Chicago '12

I went to Chicago last week to attend a physical therapy conference.  It was a really great learning experience where I was able to attend a lot of classes and see new things related to the field of physical therapy.  I was also able to enjoy a few of the sights and smells of the Windy City.

I did have some of their famous deep dish pizza, and if anyone asks you...Giordano's is by far the best place to get it.  I only had one Chicago style hot dog and to be honest, it wasn't everything I had dreamed of...but it was only one place, so I'll probably have to give the other places a shot the next time I go.

I did experience a wide variety of public transit.  It never ceases to amaze me at the kinds of people you meet while on the ride.  The subway was pretty nice, but I was surprised at how many apartments we rode by on our way into town.  I don't know that I would ever be able to get used to that if I lived there.  I did fear for my life once while riding in a taxi.  We were on our way to the airport, not in a hurry by the way, but the taxi driver I think thought we were, because he was going like 55 mph, swerving between cars and honking at them if they got in his way the whole way to our destination.  Needless to say, I was glad to get out of the car.

All in all, it was a good experience.  It was cold, I mean it was mid February, so that was expected, but it was good.

Our Little Addiction

Barrett Jackson's Scottsdale car auction was held this past week and although I wouldn't call ourselves car enthusiasts we couldn't help but get sucked into watching it for the entire week.  Maybe it's Truman's addiction of cars that has rubbed off on us OR maybe it was a combination of the really cool cars along with the absolutely ridiculous amounts of money the people were bidding to purchase them.

For example, the first picture you see is of a 1970 Pontiac GTO Judge that sold for $64,900.  My dad used to have one of these cars when he was younger...sure wish you hadn't sold that one dad.  The next picture is of a 1958 Chevy Corvette (Julie's favorite car is a 1957 Chevy Corvette Stingray) that went for $82,500...chump change!  The next is of one of my favorite cars, a 1971 Dodge Challenger.  It went for $85,800.  Lastly, the 1954 Mercedes Benz 300SL, went for a cool $2.2 mill.  Throughout the week the auction made over $80 million, a nice little sum in a week I'd say.

So although they're dream cars, that's probably the only place we'll ever own or get to drive one...in our dreams.

Christmas 2012

We headed down to Scottsdale when Rick was done with finals and spent his break there warming up. We did Christmas Eve with my Dad's side and Christmas day with my Mom's side as usual. We did Christmas Eve at Bill's house and he had some awesome Mexican food for everyone and we did our usual gift exchange, which I love. And then Christmas Day we had our traditional Christmas ham and buffett over at the old folks place and did a lot of visiting out on the porch.

We had Christmas morning to ourselves (my parents were volunteering at Randolph) before we headed to Church. Truman knew who Santa was this year, but he didn't really understand what Santa does, which was fine by me. But he did like opening up presents. We let him open his stocking and his little presents before Church and left his big present for after Church.

Christmas Eve

 Bran wearing Amanda's gift from the gift exchange while she was on the crapper.

 Uncle Chuck made Truman this awesome little table and Grandma Barbara helped paint it.

Christmas Day

 We snagged this life jacket for bear and coco at a second hand store and couldn't pass it up.

For my immediate family, this year we did a "Craigslist" Christmas. For us this meant that whatever you gave as a gift had to be second hand or handmade. I really thought it was a fun idea and thought that all of the gifts were very unique and thoughtful. I think someone mentioned that we should do it again next year and I am all for it. I had a lot of fun trying to think of what I could make or find second hand. One of my favorite moments was when Amanda was opening the gift I had made her (it was a bag) and when she pulled it out Truman was standing right there in front of her and he said, "Wow!"  Here is something Stef made for Truman and what my mom got from Amanda.

And finally, Truman got spoiled by his Uncle Brannon and Aunt Amanda...

All in all it was a great Christmas. I enjoyed going to Church on Christmas Day to remind me of what we are really celebrating and as always the best part of the season is spending time with family and reflecting on the things that are most important. I am grateful for my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and for all of the many blessings that I have been given through their grace and mercy.

Harry Potter ?

Heavenly Father or Harry Potter? You be the judge...

Nap Time???

We put Truman down for a nap at my parents one day, but he had fallen asleep in the car for a little bit before hand. Thus, he wasn't super tired and we could hear him playing in there, which was fine, then he was quiet for 20 minutes or so and we figured he had gone to sleep...but here is what I found when I went to wake him up.

My response, "Ummm, Rick, we have a situation in here!" Then, I wanted to laugh, but didn't want T to think it was a good thing, so went into the explanation of how we only color on paper, not walls, doors, toys, beds, shoes, carpet or our bodies....always an awesome parenting moment when you are trying to hold in the laughter. Of course I was slightly panicked at first because it's not my house. Luckily it was dry erase marker so it came off of all of the toys and books really easily, it also came off of the door and wall with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. It came up pretty easily from the carpet as well. The only permanently damaged item was the sheet. My parents thought it was hilarious and mostly wanted to know if I had taken pictures.

Santa Claus 2011

Truman went to the Bass Pro Shop to see Santa Claus this year. To be honest with you, I don't really know which he liked more, Santa Claus or all of the boats, quads, fish, stuffed animals and carousel that were on display. There was a long wait to see old Saint Nick, so in the mean time we perused the store enjoying what the store had to offer.

or...

hmmm...

Train Park 2011

Scottsdale has a park where there is a little train that is capable of giving rides to kids and their families. Every year around Christmas they deck the park out with Christmas decorations and invite Disney characters and other kid favorites such as Tigger, Elmo, Cookie Monster and some Polar Bear to help entertain the kiddos. There is a carousel, a playground, a couple of train cars that are open to the public to walk through and a large open space in a building for model trains to run around in. Although we didn't get to ride on the train that night (the line went out the park), we had a great time with the family (Cross' and Gunnell's).

Halloween 2011

It was time again for Amanda & Brannon's annual Halloween Bash! I decided to head down a few days early to help Amanda with prep and I ended up carpooling with an old friend who has recently moved into our ward. So we packed up the highlander on Wednesday, had 3 car seats in the back, and experienced snow, hail and excessive rain on our trip down, but it actually went well. I dropped Britney and her girls off at her parents' and then headed to the Halloween house. 

Most of Amanda's decorations were already up, so I just helped with a little bit of the cooking. Here is the treat line-up Amanda had all planned out for the party: chocolate covered Oreos, red velvet cupcakes, cake pops, rice crispy treats, worms and dirt, chocolate covered strawberries, macaroons (the only item purchased), punch, and a candy bar (all sorts of candies in glass containers for people to make their own little trick-or-treat take home box). Mind you all of these treats were Halloween themed, for example the strawberries were white and had faces that looked like ghosts and the rice crispy treats were orange, shaped like pumpkins and had a tootsie roll for a stem. And of course Brannon had the cotton candy machine going outside. We also ended up making some stew in a pumpkin for dinner that night. I think that stew saved me from a complete sugar overload.

Our family ended up being some of the characters from the Curious George cartoon on PBS. Truman was George, Rick, The Man in the Yellow Hat, and I was Dr. Wiseman (their lady professor friend). The costumes were easy and turned out pretty well. Truman didn't really keep his mask on, but that was expected.  

Here are some more costumes:

Mary Poppins and Burt, the chimney sweep

I think Max won the award for cutest costume of the night as Flynn Rider from Tangled. He looks like such a little man!

We took Truman trick-or-treating and he did surprisingly well. He would walk up with his bag and say, "tee teet", then he would get his candy and try to go into their house. We would then discourage him from going into strangers' homes (after encouraging him to ask for and then take candy from them...hmmm). Then, he would sign thank you and say, "bye-bye". He wasn't super into it though, so we only went to about 5 houses and then headed back to the party.

It was a really fun weekend and a big thanks to Amanda and Brando for letting us stay with them/hosting a fantastic party. Truman had so much fun at "Manna's" house! He would look for Uncle Brando, aka "Mano" every morning and he loved running around their house, playing at their near by park and of course getting every one to play ring-around-the-rosie. Now to start thinking of costumes for next year...

Tricks

Here are some of T's latest tricks....I forgot to ask him to do his elephant noise, but these are pretty good.

Lloyd Christmas

So we decided to trim Truman's bangs because they were getting down into his eyes....needless to say they are a little short. Our bad, sorry for making you look like a Lloyd Christmas/Audrey Hepburn wannabe.

Give 'em a couple weeks and you'll be good. I'm sure this is just bad hair cut #1 of many more to come.

Family Home Evening

Our family home evenings are pretty laid back. Our activity turned out to be making footprints in the snow. We were all wearing our Vans so we couldn't resist taking a "Daddy", "Mamma" and "Baby" footprint picture.

 Truman had lots of fun stomping in what was left of the snow on our deck.

 Daddy showed him how to make footprints and he thought that was quite entertaining.

Rick and I also had some fun playing in the snow too. What we have been doing lately for our family home evening lessons is using a picture from the Gospel Picture Library and just reading the summary off of the back and pointing out things in the picture to Truman. It's not much, but we are trying to do something and I feel good about that because I feel that the Lord will never ask us to do something that is useless or unnecessary.

Springtime???

I think being stuck inside helps to encourage creativity. Here is a fun new ride Rick and Truman came up with.

 Truman thought it was so fun and so Rick and I took turns dragging him around in the upside down bar stool. This reminded me of what it was like being a kid and coming up with your own games and things to do. I can't wait until Truman and his future siblings are old enough to come up with their own creative things and I will get to watch and hear about them.

 We were stuck inside because it had been snowing ALL day! I think that we got at least a foot of snow. Really, it's mid-April in Arizona?

 We did take advantage of the last snow of the season (fingers crossed) and went out and did a little sledding behind our house.

Better gloves and snow boots are a must for Truman next year!

Conference Weekend

My parents came up to visit for conference weekend and my birthday. It was really nice to have them here and I am grateful to have family that is close enough that they can visit. Truman had a lot of fun with Grandma and Grandpa and I loved having adults to talk with, especially since Rick had 2 tests the following week, so he spent a lot of the weekend studying.

During the break on Saturday between the afternoon session and Priesthood we headed down to the park.

 Who doesn't want to ride a frog?

 Truman's first slide experience.

 The most popular baby at the park.

 Truman and I went to the park earlier this week and he stayed on the swing until his little hands and face were freezing. When I took him out he started crying...what a rough life.

Truman and Grandpa were watching some kids play basketball and he actually clapped when some one made a shot! Such a smart boy! (He did watch tons on basketball this last month...both men's and women's March Madness.)

I love General Conference. I love the process of preparing to hear the messages and I always feel uplifted and renewed spiritually after hearing from the Prophet and Apostles. Not to mention, getting to hang out in comfy clothes and make waffles. And to top off a fantastic weekend, my parents and grandparents went in together and got me a sewing machine for my birthday!! I am so excited to learn how to sew and make unique things! WooHoo!