Crandell Family

Update and a Year in Review (since I am such a bad blogger)

2011-12-15T17:52:00.000-08:00

What you've missed....

* Bryce turned two and Paige turns four on Monday...baby #3 could "come any day" which means nothing to me - the actual due date is Jan 8.

* We had a great summer and fall - we enjoyed the weather and despite the coming winter, we will miss the seasons when we move.

* Casey was chosen to be Chief Resident, which is a huge honor (and from a wife's perspective, a huge obligation) It's kept him very busy, but has been a good experience.

*We took a trip home over the summer for a wedding, and one in October for job interviews.

* Life is a little crazy but fun. I've gotten a little caught up in digital scrapbooking in the last month or so and made a calendar for Casey for Christmas. I realized this may be the easiest way to catch up on my blog (since otherwise it'll probably never happen).

We loved playing in the snow last year and this year should be even

more fun if we ever get some decent snow.

Last spring, we went to the Tulip Time Festival. Can't wait to do it again this spring.

In May/June, we were able to go to Andy's wedding. Here is a pic of me and the kids. The other

one is of the Crandell grandkids- there are two other girls missing. Lucky for Bryce, I am

having another boy- it's his only hope with all these girls around.

After Andy's wedding, Casey was able to meet us and we took a little trip to

Disneyland with Casey's sister and family and his mom. The kids had a blast.

We love the parks here in the summer.

We were also able to go to Lake Michigan several times this summer. It's a fun day at the

beach and only about 30 minutes away.

Fall Leaves - something we don't see a lot of in AZ.

Gotta love GIANT pumpkins. That one in the upper corner weighs more than 1000 lbs.

Family Pics: taken last summer.

That's all for now folks.

Tulip Time Festival

2011-05-10T20:59:00.000-07:00

I am a horrible blogger. I am determined to be better - although that's what I thought when I posted pics of Bryce's Birthday and that was 6 months ago so we'll see.

But for now, here are some pics from the Tulip Time Festival that is about a half hour from our house. We went out one morning and met some friends. We loved the flowers and had a great time.

Videos

2011-05-10T20:12:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple videos of the kiddos. They are from a couple weeks ago, but I figure it's better than not posting for months (my usual style).

Bryce turns one!!!

2010-10-03T19:51:00.000-07:00

It is sad and pathetic that I only have one post for all of 2010. I'm going to try to do better. But I think that Bryce's birthday definitely deserves a post. He turned one on Saturday. We had a pretty quiet birthday. Paige and I took him to the store in the morning to let him (or should I say Paige) pick out some balloons.

After daddy got home, we had dinner and then celebrated with presents and cupcakes.

He is loads of fun these days. He loves following Paige around. He will walk around everywhere as long as he has something to hold onto. His favorite cruisers are his toy lawn mower and Paige's Little Mermaid car. He'll walk around the block as long as he has one of these. If you try to steer him in the wrong direction, he gets really mad and turns it around as quick as he can.

Paige hasn't wasted any time putting his new toys to good use.

Family Pics

2010-01-29T22:30:00.000-08:00

I am way behind on posting on our blog and have tons of catching up to do, but in the meantime here are the pics we had taken today.

The whole fam:Little Mr. Bryce:

And of course Miss Paige (if you like her flower, stay tuned for my new business venture):

The kiddos together:

Paige Turned Two!!

2009-12-23T19:17:00.000-08:00

Paige is two years old...can you believe it? Seems a little crazy. We had a few friends from the neighborhood over for some Pizza and Cake to celebrate with her. This was the year of the train. While she scored some super cool princess underwear and color wonder markers, nothing compared to good old Thomas. She got some new trains from grandma (thanks debbie) and she got some "gently used" tracks from Craigslist. Gotta love Craigslist.

Princess Panties...don't worry, we only had two poop disasters today:)

This is Paige hording her new toys.Gotta have cake!!

The Real Thing

2009-12-10T11:30:00.000-08:00

Even though our first snow was in AZ, it was nothing compared to this. It's been snowing, it is snowing, and will keep snowing.

This is the view down our street.

And this is the view of our deck/backyard which I had to take out the window because it is frozen shut.

And here is Paige ready to go play in it.

The First Snow

2009-11-29T15:27:00.000-08:00

One would think that living in Michigan (where I have been dreading the start of winter) we would be seeing lots of snow. Ironically, the first snow that we saw this year was in Arizona. Paige, Bryce, and I flew back with the Crandell's after Thanksgiving and will be here for this week. We are in Heber for the weekend and it snowed today. Here are a few pics for daddy to see (since he didn't get to come).

Dear Daddy,

, hvgb0c-j uufx r4

exz v vw hnddrrrrrrr kbsdhjkjjghfqdaszswwsssssssjj okkjjjjjttttjuggg kdfd h yun h y

Love, Paige

Happy 'ween (a little late)

2009-11-13T19:49:00.000-08:00

We had fun this halloween. Paige was sick so we missed our ward halloween party/fall festival on Friday, but we did make it out for a little trick or treating on halloween. Paige spent the day saying "Happy 'Ween" and "Trick Treat." She dressed up as a witch and went out trick or treating with her friends Dakota and Kesley. Here are the pics to show what a good time she had.

Getting ready...

In action... The Goods...Here is a little video - it's sideways though...sorry:)

Here are a few pics of Bryce so he doesn't feel left out. Can you believe he is already six weeks old? Crazy.

Visit from Grandma and Grandpa

2009-11-01T18:11:00.000-08:00

My parents were able to come out for a week after Bryce was born. It was sure a big help to get some extra sleep. Paige had fun going for walks, doing flips, eating and building towers with Grandpa Balls. Thanks again.

Bath time

2009-11-01T18:06:00.001-08:00

Luckily Paige can hold her own in the bath these days so that I can give both kids a bath at the same time. I can't wait for the day when they can both go in the tub at the same time for a splashing good time. Paige likes to practice her 'C's in the tub and Bryce likes to scream most of the time.

Friends

2009-11-01T17:57:00.000-08:00

We can often been seen around the neighborhood with all our toys and friends. I fear those days are coming to an end due to the substantial drop in temperature this past weekend. That's Bryce in the background out for his first walk:)

He's here!!

2009-10-06T17:01:00.000-07:00

Bryce Morrell Crandell

Born: October 2, 2009

Weight: 7 lbs 12 oz

Length: 20 inches

Despite telling myself (and everyone else) that I didn't want to be induced this time, we did it anyway. We got Casey's schedule for October and he had quite a few days off in a row so we thought that this might be the best thing to do for timing. We were hoping to go in on Friday, Oct 2, but after talking to the Doc office, I didn't think that it was going to be possible. Then I got a call on Thursday afternoon that I would need to be at the hospital at 3am Friday morning...yes, 3am. So approx. 14 hours later, I was on my way to the hospital. They started pitocin at 4am, broke my water at 8am, epidural at noon, and birth at 3:15pm. Not bad at all. Here he is - sleeping like a baby:)

Here is Paige visiting at the hospital. I clearly had to hold her back so she didn't maul the poor kid. She loves her little brother - who is either called Bryce, Byce and sometimes Rice.

Here are some "family shots" at the hospital. Paige had a major meltdown - unrelated to the day's events - before we could get a pick with all four of us.

Becky (Casey's sis) lives an hour away and was kind enough to come stay with Paige while we were at the hospital and hung around after we got home to cook and clean for us. She was a MAJOR help. Here is a pic of the cousins. Paige looks like a giant next to them. Bryce wears a hat to cover up his bald head, but Callie insists on wearing her wig every day. Thanks for coming Becky. You are a life saver.

This delivery was WAY better than the last one. It was faster, no complications with the epidural, no spinal headache, 15 min of pushing instead of 4 hours, and my recovery is already 10 times better than last time, and it's only been four days. We took Bryce in to the doc today and he is doing well. We getting used to what he likes. I think our first night at home was better than last night, so we will see how tonight goes. Paige is adjusting well - the first day was a mess, but I think that was increased by her lack of sleep. Our biggest problem is that she likes to jump and doesn't understand that she can't jump around Bryce. And she likes to share and give him his binky- which consists of shoving it in his face - poor kid. We'll get it figured out one of these days. More pics to come.

Oh Baby!!

2009-09-26T22:19:00.000-07:00

I guess it is time for my monthly update. We are patiently and sometimes not-so-patiently waiting for baby boy crandell to join the world. I am HUGE and those of you that have weak stomachs should not look at the following posts for fear that the pics will frighten you. My due date is 12 days away and my doc claims that the baby could come any day. I am dilated 2cm and 50% effaced, which I think means nothing, but we’ll see. Instead of spending time resting and keeping my house clean, I have been doing all sorts of unimportant things to keep me busy. I finished the baby bedding (it still needs some finishing touches) and I’ll finish the room later. I’m making Paige a new quilt too, but I got sick of sewing so I’ll do that later. I decorated my bathroom, and most recently I painted my basement.

Paige is suddenly on a mommy kick. She thinks that I need to do everything for her and needs me to be around all the time. This could pose a bit of a problem when I go to the hospital. She thinks that her baby brother is her baby doll- which is actually kind of creepy looking. Little does she know, her real baby bro will be joining us shortly.

Casey is doing well. He works a lot, which we clearly expected. He’s been working nights this last week so that is a little more complicated. When he sleeps during the day, Paige sneaks into the bedroom, says hello and then runs out saying, shhh, daddy sleeping. It’s pretty funny.

Until next time...

Meijer Gardens

2009-09-26T21:24:00.000-07:00

Becky and Steven came out for the weekend. They were nice enough to make me dinner last night, which was delicious. Today we went to Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park to “discover the beauty and splendor of our spectacular botanic garden and world–class sculpture park.” I have been there once before to the kids area, but haven’t seen the rest of the park. We are horrible, non-artsy people who made fun of half the sculptures and made up names for them before we got close enough to find out what they were really called.

This is our glimpse of AZ. Casey loves cactus!!
Paige liked the spider - I think mostly because of the Itsy Bitsy Spider.This one is Mad Mommy so me and becky joined in.

The giant horse.

Our little (tom)boy

2009-09-26T20:31:00.000-07:00

While we have yet to welcome our baby boy into our home, we have found a new love for trains and dinosaurs. Paige has a couple friends that have shown her their trains, and we found a couple dinosaur books at a garage sale a few weeks ago. Not only this – she has shown her love for cars. You can see her below taking after her grandpa's car skills while ‘fixing’ her Little Mermaid Car. She loves this thing. She got it for her 1st birthday and still plays with it all the time. It is now what we take on walks – who needs a stroller when you can push a car around the block. As I was loading this pic, I realized it was taken a couple minutes after her and the car fell down the stairs. I have no idea what she was doing - I just caught a glimpse of her falling down the last four steps and face planting it on the tile. I thought I was going to find a bloody mess, but she was ok. And if you put new batteries in the car, it cures all problems. Here is more of her adventurous side. She jumps off everything she can climb on. I know one day I will find her jumping off the kitchen counters.

She has no fear and is a pretty tough little girl. She takes some pretty intense falls and gets up like nothing is wrong, which is great except when she has blood running down her leg. How am I supposed to know that she is hurt if she doesn’t get upset.

Lake Michigan

2009-09-26T20:02:00.000-07:00

We are about a half-hour away from the beach at Lake Michigan. We have gone out there a couple times this summer. We should go more often and need to get out there again before the weather gets cold. Paige wasn’t so sure about the water at first – in fact she hated it. But good old Casey made her get in anyway and she learned to like it a lot better. This is Kesley - Paige's new BFF. They live 4 doors down and we frequent each other's houses...and go for walks and to the park, etc.

Ohio

2009-09-26T19:31:00.000-07:00

Last month (clearly, I am behind) we went to Ohio to meet Janna and Ryan – my sis that lives in Washington DC. We met in Kirtland which was about halfway between us and saw some of the church history sites and played at the hotel for the weekend. We got rained on, but it was still loads of fun.

Explosion

2009-08-02T21:45:00.000-07:00

Paige's vocabulary has exploded since we got here. She loves to talk and jibber-jabbers all day long. She is pretty good at pronouncing most things, but has some totally random "words" as well. Our latest favorite is potato. Casey was cutting potatoes today before church and recorded Paige's new word with a few added syllables. Don't mind her nakedness. Of course he taped it on her way from eating lunch to getting dressed for church.

Here she is getting ready for church.

Coast Gaurd Festival

2009-08-02T21:24:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went to the Coast Gaurd Festival in Grand Haven. Becky (Casey's sister) came to meet us and our friends Brady and Chay. Apparently it has rained every time that Brady has gone to the lake, so we will not be inviting him next time. Just kidding, but it did rain - we left right before it started pouring.

We were able to take a tour of the boats. This is the Mackinaw and below is Paige in the Captain's chair. And of course, a quick look at the beach. No playing...it was way too windy and the girls were about ready for a nap.

The Park

2009-08-02T20:44:00.000-07:00

There are lots of good parks here. We are still exploring, but we do find ourselves at Riverside Park quite often. Casey likes to run (who knows why) down to the park and me and Paige drive to meet him. It doesn't have the best playground, but it is a nice area with trees and water. And...ducks/geese etc.

One for me...one for you.

Take me out to the ball game

2009-08-02T20:28:00.000-07:00

Paige attended her first baseball game. A couple of the residents were going to the Whitecaps game the other night so we decided to tag along. We sat on the lawn which was a great choice with a toddler running around. It was college night - which was conveniently paired up with $2 beer night. Everytime someone would walk by with a cup of beer Paige would say "juice, juice." Needless to say, she didn't get any juice.

Babies

2009-08-02T20:10:00.000-07:00

Although Paige has no idea what life will be like with a little brother (yes, for those of you who don't know, I am having a BOY), she has been getting tips from friends and putting her advice to good use. Here she is with her friend Olivia who kindly taught her how to feed and burp her baby doll.

But who needs a baby doll when you have cousin Callie. We went to a kid-to-kid sale and found some great toys for cheap including this little doll stroller. Paige thought is was a lot more fun to push Callie around the house than a baby doll. There is a video on Becky's blog (the Trujillos)that is really cute too).

2009-07-18T06:45:00.000-07:00

Today's predicted high in Grand Rapids:

67 Degrees

Today's predicted high in Phoenix:

117 Degrees

That's only a difference of a whopping 50 degrees. But I assure you, come winter, I will be jealous of the Arizona weather!!!

Berry Pickin'

2009-07-09T18:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, our ward playgroup met at the strawberry farms. It was the last day of the season, so the berries were rather picked over, but the kids (and moms) had a blast.

Paige enjoyed picking them...

But she couldn't keep them our of her mouth!!!

We weighed our "basket" and paid a whopping 25 cents for our strawberries. Some people left with huge basket fulls to make jam, but we didn't venture that far out into the fields. Rasberries are in season now - we'll have to go before the last day to get the good berries.

We made it!!!

2009-07-07T08:47:00.000-07:00

Since we left over a month ago, I decided I better finally update the blog:) Here are some pics from the move. Here is Paige on the plane...she was lucky enough to get her own seat on the flight from Chicago to Grand Rapids. It was a much needed break after being stuck in the middle seat between two stupid men for three hours on the first flight. Casey got to the airport about 10 minutes before us - pretty good timing considering this was after a three day drive. We spent the night at Becky and Steven's house and then moved into our house the next day.
Paige got a little worn out from all the unpacking too!! It took us quite awhile to get used to the time change (3 hours). She would be up until 11pm and then Casey and I would be up until 12 or 1. Then we would sleep in forever. But now we are on a pretty normal scheule. We accomplished our first home improvement project: installing a new microwave. We figured if we needed to buy one, we might as well get one that saves counter space. Paige was a big help for daddy. Here is before, during and after.

Once we started unpacking (specifically the crib and toys) I think Paige realized that this was going to be our new house. She very quickly made herself right at home. She runs around the house with this blanket all day long. She has a tendency to put it on or over her head. She has in fact run into the wall on more than one occasion.

She loves to sit on the bathroom counter while we get ready for the day. If I tell her that we need to comb her hair or brush her teeth, she runs straight to the bathroom and tries to climb up on the counter while saying "up, up, up."

We quickly found the penny horse at Meijer (a super-walmart type store) thanks to a tip from one of the moms in our ward. Seriously, it only costs a penny and it lasts forever. Needless to say, we ride it EVERY time we go to Meijer. We have enjoyed having Becky and Steven close by. We have seen them a few times since we got here. We got together for Father's Day for a BBQ. Paige is learning who they are and gets excited when I tell her they are coming. She knows that they have a baby and gets excited to see cousin Callie.

The Blog

2009-05-31T23:22:00.002-07:00

I know that I am terrible at updating our blog. I keep telling myself that I will do better when I am in Michigan, however, we’ll see how that goes. None the less, I figured that I better get this thing up to date prior to moving so I can start afresh. So without further ado, here are our happenings for the past month (or so).

The Funeral

2009-05-31T23:22:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we were able to attend the funeral of my precious niece Jessica Lichele Stone. We postponed our move to Michigan in order to attend and it was definitely worth it. It was such a special service. She was born prematurely in February and sadly passed away last week. They had a beautiful display of her pictures and some of her tiny belongings. Both my sister and her husband spoke at the funeral after realizing that they were the only ones who really knew sweet little Jessica. They are so strong and have such wonderful testimonies. I love them so much. It was great to be reminded of our Heavenly Father’s plan for eternal families and we know that we will be able to see Jessica once again.

The Homelessness

2009-05-31T23:03:00.000-07:00

We had three weeks between our house closing in Tucson and the house closing in Michigan so we decided we would spend most of our time in Heber with Casey’s parents and visit the rest of our family periodically during that time. I don’t know if coming to Heber was a good idea. The weather has been great, but Paige has been picking up some VERY BAD HABITS from her Grandma Crandell and her Aunt Amy. But despite the bad habits, Paige has had a blast playing at grandma’s and learning a few things along the way.

She constantly asks for ‘jumpy-jumpy’ or ‘trampine’,

she plays in the dirt, she has become quite the piano player (Aunt Taunya would be proud)

plays with the cat,

flosses her teeth quite often – the bathroom is not baby proofed,

learned to use eye liner,

and has picked up various other skills. We will be headed to Phoenix tomorrow - Casey will start his drive on Tuesday and I will fly to Grand Rapids on Thursday. We are going to miss everyone soooo much (and Paige will probably go through withdrawals), but we are excited to get settled in our new home.

The House/Packing

2009-05-31T22:45:00.000-07:00

We were supposed to close on our Tucson house on May 11 so we packed up and moved out and sent our stuff to Michigan where it was arranged to be stored until we got there at the end of May. We went from this...

To this...

Paige wanted to help with the packing too:

Here is Casey locking up for the last time

And me... ...driving... ...away!!!

However, after some major complications - clearly due to the stupid foreclosures in our neighborhood (and everywhere else for that matter) the appraisal came in too low are we are not able to sell. Total bummer, but we hired a property management company to find renters and take care of it whilst we are away and we are just hoping for the best.

The Graduation(s)

2009-05-31T22:32:00.000-07:00

May brought us four graduations in our family – Casey’s mom, his brother, and brother’s wife, and of course the big one for us was Casey’s. After months and months or should we say years, Casey has finished medical school and is now an official Doctor. It was an exciting moment and I am so proud of him. He is the hardest worker. We are so excited to move on with our lives and start something new. Casey continuously jokes about his new $10/hour job, but the residency in Michigan is his last step in schooling and then we can go and do whatever, wherever we want. Graduation was an exciting moment – his dad was able to hood him for the ceremony. Our pictures didn’t turn out great because it was so dark in the auditorium, so I've got to lighten them, but here are a few that we have. Paige is crying in all of them:)

The Wedding

2009-05-31T22:04:00.000-07:00

My little brother got married at the beginning of May. It was exciting to be a part of that. We just love Jenna. She is hilarious and perfect for KJ. As my mom put it, now someone else can worry about taking care of KJ – you’ll notice his ankle is in a cast and he was actually on crutches for the wedding.

Me and my sisters:

Houses

2009-04-19T21:29:00.000-07:00

Out with the old...

In with the new...
We spent last week in Michigan looking at houses. One might think that we are crazy for buying a house considering how much we are going to loose on our house in Tucson, but when we looked at rental prices compared to buying (especially in this market) we decided to go ahead and buy. Hopefully things will pick up a little in the next three years. We were able to find a house that we liked and put an offer on it last Monday. On Tuesday, we got an offer on our house in Tucson. It is a little bittersweet as we are very excited to sell and keeping our fingers crossed that everything goes through. However, when we bought, we obviously were not counting on the housing market taking a turn for the worst. But we felt like we should try to sell despite the financial burden so we didn't have to worry about a house half-way across the country.

We were able to spend some time with Casey's sister in Michigan who had her baby on Easter morning (and Casey's mom who was in town for the occasion). We made them Easter dinner and took it to the hospital. We are excited that we will be closer to them (about an hour away) even though they will be leaving soon. I just realized that we didn't take a single picture with them. I have never been good at taking pics and I think that it is even worse now that I have a kids that runs every which way. Luckily, I can steal a pic from her blog. Congrats Becky and Steven.

We were able to schedule our trip to coincide with Casey's Clinical Skills Test. All Med students have to take this test as part of their boards. There are five testing sites in the U.S. He had it scheduled to take in Los Angeles, but switched it to Chicago so we could make one big trip out of it. Here he is all dressed and ready looking like a real doctor. I guess it is a pretty lame test - however, it is 8 hours long and costs a whopping $1100 (it's really just a way to generate a load of cash)

Here are some other pics from the trip...

At the poolThe online house searches

Lake Michigan - we didn't have time to drive out to the beach so we stopped by the side of the road to snap a pic of Lake Michigan. We are excited to check out the beach this summer.

Paige in her "winter coat." I was informed that it is more like a spring coat for MI. However, she didn't even wear it in AZ this winter because it was never really that cold.

Paige was quite a trooper for the whole trip. She sat in that car seat more in those five days than she normally does in a month. Check out her new pose (and this is just the few times that I took a pic). She has a tendency to sit like this almost every time we get in the car. It must be relaxing.

Accidents

2009-04-19T21:05:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I came home and Casey told me that Paige had a rough morning. I asked him why and he told me to go look at the camera. I found these.

My first thought was that she got a tube of desitin and smeared it all over her face. Come to find out, Casey was touching up some paint in the kitchen and she pulled the gallon of paint off the table right on top of her. She was wearing pj's (that went straight into the trash) I can only imagine how covered she was. There was paint all over the kitchen floor and splattered all over our cabinets and appliances. Poor Casey...and Paige, but luckily s didn't get all over her eyes and mouth. I don't really know how she managed that one.

Paige

2009-03-31T23:10:00.000-07:00

We like her so much, we decided to have another one. Paige will get a little bro or sis sometime in October. We are very excited, but as you can see, she doesn't know what to think about it yet.

Where'd you learn that?

2009-03-25T12:07:00.000-07:00

Do you ever watch your kids and think, seriously, who taught you that? We went out to dinner this past weekend and Paige thought she was quite the big girl because they gave her a booster seat instead of a high chair. So we sit down and she picks up the plate and starts licking it. What, does she suddenly have dog-like habits. Who knows?

We're moving to...

2009-03-19T17:31:00.000-07:00

GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN!!!!!

We are very excited. We know that we have to be there by June 15. I was hoping for Texas, but this was Casey's favorite place so it should turn out to be good. He went there on his own for the interview so I can't wait to see the city for myself. Here is a pic of Casey's soon to be 2nd home...or should I say 1st home:)

Photo Radar

2009-03-16T12:04:00.001-07:00

I officially hate Photo Radar Cameras. I wanted to post a pic of my alleged speeding, but it wouldn't let me copy the picture online. Driving School here I come. Thank you Scottsdale Police Department!!!

One more week...

2009-03-12T21:44:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know that it is pathetic that I have not posted since LAST YEAR - really pathetic. None the less, we have a lot of exciting things happening in the near future so I am starting afresh. Stay tuned.

For starters, we have one more week until we find out where we will be living for the next three years. It is exciting, yet just kind of hangs over our heads. We are waiting to see. They have match day ceremonies at the same time across the country so that all graduating students find out at the same time where they will be doing their residencies. It should be exciting. We will keep you posted...hopefully before next year.

Top 10 events in the last month

2008-12-27T12:12:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's a long post, but what can you expect when I only update my blog once a month. (Mom, the video of her walking is from December 6 - I'll have to put an updated one on here soon.)

10. Thanksgiving: This year we went to Casey’s grandparents house for Thanksgiving in Taylor. It was raining and cold, but it was really fun. Some of Casey’s extended family was there, so it was fun to see them.

9. Casey turned into a ‘real’ handyman: Paige broke our lamp a few weeks ago. Casey didn’t want to buy a new one so he decided to “fix it.” Needless to say...we got a new lamp.

8. Our 4 year Anniversary: Yep, four whole years. See #10 for pics. This year our anniversary happened to fall on Thanksgiving so we didn’t really do anything to celebrate except eat too much.

7. Casey’s Birthday: Casey turned the big 2-7!!! We never celebrate his birthday on the actual day because it normally falls during finals week. This year we went to the zoo lights (very exciting) and we had cake and ice cream. A good time for all.

6. Tamra’s Birthday:
Yes, our entire family (so far) has birthdays in December. When Paige was born, my dad told us we should have all our kids in December and party all month long – we already have to party all month long so I don’t think we can fit in anymore birthdays. Anyway, for my B-day, we went to see the Nutcracker at Symphony Hall. Carianne and Rusty came with us and so did Andy with a date (Casey’s brothers).
5. New nieces: Carianne and Rusty had their first baby – little Kate Annette. And Taunya (my sis) and Nick had a baby girl, Mackenna Noelle, on Christmas eve.

4. Paige started walking: Paige was taking quite a few steps by thanksgiving and by the beginning of December, she turned into a little toddler. She no longer crawls at all, she just gets right back up and keeps walking. She does really well until I put shoes on her. Shoes make her a little clumsier. She is getting into everything and loves to climb into things or put things into things. Her favorite are my corner kitchen cupboard and the refrigerator.

3. We got a new car: We bought a brand new car at the end of November. Casey’s car broke down while we were in Phoenix a few months ago and we were planning on buying a car when he graduated and were not prepared to buy one now. They have some really good deals on cars right now, so we went ahead and got it early. We ended up with a Ford Explorer. I get to drive it and I love it. It is a bigger car so I feel safer and can see more on the road and it is way easier to get Paige in and out.

2. Christmas: After we went to the nutcracker, we went back to the Crandell’s in Casa Grande and stayed there until Christmas morning. Then we went up to Jenn and Brent’s for Christmas dinner. Taunya was there with her 1 day old baby (what a brave mom). We had a good time and then packed up and came home.

1. Paige turned One: Paige turned the big One year old on the 19th. We had her birthday party at Grandma Crandells house so it would be easier for our family to travel. She of course had no clue what was going on, but was very excited for her new toys (particularly the ones that she saw before they were wrapped).

Apples, apples, apples

2008-11-16T17:31:00.000-08:00

My sister and I got together to make applesauce and apple pie filling. The recipe for pie filling is absolutely delicious. We did this a couple years ago when Casey's Grandpa had a bunch of apples from his garden. The apples failed this year so we ordered 4 boxes from Utah and canned away. Paige was a big help and so was Matt, who probably peeled a whole box of apples by himself.

Here is our finished product...I forgot to take a picture before we started packing up our jars so most of them were already packed in boxes.

First Step

2008-11-13T21:26:00.000-08:00

This is quite literally Paige's 1st step. It just happened to be caught on video because it was on Halloween and we had the camera out. I have yet to see another performance that is this skilled. She kept trying to walk for awhile and then she realized it is more efficient to squat down and crawl away when she is ready to make her move.

Happy Halloween!!

2008-11-02T18:10:00.000-08:00

Paige decided to be a ladybug this halloween. I was going to make the costume, but I went to buy some wings for it and found the whole costume for $8 more so we went with that. Here she is for her big debut...

Paige sat by the door the entire evening waiting for trick-or-treaters. Everytime I would shut the door, she would cry. It was pretty funny (yes, I am a mean mom who thinks it is funny when she cries). Below she is enjoying some of her favorite treats - she just doesn't know how much better they are unwrapped.Here she is at Grandma Crandell's last week. She is going to be one spoiled girl. Really, who needs the whole bowl of candy.

Snot...

2008-11-02T17:49:00.000-08:00

...all babies have it!!!

Home Sweet Home!!!

2008-10-28T22:17:00.000-07:00

We are finally home for awhile after being gone for nearly a month. Casey worked in the emergency department at Maricopa County Hospital in Phoenix for four weeks. It is so good to be home. We stayed with my oldest sister and her family. They are so great. Paige got sick and had a few rough nights and then towards the end of our stay had some even crazier nights. She was ready to get home and went right back to her normal schedule. I think she was just as glad as we were to be sleeping in her own bed. Casey is now working in the ICU at the University Medical Center here in Tucson.

Unfortunately, while we were gone, Casey's beloved car broke down. What a tradgedy. So now we are trying to decide what we want to do since we were planning on buying a car in March when we find out if and where we will be moving. He has an interview in Texas next week for his residency so that should be interesting. We'll see how it goes. Other than that, we are just getting back into the swing of things. I'll have to post some pics next time. Until then....

New Pics

2008-08-30T07:18:00.000-07:00

We went to the park the other day with some friends from out ward. Afterwards, my friend Karla took some pics of Paige and I together. They turned out pretty well. Thanks Karla.

Paige is quite active these days...as most babies are. I found a jumperoo on Craigs list for her to use for awhile. It is huge and takes up way too much space, but I figure when we are done with it, I will just sell it for the same price I bought it. She LOVES the thing. Here is a short video of her pure excitement. She gets some serious air. So cute!

We're Alive!!

2008-08-24T23:16:00.000-07:00

I know that I haven't updated my blog in ages, but no worries, we are still alive. There is way too much to catch up on so I am just going to pretend that July and August never happened (for now anyway).

Paige and I just took a trip to Utah to visit Casey. He has been working this month at the ER at the University of Utah. My parents have a condo right next to Temple Square in Salt Lake City so we stayed there. We had a lot of fun. Casey only had to work three shifts while I was there which was nice because we were able to spend quite a bit of time together. Here are some pics from our trip.

My parents have been at the MTC for the past couple weeks so they came up on Thursday and babysat Paige while we went out and on Friday we were able to go to the Temple. They left Friday morning for thier mission in San Jose, CA. This is the view from the street where we stayed. You can see the temple from the window at the condo where we stayed...so pretty.
We went for a walk along a trail next to a creek. Paige was practically crawling out of her stroller trying to see the running water. It was a new sight for her.

We went hiking one day-apparently it was naptime. Paige fell asleep while we were still hiking.

Here is Paige and her second cousin Paje. She was born exactly a month after our Paige. Ours is definitely more chubby...no question there.
It was a great trip. We sure do miss Casey a lot and we can't wait for him to come home. This single mom gig got old weeks ago. I don't know how all those military wives in our ward deal with thier husbands being gone. Yuck!!!

Paige's first 6 months

2008-06-22T10:24:00.000-07:00

Paige made it to six months this past week and thankfully we made it too. She is doing well and is still quite a happy baby until she realizes how incredibly tired she is. This girl sleeps great throughout the night, but will not take a good nap during the day...ever. I have finally gotten her into a regular morning nap (which generally only lasts fro30-45min) and then she will not take an afternoon nap for the life of me. This would be fine except that she gets super cranky from about 4pm on. DRIVES ME NUTS!!!! Here are some pics from her first six months.

Here she is the day she was born...

One Week...One Month...Two Months...Three Months...Four Months...Five Months...Six Months...

And many more to come!!!!!

Road Trip

2008-06-18T08:08:00.000-07:00

Two weekends ago we drove to St. George for Curtis (my brother) and Sharri's wedding. I was not looking forward to the drive with a baby and rightly so...it ended up being over 11 hours each way for us. Yuck.

Here we are in Taunya's van - we carpooled, which made it a bit easier.

And here are some other random pics:

Paige swimming with Grandma Balls

This past weekend, Paige and I went up to Gilbert for their reception. Paige got a new dress (as we were supposed to wear red, black or white). She was supposed to look like this...

Instead of being a cute baby to show off, she decided to sleep during half of the reception at Aunt Taunya's house and cry for the other half. Little stinker. So instead she looked like this...

Weekend Trips

2008-05-30T13:23:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, me and Paige took a little trip up to Casa Grande and Mesa to visit our extended families. On Friday, we went to see Indiana Jones with Casey's family. She has been a little crabby about loud noises lately (see below) so I thought it would be interesting to see how she dealt with the movie. My dad and KJ came up a couple weekends ago to install a new door for us. This is the reaction Paige had everytime she heard the drill. I thought it was hilarious. This girl hardly ever cries and she was hysterical about the drill. (sorry, I couldn't figure out how to turn it the right way)

Paige and I also went to Flagstaff a couple weeks ago for Amber's graduation. Here we are in the Sky Dome. I haven't been back to Flag since we moved to Tucson three years ago. I forgot what trees and forests looked like. It was a beautiful day and I got to see Kisha (one of my old roomies) so it was a good time.

A day in the life of Paige (and Tamra)

2008-05-27T22:40:00.000-07:00

We have been working on getting a good routine going. It has not been very successful considering that my baby does not sleep. Don't get me wrong, she sleeps the whole night, but she does not believe in sleeping during the day. If she does sleep, it is for the shortest amounts of time imaginable. Seriously, I always joke because if she falls asleep and then wakes up 10 minutes later, I consider that to be her morning nap - I'm lucky if I get a similar one in the afternoon. So to remedy the sleep issue, I try my best to make her sleep in with me. Casey has been getting up for work around 5am, very close to the time that Paige gets up...so I just bring her in to keep me company. Here she is in my bed (not sleeping, obviously.)
The remainder of her day consists of...

Sitting:Eating: would you call that a milk mustache? more likely a milk beard!!

Playing with Elizabeth (although it does not always consist of sucking on each others toes):
Dinner time: The only way we can eat dinner uninterrupted is if she is sitting on the table with us. I am sure that this will not work forever, but for the time being, it allows us to eat in peace.

Bath time:

And on Sundays, reading the paper with Daddy to find some "hot deals":

All this equals one happy girl (don't mind the slobber):

I've entered the world of Blogs!!

2008-05-19T22:58:00.000-07:00

Due to the overwhelming request for pictures of little Miss Paige, I have decided to join the blogging world. I figured this would be the best way to share pics and info about us. I thought I would give a little overview of her life up to date, along with some of the happenings of me and Casey along the way.

First, Paige was born on December 19, 2007 - a bit too close to Christmas, but what's a girl to do? This is how Paige slept for the first couple months of life(top), then she got a little more stylish (see below). No joke, she sleeps with her hands behind her head and/or her feed crossed 90% of the time. It is quite funny.

We spent Christmas at the Crandell's. Casey's whole family was there except one of his sister's and her husband. Everyone had a lovely time with little Paige. She is the first grandchild on his side of the family.

Much later, we had her blessing day. I have never seen our little house so full. Both sets of grandparents came (of course) and most of our siblings.

Casey started the year doing a rotation in OBGYN - his favorite so far:) After that, he spent 6 weeks in Psychiatry. All the guys in his rotation decided that every good shrink has to have a beard, so they all decided they better start growing one. Here is Casey at his best - he had to shave before the end of the rotation because he got called to testify in court. He is now working in Internal Medicine.

Paige is an absolute joy. She is the happiest baby I have ever seen. She ALWAYS has a smile on her face. I love getting her up in the morning, because she just smiles as soon as I say hi. Even when she is crying, (which she does on occasion despite what others think) she can't help but smile. It's quite humorous. Here are a few random pics of her from the last little while: