Tess' Birthday - All Tess wanted was to celebrate her birthday with her great-grandparents.....we even had a separate cake at home!

25 Fun Facts About The Mitchell Family!

Last week I participated in a fun little activity with a whole slew of friends and wrote a list of 25 facts about Julie.  I thought it would be a fun to post some fun facts about our little family here on the blog.....sooooo.......here goes:

1.  I have never seen Brandon without grey hair.  He started greying at age 19.

2.  I have always dreamed about running a marathon and doing the STP (Seattle to Portland cycling race)

3.  Porter learned to read in one week, literally.  

4.  Tess is the only lefty in our little family.

5.  Owen spent the first 3 months of his life sleeping in his car seat.  He refused to sleep anywhere else.

6.  Brandon can fix ANYTHING.  I swear, that man knows how to fix anything and use every sort of power tool that exists.  He has hung all our lights and fans, put in our yard, painted the whole inside of the house, and even built a frame for some artwork.  The list could go on forever!

7.  I drank caster oil to induce labor with Tess....and it worked!  I also drank caster oil to induce labor with Owen......and it didn't work.

8.  Porter is the best child EVER in the car.  You could take him cross country in the car and he would look out the window or read a book the whole time.  The only time you'd hear from him is when he's hungry or has to use the bathroom.

9.  Tess is the only child that Brandon has been successful at teaching to cross her eyes!  It drives me nuts when he tells her to do it, because I know it's not healthy - but she can do it on cue.

10.  Owen is our entertainer.  He will say anything you tell him and loves to pretend to be just about anything.  This morning he has been playing "dog" for about an hour!  He crawls around with his tongue out and then barking.  He also does sweet ninja moves!

11.  Brandon loves muscle cars and working on cars in general.  He is constantly looking online at car parts, and researching things he can do to restore his old truck that he got from his step-dad.  He has already replaced the carburetor in that truck, and is planning on doing the full overhaul on it once Porter is old enough to do it with him.

12.  I am deathly afraid of the dark, and I've been known to sleepwalk on occasion.  I once got out of the house when I was young and woke up on our neighbor's porch as I was about to ring their doorbell.

13.  Ever since Porter was little, he's only wanted ONE type of haircut.  He loves that he has two uncles in the military and has always wanted his head buzzed.  So, we bought a pair of clippers, and Brandon does his hair every two weeks!

14.  Tess talks in her sleep.  She does this about every other night.  It's actually quite funny.  She will have a full conversation with herself about just about anything.  A few days ago she actually said she just "had to have a pony!"  She was convincing Brandon to buy her a horse!

15.  Owen is a "Momma's Boy."  He will not share my lap or my time if he doesn't have to.  He can be playing just fine on the other end of the house, but if he sees someone on my lap, he will promptly shove them off to sit with me.  When it's time to snuggle or relax, he wants to be with me.  Which....of course.....I LOVE.  

16.  Brandon can grow a full beard in just about a week.  He loves having a beard, and I love it on him too.  His beard  has 4 distinct colors in it as well; red, brown, black and grey.  It grows in thicker around his mouth, as he had a goatee for years when he was young.

17.  I love to learn and use my brain.  If I could have, I would have stayed in college forever.  Right now I'm taking a course to become a Medical Transcriptionist and I'm enjoying the new things I'm learning.

18.  Porter loves to study and learn.  If you were to give him the choice of playing a game or reading a book, he would chose to read.  He loves anything that has to do with space and has often said he wants to be a NASA scientist.  Brandon and I have both decided he gets his smarts from Papa Larry.....there's no way he got it from us!

19.  Tess is a "Daddy's girl."  She loves being with Brandon and looks up to him like he's the king of the castle.  Every morning she asks how many more hours until Daddy gets home.  We are constantly having to explain to her why daddy has to work!

20.  Owen thinks he is the head of the household.  At a mere 23 months, he has taken full control of the house.  He is super bossy, and quite comical at the same time.  If he doesn't want to eat something, he just pushes it away and says no.  If he doesn't want to sit in his high chair, he simply won't cooperate.  He's VERY independent.

21.  Brandon is the best husband and father.  He is very considerate and thoughtful.  He tells me thank you every day for dinner.  He loves to chat and we talk constantly.  He is continually thinking of fun things to do with our children to create memories.

22.  I'm a great multi-tasker.  I love having a clean house, clean clothes and being at places on time.  I may look frazzled as I balance these things, but I'm quite calm.

23.  Porter has an impeccable memory.  He can recall details of his childhood thus far that are amazing.  

24.  Tess is the most vocal child of the three.  She has an opinion on everything and is known to say the funniest things.  Just this morning she ran up the stairs while I was still getting Owen dressed for the day, and proclaimed that she "was late for lunch!"  Mind you, it was 6:30 am, and I hadn't even made breakfast yet!

25.  We are honestly surprised we have not had to head to the ER with Owen yet.  He loves to climb and jump.  I have to keep a close eye on him now that our upstairs is open to the downstairs.  He hasn't tried to scale the railings yet, but he loves to throw things over it.  They are building a new hospital a mile from our house, so that will be a blessing in the future!

I hope you enjoy reading some fun info on us!  I posted a whole slew of pictures of the new house as well on the right.  We're still finishing up the kids' rooms, so those pictures will be coming soon!

Take Me Out To The Ballgame.....

We are pleased to announce that Porter made the Principal's Honor Roll at his elementary school!  We love that he enjoys studying so much, and are so very proud of him!
Watch out NASA.....Porter dreams of being a scientist for NASA.......the honor roll is just the first step!
We feel fortunate to live only 20 minutes from Nana Barb's folks in Mesa.  Yesterday we headed out there to watch Poppa Gil play softball in a tournament.  It was so much fun!  We thoroughly enjoyed watching all the older gentlemen play.  
Of course, Grandma Edna spoiled us with some treats and toys for the kids.  We had a nice visit back at their place after the game.

Check out that guy in uniform!  He played so well, we were so proud to be there supporting him!

We are thrilled to be back in our routine here at the Mitchell household and are anxiously awaiting our trip to Seattle in February.  The kids continue to grow and develop and keep us busy.  Tess will be 4 in a couple of weeks, and that simply doesn't feel real!  And our sweet little Owen will be 2 in March.....crazy how this is going so fast for us.  We're just trying to enjoy the moment and help them progress as best as possible.  We hope everyone is all doing well!

In Search of Snow.....

Brandon has been dying to drive up North and find some snow for the kids to play in.  As a boy, he grew up in Idaho where there was PLENTY of snow in the winter to play in.  So, he understands a child's fixation with the fun white stuff!  We LOVE Arizona and the weather here, but thought it would be fun to give the kids a taste of the cold!  Brandon decided that yesterday was the day, so we loaded up and headed north.  It only took 3 hours to find a decent amount of snow!  We pulled over into a National park, and quickly bundled up in our coats!
We lasted MAYBE 10 minutes in the cold!  We don't even own boots or gloves!  It was a super fun family activity and drove home remembering why we love the warmth in Arizona so much!  All in all, 7 hours in the car......10 minutes in the snow.......a tank of gas.......some junk food.......TOTALLY WORTH IT!

Christmas 2008

We had a wonderful Christmas this year and the kids were thrilled to get riding toys from Santa.  Miss Tess had been asking for roller skates EVERYDAY for at least a year, so the big man figured it was time to give in!
We were blessed to have Fafa and Punkin join us for Christmas.  We always love having them here.  We're excited for our big road trip in February to Seattle!  Watch out Fafa and Punkin, it will be a loud ride!
Within the first few seconds with her gear on, she was on her bum!  She's getting better, next step - OUTSIDE!
Owen LOVES his new bike!  He would ride it all day if you let him.
Our tree turned out so nice this year.  Brandon is so good at taking his time and making it look so nice.  I felt I should take it down cuz he went through all the hard work of putting it up.....let's just say - it was a HUGE chore to take down and get out the door!!
Hhhmmm.....how many men does it take to put together a trike??!!
Santa brought goodies and new underwear in our stockings this year!
Porter wasn't quite sure how he felt about being upgraded to plain white undies!  I guess we're getting too old for the character underwear!
Owen was just happy to get some candy.  And yes......Santa got him underwear too.......Santa knows that Mommy is anxious to get Owen potty-trained!

Once again, we had  wonderful time during Christmas and feel blessed to have shared it with my grandparents and everyone else we chatted with on the phone and the ichat.  It's sad to see all the decorations tucked away and our home back to normal.  I love the Christmas season and am always sad when it passes.

Happy Holidays From The Mitchells!

As we pause to celebrate the birth of our Savior this year, we are reminded of His life and all that He has taught us and done for our lives.  We are eternally grateful for his sacrifice and the path that He laid ahead for us.  We feel fortunate to have the opportunity to teach His principles to our children, and set them up for success in life as well.  We hope that this holiday season finds all of our dear friends and family happy and well.  We are loving getting all of your holiday greetings and pictures in the mail!  I love the updates on everyone's kids.  It's crazy how fast time seems to be flying by.  

We've chosen to do our family letter here on the blog this year so all can see whenever they choose.  We've got some good pictures to sum up 2008 in our little household that we felt had to be included in our letter!  So, here goes.....

We celebrated Tess' third birthday in February at Fafa and Punkin's house.  She was thrilled to have everything pink!  She is growing fast into a very independent little girl.  She loves to color and can already write her name.   She tells me everyday that she wants to go to a "real" pre-school and not just do her studies with mom!  We love watching her personality develop more and more each day.

Owen turned one in March!  It's crazy to think how fast time is flying by.  He is such a BUSY boy.  He insists on doing everything on his own and is dying to talk.  He's constantly learning new words and putting them together.  He still loves his blankie and any car he can find.  His favorite thing in the whole world is his mommy - oh and balloons!  He goes nuts when he sees a balloon!  He loves animals and playing.  

We had a visit from Nana Barb in February and had a ton of fun with her!  We love it when she comes and spoils us with attention.  Brandon and I love it that she'll stay up way late playing Phase 10 with us!  We're anxious to see her again this coming February when we head up to Seattle. 

My grandparents, whom we call Fafa and Punkin, live just south of us in Tucson.  We see them as MUCH as we can!  We love playing with them and hearing all of Fafa's super cool stories.  We love Punkin's cooking, and she and Owen have a special little bond.  He loves her SO MUCH!  He has always been drawn to her, and we love that they are so close.

We had a super fun visit from my mom in March.  We loved having her here as well, and we feel bad that we gave her a cold!  We enjoyed hanging out with her.  She taught Brandon and I how to play Skip-bo and then we spent HOURS playing it!  We had a great time.  We're excited to see her and my dad when we head to Seattle to welcome Adam home from his mission.  They live in Georgia now, but are heading up there so we can all be together.

We had a great visit from Brandon's folks as well in August.  They actually took Porter and Tess with them for almost a week while they went to Texas to see Uncle Mike and his family.  The kids had a ton of fun with them, and I had some sweet bonding time with Owen while Brandon was out of town on Business.  We're looking forward to seeing Grandma again in March when she comes to see us.

Porter played T-ball this spring and LOVED it.  He's way excited to play again this coming spring.

Porter turned 6 in June and we took a bunch of his friends to the local fire station for a tour.  He was the only one who was able to wear the Captain's hat.  He is growing up to be such an intelligent little boy.  He loves to study and is already working on division and multiplication.  He loves to read and write as well.  He loves to read about the universe and keeps telling us he wants to be a NASA scientist.  We'll see if he holds true to that dream!  We love that he loves to learn and are trying to do everything we can for him to help him continue to progress.

We LOVE the weather here in Arizona!

We took the kids to San Diego in July and spent some time at the beach and then a couple of days at the San Diego Zoo.  We had a great time and made some long lasting memories as a family.

Brandon took an introductory course in Scuba this summer and is anxiously awaiting to start his official classes.  He had to work out of state for a few months this fall, so those will be coming this Spring.

Brandon's work party this year was at the Phoenix Zoo last week.  The weather was fantastic and we had a great time.

Our big news this year is that we FINALLY decided to settle down and buy a house!  We've been here 3 weeks now, and are getting settled in.  We are so grateful to be able to have our own home and are trying to put our personal touches on it.

We have much to be grateful for this year and are thrilled to say that all are happy and healthy.  We are loving this time in our lives as we watch our children grow.  As a couple, we've never been happier and that is good news as well.  We wish everyone a Happy Holidays and hope that you all know how much we love and think of you!  

A New House, A Move, Breakfast with Santa and a Partridge in a Pear Tree!

What can I say?  This picture speaks for itself.  Owen was NOT happy to meet Santa this year!  Porter and Tess, on the other hand were thrilled to meet him and tell him what they wanted.

Even Owen wouldn't eat what they called "sausage" at the school breakfast!  The pancakes weren't that bad.  But....then again....hard not to go wrong with flapjacks!

You gotta love Brandon's scruff from a few days of not shaving!  The kids were SO excited to see Santa, they barely ate. 

Outside the new house!  If you look close on the left side you can see one of our wussy plants.  Time to hit the store for some Miracle Grow.

The new diggs....just before the cleaners went in to clean before we closed.  We promise to post final pics.....once we are done with the painting we started.......we had some MINOR color issues....okay, maybe they were MAJOR.  Don't ask!  Let's just say, we learned our lesson not to buy multiple gallons of paint before testing on walls.

We have been in the new house for almost two weeks now and are loving getting settled.  Tomorrow is Brandon's work party at the Phoenix zoo, and we are all looking forward to seeing the animals and the lights at night.  We'll take lots of good pictures.  

We hope everyone is doing well, and promise not to be lazy about the blog now that we're unpacked!