Someone Stole My Snuggy!

Mitchell is sound asleep in my Snuggy blanket that Christy gave me for Christmas. Doesn't he look warm and cozy?

This was the fist year that the boys did not get up before the sun to open presents. Actually, I was able to getup, shower, cook breakfast, and feed the dog before Mitchell and Grant got out of bed. I bet it was close to 9AM before they decided to join our fun! The anticipation of Christmas morning!!!

Max loved wearing his fluffy bell studded collar and Santa Hat...not really, but he did love all of the treats and his new toy he found in his stocking!

As tradition has it, we always open our stockings first. They are usually stuffed with all of the things you love the most. So Grant's stocking was filled with Sour Punch Straws, Coke, and Nerds. Mitchell had gum and several bike tubes.

Grant requested another Nerf gun for Christmas. This one is different though because it works like a machine gun and can repeatedly pound you with bullets.

Brent was super excited to get this butt cover. Technically, this cover goes on his motorcycle so his butt doesn't sit on springs.

It was great to have Julie spend Christmas morning with us. Max really enjoyed sitting by her on the couch and watching her open her presents. She is so beautiful in the morning!

This is Mitchell's BIG gift. Yes, it is almost up to his waist. He had a hard time opening it though because every time he unwrapped the box and opened it, he found another wrapped box inside. He ended up opening 10 wrapped boxes until he found....

...this little gold box. When he unwrapped the final box, he found the IPOD he wanted inside. Lucky!

Grant is a little scary with this hatchet, watch out!

Brent got Grant this awesome LEGO set. It is not only LEGO's but it is also a programmable robot. As of this afternoon, Grant has programmed it to recognize different colors and read it out on a display screen. It seems to be pretty high tech!

As for me, I received a lovely new lightweight fashionable coat as well as the Perfect Brownie kit. As soon as all of the other holiday desserts are finally eaten, I will be making brownies. I will let you know how they turn out!

What a beautiful morning!

I hope your Christmas was wonderful too!

The Forgotten Carols

On Wednesday, December 23rd, we went to the play "The Forgotten Carols" at Tempe Gammage Auditorium. I've seen the play two other times and loved it. This was Brent's first time to see it and he enjoyed it.

Mitchell and Grant did not want to see the play for the 3rd time so we gave their tickets to Julie and Jordan. At the last minute, Sarah had an extra ticket and so my friend, Janine, was able to go too. This play comes to town every Christmas. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend putting it on your to do list for next year! Merry Christmas!

Wrestling Season

Grant has chosen to be on the Pueblo Middle School wrestling team this year. He is on the JV Squad. The Varsity Squad gets to wrestle at every meet. Only certain players on the JV team get to wrestle at the meets. Grant was able to wrestle at a meet for the first time on December 3rd. Grant was confident and ready to start his match.

The refs are fun to watch too.

Grant did a good job trying to take his opponent down. It is an intense sport to watch. The wrestler has to use all of his physical power to try to control his opponent and pin him.

Grant had some great moves during his first match but ended up losing to his opponent. There will be another exciting meet coming soon!

New Front Yard

Brent and I recently decided to give the front of the house an updated look. We felt that our home wasn't welcoming and inviting. So we redesigned the front yard. We thought our plans were pretty basic: rip out the old planter, build a patio, build a planter for flowers, widen the driveway and put in a stream of river rocks. Well, it ended up being a much bigger project than we anticipated. I was hoping we would be done in a week or two but instead it took 6 weeks. Max was outside with us every day as we worked on our project. The easy part was demolishing and ripping out the old landscaping.

The old planter had to go! This is where the new patio will be.

This is Brent's all time favorite bush. He really didn't want to rip this out but it is in the way of our driveway widening project. Brent used a tow rope and tied it around the bush and the car ripped the bush out of the ground. I highly recommend this method of bush/tree removal because it's easy and effective!

Next, we had to start leveling the area where the patio and new planter would go.

Once Brent built the planter, he had to figure out how he was going to do the flagstone on top. It was like a big puzzle with no directions. He had to start by cutting all of the flagstones to be 10 1/2 inches wide. Then he had to see how the colors blended between pieces and if the natural cut of the stone lined up. Plus, flagstone has varying thicknesses. This planter took weeks to build and Brent was outside working on it for many HOURS!!!!

Once the planter was complete, we started to put down the pavers to extend the driveway and build our patio.

This is the finished product! You can see the stream of river rock and the planter from this angle.

The planter turned out to be fabulous! Brent is so talented! I now have my first flower bed. My favorite flower in my flower bed so far are the English daisy's.

All we need now is a couple of chairs on our patio and we will be set! I hope that when you come over now, you will feel that our entrance to our home is much more welcoming!

Trunk or Treat!

Tonight was our ward's Trunk or Treat party. Last year our entire family dressed up as the Biggest Losers. This year Mitchell had to work, Grant wanted to be an air soft war man and Brent and I were lazy and didn't come up with a super fabulous costume. However, Max was supposed to be a bat for Halloween. I haven't been able to find bat wings for him. Today at the $1 store, I found him fairy princess wings. I figured we could spray paint them black. The spray painting didn't happen tonight so he went with his pretty blue wings.

He really wanted to run out the door and come to the party with us. He hated having to wear these sissy blue wings.

Max flew around the church parking lot flapping his iridescent wings. The kids loved it. Many of the real little princesses just couldn't leave him alone.

Eventually, Max got cold so we gave him a break from entertaining the crowds.

Brent and I wore these super fabulous glow stick masks. They are pretty high tech. Little glow sticks attach to the underside of the mask and light up your eyes. Yes, these are our lame costumes this year. We will have to do better next year :)

Crazy Sock Day!

This week at school is sprit week and tomorrow, Wednesday, is Crazy Sock Day! Sounds like fun??? Well, it would be if I owned a pair of crazy socks. I don't know how I made it to my adult life without a silly pair of socks to wear on such a momentous event. The fact of the matter is that I USED to wear crazy socks and didn't even know it. These pictures are from 1982.

This is the first day of school in 1982. Notice the lovely red socks I'm wearing..

This is the dress Grandma made for my 8th birthday...again, notice the lovely red socks!

I thought these had to be crazy socks since every time I wore them, one would always be lower than the other.

Hmmmmm.....maybe it's not the socks....maybe it was a defective right leg....

Super Saturday in Safford

On Saturday we left for an adventure in Safford, AZ. Mitchell was the driver for the entire trip. He wanted to get lots of driving time/practice in and this was the perfect opportunity.

Right before you get into the town of Safford, there are the famous Red Knolls. Basically it is a huge pile of dirt that has been subject to rain and erosion which has created unique caves and dangerous pits. This is a perfect place to take boys, especially, at night. Unfortunately, my boys were stuck hanging out there during broad daylight. Mitchell is in the middle of this picture wearing a green shirt. This can help you visualize how HUGE this pile of dirt is!

Mitchell and Grant scale their way up the dirt cliff to a cut out landing.

I checked out one of the many deep pits. And no, it wasn't the "Pit of Despair!!!"

We hiked to the top of Red Knolls. The boys are standing next to a 150 foot hole. They are hoping the sides don't cave in while they are standing so close to the edge.

Being the adventurous person that Mitchell is, he wanted to stand on this overhang to see if it could hold all of his 165 pound weight. Thankfully, it did!

After we left Red Knolls, we stopped by the Gila Valley Temple. It is well on its way to being completed this coming spring.

The BIG reason we came to Safford was for Joseph. Saturday, October 24th was his baptism day. He had a wonderful baptismal service where both of his Grandpa's spoke. It was such a special experience to watch him be baptised and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. In honor of his baptism, a party was held at his house. It was the best party EVER!!! There were cookies, ice cream, a fire, s'mores, and pumpkins to carve!

Grant was put in charge of starting and maintaining the fire. Justin helped out as much as he was allowed to.

This is a picture of Missy, Joseph, Madi, Jordan (Julie's HOTT boyfriend), and Julie. They worked together to create very scary jack-o-lanterns!

Mitchell's newest best friend is Joshua, try not to be jealous. These two boys hung out the entire time carving pumpkins together. Joshua has amazing pumpkin carving skills. Even though he is only 5 years old, he carved his entire pumpkin on his own. Mitchell and Joshua shared lots of cookies together as they carved their pumpkins.

Mitchell's pumpkin creation!

Joseph is posing next to his Uncle Brett's H1N1 pumpkin. The runny nose and vomiting were all signs of the serious flu problem this pumpkin has.

Here is Joshua with his perfect pumpkin. It has one triangle eye and one square eye. Nice job!

Grant added a few stabbing knives to his spooky jack-o-lantern. Very creepy!

Here is Jordan, Julie and Missy again with their pumpkin that says "Wanna Kiss." I am told that this is an inside joke and I am not on the inside part of the joke to know what that means. However, if you want the inside scoop on Julie's big squeeze, you should call her. She has so many fun things to say!

We had a fabulous trip to Safford. We really need to go and visit Joe and Kami more often!