Sherwood Shenanigans

to My Love

2011-10-31T16:31:00.000-06:00

On this special day:

I just wanted to let Mike know that I am thinking about him.

xoxo

tia

Sunday Morning Photo Shoot & Kiddo Update

2011-10-30T21:34:00.010-06:00

{AnnaB}

She's six now, lost her first tooth and has to do homework each afternoon. Please, make time stop. She is growing up quick, but in a lot of ways she hasn't changed. She still laughs easily, giggles like a maniac at her own jokes, talks without stop some days, loves making friends (even if she cannot remember their names), and she tries to watch out for others.

Notice the missing tooth? She let me pull it out. I love doing stuff like that.

I guess this picture could be considered an out-take, but I've seen this face enough times to know that it was no accident.

{Asa Bass}

My sweet rascal boy. He is a charmer with his big blue eyes and a smile that seems to take over his entire face. But don't let him fool you, he takes a real delight in mischief every once in a while, especially if it involves getting Anna's attention.

Mike says he told him to say "I love Mommy" and that this picture was the result. This boy melts my heart. He really does have me wrapped around his little finger most days.

{KaiKai}

Kai has proven to be his own self. Not to be confused with any other of my babies. He has been the most content, the most independent and curious. He'd rather be scooting around on the floor (no crawling for this guy) than in my arms. He'd rather eat table food than any puree I have tried. He had 8 teeth by 9 months no more hair than when he was born.

This is is scrunch nose stink face. I get this face constantly. Sometimes he makes it in displeasure (as seen here), sometimes he does the scrunch with a grin. With the grin I think it looks like Elvis when he curled his lip up.

Tickle fight and Kai is done with pictures.

I'm Baack!

2011-06-04T00:50:00.003-06:00

After an unacceptably long absence from my blog I am back and ready to update this thing. Be prepared for an embarrassingly large amount of pictures of my kids and vague details about the last 4 1/2 months!

* Being OCD about chronology, I have post-dated my posts. Scroll down and enjoy!

Asa's Songs

2011-03-06T22:19:00.001-07:00

Best.News.Ever

2011-03-06T02:10:00.002-07:00

I am taking my button down! Thanks to all who have kept Rachel and Ryan in their thoughts. They are adopting a baby in August and I couldn't be more thrilled. Read Rachel's blog post here for the full, amazing story.

3 Weeks

2011-01-29T02:13:00.002-07:00

I love this boy! He is mellow, snugly, sweet and fits into our family perfectly.

I love his dark hair! I wonder if it will stick around.

My friend Katie sent this blanket in a package this week and Mike thought it looked so soft he had to use it in this week's photo shoot. Thank you Katie!

How am I holding up? Pretty well. Sunday at church I was sitting in Primary and I started FREEZING! I didn't know what was going on so I just sat there with Kai in my lap. Over the course of the rest of the evening I felt off and on better and worse. Once I had a fever and noticed that I felt like Asa had elbowed me in the chest I put two and two together. Mastitis! My awesome Doc called the Rx in for me and I am feeling better. Thanks to my good friend Rickie for picking Annabelle up for school Monday morning - I was a little too out of it to drive. Other than that I am doing well. You should know by now that Mike does all the real work around here anyway!

A & A

2011-01-19T01:59:00.001-07:00

When Mike's parents took off earlier this week they left me with a clean house and a full fridge. Annabelle had the day off of school for a holiday. With nothing else to do but curl up with my baby and a book, the kids and I camped out in the toy room for the afternoon. It was all I could do to keep from laughing when after an hour or so I looked up to see what the pair were up to.

Asa is sitting in the toy baby stroller here!

Seriously, does that say love or what??

2 Weeks

2011-01-18T01:46:00.004-07:00

Our little Kai is two weeks old. The 2 week make has been significant for me. After the first week Mike was back to work, but after the 2nd week Mike's parents went home. It is officially up to me to keep things going. I've had so much help with getting Annabelle off to school, keeping Asa entertained, the house tidy, the meals planned and errands run. I've been spoiled. Thank you!

I am feeling good. Pretty well recovered (don't tell my doctor but I started picking Asa up again). At my two week check he saw my incision and double checked my chart that I wasn't in for my 6-week check. I think his surgical ego got a boost as my 2 week old incision already looks like an old flattened scar. Hurray! He says that if the inside of my body has been healing as well as the outside of my body then I'm in great shape.

Kai makes the greatest little facial expressions in his sleep. I have no idea what a newborn dreams about, but it must be a riot. Look at this little stink face! Doesn't he look like he is just causing some mischief and loving it? If only we caught more of his smiles and expressions in photos, they are so fleeting.

1 Week

2011-01-12T22:29:00.007-07:00

Kai is 1 week old today.

This is the suitcase that my Grandma Mckean, my mom and I have all taken to the hospital to have our babies. That makes for 16 babies!

We came home from the hospital Friday night to an excited house with probably EIGHT 'Welcome Home' posters made by Annabelle (and a couple by Asa).

Here we are a few minutes after we got home.

The first several days at home Kai barely made a peep so long as he was swaddled. Today he seemed to be content even when he had kicked himself free from blankets. He is a good sleeper, a great eater and an even better snuggler.

On Sunday we went to church (just for Sacrament Meeting). He seemed extra peaceful as he lay awake for most of the meeting.

It has been a wonderful first week. My mother-in-law is here taking care of us all, taking care of all of the regular household duties so that I can take it easy. I hope that the days won't rush by, I am so in love with this little one already!

Introducing:

2011-01-07T01:51:00.000-07:00

Kai Paul Sherwood

I'm in Love

2011-01-06T00:02:00.006-07:00

Our little babe is here and just as perfect as can be!

He weighs 7 lbs. 13 oz & is 20 inches long.

He entered the world clearing his lungs with a loud cry and then promptly peed on the nurse!

My c-section went smoothly. Our little boy without a name is healthy and was ready to nurse the first chance he got.

We've had a great first day. My body is recovering quickly - I just went on my second walk.

We had a super fun visit with the kiddos this afternoon. Annabelle was great at holding him and just kept smiling and rocking him.

Once Asa was awake enough from his nap he was ready for his turn as well. The first thing he did was honk the baby on the nose! We kept a closer eye on him after that.

We feel like Heavenly Father has given us another beautiful blessing in our lives. I don't feel worthy of such a gift. He is so precious.

Thanks to Mom & Dad Sherwood for holding down the fort. We couldn't do this without you!

More pictures and maybe even a name will be forthcoming. Thank you for the kind words. As for now, I better get some rest.

Did I mention . . .

2011-01-04T22:15:00.010-07:00

I am going to have a baby tomorrow?

Well I am! I've got my c-section scheduled for tomorrow morning and I am so excited. We have the house in order. Mike's parents are here to help out. My belly is giant. There is nothing else to do except go and have this baby.

For Family Home Evening last night we showed the kids baby pictures of themselves and had a little lesson about what a special blessing it is to have a new member of our family come from living with Heavenly Father and to be in our home. Annabelle took part in the discussion while Asa mostly just pointed at the pictures saying "Shh, baby".

Looking at the pictures made me feel even more curious about what this baby will look like. I won't have to wait too long to find out. In between now and then I'll just compare these babies and wait.

This is Mike, his mom's heaviest baby. He had a round head and fine blonde hair.

This is me with lots of dark hair (no surprise there).

Our beautiful Annabelle, the tiniest so far weighing 6 lb. 12 oz.

Asa with his soft dark hair that didn't stick around too long.

He was a little chunk weighing 8 lb 7 oz.

Home Improvements

2011-01-04T22:02:00.004-07:00

Can you tell I've been knocking things off my 'To Do' list? Yes, catching up on blogging is one of them! I've had Mike home and off of work since Christmas Eve and have been taking full advantage. Last week we worked really hard getting ready for the baby and getting all the little things we've wanted/needed to do around the house DONE.

Priority #1 was to get ready for the baby! We unpacked the baby clothes (yes this is a little late at 38 weeks). Mike set up the cradle and we made this little nursery nook in our bedroom for him. Mike designed and made this cradle when I was pregnant with Annabelle. I love it and am glad to have it back from storage in Colorado and in our house to use with this baby! I know, it is beautiful - and will look even sweeter still with a sleeping babe in it.

Priority #2 was to get my craft room under control. One reason is because it also doubles as a guest bedroom which we need right now for Mike's parents who are here to help us while we have the baby and when I come home. The other reason is because having crafting supplies everywhere and no real easy way to get them in and out only leads to a disastrous looking room and more time searching for items than actually getting to use them! So Santa brought me shelves for Christmas and Mike created this space for me. I love it. I've already used it 2-3 times in the last week.
Priority #3 Get the toys organized! As many other moms probably feel after Christmas I felt like we needed to shift through the toys, decide where they were really going to belong and which ones the kids had simply outgrown. After all of that was done I thought it would be fun to label our existing toy bins. I cut these vinyl letters out and so far it has worked like a charm. The kids actually seem to be playing independently MORE often since they can find what they need . . . or maybe it is just all the fun toys they were spoiled with this Christmas!

Fancy Nancy

2011-01-04T13:35:00.003-07:00

Annabelle loves reading 'Fancy Nancy' books. Since Fancy Nancy also has curly hair we had a 'look like Fancy Nancy' photo shoot the other day.

Funny enough it turned out to be one of the coldest days we've had in Arizona so Annabelle had to put a coat on over her outfit and giant pink jewelry.

If I can talk her into dressing up like Fancy Nancy for Halloween or something then I'll go find a big feather boa to go along with the rest of the outfit.

It was fun to play dress up. Next time we'll have to make sure we have warmer weather.

Christmas in Arizona

2011-01-03T21:22:00.005-07:00

We celebrated Christmas away from our families for the first time in our entire marriage this year. I have to admit that I was not looking forward to being away from home - but happy to report that Christmas still felt like Christmas!

I decided a few weeks before Christmas that I was going to have a positive attitude and make it special for our family. Mike got us off on the right foot by taking us to get a real Christmas tree right after we came back from Colorado. We all loved it. Asa rearranged the ornaments on a daily basis while Annabelle always seemed to find the ornaments with bells to ring as she danced to Christmas music. I loved the smell and how happy it made our house look.

On Christmas Eve we had our friends over for appetizers and dessert. After we visited and ate, the kids helped put on the Nativity story for us. With 4 girls and 1 boy around Asa was a shoe-in for the role of Joseph. He refused to wear a costume but was much more willing than 'Mary' to hold the baby while the older girls acted out the parts of the angel, shepherd and wise WOman.

After our friends left and we were getting the kids into their jammies my sweet friend and what must have been her husband's entire family came caroling to us. They sounded wonderful and it totally made my night. Afterward Annabelle exclaimed "I don't know why but I just couldn't stop smiling! I tried to stop mom - but I just couldn't stop".

Christmas morning was so fun. We decided to encourage the kids to play with each toy as they opened them. Annabelle was just as enthusiastic about her new clothes as she was about her new toys. Asa now has a plethora of boy toys and will yell "Go, go, go!" while raising his fist at his train, fire truck, dump truck and cars.

1 and a Half!

2011-01-03T21:03:00.003-07:00

At 18 months Asa is still quite the rascal. He knows how to get into things. He figured out how to push chairs up to the kitchen counters to 'help'. He will yank a few yards of toilet paper off of the roll just to wipe his nose. He hangs off the oven door while saying 'hot, hot, hot'. He knows how to climb up onto the bathroom counters, put his feet in the sink and turn on the water. He climbs up on top of buckets in the pantry to reach his snacks and surprises us on a regular basis with ways to get himself into trouble.

Asa is also very generous. I can not hand him a piece of candy or a cookie without him then holding up his hand and asking for another piece for Annabelle - which he will immediately deliver to her. He frequently wants to share his toast or grilled cheese sandwiches as well.

As Asa's speech is improving he has learned to make us laugh. He surprises us everyday with new word combinations, my favorite lately was "Stinky pants, potty". He still signs a few things while he is speaking, just to ensure that we understand him but for the most part he is tries to repeat whatever it is we are saying. With this new skill Asa now takes part in our family scripture study, repeating one word at a time for about half of a verse or until he becomes distracted.

I am anxious to see how he will react to the baby. So far he loves other babies and hasn't ever minded when I've been holding another child. On the other hand he can be a real momma's boy!

We love him so much and greatly enjoyed the first 18 months.

p.s. No, he will not let us leave him in nursery at church.

Mom Update

2011-01-03T20:54:00.002-07:00

Thanks for the concern about my mom. Her surgery was a month ago and was a success! She spent close to 2 weeks in the hospital recovering from having the tumor on her liver removed. She suffered from some painful complications but was thrilled to be home a week before Christmas.

Since she has been home her energy level has been increasing slowly, but she is still in pain everyday.

The cancer was classified as a bile duct cancer. It looks like they got it all out with the surgery but she still needs a few scans and to meet with an oncologist to determine a definite treatment plan.

I feel so grateful that the cancer was operable and localized. It has been hard to be apart from family but I have felt strengthened by the prayers and support in our behalf.

For any of you interested you can read her/my Dad's updates at: caringbridge. Her page is rosaliamckean. You'll have to register with the website but it only takes a minute.

Thanksgiving in Colorado

2010-12-20T08:54:00.004-07:00

I am continuing to use my imagination for my third post this morning. So this post was really posted on December 5th, (wink wink).

With our happy 3rd addition set to arrive so close to Christmas this year we decided we should spend our vacation in Colorado over the Thanksgiving holiday instead. The drive went smoothly and the weather was even mild.

We spent all of our time with family. Our parents are friends with each other which makes it easy for us to bounce between homes and activities. Mike's parents even hosted Thanksgiving dinner for all of this year.

Mike's aunt Sue loves to cook and she prepared a lot of the meal. The food was delicious, I only wished this baby would have allowed me to eat more! I guess that is what leftovers are for. Mike's parents set enough tables for all of us to sit in the same room (this picture is missing a few Sherwoods) - I think there were about 25 of us in all. It was quite the group!

My mom was diagnosed with cancer a few weeks before Thanksgiving and I was so grateful this year to be able to go home and spend time with her. We enjoyed working on several projects, decorating the house for Christmas and getting a start on her holiday shopping.

These two pictures are of us assembling stationary with our favorite photos of Mike's. We enlisted the help of some Sherwood cousins and my sister-in-law Kristin.

With my time spent on projects, the kids enjoyed being spoiled by whoever had volunteered to watch them. Asa quickly developed a love for Papa Zeke's truck and tractor. Here he is taking a ride with my Dad on Thanksgiving morning:

And taking a nap with Papa one afternoon:

While Annabelle was usually supervised, she and her cousin Isaac entertained each other pretty well. On Thanksgiving morning while the adults were busy with their own duties these two found Grandma Shauna's supply of scotch tape. THREE rolls of tape later they were discovered.

Annabelle claims looking at this picture that Isaac was Santa Claus and that she was supposed to be Mrs. Claus, even though she is the one with the beard! Grandma teased that without any tape left in the house she wouldn't be able to wrap any of their Christmas presents!

Mike convinced me to stay for the week after Thanksgiving. I am so glad that I did. It gave me more time to spend with our families and knock off a few more 'to do' items with my mom before her surgery on Dec. 7th.

Early that week it snowed so Kristin and I bundled the kids up and took them out to play, despite the bitter cold. - Sorry, no pictures. My photographer was home in Arizona.

Grandma Shauna delighted Annabelle one morning by taking her to get a manicure and pedicure. She said that the women just fussed over Annabelle and one small Asian woman even carried Annabelle out to the car so that she wouldn't mess up her toe nails!

We went off-roading (well, just barely off the road) in Papa's truck before we left. This had quite the impression on Asa, as he still yells "Whoa Papa, whoa!" anytime I go over a speed bump a little too fast.

It was hard to leave Colorado just days before my mom's surgery and knowing that I wouldn't be back for Christmas - but we all missed Mike as well. He made coming home easy with dinner in the crock pot, a clean house and a newly painted toy room to enjoy. What a stud!

November 1st

2010-12-20T08:33:00.002-07:00

So today is November 1st and there is nothing else to do on a day like today except record how adorable my kids were for Halloween! Don't check the calendar, just let it go.

We joined our efforts and created just one jack-o-lantern this year. Annabelle was on the design team. I was the de-gunking and seed roasting leader with the assistance of Asa and Mike was trusted with the actual carving.

Asa thought that it was fun for a few minutes, but with Annabelle's influence he soon realized that reaching into the pumpkin for a handful of gunk was gross after all.

I couldn't convince him otherwise.

Annabelle's design this year was a picture of Tinkerbell, which proved a little complicated so we convinced her to rethink it and she liked the idea of a silhouette of a ballerina that her cousin Annica had shown us on her pumpkin over skype.

Dressing up Asa was a synch this year. He had no idea what was going on and we had a dragon costume that fit pretty well, even if it was designed for a Halloween 30+ degrees cooler.

After catching himself in the mirror he caught on and began to touch his head and "ROAR" for us. Trick or treating at the church was fun for him, but I have to say I earned my portion of his candy by carrying him and his bucket around door to door.

After much deliberation Annabelle decided to be a fairy this year. Mike took her shopping and she found wings that matched one of her dress up dresses.

Annabelle at 5

2010-12-20T08:09:00.008-07:00

As a mother of small children I often have to use my imagination to get through the day. Sometimes my imagination comes in handy when trying to resolve an issue while avoiding a meltdown. Other times I use my imagination to create games or in other active play with my children. And sometimes, like for this post, I use my imagination to simply imagine that circumstances are different than what they truly are, for my own benefit.

So for the moment, I am pretending that it is November 1st and updating my blog with activities from the end of October is the appropriate activity this morning. So yes, this is for my own record keeping!

I have already posted about Annabelle's 5th birthday celebrations. But I wanted to record a little bit about Annabelle at this age.

At 5 Annabelle has learned to rhyme. Often times if you ask her to make a rhyme she won't simply answer "dog" with "fog" - She'll say "Dog, fog, gog, whoop-alley nog". Perhaps the influence of Dr. Suess? I'm not sure, but it is pretty amusing.

At 5 Annabelle is starting to learn how to read. At school she memorizes sight words and is learning to sound out other 3 and 4 letter words. Often while driving around she recognizes logos and shouts out that she can read that that sign or truck says "Sears" or "Macy's".

At 5 Annabelle has developed a more nurturing role with her peers. She has always been ready to boss them around but now she seems to want to help them and care for hurt feelings and fingers. Her teacher told me that after accidentally stepping on another child's fingers, that Annabelle burst into tears herself because she felt so bad about it.

At 5 Annabelle is still chatty. When comfortable with other adults she will talk and talk and talk. Her voice is still a little louder than most, but she has informed that she just has a loud voice and that she is not yelling. She is still helpful with Asa, when we are running late she will even dress him while I get ready myself. She is still snugly, but only at bedtime or when watching a show. She is still girly and loves accessorizing and wearing skirts and dresses.

At 5 this girl still has our hearts.

Happy Weekend!

2010-11-13T11:42:00.004-07:00

We have grass for the FIRST time ever.

Grass courtesy of: Brother Isaacson tilling, my mom picking out all the rocks and Mike seeding, watering and mowing.

Hurray for grass and hurray weekends!

Sherwood Reunion

2010-11-11T21:09:00.006-07:00

Photo Credit to Travis Hoban

Last month we had the pleasure of spending a long weekend in Utah with the Sherwoods (meaning: Mom & Dad, siblings and their families). It was the first time we had all been together in one place at the same time since before Jake's mission. This could be considered quite the feat now that we live in 5 different states!

Sherwood vacations are always relaxing; allowing for lots of cousin playtime, fun game nights and at least one manly hike/photography adventure. This reunion proved the rule and was great for quality togetherness time.

We stayed up near the Powder Mountain Ski Resort which allowed for a real 'get away' feeling. The cousins played and played. One afternoon they went for a hike up the old ski runs and two other afternoons we drove into Huntsville to play at the perfect little city park.

This is my nephew Isaac

Grandma and Papa Zeke took full advantage of having their 6 grandkids around and seemed to be endlessly playing, coloring or going outside for a walk together. Asa perfected his "Papa" and is now enthralled by the moon and often points out the moon, exclaiming "MOON! MOON!" whenever it is visible.

One thing that really got the ball rolling for me for this reunion was the opportunity meet my newest little nephew, Tanner. Since he lives on the other side of the country I was excited to finally be able to snuggle him! He is right between my boys in age - so I imagine in a few years they'll be the rascals that we'll be needing to keep an eye on! Not to mention the older 2 boy cousins that will be leading the way.

Look at those cheeks!

It was a fantastic weekend and we were sad to go home. If you don't believe me just take a look at my kids the moment we got outside at the Phoenix airport:

Yeah, there were tears shed, a 2 hour flight delay and a dead car battery to deal with at 1 am - but that's not why Annabelle is passed out in a wheelchair while Asa bawled. We really just wanted to stay in Utah forever :)

P.S. Mike and Sam's photography can be perused in the October archives of the Photo Blog: here

The TRIPLE Crown

2010-11-04T23:19:00.005-06:00

The Triple Crown is a family holiday in which we celebrate my mom, mine and Annabelle's birthdays. We all three share the same birthday.

This year my parents and younger brother Jake came down for a long weekend. We were lucky enough to have a little bit of a cool down from the summer heat that still exists in mid October here - so we enjoyed a day at the zoo, a pumpkin patch and the morning at the park.

As far as pumpkin patches this far south go . . . the pumpkins don't grow there, but they make sure that there are still plenty of attractions. We raced around on the pedal carts, went on a 'who done it' mystery search in the corn maze, rode a barrel cart train and on and on.

Asa was too little to reach the pedals but he was happy to sit on Grandma's lap and let her do all the work of racing around!

Annabelle got a bike for her birthday this year and so that of course called for an outing to the park to try it out. With my brother Jake in town that meant long boarding . . .

. . . which brought me back to my more carefree days, so I got to take a cruise for my birthday as well! Luckily being 6 months pregnant didn't affect my center of gravity too much :D

(here is my Dad, Jake and Asa relaxing in the shade at the park)

Annabelle was also surprised by a quilt my mom had sewn for her - between that and a pillow pet she was actually pretty excited about going to bed!

We enjoyed a birthday lunch at Abuelo's - my favorite mexican restaurant and of course ate our traditional cheesecake. Yum!

Thanks for coming down!

Polka Dot Party

2010-10-31T23:04:00.007-06:00

Annabelle turned FIVE in October and so we decided that we should throw a real birthday party for her. This was our first 'friends' party. Annabelle was fairly involved in planning the theme, games and so on.

She chose the polka dot theme, helped make polka dot invitations and of course dressed for the occasion in ALL poka dots! We kicked off the party with a wild and extended game of Twister.

We also played 'Pin the Curl on Annabelle', Musical Pillows (safer than chairs, right?), Hot Potato and a Carnival styled ball toss game. In the end the 5 games and refreshments that I had planned went rather quickly and we were left with a good 45 minutes left of the party! Luckily the kids entertained themselves by re-playing their favorites and eventually playing a rather silly game of hide-and-go-seek.

The kids seemed to all have fun and get into the games. I learned how competitive musical pillows can get. It was hilarious to see these 4-6 year olds develop their own strategies.

The food went over well. We let the kids pick flowers from our rice crispy treat planters and pull some grass if they wanted.

While I was tending to the crowd control of refilling drinks and popcorn . . .

. . . I turned to find Asa sitting on top of the table with a rice crispy treat in each hand and a trough full of green licorice at his disposal.
Yeah, he thought he was pretty clever!
After the party was over and cleaned up Annabelle decided to look through all her silly bandz and silly rings. She looked at the shape, wether or not they glow in the dark and so on. Then she proceeded to wear ALL of them for a good portion of the next several days!

Asa on the other hand was EXHAUSTED! He had gone the entire day without a nap and was falling asleep on the counter as I was trying to feed him some oatmeal (you know, to combat all the sugar).

ZNP

2010-10-20T23:10:00.007-06:00

About a month ago we met up with Mike's older (but much younger looking) brother Sam and his sweet family at Zion National Park. This was our second time camping in Zion. The weather was beautiful. The company even better and the kids slept under the Watchmen Tower like rocks.

Sam shares the Sherwood trait of loving photography

{his Zion pictures can be seen here and here}

and the love of being outdoors but he has a special love of taking pictures of people taking pictures.

{as seen here}

In a way he makes up for me not ever remembering to take pictures of Mike. Thanks Sam!

My favorite hike this time around, was to the mouth of the narrows. Last time the water was too high and the temperatures too low for us to enjoy it much. This time my sis, Kristin, and I supervised the cousins playing in the water for about an hour and eventually had to defend our territory against some fairly aggressive squirrels that had noticed Asa's tendency to drop his popcorn as he ate it. Don't worry - Sam showed up just in time to save us by chasing them off with a stick!

Annabelle and her cousin Isaac are pretty close in age and get along really well. Isaac supplied their conversations and games with plenty of ideas as he has one of the best imaginations and Annabelle of course gave direction to their activities with her sass and 'nurturing' side :D

This is Isaac in front of the rock formation that is also named Isaac.

Asa loved all the time outside, he was frequently dirty and almost as frequently in search of dogs. He couldn't quite figure out how to communicate "squirrel" so those became dogs as well.

I loved chatting with Kristin and watching the kids play. One of my favorite places to go camping!

You can check out Mike's picture from the trip here if you are interested.

The Woods and the Sherwoods

2010-09-23T11:06:00.008-06:00

. . . in the woods. Sorry, I just couldn't resist! At the beginning of September we went camping with our friends, the Woods. They invited us up to an area a couple of hours away - 'up on the rim'. Yeah, I'm not so great with geography - - so that meant pine trees and cooler temperatures.

We enjoyed dinner (thanks Rebecca!), s'mores, chatting and of course the husband photographers had their fun as well.

Mike and Ty both love mountain adventures as well as photography - (a previous adventure to Salome Jug can be seen here and here on their photography blogs). So naturally they played with their cameras this time around as well. Mike blogged his photos a few weeks ago, you can see them here if you want.

Annabelle always sleeps like a rock when we go camping, although I noticed this time around she seemed to talk in her sleep quite a bit. Asa slept pretty well until about 4:30 and then decided that he was ready to get up and play. After about an hour of him flopping around on us in the tent, Mike generously decided to take him for a sunrise hike. What a wonderful husband I have!

Annabelle, Jack and Asa pretty much just soaked up being able to play outside. Annabelle and Jack played really well together - which could very well translate that Jack is sweet with Anna even though she would constantly tell him what to do.

We all enjoyed a little dip into the river/reservoir. The highlight for me was a cooler weather picnic in a wide meadow with plenty of space for the kids to play in.

Asa tried to keep up with the big kids some of the time and picked up sticks and pine cones at other times. Either way he was determined to be dirty and eventually he sat in an old fire pit and scratched at the ash and soot with a stick.

He did come clean - but take a look at that face!

Wish you had come along?

Three, Two, One

2010-09-02T22:31:00.012-06:00

{Three}

Sherwood baby number three is doing well. We got to take a little peek last week for my 20 week ultrasound and HE is growing a moving and all that just like he is supposed to. I am already fond of him as this has been a super easy pregnancy. I haven't been sick or anything like that. On some days I get really really tired. But that is the easiest symptom to remedy: take a nap. Or take a coma (a coma is one of those naps when you sleep so hard and drool and wake up disoriented). It seems that when I need a coma so does Asa. Perfect!

Unlike my pregnancies with Annabelle and Asa I haven't hit the 'eat gummis every single day' phase. I still like sweet things, but mostly just in moderation. I have noticed that I am more emotional. Yeah, that was unexpected. I fought back tears for the first 10 minutes of the 4th of July parade this year. I find myself feeling shoved to the side when I haven't been. At unexpected moments of slight difficulty I will suddenly become overwhelmed. It is a bit ridiculous, which is what I try to keep in mind. I just take my good friend's advice and tell myself "I'm just going through a stage right now".

Sometimes while in this stage I make lapses in nutritional judgement. Let's just say that is what happened the night I decided that we were going to have peach crepes with real whipping cream, powdered sugar and chocolate drizzled on top for dinner.

Back to our little number three. He is already fairly active. So far his little jabs and kicks have been fairly amusing. Asa loves to fall asleep laying on my chest/belly. Unknown to Asa, his little brother notices and makes sure to thump Asa several times to let him know that he is being squished.

This week at my appointment he was so active it took my RNC about 4 minutes to get his heart rate because every time she'd get him for a second he would move before she could get enough beats to get the rate. She exclaimed several times that he was a really active baby.

{Two}

This boy is my love. He is a real rascal but then he turns right around and has me wrapped around his finger again. He'll empty the recycling, climb up on the table, sneakily drop his dinner on the floor, turn the power strip for the computer off, try to get his hands in the toilet (or the 'yuck' as he calls it), throw toys down the stairs or imitate his sister when she is crying BUT most often when I scold him he'll give me a cheesy grin with a scrunched up nose so that I have to quickly turn away so that he won't see my smile. He'll snuggle up to me and bring me a book to read him. He'll remember to sign instead of grunt.

He has been picking up signs so quickly now. For a lot of them he does his own little variation but for now he is using: dog, cat, hat, telephone, book, fish, bird, eat, drink, please, thank you, help, more, again, snowman, flower, baby, and this week I have been trying to get him to say 'love'. He also shakes his head or nods to answer yes and no questions. We love being able to communicate! Of course there are always break downs (like last night when he didn't understand why I wouldn't let him eat the baby powder) but overall signing makes life so much easier.

Mike says it is time to cut his hair again. He is probably right, but if he gets really sweaty and it is humid out then he'll get curls like in this picture from the zoo.

{One}

Miss Annabelle has been in school for about a month now. Here in Arizona they start school a lot earlier in the year and most of the schools only offer full day kindergarten. I know - aren't you supposed to ease into it? For the mother's sake?

She likes going. There are ups and downs as far as having a stricter bed time or getting up in the morning goes but she is always happy about it on the way there. I was a little worried the first week because she told me "Mom, did you know that learning isn't fun?" Seriously, who let that one slip?

Since Asa and I miss her all day she is a bit of a celebrity in the afternoons. We sit and eat a snack with her, read books or play if she feels like it. Some days I think she is just ready for down time and she'll disappear into her room or watch a show.

She let slip last week that a boy at school was giving her kisses. I tried not to act too shocked so that she wouldn't get embarrassed and not tell me WHY he was kissing her. She explained that she had won candy three days in a row and that he got so excited for her that he just started kissing her cheeks and arms. Mike encouraged her to cover her face next time!

So Excited!

2010-08-22T22:05:00.008-06:00

Meet Rachel: Rachel and I met our freshman year at BYU and through a mutual friend ended up living together at "White Gables" our sophomore year. Perhaps it was because that year was particularly challenging for each of us, or because it was just meant to be - but Rachel, our other roommates and I have remained close ever since (7 years later). What I learned about Rachel that year was that she is an AMAZING (award winning) writer, has a big heart, loves to work with people with disabilities, has a personal relationship with our savior, 2 sisters that make me still wish that just one of my brothers had been a sister, loves to snuggle, is a dedicated student and runner, loves brownies more than anyone else I have met (and I am a McKean and a Sherwood so that is saying something) and upon occasion was known to say dramatically "Stress is overtaking my body". Ha ha!

Meet Ryan: Ryan is an Idaho boy who had returned from his mission to Russia when his buddy set him up on a blind date with none other than my Rachel. Since I was already married and no longer living at 'White Gables' I heard bits and pieces of their relationship. My earliest memory of Ryan was hearing about the guy that brought Rachel a peach the week after a date. It was adorable. He seemed to compliment Rachel in every way. The summer that she went to El Salvador to volunteer at the Hogar he worked her usual summer job in Colorado at a camp with kids with disabilities.

Fast-forward 5 years: Rachel and Ryan are married and living in Buffalo, NY. Rachel is teaching high school English for her 5th year and Ryan is in his final year in dental school. Together they started their neighborhood 'cookie club' inviting kids to come over and make/eat cookies. There are knocks on the door for Mr. Ryan to come out and play. They are still in love, still happy, still hard working and still good friends of mine.

Why am I so excited: Rachel and Ryan were recently approved through LDS adoption services to be adoptive parents! The way this service works, prospective parents put their profile online for birth mothers to browse through. The birth mother (aka an angel in my book) then chooses the couple that she would like her child to be given to. It is an incredible process of self-lessness, love and compassion. Often times birth mothers also hear about couples by word of mouth. That is my intention with this post. If you know anyone that is considering adoption, please mention Rachel and Ryan. They have so much love and will be amazing parents. I am really truly excited for them to be parents. I think I'll feel like a brand new aunt again :)

Click here to view Rachel and Ryan's blog. (It is worth your time, she is a fantastic writer)

Click here to view Rachel and Ryan's adoption profile.

I have added a button to my sidebar - you are welcome to post it on your own blog to help get this exciting new out! To do so visit Rachel and Ryan's blog, copy the jibberish from underneath the button on their page and paste it into a html/java script gadget in the sidebar of your own blog. Thanks for helping spread the good news!

Highlights of Summer

2010-08-02T21:47:00.009-06:00

'Highlights of summer?' you might ask. Yes, it is still 100 degrees outside but I feel like with the beginning of August, school starting and a few thunderstorms it feels like the perfect time for a good summer wrap up post. So here goes:

10 Great summer moments of 2010:

1. trip to Colorado for David & Clara's wedding reception: Of course their cute reception was only the beginning of the trip, but we enjoyed the next 10 days playing with grandma's, grandpas, Uncle Jake and cousins. The kids are in heaven when we are in Colorado. At my parent's house Annabelle watered the garden each morning, planted flowers and snuck treats. Asa watched intently at the walking trail out the window for dogs, conned people into taking him outside and practiced taking steps between grandma and grampster.

Every time we drove up the the Sherwood's house I would find Asa asleep in the backseat. I guess a car ride was his only downtime from all the fun :) Annabelle on the other hand would race down to the water feature in the front and eagerly agree to just get her feet wet. Yeah one soaked girl later we'd go on to the next activity of crafties, crazy Dr. Suess games, reading with Grandma, treasure hunts with cousins and so on. Asa loved the attention and outside time with Papa.

2. swimming: Annabelle took several weeks of swim lessons with friends. She can now swim underwater, come up for air and keep going. She learned a lot, but of course put her own spin on it. Instead of keeping her body stiff and straight, she would practice her 'dolphin' swim, in which she would shake her hips and bob her bum up and down. Hilarious.

We also enjoyed weekly swim play dates. Asa quickly warmed up to being in a pool and loved to 'splash' the other kids.

3. tuesday morning matinees: It was a sweet deal, $7 for a summer of movies. Annabelle looked forward to it every week. 'Mom, is it movie day yet?'

4. Asa learned to walk: he had been taking funny practice steps for about a month when all of the sudden one day he just decided he was done with crawling and started walking every where.

5. hearing a 'whoosh-whoosh' sound: I had a great Dr.'s appointment at the beginning of July and heard baby #3's sweet little heart beat. We're excited for the new addition. My official due date is 01/11/11! How cool is that?

6. celebrating the 4th of july in Prescott: we escaped the heat and the big city and enjoyed camping, watching a parade and getting rowdy at a rodeo as a family. Best family weekend of the summer for sure. Oh and Asa's first time camping. He was a champ. He just snuggled up to his momma and zonked out.

7. girls reunion: my best friend's from college and I got together for a much needed reunion/retreat in Utah for a couple of days. We went for a hike, outlet shopping, I got my first pedicure, ate junk food, laughed, stayed up way to late, reminisced and enjoyed a beautiful ride up the ski lift at sundance. It was just what I needed an more.

8. Mike & kids retreat in Utah: coincidence? I think not! Mike and the kids enjoyed time with family playing. They saw Mike's grandparents as well as his brother Sam and his family. From what I heard it was awesome, hiking, playing in the mountains and some quality cousin time for Annabelle and her hilarious cuz Isaac.

9. discovering the yummiest slush recipes to date: of course, I'll share it with you!

Blend together: 2 cups orange juice, 2 cups sherbet, 2 cups cold water, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/2 cup sugar and 3 cups of crushed ice. Enjoy!

10. family reunion: the 14 children of Mike's great grandfather have an awesome annual family reunion up in the White Mountains of Arizona. This was my first time going. It was green, beautiful, fun to meet all the other 'Arizona Sherwoods' and what is even better is that 7 of them came back to home with us for a week :)

Monsoon

2010-07-29T21:16:00.004-06:00

So we finally got some real rain for the summer, it started off with hail for a few minute and then it rained for little while after. It cooled the weather off from 105 to 80 which was a welcome change of pace and let us get outside for a little fun. nothing beats jumping in puddles after a good storm. Annabelle and Asa had a great time, Asa was amazed at the water falling from the sky and loved playing in it. Annabelle enjoyed getting wet and even helped Asa have some fun.

- mike

Happy 4th of July!

2010-07-04T19:39:00.003-06:00

We've had a great weekend thus far, hope you have too.

I'm grateful for the opportunities we are afforded living in this country.

Happy Independence Day!

Guess Who

2010-06-16T22:03:00.008-06:00

Yeah! Our little Asa turned one last week. We celebrated his birthday with mud/dirt dessert which he was delighted with and insisted on sharing with each of us.

Annabelle was a good sport, but wasn't about to let that slobbery worm into her mouth! After trying to shovel as much goodness into his mouth Asa discovered the worm and sucked on it for the next 15 minutes.

Asa has developed a funny little personality. Asa says "dada", "annya", "Ahh dun" (all done), "hi" and "hiya". His best form of communication is sign language. His favorite thing in the world is dogs. He stands at the window a few times a day and pants and barks hoping to see a dog even when he is looking in our own dog-less backyard.

Above is the barking face, the bark comes out "Whoo, whooo". Below is the more predominant dog sign, panting. Which is Asa's official name/sign for dogs.

Besides dogs he also loves to to watch for birds and indicates birds by flapping his arms. Earlier this week there was a fat gutter cat in our yard, which has peaked his interest in cats, which he signs by trying to trace whiskers on his face. Other favorite signs are smacking his lips for fish, 'ball', 'more' and 'all done'.

Mike found these little sandals. Asa has been trying to walk for about a month now, when he does walk he gets this big huge excited look on his face. The most steps I have seen consecutively was 23, but he still prefers to crawl most of the time.

His favorite foods are blackberries, yogurt, scrambled eggs, potatoes in any form and almost any snack food. He is 20 1/2 lbs and 31 inches tall. He gives wet kisses with his mouth wide open. When we are in public he waves at people and waits for them to wave back, even if they aren't looking at him. He blows raspberries on my belly. He likes to wrestle and tease. He still loves to pull Annabelle's hair, although he has gotten gentler lately. He'll bite me if he is really excited. He has eight teeth. A few times a day we find him in the pantry which is now called 'The Baby Man Cave" as he likes to bang things around, admire the vacuum and empty the recycling on the the floor. Oh yeah, he loves the vacuum, garbage truck and blender. He still loves to snuggle and often will lay on my chest like a newborn to fall asleep.

New toys are fun!

We love Asa and can't get enough of his silliness. He is a real rascal and fun to be around.

Happy Birthday Asa!

First Hair Cuts

2010-05-23T23:13:00.009-06:00

That's right, our kids are growing up! (Sniff, sniff)

Annabelle and Asa got their first haircuts together a couple of weeks ago. Annabelle's hair had never been cut and for the last 2 years or so it seemed that it didn't really get longer, just bigger.Here is her before shot:

I felt a little torn about trimming Asa's hair because it needed a little more length so that we could see whether or not it was going to be curly. But . . . the shagginess around the edges was just looking messy, so I went for it. Here is his before shot:

Annabelle was nervous that she would FEEL her hair being cut. Afterwards she exclaimed, "That didn't hurt at all!" Too cute.

Her hair turned out a little shorter than I was anticipating, but I got the eternally tangled ends off and over all it looks healthier, we might just have to wait a while to get it back into a pony tail. But most importantly - She likes it :)

Asa's haircut went a lot smoother than I anticipated. He loved standing up looking through the chair at a very helpful Sister. She kept him happy and distracted while I trimmed up around his ears and neck.

I didn't take any off the top, just the sides and back. But here is his final result:

I don't know that I'll always cut my kid's hair, but it was fun this time. They put up with me and at this age they can't point out any of the flaws!

April Flowers

2010-05-21T21:17:00.010-06:00

Before May turns to June, I should continue with the update. April was highlighted with Easter, great weather here and a whirlwind weekend for a wedding.

In April Asa cut his seventh tooth. He also stopped eating and reverted back to nursing every couple of hours. Our first visit to the pediatrician revealed sores in his throat. It was suspected to be something viral and just to treat him for the pain. A week later, less sleep and even less eating we were back. The sores were so bad he was tested for strep throat, thankfully that came back negative and we were given some prescription pain killer and told it should be gone in a week. By the end of the month I was at wits end with a super cranky kid that was nursing 3 times at night and ornery the rest of the time, so we went back to the doctor. This time he had an ear infection, so armed with an antibiotic and reflux medicine we went home. Cue the applause! Within 20 minutes I had the happiest baby I had seen in weeks! Sweet wonderful medicine! His appetite returned and I am slowly getting him dependent on foods for nourishment - I'd love to begin sleeping through the night undisturbed. Whatever that feels like, I am pretty sure I like it.

One afternoon Annabelle came up to me and asked if I knew what reversible change was. "Uh, yeah I think so". She explained it was when something could go back to the way it was, "Like water turning into ice and then back into water." Normally my jaw would have dropped but I had a sneaking suspicion this had come from her Sid the Science kid cartoons. A few nights later I could hear Mike trying to convince Annabelle that she needed to remember to close her eyes when saying her night time prayers. She said she used to be good at that, but now that she had been keeping them open it was too hard. For some reason Mike went further into debate with her and explained that she had developed a habit of keeping her eyes open and that she could learn to keep them closed again and break the habit. I couldn't help but laugh when she argued back "It's not a habit Dad, it's called reversible change!"

Easter was a great day. I really enjoyed watching Asa try to eat every egg that he found. I hid these little freeze dried yogurt snacks in his eggs since he couldn't really handle candy. He loved them and popped them into his mouth one after the other all morning. And Annabelle of course made out like a bandit with her loot. I think her favorite thing was a magnifying glass in her basket. She immediately wanted to go outside and discover the backyard.

All month we looked forward to our trip up to Utah for David and Clara's wedding. David is my younger brother and we were excited for Clara to join our family. My older brother Adam also graduated with his masters in geology that weekend and so it was a fun packed weekend with great food and even better company. The wedding dinner was at The Lion House downtown Salt Lake. The historic building was beautiful and it was really fun getting to know Clara's family.

They were married in the Draper temple which was beautiful, we had never been before as it is so new. The morning started out cold but when we came out of the temple the winds stopped and the sun came out. Annabelle was thrilled to see Clara and all the flowers. She has quickly become attached to her new aunt. Their reception was great fun as well with flowers from my talented Aunt Julie and a cake made by Clara's sister in law.

Our pictures of that day aren't all that great but my old friend from Provo, Amy Bennion did a beautiful job with the professional pictures from that day. You can get a little taste of them on her photography blog, here. I love them. I wish I had known her before I got married! Maybe then I would have agreed to doing some bridals :) Amy even put us up for the weekend, not many photographers will do that for you! Thanks a million Amy, it was great seeing you and meeting your little Zac.

Oh yeah, back to the trip. It was so fun to spend time with my family. I think my little brother Jake was my hero of the trip. He almost always had a niece or nephew in his arms. Except of course when Mike convinced him to do a little climbing for the reception.

For those of you who know David and Clara they started their own little family blog. It is pretty funny, but private so you'll have to harass them to give you access.

Favorite photo of the month: Yes ladies, they're both mine.

Favorite Videos from March

2010-05-05T23:36:00.003-06:00

These kids are hilarious. I wish I had more moments like these on video. Enjoy!

Nona & a Flower Bed

2010-05-04T23:29:00.008-06:00

At the end of March we were spoiled to have Nona, my grandma, come visit us. She is busy with her own work and responsibilities at home and we were thrilled that she was going to make it out this spring. She made the ultimate sacrifice by hanging out in the Denver airport during a blizzard for a day and a half just to fly here. She said people were crying, babies were restless, it started to smell, but she eventually got on a flight and made it. Thank goodness!

Nona is turning a young 70 years old this year and is so young at heart. She has a healthy laugh. She is never to proud to have fun and as a result kids and sometimes other adults are encouraged to join in. One example is when we went to the neighborhood park. I have definitely become the mom that sits and watches. Playgrounds are for the kids to get their energy out while mom watches from a relaxing distance. Right? Not when Nona is in town. She was chasing Annabelle up and down, yelling for me to bring Asa up to her so that she could take him down the slide . . . add some bubble blowing and it turned into an afternoon of real togetherness.

Another major highlight of the trip was visiting the zoo. We went last year and this year was to be no exception. We pet the manta rays, rode camels, pet the goats, looked at animals of course, road the train, enjoyed a picnic. It was a jam packed day, followed by pizza, a movie and some deep sleeping.

We were also able to go to the Mesa Temple Easter Pageant. It is a big outdoor production portraying the life of Christ. It is great to watch and really helped Annabelle to recognize why we celebrate Easter. The costumes were fantastic. We couldn't resist chasing down this guy afterward!

Nona and I usually put her energy to good use while she is in town and so our project for this trip was to brighten up a spot in my backyard. We spent some time picking out flowers and employed Mike in carrying heavy bags of soil. Here is a little photo journal of the whole event:

This is what he had to work with.

Here are the flowers a little more upclose and personal.

This is how Anna feels about gardening. Really, she asks to pull weeds on a regular basis.
And this is really how Asa feels about gardening.

Cute, huh? Well it brightens up my little view.

Thanks for a great visit Nona! Happy Birthday and we'll have you back anytime :)

March in a Minute

2010-05-04T22:50:00.011-06:00

Yes, I realize that it is, uh, May. But for my sake I'd like to do a little catching up. It seems to be the theme for my blogging thus far this year. March is one of the most beautiful months in Arizona. I love the sunny warm (or as many here refer to it as, cool) weather. Great for hiking, play dates at the park, visiting the zoo and all of that.

Needless to say we spent a lot of time outside. The citrus fruit is also in season, which means many friends are looking to dump their excess fruit. I love making homemade lemonade and I think we perfected it this year and added puree strawberries.

In March Asa sped up his crawling and mastered going up the stairs. I have a gate at the top of the stairs but can't bring myself to get one for the bottom . . . seriously, can you imagine, having a baby on one hip, an armful of something else and trying to negotiate a gate, climb the stairs, negotiate another gate and then have to do it all again on the way down? Safety First? How about 2nd? I do put an ottoman at the bottom of the stairs to block him when I can't keep and eye on him. Teething, drooling and waving made up most of Asa's month. Take a look at those teeth in there, this kid's smile cracks me up!

Annabelle enjoyed her first field trip in April. Her preschool class went to a fire station. She talked about it for weeks and initially didn't want me to go with her, but a few days before said it would be alright if I came along after all. I might have embarrassed her with all the picture taking . . . she survived. Since the field trip and Safety Week at school, she has been more focused on safety. She asks WHEN our house will burn down, she notices wether or not bike riders are wearing their helmets, if firemen will come to our house, if girls can be firemen, when she'll be old enough to bathe Asa without me . . . I'm glad she has taken over as safety officer for me. I have to admit issues of safety don't cross my mind as often as they do Anna's.

A highlight for us in March is celebrating Mike's birthday. I had to steal this picture off of our friend Tacy's blog as she managed to remember to take a picture! Tacy and Mike share a birthday, exactly. Well I don't know what time they were born, but I love them both and so we got together and celebrated. Oh, and they both love cheesecake, so it works out perfectly. Later in the week they packed up and moved to Utah. It was a fun night, but a bitter sweet farewell as we'll miss them, but I know they'll enjoy being closer to family.

Mike got a new macro lens for his birthday and has been a mad man macro photographer ever since. He usually shares his favorite shots with his fellow Sherwood photographers on the family photography site, if you want to see what Mike's world looks like in macro take a peek through the archives.

Other March happenings deserve a post all of their own. I think the time is up on 'March in a Minute' but I couldn't help but post this last picture of Asa - - with all the crawling and disinterest in eating as of late he doesn't have quite this much chub anymore. Oh yeah, and I think this is evidence that he'll get some curl to his hair.

I'm Not Pointing Any Fingers . . .

2010-03-17T15:31:00.003-06:00

. . . but sometimes I identify with the lazy chef mentality. Food can be delicious and satisfying but I don't always feel like making dinner, let alone making it from scratch. I'm not pointing any fingers but maybe someone else reading this can relate. That is why I was thrilled to find that my friend Rachel and her awesome sisters had started a recipe blog entitled 'Forced to Cook'. Each sister has been blessed with and developed many talents, but enjoying the cooking process is not one of them. But now they are married and supporting their little families and hard working husbands requires a little culinary effort.

So far my favorite recipe has been Chicken Tamale Casserole. We have made it 3-4 times already. So so good. I recently passed along a few of my favorite recipes that I would consider minimal effort, maximum results. I got them from my sisters-in-law, so you know they're good.

Anyway, next time you are making up a dinner menu before you go to the grocery store or just at ends of what to make for dinner, check it out. It has become one of my most visited recipe blogs.

The 28 Days of February

2010-03-07T20:22:00.017-07:00

1. I made cupcakes for the first time ever. Or at least the first time I can remember. They were Gingerbread Cupcakes with Caramelized Mango Buttercream. Recipe here. Warning: Intermediate rating on this website might be code for intense.

2. I've been crafting a little more, scrap booking and Valentine making.

3. Asa stopped rolling and squirming to get around. He started off this month by walking his hands out in front of him and then hopping and wiggling to get his knees up under his chest. Hilarious to watch.
4. Mike was called as the Young Men's president. He is pretty excited to go hiking and get to know the guys in our ward.
5. Annabelle started paying attention to commercials. She doesn't realize the intention of advertising and repeats lines from commercials when she thinks the particular product might improve our lives. For example Mike and I were discussing finances and she piped up "You should call them, they can lower you payments, maybe even cut them in half". My parents bought a new mattress and she asked if it was a sleep number bed "because if you have a bad bed you should get a sleep number bed, it is the best one". And of course when I got a migraine she suggested buying Nyquill.
6. Oh yeah, I got a migraine this month. Random.
7. During a storm this month a tree in our backyard blew over. I thought I'd have to go back there and cut it up and throw it out but super Mike went back there, pushed it back upright and tied it to the fence. How manly.
8. Asa cut two more teeth. He now has four teeth on top and two on the bottom.
9. Annabelle was really excited (as we all were) for Mike's parents and brother to come visit. Every night for a few weeks before their arrival she prayed that their plane wouldn't crash.
10. Asa became keenly interested in some dangerous/gross things around the house, namely, the electrical sockets, the chemical cupboard, the trash cans in the bathrooms, the power strip over by the computer and my mop bucket.
11. Mike's parents and brother Jake came to visit! They came for a long weekend and we enjoyed having them. They spoiled us and we loved seeing them. It was awesome to have them stay with us, see the new house and play.
12. Jake, Mike's brother just came home from his mission in Montana and Wyoming. He served in a lot of small towns and had some great experiences. We loved getting to see him, hear stories about his mission and he got to meet Asa.
13. We went on a hike while our family was in town. We drove out to Gold Canyon. Annabelle did a great job on the 3 miler and Asa enjoyed his first hike - being carried in the backpack of course.
14. We also went to a train park with the Sherwoods. Once again, great weather, great fun, a picnic lunch, a train ride and a carousel ride or two.
15. Annabelle really enjoyed her first Valentines party. Her preschool did a Valentines exchange. She brought nerds candy for her classmates and wrote her name on every single one.

16. I made Mike a Valentine this year (yes that is mentionable all by itself). We typically don't celebrate Valentines Day very much. But when I saw this I just had to try it. I enjoyed using a hammer, wire cutters, nails and a little elbow grease while crafting. I think Mike was impressed as well as surprised.

It reads"light of my life", which I didn't come up with, even though it is true.

17. Asa started crawling while Mike's parents were here. He figured out he whole alternating knee thing. Now he is pretty fast.
18. Asa had his first Oreo. Yum.

19. We had our friends the Woods and Stevens over for a cheese themed dinner. It is great to see friends from our old neighborhood. They were sweet enough to drive out here and hang out for a while. I'm sure there is an appropriate saying about old and new friends but I can't remember it.
20. We found another fun place for pictures: A free train museum in Chandler. So don't worry, we didn't set the kids on active train tracks for these pictures.
21. I'm a little crazy about Design Sponge. If I knew how to pull up statistics on my computer it would probably tell you that I checked it 200 times this month. Probably. There are all kinds of featured ideas and designers. Take a look at this Emily Hensen design. I love it. I just made my first bird house. Maybe one day I'll paint a tree on the wall in the play room.
22. I had friends over to be crafty a couple of times. It is so much more fun to create something when you've got a friend to chat with and the kids can entertain each other.
23. Asa has become a little bit of a pest since he learned to crawl. One day in particular he pulled our lamp over a handful of times, slowed dinner and lunch production by constantly opening the cupboards and can crawl at top speeds. We spent then next Saturday installing a gate at the top of the stairs, latches on the cupboards and anti-fray stuff on the edge of the carpet so that he would stop pulling out the threads and eating them. Have I mentioned Asa keeps my busy??!? But I can't get enough of that kid.
24. My nephew Jeremiah turned one. First birthdays are awesome to celebrate. We were sad to not live closer to them. I started the tradition of making my nieces and nephews an Alphabet book personalized with all the members of their extended family representing each letter. J my name is Jeremiah was fun to make and I hope it holds up to years of reading. Happy Birthday Jeremiah!
25. I found a new blog to follow, started by one of my good friend Rachel, and her two sisters. It is called Forced to Cook, and is a recipe blog for the lazy chef. I've submitted my favorite quick and delicious recipes. Who knows, maybe I'll be lucky enough to be featured.
26. It is highly likely that in the 28 days of February, that this is the only picture taken of our family photographer:

Sorry Mike! I'll be sure to take the camera out of your hands more often this month.

27. I'm sorry, these are getting a little desperate towards the end of the list. It rained. Fast fact: Arizona has had more rain this year than it had in all of last year. Fascinating, I know.
28. I have texting on my phone plan. Or at least I think I do.

The Rest of January

2010-03-04T13:04:00.010-07:00

After returning from our trip it felt like we had been gone just about as long as we had lived in our new house. I felt like I had to get reacquainted and settle back into it. Even though we were all unpacked when we left, we hadn't really started any home improvement projects. I'm sure if I mapped it out we could do projects every weekend for a year, but we are taking it in stride and starting off slow. So we painted an accent wall in the living room, hung pictures, re caulked the bathrooms and pruned the bushes in the backyard.

I was pretty excited to do some painting, but Asa needed to be distracted and fed while the painting was going on, so I got bumped off the project and Mike and Annabelle did most of it. In case you didn't know my favorite color is green. So far I'm not sick of it. I'll have to remember to post some finished project pictures soon.

Another huge happening in the house in January was teething. Asa cut his top two teeth in January. Nothing like two little teeth to change the way a baby looks! He seems to be a pretty good teether. I think he only cried at night once. Mostly he is just a little moody and has a really runny nose. Asa enjoyed getting around the house more this month by rolling and shifting around. I couldn't always figure out how he was getting there but he did.

I moved Annabelle to a new preschool this month as well. I was getting tired of driving her all the way back and forth to her old one. We really like her new one. The program is much different. I feel like she is learning more and I am glad that she is making friends with some kids that live around here and some are even in our ward. Of course, her favorite time is recess, but she also seems to like that she gets to bring homework home once a week. Don't worry, it isn't mandatory, they are preschoolers after all!

One of the funnest things we did in January was thanks to Annabelle. She saw a commercial for the Glendale Glitter and Glow Block Party and asked if we could go. The event, parking and shuttle were free so we just had to go! Haha, but it was awesome. It is in a historic walking district in Glendale and they leave up the 1.5 million Christmas lights and then have 24 hot air balloons tethered in the streets lighting up every time they ignite their torches. Add live bands, street performers and awesome carnival food . . . we had a great time. We even got to watch them set up several of the balloons. I highly recommend it to anyone in AZ in mid January.

Another huge happening around here in January was rainstorms! We easily got more rain and flooding from these winter storms than we had last monsoon season. I liked it because it made it feel more wintery. But after a few days it would clear up and we could enjoy being outside again. Kinda the best of both worlds. Luckily, unlike in a lot of other parts of the state, we didn't suffer any damage from the storms. Because of the monsoon season at the end of the summer, there are a lot of runoff areas to accommodate all the rainwater. A lot of times they make these areas into grassy neighborhood parks. Here is one that Mike found serving it's purpose. There were even ducks swimming around in it.

At the end of the month we caught a warm day and went to the zoo with some friends. It was our last chance to use our zoo pass before it was going to expire and it was awesome. The only animal that Asa noticed was the elephant. He watched her sway and walk around. My friend distracted him enough to get him to look away for a second to get this picture.

Annabelle and her little friend stuck together, talked most of the time and tried to ditch the old ladies and babies a time or two (wether or not it was intentional or not is still up for debate). Anna's favorite animal was yet again, the diaper rash monkeys!

Well that was January, whew! I'll get caught up soon :)

January trip to Utah

2010-02-20T09:31:00.007-07:00

After our awesome time in Colorado we drove out to Utah. On our way out my sister-in-law Trudy and I left early in the morning with the kids thinking that with stopping to stretch and feed the babies that the men (Mike, Adam and David) would catch up before we made it to Provo. Unfortunately for the boys their later start caused them to get caught in a storm in the mountains and then just as they came out of the mountains and were about to pull into Grand Junction my brother's car stopped working. After a day and a half in Grand Junction they rented a car and joined us in Provo. I felt pretty bad that they weren't able to repair the car but so grateful that Jeremiah and Trudy had ridden with us and weren't stranded. It was also a huge blessing that the boys weren't in the storm in the mountains, that they had cell phone reception and that they were so close to Grand Junction, which is probably the biggest city between Denver and Utah Valley.

It was great to show Annabelle Temple Square

Anyway, so Mike was given an extra week off of work so we decided we would love to see our grandparents in Utah. Now that the Sherwood Grandparents moved to Orem 3 out of our 4 grandparents live in Utah (Nona is in Colorado Springs). Since we hadn't been to Utah since last February no one from up there had met Asa, we had a great time introducing him to his great grandparents.

Clockwise from top left: with Grandpa Sherwood, Grandma Dana,

Grandma McKean, Papa Lowell and Grandma Sherwood.

I think Asa and Grandpa Sherwood, 3 generations apart from each other, have quite a resemblance. Just look at their smiles, checks and chin. Maybe it is just the lack of teeth, hair and the presence of love but I loved seeing these two together. There was lots of giggling exchanged between them. Grandma Sherwood is so lovable as she chats and teases Grandpa a little. Not to mention she plays a mean game of Rummy. She put Mike, Grandpa and I to shame on our card playing one afternoon.

Grandma Dana and Papa Lowell have been so sweet to us. We were glad to be able to visit Grandma as she is still recovering from hip surgery. I can't imagine trying to learn to use those muscles again after such an ordeal but she is glad to be home and grandpa is helping her along.

Annabelle needed to get some wiggles out so she and Grandpa went on a walk and I am guessing she did a lot of the talking. Great verbal skills, that girl.

We got to visit with Grandma McKean twice (or old Grandma McKean, as Annabelle calls her) while we were in town. She and Asa hit it off right away. It seemed like the moment he saw her he got excited and wanted her attention. Even while we were sitting in the living room talking Asa would reach over and want to hold her hand. I almost think he recognized her or something. Maybe Grandpa sent some love her way when Asa joined our family.

We were warmly welcomed by some of our aunts and uncles to stay with them while on our trip. It was so nice to be able to stay with family, spend more time with them and our cousins. I think Annabelle must think she has a dozen aunts and uncles as they treat her like their own little niece. Thanks for welcoming us into your homes!

When we weren't partying hard with our grandparents we went to temple square, had dinner at my great Uncle Bob's house and Mike took some pictures for David and Clara. They are going to be so great for each other. I guess it is odd for me to think of my younger brother being old enough to get married, but it's happening. They get married April 24th in the Draper, Utah Temple. Maybe if we are lucky they'll end up in Arizona (fingers crossed).

January 12th

2010-02-19T10:55:00.011-07:00

Let's just pretend that it is January 12th and I just got back from an awesome 3 week winter excursion and I wasted no time in posting about our adventures. Seriously, I just want to document our fun Christmas vacation and get caught up on my blogging/personal history. I don't expect anyone to be interested a month and a half later!

For Christmas and New Years we were able to travel up to Colorado to spend time with our families. Mike took a 1/2 day on the day we left so that we could break up the drive into two days. Annabelle is a great traveler, but we weren't sure how Asa would do in the car for such a long drive. What we learned is that he is great during the day - but hates being in his car seat at night. Lesson learned.

In true Mike fashion, Mike woke up before dawn the first day we were in town to take advantage of some new landscapes to photograph. Mike and his dad went down to Rainbow Falls, or Graffiti Falls down in Manitou Springs. I thought it sounded gross, but the pictures turned out strangely beautiful when you have the stark contrast between God's creation and man's. The picture below shows more of the bridge than the waterfall, but I liked the lines, and you get the idea.

One of my favorite things about being in Colorado this year was time with cousins. Jessi and her family were able to meet Asa for the first time and Annabelle really loved playing with Annica, Eli and Jeremiah. At the Sherwood house we prepared for Christmas by decorating sugar cookies, I think a couple made it to Santa. On Christmas eve the Sherwoods had the McKeans over and the cousins put on a great production of the Christmas story for us after our meal (yes I know we are spoiled). Annabelle and Annica both wanted to be Mary and the angel. So we compromised and they did the program twice! I guess I don't have pictures of that but it was pretty cute as they repeated the scriptures, sang 'Angels We Have Heard on High' and pretended that the adults of the family were the donkey, inn keeper, shepherds and so on.

With the McKeans we arrived to late to do the candy making, but we did our part to help clean up. We took the kiddies to the mall to meet Santa. Of course the boys had no idea what was going on but I think that Santa looked like the real deal! Doesn't Annabelle look excited?

Another great part of Christmas this year was getting to meet Clara, my brother's fiance. They weren't engaged until later in January but she was sweet enough to fly out to spend Christmas with us. We are excited for them to be married in April.

We had a white Christmas this year and there was plenty of snow left after Christmas that we were able to go out back and enjoy some sledding. These kids not only rode down the hill on sleds but were pulled around behind the tractor in a sled. Papa Zeke pulled them around and around for a long time while the kids dipped their mittens in the snow and ate the snow off. We crammed Asa into this little snowsuit and he enjoyed watching everyone for the first few minutes, then took a nap in the sunshine.

For New Years Eve Annabelle and my mom came up with having a "Number 10" party. We made ten layer dip, sundaes with ten toppings, we tried to play 10 different games. Annabelle kicked off the night with having us play 10 rounds of hide and seek. My brothers and Dad lit some fireworks, some exploded high in the sky and others we are lucky didn't catch anything on fire.

My brother Adam and his wife love sparklers, so while they were out with the sparklers and Mike was taking pictures, I enjoyed snuggling the babies until they fell asleep. I loved it.

Another highlight from the trip was a ski/snowboard trip with the McKeans. Annabelle took ski lessons and learned to do pizza and french fries. Pizza is snow plow and french fries is straight skis. She ended up having a great time, despite being apprehensive at first. Take a look at the last runs from the day:

It was a great time. I loved spending time with family, having a beautiful white Christmas, laughing with our families, watching the kids play together, eating yummy treats, sleeping in, schooling my brothers in Tetris, and watching Jake dress like a robot to go clear the drive way. Okay, that last one was just so I could work this ridiculous picture into my post.

25 and yes I'm alive

2009-12-21T00:51:00.006-07:00

For some reason I haven't been able to make posting much of a priority these days. Almost every evening I think I'll sit down and update my blog . . . but somehow something else comes up. So . . . here is a list of the 25 things I SHOULD have posted by now:

1) Annabelle caught her first fish, with my dad in Colorado.

2) Asa started eating foods. His favorite so far is sweet potatoes.

3) The kids dressed up as bugs for Halloween this year. Well I guess technically a spider isn't a bug, but you get the idea.

4) Asa started sitting up really well and passing toys from on hand to another.

5) I made homemade pumpkin pie again this year. Except I used pie pumpkins. Never again. The shells were really really hard to cut through. Next year I'll grab a jack-o-lantern before they sell out.

6) We closed on a house. Whoo-hoo! We are officially homeowners.

7) The weather finally started cooling down here. I am really looking forward to the next couple of months of playing outside and going for walks. Asa seems to like stroller rides a lot.

8) Annabelle got school pictures taken. She looks adorable. I am launched into feeling closer to 30 than 20. Which is technically true as well!

9) We painted the first level of our house, I really wanted to do the upstairs as well, but we closed a week later than I thought, so I had to prioritize . . .

10) I started having fun walking through home improvement stores. A strange new experience.

11) My mom, Nona, Jake and my Dad came to help us with the move. Their trip involved sleeping on air mattresses in our hot apartment, listening to my neighbors party, my kids cry at night, catching our colds and then waking up to scrub our new house (which unfortunately was pretty dirty). We could have never done it without them. Seriously, I think I would have had some kind of break down. They saved me. Thank you.

12) We skipped the traditional Thanksgiving meal this year, as we had moved into the house the day before and went out for Mexican. Oops! It doesn't mean we weren't grateful, just tired.

13) Asa now has two toofers. He cut his firth tooth on Thanksgiving Day. Super cute, but also very sharp. Ouch!

14) We started cleaning up the backyard. I think it will be fun. I asked Santa for a hedge trimmer thing this year. Yes, power tools!

15) We started cleaning out the garage. I have tons of baby girl clothes that someone left in there. Any takers? They are in really good condition.

16) I like our new ward.

17) I miss our old ward too.

18) We bought a crib. Sounds like odd timing right? Well Asa didn't seem to like sleeping in the pack and play. We never had a crib for Annabelle. Sorry no pictures yet, but it is just a regular crib, just use your imagination :)

19) We decided to forgo a Christmas tree this year (hey, don't judge, we already skipped out on Thanksgiving) and I bought a really pretty garland that we hung our favorite ornaments on. Yeah, no pictures of that yet either. . .

20) Asa wants to crawl. So far he is up on his hands and knees a lot and then melts down to the ground. I can't blame him, the chub was over 19 lbs and his 6 month check up. It might take a while to build up the muscles he'll need.

21) I decided I wanted to decorate our living room with aqua, burnt orange and a nicer than lime green. Doesn't sounds as good typed up, maybe once I actually get some decorating done I'll put up some pictures of it. What do you think of that color scheme?

22) Annabelle made a gingerbread house at school. Mike took off of work for a little while to go help her. She loved it. And I love that she lets me snitch candy off of it.

23) I have made 2 types of fudge, cream puffs, chocolate ginger bread cookies, cornmeal sandwich cookies and a cheese ball so far this month. And Mike has been making dinner! Ha ha, I guess sometimes I just have to prioritize.

24) I might be ready for Christmas, maybe. The last 3 weeks have really flown. I can't believe Christmas is really this week. How wonderful!

25) Merry Christmas friend and family! (or whoever might still be looking at this poor neglected blog!) I hope that you have a wonderful Christmas :)

Can't Sleep? Need a two minute Babysitter?

2009-11-01T22:51:00.001-07:00

Let Annabelle read you a book (wink wink).

Photos

2009-11-01T19:47:00.004-07:00

For anyone who is interested, my dad, my siblings and I are trying to get better at photography, so we started a photo blog. We use it to show our photos to each other because it is easier than emailing them around. so enjoy it if you would like!

Mike's Colorado Photos

2009-10-26T00:21:00.013-06:00

Here are my favorite nature/landscape pictures that Mike took on our trip to Colorado earlier this month:

The first several photos are from an ice storm that hit so early in the year that most of the trees still had green leaves, there were flowers in bloom and vegetables on the vine in the garden. For a day or two everything was covered in ice as if nature had forgotten that it was still mid-autumn and not yet winter. The beauty and frigid temperatures didn't last long however and the sun came out, the ice melted and autumn resumed.

I was surprised that the delicate structure of both the flower and the spiderwebs held up against the weight of all the ice.

In many places it was easy to see which direction the wind was blowing because the ice engulfed only one side of the plants.

A day later and 2 hours away Mike went camping with Alma (his best friend) and my dad.

They enjoyed the luxuries of staying in the Sherwood TeePee. They stayed warm and of course took advantage of the scenery.

The Triple Crown

2009-10-18T22:14:00.009-06:00

'The Triple Crown' as my dad refers to it, has become a family holiday. Traditionally our family and my parents get together to celebrate the birthdays of my mom, Annabelle and I. We three share a birthday and it has made celebrating really fun. This year we got together in Colorado.

Traditionally we have cheesecake, which is my all time favorite favorite. My mom enjoys trying out different recipes. Which has worked out every year with the exception of my 7th or 8th grade year when she tried a recipe with gelatin in it. I had some friends from school over and my mom began to serve the cake. By the time we all had a piece in our hands and she headed back into the kitchen the cake reached room temperature and began to melt, leaving little clumps of gelatin that looked like boogers as the only solid on the plate. Upon reaching the kitchen to eat her own piece of cake my mom noticed the mishap and ran back into the party. My friends were sitting there politely trying to scoop up the delicious tasting mess with their forks. They insisted that the cake tasted great but we have laughed about that cake ever since.

Last year I went with a store bought cake as I was hosting the triple crown. I had bought a chocolate cheesecake from this particular store before and it was so delicious that I was sure that the fact that it was store bought could easily be overlooked. When I went to the store to buy one however, they did not have the chocolate version. I bought a plain and raspberry cheesecake instead. Of course they tasted like cardboard and I am determined to bake my own cheesecakes from now on.

This year my mom found another recipe that included gelatin. We excitedly agreed that THIS was to be the year that we conquered the booger gelatin cake. As my mom sat down the night before our birthday to read the recipe she realized that it had eggs in it even though the cake was never baked, only refrigerated. Grossed out we all opted for an oldie but a goodie: Cheesecake with chocolate ganache topping! The topping tastes like the inside of a chocolate truffle and my mom describes it as "wicked good"! Jealous?

Besides cake the birthday bash was fun. Annabelle wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese's and so we made sure to go. Annabelle had requested of my mom that she have a "king, queen, princess, castle, pony, unicorn, rainbow" birthday cake. My mom did her best and found a cake with a rainbow and three princesses. Annabelle was satisfied. Our friends Alma & Nicole met us at Chuck E. Cheese as well. Their little Jagger and Annabelle enjoyed the arcade and the pizza.

Another memorable circumstance of this year's celebration was the INSANE cold front that hit Colorado right before we got there. Who would have guessed that we would have had snow and sooo much ice on our birthdays?

Mike got up early one morning and took some beautiful pictures of what autumn looks like when frost comes early. We'll post those along with some of our other favorite landscape pictures from the trip soon.

Fat and Happy

2009-10-09T01:15:00.006-06:00

Our Asa is four months old! He still has his happy little disposition. He has learned to fuss but pretty much only does so when he is hungry or tired, which is understandable. He is tickelish. He loves it when we sing to him, especially Annabelle. She is so animated that he gets really excited. He giggles and coos when we talk to him. He loves sitting with us at the dinner table. He'll squawk at us while he watches us eat. He loves kicking and splashing in the tub. He can roll over and is getting sturdier at sitting up. He is at the stage where is wants to put everything in his mouth. If I leave a burp cloth on his lap I'll look over to see him shoving it into his face trying to get a good taste of it. I am convinced that is how he learned to roll over, he was really just trying to get a taste of the floor. He is still pretty snugly which I appreciate.

Asa's most striking feature is his blue eyes. People always seem to comment what a bright blue color his eyes are. I hope the color is here to stay. His dark hair is disappearing for the most part (with the exception of at the nape of his neck). And there is a lot of blonde hair coming in underneath. It is still too fine and light to really capture in a picture but I'm sure in the next few months it will be more visible. Other than that he is just a happy little chub.
We went to his 4 month check-up today. He weighs 17 and half lbs. and is 27.5 inches long. That places him in the 90 and 95 percentiles. I'm allowed to start him on solid foods at this age, but don't feel any real rush to. We'll see, I think he would enjoy it.

Most people say he looks a lot like Mike. I have a hard time seeing features in my own kids. A friend told her husband she thought he looked exactly like Mike and his response was "Yeah, except with less hair, and shorter and fatter." Who knows but I love both of my blue-eyed boys!

I'm Sitting here

2009-09-22T17:59:00.003-06:00

Mike is in the kitchen getting Annabelle something to eat and I just heard her say "Bad guys can eat cream sneeze". I'm guessing she wanted a bagel.

Travel Log: Maryland

2009-09-20T23:50:00.005-06:00

Earlier this month we were able to spend a week in Maryland with Mike's older brother Sam and his wife Kristin and my hilarious nephew Isaac. Neither Mike nor I have spent much time on the east coast and we thought it was beautiful! Almost as soon as we left the airport we seemed to be surrounded by green. The weather was perfect, cool and refreshing.

Our first Sunday in Maryland we drove to the Washington D.C. temple and met up with my Aunt DeeDee and her family.

After touring the temple grounds we all headed to a picnic in the park where a friendly passerby serenaded us in spanish while we ate. He explained that he gets bored and so he likes to play for people in the park. We were the beneficiaries. The major highlight of the outing was chatting with my Aunt and seeing my adorable cousins. I think they like snuggling with my chubby Asa.

Our Labor Day was spent discovering D.C. It felt so surreal to walk around the National Mall and actually see the great monuments in person. The kids loved riding the metro, running around the mall and playing at the Smithsonian. My favorite was the World War II Memorial, I felt a beautiful peace as I thought about the great sacrifices made by those who were being memorialized. I was impressed with how well my sister in law Kristin knew her way around. From the moment we stepped out of the metro and I was completely disoriented until we got back on it several hours later she knew right where to go and the quickest route to get there!

Another evening on our trip we went to the beach! Annabelle has never been to the ocean and she loved it! It didn't take long for her to jump right in and enjoy the warm water. Isaac and Sam showed her how to dig trenches along the beach for waves to fill up and wash away. Asa must have enjoyed the soothing sounds of the waves because he slept the ENTIRE time.

Our timing in Maryland seemed to be perfect as Gala apples and raspberries were in season. I think raspberry picking might have been my favorite part of the entire trip! I couldn't seem to stop picking. I kept reaching in the bushes to get just one more.

Before we came out to Maryland Isaac had made the request to his mom that we have a pirate party. So that is exactly what we did! Kristin made cupcakes and let the kids decorate and devour them until we thought they might get sick. Isaac made me laugh so hard as he would slap some frosting on his cupcake, bite it off, do it again and again before just eating the icing off of his knife and then once that wasn't getting into his mouth fast enough he started going for it with his fingers - all the while muttering "mmm, yumm yumm, mmm" to himself. It was hysterical!

Another day it was rainy so we ventured into Baltimore to visit the Children's Museum. As to be expected - it was a blast! Here is my favorite shot from the day:

And what would a vacation with Mike be without a nature hike? Mike loved his walks through this forest.

Here are {some} of Mike's favorite shots from the trip:

THANK YOU Sam and Kristin SOOO much for letting us come and crash with you for a week. You were wonderful hosts and tour guides. We loved visiting with you and getting to see some amazing places out east!

Travel Log: Colorado

2009-09-16T01:57:00.007-06:00

Mike posted his favorite pictures from our trip to Colorado last month and somehow I never ended up writing about our trip. We spent a wonderful week in Colorado with family. Mike did do some photography hikes and I spend quite a few hours scrap booking with my sisters in law - thanks to my thoughtful father-in law :). We all enjoyed playing with the kids (all 5 grandkids were in the Sherwood house) and having some fun family outings as well. Highlights of the trip for me were:

A BBQ at the fire pit at the Sherwoods house with my family and our good friend's the Smiths over as well.

Good food, s'mores, friends, family, great weather and a Teepee are a recipe for a great night.

One day we took the kids to the North Pole. The North Pole is this amazing little amusement park for kids up in the mountains behind Pikes Peak. Most of the rides just go around and around but there aren't lines, Santa (the real one with a real white beard and twinkly blue eyes is there) and we had a blast.

The kids enjoyed an afternoon playing with hoses and Papa Zeke filling up his canoe to act as a swimming pool of sorts out on the driveway - somehow I didn't get any of those pictures on my computer but it was great to watch them try to drag their heavy hoses around and get tangled up with each other.

Bowling hasn't been much of a family tradition but with a rainy afternoon with all the Sherwoods together we needed an activity and had a great time knocking down some pins. The kids lasted just barely into the second game - so we did the responsible thing and let them run around while we took their turns!

Mike's mom had also arranged for us to have family portraits taken. Joyana who took our McKean pictures last year, and her friend Heather took the pictures this year. It was fun, they were so great at making us feel relaxed and making sure we got the pictures we wanted taken. I love them - so many great ones, here are just a few (I really did narrow it down):

Colorado

2009-08-26T18:55:00.004-06:00

We went to CO a few weeks ago and I thought I would post some pictures from our trip. I took way too many, but had a great time doing it. Some of them are from hiking to a secret slot canyon with my friend Alma, others are at my Mom's garden, and some are from hiking with my brother Sam. Alma and Sam took some of the pics in the slideshow.

These pictures are some of the many reasons we LOVE Colorado. We had a great time with the Sherwood, Mckeans, Andersons, and the Smiths. We love you all and can't wait to get back to beautiful of CO.

Mike

Happy Days

2009-08-03T00:22:00.003-06:00

It feels like a long time since our house has felt normal! Hurray for slower days :) This week has been nice. Asa came home from the hospital Monday evening and seemed back to himself more and more the longer we were home. He did end up breaking out with little red dots all over his body later in the week, but the pediatrician took a look on Wednesday and said they were probably just the virus working itself out of his skin! They are gone now.

Asa has been smiling a lot more this last month - so instead of posting 4 minutes of smiling videos, I'll just post this one:

Ha ha, I realize you might not really want to listen to us coo over our baby for a minute and a half, so I am not offended if you just skip over the video.

Annabelle and I have been having a good week together. She has been working really hard helping me put the house back together and on Friday we tried doing "Princess Hair". This is the curly version of the french braid 'crown' that my mom used to do with my hair:

It looks a little different dry, she wore it this way to church. She of course would try to avoid eye contact and stiffen her face to avoid smiling when someone mentioned how pretty her hair looked.

Thanks for all of the words of encouragement and phone calls. We are doing just fine, have survived some minor drama and may even meet our insurance deductibles BEFORE the end of the year after all!

98.5

2009-07-27T17:34:00.002-06:00

Asa has not had a fever all day and so long has his 48 hr blood cultures come back normal at 6pm, we will be going home. Thanks for all your notes and prayers, we are doing well. Can't wait to get back to regular life!

Fever

2009-07-26T14:52:00.002-06:00

Friday night Annabelle had a little fever, complained she wasn't feeling well and was all together out of sorts. With a little Tylenol and spoiling she was back to herself Saturday morning. Unfortunately when Asa woke up from a nap on Saturday he felt warm. I checked and sure enough he then had a fever. Since he is so little I knew he needed to be seen, so we went to the Emergency room. They were awesome, saw him right away (and I mean instantly, no waiting) and started doing tests to rule out the most dangerous possibilites. After his chest x-rays and initial blood work came back normal they told me they wanted to keep him over night for observation. They don't have a pediatric unit at that hospital but they let me drive him over to their sister hospital not too far away. So we've been here ever since. He still has a low-grade fever. He has undergone more tests and so far so good. With any luck we'll be going home tomorrow. He seems like himself, just a little fussy when he is on tylenol and semi-miserable when he is not. He is on tylenol right now and is laying on my lap grunting and sticking out his tounge as he studies the half-open blinds.

All of this is mostly just precautionary, so I don't feel especially worried but I'd appreciate if you would keep him in your prayers today. I'll update again tomorrow and let you know how he is doing. Thanks!

Monsoon

2009-07-24T21:09:00.003-06:00

For all of you who have never lived in AZ, here is an interesting bit of information: we have a monsoon season. from late July through August we have thunderstorms that build in the east over the mountains, and then drop into the valley. They sometimes flood the roads, and cause trees and telephone poles to fall. The Arizona drivers have a pretty rough time with the slightest amount of water on the road. They slow down drastically and accidents are more common. Anyways it is nice to see the clouds and to get a little bit of moisture in the dessert.

Here is the first monsoon of the season last week as seen from our balcony.

-Mike

Is this REAL life?

2009-07-21T22:48:00.002-06:00

I love this video. Friday was not my most favorite day of my life BUT the kidney stones are out. I really felt like the kid in the video. Soooo out of it. My emotions were everywhere - I remember being so angry, why would they do this to me? when would my head stop spinning? who hurt me? I felt tired and had no ability to remember what was happening. It was like I was waking up over and over again every 5 seconds or so, until we got home from the hospital and I slept it off for a few hours that is. I've been under general anesthesia 3 times before and never took so long to wake up. Anyway, this video totally made my day. I'm considering buying a t-shirt from the website: davidafterdentist.com - I could justify it by saying that some of the proceeds go to a good cause.

Mike said my reactions weren't all together too different from this 7 year olds. Awesome, under the influence the main difference between me and a 7 year old is just replacing his finger and eyes comments with "Why did they do this to me?" groans thrust at odd places in the conversation Mike and I had on the drive home.

I'm doing better now. The stent that was put in during surgery was taken out today and so I am ready for my body to really start healing.

I'm a Stoner

2009-07-14T23:27:00.002-06:00

That's right, I've joined an elite group of stoners. Kidney stoners that is. My dad and his dad are in the group and I almost feel privileged to be joining them. I only wish I was as tough as them.

As it turns out my body has produced some pretty good sized calcium stones and the big one (at least 8 mm) tried to take a slide to the nearest exit and got stuck. So later this week I'm going to have a quick out patient surgery to have it broken up and taken out. The doc is kind enough to take the others with him while he is in there.

Thanks to some prescription pain killers I really just have a mild back ache most of the time. Mike of course hasn't let me lift a finger and has kept me away from the car keys as well! I have had awesome friends in the ward taking care of me, driving me around, watching Annabelle - so far I have been on something of a "stay-cation". Seriously: personal drivers, live-in chef and house keeper, a part time nanny and the overall feeling of relaxation (yes, some of that feeling could be due to the drugs). Ha ha!

Anyway, life goes on. It will all be fine. Poor Asa won't be able to nurse for 5 days after the procedure due to some antibiotics that I will be on and I only have enough milk frozen for a day or two . . . so we've gotta introduce formula, hopefully he likes it because there isn't much of a choice!

One Month

2009-07-07T22:55:00.010-06:00

We've had our sweet Asa for a month now and it has been pure bliss! He is such a sweet boy and time has been flying far too quickly. Since he was born he has been a great eater and still hasn't developed too much more of a cry than a quiet fuss.

The first week after Asa was born my mom was here to help with Annabelle and take care of all of us once we got home. It was great to not worry about all the details and to know that Annabelle was having a blast with outings to the library and little projects to keep her busy. Thanks a million mom!

The following week we had Mike's parents here to help me out and entertain Annabelle as well. I felt so great thanks to their help that I didn't feel like I was really in recovery anymore. Most of the time we just played, ran errands (some necessary, others just because I liked getting out of the hosue) and enjoyed snuggles from Asa. It was a wonderful week and a great way to transition into having kids.

After family left, the reality of how quickly I could get behind on things like dishes and getting out of my pjs set in, so I stopped worrying about it and have for the most part just been doing the minimum to maintain the house and snuggling with this little bug the rest of the time.

Annabelle just wants to love and play with Asa a good portion of the day. I can tell he really likes her, he will breath all fast and kick around more when she approaches him. But he also gets nervous when she is super loud and in his face. I keep wondering if he will be a louder kid just so that he will be heard over her, or if he will be quieter because she is so loud . . . so far quieter - but not necessarily because of her.

In other Annabelle news . . . she got her ears pierced last week! I had told her she could get it done whenever she wanted. For the last 6 months or so she told me that she wanted to wait until she was 11. But after asking every day for about a week we took her and got it done. She was so determined, she hardly flinched. Beforehand she said that she wasn't scared, but that she still wanted to hold Mike's hand. Afterward she said that it didn't hurt, but that it did hurt a little bit.

Mike was able to take the first week off after Asa was born and has since then been making the most of his afternoons and evenings by helping me with a never ending 'honey do list', playing with Anna and of course taking pictures all along the way. Annabelle snapped this one of Mike a week or so ago- a great portrait I think!

We celebrated our 4th of July weekend with all of my family and Mike's parents in town again. Mike has jokingly invited people to come visit us for the 4th of July since we moved here, but who would have guessed that we would actually have a compelling enough reason to have people come down! Mike blessed Asa in church on Sunday. It was great to have so many family members here to participate and support us. Thankfully they all made it out alive, despite the 111 degree weather.

I feel so blessed to have a healthy, sweet baby in the house again. He is a constant reminder to take things slow, enjoy the family that I have been blessed with and that time goes way too fast. I feel gratitude in my heart everyday for such blessings.

Thanks for all the notes and comments you have left. Sorry I haven't responded or even been commenting on other posts. I haven't been spending all that much time on the computer - but I haven't forgotten you, I've just been happily distracted lately!

At Home

2009-06-12T23:54:00.006-06:00

It has been so wonderful to be home with Asa and Annabelle. I am feeling better the longer I am here. My mom has been here taking good care of us. I walked in yesterday to a delicious cheesecake in the oven, a clean house and a happy Annabelle waiting for us.

I was scheduled for a c-section Monday morning at 9:30. The whole surgery was easy and laid back. I walked in, was prepped and then Mike was allowed to join me. As opposed to when Annabelle was born (via emergency c-section) the room was calm and even casual as the OB, anesthesiologist, and assistants were shooting the breeze and chatting the entire time. I remember when Mike asked me how I was doing. I told him that was way easier than going to the dentist (no sensation and no one in your face).

I had been set on a repeat c-section for years now as one of my greatest fears in life is labor and delivery but I wanted to make sure I had made the decision in a responsible matter, for this pregnancy. I tried to educate myself on VBACs (vaginal delivery after cesarean). I talked to my doctor about possible risks of multiple c-sections and so on. I really wanted to make the decision with Mike and in prayer. But alas I never found myself seriously considering a VBAC . Whether out of fear or not, the decision was already made. During the surgery the doctor pointed out how thin the front of my uterus was and commented that it was a really good thing that I hadn't tried a VBAC. The anesthesiologist agreed and said he wouldn't have wanted to be there for that delivery. I was glad that the right decision was made whether out of fear of labor or more likely a stupor of thought. I am so grateful to have delivered the way that I needed to.

Mike was allowed to take pictures from the moment that Asa was born. He was cleaned up, I got to see him and then he was taken to the nursery for tests and a bath while I was sewn up and in recovery. We stayed until Thursday and had a great experience with our nursing staff. I know it is common to not enjoy stays in the hospital, but between really kind nurses, pretty good food and a private room the experience is something I would repeat.

Asa is of course perfect in our eyes. I am grateful that he is a good nurser, that he is healthy, loves to snuggle and has a great head of hair. Pregnancy and recovery are such a small price to pay for the gift we have been given. No complaints here.

So far Annabelle has adapted to having "the brother" home really well. Of course this could be due to the doting attention given by grandma. She loves to hold him, ask questions about the things he does, and the things we do to him. She has even given many suggestions of "better" ways to help him, one in particular is that I should provide chocolate milk as an option other than the regular flavor.

As you can tell today we enjoyed Mike's last day off of work by setting up a little photo shoot. I love Mike's photography hobby. He has a great eye for capturing light. The picture of me is even a candid one from when I crashed on the couch this afternoon. Mike has been a great support this last week. He slept in a reclining hospital chair every night, would jump to reach what I needed any time of the day or night and would make several trips back and forth from the hospital to the house and doesn't bat an eye at hormonal mood swings :). I know he is just as thrilled as I am to have Asa home with us.

Asa Michael Sherwood

2009-06-09T12:29:00.005-06:00

So, we have named him! We decided on Asa (pronounced ace-uh), we have liked the name for a long time, and then we read about who he was in the bible which made us like it even more. Here are a few more pictures of Asa.

Baby ???? is here!!!

2009-06-08T16:29:00.004-06:00

We still don't have a name picked out, but he is here!!! Everything went great, Tia and the baby are doing well.

8 lbs 7oz
21 inches

Here he is in his first hours of life.

I'm So Excited!

2009-06-05T09:37:00.002-06:00

I am just 3 days away from meeting this wild little boy! My mom will be here soon. The house is almost clean. I am sooo close to being done with all my projects I wanted to finish AND it is Friday. Could life get any better? I didn't think so.

36.5 Weeks

2009-05-22T10:36:00.004-06:00

Barefoot. Pregnant. In the Kitchen.

2009-05-21T00:14:00.007-06:00

I'd like to throw out the negative connotation associated with this phrase and share with you some of my thoughts on food.

Food as it relates to being barefoot:

I am barefoot or in flip flops practically year round but summer is an especially barefoot time around here. Food in the summer conjures up mouth watering ideas of sweet corn on the cob, fresh salads, juicy ribs for all you carnivores out there, eating out on the porch and sucking down on melting popsicles. One of my favorite summertime recipes is from my friend Chelsea. She called this concoction The Yumminess. It is one of Mike's favorite desserts as it includes chocolate in more than one form and berries.

The Yumminess is a trifle in which you layer one 9x13" pan of brownies cut into bite sized pieces, one large package of chocolate pudding, berries (whatever is in season, mixed or just one type, the frozen mixed berries work nicely) and a container of Cool Whip in that order. Simply use half of each ingredient for the first four layers, then repeat for the next four.

What are some of your favorite summer time recipes? Leave me a comment if you decide to post one.

Food as it relates to being pregnant:

I have never had any of those 'I have to have that food right now' cravings, but there have deffinitly been foods this pregnancy that I have eaten in much higher quantities than at any other time in my life. Gummies - I started out with a 5 lb. bag of sour worms. In my defense they aren't ALL gone. Another big 'craving' is baked potatoes. I seem to plan baked potatoes into our menu at least every other week and then I make sure to cook enough to have leftovers for the next few lunches. If you crave foods that your body needs then this one is spot on. As is common with pregnancy, I am anemic and after some research I found out that potato skins are actually really high in iron, who knew?

Thirdly, Sunny Delight! I am sure that more than half of my total life's intake of the syrupy sweet sunny delight has been in the last 5 months. I keep thinking I won't buy any more, but as soon as my stock runs dry the stores seem to have it on their 10 for $10 sale. Who could resist such a buy?

After Easter we stocked up on chocolate (those bags of hershey's bliss eggs were $1). Anyway we just ran out last week. Mike, Annabelle and I have each eaten at least 3 pieces of chocolate every day from Easter until last week. My only pondering now is: Is this kid going to fit into this chocolate loving family:

Only time will tell.

Food as it relates to being in the kitchen:

Did you know that it is REALLY hot in Arizona already? Today was the first day in probably two weeks that it didn't hit 100 degrees. So being in the kitchen isn't really one of my favorite past times lately - and I know - it is only going to get worse. BUT I have decided to spend one day in the kitchen next week making some dinners that I can freeze and pull out after this baby comes and I don't have the energy or air conditioning to keep up with making nutritious meals. So I am asking for help. What is your best 'freezer' recipe? I make soups and spaghetti sauce to freeze but I know there are some other dishes out there that freeze well. What are they? For some reason casseroles come to mind but I don't have any good casseroles in my cooking repitior. So if you have a recipe for a dinner that freezes really well let me know, put a link in comments, post it on your own blog or shoot me an email at mikebsherwood@gmail.com

Thanks!

A Child is a Curly, Dimpled Lunatic (continued)

2009-05-03T18:50:00.009-06:00

Last year I posted some of the things Annabelle had said that cracked us up. I always think I will do it again - I've put it on long enough, let's see how good my memory is . . .

During a combined sharing time at church earlier this year they were discussing the story of Noah and the flood. Annabelle is in the sunbeams class. which is the youngest class (the oldest kids are 11). The leader asked the children why the animals needed to be on the ark. In true Annabelle fashion she skipped the whole raising her hand and waiting to be called on bit and blurted out "Because they can't float!"

Sometimes in the afternoon Annabelle and I have some quiet time and watch a show. Often the baby takes this time as an opportunity to kick me like crazy. A few weeks ago Annabelle was resting her hand on my belly enjoying the kicks while we watched the show. The baby had rolled over and was kicking the other side of me so I picked up her hand to move it and I said "He isn't over there any more" in all seriousness she suggested "Maybe he went to the neighbors."

After the adult meeting for stake conference last night (which we took Anna to) we were driving home. Annabelle was wound up after being really good for 2 hours and had noticed that it was now dark. She initially had asked why we had stayed at the church so long. Then after about 5 minutes or so she asked if it was her bed time. It was actually about 10 minutes after her bedtime. I almost said "Yes, but you can stay up for a little bit since you were so good during the meeting" but Mike quickly replied "Yes it is" to which she responded "Good, because I'm tired!" What kid readily admits that?

This is how we found her on the couch a couple of months ago, maybe it's time to move her bedtime up a half hour.

When Nona was here in January she told Annabelle that milk was good for our bones. Since then Annabelle regularly asks me if a particular food is good for our bones. One night during dinner she asked this question about different ingredients at least 5 times before I asked her if she wanted to be a doctor when she grows up (I don't think she knows what a nutritionist is). Very mater -of-factly she said "No, I just want to be a big kid when I grow up - - like daddy."

Driving home from church about a month ago I was feeling pretty worn out from an active primary class when Annabelle asked me if the baby was good at church. Puzzled since the baby can't make noise, crawl under chairs or any other 'bad' church behavior I answered "Yeah, of course the baby was good at church, why would you ask that?" Annabelle's responded "Well he's pretty wild at home sometimes."

For Annabelle's first Christmas her Grandma Shauna gave her and her cousin Annica these cute Fisher Price dolls. Annabelle's has on a pink hat and pink shoes. She has played with hers for years, the fabric is dirty and the plastic is scuffed up, but about a year ago she named it Caleb after our friend named her son Caleb. Recently she approached me very concerned and asked "Mom, who put pink shoes on Caleb?"

The combination of having really curly hair and the ability of Annabelle's head to sweat like crazy while she sleeps results in some of the craziest bed head I've ever seen. The other morning the hair on the sides of her head was really flattened and pushed upward, and the top was wild, somewhat resembling a mohawk. Groggily walking into the bathroom she caught her reflection in the mirror and immidiatly lit up as she looked in the mirror and exclaimed "I look like a chicken, I look like a rooster! COCK-A-DOODLE-DOOO!"

A while ago the primary presidency gave the kids a chocolate chip cookie with a recipe for the cookies that had each ingredient representing some part of the family and the principles of The Family: A Proclamation to the World. I wasn't sure that Annabelle would catch on to the analogy but as we added each ingredient and talked about what they represented she really enjoyed it and chimed into the discussion . She had caught on pretty well and as we added the repentance (aka salt) and before I could even remind her what repentance was she blurted out "Repentance?!? I repent ALL THE TIME!"

That's all I can remember for now - I hope this brought a smile to your face. She sure makes laugh!

Spoiled Rotten

2009-04-28T11:00:00.008-06:00

I have been spoiled rotten this last month as I have had family and friends come down to play. I am just now getting back to real life (and blogging I suppose). Over Easter weekend two of my former roommates came to play! Kirsten has been in Texas teaching middle school this year and Katie is working in finance in Washington. It was so fun to catch up, stay up late talking and of course enjoy a little (or a lot) of Cafe Rio!

They indulged us in participating in our favorite activities while they were here. Mike took us on a little hike to experience some real desert landscape, we worked on a craft together and played 'Pretty Pretty Princess' with Annabelle. We were able to head over to the Easter Pageant at the Mesa temple and enjoy what must have been the last chilly evening Arizona will have for quite a while.

Annabelle LOVES the dress the girls brought for her. She wore it for Easter Sunday, and the day after. This morning she even wanted to wear it on our walk around the neighborhood.

After the girls headed home my Italian grandma (Nona to those of you who have met her), came for a week. Several times during the week I found myself reminding her to stop working so hard because she was here to relax, to which she would reply that she was here so that I could relax! As it turns out I think we both had a great week relaxing :)

Nona and Annabelle get along so so well, there isn't an hour of the day that goes by that the two of them weren't erupting into laughter. I practically had to separate them so that I could have Nona help me with a project for the baby (and by help me I mean do it for me - I have no real sewing ability).

A week later Annabelle's doll is still wearing one of them - I'll get it back and into the wash someday. For you crafters out there, if you are interested in making one the instructions are here.

Another great moment of Nona's trip was Annabelle learning Italian. Usually the Italian lessons would end in laughter, but Annabelle still uses words like "Perfecto" and "Mangia" on a daily basis. Here is a little peek at one such lesson:

And all the while my belly seems to be growing and constantly shifting shapes! This kid is going to be born with some seriously strong leg muscles :)

A week late, but here he is at 33 weeks.

Browns Peak

2009-04-19T21:28:00.008-06:00

So, another post from Mike. I went climbing this week up at Browns peak, which is part of Four Peaks not to far from Phoenix. We climbed most the way to the top, it is the tall one on the left. AZ is really diverse, our turn off from the highway was in the valley with huge cacti and not much else. by the time we got to our campsite we were in the pine trees high on the ridge. Snow was even visible high in the shaded areas of the mountain. All in all it was a great trip.

Our campsite.

The first pitch.

My buddy Mike on top.

Our campfire.

Me, part way up.

The rock was cold in the shade, but I shouldn't complain about that I guess since it is really starting to get hot here.

New Blog

2009-04-09T14:32:00.002-06:00

My brother Adam and his wife Trudy have a blog! It is private so if you want access you'll have to write Trudy at radioflier4@gmail.com and make your plea :) The reward? You can check out pictures of my cute nephew Jeremiah AND the crafty projects Trudy is working on.

Sedona

2009-04-06T22:24:00.009-06:00

To celebrate Mike's birthday last month we decided to go explore Sedona, Arizona. I had recently made a comment to Mike that I wouldn't mind going camping but the sooner we planned a trip the better. He realized that with a growing belly and rising temperatures that now was the time!

Sedona is a beautiful town about 2 hours north of Phoenix. The main street section of town reminded me a lot of mountain towns in Colorado and Utah. Like Breckenridge or Park City there were galleries, jewelry shops, spas and upscale restaurants. A small section of town is a historic replica called Talaquepaque. There were fancy shops and all of that but the architecture and outdoor art was what we really enjoyed the most. Another attraction is "Chapel of the Holy Cross". We visited this chapel that was built up on the rocks on the edge of town. It was so beautiful.

Surrounding Sedona are large red cliffs and rock structures much like southern Utah. The ponderosa pine smell reminded me of when I was Annabelle's age and my family lived not too far away in Prescott, Arizona. We camped up in a winding canyon near Oak Creek. The temperatures dropped pretty low but we stayed warm and managed to suck down some of the corn chowder that I had burnt.

Annabelle's favorite part of the trip, hands down, was sitting by the creek and throwing rocks in. We spent several hours there, throwing rocks, watching hikers and fisherman. I told her stories about my Papa that was an avid fisherman and she was quickly hooked on the idea. In fact, after we got in the tent she kept asking for more and more stories. Around the time I had exhausted my repertoire of Papa fishing and camping stories she looked at me with excited eyes and said "Let's stay up all night long and tell fishing stories, until the sun comes up!"

It was so fun and relaxing to spend time together away from our usual distractions. I highly recommend it!

Spring in the Desert

2009-03-22T23:33:00.004-06:00

Spring is officially here and I think summer is right around the corner. This being our first spring in Arizona I wasn't sure what to expect. So far there hasn't been any rain and the flowers have decided to beat the heat and show up in March! Mike of course has taken the opportunity to hike around and photograph them for me (and now you) to enjoy. It is amazing what beauty blooms on some very hazardous looking cacti.

Another great quality of a warm and early springtime is the visitors. Mike's sister Jessi came down earlier this month with her cute kids Annica and Eli to spend a week thawing out from their frozen Minnesota winter. We had a great time exploring the area, playing, going to the zoo and catching some rays. For a better travel log of their trip, check out Jessi's blog here.

The greatest part of their visit for me (besides playing with my niece and nephew of course) was having Jessi around all day to chat with me. I thought that Annabelle would be in need of a constant playmate after her cousin's left. But within 24 hours I realized I was the one in withdrawal and kept wanting to pick up the phone all day. It was a wonderful week.

Not too much going on otherwise. My pregnancy, like the spring is in 'full bloom', or at least full view as I enter my last trimester. Last week at church a few sisters mentioned that I was finally showing. I have to laugh as this week a brother in the ward mentioned to Mike that I looked as if I was about to pop and asked when my due date was! It's all a matter of perspective I suppose. I feel like I should post a picture but in looking through my most recent photos I don't have one . . . and with my resident photographer in deep slumber on the couch I will just have to rely on my handy computer cam to capture an image.

For all you curious folks out there: there you have it. My 28 week belly.

Oh and for those of you who were unaware I have scheduled a c-section to bring this little guy into the world. Annabelle was an emergency c-section and in the last 3 1/2 years I have yet to convince myself that trying out a regular labor and delivery would be a good idea. But it's nice and all planned out. Or perhaps these are just famous last words. We'll see :)

I'm off to enjoy the rest of the evening. I hope springtime is bringing you some form of beauty and if not, hop on a plane and we'll show you around down here.

One More

2009-03-02T20:59:00.003-07:00

The first commenter said she didn't want to participate on the previous post . . . so there is 1 spot left on 'Share the Love' if anyone is interested.

Share the Love!

2009-03-01T21:48:00.003-07:00

My domestically-inclined former roommate, Rachel, has promised me one of her famous care packages if I in turn will share the love.

So . . . the first five people to make a comment on this post will receive a free homemade gift from me sometime in the next couple of months. The catch is that you in turn must share the love and make a similar post on your blog. What this homemade gift will be will be determined by who you are - there is definitely room for suggestions. Take note that I do not sew. Just remember to pass on this love chain on your blog.

A Week up North

2009-03-01T21:13:00.003-07:00

It was as if the stars aligned for a few days in Utah last month. In our trip to the colder lands up north Annabelle and I were able to see some of our old friends from BYU (unfortunately we missed some), two of my old roommates, some McKean as well as Thorstensen extended family, my family from Colorado came out AND the cherry on top of it all: my new nephew Jeremiah!My older brother Adam and his wife Trudy had their first baby and he is a cutie! Annabelle and I drove up at the beginning of the week so that we could get a head start on all the cooing over the baby and were joined by Mike and my family by the end of the week for the baby blessing.

One of my great friends from Wymount let me crash at her house and made me feel right at home with her 3 boys and soon to be med school student husband. Perhaps she was just relieved to have a little more estrogen in the house :) It was a blast, thank you Sara and Chris!

Annabelle enjoyed playing with those 3 boys as well as hitting up our Utah favorites. Namely: scrapbooking in the basement of Wymount with Nichole, eating at J-Dawgs (good idea Rachel), Cafe Rio, chatting with friends, lunch at the MOA cafe, dress shopping at the Gateway (so so fun Becky), one visit to an urgent care facility (yes, another ear infection), Macy's - the grocery store for you non-Utah residents, and dinner at Adam and Trudy's.

Unfortunately I have gotten out of the habit of taking any pictures as Mike has become the resident photographer in our house the last couple of months. Just take a look at my last post, 90% Mike's pictures. Even one of the ones of Mike was taken with the self timer by Mike!! But thankfully Mike was in town with us for about 48 hours and managed to take about 400 pictures, mostly of Jeremiah.A few people asked me how driving the 10+ hours by myself with Annabelle was. Let me tell you, I have got the best travel companion ever! She is content with just listening to music or talking my ear off for hours on end. She only needed to go to the bathroom once or twice each way. She will wait to have lunch at a McDonalds WITH a playplace for an extra hour or two or three if need be. She is fine with whatever snacks are within arm reach AND she never complained about my driving! I realize now how much having a new baby will adjust our ease of traveling . . . until then I could drive ANYWHERE with this girl.

I Love . . .

2009-02-10T20:53:00.004-07:00

staying up late.

hearing Mike play guitar.

flip flop tan lines.

drinking Sunny D.

this face.

perusing the aisles of an office supply store.

feeling my baby toss and tumble when I first lay down at night.

fresh berries.

family home evening.

Mike.

waking up slowly.

being with family.

wearing my sweat pants all day.

trying a new recipe.

my growing belly.

listening to the rain.

checking the mail.

phone calls with friends.

paisley prints.

going to the temple with Mike.

starting a new project.

watching Annabelle play when she doesn't know that I am there.

warm baths.

camping.

visits from my Nona.

scrap booking.

pasta, bread and potatoes.

browsing my friend's blogs.

vellum paper.

watching Annabelle play outside.
hearing my nephew Eli shout "T-ya" to me on skype.

fresh ginger.

the weather right now.

hearing Annabelle squeal when she plays with Mike.

quiet time in the afternoons.

sitting in a sunny window to color.

playing Ticket to Ride.

a clean bathroom.

seeing Mike as a Dad.

finishing a project.

Happy Valentines Day!

Elated and perhaps Belated

2009-01-28T13:50:00.003-07:00

I am so thrilled to blog about my pregnancy. I realize that most of the people that I am aware of that read my blog already know that I am pregnant, BUT for those of you who I haven't seen/talked to in the last couple of months - I'M EXPECTING! Ha ha, how is that for an announcement?

I am 20 weeks along and am feeling great (typical of the 2nd trimester). I love that this part of my pregnancy also happens to fall during a beautiful time to be in Arizona, as it is usually between 60 and 75 degrees during the day.

I had my much anticipated ultrasound this week and was thrilled to learn that our little boy seems to be doing just fine in there. I knew he had defiantly developed his limbs as I have been receiving little jabs as a notification of his presence for about a month now.

(he is laying on his left side, so you can most easily identify his right eye,

nose and the outline of the right side of his face)

Annabelle really seems to be understanding what is going on. She has talked about the baby for a while and is interested in looking at those in vitro photos of what the baby looks like at different ages. For months before the ultrasound she would say "It could be a boy, but I think it is a sister". But she was a champ as the ultrasound technician told us that it was a boy. Her main responses yesterday were "I'm still happy" and "He can be the prince and then when he gets bigger he can be a monster". I'm glad she has been able to find a place in her life for a brother :)

I am so thrilled and elated to be pregnant. I feel like the last several months have just flown by and that he will be arriving just as quick. I am excited to have this little guy join our family. I love him so much already, I guess motherhood can create some pretty strong bonds. I feel like having a boy will be a new adventure and I am up for it!

Hiking

2009-01-17T18:52:00.004-07:00

These are some pictures I took over the last few weekends while on my morning hikes. there are two pictures of silhouettes, one is of the moon setting and the other is the sun rising. I am amazed at how green the desert can be and how much I am enjoying it. The weather here in the winter is perfect for hiking, I'm not sure what I will do once it gets too hot to hike. I guess I will just enjoy it while I can. - Mike

What Color are These Eyes?

2009-01-16T22:07:00.003-07:00

I just can't figure it out! Some days they look more one color than another. What do you think?

Celebrating Christmas

2009-01-11T18:13:00.008-07:00

We spent a wonderful two weeks in Colorado celebrating Christmas. Our families live very near each other which means we never have to choose between them and once one set of grandparents is worn out we can move onto the next set! I love that our families are also friends and so we can often combine activities and enjoy everyone's company at once. I know, we are spoiled.

Annabelle really gets along well with her grandparents and has special activities that she enjoys with each one of them. With Grandma Shauna Annabelle could read from dawn until dusk. The favorite book this trip was 'Oh Ducky! A Chocolate Calamity", after reading it about a dozen times a day Grandma Shauna was nice enough to send it home with us. Anna still has it memorized. The last week we were in town Annabelle discovered the endurance that Papa Zeke has for playing house, one afternoon while everyone else took naps they played a marathon 3 hour round of house.

Playing house with Papa Zeke, these are their quadruplets at the park

Grandma Rosalia's house has become famous for 'crafties' and helping with dinner. My mom has a lot more patience with Annabelle in the kitchen than I do, which didn't result in too many mishaps, but I do recall something about hot chocolate mix being dusted on the counter while french toast was cooking . . ;)

My grandma, Nona, making cute little napkin holders for Christmas

Grampster is good for playing just about any game Annabelle can come up with. He has really honed in on the skills that matter most when playing with her: Do whatever she says and never question her.

Something funny must have happened at breakfast, Annabelle says it has something to do with wanting 'gummy bears on my boots'

On New Years day we went up to the Crags with both our families and enjoyed lunch and sledding. Starting a couple of months before Christmas Annabelle talked about wanting to eat snow - so she would eat snow until someone put her on a sled, then she would giggle down the slope until the sled stopped then she would promptly start eating snow again. Too fun!

Other great moments from the trip are: Mike and the other Sherwood men going up to the TeePee in the mountains, joint family Christmas Eve dinner, random McKean wrestling matches, candy making with my Mom and Nona, Mike and his friend Than going bouldering, going to the temple with Jake Sherwood, celebrating how old my brother is getting, cutting wood for Nona's stove, feeling my new nephew kick around in Trudy and eating homemade tortellini soup at Nona's.

I'm almost embarrassed to put this, but I thought I would include a list of gifts we have received that we already can't imagine life without:

Mike: new camera, in case you hadn't noticed ALL the pictures on this post.

Tia: a GPS for driving, I use it so often that Annabelle was surprised when we arrived at our local grocery store yesterday morning without the assistance of the GPS. She said "Mommy, you didn't get lost! You got to the store without asking that lady!"

Annabelle: A tool box from Santa (aka Grandma Rosalia) that is labeled "Annabelle's Crafties" and is filled to the brim with arts and crafts supplies.

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas . . .

2008-12-17T21:14:00.003-07:00

Christmastime is so much fun with a three year old! I can't believe how exciting these last two weeks have been with Annabelle as we have been making our Christmas preparations. We decided to get a real live Christmas tree and even though it is fairly dry these days I don't regret it. Annabelle had a great time decorating it and sits and looks at it every day.

Last week we spent an entire day wrapping presents, not that it takes that long, BUT when Annabelle and I are doing it together we just take our time. I think her favorite part was designing individual gift tags for each present/person. It was a blast - one of the best days I have ever had as a mom.

For the last couple of family home evening lessons we have been focusing on teaching Annabelle about Christ's birth. This week we pulled our nativity off the shelf and added each piece as we told the story. I think Annabelle is catching on to what Christmas is all about. She loves singing Christmas songs. Her favorite one this week is "Angels We Have Heard on High" because of the 'glo -o -o -o -o -o -o -o -o - o ria's. I think she listened to it 20 or 30 times on Sunday. Luckily we like that one a lot too.

I am excited to celebrate Christ's birth and am grateful for this holiday to remind me of what a great gift His life is to me. I hope you all have a bright and wonderful Christmas enjoyed with family, friends and of course good treats!

Thankful for Thanksgiving

2008-12-17T21:01:00.002-07:00

I can't believe I never posted about our wonderful Thanksgiving. We were lucky enough to be the get away spot for Mike's parents, his younger brother who is 19 and his older brother and his wife and son. It was wonderful to get to play, eat and relax together. The weather cooled off and that was great for getting out and seeing some of the desert that my nephew was stoked about.

Oh and my pumpkin pies turned out (if you remember my previous post).

Superficial Christmas Tag

2008-12-05T13:57:00.004-07:00

Alright - my friend Sara created this tag and she is the one that said it was suerficial, not me - - but she tagged me and I tried to avoid it, but she is prodding. So here goes, these are her instructions: This is strictly superficial. I want you guys to tell me about your desire for an angora sweater or china plates. If you are tagged you have to list at least ten material wishes and tag ten people.

1. A stylish and comfy new couch with 3 cushions. We have a love seat and that works out best for our apartment and is good shape but then we can't really sit together very comfortably.

2. Oh that new couch is very appreciated but it takes up too much space in my living room, could I have a wider living room to accommodate the couch?

3. Perfect. Now to tie the room together I want a big luxurious area rug.

4. Have I mentioned that all of this needs to be easily washable? Stain resistant? Can not absorb odors? good.

5. Let's paint an accent wall and then get out of this very livable living room.

6. A vacation that is relaxing yet adventurous. I want it to be laid back but I don't want to get bored. Could someone else make my bed? Let's go to a beach or snowboarding.

7. A haircut cut with a style that is flattering and low maintenance. Maybe that guy from "What Not to Wear" could cut my hair.

8. I want a walking partner for Christmas. The weather is perfect, my sweats are usually on - but I won't be out walking if I don't have someone to gab with.

9. Oh and while I'm at it I want my old scrap booking/craft group back. I liked meeting every week. Out of the house and with plenty of table space.

10. Okay Sara I have stretched myself thin here - one more . . . oh - here we go, not that I would actually enjoy them, but my primary kids might appreciate if I took voice lessons.

I tag . . . Amy, Whitney (really just so I can change mine to all the cute stuff she finds on Etsy), Keri-Anne, all of the White Gables gals, Nicole & Nichole, is an Ogden reading this? if so I tag you, my sisters, and anyone else who wouldn't find this painful. Ha ha - that was 10 right?

Harvest Creamy Corn "Choup" with Parsley

2008-12-03T19:32:00.004-07:00

I realize that a harvest soup recipe now is a little late in the season, BUT it is finally soup weather here, so I will share it anyway. I love this soup because it is delicious, I usually have at least half of the ingredients in my house before I decide that I want to make it AND because it freezes really really well. I usually make this full recipe, have leftovers the next day and freeze 2 sandwich bags for later (wether it be for us or a last minute dinner to someone else). Also - the popcorn on top . . . so fun and so good! Oh and go all out on fresh herbs if you want, but I just use the dry version. Here are the ingredients:

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
4 slices bacon, chopped
1 onion, chopped
4-5 large ears corn, scraped from cob or 1 box frozen corn (I just use a can of corn)
1 medium or 2 small zucchini, chopped - DON'T skip this, so so good
1 pound small potatoes, chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1 bay leaf
5-6 sprigs fresh thyme
1 teaspoon paprika
3 tablespoons flour
1 quart chicken stock
1 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup flat leaf parsley (a couple of generous handfuls), chopped
Salt and pepper
A few dashes of hot sauce, to taste
Oyster crackers or white cheddar popcorn, to pass at the table

Preparation

Heat a medium soup pot over medium-high heat with the EVOO. Add bacon to hot EVOO and cook until crisp at edges. Add onion, corn, zucchini, potatoes and bell pepper as you get them chopped, then add the bay leaf, thyme and paprika. Cook for 7-8 minutes to begin to soften.

Sprinkle flour around the pot, stir and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the stock and let it come up to a bubble and thicken up a bit, then stir in the milk, cream and parsley and simmer for 5 minutes.

Season the soup with salt, pepper and hot sauce to taste and serve with crackers or popcorn to float on top.

Credit once again goes to Rachael Ray

Winter in AZ

2008-11-16T17:33:00.002-07:00

So, I am not much of a blogger (this is Mike) but I thought I would let everyone know how life is hear in AZ in the winter time. The weather is amazing, it has been in the 70's for the last week, and we see nothing but sunshine. It is vastly different from what we are used to. I do miss the snow, but it is nice to be able to wear shorts in november, and to hike with only a water bottle and not have to worry about bad weather rolling in. Sure there are the thoughts of rattle snakes and scorpions, but I have yet to see either.

Below is a picture of one of the local parks, the cactus (Saguaros) are nearly 30 feet tall.

Pumpkin Pie; An Illustrated Experience

2008-11-09T14:31:00.004-07:00

I earned a whole new homemaking achievement badge this week as I COOKED a pumpkin to make pumpkin pies. Well, almost. The pie mix is frozen in a bag in the freezer to be used for Thanksgiving. So no pies yet, but pretty close. My mom has made pumpkin pies from fresh pumpkins for years now, so I thought it was worth a shot. We are lucky enough to have some of our favorite Sherwoods coming for Thanksgiving, and this was just about the only part of the feast that I thought I could prepare this far in advance.

I waited until after Halloween, when the pumpkin prices dropped and I snatched up a cheap pumpkin for this experiment. My mom always cooks hers in a pressure cooker, which only takes about 15 minutes. I don't have a pressure cooker so after scooping out the goop I cut up the pumpkin small enough that the pieces would fit in a baking dish, I put a little water in the bottom, covered it with foil and set it to bake for about an hour at 400 degrees.

Then the pumpkin was soft enough to peel the skin off and puree the 'meat'. From this point on it was as simple as making cookies. I just measured out the pumpkin pie ingredients and poured the pie mix into freezer bags. The pumpkin I used made enough puree for 5 pumpkin pies.

I gave 3 pies away since I didn't have quite that much space in my freezer.

(And Mike doesn't like pumpkin pie, so besides Thanksgiving, I won't be needing any pie mix)

I guess we'll see how they turn out in a couple of weeks, but the mix did smell delicious!

"Making Halloween, Making Halloween . . . "

2008-10-28T22:07:00.005-06:00

As I'm sure many of your houses are in a spin of Halloween preparation, we are also getting ready. I tried and tried to convince Annabelle to let me make her up in this chicken costume from the Martha Stewart website:

But after about a month I still couldn't convince her, and Annabelle never wavered with her desire to be a cat. So I gave in. Cute, determined kid! So we've got the cat costume put together now.

The funny thing is that she loves dogs and is usually really scared of cats!

Last night we carved our pumpkin. Looks A LOT like last year's design, I guess Annabelle's picks for what shape the nose and eyes should be took root at an early age.

With the weather being so warm here we've decided to keep it on our kitchen table until later in the week. I wouldn't want to bake it!

My favorite part of it all is baking the pumpkin seeds, soo yummy. Last year I discovered a Worcestershire sauce recipe and stuck with that again this year. Perhaps it these will be our new traditions: Star eyes on our Jack o lantern and baking our seeds with Worcestershire sauce. Some traditions are designed on purpose. Others are born because the holiday is just better that way.

Have a safe and fun Halloween!

I Get the Hint

2008-10-21T22:40:00.004-06:00

So I need to update my blog apparently, since I've been tagged TWICE today :) No worries, this is a good push to get me back on here. So here goes the latest chain mail . . .

8 Favorite TV Shows:

Sesame Street (1986)

AFN {Armed Forces Network - the only channel we had for 3 years} (1991)

Captain Planet (1994)

Touched by an Angel (1996)

Whatever taped shows my Grandpa sent us in Germany, mostly Star Trek {we had no TV} (1998)

The Rosie O'Donnell Show (2000)

ER (2002)

The Office (this week at least)

8 Things I Did Yesterday:

Checked Email, Facebook, Blogs

Went to Park to meet my Visiting Teach-ee

Drove a friend to an appointment

Hit up a case lot sale at a grocery store

Checked the Mail

Laid on the couch

Ate the yummy stir fry that Mike made

Helped Mike clean the kitchen

8 Things I Look Forward to:

Putting up Christmas lights at the Temple

Paul, Shauna, Jake, Sam, Kristin and Isaac coming for Thanksgiving

Warm weather this winter

Getting my cavities filled

Snowboarding in Colorado

Mike's commute going from 1 hour to 5 minutes

Nona (my Italian Grandma) coming to visit

Adam & Trudy having their little boy

8 Favorite Restaurants:

Chen's Noodle House (Orem)

Panera Bread (Colordo)

Cafe Rio

Wendy's

Ottavio's

Shangri La

Samurai Sam's

Pita Pit

8 Things on My Wish List:

To be caught up on my scrapbooking

To be fluent in Spanish

To go to Argentina

To learn/remember how to make my Nona' Gnocchi

To work in the Therapeutic Rec field later in life

To go on a mission

To have a dark room to develop photos

To have 12 more kids (Ha ha, maybe 5)

8 People to Tag:

If you know my real name

If you have had pizza in the last 5 days

If you can finish this lyric "It seems to me that 'maybe' it pretty much always means __"

If you have a G in your name

If you have lived in another country

If your favorite number is 17

If you are in Med School

If have ever taught/substituted Public school

The 4th picture from the 4th picture folder (or event as Mac users would say)

No, I was NOT thrilled when this was the photo in the 4th of 4th place. But never the less I posted it - SO no matter what photo is yours, you should know that you can post it too. So clearly, this is toward the end of my pregnancy with Annabelle. My mom reminded me to take some pictures. I'm so glad I did . . . sick!

Political Shenanigans

2008-10-10T15:10:00.002-06:00

shenanigans

2008-09-30T22:33:00.002-06:00

shenan i gans {shə-ˈna-ni-gənz}

plural noun informal

silly or high-spirited behavior; mischief

Our First September in Arizona

2008-09-18T15:26:00.005-06:00

One thing that we are really loving about September in Arizona is going outside! There are so many wonderful city parks with playgrounds and splash parks and we are beginning to take advantage of them. Our weather is on average 10 to 15 degrees cooler these days. Not hitting 100 EVERY single day of the week has been so nice. This has especially been appreciated since the pool at our apartment complex hasn't been open in over a month!

We are starting to feel autumn in our own way here. This is the first autumn in over 20 years that neither Mike or I have been starting school and even though we decided not to start preschool yet, we got into the 'back to school' feel with Annabelle starting some little classes of her own. Sometimes I worry that she might be too distracted to listen to and follow directions but I just remind myself that she isn't quite 3 yet and her teachers are probably used to it!

Mike seems to really understanding a lot more at work now. I can tell because he talks in his sleep and most of the time he rambles off some work jargon that goes right over my head. He is busy a lot of the time that he is at work and if he has any down time at work he has his 'green belt' project to work on. This project is a requirement to be 'green belt' certified in a management strategy called Six Sigma. I'm so relieved that he likes what he is doing. I guess the last couple years I've had this little fear that he wouldn't like his field and we'd be back to the student life! But engineering really suits him. I married one smart cookie.

Chopped!

2008-09-14T21:46:00.004-06:00

I've been wanting to chop it all off for several months - mostly because it was too heavy, too hot and I was bored with the ponytail. So yesterday Mike TOLD me to go into the salon while he did the grocery shopping to see if they had any appointments. I'm so glad he did. I got 8 inches off so that I could donate it and I love it. Hopefully I can replicate the style myself this week. We'll see I suppose.

Four Things

2008-09-10T22:52:00.004-06:00

Four Random Things I like about my husband:

(0r guys in general)

1. Being outside makes him happy, pretty much no matter what else is going on.

2. He has an engineering mind (he designed and sewed his own backpack).

3. He hasn't owned a pair of jeans in over a decade, talk about being true to yourself.

4. He loves 'his girls'.

Four Jobs I've had:

1. Chinese place in the mall: organizer of plastic silverware

2. Samurai Sam's: the bossy girl

3. Teen's with disabilities summer day camp: counselor

4. City of Colorado Springs Therapeutic Recreation: intern

Four Movies I've watched more than once:

1. I am Sam

2. Letter Factory (more than once? try hundreds of times)

3. Dan in Real Life

4. Whale Rider

Four TV shows I watch:

1. Dirty Jobs

2. Wipe Out

3. Jon and Kate plus 8

4. most recently - Project Runway

Four Places I've been:

1. buried in a pile of leaves laughing

2. climbing up the side of a cliff without shaking

3. on an operating table smiling

4. flying down a mountain in zero degree weather in complete bliss

Four people who email me regularly:

1. Mike

2. the Relief Society

(I admit it, I'm a bad pen pal, no one emails me b/c I am terrible at writing back)

Four of my favorite foods:

1. these noodles

2. mashed potatoes with brown gravy

3. gummies

4. bean enchiladas

Four places I would like to visit:

1. Argentina

2. New Zealand

3. Tibet

4. Mexico

Four things I am looking forward to in the coming year:

1. House Hunting (with a little terror, but still looking forward to it)

2. making my first Thanksgiving dinner

3. playing outside ALL winter

4. watch Annabelle grow and learn even more

Four people I tag:

1. Holly because I know she is home bored wishing she had more to do to keep her busy

2. Nichole because she needs to post again

3. Anyone who is related to me and wants to

4. Whoever has tried the cinnamon roll recipe