Update

Wow! It's March and I haven't given any sort of an update for months. Obviously it's been busy. If you haven't heard already Rusty accepted a permanent position in Waxahachie, Texas. That was were we went for our very first temp job and he loved it so much we decided to come back for good. Of course it helps that the pay is so much better and housing so much less than Utah, but we were really sad to move so far away from family. Now I am a flight watching junkie- I spend time every day checking on prices to fly so we can go "home" a couple of times a year. That said, once we decided the move to Texas was coming I went up to Salt Lake to spend some time with my family. We were able to be there for my niece, Ryann's baptism. Which was great- you should see the dress my sister sewed for her! To celebrate her birthday we went ice-skating, which was a first for my kids.

Then we spent a few days visiting friends in Cedar City (well the kids visited, I packed and packed and packed). I was determined to make this move a smooth one. Our last move was a crazy disaster and I didn't want a repeat. After visiting it was back to Arizona to pack and clean, and then we took a week off to visit Rusty's family in California.
The kids and I made drawstring bags for an organization that sent supplies to Haiti and received 4 free tickets to Disneyland!Rusty's mom (as a retired Disney employee) had two more free tickets, so we spent a fun day together with Grandma and Grandpa Clarke in Disneyland for free. Grandma and Grandpa spoiled the kids. When we arrived they gave them each a roll of quarters to spend as they chose. Then they bought them fun gifts as well.

Then the fun was done and it was time for serious moving. We were so blessed to have friends and family come and help us. Unfortunately we had to load the truck on a Tuesday so that it would arrive in Texas on Saturday so it was a major sacrifice for people to help us. Tim (Renee's husband) and a friend Matt drove down from Salt Lake to help and Gary Arnell (another great friend) took the day off work - which is a big deal since he works ALL the time. His wife Liesl had our kids for days and days while we packed and loaded. We also had some friends from our ward show up to help- my new neighbor Debbie (whose mother in law I met in Maryland) came first thing even though she had only known us for a couple of weeks. The move went so smooth and we were able to finish by lunch.

The next few days we "did the drive," and of course stopped at our favorite museum in Albuquerque. We arrived at our home on Friday evening and although the home itself was great- we hadn't seen it before we rented- I was not happy with the cleanliness. In fact I was ready to walk out and find something else, but Rusty reassured me and we stuck with it.

The next morning our new ward showed up in droves to help us unload the truck. In about 1 1/2 hours the truck was completely empty!! Of course then we had to sort out the house and unpack- which we are still working on finishing. So we have been here in our new home for a little over 2 weeks, and everything is going really well.

The kids are settling in and making friends. We are loving our ward and the home really is a good fit for us- probably the best fit possible in our price range. We are in a great location close to Rusty's work, close to the church, and close to shopping. If only there was a temple (its about an hour away) and Costco (about 30 minutes away) here we would be set, oh yeah and our family and friends too. Anyone want to move to Waxahachie? We'll find you a good house and job :)

Last week was Ben's birthday- he's 6 now! My babies are getting so big. To celebrate we went swimming and had a little party. As you can see by his gifts he is all boy!

Ghost Towns and Gun Fights

We decided to take advantage of the nearest Ghost town and have a western family adventure. When I told the kids we were going to a ghost town I think the little kids envisioned something akin to a whole town of haunted houses. I think Ben was especially disappointed to find a small town with some old run-down homes and shops.
Luckily this particular town has a unique appeal as all of the wild donkeys that used to work in the mine were set free when the mine closed, but their descendants wander in and out of town every day for the "goodies" they are fed by tourists.

Of course there are hazards to such "free-spirited" visitors roaming the town at will. They block traffic (not that there is a ton of traffic in this little town), and some of the burros have become a bit over zealous in their desire to be fed and follow people around and can get a bit aggressive. We saw one pull a bag out of a tourists pocket and chew on it. Another challenge is that some of the burros are getting quite obese. No one is regulating their feeding and carrots are like candy to the donkeys. There was one that was either super pregnant or it had majorly overdosed on carrots. There is a little oversight as someone puts "no carrot" stickers on the baby donkeys whose teeth aren't ready for carrots yet.

The kids were a little nervous at first to have all these donkeys approaching them with their mouths open, but once they got the hang of it they had a great time.

Another fun aspect of the town is that some of the locals dress up and put on a little gun show. A little cheesy, but the kids got a kick out of the loud bangs.



We decided that this would be a good opportunity to have some of those "old time" photos of our family. In the past when we've considered doing something like that we were at an amusement park, and the thought of spending an hour dressing up and doing pictures after paying so much to get in didn't really seem wise. Now however we had nothing pressing to do, so why not.


My favorite is the boys- that will be a classic! You can tell Ben is in his element.


After a picnic lunch we headed home. Although I did stop to take a few photos of the decorated sage brush on the road. Why? I just thought it was an unusual thing to do, but it did make the drive through the desert a bit more interesting. I believe that the sage brush decorating was specific to a site where someone had died in a car accident, but maybe some of it was simply random.

Down by the river banks

We had two special visitors last weekend. One was Rusty's brother from CA. He took advantage of the three day weekend and stopped by for a bit. We also had a guest from Idaho. My niece Brooke (Mike and Richelle's daughter) sent us her Flat Stanley for a visit to Bullhead City. In their honor we went to Nevada (a quick trip across the bridge) and walked the Colorado River Walk.

Ben taught Stanley the finer arts of scavenging for treasure Dallin dangling Stanley precariously over the fish pond at the Colorado Belle casino.

Adam "chilling" with Stanley on the beach :)

Rusty teaching Dallin the essential skill of skipping rocks

The girls checking out the wildlife on the banks of the Colorado River.

Resolutions and nonresolutions

Rusty has been a very good boy this year. For a long time now he has been making efforts to exercise and eat right, but he decided that 2010 was THE YEAR. He joined an online support group called Transformation.com. They have a whole system to help you eat and exercise and make life changes. I have to say that he is doing awesome- even when I tempt him with mint oreo cookies :) ha, ha, ha.

Typically every January the kids and I take magazines and make a vision board/goal sheet to put in the front of our homeschool notebooks. Usually I have no problem choosing a few things to tackle in the new year, but this year I have drawn a complete blank. I lack any resolution. It sounds lame, but I'm the kind of person that doesn't make a commitment unless I feel relatively confident that I can keep it, and honestly I have no idea what the year will bring so I'm choosing to abstain from commitments.

I'm hoping when we get "settled" somewhere I will be able to regain my desire for self improvement and get back on track, but for now I decided I will simply support the more motivated member of our relationship in fulfilling his resolution. So I've taken Rusty's cookbook and planned meals and menus to meet his diet plan. We've had all sorts of new meals in the last 2 weeks. Also I'm not whining when Rusty stays at work late to "work out." See what a nice wife I am :) And I've only tempted him with cookies once.

Rusty said I shouldn't post his pre-pictures yet until he has some awesome post pictures to show his progress. So instead I'll post pictures of our cupboards and fridge- yes you read right. For some reason Rusty took pre and post pictures of our kitchen stuffs to prove that we bought all the "good" stuff. He said it was one of the group assignment, but I think he wanted to feel better about the huge grocery bill.

Our "Grand" New Year

The first day of a new year and we spent it enjoying the amazing scenery of the Grand Canyon. "Grand" seems like an entirely inadequate adjective to describe the majesty and beauty of this canyon. I had visited the Grand Canyon when I was in highschool, but this was the first time my family has been together. It was a different experience seeing the canyon in the winter. It was actually a great time to visit because it wasn't as crowded or hot as it is in the summer. Although the south rim was snowy the sun was shiny and it wasn't too cold. In fact the kids all started getting hot and shedding their layers pretty quick. I wouldn't say I have a fear of heights, just a fear of falling from heights. There were several times I had visions of my children slipping on some snowy edge and falling a loooong way to the bottom. I try not to pass my irrational fears onto my children, but I'm sure they sensed my concern as I constantly reminded them to stay back from the edge of cliffs. :)

We were lucky to share this experience with Adam and Cheryl's family who were visiting us from California.

It was so nice to have "big" cousins, aunts, and uncles to help with the little kids. Mike and Daniel were good sports and even carried Ben and Kate during some of the longer stretches. We were lucky that Grandma "B" (my mom's mom) had just made hats for all the kids for Christmas. It helped us all stay nice and warm.

I loved this picture of all the younger kids.I'm so glad that Rusty has such a good relationship with his brother Adam. It's always fun when they get together. Sometimes it just takes a brother to really appreciate (or even understand) Rusty's unique sense of humor. :)

Of course you can only look at beautiful scenery for so long when you are a kid. Especially with a winter wonderland of snow at your fingertips. The boys all worked together to build a snowman

and all of the kids took great pleasure in hurling snowballs off the edge of the canyon.

Of course Mike didn't settle for simply throwing snowballs off the cliff, he created mini snowmen and sent them to their doom into the depths of the canyon.

A Merry Christmas to All

I am always amazed at how little it takes to make a child happy. Each year I try to find the balance of getting the kids somethings that they want and will be excited about and keeping things simple enough not to reach overkill or boredom. After each child give their siblings a small gift (usually from the dollar store) and they open gifts from grandparents, and they get a gift from Santa, and from mom and dad. That is a lot of gifts!! We are talking about 10 gifts each! Plus any stocking stuffers. Luckily we were successful this year in reaching the balance, and with the help of my bargain shopping sister who took me to Kmart in July when all of their clearance toys were an additional 50% off and she had a 20% off that coupon we did Christmas without breaking the bank! I love it!Katie had a polly pocket Christmas- small and portable- my kind of toys Ben had a Lego Power Miner Christmas

Dallin received a few Megablocks King Arthur sets, but spent most of the weekend building this Struxx Dinosaur with his dad. I think the best gift for him was all the one on one time while they worked together.

I was worried Lauren would be disappointed with Christmas. She is at that in between age where toys aren't that exciting and everything else is too expensive. She has everything she needs and didn't really ask for much. She received craft supplies, a computer bag, and a computer game. Later when I asked her about her Christmas she said it was the best Christmas ever because all of the kids loved what she gave them and we were all happy, and she was completely sincere. She told me that now that she is older the excitement of Christmas for her is picking out gifts we will love. Lauren never ceases to amaze me. I'm so happy to see her growing and developing such a kind spirit. She does so much to bring peace to our family.

We missed being close enough to visit our extended family, but it was a very calm and relaxed weekend and it was a nice to do nothing for a change.

Ben's first tooth- or first gap, I should say

Ben is so excited after years of watching his older siblings lose teeth and receive money and months (nay, near a year) of nursing his own slightly wiggly tooth, he finally lost his first tooth.

In accordance with tradition it was Aunt Renee who finally popped it out with her magical dental floss extractor. She took out Lauren's first tooth as well. As you can see by the picture the tooth fairy at the Kevern's house is much more creative than the tooth fairy at our house and because it was almost Christmas Ben received a dollar folded into a Christmas tree.
To double the fun late that evening Dallin came out complaining his tooth was so loose it hurt. He must have been working it for a couple of hours in bed. Renee popped his out and he received a Christmas tree dollar too. We had been looking at all of the cool origami dollars their cousin Jake (Randy's son) received from the tooth fairy earlier that evening and I think Dallin didn't want to miss this opportunity for a more interesting tooth fairy visit. :) Thank goodness I have such a talented sister and brother.