Arizona Update

Sorry it has been so long since I last posted; I feel like a bad brother. We have been doing well. The warm weather has been so nice. a few days ago it got into the low 80's. Every other day has been in the 70's. Work is going well. I changed companies a few weeks ago. I think it is a better fit for me. Its a little more stable because they are giving me a salary plus commission. We are excited to see mom and dad and Rick in a week for the blessing. Stephanie's family is coming too, and we are excited to see them too. Our boys are doing well. Ben has been waking up every morning around 7. I guess he likes to keep me on my toes. Today he woke up at 6:45, that was no fun at all. Luckily Steph was up by 8 so I went back to bed until 9. She feeds the baby during the night, and i wake up with Ben. Its a pretty good trade off... at least for me. Bo has been a joy to have around, although he gets cranky every night around 10:30. Besides that he is just a little sweet boy. I put up a ceiling fan the other day. that was an adventure. Brian would be proud of me becuase it only took me 3 hours to do. That sounds like a long time but i had to wire the thing two and a half times. the first time i did it, i left the wires really long, and they didn't all fit inside when i tried to put it up to the ceiling. Anyways, we would love to have any of you come and visit. we even have a spare bed. :)

Aquarium Adventure

Hi Family,
We had a fun time today at the awesome Newport Aquarium with Suzie, Jeff, Eva and Aiden. They have these really neat clear tunnels you walk through and the tanks are all around you. It makes you feel like you're almost in the water with the fish and sharks. I watched a huge tortiose swim over me. There were lots of cool sharks there, too. The bottom picture shows a real shark swim right by BethAnne as she sat by the glass. It was pretty scary looking. BethAnne and Eva have a lot of fun together. BethAnne wants Eva to stay here forever. I think they will be great friends as they grow up. We're really looking forward to the museum tomorrow. I'm so glad the Bousquets could come and visit.
Love,
Aubrey

Valentine's Day in Cincinnati

We're having fun here. I've been a little sick, but Mark has taken good care of me. The girls are very cute and quite and handful at times. We're so excited to see Suzie, Jeff, Eva, and Aiden tomorrow. We're going to have a great weekend! We plan to go to the aquarium and the museum. So much fun! Love you all! Love, Aubrey

The sun is finally shining in Provo!

Before I forget, this is a picture of the website Jon created for his competition. I wish you could see it in all its glory with Flash animation and all, but this gives you an idea of how amazing my husband is. Once again I'm jumping on the blog bandwagon, as the last sibling to post. I've sat down a couple of times during the last week or two to write, but we are seriously so boring. Jon and I have never been so busy in our lives (nor our house so messy), but we do the same things pretty much day in and day out. For Jon, he works around 30 hours a week, goes to class and studies hard, and then in his "free time" he works on NAHB every minute he can. I student teach every day, getting to school a little after 7:00 and leaving around 4:00. Then somehow I seem super busy until I crash around 10 and do it all over again. Needless to say, we don't see each other much, but we know that this is just temporary and we treasure our time together. Jon heads to Orlando in the morning for the big competition, and he and his team present on Wednesday afternoon. I'm so proud of all the hard work that Jon's put in on this project, going the extra mile on everything he does. We hope he wins, but no matter what, this has been a huge accomplishment. I think I'm finally getting this student teaching thing down--I'm well into my research paper unit and I think the kids are finally warming up to me. I haven't had any major emotional meltdowns for at least 10 days--a good sign that life is going well. :) I'll miss Jon terribly this week, but will hit Logan right after school on Friday so at least I won't be lonely over the weekend. Speaking of Logan, I wanted to make a sweeping statement that I think I have the absolute cutest nieces and nephews in the whole world! I love seeing all of your pictures--sweet baby Bo and Ben, the four amigos also up to something, darling Eva and Aiden, grumpy yet sweet Grace, and amazing BethAnne. Wait--did I get them all? I think so... Anyways, I've never seen such cute kids! We love you all so much and miss you tremendously! Love,
Chrissy

here are the pictures that i tried to post last time. can you believe bo is almost 3 weeks old.

February fun so far...

We've had fun the last few weeks. Brian earned "Dad of the Year" award (again) by making a giant mound of snow, and then helping the kids dig a cool fort into the side of it. Then he bought me an early Valentine's Day present - a beautiful dining room table that I've had my eye on for awhile (thanks Congress and Mr. Bush! We're already spending that money you promised to send). Brian worked so hard putting the table together that he threw his back out. Say a prayer for him - it's a doozy this time. Last but definitely not least, Adam turned one yesterday! I think his Elmo cake was the most adorable thing I've ever seen. Delona and her youngest three kids came up for a few days and we had a wonderful time. I enjoyed reading Aubrey and Suzie's latest entries. CUTE kids! Love you all. Oh, and be thinking about the reunion. We're thinking August 7th - 10th might work best for Suzie and us, so check your calendars and let us know what you think. Love you all!

Hi everyone! We're doing well out here in Virginia. We've all been healthy for over a month (knock on wood), which hasn't happened since before Eva started preschool. It snowed once a few weeks ago, but besides that the weather has been pretty nice. One day last week got up to 70 degrees! The kids love playing outside in the backyard. Aiden will grab his shoes and bang on the back door when he wants to go out. Aiden has become quite the climber. For awhile we had all the dining room chairs scooted way back from the table so he couldn't climb onto the table, but now he just scoots the chairs wherever he wants them, so I have to play the "intercept--move the chair back--intercept again--move the chair back again..." game. He and Eva are so sweet. They are so happy and loving and I feel so blessed to be their mom. It has really been joyous lately. The pictures of me and the kids on the carousel are from a "family date" we went on a couple weeks ago. We went and helped daddy pick out eyeglasses (that's right, Jeff got glasses! He wears them mostly just to drive and watch t.v.), then we rode the carousel at the mall and went out to eat. It was a lot of fun. I'll have to take a picture of Jeff in his glasses and post them on the blog next time. We get to all go visit the Rogers in Cincinnati next weekend and we're really excited about that. I talked to Lisa last week about the Carl Baker family reunion this summer in Logan.; August will work best for us - how does that sound to everyone else?

Cincinnati Fun

Dear Family,

Things here in Cincinnati are going well. Grace is cute, but she doesn't always want to smile for pictures these days. A group called the "Aubrey Rose Foundation" came and decorated the Ronald McDonald House for a fiesta last week. They served chicken and potatoes (instead of mexican food, which was funny) but it was still fun. BethAnne was actually pretending to be happy for the picture, but she's cute anyway. That was the day before she went to the hospital for the stomach flu. BethAnne is doing great now. She's been eating well for a couple days and she hasn't thrown up since Tuesday. She had all of her retention sutures taken out of her tummy today so she can stand up straight now. That's made a really big difference. She was running around Chuck E Cheese almost like normal this afternoon. We are really grateful that we've been able to stay here at the Ronald McDonald House. There is a sweet spirit here, it's great to see all the people who come here to volunteer and serve. We have been blessed that the time has gone by quickly and we've been able to be together as a family. Thank you all for your love and support and emails and letters and presents. We're looking forward to a fun visit from the Bousquets soon and we're looking forward to going home to Boise in a few weeks. We hope you are all well. We love you!
Love,
Aubrey

More Pics

These are some pictures of the boys last week. It is really surprising to me how much Bo looks like Ben when Ben was a newborn. We are doing well. Sales are starting to pick up. I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up, but I am open to any suggestions :) We are sad that the Pats lost the Super Bowl. We taught Ben to say "Go PATS." He is so adorable. We have had lots of visitors the past few weeks, which is good. Company is always welcome. Steph's mom was here for a week. She was such a great help to us. Then Dillan came down for a few days to sell with me. We had a good time together. Then the day that he left, Stacey and Jon came from California to stay the weekend.