Sunday, January 31, 2010

Dancing

Aria seems to really like it when anyone plays guitar. Dane had been playing for a while and was ready to stop, but Tara compelled him to play a little longer so that these clips could be taken.

Little Princess


Aria (20 months old)

Family Soccer

Tara was able to get a short clip of Aria, Azure & I playing soccer in our living room. Aria & I have a lot to learn from Azure.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Memorable moments

RED LOBSTER
My sister Annette gave us a gift card to Red Lobster, so we went there on Friday. We weren't sure whether we should go since Aria had refused to take a nap, but we decided to risk it. Once we got there, she refused to eat any of the food we put in front of her and began to climb on the table and become a little pest. The only thing she seemed to want was the sugar packets on the table. After a while, it occurred to us that we could either have a miserable evening, or let her get all hopped up on sugar. So, as any good parent would, we emptied 2 sugar packets on a little plate in front of her, and she got a huge grin on her face, and began dipping her tongue in the pile of sweet goodness. From that point forward, we had a delicious meal, and by the time we got home, she crashed so hard from her sugar rush that she fell right asleep. Another parenting victory!

BED TIME
Ever since we went to Utah for Christmas, Aria demands to sleep in "Mommy's, mommy's bed". When we put her down, she then begins to whine, "I want (to get) up, I want downstairs." As her cries fall on deaf ears, she begins to beg for other things "milk, milk!!!!", or "Elmo" or any stuffed animal she can think of, and finally resorts to crying out "poo poo", thinking we'll take her out of bed and change her diaper. She's a cunning little one.

SCHOLARSHIP
Yesterday I got the classic, "thank you, but forget you" letter regarding the Deloitte scholarship that I had applied for. As I had forseen that outcome when I mailed the application, I wasn't terribly surprised or disappointed. My current philosophy in life is to work as hard as you can, and set your expectations low. Thus, when failures occur, they're easy to accept, and successes are even sweeter. So, I see this as just a little bump in the road, but that won't slow me down. I'm also happy for the people who did receive the scholarship, since they were apparently more qualified and deserve to be rewarded.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Tohono Chul Park

We visited Tohono Chul Park and really enjoyed seeing such a dense desert garden. What added a lot, was all of the artistic additions that had been made to the park. It was a real treat. Here are a few pics below:

Tara in a desert jungle:


Green Prickly Pear Cactus:


Purple Prickly Pear cactus:


A small forest of jumping Cholla cacti:


Here's a fun little bird house they had in the childrens' section of the park:


We also ran across a trail where there were little sayings and poems. We found the imagery of this particular one to be quite interesting and cheeky:


The picture doesn't do justice to this little nook in the park with an outdoor fireplace. It looks like what we imagine a southwest backyard should be:


I like this pic because it shows 2 different types of palm trees you typically see around here: one with normal bark, and the other with a woven look from gardeners having to manually trim off palm leaf branches.

Anyway, it's hard to capture the neat atmosphere of this park with a little camera, but we tried. It's definitely a place to get a taste of the desert.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Counting

Here's Aria at her grandparents house, counting each step as she goes downstairs. Since her triumphant count from 1 to 10, she's decided to become more creative with the order of the numbers. :)


Here are a bunch of other pictures that were taken here during our trip to Utah:

Shara & Aria:



Shannon, Tara, & Aria:


Christmas Eve Re-enactment of the Christmas story:


Christmas morning:


Aria on Christmas day unpacking her stocking:


We played the "face game" again as a family, where you name an emotion and have 5 seconds to show it before a picture is taken. Here are a couple of memorable shots:

"Ecstatic" - we love Ryan's expression:


"Moody" - Stephen was the clear winner: