A storm's a brewin'

When you think of Arizona you probably think of "sun"and then "dry heat" but mostly sun, right? And that's usually the case for the majority of the year... but not this week.

We've enjoyed overcast skies all week and are expecting daily rain until the weekend thanks to a storm brewing in the Pacific. It's not normal for large storm clouds to hover around our home, so when they creep by, we take notice! Having grown up in tornado alley, Arizona's "mild" storm climate is rather boring. I guess I became overly excited this afternoon when I looked outside and noticed this gray clump creeping in...

Bring on the rain... let's give our sump pumps a workout this week. :)

Disney on Ice-

Last Friday Shelly and I took Hannah and Lilly to see Disney on Ice...what a treat! We saw pretty fancy ice skating and great entertainment, of course. The lineup included Tinkerbell and the fairies of Pixie Hollow, the gang from Cars, the Lion King, and Ariel and friends. The show lasted two hours- during which Lilly stared in awe the ENTIRE time; she didn't miss a beat.
Here's everyone's favorite: Mater and Lightening McQueen. The literally drove all around the ice with the other crew from Cars.

Best Friends: Lilly and Hannah at intermission. Lilly looks huge in this photo, but it's just the camera angle. Also, notice little Hannah is losing her hair again. Her latest round of chemotherapy is working! Praise God! MRI results this morning showed the brain tumor is responding to the treatment. Please keep praying for Hannah!!

Here's one of Hannah enjoying herself during the show...

On a different day, we went to one of our favorite pizza places for dinner. Hannah accompanied us, of course. Here's the BFF pair cheesing it up for the camera..

And of course little Claire is always up for dinner out-HA! Here she is being a cheeseball just before she decided to pitch a fit in the restaurant. Gotta love trying to eat out with the kiddos!

Typical January Day

Each winter I'm reminded why I love the desert. While the rest of the country tries to stay warm, we bask in the warm sunshine. As I type, the thermometer on my patio reads 77 degrees. Summer is a different story, of course, but let's focus on the positive for now...

We spent quite a bit of time this afternoon playing outside without shoes or jackets... just enjoying the weather and the slightly overcast skies. We had one monster of a rain storm last night, but that didn't dampen the yard by the time we went outside to swing. 

Claire loves to swing on her tummy. Yippee!!

Lilly still loves the baby swing. I personally think she just enjoys the acrobatic moves she uses to climb into the thing. But, just the same, she loves to swing outside, especially when I push the swing "high, high, higher, mom!"

We hope your January days are just as sunny and bright!

Adventure to Disneyland

What better way to celebrate 2010 than with a visit to Disneyland? One advantage of living where we do is the close proximity to California- Disneyland being one huge perk. We took the girls for their first Disney experience, and boy was it a hit! Once we checked in to the Disneyland Hotel, the Magic Kingdom was out first stop... It's a Small World, to be exact. Here we are on the monorail on our way to Tomorrowland...

All decked out for Christmas, the girls were in total awe of the many dolls singing Christmas carols. Here's the pair eagerly awaiting their turn to board the Small World boat...

We had the exciting experience of eating dinner with the Disney Princesses. Each one stopped at our table. Of course Aurora (Lilly) and Belle (Claire) had to wear their princess dresses too...

Almost every ride in Fantasyland was a hit with the girls, especially Dumbo...

Claire was in awe on almost every ride. This photo captures the genuinely magical smile that followed her for most of the weekend...

And of course, what's a trip to Disneyland without a ride in a giant teacup?

The pink one is the best, of course, according to Lilly.

 Pixie Hollow was abound with fairies... here's the most famous one, Tinkerbell:

Princess and the Frog is showing in theaters, so Princess Tiana was everywhere. Since we saw the movie with Hannah a few weeks ago, Lilly was excited to see Tiana and Naveen in person. On the banks of the lake, we had a front row view of Tiana's Showboat Jubilee aboard the paddle boat... what a great show!

We made it home safe and sound. Once we arrived, Lilly quickly expressed she'd like to go back to the hotel, of course.  Hopefully we will return to Disneyland sometime soon... it was fun for all! 

Happy 2010 everyone!

Merry Christmas 2009

We spent the holiday at our sunny and warm home and welcomed Nana from bitter cold, snowy, icy Kansas. Here's how we spent our lovely holiday...

Throughout the Christmas season, elf Leo kept watch over Lilly and Claire's behavior, each night flying to the North Pole to report to Santa. This year, it appears both girls made the "nice" list, thanks Leo. This is Leo on Christmas morning. He flew back to help Santa deliver the gifts and stayed long enough to watch their delight Christmas morning.

But first... on Christmas Eve, Lilly and Nana made a beautiful gingerbread house...
good enough to eat!

The Christmas elves, encouraged by Leo, we think, delivered matching pajamas to the girls. The elves rang our doorbell just after we returned home from church. Claire and Rob weren't able to make it to church, unfortunately, due to Claire being a bit under the weather. Just after she put on her beautiful Christmas dress, she threw-up all over it. Nice. Nonetheless, the new pajamas were a huge hit.

Hannah and Lilly even had their own gift exchange on Christmas Eve... they were super excited to see each other. Hannah wanted Lilly to stay to help open ALL of her gifts, so I had to tell Lilly she could open ONE gift if we could go home.

So, as a result, Lilly was excited to open one gift on Christmas Eve- princess dress-up tiara, jewelery and crown from her special friend Grace. Thank you, Grace.
She was eager to share with Claire. The purple clip on earrings were their favorite.

The evening ended with The Night Before Christmas- soon Lilly and Claire were nestled all snug in their beds.

The next morning, I was sure Lilly would wake at 4am and on her way to our bedroom she would spot Santa's overnight delivery. Instead, she came to our room at 7am and didn't say anything about Santa. I had to ask her, "Did you see if Santa left anything under the tree?" She ran to the tree, ran back to our room and said, "Santa left a pet!" Zhu Zhu pet, that is...4 to be exact.

We thought the Zhu Zhu's would be the biggest hit, and this would have been nice considering how hard Santa must have worked to find the silly things, but once the stockings were opened, the zhu zhu's were old news. We could have actually stopped all gift opening after the stockings.  Santa left plastic Cinderella figurines... Prince Charming, Stepsisters, Stepmother- the entire crew, and this fascinated Lilly. She played and played. We asked if she wanted to open more presents, and she said "No." Later we asked if we could resume gift opening and she emphatically said, "Just five more minutes. I need to play with Cinderella." Claire was most interested in eating the candy Santa left in the stockings.. mini Kit Kats and Dove dark. Those also happen to be my favorite- wow.

Claire took a quick liking to the purple flapper dress-up outfit. Thanks, Nana...

But perhaps one gift topped the popularity of the Cinderella figurines... a doll house. Nana gave this to Lilly, and boy was she amazed from the start. Kate and Emma got one too. Lilly played nonstop from this point on with the dollhouse. The Cinderella figurines moved in to share the house, the zhu zhu's moved in also. Oh what fun to be little.

On Christmas evening, we celebrated Jesus's birth with dinner: fillet mignon, butternut squash risotto, sweet potato crunch, yeast rolls, steamed asparagus, chardonnay and chocolate cream pie.

Delish!

Perhaps Rob's favorite gift :) was a K-State Snuggie. Thanks Amy- Football season will never be the same...

Thank you for the many wonderful cards, gifts and merry wishes you have sent. We hope your Christmas was memorable, just as ours was.
May 2010 be the best year yet!

Santa's everywhere these days...

This afternoon before Hannah's big party, we went to Sam's for a bit of shopping. While in the freezer section, a man with a white beard, black boots, red hat and red velvet suit was doing a bit of shopping himself. This "Santa" was obviously on a break of sorts. Lilly saw him and just stared and stared, then she said with much assurance, "That is a pretend Santa." Rob and I looked at each other and smiled- what a keen observation for a 3 year old.
For the past several years, Santa has visited Hannah at her home, and Hannah has been gracious enough to invite her friends. Several years back Santa heard of Hannah's battle with cancer and has come to see her every year in hopes of spreading joy to her family. Here are some photos from our party today.
Lilly asked Santa for a  Darby Boll (Barbie Doll) and Santa asked Lilly if she'd like a Barbie house to go with the Barbie Doll. She of course said "yes." Thanks a lot, Santa.

Claire and Santa... Santa asked her questions, but all she did was smile and lick her candy cane.

All of the kiddos listening to Santa's stories...

One more of Hannah and Lilly making gingerbread cookies earlier this week. Wearing their matching gingerbread aprons, they were very serious about their cookies. They were delicious too.

Merry Christmas!

Wonderful Weekend

Where do I begin? Last January I decided to give myself a little kick in the pants to finish my dissertation. My grand idea was a bit of financial motivation- purchasing nonrefundable tickets (hotel, train, food) to the Polar Express in Williams the night before December graduation in Flagstaff. That way, I had the proverbial carrot hanging in front of me and was sure to graduate in December, right? If I finished, it would be the best weekend ever; if I didn't finish it would be a long drive of shame to the mountains in Williams. Well, I made it, and the weekend was absolutely fabulous.

My mom, Rob's mom, my sister Amy and nieces came for the weekend, and oh what a weekend it was. Let's start with our trip to Williams...Just 3 hours north and at an elevation of 6,776 feet, Williams had just received 20 inches of beautiful snow, a far cry from Phoenix's desert elevation of just 1,117 feet. The girls loved playing in their first snow encounter. Here's Grammy building a snow man with Lilly.

And Miss Claire loved it too.

After dinner we boarded the Polar Express... nonstop to the North Pole. The old Grand Canyon Railway train, built in the 1920's, was prepared for this incredible journey. Dressed in their matching jammies, the cousins sipped hot cocoa, ate chocolate chip cookies and listened to the story of the Polar Express...

After viewing the snowy North Pole from the iced windows of the train, Santa came on board. He visited each child (and Nana), giving each a silver bell, just as in the book. Santa was quite friendly to Nana... maybe she's been on the naughty list a few too many times.

Claire was quite taken with her silver bell.

Here's all of us on the train...

The next day was graduation day. Just as the snow began to fall over beautiful Flagstaff, the graduation ceremony began. This marks the end of my doctoral program.  Maybe my sister Amy will be the next to earn a doctoral degree??

Once back home in Phoenix, the girls enjoyed playing with everyone, including their little red noses. Thanks, Rudolph.

And last but certainly not least, Nana treated us to a fabulous dinner in the wine cellar at Lon's at the Hermosa Inn... an evening to remember, for sure. Thank you, Mom.

Here are a few photos of our group with Santa in Williams....

and the girls...

Here's to the best weekend ever!