Adventures in Arizona

As I said in the previous post, we've arrived safe and sound. Getting here was a little bit tricky. Our car, affectionately called the ghetto sled, was hit while parked at Mimi's Cafe. Of course the perp didn't leave a note or anything descent so we filled a police report, got a new tire, and hammered out most of the damage. I refuse to actually put any work into cosmetics for this car. I have pictures of this on my phone but can't figure out how to get it linked to my computer.

All that drama was taking place while we were loading our truck. That went really smoothly thanks to the help of our families. Everyone was great about the heat and the lack of sleeping in they were missing. Our truck was HUGE. I ordered the largest one because the guy on the phone told me that's what would be best. Turns out we could have ordered a smaller truck but gotten the larger one anyway due to a supply shortage. The most difficult part was trying to get the sled up on the car trailer. I think that took Aaron, his mom, and my dad two hours to do. (Aaron says it's because the instructions were worded poorly.)

We had a great dinner with the Wilson's that night and then stayed in Spanish Fork that night before leaving. Our drive was totally uneventful. The car trailer, however, blew a tire and stranded Aaron's parents in the middle of the Navajo Nation for several hours. Eventually they made it and we were able to unpack on Friday morning. Again, everyone was so helpful! Aaron's sister and mom watched the babies while we got everything situated at the apartment.

Now that we are here I think we are starting to fall into a routine. Aaron is doing homework and I'm job searching. ( Target totally rejected me today...bummer) Asher has finally calmed down a bit and started sleeping better. After being farmed out for over a week he's getting used to his new digs.

We've Arrived!

We made it safely to Tempe! Thanks for everyone that helped us get settled. I'll updated this with the awesome adventure later this week.

Guess Who's One!

It is official, today marks the celebration of Asher's venture down the birth canal. Happy birthday Little Man! As a tribute to his birth, I am going to state the top ten things funny things (in no particular order) he has done during his first twelve months of breathing air.

1. Asher lounges everywhere. He will stop what he is doing, lay back against something and place his hand on his stomach for a minute or two. If he is in his car seat he props one leg up on the side and just chills.
2. Asher gets really serious looking, will walk over to you, babble for a few seconds (like he is lecturing you), then goes off he goes to do his own thing again.
3. It seems like his favorite thing to try to suck on are sandals.
4. He dances everyday to the Ellen's theme song. He also will watch her entire show almost in quiet.
5. Lately, he stops walking to bend over and put his head on the ground to look through his legs. I think he likes the upside down perspective.
6. He loves his new car seat. He now gets extremely upset if anyone even leans on it when he is in it.
7. One of his favorite movies is "Dan in Real Life". He will sit through this long movie better than much shorter movies like "Fraggle Rock" or "The Chipmunk Adventure".
8. He always gets cheered up when you put one of his blankets over your head and say "Where is dad? Where did I go?"
9. He is so hard to get to smile on camera. He, without fail, will stare blankly at the camera and tilt his head to the side (Trine tilts her head in every picture).
10. Lately, Asher will bring something he wants you to open or fix, grab your hand, then place the object into your hand. If you don't get it to do what he thinks it should, he throws it down on the ground, then picks it up and tries the whole thing over again.

So much to do...

We are still alive! This past week we were house hunting in Arizona. The trip was pretty productive and I think we'll do well with the apartment we picked. It had everything we really needed except for the washer/dryer hookups. Sacrifices must be made apparently and I can live anywhere for a year. The worst part was that I locked our keys in the car and had to pay a locksmith $150 to free them. Perhaps, I could have called the police, but I panicked and called the first people in the phonebook. Our moving date is set for July 24th which will be here before we know it.

Ash did fantastic with all of the driving. He had such a good time following his cousins around their house. I can't believe his birthday is this week! Our big, little boy.

Guess Who?

Tonight we were helping my brother, Elijah, with his final project for English.  It was an autobiography and we were importing pictures and I was shocked to see how much Ash resembles his uncle. Normally that wouldn't be weird, but Ash and Lij share no DNA.  They even have the same cute ears!  

Big Ben

This, is my fourteen year-old brother, Ben. I've been meaning to write this post for awhile but just haven't been able to find a picture that I really wanted to use. Ben is almost 6' 4" so the camera angle is almost like a live shot of him towering over me. Hanging out with Ben is a joy lately. He's just such a funny guy. Last week I sat in a sweltering music store while he talked shop about saxophones for thirty minutes! This is one of my favorites from him lately. If I could figure out how to change my format to a three column I'd dedicate a section to him.

My brother is a pretty wise kid. We were talking a few weeks ago about his audition for Beauty and the Beast. I thought he would be gunning for a lead and when I asked what part he wanted Ben replied, " I just want to be in the ensemble. There need to be good people there too." Obviously, I'm not used to hearing things like that. I mean, who doesn't want to be the star?! Then I just thought how awesome it was that my brother was willing, and eager, to be in a supporting role. Although he will probably only be noticed by family and friends, he wants to do what he can to make the show a success. Good for him, I should try to model that behavior.

Update

So, our garbage pail has been returned. Apparently the lawn guys decided they needed to use it for a bit. How weird is that? I assume is was used to hold dirt since there is quite a bit covering the pail. If I knew how to embed music in my post I'd put Ghetto Gospel by Elton John and Eminem.