Brief Update

Sorry that it has been so long since the last post, but we would like to give the few of you who still check our blog an update of what's new with our family.

Janna is expecting.

The Holiday Season

For Halloween Anna went as Abby Cadabby from Sesame Street, Alyssa went as a dead bride, Ambrey went as a witch, and Jayda went as Batman. Our neighborhood was great. The streets were running with kids, people were outside greeting the children that were coming to their doors, and a bunch of houses were decorated. It was the best Halloween environment that I can remember seeing.

This is just a recent picture of our family when the kids decided to come wake us up.
November 13th marked the ground breaking ceremony for the new Gilbert, Arizona temple that is being built. We are excited to have a temple so close!
This last week Ambrey got sick, so we thought we would be good parents and take pictures of her in all of her glory. It was a long night. She ended up spending the night in our closet, which is not as horrible as it sounds. We brought her bed in, which put her right next to our bathroom so we could hear her when she got up.

On Saturday, we put up our outside Christmas lights and sprayed the windows with white snow spray.

On Sunday we put up our tree, and last night for family night we put all of the ornaments on. As usual the girls had a ton of fun hanging the ornaments and dancing to Christmas music. I love the holiday season.

Anna's Quarrel With a Coffee Table and Halloween

Before running full steam into a coffee table at a furniture store:

After running full steam into a coffee table:
We took her to an urgent care center for stitches. When I told her I wanted to take a picture of her she hid from me under a chair.
This was Anna after seeing the doctor. She did surprisingly well, only shedding a few tears.
Tonight the girls have the wards trunk or treat, so here are a couple of pictures of them.

10:10--10/10/10

So the main reason for this post is because I wanted to post something on October 10th, 2010, at 10:10 (10:10 of 10/10/10).

This is a picture of Alyssa and Ambrey making ghosts out of cheese cloth for Halloween. I'm still trying to figure out what cheese cloth is and what it's used for.

This picture was taken after they finished dipping the cheese cloth in sugar water and draping it over various objects to form their ghosts.

We were able to visit the Mesa temple last week. Just a recommendation: check the cleaning schedule before dressing up in a long sleeve shirt, suit, and jacket and venturing out in 100 degree weather. Turns out that the temple was closed but it is great that we are so close to one again.

Pictures of the house are coming... just as soon as we find the camera.

Pests?

So yesterday we got the kids up to get ready for school and found this on our kitchen floor. Welcome to Arizona. Fortunately it was already dead, which according to the nice lady on the phone means that our pesticides are still working. That said, this is not the kind of thing that we want to see hanging around. Needless to say our home is going to be sprayed again on Monday.

Okay, so it has Been Awhile...

For the one or two of you who have religiously checked our blog for the last couple of months to find that nothing had been posted, sorry. We have been pretty busy.

Janna flew back to Buffalo on August 20th, and on Thursday, August 26th we left Buffalo after I got off of work. We drove our 1989 Oldsmobile (now named Trusty Rusty) making stops in Ohio, Missouri, and then in New Mexico at David and Chantel's new beautiful home, before arriving in Arizona on Sunday August 29th. It was great to see my kids again, I had been without them for just under two months.

After signing papers for our new house on Monday we left for Utah (same day). We spent about a week with our families playing games and hanging out (oh ya, and attending Scott and Candice's wedding) before returning to Arizona on September 7th so that I could take care of some work related stuff. Overall we drove more than 3600 miles over the period of about a week and a half (about 3000 miles in about five days). We moved into our new house on the eighth, and we have loved our time here so far. The house is wonderful.

We have spent our first few weeks here unpacking, getting the kids into school, putting our house together, and swimming. I will post more pictures as soon as we find our camera (we are still unpacking). This picture was taken this morning with my phone. After chores we all went for a dip in the pool. Life is good.

Alyssa is Nine!

We just thought that we would give you some images of Alyssa through the years.

This first picture is of Alyssa on the day that she was born, nine years ago today at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center in Provo, Utah.

I believe that this picture was taken just before Alyssa's uncle Richard left for his mission.

These two pictures of Alyssa were taken at her Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Johnson's home. Alyssa spent a lot of time with them while she was young because Janna would visit often.

This is a picture of Alyssa in her dance outfit. She appears to have the Vincent rhythm.

This last picture was taken a short while ago. I don't get to be with her today because she is in Arizona with the rest of our family. Happy Birthday Alyssa. You are a great daughter. You make your mother and me very proud. We love you!

The Trek to Arizona Begins... for Some

So today is the day that I sent Janna, Alyssa, Ambrey, and Anna off to Utah (and then Arizona) without me. As a result I have added a new timer to the blog which will be counting down until the time that I get off of work on my last day here in Buffalo. I will be leaving immediately after to rejoin my family, and I can honestly say that "I cannot wait!" I would like to thank Renee for coming out here to help them on this journey, Christopher for allowing her to come, and Jayda for being so good about spending time with her extended family so that we could make this trip happen safely. My only hope is that the time on this timer counts down a lot faster than the time on our last timer did....