Papa and Grandma Came!!!

Well, much to our delight, my parents are moving back to Seattle to be closer to all the family out West, and for Papa to work for a new seafood company. We were ECSTATIC when we found out that their travels back home would include driving through Phoenix! They arrived here Friday afternoon and left this morning. We had a WONDERFUL visit with them, and we're already anxious for another visit soon. We felt especially lucky because this time, they were able to bring Lucy (the family dog) with them! The kids loved having her here......so.....we're thinking a four legged addition to our family might be in the works fairly soon!


Our rowdy bunch with Papa and Grandma!


Tess sure had fun hangin' out with Grandma! "Hey girlfriend.....ready to kick it??!!"


We've always said that Porter gets his good looks and his brains from Papa! Here they are making a telegraph together.


Lucy had a whole slew of attention while she was here. I'm sure she'll sleep all the way to Seattle!

We wish them well on the last few days of their trip, and pray they make it in safely. FYI: If you are looking for a gorgeous home in Brunswick, GA - let us know! We know a great one for sale!!!

Other than our visit from my folks, we're just doing our normal thing here. School is out on May 22nd, so we're looking forward to having Porter home during the day for lots of playtime. Brandon starts his new project - which is only 1.1 miles from the house in two weeks, so we're WAY excited for that. It will be nice for him to not have a commute for the next 10 months or so.

We hope everyone is doing well! xoxoxoxo

Happy Easter 2009

We had a wonderful relaxing weekend here at the MItchell household. Fafa and Punkin (my grandparents who have SWEET nicknames) drove up on Saturday from Tucson to spend Easter with us. We had a lot of fun coloring eggs and playing games. We really enjoy the time we have with them when they are here.

Easter morning brought our little hunt and some good old fashioned relaxing! We don't have church till 2pm, so we enjoyed our morning. The Easter Bunny brought the family a really cool Book of Mormon game, so we played that all day.

We hope everyone had a greatl Easter this year!





Owen sure loved coloring eggs.



Our happy painters!



The search begins!



Owen had a ball looking for all the hidden eggs!



Miss Tess had a good time too. She loved her pink basket even more!



Our sweet children with Fafa and Punkin. We sure loved having them here for Easter weekend!



Tessy and Punkin!



What a handsome group of men!

Brandon's Homemade Slip-n-slide!

I know this sounds cheesy, but I am continually reminded how fortunate and lucky I am to have Brandon as my husband. I have never met anyone so fun on so many levels. He looks at life as something to enjoy and to cherish along the way. He LOVES creating memories for the kids, and I'm constantly reminding him that he is their FATHER and not their older BROTHER! Sometimes I feel like I have an extra child to keep an eye on! This evening, I heard him go outside and start gathering the kids together....we had decided it was time to bathe the kids and we were going to do it together....I didn't hear them coming up the stairs, so I went outside to see what was going on. To my amazement, not to my surprise, he had rolled out a HUGE roll of plastic that we had outside for some random project, and was spreading it out and holding it down with some extra wood we had. As I walked outside, Porter came running past me with the dishsoap in hand. I was instructed to grab the hose, as Dad was showing the kids "the time of their lives!" He proceeded to instruct them how to PROPERLY go down the homemade slip-n-slide. It was hilarious!

The Busy Girl FINALLY Broke Her Arm!

Well, life here has been pretty hectic lately. The weather has turned FANTASTIC, and we've taken advantage of that. A few weekends ago, we headed just 14 miles north of here to the Lost Dutchman State Park, and took the kids on their first hike. We didn't make it very far, but we sure enjoyed it. Fortunately, we live close and plan to head back many more times.

As most of you know, Tess started ballet in March. A little over a week ago, she was practicing some sort of spinning around, and promptly tripped over her ankles and came cascading down on her right elbow, which happened to hit the baseboard. She howled in pain for quite some time. Once the swelling started, I realized it was more than the mere "owie" and rushed her to the nearest Urgent Care. Sure enough, she broker her humerus just above the elbow. She'll be in a cast until April 28th.

We're Still Alive!!

I come to all of y'all asking forgiveness for my slothfulness.....I do realize it has been an month and 5 days since I last posted ANYTHING. This is quite unusual for me, as all who know me, know I never run out of things to talk about. We've been really busy!! We went to Seattle for a week and a half, and then my baby brother Adam came to visit for two weeks. In the meantime, I only had like a ZILLION pictures to sort through, and every time I sat down to do it, I got overwhelmed. I told myself I couldn't go to bed tonight until I was completely updated......hopefully I will finish before the sun rises!

As most of you know, my brother, Adam, spent the last two years on a mission in Lisbon, Portugal and came home in February. We planned a family trip to head up North and see the fam and welcome him home. We were crazy enough to drive the whole 1600 miles in two days. As our luck doesn't seem to run out, we were all sick the WHOLE time we were gone. Wouldn't you know, the ONE big trip we plan this year, and we're all on our death beds with the flu the whole time. I'm sure we were rotten company. It was indeed fun to see everyone though and enjoy time with family. We took a leisurely 3 days to travel home, which was a wise choice. Needless to say, we are not making any big road trip plans for at least a year!

We knew Adam's time in Seattle would be full of lots of family, so we bought him a plane ticket to come down here and spend some time with us. We also wanted to take him to Tucson to see our Grandparents on the Welch side. We LOVED having him here. He brought a wonderful spirit into our home, and we enjoyed our quality bonding time with him. I am 10 years older than Adam, so I dearly remember him being little, and I still see him as a sweet little boy about Owen's age. I just can't wrap my brain around him being almost 23! We wish him the best of times as he starts school at BYU Idaho in April. We love you Uncle Adam!!

Our other big event in March was Owen's birthday! Our "Big Cheese" turned 2! He is growing up so fast, and we simply cannot stop it. I wish we could just push the pause button on his little life. He's at such a fun age and a terrible age at the same time. We LOVE this age! We took down his crib a few days ago and he's loving his new "big boy" bed. Next step is potty-training......which I'm assuming will take FOREVER. Every time I try to introduce him to it, he has a cow.

This week we were also blessed with the news that Brandon's second mission president has been called to serve alongside the area presidency in Asia, based in Hong Kong. We are so excited for them. We LOVE the Arnolds and want them to know they will ALWAYS be in our prayers. Only they know how much of an impact they made on Brandon's life, that in turn has blessed our family. We adore you both!

We hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their families. Please keep us posted on what you have been up to! Now that I've redeemed myself, I shall once again keep this updated! I posted a slide show below of some pictures from our trip to Washington.

xoxoxo

Our Trip To Washington: It's ABOUT TIME I posted some pics!!!