The Gissel Girls!

My friend Jenn came to stay with us our first week in Arizona when Christian had to go back to Utah. She brought her two beautiful girls, Carissa and Addison. Carissa and Eliana have been friends since Eliana was 2 months old... well as much as 2 month olds have friends that is. We moved from CA when Eliana was 16 months old and Carissa was almost 2. They get to see each other every time we go to CA and Jenn and the kids came to Utah this past year. They are great friends and play really well together. Jenn helped me so much! She helped me to unpack, to take care of the girls and to help me keep my sanity. It was so good to spend time with her. We haven't gotten to see each other for any extended period of time in a long time! Someday we will be neighbors... right Jenn? Thank you again! You are the VERY BEST!


Playing in the backyard!

Playing at the park

Making cookies... very yummy cookies!


They did a great job making the fork marks!

The day Jenn left it was raining... Eliana went outside and danced in the rain, it was so cute, I had to grab my camera and get a few pictures.

Utah

The night we were packing up the moving truck, Eliana's two Sunbeam teachers came by to say goodbye! They were great teachers and Eliana LOVED going to their class. Tawny (on the right) was my VT companion and Marin, (on the left) was my visiting teacher. Thank you two for your influence on my and Eliana's life! You are both great! We will miss you!

This is Eliana with "Little Ben" as she calls him. His Mom, Whitney, and I are friends. They live in Haymaker too. Eliana and Ben are being pulled by Pa... Ben's grandpa. Eliana still talks about both of them.

Kate (below, isn't she super cute!) was in Eliana's Sunbeam class and was one of our neighbors in Utah. She and Eliana waved to each other across the room in sacrament meeting and always hugged upon greeting in primary. Kate came to visit the day before we left and brought Eliana a treat bag for the trip down here to AZ. It was so helpful on the plane! Thank you Kate! Eliana misses you!!

Curly haired cousins... or second cousins, cousins once removed?? what is it? This is Eliana with 2 of my cousins children, Kennedy and Ruby. I got to know my cousins better in Utah and will miss them!!! If you're ever in AZ, please come visit !!!!
Eliana and Ruby laughing at lunch!

Ruby's Grandma, my Aunt Marilyn, came over and helped us pack! Thank you so much! We will miss you guys too!
Julia and Brielle... Brielle is Rebecca and Blaine's baby girl. Rebecca came and helped me pack up too. We had been hanging out quite a bit before we moved and I miss her! She's a great friend! Thanks Rebecca!

Back Online in Arizona

This is going to be a fairly random posting.... so be prepared. We got to our new house in Arizona on Sat. May 17th and have been working on settling in ever since. Christian had to fly back to Utah to work for one week, from the 19-23rd. My very best friend, Jenn came from California to stay with the girls and I which was such a blessing. More to come on that visit in a future posting. We love our new house... here are a few pics.

The backyard is one of our FAVORITE parts of the house! Eliana is having SO much fun playing outside. In fact the first day we got here, the sprinklers were on in the backyard and before I knew it Eliana was completely naked in the backyard running in the sprinklers. Here are a few pics of her doing the same thing but clothed a bit.
There are 2 nice parks within a few mins. walk. One has sand and Eliana is in LOVE with playing in the sand... we are prob. going to get a sandbox for the backyard... although I might curse it if we end up with gritty floors!


Julia was 3 months on the 24th of May and on the 28th started rolling from her front to her back!! I took some "action" photos...

I absolutely LOVE the kitchen! It's beautiful and has lots of room and even has a pantry! Yeah!

Makayla Zullo is My Best Friend

You have probably heard Eliana say the statement which is the title of this post. Eliana and Makayla met last spring a few times before we moved to Washington but became best friends this last summer in Washington. They played together just about EVERY day! They are REALLY going to miss each other. I took their pictures yesterday, as you can see, they have A LOT of fun together. There are a LOT of pics.... couldn't pick just a few, so I posted a bunch! We love you Makayla and will miss you! We can't wait for you to visit us in Arizona!

Ryoko's Wedding

About 8 years ago... (ekk, now I feel old) I met Ryoko. I was serving my mission in the GREAT Utah Provo Mission in the BYU Asian area. Ryoko was new to the US (from Japan) studying English at the BYU English Language Center. Ryoko took the discussions but didn't get baptized while I was there. We developed a great friendship and she came to visit me in Maine after my mission. In the fall of 2001 she got baptized and I was living in CA at the time and got to come up to Utah for her baptism, I even spoke at it. Then later she decided to serve a mission. She served in Japan. She got married on Saturday in the Salt Lake Temple to Nobuto Oshima. I not only got to go to the sealing (which was in Japanese), I got to be her wedding photographer. I have posted just a few pics on here, check out my photography blog in a few days and I will have more posted there. I feel so blessed to know Ryoko, she is one of the most loving, kind and humble people that I know.
Eliana loves Ryoko and has added her to her list of best friends.
The flowers at temple square were so amazing!

Look at the air they got in the picture below!
Congratulations Ryoko and Nobu!
Love You Ryoko!

May Flowers

I LOVE spring! The other day I took some pics of Eliana with some pretty blossoms from one of the trees outside of our house. I love flowers they are almost as beautiful as my 2 little ones!

On Saturday I took pics at a wedding... I got a couple of cute shots of Julia while I was at it! Isn't she adorable!!!!!!!!