Our New Abode

It's been quite a while since we've posted. Our computer is packed along with most of our other belongings, so we have had to rely on the kindness of family members to have access to the rest of the world. Thanks to Jared and Kathy we have a place to live and store all of our STUFF. We love you guys! We'd thought you would like to see our new living quarters. I guess this is the place were I should thank all of our friends and family that helped us move--AGAIN! WE LOVE YOU TOO!

This is the view from our bed: (If you are wondering Lance had to stack all of this by himself because I was not allowed to lift anything for a couple of weeks!)

This is another view from our bed...you are looking at the outside Gracie's room!
This is the view from inside Gracie's room. Yep, we're offically ghetto!

Surviving THIS Summer

Pics first ...because they are more fun... (the novel is later)

Grace and Luke in an attempt at an escape from our week to Oro Valley.

Grace and her 'cuz Thud playing in Bella's stuff....boy, are we going to miss him!

A very tired Gracie on our way to a cousin's baby blessing.

Thud and Gracie playing on Bella's piano.

Sometimes life throws you a curveball and sometimes it chucks 200 at you at the same time. We knew our summer would be mildly relaxing, right up until it was time to move, although we had no idea how crazy it would get all at once. I will not bore you with all of the gory details but this is how the story begins…

…moving is never fun but it is time to leave the gorgeous house we have been living in for the past year. I (Emali) thought it would be nice to do everything gradually, room by room until it was all finished over the course of about a week and a half. All was going according to plan on Wednesday (July 4^th), which was our first moving day. We were so proud we got all out of the living room and Gracie’s room, moved her bed into our bedroom and had taken 3 big loads over to Jared and Kathy’s. Then the tornado hit…

Let’s just say Banner Baywood=bad, Banner Mesa=good. It’s now seven days later and I hardly know what day it is. Gracie and I had to spend our first nights apart from each other, ever, which turned out to be very hard! We recognized, but did not celebrate, our third anniversary on Saturday, 07/07/07, because we just didn’t have time for it (and still haven’t). We were able to get everything moved out without too much hassle, and would like to thank those who helped. Thank goodness for the Relief Society and Elder’s quorums! They really relieved us by sweeping into our home and packing our kitchen for us and helping us move in the afternoon of the fetchingist hottest day of the year - twice. And get this, after we finally got most of everything over to the Crouse’s, we then got word from Jared that Carter (their youngest boy) was sick with something that caused projectile vomiting. Needless to say, we’ve been a little homeless for the past few nights. Many thanks to our parents for stepping in and taking care of Gracie, us, feeding us, and giving us a place to stay—we love you and appreciate you. We would also like to thank all of the friends and family who called and checked on us and made sure we were doing okay during this crazy time. Life is slowly getting back on track, and we are are posting some fun pictures of some of our vacation activities.

Girl Names?

My sister Michelle and her husband David ( linked on the right under the "thuds Parents") are pregnant with their second child, which they think is a girl (the ultrasound says so but the parents are in denial), and they need help with girl names. Their first child's name is Tyrus Matheson Gardner, so they are pretty willing to be out there with a different name, but they are not afraid of simple names either. My sister asked for some help on names and I submitted some that we liked a lot, and am sending a shout out for everyone else to help out, because it is so much fun to think of baby names. So, please link to their blog, and post a comment with some names, or comment on the names already suggested. Don't be afraid if you don't know them, because we all blog-stalk anyways. The last name is Gardner...and ...go! -Lance

The Summer Curse...

For as long as I can remember my family (the Crouse's) has dreaded August. August is when things fall apart in our household. Everything from the A/C breaking down, appendicitis (which most of us have suffered), home appliances biting the dust, anything imaginable that could go wrong does, and usually while Mom and Dad were on vacation. Over the years the August curse has dispersed it's exciting happenings to other months; and for us this year it was July. Stay tuned for a more extensive update of the new Mollenhauer summer curse survival.

Happy Father's Day!

WE LOVE DADDY!

From the beginning...

I knew what a great Dad he would be.

The highlight of Lance's day is to come home and play with Gracie.

Gracie LOVES her daddy!

I love him too!

Happy Father's Day to the best Dad in the whole world!

Funny Story from Dad

OK, so really funny thing happened today. Gracie had just got out of the shower and was enjoying walking around the bathroom in the nude. this is nothing new as it is a regular occurrence for her to enjoy being in the buff after a shower. I was brushing my teeth and Gracie came over to see what I was doing. She sat down on the ground, and then I crouched down and helped her to her feet. As I helped her stand, I heard a little grunt, which I thought was just from the effort of standing up. Gracie moved closer to me as I was still crouched, and I heard her grunt again. And then again. Emali heard the third grunt and looked down as a look of horror crossed her face. I knew it then too, without even having to look at the danger zone. Everything seemed to go in slow motion as Emali yelled "POOP!" and bent over to grab the closest thing (a diaper) to catch the brown-green goop that was dropping toward the floor. Gracie just smiled. Needless to say, we had a little mess to clean up and Gracie got to go back into the bathtub. FUN!

WE LOVE MEXICO!

How to get home from Mexico:

(it's a long story so you might want to skip ahead to see the pics of our journey)

Lance and I love road trips and vacation time. We have travel to Mexico at least twice a year and LOVE IT! There are lots of reasons that this has become our favorites vacation spot: La Princesa, the taco shop downtown that doesn't have a name, Lucas (chicken), the mango man, the warm water, shopping on the beach, shopping at the dirt mall, fireworks show (thanks Brian and Celynda for showing us most of these). Although this trip was very relaxing, it stunk coming home. We got stuck at the border for over FOUR HOURS! Gracie was having a hard time in the car and so I decided if we were going to have to sit and wait that I would rather walk around (but we had no idea how long it would take). I packed her in the stroller took a water bottle for me and a sippie for her and walked for 30-40 minutes, in the 120 degree weather, in between cars, trekking up and down hills, through sand, couldn't find shade, past the wild dogs, and finally right before the border ran into Lance's parents. I was very lucky to find them. They supplied me with another cold water bottle but then had to quickly leave to cross the border. I was stuck sitting in the heat with Gracie, little water, tired, no diapers, no food, and no idea how long it would take Lance to catch up with me. Halfway through my walk I thought I was stupid and wanted to turn around but was afraid that if I did that Gracie would get full sun exposure and burn quickly. Thank goodness that Celynda and her mom had the same idea I did and about after 2 hours of waiting they showed up. We let the kids play together and tried to stay in the shade. We were all so excited to see Lance finally approach the border. Our usual less than 4 hour drive turned into a 8 hour and 45 minute adventure. Not to mention I got so dehydrated that I got sick as soon as we got home! All in all, it was a fun get-a-way, but we will think twice about trying to cross the border on a Sunday afternoon!

Gracie is having fun on the beach. Check out her two front teeth!
Gracie is not having fun on the beach. She decided she hates water and sand unless it's in her warm bathtub. She finally did give in on the last day and started to enjoy the sand.

Bella and Grumpa take good care of Gracie. She loved napping on Bella's lap on the beach.

Ok, so we love having Eric back from his mission and now the Mollenhauer sibilings are back in full swing!

Gracie loves her Grumpa!

Dirty Skirts-UPDATED

Go Dirty Skirts! (Yes, that is our team name.) Mom's softball team plays a double-header every Tuesday. I hope we win some more games! I made Grace try on our new team shirts, Lance and I thought it was funny.

Dirty Update:

We won one and lost one! We lost the second game in the last inning by one run! But we had a great time!

Gracie and Lukas passing time at the ball park.

Gracie giving Mommy some good luck before she gets up to bat.

I think Gracie is still recovering from Mexico...she loves snuggling with A.V. (Aunt Vicki).

the simple life

Don't you remember when a box (or a bowl) kept you entertained for hours? I love my life!I also love the sad face! It cracks me up.

Swimming at Bella's

I love the summer...I can't even tell you the last time I actually styled my hair or wore real shoes. I am basking in the lovely Arizona heat and am enjoying all the time we have left in Arizona.

Don't you love baby swimsuits...I wish I still looked that cute wearing next to nothing! ;)