Thinker

I’ve been reflecting today on the past year. . . Okay, I reflect a lot. And project a lot (probably too much, Josh would say, ha ha!). But this month particularly, I’ve realized just how quickly this year has passed. We’ve gone through trials, and learned so much as a family. We’ve adapted, changed, and learned to love others in a whole new way. It’s been a fresh year, full of new challenges and lessons. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the journey, and eye the years to come with anticipation!

My children are growing up! I love watching them together, listening to them chatter and play, tell each other jokes, finish each others’ nursery rhymes, and sing songs together. I love talking to them, getting to know each of them, and learning how they work things out in their minds. I love putting them to bed at night, feeling their arms squeezed tight around my neck, and knowing that no matter how good or bad the day was, tomorrow is a new one and I get to spend it with them. I love how Ben has taken it upon himself to be Claire’s teacher! It’s so cute the way he explains to her how to use the bigger words in his vocabulary (usually the ones he just learned yesterday). And Claire just drinks it in- she loves playing with Ben. They’ve both become independent, strong-willed little people. They are tender hearted, and make me smile so much! I am amazed- Ben is turning 5 in a couple of weeks, and Claire will be 3 a few days later. It seems like only yesterday they were brand new babies, and I was holding them for the first time.

I get to share these two sweet kidlets with Josh, who I love so much. He is such a good person! He is grounding force when I need to be grounded, he is so smart, and he keeps me in good humor. I love telling him about the funny things that happened during the day, and also the not-so-funny things, which he always helps me through. He’s my best friend, my confidant, my companion, my love.

I’ve also realized that I’m getting old. Granted, I’m not terribly old, but I’m nearing middle-age. It’s strange that I can look back to just a few years ago, with an ever-so-slightly more wizened eye upon the things that I’ve said or done. It’s true what they say: hindsight really IS 20/20. Thinking over the past has driven me to a decision: I am giving up regret. It’s such a useless, wasteful emotion. There are things I’ve said and done that I really wish I hadn’t, but looking back and feeling bad about it doesn’t help at all. Instead, it makes the present seem lack-luster. When filled with regret, rather than drink in the moments that are happening now with vigor, I become robotic, and surge through the present while dwelling unhappily on past things unchangeable. And so, after 27 years, I bid regret farewell, and guilt adieu! I’m moving on, and determined to enjoy precious time!

Sorry so serious-- I'll dig up my sense of humor for my next post. . . :)

Poltergeist!

Last Tuesday, I made the kids' beds and got out their clothes for the day. Shortly thereafter, I was mystified by something.

I called Ben upstairs and asked him to get dressed. After that, I went downstairs, caught Claire (yes, I had to catch her), and brought her upstairs to get her dressed as well. I walked into her room and was completely taken by surprise! Her bed looked like someone (or some-THING) had crawled into it from the bottom, pushed all of the blankets up to the top, and left! I was puzzled for half a second, until I realized. . . I live with Ben!!

Just a subtle reminder of what a bored 4-year-old boy can do with a space of a minute and a half! I got a good laugh at that.

Actually, I believe we have TWO poltergeists in our house. I walked into our bedroom about a month ago, and found that every handle on every piece of bedroom furniture was pointing up, rather than down. Kind of freaky. . .

I didn't find out what happened until a few days later when I caught Claire in our bedroom, "fixing" the handles on our furniture, as she put it.

Shortly after I caught her "fixing" them, she gave a little nod, and said "PER-fect." And then she marched out. Too funny! Ah, the kidlets make me laugh.

Happy Halloween everyone!!

A few of our Favorite Things- Mark II

It's been a while since I posted, and thought that today I could post some of the things my family loves! I haven't done this in a while, but I love doing this because it reminds me of the best things in life! :) Here goes. . .

BEN:
* Ben loves animals! Dogs in particular.
* Ben loves school, and adores his teacher!
* Ben loves music! I love it. He makes up his own songs, he sings songs he knows. . . Awesome.
* Ben loves to talk to people. He's a great story teller!
* Ben loves to draw, write, paint, glue, cut, and do anything art! He also fancies himself as a photographer. I often come across my camera with several new photos that I had no idea about. Hee hee!
* Ben loves laundry baskets, totes, bins and boxes. He likes to sit in them, put his favorite items (silky blankets, stuffed animals, treasure box, etc) in them and haul them around.

BEN & CLAIRE:
* Ben and Claire love rhyming! I started playing a nursery rhyme game, and it's caught like wildfire!
* Ben and Claire like to play in the water- swimming, running through the sprinklers, anything involving water.
* Claire and Ben love to read the scriptures! We have such good reminders from our little ones of the most important things.
* Claire and Ben love to do puzzles.
* Ben and Claire like Chicken Nuggets, still.

CLAIRE:
* Claire loves to say prayers. She even offers to help others say theirs. :) Pretty funny sometimes!
* Claire loves to dance. I'm hoping to get her into a class next year- I couldn't find any classes for children under 3. . . She'll be great!
* Claire loves to sing- she is very good at singing many Primary songs! I think she'll fit right in with the sunbeams next year.
* Claire loves boots!
* Claire likes hats.
* Claire loves to eat fruit and vegetables- she's our little rabbit!

JOSH:
* Josh loves to make the kids laugh!
* Josh loves rough-housing with the kids.
* Josh loves yummy food.
* Josh likes to golf!
* Josh loves Emily's long hair :) (It's the longest she's ever grown it!)
* Josh loves subwoofers
* Josh LOVES shorts & flip-flops
* Josh loves beaches and the Ocean (really excited for a vacation to Oregon, planned for next year, and also hopefully a vacation to San Diego)

EMILY:
* Emily loves to cook. (Too bad the mess doesn't clean itself up though. :)
* Emily loves to read to the kids.
* Emily likes to read to herself too! (Not out loud though. That would just be weird. . . :)
* Emily loves living close to Jarred and Amanda and family!
* Emily loves working part-time- SO much more time with the kids!
* Emily really likes Blogging!
* Emily likes her Yukon a LOT
* Emily loves to go to Relief Society functions, and really enjoys her friends in the ward!
* Emily loves to go barefoot.

JOSH & EMILY:
* Josh and Emily like to watch Top Gear on BBC America.
* Josh and Emily like teaching Primary.
* Josh and Emily like to go out together when they can
* Josh and Emily love each other!
* Are enjoying General Conference!

We really are glad for anyone who might happen to read our blog! It makes us happy that we can keep up with our friends and family this way, especially since we don't live as close to most of you as we used to be. . . WE LOVE VISITORS TOO!!! :)

The Dog Days of Summer

Hi Everyone! Yes, we've been in the dog days of summer here in Phoenix for quite some time now. All things considered, I think we're adjusting at least fairly well. Claire has had probably the hardest time of all. Each time we step outside on days when the temps reach 105 or above, she whines, "It's too hot, Mom!" I know what she means, though.

Here are some of the highlights from June, July and August:

*Emily is now working part time from home! WAHOO!!! We love having her home with the kids so much more often. It has been such a blessing for our family!

*Claire is talking so well! She's also grown so much. A lot less tripping when she runs (WHEW!! I was really afraid after she hit her front tooth for the fourth time that we'd have a major issue on our hands. . .) I was asked earlier this summer if she and Ben are twins. :D Her newest thing is that she's a robot princess. She starts talking in a monotone robot voice, and then announces that she is a princess. We love it! She asks every single day if she can go to school. She's so eager to learn!

*We went to Fairview, UT for the 24th of July weekend. The fireworks were awesome this year, as was the rodeo (the rodeo was much improved over the last couple of years), and the derby! Ben and Claire really got a kick out of it. It's a gathering of some of Josh's extended family, which is really fun! Ben quote of the weekend: "Mom, Uncle Russ looks just like dad, only without the big belly." Bwa ha ha ha! We went to visit Grandma and Grandpa Bartlett, too! Uncle Rulon was there, and really enjoyed watching the kids have fun on the playground. A few of Emily's brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews came too- on their way to a backpacking trip to Twin Lakes with Emily's Dad. After that, we went to East Canyon for a week of fun! We had a blast on our vacation, and were ready to come home when the week was done.

*Ben has started pre-school again, and loves it! Today was his first day back, and he came out of his bedroom at 7:45 dressed and ready to go. Now, his clothes weren't matching (Blue and orange plaid shorts with a red and blue plaid shirt, ha ha), and he then put on his Sunday shoes with it... "Mom, I know that if I wear these shoes, Miss Candace (his teacher) will say, 'I love your shoes Ben! I want some just like them!' " Oh, the laughter! He so wants to make an impression. Little does he know that he leaves a pretty lasting impression on most folks, without going out of his way to do it. He's so funny!

*We've loved getting to know the Primary kids in our ward. They are so funny! We teach the 4-turning-5 year olds (Class B, Ben's in Class A), and we love them for all their quirkiness.

We love our new home, but there are some things we'd like to trade. . . The heat, the great distance between us and most of our family, the heat, the beautiful mountains, and the heat just to name a few. . .

Heavenly Father's given us so much, and every day we're grateful for our friends (old and new), our family, and the fullness of life we enjoy!

Happy Memorial Day!

Hi Everyone!! It's been a very eventful couple of weeks, and we've had some fun that I wanted to share with you all!

I have observed something that I find very interesting. Phoenix, while being in the middle of a desert, is actually very heavily farmed. There are many different crops being grown here. The fields that I drive past each day have cabbage and corn. When we first moved here, the cabbage was being harvested, and the corn fields were just being ploughed. I've watched these corn stalks grow from just seeds, to being nearly 3 feet tall in the short couple of months that we've lived here, and I feel like we've grown as a family, just like those seeds.

We've all had to step out of our normal "boxes" to make this new place feel like home, but I think we've reached that point. Ben and Claire have been doing well, learning so many new skills and things that they never knew how. Ben grew from not swimming at all, to jumping into the pool by himself! Claire has begun talking more and more each day. Sometimes she talks so well that I mistake her talking to me for Ben talking to me. Josh and I have both had to make new friends, and get out of our comfort zones that we've been so securely tucked into for so long. It's really paying off, though- we love our ward, and our neighbors. We've been planted, and are starting to take root!

For the holiday today, we decided to take a drive and see some parts of Arizona that we hadn't seen before. To my Dad, Val-- you would really have been proud. We found such a "gold mine" of fun waiting for us at the other end!

Final decision: we drove to Payson. We didn't really know what we were going to do there, we just were going to see the forest, and hopefully cool down a little bit. It was a couple of hours' drive from Surprise.

When we got there, we ate at a little mom-and-pop Cafe(mmmmm), and found out that only 10 miles from where we were there was a state park, Tonto Natural Bridge! So, we went there, not knowing what we'd find. There are pictures below, but again due to my ignorance of how to properly post pictures(some day I'll figure it out, I promise), they are all at the bottom of this post again.

We first hiked to a small waterfall, which was so neat! It wasn't very big at all, but it was beautiful. I forgot my camera, so we didn't get pictures of that, but once we came up I grabbed it out of the car, and we went out to the first viewpoint of the actual natural bridge. (Picture 1 below)You may not be able to tell from the picture, but there are people standing underneath the Natural bridge. We decided to find the trail, and hike down.

The hike was difficult- steep, and a lot of rock-hopping to get to the bridge. Ben loved it! He hiked up to a cave with Daddy (see pictures 2 and 3 below), and decided he's a natural-born mountain climber.

We also encountered a few of my favorite friends here in Arizona-- little teeny lizards!!! Not only are they so cute, they also eat the bugs that I so detest. (picture 4)

We hiked as close to the natural bridge as we could with small children, and Daddy went to see it up close. There is a waterfall that comes down the other side of the bridge itself, and it was beautiful! Sorry, no pictures of that one. However, while Daddy was gone, the kids decided to have some fun, and throw rocks into the stream. (picture 5) I found out later that there is a rule of the park that no rock should be thrown anywhere. . . The final picture (picture 6) is Mommy, Ben and Claire when we got as close as we could to the natural bridge. Ben and Claire were pretty tired! We all had so much fun together! We can't wait to go back again!

Finally, Happy Memorial Day!! I'm feeling sentimental today. We're usually with Mom and Dad Evans out in Tridell, visiting with Grandma and Grandpa Bartlett, but due to the recent move we were unable to be there this year. I have always enjoyed going to the Tridell Cemetery for the 21 gun salute in the morning. To anyone who reads this blog and is currently, or has been in the past a member of the U.S. Military, any branch at all, we want to say thank you. Nobody can say that enough! Thank you for defending our country. We love you, we pray for you, and we thank you!!

Adventures begin!

Hello again! I'm writing tonight to tell you a few of the happenings that have occurred since we moved to Phoenix.

Before we moved to Phoenix, I was warned to watch out for spiders, cockroaches, snakes, and scorpions. All of these particular pests are my worst enemies- I have never been able to look at them or even think about them without shuddering! So far, we've not had a real problem with any of them. We've only encountered two scorpions, one was dead and one was dead after Josh took care of it! See the picture below, courtesy of my niece Makayla who tried (and failed) to get me to come out on the back porch to see it (*shudder*).

We enrolled Ben in pre-school where he apparently learned to drive. (Who knew?) We were driving to Jarred and Amanda's one day, and a car stopped in front of us for the red light. When the light finally turned green, this car remained stopped for about 15 seconds (a frustrating amount of time for any driver behind it), during which I honked about three times. Ben said, "WHAT was that guy THINKING? Does he think that a GREEN light means STOP? Everyone knows that green means GO." (Hee hee)He's also found some new expressive words ("TO-tally", with emphasis and everything), and decided that he's a super hero. I've also attached a picture of something that he's very proud of- his first plant ever! When he waters it in the morning, he says, "You're such a good boy, plant! Keep growing!" He makes me smile!

Claire is learning and growing so much! She amazes me every day. She has so much energy, I can't believe it sometimes- she jumps or runs almost everywhere she goes! And she has this funny little run-- it's almost like she's prancing on her toes. . . She is still so dramatic, too. Tonight she stood up on one of our kitchen chairs, and it tipped over. Forty five minutes later (the tears had stopped for quite a while by then) she started sniffing and whimpering again. I asked, "Claire, what's wrong?" "*sniff, sniff* I fall down," she whispered. She's also very stubborn. When she gets mad and hits me, sometimes it would be easier to pull one of her teeth than to get her to say she's sorry!

Josh had more training for work this week. This time, rather than going to Cincinnati, they took him to somewhere quite exotic-- Salt Lake City!! Ha ha. Josh is coming home tomorrow, and we're so excited- the kids have been asking for him all week! We've missed him so much. Josh had a hard time getting his drivers license changed to Arizona. Apparently a social security card isn't enough, and we ended up having to send off for a new birth certificate for him to prove that he's a citizen of the United States! When I went to get my drivers license, I really couldn't figure out when the picture taker was going to take the picture (most people have the courtesy of giving you a 1, 2, 3, but apparently not so in the AZ MVD), so I've got this strange look on my face like, "Are you gonna take it now? No? How bout now? No? Now?"

Well, that's it for now- here are a couple pics!

Phoenix

Hello from sunny Phoenix! Since we moved in, we've enjoyed such nice weather, I can't complain one bit! It's really nice- we like our neighborhood, and our ward is incredible! They've been kind and reached out to us from the day we moved in. The elders quorum, and I think a few of the young men in the ward literally unpacked our entire 26 foot truck in an hour and a half!! We're mostly settled, just a few boxes that we still don't know what to do with. I really like our house-- I LOVE the kitchen!! I've never had so much space in a kitchen, and it's proved very valuable! I've also never before had the luxury of a Master bathroom. I'm definitely loving that! All the bedrooms are upstairs, along with the "office" which is really just the open loft at the top of the stairs. Hopefully the pictures below will do it justice.

Ben and Claire have finally adjusted. They've had a rough go, not understanding the distance between Phoenix and Salt Lake, or why we had to move. We took a trip back to Utah a couple of weeks ago for James and Janelle's wedding (Josh's younger brother). When we got into Utah County, Ben realized that there was snow on the mountains. "Mom, how can that be? There's no SNOW in PHOENIX." After which I explained that we weren't in Phoenix anymore (we'd been driving all day, so how could we have been?). Claire still sometimes asks to go home, but that gets asked a lot less frequently now. Ben and Claire really make me laugh with all the funny things that they say- every day brings a new bout of laughter to our home. Ben has begun the 50 questions about every little thing lately, which I'm extending my patience as much as possible with. It's good he's curious! He's beginning to do very well in Pre-school, and apparently HATES soccer. We will definitely NOT be enrolling him in soccer come fall. Claire's speech has improved so much that I can't believe it- every day she surprises me with the things she says, and even questions she asks! She's really excited to go to school (too bad she's still got 3 more years, hey?), and we're planning to enroll her soon in a dance or gymnastics class, to take advantage of her energy, agility, and flexibility. Both of our children amaze us every day, and we love them so much!

I don't have too much more to say. I'm really glad to have our family all together again. March was a tough month with Josh in Phoenix, and me, Ben and Claire still in Salt Lake. We've been very blessed, and are feeling very grateful right now for the support we've received through this huge change! We definitely couldn't have settled in so quickly without the help of our family- Thank you all, and we love you so much!!

Adventure

Hi everyone! Our family has a pretty big adventure coming up. Just in case you haven't heard through other various ways and means, the Mason family is moving to Phoenix, AZ! Josh is moving this Saturday (Feb. 27th), and Emily and the kids will follow in about a month, after tying up the loose ends.

Josh got a new position at work-- hooray!! Emily will get to be home with the kidlets!!

It's really bittersweet- we're leaving a place that we love, along with a lot of our family and friends from school and from work and from life in general, but we know that it's the right thing to do. Hard as it may be, it will be a good change and we're embracing it as a grand adventure!

Fun and sun, here we come!!

We love you all!!

Moment of Cheese. . .

Valentine's day is just around the corner, and I just wanted to share a little about my Valentine, my wonderful husband Josh! He's the love of my life- strong, intelligent, wise, supportive and giving. He's kind and thoughtful, handsome and sensible. I respect him. He has a very strong testimony and thorough knowledge of the Gospel, which I admire and aspire to. He works so hard to provide for our family, and helps around our house, and is willing to serve others. He helps me be the person that I want to be. He helps me to see reason when I am unreasonable, and helps me up when I feel down. Together we've worked through some of the hardest times, and enjoyed some of the best times of life. He's the person that I want to annoy for the rest of eternity! :) I am so grateful to have him for my husband! Happy Valentine's day, my love!