Last few photos

Our Ugly Sweater Christmas Party--this was a Kingman tradition that stuck around!


Kids kids kids since that is what our life is all about now!


Taking the kiddos sledding--6 hours of work for 20 minutes of fun--& Christmas Eve turkey dinner w/friends, out to a movie with the fam--how Ryan got that much chocolate on his face in a movie theater, I'll never know!


Christmas Day


Aniversary Flowers--thank you dear!

A Few Holiday Photos...

These are from Thanksgiving. Of course there must be documentation of the food!
If you ever wondered if Collin got enough love, think again!

The people & the fun. Some how the monkey mask kept creeping into photos.

I Warn You Now...

...this is a long post--mostly for the sake of documenting our semi-interesting lives on a semi-consistent basis. This Christmas season was a new experience for us with many firsts. Our first Christmas not home in Idaho which was great not traveling 24 hours round trip but we definitely missed all the family and found it strangely "quiet" sometimes. However, the boys made up for the rare moments of silence with all out wars using their semi-auto dart guns that dad bought for everyone! We kept a lot of the same traditions like taking poppy seed bread to many friends & neighbors, doing a Christmas "service" for a family in need, going to see a movie on Christmas Eve Day (Tangled--a new favorite of mine!) and eating WAY too much food. We added a few new ones like eating El Salvadorian (is that a word?) & German food with friends on Christmas Eve, hosting a "Polar Express" party for several families in our ward with hot chocolate, cookies, pjs, bells and even the kid's very own ticket which we punched when they walked in the door. We even upheld a tradition from Kingman--surprising I know--an Ugly Sweater Christmas Party. The outfits were atrocious--as expected--and set a pretty high standard for next year. We did a few things which we hope will NEVER become tradition--like being in charge of the food for the Ward Christmas Party--or taking our kids sledding with a 45 min drive to and from for only 20 minutes of tolerable snow time. Jason even got angry that there was snow in his show so he chucked it a good 10 yards away where it sunk and we never could find it. He left Mount Charleston wet, cold and shoeless. We are learning to simplify and decide when our family needs to be a priority over our demanding work/church/social schedules. But aside from the business of the season and realising that life is going to feel out of control for the next 20 years, we enjoyed ourselves. We witnessed outpourings of service, love and faith. We gave and received and were left feeling very grateful; grateful to be employed, grateful to be healthy, grateful for friends and family who open their homes to us when we feel so far from ours. Especially grateful for a knowledge and testimony of our Savior, the blessings of the temple, and the ability to live together as a family for eternity. It has been a great start to our New Year--gym memberships, healthy cookbooks etc :-) Hopefully this year will prove to be as abundant and memorable as the last!

A little catch up...

Just playing catch up--mostly for the grandparents :-) Here's what we've been up to lately...



Scott's parents came for a visit. We hit up Los Tacos--THE BEST authentic Mexican grill in town--as in, you are the ONLY white people there and it helps if you can order in Spanish--I'm salivating just thinking about it. We all went with the kids to see MEGAMIND--pretty funny but not one of the greats from times gone by. Am I getting old like my parents when I think things like, "I wish my kids would just enjoy the good ole' Disney classics like Sleeping Beauty, Bambi, Pinochio etc like I did when I was a kid"? All this fancy whitty repotoire, famous A-list voices, massively complicated technology, 3-D Imax blah blah blah doesn't make up for great-classic-timeless storylines and fantastic music (Beauty & the Beast to name one).

ANYWAY--we also paid a visit to the new bridge over Hoover Dam. We drove to and from Kingman (too many times to count) for the last 18 months, watching it grow, column by column and now that it is finally done we are in AWE. It cuts a good 1/2 hour drive time out and is flat out AMAZING to look at. You can walk across, take pictures etc and staring straight down into churning water makes you very aware of your own mortality. You literally are a tiny spec that wouldn't make a splash if you took a nose dive from that high up! The kids had a great time with "Big" Pappa and Grammy Jean--we are lucky to have our parents be so involved with our children!

Up next...Turkey Day with MY WHOLE FAMILY! I can't wait--the decor might not be as nice, but this will be a feast that puts Martha Stewart to shame! Yummm...