New Games, New Faces, New Fun

Our first day in Tucson we mostly spent hanging around the Devereaux's. The boys were happy to be out of the van and have someone to play with them!

Amelia was getting acclimated to her new surroundings. She spent the night with us at Grandpa Sabey's house and then spent the day with us at the Devereaux's. She didn't seem to mind Grandma and Grandpa though!

Amelia is at the age where she is not so sure about people she does not know, but she seemed o.k. with Grandpa, Grandma, and Auntie Em.

We mostly hung around, but Joe did spend some time with his Dad up on the roof. They were patching the roof on the other house, and I climbed up a ladder to take a look. Did you know that most roofs in Tucson are white? Makes sense!

The boys also got to take a look at Grandpa's boat. A trip to the lake was in the works, so we needed to check out the boat and make sure it was operational. The boys were excited to get in the boat, and it wasn't even in the water!

We enjoyed the nice warm weather in Tucson. We did not even pack coats, and as you can see the boys were running around in T-shirts! Nice, huh?

Napping to Tucson

We finally got everything packed up and very early on the 20th (we are talking 3 a.m.!) we left Pleasant Grove, headed for Tucson.

Luckily the kids did really well sleeping in the car this time. Everyone was out in no time. I even slept in the car a little, which is unusual. But I was fighting a cold and not feeling really great. Joe and I switched off every couple of hours while it was dark. Then we stopped in St. George for breakfast just as the kids were waking up.

The drive went smoothly, which was awesome. Usually we have to fight some snowy weather, but this year the roads were bare and the skies were clear! It was a nice change from the usual, and probably why we all slept so well in the car.

After breakfast the kids even took a few more naps. Here is Ephraim, sleeping in his car seat. Isn't he so cute with his mouth wide open?

He is even cute when he is waking up. This picture cracked me up! You can tell that he is half awake because only one eye is open!

We stopped in Kingman for lunch, and I think from the following pictures you can tell where we went.

Yep! Burger King. The boys were excited to get out of the van and play for a minute. I think Amelia was pretty happy to be out of her seat as well! I can't say I blame her!

The kids did really well in the van all day. They got to watch some movies on the DVD players and I was impressed with how well Amelia did in her carseat all day. Thankfully, there were plenty of great naps, and I had nothing better to do than take pictures of my cute sleeping kiddos.

We finally arrived in Tucson before 5 p.m. which was nice because the kids had time to settle down before bedtime. We were thankful for an uneventful drive!

Amelia at 9 months

I actually got Amelia's nine month pictures taken before we headed for Tucson for Christmas! I was pretty proud of myself. I even put her in pigtails, since she has enough hair! Isn't she a cutie?

I just love her smile!

I did not have a hard time at all getting her to sit up on the couch and smile, the hard part was keeping her on the couch! She kept wanting to lean forward and look over the edge!

It was also more difficult to get a picture with her 9 months sign, as she really just wanted to reach over and grab it. I ended up distracting her while Jacob put the sign down for me. Then I set her down next to it. I managed to get a couple of nice ones.

I also took a couple of pictures of her with just the pigtails and no flowers.

I love this next one because you can just see her little teeth!

She has such a great little smile! We love this girl!

Amelia is so curious and fun! Right now she is really trying to crawl. She mostly drags herself around on her belly (army crawling). She loves cords, shoelaces, and chewing on everything she finds. She is a bit of a Mommy's girl and also loves to grab any jewelry that mommy is wearing.

Amelia is very good natured and loves to be with her family. She loves her brothers and enjoys giving them good night hugs. She always has a big smile for Daddy and loves to play with him.

We are so happy to have Amelia in our family!

Preschool and Polar Express

Thursday this week was Jacob's Polar Express Party at school. He even got a ticket to ride the train and got to go to school in his pajamas! He was pretty excited.

This time I did not get to attend Jacob's class party because it was my turn to teach preschool. We read books about the nativity, and I made some cute popsicle stick nativity puppets for the kids. We also watched a short and sweet nativity video on the iMac. Since the nativity puppets were premade by me, for the "craft activity" I had the kids frost sugar cones and decorate them to make Christmas trees.

The boys all loved this activity. Since Clara was sick, I ended up with four boys for preschool. They had a great time playing with Legos and cars after lesson time was over.

It was fun to do preschool, but also good to get it over with so I could work on cleaning up and getting ready for our trip to Tucson. I can't believe that the first part of the school year is already nearly over and it is almost Christmas! Where did the time go?

First snow

Can you believe that we haven't really had any snowstorms yet this year? The boys have been waiting and waiting for it to snow. They were so excited when they woke up this morning and found snow on the ground!

It wasn't a very big storm and as the day got warmer, the snow got wetter. When we went to pick Jacob up from Kindergarten he told me he was disappointed that the snow was all melted. So I told him that there was still a little snow on the driveway that he could shovel if he wanted. He was so excited! The minute we got home he had me get out his shovel so he could get to work!

You would not believe how fast the boys were running back and forth on the driveway! They were having such fun!

It was actually nice that the boys shoveled so our driveway would get clean and dry. Goodness knows Joe would not have enough time to do it!

Last night when Joe got home we headed to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple for the sealing of our neighbors, the Miller Family. It was a very special occasion that we were glad to be a part of. I have never seen children sealed to their parents, and it was a wonderful event. The only downside is that Amelia cried nearly the entire time we were gone. She did the same thing to the babysitter last week on Tuesday when we went to Joe's work party at Tucanos. Amelia has reached the age where she definitely knows that the babysitter is NOT Mommy, and she wants her mommy. Poor girl!

After the sealing I took Amelia to a YA book group meeting. I figured she would NOT be happy if I left her home. Since Joe is studying for a test on Friday, I figured he could use some quiet time. When I got home we ran over to the Miller's house to give them a picture of the Oquirrh Mountain temple and a scarf I knitted for Michelle. We had a nice chat with them and are hoping to trade babysitting with the Millers so we can each go to the temple once a month. It is nice to have neighbors like the Millers close to us, especially now that we are getting to know them better!

Christmas Preschool

This week it is my turn to teach our cooperative preschool. Of course the topic is Christmas, since this is our last week of the year. At the end of the week I get to focus on baby Jesus and the nativity, but our lesson for Monday was about Santa.

So first we used our hands to make some cute hand print Santas. I always intend to take pictures of the kids while we are doing the activities, but I just get too busy! So here are Jacob and Ephraim after the fact, with the hand print Santas they made.

I painted the thumb and lower portion of their hand red to make the Santa hat, then I painted the rest white. I added the flesh colored paint and faces after the hand prints had dried. Then we finished it off with a pom-pom. I think they are adorable! Jacob came home from Kindergarten and wanted to make one, so we did!

As a nice gift for the parents, we also made hand print snowman ornaments. I painted the kids' hands white and then had them squeeze a round ball ornament in their hand. Since our kids are only three, that is where their involvement ended. Later in the day I added faces, hats, arms and buttons to the snowmen and I think they turned out to be absolutely adorable!

I had extra ball ornaments, so I got to make Jacob an ornament too. Then I wrote their name and the year on the palm of the hand. I can't wait to give these to the kids on Thursday.

I also wanted to do a "Baby's First Christmas" ornament for Amelia. So I painted her hand purple, which she DID NOT LIKE. I don't know why I did not anticipate how hard it would be to get her handprint on an ornament! Once her hand was painted, of course she curled it into a fist. So I had one heck of a time getting her handprint on the ornament. I must have wiped it off three or four times.

 When I finally got a decent handprint, I filled it in with a little extra paint. Then I added some ribbon. I think it turned out cute. I am going to use my new Silhouette Cameo to cut some vinyl to put "Amelia's First Christmas, 2011"on the back of the ornament. Can you believe how small her hand is in comparison to her brothers?

Picnic in the basement

Today when Jacob got home from school the boys asked me if they could have a picnic in the basement. I didn't have a problem with that, so I made their lunches and brought them downstairs.

As you can see from their faces, they are eating and watching TV at the same time. Not just any old TV... the "new-to-us" TV that the Randalls kindly gave us when they got a new one. Check out the size of it!

Yep! They were watching Sesame street. Hooray for educational TV!

The boys loved their "picnic" and I was glad that something so simple could make them happy.

Amelia and the Christmas Tree

Little Miss Amelia is fascinated by the Christmas tree, and can you blame her? All the lights and the shiny ornaments! I have tried on several occasions to take pictures of her playing with the tree, but I could never get the lighting right. I finally figured it out. I cranked the ISO as high as it would go and managed these shots. I still had to lighten them a little bit, but I think they are awesome!

I could move all the ornaments out of her reach, but that's no fun! I keep and eye on her, and all of the balls on the tree are plastic, so she can't really break anything. I just love to see the wonder and awe on her little face. She is such a little angel.

Annual Christmas Party

This weekend was our annual family Christmas party in Star Valley. Our drive was a little snowy, but not too bad. It was amazing to me just how frigid it was! At least they have snow! We have had cold weather but no snow, which is making the boys a little bit crazy.

We stayed at the apartment in a hanger at the airport again this year, which was really nice. When we went to Mom and Dad's house on Saturday, my sister Jeanette informed me that Amelia's hair was definitely long enough for a hairdo. She has four girls, so I guess she would know!

Isn't Amelia just so cute? She almost looks posed in this picture!

I took quite a few pictures of her in her cute reindeer onesie sitting on the floor. Here is another one of my favorites. I like it because you can see her little tooth.

Can you believe that Amelia has two teeth? I will have to get a close up sometime because they are adorable. Speaking of adorable, how cute is this?

Amelia decided that she really loves Grandpa Heiner. He managed to put her asleep, and I snapped this great picture. It makes me smile every time I look at it.

The boys had a great time playing with their cousins. We forgot to bring their snow clothes, but luckily the Kirkham's had some we could borrow. Ephraim did not mind at all wearing the girls' pink snow boots! The boys went out and made snow angels and tromped around in the snow. They also played around in the house for a while.

After we all had dinner together, we all sat around together and opened presents. It was so much fun!

Amelia got lots of fun presents. She got some legwarmers knitted by Grandma Heiner, a cute cow, a book, a hairbow holder made by Aunt Jeanette, a little teddy bear, a fun toy from Aunt Deanna and some other things I am sure I am missing.

I think it is fun that my family likes to exchange homemade gifts. My mom made legwarmers for all the girls, and Deanna made them cute knitted scarves. Here is my niece Kaylee with some of her loot.

The boys also got tons of really fun presents. They got Color Wonder coloring books and little transformers from Grandma and Grandpa Heiner, a cool Fort Kit from the Kirkham's, flashlights and fun santa and snowman pens from Shannon and Jalene and a Wii game from the Clark's.

Yep! We decided to let the boys open their present from us at the Christmas party. We thought they would enjoy using it before Christmas.

When they opened it Jacob was SO excited. He said, "I can't believe you bought this for us!". He even tipped over theatrically, which was hilarious. I took a video that I really should upload so you can see his reaction.

Speaking of great reactions, you should have seen my reaction when I opened Joe's gift. I was completely floored! He got me something that I have been looking at for quite some time... a Silhouette Cameo!

This is the ultimate crafting machine! It will cut paper, vinyl and fabric. You can use it to make cards, boxes, signs, stencils, glass etched projects, t-shirts... you name it! I also love that unlike a Cricut machine, it doesn't use cartridges. It comes with great software that can use any downloaded fonts and work with other images you find online. So fun! Now I just need to scrounge up some money for accessories- like vinyl, transfer paper, etc. Joe and I agreed that we were not getting each other anything for Christmas because of all our recent home repairs, but how much trouble can you be in when you get your wife such a great gift?!

We had a great time with my family at the party. It was awesome.

The next day we spent the morning at my parent's house and then headed for home. I got Jeanette to give Amelia a two-piggy-tail hairdo, which I absolutely loved!

How cute is that?! I love it.

Grandpa Heiner managed to get Amelia to fall asleep on him one more time, so of course I had to take a picture.

So sweet.

We made it home safely. Amelia was SO happy to get out of the van. She was rolling and scooting herself all over the floor and nearly got wedged under the couch! Silly girl!