2012!

I haven't posted anything since July, so I thought it was high time that I write a little summary of everything important that has happened since then. We have LOVED Arizona so far. I still can't get over how wonderful it is to throw on some flip-flops and go out to the park in t-shirts in the middle of January. Maxwell is turning five next week, and we are having his birthday party at the park in FEBRUARY. How cool is that?

We also love our ward. There are tons of attorneys, and we have really enjoyed getting to know them. On our first Sunday here, when we walked in, Chauncey bumped into an old mission companion. We had no idea that he and his family lived here in Arizona, let alone that we would be in their ward. Now the two of them are serving as Gospel Doctrine teachers together, and I am serving as the secretary to the Young Women's Presidency. (His companion's wife is the YW's President). They have a little boy close in age to Maxwell. It has been great!

Chauncey loves his clerkship. The work is interesting, the judge is a genius and a great mentor, and the co-clerk is great too. This will be so great for his career, not only as a resume-builder, but also because he has learned so much from the judge. This has definitely been the best work experience he has ever had. Chauncey is getting ready to apply for the Arizona Bar Exam, which he will take in July. Yikes! He will study weekends and evenings. I think he will sign up for the IPOD Bar-bri course and listen to it on the bus to and from work too, which should help. Taking it during a full-time clerkship may be crazy, but waiting until he starts working 80 hrs/week at his firm and tip-toeing around partners for taking time off soon after he starts working sounds even crazier. He was unable to take the bar last summer because he was working as a Summer Associate at White & Case.

Maxwell is reading really well now. He had a spell for a while where he was not wanting to read, but now he loves it, and it has clicked. I just started having him read one verse from the Book of Mormon each day too, which has also been great reading since there are no pictures and he can't just guess the words based off of the pictures. I told Maxwell about how Chauncey read the entire Book of Mormon when he was just five years old and finished it before he turned six, so Maxwell is trying to do the same thing. He gets frustrated with the big words, so we are just doing one verse per day until he gains more confidence. Maxwell also just started playing on a community soccer team. He loves it.

Jackson is still completely obsessed with cars. He dreams about them. He sleeps with them. He eats with them and dips them into his cereal and then makes little trails of milk everywhere by rolling them across the table. He even scrapes the paint off them with his teeth (hopefully they don't have lead paint!). Jackson is really quite the charmer, but he is also a nutty little guy.

Camryn is doing really well too. She makes scary monster noises randomly and scares people. I guess that most people don't expect such weird noises to come from a baby. She is scooting really well backwards still, and she can scoot forward for about a foot or two. She can scoot backwards across half the room, but her forward scoot is still needing some work. Her preferred method of transportation (other than being carried) is to roll repeatedly to things that are to the side of her until she gets to them. Her pediatrician here said that her muscle tone was average, and that she seems to be fine developmentally as well. She responds to her name, loves games like peek-a-boo, and she is very social. We are so grateful for our perfect little girl!

As for me, I am doing well too. I am working a little bit for an insurance company reviewing contracts from home. (I only work about an hour or two per week). I stay busy with going to Presidency meetings for YW's, going to mutual, and chasing the kids around. Lately we have been going to story-time at the library, participating in joy school (which I teach every third week), and going to playgroup on Tuesdays. I hope to start working just a little more once we move to DC.

Make note: In our family picture above, there is a cactus! I am so happy.