A Rhys update

Rhys is now six months old. I can't believe how big my baby is already.

This was taken on our walk to pick Ella up from preschool. I was sure he'd stay awake...

Rhys can stay in a sitting position, but cannot get into a sitting position on his own.

I love this picture for many reasons. First is his hair. Rhys always has hair sticking up. Second is that he looks like he's been caught doing something he shouldn't be doing...like eating food instead of nursing. I had a hard time coping with him starting to eat "real" food, but now I've come to terms with it.

Enjoying his first swing ride.

Rhys is showing me more each day how he is different from his older brother and sister. Case in point: he rolls over as a form of mobility. Ella and Eli would only roll over if they were on their stomachs and wanted to be on their backs. Rhys rolls all over the house. I love it!

I love my baby Rhys.

fire trucks and blue cupcakes

My big boy is three!!!!

And he really is a big boy. Eli is potty trained (Yay) and has a big boy bed too. He is 39 inches tall and is trying to eat more so that he can grow one more inch before we go to Disneyland in June (a surprisingly good motivation to get my boy to eat something-anything for dinner.)

We celebrated Eli's birthday on March 6th. See how happy he is?

Eli loved all of his presents. The coloring book is from Ella. The firetruck is from me. (As the one who buys all the presents I get to choose the best gift to be from me.)

Chris gave Eli this fishing pole. This was the first time he had seen the present since I am the lucky one who gets to plan these birthday things while Chris gets to work all the time. I was glad he enjoyed the present as much as Eli did. Sadly the $2 fishing pole lasted only two days before Eli managed to destroy it.

Eli cannot blow out candles. If you look closely you can see that his blowing technique is sub par. He ended up needing help to blow them out.

Eli wanted blue cupcakes for his birthday. He decided this at Ella's birthday party back in November because she had pink cupcakes. I was shocked that he remembered his request, but he was adamant that he get them. So I decided to use blue food coloring. And apparently I need to go back to preschool because I added blue food dye to yellow cake mix and made green cupcakes. Eli didn't care though because the frosting (white frosting plus blue dye) was blue.

A few side bar comments: Yes, Eli is wearing a tank top in March -we do live in Tucson. But really he had to wear this shirt because it has Spider-man on it. Also I am glad that he loves his firetruck. Really, I am relieved that I was able to give it to him. He started asking for one in January and I, luckily, had already bought him one in December. When does a mother's plan coincide with her son's desire? I should mention that it is not a good idea to let your son bring his toy firetruck on car rides since he will push the buttons that make loud fire truck noises and give you a panic attack when you think that you are being pulled over by an invisible police car.

my gymnists

Ella and Eli love to go to gymnastics. Eli has an outlet for all his energy, has learned to do summersaults, and is working on his balance on the balance beam. Ella has gained a lot of arm strength as she practices her hand stands and cartwheels. She is (in my opinion) impressively good at the balance beam.

They recently had an observation day and I took a lot of video. But I feel lazy and won't be loading the video for you to see (unless you request it). Here are the three pictures I did take:

See how happy he is to do gymnastics?

This is Ella on the balance beam. I thought the lighting was cool in this shot.

You can see some of the gym equipment in the background. It is a great facility.

I sure hope that we can find a gym in Corpus Christi.

When dad's away...

Chris spent the month of January in New Zealand. Since I am not one to sit around and wait for him to come back, I decided to go on vacation too. So the kids and I spent three weeks up in Utah--not quite as exotic as New Zealand, but to kids who live in the desert the idea of snow was very exciting.

Snow. Well, there wasn't actually that much snow there when we arrived. It was a nice 50 degrees and the only snow was on the edges of lawns where you know it was piled up when the shoveling was done. This did not deter my children's enthusiasm though--they went straight outside to have a snowball fight:

We had to adjust to having a dog around. Milo is a beautiful Silver Lab who was very excited to have kids around to play with. Ella and Eli had to learn that running from the dog just made him chase you more. And Rhys was very patient as Milo kept kept licking his hair. I thought this picture was funny because Milo tried so hard to get into the photo. He is, after all, part of the family:


One requirement of a winter trip to Utah is to go skiing. And we did. We went up Big Cottonwood Canyon and found SNOW! Ella was happy to cross country ski and Eli was happy to stomp around in his boots. Rhys was content to be carried in his sling. It was freezing up there with the wind blowing and the snow falling so we didn't last very long. We Arizonans aren't made for that kind of cold.



Our favorite venue to visit was the Church History Museum. I loved that it is free. The kids loved that it was so fun. There are interactive displays that rival what you would find in a children's museum. Ella love, love, loved the dancing section. It was meant to teach a story about a girl who had the courage to dress modestly. She spent hours dancing:


It was a nice vacation for me because I could have others hold the baby and give me a break. I was able to go to two U of U basketball games and a gymnastics meet. I was even able to play games with my family and not have to hold Rhys the whole time (remember, it was tricky to just set him down since Milo wanted to bathe him with kisses.) Here is Grandpa holding Rhys:


I had to include this picture...Eli is singing to Rhys.

I was able to see Sarah's new apartment. It is darling. Seriously. I liked this picture of us playing Mexican Train because everyone is so focused and awkwardly bent over to see their pieces.

I know you are wondering how I did it. How did one mother take three young children on two not direct flights to and from Utah? Well, I had help. Ella may only be five, but she is a huge help. See, she even held Rhys so I could put my seat belt on:

an early Christmas present

I would like to thank Grandma and Grandpa Oregon for the fantastic Christmas presents they sent us. I know it is no yet Christmas, but we did open the boxes and the kids love them.

A Tucson way of celebrating

As this is my last year living in Tucson I have made it a point to celebrate the Tucson way.

My first step was to visit Winterhaven. This is a neighborhood that goes all out with their outdoor Christmas lights. One even had a dancing light and water canon display! It was fun to walk around with the family...so glad that it is warm here.


The next trip we made was to La Encentada for their "enchanted snowfall." You can't get more Tucson than this: We stood on fake grass while fake snow fell on us. Wow. I found this particularly humorous.

Here is Ella enjoying the "snow"

Here's a picture of the so called snow.

Yes, I had fun. Yes I would still chose the seventy degree weather and fake snow over twenty degree weather and real snow. I just won't be seeking out this fake snow anymore.

Merry December

I would like to begin this post with a picture of my youngest:

Rhys at six weeks.

And now for our Christmas happenings:

On November 23rd we bought and trimmed our Christmas tree.

Look! A picture with me in it.

December 4th was the ward Christmas party and my older kids got to ride a train to see Santa!

Ella asked Santa for a "stuffed bear that is purple" and a barbie.

Eli asked for a robot.

I like to plan ahead. And with a new baby in the family I've been planning Christmas presents way in advance. The purple bear and robot requests were way off the radar. Santa, if you read this blog, please help me!