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....

Lots of Light and Heat at the end of the Tunnel

Okay, so it has been awhile since we posted any updates on our blog. For those who don't know, we are moving to Arizona! We are thrilled with the way that things have worked out. In less than a month Janna and the girls will be in Utah visiting family and going to Park City. I will remain here in Buffalo to work (looks like somebody got the short end of the stick).
This is a picture of one of the two hospitals that I will be working at. I start work in October.
This is a picture we took of all of us on what I believe what was the first Sunday after I had my appendix out. Anna promptly elbowed one of my incisions after we took this picture.

A couple of nerds.

Ambrey was able to go to the zoo with her class, and we were able to accompany her.

This is a video of Ambrey and her good friend Jenna performing: "I went to a Chinese Restaurant."

Anna... mal?

Check out Anna posing. We think that she may have a future in wrestling. Any thoughts on a possible stage name? I was thinking Anna-mal. For some reason she loves to wear her swim diaper over her clothes. Look at those muscles!

And that hair!

And what a smile

Aren't kids special?

Anna reading Ambrey a bedtime story. Looks like it worked.

Happy Birthday Ambrey!

Ambrey celebrated her sixth birthday by having a Dinosaur Train themed party. She has always been enthralled by the monster type creature, but her love for these creatures has increased since she discovered the TV show Dinosaur Train.

Girls with their Dinosaur masks on.

One of the games that they played was musical chairs.

They also had a blast beating a piñata, but had even more fun when the candy spilled out onto the ground! Poor dinosaur, left for dead.

Paige and Haley entertained the girls with their balloon animals. Ambrey's favorite was of course the T-Rex that they made for her.

This is Janna's most detailed cake ever: "The Dinosaur Train."

The end of a masterpiece.

Happy Birthday Ambrey #2

Anna beat everyone to the cake!

Happy Birthday to Ambrey!

Harry Potter Party!

In attendance for the Harry Potter festivities (from left to right): Sonya, Maria, Alyssa, Ambrey, and Jenna. For a couple of months Alyssa and I have been reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I promised that when we finished we could have a little party and watch the movie. We had homemade pizza, movie style popcorn, root beer, Bertie Bott's Ever Flavor Beans, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, and Jelly Belly's for those of us not courageous enough to try Bertie's beans.

This is a picture of the girls with Billie the Buffalo in front of Williamsville South High School.

We came here because Flat Jacob needed to have his picture taken somewhere in Buffalo, so we brought him here. We thought about Niagara Falls but we were concerned that all of the water might be hazardous to his health.

Alyssa and Ambrey before church.

Anna's First Dental Visit

Anna had her first dental check up today. Janna tried to help out by offering the hygienist a second target in case she was unable to clean Anna's teeth.


Here is a little footage of it. As you can see, the visit was really effective... or was it?

All done at the dentist, and what a pretty smile she has.

A Simple Reminder

Just a reminder that sometimes our kids think about more than just candy, playtime, toys, and friends. It seems like we are typically putting quotes on the blog from Ambrey because she says some of the most random things. This quote however, comes from Alyssa's schoolwork that she brought home last week. It was a little surprising when I read it the other day, but after giving it a moments thought, I guess that I should not have been surprised at all. Alyssa has always felt a connection between herself and Tiffany, partly because we gave her the same middle name (Denise), but maybe even more so because of all of the mornings that she would go sit with Tif and "help" her before we moved to Buffalo in 2007.

In this photo (left to right): Tiffany, Kiersten, Alyssa, Grandma Johnson

Good Eats!

Here are a few recipes that turned out very good!

You should try them!

Banana Cream Pie

*1 graham cracker crust

*1 c. water w/ 1tbsp. lemon juice

*2 bananas or 3, i like 3

*1 sm. pkg. instant vanilla pudding mix

*1 1/2 cup milk

*1 (8oz.) sour cream

*1 pkg cream cheese

*home made whip cream

Slice bananas into lemon water, coat them well, drain when ready to use

Mix together milk, sour cream, pudding

( mix the cream cheese , until smooth)

and put in half w/ pudding mix and half w/whipped topping mix)

Make your home made whip cream, now beat in 1/2 the cream cheese

Fold bananas into the pudding mixture and pour into pie crust

top with the whip cream

Make it look pretty

and chill!

ENJOY!

Taco soup

*2 pounds lean gr. beef or you can use choped chicken

we make it both ways

*1 onion, chopped

*1 (4ounce) can diced gr. chiles

*1 teaspoon salt

*1tsp. pepper

*1can black beans

*1 can red beans

Whatever beans you have!

(Our family is not to keen on beans to much so we usually do one can)

*1 package taco seasoning mix

*1 1/2 cups water

*1 package ranch dressing mix

*1(14.5) can stewed tomatoes

brown beef w/the onion

in seperate soup pot

add

chilies, salt, pepper, beans, water,(add more water if need) seasoning mixes and tomatoes

mix together/get it boiling! Hot!

when meat and onion are done add to soup pot

brind to boil, turn to simmer and let it cook for 30 min.

top it with cheese and serve with chips

DELICIOUS!

Easter

Here is my basket from Josh!

Ambrey with her sugar egg, she ate the whole thing.

She is crazy about treats! Ambrey and Alyssa with their chocolate from the Easter bunny.

This year he brought

a Chocolate Dino for Ambrey and a Chocolate Cow for Alyssa, Anna had a bunny.

Very cute.
We found Anna in bed with Ambrey
Ambrey was fast asleep and Anna was reading away.
Alyssa and her sugar egg.

My card from Josh, it is a Bar Mitzvah card.

He thought it would be funny to give me a card I would never get in my life.

Very funny!

Look how tired I look! Horrible. And yes Scott and Rich I have the EYE!

The girls and their PEEPS.

So here is Ambrey's sugar egg, eaten!

This was Josh's basket.

Can you tell who put more thought into it?

Josh got a chocolate pirate ship!

I made a pineapple, mandarin, lemon cake,

It was good, and pretty, but not my favorite.

To get out of the house a little bit, we went to take pics of Josh's school.

We walked around the campus.

This is the main building where Josh spent his time in class.

This is the Library.

I got Josh to pose as Mr. Suaveeee!

He tried, I don't know if he pulled it off!

What a good looking nerd though!

Me hugging the building.

This is the bell tower on campus.

You miss Buffalo don't you David?!!!

Ambrey picked some "flowers" for me.

Our lonely Easter Dinner.

We had ham, cheesy potatoes, rolls and green bean casserole.

It was delicious!

We miss you David and Chantel!

Anna found some eggs.

Alyssa and her cow.

Thank you to Grandma and Grandpa Daley for the cute Easter outfits!