Excitement and jitters

It's hard to believe that in less than a week Arizona won't be home anymore... I'll be in limbo staying with my parents until the end of the month. It's always exciting starting something new, but a little scary at the same time. I'll miss certain things here, but maybe I'll get my husband back. Arizona with it's death heat rays and the brown cloud that hovers over the city has been sucking the life out of Drew. We have all of these commercials here about the brown cloud, and our terrible air quality. Some days it's so hazy that you can't see the mountains in the distance.
I think that one of my favorite things recently has been all of the weather people on TV. It has been in the lower 100's and they are talking about how it's almost warm enough to get in the pool. I have to admit it is nice going to swim and having the entire pool to ourselves. I also enjoy it when it dips below 100 and they say that a big cool down is coming, 95 is still really hot. It will be really nice to have grass and trees again. I hope that we haven't gotten too wimpy living here and that the winter in Nebraska doesn't kill us. It will be nice to wear the sweaters that have been packed away for so long. Hopefully some of them will still fit, post having two kids. It will be fun to see what the future will bring....

Mini adventures

When Suzie (Drew's mom) was here we went on a few really fun day trips. The first few pictures are of Sedona Arizona. It's about two hours or so north of Phoenix. It's in the mountains so it's slightly cooler. I don't think that Sedona is as pretty as Bryce Canyon in Utah, but they do have some neat formations. The red rocks are gorgeous, it's one of the most photographed places in Arizona. I'm sure that you can see why. I think that my dad was right when he said that Phx. is the armpit of Arizona. Phx. is so hot and brown, but if you go a few hours in any direction it's so pretty.

A great reflection picture taken by Drew

All four of us

Molly with Suzie

Molly is a big fan of water

The next two pictures are of Kartchner Caverns outside of Tuscon. I'm sure that they are the best preserved caverns that you can tour. It's amazing they have a long tunnel that you go through with four air tight doors. They don't want the desert air mixing with the moist cave air. They also mist you with water before you enter. They want any particles on you to stay on you and not deposit on the cave walls. It's quite the experience. The caverns were found by two U of A students in the mid 70's. They kept their discovery a secret until they were sure that they would be preserved the way they wanted them to be. In 1988 the caverns were made public, it's now a state park.

If you look closely you can see a man in the bottom of the picture. It helps to put the size of the caverns into perspective.

Alone again (for a few days)

Gabriel sleeping

Molly loves these sunglasses, I wasn't fast enough to get a picture with them on her face.

Molly in all her glory. She just finished some Italian ice, as you can see from her shirt.

Grandma reading to Molly.

Grandma sleeping with Gabriel. I'm really sad that my mom left today. It was so nice having an extra set of hands. Especially in the middle of the night :) but I'm sure she'll be happy to be able to sleep in peace and quiet again. Drew's mom is coming in a few days.

Drew has been sick off and on (mainly on) since October. Sunday was our first triple digit day in the valley. We had three in a row and they say it should be enough to kill all of our pollen producing plants. Hopefully that will mean that Drew will start getting better. Even though we aren't big fans of the heat, I'm happy that allergy season is coming to an end.

Just in case anyone was concerned about the previous post, we are now proud to announce we are ant free!

Ants

I have to be honest, there are few things that I hate more than the thought of bugs in my home. More specifically ants. We awoke Friday morning to a ton of them in our bathroom. I'm not sure why they picked our bathroom. I'm grateful they aren't in the kitchen, but it's really gross. I thought that I found where they were coming in Friday. Then I tried all of these things that I read online that were supposed to get rid of them, ie. cinnamon, vinegar, etc. Apparently other people have had success with them, but not us because Saturday morning the same problem occurred. A ton of ants in the bathroom. So we vacuumed them up and then Drew went out and bought some ant killer. They seem to be gone, although we thought that yesterday. Only tomorrow morning will tell.....

stats

Gabriel is growing bigger everyday. He had his one month check-up yesterday, he is now 9lbs. 9oz. and 21 inches long. It's hard to believe that it has already been a month. He is starting to be awake more and loves being held. It's fun watching him as he grows and seeing his personality develop. I have a feeling that he is going to be pretty laid back.

No sleep

I think that the hardest thing about having Molly and Gabriel so close has been the lack of sleep. Molly has always preferred sleeping in bed with us, but we had been making progress with her crib. Then Gabriel came and he is the loudest sleeper ever. He wakes up everyone and needless to say Molly has been spending most of the night in our bed. I don't know that this would be such a problem if she'd sleep in the right direction. As you can see from the picture, she enjoys having her head in Drew's armpit and her feet in my chest. Not very comfy I must admit. It has been really nice having my mom here, she has been taking Gabe some of the night. He likes to stay awake for about an hour after each feeding and then when he does fall asleep he is so loud. If I was a little more conscious I would make a recording of it. It's pretty funny, he snorts and grunts sometimes he snores a little. I'm not sure why this just happens at night because for the most part he is pretty quiet when he sleeps during the day. I wish I could transfer that to night...... Changing the subject, happy Mother's Day to all of the moms out there. I got really spoiled yesterday. Drew didn't have morning meetings at church so he made us breakfest, we had french toast, bacon and fruit salad. He also gave me a picture of the kids that had there footprints on it and said family is forever. I feel really luck to have all of them and hopefully we will start gettting more sleep sooner than later. :)

College Bound

Well, it looks as though we will be heading to the University of Nebraska in a couple months. There is still one school that has not given a decision, but I think that at this point there is a 99% chance it is a no. So we will be making our plans to depart to Nebraska.
Now, please don't go calling me doctor or anything crazy like that yet. Its a very long process. I have 2 years of course work and many qualifying exams to take before I'm even considered a "PhD candidate".
Go Cornhuskers.