Hey, we're alive

So, life happens. Job changes happen. Moves happen. Kids happen. There were 70 page hits on our blog last month, so obviously someone out there still checks in occasionally. Here we are, almost two years since we last posted (this is actually Brett, I'm far too lazy to log Sabrina out of the computer). Facebook is now fading, and folks have shifted to Instagram. Now, Facebook bought Instagram and there's bound to be something to replace that soon. Yet here on blogger, a few holdouts are still posting.

To give a brief synopsis of our lives since Parker was a basketball star (see the previous post).

- We moved! Shortly after our last post, I took a job in Utah (I know, I really don't know what I was thinking). I accepted the job, turned in my two weeks notice, and Sabrina heroically packed the house in that two weeks. When we made the phone call to our mothers to let them know we were moving, we also told them the good news, that we were expecting child number 4. Sabrina's mom flew down and helped Sabrina pack the house. So, we had everything loaded in a moving truck after two weeks, moved to Utah the following Monday and crashed at the in-laws for a few months.

- We bought and sold houses. We were really not sure how we were going to work out the housing thing. We were selling at a poor time, as the market in Tucson had rebounded, but lots of folks had dumped homes on the market. Lots of open houses happened, but not a lot of luck. Finally, Sabrina and I went to the temple one morning, and when we got out, there was a waiting message from our real estate agent saying that there was an offer on our home. We worked it out in the next few hours and wrapped that up.
That was after we had purchased a new house though. We wanted to get the kids in the school that we planned to have them in long term, and found out that the banks had no problem lending us far more money than we wanted to borrow. However, it made it possible to get into a home in the area where we wanted to be. We also never had to pay two mortgage payments. We were quite grateful for how everything turned out.

- We had a kid. Yea, another boy. Adie was sad. Another regular size kid at birth who grew past the edge of the chart very quickly.

- The boys did baseball. Chase claims to like it far more than he acted like it. Parker seemed to enjoy it a lot.

- Adie continues Irish Dance. She's with a different organization here in Utah, which means she doesn't have as many dance competitions. She got to be in a dance production of Annie which she quite enjoyed.

- It snowed. Many times.

- It melted. Yay.

And I'm out of steam writing a blog post. I might get around posting again before another two years goes by.

Basketball Star

The last few days Parker finally noticed that he's got a basketball hoop in his room. He's discovered how awesome he can be at it.  Here's a few shots from tonight.

 He's working on his moves with his back to his basket.

 He's working on his free throws.

He's also working on taking it to the hole.

Here's a short video clip of him playing tonight. Make sure your sound is turned on and watch the whole clip. It's worth it, I promise.

Big kids

In case anyone wanted to know, we have big kids. Here's the latest stats for the kids:

	Height (in)	Weight (lbs)	Height Percentie	Weight Percentile	Projected Height
A	54.25	64.8	>97%	89%	6”
C	46.5	46.6	>97%	90%	6’7"
P	41.25	36.8	>97%	95%	6’8”

Height prediction calculation comes from http://www.babycenter.com/child-height-predictor.
Percentile calculation comes from http://pediatrics.about.com/cs/usefultools/l/bl_kids_centils.htm

Arizona sunsets

Arizona has beautiful sunsets. A lot of them.

home remodel

It's been a long time coming, but I did finally finish our front room remodel. I'm rather proud of how it turned out. Here's some before and after shots.

I used the wainscoting from: http://www.familyhandyman.com/walls/how-to-build-a-wainscoted-wall/step-by-step

Out on a walk

Sabrina took Adie to her first Irish Dance feis and left me and the boys for a boy's weekend. One of the things they wanted to do was go hiking. I thought that would be a bit adventurous, but I did take them for a walk around the community lake. It was even kind of cold that day I think it's crazy how little they can look like brothers some times.

Christmas

Here we are, it's the middle of March, but hey, most of you still have snow on the ground, right? Well, maybe a few at least.

Mostly, it's just a collection of our kids, them being excited, and a little bit of loot.

 Our kids didn't wake up early, what a morning to sleep in a little.

 Parker just spied what I considered to be his best present of the day...

 His giant Mickey! He's also holding his "Mickey Ball" and (previously) "Mickey Big"

 And look, he got more Mickey stuff! This doesn't even show his Mickey Mouse book he got from his cousins.

 Everyone loved handing out presents.

 Oh look, more Mickey.

Adie got a face painting kit. Here she is testing it out. Mom's are champs letting kids do stuff like that.