Snowfall in Tucson

For the first time in the five years we've been in Tucson, we attended Snowfall at La Encantada (a posh shopping center).

This will seem comical after the actual snowfall recently received in other parts of the country. However, we do live in Tucson, and I want our children to experience snow more than once every few years. So off we headed...

Ooh, the anticipation!
(Notice the sandals and no socks...obviously we weren't expecting MUCH snowfall!)

We're excited and scoping out a good area for watching!

And here it comes!!! Pure magic.

I asked Naomi if she thought she could catch some snow on her tongue. That ended after a lady next to us made a comment about how that was disgusting since the "snow" was really soap bubbles. Whoops!!! I don't know what I expected, but it definitely wasn't soap bubbles!

And Naomi ended the evening playing on a turtle
with a few vestiges of the "snowfall" in her hair.

It was something to do, but not nearly as much fun as I expected.

I should have known better...

After all, I grew up in snowy states. With lots of snow play. And snow activities.

Bubbles just didn't quite cut it for me.

The kids had fun, though, and that was the ultimate goal!

Naomi's Soccer Experiences

Naomi is on a soccer team for three year olds. She was THRILLED about the idea of playing soccer. I'm guessing that's because Matt and I have both played in soccer leagues, and she's gone to some of the games.

Our girl almost burst with excitement when we headed to the store to get shin guards and soccer socks. After some fun soccer practices, we headed to our first game. Naomi's in the yellow jersey with long pink sleeves underneath.

We had promised her one penny for every time she touched the ball. Here she made a diligent effort to GET THAT BALL!

This is what she spent most of her time doing, though...

Dancing...

on the end of the field away from the ball...

She did earn four pennies, though!! Subsequent game experiences have been very similar.

What can I say?? We have a dancer on our hands!

Naomi will not be continuing soccer but will be resuming dance classes once soccer ends at the end of February.

The Merrells have surfaced!

Yep, we're alive. Bet you couldn't tell it by our blog posting...but we're here!

When you haven't posted pictures for awhile, it's a struggle to figure out where to start. We'll start with a few sweet but random pictures from the last month.

Licking cookie dough from the beaters by the Christmas tree...classic!

Making the house look festive (Naomi actually took this picture)...

No snow in Tucson, but we did get a bit of rain! If truth be told, it wasn't actually raining in this picture. Naomi was standing underneath the drainpipe AFTER it finished raining. :)

Painting!

Thanks for checking back in on us. (Did anyone check back in on us? Drat. We probably lost our two followers by not blogging more often.)

I promise to post again soon! This will keep you on the edge of your seat:

Next post: NAOMI'S SOCCER TEAM ADVENTURES!!

Naomi trims the tree...

Naomi has read books that mention trimming the tree.

Apparently I didn't emphasize enough that they were
actually decorating the tree, not cutting bits off with scissors.

Notice some little needles on the table? Naomi used the nail scissors to do a little trimming. Luckily, the damage isn't noticeable, and this isn't our main tree anymore. Tread carefully (and explain fully!) if Naomi offers to help you trim your tree!

So easily entertained...

ANYTHING can be entertaining when small children are involved. A couple weeks ago, the excitement around our house was that the van battery died. Naomi was flabbergasted to find out that cars use batteries, just like her toys!

These pictures are from when we jump started the van. (We ended up having to get a new battery even though we let it charge, but at least it delayed it a few days.) It was all an adventure to the kids!

Naomi opted to watch from the garage step where she could see both vehicles and the cables. (I took this picture from the driver's seat while the hood was up.)

Gabe's perch of choice was the front passenger seat in the van (which he thought was super cool, since normally it's off-limits!). Here's his cheesy grin at all the fun we're having...

And here's the view of what he was seeing (the car with it's hood up).

While knowing the battery had died was less than thrilling,
we had a great time giving it some more juice!

Thanksgiving with the Fieldings!

For the Thanksgiving holiday, we trekked up to Idaho to spend time with Val's family. We had a terrific time! We didn't pull out the camera until pretty much the last day there, so we didn't get pictures with everybody.

I was very excited about this first picture! The munchkins are our kids, of course, and the tall ones are (left) Jared, Jordan and Julisa. They are my nieces and nephews, so they are Naomi's and Gabe's cousins. Despite the age difference, my kids thought they were the COOLEST EVER cousins! (That could be due to Jordan, Jared and Julisa being incredibly nice about playing with them and throwing them balls over...and over...and over...)

Here we have Julisa and Aunt Julie (Val's sister) reading a book to Naomi. Naomi has somebody reading her a book whenever possible, so she was thrilled to find a few more people around who would read to her! In payment, Julie requested kisses periodically. I think I'll start that system, too!

Another reason why Gabe loved Julisa...this was very late (thus the pajamas), and Gabe was nuts. He was very unsteady and giggly, and he kept spinning circles, looking at Julisa and shrieking with laughter. While, as his parent, it was funny to watch, I'm not sure Julisa knew what to think about that crazy kid! She was a good sport and stayed by him, though!

Here are the Adele's in the family. My mom's great-aunt was named Adele, and each of the girls in this picture have the middle name Adele:
(Left to right) Julisa Adele, Constance Adele, Valerie Adele, Naomi Adele

Gabe most definitely does NOT have the middle name Adele;
he just wanted to get in on the fun picture-taking!

Our trip was absolutely fabulous (despite Matt catching a cold and spending a couple days sequestered in the room).

It was also exhausting! For our return flight, we left Julie's house at 5:30 AM and caught a flight out of Salt Lake. We met up with Edward in Denver and enjoyed spending some more time with him. Then we flew to Tucson. Matt had a cold, the kids were cranky, and I was motion sick. We were THRILLED to get off that plane.

This picture shows Gabe's thoughts on long travel days. This was on the shuttle from the airport to the parking lot.

And this one was taken in our car on the drive home.

We were happy to be home, but we were even happier to have been able to make that trip and spend Thanksgiving with such wonderful people!

What a terrific time we had! And nobody was seriously injured...
that always equates to a successful family event, don't you think?

Naomi's first soccer practice!

Naomi started her illustrious (well, soon to be illustrious) soccer career yesterday with a 45 minute soccer practice. I didn't have my camera, so I'll have to check with the other moms to see who might have documented that monumental practice.

Here are some youtube clips from a friend (thanks, Jess!). Naomi is in the pink shirt with black pants.

Warming up with Coach Gray

Ball handling skills

She was THRILLED that we purchased her very own shin guards and soccer socks. She will be taking her shin guards to preschool for show and tell today. Hopefully nobody notices the corner where there are teeth marks (Gabe got his hands on them for a minute).

FUN!!!

Our first taste of Christmas!

Gabe and Naomi were thrilled to open the first present of the Christmas season...Christmas pillowcases from Aunt Julie!

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Then they tried them out...

And they loved them! Thanks, Aunt Julie!!

The Zoo with Grandma & Grandpa Jones

We always love a trip to the zoo, especially with Grandma & Grandpa. And since it was late October, the kids could actually touch the turtle shell statue!

The whole place was decorated for the Halloween festivities.

...sharing a ride on the peacock statue...

UmpLumpa Dance

I took this video at the Halloween party, and promised (threatened) to put it on youtube. Instead I'll put it on this blog. It's a bit more discreet. Kind of.

Halloween party

Finally getting around to posting halloween pics. This set is from a party at our friends the Slivka's. We played games, ate food, and admired all the great costumes. Check out the other costumes at a friends site.

Grandma and Grandpa Jones visit Tucson!

We are always thrilled to have Grandma and Grandpa Jones visit us! We begged them to stay longer, but farm duties called them home at the end of a very short week.

They showed up on Friday mid-day, and within 5 minutes of walking in the door, Naomi threw up all over me. Dad pulled Gabe-distraction duty while Mom catered to Naomi's needs (translation: read books) while I cleaned up. We tucked Naomi in bed, had dinner, and then the parents came to my soccer game. We played less than stellar, but parents never mind that sort of thing. :) They'd never seen me play soccer before, so that was fun.


With Naomi being sick, our activities were somewhat limited early on. After a couple days, Naomi felt well enough to drag about, so we walked around the block to see some Halloween decorations.

We played at a park...


...played in the backyard...

...ate terrific dutch oven food (thanks, Dad!)...

...played lots of Settlers of Catan...

...visited the zoo and Old Tucson (pics coming in another post soon)...

...and had a terrific time overall...

Please come back!!

Tweezer play

I'm not actually trying to leave ridiculously long periods of time between each post. In case you've wondered.

As I was looking through pictures to decide what to post, these ones caught my eye. They're so simple...Naomi playing with tweezers. I think I like them so much because they show a child's curiosity about how the world works. To me, tweezers are pretty boring. To Naomi, they offer a world of possibility! (Think Little Mermaid coming up with crazy uses for human implements: the possibilities are endless!)

Halloween preview

Today we dug out our Halloween decorations. Or rather, that's what I thought were in those boxes. One box was partially filled with Halloween decorations, and the rest of it contained costumes/props. The second box...all costumes/props. Not even good costumes/props! So much for decking out our house in Halloween decor.

HOWEVER, Naomi and Gabe were excited by the ladybug costume, and they took turns sporting it around the house. Here you see young Gabriel in all his ladybug glory.

As a ladybug, he:

played Hide and Seek in the curtains

chased balls

and did some giggling.

He also set a record for the fastest moving ladybug ever!

That was when I announced we would be having ice cream in the kitchen.

Not your average Sunday at the Merrell's!

This last weekend was General Conference for the LDS church. That means we don't have regular church, and 4 sessions of talks from church leaders are broadcast on t.v. We all enjoyed the slow feel to the day!

We have a few family traditions, and one is having coffee cake for General Conference. Mmmmmm....

Our conference-watching activities documented:

lounging in pajamas and eating

Reading (and later, coloring)

Playing games with our faces

Sporting darling green stripe-y pj's
(and pointing to the t.v. in case Mommy forgot to watch conference)