Mormon Message

My brother-in-law, Brian Burnham, made a Mormon Message for the Church's international video contest. Here is a link to the voting page. Check out the videos and vote for his if you like it. His is called "Honesty-You better believe it!"

https://lds.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_6xqzJg9pxBjzee0

Still Alive, Just Not Blogging

Suzy

She's only been here for three weeks and we are so in love with this girl.

This is not a joke . . .

We had our little Suzy last night (3/31/01) at about 10:20 pm. We were scheduled for an induction on the 30th but the hospital was too busy so we ended up going in yesterday afternoon at about 5 pm. Lucy was so excited. Just as they were posing for this picture she said, "I have to say something to the baby." She then turned and said, " You're going to the doctor's office now, baby!!"


The induction went great and within 5 hours we had our little Suzy. She weighed 7 pounds, 6 ounces and was 20 inches long.

She actually has some hair, unlike her older sister. It appears a bit on the dark side, but we will see.

Mom and baby are doing well.

Drumroll, please . . .

A Little Preoccupied

So we've gotten quite a bit of flack for dropping off the face of the blogging world. I do very much apologize, but come on, we've been a bit busy around here....
That's right, I've been dang busy growing teeny tiny eyebrows and toe nails and ear lobes and bunzies, not to mention all those vital organs! And while I was busy doing all this growing (on the couch and in bed...) Byron was busy taking care of the house and kids and crazy life in general with a family of four kids, oh yeah, and working full time at his new job, which he loves by the way. I think he has had the harder job, but mine still seems to make me more tired.

BUT, now that I am 17 weeks along and feeling much more like a normal, regular tired busy mom, life is seeming more managable and the prospect of a new baby is getting very exciting. I have been a bit freaked out by the thought of FIVE kids, FIVE KIDS!, especially with a three year old and a two year old thrown in the mix. Woah! One night a number of weeks ago, when I was feeling lousy and the day had been particularly hectic and kids had been exceptional nightmares, I was scared. I said to Byron, "Who are we kidding throwing a newborn into the mix of this life??? It's going to be insane!!!" Byron, being the typical Byron, came to my rescue without really meaning to. He said simply, but with complete sincerity, "It's going to be perfect." I so needed him to have this attitude. Yes it is going to be absolutely insane, but it is what we WANT. There is no better insanity, no better true joy that will come from having another baby to love and care for and teach and cherish. Yes, I am terrified, but I am learning to adopt Byron's attitude. I am a slow learner.....

We get to find out the gender in a few weeks. We are trying to THINK PINK!!!

By the way, I am too lazy to scan the real ultrasound pictures we got at 12 weeks, this one was stolen from the internet. Our baby was WAY cuter....

Pretty Cute If You Ask Me

Here are a couple of recent pictures of Lucy and Sam.

They're Growing Up Fast!!

Well, two months since the last post and we have now been in AZ for about 6 weeks. More on that another time. We just needed a new post and first day of school pictures are a good excuse.

Jack is now 10-years-old and started 5th grade this week.

Max is 7 and started second grade.

Lucy will be in preschool. She turns 3 in a couple of weeks.

Sam is just a spoiled little boy who will get Mommy all to himself.

This is the us at Aspen Grove earlier this summer.

This is the entire Garn Family (-1 grandchild) at Aspen Grove.

MI Fave #6 Lake Michigan Beaches

We've been to Lake Michigan to play at the beach four times now. We love it! The sand is wonderfully fine and soft. We love that we feel like we are at the ocean, just with smaller waves and no saltwater that the kids think is icky. We knew we couldn't leave Michigan without one last trip this summer, and we couldn't have asked for a better day. The kids played and played in the sand, we climbed the sand dunes and ran down getting nice and hot, then swam in the refreshing cold (freezing) water. The little ones were even happy to play without naps, amazing! It was so relaxing and great to make more Michigan memories.

MI Fave #5

Fireflies!!

MI Fave #4 BERRY PICKING

Each year we have thoroughly enjoyed our berry picking excursions. There are strawberries, blueberries and our favorite RASPBERRIES! The farms are all within a half hour from our house. Strawberries are not my funnest thing to pick. The plants are low to the ground and the berries are hidden under the leaves, and the first time we went it was 100+ degrees, 100% humidity and I was 10 months pregnant with Lucy. I never exaggerate... But, oh, the taste of those sweet candy like berries is so worth the back pain! We went with some friends just a few days ago and this time the kids were the perfect height for picking (and stepping on them) and the weather was beautiful! Blueberries are awesome because the bushes are tall, no bending there! And you can get 4 or 5 off the bush in one pull. We eat them fresh for a while then freeze the rest and enjoy yummy blueberries all year in oatmeal or pancakes or just because. The raspberries are the best because we LOVE how they taste combined with pounds of sugar and gelatin. Every fall we make tons of raspberry jam and each year we go through it faster and faster. Oink, oink. Our big boys have become jam snobs and refuse to eat store bought jam. I honestly don't blame them, but come on, we've been out of jam since February and they've got to be sick of Peanut Butter and Honey sandwiches by now! But no, they think it's better than sicko jam... The best berry picking we have every year, however, is right in our famous Abbot Elementary's backyard. The Abbot Woods has hundreds of wild berry bushes growing in there and it seems no one else knows or cares. And since we didn't die the first year eating them, we kept doing it and loving it more each year. It is so fun to walk up to the school and go have a snack of handfuls of berries. We are sure going to miss these this summer and fall. The dream of Arizona oranges come this winter might make it a little more bearable...

MI Fave #3 ABBOT ELEMENTARY

Tomorrow is the last day of school. A good time to give props to the best school in AA. (Which, by the way is the best. I am always joking (fighting) with my friends about OUR school being the best in AA, which is dumb because they are ALL excellent. It was confirmed, however, when one of the BEST teachers from highly acclaimed Dicken Elementary moved to Abbot and said that the Abbot community of parent involvement is AMAZING, way better than Dicken... or something like that...)

And thank goodness for those amazing parents who rally the amazing teachers here, so slacker moms like me who have 2 babies in 15 months can be literally nonexistant at school and still know that INCREDIBLE things are going on at school. It really has been a wonderful, supportive, growing place for our boys to be everyday.
First grade was a hard transition for Jack to be gone to school all day, but Mrs. Rutz read him wonderfully, not only challenged him the way he needed, but also gave him his quiet alone time he wanted sometimes during recess. Second grade was wonderful with Ms. Gause again challenging him and letting him be himself. Third grade would be a dream for Jack as Ms. Gause moved up with her class, he loved it and had a great year. He was disappointed when he found out about his fourth grade teacher, he heard she was strict and not much fun. After the first week it was a complete turn around for Jack. Mrs. Publiski won his heart and their entire class. They have worked really hard, but have had more fun than they can measure. She is straight forward and expects responsible students, it is a parent's dream!
Max was lucky enough to have the famous Mrs. Bradley who came from Dicken. She was the perfect transition for Max who was used to VERY playbased preschool and had never held a pencil or crayon for more than 5 minutes at a time. His already active social skills blossomed and she reigned those in for him. She even let him bring in Lucy for his shown and tell one day. What a teacher!
Max was lucky enought to get Jack's old teacher Mrs. Rutz, who again has been amazing but for all different reasons. Max has excelled in math, he gets it and he doesn't even have to think about it. But his reading has been slow going, and she has patiently pushed him and has given him the support and confidence he has needed. She even met with me early this morning to give me a good picture of what he needs for the summer to keep him going strong. She is amazing, she has taught at Abbot for 22 years and is now retiring. We feel so lucky our two boys have been able to benefit from her experience and no nonsense but fun learning classroom.
A shout out to Abbot would be incomplete without mentioning "Mr. T", the beloved PE teacher. We knew we were at a great place when the PE teacher's name is Mr. Tennis. No joke! He is Mr. Tennis and he too has taught at Abbot for 22 years. From the opening social, to the run a thon, the book fairs, and ice cream socials, we have loved our Abbot community. AND, it is down the street and around the corner so the boys have walked everyday, even in 12 inches of snow. It is the best! Go Abbot All Stars!

We've Moved!

Not the big move yet... but we did move! We had to be out of our house the end of May and couldn't get into our new house in Mesa until the end of June, so we found a great place here in Ann Arbor to rent for the month. The movers came and packed everything up one day, loaded it all on the truck the next day and took it away to store it for a month until they deliver it to Mesa for us. You can read that again because I have to keep reminding myself that it actually happened too. REAL MOVERS! Not just the Elder's Quorum (not that they don't do a good job....)! And NOT paid for by us. Yeah for a real job!!! I still can't believe it.This is a picture of the great furnished place we found to rent in a great part of town on a great street with great neighbors. It has a great view of a cute little house out the front window. If it looks familiar it is because it is OUR house! That's right, we are now living directly across the street from the house we lived in for four years. It is really weird and was a bit hard watching the new owners move their things in and have a bbq in OUR HOUSE! We are getting over it and are so grateful to be surrounded by our familiar environment, the boys can still walk to school, play with their friends, and that we are done packing and moving. It sort of feels like we are on vacation in a nice summer rental home. We have been filling up our time with some of the fun things we have not been able to do in the last 4 years here. The other day we took the big boys out of school by surprise and the whole family went to the Tiger's Baseball Game. They were so excited and it was really fun to be doing something not associated with moving or packing or house stuff or even regular life. It is really fun to "vacation" in your own city, and we are planning to do a lot more of it until we move to AZ. We did find a great house in Mesa that we are super excited about it. For all you Mesa readers, it is North of McKellips, East of Gilbert close to Hermosa Vista Elementary school. That's right, right back in good ole Mountain View territory. Go Toros! Weird, I know. Here is a picture of our house, we still can't believe it is going to be where we will be living ... hopefully for a VERY long time!

MI Fave #2 SPRING!!

Spring in Michigan is amazing.

Unless you have lived somewhere where it does this:

you could NEVER appreciate this:
I have lived in Utah where it snows, and snows even more than here in Michigan, but it is different. Michigan winters are DIFFERENT. But, since this is a post about the favorite things of Michigan, I will definately NOT talk about the winter....

I love that when there is a random "warm" day in March, you know, around 55 degrees, you see hoards of people out jogging, playing outside, walking dogs (does everyone in Ann Arbor own a dog, by the way???), and all in their shorts and tees! Love it!

I love the light greenish yellow glow that all the thousands of trees get when they start to bloom. They drop the same greenish yellow color on the streets below and everything seems alive. Two weeks later, poof, you can't even see branches anymore and the leaves are bright true green, full as if they have always been that way. (There aren't many trees like this in AZ, you can tell this girl is fascinated...)I love that the trees that don't bloom green bloom PINK. And I love that I now have a daughter who loves pink and notices every single pink tree out there, and that is ALOT, mm, hmmm. These trees are awesome, little tiny flowers bloom really close to the branches so they look like fuzzy pink catepillars instead of tree limbs. They go from fuscia to light pink, eventually fall and turn green like all the other beautiful trees in ann arbor. Very cool, very girly!
I love that the sky is finally BLUE, with occasional white puffy clouds that actually have form to them (unlike the before mentioned evil winter...)

I love that Sam was confused and fascinated by his shadow because it was the first time in his life he had a chance to run around outside with a shadow following him.
I love the bright yellow Forsythia plants scattered throughout Ann Arbor. I love that our neighbor Flo taught us about forsythia and every spring when they start to bloom and we are driving around town we randomly shout out "Forsythia!!" every time we see these beauties.
I love the tulips and daffodils that pop up all over the neighborhoods, smiling at us, even through the late snowfall. It confirms that the snow will not overpower like it does in November, but that the sun and blue sky will be back. These flowers make me smile everytime I see them. You wouldn't have thought it'd take me 4 years to plant some of our own. It did. But we are enjoying them now and hopefully every spring I can think of my tulips and daffodils that are popping up in Ann Arbor, still making other people smile.I love that we can sleep with our windows open and feel the crisp cool air, but not freeze!

I love that I can run outside again. Hoooray!

Most of all, I love that we can spend all our time outside at the parks, on the trampoline, taking walks, doing bubbles or sidewalk chalk.... WHATEVER... it is outside and we are all much happier because of it.
Yes, we love SPRING!