No more blogs............

Hello everybody! Unfortunately, we have decided to do away with the blogspot for now. Life has gotten way too busy and crazy for us to keep up with it. I am sorry to those of you that checked in on a regular basis to see what was going on in our lives.

A quick update.....Everybody is doing well and growing fast and furious. Ashley will be 10 mos old on the 30th and growing like a weed! She got tubes put in her ears last month and has being doing so much better since. In fact, she started crawling several weeks ago after the surgery and shortly after started to attempt walking. She walks really well with a push toy and cruises around everywhere. She is a very curious baby and she follows Cody all around the house, which drives him absolutely nuts....she just loves her big brother! Her little personality is really starting to come out and she is just oh so cute!

Cody is also doing well and learning so many things, we are so proud of him! He is excelling in preschool/daycare and loves it!! I really like his teachers and the daycare/school that he goes too. He has made lots of friends and is very into books these days. Of course he is ALL boy and loves being outside as well and getting dirty in the dirt with his trucks, cars and tractors. He is getting tall and growing oh so fast!! He is such a cute kid with a heart of gold!

Kenny and I are also doing well, but very tired. We are both working our full-time jobs, working on our recycling business and also working weekends at the kids' daycare/school to make ends meet. It is very tiresome and alot of work, but that is what we have to do for the time being. Between all of the work, the kids and house chores, I just don't have time to keep up with the blog anymore. I try to sit down and do posts all of the time, but I just have way too many interruptions to get one completed and posted. We are doing well though and when things slow down, I plan on doing the blogspot again........so stay tuned!

Hopefully, the Stimson family blog will be back soon! Take care and God bless everybody!

Love,
Mel, Kenny, Cody & Ashley

ps - Jordan, I do have pictures of Ashley in the hat that you made for her and she looks beautiful! I promise that I will get those sent to you someday soon. I am sorry that I haven't been able to do it sooner. Thanks for making it and sending it to her, it means alot to us and it really is gorgeous!

Polar Express

We took Cody, Ashley and my little brother and sister on the Polar Express train ride this year for Christmas. It was really alot of fun! Cody loved it since The Polar Express is one of his favorite movies. We sang Christmas carols, drank hot chocolate, listened to the Polar Express story and saw Santa Claus.

Here is Ashley and Kenny enjoying the train ride.

Cody was so excited!

Here he is waving good-bye to all of the onlookers as we left the train station in route to the "North Pole".

Finally, we got to see Santa and Cody got a bell from him. It was really awesome to see how excited Cody was!

Our BIG snow

Right before Christmas, we got hit by a big storm that dumped about 2 feet of snow. Cody was outside with Kenny shoveling the driveway and absolutely loved playing in the snow!

The snow pile was deeper than he was tall, but he had no fear! Ha..ha.

Brrrrr.........looks cold to me!!

Ashley is 7 months Old

This was our little Ashley when she was 7 months old. We got her ears pierced and she looks oh so cute! She was such a little trooper too! I tried to get a picture with the earrings in the shot, but that was a little tough. You can see one ear if you look closely and that was about the best that I could get without taking a full shot of her head from the side.

The Stimson Kids & Their Hats.....And Ashley is 6 months

Okay, so life has been extremely busy for us and I am now running about 3 months behind on our blog. Sorry to those of you that keep checking for updated pictures. I finally had a few minutes to try to post some new pictures, so here ya go. This picture is of Cody posing with his hand crafted hat made by him and Dad. He was so proud of this hat. Isn't it a great picture?!? I love it!!! And of course Ashley below was sporting her new pink 'Gap' hat that I had been waiting and waiting for it to fit. Oh, and this is a picture of Ashley at 6 months.

Halloween 2008

Cody and his cousins, Mya & Tyler trick-or-treating at "Trick-or-Treat on Main Street", which the County and businesses host every Halloween.

(Cody is the middle one - a dalmation from 101 Dalmations)

And here is Ashley, our little Chili Pepper.

And our little Dalmation again.

Cody got to be a Dalmation and a Firefighter for Halloween because his Daycare/school only allowed a "career" costume. Luckily we had a "career" costume in the closet that was handed down from my little brother Joe.

Pumpkin Carving

So.....you want me to do what with all of those seeds and guts????

I thought that all kids loved to get all dirty, but Cody wanted nothing to do with the guts of the pumpkin that we were carving. Just look at the expression on his face.....he would touch the inside of the pumpkin and freak out that it was on his hand - too funny!

We finally got him to scrape the inside of the pumpkin with a spoon, but no way with his hands.

Oooohhhhh, that yucky, sticky stuff again!

What a proud boy with his finished product!

Ashley is 5 months old!!

Since I am still trying to catch up with making posts, this picture is once again about a month late. This was a picture of Ashley when she turned 5 months old, which was Oct. 30. She is now 6 months old and hopefully it won't take me another month to post that one too.

She started to stick out her tongue when anybody talked to her and it was so cute!! I finally caught a few pictures of her doing it.
What a ham she is! It looks as if she is thinking, "Aren't I just the cutest thing?!?!"

Talladega Nascar Race!!!

Me, Kenny, Kenny's boss and his wife all went to the Talladega Nascar race back in October. We all had a blast and it was an experience that we will never forget!! So many people, such loud cars, wreck after wreck, and a million and one rednecks. Talladega, Alabama is a very small city except for twice a year when the nascar race is there and then it is one of the most populated cities in the country.
Kenny and his new friend....Crown Royal. Kenny's boss bought us pit passes and VIP passes to go see the pits and party with the die hards. It was so much fun!!

We had scanners to listen to during the race to hear the conversations between the drivers and their pit crews. It was definitely interesting to hear what goes on behind the scenes!

This is the angle of the track at the flat strait away part of the track. Can you imagine what the corners look like if this is the flattest part of the track?!?!

More Pictures of Talladega.........

Cars and crews in the pits getting ready for the big race.

Cody was so excited that mom & dad got to see 'Doc' from the movie Carz. They had the original Hudson Hornet at the raceway. He ran a lap around the track before the race, running 141 mph. He was way cool!!

Kenny used to be a die hard Napa fan, but decided to also root for the Crown Royal car. Here he is posing next to the toolbox down at the pits.

Of course here is the old Napa car that we got to see upclose and personal. The Napa reprsentative showed us all of the cool modifications that they do the racecars and why.

Me and Kenny after the truck races on Saturday before the big race.

Ashley's First Solids

Ashley had her first solids a few weeks ago. She ate sweet potatoes and absolutely LOVED them!

Fun on Wheels.....Yee-Hawwwww!!!!

Boys & their toys!! Sometimes you are never too old for a trike. ha,ha. Cody wanted mom and dad to play on his bikes with him, so I volunteered Kenny to ride the trike. Of course he had to teach Cody how to ride wheelies.

(Kenny, sorry for the blackmail picture...ha,ha)

Cody and Kenny playing............


and Cody and Ashley playing on Cody's Jeep.

Ashley is 4 months old!!!

Time is going by so fast and I can't believe how fast Ashley is growing! I decided that I was going to try to take a picture of her at each month mark and this is the first one that I took at four mos. old. She is actually going to be five mos. old on Oct. 30th, but since it has taken me so long to post some pictures, I am a little behind. There will be another one at five mos. coming soon, so stayed tuned and be patient because it seems that I always run out of time during the day to get things done.

NM State Fair

So we were thinking of sending in this picture of Cody to Oscar Meyer for their next corn dog ad, what do you think????? Anyway, this was our visit to the NM State Fair last month. Cody had a ball even though he was too short to ride on most of the kiddie rides....poor guy is going to be short like his parents.

Diaper Cake

So anybody that knows me, knows that I am not too much of the creative type. However, I went to my cousin's baby shower a few weeks ago and decided that I wanted to try something new, so I took a chance and made a diaper cake. I was so proud of my hard work that I had to take a picture and here it is. I then decided that I was going to go into the diaper cake making business since they are so expensive to buy. Well, that idea lasted for about a day and I haven't made one since. Ha....ha.....ha......

Ashley & Cody

Ashley has curly hair when it is wet and here is a picture to prove it. However, it goes more straight when it is dry. I hope that she keeps the curls as it grows.

This is Cody and his new doggy that a friend of mine from work gave him. He loves to ride him around all over the house.

Ashley's giggles

Sorry that the picture is so dark, but Kenny got Ashley giggling like crazy and it was so cute. Take a peek and see (or should I say hear) how cute she is.

Cody singing

This is Cody auditioning for American Idol, singing 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." ha...ha...ha

An outting to the Albuquerque Zoo & Aquarium

Last weekend we took the kids & my little sister, Andie to the zoo and aquarium. We had a great time watching Cody get so excited to see all of the animals.
Here is Ashley cruisin' in the stroller.
Andie, Cody and me posing for a shot.
Cody & Andie on the train ride. Cody loves Thomas the train, so he was so excited to ride the choo choo train even though it wasn't all that exciting.