New (sort of) Addition!

Six months since I wrote! Obviously a lot has happened and I will not even attempt to capture everything. I will begin with the most important, then throw in a few kid quotes, and finish with a few pics of our last six months.

October 15th we welcomed a new daughter into the world. The delivery went very smooth, and we are so happy she is here. Her name is Teya Bailey Fairhurst. At birth she was 7 lbs 15 oz. and 19 inches long. Now she is driving and about to go off to college...okay, it hasn't been that long, but it feels like it! She is a very content baby, only crying when she is hungry. She sleeps most of the night, which is the good news. The bad news is she is a grunter. She constantly makes different grunting noises with her mouth. The first few days I was always worried she was choking. Now, I try my best to drown out the noise. Between Teya's grunting and my snoring, I doubt Kindra is getting much rest! Here are some pics of our cute little girl(s).




KID QUOTES

In church -
Dad: Ariana, can you put your dress down?
Ariana: NO DAD! I AM TRYING TO GET MY PANTIES OUT OF MY BUM!
[and yes...her quote is in all caps for a reason]

Kierra: Thank you Ariana...Ariana, I said thank you...Ari, what are you supposed to say when I say thank you.
Ariana: You're welcome.
Kierra: I forgive you.

Dad: What is going on in there?
Kierra: I just couldn't understand what Ariana was trying to tell me. She was talking really fast. I told her to use one word at a time. Then she told me, 'Here is one word: GET OFF MY BED!'

OUR SUMMER (in reverse order):

We are starting to teach Kierra to ride a bike with no training wheels!


Kierra's first day of kindergarten. She loves school and is a good student.


Ariana's third birthday. She got a My Little Ponies carnival. She loves it!


We had a nice visit to Montana. We had a reunion and the girls saw most (unfortunately not all) of their Fairhurst cousins. We stayed at a lodge in Lincoln, MT. The girls were able to ride horses while we were there. Of course, our reunion involved the traditional potato car race. Kierra was this year's champion!





We also got in a visit to Utah to see Kindra's side of the family. We packed in a lot of fun including a picnic up the canyon, canoeing, fireworks, etc.



We had Kierra's 5th birthday at our neighborhood pool. It made cleanup easy and the kids had a lot of fun!

The Good Life

Finals ended near the beginning of May. We made it one year! These last few weeks have been great. I have been fairly busy trying to come up with a research topic for the summer, but it is definitely a different kind of busy...meaning no late nights, no Saturdays, and more time with Kindra and the girls! Speaking of girls, we recently found out that we will be joined by another little girl in October. We are very excited! We took the entire family to the ultra-sound. Ariana said she wanted to be a baby again once she realized how much attention the ultra-sound monitor was getting. Kierra was trying to hold back the tears when she found out we were having another girl. Come to find out that she was only sad because she was worried about her dad feeling lonely as the only boy in the family. Once I convinced her that I am excited about another girl, she has been so excited. Here is a little recap of some of the things we have been able to do since the end of the semester:

We finished reading Charlotte's Web near the end of semester, so for my first free weekend we had a Charlotte's Web Party complete with a visit to the carnival, watching the movie, and Charlotte's Web treats.
We also took the girls to a Chinese Festival. We tried Oriental food and saw traditional Oriental dancers. What was the girls' favorite, you ask. Of course, it was the bounce house. I am not sure how Oriental a bounce house is, but the girls had fun.
On Memorial Day, we took the girls to 'free day' at the local childrens museum. It is a nice museum, and the girls had a blast. Luckily, we got there early enough to beat the hoards that came for free day.One staple of our summer has been, and will likely continue to be, going to our neighborhood pool. With hot days (the lowest high temperature this week is forecasted to be 103) it is so nice to go cool off at the end of the day. We have already been to the pool around 10 times. The girls are getting so much better in the water. Kierra would panic when any water got near her face. Now she is constantly going under water. Ariana would just jump in if we would let her. And I couldn't resist putting in this picture:
KID QUOTES

Kierra [in a prayer]: Please bless that dad will get a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot....done in one minute so he can come home sooner.

Ariana [in a prayer]: Please bless that mom will get better, but she is better. Please bless that dad will get better, but he is better too. Please bless that we can eat dinner, but we are eating dinner. (she is really good at getting her prayers answered)

Ariana: I wish Kierra was a boy so that we could kiss on the lips and get married.

All the Single Ladies

To start out this month we had a nice treat. Kindra's mom and dad and her three youngest siblings, Adam, Shanae, and Mariah, came to Tucson for their Spring break. It was great to have visitors. The timing of their visit could not have been better in respect to my school work. I had a mid-term the day before they got here and had two weeks until the next one, so I was able to see them more then I normally would have been able to. Kindra, of course, loved spending time with them and having help with the girls. And the girls...they were in heaven. Of course there were tears when they left, but it was worth it. Their visit was filled with trips to the Desert Museum, Tombstone, and Catalina State Park; visiting; conference; Easter; and, as always, lots of eating! We also found out that we can, with reasonable comfort and sanity, fit 5 extra people in our house for a week or so (if you have 6 or 7 in your family, don't let this detract you from coming...we're willing to test the boundaries if you are willing to be a guinea pig). Now we just can't wait until they come back again.

This past week was a pretty heavy week for me with a lot of late nights and early mornings. I told myself if I made it through the week (trust me, at times this wasn't certain) that I would celebrate by spending an evening with Kindra and the girls. So, tonight we had a pizza and movie party. The pizza was okay and the movie (Chipmunks, the Squeakuel) was mediocre at best. However, the company was great! It was nice just to relax and be a family. The girls had fun watching the movie. Kierra's eyes would light up with any hint of chipmunk love. Ariana just wanted to be one of the Chipettes. See below (this might help you understand how I came up with the potentially creepy title to this post, you might want to start the video at 30 seconds):

Eat your heart out Beyonce! Of course, I had to be Theodore the entire night. It's okay though, Ariana reassured me that I was Theodore because he is the fat squirrel. I'll take being a fat squirrel at home with my girls (all 3) over late nights at the university any day of the week!

Spring Break 2010

Last week was spring break for my school. I still had a reasonable amount of work to do, but I was able to strike a nice balance of spending time with Kindra and the girls as well. We tried some Mexican food, got doctor's visits in, and tried to relax. Kindra took me on a fun date. We went to Catalina State Park. It is very pretty, and only 10 minutes from our house. It is set in the mountains, but, of course, covered with cactuses. Suprisingly, there are pools formed by mountain runoff (I know, snow in Arizona?). So we hiked to some of the pools and cooled off by wading around in them. Quickly, the state park is one of the favorite places that I have been in Tucson. We will definitely go back (especially when we have visitors to show the sites!).I also took the time to do a little wood work. Just before Christmas, we had a mishap with our kitchen table. The leg broke off in a way that was beyond reasonable repair. Considering we bought the table 6 years ago for $12 at a yard sale, it was difficult to justify spending much to fix it anyway. However, it has been our family table forever. Luckily, we found a way to keep it part of the family. I used the table top to make a smaller table top and two benches, then built a base for a kid-sized picnic table. It is a bit wierd to see a picnic table made out of finished oak, but the girls love it! I still need to finish the edges, but that might have to wait until summer now that school is back in. Either way, it was a relaxing project over the break.
Here's a pic of the girls getting ready for the ward Easter egg hunt. Look out boys...in 20 years!

KID QUOTES:

Kierra: This game took forever!
DJ: Yeah, this is a long game, huh?
Kierra: Yeah...and also a boring one.

Ariana [while lifting up her shirt and poking out her tummy]: Look mom, I'm pregnant...pregnant and immodest!

Kierra [to Ariana after Ari got yelled at by a little boy]: Ariana, I love rainbows 100, but I love you 50 more!

3 Months in Review

So, 3 months quickly go by without me writing. Here is a run through of what we have done (Note: Kid Quotes at the bottom if you want to skip to the good stuff):

DECEMBER

The first few weeks of December consisted of getting ready for and taking finals. I have no recollection of the event in question. We will quickly fast forward to Christmas break. We headed to Utah to spend the holidays with Kindra's family. We had a lot of fun. We attended several Christmas parties, went sledding, played some broom hockey, built snowmen, went four wheeling, had a brief visit with Misti and her family at temple square, Kindra went skiing while I took the girls to Pirate Island Pizza, and many other fun things. It was nice to relax, see friends and family, and try not to think about school. We did happen to be there while Kindra's grandpa, Clel Jensen, passed away. We were fortunate enough to attend his funeral. While we lived in Utah, we were only a short distance to their house, so we visited them often. Clel was a very smart, kind, and fun man. He will be missed. It was a nice visit, and it was difficult to leave. It did make it slightly easier when returned to 70 degree January weather.Here are a few pics of our visit:JANUARY

January brought a return to school and routine. Kierra was much happier to begin pre-school again than I was for my school. Maybe if I were learning about the letter A instead of the letter epsilon... Anyways, January was very busy. We did find time to visit the desert museum, one of our favorite attractions in Tucson. It is a zoo, but it is different than most zoos. All of the animals there are native to Northern Mexico or Arizona, so they are all in their natural habitat. The animals are much more active than the animals at other zoos. The exhibits are well put together. They have neat shows such as a raptor show with the birds flying all around you. It is a great place to visit, and just another reason to come visit us. We followed that up with a picnic/nature walk at a place with Native American petroglyphs. Here are some January pics:FEBRUARY

In February, we dealt with Ariana's annual sickness, and an amazing amount of rain. In August I was convinced we live in a desert. Now, I am not so sure. Of course we celebrated Valentine's day. Kindra and I attended a ward party where we had dance instruction from a couple who instructed participants on Dancing with the Stars. It was nice to dance with Kindra. We also had our yearly tradition of me cooking a 'fancy' meal for Kindra and the girls. This year was grilled sea scallop and mango kabobs and cous cous over spinach. It was a hit. Now, I need to start planning for next year!


KID QUOTES

Ariana: Mom, too bad you married dad. I wish I could have married him first.

Kindra: Kierra, we have your shots this week.
Kierra: Nooooo! I DO NOT want shots!
DJ: Mom might take you to ice cream afterwards.
Kierra: Eeeee! Now that might put me in the mood to get some shots.

Kindra: Ariana, be careful! There is some dog poop there.
Ariana: Ahhh, no fair. I wish I could go dog poop. (This made me feel less proud that she wanted to marry me).

DJ: Ugggh. This wheat oatmail is horrible. It tastes like dirt.
Kierra: You've tasted dirt before?!