Dumpster Diving and Bobbing in the Toilet...

Does anyone else have a child like this?

Collin feels the need to stash random items everywhere. In Cedar, it started that he would just put all my empty canning jars in the garbage. I usually noticed he was doing it and fished them out, although I might have lost a few.

Here in Grand Junction the problem has escalated... A LOT! I couldn't find my glass lids to two pans (nice ones too) for several days. Tyson suggested the garbage since we see Collin trying to play in the garbage all the time. I finally broke down and fished through the outside giant dumpster and found them in the bottom.

I found the Wii remote in the bottom of the dishwasher two days ago. Luckily I hadn't ran it.

Yesterday he threw the letters from the Word Whammer (magnets on the fridge) in the garbage while I was cooking dinner.

Today I found the shampoo bottle in the toilet.

I've asked Tyson how toys come up missing when they don't ever leave the house. It seems impossible, but now I know.

Oh and I should add that while I'm typing this, Collin is trying to dig through the garbage! :)

Welcome to Grand Junction, Colorado!

I guess I'm blogging a lot lately, and being long-winded about it, after going on a blogging hiatus for all of January. This is a fun and exciting and crazy time for us right now, so here come the blogs...

Aah, we are finally moved in and mostly settled and starting to feel at home. So what is this place called Grand Junction? Good question, since we didn't know a whole lot ourselves. I have to say after being here a few weeks, it is the oddest and most interesting and unique city I've ever lived in. Not so much bad, but very different. So here's what I found:

1. Population: 140,000 in the entire Grand Valley. 45,000 in city limits.

2. Elevation: 4400 foot (perfect for a garden :))

3. It's called Grand Junction because the Upper Colorado River used to be called the Grand River, and it joins the Gunnison River here. I've always wondered how it got the name, and thought it was the railroad, since there is a huge station here.

4. It is 300 miles from Beaver. I had to put that in. This would be #1 if Tyson were doing this, as that is his biggest concern.

5. It is 4 hours from Denver, and 4 1/2 hours from Salt Lake City, just 30 miles over the Utah border.

6. It has shopping! Ok, so its nothing like Florida was or even close, but it certainly is MUCH better than Cedar City. I feel freedom again!

7. It has a mall, although very small, and very limited, but hey...I'll take it.

8. It has a cool downtown area with lots of fun one-of-a-kind shops and huge steel art statues all over the sidewalks, very interesting ones I might add.

9. It has the screwiest roads and street layout ever! The streets are named very wacky, and they are criss-crossing and winding everywhere on top of a supposed grid system. I think the river is much to blame.

10. It has more homeless people than I've ever been around. There are even city street signs that say to not give to the homeless and beggars as to not further the problem. Wow!

11. It also has A LOT of liquor stores. There's a Liquor Barn even! One liquor stores sign out front says 'If the economy has driven you to drink, we can help.' I thought that was funny.

12. Home to the GRAND MESA! This is what Tyson is so excited about and can't wait for the snow to melt. It is the world's largest flat-top mesa, with over 300 lakes on top. Everyone talks about the never ending hunting, fishing, and 4-wheeling trails up on it.

13. Home to the Colorado National Monument. This is beautiful sculpting of the red rock mountain that borders the south of town. We drove up on it a few days ago and it is incredible. It's kind of like Zions or Bryce Canyon, but on a smaller scale.

14. Its Wine Country! Ok, so I'm not a drinker, but if I were, this would be the place to be. Besides all the liquor stores, there are wineries everywhere. As you drive through more of the country areas where people live there are many, many acres filled with grape orchards.

15. There is Powderhorn Ski Resort up on the Mesa.

16. It has an airport. I know, every city has an airport, but you can actually get flights out of here for not too much more. It's worth it over driving to Denver or SLC. The only thing is all the flights go to Denver first.

17. It is COLD here right now. I had plenty of people tell me how it is much milder in the winter and summer than Utah...yeah right! Ok, so we don't get the snow, and if it does snow it doesn't stick, but it is freezing cold here! For some reason, it feels so much colder here than anywhere in Utah that we've lived.

18. Each household has to have at least one big truck parked out front. So we don't quite fit in.

19. Home to Mesa State College, a four-year school.

A Friend Again!

Moving from Florida has left a big hole in my friend network which I've been really bummed about. Thankfully, the Greene's came to Denver last weekend and we were able to meet up in Silverthorne. It was actually a nice day up there at 8800 ft with a couple feet of snow on the ground. We had a great lunch and played at the snow-filled park for a while until the kids got frozen. It was so nice to visit with them in person! We can't wait until they actually move to CO.

I hardly dare post this with my crazy hair blowing, but I was sure happy to visit with Krishawn again! We missed Julie though! :(

Jeff managing Landon, Collin, and Mackenzie on a spinning merry-go-round while trying get a good snapshot.

Content in the cold.

A Double Dose

Valentine's Day is always a double dose of excitement around our house. That is because it is Tyson's birthday as well. I don't dare share his age, but I'll say he still looks younger than he really is.

So this year I thought Mackenzie would enjoy helping me make Tyson a card since she is in LOVE with stickers. Well she liked sticking them on the poster board, and then removing them and sticking them on her legs, the carpet, etc. It was still fun to make, more work than I thought trying to fend off the two kids from destroying the card, and entertaining for Mackenzie and Collin.

Happy Birthday Tyson and Happy Valentine's Day!

All About Collin

Collin is now 14 and 1/2 months old. He is quite the little boy! Here's a look into his cute personality too:

1. Collin is a 'Mama's boy'. Always has been, although now he will take either of us, as long as he is being held.

2. He is sooo loving. He loves to lay on your shoulders, give hugs, sit in your lap, just to hang out with mom or dad. This was all new to us since Mackenzie is waaayyy too hyper to do anything like that. He loves to give Mackenzie hugs, roll on top of her, etc.


3. He LOVES to push Mackenzie's buttons, and knows just how to do it. He steals whatever she is playing with it and runs as fast as possible. Usually it is crayons, her milk, or her blanket. Its hilarious to watch, although she screams and cries each time. He does return it though if he's asked to and says 'thank you' as he gives it back.


4. He thinks he's a monkey, climbs on everything! Walks across the table and the piano quite frequently. Yes, he's had a good share of falls.


5. He's a scavenger. This kid is certainly not starved, especially by the look of his huge legs, but he acts like it. He eats everything in sight, as long as we are not trying to feed it to him. So after dinner each night, we usually don't clear the table immediately because we are dealing with the kids (off to the bath, etc.). Next thing you know, Collin is sitting or standing on top of the table clearing off everyones plates and any other food that is left around. It's heaven for him!


6. He's an escapee. He loves to run out the door or garage straight into the road. I hope he grows out of this soon.


7. He's learning to talk. We are quite impressed at his talking. He is ahead of Mackenzie at this age. He knows a lot of words without being cued to say them. He will usually try to say anything you tell him to as well.


8. He LOVES Baby Einstein.


9. He loves Mackenzie. He likes to try and play with her, do whatever she is doing, chase her, hug her...oh and sometimes bite her.


10. He is a squealer. He is the highest pitched squeal we've ever heard.


11. He has a serious gag reflex. There's no 'letting him cry it out' or 'cry himself to sleep'. If Collin starts crying and screaming when he's really upset, the next thing you know he is throwing up. You can count on it! Mackenzie has even got it down. As soon as he really starts screaming over something, she'll say 'Collin's goin' throw up'. What a kid!


Collin is now at the exact age that Mackenzie was when Collin was born. That seems absurd now! We are so grateful to have him. I think our minds were warped or Mackenzie acted older (probably not the latter), because it is hard to imagine having a newborn right now with Collin still being so young. How we have all survived so far is mind boggling sometimes. It's been quite the adventure being parents of these two and we wouldn't trade it for anything.

All About Mackenzie

Mackenzie and Collin are really quite the pair. They are so opposite its amazing. Some days I wish one was more like the other (the other being the good one, which varies daily). I thought it would be fun to share some things about her cute personality. Mackenzie is really growing up on us. It really amazes us at how much and how fast she changed from the moment we left Florida (which probably had nothing to do with it). We were noticing in the last couple of weeks she is more like a little girl than a toddler even, except those tantrum moments she has. :)

1. She is quite the talker. She loves to tell you things or ask things over and over just to practice her speech I think. She loves to say big words and remembers EVERYTHING you say! YIKES! The cutest part about her speech is that she has her prepositions all backwards, ie when she was first learning to talk she would come up to Tyson and say 'Daddy hold you' when she wanted to be held. She still mixes them up, but is doing better.

2. Mackenzie is a performer! She loves attention (what kid doesn't?) and so she sings her heart out for it. She has to stand on the end tables, bed, couches, counters, whatever is highest around her and then she sings her songs with such passion, all in the same order every time. It is so funny and cute.

3. TURQUOISE! She is obsessed with everything turquoise...cars, crayons, candy, garbage. As long as it is turquoise she loves it and she lets you know too.

4. Nesting as we call it. She gathers up all the stuffed animals (there's probably 20+) and puts them in Collin's crib to have a nap and then she climbs in the middle of them and just hangs out. Occasionally I'll find her napping in the middle of them.

5. Mackenzie loves to assemble anything in a line, as long as there is a collection. She really is obsessed with this. She will take a bunch of books and line them up on the floor to walk on. Today she lined up all the shoes across the entryway. In our house in Cedar she would drive all the 5 little cars we had in the house from room to room and put them in a perfect line, and then move them to a new location one at a time...this would last at least an hour or so.

6. She loves to say her prayers and thank Heavenly Father for all the people in her life and she names them one by one and then repeats them, and then looks around the room to see if she left anyone out, or anything for that matter.

7. Mackenzie is allergic to all dairy products, but we have noticed it slowly getting better. In the last 6 months we would try to let her have a bite of cheese or something with butter or milk, etc and she would tell us 'Cheese makes you sick'. She refused to take a bite of any cookie, cake, eggs, etc. She knew it all made her sick. She has become a bit more brave in the last month or so and has tasted real ice cream, yogurt, and cheese. She says its yummy. Yesterday she finally had cheese for the first time and she couldn't get enough although we wouldn't let her have that much. She kept saying 'Mackenzie likes cheese'. She's figured out what she's been missing.

8. She loves to have ice-cream sundaes, well not really, but she thinks it is one. I recently discovered that the Haagen Dazz sorbet contains no milk. Where has that been for the last 2 1/2 years? I used to buy her all sorts of specialty soy ice creams and she hated them. Well, thanks to a Little People video she has, she learned what ice cream sundaes were, and so she asks for one (or several) every day. I started looking through the ice creams again, and found the sorbet. It is so fun to see her light up about this (and the cheese) since she has been deprived of a lot of yummy foods for so long.

9. Mackenzie loves nursery. That is a miracle! It took 8 months of us going to nursery with her every Sunday to be ok with nursery. Then all the sudden she was in love with it. She asks to go to nursery throughout the week. We had the absolute best nursery in Cedar City (one of the only things I will miss there). I am so sad that she can't continue to go there.

10. Mackenzie loves her Daddy. What kid doesn't? When he comes home, she doesn't lose sight of him and everything is all about Daddy. If she needs help in the bathroom...it's Daddy, going to bed...Daddy, get her a drink...Daddy, comb her hair...Daddy. I actually cannot help her with anything if he is home. She screams or cries if I try, or even look at her like I might help her. It does make me feel bad sometimes, but it is also funny to watch him be a slave to her constantly and I just sit back and relax. :)

She is quite the little girl and we love her so much. What was life like before her? We can't even remember and it wasn't that long ago. She really fills up our lives and we love our little family (Collin too).

Moving On

Wow! The month of January has been quite the busy month and its already gone. It's hard for me to believe it. A week or so before Christmas, Tyson was offered a buy-in opportunity at a dental practice that we had been eyeing in Grand Junction, CO. We were so excited and decided to take it.

So January was filled with 4 trips from Cedar City over to Grand Junction, and one to Denver, one trip for each weekend. It was exhausting, especially since we all were having some bad luck with being sick for several weeks. During the weekdays, it was all about packing. The kids were really good at dealing with me packing. I didn't get a whole lot of help from them. They just wanted to play in all the packing boxes before I filled them up. Collin had no idea what was going on, but Mackenzie really had it figured it. She repeatedly said she was moving to "Colorado Springs Grand Junction Colorado". I have no idea how she decided to put all that together, but it is very cute to ask her about it. Mackenzie dealt with the packing well. She understood that each day new toys come up missing and that they were in a box headed for Colorado. Luckily there was no fuss over it because she has been as excited as we have been to move to Colorado.

The actual move went very smooth, especially considering the extremely stressful move we had just done from Florida. The worst of it was the last day in Cedar City. It was a bit stressful with the kids having no furniture, no toys, no place to go since there was 12" of snow outside, and we still had a house to clean and a moving caravan to assemble. If it hadn't decided to snow so much, it would have been easier I think. Our last night in Cedar, we went to bed with it starting to snow, woke up to it still snowing, and by 7 pm (when we finally drove out of town), it was just stopping. Twelve inches in Cedar that day, and the rest of the state got only a few inches. Our luck, of course. We drove up the freeway at 40 and 50 mph with the 26' Uhaul towing the Camry, and I was driving the Pathfinder towing the 4-wheeler. It was quite the caravan!

So we made it and have been here a week. I love the house. It is a rental, but a very new and nice one. Tyson came over and picked it out one weekend that I was too sick to even hop in a car. We are still unpacking and trying to find things. Today I just found a suitcase full of clothes that has been missing from Day 1. There's not as much room or storage space in this house, so much of the dilemma is sorting through boxes to get what is necessary out and then rebox the rest up until the next move. There is still a lot of work to do to get settled, but we are just happy to be in a place that offers adventure, a good job, beautiful surroundings, and is still within driving distance to our families. It's a great place to call 'Home'. There'll be more to come from Grand Junction when we figure it out ourselves.

This is one of Collin's favorite toys, my strainer! He LOVES to wear it on his head and walk around. Usually he holds it over his face to cover it up and then walks into walls. It hilarious. Do you think I could keep that thing in a box?

Mackenzie really wanted to help Daddy pack the big truck. This was the best place to keep her out of the way.

Another part of the fun and excitement...the BIG truck. As Mackenzie calls it "Daddy's Big Truck". They ran up and down the ramp a good portion of the day.


The dreaded piano. Tyson would have loved to just roll this down the hill in Cedar to never see it again. Just a few more moves hopefully. :)

The actual moving day...SNOW and lots of it. This was at 10 am, but by late afternoon there was plenty more of it.

We made it!

Mackenzie's new found friend next to our house. He eats rocks too, just ask her.

Out of all the excitement in the move, this probably was tops for Mackenzie. We put the big ol' Britax in the Uhaul to let her ride back to the dealer to drop it off. She was so excited.

Christmas Fun

This Christmas was so exciting, magical, and fun. We had such a nice time spending it together as a family and also with some of Tyson's family. On Christmas Eve, we took the kids sledding near our house. Collin didn't care much for sledding and getting powder in his face, but Mackenzie loved it. I think Tyson liked it most of all to see how far out he could go on the lake at the bottom of the hill...he's crazy!

That evening we were excited to have some of Tyson's family come to eat dinner and have a little Christmas party. Tyson nominated me to share my church talk with everyone since I had to give the Christmas talk in church a few weeks ago...if once was not enough! It really was nice to hear the Christmas story again.

Onto Christmas morning...well, first let me say that we tried to get Mackenzie to bed by 9 on Christmas Eve (HA! HA!). Normally she goes to bed by 10-ish (she's a night owl). She actually started acting tired by 9, but then decided to get up and go into the Christmas tree and plug the lights back in. She started dancing around the tree non-stop and singing all her Christmas songs and saying she was so excited. It was so adorable...HOWEVER, I never thought she would quit and Santa would ever be able to come that night! Finally at 11:30 she crashed. It was a long night.
By Christmas morning, she'd forgotten that she was going to open presents. We kept her away from the room where the tree was and were able to get ready for the day. Probably the last time that will happen. At 8:30 we went into see the tree and Mackenzie and Collin were so excited. Santa was very generous in bringing plenty of toys. They were both so excited. Santa's big mistake was that he didn't take all the toys out of their boxes and set them up...oops! It took us quite a few hours to get through opening presents that morning, with a breakfast break in between. Mackenzie was most excited about her new stuffed animals. A great addition to her collection.
So my best Christmas present to myself was to surprise Tyson. I didn't mean to commercialize Christmas so much, but I was so excited to give Tyson his gift from me. There is nothing that I love more than surprises, both giving and receiving. There is nothing Tyson loves more than to spoil surprises (even to tell me my gifts from him). I told him I was determined for the first time ever to not have him find out what he was getting for Christmas. He guessed and snooped everyday for a solid month, but I made sure to not say a word. It was so exciting for me. So what did I get him??? I couldn't help myself than to get him what he has wanted from the day he got out of dental school (well actually long before that but it wasn't realistic then). I got him a 4-wheeler with a trailer. It was so fun to pull it off and quite nerve-racking too. He had guessed it a few times, but it wasn't a real guess. Nearly every weekend leading up to Christmas he wanted to go to the Honda shop to buy one himself, not knowing that I had already bought it. It was quite the chore evading all his questions, keeping him from looking at the bank statements, making excuses on how we couldn't make it to the Honda shop, stopping him from getting the mail, keeping Mackenzie quiet about it, etc. Christmas morning Tyson was still wondering where his big present was since the scene of packages around the tree hadn't changed from the night before. Once we got a few of the kids toys set-up, he went through his stocking and found a rattling box in the bottom. He knew exactly what it was...keys! He couldn't believe it and was so excited. I think I was more excited than he was though. We all ran outside in the 10 degree weather to look at it for about 5 seconds in our barefeet and then ran back in. It was fun!


Each Christmas, we always go sledding in the Beaver Mountains with all the cousins. Since it snowed a foot in town on Christmas, we spent the day sledding around town being pulled by the 4-wheeler. It was a lot of fun and there wasn't any big hill climbing involved which was great for me and the kiddos.

The Boy Sledding Crew

The Girl Sledding Crew
The girls in action with Collin at the wheel.

Tyson and Mackenzie having a break.

Tyler and Mackenzie showing off the snow depth.

No, No Santa!

We just recently went to a family Christmas party where Santa was able to find some time to stop by. The kids were ecstatic. Even Mackenzie was saying how whe was excited to see Santa and get a toy. Well, she quickly changed her mind as he made his appearance. She was so afraid of him. She would have rather not gotten a toy at all, than to have to get close enough to him to grab it.

So now after she met him, she always says No, No Santa whenever we bring up that Santa Claus is coming. Even when I wrapped a present with some Santa Claus paper on it, she got all upset and wanted the paper off!

Collin wasn't upset to meet Santa, but he was quite cranky and needed a nap. Once he got his present unwrapped, he decided he'd rather play than have a nap.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

It is a family tradition (minus the 4 years in FL) that we ride up to the mountains and cut our own Christmas tree. This year it took 2 days of looking to find the perfect tree (which didn't turn out so perfect).

No trees here, but Mackenzie loved the little stream.

Time to stop and eat a little snow...

And a pine cone!

No tree yet, so we had to pull out the sleds which just happened to be packed in the car. This was both Mackenzie and Collin's first sled ride and they couldn't get enough.

Family picture break too...

And more sledding

Day 2 of the tree hunt

Finally a tree, and Mackenzie is trying to decorate it, or I should say UNdecorate it as fast as Tyson was putting them on.

The Christmas tree decorated. Now we just need Santa to stop by!

Mr. Photogenic in front of the tree. Mackenzie is no where to be found when it is picture time!