December Activities

 Here's some random goings on in December...

Emma invited a friend over to play - they ended up playing old xbox games and were all huddled around the television with their little chairs...

Aaron came to visit! - his girlfriend Stefani was also visiting her sister who lives near us, so Arizona ended up being a good place to come hang out :)  We went to the Anthem outlets for a bit of shopping and to see the BIG Christmas tree!  It's the tallest live Christmas tree in the nation!  Very impressive...

After the outlets and lunch, we hung out and played at our favorite Anthem park.

That evening we went to see Cirque du Soleil!  Aaron and Stefani joined us, along with Ben's siblings and parents, and we took Emma and Becca too.  Jake and Claire stayed home with a sitter.  It was a great night and the girls got to stay out super late - they felt like big girls!  I wish I would have got some pictures from the evening :(

Our ward Christmas party was a breakfast and visit from Santa.  We even got to wear our pj's.  

Emma got picked to come up and read about one of the symbols of Christmas...

We had lots of wonderful advents and Sunday dinners at Grandma and Grandpa Dangerfield's house leading up to Christmas.  The family has grown to the point that the kids now get their own kid table to eat at - they love it...

We had a fun movie night with the kids at home one evening and had an intermission of Ben's famous hot chocolate, complete with candy canes and marshmallows, and homemade pound cake.  Mmmm...

Whenever we get the chance, we really love meeting up with Ben for lunch downtown near the hospital.  This particular visit we went to Pei Wei and then to the Starbucks next door for hot chocolate...

I miss December already!

Arizona Winter- Picnics, Ice Cream, and Hiking

The past month has been busy and wonderful - I'm finally going to get caught up on my blog to document it all :)  We went to the park one evening and took a pizza for dinner.  Ben was working late, but it was so fun to go on a fun evening outing with my little crew...

We've been recommitting to a consistent homework time each evening and often all 3 of my school kids have some work to do.  I love to see them all busily doing their school work together...

We had tithing settlement a while back, and afterwards we all went to yogurtology for a treat - it's always a favorite outing...

Arizona is a lovely place to be in the wintertime.  It's perfect hiking weather!  The kids love hiking - as long as the weather is comfortable, they never whine - it's great!

I love that this hiking trail is right next to our neighborhood - the desert it so lovely here...

And now some hiking videos...

Claire is 18 months!

My Claire is a big girl!  She turned 18 months a couple weeks ago and started nursery at church (yay!).  She was sad at nursery and missed mommy - I'm hoping she starts to enjoy the fun time away from mommy for a couple hours each Sunday.  :)  Claire is feisty, fun, and affectionate.  I love my sweet baby girl.

Thanksgiving Day 2012

Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa Dangerfield's house was very memorable.  We had a lot of Indians this year and one lone pilgrim...

Emily entertained the kids during some of the cooking - she read to them about Thanksgiving and led them in singing some autumn songs...

Hey Jake - there's a turkey on your head...

The kids table.  How adorable are these kids...

Sweet Claire - anxious to eat...

Jake- the Indian Brave...

My pretty pilgrim Becca...

Funny Caroline...

Uncle Peter built the Mayflower!  The kids loved coloring the outside of it and climbing through it and peering out the lookout...

Time to play with the babies!

We had a little Thanksgiving performance - the kids sang 10 little Indians... here's the end of it :)

The day after Thanksgiving we spent all morning cleaning and decorating for Christmas.  I love Christmas decorations!.  Later we met up with Ben's family to see Santa Clause.  Claire didn't want to get near him - but the rest of my kids love Santa.  The girls had each written him a letter asking various questions about his reindeer and flying sleigh.  Emma asked for a puppy or a Nintendo DS (oh boy).  I tried to explain to Emma that Santa isn't going to bring her something that mommy or daddy wouldn't approve of - we are trying to get her to think of a larger list of gift ideas for Santa to work with :)

That evening Emily set up babysitters at her house while the adults went out to dinner at Charleston's (yay bread pudding!!) and to see the movie Lincoln.  It was a great day!

Thanksgiving in Utah

We had a wonderful early Thanksgiving with my family in Utah last week.  I love my family so much.  I felt especially sad to leave this time around.  It was a short visit.  I'm counting down till our next Utah trip that's just around the corner!

We hadn't originally planned on going to Utah for Thanksgiving, but then we changed our plans a bit, when we found out that Ben's cousin Ross would be getting married in Provo the weekend before Thanksgiving.  So, we decided to travel up for the wedding and to stay for a few extra days to have an early Thanksgiving with my family.  The wedding day was beautiful.   My camera battery needed charging, so all the Saturday pictures were from Ben's phone.  Somehow we neglected to get a picture of the cute couple.  Oops!  I really enjoyed visiting BYU campus since we were nearby.  It's so nostalgic and we are trying our best to convince our kids that it would be a great idea for them to attend BYU when they are older :)  We went to the art museum and the kids were entertained by this unique Andy Warhol exhibit...


Then to the BYU Bookstore (love that place!) for chocolate covered cinnamon bears and a cute BYU hat for Jake...

Later that evening we went to the reception.  Here's the kids in the lobby of the reception center by the warm fireplace...

The next couple days we played with my family in Sandy.  My dad cut blocks out of 2x4's for Jake to play with.  They were a hit!...

Our group after getting home from church (minus mom and dad)...

Stef and Becca - Stefani coordinated nicely with the kids outfits by chance...

After church we got to cooking and eating...

Aaron making a delicious beverage...

Our yummy meal - rolls (made by mom), mashed potatoes (by me), roast beef (by dad), salmon (by stef), green beans and salad (by sarah), and lemonade (by Aaron).  We opted against turkey since it was before thanksgiving anyway - we got turkey later in the week...

The dessert table - Homemade pies (crust included!) prepared with love by Aaron :)  He made an apple pie and a cherry blueberry pie.  Ben made egg nog ice cream with pralined bacon as a topping.  Everything is better with bacon right?!  even ice cream?!  :)

Chowing down...

The next day we went to the Hogle Zoo...

On the carousel - even the adults enjoyed themselves... :)

This is Claire's nervous face...

Jake and Aunt Sarah...

After the zoo, we went to Sub Zero ice cream...

The next day the kids helped grandma decorate the tree (later in the week, they put all the ornaments on our tree at home too... they are actually helpful and useful sometimes!)

We visited Scheel's - the new huge sporting goods store in Utah - it's a lot like Cabellas, but bigger, and with a ferris wheel inside! We were entertained for a long while at this store...

I got to share a seat with my Jake...

Like father, like daughter...

Becca and Grandpa...

I don't know why there is a talking Abraham Lincoln... 

Soccer simulator...

There was a bunch of photo spots - the kids wanted to get their picture taken in all of them...

It looks so real!  It's like they are really at the lake!

We spent the rest of the time playing board games (my favorite thing!) - and one evening my parents offered to watch our kids while Ben, Aaron, Sarah, and I went to see Bond (awesome!).  Can't wait to come back!!