Dan and Arlena Strode are proud to announce.....

Our little girl is growing up!
We have been bataling for years her thumb sucking habit and for the last month Paige has joined us and we are proud to announce she has kicked the habit!
We made a deal for earings and a new puppy.
So today Paige got earings, we are going to put the puppy off until after our summer trip to Spain, but we couldn't be more proud of her!

Scott and Ethiopian food

We have a good friend who we have known since we lived in WA.

He was Dans right hand man there, and into a deployment in Iraq.

WE have met up with him and his darling family at any oportunity we have been able to.

This time we drove 2.5 hours to meet them mid way at a little Ethiopian resteraunt.

It was actualy a small house converted to a resteraunt.

I was a little concerned because while I am adventurouse, I am a little scardey cat when it comes to food born illness. I think its a side effect of being a cook and knowing the requirments to keep food safe. Any way...We went and chatted and caught up with good friends and surprisingly the food was great! If you have never had Ethiopian food it is much like indian food. "mush" is not the right word but niether is "curries" But thats kind of what it is. Thick stews of meats, or veg. served on a large crepe type bread. Eaten with your hands and the same type of bread.

It was very yummy! A fun adventure!

pine wood derby part 1

This is the begining of Seth and Dads pine wood derby car, come back in a few months for the updates!

Bathroom re-do

Do you remember this bathroom?

How do you like this one instead?

Yep Dan and Bryan went to town in here and it looks like a completly different room.

new faucets, walls,mirrors, and all!

We all love it!

Dan Dan the Handy Man

Oh it was sooooo ugly! a mid 80's low dangling dining room light in my living room. granted the house was built in the eighties and it is suposed to be a formal dining room, but still!

Dan came to the rescue, and it wasn't easy. These are 13' cealings. He has never done this before and ....boom, just like that 2 new matching fans with remotes and they even worked! I had no doubt but he wondered if it was going to explode!

Look @ my baby

LOOK HOW CUTE!

My baby is getting so big!

Cabin in the woods

I believe the gift came with snow gear and said Skiing and snowmobiling vacation @ Mormon Lake. Apparently Santa forgot to check with mother nature. It was a blizzard, after we got up there, the roads were closed and the wind started whipping. No one would have wanted to move down hill at any speed and feel the icey wind pelt them in the face.

So it was a cozy cabin in the woods vacation with a fire place and a tv that only got the disney station. A lodge and salloon that were walking distance and had great food.

We actualy enjoyed all the family time, sleeping in and sledding was fun. I was surprised how much tolerance for the cold Seth and Paige had.

US oldens were ready to go in after about 15 minutes in the cold.

This place was pretty cool we would like to go back again, infact we looked longingly at a little cabin for sale on our way out of town.

Montezumas castel

On our way up to Flagstaff we stopped at a national monument.

It is a very old living apartments left by a tribe of indians.

It was very interesting walking around and seeing all the ruins. The weather was wonderful.

Christmas Morning

What a wonderful day. We tore through all that stuff so fast and sat amist the rubble (We are still dealing with the rubble after miss 2 garbage days.)

New bikes, a ski vacation,shopping spree, ipods, new cameras and watches. Lots of fun and then rest!

Our traditional Christmas Lasagna was super yummy and the day could go on and on.

We ended it with an old sweedish movie about St
Nickolas. It was a great day.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve morning was Santa pancakes, some frantic shopping and a great family movie (Narnia) and off to bed to await the big morning.

Pre- Christmas trip to Utah

So nearly as soon as Dan flew in (He had one day to adjust) we were off to Utah to visit the Strode's.
It was a short drive to Uncle Johns house in Nevada and then we all drove together for a long weekend in Utah.

We ad a lot of fun visiting family and eating out at our faorite places. We got to see Santa more than once.

We opened presents and pained ornaments, we made cookies and carmels, and played in the snow with the cousins tons.

We got a snow storm the day we planned on leaving and so we stayed one extra day and relaxed inside all bundled up.

It was a great time and put us in the mood for Christmas since Arizona is in the 70's!

Merry Christmas!

Glendale Glitters

Well, Its not the same as a German Christmas Markt, but it was realy similar (with its american feel) Lights and people and hot chocolate. Lots of yummy foods to try. Vendors with crafty items to sell.

Seth and I joined Katie and Bryan on a little date to the event.

He enjoyed a gyro and some home made chocolates!

It was a lot of fun!

Looking forwad to doing it again next year.

Band Concert

YEP! Thats my son, the drummer!

This was the copper Creek Elem. Holiday band concert

Scottsdale vacation

Usualy when we visit our time share we are on vacation visinting Arizona family.

Now we live here so it was more like a little time off vacation. The place has a great pool we usualy love to swim in but this was the first time we were here in the winter. So we used the giant tub as a pool and had fun watching tv while swimming and warming next to the fire place that we never used when we had visited in the past.