Family

We were so excited to have lots of family around this Holiday, and to celebrate and host Christmas in our new house!

 Here we have my Dad, my Grandpa, my Mom and Scott's Grandma.

 Scott prepping the glaze for our Ham and feast

 Me & my Dad

4 generations: My Grandpa, mom, me & Sienna

We also had Scott's parents over, but I didn't get a pic of them.

Christmas

Christmas needed it's own post. So here goes...

This kids face pretty much sums up our morning. It was fun and everyone was happy:)

 Grandma & Grandpa came (from their mission in Los Angeles) for the week, so Grandma helped us make Christmas cookies.

 Tanner's highlights were video games and pokemon

 Chase's were lego's, and a basketball hoop, also the "Family" got a new computer which he has commandeered

Sienna got her Elsa doll and a dress, she also got a Doc McStuffin's doctor set and she is making sure we are all in good health. 

Scott got a new jacket, wallet, sweater and cologne and I got a new DSLR camera (which you can already see the difference in the pics just in this blog post!!!) I'm pretty sure my face looked like Tanner's did in that first picture!

Hope it was good for you as well.

December

December was just too much fun to post much! Here's what we've been up to all month:

 We hit up the Home Depot kids club. Seriously, this girl is a DIYer in the making! (I'm so proud)

 We went to Anthem Outlet's (a outlet mall about 35 minutes north of us) They have the "Nation's Tallest Christmas Tree" on display and we drew names and split up to buy for each other. 

 We visited Santa. Sienna wanted to wear her "Santa" dress and he said he loved it. Here she is telling him she wants an Elsa Doll.

 We caught a nasty cold bug and EVERYONE missed the last week of school/work. Everyone was sad to miss all their parties. The silver lining though... I had seven extra goodie bags to give to friends instead of teachers (Chase has 3, Sienna has 3 and Tanner has 1).

 We celebrated 14 years of marriage. We went to Texas Roadhouse, where the waitress forgot to enter our order, so after an hour of waiting, they comped our meal and we called it a success:)

We visited the lights at the Mesa Temple.They have a pretty awesome Nativity display in the visitors center that we always love too.

 

And my good news, is that I finished my last class with the BYU-I Pathway program and I am an official BYU-I student. Because they took all my credits from when I was there 12-14 years ago, I only have 14 classes to take to get my degree. 

November- where did it go?

Sienna got a cookbook from the library (Taste of Home- Bakeshop favorites) and we baked the month away. Hello extra 5 lbs, let's be friends:)

 Can you find the human in that bed? I don't know how she sleeps like this, at least I know she is warm!

 Chronicles of Narnia, with Dad? Yes please.  Listen, do you hear that? There is not ONE electronic device on in the whole house. A miracle!

 First overnight scout camporee, with a pack as big as he was. He had a blast but froze his tooshy off at night!

 I ran the Thanksgiving Day 5k. Not my best time, but I did it! I ran with my sister-in-law Emily, Scott's Aunt Nancy, Uncle Ryan and their kids: Dan, Cami, Jason & Fay, Tara & Andrew. It was fun, and I wasn't last.

 This is Scott's grandma, we call her GG, with all the great grandkids from her two daughters. 18 of them!

This is Skylar, we tried to steal her but her Mama noticed. She was so sweet and we got our baby fix for the weekend!

Temple part 2

We are so excited to have a temple near by! It is only 20 minutes away, which is too awesome! The members had the opportunity to help serve in the temple during the open house and that was also a pretty sweet experience. Hubby and I were going to serve on a Saturday night, and LITERALLY as we are walking out the door, Tanner throws up all over the floor, so Hubby stayed home and I went. It was kindof sad:(  I got to be an usher in the Celestial Room, which was so cool, it is a beautiful room and I got to see the reactions of all the people. One little girl laid down at my feet because the carpet is so soft. It was too cute! My mom and dad took a break from their mission to come over and take a tour with us!

The neighbors surrounding the temple were really nervous about the traffic that the temple would create. Of course during regular working hours traffic won't be an issue, but during the open house it was going to be a problem. So, the church rented out the parking lot of the near-by water park and rented charter buses to shuttle people over. That made the whole experience pretty awesome for the kids!

On November 16th the temple was officially dedicated. Hubby and I were blessed to be invited to view the first session IN THE TEMPLE. It was an amazing experience. We were in one of the sealing rooms, watching it on a TV. It was awesome to know that I was in the same building as the President Monson, President Uchtdorf and Elder Oaks. 

Thankful tree

We had to buy a new Christmas tree this year, so we set it up early November to make sure that all the lights worked and everything. It was so pretty though, that we decided to leave it up and make it a Thankful tree. It was pretty awesome!We covered it in leaves with things we are thankful for and orange ribbon and pumpkins. I think we pulled it off:)

These are just a few of things we are thankful for this year. I especially like the one about "My perfect wife" :)

Halloween 2014

 

  Grandma & Grandpa were here for our ward trunk or treat. Of course this girl is the only one who will still let me follow her around with a camera!

 Trick or treating with our cousins on Halloween night. They came home with WAY.TOO.MUCH.CANDY!

I love to see the temple!

I went through our history and here is our pics of the construction of the Phoenix temple. It is cool to see the progress through pictures, also to see how big the kids have gotten in just the 2 years it was under construction! I'll post more about our experience soon!

 

(borrowed from facebook)