My yard has "Mullet Mentality"

Its business in the front and a party in the back. The front yard is desert scape and the backyard has a pool and palm trees and two citrus trees. The above pictures are of the palm trees around the water feature in the pool ( I couldn't remember how to turn it on) and of the biggest saguaro cactus in our front. We have 3 huge ones, which I guess is a big deal. You have to register them with the government and they are worth a lot of money (I was told each of ours would sell for about $3500 or more). Its not how I would pick to landscape but I guess its nice. you know me, I'm all party all the time:)

My parents couldn't stay away, which we are very glad about, and came down the first weekend we were here to help us out and help us break in the pool!

Its good I waited this long to blog about living in AZ and our new house. Im finally starting to see that we may actually love it here.

Good things I've noticed so far: my friend Lindsey only lives 15 minutes away and our kids play great together. Maddox's preschool teacher is really nice. The schools my kids will attend are some of the best in the state. Good shopping is only 15 minutes away. There is an awesome dance studio only 5 minutes away. I love all the citrus trees and palm trees. Jordan's grandparents only live 5 minutes away. There are bike lanes on most of the streets. Church is only 3 minutes away. The Mesa temple is only 10-15 minutes away. despite not having a basement, this house has plenty of storage for our stuff, even our food storage. there are lots of small things for us to do to make our house great (this item appears on both lists with different emphasis) my kids can play outside all year long.

We have a great bishopric who visited us this week. They told us about a challenge our stake leaders presented. We are to pray every morning to do the thing that the Lord most wants us to do, and be open the the promptings of the Spirit. Then record these things at night. I have done this the few days since their visit. Its amazing the difference in my attitude toward this change in my families life. I guess all those sunday school teachers where right all along. When you do what the Lord wants you to do you will be happy. that being said, there are a few

things I'm not so excited about: we have scorpions. but we also have a backdoor neighbor who likes to go scorpion hunting at night with his black light. the people we bought the house from, left it filthy. I know I have high standards for cleanliness and have had to let 2 highly recommended cleaning ladies go, but this was bad. I hired a painter to repaint the whole house before we moved in and I hate the color I choose. I was going for a gray-ish tan and ended up with cream. there are lots small things for us to do to make our house great. its still really HOT. We won't have real winter. Our house in Utah is under contract, but we are losing a lot of money:( so far, Jordan's job is longer hours, and just as much travel (he's in Arkansas this weekend). He says its just for now. We'll see.