It's been awhile: December 2013

A huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders and I feel like I can finally blog again.  [Insert happy dance]  I was working on a beast of a translation job so teaching full time and translating on the side left me no time for the things that I love most; pictures and writing about my pictures.  I am so, so happy to be able to focus on the things that matter most to me.  However, with that comes a lot of catching up to do.  I have about a full year to catch up on.  So...hang in there with me.  It is fun to look back and see what things happened and compare to where I actually am right now.

December brought a lot of fun times.  We spent our first "winter" in Arizona which was anything but winter.  I loved that one of the activities for the ward was to bring snow to the church.  It wasn't anywhere as cool as real snow, but it was still fun to get some snow cone snow thrown on your lawn at the church building.  

We went to Oregon to spend time with family.  We made the 20+ hour trek by car.  The kids were good, the weather was even better.  There was no snow on the roads.  Good news for us, not the ski resorts.  Like always, I feel like I am never there long enough, but it was still nice to spend time with family.  The more I am away, the more I just want to be right back with them.  It is such a bitter sweet experience to visit.  My kids come to expect it now.  We get by during the year with FaceTime, but come summer and winter, we know where we belong.  

 We started this little fun tradition this December.  Matthew had a fun time finding places to put the little guy.  I don't know the story behind him.  I think he is supposed to be naughty.  But for our little family he just hides around our house.  He doesn't report anything to Santa.  He is in our family for our amusement.  

  We saw Santa a couple of times this year.  He came to our church building the day they brought snow.  

  Eva's ballet recital.  She participated in an after school program this year.  It wasn't anything spectacular, but this little girl, has some talent.  

  My mom taught Eva how to crochet.  She is such a girl and is always eager to learn all things girl.

 I decided this year we were going to have a family Christmas program.  Nothing fancy, just used the good ol' Friend.  Everyone was a good sport and followed along with my crazy ideas.  Just trying to put the Christ in Christmas.  

 Our one eyed River was lucky enough to visit family too.  She gets lucky when we travel by vehicle. 

  This is what your children start to look like when you open presents at midnight.  This was hitting one in the morning and Elijah started busting out in song and dance.  Let's just say it is funny at night, but not so funny the next day.  

  Shiara and her mom are always awesome and let us hang out at her mom's job.  We love hanging out at this place!

And that my friends, was December 2013 in a nutshell.  

It's been awhile... November 2013

In November we took a mini vacation to Utah to visit family and spend Thanksgiving there too.  We left on a Wednesday afternoon, to get into Utah late that night.  Then, we left on Saturday.  We are getting to be really good at taking fast mini vacations.  The kids had a blast spending time with the cousins.  We even went to Temple Square to catch the beginning of the Temple lights.  I was dreading the weather but we got extremely lucky and had warm weather while we were there.  The blizzard conditions started about four days after we left.  I suppose now I travel with the sun in my pocket too.

Elijah acted like he had never seen leaves before in his life.  They raked up the neighbors leaves and put them on Kat's freshly raked yard.  Sorry about that Kat!

Thanksgiving Kid Table at Jamie's House

Family Pictures that we never sent out.  Fail.

It is amazing how much they look alike.

Mesa Temple Lights

Desert Living

Intense sun and heat has been an adjustment.  We have been living with it since the beginning of July and just yesterday I was commenting to Matthew how nice the weather seems to be getting.  It's still in the 90's but for some reason, the wind, and AC make the 90's bearable.  We started out our move extremely uneventful.  Just the usual, getting settled in and trying to find a preschool for Elijah. We did take a crazy one week trip to Oregon right after we moved here.  It was literally one of those things where we woke up Sunday morning not knowing we were leaving and by two in the afternoon we were embarking on our 20 hour drive.  It was CRAZY, but we were glad we made the trip.  We were able to see family and that is always worth it.  Here are some pictures of the trip.

On the way to Oregon

On the way back

 Considering how long the drive was, the kids were awesome.  On the way there we took two days to get to our final destination.  On the way back we were much smarter and left earlier in the morning to make it back to our home in one day.  The kids are getting good at being quite the little travelers.

We really haven't seen much of this place.  Our good friends took us to the Mesa Temple when we first moved and this yummy shaved ice place, Bahama Bucks.  But we still haven't seen the Grand Canyon.  It is definitely on my must see list.

Eva started school the beginning of August, and then eight weeks later I got a job at her school too teaching second grade.  It has been an adjustment and stressful.  Not the teaching part.  I always feel  like that has a way of working itself out.  It is more the balancing between Matthew being in school and me working, spending time with the kids, translating some stuff for my "other job", the cooking, cleaning...ya, it's hard!  But, I know it is all relative.  Everyone has hard, and I just have to figure out how to put my finger around it all.  I am just thankful for this week long fall break to recuperate and start new next week.

Eva's first day of Second Grade.  While I am not her teacher, she is right across the hall from me and I think we both enjoy seeing each other throughout the day.

Swimming Lessons.  This little guy is actually swimming.  He doesn't trust himself to do it continuously but he can swim.

First day of Preschool.  It's a bummer he isn't in the same building as Eva and I but we are making it work.  

Every time Eva earns 20 "college credits" for being responsible, respectful and/or a good kid at school, we get to go out for a treat. 

McTeacher night with Eva's teacher and one of my teammates.  It was so awesome to see her running around with a lot of her friends.  Especially since we were worried there at the beginning of the year she wouldn't have any.  Love my little social butterfly.

As things get tough, I remember why I do the things I do.  It's for these guys.  I love them; and even when I am searching for the brown paper bag to breath in so I don't hyperventilate, I remember, everything is going to be okay.  The Lord knows of my needs and is with me every step of the way.  

Eva's 7th Birthday

My not so little Eva turned 7 on the 14th of July.  Back in May when my parents were in town we threw her an awesome Mexican party with her friends there.  It was great.  One of the main reasons why we did it was because we knew it would be hard to do something when we had just recently moved into our new place.  And, at the time, we didn't think we would make it to Oregon to have our annual "invite all of our friends and family to a BBQ at my parents" party.  I had some friends miss it, which was nice because I look forward to it too.  When it was getting close to her real birthday I had to remind her it was coming up.  She had no idea.  Kind of sad and a little funny at the same time.

My awesome aunt made these as the party favors.  So cute!!

We had pinata issues.  Thank goodness for our ladder, Josh.

These guys decided to have an obstacle course through the brincolin.  It was quite the site.  Matthew actually "won."

This is for you Eva...

You have made a lot of growth this past year.  You lost three teeth.  And all were VERY traumatic in their own way.  I don't know what terrifies you so much about losing teeth but something does.  You also really took off in the swimming department and grew a lot of notches in the responsibility department as well.  It melts my heart every time I see you grab your little brother's hand to help him do something.  You can be such a nurturer.  You also have had to be very brave in a cross country move that we made and I am so thankful for that.  I know it wasn't easy leaving all of your friends but you have embraced this moment in our lives and I love you for that.

You have gotten a little picky on me.  It gets trickier to feed you at times.  One day you don't like cheese sticks, peanut butter sandwiches, fish; I just can't keep up with you.  But you do love some things.  Pizza is high up on the list and you love it when I make you pozole.

You are turning into a good little reader.  I am amazed at how you can read an entire book in Spanish and not skip a beat when you pick up an English book and do the same.  You are way more ahead of me when I was your age a long time ago.  And you are really good at math story problems.  You know it too, and you will even say that you are good at math.

You are very loyal to friends.  Or I suppose you can almost say exclusive.  You don't seem to have a lot of acquaintances but more two or three really good friends that you love and create long lasting friendships with.  I suppose that is why every time you have to say goodbye, it even breaks your mother's heart.

Thank you for being you!  You are turning into such a beautiful young girl.  I love that you are a little rule follower and great helper.  I just want to squeeze you so you can't grow any more.  It all seems to be happening way to fast for your mother.  I know I can be hard on you sometimes, but never question the fact that I love you to pieces.  You are very special to me.

Love,
Mama