The single life.

Well, I am counting down the days until Mark's first away rotation is over.  While it hasn't been that bad, it hasn't been that great either.  Sometimes it's fun to do hard things.  Especially when you are somewhat successful and can give yourself a pat on the back and say, "Hey I really am super mom."  Or you could just say a quick prayer of thanks for all the angels that must have been helping you along the way.   At night before I fall asleep I've started thinking about all the things I did right, because really there is just no point in falling asleep thinking about all the things I did wrong.  Let's try to block out the little 5 yr old voice that asked, "Momma, why are you being so impatient?"  and focus on the little 5yr old voice that said, "And Momma will be the queen.  She's the nicest goodest queen in all the land." Lucky for us Tuscon isn't that far way and Mark has had 1 day a week off.  Which is almost torture really, but we'll take it.   On one of those days off we put up the Christmas tree.

And went for bike rides

Under a beautiful sunset

And on those days without our dad we found other forms of entertainment.
Like doing each others hair...

And getting everyone ready for church on time and arriving early!

And having sleep overs in mama's room.

And being grateful for each other. Seriously. I love these three.

And then there were two.......

Wilson Thomas,  Dec 6, 2010,  Age 3

I think Wilson's parents may have been more excited about this than he was.  We kept saying how awesome he was and how we were so proud and excited for him.  He wasn't showing much emotion so I asked him if he was feeling mad - no, sad- no, frustrated- no, excited - no, happy - yes.  He was just happy that he could now ride his bike without training wheels. :)

I'm happy he's happy. 

:)

The last couple of weeks.

Phew, where to even begin?  We have had a crazy couple of weeks. 

I guess I'll start way back when things were a little slower and Sam had time to escape out the back door and enjoy munching the grass before I discovered him.

Busted!  I cannot get enough of this little boy.  He is SO happy to be alive.

Poor boy- he must really like grass. :)

This is Sam's army crawl.  He refuses to crawl properly up on his hands and knees.  I am beginning to give up hope on that ever happening since he is now pulling himself up to EVERYTHING and attempting to walk around the furniture. 

The week before thanksgiving the kids and I headed up to Utah to meet a bunch of the Keeler clan and go through the temple with Liz.  Mark couldn't make the trip with us and I was determined to be there so on Thursday night Mark kept the two older kids up way past midnight and I went to bed at 8pm.  Then I was up at 3am, loaded the kids in the car and we were off.  Right before we left I looked at Mark and said, "I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little nervous to do this by myself!"  He just looked at me and said, "What, it's not that big of a deal.  If you have trouble I am only 5 hours or less away or my parents are only 5 hours or less away."  And off we went!  The kids did so amazing.  Sam cried for about 10 minutes total of the 11hr drive and Zina and Wilson were just excited to be on their way to Utah.  They also got to open dollar store presents every couple of hours so they were happy campers.  The first thing they did when we got there was run outside in the fall/winter leaves.  It was so nice to breath cold fresh air!

It just so happened to by Aunty Attena's 18th birthday on Monday and she requested a princess cake (mostly because she knew a little 5yr old would LOVE that).  When I told Zina that I needed help making Tena a cake and that she wanted a princess cake Zina was so excited she ran downstairs yelling for Kate and saying, "oh this is the best day of my life!"  It was pretty funny.

The girls (Kate and Zina) wanted to make a princess castle - it was quite the masterpiece.  1 large pink castle covered in candy.  We had lots of little helpers making that cake. :)

Monday night we headed down to Manti to stay in my favorite little bed and breakfast, The Manti House.  It was so fun just visiting with everyone and enjoyed each other. 

Talking to Jacob, Liam, & Camden on Skype. (and Todd and Lauri too.... :)

Grandpa enjoying his trip in true grandpa style...

A cozy little birthday dinner at the Manti House.

Tuesday morning we were up and heading over to the Manti temple.   Attena babysat my 3 bambino's for which I am SO grateful for.  It was so nice to be in the temple with my family.  Nice is the wrong word.  There is no word.  It was a very special experience and would have been worth a million 10hr drives by myself and 3 kids.  

I love the temple.

And as I sat in the session couldn't help but hope for the day when I would be there surrounded by my children.  I don't know if it gets any better?  I think not.

I promised the kids that although they couldn't go inside the temple with us, they could come up and touch the temple.  They were pretty excited about that.

After the temple we wolfed down some Pizza at the pizza place.

Played hopscotch (sort of) while waiting for the pizza to cook.

And headed back on down the road.  Thanks Liz for giving us a reason.

It was SO worth it. 

And then we were back in Arizona.  Pulled in at about 12:30am.  Huge thanks to Uncle Marky for driving back with us as the kids weren't quite as well behaved on the trip home.  Alhough, throwing up in Flagstaff wasn't exactly what Wilson had in mind either.  We all survived and the Thomas clan pulled in at about 5am the same day to start the Thanksgiving festivities.  Good thing I cleaned my house before I left.  :)

First off the kiddos and I took Mark to the Mesa temple where we enjoyed the visitors center and the grounds. 

Ate a delicious dinner at Well'n Emily's. (Had to get this picture because Mark was having a race with Bo and Wilson to finish their food and Bo, picky eater that he is, was plugging his nose the entire time so he wouldn't have to taste his food. 

Our very own magic bed.  The 3 girls were so excited to all be together.  Grandma even climbed in for a while. :)

Wilson and Wade

Thanksgiving day crafts.

I love this guy.  We missed him while we were gone.

And I LOVE this picture of two of my boys.

Good little Wade setting the thanksgiving day table.

We love Cousins!

And the thanksgiving feast!  The girls table,

the boys table,

and the adults table.  21 people total.  It was so fun to be together.

And of course the traditional after party - a little bit of dunk ball.

Even spider man came!

Spectator's

Kate, Zina and Ellie all learned to ride without training wheels on our street just weeks apart from each other.

Check out all the cars on our street.  It was kind of fun to see everyone else gathering together too.

And of course late night games.

And black Friday shopping and lunch with the girls (and sam).

Black friday also happened to be Mark's birthday this year and Well's made him blackberry sour cream pie for his birthday cake (since he doesn't really like cake but LOVES pie!)

More games at Wells'n Emily's and some very tired kids on the drive home.

Sam braving the train table.

And four boys brandishing their swords after Bo's birthday party.

Phew, and now that all of that fun is over we can start to prepare for Christmas fun!