Happy Christmas!

This is the first time since we've lived up in Tempe that we have stayed home for Christmas, for the past 5 years we've gone down to Tucson and spent Christmas Eve and morning with the Hendersons. We love being with the whole gang, but this year we wanted to have it just be our little family and it was wonderful. We spent most of the day cleaning and getting ready for Santa's arrival. We had our big dinner for Christmas Eve. Jon cooked the ham and ended up making the whole dinner while I played outside with the kids kicking a soccer ball around. I did help by setting the table, but Jon did a great job with dinner and I really appreciated it. Then we all read various accounts of Jesus' birth in the scriptures, watched a Living Scriptures Nativity video, and then watched A Christmas Carol with the boys while the girls watched the Tangerine Bear in their room. Shazer wanted to go to bed by 6:00, he figured the sooner he fell asleep the sooner Christmas morning would be here, but we insisted that he stay up and watch the movie with us until it ended around 8:30. The girls went to bed easy but the boys were going crazy with anticipation. It wasn't until after 10:00 that they finally fell asleep, Santa's helpers weren't finished until 11:30. I awoke just before 3am and Jon told me he thought Shazer was awake. Sure enough, Shazer was wide awake with his light on and said it was impossible for him to sleep and he'd been up since 1am. I told him to try harder, turned off his light, and got back into bed myself. Then I couldn't sleep. By 3:30 I asked Jon if he was awake, he confirmed, and we decided it was time to open some presents. We woke the girls up and told Shazer it was time, much to his relief. We found it difficult to rouse Shule, more proof of his impending adolescence.

All of the kids were blown away by their Santa gifts; the boys received a huge castle to share and each a new toy knight, while the girls received a baby doll cradle to share and each a new baby doll. It was a great Christmas and we appreciate all those whom contributed to our special celebration with gifts, treats, visits, or well wishes. May you all have a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful year ahead!

The tree before the kids.

Shazer was ecstatic about his new castle. It wasn't on his wish list so it was even more of a surprise.

I asked Sally what she was going to name her doll and she said "Ba Ba".

Sally with her new baby and crib.

Shule was as excited about his Pokemon shaped Mac N Cheese as some of his other (um, more expensive) gifts.

Thanks Nana & Pop-pop!

Thanks Tammy & Austin!

Our cub scout's first real pocket knife.

Time for dress up.

Everyone likes the new castle :)

Jon opened our big gift from my mom (I already knew about it). It was a piece of paper wrapped in a box and he didn't have his glasses on so it was hard for him to read. It was a receipt for tickets to Muse's concert in April; they are playing at US Airways with Silver Sun Pickups. Tickets are pretty pricey so we'd been trying to win them from the radio station but to no avail. We're very excited to be able to go.

Woohoo!

Sophie's favorite gifts- her baby doll and a super soft Webkin kitty.

Christmas lights at the Mesa Temple

We usually like to take the kids to see the temple lights the first FHE in December but we couldn't work it out this year and hadn't gone yet. So I was glad when my former YW leader, Jacki, told me that she was planning on going with Jen (Clark) Edwards and her family and wanted me to come and surprise her. Unfortunately, things didn't work out how we planned. Jon and the boys were singing Christmas carols at an Elder Care home with the scouts, so we got a late start to the temple. I couldn't find Jacki's cell number so we were just trying to find them the old fashioned way and the place was packed. After an hour of walking around the grounds looking for them the girls had had it. They were cold, tired, and cranky so we had to get them home to their beds. Bummer. After we'd left, I discovered Jacki had texted me but I must not have heard it because it was so noisy. Sorry to have missed my friends, but we're glad we got the kids out to see the lights- they always enjoy it and recognize a special feeling on the temple grounds. The traditional hot cocoa afterwards is always fun, too!

This picture was taken by Shazer.

December Happenings

We've been having entirely too much fun lately. Actually, we've been working too much as well, so I guess there has been an even balance. The first weeks of December kept us busy with finishing up big assignments for school and studying for finals, making cookies for visit/home teaching families, attending band/choir concerts, Relief Society, ward, and school Christmas parties, gingerbread house construction and Christmas tree finding and decorating. Here are some highlights.

The decorated tree with new LED lights. The girls have since been busy redecorating the tree- taking ornaments off and putting them back on. Sally pulled so hard on an ornament last week that she brought the whole tree down on Sophie,  fortunately the tree isn't terribly heavy and Sophie is tough stuff. No breakable ornaments for a few more years still.

Sally's first time on stage with the Primary singing at the Ward Christmas Party. She'll be starting Sunbeams in January.

Shazer's a pro

Sally...not so much :)

Sally eagerly waiting for Santa

A far cry from the girl who held on to her dad with a death grip last year at the mere suggestion of sitting on Santa's lap.

Another polar opposite from last year- not the complacent baby anymore ;)

Shazer thought himself much too mature for sitting on Santa's lap- until he noticed that Santa was giving out bags of goodies. Alas, Shule could not be bought ;)

Gingerbread house construction (loving the pre-made gingerbread kit).

Sally loves helping me make gingerbread "boys". She actually was more of a help this year.

We had a great visit with John and Laura Heidenreich and their three kids and this is the only picture taken the whole evening. This is Shazer showing Reina (their oldest) some cool wii game (I think it was Zelda). Our kids all got along really well, Shazer actually attended Reina's eighth birthday party earlier in the day. We're looking forward to seeing them again in Tucson on New Year's Eve along with many other good friends who now live all over the country- I'll be sure to be more diligent with the picture taking then.

We visited family in Tucson over the weekend but had to come back on Monday because I had to go to class. We stayed with my parents but went to Linda's sacrament meeting on Sunday because she and Anne were in the Christmas program. Anne saved us great seats right in front of the harpist and when she played, all of our rowdy kids became transfixed. I'm crossing my fingers that one of our girls will be interested in playing the harp some day. Anne was teaching Relief Society and asked Jon to play Joseph Smith's First Prayer on his acoustic guitar and then his mom recruited him to sing in the stake's Christmas program that she was also in charge of that night.

I thought it was sweet how Sally posed with Anne the same way she had posed with the princesses at Disneyland. I think it says something about how she views her aunt :)

Sally and Sophie both loved Anne's tin whistles.

We've been enjoying a lot of quality family moments and are grateful for the next couple of weeks we'll have to spend with each other and not have to worry about work and/or school. We spent a super relaxing rainy day (it even hailed at one point) just hanging out at home with the kids while Jon and I read Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games to each other. It was a great book and I'll probably post a review of it soon. All the presents are bought and wrapped and we're looking forward to spending our Christmas at home with our little family for the first time in a very long time. I still haven't written the newsletter or mailed out the Christmas cards, though, I guess that's the next thing to do on the "to do" list. They're so late now anyways it just doesn't feel as much of a priority. We did get some pretty nice pictures taken by a family friend in November so I am excited about how the cards turned out this year. So, look for yours in the mail sometime after Christmas (maybe even after New Years) and if you're not on my usual mailing list but want to be- let me know :)

Disneyland November 28

 Early morning arrival at Disneyland

Mickey and the girls.

This picture was actually taken by a Disneyland employee with our camera, which is something new since the last time we had been there. Of course, they had other employees taking their own pictures and then they would give us a card to check out the pictures online and order what we wanted, but why would we order their over priced photos when they kindly took the exact same shots with our own camera?

Our little princess was super excited to be at Sleeping Beauty's castle, even though she's making a weird face because of the sun in her eyes :)

Mom and Dad totally saved the day by helping me with the girls while the boys, Jon, uncles and Brittany went on all the big kid rides. The big kids were much happier not having to go on the little rides or dealing with slow girls and the little girls were much happier with plenty of attention from adults. I wouldn't have been able to do all the fun things with the girls that we did if I was on my own with them. I'm not a big fan of fast rides because heights and motion make me nauseated, so I was completely happy to have a reason to avoid those rides. Jon and the boys love them and with the Fast Pass they were able to do Space Mountain, Matterhorn, Thunder Mt. Railroad, Splash Mt., and Indiana Jones multiple times. Since we split up for most of the day, I had our camera to take pictures of the girls and Frankie was using his camera to takes pictures of the bigger kids. I haven't been able to get his pictures yet so that's why there are so many of the girls in this post.

Waiting in line for Peter Pan.

Somehow my parents had NEVER been on that ride! Crazy! They took Sally in one boat and I took Sophie. Sally and my parents found the ride thrilling and would have done it again right away if it were not for the long line. Sophie found her first Disneyland ride absolutely terrifying and screamed the whole ride- there was no consoling her until it was over.

Mickey's ToonTown

Sally was all about having her picture taken with these characters- such a change from just 6 months ago. It must be a girl thing because most of the lines weren't too bad to have pictures taken with characters that were not girls; Minnie and the princesses were another story. We didn't even have to wait in any line for this pic with Donald; we caught him going to the photo op spot and he took Sally's hand and let us get a quick photo. Nice :)

This was about an hour wait. Fortunately, Mom and Dad were able to distract the girls at other fun ToonTown playgrounds while I waited in line. Sally was so cute and shy with Minnie and she LOVED playing in her house.

Impromptu tea party in Minnie's kitchen.

Uncle Jesse met up with us because he wanted to experience some of the fresh eyed joy that the girls were having. It was a little difficult convincing him to go at first because he's all into being disgusted with the evils of large corporations and feels like Disneyland embodies all that's bad with that world, but by the end of the day he finally let down his guard and I think he had just as much fun as everyone else.

 

These princess photos are priceless to me. Sally was so absolutely over the moon to talk with these princesses, she didn't even mind that she didn't get to see her favorite one- Sleeping Beauty. I had to wait in line for about two hours and then Jon came and relieved me of my standing in line duty for about another 30-40 minutes until it was finally her turn. Again, thankfully, my parents were there to help us out with this one and they took care of the girls while I stood in line so that the girls wouldn't have to stand in line so long. I'm amazed at how well behaved some of those other kids were waiting for such a long time. It was really sweet how the princesses took time to chat with Sally and make her feel special, it made me feel better about the long wait. The only bummer was that Sophie had fallen asleep in my dad's arms so she didn't get to meet them or be in any pictures. Next time :)

The last time we were at Disneyland was about 5 years ago and while the boys went on roller coasters in California Adventure I stood in an extremely similar line with Brittany to let her see the princesses and have her picture taken. This time there was a big wall so you couldn't see the princesses until it was your turn to meet them but when I took Brittany five years ago we could see the princesses the whole time as we inched along the winding line. Then, just as it was about to be her turn to meet Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and Cinderella they gave the princesses their lunch breaks and switched them out with Ariel, Belle, and Mulan and, while Brittany was happy to have her turn, she was heartbroken to have missed her favorite (also Sleeping Beauty). At least this time Sally didn't know if she had missed anything.

Dancing with Belle

It was around 2pm by the time Sally was finished with her princess visits and we all met up to get some lunch. We left Disneyland and had lunch at the Denny's across the street. I've never had such good food at a Denny's. They had totally remodeled it since Jon and I ate there on our honeymoon twelve years ago and they must have remodeled their menu as well because it was fantastic. We were all super exhausted by that point and flirted with the idea of going back to the hotel to rest and get a nap but by that time both girls had already napped in someone's arms or the stroller so we knew they wouldn't be accommodating, and the boys were both ready to go on more rides after getting some good food in them and resting their feet for a while. So we all went back over, except for my parents; they did go and take a nap and met back up with us about an hour later after we'd gone on the Submarine ride.It was great having a hotel just a couple blocks from the entrance; and we totally took advantage of being able to easily go back and forth between the two places.

 

In line for Finding Nemo's Submarine while the big kids went on some other rides. Jesse and Sally were the most impressed with that ride. By the time it was over, it was getting dark so our whole group got together and went on the Safari boat ride and then went to the Haunted Mansion. 

Even though it was getting chilly, Jon couldn't pass up the Dole Pineapple whip- or stop raving about it ;)

I had never been to Disneyland during the holidays and totally enjoyed the festive decorations and the way they changed up the Haunted Mansion to be in the style of the Nightmare Before Christmas. Sally was thrilled to be able to meet the newest princess in the New Orleans Square and we were thrilled for a very short line. We split up again after the Haunted Mansion and Jon and I took the little girls back to Fantasyland and went on the Alice in Wonderland, Pinocchio, and Snow White rides while the others went on Pirates of the Caribbean and some other rides I thought the girls wouldn't like. This time Jon held Sophie while I rode with Sally, which turned out to be the winning combination- Sophie must have felt much more safe in her daddy's arms because she didn't get upset at all and I totally enjoyed Sally's excitement.

Shazer met up with us for Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

I was disappointed that the girls didn't get to see the fireworks, but again, my parents saved the day and took them back to the hotel to put them to sleep so Jon and I could stay with the boys and enjoy Disneyland baby-free a little longer. My mom was feeling really cold and exhausted so it worked out for everyone.

We had a lot of fun just hanging out with the boys like old times and although It's A Small World wasn't really on my list of "have to do at Disneyland" it was actually really fun with all the extra holiday additions, it was also nice and warm, and restful after being on our feet all day. 

We enjoyed the fabulous fireworks display with some nice hot chocolate and then made our way to the exits with fake snow blowing on us. The park was still open for a few hours but we were exhausted and felt totally happy and content with all that we had done. It was a great day!