Lemonade Makers

Year in Review: Part 4 - Easter

We had a huge yeard at the Duncan house. So we spread the eggs all through the yard for Orson to find. At first we had to show Orson the eggs because he wanted to gather rocks instead of Easter eggs.

Hethe finding his Easter eggs

Orson gathering all his eggs

Our dirty, dusty dog. Oscar wanted to be apart of Easter too

Orson found his Easter basket around the other side of the garage.

Hethe finds his basket.

I hid Dan's basket in a super good spot! It took him a while to find it. He had to use the shovel to get it out of the bushes.

Orson was being nice to Oscar... I had to catch it on camera!

Year in Review: Part 3 - Into the Unknown

Remember me writing about Dan applying to the Arizona Department of Corrections? Well, we took a leap of faith. They were still processing Dan's background check but there was work to be done at Grandpa Kilby's so we decided to sell our mobile home and pack up our stuff. Dan had found us a place to rent for really cheap and thankfully Hethe agreed to come with us to Arizona to help me while Dan was gone to the academy. So Dan drove the moving truck and Hethe and me drove with Orson in the car. Dan hadn't actually been offered the corrections officer job and it was a bit scary to pick up and leave with nothing but a hope that we would get something. Exactly halfway to the Kibly's, (which happens to be Albuquerque, NM) we got a call from ADOC offering us a job as a Corrections Officer in Safford AZ. It was pretty amazing. (As a side note- if you ever go through Santa Fe, NM be sure to take a detour to Pizzeria Espiritu! Amazing Italian food. Great pizza, pasta, calzones, salad. AND! They have the best creme brulee that I have ever eaten! We always make a stop there when we go through.) We got to NM and stayed the night with the Kilby's and the next morning we moved into our rental.

This is the garage but the house was small so we turned it into a entertainment/family room. It was also our storage space.

Back of the house

View from the back porch

It had a screened in porch, which was really nice (after Dan and Hethe fixed it). My favorite thing about the Duncan house.

Orson playing in the dirt (which there was a lot of) and collecting rocks.

This became my new best friend. I named him Ronney. Ronney the Roadrunner. I saw this guy catch several lizards and they attack and eat rattlesnakes. He came around almost everyday so he was my new favorite.

Year in Review: Part 2 - Birthdays

For Dan's birthday last yearwe braved the horrible snowy weather and roads to go to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. There are tons of different exhibits but we didn't get pictures of all of them because Orson was excited and we were chasing him through the museum. Orson with moose antlers :)

I'm glad we didn't see one of these in the wild. It makes Orson look like a mouse.

I think Orson realized how small he was

The museum has this really cool discovery area for kids. It has tons of learning/play stations. We stayed in here for a long time, naturally, so Orson could play. There was a human body that you could take out organs and such and put it back together.

Puzzle Animals

Showing Mommy the giraffe, I think he wanted me to put it together.

Playing with the elephant

This was really cool. The museum has a see through piano that the kids can play and see how it works. Orson really liked watching the hammers.

dinosaur play pit

Funny mirrors with Daddy. I love these!

This was the only picture we got of the dinosaur exhibit because Orson was running around looking at everything.

After the museum, we made the treacherous ride to Dan's parents for his and Danielle's birthday dinner, presents and birthday cake.

It turned out to be a great day and a great birthday. My birthday is a couple weeks later and we decided to go to the Denver Aquarium. Unfortunately my camera wasn't working at the time so we got a few pictures at the start and then none later :(

And of course, my favorite, DQ ice cream cake

Christmas 2011

So this is really sad but these are the only pictures I took on Christmas because we filmed most of it. I'm a bad mom/blogger. Oh well.

We had a good Christmas though.

Santa got Orson a BIG monkey, and an Elmo bucket. I stayed up until 2 in the morning finishing Orson's stocking so Santa could stuff it with awesome things.

Because we stayed up so late Dan and I were ok with whenever Orson woke up to start Christmas morning. Lucky for us that was 8 am. We had a good morning just the 4 of us. (Oscar got a couple presents that he was able to enjoy). While we were opening presents, someone knocked on our door. I guess Santa forgot to drop off a few things because when I got to the door there was no one there, just presents. It was really cool and Orson got some awesome cars and cool clothes.

We got ready for church after eating breakfast. We only had Sacrament Meeting. After Church we opened presents at Dan's parents house. Dan got a portable DVD player, Orson opened a cool toy that was a piano, guitar, and drum in one, he loves it! Melinda got me my very own sewing machine. D'Laina, my mom and Haelyn came over for dinner that night and we played games and had dessert and monkey bread. Great Christmas!

Year in Review: Part 1

It's been a VERY long time since I have blogged. There is a lot that has happened but to be honest I was so depressed about everything for a while that I didn't take pictures and I didn't want to blog. I know I'll regret it if I don't post at least the highlights of the past year. So here it goes... A Year in Review... When Dan got laid off of his job October 2011 we were a bit frantic to find another job after trying for a few months with no luck. In January 2012, we visited Dan's grandparents in New Mexico to look for a job. We found they were hiring at the Arizona Department of Corrections so Dan applied. There were other jobs that we applied for and we went back to Denver to be there for my brother Haelyn's endowment. He got called to the Chile Santiago West Mission and we wanted to be there to support him. Haelyn and Dan