The Holmes Granparents visit!

So my Bday was a mixture of feelings. I spent half the morning crying, because I missed going out to lunch with sisters, and playing with friends, and my usual B day partying! I miss my home. All of my stuff is here, but it's certainly not quite feeling like home. Then Chris and Dave took pity on me and took me out to lunch. Then the parents arrived in the afternoon and we finished the evening off with a visit to the Cheesecake Factory! Can't top that! Thanks to all of you who called! It means a lot! I miss all of you dearly! So this is one of the funniest Bday cards I have ever received! It is courtesy of my kind, big sister, Susie! This certainly helped to pick up my mood!















We have lawn in our back yard! I wonder how long it will take Thatcher to throw all of the rocks ONTO the yard!
Grandpa Holmes and Thatcher kickin' it on the couch! Grandma brought some cute cars for the kids, one of which included a pig. Thatcher carries this around all day (and night) and affectionately refers to his as his "moo"!
Did I mention that while Chris was in Vegas for work, I was installing some blinds, and Thatcher and Gretchen got into a little miff, and she bit him? Nice, huh!

Thatcher enlisted some help from Gretchen this time!














For Sunday dinner:

To waive off some loneliness this weekend we had a crew over for dinner. Chris's step siblings (3 of the 4) and their kids, and Dave and Char, and cousin Jonathan. It went great! We had fun and managed to fit everyone without any major disasters! I made chicken enchiladas (my new oven cooks faster so I only mildly burned the bottom, sorry again guys) and those tasty orange rolls - always a hit! Dave nearly knocked me over with hugs and kisses when he saw I had made them! He also misses having meals at Susie's with the whole fam and their cooking! For those who are interested, here are those recipes:
Chicken Enchiladas
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 pint sour cream
1 tsp. onion powder
1 (2¼ oz.) can chopped or slice olives (optional)
1 (4 oz.) can diced green chilies
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed(opt)
3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and cubed (bake drizzled with olive oil or butter and sprinkled with onion powder, garlic salt and pepper, at 350 degrees until thickest part of meat is 170 degrees)
8-10 flour tortillas, cut into bite-sized pieces
¾ lb. grated cheddar cheese

Mix soups, sour cream, onion, olives, black beans, and green chilies. Add chicken and stir. Place half of tortilla pieces in bottom of a greased 9X13 pan. Spread half of chicken mixture over tortillas. Sprinkle half of cheese over mixture. Repeat layers. Bake uncovered 45-60 min. @ 350˚.

Favorite Orange Rolls
1 c. sugar
2 Tbl. Orange juice
½ c. butter
Combine above ingredients until sugar dissolves. Pour over 2 packages SMALL(the large don't work) hungry jack biscuits in a round bundt pan. Bake @ 350 for 18-25 min.

Holy MONSOON!!

So I believe I have experienced my first Arizona Monsoon! As I drove to pick Gretchen up from school it started to pour. I ran into the school carrying Thatcher (we have to walk in to pick up the kids. Usually it is outside but today they were inside.) Thatcher was giggling as we ran in and got soaked!


I tracked Gretchen down and she was bawling! I guess she got kinda misplaced with the teachers or something and then the thunder and rain, anyway she was upset. We waited inside for a bit hoping it would die down. It didn't so I ran out again with Thatcher giggling. By the time I got to the car I was ankle deep in water! It was like I had backed into a lake to pull in a boat! Gretchen waited inside for me to pull the car up closer. She cried while we ran out and got drenched! As luck would have it, the rain started to let up as we drove home (of course!). Here is a photo of our subdivision's usually dry grassy area, and the mail truck waiting for the water to run off the street so he could drive through. I was grateful to have the truck and pounded through! Gretchen then thought it was fun cause we splashed so much water around! But then she made me pull in the garage so she could get out and not get wet! Ah, what are we to do with her?

Here's Gretch posing at a quaint little fountain at a mall!

So I bought some raisins at Gretchen's request. She has since informed me that she allergic to them because when she tries to eat them it starts to make her throw up a little in her throat!.

Fixed piano, and lots of markers!

As I was working on my last post, I turned around to notice this . . . . Thank heavens for dry erase markers! They clean up in a breeze!

After I yelled and punished, he was sitting so quietly in the corner doing this. . . . It's a good thing he's so dang cute! Cause he's naughty!!

Yeah! the piano is fixed! It's been quite the hit. Gretchen plays everyday, especially the player part. We didn't have room to move down any of the rolls, and I think the piano fixit man felt pity and donated one! I am kinda getting sick of the one song. . .
I just wanted to post an often viewed image at our house of our tantrum throwing, screaming baby. He's starting kicking and rolling on the ground and everything! I'm sure you are very sad to be missing out on those!

Jammin' in AZ

Thatcher has been LOVING to sweep! (I still haven't figured out how to rotate pictures, so just rotate your head if you don't mind! I'll keep working on it!)
We received a fun package from Grandma Holmes that included some activity books for the kids. Thatcher's had stickers which he immediately put to use!
We snuck in a swim in the vacant neighbors pool! It was kinda gross and green - next time I think we'll wait until it's been cleaned!
Everyday we go pick up Gretchen at school and wait at this fence until the teacher brings her out to the locked gate. There is some good security - makes me feel a little better about leaving my litttle girl!
He discovered an empty cabinet for a hiding place!
So Sydney turned Gretchen on to "Camp Rock" and she lives and breathes it. Grandma Holmes gave her the CD just before we left Salt Lake and I think she jammed to it nearly the whole way down. Shortly after we got tv, it was on and Chris recorded it for her. So here is a video of her jammin' out with her rockin' dance moves. FYI: Gretchen just said to me in her usual whiny voice, "Mom, I keep farting and it stinks!" Ha, Ha!

More Thatcher without Gretchen. . .

( Thatcher seems to find things to do while Gretchen is at school) So I made another IKEA trip and got some organizing items. Thatcher thought you were supposed to sit INSIDE the box to play with the toys!
I was putting felt sticky things on the bottom of chairs and such to avoid scratches and I looked down and Thatcher had put them on his chin! It's an awesome felt beard!

His next magic trick included hiding this misc. hard plastic item. It was up his nose! A good distance, too. I had to pin him down and pull it out with tweezers! Gross!

Monday, August 18, 2008

So despite the fact that we have no landscaping, we are continuously showered with petals at our front door! It's like we were meant to be royalty! But . . . where's the red carpet?

The only thing better is the enormous spider we found upon our arrival home Saturday night. And it was carrying a sack full of babies that flew everywhere upon the spiders smashing! It was the best arrival home present ever.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008. Piano work sucks!

I know I'm not supposed to say sucks, according to my mother, but piano tuning sucks! First I called one guy, as recommended by Char, and he came out and then said he wouldn't tune a player piano. So I made an appointment with someone that he recommended. He came out, played around a bit and gave me a long education lesson on pianos and caring for them. So I was gifted the player piano that my parents gave me as part of my inheritence (even though I kept telling them inheritence is for when you pass on), and it's the cool player piano that I grew up with and learned to play on. They bought it in the 70's (so it has some awesome colored glass) and have had a handful of tunings on it since. Well, apparently, it is supposed to have the "action" worked on every 10-20 years, so we are well overdue. This is a mere $500.00! I know, I know, costs seem to be coming out of everywhere these days! Well, feeling like I have neglected my God given talent, I consented to the piano work. It better be great that's for sure! It takes about a week and then an estimated 3 hours to put it back together and tune it up. So I'll let you know next week! But I wanted to show you some photos of the naked piano!


Pretty hot stuff, huh!

Check out this action!

Monday, August 11, 2008. Thatcher hangs while Gretch is at school.

So quite a few people have asked me what Thatcher does while Gretchen is at school. Here is one preview. . . .


Yeah, so those are Tinkerbell shades. He's pretty stylin' I know!

A few more Arizona facts:
1. It is not possible to wear regular mascara. The sweat smears it and you look like crap. (or maybe I just look like crap. Or maybe just cry too much!)
2. Body lotion is optional. Apparently sweat works just as well.
3. Post offices are amazingly scummy. Apparently cleanliness is optional, like body lotion.
4. Circle K's are frequently placed, and more often than not, have run out of cups.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Church is at 8 a.m.! Phew! We were of course late. But it seems to be a very nice ward. There are approximately 200 kids in the primary! In our ward in Salt Lake there were about 30, and 4 young women. This ward has 50! So it is much bigger. I am kind of hoping to hide out for awhile without a calling! It might be kinda nice to just go and listen and not have to work.

So the first week we went to church, Gretchen had a melt down and wouldn't go to primary. This week, she found her "new best friend," Jackson. He is also in her kindergarten class, and I think she has a little crush. Once she could sit next to him, she went to primary happily!

I think Sundays will be the hardest to be away from our families in Salt Lake because we usually spent so much time with them. Charai and Bri were kind enough to invite us over for Dr. Pepper roast which was so tasty! I got the recipe and am excited to try it out. It may be one of the best roasts I've ever had (no disrespect to anyone else who was cooked roasts and invited us over, of course!). But it was nice to visit with them and have our kids play with some of their cousins!

Friday, August 8, 2008, Playground!

There are two awesome playgrounds one block from our house in each direction. It finally cooled off enough that we could go check 'em out.

The kids had loads of fun.

It took a few mintues, but Thatcher discovered that he could throw the sand. It was of course toasty out, so he was sweaty (unusual for him, I know), and the sand was like a magnet for his head! It took about three days to get all of the sand off his head and out of his ears!

More New House Pictures!

More pictures - I will post some more when everything is unpacked and arranged!

Master Bath -

The Guest Room - it's available, in a semi perfect state, at your convienience! Come on down!

New House Pictures!

I wanted to post some more photos of our house - don't mind the mess and boxes and stuff all over! (I made sure to hide all the panties!)

The great room and kitchen.

The kids chowin' some apples on the back patio.

The front of the house - I love it except for the fact that the truck is too long to fit in the garage! Hence it is a permanent item in the driveway!

I LOVE the front door!! It is awesome!

The master bath -

New Job and New appliances!

Chris's First Day of Work! There was plenty of crying and kicking and screaming, but he is doing better day to day.


Aren't these some of the most beautiful things you have ever seen? We have been without a washer or dryer or a fridge since we moved in last week! Luckily we made an awesome swap before we moved - our snowblower for Lindsay and Kete's spare freezer - and we able to keep some cold items, but man were we out of clean clothes! Thatcher has been sleeping without a shirt on, and wearing pants that are more like shants! But no longer - these are the awesomest cleaning machines ever! And the fridge - our kitchen was made to fit a custom fridge - they are like a mere $5,000 and the tight wad in our family, me, wouldn't splurge. (and since I am new to blogging I can't figure out how to rotate the pic, so just rotate your head!)

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL, August 4, 2008

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! Desert Mountain Elementary in Queen Creek, Arizona now has the pleasure of a student named Gretchen Holt!

There was plenty of tears and kicking and screaming, and Gretchen cried, too. (Ha Ha) She is doing better day to day and is very excited when she comes home, just not at the drop off. Kindergarten is full day, 8:15-2:50, and it is a big change! It's nice and sweaty, but they don't let them go outside if it's over 105 degrees. I guess that's when Arizonians (or however, I haven't decided what they call, or I guess WE call, ourselves!) consider it hot! We are learning new ways to deal with the heat and record fast buckling of the seat belt - so you don't have to have contact with it for more than a few nanoseconds!

A few tips I never knew about Phoenix - so first of all we live in Queen Creek, which is a suburb of Mesa, which is a suburb of Phoenix. It's pretty giant out here. Anyway, It is actually HUMID here in the summer because of monsoon rains. Water from the faucet is hot and hotter because the water pipes run through the attic! (we are going to have to come up with a different last resort discipline of the cold shower, seeing as we don't have cold water!) Grass is optional in a yard. Super Target is approximately every 1.3 miles - not that I am complaining - and gas stations are incredibly hard to locate. One more thing, it is actually possible to sweat from every pore in your body!

HELLO August 1, 2008

WELCOME! We made it! This is our new home in Queen Creek, Arizona. Chris drove the moving truck by himself with NO A/C!! I can't believe he is still alive. (by the way Budget kindly refunded us all of $75.00 for the lack of a/c) The kids and I rode with Grandma Holmes and it was quite the adventure! They were pretty good, and we spent the night in the beautiful Motel 6 in Kingman, AZ. Once we got to Phoenix, our funding fell through and we couldn't get into our house until the next day, so we spent the night in Mesa in a hotel next to the awesome Hooters (where else?). When we finally got keys, I think it managed to be the hottest day of the year - 113 degrees - while we moved in! We had some awesome help from Chris' step brother, BJ, and the Elder's Quorum. The ward has been very welcoming so far, and the neighbors even brought us pizza! So we are warming up - no pun intended - to our new home and our new location. We are missing family a lot - some of us are crying more than others - but we are taking it a day and a box at a time!