Nona & a Flower Bed

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

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 . . .

. . . 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

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

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

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

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.