All of Elliot's Teeth Fall Out

Elliot lost his first tooth (bottom front) last summer. It started getting wiggly while eating a burrito on a camping trip and fell out a while later when he was eating some canteloupe.

 Unfortunately, his top teeth decided that they did not want to space themselves out nicely and he ended up losing 4 across the front top over a short time span. 

The exodus of the top teeth began when Tauriel accidentally kneed him in the mouth while they were playing stairs slide. One feel out right then, and one or two next it got loose. I was able to pull a VERY wiggly one out a week or so later. 

Two missing on the top

Another fell out when Dad swung him onto the couch. I pulled tooth number six out after Ethan kicked him in the face a month later. 

A great shot of his gumline nowadays! With some bonus crazy hair.

Oh how I love my silly boy!

 

He finally has a top tooth growing back in. It was rough for a while there because he didn't have enough teeth to bite stuff. We had to cut up things like pizza and apples for him to be able to eat them. Thank goodness that teeth grow back!

We Can't Escape the Inflatable Obstacle Courses

 I went for a jog on a sunny Saturday morning in March. When I was turning onto our street, my neighbor Mike Hartmann drove past and invited us to hike Tumamoc Hill with them. I went inside, scarfed down breakfast, and filled up water bottles, then we headed off to hike! 

Tumamoc is a paved trail up a very steep hill. It was nice because we could put Isaac and all the water in the stroller. We pushed through the burning calf muscles and made it up to a marvelous view of Tucson. Elliot was an absolute champ on the hike. Annie mooched rides in the stroller for a lot of the ride up, but liked running downhill. 

Our one plan for the day was to attend a town of Sahurita event advertised as "giant lawn games." We have no clue what this meant. By the time we got to the top of the hill, we realized we probably were going to miss the giant lawn games. Elliot was devastated. But the universe had plans to reward him for his diligent hiking. As we turned into our neighborhood, we saw people blowing up a giant inflatable obstacle course and a sign saying that there was a free party starting in 5 minutes. Perfect! 

This is why Rancho Sahuarita is awesome. There was free face painting, balloon animals, hot dogs, etc. Apparently this was a "new move in event" that they don't advertise, so there were no lines. I sent out some texts and soon it was somewhat of a ward party. 

Annie was scared to go on it at first, but we went together and she LOVED it. My girl is getting so big!

The facepaint made up for my feeble face painting attempt 1 week earlier at the Rodeo Roundup.

Elliot didn't want facepaint, but his buddy Kelton got this hilarious frog mouth getup. Kelton is my favorite of Elliot's friends.

Annie used some of her money to buy a rainbow snow cone, which she generously shared with her cash-strapped brother. 

After running 2 miles, climbing a small mountain, and then hitting up the party, I was outside for 7 hours in the sun and got my first sunburn of the year. We soaked up plenty of vitamin D!

The next morning, Elliot woke up puking. This is always unfortunate, but especially so since he was on the top bunk. His blast radius made it to the opposite wall. Annie wasn't feeling well either, so we holed up for a day of snuggling and napping. 

Life is full of surprises! Some good, some bad. I'm grateful that generally there have been far more good surprises than bad ones with our family. 

The Time We Robbed A Bank

Let me say first off that this was all a set up. The money was already on the train when we got on it. 

 

By the time the train turned around the tennis courts, some cowboys caught up to us and really put us in our place. 

I'm leading my children towards a life of crime.

Isaac learned nothing from our train experience and tried to steal all the goats in the petting zoo. 

Eventually we repented of our criminal ways and were able to enjoy the rest of Rodeo celebration. 

Annie adored the pony ride, but Elliot refused to go on it. He's more of a robot guy then a cute animal guy. 

We were the second people in line for balloons!

Oh, balloons. You bring so much joy and so much misery to my children. Isaac's and Annie's both popped. Tears were shed - by Annie at least. Isaac had no idea what was going on and was just happy to be outside with weird stuff going on. 

The mechanical bull was my favorite part of Rodeo Roundup. These things are just too funny.

I don't think I've ever heard Elliot laugh so hard!

Proof that Aaron and I have fun too. 

Although getting whiplashed on these things is a questionable kind of fun.

Elliot braved the grown up bull once, then went back to the kid one. It packed a punch!

Isaac was SO EXCITED for his turn on the bouncy thing. We spent 10 minutes pulling him off the entrance until they finally let him charge on in. 

Velcro axe throwing

The line for face painting was long, and Isaac was past due for his nap, so I promised Annie that I would face paint at home. My artistic skills are questionable, but I thought the hair ears were cute. She was pleased. 

10 Year Anniversary Ski Trip

 Aaron and I have now been married for A WHOLE DECADE! We decided to celebrate with a ski trip. We went skiing on our honeymoon and went together quite a bit while we were at BYU but haven't been since we graduated. Stephen and Claudia were kind enough to watch our kids for us while we went up to Snowbowl in Flagstaff. 

We were nervous that we wouldn't remember how to ski, but it came back pretty quickly. After our first run we were both like "wow, I forgot how much fun this is!" I am determined to check out the small ski resort on the top of Mt Lemmon next year so that we don't have to wait another decade to go skiing again.

The line for the bottom lift was pretty long. Luckily we found a second lift that had a bunch of blue square runs higher up the mountain. There was never any line at all at the higher up lift! Eventually we had to take a break at the Yurt because it is pretty tiring going skiing without waiting in line breaks. The weather was awesome- we had our coats unzipped by the end. It was altogether a great experience!

A couple of Bloods in love on a mountain

Pruning and Playing

January is prime time for the Trimming of the Trees

Aaron doing his peach tree thing

I overhauled the grape trellis this year. I bolted the posts to the wall and used much thicker wire. It is holding up much better so far!

We are going strong with sunday dinners with the cousins! Isaac is in love with Bree and her hoverboard and is very persuasive in getting her to take him on rides. 

Isaac loved Bree before the hoverboard... but now she owns his heart completely. 

Post dinner couch cushion forts

My kids play with couch coushins and pillows more than any toy. 

We have constant coushin activity happening over here. 

Constant. 

Elliot prides himself on building quality "Isaac Fun Centers" 

Playgroup at the church is another longtime constant in my life. Isaac's hood was an oh-so-perfect football holder. He was like a dog chasing his tail trying to get it out.

We always end Family Home Evening with ring around the rosie ending with all the kids falling down on dad. It never gets old. 

Isaac will frequently ask Elliot to read him his bedtime book. Freight Train is his favorite. 

Some of my friends got together to do learn how to make sourdough bread. I made a couple of loafs before deciding that my "no pets" rule extended to yeasts. I don't want to be responsible for feeding anything that is not human. This video of Annie saying "sour bread dough" instead of "Sourdough bread" is probably the longest lasting legacy of my brief sourdough phase. 

Snow Day!

We were lucky enough to get an awesome snow day in McLean! It was the most snow the kids have ever been in. It blew their Arizonan minds. 

My dad made me his special hot chocolate to start the day. I love this stuff- it is heavy cream or half and half with unsweetend cocoa powder and cinnamon put through a frother. Dark delicious goodness. 

Isaac readily accepting the fact that the entire world has been covered in a mysterious white substance

Elliot put the pillow there so that he could have a comfy place to sit and watch the snow. 

 

We didn't have good snow gear, so we rolled up the legs on some much-too-big snow pants. Mimi lovingly wrapped their sneakers in packing tape in an attempt to make them somewhat waterproof. 

The railing shows how much snow there was, and it was still coming down!

Isaac had no gloves so we just let him touch it for a short time on the deck. Annie's gloves were way too big and kept falling off. I was determined to recreate the Mount Johnson sledding hill, but my endurance for snow constuction far outstripped that of my kids. I got a decent launchpad and track in place and the kids humored me with a few rides before going inside. 

My dad has a snow blower that I took a turn with while Elliot tried his hardest to throw snowballs into the intake so it would spit it right back out. 

My other favorite snow day tradition: Scones! We had toppings for navajo tacos and dessert out. We were in fry bread heaven. 

Great picture of the cute guy I married

Isaac was mostly into the olives. And his beloved Grumpa.

I persuaded the big kids to go out with me again to go sledding at my old elementary school. It was a big success! I wiped out with Annie several times, but she was willing to get up and go again every time. Elliot surprised me with his boldness and willingness to go over the ramp. 

Good ol' Chesterbrook Hill

The face of a master sledder

Annie was oh so happy to be there

Cool saggy branches in my parent's front yard

It was really cool to be able to share my childhood snow day traditions with my kids! 

McLean Adventures

We all adore hanging out in McLean with Mimi and Grumpa! Especially now that Grumpa is an experienced chocolatier. He makes his own keto chocolate that I think are actually delicious, especially when he mixes in mint and orange flavorings. 

Making flavored chocolates in the emoji molds and some chocolate strawberries

Annie was VERY on board with this activity

A truly delicious activity. 10/10, would eat keto chocolate again.

Action shot of Isaac the ball boy

The kids were big fans of Clemyjontri park

And then it was New Years Eve! Of course we had the traditional chinese takeout, movie marathon, pina coladas, and confetti poppers. We watched the Lego Movie with the kids, did a round of poppers at our fake midnight, then put them to bed, and watched some more movies until midnight. 

SIDE NOTE: Aaron randomly chipped his tooth on his fork while eating chinese takeout. Luckily, his dentist in Sahuarita was able to fix it easy-peezy when we got back.

Isaac Blood, Lord of Confetti Land

Elliot and Annie both talked me into bringing a bag of confetti home for "crafts."

We took the kids (minus Isaac who was still a bit sick) to visit my Grammie and Papa! They worked their hardest to stuff us full of an inordinate amount of sugar while we were there. I've been calling them every Sunday for a few years now, and it is fun to be able to visit in person. 

I found this gem in Grammy and Papa's house. It is my handwriting, so I think I put this little book together for them for a christmas present about 15 years ago. 

We got the jacuzzi bath working! 

The kids ended up making two trips to the national zoo! Most of the Bloods were staying with Megan in Maryland. We were all going to go to the zoo together, but they ended up having a Covid scare. It was a false alarm, so they went the day after we went with my Mom. Aaron took Elliot and Annie for zoo round 2 on the metro which was a huge win- they thought the metro train and the super long elevator leading to it was awesome. 

The panda was everyone's favorite! Except for Stephen. His favorite was the bamboo. 

A close second was the tiger. He was making this super deep growl that you could hear from super far away. The other big favorite was the komodo dragon, but it was hard to get a picture of it through the glass. 

Mimi is very good at getting the kids engaged and excited at the zoo. She took better pictures of the animals so that they could look at them more afterwards. 

We met up with some Bloods at the national gallary of Art and the Portrait Gallery. I felt a little bit like we spent most of our time looking for each other as people continually wandered off, but it was still nice looking at all the exhibits. My favorite was The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millinnium General Assembly. It was made entirely out of cardboard and tin foil by this guy in the 50's after having religious visions. The detail on these things were crazy. 

For Morgans birthday, we went to see West Side Story in theatres and then went out to eat with her family at a place called Founding Farmers. It was so delicious that I took Aaron back to eat there for our anniversary a few days later (he had more than willingly skipped the musical to stay home with the kids). It was delicious, and it's always nice to get out with my favorite Aaron!