Dad celebrates his 65th Birthday!

My dad turned 65 on December 21st. Although 65 may sound old for some, dad only sees the advantages such as the fact that he now can attend the gym and take unviersity classes for free. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

Who do I look like

Here's a nice close up of Aria at 8.5 months of age. On many occasions we've discussed what traits she got from whom. Here's our current concensus:


Tara's:
- Eye color
- Lips
- Shallow set eyes
- Head shape

Dane's:
- Eye size, brows & lashes
- Forehead
- Ears


Mixture or Unknown:
- Nose
- Chin
- Cheekbones

Let us know if you agree or disagree.

Flying Baby

One of the perks of being 2.25 feet tall and 20 pounds is that themepark rides are free. Being 8 months old rules.

Aria's 1st Christmas

We spent Christmas with Tara's family in Utah, and enjoyed a white Christmas. It was a nice contrast to the sunny skies we're becoming used to in Arizona. We had fun making gingerbread houses, sledding, and watching Kung Fu Panda. We also dropped by and saw Dane's Oma, who is 92 years young.

Family Curse

Addictions are often passed on by each generation. Look's like Aria has already picked up on her mom's drug of choice. :)

Babbling Baby

Apparently Dane was a talkative little baby. Aria appears to be too. This is a short excerpt from her traditional monologue.

Spitting Baby

Aria has decided that eating food just isn't as much fun as spitting it out. Smart kid. :)

Attack of Fish Face

Aria loves playing with faces. However, we still need to help her learn to play "gentle." I like this clip because it also shows her making her little fish faces, which remind me of the gold fish we used to have.

Mira jumping off the wall

After 2 years of observing this strange phenomena, we finally caught it on film. As shown here, it typically starts with a bored, meowing kitty, and from no where, she flips out.

Arizona Novembers

We spent Saturday at a lovely park nearby our house. The temperature was a balmy 80 degrees and the sun was shinning. I love fall in Arizona! Perhaps you might consider this to be bragging, but hopefully it will also convince you to come and visit us.

Man mauled by baby

A Tucson man was mauled in his home by a small baby Thursday evening. He sustained only minor injuries to the inside of his mouth, due to the child trying to pry his face apart. The child however is still at large. Police believe the presence of the child's mother has largely protected her from any reciprocation from the man.

Splish Splash

Talking or Coughing? You decide

Hunger

Azure

Azure, our spunky, lovable indoor cat, snuck out as we left the house for family home evening on Monday. It wasn’t until we were going to bed that we realized that she was gone. We looked for her around the apartment complex several times over the next two days without success. On Thursday morning, I printed some lost cat flyers to put up. However, we never got a chance to put them up. When Tara was driving home she saw a cat on the road that had been hit by a car. Our worst fears were confirmed. We'd lost our little buddy.

I imagine most people would say, "oh well, it was just a cat. Go get a new one." That's probably what I would've said before she joined our family, but she showed me that animals actually have unique personalities. Her passing has caused us a surprising amount of grief. Once she was gone, I realized what a loving, great friend she really was. Knowing that Christ "saves all the works of his hands"(D&C 76:43) really brings me comfort. The following is a short list of my memories of her:
• Licking the faucet, despite my attempts to dissuade her
• Softly biting Tara whenever she’d sing, or play the keyboard, since she found the sound annoying
• Smart. She could open up drawers, and removed Tara’s hair ties and would deposit them under the scale and bat them around. She also loved milk jug rings.
• Chasing Mira around the house, since she considered herself the boss. She’d often race up the cat tree and play king of the hill up there with Mira.
• Sneaking out the door whenever she got a chance, and then rolling around on the concrete, scratching her back
• String cheese! She’d run up whenever she heard us open up a package of string cheese and wait patiently for us to rip off pieces for her. Mira, our other cat, could care less about string cheese.

• Fearless, despite her small size (7-8 lbs.), she wasn’t afraid of anything. If I’d pretend to smack at her, she’d stand her ground and swat back at me. I’m convinced she thought she could take me. Our other cat, Mira is scared of everything and everyone.
• Lying on her back. She’d fall asleep that way. Another sign of her fearlessness.
• She loved to open up Aria’s clothes drawers and would carry her clothes in her mouth and deposit them around the house.
• Sleeping in all Aria’s baby seats.

• Neurotic. When she was done in the litterbox, she’d keep wiping her paws on the side, but they’d never be clean enough, so she’d keep wiping.
• Outgoing, never hid when guests came over, unlike Mira, who would growl when the door bell rang and would quickly slink away

I’m glad Tara has been writing a book about Azure and Mira. Now that Azure’s gone, Tara has renewed motivation to finish it. The ending of their tale has come, so we know what to chronicle.
I’ll miss her. Till we meet again, dear friend.

6 month photo shoot

Aria's starting a new baby modeling career after her recent successful photo shoot. She'll be featured in Baby Vogue next month. Check it out! :)

Halloween 2008

We went to a church gathering on Halloween, where kids went trick or treating downstairs in the church through a "haunted" hallway. We arrived on the scene as a family of hippies, with our little flower child. Aria went along with the theme, scored a pile of candy for her parents, and even pretended to be in her own pychedelic world for this picture.

Halloween Party!

We had a family Halloween party on Saturday. Everyone had a date, except for me. Unless you call Aria my date. I miss my Dane! As far as costumes go...I was a 50's girl, Shara and Steven were Greek philosophers, Shannon was a Hawaiin girl, her friend Mitch was a rockstar and Ryan and Dani were a pumpkin patch.

Anything can be a toy

Aria sure loves having all these relatives around to hold her. Maybe she'll actually let me take her to the child care center at the gym when I get back so that I can work out. So far, she's been too scared to be left alone.

The problem with visiting parents is that Aria doesn't have access to all her toys. We try to entertain her with various kitchen utensils.

Fun in the Leaves

Aria and I sit in the leaves in my parent's backyard in Sandy, Utah. Aria thought the sound of leaves crunching was very scary!

Utah Fall

There's nothing quite like the Wasatch Mountains in the falll. It's my favorite place to be!

Heritage Park in Salt Lake City

Okay, so I'll admit it...I'm back in Utah. :)The trip was originally planned so that I would take care of my Grandpa while my parents went to Las Vegas. Unfortunately, he passed away about a month ago. Since the plane tickets were already bought, I decided to come anyway. Of course, we always have fun together. On Saturday we went to Heritage Park with my Aunt Marjorie and her family. My favorite events were making candles out of wax, rescuing the little goat whose head was stuck in the fence, and going on the hay ride. If you're wondering why Aria has a purple mark on her face, it's because she had her face painted. It's supposed to be a flower, but she wouldn't hold still long enough to properly have one drawn, and while it was being drawn, Aria reached out and knocked the dish of paint water all over my pants. Got to love babies!

Notice in the video how I warn my dad to watch out for the goat peeing, but he doesn't notice and almost walks into it.

Aria's Halloween Costume

Tara's mom bought Aria a halloween costume at Baby's 'R Us. Doesn't she make a cute flower?

Aria taking a nap

We finally had to document what a typical nap is like for Aria. This footage was taken roughly 15 minutes into her nap.

Growling Mommy

Tara picked up an Exersaucer on Craigslist and has quickly put it to use. In this video clip, notice how Azure, our cat, is questioning Tara's sanity. :)

How dare you!

The Paparazzi caught this glimpse of Aria during bathtime. Luckily for her, her favorite wash cloth (known for its great sucking value) preserved her modesty.

Face Game

For family home evening this past week, we got together with a few couples from our ward. After the spiritual thought, we played the face game, where someone reads an emotion/expression aloud, and you have 5 seconds to show that on your face. Afterwards you look at the pictures and judge who had the best expression. It's a fun, fast game. Here are a few selected excerpts: "Hungry," "Crazy,"and "Overwhelmed."

Baby Thrift Stores

If you need new clothes for your little one, I highly recommend baby thrift stores! I went shopping at a great place in Arizona called Pollywogs, and I think I bought about 9 articles of clothing for around $15.00. Why shop at the mall, when you can get cute clothes that look new? The outfit that Aria is wearing in the picture above cost only $1.25.

Desert Museum

We went to the Desert Museum (Desert Zoo)in Tucson yesterday. A great place to visit. It informed us about all of the freaky critters that live here. I now know more about scorpions, spiders, and snakes than I care to know. Apparently even butterflies are carnivorous. Yeah, quite comforting. The picture above is only one of about 50 pictures we attempted to take of the butterflies at the museum. It was a fun challenge, both Dane and I wanting to prove that we were the better photographer.