Maggie's Dance Program

The last of our exciting events last week was Maggie's dance program. They learned a little dance to perform at the last class. She did a great job, although we learned from this experience how much she enjoys being the center of attention-- she couldn't keep her mouth closed to save her life! She always had a witty comment to make and is very different from Johnny in that she loves to have people watching her. I think we have ourselves a little performer! Her skills have really improved this year. She took this class with one of her little girlfriends and if she would learn to keep her mouth closed and listen to her teachers better I think she'd really learn a lot more. She's got great talent and we're looking forward to seeing her develop it even more in the next coming years.

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Johnny's Kindergarten Program

I have to say that I'm glad we got to experience Johnny's kindergarten program because it was a show we'll probably never witness again-- and I don't mean the kids! The spectacle the parents put on was absolutely crazy! These little kids were having a program for the last day of kindergarten and these parents were celebrating like it was high school! The view of the kids on stage was blocked by multiple balloon boquets, flowers, gifts, and people being too rude to sit so people behind them could see. We got there 15 minutes early and we were still in the back of the room. I'm disappointed in my pictures because I couldn't even fight my way to the stage to get a good shot. I tried to be as agressive as I could, but got held up about half way to the front of the room. Anyway, it was great to be there and Johnny did a wonderful job. I have no idea what the song was they performed that is in this video. His teacher this year was the greatest and he made so many good friends. Afterwards we were looking at his report card for the year and he excelled in everything he did. We're so proud of his developing social and academic skills, he's a different person than he was a couple years ago. It's great to see him get out of his comfort zone and really learn to adapt and he's done an amazing job! We're so grateful for the person he's growing into.
Johnny is on the top row.

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Maggie's Preschool Program

We were fortunate enough this year that Maggie was able to attend preschool in a home with one of our dearest friends as her teacher. We were blessed to become quick friends with a family in our ward named Brad & Amber Layton. They have a little girl, Annie, who is Maggie's age and a little boy, Jace, who is about Josie's age. Maggie enjoyed attending preschool with all her little friends from primary and especailly enjoyed having Miss Amber as her teacher. Miss Amber did a wonderful job of working with the kids and teaching them structure and a lot of great things through stories, singing, and interaction with each other. For the program each of the kids learned a nursery rhyme they had to recite using props. This was Maggie's in case you can't hear it in the video, "Three little kittens lost their mittens and they began to cry. Three little kittens found their mittens and they shall have some pie." She took one of her build-a-bear kitties with two little kittens on the side and put mittens on them and then had a pie to show. She did a great job, no fear at all! It was a great program and great to have Micki & Spence there with us.

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Spencer & Micki Visit Tucson

We're getting spoiled now by all our visitors! We had such a wonderful time with Spencer and Micki's visit. It was so great to have them here to be able to go to both the kids end-of-year programs and to the program Maggie's dance class prepared for the last class. We visited some fun places and got to take them to Mexico for both of their first times. Micki was sad that she didn't get a MEXICO stamp in her passport, where we went wasn't high class enough, just a little border town. We got to take them to our favorite local places to eat and one of our favorites was a little restaraunt inside one of the Casino's that we went to for breakfast on Monday morning. There was more food than we knew what to do with! The kids were happy as could be and Micki was very patient to let them follow her around and to share her lap. I'm sure they were so glad to be home after as much loving from the kids as they could handle! Josie had Micki manipulated every time we got into the car to put the DVD player down so she could watch it. She may not talk, but she knows how to get what she wants! We enjoyed lots of good fun and had a great time warming up at cards and Settler's of Catan again after a year-long break! We're so grateful to them for coming to visit, we enjoyed their company so much. We're looking forward to spending more time together a month from now. The question is, are you ready for us ...???

Uncle Ben comes to visit ...

It was so much fun to have Uncle Ben come and visit us in Tucson a couple of weeks ago. The kids were so excited to see him and asked repeatedly each day, "how much longer until Uncle Ben comes again?" It's amazing the bond a family has to each other. Ben thought the kids wouldn't even know who he was, but they remembered and the best thing is, they'll probably never forget him! It was great to have some one-on-one time and get to go see a few fun things, but we really appreciated getting to spend time together. Being far away has made us appreciate our families so much more and we are so anxious to get back so we can be together again. Thanks Ben for coming to visit, had a great time with you!


In the parking lot at Old Tucson Studios we saw a hungry coyote eating an apple.


We visited Mission San Xavier del Bac, which is a landmark of Tucson. It is a very old Mission which is still used today. It was interesting going inside, the kids weren't sure what to make of it. The best part was the fry bread with cinnamon and sugar that made by some local Native Americans.

Water Day!!

During the last week of school all the kindergarten classes upheld their annual "water day" tradition by inviting the local fire department to come cool off all the kids by spraying water from their hose while the kids run underneath. It was so much fun and we got to bring Maggie too. She wasn't sure she wanted to wear her swimsuit until she saw the other kids enjoying the water and then she said, "Did you bring my swimming suit just in case?" Too late! After the kids were all soaked they cooled off with a local Tucsonian treat called an EGEE. John says they're the closest thing to Italian Water Ice he's ever tasted, we just know they're cold and yummy! Johnny had a great time getting wet with his friends and we took a lot of pictures so we'll be able to remember all the fun memories he made from kindergarten in Tucson this year!

Happy Mother's Day!

Wow, it seems like I just published a post about myself, well, I'll do it again. That's what I get for having my holidays lumped together! Mother's Day was fabulous, as usual and I got spoiled and pampered by my sweet family. I woke up to breakfast in bed. I told Johnny that if Daddy asked what to make me for breakfast to tell him French Toast, and he did his job well! I had French Toast and fresh strawberries, it was wonderful. John took Josie all through church and took her to Young Men's even though he was teaching. I came home and got to take a nap while he and the kids worked on dinner and they all cleaned it up while I just sat and relaxed. Later on we had some friends come over for some yummy dessert John made and we played some games and enjoyed the company. I'm grateful for my thoughtful family and loved all the gifts and pampering. We're also so grateful for our mothers, we are so blessed to have such loving mothers and great examples. We love you so much! We're looking forward to being closer next year to be able to celebrate together!

Our crazy Josie!

Josie is definately the life of the party in our family! She adds a lot of life, smiles, and joy in our home and she keeps us on our toes all the time! Here are a few crazy pictures we've recently taken of her. She started doing the funniest dance I have yet to capture on video, she's a little camera shy.

For a week she would climb in her closet and play with this swing, I finally got it out for her and she'd climb in and out of it and was so proud of herself. She didn't like it that much as a baby!

Josie loves to wear jewelry and tease Maggie. She took Maggie's Hello Kitty and held onto it just waiting for a reaction which she eventually got. She's standing up now all by herself and walking around furniture and walls all the time, hopefully she'll soon be brave enough to take a couple steps on her own!

One interesting thing about Josie is how much she loves to play with her toys. I never have a problem buying her something new because she spends so much time figuring things out and she is always very entertained with each toy we get out for her. I keep saying I'm going to take a video of her with her Playskool Ball Popper and send it to them because she's better than a commercial!

Today we put out a little pool for the kids to help beat the heat and Josie played in it with them until they were ready to get out. She can open the sliding glass door by herself and later we found her outside sitting by herself in the pool, clothes and all. She was as thrilled and proud as could be, we'll have to keep a better eye on her!

She is just about the sweetest thing ever and we love her to peices, craziness and all!

Johnny's Kindergarten Play

We were able to go see the whole Kindergarten put on a play at Johnny's school last week, it was so great! I have no idea what it was about because I couldn't see or hear very well so I'll have to watch the tape John took of it, but here are some cute pictures. Every class was a different animal and they had one night where they met at the school and made these masks. It was a great project to get the parents involoved and they turned out great! We had a lot of fun and he's loved his class and teacher and we couldn't have asked for a better educational/social experience for him in Tucson this year!

Mesa Temple 5-6-2007

Yesterday morning we left our hotel to go find the Mesa Temple. It was so great to visit the grounds and go through the Visitor's Center. It has been a long time since we've been able to visit the temple and it was a great thing to do to complete our trip. The kids loved all the "Splash Pools" and flowers around the temple grounds. We even saw an orange tree, but unfortunately the batteries died in our camera when we went to take a picture of it. It was wonderful to see other families around and to feel the spirit and peacefulness around the temple. We're looking forward to being a lot closer so we can visit more often.

Happy Birthday to me ...

This year my birthday fell on a Sunday, which turned out to be very profitable for me because we actually made it last for the whole weekend! Saturday morning John was anxious for me to unwrap the presents he had for me before we left for our over-night trip to Phoenix. The card was hilarious, he couldn't find any English cards so he completed the Tucson birthday experience for me with a card in Spanish. Anyway, he was so thoughtful and the card said, "If I had a dollar for every good thing you did it would never be enough, but here's a start ...", so as I unwrapped my presents there was a 12 pack of Diet Coke, a bag of Doritos, Reeces Peanut Butter cups, Junior Mints, all my favorite junk food each with a stack of 25 brand new $1 bills. It was so sweet, so I definately got spoiled and I'm excited to spend my birthday money. After we left we went shopping at the outlets and then we went to IKEA, which was heavenly! Later that afternoon we checked into our hotel and got ready and left for the baseball game. We made lots of fun memories and we're grateful for all the fun times we've been able to have here. We're looking forward to more birthdays spent with our families, but we had a good time being here this year! Thanks for all the cards, phone calls, and gifts, it was definately a year to remember!

Go Diamondbacks!

We have some good friends here that got us tickets to go see the Arizona Diamondbacks vs. the Mets on Saturday night. The seats were excellent, on the 27th row. We had such a fun time at the game even though the Diamondbacks lost! The kids were great and enjoyed the excitement and the good food. Going to see a baseball game was one more thing we wanted to do to complete our Arizona experience that we were able to do before we move and we had a great time!