We are BACK!!

Aloha everyone!

We hope you've all had a great start to a new year. Like most of you we've had a very busy start, I haven't gotten around to sending off my emails. Well a quick recap of the last few weeks. Since moving down to Rio Rancho (right outside of Albuquerque) we've been pleased with the area.

Dax is still attending his pre-school group twice a week, he just had his Valentines day party there last week. He's meeting a lot of new friends and learning lots as well.

Alana is starting to talk little by little, and she has a few teeth that have been coming in. She isn't our best teether, she breaks out in fever and is pretty cranky. I think that she tries to share the whole teething experience with us because when she is very very cranky and if you're annoying her she will try to sink her teeth into you if you get close enough. Unfortunately Dayna and Dax have learned that lesson the hard way, stay away from Alana when its around bedtime and she is teething.


Dayna's school is state of the art, it is about 2-3yrs old. She enjoys her teacher and class. She is reading a lot these days. Her teacher gave her a short chapter book and she was very proud of herself because nobody else is reading the short chapter books. She loves to read and write, she is a smart little girl. Dax is still attending his pre-school group twice a week, he just had his Valentines day party there last week. He's meeting a lot of new friends and learning lots as well.

                               She still is a little poser.  You get the camera out and this is what you get!

We are thawing out after a good solid week of bitter cold weather. I think most of the country was experiencing the same type of cold. It was uncharacteristic for this area just like it was for most of the southern US. Our school district was shut down for the whole week (a couple of weeks ago), first it was the snow, then the ice, and then it was 8-14 degrees below and too cold to have kids waiting for the bus. So in the end, the kids went on Monday and didn't return to school until the following Monday. We finished our first month in the new office, we saw just over 90 new patients and did all sorts of dentistry. It was a great start, and we're building nicely on that month. Our hygienist is now working Mon-Wed, we have 7 team members now including myself. We're on track to see well over 100 new patients this month. It has been exciting and exhausting to see the practice grow.

Janelle and my mom collaborated on surprising Milt for his 60th b-day. During Christmas my mom offered to come down and watch the kids so Janelle could return to WA for the big party. Of course being the thoughtful husband that I am, I forgot to relay the message to Janelle until a few weeks later, when the birthday was just around the corner. In the end we were able to coordinate schedules on both ends and my mom came down on a Thursday night and Janelle took off the same night and they switched places when Janelle returned to NM and my mom returned to WA.

We had a lot of fun with Grandma here in NM, it was still pretty cold but we made it to Chuckee Cheese, Red Robin and drove out to Santa Fe. The kids really enjoyed the surprise here and I know that Milt and the rest of the family really enjoyed Janelle's visit in WA. So it was a win win. Thanks to everybody that helped with the wife/grandma swap!

  

Yesterday we took the kids to the Shrine Circus. It was a lot of fun. We got the heads up from another parent that we should try and get some of the glow sticks and things for the kids so they don't feel left out and so they don't keep bugging you when the vendors are taunting the kids going up and down the isles with their glow swords and necklaces and such. So we stopped and stocked up, we also popped our own bag of popcorn and brought it in the ever valuable diaper bag. I don't remember ever going to the circus when I was a kid and Janelle either, it was a fun experience

                                         
                                    (waiting for circus to start)

We saw some pretty amazing acts, the tight wire was crazy. I kept thinking that these people should have a second career doing the new game shows like minute to win it or wipe out, they could probably make a good amount of money but I'm sure their contracts with the circus are pretty demanding :)

The second to the end act was one involving dirt bikes and 15'x15' steel framed globe. At first one dirt biker pulled into the steel globe cage and they shut the door and he started doing all sorts of tricks like loopdy doops and stuff, you can pretty much use your imagination of what a dirt bike could do within a small globe or ball and you'd be right on the money for what we were seeing. Then he stopped and they added 2 more for a total of 3, and they raced around the interior of the steel cage globe doing the same tricks, no idea how they missed eachother nor how the practiced the act. Then they stopped and added one more dirt biker for a total of 4 bikes inside a very small steel cage globe. It reminded me of a hornets nest full of very angry hornets traveling at full speed. It would be like taking a raquetball sized ball and putting 4 marbles in it and moving and shaking the thing so everything was moving at the same speed and in the same direction, and then they would weave through eachother as they changed directions into loopdy doops and around the worlds, it was crazy!

Anyway, you get the picture. They finished the show with the human cannonball, very cool indeed.

We finished the night by going to see the play Wicked. We had seen it once before in KY, my mom got us tickets, and then a local Pediatric denitst here offered us some tickets so we took them of course and we had a very nice time.




Well that pretty much catches us up for the time being, hope all is well with you and yours. Love to all!



Jon, Janelle, Dayna, Dax, and Alana