Cousins

Elliott, Cade, Donovan, & Myla

On Friday, we got together with my cousin Christie and her family to have dinner and play games. It was so much fun. It's neat that we have so much similarities. Christie and her husband Kevin married just a few weeks before Dan and I. Dono is just a month older than Cade and Myla is a week older than Elliott. They all played so well together. Time just flew by.

Donovan and Cade on Dono's new tricycle.

I hope that we can always keep close with family. There are so many that live far away, which makes it hard, but I always want my kids to know who everybody is.

Merry Christmas!

Dec. 25 2006

Elliott opening gifts with Mommy's help.

Santa Donovan with Santa Daddy.

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! We did. It was lots of fun and exciting to see through the eyes of a child. Donovan was so excited about Christmas this year. The baby Jesus, the lights, the tree, Santa, and presents. It was easy to feel the spirit of Christmas as we tried to show love for others. We hope we can be good examples to our little ones so that they can feel the real spirit of Christmas all year round not just on Christmas Day. Happy Holidays and God Bless!

Temple Lights

Every Christmas season we love to go see Christmas lights. One of the best places is on the temple grounds in downtown Mesa. Every night from Thanksgiving to New Years there is a program of singers or instrumentalists playing wonderful Christmas music. We've gone twice so far this year and will probably go once more. They have awesome light displays and also scenes from the nativity.

Dono loves looking at lights and to tell you the truth Dan and I are always in awe of them too. In addition to the music, they always help me get into the holiday spirit.

Twins

What cute boys! These were the outfits that Grant and Dono wore a while back. Now they fit with Dono and Elliott because they are the same age difference. These boys love each other and entertain each other too. I think once Elliott starts moving more (he's already been doing the army man crawl since before he turned 6 months!) then we're going to have best buds that are inseparable. At least I hope they can become that.

C is for Cookie

Aside from loving Elmo, Dono also likes Cookie Monster. The funniest expressions he makes are done in his Cookie Monster voice.


We know that Dono likes sweets, well we found that mommy's homemade cookies are also irresistable (for mommy too, unfortunately). He was singing the cookie song that Cookie Monster sings. "C is for cookie, and cookies are for Dono." What's really funny is that this morning he brought his snack bowl up to daddy, puts it in Dan's hand so that he is grasping it, and then says "Get some more cookies please, Daddy" while he points to the bowl. Then he proceeded to lead daddy to the pantry door where his precious sweets are kept and says "In there daddy". How could you say no? It was too cute.

Train Park

Tonight, a group of us went to the train park in Scottsdale. It was lots of fun.

Getting ready to ride the train.

They have a train that you can ride, a carousel, and several little playgrounds to play on. The train usually only runs during the day. But during the Christmas season they have rides at night because they have a huge display of hodge-podge Christmas lights. For example we got to see the usual Santa, elves, bears with hats, and of course Shrek and Fiona singing carols. We went through Who-ville and to top it off, we saw a huge HUGE lighted bald eagle draped in a flag! Now that was quite a show! I think they get people's old decorations that they didn't want anymore. Some were cute, but others were a bit weird.

Those who went:

Stacy, Johnny, and Mason Reading

Otho, Abe, Ken, Myra, and baby Ellie Johnson

and us! Donovan, Crystal, Elliott, and Dan

As you can tell we were all bundled up. It was a bit nippy out.

While there we also saw some of Dono's favorite cartoon characters.

We found that Elmo and Cookie Monster (as well as Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and Blues Clues) are really only enjoyed far away in tv land. Dono was terrified. He clung to Daddy like nothing else as this picture shows. Poor guy. I really hope he gets over this scared of everything phase. At least he enjoyed the train.

Since the walking giant cartoon characters were scary, we settled for the less traumatic:

Still no smile, but at least the shreaking stopped. It was a long day. It was fun to go to the train park and see all the neat things. We'll have to go back another day to see what we missed.

Risky Business

On Sunday, we got to watch the Hale girls while Spencer and Rebecca went to visit someone. Rachel is a few months younger than Dono and Kaitlyn is new (I blogged her arrival in October). They came around lunch/nap time after church. After lunch I attempted to put the kiddos down for a nap. Attempted should be emphasized! We pulled out Dono's trundle so that both could sleep on their own bed. All we heard were toys being played, giggling, and talking. When we went to get Rachel when her mom came, this is what we saw.

Stuffed animals all around, Rachel up in Dono's bed sound asleep, and Dono still talking to her. Her mom said it was a much needed nap. Sadly, Dono woke her up 10 minutes later from jumping on the bed. Poor Rachel.

Later that night Dono thought he was a cool dude:

Cool dude? I meant Tom Cruise. I don't think either Dan nor I have ever seen Risky Business, but we knew that this outfit made it famous. Dono is lots of laughs!

Book Club

Last night was also my book club night. I look forward to these nights all month long. We get together once a month for dinner and a new book to pick through. There are eight of us in our group so we cycle through who gets to choose the book and host the party. This month was at Jen's house. She has the neatest decorations up for Christmas. She reminds me a lot of my sister Alisa. They both have huge homes out in the boonies, have nice decorations, and are fun to talk to.

Myra, baby Lauren, Kim, Michelle, Liz, Jen, Emily, Stacy,

me(Crystal), and Elliott

We had a gift exchange and Emily made us all matching scarves (good job Em) so we just had to pose for a picture.

Most of us are having or have had babies recently so they usually come along as well. It's nice to get out of the house and socialize with other women that believe the same as you and are going through similar life challenges. I also love reading. It's nice to get new perspectives on things that are brought up in our books. I'm glad we all have different tastes in reading. It gives a nice variety and helps us become well rounded. Next month is my turn to host and pick a book. I'm having a difficult time choosing one. If you have a favorite book, let me know about it and maybe we can read it.

Playing

Tuesday we went to my best friend Kelli's house. Kelli and I have been friends since jr. high. We also went to high school and community college together. We got married the same year and our 1st kids are only a month apart. Donovan loves playing with Maya. We usually get together once a week to let the kids play and give us time to chat. Kelli is now pregnant with her 2nd baby. Hopefully we'll find out if it's a boy or girl soon.

Maya, Elliott, and Donovan

We thought it was time for all three to get a picture together, so we got on our matching outfits and had fun trying to get all three to look at the camera. Good job Elliott! At least Maya and Dono smiled. Then we went outside and played on the swing set where Dono climbed up and went down the slide all by himself. I was so excited. Maybe he's getting over his fear of doing things. Here's hoping!

Garage Sale

Today was my grandma's garage sale. We love to go help out and see people's faces as our junk become their treasures.

(Aunt Barbara, Uncle Darrel, Dono, & Grandma)

This was our post. The porch provided us with shade and a good lookout for anyone who approached. There wasn't as much business this time as in times past. It was nice having a little distractor.

Donovan with his garage sale find.

While Elliott slept inside, Donovan kept us well entertained. Whether it was with his hat modeling, his balloon flying, stuffed animal tossing, or his book reading, he kept us from getting bored. Boy do I love my little monkey!

Santa

Our ward (church) Christmas party was lots of fun. There was a DJ playing all sorts of songs that we could sing and dance to. I think Donovan had the most fun. He actually came out of his shell a little and danced with some of his friends from the nursery class. I forgot to take my camera or I would have taken some pictures. A friend of ours did remember a camera, so they took this picture for us.

Hi Santa!

Both boys seemed happy to sit on his lap. We're glad Elliott is not scared of anything yet. We hope it stays that way. Usually my dad has played Santa for his ward party and we would go see him, but this year with all the health problems that he's been having, he had to stand down. We were a little sad, but it all worked out.

We are very blessed. We have healthy and happy boys, family and friends near and far that love us and a Savior and Heavenly Father that love us too. We couldn't ask for anything more. If you're reading this, then we know that you care for us too. We wish you the best and hope that your holidays will be happy!

The Zoo

It's finally cool enough outside to go to the zoo! Yesterday we went with our play group to see all the animals.

Some of our play group

Earlier this year our family bought a season membership to the zoo. It has really come in quite handy. Dono loves to see the animals and make their sounds. We skip going in the summer months because it's just too darn hot. Yesterday was particularly cold. We went in the morning and I think the high temp only got to 61 degrees. Quite a change for our neck of the woods. It was really nice, but enough to bundle the kids up. I think Elliott slept most of the day.

Dono and friends looking at the sting-rays.

There's a new exhibit this year. Sting-rays. You have to pay extra, but you get to touch them in a pool of water. It reminded me of Sea World. I guess a lot of people ask because of the Steve Irwin accident, but their barbs on their tails have been removed so that they are not dangerous. Of course, Dono didn't want to have anything to do with them. No surprise there. But I stuck my hands in and felt some. There are two different kinds, some are bumpy on top, and the others are smooth. And boy was that water COLD!

The kids tired easily, and frankly so did the moms. We ate lunch and then headed for home.

Brooke, Stella, Justin, and Tyler strolling along.

We had lots of fun and can't wait to go again!

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's Thanksgiving already! Boy this year seems to be flying by. We started Elliott's 1st Thanksgiving by watching the Macy's Parade where we believe we spotted Dan's cousin Kayla in her marching band. It's really hard to see anybody when the camera doesn't stay on one person and the uniforms don't make it much easier. We hope she had the time of her life and didn't freeze.

Then we headed to Great-Grandma's house where the gang gets together for lunch. This year was very lean on the family. I guess it was the in-laws year this year. I once saw a quote that said "My family tree has many nuts". I think you can say that about us. We're a bit looney. But that's what makes us fun. Every year we have a tradition at grandma's to play volleyball. Grandma has a large field behind her house where we set up our net. If you think we should be professionals because we play at family get-togethers, then all I can say is Ha Ha Ha. There's do-overs for older people, younger people, and sometimes just cause it was someone's first oops. Boundary lines? What are those? I remember when Grandma and Ken were first married, Ken tried to be so helpful. He went as far as chalk outlining the boundaries for the volleyball "court". Boy, did that cause a ruckus. I think we all enjoy disagreeing whether the ball was in or out. The lines took all the joy out of it. The next time we played, there were no lines, bless Ken's heart. When new blood come to play with us, they seem a bit confused at how we play, but eventually they get over it and realize we're just having fun. Well, we didn't have enough people to play this year. It was really sad.

So, Dono got to play in the leaves and dirt by himself since ours were the only kids that came. At least he had fun. I think maybe he's starting to leave his sissy stage of being afraid of everything like grass, water, pets, etc. One can only hope.

Then we got to travel to Nama and Papa Earl's house to play and have another turkey feast.

We had lots of fun and were very ready for bed when we got home. We love visiting with family especially on the holidays. Those who couldn't join us were greatly missed. So...Alisa & Jake, Amy, Jason, & Aidan, and Vanessa, Stephan, Grant, & Zoe, and other family and friends, Happy Thanksgiving. We hope your day was a great one, we missed you!

He likes it!

Well, Elliott was showing us signs that he wanted to be like the rest of us and eat some real food. Well, if you call rice cereal real food. Have you ever tried it? Yuck. I'm glad more advanced food tastes a lot better. I guess that's why I have trouble with my weight.
Well, we thought we'd document this momentous occasion.

All ready and happy, so far.

Open the hatch, here it comes....mmmmm

Hooray! We still have a smile! Elliott's still happy and he even likes it! Wow, it only gets better from here. Wouldn't that be nice if that's how it worked for everything in life. I guess we should be more grateful for the littlest things in life, then if bigger things come, it'll be icing on the already wonderful cake. Food for thought.

Sock Battle

We went to visit Papa and give him his medicine the other day. Dono loves to take his own shoes and socks off. He's really into this independence stage. Sometimes I love it, other times I wish he would just let me do things cause it's faster. Well this particular day he had on extra long socks. He wouldn't let me help, but that's ok because it was fun watching him roll all over the floor wrestling with his sock. Too bad I can't capture the sound effects on my blog too! By the time he finally got the sock off (a good 5 min. later) he was breathing hard. But boy, that smile on his face showed that he was very proud of himself. Way to go Dono!

I Push Elliott

Dono is such a big helper. He loves to push Elliott in his stroller when we walk to church since it's just around the corner. Elliott loves it too. He'll sit real quiet and even laughs now and then. Last Sunday, I left Elliott in the stroller because the boys were having so much fun while I made some lunch. Dono would wheel him all around the house talking to Elliott about what he saw. The funniest thing was when he saw Moon (our cat). He tried running her over first and then says "Elliott, that's Moon, say 'Hi Moon', Moon, that's Elliott" He repeated that a few times then chased Moon with the stroller. Poor cat.

I think she'll live. She still loves Dono. What a good kitty (good gril as Dono tells her).

Go Away Bugs!!!

Since we moved into our new place we have found 4 black widows outside and 2 scorpions inside. WAAAAAAY too many for me to be comfy. That's only the few that we've been able to spot. So we had an exterminator come and spray inside and out and we've bought black lights to see the darn scorpions at night (since the spray is not guaranteed to kill the little hard shelled critters). Thank goodness the cool weather is coming. That will help them to go away. I'm still a little scared to let Dono go outside on our back porch to play since a black widow might be lurking about (ya I'm a little paranoid, can you tell?) So Dan had the fun task this week of sweeping all the webs away and trimming the little trees so that it will be a little safer.

Boy am I queen of not nice pictures today. But at least this picture shows that I'm not the only crazy one. I think Dan's hands and face were the only skin to be found.

We're crossing our fingers that we won't find any more poisonous critters. Boy do I hate bugs!

Happy Birthday Vanessa!

Happy 25th Birthday Nessa!

You're a quarter of a century old!! Wow, you're all grown up. We miss you so much and wish you didn't live so far. As seen in this LOVELY picture (sorry, I couldn't find any that looked appealing, if you want to see better ones, look at the Moody's blog and maybe Nessa will update it once in a while (hint, hint)) Vanessa is talking on the phone. I think that's where she's been since she was 12. Now that we're both stay at home moms, chances are we're talking to eachother or to mom or our sweeties.

I think she's turned Donovan into a phone junkie. Just kidding. This is Dono having fun talking to Nessa on her birthday. He loves to talk to her and Grant on the phone.

I love Nessa so much. We've gotten to be really close as friends since we moved out of the Elliott homestead. The thing I think I miss most is singing at the top of our lungs to our song "My Maria". I don't know how that became our song, but I think it's because one day we were driving in Herman (our whale of a car) and started singing it loud. It was lots of fun. Can't do that much anymore with precious little ears in the same car. Vanessa is always such a generous person that would do anything for you if she could. She is such a social butterfly, something that Alisa and I never really could do. I think I was always jealous with how many good friends she always had. So instead of being envious, I join her group of friends and try to be outgoing when I can. She also has two wonderful kids. Though she struggles sometimes, she's a really great mom. I learn so much from her even though she's my little sister. I'm glad we get to talk to each other almost every day and we even get to work together, which is lots of fun. It gives me more reasons to admire what a great woman she is. Have a wonderful birthday sis!

Good Eats

Just recently, Elliott has found a new friend. His toes. He will spit out his pacifier just so he can suck on his succulent toes. Wow, I wonder if we were all this flexible.

Welcome Kaitlyn!

On Nov. 5th Kaitlyn Hale was born. She was 7 lbs. 14 oz. and 20 in. long. She is such a cutie. Her parents Spencer and Rebecca are good friends of ours. They lived in the same complex as us since they got married. Dan and I even knew Spencer from our college days. Their older daughter Rachel is Donovan's friend as well. Now Elliott can have a playmate as well. We're so happy that everything went well and that Kaitlyn has joined her family at last! Congratulations!

Happy Halloween!

We love Halloween! It was so fun to have two boys to dress up this year. I usually try to make new costumes each year to make it more fun. Dan doesn't usually join in my scheming, but this year I at least got him to partner up with me. We ended up being Salt & Pepper (I'll include that picture if I can get it from my friend Whitney who took the picture.) I really didn't have a lot of time to make costumes this year with Elliott joining our family this summer and all. I figured he could recycle the costumes I previously made for Dono. That left Donovan's costume. We weren't sure what he was going to be. We thought we would have to break down and buy his first non-homemade outfit. While we had this dilemma, Nama and Papa Earl were visiting Florida for Aidan's 1st birthday. They said they saw the cutest costume and wanted to get it for Donovan. That solved our problem. He was going to be Mickey Mouse.

And what a cute Mickey he was!

Now we had to make sure Elliott fit into the skunk outfit I made 2 years ago. I was a little scared because Elliott is so much taller and a little older than Dono was for his 1st Halloween. When we dressed him up it not only fit perfect, it reminded us of when Dono wore it and how much they look alike.

Elliott (4 mos) --top

Donovan (2 mos)--bottom

We enjoyed our party called a "Trunk or Treat" by bringing our cars to our church parking lot with other church members or friends to have a safe trick-or treat experience going car to car where we knew the candy wouldn't be tainted and the kids could have fun. We had a great time.

New Mexico Vacation

The week after we moved, we had our family vacations. This time they were separate. Dan went to Michigan (he'll blog that later) and the kids and I went to visit Vanessa and her family in New Mexico. What a week! We had lots of fun. It was great seeing the Moodys again. We miss Nessa, Stephan, Grant and Zoe already! Right when we got there we thought it was going to be a very LONG week once Dono saw Roxy and started screaming. He's been a real scaredy-pants lately, even of our cat Moon. So when he came face to face (literally) with Roxy the huge boxer puppy he freaked out. We had to repeatedly teach him to say "Go Roxy, Go" in order to have some quiet. We got to hang out, watch movies, go shopping, have pedicures, and ate some great food (except for Los Hermanitos--man that was cruddy service). After 2 weeks of packing and moving, that was awesome relaxation. It was nice to have someone for Dono to play with and keep him occupied. We learned that Zoe started crawling the day we left. I guess she was held a lot while we were there. Nessa also got pumpkins for the boys to paint.

Dono and Grant had lots of fun, and surprisingly most of the paint got on the pumpkins! There was the occasional mark on the face and body and of course the few blobs that got on Roxy's face. The boys were so proud of their pumpkin masterpieces.

Donovan with his pumpkin

Grant with his pumpkin

Boy am I glad we stripped the boys down first.

We were so sad when the time came to leave. The next time we see the Moodys they will be moved into their new house. Thanks for letting us come to visit!

Dan's Family History Trip

Crystal asked me to post some information and pictures from my recent family history trip on her blog. Now there is a romantic word: BLOG. Sounds like something you would have to excuse yourself for doing in a public place. But I digress, on with the story.

I left Phoenix at 10:30PM on Tuesday, 18 October 2006. I arrived in Detroit at 4:40 AM local time, or 1:40 AM Phoenix time. I got my rental car and drove for 4 hours to Buckley, Michigan where my dad's grandfather and great-great grandfather are buried. Here is a picture of the Cornell Cemetery entrance.

That's my van there. It had Sirius Satellite Radio. I quickly became addicted to channel 17. The Grateful Dead channel. Many of the cemeteries I visited were quite literally in the middle of nowhere and I was the only living person for miles. Though I never got lost, on one ocassion I was slightly confused visa vi my geographical location.

While driving I tried my best to take pictures of the fall colors, most of the time to the dismay of my fellow drivers. Here are some examples...

I'm trying hard to refrain from posting pictures of all of the headstones that I uncovered (some unfortunately rather literally). But I did find some interesting facts about my ancestors. My mom's great-great-grandfather came to Canada from County Clare, Ireland. My dad's great-great-grandfather was an ardent abolitionist and fostered run away slaves in his church and possibly his home near Cassopolis, Michigan. However, the most powerful moments came at the gravesites of my ancestors I knew, my Grandma McMahon and my Grandma Shoot. We called her that not for her marksmanship, but rather because of her use of the word stemming from her desire not to curse in front of the grandkids. Here are pictures of their headstones.

Towards the end of my trip I stayed in Detroit with my Uncle Harley. He and Aunt Barb took me out on the town. I got to go to the new Tigers Stadium, the Hockeytown Cafe, and got to drive up Woodward Ave at 10 PM! (Which for those who don't listen to rap music, that's what the people that live in the ghetto, call the GHET-TOOOO!) As I was to afraid to take pictures of the G-dawgs on Woodward I just took pictures of the stadium and of Hockeytown.

This is the big cement tiger that greets those who enter Comerica Park.

Here is my childhood hockey hero, Gerard Gallant! SACREBLEU! Il tire, il marque! Me revenir, mon hero francophone!

So my tale of my trip to Michigan would not be complete without my critique of quite possibly the finest restaurant in Dowagiac, Michigan: Mr. Yahoo's Restaurant and Laundromat. Now there is a combo you don't see very often. The unfortunately occupied non-smoking table was located next to the laundromat portion of the facility. Forced into the smoking section I was rather cavalier and ordered the BBQ Ribs and Chicken dinner. It came complete with mashed potatoes and "gravy". The food was remarkably palatable considering the proximity in which was cooked to open containers of laundry detergent.

If you would like more of the sorted details of my trip, please send a self-addressed stamped envelope to my house. If you don't know my address, you probably don't know me too well and the remainder of my trip would be remarkably boring for you. Just fill in the details of my swashbuckling gallantry using your own imagination to avoid disappointment.

So, how do you end one of these? Not sure. I will end by saying this. BOOTS ON A DRAGONFLY, BOOTS ON A DRAGONFLY!