Mr. Manager!

Todd got a promotion last week to Senior Program Manager!!  He is such a hard worker and I am so proud of him!  It says a lot to get a promotion in the middle of an economic recession when the company is doing everything possible to cut costs.  We are so thankful for all God's blessings!

Having breakfast at home before heading out to host customers at the FBR Open...

Is it February already??

A new year, a new home

Christmas Day rainbow

Well a whole month of 2009 has come and gone, and I haven't written once!  Somehow January already seems like a blur.  Here is a quick summary to bring you up to speed... After moving into our new house in four hours flat on the day after Christmas with the help of some very gracious friends, we spent several weeks unpacking, organizing, cleaning, painting, decorating, redecorating, and of course, getting the baby's room all ready!  We are very thankful for our new home and are also thankful to be just about finished with home projects for the present time.  Putting together 5 ceiling fans, 3 bookshelves, and a baby crib, among other items, presented a great opportunity for Todd and me to hone our electrical and carpentry skills, as well as improve our communication (since my job was to read the instructions while Todd did all the real work).  I think we can assemble a ceiling fan in about 20 minutes flat by now!

Our new home

It's been a blessing to be so busy making a house into a home, because now the hard part is kicking in...waiting around for February 12th, our baby's due date!  I think I'm a little more impatient for him to arrive than Todd, but maybe that's because I've been lugging him around for almost 39 weeks now, and because Todd is concerned that the baby have all the time he needs to stay safe and nourished in the womb.  :)  I can't wait to hold him, and finally see what his little face looks like, and oooh and aahh over his tiny fingers and toes!!  We found out last Thursday that I'm dilated about a third of the way (although no contractions yet), so that really made things start to sink in that we're going to be parents soon!  We're not sure if that means he'll come early, but I'm hoping at least it means my labor will be a bit shorter than it could be otherwise.  And at the very least, it was good motivation for me to finish packing our suitcase for the hospital and pick out some outfits for our little "Beeper" to wear home!!

For all you Lobster fans

Well since Mr. Lobster was such a hit with all you faithful blog readers, we have an update for you.  If you read my previous post and were wondering if Lobster got to go along to the cabin, wonder no more!   One of his many passions is traveling, so naturally we took him along, and we took many photos to document his experiences.

Here he is entertaining Calvin with war stories from his younger years:

Lobster giving out hugs in the kitchen to Thomas:

Calvin liked Lobster so much I figured out he was plotting to take him home.  I couldn't blame him, but as Lobster's guardian, I had to hide Lobster away to keep him safe until Beeper is born.

Lobster sees his first snow:

It's almost Christmas!

My apologies for the lack of recent updates!  December has been a busy month for us.  One of the highlights was getting to spend a weekend with our friends Tommy and Tracy and their kids at Tracy's parents' cabin in Overgaard.  This was the first time either of us had really been to the Mogollon Rim, and it was beautiful.  The cabin was as cozy as could be, and they even had a Christmas tree and Christmas lights up.  I used to picture a cabin as pretty much a one-room little building with a fireplace where you sleep on the floor in sleeping bags, so I was quite surprised to find out that this was more like staying at a bed & breakfast with a full kitchen, two bedrooms and a loft, and two full bathrooms!

We arrived on a Friday night and stayed through Sunday morning.  On Saturday the kids wanted to go sledding so we drove out to the White Mountains to the Sunrise ski resort (which was not yet open for the season) and found some small hills for sledding.  Todd enjoyed pulling the kids around on their sleds and I enjoyed staying warm in the winter coat my friend Cathy let me borrow since all our winter clothes are in storage!  We had forgotten what winter weather really feels like.  On Saturday night when the kids were saying their prayers before bed, they asked God to send snow.  Less than five minutes later it started to snow/sleet and we fell asleep to the sound of the wind howling in the chimney and woke up on Sunday to a blanket of snow outside.  It was beautiful and truly felt like we had a little "white Christmas" - Arizona style!

We decided to drive home a different way, so we continued east to Show Low, where they had much more snow than in Overgaard, and Todd was so happy to try out the Yukon's four-wheel drive in the gas station parking lot that hadn't been plowed.  :)  We headed south from there and the snow quickly disappeared as we reached lower elevations.  We drove through the Salt River Canyon which was another first for us.  It was a long windy road with lots of switchbacks and a number of rocks that had fallen from the cliffs above.  The canyon itself is gorgeous and looks a lot like a mini-Grand Canyon.  We'd like to go back sometime in the summer to go white water rafting.