New PR

On Tuesday morning when I was running I set a new personal record. I ran a mile in less than 9 minutes. I haven't done that since 5th grade. It was only 10 seconds shy of 9 minutes, but I'll take it! All things were in my favor. The weather was nice, the terrain flat, and I was the only jogger. I love to pass people and with only walkers it helped me feel like I was going fast. It also may have something to do with the fact that Yuma is 138 feet above sea level and Ely was 6435 feet above it. I could actually breathe! I better get myself in gear now that I can breathe again.

Finally Walking

Tanner is finally walking! And just a shade under a decade... no really just a shade under 16 months. He started taking a few steps here and there a week or two ago, but it wasn't until Thursday, May 12th that he actually walked across the room. Since then he has been toddling around the house and at the park. He seems to have grown up so much this last week. He is insistent that he feed himself everything. This is pretty disastrous, but he loves it and has to learn sometime. I remember letting Eliza feed herself at a really early age and she is my cleanest eater. I could use another one.
Tanner has also (finally) broken his two top teeth, bringing his total to 4 teeth. His first top tooth broke through in San Diego the Thursday before the wedding and his 2nd was Friday, May 13th. Those have taken forever to come in. I am glad they are in, but I can already see more on their way. He has been my slowest teether, crawler, and walker. He is still just my little guy. I don't want him to grow up too fast. I guess he is just trying to accommodate my request that he stay my baby.
(Sadly I only have video of his walking and I cannot upload it to blogger.)

Cousin Fun

You know when you are in college and you have good friends and you sit up late at night talking about when you are going to get married? You plan things like marrying brothers and living in the same town and your kids playing together and being best friends. That is actually true for Nancy and me. We were good friends in college. We were neighbors for a couple of years and we roomed together for a summer. I went with Quentin to help pick out her ring. I went with her when she was buying her wedding dress and I remember her saying, "You can borrow it when you get married!" I thought that probably wouldn't happen since I didn't know where she or I would be when I got married. So, it is really funny that I did in fact wear her wedding dress, we did marry brothers, and we now live in the same town a mile away from each other and our kids play together and are best friends. I think often about how lucky I am to have my sister-in-law be my friend first. We knew each other before I knew Nathaniel. She even tried to set us up one time when he was in town visiting, but I was busy. I guess she knew it all along. So here are a few pictures of our kids playing together...

They tied Eliza up and gagged her with the stuffed animal. Don't feel sorry for her...it was her idea. The whole damsel in distress story.

We had the cousins over one day in our apartment and I couldn't stop smiling at how fun it was to have all of these kids together. There was laughing, playing, fighting, and crying. Isn't that the way it goes with kids. It's a good thing they get over things quickly.

These last 2 pictures are just random ones of Tanner with his baby speedo swimsuit on his head that he never wears. It looked so funny on him I had to post them.

Mothers' Day Tea

Nancy hosted the Mothers' Day Tea Party on Saturday May 7th. She had such a beautiful spread of yummy foods. This is yet another of the things I love about living near family. I don't have to miss out on things like this anymore. It was so fun with Mom, Elizabeth, Becca, Nancy and her 3 girls, and me with my 2 girls. The girls were in heaven!

Second First Day of Kindergarten

Lookin' so cute with her new haircut.

(No, she doesn't have to go to the bathroom, she was just being a little shy.)

Not many kids get to have 2 first days of kindergarten. Eliza is now at Suverkrup Elementary. We enrolled her in the district we will live in come August. She gets done June 9th or so and starts up again August 8th. What the heck? What happened to summer break? Anyway, she took it like a champ and was good about it. She is in AM again. She has a dress code so we had to buy a bunch of new shirts. She seems to like school so that is really good. I was worried about sending her for only 5 weeks, but I thought it would be good for her to get to know some of the kids for next year. She is doing so well reading. It amazes me. She is a smart little thing.
We found out Suverkrup is starting all day kindergarten next year. It is going to be nice to have the 2 girls going together. They will be able to look out for each other a little bit at recess and at lunch hopefully. It will be so strange to only have the 2 boys at home most of the day. I can't imagine what I'll do with myself.

Catching You Up

Nathaniel and I drove down to Yuma on April 15th planning to go hunting for a place to rent the first part of the week before the wedding plans kicked in. We went and looked at a couple of places on Saturday, but nothing really stood out. On Sunday, Nancy was talking to a friend in a different ward and she said they are moving out in August and we should go and look at their place. I did and I really liked it. It was also the best house for that price. It is a 4 bedroom place with a garage and nice little backyard. My favorite thing about the house is the kitchen. They redid it and it is very nice. Anyway, on Sunday night Nathaniel's mom said she was talking to someone in town (a friend of theirs who is a builder here) and he says we should buy a place with the market being the way it is. So we started in that direction on Monday and put an offer in before we left for San Diego on Thursday. We got back and looked at the house again on Monday and we changed our minds, withdrew our offer, and decided we didn't want to buy right now. It may be a good time to buy, we just need more time to find the right place. Nathaniel went back up to Ely on Easter/Our anniversary to finish up his last week of work and load up the truck to drive down on Friday. I had packed up and cleaned most of the house before I left knowing I wouldn't be coming back after the wedding. I went house hunting the next week looking for a place to rent. I didn't find anything that I loved as much as the Jarvis' place. So, I called the Jarvis' (Nancy's friend moving in August) and asked if we could nail down their place. We needed something for the 3 months in between though. We ended up doing a short-term contract in a 3 bedroom apartment about a mile from Nancy's and a couple from his parents. I like this area of town and I like being close to family. I am so excited to move into the Jarvis' place in the middle of August. I can't wait to have our own place that I can feel settled in. I can't wait for a yard, walk-in closet, decent kitchen and dining room. The ward seems very friendly. It is fun moving into a place where everyone knows the Sorenson family. I love going to church and having people say, "You're a Sorenson, aren't you? Which one are you married to?" It reminds me of my home ward where everyone knew the Richards' family.
We are loving being here. I get asked a lot if I am okay with living here. Let me answer that with a big YES! I am not here because my husband dragged me kicking and screaming, we are here because I love it here. I love the sun. I love being near family. I love the size of the town. I am happy that we will be able to call this home for a while, maybe forever. I never would have thought that would be the case 7 years ago when I got married. Funny how things change and turn out to be exactly what you want.

A Little Tired of Being Sick

Kate fell asleep more than once between the mattress and the dresser in the room we slept in. It doesn't look comfortable, but she didn't seem to mind.

The kids got pretty worn out while we stayed with Nancy. The warm weather and all of the activities just wore them out. Nathan was found asleep on the living room floor a couple of times and the toy room floor as well. Just so you know, he never has done that before. He must have been pretty wiped out.

I got sick with the flu on Tuesday the 19th before the wedding. Since then, every one of Nancy's 5 kids and all of my kids have had it. Nathaniel got hit with it while he was in Phoenix training for his new job. Nancy got sick for a couple of days as well. Eliza is the only one of my kids that only had it once. Katelyn, Tanner, and Nathan all had it on and off for a week and a half to 2 weeks each. Frequently it was 2 kids at a time. The interesting thing is that it usually hit the worst at night. Nathan has been on this pattern where he will puke one night, be fine for 2 nights, and then start puking again the 3rd night. I hope it is over soon. I am very sick of sick kids. In the 2 weeks we have lived in the apartment, I have had to do 12 sets of bedding in her washer and dryer since we don't have hook ups here. Luckily I have family in town and luckily we are friends and luckily it is warm enough that you can hang a lot of sheets out to dry to save on the electric bill. Bless you Nancy for putting up with me and all my laundry. We are hoping that Nathan is okay now because if he follows that pattern he will be back on again tonight. It has been almost 4 weeks of illness and I'm ready to be done with it.

Easter Fun

We had an Easter egg hunt on Saturday morning behind Nancy's house. We had filled a ton of eggs the night before and Daryl hid them for us. We only put one piece of candy in each egg so it was okay for them to go hog wild on the hunt. Above is the line up waiting for the gate to open. Below is Nathan and Neve going first since they are a little younger.

The older kids taking off.

The kids enjoying their spoils.

After the egg hunt we had relay races. So. Much. Fun! I think everyone had a good time, and a lot of good laughs. Our college friend, Daryl, and his girl, Chrissy, came to Yuma for the wedding and to spend time with old friends. It was so fun to have them here. They were so hilarious. It was a little flash back to the good old college days. That brought the total at Nancy's to 6 adults and 9 kids. What a ball! Of course the adults got in on the relay action.
Here are Dane and Nathan during one of the relays.

Adult/Child teams. Eliza and I were disqualified because I picked her up and carried her after she tripped. I still think we won though. That's just good team work, right?

Jonathan had to rescue this team. Neve either fell or didn't want to do it and Lauren still wanted to finish. It was hilarious! They were just standing there and Lauren was trying to coax Neve into moving. Jonathan stepped in to help them out.

On Sunday we had an Easter egg hunt and Mom and Dad's just for the adults. They had scripture clues guiding us to the clues for the scavenger hunt to find the Easter basket. Then after the basket was found, we each got to find one camouflage egg. They were hard to find. They were green or brown and well hidden. Inside there was candy and money. Mine had $10 in it and so Nathaniel and I used it to get a Chocolate Thunder from Down Under at Outback. Is there a better way to spend your money? I like the adult egg hunt tradition. You're never too old for some things.

Becca and Josh's Wedding

The girls all went out Thursday night before the wedding. It was a lot of fun. We ended up at Denny's because the other place we were going to go to was closing too early. We didn't mind at all. As long as we had time together it didn't matter. I love those times when you get together and you laugh until your stomach hurts. Here's Becca opening a fun gift...

The happy couple was married on Friday, April 22. Same day as Mom and Dad Sorenson. We are so happy to have Josh in the family.

All smiles. I love that you can feel their happiness in this one.

A little love from the bride.

Kate and Nana. Nana looked so beautiful for the wedding.
Kate wandered off during pictures at some point with a different wedding party. I went running around the temple to find her. I found her with tears streaking down her face, sobbing, and hugging a tree by the parking lot. The other wedding party had all left and she thought she was left behind. It was the saddest thing.

Becca and the little ladies. Adorable!

Love the attitude in this one. Becca's face is my favorite. It's awesome!

Protective older brothers

The kids found entertainment in the drain.

He was a little tired, hungry, and done with pictures. I thought it was so cute.

I love this one of Nathan. He didn't like us laughing at him so he hid his face in the flowers.

The wedding cake. The reception was at Mom and Dad's on Saturday night. It was so beautiful, well decorated, and fun.

Family pictures

Not my favorite of me, but my husband looks good (as always).

Hello, Sunshine!!!

Our first Arizona sunset on our drive down on April 15th. We were all excited about getting back to Arizona...even Tanner couldn't contain himself. I was just a giddy!

Barefoot, grass and sunshine! I missed you all.
Nancy, Brynn and I went and got pedicures. I loved every second of it.

Nathaniel did a mini triathlon. He swam 400 yards, biked 13 or 14 miles, and ran 2.8 miles. It was our first full day being here. He didn't get time to train at all.

He was a little tired, but he did really great.

Nathan's 3rd birthday was April 20th. We had a pool party at Nana and Papa's. It was fun to have all of that family in town for it. We haven't had family around for the kids' birthdays. That is going to be a bonus living in Yuma. Here is the birthday boy...

Cutie Kate with her fake smile.

Adorable birthday boy!

Love this face on Isaac! He is less than a month younger than Tanner. I think they are so cute together...I hope they are good buddies for life.

Tanner waiting for his cupcake.

That's better!

Nathan's cake face.

He loved the squirt guns. That's probably because he loves to torture his sisters.

Pretty Liza in the pool.

Nana and Papa's backyard looks amazing! It has so many pretty flowers all around. I loved these. The pink flowers they put in were perfect for the family wedding photos.

Daddy and a tired Tanner.

Mom and Dad got everyone rooms at a resort in San Diego for the wedding. We were all right next to each other or around the corner from each other. We all had a really good time. We had Girls' Night Out on Thursday night. It was so fun to be together with my Sisters and Mother-in-law. I sure love them. I am so excited to live here near some family.

Tanner didn't take to the grass and barefootedness as much as others. I loved his bare legs. I haven't seen so much skin on him in a long time. He is so little compared to my other babies.

Nathan had no problem. He's my Arizona boy. Last week he was doing snow angels...I much prefer this weather. It was heavenly!

Nathan opening a birthday card from Nana.

On our way to the pool. They looked like little ducks all in a row.

Our view from the observation tower at the resort. Gorgeous! I was sad we were so close to the beach and didn't go. We just ran out of time. Too many fun things to do.