A couple of weekends back one of my cousins was married. Since we are now only a few short hours from our families in AZ I thought it would be fun to go. Tom on the other hand had different ideas. He suggested that I fly out to AZ alone and have fun with my family while he stayed home with the kids. Of course I jumped at the chance to go somewhere sans children and was more than willing to leave Tom in charge while I went gallivanting off to visit family and friends. After all Tom did have that eight week vacation last summer...okay, so basic training isn't exactly a vacation but he had way too much fun with going to Sea World, and Six Flags with his "BTFF" (Basic Training Best Friend Forever) Captain Johnstun for me to think that it wasn't kind of vacation! Anyway, I flew out to AZ and had a fantastic time visiting my family. I hung out one night with my sister in law and even had time on Saturday to spend time with one of my best friends from high school before heading out to dinner with all my sisters and a soon to be new sister. I had such a good time and was so glad Tom suggested that I go alone!

The picture on the left is all of the Pear (my brothers and sisters) kids, minus Tyler who is in the military, and Tammie who is just late (as usual). The picture on the right is of all the Pear girls, including an almost Pear on the very left, Kristin, who is marrying my brother Dallin in June. Check my out in my almost eight month pregnant glory. Notice my legs are a bit orange...they are! I had to wear nylons to hide my pregnancy induced varicose veins, snazzy.

"That might be a penis"

I betcha no one reads my blog anymore! I don't blame anyone, it's been a lifetime since I posted anything. Not that we haven't been having loads of fun, because we have. Here's a just a few of the fun things that have happened since my last post.
1. found out we are unexpectedly expecting...again.
2. Tom started moonlighting at the Sierra Blanca prison. He says it's not as glamorous as one would think.
3. at 10 weeks I started hemorrhaging profusely (sorry, I know it might tmi).
4. Spent some time in the ER were I was diagnosed with what is called a subchorionic hematoma. Good news is the baby is fine, but my uterus not so much.
5.I am put on modified bed rest until I'm out of the danger zone.
6. My Mom came to visit.
7. We sent the kids the stay with family in AZ. (modified bed rest says I'm not suppose to lift anything more than 10 pounds, push a vacuum, sweep, or really do anything useful.
8. Tom and I joined the kids in AZ for Christmas.
9. Came back to TX and took the kids to the ER.
10. Haylie had pneumonia and so did Huck.
11. Huck spent four days in the Pediatric unit of the hospital for his pneumonia.
12. We celebrated New Years Eve by getting Huck home from the hospital and going to bed by 10 p.m.
13.at week 19 we found out that the hematoma has cleared up so I can have a normal pregnancy from here on out.
14. The doctor told us we are having a girl....five minutes later it might be a boy. Her words exactly "that might be a penis. But if it is I've never seen a penis that looked like that before. I guess we'll just have to wait and see." Now, I'm really worried.

So, lots of fun times for us in El Paso. So far this has been the longest pregnancy of all time. Now that it's Feb we are all doing well. The baby is due July 1st and I'm hoping for a healthy normal sexed child. I am getting another ultrasound next week so I'm really hoping the tech can tell us for sure one way or another. I'll keep you posted.

El Paso Zoo

We have been all about trying everything El Paso has to offer so this week we made our way to the El Paso Zoo. The sign outside boasts they have 20 endangered species at the zoo! The place was so small that I'm not sure there was many more than 20 animals in total. Maybe I missed something? Either way we had a great time. In my opinion there is a lot to be said for a small Zoo. You get to see it all and you don't have to spend the whole day there dragging the kids all over the place.Last year we went to the Bronx Zoo in NY and it was so huge and crowded that it was hard to see anything and we ended up leaving early...only to find that while we had been inside we got a parking ticket for parking too close to the fire hydrant. I can't tell you how much we spent last year on parking tickets but it was a lot! No more of that here, that's the beauty of having your own garage!

White Sand National Monument

Yesterday we drove the the White Sands National Monument. By far one of the funnest/coolest places I've ever been, and I've been to some fairly cool places in my time i.e. The Eiffel Tour, London Bridge (and a few others).

The sand basin was formed by gypsum desposites millions of years ago, or something to that affect. All the sand is piled high so what you do is buy a sled and slide down the drifts of sand like you would in the snow. Haylie loved it, and I thought it was super fun too! Everything was so white I felt like it was snow. It didn't help that it was FREEZING. I mean freezing, it snowed on the way back and the wind was whipping all around. We should have dressed warmer, but we didn't think it was going to be that cold. In fact, last night when Tom took Wedge out it was snowing at our place! This is El Paso, I didn't think we were going to get snow. This morning when I walked out side there was snow all over the Franklin Mountains! Yikes.

We had a blast, and it was one of the first days Tom has had off in awhile. What a fun family adventure!

The Things Tom built

Because I have expensive tastes and we currently don't have the pocket book to match Tom has become a carpenter.

Haylie has graduated to a twin bed. She kept falling off of her toddler bed mattress. I looked and looked for a modern kids bed that was affordable and it wasn't out there. All of the beds I liked had a price tag of 900-2,000, for a kids bed! Come on, it's just wood and a non-toxic finish! So I had Tom make a replica of one of the beds I loved. He did a pretty fantastic job. I should have posted a picture of the actual frame, because it's impressive. It's hasn't been stained and sealed yet because I've had a hard time finding a non-toxic stain here in El Paso and I have to special order one. I'll post the pictures of the finished product once it's all done.

The other thing Tom built was our media console. Once again I fell in love with one I found at Room and Board in NYC. Couldn't afford it, and since it's just wood, Tom decided he could make it. It houses all of our cables, DVD stuff, XBox360, Wii, Playstation3, and even has enough room for Haylie and Huck to go inside one of the cabinets and have small party. The picture doesn't show how big it really is...Nine feet! It's huge! It took Tom and another Dentist in the ward to move it into the house.

It sure is nice to have a handy husband.

I'm not going to bother trying to give an update. I will simply give list a few of the most important events...in no particular order.
1. We moved to El Paso, Texas,
2. Huck turned 1
3. We bought a dog. The mini schnauzer is named Wedge Antilles, after the Rebel Alliance Starfighter pilot in Star Wars.
4. We bought our first house

Here are some pictures, also in no particular order!

Welcome to El Paso

We've been in El Paso for a little over a week now. The first week was spent living at a Embassy Suites Hotel while we searched for a place to live. We think we've found a place and are currently waiting to see if everything goes through. In the meantime we have moved to a more permanent-temporary home at the Value Place. We have a studio with two double beds, a fridge, microwave and a two burner electric stove top. Just like home! Actually if there was a bedroom and a hallway it would be about the size of our Jersey place....which we miss like crazy in case anyone was wondering.

We are luckier than most military families as it just so happens I have a friend from MHS (carry on Jackrabbits) whose husband is stationed in El Paso is well. They have been great, even having us over for a real meal on Sunday (all we've had for over a week is fast food...disgusting). Slowley but surely things are getting better!

In the last two months since I've posted Tom has completed his Officer Basic Training in San Antonio. It went better then expected. He ended up being assigned the best room mate ever, Kevin. He was also LDS, and I personally think they had way too much fun. The went to Magic Mountain a few times, Sea World, and ended up Golfing 90 holes in the last two weeks!

In the meantime, I was living back in AZ with my family. It ended up being better then expected. I hired my 15 year old sister to babysit for me while I went to Pilates sessions. I went to K Pilates studio in Mesa and it was one of the best studios I've ever practiced at. I don't feel so bad about all of Toms fun since I was going to Pilates sessions everyday that I could. That took the sting out of living back at home! We did have lots of fun getting to know grandparents and cousins. Haylie ended up having a really sweet bond with her cousin Travis. She would wake up and ask about "Travy".

Being back out west has taken a bit of getting use to, I forgot how hot it gets in AZ. El Paso is about 10 degrees cooler so when we got here it felt like heaven. El Paso seems to be a great place and we are excited to get settled, sooner rather then later hopefully. We really miss the City and hope to possibly go back there to live one of these days. Although, my only request of going back East is I want to live in Manhattan. Sometimes I still feel robbed that I had to live in Jersey for part of our time there.

Tom misses everyone from school, especially Mike, Audrey, Anne and Dr. Meeker! He starts work on Thursday, and I'm sure he's excited to find out what it's like to be a dentist for the US Army.