The State Fair!

We made our annual trip to the State Fair this last week. We started going a few years back and it has kind of become a little tradition for our family. I know it is a little bit white trash, but we really enjoy it and plus we used half a bottle of hand sanitizer and wipes. Wyatt has done so well in school that we pulled him out for a day and off we went. We always choose wristband day to go so that we can ride until the kid’s give-up. We arrived just after 12:00 and went right to Uncle Keith and Aunt Jackie’s Indian Fry Bread stand. They are located on the south end of the fair, it is the best. After lunch off we went. The kids loved it, from the tea cups, slides, bumper cars, roller coasters, fairs wheels, to the mild fun houses, they never stopped. It was the least crowded that I have ever seen the fair. We never had to wait in any lines and the food and displays were so great and fun as usual. The kids loved the petting zoo and game system displays. I loved just walking through the displays and seeing all the fun gadgets and toys. I even found the perfect porch swing for the back yard; I am crossing my fingers that Santa Clause brings it to me. True to form Dane loved the demonstrations, he is an infomercial nut. He was ready to buy waterless cook wear for $1600.00 by the time we left the displays? It was so much fun. We thought that we would be home for dinner, but we were having so much fun we settled on corn dogs, turkey legs, and a funnel cake for dinner before finally calling it a night around 8:30. What a great day!

On the Giant Slide

On the Dragons

The "boys" on the Hydro Slide

Up and Over the Fair

Gracie loved her Ice Cream!

Wyatt milking the cow

Jesse on the bumper

Happy Halloween

Halloween has come and gone. Our ward decided against a Trunk or Treat so we were left fending for ourselves this time. Grammy insisted we all come by for dinner and door knocking in their neighborhood. We got all our costumes together, Wyatt was Spider man, Jesse was Buzz Light-year, Gracie was a princess, Dane was cloudy with a chance of rain, and I was just a mom. The evening was really very fun except we decided we really love the Trunk or Treat format. By the end of the night Gracie had turned from the adorable princes to the White Witch from Narnia. In the end candy filled the buckets and memories once again made.

Dane was "partly cloudy"

The Princess

The Kids

Dog gone-it!

Seven Years nine months and twenty eight days! That’s how long we were able to put off the dog thing. Dane and I always said we would consider a dog when our kids starting asking for one. Wyatt started asking for a dog about six months ago, and we finally gave in over the weekend. Some friends in our ward had a litter of Rottweiler puppies a few months back and we got hooked on little Tank. We picked him up yesterday and the kids are simply in heaven. They played with him all the way up until bed time. As we were finally winding down, Wyatt picked up Tank and sat in his basket we made for a bed. He informed us he was going to put Tank down to bed. Sure enough five minutes later there was Tank fast asleep on Wyatt’s lap. We went in side and had a very peaceful night. When we woke up this morning there was Tank sleeping in his basket. Anyway we are excited to introduce Tank and hope he brings as much joy to our family in the future as he has brought in the last 24 hours. Who am I trying to kid?

Welcoming Tank

Gracie showing her approval

Wyatt putting Tank to bed, & it worked!

Back from Philadelphia

Dane’s work sent us back east to Philadelphia for some marketing seminar. Apparently accountants are horrible marketers and so of to Philly we went. This was perfect as it gave us an opportunity to visit Lee and Vanessa along with Jaxon, Lily, and new baby Edison. They live just outside of the city while Lee is finishing up dental school at Temple. It was so much fun, no kids and no responsibilities! While Dane went into the city everyday for his seminar, Vanessa took me to all the fun shopping spots that Philadelphia had to offer. It was maybe the best three days of my life! When we left Phoenix we had to check one bag with the airlines, when we came home due to my shopping (with Danes support) we checked four bags with the airlines. I had to borrow Vanessa’s luggage just to get home it was great! Now I have always heard it said that people from Arizona are very laid back. It’s a west coast thing they say? Well after driving in Philadelphia for the past week I understand exactly what they mean. It was such a fast pace thing. We were honked at more in the four days that we were there than my previous 29 years in Arizona combined. As soon as a light turned green, before we could even press the gas, horns were honking. Buses and Diesel trucks were driving around like they were compact cars, it was truly crazy. We topped of the weekend with a trip to Mortens Steakhouse, usually very reliable, this time very disappointing. As soon as we informed we would not need to see the wine and cocktail list the service got very bad. Long story short they ended up comping our entire meal after we complained. For the entire story visit Lee and Vanessa’s blog. Anyway we sure had a great time, but we are now back and fully entrenched in the blogging world again.

Edison Broc Chaffee

This is the newest addition to the Chaffee family (Lee and Vanessa's) I could not get enough of him. I have been going this way for a while, but I am officially baby hungry!

Go Diamondbacks!

Dane and I were lucky enough to get tickets to see the Diamondbacks beat the Cubs in game 2 of the playoffs. They swept the Cubs in 3 games and are on to the second round against the Rockies. Baseball and basketball are the sports I really understand and enjoy. We sat 9 rows from the field behind home plate. They were great seats, we sat right behind Matt Williams, who through out the first pitch and in the section right next to us was Donovan McNab, some quarterback in the NFL, I don’t know who he is. It was so much fun, on the next pitch after we took this picture; Chris Young hit a home run to left field that put us ahead for good. The game started at 7:00 pm and true to form, Dane made sure we arrived at about 5 pm to so we would not miss batting practice. The game ended up lasting until 11:30 and we did not get home until about 12:45 am. We were at the game for almost 7 hours, but honestly it was so much fun and I hope we get the chance to go back before the playoffs end. GO D-BACKS!

We sat right behind this guy, we thought for sure it was Anthony Hopkins from his Zoro days.

All Wrapped – up!

Gracie has her tough macho dad wrapped around her little finger. The other night she jumped up on Danes lap and started giving him kisses like they were going out of style. Since I get to stay at home with the kids and see this every time she wants something I quickly grabbed the camera to catch her shenanigans on camera. Well sure enough, within minutes of buttering up dad they went in to her bed room changed in to some lounging clothes and put on her favorite movie Annie. This was great except that I had told her no movie repeatedly throughout the evening. Thanks daddy.

Here she is ready for the movie with her "I won" smile on.

Diorama Project

I don’t ever remember doing a report in kindergarten, but last week Wyatt received his first report assignment. The directions asked parents to help their child research a dinosaur but not to do the project for them. Wyatt had to make a diorama and research 4 facts to represent his reptile. He had a list of dinosaurs to choose from, but knew exactly what dinosaur he wanted to do. He chose the Velociraptor. It was interesting, I knew about the Velociraptor from Jurassic Park. In the movie they are portrayed as very large and vicious dinosaur. In actuality they are only 5 – 6 feet long and 3 feet tall while weighing in at a whopping 20-30lbs. Hollywood ripped us off. We were so proud of Wyatt and his excitement, he picked out the 4 facts and other than the mountains (Dad drew them) he did the entire project himself.

He did it all himself, I think Dane would have done it different if he were allowed

The 4 facts about the Velociraptor

Stress Relief!

And just like that it is gone. About 2 years ago we invested in a landscape company with our friends. It appeared to be a great opportunity and indeed it was really good for a while. Dane and Kenny split the administrative duties and had another partner who managed and operated it. Well about 5 months ago our lives got flipped upside down when the operating partner decided he would leave the company and take all the employees and clients and do the work himself leaving Dane and Kenny all the liabilities and stress. It has been a very uncomfortable and stressful 5 months trying to piece things back together and get a grasp on how somebody we trusted so much could go and do something like this. We have slowly started to put the pieces of a broken company back into place. We decided to try and sell the company and have been praying that someone would see the potential involved. Last week we found that someone. We have sold our portion of the business. This is going to work out great for everyone involved. Prayers are indeed answered, and the best part is no more stress and I get my yard back! Thanks to all that have been their for us to lean on through all the tears and rough times.

Happy Birthday Wyatt

We celebrated Wyatt’s birthday on Saturday. Wow 6 years, where does all the time go. It seems like just yesterday we were living at Dane’s parents while our house was being finished. I woke up in the morning about 5:30 am and told Dane, “I think this is it.” He jumped out of bed very confused and I calmly went in to the bathroom to showered and do my makeup before we headed off to the hospital. Just a short time later our lives were changed forever. We have shared many firsts with Wyatt since that special day. We are so glad that you are ours and look forward to many more firsts to share together. Just please go easy on us. We had all of the cousins over for slip –n- slide fun along with cake and ice cream. We told Wyatt that he could do whatever he wanted since it was his birthday. Well at 11:48 pm Dane asked Wyatt why we were all still awake. Wyatt just flashed his handsome smile and said, “It’s my birthday, I can do whatever I want.”

Wyatt wanted moms homemade waffles with whip cream powdered sugar and strawberries for breakfast

All the cousins

Happy Birthday Wyatt

It’s an Office party

Last week The Office season premier aired. We have heard about the Office for a long time but never saw an episode. Finally some friends in our ward talked us into watching it with them. Well we quickly became hooked. So we had a little party last week with some friends from our ward to watch the season premier. It was so much fun; everyone had to dress up as their favorite office character. Dane made a little prize of a framed Schrute Buck and a Stanley Nickel for the best dressed office employee.

Dane(Kevin), Alysen(Angela), Jay(Dwight), Ashley(Pam), Beca(Kelly), Jeff(Jim)

Schrute Buck





Stanley Nickel

Mr. Toad (the 2nd)

The first week we moved in back in January, the boys found a frog and named it Mr. Toad. How original. They kept him in the sprinkler box and would catch crickets and toss them in for him. Not a bad life for a frog until the cousins got a hold of him. Cousins came over and slid Mr. Toad down the water slide, tossed him in the pool and just played with him like he was any other pet. Well long story short, Mr. Toad did not recover. A few days after this Wyatt & Jesse came running to Dane with a very stiff and cold Mr. Toad demanding some answers. Since that time the boys have been looking for Mr. Toad’s replacement with not much luck. They can hear the frogs but have had no luck seeing and catching them. Well last week Jesse came running inside, he was so excited he could barely speak. Jesse is difficult to understand at times and with the excitement level deciphering his speech was especially difficult this time. He was trying to say Mr. Toad is back. When we finally got things translated we made our way out to the back porch where sure enough there was Mr. Toad #2. The kids hopped around following this little guy everywhere. What a fun night we had, but this time we let him go home instead of putting him in the sprinkler box where he could be subject to cousins once more.

Happy Birthday to our little Princess!

Two years ago today I woke up with mild contractions. I had seen our wonderful Dr. Beck earlier in the week and was told that I was progressing and that things could happen any day. Dane went off to work and I checked in every few hours but no real changes. Dane was so excited, maybe even more than I was. For those of you who knew Dane, you are very aware of how very much he longed for and wanted a little girl. He loves his boys, but there is something special about a dad and his little girl. As the day went on things seemed to slow down and cool off. Since nothing was happening, I pushed Dane out the door to mutual. The priests were learning to “give proper respect to women, girls, and children” and were babysitting for anyone in the ward. Dane took the boys and I went to the mall with some of my girlfriends. We got to the mall shortly after 7:00 pm and with no kids we were looking forward to a fun girl’s night out. Well at 7:36 pm while walking around the food court, my water broke. I was so embarrassed, but my fabulous girls Michelle and Paula helped me call Dane and off to the church we went. Dane and I got to the hospital at 8:34 pm checked in and Gracie Kate Chaffee arrived at 9:02 pm just 28 minuets after check in. There was not even enough time to get an epidural, that’s right it was all natural. Since that time two years ago our life has changed. How we ever operated with out our little girl is beyond all of us. The get ready to go time has changed from a quick last minuet comb through the boy’s hair to a carefully planned and coordinated process involving bows and clippies. She has truly changed our lives forever. Her brothers and dad adore and tote over everything that is Gracie. She is and always will be our own little princess, Gracie we love you happy birthday.

“I like to look for Rainbows”

Wyatt came running in the other day shouting and making a big fuss over something. It had been raining for about an hour and was just starting to clear up. We finally walked outside to find a huge rainbow that filled the entire sky. The kids were so excited to see a real live rainbow. Jesse is at the question stage so of course the questions started to flow. Where did it come from, why is it here, and where does it live. Wyatt thinking he is so smart now that he is in school started to try and answered Jesse’s questions. He tells Jesse that it comes from Heavenly Father and Jesus and it means the earth was just baptized. Dane asked Wyatt what he meant, and he said, “You know it’s like the song says.” One of his favorite songs in primary is “When I am Baptized” here are the lyrics. Once again I was humbled by how much our children understand and comprehend.

I like to look for rainbows whenever there is rain
and ponder on the beauty of an earth made clean again.

I want my life to be as clean as earth right after rain.
I want to be the best I can and live with God again.

I know when I am baptized my wrongs are washed away,
and I can be forgiven and improve myself each day.

I want my life to be as clean as earth right after rain.
I want to be the best I can and live with God again.

Bridge to Irabithia

We stayed home and avoided all the traffic for the long holiday weekend. Actually we had irrigation and the boys decided that we just could not miss it. Since we moved in 9 months ago, we have only had irrigation during the day once. The kids think it is the best thing in the world to play in the irrigation so when we informed them that it was coming during the day the got so excited. It was indeed a party; I think every toy we own was out in the yard by the time the irrigation was finished. Its amazing how something as simple as a little water can create so much fun. After about an hour, Dane started to call the irrigation Lake Chaffee. Wyatt decided he did not like that name and insisted on coming up with something more creative than what dad had thought up. One of the boy’s favorite movies right now is The Bridge to Terabithia, so Wyatt decided that the irrigation would be called Irabithia. Wyatt’s logic was that when the water ports open it is like opening the bridge to his new kingdom, hence the name Irabithia. It is so amazing how these little minds work and what they comprehend. The new kingdom started a new game for the kids as they ran around with swords fighting off all of their magical make-believe creatures. While we missed out on the cool weather and the calmness of the north country, we definitely made our own memories.

We have 12 citrus trees that we planted when we moved in. The boys have named each and every tree. Here is Jesse with his favorite tree "Skinny" Wyatt could not decide which tree was his favorite, so he picked 2, "Fruity" has more fruit than any other tree, and "Miracle" who Dane ran over with the lawn mowers and it lucky to be living.

The kids playing in Irabithia

Wyatt sneaking up on something?

Jesse showing he is strong enough to fight the monsters.

Gracie with her sword.

Before Irabithia

Irabithia

More Irabithia

More Irabithia