Here's the latest...

Happy March!!  Hopefully we can get to spring weather soon.  Although not too soon.  I'm not sure I am ready for yard work quite yet.  

We finally have the permit to do our basement, so I guess it is officially started.  Boy do the construction companies come out of the woodwork when they find out you have a building permit!!  Friday and Saturday we received two phone calls and yesterday we received six mailers.  It's crazy!

So here are a few things that happened in February...

Tori played Juliet in her class play of "Romeo and Juliet."  She was great.  She knew all her lines and delivered them with good expression and inflection.  She also got contacts the day before her performance which she was so excited for.  She is so like me, except for the color of her hair!!

Noah and Sam both finished basketball.  Noah is getting better at it and Sam at least learned the basics of the game.

Claire and Jace just managed to entertain each other.  Claire has to play with her friend, Taylor, almost every day.  That is, when she isn't thinking she is Tori's age and can hang around Tori's friends.

Jace continues to get into everything and has learned to escape outside if the front door isn't locked.  He is very excited to be able to go outside!

My Goal

So one of my New Year's resolutions was to update our family blog at least once a month.  I think at this point in time, once a month is all I can manage.  As you will notice, I am late starting my resolutions; story of my life.  Actually I was trying to play catch-up from Christmas holidays and then sickness going through the family (mainly colds). 

I have a goal to lose 20 lbs in the next two months.  My start has been very slow as I can't seem to get time to work out and when I do, someone gets sick.  I am finding I have to work out in the morning before kids go to school as Jace, the 18 month old thinks he needs to turn off the tv when he gets the chance.  I will keep you all posted the beginning of March.  Maybe if I am reporting to lots of people, it will help.  I just signed up for the Pound for Pound challenge on the biggestloser.com.  Great way to help the hungry in your community if you are interested.

Tori is having to do a science project for the science fair this year.  It is so out of my league.  Good thing her dad was a Sterling Scholar in Science!

Noah is playing basketball.  Doing pretty well.  His games are late and I am usually putting  my other kid s to bed so I haven't been yet, but Toran says he is a good defender.

Sam is also playing basketball.  He does great, especially when the players remember which basketball hoop they are going for.  It's quite entertaining.

Claire is loving preschool and gymnastics.  She gets very excited when she does a trick by herself.

Jace is climbing and getting into everything.  He tries to read Dr. Suess' ABC's along with us.  It's very cute.

Toran and I are hoping to start finishing the basement this month.  The plans get more elaborate the more he works on them.  We are attempting to do it on our own as we can pay for it, since we want to get out of debt also.  Any advice is greatly apprectiated!!

I will try and add pics soon.

Signing off,

Erin

New Years Resolution

...to blog more consistently!  ;-)

Freaky Claire

So after singing a favorite Veggie Tales song tonight, Claire finished with "freaky, freaky fresh word" which apparently she got from Sam but who knows where he got it.  Lovely, just lovely. 

Hodge Podge

Claire recently turned four - you can see her and her celebratory sibs above (along with Tori's friend Taryn).

Jace is now walking around - and throwing balls.  Crazy.  

WE ARE HERE!

Don't know why that famous line from "Horton Hears a Who" comes to mind but in any case, we are still alive, though admittedly more than a bit overwhelmed with life at the moment - hence the long delay on blog posts!

A quick and random recap:

(1) We had our "first annual" MacArthur family reunion and will post some pics from the same.  Leavitt family reunion to follow, I believe in October.  

(2) Toran has had major changes at work.  His two partners in Lehi - Pete Sundwall and Dan Egan - decided to start their own clinic in Alpine.  In order to handle the needs of many of their patients who are keeping their medical care with us in Lehi, we had Dr. Cheryl Johnson move from the American Fork office to Lehi along with her nurse practitioner, Ann Haynes.  We also hired Aaron Elswood, a terrific physicians assistant, to work with Toran.  With these additions, we've been able to handle the load, but barely and it is stretching us a lot.  Hopefully we will be able to add another physician in Lehi by next summer.  

(3) Toran has also had the usual high demand of scouts during the summer, including the weeklong summer camp by Bear Lake, a two-day camp at Goblin Valley, other camps and a series of hikes culminating in a hike to the summit of Mount Timpanogos.  Also our troop could have completed as many as 16-18 Eagle scouts by the end of this year, so you can imagine all the projects, etc!

(4) The kids are starting to hit the seemingly inevitable increase in demands from sport and music and other programs.  Noah wanted to do tackle football which is great but time consuming, along with his guitar lessons and Cub Scouts.  Tori has piano and is starting volleyball and I think hip-hop dance, plus is starting to do babysitting, mostly for us but some for neighbors.

(5) Plus we've started into school, BYU football is ahead, and Toran has tried with episodic success, to also maintain his communications on politics.  It says a lot about how squeezed our time is right now that Toran hasn't had more output regarding BYU sports and national politics! 

(6) Kids are growing up.  Tori will hit her Harry Potter 11th birthday party.  Noah just turned 9.  Sam can't wait for his 7th birthday in early November.  Claire's almost 4 and ready to start pre-school.  And Jace is 13 months and in that hyper-exploring stage.  

(7) Erin is keeping the Ship of Family afloat, the difficulty of which should never be underestimated.  Also doing "activity days" for the 9 year old girls in our ward, keeping up with her monthly reading group, and gradually working at the home improvement projects that have also taken a hit lately due to lack of time.  

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In any case here's to school, and hard work, and family, and faith, and conservative principles, and the BYU Cougars!  Welcome to Fall 2008 everyone! 

Spring Soccer

Enjoy a few photos here of Sam in his first outdoor soccer team games.  Several included battles with fierce, cold winds!  Sam's team has done well, and he seems to really enjoy being out there.

I (Dad) got to "substitute coach" one game and enjoyed it, as did Sam...

Blogging Springtime!

OK, admittedly we've been a bit lax in posting recently, but the snow and ice are thawing and we are getting back on board, so more coming soon! We recently had to replace home computers and went back to Mac so we've been in "file transfer session" but it's coming along nicely, so prepare yourselves!

Loads of Snow!

We haven't had a snow year like this in a long time. It just keeps coming! We will be more than ready when spring comes...

Political Blogging

With the February 5th "Super Tuesday" around the corner, I've been blogging at www.campaignamerica08.blogspot.com. Please come visit now and often!

Trick or Treat!

We have a great neighborhood for trick-or-treating and enjoyed having Beth & Jesse and kids and Don with kids over to go out with us. The babies lasted for a bit and then older ones stayed out longer - happy with their harvest of candy. Nice weather for once, too!

Enjoy the pics of these great costumes!

More Holiday Photos

More of the photos. Halloween shots should be up next!

Holiday photo time!

Time for our holiday letter...which means holiday photos...

These were taken for us by Amber, our sister-in-law Sara's sister, outside the Brigham Young summer home in St. George.

Jace was in a bit of an ornery mood, but other than that we were able to get each of the kids, a boys pic, a girls pic, and all 5 together.

Five...we're still getting used to the idea...and the new pace of life. Then again, we can't feel too bad since our parents had 10 and 8 and we each have a sibling with 6!

UEA Break

We made our first significant "getaway" since baby Jace was born this past week, tripping to St. George. These pics were taken at the "red cliffs" by St. George.


Claire was our little climber, better than most of the older folks I think!

In addition to the climbing and fun with cousins, mom and dad went to a play at Tuacahn Theater,
and dad took Trey, Tyler, and Ethan to the BYU game at UNLV, where the Cougars were dominant in
a 24-14 win.

Well, Jace is crying, so that's it for now!