Goodbye Mazda MPV

In August 2006 Spencer and I purchased our little black Mazda from a family in SLC, UT. Spencer gave up the truck to give me something with automatic sliding doors. (reason # 4,578 that proves he loves me) Since the time we bought the van we have accumulated over 70,000 miles and driven through 13 different states!

California (northern and southern)
Nevada
Utah
Arizona (grand canyon to the Mexico border)
New Mexico
Texas
Louisiana
Mississippi
Oklahoma
Arkansas
Tennessee
North Carolina
South Carolina

It has been such a great van, but we are ready for something new. Before I show you our new van.....here is a look back on some of the adventures we have been on while the MPV has been with us:

One of our first trips to Utah in the fall of 2006. We are stopped outside of Paige, UT.


We are picnic-ing on a picnic bench by the Snow Flake Temple in Arizona during our family vacation in Nov 2006.


My friend Becky and I drove from Tucson to San Fransisco to take Becky's sister a quilt we had made. It was an adventure and we will always remember it. This is Aidan getting ready to kiss Katelyn Barnard on our trip to San Fransisco in Sept 2007.


Becky and I are driving across the Golden Gate Bridge during our trip to San Fransisco in Sept 2007.


Driving down the famous Lombard Street in San Fransisco. Becky had run down ahead of me to get this picture!


Grandma Brown taking a picture of Abby by her bike during our trip to Yuma, Arizona. Spencer was deployed and the kids and I took a long weekend to see my Grandma and Grandpa Brown.


During the Spring of 2008 while Spencer was deployed, we drove up to my mom's house to stay for a month. We had got Ted for Christmas and we didn't want to leave him with someone for that long. We decided to take him with us. This picture is in St George, UT at a park we stopped at to eat lunch. Ted is stretching his legs.


Spencer bought a bike rack for the Mazda as he started training for the Tour de Tucson. This is Spencer unloading his bike and gear the morning of the 109 mile race.


We are stopped at a Pep Boys in Texas on our way to Angel's wedding in Louisiana. Our van quit working and needed a $3 hose replacement and a new $100 battery. We also blew out a tire while driving back through Texas. We are glad we had a great time at the wedding, it made the car troubles worth it!


The Mazda carried our precious cargo on many memorable trips.


More precious cargo.


On our move to South Carolina in December of 2009 the van played mother to these two ravens at the Petrified National Forest.


It tried to eat my jacket while we were parked in front of Toby Keith's "I Love This Bar and Grill" in Oklahoma!


Driving through fog we encountered in Tennessee. This past spring we updated the Mazda with a GPS unit. It has been very handy.


Driving down the winding roads of the Smokey mountains in North Carolina.


Thanks for all the great memories little black Mazda MPV! We hope you find a new family and carry them on some great adventures too.


Sob

Sob

Sniff, sniff

I really am going to miss it.

If Mazda had continued making their van we might have bought another MPV, but we decided to go with the all popular Honda Odyssey.

We bought this van from a great family that lives north of Columbia (this could be a whole separate blog entry). We really enjoyed meeting them when we test drove the car, and they even invited us for dinner the night we brought the check! Isn't it strange how friendships can form?

Here is our new van.


Here is Eli helping Spencer steer. (Compare this one to Aidan at the beginning)

9 Months Old!!!

Wow, Elijah is now officially 9 months old. Here are some pictures from the past few days covering what he has been up to...

A couple of weeks ago we let Elijah cry himself to sleep. I turned off the baby monitor and practically cried myself to sleep right along with the little guy. The first taste of betrayal. I HATE doing this, but it does have it's benefits. Elijah now sleeps through the night, and if he does get up he fusses for just a minute and then settles back down to sleep. I can now put him in his crib at nap time, he will cry for about 45 seconds and then go to sleep on his own. I still hate hearing him cry, but I am getting a LOT more sleep these days..... not on late homework nights though. This is a picture of him after he cried himself to sleep for a nap. I came back into to cover him up with a blanket and my heart just sank. He had cried until he sunk into defeat.


Eli can say "Dada" and now he can make car noises. These next 3 pictures are of Eli pushing a car on the floor and making car sounds. It was so cute to watch. I hope to have the video camera more accessible in the future!





As I try to set up the house more (a very slow process), it is becoming more and more apparent that I will be child proofing anything below 2 1/2 feet. Will I be better prepared because Aidan came first, or did Aidan come first to better prepare me for Eli?



Eli has a BIG head. He ranks in the 95th percentile! These are pictures of his PJ's getting stuck on his head. Hehehehe. He thought it was funny. I agree.




Eli sticks EVERYTHING in his mouth lately. I have nicknamed him HOOVER. Just today I saw him crawling across the floor with a satisfied look on his face and drool running out his mouth (the big clue) and when I stuck my finger in to do a sweep he had "treasure" inside. After removing it he cried and threw a little tantrum like I had taken away his dinner.



He loves the bath. Notice the bruises on his forehead? Those will be a common theme until he can learn to be more coordinated. If he got his mother's genes, he will have a bruise on his forehead for years to come!



Eli eats breakfast in the morning and dinner at night. He loves crackers, frozen yogurt sticks, peas, noodles, and cereal puffs. Still no teeth.


Eli has been 9 months of fun. We are excited to see what his first birthday will bring.

The Mess We Call Life

So I haven't wanted to post pictures of the house yet because it is still messy. Unpacking 200+ boxes, painting, and celebrating Christmas can really keep a girl from setting up house quickly. So I decided to take a few pictures of what we've been doing and then you can see a few room of the house without it being perfect yet.

Spencer, Abby and Aidan jumping on the trampoline in the backyard.


Folded piles of laundry in the great room by the fire place.


Eli's new trick of standing up holding on with only one hand... this trick has lead to a black eye and many bruises on his head/face.


After his previous trick he fell and Abby came to his rescue....mom was too busy capturing it on camera.


This is what Eli looks like when he gets really excited. He wrinkles his nose and breaths in and out really fast. It is adorable!


Abby and Aidan eating lunch in the kitchen.


Unpacking boxes in the bonus room (this room is the only thing on the second floor. It is a Finished Room Over the Garage... FROG room). For all of you that would like to come visit, this will eventually resemble a guest room.


Where I am sitting to post this blog.


Abby opening gifts from her Great Grandma Brown and Great Grandma Crandall.

Christmas in Our New Home

We had a quiet family Christmas this year. We let the kids sleep in until they woke up themselves.... 8:15ish. Then after the kids made sure Santa ate some cookies, we set out the orange juice (we all have to drink some before presents can be opened) and wrote our gifts to Christ. After all of this we started in on the presents... Santa wraps his presents at our house and so we leave his gifts until last. The kids had so much fun opening gifts from mom and dad, each other, grandmas and grandpas, and aunts and uncles. After all of the chaos and paper eating (Eli) it was time to open Santa's gift. When the kids dug into the big box the found their own winter clothes...with a note saying "Thought you might need these. Unwrap the windows!" The kids pulled the wrapping paper covering the windows to find a trampoline in the driveway. All they could do was stare at it though because it was pouring rain....all morning. They finally got to jump around 1 PM. We all went out and got soaking wet, and then had to come back in when it started raining an hour later. The day after Christmas was beautiful weather and they jumped almost all day.

Abby and Aidan checking out the plate of cookies they left Santa... do you see Aidan's face?


We have had a debate in the family about Santa's favorite drink... Milk or Eggnog. So this year we set out two glasses each with a different drink. Abby was excited to find out that Santa likes eggnog better than milk. At least skim milk anyway. The carrots were for the reindeer.


Eli's first look at Christmas... mmmm paper!


Writing out gifts to Christ (things we are going to do/not do this next year so that we can become more Christ-like)


Eli's favorite activity this Christmas. Eating the wrapping paper!


Abby and Aidan unwrapping gifts (notice the wrapping paper over the windows?)


Eli opening one of his gifts... guess what he did with the paper? Yup.. ate it.


Inside Santa's gift.


Abby watching the rain fall/pound/drench/soak.


More rain.


Jumping on the trampoline during the break in the rain.


Aidan finally brave enough to jump on the trampoline.


Aidan got a car box from his Grandma Brown. This is how I found him the morning after Christmas... he really likes his box and all the cars he has to put in it.