Neglect! Naughty me!

Well I guess you can say that I have been neglectful! I have not posted or updated on our blog in way too long! I guess not a lot has happened. Let me think about it for a minute or two.

September: School in session. Anna was Student of the Month. Yeah for her!

October: School, work and more work and more school. Halloween! I forgot about Halloween! We had a lot of fun! Watch out for some pictures to be coming some time in the near future, if not today!
It was the first year that we made it through our ward party without losing at least one of our children! It is usually Caleb the last few years, but before that, Anna had a tendency to wander off. One year, she was sampling the cakes hiding in the church!(She was 3 years old I think!)
Both Tyler and Anna started soccer. It was Tyler's 4Th year and Anna's 2nd. They both made great friends and had a great seasons! Also in October Tyler, Caleb, and Dad went on the Jones Family Deer Hunt. It was great to spend time with Great Grandpa Jones and other family. No deer leg to bring home to Mom this year.

November: The end of soccer season! Hurray! I was happy, because I got my Saturdays back! And my Tuesdays and Wednesdays!
Big month for Jody- New Moon was released to theaters! OK, I know that sounds really lame, but I love the books and movies and can't wait for the next one! I have already seen it twice and plan on going again. Any one want to go with me??????
Thanksgiving day was a great day for us. The kids got to spend time with both Grandparents! There was a lot of driving to and from and back again between Queen Creek, Mesa, and Scottsdale. Lots of yummy food, and lots of time with family and friends! Don't forget about the Cheshire Chase a 3.2 mile run and a 1 mile fun run put on by some friends in the Ward. Tyler and Dad did the 3.2 miles and beat last years time, while Anna, Caleb, and Mom did the 1 mile fun run.


December brings us to date! We are less than 2 weeks from Christmas! We are planning to go to California to be with my parents that week. We are excited, and so are the kids!

I guess that I was wrong about not a lot happening! I promise I will try to do better at updating!

GGGRRRRR!

A friend took a picture of Caleb and I riding the carousel at a mall last week. I thought it was kind of cute! I decided that instead of standing next to Caleb getting sick, I would rather sit and be sick! I actually didn't get nauseous! It was fun too!

Mom's 60th Birthday

Jody and I made a video for my mothers 60th birthday party, a little snapshot of her life up to this point.

Farewell Old Dryer!

Our dryer has been on a long and torcherous decline for the last year or so. (have to run twice to dry most loads) The last 2 weeks it has started to scorch our clothes, and so I tried to clean it out with the vacuum (something I have not done-ever!) well, I took out some screws to clean where I couldn't reach and the whole thing fell apart on me! (think humpty dumpty-coudn't be put back together again!) I have decided that Chad and I should not try to fix anything in our house because all we do is make it worse-like when we tried to fix our dishwasher- (we have a new one now! :)

So I spent the majority of the late afternoon and evening searching for a dryer! We found a used washer and dryer on craigslist for $200! They are a few years old, but in great shape! Now I can turn around and sell our washer and offset some of the cost! It was a long night setting it all up and getting them running, but as far as I can tell the washer works great and the dryer heats up! Today I am doing all the laundry that I have been avoiding for the last 2 weeks! Then I have to fold and put it all away! That's the part that I don't like!!!!! Folding party anyone?????

Disneyland!!!

Chad and I just celebrated our 10 year anniversary last week. We have been planning this trip for what seems like forever! We left Monday morning and after a VERY long drive with Tyler saying every 5 minutes, "How much longer till we get there?" and Caleb crying or screaming the other minutes in between- "I wanna go home!!!" We finally arrived! Thank you Anna for being such a good girl and not whining!!!
Tuesday was the kids day! We took all 3 of them to Disneyland! My Dad and Marcia came along and we had so much fun!!! We have soo many pictures that there is no way to put them all here! So we made a little video with a few of the things we did! ( I will probably be making and posting more, now that I know how to do it!)
The rest of our vacation was great! We stayed out on Coronado Island at the same hotel as our honeymoon. The kids were with us one night and then they had a sleepover with Grandma Marcia and Grandpa Dow. I can't tell you enough how nice it was not to worry that they were safe and having a blast! Thanks again guys!
(Dad and Marcia- I realize that there aren't any of you in these- oops! Sorry! I'll get you in the next one!)

More pretzels..... and more again!

Here's another video I took today of Caleb. Doing what he does best!! I love my kids! This one is a little longer, but he is so cute! I had to post the whole thing. I must be biased, but I think he is the cutest almost 3 year old!
This is how Caleb is when he is calm and this is when I love to cuddle with him- when he isn't using me as a jungle gym, and he will just sit calmly. It doesn't happen often, so I take advantage of it when it does! (unless it is when he tries to get in bed with me at 3 am!, then he is kicked back to his own bed!)
He is really good at keeping me on my toes! He loves to "swing" on me. He holds my arm, and uses it like a swing and hold himself up for about 4 or 5 swings- That's a lot for a 37 pound kid to hold up all by himself! He is really strong!(I guess that might explain why one of my arms is stronger than the other!)
He hangs and swings from our ficus tree in the front of our house and is learning to climb it. Needless to say, the child is covered in bruises and scrapes! But that doesn't faze him- he just picks himself up off the ground or out of the tree and keeps on going!

Pretzel Mania!!

Ok, today was a funny day.
The setting: I was doing laundry straightening up the house, Anna was eating a snack of pretzels and Caleb was just playing around the house quietly, for the 1st time all day!
I came into the house from doing laundry, and saw that the playroom door was closed. I open the door- and what did I find???
Caleb had taken the entire bucket of pretzels and dumped the WHOLE thing out onto the table in the playroom! Then, it seems that he decided that wasn't enough fun, he thought it would be better if some were on the floor and the rest were crushed into bits with salt all over the table!
So, I went in, yelled at him for about 2 seconds and realized, what am I yelling about? So I sent him out of the room, asked Anna to bring me the vacuum, and started picking up the pretzels and putting them back in the container for the next person to eat!
I was not about to waste all those pretzels! (there was a whole new bag in there!) Here is what I did for the next 30 minutes! The videos aren't really that long, I promise!
While I was still picking up pretzels, Caleb came in while I was cleaning up and was licking his fingers to get all the salt he could eat! I almost threw up! It was hilarious! This is a prime example of what life is like in my house on a good day!!! I love almost 3 year olds!

A Painting We Will Go...

We spent Conference Saturday painting our bedroom. For my birthday, Chad gave me a bunch of paint samples and a certificate that said, choose your color and we will paint the bedroom and bathroom. I have been wanting to do this for a few years, and just never did. So I went to Home Depot and chose a ton of different samples, took them home and narrowed it down to one. I LOVE IT! We didn't get to the bathroom, but that I could probably do in a day(if the kids were not around!) We will do that another day, but at least I already have the paint! We took a bunch of pictures and videos of the kids painting and Chad made it into a mini movie. Take a look at how we spent the weekend!!!!

Golfing with Bro's

It's always nice to spend a day with my brothers on a golf course even if I am no good at the game. A day on the course is always better than a day at the office.

Ragnar Relay Race 2009

This weekend I had the most amazing experience with 11 other people. We ran a 12 person relay race running from Prescott to Mesa totaling 202 miles and finished in a little more than 29 hours. I can't even explain what it is like to not sleep for 2 days, to run a total of 18 miles and in between cheering on your other team members as they run all through the day and night. We visited places I had never even heard of like Congress Arizona, or Skull Valley. This race had over 2400 people running and vans going everywhere, stopping all over the road to jump out and give their runner some water and scream encouragment to keep going. You can try to sleep but it just didn't happen. I never knew how good peanut butter and honey could taste even washing it down with Gatorade. Even though I can hardly walk today I can't wait to try it again next year. Team Skyline Hybrids you rock!

Random thoughts

I am just sitting here after dinner, avoiding cleaning up and doing the dishes. I really have no desire to do it tonight(how is that different than any other night in my house?) The kids are wrestling on my bed- guess I'll have to make it all over again for the uptheenth time today before I can get in it! Chad is in the other roon watching some sporting event, woo woo!
I was thinking earlier today how strange life is. I just joined the Facebook world and was looking up old friends and finding them! It was so strange the memories that came back! Most of the people I found were from High school, so I haven't seen them in over 12 years! It was just one of those, duh! moments I guess.
There really isn't a point to this post, just bored and avoiding the dishes, the floor that needs mopping, the kids who need to go to bed, the homework that Tyler needs to do, the laundry that needs to be folded, the toys that need to be picked up.... You get the point!

Snow Trip 2009

What a great way to start out the new year spending time with family in the snow. We went up on new years day to Taylor Arizona where Jody's sister Michelle and her family live for a few more weeks. We spent the night there and the kids had fun with their cousins making snow flakes out of paper and playing with toys. We then went the next day out near Sunrise ski resort and played in the snow. We had snow ball fights, made snow angels, and then even built a snow man. This was a challenge with the snow not being very wet and it would not stick together. The kids got a little cold but still had a great time.

Christmas 2008

Christmas 2008 was a lot of fun with family. My Brother Jared and his wife Christy and their 4 daughters came out to Arizona from Boston, MA and stayed for two weeks at my parents home in Scottsdale. We decided it would be fun to have all the cousins wake up together Christmas morning to see what Santa had brought them. Tyler got a razor scooter, Anna got a bike, and Caleb got a tricycle. We were able to spend some time with Jody's family also. We had a nice family dinner at her sisters home in Queen Creek and we saw the cousins act out the Nativity story. We also had the cookie jar party with her parents coming into town since the just returned from a mission in Africa. This is a Dow family tradition so we had corn chowder and opened some gifts together that fit into a cookie jar. All in all it was a great holiday season filled with great memories. We will miss the Jones crew from MA and their dog Dottie (our kids loved this little dog) and hope to see them again soon. We wish you all a very happy new year.