A Fond Farewell to the Smith's

Our dear friends Pat & Jessica Smith are moving to Vancouver. Thursday night we held a farewell party at our house for all who wished to come see them off. Many people came to say goodbye wish them well for this new chapter in their life.

We will truly miss them and their 3 (almost 4) kids. Cameron was so sad yesterday when he realized that his buddy Lane would not be coming back. Certainly there were more than a few tears shed over their leaving.


We will miss our impromptu get-togethers to let the kids play and our lunches where we scrounge in the fridge/pantry to eat whatever we can find or invent. We will miss taking our kids to preschool together. We will miss them on our monthly couple date night. We will miss seeing them at church and Relief Society and primary. They have impacted every facet of our lives and even though we can talk on the phone, we will miss having them physically here.

We wish them the best of luck in Vancouver and hope they don't freeze! They certainly won't fry like they did here in Phoenix! Our wishes for you are: a bigger house that you can fit in, health, happiness and good friends who will love you and take care of you in all your times of need. Take care our dear friends. Cheers!

Here are 2 pictures. 1 with Cameron and his buddy Lane and 1 with our 3 kids, the Eyre's 4 kids and the Smith's 3 kids. Hopefully one day in the future we will be able to take another picture of all the kids together along with their future siblings and have a good laugh about how much they've grown!

Channing, no longer a Kindergartener!

Yesterday was the last day of school for Channing. His class performed at least 25 songs that they learned throughout the year. Never underestimate a Kindergartener! They are little sponges. It was amazing to see them remember so much music and the actions that went with them. Very awesome!

Channing was very lucky to have an incredible teacher this year. Mr. John is probably one of the most patient men I have ever met. I never heard him raise his voice in anger. He taught the kids so many wonderful life lessons. We are all sad to see him go (they are moving to Texas). Channing loved his teacher very much. He was really excited to be done with school for the summer, but I think he will realize in a week or so that he really misses his teacher and friends.

This week was filled with lots of fun at school. On Tuesday, the kids had a water day where we took hoses and sprinklers and had a few small pools filled up. And of course there were water balloons. I took Cameron and Cason and we helped set up. We watched the kids run all over the school yard for an hour and a half. Dipping in the pool, running through the sprinklers and throwing water balloons at their teacher (lucky for him the kids don't aim very well). Everyone had a wonderful time.

On Wednesday parents made homemade ice cream and we had a little goodbye party for Mr. John. Bob made some vanilla ice cream that was very tasty! It was about 105 degrees that day and the ice cream melted very fast! It was a great treat on such a hot day.

Yesterday was the little singing program and then Mr. John took each student one by one and thanked them for what they had brought to the class this past year. There wasn't a dry eye in the place (well, except for the kids who are still processing what all this means). He then tied a silk cape on each child. It was very sweet and how he did it an maintained his composure was amazing. I could never do that and keep it together. He thanked Channing for always keeping them on time (I had no idea that he did this at school). He said something else, but I can't remember. Something about being friends with everybody I think. It was really cute.

Afterward we had a potluck lunch with all the student, teachers and parents. Potlucks are always interesting at this school. There are always dishes that I have never seen or heard of at every one. Usually they're pretty good as well.

It was a fun time for everyone this week I think. We thank Channing's teacher for the love and patience that he had thoughout the year. Our experience at this school will be one that we will never forget. Having a great teacher makes all the difference in children's lives.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

This is a video of the class singing some of their songs. Channing is wearing a navy blue shirt with white stripes. You don't see him right at first but after about 15 seconds he slides into the picture.

Families Are Forever

Isn't it amazing that our Heavenly Father ordained the family unit to be central to our eternal destiny. Our eternal destiny is based on the interactions and relationships we form within our family unit. I think the Lord purposefully made the family unit an ever evolving organism so that we never really have a chance to figure everything out. There are always more situations and more experiences that either bring us closer together or pull us apart. Funny thing is, it's always our choice. The way we decide to react when we are hurt or offended is always our choice. The trouble often lies in the communication and there has to be good communication or else feelings fester and assumptions breed contempt. I think there are good ways to communicate when we are hurt or offended and there are not so good ways. I unfortunately used a not so good way with some of my family for which I am truly sorry. I want all my family, whether Paxman or Spann to know that I love and admire you all and pledge to communicate better, be slow to anger and quick to forgive because eternity wouldn't be worth it if we're not all there together.

Love Bob

Wow! It's super HOT! Don't come visit!!!

Well, our "nice" weather is officially gone! The high today is 108 degrees. My poor garden! All my tomatoes are going to split now! Such a bummer. So if you're thinking of visiting us, I highly advise coming after October when we drop back into the 90s! LOL! Although swimming season has now officially begun!

Last Tuesday we took advantage of a day with a high of 81 and went to the zoo for one last hurrah (how can we go from 81-108 in less than a week? Good grief)! It was a gorgeous, cloudy day with lots of wind. It was great! The kids had such a fun time. The zoo added some really cool fish at a pond by the entrance. The kids were mesmerized for at least 10 minutes. They also had fun seeing Giraffes, Elephants, Racoons and petting goats (well actually Channing is still afraid of goats for some reason - I did get him to pet one eventually though). They had a great time on the carousel as well. They had even more fun because we also brought Channing's friend, Arya, from school. Of course they always look forward to getting kettle corn as we leave. (yes, I bribe my kids so we can leave the zoo without a fuss - works great)! LOL! Of course I go to the zoo FOR the kettle corn. It's so good! Here are a few pics from our fun afternoon.

Happy Birthday Dad

Happy Birthday Dad / Grandpa !!!

Here is the link to the video:

http://www.paxmanfamily.com/videos/dscn1235.mov

Flowers for Mother's Day

Bob gave me some beautiful roses for Mother's Day. They are purple/pink and I think they are pretty awesome! Thanks Bob (and kids)! :)

Bob also made me breakfast and served it to me in bed. Of course he had to get up super early to pull this one off since he has meetings early on Sunday mornings and church starts at 9! It was a yummy breakfast though! He's a good cook! (I wish he would use his talent more often)! :)

Karate Lessons

Well, I can't say that everyone is well. Cason seems to be getting in some molars (or maybe it's an ear infection). Either way he's got a runny nose and it runs like a faucet. He's getting sick of me wiping it! Cameron still has a yucky cough but it seems to come and go. He's had it for at least a month. Not sure what's up with that.

Anyway, despite the sickness, we've embarked on a new adventure. Bob signed the boys up for 7 months of karate lessons. I'm not sure how this all happened. We had a gift certificate for 1 free month and somehow it exploded to a 7 month commitment. What's more, I'm not sure how we suddenly seem to think we have all this extra time, but of course the boys love it. The best part is that they get to be active and it's not from jumping over the couch or jumping on the bed. Sure beats sitting in front of the tv or computer like they often want to do. The place we signed up at lets the whole family come for the price of 2, so we all have karate uniforms just in case we want to go too. They have kids classes and family classes as well as kick boxing (for an hour....seriously, I think I'd last about 10 minutes in that class). At the first class, we dressed all the boys in uniform (even Cason) and everyone got a kick out of seeing the tiniest karate boy they've ever seen. It was pretty funny. Here's a pic so you can see what I mean.

Another round of sickness anyone?

Well, it would appear that we are batting 2 for 2 in the illness department. First it was the flu (confined to only Bob & I), now we are battling what I think is rotovirus. Cameron and Cason have the runs and Cameron has thrown-up twice. He also appears to have pink-eye. If we came near your kids in the last few days, I apologize! Such fun around here! LOL!

Cameron's Preschool Non-Graduation

This week was preschool graduation. Cameron, however, is not in the 4-5 yr. old class, he's in the 3-4 yr. old class. So therefore, he did not graduate. He did have to go to the graduation though and perform 2 little numbers with his class. Talk about hilarious! A bunch of little kids singing. We could barely hear them or the little boom box in the huge gym! (maybe they need to address that issue in the future). Nonetheless, Cameron did sing, but he forgot to do the actions. He gets really scared in front of people it seems. So we were just proud that he actually sang for a crowd (for the first time ever we think). Yes, it is hard to imagine that Cameron can be shy. It's probably for his own good though. He needs to be humbled a little now and then. He thinks the world revolves around him! LOL!

Here are some pics from our fun night. We were especially glad that the whole ceremony lasted less than an hour! :) And there were cookies and drinks after. (beats the lousy McDonald's food we had on the way - they didn't even put pickles on our cheeseburgers)!

Cameron, Bob, Cason & Channing - Cameron with his teachers - talk about 2 sweet girls! They put up with all sorts of grief from Cameron, I'm sure! There are 2 very patient women!

Cameron & his friend Lane holding their artwork, apparently Cameron finished his artwork before any of his other classmates. His teacher said they told him to makes some trees and he took off and knew exactly what he wanted to do. Funny thing is...Cameron has basically refused to do any artwork this semester. What a nut! - The second picture shows Cameron and his friends Ian and Lane walking in to perform.

Just To Clear Things Up

It's come to my attention that some of the readers of our blog thought the training update blog entry was written by Danya. I can tell you that Danya does not weigh 195 and cannot run 3 miles in 21 minutes. Danya does another type of running. She runs the kids to school or runs to the store. Sorry for the confusion.

But as for me (Bob). I'm still trying to run when I can. My calf keeps getting injured but I found a compression wrap that's been allowing me to run more. My weight is down to 190, so I should reach my goal of being at 180 by the time of the race. Found a great website called mapmyrun.com. You can map out a course and determine the distance. I mapped out 3.2 miler that I'm going to try tomorrow morning. Time to see how disparate treadmill speed is from road speed. I may or may not post my time depending on how intimidating it is.