AZ trip in Janurary Part 1

 Back in January we drove down to AZ to visit my family and to see my brother Scott get married.  It was such a fun trip.  I love going to AZ in the winter time.  It's a great break from the snow and cold temperatures.  We were loving the 70 degree weather.  So nice!  We left after Rob got home from work on a Wednesday and drove to St. George.  We stopped at a hotel that was so new that the pool wasn't even opened yet.  The kids were kinda disappointed about that because the two reasons they love staying at hotels are 1. The TV, and 2. Swimming at the pool.  Oh well.  We left early the next morning and made it to AZ in good time.  The kids did amazing in the car.  It's the first time we have driven half way and taken a break in the middle, and I loved it!  It made the trip seem so much faster.

We got to grandma and grandpa's house and made ourselves at home. (the kids started exploring and pulling all the toys out immediately.) We got ourselves settled and bathed because early the next morning we had to be at the temple for Scott's wedding.

 Heading out of Utah.  It was pretty much rush hour, but we didn't get slowed down too much.

 And we got to see this beautiful sunset.

 The kids found our room.  The funny thing was that the hotel was brand new.  There were hardly any cars in the parking lot so we know they weren't even close to full.  They decided to put our family right next to another family that obviously had kids, but they all were up partying and making TONS of noise until like 11 or so.  We were all in bed trying to get to sleep, but it was impossible.  Finally they quieted down.  You'd think if the hotel was practically empty, they would space us out a bit, but no.  Oh well.

 Finley snuggled with us in bed for a bit before we put her in the pack and play.

 Welcome to AZ!!

 Grandma has the best toys!  The Sesame Street record player is always a favorite!

 Here we are at the Gilrbert Temple.

 The kids got to wait outside with my cousin Shannon while we went in to the ceremony.  I think they were pretty well behaved.  That was the report anyway.

 Finley just loved being with grandma and grandpa.  

 Cheese!  Trying to keep the kids entertained while we waited for Scott and Christie to come out of the temple.

 

 They both looked great.  

 After the pictures were taken, we all just hung out and then headed over to a yummy pizza place for lunch and dessert.  Finley was in a really good mood surprisingly.  (she hadn't taken a nap)

 Full of smiles!

 Then we went and hung out at Scott's place where we all just rested and relaxed for a while.  Finley had fallen asleep about 2 seconds after we put her in her carseat and then woke up when we got to Scott's house about 7 minutes later.  Then of course she was up and ready to play.  Silly goose.

That night, we went to a reception and had fun socializing and seeing my cousins and other family.  The next morning, we went on a hike that is right by the Phoenix temple.  We had done the hike before but it's a good one for kids.  So we went again.  The kids all did great.  Sadie and Zac led the way the entire time with grandma.

 Ready to hike.

 

 Made it to the top!

 Emery got a surprise when she lifted this rock.  A scorpion.  It scared her so bad that she cried for a long while after that.  She was finally able to shake it off and continue on down the mountain.  

 Rob was carrying Finley on the way down and the girl in the blue sweatshirt asked if she could take a picture because his shirt said "shoulder angel goes here" and Finley's head was popping out right where the arrow was.  She thought it was funny.  Rob asked her if she knew of Studio C.  She didn't.  She just thought the shirt was funny with Finley's head sticking out like that.  ha ha.

 I stuck with Riley on the way down.  She was getting a bit tired, but we made it as long as we stopped and took a few pictures.

 See the temple in the background??

 We made it to the bottom!  

I'll continue with part 2 soon...

Emery's 7th Birthday

 Emery turned 7 this year.  She is so excited about the changes that the church is making for activity days.  This means that she gets to start activity days in January and be in with Sadie for a whole year whereas before, she would have only overlapped about 6 weeks or so with Sadie.  I'm so glad about that.  :)  Also, she has another friend with a December birthday that gets to move up with her.  Score!

Her birthday was low key. (that was a theme this year!)  We just hung out at home and went to our ward Christmas party that night. 

 Here she is opening her first present of the day. 

 The traditional running through the streamers!

 Her present that she opened was fizzygloop.  She got to make some slime that had a fizzy reaction.  It actually didn't work very well, but she had fun with it.

 It took us a few hours (not working the whole time) to finish all the colors.  

 SEVEN!

Her cute friend from the neighborhood was so nice and got Emery a gift.  It was this fun card game.  

 

We sure love our Emery.  She keeps us on our parenting toes for sure.  She's got strong emotions and loves to be creative.  She is learning the piano and doing great.  She loves making surprises for people and has lots of friends.  Happy seventh birthday!!!

Temple square

 I really don't like crowds, so when the weather forecast said it was supposed to rain one night, we decided to go down to see the temple lights.  ha ha.  Mostly we went because it hadn't been that cold all day, but also because it really did not look like it was going to rain.  And I figured we could handle a light sprinkle in order to avoid the crowds.  So we headed downtown one Friday night ( I think...) after Rob got home from work. 

 The night started out great.  Everyone was nice and toasty.

 There weren't that many people there (score!) and the temple was beautiful as always.

 The kids were great and we didn't lose any of them.  

 So pretty.  When we got to about this spot (the furthest away from our car) there was a sudden huge gust of freezing cold wind.  Then it started raining ice on us.  It was coming down hard.  Like it was hurting our face.  Like little needles.

 We looked at about 2 nativities and then made a run for it.  Rob stuck Finley in his coat and Riley got in the stroller.  We ran for shelter.

We made it back all wet, but we made it.  Riley was not happy.  She was freezing.  But it made for a fun adventure.  :)

Reading the Book of Mormon in 85 days

In the October session of general conference, President Nelson invited all the women to read the Book of Mormon before the end of the year.  I finished it on December 30th.  :)  It wasn't always easy to find the time to read it, but I did it.  I think this is the fastest I have ever read it and I now have a better understanding of the timeline and the stories all went together more clearly in my mind.  I love this book and I loved realizing how much it talks about our Savior.  I have come much closer to Jesus Christ this past year through trials and reading this book.  I know Christ lives and loves us and wants us to be happy.  I'm grateful for this challenge and hope I will keep up with reading everyday out of this wonderful book. 

Finley's first snow experience

 Isn't she so cute!!!

This was Finley's first time playing in the snow.  She did great and lasted quite a while.  She mostly just ate the snow once she figured out you could eat it.  ha ha!

 My kids are so adorable!  I love this picture of them.  

 They jumped on the tramp for a while.  A few days later it snowed again and there were a few inches (maybe like 3) on the tramp for a few days.  Then Zac decided to jump onto it with bare feet and ran inside crying.  Apparently the snow had turned into a thick sheet of ice and it scratched up his legs and broke his toenail.  Poor guy.  We took the tramp down the next day so the snow doesn't ruin it and I was so surprised at how thick that ice was. 

Christmas 2018

 This Christmas was so wonderful.  We stayed home and just relaxed and watched the kids open presents.  We acted out the Nativity and talked about Jesus.  I don't have a lot of memories from last year's Christmas except for sitting on the couch holding Finley, so I really tried to soak it all in this year.  The kids make it so fun.  They were pretty happy with everything they got. 

 This picture is actually from October, but I like it a lot, so I posted it here.  The girls are wearing their Halloween shirts. :)

 I saw a tutorial on youtube on how to make Christmas cookies and decided I HAD to try it.  I invited a few friends over and this is what we ended up with.  It was fun, but I decided it's not really my thing.  It's hard for me to spend so much time making a cookie look pretty when it's just going to get eaten.  Oh well, it was a fun time with friends and Sadie made a few too. 

 On the left is a picture I took of some snowflakes on our driveway.  I love when you can see their shape so well.  And on the right is a picture of some Christmas pancakes we had at our house.  I invited the neighborhood to bring their kids and have pancakes for lunch.  Some people showed up and we enjoyed these fun Christmas tree pancakes and chatting. 

 Santa came to our city hall building on a firetruck one night.  I braved the crowd with all of the kids by myself (Rob had to work late that night...) and we survived.  Not without lots of crying and drama of course.  Hot chocolate in the car + 5 kids = big mistake.  ha ha

 Rob and I decided to take a couple pictures before church with Finley because she matched us.  Thanks Sadie for being our photographer!

 The older kids were sad that they missed our Christmas tree pancakes, so we made them again for dinner.  

 We acted out the nativity story on Christmas Eve with the kids.  It was very fun and entertaining and we had a good discussion about Christ.

 Finely got to be the baby Jesus.

 Emery was the Angel.

 On Christmas eve morning, I went to the store with Sadie.  We came across a magic 8 ball and I asked it if the kids were going to get along that day.  The answer was yes and when we got home the kids were reading together on the couch.  They actually did get along that day.  :)

 Elf chart gifts!  This year they sent us some puzzles to put together and they had a secret message on the back telling the kids to look in a black cabinet in the basement.  They went down and there wasn't anything in there, so they came upstairs and looked on the black bookshelves thinking maybe they were talking about those.  Then we all went down again and looked in the black cabinet, and there was a gift in there!  Christmas magic!  In the cabinet was a Nintendo Switch with a few games!  The elves made sure in their note to tell the kids not to get used to big gifts like this on the elf chart.  :)

 

 Christmas morning!  The kids all slept downstairs together and were really good and didn't come up until 6:30.  I don't have any idea when they actually woke up, but they did a good job waiting until then to come up stairs and check out their stockings!

 The girls all got some fun stick on earrings in their stockings.  They have loved those.  Zac got a boomerang.  (not pictured)

 Here is Emery with her earrings and the girls all got bracelets that can be turned into little animals. 

 I made this blanket for Zac.  It's minky fabric so it's really soft.  And Riley wanted to feel it so Zac gave her a hug.  I love this picture!

 My mom made Finley her own pillow.  She loves it!

 Riley and Finley got this ice cream cart to share.  We are still working on the sharing part, but they both LOVE it!  It's so cute seeing them play with it.

 The kids picked names for who they got a gift for.  Sadie bought for Emery, Zac bought for Riley, Emery bought for Zac, and Riley bought for Sadie.  Rob is sick in the background.  I think he had influenza.  It took him more than a week to get over it.

 The kids loved their gifts, but more so they loved seeing the reaction of the person they got their gift for.  I loved seeing that.  That's what gift giving is all about!

 Group hug!

 Zac trying out his new gift!

 Sadie wearing some new stick on earrings.

 It was really great weather on Christmas day until it started raining, so the girls were able to skate with their new roller blades.

Emery is learning fast and doesn't need Rob's hand all the time now.