Family Photos

While we were in Utah we were lucky enough to have our family photos taken by a good friend of mine, she owns Silverscape Photography. I thought she did an awesome job, here are a few of the ones we loved.

Malia was on the move the whole time, it was hard to keep her down to get a shot of her and Dylon together. She is trying to squirm her way out of his grip in both of these shots, but of course they are still adorable!

13 months and counting...

Our baby girl is now over 1 year old! She is just about walking, says mama, dada, hi, Jesus (dsus), and will mimic other words and some animal sounds as well if she hears us say them or hears an animal. She LOVES the outdoors and her big brother. I'm already seeing the "girl" in her; she is quite dramatic for a one year old. She is going to be a dancer, every time she hears any kind of music she moves to the beat. She loves to climb on things and then cries when she can't get down or just falls and then cries. Either way there is a cry for help. (she is on a chair as we speak!) Hates getting dressed (which I'm sure will change in the next few years where she will want to change her clothes every hour). She only has two teeth, yes, two! She loves to laugh and if you are laughing she'll belt out a belly laugh that makes you laugh even more.

Malia wasn't too sure about the cake but once she go the hang of it she loved it. Gifts were the same way, Dylon had to help her with that one. (Her gifts have now been claimed by her brother who has now given her back her Christmas gifts. So I assume she will get her birthday gifts back the next Christmas! lol)

While we were in Utah this summer we were able to celebrate with the Christensen side. Her cousins and brother helped her blow out the candles. More of the Utah visit to come! (click on images for larger view)

Look Who's 3...well 3 months ago

It is amazing how time literally flies when you are an adult. I remember as a kid time just dragged on. School years were too long and summers were just long enough that by the time it was time for school you were excited to finally be back. I can't believe that 3 years has already flown by so quickly with Dylon. His birthday always seems to be strung out for a week or so.

We were lucky enough to have Grandma and Grandpa Gentry here a weekend close to his birthday so we celebrated with them. The shirt Dylon is holding in his teeth explains him well, notice him in one of the water pictures squeezing water on Malia. Silly silly boy!!

We had some of Dylon's friends over to swim and have dinner, it may have been too cold to swim, they were all shivering but still had fun :)

Dylon really wanted a train cake. The first one was kind of a "train wreck" so we revamped the idea and just made some desert hills in the middle of train tracks for the friend party.

Everyday Life

Malia loves going outside, unfortunately it is very hot here too much of the year and I don't like to go out and sit in the heat. We don't have enough grass to let her just go out and wander so she just stares out the back door and longs for the outdoors.

One of Dylon's many accidents, and so many more to come I'm sure!

St George

Back in the spring Dwayne had a long weekend so we went up to our favorite vacation spot. We're lucky enough that we have a great place to stay which makes it even better. Our little kiddos LOVE swimming, I still haven't taken the chance to put Dylon in swim lessons but it definately needs to happen sooner than later.

Getaway part II

I neglected to mention that we went to the San Diego Temple in the last post. We were also lucky enough to go there while we were in the area. So BEAUTIFUL!! If you are ever in San Diego make sure you make time to go there, it will be worth it.

Getaway

Back in March over Dwayne's break we were lucky enough to have his mom come down to stay with the kiddos while we went on vacation to San Diego. It was only the second time that I've ever been there; the first being very brief when I was 12. It seems to be the weekend getaway spot for most people who live here in Phoenix. One of Dwayne's classmates had a timeshare in Carlsbad so we were able to take the last half of the week after they left. It was so nice!! Anyway while were were in San Diego we were able to go to the Midway (very cool if you have the chance to go there when in that neck of the woods), Coronado Island, and Sea World.

Pictured below we are on the beach on Coronado Islands Navy base; it was a perfect, quiet, beach. The Midway was huge, obviously you can tell by all the planes and helicopters on it. The Helicopter pictured is the kind that Dwayne rode while in Afghanistan to get from base to base. Notice Dwayne in the bunk...can you imagine sleeping in that? Can we say claustrophobia! The statue of the couple kissing of course is iconic of wars from the past. It was very funny to people watch in that spot, most people that would go up to get pictures would look up the girls skirt...would you have? I wonder what they thought they would find up there? I guess it is natural for a boy to want to look up a girls skirt though! lol ;)

The Sea World pics are pretty self explanatory. It was fun to see they shows, the only sad thing is that the dolphin show wasn't going. They are building a new stadium for the dolphins. I guess that means we'll just have to go back later with the kids, that way we can go to Lego Land too.

MIA

So we have been "missing in action" for the last few months. I've really dropped the bomb on blogging. I've started a few and never finished them. I just thought no one was really paying any attention anyway so it didn't matter. Then I started getting comments from family and some friends that the "cow tongue" was still up and I needed to post something else. I've been in a bit of a "funk" the last few months which is the cause of the lack of posts. Well, so here is to another try at blogging.

This is just a snipit at what should be coming. Malia is almost a year now, hard to believe. This is just us hanging out in our backyard a few weeks ago (before the 100 degree weather really hit, we would not be doing this now!) Dylon is posing for the picture which is a hard thing to get him to do these days. I love his smile, what a cutie.

What's for Dinner?

So this is the fist post that I have done on what Dwayne has been up to in school. There are definitely more to come though. Those with week stomachs might want to stop here, I know that I was a little iffy looking at them myself. They have been working on cow tongues lately, yes I said cow tongue. First off we were supposed to go find one at the supermarket. Who knew you could buy cow tongues at regular stores. I thought I was going to have to go to one of the international markets to find it. Luckily I didn't actually have to pick it up, one of Dwayne's classmates was at the store and they only had a few left so he was kind enough to pick one up for Dwayne. Why work on a cow tongue you ask? What does that have to do being a dentist? It is comparable to the soft tissue in our mouths, so they have been cutting and stitching.

That is one long tongue!

*shiver* Blah!!

You start with this...

and get this, Voila!

Whoever thought that a cow tongue would be good to eat? Well, that raises a bunch of questions on other things people decide to eat but we'll have to just wonder that to ourselves.

Field Trip

A few weeks ago we went on a "field trip" with one of Dwayne's classmates. They both have the Air Force scholarship so we thought we'd take advantages of the perks and go to Luke Air Force Base. Dylon absolutely LOVED all the plans, he didn't love that we couldn't get in them though. He couldn't understand that they were to only look at. Well, maybe one day Dwayne will become friends with a pilot while fixing his teeth and he will let Dylon get more up close and personal. It was a lot of fun. We also went to the BX while on base and went to see the F-16 planes, unfortunately none of them were flying that day because it was MLK day. It was fun to see them, from a distance of course. Can't wait to make it to an air show eventually. After the Air Force Base we all went to Johnny Rockets. Yum, we will definitely go there again. We then went to Cabela's, that was my first experience there, it's a pretty amazing place inside. We have pics of that too but just from Dwayne's phone, they didn't turn out too well. If you haven't been there you definitely need to go, even if it is to just walk around!

Trent and Sarah Buehler (thanks for taking pics for us!)