2010.... time sure does fly when your busy and having fun!  

2010 has started out as a brand new year for us. Not just the change from 2009 to 2010, but a literal new beginning. We are so very grateful for this. With the new changes we have been extremely busy. However, they are all things we happy to be working on. It goes unsaid that our blog has been a little neglected. It is already half way through April and I am barely beginning to get everything caught up. I decided that I would do one long catch up post to get us up to date so it will seem a little less overwhelming. So forgive me if I am a little long winded. I am using this blog as a journal of sorts so I need to make sure I document even the little things. If you choose to skip over this because it's too long, I'll forgive you! If not, thanks for hanging in there while I play catch up.

New Year's day was a quiet but fun day at our house. It also happens to be my Mom's birthday. We had her and my dad over for lunch to celebrate. I made her Cheesy Ham and Vegetable Chowder and Rolls for lunch. It's a favorite of her's and a big hit at our house. They just stayed for a short visit because they were on their way to visit my brother and sister-in-law in Tucson.
My mom is so generous and always brings Josh a "treat" of some kind. She brought him a new years hat and blower. He loved it!


The rest of January was spent continuing the attempt to get moved. We were back and forth between Willcox, Tucson, and Safford a lot. And unfortunately did not get the rest of the house moved until February. We did spend a lot of time unpacking and getting what we could settled. It has really been an adventure starting a new phase of our lives. We also had the chance to attend a couple of special events in January. On Sunday the 24th our niece Ella was blessed and we drove up so we could be a part of that. She is a doll and we just love her to death! Then the next weekend we were able to go back up to see our nephew Ethan be baptized. We can hardly believe he is 8 already but we are very proud of him for his choice to be baptized. That afternoon we went back to Grandma and Grandpa Smith's house for a luncheon. The food was very yummy and then my sister-in-law Allison and I took our other sister-in-law Linsey to get a pedicure to help her celebration and prepare for the birth of our next nephew Bennett. It was a lot of fun, and VERY relaxing. After we got back to the house we set up our little studio and took Ella's blessing photos. She is a beauty and I am so in love with her smile.




Like I mentioned we were between our new and old home A LOT in January. With all of the fun things we had going on it did not leave much time for packing so that got pushed into February. But it was all worth it. They were events that we would not have missed.


February had a lot of great days. One of the best was Joshua's first day in nursery. HE LOVES IT!!! I think we have the only kid who cries when he has to leave. They blow bubbles at the end and we have to let him finish or he gets really upset. On his first day he went in just fine. Cody stayed for a couple of minutes and then made his exit. Supposedly Josh asked for him a couple of times and then moved on. Now he doesn't even look back. He runs into nursery happy and excited to play with his friend Abby. Abby's mom is one of Joshua's nursery leaders. She also happens to be my visiting teaching companion. It really was a blessing being paired with Emily. We happened to have a lot in common and easily fell into a comfortable place with one another. Emily has been wonderful. It has really made a difference having someone here that I can call a friend. It is great that Josh and Abby are so close in age and have a lot of fun together. About a month after we moved in Cody was made companions with Rex, Emily's husband. We thought it was really funny. We have been trying to get together for a game night but our schedules keep conflicting so hopefully we will be able to do that soon.


I wanted to get some pictures of Joshua for his 18 month mark. I thought it would be fun to do some cowboy pictures and so I ran out bought his hat (which is a "real" cowboy hat), and got everything together so we could head out when Cody got home from work. It was very spur of the moment, but I love some of the photos we got. I also wanted to get some regular photos of him but we never went back out. I figure we will have to settle for some regular shots at 20 months instead. Here are a few of my favorite cowboy shots.

We also made a very impulsive decision and got a new puppy in February. She is a sweet girl and we named her Sadie. We have been looking for a friend for our beagle Maddie for a while and thought this puppy would make a good match. They have a lot of fun together but we did not realize the kind of responsibility that having two dogs comes with. We have been trying to find Sadie a new home but have not been successful yet. Maybe she's just supposed to be with us. We'll keep looking and if she stays at our house that's OK too. She's a lot of fun and Josh really likes her. They are just a little rough on each other.

Valentines Day was also really nice. I was spoiled with chocolates, flowers, and a card from Cody. And Joshua got me a balloon. Cody and I had decided we were going to do things simple for Valentines Day this year because we had just spent a lot of money on the move. He cheated. I felt bad because I had made him a really adorable card but that was it. I had Josh make him one too which he loved. So even though I felt bad it was still nice to be surprised. I really am one lucky girl and have been blessed with such an amazing companion to share my life with. I love you Code!

The weekend after Valentine's Day we finally made the final move. Cody took the day off on Friday so we would have enough time to get everything done. We went up Thursday night and got started and thought we would be done by Saturday afternoon. We REALLY underestimated the amount of time needed to get the job done. We started pulling things out of closets and it just exploded. We didn't finish until Monday afternoon and still had to drive to Willcox and unpack the truck. The first truck we moved was 17 ft. and turned out to be way too small. So we thought we should get another 17ft to be on the safe side the next time. It was a good thing because we BARELY made it all fit. I can't believe how we have accumulated so much stuff in such a short period of time. I think we are in desperate need of a good garage sale. What really made the move hard was the weather. We had been having beautiful weather the two weeks prior to our move, and even most of the weekend. But when we started moving things into the truck on Monday it began to rain, and turned REALLY cold. It was miserable. It continued to rain on and off all day. Even as we unloaded in Willcox it rained. Willcox is really windy. We have found that it is that way all the time. So mixed with the rain and cold it was a tough day to say the least. And it didn't stop with that day. It went far into the night. My sweet friend Emily and her husband watched Joshua for us so we could unload the truck at our storage unit faster. Her husband tried to come over and help but it's gated so he couldn't get in. So instead they made us dinner! It was so nice of them and we were VERY grateful. Once we finished up there and got Josh home and in bed we continued to work until we finally finished up at 11:30 that night. Bless Cody's heart he got up early to clean the truck out and return it before he went to work the next day. It was so cold the door was frozen shut! But he eventually got it open. We returned the truck and were SO happy to be done. Then it was on to unpacking everything. I held off for a few days to give us a rest before diving into that. We are still not completely done but I figure we'll get there eventually.


March was pretty calm until the last weekend and then it seemed like we fit a month's worth of driving and events into two days. We did celebrate St. Patty's day. I decided to surprise Cody with something kind of fun. He has a Guinness ice bucket that a co-worker gave him for his birthday with Dr. Pepper in it. I filled that with ice and packed in IBC Rootbeer and Cream Soda. Cody was really excited because they are a favorite of his and he doesn't get them that often. Then I made and all green dinner. One year when I was young my mom did it and I thought it was fun so I decided to give it a shot. I was going to make green shake and bake but the time got away from me so I just did regular chicken legs, green jello, green salad, and green rice-a-roni. It was fun, and Joshua loved it. Green was his "favorite" color at the time.

March 20th we had the chance to drive up to Tucson for the Air Show at Davis Monthan AFB. It was awesome. We were there all day and Josh was perfect. He LOVED the airplanes and was so patient the whole day. The Thunderbirds were the main attraction and they were well worth the wait. I was amazed at their performance. It really was awesome. Grandpa Smith came for the Thunderbirds and brought Zach and Ethan Joshua's cousins along. Cody and his dad share a special bond when it comes to airplanes. Cody has loved them since he was little. He could name almost any plane that he saw flying and still does. He get's his love for aircraft from his dad and I think Josh is on that same path. Joshua got a toy plane after the show thanks to Cody and my persistence. They had blow up planes that were for younger kids and most of the booths were sold out. Cody ran all the way down the strip of vendors until he finally found one. Thanks Code!! It was so much fun watching Joshua pretend with it. He would make it fly and even make the sounds they made. It was a lot of fun! Joshua hung in all day. He would NOT sleep! But on the way back to the car he couldn't fight it anymore. He finally crashed. It was a great day for our little family. It was surprisingly relaxing and a chance to make a lot of fun memories.

The last weekend in March was crazy but fun. I was asked to judge the Miss Mesa/Miss Tempe Pageant up in Phoenix. Josh and I kicked the weekend off by driving to Safford to pick up a rental car Friday afternoon. Our car is in desperate need of some maintenance and with the amount of driving we were going to be doing over the weekend though it would be safer to get a rental. We grabbed the car, had my mom drive our car back to her house, and headed out. We loaded up the car and drove to Phoenix that night and didn't get into town until 10:30. Our friend Lizzy still drove over to our hotel to hang out and visit for a little while. It was so nice to see her. It's not very often that we get to spend time with her anymore. I wish we lived closer. We have some really great memories! The next morning I had to be at the pageant site for judges orientation by 7:30 so it was an early morning regardless of our late night. The pageant was pretty much an all day event. We did get a lunch break, and we decided to have Olive Garden. It was not a relaxing lunch at all. Joshua decided to be a little pill and so our lunch did not get enjoyed. However, we had the BEST waiter I have ever had. He brought Josh out a plate of fruit which worked wonders. He just gobbled it up. And we were able to get some food in out tummies too. We only made it through about half our lunch and had to go. The waiter felt bad that we didn't get to enjoy our food so he had the manager comp one of our plates. He didn't even say a word before doing it either. He just came out with the check and told us what he had done. We didn't know what to say but thank you. The manager even stopped by and said that he knows how tough little ones can be, but that he (Joshua) will be grown before we know it. So we better enjoy him while he's little. We were thoroughly impressed. And it made the afternoon not so rough after all. I know I can get frustrated when we are in public and Joshua decides to misbehave. I think it's mostly because he is typically such a sweet kid. I have to remember that it's part of their learning process and I have to be patient or he will never learn. Anyway, the pageant started at 2:00 that afternoon and lasted until about 5:00. The year I competed at Miss Arizona I made a really dear friend Savanna. Miss Savanna is this years reigning Miss AZ. She will be giving up her title in June. She was there and I had to grab a picture of her with Josh. She is such an amazing girl and will be a middle school teacher soon.

After the pageant we jumped in the car and went over to my sister Shanny's restaurant she works at in Scottsdale. Oregano's is a popular place and there is no call ahead seating. We had to wait and hour and a half to sit in her section but it was well worth it. We miss her so much and any time we get to hang out is important. We didn't get done at Oregano's until 8:30 and headed out to try and make it back to Tucson. We were getting really tired and though about getting a hotel in Casa Grande but we pushed on and made it. Cody's dad is so awesome and made our bed all up for us so it was ready when we got to their house in Tucson.

I felt like my head had just hit the pillow when the alarm went off the next morning. We were on our way to attend our nephew Bennett's baby blessing at 9:00. We got all ready and made it just in time. His dad Brad gave him a beautiful blessing and after sacrament meeting headed over to the park near their house for a luncheon. There were a ton of kids and Josh had a blast. He got into lots of trouble but it really was ok. The worst was the red mud. The fields were muddy but we didn't know it and Josh found a big spot of it and went to town. He was covered! We decided to just let him play and get dirty the rest of the time and would get him cleaned up at Lindsey's afterward. So when Josh discovered a cupcake I didn't hesitate I let him have the whole thing. Cody's sister Mindy said to Josh jokingly "smash it in your face Josh"! because he was already trashed. Well, the stinker did it. He had icing every where. Needless to say he was quite a sight. We stripped him of his clothes before heading out and put him straight into the bath a Lindsey's. His clothes were pretty bad. I didn't think we would be able to salvage them and it was a brand new outfit. I was a little bummed but then started to see the humor in it. Lindsey worked really hard and she was able to save everything but his shirt. And I was so relieved that I was able to get his new tennis shoes clean. After clean up, we set up our photography stuff so we could take Bennett's blessing photos. He was so handsome and I think we got some really great shots.


After we packed the car up we headed out for home. We hit Willcox around 7:30, unloaded the car and headed to Safford to return the rental. After making the switch we got Josh in jammies and headed out on the last stretch of our trip back home. I was very excited to see my bed when we finally made it back for good. It was a VERY long weekend and it took a couple of days to recover but it was a lot of fun. And that moved us into April.


Here we are in April. ALREADY!!! Where in the world did the time go?!? So far April has been a great month. We had Cody's birthday, Easter, I took an important exam, Joshua turned 20 months and I got to attend a great photography workshop. Some of these are pretty important so I will be giving them their own post. It has been a whirlwind beginning to a new year, but we wouldn't have had it any other way. All of the changes have been very positive and we are loving life!! So here is to one of my new year's resolutions.... keeping up on my blog. Hopefully I will do better at it than the last few months! And here is to another 8 months we have this year. I can only hope and pray they are as wonderful as the past 4 have been.