Boys singing 'Feliz Navidad'

December

Macey has a few holiday dresses. This is one that I found at the last minute. I didn't realize that you had to shop for dresses early like you have to do for the boys' ties. Next year I'll act sooner, but I think this purple dress is a beauty.

Ryan's preschool had a winter program. We nearly missed it because I didn't know where the school we were performing at was. But luckily we made it right on time. Do you see the girls in the pretty dresses? The instructions were to wear your favorite winter clothes. I was lucky to get this kid in something besides shorts!

Alex wanted to hold Macey. She doesn't seemed worried that she ways half as much as him and he nearly dropped her several times.

Ryan's class sang two songs and then the whole preschool sang 'Feliz Navidad.'

These are his teachers Mrs Barbee and Mrs Solis.

This is the awesome cake we decorated at the Wrights. Amie invested in a house cake pan. I know she had to do a lot work making the cakes, but it was perfect for our boys' attention span for decorating. Oh, it did look better, but before we left Amie the boys had started eating off their favorite candies. I'll post more pictures once Amie sends them over.

Ah, my sweet Macey. She is so calm so peaceful and then -Wham- she does something crazy. Like climb up the back of her high chair. And then a few minutes later the front. I was doing the dishes when I heard her screaming (not crying, screaming). She got to the top and then got stuck. She loves to climb. She goes to the top of the 3 story playground with the boys, and likes going down the large, crazy slide. Peaceful like Alex, adventurous like Ryan, and screams like no other!

Start of December

To start off the month of December we went to a resort, Cibola Vista. It is a timeshare resort. We went to a presentation, which we had never done before. I think it could be a fun way to vacation, but not something we need to invest in right now.
They had a s'mores get together around a fire pit the first night we got there.

Bruce and Julianne had stayed at this resort, which is how we got involved. So they came along for the weekend fun.

Brother and sister enjoying the landscaping.

Tennis wasn't Macey's favorite part of the vacation. Here she is trying to get away!

My family of monkeys. Funny story from my youth: when I was 8 my family lived in San Diego and all the houses had chain link fences. Which isn't very private now that I live in a cinder block kind of place. Anyway, I would climb the fences to get to my friends' houses. Once I went over in a dress and slipped on the top. Yep, ripped those princess undies right in two! So, I guess you could say that my children got my climbing genes.

This resort has horseback riding and a ghost town.

On Saturday the resort hosted a scavenger hunt for the kids. Their awards were chili pepper necklaces.

Back home... We finally got our Christmas decor out. The picture above is my inheritance. Yes, this was listed in my grandmother's will. It is a ceramic Christmas tree with plastic birds/bulbs. I know my cousins are missing this jewel this year, but my children are learning to love the tradition of moving the glowing birds around.

And here is our front room. Alex was very worried about his stocking being hung behind the table. "How will Santa fill it and how will I get it down?" We decided to wait and worry about it on Christmas Eve. Notice our Thomas the Tank Engine train set around the bottom of the tree. This has brought much joy to the boys' lives this year. Macey is determined to step on the track every time she enters the room. Macey loves our tree. She especially likes the Minnie Mouse ornament from my childhood and candy canes. Whew, does she love candy canes. She circles the tree everyday to see if any have gotten low enough for her to pick!

Macey's first day with pig tails. It was a disaster; I have a lot of practicing to do!

I bought this 'Jingle Rock' reindeer in Arkansas. Sister has been carrying it around.

Lastly, donuts on a Saturday morning. Yummy! And a good reason for Mace to have a bath.

What Ryan has been asking

1) Ryan's favorite song is 'Feliz Navidad'. As we were singing along in the car he said, 'Why would you love someone from the bottom of your heart? That is gross.' I asked why and he said, 'Because it is all bloody and squishy.'
2) After listening to another Christmas song Ryan asked, 'What does Santa want for Christmas? We should ask Pippen [our elf watching the kids during the month of December] and then maybe he could take it to Santa.' Hmm, how many other kids do you know that are worried about Santa's wish list?
3) Every morning this week Ryan rolls out of bed and while rubbing his eyes says, 'Is Dad home?' One time Dan came home in the middle of the night and so now I guess Ryan keeps hoping for that again!

Man outing

They boys packed up and headed to Lake Roosevelt Friday morning. They headed back Saturday but stayed at Kirsten's overnight before coming home Sunday.

Thanksgiving 2010

This year we hosted Thanksgiving. We had a lot of yummy food and a very good time. Look for the latest family pictures taken.

Macey's groove

Our Macey loves to dance. Here are just a few of her moves.

Bball done again

Another season of basketball has come to a close. Alex's coach called him Steve Nash, which really boosted our players confidence.

Alex is a great athlete. I'm trying to teach him he has to practice. Natural ability will only get you so far. We have been playing 'around the world'.

Here are his 3 awards: trophy, ribbon and certificate.

And here is Ryan in a tree. Macey had taken Dan out front to see Otto the dog (Yes, he is gone but she was still excited when Dan came back from his trip to tell him about it.)

Ryan's question

The boys and I have been reading 'Preach My Gospel' together at meal times to prepare for Alex's baptism. We were talking about faith and Ryan said, 'How does God get our prayers?' I stumbled for an answer, but then realized that that is the problem with our prayers. We act like they are sign, sealed and delivered to God's inbox and then he'll read them and get back to us. But really, God is always with us. He is omnipresent, which I can't begin to understand, but He is aware of everything that we do. He watches us day by day. It makes me sad to realize that God has been with me all this time and I have failed to acknoweldge Him properly. Saying prayers is our way of directing our thoughts directly to him. 'Father, you see what we are at here and we could really use your help right now,' you know what I mean; just acknowledge His presence.
In Relief Society we listened to a beautiful arrangement of 'Nearer My God to Thee' and it really sunk in. Hello! God can't get any closer to us, he is always with us; if we want to be nearer to God we've got to do the snuggling, the praying, the listening, the do-gooding. And if we want him to 'talk' to us we just have to listen. He talks to us through the Holy Ghost or the scriptures. Which makes perfect since if God is always sitting next to us on the couch and we need guidance, He can direct us to the ultimate owner's manual through his mouth piece the Holy Spirit. (OK, I read all owner's manuals that go through my house, so this is a great analogy for me!)
I hope that Alex and Ryan are both learning from our gospel study outside of our scripture study. But if not, I know I am and I am GRATEFUL to my Heavenly Father that he blessed me with another insight into who He is.

My turn

My sweet children take up most of my posts but this one is about me. I was assigned to give a 20 minute lecture on Architecture to the gifted kids in our school district on a Friday night. It was a nice size crowd. I enjoyed revisiting my archi past and it was very fun making the presentation. The above picture is the auditorium building by Louis Sullivan. Dan flew into Chicago this week and I am not above saying that I am jealous. I would love to just go and sit in this room for a while.
Notice these two tall shrubs? They mysteriously grew up one day. They are about 3 months old now.

June tells me they are pomegranate trees. I think these are the fruits of my composting labor. I have been feeding my yard with Miracle Grow this summer; and a miracle has grown! I love pomegranates and I'm excited to watch them grow and produce. The rosemary bush originally in that flower bed will be pulled out shortly.

This is how I could make millions if I really cared about money... ha, ha. Actually, I'm saving money by not washing 6,000 cups everyday. These are our family's permanent water cups.

I hot glued a super strong magnet to a cup. We each have our own color. OK, so there is probably a better glue so you can run it through the dishwasher. Just this morning I thought it would be fun to put vinyl letters on the cups, ya know, monogramming. Anyway, I offer my brilliant idea to the world.

Halloween Party

Liz, Amie and I decided that I should host a Halloween party. They really enjoyed the one we had a couple of years ago, and it was time to get the kids together to play. I'll say this, by the time the party started I was mighty jealous of the adult only party that our other friends were hosting! Trix Bunny.

Lucky Charms, Trix, and Captain Crunch. I do have some pictures of them smiling, but I loved this goofy picture. Dan and I were Count Chocula and Buzz Cheerio's bee respectively, however, Dan did not get off of work (come out of his office) until 1 1/2 hrs into the party. He did not dress up and we did not get a family picture.

I set up a table outside for the kids.

And I set up the table for the adults inside.

I just want you to know that it was 90 deg when I was decorating, so I set up this little canopy with lights and spider webs and then gave up. It was way too hot to be Halloween. Each family had to bring a game for the kids to play. Amie did an eyeball dig in speghetti. Liz did a donut on a string game.

Kasie did a cake walk.

Julianne did tape the face on the Jack. And I made up a game of Deal or No Deal.

Here is me and sister. She was tired before the party got started, but managed to stay up through all of it.

We had lots of fun. Thanks friends for coming!

October Happenings

Macey is playing in the water table. The boys regularly move around the play equipment. This was arranged so sister could get in for a dip.

The end of fall break; the kids are all trying to play cars together.

Macey has always got her bootie in the air.

This is an outfit girlie got for her birthday. It is very cute, but a little big for our skinny minnie.

Ah, pumpkin carving. Start with one pumpkin.

And one dedicated dad. I was just going to carve out what the boys drew, but Dan found 2 prints for the boys: a ghost and a spider in a web.

Macey's first pumpkin.

Look at Alex's face. He drove us crazy talking endlessly about the slimy goo inside the pumpkin. The boys finished, but I didn't get a picture.

One thing I love about this little girl is her bed head. It is cute now, but I hope it tames down a bit as it gets longer!

Day at Papago

Emily called and said she had a free day, so we met up with her at Papago Park. We first visited Hunt's Tomb where the first governor of AZ is in tombed with his family.

Then we went over to climb up to 'Hole in the Rock'. It is some place that I have always wanted to go and wanted to check it off.

Did you know that October means 95deg weather? Yeah, it was a short hike, but a hot day!

This is the view from the hole.

Picture of us'ns.

Our next stop was the Hall of Flame. There they have many old fire carts, cars, trucks and engines. The complete history of firefighting is contained in the small museum. My kids were only impressed with the play area. I thought it was very cool, and recommend it to folks without kids, or at least with kids that will let you actually look at the artifacts and read a few of the signs.

We had a nice time, but I think I'll stick to the zoo when we go back. Although, I do want to visit the botanical garden... maybe someday when all my sweet children are at school...