Home Sweet Home

Organ Stop Pizza Perhaps in an effort to get our children interested in music (since we finally have a piano), Justin planned a trip to Organ Stop Pizza last weekend. A last minute phone call from some friends in the ward and it was a double family date! We explained to Brighton and Adaira what they could expect and how we wanted them to behave. They were both concerned they were going to be "so bored" sitting there listening to music, so they each brought books to keep them busy. NO BOOKS NECESSARY! They were enthralled the entire time and loved the music and all the different instruments that would light up, along with the occasional puppets, sing a longs, and bubbles that would randomly come down from the ceiling during some of the songs.  Not a good picture of Brighton, but shows the organ...  We were worried that Dale would be running around all over the place, but he was SO well behaved for the first hour we were there! I think the loudness of it all made him nervous a...

"New" Piano Justin has been trying for months to talk one of our mothers into letting us "store" their piano for them. Neither of them were keen on the idea until Justin's parents decided to downsize their home and ended up selling it very fast. Not wanting to move their piano, they gave it to us! I wasn't nearly as excited as Justin was at first because I didn't want an old piano. I was hoping that in 3-5 years we could buy a 10-20yr old used baby grand and I could fix it up myself. I was worried that if I let him bring this old piano in our house then I'd never be able to get one that I wanted. After a reality check from Justin about all the other things we hope to buy in the next 3-5 years, I realized that it would probably be much longer than that before I got my baby grand. As a compromise, I let Justin bring home the old piano as long as it didn't come into the house until we refinished it (come on, imagine how long it would have taken to ...

Swimming Last weekend we went up to Long Valley Camp for our ward campout. I was too busy chasing Dale around (he had no fear of losing himself in the forest) to think of getting out our camera, so no pictures of that, but we had a fun time despite very little sleep. Brighton and Adaira loved having hours of unrestricted messy fun with all the other kids and friends from the ward. We left for home around 11am the next day and stopped by the upper Verde River just before Payson. The last time I swam here was about 16 years ago. I had white running shorts on and the water was so muddy that those shorts were forever a peach color after that trip.  Not much has changed... "Look Mom, I'm walking on water!" Found a tiny crawdad Just for record sakes, here is my 28 week belly, ignore the pale face desperately in need of makeup...

Back Yard Horses  8/2/11 In an effort to cut down on some of our yard work obligations, we coordinated with the people who board horses behind us to let them use the back bit of our yard as pasture. Nearly every day they put a miniature horse, Merlin, back there. He's perfect size! Even Dale can run right up to him and pet him and we don't have to worry about anyone getting hurt. Merlin can't quite keep up with the whole pasture, though, so about a week ago the people put two more horses back there for a few hours. One of them was a huge Draft horse that used to pull carriages at Disneyland (Apparently Disney retired them after a mere 3 yrs.). Even though I have absolutely no desire to ever own my own horses, it is so much fun to look out and see them back there! Dale was excited to see all of them too so we took some pictures.  Merlin is barely as tall as the knee of the big black horse. You can see in this picture that the big horse's rear and shoulder blades ar...

Hurricane Dale? When Brighton was a toddler we affectionately called him "Hurricane Brighton" because he left a path of destruction everywhere he went. Up until now we have called Dale the "relocator" because he has been notorious for getting into every drawer and moving things from one end of the house to the other. This morning, Brighton and Dale came bounding into our room at 6:45am. I AM NOT A MORNING PERSON, especially before 7am on WEEKENDS!!! I have told Brighton and Adaira both that they are never to come out of their rooms before 7am unless it's an emergency. In my groggy state I told Brighton that he shouldn't be in our room since it isn't 7am yet, and even more importantly he shouldn't have gotten Dale out of his crib at that early hour either. I informed him that it was his job to watch Dale now and to go take Dale and watch some cartoons for a little while (Dale will sit with him after school sometimes and watch cartoons, so this wasn...

Things I Love Letting our kids go crazy in the monsoon rain I glanced into the living room the other day wondering where Dale was because I hadn't heard any trouble in the house for a few minutes. This is what I found. I love that even though he will never watch TV alone, he is happy to chill with his big brother and watch some cartoons. He will do this with Adaira, too. I love that Brighton just naturally puts his arm around Dale.  Me and Dale are getting a lot of alone time now that Brighton and Adaira are in school. It has been so WONDERFUL! Dale is great at playing by himself and with me. We usually sit and cuddle for 30 minutes a day watching Baby Einstein (blegh! I mostly snooze through it but at least I get to cuddle with this little guy). Justin took this picture because he thought Dale was funny with his hand on his crotch...  This picture is just the epitome of Justin's little princess.  She put a flower in her hair and wanted a picture with her doll next...