Arizona!

It's great to be back in Arizona, wonderful to spend time with family, great hospitality, feeling the love!

Had a great show in Tempe, our thanks to Joye for helping us and keeping us organized, you are the best Joye, employee of the year!!!

Thanks to Kelley for a fantastic dinner Saturday night, such a treat for us, and seeing the kids was wonderful! Missed Patrick, who was off having fun in Maryland and missed Ryan and Julie who were off seeing Lady Gaga!

Nolan, our should I say mini Patrick? What a doll! I could kiss and hug him all day!!!

And full of energy Logan and Jake! Love these two and all of their activities, they are non-stop fun, until they crash!

sabbatical:

“A sabbatical year is a prolonged hiatus, typically one year (i wish...), 

in the career of an otherwise successful individual taken in

order to fulfill some dream, e.g. writing a book or travelling

extensively. Some universities and other institutional 

employers of scientists, physicians, and/or academics 

offer a paid sabbatical as an employee benefit (Wikepedia, 2005).”

“It is estimated that 14-24% of corporations in America have 

established sabbatical programs…Leadership in the 

establishment of such programs has come from companies 

that by virtue of their product are particularly sensitive to the

costs of employee burn-out. In high tech companies, law firms, 

consulting agencies and other high-stress industries, sabbaticals 

have been recognized as a useful management tool in countering 

burn-out. Teaching is a notoriously high burn-out profession…

Many corporations consider the benefits of sabbaticals so 

self-evident that they forego the expense of documenting 

them (University of Illinois Office of the Vice President for 

Academic Affairs, 1996).”

ok, ok, so you get it...for me it's FREEDOM!!!!

Stay tuned...

I hope to be blogging on a regular basis all of our adventures on our 5 week sabbatical! Starting in 6 more days! 1 more week of work!!!

Thanking God for this wonderful blessing in our lives!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

No long post, just wishes for a very healthy happy New Year for all my friends and family!  Love you all!

Rapunzel can plie'!

yes, it was Halloween at dance class today!  And yes, she did try to plie'!  Yay!  And she did a lot of good tippee toe walking!!

The kids loved it, they got to go trick or treating at the other classes and then the older kids made a tunnel for them to walk through, very cute!

Peytey was very busy eating his cereal, once that was gone, he enjoyed waving to his sister thru the window.  Good thing they only open the curtains every 3 weeks...  :)

They are just as cute as can be...love those little dancers!!!

So proud, my little Willa!

Happy Birthday Aaron (Ian)...

Happy Birthday Aaron!!!  Or Ian, as Willa calls you  :)

Glad we could all be together to celebrate, it was a fun night!

The kids enjoyed a tea party with Great Grandma Carmichael while the guys watched football and the gals put on dinner...

Willa loves birthday cake!  Or birthday cheesecake for Aaron...

And so does Mr. Peyts!

A little fun with Papa after our bath!

Who's more tired?

And a story to top off the night!

Hope you had a great day Aaron, we love you!!!