SURPRISE!

A couple of years ago Rob and I went to a surprise birthday party for friend of ours and as we all sat waiting for her to walk through the door I said to him, "If you ever did this to me I'd kill you." Apparently that is a conversation that should be had yearly just to hit home the point.

So this year Rob says, "I've made arrangements for the kids with your mom and I'm taking you out on Fri. the 12th." He told me he was going to take me to Red Lobster and that I should get dressed up because we were going to paint the town red.

Fri. the 12th rolls around and he tells me that my mom needs us to drop off coats for the kids on our way out so that she can take them to see the Christmas lights. So I scurry around getting coats together and we stop by my mom and dad's to drop them off. I walk in and to my surprise I see my sister Tawnya and my brother Eric and his wife Emily and I start thinking..."You jerks, you totally planned a family outing to see the lights on the one night that I am busy..." Then I see my friend Courtney and..."SURPRISE!"

Pretty sure I punched Rob in the arm about then. I definitely said, "SHUT-UP!"

As painful as all of that was; all told it was a really fun night and even though he will NEVER DO THAT AGAIN I love him for putting all the work into pulling that off for me. I really don't deserve him. (Okay, let's face it...I totally do but...)

Happy Birthday to Da Boys!

December is a month of total insanity in our house. On top of the average Christmas festivities (which are actually kind of above average since I am a Christmas freak and insist on keeping up a ridiculous amount of Christmas traditions) we also celebrate Nate’s birthday (Dec. 3rd), Caleb’s birthday (Dec. 30th), my birthday (Dec. 11th) and mine and Rob’s anniversary (Dec. 28th). As if that isn’t enough my sister, both of my grandmas and two of my nieces also have Dec. birthdays.

With all of this going on we try to combine Caleb and Nate’s birthdays whenever possible. So, this year we celebrated them on Dec. 6th. The boys decided they wanted a “Detective” birthday party. Hmmm??? Guess I had to really put my brain into that one but we ended up making it a murder mystery. Each of the guests was a different famous detective. Caleb chose Sean Spencer since he LOVES the USA show “Psyche”. Nate chose “Adrian Monk”. The rest of the guests were various famous tv detectives, James Rockford, Thomas Magnum, AJ and Rick Simon…etc.

The mystery involved threats, blackmail, unrequited love, and intrigue. The boys had a blast figuring out who killed Wendell Shackelman and stuffed his body into the garbage can.

All told it was a fun day and my babies are now 7 and 9! Can you believe that? Happy Birthday Caleb and Nate!

Who killed Wendell Shackelman

The Polar Express

Last month Shannan and Monti surprised us with an early Christmas present...tickets to the Polar Express...so last weekend we drove to Williams (Grand Canyon Railroad) and hopped aboard the train to the North Pole.




On the ride there we were served hot cocoa and cookies while we listened to a reading of The Polar Express. Then we arrived at the North Pole and looked out the windows to see Santa standing there by a big Christmas tree. Minutes later we were surprised when he came into our train car and gave each child a jingle bell.

We had a really good time and it was a great way to start off the holidays. Thanks for an awesome time Aunt Shanny and Uncle Monti!

The Polar Express

Awesome birth...

Here are a few pictures from an awesome birth that I was able to attend yesterday. All of the births I attend are awesome but this one was extra special because of the circumstances surrounding it. A couple of years ago I was M’s doula for her first baby and sadly that labor ended in a Cesarean because they claimed that M’s pelvis was too small for her baby’s head. Imagine her frustration when her baby ended up only weighing 7 lbs. 8 oz.

This time around M was determined to have a VBAC (Since this is a family blog I’ll just say that means, V. Birth after Cesarean. Use your imagination.) so she hired a Nurse-Midwife and set about planning for it. Yesterday at 12:06 p.m. after two long days of laboring, she delivered a healthy baby boy who was 8 lbs. 3 oz! (11 oz. bigger than the baby that she was told she was too small to deliver last time.)

If you want to know this awesome birth story in it’s entirety read it on my Doula blog here.

It was a very sweet experience to be involved in and I am grateful to J and M for letting me bear witness to their miracle.


Yeah, I realize I look like crap in these pictures but hey, this is me after pulling an all nighter. However, in the last picture if you look close you will be able to make out the glow of euphoric bliss surrounding me. I could live off of this high for at least a week. "Hi, my name is Tracie. I'm a birth junkie."

Rantings…

I was sitting in church last week and I confess my mind was wandering a bit as I looked around the room and found myself wondering how many people there are silently struggling financially as we are. I thought about it and it occurred to me that if someone said, “By show of hands, who here is either in foreclosure or really close to it?”, that probably more than ½ the room would raise their hand.

Then today at church I was talking to two other ladies about each of our situations one of them said, “I wish we all just had a stamp on our forehead so everybody knew we were all in the same place.” I loved that thought. Now of course I could keep my mouth shut about our situation and no one would be the wiser. It's not like I actually DO have a stamp on my forehead that would indicate that we are in trouble financially but feel like all this secrecy has made people feel isolated and embarrassed about things over which we have no control. So let me be the first to put a stamp on my forehead in hopes that it will help someone else know that they are not alone in this. Here’s the sitch:

A couple of years ago we were living the American dream. Rob had the best job he’s ever had working for Sallie Mae Home Loans. When they told him what his salary was going to be we thought we’d won the lottery. Then in Aug. of last year, when Sallie Mae merged with Quicken Loans they decided to lay off everyone in Rob’s division. With the housing market decline, jobs in the mortgage industry became scarce quickly so after a couple of months of looking for work Rob found a job in the insurance industry. He took about a $30,000.00 pay cut. OUCH! Not that we can complain because at least we HAVE a job.

So with that history in mind here we are today and there is good news and bad news. Bad news first; after many months of battling to keep our home we have finally realized it isn’t going to happen and it is currently up for short sale.

However, there is good news too and this is it: A house is just a thing. It is not a person or an event or an eternal principle. It’s just a place of protection from the elements…a roof over your head. There are other roofs out there and we will not be homeless.

As for credit---it’s not even a “thing”. I mean by definition it is a noun but it is immaterial. It only matters if you think it does and we don’t. There are far worse “things” that one can be diagnosed with than bad credit. Some people have to live with “things” like Non-Hodgkins lymphoma, or addictions, or loneliness, or lack of spiritual direction.

And so, the good news is this: We have a daddy who has labored tirelessly over the past year to save “the thing” and who continues to labor tirelessly. He leads our family and he serves God and others.

We have a mommy who loves our daddy and our little ones with a passion that can’t be rivaled and who is a mama bear in her defense of them against worldly influence.

We have four AMAZING spirits who have graced our home and who every single day fill us with such overwhelming gratitude and joy that it can’t be put into words.

We have a Savior, Jesus Christ who came to Earth to die for us and was then resurrected and He lives now and the reason that there is only one set of footprints in the sand at this time is because he’s been carrying us this last year when we thought we were too weak to continue on.

We have a sure knowledge of our Savior’s love for us and for His atonement and through that knowledge we are more able to see “the thing” as just that and to keep an eternal perspective that this too shall pass.

So with all of this good news it’s kind of hard to worry too much about the bad news. Not to say it’s been a breeze because there are up days and down days. Certainly it is stressful at times making decisions and wondering what the future holds in store, but those things are made easier knowing how much we are blessed. With Thanksgiving approaching just next week, it is with joy and peace that we are able to count our many blessings and say that all is well.

So that is the stamp on my forehead.

Proposition 102 Victory!

Well it’s over and we won! After months of hard work by the Coalition and even as we worked up until the bitter end on Election Day we were able to say all the work was worthwhile as Arizona passed Proposition 102 to amend the Arizona Constitution to state that marriage is defined as a union between one man and one woman thereby protecting traditional marriage and families.

Tuesday I spent most of the day at our polling place promoting the cause and pretty much chatting it up with friends and neighbors who stopped by to vote. I was joined by my good friends Alecia Bingham and Misty Polanco (in the picture with me on the right holding her gorgeous baby Benji) who sat in on some long shifts to get the information out to people who were still confused by wording or undecided on the issue. I am happy to say we helped several people make up their mind and vote accordingly.

Election evening we were able to attend a Coalition Celebration Party for all volunteers who worked so hard work on the proposition. Midway through the evening we watched the sad announcement that Barack Obama had been elected president but within about five minutes they were able to call the results of the proposition and announced that we’d won which lightened the mood substantially. However, at the end of the evening as we sang, “God Bless America”, I couldn’t help but become emotional at the significance of the line, “Stand beside her and guide her through the night with a light from above”.


Rob and I with friends and fellow Coalition Committe members Brooke and Chad Cirks, Alecia and Seth Bingham

Caleb and Nate came with us to the Coalition party and are pictured here with their buddies Pierce and Magnum Cirks

Election Time

Tomorrow is the election, and as we gathered the kids together for Family Home Evening we had a reminder of what it is all really about. I was scurrying around getting things together to take the kids to grandma’s house for a sleepover so that I could leave at 5:30a.m. to be at the polling places as a Coalition representative. Since I’d been so tied up with all of that all day I confess I hadn’t given a thought as to what lesson we would have for FHE. Rob could see I was frazzled so he grabbed our handy little book “52 Weeks of Family Night” which has 5 minute lessons in it that you can do with little to no preparation. (BTW…highly recommend that book!)

As we settled the kids down Rob said, “Caleb, pick a number” Caleb picked Lesson #16 randomly and Rob began to read,

“When Captain Moroni, the leader of the Nephite armies, heard of Amalickiah’s plan to be king, he became angry. He knew that if Amalickiah became king, he would try to destroy the church of God and take away the people’s liberty.

Moroni tore his coat to make a flag. On it he wrote a message to remind people to defend their religion, their freedom and their peace. Moroni put the flag on a pole and called it the title of liberty. He told his people to think of their freedom and to think of their families. Then, dressed in his armor, he knelt to pray. He asked God to protect those who believed in Jesus Christ and prayed for freedom in the land, calling it a land of liberty.

Moroni went among the people. Waving the title of liberty, he called them to come and help protect their freedom. People came from all over the land. They promised to obey God’s commandments and to fight for freedom.”

Rob was a teary mess and barely able to finish with the lump in his throat. As he and I looked at each other with tears streaming down our faces, the kids wanted to know what on earth we were crying about. We explained the significance of what we’d just read and how it relates to us today. It was a good reminder to slow down and remember what it is that we are working toward.

Overheard:

Caleb who had obviously been watching too much Fox News: “Well, if Barack Obama becomes president then other countries will see us as weak and then we’re gonna get bombed!”

Nate, “Mom, is it true that the arachnids are gonna bomb us again? (Iraqnids?)

Trick or Treat

Well another Halloween has come and gone so naturally the kids are already discussing what they are going to be NEXT year! OY! This year was a lot of fun. The Monday before Halloween Nate came in and said, “Mom, Caleb says that we aren’t going to get to dress up this year because you haven’t gotten us costumes.” I told Nate to tell Caleb that for the past 8 years I’ve managed to pull off dressing him up even without his “help” and I’ll do it this year too. Caleb clearly can not understand that I work best under pressure which is just a nicer way of saying that I put everything off until the last minute. So, there I was making costumes on Thurs. afternoon but I did in fact manage to get it done.

In fact, as I was sewing I ran onto a bag of white terry cloth that I bought years ago for heaven knows what project I never completed but it worked out nicely as “fake fur” for my costume. It had occurred to me when I ran onto a caveman costume that I already had for Rob from a few years ago that maybe we could go as Fred and Wilma Flintstone. I have been saying for years that Rob has Fred Flintstone feet so this was a great opportunity to make the best of that. Heh Heh!
The boys went as Alvin and the Chipmunks which was completely typecasting only in our house Dave yells, “NAAATER!”, instead of Alvin. Of course Simon and Theodore were type cast as well, Caleb always being the “voice of reason” and Max being the chubby little brother who only gets in trouble because he is too little to know better.
Hayden who was undecided until a few days before Halloween ran onto Nate’s old skunk costume and surprised us all wanting to be that instead of some kind of frou frou princess as we would have expected. Those darn stinky boys are starting to rub off on her. Ah well, she was so adorable as a skunk it didn’t matter.
We all had a great time trick or treating and then having some friends over for chili and cornbread afterward. Hard to believe that we are into November now!

"Meet me at the fair"

The Arizona State Fair started in early Oct. and on opening day admission was just $1, so being the cheap skates that we are we decided to take the kids. Let me tell you, there are some real winners at the fair on cheap day. (Like there are such a high quality people there on the other days!) But in spite of the riff raff we had a pretty good time. We met our good friends the Olsens there and enjoyed their company and a few free rides compliments of the Children’s reading program. It sure isn’t the State Fair that I grew up on in rural Oregon but in any case we had a good time.

Too Too busy!

This month has dragged me along with Election stuff and misc other things so following this post you will see all of the stuff I got ready to post but didn't actually in Oct. So although it says posted in Nov. it's mostly Oct. stuff.

9/11

I know this is a few days past but it's been a crazy week. On Sept. 11 I decided that for school we would watch a History Channel documentary on the attacks in order to give the boys some inkling of the enormity of the events. At first when I brought it up they both rolled their eyes and said, "We KNOW. We KNOW. You already told us about this in school." Well, they were right, I did. Last year! I was surprised they recollected anything about it at all but then they recited many of the details and were pretty accurate. So then I explained to them that we would learn about it again every year because it is important that we never forget the events of that day since it forever changed our country.

Reluctantly they sat down for the documentary and it wasn't on for a full minute before they were glued to it, totally compelled to watch the horror of it. I have mixed emotions about them viewing it. On the one hand it is scary and horrific but on the other hand there is so much to be learned from our past; even the atrocities of it. I have profound recollection of watching things about Pearl Harbor and the Holocaust as a child and I think it was a positive learning experience for me then so I figure the same goes for them now.

Even as I sat pondering all of this I got a glimpse of their depth of understanding and maturity about it. Moments after the second tower fell, the film makers interviewed onlookers and one man; clearly in agony over what he'd seen; bitterly said, "I think we should go over and kill them all. They do this to us, we need to annihilate them." I looked at the boys and both of their eyes were glistening. Nate said, "That is so wrong. Why would someone do that?" Caleb said, "That man is wrong though. Only God can judge those people." Nate said, "You're right."

Why isn't the world run by children?

Walking With Dinosaurs-Live

A few months ago a friend of ours hooked us up with tickets to Walking With Dinosaurs Live. She was able to get us the group discount for the only "school group performance" so the tickets were a smokin' deal. Then the icing on the cake was that when she called to find out our seat assignment the coordinator told her that since the "good seats" hadn't sold out, they were allowed to open them up to us so we were able to get the $70 seats! They were literally front and center!!

The best part about it was the surprise since I didn't tell the kids where we were going or what we were doing until we walked into US Airways Arena. They totally flipped out. Even then they didn't understand the magnitude of what they were about to see until the first LIFE SIZED animatronic dinosaurs walked out on stage. (Look closely at the picture of the brachiosaurs and you will notice the paleontologist sitting on the rocks between their necks. That speck is a real person!) It was totally amazing and we will NEVER forget the day. I have to give a shout out to my friend Andrea Fisher for her thoughtful organization of the event. It was brilliant!

(The only negative: Now I just have to spend several weeks of homeschool deprogramming the kids of all the misinformation that the paleontologist was narrating throughout the performance. Ahhh...evolution...argh!)



I tried to upload our video of the mama T-Rex rescuing her baby but it wouldn't load so check out this little blurb from the producers if you are curious about the show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPAfGZUnNBU

The Frog Prince

Last year I found a large hole in my rose bed which I assumed the kids had dug out so after I got after them I filled it in. A couple of days later it was back so I started thinking it was erosion from one of the drippers and filled it in again. Every day I would notice it and fill it in and think...we have to do something about that dripper. Well one night I ran into a big toad on our patio and when we tried to catch him he hopped down into the hole. I had to laugh thinking about how many times I'd filled in his hole...poor guy kept having to dig out over and over again.

Anyway, shortly after that the kids dubbed our rose bed "The Frog Kingdom"---hence the Frog Prince figure that graces our front entry (Notice him in the background of the pics below)

Nate visits and catches Mr. Toad nearly every night and I am happy to say that he is the most maintenance free pet we have ever had. He is a hideous fellow but he's kind of grown on me and I am very careful when I pull into the driveway at night. (Okay, he is kind of cute.)

Cub Scouts service project...

My boys had a requirement to sign off that involved neighborhood cleanup. I am so proud of the great job they did at this abandoned house on my street. I never thought I'd get this "into" cubscouts. I love these boys---they are so entusiastic and sweet. Here are a couple of pics of their good deed:

BEFORE:













AFTER:

Great news!

My sister Shanny is expecting! For those of you who don’t know her sitch: It took her 7 years to get pregnant with her daughter Grace (who is now 19 mo. old) and they have been going through fertility treatments again now for the past few months so this is awesome news. I am totally stoked about sharing this pregnancy with her and living it vicariously through her. Plus it totally gives me a renewed hope that if they were able to get pregnant maybe we still have a chance. (I think I can…I think I can…)

I stand corrected...

We were sitting in sacrament meeting today and Hayden pointed to the word on the songbook and asked me, "What does this say?" Me: "It says 'Hymns' " Hayden: After a thoughtful pause, "Don't you mean 'His' "

Occupational Hazard...

I am acutely aware that my children have far more exposure to all things childbirth related than the average child, but apparently my work spills over into my home more than I had previously thought. Case in point: Today we were driving to the store and we saw the construction site of the new Banner Ironwood Medical Center going in just up the road from us. A discussion ensued with the kids about how nice it will be for us to have it there in case of an emergency. Hayden piped up from the back and said, “…and in case mom ever needs a c.section.” I just had to shake my head. I mean what other 5 year old girl do you know who has “c.section” in her vocabulary and knows what it means?

Storms

A note to anyone NOT a Stewart: Being born and partly raised in Oregon I naturally have webbed feet so when the rainy weather starts I take to it like a duck to... Okay so maybe I'm pushing that analogy a bit far but the point is I love the rain and the lightning and the thunder even when it scares me and I jump and scream (the kids love that~!).

A note to Stewarts: Remember when we lived on 8th St. and we used to turn off all the lights during storms and pull open the blinds in the front room and camp out to watch the storm? ~~sigh~~~ Awesome memories! Last night when the storm was going on I was getting the kids to bed but couldn't resist letting them stay up late and sit with me in the dark in the front room watching the storm. I hope someday they'll say, "Remember when we used to sit in the front room..."

Anyway...I got this cool picture of some lightning and while it isn't a technically good shot (how good could it be with my little point and shoot digital---hint hint Rob---I really NEED that Nikon SLR) I should get brownie points for actually catching a bolt. (Bragging now...I actually caught three but I figured posting them all would get redundant.)

Toothless

Nate is almost "theven" (7) so he has started on the road to toothlessness. Last night he lost a front upper tooth. He is so happy about it, as am I because I am not sure I would have been able to handle one more day of endless whining: "WHEN will it fall OUT?" I finally asked him, "What is the big freakin' deal about having a loose tooth? Does it hurt? What?" His reply, "I can't eat apples or chicken legs!" Well you can't argue with that logic. Whining aside, he is adorable so check him out with his new gorgeous gap:

Funny and or cute things the kids have said lately:

Max: Cuddling up to me and cupping my face in both of his little chubby hands he says, “You are my best little mommy!” ~~sigh~~

Max---Watching the Disney Channel Games, “Mom, the Jonas Brothers are the dream team!”

Hayden: I was getting ready to go out with Rob and just finished my makeup and hair but was still wearing sweats and a t-shirt. “Um….I think you’d better change your clothes before your date.” I teased, “Nope. I’m just going to wear this.” Hayden with arched eyebrow, “K…first of all…the sweats…not so much! Second of all…the t-shirt…not so much either!”

Caleb recently had a conversation with Beth where she told him that next time we go to Disneyland she is coming with us again. The same week he just finished his last requirement for his Wolf badge and then I was called to scouts. “My life couldn’t get any better. I am getting my Wolf badge, my mom is going to be my scout leader and my Auntie Beth is going with us to Disneyland.” Just then I pulled a bag of salt and vinegar chips out of the grocery bag. “I guess I was wrong…it just got better!” Some people are just easily pleased.

Nate: "Mom is asinine a bad word?" Me: "No. It means stupid or ridiculous." Later that day we found out that our Mesa Public Library cards are invalid because we are no longer Maricopa County residents. Nate: "That is totally asinine!" He now looks for excuses to use that word and I can guarantee that he does it just because it sounds like another bad word he isn't allowed to say. Ugh! That boy!

On the other hand he also asks me questions like: "So mom, if God created us then who created God?" and "Where does wind come from?" Oy!

Congratulations to Caleb...

...on recieving his Wolf Badge at Pack night. He also recieved a gold arrow point and five silver arrow points.

So here’s what happened...

A couple of months ago Caleb was going to go to Cub Scout Day camp for three days and I casually mentioned to the den leader, “Hey if you guys need a hand with anything let me know.” I don’t really know what I was thinking but it was along the lines of baking or filling water bottles or who knows…certainly not what happened next. Next thing I knew it was 6:30 the next morning and I was driving a 15 passenger van with 11 boys aboard to day camp. Can you see the word sucker written across my forehead?

Two things: First: I have an enormous aversion to the heat and it was 111 degrees that day. Second: I know some of you consider me high maintenance and I don't know if I could argue about that. Well, all of the boys had spray bottles and were given carte blanche to spray anyone they wanted including leaders. (Let’s just say that with a stern look I told them that most certainly DID NOT apply to me and my head stayed dry all day.)

At the end of the VERY LONG day (We got home after 10pm) I had to admit it was actually kind of fun. I totally LOVE boys (Always have…with the exception of Beth most of my best friends were boys growing up.) and Caleb and I had fun hanging out together all day so all in all I really kind of enjoyed it.

So moving to more recent events, when we found out that our ward’s Bears Den leader was moving Rob gave me that look he gets and said, “Dude! I hope you like scouts because you know what’s coming don’t you?” A little slow on the uptake it hadn’t occurred to me yet, so I said, “First off…I’m not a dude. Second…what are you talking about?”

Well he was right and I did get called to Cub Scouts as the Bears Den Leader and yes I am happy about the calling. Like I said, I do love boys and if I am helping Caleb along with his requirements I might as well be helping a group of them.

I confess I do have one trepidation: the dreaded scout shirt. Ugh. The colors, the shape, (or lack thereof), the fabric. Clearly it is a garment designed BY men FOR men…and I don’t mean those “men” on Project Runway! Let’s face it people if Heidi Klum herself wore a scout shirt, even she could not make that thing look good. And so it is with bitter surrender that I don the scout shirt and join the ranks of dorky den leaders everywhere. My new mantra: “It’s only your vanity Tracie.” (Kill me now.)

Caleb wanted a few pictures of him and I looking super hot in our scout uniforms---Nate took these pictures.




This pose was Caleb's idea...scout salute and all...he cracks me up!

Rob's 35th birthweek!

You know how most people have a birthday? Well every year I tease Rob that he always ends up dragging out the celebrating until he ends up with a birthweek and this year is no different. Why break tradition right? So in honor of his 35th birthweek, this whole post will be dedicated to my big cookie; the love of my life; the father of my children (most of them anyway); the man who makes me laugh; washes dishes AND does laundry; the man who STILL tells me I am the most beautiful woman in the world EVEN when I have just rolled out of bed and SEEN the horror in the bathroom mirror.

The fact that he believes that is further proof of one of Rob’s best qualities: his fundamental belief that there is something beautiful that can be found in every aspect of life and in every stage of it. As I type this I betray his identity because he loves to portray himself as a cynic but underneath it all he is actually a romantic. His perpetual pessimism (yes Heidi; I still call him Eeyore) is merely a façade for his TRULY optimistic nature. (Who else but a true optimist could continue to believe season after season that THIS is the year the Cubs will take the series?!)

And so…without further ado; here are some highlights of the birthweek:

Friday the 8th (Rob’s actual birthday) we went out for wings at Native New Yorker with a few friends.

In this picture starting at left foreground: Beth Jarman (my BFF; Rob’s hairdresser; our kids’ future stepmother), behind Beth are Ryan and Rachel Olsen (Best neighbors EVER and two of our closest friends) across from them: Donna Lyons (Rob’s former co-worker and lifelong gal pal) and John Gay (Rob’s stalker). In the middle is the man himself: Rob. Next to him are Shannan and Monti Randall (a couple who were panhandling in the parking lot---we don’t believe in giving out cash because they would probably just buy drugs or alcohol with it.)


“Cheers!” This is a classic Rob dorky face! Isn’t he adorable? (BTW; That is Donna’s Corona in the foreground; not Rob's! He's drinking the Shirley Temple.)

More good times…Beth you are looking a little scared.



Saturday morning Rob had some “Dad time” with the kids in the pool. I wasn’t exactly strictly forbidden from coming but it was made clear to me by the kids that they were swimming with DAD! It was a big sacrifice for me but I stayed inside and spent some quality time of my own with the Sept. issue of Architectural Digest. It was rough but I managed. (Happy Birthday Tracie!)


Saturday afternoon we dropped the kids off at Grandma’s and picked up Rob’s birthday present from Mom and Dad Stewart---two tickets to the D.Backs game---and headed out to Chase Field.


Aside from the obvious fact that this game was the day after Rob’s birthday, the main reason for getting tickets to this particular game was for the fan giveaway. Our friend Jim Hamilton won the Fan Designed T-Shirt Contest sponsored by the Diamondbacks. This meant that his design was given out to the first 25,000 fans!
Here we got Jim to autograph his design for us. Rob assured him it would be on ebay by morning and that he'd give him a good deal if he wants it back.


Sunday evening we had dinner at Mom and Dad Stewart’s house with all of Rob’s favorites on the menu, followed by cake, candles and the song. This pretty much wrapped up the birthweek.



What is different about Rob in the last two pictures? He is clean shaven and there is a reason for that. Sunday morning he was called to be 2nd counselor in the Elder's Quorum* Presidency. So how is that for rounding out the birthweek?

*From wikipedia: An Elders Quorum is a local quorum organized in each ward, but presided over by a president with priesthood keys, who acts under the direction and authority of the local stake presidency, and under the direction of the presiding High Priest in the ward who is typically a Bishop. Each quorum consists of up to ninety-six Elders.

Check out the big kid!

Guess what Max is wearing now! Yes, he is officially potty trained! (Can you hear the heavenly chorus and see the beam of light shining down on me?) Okay! Sorry if I am a bit enthusiastic but after eight straight years of diaper changing (at times with up to 3 kids in diapers) I am a little due for a break.

Filthy

Rob took the boys on the Father's and Son's Outing and this was what Nate looked liked within a very short period of time! Conversely; about the same time this picture was taken Caleb was asking for yet another wet wipe so he could "clean his shoes"...thank you Mr. Monk.


...and this is what the tub looked like after he bathed! And yes, I had JUST scrubbed it that morning---Murphy's Law!