On the road - Arizona here we come!

Well, here we are on the old Route 66. The signs are quite entertaining at least. We drove half way and stayed in Albuquerque, NM. It wasn't the place we wanted to stay for long, so we were up and on the road first thing in the morning. Driving with 3 adults, 1 baby, 1 dog, and 3 cats was quite the adventure, but we made it. At least the sights were nice to see.

At a rest stop in New Mexico, we were approached by a drunk Indian. I didn't think it was going to go so well. Thank goodness he left. He just kept trying to give us directions and to see if there was room in our car for him. There wasn't room in our car for a fly to ride along!

Arabella chillin' in her car seat. She did a very good job for spending 14 hours in the car.

I think Sadie can make herself comfortable just about anywhere. Sometimes, I wish I were a little more like the dog...

Here is our development - Royal Ranch!

This is the local elementary school. It's called Parkview, just like the one Mom taught at... Something tells me they are very different! Sorry Mom.

Surprise, from what we hear, gets crazy in the spring for spring training for the baseball teams. This stadium is almost one mile from our house. It looks like I know what we'll be doing this spring.

SURPRISE!!!

Arabella Kiersten Weeks 23-24

We enjoyed and afternoon in downtown Scottsdale. Arabella has some more gelato - she loves this stuff! It also took us coming to Arizona to find a trinket store with Ohio State gear all over their front window! It made us feel at home!

Sunglasses are a must for all of us here in Arizona, even Arabella. She just doesn't want to keep them on her eyes. How can I make her understand?

Mommy's little firecracker's 1st 4th of July. She couldn't take her eyes off of the fireworks. We were able to watch them from our upstairs patio. How great!

This raft is all for the baby! She's such a pool baby. I love it because Mommy loves the pool too!

Sadie has taken to the care bear. Grammie wanted to keep this one for Arabella. It was Caitlyn's. She used to be all about her care bears. I don't think Caitlyn will mind sharing!

Arabella loves the kick board. We want to get her into swim lessons soon. I think she'll do great!

I think Grammie is really enjoying having a pool too!

Bathing beauty!

We went out to breakfast. Arabella is in love with the senior citizens here! The older the better for her. It's so cute to watch her flirt with them!

New Adventures

Well, as some of you may already know, Chris's career has taken The Nickell Family to Phoenix, Arizona. We left the beautiful city of Denver, Colorado just a few weeks ago. We really enjoyed our time there. We fell in love with some new things like mountain biking, hiking, snowboarding, and most of all our beautiful Arabella. Good things come in small packages. We were blessed with our tiny package in Colorado.

So now we are here and settled in in Arizona in a little town called Surprise. Yes, Surprise, like in "SURPRISE!!!" It has been so comical changing all of our address over. I think each and every operator has said, "Surprise, as in SURPRISE!" And, each time, I have to say, "Yes, as in SURPRISE!" It's been fun! It is a cute little town. It's a newer part of town just west of Phoenix. Chris as taken a position with DeVry. He's the Director of Academic Affairs for Carrington College Group overseeing ten schools. He's quite a busy guy. So for now, it's perfect for me to be able to be at home with our little girl. There's no other place I'd rather be. I am finding that I really like being a stay-at-home mom. I love that I am the one with her all day. We are very blessed that I can do this for now.

Arabella is adjusting to her new home too. It took getting through all of the boxes and clutter to everything and hung up to settle in. I felt so bad for her. The past month of cleaning and packing and unboxing has been crazy. We were able this week to start to relax some. She enjoys it. She's developing so quickly. She's been scooting around like a little worm for a while now. But yesterday, she started going from her scooting/crawling position to sitting up on her own! And, by the end of the day, doing a good job of it too! She's pretty stable. Last night I was running her bath water (She loves her evening baths with her spa bathtub!) when I turned and saw her in a bear stance. Arabella is starting to work on standing! This was way too much for Mommy to take in for one day. She's just growing up so quickly. I just want to hold on to her and squeeze her and never let go! She's just amazing!

Well, please keep watching the blog. I'll try to keep it updated often. I hope you are enjoying watching her grow as much as we are! Hope the summer is treating you well! We'll send our new address to you soon. Take care!

Love from The Nickell Family!

Arabella's 1st Zoo Trip

Well, after 20 months of living in Denver, we finally made it to the zoo! It is such a nice zoo. Great displays and layout with lots of seating and shade!

We LOVED this little baby giraffe. Too adorable!

Arabella likes the elephants. I think it's the only animal that she was actually awake enough to see. Also it's kind of big. You really can't miss it!

This little guy was jut playing with his ball. I'm pretty sure that there was food of some sort inside it. Oh well, still a cute picture.

They called this little guy a bearded monkey. Maybe one of the cutest monkeys ever!

Arabella spent most of her time at the zoo in her car seat sleeping. What a life!