A lucky day

I was so lucky today! As I was driving to my Doctor's appointment and as I was almost there I saw two missionaries on their bikes. Guess who it was? It was my nephew Lucas, my sister Marianne's second child!! He has been serving in the Arizona Tucson Mission since June of 2007, and is currently actually serving in Tucson. I new that his apartment was close to where my doctor was, but I did not think I would be able to see him. I had called the mission office to see if we could take him and his companion to lunch on their preparation day, but that was nixed by the mission president. So, I knew the only way I would be able to see him was to either a) break a rule and go to his apartment, or b) be lucky and see him on the street. Hooray for B!

It was so good to see him. I gave him a little hug and took a picture with him. I called my sister right away, and she was so excited to hear that I was able to see him. Now I will look for him everytime I go to the Doctor. I wish I had them more than once a month - especially since I don't know how long he will be in the area. I love happy accidents like this!

Still Mourning the Flips

Every day that I put on shoes - which is most days :) I still find myself mourning the loss of my favorite flip flops. This may sound odd to some, but I wore these shoes nearly EVERY day since I got them (except for the winter spent in Wyoming and Utah)! ... If I counted the number of days that I wore them, and that counts slipping them on to take the trash out, a quick trip to the store, etc., I would estimate that I wore them for about 1,500 days. I loved them so much I wore them to work, for play, and even to church on occasion.

Every time I have to put on my new ones - which are basic black and not pretty at all, I am sad. So here are a few pictures of my flips when we laid - er - HUNG them to rest in the random tree in southern UT. Mind you, these shoes had broken several days earlier, but I could not just toss them out like so much garbage. I held onto them until I felt I could let go. When Logan and I saw the tree, I made him turn around on the road we were on so I could leave them! Call me crazy or odd. I have never had such an emotional attachment to an article of clothing before (and hopefully will not have again)! Please don't laugh at my pain! :)

We are alive!

I know it has been a very long time since we have posted, I am sorry for the long delay. A lot has been going on at our home and we have done a lot of fun things we need to catch up on. Here is a short list of our activities these past few months.

1. We are going to have another baby! We are so excited! We are due in the middle to end of April. This is also the reason I have not posted - I have been sick. Blah. I am feeling better now and feel like doing stuff again.

2. We took a trip to Wyoming to see some of my (Karen's) family. It was a great time! We spent some time in Star Valley, WY, and spent a day in Jackson Hole. I sure miss Wyoming and everything about it!



3. This next thing may not seem important to you, but it was a life changer for me. My favorite pair of flip flops died on our trip to Wyo! Aargh. I love them so much and I have had them for so long, I can't remember how many year I've had them. I think more than 5 years.

We laid them to rest in a huge tree in southern Utah that was just filled with pairs of dead shoes. See below!




4. Grace is starting to speak in sentences and she is so good at it. It is so fun to have actual conversations with her. She calls Dad "Dab" and Mom "Momidy". Too cute.

5. Libby has finally started crawling!!! She waited til she was 11 month to do so, I was getting a little concerned. She is getting better and better by the day.

6. We now are the proud owners of THREE goats. We added two more so now we have a herd!

7. Logan has been working hard, hard, hard at work, and is presently at Hannigan's Meadow in eastern Arizona with Conan for a fishing trip. I hope they don't freeze!

That is a lot, and enough for now. love you all!

New Pet!

We have a new pet - and I like him better than a dog. He is a sweet black and white pygmy goat. I have to admit, I wasn't too excited to get him. But the first time I met him, my heart melted. He loves people and kids, and best of all he doesn't jump all over you. Logan wanted to name him after someone important, like a president or something. We decided on Napoleon because he is so short! So, welcome Napoleon to our family!

We also have more wildlife pictures to share. We are getting to enjoy finding out what different types of animals live near us. Logan found a horny toad and caught it. Grace loved it!

Baby Blessing and fun pics

Logan's cousin Terry blessed his and Heather's baby this last Sunday in St David. Titan is such a cute boy. I sm jealous!! I am glad I was able to go - it is a happy plus that we live close to Heather's parents in St David. Now we hope we will see more of their family. I was really glad to see Doeshann there as well. It has been too long since I've seen her! Here are some pictures.

Heather, Titan and Terry

Terry, Doeshann, and Grace


Libby sitting in her highchair eating noodles - she loved 'em!


Grace in our field of weeds. At least the weeds are green!

Swimming Fun

We spent the day at Conan and Chrissy's house last weekend and had a really fun time. They had some friends and their kiddo's there, and it was a fun little kid party all day. Here are some pictures of Grace swimming and going down the slide. She is fearless!!

Da, Daddy, Dabby?

Grace is spouting off words as if the dam burst, and all the things she has wanted to say are just spilling out. It must be exciting for kids to finally figure things out and learn to talk. Grace has turned into an even happier girl now that she can get her point across in words. I wonder at some things though. She will spout off a new word and get all the syllables correct, and then degenerate the word down to just its first syllable. It was fun to listen to her say "triangle" for the first time. Now it is just "tri."

Another thing (and the name of this post) is what she has called Logan. For along quite a long time she called him "Da." In the last few months, has called him "Daddy," which I think is cute. The last two days, however, it has degenerated to "Dabby." What???? She will ask, "Where's Dabby?... Dabby? Dabby? Dabby?" and look around. Hmmm. I am sure it will fix itself (with the help of me repeating Da-DEE everytime). Anyway - that is what has been going on at the Beach home lately!

Creeped Out!!!

Just look what I found on my front porch the other day!



I screamed - and not for ice cream. I have not been the same since. Now I am just sure that they are everywhere. Every time I feel something on my leg, or back, or arm I freak out. I need to get it together.

We understand that these great little creatures are a lot more active during the monsoons, so we shouldn't have to deal with them all year. Comforting? Not to me. I will just have to figure out how to tarantula proof our home and yard! Or move.

Photoshop

How much do I love photoshop? I love it so, so much! I am learning how to fix up our photos, make colors brighter, add edge burning, and some other cool tricks. There is a lot more for me to learn, but look below for a neat thing I learned how to do today. I was surprised how well it turned out!

(P.S. You can see what the photo looked like in the post below)

Rain Rain Rain!

Rain rain rain! The monsoon season has arrived in Benson! It rained like cats and dogs these past few days. It has been fun to listen to, watch, and play in. Here are some pictures of our front yard and a few other places around the house. I thought we were going to float away!

Grace during a break in the rain.

Rain is funny.

The chicken coop full full of water. I am glad they are smart
enough to get out of the rain!

Do you see the stream of water running towards the

side yard? It was raging!

The front yard full of water - we could've swam in there!