Everything’s coming up Roses

I love this time of year when everything starts coming to life again, and I really LOVE my rose garden. My roses are doing so well this year. When we moved in last year I had Dane pull up all the nasty cactus and replace them with green shrubs and 14 different roses. We have 3 different red, 2 different pink, white, orange, purple, and yellow roses. I love the smell and the blooms are so beautiful. I could spend hours sitting on the porch swing enjoying my beautiful roses, but the best part is I always have a vase of fresh cut roses in the house. As soon as I walk out the back door I can smell all the different roses and I love it!

My Rose Garden

It's Over!

April 15th is over, it has come and gone and once again it was memorable. Each year we plan on picking Dane up from work at 5:00 pm sharp to celebrate the closing of tax season. It is a crazy day for him from the time he gets to work all the up until 5:00 so the celebration is much needed. This year Dane woke up at 2:00 am sick as a dog. He was so sick he was not able to even go in and help. Diner plans were canceled and replaced with chicken broth and Gatorade. While it was not the normal April 15th that our family has become accustomed to, in the end we are finished and got our daddy back!

Tanker-banker

Back in October we gave in to the kid’s pressure and got a dog. Tank was a small, little, cute, and cuddly little guy. Times they are a changing; Tank is now 6 months old and huge. He chews everything in site; we have gone through 3 hoses in the last 3 weeks. Dane is learning that he must put things away. =) While Dane has talked about getting rid of him and how much he hates him, Tank has brought so much joy to the kid’s life. The kids call him Tanker-banker and he is the best dog and is so patient with them. He lets them do whatever they want to him. The kids pull on his ears wrestle and even try and ride him and all the while he just loves them back. I don’t know what we would do without our big Tank, and to be honest, as much as Dane talks big I think he really loves Tank to. While we were out of town Dane went out and bought him a spike collar. Then the other night he brings home a dog tag with Tanks name and our address and phone number on it. What a softy. The kids have done great taking care of Tank. They feed him and make sure he always has water and they don’t even complain too much about “picking up” after him. Dane calls it poop control. Anyway we truly love our “little” Tank.

Then & Now

Here are the kids doing poop control. They pull the wagon around and fill it up with the droppings.

Finishing poop control, Wyatt uses two cups to scoop it up so his hands stay clean, Jesse just opts for gloves.

EXPECTING

We are expecting the 4th addition to our little family on August 29th. We just found out that the addition is a he! It’s a boy! Dane is so relieved, he was not sure he could do another little girl. We look forward to the addition and will try to keep up with this blog thing better in the future.

Pretend Santa Clause

We had an amazing ward Christmas party this year. Our ward is so blessed with some of the best voices I have ever heard. After much debate our ward decided that after the signing and at the tail end of the party Santa would come for the kids. The person that was supposed to be Santa did not show up so at the last minute Dane got roped into playing Santa Clause. He was not happy about it at all and in fact I thought we were going to get a grumpy Santa for all the kids. He came out and quickly the line formed. For almost 45 minutes there was a steady stream of kids. When it was our kids turn, Jesse quickly told Santa everything that he wanted; Gracie screamed and wanted nothing to do with him and Wyatt asked, “Daddy why are you playing Santa? Dane whispered something in his ear and Wyatt was off. As things were winding down, and the final kid was gone Wyatt and I came back in to see Santa. Wyatt was grinning from ear to ear and so proud of his daddy. He climbed up on Santa’s lap but I could se a puzzled look on Danes face. All of a sudden out of the blue Dane says, Wyatt did you know that Santa is not real. WHAT, did you just tell our 6 year old son that Santa is not real. I was so confused and to be honest mad! He then took the next few minutes and in detail explained why we celebrate Christmas and told Wyatt how much he loved his Savior Jesus Christ. As he talked to Wyatt my anger was quickly replaced by the love our Savior has for each and every one of us. Wyatt hugged Dane and the spirit filled the room It was so neat and very special to all of us their. Wyatt will always remember when his dad, dressed in a Santa costume, taught him about the real meaning of Christmas. He then told Wyatt that this was their secret and not to tell his friends that Santa is just pretend. I was shocked and mad at first, but I could not have dreamed that moment could have or would have gone any better than it did. Latter that evening Dane explaine dto me that when Wyatt was sitting on his lap the first time that the spirit whispered to him to teach his son that Santa was just pretend. Then later when Wyatt came back, again he was prompted to tell Wyatt that Sant was just pretend. He said he tried to fight it but in the end followed the promtings.

December 2007

BUSINESS GROWTH

In late October Dane went to Philadelphia for a business development seminar. Ever since the Landscaping fiasco he has felt that maybe he just needed to focus more on accounting and helping their firm grow. With the info from the seminar Dane came home with lots of ideas and was excited to focus on accounting. Over the next few months and with help from the firm, Dane developed some packages to help small businesses with their accounting needs. It was a little bit of a redirection from what they had done in the past but since December he has found great success in helping small businesses stream ling their accounting services. They are bringing on new clients almost every week, so if you know someone who needs help in that area call! While it took a lot of his spare time that the family so dearly enjoys it has been a huge blessing professionally for our family.

CHRISTMAS

Christmas was equally as fun. We had all the Chaffee family out to our place for the feast. We really are so blessed. Grammies and Papa showed up with so many gifts for all the grandkids we tried to decide why we parents even bother to buy gifts. After dinner we spent the day playing cards and games while the kids played in the backyard with all their new toys. Christmas night we reenacted the nativity and for the first time since I joined the family Papa did not play the part of the donkey. This year the donkey was passed on to Dane. He did such a great job!

News Years eve was rather uneventful. To be honest I don’t think we did anything. We just stayed home and enjoyed the kids all night.

November 2007

MOVING?

In November we had an opportunity to move back to Mesa. The house was bigger and even had a basement and was only 5 miles from Dane’s office. We would lose the land and all the space. With gas prices on the rise and the loss/theft of the landscaping investment we tossed this idea around for a long time. It was a very emotional time; Wyatt had just started school and loved his teacher and classmates. We love QC and were enjoying all the blessings our church service was bringing us and had just started to feel like this was home. We had made so many new friends and just really did not want to move. In the end we decided to stay in QC and forgo the change.

We decided not to move, who could give this up?

THANKSGIVING

For Thanksgiving, we escaped the rush of the valley and headed north to the cabin with all the Essley’s. This was the first time we had attempted this. We arrived the day before so we could relax end enjoy things before the big day. We had so much fun playing in the pines. The dads all chopped firewood for the winter ahead, we brought some home and have loved our fireplace this winter. The cousins explored and climbed all day while the moms cooked up the most delicious dinner ever. The only downside to the day was that there was no TV. This meant that around 5 pm we had to pack up and head home in order to watch the USC vs. ASU football game. What a waste of time, ASU lost 44-24 which sent Dane into a bad mood. Other than that it was a great day.

Back from our Hiatus

It has been a very long time since our last post. I am sure many if not all of you (if we even have any friend and family who still check on us) are sick and tired of the State Fair. The past 5 months have proven very hectic and crazy for our family, but with a little help and a lot of love we are finally starting to get a since of normalcy back to our lives. Over the next couple of weeks we promise to update all the happenings over the past 5 months and look forward to sharing our future events with all of our most loved family and friends.