Christmas Adventures 2008

This was our first Christmas on our own and it has been really special.  That sounds trite, but it really has.  Last night as Mark and I were laying in bed he said to me, "You know, I like our kids more  and more everyday."  I smiled because I knew exactly what he meant.  It's like when you get married and you think you are so in love, but now when you look back on your wedding day you realize that you didn't even have an inkling about how much you could really love another person.  And then you have kids, and each day all that love just keeps on getting bigger and bigger.   I really love my little family.  :)

Enough with the cheesy. This Christmas was FUN!

 Christmas Eve consisted of:  

My cute little mary sitting on her donkey

And of course, Joseph leading the way.
The "wise"man narrating.

Christmas Pajama's. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Thomas!

This explains the matching dinner apparel in the next picture.  On the Keeler side we decided that, instead of giving gifts, each family was supposed to make a movie of anything that they wanted so long as they were in it and then on Christmas morning we all got to watch each others movies. It was a hit and definately a new tradition that created some priceless memories.  

  Christmas Eve Dinner - yummy soup in homemade bread bowls (yes, I'm working on them. This was my first time and apparently they aren't supposed to be so big...who knew?) We had some yummy shrimp and appetizers with dip and punch and eggnog. 

Christmas Morning:  

 Zina woke up and walked right past all the presents and stockings so we had to do a little prepping until she realized what was going on.  Wilson was happy to just tag along.

He was pretty pumped about his present though - something he is actually allowed to hit!

If it has to do with Princess's this girl is happy.

This is what Wilson thought stockings were for.

After all the presents were opened and breakfast cleaned up we packed up the car and headed for California.  Just a mere 5-6 hour drive, we were totally going to make it on time until we made it to the middle of no where...

And this happened.  

  I'm grateful that we had a spare, an air compressor to fill the spare up,  kids who thought it was great fun, and an amazing husband who had us all fixed up and out of there in no time.

We were however to late for Christmas dinner in Laguna Hills. Sorry Angel and Luis...we tried.  Panda Express filled our tummies, if not with the greatest Christmas dinner of all time at least some funny memories and a place for the kids to get their wiggles out.

Pretty darn cute.

Some day we'd like to drive back to California on Highway 78 - in the summer of course.  Who knew that it would turn our little jaunt to San Diego into an 11 hour drive through mountain passes, sand storms, snow, wind, rain, fog, branches blocking the road and finally fire and rescue telling us we had to go another way? Obviously not us.  We did however finally arrive, still in good spirits. Believe it. It's true.

And it was worth it because they got married and it was beautiful - the bride and groom, the ceremony, the families, everything!

Sure is hard for a 3yr old to wait, she did amazing and was so excited to see "Princess" Angel. :)

We spent the next day getting new tires for our car and playing at the beach.  

Zina wanted to go swimming...until she felt the water.

Here's my charmer.  I swear Wilson gets cuter everyday.  Sometimes I can't hardly stand how cute he is. 

Wilson and Papa check'n out the waves.

Trying to change a diaper and getting caught.  Sorry Wilson.

Zina and Wilson got pretty wet, and then pretty cold. Here is how we warmed them up.

Happy New Year Everyone

Aunty Liz is com'n(or came) to town.

Before Christmas my sister Elizabeth came to visit.  I was so excited for her to come.  Liz and I have always dreamed of living close to each other but for some reason that dream has never come to fruition.  She is one of my best friends and it was so good to visit and play with her.  She must have brought some crazy Vancouver rain with her though because it rained for her WHOLE visit!  I couldn't believe it.  The weather was beautiful before she got here and it has been beautiful since she left.  C'est La Vie!  Despite the rain we got out and had some fun.  

We made it to downtown Phoenix and checked out the history museum and historical buildings.  We made some delicious gingerbread men (and women)  and took them to the neighbors.   We got in some great hot tubbing which was extra fun because of the rain, and I got in the last bit of Christmas shopping that needed to get done.  Thanks for coming Aunty Liz and maybe you should come back to experience the Arizona sunshine that we love so much. :)

A Few Lemons and a Cactus.

This weekend we were graced with the presence of Grandma Judy and Marks niece Jaders (aka Jade). Jade had never been to Arizona so we showed her a few of our Arizona favorites. We hit up the Midwestern Orchards for "just a few" lemons that we made into lemon pie and lemonade. YUM! Grandma filled her trunk FULL for everyone back in Utah. It was a beautiful day for fruit picking and we had lots of fun. Zina and Wilson have converted all the lemons at our house into balls and are constantly throwing them around. I just know that one of these days I'm going to find a rotten lemon behind the couch courtesy of Wilson.

We also go up early and headed to Thunderbird conservation park for a little hiking. We found a friendly cactus that needed a hug and when we got to the top of the trail we also found Santa!! We thought it was funny to find Santa at the top of our hike but didn't stick around for pictures because we had to get back for a little Elders Quorum flag football.

The reason behind Grandma and Jade's visit was Mark's White Coat Ceremony.  We left the kiddos with Brenda (bless you Brenda) and walked over to the Ceremony.  It was a fun evening and we were all proud to belong to Mark because we think he's pretty awesome! 

He gave us a tour of some of his labs and yes, this is the cadaver lab. We were all doing pretty good in there until one of the students uncovered his cadaver and started showing his family all the parts.  Needless to say - we left in a hurry!! 

Thanksgiving 2008

Thanksgiving this year was really a lot of fun. Mark had a 2 week break from school so we spent the first week enjoying the beautiful weather here at home. It was a lot of fun to just relax, make a trip to the pool everyday, go running together, etc. etc. The second week we made the long trek to Utah. Zina and Wilson did amazing. I so love my little family - even the 11hr drive was fun. We didn't even have to pull out the dvd player until the last bit of the trip. We played the abc game a lot. Have any of you played it? Mark always beats me but this trip I beat him...TWICE. :) You know, "a on kanab" , "b on breakfast" You have to get through the whole alphabet from signs or anything you see outside of your vehicle. Zina kept yelling "UDOT" the whole time because I got "d on udot" Everytime we got a new letter she would yell, "UDOT!!" It was funny. Helped get us through quite a few miles. It's quite a beautiful drive too - through a navajo reservation, passed the grand canyon, through Kanab UT and Panguitch (Zina told G. Thomas that we drove through Penguin sandwich) - there is some really different looking stuff. Once in Utah we did a lot of playing ticket to ride, eating, laughing, shopping, etc. etc. Visiting utah is starting to remind me of my childhood. There are a billion little kids running around, lots of food, lots of laughter. Only now I am one of the "aunts" instead of one of the "cousins" I like it.

Give Thanks

Dear Mark,
Thank you for making breakfast.
Thank you for getting the kids ready for church.
Thank you for taking the kids to church.
Thank you for making lunch.
Thank you for patiently handling both bawling children.
Thank you for soothing Wilson after he threw up all over you - twice.
Thank you for cleaning up the spilled applesauce.
Thank you for cleaning up the spilled sugar.
Thank you for cleaning up the spewed throw up.
Thank you for making dinner.
Thank you for calmly and lovingly taking care of us today.
I have the most amazing husband in the world.
Thanks for being you.

Last week during Mark's finals the kids and I took off for Canada. We found $29 flights that we just couldn't pass up! While we missed Mark ALOT we sure did have ALOT of fun!














And now just when the fun with Mark is about to begin we have a yucky flu bug. Bleh. Hopefully it's only 24 hours so the party can begin!