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!!