Great Friends and Great Citrus

What do you do when your great friends give you A LOT of oranges from their orange trees....

You juice them and eat them at the same time...

Thanks Frances and Scott for the great memories you provided my family today!

I'm Still Here...

No, I haven't gone anywhere, I just haven't posted in like forever. I apologize (again) to anyone who regularly checks my blog to see if I have anything new. It's funny how I get upset that the blogs I frequent when they haven't updated....

Life is just weird these days. I don't want to complain because I know that we are very fortunate with all we have, it just doesn't seem normal. Who would have thought 6 months after returning from an adventure of a life time, we would be so home sick.

We have been busy getting our new place ready for us to really live in it. We finally had a few friends over to see the finished floors and paint downstairs. Now I just have to get in gear to finish the upstairs. I know new carpet is a LONG way off, so what is the hurry to paint. Except I hate the ceilings and the blue walls.

Since the old house is vacant (tenants left Jan 2 and never paid Dec's rent...uugghh...), we decided to reclaim some of our things we left behind. Mitch has graciously agreed to bring over the cabinets so now my craft room is starting to take shape. Now we just have to construct Mitch's office so he can feel like he has a space too.

I guess having to pay 2 mortgages takes more than a financial stain on anyone. Here's to hoping we both still have jobs come next month.

I hope to get back to my regular days of blogging soon. We don't have reliable wireless Internet which means if I blog, I don't even get to see Mitch let alone spend time with him. My 2 hour commute is starting to drain on the kids and I.

OK I am going to end this post before I make myself anymore depressed. We truly are thankful for all we have and our family and friends. We are glad to be home, but we sure do miss Himeji!!

Merry Christmas

For those of you who are avid blog followers, I apologize for being absent...life has just been busy.

I wanted to take a moment to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! For those of you who have not received our Christmas card, do not feel alone...I have not sent them out yet...Maybe Valentine's cards will be nice :-)

For Christmas Eve, Chef RJ invited my family over for Hot Chocolate and Cookies. In preparation, we had to make cookies

Daddy helped the little ones decorate.

RJ did a great job all on his own.

Sara had to make sure some of the frosting ended up on her so she could enjoy it later.

Then the guests started to arrive. RJ put on his Chef outfit and served hot chocolate and cookies.


After the goodies were eaten, Grandma Leister played games with the kids.

It was a great night!

Trick or Treat

Guess I am slacking a bit....

For Halloween this year we decided to go to Tucson and go Trick-or-Treating with some friends. RJ and Sara decided to be Japanese and wear their yukatas ( a summer style kimono).

RJ



Sara

The gang of kids we went with

It didn't take Sara very long to figure out how the night was going to work...walk to the door, yell "Trick or Treat" and receive a bunch of candy. It was great! She loaded up her bag then had mommy carry her back to the house.

We had a great night. Thanks Trina and crew for letting us go with you! We had a blast!!

Casa Grande Ruins National Park

For the Veteran's Day holiday (November 11) we met up with some friends in Coolidge Arizona to visit on of our National Parks. Apparently AZ has the most National parks out of all the states.

The Great House is believed to have been built hundreds of years ago by the Native American tribe called the Hohokams.

Another part of the compound near the Great House. Cheryl and i were collage roommates. RJ and Nathan are about 2 months apart in age and Sara and Jacob are about 5 months apart.

The kids trying to fit through a door way. The Hohokam people must have been very short.

Another room on the compound

This picture is a hard to see, but this is believed to be a Ball Court. Apparently a ball game was played here and the losers were offered up in a religious ritual.

a closer picture of the Casa Grande (in Spanish, casa means house and grande means big)

While we walked around the grounds, RJ and Nathan were answering some questions so they could become Junior

Answering questions

Getting ready to be sworn in as Junior Rangers

Our proud new Junior Rangers!!

It was a great day! We all learned a lot and had fun with our friends! Thanks Cheryl for meeting us!.

You can read more about this place at http://www.nps.gov/cagr/historyculture/index.htm

Triple Scoop of Fun

The other day after church, RJ managed to get Daddy to give him a ride on his shoulders. Sara was not too happy about that so she asked for a ride. Mitch thought it was best to give both of them a ride....

Smash...Crash...

We have officially started reconstruction on our new home. The kids got to help Daddy smash up the old tile he pulled up on the downstairs...
I think the hammer was heavier than Sara...

RJ loved smashing...

and crashing all the tile.

That room was finished last weekend. They have the other half of the down stairs to pull up and smash. Oh the joys of children....