A Wonderful Day

I guess I better start with Christmas Eve. Traditionally we open up one present on Christmas Eve and it is always pajamas. The kids love this and it was a tradition in my family as well as Daniel's growing up so it has been a fun no-brainer tradition to pass on. Every year we try our hardest to get a decent picture of the kids in their Christmas jammies in front of the Christmas tree. But for every one of these:

I, without fail, get 15 of these:

Nevertheless, I do get one that is not toooooo bad.

Then we go to sleep....... or at least we try.

This year the boys woke up at 2:30 AM! Actually let me re-phrase that. Spencer got up at 2:30am to use the bathroom and "suddenly remembered that Santa probably came to our house" so he went out to take a sneak peek and could not contain his joy! He saw bikes for everyone so he needed to alert the whole household - and that he did.

Of course Dan and I are not the type of parents to allow this behavior (even if it is Christmas) so Dan sternly sent them off to bed once again. About an hour later I heard them out in the living room sizing up the stockings and everyones bikes again. This time I told them to get back into bed, except I am pretty sure that that was just in my dream.

Finally at about 7:30 Olivia woke up, which meant it was time for the lazy ol' parents to get out of bed. Ironically this is the latest we have ever slept in on a Christmas morning and the Earliest our children have ever woken up on a Christmas morning. huh, funny how that works.

I had wanted to get a cute photo of each of the kids by their stacks from Santa but by this time the kids had at least 4 hours on me and the Santa stacks were no longer cute nor organized so I have nothing. Just a few snap shots here and there. Sorry to say.

Each one of the kids made out like bandits. Every year I am blown away by the amount of gifts they get. This was going to be a "lean" year but it turned out to be quite blessed.

Grandpa & Grandma Gibbons did something unusual this year... they went in on a group gift for the kids, instead of the usually smaller individual gifts.

I would say it was a hit (That is Ryleigh's leg on the side doing a little dance).

Since Olivia had a birthday just a couple of days earlier she was a pro at unwrapping presents, but of course her Big Wheel from Santa was not wrapped and she loved it just the same!

Oh, and she also had triplets today! Plus she inherited a white tiger cub! Yeah!

Happy Birthday Olivia

Wow! I can't believe that Olivia is 2 today. I seems like only yesterday.....

Temple Lights

One of the many things I love about living in Arizona are the beautiful Temple Christmas lights at the Mesa Arizona Temple. I was so excited to take the kids to see how amazing it is and maybe start a tradition with them. Dan was unable to attend because he is busy studying for finals but I think he wanted to be with us so bad he probably couldn't concentrate on studying! Olivia this year has really fallen in LOVE with Christmas lights - whenever she sees a home that is brightly decorated she says "ooooooh! Pretty...."

Thankfully my parents and little brother Chad came with me and the kids - thankfully!

Not only are the lights themselves fantastic but the scenes placed around the Temple grounds are just so amazing too! Each one tells a story and is so beautiful to look at. I just wish I could look for longer - but there are so many dang people that you can only catch a glimpse and then be moving along.

So - FYI - Just in case you were wondering, Monday night is probably not the best night to visit the Temple for Temple Lights! :)

New Family Pictures

My wonderfully talented cousin Nikaela took our family pictures this year and I think they turned out really neat! What do you think?

A yummy day!

Today is/was Thanksgiving. It is only 10:00 pm right now and I feel like it should be two in the morning! Thanksgiving is such a wonderfully exhausting day! I do love this holiday almost more than any other holiday but it burns you out! This year was Dan's first year to have Thanksgiving with his family in 7 years (I had Thanksgiving with them the year he was in Iraq)! He was really excited and it did not disappoint. The food was amazing! I got a picture of it but I forgot to get a picture before everyone dug in - so this is a picture of our spread after round 1. Our dessert table was not to be passed up! We had some delicious stuff and this isn't even everything!

I spent 2 days making a Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake that I made from an actual pumpkin (because apparently there was a crop shortage on pumpkin this year and I could not buy canned pumpkin) and then as I was walking in the door I dropped it on the front door step. I almost cried.... no really.... I almost cried. I was literally choking back the tears but after about 30 minutes of being really irate with myself and a cheap spring-form pan I was able to enjoy the party once again.

The kids always play so well together. I am grateful that there are so many cousins that get along well..... really well together!

After we overindulged ourselves we headed down to the greenbelt for a friendly little game of kickball - dodge ball style. ....... and yes, that is really what it looks like on Thanksgiving day in Arizona (it was 77*)!

.....now tomorrow brings shopping at 3:30am, putting on the Christmas music, putting up the Christmas decorations and the LIGHTS!!! And the beginning of the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Winter Boutique

Today I had the opportunity to go to a boutique. These little thingies pop up all over the place on Saturday morning around here. Everyone want to show off their talents and make a few bucks in the process. It was fun, and things were cute! It gave me lots of fun craft ideas.

Anyways, I went to this boutique to help out my friend Jen. She was not selling any of her handmade goodies instead she and her husband have started a charity and she was taking donations. Her charity is called Kamber's Kaskets. Her daughter Kamber died a little over a year ago and they have started this charity in her name. You can read about it by clicking here or anywhere it says Kamber's Kaskets.

Jen set up a cute little booth all decked out in Purple (because that was Kamber's favorite color) with a sweet story about Kamber and her tragic death and their new found cause.

The boutique had MANY table of different crafts and foods and just fun stuff - I could have easily spent a fortune. Thankfully I didn't think to bring any cash or a checkbook to I was able to escape unscathed.

Every vendor that participated in this boutique are giving a portion of their proceeds to Kamber's Kaskets. On every vendor's table they had a sweet little purple and gold frame telling about Kamber's Kaskets and that they were donating for the cause.

There is going to be another boutique that is supporting Kamber's Kaskets the first weekend in December in Surprise. I am super excited about this and think it is a wonderful thing that Ethan and Jen are doing to help out other families that see themselves in tragic circumstances. If you or anyone you know would like to donate just let me know!

BOO!

I love Halloween. Love it Love it Love it!! This year the kids were Venom (Ethan), 80's rocker (Ryleigh), Joker (Spencer), and a garden fairy (Olivia). This picture was actually taken before our ward party the week before Halloween because on Halloween Ryleigh and Olivia were both sick. Ryleigh still dressed up and went around but by the end of the evening she was beat.

We had originally cleaned out 6 pumpkins (one for everyone) but time got away from us so only the kids' pumpkins got carved. The one above is Spencer's (he said he didn't think it was nice to make scary jack-o-lanterns so he wanted a happy one) below is Olivia's (Minnie Mouse), Ryleigh's (Phillies) and Ethan's (D-backs)

On our street we have a lot of people from our ward so we decided to all centrally locate and pass out candy together. It was a lot of fun to hang out with friends and enjoy the amazing weather together. We had a nacho bar and homemade root beer - YUM! Although, I must say, our neighborhood was a total bust. We had SO much candy and hardly any trick or treaters. It was very odd. I am excited for next year and to do it again!