October 4, 2010

I don't know if you can tell but this is showing the dust blowing into Chandler. It was followed by a monsoon later that day.

Oliver wasn't sure if he liked playing in the rain. He finally warmed up to it, but it took a while.

It's so hot outside that it is the equivalent of taking a warms shower with your clothes on.

I would have gone out in it but Luke was not a fan of pouring rain. So I stayed on the patio while the other kids ran around.

Have you noticed as your progress through the pictures they are slowly getting soaked through.

Getting wet in the rain was a success. Except for Oliver. Who is barely wet. After I took this picture the camera died. We went out front and Oliver really got into the post-rain puddles. What a cute group. Just love them!

I Learned this week that if a lizard loses his tail it still wriggles and casually whips around. I am not helping Andrew catch lizards any more. He is on his own. It was creepy.

We really enjoyed September.

Look at all the fun we had.

It's good times all the time.

September 8, 2010: We have had 84+ days over 100 degrees. The yearly average is 109 days. Even better, we have had 21 days of 110 degrees or hotter. Average is 18. You should also know that it's only warm until it's over 108 then it's HOT!! Now I can only complain if we go over 109 days of 100s or 18 days of boiling lava hot (110+). --I swear you can actually feel your skin cooking in the sun.

Riding backwards in the baby swing. Give a shout out.

Smearing food all over face, chair, counter top, and everything in between. This is a proud successful toddler.

September 10, 2010: Decided we can't wait any longer. We have to potty train Oliver. You could say he is a little resistent to the idea. I put his big boy undies on and he desperately kept saying "find a diaper" "FIND a diaper" (with pleeding eyes). After such an encouraging start I think we will just spend the day in the kitchen, just in case.

September 11, 2010: Potty Training day 2: After his morning partail accident, he walked his clean new pair of cars underwear over to the garbage can and threw them in. Good sign! On a GREAT note, the window guys are coming to day to fix our broken front window and the impossible to open sliding door in the kitchen. YEAHHHHHH!!!

Family Picture!!

Look at this charming family. I said smile and this is what I got.

Luke is always willing to flash a smile. It is charming that is for sure.

Best Friends!! Nothing beats having a big brother/little sister. These two are so good to each other.

...........And my favorite photo of the month. We have Oliver. Sporting his sisters sunglasses and necklace. A small "I get cooler everyday" top, and snow boots. Showing off the curls and the dimple. The only way to make this picture any better is...........

to go outside in public and ride a pink and purple big wheel wearing your sunglasses upside down.

- Had successful parent teacher conferences. The kids are doing great in school.

- Andrew received his first badge in scouting this month. They painted his face. I forgot to warn him that they were going to do that. He handled it really well.

- Andrew is grounded. He decided to teach Oliver how to pretend sword fight with kitchen knives. Oliver got a butter knife and Andrew scrounged up the sharpest scariest blade in the kitchen. Easily the sharpest knife we own. Boys, Boys, Boys!! Can you imagine my reaction as I came around the corner to that.

- Fall break starts this week. Marissa is not excited. She thinks two weeks is to long to be out of school.

P.S. I HATE potty training.

Then we took a drive through the Tucson Mountain Park and looked at all the saguaro cactus. We looked mostly for the odd shaped ones like this one. There were hundreds of them. It is illegal to cut down a saguaro. The tall ones in this photo are at least 60 years old.

Now they call it Tuscon Mountain. What they call mountains we would call hills. We will go ahead and let Tuscon call them mountains but we ex-utahans know the difference.

We wanted to see the Tuscon Mountains but we also wanted to see Old Tucson. We drove all the way out to no mans land to find it. Once we got there are read up on all it had we decided we didn't have enough time to see the whole thing. We would need a good half day or more to do everything that Old Tucson has to offer. So we took a photo out front and briefly visited the gift shop and left vowing to return again someday to get the full experience. We had made plans for lunch that couldn't be cancelled.

KON TIKI

Serves polynesian style food. If you love Tiki's this is the place for you.

If you like giant malnourished lizards

this is also the place for you. They have a komodo dragon that was looking very out of sorts when we visited. I was sure he was going to die right in front of the kids. They had him for a very long time so I have no idea what the problem was. He appeared to be molting, which I am aware isn't generally a lizard thing. Unfortunately for this lizard that seemed to be the case. His scales were missing in large amounts. He also moved painfully slow and for the last half of our visit didn't move at all. It reminded me of the sickly Phoenix in one of the Harry Potter movies. Unfortunately their would be no ash resurrection for this poor guy.

As far as I know he still lives to this day. He was having a rough week when we visited.

Oliver escaped from our corner for a bit. Paul was taking pictures of some of his favorite Tiki's.

Marissa picked this one as her favorite. I'm not sure how one goes about picking a favorite tiki. I don't have a favorite. Couldn't decide which scowling grrrr face I like the most.

I had this delicious teriyaki chicken sandwich. Paul insisted on taking a picture of my dribbling mess. I'm just lucky he didn't catch the drooling terriyaki face I had at one point. It was worth it, it was really good.

Have you noticed that Marissa never misses a chance to take a perfect picture. She is always ready. I can't seem to get into a rhythm with it.

Here are a couple of fan favorite Tiki's and then we are off. Back to home. It's a same day trip. So a quick stop at the gas station to pick up a redbox and we headed home. We had lots of fun escaping together for the day.

TUCSON
ARIZONA

ROADTRIP

SEPTERMBER 6, 2010

After a crazy year so far we decided to take a day trip to Tucson Arizona.

Here is a really blurry picture of our map.

INTERNATIONAL

WILDLIFE MUSEUM

We found ourselves at this museum. I had the kids sit on the curb while I got everything ready. Oliver wouldn't look at the camera, as usual.

Marissa is showing off her sucker for the picture. This made us think of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Andrew is so creative. He came up with this idea all by himself. Pretend he is being chased by a rhino. If I was photoshop capable I would put them in a africa backdrop.

You have to love when holding out the camera in front of you to get a picture turns out. Paul was busy paying for our admission when I took this picture. Super cute kids.

Oliver liked the Armadillo's. This was a great museum. Kid friendly. I didn't have to stress about them touching things that they shouldn't. Oliver loved slapping the Armadillo.

Andrew in trouble.

Marissa being very brave.

The kids really got a kick out of walking under the giraffe. They went back and forth many times.

Luke riding on a musk oz. Poor guy had no idea what we were doing with him. There was no stopping us either. He was just along for the ride.

Andrew and Marissa are stretching out their hands to help show how wide the horns are. Oliver refused to participate.

This is Olivers "Grrrrrr" face. Are you scared?

Andrew the Lion. To cute to be scary.

This is the end of our museum adventures. But the day has only just started. More to come.

Favorite Pictures From 8/12-9/3

Moms memorable Moments!!!

DIMPLES!!

I hope there is never any doubt that I LOVE my kids. I just think they are so wonderful. Luke is a super happy baby. It has made all the difference with this year being so frantic and crazy.

Then we have Oliver that I am pretty sure has never had a dull moment so far in his life. Here he is after a bath, stealing a drink from Mom's soda. Standing on the stool while doing so, for reasons unknown.

Then we have Andrew that is not a little boy at all anymore. I am in awe of how grown up he is. He is such a

thoughtful and good kid. I hope this never changes.

Ohhhhh!!!! The standard baby falling asleep in the highchair pose. For some reason this just never gets old.

Oliver has discovered super heroes. He loves Superman and Batman. Batman slightly more though.

BOYS, BOYS, BOYS!!! Our house is full of crazy, wild, over-active boys and we have TONS of fun, as you can see.

Andrew's Baptism 8-21-2010

Andrew's Baptism
August 21, 2010

I cannot believe that my first born is 8 already. Time is flying by. I am so proud of him. Andrew is such a great brother and a sweet boy. I hope that never changes.









Look at this Fabulous Family!! Oh wait. Did you notice that something was missing or more appropriately someone?











Oh yes, here he is. Oliver is funny about pictures and absolutely refused to sit in our family picture.










We had so much family come out which was amazing. We feel so loved. Having just moved to another state we were so sad for Andrew that he wouldn't be able to share this moment with his extended family. We were so surprised and grateful to the Georgeson family who spent most of their weekend in the car from New Mexico to Arizona. Grandma and Grandpa Tabor for flying in from Idaho and Grandpa Iba who fly in from Utah.









Luke LOVES his cousin Emma. She held him and played with him. He has never had more snuggles in one day then when Emma came to play.













We celebrated after with lunch. We had a house full of family and felt so blessed. It was great to have a house full of those I absolutely love the most in all the world. It was a busy crazy week to get ready as we were still unpacking and worth every second to share this moment.