Arizona how do ya do?

Well, we made it to AZ. We've been here about 2 weeks now and are having so much fun. John loves his job and I love being around family... what else could we ask for? We've had an eventful past couple of weeks (posts coming soon) but for now, I just wanted to say we're loving being here in AZ. We made it here for the last week of AZ's school so we got to go to dance and piano recitals, joy school graduation, chorus concerts, baseball games etc. We spent Memorial Day weekend in Albuquerque (SP?) New Mexico with John's mom, brother, and grandparents. It was way too short of a trip, but we enjoyed it very much. Well, I'm taking Jack to our cabin for the week then John and I are going on a rafting trip with his law firm this weekend. We're leaving Jack for the first time (over night). I'm a little nervous, but hopefully we'll both be distracted enough we won't hardly notice we're apart?! (Ya right...) Welp, that's about it. We're lovin life and hope you are too!!

Happy Mothers Day!

I woke up to two very handsome boys kissing my face! Sweet John offered to get Jack out of bed so I could "close my eyes" for a few more minutes, but once I hear my little boy talking to himself in the monitor, I am too excited to go back to bed. I (usually) LOVE to get him out of bed :-) Jack crawled into bed and gave me a nice wet kiss and handed me a lovely Mothers Day card. (John wrote a very sweet note!) We just talked and snuggled in bed all together!! I love my boys. A little later that morning we had to say good bye to our wonderful friends, the Stewarts. They graduated from Law school this weekend and are headed to Houston for a big kid job! Good luck you guys. We had a great day. We ate yummy quiche for breakfast, watched our wedding video (a little late anniversary celebrating). Jack could not take his eyes off of the video. He kept pointing and saying, "momma" and "daiyyy" (daddy). We then had a wonderful time at church, did a little visiting teaching and had our friends Jimmy and his fiance Allison over for dinner. (Jimmy is a friend from Law School). Overall... relaxing and fun. Although I've celebrated mothers day 3 times, (1-pregnant, 2-in Europe, 3- Durham, NC) it seemed a little more real this time. I was talking my friend's mom Saturday night and I said, "Well, have a good mothers day tomorrow" and she said, "you too!" It took me a second to realize she really was actually talking to me. I thought, "I'm not old enough to celebrate mothers day. That's just a holiday for old ladies in our ward and I'm suppose to walk around and hand them a carnation flower or candy bar" But NO! I was the one standing up in church to get my "Mother's Day treat!" It was definitely a day of reflection and realization! I love being a mom, but who wouldn't love it when you get to look at this face all day? He got all dressed up for mother's day! Suspenders, tie... the works :-)

Well, there's my little boy! Keeping my life exciting and filling my days with kisses, laughs, and wonderful memories. Sometimes I still have to splash cold water on my face and say, "am I really a mom?" I don't feel old enough to me a mom! I always hoped this day would come and I very much looked forward to it. I would see my sisters with kids, and think "I can't believe I'm really going to have a kid of my own someday"... but then I look at this little face and can't imagine my life without him! I love you Jackers.

Mommy and Jack

I am so blessed to be a mom to such a wonderful little boy. The past 17 months have been unbelievably wonderful. I've celebrated this holiday for 3 years. The 1st mothers day I was pregnant, living in DC and sick as a dog! The 2nd year we spent in Europe. We ate a real Wiener Schnitzel at a beautiful restaurant in Vienna (John is still bitter about the fact that they charged up $5 for mustard and ketchup!... Advice, they charge you for EVERYTHING in Europe... water or soda, same price). And this year we were here in Durham, NC. It was a wonderful day. I love being a mom to the cutest little boy in the world!

Minutes old! Dec. 09, 2006

First BYU sporting event! Basketball game- 6 weeks old-Jan 2007

My Birthday- March 2007

Bulgaria- Summer 2007

Dachau Concentration camp, Germany- summer 2007

Sunday Afternoon Nap! June 2007
Family Pictures November 2007
Cabin Getaway! March 2008
Go Duke! March 2008

Life and Science Museum

So, one of Durham's "must sees" is the Museum of Life and Science. It is so cool. I have been multiple time with Jack, but this time Daddy got to join us. He took a little break from writing his paper and helped me with the kids! That's right... a plurality. We took all 3 of them- Jack, Tristan, and Olivia (my 2 nanny kids) to the Museum and we had a blast. Wednesday afternoons are free for Durham residents, so we take full advantage of that great offer and often get to see MANY friends and ward members there as well.

Here's the gang! I nanny every Mon, Fri, (and often Wed) all day long. This is also the family that we spend most of our Saturday nights with. The parents really like to go on dates so we get paid to hang out with really fun kids and once they're asleep, we get to watch movies or sports (depending on what game is on) on an awesome TV! (I guess ANY TV is awesome because we don't have one at the moment, but this one is especially cool!)

There's an outside and and inside at this museum. Outside they have all kinds of animals! It's better than a zoo cuz all the animals are practically within petting range. Here my boys are checkin out the cows and the goats, but being a little side tracked by the very colorful turkey in the next cage over! (sorry no picture)
So, they have this weather room where you can learn about tornadoes, clouds, water, sand etc. Jack's favorite part of that room is the "cloud" maker (aka fog machine). These are some classic reactions that we get when we blow clouds in his face...

If you can't tell, he loved it!

Experiencing a tornado first hand with Daddy!

Jack really likes the snakes, as long as they weren't moving. As soon as they flinched, he would jump back and run to the closest person who would pick him up. Well, this particular snake was sleeping and Jack wanted to get a closer look, perhaps a little TOO close!... he came face to face with the glass! Darn, I hate when that happens, "Son of a!" (Tommy Boy)

Some kid of nasty, crazy roach that should be on Fear Factor. Who wouldn't want to crunch into one of those? John was salivating... can't you tell?

Bugs, bugs, butterflies, butterflies, beetle, beetle, SLUG! I was singing that fabulous Lets Play Music song all day long :-)

They had the most freaky lookin bugs I have ever seen! This lovely beetle was slightly larger than my cell phone!

And the most beautiful Butterfly house! We had a very fun time and I'm so glad John got to come on this fun outing with us.

So, we went to the park and apparantly Jack has a great fear of the holes in playground equipment. I'm not sure if he thinks he's going to fall through or if it freaks him out that he can see the ground... But, he still isn't confident enough to walk all by himself.

Playing hard at the park=very tired children. Poor little guy was worn out! I really wanted him to stay awake because he always sleeps better/longer if he falls asleep in his crib. Anyway, I would give him goldfish every few minutes, but they didn't seem to be working...

PS. No Dad, I'm not driving WHILE I take the video... I turned onto a little side street... no worries ;-)

GUILTY!

Look at that guilty face!

Jack got into the pantry and found the wheat thins.

After he helped me pick them all up off of my freshly vacuumed carpets, he went right back into the pantry and found this... 2 minutes later.
Ziti Pasta... I learned my lesson, CLOSE THE PANTRY!

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo

How about you, you, you?

We had such a fun weekend being all done with finals. We had a big day Saturday. Started off by Jack sleeping until 8:30!!! So awesome. We went to our ward/stake garage sale that morning (it's the youth's fundraiser to get to girls camp and scout camp). It was a huge success... or at least that's what we heard. We went looking for a couch for a guy that is coming out here to Duke next year for Law school. And we found one. It's beautiful in great condition, but the price was even more beautiful... $75. Then we headed off to the zoo! It was perfect timing. It's about 1 1/2 hours away and we left just at jack's nap time. So when we got there, he was excited, well rested and most importantly, happy. We had a fabulous time and Jack was highly entertained by all that was going on around him. It was a great day. He would walk around saying, "WHOA" at every animal he saw. He absolutly loved the carrousel ride with Daddy and started crying when we walked away from it! We took him out of the stroller for most of the animals, however we did have to give him a few suckers for those long, fast walks across the park! Also, I'm pretty sure he cared more about the big red ball that the polar bear was playing with more than he did about the actual bear. Oh well, we had a great time and were able to take our family picture just in time for the camera to start beeping and say, "Change Batteries"!

After the Zoo, we headed back towards Durham and stopped at some outlets on the way home. We were hoping to find John some new dress shirts for work this summer, but no such luck. We did however buy some new polos and nice pants. That was fun! (Although this was a shopping trip for John, I couldn't walk away without anything!! I got a couple shirts as well!) We were SUPER hungry after a long day at the zoo and shopping so we drove all over this tiny town of Burlington, NC looking for this special BBQ restaurant. I swear I saw one on my way to the outlets. And since I was driving, John fell asleep, he of course didn't see it! So, between my bad sense of direction and john's ability to sleep through anything, we drove around for a good 20 minutes in every possible wrong direction. We finally pulled over at a gas station and asked this nice old man with a thick southern accent if he knew where we could find some good BBQ! "Oh ya, you mean "Hursey's Pig Pickin BBQ? Well I rekon, that place is just around the corner!" We were so close... yet so far! We ate our delicious Pig Pickin BBQ and were very satisfied for the whole ride home!

Baked Potato Party

So, Friday night we decided to have Law School friends over to celebrate the ending of finals. What better way than to cook up some of the most beautiful Idaho Potatoes brought to us from... Idaho! When John's family came out for spring break, they brought a 50 lb box of Idaho Spuds! Needless to say, the two of us haven't been able to use 50lbs in the past 2 months, so we decided to share! Although it was a fun party, it was so sad to say good bye. Some of us are just leaving for the summer and some are leaving forever (at least it feels that way sometimes). It's especially sad that we're losing our 3rd years. (The Laughtons and the Stewarts are both going to Houston.) Its amazing to me how close you can become to people in just one year... sorry I'm gettin a little sappy, I'm just really gonna miss our dear 3rd years. Anyway, we had a great party.

Nothing better than a dressed up spud! John's plate was beautiful. We may have provided he spuds, but thanks so all those who brought the yummy toppings.

My handsome hubby is done with one WHOLE year of law school :-) I can't believe it.

Picking Strawberries!

Thank goodness John is all done with finals! He finished Thursday night around 5pm and Jack and I picked him up from school and went straight to the park. We played for about an hour then decided to go out to eat to celebrate. We went Chili's and a little later the Pelfreys came to join us for dessert (moulton chocolate volcano is delicious btw). We woke up the next morning, cleaned the house (notice the missing dust pan below!) After that, we went and picked strawberries.

There is the most beautiful strawberry patch about 10 minutes from our house (very near Duke campus) where anyone can come and pick their own strawberries for $1.25/lb. We walked up to the barn and this super nice farmer man greeted us with a warm smile. He handed us this lovely cardboard box and said Pick Away! As we were walking towards the rows and rows of strawberries this man said, "Compliments on the choice of onsie!... Momma must have been thinking!" It was funny, I can just imagine how many little kids shirts have been stained walking out of that strawberry patch...

In the beginning, Jack wasn't quite sure what to do. But he did watched very intently on what Daddy was showing him. Before long, he was picking left and right!

Is this one red enough mommy?

OK Good, I'll pick it then!

And then he ate...

...and ate...

He stuffed his mouth so full he was struggling to breathe!

And then he stuffed Mommy's mouth too!

Sharing delicious strawberries with Mommy :-)

Daddy's little sidekick.

The final result...one happy little boy whose lips and teeth were stained bright red-- a little boy covered in sticky, sweet juice that dripped off his chin and down his shirt--5lbs of fresh, mouth-watering strawberries-- and a wonderful family memory! We LOVE being done with finals.

Cleaning the house

Finals are over! John finished yesterday so we had a very relaxing day today. It was wonderful! This morning we were cleaning the house together and we could NOT find the dust pan anywhere! It wasn't until I went to clean Jack's room that I saw this... Silly Jack!