Happy Birthday Tess!

What a wonderful day we've had here at the Mitchell home! Tess turned 3 today. It's crazy to think our baby girl is that old already. It feels like yesterday when I was out walking in a foot of snow in Rexburg trying to induce labor - - - and it worked! Tess had a fun day picking all of the activities to do here at home today. She got to have a little friend over tonight and we all went to Red Robin for dinner. The big prize was her new bike! She has been wanting one for quite some time, so it totally made her day. Thanks to Papa and Grandma - she's all set with a helmet and knee pads. Thanks to Uncle Chris and Aunty Amy - she has a fun basket and a crazy loud horn for her bike. I think she's set! She's really looking forward to Nana flying in on Friday. She will be here for 8 days, so we are all really excited to see her. We're all headed to Tucson Saturday to have a little birthday party for Tess with Fafa and Punkin.

Not much else has been going on here. We've all had our colds a few times over. I ended up with Strep, Porter had another ear infection, and Owen ended up with pink eye! Knock on wood, but I think we're all on the mends now. I sure hope so! It's starting to warm up here, so that should help.

Porter got registered for spring T-ball. This will be his first year playing T-ball, so we're anxious to see how he likes it. The season doesn't start until March, so stay tuned for more info on that. He's looking forward to a little Valentine party in his class next week.

Owen continues to do well and is growing daily. He's really got his little army crawl down pat. He will get up on his knees and rock back and forth, but he's not gutsy enough yet to get those knees moving. He's just following the path of his two siblings and getting mobile a little late. No complaints here by me. Once they are mobile, there's no stopping them!

We hope everyone is doing well and enjoying all that cold weather up North! We'll be thinking of you when we put on our shorts next month! The kids send kisses to everyone!

It's About Time!!

I know, I know, I keep saying I'm going to be better about this and write more frequently. I will, I've just been lazy. It's certainly not from a lack of time. Things are busy here, but not that busy! We're finally back into our normal routine with school back in session. After some yucky colds right around Christmas, we got everyone all better for about 2 weeks! Tess and Owen are now down with colds again. We need cold season to be over! At least through all of this I haven't gotten sick.

Porter is loving that school is back in session. He continues to do well and just got a report card last Friday with all high marks. He's our brain child. We're still trying to figure out where he gets it from - it's certainly not from either one of us! We keep telling eachother that we need to save every penny we have for the tuition at Harvard for him!

Tess, despite her little sniffles, is still in charge and running her kingdom here at home. She is the princess and the president all rolled into one. Girly and tomboy all at the same time. She loves playing with her dress-ups, but thoroughly enjoys putting on all of the construction stuff and playing at her "jobsite" (which is porter's tool bench.) She does have a kitchen in her bedroom, but she seems to be taking on her mommy's traits of minimal cooking! She's looking forward to her birthday on February 6th. She'll be 3!

Owen, aka "Chocolate Thunda", is doing well even though he's gotten quite a bad cough. He loves playing with the kids and gets especially excited when Porter gets home from school. His new favorite thing to do is taking a bath. He loves to sit and play with the bathtub toys and he screams when you take him out of the tub. We've recently wised up and took anything remotely in resemblance to a cup or a bucket out of the tub. I was having a hard time getting him to take his evening bottle, when it dawned on me one day that he has his bath right before bedtime. He was drinking the bath water! Not only is that totally nasty, it was filling up his belly.

Brandon is doing well and has been super busy at work. They finally had a big pow wow with the owner's of the Mayo clinic to get him the info he needed to get this building done. So, he's now on track to finish it the end of March. Stay tuned for our next location! We've been told it may be Denver, but you never know till the last minute, so we'll see!

I'm doing fine, although I'm deeply disappointed that I have to wait ALL THE WAY UNTIL Jan 31st for the season opener of Lost. I just assumed it would start at the beginning of January and then found out the tragic news........At least the Biggest Loser is on - my favorite show ever! One of my new year's resolutions was to do a triathlon this year, so I've been trying to get ready for that. My body is killing me and I'm trying to remember that this is a cool goal and that I need to stick with it!

We took the kids to Mesa last Sunday to see Barb's parents. We hadn't seen them since last March, so it was fun to hang out and catch up. They have a home in Renton, WA, but spend their winters here in Arizona. We love visiting with them. They are such an inspiration to us about beign physically active and healthy. They are in their 80's and still running track, playing golf and Gill plays in a softball league!

That's about it here in Mitchell land. I'll be sure to write more soon!

Happy New Year!

Well, we hope everyone has started the new year with a bang! I'm sure a plethora of resolutions are in the works and the motivation level is high! It is here - we'll see how long it lasts! We had a wonderful Christmas with my grandparents and our little family here. The kids loved all of their presents. We took everyone to the Mesa Temple Christmas night to see all of the Nativity scenes they had on display and the lights outside. It was really pretty and the kids throughouly enjoyed it.

Porter has been off from school and it's been fun to have him home. I've enjoyed not lugging everyone around to the school twice a day! He got a guitar from Santa and has started his lessons with Brandon. He's so excited to learn. He is getting antsy to return to school. He loves all the fun learning and projects he does there. We've done some fun things here, but it's not the same! He goes back on Monday.

Tess received a big dress-up chest from Santa and has been engrossed in her princess dresses and shoes (she got the shoes from Papa and Grandma) since Christmas day. We have to convince her every time we want to leave the house that she can't wear them in public! She also has to take her bath and get ready for the day in the morning before she can put one on! It's fun to see her all dressed up and walking around in her little outfits. The really funny part is when the shoes she's picked out don't match her dress and Porter informs her of it by bringing her the proper pair!

Baby Owen got a rocking Bull from Santa and has fun riding on it when he has some help. I think Santa saw it and simply couldn't resist it! He'll grow into it shortly. He loves having some new toys too. Aunty Melanie made him a new tie and he was decked to the nines for church on Sunday. He's finally over his ear infections and is feeling like his little self again. He so much fun and is growing like crazy. I can't believe he'll be one in just two months. Crazy how time flies.

Brandon and I are doing well. We REALLY enjoyed the holidays with the kids. It's so much fun watching them sqirm with anticipation and then see them squeel with pleasure when the moment finally occurs. Brandon tossed and turned all night long on Christmas eve. He finally leaned over at like 6 am and told me he was waking up the kids if they weren't up by 7! He did end up waking them up! We're loving this time in life with the kids.

We hope everyone is doing well and good luck setting your goals for the year!

Merry Christmas!

To say that we are boiling over with excitement here, is an understatement! Tess asks me every morning if it's Christmas yet! Porter at least understands the days of the week, and has a coutdown running. Owen, obviously, doesn't know what's going on and just loves looking at the decorations and the lights! We can't wait to see him open his gifts. He's gonna go nuts with the paper!

It's been a busy week getting ready for this next week. Baby Owen's ear infections came back, so that's been sad to see him sick again. He's on a stronger antibiotic now, so we're hoping that helps. He's such a sweet boy, even when he's not feeling well. He was in heaven on Friday night, because I let him sleep with us! I didn't get any sleep that night - I spent the whole time looking at him! I just don't want him to grow up!

Porter's pancake breakfast at school was a lot of fun. He was also able to wear his jammies to school on Friday and the whole school watched The Polar Express. He was so excited when he came home to tell me they had given him hot cocoa and cookies during the movie! He's home now until the 7th, so that will be nice.

I got my lovely goofy gift in the mail yesterday - it's a "beautiful" pink christmas wreath. As much as I "love" it, I'm giving it to Tess. She thinks it's sooooo pretty. So, now we have to hang it up in her room! She's really hoping for some girly dress up stuff from Santa, so we'll see!

We had a visit Friday night and Saturday from Kate and Keven, my friends from Seattle. It was fun to have them here. We all went bowling on Saturday and had a blast. We had a great time with the kids making cupcakes for Kate's birthday. Her birthday is Christmas eve and we didn't want her to feel like we were forgetting!

We're looking forward to seeing Fafa and Punkin on Christmas day. I think the kids are more excited to see them than to open their presents. That is just fine with me! We feel so fortunate that our children have such a close relationship with their great-grandparents.

We hope everyone enjoys their holiday festivities and traditions. We are grateful for the opportunity to celebrate the birth of our Savior and to take some extra time to talk to our children about the real meaning of Christmas. The gifts are fun, but they are not the real reason for this enjoyable time of year. We're grateful for all that Christ has done for us. We love you all and want you to know you are in our thoughts and prayers.

xoxo, The Mitchell Family

Santa's Theme Park

Well, we've been really busy getting all ready and excited for Christmas. The gifts have been coming in the mail, and thus, torturing the kids like crazy!! It's been so fun to put them out and see the turmoil they are going through because they can't open them yet! We're planning on spending a quiet Christmas at home and then awaiting the arrival of Fafa and Punkin on Christmas afternoon.

Last night we took the kids to a large Christmas fair in Chandler. It was so fun to take them on the kiddie rides and see all the fun lights. Tess loved the rides and has officially taken the title as "daredevil" in the family. She went nuts. She wanted to go again and again on everything. Porter loved the rides as well, but enjoyed his cotton candy most of all. Brandon spent a whopping $3.50 on Tess' cotton candy, only to have her tell him it was yucky and it ended up in the garbage. Brandon and I happen to agree with Tess on the nastyness of the stuff. Sweet baby Owen rode in his little sling on my hip and literally looked at the lights the whole time. We were there for about 2 hours, and he didn't make a single sound.

Porter is looking forward to a pancake breakfast that his teacher is putting on at the school on Wednesday for parents and students. He sure loves her and thinks anything she does is wonderful. He'll be off as of Friday afternoon and doesn't go back until the 8th of January. It will be nice to have him home for a couple of weeks.

We're all excited to go pick up our tree this week. We've been waiting to get the tree until it was closer to Christmas. We decided to be corny Northerners and buy a potted palm tree in celebration of our first Christmas in Arizona! We know it needs to be planted soon after purchase, so we've opted to wait until this week to buy it. Tune in next week for pictures!!

We hope everyone has a fun week with their final preparations for the big day! We love you all dearly!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, I must admit that I've been slacking on this the last couple of weeks. I've been having a lot of fun writing for Amy and I's new website and that takes up a lot of my time. If you want to take a peek at it, it's http://www.raisingafamily.net. It has been so nice for me to have a creative and academic outlet on a daily basis. I've really missed the writing I did in college, so it's been a blast.

You know, you hear people talk about peaks and valleys in life. I really feel like we are having a great peak time here at the Mitchell household. Sure, we have our issues, but things are going really well. We're really loving Arizona and the routine we've gotten our little family into. Everyone is doing well except for some little colds. With the weather cooling off here, we've all caught a bit of a bug.

Porter is loving Kindergarten. He's doing so well and we really are proud of him. He's become quite the little reader. He's constantly looking at words in books and on signs and sounding them out. I think he's gotten his mommy's love of reading early on! He loves to do his homework and recently asked me what a nerd was. I'm not sure where he had heard the term. So, I explained to him that a nerd is someone who is really smart and loves to do homework all day, everyday - so his reply was - "Well, then, I'm a nerd!!!" It was really cute. He had a little Thanksgiving play at school and he was a pilgrim. He looked so cute in his little costume.

Tess is doing well. She's getting more inquisitive everyday. She's really starting to pay attention to her letters and pointing them out as she sees them. She loves working on her colors and doing little coloring projects at home with me. Her vocabulary is growing like crazy too. She's constantly surprising us with new sentences. She has finally gotten confident to go to nursery or have a sitter without crying, so that's a HUGE step for her. It's been really nice for us too!

Baby Owen is just too darn cute! He finally cut his front two teeth this last week and that was a chore to say the least. He has taken the term "blowout diaper" to a whole new level. It's been a lot of fun cleaning up after him! He was in seventh heaven this last week as we went to my grandparents for Thanksgiving. If he's near his Punkin, then he's a happy camper!

Thanksgiving was a wonderful day. Punkin and I spent the day cooking and then we all spent the evening eating! Everything turned out way yummy. The next day we took the kids to Agua Caliente Park again to feed the ducks. We love it there and the kids had a ball. Last time we went Owen was much younger, so this time was fun to see him try to talk to the ducks. His eyes were huge the whole time! Tess has gotten gutsy with the ducks as well. I swear, she was soooo lucky none of them bit her little fingers. She'll hold the bread in her hand and have the ducks walk right up to her and then she barely throws the bread! I think she likes having them get close to her.

We hope everyone had a great holiday and are doing well. I promise to not take so many weeks in between posts again!

Happy Halloween from the Land of Sun!!!

Well, I must say, after having Halloween in the rain or snow my whole life, it was nice to have it sunny! Owen dressed up as Julius Caesar, toga and all, and he fit right in with the weather! Our ward had a huge trunk or treating activity and the kids had a ball and came home with a ton of candy. On Halloween night, we got maybe 20 trick or treaters, so we ended up with a whole slew of candy. Now, a few days later, the candy has been handed to a friend who is a school teacher and the rest hit the trash this morning after the millionth sugar high. I had had it, and chucked the rest!

We let the kids dress up again yesterday morning before we headed to Tucson. They wanted to show Fafa and Punkin their costumes. We had a great day with my grandparents and even went swimming! It's so weird to do that in November, but we certainly aren't complaining. We moved here for the sun and intend to enjoy it! We're headed back there for Thanksgiving and I'm looking forward to cooking with Punkin. The kids sure love it there and we feel fortunate that our children have such a unique relationship with their great-grandparents. Not many children get that. I sure didn't.

We had Porter's first parent/teacher conference a week ago. That went really well. He loves school and his teacher said he takes his schoolwork very seriously. He's one of the top 3 kids in his class and she told us he's one of her favorites too! As a parent, that was really fun to hear.

Tess is still running the castle here. She is defintely in charge and will come tell me even if she thinks daddy is "bossing" her. She loves making Owen laugh and wrestling with him. I think she's really enjoyed that he's gotten more playful. She loved being a cowgirl for Halloween and now I have to plan all of her outfits around her new pink boots!

Owen is doing really well. He's on the verge of cutting two more teeth. He absolutely LOVES playing with Porter and Tess. They constantly have him laughing. He's really trying to lift up his body in a crawling stance, but he's just so darn heavy it might take awhile! So, he just scoots backwards or rolls all over the place.

Well, we'll think warm thoughts to pass out to everyone! Enjoy bundling up and scraping snow off your cars.....I'll think about you while I put on my sunglasses to drive!

We love you all!