Hazel Jane: 1 year old

This sweet little girl is such a blessing to our family. It seems like just yesterday that I was pregnant and uncomfortable and wondering why I ever thought I could go though that again. Of course, now that we have her here it was all worth it, but how did she get to be a year old already? I wish I could keep her from growing quite so fast so that I could enjoy it a little bit longer.Hazel has always been a very sweet, very content baby. Her sisters and brother all love her so much. So much that she is often the object of arguments among them. She has slept through the night almost from the beginning and still takes a couple of naps a day. She doesn't crawl, but scoots around on her bottom as her mode of transportation. She actually doesn't even like to stand very much so I'm not sure how long it will be before she starts walking. She cut her first teeth the very same weekend that we moved and cut another one just this week giving her a grand total of 5 teeth in all. She will smile at most anyone who pays attention to her and has not yet developed stranger anxiety so she will go to most anyone. She absolutely loves the water, splashing in it, floating in it and bathing in it. She is such a sweet little girl and we are so blessed to have her in our family.Hazel was just getting over some sort of illness involving a fever on her actual birthday so we didn't do much to celebrate. We did take a trip to the library where they have a cute little children's play area that Hazel likes to scoot around in and play with the toys.

Happy Birthday Hazel and Ben!

We had a joint birthday party on Tuesday night for Hazel and Ben. Their birthdays are July 27 and 28 so it just made sense to have one big party for both of them. I'm thinking Hazel may want her own party when she gets older, but since she's only 1 I thought I could get away with it. Ben says that he is happy to share his birthday because that means less attention on him, but I'm not sure I believe him. When his co-workers found out about his birthday a few weeks ago, he was a little put out, but I think he actually enjoyed the extra attention he got at work. They even decorated his office, brought him treats and had a birthday lunch in his honor. Hazel was actually feeling a little under the weather, having had a fever and cut a tooth in the last couple of days, but she is so good-natured that she still played with her gifts a little and smiled for the camera. We had David and Ruth's clan over for pizza and cake and presents and it was a nice little get-together.

We had cupcakes for Hazel and cheesecake, of course, for Ben. Hazel was not really into blowing out the candles, but Ben blew his out very enthusiastically.Hazel had some help from her big brother opening presents.For some reason Ben has really wanted a pair of cowboy boots ever since we moved here, but they are pretty pricey so he hasn't gotten any yet. So for his birthday, a bunch of us pitched in on a gift card to the Boot Barn in Tucson. Yeehaw!

Famous!

Guess who made it on the front page of the Eastern Arizona Courier? It was an article about the summer lunch program. We've gone a few times to the middle school which is just a couple of blocks from our house. The other day there was a reporter who asked if he could take a picture of my kids for the paper. Then last Sunday, someone said "Hey, I saw your kid in the paper!". There aren't too many other Barfus' around here apparently...

Here's the link in case your interested: http://www.eacourier.com/articles/2010/07/27/news/doc4c4a2daced43f045729290.txt

Pioneer Day--Safford style...

So it turns out that Pioneer Day in the Gila Valley is a BIG deal. I didn't realize how big a deal until I saw crowds and crowds of people standing out in the pouring rain just to attend the annual Gila Valley Pioneer day celebration. I've been told that it almost always rains on Pioneer Day here. It is smack dab in the middle of monsoon season after all. Yet they save the biggest party of the year, bigger that the 4th of July, for that day. And rain it did. A lot.

Despite the rain, the kids enjoyed being on our ward's float in the parade. After days of eager anticipation I don't think we could have persuaded them to miss it even it meant getting soaked to the skin. Afterward, they ate their hot dogs (standing up because it was too wet to sit) in the rain. And then we hung out for awhile because Matt and I were singing "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" as part of the night's entertainment. Ironically enough, the theme for this year's celebration was "We thank Thee", specifically for the new temple and the ample amount of rain this valley has received in the past year. One float even had the primary sitting on it with colorful umbrellas and the words "It's raining blessings!" Whatever primary president came up with that was a genius I say.

Anyway, it did stop raining eventually, Matt and I got to sing and the night ended with fireworks. It turned out to be an okay night even with all the sogginess. And that was Pioneer day--Safford style.

A visit from Aunt Jenny

My sister Jenny came to visit on Friday. She just happened to be in AZ for a family reunion with her boyfriend, Matthew, who is from Snowflake. We're so glad they took a day to come hang out with us! David and Ruth came over to have dinner with us and then we went to our new favorite ice cream shop, Candy's, in downtown Safford. Ben and I happened to stumble upon this place a few weeks ago during a date night and found that they have great ice cream, reasonable prices and even live country music on Friday nights. I'm not even really a country music fan, but this place is just the embodiment of that charming small town atmosphere! We had a good time--we even danced a little and, of course, ate yummy ice cream!Cuttin' a rug at Candy'sBrigham really enjoyed his ice cream!

Wet Canyon

We went on another adventure day to a place called Wet Canyon. It is about a 15 minute drive up Mount Graham and there is a fun little creek to play in right off the road. The kids enjoyed the drive as we climbed to quite a height in a short amount of time. Some of the people who were with us hiked a little ways up and even found wild raspberry bushes. Yum!

Here's a picture of a bunch of the kids sitting on a fallen tree. They were having fun making it bounce up and down.

Father's and Son's camp-out

Brigham got to go on his first Father's and Son's camp-out on Friday. He was so excited to go somewhere all by himself without any of his sisters. When I asked Ben how it went, it sounded like it had been one long night due to lots of trips to the potty and Brigham wanting to go home. Oh well, I'm sure it was only the first of many to come and it's a great opportunity for Ben to spend time with his only boy.The best part for me was that the girls and I had an excuse to have a girl party complete with fondue, painting our nails, eating treats and watching movies!

It's official!

Ben and I took a trip to the DMV this past week and it now feels like we are true Arizonians (is that what they're called?). It seemed a little bit strange since we've never lived anywhere except Idaho and Utah. One good thing, my new Arizona driver's license is good until the year 2043!

Our House

So, a lot of people have asked what our house looks like. And since it is kind of cool old house I thought I would post some pictures so we can always remember the time we spent here . The old-timers here have told us that it actually started out as a radio station back in the day. Matt and Nikki live in the studio apartment that is above the garage and it has a cool stained glass window on the other side. There are tons of huge trees in the yard--about 7 palm trees and 7 or 8 of the evergreens, Cypress trees, I think. Because of all the trees there are also tons and tons of birds around. This nest fell out of one the trees and the kids thought it was pretty neat.

Summer Reading

Emma and Eliza won t-shirts for reading the most minutes as part of the summer reading program at the library. They also had a fun luau and got books, hats and leis. We love the library!