Scott and Jer, photojournalists

I feel like I should start with James, the quietest member of our family. Poor little guy gets overlooked sometimes because he's so sweet! As long as he's fed and well-rested, he's all smiles. I tried and tried to get the smile I get all day every day: the smile so cheesey that his lip dips lower than his two tiny bottom teeth, but to no avail. Here's the best I could do. He's just barely learning how to make mischief:
Here are his chubby little fingers grabbing at the sunlight:
And here's how excited he is for church every Sunday:Isn't that a hilarious pic? We couldn't get them to smile for anything. It's actually much harder to get a serious pic of Scott than a cheesy one...

One fantastic perk to being in Phoenix is that Jer's grandma Ruth, going on 98, lives in Tucson, just a day trip away. She lives with Jer's aunt and uncle, and Scott loved visiting "the house with the two grandmas."
Most days lately, we go to the gym, have a little preschool time with Scott (anyone ever heard of the Kumon workbooks? I got them at Target -- they're SO fun!), and try to visit one of Scotty's three buddies here in the valley: Logan Eberhard, Miles Millecam, and Amelia Jennings. For those of you who know the Jennings, can I tell you how much I admire Brittany? She's my latest hero for giving birth to her second little baby girl at home (planned, with midwives), without ANY drugs, in about 3 hours' time. We went to drop of a gift that afternoon and there she was, out in the yard with the baby, watching Amelia play with Brad. She looked awesome! The day of! Crazy.

We're having lots and lots of fun planning for our big move to PA. We're open for suggestions on how to find good housing and how to move. Has anyone ever used a realtor to find a rental? Any terrible/awesome experiences relocating across the country? And what about PODS vs ABF vs UHaul? Any suggestions? All advice welcome! Lisa Yorgason sent me a flyer for a house her friend is selling in Allentown, and it just happened to be sent to her by one of my good friends from BYU! So sadly we'll just miss each other, but it's great to have someone to give me the violin scoop on a town before I even get there.

Now for our photojournalism segment... Lots of pictures, but I couldn't decide which ones to leave out, so here they are:

I went to take a picture of the baby the other day and found out what Scott had been doing while I was busy upstairs.

I thought his little tour-o-the kitchen and patio were pretty good. My favorite is his shadow on our weed patch…I’m not sure whether he was taking a picture of the “garden” or of his shadow? I also liked that he took a picture of our palm tree stump come bird feeder. It's one of the classiest parts of our pad.

Jeremy had just as much fun on our trip to the Botanical Garden’s Chihuly Exhibit. Amazing! You know how pictures go: times the coolness of the pictures by 10 and that’s what it’s like in real life. Scott was surprisingly interested in the cacti, the bugs, and the glass sculptures for a full two hours. My favorite exhibit was the boat full of giant marbles/psychedelic beach balls.

This one was titled "The Moon"







The hardest thing for Scott all day was not being able to touch the cactus.

My kind of chandelier...

I really wish I knew how to make the pictures bigger...if anyone knows a trick, please share! It was an inspiring afternoon. So glad we went!

big news!

Residency news: Allentown, PA for 3 years! Yay! Jer's very, very excited. He digs the program and has had in on his short list for well over a year now. I have to say it took me a few days to get excited, but now I really and truly am. I can't wait to get back "home" to the east, and for Jer to have the eastern experience.

I can't say I won't miss 70 degrees in February or orange-blossom-infused air in March. But we've been soaking in this southwestern winter fully preparing for 3 cold ones to come. Boys need to play in the snow, right?

Perks I'm personally looking forward to: New York, Boston, DC, Philly, ETC! Hooray for giant cities and all they have to offer! Road-side stands, PA Dutch country, state parks every few miles, cicadas in June, fireflies, lush green, maples in fall, azalea gardens, muggy summers, August afternoon rainstorms, rolling PA hills, H&M (hope there's one closeby!), my favorite people in MD, and just the *feel* of the east. It feels so different from the west. Both are great, and I'm so happy our family will have a little stint back there because we'll probably settle west.

More news and lots of pics to come. We're currently waiting for internet to be installed at home and trying not to curse Cox techs for whatever's holding them up. Right now I'm standing at a library carrel. Flashbacks to BYU before it was laptop-land.

Out of the mouths...

Some conversations we've had with Scott lately:

on a car ride after a long silence, Scott pipes up: "My hands will rock the world." Future jazz prodigy? Who knows...

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Scott: "We're fuzzy mom. Is it time to eat?"

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Scott: Mom, are you Jennie or mommy?

Me: Actually I'm both.

Scott: Oh. (rubbing my belly) Is Jennie in your tummy?

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excitedly: Mommy, my bum is singing!!

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Making like he's flexing, only with elbows forward instead of out to the sides,"Mom, my elbows are growing stronger and stronger!"

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to Jer, while squeezing his forearm: "Daddy, is this arm grass?"

Ketchup

Oh dear oh dear we've slacking in our blogging. These are some pics from October... how could I possibly skip posting them? Some serious blackmail material. Note: no parent was involved in the dressing of our child this way. It was all Abby. Doesn't she look like she had fun doing that to him? Down to the heels...


Grandma and Grandpa Tilton had some pretty sweet toys. These were from Grandpa Tilton's childhood (!) I think I had more fun playing with them than Scotty did, and I want my dad to learn how to make some modern block guys... Here they are, dad:

We went to AZ to look for housing in Dec, and while we were gone, this happened to Vegas: Here's a highlight of our trip to AZ: For you Des Moiners, yes, you recognize the bum on the left -- it's Logan Eberhard's. We went to see them and their beautiful new home in Gilbert. It was a happy reunion to say the least. We had another Des Moines reunion right after Christmas... Lynda and Q came to stay with us for a bit and hitch a ride to St. George. We had lots of fun, but I forgot to take a single picture with them :(

Here are a few Christmas highlights. All the cousins get Christmas jammies from "santa" at Uncle Jeff's house. It was fun to be living with family this year and to be a part of it all!
Here's James opening his first ever present

After Christmas we were lucky to be a part of my dear friend Sara Black's marriage to Danny Brown. Yes, she's now Sara Black Brown, and her mother in law is a Green. Fun times.


We also crashed Katie's in-law's cabin near Kamas, UT. We drove the snowmobiles around and Scott had his first non-ice-chunk-shredding sledding experience. Casualties of the day were Jer's tailbone after a sledding jump and the snowmobile I drove for a while. doh! We were stuck stuck stuck until Jer saved the day and unstuck us. It was still a blast. Here's our little snowbaby. "A Christmas Story" anyone?


Here are Jer's footprints -- yes, bare footprints -- outside my aunt Janet's in Midway, UT. What we couldn't get a pic of were his bare snow angel neighboring Scotty's bare snow angel right by the hottub. Like crazy father like crazy son.
We had one more month at Grandma's, which we thoroughly enjoyed. Has anyone ever used those colored fizzy bath tabs? This is what it looks like when you empty an ENTIRE jar of them into the tub. I decided I'd better check on Scott when he started calling, "mommy, my tub is BLACK!" And you'd think I'd learn, but at the next check, I found the bubble bottle emptied into the tub as well... He still talks about that bath.

Scotty's DREAM car was parked outside of Costco for the holiday shoppers. We missed getting a ride, but the picture seemed to please him almost as much.
Here's James, our fluffy pink boy. Brazilians would call him "fofozinho." If I ever manage, I'll post a video of a "story" he told me one day. He's at a very fun babbly stage. Still completely stationary, though, and showing now signs of being interested in crawlig. I love to witness new stages, but I can't say I'm too sad about him still sitting and happily playing!
We're all settled in our new place in Tempe, AZ. We lucked out and got a 3 bedroom townhome with a giant patio. The patio is currently the most-used room of the house. I don't think we've had a day with a high below 60 degrees yet, and lots of been closer to 80. Yeah, I could settle here. I know I'm saying this at the "coldest" time of the year though...
Scott enjoys vacuuming our lawn:
And this is where we can most often be found on weekends and during lazy afternoons:

Sometimes I just have to laugh...

like in a crowded parking lot when someone sees me pulling my full grocery cart and two kids up to my car and flips on their signal (little do they know that the spot won't be available for another 1/2 hour at least)

or when I'm at the Library story time and in the middle of the room, in the middle of a song, Scott yells, "hey, look at me!" and pulls his shirt all the way up to his shoulders to show off his growing belly (we're all proud of our growing bellies in the Tilton household these days)

or when I prepare a Chinese feast, complete with fortune cookies, 6 *days* before Chinese New Year, not finding out until afterwards I was a dork and got the date wrong

or when Scott yells, within 2 feet of the unsuspecting passerby, "mommy, she's black!"

Yeah.

My mom's blog

For anyone that knows my mom, or anyone that wants to know her, I have great news: my brother started a "blog" for her. He's posting her journals and letters periodically, and I'd love for anyone who's interested to visit. The site is lessonsmymothertaughtme.blogspot.com. I've been thinking a lot about her, because Christmas just passed and also because my kids are so darn cute and I want her to be here play with them. I love that she wrote as much as she did so that my husband and children really can know her in time. And I take a lot of comfort in knowing that she didn't just vanish into thin air. She's still very much alive, as is her legacy of love and service.

Family pics

Here are some recent pics of the family. I now know why lots of people send only pictures of the kids: aren't they more fun to look at than me and Jer?

James is my favorite in this one:
The boys were just about done:
Trying...Trying... Trying...Got it: