'twas the week after Christmas...

Rachel and her family drove to Arizona on Christmas day. They stayed here until the 2nd and I quite enjoyed the non-stop party. We spent very little time at our house and Clara loved all the cousin time. For the last week, every time we go to my parent's, she asks if Rachel and her kids are going to be there. Among shopping, visiting, relaxing and enjoying the company, we had lots of fun.

{Hiking. I used to think getting a picture of all kids looking was good. Now, I enjoy "real" pictures more. Lucas covering his ears, Elsa raising her hands, Clara and Lucy examining the glasses.} {I am certain Emma considered Clara a life-size doll. She loved playing with her and holding her hand everywhere we went.}

{Dinner, FHE and donuts at R&K's.}

{The train park (and didn't wait in line for three hours like last time).}

{What a cattle car should be used for...}

{Dinner at Cafe Boa (more on that restaurant later). Afterwards I suggested we find a cool place for a picture. The guys recommended the electrical boxes in the parking garage.}

{Visit to Pop the Soda Shop, a cute little soda shop in Scottsdale (South Scottsdale, quite different from North).}

{Had a rad New Year's Eve party at R&K's, complete with 'wine' and cheese.}

{Dear Henry Weinhard, Martinelli and Trader Joe, Thank you for providing us with some Mormon-approved bubbly.}

{Hmmm}

{Who doesn't love balloons?}

{Lucas is one of the four Melzer grandchildren birthed in 2006. He's also the only boy. No wonder he felt left out and wanted to participate in the dressing up.}

{Playing Scrabble Slam. Haven't played? You should try it. It involves more brains than luck unlike other games, so that made it fun.}

{Why Clara goes to bed at 8pm.}

{Ate at Pita Jungle. Clara got to go. And was as much of a turkey there as in this picture I took just before we left. But I do love that you can see both her dimples in this picture, turkey or not.}

{Saturday we went to say goodbye. Micah put a little couch on the plasma car and took Clara and Lady for a ride.}

It was a good week. Actually, it was a great week. I did decide that the only reason I wouldn't want Rachel to move here is because I would get just about nothing done. Dishes, laundry, work, grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, you name it. It was all on hold that whole week. Which was, don't get me wrong, very nice. It's just dealing with the aftermath that isn't so nice. You know, going back to reality.

Death of the Nutcracker

Top 5 reasons I didn't mind that Clara decapitated our nutcracker within days of getting it out of the box...
5. It was a total accident.
4. We can just set the head on the body and you can't even tell anything is wrong.
3. He can't come alive at night without a head.
2. I never worried about it getting broken.
1. It's way easier to store because it's not as long.

The Week Before Christmas

'Twas the week before Christmas and life explodes... (with fun)

12.21 Clara's birthday. She and I watch The Princess and the Frog in the morning. Then for the family celebration, go to the train park. Wait in line for the train at the McCormick Train Park for 2.5 hours. Sing 'Happy Birthday', eat cookies and drink hot chocolate while waiting. Board train. Train breaks down. De-board train. Wait for broken train to move. Wait for other train to return. Re-board train. Enjoy our train ride. Don't enjoy getting home at 10:30pm and getting Clara to bed at 11:00pm. Do enjoy celebrating such a special little person.

12.22 Angela's birthday.

Clara finally opens presents. Loves it all. Has a hard time opening presents after she opens a book.

12.23 Decide having triplets would be fun. Take Clara, Lucy and Elsa to see Santa at Bass Pro Shop. 3 times the girls, 3 times the food, 3 times the car (I had to drive Kathryn's to fit three car seats), you get the picture. Consequently, 3 times the fun. Until I roll Elsa's hand up in the window. {No wonder I'm her favorite aunt.} {Don't tell Clint. He might say I did it on purpose because I might have rolled his hand up in the window this summer.}

At night go to Beka and Danny's. See high school friends. Clara sees her boyfriends.

Have white elephant gift exchange. Rob receives coolest gift ever. Potted lettuce. Lindsay is a genius!

12.24 Cleaning mode kicks in. Clean a lot. Watch Christmas movies. Decide a new tradition is to go out to eat on Christmas Eve. Go out to eat. (Dear Restaurateurs, Please establish a good restaurant within 10 miles of my house because there aren't many. Thank you.). Come home. Discuss the birth of our Savior by Christmas tree light. Sing songs. Go to bed.

12.25 Merry Christmas! Clara loves her electric toothbrush more than anything else. Play at Mom's all day long. Eat dinner at Suzanne's. Rachel and family arrive... life on hold until she leaves.

PS After I published this post, it wasn't on my blog and it seemed hitting the "publish post" button deleted it. I panicked and got a little sick. Luckily, five minutes later I realized I probably used the wrong year. Sure enough, I used 2009, not 2010. Woops. Phew, glad I don't have to redo this.

To Be Continued...

My Little Darling,

You're three! Happy Birthday. Words will never be good enough to express my feelings about you. The love, the joy. But there are plenty of words to describe the fun we had today. If only we hadn't spent 3 1/2 hours at the train park, maybe I'd do that tonight. More to come about your special day.

Love, Mom
PS And Happy Birthday to Angie-lala tomorrow. Good thing Clara and Angela like each other because this is the third year in a row we've celebrated their birthdays together. I'm guessing it's not the last either.

Emotional Reflections

Reflecting back to this time last year generates some strong emotions. Specifically because of the tender mercies that came our way during that difficult time. As I remember the phone call from a friend asking if I would be able to do work for her current employer, a box of food (and half a cow) from family, a bonus from a special client, loans from trusting family and a package from a friend, my eyes fill with tears and my heart fills with gratitude. At a time when making ends meet seemed impossible each week, Jason's hours were cut, he was forced to take a week off unpaid and we got sued. But Heavenly Father never let me forget the He hadn't forgot about me. Although the burden wasn't gone, it was lightened by people I love. The light is always on, if only we let it in.And reflecting back to this time, this very day actually, three years ago, I spent a few hours searching the Internet to find out "how to know if you are in labor". I was paranoid I would get to the hospital, only to be turned away because I wasn't really in labor. I gave up, said a prayer, went to sleep and an hour later, my water broke. I was so relieved, I was off the hook. There was no question about it. Bet you can't guess what I'll write about tomorrow...

Just Wondering

Who needs Christmas lights when you can sit in traffic on the 101 and have lines of thousands of beautiful red and white lights?

My Special Place

Have you ever walked into somewhere and the atmosphere/smell/weather brings back really strong emotions? That's what California does to me. The cool, crisp, humid air brings back incredible memories and it dawned on me during this trip that San Diego is my special place. I met some of my dearest friends there. I experienced a lot of 'emotional repair' there thanks to some really great people. I don't want to go into details (it's not nearly as dramatic as it sounds) but during some particularly rough single years, I found myself in California often. I spent much time making wonderful memories, rebuilding my destroyed confidence and replacing my depression with happiness. Every time I'd visit during high school or college, I would leave reality and enjoy my little fantasy world: laughing my head off, staying up all night talking, having deep religious discussions, feeling like I was special, feeling as though I'd never moved and anxiously waiting for the next visit. My friends and the experiences/memories I had there influenced me a great deal and influenced decisions that I am glad I made. All of that floods my mind the moment I feel that cold, humid air. It's euphoric. So off we (Jason, Clara, Angela and I) went and home we came with another set of memories in my special place.

If I tried to describe each day, I'd write a novel, so here are the highlights from our trip: bubble cheekies (Angela's nickname, compliments Clara), Clara's stories, family, Swirlz (candy store), shopping, sister chats, rain, friends, "Syndey" (aka Sydney... Emily's dog that Clara had a hard time pronouncing correctly), New Moon, Yardhouse, vineyards, Sunday afternoon drives to nowhere, the Bullicks*, the Sabins**, Poway Lake, creepy guys raking leaves and husband staring down creepy guys.

*Much to my surprise, Craig was home for the holidays. Good thing because he said the funniest thing I've heard in a long time. As I was discussing something sad that happened to me, he says, "If it makes you feel any better, I've never even..." I'm not sure sad and serious exist for Nikki and Craig. They can find a way to laugh under any circumstances and that's why I love being around them.

**Did you know some of the most incredible people live in my old Ward there? They do. The Sabins are some of them. They are the type of people that you look at and they don't even have to say anything, just looking at them makes you want to be better. Anyway, it was just by chance that I saw them but Bishop Sabin looked at me for a while then proceeded to tell me about his son admitting he had a crush on me when we lived there. It's always funny to find out what people were thinking 15 year earlier.

Now the good part... pictures.
The girls got the side of the table not facing the TV. Who can watch TV anyway when there are girls around?
"He looks like a movie star in that picture" (me in my head: duh, why else do you think I married him?)

If only cameras could capture what the eye can see...

I'm pretty sure Clara has a crush on Mic. She would snuggle up to him on the couch and whisper secrets in his ear.

These three little girlies were born 3 months apart... Brooklynn = Sep, Clara = Dec and Lindon = March

Can you tell we had fun?

California at last. At last I finally got to visit again (it's been over a year, which is longer than I have ever stayed away in a long time) and at last I finished this awesome post.

Tuesday Tradition

Twice a week I work at my client's office in North Scottsdale (North, North Scottsdale) and it is a totally different world up there. The lifestyles are a stark contrast to my little family-friendly Mesa. So I decided my blog will begin a Tuesday tradition that I will call, "You know you're in North Scottsdale when..."

And so it begins. You know you're in North Scottsdale when the average car price is equivalent to the average home price in Mesa.

If I had to buy one of the wretched vehicles crowding the streets up there, I guess I'd pick this. But only if I had to. And yes, Supercharged, fully loaded out the door it'd be about what we paid for our home. Awesome. (Both the car and that people drive cars worth as much as my house).
Pretty picture and lovely cars from here.

Potbellies

Today I was secretly glad I was sick. The morning was spent cuddling under blankets on the couch with Clara, listening to the rain and staring at the lighted Christmas tree. In fact, my day was almost as good as having a milkshake and an ice cream cone at the same time.But then again having a potbelly is only cute when you're two.

Splendid

Dear Mom,

Remember how we talked on the phone today and you said you had a room to clean and I told you I had one to clean too? You said we'd see who could get the most done. I'm pretty sure I lost. You see, after I hung up the phone, I spent about 48 seconds in that room. 48 seconds was just long enough to determine I didn't want to spend any more time in there. Instead, I just hung out with Clara, talked on the phone, entertained some neighbor kids, went on a short walk, visited neighbors and for the first time in a while, I felt relaxed. I didn't have anything hanging over my head that had to be done by a certain time. I wasn't scrambling to get work done while Clara napped. I didn't feel stressed about anything (maybe not all day, but for most of it!) Sure, my house is a mess, my laundry needs help and there are plenty of things I could do, but nothing I had to do today. The house can wait. Laundry can wait. And it did, so I had a splendid day. I hope you made progress on your room... or had a splendid day.

Love,
Anna

PS Last weekend we went to California. More on that later. Maybe after my house is clean. Or at least after the suitcase is unpacked. And there will be pictures, like this one I stole from Angela.