Crew's first haircut

Last night we gave Crew his first "real" haircut! We have had to trim those long wispy pieces a few times starting when he was only a few weeks old. This was the first time we actually got out the electic trimmers and went over the whole thing, with the longest attachment of course. No thanks to Tom, who wanted to buzz all of that beautiful hair off. Crazy daddy. It was hard enough for me to do this much. I will never forget when Tom talked me into letting him buzz Conors hair when he was a little over a year old. I cryed. It was awful. My baby's beautiful hair all gone in a minute. I'm very happy with Crew's new do and now that I look at the before and after, I can't believe we let it get so long! He was so good. He held very still and didn't make a peep while daddy held him and I cut. He has such a sweet disposition.I'm always happy on daddy's lap.
O.k. mama, I'm ready.
They said I'd get a tub tub after my haircut. This is my favorite part.
How do I look?
My daddy is the funniest guy ever!
I wish I could catch mosquitoes with Conor and Kya. O.k. maybe not, Conor got bit.
I love my new haircut. It gets me lots of attention. Notice my new Cars jammies. I got them a few days ago. I was so excited about them. I would grab them and scream with excitement.
Yes those are my lovely lashes. Oh and my bruised forehead from biffing it on our entertainment center the other night. Hey a guys gotta explore EVERYTHING right?

Sweet Potatoe Baby!

They kicked us out of our house in Bagdad because Tom got laid off and the mine owns the houses and they would not extend our lease through the end of the school year as we requested. So we rented a Uhaul and moved everything into a storage unit and are now staying with my parents. Less than a week after we got here Tom got a job offer in Colorado. Right before we left Conor's teacher's (they team teach) told me that he would need to repeat 1st grade. I was shocked because he has done great in school. His Kindergarten and 1st grade teachers at his previous school told us how amazed they were with his intelligence and how he was above average academically. They even told me at the beginning of 1st grade that he was reading at a level well beyond 2nd grade and he got an award for Aceing all of his math tests. He only got 1 word wrong on one of all of his spelling tests. So naturally I was upset and nicely let them know that I disagreed. I told them that he would be in second grade next year regardless of their suggestion. Even if it meant summer school. So we got him enrolled immediately in school when we got to my parents house. Three days later his teacher informed me that she did some assesments on him and she to is shocked that someone would refer him to be held back. She said that he is in no danger of being held back and has the skills he needs to be a successful student.
At first we could not understand what the purpose of moving was, only to find out four days later that we would move somewhere else. What a pain! We now realize that if for no other reason than for Conor, it was all worth it. We are so proud of him and are so happy that he is doing well and enjoying school again. We know that the Lord guides us if we let him and even though we may not always understand his reasoning or timing, we trust him. We know he loves us and wants the best for us.

*This is a picture I took yesterday of Conor. Tom moved to Colorado a week ahead of us so while he's been up there Conor lost one of his front teeth. Tom is sad he wasn't here for it. The tooth next to it is also loose and Conor calls it his Nanny Mcfee tooth. I thought I better hurry and post a picture for Tom before the other one comes out. I'm hopeing it hangs in there till Saturday, when we see Tom so he doesn't feel like he missed out. We miss you best daddy ever!

While we've been here the kids have been without most of their toys and even though Grammy and Papa provide plenty of toys, I guess Kya needs something more. So she begged Grammy for a sweet potatoe she found in the pantry. At first Grammy said "no thats for me to eat." But who can say no to that sweet little face and request for the potatoe to be her baby. So she gave it to her and Kya asked me for a blanket for her baby. I found her a little (handmade by Aunt Joanne) dishcloth. It was the sweetest sight I've ever seen. Later it got even sweeter when Kya asked Grammy to make a pillow for her baby and once again Grammy could not say no. So now sweet potatoe baby has a pillow and matching blankie. We dread the day when Kya's baby starts to rot and we have to explain why her beloved babe will have to be thrown away.

Bull Elk!!??...and job

A few nights ago at about 11:00 pm Tom woke me up to tell me that he got drawn for Bull Elk in area 1 for the early hunt. I told him he shouldn't have checked in the middle of the night because now he wouldn't be able to sleep. I am not really into hunting but being from Round Valley I know enough about it to know that that is a coveted, and not likely to get drawn for, hunt. So my reaction was, "holy cow! congrats, but yeah right it's probably just a cow elk." Don't worry, He has checked it like 20 times since then and yep it is for a Bull. It's all we hear about now. A lot of guys at my dad's work are excited about it because it's cool to even know someone drawn for this hunt. So even though I told Tom that I didn't want him to put in this year because of the money, I'm way excited for him and glad he did. Congratulations love. As I always say, I did marry you partly because of your manliness, and even though I complain when you're gone for hours doing manly things, I do love you for it.
......More exciting McDowell news........
Tom got a job! We will be moving to Colorado and he will be a supply manager at the largest beef manufacturer in the world. It's the perfect job for him, His degree is in Agribusiness & Resource Management and he has lots of buying experience. He enjoyes the purchasing/contracts field. So I'm excited for him. Good thing we're not vegetarians huh. Our lives seem to revolve around meat right now. Actually my dad is in the kitchen right now making elk jerky out of the elk he shot last year. yum. We're at my parents right now until we move. We're letting Conor finish school and then we'll join Tom in Colorado. Thanks Mom and Dad. You are the best for having us. We love you. Also thank you to everyone who has been praying for us, especially our little nephew, Ave, who prays for uncle Tommy to find a job. We appreciate and feel your prayers. We too pray for others whom the economic downturn has effected. The Lord truly hears and answers our prayers. We're grateful for our knowledge and relationship with Him. We feel His love and in return love and desire to serve Him.

Siblings

Tom took both of these pictures recently of the kids. Thanks love, they look great! Conor and Kya love their baby brother tons, they smother him with kisses and hugs. Kya feeds him his rice cereal all by herself and tells Tom how to do it when he feeds him. Having a real baby is like a dream come true for her. Crew loves the attention, he giggles and screams with excitement.

Conors Bass

Conor caught this 2 lb. Bass out of Coors Lake here in Bagdad, Az. Tom has been to this lake almost everyday for a few weeks now. He's caught several bass, crappie and blue gill. One day he brought Kya fishing in the morning and then Conor in the afternoon. Tom was laid off from the mine out here in December and after applying for over 200 jobs in his field that he's completely qualifed for and recieving no call backs and denials on his follow-ups, he has decided to become a full time fisherman. I told him I'm fine with it as long as he goes to plenty of tournaments and brings home prize money. You laugh, but he really is that good. I dream of being the wife who gets the call from her husband, who is standing on the stage of the Bass Master Classic, to tell her he won a million dollars. Actually I'd rather be in the audience cheering him on but usually the winner really does call his wife while on stage. I figure she's not there because she's on the verge of leaving him cause he's never around. So I guess I'm the reason Tom will never be on stage at BMC. Sorry. I'm extremely proud of Conor though. They didn't have the camera with them so they left it on a stringer in the lake and came home to get the rest of us to go see and get a pic. Nothing makes Tom prouder than pics of his kids lipin' a bass. Yeah we have several.

Utah Trip

We drove up to Utah for my cousin Jordan's wedding. Since Tom is not working right now, we took our time so it was nice and enjoyable, except for the puking part. So here's a bunch of pictures, mostly for my three sisters because they each called while I was up there because they wanted to be there so bad and I promised I'd post pictures for them. We got to see some of both sides of the family so it was a very productive trip. I can't believe how much we did in just one week!

Don't forget the baby!

I found these cheap little dry erase boards for a dollar at Wal-Mart(love Wal-Mart) so I bought them for Conor and Kya for the trip. Conor drew this picture and told me that it was me and him. I had to take a picture because it was so sweet and my hair looked so cute in it.

Conor also drew this picture of he and Daddy in a boat in the waves of the ocean with lots of creatures in the water. He always tells us that he wants to be an oceanographer when he grows up. He is very intrigued with the ocean and sea life and is always telling us interesting facts that he learns about it from the discovery channel or the books that he has about ocean stuff. Conor is a brilliant kid. His school teachers are amazed as are we. We're so proud of him and love him tons.


We stopped at Hoover Dam to nurse the baby and take a break. It was impressive(the dam).

Another stop in Las Vegas. How could we pass up the M&M store with kids in tow.

We told Conor this was part of his Birthday celebration since Tom's rule is that it's not just your birth day, it's your birth week.

Posing with M&M guy and souveniers. The big kids got m&m cups and Crew got an m&m sippy cup.

We had cake for Conor's 7th Birthday at Aunt Mel's house the day before the wedding. So Conor was lucky enough to have cousins around. Fun! The figures on his cake are Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. The bakery at the grocery store just happened to have them. Score. We are hugely into Star Wars right now. Well some of us.

Jord and Carter's Luncheon after their sealing was in Bountiful where Tom's Grandma and Grandpa Kennard live. Again, Score! So we got to go hang out with then for a few hours before the reception that night. It was a nice relaxing break. This is Crew's first time to meet his great g-ma & g-pa Kennard. He loved them. Grandma Kennard is so amazing at 84 she runs her household and finds time to excercise. She has a sweet and strong testimony. We're happy to have her as our kids Great Grandma. What an awesome example.

Tom, Crew and G-pa looking at their cruise scrapbook.

Thanks for the visit and the snacks Grandma and Grandpa, we enjoyed it.

My mom snuggling cuz Rosemary's baby, Penelope at the luncheon. There's also dad and Dan and Awnaleise in the background.

My cuz Conlee. She's 10 and loves babies.

Crew's Great Aunt Jen thought he was hot stuff.

Great Aunt Suzy soakin' up the love. Crew was obviously popular with the ladies of the family. The day before we left Aunt Mel held Crew and got tons of kisses from him, he even started sucking on her chin. He just couldn't get enough of her. It was hilarious. He loves attention, so he had a great time.

This our cousin Daniel's sweet wife Awnaleise (sorry if I'm spelling it wrong) and their new baby girl Caprilee Rose. Love them tons!

Cousin Barrett, Aunt Jen, Kya and Conor, chillin' at the reception.

Rosemary and her oldest Olivia Rose. Notice all the Roses in our family? I am one and so is my Kya Rose. We're all named after our sweet Grandma Rosemary who passed away before any of us were born. We love her lots.

Jordan and Carter, the newlywed's. They looked so happy. Tom and I got to be at their sealing in the Salt Lake Temple and it was beautiful. Thanks for having us guys.

Jord threw a bouquet of individual roses with little notes attached....

.....and Guess who caught one of them? She was so excited to be at the reception. All the wedding stuff is magical for her. She keeps talking about them getting married in the temple. She's so girly, I love it.

We held up sparklers for the Bride and Groom to run under after the reception. The kids loved it.

We stayed with Tom's brother Danny and his wife Shawnee the whole time we were there. It was fun to get to hang out with them for a few days after all the wedding stuff. Kya and Shawnee made Cinnamon Rolls. Yum!

Shawnee has the exact same camera as I do so she showed some of its cool capabilities. Here's Crew man and his awesome blue eyes.

We went to the conference center and had a tour on Sunday afternoon.

There's a bunch of original paintings there of pics that us LDS peeps are familiar with. It was very cool.

This is us on top of the conference center. Our guide took our picture for us. See the Salt Lake temple behind us.

My Bro-in law pointed this out to us. It's the high school in Salt Lake where High School Musical was filmed. So I took a pic for my Mesa cousins(they're huge fans).


So on our way home we stopped in Flagstaff for doctors appointments. Tom got his regular cortisone shot, he has osteo arthritis in his thumb. His doc says that after over a year of suffering it is now time for surgery. Crew saw his pediatric cardiologist. He took him off of his heart med and told us to watch him for a year and if he doesn't have any SVT episodes then we can assume he has outgrown his condition. He also did another echocardiogram(ultrasound of the heart) to make sure that his heart murmur was innocent(harmless) because it is pretty prominent for an innocent one and our pediatricians keep asking us about it. He did a thorough check and said he was fine. It was so cute, Crew is at the grab everything and stick it in my mouth stage and so when the doc was listening to his heart, he grabbed the stethescope and stuck it in his mouth. The doctor laughed and after that he just let Crew have the stethescope to play with during the Echo. He is such a good baby doc. What a trip huh. now you all know why it took me so long to do a post about it. Enjoy.

Treasure!

So a couple of weekends ago we were bored. So we went for a drive to follow the signs on the highway that advertised a new country store that had just opened. Well, it was so not what we expected. More like a yard sell indoors with some, who knows how old, sodas for sell. We (or at least I) had our hopes up for something completly different. It would have been kind of dissapointing to just go home after that let down. So on the way home Tom suggested we stop to check out a river that flowed under a bridge. This turned out to be the unboring part of our day. Crew napped under the shade of a tree, in the van. The rest of us waded through the river in search of gold. Barefooted, we sifted through the sand. Our search was cut short when Tom found a foreign little insecty lookin' creature in the water and we all raced for shore. We didn't find any gold but we did go home with treasure.