Christmas!

This Christmas was fantastic.  Anita and Caleb (my MIL and nephew) came down for the holiday and it was a lovely visit and celebration.

Christmas Eve Night - New jammies!

After Anita and I stayed up til nearly midnight wrapping all these gifts! 

Caleb, excited for things to start! 

Jeremiah was so excited!

Sarah was excited too!

We started by reading the Christmas story.

And opening baby Jesus. 

The kids put our two baby Jesus' in their places 

Then, it was gift time! 

Jeremiah was absolutely spoiled! 

So was Sarah. 

Jeremiah was thrilled to open this - a Buzz Lightyear!

Sarah loved all her gifts, too. 

Caleb had a great Christmas :) 

Shawn surprised me with a cookbook from "America's Test Kitchen." (I also got a laptop - who hoo!)

Shawn got a blanket, some grilling stuff, cologne, and "Insanity" - a workout program.  

I cooked my first ever turkey and made mashed potatoes, gravy. cranberry sauce, and baked beans!

We even had a kids table!  *toast*

After dinner, a dance party! 

Hope your Christmas was beautiful and merry - Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Grandpa Dan!

Grandpa Dan came to visit - he hasn't seen Sarah since last year (when it was freezing and Sarah had pneumonia), and this year was much, much more fun!

Jeremiah and Sarah were so happy to see him!  They loved playing with him - Jeremiah couldn't wait to beat him up.  

 Sarah had to sit by/next to him the whole time.  When he arrived at the airport, she ran into his arms and yelled: "Grandpa Dan!!" 

We visited the Farm at South Mountain (of course!) 

 Tumbleweed park... 

Grandpa Dan gave a lot of shoulder rides.   

 Grandpa's an engineer, so he printed off some designs of machines he's created.  Jeremiah is extremely interested in any type of machinery, so they spent time time discussing what each machine did. 

We went to the Railroad park for the Christmas Lights  

 And had fun just hanging out! 

We love you Grandpa Dan!  Thanks for coming to visit! 

Thanksgiving

The older I get, the more I love Thanksgiving.  It seems we get so few opportunities to spend time with our extended family here in Arizona, so those few days a year are precious! 

The day started off with a flat tire.

Shawn spent three hours at Walmart getting it fixed.

Very thankful they were open!

We drove to Tucson and ate the 'mother of all cheeseballs'

It was huge!

I played MindFlex - not sure how that works.

One of the most delicious turkeys in the world!

Picking oranges in a rusty wagon.

Bill, who had a stroke in January, juggling.  Yay!

The kids loved playing with Noah and Jacob's guns and swords.

They beat everyone up!

Sarah and Ari cuddling.

And finally, PIE!  Jeremiah ate two slices of pumpkin and one apple!



We had so much fun!  The drive down was pleasant - Jeremiah slept and Sarah didn't scream - that's always nice.  It was great so spend time with the family - all the kids had fun playing together.  Ari and Jacob did a little magic show and Noah's danced "Thriller" for us.  The kids were so tired on the way home - Sarah was sleeping before we hit the freeway.  

Halloween...two weeks later!

We're not big halloween people around here - the kids costumes are usually thrown together from what we have after the kids decide what they want to be.  We don't do family costumes or anything, I do love seeing people who coordinate their outfits, but it's just not us :) 

Jeremiah, the army guy and Sarah the diva-princess

We went to a fun party - these are all the cute kiddos.

Jeremiah and Sarah's first time trick or treating!  Wow!



First Soccer Game

Jeremiah had his first soccer game last Satursday and, well, it didn't go that great.  Because it's a 'fun league' there are no scores kept - but J certainly is smart enough to figure out that his team didn't score any goals while the other team scored goal after goal.  He was definitely discouraged, but I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing for him to feel that.  (He's used to winning around here.) 

Go J go!

After a disappointing game, we went downtown for pizza and stumbled across a fun festival. 

We got to meet Curious George!

And the kids got their faces painted.

Oooooh!  Scary!

My two skeletons.

It turned out to be a really fun day.  Since Sarah's not napping anymore, we stayed out until 2pm or so.  As much as I miss her napping - it is fun to just stay out and do things! 

Jeremiah's first field trip!

This past week, Jeremiah had his first school field trip.  It was fun.  Hot...but fun!

We picked vegetables...

Went through a corn maze...

Took a crazy train ride through the fields...

Um...played in a corn box?  It was like a sand box.  With corn.

Corn Angels!!

Hot day + busy kids = SNOWCONE!

Feeding a sweet horse.

And a BIG pumpkin!

Sarah got one, too.

We had a fun day - the kids were great.  We were so dusty and sweaty that when we got home the kids took a bath, then a nap.  It was fantastic!