Christmas Letter

We hope that this "Christmas Family letter" finds you all happy and healthy. I decided not to print a letter, but to let you find our blog instead. Since I have many of the years activities on the blog, I decided I should catch up on the past 6 months of the Meadows activities!!

Ethan spent part of June, all of July and part of Augusts with his grandparents in Colorado. He had a great time, but it was way to quiet around our house without him.
Ethan loved all of the attention from Grandma and Grandpa, as well as playing nearly every day with his cousins. This picture was taken on the Fourth of July.


While Ethan was gone, We went to St. George for a week of relaxation!! Dave enjoyed spending time with his brother Eric, playing games and swimming. Janna's favorite thing in was getting milk shakes from Ice Berg and riding her beautiful new bike. It is a beach cruiser, yes we don't live on the beach....but it is great to get around on. Janna rides with Ethan to school every day.


After St. George we went to Vegas to visit the Holler family. We were able to go out on Lake Mead , the water was perfect that day. I hope this picture doesn't make anyone cry.... The day after the picture was taken Amy's yukon was stolen. It was traumatic for all of us. So to ease the pain we went to our favorite pizza place.

We were so excited for Ethan to come home. It is a good thing I have 12 years before he goes on his mission. If we thought 2 months was a long time to be gone. We can't imagine 2 years!!

In September Janna began to sell Lia Sophia Jewelry, it has been a fun adventure, and has been a good opportunity for her to get out of the house and be with adults. Janna was spending all day with Ethan as his teacher, as he was home schooled. Then at the beginning of November we decided he was ready to go back to a regular class room. He is in second grade and loves his class and teacher.
Ethan isn't the only student in the family. David is in his 2nd year of his graduate program at ASU. He graduates with his MPA in May. We are very excited for him to be done with school.

In February we were so excited to get tickets for U2. The only problem was that the concert wasn't until October. It was hard to wait so long for the concert, but it was well worth the wait. Ethan was sad he didn't get to go. It was a fantastic concert, and the company made it that much more fun!!

We spent Halloween in Colorado with Dave's family. It was great to be so cold after a hot Arizona summer.
Thanksgiving was spent in Las Vegas with Janna's family.
Christmas will be spent with the Entire Holler family. The festivities will begin on the 18th in California as we all will meet to go to the Happiest Place on Earth!!! (Disneyland)
Then everyone will end up in Las Vegas. We are looking forward to a fun Christmas.

We are so thankful for such a wonderful year. It has been a very difficult one, but probably one of the most amazing years ever. We have had our faith in the Lord strengthened. We know that prayers are heard and answered. We would like to share with you one of our miracles this year.
As most of you know, Ethan has had problems with his bowels since he was born. After 3 surgeries the doctors thought they had things fixed. They told us as he grew he would be able to have regularity, and function normally. At the age of 6 he wasn't able to be fully toilet trained. This made school very difficult. That is why in First grade we began homeschooling. We have seen many doctors and specialists that have no answers. After much research we found a program in Ohio that could help him. It is the only place in the Nation that specializes in Ethan's condition.
However we knew that we couldn't afford to take him. Finances have been tight as Janna has not been able to continue her preschool business. After months of praying and fasting to find a solution for Ethan, we still had come up with nothing.
At a time that it seemed as if things couldn't get worse, we received an email from someone that wanted to help Ethan. It was an anonymous angel that sent us the money we needed to take Ethan to see the specialists in Ohio. We are so excited to be able to take Ethan to find answers, and solutions to his problems. I don't know if the donor has any idea how much this blesses our lives. I know that it is a direct answer to our prayers.
We are thankful for this time of year to reflect on the Birth of our Savior, and to thank the Lord for all of the amazing blessings we have been given.

Where did the Summer go?

So I thought the 10 days at the end of April/ beginning of May was crazy!!
Here is a short rundown of my summer:

1. Company from May 2-30

We loved having Holly, Emma, Steph, Tyler and Brayden here!!
2. Amazing Swim lessons May 4-29th! Thanks Erin!
3. 2 trips to Las Vegas in June. One to say goodbye to my Sister who was moving to Colorado, and one to visit Hoover Dam with my parents.

4. 1 week long Trip to Colorado... I left Ethan there.... He is still gone. I think 6 weeks is way to long!!
5. 4th of July in California with my Parents and Brother & Sister in-law. I was to busy having fun to take pictures on the 4th.
However this is what we saw on I-10 on the drive to California.
6. 12 days in St. George Ut/ Las Vegas.


That pretty much brings me to today. I have had fun with all my trips, but I sure have missed Ethan. We are looking forward to beginning a new year of homeschool next week.
Hopefully that means I can stay home for more than a week!!

Crazy 10 days!!!

I am not sure why I over schedule myself, but I often do. On the 24th of April I flew to Colorado to spend 3 days working with my aunt at the Rocky Mountain Bead Show. We had a great weekend, and a great show. One of my favorite things was leaving Phoenix at 90+ degrees, and when I left Denver on the 27th it was snowing!! My plane sat on the runway for 40 min while they were de-icing the plane. I am just glad I made it home safely!!

When I got home I quickly unpacked, wrapped presents & took Ethan to the park. We went to one of our favorite parks with our friends and enjoyed the wonderful day.
That night we went to Ethans favorite restaurant for his birthday dinner. We went to Rustlers roost in May of 08, Ethan has been asking to go back ever since. So we went just the three of us and had a fantastic time.
The next day was Ethan's 7th Birthday, and we went to Disneyland for his birthday. We got home that night around 1 am.
Then on Wednesday the 29th I got up at 6 am and drove to Provo Utah for Women's conference. I spent the next 4 days in Utah and then drove home with Holly and Emma.

I have lots of pictures of Birthday , womens conf, and the drive home. But they will all be separate posts.

Piano lessons anyone?

Dave has decided to teach piano lessons now that he is home in the evenings.
Here is a bit of info about his lessons!!

My name is David Meadows and am employed with the Phoenix Police Department. I recently have changed schedules and would like to start teaching piano lessons again. I spent two years as a piano performance major in college and have taught off and on for 10 years. I will be charging $50 a month for a 30 min lesson each week in my home . I will also teach in the students home for $65 a month for a 30 min weekly lesson. My email is davidrmeadows@gmail.com, my cell phone is (602) 339-1435. Feel free to pass on this information to anyone who would be interested.

Fun weekend!!

Have I mentioned how much I love having Dave home on the weekends? This is the first time in our 8 years of marriage that he works days, and has weekends (Fri, Sat and Sun) off.
So on Friday Dave got to ride his bike to the top of South Mt. Ethan and I met him up there. They got to hike around for a few min before Dave rode down to the bottom of the mountain. I followed him (in the car) and it made me so nervous watching him fly down the road. I was going about 15-20 mph and he was doing about 30 mph on his bike. He did make it down safely though!!
We had to hurry home so I could go to lunch with a girlfriend, while Dave kept the kids. It was great!! (Thanks Dave!!)
Then I went to Dinner with a different girlfriend. We went to a greek restaurant in the Arizona center. It was so good!!!
Dave took Ethan out to dinner, and to a new park that is down town. Ethan had a great time in the water feature they had.

Saturday we went to Home Depot for the kids craft. Ethan built a bird house, and I got sunburned. I am not ready for summer. But the best part of the home depot thing was the petting zoo, and fire truck.
I loved the baby pig. He was only 2 days old. I would so have a pig as a pet if they stayed that small and soft!! Ethan liked the bunnies best!!
We also looked at paint colors for the family room, and Ethan's room. We haven't decided yet, so I will keep you posted.


Then we went to the drive in Sat night. The only problem with Dave's new schedule is that we are generally in bed asleep by 10pm. So when the second movie didn't start till 10, we had a tough time. We left about 30 min into the second film, cause we just couldn't stay up. Oh well!! Next time we will take naps before we go.
I am so glad we live in such a fun place, with great friends, and can actually spend time together on the weekends!

Easter

We had a pretty laid back Easter. We didn't do much on Sunday, but we did have a great time at the community Easter Egg Hunt.
David bought me an Easter Lilly which I am still enjoying!! And for lunch before church he presented me with this beautiful egg salad sandwich.

Who needs Disneyland?

We got to go see Disney on Ice .... A Disneyland Adventure. We went with our friends and had a fantastic time. It was all about the incredibles going to Disneyland. It just made me wish I was at the real disneyland. Ethan LOVED his snow cone with the cool Dash cup. By the end of his show he had more of it on his face and clothes than he did in his mouth!! Then there was the cotton candy that was 10 bucks!!! I could have gotten a cup of gelato for that price. hehehe!!! Any way the cotton candy came with the stylin dash hat/mask and wrist bands.

Who knew.....?

Who knew that a 6 year old could do this to a LARGE pizza by himself?
(After eating 10 taquitos for lunch.)

I guess i chose to blog!!

Thank you to all of you that gave me encouragement to continue blogging. I have actually caught up on my preschool blog, as well as this one. (Well mostly)
So an update from the weekend. I decided on Thursday morning to go visit my brother & Sister in law in Long Beach. Dave was in class for 8 hours on Friday, Saturday and sunday. So EARLY Friday morning Ethan and I jumped in the car and made the LONG drive to California. I usually can make the drive in 5 hours. It took me 8. Now that Ethan is potty trained, every hour or so he needed to stop. I didn't mind stopping especially when he was giving me time to find a place to stop. (And no, we couldn't just stop on the side of the road, he didn't want to kill the bushes! Where he got that I have no idea.)
Then we hit traffic as we got into town. Oh well.
We had so much fun!! Thanks Pam, Jack & Ashley for a great weekend. Here are just a few pictures eating dinner, and hanging out at Seal Beach.

To Blog or Not to Blog that is the question.....

I have been "gently" reminded by many people that I haven't blogged in a very long time.
I decided at the beginning of the year I was done blogging. I don't have time for it, and no one would notice anyway. The people that read my blog are mostly the same people i talk to nearly every day. So I decided not to blog.

I even went nearly 6 weeks without even looking at another blog. But then over the past few weeks I began reconsidering my decision. I have been looking at everyone's blogs again, and so today I decided to post on the blog.

I am still not sure if I want to keep up the blogging. I don't even know what to post most of the time.

My other question is where do you all get the time to blog so often? There is a blog I often read, that has 11 posts in the last 7 days!!! I find between teaching preschool (and the prep time) and spending 4-6 hours a day doing home school, I have no extra time.
(The only reason I have found time today is because I am burning 50 cd's and I have to stay at the computer.)

If you have any suggestions, let me know!!

Diamondbacks Fanfest

Growing up in the Holler house baseball was always very important to us! I have been able to see many Major League games. So naturally being in Phoenix we have become pretty big Diamondbacks fans. So when we heard about the Fanfest we knew we would have to go. It was so much fun at the!!! We got to go onto Chase field, meet players, play in the bounce house, hang out in the dug out, see the clubhouse, and have a fantastic day together.

Happy Birthday to Me!!

For my birthday I wanted to go to Disneyland. This year you can get in to Disneyland free on your Birthday!!
So Melea and I decided to take a girls trip to California.
While there I got to hang out with Jack and Ashley. This is the beautiful bracelet they gave me. I love it and I wear it nearly every day!!!










Unfortunately Ashley couldn't come to Disneyland with us so It was just Melea and her sweet little Monet. It was so much fun to be able to do the "girlie" things. We got to go see the princesses and got to see all of our favorites!! It was a fantastic birthday.

It's great to be 30!!

So last weekend our great friend Jason turned 30, Dave turned 30 in Sept, and Melissa (Jason's wife) will be 30 soon as well. (I have been 30 for quite some time...)
So we decided to go to vegas for a fun weekend getaway! What was the best part was we were childless for 48 hours!!!!
I don't have many pictures, but a quick rundown of our trip.
*Guys played Guitar Hero
*Gals talked and talked
*Had yummy Gelato
*Got free tickets to a funny magic show
*Had amazing Japanese food
*Had fun on Freemont street
*Walked until I thought I couldn't take another step
*Wished the trip had been longer.

If you wish to keep reading the rest is a more detailed rundown of the trip, mostly so I can remember the fun we had.


So this picture will always make me laugh. We had been wandering through Caesars Forum Shops and decided to get dessert. We saw this gelato place and ordered. As we went to pay we saw signs by the registers that showed the prices at 9.99 for the medium that we had gotten, I thought that had to be wrong because it was soooooo small. But alas, as we paid it was $43 for four medium gelatos. We were all just astounded, we never checked the prices because we would never imagined it costing 10 dollars each. Through the rest of the weekend we checked every gelato place we saw, and no place had it over 5 or 6 dollars. Crazy, how did we manage to find the one place in vegas that charges 10 bucks? Oh well we can laugh about it for a long time!!