Pictures

So about a month ago we went to Flagstaff and my post afterwards gave some details about what we did but at the time I didn't have any pictures. My sister just e-mail some to me so I thought I'd post them.


Madison standing by herself for the first time!


My Grand parents came to visit while we were there.


Madison with her cousin Nicole. Nicole tells all her friends everything about "baby Madison" It's so cute!


We all went on a picnic up on the mountain. Here we are with my dad, my sister's kids' and my uncle George who my parents just took over caring for. He is my dad's older brother who was born with down syndrome and sivere mental retardation. My grandparents have been taking care of him for 55 years until now when my parents took over becuase my grandparents are getting too old. Now that's love!


This was acutally a little pond near by that we walked to after the picnic. Madison loved the water and wanted to get in, even though it was freezing cold!



Picnic Lunch!


Playing in the water!

My Better Half

I Liked this tag so I thought I'd do it!

1. What is his name? Mahlon
2. Who eats more? I think we eat about the same (sometimes I think I eat more!) Unless its chocolate-he can eat WAY more than me!
3. Who said, "I love you" first? I can't remember...Yikes!
4. Who is taller? Mahlon, He's 5'8'' I'm 5'0''
5. Who is smarter? We have differnt smarts- He's smarter when it comes to building and creating things, I'm more book smart
6. Who is more sensitive? Me! I cry at everything! But he is very sensitive too-he's not a man afraid of feelings.
7. Who does the laundry? I do- When we were first married I had him do it and he shrunk my favorite shirt, so now I do the laundry.
8. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? He does
9. Who pays the bills? I do-He dosen't know anything about our $$$ situation. I wonder sometimes what would happen if I died.
10. Who cooks more? I do-He cooked for me while we were dating but now I do the cooking, and I think it's better this way! : )
11. Who is more stubborn? I am-he's always more willing to work things out. But we're both pretty passive.
12. Who is the first to admit they are wrong? He is, I usually take awhile to cool off.
13. Who has more siblings? I do-He has 3 I have 6
14. Who wears the pants in the relationship? Neither of us are the control type, so it's pretty equal.
15. What do you like to do together? Hiking, art, playing games, watching movies.
16. Who eats more sweets? HE DOES! He's a chocoholic and has an out of control sweet tooth!
17. Guilty Pleasures? skateboarding, video games, photography
18. His best features and qualities? He's so humble and has a quite respect for spiritual things. He is incredibly forgiving and understanding. He's responsible and ambitious and a great provider and friend.

Farewell Tucson

As a spin-off of Kara's post I'd like to leave my own farewell message. We've been packing all day and will be hitting the road tomorrow for our new home in Glendale. There are lots of things to be excited about and lots of things to be sad about to. Here's my list of things I'm excited about, what what I'm not.

What I'm looking forward to:
1. Moving into a newer, nicer and bigger apartment (with NEW appliances!) and not paying anymore than we do now!

2. Having a mall within walking distance from our house (a place to get out and escape the heat) as well as costco, target, and pretty much anything you can think of within a few minutes away.

3. Being closer to family

4. Having my husband working instead of going to school!

5. Getting away from Tucson driving.

6. Living closer to the Temple


What I'm not looking forward to:

1. Having to make new friends and leaving behind all my greatest girl friends. When will I do scrap booking, if not once a month at scrap night? and when will I get another GNO????

2. The phoenix heat (its MUCH worse than Tucson-it never cools down!) and the monsoons are not as great up there either.

3. Phoenix traffic-Most the time I love phoenix driving, its WAY better than Tucson because there is a freeway to everything-however nothing is more frustrating than having 6 lanes of traffic at a complete stand-still all becouse some grandma 10 miles ahead is going to slow!

4. Having to work out alone, instead of going to my class that I LOVED!

5. Having to find a new doctor for Madison (and me)

Tucson has been a great home for us and will always be special to us for the people we met here, the memories we've made and the events that took place. This is where Mahlon and I first lived, where Madison was born and where we became a family. We both received our educations here- and we will always look back on the time we spent here with fondness. I will miss everyone and I hope we'll continue to stay in touch over the years! Goodbye Tucson, Hello Glendale!

Walking Pics

Well I got the pictures of Madison's first steps. Hope you enjoy them! (I'm a little embarassed b/c I had just gotten home from working out, so I look a little rough!)

New Home!

Well, we've been apartment shopping all weekend but we finally found a place to call home! I'm very excited (and a little nrevous) to move to a new place but we think it will be a great thing for our family. We'll be up in Glendale in the Northwest Valley at Union Hills and 79th Ave. (For those of you who don't know the area that is up at the NW corner of the 101 loop. Anyway, there is lots of shopping and entertainment close by and we're excited about the neighborhood and the apartment. If you're ever up in that part ofthe valley, PLEASE call! We'd love to have visitors! I'm going to come to Scrap-night THursday to say goodbye to my Tucson girls, and we'll be moving Friday (Which also happens to be my birthday!) so we've got a lot of packing to do in the next few days, so if you love to fill boxes, you're welcome to come over! I'll miss you all here in Tucson, and I'll definately come to any "family reunions" in the future. I'll keep up the blog so we'll stay in touch! But be patient, I'll be pretty busy packing and unpacking for the next few weeks!

Vacation update

So as promised, I'm giving an update on all the things we've been doing the bast month. I don't have pictures of everything, I'll try to post some later, but I have to have some people e-mail me pictures they took when I didn't have a camera.

So, Mahlon started working up in Flagstaff just after Madison's Birthday. Madison and I stayed here for a few weeks, then met up with him at the first of the two family reunions we went to in June. Madison loved being outside, playing in the dirt, but she especially enjoyed the swing.


That next week we spent time in Flagstaff with my sister and her kids having picnics, shopping and just hanging out. It was while we were on our picnic that Madison stood up all by herself for the first time. My sister has pictures, hopefully I'll get those up another time. However, after this she refused to stand alone again. However, yesterday just moments after I stated that Madison was almost 13 months old and still not walking she took her first steps! We were at my sister-in-laws house so we didn't have our new video camera (or any camera) to capture it, I was SO MAD! But luckily My brother-in-law shot a few pictures (that I'll have him e-mail to me)and we got a short video on my phone. We're going to have to do a "re-do" for the camera here at home.

Another weekend was spent in Gilbert with Mahlon's family. Madison loved the pool! We also spent the 4th of July in Gilbert, but sadly, I didn't get any pictures (I know, I'm sorry) We saw some really lame fireworks (Literally) ask me about it, if you want to get the whole story, But had a great time visiting family.


After almost a month of traveling and living out of a suitcase we finally came home Monday and Tuesday Mahlon was offered a teaching job in Peoria School District, up in Glendale so we're now preparing to move by the end of the month. It's been such a busy time, and it's just going to get even crazier for the next little while so be patient, there may be long gaps in between posts, but I'll try my best.

Also, yesterday we took these while Madison played in the rain, I was surprised she liked it so much, she was soaked! It was so cute.



I've been so busy looking for apartments online, this is how Madison has been entertaining herself. She was pretty upset when Daddy told her "no" for making such a mess!


Then, this morning she climbed into her bumbo chair, I gave her some books and she was content sitting there reading her books, what a cutie!

Sorry I haven't been keeping up with everyone else's life for the past little while, but I promise to get back on top of things as soon as things settle down! I hope everyone is doing well!

We're still alive!

It's been brought to my attention that I haven't updated my blog in a very long time-and I haven't. So, just so you're all not worried, we have been "living" in Flagstaff for a few weeks while Mahlon has been working. Since I'm not on my computer I haven't loaded any new pictures so I haven't posted, but when we get home (Probably on Sunday) give me a few days and I'll post lots of great pictures of what we've been up to lately. So don't be worried, we're all ok-we just are really busy. I hope everyone else is doing well. I haven't checked anyone's blog in a few weeks so I'm WAY out of the loop! Check back soon!