Christmas in ARIZONA

This year we had the opportunity to spend Christmas in SUNNY Arizona with Ryan's grandparents. They are serving a Temple Visitors Center mission in Mesa. We were there from Dec. 22-29th. We had a GREAT (exhausting!) week. I didn't quite know how to document the trip.....I mean....what do you do with 150+ pictures and a weeks worth of stories that nobody wants to read about on a blog. :) This 1st picture is an example of the CRAZINESS of it all. This is our luggage. I was responsible for getting 6 people and 12 bags through all security checks and onto and off of the plane....TWICE!! Can you see what I am talking about people?!

SO.......I decided to do a TOP TEN LIST:

#10 - THE PLANE RIDE

This is snowy Idaho that we left behind,
and this is Sunny AZ where we landed. (The date on the pics are wrong....don't go by them!)
The kids were nervous and excited all in one about the plane ride. It has been a few years since we have flown anywhere and they ended up all really liking it, of course!
#9 - RAWHIDE and the OLD MINING TOWN in Apache Junction

The 1st two days there were actually a little chilly and this was one of those evenings. We took the kids to Rawhide to see Santa come in on the Stage Coach. We also got to see a gun fight and ride their little train ride. They had one of the cowboys light up the star on top of their 100 ft. Christmas tree with his pistol. :) The boys LOVED it!

Here are the cousins waiting to ride the big train at the old mining town. It was pretty exciting....that was, until we got on the ride. I swear the tour guide was the most slow talking, monotone person EVER! It was a very boring tour. :( Luckily we got to see another - funny - gun fight and a live reptile exhibit and spend time with great gram and gramp Romrell. It made for a fun afternoon.

The above pic is in the old mining town. We LOVED the cactus and the palm trees everywhere!

#8 - THE OUTLET MALL AND SHOPPING

There are no pictures to go with this, but we did have a good time doing a little (Little because we had to find a way to bring it home with us - VERY LIMITED ROOM!) shopping. The best story of shopping was the day that we went to the outlet mall Laiklie had the throw-ups and didn't feel good AT ALL! I packed her through the first couple stores and was SO RELIEVED when we got to JC Penney's and saw that they had carts. I put her down in the cart and she was instantly asleep. As we were leaving their store one of the super nice workers saw her asleep and told us just to take the cart. I seriously WOULDN'T have made it through the mall if he hadn't let us take the cart. He was a life saver!!

#7 - MUSEUMS

We took the kids to a Flight Museum. This was the day Laiklie had the throw-ups and infact threw-up in the car on the way to the museum. YUCK!! So....when she saw this little plane she was in heaven. It was the 1st smile we got out of her all day!

We also got to walk through this WWII bomber plane. It was AMAZING! I can't believe the things the men that fought in the war in planes like this went through. INCREDIBLE!
We also took the kids to a Children's Art Museum. It was all hands-on which they LOVED!

This is Oakley, Kiana and the back of Laiklie trying out the huge dry erase board.

And this is ummm......something that Dallin built!

#6 - INDOOR AMUSEMENT PARK and BASS PRO SHOP

Ryan's phone has the only pictures from the indoor amusement park and he doesn't have 2 seconds to help out his wife's blog. ;) So....no pictures. It was a huge indoor play land with an arcade and a few carnival rides. It was not busy at all and so the kids ran from thing to thing. It was a BLAST!!
Tuesday night was free kids night at Bass Pro Shop too. So we took the kids to do the free rifle arcade, rock climbing and a craft while enjoying free popcorn! SUPER FUN!

Here are my three hunters. LOVE THEM!!

Rhett and Laiklie painting.

And here are the rock climbers....Dallin in the top pic and Rhett in the bottom.

#5 - WILDLIFE ZOO

We took the kids to the wildlife zoo and aquarium in Phoenix one day. It was a huge zoo with a sky ride and all. They BEGGED to do the sky ride. I LOVE rides, but the sky ride has ALWAYS been my worst nightmare!! A million people (pounds) being held up by one little cable. AHHHH!! I got to ride with Laiklie and she thought it was great! She would swing her legs and her mommy would freak out and tell her 'not to move'!! It was NOT my favorite part of the zoo.

Can you see that BRIGHT SUNSHINE!! LOVE IT!! This is the kids infront of the flamingos.

I LOVE this picture of Laiklie in the aquarium. They all LOVED the aquarium. It had alot of super cool water animals!

And the ALL TIME FAVORITE of the zoo was the giraffes. They got to feed them and they would stick out those SUPER LONG tongues and the kids couldn't get enough of it!

#4 - SWIMMING

We swam and swam and swam! Every day we were in the pool. My friend Hollie, who at one point lived in AZ, told me that people would know we were tourists because none of the natives swim outside after Sept. 1st. We were actually grateful that we didn't have to fight any of the natives and had the pool to ourselves!! The kids all came home with little swim suit tans. I wasn't so lucky!:(

This is our wet little Laiklie. She has turned into quite the swimmer!

I know this picture is HORRIBLE, BUT....It was Ryan and I's favorite of all time!! Rhett and Kiana would climb out of the pool, walk to the 5 ft, stand by each other and yell - "POSITIONS" (which meant to put your arms out like an airplane) "FLOP!" and then belly flop into the water. They did it over and over again. IT WAS HILARIOUS!! You might notice their goggles. They are DI specials. They found them that day at DI and needed them really bad. Rhett's were DISGUSTING and I was sicked out that he wanted to wear them, let alone touch them!! SO GROSS! He loved them though and they were very much used!!

Dallin - coming up for breath. He is like a fish and spends more time under water than above!!

This is our brown little Oakley giving her sis a piggy back ride. This was the pool at great gramp and grams condo and was a very nice, HEATED, pool. Lots of fun!

#3 - CHRISTMAS

Christmas was very different this year for our little family. Santa came to our house while we were gone so there was only one little present each to open Christmas morning and we tried to make them more spiritual gifts instead of toy gifts. We decided this was a great opportunity to make Christmas about Christ.

This was our Christmas Lamp (instead of tree!)

And this was our SIMPLE Christmas morning. It was PERFECT! We spent the morning in church. As the bishopric member opened the meeting he said that he couldn't think of ANY better place to be that morning than to be at church partaking of the sacrament as we celebrated the birth of Christ. It almost made me cry because THAT IS EXACTLY HOW I FELT! I LOVED how simple Christmas was. For the 1st time PRESENTS didn't matter!! We spent the afternoon enjoying the sunshine in the park and the evening in the visitors center and walking around the temple with family. It was a Christmas we will never forget!

#2 - THE MESA TEMPLE AND VISITORS CENTER

The Mesa temple was different than the temples we have here close to home. It was a square with no angel Moroni. It kind of surprised us! It was beautiful though. I loved the outside, but the inside was GORGEOUS!! It is an old temple (1920's) and so the construction of it is super amazing! I was SO GRATEFUL for the opportunity while we were there to spend some time in it.

This is a picture of my little Rhett's hand touching the temple. He wanted to remember it and so he captured it in a picture. SO PRECIOUS!

The visitors center where Ry's grandparents work is huge. We were able to have a family tour before it opened on Christmas Day. It had alot of interactive things to keep the kids busy. They loved seeing where "The Greats" are serving.

#1 - and the #1 thing on the Top Ten List is (and ALWAYS will be) FAMILY!!

We were able to spend an entire week with Ryan's family - Grandparents, Aunts/Uncles and cousins. We were also able to spend that time with his brothers, sisters, nieces and nephew and his parents. But most importantly....we were able to grow closer as a little family unit! The morning Laiklie got the throw-ups Ryan and I were getting ready to attend a temple session with all of his family when she threw-up the 1st time. I stepped into the bathroom to tell Ryan (who was in the shower) that plans had changed and I was no longer going to the temple. He said, "Well, if you aren't going, I am not going." I proceeded to tell him that his whole family was going and I didn't want him to miss going to the temple with his family! He came back with a very simple, "YOU are my family!"

We loved Arizona for so many reasons and look forward to another visit!

Because NICE Matters

I PROMISE I have tried REALLY hard to raise great kids that know what respect is and try to show it. I PROMISE I have tried REALLY hard to teach them to be kind, loving, considerate, etc., etc., etc. I PROMISE that I don't allow naughty words to be said or my children to talk unkindly about other people. I PROMISE I REALLY AM TRYING to be a good mother.

SO.......why is it that my 5 year old knows this song??

(sung to the tune of jingle bells)

911, 911 Get me out of here

Before I get my shot gun out

and shoot you in the rear!

Christmas Excitement

We've been super busy preparing for Christmas. We have had a lot of fun, exciting things going on. We have also had a lot of super late nights because of all the fun!:) This is my little sheep and angel at the ward Christmas party in line to see Santa. Oakley was home with high blood (AGAIN!!) on the couch not feeling well....and Dallin was WAY TOO BIG to be in the nativity or sit on Santa's lap this year. *Side note - it kinda makes his mommy sad he thinks he is too big for those kinds of things. It means he is growing up. :(
If you look hard you can see Oakley in the bottom right hand corner behind the trees. The picture is REALLY BAD....SORRY! This is her Christmas Dance Recital. The dance she is doing this year is a super cute baseball dance. This is how we spent Monday night.

And here is Wednesday night (with Tuesday night mutual between). Oakley once again was part of the Christmas Choir our elementary 4th-6th grades puts on. They were SO GOOD again and I LOVE that they teach them some Christmas songs about Christ. I love that we still live in a small enough community that things like "The real meaning of Christmas" aren't overlooked.

This is Thursdays nights band concert. I don't know if you can see my sweet girl very well, but she is....UHUMMMMM....THAT'S RIGHT 2ND CHAIR ON CLARINET!! I am so proud of her. She got 2nd chair out of I think she said 12 clarinet players. There were a TON of 6th graders in the band and they did great. We had to sit through advanced, intermediate and beginner band before we FINALLY got to hear our 6th graders. I am not a patient person and so, I am not gonna lie...it was a struggle. :) But when we finally got to hear Oakley perform they did fantastic.

We are counting down the days til Christmas!!

The Ugliest Tree E.V.E.R.

I told Ryan that this was the year of the "REAL TREE!" I am a firm believer that at some point in every child's life they need to experience the - "go and cut down a real tree for Christmas." I have been wanting my kids to get this experience for SEVERAL years now, but a coal furnace that dries trees out ruined that plan for me. Last year, however, we got a new furnace so this year......REAL TREE!!! YAY!!We had originally planned to go to the Kilgore Ranch to get the tree because there are some beautiful trees that would make wonderful Christmas trees there. The plans changed though when Dallin headed to the Bone Ranch with his grandpa to snow machine. I was kinda bummed he was going to miss the cutting of the tree so we headed to Bone hoping that we would maybe run into them. Bone didn't have alot to choose from. :( This was the tree....and Ryan if you look really hard....on the mountain. The tree isn't really all that bad....but decorated...ummm...that's a different story. You'll see!
These are the two hikers. Oakley had really high blood and felt like she had been hit by a train. Plus....when she has high blood she has to pee ALOT and the outhouse she went in at the snowmobile parking lot spit almost everything back on her. So she was wet and cold before we ever even started. Poor little girl! Did I mention that I HATE DIABETES!!

We never found Dallin and grandpa so that left Rhett and Laiklie to be the tree picker outers. They didn't have alot to choose from and Rhett was upset when his dad chose for him. Infact, he cried all the way home and told us he WAS NOT putting that tree up in our house and hoped it blew out the back of the truck. :) Kids make me laugh!

So, here is our pretty sad looking tree. The branches are flimsy and won't hold up the decorations or the lights for that matter. The lights are all around the trunk making it look pretty funny. The decorations fall off more than they stay on. It doesn't smell good like I was hoping it would. :( I gotta say....it is SERIOUSLY the ugliest tree EVER.

BUT....I also have to say....WE LOVE IT!! I am TOTALLY in love with the popcorn stands my kids made by hand the other night as part of our family home evening lesson. I am also in love with the lack of wirey branches that come with fake trees. I love that we have fewer decorations (since the branches won't hold them) so it is so plain and simple. I love that we have a story that goes behind this tree. I love that it is my kids 1st real tree and hopefully not the last!