Katelyn's Wish Came True

Katelyn finally has a pet of her own. In fact she has two. They are roommates, two female fancy rats that she has named "Sunshine" and "Pepper." I tried to convince her to name them Lucy and Maud or Louisa and May (after her favorite authors) but she had them already named before they came home from the pet store.

Katelyn is finding that pet ownership is not all fun. She has to clean up rat poop and deal with them being noisy while she is trying to go to sleep. However, she is up for all of it and has figured out that she can wheel their cage into the bathroom for the night where they can be as noisy as they want. At least they don't bark or shed and no one seems to be allergic. I am thrilled about that.

Mostly they have been a lot of fun for the kids, as creepy as they still seem to me. Zach asks permission several times a day to go see the rats and Katelyn takes him by the hand and they go visit them in Katelyn's room. He thinks they are pretty neat.

Katelyn asked me last night if I would rather that she didn't have these pets at all. I told her that I just want her to be happy and if this is something that truly makes her happy, I am all for it. Just don't ask me to hold them or clean their cage. :)

Christmas In Arizona

I was sitting in my ward Christmas party this year listening to some of the families share their Christmas traditions, when I realized how different Arizonans are. My jaw dropped when I heard family after family say things like, "Yeah, we always go golfing," or "We like to take the family for a bike ride," or even better, "We usually go to the shooting range as a family for Christmas." Our turn came and Brian said, "We do the Nativity and sing Christmas carols together." It was like we were the strange ones! I realized once again that I live in Arizona and that there really is no other place quite like it.

This experience reminded me about the time I was standing in line somewhere and two women behind me were talking about scorpions. One woman commented that she had been stung by scorpions six times in the last month--a couple of times during her sleep. Matter-of-factly she described how her whole leg had been paralyzed for a few minutes. The other woman said, as if she were just talking about how to get rid of flies or something, "Oh the best way to get rid of scorpions is to get a few salamanders as pets--you just let them walk around your house and they eat them." I thought she was kidding, but no, we are in Arizona and apparently scorpions paralyzing you, salamanders as pets walking around your house, and taking the kids to the shooting range are all pretty normal.
We are finding that Christmas is not much like anything we have normally experienced, even compared with our California Christmas. The weather has been in the 70s, we are still wearing shorts and T-shirts and maybe a light jacket at night, and frankly it just does not feel like Christmas. However, we are figuring out that there are some traditions we can do no matter where we live and that there are some traditions that we have just started that we really like.

Katelyn decided that she would make a replica of our home made from graham crackers. It turned out to be a very nice southwest gingerbread house.


This is the park in our neighborhood. We like to come here now that the weather is so nice. Brian got to come with us on the day of Christmas Eve. The kids had a blast playing frisbee with him. That might be a new tradition for us.

After dinner we took the kids to the temple for an outdoor Christmas concert and to see the lights. It was just like Temple Square in Salt Lake except not freezing.


Afterward we picked a few grapefruit.

We can still put the lights up on the house--just not in sub-freezing weather.

We also decorated the backyard. Palm trees look good with lights. The kids loved making these paper lanterns and having the pool turn into a sort of reflection pond. We sang Christmas carols in the glow of the lanterns.

The kids had to act out the Nativity. Zach made a great baby Jesus. Katelyn and Brandon agreed that this would be their last year as Mary and Joseph. They are turning it over to Josh and Amanda next year. Here Zach is acting out the words to "Away in a Manger," you know, "Asleep, asleep."


Another tradition that we love to do is open up one present on Christmas Eve. Of course, it is always pajamas. They love it if we all match. They had to dance around in their jammies and laugh together.


They got so hyper we decided to make it worse by giving them the sugar cookies we had made earlier. After all, it is Christmas!


Katelyn offered to help settle them all down with a story. It worked. Before long they were in bed.
We have had a wonderful Christmas this year. The only thing that would have made it better would have been to have extended family around. We do miss you all very much. We love you and wish you a very Merry Christmas












Gotta go. Brian has the hot tub all ready to go and they are all waiting for me to join them-- another southwest tradition that is new and really fun. :)

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

What have the Wilhelmsens been doing this week? Trimming trees...

Ringing bells...(I promise, he does wear clothes most of the time...)And, lots and lots of singing. Last night was our Christmas concert with the East Valley Mormon Choral Organization. It was so amazing! Our family got to sing glorious, uplifting choral music to about 3,000 people. Our voices were tired by the end of two performances, but we had a wonderful time. Brandon and Katelyn loved it as well. Now it seems like Christmas time, even though I heard that the temperatures will be in the 70s this week. Would anyone like to send us pictures of their snow? We kind of miss it. A little bit. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is the first time we have EVER had Thanksgiving at home with just our family. As much as we miss our families back in Utah, we really liked the slow pace of this day. We made our first turkey together with most of the fixins (we forgot about the sweet potatoes--next year!).

Katelyn and I even made real

homemade rolls (with gluten) because we just really wanted to. It was so fun to not have to be anywhere and just enjoy each other.

After our naps, watching the game, and a little bit of Mary Poppins, we headed for what may become a new tradition--hot tubbing. Doesn't every one do that on Thanksgiving?? Thinking of you all tonight and wishing you were here. As Zachie says, "Happy Kanksgiving!"

Happy Halloween

Here are some October highlights. It is finally cool enough to enjoy camping, so we took a trip to the Grand Canyon and celebrated Brandon's 13th birthday.

Zachary dressed as himself for Halloween. He was firm on not wearing a silly costume.

He was willing to dance for his candy, however, and that made up for it all. Happy Halloween everyone!

The Best Things in Life

Ok, so promising to blog every day this week has proven impossible with my family and their constant needs. Even now, I have little Zachary climbing onto my lap and Amanda asking what she needs to do next. We just had chore meeting and they are all busy fulfilling their duties to the family (what we have been learning about in our family devotionals lately). I thought I would take a second to express more of my gratitude.

The most wonderful thing has just happened. The weather has changed, almost overnight. We had a huge rainstorm that lasted a couple of days (on and off) and the weather dropped to between 65 and 85. Yesterday we went to the park and it felt REALLY good to be in the 80s with a breeze. It so reminded me of Northern California weather. This morning we woke up to coolness! It was 75 degrees when I took Brandon to his commonwealth school and there was water everywhere--even in the air! Again, it was like a taste of California. I am realizing more deeply that we have just endured the "winter" of the southwest. Now, we can enjoy the rest of the school year and really be free to explore and be outside. I am realizing what a blessing it will be to not have to hibernate all winter (like so many of our friends in the north!) Yes, our pool is a little cooler now, but who cares! We can go places now!

I recently found this quote from Robert Louis Stevenson in the Arizona Republic, our local newspaper.

"The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in
your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just
before you."

I cut it out and put it on my fridge so that I could ponder it while I am preparing meals. It is really true that happiness lies in the path. Pouring over the past or fretting about the future really doesn't bring happiness. But, rolling up our sleeves and finding joy in the work right before us, really seeing the blessings right in front of our eyes, and thanking God for it all is what brings joy.

Today I am deeply grateful that I have endured this heat the best that I could and that now I have the tremendous blessing of moderate weather. I am enjoying it so much. I don't even think words can tell how much this blessing means to me. I can connect again with nature, an important way for me to feed my soul. It is like drinking deeply after a long thirst. I think I am going to like it here after all.

My Gratitude List--Day One

I loved listening to conference this weekend! It was so inspiring and peaceful. Brian allowed me to have the whole weekend off from cooking. I was in heaven just being able to sit and relax. I even got gluten-free cinnamon rolls, if you can believe it! They were really good!

I have been thinking about how I can follow the prophet's counsel to have a more grateful outlook and to show gratitude more often. I decided that every day this week I am going to post something that I am grateful for in Arizona.

Today I am going to start with the thing for which I am most grateful. That is that we are singing again. We have joined the East Valley Mormon Choral Organization (EVMCO) and now have the opportunity to be challenged musically and be a part of something truly extraordinary. It's like we have been lifted to a higher plane. We feel like singing more at home and even the kids feel that there has been a happy change. Brandon and Katelyn are in the children and youth choruses, but they are learning the songs from the adult choir as well since they join me in my practice. We not only sing more, we are singing better. That is so fun!

During our first rehearsal I peeked over to the tenor section to try to find Brian. He saw me and mouthed the words, "Thank you. I have missed this!" I did drag him to the audition, but we are both sure that this is where we are supposed to be. Our family needs music. Brian and I need music. We did not even realize how much we had missed singing together. This kind of choir is really rare. In fact there are only two in existence. One of them is in Arizona. That is one reason why I am grateful to be here.