What's a Boy to do on a Rainy Day?

Jon invented this little game the other day when he was stuck inside because of the rain. He scooted it all over the house. It seems like it has been raining so much lately...good for our sprouting garden, but bad for playing outside. There are few places that we get BIG mud puddles in our backyard. This is a favorite activity of course, to go out there, drag all the dump trucks, bulldozers, etc, and dig away (making these problems even deeper!!). But then I end up with a huge pile of muddy clothes that have to be hosed off before being put in the washer. No time for that today Jon, keep that basket moving.

....Lots of wrapping done tonight as we got all the goods out to make sure there was equality among all. We really want to try to get it done before tomorrow night. It looks like I'll have to head to Grandma's ...see you in the morning Mom (not too early)!!

We're Still Here

It has been almost a month since I've written here! I'll just start where I left off....Thanksgiving.

We did the 2mile fun run at the Turkey Trot in Mesa. Michael, Meghan, Matthew and Jon all ran the whole way. The first mile was slightly uphill. It felt a bit more that "slight" to me as I pushed our triple jogging stoller loaded down with Lizzie, Rachel, water bottle, jackets, etc. Dave has a delicate calf muscle that just can deal with pushing jogging stollers..hmmm...how convienient to have a strong, sturdy wife to handle this.

Then, that weekend, we planted a garden. We have vegetables sprouting all over the place. They aren't exactly in the nice, neat rows that we planned, but everyone planted something, and seeds ended up just about everywhere. I won't be suprised if carrots start growing out of our lawn.

Then we said goodbye to a long soccer season. All three kiddos were excited about their end of the year trophies. Meghan got selected to play on the All Star game, but we had a big snow/Christmas tree cutting down expedition planned with Dave's brother Rob and his family. We haven't done this for awhile...since Meg was on dialysis, then the next year had just had had her transplant, then last year Rachel was new... Michael, especially has been missing this tradition. Last year we PROMISED as we trudged around Target looking for the perfect tree, we would go to the mountains this year and chop one down with our own ax. So this past weekend, up we went to the White Mountains, into the snow, to look through the forest to look for a tree. No surprise...babies don't really like snow. Rachel cried most of the time unless we carried her, and by the end everyone was crying (except for Michael-who must have a high tolerance for frozen feet), because they were "ssssooo ccoolldd." They all took turns chop,chop,chopping. And then, in our rush to get wet clothes off, and warm dry ones on, we left our trusty ax right on the side of the snow road. Dave says we'll go back and get it next year....

She wasn't crying EVERY second!


The sleds were a hit!

And here's the tree!