a dozen

twelve. does that sound like a lot? i thought it was, but it's not. so in honor of dave's and my 12th anniversary, here's a dozen memories:

1. the first time we saw each other at a ninth grade party.

2. dave serenading my window in high school--only i was asleep in the other room. he had to wake me up and we tried it again....then he climbed in my window and we talked for hours.

3. sluffing school to sit on santa's lap, buy goldfish, help him pick out his outfit for a dance (he was going to with someone else), play baseball....we seemed to always run into his mom. i recall one of these run-ins she handed him her credit card so we could go get some lunch.

4. he asked me to marry him for reals....and then he asked me five more times. i think it kind of became a quest to make me laugh....on the radio station 'the breeze', at a dance -our friend was the dj. i thought we were just going to say hi but they made everyone get in a big circle and then dave got down on one knee to ask, then we had to dance in the middle of the circle to depeche mode or some awesome 90's song. i always felt bad for for girls that got engaged that way.

5. getting married on the coldest day of the year. it was freezing. i remember the photographer taking a picture of our hands on the temple door knobs (classic temple photos) and noticing how red and chappy they were...not glamorous at all! anyway, it was getting really cold taking pictures and dave bent down and took one of my shoes off and rubbed my foot to get it warm. i knew right then what kind of a husband he would be.

6. thinking we would be fine in our first, tiny apartment with only a twin bed.

7. statistics. we were both going to school and we had sadie. my 7am statistics class was a challenge for me. dave would wake up with me at 5am and help me study. we both graduated on the same day (and sat next to each other during the ceremony).

8. medical school. riding the metro downtown, washington dc. museums, camping in the shenandoah mountains, outer banks, sandcastle building contests in NJ, 24 hours in NYC, painting our townhouse until 4am.

9. surprise visit...i had to go to utah for a few weeks and dave couldn't make it due to school. one night i was brushing my teeth and i turned around and dave was standing there. it scared me to death. he flew in for a surprise visit and took me the grand america and then flew back to school.

10. kids...we think we have cool kids. i appreciate that every time i have delivered dave has wanted to help me and not deliver the baby even though they ask him if he wants to every time.

11. residency. watching dave walk through our backyard gate in his scrubs after a long shift (we lived right next to the hospital) quite often carrying a styrofoam container from the cafeteria in his hand, which usually meant a treat for me. hanging a big sign in our window (made by the kids) so dave could see it at the hospital. dave calling me late at night when he was on call and unplugging the hospital christmas tree in the window so i could tell where he was standing.
dave being late to his residency graduation because he stopped to find me a perfect necklace to go with the dress i was wearing.

12. abe saying, "why is it that all mom has to do is take a big breath and then dad comes and fixes whatever is wrong."

life is better with dave. we were talking the other night about how the older we get the less perfect we feel and the more we feel like we fall short of what we want to be. i guess it's because we have more responsibilities and things that are demanding our attention. anyway, i'm glad that we know each other, weaknesses and all, and we love each other. hopefully we are better because of each other.

dave had to work on our actual anniversary so he set up babysitters the day before and he took me shopping and out to dinner. the restaurant was a quaint, cozy restaurant. there were christmas lights and snow. it was great spending the evening together.

happy anniversary dave.

championship at that

kai has such a great little personality. he makes me smile daily. he is very competitive in a nice sort of way. here are a few examples of his coolness...

• i told someone that kai was learning to play chess. he looked at me with disgust and said, "nuh-uh, i am in the championship class of that." next time i get asked to do something i hope i think, sure--no problem. and respond with as much determination and confidence as kai when he says, "i am a championship at that!"

• we were getting abe pumped up on the way to his soccer tournament by playing the song "the eye of the tiger". instead kai sang, "i am a tiger!"

• and last of all he was looking forward to something and he said, "i am so exciting about that."

kai IS so exciting. i wish i could just record everything about his four-year old self. instead, i will just enjoy him.

beautiful

abe came home from school with his weekly spelling test.  we didn't study so i was impressed that he only missed one word.  beautiful.  i wanted to make sure he could spell it so i asked him to.  his response made me laugh....."that's the only word i missed and i will never need to write beautiful in my entire life."   

i love that boy.

two week vacation

some vacations are relaxing. some are relax-ish. when dave takes time off we want to make good use of our time... i think we did. here is only some of the excitement we had on our two week vacation:
DISNEYLAND

we met up with dave's cousins and their kids for a couple days in disneyland. it was perfect weather and hardly any lines. kai was so happy to be a "BIG" kid...meaning tall enough for the BIG rides. and anything he was tall enough for, he went on. his face looked petrified on the ride but as soon as he got off he would say in his tough four year old voice, "yeah man! that was awesome. i love going sideways." his favorite was tower of terror. i couldn't believe dave wanted to take him on it, but he loved it...or just every one's reaction when he said he went on it.

max was a trooper cruising in his stroller. last time we went he was two months old, so it was exciting to see his reactions.

sadie, sydney, and eden in front of the christmas tree. it was before thanksgiving but it was great to see all the decorations for christmas.

ruby in front of the christmas tree. i love this picture!
"cousins"

when we had our disneyland and cotton candy fix, we headed for UTAH....

COLDPLAY CONCERT:

dave's mom bought six tickets to the coldplay concert in SLC and dave and i were lucky enough to go with her. thanks to my two brothers (they watched our kids) we were able to go. it was a great concert. it was amazing. my favorite was when tons of colorful confetti shot down from the ceiling...with the music and lights, i haven't seen anything like it. it was fun to spend the night with dave's mom see how much she enjoyed the concert.

THANKSGIVING:

we spent thanksgiving with both of our families. dave and i both come from great families, different, and both great.

we started in the morning at my house. my mom had worked like crazy to make dinner wonderful. a family gathering is successful to my mom if it involves some teaching and a lot of tradition. my kids were most excited to see cousins, eat seven layered jello and play bingo. every year after dinner my mom plays bingo with the kids for chocolate dollars or real dollars. they get bingo then pick a hand behind my mom's back and in it is either cash or chocolate. the teenagers even get into it. also, my mom had a table of books and each child got to pick a few. the five course meal was delicious. I was happy we were able to be there.

sadie eating a roll shaped like a turkey...they were a big hit.

abe and julia.

alex and jaicee playing

bingo...pretty intense at any age

we went to the tullis side in the afternoon. my camera died so i didn't get any great photos of the thanksgiving feast. it was delicious. dave's mom has a way of making everything seem so elegant. it was fun to be with his entire family. our kids always look forward to spending time with lily, their only first cousin on the tullis side. later dave's cousins came over for pie. there is always enough pie for everyone to have an entire pie. the kids had fun with their second cousins. sadie and sydney made a movie (dave used to do this with his cousins when he was a kid) it was highly entertaining. plus, there was a surprise visit from a cow...gabe (a second cousin) had an "accident" and the only thing that could be rounded up for him to wear was a halloween cow costume. one thing i admire about dave's family is their ability to laugh and have fun together. we were so happy to be a part of it this year.

dave's sister heather did take some great photos of the kids helping papa john in the yard.

SPORTS:

a get-to-gether with family just wouldn't be complete without a ball game or two or three. we won't even count the byu/utah game. we went to my nephew, tyler's game and we played a few of our own as well.

abe was holding his own playing against the big boy cousins.

playing soccer with uncle tim at dave's parents' house.THE CHRISTMAS VILLAGE:
the day after thanksgiving my dad lets the kids set up his christmas village and his santa claus collection. this is a big event and the kids love deciding where everything should go. then grandpa takes all the granddaughters dress shopping.

DOOR BUSTING:

my mom, my sister's and i like to go shopping the day after thanksgiving. dave just knows this is my day to shop. the plan was to be out the door at 5:55am but i guess my sister just couldn't stand it because at 4am she was standing over me in bed telling me to get up. it sort of freaked dave and i out, but it did make for an earlier start. i don't know why i enjoy this day so much. being with my sisters is always entertaining and i love being in the crowd even though it makes my head spin....and don't forget the shoppers high you get from getting an amazing deal. it is kind of fun to see how crazy it gets. the deal of the day was the fossil bag that was mismarked $4.35 but was supposed to be on sale for $43.50. plus and extra 20% off. my sister ended up getting it for 3. something. not bad.

GRAND AMERICA:

dave and i snuck away for an early anniversary outing. we spent the evening shopping at gateway. we just happen to be there right when they lit the christmas tree. we ate dinner in the hotel restaurant and talked and talked until it closed. it was so fancy and fun. in the morning i got a massage at the hotel spa and then we headed back. it was a quick, relaxing get-a-way.

CHRISTMAS PARTY:

my mom fit her christmas party in so we could be there for it. we were going to go out to dinner but my bro. suggested that we do a sub for santa instead of spending all that money at a restaurant. i remembered that my friend sue headed up a project for the kids in afghanistan. her husband is serving there. we decided as a family to help with her project. this was neat for us because my brother recently returned from afghanistan.

we ended the night at temple square to see all the christmas lights. i love temple square at christmas time. it reminds me of christmas, of course, but it also reminds me of when dave and i got married. it seemed that everything was lit up for our wedding.

dave, abe and kai then headed over to the energy solutions center to meet dave's family for the jazz game.


BACK HOME:

we got home about midnight from our two week vacation. it felt like we had been gone for a long time. it was a fun trip and when we got home we had to immediately get back into the swing of things. everyone had to be to school and work the next morning. it feels good to be back in a routine and our life here in arizona. it makes me wonder if we will be here for a really long time. i have to stop myself and not worry to much about it and enjoy our time here. i'm so glad dave could take two weeks off and we could be together as a family, and that our time was filled with excitement and people we love.

photo shoot

we had a friend of mine take some family photos.  i wanted something to remind us that we live in the mountains of arizona.  i love all the trees around us.  i thought she did a great job.

ABE

SADIE


KAI


MAX

Halloween Highlights

happy halloween!! here is a glimpse of our celebrations:

kai had his first halloween party at preschool.  these glasses were a hit!  he got a lot of smiles when he wore them (so seriously) to pick up sadie and abe from school.  if you have the chance, have kai sing one of the halloween songs he learned.  his competitiveness shines through and he tries to sing the loudest that he (or any other child) can.

it was abe's year to have a halloween party at our house.  he invited a few friends the day before halloween and we had some spooky fun to get us ready for the real deal.  the kids really got into it, but i still think it was more fun for me.

max was the sweetest puppy ever.  it was so fun to take him trick-or-treating.  he was amazed that people were handing him candy.  he wanted to stop and eat it after every house.

abe and kai were soccer rivals, abe-argentina and kai-brazil.  dave surprised them with these soccer jerseys about a month early and it was a hard wait.  my mom always says anticipation is half the fun...i'm not sure, halloween was pretty fun.

sadie and her friend were babies.  they had a good time planning, shopping, and getting ready.  they were the biggest, coziest, cutest babies.  in fact every time sadie sees this picture, she says, "oh, we look so cute!"

here is the trick-or-treating crew.  afterwords, a few more neighborhood kids came over for a late-over, which consisted of hot chocolate, movie, and lots of counting and categorizing candy.  the kids had a great time!  now i get the job of trying to monitor candy intake without seeming like a control freak.  i kind of hope they just eat it all really fast and then we can be done with it.

oh yeah, we can't forget about dave.  he got into the spirit of things this year and dressed up for work.  his shirt is hard to see but it says, "trust me, i'm a doctor".  i should have taken a full body shot because he looked like a punk with his outfit, spiked hair, and his awesome burns and barbells.  i guess not quite punk enough though, because some of his patients just thought he was normal-ish.  i wish i could have been a fly on the wall.