It's my birthday...

It's official....I am old! But I went to cold stone and got a free ice cream and then went to hollywood video and got a free movie rental! Not too shabby! Oh and photobucket emailed me this nice picture.

Video phone call...

I got a laptop for a christmas/birthday present that has a built-in webcam in it. We downloaded a program called skype so we could use it to talk to my parents (they are on a mission right now in Australia) It was so much fun to talk to them using a video phone call.

The kids had so much fun cause they could see them and all of them were crowding around to see and talk to their grandparents.
The girls thought it was so cool cause they were already in the morning of the next day. (they are 16 hours ahead of us) It's like talking to them in the future:)
This program is completely free when talking to other skype members, so it didn't cost us a thing!! I just love the internet, when my parents come home in a year, they won't be strangers to my kids.

"best Christmas ever!!"

This is the best christmas ever...at least that is what the kids told us! Santa brought all 4 of them bikes and they were so excited and said, "mom, now you don't have to spend your money on bikes cause santa brought us some!" I am so thankful for santa;) They girls got their own ipods (hand me down shuffles).

I think their absolute favorite present they got was from their grandma Pat and Papa...a Nintendo Wii. They were so excited and I think have pretty much played it non stop since we hooked it up! It is such a great system, so easy to use! Even Owen plays it without any help. He also kicked my butt at tennis and wants to play me again so he can kick my butt again! I think I finally realized how competitive I am when I realized I was trash talkin to my 7 year old Abbey. Not so proud of that, but then I realized that Peter was trash talking to our 4 year old Owen, while playing tennis. So I feel a little better about it now, but I am quickly learning that our kids are starting to trash talk too. So I apologize to anyone who will ever play games with anyone in my super competitive family.

It is so much fun to watch the kids play the wii. It's nice to have a video game that is so interactive where they are actually getting a little bit of exercise while playing.

Christmas Eve

We have a tradition every year (probably the same as every other family) to open a present on Christmas Eve and it is always pajamas.

The girls and Owen were so excited...
Jacob was so tired, he just wanted to go to bed.
The kids wanted their picture taken in their new pajamas, but Jacob just wouldn't cooperate.
Hopefully he will be a little happier in the morning after Santa has come!

Temple Lights

We finally went to see the temple lights tonight. It was a really nice night (in the low 50's) but still felt quite chilly (cause I am a wimp). I think that is the reason why we never went to the Salt Lake Temple to see the lights. We just hate being cold.

The kids had lots of fun. The boys wouldn't cooperate with pictures (Owen was a little croupy, Jacob just wanted to run around) so most of the pictures are of the girls.

Sunday dresses

I haven't made the girls christmas dresses for a long time now...and I remember why. I am a huge procrastinator! I started these dresses friday. That just doesn't leave me much time to get them done, let alone get them done without any major mess ups. I made Abbey's first and hers has A LOT of flaws. But I just got to the point that I didn't have time to fix all of them and just let them be. Quincy's turned out a lot better because I was able to not make the same mistakes. Overall they turned out pretty cute.

Traditions...

It has become a tradition every year to make gingerbread houses with all my sisters and sister in laws and mom. Since we have moved to AZ, I had to do them on my own. We invited John and Kim and boys over to make them with us. This year I played the role of making the icing and helping the kids out and I loved it! It was so much fun to see how creative they are. The did a really, really good job. The only part I really helped them with was putting the house together. They used the frosting and decorated them all by themselves.




Here is their finished products!! They had so much fun and I know it will be a tradition they will want to keep doing every year!!

Owen's Christmas Program

Owen had his little Christmas program at preschool today and being the horrible mother that I am, I completely forgot my camera!! I feel so awful about it, the thought didn't even cross my mind to bring it. He sang all his songs so good and even did all the actions. He is such a good boy and is learning a ton. I did take his picture when we got home holding the little poster that he made for Christmas.

Jacob couldn't stay out of the pictures for long!

Winter Wonderland..

We went to our neighborhood winter wonderland and to be honest I was a little disappointed. My expectations for it was probably completely unrealistic. There were 2 little mounds of snow and hundreds of kids playing in it with snowballs flying everywhere. The kids absolutely loved it though and I really enjoyed watching them have a blast (and occasionally getting hit with a snowball). It has been almost 2 years since they have played in the snow. Jacob on the other hand didn't get into it. He has never played in snow before but I think he was more freaked out with how many people there were.

Abbey decided to make a tiny snowman and we brought it home and put it on our lawn. I don't think it is going to make it through the day.
I'm hoping this will put off the "I miss the snow" and "I want to move back to Utah cause it snows there" talk for a little while.

Christmas Party

We went to our ward Christmas Party and the kids got to see SANTA!! They were so excited!!

Abbey asked for a nintendo wii

Owen asked for a 4 wheeler bike (bike with training wheels)

Quincy asked for a bell from Santa's sleigh

and Jacob freaked out!! Surprise, surprise...all my kids have gone through this stage.

more help!

I was making some pajama bottoms and had quite the little helper. I set out a table and put my sewing machine and my mother-in-laws serger on it. Jake couldn't seem to leave them alone. he kept messing with all the thingys on the machines so everytime I would sit down and start sewing it would be some wierd stitch. Also I have this huge roll of waistband elastic (from my mom) and Jake kept getting into it! So frustrating....

Doesn't he look guilty! This is what the roll is supposed to look like.
He took him 2 times of unravelling it till I figured out to cut what I need and put it away. I'm not the brightest. It's incidents like this that remind me why I am looking forward to having all my kids in school, only 2 1/2 years to go!!

"REAL" Winter

It warmed up a little bit yesterday so Owen asked if he could go swimming. I told him that it is winter and you don't go swimming in winter. And he got so excited and said is it "real" winter? I said yes it is "real" winter(not really knowing what he meant by that). And he was so happy and was like so it's going to snow!! I had to break the news to him again that Arizona has a different kind of winter and it doesn't snow here. My poor kids really miss the snow a lot!! Our neighborhood is having a winter wonderland on Saturday where there are supposed to bring in a bunch of real snow for the kids to play with, so hopefully that will have to do.

Family Pictures

We've been elfed...

A couple of my friends have done this and it makes me laugh, so I thought I'd try and I think it is hilarious!!!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1153192669


I have been trying to get Peter to dance for 10 years now...

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1153438039

The Nativity and "Breath of Heaven"

My brother in law first showed me this combination a few years ago. I think he shows it to his seminary classes every year. I had never heard this song before and now it has become one of my favorite christmas songs!! Hope you enjoy this as much as I do!!

You will need to turn off my music at the bottom of my blog first, so you only hear the video.

a new baby in the family...

My nephew Robert and his wife Christy and their first baby on wednesday. Am I really old enough to be a GREAT AUNT?? I do enjoy calling my sister a grandma though :)

cute baby Matthew

train park...

OWEN

JACOB
I forgot my camera at the park today, but luckily my friend to some pictures for me!

Thanksgiving

In spite of colds going around the family, we had a lot of fun last week with family in town. We were able to take the kids to the zoo and play lots and lots of games. I completely forgot to take any pictures on Thanksgiving day but did get a few of the games we played the night before.

It's just not Thanksgiving without a little poker game, right?

Phoenix Zoo