March 2013

Zippy and dear friend S

Early in March of 2013 J-rod and I got to visit with a dear friend and her family as they drove cross-country from WA to VA (her husband is in the Navy and they were on their way to their latest assignment). We met them for breakfast at a restaurant in downtown and got to meet their two youngest for the first time. What a darling family! I really enjoyed our little reunion!

C-sta strikes a pose with G'ma S.

The kids loved the fancy rental car G'ma & G'pa got! 

During our Spring Break J-rod's mom and dad came to town for a veterinary conference. We didn't see them until the weekend though as M and C-sta ended up with the flu that week.  By the weekend when Mom and Dad came to stay with us, both kids were well again and we were able to enjoy our time together AND we didn't send them home with our ickiness.

That face. Those eyes. I LOVE my li'l baker man!

After Mom and Dad S returned home and the kids went back to school, it was time to help set-up for our pack Blue and Gold dinner and help Li'l J bake his cake for the dessert portion of the evening. When I look back at how far our pack has come from where it was when we first moved here, I am so impressed with the dedication of our leaders and all that they do for these boys! I can honestly say that this Blue and Gold was THE best one I've attended since the beginning of my involvement with the program. Perhaps I'm now able to see everything through "rose colored glasses" as I'm participating just as a parent and no longer a parent-leader, and the stress of getting everything to go off without a hitch isn't there for me and I can just enjoy things more.

Blue and Gold fun!

Creative cakes from our Cub Scouts

The theme for our Blue and Gold was "Knights of the Round Table" (with a little bit of "The Armour of God" thrown in there too). We did our best to give it a "Medieval Times" feel with the decorations and food that was served. We set up the tables in a big U with the middle open for some tournament style jousting. The boys stood on the teeter boards our pack made and used for the Scout-o-Rama last month, and then used pool noodles to try and knock each other off of the boards. For dinner the YM/Scouts and YW served us baked drum sticks, small red potatoes, corn on the cob, and bread sticks. It was all delicious! We used metal pie plates and no utensils to eat the meal with. We drank water out of "metal cups" (paper cups in washed out soup cans). The table center pieces were the appetizers: grapes, cheese cubes, and crackers (also served on metal plates). The table with all the amazing cakes that the boys and families brought was labeled with a banner that read, "Ye Olde Bakery" (in old script). Two of our den leaders built a medieval stock and painted a background for the kids to stand in and have their picture taken--it was AMAZING! Everyone had such fun. Our stake president even got in on the act at the end of the night showing us how to properly balance on the teeter boards--so cool! 

After Blue and Gold I came down with the stomach flu--it was horrible, especially since J-rod was working nights and was not able to help us out.  Once again I am so grateful for the wonderful people in our neighborhood and ward who stepped up and helped out with our kids when I could hardly get out of bed! I'm so glad to be well again and hope we all stay that way for a long time!

More fun adventures from March 2013--

He's just a blur now!

*Li'l J learned how to ride his bike without training wheels!  Woo-hoo!!!

Great little speakers

*C-sta gave her very first talk in Junior Primary.  We're not sure how she got missed during her year in Sunbeams, but she did well and was SO excited to FINALLY get to give a talk!  It will be quite memorable for her as Li'l J also gave a talk that day in Senior Primary.  They were given the same topic so they worked side by side preparing their talks.

Li'l J's 10 pics for Cub Scouts:

*Interests

1. Wolf book

2. Li'l J is currently reading Percy Jackson & The Olympians: 

The Lightning Thief

3. Penguin collection: 

it's an ever GROWING collection 

4. Angry Birds poster--LOVES the game!

*Family

5. J-rod just coming back from a church meeting

6. M on his way out the door for a Scout camp out

7. C-sta striking a pose

*Pets

8. Copper getting ready to be taken on a walk

9. Jeffrey tolerates having his picture taken 

since we let him in the house for a bit

*Scenery

10. A GORGEOUS desert sunset (no filter used)

*M and Li'l J continue to be excited about scouts and have been busy working on and earning more advancements, belt loops, and merit badges. While working on the photography belt loop, one of the tasks Li'l J had to complete was to take ten pictures including family, pets, and scenery. He added the category of his interests. 

The kids brave the chilly water, 

while J-rod & Z cheered them on from the side deck.

*Even though we continued to have bipolar winter weather through March, there were days were it was warm enough to swim.  Our swim season officially began March 16--CRAZY!

*After serving in the Nursery for a little bit over a year, I was released and called to serve as the Laurel Advisor in our YW's. It was a bittersweet change because I came to SO love our little nursery kiddos, but I'm very excited to work with the YW. I haven't serve in YW's before so I've got a lot to learn as the program is very different from when I was in YW's (uh, almost 20 years ago! Yikes!). Now I get to do and go to all the fun activities associated with YW's--I've also been asked to go to Girls Camp as a Cabin Mom.  Oh boy, this will be an adventure for sure! I'm excited, but a bit nervous as we all know that I'm not big on camping...especially where there are BIG bugs and other critters!  Wish me luck.

Enjoying the Easter Pageant with our youth.

*Good Friday we took our family and helped drive our youth out to the Temple Easter Pageant. We love going to the Pageant whenever we can. This was the fourth time we were able to go. While driving there and chatting with the second counselor in our YW's, I learned that she has lived out here for about forty years and this was her very first time going to the Pageant--I was so grateful she was able to go with us! What a great way to start of the Easter weekend!  

Easter fun

Happy Easter!

*Easter the five of us enjoyed a nice day together. The kids had fun with the goodies in their baskets and we all enjoyed a yummy dinner of Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo and steamed fresh green beans.

Daily glimpses: 

An class demo for the parents.

An after school fashion show for mom.

Beautiful storm clouds.

J-rod & I came home from a date night to find all three kiddos asleep in our bed: so CUTE!

C-sta LOVES to have her nails painted!

Team work = a great big train track and lots of fun!

Sometimes after picking C-sta up from school, along the road we travel we have to wait for a train to cross. C-sta loves to watch the trains ride past, in fact, the longer the train, the better!

August 2012: Yosemite

Simply beautiful!

We spent the next two days after Monterey Bay in Yosemite.  What a beautiful place!  As we drove there J-rod and I figured out that the last time either of us had been there was when we were about M's age.  As we pulled into a parking spot, it began to drizzle.  The guide on the tour we took assured our group that if you can handle sticking around through the rain, the park would empty out and we would basically have it to our selves.  True to the guide's word, as the rain increased throughout the afternoon so did the steady stream of cars trying to exit the park.  We stayed and enjoyed the rain as we walked along the trails and boardwalks.

This is such a beautiful view!

We added a puzzle to our collection--

it's of this view and it's a pretty tricky one to put together!

Views while walking the trail around Yosemite.

On one of the trails we came upon another very tame creature, this time, a mama deer and her fawns.  We saw them heading up the same trail as we were headed down and they were quite a ways off so we stepped off the trail to sit on big log, thinking that way we wouldn't disturb her and be out of her way.  As it turned out, the mama deer had other plans.  Once she spotted us, she and her babies made their way right over to us.  The fawns munched on leaves nearby while mama deer surprised us by nudging C-sta's shoes and J-rod's thigh (C-sta was sitting up high in a pack on J-rod's back)!  We could see that they were used to being around humans, and we could also see that this mama was nursing and in great need of nourishment herself (her ribs were clearly visible against her coat), but we didn't dare feed or touch her.  While I snapped a few photos, everyone else watched quietly.

Mama deer and her babies.

When mama deer realized we weren't going to feed her, she and her babies headed off into the meadow towards the little creek we had just crossed over.  We watched them stop to visit with the couple picnicking by the creek and noticed that they did feed the mama and her babies.  I guess not all visitors heed the signs posted throughout Yosemite, nor any of the verbal reminders from park employee's to NOT feed the animals.  All posted signs and verbal warnings included the phrase, "For Your Safety"!  As we continued on our walk (in the pouring rain at this point) back to the visitors center, in the middle of another meadow we saw a young buck with the velvet still on his antlers munching on some green leaves.  We all agreed that seeing and visiting with the deer up close was a highlight for us that day.  

Views from Glacier Point Road.

Our second day at Yosemite we spent it exploring along Glacier Point Road, Glacier Point, and Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias.  The animals we saw this day included a coyote (from our car), more deer, chipmunks, squirrels (among them a very tame and rather plump one that ate amongst us inside the shop we stopped at for lunch).  As we were eating our lunch and the plump squirrel was crawling all around under the tables, I felt a tap on my shoulder.  When I looked up this little old man asked, "Do you see the squirrel?" I answered, "Yes." He said, "Can I have a piece of your sandwich so I can feed the squirrel?"  Uh...what?  I guess he didn't care to heed the signs either!

Glacier Point

Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias

We headed home the next day and spent the weekend recovering from our road trip, doing laundry, and getting ready for the kids to start school that following Monday.  It felt a bit funny to have our big trip at the tail end of the summer and then the start of school felt rushed and like it was too soon to go back, but since we were planning around the S Family Reunion that was how it worked out.  

First Day of School

At the start of school M began 6th grade where he became a full-fledged middle schooler and a member of the advanced band.  Li'l J began 2nd grade, happy to be in a class with a lot of his friends from 1st grade and from our ward as well.  C-sta began attending a 3hr a day, 5 day a week preschool which she loves.  Two days into the school year C-sta celebrated her 4th birthday with a good visit to the dentist, dinner from her favorite local Mexican place (a little hole in the wall that has yummy food), cake and ice cream with just our little family, and fun presents from us and her grandparents.  While still a big fan of the Disney Princesses, we have now entered the world of Barbie and Zhu Zhu Pets.

Our sweet birthday girl.

BFF fashion show

Unfortunately once kids go back-to-school, germs and bugs tend to thrive amongst peers and though it usually doesn't strike this early into the year Li'l J picked something up at school the last week of August and as a result spent a couple days home with a fever, vomiting, and asthma. Aside from Li'l J feeling so miserable, it was fun to have him home.  We watched movies, napped, and played LOTS of Star Wars Monopoly (he beat me every time!). : ) 

May 2012

May 2012 was filled to the brim with activity—lots of the usual and lots of firsts too—and by the end I was a little worn out. I have a friend who says that we live an "active" life...too true. Better busy and active than not, I suppose.  I guess I’ll start with the big-ticket news items that began and ended the month for us.

First, I must ask, are you sitting down?  At the beginning of May we surprised even ourselves and got a...KITTEN!!! Super-duper adorable! Can you believe it??? Yes, you did read that correctly--we not only have a dog, but we now we also have a cat!  Have you recovered from your shock yet?  I'll give you a minute. Thought you'd never see the day?  Yeah, neither did we!  Ha, ha!  We brought Jeffery home with a very specific purpose in mind.

Part-way through 2011 our good neighbors moved and took their cats with them: an indoor hairless cat named Chowder that was so ugly, it made him endearing, and their black outdoor cat named Elvira that would keep the birds away from their house and ours.  On a side note, Elvira is the same cat the snuck into our house a couple years back one night as I was rushing Li'l J to the ER--good memories!  

Anyway with the cats gone, the birds (pigeons, doves, sparrows, black birds, etc) began to call our backyard home eating Copper's food and drinking his water. Copper would chase them away in the mornings but then in the afternoons when he naps, it's a free for all and our back deck, table, and chairs are covered in bird poop. I quickly grew tired of it all!

I tried only putting Copper's food outside for him at night, but all it did was make him grumpy and bark...A LOT. Seeing that his food bowl is full, even when he is full and isn't going to touch the food, is a comfort thing for Copper. When he has finished eating and his bowl is empty, Copper comes to the back door and barks incessantly until someone comes back out and refills it, only then will he quiet down. Funny dog!

J-rod's dad suggested putting Copper's food and water bowl in an enclosed area, thinking that would keep the birds away. So...we put the bowls in the doghouse Copper refuses to use. Doing that kept the pigeons, doves, and sparrows away, but not the big black birds. All it did for them was move the problem and make them LOUDER. The black birds would congregate in front of, above, and inside of the dog house squawking at each other as they fought over which one was going to go in next to get food. It was incredibly annoying!

So...my friend has a cat that was having kittens. This mama cat is a known hunter and was teaching her kittens to hunt too, so my friend suggested we take one of her kittens. The kids and I went to check them out when they were 5 weeks old and immediately FELL. IN. LOVE. with the one kitten that came right too me and snuggled up! Wait, what? Me??? But I'm not a cat person! Yes, yes, it's true. That kitten tugged on my heart strings and when it was 7 weeks old we brought it home and introduced it to Copper.

Our kitten is the SWEETEST little thing with only half a tail! He and Copper are best buds. They sleep together and both complain when we bring the kitten inside so it can eat. Copper barks and howls until we bring the kitten back out. We keep them separate during feeding times since J-rod's dad warned us that the kitten's food will upset Copper's tummy. Plus the kitten tries to eat Copper's food, which is too big for it and would probably not be good for him either. When we take the kitten back out, Copper picks him up like a mama cat, by the scruff of the neck and carries him around for a bit. It scared us at first, but he hasn't tried to hurt the kitten and he just wants to move him away from us to check it out and then lets it go. We keep a close eye on them when Copper is doing that just to be safe! I have given it a bath almost everyday because when Copper does that, it leaves the kitten coated in dog slobber and it ends up sporting a big Mohawk.

The kitten came to us as Jeffrey, but we think he might actually be a she so we are still trying to agree on a name everyone likes. J-rod and I like "Skittles"--skittish+little+kitten. Too bad the kids are not fans of that name! Li'l J wants to call it "Furry" because it is definitely one fluffy and furry little thing with all of its long hair. C-sta is still upset that we didn't bring home the other one that looks similar to ours that was named Lily. M suggested: Fur-mione (pronounced like Hermione from Harry Potter...of course).

J-rod has accepted that we have a kitten and loves that the rest of us are happy, but thinks that with our allergies that I'm CRAZY to have brought one home! To be fair, he just might be right. So far our allergies haven’t been any worse, so we’ll see.  Hopefully as our little addition to the family begins to grow, it will start to “earn its keep” and keep the birds away!

Isn't he darling???

At the end of May as J-rod and I were headed to the temple for a brother in our ward that was going through for his first time, we took a little detour. Every May the ASU Music Department teams up with the AZ Piano Co. to hold a sale of used pianos.  The school hosts the sale, the AZ Piano Co. brings in used and/or demo piano’s from it’s store, plus a few that have been used on campus by ASU and then donates some of the proceeds from the sale back to ASU to help the Music Department purchase new pianos.

We went with the same intention we always go with when looking at a big purchase: “just to look” and that is exactly what we told the salesman.  Ha, ha, famous last words!  J-rod had been researching baby grand pianos: makes, sizes, prices, etc. so he had an idea of what would work for us.  J-rod “test drove” a number of the available selection and noted that the prices were far below what we expected, so we asked the salesman for a few minutes while we discussed whether to wait a year (as originally planned) or go for it.  Decision made, we called the salesman back and totally made his day by signing on the dotted line, setting up delivery, and walking out about 20 minutes after we had walked in.  We were probably his easiest sale of the weekend!   Not that we could have spared more than the 20 minutes we spent there as we had a temple session to get to.

Baby Grand's first picture in our home. (Grainy cell phone pic).

So there you have the stories of how we ended up with two new additions to our family in the month of May.  We are thoroughly enjoying both of the new additions and have no regrets as to welcoming them into our home.

Now let’s see, what else went on in May?

C-ta danced in her first ballet recital the day before Mother’s Day.  All three little girls in her age group looked beautiful and performed very well!  They danced to “You Are My Sunshine”.  One of C-sta’s favorite parts of the day was getting to wear full “performance” make-up for the recital!

C-sta living her dream!

Mother’s Day was wonderful.  Since breakfast in bed wasn’t an option with early morning church, Li'l J made me my favorite sandwich as soon as we got home and served it to me with chips and string cheese while I lounged in J-rod’s recliner. It’s important to note that he did this all by himself. For dinner J-rod made yummy BBQ beef sandwiches.  Everyone showered me with great gifts!  The one that made me smile the most was Li'l J’s  “Top Ten Reasons Why I Love My Mom”, and the gift that surprised me the most was J-rod’s: a brand new sewing machine!  The nearly fifty-year-old machine we inherited when we got married (a family heirloom that belonged to J-rod’s mom from when she was a teenager until she passed away) finally quit working back in February, so it was time for a new one.  I was neither expecting one, nor one as nice as the one I received.  I am indeed blessed!  Now I just have to schedule a tutorial at Jo Ann’s Fabrics so I can learn how to use the modern model.

Mother's Day 2012

Both M and Li'l J participated in their school track meet and had a lot of fun doing so.

M at the shot put, with his teammates looking on.

Li'l J running like the wind with the baton.

M and friends. Ready, set, go!

M neck and neck with his buds J and I.

M and his friend J in the hurdles race.

Li'l J and friends.

After all the races, there was a fun relay for everyone to participate in.

Li'l J rocked the hula hoop!

Ribbons: Li'l J, friend J, M, friend I.

Mid-way through the month, preschool for C-sta ended for the year and she missed it like crazy once it was over.  Truthfully, so did I.  Once C-sta finished with preschool, the count down until the boys finished school began so C-sta could have someone to pal around with throughout the summer.

C-sta with her class and teacher Mrs. B.

With preschool over, what is a girl to do while she waits for her brothers to finish up with school? Why, spend a fun filled afternoon at Build-a-Bear with one of your besets friends of course!  B, one of C-sta's friends from preschool invited C-sta to go to Build-a-Bear with her to celebrate her birthday (and Zippy got to go along for the fun afternoon too).  This was C-sta's first experience at Build-a-Bear and she couldn't have been more excited to be there!

C-sta and B got matching bears. 

C-sta named her bear "Elizabear" 

(in honor of one of her favorite YW from our ward).  

By the middle of May, the swim season was in full swing with team practices for both M and Li'l J, as well as fun swim days with friends in our pool.

Time for a haircut? 

Both M and Li'l J performed in end year concerts and were recognized for their hard work and academic achievements at awards assemblies.

C-sta wanted to pose for a pic too!

Li'l J moves on to 2nd grade and was given

 "The Jolly Rancher" Award for his 'jolly' attitude.

January 2012

The dress C-sta is wearing was made by my Aunt Z. 
Aunt Z sent it home with us for C-sta 
when we visited with her in December.

January 2012 was spent recovering from our crazy and memorable December 2012 and happily settling into new routines for the new year. On the whole, I felt much better about the start of 2012 than I did about the end of 2011.  I worked on being better at letting things go a bit more, while better appreciating the organizing 'here and there' that happened on occasion and the projects that were completed as a result. 

M turned 11 part-way through January. As is tradition, we left up the Christmas tree in the loft until M's birthday so he could open up his birthday presents under the tree.  

The newest 11 year old Scout in our troop is really enjoying his experience so far. Isn't he handsome? He's getting so grown up!

C-sta is so happy to be in Sunbeams now!

C-sta finally stopped using her binkie in December--yay!--and in January she began taking ballet lessons Saturday mornings.  Not knowing that she was going to begin lessons a couple weeks before her class started, C-sta began telling me (very dramatically), "Mama, ballet is my DREEEEEE-MMM!".  Where she learned that, I don't know but it was super cute to hear!  So far she is enjoying her class, loves her teacher (a ballerina in our stake), and loves that one of her friends from her preschool is also in her ballet class.  I love that we can help her "DREEEEEE-MMM" come true.  

Weekly I trade babysitting with a friend so that she and I both can go help in Li'l J's 1st grade class. C-sta and her friend B really enjoy their weekly play-dates.  Pictured below is C-sta with her friend B one afternoon at our house.

Pretty pedi's

Pretty in Pink

C-sta still enjoys it when I document her cuteness with a picture or two. Recently she wore this cute outfit that once belonged to her Aunt C. I fixed her hair in a set of double flipped ponytails and ta-da, total cuteness!

Off on a Daddy-daughter date!

This month J-rod took C-sta on a date to see the 3D release of Beauty and the Beast.  C-sta was super excited to wear her Belle crown that she got for Christmas 2011 from the LV S family. She had such a good time at the movie that she's still talking about her date with her dad and asks to watch our Beauty and the Beast DVD almost daily.

After coming home from the movies with J-rod, C-sta and the boys found an itty-bitty lizard. All three kiddos really, really, really wanted to keep this little reptile, but J-rod said NO way! Fortunately I was able to appease these cuties by taking a picture of each of them holding the whittle-guy.

Five years after moving to this area, I have come full circle in the callings I've held. At the end of  January I began serving where I first served after moving here--the nursery.  My good friend S (and fellow nursery leader) and I had a crazy, chaotic first day as we tried to get our bearings, but we are very excited to be working together to love and serve this group of sweet little kiddos.  The counselors J-rod has been serving with for the last year and a half were released and called to serve as the Young Men's president and the Ward Mission leader, so J-rod has called new counselors and the new bishopric is working hard to keep the ward running smoothly.

M visited with the pediatric orthopedic specialist Phoenix Children's Hospital to review the scoliosis x-ray series taken a few months back. The doctor we met with told us that while M does have a slight curvature, for right now he'd like to keep an eye on the curve and continue to watch what it does as M grows. He asked that we come back in six months for a follow-up. 

Coming up, February 2012.