Pinewood Derby

It was time again for the cub scout pinewood derby! This year when we got the cars for the boys we found out that they had taken the center notch out of the car (the part that was there to make it already look something like a car) and left it totally square. Erik is working graveyards right now so between school for the boys, work, and sleep it was hard to fit in all that cutting for cars. He wanted the boys to do as much of the work as possible anyway. They loved planning out the cars and imagining how they wanted them to look but wasn't very happy with all the cutting and sanding involved. Kudos to them for making them almost entirely by hand. Ethan won the award for the most futuristic car and Alek won the turtle award. Aleks car was the slowest car but he felt his award made up for it since there is a real turtle shell on the plaque. He is making sure that Erik hangs it in his room for him today! Andrew (our little car fanatic) loved watching the cars race. We got an extra car for Emily to make one but she was a little sad that she wasn't able to race hers like the boys. All in all it was fun to cheer them on and to see them turn that block of pine into the little race car. Sometimes cubs can be such a hassle but don't the look cute in those little uniforms?!

Ethans Birthday

Happy 9th Birthday Ethan!!

Yesterday we got to celebrate Ethan's birthday. Ethan has been in love with dinosaurs since he was really small and of course wanted a dino cake again this year. I tried a new technique I learned for frozen icing transfers to make it. He got to be the guinea pig. It was easier than I thought and a lot faster than making the cake with the shaped pan and all the little stars to fill it in. I enjoyed not having to cook since he wanted pizza and orange soda for dinner. His teacher even gave him a present...no homework after school yesterday. That was a gift for me as much as for him! Thanks to everyone who called and sent cards he enjoyed them a lot. Happy Birthday again to Ethan...here are a few pictures to share.

31/2 Weeks

3 1/2 weeks. That's what they tell me we have until the due date. I am starting to wish it was more like 31/2 days. Not a happy pregnant person I am afraid. We have had a million ultrasounds for a million different things and they tell me the baby is still kind of big. She feels big to me! Either that or it's just the fact that I am way to out of shape to be doing this again. I will post an ultrasound picture...just for fun. We will keep you all updated....

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!!