National Anthem Performance

Michelle was honored to sing the national anthem at the Arizona Diamondbacks' Spring Training opener this year. Below is a video taken behind the scenes before her performance.

Click here to see Michelle's National Anthem performance.

Aviston is ONE YEAR OLD!

RECAP: The 2008 Holidays

Halloween
This year Matthew was Wayne from Wayne's World and Michelle was an 80's rock star--yes, both very homemade costumes. Genevive and Donevan were the yellow and blue Power Rangers and for Aviston's first Halloween, he was a monkey. Mommy was such a genius that she forgot to make sure his costume fit, so after weeks of letting it sit in the closet, she didn't find out until Halloween night that his costume was a bunting costume, meaning there are no legs.

Fortunately we live in Arizona where October nights are not yet chilly so Michelle improvised and cut out some legs for Aviston's monkey costume as you can see in the photo below.














Thanksgiving
This was our second year hosting Thanksgiving at our house. Michelle's mom, sister and her sister's boyfriend came to visit from Maryland. The kids loved every second of it. Matthew's mom and stepdad came to join in on the festivities.

The credits of this photo are due to Matthew's tripod (of which he is SO proud). The wall in the background says "Family a journey to forever." Truer words were never spoken...


Christmas
Thanks to Matthew, this year we had Christmas lights! There was a bit of a struggle with the lights but everything worked out in the end. This was the first year we picked out a live Christmas tree together. (It was also the first year we bought a fake tree together thanks to Sears' Heroes at Home program.)

Everyone was really happy with their presents. Matthew was pleasantly surprised with his Big Ben puzzle that was made from a photo he took himself while we were there in 2007. Genevive spent the holidays in Texas so when she came back, it was a very happy reunion.

Aviston Turns One!!
MOVING. Aviston is crawling around like a pro. He's not quite walking yet but he's all about the cruising around across the couch.

EATING. Now that he has two teeth, he enjoys feeding himself gourmet food like cheetos and shrimp chips, haha.

SLEEPING. His older brother and sister sing him to bed each night--"Good night, sweetheart, well it's time to go..." Maybe that's why he's been sleeping through the night for six months now.

Aviston has definitely come along way from his days spent in the NICU at St. Joseph's. Dubbed "Mr. Smiley" by Grandpa Chuck, this baby lives up to his name. Everyone who meets Aviston says "he's such a good baby," and he has yet to prove them wrong! Happy Birthday, Shton Shton!