Such a good break~

Last Saturday we had a family temple day because my nephew Trent was going through to receive his endowments. He's leaving on his mission soon and it was so cool to be there with my husband and family. I love temple days. Dan and I try to go once a month but will hopefully be able to go more now that we live only 20 minutes away. After the session we ate lunch at the cafeteria there and then headed to ASU's Gammage Auditorium to wee WICKED. I have seen other plays like Les Mes and Lion King but have never been so impressed as I was with this one. It was hilarious, entertaining, sad, and also a love story. The music was absolutely AMAZING! I could listen to their voices all day long. They were so beautiful. It was such a fun filled day and I loved spending it with Dan. I'm so glad that I have a husband that goes to the temple with me and honors his priesthood. Thanks Dan for being so awesome and for working so hard for our family. We love you! -Becky

EAT MOR CHIKIN

I had just finished making dinner...boring spaghetti...when my niece Katy called me and told me about the Chick-fil-A deal they had going on today. If you went with your cow apparel on you received a free entree. So we ditched the spaghetti and Dan and I whipped up some cow spots out of construction paper and taped them to all the kids. They had horse rides and crafts for the kids to do. They also had games where the kids could win free chicken sandwiches or desserts. Sam and Mia, Gracie's cousins were with us for the day. Dinner for 7 of us cost $5.55...(soda and fries). We had such a good time and it was even more fun because it was free.
Reece and Violet destroyed most of their spots in a matter of minutes.


















Gracie....
Yesterday she drew this picture for me. About a week ago Dan had the idea to take Gracie to see the movie, "Monsters vs. Aliens". "It's only a buck!" Dan said. "I don't know. I'm pretty sure she won't like that kind of movie." says mom. Well, mom lost that one and they ended up going to the movie which Gracie said through half of it, "I don't really like this Daddy." So the last couple of nights, I wake up with Gracie standing by my side of the bed claiming she is having scary monster dreams. When she showed me this picture she told me, "This is the alien monster that was in my dream. I bet if I show daddy it will really freak him out!" Dan got a big kick out of it and said it looked pretty similar to some of the characters in the movie. I wonder if he will listen to me next time. :)



















How is this humanly possible for a room to get this trashed in a matter of hours? Makes me crazy!!





Reece Monkey...that funny monkey!
Her laugh gets me every time. She is cruising around everywhere and gets so excited when she starts walking towards me. It's almost as if she runs. I hope I have this baby before she gets any faster. She probably could outrun me. :)

















Violet...aka Vie-Vie
She is a little more hesitant to walk very much. She will usually take a couple steps and then start to wobble until she just can't keep her balance anymore. But, she is laughing and smiling the whole time and thinks it's a game.

I absolutely love the expression on her face in this one.
















This is her new thing. I guess she like the way things look upside-down. I used to also as a kid. I remember thinking that if we could turn our house upside down and the ceiling became the floor, it would be so much cleaner than the floor was at the time. I know, I'm a weird one. :)

Last Saturday Gracie had a primary activity in our new ward. She loved it. We decorated her "car" for the drive in movie. She got a little crazy with all the glitter stickers but absolutely loved her "fancy car" as she called it. We've really enjoyed our new home, ward and all the changes that have come about. We seem to be laughing a lot more. We didn't notice how stressful school was until we were finished and having more time together as a family. Some of the things we've enjoyed are our almost daily trips to the pool, walking around the mall and letting the kids play in the little playground areas, public library trips to get more books than we can handle and playing at the neighborhood park. It's been so fun to see our family grow here. Reece is a little sprinter. I was vacuuming the other day and she all of the sudden stood up in the middle of the floor and took off running towards me. The look on her face was priceless. It was sheer excitement like, "I'm finally free!!" It was hilarious. She still crawls a little here and there but walks whenever she is determined to go after something. Violet is still a little cautious about standing on her own. She will be walking any day though. Dan's work is going great. He loves the environment he is in and his boss is great. He's been doing orientation classes online and was able to do them from home the last couple of days. It was nice having him here. I'm doing good with this pregnancy so far. It's been pretty easy compared to my others. I'm 7 months along and the baby is pretty active like Reece was. Very jumpy and loves to kick towards my side where I am super ticklish. It kinda drives me crazy sometimes when he/she gets his/her foot or arm going. I will miss that feeling though. It's my fav.

Notice the license plate says "Gracie USC" Yes Dan made it.





Here's a couple pictures when I was 6 months along. I didn't have the chance to blog with the move and all. Me and 3 of Dan's sisters. We are all expecting this summer. We are in order of due dates. Becca is due any day now and Kristi is due next month. Me and Cambi are due 10 days apart. Something is in the water!







Dan trying to protect himself from my death slap after trying to grab something he shouldn't. He's such a perv.

The Many Faces of Reece and Violet

All of these shots were one right after the other. Talk about mood swings. :)

Sweet Violet






























Funny Reece

We've moved!

Things are finally starting to wind down a bit. I didn't think school and all the tests and studying would ever end for Dan. Well it has for a short time and we are enjoying ourselves. We recently relocated to Gilbert, AZ and are loving our new little adventure. Dan was employed with Payson Regional Medical Center and was planning on commuting from Mesa for a year or two. The weekend that he went to Phoenix to take his boards, which he passed!, he got a call from a hospital down there where he had applied a while back. They wanted to interview him that day and they hired him on the spot. It works out much better not having to commute for over an hour. The pay is better and we are overall so grateful for the way things have turned out. We are renting a home here and absolutely love our new location. It's a 3 bedroom/2.5 bath and a little bigger than our old home. It's so cute and just the right size. We are right off the freeway but in a very quiet neighborhood surrounded by fields. We have access to a sweet neighborhood pool and also parks and greenbelts to enjoy. Dan's schedule right now is 5 days a week with all the training and orientation he has to do. After that he will be on 3- 12 hour shifts with as much overtime as he wants to work. Gracie had a hard time at first with the move but is adjusting to the change that is going on in her life. It broke my heart the first few times she would say, "I just really miss our home in Thatcher." Or, "I want to go on a golf cart ride with grandma." She's doing better now and we are trying to keep her busy with new things to do. We love going to the pool after dad gets home from work and also playing at the park. Change is not something I necessarily like and I had a really hard time leaving our home where we had made so many memories. I took one last walk through after it was completely empty and could see where Gracie and the girls would play. It was comforting to have Dan who has moved every few years throughout his life from being in a military family. He told me he experienced this same thing every-time they left a house. He helped me understand that we would have different opportunities in a new place and would make plenty of new memories and friends wherever we went.
It has been so nice being our own little family here. We are starting new traditions. Dinner time is more enjoyable now that Dan doesn't have to rush off to study. He is even turning a new leaf, by my request, and actually cooking with me. Last night he made some killer ground turkey soft tacos. He was so proud of how good they tasted. :) Also, Gracie loves to ride her bike and she and Dan will ride around the neighborhood when they get the chance.
Just want to thank all the family that helped us move on both ends. We are finally unpacked and organized for the most part. Hope everyone is doing okay. Enjoy the pictures.
-Becky


Violet and chocolate chip cookies are not a good match.















Reece is my speedy little goober. She won't start walking soon but will be running. She loves to push this thing around and is so good at steering it. It's so funny to watch.








This is a really bad picture from my cell phone but Reece and Gracie both got haircuts that were long overdue. Reece did pretty good as long as we had Dora playing on Dan's iTouch.






Gracie my little princess is such a doll. She continues to put me in my place and is constantly finishing my sentences. We've noticed within the last couple months that she has a bad stutter. Dan's mom said he had the same thing so I'm not too worried about it. Hopefully it will go away. She sounds like this most of the time, "Hey hey hey hey hey, can we go to to to to toooooo to the pool today?" It's really cute but we will be working on it. :) Any advice would be appreciated.















Proof!




Gracie wanted to take pictures before we went to the pool. It was funny how she was posing me and telling how to smile. :)