Arizona Living

In case anyone missed it, we moved to Mesa, Arizona early in August so that Spencer can pursue an MBA at Arizona State University. I am pleased to say that I no longer have to manage an apartment building. It was wonderful while it lasted, but I am happy to be past it now. We are living with my parents and I am loving being in a house! I have lived in one apartment or another since I went away to school in 1997, except one summer living with my grandma. I would have to say my favorite thing about being in a house is having a washer and dryer. And having a back yard is a really close second. When we first got here I was so in love with being able do my laundry without hiking down the hall with six or more loads to wash after scrounging for enough quarters to wash it all. I was pretty sure I could happily do 3 loads of wash a night. Evidently that was the honeymoon phase of the relationship. I still love that I can do it here so easily, but I don't really love the folding and putting away aspect. Madeleine started ballet last month and I think she is one of the cutest ballerinas ever! She loves being in her ballet clothing most of all. Last time I saw her in class she was not actually dancing so I don't know if she likes the dancing part as much, but she is crazy about the clothes. Last week, the night before ballet she very carefully laid out her clothes so they would be all ready for her in the morning. She didn't want to be late.

Madeleine also goes to preschool 4 days a week. She has a really great teacher and lots of nice kids in her class too. She only goes from 12:15-3 in the afternoons, but they eat lunch and have a snack while they are there. Doesn't that seem like a lot of eating? Don't get me wrong, that's right up my alley since I love to eat, I just think it seems like a lot.
Ian is in a shoe phase right now. He's in Maddie's boots in this picture and some of her other shoes in the next one. The shoe phase is a long one, isn't it? Seems like he's been really into trying on our shoes for awhile now. Anyway, he loves playing in the backyard! He's gotten really good at climbing up one side of the jungle gym and down the other. The kids love having a back yard to go play in. I love it too! Being able to let them take their craziness outside now and then is wonderful! And as you can see, we are so lucky to have grass in our yard. Which is quite a luxury for living in the desert. We're on an irrigation system where we flood the yard every couple weeks to water it and one major side effect is tons of mosquitos. I mean TONS! I was out one night for about 15 minutes and got over 70 bites on my legs in that time. Disgusting! I looked diseased. And I guess I could have contracted West Nile virus or something, but I don't think I did. Maybe I should check the symptoms of that. Anyway, I think the city recently fumigated or something and that seems to have helped.
Madeleine is practicing gymnastics. She has also learned how to swing by herself. Also, we have been swimming at my sister's house a couple times a week and Maddie is quite the little fish! She is so great in the water! It's awesome. Oh yeah, and 'awesome' is Maddie's new favorite word. Everything is AWESOME!
Here's our little pretty boy. He probably will go through a time in his life when he won't like that we not only took this picture, but then showed it to everyone we know, but it's just so funny! He is such a boy in every way, but he plays around the house in girl shoes quite often. Such a funny kid.

I have been super lazy with taking pictures lately, so sorry for having only these boring ones to post. I am charging my camera battery right now and I am resolving to do better. I'll try to not neglect my blog like I have been.

We are missing all of our SoCal friends tons! Our new ward seems really nice and there are quite a lot of young families here so hopefully we can find some friends here to fill the void of moving away from so many great people. Miss you all!