Buying up

There are a few things in the world that you should pay up for, things like jeans, hair stuff, and sippy cups to name a few. We have a few sippy cups that we got for free after participating in some of the infant studies at Harvard. They say something cutesy like, "Future Harvard Graduate" or of the like. The stupid thing is they aren't the spill proof kind. The kind you're willing to pay a few extra dollars to have so that you can save your sanity. So while Noelle's good cups are in the dishwasher we're down to the two crappy Harvard cups.

I just put water in her cup and looked her in the eye and said, "Don't sprinkle the water on the floor or else I will smash your cup." I only said this because earlier today she was sprinkling the water all over the floor and has no sense to help clean it up, even if she gets caught.

Her reply, "Oh no, that's so wrude."

At least she keeps me honest.

Our Last Couple of Weeks of 2008

These pictures have been calling to me from the camera to get out and uploaded on the computer. We had an exciting Christmas, much like others we know and thought we'd share some of the things we did to celebrate.

These are the elves from our church party. They were not scary.
Santa on the other hand was a little scary. She was in it only for the candy, guaranteed.

Temple lights at the Mesa Temple. We went with some family friends from church, first to Organ Stop Pizza, then to see the lights. Boo did great fighting off the geriatrics at Organ Stop and saved tables for the whole group despite the dirty looks.

This is in the car on the way to Utah. Lynsee gave us some cookies right out of the oven and Noelle thoroughly enjoyed them.

We arrived at Grammy's on Christmas Eve. Noelle found the dress ups and was Aurora all night long. Grammy gave all the grandkids a book to open on Christmas Eve. Noelle's book came with a wand that makes magical noises.

Later that night, at Grandma Kathy's and Grandpa Ted's, Santa paid us all a visit. Had he not brought candy, Noelle would not have sat with him. She held on to her Auntie tightly as he walked through the door. But Santa promised lots of fun presents for her.

My sisters and Santa. Thank you Riley for being such a good sport.

Boo and Santa got close and personal.

Noelle got to open up another present on Christmas Eve. Pajama's! The saying on her shirt couldn't have been more true.

Holy cow, Santa really did come and he even filled our stockings. This is the most stretched out they've ever been. Thanks Santa!

Noelle inspected her stocking and found that it had all sorts of fun surprises including chocolate.

Noelle is showing Riley that Santa brought her the KungFu Panda movie. That was exciting.

Later we went to Grammy & Papa's for a Christmas Day visit. We can officially say we have our 72 Hour kits ready for a disaster if one arises thanks to Grammy & Papa. Noelle also practiced her art on her new AquaDoodle. Love that thing.

Uncle Justin and Carmen gave Noelle a new "poofy" dress with wings and a princess nightgown. She was in heaven, if you can't tell by the way she's trying to twirl around.

Next we headed over to Aunties house for appetizers and fun. We all sat around and ate a lot of good food, opened some gifts and just had a nice Christmas evening until the blizzard started. We were a little scared, but managed to make it home safely.

Auntie gave Noelle a ballerina set with the tights and ballerina shirt (leotard) and a "poofy" skirt. Noelle is testing out the poofiness by jumping off the couch. (Do you see a theme here?)

More of the ballerina poofy skirt.

The next morning we woke up to a lot of snow! Noelle has seen snow in Massachusetts, but was still pretty little to go out and play in it. So luckily we packed up our boots and snow suit for just this occasion. All she really wanted to do was eat it and talked nonstop about eating the snow. Of course as parents all you can think about is how much you hope she doesn't eat dirty or heaven forbid yellow snow. The cold did not bother her one bit.

Noelle found a nice spot in the front yard to watch Grandpa Ted do the snow blower and to eat snow. What could be better? Thank you Utah for a white Christmas. Thank you family for a good, yet super short trip. If you get tired of the snow come and see us in sunny Arizona.

2008 In Review

Now that we've rung in the New Year we can look back on all the exciting and eventful happenings of 2008, if you want to call it that.

January - We moved! To Arizona. It took a while to adjust our brains to the weather calendar as I kept trying to remember what month it really was. Yes it can be spring-like weather in January. Auntie came to help us unpack our house.

February - Boo celebrated his birthday week. Noelle discovered she liked lasagna and I figured out I can cook some hard stuff.

March - Noelle turned two and Grammy and Papa came to celebrate. We started potty training, Rachel and Noelle took their first road trip to St. George to see Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Ted to kick off her birthday week celebrations.

April - Rachel got to finally celebrate her birthday and last and final year in the 20's. Noelle quit the binki and we had to go through binki therapy as a result. We broke out the pool thanks to hot weather and took a trip to Las Vegas for Paul's funeral. We experienced real-life unemployment for the first time.

May - Grandma Nay and Papa came for visits and we took a road trip as a family to Utah for Mother's Day. We stopped along the way to Utah to check out what northern Arizona had to offer and played at the Coral Pink Sand Dunes on the way home. We also celebrated nine blissful years of marriage.

June - Grammy and Papa came for a visit and we celebrated Gram's birthday. Boo studied for the Arizona Bar exam. Noelle got her first passport.

July - Bar exam, wedding, trips to Utah, Island Park and Yellowstone. Phew!

August - Mitchell Family Reunion in Maine, camping at Cape Cod and pretending we live in New England again, then back to reality.

September - Noelle graduated to a big girl bed and we took our first international trip as parents. Viva la Mexico!

October - Bar exam results finally hit the mail and Boo passed! Shoveled lots of rock in Utah and took our first family camping trip. Celebrated Halloween with two costumes. Wall-E won.

November - Boo takes a job at the other side of the valley and to celebrate we took a family vacation to San Diego. We hosted our first Thanksgiving at our house and the famed Uncle Justin and Carmen came to celebrate with us.

December - Thank goodness its over. We went to northern Arizona for a lights festival, saw the temple lights in Mesa, made treats for friends, folded a million Christmas stars, celebrated Christmas in Utah for the first time since 2003. Noelle played in the snow for the first time.

Looking back we celebrated a lot of things, took a lot of trips and saw a lot of family. I also made and gave ten* baby quilts and finished the Mitchell family quilt. Eleven in all, that's a record! (* I laid in bed thinking about this and forgot about one.)Hopefully 2009 is as exciting as we look forward to the opportunities it has for us, as scary as it might be. Thanks to all who care about us and keep reading our blog.