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!

What kind of flower are you??

I am a Sunflower What Flower Are You?

One of my friends had this posted on her blog and I thought it would be fun so I went ahead and took it. The results are flattering saying, "When your friends think smile, they think of you. There is not a day that goes by that you can't find something good about the world and your fellow human." Maybe I lied too much on the test answers! Take it and see what kind of flower you are!

Losing Teeth & Growing Teeth

Well, Johnny's mouth is one tooth less today. He lost his first tooth yesterday and was as proud as could be. He could hardly wait every day for this tooth (that has been loose for 2 months) to fall out. He saw one of his friends at school loose a tooth and get a little treasure box from the nurse to put it in so he kept saying, "I sure hope I loose my tooth at school so that I can get a little treasure box for it." He thought it was the coolest thing, and then at lunch yesterday while biting into his corndog, out it came and he got his great orange treasure box to put it in. He was so excited to see how much money the tooth fairy would bring. I must say, she's more generous now than when I lost my teeth as a kid. I think I used to only get a quarter, but he got a dollar! Must be inflation! Now that Johnny is losing his teeth, Josie is finally growing some. In the past month she has cut about 9 (#9 will probably be all the way through by tomorrow). It has been miserable for both her and I. She has both bottom, top, and one molar in all 4 corners and now a top eye tooth is making its way in with the rest probably close behind. She looks so much older with teeth (pardon her crazy hair that just makes her look crazy, I can't get her to keep in her pony tails). Anyway, this weekend Johnny is going on his first scout camp-out with his dad, he thinks he's so grown up to get to hang out with the scouts. We'll have a girls weekend here, Maggie really wants to rent the new SpongeBob movie, go figure. It's because she's already seen every episode on TV and won't watch anything else. Should be a very exciting weekend!

Easter Picture Re-Do ...

Easter picture re-dos!

So last Sunday our pictures kind of fizzled, so yesterday we re-did our Easter dress and took more pictures. It was a really windy day, so it wasn't the best of conditions, but we have a nice patch of grass outside our door that makes it look like we don't live in the desert and you can't see all the dust blowing around. It was a good place for pictures. Unfortunately no matter what we did Josie slept through it all, so I've added her picture from Micki's last week. Now I feel better about all the money I spent on their nice, new clothes!!

Easter 2007

I really feel like I failed my Motherly duties to take a million beautiful pictures of my kids all dressed up in their new Easter clothes for pictures. So, this is what we have. But, after the way I felt Saturday I guess we were even lucky to get everyone in their clothes, let alone make it to church on time. We appreciate Micki & Spencer for the lunch and letting us come get ready at their house, we love spending time with them. Next week we're doing Easter dress over so that we can take some more pictures. So when I post Easter pictures twice, you'll know why!

Easter Egg Hunt 2007

Maggie was mad because she didn't find the "silver" egg with the dollar in it. Johnny did. See the difference on their faces? We all had a successfull Easter Egg Hunt this year. The kids ended up with more treats than they could eat and all ended up happy. Except Mommy. Maybe Mommy had too many treats because Mommy had the flu and was throwing up all day. Which is why Josie never quite made it out of her pajamas on Saturday. Daddies don't know the difference, so it just doesn't matter.



















Everyone had a good time and it was great to enjoy everyone's company. We appreciate all the family that came back for the 2nd round to get the other half of their treats so we could spend more time together!

Hidden talents ...

Josie found her new favorite toy while at Grandma's house. We do believe that she's showing great talent in this new area. She's learning to sing before she can even walk! Who cares if she's behind in walking? Isn't that when all the great stars say they learned? She had a good time putting on a show for us all and was quite proud of herself. And we'd like to thank Aunt Micki for all the encouragement!

Hogle Zoo 4-2007

We went to the Hogle Zoo on Thursday, April 4th with our good friends Kendra, Brody, Dallin & Ella. We had so much fun being able to spend time together. Of course I get home and regret instantly all the pictures that I missed. I really wanted family pictures and pictures of the kids together and pictures of baby Brody, who was so good at the zoo!

I couldn't resist the shot from behind of their cute rears!










Such good little friends!

My Little Pony Worlds Largest Tea Party

Maggie and I were able to spend some quality girl time together today at the My Little Pony World's Largest Tea Party. We bought our tickets about a month ago and they've been showing the commercials on TV forever, so we've been waiting for a long time for this day to come. We were able to share it with our friends Amber & her daughter, Annie. The girls were about as thrilled with their new pony wands and cotton candy as they were to watch the ponies! It was such a cute story and a perfect legnth of time and the price we paid was well worth it for the fun memories we made today!

This week ...

This week ...
Josie finally cut another bottom tooth, a top tooth that decided it wasn't quite ready to make it's final appearance and disappeared, and a big, huge molar. We couldn't figure out why she wasn't sleeping well, but when we saw that big tooth, mystery solved! The other reason she wasn't sleeping good is because she has bronchitis again. The good thing about her being sick again is that we got our own nebulizer with 50 more premixed doses of albuterol, so it should last for quite awhile and save us many doctor visits! We're giving her breathing treatments twice a day to hopefully keep it from turning into pneumonia again. But, she gained two pounds and at almost 14 months old she now weighs in at a whopping 18.7 lbs.!! I can tell because it is getting harder to get her in and out of bed, high chair, and car seat. Through it all, she sure is cute and happy and just content with it all. What more could you ask for?


This week Maggie started gymnastics again and a ballet/tumble class. She really is showing great signs of improvement and I'm really impressed and pleased with her progress. She enjoys the social interaction and loves the time she gets to spend with her friends. She also got a hair"trim" on Saturday. We don't ever CUT her hair, she just gets trims. It's also started to curl quite a bit, I never would've noticed because I've never left it down before! I've heard many comments on how much older it makes her look to have her hair down. I think I need to leave it down more to let the little broken peices grow out and get it healthy again.



Johnny is continuing to do great in school. His reading skills have improved so much this year. He is now reading street signs and menu items and anything he can find and is so proud of himself. His teacher has great things to say about his progress this year and we're so proud of him. His nintendo skills are also improving from lots of practice in case you're wondering. We all have our priorities!

Johnny's Last Soccer Game

Johnny had his last soccer game this past Saturday. His team improved so much over the season and did really great! I guess that is what happens when you have it 3 times a week (which I won't miss at all)! Johnny's favorite thing was gaurding the goal. He did a great job his last game playing for the purple team because they didn't have enough people show up. We also enjoyed spending the season with our friends that are moving to Tennessee at the end of the school year. We're glad to have met them and had our kids be friends while we were here. After the game his coach put on a big party at a place called Bedroxx. It is like Peter Piper x 50, plus bowling. The kids had a really good time, but our friends went up to Phoenix to the temple for the day so they weren't there and we didn't really know anyone else. We tried to fit in and mingle a little, but it was hard. There are so many cultural differences here that make the whole experience so different. The coach was also having a birthday party at the same time so if you can imagine all the family members, friends, plus soccer kids, it was crazy! But they spent a lot of money on the kids to have a nice party and they got to bowl and play the games and have cake and pizza. At the end everyone got their soccer medal, trophy, and certificate. Johnny was beaming at his first trophy and wore his medal all day yesterday. It's too hot now to do soccer again, but we're proud of his improvements and look forward to the next activity!

Enjoying the sunshine!

Reid Park Zoo
March 7, 2007

The kids got out of school early last Wednesday so I called a few of my friends and we all went to lunch at McDonald's and the zoo. It was 87 degrees that day and we had a good time enjoying the sunshine! Our time here is winding down quickly and we're not ready to go and leave our friends here. The kids have made such sweet friends, as have I, and I'm so grateful and we'll miss them so much. I wish I had more pictures of the actual zoo, but with 11 kids there, I think we were the zoo!

Upcoming Plans ...

Plans for the future ...
Sorry, no pictures this time. We just wanted to send an update as to our future plans (if all works out according to plan). We were finally officially denied by BYU-I. We knew it was coming, it is just a relief to have out of the way so that we can make some headway in our future. We will be moving from the great desert of Tucson on June 30 back to Provo, Utah. When we get there, we'll share Mom & Dad Livingstone's basement for about a month or as long as it takes until we can HOPEFULLY find a house or place of our very own to stay for longer than 3 years, because that is the longest so far that we've lived anywhere! We're really looking forward to the change and we have great faith that we will be where we are supposed to be. We're taking a trip up to Utah from April 4-9th so that John can meet with his future employer and nail down some firm plans with the business. He'll be able to work at the practice while he finishes his dissertation, graduates, and works on his licensing hours. We feel very blessed and we're excited to be back to the home that we knew for seven years before coming down here, because it really feels like home to us.

Update on Josie

Update on our little Josie Ann:





















Josie is doing really well and recovering nicely. Thanks to all of you for the calls and prayers on her behalf, I really feel like she wouldn't have pulled out if it so quickly without you all. She is so funny, we laugh at her every day! She learned last week how to pull herself up on EVERYTHING and finally this week she learned how to get down once she's up. She loves to spy on the kids in the shower, it makes them laugh. She also cut her first tooth last week while Grandma & Grandpa were here!! I was worried we'd have a toothless kid! One of her top teeth is on the verge of cutting real soon and it's making her a bit miserable because it is so big and pushing so hard on her gums. She is so sweet and so funny and she's excited to have a new baby girl cousin, Ashley. She's lucky to have little girls on both sides of the family to play with! We can't wait to be closer so she can really teach them a few tricks!

Visiting Tucson 2007

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
February 22, 2007
The weather was beautiful this day! It got up to 78 degrees and we had to take sunscreen for the kids but poor little Maggie's little cheeks still ended up pink! Grandma gave Maggie the map and the first thing she did was find the ice cream shop and the present shop (gift shop). She did enjoy a few things inbetween, mostly the otters. She loved going underground and watching them swim, they were the favorites, they made all the kids smile! Grandma was so nice to buy Josie a new stroller, I think she'd had it with the 6-year old umbrella stroller she pushed around Old Tucson Studios! So Josie was comfortable and we used the new stroller as our pack mule to carry everything we brought. This musuem is actually more like a zoo, it is rated one of the top 5 in the country and is really a site to see if anyone wants to come and go with us! We're so glad that we could do all these fun things! We also went to Tombstone, I regret that I didn't get any pictures of that, and John, my dad, and I visited Nogales, Mexico (I don't regret not getting pictures of that!), but we found knock-off purses, jewelry, and the best vanilla! John and my dad also went to the Air & Space Museum and had a good time there, and we enjoyed eating Sonoran hot dogs, lots of blizzards from Dairy Queen, and the best cheesecake we've ever tasted! We're so grateful they came and we enjoyed every minute of their time here and we look forward to more visitors. To entice you a little bit, the weather the first week of March is looking to be in the low to mid 80's!