Christmas stuff!

Christmas 2009 was another success!  We had so much to do before Christmas.  The boys got to go to a primary activity called "cereal with Santa" (although they had muffins instead of cereal!  Don't ask me why.) and got their pictures taken with Santa. 

Taylor and Jordan wanted to help out with the Christmas eve stuff so they did some major shopping with Mike on Christmas eve.  We let the kids open up their night before presents (or as Tristan would say "presidents").  The boys got pj's and the girls got snuggies.  Tristan got the flu and spent most of the day throwing up.  Poor kid just can't win!

Christmas morning came way too soon but not as early as I anticipated.  Around 7:30, we let the kids in to see what Santa had brought them.  They were surprised! 

We spent most of the day in our pajamas playing with presents.  We cleaned the house a  bit, had a wonderful ham dinner.  We open Christmas Crackers every year and everyone wears their paper crowns throughout dinner.   At dinner the I asked the kids what their favorite thing was for Christmas.  Levi said that having dinner together and being a family was his favorite.  He is so smart!!

After putting the boys to bed, Taylor, Mike and I went to the movies with Nana and Papa Leavitt and Uncle Ethan.  We saw Sherlock Holmes.  I really loved it.  


Today my parents came for dinner.  It's always fun to visit with them and talk about family history. 

All in all, we had a great time this week.  I hope all my friends and family had fun and memorable Christmases.  

Me and Mike

I've been thinking a lot about my marriage to Michael the last few weeks.  Many of our friends and family members have been going through difficulties in their marriages.  One of my friends even lost his wife a few weeks ago to cancer.  It has made me reflect on how lucky I am.  We stayed up late the other night talking about how easy it is to let a marriage go and not work on being best friends forever.  We work hard at getting along and even though we have disagreements and arguments at times, we always make an effort to show love and accept each other for who we are.  Mike told me he was glad he didn't marry someone "crazy"!  I guess that's a good thing (I've been successful in keeping him in the dark!).  I thought how fortunate I have been to be married to a man who sticks to his principles, who loves the gospel, who always wants to do what is right, and who loves me still, inspite of all my obvious flaws.  Tonight I get to go to a wedding reception for a girl in my ward who used to be one of my YW.  She is marrying a sweet boy from my home town of Chino Valley.  I will spend a bit more time thinking about my own marriage 16 and 1/2 years ago.  I love the man I married even more than I did then.  He is and always will be my very best friend.

Tis the season to be . . . BUSY!!

I love the holidays so much!  But, I can sure do without the business that naturally accompanies the festivities.  It feels like we have been running since before Thanksgiving.  Here is a bit of what my family has been up to. . .
We all returned home from Utah/Hawaii, and were back to school, work, and laundry galore!  Then the girls had YW in excellence.  It was great from what I hear (Mike had to go while I bathed and put the boys to bed).  Then later on in the week, the girls both had the Christmas parade to march in (they were great!)  I don't have pics of them since it was a night parade of lights.  It was freezing cold.  My boys would have insisted we go home if they weren't expecting to have candy thrown at them!

Then, we had a few days to get the house cleaned up for company.  One of Mike's mission companions from Australia was coming with his two daughters for a visit.  It took a lot of work, but we were ready for company just in time.  Since Chris and his daughters have been here, we have played a lot of Wii, watched too much Disney (they don't have it there), and a few other fun things.  One day, we drove them out to Willcox to my folks house to see and ride the horses.  Dad thought it would be fine just to put the kids up bareback on Sierra, and she did great.


Even Jaxson got a ride.  He thought it was so cool.
That same night we had Mike's office Christmas party at La Casita.  It was fun and the food was yummy.

Next day Mike took Chris out shooting.  No one is allowed guns in Australia so he thought it was really awesome.  Then we topped it off by going to Tombstone, the town too tough to die.  We didn't have time to do all the shows and see all the museums, but that's a good thing since we probably didn't have the money to do it all either!

Answer to prayers

Lately, I have been blessed to have my prayers answered.  I've been thinking a lot about the power of prayer.  A few months ago, I had the chance to go to my grandma's birthday celebration.  We also celebrated my great uncle's birthday at the same time.  Uncle Bill told us the story of when he was a young man in the navy stationed on a ship during the war.  The ship was attacked and began to sink.  He was lucky enough to get onto a life raft.  After a long time, the raft began drifting too far out, and the seas became very dangerous.  One of the men on the ship said "I think it's time we all start to pray".  Uncle Bill said that as soon as they all started to pray together, the seas calmed and they were soon rescued.  He bore his testimony that Heavenly Father loves us and will answer our prayers.  Not long after hearing his story, I was feeling depressed and upset.  It seems that whenever Mike and I save enough money to get a project around the house fixed, something comes up and our project gets put on the back burner.  Well, we've been talking about putting new flooring in for years, and finally had the money to do it.  A few days before I actually ordered the flooring, we found out that we needed the money for something else.  I was feeling fed up and frustrated.  I prayed that I could get over it and not fight with Mike about it.  Later that day I was reading in my scriptures and came across this passage:  3 Ne. 13: 25, 31, 34
  25 And now it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words he looked upon the twelve whom he had chosen, and said unto them: Remember the words which I have spoken. For behold, ye are they whom I have chosen to minister unto this people. Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
  31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
  34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient is the day unto the evil thereof.
I felt that this was an answer to my prayer, that I need to take no thought of material things, and take more thought of spiritual things and the things that really matter the most.  
I had two more experiences this week.  After a long trip home from Utah, I was feeling exhausted.  I don't even remember half the drive home from Phoenix!  We got home, and I took an instant nap.  After I got up, I went to get us some dinner, but couldn't find my wallet.  I searched every where.  I got angry, and searched every where again.  Then I made all the kids help me look for my wallet.  It was no where to be found.  I asked Levi to say a prayer that we could find my wallet (I was too upset to do it).  He was so sweet, and I was instantly relieved and the stress started to fade away.  Hours later, after I put Levi and Tristan to bed and sat down to relax, Jordan says, "mom, Jaxson found your wallet."  I don't know where he got it from, but there he was, sitting in the floor playing with my wallet!  Levi came out for a drink of water and I told him that his prayer worked.  He was pretty pleased with himself.  

Two days later, I took the boys to Tucson.  We were in Costco shopping, and just as we got in the checkout to pay, I reached in my pocket for my Costco/Amex card.  It wasn't there.  I searched all through my purse and pockets, and knew it had fallen out somewhere in the massive store.  I asked Levi to say another prayer real quick while I searched again.  In the middle of the crowded store, Levi bows his head and folds his arms,  and prays that we will find my card.  We re-traced our steps, to no avail.  Then we went to customer service where someone had turned it in.  Levi said he knew his prayer would be answered, and so did I.  I'm grateful that the Lord has given me a chance to teach my sons that prayer works, and that my testimony about it could be strengthened.  

Christmas time is here!

This has been a hectic holiday season so far.  I am about done decorating for Christmas, but what normally takes me 1 day has taken me 4 so far and I'm not completely finished.  It's not that I have a lot more decorations, it's that I'm also trying to get the house ready for some visitors next week.  Mike's old mission companion from Australia is coming next week with his two daughters.  So, we are trying to get everything decorated and cleaned up before next Wednesday!
               Tris loves putting ornaments on the tree.

                                 Jax really loves un-decorating.

Levi just loves doing things together as a family.

Jax will keep me on my toes through out the Christmas season.  He tried to unwrap the presents under the tree today.

Vacation!

So, this was an interesting Thanksgiving.  Taylor's high school band planned a trip to Hawaii for six days, and we thought it would be great if Mike went along as a chaperone.  Since I didn't want to leave all the other kids with someone else during the holidays, I decided to stay with them and head out to Utah to visit my sisters and brother.  We knew it was going to be an interesting trip when Tristan threw up the whole way to Utah.
This was the kids after we landed in Salt Lake  Utah was cold and covered in snow.  I loved it!  So did Tristan.  He just wanted to play in it all day.

After a delicious turkey dinner, we played a game of family soccer.  My brother and nephew schooled us all.  It was fun.  My dad challenged all the little kids to a race.  Levi was certain he would win.  Papa was the winner though, with Lauren coming in second and Levi third.  Levi consoled himself by saying that Lauren is older, and he just decided not to finish fast because he didn't really want to win anyway.  We were all worried that Papa would keel over, but after a short rest, he joined in on the soccer game.

The next day, we went Black Friday Shopping!  I've never done it before, and I had so much fun laughing at all the crazy women shoppers.  I did find some good deals too, but I don't know if it was worth getting up at 4:00 in the morning and waiting to get into Target in the 20 degree weather.  But, spending time with my sisters and niece made up for the sheer exhaustion.  I love them so much!

The next day we took all the kids to the discovery museum for kids.  They had a ball.

Jaxson loved all the attention he was getting from his cousins, and to be honest, SO DID I!!

After that we went to the temple square to let everyone see the temple lights and take a tour of the conference center.


Me and my siblings finally found time to get a picture together.  They are fun to be around.


Although I missed Mike and Taylor so much, I loved visiting my family.  And I know that Hawaii was a fun trip for them too.  I will post pics when I get them loaded.  I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving holiday as well!

Terrific Table!

Last month we bought a bit of new furniture.  One thing we really wanted was a new table.  One where we could all sit down together and have a nice meal together.  We are usually very casual about dinner.  Even though we all eat at the same time, we rarely sat at the table together.  We found a great table that seats 8 and is comfortable for us all.  I decided that it was high time we made a tradition of having a formal dinner once in a while.  Namely for the holidays.  Our old blue dish set didn't match so great with the new table so I went on a search for affordable dishes that would be good for formal or casual dining.  I found a great deal!  Can you guess where I got it and estimate how much?  Yes, it includes the silverware, napkins, table runner, glasses, mugs, plates, bowls, and salad plates . . . for 8!

Here is my new table all decorated for our Thanksgiving feast which we will have tomorrow since we are going to be out of town for the actual Thanksgiving day.

They are growing so fast!

My kids are growing up so fast.  Taylor is 15!  Jordan is 12 and taking on a lot more responsibility.  Levi is 7, and only has 1 year until he is baptized.  Tris is about to turn 5 and starts all day Kindergarten next year.  I can't believe my baby Jax just turned 1!  Where does all the time go?  Having said that, it is so fun to have your kids get older and to get to know them and their personalities.  I got to take Taylor and Jordan to the movie last night.  We saw New Moon.  It was fun and the girls made me laugh with all their drooling over "Jacob".  It's fun to plan with them for their future.  It's fulfilling to see them experience things I never got to do as a child (or even as an adult!).  Next week Taylor and Mike are going to Hawaii together for her band trip.  How lucky is she?  Jordan and the boys get to fly with me to Utah for the week.  How lucky are we?  Jaxson is walking now.  He can take about 10 steps before he gets distracted and falls down.  It's all happening too fast!  I love it all.
All the kids at dinner in Tucson

Waiting in line at the movie

She's 15!

Veteran's Parade

Yesterday I had lots of fun watching Taylor and Jordan march in the Veteran's Day Parade.  Taylor plays Sax and Jordan the trumpet.  The boys and I got a great spot on the road where we had access to a quick getaway, and we settled down to watch.

Taylor's band is blue and white.  I couldn't get a good shot b/c I didn't know where she would be.  They keep moving her around!

Jordan was right where I thought she would be!  She is so cute in her uniform.

Levi and football.

We had so much fun watching Levi play football this season.  He finally got into it and decided that football is where it's at!  He learned a lot and really improved.  Next year he is on to tackle!  He is gonna get creamed!  I took him to the dr. for his annual check up and found that he has grown 2 inches and not gained a single ounce in a year!  It's a good thing he's fast, maybe the big kids won't see him well enough to knock his lights out.  Anyway, here are some pictures of him playing ball and some pics of his end of the year party where he got "the coolest trophy ever"!

Here he is making a run for it!

Happy daddy/coach when Levi hustles.

Levi and his big green mouthpiece.

Levi with coach Jeff

Waiting for his trophy

Trophy time