More Arizona activities

Our second Sunday there the boys wanted to wear their Chinese suits. We did not argue and they looked so cute in them. Ellie looks elegant as usual.
They also wore them on Sunday number three.

If anyone is wondering, I have a blue silk dragon jacket to match theirs except I didn't bring it to Arizona.

We promised Erik that we would take him hiking in the desert one day. We drove a couple blocks outside of town, next door to the church building, and did some hiking in a nature park; there are several miles of trails in this park, but we could only handle about a mile.

The only critter we saw was this chipmunk, begging for food. We were looking for lizards and rattlesnakes. Erik did spot one in the rocks under some scrub brush. I did see some movement but it was too dark to get any kind of photo (Sorry Logan and Liam). We did see one rabbit and some pigeons. So much for the wild life.

Judy and Erik by a Saguaro Cactus. This one is a mature one, probably close to 200 years old and weighing several tons (full of water). Even though it was only in the mid 60s, it felt closer to 80.

This was a very refreshing after-the-hike treat. That hit the spot.

Ellie wanted a sewing kit and a machine for her birthday. We sent a kit loaded with all the handwork stuff she would need. Ellie wanted to learn how to sew. Judy brought both her sewing machines to accomplish that want. Ellie is working on a baby blanket for her new sister Amelia and pillow cases for her brothers.

She operated the machine herself, with Judy guiding the material. With Ellie, it was full speed or nothing; and occasionally she would be looking all around the room with the machine going full blast. Good thing Judy was there to help. She was so excited to do this. She closed up the blanket with hand stitching.

See the results. She is also going to be a marketer because she said that she could put pictures of her work on the blog and people would want to buy them. Just can't get enough of Amelia.

Once a month Tiffany does some service with some other ladies. And in conjunction with Ellie's birthday, sock monkeys were made, but ran out of time to finish due to a baby being born. So afterwards, Judy helped get button eyes on them and rearranged a couple of tails. They were then donated to a children's charity. This is Ellie posing with the end results. Ellie received gifts for her birthday but donated them to this charity.

One cool evening Kyle, the kids and me went to the Phoenix Zoo to see the Zoo Lights. Kyle got free passes from a Thunderbird club he belongs to. The kids were all wrapped up in blankets besides hearing coats underneath.

There were 3.5 million lights and moving lights; lighted animals running and jumping or swinging through the trees. This is a giant tree at the entry gate, all lite up in blue lights.

Flamingos

Lets keep moving. It's getting cold out here.

We also got to experience a total lunar eclipse. This is about 6:00AM and we wrapped the kids in warm stuff to watch it. But an eclipse from start to finish takes hours. It became total just at sunrise. The moon is half way to total, just above Ellie's head.

This is maybe a once in a life time event to see a total lunar eclipse so Kyle decided to join us with Charlie. We all watched it until it became total, at which time it disappeared.

This particular eclipse was to produce a blood red moon. You can see the top half of the moon had a red color. If we were one time zone west, it would have been spectacular.

This is about ten minutes to totality. But the sun is also rising and bleaching the moon.

Totality and sunrise. It disappeared. This was fun to watch. and we didn't have to drive anywhere. We jut stepped out of the front door and looked up.

It was Super-Duper cookie making day. Both Ellie and Erik wanted to help. Judy and my jobs were to make the cookie dough balls and their job was to roll the rounded cookie balls in powdered sugar. This was getting messy.My, look at all that sugar on my hands. It must taste good. They would occasionally lick their fingers and then we made them wash their hands. I would not allow them to leave this project without eating some of that delicious raw chocolate cookie dough. So they each got a couple of bites each, despite the look I got from Tiffany. I have to say, this is some of the best cookie dough in the world. Sorry Tiffany. It's kind of like the old Life commercials: "Hey, lets get Mikie".

We took the kids to a couple of movies. Their favorite one was The Muppet movie. After that. Charlie kept singing the Mana mana song and he tried to enunciate it very clearly. One of the other things they liked to watch were all the JibJab videos I created with them in it.

Ellie was so proud of her work that she needed to show it off. This was a great project.

We got the kids a Fisher Price Nativity set and gave it to them right away. They played with it every day and, yes, sometimes there there were fights over who gets to play with it. Charlie loved to push the button to make it sing and hummed along with it.

Amelia's arrival

This was Saturday night and Ellie wanted to look pretty for church in the morning. Her Auntie Mish suggested tying socks in her hair to curl it.
She is so excited for curly hair. But before she woke up, we were woken up at 5:00AM Sunday morning by Kyle, saying they were heading for the hospital. It was funny because they were just at the doctors because Tiffany was in severe pain in her back and couldn’t stand up straight. They definitely told Tiffany that she was not in labor. We gave Tiff a blessing and off they went. Amelia was born at 6:47AM on Nov 27, 2011, 7 lbs 1 oz, 18.5 in; minutes in the delivery room: 11 and only one push. We got the kids up and ready for church but headed to the hospital instead. After our visit we took the kids back to church (they wanted to go to primary).

Welcome Amelia Charlotte. She is a couple hours old here. Such a cutey pie.

Charlie and his other love, Kjersten, are watching Amelia sleep.

Ellie is so excited for a new baby sister.

The foot.

Ellie was first of the kids to try holding the baby (she is sagging in the middle but didn't care).

Then comes Erik turn. He didn't want to hold her as long as Ellie.

Auntie Mish loves this girl.

A tender moment between mom and oldest daughter. "I'm going to help as much as I can and I will take care of Amelia for you".

Amelia came home the next day. She hated getting dressed. She would rather stay wrapped up in a blanket. Kyle was in school with finals so I had the privilege to picking up mom and Amelia.

In the car and strapped in. She didn't like that either.

Charlie really was not sure about all this newness and only wanted to to hold her for seconds. But he tried. Charlie got sick the day Amelia was born. So with the sickness, the fever, the new baby taking all mom's attention and the grandparents in the house didn't help Charlie very much and he was miserable and sometimes out of control. But a few days later he was back to his cute self. Several times, out of the blue, he would just give me a big hug – a very tender moment. After a few days of coming into our room in the mornings and having gramma change his diaper, he changed his mind. For several days after that, when gramma said "Let's change your diaper", Charlie would say "No. Grampa dooo it". So that is how I took over diaper duty.

Tiffany borrowed a bassinet and baby swing but I think I was the only one to put her in it (at least for the first two weeks of life). It was easier for Tiffany to just keep Amelia with her.

Just plain cuteness.

When Kjersten came to visit, it was her turn for "baby sitting" and just loved holding this sweet little girl. This was the usual pose.

I hope to get to know you soon. Aren't I adorable.

Newborn picture day.

I love sleeping.

Ellie is such a nice big sister. She is reading at a third grade level and loves reading chapter books. She loves to read to her brothers. When they go to bed and after saying their prayers, each of them take 2-3 books with them to read before falling asleep.

Watch this video you and will soon find out why we lover her so much.

Baby Amelia loves to sleep, so just watch her.

And she does get the hiccups. Tiffany says that she likes them better on the outside.

A few days latter she had her first bath. Didn't like that experience. "Hey it's cold in here!"

Our trip to Arizona

I had hoped to have this finished by now but I only have had time to start organizing my post. I was going to just make one super big post, but have since changed my mind because I would probably never finish it and some of you wouldn't read it. So this will be part one.

Trip details: Departure. We left at 2:00AM the Monday before Thanksgiving. We wanted to have a long first day of driving and then an easy day. Google put the trip at 28 hours but our trip time was 26 hours. We started with fog and drizzle for the first several hundred miles, and that makes night driving difficult. Our goal was to get a motel at Tucumcari, NM. Then when sunset hit us, we got fog and drizzle again and we had a long way to go on a two lane road across OK and TX panhandles – difficult again. We arrived safe and sound in Glendale, AZ early afternoon the next day.

Return. Our original plan was to leave Arizona on the Monday before Christmas and arrive home Tuesday night. But we altered our plans and left three days early, the Friday before, mainly because the house was getting crowded with Goodwin Christmas guests and Anna was there. So there was not any reason for us to stay, except to play with the kids. Had we left Kyle’s house on Monday morning as planned, we would have been caught in an early winter blizzard from central NM all the way to Missouri. Seven snow related deaths, 24 inches of snow in Las Vegas, NM, I-25 closed at Santa Fe to Raton, zero visibility at Guymon, OK, etc. A Texas couple and their young child got stuck in snow and when rescued two days later the Yucon SUV was completely covered with an additional four feet of snow on top of the car. We are sooooo thankful and grateful that we left when we did and avoided this bad weather. We had sunshine all the way home. We already miss all the Arizona Larsens and wish they were closer. EVERYONE, pray for the Target job in MPLS.

Our purpose for the visit was to be with Kyle and Tiffany at the end of her pregnancy and to take over household duties – Kyle was in finals week at school and Tiff was just days from delivering Amelia. We had lots of fun caring for the kids. They were supposed to not bother us (come into our room) until 6:30-7:00AM. But they couldn’t stop the temptation to come in at 5:30-6:00AM and one day at 5:10. Sometimes we shooed them away but most of the times we waved them in. We were already awake and on our laptops.

So during the time they came in and before breakfast, they watched movies. And this is how they watched them.

Charlie was really into "Pink, pause, Hefah" or Pink Panther. He asked to watch it every day, even though they had seen them before (there was like 24 on Hulu). Sometimes I had to tell him that the Pink Panther was sleeping or on vacation. Other times they watched PBSkids.org or Wild Kratts. I also created several JibJab videos featuring them and they wanted to watch them over and over again. The one that Erik loved the most was the Mexican, staring Mom and the song was Feliz Navidad. Charlie liked Penguin one staring him (Walking in a Winter Wonderland). So I hope that we did not spoil them too much with these activities.

Just love this one of Charlie. He was captivated by our "entertainment".

Erik wanted a Santa hat because one of his classmates had one. So we got him one too. He wore it to school for several days and even to the breakfast table. He has such a great smile and the best laugh ever. Breakfast started at 7:00AM.

Charlie usually had a combination of three cereals for breakfast. A couple of times Judy made scrambled eggs or french toast, which was gobbled up. Charlie has the cutest smile.

Ellie was always so sweet and helped with breakfast. She's a real super-trooper and loved to help with everything.

We made a great Thanksgiving dinner – turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and all the fixings. Mish and Kjersten were there and helped. We had so much food. I made Hot Fudge Sauce for dessert. Mmm mmm good.

Don't know what Ellie was doing. I guess she was just impatient and waiting for dinner.

I took on the responsibility to get Erik to and from pre-school in the afternoons.

Erik had to be signed in and out of school by only pre-approved people. I was put on the list right away.

Elisabeth took the bus to and from Kindergarten. The bus driver would not let her off the bus without seeing one of us at the door waving at the bus driver. Good precautions.