My ebay Addiction

Well, it has been flaring again, my ebay addiction that is. It comes and goes (just like my zebra print addiction) and is finally starting to go again. What is it about selling my stuff on ebay that gets me so excited?? I love watching people bid for my stuff, they ask questions, they watch it until the auction ends, and then, at the end, I get to mail my stuff off that I don't need anymore and I have money in my pay-pal account. What is not to love about that?? I just finished selling $200 worth of stuff on ebay and then I have money just sitting in my pay-pal account that I can use to buy random things ON ebay. You can buy just about ANYTHING on ebay for a good price. It is so fun!!! Just seems like such a good system to me. I am always amazed when I hear people say that they have never used ebay before. Why not!!! It saves so much time running around town trying to find exactly what you need. For example, Tim tells me the other day that he needs a pair of suspenders for the pioneer trek (that is another story). Takes me about two minutes to locate a good pair for a good price on ebay, click and pay $3 (out of my pay-pal balance) for them and they are mailed right to my house. How easy is that!

On another topic, Lizzy had her two year birthday last week. I know, I know, it is hard to believe she is two. She is a stinker though and has been thoroughly initiating me into her two-year-old phase. Why does this phase seem to last F O R E V E R? It is good she is so cute and lovable. Maybe I will search ebay for a book on two-year-olds.....

Christmas Dresses

Aren't they precious! Grandma White made these for the girls. Now if only we could get everyone to look at the camera at the same time....

"Tober"

Jenna's birthday is in October and so all year she has been telling people "my birthday is in Tober." It has been a very busy Tober around here, not the least of which was Jenna's 4th birthday!

Earlier in the month we took the kids to San Diego for their fall break. Our friends the Roberts went with us. We were able to go to Legoland and the beach and also visited with some friends who live out there. It was a great time, not too far from home! The cooler weather was also nice!







After waiting for so long for her birthday (tell me about it, I waited so long to give birth to her!), the day finally came. I broke down and planned a party (not my favorite thing to do). Naturally it had to be a superman party. It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a PARTY!





Here is a better shot of the cake my friend Erica decorated for me. She is AMAZING and so nice to help!

In all the chaos I didn't get a chance to take a picture of all the kids and their capes. Speaking of AMAZING people, my mother-in-law helped me sew superman capes for all the kids. They went on a treasure hunt and found the capes at the end. I kid you not, the kids put those on and were running around the house in a circle for 15 minutes. It was so adorable.

Last but certainly not least, Halloween!!

Legs Lifts

This is what I get when I leave my mat out, little tiny leg lifts. I don't know whether to be pleased with myself for doing so many leg lifts that my baby now knows how to do them or a little disturbed that my baby would WANT to do leg lifts. At any rate she is super darling when she does them.

Escaping the Heat to Utah

**I apologize for these pictures being old now, but I have been so frustrated with blogger lately. I've tried a few times to update and it keeps deleting my photos. Does anyone else have this trouble?? Luckily we did just fine this time! Here is our trip from Utah in July:

Yes, we definitely escaped the heat on our trip up to Utah this year. They had perfect weather for us which we really appreciated. Here are some of the pictures from our trip in random order:

We had to celebrate the 4th without Tim this year. He had to finish some things down in Tucson and joined us about a week later. We borrowed the neighbors red golf cart to participate in my parent's neighborhood parade and 4th of July breakfast. Let me tell you, it was a huge hit with the kids!

Jenna LOVES these little shopping carts that they have at the grocery store by my parent's house. I want to know what it takes to get some at our local store??

I spent one evening catching up with old friends from my neighborhood growing up. It is such a privilege to count them as my friends. It is nice to know that there are people who knew me and put up with me way back then and still count me as a friend!

Eric turns nine! Nine is a hard year for me because I realize that I am half-way through raising this kid before he leaves off to college. There is so much to teach him, how can I be half-way done having him in my home???

Really, is it possible to own TOO MANY lego?

We went to a cowboy breakfast one Saturday with my brother and sister and their families. It was pretty fun!

My Mom had made all of these pioneer skirts and bonnets for the kids to play "pioneer" in. I believe they pioneer trekked it with the little wagon around the neighborhood until someone said "this is hard." I'm sure that was not the first time those words were uttered by a pioneer.

Grandma took these two pretty cousins to a wedding reception one evening.

Ah, life with three girls. You can never have enough play necklaces or dress-up shoes.

We spent one of the weeks of our vacation up in Park City at a family reunion with Tim's family. The whole family was able to make it. Lots of fun with cousins!

One afternoon we went up to the 2002 Olympic park which was super fun.

Tim rode the zip line twice with his brother Chris.

This was fascinating to watch ski-jumpers in training coming down the giant ski jump and land in the pool below.

Tim's sister took this picture of Lizzy all ready for the prayer on the dinner. Now if we could just get a certain almost four-year-old to do the same!

Fun trip to Utah this year, as you can see we had a lot going on. Everyone was happy to get home though. School started a mere two weeks later!

May Activities

May was such a crazy month that I am just now feeling calm enough about it to sit and write. It just felt like every day there were too many things to get done. Alas, it is over now, and here are the few pictures I managed to get:

Rachel and I went out to Tulsa, Oklahoma for my cousin Madeline's wedding. Cute Rachel got to be a flower girl. It was so much fun to spend time with my Mom, siblings and extended family. My brother, sister and I all fell in love with Tulsa.

Eric had his piano recital & did a GREAT job. I even dug deep and played a duet with him. It was a lot of fun!

Eric's favorite thing of the whole year - Father's & Son's camping trip with the church. He & Tim went fishing with some friends.

Rachel had her dance recital (no throwing up the night before this year...if you will remember last years episode). Rachel LOVES her picture taken if you can't guess. You'll notice our new fake grass she is sitting on. Totally doesn't even look fake even up close.

Mother's Day!

We were all so excited for school to get out and have been having a blast! Lots of swimming these days!

Funny Things

Couple of funny stories that I don't want to forget:

#1 - So on Saturday Eric had his piano recital, and Tim was in the lobby with Lizzy (she can't sit still to save her life). She was wearing a pink shirt with pink sequin sandals and this old man comes up to Tim (I'm not making this up) and says "Hey, is that your Son or your Grandson?" How do you respond to that? Tim was telling me this story later and says "I don't know what level to be offended on first." I don't know, maybe there are people out there who dress their boys in all pink. Really, Tim doesn't look THAT old! Do 37 year olds usually have grandsons? Grandsons who wear pink at that??

#2 - So the other day as the kids were leaving out the door for school Jenna yells to Eric "Good-bye Buddy and don't wet your big boy panties." Luckily Eric choose not to be offended or embarrassed and we all bust up laughing.

I can't resist adding this picture. Jenna thinks she is superman for some reason these days.

Easter with the Whites - and More Whites

We've had a super fun long Easter weekend here at our house. The White cousins (Tim's older brother David's family) came to visit from Las Vegas. It was a houseful of Whites! So fun catching up with Dave & Jonna and their family. We even let Eric and Rach miss a few days of school (it will give the other kids a chance to catch up I said :)). Here are a few highlights:

Hiking and playing in the water at Catalina State park.

One night we put all of the plastic Easter eggs in the pool and had a competition to see which team could gather the most. There actually was A LOT of swimming with the White cousins, who, we found out, are great swimmers! Jenna and Lizzy are in the middle of their ISR swim lessons, and the cousins got to watch one day. Here is a picture with Aunt Jonna & Lizzy. Lizzy, you will see, is sporting the most adorable swimsuit of the season. It came with this cutest swim hat which was an absolute bonus. It completes the synchronized swim look. She totally hams it up for pictures.

We had this fun bonfire the last night they were here and sang camp songs and roasted marshmallows. You'll note the dead grass which is driving me CRAZY. We are actually having fake grass installed this week. I've finally decided that we aren't meant to have grass here in the desert. Well, good looking grass that doesn't cost a fortune anyway.

These two crazy cousins didn't quite know what to think of each other. Lizzy and little Landon are about a month apart in age.

The day before everyone came we had a birthday girl. Little Rach (who is just growing up WAY too fast) turned 7. Happy birthday Rach!

Last but not least, here is a picture of Easter baskets this morning. Super fun and only half of the kids ended up with tummy aches. Next year perhaps we will monitor consumption a little more closely!

Valentine's Day

(Note: I tried to post this the morning of Valentine's Day, but was having blogger issues which have subsequently kept me away. Here it is at any rate, be it a few holidays late!)

Happy Valentine's Day! We are pretty excited around here.

Saturday was Lizzy's 1st birthday. Yes, I know, it is hard to believe she is one already! It has been a strange combination of a very long yet a very short year. She is such a sweetie and has been the most wonderful addition to our family. Everyone except her it seems was excited for her birthday. Although I take that back, Jenna was rather annoyed that someone else got to have a birthday when she desperately wanted one herself. I suppose it is tough to be three though. Here are some pictures from the small party we had.

Some Thoughts on a Tragedy

So I have been processing the events that happened here in Tucson a few weeks ago. The shootings happened about 15 mintues from our house in an area I am frequently in. Last Saturday was the first time I drove by the Safeway since the incident and it was such a somber feeling. I also happened to drive by Gabrielle's Tucson offices later that day and was amazed at all of the flowers and posters and stuffed animals out front. The news crew was still there. You tend to hear about these things happening in a far away location to someone else's congresswoman, but when it happens so close to home it is such a reminder of how fragile life is for all of us. I remember Sept. 11, 2001 watching the news that night as they were interviewing survivors thinking "WOW, these people just woke up and got ready for their day this morning as they normally do with no clue that in the evening they would be on the national news talking about the worst experience of their lives." We all have different missions in life and things that are indivdually important for us to learn. It sounds like an absolute miracle that Gabrielle was able to survive as she has. I wonder what missions she has left in life? What a reminder that life is so precious and we need to use our time here wisely. The night before the shooting I received an form email from Gabrielle's office inviting me to Safeway for her congresswoman on the corner get together. I remarked to Tim that it was one of those things that we should probably go to, although we never seriously made plans to. Gabrielle has not been the representative of my choice, but my prayers have certainly been with her and her family. Thank you again to all of you who have expressed concern for us! It still feels like the city is healing and trying to make sense of this and move on.

Thanksgiving in Utah

By request here are the pictures from our Thanksgiving trip to Utah. It was such a fun time. My sister-in-law Emily threw the most wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, everything was absolutely perfect. It was kind of Robert and Emily to host us all. As much fun as it was, it was nice to get back to our perfect 80 degree weather in Arizona. I still haven't had to run the heater in the house since we got back from that trip. Here are the pictures, I don't know what got into me, I usually don't take so many (in random order):

The kids table. Emily had plates made for each child that said some things they were thankful for.

I'm thankful for this little guy.....

...and for these two crazies who both have freakishly long tongues.....

...and for this one who has one of the kindest hearts. She loves her cousin Anna.....

...I'm even thankful for this one who has given me the biggest run-for-my-money I have ever experienced. LOVE you Jenna. Here she is with her cousin Ruthie who is about six weeks older....

...also, I am super thankful for wonderful parents who have made FABULOUS grandparents!

Here are all nine of my parents grandchildren. I pointed out to my mother a few months ago that she now has just as many grandchildren as HER mother has. Quite an accomplishment! It was purely coincidence that all the girls are wearing pink and the boys red. I kid you not! Also, yes, this picture was just as loud as it looks!

The beautiful table setting at the adult table.

Now, this is a picture of Robert, Tim and Carson doing a 3-man push-up. And yes, this picture too was just as noisy as it looks as well. Lots of grunting. See, this is a perfect example of what I keep telling Eric: You will have brothers one day too Eric! Doesn't this look like a brother thing to do. Way to go for the brother-in-laws!

Because the 3-man push-ups apparently weren't enough, Rob did some with the kids on his back.

Lizzy appears ready to bush any hair that might grow at any moment.

Coloring with the cousins.

Ah, the ever popular "Angry Bird" game on my new iPhone.

Lizzy with her precious cousin Lily.

We went down the MTC for church one Sunday (for those of you know know what the MTC is, my parents are in a branch presidency there and their children and grandchildren can attend church there on occasion). Cousins Paige, Lijah and Taylor came with us.

I thought this was so adorable. My little Arizona babies in awe at seeing the snow. They played in it a good five minutes before realizing that it was super cold and maybe they would come in.