Ten years today

I am one very lucky girl. I love you Rob!
Thanks for the best years of my life...

Bangs

I got my hair cut over the weekend. It's the first time in 18 years that I've had real "bangs." I'm sort of having a hard time getting used to them. Of course I was styling my hair a bit different in 1991...

According to my kids...

I've seen this on several blogs and on facebook as well...definitely worth a good laugh. I asked Hewitt (4) and Burke (almost 7) the following questions and got these responses:


1. What is something your mom always says to you?
H: Because
B: No

2. What makes your mom happy?
H: A laugh
B: When we do what she asks us to do

3. What makes your mom sad?
H: When I’m sad
B: When we don’t obey

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
H: She laughs
B: By telling me new jokes

5. What was your mom like as a child?
H: She liked going to the beach
B: She liked playing with dolls

6. How old is your mom?
H: 44 (thanks Hewie)
B: 33 and ¾

7. How tall is your mom?
H: Um, like 16
B: 5 foot 5 (close, thanks for the extra inch)

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
H: Drawing with me
B: Fun activities with her family

9. What does your mom do when you’re not around?
H: Draw with pencils on paper
B: Clean the house

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
H: That happens! (Does he mean that I'm already famous?)
B: Being a good mom

11. What is your mom really good at?
H: Playing tennis on the Wii
B: Helping her kids

12. What is your mom not very good at?
H: Baseball
B: Having kids sit on her lap with a baby in her tummy (so true)

13. What does your mom do for a job?
H: Building in construction; helping friends
B: Chores

14. What is your mom’s favorite food?

H: Celery (what??)
B: Taco salad

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
H: Because she helps me
B: Being a good mom

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
H: Daphne
B: Velma
(does this mean my kids think I'm smart and gorgeous?)

17. What do you and your mom do together?

H: Play the Wii
B: Do cool projects

18. How are you and your mom the same?
H: When we wear jeans and t-shirts
B: Our last name

19. How are you and your mom different?

H: When we aren’t dressed the same
B: She’s a girl; I’m a boy

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
H: When I have kisses
B: She gives me hugs and kisses and she is my mom

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
H: Dad takes us on vacation and on drives
B: He does fun things with her and us

22. Where is your mom’s favorite place to go?
H: To Arizona (certainly not yet...maybe someday?)
B: Grandma and Grandpa D.’s house

Sadly celebrating

It looks as though we have sold our home. The house is under contract and we close at the end of this month (the week before my due date)! What a whirlwind this past week has been. In my usual style, instead of starting to pack or deal with the realities of moving, I have been spending my "spare time" making a quilt for the baby. My thoughts and emotions have vacillated from feeling extremely grateful that our home has sold (and to a great family, btw) to feeling extremely sad that we are moving and so soon! I wish I could pack up all of my dear friends and take them along...we have been so blessed these past 4 years to live in this wonderful neighborhood.

Rob's folks have kindly agreed to let us stay with them until we can find a place in Arizona. I'm guessing/hoping we'll be moving down there in July; before school starts and just in time for the real heat. So, here's to a new chapter in our lives; let the chaos (umm, I mean adventure) begin.

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.