Sedona Sweet

My mom used to have a cd of new age music that was called "Sedona Suite". I don't know why I remember that, but that's always what I think of when I hear "Sedona". I can see why they make "relaxation" music about it..the place is breathtaking. Reed, the boys and I went there yesterday for a day trip. The boys were completely bored, but us old folks enjoyed it. The pictures don't do it justice...this is the first time I was wishing for a panoramic lens, because you really needed it to capture everything you saw. We were surpised, however, because when you usually see these pictures, we, at least, picture this incredibly vast area of beauty, and while the whole area IS pretty...only a very small portion of it looks like this, with red rock cliffs that are staggeringly steep and majestic. The surrounding areas are more rolling mountainside with dark soil and lots of harsh looking green shrubs dotting the sides. Very strange. The dots on the one picture are from our very dirty windshield...I took that one from the car. :)

Anyway, enjoy! And if you want to listen to relaxing music while you surf the net...click here

Coming soon...

Family pic from Scott and Alisa's the other day.

Nothing exciting today, just another day of perfect weather! Yesterday we enjoyed being annual passholders to the Phoenix Zoo and I went with the kids while Reed was at work. We took our time, didn't worry about seeing it all, and had fun. We even rode the train! The boys, of course, loved that the best.

Last week we went to Chandler, AZ to a park with a train ride...we were a bit disappointed by the train because it was a pretty short ride that really went nowhere. But it was probably the coolest park ever...really huge play area on that bouncy sponge stuff, a large pond you could fish out of, tons of nice grass for picnicking with shady trees...and the best part? A bridge that provided a huge covered area with picnic tables and benches for parents to sit and watch the kids while they played in the fountain area. The boys loved it!

The picture doesn't do it justice, it was really huge.

Flawless.

not that I'm bragging...okay, I'm bragging.

March Madness

Chick Flick Review...lately I've had the chance to watch a few girly movies I'd been wanting to see, and here's what I think of them. All three are great!

The Holiday

Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
In Her Shoes

I liked Cameron Diaz in these movies, she wasn't her usual goofy self. And I love Toni Collette since Little Miss Sunshine, which was also, really awesome.

I had a movie free night and went to the Arizona Suns game with Reed, his brother Scott and wife Alisa. Funnily enough they were playing the Charlotte Bobcats! It was a really good game, and very close. Although, we, on the other hand, were NOT close, we were as far away from the court as possible in that stadium, way up against the wall. Next time Reed promises to try and get better seats. Woohoo! This week: hockey!

Trevor has been wearing out his dinosaurs. Something about the landscape in our backyard says "Play dinos out here" to him, and he does so incessantly. I am not complaining.

Our New House

Starting with the kitchen...from the back door.

and the dining area. I should have closed my pantry!

one side of my office...my kickass bookshelf from Ikea. overlook the junk in the corner. I need another bookshelf.

the living room from the corner. behind me is the kitchen and to the right behind me is the office.

the living room from the backdoor...the cutout to the left is the hall to our room, the cutout to the right is the entryway.

what you see from the couch. do you see my cool break-in deterrent screen door? That's so we can leave the doors open, even at night.

Baby Trevor's Room. When I'm done with a nursery painting I, um, need to start, he gets a new big painting on this wall.

the other side of Trev's room.

Carson's room! And no, I'm not done with my rendition of Starry Night. It will be better when finished.

the playroom, big and nice. the kids decorated the wall with wallies.

train table and other half of the playroom.

and finally the master suite.

from the master entryway.

this is the entryway. Are you still awake?

the bathroom is behind the curtains, which I ingeniously put up because it was So. Cold. in there when you take a shower. The curtains keep the heat in. And there's no pile of junk down the hallway. I added that with photoshop so as to not make anyone feel bad if their house wasn't as immaculate as ours. :)

Rewind a bit--and tons of pictures!

I finally uploaded some photos so I have to backtrack a bit. Mimi was sweet enough to take me and the boys to the airport and hang out for a few hours before our plane took off. The boys were sad to leave Mimi and Poppi but VERY excited to ride an "airpane". They were excellent on the first flight, but crazy terrible on the second, longer flight. Understandable, but stressful all the same. I won't do that again by myself while they're this young! No way!

They only look sweet in this pic...don't let them fool you!

Reed and I went exploring yesterday and got extremely lost, but took lots of beautiful pics--it's not my skill, it's the scenery! We also got year passes to the Phoenix Zoo, which I am glad for. The boys and I can go anytime! We went for the afternoon and strolled around and we all loved it.

These are two pics I took on the road...Gorgeous!

And here is something we thought was neat...the rock is too shear for us novices to climb, but I would love to go sit up top the way the guys in the pic are. Can you see them, up by the hole? I bet they can see all of the city from there.

This is a tree Reed pointed out, the way they cut the branch off, it made it look like a heart! Awww...and, um, why is the tree green?

And finally, because Reed is such a boy, he wants people to know that in Scottsdale (which is very ritzy) we saw not one but TWO Ferraris driving down the street in less than an hour. He took this pic of the second one from our car. Who knows what people thought of us taking a pic from our car...I felt like the paparazzi. LOL

We're Here!

We're finally all moved in, although there are still boxes and whatnots sitting around. For those that asked, here is a pic of the front, and I will post more once I get things organized. The pics on the real estate site just don't do it justice. It's gorgeous! The kids have a great backyard to play in, the neighborhood is awesome and has it's own park that we can ride bikes to...we are 5 minutes from Old Navy, Blockbuster, Best Buy, Target, all the food places we can think of...but removed so that we don't see or hear any traffic. It's really great.

It still seems surreal being here, I kind of feel like I'm on vacation, just with all my stuff! I guess it will seem real when I get our new furniture and I can get back into our old routines. Reed has already begun his new job (he wanted to take a week off to be with us and explore, but they needed him right away! :( oh well! ) and he seems to like everything there so far!

Wish us luck!

Gettin' in the spirit...

The weather here the past few days has been miserable! Cold and windy and COLD! I don't mind cold if it seems to have a purpose--bring snow, winter rain, get us out of school...but this recent weather seems to only be interested in making my family sick, giving me the Rudolph Effect, and running down the gas in our car since we have to crank it approximately 2 hours before leaving for anywhere. Suck!
My sister in law has ever so sweetly been keeping us apprised on the weather out in Phoenix...73 and sunny!! 70 and not a cloud in the sky! 72 and beautiful!! (see the pattern?) so rather than be jealous, I'm just going to get into the spirit and think how lucky we will be to miss the February Crush of wind and rain and gray stuff while we are basking in the AZ sun. ::poke::
Here are some pics... click to make them larger if you want!





more house pics coming shortly...we may have gotten an even nicer one than pictured below!











One last note...I've had tons of people lately telling me they read my blog, and I had NO IDEA! Why are you hiding? You can make a comment and make my day! Hi Jimmy! Hi Rhea! Hi Everyone!

From East to the West...

We're moving! On February 16, Reed and his bro will be driving a UHaul across country to Phoenix, Arizona with all our belongings. The boys and I will fly out the following week, and we couldn't be more excited. Scared, nervous, excited, anxious...it's all there. I've never lived anywhere other than the south. Even Florida (which at the time I did not consider the south because...it's just not) will still be more southern to me than Arizona. At least then I if I was feeling nostalgic for "country" I could drive a few hours and be in Alabama. At least then they had sweet tea, even though it never tasted right because of the weird water.
I'm a southern girl, through and through, but I am really excited to try a new place, and I think good things will happen to us out there. We are going out with a new lease on life, a new committment to ourselves and our family, and a new game plan in general. You will still be able to keep track of us via this blog, and of course we will send out our new address and phone numbers so we can keep in touch. We will miss all of you that have had a positive impact on our lives here in Asheville, and hope that you will keep us posted on yourselves and your families.











Here is the house that we will most likely have in Avondale (just outside of Phoenix). So cute! It looks small but is just the same size as the one we're in now, about 2000 sq. feet. I don't want to clean much more than that!
And, if you're interested, here are some photos of some surrounding mountains...So pretty! Thanks Alisa for the link!
Estrella Mountains

My boys saw their first real snow! Trevor has never seen it at all, and Carson has only seen flurries. We heard it was snowing at Mimi's in Fletcher, so we ran out to see it since our house was dry as a bone and the news was not calling for it to reach us at all. As soon as we got there, it dumped on us and covered the whole yard! The boys loved it! They rode their new jeep through the snow covered yard and liked the tracks it left. They also made their first snowballs! There wasn't enough to make a snowman, even a small one, so we went on home..and found just as much snow at our house!

















Trevor looks like he's thinking "What the heck IS this stuff?" Carson wanted to eat all the snow he could..