Christmas Eve

Winter Wonderland Concert at Vista

Lea's grade singing  - she's in the front row to the left gold 'jacket', white shirt

 Lucas is on the top row, third from the end. There were so many people there, I was just happy to have a seat and a place for my kids to be a little active.

CHRISTMAS EVE!

We're still working traditions and what works best for our family, but we're getting there. :) I'm sure every year will be different no matter what. So this year on Christmas eve, we read books, Luke 2 with puppets, sang hymns, and the kids were able to open one gift from a sibling. The kids followed Santa on the Santa tracking app Jeff found. The loved this. We thought Lucas was on board with the 'santa's not real' idea, but the Santa tracker brought him back to believing. :) Lea claims she only pretends to believe for her younger siblings. :)

 Twas the Night before Christmas

 It was Mo's turn this year to put the star on the tree - Lea keeps track for us.

 Finding Luke 2 or words to a hymn on the nexus.

 Mo likes to go old school and use a book. :)

Sibling gifts:

 

 Mo got a 'lukie-guy' (a lego-guy)

 a Lego car kit he had given a couple friends for their birthdays and he has always wanted for himself.

 a 'hello kitty' lamp

 it's a surprise!!

 Abbey made this sweet picture in preschool - her snowman family - so stinkin' cute!

 Good night!!

Tender moments

 Christmas ornaments from my sister.

One day, Lucas had been asking about cemeteries. He wanted to go to one and see what they were like. I told him the cemeteries in Phoenix would be different than any other, but I was wrong. The first one I had seen in Phoenix was all dirt, no grass. That was bizarre to me. This one we went to was beautiful. It being Christmas time, there were lots of headstones decorated for the holidays. The first people we saw were right near the entrance with 2 LARGE cases of beer. 3 friends celebrating? a lost friend. 

One gravestone, I loved. Said of the woman there, She lived to serve others. (How great is that to be remembered for always serving others!?) 

We drove around, saw the Korean portion - those were beautiful headstones. There were a couple of graveside services while we were there - we stayed away from them, but saw the long line of cars with police escort. One section was babies. Babies from the 1950's-1960's. So sad to see all those little markers with a single date or couple of months. There were markers for people from the 1800's!! Truly an amazing and sacred place to be. We saw several more families set up around loved ones having a little get together.

The kids love seeing the little Santas, Christmas trees and other holiday decorations. It was hard for them to understand why the holidays would be hard without their loved ones. They didn't quite grasp the concept and I hope they don't have to for a very long time.

 Our last stop was to the Vietnam wall.

 This statement applies to all who have passed on to the other side of Heaven.

Handy Jeff

 Our kitchen faucet has been leaking for about 6 months now and finally I can't stand it any longer. We had already replaced it the year before on the day of Lucas' birthday party - that was chaos. Water was leaking on the counter, on the floor, everywhere. So I didn't want to buy the same faucet and then have it start leaking again in a few months. I started looking at faucets online from Lowes for a 2 handle faucet and sprayer. Well it turns out when you want that, you need 4 hole in the sink.......we only had 3. Jeff convinced me he wanted to take the task on of getting said 4th hole. Off to Lowes we go to get advice and find the faucet I love. :) We came to the agreement that if Jeff was going to move forward with this making of the hole, there is a strong possibility the sink might crack and we'd be back for a new sink. Okay. okay. okay.

 marked and ready to go.

 here's to an easy task of knocking out the hole.........

 out comes the drill.....

 the result is a small hole, not nearly big enough for anything.

daddy's helper

Several hours later, the next day and another drill bit, we have this: isn't it beautiful!?

 sidenote: the hose started leaking a couple weeks later and got all over the floor - Jeff repaired it and this time it's good to go for the long haul. I LOVE IT!

Zoo babies

 Take a little trip to the Phoenix Zoo with our favorite friends. My favorite place is the Spider Monkeys. I have a few more favorite places now - the lions and the Zebra - especially the 100+ lb baby. :)

 how cool is this shot!? :)

 Peyton, Jaron, Abbey, Ammon

 To the Zebras. This little one was constantly moving like any toddler. Sprinting and running circles around the momma Zebra.

 Love the Zoo.

Saturday mornings

October and November Saturday mornings were spent at the soccer field. We finally broke down and purchased a shade structure - it was totally worth it! We covered all of our friends and kids on hot days and provided cover from the wind on other days. We love our soccer friends as we shared our Saturdays with the same families for several hours - same teams with siblings and all. Not only those families but everyone else we knew on other teams. 

The end of soccer season brought some mixed feelings - 1: happy we didn't have to get up and rush to the soccer fields for 4 hours and 2: now what are we going to do without seeing our friends for some quality bonding time. There's always next season. :)

This was Abbey's team 'playing'.

 Orange Stars: Coach Hoyt, Nicholas, Ethan, Emi, Nena

James, Abbey, Drew, Gabriel, Kaden

 Grandma and Grandpa Sorensen came down to watch Tanner play football and were lucky enough to watch soccer games too.

 Ethan, Abbey and Drew - love these kids!

 Next game: Blue Tornadoes

Lea's - she has gotten more aggressive this year and has really started enjoying the game. She even took down a girl - bahaha....okay sorry. I just want her to play more like her cousins.....

 something like this: my nieces- Meghan is #4, Paige is #3

Lea's team: 

Savannah, Kadyn, Adrian, Josh, Lea, Nicholos, Caden, Jeramiah, Kamora, Brisa, 

Coach Cobb

Lucas' game was next: Green Lions

 Coach Andy, Reagan, Laila, Lucas, Samhith, Coach John

Estavon, Mason, Addie

 

We love SOCCER!!

US Womens Soccer

 When the Olympics were on in London 2012, I was so excited to watch the Womens Soccer team..........only to discover we could only watch it if we had ESPN Soccer. Which we don't, so I only got updates online, not nearly as much fun or exciting. I wanted to see the goalie play - Hope Solo. She is a year younger than Jeff and I and we went to the same high school and grew up in the same town. Jeff and I had just finished reading her book - wow. As a kid I was totally oblivious to things around me, I'm sure my parents knew more, but I did not. I remember Hope from little league baseball games our brothers played together and on the same team. I remember her dad coached the team. Even my brother remembers him coaching and that he was genuinely a nice person whom everyone enjoyed being around.

So when I found out the Womens team was coming to Phoenix, I jumped on those tickets! How many times in my life would I ever be able to watch someone I know play a professional sport?? Not many if any more at all unless it's the old person golf tour. :) We were going to go just us, but soccer season has brought out some new found love for our girls. Lucas was not interested in watching women play soccer.....he stayed home with Ammon and Alexis babysat for us. 

They played Republic of Ireland (had just played them in Portland a few days before) - they beat the socks off these women this time 5-0. Hope only played about 20 minutes and was pulled out as she was not seeing a lot of action and the other goalies needed a chance. The Ireland goalie had an AMAZING! night. She stopped countless shots on goal - I'm impressed that only 5 went in with how many shots she denied.

 The little girls in the red shirts were two rows in front of us when they returned to their seats. It was fun to see all the soccer teams and fans - girls looking up to their idols, hoping to one day be on this team. It was a little weird to sit next to the guy who kept yelling 'Marry me, hope!' and other odd comments.

 Hope is #1 in the blue

 She's in the black in this picture - this was the end of the game as they went to each side of the stands to clap for the fans. She ran around and signed autographs - fun to watch and be a small part of.