Weekend Getaway

Well, it wasn't exactly a full weekend. It wasn't even 24 hours but it was a getaway with my hunny and it was lots of fun. Totally last minute, I hopped on a flight to Reno Friday afternoon with Larry. I'm lucky to have such great family & friends to help with the daycare and my kids. I couldn't have gone without their help. We stayed at the Circus Circus (compliments of the company since he was working) and I saw my first ever Trapeze Act. It was pretty amazing. We caught a flight out the next morning and were back in Phoenix by noon. Quick, but oh so worth it!

My favorite part about flying with Larry is at the end when we're deplaning I get to kiss the pilot and say "thanks for the ride"! I love having a pilot for a husband.

Best part about the whole trip was it only cost me $40. Now that's my kind of getaway!

Warning!

This is what happens when your child goes to the dentist to have a cavity filled and comes home with a numb mouth. Apparently the dentist didn't have that talk about being careful not to bite or chew yourself. Nate didn't realize that he was turning his lip into hamburger. I know that's gross but I couldn't think of any other way to describe it. This is what he looked like the next morning.

He wasn't very happy with me that I made him go to school. Good thing is that he said it didn't hurt. He was just embarrassed.

Hopefully he's learned a valuable lesson.

Turning Eight is GREAT!

In our family your eighth birthday is a pretty big one. Not only do you get an awesome birthday party with your friends but you also get baptized and have a party celebrating that too.

It was a busy week for us last week. Jake turned 8 on the 8th - how cool is that! Friday night he had a combined birthday party with his friend Dylan that lives across the street. Their birthdays are only two days apart, and since they are the same age and are in the same grade at school they have lots of the same friends. So we had one big party for both boys. And it was crazy!! We had 14 boys total and I think their parents stuffed them full of sugar before they dropped them off because they were wired. It took a great amount of effort to get them to sit long enough to eat some pizza and open presents.

Yes that's Jaxson trying to blow out the candles. He thinks every birthday is his.

Thankfully the rest of the evening was just what they needed to burn off all of that energy. We took them to Xtreme Play and let them run wild for a couple of hours. This place just opened up down the street and is sooo much fun. They have several very large inflatables for the kids to jump and slide on plus game stations and air hockey tables. It's just the place for a group of hyper active 8 year old boys. I highly recommend it!

I tried really hard to get all the boys together for a picture but it just wasn't meant to be. This was the best I could do.

Then on Saturday Jake was baptized. He had lots of family and friends their to show their love and support for him.

Afterwards we had a barbecue and another party complete with cupcakes and a yummy ice cream cake. I didn't get many pictures of this cause I was busy with the food but I did get one of Jake with the awesome pocket knife that his grandpa got him. This was the main thing he wanted for his birthday this year. Now he can't wait to go camping and do a little whittling with it.

I want to thank everyone who came and helped to make this one of the best birthdays ever!

Happy Birthday Jacob!

Jacob's Baptism

For those of you who didn't get one of these announcements in the mail and would like to come here is the info.

Saturday, January 10th

4:00 p.m.

Church building on Southern between Stapley & Gilbert

Everyone is invited.

Frosty Morning

This morning we woke up to frost covering everything outside. We don't see this very often so the kids were pretty excited. I was stupid enough to go out (in my bare feet) and take a few pictures.





The rain water in the dump truck was frozen over.

Now for those of you who are covered in inches or feet of snow I'm sure you're thinking "Oh please!" but for us Mesa folk this is a big deal.

Christmas

Another Christmas has come and gone and I think it was one of the best Christmases we've ever had. It was a very special one for my family. The best part was being around all of our family and friends. We are so lucky to have so much family so close. We have also felt the love and generosity of strangers. Someone did the Twelve Days of Christmas for us and as hard as my kids tried to catch them in the act they were not successful. Our secret Santa remains a mystery and if by chance this person or family reads my blog I want to say thank you so very much. It was an experience that we will never forget.

Christmas Eve

One tradition we have is getting together at my dad's on Christmas Eve and having the kids act out the Nativity. One of our many gifts from our Secret Santa was costumes for this. Here are a few pictures of the kids.

Mary & Joseph

The Angels

Wisemen & Shepherd's

This is the Wiseman Kaleb kissing baby Jesus

Christmas Morning

Santa was very good to us this year. He brought the kids a Wii. They have been asking Santa for this for a couple of years now. He finally came through.

He brought Jaxson a new bike.

Jaxson's favorite gift was his dinosaurs that our Secret Santa gave him.

We had Christmas dinner at my house. Because of the rain I knew the kids couldn't play outside and I was a little worried about it being insane crazy. But thanks to the Wii that Santa brought they stayed down in the basement all night. There wasn't even any fighting, they all waited patiently for their turn - it's a Christmas Miracle! THANK YOU SANTA!

Christmas Picture

These are for those of you who didn't get a Christmas Card (sorry about that - I can only make so many).

Aren't they adorable!