Pizza Breakthrough

Normally kids like pizza and seeing them eat pizza is not something remarkable.

5-yr-old likes pizza, but please no green peppers, not to be confused with pepperoni.


20-month-old old likes pizza, with extra olives please, or just olives would be fine with her too.









However, the 3 year old has a very limited list of things he will eat, and pizza was NOT on his list. For a family that eats pizza every week, it was a very important event when he actually ate pizza tonight for the very first time. After some convincing and bribery, he finally tasted that first bite and declared "It's good!" He then happily ate everything on his plate. Look at that great smile!


























New baby, sleeping in the background, had "no comment" on this pizza breakthrough.

Spring, Trains, and Butterflies

Just a few views of Spring in the Tucson desert.
Thought I'd better get some photos of the ocotillo while they are in bloom.

A view of the desert from the back of the house.















Looking back at the house from the back property line.















Our saguaro cactus looks like it got hit by lightning quite a long time ago with the top half gone, but this remaining part stands over 6 feet tall. I'm so happy to see it's still alive and growing a new little arm this year.






























This Spring I also get to spend time with some fun kids, doing things like making "the biggest train tracks ever."
















I have to say, new baby looks a lot like Kevin did at this age. (Of course, he had cute blue outfits, instead of pink butterflies.)



















THE END : )

Splish Splash . . .

. . . Baby L was taking her first bath.
















After the bath, she modeled her new outfit, a gift from Aunt Ashley and Uncle Ryan. Very cute!
















Pampa with the kids.


















Yaya with the kids.


















And now for something completely different . .

Little Miss B practicing for her first piano concert.
It's seems so easy when you have an electric piano.

Baby Face

I was thinking of two things that this new baby and I have in common. First, my middle name (Alice) was named after my grandmother too. When I was growing up, I never liked having such an old-fashioned name for my middle name. But, as I got older, I was happy to know I was carrying on my Grandma Dean's name and her memory. I hope this new baby will not think her middle name is too old fashioned, but she probably will.
Second, she is baby #4 in her family and so was I. Along with the hand-me-downs that come with being the younger sister, she will also have older siblings looking out for her (and teasing her) just like I did. Fun times!

Here are some observations from baby's first days at home.

The big brothers love to hold her.










The big sister doesn't quite know what to make of the new baby.
But the new baby sure makes the "old" baby look BIG.














So far, she's been a very quiet baby.



















But if she wants something, she will let you know!

The New Addition

Kevin & Caroline's new baby is here!

Lindsey Cathryn Judd
Born April 7, 2010
6 lbs 14 oz - 20.5 inches long




Here's the whole happy family shortly after arriving home from the hospital.



More pictures coming soon.

(Isn't that great that I now have two little namesakes! Thanks Kevin and Caroline, that was such a nice surprise!)

What a difference a day makes!

I just noticed I missed a whole month of blogging. I guess I could have blogged about doing the taxes in March, but I didn't really want to post pictures of 1040 forms, 1099s, or my shoe boxes full of receipts and documents . The way things are going, doing your federal taxes will only get more ridiculously complex until the IRS finally goes to the form that says:

Enter the amount you earned during the year on line 1.
Send in the amount you entered on line 1.

But enough of that.
Now to answer the question: Why do people want to live in Tucson?

Here's a picture of what it looked like when we left Utah last week.
(This is an actual photo of our deck on April 1st, not an April Fool's joke. )














Compare and contrast with some pictures from the next few days in Tucson.
Some pool time at Kevin's house . . . .














Planting some flowers with the kids .....













and blowing and catching bubbles.





What a difference a day makes!