Happy, Happy Birthday Kaiti Dear . . .

On Thursday, February 5, Kaiti turned 12 years old! This was a big deal because she gets to enter the Young Women Program leaving Primary and other childish things behind.
She celebrated by making her own birthday dinner.


Oven Broiled Salmon


Fresh broccoli steamed with cilantro, corn and cheesy mashed potatoes.


Delicious.
She did a great job with the meal. Unfortunately, it was a school night and she had home work, so that was the end of the celebration for the day.

The next night, she had eight friends come over for a giant (24") Mama's Pizza and Chocolate Praline Trifle. Then they all went to see Coraline Only a few girls had nightmares that night.



But Wait! That's Not All . . .

Just like an infomercial that won't end, Kaiti's birthday celebration continued the next week when some of our Phoenix relatives drove down for a visit. Grandma Judy paid to get Kaiti's ears pierced.

Ouch.

She has been great about taking care of her ears three times daily. And now that she is 12. She is old enough to do her own laundry. See? The celebration never ends.

We're Baa-ack . . .

We have arrived in Sunny Arizona.
This is our 11th dwelling in our 13 years of marriage and the first time we have ever live din the same town twice. It has been fantastic to have good friends come over and bring us dinner and take the kids so we can unpack. Even though we are working diligently, things are still in boxes and I have concluded that we have to much stuff.
Photos to come . . .

Movin' Right Along

We've Moved!
Well . . . we are in the middle of moving. Our house in Utah is now empty and we will move to a place in Arizona Monday.
I suppose I will spend the next month unpacking, registering the children in school, unpacking, signing the kids up for lessons, unpacking, getting together with our desert-dwelling friends and unpacking some more.
I will update more when I can.
For those of you who want more details, e-mail me. I will respond when I have an Internet connection.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas

We are definitely having a white Christmas.

A Random act of . . . pastry?!?

Because of an improperly completed oil change, I was forced to park on the street this weekend. I am not a fan of parking on the street in general and on narrow streets - where people drive to fast and rarely pay attention to where they are going - in particular. I went to bed fearing, a little, for the safety of my beloved minivan.

Sunday morning I woke up to a rather ambiguous warning.

Someone had thrown glazed donuts at my car. Bill cleaned it up before I was able to see (or document) it. When I came out to survey the damage, I found two glazed spots on my windows and a bunch of donut pieces on the ground.

So to you who left me the warning: lesson learned. I have gotten the problem taken care of and will park in my driveway or garage from now on. Please, don't waste any more pastry on me. However, if you'd like suggestions for those who truly deserve a wake up call . . . a have a list.

One Day We Will All Look Back On This and Laugh, Right?

RIGHT?

Bill has training in Tucson this week. I don't know if it's because he's gone that things fall apart, or that little things pile up until everything seem like a big deal. Most likely a little of both.

Brianna (2 1/2 yrs.) has decided she is through with diapers and now wants to wear her "big girl princess undies" all of the time. Because it is her idea, things are going well.

Until Tuesday night she decided she could take herself potty all alone. She told me to leave because she "needed a little privacy". I did. All went well until she thought she needed to use toilet paper . . . a lot of toilet paper . . . half a roll of Charmin toilet paper. Lucky for us Grandpa came over for another reason and was kind enough to take care of the clog that I just couldn't.

Then at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday I was woken by a phrase every parent wants to hear in the middle of the night: "Mom, I puked . . . on my bedroom floor." Nice. By 2:30 a.m. I was done and attempted to go back to sleep. Then at 4:30 a.m. the neighbors decided to let their yappy little dogs outside. Apparently some great threat was befalling the neighborhood because those dogs didn't stop barking (a sound reminiscent of a sick rubber ducky) for 30 minutes.

The next day, I decided to help Ellie with her homework. She was assigned to illustrate the lines "With a little old driver so lively and quick. I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick." from the poem The Night Before Christmas. In my sleep-deprived state I suggested that we make a collage. Two hours and one frazzled mom later this is what we had:

And also this:

Well at least it's done. And the week is nearly over. I decided to record this week for history because one day this will be funny. Just not today.

Things my children are allergic to:

They must be. Otherwise they would not have such trouble with the following items:

• Turning off lights in an unoccupied room. "Hey! I'm paying for that. Do you think I'm made of money?"
• Closing the outside doors. Were you born in a barn? Would you like some hay?
• Putting dirty clothes in the laundry basket. Although they are frequently found 2 inches away from said basket.
• Putting clean clothes in the appropriate drawer. Somehow, they end up in a pile in front of the dresser.
• Locating backpacks and other necessary school items. But only when it is time for us to leave . . . 10 minutes ago!
• Flushing. Always a fun surprise.
• Getting both shoes put away in the same location. For some reason, one shoe seems to walk itself into the middle of the room. Backpacks also must be ambulatory.
• Looking under beds for any misplaced item. The beds in our home seem to be black holes that the children are afraid to go near, lest they get sucked into the bottomless vacuum.

I have been told that children can outgrow allergies and I hope this is the case with my children. If not, I am crossing my fingers for a vaccine.