The Hinchcliff Family

Soccer

2012-02-12T21:55:00.000-07:00

Jade is playing the winter session of soccer. Now she has never played soccer before, and I am not really sure how she feels about it. At games, she runs after the ball, but once she actually gets to it, I don't think that she knows what to do. She just kind of stands there, but so do a lot of the other kids. Sometimes she complains about it. The other day, though, I asked her if she wanted to play the spring session, and she said "sure." However, Bristol, seems to like soccer and can kind of dribble the ball already. So as soon as she is old enough, I am going to sign her up. I think she should be old enough to play in the fall. Here are some pictures from one of Jade's games:

The name of Jade's team is the Bumblebees since they have goldish-yellow shirts.

Christmas

2012-02-12T21:42:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a little while since Christmas, but I want to post about Christmas just to remember some things about it. This year there was nothing particularly special about it other than that it was Aspen's first Christmas.

Aspen on Christmas Day in her cute little dress.

Trent had to work Christmas Eve so it was just me and the children that afternoon and evening. We didn't really do anything. I took a nap when Bristol napped, and the kids pretty much played for most of the day.

Since Christmas Day was on Sunday and we had a ridiculously early church time of 8am, we quickly got ready for church that morning and left. The kids didn't even really have time to look at the presents. After church, Trent and I would have preferred to just nap, but we knew the kids wouldn't go for that. Of course, they wanted to open the presents, and they were a little too eager to do it. When we got home, they ran in the house and were about to start opening them before I had even come inside. Trent stopped them, though. We were kind of mad that they were being a little bit greedy like that so we told them that now they were going to have to wait until after we ate. So I cooked our waffles, and we ate. When we were done eating and the table was cleared, we started opening presents. Brooke got a new bike. Jade got lots of Barbies, and Bristol received a play kitchen. She plays with that kitchen (and the fake food that she also received) all the time now. Honestly, all the kids play with her kitchen a lot. Oh yeah, Aspen got some clothes, and we decided to get her a crib. Bristol still sleeps in her crib really well, and I didn't want to kick her out of it. We thought that it would be better to just get another crib for Aspen. Besides there wasn't much else that we could think of to get her for Christmas.

Bristol is wearing her new polar bear scarf.

Jade got a piggy bank which she actually broke later that day. She knocked it off the couch while she was messing around. At that time, she was actually supposed to be taking it to her room...

Bristol examining a gift.

Trent is modeling the sweater I got him.

Brooke and Jade opening presents.

Later that day, we went to our friends' home for Christmas dinner. I made rolls and a cheesecake, and I was so glad that I didn't have to prepare an entire Christmas dinner by myself.

Holiday Fun

2011-12-21T23:42:00.001-07:00

I have to admit that I don't get that excited about Christmas anymore. Basically, this happened when we moved to Arizona. For one thing, it didn't feel like Christmastime when it was sunny and in the 70's outside. That was in Yuma, but here in Sierra Vista, it's a bit cooler which helps. Also, it wasn't fun not being around family and not knowing a lot of people. I like being around extended family for the holidays. Plus, Christmas has become more work for me. I have to figure out what we are going to do for Christmas Eve and Day and what we are going to eat. And then guess who has to prepare all the food. Me, of course. Then we have to find ways to entertain the children. Previously, we spent Christmas with family and had a potluck type of meal so I only had to prepare one or two dishes. The kids were able to play with their cousins, and the adults could socialize. This year, we are going to spend Christmas Day with some friends, and I won't have to prepare a whole dinner. I am glad about that. On Christmas Eve, we are probably just going to order take-out from a restaurant before Trent goes to work. Then the children and I will just stay home and relax until they go to bed.

Before December, I was telling Trent that I didn't want to do Christmas, that I was too tired and didn't feel like doing all that work. I said that he would have to do it. I think he was a little concerned because I wasn't joking. I was pretty serious. So at the beginning of December, he took some initiative and got the Christmas tree and decorations out of the garage. I actually ended up putting up the decorations around the house, and I let the kids decorate the tree. They did the whole thing themselves other than me putting the lights on. Brooke really enjoyed it, and they did a pretty good job. I was just glad that I didn't have to do that task. Anyway, I decided that I would have to do some Christmas stuff so that at least the kids would have a good Christmas. So I bought a gingerbread house kit to do with them. Today we started working on it, and Aspen was crying. Brooke and Jade were telling me how they wanted the house, and they wouldn't hold Aspen. I told them they could do the house by themselves instead. I wasn't mad; I just realized that they didn't need me to help them. Besides, I was tired and not particularly interested in doing the house anyway. So Aspen and I napped on the couch while Brooke and Jade decorated. They had fun, didn't fight, and did it the way they wanted. (I have to say that one nice thing about them getting older is that they are becoming more independent and actually even helpful at times.)

I also got an "Elf on the Shelf" for the kids. They named him Alexander, and every morning, they look to see where his new hiding spot is. That has been fun for them. Sometimes I can even get them to behave by telling them that Alexander is going to report their bad behavior to Santa.

The rest of this week, I am going to be wrapping presents. There are a lot, and I haven't even started. Tomorrow I am going to attempt some Christmas baking. I am only planning on making four things, but who knows if I'll actually accomplish it. It depends on how cooperative the children are. I would also like to get the house clean so that after Sunday we can just get back to our normal life and not have to try to catch up on housework. Trent is good about helping me with the kids and the housework so we should be able to do it. Hopefully, I won't get stressed with all the Christmas stuff and maybe even enjoy it.

This past Sunday after church, I attempted to take pictures of the kids, but Bristol wasn't being cooperative. So Trent tried to sit with her in the picture. Since there was a picture of him with the girls, I thought that we should also do one of me with them. Now we just need a picture of us as a whole family.

Aspen Update

2011-12-21T22:45:00.000-07:00

Aspen is almost two months old, and I am realizing how few pictures I have taken of her. In the first two months of Brooke's life, I am sure that I took lots of photos of her. I guess that when you have more children, you have less time to go around taking pictures of the baby. So the past week or so, I have made a concerted effort to take more pictures of Aspen. I need to do the same with the other children as well, but at Aspen's age, they change so quickly. Here are some recents photos of her:

I have to say she has some pretty cute facial expressions. Over the last few weeks, she has also started to smile more, and thankfully her crying has decreased. She is sleeping fairly well at night now and wakes up about one time. On December 1, she had her one month check-up and weighed eight pounds and was 20.5 inches (I think). So she has been growing, and I am sure that she weighs more than that since that was about three weeks ago. I feel like things are starting to get easier now that she is going to sleep better and isn't crying so much.

Sisters

2011-11-30T00:17:00.000-07:00

I was curious to see how the three girls would respond to Aspen, and it has been interesting. I was mostly worried about how it would be with Bristol since she is a little wild and crazy at times and acts very two-year-oldish. (I was not prepared for her behavior even though it is perfectly normal. Jade was very calm as a two year old and never really seemed to have the "terrible twos"). Well, Brooke likes Aspen but isn't too interested in her. Once in a while, she asks to hold her, and she'll hold her if I ask her. Other than that, she doesn't pay Aspen a lot of attention. She is more preoccupied with her interests (reading, drawing, playing), and she has actually been playing with Bristol a fair amount also. That has been very helpful at times.

Jade, on the other hand, has been very interested in Aspen. She wants to hold her all the time. If Aspen wakes-up, Jade will go and get her if we're not there first. She also wants to pick out Aspen's clothes for the day and her pajamas at night. Her interest isn't surprising, though; I remember that she was very interested in Bristol as a baby.

Bristol's response to Aspen has been the most "fun." When she visited me at the hospital, she at first kept saying baby and giggling. She soon lost interest, though, and started getting into things. Then the first night that I was home from the hospital, Bristol woke-up at midnight and wouldn't go back to sleep. It is pretty rare for her to wake-up at night when we are at home. So we put her in our bed, and she was interested in the baby and not sleep. This lasted on and off for about two hours until finally I had Trent put her back in her crib. She wasn't happy about that and cried for about ten minutes, but then she went back to sleep. The Monday after Aspen was born, Bristol decided she wasn't going to wear clothes anymore, including diapers. She can be pretty strong-willed so she spent most of the day naked. Thankfully, within a few days, we got her back to wearing diapers and clothes on a regular basis. I am not sure if this behavior was just because she is two or if it was her way of dealing with a new baby in the house. Either way, it was very frustrating for us. Anyway, a few days later, Trent, Brooke and Jade went to Nevada to see family, and he left Bristol with me. That was a big mistake. I was trying to take care of a less than two week old baby, and Bristol was left with no one to play with since Brooke and Jade were both gone. She was getting into everything, and I was getting very upset. Other than taking care of Aspen, I was also hoping to get some things done. However, I quickly realized that wasn't going to happen so I resigned myself to taking care of Aspen and just trying to entertain Bristol. Things were a lot better after that, but I was kind of irritated that I didn't get to relax or accomplish much during those few days. Since then, things have improved with Bristol. She often asks to hold Aspen and will give her hugs and kisses. Sometimes, though, Bristol will randomly hit her, pull on her, or try to pick her up. I think she does that mostly because she enjoys our reaction. When Aspen gets older, it will be nice for both of them because they'll have each other to play with. Right now, Bristol and Jade play together quite nicely for most of the day while Brooke is at school so Aspen and Bristol will be able to do the same when the two oldest are both in school.

One Month

2011-11-29T23:21:00.000-07:00

As of this past Friday, Aspen is already one month old. She still doesn't do much of course, but I can tell that she is definitely growing. She already seems a lot bigger until I see other babies. Then I realize that she is still pretty small. On Thursday, she goes to the doctor for a check-up, and we'll see how much she weighs. I know that she's gained at least two pounds, though.

On her one month "birthday".

Aspen has also been working on her crying skills. A couple of weeks ago she started crying a lot more. Sometimes it is for as long as an hour and for no discernible reason. That hasn't been too enjoyable, but it hasn't been that bad. Sometimes it is just at an inconvenient time like when I should be making dinner and Trent is at work. Then we usually end up having dinner late or eating something like cereal. Luckily, Aspen doesn't do this in the middle of the night, and I had to deal with a lot more crying from Jade when she was a newborn (and I survived). She would cry for hours, including in the middle of the night. That didn't last forever, though, and I know this won't either.

Awake (and not crying!)

Baby Aspen

2011-11-19T21:28:00.001-07:00

Aspen was born three and a half weeks ago, but time just seems to be flying by because it doesn't feel like it was that long ago. She was born on October 25 at 3:58pm, and she was 5 lbs. 10.8 oz and 19 inches long. I don't know why they didn't just round up or down and say 11 or 10 oz., but they didn't. So now I feel like I have to say the .8, and it seems a little too specific but oh well. Even though I was induced ten days early, I was surprised that she was that small. I thought that she would be at least six pounds since Bristol was 6 lbs. 5.5 oz. and she was two weeks early. Even the newborn size diapers were big on Aspen, and when we brought her home, all of her smallest clothes were huge on her. I can tell that she's grown because now the diapers fit her just right and she fills out her clothes better.

The delivery went well. I was actually a little nervous about being induced especially since I was only dilated to two the day of the induction. I was worried that I would be in pain longer, but it went better than I expected. We arrived at the hospital at 7:30am, and they started me on antibiotics. This time around I had group B strep (which is part of the reason for my induction) so I had to have antibiotics so it wouldn't be passed on to the baby. Since my labors are usually so fast, I wasn't even induced until 11:30am. They wanted to make sure that I had the first round of the antibiotics (which takes about four hours to administer) before I was even in labor. So for those four hours, we didn't do much. The nurse took care of a whole bunch of administrative stuff with me, and then I napped a little. Trent read, surfed the internet on his iPod, and went and ate lunch. It was nice to have that time to nap and relax before labor. Then at 11:30am, the doctor broke my water and they started a little pitocin. For the next two hours, I had contractions, but they didn't hurt at all. Sometimes I wasn't even sure if I was having one or not. Then they started to hurt a little but just barely. That lasted for an hour, and then all of the sudden at about 3pm they started hurting a lot more. The nurse checked me, and I was dilated to a 4.5. She checked me again at 3:30pm, and I was a 7 so she turned the pitocin off and called my doctor. The doctor was there in fifteen or twenty minutes, and they quickly got the bed and everything else ready. By that time, I was at ten. The doctor told me to push whenever I was ready. I was ready right then, and Aspen was out in just a couple of minutes. So I was really only in pain for about an hour. I just wonder how fast labor would have been, or at least the painful part of it, if I wasn't induced and went into labor on my own. I am glad that I was induced, though, because I was able to have the baby in Tucson, and we were able to know when Trent's mom should come to help us.

Oh yeah, Aspen's middle name is Beverly. Trent't mother's mother was named Beverly, and her birthday was also October 25. She was killed in a plane crash when Gayle was a young adult so Trent never met her. We thought that this would be a nice memorial of her.

Two Years Old

2011-11-17T22:54:00.000-07:00

Bristol turned two years old on October 20, and we did nothing for her birthday that day. Instead we waited until Sunday the 23rd. Trent had to work (he leaves at 1pm), and his next day off was Sunday. Since I was going to be having the baby two days later and I was trying to also prepare for that, I didn't bother making a whole birthday cake. I just made cupcakes, and I am sure that Bristol didn't care either way. While waiting to sing and then eat the cupcakes, Bristol was very funny. She kept saying "cupcakes" because she was eager to eat them.

Bristol is getting to be more fun especially now that she is talking a lot more. She frequently says "I love you" and gives lots of hugs and kisses. She is also pretty tough. Like many toddlers, she falls down or gets hurt a lot, but it often doesn't bug her at all. Recently, she had her blood drawn to check for lead (tangent: I am pretty sure none of my other kids had this done but the pediatrician here says they do it at one, two and four years so I am wondering if it has something to do with this area), and when they did it, it didn't bother her one bit. I was worried that she was going to cry and squirm, but she was fine.

One funny thing about Bristol is that she still doesn't have much hair for her age. When she was one, she was still pretty bald. She definitely has more hair now, but compared to most two year olds, she doesn't have much. Although when I look at pictures of her from a few months ago in the summer, she has more now so I guess it has been growing lately. I think that I expected her to have more hair because Brooke and Jade did (especially Jade), but at least I don't have to worry about doing Bristol's hair yet.

Just One Week

2011-10-18T22:22:00.000-07:00

Well, for now, I am scheduled to be induced one week from today, on October 25. I am a lot more ready for the baby now than I was a week or two ago. I washed and put away all the clothes. We got a new dresser, which we actually gave to Jade, and the baby is using Jade's old dresser. I finally just bought the dresser from Target because it wasn't very expensive. I was trying to avoid buying that dresser, not because I didn't like it, but because I knew we would have to assemble it ourselves. So I put it together a couple of weeks ago, and it took me four hours or something. It is cute, but I really hated spending all that time doing that. However, there isn't a really good craigslist here since the town is small, and there is about one furniture store -- not very impressive either. Buying something online would have cost a lot in shipping, and we still probably would have had to assemble the dresser ourselves. Anyway, I have managed to complete some miscellaneous projects also. So I think that by next Tuesday, I will be as ready as I wanted to be.

Bristol's birthday is this Thursday, and she will be two years old. The last two years have gone by so quickly; I sometimes find it hard to believe that she's not a baby anymore. But she really isn't. I think that will be especially evident when I have the baby and compare them. I am kind of excited for her birthday, though. Because of the baby, I actually have been planning way ahead and already bought/wrapped all of her presents. Having it done by now is pretty good for me. I believe that Trent's mom will also be arriving that day. She's coming to help us with the kids, and we are excited to have her visit.

Lately

2011-10-01T23:14:00.000-07:00

So we haven't been up to much lately. Trent is just working. Brooke is going to school, and Bristol, Jade, and I stay home. I attempt to be productive, but really I just spend a lot of time feeding Bristol and keeping her out of things. She eats a lot and gets into just about everything. By the time she takes a nap, I have to take one also. Bristol is pretty fun and funny, though, and she's picking up words quickly now (especially candy, cake and cookie). She likes to say, "What's that?" and "See ya."
When I see the baby ticker on the blog, I can't believe it already says 34 days. I know that more likely than not, I don't even have that long until the baby is born. I really don't have the baby stuff ready, but that's on my agenda for this week. I have kind of been procrastinating it because I first wanted to get the garage and some stuff in my bedroom organized. And I have been procrastinating getting that stuff organized because it's just not that fun. Trent and I worked on the garage about two week ago and made some good progress that day, but we didn't get back to it until this week. So we have to finish it in the next couple of days so I can get all the baby stuff out of there and get it ready ASAP. I am trying to find a dresser for the baby (like I need one this week) so I have somewhere to put her stuff, but furniture options here are pretty limited.
I went to the doctor on Friday, and she did an ultrasound. I am measuring small (which is actually normal for me) so she just wanted to check on the baby. That was fine with me. I am happy to see the baby again before I get to see her outside of me. The baby is on the small end of normal so everything is okay. The doctor also going to checked to see if I am dilated at all yet, and I was a 1. The baby's head is also down really low. Since my due date is still about five weeks away, I am thinking I'll have her about October 21 (which would be at 38 weeks) or maybe even a little sooner. Really, I would be okay with later than that, but that probably won't happen. I just want to make sure that I have everything ready before the birth. I go to the doctor again on Friday (the 7th), and we'll see if anything has changed. Here is the baby's face from the ultrasound:

This is the side of her face. On the right is her forehead. Going left, you can see her eye, cheek and nose.

Recital Pictures

2011-10-01T22:56:00.000-07:00

I finally found the girls' dance recital pictures that were done at the dance studio, and I got my own pictures of them developed. They aren't smiling their best smiles, but some of the other kids in the pictures also have funny looks. I do really like the photo that I took of them, though. Those are better smiles. Anyway, here are the pictures:

Jade's dance was to "Teddy Bear Picnic" so they are supposed to be teddy bears.

Brooke danced to "Stayin' Alive" (the version sung by the Chipettes).

Brooke and Jade together -- sometimes they like each other.

Miracle

2011-10-01T22:38:00.000-07:00

Well, okay maybe this isn't really a miracle, but I am still happy about it. Brooke's school had pictures about a month ago. I was kind of nervous because so far her school pictures have not been great. I hate spending the money when they don't even look that good. Anyway, on picture day, I curled her hair and she wore a cute dress. Since I wasn't sure how the school pictures would turn out, I took a picture of her before she left.

I think she looks pretty good here.

And this is her school picture. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw it.

If I had the inclination and readily knew where her pictures from kindergarten and first grade were, I would scan and post them. Then you would know exactly what I was talking about. You'll just have to trust me instead.

Brooke is doing really well in school this year so far, just as I had expected. At parent-teacher conferences, her teacher only had positive things to say about her. I am glad to know that with other people, she is always well-behaved. At home that's not always the case, but I think that's pretty common for other kids also. She really enjoys reading and read the first Harry Potter book a few weeks ago. Sometimes, Brooke really gets into books and would continue reading until 10pm or later on a school night if I let her. I am glad that she has such a love for reading. We just wish she had that much enthusiasm for math. She can do the math at her grade level just fine, but we are trying to get her to learn her times tables at home. They haven't started that yet in school, but I definitely think that it is not beyond her capacity to learn them now. She is making progress but sometimes is very resistant. I think that it is partially because she would rather go read or play than practice her multiplication. In general, things are going pretty well for Brooke. It's nice knowing that she was able to start a new school this year without any problems.

A Valid Concern

2011-09-11T22:45:00.005-07:00

Apparently, Sierra Vista's supply of eligible four year old boys is not quite up to Jade's standards. The other day she said to me, out of nowhere, "Uh! There are no boys in Sara Bista (that's how she says Sierra Vista). I can't find anyone to marry!" Yeah, that's definitely been on my mind too...

Here are some recent photos of Jade -- for some reason she's fond of putting her arms up in the air for photos:

Happy Birthday Trent!

2011-09-11T21:07:00.002-07:00

So this is a little late, but Trent's birthday was about three weeks ago on August 22. We had a little family celebration for him. For dinner, we went to Texas Roadhouse, which is always fun. I am being kind of sarcastic because now that we have three kids, we decided that eating out is usually more hassle than it's worth. That's mostly because it costs more and because of Bristol. She can be a handful at restaurants so it's just not that enjoyable. I digress. Anyway, after dinner, we had chocolate cake, and Trent opened his presents. His main present was a new wedding ring. His original one has been gone for almost three years so I finally replaced it. This one is a lot nicer so he better not lose it. So that was pretty much his birthday.

Another tangent (but I think it's kind of funny and talking about Trent's ring reminded me of it): When I was in Tucson for a doctor appointment about four weeks ago, Trent came along but was at the mall with the kids while I was at the doctor's office. He was outside a jewelry store and an employee told him to come in and buy jewelry for me. Trent said, "No, my wife wants to get our student loans paid off." (Which is true. I am far more interested in paying those off than in getting new jewelry. Thankfully, we are almost done.) Then some lady nearby said, "No, that's what you want!"

Finally!

2011-09-06T14:00:00.003-07:00

I know it's been about seven months since I last posted anything, but I've decided I need to start posting again and do so more regularly. I have actually been planning on resuming posts for months now but keep procrastinating. Today I am finally doing it! A lot has happened these past seven months (obviously). First of all, in March I found out that I am pregnant (hence the due date widget on the side of the blog). I am due November 4, and in June, we found out that the baby is another girl. I am pretty confident that the baby will be born in October since I will be having her in Tucson. So I will be induced (most likely early and most likely just stripping the membranes or breaking my water) to ensure a hospital delivery. We definitely can't count on me making it to the hospital in Tucson if I just wait at home to go into labor.
Anyway, in March, we also found out that Trent was getting transferred to Sierra Vista and that we would be moving in the next few months. Sierra Vista is on the eastern side of the state (about an hour and a half southeast of Tucson) and is cooler temperature wise. The prospect of living somewhere not so hot was nice. Plus Trent's work gives the employees money to assist in the cost of moving. Since we were only moving about five hours away, the amount we were given was way more than we needed for moving expenses and we just got to keep the rest. Even though Sierra Vista is smaller than Yuma, it is not as isolated. Like I said, it is only 1.5 hours from Tucson, and Tucson is pretty big. So we have a lot better access to malls, museums, the zoo, good doctors and hospitals, etc. We ended up moving to Sierra Vista on June 15, and the moving process was very tiring and stressful. Thankfully, Trent's mom, Gayle, came and helped us pack, clean the house, and move. I can only imagine how much more stressful the move would have been if she hadn't been there to help.
In March and April, Brooke had her Spring Break so we took a little family vacation to San Diego, mostly so we could go to Sea World. It was fun, and I decided that I definitely prefer Sea World to the San Diego Zoo and Disneyland. Sea World is just the right size for taking little kids, has animals and rides, and the lines for rides aren't too long.

At Sea World.

Bristol loved the animals.

Jade at the beach in La Jolla.

We were in San Diego during Brooke's 7th birthday (April 4) so when we came back we bought these cute butterfly cupcakes from Kneader's since I was too tired to make a cake.

Jade's 4th birthday was May 16th, and I made this cake for her. It's kind of supposed to look like her. I just used a Little Mermaid cake pan that I have, used light brown for the hair color, and gave Ariel a shirt.

   Brooke's last day of school was June 10, and the next day was Brooke and Jade's dance recital. I have pictures, but first I have to develop them and scan them into the computer. I had to use a disposal camera since around that time I discovered that my digital camera was taking odd-looking pictures. Anyhow, the girls did great in their recital and looked really cute.
   Like I said earlier, we moved just four days later on the 15th. Summer went by really quickly from the time that Brooke got out of school. Two weeks after our move, we made a trip to Colorado to visit Trent's family for a week. The drive was fourteen hours (in one day) each way so that part wasn't so enjoyable. Otherwise, we had a good visit with Trent's family. About a week after our return, we made a trip to Idaho which took two days of driving each way. Not fun. We did see my brother get married in the Idaho Falls temple, though, and then we went to Boise for the remainder of our time in Idaho. That trip was about a week and half altogether, and I was kind of cranky and tired by the time we got home. That much driving with little kids can get rather unpleasant. Brooke started second grade just two weeks after our return from Idaho and seems to really like her school and teacher. It sounds like she has made lots of friends, and I think that she is doing pretty well.
   We have been home consistently for over a month so now we are just trying to finish unpacking some miscellaneous boxes and organize the garage. I have been kind of slow with that but need to get it done very soon since I also need to get all the baby stuff ready. I think I will be having her in about seven weeks, and I know that time will go very quickly. So that's basically what we have been up to for the past seven months. Next post, I will include more of what we have been doing the last few weeks. I'll share more about the kids since I kind of like them and am guessing the family would like to see more photos of them.

Pop Star

2011-02-01T22:46:00.004-07:00

The week before last week, Brooke started singing and dancing around her room, making up lyrics to her songs. It was pretty hilarious -- the songs, not the singing and dancing because every kid does that. I can't really remember the specific lines now (that's what happens when I wait so long to post), which is unfortunate because they were pretty funny and I wanted to post them. So now I have learned my lesson just to post something right away because when you don't and you forget half it, the post is a lot less interesting. By the way, this isn't a great picture because I used the camera on our computer to take it.

Lots of Pictures

2010-11-14T22:59:00.006-07:00

Here are some pictures of the children from the last few months:

This is love.

One of the suckers is actually Jade's. She gave it to Bristol so she could have a taste, and then Bristol didn't want to return it.

Poor Jade. In July, we had her tested for nut allergies, and she is allergic to pecans and walnuts. They didn't test for hazelnuts, but clearly she is allergic to those too. On this day, I was toasting hazelnuts and she was holding one. She said she didn't eat any and I am pretty sure she didn't, but she must have touched her face or something. It's not really clear in this picture, but she has red welts on her face (especially around her eyes) and her eyes are watering.

Bristol loves this backpack; sometimes she and Jade fight over it.

The camera lens was dirty, thus the hazy quality of this photo.

Bristol loves her toothbrush but accomplishes very little actual teethbrushing.

This is what we keep in our pantry.

Jade going to preschool.

Brooke is getting to be such a good reader. We are so proud of her. Today she told me she loves reading.

I think that Bristol had to skip one her naps that day for some reason, and she fell asleep at dinnertime.

Catch-up

2010-11-14T21:37:00.007-07:00

It seems like every post I start saying that it's been a while since I last posted, but this time that isn't the case. I actually wrote an entry last Monday. However, it's just me complaining about having lived in Yuma for the last two years (in case you haven't read it). I am pretty sure that most of the people who read my blog (I have no idea who or how many) are more interested in the children and what they are doing rather than listening to my complaints. So in that case, it has been a little while since I posted about that so here you go:

Halloween

Brooke was a princess, and Jade was a mermaid. Bristol was a witch. I decided that I was not going to buy any costumes this year; we were just going to use what we have. That worked out pretty good. I spent about $13 to buy a few accessories for their costumes, and I think I saved about $50 by not buying all new ones.

Like my smile in this picture? I wasn't quite ready when Trent took it.

Bristol's First Birthday

When Bristol was six months old, I said that her first six months went by quickly, but these last six months went by even faster. I can't believe that she is already one year old!

I made gumpaste flowers for the cake. I had never made gumpaste decorations before, and I wanted to try them because I liked the way they look. While cake decorating from piping frosting can certainly look good, I have to say that I really like the gumpaste. It's faster, cleaner-looking and way less of a mess. Well, it does take some time for the flowers to dry (a day or two), but actually creating them was pretty quick.

Some of the things that she can do now are:

*walk really well

*climb off the bed or couch herself

*eat with a spoon and drink from a cup pretty good (In fact, everytime she sees us getting a drink at the water cooler, she hurries over and we give her the cup with a little water in it.)

*wave hello

*point at things

Some of Bristol's likes are:

*water -- She loves taking a bath and is constantly sticking her face in it the water to get a drink, despite my protest.

*playing with her sisters

*going down the slide that she got for her birthday

*books -- She pulls them out of the bookshelf a lot and likes to look at them.

*putting things around her neck -- She is always finding things to put around her neck (not all the way around, just draped from one shoulder, around the back of her neck, to her other shoulder). This one concerns me a little because she tries to use jumpropes, ties, cords (even cords that are attached to things like lamps), anything pretty much. The strangulation risk there concerns me so I keep a close eye on her when she is doing that.

*going outside -- She always tries to escape when someone is going out. Since the weather has cooled, we can definitely spend a lot more time outside, though.

*people -- She isn't afraid to go up to others and smile at them.

*car keys -- the real ones, toy keys are not an adequate substitute

Some of her dislikes are:

*her carseat or for that matter, being restrained in any way

*having things taken away from her -- No child likes this, but she throws a big fit, crying on and on when we have to take something from her.

Bristol has been so fun to have in our home. The girls like playing with her most of the time, and she and Jade are starting to play together when Brooke is at school. She is a pretty happy girl as long as she is well-rested and fed. I have to say that I am pretty happy too when she gets her sleep because she sleeps for about eleven hours at night and for about three to four hours during the day (split between two naps).

Oh yeah, noticeably absent from her pictures, at least to me, is her hair. She is our Miss Baldy, but she has been working on her teeth. Bristol has her eighth tooth coming up now.

Two Years, Ugh

2010-11-08T17:09:00.003-07:00

Well, as of yesterday, we have been here in Yuma for two years, which is exactly two years more than I wanted to be here. So why am I here? I often wonder if it would have been better to have just stayed in Idaho and held on until the economy improved. Now it seems like we will never get back. Over the next couple of years, Idaho is projected to be the #1 state for job growth (or something like that) so maybe there is some promise in that.

It's not that I hate Yuma completely, though I certainly don't love it. Rather, it's that we spend most holidays and birthdays with just Trent, the children and myself. Holiday meals become a lot more work (for me) in that situation, and it's kind of lonely. Visiting family is now quite an ordeal and a sacrifice. Do we want to spend a whole bunch of money on plane tickets or sit in the car for two days? I used to think that it was a long drive from Boise to Denver, but now I would gladly do that. With Brooke in school, our opportunities for visiting are even more limited. It's also that we have a house in Idaho that we don't even get to enjoy, but instead someone else does, paying us substantially less than our mortgage payment. Meanwhile we get to live in a rental here, which is a house I really don't like. When we first moved here, I said that the house was pretty nice, but I was soon cured of that thinking upon discovering a host of problems with the home, like a $350 power bill in the summer months just to keep the house at 80+ degrees. I could go on and on about the house. Speaking of the summer, we spend most of it indoors with the blinds closed (blinds open just means an even hotter house). So for the weeks that Brooke is out of school, we are stuck in a hot house a lot -- not fun.

There are lots more things that I could say about why I don't like being here, but I don't want to spend all night at the computer. It just saddens me that we are here, and I am not so sure that it has really improved our lives in any way that is important. Trent's job has given us more financial rewards than we anticipated, but I am unconvinced that that is a worthy trade-off. I do appreciate that we have good, nice people in our ward. I am glad that we at least have that. All in all, I would rather be in a less than stellar city with a great ward than be in an awesome city but have a terrible ward. However, not to marginalize the people we know here, I also really liked the people in our previous ward and the place in which we lived.

So I guess this post is just one big lament. I do recognize the good things we have in our life, like that Trent has a job, our children, the gospel, etc. I know that things could be a lot worse, as they are for some people. I am just hoping and praying that we can again enjoy all those things back home (and that it can be soon). I certainly do appreciate a little bit more the things we had to leave. Although, I did appreciate them before we moved -- that's why I didn't want to leave!

Currently

2010-10-10T22:02:00.002-07:00

It's 10pm, and I am sitting here with this little thing. She should be asleep, but she decided to take a nap this afternoon and wouldn't awaken until 6:30. So why fight it if she just isn't tired yet? At least she isn't the one that has to go to school at 8am tomorrow.

Still way too hot

2010-09-13T21:42:00.003-07:00

Well, I thought that it was getting cooler. Last week was quite pleasant with a few days in the 90's, but today it was 107. The forecast for Sunday is 110. I am really jealous whenever I read blogs or whatever on the internet and everyone seems to be celebrating fall and I am still hesitant to use the oven because it makes the house even hotter.

Recent Pics

2010-09-02T22:45:00.003-07:00

I know that there are some family members that want to see some recent pictures of the children (I know this because they told me so). Here are three pictures, one of each them. I will post more soon. I really will, but I am only doing three for now. I am trying to go to bed earlier nowadays, and it is getting late so this is all that I have time for. Plus I am having to listen to Trent snoring because he fell asleep on the couch, and the sound is almost intolerable. I tried waking him but was unsuccessful.

Where is Bristol's hair?

Jade just before dance class.

Brooke and her big smile.

I'm melting...

2010-08-23T16:02:00.003-07:00

So I am finally starting to post again. The summer went by pretty fast until we came back to Yuma, now it is lasting forever it seems. That's probably because of the horrible heat here. This is the forecast (according to weather.com) for the next five days, starting with tomorrow: 116, 115, 110, 108, 105. Oh yeah, and right now it is about 111. The house we are renting does not get very cool either. It often gets up to 85 even though I set the thermostat at 76. I set it this low (that's low for here) because I know that it is inaccurate. I guess the people who have lived in Yuma for a long time are just used to the heat or don't know any different, but I can't stand it. Sometimes I get really worried that we are going to live here for a long time, which is totally possible. I don't think that I would handle that too well. So that's my 2010 complaint about Yuma's weather.

After composing this, I realized that the last sentence makes it sound like I am going to have a complaint about this every year. Hopefully, though, we won't live here a long time (maybe move to a place with a less harsh climate) or I will just learn to deal with it and not complain about it. (I am hoping for the former.)

What have we been doing?

2010-06-08T21:58:00.002-07:00

Well, not posting on the blog obviously. This post might be kind of short and without any pictures. But then it might not be; it just depends what I end up saying:) I'll add some pictures tomorrow or very soon anyway. I just wanted to finally post something since I seem to be getting worse and worse about doing it. To me that is kind of sad because all of my family and all of Trent's family live far away from us and this is the easiest way for them to see the kids and know what we are doing.

So what is going on with us? Tomorrow Brooke graduates from kindergarten. I can't believe that this year is already over! There were times when we weren't sure if Brooke was going to make it to this day, but somehow she did...just kidding. Brooke has done great in kindergarten and loved it too! She has done really well learning to read, add and subtract. Since the schools here seem to focus mainly on math and reading, we are going to be doing some art and science projects over the summer.

Jade has really become quite the interesting child. She is a great helper. She likes to unload the dishwasher and sometimes even does it of her own initiative, and she always likes to help with Bristol, changing diapers, feeding her, etc. I don't think that this "help" is always pleasant for Bristol, though. Jade also really loves riding her tricycle. Since there is a fairly large fenced and gated concrete area in front of our house, she often goes out there and rides her tricycle or pushes her dolls around in the stroller, pretending to go to Target. (I keep the front door open so I can keep an eye on her while I do my chores and whatnot.) So while she seems like she is growing-up and becoming more independent, there is another side to her that sometimes drives me crazy -- her baby side. Jade wants me to hold her a lot, even when I am holding Bristol. She also steals Bristol's pacifiers and then cries and cries when we take it away. Often times she wants to eat, or at least taste, the baby food. I don't know if she is just jealous of Bristol or misses being the baby or what. Since Bristol is now over seven months old, one would think that Jade would be used to not being the baby anymore.

Bristol is becoming very active, but she has always been something of a squirmy baby. When she was born, the nurse at the hospital commented that she was a very wiggly baby. She is almost crawling now. She can get up on her hands and knees but just hasn't quite coordinated moving her arms and legs at the right times. She can still get around by rolling and kind of scooting around with her arms. Bristol is a pretty good baby overall. She is pretty much sleeping through the night and takes good naps, too. I think that she has her first tooth coming in, which has made her a little bit crabby, but normally, she is pretty happy. She seems to like Brooke and Jade most of the time. She is always interested in what they are doing. They seem to really like her as well. Brooke frequently says that Bristol is so adorable.

Trent is going to be working in Tucson for six weeks this summer. We will be joining him which is very exciting to me. We get to stay in a hotel or condo or something that his work is paying for. Tucson is much bigger than Yuma, and it has a zoo, real malls (where all the stores are inside one big building), and cooler summer weather. It's still hot, of course, but not Yuma hot. Plus, I hear it gets a lot more rain in the summer. So I guess this post did end up being fairly lengthy. Now I just need to post some pictures...

Six Months

2010-04-28T00:29:00.002-07:00

Bristol is now six months old (as of April 20), and I really cannot believe it! It just does not seem like it's been that long since she was born. That means she will be one in less than six months, but these next six months will probably seem to pass more slowly since we will be trying to survive the horrible summer heat. And the summer does seem to last nearly six months in Yuma. Anyway, here is a six month picture of Bristol. Brooke made her a little bed with petals while we were playing in the backyard.

Don't be fooled by Jade's cuteness in this picture; she has done her fair share of naughty things lately. I'll get to that in another post. She still is cute, though.

Brooke is funny. I like how she wears her life jacket even though there is less than six inches of water in the pool.

Jade

2010-01-31T23:20:00.003-07:00

Jade will be three in May, and it seems like we haven't really had to deal with her and the "terrible two's" until now (but I don't think that it's too bad). She has started to throw tantrums where she cries and cries for like fifteen minutes or so when she gets mad for whatever reason. Those are kind of annoying, but she has been saying some pretty funny (though sassy) things lately. In the car a few days ago she told me something to the effect of, "You're not the boss. I'm the boss, and I'm going to fire you." Being fired for a day or two actually sounds kind of appealling. The only problem is that Trent is out of town, and I don't think that Jade or Brooke could adequately take over being "mom" for a day. Then yesterday, right as we were sitting down to eat dinner, Brooke commented on Jade's dress-up outfit saying, "Jade, you look so cute and beautiful" to which Jade responded, "I am so beautiful. Now leave me alone." It's so amusing to hear some of these things that she has come-up with lately!

Christmas

2010-01-19T23:18:00.005-07:00

Well, I guess that it has been almost a month since Christmas, but I still wanted to post some pictures from our Christmas. This year we decided not to buy a lot because our kids already have way too many toys in my opinion. So instead we set a small budget for each child and each other and the rest of the present was that we went to Disneyland.

I made stuffed beef tenderloin (filet mignon) for our Christmas dinner. It was pretty good, but it's also pretty expensive meat. I know some of the pieces look very pink, but that meat is supposed to be kind of rare.

I made triple chocolate mousse cake for dessert. It was really yummy and actually not very difficult to make -- a lot easier than one would probably think.

Jade with her Pucci Puppy; Brooke has a similar one and didn't like to share it with Jade.

Brooke's helping Bristol open her gifts.

A little Christmas morning meltdown.

Brooke was very tired from Christmas and fell asleep on the floor around 5 pm -- very unlike her.

Pictures

2010-01-19T22:57:00.005-07:00

Alright, here is a cute picture of Bristol smiling. She smiles a lot now. She seems to be pretty social. She'll often start staring at someone and then smile at them.

Jade wanted me to take some pictures of her again; apparently she is mentally preparing...And then it's the many faces of Jade:

Brooke's little structure made from some cards that go to a Winnie the Pooh game.

Two Months

2009-12-22T22:20:00.004-07:00

Bristol had her two month check-up today, and she is 22 in. long and weighs 9 lbs. 9 oz (25th percentile for both). In the last several weeks or so, she has started smiling at us and cooing. She is also doing really well at night, sleeping for about eight hours before waking up. So she is only waking about once a night, and if I wake her and feed her right before I go to bed, she doesn't wake-up until five or six. That's really nice. Until recently, Bristol wanted to be held all the time or she would cry, and it seemed like I had to be the one holding her. Now, though, she is often content if she has her pacifier and is in her swing. If I were her, though, I would want one someone to hold me all the time so I would have some protection from Brooke and Jade. Jade really likes Bristol, but sometimes it is too much. She often bugs Bristol when she is asleep in the swing (and wakes her up), or she tries to pick her up, things like that. Jade kind of reminds us of Elmyra from Tiny Toons because she smothers Bristol the way Elmyra smothers animals.

When Bristol is tired, Trent can't get her to go to sleep and I have to do it. This time he actually did, and apparently, it made him tired. Notice that Bristol is wearing Trent's hoodie; she was pretending to be him I guess.

Christmas Fun

2009-12-22T22:01:00.002-07:00

This year we made a gingerbread house again, but I decided that I would actually let the kids decorate it. I helped with the frosting, but they mostly did the candy decorating themselves. They each got to do one side of the roof and then whatever else they wanted on the sides. Jade decorated the right side of the roof, and Brooke did the left. After Christmas, we are going to eat it. That's what Brooke wants to do, but no thank you for me.

Brooke's school had a little Christmas program where each grade sang a Christmas song. Kindergarten did "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." This isn't a great picture, but this is what we have. We made the mistake of getting to the program about fifteen minutes before it started so all the seats were filled and we had to stand on the side in the back. Thankfully, the program was less than an hour. Brooke is the fifth child from the left in the back row.

Pictures

2009-11-09T21:07:00.002-07:00

Here are a few pictures that I think are cute:

Bristol

Bristol sucking her thumb.

Jade said, "I have chocolate face. I'm making a mess." She wanted me to take her picture.
Obviously, I need to take more pictures of Brooke so I have some of her to post.

Halloween

2009-11-09T20:56:00.003-07:00

For Halloween, Jade was Minnie Mouse and Brooke was Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. Since Trent's mom, Gayle, has been here, she and Trent accompanied the girls while they went trick-or-treating. They just went around our neighborhood for a little while and, like everyone else on Halloween, got more candy than is good for them. Of course, they have been sharing a lot of it with me although they don't know really know that. I had no idea how many trick-or-treaters to expect at our house so I bought four bags of candy. Well, we hardly had anyone so we had a lot of leftover candy. Sadly, we have already eaten all of it.

Baby Bristol

2009-10-29T21:23:00.005-07:00

*Note: I started this post on October 29 but actually finished and posted it on November 4. My due date was November 3 (not October 28), but blogspot dates the post using the date on which I started it. So without that information, it sounds like my due date was October 28, and then it doesn't make sense for me to say that Bristol was born two weeks early on October 20. Just a little FYI.

Yesterday was my due date, but Bristol Amelia came two weeks early, very much to our surprise. Her birth was quite an event. On October 20th, I went to the doctor and was dilated to a 3. Until then, I thought that I was going to make it to my due date or at least really close since Brooke and Jade were born on or around their due dates. However, after my appointment, I thought that there was a good chance the baby would be coming a lot sooner than I expected. Around 7:30 that night, I noticed that I was having painless contractions, but they were really inconsistent, anywhere from ten to thirty minutes apart. So I didn't think too much of them until after we had put the kids to bed. Then I thought that maybe it could just be false labor. At about 10:20, though, the contractions started hurting and were only one or two minutes apart. So I got in bed and waited about ten minutes. After that, I was in a lot more pain so I woke-up Trent who was asleep on the couch. He didn't really understand what was going on at first, though. When he was a little more with it, we started trying to figure out who to call to come stay with the kids while we went to the hospital. I was also trying to get my stuff together to take to the hospital. However, I couldn't really think that well because the pain was getting a lot worse, and I could barely move during the contractions so I decided that I better forget about packing my stuff and just get to the hospital. As I was changing out of my pajamas into regular clothes, I walked into the bathroom and realized that the baby was pretty much coming right then. So I walked out of the bathroom and laid down on the bedroom floor. While I was doing this, Trent got Jade up and laid her on our bed. I told Trent to forget about calling someone to stay with the kids and just call 911 instead. He called 911, and as he was talking to the dispatcher, the baby was born. I didn't even have to push; I pretty much just laid on the floor and waited for the baby to come out. After she came out, she cried and then pretty much went to sleep. I think Bristol was born at about 10:50 pm; we really weren't paying too much attention to the time since we were a little preoccupied. Jade had been laying on the bed, but when she heard the baby cry, she said "Baby!" She got off the bed and came over to see the baby. It was really cute. I felt very relieved that the pain was over and the baby seemed fine. About ten minutes later, the firemen and paramedics arrived. They cut the umbilical cord, gave me an IV, and gave me and the baby oxygen (which I don't think I really needed). Then they took us to the hospital where the doctor delivered the placenta.

6 lbs. 5.5 oz., 18 in.

A couple of days after the baby's birth; I was too tired to open my eyes.

Bristol in the "nest" that Brooke made for her.

Jade really likes Bristol (so far).

Brooke's pouting because she wants to hold the baby.

Brooke really likes Bristol as well.

Five days old.

Bristol and Jade

Thirty-eight weeks

2009-10-20T21:44:00.004-07:00

I went to the doctor today, and I had to wait a total of one hour and forty minutes before I actually saw the doctor. I was a little annoyed because I was paying a babysitter to watch the kids; usually I am in and out in thirty to forty-five minutes at most. Anyhow, I was pretty glad when he checked me and said I was dilated to a three. I still have two weeks left, but this baby may come a little sooner than I expected. I don't have all of the baby stuff ready (at least as much as I want) so now I am definitely making the most of every minute since I don't know how much time I have until her birth.

Here is a picture of me on Saturday, three days ago.

Brooke and Jade love all this baby stuff. They are both wearing baby headbands and sucking on bottles. Plus Jade is sitting in the baby's carseat. Jade loves to put her baby dolls in the baby carseat, the bassinet and the crib. It'll be interesting to see the girls' behavior when the baby is actually here.

Primary Program

2009-10-11T21:55:00.003-07:00

Today our ward had its Primary program for the year. Even though Brooke is CTR 5, this was her first one because last year we moved before our old ward did theirs but after our new ward had theirs. Brooke did a good job; I saw her singing the songs and she memorized her part for the program ("The priesthood blesses my family." That took her about five seconds to memorize though:)) Jade really wanted to go up front and be a part of it, but she'll have to wait a little longer.

These pictures are from today; notice that Jade's hair is getting long.

Brooke giving her big smile, but only because I told her she could make a funny face in the next picture.

Pregnancy Picture

2009-10-11T21:49:00.003-07:00

I have been really terrible about posting pregnancy pictures of myself, assuming anybody wants to see them... So here is one from today. I have just over three weeks until my due date.

From this angle I don't think that I look that big, but I swear I am bigger than this so I'll probably post at least one more picture before the baby comes.

Singin' in the Rain

2009-09-13T22:01:00.002-07:00

Last Saturday, we had a big rainstorm, and it was so great that I think it's worthy of a post. Anyway, it rained a lot (at least for Yuma) in a short period of time. The best part of it was that it cooled the temperature down and reminded that the weather here could actually get down to bearable temperatures. Earlier in the day, it had been over one hundred, but when it rained, it went to seventy-five degrees or lower. Even better was that I went to the grocery store while it was still raining, and when I came out, it still felt pretty cool even though the rain had stopped. So I actually felt good when I loaded the groceries in the car, drove home and unloaded everything instead of feeling like I was going to die from the heat.

Brooke always loves to go out and play in the rain. I don't know why she put a coat on since it wasn't cold.

Starting School

2009-09-09T14:29:00.004-07:00

Alright, here is a real update of what is going on in our family since my friend Julie said that the last post was a tease. :) She's right, but I just felt like I should write something and I didn't want to spend much time on it. Anyhow, Brooke started Kindergarten on August 10. I think that school here starts way too early, but at least she'll get a week off in October. All summer long I was under the impression that Brooke would be going to all-day kindergarten, but the Friday before school started was open house. We found out who her teacher is and that this year her school was only doing half day kindergarten, which I was glad about because I didn't want her to go all day. Brooke is in the PM class thankfully; she doesn't do so well in the mornings. She seems to like school a lot, and so far I think that almost everything they are covering is stuff she already knows. It's nice for Brooke to be able to get out of the house most days of the week (I think that it is still too hot for the kids to go outside and play) and be around kids, though. Plus, I get a break in the middle of the day since Jade usually naps while Brooke is at school. I usually use that time to nap as well. Everyday, I pick Brooke up and drop her off at school, and Jade comes with me at least for the drop-off. Jade likes to wear her backpack when we go, and she's making friends with the lunch ladies, always saying "hi" and "bye" to them (we have to take Brooke in the cafeteria where her teacher retrieves the kids). I can't believe that next year Jade will be old enough to go to preschool!

First day of school -- waiting for Brooke's teacher.

Jade wearing Trent's hat after dropping Brooke off.

Right before going into school; Brooke wasn't really interested in having her picture taken so Trent got her to look at the camera by telling her there was a lizard behind me. She's looking for the lizard -- not smiling or anything.

It's been forever...

2009-09-03T20:59:00.002-07:00

So I haven't posted anything in over two months. I just keep putting it off. Things here aren't too bad. It's still really hot here; about a week ago it was 116 degrees. The weather should start cooling down to around 100 (if you call that cool) in a few weeks, and I can't wait. Brooke started preschool on August 10 so it's just me and Jade at home for about three hours a day on the weekdays. Actually Jade sleeps for about two of those three hours so then it's just me. I have less than nine weeks until my due date, and we are excited. Not too much else is going on. I'll have to post about our summer and put up some pictures this weekend.

Cute pictures and more

2009-06-21T22:26:00.002-07:00

Well, not a whole lot has been going on lately. Up until the last couple days, the weather was relatively pleasant for about two weeks, like most days it only got to about 90 degrees. Also, it was cloudy or partly cloudy for many of the days which made a big difference in how tolerable it was to be outside. Right before the weather cooled down, we had a day that was up to 108! I am pretty sure that that's the hottest weather I have ever been in, and now it is getting hot again. The projected high for Thursday is 111 so I guess that we will be spending a lot of time indoors again. When it was cooler, we were actually able to be outside a lot, and that's always nice because it keeps the kids from messing up the house. However, there is good news. Even though the heat is increasing, we will won't have to endure for a while. In ten days, we are going to Idaho. We are leaving on July 2nd, and Trent is returning on July 13. Brooke, Jade and I won't be returning until the 29th, though. I can't believe that it is so soon, but I am really excited. I have already thought of a lot places I want to go and things I want to do including visiting my house, eating Chicago Connection pizza, and going to McCall among other things. We're excited to see all the family and for Brooke and Jade to see their cousins.

Anyway, Brooke and Jade are doing good. Jade is pretty much potty-trained; this happened a lot sooner and was a lot easier than I expected it to be. She is also talking a lot, and it's pretty cute to hear some of the things she says. When it appears that she might have hurt herself, I'll ask her if she is okay and she'll say, "I'm fine." Brooke isn't up to much. I think that she is bored especially when we have to spend so much time inside. She starts all-day kindergarten on August 10, though, so with our trip and then school starting shortly after our return, she won't have to be bored much longer. Here are some recent pictures of Brooke and Jade. There are more pictures of Jade because she actually wants me to take her picture while Brooke isn't so cooperative when it comes to photographs.

Just a cute picture of Jade.

Another cute one; she found the camera and wanted a picture.

Brooke and Jade made a little bed with their babies in Jade's crib.

Brooke is our slave; we make her fetch water for us even though we could easily get it out of the faucet in the house.

The baby is a...

2009-06-03T11:58:00.002-07:00

GIRL! I kind of thought that that's what it would be, but since I couldn't really be sure until the ultrasound I just kept that to myself. Most family/friends reading this probably already know that it's girl, but I thought that I would post it here anyways along with two of the ultrasound pictures. I am pretty happy that it's another girl, but I also would have been happy if it was a boy. Trent was a little disappointed, but he'll be fine.

The ultrasound technician has a machine that also does the 4-D images so really got to see what the baby looks like (kind of weird and very skinny). I am not sure if she looks more like me or Trent...(just kidding)

I like this one because if you look closely you can see that she put the umbilical cord in her mouth.

Camping

2009-06-03T07:44:00.006-07:00

Two and a half weeks ago, we went camping. Trent actually had to beg me to go. It's not that I don't like camping; it's just that I thought we would be camping in the desert or something. When I camp, I want to go to a place with pine trees and all that. So after saying maybe for a while, I reluctantly gave in but for only one night. We ended up camping near Sedona, AZ, and I was pleasantly surprised. The land was pretty much desert nearly all the way to Sedona so I was not very optimistic for most of the drive up. However, when we got really close to Sedona the landscape started to change. There were pine trees and red rock formations; it was much prettier. Thankfully the weather was also cooler. The town was very nice also with lots of very large homes, little shops, artist galleries, and things like that. We didn't make it into doing anything in town since we were there for a short time and had other things we wanted to do.

So on Friday, we didn't do too much since we got there in the late afternoon. We just kind of explored the campground and the wilderness nearby. We also had a campfire and s'mores of course. On Saturday, we packed up our stuff and drive to a trail so we could go hiking. The hiking was fun, but with Brooke and Jade, it was slow. Jade was so tired by the end of the hike that she fell asleep sitting on Trent's shoulders. After our hike, we went to a place called Slide Rock. It's a river or stream that has all these rocks that are really smooth and slick so people can slide down them. Trent slid on the rocks, but I was too nervous about getting hurt so I didn't do it. He also took Brooke and Jade on the rocks a few times. While we were there, the seam on the back of Trent's shorts came apart, and he unintentionally exposed his behind to who knows how many people. We didn't even know his shorts were like that until some woman told him. When we were done at Slide Rock, we drove home. While we were camping, I was sorry that we were only staying one night. It was so nice up there, and we did drive four or five hours to get there. Unfortunately, we weren't prepared to stay another night, and I had to teach a lesson at church the next day. There was one bad surprise from our trip, though, and it didn't come until the next week. While driving near Phoenix, a road sensor and camera caught Trent speeding. So almost a week later, we got a ticket in the mail for $181 (which I think is excessive). The speed limit was 65 and Trent was supposedly going 77. In his defense, speed limits signs were posted quite sparsley, and nearly all the cars in that area were driving at least as fast as Trent.

Embarking on our hike.

Just outside Sedona as we were heading home.

Brooke and Trent at Slide Rock.

Jade and Trent going down one of the "slides."

Trent going down a "slide."

Jade falling asleep at the end of the hike.

Jade on the hike.

Brooke on the hike, kind of pouting about something.

Jade is collecting rocks at the beginning of our hike and putting them in her pockets.

Beginning our hike.

Brooke showing her tricks at our campsite.

Brooke at the campsite.

Jade's Birthday

2009-06-03T07:26:00.002-07:00

On May 16, Jade turn to two years old; it doesn't seem like it's been that long since she was born. We were actually camping on her birthday so we waited until the 18th, when we were home, to celebrate. Jade and her cake -- This one I bought at Albertson's because I was too tired to make it.

Brooke is helping Jade open her presents.

Jade and her gifts -- She is getting old enough that she actually gets excited about them. When she opened the Little People Castle, she said, "Yea!" However, Brooke took it over immediately so Jade has not been able to play with it a lot.

Pregnancy Picture

2009-05-28T16:10:00.002-07:00

For anyone that is curious or interested, here is a picture of me. I am about seventeen weeks along now and this was taken two weeks ago so I am showing more now. I just need a more recent picture. I can't wear most of my shorts and pants anymore so I guess that I am going to have buy maternity clothes. On Tuesday (June 2), I have an ultrasound, and we will find out if the baby is a boy or girl.

This isn't the best picture because I had Brooke take it so I guess it's not bad for a five year old. I think that I will have Trent take the next one though.

Swimming Fun

2009-05-24T14:03:00.004-07:00

These are some pictures and a video of Brooke and Jade swimming in our little pool. This was in April, and it was a really hot day, at least in the '90's. Now it's hot all the time, and we're still in May.

Brooke in the pool (yet another picture showing up darker than it is supposed to).

Brooke and Jade in the pool.

Eating some nice, cold, juicy watermelon.

Here is a video of Brooke singing some made-up song, and Jade is joining in. I think it's funny how Jade keeps laying down in the pool.

Trip to Colorado

2009-05-24T13:11:00.004-07:00

Trent had a week of vacation time in April so on the 6th we left to visit his parents in Denver. The night before I was a little worried that the trip or at least the traveling was not going to go well. That night Brooke started throwing up, a few hours or so after we had her birthday cake, and she threw up a few more times throughout the night. Then in the morning she had a fever so we gave her Tylenol, and by the time we left for the airport, her fever was down and she hadn't thrown-up for about eight hours or so. I was hoping that would last because I did not want to deal with her getting sick on the plane or in the airports. Thankfully, everything ended up going pretty well on our flights. The only other thing that happened was that as we were boarding our plane from LA to Denver, a piece of my tooth broke off. At first, it just felt like there was something between my two back molars so I kept prodding it with my tongue. Then the piece of my tooth just came off, and it didn't hurt at all. It was kind of weird. Also later that night, once we were at Trent's parent's house, Brooke got a bloody nose for no reason. She also had two or three more while we were in Colorado. She never got them before and hasn't had them since.

Anyway, in Colorado, we were able to see Trent's parents and his sister Marissa. One day, we took the kids to the museum. It was fun but tiring. The museum was big. It seemed like we were there almost all day, and we didn't even see it all. We saw dinosaur bones, gems, and mummies among other things. Brooke really seemed to be interested in everything that we saw, but Jade got bored after a while so it took a lot of energy just to keep her from running around. Trent and I were also able to go to the temple, which is hard for us to do here in Yuma. The closest temple is two and a half to three hours away, plus we have to get a babysitter. It was nice to go to the Denver temple which was only about twenty minutes from Trent's parent's house, and we had someone to babysit the children.

On Friday night, the 10th, Brittany, Eve and Alexis also flew in so we were able to see them for a few days before we left on Monday. Brooke and Eve had fun playing together, and Jade wanted to hug Eve often. On Saturday morning, we took the kids to an Easter egg hunt in the neighborhood. It wasn't really a hunt so much as it was just picking up the egg in front of you before another kid got it. There were tons of eggs, and they were just spread out on a school field, no actual hidden eggs involved. That was good, though, because it was freezing cold and windy out there, and the egg hunt was over in about ten minutes. Sunday was Easter, of course, and it was cold again and rainy. It was very different going from Yuma to Denver because it was pretty warm when we left Yuma, and it was fairly cold most of the time that we were in Colorado. It definitely did not seem like springtime there.

We went back to Yuma on Monday, and that went well except that our flight into Phoenix was late. So then we missed our flight to Yuma and ended up getting home a few hours later than we would have liked.

Denver Temple -- this picture is a lot darker on my blog than on my camera

Jade at the Easter egg hunt (I didn't have time to do her hair).

Brooke at the egg hunt.

Brooke trying out deer ears the musuem.

Jade also trying out the deer ears.

Jade and Grandma Gayle

Brooke's Birthday

2009-05-21T23:09:00.003-07:00

On April 4, Brooke turned five years old (I know this was over a month ago, but I am trying to catch up on posts). I can't believe that she is already five and will be going to kindergarten in August. Since we have no family here, we just had a small little celebration for her (sort of unusual for us). On her birthday, Trent's work had an employee appreciation picnic so we went to that. It was great for the kids because there were snow cones, an astro-jump, cotton candy, etc. By the time we got home, it was too late to do Brooke's cake and presents so we just waited until the next day. Judging from the pictures, I think that Brooke was pretty happy with her cake and presents.

Family Visit

2009-05-21T22:04:00.003-07:00

This is long overdue, but I still wanted to post it. My family came to visit us near the end of March when the children were on Spring Break. This includes three of my sisters (Lisa, Jennifer and Becky), my mom, and Lisa's three kids (Cali, Brock and Maci). They all stayed at my house which made it a little crazy at times, but it was still fun. It was good for Brooke and Jade to be able to hang out and play with their cousins, whom we hadn't seen since the beginning of November.

Plus we did some fun things with them. We went to the camel farm one day, and then another day we went to San Diego. In San Diego, we went to the temple so my family could see it, and then after that, we went to Birch Aquarium. The kids really enjoyed Birch Aquarium. They were able to see lots of sea animals of course and even touched a few in the aquarium's tide pools. I really like the aquarium for those reasons and for the fact that it was relatively inexpensive ($12 for adults and even less for kids) and not too big (perfect for little kids). After we were finished at the aquarium, we went to the beach. Now it was probably in the '80's in Yuma at this time, but in San Diego, near the beach, I think it was in the low '70's. Not exactly beach weather. The kids didn't mind, though. They put their swimsuits on and played in the sand and water until we got hungry for dinner. After we ate, we drove back to Yuma and arrived there really late. We did a lot that day, but it was fun!

Anyway, my family stayed for five or six days and then drove back to Idaho. That part wasn't so fun for them, though, since it is an eighteen hour drive. I was a little envious, also, because I wish that I could go back to Idaho.

The cousins and Becky at the camel farm.

At Birch Aquarium.

Brooke, Brock and Maci looking at the sea animals in the tide pool.

Becky on the beach.

Jade at the beach.

Brooke outside Birch Aquarium.

The kids with Grandma Joanna at the San Diego Temple.

Jade running around on the grass at the temple.

Brooke and Brock looking at the tortoise at the camel farm.

Maci at the camel farm.

Too hot

2009-04-20T13:06:00.002-07:00

Right now, it is 1:11 pm and guess how hot it is...100 degrees. Yes, it is April 20 and it's already that hot. I don't know what we are going to do this summer when it is like 115+. Even now, turning on the stove or oven to make dinner is torture because it makes the kitchen so hot. Trent really needs to get a different job so we can move back to Idaho.

Another Ultrasound

2009-04-19T20:50:00.004-07:00

So it's been over a month since I have posted anything, and this baby is part of the reason for that. I have been really tired over the last month or so and have used a lot of my free time to sleep or just veg. I am almost twelve weeks along now, and I am starting to feel better. I am little less tired and don't get nauseated too much. I was starting to feel sick around seven or eight weeks, but I figured out that if I eat when I start to get hungry then I don't get very nauseous. The annoying part of that, though, is that I have been hungry so much, even in the middle of the night. I don't want to eat then; I just want to sleep. So sometimes I have to get up and eat something so that I can go back to sleep. Also, I can't even make it through all three hours of church without getting hungry, and that's when I eat right before church. Anyway, I am almost to the second trimester, and I usually feel better in the fourth month. I really can't complain too much because it hasn't been that bad at all. So on Tuesday, I went to the doctor, and they did another quick ultrasound. I wasn't expecting that, but I guess it's because I was only six weeks at my last appointment. For this one, I was eleven weeks, and I can tell that the baby has definitely gotten bigger. I still don't look pregnant at all, and I can't feel the baby yet so it's good to see this and know that it's growing.

So...

2009-03-11T22:38:00.005-07:00

So if anyone has looked at my blog today (previous to now), they may have noticed that I added a little widget on the right. Hopefully then, you figured out that I am pregnant. We are excited to be expecting our third child due on November 3. Right now, I am only about six weeks along and feel good. In the past few days, I have felt slightly nauseated on occasion but that's all. However, I think that the nausea will start intensifying within the next couple of weeks, but I really don't get it bad at all compared to a lot of other women.

This is the ultrasound picture from today. The baby is the white thing in the upper right section of the dark circle in the middle. I know that it's not that impressive, but the baby is only about .5 cm so far.

Weekend in Las Vegas

2009-03-11T20:59:00.006-07:00

This past weekend we went to Las Vegas to visit Trent's family. His grandfather lives there, and his parents came to see him. They also brought Trent's sister Brittany and her two children. We had not yet seen her baby so we would finally be able to do that. The day before we went to Las Vegas, we first drove to Lake Havasu City and stayed the night there. I've heard of Lake Havasu before, and we were interested in seeing it. So we saw the lake, and let the kids play on the playgrounds near the beach. The whole area looked really fun so I think that it would be a neat place to go when it is warm enough to swim. (I did see a family there in their swimsuits, and it was probably in the low '70's - crazy.)

I can't say that we did anything too exciting in Las Vegas. That city has very little appeal to me so we mostly just hung out with Trent's family and let the kids play. Hence, I have no pictures of Las Vegas. Brooke and Eve (Brittany's daughter) played together quite a bit and got along pretty well, especially considering that Eve just turned two and Brooke is nearly five. Of course, Eve is more advanced than most two year olds and has been able to speak in full sentences for quite a while (some of the things she says are pretty funny). Jade and Eve are pretty close in age, and they did play together a little bit also. Jade was interested in the baby, and that was cute. The three girls really liked to play in the bathtub together, even without water in it. The tub was ridiculously large so the kids thought it was fun just to be in it.

Alexis is three months old.

Eve and Jade sharing goldfish.

Jade is partially laying on the coffee table; everytime I see this picture, I initially think that it is sideways.

"Mommy take a picture of me chasing the birds!" This is at Lake Havasu.

Trent, Brooke and Jade at Lake Havasu.

Brooke in Lake Havasu City.

The whole family in Lake Havasu City (the white spot on my face is light peaking through the leaves of the tree on the left -- it makes me look funny when the picture is this small).

Trent, Brooke and Jade standing in front of the London Bridge in Lake Havasu City -- sounds more impressive than it is.

Random picture of Jade and Trent--I just think that the expression on Jade's face is funny.

Camel Farm

2009-02-24T21:54:00.003-07:00

Outside of Yuma, there is a little zoo-farm-thing where supposedly retired Hollywood camels go to live along with some other animals. So last week we visited it with some friends. Here are a few of the pics: Brooke and Jade feeding the sheep

Cute baby sheep

Jade loved the animals!

We are going back in a few weeks when my family comes to visit so I should have pictures of the other animals (including the camels) at the end of March.

Funny Girls

2009-02-24T21:19:00.004-07:00

Last week, Brooke and I were eating my leftover ribs from Texas Roadhouse (and she was taking more than her fair share). After we were done, she told me that she might want to be a vegetarian because she didn't want to eat animals. Shortly thereafter, though, she decided against becoming a vegetarian because she didn't want to eat tofu.

Brooke and Jade sharing a dessert ... off the same spoon...at the exact same time

Somebody snuck out of bed and fell asleep next to the piano in our living room...This wasn't discovered until about 11 pm when Trent was getting ready to go to work.

Brooke's sandwich art

One of Jade's favorite things to do -- hanging from the counter

Brooke has one of my birthday roses in her mouth; I think that she got this from the end of Shrek 2 when Fiona and Charming are dancing

Jade loves cheese -- When I was taking a bath, Brooke got in the fridge. We have a lock on it because it doesn't seal really tight and to keep Jade out. Brooke can unlock it but doesn't know how to lock it so Jade got the block cheese out and starting enjoying it. This is what I discovered when I got out of the bath.

An Update...Finally

2009-02-24T20:20:00.006-07:00

On Thursday, Trent's parents came to visit us and they left this morning. It was good to see them again, and it was nice for the girls to be able to spend time with them. Brooke was, of course, enthusiastic about their visit, and it didn't take Jade very long to warm up to them. I think that the last time we saw Grant was in July so I am sure Jade didn't have much of a recollection of him, if any. We went to the old Yuma prison and the West Wetlands Park and went swimming at the hotel pool. The Wetlands Park is pretty neat because it has a huge castle play structure, among other things. The castle is cool except that it is so big it is nearly impossible to see the other side of it, which isn't too great when you have little children. Brooke wanted to play on the much smaller playground, though, so we didn't have to worry.

Brooke at the playground

Jade and Grandma Gayle sitting on the park bench

Jade and Grandpa

Daddy and Jade at the old Yuma prison -- Jade got pretty bored during the tour so she entertained herself by picking up handfuls of gravel and dropping them through the cell doors.

Brooke sitting by the bell at the old Yuma prison

Me, Brooke and Jade -- Of course, we couldn't get them to look at the camera

Oh yeah, the weather has started getting pretty warm -- today was 82! I don't really appreciate it as much as I normally would because I didn't experience a cold winter. That kind of makes me sad because even though the cold of winter gets kind of trying, it makes the nice weather of spring seem so much better.

Pictures

2009-01-25T21:07:00.003-07:00

That's such an original title isn't it? It's been more than two weeks since I last posted, even though I have been meaning to do it for a while. I am such a procrastinator...I have been intending to post once a week, but then I put it off for no real reason. Anyway, there really isn't too much happening right. Our back wall finally was repaired, which is a relief. Now I feel a little more protected from the street, and the children can go outside without me having to be right there every second. Also, there is now someone renting our house. According to my research on the internet, I believe they are a young LDS family. So it's nice to have the house rented out and to someone who appears trustworthy and responsible (this is assuming my internet research led me to the right people, which I think it did given certain facts, etc.)

I received a calling in church about a month ago -- I am the YW's secretary. I have worked in Young Womens before in Idaho and didn't necessarily like it, but this time is different and I am enjoying it more. Trent doesn't have a calling yet, and I think this is due to his work. So he's off the hook for now.

Brooke and Jade are doing well. Brooke has met lots of little girls at church, and on Wednesdays we have play group at a nearby park so she gets to play with them. Jade is growing up fast. Her hair is getting longer, and she's picking up words pretty quickly. One word that she says often is "sorry" because she likes to harrass Brooke by pulling her hair, scratching her, etc. I think she does it just to see Brooke's reaction. So Jade has to apologize to Brooke a lot. Of course, Brooke does other things to irritate Jade. They do have a lot of fun playing together when they are getting along, though. Here are some recent pictures of us, mostly the girls:

Jade is so funny about her pacifiers...She needs them to sleep but also likes them during the day. However, I'll tell her to take it out of her mouth. She'll do it and throw it down so I guess she's not too dependent on them. I thought it was funny when she came in the kitchen with two of them in her mouth.

I hate seeing pictures of myself, but I hardly post any so I thought I would post this one that Brooke took.

The blue thing that Jade is sitting on is a Barbie couch. She brought it from Brooke's room into the living room and was trying to sit on it. It's a little too small for her...

I have more pictures of Jade up here than Brooke because Jade is cooperative when I am taking pictures whereas Brooke isn't. Therefore, I have fewer good pictures of Brooke.

Christmas Pictures

2009-01-07T22:35:00.006-07:00

So I posted about the whole car in the backyard thing on Christmas, but I have been meaning to post pictures of us enjoying Christmas. I have been procrastinating it -- here they are finally.

Brooke got a Barbie bicycle for Christmas.

Jade opening a gift

Jade got this little Dora couch for Christmas, and I wanted to take a picture of her and Brooke on it. She wasn't too enthused about that so Trent had to hold her down for a second, and obviously she didn't like that either.

Brooke with one of her gifts

This is the gingerbread house that I made. We actually made two -- I let the kids help me with the other one. They weren't allowed to touch this one, but they ate lots of candy and icing off the other one.

Christmas Surprise

2008-12-28T22:16:00.004-07:00

Christmas for us was different in several ways this year. There are the obvious ways in which it was different -- we are in Arizona so it wasn't cold and we are away from all of our family on both sides. Then there is the not so obvious way -- the car that crashed into our backyard. On Christmas, at 11:30 pm, a car crashed through the cinder block wall that serves as our back fence. Trent was at work at the time, and the kids were in bed, of course. I was on the computer when I heard a crash and then something flew through window just to the side of computer. Not knowing what it was and being thoroughly frightened, I grabbed the phone and ran in Brooke's room. I called 911 and told them what happened. They said they were getting reports that a car had crashed into the wall. So the police came and discovered that a car had indeed crashed into the wall, and it was a piece of the wall that flew through our window. (In the picture, you can faintly see glass right below the window although it was spread out more than that. The pieces of the wall that broke the window are in the lower right by the couch pillows.) The front of the car was completely smashed in and the driver's side of it was lodged against a street light, causing the light to lean at an angle. Because of the light, the car wasn't removed for several hours as the power company had to come remove the light first. The driver of the car (I am assuming he was intoxicated) actually fled but was found shortly after. I am just really grateful that the car didn't go into our yard any further; that part of the wall is only about ten feet from the window that was broken and I was sitting only a few feet beyond that (in the first photo, the wall of the house is just beyond the right edge of the picture so you can see how close the cinder block wall is to the house). So until the damage is repaired, we now have a hole in our window and a hole in the back wall of our yard. The hole in the wall is particularly vexing because we can't let the kids go out back without us, and now anyone has easy access to our backyard (which is up against a fairly busy road). So, needless to say, this wasn't the best Christmas surprise.

Marker Fun

2008-12-28T21:52:00.004-07:00

One day, a week or so ago, Brooke was coloring with markers while Jade was napping. Then when Jade woke-up, I let her hold one of the markers at the table while I was doing something at the kitchen counter. I wasn't too concerned about her getting marker on anything because they are washable, but when I turned around she had orange and brown marker all around her eyes. It was kind of funny. I am not sure what she was trying to do with the markers, though. Brooke thought it was so great that she decided to help Jade color more marker on her face, and then she did her own. So this is what they looked like when they were done with their make-overs. I showed Jade what she looked like in the mirror, and she seemed a little confused. They did take a bath shortly after, and it came off completely.

Finished!

2008-12-11T09:25:00.002-07:00

So I finally completed my felt applique stocking, which I started over two years ago. Back in 2006, Gayle (Trent's mom) got us three of the stocking kits, and of course, I finished Trent's and Brooke's first. By the time Christmas came around, I was about two-thirds finished with mine. I was pregnant with Jade and busy with other Christmas stuff so I didn't get it done. Last year, I just didn't get around to it either. I decided that I would definitely get it done this year, though, and I finished it on Tuesday night after working on it the last couple of weeks. Now I have one for Jade that I would like to have ready by Christmas, but I am kind of skeptical that it will happen. These take a really long time to do, and it's only two weeks until Christmas. Plus Jade's stocking has over 100 pieces whereas mine had about 50. So we'll see if I get it done...

San Diego

2008-12-09T21:15:00.009-07:00

Like I mentioned earlier, we took a little trip to San Diego on November 21st and 22nd, and since it is pretty close to Yuma, it only took about two and a half hours to drive there. On that Friday, one of Trent's coworkers had his adopted son sealed to him and his wife so Trent attended the sealing at the San Diego temple. I didn't go in because one us of needed to stay outside and watch Brooke and Jade. We had fun waiting out there, though, because the kids just played in the grass and looked at all the flowers (and sometimes tried to pick them). The missionary couple out there was also from Boise.

The hotel that we stayed in was very nice and right by the ocean; plus we got a good deal on it so it was relatively inexpensive. Of course, it was too cold to swim in the ocean, but the hotel had a heated pool and hot tub outside so we were able to swim anyway. On Saturday, we went to the San Diego Zoo. I think that the zoo is pretty neat and there are lots of animals, but I have one complaint. It is ridiculously expensive in my opinion. For Trent, Brooke, and myself to get in (Jade was free) it cost $92! When I consider that it probably would have cost about $20 to get into the Boise Zoo, it makes me cringe a little. The San Digeo Zoo does have a petting zoo, some animal shows (like sea lions), a bus tour, and a sky ride among a few other things, but I am still not so sure that it's worth it when essentially all that you're doing is looking at animals. I don't necessarily think that the San Diego Zoo was almost 5 times more enjoyable than the Boise Zoo. I have to add that the food was beyond ridiculous in price so if you ever go there and want to save a little (actually a lot of) money, make sure to bring your own food (even snacks and drinks). I understand that a good portion of the money from the tickets goes towards conservation, research, and whatnot, but now that I have been there twice and Brooke and Jade have been there, I don't feel a need to return for quite sometime.

I don't want to sound really negative about the zoo because it does have some neat things. We were able to see a lot of animals that aren't at the Boise Zoo, like flamingos (my favorite), rhinoceroses, polar bears and elephants. They also have twin bears that were found in the wild in Idaho a few years ago; they had been orphaned when their mother died. There are panda bears as well, but we didn't see them. One has to wait in line, and the line was way too long. Since the zoo is so big, I don't think that we even saw all of it. We were there for at least four hours and were exhausted by the time we left.

The Move

2008-11-28T21:53:00.007-07:00

Trent got a job in Yuma, AZ so we moved here the first week of November. It was kind of stressful for me because I had to pack up the whole house and make sure it all was loaded in the trailer, and then I had to drive here with the children. Thankfully Trent's mom came to Boise and helped us with the moving and cleaning the house. She also drove down to Yuma with us. We were really glad that she was there to help. I am not sure that I would have been able to survive the move without her since Trent wasn't able to be there to help me.

The drive down wasn't too bad. Our car isn't really big so we were kind of cramped with all of our bags and stuff that we didn't put on the trailer. On Thursday, the 6th, we drove down to the Pleasant Grove, UT area and were able to see Brittany (Trent's sister), Daniel and Eve. That was nice; we hadn't seen them since July and I am not sure when we will see them next. I was really impressed with how well Eve talks. She's not even two and can speak in complete sentences, very clearly also. On Friday, we drove the rest of the way to Yuma which took about twelve hours. We did stop several times, though, for food and breaks. The kids did really great. When Jade would start to get whiny from sitting in her car seat so long, we would stop for about ten minutes and let her get out and walk around. Then she would be fine to sit in the car for another couple of hours. It was such a relief to finally get to Yuma.

When we arrived, our possessions were not there yet so we had to sleep on air mattresses and go without furniture until Monday. It wasn't too bad, and the house stayed pretty clean since the kids didn't have many things with which they could make a mess:)

The house that we are renting is fairly nice; it's bigger than our house in Nampa but about twenty years older. It actually has a living room and family room, but since we only have one set of couches, the family room has a TV but no couch for now. The backyard is pretty small, but there is a lemon tree, an orange tree and another citrus tree that is either lemon or lime, we aren't sure yet.

I can't say that I love Yuma, but I am giving it a chance. I personally think that it isn't quite as nice as the Boise area. It's in the desert, but I don't think that it looks too different from the desert areas east of Boise. The town, however, has lots of trailer and RV parks so it can look pretty junky in some places. Apparently, though, it has been improving and growing in the last several years. Of course it's hot here. It was in the 80's when I first arrived, but this week we actually had rain (a lot!) and it is now in the 70's. Even though it's quite warm, I do see people here that are dressed like it's cold out while we are wearing shorts. There are numerous retirees here (for the winter anyway) and Marines. Since we have all of these "snowbirds", I actually see quite a few Idaho license plates. So far I don't think that the people here are as friendly as the ones back home, but I hear that it depends where you go. I have just gone to Walmart a lot so that may be why. The people in our ward, though, are super friendly so I am really happy about that. One good thing about Yuma is that it is close to a lot of cool places. Last weekend, we were able to go to San Diego. I will write more about that in my next post since this one already seems really long. This is a picture from our trip, though.

First Post

2008-11-27T22:28:00.003-07:00

Well, we decided to start a blog now that we have moved to Arizona and not living near any family. This way everyone can stay informed about what's going on with us (because we know that it's that important to you:)). So that's all we really have to say for our first post, but I promise that our next one will be coming soon and should be a little more interesting.