Christmas Eve: The Park

We were super pleased that Jared got off work early on Christmas Eve.  So silly, having people work on Christmas Eve, especially for a college!  Regardless, I was tickled when Jared walked in the door much earlier than expected. That meant we actually had time to go out as a family and enjoy the magic of anticipation.  We decided to head to Val Vista Lakes and see the lights, as well as stop at Freestone park.  The park was deserted, and it gave us a good chance to snap a few pics on the jungle gym and on the swings....  Jared is going to hate me for posting this pic, but I can't resist!  Jared looks like he is racing down a rollar coaster at 100 mph...whereas James looks calm as can be!  I love it!

My favorite part of the park date though was teaching the kids how to play Steal the Bacon.  SO FUNNY!  The first round ended with tears, skinned knees, and whining about continuing the game.  But we brushed the kids off, changed the rules, and then laughed our heads off as we raced each other to the football we had brought.  I was calling out the names, and I think my favorite round was when I called out, "Ok.......Elizabeth and Jarom!"  The kids nearly fell to the ground laughing, they thought that was so funny!  My other favorite (and remember, I am standing right by the ball to help prevent falls):  "OK......Jared and Rachel......  Yeah HOOOOOOOOOOOO  I got it!  I won!  I won!!!"  It was pretty laughable!  We had a blast just hanging out together!

The lights at Val Vista Lakes were unfortunately not open to the public, but that just left us more time to get home and get the house ready for Santa.  So worth the trip out there-memories that last!

Christmas Eve: Motivating Santa

Later that night, the kids watched our traditional Christmas Eve movie (Happy Feet Two this year) while drinking hot chocolate with marshmallows and candy cane mixers.  We then decided Santa needed some motivation to make it to our house.  So we set up a chair for him:  a blanket in case he was cold, a book in case he needed some relaxation time in between houses, and our traditional snacks--an orange, some pretzels, and a snowman cookie.  Karianna was very insistent that we NOT give Santa a Santa cookie, because Santa doesn't like the thought of eating his own head (she said it, not me).  We laid out some water for the reindeer....but then we realized that wasn't enough.  So we snuck outside and littered the front yard with reindeer food--that way the reindeer were SURE to get to our house.  With that satisfaction, the kids hopped into bed, and were soon asleep.  I am always amused by how quickly the kids fall asleep on Christmas Eve-you'd think they would stay up for ever, but no-they really do fall asleep quick!

Christmas Sunday

 As is tradition, we took our Christmas Sunday picture in somewhat matching Christmas outfits-rocking the blues/greys/blacks/whites this year!  I sure love my family-they make my heart happy!  I'm going to slip the other pictures below.

 We loved Christmas Sunday-special day indeed.  The music was so very beautiful-lots of instrumental additions to the normal special musical numbers, and it just added a lovely degree of power to the spirit that was already present.

 Kristen and Steven got to bless baby Megan today-which is always super special, but maybe moreso today given the season and given that this was Kristen and Steven's first baby blessing.  Steven did a great job-he really spoke with the spirit.  Megan looked stinkin' adorable.  Sorry, there's no other way to put it!  Such a cutie!

 The kids got to sing a special musical number with the primary.  I directed it since I have been subbing as primary chorister for the past few weeks.  The kids did a wonderful job, I was super proud of them!  We had a flute join in for the 2nd half of the song, and I loved the spirit it brought.  The kids even did the crescendo I taught them, it was wonderful!!!!

 Sara practiced singing the primary song with us this morning that the primary was performing.  I asked her if she wanted to go up and sing with the big kids, and she was all about that!  So while singing, she would direct with me, hold up her finger to signal silence when I would....she didn't know the words, but she moved her mouth nonetheless, and she smiled ear to ear the whole time!  She is so ready to go into primary in 2 weeks!

 On that topic of primary, I was called to be the primary chorister-yea!!!!  This will be time #6 for me. :)  I love this calling, and I am so tickled I get to do it when my kids make up 1/6 of the primary.  :)
 

 James really enjoyed hanging out with Shanna and Brenna today as well-it was so cute to watch them sit in a circle and eat kix!  He only has one Sunday to go before we move to a much more manageable Church schedule.  It is difficult to manage him when he is fighting sleep so much!  Once we get home from church, he just passes out....he's still asleep at this moment as I am baking some Christmas cookies....what are the chances that the yummy smell wakes him up???

Tonite we get to go to Christmas Dinner at my Mom's house, and tomorrow will be Christmas Eve-how did it get there so fast?!? Looking forward to lots of time with family!

Rob and Rachel Get Married!

Today was the day a new Rachel Erickson made her way into the family!  Robert and Rachel were married today in the Mesa, AZ temple.  It was a beautiful sealing, and wedding day in its entirety.  I had the privilege of doing Rachel's hair for their big day and though I was somewhat nervous, I ended up really enjoying curling, braiding, and pinning up her hair.  She looked beautiful and they both looked so very happy!  Or goofy-means the same thing on your wedding day!

 Not the best picture of me and Jared, but here we are waiting for the new couple to exit the temple.

 Rob and Mom-there is a cool ray of light shining down on them, and I prefer to think that's Dad looking down from heaven.

 The whole group of us!  I really wish the photographer had moved us over so we could all be centered on the sidewalk, but oh well!  The boys were all "groomsmen" and the girls were all bridesmaids.

 This is not a great pic either, but I had fun curling m own hair up-I don't do that often with a curling iron, but figured, I did the other Rachel's hair like this, may as well do mine!

 The two Rachel's in the family!

 And one more shot of me and Jared right before everyone took off for the luncheon.

 All the gals.

 And the "wedding party".

The luncheon and the reception were a blast-great food at Tia Rosa's and a great ring ceremony to follow.  The kids all sang Families Can Be Together Forever, and it was super sweet. The reception continued thereafter, and though Jared took the other kids home, Karianna and I stayed until the very last minute...when all of us helped clean up INCLUDING Robert and Rachel!  If ever you had a good excuse to avoid helping with the clean up, they did!  :)  We had fun regardless, and it was great to see all the extended family that we only see every so often.

 True imagery of Robert and Rachel right here.

One other memory from the sealing I wanted to include.  The sealing was pushed back a bit, and we were waiting in the sealing room for about 20 minutes before Rob and Rachel came in.  We were all waiting quietly of course, and the spirit is always thick in that room.  About 10 minutes into the wait, Jared leaned over to me and whispered that the light in the room had changed-meaning he felt like my Dad was there from the other side of the veil.  Afterwards, he told me he felt it was more than that-that there were many other spirits in the room with us to witness as the angels to Robert and Rachel's sealing.  It was a very sweet feeling, and it left me knowing my Dad is aware of us always.

Congratulations to Robert and Rachel, such a wonderful day and a wonderful way to begin your life together!

Jordan Quirks

After Nap:

Jordan:  Mom, my fan was moving all by itself even after I turned it off.
Me: Sounds like you have a ghost in your room.

Jordan's eyes get wide and nervous.  But then his face clears and he smiles.

Jordan:  Don't worry Mom, its just the holy ghost-and that's a good thing.

While driving yesterday, a guy in a wheelchair passed in front of us-the guy had no legs.

Jordan:  Mom, that guy has no legs!
Me:  I know Jordan, that's sad.
Jordan: yeah.....we should all start praying for him so his legs grow back.
Me:  That would be kind of hard to do Jordan-legs don't grow back.
Jordan: Well, then Jesus and the prophet and the Bishop should help-that will get his legs to grow back.

Silly Mom-just have faith!!!

Just Because

I don't usually take pictures of the scenery, but the sky looked amazing today with multiple chem trails!    Its fun to pretend I actually know what I'm doing!  

Christmas Decor

I upped the anty a bit (just for myself, not compared to others who go all out) for Christmas this year, in terms of decorating outside.  Usually I just put up lights and thats it.  This year I decided to make it a bit more interested.

We have our Santa and Elf Cacti.  This is how you know you live in Arizona. We also have our boganvilla (that's spelled wrong) Christmas tree in the background-it has lights and ornaments on it.

 I also took ornaments, strung them on string, and hung them up amidst the lights.  I love how this looks!  That pile of bush trimmings does not count as decor.

Its been fun decorating with the kids!

The First of the Gifts

 We got into some Christmas gifts this week-both giving and some getting.  I found these cute candy wrapper ideas on pinterest and got to work to dress up the hershey bars that are underneath.  The kids now get to give them to their teachers and bus drivers-I hope they like them, I think they are darling!

Sara got to technically open the first gift of the season!  She got a present from her preschool teaches (as did Jordan later that afternoon).  She seemed so surprised to get a present from a teacher!  I can't believe how close Christmas is-soon everyone will be ripping into their presents and our whole house will be littered with wrapping paper!

All I Want For Christmas....

 ....Is My Two Front Teeth!

 Yes, as the obligatory title suggests, Karianna has indeed lost her two front teeth, just in time for Christmas! Her upper teeth are spaced out pretty good, so that makes the double gap look even wider.  Karianna has actually been talking with a slight lisp the last few days because of how odd her mouth feels to her!  She was so pleased with herself as she pulled out the 2nd tooth as well-she's getting braver and braver about it--or perhaps she just gets that there is a monetary reward for losing teeth.  :)  Cuteness Nana!

That's the Ticket

The kids stayed up until 10:30 tonite watching Faerie Tale Theatre.  Why?  Because this is how they were-all snuggled up together, NOT fighting, and enjoying each other's company.  How could I deny them that experience?

I'm a Big Boy Now

 Well, James is 1 now-thus he gets to move up to the big boy table!  Of course this means we can't fit all the kids around the table unless we move it away from the wall, but for now, its working.  And look how happy that boy looks!  He loves to watch the other kids eat-you can tell he thinks this is so cool!

Favorite Toy

James' favorite toy from his birthday is his walker as seen below.  He walks so well holding on to the furniture or someone's hand-he just hasn't gotten brave enough to do it on his own yet.  This was therefore a perfect gift for him to practice his skills a bit more independently.

 We gave it a trial run at the park after his party was over-I wasn't quite sure what he would do with it honestly!  I was shocked when he just started walking with it like it was no big deal.  He even started steering it a bit, and ended up walking in a big half circle!  It was super cute, as were the looks on his face!

 I'm so glad I was able to find this at Kohl's for a super low price-it was the only black friday deal at kohls that I needed, and after waiting in line for a while at midnight, amidst smokers and 100s of other crazy people...well, I'm just glad to know it was all worth it! Anything that can bring this look to James' face is!

The Birthday Boy!

All right, its official-James is 1 year old!  Bells, whistles, fireworks, cheers-lets have it!

  Oh, how I love this little boy.  I wondered how I would write James' birthday posts because I just don't think anything I can type will do my feelings justice.  James has just had such a ________ first year. See what I mean? I can't even think of an adjective that appropriately describes it.  This sentiment will just have so suffice:  we love James.  Life would not be the same without him and our family has been blessed beyond words by him and because of him. Happy 1st birthday James!

We had James' birthday party on Saturday.  With his big day being so close to holidays, I wanted to avoid stress at all costs, thus we had a very laid back party with both my family and Jared's family.  We all met up at our favorite park for some playtime, presents, and cupcakes-we had a blast!  The only hitch in the plan was the fact that we had tithing settlement an hour before the party.  I had all the party things completely ready just in case we got close to party time of 10:30.  Unfortunately, tithing settlement was not only long, it was way long-we didn't get done until 10:35!  We quickly texted/called our family and reset the party time to 11:00ish.  I was actually pretty proud of us, we got home, changed, grabbed everything and everyone, and made it to the park by 10:55 or so. Remember, the goal was no stress :)  So I didn't!  That's not normal for me, so I was proud of myself.

Despite that slight hitch, we had such a blast (did I say that already?) celebrating James.  Out of all my kids, he was probably the best 1st birthday boy/girl in that he rippd his presents open, didn't get fussy, and absolutely adored his cupcake.  Now if he would have said thank you to everyone in attendance, he would have gotten the perfect kid award, but we'll take what we can get!  A few pics.....

Opening some presents.....

Please ignore my ill-prepared face...I just think James looked cute!

Baby Heaven!

James tried to touch the flame, or course-wouldn't expect anything less!  When we all sang happy birthday, he looked around, so surprised that the singers were all staring at him--you could read his thoughts:  "Um.  what's going on?"

My favorite pic.  :)  Looks like James is blowing with Mommy holding his hand.

 

And Go!  Eat that cupcake....upside down!

It was gone in a matter of minutes-he wasted no time!

 I forget who gave him his celebratory blue dot....

 And the post-cupcake shot....he looks drunk from the sugar rush.

 My second favorite shot-me and the birthday boy!

 We love James so much and we were so tickled to celebrate his birthday!  He loved his presents and is seriously in baby heaven-I wanted to just make his gifts fun for him this year, and that certainly happened!  Thanks to everyone who was able to attend, it meant a lot to me (and I'm sure to the rest of the family as well) to have you there.  It wasn't about the cupcakes, or the presents this year....it was about celebrating James and the simple fact that he is here.  Happy birthday James!