The Park and No Paige

Over the past couple of days, 5 to be exact, we conducted a little experiment. We sent Paige out of state and measured the decibel level at home.

Any guess as to the results? Dramatically lower!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The impetus for the experiment was an invitation for Paige to join one of her friends on their family ski vacation. After weeks of wrestling with the decision, Mindy finally interviewed the family and role played with them what was acceptable behavior with our little girl. Once they successfully passed each of the role-play situations and got the green light from Mindy, I pulled out the recording equipment.

The report on Paige was when they brought her home: Boy she is an aggressive skier.

But otherwise she made us proud and didn't break anything. Our first foray into sending our kids off. We can't decide if we feel old or duped.

By the way, when Paige walked back in the door, Garrett and Ryan both yelled out her name and ran to her. Ohhh (5 minutes later they were fighting but...)

So we hung out as a family of three. Weird. We have a park the kids love.







And we read books in the same bed without Paige




But it is nice to have the noise back. Little breaks remind you how much the noise is a part of your life.

Are You Pregnant?

So, most of you know that I've been watching my friends baby the past couple of months. One thing I've learned from this is that two kids are HARD!! Another thing I've learned is that the second one is not as traumatic as that first one.

The 3rd thing I've learned, Thomas is baby-hungry. He loves her and kisses her and wants to hold her and feed her and give her toys and blankets and binkies and dress her up! No kidding, he's always trying to put his hats on her and wrap things around her neck, yikes! The first thing he does when he wakes up, he calls for Ava. Every baby picture he sees he calls Ava, even his own baby pictures. This is really funny considering that Ava is half black and looks nothing like him.


I keep getting asked if I'm pregnant. Having a "2 kids, 18 months apart" practice run has really made me wonder if I ever want two. I think Thomas wonders why he can't have her all the time.

Perler Beads

For Christmas, Ben got a crafty item called perler beads. Those of you who were at our house at Christmastime know that he got a lot of them - 3 large yogurt containers full to the brim! You take these little beads, place them on a "frame" and iron the top. They melt/stick together and you can made key chains and stuff.

The boys were working with them last night and having a blast! This morning when I went to change Emma's pants I found an interesting thing - LOOK!

All she could say when questioned was "In Nose."

Winter Wonderland?

Do I really need to write a caption
for these pictures? I think
they speak for themselves!

It's Still Cold!!

Melanie got a call from one of her friends Sunday night, that there was SNOW at Higley & McKellips. She said I'm going, are you coming- Yes, Dad & I are in!!! Seeing is believing!
It had been raining so everything was wet as we drove east on McKellips. There was no snow until we got to the intersection of Higley & MeKellips!! We got out and played around a bit, got it the car & drove to Alta Mesa Park. It was full of people with snow ball fights going on everywhere. You can see the snowman that someone made. People were sledding too - where in the heck did they get the sleds??
It was an exciting evening - different from any other I have experienced in Mesa, Arizona!!!

Yes, we are all crying COLD!!!

See for yourself - It's COLD!!!

Cold?

This is our way of keeping the cold out of our house... off to Home Depot to replace the weather stripping on the front door.