Adams' Adventures

Here's a picture of Noel at the park at the Riparian Preserve when he was 4. 


 He played basketball with the YMCA preschool team.  He really enjoyed it for the most part.  When Noel got excited he would jump up and down really quickly, he still does sometimes.


Noel was interested in reading from an early age. He really enjoyed learning to figure out words and knew how to do it before going to kindergarten.





 Noel loved Star Wars - anything Star Wars.



Here is a picture of my boy - his serious side is showing this day - he wasn't too excited about Halloween and dressing as a race car driver - I think he would have been more happy being Spider-man...again. Look at those big brown eyes!!!

I love Noel. He is my sensitive, thoughtful, inquisitive, sometimes goofy, funny boy.  Aaron and I see both of us in him. I'm so proud to be his momma.

It has been such a long time since I posted anything on here.  I was having trouble getting pictures to upload to this computer. And who wants to read a family blog without pictures?! Not I... So here is a family sprinkler picture with a naked baby in it, circa May 2013...

 Claire and Noel were involved in a program called Let's Play Music last year when we lived in Chandler.  Getting back to Chandler was tough after moving to Gilbert, but we stuck with it until the end of the year.  I loved the program and the kids learned a lot about music and even music theory.  They are ready for piano instruction.  Except our pocketbook is not so ready.  This program inspired me to start my own business with Kindermusik.

What I like about Kindermusik as opposed to Let's Play Music is that it is even more child centered and not performance based.  It is more fun and uses more of a variety of music and activities.  It also prepares children for more instruments than piano. I got my license to teach Kindermusik in August and my classes start on Friday!  Wish me luck!  My Kindermusik blog is here -  and I'm on facebook as Kindermusik with Miss Sarah.  Add my new blog to your readers and leave a comment, please!


Noel turned 5 and had a Star Wars Party.  Claire turned 7 and had a Barbie party.  Alex turned 2 and didn't have a party. 

Here are the Adams munchkins.  Getting taller everyday.  Claire is still wearing the patch.  She is up to 4 hours a day now.   We will see the doctor on Friday to see if she still needs it.  We are crossing our fingers!

 Grandpa and Grandpa Adams, plus Uncle Dan cam to visit for Thanksgiving.  We had a nice dinner and invited some of Aaron's friends from work.  It was a nice time.  Here we are at the Mesa Temple lights.

 These funny kids of ours.


 On Saturday we said good-bye to Uncle Dan who had to go back to California to play the violin in concerts or something and we took a trip to Prescott, AZ.  Claire posed at the Gingerbread house exhibit.
 This was Alex's first trip.  He loved the train.

 There was also a light parade to enjoy.  Here Aaron saves Capt. Smooshy from being smooshed by the parade.




 The Gilbert temple is almost complete. It was nice to visit the site and the kids got a little piece of the temple walls to take home.  We are thrilled to be able to be so close to two temples.  They are so beautiful and more importantly the work that happens in them is so wonderful.  We know that we are a forever family because of the blessings of the temple.

 Noel loved his Halloween costumer this year.  He wore it for days at a time... to bed... to the store...




 Claire wanted to be Merida from Brave.  She wore curlers in her hair to bed the nght before and we sprayed her hair with Orange hairspray.  We were able to all go to the school's halloween parade.  Claire is loving her new school.  That makes everyone very happy.

 One thing we missed when we were living in northern Arizona were modern parks.  It's nice to have access to parks like this one, when it gets so hot.  You can cool off in one of the many splash pads or pools.


 This guy loves the water.  Forgot his swimsuit this day...

 Most people may not realize that Arizona has a monsoon season.  It is super dry most of the time, but when it rains - it rains and rains.  This is the flooded park across the street from our house.  The kids loved splashing in the super sized puddles.They soaked each other.

Gotta teach Alex that it isn't okay to drink this water, however...

We are closing on our new house this week.  Stay tuned!

 It's been two months already.  I can't believe how fast time flies.  Here is an update:

We made it to Chandler all together with no complications.  Things went really fast unpacking since we only unpacked about half of our things.  Our garage is full of boxes staying nice and warm...

 The kids started school about two weeks after we moved here.  It was a crazy two weeks trying to figure out where to send them.  Chandler is on a modified all year school schedule.  And they have school of choice and there is a school every square mile just about.  So, not having a choice for the past year, I went a little crazy visiting about 5 schools before I made a decision.  Claire goes to a great school and we found a loving and patient teacher for her, which is exactly what she needs.  She is doing so well!  I was worried that with her only having gone to half day kindergarten, that she would be really behind, but her teacher was confident that she would do fine when she had Claire in her class and saw that she was reading above grade level.  "She is too smart for kindergarten, she knows way too much!" she told me.

 This little guy is loving having some time alone with mommy in the mornings.  He also adapted well to the move by learning to sleep through the night - in a pack n play no less.  We will upgrade him to a real crib once we get into our more permanent home.

 These boys are too much fun.  Noel is doing really well in preschool.  His teacher says that he is friendly and listens and follows directions well and understands everything easily.  He seems happy there and she loves watching his hair bounce when he runs and plays!  So do we.  Love that muppet hair!
 Alex loves Claire's baby doll, "Baby Baby".  She has had her since she was his age and it's still her favorite toy.  This has caused a little bit of contention between them.  But it is so cute to watch him hold and cuddle that baby doll.  Love that sweet boy.

 Claire's patch therapy wasn't working, so her ophthalmologist advised us to go ahead with her eye muscle surgery.  This picture was taken about a week later.  She is doing remarkably well.  The day of the surgery  was uneventful.  The boys went to a neighbors house to be watched and Claire and I went to Scottsdale for the procedure.  I think her favorite part was the little TV she got to watch while waiting to go in.  They made her smell gas that was like, "stinky feet".  Then she went to sleep and about 45 minutes later they called me back to see her and help her home.

She had big huge pupils and her eyes were bright blood red on the sides. She wanted to scratch them because they were itchy and her nose itched.  But the nurse said no itching.  That was hard.  But the surgeon said that itching wouldn't hurt the sutures and to not worry too much about it.  Anyway, Claire slept all the way home and into the late afternoon.  We had ointment to put on her eyes every few hours.  Ladies from the ward brought us some meals for a couple of days which was totally unnecessary, but appreciated.

Claire's handwriting has improved DRAMATICALLY since the surgery.  And it hasn't even been two weeks yet. 
 Saturday we took the kids to a park in Gilbert where they have a pit with dinosaur bones in it.  The sun  got too hot so we decided to walk around instead.


 Happy kids on the bridge walk.  So hot that Noel wanted to wear Claire's hat...


 The view from the other side.  The water here is all reclaimed.  The park is a creative stop for icky water in the water treatment process.

So we are happy to have made this move.  Aaron is very happy with his job and is doing well.  I am happy with being in civilization again and being able to shop around and I TREASURE my membership at the YMCA.  The kids are doing well.  So far so good.

We put an offer in on our first home last week.  The home is in Gilbert and it is in a nice neighborhood with a good school.  It is a short sale, so we may have to wait a while before we know for sure if the deal will go through.  We sure are hoping and praying it will.  Our lease here ends at the end of October.  There also is not a whole lot to choose from in our price range in 4 bedrooms.  But we are confident that we will be o.k. There you have it!  Adams Fam over and out.