December Suff

We got our Christmas tree up a couple days after Thanksgiving.

The bottom half of it got totally rearranged by cute little hands well before Christmas day!

 Our elf (Tebow) made his debut the night of Dec. 1st.

He fell asleep a lot this year and would forget to fly home.  Sometimes he did that for a few nights in a row.

Our kids sure loved running out each morning to see where he was.  

Keith and I were ready to send him home early.  :)

 Grant wanted to make bears for Brett & Camille for Christmas.  So I "helped" him.  He was really good at stuffing them.  And he was so excited to give them!

 This kids nativity is one of my favorite things!

 Christmas PJ's were given at the beginning of December when we had a Family Home Evening lesson about the gift of Jesus Christ to the world.

 Taking a snooze by the tree.

 Grant reading books to Brett with Keith's glasses on.

 Playing with my girl.

Grant is so cute to have grabbed the camera and taken a picture!

 Camille really started to eat a lot in December.  She eats anything we put in front of her.

She loves to throw her sippy cup on the floor and have the boys pick it up.  The boys think it's so funny!

 We had a Relief Society Christmas wrapping night that I was in charge of.  It was so much fun!  We had tons of wrapping supplies and we all brought as many gifts as we wanted and got our wrapping done!  It was so nice to have it all done and to have a good time doing it.  We held it at our R.S. presidents home and she made tons of delicious treats and apple cider for us.  I felt spoiled!

We also had a Relief Society Bethlehem night.

 We had a stable made and brought in live animals and a Mary and baby.

The son of the girl whose house this was at was dressed up like a shepherd and he welcomed us all and Mary told us her story.  Then we had a beautiful song sung.  It was all so great that we did it again for the whole ward and all the neighbors the following Sunday night, minus the animals.  :)

 I have to share this great idea my friend came up with.  She put a toy camel down on the ground with a book light next to it and made camel silhouettes on the walls all around her yard.  It added so much to the Bethlehem mood!

 Everyone got to take home an olive wood ornament that was made in the real Bethlehem.

 Spaghetti face!

 Cool Santa Dude!

 Camille in her Christmas dress after church.

 again...

...and again

 This is the best we could do for a family shot.  Our kids were so wound up that we just gave up after a while.

 Love this shot!

 Rearranging the ornaments!

 I was so excited to put up a little Christmas tree in the toy room this year!

 Grant was so excited on Christmas Eve for Santa to come that he got the cookies and carrots ready early in the morning for Santa and his reindeer.

  

 Keith and I celebrated our 9th anniversary. 

These roses lasted through Christmas!  They were so pretty!

 Our nutcracker looking handsome on the piano.

 On Christmas Eve we bagged up leaves for our neighbor.  We got soooo many bags full, it was kind of crazy!  The boys had so much fun doing this service for her.

 Keith also edged her lawn.  She was so surprised and grateful.  The boys loved doing this!

 Grant took some of the giant leaves from our neighbors yard.  Keith helped him make a leaf museum.  He was so proud of it!

 We lined our whole little street with luminarias on Christmas Eve.  I wish I had a better picture of the whole thing.  It was so pretty!

 We had flautas and cheese dip for dinner and then read from Luke 2 with the kids.  And then everything was ready for Santa to come.

 Camille's stocking wasn't quite done yet so I whipped up the white one on the end for her after the kids went to bed.

My grandma started making all of her grandkids these stocking when I was a kid.  My mom started making them for all of her grandkids.  She's made them for everyone except Brett (I made his) and then I made Keith's.  And she's almost done with Camille's.  They have a lot of pieces and take a while to put together, but they look so beautiful altogether!

 It was fun to listen to the boys on Christmas morning.  They were so excited!

Brett loved the bear that Grant made for him.

 I tried this recipe for French Toast Bake for Christmas breakfast this year.  It was soooo good!  We served it with bacon, scrambled eggs, and freshly squeezed orange juice.  I will definitely be making this again.  I love having something delicious that is put together the day before so I can just throw it in the oven on Christmas morning and have it fill our house with yummy smells while we open gifts.

 Santa brought the boys Plasma cars and matching green helmets.  They loved them!  We rode them throughout the house all day on Christmas, as well as outside.

 We had my parents and my brother's family over for Christmas dinner.  We served prime rib, fresh green beans, garlic mashed potatoes, rolls, Christmas Jell-O, and had a bunch of yummy desserts to choose from.  It was so much fun!  I had never cooked a prim rib before and was so scared that I'd ruin it, but it turned out great!  Hooray!

We set up the kids table in the toy room (which is just off the entry way, by the dining room).

 Taking the plasma cars for a spin at the park.  We borrowed the cute pink car from Keith's parent's so Camille could have something to ride too.  We didn't last long.  It was so very cold!

 We went to see the Christmas lights at the Mesa temple after Christmas.

 Our kids love seeing the statue of Jesus in the Mesa Temple Visitor's Center.

 We took the kids on a hike.  We don't have a hiking pack for Camille so Keith decided to take the jogging stroller.  It was so funny to watch him push that stroller up the rocks!  We only made it a little ways up before it just became ridiculous.  But we still had fun!

 We also took the kids to the zoo.  Grant loved his map and kept looking at it over and over again.

 Pretty lavender growing in the farm area of the zoo

 Brett loves making funny faces in pictures.  This one tops the list of hilarious!

 Keith's parents gave us some gift cards for fun places to take our family.  So we used up the one for Iceberg after the zoo.  It was yummy!

December was a busy and fun month.  I always look forward to this time of year when Keith's office is closed and school is out and we can spend so much time together.  And that we did!  Now I need to be left alone for a while and get back into a routine!  HA!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

We had some early fireworks last night.  The kids and I jumped in the back of the van with lots of blankets and watched Keith light them in the street.  It was so cold here!

 The boys were brave and jumped out of our warm spot to light some sparklers.

 Then the kids went to bed and Keith and I fell asleep on the couch watching The Princess Bride.  We didn't even make it to midnight!  Ha!

Today we gathered as many warm clothes as we could (and we discovered that we really don't have many at all) and went up to Payson for the afternoon to play in the freshly fallen snow.  

It was fun to see the mountains covered in snow on our drive up.  We weren't the only ones to pull off right here and get a shot of the Superstition Mountains.  I should have taken a picture of all the people taking pictures!  It was fun to see everyone so excited about the snow!

 If you enlarge this picture, you'll be able to see that all of these saguaros have cute snow hats on.  At least that's what they look like to me.  :)

 We never see snow plows in our area.  The boys thought they were so cool!

 All the trees looked so pretty covered with snow!

 We forgot our hats at home so Keith ran into WalMart to get some new ones.  He found this awesome one for him!  Pretty snazzy!

 Snow angel boys.

 Camille loved it, but got so cold and spent most of the time in the car.

 Our hot chocolate was soooooo hot!  

So we put it in the snow, waited a few minutes, and then it was perfect!

 A mom and her daughter built this snow-woman and asked us to take their picture.  And so we posed with their snow-woman too.

 We had fun sledding.  The boys moved over to a bigger hill with some other guys and they made an awesome sled run with a little jump at the end.  Our boys really flew on it!

 I got in on the snow angels too.  I totally felt like a kid again!

 Another pretty tree.

 The boys and Keith made this snowman with some of their sledding buddies.  It has cookie eyes and the mouth and nose were made from our Chex mix that we had brought.  Brett was so cold by this point that he just kept crying.  We changed everybody into dry clothes in the car.  The boys both cried the whole time we were getting them dressed because they were so cold.   And then Grant stopped all the sudden and said, "This was so fun!  Let's do it again tomorrow!"

 We were so thankful for the heater in the car!

 We got one last shot of our friendly snowman.  I think he's so cute!

We stopped at Denny's for some dinner and then headed home.

We had so much fun!  We learned a lot for next time too...like it wouldn't hurt to get some real snow boots, pants, and gloves!

A big boy, a helper, and a growing girl

It's so fun to see my kids at their different ages.  Grant is becoming a big boy instead of a little boy (even though he's still little).  He started piano lessons and is doing great!  It's amazing how he gets it.  I think he's way brighter than I was at his age (thankfully!).

 He likes to be in charge and take care of things that need to be done.  He took charge and helped Brett with his breathing treatment a couple weeks ago when Brett was sick.

 He's starting to figure out words and write notes now.  This one, from yesterday, made me laugh.  

"Santa give me a telescope"

I hope that's not all he wants, because that's not what we had in mind for him when we made our list.

However, I'm sure he won't be disappointed in what we have in store for him.  :)

Brett is my helper.  This boy wants to be busy doing important things.  He was beyond excited to match up all the socks from the laundry this morning.  If he's left to just play by himself he gets cranky.  Give him a chore and he's a super happy boy.  He helps me switch the laundry, make beds, cook, and wash windows.

 He got to walk in the rain with an umbrella over to Grandma Jackson's house last week and make gingerbread boys.  He came home with some dough and showed me exactly what we needed to do to make them.  

 Little Camille will be a year old next month!  Wow!  She is so busy that when she's awake, and not in her high chair, she is getting into all kinds of mischief.  I think she may be my most feisty and busy baby yet.  Maybe because there are more places to explore and more bathroom doors to keep closed than in our previous house.

 When I tuck her in, she grabs the edge of her blanket and pulls in up snug around her.  It melts my heart every time!

 Nice teeth Camille!

She has a bunch more that are just waiting to burst through at any moment.

 I'm loving this outfit that she wore for the first time today.  

 She will eat anything!  She especially loves avocados and raspberries lately.

 

So grateful for these kids of mine and their fun personalities!

Pinecones and Happy Birthday Auntie Ann!

I took the two littles on a jog this morning.  I was hoping to find some pinecones along the way to use for a Christmas craft for Grant's Kindergarten class next week.  Well, I lucked out and found around 50 great pinecones!  Now the kids will have a great selection to pick from!

Camille fell asleep in the stroller just before we got home.  I put her in her crib and then set out to bag the pinecones and vacuum out the stroller.  Brett helped me.  He was a great help!  And then he went inside and promptly locked me out of the house!  That stinker!  By the time I realized it, he was on the potty and said he couldn't get off and was yelling.  I pleaded with him and told him he was a big boy and he could get down.  But he wouldn't.  I tried breaking in with a screwdriver.  I even tried to kick the door down.  Didn't work.  :)

Then I went to my neighbor's house and called Keith.  He said he could come home, but he had something to do first.  It would be 30 more minutes at least.  So I went back to the door to yell talk with Brett again.  This time he sounded closer.  He said he was in his room.  Well, if he's off the toilet (that he said he couldn't get down from) then it was time to act.  So I lied and told him that there was a big tractor outside and I could hear his little feet running so fast to unlock the door.  Ha!  Should have thought of the tractor sooner.  :)

Time to hide a key somewhere!

Today is my sister's Birthday!  Happy Birthday Annie!

I love this picture of her with her talented hubby.  These two both have awesome talents and are so fortunate to have each other to share them with.  They do lots of cool things together like: make chocolates (really fancy ones), bottle lots of yummy jams, jelly's, salsa, and other stuff, bake cool things like wedding cakes and pies, craft awesome things like goose feather Christmas trees.  They even have an Etsy shop HERE.  They live in a cute house all the way over in North Carolina with their little girl.  Wish they lived closer!

Happy Birthday Auntie Ann!