Back Up to February

Despite thinking that I don't get out and do much, its a good thing I have pictures to remind me that I'm not actually becoming a hermit. Here are some of the fun things we did during February and March.

First we went to Las Vegas for Valentine's Day weekend to see our friends the Stringham's. Treyden and Noelle made Valentine cookies while mom and dad went on a Valentine date. We don't usually make a big deal out of celebrating and it became apparent as to why when we went out to catch a movie and neither of us had a wallet. After our movie Treyden was very concerned about giving us a cookie and presented it with "Happy Valentine's Day, I love you." Shocked us all sweet boy.

This is the train "museum" in Boulder City - just outside Las Vegas. Treyden loves trains and Noelle thinks they're pretty neat too. We even got to ride on a real train.

Noelle and her little dog friend down the street. I think this is a funny picture mostly because the dog is oh so nice to let her carry her around. Noelle thought it was great to have a dog that would 1) let her and 2) wasn't too heavy.

I even got a quilt made and gifted in the month of February.

Then March rolled around. Grammy and Papa spent a week with us and while they were here we went to the McCormick Stillman Railroad Park. Grammy said she used to take Boo and uncl Justin there when they were kids, but it didn't look quite the same as it did back then. Noelle rode the carousel about ten times and mom and Grammy would take turns riding with her. Carousels are her favorite.

We also managed to go to a spring training baseball game between the Brewers and the Cubs. Noelle wasn't so interested in the baseball as she was fixated on finding some popcorn. She was a happy girl with her giant bag of kettle corn.

Then it was time for Dad to go and enjoy his man-cation with all the uncles while Auntie and Elizabeth came to Arizona to get their fix of vitamin D. We enjoyed some shopping, eating, beading, hiking, and Chihuly. If you're local I'd recommend checking out the Desert Botanical Gardens while the Chihuly exhibit is in town. The flowering desert plants aren't too bad either.

Noelle at Hole in the Rock in Papago Park.

The Youth of Today

I'm still trying to figure out how to raise my almost three year old. However as I go through the daily grind of timeouts, potty breaks, and scrubbing green highlighter masterpieces off my wall I am ever so frightened by what is to come.

Lately I've been observing some of the youth that I work with at church. I am appalled, shocked, absolutely flabbergasted at the things they do and things they deem to be acceptable.

One instance was a boy who thought it would be funny to eat as many desserts as he could by making a sandwich out of two pieces of chocolate bread with two cookies in the middle. That was only his first round. After I explained that it was time to sit back down and that the desserts were really for our "guests" (we were hosting the old folks for a talent show), he looked at me and said he was the guest. I think my eyeballs may have popped out of my head. Is back talking to adults okay now days?

Another thing I don't understand is cell phones. I guess I really missed this boat or am still missing this boat. Is it so hard to leave a cell phone home from church for three hours? Or in the car? I realize some people have super sophisticated phones that pull up all sorts of information which may be useful during certain meetings, I can adapt to that. However texting during sacrament meeting (yes, I've watched my own teenage siblings do this) or during a lesson, seriously? Am I just getting old?

Lastly, why do the youth of today agree to babysit if they aren't really willing to work? I'm paying good money, money that they probably could make at a fast-food restaurant only after being micromanaged and paying taxes. Is it really that hard to work when you're getting paid? Is money not a good motivation anymore? I recall hearing of one father telling his daughter who was just starting to get calls for babysitting gigs that she should find things to do even after those kids were asleep because she wasn't getting paid to sit there and watch TV. Isn't that the truth? I'm not asking for maid service, I'm just asking not to come home to a bigger mess than I might have left. To use common sense.

Am I being unreasonable?

A Virtual Valentine

Since most of you who read this aren't close enough to share a real Valentine with, I thought I'd send you a virtual heart shaped cookie. Take your pick. For the recipe go here.

Aren't they so cute - there is plenty of frosting to switch things up with some left over.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I just had to add this picture in from our park day Valentine party.

Noelle was loving her heart shaped sucker.

Happy Birth-week to Boo

Its that time of year again, the birth-week celebrations seem to start and then its one after another. For Boo's birthday we got all our former band mates together for some RockBand World Tour, Animal Bingo (best game for little kids ever), pizza, & carrot cake. Thanks to the friends that came and helped make Boo's birthday extra special.

Check out our band! Camille is the designated lead singer because she knows almost every song ever sung.

Boo is the designated drummer, although others did give it a try.

The concentration is thrilling, isn't it?

Best bingo game ever - look at all the junk on the table. It was great.

Tiny Dancer

She really is the tiniest in her class. We started dance classes three weeks ago and these are just some clips from those classes. I wish I had some from the first day because she was the class clown and preferred to watch that first day instead of do the dancing. The first clip is from the night we got her tap shoes, she was all ready for bed, but then we had to take her jammies off so that she could tap around the kitchen. Watching the video makes me want to preserve her in a jar. She's at a perfect stage where she says funny things (she called me a knuckle head the other day) and she does funny things. I love her right now.

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.

Kicking off the Christmas Season

A few weeks ago we went up to Prescott, AZ for the city's annual light festival and program. It was the first time since moving to Arizona that we've needed to pull out our winter coats. Noelle didn't even have a winter coat that fit and I made her wear the one I bought that is two sizes too big. The program was short and concise and as they read the story of the nativity they would turn on the lights in the park. It wasn't Temple Square, but it was a nice start to the Christmas season.

Since then we've made a couple of drives through our neighborhood to check out the lights on the houses. I guess since its warm here everyone puts up lights, except for us. When we get home Noelle informs us of her displeasure with our lack of lights.

Christmas Caramels

Back in the day when we managed to live in about 600 square feet and our lives were less complicated I made my first batch of caramels. It was to be used as our "neighbor" gifts. So I pulled out the biggest pot I had and went to work. Little did I know that all that sugar and cream boils for eternity and can make a pretty sticky mess. My biggest pot wasn't big enough and my longest spoon not long enough. I remember holding onto the very tip of that spoon hoping not to incur any more burns to my fingers. I'm not sure it ever really made it to the "soft ball" stage, but nonetheless they were really yummy. That event resulted in asking for a much larger pot and longer spoons.

Fast forward six years later to today when I tried to make another lovely batch of caramels. Its not a super complicated task, however once you get far enough involved you must "stir constantly." I'm really good at stirring and recalled the events of previous attempts. I was not going to let this fail. When it got about three degrees from done Noelle informs me that she needs to go potty. I had a small conversation in my head that went something like this:

"Should I take her to the bathroom or tell her to wait until I'm done with caramels? But what kind of lesson am I teaching to my potty training toddler? The caramels will be fine."

After the quickest stop in the bathroom I run back to my bubbly pot and start stirring to see I've finally reach the temp I've been waiting for only to find that we've got some extra brownage on the bottom of the pot. They're still delicious and look pretty, but that is a tough lesson no matter which way you look at it. Needless to say, we've not had to change Noelle's clothes all day long. Now that's worth a caramel.

Practicing for Christmas Morning

Noelle has been doing her best at rehearsing the times she will attempt to wake up on Christmas morning. As her mother I've been rehearsing taking her back to bed. It never goes as planned, for either one of us, however we still endure. This morning was especially rare. 5:15am wasn't that bad, considering we've had all hours. Of course there is the crying for water and being sad that she has to get back in her bed, but I left the door to her room slightly open as part of my own tricks. When she decided to get up again I think she smacked into the door expecting it to be closed (first complication), then she came into our room and just stood looking at me. I hate having a shadowy figure staring at me while I try to sleep, its just creepy. I finally asked her what she was doing and her words were, "You go away." For Noelle this is the sure sign that she would like privacy, in the bathroom sense. Seriously, don't we all? After explaining that it was my room and that she was welcome to leave she walked out the door for a few seconds maybe minutes, I was in and out of consciousness so I can't be sure, to tell me that she had indeed pooped. Being so wise she won't sit after such business and just stood there, that same shadowy figure, until I told her to go and find the wipes and a diaper. No I didn't get up and turn on any lights for her, but miraculously she found what she needed and we continued on with the task. Hopefully we can improve our system in the next week and keep our fingers crossed for seven o'clock.

Merry Christmas

I thought I would start this holiday season off by giving many of my closest friends and family a computer virus. It was one of those unintentional gifts that just seems to keep on giving. One of the real disappointing kind of gifts. So I'm truly sorry if you got some strange email from me and tried to open it. Next year I'll shoot for rocking horses and not Trojan horses.

And That's What I Get for Posting

While being thankful and feeling so happy to be ironing my tablecloth, Noelle comes into the office and says, "Look I have lipstick."

She is then asked to hand over the yellow hi-lighter. I figure I can take care of that in a minute with a baby wipe. Noooo sir. She then comes in with this face. And that's why we're thankful for Noelle.

I don't remember giving birth to The Joker.

Things to be Thankful For

Well this day started out pretty well considering how thankful I am for GoogleReader and all the posts I've already read to get me right into the Thanksgiving spirit before I go and attack my kitchen in full force, starting with the dough for rolls. Thanks to friends and family for putting up their own lists of things to be grateful for and the reminder that it doesn't take much to find joy in our lives if we just stop and check ourselves out. Here is my short list of things I'm thankful for:

Boo - For the past seven months we've been able to hang out more than ever, really. If someone had told me long ago we'd do that I would have laughed and said it would never work, but it did and now that he leaves every morning, I really miss him. He's a hard worker and a great dad.

Employment - It seems so cliche, but if you only knew.

The Internet - This is my window to the world and it doesn't even make me sad to say that. I love shopping here, keeping up with friends, and just generally finding information that I might not otherwise know.

NPR - I often say, "Everything I know I learned from NPR." Its so nice of them to have interesting people on and to let me listen in to their conversation. It has served me well in many capacities for carrying on a decent conversation with someone who is way, way smarter than I. Thanks NPR.

Family - As my sister says, we have a zillion siblings and many parents. Luckily we all seem to like each other pretty well, and miss each other when its been a while since the last visit. Thanks to my mom who used to remind us to be thankful for a dad. (It was the 80's and it seemed deadbeat dads were a hot topic and thankfully we did not have one of those, but sometimes needed that reminder.) Thanks for in-laws who love and accept us, despite how different we might be from them.

A House - We've been apartment dwellers for a long time, so moving into a house was a big deal. Loudness , stomping and all other forms of irreverence could ensue without a thump from a neighbor or the gentle comment of "Wow were you guys having a party last night?" Our house has also allowed us to have people over more than ever. We have room to host friends and family, especially for our Thanksgiving feast. That makes me happy.

Heavenly Father - Blessings really do come, even if its not on our time. But its ever so important to remember where they come from and why. For that I'm thankful, even if I don't always know it.

Gettin' Ready

I was reading on Facebook today that someone was looking for an opinion on a good poster. One of the suggestions was "Rise and Shout, The Losers are Out!" I love it. I'm already planning on sending my zen thoughts to the Utah football team while I sleep tonight. Here's to a great game tomorrow, Go Utes!