It's taken a while...

But I am finally feeling somewhat settled. Our room has been pretty much a dumping ground since we got here and I finally had had enough. Spencer helped me put up these shelves so we could get a little decor in our room. It's much nicer than the piles of junk that were here before. OK, there are still some piles, but they will be gone soon. I just have to find them a more permanent spot.
This week I also got around to putting these few things in our bathroom to liven up the space a bit. It makes such a huge difference! I almost want to stand around looking at my handiwork all day. Do you think Maddie and Ian would let me do that? Yeah, I don't think so either.

Another long awaited update

Here's the deal. In our house, our computer is in our bedroom as opposed to out in the center of all the action in the office/dining area like in our last place. Because of that, I'm not on the computer constantly like I was in California and that's why I update so infrequently. I hope I haven't lost any of my loyal friends/readers (ha ha, like I have loyal readers). Anyway, this post is going to be a long one. I hope you can stick it out.

This year for Halloween, Ian was Buzz Lightyear and Madeleine was Sleeping Beauty, a geisha, and Rapunzel. My favorite was Rapunzel but she only wore it to the gym the morning of Halloween (they had a costume contest--that she won!) and wouldn't wear it again that night. It's just as well though, since I have already decided that that will be her costume next year. Don't even suggest she might not go along with that. I'm the boss around here and what I say goes. Hopefully.

The festivities began a week before Halloween with a party at her ballet teacher's house for all the students. Of course she was thrilled to wear her Aurora costume, but I think she could have done without the party almost entirely. They made cotton candy at the end that won her over, but she basically wanted nothing to do with the games or the kids and especially not the haunted house.The next night, Jack from preschool, had a raging party at his house. Spencer was busy studying for first trimester finals so it was just me and the kids. Madeleine's preschool teacher loaned us a geisha robe to go with the wig I found on clearance last year.

Ian sure liked being Buzz Lightyear even though his ear kept sticking out his hood. At our ward Halloween party there was another kid in a Buzz costume. Ian kept following him around and wondering where "the real Buzz Lightyear" was. I guess that's kid's costume was more believable than Ian's. On Halloween night, Spencer was a skeleton and I was Medusa. I put snakes in my hair at least. Does that make me Medusa? Here's a close up: I kind of wish I could have found some snakes that weren't neon. Maybe something a little more realistic looking. Something that looked more snake-like and less gummi-worm-like. That was too much to hope for this year. We went trick-or-treating with Maggie and Mark and Lizzie and Jay and then went to our ward party. The kids loved trick-or-treating and playing games and eating at the party. I'm glad it's all over. There is a LOT to do around this time of year!

NEW SUBJECT

Ian got a potty. So far, there has been no action thereon, but we are hopeful. Madeleine is an eager teacher. By the way, pretend that my 2 year old doesn't have a pacifier in his mouth. That's something else we are working on. And by "working on" I mean I am thinking about finally getting rid of it for good, but obviously haven't done it yet.

Another new topic, after we moved here I quit LA Fitness and joined 24 Hour Fitness since there would be a location about 5 minutes from our house. Well, the new one opened yesterday and we checked it out today and it seemed like a piece of heaven. All the equipment is amazing, the place is huge, and they seem to literally have everything! The best thing of all is the kids club. It's enormous and has so much fun stuff! Mad said it's like Chuck E. Cheese's. She's right. They have a Wii station, an X-Box station, Dance Dance Revolution, a basketball hoop area, a basketball video game, etc. You get the idea. It's amazing! The kids already love going to the gym everyday, but I think they will be begging to go now.

Spencer totally rocked his first trimester of MBA school. He had this week off to rest up in preparation for the next term to start on Monday. It's been so nice to have him around and actually be able to talk to him!

Lastly, there is a new Ryan Adams album out that is so good! It's called Cardinology. Check it out.

Ian's Birthday

Our little man turned 2 on Monday! We had a fun party with a spaghetti dinner, cake and ice cream and all his cousins and aunts and uncles who live in the area. Ian was almost too tired to care about any of it. He recently learned how to climb out of his crib, so of course that was all he wanted to do. Especially at bedtime. I quickly took the crib side down and put on the toddler-bed side, but it took a few nights before he decided he didn't have to get out of bed in the night...and at nap time. Anyway, although he was tired, he enjoyed the festivities.He blew at the candles when it was time to blow them out, but his aim wasn't so hot. He got a little help from mom in getting the flames out.
Here's his Mater cake. Not an exact likeness, but you get the idea. I'm no Ace of Cakes, that's for sure.

Here's the birthday boy with his dad. I thought you might all like to see Spencer's shaved head. What do you think? Like it or not, the new do is here to stay.

Ian is such a fun kid! We are so blessed to have that sweet little man in our family! He is always making us laugh with his big vocabulary and grown up sayings. Happy birthday, Ian! We love you!

Field Trip!

On Friday, Madeleine and I got to go with her school on a field trip to the Hall of Flame Firefighter Museum. Let me just say I think her school is the coolest. It may be that I just don't know what to expect from pre-K, but I had no idea they would get to go on field trips and her teacher said they will probably do 4 this year. Another cool thing is that when they turn in their little homework assignments (on fire safety or water safety, etc.) they get a coupon for free Chik-fil-A. You know how I am about food, so that scores major points. She might be a little disconcerted that later in her schooling she no longer gets rewarded with food for doing her homework, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Anyway, back to the field trip.She LOVED the bus ride! She was so excited that I think she would have been happy if the field trip started and ended with a ride on the bus. She is quite popular (at least I like to think so) so she had to sit on a seat with 3 other kids for a bit. Four little 4-year-olds on one bus seat is quite a sight. At the musuem, one of the guides read the kids a story about fire safety called No Dragons For Tea before taking them to this old fire truck they could climb and play on. They also had firefighter jackets and hats the kids could try on. They all took turns driving the truck, which was the highlight for most of them.

We had such a fun time and I am so glad I went so I could experience her first field trip with her!

Ian might be trying to send a message.

A few days ago, around 5:15am, Ian woke up asking for a bottle. Well, if he has a bottle, then he thinks the day has begun so I tried giving him his pacifier and hoping he would go back to sleep. All was quiet for a few minutes and I was thankful since I wanted to get some more sleep. My slumber was soon interupted again by his talking/whining about a bottle. Knowing that giving it to him would give me at least a little more sleep, I went to give it to him and found him with his pj bottoms pulled down, diaper off and pee soaked into all his clothes and blankets. Not what anyone would want at 5:30 in the morning, right? Alright, I give him a bottle, change him, and because I am still half asleep, I move him to a dry part of the bed with a dry blanket instead of changing the bedding right then. Bad mom, I know. Whatever. All of that bought me about two hours more sleep. Not bad expect that when I woke to his talking this time he was saying that he pooped, and indeed he had. Too bad he had taken his diaper off AGAIN before doing it. Gross!

Does this mean he is ready for potty training? What if I'm not ready? Does anyone want to do it for me? My wonderful mother-in-law got the ball rolling with Maddie's potty training after my pitiful attempts at it left us both too frustrated to make any progress. Any amazing potty training secrets I should know?

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!

Yosemite, July 2008

Just before moving, we had the chance to spend a few days in Yosemite for a Rands Family reunion. It was awesome! The Rands posterity is staggering. I think Spencer's grandparents have around 70 grandkids and great grandkids (Paul, please correct me if I'm wrong on that) and there will be plenty more to come. So this was perhaps the final extended family reunion since the families are becoming too big and spread out to get together. Anyway, lucky for us we were able to attend. I had been to Yosemite as a kid when my family lived in Fresno, but I had no memories of it and how amazing it is. Here are some pics from the trip.We spent quite a bit of time playing down by this bridge because it was really close to our cabins so it was the closest spot to cool down. You see how Ian is fighting being in my arms? He couldn't wait to get down and play. Shortly after this was taken he totally charged straight into the water with all his clothes on. I don't know what he was thinking because after he did it we could tell he wasn't happy about it.Little Madeleine and her super model poses. You can see that it was a bit hazy while we were there due to fires in the area.Ian was enjoying his new favorite pastime---throwing rocks. Unfortunately he was not able to discern the small rocks, which were okay to throw and the boulders that might actually hurt someone. That and he didn't seem to grasp the whole not-throwing-directly-at-people concept.It was so great to see Holly and meet her little guy, Noah! We hadn't seen Holly since her wedding in December of 2006, so it was an extra special treat for us that she and Noah were able to come. Of course we missed Mark, who couldn't be there since he just started medical school.
One morning, Spencer and I, along with Holly and Drew embarked on a hike to Vernal Falls. That's one of the shortest hikes on the way to Half Dome. I would love to hike Half Dome someday, but this trip was too short for me to feel good about abandoning the kids and everyone else for an entire day. Anyway, the hike up to Vernal Falls wasn't too long, but it was intense. Can you tell in this picture how steep these steps are? Spencer and Drew continued on to Nevada Falls after we reached Vernal, while Holly and I headed back to our kids. The way down was about as crazy as the way up. The day after we hiked Vernal, most of our group decided to go part way up with all the kids. I remembered it was paved up to the footbridge so we could push a stroller and it wouldn't be too terrible. Plus, we thought the kids would like it. We thought Madeleine could walk since it was less than a mile. Well, sure it was paved, but it was so steep! How could I have forgotten? It was less than 24 hours after I first did it! Let's just say Madeleine is not really into hiking. Or walking for more than about 5 minutes, period. If that. Spencer had to carry her in our child carrier backpack and Ian rode in the stroller. Once we reached the bridge the kids played around, ate snacks and reluctantly posed for a picture or two.

The whole trip was so great! It was a wonderful last hurrah for us to be with all of Spencer's family before we moved further away from most of them. Our kids always love seeing Grandpa Paul and Grandma Sandi as well as their cousins and aunts and uncles. Here's hoping we don't have to wait too long to do it again!