Sunday, December 29, 2013

Christmas 2013

We had another wonderful Christmas!  Our leisurely morning started around 9am when Max was able to drag his toys and treats out of his stocking.


 Max drug his new stuffed toy in and out of the house all day long.  The dead grass of the backyard attached easily to it so it was also drug in and out of the house.  The "Busy Bone" Max is chewing on was devoured by lunch time.
Max also helped Grant with his stocking.  I'm sure Max could smell the beef jerky that was hid inside.
 When Mitchell, Perry and Grey arrived, we ate our traditional breakfast of Sticky Buns and orange juice.  Very sweet and yummy.  Then it was time for presents.
 Grey immediately crawled to the tree to get her present.  She pushed the buttons which played music.
 She especially liked pushing the toy around the house.  She was almost running with it some of the time.  Her feet could hardly keep up with the toy.  Mitchell thinks we need to add brake locks for the wheels :).
 Perry was dressed in her super cute leopard print footy style pajamas:  cute and warm.  She received a manicure set for doing her nails, a nail dryer, lots of nail polish and all the accessories that go with it.
 Grey quickly learned how much fun it was to rip paper.   She willingly helped anyone unwrap their presents.  She is a master paper shredder!
 I made a blanket for Mitchell out of his old sports team and camp shirts.  It is big, warm and colorful.
 Grant received a safe.  He can now lock up the dozens of knives he has so the baby won't accidentally come across them.
 I made a grey blanket for Grey.  She immediately started to eat it, just like she does with everything!
 Mitchell & Perry moved into their new apartment earlier in the week.  Mitchell needed to borrow Brent's stud finder so he could hang up his TV.  That's when I got the idea to get Mitchell one of his own.  Brent told him that he couldn't leave with his new stud finder until Brent received his back.  Mitchell reached into his pocket and pulled out Brent's stud finder and handed it to him.  It was a rather comical moment.
 Grey tried a new strategy of opening other people's presents.  She was going to eat the paper right off of the box.
 Perry likes the new quads (ATVs) that Brent purchased.  She is ecstatic to get goggles and riding gloves so she can enjoy her time riding in desert.
 Grant now has more wrenches than he knows what to do with.
 Grey received a small piano keyboard with a puppy on the front.  There are three settings to choose from.  The first two were expected:  music and ABC learning.  The third one surprised us as it was accidentally chosen.  We heard the ABC's and colors of the keyboard being told to us in both English and Spanish.  :)
 Perry has recently discovered her talent for scrap-booking.  With a paper cutter, more paper and a corner rounder, she will be well equipped to continue her talent.
 When Grey wasn't eating wrapping paper, she enjoyed climbing on the presents.
 How cute is this????  Grant has a wonderful smile when he is staring at his niece!
 I'm pretty sure Grey does't want to read the new book, she wants to eat the new book!
 Brent now has professional headphones for when he goes shooting.  He has two of them.  They block out all noise above a certain decibel rating but allows you to talk to the person you are shooting with.
 I made a t-shirt blanket for Grant.  It is colorful, warm and filled with memories of the days when he played sports, attended preschool and went to Mini Town.
 We hung up a swing on the back patio for Grey.  She isn't too excited about it yet.  But I'm sure there will come a day that we won't be able to get her out of it!
 Christmas dinner was at our house around 4pm.  Mitchell, Perry and Grey came back all dressed up to impress us all.  They are a beautiful family.  We had a delicious dinner of beef roast, mashed potatoes, green beans, peas, lasagna, salad and Brent's homemade rolls.  We had plenty of food!
 Julie, Jordan and Maeleigh were some of our guests for the evening.  Julie contributed to our dessert table with a plateful of treats and a homemade pumpkin pie.  If we thought we had a lot of dinner, that would be an understatement to how much dessert we had.  We filled up every inch of the dining room table with a variety of sensational desserts.
Grey and Logan are just one day apart.  Here are the proud daddies Mitchell and Jacob with their little ones.  
We had a wonderful Christmas day with family and friends.  We are truly blessed to be surrounded with so many caring people who enrich our lives each day.  We are grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ whose birth we celebrate and life we honor and desire to follow.  We hope that you and your family will have a joyous new year!

Monday, December 23, 2013

Pictures with Sanata

Everyone has to have their "first" visit to Santa.  Grey is no different.  We weren't sure how she would react to sitting on the red velvet lap of a man wearing a white beard.  She didn't cry but she did stare down all of the onlookers who tried to get her to smile.  
Once her daddy was out of the picture, he was able to get her to laugh.  He has a special way of keeping her attention and getting her to giggle.  We lucked out this year with a super cute picture of Grey with Santa.

Party at Grandma's House

On Sunday, December 22nd, several of us surprised Grandma with a visit.  Daniel, Jana and their girls arrived first.  Grandma quickly put Daniel to work to try to figure out why her kitchen sink was leaking.  Brent, Grant & I arrived next with dinner.  We brought bacon ranch taquitos, mini-chicken chimichangas, refried beans, chips, nacho cheese sauce and more.  Joe arrived next.  Kami and their kiddos stayed in Mesa to prepare for their trip back to Safford.  Last, but not least, Julie, Jordan and Maeleigh arrived.  They brought a yummy lemon cake.
After the complications of dinner preparations were resolved, we ate and ate and ate.  Heidi must have been starving last night because she wanted seconds, thirds and fourths.  Too bad she was allowed to have more.  Diabetes sucks!  With our bellies filled, the REAL moment of why we surprised Grandma arrived.

We presented her with a homemade card that told her that Santa realized that she had been extra good this year and needed an extra nice gift.  When she opened the card, there were pictures of all of the little elves (grandkids) that donated to her gift.  She read the inside of the card which stated that we knew she was having a tough time with housecleaning because of her illness and being out of breath all of the time.  We told her that we lived too far away to volunteer to do it for her so we all pitched in to have it paid for.  I don't thik she processed what was written in the card.  Then she opened the elf covered envelope and found several hundred dollars.  Then it sunk in.  She was so very grateful for the help we were able to put together for her.


Thank you to everyone who contributed!  Grandma won't have to worry about her home being clean for several months!
Daniel & Jana had to take off after sampling Julie's lemon cake.  They missed out on our Gingerbread House making contest.  Maybe they can check out our pictures and tell us who really won.  Here are the choices:
 The Brent & Haley House
 Brent did the construction.
 Haley did the decorating until Brent took over and added icicles and a chimney.
Julie, Jordan and Maeleigh created the A-Frame house.
 Jordan did most of the construction of the home plus he is responsible for the candy cane on the roof.
 Julie did all of the landscaping around the house.  The Hershey's Kisses in front of the home are a representation of their family.
Joe had to build and decorate his house all by himself. 
Notice the intricate pattern of candies that line the roof.  These details can't be ignored as you judge these selections.
 The final Gingerbread House making team was Grant & Grandma.  (Technically, Max was on their team too.  He never left their side.)
They designed a gingerbread outhouse.
 Grant too his time adding shrubs on both sides of the door to the outhouse.  Candy canes are on both sides of the house to help it smell better.
I'm not sure what is on the back of the house but Grandma carefully arranged the Hershey's Kisses to sit on top of a KitKat bar.  I will have to ask her what they symbolize.
After the Gingerbread Houses were made, we drove all four of them to Chandler.  They are on our dessert table.  So if you stop by our house on Christmas Day, you will be able to check them out in person.  
Merry Christmas Grandma!  We love you!

Thursday, December 12, 2013

It's Time for Family Pictures (AGAIN!)

Our family photo session started with technical difficulties.  The lighting wasn't right, the angle of the camera wasn't right, the phone kept ringing, and the list goes on.  Mitchell and Grant stayed entertained while they waited.

 
 This angle worked out best for us.  We couldn't get Grey to smile but Max was glad he made into the family picture.
Our 2nd set of shots were on the side of the staircase.  Grant and Perry were an important part of getting the angle of the camera ready.  
We don't think this turned out too good.  It's just not very balanced.
By the time we took the photos from this direction, we were all annoyed.  We have HUGE shadows from our light source.  Grey looks very irritated.
Mitchell got his sweet baby girl smiling again.  He knows just what to do to get her to laugh.
 One attempt at a family photo.  
This family photo turned out AWESOME!
 Brent, Max and I...
Grant & Mitchell refused to look like they liked each other in their picture.  I guess this will have to do :)