Christmas Eve 2010

Grandma Cindy & Grandpa George's House
Vail, Arizona



The kids were so excited to be at Grandma and Grandpa's house on Christmas Eve! They always make holidays extra special for us! Thank you:-)




We started the night off with lots of sparklers and fireworks! This was a first for the kids as fireworks are now somewhat legal here in Arizona!

Grandpa George had a nice fire going for all of us in the backyard! The weather was so nice! Little Miss Keira loved the sparklers!

Carson with a handful of sparklers!

My wonderful dad, Papa Bear, and Mark enjoying their yummy Christmas Eve dinner! It is a tradition to have homemade jumbo coconut shrimp, Lion House rolls with raspberry butter to name just a few items on the menu! My Mom is the best cook and always goes the extra mile on her holiday meals! She always makes so much food that we get to eat leftovers for days! Lucky us:-)

My beautiful Mom, Carson and my great step-dad, George!

Baby you're a firework! I can't get that song out of mind! LOL! After dinner, Grandma and Grandpa busted out the jumbo sparklers and some real fireworks!

Carson and Grandma Cindy having fun!

I had a blast playing with fire!

Keira was so excited for Santa to come that she changed into her pajamas right after dinner!

We ended the night with playing BINGO! This is another tradition that we all look forward to at Christmas! My Mom and George give away the best prizes! We walked away with a ton of gift cards, toys and other fun items! Thank you Mom and George!

Keira's favorite prize she won was a Hello Kitty purse with flavored lip gloss!

Mark and Papa Bear playing BINGO! We were so exited to have my Dad join us as he had been in the hospital a week earlier for hip replacement surgery and could barely walk! What a tough guy my Dad is!

Carson on cloud 9 after winning a ton of BINGO games in a row! Seriously, it was Carson's lucky night and he walked away with a huge stash of prizes!

Bingo Mama in action! Keira lost interest after a few games and decided to play with Grandpa George instead.

Keira and Gracie laying by the Christmas tree before bedtime!

Crazy Busy December!

December was a CRAZY BUSY month for us! Instead of doing a bunch of little posts (too time consuming) on all our pre-Christmas fun, I have put some of the craziness into just one loooong post for your viewing pleasure!

Beginning of December I found Carson and some of his neighborhood friends standing on the corner in front of our house holding these signs begging for money! They said they were trying to earn Christmas money! Crazy kids!

Carson is still crazy over characters in costumes! Carson and his friend, Zoe, just had to have a picture with the Chick-fil-A Santa Cow!

Crazy Santa Cows!

Yours truly and my little snowman in his crazy fun first grade class! I love volunteering every week in Carson's class!

Cayden's fifth grade holiday party was a ton of fun! They had lots of yummy treats! It is crazy how much sweets these kids can consume!

Cayden and his teacher, Mr. N., showing off what Cayden won in the class gift exchange!

My little crazy reindeer, Keira!

Carson sleeping in a crazy mummy wrap!

At crazy Carson's first grade Christmas party Santa called Ms. A., on her cell phone. Carson was one of the lucky kiddos to ask him a question!

I passed on the idea to Carson's teacher about doing a gently used book exchange at the class Christmas party! The kiddos all brought a wrapped gently used book from home and sat in a circle as I read The Gingerbread Man. Every time I read Gingerbread the class passed their books to the right. At the end of the story the kids got to unwrap the book in their hands and take it home. Crazy fun!

Keira and cousin Nash playing at Nash's third birthday party!

Cayden, Mark, cousin Mitch, Jordan (Mark's brother), Carson and Mitch's friend playing some ball at the party while waiting for the birthday train (Jordan's new toy)!

Carson and Cayden getting ready to ride the crazy cool birthday train!

Yep, that is me riding in the caboose! So much fun!

Mark, Carson, Cayden, Mitch, Mitch's friend and Jordan riding the train!

The crazy birthday boy and Keira being silly on the train ride!

Carson loved Uncle Jordan's new train! Carson wants the job of driving it in a few years!

Carson and Mitch!

Keira looking crazy cute at our ward (church) Christmas party! They had a fun game for the kiddos where they had to put vaseline on the tip of their nose and then pick up a red circle with their nose without using their hands!

Carson the red nose reindeer had a very shiny nose! Carson loved this game!

Cayden with his nose so bright!

Keira sitting on Santa's lap at our ward Christmas party!

Carson thought sitting on this Santa's lap was crazy silly! He sat there and tried to figure out who this Santa was! He guessed it right, Brother Dickson! LOL!

Getting ready for church on Sunday is always crazy so I only ended up with a picture of Keira in her Christmas dress on Christmas Sunday! I just love how she poses for the camera:-)

Our friends from church, the Tripps, invited us and a few other families over to their house for a fun and crazy Christmas party! They cooked us a yummy pasta dinner and delicious desserts, we had a fun kids and adult white elephant gift exchange and ended the night with a visit from Santa!

Keira told Santa she wanted a real dog!

Cayden thinking really hard about what he wants for Christmas!

37 Never looked so good!

Mark turned 37 on December 13th! To celebrate, Mark and I went out on his birthday to eat at Macaroni Grill and then went to the movie,Unstoppable! Only 3 more years until the BIG 4o! Happy Birthday, Mark!

Temple in Gilbert, Arizona

December 11, 2010

Cayden, Keira and Carson in front of the Gilbert, Arizona Temple that is under construction! The temple is being built on 15 acres at the southeast corner of Greenfield and Pecos Road.


The kids posing in front of what will be the temple entrance! The Gilbert Temple will be three stories and 26,000 square feet!

We brought our neighbor friend, Zoe, along with us!

Carson checking out all the cool construction stuff that is being used to build the Gilbert Temple.

Little Miss Keira posing in front of what will one day be something very beautiful!

Carson posing on the other side of the Gilbert Temple grounds!

I put my camera through the green fence that surrounds the temple grounds and got this picture!

This is what the Gilbert, Arizona Temple will look like when completed! Beautiful!

I thought it would be a fun and educational experience for our family to follow the construction of the Gilbert, Arizona Temple that is being built not too far from our home! What a wonderful way to teach my children about the most sacred places on earth and the sacred ordinances that are performed there! The Gilbert Temple had its groundbreaking ceremony on November 13, 2010 and will be the fifth temple here in Arizona.




For more information on the Gilbert, Arizona Temple hit the link below:

Information and updates for the Mormon Temple in Gilbert, Arizona