Thatcher loves motorcycles and has carried this one sent from Grandma Holmes everywhere! Thanks, Grandma!



Our puppy - he has seemed to keep the name Riddick - seems to love my slippers. While they are still on my feet! Here I was washing dishes. . .
And here I was playing the piano!
Along the lines of puppy love. . . Katie and Matt are getting married! Congratulations!


I hope none of ya'll know this guy, but this was at the elementary school's book fair night. I mean honestly - can't he feel the draft?

Valentine's with Grandma Adler

Grandma Adler joined us for Valentine's weekend. The kids loved having her, and we loved the built in babysitter! Those kids somehow can talk their grandmas into jumping on the tramp! ha ha!





And we certainly LOVE getting packages! This is from the 'heart attack' the Knights sent - thank you thank you!

Home again, Home again, jiggity jig.

So I guess we've made the decision. We're moving back to Utah. It seems crazy, I know. But that seems to be the decision we have arrived at, after much prayer and deliberation. And unless I get struck by lightning as I am packing boxes, it seems to be the way we should head.

Many factors have played a role in the decision, and there are certainly things we will miss down here - the warm sunshine, our family and new friends, the ward, our new house, but it is not to be! So watch out for the lightning strike, but otherwise it seems we will be heading back in March!

New puppy -

So after some thought, we decided to get a puppy! We wanted to have something to give our kids some extra love (and maybe me too), since we are missing some family and friends in Utah! He is a 'pugador' - a pug lab mix. Yeah, go figure. We're confused at the logistics too. And, the pug was tan and the lab yellow, and all the puppies were black! Amazing. He is 6 1/2 weeks old - very puppy-ish, but very sweet as well. They said they get about beagle size, and look kinda like a mini-lab. Gretchen is thrilled! We think his name is Riddick - but that is still pending for sure.



Arizona friends - come visit him! He needs to be 'socialized' so you are welcome!

TD hair cut! Whoops. . .

So I decided to give Thatcher a hair cut and now I'm regretting it! I miss those curls! I hope it grows at record speed!


He's still pretty darn cute though!

So I kept checking on my row of celery, and was sad only one had come up. I watched it for months, kept checking stuff online, making sure I was doing it right. I just couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. So I finally dug around it the other day. Turns out it was a carrot!

And a beauty one at that! It was the tastiest celery I've ever had!

Tattling OB's?

So at work last night I got tattled on. Not by a patient, not by a nurse or co-worker, but by a physician. Honestly, how old are we? He asked me to call him every hour, then he called the patient on her cell phone to whine about how I kept calling him every hour. Then he called the charge nurse to question my training, and how dare I tell him what to do. He's delivered 15,234 babies and how dare a measly nurse tell him what to do! So you guessed it ladies, I have a new favorite OB (in case you couldn't see my eyes rolling they totally were). But you can tell my old favorites from Cottonwood that they are off the hook and quite fabulous compared to the others out there! It's funny, I never thought I would miss those epis cutting, fundal pushing men.

So as I was asking my co-nurses and charge nurse what they thought about my patient and my care - you know I am still a patient advocate despite his assessment, and am willing to admit I can very infrequently, very, very rarely, but possibly sometimes be wrong - and what they would have done, they informed me that this OB is 'disgusting'. Really every separate person said, 'Oh yeah, he's disgusting.' He 'sings' to the patient's vagina, and often winks and comments to the husband (or bofriend) about the 'courtesy stitch' and how 'this one's for them'! Yeah, kinda glad I'm not on his good list!

So when I woke up this morning, Gretchen told me that Chris went to 'some car place'. For two hours I was trying to figure out where he went. I finally called him, and he was at the driving range! Ha ha! That little girl is pretty cute. She has actually been playing on her own pretty well, with less whining and crying. It did require a cold shower via Chris the other night, but she's been much better since then.

25 random things of my kids

So I had much more fun than expected doing the Facebook 25 random things, that I decided to do it on my kids. Here goes:

Thatcher
1. Favorite current saying is, "Ah dang it!" This is in response to any golf swing or ball throw - good or bad.
2. Loves to golf. Real with us, or in the backyard.
3. LOVES his cousin Katie. He would opt for her over anyone else. Ever.
4. Loves motorcycles - although not real, they're too loud - and helicopters, cars, and of course, fire trucks.
5. Actually really enjoys playing with Gretchen's polly pockets and pet shops!
6. Is really good at walking in high heeled dress up shoes.
7. Tells us, "Ewwwww, bum" when he wants his diaper changed.
8. Would watch tv all day if he could.
9. Is virtually always sweaty. The first sign is the beads of sweat on his nose.
10. He isn't very shy. When we are walking through grocery stores he often says, "Hi guy."
11. Loves to clean and help with laundry.
12. Typically requests to go to bed to have his "two nummies."
13. Dislikes black dogs. He kinda freaks out!


Gretchen
1. Grows about 4 inches every month - mostly in her legs.
2. LOVES to draw and makes notes. I think she makes about 15 a day. Literally. She already 'made' all of her valentines for school - without any help or initiation from me. That's way too far in advance for me!
3. Is slow to warm up to pretty much everything. Unless it involves sugar.
4. Loves sugar.
5. Loves sugar.
6. Is learning to read and add and 'take away'!
7. Likes to argue about pretty much everything. We continually threaten and try to reason. It helps often times. Other times I merely call Chris and make him give her a 'talking to' on the phone. She actually responds pretty well to this - she's getting pretty big to drag to the cold shower!
8. Loves her cousin Sydney. I think she says her name about 15 times a day, and at least 12 of the 15 notes she makes are for her!
9. Screamed and pitched fits through 3+ summers of swimming lessons. I am hoping this has finally been beaten out of her.'
10. Screams and pitches fits a lot. My mom recently labeled her as 'high maintenance.' I think this fits perfectly!
11. She can be overly sweet and helpful. Just not very often. Although the naughtiness is pretty much reserved for us parents - her primary teacher recently told me how she is the perfect example in class!
12. Was one of the fattest babies ever. She tripled her birth weight by six months.
13. Has recently reverted to the non stop questions including things such as, "why are you using a spoon to eat that (cereal)" and "why" "why" and "why" some more. I think I might be going a bit MORE looney.

So I'm not sure that's quite as fun as getting to know my friends more, but it kinda is. Have a good day.