Aleks glasses

Alek brought a note home from the school nurse one day saying that he had not passed the general eye exam that they do at school. I was a little surprised because he had never complained about not seeing. We made an appointment with our family eye doc and sure enough he is nearsighted (Takes after his dad) and needed glasses. He was unhappy about it at first, and afraid he would look like a nerd, but once he realized he could see a lot better he wasn't so unhappy. We are happy about it because we have now found the secret source to some of his grumpy moods. Hey, it's hard to be happy when you can't see the tv clearly right! Now he has a little girl at school chasing him so he doesn't think the glasses are so bad after all....I think he is so cute in them that I had to put up a picture for you to all see.

Our Very Quick Year in Review

Ok, so here is our really quick year in review....We moved here to AZ at the begining of the year as you all know. It's been an interesting and sometimes difficult change. Took some time to get used to. Of all the places we thought we would end up this was not even on the list. We survived our first summer. 114 degrees and we never even went to utah once this summer.
Ethan was baptized in July and lots of family came to visit. I have learned to navigate the curbs of the Delta terminal at Sky Harbor and how to loop back around the airport when I miss them thanks to all of my flying family. Alek, Ethan, and Emily started school. So much fun to have three kids in school! Alek got his first pair of glasses and Emily lost her first tooth.
We got to have Halloween in shorts and t-shirts. That was interesting but lots of fun! The kids got hot trick or treating in the costumes we had left over from cooler climates. Still had warm weather at Thanksgiving but cooled down for Christmas. Yah! We even got rain. Loved the rain...hated our yucky muddy unfinished back yard. We missed everyone in Utah but glad we didn't come to share in the snow. Maybe next year...and our favorite piece of news is of course finding our surprise of adding another baby to the family! Due in Feb'ish. That gets complicated but we will keep everyone posted. So that is our VERY Quick year in review. I promise to keep up from now on so that you all don't have to have the condensed version again next year. We love you all. Happy New Year!

Tagged

My sister-in-law Kim tagged me so I will give this a shot...
Here are the rules:
Link the person who tagged you.
Mention rules on your blog.
Tell about 6 quirks of yours.
Tag 6 fellow bloggers to do the same.
Leave a comment to let them know.

1. Garbage bags without ties on them. I never buy garbage bags with out the drawstrings and I hate when they don't get tied up before they go into the outside garbage can. I don't know why but I hate even the thought of garbage free in the can!

2. Shoes on the bed...and worse on the sheets. I hate when anyone sits on the bed with their shoes on and I hate even more when the kids don't make their beds and then do it. Do you know where the bottoms of your shoes have been? Think about it...

3. If anything is going to go wrong with the car it will be for me. Our cars (especially Erik's car) love to play tricks on me. If the gas runs out as soon as the light goes on it is for me, if the tire is flat, me, if the battery is dead, or it just won't start, yup you guessed it ME!

4. Pillows on the floor. Ok, so maybe I have a bed thing. I try to keep separate pillows for the family to use on the floor and I never use them. The kids love to drag their pillows out to the trampoline. Oh the horror of that one!

5. I am a Lost, Heroes, and secret Greys Anatomy fan. I have been known to plan simple meals for the family on these nights on purpose and always make sure the DVR is set just in case. I save the ice cream or other dessert for these nights so come on over and join....you know you want to!

6. Rain! I love rain. Not constant forever and ever rain. I like sunny days too. Most people get depressed when they have two many, rainy, cloudy or snowy days in a row. I struggle when there are to many sunny days in a row and we moved to Phoenix! Yikes...

Ok, there you go! I tag Shanda, Bethany, Charlene, Britta, and Amanda. Your it!

Broken Toes

Emily dropped the wooden kitchen bench on her foot last week. After bandaging it up we figured that she would be fine in the morning so we made a big deal of it all and put her to bed. The next morning when I woke her for school she was complaining about it. Boy what a change from the night before. Her big toe and the two next to it where a nice shade of black and purple! The big toe was almost twice its size and was bruised all the way to the top of her foot. To the docs office we went. They did an x-ray and...bad news is that the bone in her large toe was broken, good news, the other two toes where fine and the foot itself was fine. Not much can be done for toes so she has to keep them bandaged and wear a shoe that is just a bottom with Velcro on the top. I was going to include a picture but decided not to for all those with weak constitutions (aka my camera is still broken) It is killing her to not participate in PE and recess but she has made it a point to NEVER sit on the bench the wrong way again!!

Nothing worse...

than a broken camera. We have two. Sorry it will be a while until we get some pictures back on here. One digital camera stopped working and the other seems to be missing the charger since the move. We have two film SLR's but a heap of good they do when you are spoiled and want your pictures now!

The Bull and the Bear

We try to never dumb down our conversations to much just because the kids are around and a while back Erik and I where talking about the stock market falling into the Bear market. Emily was obviously listening as we talked because suddenly she says. Oh no there is a Bear market! Mommy we don't want a bear market, bear markets are bad. I said how did you know that a bear market is bad. She says, its simple bear markets are bad and bull markets are good that's why you want a bull market with all your commodities (which she mispronounced). Shocked we asked her how she knew all this. Easy she says I learned it from that game. It took us a second then realized she meant PIT. Emily's favorite card game, one she often wins at, even with adults.

Mommy I want to be...

We have always encouraged the kids to learn new things or to take lessons in something they are interested in. Emily has decided that she likes ballet because it is pretty but it is to slow and she wants to try something else. We have been trying to get her to tell us what she wants to do without our ideas swaying her to much. I guess she has been thinking about it because she announced that "Mommy, I want to be a snowboarder!"
Emily: Mommy I want to be a snowboarder and take snowboard lessons.
Me: Emily we can't do that we live in Phoenix. It doesn't snow here. Maybe we can think of something else.
Emily: Oh
She leaves and comes back a while later
Emily: Mommy I have it all figured out! We will drive to Utah, take my snowboard lessons, spend the night then drive back!
Me: I don't think that we can drive two days just for a snowboard lesson.
Emily: But I could be in the Olympics!
Me: Yes, I suppose you could one day, but we are still going to have to think of something else.
Emily: OK, then I want to ride ponies!
This girl is so active. She never stops. I am looking forward to school starting in a week!

Phoenix Zoo

We had lots of people come to visit this month for Ethan’s baptism so one of the days we decided to go to the Starry Safari event at the Phoenix Zoo. Although they hold Starry Safari late in the day (after 6) so that it will be cooler the temps where still in the triple digits most of the time. It is a special event for the kids so that they can see some of the animals that are still awake but the also have inflatable water slides, a splash park, and an inflatable bounce house and bungee run for them to play on. The kids had a blast playing with the cousins and getting wet. Lots of thanks to everyone who came and especially to Jon and Shanda for the pictures when our camera wasn’t working!

Ethan’s Baptism

We had Ethan’s baptism on July 12th. He thought it was pretty cool that he was the only boy to be baptized. In true Ethan spirit we didn’t have a luncheon after but took the drive over to Ethan’s favorite hangout, the McDonalds at Power Ranch. He was a little nervous but did well. He was pretty proud of himself when he told his dad that he opened his eyes while under that water. We are proud of him and the decision that he made to be baptized.

Ethan’s Baptism

Just wanted to let everyone know that Ethan will be baptized on July 12th. If anyone would like a mini vacation just let me know. HA-HA. Anyway, we just wanted to get the word out for now and this seems like the easiest way to do that. We are going to invite everyone personally I have just been a little slow at getting it out.

Another One

Ok, having way to much fun with this so here's another one for ya!

Digital Scrapbooking

Ok, so when we moved the moving company was kind enough to lose several boxes for me. One or two of which was filled with my very large collection of scrapbooking materials. I swore they must be somewhere in this house but have now come to the defeated conclusion that they are not. I even unloaded the entire closet of holiday boxes just in case but all that brought me was the opportunity to put it all back again. Anyway...since I have become so digitally minded lately and since I now need to replace all of my stuff I decided to give digital scrapbooking a whirl. I'm not sure how it is going to turn out I am going to send it to a printer and see since I can't print my own 12x12's. Here is a sample for ya though!

"Official Residents"

We are now official residents of the state of Arizona. Our new driver’s licenses and license plates on the cars say so! I was a little unsure about moving to AZ, my mind full of images of cactus, rocks, blowing dirt and those Snoopy cartoons with his cousin Spike; but after 6 years of moving I was more than ready to give anywhere a try. We have now been here almost four months and are finding that we really do love it. I love the still quiet mornings and the cool evenings; I love that there is no need for snow shovels, boots and parkas; I love not having to watch the weather forecast every night since the weather is always clear, sunny and hot. I love the little lizards that love to bask on the back fence and the hummingbirds that come to feed, and yes I even love the majesty of the cactus and the rock landscaping (easy to maintain). Our backyard is unfinished so I can’t really say I “love” the swirling dirt but I am adjusting!