There's hope!

Well, I don't know if you remember, but Cale played soccer last year and pretty much never touched the ball. He just didn't care. He had no desire to fight for the ball. He told me all the other kids wanted the ball, so they could have it. I was very disappointed and afraid he would never be competitive and aggressive.

But we decided to try soccer again this year, and lo and behold, he has changed! He's chasing the ball, making goals, making me proud! I guess he was just too young last year. He's one of the oldest on his team, but he's still the smallest! Way to go, Jarvis genes.

Labor Day Camping

It's amazing that mountains, pine trees, cool weather, and snow in the winter are only a couple of hours away from Phoenix. We drove up to the Payson area and camped with Spencer's family for Labor Day.

Carli, Cale, and Danielle Smile, Spencer!

Carli loves hiking. She kept begging and begging to go hiking
I have know idea what they are doing
A rare find in Arizona is a creek that actually has water in it, but we camped right by one! We were able to play in the water and build dams. Cale was trying to get in the water through some tall grass, and we noticed that he was trying to walk through a HUGE spider's nest. The black spider was as his fist, with little baby spiders crawling all over the place. It was disgusting, I'm so glad he didn't actually touch it.

There is something about building a dam that really excites the male species
Spencer was bored one afternoon, so he decided to make a swing. It was a really fun swing, but the camp managers made us take it down because of liability.

It rained the second night constantly, with thunder loud enough to set off car alarms. The next morning was understandably not very delightful. The wood was wet so we couldn't start a fire, all the chairs were wet, and all of our clothes were wet. Kristin was going home that day and I begged her to take me with her. But it stopped raining mid-morning and so I stayed (acually, I stayed because Spencer would have killed me if I'd bailed out.

Shaley and Stacey (Spencer's younger sister's)


Kristin and Danielle

Nathan, Grandpa, and Melanie

Spencer and Steven making a delicious breakfast
We went to a fish hatchery and hiking and to a lake to fish. It was a nice, relaxing weekend.

Stacey and the girl cousins


Jane and Carli pushing Grandpa

Andy and Danielle chillin' in the port-a-crib

Fishing at the lake with Cale's fishing gun

Steven and Laurie fishing the old fashioned way
Poor Danielle hated everything about camping. She just learned how to walk, so the uneven ground was very challenging for her. I would be frustrated too if I fell every 10 seconds onto the muddy ground, or if I fell and bruised my face on rocks.

She is terrified of Spencer's brother, Steven, for some reason. We think it has something to do with his deep voice and his urge to scare little children. Check out this video:


Exhausted, don't you think???

When we got home, Danielle was SOOOO happy! She just walked aimlessly around our home, smiling and laughing, pointing at everything. It was hilarious.

Full-time Babysitter

My little sister, Kristin, moved in with us. She just moved down here to start her Master's program and I begged her to stay with me. Nothing is better than a live in babysitter! She is so wonderful. She cleans, cooks, helps with the kids, and is so fun to hang out with now that Spencer is working out of town. She has a scooter that the kids LOVE to ride on.
Okay, I love to ride on it too!!! Beep beep!


She actually drove that huge 26' truck, dragging her car behind, all the way from Utah. She is amazing. I don't think I could have done that.

Starting Kindergarten

Cale started Kindergarten this year. He goes all day, and it is so wonderful to only have 2 kids at home again! The girls play so nice together, and Carli helps me with all the chores. It is so wonderful.

Anyway, Cale loves school and doing his homework. He looks so sweet and cute, but don't let that fool you! In his first week, he got in trouble on the bus, and got in a fight with another kid, actually making him bleed! I couldn't believe it. He told me the other kid scratched him first, and then when he went to scratch the kid back (because that's what you do when someone scratches you) the other kid tried to push his hand away, making Cale's nail dig deeper into the kid. And that's why he bled. So Cale reasoned that it was really the other kid's fault. I never got sent to the principal's office, and Cale went the first week of Kindergarten! I was so proud of him.
Carli wanted her picture taken too:

Summer coming to a close

My sister, Karen, lives in Phoenix too, so we were able to see Mark bless their beautiful baby, Makayla.
Cousin Hannah's birthday party:
Spencer's siblings came to visit (Sam and Melanie, Sterling and RaeAnn):

Carli and Danielle

Going to the zoo in the summer means playing at the splash parks there, not looking at the animals. They're all asleep in the shade anyway.
I love it when toddlers are concentrating so hard on something

Tucson Reunion

We lived in Tucson for 2 years while Spencer was getting his MBA. I have very fond memories of that time for many reasons, but I think it was mostly because I was never pregnant there! I don't have any memories of being uncomfortable, sick, or emotional.

Another reason we loved Tucson was because we bought our first home there: a little townhome that we fixed up and came to love because we made it our own.

We also realized that living far away from family helped us reach out to people in our ward and neighborhood. We made more friends there than anywhere else we've lived. The majority of our ward was young families like ours: in school, poor, living off Medicaid, Food Stamps, and Wic, stuck at home with toddlers and babies, with school loans you could only laugh or cry about.

So, in July, I met with some of my Tucson friends in Vegas for a little reunion. It was so fun to see everyone. We've all had one more child since then, and all of our husbands have grown-up jobs now, and most of us have a house. It's fun to see how far we've all come since then, and to reminisce about those simple days of little children, small budgets, and tiny apartments.