Only a mother would write this

For at least a year now we've been trying to encourage Burke to read chapter books on his own. He is a very good reader, but has had a hard time with the transition of wanting to be read to and wanting to read on his own (don't worry, we still read to him plenty). I knew that as soon as he gave it an honest try he would fall in love with it and that is what has happened this month. We are now having to ask him to put his book down to eat dinner, tell him to "stop reading and go to sleep" and today when he came home from school he ran directly to his room to pick up with where he left off (with no interest in a snack even!)... This is really exciting to a "first time" mom (as I always am with whatever stage Burke is entering). This morning I came downstairs to find Rob and Burke silently eating breakfast while Rob was reading The Ensign and Burke was reading The Friend. I love it!

Vacay recap

A few weeks ago we took a family vacation/trip down to Phoenix for a little exploration and relaxation. Although this last statement begs the question, "Is it really ever a vacation (no work) with the entire family?" My brother and I used to joke when we were younger about the difference between trips and vacations. We mostly took trips. I think my first REAL vacation (at least the first I ever really appreciated) was when I tagged along with Rob to a "work conference" in Palm Springs three years ago. We left our kids at home (difficult for the first few hours) and I had about 4 days to myself to decide on whatever I wanted to do and whenever I wanted to do it...(enough on that tangent).

We did have a great time down in Phoenix for the most part. The first couple of days were rainy and we basically drove around to get a feel for the area (see previous post). We did some preliminary house hunting and I had the great *pleasure* of vomiting in our Realtor's car--have I mentioned that I get car sick; especially when I'm pregnant?! Thank heaven I happened to have a gallon-sized Ziplock in my purse.

My favorite things included a trip to the Phoenix Zoo and several trips to parks and other outdoor activities (yes, in the middle of winter! It was wonderful). We were also able to catch up with some old friends that live in Arizona and the boys had a blast swimming and learning to play tennis with their new tennis rackets. We all survived the long road trip and as always, it was good to be home after a nine day trip. I didn't take a ton of photos, but here are a few:

Here are my cute guys at the Phoenix Zoo. I thought this zoo was one of the best I've been to. It had a real "natural-habitat" feel to it and lots of great (and varied) play places for kids. You can't go to Arizona and not get a photo with a cactus, right?

Tosh at the "Little People" play place. He had more fun than this photo shows...

Hewitt at a cool "Train" park in Scottsdale. Lately he is my only child who likes to have his picture taken...

Again at the train park with some friends (Rob's college roommate and his family joined us for a couple of days):

The inevitable...

I'm realizing that I failed to post anything the entire month of February, well it is a short month after all... A lot is currently going on around here and I feel much busier than usual. I'll mention for the first time on this blog that we are planning to move to the Phoenix area within the year and have been busy trying to get our house ready to sell. All of my time lately has gone to deep cleaning, organizing, packing, and getting rid of as much stuff as possible. We're not in any hurry to move; Rob is being transferred for work and we have until January of 2010 to physically be down there (but he could start working in Phoenix tomorrow if he wanted to). With the market the way it is, we feel some sense of urgency about getting our home on the market as we have no idea how long it may take to sell. This is a subject I've pretty much avoided for as long as possible and don't really like thinking about or discussing it (too sad--this will definitely be my most difficult move). I know that things will all work out eventually, although it is a little frustrating not to have control over the timing and details. I think this entire process will help me to exercise more faith, and I guess that is a good thing.