the work has finally begun

so i'm taking time away from packing to say, i'm pleased to annouce that we have finally broken ground in our backyard. we have trees and bushes in our backyard and by the time we come back from california it should all be complete except for our huge swing set that we have to hire a handyman to build because we don't have the tools to do it ourselves. so here are some pictures of the backyard in progress. we will post more when it is all the way done. hooray for tommy for making this happen!!!

getting with the program

so back in good old orem, utah our friends were all good about getting excercise and lets just say that john and i aren't the best. while i was in st. george john and i decided we needed to get moving more so we stole my moms treadmill and got ourselves some real running shoes. that is right i said running shoes. we all know that john and i are anti running but we decided it was the cheapest and hopefully easiest way to get some exercise in. so i'm happy to report that we have now exercised six days in a row (of course we didn't exercise on sunday) and we are going strong. we aren't up to running the whole time yet but we will get there. i'm just happy i'm doing something. and jack of course loves to get on the treadmill and do his part.

exploring the red rocks

so this past week jack and i went up to st george while john was in baltimore. pawpop took us up to the red rocks and jack was is heaven. he loved finding all the small rocks and sticking them in the holes and climbing in the tunnels. we had a blast, i actually really miss utah.

this one is for you sarah

I'm only doing this tag because I love Sarah. If you can't tell it is about me and John

How long have you been together? We have been together for 8 years, married for 6 of those years. We have known each other since I was 13.

Who said "I Love You" first? John said it first and I can remember it like it was yesterday. We had only been dating for about 2 months and I had a "missionary" at the time so when he said it I couldn't say it back to him, I just said thank you. How lame I know but I wasn't sure at the time what I was going to do about the missionary. It took me a while to say it back to him but when I did I knew he was the one for me for sure.

Who is smarter? Obviously I am. Just kidding John is too dang smart for his own good. Everything comes to him easily he can't always appreciate how lucky he is. Lucky for Jack that is dad is super smart otherwise he would be in real big trouble because his mom is how you say, special.

Who Pays the Bills? John does, but I sure do hear all about them.

Who is the most stubborn? Depends on what it is. I would say that Jack is the most stubborn in our household.

Who wears the pants in your family? Again it depends on the situation. But I would say we share the pants really well. Those ar lames answers sorry.

Now, 3 random things about me.

1. I can't sleep if my legs touch skin to skin. I always have to wear pants to bed.

2. I have a mad crush on Jesse James from Monster Garage. I guess he is my bad boy. But it is all good because John knows about him and he has a crush on Serena Williams, don't ask me why, but to each his own.

3. I too have a fetish for ear wax. I can't leave Jacks ears only, poor kid. I thought I was the only one. thanks Sarah, now I don't feel like such a weirdo.

Hmmmm? Who should I tag? Smellin head and Jenica

adios mi amigo!!

you have been a true and trusted friend these past two and a half years. we weren't sure we wanted you at first but you were forced upon us in the NICU and then became an inseperable friend of our sweet jack jack soon after you were introduced. but i'm afraid the time has come for you to leave our family forever. i'm very happy to report that jack has given up his binki about two months ago and hasn't looked back. one step closer to jack no longer being a baby, tons more to go. we are on our way!!

boys will be boys

so on saturday we finally got our new entertainment center (it only took 3 months to finally get here) and we get it out of the boxes and all set up and what does john do with the boxes? he doesn't throw them away, which i would have done, he makes a fort. not just a box with a hole in it but a fort made from like six boxes with several windows and a door and a look out tower. and he used bungee cord to connect them and stablize them. he did this while we were suppose to be watching a movie together. he claims he made it for jack but i really think it was for him. i'm glad that i have a husband that is really just a big kid and thinks of fun things to do that are free and good for jack.

Happy Easter

Hope everyone had a good Easter and that you ate some ham and funeral potatoes for us. We had more of an Easter weekend this year. We went down to Gilbert and hung out with Laura, Kevin and family for a bit. Then we had a Chinese Easter dinner (won tons and fried rice) with Tom, Jeni, Jonathan, Steph, and all the kids. After dinner, we had an Easter egg hunt. Well, Katie did anyway. She pretty much found them all, which was fine by us since Jack was not really in to the whole egg hunt thing. We had an egg hunt for Jack today anyway. Again, it was more like an egg point than a hunt since we had to show him where they were so we would go after them. We even got ostrich size plastic eggs to help him find them. Here are a few pics from the hunt...

Florida or bust

so this past week john and i got to go down to hollywood florida for a company "reward" trip. my mom was nice enough to come down and watch jack so john and i could have some time together. when i first heard that he won this trip i was very excited a chance to relax and hang out at the beach and then as the trip got closer i find out that there are mandatory meetings every morning not only for the employee but for their guests as well. me in a meeting, no way!! these meetings were at 5 in the morning arizona time and breakfast was at 4 in the morning arizona time. we all know that i'm not a morning person. needless to say i skipped breakfast. i don't mean to sound ungrateful because i'm not. i loved being there with john and having a chance to be husband and wife and not just mom and dad, if that makes any sense.



so we arrived wednesday afternoon and went to the mandatory dinner so we could "have the chance to meet upper management." after dinner we went out with some friends and saw a movie, 10000 b.c. (not my choice but it was actually ok.) thursday we went to the meeting and then to the everglades. that was really cool. just being on the air boats going over the grass was really awesome and yes we actually saw some aligators (pictures to follow.) our guide on the air boat is a serious gator hunter and we found a big old male 13 footer. he thought it would be really cool to swing around on the gater several times to see if he could get him mad and have him charge the boat. the gator didn't charge the boat but he did ram his nose into the side of the boat and then at this point our guide thought it was also a good idea to make him mad and see if he would raise up on his tail and launch himself on the boat. again thankfully the gator was smarter then our guide and did not fall for his tricks but it was crazy to see the gator blowing bubbles out of his nose to show us that he was really unhappy with us being there. oh i have to add, while our guide was trying to aggitate this gator he was doing this on my side of the boat like a foot away from me. surprisingly enough i wasn't all that scared. but i was really scared when i got to hold a baby aligator (again a picture to follow.) that night we got to have some fun at dave and busters playing arcade games. we won over 800 tickets, thats right tons of useless toys for jack.



friday was our free day after the morning meeting. we were lucky enough to have our friends brent and sarah and their girls come over from cape coral to hang out with us. we had a great time at the beach and pool. they have really cute, sweet girls. saturday we went to the hamburger joint made famous by oprah's best friend gale called le tub, let me tell you that their mozzarella sticks are FANTASTIC, maybe they were really good because you have to wait forever to get your food and i was starving but whatever i enjoyed them throughly. after that i went to the spa and got a pedicure and my hair styled. i hated my hair so there is definatly no pictures of that. that night was the big gala which was lame but there it is.



we came home on sunday to a very onery jack. he was not happy that we left him and he made sure we knew it. but none the less we are home and grateful for the opportunity to be together and then come home to a healthy jack. thanks mom for watching our boy and letting us go. now the pictures...

this gator did not like me at all. he was wiggling all over the place and i thought he was trying to claw me but i think that was all in my head
once john held him he calmed down
cruising through the everglades. as you can see it was an awesome day upper 70's low 80's.
here he is the star of the show. we hung out with him for about 20 minutes and he was not happy about it.
here is our crazy gator hunter/guide. he has to be one of the coolest old guys i have ever met. he kept touching the gators noise trying to get him to open his mouth for us.

Help a brother out...

My work has been a long time sponsor of the March of Dimes. If you don't know anything about them, in a nutshell, they work to prevent/cure prematurity in babies. As most of you know, we have some experience with that seeing as how Jack was born 11 weeks premature. So this is something that I would love to see continue to help out others who will have the same situation in the future. To make a long story short, every year they have a bunch of fundraiser walks around the country to help their efforts. I will be walking in one for sure (maybe a few) and wanted to petition all of you for a donation, if possible.

Here is a link to my fundraising site where you can make a donation by credit card or pay pal:

www.marchforbabies.org/czarjohn

If you would rather send a check, email me and I will give you my address.

Thanks for your help.

P.S. Charitable contributions are tax deductible!

Luck of the Irish

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Make a scrapbook - it's easy!

hooray for ostriches

this saturday we went as a family to be throughly ripped off at the ostrich fest. we had to pay $10 for parking $9 per person and then we had to pay for every little ride, lucky for us jack wasn't tall enough to go on most of them. dispite being ripped off we had a really fun day. we went with my sister and her family. john did eat an ostrich burger and you all know me well enough to know that i wasn't about to try that. we saw one ostrich but supposedly they did have ostrich races later in the day. they had a kid town that we stayed in for like 5 minutes and then it was off to the petting zoo. jack really loved that part, especially the camel (video to follow). then to end the day of fun jack and i went on the super slide and jack was smiling and laughing the whole way down. i was really happy that jack had such a good time and he was really a good boy the whole afternoon. thanks steph for the suggestion of the ostrich festival.

while we wait...

so we have been talking to my brother who is a landscape architect about what to do with our backyard. once we get it done it will be awesome, but this is what we have to offer jack right now. poor kid!!

because i'm such a dork

i just wanted to let everyone know that my "boyfriend" is coming back August 2nd at 12:01am. for those of you who don't know who my "boyfriend" is let me tell you, his name is edward from the twilight series. i'm very excited. i'm also pretty sure that i'm not the only one looking forward to that date.

Make a scrapbook - it's easy!

while john is away...

WE PLAY!! so john had to go out of town for work and we were lucky enough to be able to go down to gilbert and hang out with our peeps. we went to the children's museum and the phoenix zoo. the weather this week has been perfect, in the mid 70's to the low 80's. we had a blast, thanks laura for letting us crash your week of fun with kids before it is off to work.

i'm the worst

is this the face of a mean little boy who causes trouble? normally i might say yes but not this time.

so i've decided that i'm the meanest person. today i decided to go and visit the closest mall to us (which is about 25 minutes away) and see what it had to offer. it is a pretty big mall (but no gap! i should have left then) and it has a play place for the kidlets to play in. well i thought i would be a nice mom and let jack play. so he is playing for a little while and then all of a sudden i hear him screaming. i didn't see what happened but there is a little girl now playing with the thing that jack was playing with and jack is screaming like he has been hurt. i walk over and i really wanted to yell at this little girl and find her parents to tell them whats what but i of course don't. then this little girl has the nerve to follow jack around and crowd him. i now wanted to push her away. i just had these really bad feelings towards this little girl and whoever her parents are. i know jack is not innocent in all things but this time he was just playing by himself and actually waiting his turn for things. i'm sick of people not wanting to parent their kids, they just leave them at these play places and don't care what they do to the place or the people in them. sorry for the rant but there it is. am i just crazy? i know the answer to that question and it is yes. what kind of person am i that i would get so mad at some strange random kid. i guess it is another thing to add to the list of things i need to improve on.

smooching nana and papa

move over paul hamm

we all know jack is a little unsteady on his feet so i thought it would be a good idea to try a tumbling class. i must say i was a little nervous about the whole thing because jack doesn't really take direction very well and is always roaming around but he did pretty well for his first time. no he didn't want to stay on the mat during all the songs and no he can't balance on the beam by himself but he was still an awesome trooper and willing to try everything. i'm very proud of him and all that he can accomplish. he amazes me everyday with what he can do. never under estimate my little jack jack, he will just prove you wrong if you do. love you bug!!

come and visit anthem

ok this looks bad but we do now have a table and chairs and you won't have to eat on the floor over a storage container. but notice it was a lovely meal that we served.


plenty of books for everyone to read and a comfy chair to read them in.

so we have been lucky enough to have some family come and stay at our house and i greatly appreciate them coming up here to anthem. my sister always makes fun of me because we really only live an hour away from them but it gets hard to go and visit with jacks nap being in the middle of the day. visitors are always welcome and are encouraged to make the "long trip." i might even make a meal if you do.

this is how we roll

who needs a couch when you have a delux double decker aero bed that you borrowed from your sister? jack of course is very happy to have it instead of a real couch.


and this is our lovely new entertainment center. those are not your ordinay boxes they come from the professional movers. they have great storage capacity and it keeps everything in place.


so really we have our new super soft sectional but we are still waiting for our new entertainment center to come. but that is how we lived for about 2 and a half weeks. our house is coming a long very slowly but we are happy to have a house.

happy valentines day a little early

so thanks to my awesome sister in law laura i have a couple of cute valentines scrap pages to share with you all. now really i didn't do anything because it is a brag book and i just had to add my pictures but still i'm excited to learn something new. hope you enjoy.

because i'm so bored right now

ok sorry to everyone that i'm going to tag but right now i'm waiting for the dish network guys to install all their stuff so i have nothing else to do and i can't get in the shower until they leave. don't hate me.

Tag! sarah culbertson tagged me and now I’m it!
A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning
B. Each player answers the questions about themselves
C. At the end of the post, the player tags people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they are tagged
10 years ago I was: in high school playing volleyball and having a great time eating in n out. the good old days in the ghetto.

5 things on my 'to do' list today:
1. take a shower
2. unpack
3. laundry
4. unpack
5. go to world market

Things I would do if I became a billionaire:
1. buy a beach house, cabin and a huge compound of houses so i have a place for all my family and friends to stay or live in if they like.
2. buy my BMW
3. college funds for the kids
4. have john retire and hang out with me all the time

3 of my bad habits:
1. i'm lazy when it comes to cleaning my house
2. short temper
3. not good at keeping in touch with people

5 places I've lived:
1. Ghetto fabulous North Hollywood, CA
2. Provo, UT
3. Orem, UT
4. St. george, UT
5. Anthem, AZ

5 jobs I've had
1. swim instructor at the YMCA
2. assistant paralegal
3. victoria's secret
4. sales service at nuskin
5. benefits specialist at solution services

Something most people don't know about me:
I can still put my legs behind my head even though i'm fat now!! hooray for me!!

OKay...now-who's it?
You've been tagged:
1. Melinda
2. Stephanie
3. Jeni
4. Laura
5. Buffy
6. Sarah
7. Becky

another post with no pictures

sorry that i don't have any pictures or video but the camera is packed away somewhere and i can't find it. we have officially moved into our house and started the unpacking process (which i must say bites the big one.) we moved in on monday and wouldn't you know it my body had enough and decided to go ahead and get sick. in the mists of moving all the boxes in i get a really high fever and can't seem to get warm and i'm shaking so hard my body hurts. john was nice enough to let me lay down and rest for a while. after resting for a while john decided to go to the store and he was trying to get jack to go with him (i'm in my sick bed dying) and of course jack being who he is, was resisting and screaming, then all of a sudden you starts singing his ABC's. who knew that he even knew that song. i sing it to him all the time but he never once joined in. it just goes to show that you really have to watch what you say around kids because they do pick up on everything and you don't want it to come around and bite you in the butt.

this part is for you melinda you little turd, but i have to say that my husband has been the best. he has worked so hard trying to get the house put together and on top of all that unpacking he took care of jack and me. i love my husband he is awesome. i'm very grateful for all he does for our family.

once our house is presentable and i find our camera i'll show you all what we have done. if you even care to see. see you on the flip side.

I know it's been a while...

so i know that i'm the worst at updating my blog lately, but life is kind of crazy. so this week started out with a bang. it all started at 4:30 am sunday morning when we had to catch our flight up to salt lake city to finally move all of our stuff out of the condo. when we arrived at the condo our movers were already there and ready to go. we just let them in and away they went. john and i just stood there feeling a little weird not doing anything to help but they wouldn't let us. having professional movers is the best thing ever, thanks citi financial for that. we finally signed the papers to sell our condo monday morning, shipped the honda to arizona and the movers were moving everything down to the truck. while they were busy we got to have dinner with sarah, brian, carolyn and david. i really miss them and wish that i could have packed them onto the truck too. everything in utah happened so fast and went so smoothly i thought things were going to continue that way, boy was i wrong.

we were suppose to sign the papers to buy our new house on tuesday but of course the title company had not received them. our realtor told us to go down on wednesday to sign and the docs were still not there so we had to wake up at the butt crack of dawn the next morning and sit in traffic trying to get to their office by 8 (of course we were late.) we finally signed them thursday morning and then at 5 that evening we get a call that they had put the wrong city on all the papers and we had to meet up with the lady and resign them. finally this afternoon john got the keys to our house, just in time to have the house painted tomorrow and then have our furniture moved in on Monday.

since coming to arizona jack has had two ear infections and now a sinus infection while teething. i know it sounds crazy that jack being 2and a half is still teething but it is true. my sweet jack jack apparently was left back in utah and we have a new jack for arizona. i'm hoping once we finally get into our own house things will settle down and jack will morph back into his old self. i know i sound like downer debbie right now but i am extremely grateful for this new opportunity but it is all a little overwhelming. i couldn't do it without the help and support of my sister steph. i owe her big time. also thanks to buffy and ian for hooking us up with an awesome realtor in utah, sarah for letting me complain to here and carolyn for all your help with the condo. this post has become more and more cheesy as i continue so i will stop now. hope you were able to make it through this boring post.

New Home part deux

Here is our large backyard (by Phoenix standards) in all it's unlandscaped glory. Hopefully Tom will be able to help us make this look nice and not so much like a gravel pit.

This is the master bath. Awesome shower, useless bathtub, 2 sinks and lots of storage, what more could you ask for?
Here is the master bedroom. Again, we ask, "Do we have enough furniture for this room?" And the answer of course is no. Maybe after a couple of years
The retreat loft. Nothing like Laura's fanastic loft, but at least we can throw a couch here and have another place to lounge.

Hopefully this is our house

So here it is!!! The first house that we looked at that actually got me excited. It is 2300 square feet with 3 bedrooms 2.5 bath and a loft. We are still doing all the loan stuff so it isn't ours yet keep your fingers crossed for us, because I really didn't like any of the others we looked at.

We liked this one because it doesn't look like your typical Arizona house and the neighborhood was really nice.

This is the living room. It is open to the second floor. It is a little overwhelming for me from the design aspect.
Here is the family room which is connected to the kitchen.
The kitchen is really big. John is very excited about this room.
Dining room, right off the living room.

So this is the down stairs. I have to do a seperate post for the upstairs it won't let me put anymore pictures on this one.

Just a quick update...

So it has been a while since we updated our blog so I thought I would tell you the latest with the Florez family. So as of December 30th we became Arizonians. We left our condo fully furnished and clean so the realtor could show our place and not be too embarassed. We officially listed our house on January 2 and on Jan 5th we had two offers on it. It is under contract, keep your fingers crossed that everything goes through. We also started to look for a house down here on January 5th and we actually found one today and made an offer. It seems that Heavenly Father seems to be good with us being here and is really blessing us. We really miss our friends in Utah but are excited to be close to family and to start a new adventure here in Arizona. I guess this kind of sounds like another Christmas letter, oh well that is what is new with us.