Great Mesa Photographer

It has been WAY too long since I have blogged, but I had to pop on here to mention that I have found the best photographer. She is very talented and very affordable. We used her last year for our family photos and I loved them so much that we are going to her again this year. Her name is Alissa Johnson and her blog is www.saycheese321.blogspot.com and her website is www.alissamelodyphotography.com. If you live in Mesa and are looking for a great photographer, your search is over.

Ethan's First Grand Canyon Hike

Ethan got to go with EK, Papaw, Chase, Dusty and Brent on a hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon at the end of December. He was such a great hiker. He has his own pack, and hiking boots and sleeping bag. He even carried it all down to the bottom and back out again.

The boys got to hike into a small cave and earn their Junior Ranger Badges, saw wild life, ate freeze dried food, went fishing, and hiked for miles and miles. Now isn't that just a boys dream. :o) Everyone was so impressed by how good he did and how he didn't complain about being tired. I think the annual Grand Canyon Hike will live on through Ethan and EK has a new hiking buddy. He loved it.

What's New...

Wow, life got busy in October and has stayed busy ever since. It is now December and we are all ready for Christmas. The tree is up, the Christmas lights are lit, and the joy of the holiday season is in the air. The difficult part now is making sure I can frantically write down the long loooonnnnnnng list of toys that the kids are constantly throwing at me. I have decided that they want one of everything that they see on any commercial from November 1st to December 25th. Luckily Santa only brings one present each. {wink}

Well I guess a little review is in order since I missed a few months. Let's see, Halloween was a good time this year. We held our annual block party in our cul-de-sac again and it went off without a hitch. Everyone brought their favorite side dish and we provided the hot dogs, the hot chocolate, and the chili. We had a great turn out and I think since Halloween was on a Sunday this year, more people stayed local and popped in for a nice visit. The kids looked super cute this year. Ethan was a vampire, Kaiya was Alice in Wonderland, and Porter was an adorable cowboy with real cowboy boots and everything.

We had a sad event happen in November when we had to put Moses, our dog for over 14 years, to sleep. He had cancer and his hips got so bad that he hardly ever got up or moved around. The pain medication that we put him on didn't help so we had no other choice. He was such a great dog and we miss him dearly. We have so many wonderful memories of him and are glad that he is now pain free and in a better place.

On a happier note, we quickly filled the hole that Moses left in our family with another dog from the Mesa Humane Society. We found the sweetest American Staffordshire Terrier /Pit mix and after a few visits to the humane society and lots of thought, we brought him home. We named him Harley and the kids enjoy playing with him and taking him to the dog park. They really wish that he would play catch, but maybe that is a learned trait. We will keep working on that. He is 10 months old and already house trained and loves the kids as much as they already love him. 

This month we got to go to Ethan's first piano recital. He started taking piano lessons a few months ago and is such a quick learner that he was able to memorize and play "Up on the Housetop" with both hands. He was so proud of himself and we were equally impressed at how quickly he learned to play and how confident he was at the recital. I am so glad that he loves to play the piano. I think I am blessed with very talented children. Ethan is also taking Hip Hop classes and his teacher told me the other day that he is very talented and has a natural born ability to dance.

Kaiya is doing really well in school. She is only in kindergarten, but is reading at a second grade level, so she has been going into the first grade classroom for part of her school day so she can continue to progress. She loves to read Junie B. Jones books and although I love that she enjoys reading, I don't enjoy how tired she is during the day because she secretly stays up reading most of the night. I guess that is a battle that I am not willing to fight though because I want her to keep that passion for reading even if it means I have to deal with cranky Kaiya in the afternoons. She is also taking dance class and a music class and is such a natural at everything she tries. I don't know why I am so blessed with such happy, smart, adorable children, but I will take it and enjoy the journey with a smile.

Porter is at such a sweet age. I get to spend the mornings with him one-on-one while Ethan and Kaiya are at school and I enjoy this time more than anything. He does go to preschool three days a week at my sister-in-laws house and he loves that too. I look forward to hearing him talk about his little friends and sing me the songs he is learning. He has a great voice for a three year old. He has also learned to love books and enjoys having Ethan read him stories at night before bed.

EK and I have been busy with work, but are so very blessed to both be able to work from home and get to see the kids during the day and experience life with them. I truly have to pinch myself some days just to make sure I am not dreaming. I never imagined that life could be this wonderful. We are so blessed to live within miles of our extended families and spend time with them as well. It is a great experience for our kids to be able to have the love and encouragement of all the cousins, Aunts, Uncles, Grandma's, and Grandpa's as they experience and try new things.

Our wish this Christmas season is that everyone can find joy in life and be grateful for what they have. Life is so precious and we are so glad to have such great friends and family to share it with.

Merry Christmas!!

Boyce Thompson Arboretum

A few Saturdays ago we went to Boyce Thompson Arboretum for Tymberlyn's birthday. I had never been there and was surprised and how beautiful it was. We went to a picnic table area and sat by the river (which was actually dry from the summer). The kids had a fun time playing in the dry river bed and then we went and looked at all the beautiful native and not so native plants. It was a very hot day, but luckily Grandma Carpenter had five umbrellas in her car. Yep, Grandma is always prepared for anything. It was a great trip and we plan to go back there soon.

Where's Porter?

We were all out in the front yard playing when we noticed that Porter had disappeared. We began looking to make sure he wasn't in the street. He wasn't. I could hear him, but wasn't sure where he was and then Kaiya told us he was in the tree. He wasn't just at the bottom of the tree, we had managed to climb to the highest spot he could get without breaking branches and falling. I kept my cool, and yelled for EK to grab the camera while I tried to coax him into climbing back down carefully. It was scary, but he didn't get hurt. Even the tree survived.

Learning the Value of Hard Work

When I go to Costco with my kids I try to avoid the center section (a.k.a. the toy section), especially this time of year when the Christmas toys are all on display. On my last trip I was not successful in distracting the kids enough. I told them we could take one quick walk through the isles but we had to keep moving. On one of the rows Ethan's eyes got huge and he started freaking out. I had to stop to see what this amazing toy was that was causing him to suck the air out of the store. When I got there I was surprised to find that out of all the amazing, colorful, toys to pick from, the thing that made him the most excited was a microscope. He of course asked if he could have it, and I immediately followed up his question with "No". I did tell him that if he wanted to do some extra chores around the house he could save up his money so he could buy it. I told him that if he could save up half ($20) then I would pay the other half. I figured that would put him off the idea and then he would forget allowing me to secretly buy it for him for Christmas. Well, I was very wrong. He asked me about it two or three times a day and he wanted to buy it right away. He counted up all the money he had already saved and then came up with a plan to work for the rest. He only needed nine more dollars to have enough. I told him that if he wanted to mow the front and back yard then that would be worth quite a bit and would get him close to the total amount he still needed. Ethan had never mowed the yard and since the grass was very long, it was quite a workout for him (and Dad and I). So he did it, he mowed the lawns and then asked if there was anything else he could do for the rest of the money he needed. By the end of the week he had earned enough to go get his microscope and in the process learned a valuable lesson about working hard for something you want. I love life lessons that turn out so great.