Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Troy's 15 Minutes of Fame
At the end of January, the local newspaper in Tucson did a nice write-up about Troy and his business.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
January 2012 - Review
January was somewhat of a blur. It started off with a calling in church (1st counselor in RS). The following day, a wonderful family in our ward tragically lost their father. He was in his late 30s with five children. It is still shocking and my heart and thoughts are constantly with this family. Because of my new calling, the next few weeks were filled with doing anything we could to help ease this family's pain. It has really helped me to value my relationship with my husband and children and to enjoy every moment.
Life continued to roll on, even though I sometimes felt like it should freeze for awhile. We kept busy with work, church and kid activities:
Life continued to roll on, even though I sometimes felt like it should freeze for awhile. We kept busy with work, church and kid activities:
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| Visiting cousins in Phoenix. |
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| I found a lizard in my house. Since Troy wasn't home, I just put a cup over it until he got back. I'm lame, I know. |
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| We went to Chuck-E-Cheese on a rainy day. |
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| We created new clothing ensembles. |
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| We built really tall towers. |
Girl's Night - December 2011
I can't believe it is already May. I better get crackin' on my bloggin'. I'll start off with the end of last year. Thank you Troy for the following AWESOME Christmas gift:
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| I got to spend almost 24 hours with these lovely women...and no kids. Girl's Night!! |
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| We went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, did some shopping (yes, I actually did) and stayed at a local Hilton. |
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| We tried to relax in the hot tub, but it was too cold. We warmed up by the fire instead. |
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| My face is saying, "Please stop taking our picture!" |
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| We saved dessert for later that night. |
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| The hotel grounds were beautiful! |
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| The next day we did pedicures and lunch before heading home. |
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| Thank you for letting me "steal" all your pictures, Angie. |
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Christmas 2011
Monday, March 5, 2012
Dec. 2011...aka I am Seriously Behind
I felt like blogging tonight. So, I thought I would catch up on everything that happened in December (except Christmas).
Erica finished a gym class.
We tried new hairstyles.
We had a sleepover with the Pederson boys.
Grandma Tutu sent matching Christmas dresses.
We played in the snow at Mt. Lemmon with the Stewart family. We were ill prepared for the show. Sadie's gloves and shoes were too big, Erica was in church shoes and had garden gloves. They were happy for about an hour until they got too cold.
Erica practiced candid photo taking with the camera.
It "snowed"/frosted in Arizona. The girls take what they can get.
We made a gingerbread house...or mom and dad made it while we tried to prevent the girls from eating all the candy first.
I ran a 5K and got my fastest time yet. I finished in just under 28 minutes. I'm told I need new running shorts.
I enjoyed some days with these cuties.
Erica finished a gym class.
We tried new hairstyles.
We had a sleepover with the Pederson boys.
Grandma Tutu sent matching Christmas dresses.
We played in the snow at Mt. Lemmon with the Stewart family. We were ill prepared for the show. Sadie's gloves and shoes were too big, Erica was in church shoes and had garden gloves. They were happy for about an hour until they got too cold.
Erica practiced candid photo taking with the camera.
It "snowed"/frosted in Arizona. The girls take what they can get.
We made a gingerbread house...or mom and dad made it while we tried to prevent the girls from eating all the candy first.
I ran a 5K and got my fastest time yet. I finished in just under 28 minutes. I'm told I need new running shorts.
I enjoyed some days with these cuties.
Friday, December 23, 2011
Daddy-Daughters Date
I took the girls out for a few hours to spend some Daddy time with them and give Nancee some sanity. I thought some of the hilarity that spewed forth from Erica tonight was definitely blog-worthy, so here it is.
We started by going to Pei-Wei, which is not on Nancee's favorites list, but it is on mine. Since I had a coupon and no Nancee with me, dinner was a no-brainer. After dinner, (which consisted primarily of fortune cookies for Sadie,) we went up to the north side of town to the Winterhaven Festival of Lights. This decision was last-minute, since Erica actually slept on the drive to Pei-Wei (after vehemently fighting a nap a few hours before). This nap was the only way she could survive Winterhaven, and even then her survival turned out to be questionable at best. She made it about half a block.
Luckily, what were the best two houses were in that half a block. Guess who's favorite this one was:
Erica could name every Disney Princess couple there. The picture's not great, but it's also not too bad considering I was holding a squirming 1-year-old at the time.
Then we came to this house. I love the programmed lights choreographed to music, but this one took it to the next level with a lit fountain too. Click here to see a video of it.
It's too hard to tell in the dark, but Sadie is dancing her head off. She wormed her way to the front of the crowd, cheering and clapping at the end of each song. Way fun. We had been at the festival of lights for all of 10 minutes, and Erica was already whining to go back. We did stop at the princess house again, at which point Erica proclaimed it to be better than the fountain house. I planned on taking a ton of pictures, but the picture you don't see is me with my arms full carrying both girls out of Winterhaven. Not enough arms for pictures.
Despite my efforts to get all her pee out in the restaurant, and despite the fact that I had been carrying her for a while, Erica said "all this walking is making my pee come. I have to RIGHT NOW!" I quickly walked to a Quik Mart. Think of whatever pops into your mind when you hear the words "gas station bathroom", then hit the 3rd world country bathroom button a couple times, and you have the bathroom that the 3 of us found ourselves in. It was more like a chemical storage cellar with a toilet. The linoleum was missing in most places, there were cans of oil and de-greaser on a precarious shelf which Sadie started to inch towards, and the room had about 3 square feet of floor space. Erica saw the bright side: "Wow! It smells good in here! and look! It has ducks! I like this bathroom!" I guess some of the heavy cleaners on the old shelf and the 40-year-old, peeling duck wallpaper had more value than meets the eye.
Then the conversation on the drive home:
Erica: "Daddy, can you talk to me about boys and girls? Please?"
Me: "Sure. What do you want to know?"
Erica: "What if you put the wrong stuff on a baby when it came out of your belly and you didn't know if it was a boy or a girl?"
Me (interpreting this as a question of controlling gender at birth): "Well, you were a girl spirit before you were born so you got a girl body, and I was a boy spirit before I was born so I got a boy body."
Erica: "How does the baby get in the mommy's tummy?"
Me (figuring I'm perfectly within my right to dodge this question for another few years): "Well, when a mom and dad are married and they are ready to have a baby, the baby grows in the mom's belly."
Erica "But how does it get in the mom's belly? Can you talk to me about it daddy? Please?" (That's a direct quote. It's like she KNEW I was hiding something.)
Me: "... ... (then repeated previous answer.)"
At that point I was saved by McDonalds: "Look! A play place!" Conversation diverted.
Then we talked at length about how she was scared to have a baby, and she's scared it will hurt. All things I want her to be deathly afraid of until she's 25. Then she cried a bit about how she missed being 3 years old. We talked about time, and how you can't speed it up or slow it down. Erica asked if time is a special machine. It's interesting seeing how her mind works. I also thought it was cool when we looked at some really tall trees with lights in them and she said "I wonder how they got the lights in those trees." She's a thinker.
Well, at least I thought it was a blog-worthy night. Thanks for reading, if YOU'VE survived this post with no nap.
We started by going to Pei-Wei, which is not on Nancee's favorites list, but it is on mine. Since I had a coupon and no Nancee with me, dinner was a no-brainer. After dinner, (which consisted primarily of fortune cookies for Sadie,) we went up to the north side of town to the Winterhaven Festival of Lights. This decision was last-minute, since Erica actually slept on the drive to Pei-Wei (after vehemently fighting a nap a few hours before). This nap was the only way she could survive Winterhaven, and even then her survival turned out to be questionable at best. She made it about half a block.
Luckily, what were the best two houses were in that half a block. Guess who's favorite this one was:
Erica could name every Disney Princess couple there. The picture's not great, but it's also not too bad considering I was holding a squirming 1-year-old at the time.
Then we came to this house. I love the programmed lights choreographed to music, but this one took it to the next level with a lit fountain too. Click here to see a video of it.
It's too hard to tell in the dark, but Sadie is dancing her head off. She wormed her way to the front of the crowd, cheering and clapping at the end of each song. Way fun. We had been at the festival of lights for all of 10 minutes, and Erica was already whining to go back. We did stop at the princess house again, at which point Erica proclaimed it to be better than the fountain house. I planned on taking a ton of pictures, but the picture you don't see is me with my arms full carrying both girls out of Winterhaven. Not enough arms for pictures.
Despite my efforts to get all her pee out in the restaurant, and despite the fact that I had been carrying her for a while, Erica said "all this walking is making my pee come. I have to RIGHT NOW!" I quickly walked to a Quik Mart. Think of whatever pops into your mind when you hear the words "gas station bathroom", then hit the 3rd world country bathroom button a couple times, and you have the bathroom that the 3 of us found ourselves in. It was more like a chemical storage cellar with a toilet. The linoleum was missing in most places, there were cans of oil and de-greaser on a precarious shelf which Sadie started to inch towards, and the room had about 3 square feet of floor space. Erica saw the bright side: "Wow! It smells good in here! and look! It has ducks! I like this bathroom!" I guess some of the heavy cleaners on the old shelf and the 40-year-old, peeling duck wallpaper had more value than meets the eye.
Then the conversation on the drive home:
Erica: "Daddy, can you talk to me about boys and girls? Please?"
Me: "Sure. What do you want to know?"
Erica: "What if you put the wrong stuff on a baby when it came out of your belly and you didn't know if it was a boy or a girl?"
Me (interpreting this as a question of controlling gender at birth): "Well, you were a girl spirit before you were born so you got a girl body, and I was a boy spirit before I was born so I got a boy body."
Erica: "How does the baby get in the mommy's tummy?"
Me (figuring I'm perfectly within my right to dodge this question for another few years): "Well, when a mom and dad are married and they are ready to have a baby, the baby grows in the mom's belly."
Erica "But how does it get in the mom's belly? Can you talk to me about it daddy? Please?" (That's a direct quote. It's like she KNEW I was hiding something.)
Me: "... ... (then repeated previous answer.)"
At that point I was saved by McDonalds: "Look! A play place!" Conversation diverted.
Then we talked at length about how she was scared to have a baby, and she's scared it will hurt. All things I want her to be deathly afraid of until she's 25. Then she cried a bit about how she missed being 3 years old. We talked about time, and how you can't speed it up or slow it down. Erica asked if time is a special machine. It's interesting seeing how her mind works. I also thought it was cool when we looked at some really tall trees with lights in them and she said "I wonder how they got the lights in those trees." She's a thinker.
Well, at least I thought it was a blog-worthy night. Thanks for reading, if YOU'VE survived this post with no nap.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Thanksgiving 2011
This year we decided to stay warm for Thanksgiving and not leave Arizona. We did a trip to my brother's house in Surprise, Arizona. It was filled with lots of games, food and cousins playing.
We kept things simple and split the work in making the food. It turned out yummy and non-stressful.
Sadie slept through most of the dinner, which I didn't complain about. She, of course, wouldn't touch any of the delicious food and instead opted for canned, chicken noodle soup for dinner.
All the kids helped shuck the corn.
Lincoln is only 2 months younger, but he is much taller. These guys played awesome together.
Thanks to my sister-in-law, Eden, who organized and photographed the event. Otherwise, I would not have had any pictures to post.
Cute Logan!
Erica - a model in the making? I promise I didn't tell her to stand that way.
We kept things simple and split the work in making the food. It turned out yummy and non-stressful.
Sadie slept through most of the dinner, which I didn't complain about. She, of course, wouldn't touch any of the delicious food and instead opted for canned, chicken noodle soup for dinner.
All the kids helped shuck the corn.
Lincoln is only 2 months younger, but he is much taller. These guys played awesome together.
Thanks to my sister-in-law, Eden, who organized and photographed the event. Otherwise, I would not have had any pictures to post.
Cute Logan!
Erica - a model in the making? I promise I didn't tell her to stand that way.
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