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.

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!