Halloween 2013

I love holidays with my family. Young children make any holiday more fun. I love the excitement and anticipation radiating from my two little girls. This year my Eliza was a wild kitty, and Miriam was a princess Pirate. They loved their tutu costumes. There was much dancing to behold at our place. 

We continued our tradition of decorating pumpkins. They were so thrilled.

They enjoyed the trunk or treat--kind of. They definitely liked getting candy, but some of the trunks were a little scary to them.

On Halloween night we did a family party with themed food, Halloween games, and A LOT of sugar. 

I loved making cookies with the girls. We made monster cookies and put candy eyeballs in the center of each one. Both girls really loved this. Miriam called them "eyes balls." It was cuter than you are imagining. :)

Happy be-lated Halloween!

I love my sweet girls. As I was quickly typing this post they are setting up their own nativity scene using their variety of baby dolls. They have been whispering the whole time so that they don't wake up baby Jesus. :)

Injury

A week or two after we moved, little Miriam pulled an extra headboard (that is solid wood and really heavy) down on her left food. We thought for sure it was broken. It was about 8:00 at night and we didn't have the new insurance set up yet. So we had to contact our old BYU insurance and find a place that would accept that one.

We finally made it in to an urgent care. They did some x-rays on her foot and it turns out that there was only some seriously bruising. So much so that Miriam didn't walk for a week or two. Eventually she started limping short distances. Now she seems completely normal. It was pretty rough there for a little while.  I am so, so grateful for two healthy children. Having a medical problem is scary.

Moving to Arizona

Well, we moved to Arizona. It was quite the life event for us, and kept us very busy and stressed out for a month or two. I am so glad it is done. When we were in the midst of our forever long to-do list, John and I would wish that we could just skip to when we are settled in our apartment. And guess what! We are there! Yes!!!

Something that was nice but made it very tricky was that the company that John works for paid a moving company to move us. So we had to itemize all of our stuff, figure out what we could live without for a week, and get rid of the stuff they were not willing to move.  This doesn't sound that difficult, but when you factor in buying a new car, flying down to find a place to live, and trying to finish a PhD, it got a little crazy.

But the moving day finally arrived. It was so weird to see these guys pack up all of our stuff while we just allowed to supervise them. They were very fast and efficient. Also, they were pretty astounded at the number of home canned jars we had. They wrapped all of the jars individually. It was pretty great.

The next couple days we spent cleaning. The kids did so well! John had to work on dissertation revisions so I called in the cavalry to help with the cleaning--my mom. She is a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to cleaning, so needless to say, my apartment has never been so clean.

We packed up the most prized frozen food from our chest freezer in the cooler that we bought and set off.

Also, we had to stop by BYU before we left because it turns out that John still had some forms to get figured out. But we ran into Cosmo and had to get a photo.

But first we had so say goodbye to our neighbors. We said so many goodbyes that last week or two. Needless to say I got really tired of being so weepy and emotional. Mainly we are just so blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives.

I love Ellie styling that day. Tunic with maxi skirt and socks with sandals.  She knows how to make a statement. Goodbye our little apartment!

After one long drive, a really horrible nights sleep, and another long drive, we arrived at our new home. The kids did really well on the drive. My grandma had packed us a travel bag with a sticker game for the kids and a LOT of treats. It helped a lot.

A couple days later our stuff arrived. It was kind of an ordeal to unpack and organize everything.

There was a lot of this going on.

But eventually we got all organized. See how much progress we have made on putting the house together! :)

This is a photo of John on the second day of his new job. He is settling into his job and has done a lot of training during the last month and a half.

The girls and I are getting settled in too. We sure miss everyone in Utah, but know that for now, this is where we are supposed to be. 

From my journal: We took a big step by buying a second car. We spent almost all of our savings. (Grandma and Grandpa lent us some money until we got paid 2 days ago, Nov 1.) It was kind of miraculous. We knew what car we wanted to buy but didn't think that there was any way we could get it for our price range. We wanted a 2010 Toyota Corolla, for less than $12,500. We found one that was a trade in for a small dealership. It had a few more miles on it (49,000), but it was everything that we wished for: white, tinted windows, light interior, no problems at all. And we got it for $11,600. It was exactly what we were looking for at a price we were hoping for. Amazing! We felt so blessed! 

The next day we flew for less than 24 hrs to Phoenix to find a place to live. We were taken around by a real estate agent even though we were just renting. We saw a ton of places, but kind of narrowed it down to four places. We were pretty torn on where to live, and were pretty stressed out about it, until the next day when on the flight home I was seated (even though John had an empty seat beside him) by a couple that lives in Ahwatukee. We got talking, and I found out that they live in the area that we were looking at and were LDS - Kiel and Sherry Berry. I asked their opinion of where would be best to live and they said that they would pick this apartment because it was in their ward. :) They told me about their ward and how a lot of people that live here work at Honeywell. They told me about how there were a lot of young families that live in the ward and that the area is really nice. They like it so much here that they would rather have a smaller house in this area than to move out to Gilbert where they could get more house for their dollar. They even gave me advice on what gym has the best child care. It was a miracle for me!!! I had been so stressed out, not knowing anyone and not knowing the best place for us, and these people came in and were able to give us some really good direction. I am so grateful for that tender mercy in my life!!! And I have to say that so far we are really happy with where we chose to live and our ward. It really was a miracle!

The next day (Friday, Oct.4) the movers came. That was a weird crazy day for me. It didn't go too bad though, and my mom had the kids. I think the movers were pretty overwhelmed though at the number of home canned goods we had. After the movers left, we cleaned the apartment that weekend while listening to General Conference. While my mom and I were doing that, John finished up the edits on his dissertation. On Sunday we finished up cleaning. Then we stopped by Matt and Julie's house where they showed us the video they had made for us. We stopped by the Pearson's house to say goodbye and to give them back a quilt. Then we headed up to Ogden to get ready for a big family photo and dinner at Kayla's house. It was a really nice, but emotional day for me. I really cried during the movie from the Guinn's and when I said goodbye to Patti and she cried. Whew, it was emotional. 

The next day I hung out in Ogden while John went to campus to finish up some things. I rode Frontrunner down and we had dinner with John's advisor, Dr. Webb and his wife. It was really yummy and nice, but funny because it was in kind of a bar.

The next day we left Ogden, checked out of our apartment, and went to BYU. There was some complications on getting some things signed, so we had to hang out for a while. Although since we had to hang out for a while we ran into Cosmo and got our photo with him. Then we drove to Arizona! Crazy!!! 

It was a nice drive for the most part. Grandma had packed a ton of yummy treats for the kids and a sticker game. She is so nice to us! We went a little farther than halfway and spent the night at a little hotel in Marble Canyon. We had a rough night's sleep that night. We started trying to sleep at 9:30 and tried to stop sleeping at 8:00, but it still didn't seem like enough sleep.

The next day we drove down here and checked into our apartment. The next few days seemed kind of busy trying to get our apartment set up. We are still not all the way there, but it is pretty close. Our apartment was filled with boxes when the movers unloaded the stuff.

We are really starting to settle in to living in Arizona. We have definitely been enjoying the nice weather. However, it still being warm is starting to mess with us now that it is the Christmas season. The coldest place we have been is church. They keep the church freezing!

Our ward is really nice. People have been really nice and welcoming. Our ward is bigger and older than our last, so it is kind of fun being one of the young couples again. We have had a couple of playdates and even met some friends at the park. I feel super blessed that people have been so nice to us. We even did a date swap night with a family so we went out for a date one weekend.

We stayed pretty busy at first trying to set up our apartment, but the more we get settled in the more relaxed it seems. We have gotten in our routines, which both John and I love. I go to the gym (YMCA) in the morning and try to do one other fun activities with the girls during the day. John goes to work, where he is doing a lot of training, and then the gym in the evening.

I am so glad that the girls are making some friends. We are also trying to be better at writing letters to people. My Grandma Lucas and Ellie have been writing buddies since we moved here.

An Adult

John has recently reached a two pretty big milestones in his life. First, an end to his 20s. Yikes, how did time go by that fast?

Chocolate-Raspberry Cheesecake. Best. Dessert. Ever.

AND John finished his career as a student. Going from being a student almost your entire life to an employee is a pretty big change for him. Also, he is going to insist on being called Dr. from now on...just kidding. :)

We celebrated the night he finished his dissertation defense with yummy fresh caprese salad. Delicious! Although, I do not think our girls were as impressed with the dish as we were.

Congratulations John on officially becoming an adult! ;) I am so proud of you!

From my journal: The next week was John's birthday. I made him copycat Cafe Rio salads and Raspberry Chocolate cheesecake for dessert. The big 3-0. I tried to make it fun for him, but I didn't go all out because I had a surprise birthday/graduation party planned for later. 

The next week we went to a Brandon Sanderson book signing. He is our favorite author! It was so fun to see him and get our book personalized, even if we didn't really know what to say. Later that week Matt came over and we went to a Choral Showcase at BYU. It was really fun! That Saturday was the surprise party for John that turned out pretty good. My dad, grandparents, and David and Patti's family came. Also, Glenn and Andrea, the Guinns and the Pearsons were there. It was really nice, and John's mom had him walk for all of his degrees. :) We bought pizza and people brought sides. 

That week we went up to the Armstrong's house and had a nice dinner with McKenzie. We had a nice evening with her. We spent a lot of time with people before we moved. It was so worth it. It made us sad to realize how many people are in our lives that we won't see very much any more. We also made a trip to Ogden to get some family photos of our family. We had dinner with David and Patti that night, and it was surprisingly relaxing and fun.

Then Thursday was John's dissertation defense that went super smoothly. Woohoo! Dr. Pearson!

Camping

In September we went on our only camping trip of the year. It was a little over night camp trip with our friends, the Guinns, up American Fork Canyon. We have been friends with these guys almost our whole married lives and have loved having kids at similar times. Of course, there was some drama getting a camping spot, but it was a really fun little overnighter. We stayed up late talking and laughing. We even told scary stories with the kids. We also learned that vegan hot dogs are gross.

All of the fall leaves were beautiful. The weather was nice. The children were all pretty good. The adults stayed up late around the campfire. And we did a little hike in the morning. Perfect recipe for a nice camping trip.

BYU vs. Texas

At the beginning of September we went to the BYU vs. Texas football game. We hadn't been to one for a while despite being BYU students and big fans of BYU football. My grandparents used to be season ticket holders, but hadn't been to a game for a long time because of the difficultly driving down to Provo, often late at night. Since we lived close by and Frontrunner was built, Grandma decided to go to one last game before we moved and couldn't pick them up from the train station. So we decided to have one last hurrah before moving and go with them. We bought limited accessibility tickets because my grandpa has a hard time getting around, but the upside is that we had awesome seats! Super close to the field!

My mom came down too and watched the girls while we went with Grandma and Grandpa to the game. The game was supposed to start at 4, but didn't start for about two hours later because of a crazy storm that rained it out. Fortunately my grandparents had ponchos for the rain and John and I put clean garbage bags over us. It really helped us stay warm. We stayed under the bleachers during the rain, and really didn't get wet. It was crazy to see how much rain was pouring down.

Eventually the game started though, and what a fun game! BYU wasn't supposed to win this game because Texas was ranked number 15. BYU had just lost a game they were supposed to win against Virginia. So when John saw that this was the only home game we could make it to, we went into it planning on watching BYU lose. Surprisingly that didn't happen. BYU was ahead the whole game, and it ended BYU winning 40 to 21. Woohoo! So fun!

We were actually on the jumbo screen twice during the game too. The first time we were just on it for a second at the end of a pan across the crowd. The other time was during the "Hey, hey baby. I wanna know if you'll be my girl..." song. It was just on me and John for a few seconds. I was just smiling and waving and totally missed it when John tried to kiss me for the camera. Oops! One of John's coworkers was apparently at the game and commented on how I gave him the cheek. How embarrassing! :) 

We got home that night to find out that the power had been out at our apartment almost the entire time we were gone. I felt so bad for my mom--being at someone else's house taking care of their children with no idea of where the flashlights were. I wish she would have called and asked. I guess Ellie found my mom her toy wind up flashlight. :( The power was still out the next morning and didn't turn on until 9 am. It seemed crazy long! We miss BYU already!

Matchy-Matchy

Having three girls in the house leads to all kinds of silliness. Sorry honey. The first time we painted matching toenails we had to get a photo. 

When the kids saw how great that was, we had to get a photo of matching hands.

And eyes. (But they don't really match)

I still think it is so fun to have two little girls with such similar hair color, but such contrasting eyes. I love it!

And knees of course!

Elbows are a bit thing at our house. One night at dinner we were giving high-fives and knuckles, and Ellie wanted to do elbows too. So we touched elbows. Since then it has become a fixture. My poor child when she goes to school...

Elbows!

And last, kissy faces. :) I love my girls!

From my journal: I have to mention a couple of phrases from Ellie that were pretty funny. One time when I told her that she couldn't read something she said, "I can read it in my heart." Another time when I said I couldn't play with her right then (Sheesh I sound like a horrible mother!) she said, "It's okay. We will just think about you." I heard Ellie say to Miriam, "Miri, can you say 'expalante?' It means 'hello' in Spanish." What a funny, wonderful girl! That being said I have to say that never have I seen Ellie be so good and so bad. She has been so loving, helpful, and sweet. She has made really great strides in her reading too. But, she has also been saying 'no' a lot; colored on things that she is not supposed to; destroyed important things for no reason. It has really been both ends of the spectrum for our Ellie girl.

Wisconsin 2013

At the end of August we visited Wisconsin. Sorry for the picture overload, but we kept pretty busy and I just can't help posting about it.

The first day we walked down the path in the woods and floated paper boats down the river. I was pretty impressed with how well they held up.

All five kids!

That afternoon we took a trip to Little America, where the kids went on ride after ride. My favorite was a surprisingly long train ride that included a ghost town, tunnel, farm, and forest. I think the kids liked the cars and the boats the best. The least favorite by far was the little roller coaster, which Miriam melted down on, Jeff injured himself trying to get into, and the other kids were pretty nervous.

The next day we went to Sassy Cow Creamery's ice cream social. We were able to climb on and pretend to drive lots of different tractors. They had these toy tractors that the kids could ride around on a track. Ellie tried really hard to convince me that we needed to purchase her one as soon as possible. A pink one preferably. :)

Miriam looked so tiny in the biggest tractor.

It was so funny to see my little Miriam so convinced that Molly (who is almost exactly one year younger than her) was a baby that she should hold. Miriam is slightly bigger than Molly.

The kids loved their delicious ice cream! So did the adults. :)

The next day we headed to the Wisconsin Dells to play at the Mt. Olympus amusement park. I was pretty surprised that my timid little Ellie really, really loved the rides. She wasn't nervous at all and wanted to ride them all. Miriam didn't love the scarier ones, like the swings.

Miriam thought the little train was fun though.

Ellie's favorite was the kid roller coaster. She rode it five times in a row! I really expected her to be scared, but she loved it.

This was that great moment as a mom when I let my little girl eat ketchup and ketchup alone for lunch. She didn't want the french fries, just the ketchup.

Then we headed to the indoor water park, where Miriam really found her happy place going down the small water slides. She was on a circuit up and down the water slides for a couple of hours. All the kids really had a lot of fun in the water.

When we were walking back to the entrance, we stopped to have a snack. Ellie started dancing in the middle of the sidewalk. It was so funny and cute. She was completely oblivious to the people around her.

Ellie's Dance

Thank you Jeff and Debbie for a wonderful vacation! It was GREAT to see you guys!

From my journal: We visited Jeff and Debbie Jacobson in Wisconsin at the end of August. It was such a great trip!!! We had direct flights to and from and we were all able to ride around in their huge van. Her parents let us stay at their really nice house while they were at their other home in Florida. Jeff and Debbie bought a new house since the last time we were there and I really liked, both theirs and her parents' house. I really loved, LOVED their neighborhood. All of the lots were big and green and all of the houses were beautiful. It looks like it was cut out of a forest. They are actually renting out their other house and turning a profit, so awesome! The first day we got there and had dinner. Then we got settled in to her parents' house and played games that night after the kids went to bed. Love playing games with them! There was a little bit of a time zone change, but it wasn't too bad.

The first day we walked to a park right next to their house and went down a path to a bridge where we floated boats and threw rocks in the water. The landscape around them is just stunning. It was a really fun activity. After lunch, we went to a nearby amusement park. We loved taking the kids on all the little rides. We went on car rides, boat rides, merry-go-round, and a really cool, long train ride. I think the favorites were the car rides and the boat ride. That night we got pizza and watched a kid movie with dinner. Of course we played games again that night and ate a ton of junk food. :) We played Dominion, 7 Wonders, Settlers, Pride and Prejudice Trivia, Pictionary, Hand and Foot, and others. It was so fun!

On Saturday we went to the same crazy cool park that we went to last time. It was the coolest park I have ever been too with a castle and tons of things to climb on, ride and play with. They even had a big sand box and huge toddler section. Really cool. We went next to the Sassy Cow ice cream social. We saw and climbed on tons of tractors. We learned about cows, fed goats, and even rode on a toy tractors. Then we stood in the huge line to get the very yummy ice cream. Miriam particularly really like all of the different kinds of ice cream.

The next day was Sunday where we drove what seemed like forever to go to church. Church was nice and we drove Debbie's parents' car which was really nice to have that freedom, but kind of scary because we couldn't take the key out of the ignition (it was broken) so we were scared it was going to get stolen.

The next day we went to Mt. Olympus in the Wisconsin Dells. It is this huge amusement park with tons, and tons to do. Ellie LOVED the rides! Miriam wanted to go on the rides but actually was really scared when we took her on a few. The ride Ellie liked the best was the kid roller coaster. We were so surprised. Our timid little girl enjoyed the scariest ride that she could go on the very most. Knightley didn't like it, but Ellie road it five times in a row. We went to the inside amusement park and really enjoyed the ball pit, spinning teacups, trolley, and roller coaster in there. Then we got some crazy expensive food and hit the water parks (both inside and outside--this place really was HUGE!) 

We liked playing in the indoor water park because we didn't worry about getting sunburned. Excellent! Miriam really arrived at her happy place in that indoor water park. She got on a circuit climbing up the stairs to the little slide and going down it. Ellie like swimming too, but not as much as Miriam. When we were walking back to the entrance, we stopped to have a snack. Ellie started dancing in the middle of the sidewalk. It was so funny and cute. She was completely oblivious to the people around her. I loved it!

The next day we hung out at Jeff and Debbie's house and went to the airport and went home. We loved the direct flight to Madison and had a really fun vacation!