Friends

In about 3 months Josh will graduate and we will move onto a new phase of our life.  Im excited, yet very nervous!  I can't believe how fast these 4 years of dental school have gone by.  Last night I was looking back at pictures from our time here at USC.  Its hard to believe that Zoie was only 14 months old when we moved out here!  We have made a lot of memories and im sure that looking back, these will be some of our best years!

We have made so many great friends over the years and it has been hard seeing a lot of them move.  A few weeks before Christmas we were able to get together and have a little reunion with some of our friends that have moved away.  It was so fun to see everyone and it made me miss them so much!  Unfortunately a lot of people had already left for the Christmas break or have moved outside of California, but it was great to see those who could make it!

Allison's father in law was nice enough to take pictures for all of us so we could remember this fun night!

Our attempt at a family photo.  Poor Zack.....he was so clingy and tired that night.  I didn't know what was wrong and then I found out the next day that he had an ear infection.  Poor guy.

All of the crazy kids!  It was impossible to get a picture with all of them looking.

Top: Emily Christensen, Ashley Nielsen, Allison Cirac, Lauren Jensen, Me

Front: Lindsay Poelman, Kim Townsend

birds.

Zack was feeding the birds at the beach.  Luckily my friends Lauren had her camera out and captured the moment.

Warming up after her surf session.

One of my goals for 2012 is to really love all of the little things in my life.  Sometimes I get so caught up on what is going on around me that I forget that the most important things in my life are my kids and husband.  We have a lot of fun together.....and that is really all that matters!

School is winding down for Josh so he is able to be home a lot more.  We are really enjoying this.  He has worked so hard for the past 3.5 years to finally be able to relax a little.  Last semester was crazy.  After a 5 week externship down in San Diego he decided to study hard for a month and take the National Boards test before the holidays.  He studied hard, and before we drove home for Thanksgiving we found out that he passed!  We were so excited!  One more test and we can officially call him Dr. Adcox.  He has accepted a job in Malibu, so it looks like we will be staying in California longer that we thought!  We are excited for this new and exciting phase in our life to begin!

Zoie is now 4.5 and full of sass!  She has become my little helper.  She is such a good big sister and is so excited for another little brother.  When she first found out we were having another boy, she was not very happy about it.  Im pretty sure her exact words were "well if its a boy, Im not helping."  Wow.  She has now warmed up to the idea and she is really excited.  Another funny thing about the baby....one day she randomly told me "mom, that baby in your tummy could come out black or it could come out skin colored...we will just have to wait and see!"  Really?  Where does she come up with this stuff?  She goes to school 3 days a week and loves it.   She recently began taking gymnastics and thinks it is awesome.  Its so fun to see her loving something I loved so much.  She looks forward to her next class all week long and asks me everyday if it is gymnastics day.  She also just got a bike and is learning to ride it without training wheels.  She is such a happy little girl and tells me about 5 times a day that she loves me and that I am the best mom in the world!  Love that little girl:)

Zack has earned his name of "Zack Attack."  The kid is crazy.  He is into hitting and spitting and when he knows he is getting in trouble he gives me a big smile and kiss.  He has me wrapped around his little finger.  He still loves to be cuddled and is the sweetest little boy.  He is starting to say more words, but they are words that only a parent would be able to understand.  He loves his big sister "Zo Zo" and gets so sad when she has to leave for school.  

As for myself, I have 101 more days of being pregnant.  How pathetic is it that I know that?  This pregnancy has been anything but magical.  It hasn't been hard, I just think I am totally over being pregnant.  I have no idea how people have 6 or 7 kids.  I've mentioned to Josh several times that we might be done after this one.  I am so excited to meet my little boy, just not super excited for the next 3 months:)  I'm still teaching 3 classes a week at the gym and doing quite a bit of hair at my house.  I'm so grateful I have these 2 things to keep me busy and not thinking too much about my growing midsection!

And since I think all posts should have some pictures, here are a few I have taken over the past couple of weeks......

Beach bon fire.....burning around 100 Christmas trees!

A fun day at Disney!

 Zack Attack found the only puddle in the entire park.

Surfer Girl.

About a year ago Josh took Zoie to get a wetsuit with the hope that she would want to start surfing with him.  She was excited about the wetsuit for about .4 seconds.  She has always had a fear of water and she is just barely getting over it.  Last Monday Josh didn't have school and the weather was beautiful so we went down to Manhattan beach.  To our surprise Zoie asked if she could go surfing!  Josh was so excited!  

Getting all suited up!  She will only let daddy help her.  I guess surfing is "their" thing.... I kinda love that.

All ready to go!  I can't get over how cute she is in that little wetsuit.

Heading out.....

They started out just riding the waves in so she wouldn't get scared.

Teaching her how to stand.....

She did it!  Obviously, with a little help from dad:)

Rose Parade

The night before the Rose Bowl Parade the floats line up on Orange Grove starting around 9pm.  Since Orange Grove is literally one street over from our house we decided to get on our bikes and check out the floats up close before the parade.  I am so glad we did this and am wondering why we have never done it before.  We went to the parade a few years ago and I think I actually enjoyed this more that the actual parade!  Since we will be staying in California, Josh and I are thinking about making this a yearly tradition!

The next day we woke up, grabbed some donuts, and headed towards the end of the parade to see some of the floats.  It was nice not waking up super early to see the parade, but our seats were not what I would call amazing!  We still had fun and considering the fact that my kids lost interest in about 5 minutes, its probably was good we didn't sacrifice too much sleep for good seats!

Zoie's set up....she could hardly see but she thought it was awesome!

6 years.

On December 30th Josh and I celebrated 6 years of marriage.  We celebrated by going to dinner at one of our new favorite restaurants, Bottega Louie, and saw Sherlock Holmes.  I might have had an anxiety attack while sitting in the toasty theater.  Poor Josh just sat and laughed at me as I took off my earrings, jacket, boots and socks.  Pregnancy does weird things to me!  It has been a great 6 years and I can't wait to see what the coming years will bring for us!

fun at the cabin!

christmas

Christmas gets better and better every year!  When the kids woke up the first thing Zoie said was "how many of my cookies did Santa eat?"  She insisted on making sure Santa ate her cookies and that the reindeer ate their food before she checked out what she got!  It was pretty cute.  The kids were pretty excited when they ran into the room and saw their new gifts.  Zack got some tonka trucks and Zoie got the minnie shopping cart she has been wanting for months now.  We let the kids play for a while and then we got them ready for church.  We met up with my entire family at my sisters ward and enjoyed Sacrament meeting together.  After church we headed back to my parents house to open their gifts.  This year my mom made each of the grandkids and each of the couples a quilt.  Each one took her about 4 hours and she made 18!  The kids (and the adults) love their new cozy blankets!  In Zoie's exact words....."It was the best Christmas ever!"

 Got to love the finger up the nose!  Every picture looked like this.  

 After church.  Zack was sooo tired!

Christmas Eve.....

Christmas Eve was great this year!  We spent it with my family enjoying our traditional dinner of waffles topped with homemade syrup and strawberries.  It was fun seeing how excited all of the kids were for Santa to come.  Zoie was begging to go to bed!  

Not the best picture.....but the only family picture I got on Christmas Eve:)

Grandma and Papa with most of the grandkids

Putting food out for Santa's reindeers!

Adcox Christmas

On the Tuesday before Christmas we went up to Taylor to celebrate an early Christmas with Josh's family. We were able to get in all of their family traditions, even though it wasn't really Christmas.  We had pizza for Christmas eve dinner followed by a little Christmas program.  The next morning we woke up and opened presents while eating Josh's favorite orange rolls!

These were my attempts to get a cute picture of my kids on Christmas morning.  I actually love them.  Zack always has his finger up his nose and Zoie is always in her own little world.  I sure do love these 2 crazy kids of mine.