IT'S A GIRL

Well, the ultra sound says the baby is a girl and so does my morning sickness :) We are posting this blog in order to collect name suggestions for a girl. Comment your name suggestions please! I'll update this with an ultrasound picture later.
Jess

Veteran's Day Parade

Our family and the Stayer kids went to the Veteran's Day Parade in Phoenix. Ali thought the entire "party" was for her dad. It was very cute. She still refers to it as daddy's party even when we explain there are many many more Veterans than just daddy. We had a lot of fun and it was a teary time for me (Jess).

Here are some pictures and there are more to come of some of the groups that support Veterans or some groups of Veteran's themselves.

This was a life sized ball that a woman was running on the inside of.
The kids really enjoyed this one.

This is Uncle Sam and I'm sure he wasn't shooting himself it just looks that way in the picture. Oops good timing I know.

Ali says, "Oh that airplane is so so cool." This was the first but not the last floating float we saw ever. I was truly amazed that these huge floats just floated. It was way fun and the kids were also equally impressed. The folks holding down this float ended up doing a well choreographed turn (the entire plane spun around in one place) and so that was impressive too.

This was an especially fun float there were lots of clowns and they were handing out flags to all the kiddos. They had lots of old firetrucks at this parade. I've never seen so many different kinds of firetrucks before.

This was the side of one of the firetrucks. I believe this one belonged to the radio station that was helping DJ the Veteran's Parade. It was really touching to see a firetruck with this painted on the side.

The kids went between the curb and this wall behind where we were sitting. They were very cute how they would clap and shout hurray for different floats especially those where there were service men and women in military uniforms because that they recognized.

This float represented the woman nurses who served in war times. It was pretty amazing all they had to say about these woman and the crowds were very excited and appreciative for what these women have done.

This eagle was very impressive. You could see it coming from a ways off and the people handling it were very active so to speak. The eagle moved quite a bit. Dipping and flying.

This brings us to the end of our pictures. We have a ton more of many different groups that were there. The Vietnam Vets were some of the coolest to see because people just cheered and cheered for them. I think everyone knows how they were treated when they came home and I know there is no way to make up for that but people are sure willing to recognize them as heroes now. We are so thankful for the support of all those people and it was so fun to go out there are show our support and thanks to those that don't get thanked enough.

Ali and Nathan wrestling!

Tackled and Pinned!

Pam's girl's night before the wedding

Pam and I at dinnerMy coffee

Jalane, Pam, and Lauren with Pam's cake

All of us

Pam's flowers

Cole's Birthday Party

Cole had a surprise birthday party at our house a few weeks ago! It was so much fun. Mark, Lukas and Jeff all worked hard to make Cole two awesome skateboarding ramps. Here is a picture of some of the kiddos sitting on the hood of Jeff's car with Cole's balloons.Caleb is going to float away!

Cole checking out his new ramps

Cole skating on his new ramps. We are so proud of Cole he is an awesome skateboarder. He is in as many competitions as he can find and he is even sponsored by Pac Sun! Very cool.

The Phoenix Zoo

The Phoenix Zoo



Daddy jumps hopscotch with Caleb on his back.

Ali and Micah pose by the fish pond.

Caleb in a big boy bed

Sloppy food is just cute

Berta

This blog goes out to Berta. If anyone happens to know who I am talking about and cares about her and has her contact information then please contact her and encourage her to join facebook. Yes this is a conspiracy. Thank you. Feel free to comment to this post when you have emailed, called, texted, or sent her a heartfelt letter telling her how much you wish she had facebook. If you happen to know Berta but do not have a facebook then maybe you too should join facebook and then invite her to be your friend.

Sea World pics

Randomness

Well, lots has happened in the past month and a half and I've been awful at updating since Mark started our facebook. So I'm going to put a fun smattering of pictures on here. We've done many things and been from Florida to AL to TX and home again and now Mark is in PA. Craziness really. We thrive on this sort of stuff :) FUN TIMES!