Workin' at the car wash...

We have had some beautiful weather recently (as I am typing this, it is 7:30 PM and I'm sitting outside in short sleeves drinking a margarita), so I decided to wash my car Saturday afternoon. I asked the kiddos if they would like to "help" and they were more than willing to oblige (since they knew that they would get wet if they helped).

Much to my surprise, Grace was quite thorough and did a pretty good job, and really got into it. Tristan, on the other hand, did a panel of the car and decided it would be more fun to just get wet... Oh well, I did end up with a clean car and we all had fun.

A Little Trip

David and I decided that we were missing El Paso a bit, so we loaded up the kids last Friday and spent a weekend with friends in El Paso. The "long" weekend went by very quickly so we weren't able to see everyone that we wanted to (Grace was especially upset that we didn't get to see our old neighbors), but we know we will go back again before too long.


When we first arrived, we had some time to kill before meeting friends for lunch, so we drove by our house to see how it is being kept up. We slowed way down and told Grace to look out her window... we got no response. When we turned the corner however, Grace said "Mommy! That's the house that we walked by when we crossed the steeet to go to the park with Leah!" I don't get it - she recognizes a stranger's house, but doesn't recognize her own house... We then drove by her old day care and had her and Tristan look out the window and both of them yelled "My school!"


We spent the weekend with one of my best friends, Angie, and her family (they are always kind enough to find a spot in their home to allow us to rest our weary bones, and cook us some delicious food). Our kids call them Aunt and Uncle (I have known Angie since 7th grade, and we grew up 4 houses apart), and consider Alex and Sidney their cousins. Needless to say, we had a great time, and it was great to finally get some good Mexican food that I didn't have to cook!










The kids had a blast playing with their "cousins" - and I had a blast not having to worry about them!





Six months ago, Tristan was terrified of even crawling on a trampoline, and now he yells "I do it by myself" if anyone tries to help him jump!







I did manage to remember to bring their Valentine's gifts...

Happy Valentine's Day

Grace had her Valentine's exchange on Wednesday as this is a long weekend for us. In the spirit of being frugal, and Grace loving to do crafts, we made our own this year.

Making sure it's just right...

Signing her name.

She did a fabulous job, and had fun doing it... made 36 in all, so I'm very proud of her! All I helped with was the glue after we ran out of glue sticks.

All of her loot from school

We hope you all have a wonderful day and are able to spend it with those you love!

Snow Day

Okay, it was more like a snow half-day, but we woke up to a couple of inches of snow on Tuesday! So, we finally got our "taste" of winter.


The mountains closest to us don't normally have snow on them , but they have been pretty well covered since Sunday, and it finally landed on us very early Tuesday morning (how do I know this?? Tristan wouldn't sleep, so I know it started snowing sometime between 2 and 4 AM).



















David didn't have to go in until 9:30 that morning (we have to laugh that a couple inches of snow shut down school and caused a late start to everything else, even though the roads were clear), so he made us biscuits and gravy, and then we shoved the kids out the door for a little fun in the snow - before it melted.

Does he look mischevious or what???

Most of the snow was gone by noon, but they sure had fun playing in it while it lasted!

A night of entertainment

The Danish Performance team was on post Wednesday night so the kids and I (and David for a little while until he had to go to work) went over to the gymnasium to watch their show. They are a Danish National team that is touring the world, and this was the first U.S. Military installation that they visited. They had a fun performance full of dancing, tumbling, and some humorous skits. The kids really enjoyed it.

Naughty (and Nice)

Here are a few funny moments from Tristan... of course, we had to pretend they weren't all that funny when they occurred, but we can laugh now! Sometimes it's incredibly difficult to discipline a child when you want to burst out laughing! I am convinced though that boys are just naughtier than girls...

Apparently he wanted some hot chocolate!

He couldn't have gotten his love for chocolate from me...

But he does have a very lovable side too.

And there's always our little princess:

Notice the pink "dinner gloves" that complete the outfit

Not much has been going on in the Samuelson household the last several weeks. Just the regular day to day events. Grace to school, ballet, Mission Friends, and AWANA; Tristan to gymnastics and to church functions for childcare when Daddy isn't home. I've been busy with my Wednesday Bible Study and AWANA (and shuffling the kids to and fro of course). David has been working nights one week, days this week, and will go back to nights next week. We have made several trips to Tucson the last 2 weeks - one for fun, and 2 for David's back. He followed up with his pain management doctor last week and then was supposed to have an MRI to hopefully get an answer as to why nothing seems to be working to help his back pain. We went up for the MRI last Saturday, and the radiologist refused to do the MRI due to the shot he has in his eye (from turkey hunting almost 5 years ago), despite the fact that he has had 2 MRI's in the past... So, we are incredibly frustrated. He sees his primary doc here next week and will see if he can have that shot removed. If not, David will have to have a CT mylogram, which can be incredibly painful, and we'll see what our next step is from there.

Sledding in Arizona

We took a day trip up to Mt. Lemmon, Arizona Friday to do a little sledding. We had a great time and couldn't believe the change of scenery between 4000 and 8000 feet. The foothills of Mt. Lemmon lie on the far east side of Tucson, and are covered with saguaro cactus. Yet, just 15 miles up a windy road are beautiful pine trees. We stopped several places on the road for pictures and just to enjoy the beauty around us.

Grace hardly had time to get her coat and mittens on before she was off...

This was a little "hill" right behind where we parked.

When we had Tristan all suited up, he climbed up the hill to join his sister.

Then we all moved over to the "big hill". One thing you all have to understand is that I love sledding, but as I told my husband, I much prefer to sled at White Sands... there's no trees!! I think one of the reasons I don't have a great desire to learn to ski is because I have this fear of not being able to turn or stop and running into a tree - no matter how far away it might be (unreasonable, I know). Despite my fear, we ended up enjoying ourselves immensely...

Until David hit a big "mogul" and bounced Tristan right off of the sled...

Then a snowball fight ensued.

I had to add these two photos because they're just so darned cute!