I think most of you know we're in Missouri now. We'd been back in Utah 2 1/2 months when Erik's company asked him to go build a stake center here in Kansas City right next to the Kansas City, MO temple (also currently being constructed). Here's the ground- breaking ceremony for the stake center.
We had not expected to move so soon, and I really wasn't excited about it. But now that we're here we're so glad it happened. We found a wonderful ward with lots of young families and have been warmly welcomed. We're finally settled in and enjoying life in the midwest. We thought we'd be smart this time and left half our stuff in storage in Utah. We'll see how smart that really was. On one hand - the easiest move ever. On the other hand anytime anything's missing it's, "Hmm, must be in storage. Let's go buy another one".

Allison has made two best friends in her nursery class. These beautiful little girls are her exact age and height and maturity. They all hold hands in the halls and scream and act girly and they never fight. We are delighted to see her interact with them since our last ward often had zero kids in the nursery! In Utah!

Julia is such a daddy's girl and such a mommy's girl at the same time, if that's possible. She goes back and forth between us all through church. She's terribly obedient, something we haven't experienced before (not mentioning any names . . ) She has a perma-bruise on one side of her forehead. Yep, there it is for you to see. She defends herself from her big sister by biting and pinching. Allison reacts the same way to both (crying bloody murder) even though the pinching really only tickles. Look at these sweethearts! We're so lucky!

We got to go to Mexico with Erik's family. It was a blast! We all missed you Easton, Devery and Mason:( We practically had the whole beach to ourselves. The girls loved it. They love their Hamlin Fambly. Julia was like my sister Colleen used to be - the moment we sat her on the sand, plunk!, she'd drop her whole face into it. She does this a lot. She must have this huge brain (wishful thinking). Very top-heavy.
This is Allison with one of her best friends, Anna. We live an hour apart so they're becoming phone buddies. They could talk for hours if we let them! :) Other Allison news: We finally had it with potty training. Nothing was working so the day Alli turned 3 we called her "a big girl now", gave her the underpants, and haven't looked back since. The funny part - it's kind of working. Who knew? I should write a book. We just enrolled in preschool at the Trinity Lutheran Church. We love love love it! She goes a few hours twice a week. She's growing up. She tells us everyday that she's growing up and that mommy and daddy are growing down. Not sure her logic on that one. She's probably right actually. These toddler years are way harder than I thought, but I'm loving her so much more because of it. What a fun girl to raise!
And I just like this picture. Julia is growing fast too. She army-crawled for the first time today! Woohoo! She cruises big-time, but falls a lot (topheavy). She also just started waving and saying "hi". Alli's bullying poor Julia around more lately. It amazes me that the second child ever survives. Apparently, Julia hasn't quite caught on because she always goes to wherever Allison is. We don't get it either. Well, that's all for now.

Three for Three

I have now blogged as many times in 2010 as I did in 2009 - and it's only March! That's three for three! So to break my record, I only have to write once more in the next 9 months. (What's wrong with that?) Here are a couple of pictures for your viewing pleasure. Every time I sit down to post something - all 6 times - it reminds me what a bad picture- taker I am. I'm not just talking about how bad the pictures come out, but also how few of them I have!

Okay, the dark one is puddle jumping at our CG apartment. It's rained a lot the last few weeks here in Arizona. I'm loving it! Erik not so much since the church he's building becomes one big muddy mess. Here's Julia in daddy's coat. I think she looks like a seven dwarf. Allison's not in the pic, but it was funny because her soaked pants were so heavy they'd slowly creep down her leg and we kept having to pull em back on again.

Here's the story behind the drawing of the 2 beautiful ladies. Alli has a horrible habit of pulling her hair out. What she'll do is twist and twist until her finger is stuck and then she pulls it all out. It makes me so sad! The other day I looked at her and realized she was balding on one side! So I drew this picture which is now hanging on the fridge. She got the point and ever since she comes to me for help when her finger gets stuck. Love this girl! I know, I'm quite the artist.

The other two pics are at the fair for Hannah's 19th birthday. The butterfly ride was so cool because it was hand-powered by this guy standing in the middle. I want one of these in my backyard.

Allison is well into figuring out what she likes and does not like. If I ask her if she would like a little bit of something to eat, she always responds with, No, I want a big bit. Shopping at Michael's the other day she kept asking to touch everything she saw. Mom, I want this. Mom, I want that. Finally she looked up at me with those big blue eyes and said, "Mom, I want it all!"

Julia (who we affectionately call Gioia which means Joy) is growing up big, but not strong. The girl is only just starting to roll these past few days. And crawling, well that's entirely out of the question. We might just walk before we crawl. She's a little cuddly sweet creature who we all love a lot. However, lately she's mastered the art of screaming at the slightest taunt by Allison. Hmm, I do not want screamy screechy girls. Did they learn that from me?

And I have to share one last story which still makes me laugh. We were at the library a few days ago. Allison saw someone and gave this huge gasp and said, pointing, "Mom, look, it's me!" I looked over and saw another little blonde girl across the room. I was pretty sure she understood the concept of me and there only being ONE of me, but now I don't know what to think. And yes there are plenty of blondes in CG. At church, the entire nursery (7-8 kids) is blonde. Every. Last. One. To her credit, we haven't met too many toehead blondes, and this library gal was just that.

We visited Utah again this last week. I didn't do a good job of taking pics so sorry you don't get any. I am so grateful for families. I learn so much from each member of both mine and Erik's families. Erik had a little business trip in Utah so he flew in Friday and drove home Monday. I don't know how we got so lucky to both go the same weekend. This isn't the first time his company has done this kind of thing. I think Allison and her cousin Jeffrey are finally friends. There was a shocking lack of fighting. It was fun to talk with my sister Jenny about her mission in Houston. She is home temporarily for surgery and returns in a few days. Jenny and I got a crazy idea to highlight Colleen's hair Tuesday evening. We'd never done it before but thought, 'how hard can it be?' We started kind of early to have plenty of time before Colleen's New Beginnings activity at 6:30 pm. But it went painfully slow. We weren't finished by the time she had to go. So we pulled up the part we didn't get to, she washed the rest, pulled it all back in a bun, and off she went. She was a very good sport, and we decided that was the end of our highlighting career. By some miracle it actually looked really good in the end. I think it's because it's Colleen, and she could pull off anything!

10 months later . . .

I'm back. I know you've all been dying to know the "goings on" in our family. Our lives are SO eventful. Ha ha. Basically Julia is now 6 1/2 months old, Allison is almost 3, and Erik and I are a little older too. We moved here to Casa Grande, AZ in mid-September. We love being so close to Erik's job. We love the good people we've met here. We love living next-door to a brand new library. We do miss the dollar theater and the bookstore though. And we don't really love all the dirt, especially in a dust storm, but that's okay.