Merry Christmas!!

  Jeff hung Christmas lights we purchased LAST Christmas in the kids room....Everyone slept through him climbing on the beds, stepping over them and making quite a bit of noise. Luke's room glows!! The girls have multi-color lights - not quite as bright as Luke's, but they were sooo very excited!!

 Jeff helping Ammon read his new book - Brown bear, Brown bear, what do you see?

 They were more excited about the food and new toothbrushes in their stockings.

 Lucas has been wanting a 'mote control car' since last year. Couldn't find any.....I really did try. This year I found a whole bunch! This one was awesome.....and lasted all of 6 hours before it broke. We returned it a few days later for a pimped out truck. Oh well - see how happy he is?! :)

 Accountant + Statistician = 4 very happy kids with calculators!!

 Wahoo - a Kindle Fire!

 Testing the durability of our legos. ha!

 a new game, water cup, lunch box and picture of Christ for Jeff

 Off to Church in our new clothes!!

Christmas Eve

Since Christmas was on Sunday, we decided to spend Christmas Eve in Wickenburg with my brother and his family. Our kids get along great - someone for everyone to play with. And we get along with Steve and Rozann too. :)

We enjoyed yummy food, desserts and the beautiful AZ winter.

 Gets a little cooler in Wickenburg than in Laveen, hence the red nose.

 There were some injuries - Abbey got bowled over while she was running.

 Played Mr/Misses Shark - a game they learned in swim lessons

 Riding the pink radio flyer scooter. 

We had a stirring performance of the Nativity:

 Taylee

 and Ammon played the extras....

 The Narrator encouraging the donkey to not drop Mary...

 the donkey helped Mary wrap her baby.

 A sweet Mother Mary and her baby Jesus.

 The cast: Tanner (donkey), Lucas (Joseph), Brianna (Shepherd), Shay (Angel/Star), Ashley & Lea (2 of the 3 wise men)

An Encore presentation: same cast, different roles :)

 

 With that, we headed home for bed to see what Christmas morning would bring and go to church for one hour.

Winter Festival

Poor Jeff, stuck on the outside of the seating- looks like he's in jail....or was it me??

 Lucas was so excited because they go to throw 'snowballs' at the end of one song. :)

 Rockin' out! :)

2-5-9

 So 259 - yeah!!!! We met these guys when we lived in Provo in our Singles ward. Commonly referred to as the 'Mesa Boys' among my roommates and I, since there was a whole group of them. Not only can they sing and harmonize as an Acapella group, but they write a lot of their music. Rob is a very talented musician and founded a non-profit organization when we were at BYU. Spire Music. He wrote his first inspired piece called 'He is Jesus Christ' on his mission - no piano, no orchestra, just missionaries singing. While at BYU, he was able to add the orchestra and put together performances at the Provo Tabernacle - Jeff, Steven and I were blessed to be a part of it. We even got to be on the very first recording of it - awesome! He's since redone some of it and had more professional individuals record it again and have had performances all over the country even some in our backyard at ASU Gammage. I'm proud to say I knew them before they were SUPER famous. :)

Rob actually just won a million dollar prize for a short story film he made called '12 Princesses' - made the local news. He's currently in London doing a recording in ABBEY ROAD!! Seriously though - I can't get enough of these guys - you won't meet a better bunch of boys, well men now. :)

Every year at the Mesa Temple, they have Christmas performances and this year 259 was on the list for a Monday night. We met Jeff there and were able to listen to them perform - brought back ALOT of memories from our BYU days.

 Rob, McKane (he helped coach our flag football team - that was awesome! Came in 2nd place - not so awesome), Greg - warming up.

Rob, Greg, Jeff, Jeff, Porter, McKane

 Not fantastic pictures, we were WAY back from the stage and this is how close my zoom gets and the quality when my 1 year old is smacking my hand. :)

 We talked with them afterwards and surprised to find most of them still live in the valley - Gilbert - the 'new Mesa'. :) Apparently Laveen is not even on the list. ha!

Of course we wandered a few moments for the lights - it's just so packed, especially on Mondays for FHE.

Rainy day

 Rainy days are few and far between around here. I happen to have my camera in my purse as I drove to the neighboring school to pick up Lea and Lucas. Isn't it beautiful!

 I don't even think it rained very much, but the low cloud coverage (any cloud coverage at all) is rare and a wonderful sight to see.

 This was the drive back home - how different the sky looks from one vantage point to another.

 Another view back towards the school - so amazing!

 The kids love to run home from the mailbox especially when it's wet (because really it wasn't 'rainy') outside. It's nice to mix it up a little instead of sunshine all the time - I know hard right? :)

Brief moments in the spotlight

 Enjoying the spotlight....

 Lea played a Christmas Song at the Activity Day Talent Show. This was her first ever 'play for anyone besides her piano teacher and practicing.' She did great and took a little bit of encouragement to keep her from going last on purpose. :) She's her mother's daughter. The spotlight is not something we crave, but it's worth it in the end.

 A little ward Christmas party fun! I was on a committee of 3, with lots of help we were able to put together a fun evening. I spent most of my night trying to keep track of my kids (Jeff was home sick with Ammon) and fill up the water jug. And although I spent most of the night walking back and forth from the kitchen with water, I would have much rather done that than bussed 35 tables!! Yes we had 35 tables set up that the Young Men set up for the night before. Every table was used - a wonderful turnout and great help setting up and taking everything down. Merry Christmas! :)