Kylie's Baptism

Our oldest granddaughter, Kylie, was baptized on Nov 20. It was a great day and it's very hard to believe that she is that old already. Kylie is a very obedient, sweet girl and is such a great example to her younger sisters and cousins. Since she is the oldest of our grandchildren, all of her cousins will always be looking to her as an example and I know she will set a great one. We love you, Kylie and are so proud of you!

All of our familiy was able to be there for the baptism. Michael, Mallory and Madie surprised us in the middle of the service and walked in - 3 days earlier than expected! That was a wonderful surprise and everybody who was 'in on it' received the exact reaction they expected and hoped for from me - many tears of joy!

New Year's Resolution!

Just like everyone else, my goal for this year is to be better about blogging! I can't believe it has been almost 3 months since I last blogged - I have so much to blog about, I don't know where to begin. So maybe I'll just have to start....tomorrow!

Oh, and one more thing.....

I laughed when these pictures came across my computer when I downloaded my Iowa pictures. Ethan loves to use my camera and I knew he took a lot of pictures with it - these are just a few surprises I got. I have no idea when he lined up these cards and took pictures of them. My favorite one, however, is the last one. Good thing we have a picture of the green balloon sitting quietly on the couch!

I LOVE YOU, ETHAN!

Karen's trip to Iowa

Okay, so are you ready for picture overload? I had to take a lot of pictures of Claire and Ethan for this blog because I don't get to see them very often and post pictures of them! I had a fabulous trip to Iowa in September, so now I can document the trip on this blog. First of all, when I left Arizona, the temperature was HOT - triple digits and by September, we're all very ready to be done with the hot weather. Iowa was BEAUTIFUL and most of the time the temperature was in the 70's. I wanted to be outside as much as possible to soak it in before going back to more hot weather.I brought Claire and Ethan new puzzles and here they are putting them together. I actually had a little surprise for them each day I was there. It was fun for me and for them!
Here is Claire modeling her Halloween costume.

Ethan goes sooooo fast on this little bike - it's very amazing! When it got dark, Holly rigged Claire and Ethan's bikes with a flashlight on the handlebars and we went for a night ride (we walked and the kids rode). We couldn't keep up with them, but the kids were great at stopping at each corner to wait for us to catch up.

Claire is super fast on her scooter too.

Here's Holly. After Claire came home from school, we enjoyed sitting out on the front lawn. I meant to get a picture of Claire getting off the school bus - her bus stop is just past the mailbox in the background of this picture, so Claire doesn't have very far to go.

Claire is reading her book to Ethan and me.

Ethan decided it was time to mow the grass.

The first night I arrived, there were 2 events. The first one was Ethan's soccer game. He is on the sideline in this picture trying to decide if he wants to play. I begged and bribed him, but it was a no-go. However, he did play for a few minutes the next week - too bad I missed it!

The other event was Claire's fall festival at school. They had games, food and it gave me a chance to see Claire's desk and classroom.

The next night was free carousel ride night at the mall. So Holly and I each took a turn getting dizzy on the carousel. They have an ice skating rink in their mall and it just so happened that the Hawkeyes were playing a hockey game that night, so we got some dinner and watched the game.

Holly, Ethan and I were able to go eat school lunch with Claire. It was fun to see her at school - she is very obedient! They have a no talking rule in the halls, so she had to remind me a couple of times to be quiet.We got to watch her play at lunch recess for a little while.

And then it was time to line up to go back to class. As soon as she heard the bell, she immediately ran over and got in line. She didn't want to be late.

After Claire got home from school, we went to Wilson's Apple Orchard. Claire, Ethan & I are enjoying some delicious apples. You can pick them and eat them for free. They also have delicious apple turnovers that they sell there. Ummmm. Delicious!

Holly, Claire and Ethan are ready with their basket to pick some apples.

They also sell pumpkins at the orchard. We couldn't resist the pumpkin picture!

There is a very quaint German town named Amana that is pretty close to Holly & Jeff's house. We spent a couple of hours walking through the shops and enjoying the atmosphere. It was a beautiful day. We missed Claire, but we were glad our little buddy, Ethan, was with us.

Speaking of Ethan, isn't this a cute picture of him with his bottle of root beer?

Later that afternoon, when Claire got home from school, Holly had a meeting, so I dropped her off at the meeting and the kids and I went to a park where I got some cute pictures of them.

........then we went to Claire's dance lessons and I was able to watch her dance through a very small crack in the curtains while we waited for her.

The next day while Claire was at school, we took Ethan to a gymnastics place that they open up to the public at lunch time.

Ethan had fun jumping in the foam pit, jumping on the trampoline, etc.

And then that night was Claire's soccer game. She did a great job at her game and is quite an agressive little player. I was proud of her.

The next morning it was time for me to go home. As you can see, it was a wonderful week. I just realized I didn't get one picture of Jeff. Sorry, Jeff! He was gone to a conference for the first couple of days I was there, and then he was home in the evenings, but my camera wasn't out much in the evenings. I had such a fun time and enjoyed Holly's good cooking, playing with Claire and Ethan, playing games with Holly & Jeff in the evening and everything else about being there. I decided September is definitely the month to visit Iowa!

LRA Real Estate balloons

Our real estate brokerage is called LRA Real Estate Group. We found some balloons that fit just right. How did they know?

Superstition Springs Facebook Fan page

We live in the Superstition Springs community, with about 2,200 homes. This is our opportunity to build a Facebook page to give our friends and neighbors updates on what homes sold for right down the street last month.

Those are the Superstition Mountains in the background, and, according to Wikipedia:'The Lost Dutchman Gold Mine is reportedly a very rich gold mine hidden in the Superstition Mountains'. Wish we could find it!

New FaceBook Page for Power Ranch in Gilbert, AZ

We set up a Facebook Fan page to give monthly real estate updates to Power Ranch, a master-planned community of about 5,200 homes in Gilbert, AZ. It is about 10 minutes south of us.

This is our postcard we are sending out to notify people who live in Power Ranch to 'Like' us on the Business Page.