Ward Christmas Party

We just had our ward Christmas Party tonight. Here we are in front of the tractor Santa arrived on. We were told to dress warmly for this - and a good thing too because it was outside where it was a 'chilly' 72 degrees!

Who'da thought?

We just recently discovered we have an orange tree in our yard! The fascinating thing is that not just a month ago I used the fruit off this very tree to make a key lime pie to take to my friend's house for Thanksgiving. I ate that key lime pie, my friend and even some of her family ate that key lime pie, Ryan ate that key lime pie, and my visiting teachee also ate that key lime pie and I received compliments all around on that pie (I don't even really like key lime pie very much but I thought that pie was pretty good). At the time, I thought I had picked all of those limes off the tree because I thought some of them were about to burst and some were even losing their bright green color for a faded yellow/orange. A few days ago we pulled into our garage with Marissa excitedly exclaiming "Mommy we have a lemon on our tree!!" Naturally, I thought she was grossly mistaken only to find this on the tree (see picture). It still took some convincing me that it was truly an orange but when Ryan cut into it and gave me a slice there was no mistaking it. I guess what I really made was a "key orange" pie and in my book it was better than any silly key lime pie anyway!

Phoenix and Mexico!

I've been about a month behind on all my posts so I figured it was about time to write about our vacation. Ryan had his two weeks off the first part of November. For the first week, Ryan's parents came out and we drove to Phoenix to stay at a resort there. The second week we drove down to San Carlos, Mexico. Here are some of the highlights and lowlights from our trips:

*The weather in Phoenix was even a little warmer than usual for the time of year and we spent several afternoons at the pool.
*Grandma and Grandpa spoiled us in Phoenix which means I only saw my kids about 65% of the time:)!
*We also got to go golfing in Phoenix, which was great because we hadn't been able to go golfing since we'd left Ann Arbor.
*Our resort in San Carlos was right next to the beach and the kids had a blast at playing in the sand and seeing who could find the best seashell.
*The taco stands really make the best tacos ever - I just had to be careful not to watch the preparation of them or it ruined the whole experience.
*Ryan was able to visit with some friends from his mission - Marissa enjoyed this as well because every time we left one of his friends they always liked to give the kids some little toy.
*Unfortunately, Devon spent at least 50% of time either crying or throwing a fit
*Best of all...we all came home with a tan that will last us through the winter!


Devon and Marissa enjoying the resort pool in Phoenix.




The kids and me at the beach in San Carlos. Devon favorite thing to do was throw rocks into the ocean. Marissa's favorite thing to do was float on the raft with daddy to go snorkeling.




The kids at the resort pool in San Carlos. The kid pool is behind them and there was that nice little ledge in between them that Devon could use to jump into the kid pool and Marissa could use to jump into the big pool!




Devon is wearing Marissa's goggles. In the hot tub he started getting down low enough so the water covered his mouth and nose. Occasionally, the water would also reach his eyes so we put the goggles on him to see if he would go farther under. He thought he was pretty cool!




Since Devon spent so much of his time like this, I thought it only fair to include a picture.




It was at taco stands such as this that we had many a dinner!




We drove to Hermosillo where Ryan served his mission to see a few people and also walked around the temple grounds.

Happy Halloween!

Our ward had a carnival in the church parking lot with 10-12 carnival games for the kids and a chili cook-off. Devon was a chef and Marissa was a witch for the party (costume from 2 years ago that I had no idea would still fit her) and a kitty for trick or treating. Chef Devon was a little distracted at the party...



Chef Devon: I'll be right back - I must check on my tart!




Chef Devon: Oh my souffle!




Chef Devon: What did you say about my quiche?




Marissa and Devon getting ready to trick or treat. We went with another family (One of Marissa's best little friends is Ella so we had to go with them) and Devon sure made the most of it. He was pretty serious about his trick or treating and realized quickly that the faster he went the quicker he would get more candy. When people put the bowl of candy in front of him he wasted no time in grabbing a huge handful. Then he'd race off to catch up to the older kids. They were still a little too fast for him but he was hard core!









Marissa and Ella

Devon's room has been 'uncute' since he was born and Ryan was tired of it! So using the valence and blanket that Ryan's mom made for Marissa's room for a pattern we made this valence and blanket for Devon's room. (You can't see it well, but it is super cute:) Ryan was the unofficial measurerer, pinner, and ironer and I was the seamstress. Except for a small 'run-in' with the iron, this was the most positive sewing experience I've had!

Happy Birthday Marissa!

I can't believe our little girl is growing up so fast! This year for Marissa's 4th birthday we decided we to give her a real birthday party with friends and she was so excited!



The first thing the girls had to do was find different "princess" things around the yard so they could all be little princesses for the party. Here is Marissa with her crown, necklace, ring, and earrings.

After her party, Marissa and I went out for ice cream. She still had much of her princess stuff on and the lady at the ice cream store thought she was an adorable princess!



Here are all the little girls "princessified"!



The next thing the girls had to do was save Princess Marissa from the horrible green dragon that had come to take her away. The girls were given pink and purple water balloons with which to pelt the dragon to scare him away. Here is one of Marissa's friends trying to save her from the dragon! Fortunately for him, the dragon said they were all lousy shots!



With craftiness beyond their years, the princesses then cornered the green dragon on top of the swing set, forcing him to make his escape down the slide. Unfortunately, the slide did not survive this encounter:)!

Then the girls went inside to decorate their sugar cookie star princess wands. I didn't get any pictures of these, but let me just say there was a lot of pink and purple stuff involved!



Marissa is opening her first present at her party to find a princess slipper game (love the face!). Since then this has become the favorite game and involves seeing who can get all of their cards enchanted first so their Cinderella can attend the ball. For some reason, Ryan and I are just not very good princesses so we never get to go to the ball and Marissa loves being the 'honored' princess!



Here's Marissa in front of her loot later that evening - presents from grandparents and us.



And finally to top the day off, we had a chocolate pudding cake (Marissa looks exhausted!) and I was too!

We made it...

...and so did this long overdue post! We pulled (rather Ryan) into our driveway on June 1st with no major problems on his cross country drive. We have had June to get settled in before Ryan has to get working, and so far we have thoroughly enjoyed our house!


We are renting a three bedroom house with one room painted blue for the boys and one room painted pink for the girls. Marissa loves her pink room and as you can see, it is actually a decent sized room with plenty of room for playing!




This is our front room. Our front door opens right up into this room and we love how spacious it feels. The only problem was that when we set up our tv on the other side of the room, we realized it was small when you're not sitting right in front of it:)




This is our kitchen - I think one of my favorite features is the microwave hanging above our stove so it doesn't take up counter space. It was a good thing we moved our other two microwaves with us because who doesn't need 3 microwaves!

Between our front room and kitchen is our dining room. Since we don't have a formal dining table it is really our piano/desk for Marissa room.




Here is our fantastic back yard! This was actually one of the deciding factors in picking this house vs. the other one we were seriously looking at. I was just hoping to get at least a little patch of grass in our backyard here in Tucson, instead we actally have enough to mow with a real lawn mower!! The swing set you see in the picture was left for us, which also has a sandbox underneath, as well as an outdoor playhouse that the kids have absolutely loved. We have a small covered patio to provide some shade, and on the other side of the house we have a fenced off area with room for a nice sized blow up pool. Marissa and Devon love the swings and Marissa, much to Ryan's and my delight, has learned to pump (probably because she got tired of us always refusing to push her every second of the day). Now if we could just get Devon pumping... All in all, our backyard has definitely been a highlight for us!




This is Devon enjoying a pudding pop after an afternoon of family fun in the sprinkler!

Trip to Sedona!

We were spoiled again by Grandma and Grandpa Earp with a trip to Sedona. We stayed at a fabulous resort with a pool, tennis courts, and miniature golf. Aside from Devon waking up at 5:45 every morning (while he was sleeping in our room) we had a great time!


One of the days we went to an African Safari where we could walk around and see all of the fenced in animals. They also had a "Tiger Splash" show in which a few of the workers basically played with a couple of tigers like they were house cats. The tigers are not trained and the highlight of the day was to watch these tigers horse around with the workers. Devon thought this was pretty cool, too. He pretty sat on the step the whole time, occasionally pointing to show he approved!



Also at the African Safari, we went to a little snake show after which they let us in with the huge python snakes to 'pet' them. Marissa thought it was pretty cool - so I had to warn her that when she sees a snake in Tucson she is not to go up and pet it!



One of the days we went on a hike. Here is our family on the hike. Don't let Devon's grumpy look fool you - he had the best seat in the house!



Here's Marissa with Grandma and Grandpa when we stopped to rest and eat a little snack on the hike.

Camping at the Dunes!

Before we left Michigan, we thought we should do something "Michiganny" so we went camping at the Warren Dunes. Growing up in Chicago, I actually came to the Warren Dunes in the summer with my family. When I came as a youth and learned that there were actually campsites there, I thought, "Boy, I'm glad I didn't have to camp!" Despite not being a big camper, it was still fun and the kids mostly loved it!


This is on our trek to the actual sand dunes from our car. The road that led to the main parking lot was closed so we had to walk a bit to get to the sand dunes. We We thought Marissa wouldn't be able to make all the way uphill so Ryan carried her and Devon. Little did we know that Marissa is actually a little sand monkey and could run circles around us while running up the sand dunes.

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Just for old times' sake I decided I would climb the main sand dune simply to do a back flip at the top down the back side, and to run down it really fast. Ryan stayed at the bottom of the hill with the kids. I got to the top and I looked down at them and I saw Ryan with his back to Marissa dealing with Devon while Marissa was halfway up the sand dune. I thought I would go down and meet her and help her all the way up if she needed it. I shouldn't have wasted my energy because apparantly, Marissa thrives in the sand. I don't even think she needed to stop for a break. It seemed liked everytime we took our eyes off Marissa she was darting across the dunes and we had to yell to tell her to wait for us.


Here's Devon kickin' in his camp chair at the campsite.


The next morning, we thought we would go on a little nature hike near the campsite. Things started out great, the kids enjoying it. Then all of a sudden, just as we were about to turn back to head to our car (so halfway only, mind you), we heard a loud crack of thunder. Five minutes later we were soaked through and needless to say, the kids were less than thrilled.


We convinced Marissa to call this our little adventure, our "hike in the thunderstorm" one. The next week Marissa wanted to talk to her Uncle Dan and the first words out of her mouth were "We went on a hike and we got poured on..." - not even a "hi" or "hello".

Match Day!

This was at Ryan's match day party with all the lds med students showcasing his University of Arizona match!



This is Ryan with Shawn Tolbert and Glen Cook as the fourth year lds med students. They all matched at their number one choice! What studs!

Dancing!

Devon has decided he likes dancing.

Devon's second birthday party and fun with cousins!

We had cupcakes for Devon while we were in Chicago for his birthday - we were in Arizona on his birthday so I thought we should do something with the cousins while we could.



I always gripe about not being very photogenic and how I usually blink, but, honestly, how can I complain when I get pictures like this?! Thanks, Jessica!



Just before Devon (actually Marissa) was going to open his present from Aunt Jessica.



We played a game that had someone sitting in that rocking chair with eyes closed while someone else in the room put a heart under the chair. The person in the chair had to guess who put the heart under. Devon always wanted to be the person in the chair:)



My sister's house is a mutli-level house with sets of two to three stairs all over. Devon was driving me crazy with the stairs. He learned how to go up and down them pretty quick, but he was rather confident in himself and would often just stop and stand in the middle of the set of stairs almost falling at least a dozen times. He also like to use the stairs to climb on this basket - he would get up there and think he was king of the world!



Marissa and Anna found swimsuits in the girls' drawer and decided they wanted to go swimming. They took towels from the bathroom and laid them out in the basement like they were at the beach.



My sister has a ton of dress up clothes for her girls and Marissa was absolutely in heaven. I'm not even sure why I bothered to get her dressed in the morning because as soon as we got to Aunt Jessica's her clothes were off and a princess dress was on. Marissa is with Rachel here. Usually Anna would play princesses with Marissa but Anna was gone and Marissa asked Rachel if she wanted to play princesses with her. Before Rachel could really say much, Marissa said, "You can't say no" matter of factly. Rachel was so sweet and humored Marissa and was a great help with Devon while I was there. I need a Rachel to come live with me!