. Family is such an important part of our journey here on earth. We're glad to have been together! Until next time at the Zoo!

Love Always,

Doug and Joyce

Thankgiving

Thank-ful Time!

This year Thanksgiving was going to be spent in town. There were no plans to travel, it was a good thing too, because both Doug and I were suffering from a silly cold! We had planned on Doug's parents coming to town, and because they were sick, they cancelled too. Not that we blame them! No fun to get on an airplane while you're sick! So, it ended up that we had all the fixins' for dinner, but just us three to share it with. Not to mention the 11lb prime rib roast that Joyce bought accidentally way too large!

Naturally, we called Joyce's sister that lives in Cali and they decided to come over with three of their four boys. So we ended up with a full house once again! It was fun. We put down air mattresses, set up the pack-n-play for the baby, and let the wildness begin!

 

 

Daisey and her two cousins playing outside!

 The kids loved to play outside and Daisey enjoyed being able to play with other kids. While they were playing outside, or inside, or anywhere, our brother-in-law took a nap.

While he napped and the kids played games, Joyce and her sister were in the kitchen getting Thanksgiving dinner ready.

Of course, while things were cooking, there was plenty of time to snack and read a good book. (Joyce was usually behind the camera, but really, she ate and snacked most of the day!)

Joyce's sister reading a good book.. her family loves to read!

Dinner was ready, and we had great food. Turkey and Prime Rib, it was a feast for just about everyone! The only thing that would have made it better was if the rest of Joyce's family would have been closer to come and enjoy it too.

This year we had a lot to be thankful for. First and foremost is always our daughter, Daisey. She came into our lives so tiny, and ready to be loved, and she's had us wrapped around her little fingers ever since. She's the joy in our lives. Doug completed his first year as a Resident and was halfway through his second year. He had gotten into a groove and was loving being a Doctor. Joyce was able to go to school and start on her Associates Degree from BYU Idaho and was close to finishing her first preliminary year. It was a good year, and there were a lot of things to be thankful for. Our health, our family, and of course the chance at a bright future!

All our love,

Doug and Joyce

Daddy daughter day

A few Saturdays ago, I had the day off and so Daisey and I decided to have a daddy daughter date the whole day.  I love to go fishing and camping and Daisey and I haven't been to the mountains with just us so we packed up early Saturday and went fishing. (Joyce was able to have some much deserved alone time). We woke up at about 6am, grabbed our hats for our bed hair, packed hot dogs and got on the road.  We of course, had to stop at Dunkin' Donuts for some breakfast.  After about a two hour drive and a lot of Disney Princess songs we arrived up on the Mogollon Rim. There is about 6 lakes in about a 15 mile radius. We started out at Willow springs lake, since it was our first time here, it took us a little minute to find the right spot. After parking we had to walk about a 100 yards down to the lake through the thick tall pines.  It felt so good to be in the cool mountain air.  Daisey and I had brought snacks, our chairs, and most importantly our fishing poles (hers is a Princess Aurora pole).  She insisted on carrying her own little chair which she did all the way to the lake.  She picked out her pink power bait and we tossed her line in.

 She doesnt like to just let her line sit she reeled it in and re-casted multiple times.  She is getting pretty good and can cast quite far.  She was able to see her first crawdad and wasn't too sure about it at first. However, after a minute she thought it was fun to watch. Around 11:00 we packed up and moved to Bear Canyon lake.

Around noon we found an empty campground and were able to get a fire going and we roasted hot dogs on sticks.  In my typical fashion I had forgotten the ketchup so we only had mustard on our hot dogs but they tasted great anyways.  It was 63 degrees when we sat down to have lunch and Daisey was cold so she had to have her jacket on. After lunch we went for a short hike and we were able to see some squirrels playing and we loved watching these little creatures running around.   


We started home around 3:00pm after some fishing at Bear Canyon lake (we mostly threw rocks more than fished).  Daisey of course was wore out after starting the day so early and fell asleep on our way home.  We had a great day in the cool air and pines. 


What a great Daddy-Daughter time. We sure enjoyed it!
--Doug

Mowing the Lawn

You'd never guess who Daisey's favorite person is... Her Daddy! It doesn't matter what he's doing, she wants to be involved. This time, it's mowing the lawn on a very very warm Saturday morning, in her nightgown none-the-less! She might not be doing anything but holding on, but she's having a blast.

Daisey wanted to push the lawn mower herself, but she's just not big enough yet. So she's waiting for the day that she can learn to mow the lawn on her own, about 10 years from now!

They're never better that when they're together. A Dad and his Daughter.