Bing, Bang, PoW! Our house is Snazzy!

Let me preface this story for you: The exterior (front) of our house was U-G-L-Y. Like, to the point I refused to even go look at it when we were house hunting. Tyler had to convince me, a.k.a. butter me up by raving about the quartz countertops that were recently installed. The quickest way to my heart is via stone countertops or Mexican food. Tomato/TomAto. So... flash forward to a year later and we live here with a 9 month old. The interior of our home is nice and pretty :) but the exterior still looks like a vacant-but-sadly-it's-not-vacant-ugly-duckling house. Well, we and by we, I mean 60% Tyler, 30% my Dad, and 10% me, tore out SEVENTEEN TONS of the ugly gravel, added SEVEN TONS of dirt to build mounds and create some depth, then SEVENTEEN new TONS of new rock in a *prettier* color. Thank you Tyler and Travis. Then we installed a flag-stone walkway so we look more inviting and less like the people that live in the vacant-ugly-duckling house, pretty plants, a tree and some solar lights. And, since Tyler has a pipe-dream that someday we will be boat owners, we added a drive path of 1/4 minus gravel in a contrasting color flanked by natural stone pavers leading up to our RV gate. To top it all off, we saved $2500 by doing it ourselves. And that's what I call BING, BANG, POW! :) ***Thank you SO SO SO much to our family and friends for helping us. My Dad and Travis shoveled their hearts out, Josh helped us lay the stone walkway, my Mom can install plants like nobodies business and Monica and Barry watched Cruz so we could actually get this accomplished! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! Here is the BEFORE/LAME/UGH! picture:

....drumroll, please....

Easter

Yes, I am posting about Easter and that was abooouuuuuuut 2 months ago. Sorry. It has been BUSY, BUSY, BUSY! We spent Easter at my parent's house along with about 30+ other family members. I grew up celebrating major holidays with our big family and I absolutely LOVE it. Everyone is loud and opinionated talkative and it's chaotic and enough crumbs on the hardwood floors to feed an army by the time everyone is gone...but it's us and it's perfect!!! Cruz had fun playing in his new exersaucer. Thanks Grandpa and Grandma Wagner/Karen...? I still need to figure out a "grandma" name for my mom. :) I'm really excited for next year because Cruz will get to hunt for Easter eggs, and eggs mean more chocolate for Momma! Here are some pictures from Cruz's first Easter!

Guilty!!!

I can't believe I haven't made a post in over three months! Yikes. I told Tyler he needed to step it up and help me blog, but he's busy... watching basketball. Yep.

Okay, where do I begin?
Cruz is 8 1/2 months old. He is a cHuNk! He eats ever-y-thiiinnnng! He loves all fruits and veggies. Thank G because I don't eat anything that grows in the ground. Just kidding! Kind of. He isn't crawling yet, although last night he was scooting backwards. I don't think he's lazy, I think he's comfy. ;)
He's had six haircuts now?? More than me, that's for sure.
He laughs and grunts and sqweels all day/night long!!!

Tyler and I just celebrated our three year wedding anniversary and our nine year "dating" anniversary - yes, I'm a girl and every anniversary counts! ;)
We spent this past weekend at Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs resort in North Phoenix and I am their new spokeswomen. It's a resort built into what used to be a rock quary... the rooms are nice, there are multiple pools and waterfalls, bars, amazing food and views for a very reasonable price. We didn't take a single picture. But, just picture us poolside with a couple cocktails and a barely-there tan. :) I am hoping Tyler got my not-so-discrete hint today when I said "I want another weekend at Tapatio Cliffs for my birthday."

Twenty bucks says two days before my bday, he asks me what I want.
Ha! I always tease the guy, but he is an amazing father to C and a great partner to me. We have fun!
I promise to take some pictures this Easter weekend and I will post for you all soon.

Holiday time!

This has been quite the eventful week! We visited the Mormon Temple in Mesa to see the lights. It was C.O.L.D. We searched everywhere for hot chocolate, which was no where to be found. Then I decided I need to invent some sort of hot ice cream, for nights like this.




We spent the next day in the sun at the Zoo! How cute are these boys??!


Oh! I'll get back to you on that hot ice cream idea.

Cruz's FIRST Christmas!

We had three Christmases (is that a word?) this year! At five months old, Cruz had no idea what was going on, but he sure liked the attention and the Christmas tree lights. :) Everytime he had a cry-fest I would stick him in front of the tree. Bam! Smiles.

Here are some pictures of Cruz at his first Christmas celebration.
The Bolt/Critelli Christmas!





Here are some pictures of Cruz on Christmas morning at our house. :)

Cruz with his Grandpa Kasowski!









Annnnddd...last but certainly not least, Christmas at the Wagner house!

Here is Cruz talking to his Cousin Kevin via Skype - Kevin is in the Navy, and stationed in Guam. We missed him!


Taylor showing Cruz the new train set.


Cruz's new wheels!! :) Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for the sweet ride.






We had so much fun spending time with our family this Holiday. Thank you to everyone for spoiling our little boy!!!

Family Pictures - December 2011

Taylor photographed these BEAUTIFUL pictures for us!

I love this collage below. I plan to do something cool with it in our house. The image on the left was taken when I was 6 months pregnant...and the one on the right with Cruz "filling his shoes."



Yep, we're nerds.




I snapped this picture in front of our Christmas tree. Then I died. Seriously, how cute is he???!




Thank you, Taylor! :)

First(s)

Grandma Bolt helped give Cruz his first hair cut. This kid has a lot of hair, and it grows FAST! Grandma had a cast on her hand from her recent surgery, so she helped show me where and how to cut. Grandpa helped hold our wiggly-man down, and Daddy took pictures. :) The mo'hawk is back. Yayyy!






This was Cruz's first time eating cereal. As you can tell, he was, ehrm...IS not a fan. We're still working on it. We tried feeding it to him with a spoon, through a bottle, and different textures but he HATES cereal. Our daycare providers, "Grammy and Grampy" said he might not be ready. They suggested that we don't push it. I think next we'll try an oatmeal based cereal, instead of rice. Until then, wish us luck and lets all pray that potty training is much easier. ;) Ha!