Dane & Tara

2012-02-12T15:51:00.001-08:00

Daily excursions

2012-02-12T14:12:00.000-08:00

PARENT CONNECTION

GOLD'S GYM

PLAY KITCHEN

Zade recently developed lovely habit of dumping everything out, wherever he is. Crayons, books, dishes, everything!

Valentines

2012-02-12T13:59:00.000-08:00

To celebrate Valentines this year, the Strattons were kind enough to watch our kids while we went and looked at art galleries for a painting to commemorate our time living here in Tucson. Although we didn't find anything we wanted, it was still fun. We then went and had dinner in St. Phillip's plaza at Vivace and ate outside in the beautiful upper 60 degree weather. The fish there is amazing.

Afterwards we picked up our kids and put them to bed, and watched a movie. Tara had hoped for a romance flick, but since we couldn't find anything that we hadn't seen that had good reviews, we settled for the final Harry Potter movie (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2). Very romantic. :) Well maybe not, at least we had chocolate covered strawberries for dessert.

Little monkeys dancing

2012-01-29T21:24:00.000-08:00

Tucson Community School Party

2012-01-29T20:13:00.001-08:00

We went to Aria's school on Saturday for one of its many fundraisers. They had lots of fun things for the kids, including a live theatrical performance of the boy who cried wolf:

Story time about how the Coyote put all the stars in the sky:

And live alternative music for the parents.

The kids had a great time. Here are kids playing on the playground afterwards.

Gymnastics

2012-01-22T20:22:00.000-08:00

For our family activity this week, we went to the Arizona vs. Oregon State gymnastics meet. We had 2nd row seats, so the view was fantastic. I was happy to see either team win, and the Beavs ended up on top. Our kids were pretty well behaved, however as expected, the meet messed up their sleep schedule. (Aria tuckered out and slept in Tara's arms for the 2nd half of the event). :) Zade watched the whole thing happily and didn't get to bed until around 9:30pm (he was up again the next day at 5:45am. Brutal!) Needless to say, both children were cranky the next day. Now was it worth it? We're still not sure.... but at least we had fun.

ABCmouse.com

2012-01-15T19:59:00.000-08:00

This week, Tara finally succumbed to the persuasive advertising on PBS and subscribed to ABCmouse.com so that Aria could try out online learning to supplement her pre-school. We should've seen this coming, but with Aria, if she likes something, she goes all in. Within a couple days, ABCmouse.com became an obsession. She wants to use the site for hours on end, and would rather use it than watch TV. She's gone from not being able to do anything on the computer to now being able to use a mouse as well as I can. It's been a strange turn of events.

The way the site works is that she basically has to complete a bunch of lessons, and each time she completes one, she earns tickets that she can use to buy things, such as outfits for her avatar, things to put in her virtual bedroom, etc. So, in addition to teaching her the alphabet, math, matching, art, etc, it also teaches her about earning things and saving up for things.

Her favorite thing has been to purchase little hamsters, hamster tubes, and hamster cages. Her 3 little hamsters wander around this little maze she constructed, all the while quirky, happy music is playing. It's fun to see her having fun learning.

Fun with Grandma & Grandpa D

2012-01-08T19:42:00.000-08:00

In our final week visiting Tara's family in Utah, they packed in the activities. They went to Hoggle Zoo and had to sit on the very scary spider with Grandpa D.

They also went to the Dinosaur museum, where Aria and Zade had a great time playing in the sand piles, looking for bones, and building sand mountains. Neither of them liked the man eater in this picture.

They also had fun playing around with Grandma D.

A night out

2012-01-01T14:51:00.000-08:00

Tara and I decided to celebrate new years early and went to Eve in downtown Salt Lake, while Tara's parents were so kind as to watch our kids.

We went to a U2 laser lights show at the planetarium, which was probably the coolest laser show I've seen. Then we went to the Salt Palace where they had a room full of inflatable battle gear.

There was an obstacle course that we raced through.

Then we jousted with reckless abandon. It was probably the most even event we did, since balance was just as important as strength. (Here are a couple random strangers duking it out).

We also got on Sumo suits and did some wrestling. It was basically a pushing contest.

And lastly we put on gigantic boxing gloves and had at it. Tara was a lot tougher in the ring than I expected. She came out firing with a flurry of punches and each round I spent 95% of the time trying to shield my face and not to get knocked over. Then, she'd get tired, and I'd take a couple mighty swipes at her body and take her down. :) (Here's a pic of the people who battled after we did).

It was the closest thing we've ever had to a fight in our marriage. :) And it was a lot of fun.

An unrelated, but funny thing that also happened this week is that when Tara did the laundry this week, she didn't notice that Zade had taken a crayon and hid it inside of his footed jammies. Thus, it melted inside of one of the feet, so after wearing the jammies one night, his entire foot turned the color of the melted crayon. :)

Christmas 2011

2011-12-25T12:39:00.000-08:00

After going to church we came home and let the kids open their presents. Aria was more interested in opening packages than actually playing with what was inside, while Zade wasn't interested in opening anything, and was more than happy to just play with the first two toys he got. Thus, we let Aria open Zade's presents and then she was happy to start playing with her toys too. It was cute.

Here a few pics of the kids favorite toys. Zade got a basketball hoop, since he's always asking to "dunk" whenever he sees a hoop.

We also got him some more balls, since he loves them.

Aria also got 3 Disney Princess barbies, which kept her entertained for hours.

Since Aria and Zade both love playing with little coins, we got them a toy cash register.

Family Party

2011-12-25T12:04:00.000-08:00

We got together with Tara's family at her brother Ryan's house and had a party where we celebrated Jerry's birthday. The kids had a great time chasing each other around his couch.

Everyone had fun hanging out.

On a different day Tara and Shara took the kids to a jungle gym playland.

They also went shopping at Costco and had a great time.

Tara's dad also took the crew to Olive Garden for lunch.

Family Pics in Reid Park

2011-12-11T19:13:00.001-08:00

We decided it was time to get another family picture taken, so Tara called up Alma Lopez (who she knows through Young Womens) and she was kind enough to come with us to Reid Park and take some family pictures for us. Aria wasn't feeling well and all Zade wanted to do was go run off and play on the playground. Thus, we're lucky we got any pictures that turned out at all. Here are a few that we liked.

Christmas fun in Tucson

2011-12-11T18:37:00.001-08:00

We went to see Zoo Lights last week as a family. It was all lit up and even Santa Claus was there. Unfortunately, it just so happened we went on a night that was raining, which is pretty rare for Tucson. As we stood in the rain for 20 minutes waiting for Aria and Zade's turn to see him, we began to wonder what in the world we were doing. Oh well, it made the kids happy.

A few days later we went to our ward's Christmas party and enjoyed the various delicious soups everyone brought. (They were way better than what you can get at Sweet Tomatoes). :) Here's the crew making ginderbread houses at the end. I'm sure more toppings made it into our tummies than onto the house.

Yesterday we went to Winterhaven again and enjoyed looking at the Christmas lights. We ran into Ben Hoffman and his family and had fun wandering around the area with them. Below is a pic of how the kids bundled up to stay warm (although it was only 50 degrees). :) We loved the get up that Zade put on:

Below is a short video clip of our favorite house in Winterhaven, which we refer to as the Bellagio.

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-27T18:54:00.001-08:00

We went over to Phil & Amy's for Thanksgiving again this year. Once again, the food was amazing, and the pies were to die for. The kids had fun playing together, and the hombres enjoyed watching some football.

Aria and Phil's daughter Luccee had a great time playing together.

Aria loved jumping on the trampoline.

Zade really liked the little basketball hoop they had outside.

Zade especially liked dunking the basketball.

Tara has gotten to know Maggie through Young Women's and invited Maggie to come and join us for Thanksgiving. She and Maggie also had fun doing cartwheels, and back hand springs.

This is my favorite picture. Although in person, Tara's back hand spring was very graceful, somehow on film it looks like she's fallen right out of the sky onto the tramp. :)

This picture does a better job of illustrating how nicely she pulled off her back hand springs.

Quirky children

2011-11-27T18:34:00.001-08:00

Zade refused to eat his food with a bib, so I had to put one on too. Even after that, he still wasn't too pleased, but at least he ate.

And here's what I came home to after work this week. Is it just me, or does Aria sound like Darth Vader?

Disneyland

2011-11-20T19:00:00.001-08:00

Since Tara's marathon was in Santa Barbara, her parents were so kind as to make the trip extra special by taking Aria and Zade (and us) to Disneyland in Anaheim.

As you'd expect, the kids loved it. Aria got to meet lots of princesses, fairies, and classic Disney characters personally.

One of Aria's favorite rides was "It's a Small World"

Zade loved driving the cars in Toontown.

My favorite ride was the Star Tours ride, which featured characters from Star Wars. They also had a live stage performance where they selected children from the audience, gave them light sabers, and trained them to fight Darth Vader.

The kids also liked the parade they held at night.

Santa Barbara Marathon

2011-11-20T18:51:00.001-08:00

After months of training, Tara finally got to run her 1st marathon in Santa Barbara California. The weather for the race was a perfect (55-60 degrees fahrenheit), and overcast, and the course had plenty of downhills. Tara's goal was to finish around 4 hours and she did just that, coming in at 4:02. (She was quite pleased.) As she was finishing the race, the clouds left and it was a nice, warm sunny day at the beach. It was pretty sweet.

Tara's parents, Aria, Zade and I waited for her at mile 25 and cheered her on, and I ran the last mile in with her and video taped her. :) When Tara finished the race her legs tightened up a ton and she could hardly walk, so for about 20 minutes she was not feeling to hot after she finished, but she went to a massage therapist table and after some professional work, she was feeling good again.

We also went and walked around State St and enjoyed the town. If the real estate prices in Santa Barbara were not so outrageously high, it would be a perfect place to live. It's lush, green, sunny, with temperate weather, and a well educated population.

Halloween & Football

2011-11-06T17:52:00.000-08:00

On Halloween, Aria's friend Salem came over to our house and went trick-or-treating with Aria and Zade. We took them through our neighborhood and they got quite a haul. The kids then had fun manning the front door and handing out candy to all the trick-or-treaters. Our neighborhood gets so many kids coming through, that we just sit out in front of the house in camping chairs, rather than waiting for the doorbell to ring. It's a neat experience.

On Saturday, we decided to take the kids out for a special treat at McDonalds and while we were there, a lady sitting next to us offered us 2 tickets to the Arizona vs. Utah football game, since she wouldn't be able to use them. Since we haven't been to a football game since we moved to Arizona, we took her up on the offer. I took Aria & Zade to the game, and Tara got a chance to relax, which rarely comes.

The kids were great at the game. It was a little loud for Aria's taste, but she made due. They loved watching the jumbotron screen and eating all the snacks we had.

The seats we were given were pretty close to the field, so that was fun, however, they were near a lot of Utah fans. Since Utah was clobbering Arizona, they were always cheering, and Aria kept switching back and forth by rooting for Arizona, and then for Utah. It was fun. In the 3rd quarter the kids were ready to go, which was fine by me, since Arizona was starting to get blown out. We stuck it out until the beginning of the 4th quarter and took the shuttle home. It was a fun time.

Bouncy Balls

2011-10-30T21:33:00.000-07:00

The simple pleasures of life. Aria and Zade love playing with bouncy balls.

Trunk or Treat

2011-10-30T20:30:00.000-07:00

We had a trunk or treat activity at the church ballpark again this year, and the kids loved it. Aria dressed up like a little fairy, and Zade was Superman. Little Zade's bucket of candy got so full he could hardly carry it. :) I couldn't get Zade to say trick or treat, but each time he did get some candy, I was able to get him to say "Tank you". His high pitched, slurred words sounded sooo cute.

Here they are with their haul. Zade is all about suckers, and Aria is a chocolate junkie.

The next day we went to the Carnival at Aria's pre-school that was being held as a fund raiser. The kids each got some popcorn, did a bunch of little events, and Aria got a tie-dyed hat. I volunteered to work a the duck pond where kids went fishing for rubber duckies with large metal spoons.

That afternoon we went over to the Brimhalls and carved pumpkins. Tara went for the black cat, and I went for death. :)

Running around

2011-10-23T21:19:00.000-07:00

Here's some footage of Aria and Zade playing together. I just love watching their running styles. Aria runs with her arms hanging down, hardly moving them, and little Zade tears around like a drunken sailor, usually running in non-straight lines.

Hello Kitty

2011-10-23T20:26:00.000-07:00

Aria got a Hello Kitty coloring book and has gone on a coloring spree. She's so proud of her work that she has us hang up every pic.

While Tara went to watch Aria at her last dance class of the season, I got the privilege to hang out at home with little Zade. He's a hilarious little guy. He runs around and just is such a jolly little guy.

Little Gentleman

2011-10-09T20:30:00.000-07:00

Zade is quite the little gentleman. Today he had a little bowl of food that he was eating while wandering around the kitchen. Somehow some of the food spilled out, so he (at a little over 18 months of age) just decided on his own to go clean it up. He wandered over and grabbed the broom and began trying to sweep up the pieces.

Since that wasn't working too well, he grabbed the dust pan, put the pieces inside, and then dumped the food in the garbage. It was so cute.

This week Aria also said something pretty hilarious. Aria was sitting in a chair with her arms resting on the table, and as usual, was pulsing in her seat. (Anyone who's ever spent much time with her knows what I'm talking about). Tara then asked Aria why she always pulses in her seat. Aria responded, "because I like to." She paused for a second, and began quoting one of her favorite shows, Yo Gabba Gabba, and sung "Try it! You'll like it! Try it! You'll like it!" (I tried finding the official video on the show's website, but it's not available. However, here's another video clip we love to use to get the kids to eat food: There's a party in my tummy

Another time this week Aria was sitting in her chair pulsing and Tara said, "Hey Aria, are you ready to go?" And Aria said, "Just a minute. I just need to pulse some more." She continued pulsing for 1 minute, and then said, "Ok, I'm ready." :) She's a funny little girl. Here's a pic (form a different occasion) of Aria in the pulsing position. By the look on her face, you can tell what she thought about my idea to take a picture of her. (Not pleased) :)

Beans, beans, glorious Beans

2011-10-02T12:42:00.000-07:00

Zade's favorite toys are literally just pots and pans, and nothing makes them even more fun than throwing dried beans into the mix (but what a mess!)

Tara's still going strong with cloth diapering. Here's the great image we have when we look into our backyard (I'm sure you're jealous):

Little Zade invaded the kitty house. Here's Azure peeking in on him.

Here's the fam watching general conference (we stream it over the internet).We pull out my laptop and connect a speaker to drown out the kids chatter. :)

Last week Dane was out in Utah presenting an academic paper at the BYU Accounting Research Symposium, hence lag in blog posts. The paper seemed to be well received, so that's encouraging.

Shara's last week in Tucson

2011-09-18T10:32:00.000-07:00

This was Shara's last week visiting us before she had to head home. Tara made sure to fill it with all sorts of fun activities:Going to the Desert Museum

Getting caught in a rain storm

Shopping for Halloween costumes: Aria found a Minnie Mouse outfit

Going on the Jumpy Castles & Slides

Eating ice cream at Cold Snap

Going to Aria's 1st Dance Class

Hiking Sabino Canyon

Camping at Mt. Lemmon

2011-09-11T20:25:00.000-07:00

We went up and camped with our ward at the church's campground on Mt. Lemmon. Some pretty big thunder storms came through, and luckily didn't drop much rain on us, but they put on a great lightning display over the valley. Tara's sister Shara came and joined us, and we all had a good time.

Here's a view of the Tucson valley from up on Mt. Lemmon.

Aria loves making little crafts.

Tara and Shara got really into creating little treats for a bake sale at Aria's pre-school.

Outdoor bathes

2011-09-04T08:45:00.000-07:00

Here's a few more fun pics from outdoor bathtime fun:

Pre-school

2011-09-04T08:42:00.000-07:00

Aria had her 1st day of pre-school. To get her excited for it, we went to the store the night before and picked her up a brand new backpack, hat, and water bottle. She was so excited, that we couldn't get her to go to sleep until 10pm and at 3am she woke up and wanted to go to school. Luckily we got her back down and then up in time to get ready for school. And amazingly enough, she had a great time and can't wait to go back.

Here she is with her new gear. Imgaine that, all princess stuff.

Asleep at the wheel

2011-08-28T19:45:00.000-07:00

How do you keep kids busy all day? It's not easy, but we try and find ways. You can always bake & decorate cookies.

or let them paint paper and themselves,

or take them to water parks,

Sometimes, it all becomes to much and little Aria, who refuses to take naps, crashes at the kitchen table right during dinner.

Broken Evaporator Coil?

2011-08-18T10:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I came home from work and while eating dinner I looked up and was shocked to see a huge bulge in the ceiling. As you can see in this pic, there was so much water, that it began leaking through the ceiling:

Apparently water or fluid had been leaking from the air compressor coil upstairs and it finally broke through the ceiling. When I went upstairs I saw that the carpet outside the furnace's door was soaked, and it was soaked inside Aria's room, which borders the furnace as well.

Since it was late, I waited until the morning and pulled up the carpet to try and figure out what the causing the problem. I noticed that it was wettest in both rooms right next to wear the furnace was.

I then opened up the half that exposes the furnace and saw water dripping from the evaporator coil that's on top of the furnace. I also noticed a pool of water that had formed along the base of the furnace.

What a headache.

Little Weeds

2011-08-15T21:22:00.000-07:00

The kids are growing so fast. Here they are at Reid park playing with the pigeons. I just love Zade's little strut (he swings his arms across his chest when he runs):

When we're playing at home, if we're not careful, we'll turn around and find one of the kids playing in their birthday suit. They're so carefree:

Here's a typical glimpse of life in our family room (always slightly chaotic). And of course, Zade is advertising his favorite thing in the world: his "bah bah". One neat development is Zade is really starting to understand most everything we say to him, and he's saying a lot more words now like: blue berries, car, cup, I want XXX, no, uh huh, kitty, etc....

Poor Zade, we have so many girl toys, and hardly anything for boys. It's a travesty. He's such a trooper for putting up with it. (By the way, this is his classic bottle drinking pose, with one arm propped up.) You'll also notice he's not wearing a disposable diaper. Tara's also started hanging out with an earthy mommies group, so cloth diapering is now back in vogue. :)

Strangely enough, Tara was going through an old photo album of hers and realized that both she and Aria had a Strawberry Shortcake party for their 3rd birthdays. I'm amazed that brand is still going.

Back in the swing of things

2011-08-08T20:37:00.000-07:00

We had a great time during our trip to Oregon, but it's taken us a couple weeks to get back on top of things. We had quite a few unexpected expenses come up that really hit hard (like the shower in our rental property needed to be replaced, the alternator on our car going out, our prior renters not paying their water bill for months, the water heater in our rental needing repairs, etc...). It was pretty stressful, but it's looking like things are settling down once again.

Aria is still a cute, feisty, little girl. I wish I had a mind as sharp as hers. She's picking up language so quickly it amazes me. Yesterday, she saw something pretty and told Tara, "Mommy, don't you think that would make a nice center-piece [for the table]?" I'm pretty sure as a 3 year old I was only saying things like, "Me want ball." :) She's now getting into having Tara read her chapter books, and is even a good helper when I'm pulling weeds. She's growing up.

Zade's understanding of English is really picking up. He still can't say many words, but he'll point and whine until we say, "Do you want X?" And once we finally guess whatever X is, his face will just light up since he knows he has been understood. It's so cute. He's getting pretty rambunctious and has picked up on Aria's zeal for having stickers pasted on him (see his melon below):

But one of his cutest traits is that he loves to cuddle:

Now that he's almost 17 months old, he's finally beginning to show a little interest in watching TV (but only for a few minutes at a time.) Aria on the other hand was hooked on TV before the age of 1, so it's an interesting contrast. In general, Zade prefers to roam the house, climb up on things and explore. He frequently will walk up to his high chair, climb up, and sit down inside. He's an animal.

Splashing in the rain

2011-07-17T10:56:00.000-07:00

We went for a walk in the rain and Tara decided to show the kids how to enjoy one of the simple pleasures of life.

Needless to say, everyone got soaked. :)

Enchanted Forest

2011-07-15T09:44:00.000-07:00

FAMILY SHOT
Every year we're missing one person because they have to work. Last year it was Scott, this year it was Derek.

SHOE SLIDE
Tara & Aria (Age 3)

Kari & Audrey (Age 5)

WITCH'S SHOE SLIDE
Whitney (age 17 months)

EXHIBITS
Audrey, Dwight, Aria, Scott, Zade & Connie

Connie & Zade

CROOKED MAN & HIS CROOKED HOUSE

BUMPER BOATS
Audrey, Aria, & Dwight

Dwight spinning in circles until Aria attacks :)

HOPPER
Tara & Aria

Audrey & Aria

RAINBOW TRAIN
Aria, Zade & Tara

Gena & Whitney

LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD
The best part of the whole park is the live theater they have. This year they had a great version of "Little Red Riding Hood". Unfortunately, Zade found the wolf more scary than funny.

2011-07-12T14:15:00.001-07:00

De Ja Vu: 3 Cousins in a chair (3 years later)

Playing at Papa's Pizza:

And here's the little Piano Man:

Playing in the rain near the river:

Fun with the fam

2011-07-11T16:33:00.001-07:00

Here's a pic of the cousins together

Here we are at the annual 4th of July neighborhood fest

Dinosaur Aria on the prowl

The kids have been having fun on the swings, but since there aren't that many swings, there have been many wars over who's turn it is, and whether taking turns is even necessary. :)

Hanging out in the backyard.

Grandpa's pop-up books have been a hit with Aria.

Two 1 year olds playing in the kitchen.

Here's the crew chowing down on Pizza with Ryan & Martina's family.

Bath time with the cousins

2011-07-11T16:25:00.000-07:00

We've been hanging out with my sister Annette and her kids. Here are our little monkeys playing together in the tub. The natural lighting in the bathroom generated some pretty neat pictures.

Arizona Summer

2011-07-11T16:16:00.001-07:00

Now that it's regularly over 100 degrees again, the kids are finding ways to beat the heat. Outdoors, popsicles or the pool have become mandatory.

Indoors, dumpster diving is a popular choice.

Z life

2011-06-26T20:02:00.000-07:00

Zade is FINALLY starting to get interested in books. Whenever we tried reading with him in the past he would grab the pages and flip through them as fast as he could. He likes to be in charge. Here he is at 5am reading with mom (while dad was away at an academic conference at Lake Tahoe.)

Here's Z playing with his favorite toy... the vegetable cooker. (He's got a think for kitchen stuff).

At his regular checkup with the doctor, they identified Zade in the 70th percentile for height, but only the 10th percentile for weight. Zade decided to take matters into his own hands by starting a weight lifting program, with our scriptures as his weights of choice.

Little Dictator

2011-06-19T08:57:00.001-07:00

As you can see here, Aria is becoming a little bit bossy. We think she's got what it takes to be a good dictator someday. She has strong opinions about almost everything (and has no problem letting anyone know the way things "should" be), she's quick to scream if things aren't going her way, and is willing to resort to violence if necessary. May we have the patience to help her build "compromise" into her repetoire. :)

Look who's walking

2011-06-19T08:44:00.000-07:00

Back in May Zade starting taking his first steps alone, and now he's off:

Aside from walking around like little Frankenstein (just like his father did at that age), Zade's favorite hobby right now is being a detective. This primarily includes emptying EVERYTHING out of the cubboards in search of clues.

Bath time

2011-06-12T09:17:00.000-07:00

Now that it's getting hot again, the kids are taking baths outside. Nothing beats bath time with Popsicles. :) You can tell from the look on Aria's face that she still doesn't like having her hair washed.

After the bath, Zade loves to cuddle up with Tara.

In this picture Aria is dressed up like a fairy and is trying to turn us all into fairies with her magical wand.

We celebrated yet another year that I've logged on earth. Tara made my favorite Thai food and bought me licorice and Cheetos, and for dessert, we had a delicious fruit tart. And no, the place mat in the picture isn't mine. :)

Here are a couple more cute pictures from the past little while.

Girls Camp

2011-06-09T20:09:00.000-07:00

I went up to Mt. Lemmon with the Young Women from church for girls camp around a week ago. While the temperatures here in the valley were getting into the 100's, it was a cozy 70 degrees up on the mountain (although it got pretty cold at night). It was fun to be able to relax with the girls, sing crazy songs, make fun crafts, listen to inspiring testimonies and lessons, eat delicious food that I didn't have to cook, and enjoy the beauty of the mountains. Here's Emily Sakievich, who helped me organize girl's camp this year for our ward, and myself.

Here's me with some of the girls: Renee Hodge, Caitlyn Law and Madison Hogan (from left to right).

Alma, Lorena, and Renee.

Joy and Renee.

Caitlyn Law, her mother (Sis. Law), and Joy.

Little Dancer

2011-06-05T07:18:00.001-07:00

Aria loves to dance at home, and somehow manages to avoid the mine field strewn around the kitchen by little Zade.

2011-05-29T13:28:00.000-07:00

The main reason I came to Utah was to see my sister Shannon's graduation. She just graduated from Westminister with her degree in nursing and already has a job at Primary Children's Medical Center. The ceremony was held at a Presbyterian Church in downtown Salt Lake.

2011-05-29T13:13:00.000-07:00

I've been in Utah for the past two weeks with my family while Dane studies for his comprehensive exams back in Tucson. I've had a lot of fun with my parents, and siblings. We went to Wheeler Farm, the Dinosaur Museum, Hogle Zoo, hiking, shopping, out to eat, and etc. It has been nice not to have the normal household responsibilties and to be surrounded by loved ones.

Let's go fly a kite

2011-05-15T09:30:00.000-07:00

We hopped on our bikes and went to Brandie Fenton park, where Aria enjoyed playing around with the water cannon.

Later at McCormick park, we flew Aria's princess kite for the 1st time. Aria spent more time happily dancing around the kite than actually flying it, but we all had fun.

Here's Aria alone at the helm

Even Zade got in on the action

Zade's Daily Quest

2011-05-15T09:13:00.000-07:00

Every day, Zade crawls into Aria's room, gets past enemy forces, lunges onto her bed and hunts for the plug. Yes, his mission is to unplug the lamp that illuminates her room. Once he's accomplished this, he commences to find every other plug in the house and "free it".

Candid moments

2011-05-08T21:23:00.000-07:00

Here are a few glimpses of real life in our backyard.

Dane's glimpse into pregnancy

2011-04-27T21:06:00.000-07:00

No, Tara isn't pregnant again. However, I (Dane) came down with a stomach bug and began feeling what Tara describes as early pregnancy symptoms: nausea, bloating, gas, aches, and tiredness. Tara was reminded why she doesn't want to get pregnant for a while. :) I'm just glad this will be over in a few days. Having the "privilege" of developing empathy (as opposed to sympathy) is overrated. :)

Easter

2011-04-24T19:48:00.000-07:00

We told Aria today that the Easter Bunny wanted to visit, but since he's really shy, he didn't want anyone to be around when he came, so Daddy took Aria for a walk to go and smell flowers and roses. When we returned, we saw that the Easter bunny had left a spattering of chocolates.

Although the Easter bunny could be seen by some to distract from the real meaning of Easter, we don't think that it has to. We just told Aria that the reason the Easter bunny comes and leaves presents is because he's so happy about what Christ has done for us that and he just wants to give little presents to remind us of how sweet Christ's present is to us.

So where is Zade in these pictures? Sleeping! It will be fun when he can join in on the fun, but for now, he'd probably just eat the candy, wrapper and all.

The Shearing

2011-04-17T17:31:00.000-07:00

Little Zade has always had a bunch of hair, and it has now gotten so out of control that we were forced to take action. Yes, yes, we gave him a buzz and now we can see that cute little melon again. :)

BEFORE (although it doesn't show the mini-mullet that was forming)

AFTER

Hunger pains, lipstick and family rides

2011-04-16T20:54:00.000-07:00

NOCTURNAL HUNGER PAINS
Aria awoke at 4:00 AM last night screaming, "I'M HUNGRY!" I brought her a banana and a glass of milk. She said she didn't want the banana, so I gave her the milk and told her to go back to sleep. Just as I was snuggling deep into my covers and trying to relax my brain, I heard her yelling again. "I WANT MY BANANA!"
I threw off the covers, feeling annoyed, and walked back into her room. I peeled the banana and handed it to her, then I sat on the chair next to her bed and watched her eat. As she took little bites, with her bright eyes wide awake, I had to smile.
"Mom, I love you," Aria said in between bites of her banana.
"I love you too Aria."
"Mom, we were a family in heaven," she said.
"We were a family in heaven," I agreed.
Aria handed me the last fourth of her banana. "I'm all done." I popped the rest of the banana in my mouth, told her not to bother me again, and went back to my room. I tossed around in bed, trying to get comfortable. Just as I was beginning to get settled, I heard her yell again!
"MY ROAD! FIX MY ROAD!" Aria's "road" is her stuffed animals that she has placed in a perfect line along the side of her bed. If any animal falls to the side, or is covered by her blanket, she becomes upset.
"MY ROAD! MY ROAD!" Ugh! I couldn't bear to get out of bed again. Thankfully, Dane got up this time, fixed her "road" and lectured her about waking us up. She finally went back to sleep and we were not woken again until 5:45 AM, when Zade was up for the day.

LIPSTICK
I let Zade play with my make-up bag today in a desperate attempt to keep him entertained while I got dressed. Aria called me out of the room for a couple of minutes and I returned to my lipstick half eaten and smeared in about 5 splotches of dark red on the carpet. No more make-up for that boy!

FAMILY RIDES
We spent the day fixing up our bikes. We had to reconstruct the front of Tara's bike since her child seat had bent the stem. We were directed to a Bicas, a non-profit shop with tons of random, donated bike parts and art. When we got there, we felt like we were right back in Eugene. I was able to fix up Tara's bike for just $2. What a deal. It was a fun place:

Finally we were able to take the kiddos out on a ride to the park in the late afternoon. It was fun to ride bikes as a family. On the way back though Aria was so tired that she kept crying out, "Cranberry juice! Cranberry juice!" like a broken record player for at least 15 minutes. (The child is incredibly spoiled when it comes to beverages and will not drink water.) Suddenly her crying stopped and we realized she had passed out in the trailer, her little face pressed against the plastic screen like a smashed bug. Zade seemed relieved to have the screaming over.

And here's a glimpse of one of Zade's most endearing faces. It's the one he does when he see's something that surprises and interests him, and lets out a little "Ooh! (with an upward swing in his voice).

bikes, fingers and garages

2011-04-15T21:12:00.000-07:00

Dane was so kind to put together the new bike trailer that my parents purchased for my birthday last night, and I couldn't wait to try it out with the kids today. Zade was not a fan of his helmet and kept crying and trying to wrestle it off his head, and since it was a little big and looked awkward anyway, I took it off him. After spending a great deal of time adjusting all the straps, making sure the kids had their drinks, and Aria had her purse, I felt like we were ready to go. Unfortunately, our garage door is broken right now, so we have to manually open and close it. There is no handle to pull down the garage on the outside, so I just try to pull down as best I can. Well, today as I was pulling down the garage, I put my fingers in between the cracks of the garage door in order to pull it down. It closed quicker than I realized, trapping and smashing my fingers inside the crack! There I was with my fingers smashed and stuck in the garage and my two kids strapped in the bike trailer, with no other person in sight. I tried to pull my fingers out, but I couldn't. Thankfully, after a few moments of utter panic, I was able to stick my foot under the bottom of the garage, and lift it up with my foot, freeing my now white and purple fingers. After a few moments of crying, mostly from shock, I was able to get over it and still go on the bike ride with the kids- which turned out to be a lot of fun. I look forward to taking them again. As for my fingers, they've been hurting throughout the day, but I think they'll be fine.

Daily Moments of Motherhood

2011-04-13T21:01:00.000-07:00

I'd like to start writing down the daily memories I have with my kids and since I don't really keep a journal, the blog seems like the place to keep everything together.

Today, after running for 45 minutes at the gym, I took the kids to the library. From the moment I put Zade down on the floor, he became a little terror. He headed straight for the puzzles where he began to push them all off the shelf and scatter the pieces, then he speed-crawled to the book-shelf and managed to pull off at east 12 books. I picked him up to try to contain him, but he started making screeching noises and squirming so I put him down again, whereupon he immediately speed-crawled (like he was in some kind of baby race) for another bookshelf and before I got to him, managed to rip a few pages out of a couple of magazines! A librarian came back and started picking up the mess, and feeling a little embarrassed, I tried to help while holding my squirming terrorizer. Needless to say, we did not stay very long at the library today.

Aria has had a baby doll for a couple of years now that she still loves to play with. She has me help her change the dolls clothes almost daily, and we help the doll use the potty and change her diaper. Today Aria declared me her baby was sick. I took the dolls temperature at Aria's request and put a band-aide on the baby to make her feel better. Aria kept calling me "Doctor Mommy."
"You're a very good mommy to your baby," I told Aria as we walked up the stairs, with Aria holding her baby doll, and me holding Zade. "Thank you Doctor Mommy," Aria replied, "and you're a good mommy to your baby too."

Celebrations

2011-04-10T09:58:00.000-07:00

TARA'S CELEBRATION

Mini Golf was a challenge with Zade crawling after every ball we hit, and Aria getting bored after hole 9, but it was still fun to be out in the pleasant April weather.

Although we had planned to go out to eat at a restaurant for dinner, I didn't have much of an appetite and since my sister Shannon sent me a gift card to Jamba juice, it seemed like a good place to go.

Probably one of the best parts of the night was going to Heavenly Feet, an Asian foot and back massage place. I went there last year and loved it, and my experience this year was the same. It's so relaxing! After getting massaged, I stopped by the store and bought myself a little cake. It seemed kind of lame to be buying myself a cake, but since no one else did it, and I wanted to blow out the traditional candles, I bought a little slice of cake anyway.

ARIA'S CELEBRATION

Aria went back and forth between wanting a Mickey Mouse party, or a Princess party, or a Winnie the Pooh party, but she finally settled and seemed to stick to her desire of wanting a Strawberry Shortcake party. I wasn't going to throw a party this year because I wanted to keep things simpler, but Aria kept talking about her Strawberry Shortcake Party, so I couldn't let her down. I bought a few decorations and invited about 10 little friends of Aria's. The kids decorated little strawberry shortcake bags, had an Easter Egg hunt, played pin the strawberry on Strawberry shortcake and musical alphabet (kind of like musical chairs, but everybody wins!) We also had a snack of strawberries, whipping cream and strawberry muffins, and then at the end, the kids each got a strawberry cupcake and Aria opened her presents. All the kids seemed to have a wonderful time and it only took me a week to recover and catch up on all the house work. :)

The kids played in the backyard as they waited for everyone to arrive.

A few days later, Dane graciously drove us all to Phoenix where I took Aria (dressed up in her little mermaid costume with necklaces and a pink tiara) to see Princesses on ice. We had a wonderful time and it was fun to see all of the little girls dressed in their princess costumes. I know some feminists out there think that we need to back away from the princess thing with little girls, but I thought it was a lot of fun, and if Aria is enchanted by everything with her eyes all aglow, then that's all that matters to me.

Quick Draw

2011-04-03T16:24:00.000-07:00

I was watching Zade eat and noticed that he has developed a pretty quick "grab and stuff" reflex to compensate for how slippery the food is we often give him. Check it out:

Sunset & Melting Pot

2011-03-28T20:29:00.000-07:00

For our 8th anniversary, we got a babysitter (for once) and went up into the foothills and watched the sun set:

And then went to the Melting Pot, where we cooked our own meal in a boiling cauldron full of spices:

We finished the night with a little pot of melted chocolate and fruit and treats:

It was great way to wrap up another great year of marriage.

Number One

2011-03-20T20:32:00.000-07:00

This week, Big Z celebrated his first year in style. Rather than a going for the typical birthday cake, he had ice cream cone cupcakes and popcycles! We had a little family party in the backyard and Aria "assisted" with unwrapping Z's presents. And for dinner, we had his favorite: blue berries. He had a great time.

Aria however didn't have as good of a week. She came down with a bug that left her with a high fever and chills. She's doing better, but she's not out of the woods yet.

Tucson Book Fair

2011-03-13T09:10:00.000-07:00

For our family activity this week, we went to the Tucson Book fair at the UofA campus. The temperature was perfect, although it was pretty bright outside (as you can tell in the pics). Zade enjoyed ripping my hat off my head and Aria had fun making little crafts at different booths.

Zade - Assisted Walking

2011-03-06T09:01:00.000-08:00

2011-03-06T08:49:00.000-08:00

Here are some pics from our recent family activities:

CHILDRENS' MUSEUM

ZOO & REID PARK

Old Tucson

2011-02-23T19:50:00.000-08:00

Tara's parents came into town and took the kiddos to Old Tucson Studios:

Playing on the Couch

2011-02-23T19:36:00.000-08:00

A quiet moment snuggling

An idea pops into the head of the little girl

She strikes

Baby to the rescue, with a swift foot

Everyone has a good laugh

Eating

2011-02-20T18:44:00.000-08:00

Here are few classic faces the kids make. When Zade is tired of eating in his high chair he turns to the side, arches his back, and begins to wail. Since he's a pretty good eater, and and a generally happy little guy, that's the sure sign that he's about to supernova. :) Note how he's holding his hand up as if to say, "FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING HOLY, LET ME GO!!!"

Here's Aria loving her ice cream:

2011-02-13T08:06:00.000-08:00

VALENTINES PARTY

Tara hosted a Valentines party for playgroup, and a bunch of kids came over, swapped valentines cards and decorated mini mailboxes to put them in.

SATURDAY FAMILY ACTIVITY

This captures Zade doing one of the things he currently loves to do: climb stairs. It gets him all fired up. He loves to be on the move.

Here's Aria as we went to get ice cream afterwards.

SUNDAY MORNING

We only have 2 kids, but they manage to wear us out some mornings, and today was one of them. Zade has a cold and Aria didn't get enough sleep last night, so both were pretty whiny. But from these cute pictures, you'd never know it.

This picture helps prove Zade is my son. He's making a classic face that my brother Derek and I often make.

BATH TIME

Here are a couple more shots of Aria playing in the tub. She's so silly. She loves to make a sly little look and then she busts up laughing.

And Zade is getting to where he can sport a nice hawk. :)

Variance

2011-02-06T19:45:00.000-08:00

Tara and I have talked about this, and we're convinced becoming a parent takes whatever your normal range of emotions is, and expands it so that you have higher highs and lower lows. In essence, becoming a parent increases the overall variance of human emotion, but the net effect however is to boost the overall average emotion to a higher level, making life more enjoyable.

Since we usually capture the highlights of parenting, we would be remiss to not disclose some of the challenges. Some of these lows entail trying to get Aria to eat meals, keeping Zade's hands out of the way when we're changing nasty diapers (drives me nuts!), as well as general crankiness that ensues when kids get tired.

But despite all that, the upside of seeing Zade now crawling excitely up the stairs or hearing him mumble "Kid-de" when the cats run by, or seeing Aria laugh like crazy as she runs around the house, just makes it all worth it.

Crawling & Talking

2011-01-23T19:07:00.000-08:00

Zade just said his first word, and it clearly reveals his partental preference. Alas, the word is "momma". :) He loves to use it in long strings for emphasis too. He also officially crawling, and loving it. It's fun to see him growing so fast.

Kids will be kids

2011-01-23T16:11:00.000-08:00

Here's a nice candid moment of life with small children. They're fun, but their minds operate on a different level. :)

International Wildlife Museum

2011-01-23T15:55:00.000-08:00

We finally broke down and went to what I fondly call the stuffed animal museum. The place is actually far cooler than I had expected. Rather than just showcasing a bunch of low-grade animal replicas, this place was loaded with really impressive taxidermy. The animals looked so real.

ARIA'S TEA PARTY
Aria loves to entertain her dolls by offering them various beverages and assortments of delicious appetizers such as dry beans, uncooked rice, and graham crackers. :)

OTHER RANDOM SNAPSHOTS

Special Moments

2011-01-06T19:15:00.000-08:00

Last night Tara and Aria were playing make-believe. They were pretending that each of them had a baby (played by an authentic baby doll) and that the babies were sick. They dressed up like princesses so that they could find the magical medicine to make them better. (You can see in the picture below how concerned Aria was about the babies)

The medicine turned out to be fishy crackers & starburst candies, which they ended up sharing inside the pink Dora tent. During the journey, the had to zap monsters with their fairy wands so that the monsters wouldn't eat them. To add to the realism, our cat Azure jumped on top of the Dora tent while they were inside and the tent collapsed on them. :) Here they are after fixing the tent.

ZADE ON THE MOVE
Zade is now getting around pretty well using his front-wheel-drive crawl (he's powered by his arms, not his legs). Here he is on the hunt for our cat, Azure.

Aria's pre-crawling consisted of rolling from point A to point B, so it's fun to see how each kid develops so differently.

SPECIAL MOMENTS NOT CAUGHT ON FILM

Since our kids do many cute things that don't make it into pictures, we thought we should document them:

- Aria now does a really good job of entertaining herself. She takes grabs Christmas ornaments and figures from the manger scene and uses them as action figures.

- Aria is still pretty anti-solid foods even at age 2.5. The most effective ways to get her to eat are to 1) put on a movie and feed her (which we've now prohibited, since we think it's a bad habit) and 2) for us to grab food and tell her we're going to eat it all up and she can't have any (reverse psychology). Each time she takes a bite of the food I (dad) would make a pouty, scowling face, and grumpily say she's eating MY food, to which she'd cackle with laughter. One time, that latter approach changed her from refusing to eat anything for dinner to eating 6 chicken nuggets and a pile of broccoli, which for her, is a huge meal.

Wrapping up the holiday fun

2011-01-02T19:02:00.000-08:00

STICKERS
After watching "Despicable Me" as a family, Aria asked me if I wanted to see her stickers. Not realizing she had any stickers, I couldn't help but laugh when she unzipped her jammies to reveal that she'd plastered a pile of stickers all over her tummy. :) Children are strange creatures.

BALLERINA
Aria also got a little tutu from her Aunt Dani for Christmas and decided to strike a pose. Tara is looking forward to the day when we can enroll her in dance:

ICE SKATING
Despite a snow storm, we managed to fulfill Tara's wish and went ice skating with Shara and Stephen.

OTHER FAMILY PICS
Here are a few more fun pics that we took during our trip:

Zade & Grandma

Zade & Aunt Shara

Family Pictures

2010-12-26T16:33:00.000-08:00

We've been trying for a while to get a good family picture, but with kids, it's always a challenge. Here are some of our latest attempts:

Before Bribery

After Bribery

Here are a couple good pics of the kids:

Zade's 1st Christmas

2010-12-26T09:34:00.000-08:00

Christmas

2010-12-26T08:46:00.000-08:00

GRANDPA'S BIRTHDAY
We got together with Tara's family to celebrate her dad's 67th birthday. We had a great meal at Chin-Wah (I love saying the name of that restaurant) and then had cake and ice cream afterwards.

SNOW SHOEING
Tara and I went shoe showing with her siblings while her parents watched the kids. It was a beautifully foggy day.

CHRISTMAS EVE
As was tradition, we re-enacted the Christmas story, with Tara's family and her aunt Marjorie's family.

CHRISTMAS MORNING
We all gathered at Tara's parents' house with all her siblings.

Aria was excited to receive Barbies, a Dora doll, and most especially, little Tinkerbell fairies. She also was really into the outfits she received, and tried on multiple ones before the morning was over.

As expected, Zade was most excited about the wrapping paper.

This was my favorite present that Zade received from my folks. :) Go Beavs!

GINGERBREAD HOUSES
Aria had fun decorating a gingerbread house with her Aunt Shara.

Swinging and laughing

2010-12-19T20:06:00.000-08:00

This is reminiscent of how Aria responded to Tara yelling "boo". (see blog post "Grownling Mommy" on 10/10/2008)

Holiday fun in the desert

2010-12-19T19:48:00.002-08:00

We went to see the Christmas lights at Winterhaven again this year.

Zade is wearing the same outfit Aria did last year to this event. He's growing like a weed:

Aria was in love with this display of Disney princesses.

When we tried taking her picture in front of that display, she freaked out for some reason and this is the pic we got:

RANDOM MOMENTS

Funny faces when eating:

Kids being kids:

Zade Live

2010-12-19T18:33:00.000-08:00

Here are a few fun video clips we took of Zade recently.

This one in the tub reminds us of little Aria. (See Aria at similar age in blog post "Splish Splash" on 11/23/2008)

Here's a clip after the ward Christmas party. Zade had suckered us into sharing our hot cocoa with him, which made him pretty zippy.

Mineral Oil

2010-12-05T14:20:00.000-08:00

About a month ago we purchased something second hand, which apparently came with the free bonus of bed bugs. Yeah :( After dealing with the situation, we put little bowls of mineral oil underneath all our beds to ensure that any bed bugs that we missed would die if they attempted to come upon us in the night. Interestingly, even though mineral oil is lethal to bed bugs, our cat Mira thought it was delicious. We kept catching her licking the stuff up. Little did she know that mineral oil serves as a laxative. :) When cats have discomfort, they often lick themselves profusely, which soon commenced. Apparently Mira was hooked, because even the adverse affects didn't stop her from consuming her drug of choice, so we eventually had to stage an intervention and removed the temptation from each room. :) Her fur is now starting look normal again.

BABY PICTURES
We also took Zade in to have some baby pictures taken, but as luck would have it, he decided to be cranky for once in his life, and refused to smile. Considering how freely he gives out smiles all the time, it's ironic. We may have to settle for taking pictures of him at home, like this one.

And here's a nice pic we got of Aria:

Say What?

2010-11-28T14:30:00.000-08:00

Aria had some funny things to say this week:

PLAY TIME
Aria: Daddy, can you bring me a toy?
Dane: Sure, here you go. It's a magic ring.
You can use it to turn people into things.
Aria: Thanks. Zap! Daddy, I turned you into a kangaroo!
Hey Mommy, Zap! I turned you into a piece of poo!
Dane: What? What did you turn mommy into?
Aria: A piece of poo!
(Interestingly enough, she picked up those choice words from mommy) :)

TEMPLE TRIP
Later, when we were driving to go to the temple, Aria began singing the song "Follow the Prophet." Her version went like this: "Follow the Prophet, follow the prophet, he's my favorite!" (over and over again) :)

BED TIME
Not too long ago, when we'd put Aria to bed she'd beg us to cuddle with her or sit outside the door until she fell asleep. However, recently she's begun asking us to leave as soon as we put her down. Why the sudden change? Well, as soon as we leave she hops out out of bed and and begins putting on all her favorite outfits from when she was a baby. The "top" she's wearing in this picture is a dress she used to wear when she was 12 months old.

BATH TIME
Aria and Zade are now in that perfect (short) window of life where they can take baths together.

And here's a little video of Zade for good measure:

Lastly, we celebrated Thanksgiving with Phil Lamoreaux's family this year, but foolishly left our camera at home, so we have no pics to share. It was a lot of fun.

Eatin Fiend

2010-11-21T17:48:00.000-08:00

Zade loves to pack it in. You should see him lunge forward like a voracious fish when we hold food in front of his face. :) But as you can see, he prefers to be the one running the show.

Here are a few more good pictures that Tara's parents took during their visit:

If you weren't sure before, this picture of Aria in her oversized sleeping beauty outfit ought to make it clear that she's a princess junkie. Thanks a lot Disney. :)

And for the finale:

More fun with Grandma & Grandpa

2010-11-14T14:45:00.000-08:00

Tara parents came and visited this week, which worked out great since I flew to Utah to attend the BYU Accounting symposium.

They had fun with the grandkids doing things like going to the outdoor pool in November (this is Arizona, you know):

Going to Tohono Chul Park:

Grandma even curled Aria's hair:

Halloween part 3

2010-11-14T14:41:00.000-08:00

When Sunday came, we celebrated Halloween as a family by hanging out in front of the house in our camping chairs and let Aria pass out all our candy to trick or treaters. She had a great time doing it, and only refused to do it when people in really scary costumes strolled up. :)

Zade kept himself busy by grabbing each piece of wrapped candy, stuffing it in his mouth. I'm sure the trick-or-treaters loved getting slimy sweets. :)

In addition, we had a great meal in a pumpkin. Having learned from prior years' mistakes, this year Rice-a-Roni was included, which sure helped add flavor.

Halloween, take 2

2010-10-31T14:32:00.000-07:00

Since Halloween falls on a Sunday this year, we decided to celebrate it on Saturday. We took part in a 5K run in the morning and went to the Trunk or Treat activity at the church ballpark at night. And just like last week, we were all decked out in our U of O gear.

We used our jack-o-lanterns to deck out our ride for handing out treats.

Aria made a haul gathering candy, and ran into some of her friends. Here she is with Eden, who was also dressed up as a cheer leader, but for Arizona.

In other news this week, we finally dropped the bomb. Yes, we bug bombed our house. Tara started getting tons of little bug bites at night that swelled up like crazy, so we took matters into our own hands and fumigated those little blood suckers!

Aria and Zade also visited Old Pueblo Gymnastics and had a blast running around.

And here's a random shot of Aria blowing bubbles and trying to catch them on the bubble wand. The bubble makes her eye look cool.

Halloween at the Zoo

2010-10-24T14:04:00.000-07:00

We went to the Tucson Zoo for their annual Halloween event. Our little family dressed up as Oregon Duck fans, which elicited plenty of comments from all around us. :) At the time we bought our costumes we had no idea that the Ducks would be ranked #1 in college football when Halloween came around. So it was fun.

The zoo had people dressed up in all sorts of great costumes. My favorites were the Star Wars crew and the Ghostbusters. The Darth Vader costume was so realistic that Aria would not get near him for a picture. See her crying below (and my amusement).

Here's Aria giving Zade a bear hug.

MESA TEMPLE
The next day we headed to Mesa to visit the temple. Aria and Zade didn't get their regular afternoon naps in, so when we went out to Soup & Salad for dinner afterwards, they both began breaking down. Aria refused to eat anything except fishy crackers and ice cream and Zade kept letting out these ear piercing screeches if he didn't have something he could put in his mouth. So we began crushing peas and macaroni for him to eat, which he used to create a gigantic mess, and when we gave him oranges slices, he'd accidentally push them off his tray as he attempted to put them in his mouth, which would make him so mad, that he'd start screeching again. I could hardly eat anything cause I was constantly fishing those stupid orange slices off the lower deck of his tray. Then Aria would scream when he'd scream, to get him to stop screaming, and a vicious cycle ensued. Worst meal of my life. I lack the words to describe how awful it was. So bad. So very very bad. (Tara somehow found humor in my suffering, which didn't help.)

ARIA & NURSERY
The following day, we went to church, and Aria continued her recent trend of protesting going to nursery by screaming. Tara decided to use the "love and logic" approach and offered Aria 2 choices: she could either go to nursery or be locked in the car in the parking lot. Aria consistently chose to be locked in the car. What made it worse, is that she actually likes being locked in the car, so the punishment backfired. Parenting, oh parenting....

Here comes Halloween

2010-10-17T16:46:00.000-07:00

CORN MAZE
We try to make it an annual tradition to go out to a local farm and do a corn maze together as a family. This year we went to Buckelew Farms with our friend Kyli Grenier and her family. We enjoyed wandering around the petting zoo and the pumpkin patch before embarking on the mighty corn maze. This years maze was the designed to be the face of the Arizona Wildcat. All the curves made it a pretty tricky maze, but we had a good time. Zade's favorite part was chomping down on the stalks.

PARK
Here area few other fun pics from the week. Here are the kids at McCormick park (Arizona winters rule!):

OLD CLOTHES
Tara decided to pack up a lot of the clothes Aria had outgrown. However, Aria doesn't think they're too small yet, so she got into them and spent the better part of a day just trying on some of her old favorites. If you look carefully at the picture below, you'll also notice she got a big gash on her nose. That's the result of her climbing up the high chair and falling off and landing on the high chair's tray. We're so grateful she only cut her nose instead of her eye.

STRANGE SLEEPER
When we went to check in on Aria after we put her to bed, we found her sleeping in this odd position. Looks like she's taking after our cat Azure and sleeps as if she's a piece of roadkill.

Oktoberfest

2010-10-10T14:05:00.000-07:00

We went up to Mount Lemmon (9125 feet) to enjoy Oktoberfest and some cool weather. They had live German music, bratwurst, and other delicious food, and of course, the chair lift to the top of the mountain.

Aria's favorite part was the dancing. Here she is joining in on the chicken dance:

Here we are at the top:

Here's Zade showing his Beaver spirit. Though were Wildcat fans now, we always root for the Beavs! :)

In other news, the weather has finally cooled down here in the valley (it's only upper 80's now), so we've been going on family walks again to the park. Zade loves playing on the swings:

Conference

2010-10-03T11:07:00.000-07:00

General Conference is so relaxing, since we can just watch church from the comfort of our own home. However, just like at church, once the services begin, the children transform. We've noticed that once we turn on General Conference, Aria immediately becomes "needy" and demands our attention. As soon as it ends, she once again becomes an independent little girl, playing all by herself. Why is that!?!

Oh well, here's a nice pic of Tara attempting to watch conference and singing during a hymn (we stream it over the internet from lds.org). Don't let this picture fool you. The calmness of the children in this picture is NOT representative of their usual church behavior.

Crazy?

2010-10-03T08:56:00.000-07:00

Which of the children is crazier? That's easy:

Aside from letting Aria provide his entertainment, Zade has now gotten into piggy back rides too.

Allergies, Change, and Growth

2010-09-26T20:35:00.000-07:00

Strangely enough, after 2 years of living in Arizona, Dane has developed allergies. We don't know what he's allergic too, but whatever is blooming in September seems to attack his eyes and sinuses. See he cranky eyes below:

Tara has been busy re-inventing things by employing her faithful pack-mule husband to re-arrange the furniture in the house, and by coming up with a new hair-do.

Little Zade is now 6 months old, and has just mastered sitting up by himself, and he's loving it.

He's also big enough now to wear this sweet hat we were given. Check out the grin on his face:

And for our weekly installment of Aria's funny sayings, another kid was over at our place running around like a chicken with its head cut off and Aria scolded him by saying "No running until your feet hit the street! (i.e. no running in the house, only outside)". This is a little phrase she picked up from a book we checked out from the library this week.

Grandma & Grandpa visit

2010-09-19T20:45:00.001-07:00

Tara's parents were on their way back from celebrating their 30th anniversary and stayed with us for a few days. We had a fun time bribbing Aria to get her haircut by offering her a new Princess backpack. She has refused the last two times Tara has tried to get it cut, but the Princess backpack and then sitting on Grandma's lap and eating M&M's did the trick. We're glad we only have to wait one more month until we get to see Grandma and Grandpa again.

Kids will be kids

2010-09-12T21:09:00.001-07:00

We went on a family picnic to Reid Park since the temperature is now dropping down (yes down) into the 90's. Unfortunately, the bugs are still out in abundance, so we had to defend the delicious home made pizza that Tara made from them.

We also had a family picture taken at church for the ward directory. The kids clearly weren't in the mood, but I still love the picture they took:

Aria also said a few funny things this week:

1) POTTY TRAINING: She already knows the alphabet song, but she's now learning to recognize each of the letters individually. She's also potty training, and this week, after going #2, she looked down and announced "look, the letter C!" We didn't expect synchronized alphabet and potty training.

2) BED TIME: Getting Aria to bed is a lengthly ordeal, that involves many requests, including 2-3 potty trips, glasses of milk, stories, hugs & kisses, multiple teeth brushing, saying prayers, requests for mom and dad to stay by the door until she falls asleep (uggghhh), etc.... Anyway, on this particular night, as Tara had finally settled down by the door to read her book, Aria made another request to have her blanket perfectly straightened across her feet. Tara let out a big inward sigh, and Aria exclaimed in a parental tone "calm down mom."

3) MARRIAGE: She announced that she wants to be married to mommy, and was disappointed to hear that mommy was already taken.

Bike Riding & Solids

2010-09-04T11:15:00.000-07:00

Zade is now big enough that we were able to break out the Exersaucer.

Eating solid foods usually starts well...

but doesn't end that way. Zade prefers to nurse. :)

But whenever things start going downhill, all he needs are just some snuggles from mom.

He's such a cutie.

And Aria's getting so coordinated.

She can now ride her bike all by herself:

Aria said the sweetest thing yesterday. Tara had been hauling her around town on errands and said to her: "Aria, I love spending time with you. Do you like spending time with me?". Aria responded in a sweet, confident little way by saying, "That's why I'm here mom!" I still can believe a little 2 year old would say stuff like that, but she's spouting off things like that all the time.

Potty Training

2010-08-29T14:58:00.000-07:00

Aria is finally coming of age. She's begun... potty training (hooray)! Just having m&m's and princess underwear have amazing incentive-aligning powers. Pictured below: another satisfied customer. :)

However, not all experiences have been stellar. While playing today, she intentionally smacked me in the face with a toy, so I locked her in her room for a couple minutes as a time out. Unfortunately though, when I opened the door to talk with her about what happened, I found that during her 3 minute screaming fit behind the door, she had lost control of her bladder and had peed all over the carpet. Not cool. Oh well, at least it cleaned up fast.

Here's a pic from our family night this week, where Aria helped make rice crispy treats.

Zade would've joined us, but he was out of commission. Interestingly though, unlike Aria, who slept on her back as a baby, Zade prefers his side.

Back in the swing of things

2010-08-22T14:38:00.000-07:00

It feels good to be back from vacation and to be able to pick up our routines again.
Zade is growing like a weed, but gets cuter every day. I like the aerial pics of him playing in his jungle.

After about 4 months of age, Zade basically gave up binkies. Instead, he prefers to suck on blankets. Funny kid.

Hearst Castle

2010-08-08T14:31:00.001-07:00

We stopped off at Hearst Castle in California (which is really more of an old, luxurious ranch) to break up the drive back to Tucson. We got there late in the day, so the main "experience" tour for 1st time visitors was all sold out. Thus, we had to settle for a different tour that covered less territory, but went into greater depth. Oh well. Our favorite part was the pools.

After that, we spent the night in Ventura, CA, and drove home the next day. Here are the 2 little troopers who braved the long drive. During the whole trip, they logged over 4000 miles in these car seats. They were fairly well behaved, for the most part, but as you can imagine, there's only so much that a 2 year old and 4 month old can take before they go nuts. We've now decided that we won't do any more road trips longer than 2 weeks with little ones. :)

The last cool thing we unexpectedly saw on the drive were miles of windfarms just to the east of the L.A. metro area, and all the blades were spinning. It was a pretty neat sight. The picture doesn't do justice to show just how massive these farms are.

California Coast

2010-08-08T14:17:00.001-07:00

We hit the California coast near Monterey and enjoyed an afternoon at the beach. The weather was surprisingly cool for August (low 60's), so we kept out of the water. We had fun walking the shoreline and watching the crashing waves.

We stopped for several scenic views along Highway 1 as we headed south along the coast.

This picture captures multiple sides of Aria we often see: 1) clinging to a sippy cup with milk, and 2) picking wild flowers.

When we got back to our motel for the night, Aria thought it would be fun to hop on my back while I did my push-ups. The extra 30 lbs definitely improved my exercise.

Lake Shasta Caverns

2010-08-08T14:10:00.000-07:00

On our drive back from Oregon we stopped off at Lake Shasta Caverns near Redding California. It's a privately owned cave system that's only accessible by ferry. The main room there is huge and is covered in flowstone. They had all sorts of formations from cave choral, cave bacon, columns, soda straws, stalagtites, stalagmites, etc. It was definitely worth checking out (though the pictures don't do it justice).

The only downside of the visit was that Aria deposited her lunch in her diaper just as we entered the cave. That meant that I had to hold her very carefully for the 300+ steps in the cave to prevent an explosion from happening before we could exit the cave and change her diaper.

Playing with Dane's fam

2010-08-08T14:04:00.001-07:00

Aria had a great time playing with her cousin Audrey at Wildcat Park in Corvallis, Oregon.

What impressed me the most was Audrey even pushing Aria on the swings.

Here's a bunch of the cousins together at Izzy's (one of our favorite restaurants):

Here's the disturbing pic of Zade sucking on his feet (notice the huge grin). That boy will put anything in his mouth.

Here's a nice pic of all those hombres that sport the last name of Chris.

Saturday Market

2010-08-01T18:43:00.001-07:00

We went to Eugene to check out our old stomping grounds with my folks. While perusing the Saturday Market, Tara found a little "fairy" headband for Aria, so that she too could embrace the hippy culture. :) Afterwards we went to Studio One and had their infamous French Toast, which I love.

Lastly, we stopped by the UO bookstore and picked up some apparel to show our school spirit.