Huh!!

Kaitlyn has become quite the pest lately. She espicially like to pester Matayia, she knows just how to push her buttons and also knows Matayia would never retaliate. After a long morning of telling Kaitlyn to leave Matayia alone I walked out to the kitchen where they were both sitting at the bar, Kaitlyn still bugging Matayia and so I said to Matayia "if you leveled her just once she would learn to really leave you alone" Matayia looked at Greg who was also in the kitchen and with a puzzled face, asked "Dad what is mom talking about?" Greg responded "what mom means is you will only have to hit her once for her to learn you are serious" Matayia looking even more puzzled looked at Greg and said "why would I do that?" And so the pest continues and will continue until one fine day she is "leveled" by her loving sister.

Road Tripping

Santa Brought Greg and I a TomTom for Christmas. So we figured a road trip was in order. Since the winter and cold starts to mess with Greg's head about this time of year we decided to head to warmer weather. Miranda and Ian have been living in Arizona for awhile and we decided to take of advantage of their hospitality. So Friday we hopped in the car plugged our TomTom in and decided we would drive as far as we could. I wondered if this was a great idea when about 30 minutes into the drive Kaitlyn asked are we almost there? I calmly told her to ask me again tomorrow! The driving went well and we pulled into ????? Around dinner. We got a little dinner, traded seats, (Yes, this is the first time I have actually drove on a trip in 10 years) and kept on truckin! Soon the sun went down and we kept driving. Greg is not really a night person so I fully expected to stop for the night as soon as I was done driving. I pulled into Phoenix about 12:30, I had done my part and was ready to sleep so I left it up to Greg what we would do from there. He decided we were only about 3 1/2 hours away and he could make it. The next thing I knew we were pulling into Miranda's driveway, about 3:30 in the morning, but hey we made it. We crashed in our beds and woke up to the Arizona sun.
Matayia was convinced that she was going to swim in Mirandas unheated pool and that she did.



Though all her attempts were followed by a little screaming and running to the warm blowup pool. She was brave.

Thought the town of Sierra Vista is not near as bad as Miranda claimed. There is not alot to do unless you are a diehard Tombstone fan. Ian provided us with a viewing of the movie so we could really appreciate the town. When we visited Tombstone Maytaia noticed that almost everyone smoked there and I think she was right. The town was more than I had expected and we had a fun time walking down a historic old western street.



We also enjoyed a quick visit to Bisbee...



Happily consumed some ice cream outside in January



And then we had to come back home.

Because we were worried about bad weather we left sunny Arizona Tuesday morning and headed to Las Vegas. The trip seemed a little longer on the way home and Greg didn't seem to love roadtripping as much. But after a long day we pulled in Vegas in a rainstorm. We had a small situation when we got to the hotel that only added to Greg's long day, starting with a stinky smoky room, and then us loosing our keys to our new clean smelling room, all in a rainstorm. When we finally got in our room and had some dinner the day seemed to not be so bad. And Matayia and i were ready to visit the Strip! Needless to say this was not on the top of greg's list but of coarse he tagged along. We made a quick stop at H&M (just couldn't go to Vegas without stopping)and then headed to M&M world on the strip.



After we partied at M&M world. We walked the girls through the MGM Grande Casino. (yes this was my idea) I remember the first time I went in a casino and was fascinated with all that was going on so i decided our girls would think it was cool. Kaitlyn just looked around with big eyes, not saying a word. While Matayia told me of a book she had read that said you could loose $100 dollars while gambling, and asked me is that was true.



When we were pulling into the driveway I asked Greg "was it worth it?" and he replied "lets go back again." I guess we have a few more road trips in our future.

Honesty from a 4 year old

While we were visiting in Gunnison over the holidays we went to church. After we had settled into our bench and halfway through the meeting Kaitlyn leaned over to me and asked. "Why doesn't Grandpa want to come to church with us?" Of coarse I gave her a little chuckle. But as I started to think, I don't think she has ever seen him at church with us in Gunnison. Curtis was made the Stake President when Matayia was just a baby (or maybe before she was born I can't quite remember) and so his church responsibilities have always kept him really busy on Sundays. (of coarse attending other wards) But to a 4 year old all she sees is that her grandpa is not sitting on that church bench with her, therefore he is not at church. I told her that she was going to have to ask grandpa why he was never there when we got home. So when Grandpa came in from his meetings she met him at the door and asked him "why he never comes to church?" Of coarse this caused Grandpa to laugh, but he never really gave her an explanation. So still today Kaitlyn is convinced Grandpa doesn't like to come to church!!

New Years Resolution

New years resolutions are for the birds! I cannot ever remember making a new years resolution. I once decided that I would feel better about myself by never making them, rather than failing to keep them. So I always pass on this little chore. But maybe this year is going to be a little different, though I am not calling it a new years resolution, we as a family have a goal. Matayia is turning 8 this year and so she will be getting baptized. We have decided that we want to read the Book of Mormon as a family before she gets baptized in August. We started tonight. We have a plan. We know we will have setbacks. But we will finish by Aug 24th 2010.

Happy Birthday to me!!

On New Year's Eve Matayia happily announced to my friends that I was almost 31. I have now officially joined the thirties. Though I still feel young I am often reminded that I am not. My birthday started off with a bang, I told Matayia and Kaitlyn all I wanted for my birthday was to sleep in and that I did. i then enjoyed breakfast in bed followed by opening some great gifts. I got a stereo for my Ipod, a case for my ipod along with a few other thing. We then went to Texas Roadhouse for lunch where I threatened everyone to not tell the workers it was my birthday. I didn't want to sit on the birthday saddle. After lunch we dropped the kids off with a babysitter and headed to the movies alone. Greg enjoyed his 2nd viewing of Avatar 3d while I enjoyed my first. The movie was good, I really wonder where people come up with these ideas though. Thanks Greg for another great birthday.

Happy Birthday to Kaitlyn

Kaitlyn has been talking about her birthday party since Matayia had hers in August. This is the first year she has been invited to some birthday parties and she has been so excited to have her own. And it finally came!! We decided to have her party down at Arete Gymnastics. They will let you rent out their gym, and the kids had a blast!! There are trampolines to jump on, foam pits to jump in and bars to swing on. It is a kid heaven. Though I really had to do alot of convincing for Kaitlyn to want to have her party here I know she really enjoyed it in the end.



We ended up with quite the gang, including, Kaitlyn, Matayia, their cousins, Jacie, Bryn, and Kelli. And Kaitlyn's friends, Cole, Austin, Keoni, Tayson, Andrea and Mia. Quite the party for her first party!! After the couple hours of running and jumping was over Kaitlyn and I headed to Build a Bear. She has been waiting to make a bear for awhile and finally got one for her birthday. Kaitlyn had a great day, she is no longer my little baby. She is really growing up fast. Happy Birthday Kaitlyn, We Love You!!

Sledding Tradition

We headed down to Gunnison New Years Day. Greg had a cold and wasn't up for much and Curtis ended up not feeling so well himself. So the girls went shopping (in Richfield) while the guys chilled on the couch in front of the TV (convenient football time) Later in the day we decided to do our annual sledding. Matayia was into it and had a good time, Kaitlyn on the other hand was content to just sit and eat snow. Though Grandpa wasn't feeling very well he tried to be tough and sled with the kids (thanks Grandpa) When we were done Matayia even got to get pulled on her sled behind the truck by grandpa. Oh the things you can do in small towns!!