A few more phone pictures

The manly men before the marathon:

After the marathon:

The E-man started scouts

 I asked him if he was excited and he said, "Why wouldn't I be?" He's very excited. He asks about every minute if he can dip into the stash of machetes that his father has brought him from around Latin America so he can start whittling his derby car.

The climber.

That's Claire at the top of this lawsuit-waiting-to-happen. The adults who were caught in the lower ropes were both impressed with Claire's agility and my allowance of the feat.

She also conquered Camelback on a date with her dad. Check out those locks!

Mexico changed him forever.

The kids were introduced to my Aunt Laurie (my dad's youngest sister) a few months ago and have fallen in love.

Elijah=baptized

I'm kicking myself for not getting any pictures of Elijah with his grandparents the week of his baptism. Hector and Marguerite came in for the week before the baptism. The week prior to their arrival was a busy in part because we were having our rotted deck rebuilt, so I didn't have time to arrange the food for the baptism. Unfortunately for Marguerite, instead of taking her and Hector to see the beauty of Arizona, she became the caterer for Elijah's baptism. You see, we printed 125 invitations and handed out most of them. Since I wasn't sure how many people would come, we had to plan for a crowd. The baptism was combined with my brother-on-law's (Jon) nephew who had also invited family in the area. While I'm not sure we reached 100 guests, we were probably close, and the crowd was hungry. Three people from David's work came and lots and lots of family--I love living in the land of the Udall. Tyler and Jon flew in so that the manly men (David, Hunt, Jon, and Brad, Jon's brother) could run the Phoenix marathon the next morning. Four grandmothers participated in the baptismal program and a group of about 25 cousins and 1 child of a co-worker sang "When I am Baptized." The night was special. There was a feeling of love and peace. Elijah and Kai (the other boy who was baptized) bore their testimonies. I thought about how those small seeds of faith would be mighty and powerful someday.
Elijah cried when this crazy kid left. They went swimming in February.

These 2 finished El Libro de Mormon over the space of a year. David insisted it would help Elijah on his mission to be able to say, "I finished the Book of Mormon before I was baptized and you can too." He has since switched and is reading it in English.

The day before Elijah was baptized, he went on a special trip with GG and Pops to the Pima Air and Space museum in Tucson. He got a large dose of sugar and love.

Elijah=8

Only half hour until Elijah's 8th birthday. He's out with David picking up Marguerite from the airport. Any time he gets to stay up this late he feels like a king, so it has started out well for him.
Last week we were asked to write a letter about Elijah and send it to school. This is what we wrote:

Elijah is a very social boy. He loves making friends and playing with them. When Elijah lived in New York City he would frequently talk to strangers on the subway train and he often seemed to find the meanest-looking person to ask to get out of his seat or open his milk or snack. Elijah loves his family, plays with his sisters, gives his mom lots of hugs (when he can take a few moments to slow down) and plays chess and reads with his dad. Elijah and his dad have almost finished reading El Libro de Mormon, which is a big accomplishment since the book is over 600 pages long. When he finishes the book, Elijah will go on a trip to Utah with his parents to see the prophet, President Monson. Elijah is driven and can usually find a way to accomplish whatever he wants. He is independent and does a good job of getting things done without help. He doesn't play with toys much, but when he does, it's usually with Legos. This past weekend, he got out his fishing pole and tackle box and set it on the sidewalk to teach people how to fish, even though he's only ever been fishing once (and didn't catch anything). Elijah has lived in Mexico and the U.S. and has traveled to Canada, El Salvador, Guatemala, Cuba (to visit family), the Bahamas, and Mexico. During a family trip in Mexico, Elijah ate crickets. However, Elijah's favorite food is pot stickers and his favorite books are the series: Diary of a Wimpy Kid. He started the series at the end of first grade and finished it soon after. Elijah plays soccer on Scottsdale Soccer’s competitive team and is very good especially because he is aggressive and isn't afraid to attack the ball at all costs. Even when he's sick, Elijah keeps going because he never wants to miss anything. A few Sundays ago he had a fever, but refused to be taken him home from church, insisting that he wasn't really sick, but had only bumped his head. We love Elijah very much and our life is much better because he is in it.

You can clearly see Iris' hair-butchering techniques in the pic below.

Presidential Candidate

This week, Claire's teacher brought me the following ingenious essay. I laughed. I wasn't supposed to laugh. Claire got in trouble.

Her teacher made her re-write the essay. I asked her about it an she said "I would move to the North Pole. The President of the US lives in the White House."

Happy Valentines Day!

Iris and I went to the kids' school valentine's parties. Everyone got thoroughly sugared up.

 Just like life, marriage gets better every year. Especially when I’m married to the most prolific lair in the hemisphere—keeps things interesting. He has started introducing himself as David, the healthcare salesman for exotic pets, because if Obama promises healthcare for everyone, why should it stop at the dolphins?
New pictures I took I took a few weeks ago:

January

We came back from NOLA, and it was autumn in January. The kids had fun in the leaves.

For MLK day, we hiked Camelback and then went to the Gilbert temple open house. The kids really enjoyed it. The temple is beautiful. Elijah was amazed by the crystals in the chandeliers and Claire felt the something special there.

Elijah: Won the Apex run at school. Kids had to run 36 laps (each was 1/16^th of a mile). Elijah was the first kid of both 2^nd and 3^rd grades to complete 36. He went on to complete an additional 28. He refused to walk during the walking lap. That kid was booking it. Elijah will excel at anything he wants to. Currently he excels in armpit farting. Thanks to the tutelage of his father, he can now practice a symphony of popliteal fossa (or knee pit) farting also.
Claire: After pulling her out of dance class b/c all of the major performances were on Sundays (a Suns game, a Globetrotters game, final recital), I paid to enroll her in another group, only to find out it’s performance was also on Sunday, thus dis-enrolled her again. So she has declared me as her dance teacher. I will do my utmost to teacher her to get jiggy with it.
Iris: has started a swimming class and has also started going to Primary in church. She whimpered the first day, but nothing a fruit roll-up couldn’t fix. From her class I have noticed her coloring technique: a few quick scribbles and then an elaborate folding scheme. She hands me a wad every Sunday. Also, her new best friend is Sammy, aka my right hand. Sammy the Spider usually is on the no-shirt patrol, tickling naked bellies. But Iris has taken a liking to the arachnid, often asking him to go to the train park with her and pursuing lengthy conversations.
Me: I have felt absolutely wonderful lately— bizarrely wonderful. I have been organizing closets and mopping daily; those activities are usually accomplished only once a decade. On Friday I decided to run a half marathon the next morning even though I haven’t run more than 6 consecutive miles in almost a year. My time wasn’t great (2:13), but I accomplished my goal of completing 13.1 and not walking. Last week my major project was fixing our dryer which had stopped functioning and gave off a burnt smell. After disassembling it, greasing the wheels behind the drum, and reconnecting a wire, it works better than ever. The other major project was creating Elijah’s baptismal invite in Photoshop—I curse that software and hope to never use it again.
David: always seems to be training for something. It’s his turn for the Phoenix marathon this year and I’d say he’s in the best shape of his adult life.
To finish up, here are a few more pics from the past month:
Iris and I attended the Pony Express exposition. They've been riding over 200 miles every January for over 50 years to deliver mail. I can only guess why, but Iris enjoyed petting them.

Our first trip to the Phoenix zoo.

Cleaning out the phone pics

David has been threatening to get me a new phone for Vday (which of course won't happen b/c we don't get eachother presents), so a purging of pictures is in order. These were are all probably taken within the last year:
The best thing about living in AZ is living close to family. Cousins at Bahama Bucks

This is Memorial Day at Grandpa's grave. David did a good job chopping my cousin, Nick's, head. This is the same cousin Hunt gave monster wedgies to as a kid. It looks like Nick would have the upper-hand these days.

Summer with cousin Katie at the Bounce Spectrum.

Tyler came for a visit and we went for a bike ride to the canal.

This is the pic we sent to Jon from Chicago of the phone that was attacked by our rears.

This is Iris' favorite ride at Walmart. That child can work up some speed.

This must have been a Halloween celebration.

The church Nativity. Elijah was an innkeeper and the girls were angels.

This was the last performance Claire did with this dance group in December.

Beignets in NOLA with the cousins.

Iris and I love to go eat lunch with E and C at school. 

The goal is to get the pics cleared off my camera this week too. I bet you can't wait!