Kyla's 3 year pix

Pictures by my awesomne brother Jarod - thanks a million - now if I can just choose my fave =)

Happy Birthday Kyla!

Little Kyla Shaye is 3!!! Her birthday was last Wednesday on the drive from St. Louis to Oklahoma City. In the morning she got to open her present from us. She asked for ducks for her birthday so we got her the game Lucky Ducks...

In the car, I gave Maelie and Kyla each a little party bag filled with party favors and it kept them busy for quite a while!

When we got to Oklahoma City, Kyla got to pick out a cake and some icecream and we had a little party in the hotel room...


We arrived in AZ on Friday. It was such a long week and we are glad to have it done. But we had no car problems and no car accidents, phew! We ran into some snow but the roads were actually really good! Saturday night we had a party with the family for Kyla...
thanks to everyone for the great presents - she is really loving them all!

She asked for a Strawberry Shortcake cake

Yes, we sure had a drastic change in the weather! We went from poofy coats to outside bday parties!

Happy Birthday Kyla Shaye!

our last week in PA

It's been a busy week! Our stuff is back on a truck headed back the same direction we came almost 6 months ago. Last summer as we were making preparartions to move to PA, Jonas had some doubt and said that maybe we should just stay in AZ and settle down a bit. I was the one that pushed him forward saying, "If we're gonna go to grad school, we gotta get it done now before it's too late." In some ways I wish I had listened to him in others I am glad we went on this little expedition. It's been a ton of work but we've sure made a lot of great memories through it all. I had a hard time sleeping last night and I finally decided that I am glad that we came here and went through all this, eventho we spent a lot of money doing it and eventho we now have to go crawling back to AZ, HA! Jonas is glad we did it, too and I think he even feels better than I do about going back to AZ. Maelie and Kyla had several last play dates this week with some of their great friends that we are going to miss. Maelie had her last day of preschool and her fave teacher made her such a nice yearbook for her to keep that she sure treasures! Tomorrow is our last day of church here and we head out on the road on Monday! Here are a few pix from this week....

saying bye to the snow

1st popsicle

my thoughts exactly - poor little guy

Maelie working too hard

much better :)

or maybe like this?

It's been great PA!

an awesome ORANGE stroller

I wanna win this!!!

the CRAZY life

What a week!! I don't think I've said much about Jonas' Penn State experiences here on the blog but some of you know the truth... Jonas hasn't liked his acoustics program here. So last semester was spent doing a lot of thinking, pondering, and soul searching. Jonas looked through lots of programs last semester, figuring since we are here at Penn State, he might as well get some sort of degree done. Well, this semester he decided to do a little exploring. He started classes Monday and then Tuesday we discovered that since he isn't in the acoustics program anymore his loans wouldn't come through and he can no longer receive his assistantship. We realized that since tuition at Penn State is out of this world and there is no way we could afford it, that it is time to get a real job and settle down a bit while exploring online or at a community college for a much better price. So, Jonas is now a Penn State drop out! We began looking for a job on Tuesday, all over - here in State College and everywhere. He got his first job offer Thursday, for us that was a pretty quick job hunt. But now we are in a bit of shock and quite overwhelmed because the job offer is his old job in Chandler, AZ! I know! So... we are in the process of moving back to Arizona! This leaves me with many mixed feelings. I feel really sad about leaving this place when we had just started to do and see great things. There are still some places we wanted to visit while living on this side of the country. I am really sad about leaving my beehives. I was just starting to get comfortable in my new calling and already love Hannah, Megan, and Tristina and all the YW leaders I work with! I am super not anxious to do the whole moving thing again, AAHHH!!! It's a TON of work! And we get to drive across the country without stopping to see fun things. I will miss many things about this area - snow, Meyer's Dairy!!!, Backyard Burgers, etc... BUT... we are going to buy a house! YAY! It's finally a buyers market down in the Phoenix area. That will be so fun to have a home of our own. It will also be nice to have a good job again and the whole thing will be better for us while Jonas furthers his education. And it will be fun to live near family again. I tell ya, life throws you some real crazy experiences sometimes. I really feel blessed to have my family to go through this life with. They are amazing and I am glad to have Jonas by my side through it all.

Poor little Jaxon is sick this week.. hopefully he will start getting better now that's he has meds!

Jonas took pix of the girls artwork all over the playroom wall before we took it all down... Maelie was kinda disappointed when we told her we were moving. She really likes it here. But she will be ok because Maelie and Kyla have been "packing"... a couple days ago she came up to me with her hat and backpack on and said, "I'm all ready to move to Arizona now." Good thing these girls are at a flexible age.

These girls right here are the biggest BY FAR thing I will miss about PA!!! These are 2 out of 3 of my beehives Megan and Hannah and Natalie the Beehive counselor. They are all amazing and I will really miss them and just miss being in YW, I cried today during the YW theme. I was really surprised how hard church was for me today.

Well... here we go again! Life sure is an adventure!!!

good to be home

I had a fabulous week in AZ! To continue on... Friday I went shopping with my Mom and then got another mexican fix for lunch. My niece Lexy came over Friday afternoon. And Friday night we had a fam BBQ. The flight back was lots better because it was direct and just under 4 hours. Jaxon did really good. I was soooo excited to see the rest of my little family! Sometimes my kids drive me so crazy that I thought the break from them would be welcome but it made me realize how much I love my little girls and husband. Jonas did a fabulous job holding down the fort - I was delightfully amazed to see the house clean!!! And I think the girls missed me, but they had so much fun with their Daddy that they had a good time! They went to the Pittsburgh zoo/aquarium before picking me up at the airport and it sounds like they had a great time - the best part being when they fed the sea lions snowballs! I was wishing that they kept the camera for the week... but here are a few pix of the trip to AZ!

Jaxon with his cousin Emma

Jaxon with hs cousins Jakob, Emma, and Anna

Jaxon and Emma

Jaxon with Aunt Shannon

Jaxon meeting his cousin Zacary - finally 2 boys close in age!

It was fun! And it feels great to be home! We finally have lots of snow here in fact, you should have seen me after church... Jonas has to stay and do tithing so I was unsuccessfully trying to safely bring 3 kids up a VERY icy walk to get into our house. Maelie fell down twice and Kyla once, they were all scared out of their minds and I was just cracking up! Good thing I just taught a lesson on finding joy in life! :)

SURPRISE!!!

Jaxon and I flew to AZ on Monday for the week and we are here until Saturday. It has been great to be here and it was even greater to surpise everyone. I only told my brother Jarod so that he could come get me at the airport. The flight over was very VERY long but we survived! When we got to my parent's house, Jarod brought Jaxon in and started talking to my mom while I hid in the other room. She thought it was his daughter Emma at first until he turned around and looked at her and she was totally confused thinking something had happened to us so I came around the corner and asked her if her heart was doing ok. My mom's heart has stopped a couple times and she has a difribulator so I was a little worried about her, but she was fine, it was hilarious and a lot of fun! A little while later my sister Shannon called over to my mom's house and I answered the phone and she was totally confused and then excited and came right over to see us. And then I called my other sister, Taani and asked if I could borrow a carseat leaving her totally confused and then excited, too! Later when my Dad got up for work I hid under the blanket on the couch and then peeked out and he was completely surprised - so great to see him! I just had a lot of fun! =) There is absolutely no good mexican food where we live so on Tuesday we went out for mexican and I had some amazing seafood tacos. I was happy that my sister in law Katrina was able to come - and I was able to meet my nephew Zacary who was born 2 days after we moved, such a cutie!! On Tuesday I really REALLY missed the rest of my family that I left behind in PA!! I don't think I was prepared for how badly I would miss them! I kept hugging poor Anna and Kailin and almost started crying a couple times! :) Wednesday I went out to lunch at another mexican restaurant with my good friend Emily and that was great! I went to activity day with my mom which was really fun and also made me REALLY appreciate my beehives! I went to tap that night with Shannon and Taani as the teacher, also a lot of fun! Today I went to Chandler to go to playgroup in my old ward, I loved that ward so much, lots of great people and I really enjoyed that. I also got to see my friend Kari's new baby Journey who was born less than a week ago. This afternoon we got to watch little Zacary and then Shannon, Jaxon, and I went to the mall. Jarod's family came over again tonight and Jakob, Shannon, and I played Wacky 6, a lot of fun! And now I gotta go get some sleep because Jaxon is sleeping and he hasn't been sleeping very good this week and I am wasted!! He is working on some teeth so I think that is what has been keeping him up at night... One thing I have learned about Jaxon this week is that he doesn't know what to do with himself without Maelie and Kyla to chase around! When he is the only kid around he is all clingy but when his cousins come over to play, he is totally happy and just loves playing with them! Jaxon has also leared to give 5 and to wave hi. Here's to one more fun day in AZ and then yes, I am very excited to get back to my cute and missed family in PA! I think I will be ready for another semester as a stay at home mom! I hope! :)

finally a pic of the whole family

All through the holidays I've been meaning to get a pic of all of us and I finally got one - the only reason I got one when everyone was looking decent is because we switched to later church. I had to bribe with popsicles. Kyla smiled on all of them EXCEPT for the one that Maelie isn't looking silly (she looked REALLY silly in all the others) so this is the best we got!

Jaxon has superhearing! When that fridge door is open, he is there in a FLASH!!!

Happy New Year

Last night we went to the youth new year's eve party for a bit - the kids and I hung out with the youth while Jonas did some end of the year tithing stuff. They had a pretty awesome night planned out - sumo suits, movies, balloons, human foosball, volleyball, pizza, icecream, and lots of other fun, I'm sure! I almost wished I was a youth again until I thought about it for a little while longer and was glad when it was time to go home and have our little family party. The girls were really excited about it. We played with poppers, horns, and balloon and danced and had fun together. I am so grateful for my family and love each of them so much!

2009, here I come!

*Be better at scripture study and prayer

*Be a better mother and wife and person

*love my beehives more

*reach my goal weight for the first time EVER!

*Find Joy in the Journey

*Find a hobby and make time for myself