Jesus Wants Me for A ...

SUNBEAM!!!!
I can't believe my BABY is in Sunbeams. She has been so excited about the next time she goes to church she is going to be a Sunbeam. Matthew was excited to take her to her class. She doesn't seem old enough to be there. Now I don't have a nursery child which is kind of fun because then they can both learn the same songs and sing them instead of just Matthew singing them at church.
This is my sweet Allison on her first day of Sunbeams!!

Arizona - Part 2

We got to Prescott and Grandpa was out with Murphy so when he came home and walked into their house, we came out of the bedroom and said "Happy Birthday Grandpa!!" I have been excited to surprise Grandpa for his birthday for many months. They love having us there and being around their grandkids that surprising him was SO fun. I LOVE SUPRISES!! As long as they are good though, who doesn't?
We got to go see where Grandpa works and play on playgrounds, eat lunch with Grandpa, go to the mall with Grandma and Grandpa and play games, and puzzles and watch movies, have a birthday party, get stories read, play Legos, play princesses, play cars, help Grandpa wash Grandma's car, or at least be outside while he did it.
Grandma and Grandpa had snow so Allison enjoyed throwing it down. It was beautiful weather while we were there.

Grandpa has a deep voice and it is great listening to him read a story so the kids requested Grandpa for their bedtime stories.

Grandpa's Birthday Party we got to eat Chinese food and have cupcakes and ice cream as well as give him presents. We had a great time while at Grandma and Grandpa's. The worse part was when we had to leave the day after.

Arizona - Part 1

We got to visit my sister for a day and a half and while we were there we had Christmas Dinner and played on the quads. It was fun and we all enjoyed it. My brother-in-law took Allison and I on a little adventure and it included mud. Since then, he and Allison have had a special uncle-niece connection. We had so much fun riding with him. It was also very cute watching Matthew drive their quads and Allison to drive the little jeep that was battery powered. We enjoyed the wide open spaces and the fresh air.

Daniel, Matthew and Andrew

Heather, Matthew and Andrew

Little Matthew

Little Allison

My wonderful honey.

Matthew driving while Andrew helps him learn how.

Matthew with Daddy as the coach.


The morning we left, Emily wanted to get a picture of all of us before with left with her camera. Since we were all getting together, I had to run out and get my camera....
My camera was in the van all night and so when I brought it in it was just foggy because of the temperature difference.
Oh well, I have a foggy picture but it would have been good of all of us.

Allison, Chris, Matthew, me, Andre, Heather, Daniel, Kris, Emily, and Jennifer

Santa's Gifts

I love having Christmas with little kids. They are so fun.
Matthew is into Star Wars a lot so when Santa ran across Star War Pens, he just knew that he needed to put them in Matthew's stocking.

This is probably not a big surprise but our children love books/reading. Of course Santa knew that and found Berenstein Bear books which was very exciting.

Santa brought it, Santa brought it. The Spinjas that Matthew asked Santa for, he got. I don't know where he saw or heard about these but he has been wanting them for a long time so it was a good thing to ask Santa and they are pretty cheap. Closer to Christmas Matthew decided that he wanted a DSi. I looked up how much one of those bad boys are and holy cow, they are $100!! I couldn't believe that. I knew that Santa wouldn't be bringing that, but of course he had already written his letter and sat on Santa's lap, so fortunately for us, it was too late:)

Allison loves her babies. She wanted more babies for Christmas and she must of been good enough because she got them. She was so excited to open her babies.

Sugar Cookies

On Christmas Eve, I like to make Christmas sugar cookies so that the kids can make them and then frost them and decide which ones they want to leave out for Santa. This year, we had a special request that Santa come on Friday instead of Sunday since we would be in a hotel on Christmas Eve/Christmas Morning. I didn't do much baking this Christmas season which I am sad, though I did make lots and lots of fudge for various occasions. Other then that and these cookies nothing else was made. I hope to do better next year. I think the kids liked frosting the cookies more then making them but we still had fun.

Hard at work

Ward Christmas Party

I have had these pictures up and started writing this post but apparently never finished it. I am sick of seeing the same post up so have decided to finish writing this post.
We had our ward Christmas party at the beginning of Dec. They had Santa Claus come from 6:30-7pm and then we were going to eat at 7. I have NEVER seen so many Mormons arrive early or even on time for ANYTHING!!! We usually get to places on time or early and when we arrived in the parking lot and saw it full of cars we were in shock. Nobody wanted to miss Santa. The problem with Santa though was that he didn't arrive on time. Apparently they had been having some issues trying to find a Santa and they had one but they weren't sure he was going to fit into the suit. He was finally able to get a suit on and the kids were anxious.
As usual, Matthew did just fine sitting on his lap and telling him that he wanted Spinjas for Christmas....

Allison on the other hand....
She was also the same as usual. Her shy/scared self. This is the fourth year she has screamed going to see Santa. "Grandma" (McConnell) tried to help her but she wouldn't have it.

I quickly gave my camera to another person and had them take the picture I was going to force Allison to be in. Here is my forced picture.

When we got back to our table she was still sad. I had Chris take a picture of our sad girl.