The True Meaning of Christmas

 

One of the things I loved about Israel was visiting the various cathedrals and seeing their beautiful stained-glass windows.  Taken from this article it says, "Stained-glass art has traditionally been used in Christian churches and cathedrals for hundreds of years. It is part of the history of Christianity and holds great meaning for Christians.  Using the striking and beautiful imagery of stained glass, the Church has created a series of digital pieces of art that members can share online during the Christmas season." 

Click to learn more about the story of Christmas.

Happy Birthday to ME!

For my GOLDEN birthday we celebrated at The Cheesecake Factory on Monday, Dec. 27!  I couldn't have asked for a better day surrounded by those I love!  The food was delicious!  So far 26 is lookin' good!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve Hike

Every year we hike Camelback Mountain around Christmas time.  Every year someone hauls up a Christmas tree up at the top.  This year I made an ornament.  Here are some pictures.  Enjoy!

Christmas Eve Eve

great food + lots of laughter + a Christmas message + family & friends = BLISS

fruit, chile rice, spinach artichoke dip with bread and chips, hummus platter, dad's amazing beans

 claire's lemonade

 elliot and ray making plantains 

 lucy

 anabelle and sammy

 whitney and lucy

 mom, lucy, and elliot

whitney and elliot's homemade churros

my FRAME tree

This has been in my files for a very long time.

Today I created this:

Enjoy!

Update

Her are some pictures of what I've been up to.  I'll post the other when I get a chance.  Today Dad and I spent the afternoon in downtown Tempe at the Tempe Art Festival.  It was so much fun!  There were tons of people.  Dad and I shared a Tornado Fry (pictured).

 Beautiful Arizona sunset!

A new Farmer's Market on Warner and McClintock.  Saturday mornings!

Here are a few pictures of Thanksgiving.  After our meal we had a Nerf gun battle in the backyard!  Highly recommended!

I had a great Thanksgiving Break!  More pictures to come!

4th of July Family Get-Together

We celebrated the 4th of July a couple of days early.  We went swimming, grilled some chicken, hot dogs, and bell peppers.  I made some Rice Casserole. For dessert we had chocolate chip cookies, M&M cookies, ice cream, and red, white, and blue rocket Popsicles.  Here are a few snapshots of the day!  Enjoy!

        

Happy Easter!

What a wonderful day!  We had General Conference in the morning and afternoon.  The speakers all did a great job.  I took Sammy for a nice stroll around the neighborhood.  My family got together for dinner.  I made individual fruit pizzas for dessert.  We ate outside and most of the time outside too.
 Here are a few pictures of the day.

Grandma and the Granddaughters

Lucy got stuck but was able to get out with some help from Grandpa.
Lucy loves flying high with her Daddy.

Ray and George had a water fight.