In lieu of a Christmas Card we hope this makes your holiday merry and bright!
If you were one of our new neighbors you would have got a live performance on your doorstep last Monday night. I hope we made a good impression.
August- November Chronicles
Where have the last 4 months taken us?
on vacation to Pagosa Springs, CO
camping
away from Flagstaff
to Park City for 7 weeks
another beautiful week in Mexico
to our new home in UT.
What have we said good-bye to?
a really great life in AZ
4 more of Addie's teeth
size 5 diapers for Enoch
my waistline
Why are we all still happy?
a new baby sister is coming
grandparents close by
more room to play
Laughter, health, and each other...
to mention just a few things.
June Chronicles
(23 pictures)
Welcome Summer!
June started cold, freezing our garden at night for the first two weeks.
Then it warmed up and dried out. We were on evacuation standby over the 3rd weekend because the wildfire was 1/2 mile away.
This week it looks as though monsoon is starting. I LOVE monsoon. Today is the third afternoon of rain so far.
Our summer schedule includes the library on Monday...except the kids finished their reading program after only two weeks. The park with friends on Tuesday, the summer movies on Wednesday, swimming and play dates on Thursday and any random adventure for Friday.
In the afternoons they read and rest for an hour, then they get to work on an activity. Thanks to our great grandmas for supplying a lot of ideas.
We are also enjoying concerts in the park on Wednesday night with potluck picnics with our friends.
I got to do another wedding this month and Dad held the fort down...again...while I went to Mesa for a weekend to train for Let's Play Music 2nd year. I started out a year ago doing this for my kids wondering why I was adding one more thing to my life, now it has become such a source of fun and enjoyment for me. I wasn't expecting it to be for me too!
I've also decided that there is definitely merit to the old adage: the right tool for the job. For years I have scheduled my wash so that I can take at least one day off mid-week, if I've had enough. But I did load after load the other 5 days. Since Aaron spoiled me with a fancy new set I find myself with nothing left to do after two days. Not even the rugs, or the shower curtains, or the sheets, or the towels, or the picnic blanket, or the winter coats...what else can I find to wash? Plus it turns out to be great entertainment for the kids- ha ha- and they can take over a lot of the responsibility for loading, switching, turning on, etc. LOVE IT!
Then...I found myself a steam cleaner. Watch out, I am addicted. The chairs, the grout, the sink, the microwave, the oven, the fridge, the garbage lids, the floor, the wall by the baby seat, the windows, the window tracks! and the cupboard fronts. Whoa. It is out of control.
Lazy Summer Days? We're too busy for that!
And did you realize? Aaron and I have been married 10 years now!
Special Edition: hiking with kids
We've been doing a lot of hiking this spring. The kids are almost always cheeful, but you still have to be geared up for going slow...and bringing home pounds and pounds of rocks.
May Chronicles
Here is what you are looking at from May:
Addie's 7th Birthday- was all things tiny. She recently taught herself the art of balloon sculpting with the help of the ever-genius Klutz. It's a skill that gains her a lot of adoration. She entertained her party guests with custom hats.
Ballet Recital- In January Addie set a goal to learn ballet this year. We think she has found her dance niche. She really enjoyed this class and performance...to say nothing of the beautiful costume. For the week that it hung, out of reach, in the top of my closet she would frequently visit it and declare just how wonderful it was.
Memorial Day Campout at Zion National Park- you can't beat a trip to Zion with great friends, weather that doesn't break 80' and a campsite where you don't see another soul. The crowning achievement was the whole family hiking up to Scout Lookout on Angel's Landing. That's a 5 mile trip up and back down 1200ft! Yea for little legs! Of course they all loved Walter's Wiggles and had most of the passing hikers totally amazed. It was hard not to notice 9 kids to say nothing of the (joyful) noise they were making. We thought they were so awesome. Addie and Aaron ventured up the last 1/2 mile to the top of Angel's Landing. Addie says she wasn't scared at all and points out that she is extra cool for doing it in Crocs.
Special Edition: Let's Play Music Teacher Blog
Check out some of the great things my music students have been doing!
They are Brilliant! I am biased.
But we all can't wait to start playing on the keyboards in a few weeks.
April Chronicles
A quick re-cap on some of these pictures.
April is the height of 'Birthday Season' in our household, so you'll see pictures of Jean's 1st, Quinn's 5th & Aaron's thirty somethin' birthdays.
Jean was happy with her one present of about 50 bracelets. She loves bracelets and will try on just about anything that remotely resembles a bracelet.
Quinn, in true creative Quinn fashion, dreamed up a Leaf Party. Not quite as hard to pull off as last year's Q-U party, but every bit as fun.
Aaron got left with all the kids for a weekend on his birthday. I was the one who really got the gift by going to Women's Conference for the weekend. He is totally capable and even turned down a meal plan with "I can handle it. Don't worry about leaving us any plans." (I did anyway).
And as a plug for his awesome Dadness: on Saturday he got all 4 kids ready and hauled them to the stake baptisms because he had to conduct for our ward, then took them all hiking for the afternoon. They were really energized about the adventure. Remember when we first had Addie and he had never even changed a diaper? He is awesomeness personified.
Then next week he took all 4 kids rock climbing during our switch-off at the temple. That might have been taking it too far in my book, but again, the kids were on cloud nine with stories about how they all climbed the highest they ever had...yadda yadda yadda. I still ban it from ever happening again.
A funny note about the April Fool's Dinner is that my kids totally couldn't handle the mixed messages and most of the meal was spent in tears and confusion.
The last few sleepy pictures are just a glimpse of our real life. One morning I got back from running and decided it would be fun to capture our household waking up. Then that night I couldn't resist following up with our household falling asleep. It is so typical...Addie reading, Quinn sacked out and Enoch with the Where's Waldo book across his face.
March Chronicles
(warning: 100 photo slide show!)
Wow, you can leave for a trip so much more prepared when your mom is with you the whole week before. I was feeling so good about leaving my house clean and everything prepared for the hectic week when we returned. But when I got back I discovered an even cleaner house. My mom and dad stayed another day after we left and surprised me (read: majorly blessed me) by cleaning everything I can never get to from washing the carpets and sofa, to walls, to my dustpan even! That's how I know they still really love me! wow.
And after two weeks at the beginning of the month of Aaron working until 2am most mornings, of course a busier than normal church schedule (does everyone's temple recommend expire in March? and why not throw in New Beginnings and a 10hr. scout training just because it is spring?), and everything that comes with holding the fort down on my own, we were SO ready for 12 long, perfect days at the beach.
Here is the list of everyone's favorites this time:
AARON
kite surfing (well, at least the kite part so far)
time to read, sleep and play
spending swimming time with Addie just talking and making up tricks
running with Tiff
TIFFANY
seeing whales and baby sea turtles again
pearls for my 30th birthday
long runs on the beach (amazing how far you can go with so much oxygen!)
massage on the beach at sunset
singing rounds with the fam in the car. the kids singing 'sol, mi, do' with the elevator chime
fish tacos at a 'little place on the beach' and limes in everything, mmmmm.
ADDIE
swimming
walking on the beach
riding the elevator
seeing whales and sea turtles
papa's drinks and mexican treats from the vending machine
snorkeling
wet sand the color of pumpkin pie (direct quote from her)
QUINN
2 mile beach walk with mom to find 'happy shells' (say something that makes you happy when you find a whole shell, then add it to your necklace)
papa's drinks, papa's easter egg hunt, making sail boats, and spending pesos in the vending machine for Mexican treats
learning to swim anywhere in my life jacket, even the deep end & jumping off the wall to Papa
building sand castles with the whole family
crabs in the sand and dophin watching from the deck
ENOCH
playing in the sand
jumping in the pool
jumping off the sand dune
jumping over the waves
jumping in the deep end
JEAN
Papa's special drinks affectionately named 'Screamin' Jeans' after this trip
Chocolate frosting, chocolate cookies and chocolate brownies
Her two new teeth (arrived with 2, left with 4)
Making friends with the entire San Vicente ward, 2 Sundays in a row
Special Edition: Sea Turtles
We walk 1/2 mile down the beach to release Olive Ridley Sea Turtle hatchlings.
(the drawings at the end are from Quinn's preschool class that we taught when we got home)
Special Edition: Indoor Biking
Here is Enoch practicing on his new big bike before we take him outside. These clips are from his first day on it.
February Chronicles
February was marked by three big events:
1. Valentine's Day- the kids were diligent about making their awesome Valentines. Enoch wanted to write all his friends' names on the same one. We had to explain that you make a card for each of them. Of course, Aaron's pink-white-red-&-unnecessary performance is something more and more people look forward to hearing about. He pulled off another great and totally original year to his growing credit. I got a 'white' book (Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell) for us to read together. I thought it was perfect and we did have fun reading it together. The kids got an off-the-charts original treasure hunt through....their book shelf to find some big marshmallow suckers (by the Zillow: under their pillow). Every clue was a favorite line from a beloved bedtime story. They had to hunt through the shelves to find the particular book, page and line, where a sticky note held the next clue. It's a spin-off of one of their favorite pass-time games: quoting books and movies together. They loved it and were experts, of course.
2. A Trip to Utah- Aaron made his annual recruiting and interviewing trip to BYU and we decided to all tag along since our next planned trip wasn't until July. We got to see everybody even though we only had two short days. The highlights were meeting Baby Aspen and Aaron skiing with his dad. We were really thankful to Todd and Tana for hosting us during such a busy time for them, and to Camille for watching our kids while we went to the temple.
3. More Snow! Since they hauled off our awesome mountain of snow last month we decided to build our own one Saturday afternoon. Everyone helped build a GIGANTIC igloo made from snow blocks, complete with a slide out one side and built in seats on the interior. It was a hit with our kids (like adding and extra play room to the house), & the neighborhood kids (and adults) for a good solid 4 weeks until 4:40 last Monday when we heard a thud and looked outside to find it had finally caved in. Spring has to come some time, I guess.
The last photo is included to document the ongoing brilliancy of our snow plow guy here in Flag. It's our only consolation to rant about the situation here. Why bother clear the cul-de-sac if you are going to leave a burm of snow across the exit? And how about that rubble in front of our mailbox? It started as a 6ft. wall of snow, then we got a 6ft wall of ice, albeit 10ft. closer to the curb this time, now we have a complete lane of chewed up asphalt in front of our mailbox. The mailbox finally melted out and was accessible again only to be hedged in now by a mound that will never melt. The mailbox is pretty worse for the wear after this winter. It deserves a picture. I'll snap one tomorrow and post it.....sometime in the next year.
Special Edition: Addie's Aquarium
Here is how Addie spent a weekend. One Saturday morning Aaron and I each dove into our own projects upstairs and after a couple of hours I wondered what Addie was up to and went downstairs to check in. She had animal books spread all over the kitchen table and was busy at work copying facts. She had collected 'animals' from all over the house and decided to make an aquarium. The research lasted all day from 'building' the goldfish tank (the frog she made on Tuesday night with Dad) to searching and reading and drawing (notice the cute illustrations on each info card) to writing and setting up. At one point we discovered National Geographic for kids online and I showed her how to copy and print a picture from the web. She thought that was great! For the next week she gave each member of the family multiple guided tours on which she read the entire information card for each animal to you (the argument was always, "so-and so, I need your help to test out the aquarium for such and such age group). Thanks to Uncle Anthony for calling in for a narrated 'virtual' tour and to her wonderful teacher Mrs. Drayton for letting her show the slide show on the computer at school and answer questions from her classmates. It has been such a hit we thought we'd share the whole virtual tour with you. We're so glad she is curious and creative and self-motivated.
January Chronicles
We spent a fun weekend in St. George with Nana and Papa to celebrate Enoch's 3rd birthday. Enoch loves anything green. It's more than a favorite color. It's an obsession. He loves to wear PJ's. He loves monsters, dinosaurs, trains, and race cars. His favorite food is Dad's waffles. However, he recently made a rather loud announcement to me when I was at the opposite end of the produce aisle at Sam's Club. He was standing in the cart holding the broccolli up, yelling, "hey mom! I love this stuff! I call it 'trees'. It's green!"
We also got A LOT of snow this month! The third biggest storm on record for Flagstaff. School was cancelled all week. Aaron's work was even cancelled for a couple days. He said he always dreams of how great it would be to get so much snow that work was cancelled, but in the end it was just a lot of shoveling. We had the biggest mountain of snow that filled the entire cul-de-sac. It was mind boggling. The girls were playing in their snow castle (complete with a secret entrance stairway, awesome emergency exit slide, and tunnels) one day when a tractor came rolling down the street and proceeded to load 15!!! dumptrucks full and hauled it all away! It was the craziest, stupidest, saddest, most wasteful thing I've ever seen. The girls stood on the driveway during the whole thing and bawled like their house had burned down and their parents had both died. Enoch thought the tractor and trucks were cool, so he didn't mind too much. (The pictures show it all!). I think the guy felt so guilty he cleared the 18ft deep, 6ft high wall of ice-snow in front of our driveway, but don't tell, because he said the city would fire him. (by the way, I'm not exaggerating those figures. we measured. The plow guy has something against us-that or we are at the end of an exceptionally long street for the neighborhood and also not on the clean-sweep-in side).
Later in the month Aaron went on the snow cave campout with the scouts. We met him up there the next day for some sledding fun.
Oh, and the funny swim suit picture is how the kids spent their entire first snow day: playing in a 'fort' under the kitchen table...in full swimming gear?!?!?!?!
Needless to say it was an adventurous month, and we loved every minute of it.
Special Edition: The Laundry List for a family of 6
When I finished folding the laundry this morning I paused for a brief moment to look at the row of finished piles. It occurred to me that they reflected the family members to whom they belonged in a uniquely telling way.
Mine was a pile of jeans and pajamas: two staples in my life right now. I remember when I only had one or two pair of jeans and could wear them more than once before they needed laundered. Being a mom is a dirty job and now I have several pair which I wash every single week.
Aaron's pile: no jeans. There have been no jeans in Aaron's laundry, nor on his closet shelf since he was in middle school. It's just one of those quirky things we love about Aaron. He owns no jeans.
Addie has the smallest pile: 3 items (for a whole week?!?!) including 1 pair of pajama pants, 1 pair of pants and 1 shirt- incidentally not from the same outfit. Bless her heart, in an attempt to be responsible and helpful she always puts her clothes away in the drawer- clean or dirty.
Quinn has a usual and varied stack. She usually has the largest stack of all of us because she thoughtfully selects just the right outfit each morning by digging through her drawers for just the right shirt and pants, flinging any article that just won't do, willy-nilly over her shoulder. Then she frequently repeats this ritual after lunch- just because.
Enoch has a pile of no less than 8 pairs of pajamas (minus the pair he dug out of the clean basket last night to wear to bed), and as a gesture toward convention three shirts: the soccer shirt, the motorcycle shirt, and, of course, the green shirt. Enoch puts on a pair of beloved pj's each night before bed. When he wakes up he takes them off and gets dressed into another pair of beloved pj's. 'Is going out a problem,' you ask? No. He finds that cowboy boots fit quite nicely over footsie pj's.
Jean has a neat and tidy little stack of pink, brown, and white clothes and a soft, square stack of blankets next to it. So sweet. Just like her.
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